Tretakoff Musings
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Melodic Birdsong
Twitter continues to impress me. Not the service, per se, but the ways it is used, how it's connected, and so on. For instance:
- Want to track a package? Sure, you can use the web, and "pull" from a page to find out the status of your package. But what if you could get a Twitter message (a "tweet") at every step of the package's journey? You'd know if you need to be home to accept a package the next day, without having to remember to visit a webpage in advance. Just send a Direct Message to TrackThis with the tracking number (any carrier) and a name you want to refer to the package by, and you'll get updates on every movement of the package.
- The Bay Area is famous for the weather phenomena of microclimates. Up in San Rafael, for instance, I can get an update every 30 minutes on the weather.
- Twitter is actually useful for discovering new people, as well. For instance, MistyKhan saw I was struggling with some Microsoft Outlook issues, and offered her help, unsolicited, along with pointing me to a fabulous resource for more, her own site.
- Courtesy of tweets from the same MistyKhan, check out TwitterLocal. Type in your ZIP code, choose a radius, and see all the people nearby twittering. Fun to see how common the ailments are from folks as the heat warms us all up!
- Ever wished there was a direct connection to a resource at an airline who you could reach out to and ask for help, or get information on possible delays or specials as they come up? JetBlue has embraced Twitter with a passion for just that.
- And, of course, what better way to know the hottest daily online deal than by having Woot let you know via Twitter.
All this, and free? Tweet, tweet!
- Want to track a package? Sure, you can use the web, and "pull" from a page to find out the status of your package. But what if you could get a Twitter message (a "tweet") at every step of the package's journey? You'd know if you need to be home to accept a package the next day, without having to remember to visit a webpage in advance. Just send a Direct Message to TrackThis with the tracking number (any carrier) and a name you want to refer to the package by, and you'll get updates on every movement of the package.
- The Bay Area is famous for the weather phenomena of microclimates. Up in San Rafael, for instance, I can get an update every 30 minutes on the weather.
- Twitter is actually useful for discovering new people, as well. For instance, MistyKhan saw I was struggling with some Microsoft Outlook issues, and offered her help, unsolicited, along with pointing me to a fabulous resource for more, her own site.
- Courtesy of tweets from the same MistyKhan, check out TwitterLocal. Type in your ZIP code, choose a radius, and see all the people nearby twittering. Fun to see how common the ailments are from folks as the heat warms us all up!
- Ever wished there was a direct connection to a resource at an airline who you could reach out to and ask for help, or get information on possible delays or specials as they come up? JetBlue has embraced Twitter with a passion for just that.
- And, of course, what better way to know the hottest daily online deal than by having Woot let you know via Twitter.
All this, and free? Tweet, tweet!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
How To Make Your Own iPhone Ringtones
I do love my iPhone, but sometimes the restrictions are asinine. Take ringtones, for instance. Can you ask for a more prefect device for ringtones? And yet, Apple insists the only way to have ringtones is to buy them from iTunes. Period. Now, I grant you, the ringtones they ship with are exceptional, but I have some ones that are quite specific and highly unlikely to be on iTunes. What to do?
Leave it to the power of the Internet. In browsing this forum, I found one solution that actually did work:
Yup, sure enough, worked like a charm. I'm free of The Man's restrictions. Um, at least until the SDK comes out...
I do love my iPhone, but sometimes the restrictions are asinine. Take ringtones, for instance. Can you ask for a more prefect device for ringtones? And yet, Apple insists the only way to have ringtones is to buy them from iTunes. Period. Now, I grant you, the ringtones they ship with are exceptional, but I have some ones that are quite specific and highly unlikely to be on iTunes. What to do?Leave it to the power of the Internet. In browsing this forum, I found one solution that actually did work:
1. Take any song in iTunes and if you don't want to mess with the timing, right click and choose "convert selection to aac" and a new version of the song will appear just below the old one.
2. Right click the song, select Get Info, and go under "Options" and "Start Time" as well as "End Time" and pick which part of the song that you want to make into a ringtone. (It seems the general consensus with this is under 30 sec.)
3. Once you've selected what part of the song you want, click OK. After this you need to again "convert selection to aac" for the new version of your shortened song.
4. With the new clip, right click and select "Show in Windows Explorer."
5. Once the file is shown in Windows, rename the file from ".m4a" to ".m4r". (It was stated above how to enable windows to show file extensions.)
6. Once renamed, double-click on the file and the new ringtone will beging to play in iTunes and you are ready to sync and enjoy your new tone.
Yup, sure enough, worked like a charm. I'm free of The Man's restrictions. Um, at least until the SDK comes out...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Paper: The Hobgoblin of Analog Minds
I have an admission: I hate paper. From printouts of emails, to handwritten notes, I detest paper in almost all forms. It has become the trash and detritus of our daily life: credit/debit cards have nearly replaced paper money, but they leave behind the droppings of indecipherable receipts that we, as a society, are terrified to leave behind for fear that our entire identity will be stolen from that innocuous pizza payment. As we have moved to a digital world, complete with multifunction scanner/printers and both enormous hard drives and online storage, paper is simply a crutch to be finally snapped in favor of bits.
It looks like the New York Times is noticing. The article points out how a Google engineer has already eliminated paper from his family's life; I have been fighting this battle for nearly a decade. My weapons of choice? Visioneer's line of sheet-fed scanners and both CD burners as well as Moxy. I scan EVERYTHING: receipts, photos, notes, legal documents, even recipes, with just a flick of the wrist into the small slot behind my keyboard. In moments, the digital facsimile is written to my hard drive, for future archiving to CD and Moxy. PaperPort software not only scans a perfect copy, but also offers, if warranted, optical character recognition to make those static blocks of ink into digital, malleable, components. After the scan, straight to the shredder for erasure of identity theft risk.
Why do this, you ask? Many reasons. One, a catastrophic disaster. If your papers are stored in your house, what good will they do you in a fire? A fireproof safe? Uh, yeah, that's what you want to entrust your life to: a block of metal that you have now way of testing will survive, and your only recourse is a refund from the manufacturer? Oh, yes, IF you can find the receipt for it, that is.
