Blog

  • Some Earth quaking perspective

    Here is a bit of perspective regarding the recent outbreak of earthquake news. The Earth quakes quite a bit. In fact, it could probably be said that somewhere on the Earth, at any given time, there is an earthquake occuring. Some are felt, some aren’t, most are now being measured. Lets look at the last […]

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  • These are a few of my favorite things

    I have different reasons for saving favorites on each service that I use. I figured I’d take some time to explain the reasons by listing out the services on which I save favorites and why. Also of note is that these reasons happened naturally and were not the result of me trying to think of […]

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  • All Chrome all the time

    I’ve been using Chrome as my default browser for nearly six months. It won Best Browser in my Best of 2009 list. I didn’t even realize it had been that long until I went back through some of [the things I wrote about Chrome here in First initial, last name](http://cdevroe.com/?s=chromium chrome). To be more specific, […]

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  • FOR SALE: The Tonight Show

    This is absolutely fantastic. It appears as though Conan O’Brien put The Tonight Show for sale on Craigslist. Craigslist appears to have taken the page down. Bummer. /via Mashable.

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  • Launch delay

    No matter how fast your computer is there is a slight delay between asking an application to open and it actually being opened. Depending on the size of the application and how well it was built, this time may vary. I have a still top-of-the-line 15" unibody Macbook Pro and even small applications take a […]

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  • The since IE 6 list.

    Dave Shea has put together a rather fascinating list of some of the things that have happened since the release of Internet Explorer 6 on August 27, 2001 (a browser that is still in use).

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  • This is why I love Acorn

    When was the last time you saw a free update like this roll out from you know who? I suggest you grab a copy of Acorn 2.2 and test it out for yourself. Awesome.

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  • Viddler Support command central

    Bernie‘s ‘computer bank’ for Viddler support is pretty awesome.

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  • I want a big iPhone too

    The speculation about the upcoming product from Apple, presumably some form of tablet computer, is all over the place. The more I read the more I want. The more I want the more I wish. The more I wish the more I desire a big iPhone. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last […]

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  • Black Phoebe

    Several birds have visited our bird feeder since we’ve moved into the new apartment. I have yet to get a really good capture of any of them though the opportunities have been there. I’m hoping to score a few before winter is over. This particular bird, I think, is a Black Phoebe.

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  • Facebook URL Helper

    The Facebook iPhone application now has an address book syncing feature that will pull in all of your friend’s profile pictures and also set up their Web site URLs as fb://somethingsomething. Chris Clark, in his infinite genius, put together a helper for your Macintosh that will redirect fb:// URLs to their proper http:// equivalent.

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  • Not anymore Henry

    Interesting comparison between the knowledge of science and the knowledge of man by the always [quotable](http://cdevroe.com/?s=henry david thoreau) Henry David Thoreau: "Science does not embody all that men know, only what is for men of science. The woodman tells me how he caught trout in a box trap, how he made his trough for maple […]

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  • Kyle Slattery on geocoding his vacation

    Kyle Slattery pulls a bit of a yarn about the current state of geocoding in his world as he experienced it on a recent trip to Chicago. Kyle and I are nearly always on the same page and with this particular subject it isn’t any different. The good bits are in woven into the fabric […]

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  • Graceland

    Well, my Graceland anyway.

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  • And thanks for the stats

    This is odd. Today I was reading on WordPress.com’s blog about "Two New Stats Things", written by the always fantastic and multi-talented Andy Skelton, and since I use WordPress’ free stats plugin as my primary means of tracking statistics here on First initial, last name I figured I’d show my appreciation to Andy and team […]

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  • Back that thing up.

    This is just wonderful. Marco Arment has recently released a back up application for Tumblr that is currently only available for Mac OS X. This back up application takes a fairly unique approach among blogging platforms in that it backs up your Tumblog using raw files to your hard disk. It saves HTML files directly […]

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  • CES 2010 videos

    The video coverage of CES 2010 by the @viddler base has been pretty stellar so far this year.

