The new Facebook Timeline profile is now available to anyone who wants it. So, to update? Or not to update? That’s probably your question. To make your decision a little easier, I’ve updated my own profile to learn the ins and outs of Facebook’s newest creation.

I’ll admit, I was feeling daunted by the new profile. It just looks complicated. And, for those of us who don’t spend our every waking hour on Facebook, I was concerned that it was going to take too much of my time to update it. However, after clicking the button to apply the new profile, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does Facebook give you the option to not publish your new profile for a couple days while you work on it, but the only thing you really have to do to make it look complete is choose a “Cover”. Which, if you’re not too picky, is pretty darn easy. Just select a picture that’s already uploaded to your Facebook or computer, and simply drag it around to fix the positioning.

Now, let’s move on to the stories area. This is where things can get a little tricky, as a lot of time can be spent here. Basically, Facebook has made it easier for you (and your profile viewers) to look back at your entire Facebook history. It even offers yearly highlights: pictures that were posted that year, status updates that received lots of comments, popular shared links, etc. It even gives you a space to upload a picture of you to highlight your birth (feeling uneasy yet?). If you want to add more life events to your profile, such as trips, times you moved, or relationship beginnings/endings, you can click the “Life Events” button that appears in the top right corner when you’ve scrolled down to your stories.

The good news here is that you can pick and choose which kinds of things appear on your timeline. Just click the “Activity Log” button on the top right of your page. From there, you can prevent certain kinds of stories from appearing on your timeline,  and you can delete any of what Facebook deems “Events” from your past Facebook activity.

Now, for those of us who have been on Facebook for many years (6 for me), that’s a lot of stuff to wade through. It also makes me feel a little uncomfortable. If there’s someone creeping on my Facebook profile that I don’t know about, that person can now easily access anything I’ve put on Facebook for the past 6 years. So, here’s my advice:

1. Don’t publish your Facebook Timeline immediately after activating it. First, make sure that any incriminating things from your past that you’ve forgotten about don’t show up in your stories, and choose which kinds of stories you don’t want appearing in general.
2. Check out your security settings. Make sure that your settings are the way you want them to be. In my opinion, only people you’ve authorized as friends should be able to view your entire Timeline.
3. If you’ve chosen the option that only friends can view your stuff, do a friend cleanse. Hey, random person I met 5 years ago and haven’t talked to since then…sorry, but you’re being unfriended.
4. Play around with it! There are lots of things I haven’t mentioned, including “Apps”. Check them out! Perhaps there’s a new fun time-waster just waiting to be discovered.

For more Timeline viewpoints and news, check out Mashable and USA Today. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your Cover, look these examples.

If you’re not already familiar with the infamous scene involving one bro, one John Kerry, and a gang of taser-wielding campus police, check out the video — and listen closely for the quote of the year. (Note: if you’re squeamish, skip it.)

I’m not sure how the Quote Patrol decides which quote is “most memorable,” but no doubt it has something to do with being one of the top quote queries on Google and one of the most popular videos on the web. And now it’s official: “Don’t tase me, bro!” has become the most memorable quote of the year according to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

What makes the video and quote so popular? It’s that special somethin’ — the word “bro.”

(more…)

Holiday consumerism is once again in full swing. How’s your gift list looking? Even if you’re not the thoughtful type, you might be able to pull off a decent gift with a little help from the gift generators.

All I Want Christmas Gift Finder. My favorite. You select your favorite visuals in order to refine your gift selection. The gifts seem pretty random to me, but I like the odd collection. You can also use this to send your wish list to someone else.

Gifts.com Gift Finder. Another search that prompts you visually. More of quirky, off-beat gift ideas.

Overstock Gift Finder. Eh, not so impressive. The same items kept coming up when I chose different options. But they’re cheap!

Find Gift. Decent. I liked the “Make Your Own Hot Sauce” kit that came up.

Present Picker. This one has more variables than most of the other generators. Changing the variables changes the gift ideas significantly, which suggests to me that the gift database is pretty big.

I see another use for Wonderfile. Imagine searching the ultimate gift library and watching your customized results filter up as you carefully choose your tags….

Design for Babies, (enough rubber duckies and puppies)
September 30th, 2007 : Jess Louwagie

Its been about a year in the making, but my wife and I finally have something to show for our ‘creative collaboration’ that we decided to pursue together. She has the retail experience, an eye for merchandising and a love for babies, I guess I bring the graphic abilities and Adobe Illustrator know-how. Together we’re trying to dress babies better.

The official web site is still in progress at orangerhinokids.com, but you can get a glimpse of the first official releases at our Etsy: http://orangerhinokids.etsy.com/ and our official site is coming www.orangerhinokids.com

If you’re in Minneapolis, Patina stores will be carrying some designs very soon.

The first line is all animals combined with contemporary and/or vintage-esque patterns. You’ll find some onesies (organic and color variations), t-shirts an hoodies for babies and toddlers.

*UPDATE*
We have just been accepted as vendors at “Craftstravaganza”! Excited to be a part of such a great local outlet for local artsists, designers and musicians. We attended last year (as shoppers) and there was a very impressive mix of work. Come down to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Fine Arts Building on Saturday April 26, 2008 and say hello.

Spock is a new search engine with a primary focus on people. It claims to be the leader in personal search – Imagine the “Google” of people search. Users can search Spock via three types of information – name, email or tags. Experts say that nearly 30% of Google searches are people searches. If this is true I’m surprised no one has created a good “personal search” engine until now. Spock utilizes tags which make it extremely simple to organize and find information. Our society might just be ego-centric enough to make this a success – how many of us have Googled ourselves? Oh and by the way, Spock allows users to add tags, name variations and a photo.

Go to Spock and “claim” your profile before someone else does. Spock uses a technology that automatically generates tags for an individual. This differentiates Spock from the other People Search web sites such as LinkedIn and Wink. Think of Spock’s potential uses – get the dirt on a new love interest, impromptu employer background check, or find out “where they are now”. It seems like Spock has the potential to be yet another Internet time sucker.

By the way, Spock is thrilled with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). They are utilizing S3 for storing their photos. They write, “We’re pretty psyched with Amazon Web Services, and we’re looking forward to leveraging other neat services they roll out in the future.” It’s reassuring to know that other companies are having success with this technology just as we are with Wonderfile.

A pretty interesting view of of our culture and environmental issues through art. Artist Chris Jordan is working on a series called “Running the Numbers : An American self portrait” – where statistics are converted to images in the form of large format art works. As the description states, I can imagine they are even more impressive when seen in person but these works are pretty astonishing (and startling) at any scale.

I just read an article that literally (and metaphorically) blew me away.

Scientists have uncovered a source of clean power that could generate enough energy to provide over 100 times the current global demand. The jet stream. Duh – rather obvious if you think about it – a massive swath of 310 mile per hour winds blowing day and night…

There are currently several start-ups looking to tap into the jet streams power – there is some hope!