Recently in Technology Category

Well maybe not the end of email, but there has been a trend for awhile to hate email, and I've never quite understood it.  A few weeks ago Wall Street Journal posted an article titled, "The End of the Email Era" with a few points declaring why "email no longer rules."  I must say the article is a little bit overdramatic.

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold--services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate--in ways we can only begin to imagine.

I do believe that Twitter and Facebook (or insert name of favorite social networking tool here) is changing the way we communicate, but that doesn't mean we're all going to stop using email any time soon.  It's a shift in habits brought on by innovation in the tools we use.  I check two things religiously and in parallel each and every day, Twitter and Email.  In my world both services are of equal importance.  Twitter is not always about trivial communication, but the type of information I get from Twitter I don't want in my inbox.  Email is about communicating tasks, stuff I need to do or remember.  And let's admit, there's some things we need to communicate in more than 140 characters, I need email just as much as I want Twitter.

A lot of this evaluation of email is coming at the heels of Google's new collaborative tool, Google Wave (which I'll comment on a little later in this post, but here's a short and clever YouTube video about Google Wave).  TechCrunch's response to the WSJ article and the flurry around Google Wave described it as a "passive-aggressive" form of communication, while also quoting the WSJ article:

For many of us, email is simply not cutting it the way that it used to. It's a sedentary beast in a fast-moving web. It uses old principles for management, and this is leading to overload. I think the key statement in the WSJ is this:

"We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet--logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone."

That's absolutely true. But that also implies that we want some sort of always-on communication connection. I don't think that's the case. I think we want the option to communicate in real-time at will, but also the ability to communicate at our leisure at times. I would consider this to be a desire for a "passive-aggressive" method of communication. Perhaps it would be better stated as a "passive/active" method of communication, but passive-aggressive sounds better, so we'll go with that.

I think WSJ and TechCrunch are both missing the mark with email, but I do agree with TC that there are limits to the "always on" connection.  The WSJ elaborates a little more by saying, "Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them."  Well sure, but I still have to log in to Facebook to get the answer (oh and by the way, Facebook is a poor example because I get all my Facebook notifications through email anyway, I absolutely do not want Facebook to be my email client).  Facebook is a closed platform, and another tab on my browser.  WSJ also goes on to say that, "Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave..."  Collaboration isn't all about fun, it's also about getting things done... and Google Wave is still another open tab in my browser that I have to log in to (in other words it's not "always on" if I decide to close the tab).

I think email can be better, and several services are working to that goal.  What I would like to have is less tabs, and a few services have emerged to re-invent email.  Xobni is a tool that integrates Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others into Microsoft Outlook.  It works ok and it's good for what it does, but the problem for me is that it's integrated into Outlook which is bloated and I hate to run.  Outlook is not an "always on" application for me, but it may be for others.

I'm looking forward to Mozilla Raindrop, which isn't available yet but looks promising.  If there's one reason I wouldn't use Raindrop it would be because it's a client.  I am moving more web based.  I've tried Thunderbird in the past for email, but because I have Outlook (and never use it anyway), I find downloading another email client excessive.  I might be compelled to if it can bring together the filtering, communication tools, and prioritizing that I want from everything I use.

What Xobni and Raindrop are doing is integrating new tools with email, which is what I think should happen.  Email is a base for me.  This has not been Google's approach with Wave, however, and I'm a bit disappointed by this.

So my thoughts on Wave, maybe it's too early to tell, but I find it to be clunky and busy.  Like I mentioned before, Wave is just another open tab in my browser.  I still find Google's own mail service to be far superior to anything else out there.  If Wave could be integrated with the email that I already use in some way then I might be more excited about it.  I actually do find Wave a little boring, I normally only check it once, maybe twice a day, and I haven't got much value from the few threads that I'm on (other than learning how the tool works from a more mechanical perspective).  That could change though once more innovative uses open up.

In the end we're going to use what we're comfortable with anyway.  If somebody sends me a DM through Twitter I'll probably respond through Twitter, likewise with people who communicate through Facebook or email.  The real issue isn't with the tool, it's about our habits with the tools that we use.  Email isn't going anywhere, if anything it will get better and more intelligent over time.

