Tag: technology

design, design events, images, Productivity, Programming, Web Development

Happy New Year!…Let’s Start Designing

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info pic

“Image courtesy of Staurt Miles /www. FreeDigitalPhotos.net”



Let me first take a minute to wish everyone…. Happy Holidays!
I hope your holiday was filled with family, friends and good times. Of course this time of the year is always a reflection of what we have accomplished and what we are looking forward to achieving with the new year. On that note I wanted to fill you in on some of the great online learning sites that can definitely help you on your way with your New Years resolutions if they involve coding and design.

I have been learning Ruby at Code Academy for the last few months. They have many other great free hands-on courses like CSS, Javascript, and Jquery. I like the fact that they keep in touch with you, ask you about your progress and offer help. That makes me feel like they really want me to succeed. They even give out badges along the way so you can see your progress and keep yourself motivated. I recently joined a Meetup in my city with other Ruby friends so we can learn together. I have found other great Meetup groups that get together monthly which make learning code fun as well as informative. Check for groups in your city.

If databases are your thing, Code School has a great Try R introductory course that can get you started learning this new language right away. But if your not really sure what interests you right now and want to try something new, give Udemy a look. They have courses on just about everything: Photography, Coding, Excel, and Adobe just to name a few.

I also wanted to mention a few design conferences starting in the New Year in case you can make one of them.

Mobile and Web Devicon San Francisco – Jan 29-31, 2013  http://www.mobilewebdevconference.com/

Style Frames NYC – Feb 7-8th, 2013  http://www.styleframes.tv/newyork/

An Event Apart Atlanta – Feb 18-20, 2013  http://aneventapart.com/event/atlanta-2013?/2013/atlanta/

SXSW Interactive Austin TX – March 8-12, 2013  http://sxsw.com/interactive


Please share any design conferences in your area as well.
Ok..so let’s get those creative juices flowing!..Happy New Year!

Productivity, technology

Install Your own USB Wall Outlet

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USB Wall Outlet


If you’re like me you have tons of gadgets all over the house and can’t remember what needs to be charged at what time. Unfortunately, we don’t really think about the battery life of our gadgets until it’s time to use them. It’s so frustrating when you want to use a device only to be stopped cold by a dead battery.

I came across a great tutorial on CNET on how you can install your own USB port into a regular wall socket without too much effort. I didn’t give this too much thought at first since I’m not really electrically inclined, but I must say, when I actually looked at the video I was impressed – this was actually something that I could do myself!

I felt like I had to share this because I really think this could be useful to so many people.

Sharon Vaknin made a great How To video for this here: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57389548-285/how-to-install-a-usb-wall-socket/

Do you have any other tips that can help us out with all the technology in our lives?

design, Productivity

A fun way to develop your creativity

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Psykopaint is a great tool for drawing and painting on the web. It allows you to paint from a photo or just freestyle if you’re truly gifted. I’m a budding artist so I use the photo feature which has a lot of brushes as well as spray cans and ribbons which allow you to make some very creative designs. I love the pencil feature too if I just want to freestyle a bit without feeling guilty. This the first painting I made:

Bahamas Original Photo
Origional Photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bermuda Psykopainted
My Psykopaint Creation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok..granted I’m not that good, but I’m working on it. If you like your creations you can save them and come back later. You can also save it you your computer. Of course it also has the basic tools like zoom, capacity, eraser, color picker and text options. You can export your creations for the web for free with a watermark, purchase coins to obtain a full size un-watermarked printable copy or send as postcards to your friends. You can also gain coins for sharing your creations through Facebook and posting on the site gallery. If you’re interested in drawing and painting you should definitely give Psykopaint a try.
Check it out here: Psykopaint

In The News

In The News

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This info was reported back in September. Since then it seems that Google has been making a lot of changes to its platform. I will keep you posted…

Google appears to be close to rebranding its online document service, Google Docs, as a virtual hard drive in the cloud.

A blurry screenshot snapped by blogger and social media consultant Johannes Wigand appears to show a slightly modified version of Google Docs, called Drive. The screen appeared for a few seconds in “an event powered by Google,” Wigand reports.

The screenshot looks almost identical to the “new look” for Google Docs that’s currently available as an option in some Google accounts, except that the word “Docs” in the upper left has been changed to “Drive.” The folder menu is labeled differently as well: It’s called “My Google Drive” instead of “My Collections.”

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler elaborates on the screenshot, adding other clues that Google Drive is coming, such as a Google Docs dialog that mentions “Google Drive” and some code that recently appeared in the source code for Google’s open-source browser Chromium.

TechCrunch also adds a detail not apparent from the screenshot: That Google Drive will be a full-fledged competitor to other online storage services like Dropbox and Box.net, with the ability to sync with local files. There’s no source for this last assertion, however.

Google Docs already acts as a virtual hard drive in many ways, with the ability to store and share images, videos and PDF files in addition to document formats that are editable in Google, such as spreadsheets, presentations and word-processing documents. Google offers 1GB of storage for free, with the option to purchase 20GB for $5 per year. It supports uploading and downloading of entire folders, although without automatic syncing. Turning Docs into Drive would be a small change, but the name change might significantly change the way people think about and use the service.

By comparison, Dropbox offers 2GB for free, or 50GB for $10 per month, and will automatically sync folders between the cloud and multiple computers. Box.net offers 5GB for free, or 50GB for $10 per month, with corporate options starting at $15 per user, and also offers automatic syncing and collaboration features. Other virtual drives have similar pricing.

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