Lazy Friday Blogplugs

Hi folks -- I've had a remarkably unproductive day today; for starters, it's taken me all day to get through my mailboxes. (And I wasn't even waiting in line for an iPhone or anything cool like that.)

Anyway, it's been kind of slow on the blogplugs front, too -- here are some items that people have tagged with the tag blogplugs (click the blogplugs tag to see everything tagged that way):

* Bill has another installment of his cat's adventures at the Renaissance Fair.

* Sugar has some jokes and pet tips

* I'm also going to blogplug an entry of mine over in the AIM Pages Blog, which has a bunch of interesting social media and social networking links.

If you want to highlight an entry of yours (or someone else's) tag it with the blogplugs tag or drop me an e-mail.

Next week is going to be kind of a strange week, since some sooper-genious decided to put Independence Day on a Wednesday this year. But we'll be around.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogplugs

ASA Release Back in Play

Hi folks -- the Journals team reports that they reinstalled the ASA release that previously went south -- they didn't find any problems in the code, so they're still checking around and keeping any eye on things.

If you see any problems, please leave me a comment or send mail to journalseditor@aol.com.

Since we're back in play, this means that the ability to upload video from your computer into your Journal  is also here -- if you click the "Add Video" button (or the video camera icon in the formatting toolbar), you'll see a new "My Computer" tab:

New tab for uploading video from your computer to your Journal

As the tab says, supported video formats are: mp4/mpeg4, wmv (Windows Media Video), avi, mov, 3gp, mpg, mpeg, qt (Quicktime).

Also note that the max video file size you can upload is 15 megabytes, and you might need to wait a few minutes and refresh before you see the video.

I will blog about it more when I get a chance to try it myself.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, journals status, asa release, video blogging, vlogging, video upload

Cleared: Thursday, 6/28 Afternoon Journals Outage, and an Update on Video

Hi folks -- we had a Journals outage this
afternoon, where people were getting the blue "Journals Are Not
Available" error screen; blogger
John gave me a heads-up around 12:45pm EDT, and it was
resolved about 90 minutes later.

Sorry for any
inconvenience.

The Journals team is investigating
the problem; they think it's probably related to the ASA
release that went in early this morning. They rolled back the
change, and things went back to normal.

Once they figure out what went wrong,
they'll be trying the install
again.

I posted
about the outage in the Journals
Message Board,
which is what I usually do when Journals are down (since I can't post
here). Even when there's not an outage, it's a good place to find out
what's going on and talk to other
Journalers.


Update on
Video
*********************
Now, while the
ASA release is primarily for users in Germany, France and the UK, there
will be one new feature for all Journals users that I forgot about
(thanks to Leona
for reminding me): The ability to upload video files from your
computer into blog entries.

When it's
live, this will give you four methods to include
video in your blogs:

1. Embedded flash video players
from UnCut
Video, YouTube,
and other providers. See the AOL Journals
Whitelist page for a more complete list (I have to make some
updates).

2. Recording
Webcam video directly into your blog.

3.
Moblogging
video from your cellphone (I haven't tried this
yet).

and 4. Uploading video files from your
computer.

I will write more about #4 once it goes
live.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol
journals, journals
status, asa release,
video
blogging, moblogging

Journals Install Tonight: ASA Release for International Users

Hi folks -- sorry for the late notice: The Journals team will be doing an install starting at midnight ET tonight (so, midnight Wednesday into early morning Thursday), for the benefit of our international Journals users; primarily, aol.de (Germany), aol.fr (France) and aol.co.uk (um, UK).

Outside of a possible 20-30 minute outage, there shouldn't be any impact on US users.

The install is for the ASA Release (ASA stands for "Audience Services Agreement"); a while back, AOL sold off the access portions of the European businesses, and as part of the deal, we agreed to do a few things.

For Journals, this basically means:

* International users will see slightly different branding on the hats (the nav bars at the top of the pages). As a bonus, this should hopefully fix any login problems the UK folks have been having.

* Also, the countries that didn't have the Userplane Webrecorder turned on will now have it, so they'll be able to record Webcam video directly to their blog entries.

That's about it -- there's some other backend stuff that users won't see. More tomorrow as needed.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, asa release, journals status

Hot Topics at the AOL Mothership; Net Radio Day of Silence & New AOL News

Hi folks -- here are a couple of hot topics right now that involve our favorite, Dulles-based Internet service, community and content provider:

* Web Radio Goes Silent: A lot of Internet-based radio broadcasters have put a hold on broadcasting today, to protest an upcoming increase in Internet broadcasting royalty rates that's going to hose a lot of smaller Web broadcasters. (Here's a story from NPR, as well as the BBC.)

The local NPR affiliate, WAMU, is also participating, by silencing BluegrassCountry.org, which broadcasts bluegrass music 24/7 (WAMU used to broadcast bluegrass music during the day, then they changed to drive time news. Personally, I prefer the news over bluegrass, but Web radio allows people to find and hear what they want, even for smaller or niche interests, which is why it's so valuable.)

Now, AOL Radio is one of the bigger Web broadcasters out there, but we're apparently not particpating -- from a Washington Post article:

"Participants in the event include such online-only music services as Pandora, Live365 and Real Networks' Rhapsody, as well as radio stations such as WAMU in Washington and KCRW, based in Santa Monica, Calif. One notable service sitting out the protest, according to organizers, is AOL Radio. A spokeswoman for AOL declined to comment."

I don't like to speculate on things that I know nothing about, so I will just say that while a one-day embargo on Web broadcasting might not be the right thing to do for users, I'm a little disappointed that no one on our side is taking the opportunity to talk about it (it's not like we're unaware of the issues -- over at the AOL Radio Blog, they've previously addressed the royalty issue and a proposed remedy, the Internet Radio Equality Act.)

