web apps

websites/services that i can’t live without

as i covered in my previous post, i have firefox set to open five websites in separate tabs on launch. those websites are:

gmail:  in the past i have used yahoo mail, outlook, and thunderbird, and gmail hands down trumps them all. everyone i share gmail with agrees that it’s a breath of fresh air. i love the flexibility of web-based mail in general, but gmail has a few stand out features. archiving (read: never delete another email…simply take it out of your inbox) labels (work sort of like tags) large storage space and google’s signature search functionality add up to a really amazing way to handle emails. i’ve read of lots of people who use gmail to do much more than simply process mail (file storage/sharing, to do lists, gtd, etc.).

i also really like the way they deal with multiple email accounts. i easily manage two separate email addresses within one gmail account, and i love it! if you haven’t tried gmail yet, email me and i’ll send you an invite (it’s somehow still in beta). you’ll definitely dig it.

google calendar: much like gmail, google calendar is simple and functional. i signed up about twenty minutes after it was made public (or, at least made public on digg. i think we got in a little earlier than they wanted.) i love the calendar sharing functionality, as well as the multitude of publicly shared calendars. and, like all web apps, you can’t beat having it available from any machine.

facebook: i’ve also been a member of xanga, and myspace, and over the past few months facebook has showed itself to simply be the best social networking site on the internet. i love the feed, the fact that people can’t customize their profile apperance (because people have horrible taste) and that i don’t have to listen to someone else’s music when i look at their profile. i also like the way they deal with photos (your profile shows all photos you’re tagged in, not just the ones you uploaded.)

wordpress: my blogging service of choice. i just think it’s easy. i also like blogger and vox (if only for being unique).

digg: my productivity killer of choice. aggregates news stories, podcasts and videos without editors. power to the people! you owe it to yourself to check it out, but don’t blame me if you get addicted.

other web-stuff i love:

flickr: awesome photosharing

last.fm: as mentioned a couple of posts back

google docs: writely (with a google skin) + google spreadsheets.

google notebook: cool for collecting snippets of info or taking notes

youtube: goes without saying

backpack and basecamp: cool organizatin and product management tools, respectively, form 37signals.

netflix: i’m sure you’re all familiar, but worth a shout out. i get lots of cool stuff here that i can’t find anywhere else.

firefox

so, to continue this series of the things that make my digital world turn, i want to address the web apps/services/sites that i simply can’t live without, but in order to do this i first have to address firefox.

firefox, for those who don’t know, is a web browser, like internet explorer of safari. i am of the opinion that it is the best web browser available, which is pretty cool considering that it is open source (check my archives for more on open source). it’s fast, stable, secure and ahead of the curve on features. it had pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing long before internet explorer. it is also customizable, both in a appearance (themes) and function (extensions) via “add-ons” created by users.

as for my particular firefox set-up, i run it on my mac with the default theme with the following extensions:

googlepedia:by far my favorite, can’t-live-without-it extension. when i perform a google search in the top-right search bar, the page that opens is split between the google results and the resulting wikipedia entry. it’s too awesome for words! so, if i want to find out a little about the decemberists, i can see the top google results and their wikipedia results in one search. it’s invaluable to the naturally curious.

del.icio.us bookmarks: imports all of your existing firefox bookmarks into your del.icio.us account. its nice to have everything in one place, it utilizes tagging (which just makes more sense the the soon-to-be-archaic folder structure), but i love that it means that my bookmarks are accessible from any machine anywhere. (if you have no idea what del.icio.us is, check it out. if you’re lazy, i’ll be discussing it soon.)

adblock plus: makes it so i don’t have to look at all of those ugly ads that plague the internet. it makes

download statusbar: adds a status bar for downloads at the bottom of the browser window, as opposed to opening a separate downloads window. just a little cleaner.

that’s it. i know there are lots of people with thousands of extensions, but those are the ones that i wouldn’t want to live without.

i have a couple of other firefox tweaks that really make my life better. when i open firefox, i’m prompted to enter a master password. then my favorite five sites open up in separate tabs (more on those sites soon) with all of the passwords filled in. i can’t tell you how much time this saves me everyday. my morning internet routine only takes half of the time that it once did, with all of the url and password typing.

you can run firefox on windows, mac os x or linux, so if you aren’t using it, you now have no excuse!

