So I'm thumbing through my feed reader this morning and I come across this article from Android Authority about a service called Andromo that lets you create an Android app with no programming.
Skeptical, I click through to check it out. That would be cool, making an Android app. I wonder what I could use this for... then it hit me: Creepy Cleveland needs an android app!
Now I'm not sure if Creepy Cleveland really needs an android app or not, but it was fun playing around with the build process and consolidating a bunch of different features into one place. I played with the color scheme and added some pre-made features. I did some customizing and hit build.
A few minutes later I got an email that the app was ready to download.
I opened it (on my android tablet, of course) and hit install.
Wow.
This is kinda cool.
It certainly won't be a top-download type of app, but it does do the things I wanted to do with the Creepy Cleveland web site. Namely, it consolidates all my different feeds and posts and videos into one easy-to-access place.
Hmmm... it remains to be seen whether or not this will take off, but it's nice to have yet another Creepy Cleveland feature to brag about.
Wanna try it yourself?
Download it here.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
SOPA Blackout Day
Tomorrow, January 18, 2012, is SOPA Blackout day.
While I hardly expect a site like Creepy Cleveland to become a target for big media like reddit or youtube, I can't stand by and watch as the government attempts to control something they have cheerfully admitted they don't understand. The quote of "First they came..." comes to mind when I think that if I don't stand up now, there soon may be no one to stand up in support of me...
P.S. On the technical side, I found that including the one line javascript from the SOPABlackout site as the final line in the <head> section of the html template under Blogger's settings, achieved the desired results.
P.P.S. Ironically, the link that goes to the "First they came..." link above goes to Wikipedia. Wikipedia will be blacked out tomorrow as well. See how much would be affected by these bills?
What is SOPA? The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this would devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web. It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others may cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.As a site with nearly 100% user-generated content, I am joining the blackout tomorrow by including the script found at SOPABlackout to blackout the main page of Creepy Cleveland.
While I hardly expect a site like Creepy Cleveland to become a target for big media like reddit or youtube, I can't stand by and watch as the government attempts to control something they have cheerfully admitted they don't understand. The quote of "First they came..." comes to mind when I think that if I don't stand up now, there soon may be no one to stand up in support of me...
P.S. On the technical side, I found that including the one line javascript from the SOPABlackout site as the final line in the <head> section of the html template under Blogger's settings, achieved the desired results.
P.P.S. Ironically, the link that goes to the "First they came..." link above goes to Wikipedia. Wikipedia will be blacked out tomorrow as well. See how much would be affected by these bills?
Saturday, January 7, 2012
What if I could get paid for this?
You may have noticed that I've turned on ads in the Creepy Cleveland blogs. I feel like a big hypocrite because I usually have an ad-blocker on in every browser I use.
But after thinking about it, I thought, what's the harm? I might even make a few bucks.
I only wish I had thought about turning on ads in September instead of in January... talk about the off-season...
But after thinking about it, I thought, what's the harm? I might even make a few bucks.
I only wish I had thought about turning on ads in September instead of in January... talk about the off-season...
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Boycotting GoDaddy
FYI: Since GoDaddy supports SOPA, I will be transferring the CreepyCleveland domain to another registrar in the next week. I'm not alone
I do not expect any down-time (frankly, Xmas is NOT my busy season), but in the event that things go all 404 for day or two, give it some time to get sorted out.
See ya on the other side.
I do not expect any down-time (frankly, Xmas is NOT my busy season), but in the event that things go all 404 for day or two, give it some time to get sorted out.
See ya on the other side.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Embedding Audio?
The only drawback I've found to operating the entire site utilizing Google's tools has been the lack of a method to host audio files. I suppose I could drop the files in my dropbox and share them from there or even utilize one of the well-known file-sharing websites like RapidShare or Mediafire, but I'd really like to keep things all together.
In that light, I took advantage of the ability to upload any type of file to Google Docs. Now you can't stream from Google Docs, but at least I can offer a link and allow people to download an audio file without having to host it myself.
So, most recently, I've uploaded the mp3 version of my interview on Type 3 TV to Google Docs. I signed out of my Google account and visited the site to see what the experience might be like as a random visitor and while there was a lag obtaining the download link (might have just been me) I was able to retrieve the file.
Hopefully site visitors will find the experience just as easy and will let me know if they don't.
In that light, I took advantage of the ability to upload any type of file to Google Docs. Now you can't stream from Google Docs, but at least I can offer a link and allow people to download an audio file without having to host it myself.
So, most recently, I've uploaded the mp3 version of my interview on Type 3 TV to Google Docs. I signed out of my Google account and visited the site to see what the experience might be like as a random visitor and while there was a lag obtaining the download link (might have just been me) I was able to retrieve the file.
Hopefully site visitors will find the experience just as easy and will let me know if they don't.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The Results Are In
It's October 13, 2011. I've taken the poll of the creepiest legends in Cleveland down and tallied the votes.
(Actually, I just took a screenshot of the results)
Now I've got a week to go through all my notes and stories and come up with something interesting to say about South Bay Bessie and Gray's Armory (both with zero votes... not very creepy, apparently)
(Actually, I just took a screenshot of the results)
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| From CreepyClevelandStuff |
Now I've got a week to go through all my notes and stories and come up with something interesting to say about South Bay Bessie and Gray's Armory (both with zero votes... not very creepy, apparently)
Friday, September 30, 2011
Possibly Related?
"Related Posts" was a feature I really liked when I was using Wordpress. It was a plugin that would automagically find and list posts that might be related to the current post you were viewing (by a complex scoring algorithm that took into consideration tags and post content).
I found a less complex, but still very useful snippet of javascript that approximates the same functionality over at blogger-related-posts.googlecode.com
The difference is that I chose to paste the code into a new widget instead of messing with the template directly.
The end result is a blank box at the very top of the left sidebar when you're on the main page that cycles through possibly related posts when you view a single post or filter by tag. (the code had the text "Loading..." visible when there were no related posts returned, so I just erased that line. If there are no posts, I'd rather just have an inconspicuous blank box)
I found a less complex, but still very useful snippet of javascript that approximates the same functionality over at blogger-related-posts.googlecode.com
The difference is that I chose to paste the code into a new widget instead of messing with the template directly.
The end result is a blank box at the very top of the left sidebar when you're on the main page that cycles through possibly related posts when you view a single post or filter by tag. (the code had the text "Loading..." visible when there were no related posts returned, so I just erased that line. If there are no posts, I'd rather just have an inconspicuous blank box)
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