Sosauce: The Sosauce Journal Journal

Spring Announcements

Wed, 05 May 2010 16:01:10 GMT

Things have been taking off for Sosauce, and for good reason!

This spring and summer we are recruiting Sosaucers to be active contributing writers, photographers, and reviewers on the Sosauce Travel Geek blog. With our new guest blogging platform, you will be able to gain exposure to a larger travel network, insert and embed your Sosauce content, receive premium link exchanges, get promoted online, PLUS earn a FREE PWR account on Sosauce! If you're interested in writing about your travels, sharing your travel photos, or writing up reviews on your favorite destinations, shoot us an email to get involved: editorial@sosauce.com

We have other opportunities available for travel networks, businesses, and professionals here including concierge help, custom travel portfolios, technology integration, advertising, and more!

Last but not least, we've created a special Sosauce badge for everyone to show off their Travel Geek pride online (see image below). So if you're on our blog roll, are a partner of Sosauce, or are a Sosauce user yourself, grab the code from us (email: editorial@sosauce.com) and insert the badge on your website. It's a fun new way to share your Sosauce links with others.

Questions, comments, concerns? Drop us a line in the comments. Be sure to follow Sosauce elsewhere online.

Become a Sosauce Affiliate Member!

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:17:56 GMT

We are excited to announce that Sosauce is launching new initiatives this month that will further our work in online travel media. This new series of opportunities including travel writing, sponsorship, technology partnerships, concierge service, advertising, and more!

As an affiliate member of the Sosauce community, you will be able to connect with over 28,000 unique Travel Geeks celebrating the saucy side of travel. The program will include (1) technology integration which allows you to use Sosauce’s powerful applications to further your online projects, (2) blog sponsorship for those interested in collaborating with us on the Sosauce blog, (3) featured travel content in our weekly newsletter, (4) a custom travel portfolio with the help of Sosauce’s concierge, and (5) advertising, of course!

Check your inboxes this week as we will be sending out exclusive invites to our friends in the travelsphere about how to get started.

We look forward to working with you all!

Become a Guest Travel Blogger on Sosauce!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:57:52 GMT

ATTN Sosaucers: Expand Your Travel Blogging Portfolio on Sosauce!

We at Sosauce are always on the hunt to showcase the best in travel recording. Whether you enjoy snapping photos, writing reviews, mapping out your itinerary, or putting pen to paper, we want to show off your travel experiences at the Sosauce blog.

Sosauce’s Travel Geek blog focuses on the interests of independent travelers who “geek out” about travel. For us, traveling is about the human connection and making animpact, whether local or abroad. We highlight the stories of people andobserve the world through their eyes. We round up both industry andcommunity interest articles, and encourage traveling with a purpose.

If you're interested in contributing articles to the Sosauce blog, send us an email at editorial@sosauce.com for consideration. We are currently looking for travel pieces on:

travel photography
human interest stories
personal travel experiences
destination reviews
travel tips

This is a great opportunity for Travel Geeks to share travel experiences, connect with travel media folk, and expand a writing portfolio. See what other Sosaucers have been contributing writers at www.sosauce.com/blog.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Note: You must be a Sosauce user to submit for editorial consideration. Sign up and post your travel content if you haven't already at www.sosauce.com

Recreate & Share Your Travels with Sosauce Trip

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:10:56 GMT

The Sosauce Trip application just received a face lift!

You will notice a better, cleaner overall design, with improvednavigation and a bigger emphasis on trip documentation. Everything’sbigger so now you can get the full effect of a completed trip. You canalso create an outlined travel itinerary, view a fun slide show of yourtravel photos, and manage your Trip options one step at time so you’renever confused.

With the Sosauce Tripapplication, we’ve also made it easier to connect and share yourtravels with other Sosaucers plus you can post your Trip to othersocial sites like Facebook.We want to make sure the Trip app is just as fun and easy to use whenrecreating and sharing your travel experiences and has been redesignedas a colorful and prominent feature on Sosauce. Here are some screenshots to the new Sosauce Trip tool:

Journal Entry view

Tips view

Manage, Comment, & Share view

If you need a refresher on how to use the Sosauce Trip app to document your travels, visit our User Guide.

Have fun!

Sosauce Blog Update

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:54:32 GMT

After taking in feedback from our readers,we have decided to give the Travel Geek blog a face lift.

You willnotice a better, cleaner overall design, with improved navigation andsearch options, plus new, engaging content posts. Some other changesimplemented include -

Design:

New travel background image
Tweaked header
Updated sidebar panel with new blog roll

Content:

Focus on “human connection” travel stories
Consistent blog posts
New traveler interview series & features

Usability:

Clearer “About Us” page”
Addition of “Contact Us” page
Author posts search
Category search list
Improved navigation

Be sure to check out our Sosauce Travel Geek blog at www.sosauce.com/blog. Don’t forget to drop us a line in the comments below with your feedback, too!

We are also now accepting editorial submissions. So if you want to contribute a story that fits with our posts, email us for consideration.

Keep on celebrating the saucy side of travel!

Postcard Contest Winners Announced!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:08:31 GMT

Congrats to Diane and Dave for winning our first ever Sosauce postcard contest!

Their winning postcards helped decorate our new digs! As contest winners, Dave and Diane will receive

A $50 gift certificate to any restaurant, anywhere
25 FREE photo prints
Sosauce swag (bottle openers, stickers, etc.)

Diane and Dave both have been featured Sosaucers for their travelexperiences so we are delighted to show off their postcards all overour walls. Thanks to both for their continued support and trying outtheir photography skills with the Sosauce Store postcards.

So what do Diane and Dave plan to do with their winning prizes?

Diane: “I am going to use my Sosauce credit to get tags for my luggage, in the hope that someone will ask me: What is the meaning of that chili pepper?As for the restaurant voucher, I will take out my husband, he deservessome pampering, as his wife spends many of her waking hours in front ofthe computer!”

Dave: “I’m excited to pick out a restaurant to visit during my nexttrip to NYC in 2010, and I’ll be snapping photos of the food with myBlackBerry so I can blog about it later.”

Read why Diane and Dave are the New Faces of Sosauce here, and be sure to browse through their photos on Sosauce.

Congrats again to Diane and Dave!

Til the next postcard contest. . .

Happy Holidays from Sosauce!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:56:58 GMT

Tis the season for greeting cards!

Add your own personal, artistic touch with greeting cards at the Sosauce Store!

Premiumgreeting cards are on sale at the Sosauce Store with your choice ofcustomized holiday templates and personal messages. No need to fightthe other last minute shoppers at the mall, order your cards online!

Be sure to also browse through staff favorites with the Sosauce Store gift guide for featured items such as folded cards, luggage tags, photo frames, canvas prints, and more.

Happy Holidays!

Featured Item of the Week: Rolled Canvas

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:11:37 GMT

Looking for an artsy gift to buy this Christmas for that creative friend or loved one? Check out the new rolled canvases at the Sosauce Store.

Rolled Canvas starting at $14.95

Rolled canvases are unique photo products inwhich you print an image on a high quality, heavy-duty canvas, madeready for gallery display. These rolled canvases are NOTstretched, so you can bet the quality of your photo will not becompromised!

Rolled canvas prints are perfect for photographyenthusiasts and artists alike. Our rolled canvases are also finishedwith UV and water resistant coating, with extra canvas on the edgesto accommodate many framing options.

To create a rolled canvas print, first select photo(s) to be used, then add to cart. From there, go to Posters & Canvas in the Sosauce Store,and follow the instructions for design customization and printing. Onceyour rolled canvas is ordered, the Sosauce Store ships it in a sturdytube, arriving safe and sound. Then it's time to wrap up and show if off!

For help shopping at the Sosauce Store, visit our User Guide.

This holiday season, get creative and do more with your photos. Turn them into beautiful pieces of art with the Sosauce Store!

Celebrate Egyptian History at the Sphinx Festival!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:17:33 GMT

This week in Cairo, Egyptians celebrate cultural arts with the Sphinx Festival. It is a celebration of all things Egyptian, including the pyramids, clothing, the Sphinx, tours, camel rides, and more.

The Sphinx Festival runs from December 1st through December 5th, providing live entertainment and seminars each evening. This year the festival is being held at Le Meridien Pyramids in Cairo. Festival attendees get to learn about Egyptian art, dance, music, culture and philosophy. The aim of the event is to explore deeper levels of the arts of Egypt and beyond. This is a wonderful global festival that honors ancient cultures.

The Sphinx festival not only signifies Egyptian history, but also is a fun, intimate event for both locals and tourists. Considering its historical and entertaining values, the Sphinx Festival inspires us to raise the question: Given the choice, what era would you live in?

For more information about the Sphinx Festival, visit the festival site at www.sphinxfestival.com.

Postcard Contest Submissions Closed!

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:28:17 GMT

The Sosauce “Decorate Our New Digs!” postcard contest is now over.

Did you mail us your postcards of people, architecture,and landscapes? Postcards must have been postmarked by Thanksgiving, so we hope you made the deadline!

For those who entered, expect FREE Sosauce swag sent to you by us as a Thank You for your participation.

Lucky winners of the Sosauce postcard contest will get:
- $50 restaurant gift certificate
- $20 Sosauce Store gift certificate
- Editorial feature as the New Face of Sosauce
- Featured Photographer of the Day
. . . and more!

For more info on the "Decorate Our New Digs!" postcard contest, visit the official contest page on Sosauce.

Featured Item of the Week: Folded Card

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:41:06 GMT

Tis the season for greeting cards!

The holidays have arrived and it is time to gear up for the gift-giving, card-making season. The Sosauce Store includes premium merchandise itemsthat are perfect DIY presents to share with loved ones. This week's featured item is the folded card. We're offering packs of folded cards for under $20. So why not get started on card making early?

Our folded cards come in the 5×7” size with various templates, crops,and message editing. They help make your shopping eco-friendly too, asour folded cards are also available in the environmentally safe productsection. Plus, a pack of folded cards sums up to less than $1.50 each;not bad!

1 Card for $3.95
10 Cards for $15.45
25 Cards for $32.95

At $3.95 per card, folded cards at the Sosauce Store make it easy tocustomize your favorite photos and are printed on kick-ass qualitypaper – great for invites, thanks, and hellos. Be sure to check out thenew Christmas templates, too!

Do more with your photos: turn them into greeting cards this season!

REMINDER: Postcard Contest Deadline is Thanksgiving!

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:14:11 GMT

The Sosauce “Decorate Our New Digs!” postcard contest is coming to a close!

If you have not mailed us your postcards depicting people,architecture, and landscapes, do not wait! Postcards must be mailed tothe Sosauce office and postmarked by Thanksgiving, so hurry hurry hurry!

Watch our video for rules, guidelines, and instructions on how to enter and win:

Remember: you win FREE swag just for entering our postcard contest so there is no excuse NOT to participate!

Lucky winners of the Sosauce postcard contest will get:

- $50 restaurant gift certificate

- $20 Sosauce Store gift certificate

- Editorial feature as the New Face of Sosauce

- Featured Photographer of the Day

. . . and more!

So what are you waiting for? Go mail us those saucy postcards!

Featured Item of the Week: Playing Cards

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:52:41 GMT

Experiencing downtime on a trip? Distract your friends with the stunning places you've been while taking their money.

Playing cards make for great family fun while on the road, especially during the holidays. Now travel games are even better when you create your own high-quality laminated deck, complete with a sturdy clear plastic case. Plus, our playing cards result in excellent color reproduction.

With our playing cards, you will show off your card playing skills, do more with your photos, and part-take in family fun.

Visit the Sosauce Store to order your game card set for $19.95

Stay Saucy with the Sosauce Chili

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:44:28 GMT

At Sosauce we pride ourselves in trying to make your travel recording experience easier and more powerful. That is why we created the Sosauce Chili.Whether you are new to Sosauce, or have been with us since thebeginning, the Sosauce Chili serves to provide you all guidance onusing Sosauce.com as well as informing you of the latest and greatesthappenings at the Travel Geek community.

The Sosauce Chili is your ultimate travel geek companion.

Befriend the Sosauce Chili to discover new content via Tumblr, scour the ends of the earth to share unique stories on Twitter, read up on travel news, find out what is going on at the Sosauce HQs, and learn about our newest features and tips in the User Guide. The Sosauce Chili is here to help you get all your questions answered.

For new users, we recommend reading the User Guideto become acquainted with the many online tools Sosauce offers. Did youknow you can create your own Sosauce homepage? Read how to set up apublic domain on Sosauce.com here so you can show off your travel content with others. Not sure how to order photo products from our Store? No problem! Here is a step-by-step instruction piece on buying print items from the Sosauce Store. Have you become a PWR user yet? Learn how to get a Sosauce super charge with the User Guide! Those are just a few introductory chapters the Sosauce Chili User Guide relays.

For more experienced Sosaucers, we recommend you check out the Sosauce Journal. This was our original blog page that now combines travel news, company and community updates, Sosauce Storeinformation, and more – all in one place. At the Sosauce Journal, wemake sure to keep you in the loop about all the saucy happenings of usTravel Geeks. Make sure to catch up on what Featured Store Item is on sale this week, and what current photography contests can make you win some seriously fun prizes. With the Sosauce Journal, you won’t miss out on all the cool projects we have going on!

Enough of reading though; the SosauceChili is about celebrating the saucy side of travel too. What betterway to do that then with photos? Our photo albums highlight past events and parties (like our monthly Muse Games Nights), new Sosauce Store products, and our Hot Sauce content video series. Look for familiar faces if you have attended any of our parties!

So if you are interested in staying saucy with us online, make sure to add the Sosauce Chili as your friend on Sosauce.com.

As always, Team Sosauce is here to listen to your feedback. If the Sosauce Chili lets you down, let us know!

Featured Item of the Week: Eco Notepads

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:59:13 GMT

Eco Notepads - only $7.95 at the Sosauce Store!

Our photo friendly eco notepads are madefrom high-quality, heavy-weight, recycled content that is ForestStewardship Council (FSC) certified. You can choose from 2 sizes –4×4” & 5×5,” plus the clean & minimalist design templates makethese pads irresistible to stationary lovers.

Insert any of your photosfrom Sosauce to create customizable notepads with various templates,crops, & message editing. You’ll find these eco notepads are easyto customize, plus they arrive on kick-ass quality paper, and are greatfor jotting down notes and taking care of business.

Make shopping for premium photo products not only fun, but eco-friendly.

To browse our selection of eco notepads, visit the Sosauce Store.

Happy shopping!

Featured Item of the Week: Stainless Steel Mugs

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:10:09 GMT

This week the Sosauce Store presents Travel Geeks with a great backpacking accessory – stainless steel travel mugs.

Stainless steel mugs are perfect forhardcore, off the beaten path travelers. Our thermos-like mugs aredurable and dishwasher safe plus you do not need to worry aboutcleaning up broken pieces of porcelain. At $14.95 each, your purchaseaccounts for premium quality drinkware.

Not planning on traveling rough terrainanytime soon? How about creating a nice office gift for a friend,family member, or co-worker? The Sosauce Store provides easy photocustomization to give your stainless steel mug a personal touch. Asalways, you can choose any photo you want to display on the mug, andshow it off.

Visit the Sosauce Store to order your stainless steel travel mug today!

"Decorate Our New Digs!" Postcard Contest

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:31:11 GMT

Ifyou didn't know already, Sosauce is having its first postcard contest,"Decorate Our New Digs!"

We recently worked with our friendMelanie of the Wayward Winos to create a fun video to show you how toenter our postcard contest, plus win some really fun prizes. Check out the video below:

Sosauce is looking for postcards showcasing unique stories of people, landscapes,and architecture. To find out more info about the "Decorate Our NewDigs!" postcard contest, visit the official Sosauce page: http://www.sosauce.com/contests

Deadline to enter is Thanksgiving, so hurry and mail us your postcards!

Spread the word, and submit to win. We look forward to plastering your postcards everywhere.

Read the contest rules and policies here. Good luck!

Featured Item of the Week: Address Labels

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:48:40 GMT

Make mailing fun again by creating your own address labels!

The Sosauce Store now has 28-pack of customizable address labels for only $3.95.

To order your own mailing address labels, choose or upload a photo of your choice from Sosauce.Then click on “Add to Cart” on the right hand side. Address labels arelisted under “More Cool Products” at our “Merchandise” section. Pick“Address Label 28 Pack” to begin your customization process.

Be sure to crop your photo and write in your address to make yourlabels. You can pick any picture you want, and choose from severalfonts and styles for your text portion. If you need help using ourStore, read further instructions here.

Our mailing address labels make it easier to label your belongingson a trip, have a neater way to address your mail, or just have funwith your photos.

Isn’t it fun to use REAL mail again?

Featured Item of the Week: Framed Prints

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:36:55 GMT

Photo frames are now only $8.95 at the Sosauce Store!

Walnut Framed Flower Print

With framed prints, your images will arrive looking sleek and ready to hang on you walls.

Our photo frames are not onlyhigh-quality, but also eco-friendly. Print and frame your photos, plusdo some good for the environment! You can choose from either BlackSatin or Walnut frames to make your photos leap off the wall. Whether you want to remember your recent travels, or a special occasion, our frames make it easier to show off your photos.

What photos would you like to frame?

Featured Item of the Week: Luggage Tags

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:27:13 GMT

Embarking on a trip this season? Liven up your travel plans with a personalized luggage tag from the Sosauce Store for you and your travel mates!

Our luggage tags are only $7.45 each and come equipped with sturdy, rubber straps and unbreakable white plastic tags to make your traveling simpler and worry-free.

Turn any of your travel photos into a fun, customized luggage tag by using the Sosauce Store. Now any confusion about whose luggage the tag belongs to is eliminated!

Have fun traveling!

Saucy Recap: Week of October 16th

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:32:16 GMT

Happy Friday everyone!

Just in case you've missed out on our recent news, here is a saucy recap of what is going on at Sosauce:

Print Your Travel Photos

Do more with your travel photos! Many of us carry a camera everywhere we go, snapping away at anything and everything we see during our wanderlust. After capturing so many photos of our travels, the next logical step for us is to simply upload them online to share with our friends and family. But instead of just publishing your travel photos online, why not go one step further? Print out your favorite travel photos. At the Sosauce Store, we're offering photo prints for 17cents! Easy, cheap, and quality photo prints are available for travel geeks everywhere. Here are your sizing, finish, and pricing options thanks to the Sosauce Store:

Now you can print your photos and show them off to everyone in person!

Decorate Our New Digs!

Speaking of doing more with your photos, Sosauce is in search of the most unique postcards that celebrate the saucy side of travel. Our new office in Soho is way too boring, with white walls surrounding us everywhere. Why not liven things up with some great postcards from YOU? Submit your postcards for the following categories and win some FREE prizes:

1. People (natives, workers, portraits)

2. Architecture (museums, buildings, homes)

3. Landscapes (scenery, the outdoors, nature)

Read the rules and instructions to enter the Sosauce postcard contest here. You have until Friday, November 20th to participate.

New Face of Sosauce: YOU

Sosauce is all about celebrating the Travel Geek inside of us. We love to travel - obviously - but we also love to explore other cultures, and are passionate about the world around us. We want to highlight special Travel Geeks that represent these qualities to the fullest. So if you have some saucy photos, trips, and stories to share let us know and we'll show you off on the Sosauce blog. Isn't it time we feature you?

Now that you're up to date with the latest happenings at Sosauce, go enjoy the weekend!

Decorate Our New Digs! Sosauce Postcard Contest

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:05:04 GMT

Sosauce is looking for the most unique, engaging, and breathtaking postcards that celebrate the saucy side of travel. If you've got a favorite travel photo depicting people, architecture, or landscapes, turn it into a postcard and help us decorate our boring white walls! Hop on over to the Sosauce Blog for more information on how to enter.

But, as with any contest, there are some rules you must follow. Be sure to read the restrictions below before you enter Sosauce's Decorate Our New Digs! Postcard contest:

Rules & Restrictions:

1. All Sosauceusers will be allowed to submit one, and only one, photo for each postcardcategory to the contest. Violating this rule results in disqualification of thecontestant.

2. No user isallowed to win more than one category.

3. No photospromoting hate or violence, evil deeds, shock photos or porn. Ironic orartistic renditions of these subjects will be treated on a case-by-case basis.Sosauce reserves the right to remove any photo, at their discretion, that violatesthis condition.

4. No employee ofSosauce nor their immediate family may enter this contest. No judge nor theirimmediate family may enter the contest as well.

5. All photossubmitted must be the original work of the submitter.

6. Only postcardsprinted from the Sosauce store will be considered valid entrants.

All postcards must be submitted (and postmarked) by Friday, November 20th, 2009 for consideration.

Best of luck!

Featured Item of the Week: Prints

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:55:48 GMT

Have you browsed the Sosauce Storelately? If not, this might be a great time to check out what we’ve gotin stock. Last week we introduced you to our handy-dandy postcards - a fun option to recreating your travel memories. This week we’d like to highlight another way of doing more with your travel photos: photo prints.

As with all of our photo products, customizing your creations iseasy and inexpensive, arriving in high-quality prints. Here’s somesaucy info about Photo Prints courtesy of the new Sosauce Store:

Choose from the Lustre finish if you want colors to pop, or a smoothMatte finish to emphasize texture, and Glossy to add dynamic elementsto your travel photos. Whichever finish you choose, your photos arrivewith a touch of professional quality.

With additional sizes available,more than your standard options, it is now even cheaper and easier tokeep some travel memories. Pick your favorite travel photos to printand share with friends & family, or save as a keepsake.

So if you’re thinking about printing out some photos from a recent trip, give the Sosauce Store a try. We know you’ll love it!

Featured Item of the Week: Postcard

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:47:13 GMT

The new Sosauce Store has arrived if you haven't noticed, and we couldn't be more excited to share with you some saucy travel merchandise and photo products. The Sosauce Store offers everything from photo prints and frames, to stainless-steel coffee mugs and eco-friendly notecards. Each week we'll present to you an item from the Sosauce Store that we think you Travel Geeks will love.

