(jeff)isageek.net Geek Entertainment Teknologist

30Apr/083

Ewoks – Gospel Music Video

Ewoks FTW! I am speachless on this one. check it out.

30Apr/080

Free Comic Book Day – May 3rd

free comic book day

Here is a reminder to all you geeks out there that this Saturday - May 3rd is the annual Free Comic Book Day.

Make sure you visit your favorite local comic book store and get some freebies while letting them know you appreciate their great shops.

If you are in my area (Johnson County in Kansas) here are a few participating stores you can check out.

comic book store listing

29Apr/080

Batman/Dark Knight Mashup Trailer

Very kool mashup of the 89' Batman and 08' Dark Knight Trailers. I cannot wait to see the new batman movie! Enjoy.

28Apr/0824

Are you a KC Blogger, Tweeter, Podcaster?


image from ravenhawk

Are you in the Kansas City area? Do you blog, do you podcast? Are you always updating your twitter account? Besides finding kool new blogs, sites, people on the net I always enjoy finding out whats going on in the blogosphere here in the Kansas City area my hometown.

If you are fall into one of these categories leave a comment and let others know what you are doing. Give a little info like your name, site/twitter address, maybe what you like to blog/podcast/twitter about....or maybe you are just looking for some new local blogs/podcasts/geeks then check the comments out and maybe you will find a new favorite.

Let Kansas City and the world know you are out there.

28Apr/082

“Google Me” : The Movie

Movie Tagline : "It all started when i Googled my name."

This weekend I found a kool movie having to do with a guy who decided do what we all do and that is "google" our own name. The only difference is that then he made a movie about it. His Name is Jim Killeen and as I am sure you probably guess he sets out to meet other Jim Killeen's around the world. To document his travels and experiences he made "Google Me : The Movie"

I thought this was a great movie that can be enjoyed by really anyone...you dont need to be a geeky tech type. its more of a story about people with of course technology being a driving force.

28Apr/083

MySQL Resources?

Hey Everyone....over the weekend I was thinking I would like to increase my knowledge of MySQL since I use it for my blog and would like to see what else I can do with it. I have a running knowledge of the open source database but would like to take it to the next level :)

So that is where you come in. do you use MySQL? What are some good resources I can dig into? blogs, forums, books? whatever the case may be....I am just looking for the places to get some great info.

Thanks Everyone!

24Apr/084

Ping.fm – Broadcast Yourself

ping.fm

A new little service I have been using since it launched a few months ago is Ping.fm which if you are not familiar lets you send out messages/status messages to a multitude of services including everything from twitter and pownce to facebook and myspace and it seems to be growing every day.

Overall its a super simple service that doesn't do a bunch of everything but it does what it does very nicely by either the site itself, a mobile verison, or a secret email address that is provided to you if you wanna send from your favorite email client.

I myself use it from time to time to update to twitter, myspace, jaiku, and pownce all at one time.  have a link in your post...no problem the service will make the url tiny to help keep the number of characters down and for any of you on twitter you know how important that is :)

A couple of notes about the service it is currently in beta but use the invite code "pingfriends" and you are in..and also the guys over at the service right now are planning to throw everyone who follows them on twitter before may 1st in a drawing for a free iPod Touch...so make sure you sign up for that!

Tagged as: 4 Comments
24Apr/084

Giving Back To The Kids – The Schwaggin’ Wagon

schwaggin wagon

I was doing my normal daily surfing of the interweb and I came across a pretty kool service that helps kids that are a little less fortunate as some of us geeks by providing them schwag from around the web and all the geek conferences that go on year round.

Schwaggin Wagon as it is called recently rented a van, decided on a charity to help out which is InnerKids, and is debuting this week at the Web 2.0 Expo (good place to start as I am sure there is a lot of schwag to grab there.

the schwaggin wagon

I think this is a great service and a great way for us geeks to give back to the community so others can show off their geek pride.  So make sure you visit the Schwaggin Wagon at a conference soon or check them out as they are on twitter, facebook, and of course the site itself.

23Apr/080

RC car + Bottles + Mario = AWESOME!

This is awsome....take a crap load of bottles and an RC car.....what does that give you? A way to play the theme to Mario. This is just one of those hella kool videos you find....or atleast I think so :)


http://view.break.com/487616 - Watch more free videos

[source]

22Apr/088

Dipity – Your Social Timeline

dipity

Found this new site called Dipity which allows you to take all your favorite social service like twitter, flickr, your blog, last.fm, any rss feed you can think of and creates a timeline for ya. Obviously you have a page so you can share with your friends and the world so they can follow you.

