Google Reader Backlash

I'm feeling upset about Google Reader lately. For those of you who don't know, Google Reader is an RSS reader that acts like an email inbox for the various things you read across the internet. You tell Google Reader "I'd like to be sent copies of everything so-and-so website publishes." Google Reader then keeps an eye on the so-and-so website, grabbing a copy of every new article. When I decide to sit down and read Google Reader, I've got a copy of all the new articles around the internet.

The problem with Google Reader is that it send you everything. You get every single article published on a particular website. This can result in about 20 to 30 a day, depending on the source. That's overwhelming. And even worse, I don't typically want to read 20 or 30 articles from the same source. I've really started to burn out reading a few of my favorite websites.

Much worse, a lot of the bigger internet blogs have engineered their feeds to make it difficult to read. Nowadays, they always include ads. Much worse, occasional websites won't let Google Reader copy the whole article.  As a result, I've got to actually visit the website to read the article.

So, every day, I've got 100 things waiting for me to read in Google Reader.  I've got to manually click through each one. Even if it's just a simple click to indicate that I don't want to read the article, it's still more work than I've been willing to do.

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm done with Google Reader. I think I'm going back to manually surfing websites I'd like to read.

Some useful websites for you to surf...

I think I'd consider myself a pretty seasoned internet user. As such, I'd like to share. Here are some really useful websites to enjoy:

Pixlr Online Photo Editor

It's like your favorite photo editing software, online (cough photoshop cough). It's amazing what can be fit onto a browser now-a-days.

Sumo Paint

Another online paint program. This one is more geared towards art and painting, the other is more geared towards photo editing. 

50 Air Traffic Control Audio Streams

Bored? Want something to listen to? Why not the Air Traffic control tower at your favorite airport? Why? Why not? Does this description only have questions? Yes?

The Sixty-One

Perhaps this is a better site for listening to music. I'm not in love with it, but it's a cool looking website. It'll pop you into music you've probably never heard of.

Simply Noise

Need some filler noise to make a distracting work environment quiet? Here ya go. I'm partial to the oscillating feature when the kids next door are throwing themselves against the wall. 

Rainy Mood

Alicia and I have fallen asleep to this storm more times than we care to admit. It's the most peaceful thing on the internet. 

Ninite Easy PC Setup

This is a great website for introducing you to popular software. If you're curious what kind of free anti-virus software is out there, this'll let you select what you'd like to try. Even better, you download it all at once. I'm using this every time I clean a computer.

List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This will take you a long time to read through. Save it for Friday night when you've got hours to kill.

TVTropes

So you spent Friday on Wikipedia, spend Saturday night on this website. You'll spend hours going link by link. 

MIT OpenCourseWare

Got even more time to blow? Why not follow along with a course at MIT? They don't offer everything, but more than enough to teach yourself some subject. Hey, why not try Calculus?

Kuku Klok

Need to wake up? This'll do the trick, provided you sleep near your computer.

Pipl

This is how I usually stalk someone. It's got a lot of links that try to trick you into paying for a premium person search, but it also scans a lot of the internet looking for someone's name, email, or internet nickname.

Retail Me Not

I check this website before buying something off the internet, no exceptions. Occasionally I'll even get free shipping.

Zombo.com

You can do anything here. Anything at all. The only limit is yourself.

Some good advice.

Came across a page on Reddit with a lot of "Pro Tips." Thought I'd pass along some of my favorites.

Technology Tips

F6 highlights your address bar.

Ctrl +Backspace deletes the entire word.

In Super Mario Brothers, the clouds and the bushes are the same:

If you must use PowerPoint, for god's sake, save as, or just rename, your presentation as a PPS file. Then you can open it straight into the player.

Have separate email account for registration on websites.
F2 renames files.

Life Advice

When you're giving a presentation, bring a bottle of water up to the podium. If you find yourself in a spot where you blank, taking a drink will allow you to gather your thoughts. Nobody will be the wiser.

Save 50 bucks from each pay check.

Your local library is probably the most valuable source of knowledge in existence. Visit your local library often.

If your about to puke in a toilet, flush as you feel it coming up. No puke water splashing back in your face. No puke smell. No puke to look at as you continue. Granted you have to be coherent to pull this off.

