GlitchNYC

The power of BricaBox demonstrated by an April Fools list

April 1st, 2008

At about midnight last night, I realized that it was now April Fools and that the internet pranks were about to start rolling in. Right then, Gmail started boasting it’s new “Custom Time” feature, a.viary rolled out their auto-aging tool “Dodo”, and blip.tv added a new “rickroll” advertisting format to go with pre-roll and post-roll.

I knew I wouldn’t be the only one to want a way to collect the gags I’d found and that others would find ones I hadn’t seen yet, so I asked Nate to whip up a quick BricaBox for us. A BricaBox is like a really advanced plug-and-play website. Within 5 minutes, Nate had the site ready, including the ability for anyone to add a listing, vote on them, and add their comments and more info. The best listings will rise to the top, Digg style. The only way he could have whipped up something this functional that fast is with BricaBox, and that’s what makes it so powerful.

We’ve done other quickie BricaBoxes, like the ResistorSource, which lists great food and drink venues near NYCResistor (also handy for BarCampNYC and PodCampNYC which happen nearby as well). When you’re working with locations you can just add the google maps module, and all the places will appear on the map automatically. It’s pretty freaking cool.

As BricaBox grows, Nate and his team will be making more modules that let you do even more with BricaBoxes at lightning speed. I’m really looking forward to seeing where the next few months take them as they focus on UI and functionality and a few big projects give them the opportunity to develop new modules.

For now, take a look at the April Fools Joke Sites BricaBox and add any gags you’ve discovered!

Posted by Eric Skiff Filed in april fools, awesome, bricabox, web2.0

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We’ve got BarCampNYC3 T-shirts!

March 5th, 2008

We’ve got BarCampNYC3 T-shirts thanks to the extremely awesome Mr Joshua Keay of Insanely Great Tees!.

The BarCamp logo is traditionally just the flame next to name of your camp, and I LOVE how different, quirky, and inspired this new design is. Aside from the fact that it’s delightfully python-esque, Josh’s logo communicates giving and uses the BarCamp flame in a novel way, showing it igniting a brain. BarCamp is all about sharing ideas and getting inspired, so this logo cuts right to the essence of what BarCamp is for me, and does it with a wonderfully weird sensibility. I’m going to be wearing this shirt a lot!

If you haven’t heard of BarCamp yet, it’s an ad-hoc conference happening March 15th and 16th at Brooklyn Poly. In short, it’s like Fight Club for geeks. If you come to the event, you have to present (or at least help, but that doesn’t rhyme so well). Because we’re all sharing expertise, you get some incredibly deep and geeky topics from an amazing diverse array of disciplines.

We capped the event at 200 people this year, and ran out of the main batch of tickets, but we’ve got 10 more opening up next Monday and Thursday at 9 AM. If you want a ticket, head to the registration page then and jump on them as they open up!

Posted by Eric Skiff Filed in BarCamp, adhoc, awesome, barcampnyc, barcampnyc3, unconference

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Videoblog: Unboxing the Chumby

May 4th, 2007

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                                  </center><div class="blip_description">Unboxing and playing with our new <a href="http://chumby.com">Chumby</a> prototype. I can't wait to hack on it a bit and start developing a <a href="http://clipmarks.com">clipmarks</a> widget for it!<br /></div>

Unboxing the Chumby