interesting series of accomplishments today...
among them: cleaning my room, applying for jobs, and updating my birthdays and holidays calendar on GCal.
not sure if anyone out there uses the multiple calendar features on Google Calendar, but I have a special calendar set up just for birthdays and anniversaries and the like. when it is someone's birthday, I add them to my gcal and make it an all-day event that repeats annually on that date. then at the beginning of the month, I can send birthday cards (if I'm riche that month) or ecards. someecards are hilarious, and allow you to send a scheduled card so they reach your friend's inbox first thing in the morning!
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Look what happens...
... when you read the directions.
In my forever love of Google, there have been two Google products I haven't been so hot on: Picasa and Blogger.
In general, the reason why I do love Google so much is because so much of how you use their products is intuitive, at least to me. Yes, I spend time poking around Google labs (too much time), so I know how to optimize it for myself, but I still can pretty much figure it out.
Lately, though, I've been reading more of the getting started guides. They're amazing! They tell you all the features and how to use them, even if they weren't originally clear to you! (Imagine that.) Before, I was somewhat considering trying to migrate over to WordPress from Blogger, but to be honest, now that I know how to use Blogger better, there is really no reason. Plus, I have the added benefit of sticking with my one account, which is by far my favorite Google feature. I even started using Picasa on my computer and posting public albums (visible on my website... 'cause I'm a G like that). Honestly, Picasa makes it so easy to order prints, I might actually start scrapbooking again!
Now I'd like to pause to acknowledge the fact that I have presented myself on the internet as a Google-obsessed, scrapbooking nerd. I embrace it. And anyway, with pictures like these, why wouldn't I scrapbook?
I guess what I've learned is: read the directions... and never give up on Google.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Google Voice slaps Apple... hehehe
well... kinda. and to be honest, this is probably old news to most tech-oriented people anyway. But seeing as Google Voice just opened up to anyone (I just got my number... text me!) it was pretty exciting to me, and I'm going to post about it anyway.
So a while back, there was a stinky stink about how Apple wouldn't let Google Voice have an app for the iPhone. The reason? Well, I think Forrest Gump might explain it as, "for no particular reason at all, they just felt like saying no." Plus, they're sortof frienemies, I guess. Seriously, ask anyone in the Apple store; they get all hot and bothered if you mention the feud, and claim that all is well between the two. I'd say it's pretty much today's Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey.
Anyway, Google decided to use its mad skillz to prove it was smarter than Apple, and in January of this year, they released a web-based version of Google Voice. Check out the video below.
Notice how the whole thing is done on an iPhone? Google made sure that Voice can be used very easily over iPhone's Safari, and although it doesn't have full app integration like it does on Droid and Blackberry, it is pretty close. You can still get calls and make calls through the phone, even if it does use your minutes. And you can make shortcuts to your home page for texting and reading voicemail.
current status: Google 1, Apple 0.
So a while back, there was a stinky stink about how Apple wouldn't let Google Voice have an app for the iPhone. The reason? Well, I think Forrest Gump might explain it as, "for no particular reason at all, they just felt like saying no." Plus, they're sortof frienemies, I guess. Seriously, ask anyone in the Apple store; they get all hot and bothered if you mention the feud, and claim that all is well between the two. I'd say it's pretty much today's Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey.
Anyway, Google decided to use its mad skillz to prove it was smarter than Apple, and in January of this year, they released a web-based version of Google Voice. Check out the video below.
Notice how the whole thing is done on an iPhone? Google made sure that Voice can be used very easily over iPhone's Safari, and although it doesn't have full app integration like it does on Droid and Blackberry, it is pretty close. You can still get calls and make calls through the phone, even if it does use your minutes. And you can make shortcuts to your home page for texting and reading voicemail.
current status: Google 1, Apple 0.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
@BPGlobalPR - the best thing on the internet since YoungBro
In case you haven't heard, there is a popular twitter page making headlines: @BPGlobalPR.
The site started shortly after the oil spill in the Gulf, and it has been raising money and raising hell by selling shirts to benefit the cleanup and posting ironic but seemingly true "tweets" about the oil spill. Though the true author is unknown, he writes under the names Leroy Stick and Terry, or BP Terry.
Terry has been pretty vocal with the press and had granted several interviews and press releases, including one today at Twtrcon.
The @BPGlobalPR "experiment," if we're going to call it that, brings up the obvious fact that there is really nothing you can do to protect your brand and corporate image in today's social-media-driven world. But what struck me was Terry's take on the purpose of his twitter site:
"Our main mission with the twitter account is/was/and will always be to distract people from the mess. You know, keep their brains too busy for any thinking. The Internet is full of great information, essays and ideas. But no one is interested in that hogwash, people want to see photos of cats wearing wigs. That’s what gets the attention, that’s what distracts. Our aim is to be that cat in a wig."
Ok, so he was obviously kidding, right? I mean, don't we use the internet for the greater good?
