GooSync is the 3rd party software I have been waiting for. Ever since I got my Treo and started using Google Calendar, I longed for something that could sync both of them. GooSync provides me with just that. Supporting a multitude of devices, GooSync seamlessly syncs Google Calendar over the air with your phone.
With the Treo (or any Palm/Windows Mobile device), I needed an app to do it, which I am OK with. Once I put my log in info in the app, it quickly synced everything. And just what I hoped for too- Device to GCal, but not GCal to device. I have my class schedule on GCal, but not my Treo to avoid clutter. Now, all of my appointments are on GCal with the push of a button- I couldn’t be happier! Later.
For a long time now I have carried an “Ideas” Notebook around with me to jot down ideas and plans for websites, logos, clients, and anything that popped in my head really. Recently (maybe due to my Treo?), I have been carrying an Ideas Notebook around less and less. However, this leads to writing out ideas on scrap paper, in the back of class notebooks, napkins, etc. This also means that there is not one solitary place I can go to view all of my ideas. This is where Google Notebook comes in.
As usual, Google has made an awesome application, accessible anywhere, and easy to use with great power. While still in the “Labs” part of Google, Notebook has some great features that instantly made it a keeper for me. You don’t just create notes- you create notebooks. And within those notebooks, you can set up as many headings as you want, with as many notes as you want under them. That means I can contain all of my ideas to an ideas notebook, and all my current site to do lists to an entirely different notebook. You can also share your notebooks with other Google Users. This is great for collaboration. And of course, you can do what Google does best- search. But not just through your notebooks. Through all public notebooks. There is also a really neat drag and drop feature to easily move notes and sections to other notebooks.
Along with Google Notebook is the Notebook Firefox Extension. This allows your to add notes right from Firefox, with the ability to add a link to the current page you are on, or even content from that page.
One thing I would like to see before Notebook leaves the labs is the ability to email yourself notes, much like you can with Google Docs. Still, this is a great and easy to use app that I highly recommend. Later!
Recently I downloaded Firefox 2 RC2. While I have not examined it too closely, there are two very cool features that make it worth downloading. The first one is simply Google Suggest built right into the search. It’s a pretty neat feature, especially because before getting Firefox, Google Suggest was my search of choice. Since getting Firefox, I have used the easy to access search bar that is top right. The next feature, however, makes RC2 worthwhile.
In this latest build of Firefox, an auto spell check for text boxes has been added. That means any text box you type into is automatically spell checked by Firefox. Before this, I have had to copy and paste anything into a website I used called SpellCheck.net. It is not a pretty site, but it gets the job done. Now, however, I have one less step I need to complete. AND just like in Word, you can Add to Dictionary. Later!
After reading about Gradefix over at College V2, I started thinking about the best way for me to keep track of my assignments. I know a month into the semester, I probably should have thought about it already, but the app I was using for my Treo wasn’t working out. I figure that the best way to keep track of my assignments is to keep them with my tasks at Remember the Milk.
I found out about Remember the Milk via this post on LifeHacker, and have been using it ever since. The application itself is great, having a number of features that I wanted to incorporate into a Tasks App I was developing. There is TXT MSG reminders, the ability to email yourself tasks, notes, tags and even a mobile site, which is great because I can access it with ease on my Treo.
One featured I haven’t really utilized until now is the ability to add lists. So to keep track of my assignments, I added a list for each class, as well as a general school list (which was actually already there). I also tag each assignment with school, and whatever type of assignment it is (IE- test, report, etc.). What I am left with is this:
I have also set up Remember the Milk to email and IM me reminders 1 day before the tasks is due, and you can easily make it Nag You. One feature I would like to see added is a calendar view of your tasks/assignments. I would also like to have a comprehensive review of Remember the Milk, which I will probably make into a mini series. Later!
PS- Since I haven’t found a way to view all of your tasks at once, I came up with a nice ‘hack’ to do so- I simply add the tag ‘all’ to all of my tasks.
Over at College V2, Sean has an ongoing series called What’s Your System, where various people talk about how they stay organized. I have already posted some things on Productivity, but I figure I can talk about what I do.
I rely heavily on my Treo 650 Smartphone. It is a Palm based phone that comes with all the standard Palm software: Calendar, Tasks, Memo Pad and Contacts. The calendar is the most important of the 4. All of my appointments and major assignments are in it. Everything is color coordinated and has a reminder for it. I can’t say how many times the alarm on my Treo has saved me. The tasks are also a nice feature for really important stuff because on their due date they show up on my calendar page. The memos and contacts are kind of self explanatory. Everything also syncs with Outlook, which I use when I am on my computer. The Treo also interfaces with a web-calendar made by Verizon that I can use if I need to. I have also downloaded a nice, free application for my Treo (or any palm based device) called School Work. It’s a cool assignment pad that you can take down your assignments with- it organizes them by day, week and month.
Though I did mention Tasks for Palm above, what I rely on for all my tasks (not just the real important ones), is Remember the Milk. It is a free web based tasks application that allows you to post tasks with notes, due dates, websites, time allocation, etc., as well as the ability to E-Mail yourself tasks. There is also a mobile version of the site that I access via my Treo. It really is a great site that I highly recommend. (hmmm maybe a full write up soon?)
Finally, I always carry a small legal pad with me incase I have to jot a lot of things down. I usually end up transferring those things to my Treo, but the legal pad is good for meeting notes, etc. O yeah- GMail is piviotal in my life as well. I use it for email reminders, as a file server, and a conduit for all of my other email (school, business, personal, professional).
Leave some tips or tricks in the comments if you’d like. Later!
Update: This post is featured on College V2! Thanks Sean!
