BloggingTips—one of my favorite sites for blogging and SEO advice—rolled out a couple posts today on how to stay inspired with the handful of sap-your-motivation-to-work holidays that are coming up. I thought those posts were great starters, but they came up short on specifics and I thought I’d offer my two cents on what I use to stay creative and motivated (though I’m not immune to the occasional dry spell).

I pull most of my blogging ideas from five different sources that vary in their chronological frequency. I’ll go in descending order of frequency for the first four and save the “out of left field” one for last:

1. Twitter (right now)

Most of the stuff I pull from Twitter goes into category No. 3—at least if I feel inspired enough to blog about whatever I’ve seen. Sometimes I’ll blog right away, but usually I’m at work (my real job) so it gets saved for later. If I have any “can’t lose” thoughts, I’ll jot them down in an e-mail, subsequent Tweet or blog draft and come back to them later.

2. Google Reader (today/last week or so)

I’m probably as guilty of anyone of letting Google Reader fester for weeks at a time every now and then, but I try to keep up with it as best as possible. Since I subscribe to a ton of feeds, I skim using list view and “Option 3″ (or 4) anything that I can’t get to right away. I don’t know how anyone survives—creatively, organizationally or otherwise—without an RSS reader of some sort.

3. Instapaper (last week/last few weeks)

I just recently discovered Instapaper, but it’s grown on me quick. It’s a great tool for when I’m otherwise swamped, but still incidentally picking up bits and pieces from The Stream. A simple click of my “Read Later” bookmarklet drops whatever item I’m interested in into my Instapaper queue and I get to it the next time I have a few free minutes.

4. Publish 2/Delicious (months/years ago)

These are long-term storage devices and I use both because I really do value the links I collect. (Specifically, I use the Publish 2 bookmarklet and duplicate most all of my links into Delicious, just in case.) When stuff goes in here, I’m thinking either, “Good read, worth passing along, but I’m not inspired enough to write just yet,” or, “I know I’ll need this five months from now, so into the file cabinet it goes.” Every so often when I’m feeling uninspired, I’ll click through my tags and see what jumps out.

5. Anything that isn’t the Internet (any time frame)

Some of my favorite posts that I’ve written have come from things that have nothing to do with journalism or blogging (re: “Star Trek” and “Lost“). I like them because they feel the most creative—here I am sitting around watching a “Star Trek” preview and I think, “Ooh—this is sorta like journalism!” (which also marks an odd feat in branding myself a “Star Trek” and journalism geek in the exact same moment). They also break up the “expected-ness” of my blog.

In my last post I mentioned a book I recently finished reading by digital marketing expert Mitch Joel titled, “Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.”

This fantastic book integrates digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship in a very clear and easy to understand way. A great read! Below is a list of 15 main points from the book that stood out to me. It was tough to choose which main points to include in my list so if you’ve read the book and think I missed one feel free to add to the list or submit your own list. I’d love to hear what other people took away from this great book.

15 Key highlights from “Six Pixels of Separation”

1. Trust + Community = ROI
ROI is now driven by how loyal and engaged your consumers are, especially when using online channels.

2. No one is “using” anymore. Everyone is creating.
There is no such thing as a “user” anymore. No one is “using” anything anymore.  They are creating. You are creating. It’s all about creating. Ex.) Facebook: Everyone creates their own experience through the many profile apps Facebook offers. Add your own pictures, create events, build pages, create groups, update your status, send people messages, online chat etc. They’re all centered around the idea of letting people create their own Facebook experience.

3. Embrace the “conversation”
Everyone is talking about starting, joining, or being a “conversation” in order to grow your business. New online media platforms such as blogs and Twitter all embrace the idea of conversation. Before choosing to use online channels you must embrace the conversation.

4. Human nature is about community.
It’s human nature to want to be part of a community. Online channels offer another community for people to participate and connect in. Start your own community and embrace your members.

5. What are people saying about you and your company?
6 free online tools to help you find out:
1. RSS readers (Google reader)
2. News Alerts (Google alerts)
3. Watchlists (Technorati)
4. Google blog search
5. Search Engines
6.  Google trends and Facebook Lexicon

6. Online communities = brand building power
You can’t have a strong business without a strong community so harness the power of online communities to build your business. NOW is the time to harness the power that lies in online communities!

7. Think ripples, not splashes.
Traditional advertising campaigns = big splash in a pool of water.
Splashes do work (when done right) but only for a limited time.
Using less energy you can throw small pebble (your idea) into the pool and let the ripple effect take hold. Ripples = powerful WOM conversations generated when you share your content online. In the digital world it’s a lot easier and less expensive to create a ripple than a splash.

8. “Great brands provoke people”
Don’t worry about controlling your brand. Focus on creating a great brand with a great message that resonates with consumers. Concentrate on connecting to your consumers and creating engaging brand experiences.

