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Jetpack 2.0 for WordPress Released: Your True Digital Hub

Posted on November 8, 2012 in Blog Posts, Blogging, Featured, News, Web Design, Web Development, WordPress | 0 Comments

54 million WordPress websites. 3 million Jetpack downloads.

If you are one of the 54 million on a WordPress.org site, but not one of the other 3 million who use Jetpack because it was only available for WordPress.com, you can now supercharge your WordPress site now with these powerful new features that were only available to WordPress.com users previously.

Best part of 2.0, users can now automatically share blog content throughout all their social networks and no more installing myriad plugins utilizing different systems.  WordPress will now be ‘more social’. Yay!

Jetpack 2.0’s features include (via the WordPress website):

  • Simple, concise stats with no additional load on your server. Previously provided by WordPress.com Stats.
  • Email subscriptions for your blog’s posts and your post’s comments.
  • Social networking enabled comment system.
  • Monitor and manage your site’s activity with Notifications in your Toolbar and on WordPress.com.
  • Simple, Akismet-backed contact forms.
  • The WP.me URL shortener.
  • Hovercard popups for your commenters via Gravatar.
  • Easily embedded media from popular sites like YouTube, Digg, and Vimeo.
  • The ability to post to your blog from any email client.
  • Integration with and automatic posting to your favorite social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
  • For the Math geeks, a simple way to include beautiful mathematical expressions on your site.
  • A widget for displaying recent tweets. Previously provided by Wickett Twitter Widget
  • Your readers can easily share your posts via email or their favorite social networks. Previously provided by the Sharedaddy WordPress plugin.
  • Your writing will improve thanks to After the Deadline, an artificial intelligence based spell, style, and grammar checker. Previously provided by the After the Deadline WordPress plugin.
  • With Carousel active, any standard WordPress galleries you have embedded in posts or pages will launch a gorgeous full-screen photo browsing experience with comments and EXIF metadata.
  • A CSS editor that lets you customize your site design without modifying your theme.
  • A mobile theme that automatically streamlines your site for visitors on mobile devices.
  • Mobile push notifications for new comments via WordPress mobile apps.
  • The ability to allow applications to securely authenticate and access your site with your permission.
  • and many more to come!

Has anyone downloaded the new Jetpack 2.0? Let us know what you think.

Who wants to go to Hacker School? Introducing Etsy Women Hacker Grants

Posted on April 13, 2012 in Featured, How do I..., News, Programming, Web Development | 0 Comments

Few opportunities come around where you can do the following:

1.) Go to NYC for the summer…
2.) Go to NYC for FREE for the summer…
3.) Go to NYC for free for the summer and get to go to Hacker School!

Well, lady, we have got all that for you.

Geek Girl has been asked by the powers that be from Hacker School in NYC to get the word out about this incredible opportunity for some talented ladies who are looking for a life of being a hacker…er, well programmer…

We are helping Hacker School get the word out about their $50,000 worth of scholarships for female programmers provided by Etsy. Yes, Etsy. Mighty gracious of them indeed!

If you are unfamiliar, Hacker School is a free 3 month intensive workshop in NYC for programmers to get better. Although it is free, living in NYC and not working for 3 months isn’t. So that’s where the scholarships come into play. The summer session runs from June 4th to August 25th and the application deadline is May 7th.

More information can be found here: Apply Here

So if you are looking for help in becoming a better programmer, just getting started and want some accelerated learning, and want to do this all in NYC for the summer, well then by George, APPLY NOW! This is a great offer for those who want to continue on and make a living out of being a code toad.

Please forward this link out to your group of geeks, nerds, dorks so that some lucky ladies can get an awesome opportunity to attend Hacker School and win a grant to be in the Big Apple for the summer.

Introducing….Sarah Johnson: Web Developer, Writer and Algorithm Wrangler

Posted on March 14, 2012 in Blog Posts, Featured, Google, Interviews, News, Photoshop, Social Media, Web Design, Web Development, WordPress | 0 Comments

Who are you and what do you do?

Sarah Johnson, I have a web design business called etruro.com and I’m a writer as well.


What will you be teaching at Geek Girl Tech Conference this year?

SEO, Google Analytics, Writing for the Web, and WordPress Advanced

 

What was your favorite part of the conference last year?

The people. The classes were full and people were really fired up to learn.


PC or Mac?

Definitely a Mac, though I have a lot of PC experience from corporate life.

 

When did you first know you were geeky?

When I was 10 or 11 and begged for math puzzle books that were like crossword puzzles but with math and logic algorithms…early aptitude signals for programming-geek.


Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars.


Choose 5 people from any moment of time to have dinner and drinks with. Who would they be and why?

Emile Zola, because he’s my favorite writer these days and he was incredibly prolific and able to write his way into all kinds of characters and situations. Matt Damon, because he’s a local guy who made good-and I way over-identified with Good Will Hunting. President Obama because he’s incredibly interesting and human without having an attitude about himself, and he’s seems like he’d be a lot of fun. Bon Iver because I’m interested in his creative process, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who Truman called “The First Lady of the World” for her human rights efforts.


