Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning Exit171… just expanding. With Exit172 LLC up-and-running I decided to start another blog specifically for the business. Nothing fancy, but just another way to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest news regarding Exit172 LLC.

For those interested, the new blog is being hosted on WordPress.com. The photo in my blog header (also pictured above) is a pic I took at the 2007 NYC Marathon.

Google now has a new interface for iPhone users. VERY useable. I especially like the Gmail and Reader screens. Thanks Google!

(Photo Credit: KW2DIO)

[story at TechCrunch]

Technorati Tags: google,iphone

The One Laptop Per Child promotion (G1G1) has been extended to December 31, 2007.  Act now!!

Technorati Tags: One Laptop Per Child,OLPC,charity,xo,AMD,Negroponte,50×15

Act now!  You have until November 26th to donate an XO laptop and get one for yourself.  Some nice perks…  one year free T-Mobile Hotspot access and a $200 tax deduction.  All for $399 (actually $423.95 with shipping).

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

[One Laptop Per Child]

Technorati Tags: One Laptop Per Child,OLPC,charity,xo,AMD,Negroponte,50×15

I finally updated Exit171 to WordPress v2.3.1.  Version 1.5.2 worked well for a long time, but I knew I was several revs behind and missing out on some new functionality, e.g. widgets, themes, etc.  The upgrade couldn’t have been easier (it took me longer to backup everything than it did to upgrade).  I’ll be messing around with some new features in the coming weeks and probably a new theme.  Please let me know if you see anything that looks strange or broken.  Thanks.

Technorati Tags: wordpress,software,blogging

This looks pretty neat…

What do you get when you combine Google Maps with hyper-local news and comments? You get a map-based news site called YourStreet, which officially launches tomorrow (although the site is already up). The site detects where you are located and serves up news stories about events that recently occurred in your city or neighborhood, as well comments from YourStreet members who live nearby.

[via TechCrunch:  Maps + News = YourStreet]

I hope I never have to use Google Maps and Twitter like this, but it’s good to know these apps are proving themselves useful during real-life crisis situations.

[Google Maps and Twitter Are Essential Information Resources For California Fires]

Gmail now supports IMAP! Giddy-up!

[Google Takes No Prisoners]

If you have an iPhone, RUN, don’t walk, and check out this page. What a great resource!

iPhone Application List

BTW, it looks like Apple may be launching a Web applications directory soon. Yup, still lovin’ my iPhone.

I just installed the Sphere Related Content Widget on my blog. It literally took me less than a minute to install and configure. You’ll now see an icon at the end of my posts… In a nutshell, when you click on the icon, Sphere finds other blog posts and media articles related to the content in that particular post. Cool stuff. It would be great to see this widget catch-on everywhere… so much easier to find relevant information.

Okay, I fixed my WordPress issues and you can now comment on my posts. Fire away!

If you do post something, there may be a delay in seeing your comment. I still need to moderate the queue, due to all the spam. I actually had to delete almost 3,000 comments (all spam) in order to get things working again.

Sorry if any of you have posted comments on Exit 171 and they never showed up. I was getting bombarded with spam so I had to turn on comment moderation, which means I had to approve each comment before it would get posted. What a P.I.T.A! Anyways, I was negligent with my moderating and ended up with several thousand comments to review (mostly spam), which broke some things in the old version of Wordpress I’m using. So… no comments for now. One of these days I’ll upgrade to the current version of Wordpress.

If you really want to comment, send me an email or even better, sign-up for a Facebook account and comment on my blog there (remember, my posts on Exit 171 also get posted to FB).

Yeah yeah… right… No really, I am. My recent addiction to Facebook (and my iPhone) sorta got me going again. Stuff I post on Exit 171 also gets imported into my Facebook “Notes”, so that blog gets populated automagically. I’ll probably blog directly from my iPhone to Exit 171. We’ll see…

As for moblogging, I’m definitely in full force with my iPhone/Facebook. If you wanna see all the random pics I post throughout the day, you’ll have to sign-up for a Facebook account (which is free). Go sign-up and send me a Friend Request. Nudge nudge…

Before (Verizon DSL):

After (Verizon FiOS 20/5 Mb):

Every couple of years I get the urge to document my family tree. It’s embarrassing how little I know about my family’s history. I’ve tried various genealogy programs, but in the end (for one reason or another) I end up abandoning the project.

With the continuing “webification” of apps, I think I’ve found a simple way to get things rolling again (thanks TechCrunch!). Geni is an online Flash app that allows you to easily add family members to your tree and create a graphical view. The best part is the capability to invite people via email to update their own info. This should make finding that elusive family info a bit easier.

Geni is still in beta, but looks pretty good so far. I’ve already entered 60+ people to my tree. Hopefully some family members will help contribute.