Jeff Keeping It Real!: 06/01/2008

Taphandle TV serves up great drinks live

Friday June 27, 2008 @ 1800 PST I had the pleasure of stumbling upon a Ustream live cast called Taphandle-tv. Instantly I was personally greeted by Greg Lordo, call him Lordo. He was pouring a concoction of rum and fruit juice. He has a home bar setup in his basement (built by Curt I found out). The bar is not very big but I must say as an ole bartender and manager he was well stocked. Here is a picture of Lordo at his bar hard at work.

Later we found that the concoction was actually Passion Fruit Mojito made with

Malibu Passion Fruit Rum
Passion fruit puree
Sour mix
Mint
Limes
Sugar
Club soda

He switched over to the close up cam (ingredients cam (see pic below)) and he added the mint, limes, and sugar in a mixer and muddled the ingredients together then added ice to top. Added 1 1/2oz of Malibu Passion Fruit Rum, puree and 1oz sour mix. Then shake, shake, shake then poured into a Collins glass. Topped off with club soda.

He went on to taste two beers and gave a rating of them. One was Mickey's Big Mouth and the other was Goose Island Summertime IPA. He pointed to the lower left corner of the window and had us vote on the beers. Yes it was a poll a live interactive poll while the show was going on.

Every time he would post his website address on the screen he would call a social. That means bottoms up and have a drink. If that were not enough every time someone would enter his web address in the chat he would call a social again, cheers. A hand with a beer would extend on screen as though he was personally handing me a beer, thank you Lordo for the many beers last night. If I were trying to keep up with all the socials I would have been passed out on the floor or praying to the porcelain gods.

He threw up a poll to see what shot of tequila he would be doing. There was Cabo Wabo, Pepe Lopez or Americana Vodka. The votes came in as Pepe Lopez so he poured a shot and switched over to the shot cam and here he is getting ready to have one on us. Bottoms up Lordo and Cheers!

If your wondering what this Ustream TV is let me give you the run down direct from Ustream itself.

Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand. Click here to start a broadcast now or learn more about broadcasting.

Ustream's one-to-many live interactive video encourages broadcast-to-viewer and viewer-to-viewer interaction, empowering a much more engaging experience for everyone involved.

I have been hooked on Ustream for a few weeks and must say if you have never seen it or heard about it stop by and surf the various channels. There are some great shows and some not so great shows.

Lordo, D, Bob, and Curt thank you for making me part of the Taphandle-tv bar I feel like Norm of Cheers. Let me leave you with the live feed of Taphandle-tv on Ustream TV. There may or may not be video all the time but highly recommend checking out Taphandle-tv.com. Cheers!

Web TV provided by Ustream

Taphandle-tv.com live show

Cheers bar maybe gone but taphandle tv rules the roost!

Friday June 27, 2008 @ 1800 PST I had the pleasure of stumbling upon a Ustream live cast called Taphandle-tv.Â Instantly I was personally greeted by Greg Lordo, call him Lordo.Â He was pouring a concoction of rum and fruit juice.Â He has a home bar setup in his basement (built by Curt I found out).Â The bar is not very big but I must say as an ole bartender and manager he was well stocked.Â Here is a picture of Lordo at his bar hard at work.

Later we found that the concoction was actually Passion Fruit Mojito made with

Malibu Passion Fruit Rum
Passion fruit puree
Sour mix
Mint
Limes
Sugar
Club soda

He switched over to the close up cam (ingredients cam (see pic below)) and he added the mint, limes, and sugar in a mixer and muddledÂ the ingredients together then added ice to top.Â Added 1 1/2oz of Malibu Passion Fruit Rum, puree and 1oz sour mix.Â Then shake, shake, shake then poured into a Collins glass.Â Topped off with club soda.

He went on to taste two beers and gave a rating of them.Â One was Mickey's Big Mouth and the other was Goose Island Summertime IPA. He pointed to the lower left corner of the window and had us vote on the beers.Â Yes it was a poll a live interactive poll while the show was going on.

Every time he would post his website address on the screen he would call a social.Â That means bottoms up and have a drink.Â If that were not enough every time someone would enter his web address in the chat he would call a social again, cheers. A hand with a beer would extend on screen as though he was personally handing me a beer, thank you Lordo for the many beers last night.Â If I were trying to keep up with all the socials I would have been passed out on the floor or praying to the porcelain gods.

He threw up a poll to see what shot of tequila he would be doing.Â There was Cabo Wabo, Pepe Lopez or Americana Vodka.Â The votes came in as Pepe Lopez so he poured a shot and switched over to the shot cam and here he is getting ready to have one on us.Â Bottoms up Lordo and Cheers!