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  • Dave Oberheu on fun and winning

    My friend Dave Oberheu is a bit of a gaming nut. Having played several games at his house over the years I can tell you from first hand knowledge that Dave probably owns more games than you have ever played. I really like this quote from a recent post on his gaming blog Brettspiel Cafe […]

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  • Mushroom Bowl

    Eliza is making soup. She cut up countless mushrooms of varying types (only some pictured here). Mmmmm.

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  • Now with 100% more Twitter.

    UPDATE: I only use @cdevroe now. In addition to the support for Realtime RSS that I’ve added recently I’ve also now created a Twitter account for First initial, last name. Although the username @cdevroecom is rather disappointing I could not figure out any combination of First initial, last name that was available so we’ll all […]

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  • Random 60: Are you geocoded?

    Turn up your speakers for this one folks. My friend Eric Brophy and I (more him than me) have a chat about geocoding, mashups, Twitter, and the potential for other geocoded things to pop up in the future. You can pretty much expect First initial, last name to be 85% geo in 2010. No question […]

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  • The L5 Remote

    Speaking of cool remote controls – the L5 Remote is a combination iPhone/iPod touch application accessory to turn said iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for your television, DVR, Blu-ray player, and just about anything else accepting IR input. Yes, please. But I’ll need a discount on two (one for my iPhone and […]

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  • Photos of UPenn Weave Bridge by Albert Yee

    Brilliant photos from Albert Yee the new Weave Bridge at UPenn show that it is pretty stunning. I love when people take the opportunity to make something beautiful in a place where something ‘average’ could have sufficed.

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  • The Boxee Box.

    The Boxee Box, a mini-square-ish computer with the sole purpose of running Boxee on a television, is becoming more compelling with every press release. Made by D-Link this little box is being reported to hit the market at under $200 and to have one heckuva remote control. At that size, with that design, that price […]

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  • Chrome overtakes Safari for 3rd place among browsers

    According to Mashable (via Net Applications via The Apple Blog) Chrome has surpassed Safari for third place among browsers in terms of market share. I’m as big an Apple fan as anyone but this is pretty well deserved on speed alone.

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  • Joining the drum line for Realtime RSS

    I remember when I first learned about RSS. At the time my personal Web site was running on some homegrown content management system that I built myself using ASP. So I was tasked, unlike many people today, with creating my own feeds. I had to learn what feeds did and why they were beneficial, read […]

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  • Gravity Wells by XKCD

    XKCD, which I suggested that you all subscribe to nearly one year ago, continues to amaze. Gravity Wells, a recent comic about the relative gravitational pulls of the celestial objects in our Solar System, is one of the very best things I’ve ever seen.

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  • Adding one step to Aaron Swartz’s thoughts on hiring programmers

    If you’re in a hiring phase you’ll want to peruse Aaron Swartz’s thoughts on hiring programmers. The process that he walks through could, and should, be used for hiring just about anyone (not just programmers). However, I would add one step to the beginning of the process. Watching that person online. I know it seems […]

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  • Eiffel Tower blueprints

    Probably better described as yellowprints these "blueprints" are reproductions (presumably far better looking ones) of the original documents used to build the Eiffel Tower found in a book from 1900. I never really wanted to be an architect, one of the only things I haven’t dreamed of being, until I saw these. /via Jason Kottke.

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  • GeoAPI now a service by Twitter

    As you’ve probably read Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs who runs GeoAPI, an API for all things location, and plans to integrate that API and its team directly into Twitter’s offerings. Brady Forrest for O’Reilly Radar on the possible implications of this acquisition: "Second, does this herald Twitter’s moves into being a location provider? At […]

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  • Ways of reading by Mandy Brown

    Crap. Crap. Crap. In March of this year I wrote: “Editor’s note: I don’t know Mandy Brown but her blog is definitely in the top three well-written blogs that I subscribe to. Every post is excellent. Her blog will, more than likely, make my Best of 2009 list.” Well, I forgot to add Mandy Brown’s […]

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  • What Brightkite could be. What Brightkite should be.

    The line between what Brightkite offers and what Twitter offers their respective communities is arguably very thin. Both offer fantastic microblogging features including updates and notifications via SMS, the Web, and APIs. Until somewhat recently, however, only Brightkite offered another layer ontop of these features that really separated it from Twitter without question. Geolocation. Brightkite […]

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  • Five best iPhone camera mods

    Thanks to iSmashPhone for including my macro lens for the iPhone in their five best iPhone camera mods.