Keep two wallets: one to leave at home with the bulk of your bills and one to carry with you. Keep only a limited amount of money in your carry-wallet. This should reduce trips to ATMs and stop you from spending more than you normally would.

Salt your food to the point just before you can percieve saltiness.

Never drink or cook with the water from your water heater: water heaters don't get hot enough to sterilize the water. It's basically bacteria incubator and a great way to catch Legionnaire's Disease. Not to mention all the sediment build up at the bottom. Also, that wire mesh filter on your kitchen faucet? You're not cleaning it enough.

Drink a coffee right before taking a nap. The caffeine takes ~35 minutes or so to have an effect, which is as long as you should be napping for anyway. Waking up refreshed and with a caffeine boost is a great feeling.

If you leave it until the last minute, then it only takes a minute.

Bag of Crap

On Christmas Day at 1 am, Woot.com put up for sale a "Bag of Crap." They sell these about eight times a year, and they sell out almost instaniously. That's because they only cost $3 and can come with anything. There have been reports of flat screen TVs, appliances, etc. One guy got 2000 toy soldiers. The site warns you to expect nothing, especially because they call it crap. But Alicia and I were excited!

Flash forward three weeks later, and our bag of crap finally arrived in the mail.



Well, they were right. It is crap. Here's the nicest thing we got:



You can see the fact or crap daily calendar next to it. We haven't even opened it up yet, honestly. Spock is great, though.



We also got these "luxury" calculators. I bet they went all out on these.





Last but not least, we got some buckets. They had tags from a florist on the bottom. Huh.

Well, it was as advertised. Very fun, though. I'd do it again for $3!

Secret Santa

I've been using a community website called Reddit for some time now. Anyone can submit a link (funny pictures, news, How To Guides...) to the site and the users vote on the pages. There aren't any guidelines for voting, just whatever you feel like. The links with the highest votes make their way to the front page and become popular. It's a fun way to surf the web and it has developed into quite the community.

In November, someone decided to try running an internet Secret Santa program. All you had to do was provide your address and you'd be anonymously paired with someone else to shop for. $15 was the suggested dollar amount. I trusted the website pretty well and though it would be a lot of fun. I was right!I spent the first ten days of December trying to find the strangest collection of stuff for a guy living in Washington DC. Here's what I assembled for him:







The second picture was actually posted on the internet by the guy I was giving to. All told, he got:

• Bucky Balls
• A light for his toilet
• A light for his cell phone
• A USB fan

Here's what he wrote:

"All of these gifts are AWESOME! When the mailman pulled up, I was so damn excited I ran out the door to greet him in order to get my package seconds sooner. Thanks SS!"

He's living in Washington D.C. and still doesn't know who I am.

I sent that gift out December 10th. That same day, I received my Secret Santa gift. I can't tell you how excited Alicia and I were at this mystery box. It could have been practically anything. The excitement was too much to wait for Christmas and I opened it up that night. Here's what I got:







My Secret Santa clearly found out I was a mathematician. It's a Klein bottle, which is actually a one sided shape. I actually recognized the box before I opened it, since the same manufacturer made my Klein bottle from last year. Now I've got a set!It was an extremely awesome experience, one I'll happily repeat next year!

Onion News Network

Holy cow, I've forgotten how funny the Onion is:


Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Predict Intensely Brisk Autumn

Death and Taxes

Today's my first Saturday that I don't have to run out and teach. I'm squandering it by surfing the internet.

But this caught my attention: Death and Taxes. It's a giant map of the discretionary funding of the United States of America. If you visit the website, you can scroll around and read all the agencies and sub-agencies that receive 200 million or more.

I feel like I learned something today! I had no idea how little money the FCC gets. I had no idea how much it costs our country for Air traffic organization.

Now you'll know, too!

Keeping in contact has never been easier

I understand the internet is scary . . .

But it has never been easier to maintain a presence on the internet in your own way. Besides Facebook and MySpace, there are many other possibilities.

The oldest internet technology is email. It would be easy enough to collect a bunch of email addresses of friends and family and send out a Newsletter.

