Latest Gear Live Videos
Alijah, Grandpa, Cancer Medicine, and a Donut
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Alijah, Personal, Videos,
A few days ago I put up a video of Alijah and my Dad at the park. I liked how it showed a glimpse of the relationship that they had, even while having only a short amount of time to get to know each other. The next video I wanted to share was one that I think showed my Dad’s sense of humor, as he was even able to make light of his dying of cancer - not that he took it lightly, just that he was able to not dwell on it and always find the silver lining in things.
In this video Alijah starts laughing as my Dad shakes his inhaler, notices a box of donuts (or “no-NEETS”) up on the counter, and starts asking for one. I then inform him that he already has one in his hand, that he has been eating for the past few minutes. He looks down at it, looks back at me while doing some sort of “Oh, that’s embarrassing!” dance, and leaves the room.
Advertisement
Ever since my Dad, George Budabin, died of lung cancer back in December 2006, Monica and I had been kicking ourselves for not taking any video of him with our son Alijah. A couple of days ago, I was reorganizing everything I had in iPhoto just so that things would be better tagged and more findable, and I came across a few videos of Alijah and his grandfather that I had totally forgotten about. I will be posting them here over the next few days. This first one is from a day we spent at Wave Hill park in Riverdale, back home in The Bronx. I particularly love the interaction that they have with each other. That was so cool to see for me. Also of note is how my Dad almost tears Alijah’s arm from its socket at the very end.
Is Bebo using your AIM credentials behind your back?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Blogging, Technology,
Here’s an oddity for you - it seems that Internet site Bebo took control of the AIM account of Teresa Valdez Klein just long enough to send me an invitation to check out her Bebo profile. I immediately realized that she wasn’t even online, and even tried responding - to no avail! When I asked her about it, it turns out that while she was signing up for the service, she put in her AIM credentials so that Bebo could find any other friends who were members so that they could hook up, and I would assume it would also allow you to pick and choose who you’d like to send an IM invite to. When she was at that step, something went wrong on Bebo’s end and timed out. She closed the browser, and I got the IM.
So whether it was on purpose, or an error - Bebo devlopers, it’s not cool. You should probably throw in some sort of safety into your code so that, in the event of a timeout, it errs on the side of caution instead of on the side of Bebo advertising. Kthx.
Scoble on Techmeme gaming, I’m still unexcited about the site
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Blogging, Business,
My friend Robert Scoble put up a couple of Seesmic videos on how to reverse-engineer Techmeme. For anyone who doesn’t know, Techmeme is a fringe site that aggregates technology news from blogs. The more a story is talked about, the more likely it will appear on Techmeme. And the more authoritative the people talking about the story, the higher they will appear on the Techmeme home page. I watch both videos in their entirety, and enjoyed them. The thing I just am still missing is why it’s important to be on Techmeme.
Gear Live network sites have been on Techmeme quite a few times. We didn’t really see any significant boost in traffic or anything else. To some people, it’s almost as if it’s a game in and of itself - “I wanna be on the top of Techmeme!”. Me? I’d rather be the top Google search result for that story. Techmeme is so temporary. The other thing that gets me is the weight put on sites as far as how authoritative they are is done by a human being, Gabe Riviera. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Gabe at all. I’ve met him and he seems to be a cool guy. However, the way sites/bloggers are ranked means that people are going to get missed.
There very well could be someone who writes better than, say, Mike Arrington, about a certain topic. But until Gabe hears of that person, Mike is still considered number one? It would seem to me that Techmeme should have a paid staff of people who rate and rank things, almost Mahalo-style. A group of 20 people is way more efficient (but still not efficient enough) than one guy doing the ranking. You can say that the larger group of people that Gabe uses is the bloggers who are regularly featured on Techmeme - but really, if that is your opinion, you just aren’t realizing how much of an echo chamber the blogosphere has become.
In any event, I’d still recommend checking out Robert’s videos if only to learn how algorithms work.
Heather Flanagan Interviews Todd Bishop
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Blogging, Business, Videos,
Here in Seattle, we have two major newspapers - The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Todd Bishop writes about technology issues for the Seattle PI, and I’ve run into him a couple of times at a few technology conferences, and he also came to the first Seattle Mind Camp event that we put on. Heather Flanagan I met at the second Mind Camp event, and found her to be hilarious. We still look forward to working with her very soon on a project or two. In the meantime, I came across this video interview that Heather did with Todd, and figured I’d share it, mostly because my name was mentioned at the start of the interview, which caught me off guard! Either way, this is an interesting look at how people in the traditional media industry see how things are progressing now that we have so many independent people doing news on the web.
