The words ‘photos’ and ‘vacation’ go together much better than ‘managing’ and ‘vacation’. But with today’s devices, we’ve come to accept there’s a little work to having so much technology at our finger tips. My family and I just returned from an amazing trip to Disney World in Orlando. Part of our efforts to refresh and truly escape from work was to avoid bringing laptops. Yet, with just our camera, an iPad and the hotel’s wifi, we were able to upload photos each night and easily share them with family. Here’s how:

The Photo Service
This is the website used to organize, share, view and store your photos. We use Facebook a lot, my wife especially. However, the photo sharing process for vacation photos is tricky. If you post photos while you’re away, you are essentially amplifying to the world that you aren’t home. Also, we’ve seen quality be an issue with Facebook, and we wanted our photos backed up in full resolution in case something happened to our camera or iPad while traveling. Before our trip, I took a cue from my dad and looked at Google’s Picasa (now called Web Albums). With it’s tie-in to Google+, I set up an album and shared it with just my family “circle”. This not only meant that just accounts in my family could view the photos, it also enabled notifications letting them know when photos had been uploaded. Google gives you 1GB free storage, so I upgraded to 200GB for just $50/year.

The iPad and Camera
I brought along an iPad 2 with the Camera Connection Kit (CCK), which allows you to connect either an SD card or the camera itself (via USB) to the iPad. Upon connection, the iPad recognizes photos (actually photos and video in the DCIM folder on the SD Card) and lets you import them into the iPad. One draw back (and a fairly common issue) is that our camera (a Sony NEX 5) stores video in a separate folder. Without a laptop, we had no way to move videos into a place where the iPad can see them. Once imported though, the photos can be left on the SD card or deleted. Just seeing the photos on the iPad in the standard viewer is a treat — sort of reliving those moments in 1024×768, swipe-able glory each night reinforces the fun times you had during the day.

The iPad App
Once Picasa was all setup, I needed to bridge the experience to my iPad. There are several apps that extend Picasa, and based on reviews and price, I chose Web Albums ($2.99) by Pixite. The Web Albums app has you login to Picasa and pulls down thumbnails of all our albums. You can view the photos, manage them within albums and define who the photos get shared with. You can import photos from your iPad (either from the camera roll or via the iPad’s camera). As you upload photos, you choose an album and you can even add a caption. One very important feature is the ability to upload the photos in their full resolution. This means the photos are backed up in a way that you can print, crop or edit them in the future.

The nightly routine
Having free wifi in the hotel was unexpected. I knew to expect in-room internet, but the wifi was excellent. It was very reliable and only slow on the upload speeds. Each night, after we settled in, I would import all photos on to the iPad. [I took 700 photos overall, and uploaded 100 of them.] I would go through all the photos, select the best ones and upload them to our Disney album on Picasa. Since I had plenty of SD cards, there was no need to remove photos off of them — but that certainly was an option.

Extras
I talked with my dad when we got back from our trip. He thanked me for sharing the photos with him and was thrilled to follow along each day. To begin enjoying the photos at home, I added the Picasa album to our litl webbook Media Wall and we were able to view an instant slide show. Overall, it was great to have everything woven together, knowing after each day that our memories were safely backed up and shared with the right group of people. With a little planning ahead, you should be able to enjoy and capture your vacation with less technology in hand.

Later this month I’m presenting at Geeky By Nature. Just to give you an idea of the contextual brain power, the schedule includes Brendan Hall, Joshua Davis, Andre Michelle, Sir Keith Peters, Grant Skinner, Jared Tarbell, Lisa Larson-Kelley, Joe Ebert, Hillman Curtis, Gmunk, Robert Hodgin, Paula Scher, Alan Klement, Jer Throp, Rich Shupe, Joel Gethin Lews and Joshua Hirsch. Ever heard of Perlin Noise? The inventor of that, Ken Perlin, is also presenting.

Inspired by the collection of speakers and name of the conference, I’ve been piecing together a brand new presentation called “APIs For Life, Music And Wiffleball“. The gist of my talk is to get you thinking about APIs we use everyday OUTSIDE of computers, coding and software. If you just said “huh?”, then great! I’ve worked on 3 major coding platforms over the past 7 years — not to mention working with staple languages and technologies. I believe that a great API, the pure unlocking of functionality in a device, application or service, comes from understanding how we need to work with it.

So in this exploration, I’ve examined many things and recognized more natural and organic APIs in music, within ourselves, and in our interaction with each other. Things like:

How does your brain know you’ve had enough to eat? Your stomach has an API, and your brain polls it frequently to see if it’s full. However, there are performance factors like the speed at which you eat, the appealing flavor of the food, and the time you have to complete your meal that affect this ‘polling’. And even when your stomach is actually full, your brain may resist reporting that information to you. Stomach.addEventListener(“FOOD_EATEN”, checkIfFull);

How about looking at yourself as a husband or wife, and considering the ‘commands’ you use between you and your spouse/partner? If I were to generate documentation on myself as an object to my wife, it might look like: Chuck.helpWithDishes(); Chuck.putKidsToBed(); Chuck.haveASafeFlight()… you get the idea.

