Bumblefrog

Google+ Photos

2011-12-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

I have become in love with Google+ Photos, it's no longer just a place to upload photos for you to share with the world. It has become a place for you to do some fast photo corrections or even do some fun creative things to your photos. Sure you might have Photoshop, maybe you have Picasa or another free tool. The problem with those tools is that they are on your computer. Photoshop has some really nice advanced photo editing tools and I have been using Photoshop for over 10 years now. I am not saying this is a replacement for that. I am saying this is a good solution for the quick edits, the edits that you need to do when you don't have access to your computer but have access to a browser and the internet. It's a good quick photo editing solution for the beginner and for the expert. With Google+ Photos it is a complete SaaS solution and it is free.

In the example below, I used Google+ Creative Kit to straighten my photo, add some colored text, add fake fireworks, and turn the photo to a black and white shot so it looks like night. This all took me less then five minutes. Then when you click on Save, you are prompted with a question if you want to save over your original version or create a new copy. I always create a new copy.

Original Photo

Edited Photo

Google's Evolution of Search

2011-11-28T22:49:00.001-08:00

Enjoy Google's video on how search has evolved. I think it is really neat to see a little bit into how they have changed their product to fit the needs of their users and continue to do so.

Passwords

2011-11-21T21:46:00.001-08:00

I read a great article a few days ago about passwords, in fact it was about the 25 worst passwords of 2011. The list was put together by a company called SplashData, and I hope that you don't see a word on the list that is a password that you use. I cannot stress enough to the companies I consult for as well as my friends how important the complexity of your passwords are. I find that most people I consult with when I am helping them set up online accounts don't realize the importance of keeping your information safe and protecting your clients. Take a moment to think about your passwords. If your passwords are simple and just are a word with no numbers, capitalization, or other characters such as *&!@#$^ then I suggest you start thinking of ways to make your passwords harder to guess. It will save you a lot of headache if your email account or other account gets hacked into.

I have had the opportunity to work for companies that take the complexity of the password very seriously. One company I worked for was a cloud data storage company. The data that they kept was not accessible by employees but they still were very strict on passwords so that there were no possible ways for someone to hack into the system. When I first got hired there and signed all the forms they had about password security, I was really impressed. Some people thought it was over the top, but I thought they took it seriously and I would feel really good having my data stored on their networks. Some of the requirements:

Change password every 30 days
Passwords have to be 14 characters in length, need to have a symbol, numbers, letters and capitalization
Passwords can never be the same
Don't write down your passwords, if they found that you had written it down (you might get fired)

This is a pretty strict list, however it really helped me take a good look at my data online and my passwords.

Need some tips on ways that you can come up with complex passwords that you can remember? Think about songs you like, books you like, names and important numbers.

Mashable.com your resource guide for anything tech

2011-10-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am hoping that you may already know about Mashable.com and if you don't....well, let's just say it is one of those resources that you should know about. I would say it is the "go to" place for any kind of social research, media, news, web tips. You can always find something of interest and even learn a thing or two.

I've been using Mashable.com for years now, and has never failed me when I do research regarding anything social as well as other web related topics. A while back, I had the opportunity to do months of research & testing in regards to finding the perfect Web Content Management System. The requirements of the web CMS were pretty strict and could not flex much. Some of the requirements were:

User friendly interface with minimal training on software
Ability to make changes, without much knowledge of programming (did not want to pull resources from other departments)
Security to be at a certain rating
Ability host the product on our servers (No cloud solutions)
ASP.net
No PHP or SQL (which I found most platforms are written in)
Ability to implement a workflow
Put people in user access levels
Inexpensive yearly maintenance fee (however the initial cost was not a factor)

To be honest this list was challenging for me, especially the part about not wanting to pull resources from other departments and the use of ASP.net only. I did use popular search engines, but even that felt like it wasn't narrowing down what exactly I was looking for. So I then thought I would give Mashable a try. Why? because it had to do with the web and somewhat social, so I went on Mashable and did a search, found many resources about exactly what I was looking for. I give this example because if you are looking for anything online dong research regarding software, SaaS or anything tech, give Mashable.com a chance before going on your favorite search engine, you may find what you are looking for.

