GeekTonic: 10/14/07

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Week In Review: Week Ended October 20th

Another busy week of blogging. Read on for a quick review of the weeks past posts. Flickr tools, Zooomr Tools Halloween Costumes and more.

Weekend Fun: Play Scrabble On the Web or on Facebook

Are you a Scrabble™ Word Game Fan? Can't find a partner to play Scrabble™ against? Look no further than an online game of Scrabulous where you can get your Scrabble™ Fix online. Scrabulous doesn't seem to have the blessing ( read license ) of Hasbro or Mattel so I'm not sure…

37 Tools To Upload to Flickr From Windows, Mac & Linux

Today, Flickr announced a partnership with Microsoft to enable direct uploads to Flickr via Windows Live Photo Gallery. This is yet another excellent way to get your photos to Flickr. But don't stop there because there are currently 37 different ways to upload pictures to Flickr and I'll…

American History Sites Google Maps Mashup

Google Maps Mania tipped me off to an excellent Google Maps Mashup - this one created by Pradipta highlights many of the most interesting sites in United States to visit to learn about American and History. It's missing some important historical sites, but has a pretty good list. Check the…

Star Wars the Television Series

George Lucas confirmed he is working on a live-action television series spinoff of the Star Wars Movie Franchise. It won't include any of the major characters from the movies - no Luke Skywalker and no Darth Vader. From the interview with Lucas: "The Skywalkers aren't in it, and…

Technology & Students: A Vision of Students Today

Geek Halloween Costumes Collection

As a "tech-savvy" Halloween party-goer you are probably looking for the best Halloween Costumes for the coming Halloween Party Season. Well today I bring you the top geek costume ideas for your reading and viewing pleasure. Wii-mote Costume Zune Costume - no photos, but why not? …

Zooomr Hacks: The Ultimate Collection of Zooomr Tools Hacks and Scripts

Zooomr is a newer, high-octane, social, photo sharing alternative to Flickr, Smugmug and Picasa Web Albums. While the API for Zooomr hasn't yet been released ( Please hurry Zooomr Guys ) there are still a good number of tools, hacks and scripts available to Zooomr users. For the complete…

McDonalds Monopoly Game - What You Need To Know

Yes it's true that McDonalds isn't the healthiest place to eat. Still if you've watched any sports or television in the U.S. this past week, you've likely seen the ads for the latest McDonalds Monopoly Game. Not long ago there was a stink about the game being rigged , but it…

iPod Hack: Put New iPod Firmware on Old Video iPod

Have an older model iPod video? Jealous of those new iPod owners with the new, slick looking user interface including the split-screen, redesigned now-playing, mini-now-playing on every screen and more. Some hackers over at ipodwizard have created a way to put the new iPod firmware onto those…

TIVO DVD ALERT - NEW PREMIERS FOR THIS WEEK BEGINNING OCTOBER 15TH

We're getting to the last few TV Premiers for the Fall season. Four shows - including two new ones are premiering this week. Cast of Samantha Who 10/15/2007 Monday ** Samantha Who? NEW (ABC) 10/15/2007 Monday I Love New York (VH1) 10/18/2007…

Friday, October 19, 2007

Friday Good Reads: Stories Around the Web To Read

It's TGIFriday again. Here's some good reads from around the web:

Damned Lies and DVR Statistics - Mari Sibley the blogger in chief for ConnectedHome2Go and a blogger for ZatzNotFunny talks about the statistics showing the number of US households with DVR's are 17.2% in May and 20.5% today. But back in July another group said DVR households numbered about 24%. I'm going to guess the number is somewhere above 25% now, but its difficult to say with all of these different statistics going around.

16% Watch TV Shows on the Internet - DVR Bulletin talks about the increase in Internet TV Watchers. I have to admit, I don't watch much "TV" on the net, but I do use Netflix Watch Instantly occasionally and occasionally I'll see what Joost has to offer.

LED Hat - Hacked Gadgets highlights a cool modded hat with LED's showing various patterns on the hat. It's made using a RS232 port and a lot of hard work. Cool diy Gadget! Watch this video to see it in action:

NBC Bringing Tonight Show & Jay Leno to the Web - Kevin at Floppyhead talks about how NBC is making the Tonight Show available online beginning this week.

