iGot iPhone

On Saturday July 12, 2008, my parents and I went to the Apple Store Burlingame to purchase the new Apple iPhone 3G. We stood in line for about 3 hours, and then another hour in the store to activate the phones.

When all said and done, it was time to formally un-box my new iPhone 3G. I did get the White 16 GB iPhone 3G, instead of the Black 16 GB. I talked to Robert Scoble the night before, and he convinced me to get the White version. My mom did get a 8 GB Black iPhone 3G. I am still teaching her how to use everything, but she is getting the hand of it. Below are videos from walking into the store, and un-boxing our new iPhones!

Continue reading “iGot iPhone” →

New Design V.3

Welcome to Version3 of The Web Blog of Daniel Brusilovsky. We are currently working on Version4 of the blog with Adam Fisher-Cox and Adam Debreczeni.

The theme we are currently is using powered by Hemingway by Warpspire. Tell me what you thinking by commenting bellow, or contacting me.

Blog Construction

The Web Blog of Daniel Brusilovsky will be under construction. Daniel and Adam Fisher-Cox, will be working hard this new project.

Lots of cool changes to come. Stay tuned by following me and Adam on Twitter. Graphics made by Keaton Brant.

WhereCamp 2008

Every year, with this year being the fourth in succession, there is Where 2.0 Conference by O’Reily. And every weekend after the conference, there is WhereCamp. Here is an excerpt from O’Reily’s website that describes the Where 2.0 Conference:

Now in its fourth year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading edge developers building location aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. In the O’Reilly conference tradition, Where 2.0 presents leading trends rather than chasing them.

At Where 2.0, you’ll find source mapping tools, open standards for data and location web services, and sensors for obtaining location data. We’ll learn how the established geo industry is reacting to the first businesses making money from their grassroots geospatial projects. There’s no better place to meet the people behind the mash-ups, the people behind the platforms, and the people looking ahead to the future of geospatial. Join us at Where 2.0 to debate and discuss what’s viable now, and what’s lurking just below the radar

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Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to Where 2.0 Conference, but able to make it to WhereCamp! Originally, I was supposed to head to TiECon in Santa Clara, but didn’t have a ride to there, so I convinced my parents to let me go to the GooglePlex in Mountain View, CA, where WhereCamp 2008 was held. We spent night atthe GooglePlex, where they were handing out tents for those who didn’t have money to spend on lodging. Who knew that I’d be sleeping under the stars on the premises of my favorite search company?

I got there at around 8:00 PM, and met up with two people, Robert Scoble and Rex Pechler.

At around 10:00, I started talking to the Poly9 folks. I met the CEO and Chief Architect. Then, without me even knowing, a much younger man (but still older than me) comes and sits next to me and Poly9 folks. We started talking about Press and Media Badges, when the CEO of Poly9 asked who he was. He had a Google badge on, so we though he was a Google Employee. The Poly9 CEO (Greg) quickly googled his name, and his blog, On the iPhone, comes up. We all looked at each other, and said in awe, that he was the first to unlock (to allow a phone to operate on a network that’s not the phone’s distributing carrier) the iPhone! George Hotz was sitting next to me and chatting with me for about 20 minutes before we realized who he was. Greg quickly asked him to sit down to talk, George sat down, and we ended up talking for about 8 hours, from 10:30 at night until about 6:30 in the morning. This had to be one of the best nights of my life. We were all asking questions, and of course, Qikking. Here is Rex’s and my stream:

http://qik.com/player.swf?streamname=5c5f2a20a90d44a29d892aa32ed1974d&vid=81087&playback=false&polling=false&user=appleuniverse&userlock=true&islive=&username=anonymous

http://qik.com/player.swf?streamname=141a524a63b8452d83c00b02beae2063&vid=81094&playback=false&polling=false&user=rex&userlock=true&islive=&username=anonymous

This was such an amazing night. For more Qik Videos, please either go to my channel, or Rex’s. To conclude, here’s a photo with George and myself:

Time for a New Look

As anybody who visited the site recently can tell, DanielBru.com has gotten a new face, almost top to bottom. Previously, I was using the GlossyBlue theme designed by N.Design Studio, but now the blog is showing off the WP-Premium 1.0 by R.Bhavesh.

For the record, I did not work on customizing this theme alone. The awesome Matt Pippen, of Teen Media Productions, helped me along the way with CSS and PHP, and making the theme fit into the blog just beautifully.

But we’re not doen yet. Community, you’re involved in this too. Do you like the theme? Do you think that there’s anything else we can work on to make the blog look even better? Let me know by leaving a comment below, or through the contact form.

WordPress 2.5

WordPress is about to release version 2.5 into the wild (It just hit Release Candidate on the 17th). If you’ve been using WordPress.com or have peeked at the demo site you will know the biggest change coming to WordPress with this release.

My Beginnings in Blogging with WordPress

My original blog started at WordPress.com in April 2007, and I recently switched to my own self-hosted WordPress install in December 2007. With the re-launch of Apple Universe in February, I needed to get much more familiar with the platform, hence the switch.

At first, I was amazed at all the features like plug-ins, and user-installable themes. In my search for themes, I happened across iTheme, but at that point I didn’t know that Matthew Heidenreich would design an amazing theme for me. Once he was done, however, I was really blown away by his work.

