DigitalFanGirl

There are more and more services popping up that allow anyone to easily and seamlessly create a website. All of these servicesgive you the ability to create a website in a matter of minutes; no programming required. They actually have some pretty nice looking templates and have some great features. There are four services in particular that I’ve been looking at and have referred to people who have $0 budget, but need a simple website built (whether it be or personal or business use).

Weebly, Roxer, 350pages, and Webnodes. These services say any novice can build a site with ease and I have to say; they are telling the truth. They have designed it so that a child could use any of these services and set up a webpage. I am really impressed with their features as well, especially Weebly and Webnodes.

Snapshot of Weebly’s features:

* Create a website & blog
* Switch designs on the fly
* Drag and drop interface
* Buy a new domain instantly, or
* Host your existing domain for free
* Add content elements, such as videos, pictures, maps, and text

Snapshot of Webnodes features:

Features
* Web 2.0 technology
* Real-time interactive editing
* Drag-and-drop technology
* Gadgets and widgets
* Bookmark and tagging
* Multiple file upload
* On-line document editing
* Free hosting
* Use your own domain
* More than 40 free templates
* Import a custom template
* Automatic SEO

Tools
* Articles
* Polls
* Discussion forums
* FAQ
* Dynamic lists
* E-commerce
* Site map
* Photo galleries
* Full-text searching
* Website statistics
* Webmail
* RSS

Webnodes has some pretty awesome templates too; very modern and up-to-date. They seem to be the most cutting edge out of the group of free website building services.

All of these services are free. It will be interesting to see if they remain free and if these services can survive.

I am just now realizing that I have been neglecting my Facebook page. Not because I don’t like Facebook anymore because I do. I love Facebook and I love how I have met new people and have reconnected with people I lost touch with due to moving and you know; life. The thing that makes me tired with Facebook is all those darn third party apps and games. They kind of tire me out. Every time I go to my Facebook profile I have to go through all these games and apps and sometimes it makes me want to scratch my eyeballs out.

I like Facebook for the communication portion of it. I just don’t find all the other stuff that much fun all the time. I have to really be in the mood to sit down and fool with all of that, which lately seems like never. So, to all of my Facebook friends, forgive my negligence, I’ve just been experiencing some Facebook Fatigue…..

I got an invite for Socialthing last week and I accepted it and poked around to see what it was all about. I signed up for it a few months back and actually forgot about it; as I typically do with all new apps I sign up for. So, this week there was all this fuss about Socialthing and I am honestly trying to figure out WHY…

Before I got my invite to Socialthing, I had already received an invite for MessageDance and was also signed up for FriendFeed. I know about at least 15 social media aggregators and I gotta say, Socialthing is not one of my favorites. In all honesty, although I am signed up with Socialthing, MessageDance and FriendFeed; I am not using any of them.

So why this big buzz about Socialthing? Two weeks ago the big buzz was about FriendFeed. I think it’s cool to have one place to stream all of your online activity, but Socialthing only allows you to drag in profiles from twitter, Live Journal, Vimeo, Pownce and flickr while FriendFeed allows you to drag in profiles from 28 other services. Not bad aye….. That’s way more than Socialthing allows you to drag in, but I am more impressed with Profilactic, who supports 144 different social sites by default, but they say you can add as many custom sites in as you want. Now that is something to get excited about.

Yet in still, I am not using any of these feed sites. I’m not sure exactly; I think I am experiencing profile fatigue (I’ll be blogging about that soon). I don’t feel like setting up another profile.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t know what all the hoopla is about Socialthing when there are clearly more and better lifestreaming apps available….Just my $0.02 cents.

WOW – I am shocked to see you can buy an Apple TV at Wal-Mart. I guess it was bound to happen…

I am sure everyone has heard about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was put on BLAST after being caught on a federal wiretap where he was heard arranging a meetup with a high-priced prostitute (high-priced/low-priced; a hooker is a hooker) at a Washington hotel last month. This is all according to a law enforcement official and a person briefed on the investigation. Funny being as though Gov. Spitzer gained noted popularity by being relentless in pursuing the wrongdoings of Wall Street (huh, is this a pot/kettle/black situation – I’d say so).