I also updated my post about the Flickr Upload Tools by adding a 38th tool. Flock, the Social Web Browser integrates well with Flickr and other social sites and has powerful uploading capabilities.

Weekend Fun: Play Scrabble On the Web or on Facebook

Are you a Scrabble™ Word Game Fan? Can't find a partner to play Scrabble™ against? Look no further than an online game of Scrabulous where you can get your Scrabble™ Fix online.

Scrabulous doesn't seem to have the blessing (read license) of Hasbro or Mattel so I'm not sure how the trademark owners might feel about the Scrabulous application, but for now it's a great, free website to play your favorite Scrabble™ game when you don't have a willing partner to play against. At Scrabulous, you can play against the computer or find others to play against in the member rooms (requires registration). They also offer a "play via e-mail" version, a Solitaire Scrabble™ version and a faster game of Blitz Scrabulous.

There is an online version that was pulling in a few thousand users - less than the developers had hoped so how did they increase exposure? They ported Scrabulous to Facebook. Scrabulous has now grown to approximately 950,000 players!

The screen-shot below is of the standard version of Scrabulous. In this version you play against others across the net.

This is a single-player version of Scrabulous. It wasn't as much fun as the standard multi-player version, but if you're just wanting to hone your word skills its not a bad game either.

Scrabulous also has a dictionary page that allows you to cheat or confirm words you might want to use while playing Scrabble.

Another place for some online Scrabble™ is yahoo's Literati. Literati is an officially licensed version, but involves a download. Literati has a free trial download, but for the full version you'll have to fork over $20.

For the Facebook Scrabulous application CLICK HERE

For the Internet (non-facebook) version CLICK HERE

Enjoy your game of Scrabble

I found Scrabulous from an article in last weeks Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition

Thursday, October 18, 2007

37 Tools To Upload to Flickr From Windows, Mac & Linux

Whether you are using Windows, a Mac, Linux or even your mobile phone; there are many ways to get those pictures to Flickr. Many of the tools go way beyond the ability to upload and include editing, tagging and more.

1. We'll start off with the new Windows Live Photo Gallery Method. You can now send photos to Flickr directly from your desktop using Windows Live Photo Gallery. This includes bulk image upload, tagging, photo resize, and more. It even allows you to upload to multiple Flickr accounts if you have more than one.

2. Flickr Uploadr (official)
Upload photos to Flickr with Windows or Mac

3. 1001
Mac uploader - notifies when new photos are uploaded.

4. Auto Upload to Flickr Script
Lifehacker shows how to use a python script to auto-upload photos to Flickr

5. FireFlix
Uploads & manages Flickr photos for Firefox. It requires the firefox web browser. Once installed, just go to view > sidebar and then select firefox.

6. Flickr Automator Action
Auto uploader for Flickr

7. Flickr Finder for Mac
Navigate Flickr photos with Mac

8. Flickr Upload
Upload images to Flickr via the command line

9. Flickr Uploadr (Linux)
Upload photos from Linux

10. FlickrBooth
Upload your Mac Photobooth photos to flickr

11. FlickrByEmail

Upload photos to Flickr by e-mail - This is another official Flickr upload method.

12. Flickr Folder Monitr

Watches selected folder/s & uploads photos in that folder to Flickr - monitors for new photos as well

13. FlickrShop
Upload photos from Adobe Photoshop (Mac Version) to Flickr

14. FlickrSync
Monitor image folders on your computer & syncs content to your Flickr account

15. Glimmr
An open source photo uploader for Flickr. Glimmr can edit the photo tags and descriptions and then uploads the photos to Flickr

16. Grabbr
Streamline taking screenshots and then uploading them to your Flickr account

17. GratePic
Open Source, cross platform tool to post, comment and rate photos on flickr

18. Importer
Upload images to Flickr and automatically add them to groups and sets. It can also import tags from a variety of third party image applications. Windows Only. Note: Not being actively developed so may have bugs.

