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What Will the Internet Look Like in Ten Years?

Chris — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:32:22 +0000

What Will the Internet Look Like in Ten Years? is a post from Chris Pirillo

I came across an interesting question on Lockergnome earlier this morning: What will the Internet look like in ten years?. The author states:

… the idea of adverse changes, in my mind, is anything that would change the complete freedom that we have to do just about anything. Certainly crime should not be allowed, but anything that is not criminal should be fully allowed.

That’s an interesting thought. Sure, I agree that crime shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet. However, how the heck are we ever going to stop it? Thousands upon thousands of people fight hard every day to try and curb the growth of crime online. Sadly, for every criminal they take down, more are waiting in the wings to step up.

The author states at the end of the article:

The internet policy is something almost as important as health care, and no matter where you stand on health care, you can see that much twisting of the truth is coming from all parties. How much like that will the fight over the progress of the internet be?

Chilling to think about, for sure. It’s also likely very true. Everyone wants to control the Internet. How ugly do you think that fight for control will get? What direction do you see the Web going in over the next ten years? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.

This wasn’t the only great article I read today. If you have something you want to share that I haven’t already highlighted here, please pass it along. I’m always looking for something interesting, funny or thought-provoking to read.

In our downloads center, you’ll find tons of great software and applications for anything and everything you could possibly imagine. Keep your eye on what’s new, what’s hot, what’s on sale, and what may be completely free.

Do You Remember When Life was Simple?

Chris — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:19:56 +0000

Do You Remember When Life was Simple? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Think for a moment, and look back to when you were much younger. Remember how easy life was back then? I know – we thought it was hard, and horrible, and tragic all the time! But we used to make choices using the “eenie meenie miney moe” methodology. We fixed our screw-ups by yelling “DO OVER!”. Then we grew up, and realized life just doesn’t work that way. We can’t get a do-over. We can’t blindly guess what the best choice is.

I read a post today on Geeks talking about these very things. Not only did it make me smile as intended – it also made me really think about my life. I’m happy with who and where I am right now. Yet I am an adult. I have big people problems and situations to deal with. I have a business to run. I have a community to hopefully make happy. I have friends, family… DOGS who depend on me.

Wouldn’t life be simpler if everything could be figured out the way it was in our youth? Wouldn’t it be a much more fun World to live in? What do you think? Let’s hear your thoughts, and your memories!

Don’t forget to read the full post from above, as well as all of the other cool things that were talked about in our community today.

How to Create or Edit an Avatar

Chris — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:22:31 +0000

How to Create or Edit an Avatar is a post from Chris Pirillo

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How often do you change your avatar? You know what an avatar is – it’s that graphical representation of yourself that you use online! You put avatars on Twitter, on forums, and just about anywhere else you have a presence online. Wicket keeps bugging me for an avatar. Crazy dog – I’ve made him one! He is just too lazy to use it anywhere!

If you want to spice up your avatar, consider using Avatar Pho.to. It’s a free web-based photo editing platform, with one-click fixing! Edit your pictures and add cool effects to them in seconds, just by clicking your mouse button.

You can take a graphic and animate it even. If you look at the examples, you’ll see several different representations of Britney Spears. She appears blurry, animated, and even sketched! You can matrix your avatar, set it on fire, or make it look like it’s underwater!

Assuming you don’t want to use Britney as your avatar, just upload your own picture or link to wherever it resides online. I uploaded one of my own avatars to play with. The effects are fun, and allowed me to spice up the old boring avatar. I wouldn’t recommend using MY picture for your own avatar… you do want friends online, right?

If you have other recommendations for cool or fun websites, let me know what they are.

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How to Change Avatars on the iPhone

Chris — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:38:48 +0000

How to Change Avatars on the iPhone is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you have an iPhone, chances are you have a contact list. In your contact list, you may have photos. If not, you might want to use the eMees App to assign an avatar to them. When you launch the App, the first thing you have to do is to select the gender you want.

The App walks you through the process, having you choose the structure that you feel fits your person the closest. Change their skin and hair color, and more. You can choose what type of smile they have, or even make them sneer. You can take any of the facial elements and move them up or down, or even a bit to the side. Choose how small or large you want the elements to appear, as well.

This App is so detailed that you can even choose their eyebrow shape and color. Once you are finished tweaking the eMee, save it with a person’s name. Browse your gallery, and then assign them to the person you wish to set that avatar for.

Have fun with this! Make your friends and family look true-to-life, or create fun ones that make them look the way you want them to! Give them funny faces, or even add some silly backgrounds. Go ahead and download the App for $2.99 and give it a try yourself!

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What Information Should You Put in a Social Profile?

Chris — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:33:11 +0000

What Information Should You Put in a Social Profile? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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When you build a profile for yourself on a social networking site, do you put much thought into it? Do you take the time to really make it stand out, and reflect who you really are? You should, you know. Your profile on sites such as my new Geeks site can make or break you if you don’t follow tips like these.

