AskLG

Series Note: This is one part of a series about enhancing your life with technology.  The series deals with computer based tools created with the intent of making your life easier so you can focus on other things, like life.

Are you a socialite?  Do you spend every weekend out and about with friends?  Do you have several different groups of friends to go out with?  Why not let technology help you organize that busy social life of yours.  I’ll show you a few tools that’ll help.
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Series Note: This is one part of a series about enhancing your life with technology.  The series deals with computer based tools created with the intent of making your life easier so you can focus on other things, like life.

Today we’re talking about how to manage tasks and projects in your life.  In today’s world, we are constantly under the barrage of projects, tasks, meetings, deadlines, and social life.  It’s hard to remember all of the things you have to do on any given day.  Luckily, your computer is here to do the heavy lifting for you.

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Facebook has long been the “up and coming” social network, especially popular with college and web folk alike.  As a direct competitor to MySpace, they have pretty much stayed at #2 in traffic (according to Alexa).  Facebook needed that extra edge, something to push it over the top.  I think the time has come with Facebook’s new features: integrated chat.

Here’s why its good

A large portion of my friends do have Facebook.  I personally also love to chat on Google Talk.  Put two and two together and an issue arises: How to get my friends from Facebook on GTalk?  I have converted a dozen or so friends with my fanatical persuasion skills, but there are many friends that I just don’t wish to put forth the effort to chat with.  I mean it’d be nice if one day they added me on GTalk and we started chatting it up, but its not something I’m going to go out of my way to do.  I think many people face these same issues regardless of chat network preference.  With an integrated client in Facebook, this immediately alleviates the problem.  It also has a very GTalk-ish feel, so its something many web chatters are used to.  Best of all, its just there.  There isn’t anywhere to sign up or anything to download.  It works straight out of the box as soon as you sign on.  I can guarantee 100% of my friends will have access to it as soon as they sign on.  The only other network that can make that guarantee is Gmail, but is that really considered a social network?

And now, any bad points?

First and foremost, privacy is always a concern.  Fortunately, Facebook is smart enough to take that into consideration by employing an opt-out strategy for chat access.  Since I think GTalk and FTalk (yeah, I’ll dub it that for now) are near-directly comparative, I would have liked to of seen chat logging.  If you’re anything like me, you get a ton of links sent to you via chat daily.  While I try to bookmark or save every address I like or want to refer to later, I do tend to miss some (a ton).  Chat logs have been a blessing to go back and get the information I need.  I’m sure everyone has run into this scenario at least once in their online career.  Facebook, being socially active and aware as it is, is somewhat dumb for not having this feature available.  Seriously guys, non-logging was so 2003!

My final complaint with FTalk is the exclusivity property applied.  You can either talk with all your friends, or none of them.  I’m not nieve.  I know all chat networks implement this type of a policy, but Facebook isn’t your typical chat network.  I would really appreciate a method to appear offline for certain individuals and online to others.  Sort of like a seperation of personal and work life?  Close friends and acquantances?  Maybe thats too much to ask for at this point in our technological evolution, but it is definitely something they should consider to further seperate their brand from others.

Overall?

All in all, its great to see Facebook taking another step forward.  I haven’t agreed with everything they’ve done in the past but this idea is stellar.  Kudos.

The Macheist is back with a new roundup of badass applications.  For those non-savvy, Macheist is the authority in getting applications for cheap from developers.  Also if you couldn’t tell, its Mac only.  PC no need apply.

So for the Apple fans over there, hop on over for 12 (yes 12!) top applications for $49.

For me, I’d like to have  Cha-Ching, DevonThink, and WriteRoom.

Cha-Ching is a personal banking application that does a few cool things.  First it allows you to quickly log into your online banking services.  Not exaclty awesome, but OK I guess.  I prefer Mint to this anyways.  Next you can keep track of your budget with tags.  Again, Mint does this but I believe Cha-Ching does a better job.  It also provides a method for you to keep track of those blasted bill due dates.  Hopefully this means no more late fees ya lazy bum!  Finally you can organize them in folders with a beautiful mac interface you’ve grown to love.  More about this cool little money manager at Midnight Apps.

