April to June Meetings - WoW will we have fun!

Wondering what wonders will be uncovered at the next few ASCIi meetings? Wonder no longer!
Meetings will be at the usual locations unless otherwise indicated:

• East side meetings are at Word of Life Lutheran Church in Surprise
• Central meetings are at the SCF Tower in Phoenix
• West side meetings are at UAT in Tempe 

ASCIi user group meetings are open to all who are interested. Membership has it benefits: you might just win one of the prizes we give out at meetings. All meetings start at 12:30 pm. 


Interested in getting more involved? Attend the Steering Committee meeting, held before each Central meeting (starting at 11:30 am).  We are always looking for speakers, site seekers presenters, and more.

April 23, 2011	East side meeting Gangplank Chandler AZ	Replacing Cable/Satellite TV with High Speed Internet – Bruce Jacobs Learn about using MediaCenter HuluPlus and Netflix instead of cable.
May 7, 2011	West side meeting	WOW - World of Warcraft – Bill Funk
May 14, 2011	Central meeting	WOW - World of Warcraft – Bill Funk
May 28, 2011	East side meeting	Prepping a disk drive for external use – Bill Funk
All May meetings	Site Seekers	Bruce Jacobs
June 4, 2011	West side meeting	Skype -  Kathy Jacobs Please note: We need someone at the West side meeting to be the other side of Skype
June 11, 2011	Central meeting	Smart Phones: Android, iPhone, Win 7 phone, or Blackberry – Kathy Jacobs Skype – Kathy Jacobs
June 25, 2011	East side meeting	Skype
All June meetings	Site Seekers	Unknown – Want to volunteer?

Cleveland in July - Just 97 days away

News of the day: APCUG is holding an conference and our 2011 annual meeting July 15-17 in Cleveland OH - home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!



We've got great speakers, great topics, and a great location.



We would love to see all of the Amplify community come over - Please join us!

Amplify’d from vitaminch.com

APCUG is heading to Cleveland!

Looking for a great weekend event to attend? Check out the APCUG regional conference and annual meeting to be held in Cleveland July 15-17.

We have a great slate of speakers lined up, including presentations by:

Bill Jelen Marie Vesta Kathy Jacobs Susie Sharp Don and Michelle Tillman Don Corbut

Topics are going to range from Office tips to Genealogy, from iPads and Ebooks to Drupal and Linux. Looking for ideas for your group? Check out the presentations on Skype, fundraising, and social media. We even have Q&A sessions scheduled with the members of both the Board of Directors and the Board of Advisors.

Be sure to check out the event. Let me know if you are going to be there! Read more at vitaminch.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gWAsms

Site Seekers for March 2011

These are the sites Kathy Jacobs showed during the meeting. Enjoy!



http://vanishingphoenix.com/ - Phoenix History, before it all disappears
http://www.acmeron.com/ - Phoenix Vintage Photos

http://gangplankhq.com/ - Co-working facility in Chandler (free space if you need it)
http://incohoots.com/ - Co-working facility in Phoenix with small fees
http://optinlearningcenter.com/ - Learning and more for small businesses

http://www.yelp.com/phoenix - Community reviews on business of all kinds

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/ - Lighting Essentials for Photographers

http://phoenix.twestival.com/ -  Local event to support Child Crisis Center
http://www.tequilazona.org/ - 2nd annual Tequilazona to support Public Radio AZ

http://childcrisis.org/ - Child Crisis Center - because that is the logical follow on to twestival's link :)

http://authoritylabs.com/blog/ - Blog for one of the best site monitoring SEO for sites

http://kwss.org/ - Independent radio - 106.7 fm

http://kjzz.org/ - NPR local station - 91.5

http://shwaag.com/ - Local company that gives away stuff for free.

http://page.ly/ -  Local WP hosting for anyone

http://podcampaz.org/ - Couldn't list Arizona sites without this one!

http://dillysdeli.com/ - Delis in Tempe, Chandler, and Scottsdale with great food

http://www.floridinos.net/ -  Great pizza and pasta in Chandler

http://www.wedgebottle.com/ - Cheese shop in the making, to open in Ahwatukee in April. Great Cheese Blog!

http://www.lagrandeorangegrocery.com/ - Brunch here rules!

xkcd: Good Code

http://xkcd.com/844/

xkcd from 1/6/2010 - As a former tester, I can verify that to the outside world this is what the loop of the code development cycle looks like!