I've already exulted the virtues of Google Reader, but I will mention that the Google Reader Shared Items feature can be used as a blog. It is much, much easier than creating your own Blogger account (which is pretty easy, too). Google Reader has a "Note" feature, which is basically a blog post without a website you've shared (to put this in laymans terms, you can just write something).

If you don't want to use Google Reader, you can simply sign up for Twitter and start tweeting immediately. There's a ton of people to follow, such as celebrities, etc. Even CNN was reading tweets on their broadcast of the Presidential Debates.

The only reason I'm pushing is that it is fun to read about people in your life. Alicia's got her blog, as do both her sisters Stacey and Vanessa. Alicia's friend Nicole maintains a Google Reader shared items page.

That's about all I've got on the internet. I'd love to add to my list! But that's up to you, isn't it?

Blog Update

Three permanent additions to my blog:

1) I've added a status bar to the top. Nothing fancy, just some text above my posts to let you know what I've added.

I'm adding this because of my infrequent updates. As is typical, I might go two weeks without posting anything new. Then, when I sit down and write a lot, posts might get pushed down too low to notice.

Now, one quick visit to briancopeland.blogspot.com will inform you as to how new material has arrived.

This shouldn't be displayed to readers using my RSS feed, as you are already aware of how much I've updated.

2) I'm using Twitter. Twitter is the new rising star on the internet. Instead of writing long blog posts, internet users are "Tweeting," or writing a 140 character (or less) message and publishing it on their Twitter account. This is nearly the same as what other websites call "status," but the twitter posts (called "tweets") could be anything. They call it "microblogging," and it is much easier than regular blogging.

I'm using http://ping.fm/ to publish my Twitter'ing everywhere. Thus, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll see the same thing as my status listed on the right side of my blog. This will be the same as my MySpace profile and my Facebook status (to find me, search for cope0053@d.umn.edu).

3) Around the Internet is finalized. If you haven't noticed this section of my website, it is on the right hand side under my Status. It's basically displaying my Shared Items from Google Reader. So, if you aren't visiting my website, you could certainly subscribe to my Shared Items to see what links I've thought were cool. I usually include a description of the link through the Shared Items feed.

More about my Phone Plans

As a followup to my recent post about leaving my T-Mobile Contract for prepaid service, I thought I'd share my thoughts about my phone service in the future.

Skype

Currently, I'm using Skype. Skype is an international calling service that is really cheap. Think of it like an instant messaging program (Like AOL's AIM or MSN Messanger) that's connected to the phone system. Using your PC speakers and a microphone or a headset (like mine below), you can sign up for free and call anyone else who also has a Skype account. Alternatively, you can pay about $2 a month for the ability to call regular phone numbers. You turn it into your full phone line by purchasing a real phone number (in any area code!) for only $24 a year.

I like Skype. I love how cheap it is, and the flexibility it gives is great. There are "Skypecasts" which are basically radio shows you can call and listen in. There are chatrooms and other conference calling featuers.

The cons are that it relies on your internet connection. If your internet is down, you can't answer the phone. Sure, you can have calls forwarded to a different number, but then you're required to have a different number anyway.

One last pro is the software involved. I've downloaded an add on program called "PowerGramo" which records every call I make. I can save the calls as an MP3 file, or use any of the archiving features.

The biggest reason that Skype hasn't replaced my phone service is that it doesn't include emergency services. Thus, you can't call 911 from Skype. That's a serious problem.

For now, I'll use it for cheap calling out. Besides, when I want a new phone number, I'll probably use ...

Grand Central



Grand Central isn't yet available. The company was purchased by Google and is currently still being tested. When testing is over, it makes a fabulous promise:

One phone number for the rest of your life.

Here's how it works: You obtain (for free) a phone number from Grand Central. Then, by accessing the internet, you can specify where that one number should be sent. You can have it forward calls to your cell phone, your home phone, or your office. You can even do this depending on what time it is! You can have it forward your calls to all your phones at once. So when you've got a new cell phone number or new office number, no one has to know.

Grand Central offers a ton of features: You can pick what area code your number is in, you can record all your calls, it handles voicemail, it can play custom ring tones depending on who is calling, ... You've really gotta check out the website to read them all.