Up first, customizable postcards.

Starting at $1.95 each, these postcards are produced in heavy cardstock, arriving right to your door in a sleek black box. Choose photosright from your Sosauce photo albums to create a postcard for yourself,or to send to loved ones back home. Either way, get ready to show offyour travel memories!

To purchase your own postcards, or see what else the Sosauce Store has, go here. Be sure to read our User Guide first so you know how to use the Sosauce Store.

Have fun shopping!

The Spankin New Guide to Buying Prints on Sosauce

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:41:05 GMT

Ever since we started working with EZ Prints, we've been looking forward to the moment when we have a great collection of pro quality products in our Store. And the moment has definitely arrived! (for what's in our Store, click here)

EZ Prints is the leader in fulfilling pro print orders online. They offer professional, tremendous quality paper and products at low prices, and they handle each customer order with great care. As a result, we are able to pass the value to you, so you can get great prices and premium prints.

Ok, enough promoting. I'll let the Store and products speak for themselves, and I'll just take you through how the buying process works.

If you want to go to the Store page to compare prices and check out all the products that we offer, the Store page is in the Header, right around the Search box at the top right. This is what it looks like:

If there is an item you want, you can go to your photos from the Store page directly, or you can go to your album where your photos are.

When you are at your album's photo thumbnail page, look for the green Print button on the right. Select the photos you want to print, or use for another item, by clicking them (see the blue box around the photo below?), and then select Print.

You can do the same when you are in the big photo page.

Check out the Manage Photo link below the big photo on the right. Clicking on that link opens this:

See the Add to Shopping Cart link? You can click on that to add the photo to cart as well.

After you click on Print or Add to Shopping Cart, you can keep shopping or go to your cart. It's totally up to you!

Now, let's take a look at your Cart!

If you are ordering just 4x6, 8x10 prints, or postcards, and center crop is good enough, all you need to do is to hit Checkout. If you want to adjust crop, hit the Customize link (the link would only show up when you've specified a quanity.

The Customize window looks like this:

The customizing is pretty straight forward. You can drag the photo around to adjust your crop. You can click on your photo to bring up some other adjustment options, like Zoom and tint.

On the left, you can switch your aligment from vertical to horizontal, and vice versa. After you're done, click on Save & Add to Cart, and your adjustments are ready to go! After you're taken back to cart, a Preview link would appear next to your selection, and you can see your crop there.

There are obviously lots more great stuff available. Say you want to shop for a Stainless Steel Travel Mug, click on the More Cool Products link for your photo in the Cart. And you'll see:

Now click on Merchandise, and you'll see:

You can use the blue scroll buttons on the sides to browse around, but if you have your heart set on the kickass travel mug, you can punch in a quantity (an extra one for your travel buddy maybe?) and hit Add to Cart. You can also Customize here. After you customize, you'll also be taken back to your cart with your item automatically added. Note that some stuff require customization, but if you forget, there wll be a message that pops up to remind you, so no worries.

Alright, now let's get ready to check out. Look for and click on the Green Checkout button at the top or bottom of your screen, and you'll see:

Here, all you have to do is to fill out your address info and hit Use This Address. If you already have an address saved, you can just select it and move on.

Then, pick a shipping option, and it would spit out a estimated arrival date. You can specify a billing address if it is different from your shipping address.

After you've verified your totals, go ahead and click on Continue to Paypal.

Paypal is neat because it allow you to pay with credit cards or with your Paypal account. It is secure and safe obviously. To use your Paypal account, just login. To Pay with Credit Card, just fill out your credit card info, your email, and click on Review Order and Continue. Confirm your payment and view your statements, and that's about it!

Have fun shopping!

If you have any questions, write us at:

concierge@sosauce.com

Sosauce has 250K+ photos!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:43:53 GMT

It's been a milestone few weeks as we recently surpassed 250,000 photoson Sosauce. Woo hoo! Next stop- 1 million. So keep them coming. Aspecial thanks to all of you who are helping make the world a smallerplace by sharing your photos on Sosauce.

To celebrate we've picked some of our favorites. Here's to the 250,000. Enjoy!

Be sure to answer our poll about how you like showing off your photos!

Sosauce Presents: New Media & Youth Action Conference

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:41:08 GMT

What is new media and how can young people engage it to create effective social change?

Forthose of you who passionate about doing good in this world, whether local or abroad - we invite you toparticipate in our New Media & Youth Action Conference on September 1st in New York City.

Sosauceis presenting a free all-day community youth forum alongside numerouslocal organizations on progressive issues such as health, environment,global & local development and cultural diplomacy. We’re providingan open platform for young people to learn about how to use new mediasites and social entrepreneurship to create effective change.

Joinus as we hear how various non-profits are using today’s media platformsto empower powerful changes among their communities.

The event will be held on Tuesday, September 1^st at the Interchurch Center in New York City. Our co-founder, Sean Pfitzenmaierwill be speaking along with other organizations in the non-profitcommunity on creating social change through social media. The eventruns from 10am – 3pm and will offer Q/A breakout-learning sessions forthose interested in getting involved.

Sponsors include: Sosauce,Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Young People For,Sparkseed, Fired Up Media, Americans for Informed Democracy,Responsible Endowments Coalition, and several others.

To reserve your spot at this important event, please sign up here (space is limited). You can learn more about the New Media & Youth Action Conference at the following sites:

If you have any questions, please contact Alisha or Ruhi.

Check out our poll to weigh in on what issues you care most about. We hope to see you getting social and getting active!

Sosauce & Matador Want To Hang Out with YOU!

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:51:48 GMT

ATTN: New York Sosaucers

Hope you’re enjoying your summer so far, it’sabout to get even better!

Sosauceis co-hosting a summer backyard party with our friends at Matador on Thursday, August 6th at TheGreene Garden and we’d love for you to join. We’ll be hanging out allevening so feel free to kick back and meet new friends over beers, food, and alive DJ set by our friend BrianBlackout. You might even win some raffle prizes! Party starts at 5pm andit’s BYOB.

Sosauce / Matador Summer Party

Thursday, August 6^th @ 5pm

The Greene Garden

2 S. Portland Ave. Ft. Greene, Brooklyn

RSVP: Monday, August 3^rd

*rain date: Thursday, August 13^th

B Q R to DeKalb Ave / 2 3 4 5 to Nevins St / Cto Lafayette Ave / G to Fulton St.

Hope to see you there!

Travel Geeks Arrive on LinkedIn

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:44:22 GMT

We created a new group on the popular professional networking site, LinkedIn called "Travel Geeks" this week! If you're a fan of Sosauce and love sharing your travel experiences then you should check out Travel Geeks for more news, tips, stories, and discussions.

LinkedInis a networking site for both aspiring and established professionals ofall industries. It's a great resource for job hunting, meeting new peoplein your field, forming partnerships, and discussing topics you careabout. As an indie travel start-up, we noticed that there was a lack ofgroups that spoke to us "travel geeks" on the site. The Travel Geeksgroup was thus born to faciliate more meaningful communication amongsuch niche audiences.

The TravelGeeks group serves to discuss, promote, & enrich cultural exchangeand independent travel. Anyone on can join - just sign up at LinkedIn.com if you aren't a user already and search for our group, Travel Geeks. Fromthere, you'll find it easy to participate in discussions, shareinteresting travel news, link others to your site, post questions, andget involved in other activities.

Our first travel discussions include how travel geeks use Twitterand what global festivals we're most looking forward to this summer.The Travel Geeks group is open to travelers of all locales and statuses- whether you're a newbie like me,or an experienced globe trotter. And don't be afraid to add in yourinput, we love that! Or you can just sit back and read up on whateveryone else is saying if you'd like to remain low key. Whateverbrings you to the group, we're happy to have you join.

Hope to see you fellow Sosaucers on there!

Weekly Blog Feature: Life Cruiser

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:42:10 GMT

LifeCruiser.com is dedicated to more than just Swedish culture and travel, it's about living life to its fullest - no matter what age you are.

With over 20 countries visited, they blog about their experiences as a traveling couple on a journey around the world (or as far as their wallets take them). LifeCruiser.com has won blog of The Day 21 and was a two-time finalist for the 2006 and 2007 Weblog Awards. They're a passionate couple enthusiastic about experiencing the world around them, just like us Sosaucers!

The core of Life Cruiser is all things Sweden. From cultural events and celebrations, to reviews and photo galleries, Life Cruiser is a great spot to learn about this historical country. If you're interested in learning more about Sweden, then you should head over to their blog and read up on Swedens National Day at Skansen, an annual celebration of Swedish history and heritage. Be sure to check out their photo slide show, and coverage of another popular Swedish event: Midsummer Stockholm. You won't be disappointed!

It's great to come across people that are as excited about life and travel as we travel geeks are. Traveling only enhances one's life and LifeCruiser.com is a prime example for this, so kudos to you captains!

New Sosauce Blog!

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:28:46 GMT

We've created a new blog!

You can now follow us at www.sosauce.com/blog to learn what's going on here at Sosauce with staff posts, our favorite travel stories from some of our own Sosaucers, plus we'll be running some contests this summer for all of you to participate in. We'll be featuring other saucy content, so make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed and leave us some comments, we'd love to hear from you!

And if you haven't noticed, there's a new Subject Matters and Question of the Week posted for you to submit: Culture Clash - What culture clashes have taken you by surprise? You can check out which entries made our list from the previous round here.

Later guys!

Summer of Sauce: How Sosauce is Spending its Summer

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:16:51 GMT

A couple of posts backI mentioned that we’d make an effort in informing you all about “recenthappenings” here at Sosauce. Well, this blog is an attempt to do justthat. We want to connect more with you, our devoted Sosaucers, andshare insights on what we’ve got going on plus showcase a bit of ourpersonality aside from just being travel obsessed.

If you’ve been following us on our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube)then you might recall me announcing upcoming projects for this summer.We’ve got big ideas we’re all really excited to produce this summer soI thought I’d fill you in.

Remember when we were searching for travel interns? Well we’ve found them! Everyone meet Katie and Ruhi, our summer “Will Work for Travel”interns who Sosauce will sponsor to document socio-environmental causesabroad. Ruhi is an active member in several non-profits and communityorganizations involved with cultural outreach as well as sustainabilityand environmental issues. Katie has studied abroad in Ireland and spenttime with national leadership groups doing environmental work inAlaska. They’re both recent college grads eager to contribute theirtravel experiences to Sosauce and we’re pumped to have them join ourteam and get involved with international communities.

This summer we’re also putting a street team together so we’verecruited some extra help to spread the word on Sosauce throughout theBig Apple. On board for our street team are two Columbia Universitysophomores, Daniel and Claudia. They’ve got all the energy in the world to bring Sosauce to people’s attention, plus they’re super sweet! Welcome guys!

Next up - Sosauce’s annual summer party here in New York City. Lastyear we had two fantastic “Sosauce Socials” at one of the most belovedLower East Side venues, Piano’s. This year we’re changing things up andpartnering up with fellow travel geeks, Matador Network.The Matador team are big in the San Francisco area, plus they’ve got aton of great travel content so we’re joining forces to bring ourcommunities a NYC rooftop travel party this July. Details to berevealed soon, so start marking your calendars if you’re in the NYCarea - you won’t want to miss this!

Also in the works are more contests. We want to reward you all withgreat prizes for all your wonderful content, so if you have ideas youwant to share with us on how to show you more love, let us know! We’realways interested in hearing your feedback so feel free to drop us aline.

To be in the know about what else Sosauce is up to, follow us on:

Twitter

Facebook

Wacky Holidays Continue

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:20:26 GMT

If you've been following our blog recently, you'll learn that Sosauce is celebrating various unique world events. We're continuing our Wacky Holiday theme throughout the summer and invite all of you to join us as well. As you previously read, we've honored not only Memorial Day of course, but also Amnesty International Day, National Bike to Work Day, International Museum Day, and others.

There's some more fun world events coming up this summer that we'd like to share with you all. These are quirky holidays for you to participate in with the rest of us here at Sosauce, and people everywhere. So let's take a look at what's next:

Today is June 1st which means it is National Candy Month. Got a favorite candy you haven't enjoyed in a while? Well live it up! This is your time to endulge yourself in some sweet treat goodness.

And if candy wasn't enough, Friday June 5th is National Donut Day. That's right - it's time to share recipes, submit pics, videos, blog posts, and other tidbits on all things donuts. You can thank the foodies at Serious Eats.com for starting this tradition. So go out and treat yourself to some yummy food!

For those of us who are joining in the effort to go green, look into World Environment Day, also on June 5th. This Friday take the time to focus attention on important environmental issues such as global warming, going green, and participating in eco-friendly activities. Do your part to help save the planet and feel good about it too.

Another great American Pride holiday this month is Flag Day. June 14th is a day for all Americans to celebrate and show respect for our flag, its designers and makers. Here's another excuse to get a BBQ going out in your backyard with friends and pay tribute to our founders.

And lastly, for all you photography enthusiasts, June 29th is Camera Day. What better way to share the world around you than to document it with photos? Show us what cameras you use and what pictures capture your life.

So there you have it. These are the wacky holidays for June. To show off your content as part of our wacky holiday celebration, upload your photos to Sosauce.com, make them public, then tag them as "WackyHolidays09." We'll take our favorites and show them off during our recap in a few weeks.

Have fun!

Amnesty International Day

Fri, 29 May 2009 20:31:49 GMT

Yesterday was Amnesty International Day, a day to pause and reflect on what we each are doing to improve human rights across the globe.

Like most people, we at Sosauce believe in having fun (and lots of it!) but we also want to do our part in creating a more equitable world for all. It's hard to say what this looks like but we get so much encouragement from the stories people post here on Sosauce. It's been amazing to sit back and watch people from all over the world interact, quite the global community.

It's unfortunate that issues of human rights still plague our world, and though there is a lot of work to be done, people are rising up and making a difference in their communities, for which we're thankful.

I'll close with a video I posted in one of my own journals that captures the spirit of the day. Just ignore, the MTV logo at the end.

Celebrating Africa Day

Tue, 26 May 2009 20:48:33 GMT

Yesterday turned out to be more than just Memorial Day. Yesterday was also Africa Day, celebrating African unity and commerating the founding of Organisation of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union. While most people took time off to enjoy the long weekend and the Memorial Day festivities, we here at Sosauce want to dedicate this space and time to honor Africa Day, wishing peace, progress, and prosperity for the beautiful continent.

Instead of spending more time writing, I'll pull some of images that I came across on Sosauce and show them off here. Hope these images will bring more awareness and appreciation.

Cindy Pfitzenmaier: Ethiopia at a Glance

Jared Hodges: Bissa girl

Dana Hsiao: Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Kim Sokolnicki: Uganda

Sosauce celebrates wacky holidays

Thu, 21 May 2009 20:17:40 GMT

May has been full of craziness here at Sosauce. But one of the more fun and interesting projects we’ve been working on is celebrating wacky holidays. Some of these include National Bike to Work Day, Love a Tree Day, and International Museum Day. We’ve gathered some of our favorite user-generated content related to these holidays to share with you guys:

Take a peek at our very own Sean biking his way to the Sosauce office on National Bike to Work Day. He videotaped his challenge and shares great scenic shots along the way. Great job, Sean!

Back in 2007, our former intern Justine Yeung participated in the Bike & Build Program which started in Providence, RI stretching across the country to California! The program recruits tons of volunteers each year to bike across the country, helping build houses for those in need along the way. Her trip is filled with detailed itineraries, amazing photos, humerous journal entries, and an impressive journey overall. You can see her trip right here: http://www.sosauce.com/trip/618. Another example how biking can help others, really cool!

For Love a Tree Day, we searched for great shots of tree appreciation. Alexander Buisse captures an amazing shot of a lone tree during his time in Peru, while travel intern Maya Slomovich shows some love to a tree in Valencia. Although this next pick isn't a photo, the poem written by Stephen Capelli digs deep into environmental issues as a whole, not just trees.

Next up was International Museum Day. Part of being a travel geek is learning about the history and culture of other parts of the world. This was a great holiday to embrace other traditions and their people so we found some notable pieces: Jonathan Jirak shares his experience at the National Museum of the American Indian, Graeme Taylor captures a nice shot of the Geologisk Museum in Copenhagen, Larissa Olenicoff reviews St. Petersburg's Hermitage State Museum, and Stacey Shapiro snaps a controversial image from outside a Chinese museum.

Hope you enjoyed those as much as we did. Memorial Day is this coming Monday, May 25th. We want to see how you guys celebrate this national holiday! Submit your best Memorial Day photos - make sure the photo is public then tag it as “MemorialDay2009”. We'll feature our favorites soon after, have fun!

NYC travel blogs are all the rage

Thu, 21 May 2009 18:28:08 GMT

Sosauce isn't the only New York based travel site gaining a loyal following, so is fellow New York traveler, Andrew Hickey.

Andrew aka "The Brooklyn Nomad" is obsessed with travel. He is constantly on the look out for a great deal to…well anywhere. Andrew has visited numerous destinations around this planet and never get sick of travel. He's an avid writer and has appeared in the travel sections of such notable outlets like USA Today, New York Times, MSNBC, AOL, CheapOair, AirfareWatchdog.com, Travel Muse.com, and Yahoo!

His latest project is running The Brooklyn Nomad travel blog. Here he shares travel news, deals and tips for other travel junkies like himself. You can search airfare discounts, currency information, what country to visit next, or just enjoy his travel rants.

Check it out sometime, The Brooklyn Nomad.com!

Saucin' it up with Rooster Sauce

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:37:57 GMT

It looks like there’s another sauce right on our heels… Rooster Sauce! Mmmmm… Or as the New York Times says, a chili sauce to crow about.

Hot Sauce: Episode 7!

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:40:46 GMT

Nothing like spring in New York City to stir up all those feelings of wanderlust. In this episode we take you outside to show you what's making the rounds on Sosauce... almost had a cameo appearance by one of New York's finest.

Highlights include:

Amazing Ireland photos by Kara. There is a pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow!
Review of the annual UK bagpiping competition by Julia.
A rattlesnake infested tri p through the California desert by Anna.

For previous Hot Sauce episodes click here.

Sequel to Kodak Gallery Post

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:03:19 GMT

Since Kodak Gallery doesn't care too much about your photos, we do! And we want to see your travel photos on Sosauce.

If you migrate your photos from Kodak Gallery to Sosauce, drop us a line through the Feedback link at the bottom Footer, and we'll give you 20 free 4x6 prints in any finish - gloss, matte, or Lustre.

We're not like the big discount sites who can offer a ton of free prints or steep discounts, but we are sure that you'll be happy with the quality of your prints.

Kodak Gallery Gone Really Lame

Mon, 11 May 2009 18:34:42 GMT

I, like others who had put photos on Kodak Gallery at some point over the years, got an email from Kodak Gallery saying that they have a new storage policy to "more effectively serve our Gallery members." How does it more effectively serve? For starters, people need to start paying for storage. Ok, Kodak feels the need to find more ways to make money from their users. Totally understandable. But what follows is over the top.

In the email, Kodak Gallery went on to say: "If you do not meet the applicable minimum purchase requirement, your photos may be deleted." Wow, this is completely harsh! No helping hand to existing customers except to force them to pay or delete their photos!? Talk about preserving memories as one of its messages. This is more like destroying people's memories unless they pay for it. This is more like memory kidnapping. I'm really surprised too that I haven't found this written up much in blogs.

To keep photos on Kodak Gallery now, people need to pay $5/year if they have equal to or less than 2GB. And if they have more than 2GB, they have to pay $20/year.

To all current Kodak Gallery users who use it for anything related to travel, join the early adopters and travel geeks on Sosauce. We are friendly, we are growing, and we have high rez display, group albums, quality print products, and a neat photo editor. More importantly, we'll definitely take care of your photos and not make threats about them.

Soon, we will be rolling out premium accounts for our members as well. When we do, we will take extra care of you and your photos, not less. And instead of threatening deletion as a benefit, we will instead offer discounts on prints, new exclusive features, and more ways to have fun in the community.

Why settle for a place that doesn't deserve your valuable photos and memories? It's time to give Sosauce a try. We dare you to not settle for the conventional. It's really time to just upload all your photos before you go to bed or while you're taking a coffee break. Before it's too late.

Hot Sauce: Episode 6!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:50:47 GMT

Our most recent Hot Sauce episode. Check it out!

Key elements include:

Crazy photos of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna from Mabel Shiue
Beautiful Hawaiian scenery from Brynn Allen
An interesting trip to Spain by Lilflo
Our "Danger" subject matters and Question of the Week favorites including Elizabeth Switaj's account of being attacked on a Cambodian beach.
The Saucy Phrasebook as our Feature Feature

For previous Hot Sauce episodes click here.

Danger: See the Subject Matters favorites

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:26:51 GMT

Here are a few of our favorites for:

Danger

To post on the current theme, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, or to see past themes click here.

Without further ado:

Greg Keysar

Joshua Peagler

Howard Tsao

Sean Pfitzenmaier

You can post on the current theme, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, by clicking here.

Showing some love to our own Sosaucers

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:11:53 GMT

It's about time we do things a bit differently here at the Sosauce Journal. We've been very outgoing about promoting others in the travel world, but have not shown enough love to our very own Soauce users and how awesome our community is. Sosaucers are constantly creating unique, interesting content and it's time we highlight you!

So from now on, the team here at Sosauce will be trying it's hardest to really fill you in on "recent happenings" plus share some of our favorite picks regarding user content. In this post, I will be sharing some of my personal favorite photos and trips from various Sosauce users this week I've come across that may peak your interests.

If you're ever bored here on Sosauce.com and are looking to connect with new users, or find really "sausome" (yes I just said that) content, I highly encourage you to browse our "Spotlight" section on your home. This section constantly rotates users with great journals, pictures, trips, and reviews for you to check out. I've really enjoyed going through here and seeing what great new content I haven't yet seen. Plus I end up super jealous that I'm not a talented photographer as the rest of you seem to be, and wish I could travel to the places you've been to as well!

