Found this spiffy tool today that creates a tag cloud out of all the tags in my Flickr photostream. Clearly, I take a lot of photos whenever I visit Rochester, and no surprise, photos of ‘Ourkids’ dominate as well.
Posted in flickr
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Tagged flickr, Photography
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Ready for the snow to head our way. It’s just barely entered the state (far to the Southwest), but should be here this evening. Too bad the forecast says it will switch over to sleet/freezing rain sooner, limiting accumulation. Hope folks stay safe, especially if the storm produces more ice than snow – as that’s a real killer on roads, powerlines, etc. Ready to start marinating short ribs to cook tomorrow – cause comfort food simmering most of the day is always the proper companion to a snowy day! Check my webcam here for current conditions!
The image above, created at Wordle.net – creates a beautiful rendering of a source text – in this case, my 2009 ramblings on Twitter – and creates an image giving greater prominence to more frequently used words. Read on for some other examples. Or head over to Wordle and try it for yourself.
Posted in blog
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Tagged wordle, words
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Just in case you do happen to visit ol’ Trotz.com, want to let you know that the malware attack that flagged my site seems to have been eradicated. I had to reinstall WordPress and delete my old gallery php app, but all seems well now. Google should ‘bless’ the site again soon. My apologies to anybody who was scared off by that!
So many of my friends ask me – what the hell is that foursquare/gowalla/brightkite thing I see popping up on your Facebook, Twitter or blog feeds. Well, for those not in the know, it’s possibly the next big thing (or possibly just annoying). Anyway, these are all so-called LBS or Location-Based Services. These services are all variations on the idea of ‘checking in’ to physical locations via a GPS-enabled mobile device to let your friends know what you are up to. Some, like Gowalla, involve a game of sorts, where virtual objects are available for pickup when you check in, rather like a virtual version of Geocaching. Gowalla ran a scavenger hunt in December for actual prizes – t-shirts, $10 iTunes gift cards etc – and I managed to find an iTunes card on my last trip to NYC, although I’m still waiting for the card to arrive. Anyway, as seen above, there is this spiffy site Wheredoyougo that creates a heatmap of your check-ins by using the Foursquare APIs along with Google maps. No surprise there that I pretty much stay ITP (or at the airport, ahem). There’s also a cluster of activity up on Buford Highway where I drag the family to get our ethnic on as frequently as possible 
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