As for the cons, I really don't know. Perhaps Google will be embedding advertisements somewhere. It's hard to say until the service is actually available to the public.

As far as me, I will be signing up when this goes live. Until then, I can only dream.

Apple's iPhone

Some of you might have wondered why I haven't jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. Well, mostly price. I can honestly say that it is pretty awesome from all the reports I've heard. I was able to play with Nick Massahos' phone, and it seemed great. Especially now that Apple has released the ability to add applications, there seems like nothing it can't do.

But to get the iPhone, you've gotta pay $200 up front and about $80-100 a year for two years. Total price: $2120. I can't afford that. Checking the internet and my email isn't worth paying that much. I'm on the internet too much as it is.

One thing I would be interested in is the iPod Touch. Lifehacker (a personal productivity blog) recently had an article about why the iPod Touch does almost everything the iPhone does without having to pay $80 a month (link):

"Back in June 2007, I couldn't convince my wife that checking my email in grocery lines was worth $1,320—the cost of an original iPhone and one year of the cheapest plan. These days, the trend-setting phone costs even more money over its life, and it's more than a little restrictive and even a bit buggy. So I'm amazed at how little love the iPod touch gets. It's a slimmer iPhone with almost all its features, it requires no contract, and when you can't get a Wi-Fi signal, your plain, humble cellphone can step up to take its place."

Pretty convincing if you ask me. Besides, I'm waiting with baited breath for ...

Google Android



It isn't a Google phone, but a Google Operating System for Cell Phones. Android is for cell phones as Windows is for Computers. It's the basic software that runs your phone.

The big difference is that it is open. Anyone (even me!) can make an application for the phone. This is compared to the current phone situation, where you have to pay $5 to download a ring tone, and upwards of $15 if you want a game.

If you haven't caught on by now, I'm a big Google fan. While other people were waiting in line to buy an iPhone, I'll be waiting in line to buy a phone with Google Android.

The real advantage for Google is that any phone maker can include Android. So I'm hoping I can stay with T-Mobile. The iPhone, on the other hand, requires AT&T.

The last estimate was that Android would start appearing on cell phones in Fall 2008. I'll be waiting. (I basically canceled my contract with T-Mobile so that I could get Google Android).

Brian Blogs the Internet, take two.

If you checked out this blog within the first few days of its launch, you'd have noticed the "Brian Blogs the Internet" sidebar where I posted links to websites I enjoyed. When you clicked on a link, it brought you to a separate blog that would link to a website I enjoyed.

That blog was essentially a "link farm," meaning it had no original content of its own. In my humble opinion, link farms are bad for the internet. They are essentially middle men. They operate like a door-to-door salesman, getting in the way.

So here's my dilemma: I do want to share good websites! I read my Google Reader religiously and I want to share my favorites. But if I post links and websites here, it'll clutter up my blog. I assume you, my readers, are interested in me, not other websites. If this blog became 50% links, 50% Brian info, it would no longer be my personal blog.

My solution is to use Google Reader's "share" feature. I can simply choose to share articles I enjoy and Google will automatically create a "Shared Items" blog for me.

You can see this at <http://www.google.com/reader/shared/01179481704014780557>. To simplify things, I've added an updating list on the right side of this blog (under my status updates). It displays the headlines of the last five things I shared, along with a link to "read more" of my shared items.

This way, you can ignore them if you're not interested. But if you're interested in what's going on in the world of technology and the internet, you can see what I recommended. You can even subscribe to the website if you're using an RSS feed reader like Google Reader. I've described this previously.

I'll occasionally post a link roundup with the best of the lot. That way, you'll get a personal recommendation behind good posts.

If you've got a better idea on how to handle this kind of thing, let me know in the comments. If you've started using Google Reader because of my post about it, let me know your shared items page! To the comments! (this means you, Nicole)

P.S.: Alicia's got a shared page, too. She shares a ton of items.

Woot-Off Debriefing

Well, the Woot-Off is over.

For those of you not in the know, Woot.com is a website that sells one item a day, for a pretty good price. You can get cheap computers, cheap pens, basically anything.