Who do feel has had the most impact on technology in your time?

Steve Jobs without a doubt, simplifying, innovating, inventing….isn’t everyone going to own an iPad in the next year?

 

Facebook or Twitter?

Pinterest.

 

Tell us something about you nobody knows….

Seriously, if nobody knows, there’s no way I’m going to tell 500 geek girls about it.

Introducing: Lindsay Lindstrom…Microsoft Developer and Triplet

Posted on March 7, 2012 in Blog Posts, Featured, Interviews, Microsoft, PC Tips, Programming, Web Development | 0 Comments

Who are you and what do you do?

Lindsay Lindstrom.  I work for Microsoft as an Academic Developer Evangelist, which means I get to work with students and faculty/teachers on using Microsoft technology as a means to reach their tech goals.  I usually say I get to talk to nerdy people about nerdy things, it’s the best job ever!

 

What will you be teaching at the Geek Girl Tech Conference this year?

I am so excited to participate in the Geek Girl Tech Conference this year!  I’ll be leading a couple of workshops on Small Basic and Game Development with XNA.  I’m also thankful to have the opportunity to kick of the conference as the morning keynote speaker.  Yikes, no pressure!

 

What was your favorite part of the conference last year?

This is my first year at Geek Girl Tech Conf!  I’m definitely looking forward to meeting people and hearing their stories.  I know that I will leave Cape Code inspired and encouraged!

 

PC or Mac?

As you probably expect, PC.  The Apple Macintosh II was the first computer I ever used, though!  My philosophy is use whatever tool you like or need to get the job done.  I love technology, so whether it’s PC or Mac, I say use what works for you.  For me, that’s a PC.

 

When did you first know you were geeky?

In 1996, I was 13, and my parents didn’t know what to do with me and my sisters during our summer break, so they put us in a week-long “Learn about the Internet” class at the local library taught by the first local Internet Services Provider.  I created my first email address on Hotmail (before it was owned by Microsoft) and my first website on Geocities.  And so it began…

 

Star Wars or Star Trek?

I was definitely a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan as a child.  But I like both!

 

Choose 5 people from any moment of time to have dinner and drinks with. Who would they be and why?

Jesus – regardless of your beliefs, definitely impacted many facets of society today.

Grace Hopper – Rear Admiral in the Navy, pioneer of Computer Science.  A strong, intelligent, funny woman who paved the way for all of us!  Watch her interview with David Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0g5_NgRao

Leonardo Da Vinci – Artist, Scientist and Inventor.  Just to bask in his genius.

Sir Winston Churchill – won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”.
Princess Diana – she’s a princess!  She remained humble and used her influence to help others.

 

Who do feel has had the most impact on technology in your time?

One obvious answer is Bill Gates.  His vision of a PC in every home has pretty much come true in such a short time since Microsoft was founded in 1975.  I can’t wait to see how technology grows and changes in the rest of my life!

 

Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook.  I’m not consistent enough for Twitter, though every now and again I make an effort!

 

Tell us something about you nobody knows….

Well, none of you probably know that I’m a triplet…was born in Singapore, raised in Guam and Australia.  I moved to the US for college and here I’ve stayed (for now)!

Sending a Geek Girl to College? How cool would that be…

Posted on August 9, 2011 in Blogging, Featured, How do I..., News, Programming, Social Media, Web Design, Web Development | 0 Comments

Here is a fantastic opportunity in the initial seed phase from the Defrag Conference and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) to send a Geek Girl in high school to college!

In the words of Eric Norlin from the Defrag blog:

As a corollary to that (call this a pre-announcement), we’re working on a program whereby we would award money for college to a deserving young woman in high school that has an interest in computer science. I’m still hammering out the details, but we’re talking to our sponsors, the NWCIT, etc — where the idea would be that Defrag and Defrag’s sponsors throw some money in a pot, and we find the right mechanism for award selection. Like I said, I’m still working on details, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could build this up to the point where there was a Defrag award that could PAY for the college tuition of a woman choosing to enter the field of computer science?

We at Geek Girl Camp applaud Eric Norlin and would love to support him in anyway possible to get this happening this year, and every year. If you read our mission, we are all about opportunities like this for women who want to get into computer tech and have supported many organizations in the last few years with over $12,000 in scholarships. We eat, drink and live this stuff.

And to think, you could also go to the Defrag Conference and learn about Computer Science from November 9-10th in Denver! Learn all about: Big Data, Analytics, Enterprise, Social Media, Mobile Apps, Cloud Computing and more!

If this is not the place to be for a future geek, then we don’t know. A target-rich environment, I opine.

Are you interested in this scholarship when it comes to fruition? Interested in going to Defrag? Let us know, or stay tuned to the Defrag Blog and website as they update more information on both.

It can be done…and how awesome is sending a geek girl to college to learn about computers? Way….