Karen Ruby

Picasa Web Albums

Google came out with their latest foray into taking over the entire internet by releasing a beta, limited release of Picasa Web Albums last week. I received my *special* invite to check out the new feature today.

I've uploaded to "My Public Gallery" over a 100 pictures of my first trip to Montreal that I took last month.

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Karen.Ruby

So far, I'm quite impressed with how easy it was to download and install the new Picasa2 application so that I can use the Picasa Web Albums feature. Uploading my first album only took a couple of minutes.

Picasa Web Albums allows you to share your albums or keep them private. You can choose who gets to view your albums and you're also able to bookmark "My Favourites" albums.

I've always resisted opening a Flickr account for some reason, although I do enjoy viewing my friend's albums on the site. There's no tagging in Picasa Web Albums (yet), but this is a very easy way to share my photos with friends and family (and my blog readers). I'll continue to upload selected photos on this blog (check out my numerous photo albums to the left), but since I don't want to over-load my blog storage limits, and since I take a lot of pictures, I'm very happy to be now using Picasa Web Albums to share my photos.

You can also view other people's Public albums and download all their photos to your computer. Not sure why someone would allow this, though. I've turned off this feature on my Montreal album.

I love using Picasa, and now that they have added this Web Album feature, I can see myself using it more and more to share my photos. With 250MB worth of storage space, I can really share my photos now.

Check back often to "My Public Gallery" as I'll be uploading more albums soon.

You should definitely sign up and check out the new Picasa with its Web Albums.

Tags: Google Picasa Picasa Web Albums Flickr

Netvibes

I've been using Netvibes every day for about three weeks now and I must say that it's a very cool and useful homepage. I am totally impressed with the customization and features offerred.

This Web 2.0 app provides you with your own totally customized homepage. You can add almost anything you want to your homepage, including mail services like Gmail and Yahoo, any RSS feed you want - including Digg, del.icio.us, Technorati, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, (even my own blog). You can add podcasts, Google search, to do lists, notes, bookmarks, eBay, Flickr photos, Writely documents (which I'm still waiting for my invite so that I can use that cool web word processor). I'm sure that Picasa Albums will be added too, once that app out of limited test release (hopefully soon).

I love that my home page has the ability to add multiple tabs and I can drag 'n drop (very cool!) any module that I want to any tab that I want. It's totally customizable! You can even title your page to whatever your heart's desire.

Developers are adding modules all the time to Netvibes web services, including the FIFA World Cup 2006, games, local weather, map mashups, calendars, Soduku, and so many other very useful services that I keep finding and adding to my home page.

This is pretty darn cool. I can see something like this definitely hanging around as it's so useful. Why go to tons of other sites when all the information you want is on one customized site? 

Check it out.

Tags: Netvibes Google Writely Digg

Publish On Demand

I came across a couple of self-publishing or publish on demand sites that I thought I would share.

As you may have read here, a couple of months ago I self-published my Mother's poems and provided everyone in the family with a copy of the book. It turned out fantastic and as this was something that I had always wanted to do for my family, I don't have to live with the regret of not completing this goal any longer.

Even though it's in beta, Blurb.com looks like a really really easy way to self-publish your book. You can even use one of their book templates if you didn't want to design your own book from start to finish. You have to install their software on your computer, but as the site says: What will your book be? Start-to-finish publishing software simple and smart enough to make you an author. The prices seem pretty reasonable, too, at $29.95 for a 40 page colour book. I'm waiting until they complete their blog template before I decide to take the plunge and self-publish some of my blog posts for members of my family who don't own a computer.

Another site that is pretty cool is the Lulu.com site that allows you to not only publish your books but also you can publish other products such as calendars, videos, images, music and audio and then sell those products on Lulu's site. There is a ton of stuff to check out at Lulu.com. The Lulu.com site is a more robust site that offers so much more than just publishing your book, they have marketing services links that provide you with everything you need to design, market, publish, graphic designers, and get your book sold on their site. The site has a wide selection of books and other products that authors have used Lulu.com to create. Thinking of writing a non-fiction book? I noticed quite a few non-fiction titles in their Top 100 books.

Everyone wants to be an author and everyone has a unique voice. If you are thinking of self-publishing or publishing on demand, check out the links.

Tags: Blurb Lulu Self-publishing

INXS at Air Canada Centre

I'm still thinking of the INXS concert that I went to on Sunday night (May 14th) at the Air Canada Centre (along with 15 000 other people). What a performance!

INXS is on tour to promote their new album, Switch and is made up of Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Garry Beers and J.D. Fortune.

