David Russell

Flickr and company have just released an awesome app for iPhone. It’s the perfect blend of both worlds, feeling native to the iPhone with that Flickr experience you expect.

Until now, I primarily used Mobile Fotos (iTMS link - $2.99) for Flickr on iPhone. It’s a third-party app that works fairly well, but the first-party app easily outpaces Mobile Fotos. Not to mention the fact that the new app from Flickr is completely free.

For mobile uploads to Flickr, I generally use the upload by email feature. It’s fast, easy and can hit Twitter, too. But the upload options on the new Flickr app are very comprehensive and I am considering the option of uploading via app. For some instances, it might be more ideal.

Flickr App for iPhone [iTMS link]

Tagged: Flickr, photos, app, iphone

A few months ago, I was making my rounds in domain-land and noticed a very high profile TLD had expired, davidrussell.net. Now, it’s not the most amazing domain in the world for most people, but it is the second most amazing domain in the world if your name is David Russell. And my name happens to be David Russell.

The previous owner, David Russell from New Zealand, must have let the registration lapse. After a few days monitoring whois, I noticed the domain move from the 30-day grace period and into the delete phase. Oh boy! I knew I might have a shot at this, so I read up on the subject at a four-year old article from Mike Davidson. The information still packs a punch today and I decided to take Mike’s advice and enlist the services of Pool.com to register the domain on my behalf as soon as the domain had been completely deleted from the registry and was available to the public.

On the delete day, I monitored whois like a hawk to see who would win the domain. (There could have been others interested and doing the same thing I was doing, so it was not a certainty that I would acquire the domain.) Domains usually delete starting around 2:00 pm ET and the actual drop can happen any time within a window of a few hours. So around 1:45 pm, I started querying whois in Terminal every 5 to 10 minutes. Around 2:45 ET I noticed the domain ownership had changed hands. I had checked only minutes earlier and the information hadn’t changed yet. So this new registrar snapped the name up fast! It was a domain registrar out of Canada called The Black Cow. I checked their home page and saw the Pool.com logo. I logged into my Pool.com account and saw the confirmation that the domain had been acquired on my behalf. Woo-hoo! Within about 20 minutes, the domain was actually resolving to my server at 1and1. Holy cow. That was blazing fast. (In order for this to happen, you’ll need to set up your DNS settings in your Pool.com account prior to acquiring a domain. They’ll automatically assign those settings to the domains they purchase on your behalf.)

So I’ve moved away from davidrussell.org. I still own it, of course, along with many other TLDs associated with my name. But davidrussell.net is my new official domain. The website migration is mostly complete. If you spot any dead or problematic links, let me know. Within a few days, I’ll have my email completely migrated as well.

If you are eyeing a deleting domain, I highly recommend Pool.com. I was absolutely impressed with the speed at which they acquired this domain for me.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times—if a top-level domain that matches your name is still available, you are not being wise leaving it unregistered. Snag it now! ...Now!

Pool.com

If you are looking for an amazing Media Center for Mac, Apple TV or Linux, I highly recommend Boxee. Recently, Boxee entered public alpha. I was fortunate enough to be invited in the private alpha testing of Boxee and I have enjoyed this app immensely over the past couple of months. There is a Windows version of the app currently in private alpha, so the app will soon cover the three major OS platforms.

Boxee is built on the excellent Xbox Media Center and is very, very full-featured. You can view media from Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Comedy Central, YouTube flickr, and more. There is even BitTorrent and video podcast support built right in! This is the best media center application I’ve ever seen. Boxee rocks!

Boxee
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