Want more? Years ago, this country's revenue collection agency informed me they had doubts about my claims of income and expenses. They instructed me to provide proof. In one weekend, I was able to pull up every receipt, every pay stub, every scrap of evidence and set my printer a-churning to ship them undeniable evidence. In a week, the matter was amiably settled, thanks to my information.
I'm clearly not the only one here. Starbucks now asks if you want a receipt when you pay by card. Banks and credit card companies push the "benefits" of paperless statements (though, since it's a cost reduction for them, I think they might be better served by offering an incentive). I bought a house by doing a stock transaction via a cell phone's mobile data connection, and executed the paperwork all with a digital signature: not a single actual piece of paper until we refinanced.
The article points one one downside: power consumption. It fails to point out the other: paper is a renewable resource. The more we use, the more trees are planted, the more global warming is fought. Notice I didn't say recyclable; Penn & Teller made a very eloquent and thought provoking piece on why paper recycling is horrible for the environment, and greater paper use is actually a far better alternative. See for yourself (warning: language may be offensive, and it's 29 minutes long):
With the advent of the Kindle, Amazon is trying to produce a watershed digital moment for one of the biggest paper consumers: books and magazines. Direct marketing has already found e-mail far more effective than traditional mail. And note taking? Laptops and smartphones are already de rigueur in the classroom and boardroom, making those 8 1/2" x 11" pads look like a quaint relic. Our offices already make the offices of just 10 years ago look like they came from an episode of Mad Men.
It's time to free ourselves of the paper handcuffs. We no longer consider etching on a wax tablet, or chiseling out our thoughts in stone, or capturing a moment in oil and canvas. Let's throw off this last, pervasive vestige of our past and finally embrace the world of tomorrow, today.
I have an admission: I hate paper. From printouts of emails, to handwritten notes, I detest paper in almost all forms. It has become the trash and detritus of our daily life: credit/debit cards have nearly replaced paper money, but they leave behind the droppings of indecipherable receipts that we, as a society, are terrified to leave behind for fear that our entire identity will be stolen from that innocuous pizza payment. As we have moved to a digital world, complete with multifunction scanner/printers and both enormous hard drives and online storage, paper is simply a crutch to be finally snapped in favor of bits.It looks like the New York Times is noticing. The article points out how a Google engineer has already eliminated paper from his family's life; I have been fighting this battle for nearly a decade. My weapons of choice? Visioneer's line of sheet-fed scanners and both CD burners as well as Moxy. I scan EVERYTHING: receipts, photos, notes, legal documents, even recipes, with just a flick of the wrist into the small slot behind my keyboard. In moments, the digital facsimile is written to my hard drive, for future archiving to CD and Moxy. PaperPort software not only scans a perfect copy, but also offers, if warranted, optical character recognition to make those static blocks of ink into digital, malleable, components. After the scan, straight to the shredder for erasure of identity theft risk.
Why do this, you ask? Many reasons. One, a catastrophic disaster. If your papers are stored in your house, what good will they do you in a fire? A fireproof safe? Uh, yeah, that's what you want to entrust your life to: a block of metal that you have now way of testing will survive, and your only recourse is a refund from the manufacturer? Oh, yes, IF you can find the receipt for it, that is.
Want more? Years ago, this country's revenue collection agency informed me they had doubts about my claims of income and expenses. They instructed me to provide proof. In one weekend, I was able to pull up every receipt, every pay stub, every scrap of evidence and set my printer a-churning to ship them undeniable evidence. In a week, the matter was amiably settled, thanks to my information.
I'm clearly not the only one here. Starbucks now asks if you want a receipt when you pay by card. Banks and credit card companies push the "benefits" of paperless statements (though, since it's a cost reduction for them, I think they might be better served by offering an incentive). I bought a house by doing a stock transaction via a cell phone's mobile data connection, and executed the paperwork all with a digital signature: not a single actual piece of paper until we refinanced.
The article points one one downside: power consumption. It fails to point out the other: paper is a renewable resource. The more we use, the more trees are planted, the more global warming is fought. Notice I didn't say recyclable; Penn & Teller made a very eloquent and thought provoking piece on why paper recycling is horrible for the environment, and greater paper use is actually a far better alternative. See for yourself (warning: language may be offensive, and it's 29 minutes long):
With the advent of the Kindle, Amazon is trying to produce a watershed digital moment for one of the biggest paper consumers: books and magazines. Direct marketing has already found e-mail far more effective than traditional mail. And note taking? Laptops and smartphones are already de rigueur in the classroom and boardroom, making those 8 1/2" x 11" pads look like a quaint relic. Our offices already make the offices of just 10 years ago look like they came from an episode of Mad Men.
It's time to free ourselves of the paper handcuffs. We no longer consider etching on a wax tablet, or chiseling out our thoughts in stone, or capturing a moment in oil and canvas. Let's throw off this last, pervasive vestige of our past and finally embrace the world of tomorrow, today.
Labels: bullshit, Eco-friendly, lifehacks
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Making Firefox Live Bookmarks Favicons
Firefox's Bookmarks toolbar is invaluable. To allow for more links and more efficient use of real estate, I usually kill the name of the bookmark, as the favicon is more than enough for me to be able to know what site I'm clicking on. However, one annoyance I've had is with Firefox's Live Bookmarks: the ability to add an RSS feed as a bookmark that is updated with the articles in the feed. Useful for browsing sites with lots of interesting content, like digg or headlines on the NFL, without having to wade through the pages. However, they lack favicon support, meaning they take up a lot of toolbar real estate.
Enter LiveClick, a Firefox extension that allows you to bring the joy of favicons to your Live Bookmarks, as well. While also offering a ton of micromanagement for these bookmarks, I really love it for the favicon support: it's automatic, slick, and lets that real estate stay valuable.
Now, if I could just figure out why some bookmarks actually pay attention to their site's favicons, while others remain blithely ignorant, I'd be styling.