I bought an Asus Eee 900a PC last week and it came last night.  It's cute!  Compared to my behemoth laptop, it's tiny!  It also has this adorable purple lid with a neat etching pattern on it which I adore.

The computer is really easy to get booted, it's even easy to use, but the interface on the Linux version is for 3 year olds.  There's links to all the necessary stuff like internet, mail, instant messaging, even Google Docs, which I do admit to using quite regularly... but I got bored really fast.  So I installed Ubuntu.

It took me a few times to get it working, but I finally did.  I even looked at Ubuntu Eee, a version made specifically for the Asus Eee, but I didn't care for the screenshots for that one, it reminded me too much of the OS I wanted to kill.

Creating the Live USB is easy with UNetbootin, I mean seriously really easy.  I appreciate that there are people out there taking time out to create tools that make it easy for the rest of us to do geeky things!

So for whatever reason the live USB wouldn't load on the Eee.  I tried several times last night on 2 ports, and then tried a new one today.  It wouldn't load the first time on the third port either, but the second time, for no reason that I could tell, it loaded.  I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth... apparently persistence does pay off.

The install went fine.  It connected to the internet via my LAN no problem, and my tiny USB mouse even works great (wish I still had my tiny white one though so they matched).  There were 126 updates to install for Ubuntu though, which took some time.  In some of the reviews I read that the USB ports aren't that fast, and I have noticed some lag with my mini mouse, so there may be some truth to that.  The touchpad with Ubuntu works fine though, I did not, however, like the sensitivity when I had the default OS installed, so at least I'm happy it's better with what I installed.

Now there are a few documented issues with Ubuntu and the wireless, this really took some time to work out.  After lots of searching and a lot of playing in the terminal window with a bunch of stuff I really didn't understand (but didn't seem to be breaking my computer so why the hell not), I finally stumbled on what I probably should have consulted first, and that is the Ubuntu Community documentation of Eee fixes.  The wireless isn't the only issue, but making a mental note to return to this page if I find more issues.  Also noting that the first fix didn't work for me, the second, which was installing the Madwifi driver did.  There are other fixes on the internet for the Madwifi driver that did not work, but this one did (gift horses are everywhere, I swear).

So that's it!  I have a tiny computer, that is cute, with a cuter operating system that I've always enjoyed using.  So now I'm going to lounge around with my tiny PC while I watch TV on my monster PC.

iPhone Page One
Originally uploaded by heidigoseek.

Since I have got my iPhone have been playing around with apps trying to find the ones that suit me. I've also been trying out an order on my phone, I think I can confidently say I'm happy with the first page. The rest still need some work.

I devour application reviews because of the nature of the iTunes store. There's no way to preview an app before I buy it, and I'm picky (I mean really picky) when it comes to spending money, even if that amounts to a dollar or two... those dollars do add up quick. I don't want to get stuck with a junk app or one that I have only used once that I actually paid real money for. With that being said, I've only bought one app so far and I love it. It's not on the first screen though so I won't be discussing that app today. I depend on reviews to figure out what is good, and I only download free apps if I'm just playing around. Luckily for me, there's a ton of great free apps out there.

The first page focuses on a few productivity and informational applications. The Google Mobile app is an awesome search tool, it searches your contacts, it searches local, and it gives me a nice link to other Google optimized pages (like Gmail and Google Docs) allowing me to free up some icon space by not having to link them on my home screen.

I've started using the Mail application more and the Gmail browser app less. I still use both, it depends on what I need to do. The Mail app is great for notifications and quickly checking email, while the Gmail browser app is great when I need to archive and organize my mail. One oddity between these two methods of mail though is that the label feature is missing in the Gmail browser app, while I am able to "archive" mail into what the Mail app calls "folders" which directly correlate to my labels in Gmail. I guess I was surprised not to see the label feature in the Gmail app.

Calendar, of course, and mine is synced to Google Calendar using NuevaSync.

