Coasterbuzz Podcast
Sep 26, 2005Just wanted to pass you guys the word about a new podcast covering the amusement industry. Coasterbuzz has joined the game with what looks to be a change from the usual coaster mumblings.
So why am I passing this along? Well aside from pointing out something generally good, I’m also plugging myself. I was lucky enough to be able to be a part of this inaugural edition and by tuning in, you can hear me proclaim such wisdom as “Family rides are good” and “There’s real people inside character costumes at parks” - yeah, I’m a genius.
Additionally, this week featured Holiday World’s Director of PR, Paula Werne dishing out some info on the park’s new additions for 2006. So that alone is worth a listen.
At any rate, go check it out.
Interactive Theme Park and Amusement Park Maps
Sep 21, 2005Got another update for you! No, it’s not those Great America photos and stuff that I’ve been promising for weeks now, but it’s pretty damn cool.
I don’t know how many of you regularly use the Map Index to get around the site, but it’s been available since the redesign last March. It always irked me. It was static and ugly but it was functional, I suppose. You can now say good-bye to the ugly and functional and say hello to the pretty and even more functional!
I reworked the map to be an interactive visualization of the parks we visit. Not only can you see where we’ve been and go directly to the appropriate photo galleries from there, but now you can pan, zoom and such. You can click the park markers for a quick-look desciption and photo. You can then click that and be whisked away directly to that parks photos. In addition, you can toggle the map between plain graphic map view and satellite view.
That’s right. Zoom in nice and tight on a park marker and switch over to the satellite view and you’ll see actual satellite photos of the park.
The whole thing is really quite cool and it’s pretty good fun to play around with in addition to being a functional part of the site for navigation, info and whatnot.
On the subject of those long promised Great America photos - I have them all done (as well as a video and a handful of wallpapers) and now I just need to put it all together in nice little pages. I’ll have them up very soon!
More Moblog Fun
Sep 13, 2005Well, it appears that the moblog pulled through when it needed to and it also appears that a whole bunch of you stopped by to check it out this past Sunday. So that’s cool. I’ll mess with the coding during the offseason and possibly make it a regular thing for next year. We’ll see, I guess.
I ended up taking 280 pics at Kennywood, so if even 1 in 5 makes the cut then you’ll see 50 or 60 new photos added to that gallery in the future. Next up however, is getting the Six Flags Great America stuff finished. Expect that to show up not too long from now. Until then…
Moblog Fun
Sep 8, 2005I know you’re expecting a new gallery or a new video or new wallpapers or something and the truth is that I have all three coming very soon - from Six Flags Great America even! But I got a little sidetracked this past week. Sidetracked with another geek-tastic idea that, in all honesty, is probably more style than substance…or not.
When I first got the ball rolling on this site, I was pretty proud of the fact that I got photo updates online in a relatively short time. I like the idea of keeping current in most cases. Of course that isn’t always possible, but if I can get pics from Friday up by the following Monday, I feel that’s usually more beneficial than photos from May showing up sometime in October. Then I took it a little further by doing ‘on the road’ updates. Seemed like a neat little thing. I’d check in every couple of days during our trips and pass along some new photos and info. Then this year I took it a step further and did a daily ‘diary’ entry, with new pics and a short trip report each day were were on the road.
It was the surprising popularity of that diary this past June that let me to wonder if I could push it even further. Well, it turns out that I can! How about real-time updates from the park? Yeah, it’s ok to laugh. I understand that the need for such things is essentially non-existant.
I don’t know why it suddenly clicked. I’ve always strived for timely updates at coasterimage.com, I’ve had a photo capable cell phone for ages and I usually end up snapping a few and sending them to friends anyway when we visit parks. Why not combine the three?
So I’ve been spending the past week reading up, learning, experimenting & testing and have come up with the Coasterimage Moblog. (insert fanfare here)
In a nutshell, I snap pics with the extremely low quality camera in my phone, press a button and within a few moments the moblog is updated with shots right from the park. You know, moblogging (duh!).
So yeah, feel free to laugh again.
I don’t know where (if anywhere) I’m heading with this and doing it now that the season is over seems a bit odd. It was mostly something I just wanted to try - just to do it. As far as I know, no other coaster site has updated with photos and/or trip and park info during their visit. What the hell, it might be fun.
So when does this thing see its first action? How about this upcoming Sunday (the 11th)? We have a few Kennywood tickets burning holes in our pockets and will probably stop by for some weekend coaster riding.
Sure, this is one of the last nice weekends left this year as we begin to roll into fall, sure it’s the opening weekend of the NFL, sure you have better things to do. But on the off chance that you find yourself with some down time this Sunday, remember us. Open up the Coasterimage Moblog and see what’s going down at Kennywood.
If you head over there now you’ll find the one test entry I left online. It’s just shot of the backyard. It gives an idea of the quality of the pics and the annoying advertising Verizon tacks on to every message their customers send. The general layout is there. If you have any problems with it, let me know - I’ve seen it come to a crashing halt a couple of times this past week when putting it through it’s paces, so don’t be surprised if you get an error or nothing at all somewhere along the way. Keep in mind this is still in the earliest of stages.
So that’s what’s up. I’ll probably post a little note on Saturday night just to confirm that our plans for Kennywood are still on and then after I get this out of my system, I’ll finish up that Six Flags Great America update - I have some really cool wallpapers to go along with it. Until then, check back Sunday if you aren’t tied up with other things.