Interactive media meets industrial design part 1

2011-10-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

When I went to school for Interactive Media at Columbia College, I thought it was all going to be about interactive technology. Sure that had a part in it, but also it was about how we interact with all forms of medians. In my class about aesthetics of design, we were tasked to read this book: the medium is the MASSAGE: An inventory of effects, by Marshall McLuhan. As I take another look at the book, how much of it was relevant 6 years ago as it is relevant today. The book however was written in 1967, and is still relevant. Check out a statement from the book: "Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness. "Time" has ceased, "space" has vanished. We now live in a global village...a simultaneous happening..." (McLuhan 63) that was stated in 1967, how it reflects today and media today is amazing! We learned in that class that not only media is changing our lives but the way we interact with all kinds of media is changing the way we are as people as a society. That class and that book really had a large impact on me and helped me make sense of my passion for the art of user experience, the art of technology and communication and how people interact with all forms of media.

Of course I love all the web media tools out there, but I also love the non-media tools out there too. The practical items we use in our home, office, cars....the items that make our lives a little bit easier. For many years I have been an industrial design junkie. A major influence in my love for industrial design has been the site Core 77. Tonight, I was flipping through the On Demand tv shows, and found a show called Quirky. I watched it, and....and...well I just really liked it. I love the passion and the excitement of creating a product that looks nice and has a function. So I went to their website, and I liked how they made a community of people who all have a passion for design, form and function as well. A group of individuals, artists making cool products, having a say in what they like and what they don't and then having that product go into production and be a product for the masses to use, and when I say masses I mean the everyday person can afford these products and really don't cost a fortune. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

On a side note, a product that is beautiful in form and function, and a product that I found pretty neat was the Ray Solar Charger, at a great price of only $39.99. Why use your power, when you can use solar to charge your phone naturally. :)

Where is the manual?

2011-10-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would find myself saying this. I am pretty good at figuring technology out and have self taught myself how to use many of the technologies, software and devices out there without a manual. But the last couple weeks since buying my new phone, I have been left to wonder how to do certain things that came so easily on the iPhone interface. I even searched for "help" on the phone and it doesn't have a help section. I don't think the iPhone did either but it was way easier to figure out. I am going to stick with the whole learning curve of my new phone but I have to admit some of the features aren't very intuitive and are a bit frustrating to me, and I am an user experience geek! So, if you have any resources on how to best utilize the Android OS I would love to hear from you.

My new phone the Samsung Infuse 4G

2011-10-05T12:51:00.001-07:00

I had the iPhone for a long time and really liked it. I have been overdue for my phone upgrade and when I found out that I was going to be grandfathered in with my old unlimited data plan...well I was just overjoyed. I could have upgraded to the iPhone 4 and thought about it for a long time. However, if I am going to excel at user experience design I should have experience on other mobile platforms not just the iPhone. I found myself at Costco last week, ready to purchase the HTC - Inspire. But after looking at it and realizing it didn't have a forward facing camera, I decided it wasn't for me. I really want to use all the mobile technology out there So I got the Samsung Infuse 4G, with the Android 2.2 OS.

I've only been using it for a week, and some of the UI items are super cool and some frustrating. For example pre-installed apps....Do you remember years ago when you would buy a new computer and there would be pre-installed AOL software and one wasn't able to delete the AOL icon from your desktop? It's kind of like that, but with pre-installed ATT software, it is always there.

The cool features, free voice navigated GPS. If I swipe my finger left over a contacts name, I get the option to send a text, swipe right call them. That is pretty awesome. Looking forward to learning about the android UI.

Google Hangouts

2011-08-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Google,
I want to personally thank you for creating Google +, Google Circles and Google Hangouts. I am in the midst of still testing your product, but so far I love it! Love, Me.

Alright, so if you haven't had the pleasure of using Google+, get invited and start using it. Like I have stated before, it is cool...and that might be an understatement. The product has so much going on and tons of potential. So what is Google Hangouts? Google Hangouts allows for you to do multiple video chats at once. How it works is it can be used with your Circles, Your extended circles, and the public. The other nifty features include:

Ability to invite people while currently talking to others
You can bring in a YouTube video and have everyone watch it at once. I am excited about this feature,as it allows for a great opportunity to connect, learn and collaborate online.
You can have up to 10 people at once.
And best of all it is FREE!

More reviews will come as the product evolves.

Google's +1 and Google+

2011-07-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

First Google +1:
I heard about Google's +1 tool from my friend a few months ago, we discussed the pros and cons of the product and she mentioned that I had a pretty positive outlook on it despite what the twitter feeds were saying. I like to think that whatever the new social product will be, why not have a positive outlook? It will either fly or fail in a matter of weeks depending what the masses think.

