2015 is the year for Drones at Council Blogs. Bloggers’ top 3 picks for 2015

With roughly 80+ hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute the bloggers picked the theme of video for 2015. There are 3 aspects of Studio YouTube at TPM Technologies.

1. Studio YouTube

2. Studio YouTube-Mobile

3. Studio YouTube-Aerial

Studio YouTube represents a service that allows users to concentrate on the content of their message and the nit-picky parts of producing a video as streamlined as possible. Mobile represents a “Studio-in-a-bag” concept for doing short video at remote locations. And aerial? You guessed it. Using flying camera technology to get those breathtaking, otherwise hard to shoot bird’s eye views.

The bloggers discussed one of these workshops; Drone 101. The workshop would include:

1. An overview of the technology.

2. Regulations.

3. Safe and responsible operation.

4. Photographic details.

5. Flight path programming.

The workshop would also include hands-on aspects including aerial selfies.

If you have any thoughts or additions comment below…

 

The easiest way for aerial photography in 2014

Quadcopters have come on the scene in a big way. Here at Council Blogs we took a break from WordPress discussions and talked about quad copter technology. The DJI Phantom has an on-board camera complete with a gimbal that allows the camera to stay steady as the craft has to pitch for directional control. The quad beams down it’s live video signal to the controller which in turn acts as a WIFI hot spot to feed an idevice or an android device. The quad copter is part of the Studio YouTube portfolio of TPM Technologies. Here you can see a shot of the landing pad. If you want to see a video of some footage taken with the quadcopter you can visit one video here.

More interaction on WordPress – Get feedback – Polling is as easy as 1-2-3

WordPress is adding a lot of functionality beyond posting and commenting. At a recent meeting of the Council Blogs we practiced at polling. You can now add a poll directly in the WordPress editor similar to an image and it will be published with your post. See the sample below.

A 24 hr Day in the Life of a 3D Printer

We overheard the Makerbot talking to itself at the 3D Cyber Wigwam today…

12:00 am I’m awake but no one is stirring. The part from yesterday is still on the build plate.

• 5:30 am The Boss is awake. Time to look sharp.

5:35 am That door clamp is removed from the build plate. That was a 3 hour build. I put a lot of layers into that one.

5:36 am Boss wants to change filaments. I have to heat up the head.

5:37 am Pink? What’s he got in mind now?

5:38 am Oh Boy, here comes the instructions. A piece of cake. This one is only 23,462 blocks.

5:39 am Build plate is heating, come on.

5:43 am Build plate is 110C. Fire up the extruder.

5:44 am Build plate is 110C, Extruder is 220C.

5:45 am Bring the build plate up and start extruding.

5:46 am First layer complete. Hmmm, interesting pattern. Now for layer 2. This one has 3 solid layers to begin.

5:48 am Now we begin the honeycomb fill. Trace, trace, trace.

6:15 am Ooo, the extruder is getting too hot, a little more fan.

7:00 am I see, this is a personalized key ring that looks like a karabiner.

7:10 am I see. It’s personalized with writing on the side, “Rachel.” That must be why it’s pink.

7:20 am Now to finish the top layers.

7:30 am Complete! TaDa! Ring the bell.

7:31 am They must be in a hurry today. They are switching in a new program. 264,516 blocks. This one’s going to take a while to crunch.

7:32 am The build plate hasn’t cooled too much. Come on, get to temp.

7:34 am Build plate up to temp, Bring up the extruder.

7:37 am OK! Let’s start laying some extrusion. Hmmm, interesting pattern.

7:38 am Got to fill it in.

7:39 am Next solid layer.

7:40 am One more solid layer.

7:41 am Now the honey comb. How deep is this thing?

7:42 am I think it’s another one of those roof rack accessories. Time will tell. It’s not too often we have a large radius like this.

8:30 am Oh, boy this is getting boring, we’ve done the same pattern now for 40 layers. What’s that in human speak? 1/2 an inch?

8:45 am Temps ok. Something different coming up. Oh goody.

8:50 am A couple holes on the side wall. Careful that they don’t sag.

9:40 am I feel like I’ve spent my life on this pattern.

9:45 am Hey, it’s time for the top surface. It’s got the part number in it. That’s what those funny notches were.

9:50 am One more stitch, we’re done! Lower the build plate. Turn the heaters off. Ring the bell.

10:50 am Did anyone hear us?

11:50 am Did anyone hear us? This part is complete.

12:50 am Hey, anyone out there? There’s a part on the build plate.

1:50 pm Hmm, we finished it, right?

2:50 pm Should we ring the bell again?

3:50 pm We could do it again. No, that wouldn’t work. That thing is still sitting on the build plate, in the way. Besides the heaters are all cooled off.

5:50 pm Just our luck they’ll show up at supper time and expect us to work.

7:50 pm Hey, someone pulled the program chip out. Maybe something will happen.

8:30 pm Finally we got that thing off the build plate. It was starting to grow barnacles.