You can get more info at Save Net Radio.

* AOL News Builds New Furniture: Check out the new look over at AOL News -- it's a wider, more open, more community-focused (and bloggy -- their Newsbloggers blog is prominently featured) site.

Here's a quote from a Reuters article (also some analysis by PaidContent):

"I truly believe that when you go to most news sites, it's a Web 1.0 world," Lewis D'Vorkin, senior vice president of AOL News and Sports, said, referring to the first generation of Internet sites. "They have rearranged the furniture. We have built new furniture."

I will have to play around with the new site; when it comes to news site furniture, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on out there, both in mainstream media sites like Washington Post, USA Today, and  CNN (who had a beta site preview), as well as a lot of exciting stuff happening with citizen media (including South Korea's OhMyNews -- see this LA Times analysis from last week; Newsvine, NowPublic and more.)

As the article mentions, Lewis says there will be increased personalization and new functionality in the coming months, some of it coming from Relegence (a company AOL acquired).

I've seen some demos of the Relegence stuff -- it should be cool.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: netradio, day of silence, aol radio, aol news, aol mothership, citizen journalism, news furniture

Monday Stuff: Pants Lawsuit Verdict, Michael Arrington, and TMZ

Hi folks -- just a few quick items from my morning links:

* DC Judge De-Pantsed: DC administrative judge Roy Pearson, who was suing his dry cleaner to the tune of $54 million, has lost his case. Also, the defendants may go after him for attorney fees, and he might not be reappointed to the bench.

Guess he should have taken that settlement offer.

* Wired takes a look at blogger Michael Arrington: [There's one swear word early in the article] Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, is one of the most prominent and financially successful Web 2.0 and industry bloggers. This puts him in the bullseye of every startup and entrepeneur with a pitch to make.

Even if you don't pay attention to Web 2.0 companies and social media industry moves, it's an interesting profile of what it takes to be at the top of the professional blogging heap (e.g. no vacations, startup guys breaking into your bedroom, etc).

* "The Web Site Celebrities Fear: This is a New York Times piece on TMZ.com, the Warner Brothers/AOL celebrity gossip joint venture.

It talks about how they've been able to get so prominent so fast, how they've been able to break so many stories (from Mel Gibson to Michael Richards to whatever Paris Hilton is doing at the moment) -- also, despite the headline, it talks about how celebrities and agents recognize its influence and try to use it.

Naturally, I'm sure that everyone reading this is far too enlightened to follow such meaningless fluff as celebrity gossip -- consider it an business case study on the power of online media and consider it from that perspective.

(All the items should be viewable without registration, but there's always BugMeNot.com if you hit a wall.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogging, social media, tmz, roy pearson, pants suit, techcrunch, michael arrington

Get a Webcam, Then Get Better Video From That Webcam

So I've gotten a few questions from folks who are interested in getting started with webcam videoblogging.

First, Get a Webcam
*********************************
The Userplane Webrecorder makes it easy to get the video into your Journal, but first, you need to have a webcam.

Webcams can be pretty cheap if you look around and are willing to wait for the right sale or rebate. For most videoblogging purposes, you probably won't need to worry too much about features and quality; it's really all about price point and compatibility. (Of course, there are plenty of reviews online if you need a specific feature.)

Don't forget to keep an eye out on your preferred
bargain Web sites (most of which have customizable e-mail and RSS feed
alerts).

My own webcam here at the office is a Logitech that I inherited (thus, free) -- though it's probably around 10 bucks on eBay by now.

Also, some digital cameras can be used as webcams, though you may need special cables or software -- do your research online if you want to try this.

Then, Get Better Video From Your Webcam
*******************************************
I'm not a video expert by any means, so I was glad when photoblogger Steven posted about this item last month in the Journals Message Board -- it's a blog entry entitled "How to Improve Your Cheapo Webcam's Picture Quality."

The article is all about how you can wring out the best quality from a webcam.

Here's a vivid example how it's not about the equipment -- it's about how you use it. (It also shows why video is a little harder to do, since you notice the shortcomings): A while back, some of the UnCut Video folks went around with a digital camcorder (not a webcam) taking video of AOL employees telling their favorite jokes. Here's mine:

Now, besides me butchering my favorite joke (which can really only be told in person or on video), you'll notice that you can barely see me, since I'm just a backlit, dark shape.

Here's another example. The screenshot on the left is from my first webcam videoblog entry in May (I'm very orange); the screenshot on the right is from this week, where I've applied some of the advice from the entry:

What did I do that was different?

* First, I checked the color, contrast and brightness settings on my Webcam.

* I borrowed (stole) a partition to put behind me to simplify the background.

* I made sure that the lighting levels were okay (in the first pic, it was later at night, so a lot of the lights had automatically turned off)

* I gave the camera plenty of white (in the background and in my shirt), so the automatic white balance would have something to focus on. It's why I've started keeping a white shirt in the office (well, that, and it gets cold here sometimes).

Check out the other tips, especially the ones about minimizing glare from the monitor (which is important for those of us who wear glasses).

I still need to work on the lighting -- I have to bring in a desk lamp. For now, I've jury-rigged a bounce light using a flashlight, an easel and a dolphin -- it's to balance out the shadows on the right side of my face:

Jury-rigged bounce light setup, with dolphin.

Of course, no matter how good the video looks, you'll still be somewhat lacking if you don't have anything to say. I'll try to talk about that soon (I'm still kind of learning when it comes to the video bit of things).