So here are my picks this week:

Today I came across some amazing photos of the Middle East and North Africa on Michael Garbutt's album. The colors are visually stunning in each photo, and they really showcase how beautiful this part of the world is.

Ireland is an amazing country from what I hear, and now apparently it's also super romantic! I was really drawn to the inspiration behind Jean Higgin's recent trip and actually fell in love a little bit myself. If you are looking to see what Ireland can offer, definitely check out her page.

Hachi Liao may be my new photographer here on Sosauce. Her photo albums are incredible. Hachi has pictures of everything from street graffiti, family, abandoned lots, to obscure settings. I had to stop giving her peppers because I got tired of clicking so much! If you're an avid photographer, or want to be one like me, go see her stuff - you won't be disappointed.

I hope you enjoyed my picks for this week. And don't forget you can now print your photos courtesy of Sosauce, so if you're looking for something fun to do this weekend maybe you can show off your photos to friends and family. Or if you plan on going abroad and need some help communicating in a foreign country, download our Saucy Phrasebook iPhone app!

Until next time, enjoy the weekend and spring weather!

Where the Ocean Kisses Ireland...

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:05:25 GMT

I'm a huge U2 fan, and for all the money in my pocket, they're the best band ever. Beatles? Rolling Stones? Bruce Springsteen? Nah. As far as I'm concerned the only band that comes close is Radiohead. All this to say, you can imagine my excitement when I scored tickets to see U2 live in Dublin this summer. And to quote Austin, it's going to be epic.

Having never been to the land where Guinness flows and the leprechauns frolic, I'm stoked. We're taking a week long "holliers" before the show to go "act the maggot" and hang with the "langers." And before I know it I may just become bloody Irish myself.

Not sure where to go, I've been poking around Sosauce and have found some good stuff. Jean's posted a great trip where she notes the Guinness Storehouse and the amazing view from above. Katie has some great photos of Galway, and Graeme has pointed out some interesting sights in his trip to Dublin such as Brougham Bridge where "Sir William Hamilton figured out the structure of the quaternions in 'aflash of genius' during a morning walk along Dublin’s royal canal," and carved them into the bridge. Being a fan of both good beer and whiskey, I enjoyed Kristen's review of the Old Jameson Distillery, and will make sure that it's a stop along the way.

I've still got three months to plan, but given all the interesting tips on Sosauce I think I'm in pretty good shape. That being said, if you've been to Ireland and know some "can't miss" spots, please leave a comment on my home. I'd be grateful.

Lastly, I must close with a little foreshadowing of what caused this trip to happen in the first place. And for all you doubters out there, I present to you the world's best rock band.

Chinese Mei Society presents Yuan 09: Express

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:52:41 GMT

Chinese Mei Society is New York University's prominent cultural club that hosts an array of spectacular events throughout the academic year, while teaching the community about Chinese culture.

Started in the 1980's by a group of Chinese-American NYU students, CMS is now run by a group of student leaders including Bryant Jow (President), Vanessa Wong (VP), Jason Ye (Secretary), among others. With roughly 300 active members, plus over a thousand supporters, Chinese Mei Society has become a notable organization in the New York community. Every year they present their student cultural production, Yuan in celebration of Asian Heritage Month (April). This year, CMS is hosting Yuan 09: Express under the theme, "race to the stars."

This year's sold-out Yuan event took place this past Saturday night at NYU's Kimmel Center, complete with multiple talent-showcasing performances and fine dining.

"Our theme is centered on 'race to the stars,' showcasing both China's and our personal dreams and accomplishments," states Wong, Yuan's PR Director. The event incorporated student competition for a grand prize as each "expressed" their unique talents. All proceeds were donated to the China Care Foundation which helps saves orphans' lives.

Sponsors included Armani Exchange, IZZE fruit drink, BCBG, Fiji Water, Shecky's and us, Sosauce! Gift bags were distributed for guests to enjoy, plus raffle tickets, donation tables, and a three course meal complete with dessert. Over 200 guests attended, including past and present NYU students and CMS members - even Councilmember John Liu sent a representative to show his support. It was an evening of amazment as shown by young people in full support for one another and Chinese culture.

Yuan 09: Express marked the conclusion of CMS's year-long "transit" tour through the many cities in China. Over 40 student volunteers and performers dedicated their time, energy, and craft to create a beautiful experience for all. Food committees comprising of NYU students and local restaurants contributed to the menu of fine Chinese cuisine as well, while performance directors premiered performances ranging from popular Chinese songs and traditional dances, to a hip-hop montage.

Aside from the entertainment that Yuan provided, the China Care Foundation reminded us all to help those in need. Its mission is "to give special-needs Chinese orphans the opportunity for a better life and to empower youth through direct humanitarian service." China Care has grown over the years and through partnerships with organizations such as Chinese Mei Society, has been able to build several orphanages that have become new, safe homes to children suffering from various life-threatening illnesses. Since its founding, China Care has treated 621 childen, provided 567 surgeries for critically ill children, hosted 313 volunteers, and fostered almost 200 adoptions in the US and China. CMS has assisted China Care with donations for the past our years, improving young orphans' quality of life.

Through Chinese Mei Society's connection with the NYC and NYU community, the organization has been able to reach out to those with an interest and passion for learning about Chinese heritage. In the future, CMS plans to participate in more community service activities and increase their membership.

For more info on Chinese Mei Society and their annual Yuan event, visit http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/cms. CMS are also here on Sosauce, so be sure to friend them and welcome them to our community: http://www.sosauce.com/user16461. Great job on the event guys and gals!

Weekly Blog Feature: One Week, One Job

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:49:23 GMT

Not everyone knows what they want to do in life. Most go to college to figure themselves out, others travel the country in search of a career.

Introducing, Sean Aiken of "One Week, One Job." His mission last year was to work 52 jobs in 52 weeks, with all his earnings being donated to charity. Sean was determined to "search for passion, not just a career" and completed his journey around North America in March of 2008. With an avid group of supporters by his side, Sean's project is now being turned into a documentary with help from his team of friends, Ian MacKenzie and Lindsay Jackson.

Sean's journey began after graduating college. Still unsure of what he really wanted to do, he decided to try a new job each week. People from all over the country offered Sean jobs such as advertising, being a dairy farmer, firefighter, broker, and many more. Every wage he earned was then donated to help end child hunger around the world. Soon enough the media discovered Sean's inspiring efforts and featured him on numerous broadcast shows such as Rachael Ray, Good Morning America, FOX News, CNN, and others. Sean had started a movement of followers, gaining support from college students, avid blog readers, and even adults who began to rethink their own choices in life.

One Week, One Job shares Sean's stories about his project, his followers, and his strive for passion. You can read how it all began, plus receive the latest info on how the documentray is coming along. Sosauce is a proud contributor to Sean and his team's amazing journey, and we encourage other Sosaucers to do the same. For more information about Sean's project, go to http://www.oneweekjob.com.

Wandering Educators.com: Educating the world one traveler at a time

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:21:24 GMT

“The world is getting smaller, and the importance of understanding other cultures is greater than ever,” states Wandering Educators.com founder, Dr. Jessie Voigts. Voigts took her passion for travel and world experiences to the online world, becoming publisher for travel education site, Wandering Educators.com.

Wandering Educators.com celebrates their 1st anniversary this month, embracing intercultural learning and becoming one of the largest Internet travel resources for authors and travel guides today. With over 30 editors from all over the world, the site publishes tons of new reviews, feature interviews, sabbatical house listings, and international jobs.

“We want to grow our readership of life and world learners,” says Dr. Voigts. “One of our goals is to discover more editors that are eager to share their passions and locales with our readers.”

Wandering Educators is passionate about providing a cultural perspective to readers. They promote independent travel: traveling off the beaten path and discovering real people. What’s more important is “finding out how people live – where they eat, shop, play, learn, and enjoy life.” Voigts’ husband and daughter are very much involved in this concept and the site’s content as well.

The travel industry has certainly shifted in the last several years. Travelers are steering clear from tourist hot spots, and embracing cultural exchange. Travelers connecting with culture is key when it comes to international and intercultural understanding. It’s worldly interests like those of Dr. Voigt’s team that we here at Sosauce so proudly support and commend.

If you’re interested in getting educated on traveling the world, visit Wandering Educators.com. You can also read our past interview with Wandering Educators.com right here. Here’s to smarter traveling!

Sosauce April Preview

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:16:00 GMT

Alright! It's that time again when we're done cooking up new stuff. Next week is the April Sosauce release, and here's what's coming:

3D HAS A NEW HOME!

We are moving the Apartments along with your favorite 3D games to a brand new site called Muse Games, so come along! With your Sosauce user name and password, you will be able to use Muse, and your customizations and scores will of course be migrated over. Muse will go live next week, and we'll send out emails to introduce it to you. Once you're on Muse, remember to bookmark it!

Stopping here would be boring. So stay tuned for announcements about the availability of the 3D games on social networks (ex. Facebook) and on your iPhone! Get ready to tilt your iPhones to avoid fast coming objects in boring meetings or in crowded subway cars.

We found Muse a new home so it'll be much easier for you to find all of its offerings. We will also be able to update it more frequently, and crank out new games faster. We're pretty confident that you will love the new Muse Games.

SAUCY PHRASEBOOK ON YOUR IPHONE!

In line with our wacky tradition, this inaugural iPhone app should make you laugh a little, and it could help you get out of a jam while you're traveling.

It features useful, and wacky, phrases in 6 different languages. From bathroom emergencies to things that move in your dish, from bargaining hollers to cheesy pickup lines that probably won't work, this phrasebook just might bail you out, and keep you chuckling. The app is free! So all you have to do is to download it, have fun, and help us spread the word. We'll update you again when it goes live in the iPhone app store. Stay tuned...

BIGGER AND BETTER PRINTS STORE

We've added a bunch more good stuff to the Sosauce prints store. Prints-wise, we've added larger format prints such as 11x14, 16x20, and 20x30. All print sizes now have the Lustre finish (a great looking pro finish) as an option. Additionally, you can order post cards for your travel photos. In need to backup your photos onto CDs or DVDs? Not a problem! The option is available in the Cart, and it is smartly configured based on how much you select, so you are always paying the lowest prices. Framed wood and aluminum prints are also options now, so you can get your pictures with quality and good looking frames at great prices without ever having to leave your room!

ADS ON SOSAUCE?!

Yep, we have to try to make some money too...! We'll be putting up some ads on select pages such as the application homes and content listing pages. We've filtered the ads pretty carefully, so hopefully more often than not, they will be more useful and interesting, at least not annoying. The content viewing pages, such as inside your photo albums, journals, and trips, will remain ads free. Definitely don't want you to be distracted by ads when you have interesting photos or trips to see.

CLOSER CONNECTION WITH FACEBOOK

Soon you'll be able to connect your Facebook account to your Sosauce account!

If you haven't joined Sosauce, then you can use your Facebook account to register, shortening the process by a few steps. If you're on Sosauce already, then by connecting to Facebook it'll be easier to post your Sosauce content to your Facebook profile. Just click the Share button followed by the big blue Facebook button, and you're all set! You'll also have access to all of your Facebook friends on Sosauce. So you can invite your Facebook friends to join and see which of your Facebook friends are already on Sosauce. Facebook Connect will make it easier for you to interact with the people you care about on Sosauce, so check it out!

NAVIGATION AND HEADER MAKEOVER

Since late last year, we've been collecting lots of feedback on navigation. Thanks to everyone who's contributed, we're rolling out with a new look header. The fan of "The Wheel" would be sad to see it go, but the new and improved header should be simpler and easier to use.

For one more trip down the memory lane, we're pulling up the screen shot of The Wheel one more time before we shelf it:

Now....On to the unveiling of the new Header!

In the new Sosauce Header, all the applications are listed out at the top, and if you mouse over on them, you can get to any page on Sosauce in a clearer fashion. From the Friends link, you can still go to any of your friends' content or pages in 1 click. Under the top header, the page name and all the pages related to an application is clearly spelled out. There are other navigation adjustments we made. As a whole, the navigation experience should be cleaner and clearer for you. Enjoy!

TRAVEL FORUM Q&A IS OFFICIALLY HERE!

The underground testing for the Q&A section of the Guide is finally over! Now, you can ask questions, or if you are a local expert, answer people's questions. The questions you ask and answers for your questions will now be carried directly by the Updates stream. We will also smartly provide you with a digest of interesting questions from the Guide daily. Be sure to tune into the Q&A tab at your Updates or check into your Flavors of the Week email.

UPDATE ON MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT

People have been asking, what's up with Sosauce in other languages? First of all, be sure to checkout the Sosauce powered iPhone app, SaucyPhrasebook, in your iTunes Store. We are close to wrapping up the Sosauce Chinese Version, so updating from last time, we are 218 steps closer...

That's about what to expect for next week's release.

Thanks for tuning in!

Weekly Blog Feature: Travel Off the Cuff

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:29:10 GMT

I like simple travel news. Don't you?

I came across Travel Off the Cuff recently in my search for new interesting travel sites and fell in love. TOTC is all about simplicity. The layout is simple and direct, submissions can be sent easily, and they focus on one subject - travel news. I even love their colors and font; it's just a pleasant site to read up on.

Travel Off the Cuff features frequent updates on the latest travel news circulating online, plus their own blog. Their blog informs readers with the site's updated features such as improvements on their news feeds, design, and webisodes. But I recommend just checking out their travel news section right on the homepage if you want to be in the know with the industry. They've got user-contributed news on all subjects from budget travel, vacation hot spots, cultural exploration, to airline tips. As I mentioned, the site is largely dependent on user submissions. So if you've got a tip or article you want to share with TOTC, you can do so in just one step. If you don't want to become a new member, but would still like to participate in their community, try signing in with your Facebook info - they offer new users FacebookConnect as well.

And if you're a social media lover and want to follow their updates 24/7, jump on the bandwagon and add them on Twitter. Travel Off the Cuff could be your new travel friend, so check them out!

MARKET CORNER: Life as an iPhone Developer

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:43:15 GMT

Since we are an iPhone developer, with 2 apps to be released within weeks (Yep, I said it. We'll have some iPhone apps out soon!), I definitely pay closer attention to news relating to the developer side of iPhone.

TechCrunch (Read the full story here) reported a news about Apple’s refund policies today, and it alarmed me a bit. Basically, it seems like that if iPhone userswant a refund, Apple will refund to the user 100% within 90 days of purchase. So far so good.

However, Apple has the right to keep its commission. This seems to mean that the developer will need to refund 100% to the user, and then reimburse Apple for the 30% commission. Ouch!

This is supposed to be a new section in the contract, and according to TechCrunch, developers are unclear as to whether this actually happens or not.

Developing for the iPhone is fun, but hopefully the process will be fair to developers as well.

LOCAL CORNER: Brooklyn Food Coop

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:47:14 GMT

Our current recession has almost become trendy. It seems like there are "recession specials" all over the city. I'm not sure if this is something to laugh or to cry about but we'll use it to take the opportunity to highlight an organization that's been making quality food cheaper since 1973.

The organization in question is the Park Slope Food Coop. It began in an effort to make healthy food available for all who wanted it. The Coop is essentially a grocery store, a place that carries a large variety of foods, from produce (locally, organic, and conventionally grown), to environmentally safe cleaning supplies, and anything in between.

What makes it unique is that it's a grocery store for members only. By joining you receive a 20 - 40% savings on groceries. Not bad right? The only catch is that you have to work at the Coop once every four weeks. In addition, to join you're required to pay a non-refundable joining fee of $25 and to invest $100 in the Coop itself. The investment makes you a fellow owner with 14,000+ fellow Coop members.

By becoming a member not only do you receive cheap groceries but you also get to be part of the decision making process for the Coop. So if you live in Brooklyn and want to help shape the future of food distribution in your own neighborhood check out the Park Slope Food Coop.

Weekly Blog Feature: Matador

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:03:57 GMT

Matador Pulse (part of Matador Network & mother to Brave New Traveler) is a one-stop shop for all things travel. This site is your ultimate go-to for news, tips, merchandise, etc for serious world travelers. We here at Sosauce are big fans of Matador and respect their ability to continually provide rich information regarding a variety of topics for us travel geeks. Plus they gave us a shout out for our Will Work for Travel summer internship - thanks for the support, Julie!

Matador is widely known for their global conscience which makes them a great resource. For example, Matador touches on political issues abroad as well. Some of their recent stories include civil unrest in Madagascar, Congo, northern Ireland, and of course the conviction of the Bush shoe-thrower. But on a lighter note, if you're interested in learning about the other side of travel then read up on their sections of life, spirit, and change. Here you'll find a range of quirky stories about eco-traveling, native trends, note-worthy organizations abroad, and what gear to buy when embarking on a new journey. There's plenty here to get informed and inpsired by for those who enjoy cultural exploration.

If you want to skip on worldly matters, and go straight to the fun stuff, check out their nightlife page. You can find news on music trends, what to eat & where to find it, and where the hottest events are around the world. To help you get around your destinations, take note on their travel ideas & tips. I just read their article on how to travel the world for free, and I'm amazed at this very real possibility!

Whether you're a veteran or a rookie traveler, Matador offers the chance for everyone to be in the know with smart, interesting information & outlets. Explore for yourself!

MARKET CORNER - You now have some say in Google ads

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:55:05 GMT

An article from TechCrunch caught my eyes today. Starting today, Google will start placing cookies to collectinformation about interests whenever we visit sites that haveAdSense ads. Google will then show ads based on our interests to other sites that have AdSense ads that we happen to land.

This is interesting, but it sounds a bit like Gmail. So of course there's more. You can go to Google Ads Preferences (http://www.google.com/ads/preferences) to add, remove, or see how Google categorizes your interests. You can also opt out of the entire thing. Privacy concerns aside, this is a way for you to see more of what you want or care about, and not be dictated by the ad networks serving annoying junks. TechCrunch makes a good point that for the first time, this takes stride to shift the balance of power from the ad networks to the end users. Yet, most people probably would never know that these preferences exist. And either way, this is another way Google collects data about users to give them a leg up over other ad networks. My thinking is that, yeah, Google makes money off of me, and they probably know a lot about me in the process. But at least they are also adding value to my web experience, and that's already better than a lot of other sites or ad networks out there.

Back at it!

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:37:10 GMT

Hey all-

Sorry if you experienced any inconvencience the past 3 hours with accessing Sosauce. We had a server problem which made things a little difficult but we're back up and running!!

Every now and then our hamsters try and take a nap. We'll give them a steady dose of caffeine so they keep on running.

Happy Sosaucing!

Weekly Blog Feature: Hostel Bloggers.com

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:44:36 GMT

Hostels are a big part of budget travel. Not only are they a great alternative to staying abroad, but hostels can also add a culturally-enriching experience to one's travels. HostelBookers.com provides all the info you need on hostels, plus the world of independent travel and backpacking via their blog.

Hostel Bloggers.com not only gives the 411 on hostels, but adds great insight on travel events too. They recently posted their own guide to celebrating St. Patrick's Day for those who are interested in more than just drinking the night away. The article reminds readers that St. Patrick's Day is about celebrating Irish culture and history, and there are plenty o' ways to have a good time drinking with friends while appreciating the famous holiday. And speaking of drinking, there's also a post about their top 10 favorite pubs in London if you want the lowdown.

Hostel Bloggers is great because it's enjoyable to read, and aside from being informative, the blog shows the company's personality which is a notable attribute when it comes to reader outreach these days. Plus the blog offers videos and podcasts for readers to follow if you're bored of text. So if you plan on taking a trip abroad sometime soon, I'd recommend going to Hostel Bloggers.com for the latest in independent traveling. You'll catch the insider's note on cool events, travel deals, and where to stay for cheap. And if you're interested in becoming part of their team, they're hiring so be sure to read up!

Loft Party with EuroCheapo!

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:03:14 GMT

It's a snowy Monday here in NYC and fortunately we've had a weekend to recover from the sangria induced hangovers resulting from our party with Eurocheapo, or simply the Cheapos, as we affectionately call our friends behind Europe's best hotel booking site.

And oh what a saucy party it was. We cleared out the Cheapos NoHo office and transformed it into a classic New York style loft party. Tom made his family's famous sangria (secret ingredient- I wish I knew) and we had more wine and beer to boot.

Our friends from Budget Travel, the New York Times, World Hum's Eva Holland, and the Travel Blog Exchange, not to mention some of our very own Sosaucers attended the festivities. Stories of favorite places and interesting locales were shared, followed by wistful dreams of future travel plans.

All in all it was a great time, a nice break from the winter cold, and a reminder that there's nothing more recession proof then the traveling spirit.

Thanks to all who came- and happy travels!

To see more photos, click here.

LOCAL CORNER: Sustainable South Bronx

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:08:36 GMT

The South Bronx is one of the poorest neigborhoods in all of New York City. Close to half the population lives below the poverty line with prostitution, gang activity, and drug trafficking well known problems.

Yet, one of the most innovative methods to environmental sustainability has taken root in this most unlikely of places. In 2001, Majora Carter launched the Sustainable South Bronx, a non-profit dedicated to achieving “environmental justice through innovative,economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs.”

Greening the Ghetto

The Sustainable South Bronx built the first green roof project in allof New York City. A green roof is exactly what it sounds like, a grassy area on the top of a building that not only helps clean the air, but removes carbon, and prevents storm water runoff from overwhelmingthe city's sewage system.

The organizaton encourages sustainability not only in an envrionmental sense but also in a social sense as well. They own their own green roof installation company, SmartRoofs,LLC and have implemented the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, which trains students in various environmental management skills, giving residents a personal and financial stake in the management of their local environment.

We at Sosauce encourage you to check out the efforts of the Sustainable South Bronx. We're excited that an area for which many people look down upon is becoming a source of both urban and environmental renewal.

To learn more, check out Majora's talk at the 2006 TED Conference.

MARKET CORNER: Free iPhone!

