New Project – Afternic.com

New Project – Afternic.com

As of Monday, I’m now working as Senior Software Engineer for Afternic.com (to be clear, one of the senior software engineers). It’s probably the right time for a change, I’ve basically been working full time on Splitcoaststampers.com now for 14 months and after our server migration project, it had become more of a maintenance project.  The good news was that we had a site that was falling over several times a week and we got it stable to the point…

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Control Panel Issue

Control Panel Issue

A couple weeks ago I was trying to get access to a site that Karl Susman had set up in his hosting account for a new website.  He created a new user for me to access that specific directory on the server.  Somehow we got permissions or the password messed up and he then deleted the ftp user account so that he could recreate it. The files were also deleted…all of them. Four hours later, when talking with the hosting…

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Lenovo Beats Apple to Tablet Nirvana

Lenovo Beats Apple to Tablet Nirvana

Jim Louderback of Revision3 and all around great guy has a Tekzilla review of the new Lenovo U-1 hybrid tablet/laptop that David Churbuck from Lenovo (and one of the founders of  Reel-Time.com) has been hinting about for some time. Jim says it’s the best new tech he’s seen at CES and although I’m not there, it is the best of the products I’ve heard about yet.

Your World is About to Change – Google and Augmentative Computing

Your World is About to Change – Google and Augmentative Computing

The past two have been very interesting if you follow the technical goings on at Google.  In no particular order, they have released, at least in beta format: Google Chromium OS – the Google operating system which offers about all the functionality most folks would require to surf the web, get email, write basic docs, etc. Google Goggles – a system that allows your Android based phone *(Android is their mobile phone os) to use it’s camera to identify via…

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The Real Currency of Social Media

The Real Currency of Social Media

“It’s people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They’re making our food out of people. Next thing they’ll be breeding us like cattle for food. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them!” Soylent Green – 1973 So what is the real commodity of social media?  It’s people.  You and me, and all our friends.  Period. Over the past few weeks, this as really started to steam roller.  Let’s take a look at a few examples: Fake Steve Jobs…

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Death of Newspapers – RIP Editor and Publisher

Death of Newspapers – RIP Editor and Publisher

When I worked in the Atex marketing department, we lived and died by what we could get published in Editor and Publisher.  The once vaunted trade journal was the place you wanted to get mentioned, the measure of your having “made it” in the print world.  Those days are now gone – from E&P themselves: Editor & Publisher, the bible of the newspaper industry and a journalism institution that traces its origins back to 1884, is ceasing publication. An announcement,…

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Weight Loss and Quandry

Weight Loss and Quandry

I’m a fat bastard. I’ve never really made any great efforts to hide that little fact, even if it were possible to hide.  Which it is not.  But there it is, right out there for all to see. Over the past two months I’ve come the the general conclusion that I always knew deep down: I have to do something about it if I’d like to live to see my daughters get married and if I want to have a…

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Sutton Chain of Lights – Dec. 5

Sutton Chain of Lights – Dec. 5

One of the great things about living in a small New England town is having seasonal festivals like the Chain of Lights my town, Sutton, MA puts on every year.  It’s not only a celebration of the season, it’s also a great time to get out and find out what’s going on at the many small businesses throughout town. Many will remember that last year I live tweeted the event as a case study in micro-blogging photo journalism.  I will…

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It’s Time to Rethink the Permalink

It’s Time to Rethink the Permalink

The permalink – nothing could be more core to the concept of blogging, and indeed, content management.  In it’s early inception, it was the one link to rule all others.  The problem is that with the advent of microblogging systems like Twitter, the permalink has been devalued and now faces possible extinction. From Wikipedia: A permalink, or permanent link, is a URL that points to a specific blog or forum entry after it has passed from the front page to the archives. Because a permalink…

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