Let me know if any of the video tips help, and if you have your own video blog entries you want to share, leave a comment with a link and tag it with video blog or aol video blogger.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: videoblogging, webrecorder, impatient cow, tips, webcams, lighting

Friday Blogplugs

Hi folks -- here's a sampling of blog entries that people have tagged with the tag blogplugs (click the blogplugs tag to see everything that people have tagged):

* Jimmy has his weekly award nomination (his cat has also started blogging again).

* Sugar has some doggie facts.

* Ron talks about the Katy Trail, a railroad that's been converted to a hiking and biking trail (he's actually blogplugging an entry of his over on Vox)

Remember, if you want to get a blog entry of yours out in front of other people, give it the blogplugs tag -- people can see everything else that shares that tag just by clicking the link (just try to exercise a little restraint and please don't tag every entry you do).

Or, you can also send me links to your or others' blog entries that you want to show off -- like Stephen, who just saw his 90th consecutive week of blog posting over at Morality and the Law -- check out his recent entries for his thoughts on Mike Nifong (DA in the Duke rape case) and Paris Hilton.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogplugs

It's Filler Time!

Hi folks -- I was trying to post my long-delayed entry with some videoblogging tips, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow (in large part, I'll be highlighting these webcam video tips if you don't want to wait).

In the meantime, here are some quick hits from my slushpile of bloggy topics:

* The Future Is Here. And It's Annoying: Here are 7 things about the future (which is now, or close to now) that annoy Valleywag writer Nick Douglas, including:

- Cellphones on airplanes
- Animated billboards
- Traffic cameras

He also takes a contrarian view on some things that aren't universally-reviled (such as iPods and GPS units).

* "'Time' Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online": Gossip blog Gawker posts an internal memo from Time magazine Managing Editor Rick Stengel, in which he encourages/cajoles/prods Time's magazine writers to particpate on the Web site.

A lot of folks in publishing are realizing that they need to keep people engaged outside of the traditional publishing cycle. Even outside of just keeping up with changing reader expectations, there's a lot of benefit to reaching out to readers via blogs, columns, and other online media... though there's a lot of work involved.

This holds true for other types of folks not in the publishing world -- product managers, customer service types, PR folks, etc.

Of course, if you're the one being told to get it done, it can look suspiciously like "more work for the same pay," but it kind of comes with the territory these days, and you can make it work to your advantage, by helping to build relationships with your customers, as well as your personal brand.

* "Blogging Into The Mainstream": On a related note, Forbes looks at what happens when mainstream media acquires popular blogs (or bloggers). Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't -- the article mentions Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox, who's been considerably less visible since she took a blogging gig at Time.

The article features a gallery of other media/blogger mashups for your perusal.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: slushpile, filler time, time, blogging

Still Can't Stop the Serenity

Hi folks -- OK, so this isn't the entry I'd planned on doing today. It's more like filler, though I was going to write about it anyway (I also mentioned it last year).

Starting last weekend and going through this weekend, fans of Joss Whedon's sci-fi flick Serenity (and its TV series predecessor, Firefly) are getting together again this year for special screenings of the movie, on or around Whedon's birthday, with proceeds going to his favorite charity, Equality Now (supporting women's rights):

This is last year's image, but it mostly still applies.

See more info at their site, Can't Stop the Serenity.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make any of the DC area screenings, though it would be interesting.

Whedon's fans have always been particularly vocal, rabid, and savvy when it comes to harnessing online community and social media -- they're credited for helping get the movie made (the TV series was canceled after a single season).

There seems to be something about TV fandom that gets people mobilized -- witness the fan campaign for the CBS series Jericho, which had been canceled, but is back for at least a partial season after fans sent over 40,000 pounds of peanuts to CBS execs to demonstrate their support for the show.

Maybe people are willing to do this kind of stuff because they feel a special relationship with their TV shows (which are piped into their living rooms, after all) -- imagine if you could harness this kind of energy to do something important -- say, to help Save Darfur or something (though, to be fair to the Jericho nut folks, they did also put together over $20,000 to help the victims of the tornadoes that hit Greensburg, Kansas).

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: serenity, can't stop the serenity, joss whedon, equality now, jericho, save darfur

Slushpile Links: Google Transparency, Army on Flickr, Parents and Teens Online

Hi folks -- here are a few things from my slushpile links -- the pile of bloggy stuff that I may or may not get around to writing about:

* Google Public Policy Blog: Google just opened up their formerly-private public policy blog (including exposing the entries they've posted since they started it in April).

It's for discussion, rumination and debate on topics like privacy, safety, copyright, network neutrality -- serious topics that really affect people.

This is what "transparency" is -- and if you can get the lawyers and policy types to sign off and participate in a meaningful way, that's a big win.

We're working on a few things to help our own transparency over here, though I don't think it's going to make BoingBoing (which is where this link is via).

* Soldiers Media Center on Flickr: This here is a user account on photo sharing site Flickr -- it appears to be one of the efforts of the Army's Soldiers Media Center to get their message out using social media and other online community tools.

One of the criticisms of the U.S. military (it came up several times in the milblogging conference I went to last month) is that insurgent forces seem to be a lot faster and better at using the Internet to get their message out (since they don't have to do things like operational security reviews, etc), so this seems to be part of their effort to spread their message. [link via TotalFark -- the subscription version of Fark.]

* From Here to CyberSpace: BBC contributor Bill Thompson raises a point -- sure we know that teens may be reluctant to let their parents see their MySpace profile and network of friends, but how about the other way around? What if the teen can see who their parents are hanging out with on Facebook (and get up all in their parent's bidness)?

