The Internet has made it hard for Santa to do anything in secret this year. In fact, it appears he’s teamed up with the good folks at NORAD to bring you a slew of ways to track him. (Santa has actually been working with NORAD since 1955.)
NORADSanta.org: The old standby. You can always track Santa online at the NORAD site. There are Panaramio photos for each of Santa’s stops (just click on the presents). You can even download a plug-in for Google Earth and track Santa in 3-D from your computer.
Twitter: This is perhaps my favorite Santa tracking application. Santa is busy driving the sleigh (don’t tweet and drive), but Bitz the Twittering Elf, apparently moonlighting at NORAD, is keeping everyone up to date on Santa’s progress. He’s even reassuring folks about potential puppy presents … In one tweet, he mentioned magic chimneys that instantly affix to your house. Bitz has a great sense of humor. You can find him @noradsanta.
iGoogle Gadget: You can add the Norad tracker as a gadget to your iGoogle page. Through the gadget you can watch videos and track Santa around the world.
Mobile: Google Maps for Mobile lets you track Santa by searching for “norad santa” on your mobile device.
Getting impatient? Tide yourself over by watching Santa’s flight from last year, conveniently uploaded to You Tube.
Have you found otherwise to track the jolly old elf? Were you one of the lucky 5,000 to friend him on Facebook? Leave your thoughts in the comments and have a wonderful holiday!
Laura Fitton aka Pistachio, is a dear friend of mine. I got word of a special project she was spearheading and I was moved to contribute.
Using Tipjoy, a service that turns tweets into PayPal payments, Fitton is striving to raise $25,000 for CharityWater by Christmas. Fitton’s driven by a passionate wish to save the lives of children by providing clean, safe drinking water – 4500 kids a day die from a simple lack of it. All you need to do is enter your Twitter ID in the widget here and then fund a TipJoy account.
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12/2 11:19pm: SPONSOR LIST IS NOW FULL
12/4 11:18am: SEE NOTES BELOW RE: AFTERPARTY
Fa-la-la-la-la, where’s the holiday moolah?? Show me the money.
In the old days, it was “Let’s set aside $50 grand of our $12mm b-round and effen host a holiday party.”
While we WILL miss the carving station, Cirque du Soleil ballet dancers and gift baskets, we are in a borderline depression. Chin up ol’ sport!, because we are architecting a party — a holiday party where we make money, build awareness of our start-up and wow our partners and sponsors with 10x ROI on their $100-200 sponsorship.
Remember, anything worth doing is worth doing for money. Why should holiday partying be any different= We fully expect surprises to be laced between now and FRIDAY (yes, four short days away).
The party is Dec 5th, 7-9pm at Roe Restaurant (651 Howard St.) in San Francisco.
In the spirit of Holiday 2.0, it’s “Let’s make some moneyhosting a holiday party by inviting co-hosts like Brian Solis, Jackie Peters, Barney Pell, Sun Startup Essentials, Founders Fund, Involver.com, Yoono.com, and Rimon Law Group.
Because we are ZOMGmonetizing , we will invite you to come celebrate Holiday 2.0.
** Chiang SURVEY QUESTIONS: **
Should we tip, bribe, comp and tip bloggers to come?
Should we charge a $5 cover?
Should we charge a $15-75 cover to VCs?
So my number one “Want” on my Christmas List is a Kindle, but apparently Santa’s elves and Amazon are not on the same page this year.
The over-priced eReader is SOLD OUT. Obviously someone is getting a Kindle for Christmas. If you order one now, you’ll be put on a wait list. Estimated delivery is a whopping 11-13 weeks away.
According a TechCrunch article last week, the Kindle 2.0 will be released in the early first quarter of 2009 (would that be 11-13 weeks from now?). I have high hopes that the price might drop a little. Heck, drop it to $299 and it makes a psychological jump from almost $400 to less than $300.
Maybe the Valentine’s Day fairy will bring me a Kindle.
Ecobags – reusable canvas grocery bags – debuted in the Cincinnati area sometime in 2007. My husband and I were rather taken by the idea and decided that it would be a great idea for holiday gift bags as well.
I was thrilled to discover that 1BagataTime actually offers holiday-themed bags. You can pack tons of things into these bags as well.
This year, 1BagataTime is offering a holiday ecowrap package. It’s not much – 10 bags and 10 bows for $15.99. Last year I got both green and red bags. They were an absolute hit with everyone who received one from us. It’s a nice way to help “green” your holiday wrapping.
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