The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet

The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet Message

2008-11-03T09:52:16Z

SilverMarc's Quasi-Periodical "Send-Sheet"

Sent from time to time to our colleagues and clients

I knew about Skype � it's an online application that lets anyone make audio and video contact from computer to computer as long as each person has Skype installed and running. You could use it to make Skype "calls" to and from anywhere in the world for free. I tried it, it was okay, and I let it go � I didn't have a business purpose for it, my clients typically aren't running Skype.

Then I moved my day-to-day business from my "home-office" to an actual office where I can focus fully on work, and avoid the distractions that occurred at what I used to think was my "convenient" home-office. At my new office I tried using my cell phone for business, but I came late to cell phones, and I'm thrown-off by the time lag when speaking (especially when both parties are on cells), and the lousy sound quality (often because my client was also on a cell phone while walking, driving, going into a tunnel, etc.)

On a tip from a colleague, I took another look at Skype and found something unexpected: for $2.50 a month (to me that's just like "free" after I factor it with the "Starbucks Daily Coffee Cost Allotment" method), I could use Skype to make phone calls to anyone, anywhere in the US and Canada, and to their regular phone number. I bought a USB phone headset so I could have the earpiece and microphone together and not rely on the computer's low-quality built-in microphone, and I set up my Skype $2.50/month plan.

Surprise! I am regularly asked by the people I call, "What kind of phone is that? It sounds so good." Not only am I using the Internet to make my outgoing calls, but my computer is connected to the Internet via a wireless router. Audio streams don't require the bandwidth that video needs, so using Skype "untethered" still works perfectly. The headset I'm using is one reason it sounds so good � and the incoming sound in full stereo makes the people I'm speaking with sound like they're broadcasting from radio station audio booths too!

Each time I login to Skype, I "Take a deep breath" and feel just terrific about my newly discovered means for telephone communication.

Skype can be downloaded and used for free from http://skype.com

I'm using the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 Headset ($29 online) that connects via USB. It includes software for the PC, but I'm using it on the Mac where it needs no added software at all: http://tinyurl.com/lifechat

Enjoy! (And call me when you try Skype for yourself!)

--Marc
November 2, 2008 @ 9:00 PM

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The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet Message

2008-10-01T19:24:27Z

SilverMarc's Quasi-Periodical "Send-Sheet"

Sent from time to time to our colleagues and clients

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Fly Me To Your Room
Pictures on the Wing

These days, digital photos are ubiquitous. And not only that, they're EVERYWHERE. In your cell phone, in your digital camera, in your computer, even in your iPods or other PDAs. They're everywhere for you to enjoy, but sharing them with others is a different story.

"Free your pictures." That's the mantra at Picwing.

Picwing is a brand new enterprise with a singular idea - make it easy for anyone to post and share digital photos.

Picwing lets users create free online photo albums, and boasts an interface that's easy to understand for even the most novice computer user, but doesn't lack usefulness for experienced users.

There are two ways to get your photos into your Picwing Album - by uploading them from your computer, or by emailing them directly from your cell phone or PDA. You can even control access for others to post photos to your albums via email - a great feature, you still control the album, but it's opened up to your designees only for uploading photos.

Picwing handles the delivery side of the process in several ways: Albums can be viewed online from a computer; or use Picwing's "Chumby Widget" to run an album on the Chumby; you can create an Online Slideshow for use on a web site; and Picwing has a wireless Photo Frame that receives and updates a photo album automatically via a wifi connection.

So much of life happens outside of the computer, but many of the photos we take end up stuck in a computer, or in iPhoto or in some other digital realm, and never actually get to a recipient. Now you can email your pictures to your photo album so Picwing can provide it to your friends, family, and colleagues wherever they are.

Visit the Picwing web site at: http://picwing.com

View one of my Picwing Photo Albums on a "Virtual Chumby": http://silvermarc.chumbian.com/picwing

Take a look at a web-based Picwing slideshow - when new photos are emailed by my friends, they appear automatically: http://www.silvermarc.com/picwing/

Enjoy! (And let me know where to see your photos!)