The article also takes a look at a bunch of social profile and social media Web sites, and some of the differences and different audiences they appeal to (for example, MySpace skews younger, Facebook older).

* Other Stuff: There are also links to stories about crowdsourcing, cease-and-desist orders, a online defamation lawsuit (and another one), and citizen journalism in Korea -- I'm not sure if I'll be revisiting these topics, but there they are.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: slushpile, social media, transparency, milblogging, soldiers media center, social networking

How to Add Webcam Video to Your AOL Journal (It's Easy)

As I promised, um, last week, here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to record webcam video directly into your AOL Journal. It's pretty easy -- it's powered by the Userplane Webrecorder, and all you need is a Webcam hooked up to your computer.

Of course, the Userplane folks did a full screencast tutorial -- it's a narrated video that shows you what's on the computer screen as someone walks through the process. It shows you everything you need, but I'll finish this entry since I started it, and besides, I like still pictures and text.

1. Create a new Journal entry (or edit an old one). Click the "Add Video" button, or the video camera icon in the formatting toolbar. They pretty much do the same thing.

2. Click the "Record" tab:

The "Embed" tab is where you paste the code that you get from a video sharing site.

3. You'll get a warning message, that says that userplane.com wants access to your camera and microphone. Click "Allow":

4. The software will detect your webcam, and you'll see what it sees onscreen. When you're ready to record, click the "Rec" (for "Record") button -- you can record up to 3 minutes:

To stop recording, hit the "S" (for "Stop") button.

To review what you're recorded, hit the Play button. If you're not happy with the result and want to re-record, click the "X" button to erase the current recording (you'll get a warning message).

5. If you're happy with the playback, click the flashing "Save Recording" button. This will pop a warning that you're about to replace any current recording (you don't have a current recording to replace yet, so don't worry). Click "Replace":

6. The recording you just made will show up in the right panel. You'll see what the camera is currently seeing on the left side:

You can play back the recorded video on the right side, or youcan record a new one onthe left (using the process I described above). If you like the new version better, you can replace the current recording.

When you've recorded a version you like, click "Add Video."

7. You'll see a camera icon embedded in your Journal. That's your video:

You can't preview the video here, but you can add text before or after it, just like any other blog entry. When you're ready, save your entry.

8. Here's a closeup of my video entry after I saved it -- you can see text I added before and after the video:

Now, some things to remember:

* You can also record a video in your "All About Me" sidebar. The video will resize itself to fit automatically, which is nice.

* If three minutes of recording time just isn't enough for you, you can either make a new blog entry, or you can also add another video to your current entry -- just click the "Add Video" button again.

I would only do this sparingly, since I hate to say it, but you're probably not as captivating to other people as you might think.

* Remember, if you do your own video entries, try tagging them with aol video blogger or video blog so we can see.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol video blogger, video blog, userplane, webrecorder, aol journals, tutorial

Monday Afternoon Catch-Up. Plus Some New AOL Product Blogs

Hi folks -- hope you all had a pleasant Father's Day weekend. There's a lot been going on in the blogosphere, some of it relating to bloggers' rights, defamation, litigation, online community building and the like, but I don't know if I'll have time to blog about them today and give them their due consideration -- you can check out my slushpile links to see what I'm percolating on.

In addition, we've got two new AOL Product blogs that I want to plug -- the first is the AOL Homepage Blog, which is all about AOL.com.

I worked on AOL.com for a bunch of years (and a few strategies ago), and lead blogger Lisa Edwards has been a friend of mine for a good long time, so I'll be paying attention to what's going on over there.

In addition, the myAOL folks have a new myAOL blog, let by Frank Gruber, a profilic blogger in his own right (he also focuses on Web 2.0 topics and some networking -- of the real life kind -- in his other blogging).

myAOL is getting ready to re-launch their feedreader product, which has been out for a while, but has never really gotten much attention. Michael Arrington of Web 2.0 tech coverage blog Techcrunch got a sneak peek, and we'll all get a chance to play in the next few weeks.

More later today.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol product blogs, myaolblog, aol homepage blog, lisa edwards, frank gruber, techcrunch, myaol

Familiar Faces: Fatblogging and the Top 10 Sci-Fi Authors of the '00s

Today's LA Times has an article about fatblogging, which is a term that covers blogging about your weight loss efforts.

Lots of folks have used blogs to chronicle their weight loss and fitness goals -- blogging is perfect for this, since you have a chronological record of what you've been doing (or not doing), and it's easy for you (and others) to keep tabs.

The term "fatblogging" was coined (or at least popularized) by Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc, now AOL-alumni and founder of search service Mahalo. The article's writer talks about him, but apparently didn't interview him -- which makes sense, give that Jason's stated policy is that he only does interviews via e-mail.) [link via Mediabistro.]

Also, guess who was named one of the "Top 10 science fiction novelists of the 00s -- so far"? Our very own blogger John. Congratulations to John.

But wait, any random idiot with a blog can make a top 10 list. So whose blog is it? Let's see... holy crap, it's the blog of Marc Andreessen, co-inventor of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, and co-founder of Netscape (by extension and acquisition, another AOL alum). Hey, works for me.

[link via Valleywag -- warning: NSFW (Not Safe For Work) photo right on the main page, just above the sci-fi link... man, what were they thinking? Oh, that's right: "We don't give a damn about you."]

Have a good weekend, all.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: fatblogging, jason calacanis, john scalzi, marc andreesen, aol alumni

Friday Blogplugs

Hi folks -- I haven't done blogplugs in a while -- they're a selection of blog entries that people have sent me or tagged with the tag blogplugs, because they feel they're deserving of special attention (click the blogplugs tag to see everything that people have tagged):

* Bill the Wildcat has a photo comic series that features his cat. It talks.

