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Friday, December 20, 2013
Tech #nerdgasm: 3Doodler
Posted By Desiree Kane on Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 9:56 AM
I'm writing about 3Doodler, "The World's First 3D Printing Pen," because holy shit! This is going to change the consumer tech toy game. The company ran a Kickstarter back in March to raise startup money seeking $30,000. It raised $2.3 million.
This is definitely a project to watch in the coming year. The company is currently taking preorders on its website for both the pen and the plastics. The estimated shipping date is coming up in February 2014.
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see a bunch of random and fun travel videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Zero, zilch, none and no part of this post is sponsored by any of the above mentioned company or companies, nor would I ever present such a thing.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Tech No. 1 holiday travel tech tip: ABC
Posted By Desiree Kane on Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 2:46 PM
Nine of the 10 problems techies suffer from center around lack of battery in some form or fashion. Between opting out of apps that are energy vampires and constantly having to find a way to plug in to charge, it's borderline maddening with multiple devices being used on a regular basis. But, there's hope on the horizon. Here's all you need to remember: ABC.
ABC stands for always be charging. How? Here are some tips:
ABC stands for always be charging. How? Here are some tips:
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tech Reclaim your email sanity with Unroll.me
Posted By Desiree Kane on Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 5:25 PM
I personally use and love Unroll.me. The email-nightmare-ending tool allows users to manage their subscriptions and get an email digest that contains all of the subscription emails for that day. It's surprising how effective and relieving this simple tool is.
The best part of it all gets no shine: the "Edit Subscriptions" feature.
Think about it. Even if you wanted to unsubscribe to the newsletters you don't want anymore, you've still got to click the email, scroll down, click unsubscribe, go to the page that asks you why you're unsubscribing, click confirm, get the infuriating unsubscribe confirmation email - the whole thing is a time-consuming mess. UnRoll.me puts all subscriptions on one page and allows you to unsubscribe from as many as you want with one click per subscription. It's lovely. All of that other clicking nonsense is gone.
Here's what I mean: This is a screencap from my personal Unroll.me:
So, this holiday season, if you're feeling overwhelmed with your sale emails from every company and its mother, consider giving Unroll.me a go. It'll save your tech sanity.
Zero, zilch, none and no part of this post is sponsored by any of the above mentioned product company nor would I ever present such a thing.
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see a bunch of random and fun travel videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wanderlust: A tale of two wolves
Posted By Desiree Kane on Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 1:36 PM
There's an American Indian tale of an old Cherokee man talking to his grandson: "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth." The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" The old man quietly replied, "The one you feed."
Image credit: Desiree Kane
Image credit: Desiree Kane
Wanderlust is much like this battle of two wolves. It can consume you in one of two ways: Either by freeing you or destroying you.
Wikipedia defines wanderlust as "a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world." I assert that this definition is far too shallow. Wanderlust, once it overcomes a person, is incurable and unquenchable. It's something that propels humans to the ends of the Earth. It's a feeling of yearning, of wanton, of being compelled to go.
It's so much more than just a desire or impulse.
Not everyone understands the intensity of wanderlust, so with it comes its own troubles. When two wanderlusters meets, there's almost always an instant connection - and I'm not talking about anything remotely sexual. For people in a romantic relationship with a traveler, that instant connection can sometimes be hard to understand, especially when a traveler speaks fondly of an amazing experience with someone else in the past. When you aren't consumed with it, it can be difficult to comprehend another person's unquenching desire to roam, to put him or herself in precariously fun situations, to eat delicious, potentially poisonous, street food, to meet the world's colorful, warm people.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Coin launches, dazzles the tech world
Posted By Desiree Kane on Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 1:39 PM
You've got to love Kickstarter projects. They're all the rage, and some of the hottest products in the tech sphere are launching off of this amazing platform. Coin, the bluetooth card that stores data for credit cards, membership cards, etc., launched with great success on Nov. 14 and is no exception.
What's a bluetooth card?
Set to release in summer 2014, early adopters rushed to sign up. Coin fulfilled its $50,000 fundraising goal in 47 minutes, but not without criticism and speculation from tech big boy CNN Money:
What do you think? Are you rushing out to get a Coin? Could you trust it? How do you think this will affect Charlotte's banking industry? Let us know in the comments!
