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When you hear the phrase “social network”, what do you think of? Facebook? Myspace? Maybe Twitter? One online service that I had never thought of as a social network is Flickr – at least not until today. Today, I discovered why Flickr is so addictive and fun, and why at the core, it is a social network, although it may not seem like that on the surface.

For those of you who don’t know, Flickr is a service that allows users to upload photos to the Internet for free. But underneath, it is a whole lot more. Today I discovered the true nature and appeal of Flickr – it’s a social community. And not just a community of plain text, but of pictures and images and stories. Like most social networks or communities, Flickr works on the basis of adding friends and family members as contacts. You can comment on people’s photos, watch slideshows, and get notified when your contacts upload new photos. Flickr allows you to stay connected with your contacts, and share your life stories with them.
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Every year, I find myself looking forward to the Macheist Bundle. Macheist is an event each year where you can win free Mac shareware by completing different missions known as heists. At the end of the event, a bundle of Mac apps is put on sale for a limited time. The apps themselves would cost over $400 if purchased separately, but you can get them all in the bundle for only $49. If you completed all the heists during the event, the bundle would cost you even less – only $39.

Now the bundle is obviously not going to be all things for all people. You may already own some of the apps in the bundle, or have no use for them. But the Macheist Bundle is a great way for switchers to get some great new software for their Macs, and even for long-time users to discover some new software that they’ve never heard of before. I bought the bundle as soon as it was released, and have receipt #67 to prove it. Not all of the apps in the bundle are appealing or necessarily useful to me, however, most of them are surprisingly useful, fun, and have found a home in on my Mac.

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One frustration that I’ve always had with cameras when shooting in low light conditions is camera shake. The problem is that in low light, the shutter must open for a long amount of time in order for the image to be exposed properly. The general rule of thumb, is that you shouldn’t shoot with a shutter speed lower than the inverse of your focal length. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens – which I do quite often – you shouldn’t shoot freehand with a shutter speed lower than 1/60th of a second. When the shutter speeds get down to 1/20 and 1/5 of a second, the human hand cannot hold steady long enough, and your images will be blurry.

Now if you know a little bit about cameras, you will realize that opening the Aperture (which will result in a lower f/stop and narrower depth of field) and raising the ISO (which will result in noisier images) all help to expose the image properly, and reduce the need for longer shutter speeds. The problem is, lenses with very wide Apertures are very expensive, and cannot be used on a point-and-shoot camera. I read blog post after blog post touting the importance of tripods in photography, however, my main concern was the hefty pricetag. A tripod can easily add up to $200+, and was not a necessary investment in my mind.

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Apple always has a different way of doing things. And today, again, they have proved just that. Exactly one week before Steve Jobs takes the stage at Macworld, Apple has announced updated Mac Pros and Xserves. Bringing the Mac Pro lineup to an 8-core standard, and upping most of the specs of the machine. Many believe that this move was to steal the thunder from CES. But the question remains. Why would Apple announce an update to a major Mac product line just before Macworld?

Any other company that I can think of would save all of their product announcements for the “big event”. Steve Jobs however, realizes that releasing a bunch of new products at Macworld is not going excite the world. Look at Macworld last year. The main attractions were solely the AppleTV and the iPhone, however, everything got swept away in the iPhone buzz. The AppleTV was sorely forgotten and under-hyped. Steve Jobs didn’t want to introduce the Mac Pros along with the exciting new products planned for Macworld, because he knew the Mac Pros would get pushed to the side.

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If you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the past couple days, you may have heard of something called CES. The Consumer Electronic Show is the biggest, annual technology show of the year, and it is happening this week in Las Vegas. For the past 11 years, Bill Gates has traditionally presented at the CES opening keynote. As always, Bill got up on stage this year, to introduce this years Consumer Electronic Show. This was his last year doing the keynote, as he is retiring from his daily duties at Microsoft this later this year.