Is it something I am gonna use daily like I do twitter or friendfeed I doubt it at this time...but hey for all us "social web" fans its another site to mess around with.

22Apr/082

“I’m Gonna Get You Spamma!” Official Trailer

This is just full of geeky awesomeness!!! starring Veronica Belmont. Love It!

20Apr/080

A New Realm – FFFFound and We Heart It

we heart it ffffound

Over the weekend I entered a new realm which included sites ffffound and we heart it which are known as social bookmarking sites for photos and images you find and have an interest in all over the interweb.

Its a pretty easy process to get down as you just put the bookmarklet on your browser of choice....find a picture/photo you like....and then let the world know you love it.   Just what little time I have been playing around with it I have found some pretty kool and artistic type images/photos.

Both are free services but ffffound is invite only and not the easiest in the world to get an invite let me tell ya...I got lucky and one of my twitter friends had an extra that they were kool enough to share with me.  One kool think I liked right off the bat was that ffffound has a screensaver you can  download to display images loaded by others as your screensaver.  Kinda nice when I am sitting around doing other stuff to catch a glimpse of some kool images.

Even though ffffound is invite only to join you can still view images loaded by others and the engine will recommend other photos you might be interested in as well.  We Heart It uses tagging with you all know I am a big fan of and both offer rss which is a must in my book.

Check out my profiles here...like I said I just started to they are not loaded yet with visual goodness :)

ffffound
We Heart It

20Apr/088

Readburner – Now Mobile And Playing Nice With Disqus

readburner logo
One of my favorite sites these days is Readburner which takes users linkblogs or Google Shared Items (video of how it works with google reader)and creates a kind of digg like/social news site where you can see whats hot in the blogosphere.

A few months back creator Alexander Marktl announced he was closing the service down which was kind of a bummer since I was enjoying the site...but then Adam Ostrow, Drew Olanoff, Thomas Connors came along to revive the site and recently have been adding new features just improving on the original vision of Alexander.

Two you should check out are they have made readburner available via your mobile device....which i have enjoyed checking out when sitting around waiting for a table at a restaurant or traveling somewhere (of course I am not driving :) )

readburner mobile

The other feature I really geeked out to when I saw it was that readburner now allows you to comment to posts via disqus which if you follow me on twitter or my blog you know is one of my favorite new web apps to use these days.  On a side not I would love to see the gang over at disqus go mobile as well....add that to my wishlist...maybe even #1 on the list.

20Apr/084

Startup Schwag – Pownce

Well it was that time of the month and Friday in my mailbox was my Startup Schwag package. It is always exciting to see what shirt I am gonna get and what stickers/goodies will be included. If you are not a member I would highly recommend it...it has my geek approval :)

So this month was a Pownce t-shirt which I proudly sport in the picture below. If you have any questions about starup schwag feel free to let me know.

startup schwag tshirt - pownce

17Apr/080

Why I Love Twitter?

Derek Rowse from over at problogger.net put togather a kool little video asking the question "Why You Love Twitter?". He got a few responses (even from some familiar faces errr tweeters :)

Check this video out as I think it was a pretty kool idea.

I guess if I was gonna add my twitter response I would say "I love twitter because of all the kool people I have met and things i get to learn and experience."

[source problogger.net]

Tagged as: No Comments
16Apr/088

Digg Has Gone To Crap…Where Are You Going?

mixx hacker news reddit

Well Digg seems to be living up to its name by digging it self a deeper and deeper grave when it comes to the social news scene. Everyday I read posts about people jumping ship and for us geeks reports that tech news is slowly falling off the front page faster then ever...which is never good when this is the community that made digg what they were at one time.

So you have decided to pack up your shovel and stop digging....where are you going for your social news fix and the ability to vote on whatcha like?  Are you even using a social news site these days?

Personally I find myself not really using any with sites like rssmeme, readburner, linkriver, and google shared items to get my news fix.

Reddit
[http://www.reddit.com]
Besides having a cute little mascot Reddit lets you add and vote on stories and links in categories politics, programming, politics, and science.

Hacker News
[http://news.ycombinator.com/]
Hacker News...its new and its fresh, simple and clean design.  great news site for us early adoptors and geeks.  Also offers a forum feel  of sorts where users can ask questions and get input back from other users.  I think it has a pretty good feel of community and I have enjoyed reading it.  Recently made headlines when they banned Valleywag.

Mixx
[http://www.mixx.com]
Mixx is probably the closest to the digg look with all the different news categories along with news, pictures, and videos.  You have groups you can join and of course the ability to vote for your favs.

