This week I have information about Twitter, Facebook, bus tracking, wedding crashing lizards and more.

• 7 Signs You’re Taking Yourself Too Seriously On The Internet. – A kinda funny and kinda true list. I did purposefully try to get a good avatar photo because I tend to make goofy faces in all photos of me.
• Why Twitter auto DMs are a bad idea – Nothing makes me want to immediately stop following someone on Twitter than an impersonal auto-DM. Please stop.
• 30+ Amazing Facebook Statistics & Facts – I’m not sure if these stats are “amazing”, but they certainly are interesting.
• 500 Worst Passwords – A flickr image of the 500 worst passwords. If your password is on this list, change it!
• Septa Busview Prototype – Where’s my bus?!?! Septa is the public transportation system in Philadelphia. They are working on a bus tracking application so you can find our exactly where your bus is. The only problem I see with this is that the people who are out waiting for the bus probably aren’t the ones who are going to have a mobile gadget to do the tracking. We’ll still need to go by the schedule, which, I believe, is just an approximate arrival time ;-)
• Meet Elaine: Why We Need Low Income Housing – They actually raised the money to get Elaine into an apartment and the management wouldn’t rent to her.
• How to Add Google Analytics to Your Facebook Fan Page – I haven’t tried this yet but I’ve heard from others that it’s a workable solution.
• Wedding Crashing Lizard
  

• Classical Chicken
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 4/4/10

This week I have freelancing, WordPress, Monkey Island and more videos.

• The Best Books for Freelancers – If you are interested in freelancing, here’s a list of the best printed resources.
• Beautiful Post Thumbnails – A list of tutorials for creating the best images for your blog articles.
• Billing Boss: A Free Online Invoicing Tool to Send Invoices Quickly and Easily – Smashing Apps reviews a free online invoicing tool.
• Does Your Business Have the Flu – Symptoms, causes and remedies for a sick freelancing business.
• A video I took of the 2nd episode of the Tales of Money Island. I can play this over and over and laugh every time.
  
• Why pole dancing isn’t for everyone
  
• And the pole dancing video reminded me of Tobias Funke as Mrs. Featherbottom on Arrested Development
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 10/11/09

2009 has certainly flown by. I was hopeful that it would be better than 2008 and overall it has been. Right now we are gearing up for Halloween – for some reason Alex wants to be the same thing she was last year. Easy enough I suppose.

This week I have information about freelancing, Evernote, WordPress, Facebook and more.

• Why Online Friends are Important to Freelancers – An article about the benefits of online relationships for freelancers.
• 14 Practical Ways to Use Evernote – Guy Kawasaki lists a number of ways that Evernote can be useful. Personally, I’ve used Evernote and it’s very useful but it’s not become one of my online habits. I’m not sure why not. It’s similar to how I can’t seem to get into Friendfeed. But I know a number of people who love Evernote.
• How to Choose the Fastest Line at the Market – Ok, I’m not linking to this because I find the information useful but more as a curiousity. I never go to the grocery store, well I rarely go to a big grocery store, when I’m in a big hurry. Is this really an issue for people? We have all the food we could possibly want and all we have to do is wait in line – is this really such a big deal?
• Installing WordPress Locally in Windows XP Using WampServer – If you want to install WordPress on your own computer, this tutorial will provide the instructions on how to do this with WampServer.
• How to Remove the Boxes Tab on Facebook – This short article tells you how to remove the Boxes Tab from a Facebook fan page. Please note that this does not work on your profile page.
• Chapter 3 of the Tales of Monkey Island, called Lair of the Leviathan was released this week. Here is a video of some of the gameplay.
  
• Monday was a school holiday and my babysitter called out sick. I was frustrated because I was supposed to work and really wasn’t going to be able to. I made this my Facebook status and my friend Jim suggested that I put Alex in a giant hamster ball. This led to a number of ideas for giant hamster balls uses such as cubicles and exercise machines. I them remembered that Peter Gabriel already has the prototype for the giant hamster ball.
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 10/4/09

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the questions people ask me about WordPress. There has never really been a comprehensive guide for WordPress beginners online. Many of us learned through trial and error and muddling along.