Enter LiveClick, a Firefox extension that allows you to bring the joy of favicons to your Live Bookmarks, as well. While also offering a ton of micromanagement for these bookmarks, I really love it for the favicon support: it's automatic, slick, and lets that real estate stay valuable.Now, if I could just figure out why some bookmarks actually pay attention to their site's favicons, while others remain blithely ignorant, I'd be styling.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Kicking the Outlook Habit
As a professional with over 8K contacts and over 2K appointments, I am a hopeless Microsoft Outlook addict. However, as any power user of Outlook will tell you, it becomes massively bloated, slow as molasses, and utterly frustrating with even the slightest extended usage. Worse, there is no way to make it go back to even resembling a responsive application once the damage has been done. Why, then, you ask, do I continue to use it?
- It is still the best email application, with it's MS Word integration with the only true inline spell correct on the market.
- It is the defacto standard for corporate mail and appointment requests.
- It is the best all in one application.
However, like any Outlook power user, I have found that I need to add things on to it to make it usable. This is where it gets fun: each of those add-ons makes Outlook massively harder to use. For instance:
- Spam control. Outlook's spam filters are laughable. I could use our server's draconian spam controls, but would easily miss emails from my clients.
Instead, I happily subscribe to Cloudmark Desktop: for $5 a month, I get incredibly intelligent spam protection, with built in crowdsourcing from over half a million users. The first user who gets a spam email marks it as such in Outlook, using the Outlook-integrated Cloudmark Desktop. The next person does the same. If a few more do, every other person who gets that email will automatically have it thrown in the spam folder. Using Cloudmark, I went from over 100 emails a day I had to delete as spam to less then 2. It works, period.
- Syncing. I sync my contacts and tasks with Salesforce, so I can keep up with my organization's workload. I sync everything with Plaxo, so I can have my information synchronized across Google, Yahoo, etc. Until last week, I synced with Palm for my Treo. Each of these require a little add-on to Outlook.
- Lookout. Though no longer made, and no longer available (Microsoft acquired the company, and replaced it with the far more bloated Windows Search), it can still be found, if you know where to look for it. It adds a powerful search, Google-style, to Outlook that makes it easy to find any email or contact, ever, in your Outlook. Outlook's own built-in search is so woefully painful, Lookout is simply a must-have.
However, time has marched on, and ever so slowly, there have started to appear a crop of combinations that tempt me to finally break my Outlook addiction. First, let me say it: I would LOVE to switch to Gmail exclusively. The calendar functions are perfect (actually, superior to Outlook by far), and play nicely with Outlook meeting requests. Their email interface is incredibly powerful, with integrated Google search that is truly the gold standard, and their spam detection is incredibly good, with almost no errors. With Plaxo integration, it even satisfies most of my syncing habits. However, the biggest Outlook withdrawal I would feel is the lack of realtime inline spell correction. I've written about this before, but it amazes me still this hasn't been solved. I've recently given As-U-Type a more thorough try, and, with some tweaking of the settings, it actually seems to do what I want without annoying the hell out of me. So, it seems possible this might be my Methadone.
Syncing? Well, Plaxo does 50% of the work. However, it lacks 2 major sync points: Salesforce and my new iPhone. For Salesforce, the picture looks pretty bleak: while there are definitely tools coming to sync Salesforce's Calendar to Google Calendar, I have found nothing for the contacts. Ouch. Given the announced partnership between the two companies, I expected something, but so far it's only seemed to yield AdWords and Google Maps integration.
For the iPhone, the future looks much brighter. First, there is Yahoo Contacts syncing built into iTunes. However, it means either dealing with Yahoo's abominable mail interface (uh...can I actually see my mail, or are there only ads in there?), or ponying up $20 for a Yahoo Plus account. Alas, the Plaxo/Yahoo sync is offline for now, and importing my contacts from a CSV seemed to top out at 1K or so, leaving me with no contacts past the letter "C." Not a real confidence builder, but the built-in iTunes sync is pretty tempting...
Even better, GooSync offers over-the-air based synchronization of Google Calendars, for free, and it even works with the iPhone. A paid version gets you more bells and whistles, but, alas, still no contact syncing. The problem seems to lie with Google, not providing an API for Gmail Contacts like they do for Calendar. There are some promising developments coming, not the least of which is Apple's February release of the iPhone SDK, but there is also the tantalizing temptation of Funambol, which claims they will have an over-the-air mobile contact sync soon:
As a professional with over 8K contacts and over 2K appointments, I am a hopeless Microsoft Outlook addict. However, as any power user of Outlook will tell you, it becomes massively bloated, slow as molasses, and utterly frustrating with even the slightest extended usage. Worse, there is no way to make it go back to even resembling a responsive application once the damage has been done. Why, then, you ask, do I continue to use it?- It is still the best email application, with it's MS Word integration with the only true inline spell correct on the market.
- It is the defacto standard for corporate mail and appointment requests.
- It is the best all in one application.
However, like any Outlook power user, I have found that I need to add things on to it to make it usable. This is where it gets fun: each of those add-ons makes Outlook massively harder to use. For instance:
- Spam control. Outlook's spam filters are laughable. I could use our server's draconian spam controls, but would easily miss emails from my clients.
Instead, I happily subscribe to Cloudmark Desktop: for $5 a month, I get incredibly intelligent spam protection, with built in crowdsourcing from over half a million users. The first user who gets a spam email marks it as such in Outlook, using the Outlook-integrated Cloudmark Desktop. The next person does the same. If a few more do, every other person who gets that email will automatically have it thrown in the spam folder. Using Cloudmark, I went from over 100 emails a day I had to delete as spam to less then 2. It works, period.- Syncing. I sync my contacts and tasks with Salesforce, so I can keep up with my organization's workload. I sync everything with Plaxo, so I can have my information synchronized across Google, Yahoo, etc. Until last week, I synced with Palm for my Treo. Each of these require a little add-on to Outlook.
