Category: Tech | Web

URL ABC

macro pixels url cliche

 

Go to the address bar in your favorite browser, and type one letter. Start with “a”, end with “z”.

Don’t do a web search. This is just in your address bar.

Here are the first results in my address bar. Revealing, no?

  • Alltop.com
  • Box.net
  • ChrisDenbow.com (who knew?)
  • Delicious.com
  • Eager Little Mind.com
  • Foxnews.com
  • Give Me Something To Read
  • Hulu
  • Instapaper.com
  • Jessica Simpson shoes (wth?)
  • Katy, TX.
  • Linked In
  • mojodenbow.com
  • Note & Point
  • Oceanic Flight 815
  • Panera Login (guess where I like to hang out)
  • Quicktime
  • Read It Later
  • Slideshare
  • The Sixty One
  • Userscripts.org
  • Visual Mixtape
  • WordPress
  • X Flight
  • Yahoo
  • Zillow

Denbow’s Info Workflow

638494456_85dc310a59

Unless you’ve had your head up your hindquarters for the past ten years you are well aware that the internet is a great resource. Most of us use the net as a way to gather information and share it with others. This process of information distribution has increasingly become more efficient. With web services and software cooperating with each other, the information seeker’s experience has become more enhanced as well.

In the past five years, the RSS (real simple syndication) feeds and clients have become a major way I process my information. Instead of browsing hundreds of websites, I have them coming to my RSS reader as the websites are updated. I don’t miss out on what I think is important, and I can utilize that information as I need to. After digesting these, I feel it necessary to share what I think may have value to someone else.

I have used a variety of feed readers both on the web and as software clients too. I have been a huge fan of FeedDemon which allows a sync of both for me. Recently FeedDemon has switched their online service to Google Reader, a service I have tried in the past but was not impressed with. Now, since I am more mobile and can access this information from my iPod Touch and not just from my computer, my information intake has again changed. I’ll explain how this has changed for me and what tools I have discovered for my information capture and management. Info workflow if you will. I am not suggesting these are must-haves or that you are doing it wrong. People have varying information needs and different cognitive predilections.

Google Reader, Mobile RSS App

I had just mentioned how I was not impressed initially with GReader but apparently over the years they had made some improvements in their functionality. It is faster than the software I downloaded, can be viewed offline and offers great sharing functions. GR will now allow me to create a shared article site with it’s own RSS feed. Basically, if you think I can share something of value, click here: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/chrisdenbow . There is now a much improved Send To function where I can forward articles to various distributors such as email, send as a .pdf file, Delicious and more that I have listed below. Neat! Not only can I do this on my laptop, but these can be done on my Touch too using the Mobile RSS app. It will set you back $3 but I find it very valuable when I am out and about.

Delicious is one of the best known social bookmarking websites. It amazes me though, that my IT Director father-in-law had never heard of it when it was mentioned in conversation. With Delicious you can bookmark any site on the internet and get it from anywhere you have access. Share your bookmarks or favorites and get some in return. See what websites are trends and what are useful. On the Touch, I use an app called Yummy that uses the Delicious software to view/share my bookmarks through Read It Later and Instapaper apps.

Read It Later & Instapaper are web services that essentially do the same thing. From the titles you can guess as to their function. If you see an article or a link that you want to save for later reading, tuck away with these guys. Both have excellent mobile apps as well.

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter‘s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Twitter asks one question, "What’s happening?" Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web. I use the mobile app, Tweetie. When someone adds a link to an article they enjoy, I use Tweetie to send it to either of these apps mentioned here. Handy!

Evernote is backup software for your brain. I am constantly sending voice notes to myself while driving down the road. This seems to be the optimal time I have a thought in my head. Of course there are multiple means of transferring your thoughts, web clips, links, tweets, .pdf’s and more.

Which of these tools are you using to filter information on a routine basis? Which ones have I failed to mention that you feel is worth our time?

On My Wall

A big trend on Flickr and DeviantArt is to share one’s desktop wallpaper. I thought I’d share mine.

desktop wallpaper

I cannot stand clutter on my screen. I have to have everything nice and organized so I can get to it quick.

