Posts Tagged ‘Google’
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Google Greatness: Calendar
We’ve covered RSS feeds with Google Reader, your mail with Gmail and news with Alerts over the past few days; but what good is that if you never have time to do it with your busy schedule? In comes our next product: Google Calendar.
Google Calendar (GCal) is a great product, it has all the needed elements that most people look for in a calendar. We have the different view types (Day/Week/Month/Agenda) but that’s nothing new for calendar programs. When you add an event it has all the routine What/When/Where/Description, again nothing new. One of hte most useful features about GCal however is the ability to have multiple calendars as one.
By creating a new Calendar (Click the Add button located on the left of the screen) you can easily categorize events by type, or by who is doing them. For example, I’ve added the work schedules of some of my friends, so I know when they’re off (Yeah, I’m a stalker like that), dates jotted down when I plan on blogging about a certain topic and even when I should go get groceries or do laundry (insufficient memory). Adding all of these things are colored-coated and all appear on the same calendar so you can see when things over lap. If things get too crowded, you can always uncheck a calendar to make it invisible on the calendar. All events are also Drag-and-drop once created, which helps for people with rotating schedules.Google Calendar also allows users to make the calendars public. If you wanted users to your site to know for instance when an event was going to happen, you could allow that calendar that it’s attached to be set as public. This does not mean your entire calendar will be public, just the one you’ve set as public. Because Google permits you to do this, they’ve also made it so you can ‘play’ with it a lot. This includes being able to have notifications on your Firefox browser, having your GCal show up on your desktop and much more. I’ll include the links at the bottom of this post.
GCal also has some nice features like emailing you before an event, which is handy for having time to prepare and access from mobile phones (which is all the rage these days). More than features though it’s simply, which Google is best at.
Some Helpful Links:
Tweak Google Calendar @ Firefox Facts
How to make your Google Calendar your PC’s desktop wallpaper @ LifeHacker
Best of Google Calendar (Addons + Tips) @ Makeuseof -
Google Greatness: Gmail & Alerts
Yesterday we covered Google Reader; Today we’re going to continue with communication, this time on a more individual basis of Gmail (Google mail) and Google Alerts.
Gmail: This is Google’s web-based email service that is quickly growing to the top spot, passing competitors like Hotmail. What is pulling most people into this from other email providers (aside from being completely free) is that they give you a TON of email storage. When I say a ton, I mean a lot. As of writing this article the limit on my gmail account is currently 2906mb, that’s 2.9GB. That’s HUGE. This means that people no longer have to worry about their boxes getting full, they can simply archive it.
This brings us to our first feature: Archiving. Gmail allows it’s users to archive emails, without the need to sort what they are into folders upon folders they’re never going to check anyway. We all get those emails that somebody will say something and you think ‘I should keep this in case I need to use it later’ well now you can. Hit the handy dandy archive button and you’re set. To find it again, you can use the search feature for the words, date, from, etc that you’re looking for through all the messages in your mailbox. If throwing your messages into the dark isn’t your thing, you can also use classic folders if that floats your boat.
Another nice feature is the ‘Stared‘ system. This allows you to put a little star beside the email to show it’s importance. It can be used for whatever reason, be it an important email, a note to yourself to reply to it later or just because you think the subject looks good with a star beside it. Gmail also lets you view all your currently stared items at once, so you can combine the star system with the archive system to keep your inbox clean.
One of Gmail’s best (or some say most annoying) feature is the ability to turn email into ‘conversations‘. When an email is a reply to something already sent, instead of the reply showing up as a completely new email it will attach itself to the email sent. Gmail forms them all into a conversation thus allowing you to view previous emails as drop down (instead of the random format that most email clients choose). An easy way to think of it emails being stapled together into a booklet instead of just laid out on the desk. Another space saver from Google.Google Alerts: These little notifications are amazing. Once you enter a term Google alerts will notify you whenever anything around the net mentions that thing. Let’s say you’re interest is toast. You can enter toast as your search term. Whenever toast is mentioned (news/blog/web/group) you’ll receive an email with a link to the article. Before you think ‘well I’m sure my topic gets mentioned a lot, I’m going to get spammed’ you can also select if you want emails as-it-happens, once a day or once a week. This can be a very useful tool if you want to stay on top of a subject and be one of the first people to know about it. A definite must for bloggers (especially if you blog about toast!).
Some Helpful Links:
Gmail Tools & Plugins @ Robs Blog
Gmail Tips and Tricks Monster Roundup @ LifeHacker -
Google Greatness: Google Reader
As many people know, Google is one of the world’s leading search engines. But did you know that Google can do almost everything else as well? Yes, I mean everything. Over the next week I’m going to tackle some of Google’s other products and tell you how they can be useful for average needs.
