Demo Girl

BgPatterns is a neat tool which allows you to create different patterns that you can use for your wallpaper or on your blog or website.  It’s free to use and you don’t even need to register in order to create and download your patterns.

You can start from scratch with one of their images which can be resized, rotated, and made more transparent.  You can also select a texture for the background and customize the colors.  If you’ve signed up for an account, you can save your patterns so you can find them later.  You can also just download them if you don’t want to be bothered signing up for an account.  There is also a BgPatterns gallery that displays recent and popular patterns.  You can vote on them, view them, and even download them for yourself.  To see BgPatterns in action, watch the screencast below:

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Yesterday, in Southern California, there was an earthquake. Yeah, I know, big shocker. Some of you may know that I’m originally from Southern California and all of my immediate family lives there as well. I’m up in San Francisco now so I didn’t feel a thing and didn’t even hear about it on the news. I read about it on Twitter. I read about it from the people I follow on Twitter, one of them being my brother. Since he posted to Twitter, “I just felt an earthquake” I figured he was alright. But when I tried to call my Mom to make sure she was Ok, I just got a message that her phone line was down. That made me feel better. All I kept thinking was, “how do I get this woman to understand that she should use Twitter!”. Hopefully these two screencasts will help her, and your friends and family, understand what a great tool Twitter can be (when it’s working).

The first screencast is more of an explanation of Twitter, and how it can be used to connect with friends and family members:

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This screencast will give anyone new to Twitter the tools to get started updating, finding friends, and sending private messages:

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If you use an RSS reader and you’re a fan of Adobe Air Applications, then you may want to check out Apprise.  With Apprise, you can read story summaries, read the full story on the webpage itself, and share stories with friends via AIM and Twitter.

After you install the application, you can add your feeds manually by entering in the feed URL, or you can have Apprise fetch the feed URL for you by entering in the website URL.  You can also import/export feeds in OPML format.  You can add your Twitter and AIM credentials so that you can share articles with friends with a couple of clicks.  If you want to share a story over Twitter, just click the Twitter icon, add a short tweet to go along with the link, and click on “submit”.  To send an article to a friend via AIM, just click on the IM icon, select an available buddy from the list, or enter in a screen name.

Another feature that I really like is that you can sort through stories based on a specific author or topic.  This is really useful if a blog you read has multiple authors and posts on many different topics – Now you can just pick who and what you read about.  You can also do real time searches within all articles.  To learn more, watch the screencast below:

[via KillerStartups]

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12seconds is a video lifestreaming service that allows you to post your updates in video form.  The only catch is that your video can be no longer, or shorter, than 12 seconds.

When I first heard about 12seconds my initial thought was, “oh boy, another way to post your updates”.  But after trying it out for a while today, I can definitely see how this could catch on.  It works very closely to the way Twitter does, but everything you would normally tweet, you quickly record with your webcam or mobile phone.  If you would normally tweet that you’re eating a delicious ham, you could quickly show people that you’re eating a delicious ham.  You can follow  your friends and see what they’ve been up to all day.  Each video has its own URL and people can add comments as well.  You can also choose to have your 12second updates pushed through to your Twitter account.

As of now, 12seconds appears to be in private alpha, but if I get any invites I’ll let you know!  The screencast below will show you how it works:
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Yesterday, while I was talking to my Mom, I learned something fascinating.  Not everyone has, or even knows, what a Google account is.  As I was trying to explain to her what you can do with a Google account, I realized that nothing I was saying was sinking in.  I also realized that there are probably a lot of people out there that have no idea what Google is beyond a basic search engine.  That’s where this screencast comes in.

I originally created this screencast just to send to my Mom as sort of an introduction to Google.  I had plans to create a few more screencasts showing her how to set up a Google Calendar and how to chat with me using Google Talk.  I decided that there may be more people out there who could benefit from a quick intro to the search giant, so I’ve decided to share the screencast I made for my Mom, here.  In the coming weeks I plan to create more “how-to” screencasts for basic services that we may use from day to day but some of our loved ones may not have the faintest clue how to operate.  If you have any suggestions on a topic that you think could be helpful, please let me know in the comments.  Remember, I made this screencast with the intention of helping someone who is just getting started with Google, so it’s very basic.

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TweetParty allows you to create groups out of your Twitter friends which you can then send direct messages to on Twitter.

You need to create a separate account on TweetParty first and then enter in your Twitter credentials.  The first time you log into TweetParty it will download all of your Twitter friends, so if you have thousands of friends then this step may take a minute or two.  After all of your friends have been synced into your TweetParty account you can simply create a name for your group, like co-workers, and then drag and drop each person you want added, underneath the group name.  That’s about as difficult as it gets.

When you want to send a message to a group of people on Twitter, whether it’s via IM, SMS, or the Web, you need to first add TweetParty as your friend.  Then simply send TweetParty a direct message, followed by your group name as a hashtag, and then the message.  The members of the group you created on TweetParty will receive a direct message and you only had to send out one tweet.

To see TweetParty in action, watch the screencast below:
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Mixin is a lifestreaming service that allows you to post activities that you’re participating in and allows your friends to join in on the fun.  Think of it as Twitter, but different because it wants you and your friends to get out and do something together.

After you sign up for Mixin you can create a profile with your photo, a custom background, and add links to your Twitter, flickr, and qik accounts.  From there, you just need to update your timeline with any events you’ll be participating in or you can “wish” for something.  Making a “wish” can be something like wanting to go hiking for the day or stating that you’d like to see a particular movie.  Your friends can do the same and you can follow each other to keep up with each others activities.  You can invite certain friends to join you in an activity and on the activity page you can post comments, suggestions, photos, and video.

