Happy 10TH Birthday Googster!

I (like most people) feel VERY close to Mr. Google. I visit and chat with Mr. G more times a day than I contact my closest friends. So, it’s only fitting to pay homage to this 10-year old that’s the strongest and most brilliant in his class. I’d personally like to thank the Mr. Google for the fantastic results he’s provided me in the past and continues to do for me on a daily basis.

Have you ever searched Mr. G’s images? I promise that no matter what you’re looking for, you will find it in EVERY sense of the word (yikes!). And what about analytics? I’m a PDF girl, so having a document full of clear site stats makes it easy to track popularity progress. Have you seen Mr. G’s Docs? All I can say is ‘THANK YOU’, being able to modify documents between others without having to send each change by email has been a real lifesaver. What about the Googster’s mobile application? I’d be perpetually lost in NYC, if it wasn’t for Google Text (free 411 SMS service) and the Google Maps to direct me home in the snow. I could go on and on, but I’d rather hear what your favorite features is of that Good Lookin’ Googster. Email me some stories on your Google Experience and I’ll make sure to post them in celebration of their anniversary. 

My mother and I visited with some family friends Kristina and Judy this morning at Dinah’s Poolside Grill in Palo Alto. I met Kristina when we were 15-year-old models in Paris (Gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago). Our mothers accompanied us on the trip to make sure that we were settled in, all my memories of Miss Kristina revolve around late night Croque Monsieur’s (still to this day my favorite sandwich) and all day model castings. I was never a good model, I think you have to have an air of coolness that was never in my genetic makeup.

Though we haven’t seen each other in years, it was easy to catch up over a mother-daughter breakfast where we laughed about old times, spouted off about how much has changed, and speculated on what the next 10 years will bring for two simple girls from California.    

maryrambin:

Here’s how you should follow Mercedes Benz Fashion Week with Julia and I:

Live from the Front Row:

• I blog photos from my seat via iPhone, quality is decent
• I livestream to Mogulus from my N95 via Qik, YOU ARE FRONT ROW!
• Julia live twitters via ghetto Treo

(That’s a lot of technology, Megs would be so proud!)

Post-Show:

• Julia uploads better quality pictures via MacBook Air in the W Lounge
• I recap all shows at end of day on blog
• Video On Demand and Looping Feed on Mogulus

Behind the Scenes:

• Added all the time everywhere!

I promise to twitter more :)

I’m SO proud of BOTH my girls, they are ROCKIN’ OUT Fashion Week and using technology to boot. My mother has been glued to their blogs all day. Miss my ladies- xoxo

I’ve been ignoring the error message ‘Startup Disk is almost full’ for quite some time now. It’s caused me a MAJOR migraine trying decipher exactly what to discard and what is taking up the most space on my hard drive. Today, I decided it was time to slay the dragon (i.e. my overflowing startup disk) and go for the gusto when it comes to cleanup. At first the clean out process was overwhelming, until I came across the MOST incredible hard-drive diagnostic software called OmniDiskSweeper. I’m a huge fan of The Omni Group and this application lives up to the high standards they are known for. The application shows you EXACTLY what’s filling up your drive. There’s a free version to download for a diagnosis and after that it gives you the option to pay $14.99 for the ability to delete from the actual application itself. I’m not going to lie, finding this application made me yell ‘WOOT!’ at my little laptop. 

FLIP THIS!

READER QUESTION: 

 I remember you telling me at your launch party that you dislike the Flip. You know what? I’m with you. I’m fed up of it not being compatible with iMovie. I was wondering if you could also recommend a good compact digital camera I could use for both photos and decent quality video? Actually what might be more useful is to let me know what specs I should look for in the video camera part of a digicam? I want to do more video stuff for my blog and I am struggling to know the perfect compromise between camera size, video quality, and ease of upload to sites like vimeo.  Also what size memory card would you recommend? I currently only use a 1GB and it runs out of space quickly if I am using the video camera.

MY RESPONSE: 

I like to keep my ‘Gadgets on the Go’ to a minimum, so to me, it makes no sense carting around both the Flip and a digital camera. Especially, when the video quality and ease of upload is vastly superior using a digital camera on video mode compared to using the Flip. I know that there are A LOT of Flip Fan’s out there (Oprah spurred a whole movement when she endorsed them), so I hate to burst your bubble, but the most logical choice (keeping the purchases to a minimum) is to take your digital camera and load it with a large memory card. My choice in size? 4GB. As far as cameras are concerned, I’m a Canon Girl (FYI- I’m not being bribed in any way to endorse Canon, I just like them). Right now, I’m using the Canon SD870, it’s no my most favorite model, but it does the job. Mary and Julia use Canon’s SD 700 series. Why? Well, as you mentioned it’s quite frustrating to have to reformat video files into ones compatible to your computer. If you’re working off of a Mac, converting The Flip’s files are a pain in the booty. That being said, the Canon cameras I suggested are VERY compatible with Mac because of their AVI formatting. Purchasing a digital camera is a personal decision, like phones, everyone has a feature that is particularly important. The best advice I can give you is to try a Canon and perhaps another brand (like a Sony Cybershot) and see which one you feel is most adaptable for your needs.

To further answer your question here are some specs you should look for in a digitial camera when it comes to video capabilities:

• Resolution 5 megapixels or greater 
• Lens type Supports lens converters or interchangeable lenses or zoom with widest focal range possible 
  
• Storage media High-capacity CompactFlash, Hitachi Microdrive, or Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard 
• Interfaces USB 2.0 or FireWire 
  
• Exposure controls Automatic, aperture- and shutter-priority, manual, choice of metering modes, autobracketing 
  
• Focus controls Automatic with selectable focus points, manual 
  
• Flash modes Automatic, fill, slow sync, hot shoe or contact for external flash 
• Cool features to look for Compatibility with existing 35mm-camera lenses and accessories, customizable user modes, dynamic histogram display, optical or mechanical image stabilization