9. Make personal branding PERSONAL in a digital world
Online channels are used to connect, share, and grow and are a great way to build your personal brand. They can help you establish yourself and your company as a recognized industry authority. Online channels used towards building a global audience are creating new business models and new marketing campaigns that are targeted and relevant, and deliver tremendous ROI.

10. Quality NOT quantity
Attention does not equal trust. Trust is gained through good content, engaging participation on your part, and how you engage with your community. Be helpful. Be sincere. The long-term game of sustainability in the online channels is one of quality versus quantity.

11. Online credibility is EVERYTHING.
Very few brands are embracing the idea of creating credibility through the use of digital channels. Most look for quick fixes. (i.e. banner ads, 3rd party email lists, add anyone to Facebook, Twitter etc.) Ask your consumers for their thoughts, ideas and comments and then be proactive with their feedback in order to gain credibility.

12. Invest in creating great content
People want to work with a company that is seen and recognized as an industry leader. Investing in online channels can help your business create great content such as text, images, audio and video, which provide consumers with information that adds value to their lives, gives them things to think about and keeps them engaged with your brand much longer than a thirty-second t.v. commercial.

13. Embrace collaboration
Readily available, free and easy to use, online tools allow easy mass collaboration between you and your consumers. See and embrace collaboration with your consumers as a business opportunity, a business development strategy and part of your long-term growth.

14. Mobile marketing = huge business opportunities
In Mitch Joel’s own words, “Cellphones have become the personal remote control for our lives.” Mobile channels offer business opportunities to connect, share and grow with your costumers. Be a leader. Seize the opportunity before others in your industry do.

15. Everyone is connected. Connect your business to everyone.

If you’ve read the book I’d love to see your list of main points or hear your thoughts on the book. Hope to hear from you!

RSS Algemeen

RSS is een toepassing van XML en wordt gebruikt om links naar informatie op je website beschikbaar te stellen aan anderen. Die “anderen” kunnen bezoekers van je site zijn, maar bijvoorbeeld ook andere websites kun je gebruik laten maken van deze links.

In het Engels spreekt men bij RSS over “syndicated content”. Er is eigenlijk geen goed Nederlands woord waarmee je syndicate in deze betekenis kunt vertalen. Het wil zoveel zeggen als het gelijktijdig beschikbaar stellen van informatie aan anderen. Syndicated informatie bestaat ook buiten het web. Een bekend voorbeeld is Scott Adams die bekend is van zijn Dilbert strip. Deze cartoon wordt beschikbaar gesteld aan kranten. Zij mogen de strip publiceren, zolang zij hiervoor maar een vergoeding betalen.

Op het web werkt het met syndicated content op een zelfde manier. Via een zogenaamde RSS feed maak je de links naar (nieuwe) informatie op je website beschikbaar, waarna anderen deze links kunnen gebruiken. Een andere webmaster kan deze links bijvoorbeeld automatisch laten opnemen in de voorpagina van zijn eigen website en bezoekers van je site kunnen via een zogenaamde RSS reader je RSS bestand ophalen en kunnen zo direct zien of er nieuwe informatie op je site is verschenen.

Wat is RSS precies?

Als je nadenkt over alle informatie die via het web toegankelijk is, dan valt op dat je veel van die soorten informatie kunt zien als lijsten. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan: zoekresultaten van een zoekmachine, nieuwskoppen, aangeboden goederen op een internetveiling, onderwerpen op een forum, etcetera.

Als internetter bezoek je waarschijnlijk dagelijks een aantal vaste websites die hun specifieke lijst publiceren. Vaak is er niets veranderd en verlaat je vervolgens de site weer. Dit wordt lastig als je dit met vele sites moet doen. Iedere keer de site laden, kijken of er iets nieuws is of kijken waar je ook al weer gebleven was. Het wordt al snel onoverzichtelijk en tijdrovend.

Met RSS kan je het je bezoekers een stuk makkelijker maken. Stel dat je een nieuw artikel hebt geschreven. Je kunt nu geïnteresseerden laten weten dat dit artikel verschenen is door de pagina als “item” op te nemen in het RSS bestand van je site. Mensen die je RSS feed bekijken met een RSS reader zien nu dat er wat nieuws is verschenen en kunnen met een druk op de knop het nieuwe artikel lezen. Hiervoor hoeven ze niet eens meer een browser te openen.

Een RSS feed kun je goed vergelijken met een nieuwsbrief. Het grote verschil is dat bezoekers geen e-mailadres hoeven op te geven om je RSS feed te lezen en dat hun RSS reader bepaalt hoe de informatie in de feed wordt weergegeven.

Waar staan de letters RSS eigenlijk voor? Op deze vraag zijn meerdere antwoorden mogelijk. Er zijn namelijk meerdere versies van RSS met verschillende definities voor deze afkorting. In totaal zijn er drie:

• Rich Site Summary
• Really Simple Syndication
• RDF Site Summary

If you are reading this, it’s most likely because I sent the link to you, (because let’s face it, I only have about 1.5 readers.)

