Sam Sargent, Author at Bluewire Media

Sam Sargent is a highly experienced web developer specialising in IT and Communications Design.

Sam has been working with Bluewire Media for four years, and his native genius is ‘using tools to make life easier’. He constantly researches and experiments with applications and programs to find the right tool for the job and – taking this even further – enjoys developing customised resources and bridging programs, with a keen interest in forward-engineering (designing digital solutions for time-consuming, clunky or out-dated processes).

He is an active member of the SES, plays touch football, got a Go-Pro for Christmas, and applies all his tech-savvy skills to his wife’s mobile beauty & day spa business – Home Spa in Brisbane.

Blog posts by Sam

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 by Sam Sargent

Sick of sending multiple screenshot instructions? Use LICEcap and say it with a .GIF

I tweeted about finding this little piece of software the other day. Since then I’ve used it multiple times daily and so I needed to share it with a wider audience. (No one follows me on Twitter ;)

If you do anything remotely like me and need to explain a process or point someone in the right direction, usually it’s 15 screenshots, into Photoshop with the paintbrush set to red, circling away and drawing arrows like a mad man. Not anymore.

LICEcap can capture an area of your desktop and save it directly to a .GIF file.…

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 by Sam Sargent

Getting your Event’s details in Google results

The Google Algorithm is clever but sometimes you can help it out by giving it a little nudge in the right direction. With some help, it’ll be able to highlight extra information in your search listings to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for.

Normally you don’t have a whole lot of control over what a result looks like. A search engine will find what it thinks is most relevant and you’re pretty much stuck with that. By including micro-data that the search engine can consume, you can have a bit more control over what your search listing includes.…

Posted on Mar 8, 2013 by Sam Sargent

How to get a custom short URL to map to Bit.ly

So you want a trendy short URL? The following will show you how we went about setting up bluewi.re as our default Bit.ly URL.

Step 1

The first step is find and decide on a short domain. You want something short and memorable, the trouble is with the popularity of Twitter and URL shorteners these days, the limited pool of really short, quality domains is getting even smaller. Domainr is a handy little website that will come up with clever uses of TLDs (Top Level Domains – think .me, .com.au etc) based on your input.…

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 by Sam Sargent

How to create the new Twitter profile in 4 steps

Updated on February 7th, 2013

Twitter launched a new user profile design across their Web, iPhone, iPad & Android apps last week allowing further customisation of your profile. I wasn’t aware and chances are a few of our readers (maybe you?) missed this as well so I thought why not share the quick tip so you too can make the most of the new design.

According to Mashable, only 8% of the top 100 brands have taken advantage of the new setting so here’s your chance to get ahead of the big guys.…

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 by Sam Sargent

Navigate Twitter ‘Like a Boss’ – 24 helpful keyboard short-cuts you probably didn’t know about

Updated on July 8th, 2013

A little known feature (to me anyway) of twitter.com is that it can be used solely via a keyboard. You can do everything from go to one of your followers profiles, direct message, load new tweets, retweet, reply & more.

My favourite has to be the ‘.’ (full stop) It’s a much more efficient way of loading new tweets & scrolling back to the top when you’ve left a twitter window open in the background.

Simply hit Shift + ? (as if you were typing a question mark) on any twitter page to bring up the list of short-cuts.…

Posted on Sep 1, 2011 by Sam Sargent

A handy new Mobile Friendly site ‘Takes Off’ at Brisbane Airport

The first of a few mobile projects in the pipeline for BAC here at Bluewire Media, has officially launched or “taken off” if you can excuse the pun. Quietly tonight, while the usual busy Brisbane Airport slows down just a tad, the launch button on their new Mobile Optimised Website was pushed.

We’re pretty of proud of this project here at Bluewire and if you’re anything like me I think you’ll agree this will be a very handy addition to the online presence of Brisbane Airport. How many times have you been sitting in the domestic terminal pick up area, getting those glaring looks from security guards, just wishing you knew when your partners plane was landing??…

Posted on Jun 30, 2011 by Sam Sargent

Add +1 to your pages and help your website stand out – Why Google+ makes the +1 button important

You’ve probably seen these Google +1 buttons around the place. While I knew Google might be onto something, it hadn’t really clicked for me until until now. Today I got an invite and signed up to the new Google + Project. It’s basically Google’s answer to Facebook.

Seeing the below in my profile screen inside Google + has made the little +1 button make a whole lot more sense and seem that much more of an important addition to your website. All your +1’s while not only having an impact on search results*, will show up in the streams and profiles of everyone using Google +.…