9:30 pm Here comes the program chip. What’s in store?

9:31 pm 860,567 blocks? That will take us all night!

9:32 pm Build plate heater on. Hey you’ve got to get to 110C, don’t take all day.

9:52 pm Build plate up to temp. Fire up the extruders.

9:55 pm OK! Start laying extrusion.

10:05 pm Hmm, this pattern looks familiar.

10:30 pm It’s similar but different. Time for honeycomb.

11:30 pm I see, it’s pretty much the same except they made that hole bigger. Make sure it doesn’t sag!

11:59 pm This is boring. I feel like I’ve been doing this all day. Move, extrude, move extrude, move, extrude. How deep is this thing anyway?

1 inch cube technology at Council Blogs & Studio YouTube

How much can you fit in a one inch cube? The bloggers at Council Blogs saw the latest addition at Studio YouTube. It is a small self contained video camera that fits in a case 1 inch X 1 inch X 1 inch. The unit sports a 1/4″ tripod mount, infrared LEDs for night vision, a slot for a micro SD memory chip, power and operation buttons, LED indicators, and a USB connection. The battery is self contained. Initial experiments with the SYT quad copter went well as far as the video. The weight and balance in relation to the quad copter is another story. Great footage of aerial acrobats and crash landings looking sideways when the dust settles. The technology of video capture at this size is quite amazing and intriguing. This paves the way for the DIY Drone project at SYT later this fall.

April showering of SEO in 2013: tags

With April showers misting outside it is time to revisit the SEO advantage of metatags in your blogging. Sort of a strange name and WordPress has shortened it to “Tags.” All the bloggers here at the cyber wigwam have moved their Tags sidebar box up under the Publish box to be a little more prominent. Tags are one of the most important elements of getting SEO* advantage from your blog posts. It is like hanging tags on your blog post that say “Find Me!” We’ve had cases at Council Blogs where one blog post with very unique tags can be found on the first page of Google. The really neat thing that our bloggers find is that they can attach their blog posts to their other social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Maybe someday, even YouTube. At lept Like A Blog we call this the Social Media Marketing Framework.

*SEO – What the heck is that? Search Engine Optimization.

St. Patrick’s Day — Time for getting those blog posts out in 2013

Like the 3 elements of the shamrock there are 3 good reasons to adding blogging to your web presence. Of course, that’s assuming you have a web presence. If you don’t then adding a blog is an efficient way to develop a web presence too. Here at the Cyber wigwam the bloggers realize that having good content is what readers are attracted to.

1. “Content is King”

The more you have something genuine to say the more people will be interested to read. It doesn’t necessarily have to be profound. Just like the old adage, “be yourself.”

2. Keeping Fresh

With unique content comes great responsibility to keep it up. Consistently providing your readers with news is almost as important as the news itself. People will be attracted to your ability to keep them informed when you set a pace and stick to it. We find at Council Blogs that once a week is a good pace. You don’t kill yourself but if published regularly, your readers are kept informed.

3. News is attractive to Search Engines

Search engines like finding new stuff. What’s newer than your post with unique content? We find at the cyber wigwam that the more natural, “organic” methods for SEO incorporate consistency and good tagging. There is no better way to keep your readers satisfied and at the same time increase your “findability” than publishing your blog posts. Well, YouTube videos can be as powerful but require a little more energy to produce. Actually, some bloggers at the cyber wigwam are repurposing their blog posts into YouTube videos. That works really well too! You can find training and courses in both at lept Like A Blog.

Do you need a Social Media Mentor in 2013?

January is National Mentoring month (you can read all about that here) and here at the Cyber Wigwam we are considering the impact of having a mentor. You can attend classes at lept Like A Blog in Social Media. But if you want a little more help you can consider a mentor. Just like any topic, having someone pass along their experiences in Social Media can shorten your learning curve significantly. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress or YouTube you can spend a lot of time to master them.  If you need help in social media you can email the bloggers at councilblogs@tpmtech.biz and begin a dialogue.

How often do you watch a YouTube video? Once in a blue moon? It’s here in 2012

You  may say that you watch a video on YouTube once in a blue moon. Chances are you watch one more often. In 2010 the number of users on the internet climbed over 2 billion. With 4 billion views per day on YouTube  that means that there are an average of two videos watched every day per person on the internet. Currently there are about 48 hours of vidoe uploaded to YouTube every minute. Here at the Cyber Wigwam we have some bloggers venturing out into YouTube and have developed their own channel. YouTube classes are available from lept Like A Blog if you are ready to start producing some unique content.

Curiosity landed, new ventures in social media. Mars landscape, no Martians in sight?

Congratulations to the JPL team for the Curiosity landing. Pictures are spectacular. The animation of the landing process are phenomenal. The PR staff is realizing the power of  social media, setting up a special sub domain for social media. You can check it out by clicking below. Social media is allowing us all to participate in the revelry.