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  • Acorn 2.2 almost ready but you can get it now

    Acorn, my image editor of choice on the Macintosh, is nearing a new release. Gus Mueller, the developer behind Flying Meat software, has a page set up to download the very latest builds of his products. You can now grab a beta copy of Acorn 2.2 which has a slew of excellent updates to test […]

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  • The best of 2009 as told by me

    In November 2008 I put forth a list of things I thought were the best Web sites, applications, and various other things that I came across in 2008. I said "They are simply works that I feel should be awarded with the recognition of being the best that I’ve personally found this year." I’m doing […]

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  • Chillin with Pickles

    Waiting for the coffee to finish brewing with my buddy.

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  • The best shelf in the pantry

    Kyle, I hope your jealous.

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  • The Twitter blog takes one step forward and two steps back

    The Twitter blog has a brand new design and it looks pretty slick. However, it no longer shows trackbacks and/or comments for each blog post effectively losing a few years worth of data. Boo.

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  • A 70-minute video review of The Phantom Menace

    This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Watch it. /via Every Star Wars geek I subscribe to. PS. There is a lot of backstory that goes along with this link. An example of which is that Damon Lindelof, the major creative driving force behind LOST and the recent Star Trek film, watched this and […]

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  • Cure writer’s block by using Skribit

    Skribit, the very same service I use to allow suggestions on First initial, last name, has finally opened its doors to the public. I suggest checking it out. See what I did there?

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  • Waterproofing your iPhone

    As reported by Danilo Campos on Twitter "Any ziplock bag you happen to find in your kitchen will waterproof your phone while allowing the screen to respond." So I gave it a whirl and it works! Neven Mrgan, who I heard this through, brought up a few great uses for this. He said "This means […]

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  • French toast made with cinnamon bread

    Like last time I used this recipe. It was a little sweet for me (typically I do not order my french toast with cinnamon or powered sugar) but it turned out really good. The bread was from [Bingham’s Restaurant](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bingham’s restaurant kingsley pa&sll=51.47653,-0.286825&sspn=0.070672,0.123596&ie=UTF8&hq=bingham’s restaurant&hnear=Kingsley, PA&ll=41.740194,-75.699749&spn=0.081464,0.123596&z=13&iwloc=A) (Google Map link).

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  • Got butt?

    Here is @pookers’ butt.

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  • Rt. 6 Bridge

    Taken with my iPhone while getting gas one morning and cross processed in Mill Colour (iTunes link).

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  • Tumblr’s Twitter API

    Hot on the heels of WordPress’ Twitter API Tumblr has announced their own Twitter-like API for reading and writing to Tumblogs. I love that they came right out and said that they were inspired by WordPress’ move.

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  • WordPress’ Twitter API

    WordPress.com, to be specific, now has an API that mirrors the Twitter API. This effectively allows any Twitter client, such as Tweetie or Hahlo, to read and write to WordPress.com powered blogs only by changing their API endpoint. Hopefully this feature will be available via a plugin sometime in the near future? /via Tony Schneider.

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  • Gorillacam by Joby

    Joby, the makers of the Gorilla flexible tripods, have released a free iPhone camera application called Gorillacam that could be used as a replacement for the default camera app. Tripod not included nor required. /via John Gruber.

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  • TeuxDeux – A simple, designy, to do app

    I’ve seen TeuxDeux recommended by several blogs that I’m subscribed to over the last few weeks so I finally took a few minutes to take a look. Turns out it is exactly what it says it is, a simple, designy to do application that is definitely worth a look.

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  • Joining Project52

    "Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year." I’ve never liked the word "content" but I love when people set goals before themselves to write more. Anton Peck created Project52 this back in 2007. He […]

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  • Something is diverting the Twitter stream

    Last night, long after my "sleep" preference that I have set up on Twitter, I got a text message from Paul Stamatiou via Twitter. I follow Paul, or @Stammy as he’s known on Twitter, but I do not have him turned on for SMS notifications. Odd, I thought. I rolled over and went back to […]

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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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