Stories

Kin Lane

Ideas

I really like ideas. I have them all the time. I work all the time to organize, prioritize, share and collaborate on my ideas. I love hearing other people's ideas on things. I was just browsing around the wordpress web site and came across their idea sec...
Kin Lane

Best Windows Task Manager

I was following Lifehackers best windows task manager vote, and they named process explorer as the best. So I downloaded to check out. I like it.... It gives you all the information on what is running on your windows machine. It fills in the gaps and gives me what I've...
Kin Lane

Storing all Media Centrally @ Amazon S3

People are always talking about putting your faith into the cloud. I am definitely worried about putting all my data online, and think about the repercussions of it. Now that Amazon Web Services have been around a while, my Amazon S3 storage account has become a central utility in my personal and business life. It is the central storage for all personal images, files, and video. I depend on it for business file and backup storage. I store everything from images to server machine image...
Kin Lane

FTP and Amazon S3

I was just playing with a "cross FTP" tool that allows you to setup your FTP and Amazon S3 connections side by side in the same client. I do a lot of FTP'ing as well as moving data to Amazon S3. Interesting concept....will play with more and see if it can become a regularly used tool in my toolbox. Check it out at CrossFTP.
Kin Lane

Depending on the Cloud

I had two ideas for stories that some day I would like to write. I generally start a new Google Doc and flush out the beginning of story or production that I would like to flush out more and eventually do something with. My products can range from blog posts to actual books I want to write. Who knows if I'll ever do anything with them, but I like recording them. I have ideas, thoughts and stories in my Google Docs going back a couple years from now. It is quick and easy for me...
Kin Lane

Poem of the Times

Since 2006 I have been gathering a top headline from the top 20 newspapers in the country. I pull these headlines using RSS feeds programatically every morning at 8:30 AM pacific time. I then assemble these into a sort of poem for that day. I was redoing my site a year or so ago and got to busy and never put back up. Kaia was bugging me to get her web site up tonight, and it only took me ...
Kin Lane

Share to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for all Products

As I was browsing Bug Labs listing of little programmable gadgets I was getting all excited and immediately wanted to share with my other geeky friends on Facebook. So I started looking around for a share button....nothing. It is common to see all the common share buttons on blogs these days. Anywhere there is news and blogs you see the share options. You just don't see them for products yet. Definitely something business owners should do to ensure the viral growth of ...
Kin Lane

Open Data for Cities

I was just reading ReadWriteWebs post on City of Portland, Oregon Officially Backs Open, Structured Data. As a data professional and politically minded individual I feel this is a huge step. Especially since it is in my home state. I firmly believe that transparency and sharing of data by city, state and federal government is true democracy. It puts the data into the hands of...
Kin Lane

Do It Yourself Gadgets

I was just checking out BUG Labs do it yourself DIY gadgets. They have created a sweet array of little open source programmable gadgets. For those of us who spent our youths taking apart stereos, tvs and anything that plugged in when we were little....these are cool.
Kin Lane

Google Updates Forms with Two New Significant Features

Google added two new features into their Google Docs - Forms tool. You can now: Add Page Breaks - Breaks in your form allow a wizard style or multi-page form. Logic Branch - Which allows you to break your form pages up to have different results based upon answers to questions. Both these features continues to push Google Forms out there as...
Kin Lane

Google Sites Takes Next Step with an API

Google recently opened up Google Site and introduced an API as well as import / export features for Google Sites. I think this will increase the potential for enterprise and other business adoption. You can now get your data out of Google Sites easily, which is...
Kin Lane

Productivity Advice from Matt Cutts

Just read Matt Cutts latest blog post and he offers some of the best advice for achieving productivity I've heard in a while. Thanks Matt.
Kin Lane

Social Network and 3rd Party Profiles

I was just seeing which of my social network profiles show up in my top 10 google search results. I was also maintaining the Facebook Page I setup for WebEvents Global. I like the page activity Facebook pages gives you. It also gives your more reporting if you take out ads, regarding their...
Kin Lane

My Google Results

Kin Lane

Facebook is #1

Alright, what gives? My Facebook profile just beat out my blog www.kinlane.com for the number #1 search position for "kin lane" at Google. Wondering what in the algorithm would cause that? Is it because there is more activity on my Facebook than my blog? Is it because Facebook has more prominence? Interesting change in my Google search results and profile rankings.
Kin Lane

So little time...

Going through all my spam comments, and editing a few recent posts. Just don't have time to blog lately. So busy with WebEvents that I just haven't found the energy. Have lots of material I will be working through soon.
Kin Lane

Two-Thirds of Marketers Now Use Social Media

I am just gonna paste this article I came across on Mashable, called Two-Thirds of Marketers Now Use Social Media because it says it all: Earlier this year, we reported that 63 percent of companies planned to increase their spending on social media in 2009. Thus, it's not too surprising th...
Kin Lane

I Found My House

I found the house for me. This 3-bedroom 2-story home sits on a beautifully landscaped lot and is waiting for your personal touch. Move in and take your time renovating.
Kin Lane

A Dark Journey Into A Killer's 'Personal Effects'

I was listening to my NPR today and I just heard an episode called A Dark Journey Into A Killer's Personal Effects. It is a thriller novel about a serial killer, however I find very interesting is the are creating what they call a "multiplatform transmedia experience." Read more →
Kin Lane

Gathering content from around the web and mashing it up...

I just answered a question for someone on the best screen scraping, data gathering, mashup tools out there. I couldn't remember the name of dapper for the life of me. So I figured I would record here so I could find in ...
Kin Lane

Challenges Facing Google Wave

When it comes to Google Wave, it can be tough to find truly new perspectives on how it works and its potential usage and adoption. I just finished reading a great post by Anil Dash called What Works: The Web Way vs. The Wave Way. He provides a perspective and analysis of Google Wave that left me thinking rather than just feeling I read recycled thoughts on Google Wa...
Kin Lane

Android Platform Growth in 2009 and 2010

Just read another post with data backing up the growth as Google Android as an application development platform. A post from ReadWriteWeb called "More Developers Start Working on Android Apps" has some good data from Flurry on application platform growth for Iphone, Blackberry, and Android.
Kin Lane

Mega Dropdown Navigation Tred

I have been seeing a trekinlane-productions2n on top sites out there. I have heard this suggested from friends and colleagues who are graphic designers. Maybe there is another term out there, but for now I am calling it the Mega Dropdown Navigation. I have seen on top sites such as www.npr.org (new redesign), www.whitehouse.gov, and www.nbc.c...
Kin Lane

Google Wave Federation Protocol Code / Setup

One of the more mysterious parts of the Google Wave environment is the core operations of wave communications. How does the server work? How can you develop in-house tools to keep wave communications behind the firewall? How are things going to be secured? I have seen lots of talk about Google Gadgets, Robots, Embeds and the client. However the Google Wave Federation Protocol is over the heads of a lot of people. This is ...
Kin Lane

Skype Desktop Sharing

Just downloaded the new Skype which introduced desktop sharing. I can now cut out Webex for internal meetings and discussions and have conference calls on skype. I use WebEx heavily for internal meetings, trainings and other types of virtual gatherings. Desktop sharing isn't required in all virtual gatherings, but is a necessary about 60% of the time. If it is built in and easy to do I will do more often. Now skype is positioning itself against Webex, GoToMeeti...