Anyway, here’s the thing that truly bugs me and just makes me want to pull out a can-of-whoop ass. Why is it that every time a politician cheats on his wife and/or betrays his family in some way; he has to give a public speech of apology with his wife standing by his side?????? Hasn’t the wife suffered enough? I see no point in the wife enduring additional embarrassment and humiliation because her husband couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants. Who was it that decided the wife needs to ‘stand by her man’ in these types of situations? Does it really make you think any better of the person who screwed up? Does it all of a sudden wash away what he did? Does it make you forget that he was a high ranking official who was stupid enough to get involved with prostitutes although his entire life is pretty much under constant scrutiny? HELL NO. For me; it doesn’t make me look at the wife as being strong or even supportive; it makes me look at him and think he’s a complete butthole for allowing his wife to go through more pain, agony, embarrassment and humiliation.

NOW, if this is something his wife chose to do – I can say no more (well I could say more, but it isn’t pretty, nor is it nice), but if she was pressured by his PR people to do this because this is just what’s been done in the past, then my heart goes out to her (to a certain extent. sometimes you have to put on your big girl panties and say HELL NO I’m not doing that). One things for sure, it wouldn’t have been me. I would have stayed home that night. While he was giving his pathetic speech I would have been kindly packing up his crap and changing the locks……….But that’s just me………

A few months ago I signed up for an account at coveritlive.com. Coveritlive.com is a live blogging service that is FREE. I am really excited about this service. Mainly because as I stated in a previous post, next year I plan on attending several conferences I missed out on this year and I would love to live blog from some of them. I also wouldn’t mind live blogging during one of my favorite TV shows. That would be fun.

Coveritlive.com runs right from your blog or website, which I think is great because your readers don’t have to worry about going to another site just to be involved in your live broadcast of whatever you are covering. While you are live broadcasting you can instantly upload video, photos and audio AND your readers do not need to refresh. This is a big plus. When the MacWorld 2008 keynote was going on I was on a blog trying to get the scoop and I had to keep refreshing every couple of minutes to get their latest entry. needless to say, it became old real quick.

Coveritlive.com also allows the host to create and use polling questions for the readers. You have the option of creating the poll before you start live blogging or to set up a quick poll during your live blogging session. Readers can also comment in real time while the host is live blogging. The host can reply back to all readers or send private messages to individual readers; all of this is viewable in one screen. Once you stop live blogging, it is still accessible because your session immediately gets transformed into ‘instant replay’ mode for future viewing. There are some other great features they offer as well. I just wanted to give you a taste of what you can do with this FREE service.

Last night I went into my account to roam around some more and I saw that they give you the ability to do a test live blogging session. So I fooled around with that to get familiar with how it all works and I must say, I am very impressed.

I can’t wait until I have something to cover live and best believe I’ll be doing it from coveritlive.com.

I ran across itookthisonmyphone.com; an application for BlackBerry Curve and Pearl users. With itookthisonmyphone, there is no longer any need to manually transfer and post photos taken on your BlackBerry. You simply install the itookthisonmyphone software on your BlackBerry Curve or Pearl and start taking pictures. So, this sounds like a pretty good tool to have on your Curve or Pearl. They say all you need to do is take a photo and it will automatically post to your itookthisonmyphone.com account.

Here’s where I think they are missing the mark. The fact that you can have your photos uploaded automatically is wonderful, however, I don’t want my photos being uploaded to a photo gallery within itookthisonmyphone.com. I want the ability to have my photos automatically posted to my flickr, tumblr, twitter, facebook account and/or one of my blogs; like Twitxr allows users to do. If my photos are uploaded to this photo gallery on itookthisonmyphone.com I still have an extra step(s) in that I now have to transfer those pictures to where I wanted them to be posted in the first place.

I’ll have to keep my eye on them to see if they add these automatic integration options for flickr, tumblr, twitter, facebook account and blogs. Until then, I’m gonna have to pass.