The illustration is from Matthew Lyons and is called Intrepid Explorer. Which I think suits me very well.

Usually I would have an image of my daughter but I felt the need to change things up today.

Top 10 Feeds

Newspaper RSS Feed Icon 

Based on my stats report from FeedDemon, the following 10 providers are the ones I give my attention to the most. Each provider has multiple, intelligent articles up every day. They are all well worth your time and mental bandwidth.

  1. Lifehacker
  2. Mashable
  3. WebWorkerDaily
  4. Digital Photography School
  5. Digital Inspiration
  6. Freelance Switch
  7. ChrisBrogan.com
  8. New Media Photographer
  9. Smashing Magazine
  10. Houstonist

I’m always looking for new sources of information. What is in your top 10 that I need to subscribe to?

While you are in subscribe mode, why not do so for my feed? http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChrisDenbow

You Will Get Wet On This Ride (Google Wave)

Florida wave study #1

I’ve mentioned Google’s newest communication tool, Google Wave here before and wanted to elaborate on it a bit more. Now that the initial thrill of waving has passed for me, it is time to start thinking of practical uses for it. For tips on how to surf these Waves, check out the big kahuna herself, Gina Trapani and her Complete Guide To Google Wave

Find That Killer Wave-

Now that you secured an invite and hit the beach come on in. Perform a search of Waves publically available by typing in with:public . I hope you can swim well because pretty soon, you will be in over your head. I would try to find a few select waves, or discussions of interest by expanding your search, i.e. with:public Texas photography . This will help stem the tide and help you get on the board and ride.

Smooth Ride-

Once you’ve established yourself, grab your contacts & colleagues to join you on your own wave. This is where the benefits are. Share, discuss, collaborate. Think of a Wave as glorified chat room, email and instant messenger barrel-rolled into one. The possibilities are almost as limitless as the tide. Create, edit documents in real time. Hold a meeting, cover a live event, whatever you need.

Make use of the tools available too. Save your desired searches, waves, contacts. It will not be so easy to locate them again due to too many waves. You’ll get lost in the surf.

Wipeout-

Keep in mind that Google Wave is in the early stages of development and trials. It may slow you down, you might experience a gnarly wipeout but you’ll do what everyone else does and hop back on. Google Wave will work on all browsers but those will flatten out too. I’d suggest running it on Google Chrome due to it’s increased stability and speed.

Making Waves-

I am in the process of building and hosting my own wave here on this website. As soon as I get work out the coding, I’ll post it here.

Want to hang 10 with me on Google Wave? Look for me there: chrisdenbow@googlewave.com

Coming Soon

Don't worry, you are not alone

As promised, the Mojo deconstruction project is coming along nicely. I’m in the process of dropping that brand into one that reflects myself and whatever projects I choose to endure. The new website is waiting on me to back up the WordPress database, switch over the servers and reinstall. I imagine I will add a few more bells & whistles this time around too. If you come to the Mojo address after the conversion, it will redirect you to the new address. As for now, I want to alert everyone to some contact information changes.

Website: http://chrisdenbow.com (coming soon)

Email: chrisdenbow@gmail.com or chris@chrisdenbow.com

Skype: chrisdenbow

GTalk IM: chrisdenbow  Yahoo: chris.denbow

Twitter: @chrisdenbow (coming soon)

GVoice: New number! 281.206.4253

I am still considering what to do with my photography business, Photo Mojo and that re-branding effort. I am heavily invested there and to change that now would take some extra time and revenue. If you have any suggestions for a new name, I’d love to review it. I’ve already killed any notion of using “Chris Denbow Photography” due to it’s boring, uninspired, de-creative, full-of-suck title.  I need creative, anti-suck branding here!

Thank You!

PS: you people are the anti-suck

The Communications Toolbox

ListeningI shared with you some of the software tools in my digital toolbox recently and today I will share how you and I can communicate with each other.

I’ll go over some tools that you may or may not ever heard of yet as well as a new twist on some you have been using.

Google Wave is a communications tool that it is being distributed very slowly while being tested. Wave is a way to communicate & collaborate  that makes real-time interactions more seamless. You can share waves using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is a conversation with multiple participants added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.