I was hooked on the TV reality show "Rock Star: INXS" last summer as many, many other people also were and was very happy that a fellow Canadian, J.D. Fortune, won the show to become the band's new lead vocalist.

Okay, I admit it, I didn't think he would win last summer, but am really glad that he did. I absolutely loved the "Pretty Vegas" song that he co-wrote with the band's guitarist Andrew Farriss and seeing the band perform the song live was fantastic, if a little surreal as I can remember watching them perform it on TV last summer. But, nothing compares to seeing the band's hour-and-35-minute live performance.

I think J.D. was born to be on stage and be a singer.  It got me thinking that it must also be surreal for him to be fronting a major band like INXS as it wasn't too long ago that he was living out of his car when he heard that INXS was looking for a new lead singer and was holding auditions for the Rock Star: INXS TV show. It's amazing and motivating to me how fast he turned his life around. I know that a lot of people were very impressed with his performance on the show, even though sometimes his antics were considered to be very arrogant and selfish. But, you can also say that he was confident in his abilities and wanted the lead singer position more than any one else on the show. You can tell his hunger was more pronounced than the other contestants/singers.

I also think there's a lesson there. If you want something bad enough, have the talent to back up your words and actions, are hungry enough, and believe in yourself, you can achieve your dreams.

Just something to think about.

Tags: INXS Switch

Dell Flat Panel Monitor

I finally took the plunge and bought myself a flat panel monitor. Whippee! Is it ever gorgeous!

Dell was offering some amazing deals for the first week of May and I picked up their "UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor" for $429CAD (with tax it came to $493) and didn't pay for shipping. It was regular $649 plus tax. I think it was a good deal at the time. Within two weeks the monitor was delivered and setup. Here's a picture of it on my desk:

It takes up so much less space than my older 17" Dell CRT monitor. What a difference!

Because it's a widescreen monitor, I popped in one of my widescreen DVD movies. Watching a widescreen movie on a widescreen monitor makes a huge difference. Now you can see how the directors wanted to make the movie, without the fullscreen distortion. It's like having another TV, since my actual TV is only a 19" model. Can you tell where my priorities lie?

You have to get used to the widescreen aspect of the monitor since webpages are sometimes either stretched to fill the screen or as you can see in my picture above, there are great big side panels on each side of the web page.

Here are the specs if you are interested: Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor. What I really like, beside the huge 20.1" screen, is the USB ports on the side of the monitor. No more swapping USB peripherals on my PC. I also really like that I can add a PVR PCI card to my machine and use it with the new monitor to actually watch TV on my computer. I may do that shortly, especially now that I have space with the new 160GB hard drive that I bought late last year.

It's the small things that make one happy.

Self-Publishing Poetry Book

My Mother has written poems all her life and one of the things that I've always wanted to do was to give her an actual book of her poetry. Last month, I was able to accomplish this major life goal of mine by self-publishing her poems.

Here is a picture of my Mom's books on the day the order arrived. Talk about exciting! The book turned out better than I ever expected. You cannot imagine the thrill of holding a "real book" in your hands, until you self-publish. No wonder so many people self-publish and want to be authors! It's quite thrilling to hold the finished product in your hands.

Here's a close-up of the spine and cover:

I had always wanted to do this for my Mom and as an keepsake for each member of my rather large family. I had originally wanted to give the book for my Mom's 70th Birthday (which was 3 years ago). When the opportunity presented itself to self-publish her poems, of course I did was so happy to be able to do this for her, for my family, and also for me. My Mother's health is failing and I did not want to live with the regret of not having my Mom's poems in a book form so that everyone in the family and her close personal friends could have a copy of her beautiful poetry.

You cannot imagine the reaction to the book in my family - everyone is so thrilled with it. Of course, I am too! This is something that can be passed down from generation to generation in our family. My Mom is already a great-grandmother and one day her great grandchildren can remember their "Noni" by reading her beautiful poetry.

Here's one of my Mom's poems that I particularly like:

Thoughts

Sometimes I lie awake and think about things
How mountains grow and streams run
Silly thoughts, serious thoughts fill my mind
And leave me with an appetite for more
A thirst, a craving of what, why and how?
This often escapes me and I become
Impatient for this knowledge
For when can I grasp as much as my cup will hold
Then shall I know where lies my future

Rita G. Ruby

The book was relatively easy and painless to get self-published. I worked with a graphic designer to design the cover page and the spine. I had already typed up all the poems (54 pages of them) and ordered them into chapters. I also wrote the page page, describing the book of my Mom's poems. The graphic designer worked with the printing company to print the pages and with the binding company to perfect bind the book. We also included two pages of colour photographs of different stages of my family. We only have a handful of pictures of everyone in the family in one picture.

