Life & Tech

Instead of viewing the PDF files on your PC or Mac using Adobe Acrobat (which can be very slow), view it online using PdfMeNot. It even allows you to embed a pdf page on your website.

If you are a regular Gmail users (on Firefox), then Remember The Milk + Gmail Firefox Extension (task management) is really slick. It integrates task/to do seamlessly with Gmail. Read the blog for more detail.

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 has been expanding it’s functionality with integration to other online services (via Jott’s Links). Three outstanding must have services:
1. Google Calendar: Call Jott and it will place your appointment into your Google Calendar
2. Xpenser.com tracks your expenses, again call Jott and it will add your expense to Xpenser
3. Jott to Twitter/Jaiku (and other blogging platforms: Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, TypePad)

reQall helps you remember stuff (to do, tasks). For example, when you are driving and need to jot down a note or task, use reQall to help taking down the note. All you have to do is call: 1-888-973-7255 and dictate your text (you have up to 60 seconds).
It uses transcription services to convert voice to text (similar to Jott.com), however, reQall and iPhone UI work together really well. (http://www.reqall.com/web/). Jott can do more in term of converting your voice into emails that can be sent to other, but I found that reQall.com on iPhone is a killer app for me. It’s a free service.

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)

Here’s a “fun” applications using mobile phone SMS. Using your cell phone, take a photo (if it has a camera), then ‘flag’ the location address and note (e.g. cool sushi restaurant) on a map and share that location with others.
Read more

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.

Several good web sites were the product of the mass.

del.icio.us - social bookmarking - keep your bookmarks on-line (using tags) and share with others

www.digg.com - ‘people’ chooses cool articles to read and ‘digg’ it (the higher the diggs, the more readers)

www.stumbleupon.com - cool web pages submitted and voted on by members

Even if you’re not sure what a “Wiki” is, give www.pbwiki.com a try. It’s a great way to collaborate on document (e.g. writing a book). The neat thing is that it’s very easy to set up and use, no technical skills required. It’s also free. Don’t be intimidate by the Wiki terminology.

How about creating your own recipe books, places you have been, etc. ect.?

Some key fundamentals that is driving toward disruptive changes in technology:

1. Storage - The price is dropping and the size is increasing. Another trend is free on-line large storage (Google claims to give you ‘infinite’, its Gmail started out at 2GB and now it’s up to 2.7GB). Google is also planning on offering infinite drive once the bandwidth support it. Keep all your data on-line with Google.

2. Bandwidth - Again, the rate is going up and price is going down. For the first time DSL growth exceed Cable Broadband. The more broadband, the more connected we are.

3. Wireless - From EV-DO, EDGE, HSPDA, WiMax - not only ubiquitous access, but also very high speed. The price will be coming down in a few years.

Read more

1. QoS, QoS, QoS

2. Use a separate network if possible, but many not be practical, at the minimum use VLAN, this will help also with security

3. Do Network Assessment periodically - more than once

4. Set correct expectations with users, yes there’s saving, but there’s other inherent issues such as voice quality, etc.

5. Your data network weakness can also become VoIP system weakness (e.g. if your DNS server is down, or router down, etc.)

1. Change login admin/password

2. Change SSID (no “linksys”) - use something else (e.g. cartoon’s character name.)

3. “Hide” SSID (do not broadcast)

Read more

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).

Read more

These web sites offer interesting services, not for everyone but very cool:

www.lulu.com - Self Publishing — just upload your file, people can order on-line and it will print, bound, and ship to them.

www.squidoo.com - Expert advices on things

www.odeo.com - Want to start a Podcast, this is a great site to get you going (free)

www.blogger.com - Want to create your own blog (free)