--Marc
September 30, 2008 @ 5:26 PM

You can subscribe to "The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet" (sent not too often and purposely kept short and to the point): Click Here to Subscribe

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The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet Message

2008-09-10T21:21:19Z

SilverMarc's Quasi-Periodical "Send-Sheet"

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"As of today, there are 644,951 active caches in 214 countries. In the last 7 days, there have been 497,144 new logs written by 66,600 account holders."
Click this link to see the stats today, the day you are reading this article (at the bottom of the page): Geocaching.com
That's a lot of geocaching! The site also tracks the number of finds for each geocacher, and most importantly, lets a user search for the coordinates of nearby hidden caches. On my recent trip to L.A. I "preloaded" my GPS device with all the caches near my destination, then shortly after arrival embarked on some family cache hunts with my niece and nephew.

At the time of this posting, I'm currently at 223 cache finds - about 25 of them in Central Park, another several dozen in Midtown, the other boroughs, and New Jersey, and the rest in Tucson, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Italy and Slovenia (I've included my "live" stats link below, and you can see how many new finds I've added since writing this article. I'm "SilverMarc" on the Geocaching.com website). The geocoin pictured here is my personal "signature item" that I'll leave in particularly interesting caches, or trade for other geocoins.

This weekend I'm off to a family gathering out of state, and I'm already set to trek through new wilds (as wild as New Jersey gets!) with my East Coast niece and nephew in search of hidden treasure. I can happily abandon the computer and head out on some adventures. The geocaching motto is clearly elegant: "You are the search engine."

Marc Silverman is the Director of Web Development for MetroMac, produces, hosts, and maintains websites for local and nationwide firms, and hunts for geocaches in his spare time. He'd bet there's one hidden near you!

Web Development || Client Web Sites || Automated Features || Online Commerce || Web Hosting

The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet Message

2008-09-10T19:00:15Z

SilverMarc's Quasi-Periodical "Send-Sheet"

Sent from time to time to our colleagues and clients

Click Here to Subscribe

Here's a hobby where all you need is a $30 billion satellite system, and a handheld GPS device. Luckily, someone lent us the satellites!

Most Internet-related pastimes require us to sit at our computers far too long - games, chat rooms, weblogs, newsgroups - all demanding our interaction while we gaze at our screens and key in our words or actions. Now I've embraced an Internet hobby that demands far more from me: Geocaching. And geocaching pays me back in action for the time I invest.

Technologically Speaking...

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based radio-navigation system consisting of a constellation of satellites and a network of ground stations used for monitoring and control. There are 24 GPS satellites in orbit around the Earth at altitudes of approximately 11,000 miles providing users anywhere in the world with accurate information on position, velocity, and time. GPS, formally known as the Navstar Global Positioning System, was initiated in 1973 to reduce the proliferation of navigation aids. By creating a system that overcame the limitations of many existing navigation systems, GPS became attractive to a broad spectrum of users worldwide. GPS has been successful in virtually all navigation applications, and because its capabilities are accessible using small, inexpensive equipment, GPS was utilized in a wi de variety of applications across the globe. In order to retain access and control over the system, the government built-in a "degradation" of the signal which limited the system's accuracy to about 300 yards - the length of three football fields. Government agencies could access the accurate signal, but individuals and other countries could not.

On May 1st, 2000 the Clinton Administration removed the signal degradation, giving a valuable gift to the world - the power of this global navigation technology - and opening up the possibility of games like geocaching.

You are the Search Engine!

Using a handheld GPS device (about $100 and up), geocachers can make their way to within about 10 to 20 feet of hidden caches - Tupperware containers, army field boxes, even magnetic hide-a-key boxes - and then find them, log their visit in the cache's paper log book, and perhaps trade in and out for some of the contents. Later, an online log entry is also made for the cache on the Geocaching website, where a user's stats and log entries are maintained.

It's Not About the Numbers!