So now that I have had the pleasure to use Google+, I am in love with this! It is a direct compete to Facebook. There are some things I dislike about Facebook, like the inability to post to certain groups of people and you can do that with Google+ Circles. Sweetness all around! I have only used it for an hour so far but love it, will do some more beta testing this week and let you know the other neat things about this up and coming Google product.

A New City

2011-07-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I moved to California. The move was based on life changes, but I'm not going into detail as this blog is not about my life but about technology and how it could apply to you! I'm super excited about being here and blogging about all the neat technology that is going on.

California is amazing and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to live here, work here and experience all the things that it has to offer and make some excellent connections. To kick off my adventures in technology here, I signed up for an event to learn all about creating content on mobile and tablets with Adobe products. I'm excited about this as my degree is in Interactive Media and I love to create digital content and make it interactive for people to learn something new. The event is in a few weeks, and I'm on the lookout for more events in the area or online that are similar, if you know of something please contact me because I'd love the opportunity to learn more.
Thanks!

The Iron Nun

2011-03-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

I don't normally promote books on my blog, but I just had to post this as it is pretty inspiring. A few months ago I was invited to hear a woman called the Iron Nun speak at Tattered Bookstore. Going into it all I knew was this woman was older, liked to to Iron Man's and was a Nun. I think going to this kick-started me into a better journey with myself, my health and learning to love to workout. So much in fact I signed up to compete in a triathlon. Did I mention that the Iron Nun is old? She's 80 to be exact. I don't know too many 80 year olds doing any kind of intense training for anything...She mentioned that she didn't even start working out until she was 48, and then she started running, and running turned into other forms of exercise then doing Iron Man's. If you have a moment check out the video. Enjoy!

Google's Picnik - Sweet photo editing software

2011-02-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Alright, this is pretty darn cool, I just wish it would have come out before I bought my upgrade to Photoshop.
If your looking for a great tool that is free and to upgrade to premium is only $24.95, then this is it! It is called Picnik by Google, check out the photo I made: If you need to do simple edits, like crop, reduce red eye, add text to a photo, a frame, vector art, you can do it all. Granted, I still love Photoshop for more advanced editing, but I also think that Adobe is due for some competition. And hey it is completely through your browser so it doesn't slow down your computer. I can't wait til they come out with some vector tools.
Thanks Google!

Technology and Exercise

2010-12-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

I have to say I am obsessed when it comes to free websites or apps that have exercises on them, analyze fitness goals or keep track of your progress. Since July I have been doing weekly weigh-in's, tracking my progress on Spark People, using my Wii to workout and of course checking out the new fitness apps as they come out for the iPhone.

Here are some free sites and apps that are totally worth your time (and easy to use) if you are in the market for some new ones.
Lose It | http://www.loseit.com/
You can track your calorie intake, exercises, see your goals, and connect with friends.

Virtual Trainer | http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/virtual-trainer/id303057020?mt=8

You can basically have a virtual trainer on the go. I like that this one will show you a video of a 3D animated figure to understand how to perform that exercise. There are different workout plans that are customized to what you want to work on. If you want a voice telling you what to work on next that is an extra cost.

Spark People Mobile App & Website | Mobile Apps & Website
The mobile app is pretty cool but is close to the same with Lose It! However it syncs up nicely to their website. The SparkPeople website I find a bit hard to navigate it is information overload and has a lot going on. It is the best free comprehensive website that I have found out there yet. They have communities, finance, recipes, exercise demos and more all built within the website and apps.

In February I am going to do a 5K. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but hey we all have to start somewhere. My goal by then is to have a good steady pace when running and not stop for a break. I will post updates on my blog here as time goes and what apps, websites or other tools I found helpful. To start off my adventure in running I am going to give this free app a try: iMapMyRun.

Review: Google Health

2010-05-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Google health is going away. This is a product that Google has decided to get rid of. You can read all about it on their blog post.

