idea

Aug 9 2010

The pursuit of Mac Awesomeness

I’ve been thinking of doing quick-and-dirty videos to accompany the stories here at MacMerc for quite a while but the first video is always the toughest. I finally got my inspiration as I was sitting in the local @Starbucks trying to post a story using their free wifi. It was taking me far too long to upload a simple story. Far, far, far too long. This was not going to work.

I looked across the street and noticed my local Mac dealer, Mac Station, and thought, “I bet they have better wifi… I wonder if they’d let me blog from their store.” I assumed they’d want to get something out of the deal—not just let some guy leach wifi and not buy anything. That’s when I came up with the idea to offer to do those nearly-daily videos I wanted to do, but do them from their store. I help get the word out about the awesome store and their fun, knowledgeable staff and in return I get a base to blog from and a gentle nudge to get something compelling done every day.

So here it is, the first video1 . The first video is always the toughest.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed and follow @RickMacMerc and @MacMerc on Twitter. Me and the staff here at Mac Station have a lot of great ideas we’re going to share with you, but if you know of any Mac/iPod/iPhone/iPad awesomeness you want us to feature, post a comment or send me a Submission of Awesomeness and I’ll give it a look.

Thanks for reading this far, as a reward, you get to watch a video of me rescuing a kitten from my car engine»
  1. and, no, this doesn’t take the place of MacMercTV [↩]

This also happened today…

Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.5

By RickMacMerc • Featured, macmerc, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, Site News • 3 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 2 2010

Awesome Mac-based video guestbook for your wedding

This is how fast I’d like to be able to bring you the awesomeness on my constant quest for it: I literally just saw this tweet by @LelaNewYork and I had to share this very cool idea with you.

LOVE: Awesome Wedding Video Guest book! Works on a MAC... http://bit.ly/bMqfwi”” On 9:42 PM Aug 2nd 2010 from Twitter for iPhone

.

For $99 US, Thrilled For You sells software for a customized themed video guestbook. You install the application and run an iMac or similarly iSight equipped Mac in kiosk mode at your wedding or reception. Then, as the emotion moves them, your guests, your family, your friends, your former lovers will take turns standing in front of the camera and expressing just how happy they are for you… or how drunk they are.

It’s a brilliant idea and you can download a demo for free. [Via Lela New York Wedding Blog]

By RickMacMerc • elsewhere, Geek News, Twitter • Comments Off • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun 14 2010

MacMerc.com is Back!

MacMerc.com is back… but why did it go?

I’m happy to announce the return of MacMerc.com and my intention to resume production on MacMerc.TV. It must have seemed strange after so much attention and effort was made to launch an ambitious podcast that was so well received (thank you all for that) to then not only stop producing that show but to take down the site that hosted it.

Believe me, it wasn’t part of the plan.

Let me take you back a year or so and I’ll try to explain.

Shortly after I launched the podcast, I started up a friendship over Twitter with Greg Grunberg ( @greggrunberg ) from NBC’s HEROES. He is an amazing guy with all kinds of projects on the go. At the time he told me about an idea he had for an iPhone app that would bring up coupons based on where the user was in proximity to the stores. He wanted to know if I knew anyone who could develop it. I did, of course. I connected him with my friend from my days on The Wizards of Technology, August Trometer ( @august ).

That was the start of the whirlwind of activity that became Yowza!! Mobile Coupons ( @yowza ). In the early months it took over a lot of my time and even distracted me from my day job a fair bit. I had no time to write blog posts, much less scripts. There was definitely no time for shooting and editing.

In the midst of all that, a hacker came a-hackin’ (it’s what they do). Somebody was repeatedly compromising MacMerc.com’s security and posting all kinds of filth and horror. With all the other stuff happening in my life, I couldn’t handle this as well. The only person that knew the site well enough to defend it was also the guy I recommended when Greg asked if I knew any coders, and he was busier than me.

I was sunk.

My only defense was retreat.

Through my friendship (and internship) with Cali Lewis at GeekBrief ( @calilewis ), I had met some amazingly wonderful people and made some great friends. One of them, Daynah ( @daynah ) came to my rescue and put up a “be back soon page” and went to work converting the data from my antiquated pre-Typepad content management system over to WordPress. She did a great job and I am so thankful for her help.

My participation with Yowza!! is much less than it was and I, once again, have time for blogging, script writing and podcasting.

Let’s dig in!

By admin • announcement, Featured, News • 7 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 »