Posts Tagged: redux

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22
Aug 08

Redux

I posted about these items once, and more than a year later I still think they are every bit as interesting and relevant as when I first posted them. If you missed them then, perhaps you’ll enjoy them now.

REDUX POSTS FROM JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST OF 2007

* Wikipedia runs on a meager 20 servers, with the Open Source database MySQL. They serve more than 154 million annual visitors to the web site, has nearly half a million updates each day, and about 25,000 SQL queries/second.

* Quote: “Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” – Robert A. Heinlein

* Ever need to write something down? No access to paper/pencil but have your cellphone? This is one of the most useful free services I’ve come across in a long time: http://jott.com Call their 800 number, speak your note, and the service transcribes it to text and sends it to you in an email. Want to send a reminder or question to someone else? You can jott individuals or groups and it will email them and send them a text message.

* “Eco-friendly reusable bags” We’ve been making great use of our’s and have avoided using many plastic bags from target and the grocery store.

* Quote: “I wonder how different the world might look if the default ‘new meeting’ time in calendar programs were 10 minutes instead of 1 hour.” – Merlin Mann

 

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16
Jun 08

Here and Now – The Four-Year Edition

I was reminded the other day by a good friend that I’m suppose to be informing you all of the current technology trends, happenings, notable advances, etc. and I fell down on the job. 

Innovations from four years ago seems like eons in internet-time, but let’s take a quick review of some old dogs that are tried and true. I’ve used most of these for many years. These are not fads. They are things tried, and they simply work really, really well.

  • Use any browser but Internet Explorer. I go back and forth between Safari and Firefox.
  • Get your news off of the web (but don’t surf to a dozen different sites). A Feed Reader and Google News keep me well informed.
  • Get a digital camera. Share your photos online with Flickr. Use iPhoto for storing your digital photos on your own computer.
  • Use Google for your default web search. Yahoo and MSN are ok, but I get the best results from Google.
  • Use Gmail for your personal email. Stop manually sorting messages into folders and embrace searching. I’ll admit it was weird at first, but now folders seem down right archaic. Use Google Desktop if you’re on a PC (Spotlight if you are on a Mac).
  • Get a Mac for your next home computer. No really. Get a Mac. Run your PC applications on it if you must, but you’ll be amazed at how easy and pain free computing can be when Microsoft isn’t mucking it up. I promise you’ll ask why you didn’t do it sooner. For the penny pinchers in the crowd, do the research: Mac’s are competitively priced.
  • Along the same lines, make your next home computer a laptop and install Wi-Fi at home. You’ll use the portability to bring it in the kitchen (for a recipe you just looked up), or in the living room (to check IMDB while watching a movie), or just to read the latest news in bed.
  • Stop driving to BlockBuster. This is really easy to do with TiVo or with a subscription to Netflix.
  • Listen to Podcasts. It’s like TV and Radio shows, but delivered over the internet. And there are a lot of channels. Sarah and I regularly watch the nightly ABC World News this way and NPR alone has 620 different podcasts, which sort of makes Satellite TV’s boasts of 300 channels sound a bit like a joke.
  • Use Backpack for organizing your life. Do it GTD style.
  • Use Highrise for keeping track of your contacts.
  • Use Jott for capturing your thoughts on the road.
  • Use Google Docs. In a lot of cases, it makes those cute thumb drives totally unnecessary.
  • Stop using MapQuest and use Google Maps.
  • Use text messaging.
  • Use online banking.
  • Use PayPal to send money by email.
  • Trust Wikipedia. It is an excellent source of quality information. Use your own judgement, but I rarely run across anything that seems incorrect. Cross check if you are concerned.
  • Use Amazon for ordering just about anything. Spend $25 to get free shipping.
  • This one is a little on the edge of “tried and true”, but I think it’ll prove itself out in time: Get an iPhone. I’ve had mine for a year and depend on it every day in a dozen different ways. They sell now for only $199. I’d buy it again in heartbeat.

What did I miss? What would you change?

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31
May 08

Redux

I posted about these items once, and more than a year later I still think they are every bit as interesting and relevant as when I first posted them. If you missed them then, perhaps you’ll enjoy them now.