If you are reading this, and somehow enjoy this blog, you probably spend too much time alone. And also, you would probably enjoy reading several websites just like it.

If you are reading this, and you are human, I’m going to bet that you would like to be able to read all of your information in just minutes a day.

**This is a basic overview. If you want more detailed instructions, please see this awesome document.

RSS Reader: What is it?

An RSS reader (or aggregator) is a tool to view updates on web pages, news sites and weblogs.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication“and gives content authors, like myself, a way to push out updates to you. It gives readers a single place to look at anything new from their favorite sources. For example, my Google Reader shows me new posts from about sites about T&D, eco news, cooking websites, and a couple of coupon search engines.

RSS Reader: How do I use it?

Step 1: Choose a reader, (there are many, but these instructions are for Google Reader.)

Step 2: Click Create an Account and fill in the appropriate information.

Step 3: Visit a website, like this one, and if it has an RSS feed, you will see an orange button like this next to the URL in the address bar:

Step 4: Click the orange button and, if prompted, choose “Subscribe to RSS.” You will then need to choose to “Add to Google Reader.”

Step 5: Click the “Feed Settings” button and choose “Sort By Oldest”

Step 6: Repeat steps 3-5 for websites such as the blogs to the right of this post, as well as news sites: Google, Yahoo, or CNN.

RSS Reader: How does this relate to training?

Yes, I worship at the alter of the RSS Reader. Yes, I believe all WLP professionals should also utilize this technology.

People, I follow close to 100 websites in about 10 minutes a day. You folks with lives could probably follow 30 industry experts with about 30 minutes once a week.

Self-Development: This is the tool that lets you stroll by that smug ISD you know, and mention, “Oh, did you happen to catch Karl Kapp’s notes on problem solving skills today? Hmmmmm?” Oh, and also, it’s so easy to use this to keep up to date on the industry.

J.I.T. Learning: Imagine that once a week, a member of your executive leadership team posts a short blurb about strategy, and company news. And your marketing team creates a blog that sends out periodic updates on product literature. AND your professional development team sends out headlines with upcoming classes and online courseware.

Now imagine that your entire audience can go to ONE place to view all of these updates!!!

RSS Reader: What’s the Bottom Line?

I hope that I have convinced you that as someone who relies on self-development, this is a tool you should spend a few minutes to learn. Try it out with this blog. I promise to post often so you get lots of practice!

Bad Training Ideas:

(or, how to keep your evaluation scores high)
“We are going to end today with an evaluation. Please hand them to me when you are done.”

Wie versprochen, hier die Links zu meinem Vortrag “RSS-Feeds optimal nutzen”. Als webbasierende Anwendung dominiert die RSS-Welt der Google Reader www.google.com/reader. Die mobile Variante des Google Readers kann man hier runter laden http://m.google.com. Als externes Leseprogramm empfehle ich den kostenlosen NetNewsWire 3.2 von Newsgator, den es auch für das iPhone gibt www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire. Hier noch der praktische wie nützliche RSS-Feed für Nutzer der Münchner S-Bahn http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/22276172.rss.

So you want to keep up with your favorite feeds on the iPhone?  Click here to read a review of the popular and well liked RSS Reader.

Times Mac

Times liefert eine optische “Tageszeitung” sieht sehr schön aus und bietet eine “Unterlage” um die für einen wichtigen Artikel immer im Blick zu haben. Schade es ist nur Englisch und hat als Vorlage nur Englische Feeds, man kann natürlich seine eigenen einbinden. Es ist nur etwas Zeitaufwendig alles so anzupassen wie man es gerne hätte, für den gemütlichen RSS Feed Reader sehr angenehm. Für den RSS News Junkie etwas zu unübersichtlich ! Sehr enttäuschend die 30$ kosten für das Programm da gibt es auch genügend Umsonst !

NetNewsWire Mac

NetNewsWire ist ein sehr übersichtlicher NewsReader er übernimmt beim start die Google Feed Einstellungen und überträgt die Favoriten gleich in seine Liste. Es können selber Verzeichnisse und Feeds angelegt werden die neusten ungelesenen werden Markiert so das man auch nichts verpasst. Für den News Junkie ein sehr schönes Programm grafisch zwar nicht so schick aber der Funktion entsprechend. Wer auf die Werbung verzichten will kann sich einen serial für 10Euro kaufen.

Vienna Mac

Vienna für Mac ist NetNewsWire sehr ähnlich und es ist schwer auf den ersten Blick unterschiede zu finden, Vienna ist sehr Einsteiger Freundlich da es viele Voreinstellungen  hat und gleich Blogger und Live unterstützt. Übersichtlich und das beste Kostenlos

NewsFire Mac

NewsFire ist eher einem Chat Programm ähnlich die Oberfläche ist kurz und Handlich die neusten Beiträge werden in Spalten dargestellt und werden beim drauf klicken vergrößert. NewsFire ist auch kostenlos aber hatte direkt am Anfang einen Error. Der letzte Feed vom Hersteller kann nicht entfernt werden ! Sieht sehr interessant aus und wie bei Times mal ein etwas ausgefallenes Design.