Google health has been around for years, and when it first came out, I was a bit freaked out about having my information online. Not sure why, since I spend about 12 - 15 hours a day on the web and utilize many social networking and media sites. Then I changed health insurance companies and the one I am currently with and have been with for almost 3 years now, hosts everything online. Not through Google health, but their own system. It's interesting being able to access your health records 24/7 and look at test results again and again...this can be negative too. However, like all things people move, change jobs and/or change health insurance companies. So, when I switch my health insurance company there goes my test results, physical exams, and any other item that is stored on there. I see Google health really helping in this area, to help "manage" health history, medications, illnesses, check ups, immunizations and of course research. But check it out for yourself and explore.

https://health.google.com/health/

Check it out - http://socialmention.com

2010-04-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

I just found this website and if you don't know about it, it seems like a pretty comprehensive search with analytics for anything that has to do with social media. Phew, that was a long sentence.

The home page is super simple to use and you can search by names, twitter names, or really basically anything and see what you come up with. After you've entered in what you want to search you can choose what "social" category you would like to search, or you can choose all. I searched for picasso.

The search was not as prompt as Google's search engine, but it did have good results. I like the information that it provides on the left column, anything that you see on the left you can click on and explore further. For example, you can click on the keyword "museum" and underneath the column "Mentions about Picasso" it will refresh and include picasso and mentions of museums. I also like how you can search by "sentiment", that is pretty neat feature too.

Have fun exploring SocialMention, and if you have a twitter name, I would suggest that you search yourself and see where you appear among the social circles. Good Luck!

Google Labs: Google Maps City Tour

2010-04-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Another great Google Tool, the Google Maps City Tour. This is also in the "labs". I found this tool very helpful for business and personal use. These are the items I like about it:

You can search by city, and find neat things to do in your city (walking, biking, public transportation or even driving yourself).
It is also great for planning events, lets say your business will be part of a conference and you need to plan events around your conference, you can make your own map. Or your getting hitched, and you have a lot of out of town guests coming in, you can make them city tours so they have something to do.
Google maps is mobile! So that event or city tour you just planned can be on your phone or other mobile device.

Here's how easy it is, go to the website below, and you will be faced with this page:

Then type in your starting address or city, I chose Denver, because this is where I am living and click on Search:

The map above gave me a walking tour of Downtown Denver, I love how it puts how far in distance it is to walk to the next place to visit. If you click on a marker on the map or on the left side, you can remove it from tour or change the time on how long you will be visiting, and more! It will even give you a picture of what that place looks like (great for people visiting).

Have fun exploring your own city or new ones!

Try it yourself:
Google Labs: City Tour

Google Labs: Image Swirl review

2010-04-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Can I just start off with saying how much I love Google and all their wonderful web tools! I recently discovered Google Image Swirl. This is a tool that is currently in the labs, however, it is a good tool to use if you are looking for an image.

http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/

I did a quick search for Picasso, up came a series of Picasso works.

I then clicked on the image of the man:

This brought up the picture web of some places where the man image shows up:

You can choose to click on the outer pictures to keep on searching, or you can click on the middle picture and go to that website where the photo is shown.

It's a pretty neat tool to begin with, and will only get better as advances in seo continue.

This is a great tool and can only get better as time goes on, eventually I can see it being used a variety of ways, some ways include:

Google maps, to pinpoint the image to locations.
Artists who have artwork online, and want so see where there art is copied at (legally or illegally)
People searches combined with Google maps.

Something to cheer up your day

2009-04-05T21:35:00.001-07:00

I usually want to keep this type of stuff out of my blog, but on the other hand...it's a great way to make you smile. If only they would do something like this in the United States train stations, subways, airports etc, it might help grumpy travelers put a smile on their faces.
'Sound of Music' Train Station Prank:

Online tool reviews of the week

2009-03-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

I love all the great tools out there on the web that make my life easier day by day. I find between 5-10 new sites and tools every week, if I had more time on my hands it might be more! I usually post my new finds on facebook or share them on the different online groups I am part of.
Enjoy!

