Archive for the 'Web Service' Category

Friday TechTip for July 18: Multi-IM Clients and Services

Published on July 18, 2008 in Local Client, Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Hi all, happy Friday and 5 weeks before the start of the fall semester! Today’s tip is inspired by a question from by one of our colleagues. He was curious about which multi-service instant messaging clients are considered to be the best. It’s very common for people nowadays to have IM accounts with AOL (AIM), Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, Google Talk, etc. and also have friends that only use one service exclusively. This creates the need to have multiple pieces of software open in order to keep up with all of your friends and co-workers. Below are my recommendations to get around this problem and keep up with everyone you IM with in one place. Please note that you’ll have to have pre-existing accounts with each service you want to use before trying the applications below.

Meebo – (all operating systems, all browsers) Many of us in the library use Meebo on a daily basis for our Reference IM service (add BoatwrightInfo to your buddy list). Meebo is “portable” in that it’s a browser-based application. To access your IM accounts, just got to http://meebo.com. From there you can login to one of your existing services, OR if you want to have all of them available to you in one browser window you need to create a Meebo account and add all of your services. Once finished you’ll have access to all of your buddy lists in one place and can talk with your all of friends regardless of the service they’re using. Note that in order to provide free service, Meebo includes minimal advertising in the browser page which can easily be hidden.

Pidgin – Pidgin is an open source Windows application that you can download from http://pidgin.im. While installing, it will prompt you to add your accounts, and once completed you’ll be able to see all of your “buddies” and can simultaneously send messages to multiple services, just like Meebo.

Adium – Adium (http://adiumx.com) is Pidgin’s equivalent for the Macintosh and really quacks. ;-)

Hope this helps to simplify your computing experience a little, have a good weekend!

Friday TechTip for July 11, 2008: PocketMod

Published on July 11, 2008 in Organization, Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Happy Friday (and iPhone Day) everyone! Today’s tip is a digital/analog hybrid. Do you find yourself caught in the grey area of managing your calendar in Outlook, but prefer pen and paper for your to-do lists and notes? Do you find interacting with a digital device cumbersome and annoying? Then PocketMod is the tool for you!

PocketMod lets you build a booklet and load it with various tools like daily/weekly/monthly calendars, multiple to-do lists, reference charts, emergency contact information, shopping lists, and so on. The customization options seem limitless! Here are the steps to create your own PocketMod:

Go to http://www.pocketmod.com
Click “Create a PocketMod” on the right side of the screen
Choose all of the options and where you want them to appear (hint: click the item first, it will then appear and you can drag it onto the page where you want it to appear)
Finally, print your PocketMod and fold it according to the instructions. There’s also an instruction video on the home page.

What you’ve just created is small and compact, easily fits in your pocket, wallet, or organizer and can be filed away later so you can have a record of your activities and completed objectives. Good luck and make sure you fold along straight lines!

Friday TechTip for June 27, 2008: Skype!

Published on June 27, 2008 in Local Client, Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Today I want to pass along an important upgrade to an oldie but a goodie: Skype. A few years ago Skype was on the cutting edge computer-to-computer voice and video chat. What really set them apart was the ability to purchase credits and use Skype as a voip service allowing you to make calls from your computer to land line telephones, and vice versa. Since then the field has become crowded as both Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) now offer the same services. However my personal opinion is that Skype is still best in class when it comes to video and voice quality in a computer-to-computer “call.” We recently used it in a library presentation to video conference with another librarian who lives in Missouri. I simply pre-arranged the chat, initiated the call during the presentation, turned on my laptop’s webcam and voila, free video conferencing!

The reason I’m mentioning Skype this week is that they’re preparing to release version 4 which will offer an updated user interface and other enhanced features. You can download the Windows version here:

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/beta/

A few possible uses include videoconferencing with remote colleagues or calling in to family and friends while away on business. The main requirement is that each user have a webcam as well as built-in microphone or headset w/microphone. Download it and give it a try! If you’d like to test it out, let me know. My screen name is andy_morton.

Friday TechTip for June 20, 2008: Animoto!

Published on June 20, 2008 in Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Today’s tip is a little late as I had to get access to some photos of my kids in order to demonstrate today’s site: Animoto. Animoto is a new service that lets you upload photos, pick a soundtrack (or upload your own), and Animoto will automatically build a slide show for you. There are A LOT of sites and local software that will do this for you. What makes Animoto unique is that it uses web mojo to “analyze” your photos and music to create a unique (and flashy) slide show. You’ll also have two options of slide shows, free ones up to 30 seconds in length, or longer ones that involve a small fee.Here’s the breakdown:

  • Create an account
  • Decide what kind of slide show to create (free or fee)
  • Upload your photos OR it can automatically pull them from Flicker and other photo hosting sites where you have accounts
  • Choose one of their songs or upload your own
  • Hit Submit

It’s that easy and gives you something to do with the photos you take this summer! Here’s the example video I’ve created:

http://animoto.com/play/S3KrCc5HGeq1gQ0Est9rnw

Have a great weekend!

