TheJoey.Net

As you might have guessed, I am a huge fan of all things Google. In the last week or so I have come across some great things that make Google easily integrate with other services I use, making it so much better.

Remember the Milk in GMail

I’ve written about Remember the Milk before, and how I thought it was a great product. Recently they created a Firefox extension that makes it so much better by integrating it directly into the new version of GMail. It’s extremely robust and easy to use. They have a great write up about it over on the RTM blog. This will definitely get me using RTM again.

DocSyncer

DocSyncer is a web/desktop app that automatically synchronizes your Google Docs with the MS Office documents on your PC. This is a fantastic tool with great timing as I was recently trying to figure out a good way to do just this. The product is still in beta, but proves to be very useful.

Google Sync for Blackberry

With Google’s latest mobile update, it made GMail faster, Google Maps faster, and included Picasa in the mix. However, the best thing that came out of this update was Google Sync, which provides automatic synchronization of your Blackberry and Google calendars. This is very nice as now I don’t have to worry about making sure Plaxo syncs with both Google and MS Outlook so it then syncs with my Blackberry.

These changes will make my life infinitely easier and infinitely more attached to Google. But hey, I gotta organize my online life somehow, right?

posted on December 20th, 2007 in Productivity, Software| No Comments »

I know I have been skimping on the posts a little lately, but things are really starting to move with school and the business. Hopefully I’ll be able to write some cool things about what I am doing in grad school. Right now however, I want to talk briefly about 2 things from Google.

The first is pictured above, and is new to Google Docs today. Presentations have been added to the Word and Spreadsheet support. And from what I have seen already, it looks awesome. You can create new ones or upload current ones, and the interface is pretty easy. You can also share a URL with people to view the Presentation online, and it tells you who is doing so. I will play with in more to review it in depth when I get some time.

The second is Google Checkout, which I knew about and signed up for, but didn’t really use. I still use PayPal as my online payment method. Well, I did until yesterday. My friend Dan informed me that Google Checkout doesn’t (Does Not) take out a cut from invoices and money requests. That is completely awesome, because when I am requesting money from clients online, the PayPal fees can get a little pricey. It also seems it offers the functionality I was looking for to use in another project. Excellent!

In the coming weeks I will [hopefully] be looking at these in more depth to write a review on them, but for now I suggest you take a look and let me know what you think!

posted on September 18th, 2007 in Productivity, Software| No Comments »

Just recently I started using Plaxo, an online calendar and contacts manager. When Plaxo first started, it was a contacts manager that bought out the online calendar I was using at the time, HipCal. I never really got into Plaxo, especially once I got my Treo, but revisiting it, I’ve got to say it’s quite powerful and has a great interface.

It handles everything Outlook can handle in a web-based format. A really nice feature of Plaxo is that it automatically updates your address book with any changes other friends on Plaxo make. It also give you access to the RSS feeds they choose to share with Plaxo Pulse. The calendar is very slick, displaying the next two days in agenda form and then the next 3 weeks in calendar form. It also displays the local weather and any ‘countdowns’ you add, such as days until your birthday. My favorite part, however, is the powerful syncing options Plaxo offers.

Online calendars have always been a project of mine. GCal has been my web-based one of choice for a while because it’s easy to access when I use GMail. But since getting Yahoo! Go on my Blackberry, I’ve tried going back to Yahoo! Calendar because it autosyncs with Outlook. But this means at any given time, GCal, Outlook/Yahoo and my Blackberry could have different calendars. With Plaxo’s Sync Dashboard, I can set up my Plaxo calendar to sync with GCal and all of Plaxo (calendar, contacts, tasks, notes) to sync with Outlook. Then I sync my Blackberry with my computer. Yahoo is automatically updated, though Plaxo offers Calendar and contacts sync for that too, as well as MSN, Outlook Express, Mac OSX, AOL/AIM and LinkedIn. It also offers a mobile web interface so I can access it via my blackberry. The only thing that would make this better is over the air (wireless) sync with my Blackberry, which I believe they are working on.

