Dakota loves the sun

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Congrats Canada on the hockey win. This picture is priceless!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Congrats Canada on the hockey win. This picture is priceless!

Best Friends

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:58:56 -0500

Best Friends

Human Being T-Shirt by Origin68. Wicked Cool

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:55:00 -0500

Human Being T-Shirt by Origin68. Wicked Cool

The snowflake! Cold in Florida

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:55:24 -0500

The snowflake! Cold in Florida

Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman - They don’t make...

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:56:56 -0500

Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman - They don’t make ‘em like these two anymore.

harleylove:

(via cassiiie)

wienerblog: cozy dogs

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:07:09 -0500

wienerblog:

cozy dogs

moltz: Snow Vader (Stéfan)

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:23:28 -0500

moltz:

Snow Vader (Stéfan)

Droid Sans font looks good on the iPhone

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:02:51 -0500

Droid Sans font looks good on the iPhone

Today I will be happy (via jordanparrish)

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:30:43 -0500

Today I will be happy

(via jordanparrish)

Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace.

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:17:00 -0500

Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace.:

Some really cool stuff for your MacBook, decals and cases and such, thanks @tuaw

10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:53:00 -0500

10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers:

If your a dog lover and have an iPhone, check this out.

Check out this gift! For beer lovers only.

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:13:33 -0500

Check out this gift! For beer lovers only.

at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:06:18 -0500

at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The old days

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:00:52 -0500

Dad: What's IKEA?
Me: It's a big Swedish furniture store, really cheap.
Dad: You know how I got my furniture? I went door-to-door and asked for it.

Who’s outside?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:37:44 -0500

Who’s outside?

Love this ad. Who doesn’t love ice cream and cake...

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:41:49 -0500

Love this ad. Who doesn’t love ice cream and cake together?

Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream and Cake Commercial (via BaskinRobbinsFan)

Not too late to send some free holiday cards from Mail

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:35:48 -0500

Not too late to send some free holiday cards from Mail:

Some high quality templates for free!

Gowalla Tips

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:28:00 -0500

Gowalla is a fun geocaching game that you can play with your iPhone and Android mobile device. For iPhone there is a native app available via the App Store. On Android you can use the mobile website at this time, a native app is in the works. The game works utilizing the GPS chip in the phone so you can “check in” at places or “spots” around the world. Subsequently you can announce your check-in’s to Twitter and Facebook.

When you check in to spots you may find virtual prizes or “items” that you can collect along the way and add them to your virtual stash. Also, there are trips that you can complete that can give you a “pin”. One trip is called “Visit 10 Coffeeshops” and will give you a pin if you visit, you guessed it… 10 coffee shops.

I have a lot of fun with the game and find myself wanting to leave the house just to visit new places. The game is dependent on people to create new spots that may not appear in the app because the location hasn’t been discovered yet. I wanted to make a guide and general etiquette tips towards playing Gowalla to help new users as well as provide some consistency to naming spots.

Creating New Spots - when you add a new spot there are some points to consider before adding the place. First, you can refresh the list of spots by lightly shaking your iPhone or wait and Gowalla will refresh for you momentarily. Secondly, always check that the spot doesn’t currently exist. If it’s already created then there is no need to create a new spot. Duplicate entries for the same spot can create confusion. When you are ready to add the new spot try to follow some of these tips:

Spelling: Spell the location correctly. Other users will check in at your spot so it’s important to get the spelling right.

Capitalization: Generally title capitalization works in which the first letter of each word in the location is capitalized. Using “all caps” or capitalizing all letters is never a good idea unless it’s a known acronym or title that calls for it. For instance:
- “Burger King” would be better then “burger king” or “BURGER KING”. Use dashes if the place has one like ”Chick-fil-A”.
- “ABC Liquors”, “AMC Theaters” or “BJ’s Wholesale Club” would have partial all-caps titles since that’s what the company name is.
- Don’t abbreviate the spot name if it’s not common, for instance most people would not know what “WDW” is. Rather you should type the whole name “Walt Disney World”. Common acronyms and abbreviated places like “IKEA”, “CVS” or “AT&T” would be acceptable. Make sure to capitalize all the letters in the title for these.

Keep the spot name short: the spot should just be the name of the place. Remember you also have a description field to add more information. In most cases it’s not necessary to add the word “The” at the beginning. Some places include what their specialty is in their title. You can chose to include it or not. If it’s a well known place it may not be necessary.
- “Starbucks” is fine vs. “Starbucks Coffee”. Most people associate that Starbucks is the well-known coffee joint located around the world. But what if in your community you also have a “Starbucks” that was the name of a video store? You could include the word “video store” in the title or keep in short and just place it in the description. Also, there is an associated icon for each place you create. So for Starbucks Coffee you would see a picture of a coffee cup and for the Starbucks video store there would be a picture of a ticket stub for the “Other Entertainment” category.
- “Target” works vs. “Target - Main Street”. It is unnecessary to include the street/subdivision or area of town that it’s located in. You can add the location to the description. Remember that there is an associated map location & city with every spot you create so users could easily associate where that spot is.

