goatminds.com

The State of HTML5 Video

DavidM — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:59:31 +0000

Excellent article by LongTailVideo on current (Jan 2012 article, Nov 2011 data) support of HTML5 video features in various browsers.

Keep in mind that this is specific research and should be balanced using your own site analytics (eg. Your site gets mostly Firefox traffic vs IE).

http://www.longtailvideo.com/html5/

7 Obnoxious Things People Believe About Photographers

Dale Hogan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:17:51 +0000

A friend sent me this link to a post over on www.lightstalking.com. I have to admit that I’ve run into all of these types of people. It got me thinking about how to best communicate to people that think this way and how to position my business / services to avoid running into these attitudes. Perhaps it’ll inspire you too.

iOS 5 Arrives Today

Dale Hogan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:15:57 +0000

Today is the day! Apple is releasing it’s much touted iOS 5 mobile device operating system. I’ve personally been eagerly waiting this release as it contains some wonderful improvements and feature that will be useful in my day to day business. It’s a free update so no need to concerns yourself about cost. There is already an update for iTunes this morning to help support the new features in iOS 5 and iCloud. You can get the lowdown and nitty gritty on iOS 5 here.

iOS5 Coming this Fall

Dale Hogan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:55:09 +0000

Calling all Apple junkies! You’ll be thrilled to hear about iOS5 coming this Fall. Owners of the iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, 3rd & 4th generation iPod, as well as both iPad 1 & 2 will be beneficiaries of this iOS release. There is a long list of updates, improvements and sparkly new things. Some of my personal favourites are: Notification Center, iMessage, PC-free and easier access to the camera. Check out all the details here

QR Codes….What?

DavidM — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:20:20 +0000

You’ve probably seen the funky squares with scribbles somewhere in your travels and may or may not know what they are. They’ve been around for awhile and are very popular in Japan but now they are making an appearance in North America.

A QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code created by Denso-Wave of Japan in 1994 to track inventory during manufacturing. The “QR” means “Quick Response” since the code was intended to be decoded at high speed.

The idea is that you print the QR code and people use a mobile device — iPhone, Android or other smartphone — app to scan it to cause something to happen. You can encode a URL that automatically launches the browser, create a 250 character text note, put a phone number that gets dialed, or create a SMS that is automatically sent from the phone. The possibilities are endless. I’ve seen some excellent uses on band posters in store windows, you just scan the QR code and get sent to their upcoming event web page. You could incorporate event tracking info for specific posters or locations…Hmmmm. I’ve also seen them on the backs of business cards to enter complete contact info.

Have you ever used them? Did you create them or scan them for something?

One of many free online QR Code generators

Super simple real-time reader on iTunes — no need to take a picture just line up the image and boom — for your iPhone or iPod (with camera).

Just for fun, if you get the app and scan the above QR code you will be sent to Goatminds.com on your phone

So given this incredible power….how have or would you use it?

Google Magazine?

DavidM — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:44:36 +0000

Well, sort of. This new quarterly magazine was sent out to about 1,500 of Google’s online partners and advertisers. It’s not a broad market magazine but definitely worth a read. Think Quarterly I love the style and the writing so I’m looking forward to more like this.

Google’s statement:

Like most companies we regularly communicate with our business customers via email newsletters, updates on our official blogs, and printed materials. This short book about data was sent to 1,500 of our UK partners and advertisers.
There are only a limited number of copies, and they aren’t for sale or designed for anyone other than our partners – but anyone who’s interested can visit the companion website at www.thinkquarterly.co.uk.

WordPress Tip: Is My Blog Working?

DavidM — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:34:55 +0000

Excellent online tool for checking if your WordPress blog is working properly.

http://ismyblogworking.com/

It reports on the status of:
Your web server
Your RSS feed
Your robots.txt file
Your blog is indexed by Google
Your blog is indexed by Bing
Your blog application support for gzip compression.
WP Super Cache
Your blog hosting

Along with a collection of technical details.

WordPress Tip: RSS Feed from Specific Category

DavidM — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:27:17 +0000

If you wanted to get an rss feed for a specific category, like Cool Links on GoatMinds all you need to do is add /feed to the category url.

If the category URL is:

http://www.goatminds.com/category/cool-links

To get an RSS feed for this category, you just have to add /feed to the end of the URL:

http://www.goatminds.com/category/cool-links/feed

Simple.

Valentines App Sale

Dale Hogan — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:01:45 +0000

I bet you love your iDevice and I bet you also love games. Well, I’ve got a deal for you! hop on your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad and head to the App Store. Search for either “Gameloft” or “Electronic Arts” and you’ll get a long list of games that are on sale for 99 cents until Valentines Day. Enjoy!

The End of Unlimited Internet Access…Not Just Yet

DavidM — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:33:15 +0000

In my previous article I told you about the CRTC ruling siding with Bell Canada. Turns out the CRTC does listen, and not just to Bell Canada. The CRTC has suspended their ruling that Bell can start charging suppliers for bandwidth usage which would have brought an end to unlimited internet access and introduced usage-based billing. At the moment it’s a 60 day extension so that they can re-review the situation. A huge thanks goes out to OpenMedia.ca for leading the consumer protest.

Of course, the battle isn’t over yet but if you are enjoying an unlimited internet access account you can still do that for now.

Kudos to Primus Canada for not only offering a decent usage package when the announcement originally came out, but for sending out a notice that they are going to continue to offer unlimited internet while the ruling is pending.