Es gibt sicher noch viel mehr Newsreader aber um wirklich alle zu testen fehlt mir die Zeit aus den von mir Installierten würde ich Vorschlagen :

1. Vienna (kostenlos) Übersichtlich und einfach, grade für Einsteiger sehr gut.

2. NetNewsWire (10 Euro oder Werbung ertragen) Übersichtlich allerdings kann das Vienna auch und kostenlos.

3. NewsFire (kostenlos) Ausgefallenes Design, aber leider gleich ein Absturz im Test sonst sicher Platz 2.

4. Times (30$) Wer es den “Mac way” haben will, allerdings mit 30$ auch der teuerste.

An RSS reader is a wonderful device. At NB Media I have found an RSS reader to be of great use. Even if you are technically challenged this guide will help you to install one quickly and simply.

The aim of NB Media’s blog is to introduce you to design, in all it’s various formats, and especially it’s ability impact today’s society. Most social media platforms can be rather confusing for the first time user. Here I will discuss various platforms and how they can be relevant to your business in Somerset West, Cape Town. In order to keep up-to-date with all the blog posts I suggest that you create a RSS feed reader. “A WHAT?!” I hear you say. Don’t worry, I’ll explain.

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed reader lets you gather various blogs that you are interested in following and then displays their articles on one page. You can kind of think of it as a newspaper. The newspaper gathers stories from the millions of events happening around the world and compacts it into one edition with articles it views as most important. The big difference here is that YOU get to CHOOSE what you want to read. Pretty cool hey!

There are various RSS readers but the one I suggest is iGoogle. To get you started here is a video tutorial. This is the first session in the tutorial and will guide you through setting up iGoogle. Don’t worry it’s pretty darn easy

This video will describe how to set up your RSS feed reader so you can follow any blog that you wish. In all your excitement don’t forget to follow this one though! In the tutorial the guy mentions a lot of techno stuff like “Wikis” and “Delicious”. Again, don’t worry too much about this as we can cover it all later on.

Well, hopefully by following the instructions on the tutorial you can have a RSS feed reader by the end – they are wonderful things and save you loads of time.

To subscribe to NB Media’s blog simply click the little rounded square RSS icon that has 3 curved lines in it. You will find it in your address bar at the top of the page and it looks like this:

Once you’ve clicked it just follow the instructions. If you do get stuck just let me know.

To your design success!

Nic – NB Media

Last Friday, I was attending Portland’s weekly Beer and Blog event, and I stumbled across what later turned out to be an interesting trend. I had two separate, unrelated conversations about an hour apart with people working in the technology industry who once used RSS readers but had mostly abandoned them in favor of using Twitter to find news and interesting blog posts. I talked to a couple of other friends and posted the question on Twitter, which confirmed that many people are using Twitter as an RSS reader replacement.

One of the people that I talked to at Beer and Blog was Jason Mauer, Senior Developer Evangelist for Microsoft and @jasonmauer on Twitter; he says:

“I follow Twitter for the conversation anyway, and have found it’s mostly duplicative to also follow the blog feeds of people I’m already following on Twitter. If they post something, I’ll usually hear about it in a tweet.

Where Twitter really pays off is through the power of social networking — interesting content surfaces naturally from people’s recommendations. I might not know that blogger at all who just wrote a really great post, but I’ll hear about it via retweeting. People I follow deliver content piping hot right to my desk. And unlike RSS, Twitter is two-way — the discussion is right there. I get more bang for the buck spending the precious resource that is attention on Twitter than on an RSS reader, which feels like a chore in comparison.”

Mike McClure, strategy and governance consultant and @mcclure on Twitter, says:

“I use twitter in lieu of an RSS reader for productivity and efficiency reasons. All but one of my news sites make announcements on Twitter anyway, so I don’t need to check yet another news source. If the news is big enough, it’ll be circulated enough that I’ll find out soon enough anyway. I’m an analyst not a reporter, so being first to see the news is less important to me than seeing a broad set of thoughts and opinions about the same news.

For real-time information there’s Twitter, for everything else there’s Google.”

McClure also mentioned that Twitter lists might make it even easier to use Twitter to keep up on news, since you can categorize groups of Twitter accounts to create news lists for even easier access to news feeds on Twitter.

These conversations got me thinking about how my use of RSS readers has changed. I am still an obsessive user of RSS, but the feeds that I check most often aren’t news related. I have feeds for Yahoo Pipes that track mentions of all my various projects, clients and other important information, and I regularly read feeds that have unique content that I wouldn’t otherwise find (web comics, niche blogs, online community content, etc.) However, I read my news feeds or mainstream blog feeds much less often than before. Most of the news that I would get from technology blogs has already been discussed and linked on Twitter by the time I get to it in my RSS reader, so I rarely need to read my news feeds.