Place it in the right category: As Gowalla get’s popular more categories will be created. In the meantime try to place each spot in it’s most-regonizable category. Some places could be placed into many categories, for instance take “Dunkin’ Donuts”. You could place it under Food-Coffeeshop, Food-Donuts. Probably the best category is Food-Donuts well, Donuts is in the name but Dunkin’ Donuts is most famous and recognizable for their donuts.

Use the description: It’s optional, but be creative if you add one. You could add a short phrase or tip about the location. For instance if a local pub has a happy hour with reduced prices would be a nice tip to add to the description.

Check In and cheating: What constitues a check-in? Do you have to actually visit the spot or if you can see it a down the street is that allowed? Actually there are no rules. The app will only let you check in to a spot when you are near the place based on your GPS location. You can’t sit at home and check in at you local Starbucks that is miles away down the street. However, if you are in a mall which has many retail and restaurant locations you could check in to multiple spots within minutes. Is that right or is that cheating? Again there are no rules and no one regulates that except you. You can establish your own rules with your friends. My friends and I only check into spots that we actually visit.

What are items?: A item is a virtual prize you pick up when you visit a spot. You collect items when visiting spots. However, visiting a spot may or may not give you a item every time. If there are items at a spot you can trade for that item with one in your virtual stash.

What are pins?: As mentioned earlier you can collect pins for completing trips. Trips are a collection of spots. For instance there is a Central Park Highlights trip that will give you a special pin if you go to 5 locations in Central Park, New York. You can also get pins by visiting many spots. When you visit 10, 25 and 50 spots you collect a pin. Pins can also be collected by creating & founding many spots.

Creator, Founders and Top 10: The creator of the spot is the person who add’s the new spot. A founder is anyone who wants to drop off an item at the spot. It’s not necessary to become a founder of a spot unless it’s a spot you frequent. Gowalla tracks the top 10 visitors to the spot. The people who frequent the spot most often then anyone else are listed under the Top 10.

What’s a featured spot?: These are special spots and landmarks created by the Gowalla team. They are identifiable by a custom stamp or icon. For instance, there is a featured spot for the world famous Hollywood sig n landmark in California. Not all spots with a custom is considered featured.

Editing spots: Only the creator of the spot, Team Gowalla and the Street Team Elite can edit the name, category, size location and GPS location. Mistakes do happen, and thankfully you can edit them on the website (not from the mobile device at this time). In addition the creator of a spot also has the ability to delete the spot entirely as long as no one else has checked in to that spot and no items were dropped there. It’s important to note that you cannot move a spot far away from where it was originally created. Only Team Gowalla can do this.

Um, the spot’s wrong - contact the Creator or the Street Team Elite: If you notice that a spot created by someone else is not in it’s correct location or the name is incorrect you may want to politely contact the creator of the spot to see if they can fix it. You can do this from the Gowalla website and contact the creator via Facebook or Twitter if they have associated their Gowalla account with either site. Another route is to contact the Gowalla Street Team Elite via their Twitter account with help. See the next point

Who is the Street Team Elite: a group of dedicated individuals who are there to help you fix and edits spots around the world. The team can:

Fix spots not located in it’s correct GPS coordinates
Duplicate spots located at the same locations. These can be merged to one spot.
Misspelling’s or dropped into an incorrect category

Friending: becoming friends on Gowalla versus Facebook has a different set of unwritten rules. By friending someone on Gowalla you are giving them access to know where you are at certain points of the day. Some people are a little more sensitive to this kind of information being out in the open. You may not want to let a complete stranger or acquaintance become your friend on Gowalla. On the other hand it’s kinda fun seeing someone you briefly know across the country and the spots they might visit.

GPS wonkiness: Sometimes the GPS on the phone can’t get a good clean fix on your exact location. The GPS chip in the iPhone is not nearly as good as a dedicated GPS unit. Thankfully this can also be edited from the website. Gowalla will let you nudge the GPS location a little bit but you can’t move it miles away. If the location is truly miles away you may have to delete the spot and re-add it or contact Gowalla to help move a spot’s location. Expert Tip: Use the satellite view button within the Google map to get an exact fix on the spot.

Have Fun, It’s a game: These are just tips to help out. It’s not meant to be a set rulebook or list of procedures you have to follow. It can just help out everyone when playing the game.

A big thank you to the folks at Alamofire for creating such a wonderful app! I know I will look forward to updates and additions of features to the game as it matures.

For general questions check out Gowalla’s community forum located at Get Satisfaction. It’s loaded with interaction between Gowalla users and the development team.

Updated: Jan 10, 2010

Merry Christmas! Me as Santa

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:04:45 -0500

Merry Christmas! Me as Santa

ericl.journal

Dakota loves the sun

Congrats Canada on the hockey win. This picture is priceless!

Best Friends

Human Being T-Shirt by Origin68. Wicked Cool

The snowflake! Cold in Florida

Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman - They don’t make...

wienerblog: cozy dogs

moltz: Snow Vader (Stéfan)

Droid Sans font looks good on the iPhone

Today I will be happy (via jordanparrish)

Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace.

10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

Check out this gift! For beer lovers only.

at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The old days

Who’s outside?

Love this ad. Who doesn’t love ice cream and cake...

Not too late to send some free holiday cards from Mail

Gowalla Tips

Merry Christmas! Me as Santa