Thoughts from Mike Templeton

I am the proud owner of a Flip Mino camcorder, though over the past few weeks I’ve not been happy about owning one at all.

The camera was a gift from my wife for Christmas last year, customized with a special design pattern on the front, signifying that mine would stand out from a sea of black and white Minos. I’ve used the camera to shoot videos over the holidays, to document time with family, to capture live events and to interview others (See my Viddler channel).

Up until recently, the camera had been great. I could grab the camera at a moment’s notice and be up and filming in no time. However, after loaning it to my wife so she could record a video for one of her classes, I got it back and the thing was dead. The camera wouldn’t boot up, the screen wouldn’t come on and nothing happened when I plugged it into my computer.

Saved by the internet

While many would look for the device owner’s manual, or search for a customer service number, I turned to the internet. With a quick Google search of “flip mino won’t turn on,” I was on my way to finding the solution. I found a question/answer site asking the question, a forum post with instructions on how to reset the camera, plus a YouTube video documenting the process.

What I discovered was that the camera simply needed to be reset by taking a pin and inserting it into the reset hole within the camera’s tripod mount, then waiting five seconds before powering on. I tried this with a paperclip, but had no luck the first time. I decided to give Flip’s customer service a try, to see if they could tell me anything different.

Working with customer service, a last resort

Finding the customer service area was easy, as they had a large “support” tab identified on their website. I clicked through and found options to call their customer service, to browser the FAQs or to submit a new question. I chose to submit a question via email, because I hate waiting for operators on the phone.

I received a response to my email well within the four hour response time stated on their site (good job, Flip!), but the answer was the same as what I had found before, and actually word for word what was in the forum posting.

I figured I must have been doing it wrong. I pillaged my wife’s sewing supplies to source a pin I could use, then followed the instructions to reset the camera. After a short 15 seconds, the camera booted up and I was back in business!

Flip Mino fixed and ready for more videos!

All of my videos had been retained, just as the customer service rep had explained, and I was back to having my Flip Mino video camera again. Now that I have it working again I’m much happier about my purchase. The only thing left is to get out there and start shooting more videos!

UPDATE: Google Chrome is now available to download.

Had I not done my due diligence in checking up on my various microblogging accounts, I might have missed out on one of the most exciting announcements from Google since we heard they were building a data center in Council Bluffs (in my home state of Iowa).

A note from Derick Jackson on Pownce mentioned, “Google ‘Chrome’ – New browser launching tomorrow. Awesome?” I followed the link to the official Google blog, where Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director, outlined the ideas and thought process around Google’s latest venture, their own web browser.

The Modern View of the Browser

If you’ve been reading my blog at all in the past couple of months, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a Firefox fanatic. Mozilla created a browser that broke all the boundaries set by Microsoft’s luddite, yet monsterous,  Internet Explorer. Users could see different sites through tabbed windows within the browser, customize the way it looked with various themes and add any number of extensions and plugins to bend Firefox to their will, allowing it to accomplish tasks and perform feats that hadn’t been possible before.

Now, with Google Chrome, Google is looking to do the same, talking about ‘a fresh take on the browser’. Some of their main thoughts included:

• the web has evolved from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications
• we need a modern platform for web pages and applications
• what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements
• we want something that gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go

The team also describes the structure of Google Chrome as fitting in with the rest of the Google family:

Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. We designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple.

Will Google Chrome Have a Place in my Web?

Because I have a Google account and use many of their different applications and web services, I’ll be intrigued to test out their browser and see what they’ve come up with. It was mentioned that components from both Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox were included in the development, which means we just may see something that takes the best parts from everywhere and combines them all into one, not to mention it will probably interface well with your Google account and all of the services they offer.

Recently I’ve been testing several different browsers, trying to find something I could use in place of Firefox for all of the extra projects that I have going, like Microblink, which has a host of different user accounts on different websites, all being used to market that website. Rather than logging out of personal accounts and then into the Microblink accounts, it’s much easier just to perform all tasks related to Microblink in a different browser, keeping cookies, cache and passwords separate. Flock seems to be performing very well as the answer to that solution, and it’s built on the Firefox framework (which I love), but maybe Google has a player that could fit that bill as well. Only time will tell.