So, I’ve located the 8 best WordPress resources and tutorials for beginners and listed them in one location.

If you know of others, please let me know in the comments.

1. Getting Started With WordPress – The best place for any WordPress information is the Codex. I know we complain about locating information there and that some of it is hard to understand, but for free software WordPress has some of the best user-generated documentation available. This link goes to the getting started guide and includes topics such as Installing WordPress, Changing File Permissions, Using WordPress Themes, and Creating Individual Pages.
2. The Beginner’s Guide to Tricking Out Your WordPress Blog – Lifehacker has posted a beginner’s guide to using WordPress. The article was written by Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s former editor. Topics covered include Initial Configuration, Must Have Plugins, and Sidebars and Widgets. Lifehacker is not powered by WordPress. ;-)
3. WordPress For Beginners – Weblogtools Collection has a series of articles for beginners. I have linked to their WordPress for beginners category. There are a number of topics covering issues such as, Understanding User Roles (I always have to look that up for anything other than Admin), Exploring the Admin Dashboard, and Optimizing WordPress Settings.
4. BlogHer Geek Lab: WordPress for Beginners – Resources – Skinny Minny Media has linked to a number of resources for WordPress beginners. Articles include Moving from WordPress.com to Self Hosted WordPress, Adding Google Analytics and What are WordPress Widgets.
5. Beginners Guide from WPBeginner – WPBeginner has a series of tutorials in their beginners guide category. Articles of interest are How to Add a New Post in WordPress and Utilize All of the Features and How to Add Categories and Subcategories to WordPress.
6. Top 10 Video Tutorials for WordPress Beginners – A list of video tutorials tailored for WordPress beginners.
7. WordPress Video Tutorials on YouTube – A list of video tutorials on YouTube. Some are for beginners and most of them are useful.
8. How to on WordPress TV – WordPress video tutorials on the How To Category. This is a great resource for all WordPress users, not just beginners.

If you know of other great resources for WordPress beginners, please let me know in the comments.

This is my 300th post. Yay me!

photo credit: [auro]

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

8 Online Resources for WordPress Beginners

This week there is a freelancing quiz, Plants vs Zombies online for free, soccer on Hulu and a number of videos.

My guess, however, is that the world has seen the dancing baby by now ;-)

• Are You Ready to Work at Home and Start Your Own Business? – This quiz will give you an idea of whether you are ready to work from home and start your own business. It tests the physical set-up and your personality.
• Barclays Premiere League on Hulu – Hulu is now showing highlights of the Premier League matches. I think this is a little odd – is soccer about to sweep the US and become the next big thing? I think it’s unlikely ;-)
• Plants vs Zombies – Popcap Games has made Plants vs. Zombies available to play online for free. Go plants!
• The dancing baby that you have probably already seen ;-)
  
• The extended version of the video dating that I posted last week
  
• The National singing Slipping Husband – I love this band.
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 9/27/09

I want to give a shout-out to some awesome people that have been really supportive and who I am so glad that I’ve met.

These are all people that I only know virtually – I haven’t met a single one of them in real life. Maybe someday I will.

I can’t possibly include everyone so for now I’ve listed 10.