- Lookout. Though no longer made, and no longer available (Microsoft acquired the company, and replaced it with the far more bloated Windows Search), it can still be found, if you know where to look for it. It adds a powerful search, Google-style, to Outlook that makes it easy to find any email or contact, ever, in your Outlook. Outlook's own built-in search is so woefully painful, Lookout is simply a must-have.However, time has marched on, and ever so slowly, there have started to appear a crop of combinations that tempt me to finally break my Outlook addiction. First, let me say it: I would LOVE to switch to Gmail exclusively. The calendar functions are perfect (actually, superior to Outlook by far), and play nicely with Outlook meeting requests. Their email interface is incredibly powerful, with integrated Google search that is truly the gold standard, and their spam detection is incredibly good, with almost no errors. With Plaxo integration, it even satisfies most of my syncing habits. However, the biggest Outlook withdrawal I would feel is the lack of realtime inline spell correction. I've written about this before, but it amazes me still this hasn't been solved. I've recently given As-U-Type a more thorough try, and, with some tweaking of the settings, it actually seems to do what I want without annoying the hell out of me. So, it seems possible this might be my Methadone.
Syncing? Well, Plaxo does 50% of the work. However, it lacks 2 major sync points: Salesforce and my new iPhone. For Salesforce, the picture looks pretty bleak: while there are definitely tools coming to sync Salesforce's Calendar to Google Calendar, I have found nothing for the contacts. Ouch. Given the announced partnership between the two companies, I expected something, but so far it's only seemed to yield AdWords and Google Maps integration.
For the iPhone, the future looks much brighter. First, there is Yahoo Contacts syncing built into iTunes. However, it means either dealing with Yahoo's abominable mail interface (uh...can I actually see my mail, or are there only ads in there?), or ponying up $20 for a Yahoo Plus account. Alas, the Plaxo/Yahoo sync is offline for now, and importing my contacts from a CSV seemed to top out at 1K or so, leaving me with no contacts past the letter "C." Not a real confidence builder, but the built-in iTunes sync is pretty tempting...Even better, GooSync offers over-the-air based synchronization of Google Calendars, for free, and it even works with the iPhone. A paid version gets you more bells and whistles, but, alas, still no contact syncing. The problem seems to lie with Google, not providing an API for Gmail Contacts like they do for Calendar. There are some promising developments coming, not the least of which is Apple's February release of the iPhone SDK, but there is also the tantalizing temptation of Funambol, which claims they will have an over-the-air mobile contact sync soon:"Compatible with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Microsoft Outlook as well as other email systems, the software interfaces with the free myFUNAMBOL portal which stores the most up-to-date collection of your PIM data. By the end of this year, Funambol expect to have a basic, contacts-sync’ing version available."For now, it appears I am still stuck sucking on the Outlook glass pipe while Google and Apple chortle at a new addiction they are cooking up. Hey, I'm open to ideas here: anyone??
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
When You Wish Upon A List...
This holiday, I was struck by an attendee at our house for the annual holiday feast, who watched the frenzied opening of gifts. See, most of the folks who were opening gifts were delighted to see items that they had asked for on their Wishlists, mostly from Amazon, so they were not just excited to have the gifts, but which of their wishlist items they were. My friend watched the excitement, and hear the constant cries of, "oh, good, you got me THAT one!" She asked, "Wait a minute: you all bought each other things off of lists you all made?" When we laughed and said yes, she shook her head and admitted it was a pretty good idea.
Wishlists: only took us 5000 years to tell each other what we want. As fate had it, my wishlist item arived:my very own Doomsday USB Hub. Now, I can end a meeting in style. Thanks!
Wishlists: only took us 5000 years to tell each other what we want. As fate had it, my wishlist item arived:my very own Doomsday USB Hub. Now, I can end a meeting in style. Thanks!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Spokeo: Pulse, without Plaxo
As you may have noticed, I've been become more and more fascinated with the evolution of Web 2.0 to harness the "cloud" of the Web to make the online world more relevant. In other words, using the web to enhance the social nature of interactions. This hearkens back to my early days as a BBS sysop, and actually has the potential to make the web ubiquitous. I've been quite congratulatory towards Plaxo for recognizing one of the key tenets of this, the ability to automatically discover interactions, and display and classify them, in the form of Plaxo's Pulse, which gives you a "news feed" of what your connections are doing, all over the web. I've also mentioned that Plaxo sometimes, rightly or wrongly, gets a bad rap as being a Facebook imitator or worse, but I have to tell you, the Pulse is addictive: like all good "push" applications, it keeps you up to date on everything. But what if you could have Pulse, without Plaxo?
Enter Spokeo, which does exactly that. Enter your GMail, Yahoo, or other major mail service credentials, and it will scan your online address book, pull it down, and create a news feed of all of your contacts actions on the popular networks. Your college roommate posts some images to Flickr? Bam, there they are. Your old girlfriend Twitters on her canceled flight? Now you share her pain. That guy you went to high school with creates a new mix to listen to on Pandora? Tune in, and hear how Travis Tritt has invaded his taste. And so on.
Before you go all George Orwell, hang on: Spokeo only finds publicly accessible info on your friends. If your friend doesn't publicly publish their Twitter feed, for instance (ahem...Carlos???), you will have to authenticate before it can appear in your feed. If your Flickr account is inactive, for instance, it will denote as such. It uses a slick interface that neatly arranges your list of friends on the left, divided into those that have active and inactive accounts, and on the right is the latest activity from them all. You can drill down to the individual or service you want to see. The image to the right here is from my feed, today.
I've played around with it for a couple of days, and here's some observations:
- It's free.
- It's slow. They got slammed with a Techcrunch story that is pegging their servers, but hey, it's free.
- They seem to have a 1001 limit of friends, and it goes alphabetically by first name. For folks with over 8000+ contacts like me, that's a drag, since I get as far as friends with first names starting with "C," and that's it (sorry, Vasska; guess I'll just pick you up on Pulse). Pulse has that completely beat, with up to 10K.
- Their "spidering" of your Yahoo contacts seems flawed: it loses the first name of the contact, giving your contacts a fabulouso Hollywood "Madonna" one word name. ;-)
- Did I mention it's slow? Took almost 15 minutes to handle 1001 contacts, and pegged my CPU while it did it.
- It has one killer feature Pulse is missing: the ability to manually add any RSS feed to any contact. For instance, I could add the RSS feed for my corporate blog to my contact, and see new posts in that blog associated with me.