What's a bluetooth card?
Set to release in summer 2014, early adopters rushed to sign up. Coin fulfilled its $50,000 fundraising goal in 47 minutes, but not without criticism and speculation from tech big boy CNN Money:
Coin is a buzzy new startup that's making a digital credit card that stores information for all the other cards in your wallet. Coin's splashy launch generated a lot of attention, but there are several big issues that need to be resolved if it's going to be a successful product.Coin is an exciting look into what the future of money management can be. Along with progressive banking products like Simple, the future looks bright.
What do you think? Are you rushing out to get a Coin? Could you trust it? How do you think this will affect Charlotte's banking industry? Let us know in the comments!
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see all videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel here!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
#nerdgasm: THE Geek Fest 2013
Posted By Desiree Kane on Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Do 3D printers and flying robots appeal to you? What about science? If yes, then you're going to love the CPCC's Computer Technology Institute's 10th Annual "THE Geek Fest" Technology and Innovations event at CPCC's Levine Campus beginning today. If not, then this probably ain't your kind of geeky crowd.
From their website:
THE Geek Festival (TGF) is an exciting and eclectic annual celebration of the "geek" in all of us - an event designed to educate, energize and inspire the minds of our students and the community through highlighting the constant creative innovations in technology, media and industry. It not only recognizes the imaginative efforts made by individuals and companies in their respective fields but also provides a venue through which we can explore the technologies that have become so integral in our everyday lives as well as those that are new and foreign. Geek is chic; not only that, it is everywhere.Best of all, it's FREE.99, and it's all day today!
Shameless plug: Come see me, your trusty Creative Loafing tech columnist, speak at 12:15 p.m. on a panel called The Social Network: Social Media Trends and Best Practices!
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see all videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel here!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Tech Charlotte Global Shapers look to shape Charlotte for a second time
Posted By Desiree Kane on Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 10:16 AM
The World Economic Forum's Global Shapers of Charlotte's second annual event, SHAPE Charlotte, is coming up and promises to be a doozy for the startup scene. Last year, this event was fun, well-attended, well-sponsored, and well put together - this year ought to be the same. It's important that events like this exist because they gives those looking to build a startup an opportunity to be paired with mentors, something that can be an excruciating pain otherwise - not to mention the cash injection any startup can greatly use if the the idea is a winning one.
From the website:
I can't wait to see the pitches and ideas Charlotte's upcoming entrepreneurs have up their sleeves this year. One of my personal favorites of SHAPE Charlotte 2012, Detailed Block, is an example of the cool things to expect:
Here are the final details about this year's event:
Tuesday, Nov. 12
6 p.m.-9 p.m.
Bank of America Auditorium at One Bank of America Center Building
150 N College St.
See you there!
From the website:
SHAPE Charlotte is an innovative business model competition created for, and by, the next generation of leaders. SHAPE Charlotte will foster an entrepreneurial spirit among those 35 years of age or younger by empowering participants to act as agents of change through innovation and ultimately job creation.
Competitors will be selected based on their ability to demonstrate the viability, innovation, and impact of their business concept.
I can't wait to see the pitches and ideas Charlotte's upcoming entrepreneurs have up their sleeves this year. One of my personal favorites of SHAPE Charlotte 2012, Detailed Block, is an example of the cool things to expect:
Tuesday, Nov. 12
6 p.m.-9 p.m.
Bank of America Auditorium at One Bank of America Center Building
150 N College St.
See you there!
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see all videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel here!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Tech The best ghost town in the U.S.
Posted By Desiree Kane on Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 2:00 PM
There's something about the harsh, extreme climates that makes ghost towns gritty yet amazing in the Old American West. In perhaps one of the most remote places, Rhoylite, Nev., stands what is surely the best ghost town in the U.S.
Fires, floods, famine and attacks from pissed-off American Indians unhappy at the new people invading their land are all things early gold rushers had to face. Yet, the promise of gold, silver and other precious commodities from America's new, large swaths of unmined land was so alluring that it didn't matter. There's gold in them thar hills!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tech Geeks <3 Altruism: Domains4Good
Posted By Desiree Kane on Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 5:00 PM
Built at a social good hackathon by four Bay Area do-good geeks, Domains4Good is a great idea, simply put. URL owners/cybersquatters set the CNAME record to Domains4Good.org, and charities benefit from the exposure. It costs nothing and takes no effort on the domain owner's part. Brilliant.
