The old one ends & the new one begins...

2011 was a crappy year. I just wanted to start off with that. There were so many things that were crappy that I will not even try to list them. Anyway, I think most would agree without evidence provided by me.

That being said, there were some good things that happened. We got to meet our neighbor from the next street over, who is a fellow blogger, (though waaay more prolific than I), the girls did not visit the doctor's office near as many times as in years past, we paid off the house and were debt-free for a couple of months until we decided to buy a new truck, I finally was able to get a couple of people helping me at work, I got approval to start officing in Lafayette, La. instead of traveling to Houston so much, and finally, Mel, the kids, and I are still here to see the marble travel around the ball of flame at least one more time.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, and satisfying new year!

P.S,: I got this in an e-mail from Tiger Direct:

I want one of these...it can display part of the screen on the bezel of the device!

It's an obvious photoshop error, showing the wifi, cell signal, etc. on the bezel.

Peace

icaughtsanta.com

Imagine the look of wonder and surprise when a child receives a photo of Santa caught in the act in his or her very own home. iCaughtSanta.com is a unique website that helps visitors create those memorable keepsake photos. 

They are also giving you 50% off with the code "SANTA50" (without the quotes).

In three simple steps anyone can upload a holiday photo, add Santa Claus and print it as proof… or share it via Facebook and Twitter. Last-minute shoppers can purchase Gift Cards and eGift Certificates for loved ones with children, making iCaughtSanta.com a great gift idea even if you don't have kids yourself. 

Merry Christmas! 








(I'm trying to win an iPad...)

Ladybug

Here is a pic of a ladybug on my front porch.

I took it with my Blackberry Torch. It's not great, but it was handy.

I was surprised to see such a big lady bug around the house.

$19/Month Service: Unlimited Everything, No Contracts? Almost Awesome...

This sounds REALLY interesting...Would be a serious contender for our cellular service if it used a different carrier. It may still work for my wife, since Sprint has decent coverage according to their coverage map. Something to keep an eye on. Read the article from TechCrunch below.

Republic Wireless Officially Unveils $19/Month Service: Unlimited Everything, No Contracts | TechCrunch:

'via Blog this'

Halloween Pictures

I carved pumpkins again this year for the girls. I picked some good-sized ones so I would have a good canvas to work with. Valerie decided that she wanted a pattern that said "Welcome" and according to her "...has dripping blood!" and Roni wanted a classic jack-O-lantern. Below are pictures of the different stages for each pumpkin.

Val's Pumpkin

Pattern taped & perforated

Pattern Transferred!

All carved out

All lit up on All Hallows Eve

Roni's Pumpkin

Smiling Jack-O-Lantern

All Carved Out

Smiling in the dark

The girls had a blast & racked up a good bit of candy. We enjoyed hanging out with the neighbors for their Halloween party.

Short Visualize.Me Review

Visualize.me uses your LinkedIn profile information to structure your CV/resume information as an infographic. It's pretty neat and looks cool, but the details are are only what is in your LinkedIn profile.

A while back, I signed up to beta-test Visualize.me...I read an article about it on TechCrunch or LifeHacker and submitted my e-mail address for a beta invite. I got it a few days later and started playing around with it.


I customized the URL to my name, but could never access my viz via that URL. I could still get to it with the original URL that I got to it with and the settings listed my custom URL, but would not allow viewing with that URL. Now it appears that visualize.me is out of beta and asking people to invite friends to the site. AND, my custom URL works now!(See link below)

Clint Galliano's Infographic Resume: Check out my infographic resume created via Vizualize.me. Create yours with one click.

Google "Drag-N-Drop" Image Search

Somebody posted about this feature on G+ that I had never heard of...Google's Drag-N-Drop Image Search. I immediately thought "What a great frickin idea"!
So I went to the URL to try it out. The first thing I did was to try to D-N-D an image from another website...SUCCESS! I dragged my LinkedIn profile photo into the search bar and got the following results:

Headshot Drag-N-Drop Search

It showed links to my G+ profile (with the same photo) and three other profiles that I have in my circles. The really funny part is that it also served up a grid of head shots of bald or balding guys in suits from around the web.

I tried several other photos, but didn't get great results...a picture with some wood-grain prominent in it resulted in pictures with lots of wood-grain; Ones with a dominant color resulted in pictures with that dominant color present AND dominant; A picture with one of my daughters and me sitting on a bench resulted in picture of either multiple people or people sitting down. All in all, fairly interesting. 

I finally decided to try using one of the pictures from my travels, choosing one of a castle I visited in Scotland, but had forgotten the name of. I got the results listed below:

Fyvie Castle Drag-N-Drop Image Search

Not only did it find similar pictures, it also reminded me which castle it was with a couple of thumbnails from just about the exact perspective from my picture.

