Here’s another song I composed this week. “Early Morning Songs” a relaxing ambient soundscape. This Collection of Ambient Music is Perfect for your daily Meditation and Relaxation. ~ Enjoy
Category Archives: Personal
Colors of the Fall
Here’s a new track I composed last night. Relaxing ambient soundscape the ‘Colors of the Fall’. This Collection of Ambient Music is Perfect for your daily Meditation and Relaxation. Enjoy
Box Cloud Storage App Updated & Offering 50GB Free Space to New Users
If you’re looking for a good cloud storage and file sync service that will work well on the iPad, then right about now is a great time to look at Box – as they’re offering 50GB of free space to new users and have just done a major update to Version 3.0 of their iPad and iOS app.
Box has been one of the leaders in the cloud file sync and storage area for many years now, and has had a strong presence on iOS for as long as I can remember. I’ve been using it for years along with Dropbox and Google Drive.
I’ve only had a quick run around the newly updated Box app this morning, but I’d say it looks quite nice and has some cool new features.
I especially like some of the swipe gestures to bring up options for files and folders.
Here are a few of Box’s key features, as per its App Store page:
・High-quality rendering of 100+ file types
・High-fidelity PDF, PowerPoint…
(Via iPad Insight.)
Now Everyone Is Free to Join Pinterest, No Invite Needed
Folks, it looks like Pinterest has just opened its doors to the public. If you’ve ever used Pinterest before, then probably someone invited you to join in. Now, those who are planning to sign up but were previously discouraged by the waiting process, can opt to create an account using their Facebook or Twitter account, as well as their email address. The pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections based on their hobbies and interests, just hit 10 million unique monthly U.S. visitors way back in February.
Ben Silbermann, and his team are hoping that by finally opening the registration to the public after two years, more users will enjoy what Pinterest has to offer. ‘Today we’re thrilled to announce open registration! We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know. Happy pinning to everyone!’ the company said.
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(Via Tybee Guy.)
How To Use Pinterest
I believe in the power of the internet to support communities, share information and learn about the universe. I submit Instructables, post how-to videos and mentor students around the globe. I use open source and creative commons just as much as I add to it.
Yet Pinterest makes me uncomfortable. This social media service assumes that any visual content is there for the taking. Their ‘pin it’ button seamlessly integrates copyrighted material into the Pinterest licensing system. It’s just a little too slick not to wonder what’s happening behind their closed doors.
I am not going to delve into the legality of Pinterest TOS nor how many users are pinning content without copyright approval. That will be played out over time by those far more qualified than myself.
What I want to share with you is the understanding that Pinterest is a tool. And just like any other tool you need to use it wisely to support your needs or it will use you. The following is a heirarchy of methods I employ when sharing information on the internet and specifically addresses the optimization of Pinterest.
Meet Your Newest Social Network Google+
After long speculation, Google is officially introducing the company’s Facebook rival today, named Google+. It has a number of unique features to the service. Plus, there is no sign up required for anyone with an active Google account. But is this really the Facebook killer we have been waiting for?
Google+ has five different points of emphasis. The first is Circles, which lets you drag and drop friends into specific groups. Similar to Facebook friend lists, yes, but a lot of the sharing revolves around which groups the user decides to share certain bits of information to.
Building upon Circles is Hangouts, which is really just Google’s fancy term for group video chat. In the stream, users can see who is ‘hanging out’ and decide to join a hangout and participate in a large video conference. Hangouts may consist of random friends or specific Circles of friends.
Sparks is the third point of emphasis, and it stems more from Google search than it does from the social aspects of Google+. In a nutshell, it is a mini search engine. The service encourages the user to search for things of interest and save them in a list. Instead of a standard list of results, Sparks presents different articles or videos the user can watch, read, or share. And using the list of interests, the results for each are accessible again at any time.
Finally, we have two mobile features, available on the Android Market immediately and coming to the App Store soon. Instant Upload plays up the fact that it is a tedious process to upload multiple photos from a smart phone. This feature will automatically upload any photos and videos a user captures and store them in a private album in Google+ for sharing upon the user’s own discretion. Huddle, simply put, is Google’s answer to iMessage. It combines text messaging and chatting into one and allows for group chatting from within the app. Circles plays a big role in this as well.
Those five main features are the stars of the show here. Aside from them, Google+ does provide some more familiar features. A stream shows real-time updates from friends and a hub for sharing statuses, photos, videos, and links. Plus, each user gets an individual profile. The normal bar at the top of each Google product turns black when Google+ is active, and acts as full navigation for the services, profiles, and notifications.
The Google+ project is currently available by invitation-only, but over time Google will roll it out to everyone. So — the question you have been waiting for — is this going to take down Facebook? I think for sure that it has more potential than any other competitor thus far. However, since Facebook reportedly now has 750 million active users, winning the battle will be an extremely long and painful challenge. Google+ is either going to fly or die.
(Via Skatter Tech.)
Back To The Future 25 year reunion
The cast of Back To The Future have reunited in New York to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film franchise. Submit your videos at http://itn.co.uk/itndirect.html .
How to Sell Products via Your Facebook Page
Ever wished you could directly sell your products and services from within Facebook? If so, this post is for you.
I decided to dig in and research the current landscape thoroughly, both to better understand the lay of the land and to save you the research hassle.
It was only a matter of time before Facebook and e-commerce would converge. Until a little over a year ago, only storefronts existed on Facebook, where merchants could display and promote their products and, with ‘Add to cart’ buttons, imply e-commerce functionality.
But when users clicked on ‘Add to cart, they were whisked away from Facebook to the merchant’s website where the actual shopping-cart experience occurred.
Almost There: Storefronts, but Not Stores
Two prominent examples of storefront-only functionality on Facebook are Threadless and Best Buy, both of which include great integration with Facebook’s social features (sharing, commenting, liking), but don’t support e-commerce transactions within Facebook.
Go To This Site When You Can’t Find Your Phone
Go to this page. Enter your phone number. Click enter. Find your phone — if you didn’t leave it in a bar yesterday night, that is. Simple. Pretty. Just how we like them.
(Via Gizmodo.)
Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings With ReclaimPrivacy
Whether or not you agree with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion that the age of privacy is over, you can likely agree on one thing – Facebook privacy settings are not easily deciphered.
If you’re not sure whether you’ve sufficiently protected what you share on Facebook, then ReclaimPrivacy.org has a bookmarklet to help you be as private as you’d like.
The bookmarklet (essentially a snippet of Javascript that executes from your browser bar) assesses your Facebook settings in a number of different areas. It looks at personal information, contact information, friends, tags and connections, known applications that leak personal information and whether or not your friends can accidentally share your information. It also checks whether or not you’re currently sharing information via the controversial “Instant Personalization” that was unveiled last month at f8.
The site and bookmarklet are the creation of software engineer Matt Pizzimenti and is completely open-source and hosted on GitHub. According to the website, ReclaimPrivacy.org will “never see your Facebook data” and will “never share your personal information”. The scanner operates entirely on the client side in the user’s browser, it says.
To run the bookmarklet and see how private you may or may not be on Facebook, simply follow these directions:
- Drag this link to your web browser bookmarks bar: Scan for Privacy
- Log in to facebook.com and then click that bookmarklet
- You will see a series of privacy scans that inspect your privacy settings and warn you about settings that might be unexpectedly public.
You can also become a fan of Reclaim Privacy on Facebook. The site, which is hosted on Google’s App Engine, was down earlier today because it had used up all of its bandwidth, so Pizzimenti has added a donation box to help cover bandwidth costs.
(Via Read Write Web)
Ian Scott 
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