However, because of it’s new release, we’re all trying to figure out just how this works effectively. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with waves, and new contacts while attempting to figure out how to respond properly. More to come as I work this out.

Think you can work it out? Add a comment with your best use scenario and I’ll send you an invitation to join the Wave. I only have 5 invites so  them good, people! Wave

Google Voice gives you a separate phone number which you can give out as if it is your regular phone number. You can then change your settings to have calls forward to any of your phones. My number is 281.769.2809

You can forward to one group of phones during the day and another at night. You can have calls from certain numbers forward differently than calls to other numbers. You can block spamming callers and send some calls straight to voice mail.

You can send yourself an SMS message or an email whenever you get a voice mail message, and you can check your voice mail from the Web or from your phone. GVoice will even transcribe voice mail into written text in your inbox. Neato. I have two invitations for Google Voice. Again, leave a comment describing your best use scenario! Gvoice

pidginInstant Messenger clients have been around forever. Which one do you use? Like many of us you have multiple accounts. MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc. Like many of us you probably have their software downloaded too. Why not combine them all so you don’t have to have them open at the same time and not miss an IM? I use a desktop application called Pidgin that does just that. I have multiple accounts but only one software to use. Now I have no excuse for missing your IM. Not that I’d want to! The only drawback to this is there is no video chat available like the others use.

Skype has a lot of features like video conferencing, SMS, voicemail, call forwarding, contact list, integration with MS Outlook, public chats, business control panel, sketch pad, desktop sharing and many others. I can even make calls anywhere in the world with the Skype app on my iPod Touch. skype shot

E-mail is an obvious one. I’ve been using Gmail for five years because it is flawless, expandable and easy to use. I have it connected to MS Outlook as well. Email me mojodenbow AT gmail.com

Mobile is another obvious tool that has increased it’s functionality over the past two years. Now if only we can stop the wireless carriers from ripping us off and offer more choices!

As always, I’d appreciate your feedback as to what tools work for you and how you use them. Don’t forget to add your comments for those invitations!

The Digital Toolbox

They Say Size Doesn't Matter

I’m a big fan of having the right tools for the job and I wanted to take a moment to share what I have in my toolbox. Like every tool we use, it has to be comfortable and it has to be used as intended. the tools I use may or may not work for you.

When I installed Windows 7 on my laptop a few weeks ago, I added a lot of my software back on and omitted the ones I thought were no longer needed. It was a fresh start not unlike cleaning out your closet. Keep what you use, discard what you won’t. The first thing I installed was my favorite browser, Firefox. I cannot stand Internet Explorer and it’s limitations. With Firefox, I can extend and add tools to make my browsing experience functional.

Other tools I added and use frequently:

  1. Adobe Air
  2. Adobe Lightroom
  3. Adobe Photoshop
  4. Auslogics Disk Defrag (much faster than Windows)
  5. AVG Free 9 (no worries here when used w/ Firefox)
  6. Camtasia Studio – a video capture tool
  7. Carbonite – unlimited file backup for $50 a year
  8. CCleaner – crap cleaner
  9. DisplayFusion – great for multiple monitors
  10.   Dropbox – great backup tool
  11. Evernote – unbeatable note taker
  12. FeedDemon – how I get my daily news feeds
  13. Foxit Reader – Lighter, faster than Adobe’s .pdf reader
  14.   ImgBurn – flawless, fast disc burner
  15. iTunes – needed for the iPods
  16. Microsoft Office 2007
  17. Pidgin – all purpose IM chat client
  18. Revo Uninstaller – use this instead of Windows’ own
  19. Skype make calls/chat for free!
  20. SnagIt – screen capture tool
  21. Songbird – iTunes killer
  22.   Soonr Desktop – access files away from home
  23.   TweetDeck – Used for my Twitter/Facebook updates
  24.   VLC Media Player – plays all file formats
  25.   Xobni social tool for MS Outlook contacts

See something you’d like and use? You are more than welcome to borrow from my list and use for yourself. In fact, I insist. What tools do you use that you’d be willing to share with?