Overall, Spokeo, like Pulse, offers a glimpse into an entirely new way of perceiving the web: a personal feed. In many ways, this is a rudimentary first step to what my fellow high school alumnus, Nova Spivack, calls the "semantic web:" the ability to perceive not just data, but meaningful data. Overall, I still very much prefer Pulse, but if you are turned off by Plaxo for some strange reason, I encourage you to try Spokeo, and get hooked on what your friends are up to.
Enter Spokeo, which does exactly that. Enter your GMail, Yahoo, or other major mail service credentials, and it will scan your online address book, pull it down, and create a news feed of all of your contacts actions on the popular networks. Your college roommate posts some images to Flickr? Bam, there they are. Your old girlfriend Twitters on her canceled flight? Now you share her pain. That guy you went to high school with creates a new mix to listen to on Pandora? Tune in, and hear how Travis Tritt has invaded his taste. And so on.
Before you go all George Orwell, hang on: Spokeo only finds publicly accessible info on your friends. If your friend doesn't publicly publish their Twitter feed, for instance (ahem...Carlos???), you will have to authenticate before it can appear in your feed. If your Flickr account is inactive, for instance, it will denote as such. It uses a slick interface that neatly arranges your list of friends on the left, divided into those that have active and inactive accounts, and on the right is the latest activity from them all. You can drill down to the individual or service you want to see. The image to the right here is from my feed, today.I've played around with it for a couple of days, and here's some observations:
- It's free.
- It's slow. They got slammed with a Techcrunch story that is pegging their servers, but hey, it's free.
- They seem to have a 1001 limit of friends, and it goes alphabetically by first name. For folks with over 8000+ contacts like me, that's a drag, since I get as far as friends with first names starting with "C," and that's it (sorry, Vasska; guess I'll just pick you up on Pulse). Pulse has that completely beat, with up to 10K.
- Their "spidering" of your Yahoo contacts seems flawed: it loses the first name of the contact, giving your contacts a fabulouso Hollywood "Madonna" one word name. ;-)
- Did I mention it's slow? Took almost 15 minutes to handle 1001 contacts, and pegged my CPU while it did it.
- It has one killer feature Pulse is missing: the ability to manually add any RSS feed to any contact. For instance, I could add the RSS feed for my corporate blog to my contact, and see new posts in that blog associated with me.
Overall, Spokeo, like Pulse, offers a glimpse into an entirely new way of perceiving the web: a personal feed. In many ways, this is a rudimentary first step to what my fellow high school alumnus, Nova Spivack, calls the "semantic web:" the ability to perceive not just data, but meaningful data. Overall, I still very much prefer Pulse, but if you are turned off by Plaxo for some strange reason, I encourage you to try Spokeo, and get hooked on what your friends are up to.
Labels: beta, lifehacks, Plaxo, reviews, social networks, Twitter, Web 2.0
Thursday, October 04, 2007
I'm Not Dead
It only looks that way. Work has been brutal, but the end is nigh: I have hired two new staff members, and one has already started. With trips to Chicago and NY coming up, the extra help could not have come at a better time. I've also been logging a lot of biking and other fun exercise, so blogging (and calls to my mother, father and friends) have suffered. I've been reduced to Facebook status updates and occasional snippets...but hopefully, I'll be back in a regular publishing groove soon.
I owe a big post on Plaxo, as they worked through my issues to get me fully working. And man, is it sweet. Look for it shortly. I also need to point out the best PC deals ever in the Dell Outlet; top of the line PC's for under $400. Plus my recent solution for podcasts on the Treo, syncing with iTunes. And that's not mentioning my recent transition to Skype. And finally, a review of Madden 08 on the Wii: the results will surprise you.
For now, I leave you with an image of the coolest steampunk PC mod ever, courtesy of Brass Goggles. Look for the above posts soon!
I owe a big post on Plaxo, as they worked through my issues to get me fully working. And man, is it sweet. Look for it shortly. I also need to point out the best PC deals ever in the Dell Outlet; top of the line PC's for under $400. Plus my recent solution for podcasts on the Treo, syncing with iTunes. And that's not mentioning my recent transition to Skype. And finally, a review of Madden 08 on the Wii: the results will surprise you.
For now, I leave you with an image of the coolest steampunk PC mod ever, courtesy of Brass Goggles. Look for the above posts soon!Labels: blogs, Facebook, games, lifehacks, Madden, Plaxo, steampunk, VOIP, Wii, work
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Make a Traffic Light Think Your Bike Is A Car
Ever wonder what makes a traffic light turn green? Some people think it's timing; others are sure there are weight sensors in the road. Still others claim it's some sort of camera system. But actually, it's magnetic field detectors: coils in the road detect large metallic masses over a plate by the stop line, and the traffic light begins its cycle. No cross traffic, no need for a light change. Slick, eh?
Except if you ride a bike.
See, those carbon and aluminum frames are great for speed and lightweight...but not for telling magnetic sensors you are there. Result? Every morning, I face the ethical dilemma of either waiting for a car to pull up to a certain light so I can turn left...or run the light. Guess what wins most days?
However, my lawbreaking may be at an end. The Green Light Trigger pumps out a strong enough field to fool those sensors into believing my Fuji Robauix is a Ford F-150. No, it doesn't override lights like emergency vehicles, but mounted to the base of the frame, it promises to let me keep up with the other four wheeled traffic on the road, with my two wheels. For $25 and two extra grams of weight, worth a shot, no? The folks at Lifehacker seem doubtful, but the comments there give me hope.
Thoughts?
Except if you ride a bike.
See, those carbon and aluminum frames are great for speed and lightweight...but not for telling magnetic sensors you are there. Result? Every morning, I face the ethical dilemma of either waiting for a car to pull up to a certain light so I can turn left...or run the light. Guess what wins most days?
However, my lawbreaking may be at an end. The Green Light Trigger pumps out a strong enough field to fool those sensors into believing my Fuji Robauix is a Ford F-150. No, it doesn't override lights like emergency vehicles, but mounted to the base of the frame, it promises to let me keep up with the other four wheeled traffic on the road, with my two wheels. For $25 and two extra grams of weight, worth a shot, no? The folks at Lifehacker seem doubtful, but the comments there give me hope.Thoughts?
