Ok so the stickers are on the way. Only about $175 US in postage, not too bad!
We've used Windows Live Mail (and some of you have used Windows Live Hotmail), and Live Maps and Live Maps Collections, along with Windows Live Writer to get to this point. Now we thought it might be fun to give you a chance to show off your new LiveSide stickers in the wild.
Live Maps Collections offers the ability to add in some information to the pushpins we stuck in your city when you requested stickers. Now we're going to try and see what we can do with that.
A couple of notes here: Live Maps Collections is not a collaborative service, so we won't be able to allow you to edit your pushpins directly. What we can do, however, is have you post some information, and I'll be happy to input it for you. Why not, this has been fun so far! Also I did my best to put your pushpins close to where you live, but if I missed by a lot let me know and I'll try and fix it. If you want your pin moved "just a bit to the left", then, ummm, no. :)
So OK what we have is this:
Live Maps Collections pushpins can accept a photo url, a url for more info, and notes. I messed around a bit, and by using SkyDrive to host a picture file, I was able to include it in my pushpin:
Hovering over the pushpin pops up the dialog box, and clicking on More info sends you to the url in the "URL for more info:" box (doh!).
Now one note: if you use SkyDrive (and you don't have to, use Flickr or Zooomr or your own hosted files or whatever, as long as it's a working link to a photo - or just post a picture on the LiveSide poll and we'll host it for you), you need to be careful about how you get the url:
Once you upload a file into a public folder in SkyDrive, and open up that file, don't use the "web address:" url that's in the properties information for the file. Instead, right click on the photo itself, and copy the shortcut to the picture. That way it will show up in the pushpin popup.
OK. So once you get the stickers, take a picture. It would be fun to see our stickers in some fun places around the world, but it's your information, and your picture, so it can be whatever you choose. (Obviously, don't send anything offensive, or dirty, or otherwise bad. Doing so will of course not be posted, but could get you banned from LiveSide. Just don't. Since we control what goes in the Collection, it wouldn't do you any good anyway).
Then:
Post a reply to the LiveSide stickers poll
This time include:
- the number of your pushpin (if you're in a city with numerous pushpins, just pick one - we'll figure it out)
- a link to a (little square) picture, or the picture itself, and we'll host it.
- a note (something about yourself, or a message to our readers, whatever you want (see above)
- a link to more information. This could be your blog, or a bigger version of the picture (or that download link in SkyDrive), or http://www.LiveSide.net. Again, whatever you want.
We're looking forward to seeing some fun pictures, but even if you don't play along, we hope you enjoy your LiveSide stickers, and keep reading LiveSide!