Google Chrome is Coming, but its not Done Yet

The beta version of Google Chrome launches tomorrow in over 100 countries (think about all of the translation work that had to happen on that project). For now, you can check out the comic book on Google Books that outlines the browser and its functions. Good luck getting in though, as it appears to be getting hit with a ton of traffic at the moment, everyone trying to get an early glimpse of Google’s latest gamechanger.

Enough talk about the WordPress app! It’s finally here! Head over to the iTunes App Store and download it now.

This is my first post using the app and everything seems to be going smoothly.

Let me know what you think if you test it out.

June 17, 2008, marked the release date for Mozilla’s latest stable version of everyone’s favorite browser, Firefox 3. As part of the roll out for the new release, Firefox organized an impressive campaign at Spread Firefox to get the word out and to try to set a new world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.

The World Record

After the stopwatch stopped ticking, over 8,000,000 downloads of Firefox 3 had been recorded, easily more  downloads than they have ever had in a single day. The Guiness Book of World Records is currently reviewing the attempt.

The Campaign

In a market where Firefox is already powering 39.8% of all internet browsing, the release for Firefox 3 was a change for Mozilla to launch themselves even farther into the fight for browser supremacy.

The campaign website, an offshoot from Spread Firefox, included several promotional components and an interactive pledge map where users could sign up and pledge to download FF3 on Download Day.

The Browser

So I’ve talked about all the hub-bub and excitement (see what people are saying about FF3 on Twitter), but what about the browser itself? I’m glad you asked.

FF3 defines they’re key areas of focus around new features, security, productivity and customization. There are 15,000 new improvements to this release, including instant site ID, improved rendering performance, over 5,000 add-ons and the highly acclaimed Awesome Bar.

The Awesome Bar has got to be one of my favorite additions to this browser. Deb Richardson does a great job explaining it in her post:

Dubbed the “AwesomeBar”, it lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. No longer do you have to know the domain of the page you’re looking for — the AwesomeBar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted by “frecency” (an algorithm combining frequency + recency).

Get Firefox

If you’re still browsing in the stone age or are tired of how numb Internet Explorer is to your personal preferences, download Firefox 3 and be surprised. We’re at 16,339,047 downloads and growing…

And I thought my days of late nights and droopy eyelids were over once I graduated from college. Not so, says I. As a 22 year old entrepreneur with a full time job, a wife, a garage to build, a side business to run and an automotive community to manage, it’s sometimes difficult to remember to eat.

As the days seem to fly by, I try to find the best ways to help manage my time and track what I’ve been working on. Often times the good old pen and paper win out, but I also use a few other tools.

During the day, at my regular job, I use Microsoft Outlook’s Calendar feature to manage my meetings and use flags and folders to organize my tasks via the inbox. This works well because it ties in to the rest of the company and allows others to see what I’m busy with.

Over my lunch hour and at breaks in between projects I try to update my Google Calendar with personal and side business events. This includes any client meetings I may have and trips back home to spend time with the family. Google Calendar (GCal) is part of my larger Google Apps For Your Domain (GAFYD) setup and allows for complete integration with my other Google Apps. GCal is also great for scheduling meetings or plans with people outside your network. Just punch in the recipient’s email and away goes your invitation. They can accept the invite and add it to their own Google Calendar, or accept it in Microsoft Outlook. This flexibility in Google’s invite system is ingenious IMO.

Once I get home from the day job, its time to start thinking about Dosovo, the marketing and web strategy LLC I run on the side. To track my work on client projects I use Zoho Projects. Projects is a project management tool from Zoho, an office productivity suite from AdventNet Inc. The program is completely web-based and allows me to access it via a custom URL, making it easy to find wherever I am. Projects not only tracks the completion of tasks and milestones, but also serves as a timesheet where you can track billable and non-billable hours for project work. This is a great way for me to manage my time spent on each client and bill accordingly.

When I finally finish my client projects, then it’s time to start thinking about blogging and RSS feeds. Sadly MikeThoughts.com ends up near the bottom of my to-do list, but I do love blogging and using this outlet to voice what I’m thinking.

And now that I’ve shared how my late nights come about and what I use to make the most of them, maybe you’d care to share what you use to stay organized and on top of things?