Evernote is really indispensable for the iPhone. I use it to record notes all the time, which then are synced to both online and my desktop application for Evernote. You can also send picture and voice notes to Evernote. I do use this a lot for low priority notes because it doesn't send reminders to my email like Sandy does. However, if I do need that email sent and I want to use Evernote I can Jott a note to the Evernote email address I already have set up in Jott and that note will get sent to both Evernote and email. Maybe the different access points I have for remembering information are best if left to a separate blog post. :)

The Zenbe application is an easy to use list app. I use this for my grocery lists. It syncs online through Zenbe Lists and your lists can be shared too.

Google Reader isn't really an app, it's just a link to the optimized web page. This is my go to link for when I have time to read feeds though.

Maps, of course, is awesome.

I have two weather applications. I use the built in weather app for a quick check on temperature, but the WeatherBug application was recommended to me. The wonderful thing about WeatherBug is that it has radar maps. I'm constantly checking weather maps when it's stormy because I really dislike them. WeatherBug can also use the GPS feature to get you the weather conditions of your current location.

Palringo is an excellent IM client that supports multiple IM accounts. There is a Google Talk browser page available, which works nicely on the phone, but this application allows you to carry on multiple chat conversations at once. I think there's other features that I haven't had much opportunity to explore, but even only as a chat client, it works well.

The rest on this page are your standard iPhone apps, Calculator, Clock, Camera, Setting, App Store, and Contacts. I tend to use the Camera, Settings, and Contacts the most here.

More app goodness to come as I play some more with the other pages on the phone.

Everybody manages their personal information differently, and if you read through some blog posts here you can see that I usually struggle with managing mine.  The iPhone has definitely made it easier, but it's taking some work to get everything organized to a point to where I'm happy.

The push/sync stuff is pretty cool, but the price tag of MobileMe is not.  I am on the trial of it right now, but I'm not getting much use out of it.  First off, I'm not a Mac user, and I'm quite happy not being one.  It does work with Windows and Outlook, but I'm also not an Outlook user.  My calendar doesn't change very much in one day either.  Maybe it would be useful if I had a lot to manage, or if I was already accustomed to using .Mac or something, but I don't.

I live online with everything, including my email and calendar.  I realize Google pretty much owns me, but it works for me, and even the iPhone makes it work easier. 

Email

Setting up Gmail to sync and even push to the iPhone is not a problem, there is an option for this in iTunes already.  I don't have my email app on the first page though.  While I do use the iPhone app for email, I still prefer to check my email in the Gmail page (which is nicely optimized for the phone).  The app is good for checking how many new messages I have, or quickly browsing new email, but I cannot star or archive mail there so I still prefer visiting Gmail online.

Contacts

Managing contacts on the iPhone is awesome.  You can call, email, map addresses, even visit hyperlinks straight from the contact page.  It is so useful... assuming you have updated information stored in there.

There is an option to import contacts from Gmail, but my contact list there scared me.  Gmail likes to automatically add frequently emailed contacts in your list of regular contacts, and I accumulated a scary list of people I didn't know over the years.  It took me about a day and a half, but I got this list down to about 100 real contacts that I could be happy with keeping in my phone.  I went the extra step of looking up friends on other social networks (Facebook mostly) to make sure I had updated contact information for them.  I can also import vcards from LinkedIn and other networks that will merge with existing contacts in Google.

Once this is done the contacts can automatically sync to my iPhone when I plug in to iTunes.  Now I can update contacts on my iPhone or in Gmail and they will be the same in both places.

I can push contacts to the phone too, but I haven't set that up yet.  The process will be the same as the calendar push I talk about next.  I just wanted to try the push out with the calendar first so I didn't accidentally delete a bunch of contacts while playing around with it.

Calendar

The only thing that the iPhone didn't support was syncing the calendar with Google Calendar.  There is an optimized page for Google Calendar, but the app version of the calendar is actually quite a bit nicer.  I can change the views and get reminders, and it's accessible even when the internet is slow or off.

Having your Google calendar sync to your iPhone without using MobileMe is actually possible.  I originally found the solution on Lifehacker, but the blog post that explains it is here:

Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar)

It's a multi step process, and everything seemed to work fairly well for me.

