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Bouquet and Portland’s Cherry Blossoms
Introduction At the Tom McCall Waterfront Park there are what feels like nearly 100 cherry blossoms lining the walkway. Ushering in Spring, the cherry blossom, or simply Sakura (桜；さくら) in Japanese, has long been considered a symbol of life’s natural cycles. The weather in the Pacific Northwest being somewhat temperamental, a spectacular blossom is not…
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OTPs and accoca
Introduction In cybersecurity, the term O-T-P stands for One Time Password, and it’s a powerful tool. OTPs can perform a variety of functions, but one of the most common examples is as a form of 2FA, or two-factor authentication. At this point, many banking, investments, or other apps that house sensitive information require some form…
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Better Quality Mosaics with Bouquet
Introduction Welcome back! It has been a while since we’ve talked about Bouquet—Sola’s photo mosaic app. In our last article vTuber and Bouquet, posted on February 18th, 2025, we talked about using Bouquet for content generation. It’s a frequently heard message from vTuber’s, YouTubers, and content creators in general. The need to constantly produce fresh…
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Embracing the Digital Age of Collecting: Smart Ways to Organize Your Manga & Game Collectibles
Hello everyone! My name is Mari, and as a lifelong fan of manga and retro video games, I’ve spent countless hours hunting down rare editions, first prints, and those unforgettable classics that bring back so many memories. If you’re a fellow thirty-something collector, you might relate to that thrill of discovering a forgotten game cartridge…
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We Want to Hear from You – Instagram & Facebook Pages are Live!
Introduction On December 31, 2024, right before New Year’s Day, we posted an article called New Social Media Pages Coming Soon! In that article we talked about how Sola of America, Inc. the U.S. division of Sola K.K. (Japan), was in the process of creating profile on both Instagram and Facebook. Part of the reason…
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monoca 2 and the Search for a Good Bottle of Wine
Introduction You may be able to tell from the title that this article is about alcohol. Disclaimer: if you’re reading this article in the United States and under the age of 21, substitute any alcoholic beverages mentioned with non-alcoholic beverages. If residing in another country, respect their laws. Now that the disclaimer is out of…
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Manga and monoca 2
Introduction When many people think of Japan, especially Americans, two words usually come to mind. Those two words are: anime and manga. ‘Manga’, written in traditional Japanese kanji (漫画) or sometimes in katakana (マンガ) translates to cartoon, comic, or comic strip. Of course, in the English words cartoon, comic, and comic strip already exist. Therefore,…
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vTuber and Bouquet
Introduction Today we’re taking our typical Bouquet article style in a totally different direction. In the past, we’ve focused our Bouquet photo mosaic content mostly on creating family memories. Using photos from birthdays, vacations, and special events, it’s possible to quickly and easily turn those moments into stunning photo mosaics with only a few taps…
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Spreadsheets vs. monoca 2
Last article we talked about using monoca 2 for curating a coffee collection. Customizing the subcategory fields built out an effective system for tracking the brand, blend name, roast, price, where it was purchased, a few notes, and of course, an image. At the end of that article I mentioned the next go-round, we’d be…
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Collecting and Rating Coffee with monoca 2
Introduction We just wrapped up a three-part series about Sola of America, Inc.’s secure Password Manager, acoca. It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Sola’s collection manager, monoca 2, and I wanted to revisit the platform. Call it journalistic integrity, but as the author of these articles I want to emphasize that I do…
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Using Stored Passwords with accoca
Introduction Password manager accoca is a simple to use password manager app, designed and developed by Sola of America, Inc. In previous articles we’ve introduced readers to the app itself, discussed in detail what is a password manager (vault), and how to generate strong passwords. These articles are linked below for the reader’s convenience. Each…
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How to Generate Strong Passwords
Introduction In our last article (linked below), we explained in greater detail what exactly is a password manager. We also discussed the differences between password managers that use cloud-based storage systems for user data versus local storage methods. In order to provide the highest level of security possible, Sola of America, Inc. opted for local…
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What is a Password Manager (Vault)
Introduction accoca is a piece of software commonly referred to as a password manager or password vault. As the name implies, its primary function is to securely store and recall sensitive information like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, PINs, or any other piece of data. It is meant to act as an additional layer of…
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Using the Web Version of monoca 2
Introduction Several so-called ‘Titans of Tech’ such as Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, to name a couple, have said during interviews that typing with just our two thumbs (implied: on a smart device) will always be less efficient than typing with all our fingers on a full keyboard. It was part of why Steve Jobs…
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Wardrobe Management with monoca 2
Introduction In the United States, most of the major holidays have passed. The ‘magic of the season’ has all but gone away as we leave 2024 behind and push further into 2025. Regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas, November and December are often a time of gift-giving. Whether by purchasing on your own or being…
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New Social Media Pages Coming Soon!
Recap of Previous Articles monoca 2 Sola of America’s three most popular apps are monoca 2, Bouquet, and accoca. Monoca 2 is a fully customizable, organization app capable of logging and categorizing both physical and digital objects. In previous articles, we discussed using monoca 2 for tracking camping equipment, managing a vinyl record collection, and…
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Purchase and Export High Resolution Mosaics
Introduction In the process of writing these articles, I’ve come to genuinely appreciate the ease with which one can create photo mosaics with Bouquet. Many of Sola’s past articles go into greater detail how to create a photo mosaic, use Bouquet’s advanced editing features, as well as store and restore previous projects. Previous articles are…
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monoca 2 Discount Codes
Introduction Merry Christmas Eve everyone! These past couple of months we’ve talked a lot about different use cases for monoca 2. Tracking camping equipment, building a vinyl record collection, and managing a library of cooking recipes are all examples of how I personally use the monoca 2 app. Below are links to those previous articles,…
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Storing and Starting a New Mosaic
Introduction In our previous article, ‘Advanced Features of Bouquet’, we demonstrated some of the more advanced image editing features. Using the Primary Effect Filters and Image Alpha slider, there are nearly unlimited combinations of personalized photo mosaics just a tap away. Re-opening the app after closing saves your progress, but what happens when you want…
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Advanced Features of Bouquet
Introduction This is the third installment showcasing the photo mosaic app—Bouquet. Bouquet is a simple to use software that can quickly turn any group of photos into a unique and personalized mosaic. In less than one minute, the user can go from grabbing a handful of images from their camera roll or Google Photos account…