* Jimmy checks in with a Friday update and more.

* Barbara over at Life & Faith in Caneyhead blogplugs an entry by lifesabench6 at No apologies - Biblical perspectives on world events

* Guido talks about Tony Blair's imminent departure.

* Lisa checks in over at Please don't take life for granted

* Sugar highlights some tips for common pet ailments.

If you want to blogplug one of your entries, just add the blogplugs tag so other people can find it. (If you want to blogplug someone else's blog, do an entry in your blog talking about it and link to theirs.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogplugs

Update: There Is No William Hung Bias

So some of the AOL Labs folks let me know that I was all wet about my assertion that their Celebrity Look-Alike product had a William Hung bias.

I'd come to this determination because of a presentation at last week's AOL Developers Conference, which featured a few screenshots where William Hung was shown as a match for CTO Balan Nair and Senior VP Barry Appelman.

The images were doctored. It was a joke, and I missed it.

The Celebrity Look-Alike product folks have a Journal, where you can get product updates. Read their blog entry for more details, including screenshots of the actual results for Balan and Barry.

They also talk about the photos they're drawing from:

"...we currently have about 500 celebrities, about equally split among the genders. Because of previous legal issues with using celebrity photos, we were limited to using only this small number of images, and as such, unfortunately, we have very few celebrities who are not Caucasians or African-Americans in our database (we actually only have 2 Asian males in our database, including William Hung, and only 1 Indian Asian male). Fortunately, due to recent legal rulings, we will now be able to use thousands of celebrities (including many more for the different ethnicities)."

So, the Labs folks are going to be adding another thousand celeb photos within the next few weeks.

They've also added a Send to a Friend function on the results pages, to make it easy for you to send your results to folks.

Thanks to the Labs folks for the correction. I'll try to talk more about different AOL Labs projects as I learn more about what they're doing.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol labs, celebrity look-alikes, william hung bias, aol developers conference

This Is Me. This Is My WeeMee

Hi folks -- here's a screen grab of today's People Connection main page -- if you look in the third Dynamic Lead rotation (DL3), you'll see me and my WeeMee (which I created over at aim.weeworld.com):

Now, no fault of Jason (who took the picture), but I think I kind of look like a goon.

Also, my WeeMee looked a lot more like me before I got my haircut. But it's still an okay likeness. (See my earlier entry where I talked about WeeMees and the Find My Look-Alike thing.)

The white shirt is one that I've started keeping in the office -- I will talk more about why in an upcoming entry, hopefully later today.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: weemee, weeworld, people connection, screen grab,

Cellphoto: Flag Day @ AOL

So I'm walking over to HQ to get some lunch, and I'm passing through CC1, when I came across a Flag Day display. More on this when I get back to my desk.

********************************************
OK, back. So, as I was saying, I was going over to get lunch in another building, since nothing struck my fancy and I figured I could visit a few people I needed to see.

As I was passing through building CC1 (I'm in CC2), I saw a bunch of flags outside one of the cubicles (the first picture -- I reordered them from the original upload).

I didn't have my regular camera with me (and I didn't feel like walking back to get it), but I did have my cellphone with me. So the photos aren't as sharp and I didn't get a chance to fiddle with them in Photoshop, but I was able to blog them on the run (well, on the walk).

(Check out my entry on how to post to your Journal using your cell phone.)

Anyway, I talked to the person whose cube it was to find out what was going on. Jo Ann (you can't really see because of the reflection, but that's her in the first pic), who works for the AOL Money & Finance channel (which I find myself still call PF -- for Personal Finance -- out of habit), has had her flag ribbons up since Memorial Day, and she'll keep them up (with some adjustments) through Flag Day and Independence Day.

In the second photo, you can see the whole aisle is decorated with flags -- it was apparently Money & Finance's combined Flag Day/pizza day.

If you've got any Flag Day pics (moblogged or not), share them with us: Tag them with "Flag Day" and leave a link in the comments.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: cellphoto, flag day, flag day 2007, aol, aol cc1, aol money and finance

Thoughts From the Drive In: Flag Day and Dishwasher Keyboards

Hi folks -- just a couple of items from the drive in:

* U.S. Flag Day: today is Flag Day (check out the Library of Congress's Today in History for June 14).

Here in Virginia, it's kind of grey and cool, but it doesn't look like rain. Growing up, they used to say that you shouldn't fly the flag in the rain, but the U.S. Flag Code makes allowances for all-weather flags, which apparently is most of them these days.

* Dishwashers and Computer Keyboards -- Still a Bad Idea: Caught a bit of this on NPR's Morning Edition, though I didn't realize it had a blog angle until just now: "Are Computer Keyboards Dishwasher Safe?" they interviewed Scott Moschella, whose blog is Plastic Bugs. Two years ago, he'd done an entry about how he'd cleaned up a beer-soaked keyboard by running it through the diswasher.

Now, this seems to me to be an extra-ordinarily bad idea (unless your dishwasher runs on distilled water), though it's seemed to work for both Moschella and the reporter who tried it.

Also, blogger Moschella notes that his blog is the first thing that comes up when you search Google for dishwasher keyboard, though when I do it, it's actually the BoingBoing article about his blog entry, which to my thinking, is not the same thing.

Having spilled many things on my own keyboards, including coffee, soda and beef stroganoff (not in the same incident), and even killing a few of them, I have my own method of cleaning keyboards...  by hand (I'm not a dishwasher person, anyway):

1. Unplug the keyboard immediately.

2. Drain away as much of the liquid as you can.

3. Pry off the keys with a plastic knife. (Only do this if you're sure you can put the keys back in the right order.) Note that some keys, like the Enter, Shift and Space bars may have additional metal bars on them.

