Owner: Flatwater Tech URL:http://flat-water.blogspot.com Join Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:12:50 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Your source for new and interesting Gadgets, Services and Websites to improve your Tech Life. Site statistics:Click here
Slickr with Flickr 2007-04-11 16:21:00 The ever awesome Cali Lewis talked about Slickr on GeekBrief.tV episode #151. Slickr is a free screen saver software that allows you to stream Flickr
images to your computer as a screen saver. You can pick th tags that you want or maybe a Flickr group that you follow. I downloaded it and set it to come up with photos tagged with Photo A Day or Photo-A-Day. The images I got were incredible. This is a very cool free download. I would encourage you to download it and test it out for yourself.This also made me think, Do I tag my images properly when I upload them? Am I consistent about it? I think that I have not been that great about tags on anything so I will me more conscious of doing so in the future.
Widget: DVDPlay Launches Widget and Gives Away an Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii 2007-04-11 15:48:00 I love widgets for my blogs. I just installed a great movie widget from DVDPlay. New movie releases are delivered directly to my blog sidebar so users can select those DVDs for rental through DVDPlay. Adding the DVDPlay new DVD rental widget to my blog also entered me into a great contest from DVDPlay and the prizes include either a NintendoWii
(I love that thing) and the AppleiPhone
. You can see the widget in action on my blog BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo.Here is the full information about the contest:DVDPlay Launches Widget and Gives Away an Apple iPhone
and Nintendo WiiSan Jose, CA – April 10, 2007 – What can using DVDPlay’s new widget do for you? Along with offering your readers information on weekly DVD movie releases you can score some coveted gadgets in a contest that launches today.In exchange for a bit of real estate on your webpage or blog DVDPlay, a Silicon Valley-based movie rental kiosk company, is giving away a chance to win the highly anticipated Apple iPhone o
Download: iPod video converter 2007-04-11 15:45:00 GeekBrief.TV Episode #152 introduced me to something I was lacking but didn't know where I could find it. An iPodvideo
converting software program that I could use to turn my videos into formats that were usable with my iPod. I can even download videos that I saw on YouTube and convert them to iPod format. I took a bunch of the videos that I had on my laptop and converted them. The process was very easy.The process of converting the YouTube video however was a bit difficult. I had to do it a couple of times but it finally worked. This is a very cool program and very easy to use, overall. And it is a free download. Read more:Download
, converter
, iPod video
SEO : eTrafficJams.com 2007-04-11 15:25:00 If you have a website or a blog you know that getting noticed can be difficult, at least if you go it alone. Why isn't your blog the top blog when people search for technology. It is not top because the big guys out there have help. Those sites spend tons of money to get properly places in search engine rankings.So, what can you do to get your website or blog noticed. You can turn to eTrafficJams.com, a search engine optimization company that is an affordable pay for performance site. eTrafficJams.com has a four phase process to build an organic search engine placement campaign for your site.Phase one includes four steps to get the ball rolling. An agreement is signed and then the project is assigned to an SEO
team, eTrafficJams.com sends an intro e-mail to the client and a conference call is scheduled. What is important about phase one is that eTrafficJams.com spends time talking live with their clients.The key to Phase two is research. eTrafficJams.com begins keyword research, an an
Google Cool: My Maps 2007-04-10 19:24:00 Google Maps now has this cool feature called My Maps. You can create your own maps of anything you want. Cali Lewis has a map of her favorite BBQ Joints. I wish I was in Dallas instead of Houston so I could go to a GeekBrief.TV meet up sometime.Inspired by that map I thought I would start my own map to document my travels over the past 5+ years. I am excited to see what I can do with this new map. I named it I've Benn Everywhere. No that is not a typo. That is part of my last name. So I thought it would be cool.What is so cool about My Maps? Well, for one thing you can build one all for yourself for anything. Each place on the Map gets a push pin. You can edit each location and add many bits of information to it. You can ad links to places. So if you were doing a restaurant review map you could link to the website as well as your review of the restaurant on your own blog.I am going to be linking to my blog posts about specific places and airports and whatnot. The project will take qui Read more:Google