So what are you using for your social media needs?  Are you like me and not really using social news sites like digg or mixx and going with sites like readburner, rssmeme, ect?  I would love to get your feedback on the subject.

16Apr/080

Ubuntu On A Stick

Nice tutorial on how to install Ubuntu on a USB Stick.

[source linuxchic.net]

Filed under: geeky No Comments
16Apr/080

Good Sign You Are Not Blogging Enough…..

when your computer starts to talk to you :)

computer talking to you

that this was a good one for all us bloggers out there

[source]

Tagged as: , No Comments
16Apr/0836

The Geek Nation – Who Are We?

Whats up everyone...I came up with an idea today for what I thought would be a kool idea. Basically what I am looking for is everyone to comment on this post who follows me on twitter, friendfeed, disqus, or where ever you know me from.

Just leave some information....your username on the service you follow me on, maybe a link to your blog, where you are from, whatever!!! That a way I learn a little more about who is following me and you might find someone kool who comments that you can add to your services.

So my goal is to get 100 people....might be a lofty but hey it will be fun in the process. ok start commenting now! :)

15Apr/080

The Empire Strikes Back (and in 60 seconds no less)

A great little piece of work.  Thought it captured all the bullet points of the movie :)

As I Star Wars geek I loved it!

15Apr/0812

Lusting Over Web Apps – My List

Which web apps do you use that are a must have, for daily use, your "web app pron"?  Here is my list of apps I use on a daily basis and love:

gmail - gmail of course is my communication tool of choice when it comes to email.  great for using on any computer or my mobile device.  spam protection is top notch, love being able to use filters and labels.

google reader - helps feed my rss addiction.  the best in my mind when it comes to aggregating all my feeds with a great layout.  seems to be integrating with all my other apps as well i.e. disqus and twitter.  love it!

twitter - great way to keep up with my online friends, some offline friends.  share links, pics, blog posts, ect.  its just plain awesome.

friendfeed - friendfeed has been hot now for a month or two.  great way to keep up with all my peeps.  love the integration with all my services as well as all the greasemonkey scripts I can use to customize the service to my likings and needs.

disqus - awesome commenting service for you blog or for just commenting on blogs.  think it brings the social aspect to comments and gives them their own life.  as with the other apps love the integration with the services like friendfeed and wordpress.

toluu - like google reader toluu helps feed my rss addiction.  great service that helps i the discovery and sharing of rss feeds.  if you need an invite let me know as I have some.

wordpress - best blogging software out there!  I have been using it now for a few years and with all the plugins and widgets you can add on its just top notch.  I recommend this one to everybody.

flickr - use flickr to share all my pictures and pics I take with my phone.  just an overall great service that makes it simple to post and share pics.

google calendar - use mainly for the integration with twitter and remember the milk as well as with my mobile device to keep all my important events at my side and keep me from missing something i shouldnt.

remember the milk - this is an awesome service for keeping those task lists under control.  I just flat out love it and add integration with gmail, google calendar, twitter and my mobile device and that only makes it better.  very simple clean setup but very powerful at the same time.

Here are some apps that I have been messing around with that soon could also be up on the top list.

diigo - diigo is a new bookmarking service that adds some new stuff to the whole social bookmarking scene like highlighting text and such (or new to me hehe).  I have continued to use this service more and more and recommend you check it out.  its slowly growing on me.

ma.gnolia - another in the social bookmarking realm...i have heard of it for awhile but due to my love for del.icio.us never really gave it a try.  checking it out these days and might have to decide which to go with ma.gnolia or diigo.  time will tell but again a good service to check out for you social bookmarking geeks.

mixx - mixx is a social news site like one you may have heard of before called digg :)   its new to the game but i must say i find it a breath of fresh air when it comes to the social news scene.  will i stick with it?  not sure....with so many blogs I follow, shared links, and link blogs it seems like I get all the news I need via google ready and then can share with serices like friendfeed, rssmeme or readburner so I am not sure if this is my thing.  but I do endorse it over digg for whatever that is worth :)

del.icio.us - this one is one that in the past would have been on my top list.  i use to love del.icio.us and in some ways its like your kid its hard to let go...i still post to del.icio.us via diigo where i can post to multiple services but overall it seems like del.icio.us has just kinda disappeared....dont really hear much about new stuff and I am still waiting on the upgrade to v2.0 as well as it just seems like it has issues playing nice with some of the new social web services out there or I have had some issues in that regard...so I am keepig it around and still find it very useful but its kinda in a weird place for me right now :)

so there ya have it....some of the web apps I use on a daily and sometimes hourly basis...the ones I cannot live without and then some I see as possible futures centerfolds in the "web app pron" world :)

what are some of yours?  I am sure you will have one that I will be like ohhh yeah I use that one too...but lets share and maybe others can discover some kool web apps to play around with.