All in all, Plaxo is a very nice web app that I am glad I discovered before the start of the school year. With it’s awesome accessibility and sync options, it will definitely keep me more organized.

posted on August 16th, 2007 in Productivity, Software, Websites| No Comments »

Twitter, a website that allows you to post short (140 characters or less) updates, has been becoming more and more of a productivity tool. I have been a Twitter user since April, but haven’t really started using it until just recently. With integration for Google Calendar, Remember the Milk and GTalk among other things, using Twitter isn’t just a fun little app anymore. It’s a tour de force of productivity for those who use it right.

First thing first: Anything I can do from IM is a great thing. While it’s AIM support has been on and off and is currently off indefinitely, the recently added GTalk support is awesome. I can send updates from GMail or my desktop quite easily now, as well as eliminate those direct message emails I get by just allowing Twitter messages to go to IM. Plus, I have GTalk for my Blackberry, which is an added bonus.

With a number of different bots, I have all the information I want at my fingertips. Weather, sports, headlines, etc. Not to mention an alarm with Twitter Timer, integration with GCal and especially Remember the Milk. My favorite Tasks web app got better because now I can easily, from anywhere, send a task to my phone.

Finally, with TwitterBerry, I can easily send updates from my blackberry, without the extra resources required for GTalk. This program was the final nail in the “Use Twitter to GTD” coffin. In the coming days I will be scouring the internet for more Twitter Resources, and frequently checking Retweet for news on new Twitter Bots. So…How do you use Twitter?

posted on August 4th, 2007 in Computer Stuff, Productivity, Websites| No Comments »

In the last two installments of this series, I mention 10 Items and 10 Websites for college students. Now, here is some essential software for college students.

Microsoft Office

This is a Software Suite you will use every step of the way throughout college. Familiarize yourself with Word, Excel and Power point. Not only is it the best of its kind, it’s pretty much the standard in college and the real world.

Free Alternative: Open Office- With Open Office you can create and open Word, Excel and Power point files. A great alternative if you don’t want to shell out the $100 for the student version of MS Office.

MS Outlook

With Calendar, Address Book, ToDo List and Notes, MS Outlook is a nice one stop shop for organization. This also comes with the MS Office software suite. It also syncs with most smart phones and PDAs.

Free Alternatives: While I haven’t seen something quite like Outlook, there are a number of tools (mostly web-based) that can help you out. Online, I use Google Calendar, Remember the Milk for tasks and Google Notebook for notes. As far as desktop software goes, Thunderbird is the way to go for email. Plus with Lightning, you can get a calendar built right into Thunderbird.

Anti-Virus Software

Let’s face it. You will be on a residential network with possibly thousands of students using the internet. Most wouldn’t be able to spot a virus. Anti-Virus software is essential all of the time, but especially if you are moving out of the house and onto a shared network. My school made me install their brand of computer protection, but if you have the choice, I recommend Norton Anti-Virus.

Free Alternative:- AVG Antivirus. It’s pretty rock solid and a nice free piece of software.

Those three, I feel, are the most important pieces of software. Below is a list of free software that might not be exclusive to college students, but still very helpful.

• ITunes- I am not a fan of ITunes. I use Windows Media Player 11. However, living on campus, where a majority of people on your network use ITunes, it could make discovering music easier. With MyTunes Redux, it is easier to share music with your friends. There is also something out there called ITunes U, which allows schools to add content to ITunes for its students to download.
• Picasa- Photo Organizing and Editing by Google
• Ad-Aware- Free Spyware cleaning program.
• AIM/Google Talk- Instant Messaging programs are pretty essential in college. IMing is the quickest and easiest way to get in contact with someone, especially since most campuses are pretty well connected; not to mention IM makes it easy to keep in touch during the summer and after graduation.
• FireFox- The best, most secure browser, period.
• Skype- Free VoIP (over the internet phone calls) and very cheap calls to US and Internationally. Great if you have a prepaid cell phone (or no cell phone).
• FoxIt Reader- PDFs in college are inevitable. While Adobe Reader is the more popular PDF reader, FoxIt Reader is much more lightweight and very easy to use.

As a Comp Sci guy, IDEs, Linux and notepad got me through my Undergrad program. What software helped/helps you?

posted on August 1st, 2007 in Productivity, Software| No Comments »