Know your customers... 2007-04-10 19:05:00 With the explosion of things that you can do on the Internet things have gotten much easier and yet remain complicated. For instance. If I was a mortgage lender I prior to the internet how would I go about generating leads? There would be a lot of legwork and phone calls involved.Luckily with the advent of the internet and the access to targeted information faster a mortgage professional could easily use software for mortgage lead management to find that targeted audience. The AIMpromote lead management system would be just what the mortgage professional is looking for. AIMpromote is the fastest growing lead management and website analytics software provider on the market. If you want to prove that to yourself you can sign up for a free 14 day full featured test drive of the mortgage lead management software.AIMpromote gives you a comparison to their prices over the competition and AIMpromote is the most cost effective solution out there. And the total cost of ownership to an existing Read more:customers
Tech Activity: Photo Walking 2007-04-07 18:12:00 Photo Walking
. I had not heard of this before but I read on Scoble's blog about a photo walking tour in San Francisco's Chinatown. Thomas Hawk leads this Photo Walk around the city's Chinatown district. Photo Walking sounds like a very fun activity and is something I would really like to try doing with Allison or the two of us with a group.I found a website about Photo Walking in Boston. I may sign up to go and do a tour. That would be a great way to learn the city and have a photographic tour of what you saw while in the City. Watch the Scoble show to find out more about Photo Walking.I was also thinking that I could couple a Photo Walk with one of National Geographic Traveler Magazine's Walks of a Lifetime Podcasts and do a self guided Photo Walk. I hope that one of my trips coincides with on of the places I have a podcast for. When I do a Photo Walk I'll be posting it. Be on the lookout for it. Even Allison is excited about doing this sometime.I posted this too quickly, Scoble Read more:Activity
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Have you BeenFunkd? 2007-04-07 16:24:00 Let's say that you have made a purchase and that product was defective. You tried to return the product that was clearly defective and the business owner did not refund your money. Where can you turn? Now you have the avenue of Beenfunkd.com to air your grievance. Beenfunkd.com is a website where you can turn if you feel that you have had a bad experience and have been taken advantage of by a business owner, a neighbor, a customer, an employer or an employee.You can take a proactive stance against the dishonest behavior of the one who wronged you. Using the power of the Internet to take your story public and have a public record of that wrong against you.Have you ever had such a bad experience with customer service and no matter what you did you were blocked at ever turn?I have had customer service experiences like the deal with Hertz recently where they would not honor a car rental for my wife and then charged us for that rental. I could have taken my side of the story public and I c
Blog Sire's Top Blogs 2007-04-07 16:23:00 I have been listed on Top Blogs
. This is a new blog directory that you can become listed on for free. The site is run by Sire, a member of the FuelMyBlog Forums. He has been extremely helpful to everyone on the forums and has created this blog directory. I listed my site The BenSpark on the Directory and am going to list my other three blogs there as well. All you need to do is add a button to your blog that displays your rank on Sire's blog directory.Sire's blog is all about how to monetize your blog. He has many great tips and his blog is where you should go to educate yourself on the art of monetizing your own blogs.So Sign up today and see if you can knock The BenSpark off of spot #2. :-)
Unblock those Websites... 2007-04-07 16:08:00 If you cannot get your MySpace fix while at work because that site is blocked you can try using this Myspace Unblock
er that I recently found. It is fast and easy and allows you to get to sites that may be blocked. I know that it will help some of my friends who cannot get to my blog during the day. And sometimes you need to just check on a thing or two when you are blocked from doing so. Like on your lunch break or before the end of the day or after the work day. You should be able to relax and browse as you want on a break.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. You can make money with your blog too, click on the referral button. Read more:Websites
Widget: Twitter 2007-04-06 21:59:00 I have recently discovered the addicting qualities of Twitter
. I was invited to join by Kevin from FuelMyBlog. And I now follow Kevin, Ian, Wes, Christine and Cali. I also recently set up the ability to update my Twitter account through my phone. So that Treo qwerty keyboard does come in handy. I didn't set it to get updates however because I don't think I want to get a ton of messages from all the people I will be keeping up with on Twitter.Basically I'm going to use the phone part to keep folks updated about things while I am on the road and haven't gotten to my blog to post. My Twitter widget will appear on each of my blogs. The BenSpark, BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo and The Wired Kayaker. Sign up and follow me on Twitter.