Sunday, September 16, 2007
A $50 Steak From A $5 One
A warning: Vegans, vegetarians, and folks who don't care for red meat, if the title of this post and the photo don't give it away, skip this one. The rest of you? Welcome to the world of food hacking. I'm not talking advanced chemistry here, but simple, easy ways to make your food taste better. And today, we're talking about one of the few foods I can actually cook: steak.
See that steak? You think you're looking at a $5 steak, covered in salt, right? Wrong. You are actually looking at the metamorphosis of a $5 steak into one that you'd weep with carnivorous joy at consuming in Morton's or Smith & Wollensky. Thanks to this amazing blog post, we are that much closer to beef heaven.
Fellow meat lovers, I share your joy at the treasure we are aboutto behold.The world...and the grill..will never be the same.
See that steak? You think you're looking at a $5 steak, covered in salt, right? Wrong. You are actually looking at the metamorphosis of a $5 steak into one that you'd weep with carnivorous joy at consuming in Morton's or Smith & Wollensky. Thanks to this amazing blog post, we are that much closer to beef heaven.Fellow meat lovers, I share your joy at the treasure we are aboutto behold.The world...and the grill..will never be the same.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Am I Getting A Good Seat?
Thanks to a clever link from my new favorite travel site, TripIt, I found SeatGuru.com. Ever wondered whether the seat on the plane you are choosing is any good? Does it fully recline? Are there power outlets for the laptop? Does it suck? No more guesswork: SeatGuru has the answer.
A service of the always great TripAdvisor.com, SeatGuru has a hell of a mission statement:
With it, I was able to book seats for an upcoming Texas trip on American Airlines, avoiding the "Poor Seats" and "Be Aware" seats with complete confidence. Interestingly, even some of the First Class seats on my flight were marked to "Be Aware." Thanks, SeatGuru!
Thanks to a clever link from my new favorite travel site, TripIt, I found SeatGuru.com. Ever wondered whether the seat on the plane you are choosing is any good? Does it fully recline? Are there power outlets for the laptop? Does it suck? No more guesswork: SeatGuru has the answer.A service of the always great TripAdvisor.com, SeatGuru has a hell of a mission statement:
"In October 2001 frequent flyer Matthew Daimler launched SeatGuru.com with a single color-coded interactive airplane seating chart. Having realized the vast differences between airline seats, he was determined to build a repository of this useful information and share it with other travelers. Over ten million visitors later, SeatGuru has enjoyed incredible success and has expanded to over 275 airplane seatmaps from over 40 different airlines."
With it, I was able to book seats for an upcoming Texas trip on American Airlines, avoiding the "Poor Seats" and "Be Aware" seats with complete confidence. Interestingly, even some of the First Class seats on my flight were marked to "Be Aware." Thanks, SeatGuru!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Reason #482 Blogs are important
A while back, I blogged about how a person in my company was using his blog as a good tool to help better position himself and his job satisfaction in the company. Today, while perusing my Google Reader, I read his latest entry. This excerpt caught my eye:
Damn, that's smart. I never thought to use my blog to define my perfect new hire. It makes sense: why not demystify the process, and let people know just the kind of person you are looking for? Hell, I know people Google me before an interview; why not see just how good and smart they are by leaving them the tips they need to ensure I understand they are the right person for the job?
Thanks, Ed. Look for my post on the Client Services Manager I need soon!
A while back, I blogged about how a person in my company was using his blog as a good tool to help better position himself and his job satisfaction in the company. Today, while perusing my Google Reader, I read his latest entry. This excerpt caught my eye:"I hope some of the candidates I interview run into this blog entry. In reality, the ones that are curious enough to try and Google some information about my company or SQL Server DBA interview questions will run into lots of more useful information before coming upon this blog. Unfortunately, those are few and far between."
Damn, that's smart. I never thought to use my blog to define my perfect new hire. It makes sense: why not demystify the process, and let people know just the kind of person you are looking for? Hell, I know people Google me before an interview; why not see just how good and smart they are by leaving them the tips they need to ensure I understand they are the right person for the job?
Thanks, Ed. Look for my post on the Client Services Manager I need soon!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Lock your Windows computer with a click
Pretty slick and simple walkthrough on creating a desktop shortcut to lock your Windows computer with a simple double click. Easy. Should be built in.
Pretty slick and simple walkthrough on creating a desktop shortcut to lock your Windows computer with a simple double click. Easy. Should be built in.Labels: lifehacks
Friday, June 08, 2007
Use your Treo as a Modem for your Laptop
While I'm on the road, I use my laptop vigorously. I choose hotels based on their WiFi coverage and inclusiveness. This trip, I noticed my email from my corporate server can be downloaded, but not sent. Why? My IT guy reports that many WiFi ISP's block port 25, to prevent spammers from "wardriving," finding a free hotspot, and blasting away. So, thanks to Palm, Bluetooth, and my Treo, I wired up to my Treo 680 as it's own Bluetooth hotspot. Sure, it's no WiFi, but my mail gets out.
Damn, that was easy.
While I'm on the road, I use my laptop vigorously. I choose hotels based on their WiFi coverage and inclusiveness. This trip, I noticed my email from my corporate server can be downloaded, but not sent. Why? My IT guy reports that many WiFi ISP's block port 25, to prevent spammers from "wardriving," finding a free hotspot, and blasting away. So, thanks to Palm, Bluetooth, and my Treo, I wired up to my Treo 680 as it's own Bluetooth hotspot. Sure, it's no WiFi, but my mail gets out.Damn, that was easy.
Labels: cell phones, lifehacks, Palm, Treo
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Backup your Treo
I know, I'm still overdue on two reviews: one for my Jawbone headset, and another for my Treo 680. Suffice it to say, for the moment, I am impressed with the Jawbone, but have reservations on the fit...more will come, I promise. The 680, on the other hand, is more than I hoped for, and is truly a worthy pre-iPhone device, with actually a lot more going for it. I will be sitting down to devote some serious time to share the joy.
For the moment, I will instead pass along one of the many surprises I've had since becoming a Treo owner. and it's about my least sexy topic, backups. Palm has released a beta application for backing up most of the essentials for your Treo, automatically, every night, over the air. Yup, like Mozy, the app comes up, contacts a Palm server, and backs up your contacts, Favorites, and more. You do need a significant data plan from your carrier, and you have only vague controls on the timing, but it just works. And, of course, it's free...for now.
