Tag: recommended

  • Presenting at the July NEPA.js Meetup

    Earlier this week my Condron Media cohort Tucker Hottes and I presented at the July NEPA.js Meetup. Our presentation was about automation and all of the things we can automate in our lives personally and professionally. And also how we employ automation in our workflows for creating applications and web sites using our own task…

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  • Observations on building my first iOS app in Swift

    In early June I decided I wanted to learn iOS app development using Swift. I’ve made a lot of progress over the last month, building two apps that I can use on my own phone, and one app that I’m now in beta testing via TestFlight with a few friends. Over the last month I’ve…

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  • Observations on Apple Music

    I switched from a paid Spotify account to a paid Apple Music family plan earlier this month. Since doing so I’ve used the service nearly every single day via my Mac desktop, my iPhone, and my iPad. I’ve created playlists, downloaded tracks, loved and disliked albums, followed artists, used Siri’s built-in "What’s this song?" feature,…

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  • WWDC 2017 recap

    I wanted to take a few moments to jot down a comparison between my wish list for this year’s WWDC and what was announced. Also, towards the end, some quick thoughts on the surprises that were announced. Here are my wishes, in order from the previous post, and whether or not we got them. Shared…

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  • Likes vs. Saves

    Many social networks are adding "Save" in addition to "Like". You can see this now on both Instagram and Facebook. You can "like" something and tell the publisher of the content that you like what they published and you can also "save" the post (presumably to find it later). Mature content publishing platforms need both…

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  • Back to Apple, again

    Each year WWDC week gives us new and updated Apple software that is easier to use and more tightly integrated. As a result, each year I find myself wishing that I used Apple software exclusively instead of using third-party applications. Forgive me, but I’m about to quote an entire post that I wrote in June 2014 as to…

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  • WWDC 2017 wish list

    It has been an exciting year for developers so far. Facebook is making the camera a platform, Microsoft is making cloud computation happen with two clicks of a mouse, and Google is doing everything that everyone else is doing plus a billion more things. WWDC is next week. So what are my wishes? Since I…

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  • JSON Feed to Twitter using PHP

    In 2009 I scrawled together a simple PHP script that tweeted links based on an RSS feed. I then updated it to support OAuth and open sourced it on GitHub. I haven’t really touched it since (though I get about 3 emails a month about it). Just a small update here and there. This morning,…

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  • Is VR overrated?

    Kristopher B. Jones, an entrepreneur from near my neck of the woods, weighs in on VR in a recent Forbes piece debating the applicability of the technology: I’m a strong believer that virtual reality is overrated, as it has limited applications outside of very specific industries. Industries like gaming and medical training are likely to…

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  • The drawbacks of scheduling posts

    Scheduling posts to my blog has a few drawbacks but I think the most annoying one is that the topics I write about could be out-of-date pretty quickly or the topic could be covered by someone else. I have a personal publishing goal to publish an image and blog post per weekday. Sometimes I go…

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  • Aerial photos of a few wineries

    In late April Eliza and I took a weekend day drive to visit some wineries in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We wanted to visit a few wineries we had never been to before and the beauty of that region alone is worth the drive. We both take tons of…

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  • Speaking to the Social Media Gurus class at Misericordia University

    Me, doing my best Neil deGrasse Tyson. Photo credit: Richard Baldovin/Misericordia University. In early April I had the privilege of speaking to the Social Media Gurus class (or COM 485) at Misericordia University. My friend Dan Kimbrough is the Assistant Professor of Communications in the Mass Communication and Design Department at the university and he…

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  • Slowing down my hike to see new things

    I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors in my area. A lot. Especially when I was younger I was outside more than I was inside. And now that I’m older my main hobbies are hiking, kayaking and photography. All of which force me to explore. This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to have seen a…

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  • JSON Feed

    Manton Reece and Brent Simmons have created a new specification for creating feeds using JSON. They write: We — Manton Reece and Brent Simmons — have noticed that JSON has become the developers’ choice for APIs, and that developers will often go out of their way to avoid XML. JSON is simpler to read and write, and…

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  • Google I/O 2017 wish list

    I figured that since I wrote my Build 2017 wish list and the reviewed that list after the event, and that I plan on doing the same for WWDC this year, it would only be prudent to write down my wishes for Google I/O as well. At first when I sat down to write this list…

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  • My thoughts on Build 2017

    I have a few thoughts on Build 2017. First, how did Build 2017 measure up against my very short wishlist? Windows Phone. Although a few presenters over the few days managed to get an applause from the crowd when referring to Windows Phone, we saw zero announcements from MSFT in this area. The complete opposite…

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  • Attending the 2017 Pennsylvania sUAS Expo

    Acronyms are all the rage these days and so it can be tough to keep them all straight. Don’t be ashamed if you have no idea what UAS stands for. I didn’t either. UAS stands for Unmanned Aerial System. Like an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) an UAS involves more than simply a vehicle and usually…

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  • My old blog is back

    You may have noticed a slight uptick in my publishing. That’s because I am, once again, coming back to my blog as the central place that I publish. Except this time I care far less about any of the content getting to any social networks. It is simply too exhausting to get working correctly. And…

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  • My Build wishlist

    Microsoft’s Build conference starts on Wednesday. I’ve been watching this conference closely for the last three years.* Each year Microsoft has shown that they are a completely different company since Satya Nadella has become CEO. They actually make the things they show. Over these same years they’ve improved upon Windows so-much-so that I have a hard…

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  • How Microsoft is doing

    Fred Wilson: Even more impressive in many ways, is what Satya Nadella has done at Microsoft. He slayed the Windows Everywhere albatross that was holding Microsoft back for most of the post Gates era and has made Microsoft relevant again in the world of tech. Windows is enjoying a resurgence, the Office app suite is finally…

