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  • You never get to "start over". You only get to try again. There is a big difference.

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  • Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia – June 2017

    Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia – June 2017

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  • Their own technology

    Garrett Sloane for AdAge: Apple News will let top media partners use their own technology to fill the ad space in their content, becoming more of an extension of the publishers’ own websites than the walled-off island it is now, the people said. At first I thought those that were linking to this have this […]

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  • What I saw this week #46: July 7, 2017

    I don’t have a good list this week since I spent most of it staring at my toes in sand. WSJ iPhone video interview – Similar to last week’s link is this video interview of key people behind the creation of the iPhone. Yu’s Bullet Journal – Vibrant journal. Makes me want to add some […]

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  • Ben Brooks on Hello Weather

    Ben Brooks reviewing Hello Weather: This app is without a doubt, my favorite weather app. Not just now but of all the apps I’ve tried over the years. Well done. Ben’s enthusiasm for Hello Weather reminds me of mine for Dark Sky. An app I use every day and gladly paid for. Hello Weather uses […]

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  • Top of the World, Dunmore Pine Barrens – June 2017

    Top of the World, Dunmore Pine Barrens – June 2017

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  • Well done Scott McNulty

    Scott McNulty: Let me repeat that: I’ve lost 50 pounds in 5 months! Scott and I have dieted together in the past. In fact, it has already been 12 years! He did tremendously well then so it is of no surprise that he’s killing it yet again. He, like so many dieters including myself, had […]

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  • Colin Walker on evergreen content

    Colin Walker: Evergreen content. It’s what many bloggers crave. Posts that keep people coming back. Passive traffic that you don’t have to do anything more to receive. Back-in-the-day we called this the longtail. Publish enough posts on a given niche and generate tons of traffic over the longterm due to people searching for those topics […]

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  • Tabledo

    Tabledo: Create dynamic websites automatically using data from your spreadsheets as content. Cool idea. It appears Tabledo takes my idea much further. Last June I wrote: I was recently asked by a client if I could use an existing Excel spreadsheet and create a single-page web site from it. This way, their team would be able to […]

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  • Turkey egg – May 2017

    Turkey egg – May 2017

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  • Twan van Elk on social media

    Twan van Elk: Everytime I open up my feed reader and read about people’s lives, thoughts, work, observations, what they ate, that beautiful flower they saw, I ask myself: why do I enjoy this so much more than any social media timeline I’ve ever been on? Because blog posts feel more permanent than social media […]

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  • Adventure Aquarium, Camden, New Jersey – May 2017

    Adventure Aquarium, Camden, New Jersey – May 2017

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  • Quad trail – June 2017

    Quad trail – June 2017

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  • Jurassic Park-like Turkey track – June 2017

    Jurassic Park-like Turkey track – June 2017

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  • What I saw this week #45: June 30, 2017

    As the summer heat rises in our hemisphere it seems that the river of content online dries up to a slow trickle. I wonder if that means I should expect more from our friends Down Under during these months? Here are a few things that caught my attention: Mars on Google Maps – Google has […]

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  • Liam Dempsey on vacationing in Germany

    Liam Dempsey: Walking through cities that trace their history back to the 1200s and to churches that reach back to 800 AD is deeply moving. The connection to the past is palpable and gripping. I felt this very same feeling when in Ireland. You realize the pub you’re in is nearly a thousand years old […]

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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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  • After reading and listening to so many favorable reviews I’m installing the iOS 11 public beta on my iPad.

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  • Colin Walker on the IndieWeb

    Colin Walker: Yet there is still a problem, and that is the apparent insistence on the implementation of specific technologies as implied by the guides and documentation. Go read his entire post. There are all sorts of "problems" with the IndieWeb and Walker lays some of them out nicely. (Remember, I told you to subscribe […]

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  • VR180

    Frank Rodriguez: VR180 video focuses on what’s in front of you, are high resolution, and look great on desktop and on mobile. I think this looks like an excellent format. As I’ve mentioned in the past, 360 video is very difficult to follow if there is a narrative. While 360 might be good to virtually […]

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  • Colin Walker on blogrolls

    Colin Walker: Part of the problem with people based following models on social networks is that you follow the whole person so see everything they post whether it is relevant to you or not. There is no filtering system. He goes on to mention that blogrolls that also supply an OPML file make it quick […]

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  • What I saw this week #44: June 21, 2017

    First day of summer! I’m off my schedule. I know. Sorry. Video: Mixed Reality – THEORIZ – RnD test 002 – Realtime AR used to create art. We’ll be seeing a lot more of this. Rafter – A group of turkeys is called a rafter. Putting the social in social media – A nice write-up […]

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  • Goslings, Aylesworth – June 2017

    Goslings, Aylesworth Park – June 2017

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  • Gravel pile, Archbald, PA – June 2017

    Gravel pile, Archbald, PA – June 2017

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  • Should I start a blogroll?

