Friday TechTips

Tip for August 28, 2009: DailyBurn

Let’s face it, most of us cycle in and out of eating better and exercising. Today’s tip provides a tool that will help you in both areas. After creating a free account with DailyBurn you can start tracking your weekly exercise routines and each exercise you perform. There’s a vast database of available exercises to choose from, and if you do one that isn’t included you can manually add it. DailyBurn’s other main feature allows you to track everything you eat each day. There’s an even larger database of available food items to choose from when adding your entries. You’ll really start to see the benefit of DailyBurn over time as it will provide visual tools such as graphs and charts to help you track your progress. You can also track your weight and BMI. Other fun features include the ability to set goals both in terms of exercise and nutrition. There are also ‘challenges’ created by others uses to help motive you further such as ‘Lose 5 Pounds,’ ‘Burn 5000 Calories,’ and many others. I’m using DailyBurn myself in my newly adopted motto ‘get fit this fall!’ As an added bonus, there’s also an iPhone and iPod Touch app to help you track yourself on the go.

DailyBurn

Tip for August 21, 2009: Memiary

Today’s tip is all about remembering the things you’re working on and keeping a log to help you remember your daily activities. Such a list can come in handy when preparing for a meeting and especially during your annual evaluation! If you’re looking for a tool that requires zero setup, backup, or maintenance, then Memiary is for you! Memiary let’s you record five items (or memories) each day. It even auto-saves each item as you record it. It’s incredibly simple to get started. Just choose a login name and it will then prompt you for a password. Likewise, if you already have an account just enter your login name and it prompts you for your account password. Hit enter and you’re in! I personally use Memiary and highly recommend it. Tools like this are especially useful during the fall and spring semesters which tend to be our busiest times of the year. That’s when Memiary’s strengths really shine. It’s a no-muss, no fuss, no filing solution to help you track the most important things you worked on each day. Additional features include the following:

• Reminders via email or Twitter
• “Subscribe” to your entries via RSS or within a calendar app that supports iCal

Best of all Memiary is free!

Bonus Tip!

Speaking of fall and spring semesters, classes start at UR on Monday (oh summer, we hardly knew ye)! Here’s a post from the Professor’s Blog you’ll definitely want to share with your students and student employees. The authors provide 10 quick tips for success during the first week of the semester. Good luck!

Tip for August 14, 2009: Meeting Schedulers!

Meetings, we all have them. Some days it’s all we do. Fortunately we have Exchange / Outlook / Entourage to help manage our on-campus meetings. What about external meetings? How do you arrange a meeting time with a colleague from VCU or schedule time for a visit from a vendor? As the trendy new expression goes, there’s an app for that! There are two services that I’m highlighting today giving you the ability to schedule meetings online with external colleagues.

MeetingMade lets you create an account and then block out the times you aren’t available. You then invite other meeting attendees to do the same. This gives you a common point of reference within MeetingMade where you can decide on the times that work best for everyone. MeetingMade’s goal is to eliminate all of the back and forth E-mail and phone calls which happens especially when trying to organize an event with multiple attendees. MeetingMade offers a 30-day free trial, however since it is in beta status it’s free to use until they decide a pricing plan. My instincts tell me that a free option will remain.

ScheduleOnce offers to accomplish what MeetingMade performs, but utilizes Google Calendar to facilitate the process of choosing a common meeting time. ScheduleOnce is a free service and works by downloading a Google Calendar add-on for your browser which then connects you to the service and the people you are trying to meet with. The only disadvantage ScheduleOnce has when compared to MeetingMade is that you have to have your Outlook calendar synced with your Google Calander. Don’t dispair, there’s an app for that too! The Goolgle Calenendar Sync tool will sync your Outlook calendar data with your Google Calander. If you’re concerned with losing data in Outlook, you can set the tool to only update your Google Calender, not import data from Google into Outlook. I’ve been using this personally for quite a while now and have found it to work flawlessly.