When I checked the site at the time I posted this article (September 2, 2008), the current stats were:
"As of today, there are 644,951 active caches in 214 countries. In the last 7 days, there have been 497,144 new logs written by 66,600 account holders."
Click this link to see the stats today, the day you are reading this article (at the bottom of the page): Geocaching.com
That's a lot of geocaching! The site also tracks the number of finds for each geocacher, and most importantly, lets a user search for the coordinates of nearby hidden caches. On my recent trip to L.A. I "preloaded" my GPS device with all the caches near my destination, then shortly after arrival embarked on some family cache hunts with my niece and nephew.

At the time of this posting, I'm currently at 223 cache finds - about 25 of them in Central Park, another several dozen in Midtown, the other boroughs, and New Jersey, and the rest in Tucson, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Italy and Slovenia (I've included my "live" stats link below, and you can see how many new finds I've added since writing this article. I'm "SilverMarc" on the Geocaching.com website). The geocoin pictured here is my personal "signature item" that I'll leave in particularly interesting caches, or trade for other geocoins.

This weekend I'm off to a family gathering out of state, and I'm already set to trek through new wilds (as wild as New Jersey gets!) with my East Coast niece and nephew in search of hidden treasure. I can happily abandon the computer and head out on some adventures. The geocaching motto is clearly elegant: "You are the search engine."

Marc Silverman is the Director of Web Development for MetroMac, produces, hosts, and maintains websites for local and nationwide firms, and hunts for geocaches in his spare time. He'd bet there's one hidden near you!

Web Development || Client Web Sites || Automated Features || Online Commerce || Web Hosting

The SilverMarc Quasi-Periodical Send-Sheet Message

2008-08-21T23:05:22Z

Hello Chumby.

New watches come out from time to time, cars are updated yearly as "this year's models" are unveiled; new flavors of Ben & Jerry Ice Cream are always being developed. These are all just variations of products that already exist.

But every so often a completely new category of product appears. Sometimes it's cool and unique (the Segway, perhaps), sometimes it's unexpected but useful (television, for example), but sometimes the new category needs to "be found by an audience" before it can gain popularity.

Meet the Chumby.

I call it an "Internet Delivery Device," but even that description doesn't serve to describe this "bean-bag with a screen" that's starting to appear on desks and bureaus around the globe. Technical writers and those "in-the-know" like to call this an "ambient device," which to regular folks simply means it's something that works on its own and "does things" without continued interaction. Like a clock. Or like a radio. Or like a clock radio... that's also a photo frame, and a web camera viewer, an email gateway, weather station, auction tracker, video viewer, news feed, stock market ticker, thought provoker, even a game device.

And it doesn't end there. People familiar with the Flash programming environment can create little applications that run on the Chumby. Flash is a graphic application used worldwide for visual and animated elements on web sites, but in its basic configuration any developer interested in creating in Flash can get up to speed very quickly. The Chumby runs these Flash applications, called "widgets," and hundreds are available for free on the Chumby website. Dozens of new widgets are added every week in numerous categories. Chumby widgets relating to your own personal or business interests can be found and loaded into your own Chumby at any time.

First I bought two Chumbys - one each for a niece and nephew (their parents almost immediately tried to "waylay" ownership but I stood my ground, "They're for your kids, but you can set up your own widget channel too!"), and now I have my own right here on my desk, interacting with me subtly and in its own quiet way, or playing Internet radio stations when I need a lift! Right now the "Rotten Tomatoes" widget is reporting on movies that opened this week with a gauge of their "Freshness or Rottenness" (Death Race is "28% Rotten," in case you needed to know.)

I've set up a "Virtual Chumby" where you can see one of my widget channels (without my email widgets or other non-public content). You can interact with some of the "virtual widgets" by tapping the screen, but most widgets show the content without the screen interaction that occurs on the Chumby itself. I've included a couple of Web Cams (the Panda Cam is there), and a variety of widgets to give you an idea of what this new kind of product category is all about.

Perhaps the Chumby will find you as its next new audience member!

Visit the Chumby web site at: http://chumby.com

View one of my Chumby channels on a "Virtual Chumby": http://silvermarc.chumbian.com

Take a look at photos of Chumbys in the wild: http://tinyurl.com/chumbyshots

Enjoy! (And let me know if you get yourself a Chumby!)

--Marc
August 21, 2008 @ 10:30 PM

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