LiveSide - News blog : stickers

Sinofsky shows LiveSide some love

Harrison Hoffman — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:43:00 GMT

It's a pretty well known fact that Steven Sinofsky, SVP for Windows and Windows Live, has set a precedent of being tight-lipped at Windows Live when it comes to talking to bloggers. Well, that's why we were pleasantly surprised when this picture dropped into our inbox tonight. It looks like Steven has had a change of heart and decided to show his support for the Windows Live community. For a big exec. like Mr. Sinofsky to be behind what we're doing, that just justifies this whole crazy project.

Well, we're all very excited about this, so if any of our Softie readers spot other LiveSide stickers around the offices, feel free to send them in. Mr. Sinofsky, if you want to send in a picture of you with your LiveSide sticker, we'd be happy to put it up on the map.

Check out the picture in all of its full-res glory in my SkyDrive folder (the office number has been blurred out to protect the innocent).

LiveSide Stickers: Sharing the Love

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:41:00 GMT

I have really been having a lot of fun with this sticker giveaway thing, thanks everyone for participating, and remember you can send in a link to a picture and a note and we'll put it up on our map.

A number of you requested more than just the 2 stickers I sent out in the "standard order", and we've been hearing from some of you about what you're doing with those, too.

Our friend in Shanghai, Picturepan2, in particular, has been giving away stickers through LiveSino.net, and today he sent me a link to his own map:

How awesome is that? Anyway, here's some links in case you're just receiving your stickers and want a link on the map:

Our LiveSide Stickers Around the World! Live Maps collection
Our LiveSide Stickers poll, where you can post links to your pictures and I'll put your picture on our map

Thanks again, we really appreciate your enthusiasm and interest in LiveSide.

Stickers: A Windows Live Exercise

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 21:15:00 GMT

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!

LiveSide Stickers quick update

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:37:33 GMT

Just a quick note - I'll have more this weekend. The LiveSide Stickers are all on their way!

Some rough and quick numbers:

Total number of envelopes sent: just over 200
Total countries represented: 39
Postage: about $175 US

Live Maps Collections pushpins allow for an embedded image and a link, as well as notes, so this weekend I will get that together so we can collect some photos of LiveSide stickers in action! In the meantime, your stickers should be arriving soon, some already have. Anyway more on this over the weekend, but for now thanks for reading LiveSide, and enjoy your stickers!

The LiveSide Stickers Around the World collection is up to date, check it out, and thanks!

LiveSide Stickers Giveaway

Kip Kniskern — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:50:00 GMT

OK so you guys rock. Thanks for all the help on getting LiveSide Wave 3.x going, and for all your input. We love feedback, we love tips, and we really appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Keep it up!

One of our readers, Daniel Ordonez, even went so far as to work with us on a new logo design. We liked it so much we printed up some laptop stickers, and now it's time to give some away!

The stickers, made by Lightning Labels (who did a great job, btw: good quality, good price, fast personal service, highly recommended) are 2" x 4", with the LiveSide logo on a white vinyl background. Be sure to mention LiveSide.net if you are looking for a good source of labels!

So since you all have been so good to us, we decided to skip the bother of self addressed envelopes and such. So for our members, we're just going to give them away. Send an email to kip*at*liveside*dot*net with "Stickers, I want some!" in the subject line, include your member name, a mailing address where we can send them, and we'll send you a pair of LiveSide.net stickers. If you REALLY want more, then let us know in the email and we'll consider it.

NOTE: We will be using these addresses (email and physical) for sending the stickers out ONLY. We won't be keeping the emails, any personal information, or signing you up for any spam or stalking your house. We may keep track of what city you're from, but only as a way to create a Live Maps Collection of where all the stickers went. If you are overly concerned about this, however, I guess you don't get any stickers. But really, we will be very careful with your information, and will delete it as soon as we send out the stickers. This is not an attempt to gather any personal information, we just had a crapload of stickers printed up and we want to make it as easy for you to share the LiveSide love as we can.

~~So, to get your LiveSide stickers:~~

Email to kip*at*liveside*dot*net

~~use "Stickers, I want some!" in the subject line~~

~~Include your LiveSide.net member name (if you haven't yet, you can Join Here)~~

Update: Include a real name, please. I don't think the post office will know your LiveSide user name!

~~Don't forget a mailing address where we can send the stickers (2 each, unless you are good at begging)~~

~~Your personal information will not be used for any other purposes~~

~~Wait a bit, we're not sending them out overnight express, fergawdsakes.~~

This is a limited time offer. (Offer has ended, sorry) We want you to have some stickers, but we won't be doing this for long. If you want stickers, email now!

Update: This is a worldwide offer :). The postage is probably gonna kill me, but what the hey. Our readership is worldwide, so of course we want worldwide LiveSide sticker coverage!