Speaking of meetings, since they do tend to take up a lot of our time, its important they be productive and stay focused. Here’s a short list 7 Tips from Web Worker Daily to help you keep your meetings on-task.

Bonus Tip!

Forbidden City – For a while I was really excited about Second Life and the potential it brought to online learning, meetings, discussions, etc. In my opinion it has really jumped the shark. However in a related note, The Forbidden City project offers much more educational potential, at least if you’re interested in Chinese history. Through a collaboration between IBM and the Palace Museum, you can download a fully digitized virtual version of the Forbidden City and tour it in real-time. It’s available for PC/Mac/Linux and offers a great opportunity to tour an incredible facility that you would otherwise have to travel thousands of miles to see.

Tip for August 7, 2009: Vanish!

In this era of hyper-data portability securing your information is becoming more important than ever.  Tools such as old-fashioned email and newcomers like Facebook, blogs and practically anything that can be associated with Web 2.0 have made it almost enjoyable to create voluminous amounts of content. It’s possible that you have not given too much thought to the things you send into the ether, but you need to be prepared for it to live in perpetuity and also be found with Google.

These are the issues which lead a research team at the University of Washington to create Vanish, a tool which will render your messages (and more) unreadable after 8 – 9 hours. The Mission: Impossible producers would be proud! To use Vanish you will need the following:

• Java 5 or above and FireFox 3.x
• The Vanish System
• Vanish Plugin for FireFox

If you are interested in trying the system before installing, they provide an online version to let you create self-destructing messages, one by one. Their site points out that while the Vanish system is fully functional, it is still a research project and should be treated as such. If you’re interested in trying Vanish, I strongly recommend you spend time reading about how it works and what to expect. They provide several screencasts and screenshots to explain their objectives and how to properly install the system.

Bonus Tip!

Are you envious of all the people who have found fame by starring in a video that has gone “viral?” If so, you’re in luck! Don’t worry about taking the time and effort to create your own video, just superimpose your face on any of the most popular viral videos and become your own star with family and friends! Just connect your webcam and head over to Fun Face Cam. You can choose from some of the most popular videos, like Laughing Baby, Numa Numa, or my personal favorite David After Dentist.

Today’s services: Vanish & Fun Face Cam

Tip for May 15, 2009: Backups!

The computer upgrade process has officially started for IS and library staff! If you haven’t done so already it’s time to back-up your data to prepare for the move. It’s also a good time to get into the habit of regularly backing up your data. As staff we all have access to 1gb in Netfiles, however you may find it’s not enough to meet your needs. Past TechTips have suggested different tools for this purpose. Today I’m going to provide you with a few more options.

Last year I posted this piece about Microsoft Skydrive. Shortly after that post the kind folks in Redmond bumped the storage from 5gb to 25gb. I love the service but the downside is that you have to use the web interface to upload individual files. One way around this is to create a zip file of the documents you want to backup and upload the single zip file, but this is a hassle if you only need to get to one of your documents. However, there is another solution. Those of you with Windows systems who are particularly adventuresome will want to checkout the starter edition of Gladinet. After installing it lets you mount SkyDrive (and other storage options) as local drives allowing you to drag-n-drop till the cows come home.

Another service receiving positive reviews is Mozy. Mozy offers free accounts which include 2gb of storage with Windows and Mac clients available. They also offer unlimited storage, available for $4.95 per month per computer you use to access their service.

The last service, one I personally really like is Jungle Disk. If you have A LOT of data that requires save and secure storage you’ll definitely want to try it. The service works by providing local clients for Windows, Mac and, Linux which you use to access your files. The storage component is handled by Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service (S3 stands for Simple Storage Service). Jungle Disk offers unlimited storage for $2.00 per month plus $.15 per gigabyte of data. There are also fees for data transfer ($.10 per gb uploaded / $.17 per gb downloaded). Here’s a possible pricing scenario: if you had 5gb of data including 1gb of photos recently uploaded, your monthly fee would be $2.85 ($2.00 monthly fee + $.75 for 5gb of storage + $.10 for 1gb data upload).