Today I’ll tackle the first line of communication Google Reader:
This is your RSS reader, it will be one of your best friends and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it (once you figure out what it is!). RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Why does that matter? It doesn’t really. Most sites today with constantly updating content (news sites, blogs, and most other sites) use RSS and produce an ‘RSS feed’ which users are able to subscribe to (usually by clicking on an orange button similar to that located on the right of this page). This is like subscribing to a newsletter or magazine, and you’re notified when the site is updated.
But how do you get the notification? You use a feed reader, such as Google Reader. Like most other Google products, you can access it through your Google account at the address http://www.google.com/reader. You’ll see that you have no subscriptions, so let’s add a one to it. Remember the giant orange button on the right of Blogging for Apples? Click it. You should have an option to subscribe to the feed, do it. You’ve now subscribed to your first RSS feed.
Now go have a look at your Google Reader again (it may take a minute or two, refresh the page) and you should be subscribed to Blogging for Apples. Whenever the site is updated with new posts, the new posts will automatically be added to your reader I’m sure you’re thinking around now ‘but couldn’t I have just visited the site?’ and the answer is yes. But the key is to subscribe to more sites. There is no limit to how many feeds you can subscribe to with Google Reader, and all will be displayed in the reader, so you don’t have to visit each site one by one. It saves a ton of time and allows you to get the most out of all the resources out there.Now that we have the basis covered, why is Google Reader great? Well first off it has a great user interface. You can access all your feeds by just clicking the title of the feed. Each post allows you to star (favorite) a post so it’s easier to find later, share it (put on your public feed page), email it to somebody or add tags to it (so you can search for it later in your feeds) with a simple click on the footer located at the bottom of each post.
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Reader also allows you to use keyboard shortcuts for even faster reading of your feeds. On top of that it allows you to view your feeds on your mobile phone as well, never be disconnected. If you’ve never used RSS before give it a try, you won’t be disappointed and you’ll catch on quicker than I made it sound.
Some helpful links:
OSX Style Google Reader: A Firefox plugin to make Google Reader prettier.
Google Reader Notifier: Firefox plugin that notifies you when a feed is updated that your’re subscribed to with google reader.
50+ Google Reader extensions and scripts for Firefox @ Mashable -
How I find blog ideas
A few days ago Chris Brogran wrote a post titled “100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write“. Needless to say, it was a great list. I’m going to take one of those topics and use it today: 9. How I find blog ideas
1. RSS feeds are great. With a good reader you can scan through a lot of sites very quickly looking for something that you might find good to blog about.
2. Google Alerts. These work great for finding good articles or blog posts on a subject I want and are easier to sort through than news sites in general.
3. Link surfing. I spend most of my time online link surfing, which usually leaves me knee-deep in open tabs. What I do is find a site that interests me and open all ‘read more’ or ‘see also’ links in a new tab but continue reading the page I’m on. Once I finish opening anything directly on that page, I close it and often have 4-10 more tabs waiting for me to look at, which often have more links on it. Thus, tons of links to surf. It’s rare that I actually google more than 5 things a day.
4. Friends. You’d be shocked how many good things you can get from your friends. Because I’m always looking for blog topics, I have an open-door policy with most of my friends and allow them to spam me with whatever they find. It works really well a lot of the time. More heads are better than one.
5. Digg (or other sites similar) are great for finding some good news stories to put up. However, I often use this as a last resort solely because the more popular something is, the more people have already written about it. Finding another source often leaves for a better post.
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Microsoft office no more!
I came across a great article earlier that I had to share here. In the article there is a great list of online applications to replace many of the Microsoft Office suite programs. I myself already use Sun’s OpenOffice so have gotten rid of Office long ago. However, some of these online apps are really appealing. There are alternatives of Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook, Outlook Calendar, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Movie Maker and Windows itself. Now given, many ‘leet comput3r n3rds’ already know about some of these. But the list is fantastic. So check it out and give some of the apps a go.
No Download Required: 30+ Apps That Are Killing Microsoft -
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I go, I really do. If Google maps could show the destination for sexual activites, I’d make it have my babies. Seriously, it’s so easy to use and so useful. Lets give an example as to why, shall we?
I’m taking a bus from where I am to Toronto, then to be picked up by some relatives to go to a small town near by where they live. Home -> Relatives’ address*Shows directions and time to get there*
But I’m going to be going to the Toronto Bus terminal first. Add destination 610 Bay Street Toronto,ON. Drag it into the spot between starting and ending point*Maps adjusts route*
The Toronto bus terminal is a pain in the ass to get to, so I would be walking to Union Station (train) and getting picked up there. Add Destination -> Union Station Toronto, ON *adds on the destination (then I add 10min because it’s walking)*
But let’s say we want to avoid taking Spadina Ave. Drags the route line so it no longer goes over Spadina AveGoogle adjusts routeSeriously, it’s so cool. Dragging is awesome. I <3 Google, you guys are my heroes.