The feedback on Twitter (as Twitter doesn’t store tweets indefinitely this link may not work in the future) shows that many people are replacing RSS readers with Twitter, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.

As you can see, quite a few people have reduced their use of RSS readers, but like most trends, it isn’t universal. There are plenty of people — like me — who still use RSS readers for some feeds, but there are other people who have actually increased their RSS reading as a result of Twitter. The increased usage seems to fall into two categories: People who read Twitter in their RSS reader, and people who run across new things that they then add to their RSS reader.

Has Twitter changed the way you use an RSS reader?

RSS definition :

RSS stands for (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is a format fordeliveringregularlychanging web content.

Benefits or the reasons for using RSS ?

• Allow you to easily stay informed.
• You save time by not needing to visit each site individually.
• Ensuring your privacy, by not joining every newsletter.

What do you need to read RSS feeds ?

You need Feed Reader or News Aggregater that  allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.

There is a variety of RSS Feeds Readers, for different platforms :

• AmphetaDesk (Windows, Linux and Mac)
• FeedReader (Windows)
• NewsGator (Windows integrated with Outlook)
• FeedDemon (Windows)
• NetNewsWire (Mac)

Web Based Readers :

• Bloglines
• My Yahoo
• Google Reader

How to find RSS Feed for website or blog?

Many sites and blogs display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.

For more information:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
2. http://www.rssboard.org
3. http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx
4. http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/

I’m happy to announce that the Grr RSS Reader application is now part of the GNUstep Application Project (GAP).

Grr running on the Letux 400 netbook. -- Image shamelessly copied from Riccardo Mottola's weblog (Click!)

Riccardo Mottola’s announcement: http://multixden.blogspot.com/2009/10/grr-rss-to-go-on-gnustep.html

Wer einen iPod Touch oder ein iPhone besitzt, der sollte sich das neue Tool (app) von SimFlight besorgen. Ein RSS Reader für diese kleinen feinen Gerätschaften.

Downloaden könnt ihr es über den Button (sofern iTunes installiert ist), oder aber direkt über euren iPod Touch oder euer iPhone (aber das wisst ihr ja eh).

An dieser Stelle möchte ich noch mal daran erinnern, dass es einige weitere gute Apps für uns Chairmen gibt.

Enjoy!

If you enjoy the preaching of Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church located in Seattle, then this is something that will appeal to you!  Pastor Mark’s sermons are now available in transcript form and will appear in your favorite reader.  Here is the link to subscribe to this FREE service:

Subscribe here.

So I stumbled across something on a blog that Netflix used to use as its communication from the head of the Community programming group with Netflix’s Community users that were into knowing what was going on. It was a short little video about the basics of RSS Feeds.

So the blog entry was written August 2007. I have been hearing about RSS feeds probably at least that long, but have never been able to figure them out. (Note: I haven’t tried very hard either.) How do I create one, how do I link to one? I have clicked on the RSS icon before, but nothing happens that makes sense to me.

Finally, this little video told me what I was missing! I needed an RSS reader! Oh, that’s the piece I didn’t know, which was why it was never going to work with the knowledge I had.

So I went to my Yahoo! account, which the video tells me is a common choice for readers, and went about setting it up per instructions. I copied the URL of a few blogs I read. And pasted into the reader in the add section. And it promptly told me to use a valid URL. Repeatedly. Was I doing something wrong? Was Yahoo! being stupid? Was it time for scheduled maintenance or something? Pooh on that!

I switched over to my gmail account, did exactly the same steps, and voila, I now have subscriptions. Yay me!

First thing I noticed is it isn’t the same as reading the websites. I have a laptop, so the more space it takes up on my screen, the more easily a thing is read and comprehended. The reader is a smaller window in the gmail reader screen, of my laptop screen. And some of the RSS feeds, particularly from media outlets, truncate the entries, and only when you click to see if there is more do you see how large the actual posting is. Oh.

The second thing I noticed was if I click the RSS feed icon to add the site to my reader automatically, it immediately messed things up and I had to go re-do it anyway as a copy/pasted URL. Hmm. Again, am I doing something wrong, or was the site just doing funkiness when I happened to be trying?

And thirdly, it is like podcasts in the sense that there is the initial start up of trying to catch up on everything so you have a baseline starting point. Otherwise it looks seriously overwhelming to see you have over 100 posts to read from the git-go! And I haven’t even finished adding all the blogs I would like to be reading.

I was disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be a way for the television shows I choose to watch on the internet to tell me when they are online. Some networks update at midnight of the night the show aired, some the next morning, and some have contractual obligations that prevent them from airing for another week or so. I thought that was the whole point of RSS subscriptions, was to relieve users of the drudgery of checking each site to see if anything has changed?

So as usual, even as a fan of technology, I am disappointed that what I imagined it could do for me does not presently meet my expectations. And this is after a couple of years of refining it, I am sure.