There was a problem with the captcha unlock not going through right away, but NuevaSync emailed me to fix that.  Once I did the calendar syncing happened with no other problems.

This only syncs your main calendar to the phone.  I have many many many different calendars in my Google Calendar, which will not appear on the calendar app, but that's fine with me.  The main calendar is where all the important stuff is anyway.  To view the other calendars the Google Calendar page is still a good place to go on the iPhone.

If you do a contact sync through NuevaSync you can also use Google, the difference between this and what is already native to iTunes is that the contacts will be pushed to your phone without the sync from iTunes, which is a pretty good deal.

If you're a Plaxo user you can also set up Plaxo to sync with your contacts on your phone with this service.  I've only been playing around a little bit with Plaxo, but so far I'm pretty happy with what I can do with my Google contacts so I probably won't be switching things around.

I have no compelling reason to keep my MobileMe after the trial now.  I did mess around some with the photo gallery, and there seems to be other cool features, but nothing I can't get elsewhere for free (as opposed to $99/year).  The photo gallery seems really nice by the way, but I had some frustration using it because it seemed to integrate more with iPhoto, which I obviously don't have being a Windows person.

Now that some of my personal information is cleaned up, especially the contacts, I think I will be more diligent about keeping it that way. 

** Update **

I just turned on the NuevaSync option for contacts on my phone and one really really awesome feature is that it also connects the profile pics that the person sets in Gmail as their contact image on my phone!

This morning I've been looking at a variety of blogging tools made specifically for the iPhone. There's a lot of near tools out there but I'm really impressed with the iMT plugin for Movable Type. Once installed it simply renders your dashboard automatically optimized for use on the iPhone.

I suspect I might use Tumblr more for mobile blogging, I will have to play around with the tools to see what I'm more comfortable with.

This blog has been quiet but I've been around. I'm over on FriendFeed and Twitter a lot and I have been using Tumblr for shorter posts on random things. I like to think of this blog as a place for well thought out expression which is probably why you haven't seen much on here lately. Hopefully there's more rolling around in my head after summer vacation is over.

Oh and yes I did type this entire blog post on my iPhone. I think I'm realy getting used to typing on the keypad. It's small but not so bad.

Being so inherently digital, you might never think that I have an obsession with paper.  I love the way it looks, and the way it feels.  I especially enjoy a clean sheet of paper.  I always remember how happy I was to pull out a new sheet of paper in school, and how sad I was to have to write on it.  The first words I wrote on the sheet always had to be perfect, if they weren't then it felt like I let the paper down.  I do still rely a lot on paper.  I like holding paper books (although audio is quickly becoming my preferred format), and journal articles on paper (yes I print them from databases, it's so difficult to read them online).  I still buy paper calendars every year that I stop using after a few months.  I prefer to read my magazines analog style.  I buy notebooks that mostly remain unused (with the exception of my moleskine, which only works because I have imposed no organizational system to confuse and befuddle its purpose as a notebook of randomness).

Given all that, I always thought I would be the last person in the world to finally say, "I'm going paperless."  Well it's time.  Paper is controlling my life, and it's sucking my time.  I really believe it's beyond GTD too.  Paper just seems to be the way we operate, even still in a digital world.  There's the junk mail, the non-junk mail, the paper receipts, the little notes we write to remember, the keepsakes.  We're drowning in it, and a lot of it is because we just like paper.  Paper is a thing we can touch, and see.  Paper has a place, and if doesn't have a place you can make a place for it.  Digital exists in random formats, it can exist in many places at once.  Some of us still have not been able to wrap our heads around digital, but the shift will happen, and needs to happen.  Sometimes paper is good, and we need it, but often, with the right tools, it's not necessary.  This epiphany has been brewing for awhile.  It seems every few months I spend entire weekends sorting through paper.  Weekends that could be better spent doing other things. 

How do you go paperless in a paper filled world?  Like with most digital technologies, the way a person uses it, and the tools that they use are a matter of personal balance.  My desire to become paperless seems a bit schizophrenic at times too.  The tools depend on the place I'm at, or the access I have at that moment.  The key is to know what tools you have an how to use them.  However I do admit this is rather natural for a librarian, this is how we approach our jobs.