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:17:25 GMT

Didn't you ever wish that your iPhone was free and came with a cheap (ok, maybe you'd be willing to settle for reasonable) data plan?

You wish has come true! Now through the end of May, a free 8GB iPhone is available as part of a promotional campaign, and it comes with a $45.60 per month data plan.

How do you get your hands on a free iPhone? Simple. You just have to live in Japan, and subscribe to Softbank.

Softbank Mobile, the exclusive carrier for iPhones in Japan, has decided to run a special campaign to boost the sales of iPhone, which is not doing too well in Japan. They are offering the iPhone like it is just any other phone.

This maybe a bit tough to swallow for fellow iPhone fans, but do keep in mind that the mobile market, or the electronics market at large, in Japan is flooded with innovative and sleek products, with features that are at times 2-3 generations ahead. Japan also has a more advanced data network that has been offering services that the US market hasn't seen yet. When you walk into an electronics store and head over the the mobile section, you would be bombarded by options. So it is not too surprising that the iPhone is just another fish in a big Japanese mobile market pond.

Here are a sample of phones you can get in Japan:

Weekly Blog Feature: Finnair

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:32:37 GMT

Eco-trips are becoming the focus of many independent travelers these days, and no airline is more committed it seems, as Finnair.

In a recent interview with the Intelligent Travel Blog, Finnair discussed its efforts to pursue sustainability in eco-friendly flying. Finnair actually started "going green" over 20 years ago, and currently employs multiple tactics to make it a top environmentally-friendly airline, says Finnair's VP of Sustainable Development, Kati Ihamaki. Ihamaki is a leading contributor to the airline's blog which covers issues related to the environment, airline service, as well as traffic news and punctuality.

This week's blog post touches on consumers' choices towards ecology: eco-trip vs. ego-trip. The great thing about Finnair's blog is that it's real. The issues are real, the information provided is based on real facts, and the people writing these stories are real. I highly recommend reading this article if you want to know the real side of eco-flying. You can catch up on other blog posts right here.

It's no shock that the environment is at the front-gate of global issues, and it's great to see such a big company take a serious commitment to reducing its carbon footprints on this earth. Read the latest news on Finnair at www.finnair.com.

Go Green Traveling!

Weekly Blog Feature: GoBackpacking. com

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:35:06 GMT

Join Dave as he travels solo around the world on his blog, GoBackpacking.com.

Filled with his experiences, planning strategies for saving, as well as his hopes and fears, Dave carries his readers along for an incredible journey through the glaciers of NewZealand, beaches of Thailand, Himalayas of Nepal, jungles of Brazil, andmore. Dave provides his followers with interactive info: posting new polls, tracking the number of days abroad, and posting remarkable images from his travels.

The blog is full of great content for those looking to visit similar places. For example, one post I found just as fascinating as helpful was his "Final Thoughts on Egypt" where Dave tells his story of greedy tour guides, and even reveals tips on how to avoid their scams. He's also got some lovely pictures of the Pyramids (as seen below), the local markets, and of course the cuisine. At the end of each adventure Dave summarizes with a breakdown of the costs involved, what food he enjoyed, plus highlights and lowlights of the trip.

To read about Dave's latest trip through Columbia, visit his blog on GoBackpacking.com. Here he even gets to ride a cable car!

LOCAL CORNER: Brooklyn Brewery

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:56:16 GMT

Brooklyn Brewerey, a New York landmark, is one of the most innovative institutions here in the city. Over a hundered years ago there were 50+ breweries in Brooklyn but as time went on, and competition increased, they all shut down, the last one being Schaefer and Rheingold, who closed their doors in 1976. Then in 1996, the Brooklyn Brewery brought beer back to Brooklyn, opening their brewery in Williamsburg.

Today their distribution is expanding throughout the United States, and their classic brew, Brooklyn Lager, is one of the top draft beers in New York. They also make an excellent black chocolate stout, my favorite of all their beers.

However, the reason we mention Brooklyn Brewery is not because of their excellent beer but because of their innovation in conducting business. On September 1st, 2003, Brooklyn Brewery became the first New York City company to switch to 100% wind-generated electricity. As they like to say, "there's wind in our ales."

In fact, if you're interested in switching to wind energy for your home or office you should check out NewWind Energy, a product of Community Energy, Inc., the same company that powers the Brooklyn Brewery.

So when you want a night of good beer, grab some friends and head to the Brooklyn Brewery. Drink the night away with the peace of mind that comes when knowing you are supporting something you believe in.

(For a personal review, and the location of Brooklyn Brewery, click here.)

Sosaucer becomes guest columnist on Venture Beat!

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:16:38 GMT

Our very own Sosaucer, Chikodi Chima recently published a great article on new media journalism on this week's Venture Beat. Congrats, Chikodi!

Chikodi has previously taught as a travel intern for us here at Sosauce and is currently pursuing his own digital media ventures as a student at the Columbia University School of Journalism. His Venture Beat piece discusses the newest entrepreneurship seminars at Columbia which enable students to interact with new media giants such as Huffington Post's Kenneth Lerer. The article touches on how old school journalism has been faced with new school business models, resulting in a transition towards digital media. It's a great piece, and we're really proud of Chikodi for getting his work out there on such a reputable source as Venture Beat.

Chikodi is also known as the techtrotter, in which he documents his own experience in the tech world. You can read the full article on Venture Beat right here. Be sure to visit Chikodi's Sosauce page to see what else he's been up to!

Weekly Blog Feature: Backpackers.com

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:05:09 GMT

Given the current state of the economy, travelling abroad might be the last thing on your mind. But those looking to snag low-cost airfare deals may be in luck at Backpackers.com.

Backpackers.com is your online travel planner and guide to scoring the best transportation deals around the world. Their blog features the latest updates on low-rate airfares from both major and domestic airlines. Earlier this week, Ryan Air was offering an amazing 75% discount for one-way flights throughout the UK and Europe. And that's just one of many cheap flights featured.

The site also provides readers with an easy-to-use booking application for those looking to stay in hostels during the trip. Backpackers.com offers you the choice of searching through not only independent hostels, but youth hostels too. So if you're on a budget and looking to avoid those fancy hotels, check out their hostel page.

If you're looking to shop for some must-have backpacking gear, visit their site to find the best merchandise including clothing, accesories, gadgets, baggages, and other essentials. You might find something new to make your trip that much more exciting and hassle-free.

With a simple to use web site and unbeatable travel deals, Backpackers.com makes a great place to stop at before you embark on your next journey.

eHub loves Sosauce!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:00:26 GMT

Thanks to Emily Chang from eHub for digging our site!

eHub is a site that documents, promotes, informs and celebrates web 2.0. The site provides daily listings of new web services and applications; weekly features and reviews, and interviews with the creators and companies behind these new web technologies. Started by Emily Changin September 2005, eHub was the first Web 2.0 list and directory,launched the week before the first O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference.

Read Emily's blurb on Sosauce right here. Thanks eHub!

LOCAL CORNER: Project Common Bond

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:22:42 GMT

I'm in the midst of reading "A Long Way Gone," the memoirs of a boy solider by Ishmael Beah. The book is excellent and though I would recommend it to everyone who considers themself human, this entry is not about a book review.

I only mention it because coninciendtally or not, I also received a phone call today from Kathy, one of the people behind Tuesday's Children, and their exciting new initiative Project Common Bond.

Project Common Bond is a unique international initiative to bring together teenagers from across the globe, who have lost an immediate family member in an act of terrorism, to enhance their lives – and the lives of others.

By bringing these young people together Project Common Bond hopes to start a dialogue promoting friendship and understanding, building both peace and leadership skills for all those involved.

Just as UNICEF rescued Ishmael Beah, it's encouraging to see other organizations do their part to promote peace and understanding amongst young people, thus creating a better future for all of us.

Given their desire to build dialogue, community, and multicultural understanding, Sosauce looks forward to the possiblity of working with Project Common Bond in the future.

Way to go Kathy! Sosauce supports you and your team.

Weekly Blog Feature: Saveur

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:32:09 GMT

Food & travel. What could be better? How about learning authentic recipes from your favorite destinations? That's what Saveur provides readers from all over the world.

Saveur.com is a site that features recipes from all over the world, and shares unique information on drinks and of course travel tips. If you're a foodie that enjoys learning authentic cuisine and classic recipes, check out this site. You can search recipes by course, cuisine, and season or occasion. Saveur also shares its favorite recipes and book reviews for additional information. If you're more into the wining & dining, check out their reviews, features, and directory of wines from national destinations such as New York, Washington, California, even Texas! And for those of you who simply want to read up on the best travels, discover their culinary travel page which includes "travel tales," photo galleries, and various articles on top destinations of the world.

Saveur also has lots of contests going on right now. Currently, Saveur is offering a Foodie Getaway: every Tuesday and Friday til February 27th Saveur will be holding daily prizes including a chance to win new kitchen items. You can log on towww.saveur.com/100contest for more info.

So if you're a foodie like me, and love discovering rich new meals from some of the world's most interesting places, give Saveur a read and see what you can learn. Maybe at your next dinner party you can show off a new recipe from Tuscany to friends!

Our Ad: Inspirational or out of line?

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:01:53 GMT

Earlier this past week we placed an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. It appeared in both the Sunday and Wednesday editions, covering the inauguration.

The reaction has been fierce. Though we've received many positive verbal reactions (we also tested the ad before posting) the email reaction has been just the opposite. Thus, I present you the ad with three samples of the written feedback. Thoughts? Were we out of line?

Some of the Feedback:

Response 1

Your ad in Sunday's Chronicle is a disgrace and an insult to every American, regardless of their political views. A simple congratulations to O would have been more appropriate and not as damaging to the image of sosauce.com.

Response 2

You people ar such incredible assholes, taking advantage of Mr. Obama future presidency, by placing that ad that states: "Thank you , Obama, for making us proud to travel as Americans". What were we before he campaigned for the Presidency? Something other than Americans? Weren't you proud to be an American before his campaigning? Sounds like his wife's statement that she only became proud to be an American aafter he joined the race. This doesn't mean I don't like Obama, I hope he succeeds, but I hope you don't.

Response 3

What a STUPID and IDIOTIC slogan..
If it's meant to be funny, cute or clever, it ain't..
If it's meant to reflect "well" on your company, it actiually makes you look worse and very "small-minded" for even suggesting ANY sort of embarassment of a MAN who has kept our country safe for over 7 years, after inheriting the bungled presidency of Mr. Billy-Bob "Loose Zipper" Clinton which is the true custodian of the 9/11 disaster..

Had 9/11 never happened, one would think you are entitled to judge President Bush's policies as excessive or paranoid or fascist or more but the fact that 9/11 DID happen, that almost 3000 people lost their lives just shows you as the ungrateful (and beyond Naive at best, ludicrously branwashed and misguided at worst) bunch you apparently are..

Thank goodness that despite the support of the "hopelessly unconscious" and "hopelessly without conscience" liberals like you, soon to be President Obama at least has his head screwed on right. When he will do what President Bush has done, when he will realize that many of President Bush's polices were in fact called for and appropriate, that we are dealing with a billion nut-os whose faith expressely calls them to exterminate non-believers, I hope you will have the decency to acknowledge that you were wrong about President Bush and that you battered a man needlessly out of ignorance and pack mentality.... Althought I don't have much hope for you to actually have that honesty..

Peace and Regards anyway and Go USA, Democracy and Free Speech.. Even when it makes you look like Idiots.., You are entitled to it..

LOCAL CORNER: Housing Works

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:48:33 GMT

In an effortto empahsize the local community and portray our core values, we here atSosauce are going to begin a weekly “Local Corner” piece.

Manyorganizations are doing good here in the city and we'd like to share with yousome of these social/environmental endeavors we come across. Yesterday during a walk in the Upper West Side, westumbled upon HousingWorks, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping those less fortunateand suffering from HIV/AIDS. We talked to an employee at the thrift shop who explained to us what the organization is all about and what it's doing today to help those in the NYC community, and beyond.

Aside from owning notable thrift shops, Housing Works provides critical services to those in poverty living with the disease such as medical care, legal representation, housing, and management services. HW is committed to empowering people in every way possible. Not only do they provide free services to their clients, but they actively participate in local & national litigation cases to defend the homeless and promote the need for better public assistance programs.

Housing Works is not only based here in New York City (they have more than a dozen locations), but also in Albany and Washington, DC - working with government influencers to make sure their clients' voices get heard. The organization also hosts frequent events such as dinners, fundraisers, concerts, etc in local cafes, bookstores, and thrift shops to spread the word. You can find a variety of their upcoming events right here, and see what's near you!

If you thought that was enough, Housing Works does even more. This non-profit has developed a social enterprise with a growing catering business, upscale thrift shops, and must-see bookstores. It's great to see an organization this involved in making New York a better community.

Housing Works represents Sosauce at it's best: global curiosity, local expertise. We're glad to have them right here at our front door.

If you're interested in making a donation, or volunteering for Housing Works, visit: http://www.housingworks.org.

Sosauce January Preview

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:45:36 GMT

The upcoming Sosauce release is just days away now! Here's a little preview of what's coming.

My Reviews, Friends' Reviews, Reviews from Guide to Trips

Due to popular demand, we now added places for My Reviews and Friends' Reviews. This way, you can look at all your own reviews or your friends' reviews in one shot, with a single click from the Guide. We are taking another step to make useful information more readily available.

The reviews you wrote for the Guide and now be easily inserted into a trip that you create. If the destination is the same, we'll find your review and deliver to you trip with care.

Improved Custom Photo Sorting, Flickr Import

We also made custom photo sorting a bit easier. Whether at your trip or your photo album, you can click on Free Arrange to sort your photos by dragging and dropping even for insanely large albums.

Did you know you can import your travel photos from Flickr? If not, definitely feel free to take advantage. If you have, you can now create a new album before you import. And you can create a new album for other reasons as well. The reason can be you just happen to feel like it.

Forum Sneak Peak

Travel geeks and local experts (hmmm...that's just about everyone on the site isn't it?) can now test drive the forum features at any destination or point of interest at the Guide. You can ask a question that you need others' help with. And people can jump in with answers.

We're actually not totally finished with everything we wanted to do, but what the heck, we are pre-releasing it for your enjoyment.

Bonus Sneak Peak - Sosauce in Chinese

Yep, it's coming. The Chinese edition of Sosauce is in the works. When exactly? We'll keep it a surprise for now. Let's just say it's coming soon. So all the Sosauce fans and travel geeks in Taiwan and greater China, stay tuned!

Lost in Translation: See the Subject Matters favorites

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:00:48 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Lost in Translation

To post on the current theme, Locals, or to see past

themes click here.

Without further ado:

by Sean Pfitzenmaier

by Cathy Chang

by Stacey Shapiro

by Graeme Taylor

by Alisha Miranda

by Howard Tsao

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Locals, by clicking here.

WATCH: New Hot Sauce Episode

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:28:49 GMT

Check out our latest biweekly look at the interesting content making the rounds on Sosauce.com by clicking the image below!

Enjoy!

World on Holiday: See the Subject Matters favorites

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:51:57 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

World on Holiday

To post on the current theme, Lost in Translation, or to see past

themes click here.

Without further ado:

by Soumen Basu Mallick

By Sean Pfitzenmaier

By Howard Tsao

By Stephen Capelli

by Jeff Lagasca

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Lost in Translation, by clicking here.

WATCH: Hot Sauce Episode

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:53:06 GMT

Check out our latest biweekly look at the interesting content making the rounds on Sosauce.com by clicking the image below!

Featured in this episode:

Fes, Morocco

Mykonos, Greece

Borneo & Malaysia

...and More!

Weekly Blog Feature: Travel Photo Daily

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:25:48 GMT

For those who seek simplicity in their search for blogs, whether it be a travel blog, or a culture blog, you may want to take a peek at Travel Photo Daily.

Travel Photo Daily (part of B5 Media's Travel & Culture section) is exactly what it sounds like - a blog that features a new destination photograph everyday. The content is simple and refreshing, often showcasing pictures submitted by its own readers. The set up is very basic: a centered photograph, location photograph was taken, destination name, country, year photo was taken, photographer's name, and a short description of the photo.

What's interesting about this blog is that anyone can submit their photos from anytime - be it a recent trip, or a random photo taken years ago. Another neat thing is that no two photos are the same. Some are just a quick snapshot of an item or an outside view, others are more intriguing and let you have a taste of that particular destination. If you love photography and travel, or have a hobby in these fields, this could be a great place to check in your free time, or perhaps even consider for submissions. Take a look for yourself and see if you have any favorites. Let us know!

Unprecedented Events of 2008

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:54:14 GMT

2008 has been a year of change- that's for sure.

It saw the best of humanity (social progress in the US, the development of bionic eyes) and the worst (Robert Mugabe's continued raping of his own country, financial greed caused by over zealous bankers and faulty home owners).

More so than any year in recent memory, the events of 2008 will serve as major inflection points in the course of human history. The future of capitalism, space exploration, biotechnology, food, energy, and politics is unknown. Chaos abounds, but as one of my professors once said, "where there's chaos, there's opportunity."

So take a stroll with us. Come visit what we believe to be the 10 Most Unprecedented Events of 2008.

Oh, and by the way... Happy New Year.

We'd Like Your Feedbacks!

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:29:59 GMT

Hey Sosaucers! We'd like your feedbacks on a specific feature!

Drag and Drop Photo Sorting

Have you ever used the drag-and-drop sorting feature to reorder your photos within your photo albums? Tell us your experience with it!

Some users have told us that they'd want a way to move photos across pages, e.g. from page 2 to page 1, which is doable but difficult to accomplish right now. We have thought of a couple of different solutions but would like to gain more insights on how you guys think of this feature.

Let us know!

PS. You can also take the poll below!

Weekly Blog Feature - The Travelling Hungryboy

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:00:52 GMT

Love traveling and eating? Check out The Travelling Hungryboy on his latest journey with food through Asia.

He writes about his dining experiences on the go, sharing mobile pictures of meals and describing to readers just how great (or gross) his food is. Citing Anthony Bourdain as his hero, he essentially imitates Bourdain's lust for food and travel online sans camera crew. He's honest about how his meals taste (and even smell!), plus he shares how he stumbled upon odd foods, where it can be found elsewhere, and the price. His writing is casual and short, but always interesting and inquisitve. And the pics aren't bad quality at all!

Some of my favorite entries are about rare foods you won't find anywhere else but the country it is indigenous to, such as Japanese melons. Though he is currently based in Singapore, he is also travelling the world insearch of the tastiest authentic meals. You can follow him on his foodadventures right here. Try not to drool!

Attention Firefox 2 Users: Time to Upgrade to Firefox 3!!

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:45:05 GMT

We here at Sosauce loved Firefox 2. Before Firefox 3 and Chrome came along a few months ago, it was the fastest and most capable web browser in the world.

It is the speed Firefox 2 renders webpages that made us believe it is possible to develop a purely widget-based user interface and hence the innovative Sosauce Profile Gallery in a sticky board format that all Sosaucers enjoy using today.

However, all parties have to come to an end. Today, Mozilla, the open source organization behind Firefox, announced that it will no longer support Firefox 2 going forward. Sosauce as a site will continue to support Firefox 2 as long as thereis a significant percentage of users still using it. But we stronglyrecommend that all Firefox 2 users upgrade to Firefox 3 today to continue to receive support from Mozilla, especially updates that protect you from Internet frauds, such as phishing.

As much as we loved Firefox 2 and hate to see it go, we can promise you that Firefox 3 is only better in all aspects, hands down! Faster, more powerful and richer in features. And this is after we've put in thousands of hours testing with Firefox 3. Please also be rest assured that the transition will be 100% automatic and all your settings, bookmarks and add-ons will be transferred without any problem.

To begin upgrade, please download Firefox 3 here.

Weekly Blog Feature - The Weblicist of Manhattan

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:55:07 GMT

This week's gem is a photo blog by Chris Brady called the Weblicist of Manhattan. This blog has a volumous, and frankly impressive, collection of photos taken by Chris throughout Manhattan over time.

The site is broken down into geographical categories, such as parks, neighborhoods, landmarks, but there is also a Life in NY category that is a collaged depiction of life in NYC through photos. There are some amazing shots that you won't see everyday. And Chris is taking photos and putting together a collection of pictures of display windows all over NYC.

It's a really cool site to bookmark or RSS for both travelers and NYC locals.

I strongly encourage to you check it out.

the weblicist of manhattan

Play: Attack of the Shoes

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:54:36 GMT

Sosauce has chosen to honor the recent attack on President Bush by a pair size 10 loafers, with our very own "Attack of the Shoes" videogame.

Who knew Bush was so darn fast at avoiding flying objects. Let's see if you're up to snuff:

And be sure to Digg it!

Uncharted Territory: See the Subject Matters Favorites

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:09:45 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Uncharted Territory

To post on the current theme, World on Holiday, or to see past

themes click here.

Without further ado...

by Soumen

by Sean

by Amanda

by Alan

by Austin

by Lavina

by Jeff

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, World on Holiday, by clicking here.

Sosauce is Exploding!!

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:17:11 GMT

This past November was a truly exciting one here at Sosauce. Not only did we released a whole bunch of new features to you guys, we also saw our community growing out of the roof. On a month-to-month basis, our traffic increased by more than 460%. We're moving up so rapidly on Alexa's site ranking chart that we blew past 200,000 sites in less than 3 months.

As a result of this growth, we're also seeing tons of interesting content being posted to Sosauce. As a matter of fact, as of today, the Sosauce community has shared 150,000 travel photos, 4,000 journal entries, 2,000 travel reviews and 1,000 trips here on the site for all of you travel minded around the world. Therefore, I encourage you to explore these great pieces of cotent.

The Wheel

You can do so by easily clicking on the Wheel on the top left corner of your screen. Each button will take you to an "App Center" where you can focus on finding interesting content from that particular App. For example, you can find great reviews in Sosauce Guide App.

Also, the Sosauce community is not only growing rapidly, we also got a very interesting mix of people on the site. Therefore, I encourage you guys to reach out to others -- add some peppers to their content or leave them a comment of encouragement. I'm sure you'll find yourself end up engaged in very interesting conversations more often than not, as we always do!

