Techno Mojo

If you’re an active member of any Flickr group, you may notice a few changes as your admins take advantage of five new features that we’ve unleashed today: News Flash, Invite a Photo, Group Rules, Photo Moderation and Tiered Group Administration.

Here’s the full poop for all you admins:

News Flash!
Look for a grey box on your main group page that says ‘Admins: Click to add an announcement to all group members’. This news flash will stay on the group home page until replaced or deleted.

Invite a Photo
You’re surfing through the Flickrverse and you find a photo that would be perfect for your group. This new feature will allow an administrator to invite that particular photo to their group without membership requirement. You’ll see a new link under the comment box that says ‘Invite this photo to…’ To use this feature, start there!

Group Rules
You can now set up group rules that new members need to agree to before they join your group. Nothing will change for existing group members, but any new members will need to agree to your rules before they become a member. So now you can take those rules out of your group description, and call them out more clearly.

Photo Moderation
Ever wished you had a chance to review photos before they show up in your group pool? Well, now you can! For each group that you run, you can choose to set up an “approval queue”. When someone adds a photo to your group, you’ll see a “there are pending photos for you” note. All you have to do is open up the queue and review submissions. From there, Administrators or Moderators can approve or deny photos, and publish the ones that fit. Yeah!

Introducing the Moderator
We’re sliding a new level of account membership between admins and members — the moderator. A moderator is a middle-ground role designed to help administrators run the group, but doesn’t have full administrative power. A moderator can use the new photo moderation queue, remove or ban members, and moderate group discussions with edit/delete power.

If you are a group founder, or the oldest administrator of a group, expect to see a message on your groups page that will give you more information on how to transition to this structure.

We’d like to thank all of our group admins for putting up with our somewhat limited group moderation tools for so long. Despite the limited functionality, you’ve created some wonderful environments and we hope that these improvements make your groups even more fabulous.

Click here for the Mojo’s photos

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Available in some cities, real-time traffic data is available. Currently, the log jam/interstate merge  in Trussville (a Birmingham suburb where I live) is green which means traffic is flowing 50+ mph. Yellow is 25-50mph and red is 25mph to a dead stop.

This is the one thing that had me checking Yahoo Maps over Google. Now? Bye bye Yahoo Maps.

Article written by Nicholas Tsakoven

 Zamzar is an online conversion service that lets you convert almost every type of file to virtually any other file format , for example one might want to convert a Microsoft Word Document(.doc, .docx) to an Adobe PDF(.pdf), this is where Zamzar comes in. Really, it’s an online converter. Zamzar works with video, audio, photos, documents and other file formats. Today we will be using one of Zamzar Tools to input a Youtube or Google Video (flash) and output say .mov for iTunes and the iPod.

NOTE: this tutorial is available on Zamzar’s site, so really I am just explaining in people terms. Also this works with other Video services.

Steps

DRAG THE FOLLOWING BUTTON TO YOUR BROWSER BOOKMARK BAR IT IS A BOOKMARKLET: A SHORT PIECE OF CODE.

1. Now go to any Youtube or Google Video here’s one to save time: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xJDfzosfkbI
2. Now click the “Convert with Zamzar” button you just placed in your Bookmark bar
3. You will be taken to a page and the first box is already done so just go to the second and select a file type you want in our case its MOV, but you may want 3GP for your cell phones
4. Enter your email address as they will send you the file when it is finished converting
5. Wait
6. Check your inbox and there it is

Editor’s note: Nicholai is a 16 year old living in Los Angeles. You can add his website to your subscriptions by visiting him at http://www.nixmix.us where he details his life as well as tech happenings. If this was beneficial, be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section! - Mojo Denbow

You can’t see this in the feed version of Techno Mojo, but on the sidebar below my email address is a widget from Lijit, a powerful tool that uses Google search to locate you on the web.

You can read this website but what does that tell you about me & my interests?

If you are into privacy, click ahead to the next article because this gets as pervasive as you want. Lijit can search your various networks on the internets through del.icio.us, Reddit, Blink List, Blue Dot, Digg, Furl, Ma.gnolia, Stumble Upon, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace, Live Journal. It can even search blogs that you read on your blogroll and OPML feeds.

For example, when someone performs a search on, “web 2.0″ in the wijit, Google search will pull up everything I have on the www about web 2.0 from all of my content in the network of services listed.

How is this beneficial? You can research an article and have photos attached in your search and more.

Lijit even allows you to pull up your own account to see what content was searched on your network. A real thorough analytical tool. Give it a try here.

