Stephanie Liu

This Week’s Highlights

I have 32 subscriptions to blogs and 1000+ items in my Google Reader that’s waiting to be read. While I filter through these unread items and take steps to simplify and organize my RSS feeds, here are a couple of standout posts, websites, and tools that I found worthy to be highlighted this week.

Posts

Websites

Tools

Stephanie Liu

Save Time Post at Ping.fm

Ping.fm is the most effective way to update your status on multiple social networks. A single post to Ping.fm can update 16 popular social services at the same time so you don’t have to sign into each account individually. You can post a status update, a blog, or micro-blog through one platform and posting a link won’t be a problem at all – Ping.fm will automatically convert it to a shorter link before posting to your services.

This week my status updates to Facebook, LinkedIn, Mashable, Myspace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, and Twitter and took less than a minute to complete. If I signed into each account individually, it would have taken me even longer.

Ping.fm saves me time and it can save you time as well.Go to Ping.fm and sign up with the beta code “pingofpings”.

After you sign up, check out a quick-and-easy tutorial that Trevor at BordelineTheory.com put together. Or you can check out Bwana.tv’s video tutorial below.

(Photo Credit: Ping.fm)

(Video Credit: Bwana.tv)

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Stephanie Liu

Firefighters Battle I-805 Brushfire

Misty Phillips

(Photo Credit: Misty Phillips)

We had just got out of a late meeting when I returned to my desk and saw this outside our office window. A brush fire had broke out on I-805 and the smoke started to fill the sky. We gathered around the window in shock but were relieved when we saw the firefighters arrive.

Since the fire was just off the freeway, employees that usually take the I-805 southbound, left the office because we knew that the brush fire would effect traffic. As I got onto the onramp, the rubbernecking had already began. Speeds were less than 10 mph and drivers were noticeably pulling out their camera phones to take a snap. Fortunately, traffic let up after Clairemont Mesa boulevard and I was able to get home at a decent hour.

Today’s event reminded me of last year’s firestorm. Our home was threatened by the Harris fire and the city issued a voluntary evacuation for our area (see photo below). Instead of driving to Qualcomm, we flew out of San Diego to Scottsdale, Arizona. Having been through previous fire seasons, we knew that the air quality would be poor and polluted in San Diego. (I honestly hope that history doesn’t repeat itself any time soon.)

It’s interesting to note that during last year’s firestorm our relatives and friends were scattered all over San Diego. We couldn’t use our cell phones to contact each other so we had to find another means of communication. Interestingly enough, every one of our family members and friends were connected on Myspace. To update our family and friends, we used my Myspace account to send bulletins to everyone ensuring our safety.

When we arrived in Arizona, we kept a close eye on the news and found a blog called Wildifires 2007 by SignOnSanDiego.com. They kept us up to date on the status of the fires and had links to evacuation centers. Several posts received comments and questions by subscribers and everyone pulled together to share information on where to find help and shelter.

Simply put, social media helped us communicate with our family, friends, and neighbors and proved to be an effective means of communication.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/firemap/

(Photo Credit: SignonSanDiego.com)

Stephanie Liu

HeyStephanie’s Social Map

I thought it would be ifun to create my very own Social Map. It’s a break out of websites, forums, online communities, and other social networking platforms that I’m a part of and have contributed to (i.e. LinkedIn, Myspace, Ning, etc.).

Click here for a more interactive map where you can zoom in and out.

HeyStephanie’s Social Map
Social Map

You can even see which online services I’ve switched from and to. For example, I used to blog on Xanga and Vox but now I’m on WordPress. I even switched from Photobucket to Flickr because it was easier for me to share photos with friends.

Much like the Brands in a Day Portrait, I’m sure I’ve left out a couple of items but it’s still fascinating to look at.

It’ll be interesting to see how this map grows in a year’s time. A few questions that come into mind are:

  • Will I be using the same social networks?
  • What new platforms will be added to my map?
  • Which will I deactivate?

How does your Social Map look like?

Stephanie Liu

Work Smarter with Web 2.0 Tools

I was excited when I saw the question above on LinkedIn because I’m always interested to find out what other people are using to make their life easier at work. I’m glad I checked in on this otherwise I wouldn’t have found out about JingProject.com.

Jing allows you to capture any image on your desktop (includes adding text and arrows) and gives you the option of creating videos. Jing then gives you a link that you can share with your co-workers so they can see exactly what you see.

Now you can avoid lengthy and drawn out text tutorials with Jing. This is absolutely what I needed in the office.

Here’s a video about Jing:


So what about you? What Web 2.0 tools do you find most useful for businesses?

(Photo Credit: JasterArts)

Stephanie Liu

Highlighters Are Now Digital

“i-Lighter is a cool way to highlight, grab, and save text and graphics from virtually any Web site and store it for future use.” – PC WORLD

The majority of my reading material is online and if you’re like me, the materials usually covered are articles, blogs, forums, reviews, RSS feeds and more. With all this information, I was notorious for printing pages and depleting the printer ink at home.

Now I can help the environment and my budget with i-Lighter. It’s useful and it’s free. I don’t have to print articles to highlight and I don’t waste any ink. I love it because i-Lighter gets over two hurdles with one leap. I can highlight text, tables, and images from any web page, have it organized in my account by subject, and share it with my colleagues.

