SMBMSP #26 – Organic and Urban Gardening Recap

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Shea

SMBMSPOverview

Yesterday’s SMBMSP gathering had a twist that was most interesting – social media and gardening.  Just the other weekend we planted our garden; not to brag but we’re already seeing some sprouts! I will be honest and say that I was a little disappointed in that there was more discussion about Social Media than there was about gardening.  Regardless, I still learned a ton.  The panel consisted of: Debbie Morrison @sapsuckerfarms, Susan Berkson @berksons, Lee Zukor @leezukor, and Bonnie Dean.  Unfortunately, there were others but I didn’t catch their names.  If someone knows, please forward those on!

Yards to Gardens

Yards to Gardens could be described as the Craigslist to gardening. Yards to gardens has four main goals 1) Help you look for space to garden. 2) Help you share your extra compost, dirt, and seeds.  3) Help you find gardeners to take advantage of that extra space (potential garden) in your yard.  4) Helps you share any extra gardening tools like shovels and spades.  Check out their website if you’re interested in gardening.  They’ll help you find space to garden and hook you up with individuals that know how to garden.

Jesse Eustis from Yards to Gardens was showing everyone how to make “seed bombs”.  These awesome little little things are seeds and dirt wrapped in a ball of clay.  Once they are made you simply have to plant, water, and watch the seeds grow.  The seeds are surrounded with all the nutrients needed to grow.  Check out this Instructables.com article on how to make them.

PlantJotter.com

PlantJotter.com was brought up as a discussion topic but was never really explained or shown to the audience.  It’s a really neat tool for keeping track of every little detail of your garden.  You’re able to log: what you planted, how it’s going, upload pictures, and has a garden maintenance calendar. It’s looks neat but it’s not free.  You can try it for 30 days and if you still want to use it you can simply pay the $21 annual fee or the $45 three year fee.

Words of Advice from the Panel

  • When using Social Media be sure to not only promote yourself but others as well.
  • Social Media can be a timesuck.
  • Approving content [blog comments] is needed.  If this action was not taken then conversations and content could be misguided.  As a result, loyal followers may become disinterested in the content.
  • If there is negative talk/comments then try to use a positive voice to redirect the conversation.
  • One of the panelists continues to use LISTSERVs.  It’s not broken so why fix it?
  • “Adopt a Grower” – as in, offer your skills (web development, photography, blogging, etc) in return for some fresh produce.
  • Use traditional media [radio] to drive Social Media.
  • Is food knowledge being lost?  There are a lot of older gardeners out there that may not have the chance to share their knowledge with the younger generations.  How can this knowledge be shared?  Community gardening may be the answer.
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Google Fiber in the Twin Ports – The Mayor’s Letter

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Shea

Here’s the latest and greatest from the Duluth mayor Don Ness.  Once again, WHY SHOULD DULUTH GET THIS STUPENDOUS PRIVILEGE!?!?  Next thing you know he’ll be asking his constituents to support taxes and other whims without reason.

The transformation of our economy – a call to action

I need your help!  By investing just a few moments of your time, you’ll be part of an incredible transformation of our regional economy.

We’re out to convince Google to build an ultra-high speed fiber network in the Twin Ports.  This system will bring fiber-optic connections to every home and business at speeds of one gigabit per second, up to 1000 times faster than existing “high-speed” Internet connections.

This changes everything.

It changes our economy, it changes how we do business, it puts Duluth and Superior at the forefront of the next great economic revolution in America.  And yes, you’ll be able to download an entire HD movie in 30 seconds.

Could it really happen?  Absolutely.  We fit Google’s criteria extremely well and we believe we have the most comprehensive campaign in the nation.  Ultimately, our success depends on the participation of folks like you.

Our success depends on YOU taking three simple steps:
1)    Go to www.googletwinports.com and join the team.

2)    There you can create a free Google account (if you don’t already have one):
www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
and submit a nomination directly to Google:
www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options

3)    Join our Facebook group, www.googletwinports.com/facebook , and post your confirmation code from step 2 to Facebook.
4)    Business can place a GoogleTwinPorts supporter badge on their websites:
http://www.googletwinports.com/web-badges.php

Folks are fired up about this – Duluth is on the national map as a forerunner in this contest.  Don’t let up!  Let’s make this happen – we have just a few weeks until the deadline.

Thanks for your help!
Mayor Don Ness

Ok, I’m off my soapbox…

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Google Fiber in the Twin Ports?