1. If it hadn’t been for Siel from green LA girl, I might not have started freelancing. She sent me a message about working on her site when I was still just thinking about it but hadn’t really started yet. Siel has a wonderful site full of green information for the LA area. She also gives away two freebies each week, so if you live in the US you should definitely head over there and check it out..
2. Rick, from helpmerick, has a great site with all sorts of computer related tips, recommendations and how-to’s. The information is geared toward beginners but is still really useful. I only met Rick recently but he has quickly become a great online friend and has been very supportive of my abilities and decisions.
3. Sommer runs Green & Clean Mom, which is an environmental site with a focus on green parenting. I’m not quite sure how our paths first crossed but Sommer was one of the first commentators on this site, has been incredibly supportive, finds work for me, and has even had conversations with me about more personal issues.
4. Vered is the author of MomGrind, a wonderful site about women’s issues, feminism and blogging. Like Sommer, Vered was one of the first commentators on this site. And she was frequently the only commentator. I frequently wonder if I would have kept plugging away if she hadn’t been reading my articles. I’m not quite sure how our paths first crossed but I am so glad that they did.
5. Stratos is a programmer and coding wiz. Who else but Stratos would help me with a script problem at 10pm on a Friday night? And since he lives in Greece, 10pm my time is 5 am his time! Stratos and I also share July 20th as a birthday :-)
6. Mike is the author of Anxiety, Panic and Health, which is a site about Anxiety and Mental Illness. Mike’s site is well researched and full of useful mental health information. Mike is also extremely supportive and writes the best comments. Apparently around the holidays small children mistake him for Santa Claus. ;-)
7. Betsy writes Passing Thru and like everyone else on this list is extremely supportive and encouraging. Betsy and I don’t agree on many things but still manage to have great conversations and respect each other. Recently she visited Philly, my city, and is working on a series of articles about her experiences there.
8. Jannie is a musician, a super funny woman, and one of the sweetest people that I know virtually. From time to time I do some work on her site – the first time she paid me via check so she had my address. When my Mom passed away she was the ONLY person, including friends, family and ex-inlaws, who sent a sympathy card. She figured out the chapter books my daughter would love (without even actually knowing her) from the ones her daughter is getting rid of and is mailing them to us. For a great read and even more laughs, visit her blog at Jannie Funster.
9. Julie Walraven of Design Resumes is a freelance resume writer, has been visiting this site since the beginning and allowed me to encourage her to begin blogging. She is kind, helpful and sympathetic. When my ex was laid off she even offered to help him get his resume together as he began looking for work. I turned her down on that offer but it demonstrates what a giving person she is.
10. Jeff Starr, of Perishable Press, is a designer and WordPress expert. I am awed by his design skills and learn so much from the articles he writes. When he added a link to my site from his, I was shocked and honored. Whenever Jeff comments on one of my articles I feel like I’ve done something right.

I know I haven’t included everyone but I wanted to give recognition to 10 people that have been with me throughout much of this ride, who have been supportive and who have helped boost my confidence. Check out their sites – maybe you will discover something that you like.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

… And Whiskers on Kittens

1. Victorian Ghost Picked Up By Google Street View So, take a look at the photo and the article – what do you think? Is it a ghost? If not, what do you think it is?
2. Obama Depressed, Distant Since ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Series Finale If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan, you will find this article by The Onion amusing. Be careful though it may contain inadvertent spoilers if you’re not up to date with the series. And, even if you aren’t a scifi fan, I highly recommend this show. So say we all.
3. 15 Useful WordPress Tricks to Make Your Theme Even Better – This article lists useful WordPress tweaks such as automatically changing the copyright year, disabling comments on posts older than a month, and how to display a list of allowed comment tags. If you’ve been visiting for awhile, you’ll see that I did the tweak to show the html tags that can be used in the comments. This was only something I’ve been meaning to do for at least 6 months.
4. Play game, plant tree – In this online game with an eco theme you shoot at things that are bad for the environment, such as SUV’s and a junk mail company. Your scores are then totaled to go towards planting trees. It takes a lot of points to get a tree plant but you can combine your scores with other players.
5. You’re Not a Social Media Expert You Idiot – This article discusses how self-proclaimed experts are not experts and the different social media types that you will encounter on twitter.
6. Before watching this video I had never heard of Glenn Beck and I wish I could continue in my ignorance but Colbert has some great lines in this one.

   The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
   The 10/31 Project
   comedycentral.com
   Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

7. This is the promo video for the upcoming Popcap Game, Plants vs Zombies. It’s just so bizarre and cute and strange that I had to include it. It’s not my type of game but this video almost makes me want to play it.
   