15Apr/080

We Be Linkblogging!

Every once in awhile I like to pimp out my linkblog because one I think I find some pretty good stuff and two I have had a lot of new readers recently and thought I would share with them for the first time.

If you are unfamiliar with what a linkblog is basically its a collection of stories I find on the internet that are mainly about tech but can include something on the more geeky side or even something newsworthy...just depends.

I like to share the linkblog to help others find the hot stories in the tech/social media web and also maybe allow others to discover new feeds they can check out.  And hey if you dont feel like subscribing to a lot of feeds to keep you rss reader from hitting critical mass this could be something for you as well.

If this sounds interesting to you by all means grab the rss feed and see if you discover some new stuff.  Feel free to leave a comment and give your experiences with the linkblog.

I thought this after my initial post but if you have a linkblog feel free to pimp it out in the comments as well for all to subscribe to.

Enjoy!

[linkblog]

Tagged as: , , No Comments
14Apr/080

Social Bookmarking and Diigo

One site I have been checking out for my social bookmarking needs is Diigo. It has some features that other bookmarking sites dont have but it also allows you to post your bookmarks to del.icio.us and ma.gnolia which I thought was a nice feature.

Will I stick with Diigo? Time will tell...but if you are new to social bookmarking or want to find out more about the Diigo service check out this little video.

12Apr/080

jeffisageek blog 04/12/2008

Filed under: links No Comments
12Apr/080

SNL – Googly Eye’d Plants

Me and Allison were rolling at this skit on SNL last weekend with Christopher Walken. Overall the show was great. This was one of our favs. "Indoor Gardening Tips from a Man Who's Very Scared of Plants"

12Apr/080

Messing With Video – Take Two!

Hey just another post I thought I would throw up here. I kinda like doing the video thing so it might become a normal thing. But this one just messing with settings and talk about my post on Gadgetell. So check it out. As always feedback is welcome.

12Apr/080

My First Post On Gadgetell

gadgetell

Recently I was given an opportunity to start writing for tech blog Gadgetell and decided I would take them up on their offer as I see it as a way to one network with others as well as great experience for my blogging skills.

Well yesterday was the day the day my first post hit the front page. I decided for my first post I would write about a new service that I really like and that would be easy to explain....so I went with toluu.

So everyone head over and check out my post and of course leave a comment or two :)

If you wanna follow posts by me on Gadgetell bookmark this link

Enjoy

11Apr/084

Taking A Shot At Video

Allison was gone for the evening so I figured what the heck I will try to do a video and see how it comes out. Who knows maybe I will start doing this on a regular basis. But this one was just to try out and see how it would come out. I do have to say next time I will probably try at a smaller size (at 640 now and will probably drop down to 320). Anyways enjoy!! And please please tell me if you think I might have a future in video podcasting :) I would love some feedback good or bad.

10Apr/084

(jeff)isageek.net upgrades

wordpress Well I had checked with friends and searched the net to see what the buzz was on WordPress 2.5 and see how everyone was doing with their upgrades.  Pretty much all I got was rave reviews and everyone was telling me I would love v2.5.

Well about 30 min ago I decided to pull the trigger and make the upgrade...my verdict....love it!  And with the WordPress Upgrade Plugin it was a piece of cake!  I cannot recommend it enough for getting that new version installed.

I like the layout, the look, the ease of use.  just wanna say to the wordpress development guys...Great Job!

If you are thinking of upgrading and have any questions please feel free to post a comment or shoot me and email or twitter.

8Apr/080

Portishead – Concert on Current – This Friday!

 portishead

I was freaking out last night when I found out on of my favorite bands Portishead would be preforming tracks from their new album third that comes out later this month on Current this friday @ 10pm eastern time.

Portishead will perform eight tracks from their forthcoming album on Current TV on April 11 – three weeks before the album is released on April 28.

I will have the DVR all fired up ready to record for repeat watches as well :)   if you are fan or just looking for an awesome trip-hop band this is the concert for you!  Check out the promo vid below.

here is a link to listen to the first single from the album "Machine Gun" - listening to it as I write this :)

And hey while we are at it check out this interview talking about Portishead performing in Portishead, England