So, thank you for all the support, dear Sosaucers! We'll continue build cool features and hopefully you'll continue to post these wonderful travel contents and things will just get more and more interesting here at Sosauce each day! Cheers!

The Sosauce for Travel Geeks has Arrived!

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:57:34 GMT

Diving deep into travel

One of the most fun things here at Sosauce is interacting with you, our user community. We enjoy improving the site based on how you would like to use it. The majority of you use Sosauce to document and share your travel or local experiences, but not necessarily in the traditional sense. You find interesting, quirky things and share them with the rest of us. Some of these are from travel experiences but just as many are from adventures and experiences where you live.

As a result we have decided to focus Sosauce on becoming the best place on the web for travel geeks- those who are interested in exploring, both locally and globally.

The beauty is you can keep using Sosauce as you are. Even if you’re not one who often travels abroad- no problem! Sosauce will always be a place for you to document your life just where you are as well. So keep creating and sharing amazing content, and together we’ll work to make this world a smaller place!

Since you’re already on Sosauce you won’t notice much of a difference regarding this change in focus. What you will notice is that we have a couple more stickies - one for your Travel Guide Reviews, and one for your Places I’ve Been Map. In the upcoming release, you will also be able to order quality Kodak prints of your photos and travel virtually to Antarctica.

All the best content, served fresh

To make it much easier for you to find interesting content, we’ve vastly improved the new Sosauce Home interface. Now you’ll get big, luscious updates of all the best content on the site every time you visit your home.

And keeping with the Sosauce mission, we’ll only deliver what’s actually meaningful and interesting, made using our suite of tools by your friends and other travel geeks.

All this is delicately pastry-wrapped in the best design on the web. So put on your bib, clean your utensils, and get ready to enjoy...

Oh, and not to worry, your Profile Gallery isn’t going anywhere. It’s only a click away and is still the same (and even improved) beautiful canvas for you to showcase yourself to others.

Visit Ross Island, Antarctica in Mesa3D

With Mesa3D, you can now visit places you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to go. First up, Ross Island, Antarctica!

You can experience Ross Island as it was when it was originally pioneered during the Terra Nova expedition of 1910, the first successful voyage onto the frozen continent. You can explore the island and learn about the research that goes on there, run around with the penguins, and even have a snow ball fight with your friends.

Better yet, we even deck you out in a fashion forward snow suit! So enjoy the frozen tundra - without the chills.

Photo - New and improved

With Obama’s recent election we thought it was time for a change too! Though we’re big fans of our current photo design, with a couple tweaks we knew we could make it even better. We’ve created a new interface that is even more sleek and effective. After a couple times trying it out we’re confident you’ll feel the same way.

Inaddition, you can now import your photos from Flickr! So bring in allthose phenomenal travel shots! We’re lovers and not haters so soonyou’ll be able to swing both ways ;)

Brand new Sosauce coming your way Monday morning!!

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:15:29 GMT

Most of your probably have received by this point the newsletter we sent out our earlier today. Yes! We've been working hard the past 3 months and Monday morning, we're gonna release a brand new Sosauce to everyone. So we're gonna be shutting down our servers when we are publishing the new Sosauce Sunday night. Please bear with us for several hours if you see the under maintenance page when you try to visit us.

Also, here are some more details on what's in the new release, if the info in the email didn't fully satisfy your curiosity:

Brilliant New Homepage:

Comes with featured Sosaucers and a search box to quickly find content on Sosauce!

Cool New Registration Pages:

Everyone get to pick their personalized URLs now!

Streamlined New Update Home:

All important updates and news at your finger tips!

Improved Profile Gallery:

With 3 new stickies -- Guide, Footprints and Mesa3, and a brilliant sticky bar.

Beautiful New Message Center Design:

Refined Sosauce (Travel) Guide:

Faster and more destinations to browse!

Reinvented Photo Pages:

Photo browsing taken to another level!

Premium Photo Printing

Best print quality on the web! Plus, you don't need to upload photos to another site when you want to order prints.

More Funs for Photo Editor:

Comes with holiday stickers!

Antartica's Mysterious Ross Island in Mesa3D:

Restricted in real life therefore we decided to bring it to you in Mesa3D! Have fun exploring this cool place!

Updated Mesa3D Apartment and Characters:

New furniture items and moves!

Can't believe we got so much done in 3 months? I can't either! But all these new features and new funs are coming your way in less than 3 days! Have we gotten you excited yet? Stay tuned! I promise we'll blow you away when you come back next Monday!

Sosauce Travel Happy Hour

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:32:46 GMT

Hey Sosauce travelers!

For all of you in the NY area, we'll be having our 2nd Happy Hour on Thursday, Dec. 4th @ the Alibi Lounge 7-10pm (same place as the 1st Happy Hour) in the village (near NYU).

So for all you Sosauce travel geeks, bring along friends and share your awesome travel experiences with other sosaucers over drinks, fun activities, and get to know fellow travel enthusiasts!

As usual, there will be early bird drink specials plus freebies and we've got some games to spice things up.

Look out for more details soon, and hope to see all of you there :)

[http://alibiny.com]

Check out these happy folks from our previous Sosauce events

Costume: See the Subject Matters favorites

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:51:47 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Costume

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Uncharted, click here.

Without further ado...

"John McClane" by Brittany Behrman

"Jack" by Howard Tsao

"Michael" by Stephen Capelli

"Gladiator e un Cafe Latte" by Cesar Vichido

"Jester" by Ida Jefsen Slac

by Soumen Basu Mallick

"Cowgirl by Yvonne Tsao

"Superman" by Hsueh Ju Chien

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Uncharted, by clicking here.

Weekly Blog Feature - Travel Photo Daily

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:38:56 GMT

This week's find is a place that features a new travel photo everyday. In addition to the photo itself, there are additional, contextual information about the photo, such as who takes it, where it is from, and when it is taken. Below the photo is also a link to the photographer's page.

While the photos themselves are not always well taken or high-resolution on screen. The editor of the site often picks photos that represent interest destinations. So while the photos themselves may not always be pretty, they are still interesting.

For very little time investment required (the site is litterally just about the photo of the day), Travel Photo Daily is worth a RSS subscribe.

www.travelphotodaily.com

Weekly Blog Feature - Vagabondish

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:01:39 GMT

Vagabondish - The Travelzine for Today's Vagabond - is another useful and interesting site for the information that travel geeks need and want. It has a lot of articles with practical tips, recs, editorials, etc. It also blends humor with really in depth digging of information.

The most recent article is:

26 Killer Travel Gadgets Every Geek Needs

And this article is hilarious. There are some really funny and off-the-wall gadgets here. Enjoy!

Add this blog to your RSS or bookmark it. It's worth your while, if you got some travel geek in you.

www.vagabondish.com

Weekly Blog Feature - Geeky Traveler

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:34:03 GMT

The Geeky Traveler is a really interesting blog that covers everything geeky about travel, everything a geek would need to travel, and every travel geek would enjoy on travel.

Unlike a lot of blogs or reviews on travel that focus on romanticism, they've done a great job in fishing out useful and tangible travel information.

There are tips on how to use Google to find destination info, or how to get iPhone map apps to help you during travel. There is even a mention about how Malibu Inn uses iPod Touch for guests! That's some knowledge right there.

We recommend adding it to your RSS feed. It's worthwhile reading for anyone interested in travel, especially geeks who travel and travel geeks.

http://www.geekytraveller.com/

Portrait: See the Subject Matters Favorites

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:35:58 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Portrait

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Costume, click here.

Without further ado...

by Greg Keysar

by Carmel Garvez

by Kristen Bartley

by Kendall Hooper

by Howard Tsao

by Stacy Shapiro

by Ida Jefsen Slac

by Soumen Basu Mallick

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Costume, by clicking here.

Sosauce's Basic Mode Photo Upload loves your Flash Player 10

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:50:19 GMT

Since Adobe released Flash Player 10 last Wednesday (10/15), a little security "fix" in the new version has left tons of social media sites that rely on Flash player for photo (/video) uploads scrambling. But if you're a Sosaucer, you probably never experienced any problem using Basic Mode Photo Upload with your Flash Player 10. Because we were able to identify and resolve the issue even before it created any problem. As I like to say, at Sosauce, we're all about making your Sosauce experience uninterruptted and one of the best!

The media upload problem is mainly caused by Adobe's decision to disable a feature that allows browsers to call upon its Flash Player to let users choose what files to upload. However, at least 90% of social media sites that are using this feature did not implement it themselves. Rather, they, including Sosauce Photo, all rely on a popular open source software package, SWFUpload, to deliver the feature. When the SWFUpload team was late to update their package after Flash 10 was released, it left everybody scrambling for a solution.

Fortunately, at Sosauce, we have Jerry the engineering master. When we realized the situation, we immediately got Jerry involved. After carefully evaluated the situation, he decided that the best solution was to stop using SWFUpload and switch to the Uploader package from the famed Yahoo! UI team -- a better solution from a more reliable organization. The YUI team is one of the most talented in our industry and they're also very good at keeping their tools up-to-date. More importantly, Yahoo! is generous enough to let startups like us use these tools for free. So kudos to Yahoo and YUI.

After the decision was made, it took another half a day for Jerry to swap out the package and we got Sosauce's Basic Mode Photo Upload to work with Flash Player 10, before the other big guys in our industry even realized what happened! For all of you Sosaucers, it probably felt like just another day of smooth picture upload and sharing. In the background, we're working very hard to keep things just that way for you every day! So please do enjoy and have tons of fun on Sosauce!

Weekly Blog Feature - The Devil Came on Horseback

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:08:29 GMT

The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary that gives a sobering and unrelenting account of what went on on Darfur, and I highly recommend that you watch it. It crystalises the issues in Darfur and puts life in perspective. The film is made by Brian Steidle, and since the filmmaker's return, he has been consulting on the crisis in Darfun and actively involved in various social causes.

One of the endeavors that spun from his efforts is Global Grassroots, a non-profit that helps to "advance women's wellbeing in poor countries." Brian Steidle is also now helping NGOs to do consulting and investigative work on Human Rights Violations, Crimes Against Humanity, and Crimes of Genocide.

If you are looking to help in various social causes, you may want to reach out to Brian Steidle.

www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com

www.globalgrassroots.org

www.steidlecorp.com

Get Ready for Sosauce Photo, Spicied Up Yet Another Notch!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:31:14 GMT

It has been 2 months since we last released an upgrade to Sosauce. Since then, we've been working really hard here at Sosauce HQ in NYC in building even more fun and useful features that are gonna make your Sosauce experience better and more interesting!

In a month or so, we'll be ready to release this new version. With that, you'll see a whole new redesigned Sosauce Photo with many exciting brand new features. Couldn't wait to know what we've been cooking? Let me give you some sneak preview here!

Wanna Order Prints of Your Photos? Now You Can!

One of the biggest undertaking we've been working on in the past 8 weeks is this cool Sosauce photo printing service. You'll be able to easily print your photos in different sizes within several mouse clicks in your Sosauce Photo account. Plus, all these photos will be printed with the highest resolution and on the highest quality Royal Kodak papers. Now you photo lovers will be able to enjoy your photos even when you're not in front of your computers!

Sosauce Photo Shopping Fun

More Streamlined Photo Viewing Experience

At Sosauce, we are obssessed with making our user interface better. So the new Sosauce Photo will come with newly redesigned photo managing and browsing pages -- thanks to our UI master mind, Jeff. These pages are state-of-the-art looking and even easier to use. Here are some sneak previews:

Whole New Photo Viewing Experience

Photo Management Made Easy

New Breath-Taking Album Views

But Wait! There's more!

Besides these major improvements, we'll also be releasing a number of very cool tweaks above and under the hood, including:

Color Profile Auto Adjustment: your DSLR photos will look even better on Sosauce!

Fun Photo Editor with Even More Fun: we have added a large selection of fun stickers and Halloween/Christmas-themed stuffs.

Improved Slideshow: now we'll remember the theme you prefer and automatically start playing next time! (You can still change the theme at any time!)

Guided/Fast Mode Uploads: they now work better with Firefox/Safari and on Macs!

Are we getting you excited with all these new changes yet? Stay tuned! Next up, I'll tell you what we've been doing to Sosauce Mesa, the leading web virtual world.

Happy Hour Revisited

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:08:06 GMT

For all of you who made it to our happy hour last Wednesday at Alibi Lounge- thanks! We had a great time hanging out and chattin' with everyone. You can be sure that this is the first of more to come!

While there we decided to have some fun and give people the opportunity to write quick responses to our current Question of the Week- "What is the single greatest invention in the world?"

Here are some of our favorites:

"Happy Hour- though it should be 24 hours!"

"The snooze button on alarm clocks"

"Beer!"

"Meat Loafers"

"Barack Obama"

"Whip Cream"

"Flank Steak"

"Mac-n-Cheese"

For more Sosauce fun, come to our Halloween Bash at Fontana's on Tuesday, October 28th. Free drinks for early birds and sauciest costumes. Enjoy snacks, laser graffiti and the hottest dance tracks on a Tuesday night!

Good times ahead!

Weekly Blog Feature - Sharkwater

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:49:34 GMT

The best documentary I've seen recently is one about the cruelty and environmental impact of shark finning. The documentary is called Sharkwater and is directed by Rob Stewart, a photographer who devoted his effort and time to saving sharks.

Sharkwater shows off the beauty of the ocean and marine life. And then juxtaposes this beauty with the ugliness of human destruction. It also has powerful footages that expose illegal shark fin trade, and these footages are attained at the director's personal risk.

Everything about sharks, conservation, the documentary, and Rob Stewart can be found at www.sharkwater.com. And I definitely encourage you to check out the site or watch the movie. It is eye opening, and it will hopefully change the way you perceive sharks, which are in dire need of protection.

The environmental effects, cruelty, and ridiculousness of shark finning and shark fin soup eating should be apparent, so I won't waste space here rehashing the subject. Instead, go to the Shark Education page on sharkwater.com for facts and related sites.

Sosauce Halloween Bash

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:28:18 GMT

Calling all New York Sosauce socialites!

(Photo by Randi Baron)

Get spooky-sauced at the Sosauce Halloween Bash, a free social onOctober 28th at Fontana's between 7 and 10pm. Free drinks for earlybirds and sauciest costumes. Enjoy snacks, laser graffiti and thehottest dance tracks on a Tuesday night!

Fontana's is a 21+ venue located at the edge of Chinatown on the Lower East Side at 105 Eldridge Street between Broome and Grand.

Don't be scared to come out! Check out the video and photos from our last Sosauce Social.

Thanks GoBackpacking.com!

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:59:19 GMT

We're pretty stoked that Dave at GoBackpacking.com said,

Travel communities typically offer users the ability to keep a journal,track their locations on maps, and share photos and videos. Sosauce Travelsets itself apart from the pack by tightly integrating all of thesefunctions. Their web designers are clearly working overtime to createsuch an experience for users.

Dave is traveling solo around the world and documents his travels on GoBackpacking.com. You can influence his adventures by answering his polls or daring him to go 5 days without a shower in exchange for some travel money.

Backpackers on Sosauce! Able-footed Kim posted her trip to Europe and our very own Sean P. wrote up his extensive journey through Thailand. Check them out!

Sosauce loves Lazzara's Pizza

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:17:13 GMT

On special occassions, we at Sosauce take a walk to the garment district's Lazzara's pizza to celebrate. I was excited to find that they just opened second location not too far away in Hell's Kitchen. The first time I went to Lazzara's, we ordered so many appetizers that I could only eat one slice of the famous thin-crust pizza when it arrived. Each pie is rectangular and into 6 pieces, not your traditional NY pizza!

One day, we got it delivered. I snagged a photo of Team Sosauce scarfing down the cheesey goodness:

Does your workplace have a favorite lunch spot?

Weekly Blog Feature - InsideTransit

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:54:41 GMT

Continuing last week's travel theme, this week's recommendation is a practical, useful, informational, but also funny and witty blog called InsideTransit. In addition to humorous and interesting posts of happenings around the world's urban transit systems, the blog also gives people very practical information and tips. For instance, in the NYC section, it has different pricing information and how to get to and from major NYC airports, all written in an easy to digest and concise fashion.

The blog is created and maintained by Allen Stern, who is also the mastermind behind the very in depth web news coverage on Center Networks. InsideTransit is Allen's passion, and it shows. It is a site you should definitely go check out - for practical info and for fun.

Nature: See the Subject Matters Favorites

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:35:47 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Nature

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Portrait, click here.

Without further ado...

by Stephen Capelli

by Vashistha Pathak

by Stacy Nguyen

by Jeff Lagasca

by Sean Pfitzenmaier

by Randi Baron

by Howard Tsao

by Greg Keysar

by Becky Plummer

by Katie Toth

by Yvonne Liang Tsao

by Robin Stephens

by Jelly Bean

Again, thanks to all who contributed!

You can now post on the current theme, Portrait, by clicking here.

Sosauce Happy Hour

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:44:46 GMT

Come join us for a special, low-key happy hour down in the Village. Meet other people on Sosauce, talk about your photos, travel experiences, and discuss different Questions of the Week. Or just hang-out, mingle, and have a drink!

Date:

Wednesday, October 8th

Time:

6:30pm - 9:30pm

Location:

Alibi Lounge

116 Macdougal St. (between W.3rd and Bleecker)

New York, NY 10012

Current Subject Matters: Portrait

Current Question of the Week:

"What is the single greatest invention in the world?"

Web Ecoist: 25 Environmental Forums and Social Media Sites

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:04:08 GMT

I can't agree more with the first line of the Web Ecoist article 25 Environmental Forums and Social Media Sites: "Green is not a spectator sport. It’s all about getting involved."

Our very own Sean P. picked up trash at Prospect Park on Earth Day.

I'd like to highlight Carbon Rally, one of the recommended sites on the list. Members have the chance to pitch small challenges to reduce energy use and global warming. The idea is if everyone reduces a little at a time, it will yield a big impact! I took on three challenges: to efficiently use my dishwasher, to bring waste-free lunch to work and to print less paper . In one day, I've reduced 2.6 pounds of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere!

Results are calculated on a weekly and monthly basis for individuals and get this--you can form teams! We at Sosauce try to do our best to save the planet. Some of us bring lunch in reusable containers, we recycle, we have office silverware and a couple people ride bikes to work!

What are ways that you stay green?

Gridskipper - Hidden Gem of a Travel Blog

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:03:12 GMT

From time to time, we would stumble across cool sites or blogs that are new and undiscovered, and we'll get excited or have a good laugh in the office. But it's actually our job to let you in on our discoveries as well! So if you're ever wondering what sites to explore, stay tuned and check back to the Sosauce Journal!

This week, our find is a very informative travel blog called Gridskipper. The people behind the site update new and interesting information almost constantly. The site also covers multiple internation travel destinations, such as New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, etc. You not only find useful tips and travel info, the posts are also funny, edgy, or enlightening.

Check out Gridskipper, and support the passionate and these people who are trying to make a difference.

Gridskipper at:

http://gridskipper.com/

Also check out a new post on Ando's Shibuya Station in progress.

http://gridskipper.com/tag/tokyo

Enjoy!

Are you a Twitter?

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:46:41 GMT

We at Sosauce love Twitter. It's a great way to stay up-to-date with our industry as well as tell the world more about what we've been up to! If you're a Twitter too, feel free to follow @sosauce and receive real-time updates from what team Sosauce has been up to!

Avocado Sushi (酪梨壽司)

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:36:41 GMT

One of our friends from grad school became one of the biggest bloggers in Taiwan. How cool is that!

While in school, with the pen name of 酪梨壽司, she introduced her readers to the craziness of the MBA life. Her writing (in Chinese) is humorous and very personable. She tells all and holds nothing back. Now two years removed from school, she is married and living in Japan, but her blog only grew exponentially. She now writes about her experiences has a Taiwanese housewive in Tokyo. It's really funny stuff, and interesting in giving people real insights into the fine line where cultures clash.

She definitely doesn't need our endorsements or promotion, and most Taiwanese already know her (yeah, she is that popular). We are recommending her as fans. So for those who read Chinese, we're including her blog link here:

http://blog.pixnet.net/cwyuni

Here you can check out her regular Chinese language blog and leave her comments.

http://www.sosauce.com/cwyuni/home

This is her profile on Sosauce. Another way to reach out to her.

Candidate Comparison

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:26:37 GMT

From our advisor Professor Preston who is also the king of interesting or funny email forwards:

*Disclaimer: This does not necessarily reflect the views of everyone at Sosauce or the company itself.

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

*If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become thefirst black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voterregistration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years asa Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senatorrepresenting a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman ofthe state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 yearsin the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million peoplewhile sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs,Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, youdon't have any real leadership experience.

* If your totalresume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 yearsas the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as thegovernor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified tobecome the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If youhave been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a realChristian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a richheiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the nextmonth, you're a Christian.

* If you teach teach children about sexual predators, you are irresponsible and eroding the fiber of society.

*If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with noother option in sex education in your state's school system while yourunwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

*If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in aprestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner citycommunity, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's valuesdon't represent America 's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no collegeeducation, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was amember of a group that hates America and advocated the secession ofAlaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

International Pickle Day

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:35:00 GMT

It's a tough life being a pickle. Think about it. You grow up happily as a cucumber only to have someone dump you in pot of boiling water and then stick you in a jar for a few weeks. The absurdity!

Last Sunday was the designated time for all the oppressed pickles around the world to unite and bring awareness to their cause. One block of Manhattan's Lower East Side became the mecca for pickles and pickle lovers alike. Dill pickles, sweet pickles, not a single pickle was left out.

The markets may be crashing, food costs may be rising, and oil may be diminsihing, but not all is wrong with the world. Pickle Day is here, and it's here to stay. Justice does prevail.

Mmmm... pickles

Party Pickles

Religious Pickles

Political Pickles

To see more photos from New York's International Pickle Day click here.