Damn, this is smart. I already use RescoBackup to backup my Palm, nightly, to an SD card, but secure offsite storage for free? Count me in.
For the moment, I will instead pass along one of the many surprises I've had since becoming a Treo owner. and it's about my least sexy topic, backups. Palm has released a beta application for backing up most of the essentials for your Treo, automatically, every night, over the air. Yup, like Mozy, the app comes up, contacts a Palm server, and backs up your contacts, Favorites, and more. You do need a significant data plan from your carrier, and you have only vague controls on the timing, but it just works. And, of course, it's free...for now.Damn, this is smart. I already use RescoBackup to backup my Palm, nightly, to an SD card, but secure offsite storage for free? Count me in.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
TurboTax: SaaS done Perfectly
As many of you know, Uncle Sam and I have a rather strained relationship. I take a rather Libertarian view of most government services, and nothing exemplifies that more to me than the annual ritual of paying income tax. Of course, I used to treat them as a minor annoyance, but the Dot Bomb implosion and the wonderful world of Alternative Minimum Tax (see Lani's recent post on this) turned my tolerance to outright antagonism. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, as well as a surprisingly cooperative IRS, I am no longer paying for income I never saw, but I still grind my teeth at the approach of April 15th (or this year, April 17).
However, last year I found hope. TurboTax, Intuit's answer to the horrific nightmare that is income tax, always promised the "easy, fast and painless" that all software does. However, despite being a Quicken addict for years, I never put much faith in it. Last year, with the deadline approaching, I surfed over to the site, to see if I could try again. Much to my delight, they offered TurboTax as a web based application now: software as a service (SaaS). Determined to reward such forward thinking, I dived headlong into it. 2 hours later, I had filed my Federal and State taxes, and even had my refunds coming via direct deposit. Even better, they offered Audit Defense for $30: if there was anything wrong, they, not I, would deal with the IRS: "You will never speak with the IRS. Period." I was floored.
This year, I was sure my past experience would be a fluke. Imagine my surprise when, for a total of $130, I was able to not only duplicate last year's ease, but also add Audit Defense to my State returns, but even use a Deduction Maximizer that netted me far more than my measly calculations ever would have. I can't believe that I am saying this about taxes, but it was a joy. Their service is remarkable: lots of interactive questions, with tons of help along the way, even hints to tell you "Most people don't need to fill this part out." It intelligently saves to the server on every step, and allows you to come back at any time to resume. Best of all, a fantastic real-time calculator on every page that updates to show you just how much you can expect to pay or receive as a refund with every answer. Sure, I'm certain I'd feel a little less elated if I was not seeing a refund this year, but even still, I'm so amazingly encouraged by this.
Taxes are a perfect example of a massive, complicated process that can be quantified, and therefore leveraged by software to make easier. Imagine the same with legal situations (lawsuits, wills), or other important financial considerations (insurance, mortgages). Heck, they even allow an electronic signature. As a founder of a SaaS company, I truly take my hat off to these folks: they do it right, without the necessary evil of imposing their own convoluted vocabulary (see salesforce.com's "Opportunities" as a good example) or force you to take online courses to figure out how to use the tool you have. They start from the perspective of a problem, and work backwards, always keeping the end user in mind.
Not only was it a good experience, not only was it productive, but it gives peace of mind, ease of use, and delivers results. Now that's a less taxing filing. If you are like me, and want to wait until the last possible moment for a catch-up session with the big Uncle, do yourself a favor and let TurboTax help out. You've got two more days...spend them wisely. :-)
As many of you know, Uncle Sam and I have a rather strained relationship. I take a rather Libertarian view of most government services, and nothing exemplifies that more to me than the annual ritual of paying income tax. Of course, I used to treat them as a minor annoyance, but the Dot Bomb implosion and the wonderful world of Alternative Minimum Tax (see Lani's recent post on this) turned my tolerance to outright antagonism. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, as well as a surprisingly cooperative IRS, I am no longer paying for income I never saw, but I still grind my teeth at the approach of April 15th (or this year, April 17).However, last year I found hope. TurboTax, Intuit's answer to the horrific nightmare that is income tax, always promised the "easy, fast and painless" that all software does. However, despite being a Quicken addict for years, I never put much faith in it. Last year, with the deadline approaching, I surfed over to the site, to see if I could try again. Much to my delight, they offered TurboTax as a web based application now: software as a service (SaaS). Determined to reward such forward thinking, I dived headlong into it. 2 hours later, I had filed my Federal and State taxes, and even had my refunds coming via direct deposit. Even better, they offered Audit Defense for $30: if there was anything wrong, they, not I, would deal with the IRS: "You will never speak with the IRS. Period." I was floored.
This year, I was sure my past experience would be a fluke. Imagine my surprise when, for a total of $130, I was able to not only duplicate last year's ease, but also add Audit Defense to my State returns, but even use a Deduction Maximizer that netted me far more than my measly calculations ever would have. I can't believe that I am saying this about taxes, but it was a joy. Their service is remarkable: lots of interactive questions, with tons of help along the way, even hints to tell you "Most people don't need to fill this part out." It intelligently saves to the server on every step, and allows you to come back at any time to resume. Best of all, a fantastic real-time calculator on every page that updates to show you just how much you can expect to pay or receive as a refund with every answer. Sure, I'm certain I'd feel a little less elated if I was not seeing a refund this year, but even still, I'm so amazingly encouraged by this.
Taxes are a perfect example of a massive, complicated process that can be quantified, and therefore leveraged by software to make easier. Imagine the same with legal situations (lawsuits, wills), or other important financial considerations (insurance, mortgages). Heck, they even allow an electronic signature. As a founder of a SaaS company, I truly take my hat off to these folks: they do it right, without the necessary evil of imposing their own convoluted vocabulary (see salesforce.com's "Opportunities" as a good example) or force you to take online courses to figure out how to use the tool you have. They start from the perspective of a problem, and work backwards, always keeping the end user in mind.