So at this rate, having now finally caught up with technology from a couple years ago, is there any hope that I will ever truly be caught up? What is that thing about Moore’s Law, where everything is increasing in speed, in bandwidth, in technology exponentially? Somehow, it seems so overwhelming that I will never catch up, the armchair enthusiast that I am. And this from someone who has no other distractions but whatever I choose to distract myself with!

Google Reader

FOR INN346 Enterprise 2.0, the students who enrolled in this unit are required to use a Blog to present the assignment.

There are 63 blogs links posed on Blog list for INB(N) students; if I’m going to read my classmates’ blog, do I have to visit all of these blogs respectively to see new entries? What if the author posted nothing, I’ll just waste my precious time and Internet quota to connect it.

The answer is NO, I can just simply use a RSS Reader to make the entries coming to you.

RSS Reader is used to let a user receiving subscribed information from a web-site by using RSS function. Once the subscribed web-site has added new entries, the RSS will broadcast the information to the user’s Reader. Therefore, a user is just simply waiting for the news/information coming, rather than seeking them by visiting each web-site.

Indeed, I spent a little time to add subscription from every classmates’ blog, but it is worthwhile because I can save much more time compare with visit each single blog. And I recommend Google Reader.

§

↓ For more information of RSS, please watch the ‘RSS in Plain English’ video:

§

↓ And watch ‘Google Reader in Plain English’ to know how to use this beautiful technology (especially for lazy guys i reckon).

Oppdatert 26.11.2009
Nye tillegg merket med (*)

Har du gjort det fornuftige valget å gå til innkjøp av en Nokia E71 eller den nye oppfølgeren Nokia E72 så har jeg noen kjappe tips til programmer som gir deg tilgang til de mest brukte tjenestene på Internett, og ellers annet som kan være nyttig. Vurderer du å kjøpe deg en Nokia smarttelefon (som f.eks. E71 eller E72), så kan du se hvilke muligheter en slik telefon har. Kommenter gjerne innlegget!
OBS! De fleste av tipsene her fungerer også på andre Nokia-telefoner, spesielt de med Symbian S60 operativsystem (f.eks. N-serien, E-serien, 6210, 6220, 5320, 5630, 6120, 6710 med flere).

NB! Alle tips jeg gir her prøver du på eget ansvar. Jeg kan ikke garantere for at alle applikasjoner fungerer på akkurat din telefon. Gjør det til en vane å ta backup av telefonen i ny og ne!

Nokia Firmware
Firmware er svært forenklet sagt en oppgradering av telefonens operativsystem, og gir for eksempel bedring av kameraets funksjoner, bedring av minnehåndtering, bedring av diverse programvare. Etter at du har installert Nokia PC Suite på din PC, så må du også huske å installere Nokia Software Updater. Nokia Software Updater lar deg sjekke om du har siste firmware på telefonen, hvis du ikke har det vil du bli ført videre til nedlastning/oppgradering av firmware. Husk å gjøre som anbefalt; ta backup før du oppgraderer telefonens firmware. Du kan oppleve at du etter en firmwareoppgradering må installere noen av de programmene du tidligere har installert på telefonen på nytt, men det er jo en enkel operasjon.

Nokia PC Suite
Nokia PC Suite gir deg mulighet til å laste ned/overføre musikk, bildeoversikt, backup, SMS, adressebok med mer og synkronsiering av diverse mellom telefonen og PC.

Nokia PC Suite

Før du installerer ikke-Nokia applikasjoner
Nokia E71/E72 (og andre) har sikkerhetsinnstillinger som er der for å beskytte telefonen din. Disse innstillingene må du endre på for å få installert enkelte programmer fra andre leverandører, spesielt de som er “hjemmesnekret”. Derfor har jeg også nevnt i innledningen at alle installasjoner gjør du på eget ansvar. Jeg (og en god del andre brukere) har prøvd disse applikasjonene, men jeg kan naturligvis ikke gå 100% god for sikkerheten.
Jeg har forøvrig engelsk språk på min E71, men du finner sikkert ut hvilke menyvalg jeg mener, har imidlertid skrevet det jeg tror det er på norsk i parantes :)

Dette gjør du: Trykk Meny, velg Installations (Installasjoner?), deretter starter du App. mgr. (samme på norsk?). Velg så Options (Valg?), deretter Settings (Innstillinger?). Så på det øverste valget Software installation (Programvareinstallasjon?) må det stå All (Alle?), på det neste valget Online certificate check (Online sertifikat kontroll?) må det stå Off (Av). Trykk så Exit (Avslutt?).

Dermed skulle du være klar til å installere det meste. Men vær nå lur å ikke installer hva som helst fra hvor som helst!

Google Apps
Google har som kjent masse snope verktøy, disse får du enkelt tilgang til ved å benytte mobilens nettleser og gå til  http://m.google.com/app Der får du automatisk lastet ned Google Apps.

Google Apps

Når du kjører Google Apps på mobilen får du tilgang til søk (naturligvis!), Gmail, Google maps, Picasa Web albums, Google News og Google Kalender. Meget kjekt!