The Gear Live Gives Back Education Charity Drive
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Blogging,
Alright, let’s take a break for just a moment away from the standard news fare. We know that you guys love the gadgets, gizmos, and consumer electronics just as much as we do. These expensive and cool toys are often a marvel when you break them down to the technology that drives them. That’s what makes what we do fun, and why we love the interaction we have with our readers. However, we want to focus a bit of attention on the young ones in our country who would be happy to have a calculator for use in class, and the teachers who work for districts that can’t afford things like projectors for use in their schools.
Gear Live has joined the 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, and we have chosen ten great causes that are centered around getting some basic technology into classrooms located in our local area, as well as some of the hardest areas still suffering the affects of Hurricane Katrina. We’ve chosen ten causes that we thought touched on what we believed in, and you can take a look at them and choose which one(s) you want to help. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for the children of our nation. Just know that the money you donate will go directly to that specific teacher request - not into some big pot of money that is then doled out by the organization. As donations come in, there meter over on the right will fill up.
Some of the most expensive purchases for schools are consumer electronics. We believe that all children need to get acquainted with the tools of the future as they learn so they when they are ready to hit the workforce, they can succeed alongside their peers. Please, help us in assisting teachers, children, and schools in low-income areas get the tools they need to help their children excel.
Read More 
| Gear Live Gives Back
A few people were wondering why I’ve been quiet here on the blog for the last couple of months. Truth is, I’ve been hard at work on a complete redesign of the entire Gear Live network, which is finally near completion. We should have it rolled out within the next two weeks, and the team that’s been working on it is very happy with the results. We think our readers are going to love it. Check back soon to see it in action, and let us know what you think after checking it out.
Alijah’s Trip to the ER (Or, What is a Febrile Seizure?)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Alijah, Personal,
On Friday afternoon, Monica and I got the scare of our lives. It all started when our son Alijah walked into my office after Monica asked me to check and see if he was warm. I felt his head, and let her know that he did, in fact, feel hot. Nothing abnormal about a three-year-old child having a fever. We would give him some Childrens Tylenol and things would be back to normal as usual we figured. A minute later, I am still in my office answering an email, and I hear a very loud “THUD.” I thought something huge fell from a high surface and I hear Alijah start crying, so I rushed into the living room to find Monica holding him. She said she walked into the room, where he was standing with one hand on the couch. She told him they were getting ready to leave, and he didn’t respond. It was as if he were looking through her instead of at her. Then he just fell straight backwards. The noise I heard was him hitting his head on the floor. That had to hurt. While Monica held him, I went upstairs to find the thermometer so that we could check his temperature - it was 101.7. High, but not horrible. The only oddity was that it came on so suddenly.
I then went to find him some Tylenol while Monica began to check on him. He wasn’t answering, but that isn’t completely abnormal for him, since when he gets hurt he tends to just want to be held, but left alone until he is ready to talk - but this was different. He wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t looking at her. He was off in his own world. I came over and tried to talk to him, and his eyes didn’t even track towards my direction, which would be natural. He finally looked up, but not at me - instead he was staring at the top corner of the room, where the ceiling met the two walls. As Monica turned him back her direction, his head and eyes stayed fixed on that area of the room, and still, he was completely silent.
Click to continue reading Alijah’s Trip to the ER (Or, What is a Febrile Seizure?)
So, Expression Engine 1.6 is set to be released very soon, and it looks to be one of the most significant releases yet. We already manage multiple sites under one installation, but it is a bit of a hack (although, an easy one.) The new release brings about a Multiple Site Manager add-on, which we at Gear Live are more than ready to jump in to.
In the meantime, we figured we would mess with a few images of EllisLab CEO Rick Ellis, to see if we could win ourselves a copy of the MSM add-on. If not, it’s all good. Messing with Rick seems to be turning into a pastime…
As you can see above, we are very excited about EE 2.0, so we made a point to share that in the image. Two more images after the jump.
Click to continue reading Expression Engine 1.6 is Coming…
Read More | Expression Engine 1.6 Preview and Contest
So, in the image above, you see how Alijah looked when my wife Monica left to do a little shopping. When she gets back, he will look very different. Check the new image after the break. Leave your comments…
Click to continue reading Alijah’s New Haircut!
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.
{solspace:toolbar}