DevonThink is a personal life organizer.  It has the ability to tag items, files, folders, web clips, bookmarks, pdfs, text documents, pictures, and whatever else you throw at it.  All of these items are managed in DevonThink’s own little database, so they can be stored anywhere (including the web).  Its just a cool way to manage your life without sorting files, creating new folders, or tirelessly going through your bookmarks for that one special quote you needed for a paper.  Did I mention it worked with Spotlight?  Full search functionality at your fingertips.  I would almost buy the bundle to get it alone.. almost.  More info at DevonThink.

The third most important app to me is WriteRoom.  WriteRoom is all about writing documents.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It even takes up the whole screen so you won’t be tempted to go blog (heh) or look at pictures or chat on Twitter.  If you find yourself not being able to get work done while on your mac, then WriteRoom might be for you.  More info at Hog Bay Software.

Again, there are 9 more cool apps on sale for the low, low price of $49.  Things such as password managers, games (can’t have enough of those right?), scrapbooking, applicaiton launchers, and more.  Be sure to check it up and consider buying.  Just remember, it’s only up for a limited time (as in days, not weeks).   Hit them up at MacHeist.

My buddy technology called, so him and Lifehack came over today for some fun.  Lets go right into what we talked about! According to Engadget, my cell phone provider, AT&T, has dropped some extra cash on those fancy Microsoft Surface table computers.  You can drop any AT&T display phone on the table and get the specifications.  Putting multiple phones on the table allows you to directly compare them.  Pretty awesome technology overall, but it certainly doesn’t make help them not drop my calls.  Take a look at the new surface mod:

Being an avid soccer fan, I truly can appreciate anything David Beckham does.  Although I’m not a huge fan of Beckham since he plays for the Galaxy instead of my ol’ Dynamo, its nice to see he’s getting appreciated for his 100th cap in England by an American company.  Look at this hunk of gold Apple presented him with [via Gizmodo]:

Speaking of Apple, the iTunes store has finally hit #1 according to Ars Technica.  It seems the iTunes store is now the leading seller of music.  This includes all those people who sell CDs.  Yes, congrats to Apple.  Its been a while but the digital wave has apparently caught on.  Now can you make it cheaper?  I’m just saying…

Finally, Lifehack commenters have come up with some genius advice for the younger generation (me?).  I really hope some of these things stick with me.  I sometimes need to take this advice: 

8. Keep playing, laughing and having fun, don’t get too serious!

 
Other times, you just have to go for it.  I thought #20 was funny:

20. Get over it and kiss the girl!  

Finally for some inspiration, this was thrown in:

32. Whatever you do, believe in yourself. You have untapped potential, and you will accomplish everything you have dreamed about. 

For more great advice, check out the article, here. 

Earlier today, I was browsing the internets (namely Twitter) looking at people’s blogs.  I came across a video from a Houston developer.

Its actually not bad for a rap about tech.  I mean.. if you think about it, technology is hella hard to rap about.  Kudos. 

Found on Justine’s blog. 

When my new MacBook Pro came in December, I decided to try something new. In this case, it was Flock. I have tried it out in its wee-bit early stages, but it wasn’t yet stable enough for daily use. Now that a few revisions have come down the pipe and I have used it for a few months, I can officially endorse its awesomeness. Well, granted awesomeness is even a word.

What is Flock?

For those not quite savvy on the what Flock is, lets talk about it. First and foremost, Flock is an internet browser. So it competes with Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari/Webkit. It is actually based on the same code Firefox is which means everything Firefox can do, so can Flock. So what’s the big deal? Flock takes a different angle on the web market scheme rather than just delivering you the internet page you oh so love. It wants you to be a social butterfly.  While it won’t completely help your unsocial self, It does have tools that link your browser quite conveniently with social services you might use already. These services are places such as: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, Magnolia, Delicious, and so forth.