In fact, earlier this month they released twitterlights. If you come across an interesting article online, use the i-Lighter to right-click and twitter it to your friends. The URL of the web page will automatically be sent as a TinyURL and your i-Light will be stored in your i-Lighter account for you to organize later.

See how i-Lighter works:

Stephanie Liu

Mind Mapping Made Easier

“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.” – Wikipedia

Mind maps are great when I need to get my ideas out on a page. In fact, I use mind maps exclusively to map out campaign concepts, types of medium, and prize categories before walking into and during a brainstorm meeting. I also use them for blogging concepts, story ideas, and other creative endeavors. So naturally, my notebook is filled with diagrams. Unfortunately, there are times when I map out ideas too quickly that when I go back and look at them, I don’t understand what I wrote… I had to find a way to do it better.

Just recently, I discovered mind42.com and nearly flipped out. Now I can create mind maps in my browser for free and collaborate with co-workers. I can assign icons and colors to specific nodes and best of all, I can add images too.

Here’s a quick overview of the features at mind42.com:

Now get mapping!

(Video Credit: Mind42)

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Stephanie Liu

Grab a Gravatar

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • May 23, 2008
  • Blogging

Gravatars are showing up on blogs everywhere and for good reason.

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?

3 Reasons To Get a Gravatar

  1. Get noticed. Avatars help others easily identify your posts in forums. With Gravatar, you can apply the same exact principle when you comment on Gravatar enabled sites. I’ve already clicked on several Gravatars which led me to discover new blogs to add to my Google reader.
  2. Consistency. Use the same avatar on blogs, forums, Flickr, or any other social medium you use and people are bound to recognize you.
  3. Multiple personalities welcomed. Got multiple emails? Don’t want to be stuck with the same avatar? You’re in luck. Gravatar lets you manage multiple email accounts and avatars.
  4. It’s Easy. You can have your Gravatar in just seconds. All you need is an email address and it’s FREE. Easily upload your image and crop to fit the avatar size. That’s it! You’re done.
  5. Other Platforms Support it. Disqus and SezWho also support Gravatars.

So what are you waiting for? Get yours now!

Stephanie Liu

Share This With Every Woman You Know

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • April 19, 2008
  • Blogging

Last month, I came across a thought-provoking blog entry by Patricia Volonakis Davis titled, “From an Older Woman to a Younger One.” Her entry inspired a lot of others as well. Over 200 comments were posted to her entry.

Her words of wisdom have been featured in many blogs, passed from mother to daughter, shared across the Vox community, and one reader even decided to print it out and post it on her bathroom mirror.

—
“From an Older Woman to a Younger One” by Patricia Volonakis Davis

1) You are at least ten times prettier than you think you are. That holds true no matter how pretty you already think you are! Don’t believe me? Ask your mother/auntie/grannie if she thought she was pretty when she was twenty. She’ll say, “no.” Then find a photo of her at that age. See what I mean?

2)The only thing you should be faking is confidence. If you don’t have it yet, pretend you do. In every new situation, pretend you’re not nervous, pretend you’re not afraid. After a few times doing this, the pretend part disappears.

3) Want to try something new, like painting, skiing, running your own business? Go to the library and borrow ten different books on the subject. Skim through them all, find the ones that have the most vital information and study them. Then see number 2.

4) No matter how old you get, remember what it was like to be a nine-year old girl. Remember the feeling of freedom. If you’ve already forgotten, do a cartwheel. You can so still do one. Savour that feeling. Wake up with it every day. You’ll stay young until the day you die.

5) In the same vein, cut or potted flowers are never a waste of money. Because every time we glance at them, they remind us how much beauty there can be in the world.

6) Speaking of money, starting right this moment, whether you’re twenty or sixty, you can change your finances around. Don’t leave someone else completely in charge,whether it’s your husband, partner, parents or banker. Become financially saavy. Financial independence gives you the freedom to walk away from many bad situations. How do you know you’re in bad situation? See number seven.

7) If your stomach hurts and you haven’t got a virus, you’re in a bad situation. Before you know what it is, your stomach always does. Give yourself some time to ponder what it might be that’s making your stomach hurt. Chances are you already do know, you just don’t want to believe it, for some reason. You can ignore advice from your friends, even your own brain, but you can’t ignore your stomach, because the stomach never lies. Oh, and by the way? – Drowning your stomach in alcohol won’t make it stop telling you the truth, either.

8) When meeting someone new and he or she seems to be behaving like an assh*le, show compassion first. If after you display your sincere compassion, they are still acting like an assh*le, walk away. If they follow you, call the police.

9) Wear sunscreen on your face, neck and hands every day, winter and summer. I don’t care how dark your skin naturally is. Wear it. You’ll remember me when you look in the mirror at age fifty. Always keep in mind that Your body is directly connected to your spirit. Look after your body. Exercise, floss and brush your teeth. Put nothing in your body that can permanently harm your spirit, including the wrong man.

10) And if you are in bed with a man and he’s the right man – meaning your stomach doesn’t hurt, he’s smiling at you, he knows your name, he’s not drunk and neither are you- for goddsakes- enjoy yourself. He is not at all thinking about how fat your thighs look.