There are also APIs when looking at things like art and music. Like coding, we don’t simply follow instructions. Instead, by learning how instruments work, we creatively command the instrument to do things in our own way. So when I play the piano, I am saying: Piano.playChord(“C”, “E”, “G”); Piano.addEventListener(“SUSTAIN_PEDDLE_HELD”, holdNotes);

So now that you hopefully understand the method(s) to my approach here, I’d like to welcome your ideas! In the comments below, tell me what APIs you recognize in every day things that you interact with outside of code, computers and software. If I include your suggestion, I’ll be sure to give you credit. I look forward to sharing my presentation after I give it. Certainly, if you can make it to NYC later this month (March 31 – April 1), amazingly tickets to this event are still available: http://www.geekybynature.com/tickets/

With no fanfare or media coverage, my blog “Excerpts from the mind” quietly turned 5 years old this month. Having owned the domain chuckstar.com since 1997, I used it for portfolio, business and hosting projects until September 2005. My first post, which got lost in an early wordpress upgrade, talked about a car I was looking at which featured a new technology called Bluetooth. In the post I warned of the dangers of phone use in the car and how, someday, Bluetooth may solve the problem. It’s ironic that today is the last day a driver can legally, albeit stupidly, text message in their car in Massachusetts.

My blog has spanned 4 jobs, but the focus on technology across 261 posts has always remained. After careful review, here are a few of my favorite blog posts over the first half-decade of my blog “Excerpts from the mind”:

1. Flash’s eager young minds posted April 9, 2007. This might have been the first post I did which generated crazy traffic to my blog. I wrote it in a Starbucks after proudly doing a presentation at BU to students. It also marked the first trip we made back to Boston with our first son.

2. With passion and energy, you’ll make time, posted July 28, 2008. I love this post because it’s parallel with the awesome Back To the Future mantra of “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.” It also gives a nod to my friend and colleague Keith Peters, who has often challenged me to be inspired by others.

3. Really Enjoying John Adams mini-series on HBO, posted March 18, 2008. This post turned out to be a very significant exercise for me. After writing it, I had all together convinced myself that I had to move back to the Boston area from where I was living in the Bay area of California. I’ve watched this series 4 times through and suggest everyone watch it.

4. They’re on to us, posted August 7, 2008. I know my buddy Mike got a kick out of me reviewing pop culture t-shirts that cast a funny spotlight on those movie quotes we all find hilarious. “Rirruto” << those are z's.

5. Daddy, What’s a platform?, posted on September 29, 2008. This post was my way of talking out how I explain what I do to family and friends that aren’t in the industry. Now that app distribution on the iPhone and Android have become such common knowledge, my explanation is easier. At the time, this post was a very fulfilling exercise.

6. In the Flash world, nothing is without a Trace, posted on May 16, 2007. Although fairly technical, this is one of the first posts where someone told me they forwarded it to their entire company. It was very fulfilling to hear, since that’s sort of the intent of my blogging — to reach an audience with my thoughts. I also love the wordplay in the title.

Ever since I became a Red Sox fan during the season of 1987, when baseball cards had wooden borders, I dreamed of running on to the field at Fenway while my name was being announced. As I got older and started going to more and more games, that dream grew to one day sitting in a luxury suite at Fenway. Earlier this week, I learned that our generous CEO at litl had made a contribution in the company’s name to the Foundation to be Named Later, an organization run by Paul Epstein which raises money for charities. To coincide with the foundation’s upcoming Hot Stove Cool Music summer concert event, they had invited significant contributors to be honored at a pre-game ceremony and meet Theo Epstein and Peter Gammons. I will let the following video and photos tell the rest of the tail of one of the coolest experiences at Fenway I’ve ever had…

And now for the photos..

With Theo Epstein:

With Theo Epstein:

With Jay Santos, of Hell’s Kitchen, and Jordan Newman, of litl:

Thanks again to Jordan for accompanying me to the presentation, taking photos, and helping me represent litl so well!

My work-to-fun ratio with software reached about 50 to 1 many years ago. I stopped playing PC games and have spent almost all of my time using software for coding (admittedly fun – sometimes) and for work and personal productivity.

The timing was good to see this tweet last week just days after I off loaded my first batch (on flickr here and here) of photos taken from my new Canon T2i (550D) and EF-S 18-135 and 55-250 lenses. While very impressed with the upgraded quality of the images (from my slightly older Rebel Xsi), I was eager to see how I could enhance them with Adobe’s Lightroom 3. I downloaded the trial. While usually lost in Photoshop, I found Lightroom quick and easy to get started and I was able to tweak and enhance photos to an exciting level.

The post production process for me, a former Editor of photography and darkroom dweller back in my high school and college days, is as much fun as taking the photos themselves. To re-discover this in the digital photography world is just awesome.

You can clearly see the richness and difference in photos from left to right. In Lightroom 3, I found adjusting “Temp” and “Recovery” instantly effective. I also found additional detail when playing and increasing “Blacks”, “Brightness” and “Contrast” against each other. Even with these amazing results, there are still Lens Corrections and Effects to add.