4. Clean the keys in the sink. (Make sure the sink drain is closed.) You can use soap and water, scrubby sponge, whatever. Rinse thoroughly, towel off and air dry. A hair dryer helps, especially for the undersides.

5. This part can get pretty gross: Take the keyless keyboard, turn it upside down over a garbage can, and shake out the hair, crumbs, and dust. An old toothbrush usually helps.

6. If it's really soaked through and you have nothing else to lose (and you don't want to take the keyboard all the way apart), try rinsing it through with distilled water (the kind you put in irons). It has fewer impurities and is less electrically conductive.

Rubbing alcohol on cotton swabs also helps for spot cleaning, though be careful not to leave wet cotton fluff behind.

7. Dry everything with a hair dryer on "Low." Not a heat gun.

8. When dry, put the keyboard back together. Make sure you don't switch the "M" and "N" keys.

9. If it still doesn't work, go to the store and buy a $10 replacement keyboard.

To save time, you can also just do steps #1 and #9.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: drive in thoughts, flag day, flag etiquette, dishwasher keyboards

BoingBoing to Bring Its Bloggy Back

Wired's Epicenter blog writes that in a TWiT.tv podcast interview, BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder says that BoingBoing is going to be bringing back reader comments.

Now, BoingBoing is currently #2 in the Technorati Top 100 Blogs; they're kind of big deal, since they're so widely-read, even though I think they sometimes get too caught up in their own coolness, dragging out stupid joke memes about long horses or subway map anagrams. Love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it.

Anyway, Frauenfelder says that they'll be reintroducing reader comments; they'll be hiring a full time community manager to try to keep a handle on things (they were forced to take down commenting before, due to trolling and flaming).

Now, as I've said many times before, I think that a blog that doesn't accept comments isn't really a blog -- it's just kind of "bloggy." I've also said that things are a bit different for high-traffic blogs, since they attract spammers, psychos and people who just want to spew in front of a wide audience.

It's a special kind of challenge, so it will be interesting to see what they do.

(Oh, and also via Wired, check this out: Correctly Regarded as Goofs, a quick little movie quizzish game from Lore Sjöberg (creator of The Brunching Shuttlecocks, which is probably worthy of a lifetime Internet achievement award by itself): It gives you an Internet Movie Database-style movie goof, and then you have to try to guess the movie from which it came. Simple, yet effective.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogging, community, community moderation, wired, boingboing, lore sjoberg, mark frauenfelder, bloggy, commenting

An Easy Way for AOL Users to Clear Footprints (Browser Cache, Cookies, etc.)

As I've mentioned before, I use Firefox as my primary Web browser for most things, including working with my Journals (though I have to admit, Firefox been acting up on me today, possibly due to some updates I just installed).

And, when I write up Journals help tutorial and tips entries, I try to make sure they apply to all types of browsers that we support, including standalone Internet Explorer (IE), AOL's flavor of IE, Firefox and more.

The reason I mention this is that occasionally I'll miss some nuance specific to the AOL browser. Like an easier way to clear your Web browser's footprints than what I've written about previously.

Clearing Your Footprint (Browser Cache and Cookies)
*******************************************
Whenever you run into Web browser weirdness -- the page isn't displaying properly, owner buttons aren't showing up, it's making you sign in when you should already be signed in, etc. -- the first thing you should do is try refreshing the page (clicking the refresh button; hitting the F5 key will also do it).

The second thing you should do is clear your browser cache (copies of files on the Internet that your browser saves on your computer because it's faster than re-downloading them off the Web).

And the next thing you can do clear your cookies (small text files on your computer that contain certain information about, say, your saved preferences or your current session).

If you're using the browser inside the AOL software, there's an easy way to do this:

1. At the very bottom of your browser window, you should see a few different pull-down menus. Click on the one on the left (the one that says "Window"):

2. This Window menu shows you the Web browser windows that you have open, so you can switch between them. It also gives you options to "Clear My Footprints" and "Suggest Footprints to Clear." Click "Clear My Footprints":

3. The default setting should clear your Browsing History, Cookies, Browser Cache, and Blocked Pop-Ups. Cookies and Browser Cache are the most important for our purposes here -- if these are among the list, you can go ahead and click "Yes." It may take a minute or two to finish.

If you don't see Cookies and Browser Cache selected, or want to de-select the other choices, click the "Select Footprints to Clear" button:

4. Check the boxes for the items you want to clear, then click "Clear Selected Footprints" to proceed:

That will clear up a lot of common browser problems.

[Update: 6/13: People who use AOL for Mac can
go to Keyword: Browser Settings -- to clear
cache, click the "Display" tab, then the click "Empty Cache Now"
button; to clear cookies, click the "Cookies" tab, then click "Remove
All Cookies."

Reminder: For Firefox users (Mac and PC), in the "Tools" menu, choose "Click
Private Data" and select the items from the list that you want to clear.



For Internet Explorer users, in the "Tools" menu, choose "Internet
Options...", then in the section marked "Temporary Internet Files",
click the "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files" buttons. -- Joe]

Of course, if you're still having problems with Journals and they look to be coming from our side, drop me an e-mail at screen name Journals Editor (remember, a Journal owner's screen name is part of their Journal's address -- if you can see their Journal's address, you know their e-mail address).

Fighting Spyware, Adware and Viruses
*******************************
In addition, teammate Joseph (over at the Community Info Blog) reports that a distressing number of users have spyware, adware or viruses on their machines that can cause your browsers to not work properly (by interfering with the normal processes on your machine).