Puppies: See the Subject Matters favorites

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:08:53 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Puppies

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Nature, click here.

Without further ado:

by Robin Stephens

by Jeff Lagasca

by Greg Keysar

By K Gross

By Katy Peng

by Ross Siegel

by Dori Cross

by Jamie Lin

By Kwanlada Chansongklod

And one bonus shot, "Troublemaker" from Robin Stephens again:

Again, thanks to all who contributed!

You can now post on the current theme, Nature, by clicking here.

Sosauce Social Chili Video

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:09:34 GMT

Our users are stars! We've just finished our newest video in a series where we get people to eat hot chili peppers on camera. It was a hilarious scene with cups of milk and slices of bread on hand for those who suffered. Austin edited all the clips together and presto:

Special thanks to Alan C., Leah S., Emily C., Mayumi Y., Paul A., Jean P., Steven B. and everyone else for participating!

Haven't seen our chili videos before? Check out them out!

We would love any activity suggestions for our next Sosauce Social !

Sunlight: See the Subject Matters favorites

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:41:44 GMT

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Sunlight

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Puppies, click here.

Without further ado:

By Brian Yohn

By Jamie Lin

By Vashistha Pathak

By Lena Norakidze

By Stacy Nguyen

By Jeff Lagasca

By Soumen Basu Mallick

By Greg Keysar

By Cesar Vichido

By Sean Pfitzenmaier

By Sean Diamond

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Puppies, by clicking here.

GOOD Wanderlust

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:34:59 GMT

Our good friend Audrey at Henry Grey PR forwarded me something super cool that I want to share.

GOOD has made a visualization out of Flash that shows famed historical travel routes, such as the Silk Road, Magellan's Circumnavigation, Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight, and the Orient Express. You can click on a route in the list to diver deeper and read a summary and see photos and illustrations.

Here's the link:

GOOD Wanderlust

This list is a memorial itself. The only thing I wish they keep working on is to expand the list! This is one visualization that I can't get enough of.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Howard

Sosauce Social a Smashing Success!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:18:56 GMT

We'd like to extend our warmest thanks to Piano's for hosting our second Sosauce Social! It was packed in there! We might need a bigger room next time!

Boy, we got the party started quickly with 50 free drinks to the first attendees.

Other highlights included

- Austin setting up our mini-movie set to shoot a new "Hot Peppers" video. He had cups of milk and loaves of bread on hand to alleviate the burning.

- Brian P. killing it in the DJ booth with a nostalgic mix of 90's music.

- Chikodi bringing a posse to show off the video debut of his trip to India.

Extra thanks to our loyal users that came! Jeff L. and Brian K. compiled all the pictures from the evening in a group album. Feel free to tag yourselves to let us know who you are!

Thank you Baixaki, O Velho & TurntheScrew!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:08:12 GMT

Another blog round up! This time, we have a couple of Brazilian writers on our tail !

Douglas Ciriaco wrote up a comprehensive review on Baixaki, typically an application downloading site. He even made an account and took his own screenshots:

We also got a forum posting about Mesa (complete with Vimeo video embedded) on O Velho:

Remember when we got super excited about being on PC Mag's Top 100 Undiscovered sites? Jaunty opera singer turned blogger TurntheScrew went through the list of sites and tried them. He recognized Sosauce as one of the Top 14 TurnTheScrew sites of 2008!

TurntheScrew even recommends reading Howard's entry about his massive flight delay back in March.

Great! We hope the good stuff keeps on comin' !

Thank you Profy, Rotor Blog, Mashable & Gulf News!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:21:10 GMT

Quite the buzz happening around here!

Thank you to Svetlana Gladkova at Profy for highlighting Mesa, our experimental department's 3D virtual world! She said it shows "great promise for the future of travel sites in general."

Arnold Zafra at Rotor blog was excited about Mesa too!

Kristen Nicole at Mashable complimented our design and gave a quick overview of our updated travel features:

Scott Shuey at Gulf News raves about our design and says, "For anyone with wanderlust, the site has a lot to offer in terms of content and usability."

Wow! We're blushing over here! Our users also deserve a pat on the back. Our new features wouldn't have come to fruition without feedback and interesting content!

Dive into Sosauce Travel

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:01:57 GMT

OK, big exhale.... after a lot of hard work we just expanded Sosauce Travel to now include the Travel Guide. Now we dare to be the most comprehensive travel planning and recording resource on the web. Good stuff!

The combination of the Travel Guide and our the trip recording tool provides you with the significantly more context for both sharing trips and researching future ones. Not only can you see all the advice of friends and like-minded travelers for your chosen destinations but you can review their actual trips in detail, borrow their itineraries, and even contact them for advice. No need to scour for all this disparate information across the web, you can find it all on Sosauce!

Check out the video!

Travel Guide:

Search or browse for a trip destination, then find the opinions and detailed itineraries of others who have been and learn from their experience

Knowledgeable about a particular destination? Actively participate in shaping its image and popularity

Trip Recording (via Places I’ve Been & Trips)

Easily plan your trips, then recount them in stunning detail by adding photos, videos, journals, tips, reviews, and points of interest

Fulfill that imperial urge to pin all the places you’ve been on a map, and show it off for all to see

Trip Embed:

Embed your trip on another site or blog to share details of your trip with your friends, family and community.

Group Trip:

Copy the itineraries of your co-travelers in two clicks, then fill in your own perspective by adding photos, videos, journals, tips and reviews

Then check out your destinations on a 3D spinning globe!

Another Sosauce Social & Filming a New Video

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:28:49 GMT

Sosauce is hosting another free Sosauce Social at Pianos' upstairs lounge on August 22nd, 2008 from 7 to 10pm.

We will have big screen computer kiosks to show off our newest features, free wifi, giveaways and Brian Blackout returns as our resident DJ.

If you are feeling adventurous, we will be filming a sequel to our chili eating video.

The first 50 attendees will get a free drink on us!

To RSVP: Send an email to jenn[at]sosauce.com

Piano's NYC is a 21+ venue and is located at 158 Ludlow Street(between Rivington and Stanton) in the Lower East Side via the F, J, Mor Z train stop at Delancey - Essex.

Check out the photos from the first Sosauce Social.

My friends and I definitely had fun!

Sosauce on PC Mag's Top 100 Undiscovered Sites

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:31:13 GMT

Team Sosauce would like to high-five Jason Preusz and Kyle Monson for listing Sosauce as one of PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Sites of 2008 (under Social Networking).

Each year, a team of PC Magazine editors, bloggers, and analysts assembles to find the best Web sites of the year. We pore over thousands of submissions from PC Magstaffers, proud Web admins, enthusiastic PR flacks, and readers justlike you. We then painstakingly whittle the list of nominations down to100 Undiscovered Web Sites.

For our Undiscovered Web Sites list, we pick those that capture thebest of the trends and memes swirling around the Web. Some of these"undiscovered" Web sites are surely known to you, and may even havelarge Internet followings within their particular niche, but the list'sbroad range of sites and categories means there's plenty of new stuffhere for everyone to discover.

Well, we're flattered! Thanks PC Mag!

Color: See the Subject Matters favorites

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:08:36 GMT

There's been a great response to our latest Subject Matters theme, and we'd like to take a minute to thank of all our entrants! As a result, lots of photos to admire!

As usual, here's a few of our favorites for:

Color

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Sunlight, click here.

Without further ado...

From Dori Cross

From Elizabeth Sieglinger

From Jenn De La Vega

From Soumen Basu Mallick

From Randi Baron

From Joely Mench

From Vashistha Pathak

From Jelly Bean

From Greg Keysar

From Shubby Du

From Sean Diamond

From Cesar Vichido

Again, thanks to all who entered!

You can now post on the current theme, Sunlight, by clicking here.

Feature Spotlight - Updates

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:52:03 GMT

Updates (or news) on Sosauce is about what people create and the conversations that follow. You won't have to worry about being bitten by vampires all the time or about who ordered tickets on Fandango.

To see Updates of friends, tab over to Updates at your Sosauce Home. If you open Settings at Home, you can change your default Home display to Updates. If you click on Add Stickies, you can pick and choose the types of updates you want to see. So in addition to General Updates that combines everything, you can also see updates just on photo, journal, and/or travel.

If you want to choose what kind of updates or news to see, click on Settings on General Updates. There are quite a few options to choose from. You can customize anything from comments, messaging, friending, and polls to new content, updated content, and subscriptions.

If you want to see more updates from the Sosauce Community, you can always go to your application homes or the community pages from the header and the stickies.

Hunting for Updates? All you need is a mouse.

Thank You FindingDulcinea!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:50:06 GMT

FindingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, featured Sosauce as part of their daily "Site Spotlight" feature, a place where they recommend interesting, new or usefull Web sites.

It's been an exciting week here at Sosauce with both the FindingDulcinea and the Communication Arts features. Good times!

FindingDulcinea is a great site that uses human judgement to hand-select the highest quality sites on the Web. To date, they have surfaced more than 12,000 of the best sites the Internet has to offer through topical Web guides, in-depth news coverage, and provactive features.

Thank you!

Waste: See the Subject Matters favorites

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:27:05 GMT

A few of our favorites from the most recent

Subject Matters theme:

Waste

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Color, click here.

Without further ado...

From Dori Cross

From Randi Baron

From Howard Tsao

From Elizabeth Mattuchio

Thanks to all who entered!

Again, you can now post on the current theme, Color, by clicking here.

Thank You Communication Arts!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:02:22 GMT

Communication Arts, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, U.S. design magazines featured Sosauce as their web pick of the day today!

(Sosauce snapshot in the red box)

Thank you Communication Arts! It's an honor to be selected and published on your site.

About Communication Arts:

Founded in 1959, Communication Arts is the premier source of inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers—everyone involved in visual communication. Whether in print or online, CA's editorials, feature articles and the annual competitions it sponsors provide new ideas and information, while promoting the highest professional standards for the field. Now in its 50th year, CA continues to showcase the current best—from industry veterans to tomorrow's innovators—in design, advertising, illustration, photography and interactive media.

La La La Salsa!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:11:42 GMT

Jenn and Maya are now officially my two favorite people in the world. A couple days ago they surprised the rest of us with homemade salsa, an assortment of taste bud tingly freshness.

Onions, garlic, and cilantro... probably not what you want to eat on a date, but for the office, it couldn't have been better.

(Our chefs- Maya and Jenn)

(Austin and Brian waiting to dig in. I think I see drool.)

It was hot outside but I think it was even hotter in our mouths! Mmmm.... salsa, the perfect mid-afternoon indulgence.

Thanks Jenn and Maya!!

Noise: see the Subject Matters favorites

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:00:57 GMT

A few of our favorites from the most recent

Subject Matters theme:

Noise

To see all the submissions, click here.

To post on the current theme, Waste, click here.

Without further ado...

From Brian Yohn

From Maya Slomovich

From Brian Pennington

From Greg Keysar

Thanks to all who entered!

Again, you can now post on the current theme, Waste, by clicking here.

Why I like Sosauce Photo better than Flickr...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:50:04 GMT

Before Sosauce Photo, I used to share my pics on Flickr. But these days I'm so spoiled by Sosauce Photo that whenever I go back to check out my Flickr contacts' photos, I just wish they can switch to Sosauce sooner.

So come to think about it, why do I like Sosauce Photo that much better?

I. SPEED

This probably is the most important factor as nobody wants to spend the whole day in front of a computer just waiting for pictures to be loaded. After all the upgrades we've done to Sosauce Photo, now browsing photos on Photo is just much faster than on Flickr. On average it takes only 0.5s to load the next photo on Sosauce while it takes about at least twice the time to do so on Flickr. Imagine how much time you can save after going through a 60-picture album of your friend's. (Check out the speed comparison videos below, which I recorded earlier with the same computer, same network connection and same photos uploaded to both sites. You can try it yourself with this link and this link.)

Sosauce Photo Speed

Flickr Speed

II. PHOTO SIZE

While Sosauce Photo loads pictures fater, we're not cheating by giving you a smaller image. On the contrary, Sosauce Photo offers a stunning 625-pixel picture for your eyes while Flickr only gives you a 500-pixel one. That 25% increase in size just makes photos look much more amazing, especially on bigger screens.

III.JUMP AHEAD

Sosauce Photo's thumbnail bar gives me the ability to preview the next 15 photos at once while Flickr only offers preview of next 1 photo. This feature especially comes in handy when going through some of the albums I'm less interested in.

Sosauce's 15-Thumbnail Preview Bar

Flickr's 1-photo preview.

IV. DETAILS

Finally this is something we've spent a lot of time working on -- making your photo look sharp while retaining as much details as possible when making a smaller version of it for your on-screen view. If you take a resize that Sosauce Photo generates for you, this one for example, and compare that with the one that Flickr generates. You'll find out that Sosauce Photo's version is much sharper and with more details. On top of that, we are able to do it while keeping the file size small. (In the previous example, the file size is 113KB on Sosauce vs. 183KB on Flickr.)

So my friends, I hope with all these reasons, you can seriously consider switching to Sosauce Photo and make my life easier and more fun!

Feature Spot light - Polls

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:01:35 GMT

As some of you have already discovered, Poll on Sosauce is easy and fun!!

It is meant for you to finally let out the interesting, weird, and fun questions that have always been on your mind. You come up with the questions and see how others respond. You can of course string questions together to make your own simple surveys or tests.

You can also decorate your poll questions with different backgrounds, pictures, and result displays.

The Poll can be found both at your Home and your Journal entry. At your Home, if your Poll Sticky is not already showing, click on Sticky Library, find the Poll Sticky, and click on it to open it.

At your Journal entry, the Poll is located at the top of the entry. You can create your poll the same way you would at your Home. The Journal Poll is really designed to complement your entry and give your readers more food for thought.

Here are some interesting and fun poll questions that I've come across on Sosauce so far:

Who do you hate publicly but secretly love?

Paris Hilton
George W Bush
Britney Spears
Michael Jackson

What are you more afraid of being in the middle of?

The ocean
A desert
A jungle
The amazon river
Space with little oxygen left

If you were on Iron Chef, who would you battle?

Masaharu Morimoto
Bobby Flay
Mario Batali
Michael Symon
Cat Cora

So what is your question? Get them answered with your own Poll!

Human life measured in toilet paper

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:07:39 GMT

Take a roll of toilet paper. Feel its weight and thickness in your hand. Squeeze all those layers in your palms and run your fingers over the many ridges spiraling outward. If you're ballsy, throw it out your 7th story window. It will hit the ground and roll to the end of the block. Imagine this roll as the 6.6 billion year timeline of the planet's history wrapped upon itself.

Tear off 16 millimeters of the first sheet. You now hold in your hand the entire length of human history on this planet.

Then take your 16 millimeter piece and tear off 4 millimeters. You now hold in your hand the history of "civilization" on this planet.

With your four millimeters, it's going to be difficult. Tear of another 1/25 of your piece and you'll be holding the period of life that occurred since civilization marked the period of AD. Right now you're getting near the thickness of a human hair.

I'd ask you to tear off another 1/20, the years in which you yourself will occupy the planet, but you probably get it by now. It's small. We, our lives, are small.

Our meaning and our happiness comes from engagement with the life on this planet, with those around us, through our personal intellectual transcendence - Our art, our expression, these give us meaning. But make no mistake, our life's importance is relative. Fleeting only begins to describe it. We look at the mayfly, born in the morning to die in the night, as a blink. For the planet, we are born in one second and extinguished the next. Billions of species have gone extinct before we even arrived.

I've noticed the human has the tendency to confront these hard truths in one of two ways. Either one, they ignore it and continue in blithe indifference. Or two, they focus on it and are slowly crushed by its weight. Is the human being even capable of acknowledging it and all its implications? Or is that why religion is so continually successful...

Dinosaurs lived for 160 million years. That's 800 times longer than us. For 160 million years, nothing really changed. The shifting continents constituted the greatest difference. There was no industrialization, no civilizations. No concrete or steel or crops. All of that happened in the last 4 millimeters. The planet looks so different as a result of those 4 millimeters, the dinosaurs would hardly recognize it. If we wish to ensure the human race's survival on this planet, if the notion of our children and theirs is important to us (a decision we collectively make whether our opinions vary), then we need to expand our notion of time - Think about what measurable temperature change in 10 years means for a planet 6.6 billion years old. Start making decisions over entire handfuls of toilet paper. Next time you go to wipe, think about whether you'd like the human race to participate in the next 60 million years of this planet's history, the amount that you're holding in your hand. Maybe try not to get so much shit on it.

But don't worry about the planet itself, it will persist. Our extinction is just one more to add to the billions.

Next week: Why constantly thinking about the environment and human worth is depressing and probably not good for you

Subject Matters: Noise

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:25:32 GMT

When you think of the word 'Noise' what comes to mind? Like most people, I generally associate that word with a negative sound like a police siren or a jet flying rather low. The geeky side of me thinks of the interference when analayzing an analog signal (despite my efforts, I can't remove 100% of my engineering education). When I let my creativity reign I imagine visual noise as well as audio, where information is being thrown at you so fast that your brain can barely process what's going on.

But the real question is, when you think of the word 'Noise' what comes to mind? We're curious as to what images it conjurs up in your head. And if we're curious then we're betting that other people are curious as well.

It's for this reason that we've decided to use the word 'Noise' as our initial subject for the Subject Matters contest.

Every two weeks we're going to pick a new word, show you our photographic interpretation of that word and then ask you to submit your own.

For 'Noise' this is our entry:

Does 'Noise' create a completely different visual to you? If so, then we'd love to see it. For directions on how to submit your own photo click here.

Or if you're not quite ready to jump in but want to see other people's interpretation click here.

At the end of two weeks we'll post a few of our favorites and honor those whose photos generated a lot of interest.

So, go ahead, enter, and make some NOISE!!

We're loving Firefox 3 at Sosauce!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:34:28 GMT

Finally, Mozilla officially released Firefox 3 last week. Already, it has set the world record of 8 million downloads in 24 hours.

But more importantly (to Sosauce community), it has also set a record of finish loading Sosauce My Home in 5 seconds. People have told us that My Home's Sticky Board platform is a bit too ambitious and ahead of the curve. Finally, there is a browser that can run it smoothly and make it easily accessible for everyone.

Therefore, we're loving Firefox 3 here at Sosauce and we highly recommend that you upgrade your browser to get the best out of our cool applications!

You can download Firefox 3 here:

Sosauce 中文簡介 (Introduction to Sosauce in Chinese)

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:39:23 GMT

Sosauce (www.sosauce.com) 是美國第一個集合"Web 2.0 內容分享"與 "3D 線上虛擬世界 (Online Virtual World)"為一體的網站, 創業團隊包含幾位旅美華人. Sosauce 目前提供的服務有: 照片分享 (Sosauce Photo), 部落格 (Sosauce Journal), 旅遊日誌 (Sosauce Travel) 以及我的窩 (My Home) 等分享平台, 以及超級乒乓 (Hyper Pong) 和極限雪橇 (Extreme Sledding)等數個多人線上遊戲. 除此之外, Sosauce 每個月都發表新功能, 接下來即將率續發表影片分享 (Sosauce Video),我的虛擬角色 (My Virtual Character) 以及我的虛擬家 (My Virtual Home) 等新功能.

Sosauce 的特色是好玩易用, 例如 "我的窩 (My Home)"是由"便利貼 (Sticky)"所組成, 每個 Sticky都可以動態調整大小, 顏色, 背景以及內容, 讓你只需用滑鼠拖拉點選, 就可以輕鬆布置出一個有自己特色的首頁.

Sosauce 旅遊日誌更是號稱史上最強旅行記錄工具, 你不僅可以在地圖上標出去過的國家城市, 還可以在圖標中插入日誌, 照片, 影片,旅遊提示 (tips) 和評分 (review), 在足跡所遍每個所到的城市中, 你還可以再深入標明拜訪過的景點, 插入更多日誌,照片等內容.

Sosauce Photo 使用超強縮圖最佳化技術,照片銳利清晰. 目前提供 1 GB 免費空間, 並且不限頻寬,隨時可以下載原始圖檔.

Sosauce Journal 讓網誌個人化, 提供各種精美的書本設計, 讓網誌從一成不變的網頁瀏覽,變成有趣的閱讀經驗.

等不及要試試 Sosauce 了嗎? 到這裡註冊一個新帳號吧!

Feature Spotlight - Group Album

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:22:47 GMT

After a trip, wedding, or event, there invaribly be emails jamming your mailbox. Some from Kodak, some from Picasa, some from Flickr, and some from .Mac. After digesting through everything and going through a bunch of the similar pictures, don't you ever wonder what life would be like if there is a way to have everyone pool to the same album, have someone edit and organize it, and then have everyone copy the photos?

If you think this is still too next-generation or too far into the future, look for the Manage Contributors icon on your album:

(The Manage Contributos icon is the one on the right)

With the Group Album on Sosauce, after you create one, you can add people as contributors. This just means that they can add photos to your Group Album. You can also allow them to all copy your photos with the proper Creative Commons licensing.

This is the settings window you see after you click on Manage Contributors:

If someoneelse made you a contributor to a group album, you will see it in your Updates or in yourGroup Album page.

And of course, you can always interact with friends through comments and ratings. Once you copy the photos from a Group Album, you can also post link or email the album out.

Group Album Tip!

The Group Album on Sosauce is actually one of the most advanced privacy feature on the web. This is because it allows you to pinpoint exactly who you want to share photos with, beyond the standard levels of privacy settings. So for example, if you only want to share your trip photos with those on the trip, or if you only want to share your party pictures with 3 of your close friends. All you have to do is Private your album. Then, add only those you want to share with as Contributors. This way, you can also have close collaboration.

Enjoy Group Album-ism!

Sosauce just got a whole lot faster!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:53:02 GMT

A lot of you probably have noticed, but if you haven't -- Sosauce just got a whole lot faster recently! For example, in Sosauce Home, your My Home now loads 2-3 times faster than it used to be and it's even speedier than a Myspace or a Facebook profile. Similarly, in Sosauce Photo, switching to the next photo now is 3-4 times faster than Flickr!