If you’ve got a great camera and want the best out of your photos, you should start playing with Lightroom.

Links:
My “Stage Fort Park” set
My “T2i Selections” set
Adobe Lightroom 3

UPDATE: Visit FlashCommunityCares.com right now to bid on tickets to FITC Toronto, FlashBelt and FlashAndTheCity!

There is no doubt in my mind that the Flash Community is the most creative, energetic and vocal designer & developer community out there. The combination of talent, across many skills of designing and coding, along with its longevity and the activity Flash fosters of its members to contribute code, support one another and engage each other, is really unprecedented. Perhaps because ‘both sides of the brain’ are involved with Flash more so than other software platforms, or maybe its the abundance of conferences we all congregate to… It’s not just about cutting & pasting actionscript, mxml, or drawing lines, tweening, building components… It’s about the people involved and the character of its members.

When the Flash community gets crossed by something, they are as vocal as anybody. The solidarity amongst this vast, international network is a strong force. As the world continues to need our help, its time to harness this community into something that everyone can benefit from.

FlashCommunityCares.com was launched to give the Flash community a collective point of light to do some great things for everyone. We’ve already raised over $5000 for various organizations including Toys for Tots, Doctors Without Borders, The American Red Cross and various funds for Haiti relief.

Our efforts are supported by various and generous Flash community members, conference organizers and some special people wanting to make a difference! Most notably, we’ve received tremendous support from FITC, FlashBelt, FlashAndTheCity, 360Flex, and individual item donators and contributors like Jesse Freeman, Lee Brimelow, Brian Connatser, Michelle Yaiser and several more!

Please help us help others. Spread the word about FlashCommunityCares.com.

I recently launched a new side-blog project with super-talented friend and former colleague of mine, Brendan Lee. The idea came to use way back in August 2009, but like so many worthy things, it took some time to establish.

We take to a naturally unique conversation style, where the tangent and non sequitur are instrumental, fueling intellectually bizarre and fascinating topics that emerge from our conversations. These are observations on culture and things, with an acute, artistic twist. When we become aware of (reveal) these topics, it is often as if no one else has every realized what we are seeing. To put it bluntly and to coin an eloquent phrase of Brendan’s that inspired us to create the blog, these are “the flowers in the cracks“.

The blog is called “The Daily Interfacer” and has offered me an outlet, a cloud-based and collaborative ‘notebook’, to share these observations, directly and indirectly, with Brendan and the entire world observing community.

Enjoy: http://www.thedailyinterfacer.com. On Twitter as: @dailyinterfacer.

I’ve had a lot of business cards in my career, but none have been as expressive as what I’ll be giving out as Chief Channel Evangelist from litl. So far, I have been very impressed with our internal design team. Not only did they apply incredible ingenuity to the hardware design of our device, but they have tons of creativity to spare to come with these incredible cards. The design team has also been effective in putting a litl-spin on some of the channels now available in our catalog to litl users!

Here’s a reminder of what the device looks like in its unique easel mode:

I look forward to giving you one of my new business cards at an upcoming event!

I am proud to present my official Flash And The City 2010 Speaker Video.

The idea came to me based on Egon’s awesome line: “I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought”, while standing on the roof of a high rise over New York City. I think this line reflects, with some humor, how many folks in the Flash community had initially reacted to the iPad not having Flash Player. The whole situation makes our session panel at Flash And The City more significant. Moderating the panel of Elad, Scott, Thomas and Lee, we will discuss “Devices with Flash”, widening the understanding, scope and potential for developers to continue building Flash applications for mobile and devices. There are a lot of great products and OEMs out there that include and are even built around Flash Player!

More on Flash And The City:

Session Panel: http://blog.flashandthecity.com/schedule/2010-sessions/day-2/technical-track/thomas-elad-scott-session/
Speaker Bio: http://blog.flashandthecity.com/speakers/chuck-freedman/
Main site: http://www.flashandthecity.com
Blog: http://blog.flashandthecity.com

Details on Flashliner, bus from Boston to NYC: http://flashliner.eventbrite.com/

In addition to making a few random donations for Haiti relief, I wanted to contribute to the HaitiNeeds.us effort led by Jesse Freeman.

Partially inspired by something Ted Patrick did several years ago, I decided to take a bunch of conference schwag items and post them on eBay. 100% of the proceeds go to charity towards Haiti relief.
 
 

	Photo	Item	Starting Bid
#1		Flashforward 2008 rare conference schwag set	$5.00
#2		AjaxWorld 2008 conference schwag set	$5.00
#3		Red5.org & Chris Allen Collector’s Set	$5.00
#4		Limited Edition Flash on The Beach sign bag 2009	$5.00
#5		High quality FITC laptop bag 2008	$5.00
#6		Adobe MAX 2006 bag	$5.00
#7		FITC messenger bag and beanie	$5.00
#8		Silverlight 3 Starter Kit	$5.00

 
 
If you have even a little interest in owning one of these items, please bid high for it. Again, all money raised goes to charity for Haiti.