Since being back on campus, I have been doing a lot of my work on the school’s LAN and WiFi networks, as well as their computers. While usually I can get my work done without problems, sometimes I run into blocked ports or computers I cannot download. To fix the problem, I have been doing things like FTPing and IMing via the broswer, on some very powerful web apps. Here are a couple of resources I have been using.
Meebo is a great web app that allows for IMing on a number of different clients including AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and MSN. Once logged in you have your buddy list and moveable IM windows, as if you were working on the desktop within your browser. You can view profiles, set away messages, etc. MUCH better than AIM express.
The second website I have been using while on campus is an FTP Client called FTP Live. It’s a little slow and as far as I know you can’t upload multiple files. But when you need something in the clinch, It’s a good site to use.
I have not found an SSH/Telnet program within browser yet, so if you know of one, let me know in the comments! Later!
Stu.dicio.us is a social note-taking website that looks really nice and handy. It has your schedule, todo list for each class and notes, which anyone using the site can search. This is great for sharing notes with classmates or getting notes if you were skipp….Umm, out sick. Plus, on September 1st, they are integrating Wikipedia, grade tracker and file manager.
Lifehacker has a great write-up/discussion here. I will definitely be giving this a try, and I encourage everyone (especially those who I share classes with) to try it too! Later!
With just a few weeks until school started (me going into my senior year I am both excited and apprehensive), I am started now to try and get organized. With the number of credits I am taking as well as my level of involvement, I can’t help but think my senior year is going to be a busy one. Pretty much since high school I have been trying to find the perfect way to get and stay organized, and well, I am not very good at it. But I have tried my hand at ALOT of things, and I will tell you what has worked better, and what I am going with now.
Paper Organizer:
Honestly, in this world of tech and cheap PDAs I feel a paper organizer is still great to go with. Really good for use at meetings where you might be taking notes, a nice layout of your week and month, and plenty of room for notes in those places too. Not to mention many come with folders you can put important documents into. This is one method I am going to use this year, as I did last year.
PDA/Smart Phone:
I love them. But I find I never used JUST a PDA. As a techie, of course, I would want more features; not just a calendar, address book, todo list. They are small and compact, most are easy to use. I would just need a little more incentive to carry one around- Such as my HP iPAQ with WiFi, or what I currently have, my Treo 650. This is my phone as well as an organizer, etc. So I carry it around everywhere I go, and as a result, I use it for everything. I also use Outlook, which the Treo syncs with
Computer Organizers:
I find that while something like Outlook is nice, it’s only really useful if you have something else with it. Unless you plan on having your computer with you, on all the time ready to type in appointments, Outlook or the like isn’t your best bet.
Online Organizers:
In the world of Web 2.0, there are an infinite amount of resources for someone to get organized online. However, it poses the same problem as a Computer Organizer- unless you are around a computer all the time with Internet access, you will need something else. Some of you best bets, however, include Google Calendar or HipCal.
I will be going with a paper organizer, as well as my treo. I could rely solely on the treo, but I suppose I am kind of old fashioned for a techie. I just like the feel of the paper organizer and find it a little easier to use at times. Well, I wasn’t really planning on making this a series, but this post was getting long, so Next time I will talk about tasks/todo lists. Later!
I read over at LifeHacker about the new Beta release of WMP 11. As an avid fan of the program, I decided to give it a shot. WMP 10 was nice, but it was kind of getting old, and the screen shot on LifeHacker looked so sexy! So I downloaded and played around. It has its ups and downs, but over all, I like it a lot.
Its slick new interface is really really nice. It just looks more modern. A more “Today’s PC” kind of feel. It compliments XP’s Royale Theme very nicely. The top options work right into the skin, but you can opt for the ‘normal’ view. The icons are also a lot nicer- with those and a few more subtleties, the who things looks a lot cool and aesthetically pleasing. It also had strong functionality and music management. New to this version, the album cover is shown next to all the music (see above). It makes the music a lot more readable and much more organized. The search function is also nicer. My favorite part is the “Update Album Info” button. Previous to this version, all of my Blink 182 songs were on the album Blink 182, and there was no easy way to change that. However, with WMP 11, The simple click of a button fixed all of that for me. PS- it also comes with URGE, Mtv and Microsoft’s “iTunes Killer”
But no program (especially a Microsoft BETA program) comes without its cons. Really, I only have 2 3 complaints. The install took WAY too long. I mean almost an hour by the time I restarted and reorganized. It is also a memory hog. I will attribute that to the fact that it is a BETA though. But still, at times, it’s pretty slow and it has crash on me once in the 2 days I have had it. The last thing is that it deleted all of my licenses. Before I realized you could rip CDs to license free .mp3s, I ripped all my music to .wmas with licence info. So some of the music I have owned pre may 2003 needs a license for the PC I want to listen to it on. All of that was already on WMP 10, but must have gotta ousted with the new BETA.
All in all it’s a pretty fantastic program that I would recommend to those who love WMP, Betas or both, or to those who might be in the market for a new media player/music store. You can get it here. You can also read LifeHacker’s post, with most screen shots, here. Later!
Let me start by saying I suck for not bring my PC charger home over break. No worries though, I have a back up PC with none of my files and stuff on it. But it is enough to get by. Unfortunately, this is a bare bones PC with none of my regular software on it. I have to rely on freeware, both new and old. So, here is a list of the software I am using to get by. Eventually I want to make all the installs part of a .bat file so I can run that one script and everything I need will be installed!
I know Adobe Reader is free too, but Fox It reader is 100x better.
And there you have it. My quick and dirty list of stuff I constantly use, no matter what PC I am on. You can find a huge list of freeware here too. Later!