All of your activities are on your agenda and you can filter your view by selecting certain types of events.  You can also choose to only view your own events, you and your real friends events, etc.  One thing that I really like about mixin is that you can choose specific people to be your “real friends” by placing a star next to their name.  That way, you can quickly see what the people you hang out with in real life are doing and decide if you want to join them.  If this sounds confusing to you, just think of it like this:

You’re sitting at home on a Friday afternoon and suddenly realize that you have no plans (happens to me all the time).  So, you can log into your mixin account and post that you’re free on Friday night and you’re up for anything, maybe a movie.  Now let’s say your friend Rita is thinking the same thing, “I’m bored and it’s Friday!”.  She logs into her mixin account and sees that you have no plans either or that you’re going to the movies by yourself.  Rita can then join the activity or suggest something for you guys to do.  She can add an exact location and invite some other people.  Before you know it, you’re surrounded by all of your friends and well on your way to a beauty of a hangover in the morning.  All thanks to mixin.

Mixin is also available on your mobile phone, over IM, or email.  You can choose to receive notifications via IM or email as well, so you’ll know right away when someone is planning an event.  You can also embed your mixin timeline on your blog or website.

Learn more about mixin by watching the screencast below:
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Want this screencast on your site?  Click here to get the embed code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

[via CenterNetworks]

A few months ago I noticed a new icon in my Gmail account .  Upon clicking on it, I was brought to Gmail Labs, where new Gmail features are being tested.

I played around with some of the features for a while but never really looked into them to see how they could really make my Gmail experience better.  Today, after I installed Firefox Extension, Better Gmail 2 (highly recommended!), I decided it would also be a good time to see what, if anything, these features could do for me.  To see what I found, watch the screencast below:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m46s

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With the way most of us communicate with people from all over the world these days, wouldn’t it be nice if you could buy your Internet friend a drink – even if you can’t be there to toast with them?  Well, BuyYourFriendADrink is one solution, albeit limited in its locations.

BuyYourfriendADrink allows you to purchase a drink for someone online which they can then redeem at participating bars.  This may seem silly because usually you buy someone a drink when you’re sitting right next to them at the bar.  However, I don’t even live in the same state as some of my co-workers let alone all the great people I’ve connected with through my blog and Twitter.  This would allow me to show my gratitude to someone who gave me help on a project or just give me a way to say, “hi!” to someone I never get to spend time with.  Any way you want to look at it, people like getting things.  Especially free things.

The way it works is pretty simple.  If you want to buy someone a drink, you just need to sign up for an account and go to the “buy a drink” page.  From there, enter in your name and email address along with the name and email of the friend you’d like to purchase a drink for.  You can also choose to enter in their cell number if you’d like them to be notified of their drink via text message.  Then enter in the amount of your gift (a $0.99 transaction fee will be added to your order).  Write your friend a little note telling them why you’re sending them a drink, or five, and then choose to pay via PayPal or credit card.  That’s it.  Your friend will receive an email or a text message with a gift code that they can use to purchase a drink at a participating bar.  It is recommended that the recipient prints out the email with the gift code to hand to the bartender, but not required. 

When you browse through the list of participating bars you’ll see that it’s not extremely long.  But not to worry!  If you send someone a drink and there isn’t a bar in their area to redeem it at, they can choose to transfer the money to their PayPal account.  That way, they can just go to their favorite watering hole and buy their own drink.  This option is also useful for people who don’t drink alcohol.

Any way you look at it, BuyYourFriendADrink is a fun way to show someone you don’t get to see all that much, that you’re thinking of them.  It’s also a great way, as a boss, to buy employees a drink if you don’t feel like going out drinking with them after work.  Just in case my boss is reading this, San Francisco is a supported city .

If you live in a big city and drive a car then you probably understand what a nightmare trying to find a place to park can be.  Finding a spot is the first task, then you have to fork over change for a meter or pay steep prices at a private lot.  If you live in the San Francisco area, then GottaPark may be just what you’re looking for.

Now first of all, I say San Francisco because that’s the area they are focusing on at the moment.  GottaPark is almost like a classifieds for parking spots, and anyone in any city can post and find spots.  As of today, I could only locate parking spots in San Francisco, but all this service needs to get going in other cities is for people to find it and start using it.

The way GottaPark works is simple – if you’re looking for a place to park then just enter in a location and the dates and times you need to leave your car.   You’ll be presented with a list of residential and commercial areas that are renting out their spots for various prices.  There’s a brief description of the property and a price you’ll need to pay in order to park your car for the dates you chose.  One thing that I noticed is a huge difference in pricing.  For an 11 hour period, prices ranged from $8.00 to $525.00.  Obviously there’s either a problem with how the hourly rates are configured on GottaPark or some people are just overcharging.  For my screencast, I booked a private driveway for one night and the total cost was $9.20.  The renter was charging $8.00 and the $1.20 was the GottaPark reservation fee.  GottaPark charges a fee of $.60 for spaces under $5.00 and 15% for every price above that.

The final step in reserving your spot is to enter in your credit card information and print out your receipt.  The person renting the spot will receive a notice that their spot has been rented along with your vehicle information.

On the other side of things, if you have a parking spot that you don’t use all that often, you can easily post your spot for rent.  It’s a painless task, only involving your address, a description of the spot, and how much you charge per hour.  You can also create multiple schedules of when your spot is available.  If someone rents out your spot then you’ll be notified and receive your payment via PayPal a week later.

Aside from the huge discrepancies in parking prices, I think GottaPark has a lot of potential.  The only problem will be to get people to start using it instead of just posting available spots on free services like craigslist.  Here’s my screencast tour of GottaPark:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m19s

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