Stemmestyrt søk med Google Apps!
Siste nytt fra Google er at de har integrert voice search i søk-delen av Google Apps. Man trykker og holder inne Ring-knappen på telefonen, sier det man vil søke etter (på engelsk) og slipper knappen.
Foreløpig kun på engelsk altså. For å få dette til å virke så må du inn i Options/Settings og velge Country: United Kingdom. Deretter kan du gå ut av menyen og inn igjen, velge Country: Norge, og så sette Yes i Enable Voice Search. Dermed virker stemmesøk på din Nokia, men altså foreløpig kun på engelsk.
Hvis du tidligere har lastet ned Google Apps til din mobil så bør du besøke siden igjen og oppdatere til siste versjon (som nå er 2.03(8))

Twitter, Facebook, Flickr med mer
Her anbefaler jeg Snaptü, http://www.snaptu.com Installer programmet og vips så har du Twitter, Facebook, Flickr med mer. Gratis!

Ellers så fungerer Twibble bra for Twitter, http://www.twibble.de Men den nye gratis beta-versjonen har mange begrensninger. Fullversjonen koster €4.99.
Gravity har fått mye skryt, der har du tilgang på Facebook, Twitter, Twitpic, ping.fm. Koster ca. 55,- kroner. Du finner Gravity her. De har en prøveversjon du kan teste gratis en kort periode.

VoIP – Skype, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo med mer
Nok en gratis-applikasjon, her anbefaler jeg deg å laste ned Fring fra http://www.fring.com
Når du benytter WiFi (trådløst Internett) så kan du benytte Skype til gratis samtaler til andre Skype-brukere eller betalte (billige) samtaler til vanlige hus- og mobiltelefoner.

Nye oppdaterte kart, gratis bruk!
Anbefaler deg å laste ned Nokia Ovi Maps. Følg anvisningene. Last også ned Nokia Map Loader fra samme sted. I tillegg kan du naturligvis bare bruke Google Maps som du har tilgang på fra Google Apps som jeg allerede har nevnt.
NB! Husk at når du har lastet ned kart fra Nokia Map Loader til din telefon, så trenger du ikke gå online fra kartprogrammet på mobilen når du bruker GPS’en. Det betyr at det koster ingen ting å bruke kartene da telefonen kun benytter den innebyggede GPS’en og kartene som er lagret på minnekortet i mobilen. Kjekt!
Når du bruker f.eks. Google Maps må telefonen laste ned kart nesten kontinuerlig fra Internett, det blir fort kostbart.

Gratis og betalbare applikasjoner pluss musikk!
Besøk Nokia Ovi Store, eller aller enklest gå til Ovi og registrer deg der. Last ned Ovi Store til telefonen for å få tilgang til alt derfra.

Nokia Ovi

Mer om musikk: Nokia Music
Du kan enten gå via Ovi (se over) eller gå direkte til Nokia Music Store fra din PC. Der får du lastet ned Nokia Music til din PC, og du kan begynne å kjøpe og synkronisere musikk mellom Nokia Music og PC/mobil. Du kan opprette spillelister, forhåndslytte (30 sek) på låter du er interessert i, og selvfølgelig kjøpe disse. Du kan bygge opp brennelister og deretter brenne dem til CD. En låt koster for tiden 8,- og et album 80,-. Det finnes også Nice Price hvor du kan få hele album til 59,-.

Nokia Music på PC'en

For å laste musikk rett ned til mobilen fra Nokia Music Store velger du bare Music store i Media-mappen på mobilen. Logg deg på og du har tilgang til det samme som nevnt over.
Du må opprette en konto, og du kan forhåndsbetale et beløp og handle for det (da får du noen låter gratis), eller du kan betale etterhvert som du handler. Som du ser av bildet under får man en gratislåt hver uke, uansett om man kjøper noe eller ei. Blir jo 52 låter på et år, så det er ikke verst

Nokia Music Store på mobilen

Nettleser
Hvis du ønsker en mer avansert nettleser enn den originale fra Nokia så anbefaler jeg Opera Mobile 10 beta som er skreddersydd for Symbian S60. Blant annet kan du bruke klipp&lim mellom nettleser og andre programmer på mobilen. Opera Mobile 10 beta laster sider langt raskere enn tidligere versjoner, har en mye bedre zoom-funksjon, du kan bruke tab’s, den har en Speed dial som viser opptil 9 sider visuelt med mer. Anbefales! Les mer her, eller last den ned ved å gå til http://m.opera.com/mobile fra mobilen.

Opera Mobile 10 beta

Kameratips
Når du skal ta bilder med mobilen, husk at du får autofokus ved å trykke tasten T. Du hører et pip og klammene i skjermbildet blir grønne. Dermed er bildet skarpt og du kan trykke inn Navi-tasten for å ta bildet. Legg også merke til at du har masse innstillingsmuligheter når du er i kameramodus, prøv dem ut!