As I sat, watching Microsoft’s live stream of the keynote last night, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. This CES keynote felt exactly like last years, and the years before that. Bill Gates got on stage, praised the innovation of Microsoft, and touted the stats and figures. Then they demoed Vista, Xbox, Microsoft Surface, and Sync, talked about some future products, and then wrapped it up with a Guitar Hero match. As the keynote finished, I couldn’t help but sit there and think, “Is that it?”. I know I shouldn’t have expected new products, or flashy eye candy, but this keynote was nothing new. Is this all Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar company, had to offer in 2008?

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Twitter. Whether you love it or hate it, hundreds of thousands of users each and every day are consistently answering the question, “What are you doing?”. Over 2007, many developers have used the Twitter API to expand the functionality of the platform. One of the more popular uses of the Twitter API, is to create a desktop Twitter client that will update you whenever one of the people you follow posts an update. For Mac OS X, there are currently two very popular Twitter clients – Twitterrific and Snitter.

Twitterrific, now on version 3, is a very mature Twitter client created by the Icon Factory. It is a native Mac OS X application, and there is currently no Windows version. Snitter, on the other hand is a new competitor in the Twitter client space. It runs on both Mac OS X and Windows through the Adobe AIR runtime environment. Unfortunately, this means that it is not a native application for either operating system. It is also very important to note that Twitterrific’s aim is to bring your tweets to the desktop, while Snitter attempts to be a desktop portal to Twitter. So without further ado, let the ultimate twitter client smackdown begin.

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Digital photography is quickly becoming one of my favourite hobbies. I enjoy learning about techniques, and practicing different styles in different settings. However, one type of photography that I had never thought of using was Panoramic Photography. In my mind, panoramas needed a precise, level tripod, and pictures on a calculated horizontal axis. Then, they required hours of post-processing in order for them to look somewhat decent. I was so wrong.

While I was at Niagara Falls earlier this week taking a much needed vacation and some photographs, I decided to snap some photos from behind the falls. Not really thinking about it, I took 6 photos, moving my camera from left to right after each one. I didn’t use a tripod. I wasn’t precise. I didn’t even plan it out. After returning to the hotel, my good friend Chad Ohman recommended DoubleTake, a $25 application that makes creating panoramas as easy as dragging and dropping your photos. No Photoshop. No manually stitching of photos together. Just drag and drop.

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One of the best purchases I made in 2007 was my Nikon D40x. I really enjoy photography, and my 5 year old point and shoot simply wasn’t cutting it for me anymore. However, ever since getting the D40x, I find myself taking a lot of pictures. Where cameras used to be only for special events, I began using my camera to take photos every day. While that was great, the real problem was that I would go to an hour-long event and come back with 500 photos. I would treat my DSLR as a point-and-shoot – a very good one at that. But at the speed I was taking pictures, very few turned out good, and many were out of focus. Read More

As the Christmas break from school and work is quickly coming to an end, my family has decided to take a short trip to Niagara Falls. As I write this, I am actually in the car on the way to Niagara Falls. We plan on going to an indoor water park while we are here, as well as taking some time to walk along the side of the Falls. Hopefully, everything I have been reading about digital photography will come in handy as I experiment with my new DSLR.

The trip wil not be a complete break from technology though, as the hotel we are staying at does have wifi. I will try uploading some of my shots to my Flickr account later tonight. It feels kind of nice to take a break from the world, and get away for a few days. I will be coming back home tomorrow night refreshed, and ready to get back into the school/blogging/ces swing of things.

On a side note, I want to thank all of you who have subscribed to my RSS feed. So far, I am really enjoying blogging everyday. I am the kind of person that likes to think things through over and over in my mind, but dreads writing them down. This commitment to blog everyday has forced me to write down my thoughts, and share them with people. It really has changed the way I think about things, and share them with the world.

How many social networks are you a part of? Five? Ten? I find myself constantly dreading signing up for new social networks, because they are another “thing” that I will have to update. No matter how cool or awesome they may be, each new network is going to require more of your time. That’s how I felt about Del.icio.us – the leading site for online social bookmarks. Don’t get me wrong, I use bookmarks all the time. But the thought of having to go to Del.icio.us to add each bookmark was too cumbersome, and as a result, I stopped using Del.icio.us altogether.

