Archive for January, 2011

• Canson PAPERSHOW
  (tags: digital drawing writing)
• All Wireless Cell Phone Repair Austin Texas
  I bought my own DIY iPhone repair kit on Amazon on Monday. If that doesn't work, I'm totally trying these guys here in Austin to get them to fix the smashed touch screen on my iPhone.

• How to Burn an ISO with Toast | MyAppleGuide

• VaultPress — Safeguard your site
• How to install Photoshop Patterns
• How to install Photoshop Brushes

• YouTube – a BMW motorcycle story
  wonder if his dad taught him how to wave at other riders.
• What Is Marketing? (How To Turn A Birthday Party Into A Birthday Experience)
  Hilarious
• Age Appropriate Geek: What Age Should my Boys Watch Star Wars? | GeekDad | Wired.com
  I was thinking about showing my daughter (4.5 years-old) Star Wars.  I read this and couldn't agree more.  Although I think she'll be ready to watch it at 7 or 8.

• Doing good at work
• Convert flv to mp4 on Mac and Convert mp4 to flv on Mac OS

• 18 Incredible Ways to Create Digital Photo Collage | Binary Head
• Alfred Is Another Nice Application Launcher, Quicksilver Alternative for Mac Users
• Deep-Fried Romantic: Now with 300% more video | ThirdCoast Digest
  "Josh Janicek’s video of his child rambling on many topics via subtitles raises what could have been a low-culture “America’s Funniest Home Videos” piece into something closer resembling  art"
• 17 gigapixel photo. [VIDEO]

To me, it speaks loudly when I get an email from someone with a “vanity” email address ([email protected]). It means they “get it” and they know how to purchase a domain, host their own website and configure their own email account. And none of the aforementioned are difficult or require you to be a “computer nerd” by any stretch of the imagination. Gmail addresses used to be coveted because you could only get one by being invited by one of the elite who somehow managed to get their own Gmail address. And they only had 5 invitations to give out, so it used to mean you were really important or well-liked if you received an invitation to try Gmail. Now everyone has a Gmail address, including spammers. I have a few Gmail accounts, but I only use my main one for registrations (purchases, sign-ups, social networking, etc.), and that gets forward to my primary vanity address so I only have 1 inbox to check. I use a couple Gmail addresses to filter spam from reaching iPhones as well.

For the past 10 years, I’ve had my own primary vanity email account using our Janicek.com domain. I guess I could call Janicek.com a brand as it’s a reflection of who I am through words and photos. It’s geared toward family, friends and strangers alike. The site has pretty much always been a blog that’s a creative outlet for me. It’s my vessel for publishing what I want on my ever-evolving quest in life and self-discovery. It allows me to create something to share with the world, and doing that makes me happy. When I email someone, they may look at my email address and trigger them to go see what Janicek.com is about. If you google “Josh Janicek”, you’re going to find Janicek.com, joshjanicek.com as well as a slew of other things that pertain to me that have been published online.

So back to vanity addresses. To me, yahoo.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com and (gulp) aol.com email addresses say “hey, I’m unique. Just like everyone else.” And that’s fine. But for me, I want to be set apart. It’s just who I am.

If you want your own email address, it’s really quite easy. First, buy your domain. I’ve always used Dotster (and in recent years, their sister company MyDomain.com). Dotster, GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Domain.com, etc. are domain registrars. A domain registrar is simply an accredited company who’s allowed to reserve and sell domain names (generally country or organization specific [i.e. .com, .edu, .gov, .co.uk, .nl, etc.]). If you want a good, personal domain, buy you’re name if it’s available. Thankfully I have an uncommon name, so joshjanicek.com was available when I purchased it. If you’re paranoid and think that evil internet gnomes are going to find you and steal your social security number and your contact lenses through the web, then buy whatever domain tickles your fancy and doesn’t disclose who you actually are, but that’s not really the point of this post. My friend Joey has a really great personal brand domain for his resume and to showcase his freelance web design company at hirejoey.com. A domain only costs $10 per year, so it’s not going to hurt you in the wallet.

Now you’re going to have to park your domain somewhere and setup email hosting (you can also website as well). You can buy hosting and your domain in the same place. Personally, I like Dreamhost. I’ve used them for 10 years and have been a very happy customer since day 1. Now, hosting is going to cost you on a monthly basis. Dreamhost will run you $9 per month, buy hey, you probably spend more at Starbucks in a month and we’re talking about your personal brand here! Dreamhost will give you a trial account to see how you like things and you can cancel at any time, but you’re not going to cancel. Again, you’re building your brand!

Once you’ve setup your hosting service, you need to make sure your domain points to your host’s domain name servers. If you purchase your domain and hosting through the same company, you shouldn’t have to do anything. Otherwise, your host will provide instructions on how to update the DNS for your domain. You don’t need to know all there is about DNS, but if you want to, you can read about DNS here. For your purposes, all you’ll need to do is copy and paste something like “NS1.DREAMHOST.COM” into a form in your account on your domain registrar’s website. Trust me, it’s painless (and mindless).

And that’s the hard part! Once you change the DNS for your domain, you’ll see in your account with your hosting company that it’s going to take X hours to “propagate.” That just means that some people are going to build a gate using recently acquired skills learned by watching TiVo’d episodes of The New Yankee Workshop and then prop said gate up against a car in the parking garage. There’s nothing that you need to do beyond setting up your new, awesome email address.

If you’re using Dreamhost, you’ll see a section in the menu to manage Mail. This is where you can create a new email address. All you’ll need to do is create your username and password. Your username will be whatever you want before the @ sign in your email address. For example: firstname@domainname.com. Again, if you’re using Dreamhost, you can select to have Gmail manage your email. This will give you all of the cool features of Gmail while you get to use your own vanity domain (versus [email protected]). In your Manage Mail section of your host account, you’ll also be able to find instructions on how to setup your new email address in your mail client (Outlook, Mail.app, Thunderbird, etc.).

And that’s really it. Have fun with your new personal email address.

• Sanders Says – Improve Your Resume Every Year
• YouTube – KLM Surprise
  Airline KLM surprises their social media savvy passengers simply to put a smile on their faces.

• YouTube – How camera lenses are made
  Amazing process