Not only was it a good experience, not only was it productive, but it gives peace of mind, ease of use, and delivers results. Now that's a less taxing filing. If you are like me, and want to wait until the last possible moment for a catch-up session with the big Uncle, do yourself a favor and let TurboTax help out. You've got two more days...spend them wisely. :-)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Shared To Do Lists
We're in the process of moving, which means it's time to make lots of to do lists. Utilities to transfer, subscriptions to update, things to buy...all the property of the standard to do list. Yet we have different jobs, different schedules, so syncing two different lists to make sure we don't overlap is a pain. Surely, I asked, the web has a better way?
Yup. From 37signals, the folks who make free to inexpensive purpose-based solutions for project management and scheduling, comes Backpack. Simple: create your to do list, using multiple categories, and the easiest Web 2.0 controls, and share with another Backpack user. One of you thinks of something to add? Log in to your Backpack page, and with a few clicks, done. Check one off the list? Done. Add some details to a previous to do? Easy to edit.
37 Signals focuses on delivering simple, purpose driven applications, and for this, it's ideal. With a paid account, you can add calendar links, images, and more, but for dealing with moving tasks, it's perfect. What could they add? Syncing with other to do lists would be nice, as would RSS feeds to see when someone else checks off a task or adds one. Even better, some prebuilt templates for common uses (like moving, one might say :-)), but hey, it's free. Who can quibble?
Yup. From 37signals, the folks who make free to inexpensive purpose-based solutions for project management and scheduling, comes Backpack. Simple: create your to do list, using multiple categories, and the easiest Web 2.0 controls, and share with another Backpack user. One of you thinks of something to add? Log in to your Backpack page, and with a few clicks, done. Check one off the list? Done. Add some details to a previous to do? Easy to edit.37 Signals focuses on delivering simple, purpose driven applications, and for this, it's ideal. With a paid account, you can add calendar links, images, and more, but for dealing with moving tasks, it's perfect. What could they add? Syncing with other to do lists would be nice, as would RSS feeds to see when someone else checks off a task or adds one. Even better, some prebuilt templates for common uses (like moving, one might say :-)), but hey, it's free. Who can quibble?
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Workaholic Burnout Culture
Hello. My name is Josh. And I am a workaholic.
Those words have been uttered by me since I was 13 years old. I preferred work over school, work over relationships, and work over fun. At 13, I was working, literally, 80 hours a week in the summers. In college, I had not one, not two, but three jobs, simultaneously. In retrospect, it seems fated that I would be drawn to Silicon Valley, where we have made an art form of transforming our social lives into our work lives...and feeling content with it.
It never used to be this way. Sure we had the distorted view of the nuclear family, replete with images of "Leave It To Beaver" bliss. But remember the influx of happy hours, which fortified the men (since that was who was primarily working) for their familial obligations? As time went one, the happy hours went away, and the Blackberry took its place.
The ultimate distortion of this came when I worked for Inktomi. Great company, great people. The culture was summed up in one phrase: "Work Hard, Play Hard." And the line between the two was obliterated. Yes, the dotcom culture made money an object of the past: we were free to buy anything we wanted, so we molded our work around what we found as fun. And y'know what? It worked. That is, it worked...until the bubble burst, and the party was over.
Now, we have all somehow convinced ourselves that it's ok for work to blend with home. If you don't check your emails constantly, you are perceived to be slacking. Worse, the concept of not checking your emails at least once every 10 minutes is considered...alien. Why would you want to be out of touch for that long?
I say this as a workholic. It's not a proud badge of puritanical fortitude. It's an illness. I'm not talking about the occasional late night to get a project done. I'm talking about the sacrificing of the quality of our lives for the bizarre concept that we need to work harder. Well, I am not alone. Jay has a list of tips for how to leave work at work, and, while I have been trying some of them, I confess I need to do a lot more.
Unless you're Buddhist, remember: we all have one turn on this ride. The quality of our lives is determined not by how much we work, but how much we enjoy those lives. I'm Josh, and I am a workaholic. But today I came home, and did not check email from work. That's one day sober, and tomorrow is another day. I won't always stay on that wagon, but I'm passionate enough to know I can throw myself 100% into my work...and let it stay there.
Let's all learn from Jay.
Those words have been uttered by me since I was 13 years old. I preferred work over school, work over relationships, and work over fun. At 13, I was working, literally, 80 hours a week in the summers. In college, I had not one, not two, but three jobs, simultaneously. In retrospect, it seems fated that I would be drawn to Silicon Valley, where we have made an art form of transforming our social lives into our work lives...and feeling content with it.
It never used to be this way. Sure we had the distorted view of the nuclear family, replete with images of "Leave It To Beaver" bliss. But remember the influx of happy hours, which fortified the men (since that was who was primarily working) for their familial obligations? As time went one, the happy hours went away, and the Blackberry took its place. The ultimate distortion of this came when I worked for Inktomi. Great company, great people. The culture was summed up in one phrase: "Work Hard, Play Hard." And the line between the two was obliterated. Yes, the dotcom culture made money an object of the past: we were free to buy anything we wanted, so we molded our work around what we found as fun. And y'know what? It worked. That is, it worked...until the bubble burst, and the party was over.
Now, we have all somehow convinced ourselves that it's ok for work to blend with home. If you don't check your emails constantly, you are perceived to be slacking. Worse, the concept of not checking your emails at least once every 10 minutes is considered...alien. Why would you want to be out of touch for that long?
I say this as a workholic. It's not a proud badge of puritanical fortitude. It's an illness. I'm not talking about the occasional late night to get a project done. I'm talking about the sacrificing of the quality of our lives for the bizarre concept that we need to work harder. Well, I am not alone. Jay has a list of tips for how to leave work at work, and, while I have been trying some of them, I confess I need to do a lot more.
Unless you're Buddhist, remember: we all have one turn on this ride. The quality of our lives is determined not by how much we work, but how much we enjoy those lives. I'm Josh, and I am a workaholic. But today I came home, and did not check email from work. That's one day sober, and tomorrow is another day. I won't always stay on that wagon, but I'm passionate enough to know I can throw myself 100% into my work...and let it stay there.
Let's all learn from Jay.