Canine as Technology: Mold Dog... 2007-04-06 21:27:00 My friend Ken found out that his fiance's house had some mold in the crawlspace of the condo. He then spent many days and hours ridding the house of all of the mold. Had he lived in New Jersey he could have checked out this New Jersey Mold Company that could perform Black Mold testing and clean it up for him.What is cool about Advanced Mold Diagnostics is Hunter the mold dog. For real, I said mold dog. Hunter is a dog that is trained to detect mold. I am going to have to tell Stephen The Dog all about this. Stephen has been looking for ways to pay back his owner for a damaged seat belt. I bet being a mold dog would be right up his alley.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. You can make money with your blog too, click on the referral button. Read more:Canine
, Technology
Help me (get paid to) Blog for a Year. 2007-04-06 21:17:00 I have entered a contest called Blog for a Year. What will happen if I win this. I will be paid to blog for an entire year on any blog of my choosing. I will be blogging on The BenSpark blog because I have worked very hard to make it a nice blog over the past 4 years of blogging. Flatwater has been around for a while too and I will continue to blog here as well as at The Wired Kayaker and BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo.I think that if anyone tries hard enough they can achieve a goal. My goal in this competition is to get the most votes. The voting can take place each and every day. So I am asking all of my readers to click my "Help me blog for a year" badge on the top of my right sidebar, each day and help me get enough votes to be paid to blog for an entire year. I have the aptitude and ideas to take this blog to the highest levels.Please read my profile...http://www.blogforayear.com/profiles/bensparkYou can also donate to the Blogger fund. The cool thing about this competition is that
Technology: VoIP Forum 2007-04-06 16:36:00 I keep seeing these commercials for VoIP services like that Vonage but I know very little about the whole VoIP scene. There is a forum that has been around for 4 years about the technology of VoIP. I will probably head over there and educate myself on this technology, because I really think it is something I should be using. I hear it can be a big money saver and many people I have talked to like it.The Vonage Forum
is an independent forum that can help you understand what Vonage is all about. There are sections for news and reviews and you can exchange information with Vonage users on the Forum. The site offers much more than just a Forum. If you can't get your questions about Vonage answered there than you won't get them answered anywhere. The site is so very comprehensive in the information it supplies. Check them out.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. You can make money with your blog too, click on Read more:Technology
Website: Radar.net 2007-04-06 00:43:00 I just learned about a great little site called Radar
.net. What Radar.net allows you to do is take a picture of video on your mobile phone, upload it to radar.net and then you and your friends can have conversations including photos online and on your phone. It is a cool little service and I just signed up. If you want to play around with it with me let me know and I can invite you to Radar.net.I learned about this new service from Robert Scoble on the Scoble Show. Check out the Video and learn more about Radar.net
Do you know what is in your inventory? 2007-04-05 16:39:00 If you are like me you probably need to know everything that you have and where it is. I mean it, I know the complete content of our cupboards and fridge. Why would I worry about that and bother to know it? Well, for one thing knowing what I have prevents me from buying more of what we do not need. It is a time and money saver to know what you have and how much of each thing you have.This principle is even more important in the business world. Suppose that you are the largest importer and supplier of widgets in the West Coast. On Monday you get a huge rush order for 10,000 widgets but you are not sure of your physical inventory so you place a rush order for more widgets from your supplier overseas. But come to find out you had the widgets all along in your warehouses but you didn't have a good physical inventory tracking system or fixed asset software. So you probably lost money on that big order.Now supposed you have the experts at IMSolutions come to your warehouse. They will perfor
ParentZ, what are Webkinz... 2007-04-05 03:04:00 I am once again late tot he party. Today I was talking with my friend John at work about toyz and he told me that he wanted to get his kidz some Webkinz. Webkinz? What the heck are Webkinz? Well apparently they are the hottest toys for kidz at the moment. I mean these are the combination of Pokeman and Beanie Babiez. The buzz around theze thingz iz incredible. And yet, I firzt heard about them today. Honestly I had no clue what they are until John told me.You may have noticed that I have some Amazon.com affiliate linkz on the site. There was one today for a Webkinz. It think that when something enters your knowledge then you see it all the time, everywhere. It is so weird.So, Webkinz are very interesting because they are toys that you play with because they are stuffed animals. But you can also play with these online as well. They have homes, toys and all sorts of things that they can do online. And you have to play with them or they get sick and die. What an marketing juggernaut this
Pay It Forward.... 2007-04-05 02:34:00 Robyn, a fellow Postie and the winner of a very cool Postie Patrol has come into some money from Ted Murphy at PayPerPost. She decided to use that money to create an opportunity for fellow Posties to give Mr. Ted Murphy a shout of some Postie Love.So here is my hat in the ring Paying It Forward
in honor of Ted and Robyn some real cool folks.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. You can make money with your blog too, click on the referral button.
Flybook, cool design... 2007-04-05 02:25:00 Probably the most innovative design
idea that has come out of laptop design in some time is the Flybook VM. Here is a laptop that now has a telescoping screen. It comes in a variety of colors and it the best looking laptops I have seen in quite some time. The screen can be adjusted to a better viewing angle for the user. So it is precisely oriented to the way you sit -- instead of the other way around. That is an impressive innovation in design and practicality. I read about this laptop on the GeekBrief.tv blog. I need to go and watch that podcast. Cali puts these shows out so fast that I have to hurry to keep up with all the cool things that she talks about and reviews.