last.fm

before i continue my series on the things that make my computing life wonderful, i want to highlight last.fm, a service that i’ve heard about over and over again but finally tried to today.

it’s essentially a music recommendation app with lots of flexibility and social networking features. it’s based on the idea of “scrobbling”, which is basically the process of collecting data about what music you’re into or not into.

the default “scrobbling” method is through their media player. you give it some parameters and then start listening to streaming music. you can tell it you love a song or that you never want to hear it again, and all of this data is collected to build your profile, and theoretically point you towards music you might really like.

you can also add friends and share artists with them. so, if i have a friend who is really into the beatles and you hear a really beatlesesque new artist that you think they might dig, you can send them a recommendation with a note. really fun stuff (so sign up for the service and add me as a friend: joshcook83)

you can also scrobble itunes or your ipod for your listening habits and ratings, plus lots of other features i haven’t dug into yet.

if you like music, check this out! it’s free, and maybe we can find some cool new stuff together.

which super-hero are you?

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Green Lantern 70% Superman 65% Batman 55% Iron Man 50% The Flash 45% Robin 40% Hulk 40% Catwoman 35% Supergirl 35% Wonder Woman 25%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

love letter to my mac

i’ve been wanting to share a list of the things that make my computing life wonderful for a while, and i thought i could compile it into one post. as i sat down to write, i realized that i was looking at a minimum of three posts. (consider this fair warning: if you’re not a little geeky, skip the next few posts).

the next two posts will focus on the apps that i use, but i couldn’t talk about my computing life without paying tribute to my hardware, my beloved macbook.

i knew that i was going to buy a macbook before it was announced. i followed the rumors on digg (anyone else remember the rumored plethora of colors apple was supposed to offer?) for months, knowing that the low-end intel notebook would be my entrance into the world of macintosh.

i bought the 1.83ghz model (the cheapest available) and got it stock with a 60 gigabyte 5400 rpm drive and half a gig of ram. (i’m in the process of upgrading to a 100 gig 7200 rpm drive and 2 gigs of ram), and i’ve never loved anything like i love this computer.

i love the size (i always lusted after the diminutive 12″ powerbooks), the magsafe power adapter and latch, the built in isight and microphone (both of which i use for tons of things), the beautiful widescreen display and, as with all apple products, the overall beauty of the design.

i still find it hard to believe that anyone would purchase a macbook pro unless they really need a high end video card or a big display. there just aren’t that many hardware differences. in fact, i’ve heard about many macbook pro owners who are peeved that they didn’t wait for the macbook, which offers nearly equivalent performance at about half the price.

but even more than the hardware i love mac osx. i will never, ever, ever, ever again call windows my home. even as much as i love ubuntu, nothing can take the place of osx. everyday i discover something new that it does (like dragging text from a webpage to your desktop, and seeing a text file magically appear). there are a thousand feature, big and small that i can’t live without. when i sit at my windows machine at work, i find myself wanting to cmd + tab my way through apps, or pressing f9 for expose.

so much of what i want to talk to starts moving over to the software side of things, so i’ll end my gushing here. check back in soon for all of the cool osx apps, web services and other cool stuff that makes my computing world turn.

stuff i got for christmas

a nintendo ds lite with “mario and luigi: partners in time 2″(which is in the same vein as “mario rpg and paper mario) and “tetris”

a zippo lighter with a brushed finish and my initials engraved on it. (a very thoughtful gift from leah. she gave me the same thing for valentines day a few years ago and i lost it, much to my dismay. i was very happy to get this one.)

some moleskine notebooks and an index card binder (leah knows about my moleskine and gtd obsession all too well.)

slippers

cookbooks (2 emeril lagasse books and an iron chef book)

a fisher space pen (the one i asked for, thank you very much.)