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 4/5/09

There are some websites offering free or very affordable pc games online. Most of these are independent games, which can be more enjoyable than the current crop of $50 big publisher games. But some are also older games that are being given a new life and are being made available to download for a very good price.

If you are interested in video games, good deals, and not spending a lot of money, you should definitely find something that interests you in the sites listed below.

And if you’re not interested in video games, I’m sure you know someone who is.

Free Video Games

Game Giveaway of the Day – Game Giveaway of the Day is no longer an accurate name for this site as they only giveaway games on the weekends. It used to be daily but that changed quite some time ago. Most of the games are casual puzzle games but sometimes there are adventure, RPG and FPS games. The game must be downloaded and installed during the 24 hours of the giveaway.

Adventure Game Studio – Adventure Game Studio is software used to make adventure games that are similar in style to the Sierra and LucasArts classics of the the 1990′s. Almost all games created with this software are available to download and play for free. Some are wonderful and some aren’t so good. You can set up a search for the types of games that you are interested in. The best way to get started with this site is to go to the pages for Award Winners and Picks of the Month – these are the best of the best. Currently the site is featuring a remake of Quest for Glory II.

Dosgames.com – If you are feeling really old school this site lists over 500 free and shareware DOS games. Though the graphics can be outdated some DOS games are a lot more fun that newer ones. Due to the limitations of the available technology the story was very important. Getting a DOS game to run, however, can be tricky.

Download Free Games – This site has a section of free games that can be downloaded. It looks like many of them are also available at Adventure Game Studio but this is still a good listing.

Linux Game Tome – If you’re a linux user, this site lists a number of free games for Linux.

Cheap (Affordable) Video Games

Game du Jour – This site sells a game for half price every single day. I’ve found a couple of good ones here. I subscribe to their feed and check it each day.

Good Old Games – Good Old Games sells DRM free, critically acclaimed games for download that are compatible with Windows XP and Vista for very low prices. They are adding to their catalog all the time and seem to run specials every weekend. Since I am a collector I already own boxed versions of the games in which I am interested but this is still a great resource and we need more publishers to get involved.

Big Fish Games – This is a personal favorite although regular priced games aren’t cheap. What is a good deal, however, is the game club membership. You agree to pay $6.99/month and you get the game of your choice for that price. And all other additional games that you want to buy are the same low price. Otherwise games are $19.99. They also send cool gifts to members like magnets, and a stuffed big fish. I really enjoy the hidden object games and this is the best place to get them.

Resources

Dos Box – Dos Box is software that emulates an Intel x86 PC allowing older games, including sound, to be played on new computers. Since it is an emulator, there are Windows, Linux and MAC versions so old games can be played on just about any modern system. DosBox has a bit of a learning curve for non-technical types but I doubt those are the people wanting to play DOS games in the first place. ;-)

Cheap Ass Gamer – This site lists the online and in store deals on new games. Through them you can find out what games are on sale and what stores and get the best deal on the new game.

photo credit: Shrued

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Where to Find Free or Cheap Video Games Online

There are a number of online tools to assist in building an online resume or portfolio. Here I will be discussing two of them and showing the examples that I made.

They are Krop Creative Database, and VisualCV. I considered adding LinkedIn but I think most people have heard of it and may devote a separate entry to it.

I’m sure you have at least a familiarity with LinkedIn but have you heard of the other two? Before I started doing research for this article I had only heard of LinkedIn and even though I have a LinkedIn account I have not used it to it’s full potential.

Krop Creative Database

Krop has a free and a paid version of it’s online portfolio. With the paid version you also get different styles and headers, domain mapping, unlimited image storage and RSS. Both accounts give you a pdf export from the online resume and your resume is included in their job database. Krop, however, seems designed for Web Developers and Graphic Designers. I suppose it is intended for the online artistic types. I did not realize this until I was setting up my profile and needed to fill in the professional information.

