NCIDQ

by | Jul 6, 2007 | Personal

A big giant congratulations party is in order for Lauren, who just found out this morning that she passed her NCIDQ exam and is now and will forever be a fully licensed and professional designer. The NCIDQ is a long, stressful and extremely hard test that designers have to take to get certified in whatever state they’re practicing in. It’s akin to the BAR exam for lawyers. It’s that hard. Most people fail one of it’s three sections their first time up. Lauren nailed all three in a single go. I’m so excited for her. This is a huge accomplishment. We’re definitely throwing a party this weekend!

Pownce

by | Jul 5, 2007 | Reviews

By now, most of you will have heard of Twitter. That horribly slow, painful to use “instant-mini-blog” piece of internet 2.0 bloat that everyone seems so attached to lately. Essentially IM, only slow and unfriendly, Twitter makes mini-blogs out of “what you’re doing at this exact second”. Perfect for 12 year olds, functioning alcoholics, people with ADD and geeks in general. Heck, even I have succumbed to it’s wiley ways, though indirectly. I started a mini-feed with one of it’s direct competitors, Jaiku. I don’t use it. It’s simply impractical for me to keep a browser window open 24/7, or near me at all times. I don’t live at my desk, I’ve got shit to do. Plus, while I don’t think anyone cares about what kind of food I’m eating at lunch, I could never think of anything more meaningful to put on those damn things. You’re not supposed to. They’re “mini-blogs”, snippets, tiny pieces of what you’re doing. They’re also horribly boring and I don’t give a crap. Neither do any of you.

There is however, something a bit more interesting. Pownce. Brain child of Kevin Rose and various Digg crew members, they’ve come up with something I might actually use. Basically, Pownce is a few things rolled into one. It has Twitter mini-posts. It has IM functionality, although it’s more along the lines of PM’s. It has link sending, event planning, feed tracking, all sorts of goodies. Most importantly, they’ve written an Adobe AIR wrapper around it, so you can use it as a desktop app. Personally, I can’t be checking web pages all day, but I can respond to messages from this little gray and green box in the corner of my screen. So, basically, take MeetUp or EVite, add Twitter and (insert IM system here) and basic ftp, and you’ve got Pownce.

The main appeal for me is that I can use this at the office. I can send files back and forth between the people here, they can do the same, we can send each other notes, reminders, links, all that good stuff, and it’s not nearly as distracting as IM. IM is, by definition, instant. So, if you get an IM you feel compelled to answer it, you’re having a “conversation”. Sending someone a note saying “remember to buy more lighting gels” isn’t exactly a conversation, so the distraction isn’t there. Pownce just sits there quitely until you’re ready to use it.

I’m sure some people will love Pownce because it’s exactly like Twitter, perhaps Twitter on steroids, which in some ways it is, but I like it because it has the convenience of IM and file transfers, only with half the distraction. That, and my boss in on board, so, I get to actually use it.

As an added bonus, I signed up for an invite the day it was announced, so, just a week later, I have my invite codes. Plus, as an early adopter, I get first dibs at the cool screen names.

If you’d like an invite, let me know. I only have a few, so I can’t send’em out all willy-nilly. If you have an account already and you’d like to add me, the screename is simply: Doc. That’ll be my home account. My work account I’ll keep secret until you sign up and I can add you as a friend.

Check it out at Pownce.com, and let me know if you want an invite. Also, check out my profile here: http://pownce.com/Doc/

Matt out.