    Dave Winer: I’m thinking of restarting my blogroll. Remember those! I’ve been thinking about that too. I have a list already created of what blogs I would add to it. But I find linking to individual posts with some context provides more value than just a list of URLs.

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  • Electric City Building, Scranton, PA – January 2017

    Electric City Building, Scranton, PA – January 2017

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  • Osterhout Free Library, Wilkes-Barre, PA – January 2017

    Osterhout Free Library, Wilkes-Barre, PA – January 2017

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  • Podcasts 2017

    Three years ago I was tagged to make a list of the podcasts I was currently listening to. A year before that I did something similar. So, now I’m back this year to provide a current list. In no particular order: Criminal The West Wing Weekly The Joe Rogan Experience* The Tim Ferriss Show* tecBRIDGE […]

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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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  • Pano – South of Aylesworth – June 2017

    Pano – South of Aylesworth Park – June 2017

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  • Social Thoughts

    Me, in 2011: I believe the blog format is ready for disruption. Perhaps there doesn’t need to be “the next” WordPress, Tumblr, or Blogger for this to happen. Maybe all we really need is a few pioneers to spearhead an effort to change the way blogs are laid-out on the screen. I still feel that […]

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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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  • I’m testing out the Micro.blog iOS app. Looks nice.

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  • Epcot – March 2017

    Epcot – March 2017 It was great to visit Epcot during the Flower & Garden Festival this year.

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  • Benmarl Winery – April 2017

    Benmarl Winery – April 2017 This winery has a beautiful view over the Hudson River valley.

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  • Intro to Micro.blog

    Noah Read: Micro.blog is a social timeline, similar to Twitter, where you can post short snippets of text with links and photos, and converse with others. The biggest difference from most other social networks is where these short posts come from. They come from people’s own websites, where they control the content and can do […]

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  • What I saw this week #43: June 9, 2017

    I know, I know. I’ve missed a few. You’ll get over it. Paleobiology Navigator – "PBDB Navigator allows users to explore the Paleobiology Database through space, time, and taxonomy." If you know me at all you know that this literally burns hours and hours and hours of my time. In a good way. The Stratolaunch […]

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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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  • Claim Chowder: The Talk Show live at WWDC 2017 video

    John Gruber: This year we are not going to attempt to stream live video. Instead we’re going to work hard to get edited video of the event up on the web as soon as possible after the show is over. If you just can’t wait, listen to the live audio. If you want to see […]

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  • rss.js

    With all of the JSON Feed hubbub recently I thought it was interesting to read Dave Winer’s post re: how he had created a JSON spec based on RSS in 2012 called rss.js: I wanted to see if there was interest among developers for a JSON version of RSS. I put up a website, with […]

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  • The Daily 360

    The New York Times describes The Daily 360: Times journalists around the world bring you a new 360 video every day. I’ve watched a few of these and they are pretty cool. I found this via Dan Kimbrough who adds: The New York Times is doing a lot of cool things with 360 storytelling. 360 […]

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  • I’ve been using Apple Music today. There is a bit of a learning curve but it is far, far better than when I tried it when it was released.

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  • Outsourcing your online presence

    Joe Cieplinski: Look, I get that I’m the nut who doesn’t want to use Facebook. I’m not even saying don’t post your stuff to Facebook. But if Facebook is the only place you are posting something, know that you are shutting out people like me for no good reason. Go ahead and post to Facebook, […]

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  • Chrome ad blocking

    Sridhar Ramaswamy: We believe online ads should be better. That’s why we joined the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group dedicated to improving online ads. The group’s recently announced Better Ads Standards provide clear, public, data-driven guidance for how the industry can improve ads for consumers, and today I’d like to share how we […]

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  • Coney Island Lunch, Scranton, PA – December 2016

    Coney Island Lunch, Scranton, PA – December 2016

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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Penn Avenue Parking Garage, Scranton, PA – January 2017

    Penn Avenue Parking Garage, Scranton, PA – January 2017

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  • Pinboard acquires Delicious

    Maciej Cegłowski: Do not attempt to compete with Pinboard. This is excellent. I use Unmark daily. Partly because I helped will it into existence. If I didn’t use Unmark I’d use Pinboard (for which I have an account that I’ve paid for). And I’m very happy that Delicious (or, as I knew it del.icio.us) is […]

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Writing helps me think more clearly and to form or transform my opinions. I write about what interests me such as blogging, photography, technology, social media, and my personal creative projects.


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