Jeff Julian's Blog

#PDC08 | Look mom, Engadget “borrowed” one of my photos!

I was getting caught up on my RSS feeds after PDC today and I ran across this Engadget article.  I then thought, hey that photo looks familiar.  Oh I know why, because I took it! 

posted @ Friday, October 31, 2008 1:20 PM | Feedback (1) |

#PDC08 | Today is the last day!

Today I am checking out the event to see what all this amazing new stuff is about.  I have been stuck in the booth since Saturday with only bathroom privileges so I have not been able to see what is going on.

I ran the Azure Build Service HOL with D’Arcy, but after the second machine crash, I gave up and came over to the Open Spaces area.

posted @ Thursday, October 30, 2008 1:28 PM | Feedback (0) |

GWB @ #PDC08 | Today is our last day in the Expo Hall

It has been surprising to talk to the attendees of the PDC about blogging and participation in communities.  Most don’t seem to have blogs, but have lots of things to talk about.  Most like the concept of Geekswithblogs.net after reading our bag insert and we have had a lot of registrations.  But, there are a number of them who just want to read the blogs and we are completely ok with that.  Our goal out here has been to register more bloggers who are interested in these new technologies Microsoft is announcing and help expose Geekswithblogs.net to a new audience of potential readers and bloggers.  We feel we have been very successful doing that here.

Having Chris and D’Arcy out here has been a lot of fun.  You haven’t heard much from Chris because he has been recording videos like crazy and hopefully we will see some of those popup today. 

Well, it is time to get back over there.  I want to thank all our new bloggers for joining and please let me know if you see any problems with the site and we will try to get them resolved quickly.

posted @ Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:49 AM | Feedback (0) |

#PDC08 - Get your Shirts Here....

posted @ Monday, October 27, 2008 3:46 PM | Feedback (0) |

#PDC08 | Sorry for all the “Signal to Noise” issues on the main feed, Jason Olson is back!! :D

And he is very welcome here.  We had a major bug left over from the “previous vendor” who owned the blogging tool we are using with the BlogML importer, putting all of Jason’s posts on the main feed instead of in the correct time they belonged. 

Jason, it looks like all is good and we are glad to have you back!!!

posted @ Sunday, October 26, 2008 10:21 PM | Feedback (1) |

PDC08 | D’Arcy Lussier is on booth duty!

Our resident Canadian is present and ready to test the Surface out in the booth.

posted @ Sunday, October 26, 2008 11:59 AM | Feedback (2) |

#PDC08 | We Are Here! Our booth is going to rock!

We have arrived!	Like the booth?

This is going to be a very busy week.  John and I will be debugging the Surface table (huge thanks to Joe Olsen and Phenomblue for helping us with the Surface) and Jerod will be getting the marketing down.  Can’t wait to catch up with the herd of you at this event!

Time for rest…

posted @ Saturday, October 25, 2008 9:18 PM | Feedback (0) |

We Need You! | To Create A Video and Upload it REAL Soon

Ok, we are getting desperate here because we only have 2.5 working days before PDC left and 3 videos.  I have a lot of “I will get you …” but only a few uploads, so if you are planning on participating, can you get us those videos soon?  Thanks and hope you like the new site as well :D.

posted @ Wednesday, October 22, 2008 10:32 AM | Feedback (1) |

Geekswithblogs.net 3.0 is now available!

Wow, that took a long time but it is finally ready.  This morning I released the Geekswithblogs.net 3.0 will all the new features we could finish before PDC 2008.  This is definitely not the end of 3.0 features, but it needed to get out the door.  The first change you will notice is the GREEN MONSTER has been replaced.  This theme has been in the works since the springtime as most of you with shirts know. 

Keep an eye on this blog and the tutorials section of the site throughout this week so you can learn how to take advantage of the new features.  The #1 tip I can give you right now is to make sure you tag your posts with common tags to ensure you are part of the new community tags pages and feeds.

List of new features and fixes:

• New Homepage Design
• Global Tag Views and Feeds
• Blogger Cloud
• About Us Section
• Global Blogger Categories (Deployment later this week)
• Hot Topic & Most Popular Post section on Homepage
• Featured Bloggers on Homepage (Must Fill in Information Page via Admin)
• Remove Twitter Accounts (by popular demand)
• Address Information Entry via Admin
• Gravatar Icon association for Featured Blogger and Hot Topic
• …

Please let us know what you think and definitely leave us support tickets for any issues you spot.  Back to monitoring the servers to make sure we didn’t mess optimization up, more to come…

posted @ Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:37 AM | Feedback (8) |

HDC 2008 | Heyyyyy, We are in Omaha

The GWB Staff is here!  We arrived at the HDC Omaha this morning after a few hours in the car.  The trip was fun, but trying to take photos of the leaves changing wasn’t going to happen with the down pour we drove through the whole way. 

Joe Olsen, founder of Phenomblue, was gracious enough to give us a personal demo of a Microsoft Surface, big o’ table.  That thing is freaking cool.  If they had a version that was half the price and kid proof, I would definitely be replacing my living room table today.  I didn’t use it much, but I did play with the puzzle application and that was pretty fun.  I am extremely impressed with the way the camera’s work and the detail they grab. (photos below)

Now we are waiting for the show to get started in our suite at the Hilton.  (Post photo of Jerod in the room).  Chris Williams and gang should be joining us soon. 

posted @ Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:27 PM | Feedback (0) |

GWB | We need your help! “I’m a geek…” Videos

We need your help!  So far we have one video for the PDC commercial we are producing and I don’t think that will deliver the whole message we want.  In case you don’t know what I am talking about, review Jerod’s post or the 2 GWB newsletters that were sent out over the past few weeks.

The main purpose is to show that we are a diverse group from all around the world.  We want to see what your world looks like.  Indoors and Outside.  Your a geek and this is your life, show us.  

If you are planning to get a group of videos to us but haven’t filmed them yet, thank you.  If you could, please email me at support@geekswithblogs.com and just let me know so we can start getting an idea of what our options are going to be.  We will be at HDC Omaha tomorrow through Friday with a camera so if you are there and want to record a video, we can get that done as well.

Also, if you are a member of this site and are still not getting the newsletters via email, please let me know via the email above so I can help find out what the problem is.

Remember, all members who enter with 5 video sections will get a GWB t-shirt with their blog’s URL on the back. 

posted @ Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:20 AM | Feedback (1) |

GWB | Happy 5th Birthday Geekswithblogs.net!!!!

Today is the official five year anniversary of the first post on Geekswithblogs.net.  Happy Birthday!!!  We will be celebrating our 5 years with the launch of a new version of the community portion of the site.  We will also be at HDC Omaha and PDC 2008 celebrating the launch and 5th anniversary.  These events will be awesome and at the PDC, we are excited that Chris and D’Arcy are able to join us.

As far as the site goes, we are so close to being finished.  I took off last week to dedicate my morning, afternoons, and evenings to working on the site and we are very close to 100% complete for launch features.  After the launch, we will go into bug fixing mode for a few weeks and then start working on additional features based on the list we have and your feedback.  Below is a clickable screenshot of the progress we have made. 

Geekswithblogs.net v3.0 Preview

Thanks again to all our bloggers and readers for sticking around for these 5 years and helping us make this site the information hub it has became.  We definitely forecast a major jump in membership this month and will strive to maintain the quality of posts that make it to the main feeds of the site.

Remember, if you are at HDC Omaha or the PDC 2008, be sure to come by the booth and say hello.

posted @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 9:41 AM | Feedback (3) |