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  • Observations on Mastodon

    I’ve been fiddling with Mastodon (to the tune of over 500 toots as of this writing). I’ve also been reading up on the history of the service a lot over the last few weeks. Here are some general observations that I’ve made along with a few helpful links. Mastodon isn’t a single service. It is an…

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  • Observations on the computer-mediated reality landscape

    The future won’t look this stupid. I promise. For the past several months I’ve been doing research on computer-mediated reality (CMR) – that is, when what’s real is somehow changed, interrupted, distorted, or otherwise effected by a wearable computer. This "ability" isn’t new and it is a nuanced superset of many different types including mixed reality…

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  • Attending NEPA WordPress Meetup for March 2017

    Last night was the NEPA WordPress Meetup for March 2017. It was a panel discussion regarding how agencies use WordPress with Jack Reager of Black Out Design (our gracious host, thanks Jack and team), Liam Dempsey and Lauren Pittenger of LBDesign in the Philadelphia-area, and your’s truly of Condron Media. As these types of events…

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  • What should a conference look like in 2017?

    Karla Porter: I find myself searching for the value of spending a boatload of money and travel time to attend conferences. Not just for myself, but for you too. After all, that could be vacation time and money. If you read my blog you already know that I see value in attending events. I write about it…

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  • The new MacBook Pro with Touchbar

    Sarah Parmenter: By the time 2016 rolled around, I was overdue an upgrade and I thought the new MacBook Pro’s were enough of an upgrade to warrant a new purchase. After all, it had been 4 years. A lifetime in hardware you use every day. I was in the exact same boat as Sarah. I…

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  • Attending Small Agency Idea Lab (SAIL) in Walt Disney World, Florida

    Last week I attended SAIL, Second Wind’s Small Agency Idea Lab, at the Boardwalk Resort in Walt Disney World, Florida. This is the first marketing and advertising agency event that I’ve been to (usually attending technology or internet related events) and I really enjoyed myself and learned a lot. SAIL is pitched as a lab and…

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  • Joining Condron Media

    I see huge opportunity in digital marketing over the next decade. We’re now reaching the point where billions of people are using social platforms to share information every single day, where the vast majority of a person’s attention is on an internet-based platform rather than a broadcast one, and, where the tools are in-place to…

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  • Attending January’s NEPA.js meet up

    Photo: Aaron Rosenberg presenting an intro to Node.js. January’s NEPA.js meet up, the second monthly meet up for this group, was held on Tuesday evening at the Scranton Enterprise Center. This group, though only a few months old, is starting to get its legs underneath it and it is really great to see the community building.…

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  • Attending the Wilkes-Barre Programming meetup

    On Saturday I braved the frigid temperatures and attended a Wilkes-Barre Programming meetup at the Osterhout Free Library in downtown Wilkes-Barre. I arrived a few minutes late – it was Saturday so of course I had to make myself some breakfast, enjoy my coffee, watch a little YouTube prior to getting out in the elements…

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  • Independent microblogging

    Manton Reece re: Medium’s recent announcement that they are laying off 1/3rd of their team: The message is clear. The only web site that you can trust to last and have your interests at heart is the web site with your name on it. He’s right of course. He has said it a million times.…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • Being on the \”Ask the Web Marketing Experts\” panel

    Yesterday I was privileged to represent Condron & Cosgrove (more on this in January) at the NEPA Defense Transition Partnership panel discussion, through the Scranton Small Business Development Center, called Ask the Web Marketing Experts. I was flanked by other experts in the area including Jack Reager of Black Out Design, Gerard Durling of Coal…

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  • E15: Bots, Windows 10 Surface Book review, Twitter Head of Product

    Last weekend Danny and I sat down and discussed our current experience with bots, the progress I’ve made on my still forthcoming Windows 10 and Surface Book review and also Twitter’s new Head of Product hire. http://cdevroe.com/media/audio/e15.mp3 Links: MKBHD on YouTube Review of Google Home Download MP3

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  • Tweeting for 10 years

    Last week Jeremy Keith reminded me, yet again, of an anniversary I share with him. That is, we’ve now both been tweeting for 10 years. Here is my first tweet. Jeremy beat me by 6 days and only 5,000 tweets. Can you believe that back then only 5,000 tweets were sent in 6 days? These…

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  • Eleven and six and twenty

    Thanks to Jeremy for remarking how he forgot his blog’s 15th anniversary (congrats Jeremy!) it reminded me to check and, well, I missed my blog’s anniversary by nearly the same number of days as he did. On Saturday October 1 this blog, my personal blog on my own domain name but not my first ever personal blog,…

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  • Tips for new drone owners

    After a few weeks of trial and error, (lots, and lots of error) video tutorial binging, manual devouring, and literally swimming for and losing my first UAV, I thought it might be good to jot down some tips for new drone owners. So here they are, in no order, but all worth considering: Fly over…

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  • Wirelessly transfer files from a GoPro using any computer without software

    Follow me on Twitter. And be sure to subscribe to my blog. (Skip to the bottom of this post if you just want to know how to connect to your GoPro using an internet browser.) As I mentioned my GoPro Hero3+ Silver Edition has been giving me issues lately. It started 6 months ago as…

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  • My interview on The Way Station

    On App.net I asked if anyone had a podcast that I could be a guest on. And, wouldn’t you know it Noah Read had one and graciously invited me to be a guest on The Way Station. We had a nice, relaxed, geeky chat about my career, about Plain and Barley, and a bit about…

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