Life & Tech

Have been trying out different online storage services - my favorite by far is Sugarsync. The desktop software is very intuitive. If you have more than one PC/laptop, you will appreciate the ability to sync multiple computers as well as online off-site storage. It’s not free but well worth it. Highly recommended.

The new Google iPhone optimized page — three particularly great services: Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Reader. Of course now that Gmail supports IMAP, it’s a very sweet set up on iPhone.

Jott will transcribe your voice message into email. Set up an account with Jott, add your contact’s email address. Dial Jott (toll free), say your contact’s name, leave a message up to 30 seconds. Jott will transcribe your voicemail into text and emailed it to your contact. The service is currently free and under beta.

A good and free web statistic counter site (to see how many people visited your site) is www.statcounter.com. You can create ‘invisible’ (or visible) counter code that embedded into your html. Get start by going to the site and sign in for a free account. Then create a project and follow the instruction to create the html codes. (Pretty much select all of the default values but pick the look-and-feel of the counter you want.)
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Very good twelve principles from Professor Solomon book and web site:

1. Don’t Look for It - until you have some ideas where to look
2. It’s Not Lost—You Are - there are no missing objects — only unsystematic searchers.
3. Remember the Three C’s - Comfort, Calmness, and Confidence
4. It’s Where It’s Supposed to Be
5. Domestic Drift - where did you last have it?
6. You’re Looking Right at It - look again - calmly
7. The Camouflage Effect - under, hidden, behind, covered
8. Think Back
9. Look Once, Look Well - search thoroughly so you won’t have to keep coming back
10. The Eureka Zone - Immediate vicinity/Eigtheen inches zone
11. Tail Thyself
12. It Wasn’t You - someone else took it

The Final Words from the Professor: Remember, lost objects can be found. They want to be found. And they will be found—by SYSTEMATIC SEARCHERS.

If you use del.icio.us, you should tag religiously. What is ‘tag’? It’s a way to categorize your information so that you can easily look for it later. It is similar to categorizing but easier. For example, a Pad Thai recipe, you might tag it with tags like: recipe, thai, spicy, food. Later on you can search by any of the tag.
Some suggestions for good tagging:

1. Be consistent (meaning trying to use the same tag for similar items)
2. Use plenty of tags - tag extensively, general and specific
3. Use Plural or DON’T - be consistent
4. For documents, use unique and distinctive term
5. For bookmarks, use both general tags (for grouping) and specific tags (for searching)

Tips from pros and from Nikon School of Photography (worth the investment, it’s about $90 or so.)
1. Hold the camera still — use view-finder instead of LCD screen if possible (to minimize arms movement). Locked your elbows. Brace yourself against the wall (or tree).
2. Focus carefully - treat “auto focus” as more of an “instant focus”, make sure your subject is clearly in focus.
3. Three Golden rules: 1) Get up close –eliminate clutter by going as close to the subject as possible, 2) Use the sidelight and not flash; 3) Take lots of pictures.

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Here are some ideas on what to do with those cell phone cameera besides taking snapshot of people:
1. Take pictures of a business card (so you can enter the address later)
2. Take a picture of where you park your car (e.g. at airport, amusement park) - be sure to include lot name/number so you can find the car
3. Take a picture of the label of the wine you like
4. Take a picture price list or product specs for later comparison
5. Take a picture of how much you pay for gas
6. Take a picture of directions

There are many on-line photo sharing sites — some set up mainly for printing your photos, but some are designed specifically to host photos for sharing (either publicly or privately), some will even allow you to sell your photo.

www.flickr.com - allow public or private sharing, pro account has unlimited storage

www.bubbleshare.com - quick and easy to create album/sharing (public)

www.smugmug.com

www.shuttlefly.com - print photo

www.dotphoto.com - print photo

Bonus tip: If you see something neat on the web, take a screen-capture and then posted it to you on-line site for reference or archive.

These are the tips from expert presenters, especially the first one:

1. B - Blank/Unblank the screen with black screen (from time-to-time, you may want to do this while answering questions from the audiences)

2. W - Turn screen white/back to presentation

3. Pre-print 6 slides/page cheat sheet for yourself, then when you need to go to a specific slide, key in the slide number + <Enter> - (e.g. 12<Enter> will go to slide 12)

4. <SpaceBar> - Next Slide & Arrows - allow you to forward and backward

5. Do not look at the slide while speaking, look at the audiences.

1. Don’t just delete the photo files, use reformat function on your camera (since there are some hidden left-over files if you just delete). Also check the uploaded photos before deleting the memory card. Make two back-up copies on DVD/CDs.

2. Never edit a JPEG file and re-saved, the image will deterioriate more. Save as tiff if you plan to edit later.

3. One of the best photo management software is free: picasa from Google (only for PC).

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This is a must-do if you have PC. There are hundreds of thousands of virus, worm, spyware out there. You will come across these “mal-ware” even if you are connected to the internet, So instead of getting infected, make sure you have these in place to help prevent the inevitable:

1. Viruses — there are commercial (Norton, McAfee). Bonuses: if you have AOL, it includes for free McAfee Antivirus. Just make sure it’s loaded on your system. (On AOL, go to keyword: “Antivirus” and follow the instructions — note that you must have an AOL software and account).

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trashmail.net - creating temporary address that will forward email to your real email

www.yousendit.com - if you need to email a large file to someone (up to 10 GB)

www.backpackit.com - creating on-line notes (great for trip planning, etc.)

www.tadalist.com - creating quick lists (ajax application)

www.whiteboard.com - document collaboration

www.jotlive.com - another document collaboration

www.rememberthemilk.com - creating “to-do/task” list

www.30boxes.com - simple on-line calendar

maps.google.com - see satellite view

This is one of the top 10 essential programs for PC. GDS allows you to quickly find that missing files, or looking up your Outlook (as well as Google Gmail) almost instantly. The program is free. Use it with Gmail and Remote search extension, you basically made your information googlable to yourself.

Store them on http://del.icio.us. You must first get a free account. With a button you can put on your Internet Explorer, you are one-button away from saving your bookmarks on-line. Take a minute to ‘tag’ your bookmark so that you can search them again. Benefits:
1. Your bookmarks will always be available on-line
2. With tagging (e.g. jokes, recipe, howto, travel), you can search your bookmark easily
3. You can download the bookmark onto your local IE
4. You can use del.icio.us with Google Sidebar
5. Del.icio.us is also available as RSS
6. It’s a social bookmarking, you can share yours with friends or see other interesting bookmarks