Who says girls can’t pack heat. This Glambo Signature Series “Hello Kitty” HK-AK-47 is a fully functional firearm fires standard 7.62mm 125 or 150 grain ammunition with a muzzle velocity of approximately 710 meters per second and a maximum effective range of approximately 300 meters. DANG! Can I get that??

Ticket price: $1072.95

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the
gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought “Car95? or “CarNT.” But then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five per cent of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single “general car default” warning light.

8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.

10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car’s performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Everytime GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You’d press the “start” button to shut off the engine.

I would love to take the kids to the following places for vacation:

1. Brazil
2. Greece
3. Dubai
4. Italy
5. Egypt

For those who don’t know what Ning is; it is an online service that allows you to create, manage and join social networks for free. I think Ning is a great service, especially since it’s free and you can basically set up your own social network in 5 minutes. That’s pretty impressive. Ning also offers a ton of features within the social networks; video and photo sharing, the ability to post mp3 files and create and join groups within the social network. Many of the features are much like those of Facebook (without all the 3rd party games), but Ning offers greater flexibility, including the option to have your social network page branded (I believe there is a fee for branding).

Here’s the one thing that I really hate about Ning because it’s so darn annoying. Each time you join a social network, you are given a new profile page. So, I belong to four social networks and for each one a new profile page was created for me. This is a total pain in the butt. It’s a total duplication of effort. You’re essentially regurgitating the same information on each profile page.

It would be so much easier (from a page management standpoint) if I had one profile with my associated groups and networks within it. Aside from that one totally annoying factor,I think Ning is great service.

I missed so many conferences this year and I am determined not to miss them next year.

That should blow a complete whole through my wallet. I better stop there.

Death Star Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan. This looks so beautiful. I don’t really know how true this is, but aren’t the photos preeeeeetttttyyyyyyy? Can you imagine staying at a hotel like this? (hello, room service)…..

I have a BlackBerry 8800 and while I absolutely LOVE IT, I really want a Blackberry with a camera. I’ve been reluctant in getting the Curve because I’ve been having a feeling like a newer and better BlackBerry is coming out. Well, there are rumors about a new BlackBerry all over the web and I must say I am pretty anxious to see what really hits the streets. The first set of rumors reported the new BlackBerry would pretty much be identical to the iPhone. That sent a shock of roaring rage through my body. While on everything else I am a total MAC fan, I just can’t get with the iPhone (oh crap, I hope the iPhone mafia doesn’t come after me – maybe I should retract this statement).

Actually, I think the iPhone is a cool phone. The ONE thing I HATE is that dang keyboard. What’s up with that? I have played around on other people’s iPhones and it’s all good until I try to type something. Sorry, I need REAL keys. Also, I am so used to the email stability that BlackBerry offers; I don’t know if the iPhone can measure up to that. So, I choose to remain a BB girl.

So when I saw these photos of the supposed new BlackBerry 8330 on the BB Geeks blog, I was very pleased to see that the new BlackBerry did in fact have real keys and did not imitate the iPhone.

NOTE TO RIM: I’m tired of being teased with all of these leaked photos. Release the dag-gum thing already and make sure T-mobile gets first dibs please. Thank you kindly

BlackBerry apparently has a new patent in the works. It’s for a BlackBerry with a slide-out keyboard. Looking at the drawing, the design looks just like a Pocket PC. I am intrigued. Why are they going after this type of design to add to their collection? Is it because the Blackberry Pearl gained them such a large number of new younger subscribers? Are they trying to make a bigger effort in marketing to this audience by designing other Blackberry models that are much more hip and sleek in its design (similar to the Pocket PC, The Wing and Sidekick)? I wonder. I don’t think it’s a bad design; just curious about the motive. If this comes to fruition, I wonder if it will have any better camera and video features.

The official patent title is: HYBRID PORTRAIT-LANDSCAPE HANDHELD DEVICE WITH TRACKBALL NAVIGATION AND QWERTY HIDE-AWAY KEYBOARD