Bonus Tip!

Re-live a little history with the very first television spot for cellular service from Centel! You’ll want to note two things. First, compare the size of your current phone to those shown in the ad. Second, look for all the fun and adventure the early adopters had (look for jeep at 15 seconds in).

See it at YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbJZ9HBw2k

So, your mission for the weekend is to get out there and live it up! Afterall, you own a cell phone!

Services: SkyDrive | Gladinet | Mozy | Jungle Disk

Tip for March 27, 2009: Anniversary Extravaganza!

It’s hard for me to believe, but Friday TechTips is now one year old. It began with an email tip highlighting the sync abilities of Microsoft’s Foldershare (which has since been re-branded Windows Live Sync). Since then we’ve covered photo management, IM and video conferencing, and other online “cloud-based” services to name a few. Before today’s tip, I’d like to give you an opportunity to provide feedback about the topics you’ve found helpful (or not) and topics you would like to see covered in the future. Please take just a minute or two to complete this short survey. My goal is to tailor each post to be informative, helpful, and fun!

Take the survey! – Friday TechTip Anniversary Survey

Finished? Then proceed to go, collect $200 and advance to today’s tip! Do you often need to quickly get group consensus over a project or decision and find it cumbersome to make duplicate phone calls or bounce emails between multiple recipients where there’s always one participant who forgets to hit “Reply to All?” If so, here’s your solution: TinyChat! You’re probably familiar with the URL shortening service TinyURL, which lets you convert long URLS to much shorter and manageable versions. TinyChat let’s you build on-the-fly private chat rooms and provides you with a short URL which you can email or instant message to everyone you need to bring together and get input from. Once invitees click the link, they’re immediately brought into the chat room (all done in the browser) where they can enter their name and report in. This will let all members see each other’s responses and ideas in real time and allow for immediate feedback. Are you wondering what happens when you’re done chatting? So was I. Here’s their official policy:

“After you leave the chat room, all the chat data is gone, so its perfect for secure chats.”

TinyChat also offers the ability to save the chat log before closing out in case you need to document everyone’s thoughts. You also have the option of inserting the chat window into a webpage for quick interaction with multiple users. If you’re interested in TinyChat and would like to test it out, feel free to create a room and send me the link!

TinyChat

Bonus Tip!

Are you still using one of the default Windows or Mac wallpaper images? If so, it’s time to try something new! InterfaceLIFT is my personal wallpaper site of choice. All the images come from professional or amateur photographers and many of the images are simply stunning. All standard monitor resolutions are available for each image, so you’ll be able to enjoy the full image no matter what setting you use. They also provide dual-monitor wallpapers allowing the full image to “stretch” across both of monitors providing a panoramic view. Who knows, you might find yourself inspired and more creative with an updated desktop!

InterfaceLIFT

Tip for March 20, 2009: State of Data = Mobile

Earlier this week comScore, a data measuring and marketing company located in Reston, VA, released a report which further documents the continuing explosion of data access via mobile devices. From January 2008 – January 2009, mobile data usage more than doubled as did the frequency of using mobile devices to access content. As of January 2009 there were 63 million users (I’m assuming in the United States as it’s not clear in the report) accessing mobile data at least once per month, up 71% from January 2008. Here are some key findings from the report:

• Social networking, (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are driving daily usage of mobile access.
• Phones such as the iPhone, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare, and Blackberries are the preferred weapons of choice for mobile data consumers (70%).
• Maps are the most frequently downloaded tools for smartphones, while news drove SMS data for less sophisticated devices.
• Half of 18 – 34 year old males were likely to be mobile data consumers while 40% of females 18 – 24 years old accessed mobile data at least once per month.

