My profile on Date My School

Last month, some Philadelphia universities and schools were invited to DateMySchool.com, a dating website designed to connect single students. Any ladies looking for someone tall, dark, and handsome? You can throw in “law student” too.

The main draw of the site was the exclusivity. Only elite schools were invited to the beta test, ensuring the pool of dating candidates was top notch. Users can even make their profiles visible to certain programs and schools. Looking to connect with a future doctor? No problem, just change your privacy settings so only those in the local medical schools can view your profile.

DateMySchool is following in the early footsteps of Facebook by slowly rolling out the service to build excitement. At first, only Columbia University and New York University could use the service. Last month, I received an email to my drexel.edu address to beta test the site. Lucky me! I signed up to see what the big deal was, maybe mack on some post baccalaureate hotties.

The website offers the usual dating profile staples such as photos, interests, and questions. But DateMySchool offers a different dimension since users need a .edu email address. In addition to age and body type, users can filter matches by universities and schools. While that may sound pompous, in practice the user’s preferences determine the search results. Users can also filter out their own program to save themselves the embarrassment of being matched up with someone they know. After trying out a few searches, DateMySchool appears like a run of the mill dating website with an extra way to refine the search for your perfect match.

Based on a handful of searches, there aren’t too many people on the site from Philadelphia schools. This could be a good thing for the single guy looking to connect with an ambitious psychology major studying at Temple University. Given the exclusive nature of the site, there’s probably less competition for female attention. Compared to OKCupid.com, a free dating site with over 7 million active members, a more exclusive dating website may have its place.

Meh, who wants to actually talk to their children, especially on Thanksgiving when you’re gathered around a large dinner table as a family? Asking questions about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, what’s the deal with the turkey, etc? Psh. No one, that’s who.

Well, thanks to the folks at the National Constitution Center you won’t have to explain a thing, as “millions of students across the country will learn the origins of the most-celebrated holiday in America…with the latest installment of the National Constitution Center’s popular webcast series, Constitution Hall Pass.”

The latest episode, entitled The History of Thanksgiving, went live on Monday on the Constitution Center’s official website. And starting today, educators and students can log onto the Constitution Center’s website to chat with members of the NCC’s education staff for additional insight.

For more information, and a great excuse to not speak to your children and watch football, visit the Constitution Center’s official Hallpass website.

Computers, the Internet and social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become an integral part of everyday life for most people. I have a few friends who can’t go more than 10 minutes with out checking their Facebook page. But these have also become very important tools for people who want to make changes to not only their lives, but the world at large.

As the events in Egypt and the Middle East have shown, social media and the internet have become the apparatus of choice for activists who are looking to organize and stay in contact. But who else might be reading or listening to your efforts? Do you really know who has access to your information?

On Saturday, October 15th a group of local activists are putting on the Freedom of the Word and Computer Security workshop try and educate local community activists about ways to stay safer in the online world. They will show you what threats might be out there, how to avoid them and what you have at risk.

The workshop will run from 9:30 AM – 2 PM at LAVA (4134 Lancaster Ave, West Philly) and is free and open to anyone who wants to stay informed about threats to your online activities and how to stay safe, and keeping fellow activists safer, online.

Freedom of the Word and Computer Security
More Info: Aids Policy Project’s Blogspot

This is a message to all you fashionistas, fashion geeks, lovers of good clothing/style and generally you guys and gals who don’t have an entire wardrobe based on Threadless/Woot! Shirt tees with geeky obscure references.

There’s currently a pretty sweet foursquare promotion running right now. The promo ties together the fabulously elegant Le Méridien hotel, upscale clothing brand Lilly Pulitzer and VisitPhilly’s With Love, Philadelphia XOXO campaign. Tied together how per se? Well, the gorgeous XOXO scarf from Lilly Pulitzer (featured above, valued at $118) is the grand prize.

Eligibility? Simple, be the mayor by October 26th. You’ve got nearly two months to check into the hotel. Book hotel stays or simply check in when you swing by to dine atAmuse or Le Bar at Amuse.

Torrenting. That word has a bit of a negative connotation to it these days. Whether you’re thinking about The Pirate Bay, Suprnova, or any other number of torrenting websites, the first thing that comes to mind is “those are places I can steal music, software, movies, etc.”

Well, Hive 76 isn’t going to teach you how to do that. Sorry.

Need to get 4GB worth of files to 12 different people all at once? Struggling with huge files that you can’t dish out over Sendspace? Swing by the Hive tomorrow for a special torrenting class led by eagleapex. He’ll teach you how to safely and legally send large files over a bittorrent network.

The source kicks off at 6pm at Hive 76′s headquarters at 9th and Spring Garden. The course is free, but go RSVP on Hive 76′s website to let ‘em know you’re coming.

Torrenting Course @ Hive 76
Tuesday, September 13th, 6PM
www.hive76.org/workshop-how-to-torrent

It’s Saturday and you and your loved ones are home with nothing to do. It’s a beautiful summer day and it seems like a shame to waste it. Whatever will you do?

Well, thanks to the crew at The Weekend Map, you never have to ask yourself that question again. They have just launched the Philadelphia version of the interactive weekend planner; you just go to the site and decide what you want to look for in your area. Looking for a Farmers Market to buy some local veggies? Done. What if you want to check out some Jazz in Northern Liberties? The Map can do that. Maybe you’re in search of a yoga group to join in the morning? No problem. Just click on the pop up symbol on the interactive map and it will give you all the necessary information so that you are never bored on a weekend again.