I can see where this can help you if you are trying to find similar pictures to one you have already, say for a project, or if you think someone may be using your photographs without your permission on the web.

I like the tool, but it would be nice if they could come up with a way to refine how it searches for the images you drag-N-drop onto the search bar. 

Let me know what you think about it...

Incredible Shade Illusion!

This is pretty amazing and almost unbelieveable! Stoopid Brain, tricking me like that!

Finally! New App Will Turn Your iPad or iPhone Into a Real-Life, Interactive Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams Fan?

Got your towel?

Always been intrigued by the SEP Field? (Somebody Else's Problem)

Now coming to iPhones, iPods, & iPads near you...the latest edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Hothead Games has released a Real-Life, Interactive Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Apparently it's not going to be available until the fall. They link to http://www.thenewhitchhikersguide.com/, but there is not much to do there other than sign up to be notified or Like, Tweet, or Facebook it.

Hothead Games press release:

http://www.hotheadgames.com/blog/?p=241

Looking forward to this, since they plan on updating it as things progress. Imagine adding real-world stuff to it, sort of like a travel wikipedia...I'm sure someone has thought of this already, but I haven't run across it yet.

Real World "Pay It Forward" - Caffeinated

This is an interesting concept...Make your Starbucks card available to everyone for a free cup of coffee and only ask that people add cash to the card if they are feeling generous.

Want free coffee and got an iPhone? Use Jonathan's Card (Updated) | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

But nothing is ever simple. There have been allegations of viral marketing campaigns and dishonesty. While the experiment has garnered lots of people a free cup, it created controversy because some people can't believe that others are willing to do something nice.

I believe that this experiment was genuine and a good example that not everyone is a cynic.

Starbucks shut down the account on August 12, 2011, but Stark intends to continue the good will by continuing to promote a "Pay It Forward" coffee strategy with a slightly different strategy: Buy the next person in line's coffee - No Starbucks Needed. See the latest update - http://jonathanstark.com/card/.

Follow @jonathanscard on Twitter to see updates on this evolution of the experiment.

Casual Games Rolling out on Google+

I am glad to see this. I like the approach that they have taken by isolating the games on a separate page and not allowing it to clutter your stream. Now I only wish it that it would show up for my account!

See Vic Gundotra's blog post about it here:

Official Google Blog: Games in Google+: fun that fits your schedule

SMBC Employee Satisfaction vs Profit

This is a particularly funny one! It makes me wonder if large corporations are really doing this? LOL

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

A Pre-Fab Bamboo Bicycle, Grown From The Ground In Bike Shape | Fast Company

Very interesting concept...I wonder what else could be "grownufactured" like this?

A Pre-Fab Bamboo Bicycle, Grown From The Ground In Bike Shape | Fast Company: "A Pre-Fab Bamboo Bicycle, Grown From The Ground In Bike Shape"

Digital Life - White House rickrolls bored Twitter follower

The White House surely has better stuff to worry about, but at least they are hip enough to know how to RickRoll!

Digital Life - White House rickrolls bored Twitter follower

Google + Invites

I have Google + (Plus) invites available. If you are interested, contact me here or e-mail me if you know my address.

Looking forward to the requests...

Funny Stuff

Found this article shared on LinkedIn...it's got some very funny listings.

10 Real Job Ads That Made Us Laugh Out Loud Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/funny-job-ads-2011-4##ixzz1OiiSVNNV

I am seriously thinking about applying for the last one...something about time travel always piques my interest!

Happy New Year's! (And a Quick Tron Review)

Happy New Year's to everyone!

Mel & I had a sitter last night so we got to go out, eat dinner, and watch a movie. A rare occasion, to say the least. Mel decided on Tron: Legacy. I was really excited, because I was not expecting to get to see it until it came out on DVD. They are only showing it in 3D at our theater, which doesn't make much of a difference to me because I have no depth perception. I was curious how it would look to me, so even though it cost us an extra $6 above the normal movie price to see it in 3D.

The movie was pretty good. The story was really good and had some very cool scenes. There were some lame plot devices, but I can't remember exactly what they were at the moment...so I guess they weren't that big of a deal. The effects were awesome even from my 2D perspective. Yeah, as I alluded to earlier, I couldn't really make out anything glaringly 3D. According to Mel, she said that there were no "coming at you" moments, but things did look a lot more real to me than just something projected on a screen.

I think the door may have been left open for a sequel, if you want to stretch it, but they tied up a lot of stuff at the end. It would be cool to see a epilogue in another media format that tells us what happens after the end of the movie...how things progress form there.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5 stars ****_

BTW, we kept the glasses, because they wanted them back to recycle them after charging me $3 extra for me not even being able to see 3D...LOL.

Again, Happy 2011!