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.
(more…)

Upon entering grad school, I was under the facade that most things will be the same as my undergraduate work. Yeah, I’d learn things faster. Yeah, it’d be harder. Overall though, the same environment (aka FUN!). I truly enjoyed undergraduate studies, but grad school is so different. Let me explain with some simple Pro’s and Con’s.

Pros:

• Learn a vast number of topics at a rapid pace
• Hang out with truly intelligent people
• Learn about things I never ever thought I’d be learning about
• Eventually I’d get more respect and salary in the work place (with a PhD)
• I’d end with a sense of hard work and accomplishment
• Incredible Gym. I seriously love that place.

Cons:

• Learning a ton of old, insignificant material I’ll never use
• Not learning too much material I can use in the real world (depends on prof though)
• I learn in a different manor than these profs teach, so sometimes I end up teaching myself all of the material.
• Grading Scale is insane. Getting a B can and will screw you over.  A B+ isn’t much better.
• Have no life (or very little of one)
• Have no money (or very little money)
• Have to live at home and bum off your parents (part of that whole no money shindig)
• Nonstop worrying about if you’re going to be kicked out, or if you’re good enough, or if you can pull off a miracle, or random thoughts of that nature
• Have no time for yourself.  I seriously have issues finding time to blog everyday.  I end up doing it when I’m falling asleep at night which makes for mediocre posts.
• School is just not fun anymore, so my heart isn’t into it.

Also, let me explain a little bit about my personality.  Maybe it’ll help you get me. I love to learn and I’ll always be learning even if I’m not in school.  I’m also not those stereotypical computer guys who become hermits at the age of 30.  I enjoy going out with friends.  I’d like to think I’m quite social.  A little shy at times, but social nonetheless.  I like to push myself to new limits.  I want to see what I can do, what I’m made of.  Kinda like the Army, except without the bullets, death, and searing heat in Iraq.  I really enjoy solving problems.  If you give me a problem and sincerely are wondering about the answer, I’ll work (and work.. and work) until I give you a solution.  It might not be the best or most efficient, but it’ll work.  After its functional, those other things will come.  Also, I love the web.  I coin myself as a web enthusiast, but thats such a relative term.  I just enjoy that whole social, web 2.0, cool web-based application, type schema thats going on right now.  Its addicting.  Finally, I love sports and music.  Just side hobbies I guess, but I’m a gym rat and always have some hot new track playing.  Thats William in a small, confined nutshell.
So with the semester coming to a close, I must decide soon if I should stay in the beloved world of academia or move on into the work force and try to make a difference in people’s lives (my goal in life). This is one of those tough decisions that can either make you or haunt you for the rest of your life. So friends, family, and random people I’ve never met (but equally as cool of course), contact me with some insight or opinions on this situation.  The more input I get, I figure the better decision I can make.  Thanks a ton everyone.  I love you all (and appreciate the advice!).

Sidebar: Justin just got Twitter so now the AskLG-ites and immediate friends hanging out on twitter include:
Kara, Eloy, Justin, David, and me.

Who’s next on Twitter? I’m not sure, but I’m hoping its you.  So get an account and add me. Go ahead.. I’m waiting…

Great News! David now has Twitter! Hit him up: David’s Twitter. Announcements aside, I’m swamped with homework (go figure) so we’ll just cover a few topics today.

Being a long time cell phone user, you probably have all the answers when it comes to provider pricing. Well just to ensure you’re paying the least amount possible, you should visit BillShrink. It is a nice little online app to show you the cheapest rates in your area. Unfortunately it only does minute-based planes and disregards internet/text usage. That’ll come in due time though. Novel concept. [Via Lifehacker]

While I’ve been deep in Linux and Sebek security, this song (Calabria 2007 by Enur ft Natasja) has helped me make the time pass faster. I love it and hopefully you will too.

Remember how some people use two fingers to say bye? Kinda like a peace formation mixed with a cool wave? Well I’m one of those people, and you can’t exactly do that online. So David and I have come up with the clever solution to use the number “2″ to say goodbye. 2 as in 2 fingers as in bye. Get it? Bleh. Its a new trend, you should join the cult! Until next time, 2!

I have used Flickr for a few years now. Eloy got me hooked and even convinced me that a Pro account is worth it. Today, TechCrunch broke a story (before it happened coincidently) about Flickr Video! The videos have the same features as normal pictures so you can tag them, group them, throw down some geo codes and so forth. The interface is very simple and clean. Only Pro users can upload videos though and these videos can only be 90 seconds long. I understand they are trying to cut down on copyrighted content being uploaded, but 90 seconds is severely limiting. Even though I am in love with Flickr, I’d probably use YouTube or Vimeo for video uploads. Tagging videos is cool, but when I read the article I was expecting much more innovation.

Also its nice to note that Philips is pulling their TVs out of the USA. According to Gizmodo, all “new” Philips TV’s will be produced by a 3rd party (Funai). Crap-tastic. I actually liked Philips. I guess now I’ll have to settle for some uber-sweet Samsung love.