All in all, it was so worth the time and money to be able to self-publish my Mom's book of poetry. If you have been thinking of self-publishing your own writings or someone in your family's writings, I really encourage you to do so. From start to finish, the book took only about six weeks and for 50 copies, it was under $1000. The money means nothing - the relief of not having the regret of not doing this for my Mom and for my family is priceless. The joy of actually holding the final book, knowing the happiness that it would bring my Mom and my sisters and brother, cannot be described. Self-publishing a book is pretty cool!

Don't live with the regret of not looking into self-publishing, if this has been something that you've wanted to do. If I can do it, then so can you.

Tags: Self-Publishing Poetry

Malcolm Gladwell's a Blogger!

Malcolm Gladwell has a blog! Malcolm Gladwell's a blogger, too!

Check it out here: http://gladwell.typepad.com/

I bought and read both books. Very interesting reads.

Welcome to the blogosphere!

I hope TypePad can handle all your traffic!

As you probably already know, Gladwell wrote the fascinating book, "Blink" in 2005. He also wrote "The Tipping Point" in 2000.

Tags: Malcolm Gladwell

Canadian International AutoShow

I went to the 2006 Canadian International AutoShow yesterday to see all the latest models and to have some fun. The Show has been on since February 17-26, 2006.

The 2006 Show was held at three locations this year; the Metro Toronto Convention Center North and South Buildings, plus the Rogers Center. I haven't been to an AutoShow in Toronto before, nor have I been to the Rogers Center (formerly Air Canada Centre) and had a great time seeing all the latest models, some very classic and restored cars and a few concept cars. There were tons of people walking around and taking in the sights of all the cool cars. Today's the last day for the show and I'm glad that I was able to go this year.

Isn't this a beautiful Aston Martin?

Me and my friend loved being able to sit in some of the cars that were on display. We really liked the SmartCar. It's a lot roomier than you would think.

Check out my new photo album for some of the pictures I took at the 2006 Canadian International AutoShow here in Toronto.

Tags: AutoShow Toronto

Chatting with Gmail

I noticed something new on my Gmail account this morning:

Gmail has added the ability to Chat within its email client. If you are on Google Talk, now when you log into Gmail you'll find a list of your chat contacts on the left-hand side of the window, and you can see who's online and start chatting with them. Having the chat option within Gmail allows you to save, search for, and view your chat histories just like your Gmail messages.

Gmail is integrating this to their millions of users in the next few weeks. I was pleasantly surprised that I my account had the Chat feature today. Pretty cool!

Thanks Robert for the early tip on this cool integration feature.

Tags: Gmail Chat

Great Canadian Places

I came across this site, Great Canadian Places, on CANOE because it mentioned Old Fort William. Have you heard of Old Fort William? It's a restored historic Fort located in Thunder Bay, Ontario - my hometown. In fact, Old Fort William is one of the largest historical reproductions in North America with 43 buildings spread over 25 acres. It's a fantastic place to visit if you are interested in seeing how people actually lived and worked in the 1800s. The Great Canadian Places site has some good pictures and movies of the Fort. Fort William and Port Arthur amalgamated into Thunder Bay in 1970.

I worked a summer at Old Fort William. Well, not at the Fort itself but on the landscaping surrounding the tourist centre before you enter the Fort. Everyone who works at the actual Fort site has to be in authentic historic garb and speak and act as if it was the 1800s. The visitors to the site are exposed to the life of an authentic fur-trading post. The teepees where the Ojibwe Indians lived and where they made fur items were just outside the Fort's walls and visitors were also able to see how the local aboriginal peoples lived. There are many people who are employed as fur traders, doctor, voyageurs, canoe makers, bakers, blacksmiths and others who made the Fort a valuable and authentic trading and military post. It's a great educational place to visit.

Check out the site to see other Great Canadian Places, including Dawson City, Gulf of Georgia Cannery, Nan Sdins, Skoki Ski Lodge, Bar U Ranch, Wanuskewin, Algonquin Park, HMCS Haida, Pointe-au-Pere, Quebec City, Old Town Lunenburg and L'Anse aux Meadows.

For more information on Old Fort William check out these links:

http://www.fwhp.ca/index2.html -> The official site for Old Fort William

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William_Historical_Park

Tags: Old Fort William Great Canadian Places Thunder Bay