How does your machine get infected? Different ways include if you're not running a proper firewall and antivirus software, visit afflicted Web sites, or open files and run programs that get sent to you. (It's what got Julie Amero, that substitute teacher in Connecticut, in trouble for porn popups on a classroom computer.)

Check out Joseph's entry on how to effectively use antivirus and antispyware programs to help keep your machine clean (including using the free AOL Safety and Security Center).

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: firefox, aol journals, community info blog, spyware, adware, aol safety and security center, clearing cache, clearing cookies, browser footprint

Pants Pants Pants Pants Pants

Hi folks -- so you've probably heard about the DC judge, Roy Pearson, who was suing his local dry cleaners, Custom Cleaners, for $65 million over a missing pair of pants. (Actually, to be fair, last week he dropped his claim down to a mere $54 million.)

Well, the trial is now being held at D.C. Superior Court. Emil Steiner, the OFF/beat blogger at the Washington Post, is liveblogging the trial (here's the first entry), so you can follow along.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: pants, roy pearson, custom cleaners, liveblogging

Hero to Hero Update and Co-Workers Going Crazy

Hi folks -- I've got a bunch of different irons in the fire right now, which basically means that I'm falling behind on... well, on all of them. So I'm trying to get caught up on a bunch of things while not digging myself any deeper in the process.

Meanwhile, here's a followup item on Liz, who's passed a month on the road with the Hero to Hero tour crew. As you can see in their most recent entry, they seem to be getting a bit... loopy after a month in the van (you can go directly to the video here).

Speaking of video, I finally found the video of their Fairfax County appearance last Sunday (I hadn't been searching on the right keywords) -- it was covered by Fox 5 DC news reporter Sarah Simmons, and it's a good explanation of what Hero to Hero does, featuring a few minutes of Liz herself:

Liz gets interviewed about Hero to Hero

Also on a followup, the crazy-eye glasses that Liz had gifted to me (and had made it into one of my earlier video entries) also made an appearance in a People Connection main page promotion last week -- the topic was something about "crazy co-workers":

You don't have to be crazy to work here...

Kelly sports the glasses, while Amy wears glow-in-the-dark skeleton hands that I bought at a post-Halloween clearance. The interesting cubicle decorations come courtesy of Chris of the Comics Alliance blog.

More substantive stuff later in the week, honest.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: hero to hero, crazy eyes, people connection

William Hung Makes an Appearance at the AOL Developers Conference?

Hi folks -- so the AOL Developers Conference was pretty good, even for a non-techie like me (though I don't think we'll ever match the level of, say, Steve Ballmer's now-legendary performance at a Microsoft developer conference in 2001).

Tomorrow, I'll talk more about the keynote address, which was given by Don Tapscott, author of the book Wikinomics -- it was very interesting, and chock-full of quotes.

For now, though, I just want to share a photo from CTO Balan Nair's intro; during his intro, he talked a little about AOL Labs, including their Celebrity Look-Alike project.

As I blogged earlier, I suggested that their matching algorhythm might need some work, since I don't think I look particularly like William Hung.

Apparently, I was right, since here's a picture of Balan Nair:

And here is his look-alike results page (he's on the right):

On the left side is Barry Appelman, who looks even less like William Hung. So I think their matching engine may have a William Hung bias.

[Update, 6/15: OK, the Labs folks let me know that the above results were doctored up as a joke. I missed the joke. See my followup blog entry for more info, and see the AOL Labs Celebrity Look-Alikes blog for the real results and more.]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol developers conference, balan nair, william hung bias, barry appelman

Alerts Problem Resolved

John from the Alerts team reports that Journals New Entry and Comment Added Alerts should be working again; they fixed the problem and bounced (rebooted) the servers.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals status, aol alerts

At the AOL Developers Conference, and Alerts Status

Hi folks -- I'm at the AOL Developers Conference right now (even though I'm not a developer); the wireless internet access is really spotty here (go figure), so I'm having a hard time staying connected.

I will try to get some pictures up and talk about some of the presentations -- some of it is pretty interesting, even for someone not technical like me.

In the meantime, people are reporting that Journals New Entry and Comment Added Alerts are down right now. I IMed with John on the Alerts team; they found some problems with the back-end servers and they're working on it. I will keep you updated, assuming I can stay online.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals status, aol alerts, aol developers conference

10 Ways to Use Your Cameraphone

#2 on this list of tips is to use your cellphone camera to take quick and dirty screen shots

************************************
Here's a list that suggests 10 ways to use your cameraphone [link via del.icio.us]; #2 on the list ("Screen-Capture Utility") is a bit silly if you're on your own computer, though it would also apply to stuff like taking pictures of whiteboards, chalkboards, or bulletin boards.

#3, "Photographic Memory," is pretty expansive and probably the most useful. To help remember where you parked in an unfamiliar neighborhood or a parking garage, take a picture of your car. Make sure you include signage or landmarks -- if you can't remember what your car looks like (and it's not a rental), you've got bigger problems.

Or, if you see a yard sale or open house sign, you can take a picture of it. Posters for an upcoming show; something you want to buy from a sales circular -- basically, anything you previously would have torn out, or jotted down on a piece of paper (or the back of your hand), you can take a picture (or record a voice memo, or even just leave yourself a voicemail).

A lot of these tips are "camera" tips, not just "cameraphone" tips. However, the reason why cameraphones are so darn useful is that they're there when you need them. Most of us aren't going to be snapping photos of big breaking news events and sending them to citizen news sites, but having a photo of your fender bender for the insurance company may be more likely (and more useful).