 Formerly FotoFlix, this Kentucky-based photo slideshow site is generating a really good product. Photagious is a fee-based service that allows unlimited photo uploads, no advertisements, Flash technology and more.

There is an online demo and a 7 day trial but you will still need to submit your bank card number in order to see how fluid and powerful Photagious is. Once your account is created, you can manually upload photos or download an installer.

There are about 35 themes for various occassions. You can customize each theme to suit your needs. Add your own MP3 music to play on your slideshow or use theirs. You can then share your slideshows by adding your contact’s email addresses and a link will be sent so they can view.

Add tags, download high-res photos, send to mobile phone (for .99), post to your website/blog.

Basic subscription is $4 a month($48) and $10 a month ($120) for a professional account.

As a photographer, I’m always looking out for new methods of display, and I really like Photagious. Will I pay the money? No. This can be used in two ways. 1, as a digital scrapbook for “baby’s first steps” or 2, as a presentation tool that will be superceded by a free version somewhere else.

Don’t get me wrong, Photagious has some serious mojo and is well worth a look.

 Lets face it, Techno Mojo wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for your readership and participation, I know this and it is encouraging. Heck, it inspires me to keep it up. I won’t quit my day job over it because lets face it, TM is one of many hobbies for this tech enthusiast.

So, enough about me for now. What about you?

Here’s your opportunity to share your passions. Want free advertising? Shoot me an email to mojodenbow AT gmail.com with “Me, Me, Me” in the subject line. Add your company name, what you do there, the service it provides, company home page or blog. Your company may be chosen at random to get some free ad space on this site.

Got a project you are working on that needs publicity? Add it to the comments of this article or shoot me an email.

Have something to say about a product or service mentioned in previous articles? Why not express your opinion in the comments so others can join in on the discussion? Who knows, you may just start a conversation that affects change.

Let’s turn my monologue into a dialogue.

 The funniest and most creative comedy on television. Ever. Arrested Development, is a show about a housing developer arrested for numerous corporate abuses. His son, Micheal must save the company and his spoiled, useless family too. Narrated by Ron Howard, the show lasted only three seasons even though it was a 2-time Emmy winner. Look for tons of small, inside jokes consistent in all 3 seasons, a lot of hysterically-timed bleeps, black CENSORED bars and over-pixelated body parts. Everyone is a scene-stealer. 

Now available online at MSN Video

Also, Micheal Cera, one of the two child actors on the show, has grown up to produce, direct and star in an online comedy for CBS’ InnerTube. Look for it soon.

**UPDATE** Those invitation requests came in very quickly. All 5 are now gone and congrats to Sunil, Amy, Josef, Steve & Jacque.

Now, who wants a Jaman invitation? 5 more to hand out. Again, no strings, contests or catches.

Joost, a fantastic player of the world’s best indie films has allowed me to give away 5 more invitations. No catches, just shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Previous article on Joost is here.

Also, be sure to check out the newest member of the Mojo Network, Video Mojo!

BitTorrent is scheduled to launch movie downloads on their website on Monday, February 26. With video rentals up to $3.99 and even ownable downloads. The terms of service:

1. 5.1. Rented Content. For Commercial Content that you elect to “rent” (“Rented Content”), subject to your payment of all applicable rental fees, you have the right to play such Rented Content on one (1) Authorized Device for up to twenty-four (24) hours after you initially begin playback of the Commercial Content, and such playback must take place within the earlier of thirty (30) days after you have paid to rent the Commercial Content and the end of the period during which BitTorrent.com has applicable rights from the copyright owner (the “Rental Period”). You acknowledge that in this context a “rental” is a temporary license, and that your use of any Rented Content is and shall remain subject at all times to the terms of this Agreement.
2. 5.2. Purchased Content. For Commercial Content that you elect to “purchase” (“Purchased Content”), subject to your payment of all applicable fees, you have the right to play such Purchased Content an unlimited number of times, solely on two (2) Authorized Devices. Those two Authorized Devices must be activated with the Service under the same account ID and billing account (the same credit card). You acknowledge that in this context a “purchase” is shorthand for a perpetual license and does not grant any ownership rights whatsoever in the Commercial Content. Your use of any Purchased Content is and shall remain subject at all times to the terms of this Agreement. You have the right to make a backup copy of Purchased Content on removable or external media (for example, a DVD or external hard drive) in the same format as the original downloaded file. You cannot play such backup copies of Purchased Content on a traditional DVD player or using any technology or device other than the Authorized Device and the Authorized Playback Software.

Get BitTorrent software