Friday TechTip for June 6, 2008: Web 2.0

Published on June 6, 2008 in Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Good Friday afternoon everyone! After a short tech-tip hiatus due to vacation, I’m back and ready to continue our ongoing discussion.

After reviewing the feedback I received both from the survey I distributed and personal comments, it appears there is a need to delve a little deeper in the meaning of Web 2.0. It’s certainly thrown around very casually, but what does it actually mean?

Here’s what Wikipedia, a quintessential Web 2.0 tool, has to say about the topic:

"Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users."

This is a rather nebulous statement and can be applied in a vast assortment of scenarios. Here are a few examples: sharing knowledge by updating Wikipedia articles, providing feedback about a product on Amazon, sharing party pictures on Flickr (and commenting on them), pushing out updates on Twitter during campus lockdowns, etc. The list is endless!

Web 1.0 consisted of static pages, sometimes hard to update, that contained information that easily and often became outdated. Web 2.0 instead uses tools and services which makes it much easier to distribute your content as well as keep it up to date. In my opinion, what it really boils down to is that we’re using the web to better understand ourselves and those around us.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the sites and services with you that are considered to be "best of breed" in the Web 2.0 arena.

I hope this brief explanation has been helpful. This could easily be a VERY lengthy message, so instead, check out the Wikipedia entry! You might find yourself so intrigued that you’ll leave a comment, just look for the "discussion" tab at the very top of the page. :-)

Friday TechTip for May 16, 2008: Digital Photo Rodeo, Pt. 3 and Survey

Published on May 16, 2008 in Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

Good Friday afternoon!

Today is the last part of the digital photo rodeo. Apparently you can’t beat a dead horse too much. ;) Over the past couple of Fridays we’ve covered various tools to organize your photos on your computer as well as hosting options to share your pictures with family and friends. In today’s tip I want to tell you about two online tools for editing your photos. The great thing about each is that they fully integrate with both Flickr, Facebook and other services, so you if want to edit photos you’ve already uploaded elsewhere, you’re in luck!

Picnik – http://picnik.com – Picnik has a very colorful, Web 2.0 look about it. You can even use it without creating an account, however you’ll need to establish one if you want to access the photos you’ve already uploaded to other services. In addition to Flickr and Facebook it also interfaces with Picasa Web Albums, MySpace and other services. Picnik offers a full slate of editing and photo correction features for free. They also offer more tools for Pro accounts which cost $24.95 per year. When I’ve used it I’ve found that the free version has met all of my needs. Picnik is also a great tool to use to edit a photo you have stored on your computer. Simply select your computer as the source, upload the file, make changes, and then Picnik will save the file back to your computer.

Photoshop Express - https://photoshop.com/express – Adobe has decided to join this space as well and now offers Photoshop Express. Currently it is an entirely free service and also offers 2GB of online storage allowing you have yet another place to share photos with others. It also interfaces with Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa Web Albums (sounds familiar doesn’t it). They offer a series of short instruction videos under the help section to help you get started on the path of photo editing excellence!

Personally I really like both services for different reasons and think there’s room for each. As with the services mentioned over the past two weeks, it really comes down to what your needs are when deciding which one is best for you. Next week we’ll be moving on to another topic, in the mean time please take 60 seconds to answer 3 questions to help me better gauge your needs and interests:

Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KiwaGqSvfQdi22AGqI5orA_3d_3d

Friday TechTip for May 9, 2008: Digital Photo Rodeo, Pt. 2

Published on May 9, 2008 in Web Service and TechTips. 3 Comments

In last week’s techtip I recommended a few different digital photo management tools, including Picasa from Google and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Both tools are free and give you multiple options for searching your computer for photos, organizing, and minor editing. Once you’ve gone through this process, you’re ready to share your photos with family and friends, and the world if you choose!

A few sites (and there are many) I’d like to recommend for sharing your photos are:

Flickr – http://flickr.com – This is considered to be THE web 2.0 photo sharing site. There’s a downloadable application that makes it very easy to choose the photos you want to upload. Once uploaded, photos can be organized into collections and sets, tagged for easy searching, etc. Flickr also allows you to join groups and share your photos with other members (see Boatwright Kids for an example of a test group a few of us are experimenting with: http://www.flickr.com/groups/boatwrightkids/). There’s no limit on storage, however if you’re a free member you’re only able to upload 100mb per month, pro members ($24.95 per year) are allowed to gorge themselves on unlimited uploading. ;) As far as privacy, you can keep your photos completely private and for-your-eyes only, visible only to family and friends, or wide open for everyone. Requirement: Yahoo! Login.