After we launched Beta, many Sosauce users have told us that you'd like your Homes, among other things, to load faster. It's not easy considering Sosauce has much more features than other sites. But we heard you! And we went ahead and did our homework! Lately, we were finally able to tweak some things underneath Sosauce's hood to take it up several notches.

One of the biggest things we've done is called "gradual load," which is to tell your browsers to load Home Stickies one at a time -- instead of loading all at once. Since loading too many Stickies at a time usually makes browsers hang. This greatly improved loading speed of Home, and other more complicated pages, like Travel Home.

Then we started using a new web design technique called "sliding doors," which is to layer the same big image on top each other several times. This saves time comparing to loading more but smaller images and makes your Stickies and Journals load a lot faster!

Finally, we also simplified our code structure across site so its easier for your browsers to intepret, or "parse" in technical jargon.

All those things took us a lot of work but we're pretty happy with the end result! And no! We're not done yet! In fact, we're still in the process of implementing even more things to improve Sosauce's performance while we add new features. So please enjoy the new speedy Sosauce and keep us posted on your feedbacks!

Have fun!

Sosauce Social... Revisited!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:10:59 GMT

Friday night, the lower east side of New York City, a cool bar, good music, crazy lasers, and a bunch of people... the perfect recipe for our first, of what we hope to be many, Sosauce Socials. (Now try saying that 10 times fast...).

If you want to jump straight to the good stuff, check out the photos: Sosauce Social Photos.

Or you can kick back, chill out and read our play-by-play...

In the beginning we convinced Chikodi to dress up in our chili suit and lure unsuspecting people to the upstairs ounge of Pianos, our venue for the event. Though most showed enthusiasm, some were a bit skeptical of a rather large chili... kind of like this girl.

While Chikodi was wooing all the ladies, we were upstairs setting up for a night of mayhem... or good clean fun- you decide. Actually for a party from 6-9pm, mayhem really isn't an option.

Soon all the people started coming in and...

Some checked out the site...

Some played our cool little game of laser graffiti...

And some just partied it up....

All while our very own DJ, Brian Blackout, was spinning the jams.

Needless to say it was good times- Sosauce style!

(See more photos of the Sosauce Social)

Feature Spotlight - Group Journal

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:34:00 GMT

The idea of the Group Journal is about collaboration. In writing or self expression online so far, people write, read, or subscribe individually or interact with finished writing in the form of commenting or rating. The one thing that is missing is a way for people to collaborate.

Why collaborate? This was really the question that we asked before we took on the Group Journal project. If people share the same interest and are enthusiasts about the same thing, commenting on each others' work is nice, but is inadequate in terms of depth of experience and immersion. What is really powerful is for people with the same interest to come together and share experiences by actually collaborating. This way, it is easier for people to feed off of and be inspired by each others' ideas.

With the Group Journal on Sosauce, you can empower people to be contributors to your Journal writing. So if you have a cookbook that you want to share with fellow aspiring chefs, or if you have an environmental journal that you want to share with others who fight for the same cause, you can make them authors to the same Journal. They in turn can write entries to the journal, which you manage. If someone else made you a contributor, you will see it in your Updates or in your Group Journal page.

Group Journal Feature Tip:

The key to adding contributors resides in Journal Manage. When you get to the Manage page, you'll see the button to Manage Contributors. This opens the window for you to add, remove, and message your contributors.

Enjoy collaboration!

Painting Ourselves Red

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:32:16 GMT

The Brazilian Government recently released some photos of an Amazonian tribe that has been able to exist in almost complete isolation from the more civilized (a poor word in this context, but what can you do) world around it.

The pictures are magnificent. Not for their quality or composition but because something deep stirs when you look at them. They reveal, to me at least, a kind of human, even animal, truth. Almost as if we've all been deluding ourselves of our sophistication - falsifying the planet's history on the basis of our few thousand years in the spotlight. It's a whole flood of thoughts, really, mostly about social constructs like religion and politics, but also about happiness, even love. In the primitive, nearly unbelievable way in which they react to the planes passing overhead (The God's Must be Crazy anyone?), the human being is exposed for all her faults and magnificence. And the accepted notion of entitlement of the other six billion alive on this planet becomes somewhat absurd. In our societies, freed from the presence of the other animals, we've been able to separate out our notions of what life is. In this pictures I see the life, that for so much longer, has been the only life. The planet has changed so much in the last thousand years, and and an almost mind-boggling amount in the last hundred. These pictures remind us of our humble beginnings.

I'm not sure I yearn for some return to this age, and the thought of living month over year in an amazonian rainforest is not particularly inviting. But I do find myself slightly embarrassed for the human race. Like a egoist who suddenly discovers his friends all are secretly indifferent to him. I'm urged by these photos, and by the environmental movement in general, not to have too much convicition about my own entitlement to a certain, modern kind of life. This life that everywhere acts as a camouflage of our past.

Sosauce Social

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:54:33 GMT

As part of Internet Week (June 3-10, 2008), Sosauce is hosting the Sosauce Social at Pianos' upstairs lounge.

Come celebrate the recent launch of this Fashion Avenuestart-up and network with other Sosauciers on June 6th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm. We'll have multimedia, free wifi, oodles of fun giveaways--plus our very own DJ Brian Blackout will be spinnin' the jams!

Chill,informal, fun and free... LES style!

To RSVP: Send an email to sean[at]sosauce.com

Piano's NYC is a 21+ venue and is located at 158 Ludlow Street (between Rivington and Stanton) in the Lower East Side via the F, J, M or Z train stop at Delancey - Essex.

Travel Contest Winners!

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:58:32 GMT

After some heated debates, food being thrown, and someone running around the office in a Scottish kilt, the three winners of our travel contest have been determined.

Drumroll please....

First Place

Trip: Magical Andes

Traveler: Alexander Buisse

"My amazing trip to the Andes, going through three countries (Peru, Bolivia and Chile) over a bit less than a month. I was visiting my sister in Arequipa, and ended up having the best time of my life!"

Judges comments:

"Spectacular trip with amazing photos"

"Well written, adventurous, and interesting"

"Crazy destinations, great photos, and down to earth"

Second Place

Trip: Rome and Venice

Traveler: Melody Kristensen

"Rome has been one of those places I have always fantasized aboutvisiting. Ever since I watched Roman Holiday. I will admit though. Itwas nothing of what I expected. Venice is the only place I have visited that exceeded my expectationsof it. Venice took my dreams of it, myimaginations and just enhanced them. It is literally like walkingthrough a dream."

Judges comments:

"Really extensive and useful."

"Well put together with great photos"

"Very detailed and great use of travel features"

Third Place

Trip: Siam Reap: Cambodia

Traveler: Mia Hsu

"Journey to Siem Reap from Taipei, Taiwan, via Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Bayum is the most photogenic Wat - the second most popular tourist destinationother than angkor wat! it's worth a visit especially in the morning!"

Judges comments:

"More than just touristy insights of an exotic destination"

"Good photographs of great scenery"

"Very complete trip recording. Good journals, tips, reviews and photos."

Congratulations to Alexandre, Melody, and Mia. Their prizes await! And thank you to everyone who entered, rated, and help to make this contest a success. Stay tuned for more!

2D and 3D Get Married or Why I Like Cel-Shading

Thu, 29 May 2008 18:05:03 GMT

One of the topics that animators seem to be forever divided on is the merits of cel-shading. Cel-shading, or toon shading, draws its name from an archaic method of producing hand-drawn animation, which utilized celluloid sheets on which each frame of animation was inked and painted. This process and the resulting aesthetic of flat, stylized coloration of the animated characters developed out of the technological limitations of the time, as the process of inking cels made a more painterly approach to shading quite difficult.

In the current day, CG animation has eliminated these barriers, but the graphic, "cartoony" style is still highly sought after, having become practically synonymous with two-dimensional animated film. At a time when most hand-drawn animated material contains at least a few scenes involving 3D elements, artists seek ways to seamlessly blend computer animation into shots without the 2D and 3D portions clashing with each other.

In the past, this task of combining different techniques had proved a difficult one, as evidenced by the large number of early experiments criticized by animators and reviewers alike for "Conspicuous Computer Graphics." For example, Titan AE, a Science Fiction film directed by Don Bluth, received flack in reviews for its jarring contrast between its hand drawn characters and the accompanying 3D. This gap, however, is closing rapidly with each passing year and the advent of cel-shaders has helped dramatically in blending the two styles together. Thus, complex machinery and solid or inorganic objects are often executed with toon-shaded 3D, giving animators the ability to rotate and animate them without having to expend a great amount of effort to keep every frame drawn consistently. While some of the more fervent traditionalists spurn toon-shaded 3D in their films, opting for a hand drawn approach, this use of 3DCG cel-shading has become something of an industry standard.

Discrete toon shading on vehicles and props in 2D films may have gained a good deal of acceptance in the world of animation, but applying the technique to your primary characters is a much more controversial move. Certain CG creators critical of the technique argue that taking 3D animation, which can employ everything from photorealistic textures to brush strokes reminiscient of an oil painting to shade the characters, and putting the flat colors of toon-shaders on it is nothing but a step backwards, a sign of artists clinging to the past when there are other options available.

As for myself, I would argue that 2D as an aesthetic should never be completely abandoned, for it brings life to stylized illustrations in a way that realistically rendered 3D often cannot. It's like comparing comic books to puppets - Two completely different methods that one can choose to tell their story. I use the Nickelodeon movie Jimmy Neutron as my example of this: In my opinion, the cartoonish characters would have worked much better as flat illustrations than their current doll-like incarnations. Jimmy's odd sweep of hair is peculiar as a three dimensional object, but perhaps had cel-shading technology been more robust at the time they could have created him as a much more appealing 'toon.

As it stands now, toon shading has gradually insinuated itself into the CG artist community, and the level to which it often resembles hand drawn illustrations is startling. Lately I have been enamored of a few Japanese creators whose grasp of 3D allows them to create intricately designed costumes for their cel-shaded characters and pose them in myriad ways without having to draw every little detail multiple times, for once you build a 3D character, you can reuse it again and again in different shots. This is something that is nigh impossible with traditional methods, as drawing a great amount of detail by hand on an animated character takes an inordinate amount of time. In this regard, toon shading is quite the boon for animators.
In still pictures, toon shaded characters are often indistinguishable from hand drawn illustrations, but a problem arises once the character begins to move. Too often I see toon shaded films that are marred by "floaty" animation. One of the tenants of the Disney master animators was exaggeration of stylized characters which would, oddly enough, create a sense realism. Without this squash and stretch, this flexibility and elasticity, the 3D 'toons seem to be too solid, too hard to be convincingly alive.

I, for one am optimistic about the future of toon shaders in animation and video games, and look forward to developments in the future. I like them, and so does the Social Sauce Virtual World development team. With all this in mind, we've been experimenting with toon shading for our own characters, bringing our own illustrations to life.

More about Cell Shading.

Sosauce More in the News

Wed, 28 May 2008 22:14:49 GMT

Over the past week, Sosauce received a few more reviews and mentions from Mashable, Profy, and Web2NewYork.

Here are the posts:

From Mashable, a leader in web industry news

The post is more of a review of the site overall.

From Profy, a web industry blog with a cult following

The post is a review of Sosauce Travel

From Web2NewYork, a leading facilitator in the New York web community.

The post is a mention of new Sosauce features.

The reviews definitely motivate us to work harder to keep making things easier and more fun at Sosauce. So stay tuned for more good stuff!

Travel Contest Finalists!

Tue, 27 May 2008 17:00:57 GMT

Congratulations to the 10 finalists of our very first Travel Contest. These trips span the globe from a romantic getaway in Europe and a rugged trip in the Andes, to full cultural immersion in Japan. Some were weekend getaways, and others were trips of a lifetime.

The Finalists:

Trip: People of India

Traveler: Edward Bally

Summary: "From Goa to Manali, a two month trip in this fantastic country where I wanted to meet the colorful people of India."

Trip: Siam Reap: Cambodia

Traveler: Mia Hsu

Summary: "Journey to Siem Reap from Taipei, Taiwan, via Phnom Penh, Cambodia"

Trip: Rome and Venice

Traveler: Melody Kristensen

Summary: A week spent in Rome and Venice

Trip: Japan 2007

Traveler: Erin Wang

Summary: "We only had a week, so i planned the trip, trying to give my friends ataste of japan, from the very urban/modern to the very traditional..."

Trip: Magical Andes

Traveler: Alexander Buisse

Summary: "My amazing trip to the Andes, going through three countries (Peru,Bolivia and Chile) over a bit less than a month..."

Trip: One vagabundo going to Japan. I'm gun-ho!

Traveler: Jason Kimoski

Summary: "Briefly freed from all responsiblities, I took up a friends suggestion to come to Japan..."

Trip: Vegas/Zion

Traveler: Mike Su

Summary: "Last summer, I dragged my family out into the hot summer desert to takean incredible hike up the Zion Narrows. Hopefully the site of my uglymug in most of these pictures won't detract from the beauty that isZion. Enjoy!"

Trip: What a long strange trip

Traveler: Christina Woodham

Summary: "It seems my life has been one long vacation. Growing up inEurope afforded me travel opportunities most kids never dream of..."

Trip: High Desert to the Rainforest

Traveler: Jen Cruz

Summary: "We went on a road trip from Phoenix, AZ to Seattle, WA and back downthe Pacific Coast Highway to Phoenix..."

Trip: Summer '07 in the Amazon as a Vagabundo

Traveler: Stephen Capelli

Summary: "We are privileged to have been given such a stunning gift from theKayapo men we now feel proud to call our friends. I cannot imagine how anything on this trip can possibly top what we havejust done..."

The finalists were selected by you, the Sosauce community. We want to thank all who participated, both by entering and by rating. The top three winners will be chosen this week and announced on Friday.

Indiana Jones 4: A Collage Film

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:46:43 GMT

Any fanof Indiana Jones likely has already been to the theater to see the latestiteration of the series. Knowing the track record of George Lucas andsequels, any serious fan would be concerned. Rightly so.

Yet thefilm is neither as terrible as it could be nor the promised resurrection of theseries some people have been craving for decades. Rather, the film is a chronology,a collage of sorts. The scenes are loosely glued together from snippetsof earlier works by both Spielberg and Lucas.

Light spoilersahead:

The filmopens on a strange note. 50's Hot-rodders zoom past, goading militaryvehicles into a drag race. American Graffiti comes to mind, and not forthe last time.

Thefollowing ten minutes are the best of the entire film, so I won't spoil themfor anyone who might watch the film.

However,after a hilarious scene involving Harrison Ford being scrubbed down, the film fallsapart a bit. It becomes clear in the next scene that we are in McCarthyera Cold War USA,as two Feds interrogate Jones and accuse him of being red. We never see norhear from the McCarthy gang again. Nor is it even mentioned again.

We returnto American Graffiti in a Jocks vs. Greasers bar where we meet Shia, the youngJones. Shia plays dumb, so that Jones can explain exactly what is goingto happen in the next hour and a half and why we should care. Apparentlysome rough looking guys in the corner do. Time for some action.

We end upin South America via the tried and true redline map effect. Here we meet new characters, each of whom gets a back storynarrated by Indy. Character development is pretty much limited toHarrison Ford describing his relationship with the character.

As forthe montage, look out for a few scenes.

1- Trucksdriving along a ridge... Remember the tanks from an earlier Indy film?

2- Shiathe monkey, er Tarzan-- Ewoks all over again. He will never livethis down. Utter hilarity, and not in a good way

3- ET --this one should be obvious

Sustainable Sustainability

Wed, 21 May 2008 15:22:11 GMT

"ScientificBreakthrough Fixes Problems Caused by Last Scientific Breakthrough."

It'sprobably not so much the technology, but rather its application on amass scale that has the potential to bring about both great positivechange and great negative change. The Earth, being a more or less living thing(in the sense that everything living on it occupies the same marginalequilibrium in order to survive), can only remain in its splendid state whentreated in moderation.

Takefor instance plastic. Plastic first became viable on a mass scale around themid 1930's to early 1940's. And it was a staggering innovation - lowenergy requirements, easily morphed, strong but extremely light, and cheap!Since then, world production has reached 100 million tons each year, which is~1 billion tons each decade. How much is 1 billion tons? Consider this: aplastic 2 liter bottle left in the ocean will eventually (talking years, notdecades) break down into enough tiny pieces that one could reach each mileof beach in the entire world. So take that bottle and multiply it by20,000,000,000,000. That's how much plastic has entered the worldsince 1998. Honestly, any number past 1 million is pretty muchmeaningless. We cannot fathom that kind of scale.

Anyways,back to the point. With each innovative breakthrough we have, we don’t seem tohave taken great lengths to consider the long term impacts. Plastic is great.Its uses are immeasurable. It is cheap, durable, and available in trueabundance. But the earth can't handle our production. In the ocean, in thepacific gyre, scientific vessels come back with readings of 1000:1 of plasticparts to plankton. Which means for every 1000 tiny bits of plastic a fish sees,only one of them is food.

Whatit comes down to is this: the world now faces all these extremely apparentproblems which will require great scientific, engineering, and operationalbreakthroughs to solve. With these solutions, we cannot repeat oursame mistakes. Consider this news already revealed about new energy saving light bulbs:

"Undernew regulations for hazardous waste, councils are obliged to recyclye [energysaving bulbs].

Atpresent, they should be placed in special bins also used for batteries at acouncil dump. But in future, councils will have to provide a collection serviceor install special recycling banks for the bulbs.

Thereare fears that without a proper disposal system, the mercury content couldcontaminate water supplies.

Butdisposing of one municipal recycling bin full of bulbs costs about £650 eachtime, adding to fears of higher council tax bills.

Thewarnings cast a shadow over Government plans to begin phasing out traditionaltungsten lights this month."

Orethanol.

Similarstories are endless. Future innovation must employ deliberate andconsistent examination of consequences, specifically on a mass scale. This newera of sustainability should be characterized by the forethought of itscreators, so that in the end, we do not cure one menace only to manifest afar greater one.

Collection of Sosauce in the News

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:24:58 GMT

Here's a collection of Sosauce in the news.

Sosauce on Appscout, PC Magazine

Enjoy! As we continue to add new features and spread our word, we'll keep updating this list and share more news with you. Thanks!

Why Games Matter

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:10:26 GMT

What is a game?

A game is a competitive interaction with set rules and behaviors.

Popular consciousness typically considers games trivial, a diversion or a waste of time. However, more likely, they are an evolutionary mechanism designed to teach skills and train the body and mind.

Most social animals engage in some sort of "play." Typically, it involves non-lethal combat designed to teach hunting skills or training for positioning in a set social order.

It is only natural that humans also enjoy games. Be it chess or cricket, we love games.

Some people have attempted to use games in various fashions to teach, train, or otherwise improve skillsets. Unfortunately, these quite often result in edu-games that are neither fun nor educational.

For the purpose of argument, I'll extend my definition of a game:

A game is a set of meaningful choices, whose outcomes are predictable and repeatable.

The role of a good game designer is to create interesting choices for the user and allow for multiple styles of play. For instance, a game like Sim-City gives us plenty of choices... Do I invest in a fire department as the citizens request, or gamble on more development with my spare income? Do I raise or lower taxes? By interacting with these choices, I intuitively grasp the effects of complex processes that are not always obvious on paper.

Sociology, political history, economics, psychology. These are the most obvious fields where games can impart knowledge intuitively.

As for the "hard" sciences, there may be ways, but since at the lowest level of mathematics, many problems are linear (right or wrong), it becomes much more challenging to create an interesting game with meaningful choices. It seems to me that games deal much better with applications of principles, rather than deriving the principles themselves.

Then again, if a game were designed to actually rederive the discovery of a principle rather than simply repeating example problems, we might have a new age in education.

By Brian Kehrer

Silent Rave

Thu, 15 May 2008 03:26:12 GMT

On a recent Friday, we decided to break out the chili suits, leave the office early, and head down to Union Square for the Silent Rave. What could be better than a couple of dancing chilies intermingling with our fellow New Yorkers on a beautiful spring evening?

As soon as we arrived, there was someone giving out "Free Hugs," so hey, why not partake? Interesting to think of the contrast between that offer and what those on the streets of Baghdad, Tel Aviv, or Darfur are experiencing.

After we got all hugged up, it was time to dance. The square soon became packed. Everyone plugged into their iPods, tuned into Brittany Spears (Ok, maybe not). and started dancing the evening away.

To see more photos, check out: Sosauce at the Silent Rave.

This event was great for the peppers, and they no longer could be labeled as "mild." In fact, the hotter they got, the more the participants wanted a taste of them. Fortunately, our peppers were able to escape without being eaten.

To see our chili being interviewed check out:

From Entrepreneur to Lab Rat

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:41:57 GMT

Written by: Sean

Given the nature of a start-up, when it comes to promotion, we’reconstantly trying to think of new and fun ways to interact with people on a shoe-stringbudget. One of our most recentadventures has been what we call Guerilla Graffiti (though I’m strongly considering renaming itto "Electrical Circuits 101"). Let’s justsay I’ve never felt as much like MacGyver as I have on this project. The components are: a security camera, laptop,400 Watt Wagan Power Dome, 5mW laser, a high resolution projector, and someopen source computer code. You throw allthese together to get an amazing light graffiti show… at least in theory.

The reality is more questions than answers, as we’ve turned agood portion of our office (which is about four square feet) into a laboratory.

After much trial and error, we were able to get it working…well sort of. One afternoon, we pluggedthe camera, projector, and computer into the wall and ta-da- it worked. Laser fun for everyone. After playing around for a good 30 minutes, wedecided it was time to test it in the hallway with our external power source.

Camera, check. Computer, check. Projector, uh oh. It turns out that our 400 Watt power supplycan’t handle the surge created by the projector even though it only tops out at280 watts. The rate at which the energyis dissipated is just too high. So nowit’s back to the drawing board. We couldpurchase a small Honda generator but the price is way too high. The other option is to buy a car battery,throw an invertor on it , and give it a go. Come to think of it, this is probably the route we’ll take.