Combined with the fact that digital storage is cheap enough that taking additional photos is practically free, and add in the fact that you've got a built-in picture viewer (so you can show off the pictures of your pets, kids, ultrasound, prize possession, etc.), people are coming up with new and different ways to incorporate digital photos and cellphone photos into their lives.

Do you have a digital photo or cameraphone photo tip you want to share? (Here's mine -- when I'm in a museum, if I take a picture of an exhibit, I'll often take a picture of the placard so I can refer to it later) -- leave a comment with your tip and share it with the rest of us.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: cameraphone, cellphoto, digital cameras, auxiliary memory

Slushpile Links: LOLCats, Local Blogging & Dictatorship of Idiots

Here are a few items from my blog topic slushpile -- I need to cut it down a bit before it topples over and crushes me:

* "I'M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM" (That's the actual article title): In case you've missed it, there's a raging Internet meme right now that involves cute pictures of cats, accompanied by alternatively-spelled and -grammared captions (think "baby-talk"): LOLCats, or cat macros.

(Blogger John has riffed on the phenomena a few times.)

Today's Houston Chronicle has an article that attempts to explain what's going on with the cats. (The Charlotte Observer had an article last month, though it's not available any more.) [link via Obscurestore.com]

If you still don't get it, check out I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER for lots and lots of examples (if you can stand the cuteness -- wait, oh my god, the commenters actually post like that, too. That scares me.), and if you want to make your own, try the LOLCat Buildr.

* "Blogging the Block": Sunday's Washington Post looked at a couple of neighborhood (or "hyperlocal") bloggers -- folks who blog about what's going on in their neighborhoods, and provide a few local examples from the DC Metro area.

Neighborhood blogging can cover everything from restaurant reviews, politics, commuting, quality-of-life and zoning issues and more; the more widely-read ones tend to cover things that affect other people in the neighborhood, as opposed to those that focus more on personal observations of life.

* "Thinking is so over": From the UK's Sunday Times -- Andrew Keen is an author whose book, "The Cult of the Amateur," takes a contrarian view of Web 2.0. He says that the mass influx of amateurs posting blog entries or Wikipedia articles devalues and threatens to overrun the contributions of actual experts.

While there is a case to be made for quality as well as quantity, methinks Mr. Keen may be overstating the problem a tad.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: slushpile, lolcats, local blogging, social media, dictatorship of idiots

New: Journal Titles in Subjects of E-Mailed New Entry & Comment Added Alerts

Well, we're just full of surprises today: I was just looking at the e-mailed New Entry Alert I received for my last moblogged entry (Yes, I subscribe to my own New Entry alert. No, I'm not a narcissist -- it's for testing purposes.) -- when I noticed a slight change to the subject line:

Instead of just saying "AOL Journals New Entry Alert", the subject line of the New Entry Alert e-mail now includes the name of the Journal from whence it came: "AOL Journals New Entry Alert ("AOL Journals: Magic Smoke")"

[Update: This is also true for your Comment Added Alerts. This will be useful if you have multiple Journals.]

I checked with the Alerts team -- this is definitely a new feature, and it's here to stay.

It's a little enhancement we requested a long time ago; Matt from the Alerts team says that it had  been kicking around in the development environment for a while, so they finally added it in.

I asked Matt if the Alerts folks have any other surprises for us in the works -- he says that they don't have anything else cooking right now. I'll let you know if that changes (that is, assuming I know about it, myself).

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals status, aol alerts, new entry alerts, comment added alerts

Moblogging Working Again

Hi folks - looks like Moblogging is back. The team is still looking into why it broke. In the meantime, here's a pic of a leaky coffee container from yesterday. Thanks - Joe

Hero to Hero Visits Fairfax County

Hi folks -- so I met a Journaler on a mission on Sunday -- Liz, who blogs over at HerotoHero:

Me and Liz (and the Chief)

Liz and her road crew are out on a politics-free, morale-boosting mission: A 6-week round-the-country trip (and over into Canada), collecting t-shirts from police, firefighters and other first responders and sending them to troops deployed overseas. (See their Web site, HerotoHero.us.)

Liz has been doing this since 2003; I first became aware of her last year, when I highlighted her blog as one of my July 4th Editor's Picks. (She uses her Journal to post photos and a travel diary of the trip.)

Now, Liz and her road crew (Kelly and Kathy) are about halfway through their trip now -- they start out from Tacoma, Washington, and takes the northern route east:

Route map on the back of the van.

I managed to catch up with her in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, where she stopped by Fire Station 29 of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.

You can see all 59 photos I took in the embedded album above. A few that might need explaining:

There are two mascots: a Chief, who collects pins and badges:

The Chief

And there's a Rookie, who as stunt bear, gets landed on by helicopters, run up flagpoles, impaled by extraction tools, launched from air cannons and other fun things:

The plastic wrap doesn't offer much protection to the Rookie.

Funny glasses also make an appearance:

Anything to boost troop morale.

Followed by a little "mean-mugging" for the camera:

Also, a "probi" (or probationary firefighter), gets to donate the shirt off his back:

Shirt-faced (that's what it says). He may be a rookie firefighter, but he's also a Marine.

The H2H Road Crew:

Kelly, Liz and Kathy.

So, thanks to Liz and crew for doing this. Also thanks to the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department and Station 29 for their hospitality. Check out the HeroToHero Journal for more info and to follow along their Journey. (There was also a local news crew -- I will have to keep checking their site to see if they aired a story.)

Safe travels to Kelly, Liz and Kathy on the rest of your travels:

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: hero to hero, hero2hero, fairfax county fire and rescue, station 29, photos, dc local