Be YOU. Be honest, be descriptive, be straightforward, be humorous. The more someone looks at your profile and learns about who you are, the more likely they will be to stick around and follow you.
Watch what you say. Remember your PUGS. Watch your grammar, usage, and punctuation. Use your SHIFT key to capitalize the first word of every sentence (and proper nouns). Remember that the sentence usually ends with a period… or some type of punctuation.
Make it look like you. Customize your theme to your liking. Drag elements around, include an RSS feed, embed photos, videos, widgets, and so on. On Geeks, you can customize many things in your profile, such as the colors, what’s included, etc.
Do something different. Why would someone want to add you as a friend? What are you doing to evoke a response, other than asking for it directly? What’s going to make people want to connect with you?
Avatar. Your avatar must be family-friendly. The picture needs to be square, and 183×183 pixels works best. If your image is larger than that, the site will automatically resize it for you, and your avatar could end up looking bad.

People are saying that Geeks is like a cross between MySpace and Facebook. We’re geared towards Geeks, though! We’re trying to do something different, although it’s still a social networking type of site.

What kind of Geek are you? You do realize you don’t have to be a computer Geek in order to join us, right? If you are passionate about something, then you are a Geek. You can be a music Geek, a motorcycle Geek, or even a toothbrush Geek! Come check us out. I guarantee you’ll find something to grab your interest, and keep you coming back.

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Is your Avatar a Gravatar?

Chris — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:08:17 +0000

Is your Avatar a Gravatar? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I know a few of you use forums. Some of you have blogs and other social accounts. Most of these places allow you to set up an avatar. The hope is that one day, you only have to upload an avatar once and have it populate to all places you are on the Web. There is something that may be used throughout any blog that uses WordPress, and that has this feature enabled. For years, the Gravatars have been a plugin for WordPress. Now, the new version of WordPress has support for these Gravatars.

If you’ve commented in my blog in the past, you’ve used an Email address. This is what will allow you to have a Gravatar that follows you around once you register. Your Gravatar will automatically be posted with your comments on any blog you visit, as long as you comment using your normal email address. You don’t have to sign up with my blog, or anything!

Of course, you will need to sign up for free with Gravatar. 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? Setting up gravatars on your weblog is easy, you don’t even need an account! Plugins are available for leading weblog software, and our tutorials will have you running gravatars in no time. To request a gravatar from our servers, you simply add an image to your comments area with an “src” attribute that points to our gravatar image generator and includes an MD5 hash of the commenter’s email address. Since all gravatars are rated with an MPAA style rating, you can restrict your site to show only gravatars whose content you are comfortable with.

You may have more than one email address or more than one avatar that you want to manage. That’s fine, you can do that! You can upload your image, and it helps you crop it down so it fits into an avatar size! It’s super easy, even if you aren’t good with photo editing software.

The challenge now to you is to go sign up for Gravatar, then leave a comment in my blog so that we can all check out your avatar!

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Another Second Life Rant

Chris — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:23:03 +0000

Another Second Life Rant is a post from Chris Pirillo

I like when people send me links – I really do. Jonathan Cohen first popped into my inbox a few months ago, and today he sent me a link to his well-structured essay on Second Life. Not in Second Life, on it – even though he prefaced the notification with somewhat-inaccurate information:

I know that you have an interest in Second Life, so I’d like to point you to a blog post I wrote about “Second Life: The Failed Experiment.”

I don’t really have an interest in Second Life – although I’ve written about how “I don’t get it” a few times in the past. Beth Goza made a Pirillo’esque avatar that I’ve placed upon myself, but I seldom drop into my Second Life – unless someone IMs me with an event of interest (like when Suzanne Vega did a live concert). Jonathan’s teaser continued:

My premise is that in virtual worlds, the behavior you see is a function of the world’s design – whether intended or unintentional, and that Second Life’s design has several unintended consequences that weaken the community they’re trying to build.

I’d expect SL supporters to crawl out of the woodwork any minute now, but they’re all too busy building things in a world that only exists in cyberspace (though this metaverse enables revenue generation to the point where some users are able to go full-time with it, until Linden’s structure changes and everybody becomes virtually homeless). /me is still leery.

Second Life Ate My Balls

Chris — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:44:58 +0000

Second Life Ate My Balls is a post from Chris Pirillo

Second Life: I Don’t Get It

Chris — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:48:28 +0000

Second Life: I Don’t Get It is a post from Chris Pirillo

Every time I turn around, it seems that one of my friends has signed up for a Second Life account and is raving about it. I finally took the plunge tonight and gave birth to “Wicket Pixie” (yes, that’s my SL character’s name, you can look it up and everything). My initial impressions were… well, they weren’t all that good. I know you can create all sorts of objects in Second Life, and it’s a metaverse that has unlimited potential, but I’m not a developer and I’ve never been addicted to chat rooms of any kind (three dimensional or IRC-like). I asked a friend to help, and he introduced me to a guy who helped me…

WTF?! How the hell did I get a box on my head? When I did that, I swear I laughed (in the real world) for five minutes straight. Is this what landed Linden Labs on the front cover of BusinessWeek magazine? It’s so far ahead of the curve. I decided to fly around the metaverse to see what was happening – and apparently there’s a lot of sex happening in Second Life. Wow. Hot avatar on avatar action! Time to make “Wicket Pixie” look a little more like me and…

Jebus Christ – how the f*ck did I end up with a beer bottle sticking out of my ear!? I don’t get it. I just don’t freakin’ get it, man. I know Second Life is supposed to be cool and awesome and amazing and unbelievable and futuristic and what-have-you – but I just don’t get it. Sorry, I must be stupid. I’m not afraid to try new things, but I think I’ve gotta wait for this thing to bake a little longer and get a bit easier to use before I spend every waking moment inside a second life I have no time for.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.