Many of us here at UR frequently witness this behavior due to the number of students we interact with. It’s obvious that more capable devices lend themselves to mobile data access as it often seems that they’re internet devices first, and phones second. However there are numerous examples of using SMS to accomplish some of the same things smartphones do with full-featured applications. For starters just take a look at what Google offers via SMS. I think we all know that mobile data is the future and will probably surpass the computer (desktop/laptop) as the normal means of access for certain types of data, especially as all phones evolve into “smartphones.”

If you’re interested in learning more, please read the full update from comScore.

Bonus Tip!

Do you wish you could have a “re-do” for your senior yearbook photo? Want to relive those groovy 70s? Then sign-up for the relaunch of  Yearbook Yourself. See how you might have looked in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s! They will be re-opening the site this summer, so if you missed it last year be sure to get your name on the mailing list!

Yearbook Yourself!

Tip for March 13, 2009: PDFs, Attachments, and Browsers, Oh My!

Good Friday afternoon! Today’s tip is going to have you slicing and dicing through work documents like a brand new set of Ginsu Knives. Our first tool is PDF to Word from NitroPDF. It’s a free service which converts your PDFs to either .DOC format or .RTF so they can be opened and edited in Microsoft Word. No muss, no fuss! Reviews on the web indicate that the conversions are fairly accurate but not flawless. Nevertheless having access to a Word version of a PDF is not an unusual occurrence for me. They don’t really indicate what’s happening behind the scenes (garden gnomes with scanners) but here’s their full set of features. I also reviewed their privacy policy due to the sometimes confidential nature of certain documents and was pleasantly surprised to find a very streamlined plan:

Your files

• The PDF files you upload for conversion are deleted straight after being converted.
• The DOC/RTF files we generate are deleted immediately after we email you them.
• At no stage are your files looked at or touched by the administrator of our PDF-to-Word service.

Your email address

• The email address you use to receive your converted files will never be used to send you unsolicited emails or sold off.

Along with PDF to Word, their site offers a number of other tools including:

• PrimoPDF – A free download allowing you to create PDFs on your desktop.
• PrimoOnline – An online version of the above.
• PDFHammer – An online PDF editor.

There are certainly a lot of PDF tools available elsewhere on the web, but I think you’ll find the simplicity of these services appealing.

Feature #2

Today’s second item is OutlookViewAttach, a nifty little application that scans all your mail in Outlook for messages with attachments. There are numerous ways to organize and arrange the results, batch download the attachments, and a search feature allowing you track down missing documents. If you plan to download OutlookViewAttach, here are a couple of tips:

• If you have a lot of mail stored in Outlook (let’s be real, we all do) expect the scan process to take several minutes. As a tip you can export the scan reults as an Excel file for quick review later.
• You may see a lot of “attachments” that are actually vCard files from yourself, people who have sent you mail, or mailing lists.
• Be prepared to organize and arrange the results in order to get the most out of this application!

Bonus Tip!

There has been a lot of web browser activity lately, especially with Google entering the market with Google Chrome. Internet Explorer 8 is also set to debut with Windows 7, and Safari 4 Beta for Mac was released last week. Mozilla is also planning to release the next version of Firefox: Firefox 3.1 which is now in beta 3 status (close to release). If you’re interested in being on the cutting edge of browser technology you may want to give it a try. 3.1 promises to handle complex websites and code much faster than previous versions. If you’re going to try Firefox 3.1 beta, I’ll reiterate what their site says:

This is pre-release software: you may encounter compatibility problems with some websites and add-ons.

With that word of caution, happy browsing and enjoy your weekend!

Tip for March 6, 2008: Foxmarks (soon to be Xmarks)!

