As the new year approaches, you are sure to see several “what-to-expect-in-2012″ posts across the blogosphere. I will contribute to that meme as I always do, but prior to that, I must sum-up the year now concluding. This year, I review my thoughts and actions in the form of an awards show, the first annual “Ed Awards.” The categories will be random, but they signify important actions and events occurring in 2011.

So, without further a-do, I present the first annual, 2011 Ed Awards.

Best Movie

Nominees:

D’Lovely

The Duchess

2011 Ed Award winner: D’Lovely

Keep in mind – I am not a movie buff. I’m not current on movie trends; that is why a 2004 movie won this award. D’Lovely chronicles (more…)

Disclaimer: This post is not an endorsement or critique of Apple’s “Documents in the Clouds” feature. Instead, it is a meant as an explanation to the general public about  the current functionality of the service. Views expressed here are my own. For more disclaimer information, click here.   

While many features of Apple’s new iCloud service have launched flawlessly with much fanfare, one particular element needs attention in order to make it work correctly. If you plan on taking advantage of Documents in the Cloud to keep versions of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in sync across your computers, you will have to download one of the iWork apps to an iOS device, (more…)

Greetings new friends and colleagues! Thanks for attending my sessions or otherwise connecting with me at the innaugural Tech Day Camp. If you would like to discuss further any topic brought up during my session, or any Internet/social media related topic, feel free to contact me by e-mail, Twitter or commenting on this blog post. Any Tech Day Camp participant who responds to this blog post gets a free one-hour lesson/consultation on the topic of your choice.

About three quarters of the way through her concert, alto sax prodigy Grace Kelly mentions to the audience that her concerts are “like roller coaster rides.” “It’s just because I love so many types of music,” Kelly says.

If she had only played the forty minutes after making that statement, audience members at the Salem State University recital hall would have ridden the wildest musical coaster ever, hearing everything from free-form jazz, to Great American Songbook standards, and original compositions so complex that any sense of harmony and time was lost. As a finale, she played a funked-out version of the Gershwins’ Summertime. Since that tune has been performed a million times by everyone (including myself) in just about every style, I was anxious to hear what she could do with it.

She didn’t disappoint. Funky it was, with a screaming bepop-style jam style at the end, trading fours with trumpet player Jason Palmer, while her trio rocked behind her.

It’s not hard to hear that Kelly has the experience to play a full concert of any one style.

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Many pixels on the web are devoted to convince you that you, your business, and your life can benefit from sharing your passion through the use of social media tools. Well, I’m here to tell you – SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS! I started seriously paying attention to my social media web presence in September of 2009, after attending my first Podcamp in Boston, MA. It’s been a long slow trek, but I’m now starting to reap benefits on two fronts.
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Have you been to an opera? The music is lush, and often complicated. The plots? Not so much. So that makes opera plots ripe for panning and snarkiness in a 140 character Twitter post, and this year, thousands of entries were tweeted as part of the #operaplot 2011 contest on Twitter.

The entries were edgy, somewhat clever, and often hilarious. Take a look at these imaginative examples:

“Damn woman wants some power . Get her daughter to destroy her. With a a FLUTE! Talk about Freudian.” (The Magic Flute)

“Girl 1: Unfaithful. Girl 2: Sickly. Girl 3: Flighty. Girl 4: Robotic (The Tales of Hoffman)

“Don Jose to Carmen: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna make you cry,  never gonna run around and desert you.” (Carmen)

“One of these days Carmen . . . bang!  zoom! To the  . . immediate vicinity of the bull ring.” (Carmen)

“Anti-smoking message: stay away from girls in cigarette factory. One way or another it’ll kill you. And her” (Carmen)

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