The most important thing you can do.... 2007-04-04 21:48:00 I have been watching some great tech podcasts lately and that has got me thinking of some of those important things that everyone needs to do to their computer but often realize when it is too late. I'm talking about backups. I have over 8000 pictures on my computer and right now I have no backup solution. I could spend a lot of time burning the images to DVDS but that would take too long and take up tons of space in the house. I could get an external hard drive but what if something happened to that too?One of the safest backups is the online backup because your treasured memories are stored in a controlled environment that is secure and safe. The folks at IBackup - Online Storage Drive know the business of online storage. And you can access your online drive as if you were accessing a drive on your own PC. And you can easily drag and drop the items you want to backup right to that online drive. IBackup - Online Storage Drive is the only online service that provides that feature. Eas
Podcast: Scobel Show 2007-04-04 02:41:00 Since recently discovering Robert Scoble and following his blog's RSS feed I discovered a very interesting photographer, Kris Krug. On the podcast the Scoble Show Kris talks to a group of people at Photo Camp at Northern Voice. I watched the podcast and was inspired to play around with my point and shoot camera, The Canon SD800is, to get a good Photo for Photo-A-Day today.On my camera there is a whole set of cool settings that can only be accessed through the manual use of the camera. Don't be scared you can leave the world of automation and have a good time. As I was listening to the podcast and hearing some of the things that Kris suggested I started taking some photos according to those suggestions, changing my angle of perspective, playing with light, things like that. Well, I didn't get a very good photo while I was doing that because I was playing with photographing one of my Transformers. It was kind of a bland subject and the light inside is not that good. I must get more sh Read more:Podcast
Market to the World.... 2007-04-04 01:52:00 I discovered WorldMarket
Systems online. they are a company that has been in business since 2002 and they specialize in online affiliate marketing. What world market systems can do for you is help you set up a professional looking website geared towards affiliate marketing. They help you build that economical website with a big business look. You can run with the big guns in the world of online marketing.I have linked to two great articles that explain how banner ads and SEO (Search engine Optimizing) work. The topics are presented in simple easy to understand language in a simple and straightforward way. If you want to get noticed online you might want to give a call to world market systems. Not online do they provide you with educational articles they also are a provider of website services and software applications to help you start your own online business, today.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. Yo
Listing my blogs 2007-04-04 01:44:00 There are tons of online directories out there and I have just started scratching the surface with listing my blogs. I had a blog on Blogger for 4 years. I then moved that blog to a self hosted one using WordPress to maintain it. Overnight my well known and established blog was a nobody. What to do?Well I exchanged links with many friends who were in the same boat and I began to get my new blog listed on many blog directories. Someone is going to want to see my Photo-a-Day project especially now that it is nearly 2 years old.I have found a couple that I really like. For example Outpost earth list me each time I post a new post to my blog. They are also listing my blog in many different places. The front page, the Massachusetts page, the Art page and the Photography page. That is a lot of exposure just by using my RSS feed.I've also been listed on FuelMyBlog for months and the exposure I've been getting from that site has been wonderful.I listed my blog with Blog Top Sites and BlogFlu
N2Growth Blog... 2007-04-03 21:03:00 The tag line for N2Growth
Blog is Your Future. Only Better. Here is a blog for C-level executives and entrepreneurs that embraces the technologies of the blogosphere and explains those technologies in easy to digest formats. What I immediately liked about the N2growth Blog was that it was easy to read, I clicked on tags and found exactly the topics I was looking for. I also noticed that instead of a more tag there was a tag that gave an estimate of how long it would take to read the specific post. This is a fantastic feature for a blog aimed at high level executives who do not have an abundance of time to waste. That feature alone had me sold on the blog and the content within.The article on Social Networking for Business explains the importance of new technology being used in social networking online. And what companies can do to improve their visibility by embracing these new technologies and using them to their full extent. I certainly can relate to what the articles are talking abo
Honda 'Greener' than you think... 2007-04-03 15:15:00 After posting the article below and mentioning green cars I decided to take a look and see what I could find. What I found was a top ten list of the greenest vehicles on the road. Top of the charts however was the Honda