So, Here’s what I like:

1. Its just Firefox, but with a sexy face lift.

Generally speaking, anything you can do in Firefox can also be achieved in Flock. That includes Extensions/Add-Ons, live bookmarking, and whatever else you do. Tapping into all those Firefox Extensions was huge for Flock.  The Flock community also builds other extensions just for Flock so it has two sources of add-on glory.  Here’s a look at the user interface:

2. Its really easy to Get Started

You have all this stuff setup on you old browser and you’re too lazy to set it up again. Thats OK, Flock imports all that junk on installation. At least it does Firefox (haven’t tried any others).  Yes, Flock does import all extensions as well.  See:

3. Its social!

You can easily hook up with most social sites. They are introduced in an unobtrusive manner so its not annoying/counter productive. I’ve actually found myself spending less time on these sites since Flock makes using these quite efficient. Supported Services are: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Photobucket, Piczo, Blogger, Blogsome, LiveJournal, Typepad, Wordpress, Xanga, Delicious, and Magnolia. MySpace support is in the works for all those wondering. Setting up these services involves (in most cases) just visiting the website and logging in.  Once logged in, Flock recognizes the site and asks permission to link the browser with that account.  When you log out and log back in once more, it is completely setup.  Simple, indeed.

4. Searching made easy.

Just like most browsers these days, Flock has a miniature search box to the right of the address box. It also allows you to search from any site that has a search box. For example, I visited YouTube and clicked on the “Add Search” button. Now anytime I want to search for a Video instead of going to Google/Yahoo, I can use YouTube. I also setup Wikipedia about a month ago. Pretty much any search box can be used, so Flock is quite tailorable to your interests which makes finding what you want much quicker.  This is what was resulting when I searched for Flock.  Obviously, you can search any of search engine installed as well as view pages you have previously visited.

5. Flock handles media well. Very well.

I admit this probably goes under the 3rd point, but the media stuff is cool enough to have its own section. I can view any of my friends images from Facebook, Flickr and such without actually visiting those websites. It comes in a nice little banner across the top of the page which is scroll-able and search-able. This allows me to quickly find any image I’m looking for. Once found, I can click on it to visit the site hosting it. Flock also provides ways to upload your images. Its very easy to do, completely tag-able, and just plain nice.  Speaking of images, there is a built in web clipboard.  You can drag any image, text or link to the clipboard for convenient safekeeping or later use.  Here is the search-able, configurable media bar:

There must be a catch. What’s wrong with it?

Yes, Flock is very powerful indeed but it has some flaws. First, the blog writer doesn’t work well on AskLG. I have a self-hosted Wordpress blog. It does correctly post, but tags are improperly posted. This makes it unusable for my purposes. Sometimes, Flock alerts me up updates when those updates aren’t there. That isn’t a very big issue though, but I’m a perfectionist so I’ll complain about it. Finally, I loathe the RSS reader. Maybe I’m spoiled using Google Reader, but Flock’s RSS reader is out of date. It would be nice if Flock could link up with some popular readers to provide content through them. That idea is probably out of the realm of Flock’s powers though, since most haven’t released an API as of yet.

But you still like it?

Overall I love Flock. I use it daily. I will continue to use it, and I recommend you start. Just visit Flock.com, download, and enjoy.  When you do, be sure to hit me up on Twitter or Flickr or something of that sort. Its time to be social people, join the community. 

Today the mighty Cougars were beat by #1 Memphis. It didn’t deter us from attending the game though. It was a great game, even though we lost. At least we were on TV! There are some pictures up on Flickr.

Art in some places is getting quite extravagant. With technology growing exponentially, its only natural to have technologically advanced art. Here’s a good video of Troika “Cloud” in an airport. [Via Gizmodo]