Squad Blog

UW Extension: DENIED!

Phil Tapia — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

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Towards the end of August Jordan and I applied for the Ruby Programming Certificate program at the University of Washington.

Unfortunately this week we learned that we were not going to be accepted into the program. The reason was because we didn’t have proficiency in an object oriented programming language. They don’t count scripting languages.. we were told they are looking for experience in a high level programming language such as C++ or Java.

We’ve been communicating with the program director and hope to still be admitted into the program. If this doesn’t work out, I’m planning on doing the Free Online Ruby on Rails Course offered by BuildingWebApps.com

I’ll let you know if we end up getting in.. I sure hope we do!

$100 Box Spring

Andrew Kelly — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last weekend, I took a trip with my brother and some friends to Portland where I shot this polaroid of my brother outside a mattress shop. I just got my hands on some Spectra film and have had really good results which is bittersweet since polaroid has discontinued its film. I don’t like the flash on this camera and have had the best results without it. Also, I’ve heard some spectra cameras can make multiple exposures which I’m anxious to try.

Viral Marketing

Brandon Herbel — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve noticed over the last few years that a lot of record labels have started to use the internet for viral marketing as a way to promote their artists. In an era where music can be downloaded at the push of a button this seems to be a great way to keep fans interested and coming back for more.

Fall Out Boy have done a perfect example of this by creating buzz around something called Citizens for Our Betterment that later turned out to be a very thought out scavenger hunt for fans as a way to promote their new album “Folie A Deux”.

Copeland is another band that recently used this strategy by making websites that looked similar to commonly visited sites like Absolutepunk.net but were actually a website promoting their new album.

I’m excited to see where record labels and other companies take this form of promotion in the coming years. Check out what happens when you type in myspace.com wrong.

New to Glue? Here's some help.

Jordan Dobson — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:59:00 +0000

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We release about 50 new accounts weekly on Glue, our simple web & mobile content publishing tool and while we’ve strived to make Glue simple, there’s always a learning curve with new tools.

Here’s some topics to help you get started!

Glue Help Blog Topics

I’ll add to the list over time, so keep checking back. You can also ask questions on our forum and follow us on Twitter for status updates and more.

Have a request for a detailed help topic? I’d gladly put it together for you, just email me at info@gluenow.com with your request.

Tell It To The Volcano

Aaron Bellone — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Be prepared for the latest MerchSquad store. The band Miniature Tigers just signed up and the store launches next week!

The sound coming from this trio has been described as a mix of Pinkerton-era Weezer, Ben Kweller, and the Beach Boys. There’s a ton of good reviews on these guys so check them out! The store launches with a Limited Edition CD of their debut full length, Tell it to the Volcano. The Limited edition of 1000 copies, each individually number-stamped comes boxed in an Arigato-Pak, printed on a 150-year-old letterpress!

How to setup svnX and use Subversion in OS X

Brian Harper — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Steps

Install a Subversion client. I used the compiled DMG from Martin Ott.
Install svnX
Start svnX and you should see two windows, Working Copies and Repositories. Enter you login information and location for your Subversion server under the repositories window and double click it in the list to launch.
Once it has opened, click on the main directory for the files you wish to edit and click the svn checkout button on top.
This will bring up a window where you can select the place to export the latest repository.
Now in your Working copies add in the location of that latest repository on your computer and open it.
A window should open a working copy of the latest repository, I turn off “Flat Mode” & “Smart Mode” when I am working.
You should be able to do all the normal SVN functions from here.

Guess-the-google

Brian Harper — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I found an entertaining game that everyone should check out. Guess-the-google is a simple flash game that reads in photos from images.google.com based on a search term you have to guess. What I like about this game is how it shows how user friendly companies can get free advertising. With Google’s attitude of allowing people to use their backends (APIs) to build other web applications. They not only created a following of supporters but a group of people that are
basically performing free advertisements all over the internet, like this game.

E*TRADE Mobile Pro exclusively for BlackBerry

Phil Tapia — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Wow this is sick.. I just downloaded this earlier this week and was super impressed. This is by far the best blackberry application I have ever seen. With this app, you can get real time streaming stock quotes, view stock market summaries & news, log into your account, place trades, check your watch list of stocks & transfer money!

The app is free, just go to etrade.com/mobile and follow the download instructions. You don’t have to have an etrade account to use it! Only if you want to trade, check account balances, etc. Otherwise you can use it to get quotes or read market news.

Here are a few tasty screens to feast your eyes. If you know me and want to see a real life demo let me know!

AYSABTU: All Your Social Are Belong To Us

SoAwesomeMan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve decided to create a social network with Squad, so the first logical awesome question to answer was: what to call it? Back on Planet Awesome™, we’ve had many laughs at what you Earthlings call memes, for instance, we have a creature with a similar resemblance to your cats, except they can talk and are extremely sarcastic as are your lol cats as seen on http://icanhascheezburger.com, and when that meme started they were very excited, until they found out that the cats were mute, and being exploited. Memes are awesome, so when thinking of names for our new social network, the all your base are belong to us! meme came into mind, and it just felt right. I put my awesome skills to work and came up with a couple awesome variations on the AYBABTU (youtube link) meme:

AYSABTU: All Your Social Are Belong To Us™
AYAABTU: All Your Awesome Are Belong To Us™

And finally the name of our new social network:

RBLNG2.us
Social Awesome Network™

This is going to be an awesome place to test out some of the new Glue features that Squad is developing on PrivateBeta

I am So Awesome Man!

SoAwesomeMan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I am So Awesome Man! I was born on Planet Awesome™, and after monitoring your planet through the 1980’s and 1990’s (Your Time) we have concluded (what has been our general feeling all along) that your planet is Awesome. After determining that a planet and its inhabitants meet a certain criteria for being awesome through a process called “The Planetary Probationary Awesomeness Discovery Period”, we travel to your planet for vacation to partake in the awesomeness, and share some of the awesomeness that we enjoy back on Planet Awesome. I’ve just arrived recently, landing in a small town in the United States. I rather not disclose the name at this time, seeing that I’m in the process of creating a marketing arrangement for the town to be renamed Awesomeville™ in a deal similar to the one of Half.com (see: designobserver.com article), and others—this is how I plan to pay for my expenses while here (Awesomelings are hard workers just like you Earthlings). I understand that this Awesomeville™ deal may be ways off, so I have decided to create a social network with my friends, Squad Studios.

Where do I find you So Awesome Man? – If you have mental communication technology, as we do on Planet Awesome™, you can look outside on a clear night when the stars and moon are shining bright and think of me I will open a communication channel with you, like mental Bluetooth, and we can shoot the breeze. However, I realize that your technologies, although awesome, may not have the ability yet to interface with ours, so I have set up some Earth-native-systems for now. I might have missed some important communication systems or channels for this festival you Earth people are calling “Web 2.0”, so please feel free to help me out by sending me an invite or friend-request.

iamsoawesomeman.com
1800AWESO.ME – my number
flickr.com/people/soawesomeman
twitter.com/soawesomeman
you can find me here at the SquadBlog.com
Soon I will launch a new social network with Squad, were we can become best buddies, and do awesome things.

I have used an image from Nasa to give you a perspective of where Planet Awesome™ is, it is not exactly accurate, but similar enough visually that I thought it was appropriate. I have read the guidelines of Nasa image use, and believe that I’m using the image accordingly. I’m not attributing the image to Pingnews.com, however I did find it via Pingnews.com on flickr, but pingnews is neither the creator nor the owner of these materials.