Mail is a huge issue, my solution is to try to deal with it as it comes in.  This doesn't always work for me, and at the moment it's a bit piled up.  Moving bills and statements to paperless is a step in the right direction though.  Plus it's now in my inbox, which is grand central to my life.  From there I can delegate to Sandy or deal with it as it comes in. 

Where I've made the most success is with receipts.  I just don't take them anymore.  I never did anything with them anyway.  If I do get them, they no longer go in my wallet, where they would pile up for years, they now go in my purse where I shred/recycle them when I get home.  I now keep track of my expenses when I'm out using Xpenser.  This simple web app takes my expenses either by Jott, Twitter, IM or SMS, and yes I have used all of them depending on the situation.  Jott works well when I'm recording messages by myself.  If I don't want to announce to the world how much money I just spent at Borders then I use SMS.  Sitting at my computer IM and Twitter also work very well.  I get an email, which is a nice reminder to transfer those purchases to Quicken the next time I'm at my computer, a practice I sometimes neglected in the past has taken a drastic upswing with a few simple changes in productivity. 

An added bonus of Xpenser is tracking my gas mileage.  When I purchase gas I also send the price I paid per gallon and my car's current mileage to Xpenser in the note field.  I use these numbers to then update FuelFrog next time I'm at my computer so I can keep an eye out on my current mileage.  All without bothering with little bits of paper.  The reports make it easy to glance at similar purchases at once for quick comparisons of purchases.

My new favorite tool is Evernote.  The updated version of this note taking service is now in public beta and I think it's a fabulous way to sync information from computer to web.  The mobile version is currently inaccessible to me and my phone, but I think when I finally get a decent phone this will be an indispensable app.  I don't care for the Windows client interface, but it works, and it can still sync to digital.  I've already determined that Evernote would be a service that I would actually pay money for because it is incredibly useful.  I'm able to integrate this with Jott, I can call in notes directly to Evernote without being at my computer or online with my phone.  I would love to use Evernote as a repository of all things digital and all things that become digital.

The bridge to all of these things for me has really been my phone.  My failure with paper has been syncing the digital with the analog.  One day I realized that when I'm not at my computer I do always have my phone, that's when the eureaka moment hit me.  I can use voice, or text, or the phone's browser to keep the flow of information digital without being at my computer to produce a digital output.  It works, and it's because of these tools, and the APIs, and the simple ways that these systems talk to one another that it does work. 

Once I clear the paper off of it, I will be using my scanner more to archive things in digital formats.  I want this stuff out of my life (in the physical sense) and not taking up space.  I hope less paper also means more time for blogging, which I noticed has taken an obvious dip in the past month.  Now you know it's because I'm buried up to my neck in paper.

I believe Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista came out sometime last month.  The update came up in my notification area, but every time I tried installing it, it just wouldn't install.  SP1 is a long install, it takes close to an hour, I've read an hour and a half on some message boards.  The update would to through the entire three part installation, reboot, and then decide that it didn't want to install and then revert my computer back to its previous state, which would then take another hour.  I tried the install about three times on different days like this before I finally decided that today was the day I tried to figure out what the heck is wrong with this thing.

I found a lot of my problem and none of my answer, and as usual of lot of speculations from people who actually didn't have the problem but seemed to know the answer.  I noticed that HP has a whole list of "precautions" to take while updating to SP1, it also included a note to disable virus protection. 

It would've been nice if I had this option.  Well, my actual virus protection software made it difficult to turn off, and the service pack actually reboots a few times during the process and I suspected the software was just turning itself back on during this whole install at the end.

I finally gave up and uninstalled the virus protection.  I did a few other things prior to this, according to this article, which I suspect didn't actually do anything, but you never know.  I checked for errors on the hard drive, did a system file checker, and I ran the memory diagnostic tool for Vista, as well as uninstalled the virus protection.  Mind you, this was the fourth time today that I was going to try this update, on top of the three that I had done on other days.  I had pretty much determined that if this was not going to work then I would be done with SP1 and live with the fact that my computer will probably never function properly again.