If your wondering what this Ustream TV is let me give you the run down direct from Ustream itself.

Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand. Click here to start a broadcast now or learn more about broadcasting.

Ustream's one-to-many live interactive video encourages broadcast-to-viewer and viewer-to-viewer interaction, empowering a much more engaging experience for everyone involved.

I have been hooked on Ustream for a few weeks and must say if you have never seen it or heard about it stop by and surf the various channels.Â There are some great shows and some not so great shows.

Lordo, D, Bob, and Curt thank you for making me part of the Taphandle-tv bar I feel like Norm of Cheers.Â Let me leave you with the live feed of Taphandle-tv on Ustream TV.Â There may or may not be video all the time but highly recommend checking out Taphandle-tv.com.Â Cheers!

Why Vysr's RoamAbout Social App Is Worth A Peek!

After my review of Flock Web Browser For Serious Users I received an email from Vysr asking if I would be so kind as to try there new app that would be out in a couple of days. The techie in me said sure I would give it a try. I received my invite/link today and installed the new app in my flock web browser (also works for Firefox). The toolbar to the right showed up in the lower right corner of my browser's status bar.

The app is clean and inconspicuous you hardly notice it there. This app works by select text in the web browser and clicking on one of the buttons. Here are what the buttons look like and represent.

Lets test roamabout social plug-in/app. I went to Vysr's contact page and highlighted the address and then clicked on the mapquest icon. You get a popup/pop out next to the toolbar. A map of the address I highlighted shows up, pretty cool!

I highlighted the zip code and clicked on the weather icon and magically I see Vysr is having a lovely day in Palo Alto, CA.

As you can see this nice light weight app/plug-in is indispensable in it's capabilities. I have not touched on the other buttons such as stock quote: Highlight a company name and see there stock price and performance. Wikipedia: Highlight any word to see what Wikipedia has to say about it. There are many more worth looking into like You Tube, Flickr, news, share, and even play a game.

The only issue I am having is the Twitter button is not allowing me to login. This is a must for me as I use Twitter a lot. I have personally spoke to Vysr and they are looking into it as it is working for them. Well it works for 2 out of 4 people. At least Vysr took my call and I spoke to Erica the Product Manager and she was insightful and very knowledgeable about RoamAbout. We talked about how the error messages (user error messages) could be a little more intuitive.

I suggested a few things that would make my experience a better one.

Allow login to your You Tube and Flickr accounts. That way I can see my favorites and pictures.
I use Tumblr and Friendfeed a lot and suggested maybe adding a button for those.

If your a firefox or flock user I would recommend looking at this add-in to make your surfing experiences just that much better. I would like to thank Bernadette for the invite and look forward to watching Roamabout application take off and go mainstream.

This review is not paid for and is solely my opinion. However, if Vysr wants to send me some logo items I sure won't through them away. Oh and I wear a XL t-shirt ;)

Hope everyone enjoyed this review and if you have any new application's for Windows XP/Vista, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock or Windows Mobile 6 you would like reviewed feel free to contact me via the Contact us page at the top.

Why Vysr's RoamAbout Social App Is Worth A Peek!

The app is clean and inconspicuous you hardly notice it there. This app works by select text in the web browser and clicking on one of the buttons. Here are what the buttons look like and represent.

I highlighted the zip code and clicked on the weather icon and magically I see Vysr is having a lovely day in Palo Alto, CA.

I suggested a few things that would make my experience a better one.

Allow login to your You Tube and Flickr accounts. That way I can see my favorites and pictures.

I use Tumblr and Friendfeed a lot and suggested maybe adding a button for those.

This review is not paid for and is solely my opinion. However, if Vysr wants to send me some logo items I sure won't through them away. Oh and I wear a XL t-shirt ;)

6 Useful Vista Features You Didn’t Know About from MakeUseOf.com

Windows Vista has an incredible amount of features and tools, many of which are almost totally undocumented and buried in the system somewhere. Administrative and troubleshooting tools particularly are now much more powerful and easier to use then ever before.

Here are six little features and applications in Vista which I think are quite useful:

Snipping Tool

The Snipping Tool was an application I didn’t even know existed till yesterday. This tool was introduced with Windows Vista (although it is not present in Vista Basic) but I just hadn’t come across it yet.

