Archive for the 'Cool Stuff' Category
WordPress 2.7 Coltrane
Named after Jazz Musician John Coltrane, WordPress 2.7 was released yesterday and promises breathtaking beauty and inspiration. I haven’t downloaded yet, but will do soon….
In the meantime check out the promotional video. It’s pretty sexy.
Wired Santa – Live from the North Pole
Do you have kids, nieces, nephews, friends who just can’t get enough of Christmas? Then you might want to check out Wired Santa.
Just in time for the holidays, Santa has installed a webcam in his workshop. See the elves, Mrs. Claus and father Christmas himself getting ready for the big day.
Watch a new video everyday between now and Christmas. Plus, you can send a letter to Santa for a guaranteed reply.
Help Landsea Tours Stuff the Bus
Working with Kevin from Landsea Bus last week , we successfully launched a new website for them by converting their new design into WordPress Templates. While walking through the website and demonstrating WordPress’s ability, Kevin mentioned their “Stuff the Bus” event. Every year the folks at Landsea Tour park their tour bus at different locations around town and the public is invited to come and “Stuff it” with blankets and warm clothing which will be donated to the St. James Community Service Society.
This year’s charity event promises to be even bigger and better with The Town Pants at Richards on Richards December 11th. Take a look at the poster for more info.
According to the March 11th 2008 homeless count, there are 2592 homeless people in Vancouver. If you have a spare jacket or blanket please come by one to one of their location and give generously.
Web Directions North returns in February 2009
This year, Web Directions North moves to Denver Colorado – a hub city for many airlines, and a non-stop flight from all over North America. And the skiing’s not bad either. The conference is on February 4 and 5, with workshops on February 2 and 3, and the now legendary ski trip February 6 and 7, in Breckenridge, the most popular ski resort in North America.
I’ve attended the previous 2 conferences in Vancouver and would recommend it to anyone wishing to freshen up their web development skills.
Will your vote be environmentally friendly?
With just a few more weeks until Canadians go the polls the folks at Vote for Environment have been pushing hard to push their message to more than 1 MILLION Canadians. Of the 2 western countries that have decided to ignore Kyoto, Canada is one of them. If you’re concerned about the Conservative’s anti-environmental policy then this website is for you.
All 3 of the other parties (Liberals, NDP, Greens) have strong(er) environmental policies, but which to vote for?
The Vote For Environment website makes it easy for you to decide. Simply type in your postal and take a look at which of the 3 parties can beat the Conservatives in your riding. As long as these 3 parties get enough seats, they should be able to forward a greener agenda.
Be sure to check out their sponsor, De Smog Blog. Their new website dedicated to the election and the one across the border analyzes each candidate’s platform on climate change and assigns them with a rating.
This Canadian election may not be as exciting as the US one, but the outcome may affect the future of humankind more critically than any previous elections.
Come visit the Chakravibe booth at the Yoga Health Festival
We’ve been working with Chakravibe for a few years now. Earlier this year, we upgraded their website to a full WordPress version allowing Chakravibe to make regular updates to their site such as add new products and testimonials more easily and blog. The company has had great success at various tradeshows in Toronto. Next week, on October 4th, they’ll be testing the water in Vancouver at the Yoga Health Festival which is part of Yoga Month. If you find yourself near the Vancouver Public Library Downtown, please come and visit us and check out their jewellery.
Twenty Something Theatre presents SubUrbia
If you were one of the lucky ones who saw the highly acclaimed play “The Fever” earlier this year at the Beaumont you’ll be happy to hear that another Twenty Something Theatre production is now coming to theatres. SubUrbia by Eric Bogosian, produced and directed by Sabrina Evertt, is the story of a group of suburban twenty-year olds who gather outside their local convenience store to welcome home an old friend who is returning after a successful national tour with his rock band. His arrival in a limousine with entourage in tow precipitates an all night whirlwind of drinking, sex & violence.
This new production also comes with a new website for the Theatre company. Working with Andrew Lewis, a very clean, elegant design was put together and built using WordPress allowing Sabrina to make changes and updates as needed.
If theatre is of interest to you, be sure to catch Suburbia from August 19 – August 31, 2008 at the Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island.
Tickets are available at the door, at Ticket Tonight or by calling 604-684-2787.
Overloaded with too much info?
I had lunch with Rob a few weeks ago and we both agreed that keeping up with content is becoming more and more difficult. I only have 54 subscriptions in my Google Reader, yet every day I have 50 or so posts to read and I could easily add another 50 subscriptions. I’m not even sure if the 54 that I am reading are the ones I should be reading and fear that I’m missing out on vast amounts of information and just can’t keep up.
This can be even more challenging if you are starting a web business and not sure if you grasp all of the terminology. How are you supposed to find out which headline will bring more traffic to your blog, or what will prompt your website visitor to buy your product? I could tell you to go and read such and such blogs, but sometimes there is just not enough time to read all of that stuff.
So what can you do instead? How about checking out Sean’s cartoons? With very simple illustration Sean’s blog is full of advice with accompanying cartoons that clearly explain complicated subjects. I’m not saying that by reading his blog your products will fly off the shelf, but you’ll probably learn a great deal and his cartoons are very clever.
Here is my favourite:
The lesson here: Your users don’t have that many eyeballs. Cut the crap from your site.
Open ID – easier Internet logins
For anyone who spends time on the Internet and takes advantage of social media technologies in particular remembering a growing list of passwords and login details can be a challenge. Thankfully, there is a solution in the making in the form of OpenID.
Open ID is an open identity system that allows you to use one single identification (or digital identification) across many of your favorite sites. Participant sites include the likes of Ma.gnolia, pbwiki, 37 Signals, Technorati and Plaxo.
With Open ID, you register once for an ID then use that to identify yourself on different sites. The result: you don’t have to remember numerous login and password details. It makes surfing much faster, more secure and less of a pain.
Developed by the OpenID Foundation an organisation that was formed in June 2007 to help promote, protect and enable the OpenID technologies and community, the group is quickly expanding and some of the behemoths in the industry are now OpenID providers.
To claim your ID use a reputable providers such as MYID, Claim ID or Vidoop and make the process easier by using a downloadable browser plugin like Vidoop’s to manage your standard logins.
At last my brain can take a rest and doesn’t have to store all those endless password details.
New Home for Your (not-so-)Old Tech & Office Stuff
While this might be a little off-topic, here’s a brief plug to check out the BC Crisis Centre’s Wishlist. In addition to office equipment, they could also use some kitchen equipment for their volunteer’s break room and a volunteer photographer.
Bluelime has been helping the Crisis Centre with their websites for years, and we’re looking forward to launching an updated version of their web-based youth hotline in the near future.