2005 August Archive at TheFemGeek.com

Archive for August, 2005

Katrina Roars

Published on August 31, 2005 in Hurricane Katrina. 0 Comments Tags: Moment.

A few days ago Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and parts of Mississippi with devastating anger and took the lives of so many. There are so many even now who have yet to be discovered and accounted for. I decided to use this moment to help bring recognition to this disaster. To let those who may visit my site see what this devastation has done to the Big Easy and the surrounding counties.

Here’s a link to a Yahoo news site that has a slide show of the aftermath of Katrina. It’s something we should be aware of so we can use it to remind us to pray for those who are suffering. Maybe encourage many to send some kind of aid to help them get back on their feet.

I send my prayers to the victims and hope we as a people can unite throughout to let them know we’re here to help.

Note: If you decide to send aid, do research on the services you may use. Make sure they are reputable and legitimate. Such services that are helping would be The Salvation Army and American Red Cross.

Photo Credit: Kyle Niemi/U.S. Coast Guard
Cnet News.com

TWit’s Stand Up

Published on August 28, 2005 in Podcast and IPTV. 0 Comments .

Hey it’s Sunday again (…boy was that quick). Now I have to begin my reconditioning for Monday. It’s all a psych game but I’ve become real good at it. One day I may even convince myself it’s real.

Anyway, today I want to talk about a situation that happened recently that deals with Leo Laporte of Leoville and This Week in Tech. Yesterday Leo and Feedburner (a service that many use to put their RSS through to generate stats) had somewhat of a misunderstanding. I will not go through the whole deal on this site but you can read the post for more detailed information. What I do want to address, is the way some pod-listeners are responding to the way Leo handled himself. Some, i believe only a few, felt he may have hurt Feedburner because of his decision to remove the RSS and use his own service, even after he realized the misunderstanding may have been on his part. This also is explained more on the post.

Leo I commend you on how you handled yourself. If anyone knows anything about Leo, as far as how he has conducted himself in the past on shows such as Call for Help and The Screen Savers, many would realize Leo has always owned up to a misquote or misunderstanding. And not only that, but he does it as soon as he is aware of it or if it’s mention again.

I personally do not know Leo (I missed the Toronto meetup) but I have read many articles, seen many interviews, listened to many radio shows, and now podcasts, and it’s a rare occasion when someone in the spotlight, small or big, apologizes, let alone admit when he or she is wrong. So Leo I applaud you. It is actions like this that will keep many a TWiT fans coming back for more. Not just for you Leo but also the TWiT team.

By the way for those who may not know (which may be only a few), Call for Help is back on in the States as of August 29th (Yahooooo!). You can catch it, can you believe it, on G4 weekdays at 11a Eastern/8a Pacific and weekends at 6 and 7a Eastern. We may even get to see some Kevin Rose.

Now from the artist in me, here’s something you may not have known. For those who are looking for a way to distribute there films, Amazon with CustomFlix’s has a program named Amazon CustomFlix (duh duh).

If you have a film you would like distributed, this may be an easy way. I”M willing to try it. Because I know, it would bring tears to my eyes to see something of mine shown to an audience. Even if it’s just a handful of people like your family, Give it a try.

Free Calls

Published on August 26, 2005 in Internet Phone Service. 0 Comments .

Sorry guys for being behind on my posting but I was working on a project that took me all evening to work on. I actually haven’t slept in 2 days. I know, that’s sad. But I noticed that when I’m determined to do something, I’m not satisfied until I have conquered it or finished it. By the way the project I was working on was creating a header for my FemGeek’s Moblog web page. I was using Adobe Photoshop CS2 (got a trial usage for 30 days) and writing it in HTML. I’m teaching myself Java, HTML, and XHTML languages. You should check it out and let me know how you think it turned out.

Well I decided to dedicate this post to a service I have been contemplating on getting once my contract with SBC is up. I have a Internet contract using their DSL and when it’s up I’m going back to cable Internet. I can get a good package deal with RCN, my cable service provider. Anyway the service is called Gizmo Project. It’s a VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) application aka Internet phone.

Gizmo is an application that allows free phone calls anywhere around the world over the Internet to other Gizmo users. All you have to do is download the application (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux is coming soon) and there you have it. You will need a headset, speakers or USB phone.

They also have services available, CALL IN and CALL OUT, that allow you to make calls to landlines, mobile phones, etc.. This is not free but the price is real cheap (1.8 cents a minute). I know.

If you’re like me and spend most of your time on the Internet then this could be the future for you. And think if everyone get on the bandwagon and starts using these services, phone calls will be totally free one day. I’ve downloaded it and planning on getting a cool headset tomorrow.

Don’t you just love technology?

Note: Google just came out with Google Talk (GTalk) which is the same type of service but it is still in it’s infancy and a few services need to be added. But once they do get it together, I’ll have to go with the boys. By the way Google unlike any other service will make it’s application interoperable with Gizmo and any other network. Now is that cool or what? I just love those guys.

Where in time?

Published on August 23, 2005 in Books. 1 Comment .

Hey everyone. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been writing in my blog every other day. I’ve gotten myself used to this schedule which I think is not only good for my writing but for you as well. This way I can keep giving you these cool websites that I hope you’ve been telling family and friends about…

…shameless plug.

Many of you may remember the story written by H.G. Wells titled, “The Time Machine”. It’s a story of a time traveler who visits the future to see the evolving of two civilization. When I first read this book as a young girl, an idea sparked, I believe not only for myself but for anyone who read it. That time travel could be possible. Now as a lay person it would be hard for me to believe it. But as a person of science, technology, and art, my curiosity will always be peaked and the willing to believe is the first in line. What all this is leading to is a website that I came across talking of traveling through time. By the way, it’s not just any website, it’s PBS’s Nova Online.

It takes an interesting look at the what is and the what ifs. Give the article a go, I think if you never bothered to read up on the idea of time travel, you might be able to do a little time travel yourself and catch up on the possibility many have always wondered about.

Now for the artsy fartsy part. The short film I’m featuring is titled “Minimum Overdrive”. It’s somewhat of a take on the feature film “Maximum Overdrive” and was done on Mini-DV. It’s a student film from the Université de Provence (France) and it was done without any help from the University.

I hope you have great computer speakers. The stereo is totally intense.

What a Swirl?

Published on August 21, 2005 in Digital Filmmaking. 0 Comments .

I am a blogger who has no problem with giving recognition to other bloggers. As you see with my links, I’m all about informing. Well, while searching the good ole World Wide Web, I came across a fellow geeks, Bob Smith, website called “Caffeinated Computers”. Bob turns out to also own a business by the same name that “…bring Low priced Tech Services while providing top quality work.”

On this website he has these awesome photos of a tornado that were taken by Mike Hollingshead. I’ve seen many tornado and storm photos but this guy has an eye for capturing the most amazing shots. So take a click over to his storm chase pictures and see if you are just as awed as I am.

Now for a little cinema action. Here’s a short film titled “Steal this Disc” that I think fellow filmmakers may appreciate. It was directed and written by Nat Segaloff who is also a teacher, producer, and author among other things. I think the film speaks for itself so I won’t go into it. Just watch and see what new filmmakers are resorted to doing just to make it in the game.