Recently in tech Category

There have been a lot of complaints about the new look of facebook.

As with any kind of change with any website people use on a routine basis, there is an outcry against the new changes. That's to be expected as people generally don't deal well with change. Typically we all get used to the changes and learn to accept and maybe even find that the new design works better. I don't think this is going to happen with the new Facebook design. The only thing this design did was make it harder to find the information I find relevant.

In the old design, I was very fond of the live feed tab, which provided a real time stream of what your friends were doing. This stream was updated automatically, without having to refresh the page. I wasn't too concerned when the rumblings about the redesign started because I assumed this was more of what was going to be surfaced in new layout. Instead it's not much more than a status update feed that may just as well be twitter.

The things I miss most are seeing when my friends are attending events (I may want to go too), friending new people (I may know them too), joining groups (it was hard enough to find updates about groups in the old layout, now it's pretty near impossible), and when my friends comment on other people's photos and videos (lots of times conversations happen around photos). The "highlights" area on the side in the new layout rarely provides information that I find relevant. For now the iPhone Facebook app still offers these features (although it doesn't allow you to click through to events).

Maybe I'll eventually get used to the new more limited stream of information, but as for now, it makes me feel like I'm missing information along with reading about applications updates I don't care to see.

Last year I ordered a book from Blurb and reviewed it here. I decided I'd do another book for 2008. This time I worked on it throughout the year.

The 2008 book is a compilation of all the pictures that Chris and I took, plus blog posts, and posts from tumblr. I got a little more adventurous and did some of the layouts myself instead of using the layouts provided by blurb. In most cases though, I still used Blurb's layouts.

I chose a 7x7 book because I like square things. I picked an Image-wrapped hardcover book -- an option that wasn't available last year, and upgraded to premium paper (another option that wasn't available last year). The cost of my 154 page book was $47.95. I uploaded the book on January 11th to the Blurb website and was given an estimated ship date of January 19th. On January 20th, I got an email apologizing for the delay in shipment due to some issues putting the book together and a code for $10 off a future order. My book shipped the 22nd and I had it the 23rd (I only paid for standard shipping).

I was stumped on a cover when I saw Lee's poster. Using a piece of software called Posterino, I made the cover (not quite as nice as Lee's).

The paper upgrade was well worth it. The pages are thicker and the paper as a bit more of a satiny texture. The only main complaint I have about the book is the bleeds did not go all the way into the spine of the book leaveing a bit of white showing in the middle of photos that spread across pages or pages with non-white backgrounds (as seen in the images below).

Overall, I'm very happy with the book and am planning on ordering another one next year. I really like the size of the 7x7 book. I think the price is very reasonable and until I have time to scrapbook again, this is a really good alternative. The photos are of decent quality -- even the ones taken with my iPhone.

Usually I just don't write anything and don't tell anyone. This time I'm letting everyone know. Don't expect any writing from me on here for a month or two.

Why? Well I mentioned before I really want to change blogging software and haven't gotten around to it. Now I'm sick of dealing with all the comment spam I've been getting. So I'm turning off comments (I'll try to leave them on on this post) and changing software and doing a mini-facelift. Please come back and see me in a month or so.

In the meantime, you can keep up with what I'm doing by following me on twitter, looking at my pictures on flickr, or follow everything in one place using SocialThing! (which AOL just acquired). Or you could always e-mail me -- I might even write back.

Oh and today is my dad's birthday. Happy 70th Birthday Dad!

Last weekend I went with my parents to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. For those of you not familiar with the festival it's a yearly festival downtown on the mall that celebrates the living culture of states and nations. Every year a different nation, state, region or theme is picked. This year is all about Texas (the state), Bhutan (a country in the eastern Himalayas, bordered by China and India), and NASA (who is celebrating 50 years).

I think my mom was a little surprised when I asked if they were going to go this year and if they were, if I could come along. Admittedly it was not one of my favorite things to be dragged to growing up -- I remember it being hot and humid and crowded and boring. The heat, humidity, and the crowds were all the same, but I had more patience for listening and learning than I did growing up and it wasn't nearly as boring as I remember -- they had a ton of activities for kids this year (I don't know if they had the same thing when I was growing up or if I was too shy to want to participate). We had some interesting conversations with monks from Bhutan and engineers from NASA.

This year as part of the festival, the smithsonian has started the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Documentation Project group on flickr for people to share their photos taken at the festival.

The 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Photo Sharing Project strives to strengthen both the mission of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival to promote cultural democracy, visitor participation, and cross-cultural conversation and the Smithsonian Photography Initiative's mission to document how photography plays an integral role in our lives and throughout the Smithsonian.

If you have a chance, check out some of the great pictures being posted to the group on flickr. It's really neat being able to see the festival from so many points of views and perspectives.

The Smithsonian has also joined The Commons project on Flickr. The commons got a brief mention in my blog in my tagging post but deserves a greater mention. As stated on flickr:

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.

If you haven't taken some time to explore the commons, you should. There are some great photos reflecting our nation's and our world's past. So much of this content was hidden away or only viewable from a single location. Now it's available to everyone. How great is that?