PS. Where do they come up with the times for arrivals? I mean I can understand time down to the quarter of an hour (15/30/45), or even down to the 5. But anything past that seems to be pushing it. I mean how can they say it's going to show up at exactly 1:17? One of these days I'm going to have to organize j-walkers so that they make the bus late, make it 1:20 just to see if people complain. Eat that transit!
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Click Here to Continue
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You clicked there didn’t you? Yeah, I thought so. Anyway, on with what I have to say today, Ok? Yey. First off, how about some links, then I’ll do some talking.The first of today’s links is a cool thing called GoogleSuggest. It’s google, but as you’re writing in your search it starts to fill out the field. It’s pretty cool really, it also shows you how many results tehre will be for the searched field. Give it a looksy.
Next I’ll throw in a little Napoleon Dynamite soundboard. I love this, it’s fun playing with sounds, Napoleon is sweet. Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard.
Ok, time for some Mario stuff here. First, we have somebody who played the entire Mario theme on a guitar (HERE).Next is Make Up Mario. This is very well done, and gives you quite a bit of items to dress up Mario. He can look pretty cool in a metallic blue hat and yellow shoes. Hmm, I had a 3rd mario link, but it’s gone, oh well.
Next is Bullies For Hire. This cracked me up, it’s so smart yet totally retarded at the same time. Have a look and laugh, because it’s great.
OK, anybody up for a little reading? Yeah, I know you’re reading this but are you up for a little more? Well check out Project Gutenberg if you are. They’ve been around for years how, but I just realized I never linked them. What they do is host a ton of e-books for free download. I know I’ve downloaded a ton of them never finished them, but downloaded them none the less.
Well I think that’s all the links I have for today, so I guess I’ll have to start talking about me. So I checked out a bit about the job that I’ve been going for, and it seems that my account has been created. What does this mean? I don’t know, but it can’t be a bad sign, can it?
Now if I’ve been talking to you lately, I have most likely told you that Photoshop refuses to work for me and I keep getting told that there is not enough virtual memory to run it. Now this is annoying, because it says I have 768mb of ram and 3gb in the virtual memory drive. Now to add insult to injury, I found out that Photoshop works in all the other profiles on this computer except mine. And worse to that, I can’t even close any of the million processes that are running to try and free up space. So then it comes to me “Why not try a linux distro?” So I go and look into it, then half an hour later it hits me: Photoshop won’t work outside of windows! So that was a waste of time.
So I did what everybody does when they hate windows: They whine to somebody else who hates windows. In my case today, it was Donnie. Now he suggested something that I wouldn’t have thought of in a million years: Install Paint Shop Pro. So I did, and it works. So today, Donnie is a genius. So now I have something other then mspaint and I’m happy.
Oh yeah, and I have 6 Gmail invites. If anybody happens to want an account, leave a comment or emal me and I’ll hook you up.
OK, that’s all I have to say, so now Turn off the internet, because there is nothing else good on here.
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X-rated
OK, now this is funny, I’m now considered x-rated by google.
Go to Google Images. Type in “jdwig”. If the SafeSearch is turned on, some little girl will show up. Now turn off the SafeSearch by clicking the “Moderate SafeSearch is on” under the search bar and clicking the “Do not filter my search results” button. Save Preferences. TaDa, there I am.I think they think I scare little children. I an see where they’re coming from. This is awesome. Also check This Out from Toogle. It takes the first image from google images search and makes it up from the word searched. Very cool.
Also, check out Skylight Forum III. I’s been opened again by Neil, Jay and some others. Here’s to hoping that it will last.
That is all. May the Force be with you.
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Google: Reloaded
So, I was reading my daily google news beta newsletter (keyword Blog) and I came across some fascinating information; Google redid Blogger. They included a new feature allowing users to email entries to a set address, and it will be posted to the blog. Pretty nifty I say. Though I’ve already seen it done with moBlogs (blogs where you put cell phone pictures on a page as a blog), I still think it’s cool. Now, if I could only find a practical use for it, it would be great. However, I’m sticking with my Movable Type as it takes the same amount of time to load as my mail, so why bother using somebody else when I can host myself. To read all about the new Blogger, check out This Article.
While I’m on the topic of Google, I guess I might as continue with Google stuff. I read along the lines here that Google was doing something with RSS feeds, believed to have been leading to Google forming a new category in it’s searches for solely blogs. However, nothing has come of this yet.
Also in Google News, they have been producing Gmail. What Gmail is, is a 1GB mail address. Sound tempting? Well more so, it is free, pop-up free, will probably support POP3 and it has 1GB of space! Oh, and a spam filter and some other cool things too. Anyway, check out Gmail for more info on that.
And just for the record I WANT A GMAIL INVITE! Just so if somebody randomly gets chosen for one, share the wealth.
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