Now, the Map is still in Beta, so things are a bit glitchy at this point. But once everything loads the Map serves as a one stop shop to plan a weekend in or around Philadelphia. Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean. It just might make me go outside and get some sun every once in awhile.

The Weekend Map – Philadelphia
www.theweekendmap.com/philadelphia

Those geeky chicks over at Web Start Women are having another one of their fancy Startlucks! Join in with other like-minded ladies On Sunday, July 24th, at 7pm.

They’ll be meeting up at Mario Lanza Park, located at 2nd and Queen Streets. They’ll be sitting at the picnic tables in the middle, possibly spilling out to the grass. There’s a lot of girl geeking that happens at these Startlucks – join them as they pow around with other ladies to “brainstorm, talk about current projects, and otherwise socialize in a nerdy kind of way.”

And of course, there are plenty of snacks to be had! According to the Meetup page for the event, “June had a strong showing of baklava, so lets see July top that.” Sounds like a challenge! If you’re a geeky girl looking to share ideas with your kind, be sure to join them – and if you have gal pals who would also be interested, feel free to invite them as well!

Web Start Women’s July Startluck
July 24th, 2011
www.webstartwomen.com

TwizShow, an iOS app developed right here in Philly by Clickable Bliss, tests your knowledge of how well you know the people you follow on Twitter.

After logging in to your Twitter account, the game asks you 20 random questions like “Who has the most followers?”, “Who has the most tweets?”, and “Who tweeted this?”

Points are awarded based on number of correct answers and how quickly you get them. You even have three 50/50 tokens to use during the game to help you narrow down your choices.

The game fuses the multiple choice gameplay of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” with the stylings and soundtrack of retro game shows like “Press Your Luck” or “Card Sharks”. Big Money No Whammies. (more…)

So let’s say you own a small company and you need to find someone to design your logo or help with social media. And you want the person to be located in Philly (and why wouldn’t you?). What would you do?

Well, Alex Hillman and Linus Graybill have the answer for you. The two have launched We Work in Philly, a guide to all the people, places, companies and groups who call the City of Brotherly Love home. The site is a directory of almost anything you can think of that is located in and around Philadelphia. But when I asked co-founder Alex Hillman about it, he sees We Work in Philly as much more than that.

“We’re also hoping to inspire some Philly pride by asking people to add themselves and their affiliations to a Philly-branded website. Too often, people hear the less desirable things about Philly (if I have one more person bring up our sports fans throwing snowballs at Santa I’ll scream), so this site should make it easier to find stuff in Philly that’s positive.”

What might surprise you is that We Work in Philly is a community-edited website. Think Wikipedia for Philadelphia. That means anyone can add and edit anything on the site.

According to Hillman “Every guide and group in Philadelphia (and most other cities) is about a certain interest, and is limited to the scope of interest and knowledge of the editor. But this site is about an identity, so it needs to include a broader set of interests and knowledge. At Indy Hall, we’ve learned that the best things that have happened aren’t the ones we planned for, but instead, the ones we let happen.”

We Work in Philly is about more than working and networking; it’s about being a Philadelphian and what that means. If that sounds cool to you (and if your reading this, it should) check it out and become part of the community.

We Work in Philly
www.weworkinphilly.com

Like any good Philadelphian, any time friends or family come to visit me I take on the role of tour guide and host. The thing is, I’ve only been here a year and a half myself, so sometimes I’m not the best at pointing out all the cool stuff our fair city has to offer. Enter Lokadot (think “local” + “anecdote”, sorta rhymes with “rope-a-dope”) a free iPhone app aimed at visiting tourists and curious city-dwellers alike.

Lokadot serves up information on local attractions based on the iPhone’s built in GPS and offers plenty of options. You can tell the app whether you want it to auto play as you near something in its database, how often you want it to play new content, what kind of attractions to focus on, and how close you need to be before it points something out. In my experience wandering around the Art Museum and Center City areas for a few hours, the app did a spot on job of picking up where I was at and what was nearby. (more…)

New Hope, PA!

With social media becoming a huge part of people’s lives, it was only a matter of time until someone came up with a way to make a game of it. Social games, as they are called, have become the latest trend used by companies and organizations to involve their target audiences and make them feel like they are part of the action.

And now the Bucks County Tourism Office is joining the fun with their new social game Unforgetaways.

Running through Labor Day, Unforgetaways is a social game using platforms such as Twitter and Foursquare to engage with visitors to the area. People who want to participate just set out to finish certain tasks and then they can win prizes.

Some tasks are as simple as using Foursquare to check in at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska and post a photo online. You can then win an iPod Touch, overnight stays in the Bucks County area or tickets to Sesame Place. Not bad for doing something a lot of us were doing already.

The promotion is a first for the region and a very forward thinking idea. It’s nice to know that not only are there so many things to do right in our backyard, but that we can use our social media skills to win free stuff at the same time.

Visit Bucks County’s website for more information.

Evernote is amazing. No geek is safe in this world without it. Its mobile apps are only as limited as your imagination. Its desktop versions bring the staying power of a time capsule and the searching power of a database to your fingertips.

Okay, fine, I’m a fanboy.

One of the many simple but useful features of the service is the ability to email notes into your Evernote account. In this post I’ll list the simple steps you have to take to starts sending an RSS feed into your Evernote account, with some help from Instapaper.

Instapaper is a service that lets you bookmark long articles for later reading offline. It reformats those articles in a clean, mobile-friendly way and has advanced features like discreet folders and Kindle integration. If you use Longform.org and Instapaper together… you will never be without great stuff to read.

Now let’s feed your Evernote account some tasty Instapaper links. Directions after the jump.

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