REDUX POSTS FROM MARCH, APRIL, MAY 2007

On Movie Renting:

If you rent more than one movie a month, Netflix is an amazing way to do it.  The thing I like most about this new rental-movies-by-mail business model is you queue all the movies or tv shows you want to see, and when you send one in, you automatically get the next on your list.

On Open Source / Free Alternatives:

59% of all public web servers run open source software (March 2007)

MySQL AB, a company whose core business is developing and supporting the open source database software, MySQL, hit $50 million in revenue in 2006 – a 50% increase from 2005.

There are alternative (and compatible) products to Microsoft Office Suite. My favorite is Google Docs - Google’s version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They work amazingly well and having your documents available anywhere, easily searchable, and shareable has me hooked. Best thing is they are 100% free.

On Productivity, Agility, and Projects:

“Agile is the ability to react faster than the changes that are occurring” — Steve Adolph, Agile International Conference 2006 (see Wikipedia for more)

“The speed of the project is the speed at which ideas move between team members” – Alistair Cockburn

The Gentle Art of Saying No. “You can never be productive if you take on too many commitments – you simply spread yourself too thin and will not be able to get anything done, at least not well or on time.”

“If a major project is truly innovative, you cannot possibly know its exact cost and its exact schedule at the beginning. And if in fact you do know the exact cost and the exact schedule, chances are that the technology is obsolete.” – Joseph G. Gavin, Jr., discussing the design of the lunar module that landed NASA astronauts on the moon.

 

 

 

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2
Mar 08

Redux

I posted about these things once, and more than a year later I still think they are every bit as relevant and important as when I first posted them. If you missed them then, perhaps you’ll enjoy them now.

REDUX POSTS FROM JAN and FEB 2007

Use Flickr to share your digital photos with friends and family

Flickr is a “Web 2.0″ site that let’s you share photos. What I like most about it is that it is really easy: after I import photos from my camera, I drop a few in an email and send it to my flickr email address. The photos are then automatically posted to my page without ever needing to open a browser. Picts of my kids are here.

Gmail: A new way of looking at email

Gmail fundamentally changed the way I approach my email – for the better. If you aren’t using this for your home email, check it out. It’ll be weird at first, and then you’ll quickly wonder how you ever did without it. The spam filtering alone is worth it’s weight in gold (it saved me from reading 1706 spams in the last 30 days).


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29
Jan 08

Redux

There are already too many sites reposting stuff they posted a year ago. Flashbacks, yesteryear, and whatnot. I abhor the thought of posting just for the sake of posting, so I do so with some trepidation.

I’ve been thinking about a redux for some time and as I considered it more, I concluded that the reason wasn’t to simply fill a void*, but that it furthered the purpose for the whole site: I’ve found stuff on the internet that I think you’ll find interesting and useful. I posted about these things once, and more than a year later I still think they are every bit as relevant and important as when I first posted them. If you missed them then, perhaps you’ll enjoy them now. Thanks for taking the time!

* I think a lot of redux’s are to fill a void, and this isn’t my problem: I’ve got a backlog of posts that could fill half a year and the ideas keep flowing as I scan some 2500 articles a month.

REDUX POSTS FROM 2006

* Google News can send you email updates when any new information or recent news articles are posted to the internet on a topic of your choice. Click on “News Alerts” on the left side of the web site to set up the scheduled email. Useful for breaking news or keeping up on any topic you want to follow. (11/10/2006)

* Collaborative writeboards, online notes, a calendar, etc with Backpack. All in the fancy web 2.0 style with AJAX. My favorite feature: set a reminder on the site that will text message your cell phone at a preset time so you don’t forget about something. Originally posted on 12/15/2006, and mentioned again “to keep track of the links” on 11/14/07 and yet again on 12/11/07 as “a way to track your to-do’s and other random data that you want to get done.” I’m still using it every day.

* “[Work] below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.” [Pablo Picasso] (12/22/2006)

But tell me what you think! Do you already use Google News and Backpack? Is this old news? Did you look into them and decide they were no good? What do you use instead?


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