Picasa Web Albums: http://picasaweb.google.com – This is the companion web tool for Picasa. It offers many of the same features as Flickr, but doesn’t have the same community feel in my personal opinion. Uploading from Picasa on your computer is very simple as it’s part of the local application. Storage is a little trickier for Picasa Web Albums; you’re given 1024mb of storage and can purchase more, which is applied to ALL of your Google accounts (Gmail, etc.). My personal feeling is that if you only interested in having a place to direct family and friends to your photos, Picasa is the tool for you! Requirement: Google Account.

In addition to Flickr and Picasa Web Albums take a look at the following:

Photobucket - http://photobucket.com
Kodak Gallery - http://www.kodakgallery.com
Webshots - http://www.webshots.com

There’s really no “must use” tool listed here, just take a look at each and see which one best meets your needs

TechTip for April 25, 2008: FreeCycle!

Published on April 24, 2008 in Web Service. 0 Comments

Good Friday afternoon everyone! This week’s tip isn’t so much about the technology associated with the service as it is the good it potentially offers! In honor of Earth Day this past week I’d like to tell you about FreeCycle, which I know some of you are already familiar with. FreeCycle allows you to post items to give away that you would have otherwise taken to Goodwill or thrown away, thus taking up landfill space.

FreeCycle’s organizational website is located at http://freecycle.org, but they utilize Yahoo! Groups to run each community’s site.  You can browse all the groups, or go directly to the Richmond group here. The only requirement for use is a Yahoo! login.  Registration is free and is done in a few seconds. To list an item, simply create a new post with the term "offer." For example:

Offer: Lightly Used iPhone ;)

You should also provide a brief description of the item.  You can either rely on responses via email to your Yahoo! email address or provide a phone number (I recommend cell) for them to call.  Once someone has arranged to take the item, you can either provide directions for them to pickup or select a location to drop off the item.

You should post another message to the group after the item has been taken to alert others that the item has been claimed.

Taken: Lightly Used iPhone

Personally, we’ve been able to get rid of several things via FreeCycle and have gotten some great freebie kid toys and even a Weber charcoal grill that was in near new condition (retails for $149.00)!  I encourage you to give it a try as your junk is probably someone else’s treasure!

Enjoy your weekend!

TechTip for April 18, 2008 - LogMeIn!

Published on April 18, 2008 in Local Client and Web Service. 0 Comments

Good Friday afternoon library staff! Today’s Friday afternoon tech-tip is a service that is near and dear to my heart as I’ve been a long time user. It also came in very handy last night as my parents now have DSL service and I fully expect to be their tech support person. Fortunately, I installed the software I’m telling you about several months ago while they were using a standard dial-up connection.

LogMeIn - http://logmein.com

LogMeIn offers several tiers of service, but I find the free version meets ALL of my needs (look for LogMeIn Free in the “Products” section at the top of the page). LogMeIn allows you to remotely connect to any PC that you own from anywhere you have web access and have full desktop control. To get started, do the following:

Visit http://logmein.com and create an account. You will then need to “Add a Computer.” to your authorized list. Be sure to be using the computer you wish to access in the future, as a small client will be installed. In Windows, you will see it in the task tray. It’s very light weight and won’t bog your system down. You will also have to give the computer a name, so choose something that you will remember in the future (if you’re going to add multiple computers).

In the future, when you need to access the computer, go to the LogMeIn website, login to your account, and you will then see your “stable” of machines. Assuming the computer is on and connected to the internet, you will be able to login and have full remote control access.

I’ve used LogMeIn to email myself a document that I left on my home computer, upload files to Flickr, and yes, provide technical assistance. Let me know if you have questions or would like further details!

Enjoy your weekend!

TechTip for April 11, 2008 - Jott!

Published on April 11, 2008 in Web Service and TechTips. 0 Comments

It’s April 11, and time again for another Friday Afternoon TechTip! Today’s featured service is Jott, from http://jott.com. It’s a very easy way to put your mobile phone to work, helping you to remember things and stay more organized. Everyone on staff (even Tom!) probably has a cell phone. After creating an account, you can then dial in from your phone to leave yourself reminders, to-do items, and even email others. Jott will take your voice message and transcribe it to text and then send it back to you as an email message. It can also store the audio of your message allowing you to play it back later.

Here’s a quick list of all the things you can do with Jott and simple instructions:

http://jott.com/jott/how-to-jott.html

I’ve used Jott to send email, leave myself a reminder, and yes, even post an update to Twitter. Jott integrates with several web services (http://jott.com/jott/how-to-jott.html) which allows you to create an appointment on your Google Calendar, post a blog entry to Blogger, or even get a list of items you’re interested in purchasing from Amazon.

It’s free, so give it a test this weekend!