If all goes well (fingers crossed), we’ll end up with apoor man's version of this:

Watch out New York!!

Time's NOT Out For (a Free) New York!

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:33:52 GMT

The Summer Music ed.

By Jeff Lagasca

Put away your credit cards and checkbooks and keep your money in your bank account. Summer is upon New York, which means the city is preparing to reward its citizens for confidently striding through the city's harsh winter and showcasing to visitors just why New York City makes a strong case as one of the greatest cities in the world!

The mid-year, warm months between May and September present so many free entertainment opportunities for city inhabitants that it's impossible for people to attend them all, unless they have the ability to split themselves in two or three!

Many of the free events involve performance and music. At least three outdoor music festivals lasting the entire summer showcase major, indie, and emerging acts. Each festival has its unique crowd:

Central Park Summerstage
Taking place in Central Park, you can stroll in from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Concerts and literature readings – 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner, Junot Diaz featured for 2008 – take place throughout the week, strategically scheduled so that the Career New Yorker can attend sans the "rush" that's so typical of New York. This year's highlights (for me) include two emerging local acts: Stephanie McKay, the Bronx singer-songwriter who will make you think, on June 13, and Santogold, Brooklyn Hip-Hop/Dance artist and performer extraordinaire, on July 20.

McCarren Park Pool Parties
In its final year of existence (awwww), the Pool Party scene is and isn't quite what it sounds like. Sure, it takes place in possibly the world's most-humongous pool, BUT, instead of being filled with water, the pool has been filled with partygoers of the – dare I say it – wildly drunken or often too-amused north-brooklyn kind (wink wink). Braving the crowd is hardly a pain though, especially once the music starts. Last year, massive acts such as the Beastie Boys put on rare performances (for a fee). This year presents no-less of an exciting line up as rumored acts such as MGMT, The Ting Tings, and The Hold Steady. Confirmed, but sadly not free, acts include established alternative hip-hop & dance kamikaze M.I.A (June 6th), Death Cab for Cutie (June 10th), and Devo, 80s music stars of Whip-It fame (June 26th). Stay tuned to the McCarren Park Pool web site as they announce this year's and their last ever free acts.

South Street Seaport Music Festival
Late in announcing this year's line-up, South Street Seaport offers amazing views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Downtown Brooklyn in additional to their music acts. Last year, Animal Collective kicked off the festival; this year's honors have been awarded to near the iconic British post-punk band WIRE (May 30th). More acts to look out for (with more TBA) include Atlas Sound (July 25th), Brother Ali (August 1st), and the Dirty Projectors/White Williams (August 15th)

Of course, you're not limited to the three aforementioned music festivals. The Prospect Park Bandshell (Brooklyn Vegan) features spectaculars Feist (July 9th) – you might know her from the "1, 2, 3, 4" Apple commercial, baby-making-music legend Isaac Hayes (June 12th), and indie-blues rock phenoms the Cold War Kids (I'm personally going to the Sippy Cups on Aug 2nd).

Finally and recently announced, the Village Voice's annual Siren Music Festival features an entire day of amazing, FREE music on July 19th at Coney Island. Lookout for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, the Dodos, and Annuals, with more performers yet to be announced!

Mark your calendars, rejoice at all the cash you'll be able to save, bring a picnic and some friends, and sit back and enjoy a few of the tunes offered during New York's free summer!

NYU Strawberry Festival

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:19:44 GMT

Last Friday, our Chili Pepper mascot, whose popularity was stealthly growing, struck again at the NYU Strawberry Festival.

The Strawberry Festival took place in a small stretch of road on 4th Street, between Bobst Library and Mercer Street. With a strawberry looking ticket, students can also participate in fun activities on the grounds in front of the Tisch and KMC Buildings.

This was the last projects for our interns Justine, Kate, Amy, and Lynnley. Justine, the person behind and within the Chili Pepper persona, put on the suit in the Kimmel Student Center, and off she goes as Chiliwoman. Sean armed her with flyers about Sosauce and about the Travel Contest, and Sean, Kate, Amy, and Lynnley helped passed out flyers as well. Brian K and I also went, and what were we doing there? Someone had to document Chili Pepper in action.

Sean and the interns worked pretty hard. I got a photo to prove it (See below).

We managed to hand out a few hundred flyers, and had a great couple of hours at the Strawberry Festival. As we handed off the last of our flyers, we did manage to fit fun into our equation. Oh by the way, in the contest between Sean and Kate to see who can empty the flyers in hand first, Kate won.

We got our strawberry passes with our still active NYU student IDs. Then we proceeded to line up for the joust. What better way to spend Friday morning by standing on platforms with sticks in hand and swing at the person 3 feet in front. Brian put on a chili suit as well and joined Justine on the jousting platform. Wait, if you are questioning whether this was a fair fight, spare yourself, because there was no question that this was not a fair fight. Since Brian had a 2:1 size advantage, the outcome wasn't much in question. The crowd, however, got behind Justine and got on Brian (well deserved).

The Chiliwoman Justine also took on the obstacle course. After she dashed up the ramp, she disappeared from view for a while, only then to appear again minutes later, tumbling down the slide.

It's not over yet. There was still a line for the mechanical bull ride. Why not, so we got in line for that as well. It was worth the wait because our Chili Pepper got on long enough before the Sosauce logo on the back got thrown off along with the rider. Give Justine a lot of credit! The bull ride was a lot tougher than it looked, and after Justine's ride, everyone else from our group just kind of silently and simultaneously backed away from the line.

After the event, we had a farewell lunch for the interns. They did a great job for us all semester and really helped us with our viral and promotions efforts in getting them off the ground. The Chili Pepper mascot had been great for us, and you will definitely see more of it in the coming months. We will also roll out more interesting viral campaigns to spread the word.

By Howard

Saying Goodbye to our Interns

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:18:43 GMT

When you're an internet start-up, the list of things you should be doing grows so much faster than your ability to cross them off. As you can imagine, there is a ton of things we want to do, and a lot of things we need to do - even if they aren't as much fun. Yet, with only a hanful of people, this presents a challenge. Oh Google - how lucky you are!

Fortunately, this past semester we were pretty lucky in landing four great interns to help us spread the word. We had Kate, a film and Asian studies student at Columbia, as well as Lynnley (journalism), Justine (psychology), and Amy (business), all from NYU.

Our interns: Amy, Justine, Kate, and Lynnley

They all worked really hard (Justine was even our Chili Pepper!) to help us successfully execute several great promotional events. In fact, our involvement at the NYU Relay for Life, Silent Rave, and the Strawberry Festival were all a direct result of their hard work. Our event participation would not have been possible without them.

Unfortuantely, this past Friday was their last day. Though sad, unlike other jobs, we knew the goodbye wasn't permanent. Lucky for us, we'll see them on Sosauce! I'm already looking forward to reading about Amy's experience working on an organic farm, Kate's summer abroad doing music in London, and Lynnley's trip back to California.

However, before those experiences happen, here's a taste of some things they find interesting...

Kate's 'Planetarium Synthesizer' Journal

Amy's 'As Green as it Gets' Journal

Justine's Bike & Build Journal, Trip, and Photos

By Sean

Interactive Gaming: My call to arms!

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:06:58 GMT

I love interactive media. I grew up using a computer before I couldride a bike. Every couple of years, technological breakthroughs wouldherald new methods and techniques for interactivity.

However, in thelast few years, it feels like the mainstream "interactive" mediaoutlets have become significantly less interactive. Wii was definitelyan interface innovation worthy of praise, but it has not reallyaffected virtual interaction beyond the physical.

My suspicionis that it has more to do with EA's mega-dominance than a gamingzeitgeist- but I'll explore that later. For now, let me get everyoneup to speed on what I mean by interactivity.

I am specifically referringto how one's mind interacts with a particular application, andspecifically, how the application responds to different methods ofthought or problem solving. A controller that utilizes telekinesis isa gimmick if the application doesn't adapt to the user's "style."

MonkeyIsland was a defining moment in my early childhood. Interaction withthe environment wasn't limited to jump or shoot, but rather a series ofpredefined actions. Gameplay was still on rails, but I felt includedsomehow, as an active participant despite the still linear nature of the game. These9 predefined actions were compounded when you added items to the mix. To completepuzzles, equations must be formed, with the verb as the operator, oftentimes with non-literal interpretations.

For example - MonkeyIsland 2 required the player to open a rusty water main withoutanything of particular value. The answer was comical:

USE Monkey WITH valve.

Mystwas the next major milestone, bringing advanced graphics, contextualinteraction, and a haunting soundtrack. One of the key elements is thatthe game did as little as possible to break the illusion. As in thegreat Lucas Arts text adventures, you never "died." But Myst addedsome new features as well. There was little or no GUI, except arrowsfor basic navigation and an inventory pop up at the bottom of thescreen. No need to mix settings with game functions. The result was atruly immersive experience that became one of the best selling games ofall time. Still, linear.

Deus Ex- Dawn of the non-linear

Ishouldn't say this. Text based RPGers would track me down and slay me. However, this was my first mainstream experience of non-linearity.

Thegame had a few flaws in it's execution, notably the graphics, which weresub-par for its era. However, in terms of design, it remains one ofthe best games I have ever played. Technically, the game is still onrails, in that you roughly end up at the same point at the end of eachstage. However, the way to get there is totally up to theplayer, and it impacts the future as well. It was a landmark. Forinstance, despite being a shooter, you can technically beat the gameonly having killed 3 people, and to some degree, the NPCs wouldacknowledge your choices. Alternatively, you can "mop-up." Leveldesign was complex and multi-faceted, relying on puzzles, "twitch,"and NPC interaction. Moreover, you could solve most levels at least 3ways. It is by no means perfect, but it was the start.

What happened?

Thedecision to take games off rails almost entirely polarized gamedesign. Now we either see sandboxes or 1st generation platformerswith 7th gen graphics and some side quests thrown in.

Additionally,for quite some time the Massive Multiplayer Online game has become thesurrogate for true interactivity. Surely, with lots of people,interactivity would create itself. World of Warcraft is roughly likeGTA, only made into MMO, with dozens of mini-quests with no real objective orgoal except the relative positioning of "status" among your peers.

Theproblem is that these sandbox games reproduce and even exaggerate afundamental flaw in our reality - our choices aren't immediatelymeaningful. To game designers, this is called a feedback loop.

In games, every decision we make should feel important.

InWoW, it doesn't matter if you get experience by questing by yourself,with a group, or by killing other players - these are all means to anend, and these have value only based on the xp and equipment dropped. Instead of a small set of meaningful choices, we are inundated withthousands of meaningless choices. Suddenly, our interactive game isreduced to work, the only fun left being the interaction with friends.

Iwant games, both multiplayer and not, that question the traditional Youvs Us paradigm without abandoning reactivity altogether. Yes, moreenvironmental immersion and interactivity is good, so long as thechoices I make will impact my journey of the hero (or anti-hero). Whathappened to branching story-lines that don't necessarily hinge on asingle event?

As for the MMO space, there needs to be aradical rethinking of how players interact online, aside from simplycompeting for equipment in an adolescent quest to outdress each other. Games like Team Fortress and Battlefield have made the most progress onthis front, but outside the category of shooter, the mainstream doesn'thave much to offer.

For those who haven't already, take a lookat A Tale in the Desert. An MMO with no combat, but rather a societywhich must be grown. The game is totally reset every 18 months, witheveryone starting over from scratch.

Sosauce Earthday 4.22.08

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:30:04 GMT

Every Earthday, we celebrate it by making it an official company holiday. But instead of spending the free day as a couch potato, we get together for a group volunteer event to do something meaningful and beneficial.

This year, under Sean's direction, we organized an outing that included lunch at La Taqueria in Brooklyn, cleanup at Prospect Park, and group activities in the park. Lunch at La Taqueria was good despite some of us waiting for a long time in line. The wait ended up being a blessing in disguise because Cesar happened to forget that we had the day off and showed up at the office. Upon investigation, we managed to track him down and gave him directions to the restaurant. After everything that Cesar went through, he managed to get his food before I did. Go figure.

After lunch, we headed over to Prospect Park and regrouped at the north entrance (the Army Plaza entrance) of the park. Sean got us some gloves (added waste but necessary sacrifice) and bags (all second hand), and we were off.

I hit one trash gold mine after another, and pretty soon, my trash bag needed refill. Then, I stumbled upon this area where the trash collection got eclectic. There were batteries, unfinished bags of chips, and liquor bottles mixed in with luggage bags, pieces of old jeans, walking sticks, other trash bags, and party ribbons. At some point, Brian K and I met up at a treasure trough of trash. Here, we didn't even need our bags. We picked up a huge garbage bag on the ground and used it instead. Brian K and I thought we were rich with trash, 3 bags each, but little did we know that everyone collected about as much if not more. In the case of Sean, he got way more (See below).

In case you are wondering, the big black bag that you see above probably weighed over 50lbs.

We picked up trash for about 2 hours. Granted, it wasn't enough time to come anywhere close to picking up all the trash in the park. It was rewarding nonetheless. It was good to spend our time off doing something meaningful.

After the cleanup, we stayed in the park and played a few games of mild football and ultimate frisby. It wasn't until the very end that the burrito I consumed during lunch finally began to digest. Yet, it was already time to head home for dinner.

By Howard

Why social media tools matter in building a next generation social network?

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:38:47 GMT

By Jamie Lin, The Savvy Geek

People often ask me what is the difference between Sosauce and Facebook. I'd tell them that the difference is between a professional toolkit and a giant Swiss amry knife.

Photo from swissarmy.com

From a product point of view, Sosauce currently has fewer tools, but each tool is more powerful and has many more features. For example, while Sosaue Photo is considered by many of my friends who are Flickr users to be as good as any of the leading photo-sharing sites, Facebook photo is still offering only very basic functionalities.

So why does it matter? It matters because when you offer good social media tools - photo-sharing, journaling, video-uploading, etc. -- people create good content. When they have good content, they communicate with each other in a more meaningful way - they share deeper thoughts and have more lively conversations.

The following chart is a good proof of how good content-sharing applications can keep users engaged on the site. Since we officially launched Sosauce in Feburary, the average time users spent on Soauce has been growing exponentially. As you can see, a user typically spends 20 minutes per session on Sosauce, while spending 15 minutes on Facebook and 8 minutes on Flickr.

Therefore, Sosauce's plan is to continue to develop better and more extensive social media application offerings, and hopefully our users will find their lives more and more interesting with all the tools we provide.

Hello planet pessimism. Meet optimism.

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:38:17 GMT

Thanks to a hundred years of industrial revolution, ustwenty somethings have boarded an airplane already in a steep dive towardspurchasing the proverbial farm. The planet is supposedly so irretrievably onthe path to meltdown (ha……no pun intended) that Al Gore now claims that the northpolar ice cap may completely melt during summer months within five years. Gosh,even that farm we’re purchasing is not only being plotted on Amazonian rainforest land, but its previously messianic purpose of supporting corn ethanol isnow revealed to be greatly accelerating the global warming process it was meantto combat.

This is when I close my eyes and breathe. When I open them,I’m back perched on my little roof, on my little street in the LES, in thegentlest spring weather watching the tangerine sun lazily sink towards thehorizon. It takes a lot of force of will not to just ignore the elephant in theroom. Can you really blame us humans for having a hard time grasping somethingthat’s had no apparent effect to date?

In the interest of both self-preservation and the perpetualdream of aligning planetary and human needs with the profit drivers of abusiness, I’ve been reading from a new book on sustainable energysources, titled “Earth: The Sequel." I’ll try to avoid clichés here, and it’sstill a pretty bleak picture. But it is reassuring to hear some of these wellresearched facts. Allow me to share some hope for all of us. From the firsthundred pages detailing the possibilities in solar technology:

The resources are plentiful and thetechnology is ripe: Solar plants are about 6x more efficient than windfarms. In California,a 30x30 mile area in the near-desert climate of SoCal could power the entirestate. A decent number of plants in the southwest United States (one of thebest sites in the world for solar), in addition to a well managed nationalgrid, could power the entire United States. 3% of Moroccan land could power theentire European grid. Yes, there will be environmental impacts of having 30square mile areas covered in reflective mirrors, but the impact is nearlynegligible in comparison to that of the staggering amount of CO2 necessary forthe equivalent amount of energy in coal.
The investment is really starting to come in:Citigroup is investing $50 billion over the next ten years. GE is investing $2Bthis year, and by 2010 it will double that. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, truebarometers of good investment (well, supposedly), are among the largestinvestors in clean technologies. These numbers are still not significantenough, but there is no mistaking that they are significant. More important thananything else, these are big gestures of confidence and of interest in thenecessity and value of clean energy technologies. Virtually every companylisted thus far in Earth: The Sequel has in excess of $50 million ininvestment, and is financed well enough to at least bring its product tomarket. This is what the world needs to hear.

I don’t consider myself much of a capitalist. I'm more of a realist.Lacking an incentive, human beings, in fact all of the animal kingdom, is slowto act. But thanks to $110 barrels of oil, clean energies have become alucrative enterprise, and they are about to become much more so. This is the secondindustrial revolution, and like the oil billionaires of past, the next hundredyears of wealth will be forged by the providers of the next (r)evolution ofworld energy. With those kind of opportunities, we as citizens can havesome confidence that change will move swiftly. And unlike in countless othersituations, the profit motive here may actually benefit us all.

By Austin Lane 5.4.08

Sosauce @ Web2NewYork

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:27:12 GMT

Web2NewYork is a regular Internet, media, technology, and business meet up hosted by Peter Verkooijen. It is New York centric, focusing on businesses in and around New York City. This month's event was at the Gallery Bar on 4/14/08. We had been to the meetup before, and this time, we had the opportunity to present all thanks to Peter.

We were one of four presenters at the meetup. Peter did a really good job with the venue. Gallery Bar was cozy, intimate, and open all at the same time. By the time the presentations and demos started an hour into the meetup, the venue was packed. There must had been at least 30 people there.

We were obviously excited to demo Sosauce. Given the time constraint of 5 minutes per demo, we had to streamline ours to focus primarily on the Sosauce Travel application. Jamie was designated as the presenter this time, and he walked the audience through the concept and innovation behind Sosauce Travel.

Sosauce Travel is designed to cover the major uses of recording travel experiences. For basic use, people can simply pin everywhere they have been onto a world map and share the map with friends or the community. Beyond pinning places, people can also create interactive and in depth trips that offer flexibility on how much information to be associated with the trips. With a trip on Sosauce, people can pin destinations on a map, create a trip itinerary, and string destinations together into a trip route. People can also associate a variety of content, such as journal, photo, tips, and reviews to each destination at their choosing. They can also add points of interests and have the same ability to add content to each point. Moreover, people can share the trips with others via email, link posts, Sosauce Updates, and community pages.

Before and after our demo at Web2NewYork, we had the opportunity to field questions from various people in the audience. People we met asked great questions and definitely showed a lot of interest. Overall, everyone involved was very positive and supportive of all the presenters. We definitely got a number of great contacts to follow up with, and we also made a few friends along the way. Hope to see you at the next meetup.

For more on Web2NewYork, visit www.web2newyork.com.

Relay for Life at NYU

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:00:12 GMT

This past Saturday we were feeling a little crazy so we got a chili costume, dressed up and headed down to NYU to have some fun!

It was the night of the Relay for Life event, where teams would spend the night walking around the gym to raise money for the American Cancer Society. It was great to be part of this team effort, and to hear the stories of the cancer survivors was special. Plus, we had a blast hanging out with the different groups.

Our chili found himself on pyramids, on top of giant balls, hanging upside down, and being eaten. It was hilarious. Check out the video:

You can also check out more crazy photos here: NYU Relay for Life Photos.

What a great night. Thanks NYU!

Sosauce just got Blogged!

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:27:10 GMT

Check it out! We just received our first blog post. Awesome.

Sosauce: Social Networking 2.0?

The author writes... "The real beauty of SoSauce is in how much control you have over all ofthe elements provided in the service. When you combine its features,you have a very powerful social networking tool that looks sharp, ishighly customizable, and has features that Facebook and other serviceswish they had..."

Thanks Alan! We appreciate it.

More about AppScout:

“AppScout is brought to you by the editors and analysts of PC Magazine, who scour the world in search of the best software, sites, and Web apps. We’re reporting on it all: the killer apps, the crazy startups, the useful (or just gimmicky) Web sites, and the beta software that crashes our machines.”

Sosauce Interview on BlogTalkRadio

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:18:26 GMT

This past Wednesday two of us were on blogtalkradio.

It was a blast as we discussed Sosauce, our favorite trips, and what's in store for the future. For those of you that caught it- awesome. But if you didn't, no worries! Yo can catch it here: Sosauce interview on blogtalkradio

South by Southwest Interactive!

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:26:32 GMT

Join us in Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival! We're heading down today and will be at booth 223 from Sunday, March 9th - Tuesday, March 11th.

Hope to see you there!

Contest Update

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:53:17 GMT

Congratulations to Yvonne Albinowski who won the inauguralSosauce “Make us Think” photo contest! The winning photo is shown below:

The contest was extremely close and we must alsocongratulate Niharika Singh who had both the first runner-up and second runner-upphotos as shown below:

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and voted!

If you are a registered user on Sosauce you willbe able to find the top photos of each contestant featured in both your PhotoHome (released later this week!) and the Community Photos section (alsoreleased later this week!)

We’ll be holding more contests in the very near future sostay tuned!

Thanks,

Team Sosauce

Contest Winner

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:50:34 GMT

Congratulations to Yvonne Albinowski who won the inauguralSosauce “Make us Think” photo contest! The winning photo is shown below:

The contest was extremely close and we must alsocongratulate Niharika Singh who had both the first runner-up and second runner-upphotos as shown below:

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and voted!

We’ll be holding more contests in the very near future sostay tuned!

Thanks,

Team Sosauce