I'll admit, my favorite blog in the world is The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bro, which is essentially just a UVa frat boy writing about the vacuous day-to-day life of, well, a UVa frat boy. But hearing (reading) Terry say that he's trying to be the "cat in a wig," it makes me think that maybe the fact that his twitter has been getting so much attention isn't actually a good thing.
Take the perma-criticism of Twitter as an example. Do I want to know what Justin Bieber ate for lunch today? No. (Yes. ) We're so saturated with dribble all over the internet, sometimes it is hard to remember to use those powers for good and not evil.
That is, if you consider spending an hour reading gossip columns about Danielle from The Real Housewives of New Jersey to be evil. Which I do. Mostly.
The site started shortly after the oil spill in the Gulf, and it has been raising money and raising hell by selling shirts to benefit the cleanup and posting ironic but seemingly true "tweets" about the oil spill. Though the true author is unknown, he writes under the names Leroy Stick and Terry, or BP Terry.
Terry has been pretty vocal with the press and had granted several interviews and press releases, including one today at Twtrcon.
The @BPGlobalPR "experiment," if we're going to call it that, brings up the obvious fact that there is really nothing you can do to protect your brand and corporate image in today's social-media-driven world. But what struck me was Terry's take on the purpose of his twitter site:
"Our main mission with the twitter account is/was/and will always be to distract people from the mess. You know, keep their brains too busy for any thinking. The Internet is full of great information, essays and ideas. But no one is interested in that hogwash, people want to see photos of cats wearing wigs. That’s what gets the attention, that’s what distracts. Our aim is to be that cat in a wig."
Ok, so he was obviously kidding, right? I mean, don't we use the internet for the greater good?
I'll admit, my favorite blog in the world is The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bro, which is essentially just a UVa frat boy writing about the vacuous day-to-day life of, well, a UVa frat boy. But hearing (reading) Terry say that he's trying to be the "cat in a wig," it makes me think that maybe the fact that his twitter has been getting so much attention isn't actually a good thing.
Take the perma-criticism of Twitter as an example. Do I want to know what Justin Bieber ate for lunch today? No. (Yes. ) We're so saturated with dribble all over the internet, sometimes it is hard to remember to use those powers for good and not evil.
That is, if you consider spending an hour reading gossip columns about Danielle from The Real Housewives of New Jersey to be evil. Which I do. Mostly.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
the ghost version of yourself is out there.
Check this out.
A guy made this video of himself.
Then ripped it and uploaded it 1,000 times. This is what is left. Pretty creepy, if you think about it.
There is a lot of talk these days about how much of ourselves is on the internet: twitter updates, Facebook privacy, location-based apps, etc., etc. People see the internet as the newest and best way to creatively and quickly interact with the people around them, and it is. But aside from the obvious and oft-discussed deterioration of genuine personal interaction via the interwebz, what is the nature of what we actually put out there? What is a "like"? What is a re-tweet?
It is clear that we manipulate what we put on the internet to alter peoples' perception of us. That is what drives everything we put out into the cyber-world, from our profile pictures to our status updates, or lack thereof, if you're one of those "too cool for status updates" facebook users. Maybe you don't twitter, maybe you twitter everything, maybe you blog about your area of expertise or your daily musings. It's conscious, in a way, and sometimes semi-conscious (heck, I still don't even know what I'm blogging about).
Until I saw this video, I never really considered the inherently digital nature of what I post to the internet.
Maybe what we put on the internet is impersonal because there is something more to it than just what we say. Or something less? What are, as canzona puts it, "the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer," when you take out the human component?
Maybe I just posted this blog post in an effort to make my digital self seem more pensive and intellectual.
A guy made this video of himself.
Then ripped it and uploaded it 1,000 times. This is what is left. Pretty creepy, if you think about it.
There is a lot of talk these days about how much of ourselves is on the internet: twitter updates, Facebook privacy, location-based apps, etc., etc. People see the internet as the newest and best way to creatively and quickly interact with the people around them, and it is. But aside from the obvious and oft-discussed deterioration of genuine personal interaction via the interwebz, what is the nature of what we actually put out there? What is a "like"? What is a re-tweet?
It is clear that we manipulate what we put on the internet to alter peoples' perception of us. That is what drives everything we put out into the cyber-world, from our profile pictures to our status updates, or lack thereof, if you're one of those "too cool for status updates" facebook users. Maybe you don't twitter, maybe you twitter everything, maybe you blog about your area of expertise or your daily musings. It's conscious, in a way, and sometimes semi-conscious (heck, I still don't even know what I'm blogging about).
Until I saw this video, I never really considered the inherently digital nature of what I post to the internet.
Maybe what we put on the internet is impersonal because there is something more to it than just what we say. Or something less? What are, as canzona puts it, "the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer," when you take out the human component?
Maybe I just posted this blog post in an effort to make my digital self seem more pensive and intellectual.
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