Good Friday afternoon! In the Friday TechTip for January 16, 2009 we reviewed the benefits of Firefox and a few of the essential add-ons. One of my favorites which I automatically install on each computer I use is Foxmarks. Up until recently Foxmarks has been an exclusive add-on enjoyed by millions of rabid Firefox fans. New versions are now available for both Safari and Internet Explorer. They now cover all major browser platforms (sorry Opera). Installation for each is very simple and straightforward. If you’re new to Foxmarks, here are the basic steps:

• Visit http://download.foxmarks.com/download and click “Download Foxmarks for (your browser here).”
• Go through the normal install process for your platform (Mac or Windows).
• If you don’t already have one, you will be prompted to create an account with Foxmarks which will store your bookmarks for synchronization purposes.
• You will then be prompted to sync for the first time. The program will ask if you want to merge your bookmarks or overwrite them (both locally or on the server). If this is your first time, you will use the ones on your computer. Be careful at this point on future installs as you don’t want to accidentally overwrite any existing bookmarks!
• Once the install process is complete synchronization will occur behind the scenes and be a semi-invisible process.

I highly recommend Foxmarks, soon to be renamed Xmarks, especially if you use multiple computers to doy our work. You’ll soon start thinking that you’re always at the same computer, with your favorite tools and sites and always at your fingertips.

Bonus Tip: Daily Mugshot!

Do you have a webcam? Interested to see how your appearance changes over time on a daily basis? Then visit http://www.dailymugshot.com, create an account and start shooting. You can create a daily email reminder to prompt you to visit Mugshot each morning to take a photo, or download a very small reminder application which will pop up and remind you to take your daily photo. After taking a series of photos, you can create a Mugshow to share with friends and family, or maybe just use it to remind yourself to get a haircut… Enjoy!

Tip for Feb. 6, 2009: SimplifyMedia!

Today’s tip comes to you via special request. Are you drowning in a sea of MP3s? Do you have audio files scattered between computers, not knowing which has your stash of KC & The Sunshine Band and Donna Summer tracks? Would you like to listen to your tunes on multiple computers without adding your music collection to each one? Then you need to simplify! Here are the requirements:

• Choose one computer to store all of your tracks and install iTunes

• Import all of your music into the iTunes library. It might help to organize your music within iTunes using playlists. You could start by creating “Secret 70s Disco” and add “That’s The Way (I Like It)” as the first track uh-huh, uh-huh!

Ok, we’ll now assume that your iTunes library is setup and organized the way you want it. You now need to visit http://www.simplifymedia.com and download the client. The SimplifyMedia client is free and supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and the iPhone/iPod Touch platforms. While installing the application you’ll be prompted to either sign-in to your account or create a new one. If this is your first time, create an account with a username and password you’ll remember. After installing, you’ll see the SimplifyMedia client running in your task tray. Don’t worry, it’s very lightweight and won’t slow your system down.

You are now ready to access your music on your other computers. You will need to have iTunes and the SimplifyMedia client installed on the other computers as well (but not your music, that’s the step we’re eliminating). Make sure you use the same SimplifyMedia account you created on the computer hosting your music. When you launch iTunes on the remote computer, you should see your SimplifyMedia user name and host computer’s name under the “Shared” heading in the left column in iTunes. If you don’t it could be that the host computer isn’t on, asleep, or not online.

Now, assuming everything is online and you see your host computer in the left column, click your shared computer’s entry. This will connect you to your host computer’s iTunes library. After connecting you can expand the entry and see all of your tracks and playlists, including “Secret 70s Disco.” Can you dig it?!?!

More hands-on? Watch my demo video:

BONUS TIP: – Cameroid!

Are you a Windows user and jealous of the Mac’s Photo Booth application which morphs your face into all kinds of craziness? You too can now join the party at http://cameroid.com. Cameroid is a flash-based application built directly into their site. Simply connect your webcam and start shooting. You can frame your face, become the Roaming Gnome’s cousin (my personal favorite), or completely distort yourself beyond all recognition. Now if only the UR One Card office would use this…

Enjoy your weekend!