I’m so used to replacing any Windows applications with better freeware alternatives that it didn’t occur to me a Windows tool could do the job adequately. Sure, Snipping Tool isn’t the best screenshot application but it does all the basics, and even has a few extra features such as the ability to directly email a screenshot, or highlight something quickly. All it needs is a setting that enables it to be launched from the printscreen key.

Quick Launch ToolBar

If you initially tried to drag the Quick Launch toolbar off the Vista task bar, you wouldn’t have had much success. However this feature hasn’t been removed from Vista - its just been made less accessible for some strange reason.

If you want to enable the Quick Launch bar, simply create a new folder on your desktop. Drag this folder to the right edge of your screen and let go. The toolbar should have now have appeared down the side of the screen. By right clicking on the bar and selecting ‘Toolbars > Quick Launch’ you will have enabled the Quick Launch toolbar.

There are a couple of adjustable options such as hiding the title and folder text or making the icons smaller. I like using this as my application launcher as it’s the best launcher you’ll find, and I can live without the visual effects of others .

Photo Slideshows

You’ve probably seen this option amongst the buttons along the explorer bar, but have you actually tried it?

The Slideshow is actually a nice way to view your photographs. You can change the speed and effects of the presentation, and a number of themes are included such as “collage”, “album”, “glass” and more. You can display photographs in Sepia, black and white and normal. It may seem trivial but it can be quite useful when you have relatives around, you can bore them with your latest travel photographs or something.

Windows Media Encoder

Windows Media Encoder was included with Vista but has been available to anyone as a free download for quite some time. Again it may lack some of the power of alternative applications, but I think you’ll find it does a fairly decent job.

You can use Media Encoder to capture audio or video, convert files, screen capture and more. The capture is particularly useful if you want to create a video of a program demonstration, etc.

Resizing Icons

Icons can be resized anywhere in Vista by simply holding down the control key and scrolling your mouse. Even though the ‘view’ options only list seven icon display sizes, there are actually nearly forty which you can scroll through via this method. It also works on your desktop icons.

Show Windows Side by Side

Ever got annoyed with Windows Explorer? Haven’t we all. Shankar offered some tips a few weeks back for the power user, but if that’s a bit much then there is one simple thing you can do to make moving your files around a bit easier.

Hold down the control key and select two windows on the task bar. Right click and select “Show Windows Side by Side”. You’ll now have the two windows aligned next to each other. This isn’t just for Explorer windows of course, it’ll work on any application. Especially useful for comparing documents or online research.

What are your favourite tools in Vista?

(By) Laurence John finds himself way over his head on the Internet. Too many places, too much people. But that’s okay, being a Uni student he already has too much time on his hands. Read his blog over at Not Waving But Drowning

Skydeck wants you to love your cell phone bill.

Received an invite to checkout Skydeck they want me to love my cell phone bill. So I just had to stop by and see if they can make me love my bill. Don't know about you but it is pretty hard to love a cell phone bill no matter what someone does with it.

What does Skydeck do?

Skydeck helps you to manage your cell phone, your cell phone bill, and the contacts you communicate with using your cell phone. For example, we enable you to see all of your call records in one place, link them to your contacts, tag and annotate them, and search your calls the way you search your email. Additionally, Skydeck will use the information in your cell phone bills to intelligently organize and rank your address book and allow you to network with others on the site.

Once you signed up for beta they will send you an invitation to try there service. I found the setup process rather easy. You need to have a logon to your cell carrier website. Skydeck currently supports AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the US only.

Once Skydeck logged onto my cell carrier it downloaded my cell bills for analyzing. Then it asked me to import my contacts to cross reference. I used Gmail but they offer Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail and Plaxo.

It will put the contacts in a rank. The rank is based on your call usage from the bill. It even gives a nice little 5 bar scale. You can add your own picture to each contact to make a little more visually appealing. You can ask your friends/contacts to join Skydeck so that you can link to them as a connection. This is the part I am not sure about yet. I will need to find someone willing to link to me to see what it's capabilities are.

What do my Connections get to see? >>

Your Connections see the Skydeck Profile that you create - business, personal, or both - and they see what you see in the box titled "My Connections".

Remember, all your data is private by default. No matter how often you communicate with someone you have to connect to them on this page for them to show up in your Network. Like any network, if you want to keep a connection secret, don't connect to that person.

Click 'Edit my profile' on the left side of the screen to get started and then choose 'Add Connections' to find people that you know.

To see this page again, click "What is the Skydeck Network?" in the bottom left of the Network tab.

I am not so convinced this will benefit me since I am already on a ton of networks. Might be worth a look to see if it fits into your online scheme.

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Flickr

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