Then along came Pukka – the app that makes adding bookmarks to Del.icio.us so simple and seamless that you don’t even have to think about it. Pukka functions as a desktop interface to Del.icio.us. Simply opening Pukka will allow you to enter in a URL, name for the bookmark, tags, and even an optional description. A simple tap of the return key, and your bookmark will be added to Del.icio.us in the background. Still, I thought, it’s not easy enough to add bookmarks to Del.icio.us. Then, I discovered the Pukka bookmarklet.

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Woah. 2008. Already.

As I think back to a year ago, I can’t even imagine all that I’ve experienced this year. At the beginning of 2007 I had no Mac, no Twitter–nothing. I was not involved in the Internet at all. I had not met Chris or Taylor or James, or for that matter, any of my Internet friends. I was not involved in any podcasts or blogs. I knew so little. I was ignorant, young, and foolish (as I probably still am).

But as I look back upon 2007, I see how good this year was to me. I see how much I’ve grown and developed. I have a name now. I have friends on the Internet. I participate in podcasts and forums, and write for blogs. I have even managed to get this website up for the new year (thanks to my good friend Chris Thomson). I have learned so much this year. Not really from school, but from life. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve learned from them. I’ve made some dumb choices, but I learned from those as well. And I see myself growing and developing more and more each day. What more can I ask for?

I really want to thank a bunch of people for making this year such a success for me. People that truly changed the course of my life. Some use the word, “friends” to describe people like these. I don’t know if that’s all that they are. Thank you Chris Thomson for befriending me, even when I was new. Thank you for bringing me into your “circle of friends”, and for helping me get this blog set up. Thank you Taylor Olson for being such a great friend, and being so brave to send me that first email. And James Matarrese, what can I say about you? The conversations we have are truly priceless, and I see you as a friend that I can talk to when no one else will understand. Thank you to AriX and Keaton and Ben and David and Tommy Vallier and River. You guys really encourage and inspire me. Thank you to my twitter followers for putting up with my many tweets (sometimes pointless). Thank you to everyone who stood by me, believed in me, and encouraged me. Really, you guys have changed my life forever. And thank you God, for always being by my side.

But that was 2007. Last year. What about the year ahead? What about 2008?

I am looking forward to 2008 as an awesome year. I have no idea what this year holds in store for me, but if it’s anything like 2007, it’s going to be full of open doors, opportunities and new experiences. I plan to continue to grow and learn this year, and be able to look back upon 2008 as a year of victory.

One of my many projects I have planned to take part in this year is Blog365. I want to post on this blog, every single day of 2008. That’s right, all 365 days of 2008, save for February 29th which will be my one day free. The goal is to make this blog a place where I can share my interests, opinions, and what’s going on in my life. For days that I will not have access to a computer, I will be journaling, and typing up the journals as blog posts at a future date. I don’t plan on making this into a tumblog–I already have one of those. This blog will be dedicated to full-fledged posts.

Being the owner of a new Digital SLR, I also plan to begin Project365 today. Each day, I plan to take many pictures, and I want to upload one picture every day that truly tells a story, and describes what I’ve done for the day. I hope that this project will improve my newbie photography skills, as well as teach me to tell stories through my pictures. All of my photos will be uploaded to my Flickr account.

The final phase of changes I want to make online this year will be through my life-stream. I am increasingly interested in having an online presence on the Internet. Whether through Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, or even Digg, I want to share my interests with the world. I recently discovered how powerful all these social networks can be when combined. That is why I have worked hard to create a page that I can use to show all of my footprints across the Internet. Check out my Colophon page to find out a little bit about me, the setup I’m kicking, and where you can find me online.

Many say that 2008 is no big deal, and feels no different than 2007. I can’t say I feel that way. 2007 was a great year, but I am looking forward to 2008 as an even greater year. I have so much more to learn, and want to have a great time doing it. I encourage you to examine your 2007, to see what it was like for you. What did you accomplish? Dream a little. What do you want 2008 to be for you?

2007 has come to an end. Everybody, welcome to 2008.