As a personal note, I’m getting bored with twitter. Not many of my true friends use it (cause they’re lame!) so I’m left with a void in wasting time during the day. Hit me up! Tweet!

The Common Craft show is at it once again. Lee LeFever and company make everything technical seem extremely easy. Its pure explanation genius.

Today, they explained all about Twitter. For regular readers, you probably know I just recently got an account. So, watch Lee explain why Twitter is great. Then get an account of your own, and follow me (here).

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. 

Apple fanboys and fangals rejoice! Today several high ranking tech blogs, such as Engadget and Gizmodo, were invited to Apple for an iPhone roadmap and SDK event on March 6th. What does this mean to iPhone owners? You could get really cool, probably free, applications for your iPhone soon. This announcement doesn’t mean they are releasing on the 6th, but they will have a status report at the very least. Once released, developers get to work their magic to create apps to make your life easier. I suspect applications for social networks will be hot at first, as well as things such as a Twitter updater so you can view multiple friends at once. Overall, cool things happen when the framework is opened up. Just look at how Facebook took off with their applications.

Speaking of Twitter, I finally got me an account. I know, I know. I’m probably 2-3 years behind the curve, but I never really thought it’d be useful. I’ve been having trouble trying to keep up with all my friends, so I have made two changes. First I downloaded Flock. Its a web browser with a twist, and great way to connect with friends. I’ll be writing a full length article on Flock a little later. Next, I signed up for a Twitter account. Mine’s here. Problem is, not many of my friends use twitter. Oh, well. Maybe it will come in handy later.

I have fell in love with Sandy over the time I’ve used her services and I thought many others enlisted her as well. Apparently I’m wrong. Yes Sandy has tons of customers, but she isn’t as popular as she should be. So today, I will be sharing with you the beauty that is Sandy.

Who’s this Sandy girl?
OK, lets pretend you haven’t heard of Sandy. Why do I keep referring to this person and “using” her? Sandy is a virtual personal assistant. Just think of her as Fonsworth Bentley except she doesn’t cost you anything and you never get to hang out with her at the club. She is the brainchild of Rael Dornfest (of O’Reilly fame) and the Values of N crew.

If she’s a personal assistant, can she get me drinks?
Well not exactly. She’s more of the scheduling type of assistant, not the one you cheat on your wife with. She is very handy though. She can: remember things (ie names/numbers/email addresses), remind you of upcoming events, and create a list (ie to-do lists or grocery list). Of course, she can easily retrieve this information for you. Also, she can forget things you don’t need anymore.

Well fine. If she’s virtual, how do I talk to her?
Again, they’ve thought that out for you and provided plenty of avenues for communication. The most obvious is sending her an email. She parses the title of the email and does the appropriate action. Also she is compatible with SMS (cell phone) messages, Twitter (rejoice twitter-holics!), and Jott. You should have no problem getting/sending information.

Yeah thats cool. What makes her special though?
Aside from the free part, she is feature packed. Lets say you saved quite a few contacts. Well you’re out in the city at lunch and need a phone number quick. Wow, thats unlucky since it isn’t saved in your phone either. What do you do? Just send an email to Ms. Sandy (or visit her website on your phone). In the title add the field ‘@sms’ and she’ll reply directly to your phone and not your email or twitter or jott. The same can be done for any service. She can also reply to all your services at once. Lets say you need the phone number and so does your boss. Thats cool, just CC him in an email and he’ll be sent the information as well. Your boss then can become your “friend” and thus Sandy enlists a social networking aspect to her service.

Well that sounds great, but there has to be a problem right?
Problems are so relative these days. By default, Sandy sends you an email everyday with your “Daily Digest” of things to do. For people like me who use iCal, Google Calendar, or some other scheduling service this feature can get annoying. Luckily there is a way to turn it off in the settings. Also, since we’re on the topic of calendar services it could be very cool if Sandy could interface directly with these services. Its not something I expect out of Sandy, but it would definitely be impressive and make many people’s lives easier. Another downfall lies the the SMS/text service. I would like to be be able to text message her to add/retrieve information. It’d be nice if she had an phone number in which she can get the right information based off of the phone number requesting it. The only other Sandy downfall I perceive is the face Sandy only understand certain conversation context. Although not a problem for me, I can see a speech adjustment required by some. I do know though, that the Values of N team is working on getting the best conversation context it can. Also every program requires some some of learning curve to get the best results. For Sandy, its just the way you talk to her.

So Will, what do you think overall?
I have fallen in love with Sandy and use her often. When I finally decide to spend the extra money for unlimited texts on my cell phone, I will be using her even more (with the @sms command). Even though I really miss not being able to send her texts to add/retrieve information, I would still recommend her. She is definitely worth checking out if you have a large base of friends, use the internet often, frequently forget things, have a hectic schedule, or work with tech-savvy people.

Find out more at: http://www.iwantsandy.com
Here’s a cheat sheet of common commands: http://iwantsandy.com/help/cheatsheet