Create Account Screen

Enter Professional Information

To test this tool I only entered minimal information but you can view what I created.

• Portfolio
• Link to Resume

Krop also has a screencast that can be viewed below.

Screencast – Portfolio Hosting at The Krop Creative Database from QBN on Vimeo.

VisualCV

VisualCV is an online resume tool for job seekers and networkers that turns a flat paper resume into a visual and interactive one. Photos, charts, etc can easily be added. It is completely free. The sign-up is one quick screen and after that you login and start building your resume.

I was then presented with the following screen. I was not completely sure how to get started. I was half tempted to use the option to email VisualCV my resume so they could start the process for me (I didn’t see a charge for that anywhere) but it takes up to three days and I didn’t feel like waiting a couple of days to finish this article.

Ok, so you click on #3, which says Start. I guess that was kind of obvious and I am just being a little dense right now. You are then presented with the Edit Screen. You can add a photo, select from a number of styles, add work history and education information.

You can upload an image of yourself, other images, video clips and slideshare presentations. I was surprised by all of the options.

On the right is the portfolio section although you can move the columns around. This was very cool. You can add an image or a video and link it to a site. I added one image for my elephant site but once I flesh this out, I will add images from sites that I have worked on. So far, this is much more impressive then Krop’s portfolio system.

Editing the rest of the fields is straightforward and I think the best way to get started is to copy information from your current resume.

Here is the edit screen with some of the fields filled in.

And then when you preview and leave the editing screen it looks like this.

Like Krop, you can also view and save as a pdf.

If you would like to view what it looks like online, it is at Kim Woodbridge’s VisualCV

Conclusion

As I mentioned everyone knows about LinkedIn and LinkedIn differs from these tools as it as social resume. You can add contacts, join groups and network. But if you just want to create an online resume and portfolio VisualCV and Krop are better suited for that task. After trying the two I would have to say that I like VisualCV much better. I was confused about how to get started but once I figured that out it had a lot more features and was easier to use. I also prefer how it looks when it is finished. Additionally, Krop is better suited for Artists and Graphic Designers.

Does anyone know of other online resume and portfolio sites? If so, let me know and I will try them out too.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

2 Online Resume and Portfolio Builders

Last week I asked you about your least favorite part of blogging. Today I want to ask about where you do your blogging.

I do most of my work at my home computer, which is pictured above and below. I have a desk that is much too small so I can’t pile too much on it. Maybe that is a good thing. I didn’t clean it up for the photo but there is often much more stacked on the side of the monitor. There are shelves to the side so a lot of stuff gets put there. Although most of the things on the shelves are games and dvds that have nothing to do with blogging.

I also have two monitors. One is widescreen that I purchased last fall and the one to the right is my older one. I do most of my work off of the widescreen but run Tweetdeck, to access Twitter, on the second monitor. I also use the second monitor for watching shows on Hulu or soccer games, for my ftp program, for chat and when I am comparing two files when looking for a code problem. I am frequently frustrated at work because the monitor is small and I don’t have two of them :-)

I do some of my blogging at work during my lunch hour or when I don’t have any work to do. Actually, even though they are already researched, I wrote most of my posts during my lunch hour. That’s why they are rarely posted in the morning.

I don’t have a laptop so I rely on a number of online services so I always have the information that I need whether I am at home or at work. I am trying to save up for a laptop but I prefer desktops because I like to play videogames. Gaming laptops are just too expensive.

In order to be efficient wherever I am working I use the following online services:

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• GReader
• Google Documents
• delicious

Hmm … that list implies that I am a google fangirl but I’m really not. I like them and their services but am not obsessed with google. Google just seems to provide a number of online services that I need. Actually, I probably like them because I only have to login once to use all of them.

So, what does your workspace look like? Do you like it? Is it efficient? Where do you usually work?

In the comments feel free to use linking and image code to link to images of your workspace. Or, email them to me and I will post the photos in the comments for you.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Share Your Blogging Workspace