Happy Birthday to Camp Tech + HUGE Sale Tomorrow

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In my professional life, I run two businesses (my web design biz and Camp Tech, which offers practical, professional tech skills training in a fun & friendly environment in downtown Toronto). I am so happy to celebrate Camp Tech’s first birthday tomorrow!  Of course, celebrations are better when you include other people, so to help spread the cheer, we’re doing a 50% off sale.  You can get a ticket to any class in Camp Tech’s fall roster for half price, if you use the promo code BIRTHDAY at checkout.  Yay!

NOTE: The promo code only works on Tuesday, August 20, from 12:05am – 11:55pm EST.  There are 10 tickets per class on sale.

 

Super Great Laptop Stand

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I was teaching a workshop for Camp Tech this past weekend, and one of the students had a really cool laptop stand.  I asked her all about it, and she showed me how it worked.  It was the “amazing XT-stand”.  It fits laptops from 12-19 inches, and folds up nicely for travel.  A great way to get your laptop on a more ergonomic angle for typing and viewing the screen, and it also allows air to circulate so the laptop doesn’t get so hot.

Now I just need to find a place that sells them in Toronto…

Photos From my Day at Google Waterloo

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GoogleHack

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Yesterday I attended the “Hack for Her” event at Google Waterloo, co-presented by Girl Geeks Toronto, Girls in Tech Toronto, and Women && Tech.  It was so much fun!  You can read all about the event in this article.

The photos above are from the day, which included a mini hack-a-thon (the photo of me looking like a total bossypants while presenting my team’s pitch is by Dov Stern), followed by drinks, food, and total goofiness hanging out at Google Waterloo. It’s a super fun place, but I don’t know if I would want to work there every day. Feels a bit like hanging out in a University dorm.

PS – I really really wanted to go down the Google slide, but it was closed.  Liability’s a bitch, huh?  Instead I posed a photo looking like I went down the slide.

 

 

Tweets from Outer Space

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Do you follow Chris Hadfield on Twitter?  If not, you totally should.  Commander Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut living in space, onboard the International Space Station, and he’s very active on Twitter.  He shares breathtaking photos of Earth (like the one he posted last night, above, of the full moon over the Earth’s atmosphere), and interacts with other people.  If you tweet to him, odds are, he’ll tweet you back!  Technology is so amazing.

Goin’ Paperless with Doxie

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I was at a small business tax seminar last night, and my pal Jenna and I were talking about scanning documents and receipts.  I scan important docs, but I’m still pretty old school with my receipts – I keep all my business receipts in files.  After almost 7 years of being self-employed, that stuff is really starting to pile up.  I decided right then to go completely paperless, and stop the mess.

Thing is, my scanner sucks.  It’s perfectly functional, but it’s a beast… I have to pull it out, set it up, connect it to my computer, use the lame-o software that it came with to do the scanning, then take the document into Photoshop to touch it up, and finally save it as a PDF.  Mega pain.

Jenna said that she uses a Doxie to scan everything, and it couldn’t be easier.  The Doxie is small (but big enough to scan a fullsize piece of paper), lightweight, and super easy.  It automatically saves documents as searchable PDF files.  It has fantastic software that plays nicely with Evernote, Dropbox, and more.  It easily syncs to your computer (or iPad or iPhone).

I just ordered one. Take that, clutter!

Make Your Gloves Work With Your iPhone

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Here’s a real Canadian nerd problem if I’ve ever seen one – I can’t use my iPhone when I’m wearing my winter gloves.  And with the weather we’ve been having lately in Toronto, that’s a serious issue!

I’ve been on the lookout for a pair of gloves that has touchscreen-friendly fingers, but most of the ones I’ve seen are really ugly or really expensive. I wished I could wear my normal gloves (which I love) but still use my phone.  I was about to order this DIY touchscreen glove kit (saw it on Swiss Miss), but then I saw these GloveTips on 50% sale at Indigo. I figured, for $10, why not give ’em a try?

They came in the mail today, and I put them on my favourite blue snowflake gloves.  I can happily report that the GloveTips totally work!   Of course, I don’t have the same dexterity as bare hands, but it’s a pretty good solution.  Score!

Get your GloveTips on half-price blowout at Indigo, if you want to try them yourself.

A Purse That Charges Your Phone? Yes Please!

Wow – check this out.  Drop your phone into an Everpurse, and it starts charging automatically.  Put the Everpurse into your larger bag, or carry it on its own.  At the end of the day, place the Everpurse on a wireless charging mat, and you’re ready to go for the next day.

Yes please!

You can order one through their Kickstarter campaign.  Expected ship date: March 2013.  A bit late for Christmas, but just in time for my birthday in April.  Wishlisted!

Funny People On Twitter

Are you on Twitter?  If so, do you follow anybody because they’re funny?  You might like this: MyLifeScoop did a roundup of the 10 Most Amusing Fake Personas on Twitter.  I quite like the @SarcasticRover.  Missing from the list is one of my favourites – I love the tweets from the @HonestToddler account.  A lot of it is Mommy humour of course, but I really do find it entertaining!

In related news, I’m running a Twitter contest for Camp Tech.  You can win a ticket to one of our classes!  All the details are here.