Thank goodness it worked this time, because I was almost seriously considering buying a Mac next.  You know I have to be pretty pissed off at Windows to take such drastic measures...

After the service pack installed, I reinstalled my virus protection, and everything is actually running quite nicely.  I know this SP has a few under the hood changes, I actually don't really care what changes there are, as long is it doesn't mess up my system.  I also know that not keeping Windows up to date pretty much ensures you're going to run into software issues down the road... I did this with XP and SP2, I actually resisted installing SP2 for many years because it messed up my computer when it first came out.  The thing about XP updates though is you can basically skip them if you want.  I don't quite get this option with Vista.

It pretty much ate up my entire day, but I'm just happy it's working now.  I just beg of Windows not to release another service pack for awhile...

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a long while.  I won't bother making up excuses though, I've just been busy.  I just wanted to write a short bit about my adventures into Windows Media Center, which I have to admit is pretty darn cool.  Recently I set up WMC with my TV Tuner.  The TV Tuner card was purchased with the computer, I just never hooked it up.  I have cable TV now running to my computer and I'm using WMC as a DVR.  I've even opted for watching TV on my computer, which is handy when I'm working on it, I can make the screen smaller and view both windows on the same screen, or my screen is nice and big enough that I don't mind watch across the room if I'm not working on the computer.  The tuner card did come with a cool remote and a USB censor so I can control WMC from across the room.

I was thinking today that it would be cool to be able to access the recorded TV files on the PS3, but after some reading online it looks like this might only be possible by finding a program to convert the files, and that's not really worth the effort.  I'm sure getting the PS3 to see the files is no problem, but to actually read them is another story.  I have this issue with my Rhapsody library, the PS3 will see the tracks in my library, but will not play them due to file type incompatibility.

The other thing I found for Windows Media Center is just a little plugin application called MceFM which adds some Last.fm functionality to WMC.  This sounds a lot cooler than it really is though, it's pretty limited.  I can create a queue based on tags or artists, that's just about it however.  I don't have access to any of the social aspects of Last.fm and it doesn't seem to scrobble the tracks.  The website does say it's in beta and has a request for features in the forum, so who knows, maybe it'll develop into something cool someday.

Overall, I like Windows Media Center's pretty interface, and the fact that I can control it via my remote is not bad either.  I know there's a lot more I can do with it, especially in regards to extending it to the PS3, which I hope to figure out someday.

No time to really comment on this since I have to get back to work now, but I just took the Internet Typology Test at the Pew Site.  Results are no surprise:

Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Omnivores typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic.

Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.

Basic Description
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. Omnivores are highly engaged with video online and digital content. Between blogging, maintaining their Web pages, remixing digital content, or posting their creations to their websites, they are creative participants in cyberspace.

Defining Characteristics
You might see them watching video on an iPod. They might talk about their video games or their participation in virtual worlds the way their parents talked about their favorite TV episode a generation ago. Much of this chatter will take place via instant messages, texting on a cell phone, or on personal blogs. Omnivores are particularly active in dealing with video content. Most have video or digital cameras, and most have tried watching TV on a non-television device, such as a laptop or a cell phone.

Omnivores embrace all this connectivity, feeling confident in how they manage information and their many devices. This puts information technology at the center of how they express themselves, do their jobs, and connect to their friends.

Who They Are
They are young, ethnically diverse, and mostly male (70%). The median age is 28; just more than half of them are under age 30, versus one in five in the general population. Over half are white (64%) and 11% are black (compared to 12% in the general population). English-speaking Hispanics make up 18% of this group. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many (42% versus the 13% average) of Omnivores are students.

It was a fun way to kill a few minutes on a lunch break though.

I saw this Lifehacker post a few days ago and I wanted to try it.  I have a new 2 gig USB drive that I'm only using for Portable Firefox, why not?

I installed XAMPP and MediaWiki on the drive, it was actually really easy getting everything to work.

Yea success!

So what am I going to use my new wiki for?  I have no clue, probably nothing because I have about 3 other wikis in various places.  All that matters is I feel like I accomplished something tonight.