19. JUploadr
Upload photos from Windows, Mac & Linux to Flickr & Zooomr

20. Photo Desktop for Flickr
Desktop image edit (rotate, flip, tag, name, batch resize) then upload to Flickr. Windows Only.

21. Photobox export to Flickr
A Firefox GreaseMonkey script that lets you export your photos from photobox to Flickr

22. Picasa2Flickr
Upload your picasa photos to Flickr

23. PictureSync
Upload photos with metadata using iPhoto and iView MediaPro. Currently Mac Only, but Windows Version is in development. Works with Multiple online photo services incuding flickr, fotki, ipernity, facebook, shutterfly, smugmug, webshots, Gallery G2 and more.

24. Send2Flickr
This is another official Flickr uploader. Send2Flickr is a windows explorer extension that lets you upload to Flickr right from windows explorer.

25. Shozu
Upload photos to Flickr with your mobile

26. Upload by Phone
The official, Flickr mobile phone uploader.

27. Uploader for Gnome Nautilus
Nautilus script for uploading photos to Flickr using the gnome file manager

28. Uploadr.py
Upload photos using python

29. UploadrXL
Upload photos to Flickr & add them directly to sets of groups

30. Waymarkr
Mobile phone app that tags & uploads your cameraphone pics straight to Flickr.

31. WebImager
Takes screen-shots & auto-uploads them to Flickr

32. Yahoo Widget Uploader
Yahoo! widget that allows you to upload images to the Flickr photo-sharing service.

33. ZoneTag
Instant upload of your photos to Flickr with geotags using two clicks on the same button. Works with Nokia and Motorola phones.

34. Flickr File System

Create a virtual userspace filesystem which allows easy uploading, downloading and searching of images through Flickr. Linux Only

35. Flidget

Flidget is a Mac widget to upload photos to Flickr. To see a video of Flidget in action CLICK HERE.

36. KFlickr

An easy to use photo uploader for Flickr written for KDE. Offers drag-n-drop from applications such as konqueror & digikam, Easy edits of photo properties and tags, supports multiple users and many other features.

37. Send2KFlickr

Uses KFlickr as a KIPI plugin allowing tighter integration with Kflickr and various KDE photo management applications.

EDIT: MAKE THAT 38 TOOLS AND COUNTING....

38. Flock

As Kenny mentions in the comments Flock 1.0 (new version), the Flickr Web Browser will also allow you to upload one or multiple photos to Flickr, Photobucket & Pizco; and much much more. Flock is sort of a feed reader built into the browser that is sort of like a highly personalized home page. You can get Media Streams from Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, Facebook and more.

If you're interested in Flickr and other photo sharing sites, you'll love these recent posts also:

The Ultimate Flickr Tools Hacks & Scripts Database (Over 350 different tools, hacks & scripts)

Zooomr Hacks: The Ultimate Collection of Zooomr Tools, Hacks & Scripts

The Photo Slider Game for Flickr

Thanks for stopping by Brent Evans Geek Tonic. Please feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed a favorite photo tool you know of.

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American History Sites Google Maps Mashup

Check the American History Sites Mashup at Google Maps

via Google Maps Mania

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Star Wars the Television Series

From the interview with Lucas:

"The Skywalkers aren't in it, and it's about minor characters," Lucas said in an interview. "It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It's completely different. But it's a good idea, and it's going to be a lot of fun to do."

Technology & Students: A Vision of Students Today

It's been several years since I attended college. When I graduated from the University of Missouri, technology was very important and becoming more and more important by the day, but compared to now, we were just at the tip of the iceberg with educational technology. Almost all college students now have laptops, mobile phones and a portable music device such as an iPod and Zune. Actually this is even becoming true in the high schools across America. Paul Stamatiou tipped me off to an excellent video created by Michael Weshc, a Kansas State University professor of digital enthnography studies.

I watched the video and as a father of a soon-to-be college student (next year!!!) and a husband of a high school teacher, I was still struck by the statistics and facts displayed in this video. The video deals with student life and how technology is being used by students in the education world. I encourage you to watch this video if you are in any way interested in technology in our higher education systems. I can't put it any better way than Paul Stamatiou did in this quote: