Justin Farrow Realestatement

Website: B and B Surveying of Houston Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:56:00 +0000

B and B Surveying

Just a quick update on a website I've been working on for a professional land surveying company (and Land Surveyors United members) in Houston Texas, B and B Surveying. Today, I'm putting some final touches on this simple yet affective small business design. For this project, I have re-branded the surveying company which has been in business since 1992. This re-branding included new logo, a systematic regrouping of documents and frequently asked questions and development of an overall web presence.

If you're looking for a land surveyor to hire in the Houston, TX area, believe me when I tell you that B and B Surveying is the best around. Don't take my word for it though, their results speak for themselves. Rated currently at a whopping 10/10 on Angieslist, these guys are the best in the business.

Now on to a bit of search engine optimization. This is where it gets fun...

Read more about B and B surveying

The Art of Gentrification | Part Four

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Bedford Avenue Bouncer 2005 Williamsburg

Gentrification, if anything causes confusion and mis-alignment of values within a community. In the case of street art, the fact of the matter is that most artists notoriously live day to day and it would be naive to assume that a piece of street art would be created in order to fullfill some sort of long-ranged vision. Any given piece may last years, weeks, or mere hours, depending on any number of variables. For graffiti writers, this is expected and in fact fundamental to their process, which they perceive as an ongoing dialogue. However, most city dwellers experience this constant change only at a subconscious level. Artists are neither (and both) the victim and the villain of gentrification, but the images that paint our everyday lives deserve to have a history-along side of their creators. I suppose I have come to view the streets as one of the few places where the public can openly battle out their ideas. And graffiti is one form of those discussions taking place in society. In my interpretation graffiti is a form of tribal marking (and marketing), a quest for adventure, and a way of artifying the physical environment in a way that is very common in pre-modern societies but that was lost with industrialisation.

Street ARTcheaology [defined]

Image #2 Obey

Brooklyn has become widely recognized as an epicenter of cultural assent- a place of color and an extension of the New York City that non-natives are no longer warned about, but rather encouraged to hunt. When the street speaks, you are almost forced to listen. Check out Shepard Fairey's work[IMAGE#2] that sat on Berry at North 3rd last year and how it changed the very next day [Image#3]. If the image were in color, you'd see that the pink spray paint is a challenge to the intentions of the artist. I happened to go to high school with Shepard and know very well that he isn't trying to change much aside from the way people allow themselves to think. Anyone familiar with his work, which can be found everywhere but the moon, knows that he has already radically changed the earth's urban landscape. Those who make the streets what they are today and will be tomorrow sing very loud songs at times and are not afraid to change their tune tomorrow. The resulting radical transformation of urban space brought about through street level art is a cross cultural project with ends in flux. Because it is impossible to limit or regulate the resources that are available, graffiti as an art form and expressive medium is expandable, flexible, and difficult to control-just like development. The graffiti medium constitutes an open channel for its users to manipulate and mould to suit their needs. It represents a type of discontinuous communicative strategy through which people can engage in a visual dialogue which does not rely on face-to-face interaction or necessary knowledge of the writers' identities. You just can't avoid the truth of the streets!

Image #3 Obey

The Art of Gentrification | Part Three

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Brooklyn Burning Circa 2006

For those of you just tuning into this series, The ART of Gentrification, I've been talking about the ways that gentrification and street ARTcheaology are related, how works of street level artists are influenced and destroyed by urban development and why the disappearance of brilliant works of street art can be theoretically tied to processes of gentrification. If you missed the earlier portions of this rant, check them out here:
Part One | Part Two

Today, I'm gonna switch gears a bit and just show some works of art which speak for themselves. These works of street level artists, primarily from North Brooklyn, NY no longer exist and were destroyed during the housing boom of 2005-2007. Rapid gentrification influenced by social acceptance of Brooklyn as viable option for residents in NYC, in combination with the effects of real estate madness during this time, can be blamed for their disappearance. All of the photos you are about to see have been taken over time by myself and they are being offered as prints for those who are interested. Just click on the link and the photos will open in lightbox Enjoy!

Graffiti-nyc-justinfarrow

More-street-art

Streetart-brooklyn

Stay tuned for the conclusion and Part Four of The ART of Gentrification.

The Art of Gentrification | Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:56:00 +0000

The ART of Gentrification | Part Two
Part One

Image #1 Former mural on North 10th and Berry, Williamsburg

In the second case, those who watch the streets closely notice all too often the case where a truly terrific piece of art which has lasted many years will all of a sudden disappear along with the building that it was attached to. Real estate development demolishes street level messages along with buildings and their history. Developers and artists do not share similar interests, however it could be argued that they have the same agenda. How so? Developers aim to distribute their products in as many places as possible, so as to maximize their profits. Street level artists merely take a mode of distribution into their own hands, by not only using every viewable physical surface as a canvas, but also installing artist-run galleries into neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint-hoods, which ironically enough artists have a horrible time trying to afford space to live in. Why is this? Because real estate developers have very little love for anything that doesn't stuff their own pocketbook. Developers aren't artists and aside from their recent infatuation with the "buzz" (which they have discovered) surrounds street art, most couldn't really care less about where it all goes when their big box gets installed. In this case, you have a situation similar to the one before, in that the interests of one group (i.e to instantiate metamorphisis of real estate values within an area) run counter to those who've been working for some time to change the area as well, through creation of a dense network of indentifiably similar works and messages.

Image #3 Williamsburg North 10th/Berry Circa 2004

Image #2 Williamsburg North 10th/Berry Circa 2004

A Few Brooklyn Examples

In the case of North 10th and Berry [IMAGE#1 above], an art piece that I'd come to appreciate on my daily walks to the train, came down right before my eyes one evening as I came home late from the city (image to right). The same is true for the (what is referred to now as the) "See-Thru" building on Bedford and North 4th [IMAGE#4]. Here one day, gone the next. The transient state of street level messages can be said to be a direct result of gentrification process in this manner.

Image #4 Williamsburg North 4th/Berry Circa 2006 "See-Thru Building"

Image #5 Flower Face Killah Williamsburg Berry Street Circa 2005

How Street Level Art Vanishes

In this last scenario, lets look at how street level art vanishes. Think of that Flower Face Killah [IMAGE#5] wheatpasting that you saw just yesterday, plastered across the door of the Mill Building on North 3rd and Wythe. Its not there today because either someone found it to be stupid or really good. People have many reasons for thinking certain things to be inadequate or unwarranted-whether it be the case of an owner feeling as though the art devalues his over-priced property or merely a drunk passer-by trying to show off his cool through ripping shit down, the fact of the matter is that all street level messages are up for public debate. Personally, i find this type of act to be very frustrating and sad. Not just because Flower Face Killah is my friend (which she happens to be), but because art work takes time and energy which people of a destructive nature seem unfamiliar. Street art can express the discontent of an artist with the nature of change occuring all around them. For example, take a look at Flower Face's marking on the construction barrier which used to sit on North 5th between Bedford and Berry [Image #5]. It was apparently created with cattle chalk. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I'll also challenge anyone to try taking that shit down. It says a lot about the discontent of the artist with the influx of Manhattan transplants to the neighborhood and this can be seen similarly in Judith Supines work [IMAGE#6] found 2 blocks away.

Preservation and Theft

Image #7 Flower Face Killah Williamsburg Wythe Ave Circa 2005

Many times, a fantastic art piece will end up on the road or in the trash merely due to disapproval by a small portion of the public or an individual. At the same time, there are those who writers and artists refer to as "collectors" that run around the city carefully peeling works off of buildings and construction barriers in order to keep them for themselves and decorate their personal space. In a way, they might regard themselves to be 'preserving' the piece which will be eventually destroyed anyway (as in case above) or even saving them for a later time, when the work might actually be worth money to those who percieve it to be 'rare'-at which time, you might be able to stumble across it on an Ebay auction. The latter may be seen as stealing and may get your ass beat if caught, but in either case, people have their own reasons for doing what it is that they do and during times of rapid change, the majority of the people running the streets do not see eye to eye.

Image #5 Flower Face Killah Williamsburg North 3rd/Berry Circa 2005

Image #6 Judith Supine Williamsburg North 3rd/Berry Circa 2006

Street messages are inherently created with the understanding that they will not last.

Stay tuned for Part Three of The Art of Gentrification coming soon....

The Art of Gentrification | Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 03:16:00 +0000

Image #1 Banksy Art North 6th Street Williamsburg

Too bad art can't create itself. Then it wouldn't be so damn annoying.

If you've lived in North Brooklyn for at least 3 yrs, you've witnessed first hand the dynamic relationship shared between gentrification and the art of the streets. They not only co-exist, but rather share an elaborate contingency that cannot be ignored. Over the past eight years, I've come to realize that the rate at which graffiti (and street art) changes from day to day and its directly relation to the speed and scope of real estate development within neighborhoods of rapid gentrification. This situation is well documented and debated elsewhere and will not be exhausted further here. Rather, I would like to discuss just three ways in which street level art will cycle in relation to the pace of property revitalization. As you will see through examples provided from my lens, you are never far removed from this process-in fact, you may even get a glimpse of an image from a walk home from the past.

There are countless ways in which our streets change, but for the sake of brevity, I've narrowed this discussion to just three. First, I'd like to show you how street level art will change due to the covering up or destruction that occurs with new markings-i.e. new art. Secondly, you'll get a chance to see how art and messages of the street will just disappear due to development and demolition of existing properties. And finally, we will explore the situtation of street art destruction and collection. It is my goal to demonstrate in brief the vast connections that exist between gentrification as a process and the constant revision of street messages and art during times of rapid neighborhood transmutation.

Image #2 "splasher"

First it is important to realize that there is a markedly huge difference between those who are referred to as "street artists" and individuals who consider themselves to be "graffiti writers." Quite simply, graffiti writers express the "Fuck You," while street artists say "look at me." Each have their own reasons for doing so and their validity will not be challenged here. What is most important to understand is that both types of artists have an inherent need to both battle others within their class and challenge those of the opposite type. In other words, a graffiti writer might tag the wall of a building which has already been hit by a member belonging to a rival crew, but for our purposes lets explore a situation where the work of a street artist gets challenged. Art takes over the space of other art...most times, just placed on top (such as in the case with Roebling and Metropolitan IMAGE#6)It happens everyday, in North Brooklyn and everywhere else on the urban landscape-the newly wheat pasted giant duck or row of paper penises will all of a sudden, one day you'll walk by and it will have been covered up with huge, indecipherable black spray painted scribbles with arrows the maybe the words "fuck" or "white boy" somewhere in there. Even in the recent case of the "Splasher" (a street artist posing as a writer), you have an individual expressing beef [IMAGE# 1]with his own peers. Often, in the midst of his "splashing"[IMAGE# 2], the Splasher will leave behind some sort of wheat-pasted manifesto that attacks the street-artists as "tools of capitalism," calling their work a "fetishized action of banality" or "a representation of the most vulgar kind: an alienated commodity." Gentrification brings unwanted change for some and "art beef" is an inevitable product. The fact of the matter is, graffiti writers (for the most part) are annoyed with street artists because of several reasons. For example, almost never will you find a puerto rican native new yorker wheat pasting pee wee herman cut outs down Kent Avenue, because in their eyes, that shit is stupid and why would they fuck their neighborhood up like that? At the same time, why would a frustated graphic designer with a college education scribble his mother's initials outside of a bodega. He wouldn't because his mother lives in Providence Rhode Island and has never even been to his new loft in Williamsburg. New residents with no native relation to a neighborhood brings unwanted change for those who have grown up in an area and will be soon forced to leave due to skyrocketing property values. This is one of the main reasons why street art gets destroyed by graffiti and/or graffiti becomes covered up with street art. Neither artist has much respect for the other because they do not understand one another's intentions.

Image #3 Metropolotan and Roebling Circa 2004

Image #5 Metropolotan and Roebling Circa 2004

Image #4 Metropolotan and Roebling Circa 2004

Image #6 Metropolitan and Roebling 2011

More on the Art of Gentrification to come in Part Two..please subscribe to RSS feed to be notified when the Part Two is released.

HOW TO ADD A QR CODE TO BLOGGER THE CORRECT WAY

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:54:00 +0000

A QR Code (Quick response) allow you to display an URL readable by a mobile phone. Using Google Maps and Goo.gl URL Shortener, I am going to show you how to inset a QR code into your ning in the correct way.

A Practical Example.

I've been building Land Surveyors United network for land surveyors andI've mapped my members. Check out Land Surveyors United Member Map on Google Maps, which generates this LOOOOONG URL:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid...

Now that that long google maps URL and Plug it into Goo.gl URL shorter and we get this:

http://goo.gl/jz6BV

The QR Code Again

We just add .qr to the shorten URL, to get the URL of the QR Code :

http://goo.gl/jz6BV.qr

To display the QR Code, we just use an img tag :

.qr" style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 5px;" alt="QR code - Google Maps - LSU Member Map" title="QR code - Google Maps - LSU Member Map" />

Plug this into the HTML of a text box and we get this:

Our Result

Wanna know how to do this for a Ning Network?

HOW TO ADD A QR CODE TO YOUR NING THE CORRECT WAY

Street ARTcheaology: Experiment and Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Meet Mr.Street, moderator and judge for a new experimental social network that I am building for the next 30 days called Street ARTcheaology. First, I am building this network in order to win a Ning design challenge/contest which ends on April 15th. Wanna win some cash? Wanna help me win? Read on...

Street ARTcheaology is an experimental website/ social network which will last only 30 days. I have created this space in order to win a contest for Ning Design and you can help by submitting photos and videos of street art which no longer exists in your area of the world. First join the network, then submit the best photos and videos that you have of street art and/or graffiti in your area of the world which at one time existed, but is now wiped off the planet. Invite your friends to join and vote on your photos...connect your profile to your Twitter and Facebookaccounts and share your submissions, promote and get votes from your friends.
Its easy to sign up and easy to win...Sign in or register by using any of the following services:

Note: This Network Will Close on April 15th at the time of the contest judging, unless we get enough excited members and decide as a group to keep the network going. Also, the network appearance itself will be changing dramatically over the next month, but your photos and videos will always remain the same. Submit your photos today and win $500! Read full contest rules here

All photos by me "JFarrow" are ommitted from this contest and uploaded to this network merely as examples. You submit the photos and I'll design the network. Feel free to send me any suggestions or ideas you might have to my profile. Thanks!

How You Can Win Cash and Prizes
If I win, you win. The top 3 submissions of street art photos and/or videos will win cash and prizes...read more about the contest here. The submissions which receive the most votes before April 15 will win a prize. We will then have a community wide judging for another prize. The 3rd prize will be for the photo or video of original street art which receives the most views. If this network wins on April 15th, I will be splitting the prize money with those who have winning submissions

Tips Tricks and Hacks for Your Ning Network

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:32:00 +0000

Ning Hacks and Customization

In the past, I have shared a few useful discoveries and hacks related to building and customizing Ning networks. But today, Ning network creation is getting much larger than ever before, so I thought I'd pass on a few helpful hacks and tips for customizing your ning, via my discussions on the Creators Forum. My side project, Land Surveyors United has grown to be a very powerful website for the land surveying industry and I hope that by using these tips you too can create a community tool that makes a difference in the world. I am available for freelance Ning design and customization if you are interested in taking your network to the next level.

HOW-TO CREATE A GOOGLE CHROME WEB APP FOR YOUR NING

In the past, i showed you how to create a desktop extension for your Ning network using chrome, but that was just too easy. Now I am going…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

TRACK,SAVE AND TRACK WHO SAVES ON YOUR NING

Enter Trunk.ly. I've been watching Trunk.ly for a while and i must say it truly makes a lot of social bookmarking on your ning much simple…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

HOW TO ADD A BORDER TO ANYTHING ON NING NETWORK USING CSS

You may want to create a visual sense of depth on your network or simply place borders around elements within your site- this is how to do…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

WOULDN'T A PICASA UPLOAD BUTTON FOR NING BE AWESOME?

Just think, if the folks over at ning could create (what looks to be) a very simple feature which would allow for members to upload photos…

Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions

A BETTER TAG CLOUD GENERATOR

With the limitations of the Blog Tags on Ning, I have been looking for a better tag cloud solution for my network. I of course linked up a…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

ANYONE USING A SUBDOMAIN FOR IMAGES?

I was just wondering if any other NCs out there are using a subdomain for images on their network. For example, I am considering setting u…

Started by you in Community Support

INSTANT SEARCH RESULTS IN OUR NING

Ning. Can we please have PHP admin capability back? I want to add instant search suggestions to my network. There is a great tutorial f…

Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions

MORE BUGS: PEOPLE CAN'T SIGN UP TO MY NETWORK NOW

Has anyone out there ever seen something like this when trying to sign up? obviously i left my address out of this example for spam reasons…

Started by you in Bugs & Issues

ADD LINKEDIN SHARE BUTTONS TO YOUR NING NETWORK

Linkedin Share buttons for Ning network to easily embed the Share on Linkedin button on your blog which works perfectly. Altogether ther…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

FIND UNUSED CSS SELECTORS AND INCREASE LOAD SPEED

Remember a few days ago when I showed you how to style your Pagination with CSS? Of course you do. Well today I am going to show you a di…

Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR NETWORK EMAIL GOES TO SPAM Just this week, the broadcast emails from my network seems to be going into my member's spam box and I am hoping another NC has had this pr… Started by you in Community Support
CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGINATION STYLE WITH CSS If you're like me, getting the details of your ning network just right is an ongoing process. For example, I think that the default pagina… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
BROADCAST MESSAGE HACK: OFFER A LOG-IN OPTION AND TRACK MEMBER ENGAGEMENT Here is a quick tip from a pretty cool discovery I made last night for my land surveyors support network. I'm going to show you how to not… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
SUGGESTION: ALLOW NCS TO SUBSTITUTE FEEDS WITH FEEDBURNER This is a suggestion which will allow NCs to geotag their feed content which would be helpful for those who have location based groups and… Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions
DO MORE WITH YOUR VIDEO EMBED OPTION...AND SMILE. Perhaps this is a tip I should keep to myself, but it doesn't seem to be documented anywhere and I think NCs should know about this revelat… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
JAVASCRIPT CODE DISAPPEARING? HERE'S A SOLUTION Sometimes nothing works. You feel damned and your code is worthless. Your alternate descriptions have become your titles and your analyt… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
CSS: BEST WAY TO CLEAN AND OPTIMIZE If you're like me, you like to test, hack and tweak your network pretty much all the time. Most of this can be accomplished through your ad… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
ADD 3D TAG CLOUD TO YOUR NING NETWORK FOR EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY I am always looking for new and interesting ways to allow my members to search through content on the network. This morning I wrote a scri… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
SUGGESTION: ADD OPTION FOR ALT IMAGE DESCRIPTION ON UPLOAD I can't find where this has been suggested before, but i think it would be extremely helpful for members and NC's alike to have the option… Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions
CHANGE THE OUT-GOING TWITTER TEXT FOR SHARED ITEMS While sharing some items on Land Surveyors United earlier I started to think about the search engine optimization of my outgoing tweets on… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

THOUGHTS ON JQUERY MOBILE AND NING i'd be interested to know more about the supposed jquery functionality which is apparently built within all networks and more specifically… Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions
MULTILINGUAL FUNCTIONALITY REQUEST In a perfect world, i'd love to see Ning implement a feature which allows NC to do the following: 1) Export a language file containing on… Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions
IPHONE APP MAKER FOR NING IN 5 DAYS??? Could it be that our buddies at ning have been working behind closed doors with the ubercool AppMakr on a ning iPhone App"??? While playing… Started by you in Community Support
SITEMAP HACK: SUBMIT FEEDS FOR GROUPS FOR BETTER INDEXING Trying to get google to index your site thoroughly? Having problems with Sitemap Verification? Ole Justin is here to help with another gr… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
SPLASH PAGE TIP: DON'T FORGET TO ADD A SEARCH BOX This is more of a reminder to all of my NC buddies than a hack-and it is important. If you have or are creating a splash page for your net… Started by you in Community Support
WE NEED RELATED POSTS FOR BLOGS AND DISCUSSIONS This is just an echoed suggestion//request, but we REALLY need ning to implement some sort of Related Posts feature similar to Linkwithin.… Started by you in Product Ideas & Suggestions
DESIGN HACK #3: HOW TO HAVE 2 RSS MODULES SIDE BY SIDE Last week I showed you how to make your Video and Photos modules layout side-by-side and several of you have questions about the other RSS… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
DESIGN HACK: HOW TO MAKE VIDEO AND PHOTO MODULES SIDE BY SIDE Seems you guys like my ning hacks so here is another one straight out the crisper. I am going to show you the quick and dirty way to make… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
HOW TO MAP YOUR MEMBERS ON A NING NETWORK This is a follow-up discussion to the Design Hack which I posted 2 days ago, as promised. If you've been looking for a way to map your memb… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
HOW TO: TURN YOUR NETWORK INTO A DESKTOP APPLICATION Here is a cool and quick time-saving tip for the NC on the move. If you are using Google Chrome (which you should be-hint hint), turn YOUR… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

DESIGN HACK: ADD A TEXT BOX WHICH SPANS ALL 3 COLUMNS Ive been playing around with the possibilities of making a site-wide column which spans the top of all 3 columns of the network. WARNING:… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
ADD A FLASH SLIDESHOW TO YOUR LEADERBOARD IN 3 SIMPLE STEPS I've been playing around with the possibilities of increasing engagement on my surveying site and found a simple tool that will make the To… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
WHY ARE LEADERBOARDS EMPTY? For some reason, my leaderboards seem to keep reverting back to empty. is there something i am missing here? Started by you in Bugs & Issues
QUESTION ABOUT NING NETWORK SEARCH When searching for Land Surveying on the ning page and i see this pictured below-first problem is that we are the only ning network for sur… Started by you in Bugs & Issues
AWESOME TWEAK TIP: ANIMATE YOUR NETWORK LOGO WITH PURE CSS-NO GIFS Ok, so this this tweak may not be the most simple one to execute but it is worth it once you've properly included the CSS into your Advance… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
HOW MIGHT ONE EMBED A GOOGLE MAP AS HEADER Has anyone ever been successful embedding a Google Map in place of the Header Image to Show where Members Are? Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos
QUESTION: ANYBODY ELSE SEEING THIS? ".COM/?FBC_CHANNEL=1" AFTER SIGN IN? Today when i signed into http://landsurveyorsunited.com/ I saw that http://landsurveyorsunited.com/?fbc_channel=1 was in the URL Any… Started by you in Tutorials and How-Tos

Create RSS News Wall Using Google Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:24:00 +0000

How to Create an RSS Feed Wall on Google Sites

Google Sites News Wall

If you're like me, you like free solutions. Free solutions to web and information syndication are all around you, if you know where to look. Today I am going to show you how to create such a solution using the Google Sites platform which comes stock with every gmail account. Want to have an entire webpage which displays your latest news? Sure you do. Here's how to make one without having to pay an expensive designer.

Take a look at final product demo here.

Start with a Google Sites Website
While logged into your gmail account, look in the top menu for the "More" dropdown and click on Sites. For this exercise if you do not already have a Google Site set up, just choose the Blank template. Setting up the home page and settings will become necessary later when you go live. Now that you have it initially set up, find the More Actions dropdown button on the far right of screen and select the Manage Site at bottom of menu. Now you are in the backend. Find the link for Page Templates (as pictured here) and Create a new Template. Give the template a name like Feeds or similar and choose the "Web Page Template" and create it. Now you will be directed to the template you just created. Now in the menu, select the Layouts Link and choose the 3 Column layout choice.

Gather at least Three RSS Feeds to Plug In
When I first experimented with this, I was creating a News Wall for my network for land surveyors, containing the RSS feeds of the latest activity and content added to the network. If you know anything about Ning networks, you know that there are many RSS feeds which are generated from the daily content on a network. If you do not know about ning, it will not matter for this exercise as any RSS feed which validates will work. First have an idea of what feeds will go where and place 3 RSS Feed Gadgets (1 in each column) inside the current page. What are feed gadgets? Good question. I will now explain the specific gadget that you will need to add 3 times.

How to add a Feed Gadget and Which Gadget Works Best
While still in the page edit mode, place your cursor in one of the columns on the page then click on the Insert link in the menu and click on the More Gadgets link at bottom of dropdown. Now in the popup gadget finder click on the link that says "Add Gadget by URL" and a new box will open. In that box, paste the following URL:
This gadget was created by Pamela Fox, a talented blogger/programmer and you can find more information on this gadget visit her blog post on the subject.

What do you think?

Tis the Season to Buy My Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:11:00 +0000

Greenpoint Planet

If you've been looking for a way to purchase or license one of my photos, I have great news for you today! Simply head over to my Clustershot website and search for a photo you like, pay for it with paypal and help me help my family have a great holiday! Pretty much my entire Flickr account has been imported, which is something I didn't mean to do so I am currently wading through thousands of photos and eliminating the crap, but there are some amazing jewels in there. If for some reason the photo you had your eye on is nowhere to be found in there, simply send me an email and I will add it for you.

Social Web Jobs Board

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:15:00 +0000

These days, I get a lot of calls from friends and friends of friends about the best way to go about finding a job in social media. To be honest, I would also like to find that perfect job as well because freelancing can really get to you at times. So, last night I decided to add a job board to my site for those who are looking for a place to post their social media related jobs. In fact, you can post jobs for just about anything social web related including social network marketing, Advertising. Reputation Management, Marketing, Event Planning, Social Media, Graphic Design, and more. Point your browser to webjobs.justinfarrow.com and post a job in one of the categories related to social media and watch the applications role in! This job board is for social media job postings anywhere in the United States. Enjoy!

Social Web Jobs Board

CSS3, Cubes, Surveyors and Multi-dimensional Social Support

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:50:00 +0000

Over the halloween weekend, I didn't dress up, go drinkin' or scare anyone this year. I worked. I made some creative Craigslist Ads for the SC Property Pros in Charleston, started a little work on selling some great Ultra-sound devices for South Santee Aquaculture and made some much needed upgrades and optimization to my social support network, Land Surveyors United (check out the new homepage). Freelance is starting to get to me...I need a 9 to 5, I believe. I'm starting feel like I may have a greater impact if I were to be working for just one amazing company...or one that is just slightly amazing, needing some good ole fashion creative direction. In any case, here is some of the stuff I made on my Halloween Weekend.

Amazing Cubes Using CSS3
I took the opportunity to dive in and learn more about CSS3 transformations and learned a lot from the uber-creative Paul Hayes. With CSS3 it is possible to create extraordinary visual effects using HTML,CSS and no images. For example, I created this eye-catching 3D Cube (with scrollbars) for LSU, showcasing some of the latest developments on the network. I hope to develop this for easy access on iOS version of LSU, coming out next week. With that said, yes I've been inching along in my learning of the ins and outs of building iPhone applications, so that my members will be able to stay connected in real time from their phones. Here is a link to the iphone app discussion on the network. That is coming along quite nicely. With the release of AppMakr tool for Ning, I've built quite the mobile platform for land surveyors to use to stay connected from the field. Still much to do and learn-and really excited for the iPad version of Appmakr, set to start testing in January 2011.

True, my photography and documentation has taken a hit lately due to time constraints, but I foresee a light at the end of the tunnel. Looking forward to working on some of my personal projects in the near future, when I can stop long enough to take a breath.

UFO Spotted in Brooklyn

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:51:00 +0000

Yesterday, I saw a UFO in Brooklyn...well actually I made a UFO from a panoramic photo I once took on McKibben Street in Bushwick.
Before:

After:

♛How to Convert Powerpoint Presentation into Craigslist Ad♛

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:43:00 +0000

PPT>GIF>HTML>Craigslist
With a bit of creative ingenuity, one can convert just about any file format into something which can easily be retrofitted into a craigslist advertisement. For example, today I will be showing you how to convert a Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt) into a real estate ad on craigslist for free.
Here's what you will need:
A Google Docs Account (comes free with every gmail account)
A Powerpoint Presentation fully customized to your liking
Giftedmotion Gif Animator (found here)
Kompozer (found Here)

Steps in Order:
First, upload your presentation into Google Docs (or just create it on docs)

Export the final presentation as .ppt file

Upload and convert the .ppt to Media-Convert and set the output as either .png or .jpg file. You will get a zip file with the contents...extract those files to a new folder on your desktop or otherwise.

Open the GiftedMotion .jar program and open the new folder with the files> Select all files and press Open.

Set the frame rate to something close to 3300 and check "same for all files" then when you have the animation running at desirable speed, press stop. It will then generate a .gif image which you must rename "your-file-name.gif" [this part is very important-don't forget to name it .gif]

Upload that gif file to your server, or to a blog post and copy the URL of the .gif file.

Open Kompozer Text Editor....start a new document and center the cursor in top middle of document> Click Insert Image in toolbar> paste the URL from above step into that image field. Press Ok

Now press CTRL+A to select all and then go back to toolbar and under Insert find Insert HTML-click that. Again CTRL+A that entire block of HTML code and copy it. Paste it inside the craigslist ad with a catchy title and call it good!

BONUS TIP: Want some crafty HTML symbols to grab attention in your titles? Copy and paste any symbol from this Wikipedia page.

Things your Mom Should Have Taught You About SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:43:00 +0000

Me (age 2) with my name on the line

Getting to Page Two takes Time- Getting Page One Takes YEARS

1. Google "get ranked on google",you will retrieve a million results.
2. Read them all, it only takes about 5 months to read and digest and get started on.
3. Then start doing them one by one for 3 to 6 hours per day, which takes a year or more.
4. After a year you will be ranked roughly near the front page on your search term.

BOOM! You now have a new part time job which pays you nothing until you rank and only something if you rank well.
(seriously this is what it takes)

or you could pay me to do it. I'm open to ideas-as long as they aren't crooked. My mom wouldn't appreciate that.

Ongoing List of Invented Words

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:50:00 +0000

What did that Ninja Say?

For some reason, the Loftninja likes to invent new words-especially when marginally related to real estate. Its not that the words we already have are insufficient-they just need updating. Here is a ongoing list of words defined in Urbandictionary by Loftninja. If you have the time, head over there and thumbs up a few!

	degentrification
	Degentrification is when an area or neighborhood starts to gentrify so quickly that it does not 'organically' gentrify and certain elements of that process break down and begin to erode the process. (meaning, the process is too rapid to have ever happened over time, culturally and of its own accord.) In the case the north brooklyn, the gentrification has almost been forced or pushed by condo builders in order to sell condos offering incentives that they never had any intention of producing. When this happens, word spreads fast and those reasons which originally inspired people to move there become reversed and disappear. Take a look at all of the condo buildings that have gone rental and you'll see degentrification at work.

home-o-phobic

Home-o-phobia is the condition and social category of home-free people who not only lack housing, they refuse to get a home and refuse to maintain, regular, safe, and adequate shelter.
The term "home-o-phobic" applies to a person who chooses to be home-free because they see no reason to get a job, and thus choose to sleep in the street.

Byron is a home-o-phobic and its gotten so bad that he won't even sleep at other people's houses.

	status rap
	The act of utilizing one's personal status update on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. to start or continue a rap session. When such an act is performed depending on the skill of the rapper) others are encouraged to continue to rap by either writing their own response rap or continue the lyrics of the rap which has been put into play. At times, status raps can become actual rap battles. Today, Loftninja continued his status rap from yesterday by adding four new verses and it was ill!

ARTvertising

Artvertising is a form of advertising and communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers with artistic backgrounds to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Whereas modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ARTvertising only developed in 1980s through the present utilizing art as primary form of advertising in attempts to appeal to a younger, more hip crowd.

Many new condo building developers are utilizing street art for selling their building's relevance to passers by, hence, ARTvertising may bring a younger crowd of buyers.

UNreal Estate

UNreal estate is a social term which describes the process through which a shady broker,landlord or property manager uses fictional or false information when listing anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location, for sale or rent on classified ads placed within the public realm. Said process could involve the offering of property which is not available (otherwise known as bait and switch), listing false characteristics of a property or just completely fabricating an entire listing.

Craigslist is so packed with UNreal estate garbage ads these day that I might have never found an apartment if it weren't for the Loftninja!

tryvertising

Tryvertising is a marketing parlance for a growing trend of experience-based consumption, or a kind of "test-driving" that can be applied to place as well as product.

When a certain area of Brooklyn was renamed "Greenwick," people began to consider moving there due to the clever tryvertising and artvertising by real estate agents.

	GKiller
	A GKiller is a tool or web search application which does something (anything) better than Google. Whether it be mapping, documents,imagery search, algorithmic search or syndication, a GKiller must not only mirror the simplicity and power of the Google search engine, it must go beyond the powers of Google and do what Google does better. GKiller is a game changer. I'm getting tired of reading about whether Wolfram Alpha is a GKiller. I've seen Stephen Wolfram's presentations a couple of times; he's quite careful to say that it isn't. Wolframization will never kill Googling.

optitryzation
	Optitryzation is the process of trying to improve the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion. the difference between optitryzation and optimization is the latter misses the mark entirely by virtue of doing it the wrong way. The owner of that website has obviously had a fun filled weekend of search engine optitryzation, because there are keywords stuffed everywhere.

Featured Work on Ning Creators

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:19:00 +0000

Just a brief note regarding Ning Network Customization and Ning Creators. My Land Surveyors United network has been getting loads of traffic this past week due some posts I made on the Network Creators site, which helps Ning Creators learn ways of customizing their networks. In the following screenshot, I just wanted to show you the Best of the Week Digest from NC network, which i find interesting because I've never seen them link up three posts by the same author before, all in one week. In any case I believe its time to start gathering all of this linkage and compiling all to one place.

Best of Ning Creators

The links of interest to me are below

Made by Awesome Creators

Justin Farrow: How to Turn Your Network into a Desktop Application and (!) Design Hack: Add a Text Box Which Spans All 3 Columns and (!!) How to Map Your Members on a Ning Network [Nice job, Justin!]

Thanks NCs...i hope you find these coveted secrets to be useful. Now if i can only wrap my head around how to deal with all of this extra traffic, from non-surveyors....hmmm

A New Design for My Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:04:00 +0000

I finally got around to redesigning this blog. Time has been scarce for me lately with all of the various projects which I am working on, so it feels good to have this moving in the right direction. If you'd like to see what I've been up to take a look at the following websites which I've been developing with my web design posse, Neighbor Design.

South Santee Aquaculture

Land Surveyors United

Electric Arms Virtual Tour

Home Free Organization

ELECTRICARMS Virtual Tour Mixtape-SayyidAirborn

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:37:00 +0000

I posted quite a bit more information about the Electricarms Virtual Tour by M.Sayyid over on my justiNYC Blog, but here are a few things that I saved to share here.
First of all, if you haven't already,you should visit ELECTRICARMS Virtual Tour and travel....

Over the past couple of months, I've been working steady with M. Sayyid of Antipop Consortium (aka Sayyid Airborn) on the ELECTRICARMS Virtual Mixtape Tour of
America. Conceptually, it is a mashup of Virtual Tour, New Music Model, Mapping and Social Media Experiment. In other words, Electricarms is the very first of its kind, music tour that anyone can take and follow using any device which connects to the internet. I've been playing the part of an entire record label, syndicating Sayyid's stream of geographically based freestyles and exclusives for America. We've completed PHASE ONE (basically the East Coast and just across the Mississippi) and for the past couple of weeks, been in the Lab perfecting PHASE TWO. I'll explain a little bit about the differences between the two in a moment, but first, here are a few of the tracks from phase one, free for you to download.Visit ELECTRICARMS.COM to take the Virtual Tour PHASE ONE

Sayyid Airborn and Electricarms

See Phase One in Action in these Locations

About Phase Two

PHASE TWO of Electricarms is about to step up the tour action even more and completely change the rap game, as all of the fans on the tour will now be given a fully interactive, social media and networking experience, which they can access from their computer, iphone, ipad and cell phone. Sayyid is about to drop an exclusive mixtape street single which will be the first track available on the tour for purchase. I heard it last night and let me just say that it completely blows anything else in the industry completely off the planet. Look for the official launch of PHASE TWO early next week.
Follow Sayyid on Twitter @sayyidairborn
Follow on Facebook on his fan page

Selecta Ras Dave Brings the Dub Vibe the Big Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:52:00 +0000

For the past few days, I've been roaming the streets of NYC with Selecta Ras Dave of Dub Island Soundsystem (from Charleston, SC) in search of locations. Here are a few of the more interesting shots and a video for you to enjoy. Check out Ras Dave's new social network for exclusive downloads and the latest in Dub Island Sound..

Photoshoot with M.Sayyid of Airborn Audio

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:50:00 +0000

A few nights back I traveled up to White Plains, NY to visit my favorite rapper and buddy M.Sayyid of Airborn Audio and Anti-Pop Consortium to hear some of the new tracks to be released on the new album and to take some shots for the album and some promos. Here are a few of the photos that we particularly liked:

Visit Sayyid's Myspace page and stay updated on the new music he has in the works...It will blow your mind in every sense...

The State of the Brooklyn Waterfront August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:24:00 +0000

The State of the Brooklyn Waterfront August 2009
Originally uploaded by jUSTINYC

I shot this yesterday while walking illegally along the Greenpoint waterfront, along the East River. Its amazing how quickly this area of Brooklyn has grown.

Housing Drops

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Housing Drops

It certainly does. No one on planet earth knows this better than a real estate agent working in Brooklyn, NY between 2003 and 2007. I took this pic in Bushwick in 2005 at the Troutman Street Loft Building conversion- which by the way, i could have never rented an apartment out of with a clear conscience.

Brooklyn Buildings That No Longer Exist

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:57:00 +0000

Brooklyn Buildings That No Longer Exist
I've started compiling a series of photographs showcasing Brooklyn buildings that no longer exist. Most of these photos were taken in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick areas of Brooklyn. Let me know what you think so far...

View Album

Imported Blogs from 2004 to Present

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Farrow) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:26:00 +0000

So today I figured it was about time to put Blogger's import/export feature to the test. So i went waaay back into my archives of past blogs (12 total since 2004 ) and imported the posts to this blog in order to provide a more comprehensive view of my work and adventures.

Many of you may remember my switch to the justiNYC blog in 2006 (from URbanfoto blog) which will explain the lack of posts for that year as well as 2007.

In any case, this blog will now be where i host blog posts related to my photography. Feel free to follow me for updates and any craziness that I come across. I appreciate your feedback.