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Shea

The very first thing I would like to say about this post is that I’m NOT AGAINST this project but am skeptical about it.  I’m a huge advocate for high speed internet in every location of the country and world for that matter.  I’m just rather confused about how Duluth, MN and Superior, WI are going about pitching this.  I have yet to see a specific or solid reason as to why Google should pick the Twin Ports.  Some of the questions that I would like answered are:

  • How much will this cost the Twin Ports? – Duluth Mayor Don Ness stated that it wouldn’t cost anything.
  • Will Google use local companies to install the fiber?
    • Will this create new jobs?
    • Will these be long term sustainable jobs?
  • Besides the high speed internet, what incentives do companies have to relocate to the Twin Ports to setup shop?
    • Tax incentives – lower taxes or no taxes.
  • Will the Twin Ports support small business development?
    • Will small business be able to get reasonable loans with reasonable rates?
  • Are the local hospitals (i.e. St. Lukes, St. Mary’s, and etc) sending or receiving MRI files or anything of that nature that require a large bandwidth pipe?  Are there other companies that needs a large bandwidth pipe?
  • Is the current internet speed hindering companies in any way?  Examples please!

This is pure speculation – Are the Twin Ports using this as an opportunity to use the community for pledges and community service?   It might be belittling but I think that but there is a lot of push to show your support through volunteerism and pledging money.  WAIT! – I thought that Google was doing this? So, why the push to donate time and money? – Oh… to show that the Twin Ports is worthy of the high speed fiber.  Will the pledges and volunteerism continue if they win the fiber race?

Once again, please tell me WHY the Twin Ports is a prime location.  The answer provided by here are not sufficient.

Additional Resources:

http://blog.google.twinports.coop/

http://www.googletwinports.com/

Facebook Fan Page – Google Twin Ports

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Restore an iPhone from a Backup (The Hard Way)

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Shea

I wish that I had an easier time restoring Erin’s iPhone but there happened to be some misfortunes along the way. i.e. iPhone crashed (firmware chip?), not backing up the phone often enough, laptop crashing, and weird folder structures for Apple/iTunes.

This entire process started with obtaining a new iPhone, recovering the laptop hard drive, and locating all the important information.  Below I will describe the steps necessary to recover an iPhone with the backup files iTunes creates when the user uses the “backup” button.

PC Instructions

  1. Locate the backup file you want to restore from.  I would start looking in the default backup directory: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup  – SEE NOTES BELOW
  2. Load iTunes
  3. Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
  4. Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Shift key. (Hold Shift key + Click Update/Restore)
  5. This will prompt you to choose the backup directory.  Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
  6. Restore!
  7. Restore and Good Luck!

Notes:

  • Depending on what version of Windows you’re running the path might also be: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
  • The folder name for the backups is rather strange.  Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d

Mac Instructions

  1. Locate the backup file you want to restore from.  I would start looking in the default backup directory:  User/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ – SEE NOTE BELOW
  2. Load iTunes
  3. Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
  4. Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Option key. (Hold Option key + Click Update/Restore)
  5. This will prompt you to choose the backup directory.  Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
  6. Restore and Good Luck!

Notes:

  • The folder name for the backups is rather strange.  Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d
Posted in Data Recovery, iPhone | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

MSP WordPress User Group #4

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Shea

This past Thursday (2/4) I attended my first MSP WordPress (WP) user group meeting at The Nerdery. There were four panel sessions but I could only go to two.  The four to choose from were:

  1. Intro to HTML
  2. Intro to CSS
  3. WP Widgets
  4. WP 3.0

WP Widgets

The WP Widgets coding demonstration was instructed by Ray Champagne (@raychampage) who did an awesome job “dumbing it down”, at least for me.  Ray showed us some professional examples of how WP can be used in lieu of traditional print media but how to transform that print media into an online web presence.  He broke the presentation down into smaller parts:

  • What are widgets?
  • What does the code look like?
  • Coding a simple widget.
  • Implementing your widget.

WP 3.0

The WP 3.0 presentation was very enlightening in that I didn’t even know there was a new version of WP coming out and that some of the features will be changing, hopefully for the better :) .

In short, this presentation was more about what changes are going to happen with WP 3.0 but also how anyone can help contribute to the development.  Here are some useful links and insight that Mitchell Hislop (@mitchellhislop) provided:

  • WordPress Foundation.org -”…founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.” – Also debuting the 2010 WP theme.
  • Example of the P2 Theme – A theme for threaded discussion instead of using the standard WP blogging or email.
  • The single user version WP and WPμ will be merged.  Within the WP settings you will now see a “network” section.  This will be the multi-user part of WP.
  • WP Mailing lists – Use these mailing lists if you want to stay informed or help out with the various functions of WP.
  • Mitchell’s Ultimate WP Starter Pack

In Conclusion…I’m super excited to go to the next one to meet even more people and to learn more about WP!

MPS User Group Info:

Google Group
Twitter

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