Box.net
http://www.box.net
Box.net is great for file sharing. I've tried other file sharing accounts but this is easy to use and you can have a free account (up to 1GB of space) or paid with a low monthly cost. I do a lot of work with people all over the world, and this has been the best for people I work with and me to share files and information w/out having to set up seperate accounts (you can have guest accounts - no sign in for your guests)

Shoeboxed
https://www.shoeboxed.com/index.htm
I just learned of this tonight, basically you mail them your reciepts they scan them, extract the information from them (amount, place, date), and post them online in your account. You then can add detail to the receipt, put them in categories, see your scanned receipt online as well as export it to many of the file formats for accounting purposes or to PDF's. They have the DIY option which is free! And then if you just don't have time or are unorganized you can just send them receipts in the mail for as little as $9.99 month.

ooVoo
http://www.oovoo.com
I am pretty sure this site has been around for awhile, but it is worth a mention. Last night I spent an hour and a half talking to some people online all about social networking, we were using Skype video conferencing...but we talked about ooVoo. I really like the fact that you can do a group video conference with up to 6 people and see everyones web cams at the same time. Reasons I really like this, are that it is great for brainstorming with a group of people, studying together, team meetings, company meetings...but also, let's say your deaf. Well audio chat doesn't do you any good, and you can text chat, but with video chat in a group you can talk to your friends from all over using sign language and how cool is that! This is a great feature!

Skype for your mobile phone (iPhone, G1 and other mobile devices)
http://www.skype.com/intl/en/mobile/
This was just released today, and is so cool! I personally do not have an iPhone yet (I'm waiting for my contract to be up in a few months) But as soon as it does, I am going to get one. I called my friend who I know has one and told her about it, her brother had beat her to it and downloaded it to his and called her, she said the sound quality was great. And she expressed to me how much it was just like the regular use of a phone...but w/out the minute usage. It is also available for your G1 google phone and most likely the other ones too.

IT World
http://itworld.com
For some reason I like this tech website more than the other ones that have been around. Not sure why it just sticks, and wanted to pass it along.

How to do some simple editing of a photo in PowerPoint 2007

2009-03-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever started to do a PowerPoint presentation and had a great photo but it was the wrong color, or you needed to crop someone or something out, or just want to change the shape? PowerPoint is great for simple photo editing if you do not have access to a graphic designer or graphic design programs such as Corel Draw or Photoshop. It is also great to use if you just need to edit a photo to bring into a different program. I'm going to tell you & show you how to do some simple editing of a photo in PowerPoint 2007.

What you'll need for this project is a computer, PowerPoint 2007 & a photo. If you would like to practice I have included the photo that I used for this tutorial. You can find more great photos like this one for free on the Microsoft clip art site. Right click on the photo and click on "Copy"

Step 1:
Open PowerPoint2007, You will have a window that most likely looks like this:

Step 2: Inserting the image
If you are using your own image, insert the image like you normally would do for a presentation. If you are using the picture above that you just copied, you will now need to paste the image in your PowerPoint, Ctrl+v or right click on the slide and select Paste. Your screen should look like this:

Step 3: Changing your photo
For this example I am going to Crop it, Change it into a shape and add an border.
Click on your image, you will see on the top tab all the way to the right a new tab called Format, this tab automatically shows up every time you select a picture. You will also see when you click on the Format Tab a new set of tools, everything from setting contrast, brightness, color to changing the shape and adding borders to your photo.

A key to what we will be doing:

a. Crop
First we will crop the image, with your image selected, click on the Crop button on the top right if you need a visual of where that button is, see the image above, a. Crop. Click and drag the points on the four corners to crop the image so we just see the girl.

b. Reshape
Next, we want to change the shape. Keeping your image still selected, you want to click on the "Picture Shape" button (b) and click on the desired shape, for my example I chose the rounded wave shape, to reflect the girl swimming.

c. Border & Effects
The buttons right below the "Picture Shape" button, is the Picture Border button and Picture Effects button. The border buttons allows you to change color, style, and weight of the line. The effects button allows you to change perspective, bevel, reflection, and many more. I encourage you to try them all out.
Click on the Picture Border button, under "Standard Colors" select the dark red color. You will see your image now has a dark red border with a very thin line style. However you will need to go back and re click on the Picture Border button again to select the weight of 6pt. Next, we want to add an reflection. Click on the Picture Effects button and roll your mouse over the option of "Reflection". Choose a reflection that you would like.

Your final photo should look similar to the image below:

If you have any questions or would like to see a different how-to in PowerPoint, please leave a comment below.

:: Welcome to my blog!

2007-11-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog. I have been blogging since 1998, this is probably my 10th blog, but the only blog that has been business related. I've had many great experiences blogging, and have connected with some really neat people. This blog is to go with my website. But more importantly to brainstorm, share ideas, creative findings, and updates on projects I've been working on. I am hoping that through my posts, you as readers will respond and connect with what I post as well. I am looking forward to having that interactive community through business ideas and findings. Enjoy!