Sending a photo through Posterous

August 19th, 2008 by Will | Posted in Uncategorized |

Posted by email from spaetzel’s posterous

Just giving Posterous a Try

August 19th, 2008 by Will | Posted in Uncategorized |

Posted by email from spaetzel’s posterous

Living Full Time with FriendFeed

July 30th, 2008 by Will | Posted in blogging, tech commentary |

Image via Wikipedia

Ever since Google launched the 2nd version of Google reader, I have been using it exclusively as my feed reader. At one point I had over 700 feeds in reader, but usually I kept it around 300 feeds.

I’ve been finding that I haven’t been actually reading most of the posts in my feeds. I get far too many posts coming in one day that I don’t have the time to read them all, I needed a solution; a better way to read my feeds and ensure that I read the good stuff, and don’t waste my time with anything else. I wanted to join the conversation and see the conversation that is happening on the web. Enter FriendFeed.

On FriendFeed, I was able to add the people that I care about, and have everything that they publish to the web appear in one place. FriendFeed has a large number of controls that let you filter what it shows to you, and it automatically sorts the items in your feed to keep the items that have the most conversation on them appear at the top.

I have now set FriendFeed as my homepage and now I can see what is happening with the people I care about quickly and keep myself involved in the conversation.

I haven’t completely abandoned Google Reader but I am now using it much less and have only kept the Feeds that I want to read 100% of the posts. I now only have about 70 feeds in GReader.

In an upcoming post, I’ll list off the GreaseMonkey scripts that I use to make FriendFeed even more useful.

Zemanta

July 30th, 2008 by Will | Posted in blogging |

Image by chucks via Flickr

I just installed the Zemanta plugin for Firefox. It is a cool little plugin that suggests a number of articles, tags and photos to go along with the blog post that you are currently typing.

This entry exists purely for me to test out its functionality. I’m assuming that it will do a pretty good job of finding posts that are related to itself.

Liberal Response to Bill C-61 ( The Canadian DMCA)

July 17th, 2008 by Will | Posted in Uncategorized |

A friend of mine from high school, Trevor Orsztynowicz wrote to his MP in Vancouver regarding bill C-61. She send back an excellent reply that show that she understands the issues completely:

This Bill does not serve either consumer or creator well.  It prescribes narrow, punitive solutions to a complex problem.  In fact the Bill could well have the effect of curbing the use of digital technology, to the extent that it becomes useless. This would be a pity!  As well implementation of the measures in the Bill would be nearly impossible, unless one abandons all privacy rights or imposes locks on the digital technology that severely limits its application.  How to monetize digital technology to reward the creator and allow free and open use by the consumer is challenging

Read the rest of her letter on his blog

A .net Library for Getting AideRSS PostRank Data

July 10th, 2008 by Will | Posted in Uncategorized |

With today’s announcements of the updated PostRank API and PostRank.com, I felt that it was time that I finish up and release the .NET PostRank Library that built for CastRoller.

The library is a simple wrapper for all of the PostRank API calls. Usage is pretty simple, and I’ve included a sample program to get you started.

I’ve released it under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License meaning that anyone is free to reuse and modify the code, as long as the attribute me as the original author.

Read more
Download Version 1.0

It’s a Twittering World

July 6th, 2008 by Will | Posted in Uncategorized, daily life, tech commentary, twitter |

Back on June 3, I was interviewed by a reporter, Amy Fuller from the Waterloo Region Record. She wanted to interview me for an article she was writing on Twitter.

She selected me because of the Waterloo Twitter meetup that I organized in April. She said that her brother gave her the idea for the article.

We had an enjoyable conversation about what Twitter is, what you can do with it and what people have gained by taking part in the conversation on Twitter.

You can read the article here.

Welcome to yet another revision

July 4th, 2008 by Will | Posted in site news |

I’ve been wanting to update my blog to use Wordpress for a while now. After the frustration of dealing with the complexity of Drupal and the weirdness of DasBlog, it is awfully nice now to have the mainstream blogging software powering by blog.

I just switched my web host to Mosso that allows me to run both Windows and Linux servers off of the same account. This gives me the flexibility to use any technology that best suits my needs.

I’ll be moving CastRoller over to this server over the weekend.

The Spaetzel Show 2: Why Start a Startup?

June 4th, 2008 by Will | Posted in spaetzelcast |

I attended StartupCampWaterloo3 last
night and recorded all of the presentations at the event. I plan to post my recording
of each presentation every couple of days over the next two weeks.

Here is the first recording of the evening, a panel discussion from a number of Entrepreneurs
and Authorities from the Waterloo area answering the question, “Why Start a Startup?”

Speakers on the Panel:

1. Ian Klugman (Communitech)
2. Larry Borsato
3. Melanie Baker (AideRSS)
4. Omar Ismail (ProductWiki.com)
5. Sandra MacDonald (Partners in Canada)
6. Ali Asaria (Well.ca)
7. Gary Will (Communitech)

Download the Show Subscribe to the podcast

Legal Rights of Photographers

March 17th, 2008 by Will | Posted in photography |

This is a great
list of the rights and rules that photographers have and should follow when taking
photos in public. A good read in the times where the rights of photographers are being
questioned constantly.

I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want.
Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s
technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.

II. If you are on public property, you can take pictures of private
property. If a building, for example, is visible from the sidewalk, it’s fair game.

III. If you are on private property and are asked not to take pictures,
you are obligated to honor that request. This includes posted signs.

IV. Sensitive government buildings (military bases, nuclear facilities)
can prohibit photography if it is deemed a threat to national security.

V. People can be photographed if they are in public (without their
consent) unless they have secluded themselves and can expect a reasonable degree of
privacy. Kids swimming in a fountain? Okay. Somebody entering their PIN at the ATM?
Not okay.

VI. The following can almost always be photographed from public places,
despite popular opinion:

• accident & fire scenes, criminal activities

• bridges & other infrastructure, transportation facilities (i.e. airports)

• industrial facilities, Superfund sites

• public utilities, residential & commercial buildings

• children, celebrities, law enforcement officers

• UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Chuck Norris

VII. Although “security” is often given as the reason somebody doesn’t
want you to take photos, it’s rarely valid. Taking a photo of a publicly visible subject
does not constitute terrorism, nor does it infringe on a company’s trade secrets.

VIII. If you are challenged, you do not have to explain why you are
taking pictures, nor to you have to disclose your identity (except in some cases when
questioned by a law enforcement officer.)

IX. Private parties have very limited rights to detain you against
your will, and can be subject to legal action if they harass you.

X. If someone tries to confiscate your camera and/or film, you don’t
have to give it to them. If they take it by force or threaten you, they can be liable
for things like theft and coercion. Even law enforcement officers need a court order.

Read the rest of the article at Photojojo