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bku4u

Great idea: Create Twitter accounts to act like feed readers!Al

@allison_boyer from #BlogWorld shared an amazing idea this morning: Create a Twitter account that will be used just for feeds. She documents the whole process in the original article, as well as some great ideas for how to use the account for more than just your own interest.



The process she defines is pretty labor intensive, so I doubt I will end up putting it to full use. If someone would automate the process, that would be awesome.



I can see taking this another step further by putting a Twitter stream widget on your #Amplify page (not the one you watch, the one everyone goes to when they read your stuff). That would let you share the people you watch most closely with those who read your posts.



Thoughts?

Amplify’d from www.blogworld.com

How to Turn Twitter into a Feed Reader

I hate feed readers. Always have. Frankly, I just don’t have time to read every single post by every single blogger I like, not even close, so I only log into my feed reader once every day or two. Because I follow so many people, that means that every time I log in, my feed reader shows a billion unread posts. Some days, it looks so daunting to clear ‘em all out, that I just close my browser without reading anything.

I keep TweetDeck running all day though. I thought to myself recently, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could combine Twitter and feeds to make a column just for people’s new blog posts.

I mean, I know a lot  of bloggers out there tweet their links, but they often get lost in the shuffle of conversation. And not everyone has their Twitter account tied to Twitterfeed (or a related service). And some people tweet links to multiple sites, both their own and others, or tweet links from the archives, etc.

It gets confusing. Yet, somehow I don’t think it will work to contact every blogger I like and saying, “Hey, will you create a separate Twitter account JUST for your feed so I can follow that account and put it into a group just for feeds?”

But, duh…I can do this myself. Kind of. With a little hacking (and I use that term losely, because this involves no actual hacking, just ingenuity), you can turn Twitter into a Feed Reader! Read more at www.blogworld.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/dHakZS

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 Released, Still the Best Darn Antivirus Around

URL:  http://lifehacker.com/5714508/microsoft-security-essent...

Found this via @DougWelch. Love Security Essentials. Just wish I knew how to upgrade to V2. When I try, it tells me I am on the latest version. Only problem? I know I am running V1.



Still, if you aren't using Security Essentials, check this version out. It's free. It's good. It works. What more do you want?



(Thanks @DougWelch for posting this!)

See this Amp at http://lifehac.kr/i3wKHI

My favorite and yours made @hardaway's top 10 list

Looking for a list of the best online experiences of 2010? Check out the list from @hardaway. (You will have to click through to see the full list and her comments.)



#Amplify made spot number 8. I love (and use) about half her list (Evernote, Tripit, Amplify, Backupify, and Skype). I am signed up for the ideeli emails, but haven't bought from them (yet).



If I had to put my finger on what I think she has missed, it would have to be:

#Hashable - Introductions via twitter and email. Complete with data and tracking.

#Quora - Ask and answer questions from a wide range of experts. I post answers when I can. I read questions and answers daily. As they grow, they are becoming as much a staple of my life as #Amplify.

#Tungle and #Plancast- Connected calendars online. I an not an active user of Plancast, but I use it to find events that are interesting. I have used Tungle to connect my various calendars for most of the year and really love it.



What are you top online experiences of 2010? Care to share?

Amplify’d from blog.stealthmode.com

My Top 10 Best Online Experiences of 2010

2010: what a difficult year for so many reasons. Too few jobs. Too many social media companies.  Too many mobile apps. The online experience is getting like the supermarket, and makes me yearn for a boutique experience. I want someone to save me some time by selecting their “best of” experiences, so I’m offering you mine in the hope that you will offer me yours. For me, this was a year of sorting through things and finding some that truly work for me.

8) Amplify – here’s a service that has gotten more traction outside Silicon Valley than inside. It’s an all-purpose tool that serves as blogging or micro-blogging platform, clipping service, and Ping.fm-like narrowcaster to social networks of your choice. It also has a bookmarklet so you can share web clippings and a button that helps you share your own site posts. It’s simple, but very powerful. Read more at blog.stealthmode.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/hJmUsD