Civic GX. I had never heard of the Honda Civic GX before so I checked it out. The Honda Civic GX is a natural gas engine car.This car is already available in places like New York and California. They always get the cool stuff first. The price tag is very high however at $24,590 it is a lot to pay for a civic.Then there is the question about fueling The Honda Civic GX. Apparently you can purchase a device called the Phill. It hooks to your existing natural gas line so you can fuel your car. I have very little faith that the average consumer can fill their car in their garage and not blow it to smithereens. But maybe I am cynical.Also while looking at the Civic GX I saw a link to the Honda cars that were at SEMA. Each of those cars were built for performance including a 5 Read more:Greener
, think
Cali Lewis Commercial 2007-04-13 19:49:00 I was in Sulphur Louisiana and I was watching TV and updating my blogs. I really wasn't watching but rather it was background noise. But then something came on that got my attention. I noticed a commercial come on for Go Daddy.com and it featured Cali Lewis
of GeekBrief.tv.I applaud Go Daddy.com for doing a tasteful commercial with a real person talking about using Go Daddy.com. The company is a good company but the T & A commercials on the Super Bowl kinda turned me off form the idea of using the company for something serious. I learned more about Go Daddy.com from the GeekBrief.tv podcasts. I don't know if it was a regional commercial but I was very excited to see Cali Lewis on TV. She makes a great spokesperson for Go Daddy.com. I bought my domain names www.benspark.com and www.wiredkayaker.com through Go Daddy.com and I used GeekBrief.tv's promo codes GB1 to buy that domain name.It was really cool to see Cali on a TV commercial. I can't say enough good stuff about GeekBrief.tv Read more:Commercial
Boat Tech: Boat Covers 2007-04-13 19:32:00 I have a friend Neil who owns a very nice sailboat. He keeps it moored in Bourne. We've been out on his sailboat on numerous occasions. As we leave the harbor I see many other boats and they look shabby because of ravages of the sun and the elements. A huge investment like a boat should be protected. A custom boat cover would cut down on the exposure.Boat covers come in many different shapes and sizes including pontoon boat covers, bayliner boat covers and sunbrella boat covers. Had these other boats used a cover then they would experience less time cleaning their boat and more time enjoying their boat.You can learn more about this boat technology by visiting BoatCovers
Advice.com there you will learn about the many features of a good boat cover.This was a sponsored post. I get paid to blog about the things I want to with PayPerPost. Read my disclosure policy. You can make money with your blog too, click on the referral button.
Website: Killer Startups 2007-04-14 16:48:00 FuelMyBlog has just been listed on KillerStartups
. The site highlights new and exciting companies that have started on the Internet. It is a whole Web 2.0 thing. And you can vote on what companies have the killer apps.Fuel My Blog is something I am partial to because I am a moderator on the forums but it has meant more to me than that. I signed up soon after they started and I have been forming a friendship with Kevin Dixie, the founder and his wife Sylvie. They are good people and they started FuelMyBlog as a way to discover new and exciting blogs to read. They simple act blossomed into FuelMyBlog. If you are not listed there then what are you waiting for.I know this post is supposed to be about Killer Startups and it will be after I say a couple more things about FuelMyBlog. There are two competitions going on right now. One is a photography contest and the other is a widget design contest. Anyone listed on FuelMyBlog can enter and the prizes are really great.Okay back to KillerStar
Website: BlackScene 2007-04-14 16:38:00 A new dating site specializing in member who are black and who are looking to find Black Personals is called BlackScene.com. I am not sure how many of my readers are black but maybe there are some folks that haven't shown up on my blog log or my blog catalog yet. Technology is for everyone so I think that maybe I am reaching a decent audience and someone who is visiting this blog will probably be interested in BlackScene.As far as a dating site goes this one looks pretty decent. You do have to sign up to search and browse profiles. And signing up to browse is free. If you want to actively pursue a relationship with someone and contact that person you will need to sign up for the pay part of the site. You can upload images, contact other singles and send them flirts. You can also block certain users from showing up on your searches as well as prevent them from seeing your profile. The sophistication that has come to online dating sites technology has really improved. Take a look at the
Website: BUMPzee! 2007-04-15 22:03:00 You may have noticed a small button on each of my blogs at the end of each post that says Bump. That is or the BUMPzee website. What is BUMPzee? Well it is an interesting website that you can use to build your own communities or join in on existing communities.I created four communities. One is for the people who do PayPerPost, the other for people listed on FuelMyBlog one for Photo-A-Day for people who take and post a photo each day and the last is one called The BenSpark, it includes only my four blogs.I set that last one up so that an RSS feed could be generated that showed posts from each of my blogs. Then I took that feed and added it to Feedburner and made an animated header to include on my forum signatures as well as on each of my blogs. Scroll to the Bottom to see what it looks like. I am adding this to each of my blogs.I joined a few communities too. I joined the Gadgets community as well as the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community. I have been e-mailing with Andy Bear
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