WordPress 2.5 – Dashboard Design Refresh

Although older releases of WordPress were easy to use, WordPress 2.5 brings a fully refreshed administration system that makes things easier to understand than before. The “Publish Status” option is now prominently displayed at the very top of the right-hand sidebar. (Editor’s note: As I’m working through this post, I’m apppreciating the intelligent relocation of features more and more by the minute.)

The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone.

The main tabs are functionally similar to older versions: on the left-hand side there are the Write, Manage, Design, and Comments links, (and, in my WP install, podPress), and on the right-hand side reside Settings, Plugins, and Users. However, links are now managed and created under the Manage tab, an alteration that brings back memories of the 2.0.x series releases.

The first major change that I noticed was the orange banner across the page, with a new super-emphasized “Write a New Post” button (and, directly adjacent to that button is one for creating a new page). Isn’t that the point of blogging? Generally, the first thought that comes to mind when I browsing to the Dashboard is writing a new post, and with WP 2.5 RC1, it’s clear that the WordPress team is aiming for this thought process. Blogging is the main objective; everything else merely enhances the experience.

Visual Editor Improvements

The WYSIWYG visual editor, a long time bane of many users existence, has been upgraded with support for TinyMCE 3. It includes a Full Screen mode for those that don’t like to be distracted when writing. I cannot speak a lot about this upgrade, as I don’t use WordPress’ visual editor, but the blogosphere has agreed that it’s a vast improvement over previous versions.

WordPress 2.5 RC1 is available for download. For a more in-depth review of the new features, Matt Mullenweg published a post on the WordPress Blog, and Aaron Brazell has an amazing outline of the new features, which inspired me to write up this article regarding WordPress 2.5.

Video: STS-123 Shuttle Launch

One of my greatest friends, and one of the smartest people I have met in technology is Ben Higginbotham. Ben not only knows a lot of technology, and how things work, but about astronomy. Ben has been a huge fan of astronomy ever since I have met him.

Ben worked very hard on this hobby, and I felt that his work is well worth sharing with everyone. Ben live streamed on UStream.tv the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor! Here is the clip from Ben’s stream:

http://ustream.tv/rqyzo0QgnMfsMyUP0gNj8g.usv

Ben has a blog up for his space podcast, called SpaceVidCast. Check it out!

Born Again Mac User Podcast

Marcelo Lewin of the Born Again Mac User Podcast (part of The Digital Media Dude network) recently brought me on his for an interview. It was a great honor to be on the show. The episode was about switching from Microsoft Windows to the amazing Mac OS X. The two co-hosts, Marcelo, a.k.a. “Rabbi Marcelo” and John Devine, a.k.a. “Reverend John” got really into it, so did I, and they really did a great job co-hosting the show. You can find the episode on the Born Again Mac User Podcast site.We had a blast talking about my switch, and also some problems that occurred. Here are the interview questions, for quick reference:

Tell us about yourself.
Tell us about your podcasts.
Why did you switch to Mac?
Mac or PC in school?
What was the best thing about the conversion process?
What’s been the worst thing about converting?
Biggest conversion surprise?
What’s the best Mac convert resource?
Is there anything from Windows that you miss?
What’s your favorite Mac app?

The Digital Media Dude network has other podcasts that I think you will enjoy. Check it out – you might learn something cool!

Daniel’s New Toy

Daniel has a new “toy”. Daniel likes his new toy. Daniel will take his new toy to many places. Daniel needs to stop talking in the third-person now.

After tweeting and recording a Qik video about this, it is time to announce my new toy. My school isn’t the richest school in the world, but we do have great sports, music, and of course, academics. One thing that our school does lack is a laptop for every student.

If you remember, from a very long time ago, on the Apple Universe Podcast LIVE event at my high school, the computer lab aide, Mrs. Bandong, joined me to talk tech. I came to the computer lab, like I regularly do at school, and noticed a tablet-like computer on her desk. My curious self brought me this machine.

http://qik.com/player.swf?streamname=cd1d65b3face4adeaf08cda0b408b709&vid=26094&playback=false&polling=false&user=appleuniverse&userlock=true&islive=&username=anonymous

The little handheld computer is called the Nova5000, and is made by Fourier Systems. The Nova5000 runs the Windows CE operating system, and includes an absolutely amazing plethora of ports! Here’s a list of the Nova’s external connections:

Ethernet port 10/100-Built-in WiFi 802.11g
3 female USB 1.1 ports, for connecting a keyboard, mouse, flash drive, etc.
1 male USB port for Microsoft ActiveSync (to synchronize the handheld with a desktop Windows computer)
CompactFlash memory card slot
Headphone and microphone jacks
Built-in audio speaker (Mono)
12-bit / 8 input scientific probe sensor interface
VGA monitor port

Now you are thinking about what this has to do with me, Daniel. Well, Mrs. Bandong was incredibly generous and actually gave me the Nova5000! I would like to thank Mrs. Bandong very much for donating this handheld to me.

Since the Nova500 has both a mic and headphone jack, I might use it in taking podcasting on the road with me, but we’ll see what happens. I managed to get a number of good pictures of the Nova handheld, which are posted here for your perusal:

You can find the rest of the photos over at my Flickr account.