But every once in awhile (about once a month) there is a "Woot-Off." They sell an item until it is sold out, then they put up another. The prices are usually really cheap, and you can get great deals. Alicia has blogged about this previously, so you can read her thoughts on her blog. She describes it better than me, so do give her post a read.

This Woot-Off started the day Alicia began her bar exam, so we couldn't follow it very well. But now that she's done, I have been compulsively pressing refresh to see what else was up for sale. And I got two items!

Mighty Kite Mini-Kite

They were only a penny each, plus $5 shipping (every single item is $5 shipping, whether it is ten pounds of salt or a penny kite). But, since the difference between getting one and three was $5.01 versus $5.03, I GOT THREE!

Satzuma USB Fish Tank

This guy is a USB Aquarium (fake fish) for only $3.99 plus standard $5 shipping. Not bad, considering it will make a nice addition to my USB gadget collection. Huzzah!

It was really exciting, considering these two came up one after another.

Too bad there weren't any Bags of Crap. I read online that if you can manage to get one, they've been valued up to $1000. And they only cost 5 bucks each. It's basically the lottery. Maybe some other time.

WOOT!

Morning Newspaper

When the internet was new, one common thought was that it would replace the standard newspaper. That turned out not to be the case, as it is very nice to have something to hold and read away from the computer. Plus, reading websites like the New York Times wasn't very pleasant.

But around 2001, the internet heralded a new journalistic phenomenon, blogging. It changed the news front by making regular publishing on any topic (and at any frequency) easy. The problem (in my opinion) is that checking twenty different websites was simply a burden.

One technology that I didn't pay attention to was RSS feeds. I was familiar that blogs and other websites used these feeds to publish. Basically, a feed is a very simple website that computer programs called "Readers" know how to read. This enables you to have a program that will go to twenty different websites for you and aggregate them in one place. I think I had tried two or three previously, maybe around 2006, but I didn't like what I saw.

Earlier this year, Google released their own web based Reader, Google Reader (reader.google.com). Instead of a program that checks RSS feeds whenever you ask it to, Google Reader checks them constantly, 24/7.

Google Reader has become my morning paper. Along with my email, I check Google Reader every single morning without question. I love it because it is so customizable. All you need to do is sign up for an account and click on the RSS feed button on various websites. The button looks like this:


Optional, but very helpful, is downloading the Google Toolbar. Then, clicking on this button in your browser will automatically ask you if you'd like to add it to Google Reader. Then, whenever you go to reader.google.com, you'll be able to read any new posts.

The real advantage is that you no longer have to remember what websites you'd like to visit, and you never visit websites that haven't updated. You can try out websites for just a few days to see if you'd like them, and you can scan the headlines of websites that publish a lot, just like a real newspaper.

I love it. It saves me time when I am surfing the internet, and I never have to repeatedly check a blog that only posts once a week or so. It's gotten me to read websites I might normally find too boring, because I can simply scan the headlines.

Plus, there are several blogs that are good fun. One called Photoshop Disasters has a single picture every day where it is obvious that they were photoshoped (digitally altered). Another funny website I might not check if not for Google Reader is Gullible.info, which posts five or so fake facts every other day. I usually laugh about how believable these "facts" are.

But you can put a sampling of newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc. Here's a list of my favorite websites:

http://consumerist.com/ - The Consumerist is made up of stories of horrible customer service, and what we can do to avoid them. They firmly advocate making sure you get what companies promise, even if that means emailing the executives of the company.

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ - Ikea Hacker has one article every day that shows someone using Ikea products in ways they were not intended, usually to fix some problem or need.

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ - Passive-Aggressive Notes features a passive aggressive note every day, usually directed at a roomate or some neighbor. Lots of fun.

http://gothamist.com/ - The Gothamist is my daily news for New York.

http://arstechnica.com/index.ars - Ars Technica doesn't post as much as other technology blogs, but they go into depth in their stories. I usually just browse the headlines, but I read at least one full article a day.

http://www.boingboing.net/ - BoingBoing is probably the biggest blog on the internet. They post on a ton of different topics, from copyright policy to Disney World. In terms of internet celebrities, these bloggers are the biggest.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - The Google Blog is the official blog of Google. It is usually how I learn about new Google Products.