I caught up with the brilliant creator of numerous spiffy Web things, including Design4Good, Ben Roodman, and asked him to give me the skinny. Here's what he said:
Finally, here's this for good measure - because you can't write unicornfarts a bunch of times and not wonder what that looks like:
Teaser unicorn fart image credit: Chad Magiera
Photo credit: Design4Good website
I caught up with the brilliant creator of numerous spiffy Web things, including Design4Good, Ben Roodman, and asked him to give me the skinny. Here's what he said:
"We (Gabe Sanchez, Zac Witte, Amy Ziari, and I) felt that a lot of causes focused on monetary donations, where really you have to create social awareness first before most people will commit to donations. As dorks, we've all started projects where we had unused domain names or had gotten drunk and purchased silly domains; the idea started from UnicornFarts.com.
I had this domain for the longest time that I never quite had the right use for, so personally I started redirecting it daily to kickstarters and causes that I thought were interesting. At the #hack4good social good hackathon, I had the opportunity working with three friends to create a larger idea: redirect unused domains for good. Our presentation focused on the 282 million domains registered, nearly half unused.
We won the SF event, and we ended up taking 4th place globally! We didn't win any actual prizes; the grand prize was a trip for the winning team to Dublin for the Web Summit, but we've built some great connections out of it and are currently talking to Rackspace and other registrars to add Domains4Good.org as an option during the time of registration instead of some spammy parked domain advertising. It's been fun.
Right now, we're working on upgrading the management of onsite voting. We've had over 200-plus domains forwarded to us, 218 when I checked last. The biggest thing we can do is ask for more cause submissions and votes on site so we don't keep having to manually look up causes to promote daily, like I was doing with unicornfarts."
If you want to watch the demo that won them San Francisco's #hack4good, here's the video!:
Finally, here's this for good measure - because you can't write unicornfarts a bunch of times and not wonder what that looks like:
Teaser unicorn fart image credit: Chad Magiera
Friday, October 18, 2013
Tech BarCamp Charlotte's back, back again!
Posted By Desiree Kane on Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 11:35 AM
BarCamp Charlotte has seen a lot of growth over the last four years. It started as a bunch of nerds in a room, tired of the traditional conference model's stodginess, and has since grown to one of Charlotte's most valued conferences. From a courthouse in Fort Mill to Area 15 and now onto CPCC's campus, where THE Geek Fest happens every year, this event is getting bigger and better every time. Oct. 26's event will be no exception. Here's a video from 2010 at BarCamp Charlotte 3 that will get you up to speed.
The bar in BarCamp stems from the term foobar/fubar; for the unaware, FUBAR is an acronym for "fucked up beyond all recognition." Why? Well, where a traditional conference would have set speakers that attendees have no choice in choosing nor have a chance to be a speaker at the drop of a hat, all attendees at BarCamp Charlotte have these luxuries if they want them.
The approach to this event is refreshing: People come together to give pitches for the talks they want to share in the morning and afternoon, and their peers vote for the talks they actually want to hear. Everyone actually gets the unconference line-up they want. It's an amazing event to network with a ton of out-of-the-box thinkers as well.
Here's a smattering of what some of the past most popular talks have been:
How to ruin your personal brand in 15 minutes or less - Torgny B.Get on out to this super fun tech event at CPCC on Oct. 26!
Hackerspace (Loved it) - Yvette B.
Animal balloons and LOLcats - James W.
Skookum Digital Works - Richard B.
Mobile Framework - Jeremy S.
Google Analytics - Kristie H.
Learn to write Non-Fiction - Willie J.
Picking Locks - Brianna S.
Mobile Framework - Farhad J.
Power Kids - Mahte R.
Using Social media in a political grassroots campaign - Nichelle J.
Puppets! - Kevin H.
How to Make tech education suck less - Eric O.
Build an Ecobox - Mark L.
Source: BarCamp Charlotte's Website
For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see all videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel here!