“it’s christmas charlie brown” on dvd. (another very thoughtful gift. my grandmother mailed it to me early, not knowing that i had just told leah that i wanted it, because it doesn’t feel like christmas until i’ve watched it. the dvd was accompanied by a very sweet note that i think i’ll keep forever.)

whatever the new, battery-powered gillete razor is called. (i was actually glad to receive that, even though i haven’t shaved in at least a year. i guess it just seems cool to have)

scene-it: music edition

jimi hendrix live at the isle of wight on dvd

the new plug-in air freshener thing. it’s actually kind of cool, cause it does this trippy little light show, and smells really good. i’m notoriously protective of my desk-space, and this got a spot.

cash and visa gift cards, which i have applied to a couple of gifts to myself, including a new hard drive for my macbook (100 gig, 7200rpm), a new coat, and a new bath robe (because when you’re at home, you should never have to wear pants.)

all dogs go to heaven + heaven = awesome

leah and i were just browsing youtube for videos about “all dogs go to heaven” ( i know…nostalgia makes you do strange things) and found this video tribute to aaliyah. check out this description from the creator:

“First off, I loved Aaliyah’s music since I was little and so I for a sudden sweet heart inside decided to do a tribute video on her. I also added clips of the series All Dogs Go To Heaven, because everytime I think and listen to Aaliyah’s music, she reminds me and it brings my brain up with All Dogs Go To Heaven, so I decided to make a special video. I really enjoyed doing it alot because it was really fun. … (more) “

i’m just a little taken aback that she would do a video tribute on aaliyah. does anyone else find that a bit morbid? check out the video here.

tech gear in 2006

i love the coming of the new year for many reasons, not the least of which is that it gives you an opportunity to look back over the past twelve months and note what has changed. there are a lot of thing in my life that are very different now than they were twelve months ago (perhaps i’ll go a little deeper into that in the future). as i was thinking about this very thing yesterday, i noted that one of the biggest areas of change in my life over this past year was my digital life. i’ve always loved gear (guitar gear, computer gear, etc.) so i thought i would take a look at the gear i was using at the beginning of the year verse what i’m using today. so here we go!

december, 2005

- dell dimension desktop, 2.0ghz p4, 1/2 gig of ram, 40 gig drive, running xp.

and that’s it. seriously, that was all i had. now let’s look at at today:
december 2006

- macbook, white, 1.83ghz core duo processor, 1/2 gig of ram, 60 gig 5400 rpm drive. (note: i’m currently upgrading this machine, which i planned to do from the day i bought it. i have 2 gigs of ram and 100 gig 7200 rpm drive on the way as we speak!)

- dell computer (same as above) upgraded to 1 gig of ram, added an 80 gig hard drive (120 total) and a dvd burner. most notable of all, running ubuntu linux.

- ipod with video, 30 gig

- ipod shuffle, 512mb (used for around the house and click tracks in the worship band)

- canon a620 7 megapixel digital camera

- my book 160 gig external hard drive

- nintendo ds lite (given to me by leah for christmas)

- some cheap, 3-in-1 hp printer

- a bunch of cheap micro center 1 gig thumb drives, notable because i always keep one with me with the portable apps suite on it (all my firefox settings and extensions on any windows box with a usb port) and all of my gtd stuff (projects, contexts, etc.)

geez, i spent a lot of cash on gear this year. and i didn’t even get a new cell phone.
note: i was listening to itunes on shuffle as i wrote this post, and the list was unusually good. check it out:

nirvana – the man who sold the world (from unplugged in new york)

michael jackson – don’t stop til you get enough (from off the wall)

bob dylan – every grain of sand (from the bootleg series)

johnny cash – rose of my heart (from american v)

ben folds five – alice childress

neil diamond – hell yeah (from 12 songs))

global rich list

i am very ready for my week off…the closest thing i can think of to describe the way i feel right now is senioritis.  i’m looking foraward to spending some time at home, seeing my family and tackling some projects i haven’t had time to get around to.

until then, check this site out.  very eye-opening, especially around christmas time.

http://globalrichlist.com/

south park/itunes email

i received this email about 16 hours ago ( i was out of town and just receieved the email today):

Dear Joshua,

Thank you for purchasing the South Park Season 10A Season Pass from the iTunes Store. We know that the decision to split this season into two parts created some confusion for our customers.

We strive to create a perfect experience, so iTunes is giving South Park Season 10B to everyone who purchased the South Park Season 10A Season Pass. To download these seven free episodes, click this link.

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkForPurchases

Or, you can open iTunes and select Check for Purchases from the Store menu.

We sincerely thank you for being an iTunes customer and we value your continued business.

Sincerely,

Kate Wormington
Sr. Manager, Customer Experience

i thought that they made the right move.   anyone else get this?