Snarveier

• Slå på/av Bluetooth ved å holde inne *-tasten
• Gå rett i nettleseren ved å holde inne 0-tasten (null)
• Hold inne Home-tasten (den med huset på), og du får opp alle programmene du kjører. Bla opp/ned for å velge ett av dem. Husk, du eier en ekte smarttelefon som har full multitasking; du kan kjøre flere programmer samtidig!
• Hold inne Kalender-tasten og du kan legge inn en ny avtale direkte.
• Hold inne telefonbok-tasten og du kan legge inn en ny kontakt direkte.

WordPress på Nokia E71/72
Du kan gå via nettleseren på mobilen til http://m.wordpress.com, logge på og få mulighet til å legge inn nye poster på bloggen din. Men WordPress sin mobilside er spinkel for å si det mildt.

Den beste løsningen jeg har funnet er en egen applikasjon kalt wordmobi. Du må laste ned og installere først Phyton 1.9.6 runtime, deretter selve applikasjonen wordmobi 0.9.3. Begge finner du på denne siden.
Du laster som vanlig ned til PC’en, deretter kan du enten benytte Nokia PC Suite for å installere programmene på mobilen, eller du kan overføre filene via Bluetooth og installere fra mobilen.
Etter du har installert er det bare å starte applikasjonen wordmobi, oppgi brukernavn/passord til WordPress, sett også opp hvilken tilkobling du vil benytte for å koble til Internett (wap, WiFi-punkt). Dette kan du endre når du vil.
wordmobi gir deg stort sett de fleste mulighetene; nytt innlegg, bildevedlegg, kategorier, tags, statistikk med mer. Og som så mye annet snacks til Nokia, gratis!

Geotagging av bilder
Dette er en moro funksjon som gjør at du ved hjelp av mobilens GPS kan merke bildene dine med kartkoordinater for hvor bildene er tatt. Deretter kan du f.eks. laste opp bildene til Flickr eller benytte kombinasjonen Picasa og Google Earth. I Picasa åpner du bildet, deretter klikker du på Plasser geografisk, så tar Google Earth seg av plasseringen automatisk. Stilig!
Du kan selvfølgelig bruke programmet Share Online på mobilen (fulgte med) for å dele det taggede bildet direkte på f.eks. Nokia Ovi, Flickr eller Vox uten å gå via PC’en.

Location Tagger

Du må først laste ned og installere programmet Location Tagger fra Nokia Beta labs på mobilen. Se nærmere beskrivelser på siden. For å få tagget bildene dine må du først starte Location Tagger og la mobilens GPS få kontakt med satelittene. Når det gjør det vil du få Status: GPS locked. Trykk nå hjem-tasten (huset), start så kameraet. Øverst i venstre hjørne vil du se et grønt symbol, noe som betyr at taggingen er klar og har funnet posisjonen din. Den nøyaktige posisjonen vil bli lagret som en del av EXIF-informasjonen til bildet.
Location Tagger kan du bare la gå i bakgrunnen, du slipper naturligvis å starte programmet for hver gang du skal ta et bilde.
Som du allerede har skjønt er en av styrkene til E71/E72 at de har multitasking, du kan dermed kjøre flere programmer samtidig. Er du ute og jogger kan du jo bruke radioen eller musikkspilleren på mobilen, ha Location Tagger gående i bakgrunnen og vippe opp telefonen og ta et geotagget bilde når du ser et fint motiv. Mens du hører på radioen/musikkspilleren. God tur!

RSS-lesere
Hva er en RSS-leser? Her et sitat fra Wikipedia: RSS er et enkelt XML-basert filformat som ofte brukes for å abonnere på nyhetsbaserte nettsteder. Ved å tilby RSS gir nettstedet brukerene et standardisert format som kan brukes i mange forskjellige RSS-lesere.

RSS-ikonet

Hvordan få dette på din mobil? Hvis du allerede bruker Snaptü (se over) til Twitter så har du kanskje merket at Snaptü inneholder flere tjenester. En av dem heter News&Blogs, og det er faktisk en RSS-leser. Der ligger det klar en hel del kanaler (Channels). Du kan slette de du ikke vil benytte og selvfølgelig legge til nye, enten ved å importere fra Google Reader, eller ved på legge til ved hjelp av URL eller ved å søke.
Jeg nevnte her Google Reader, som er Google sin RSS-leser. Den kan du enkelt nå fra mobilen ved å besøke: m.google.com/reader fra mobilen. Logg deg på med din Google-konto og vips! så har du kontakt med Google Reader og kan bruke den. Virker meget bra på E71/E72.
Det finnes flere RSS-lesere for mobiler, jeg synes disse to fungerer utmerket og begge er gratis, dermed ingen grunn til å lete etter flere

Smileys (emoticons) på S60-telefoner
Pussig nok har Nokia valgt å ikke ha med smileys i forbindelse med SMS på smarttelefonene. Riktignok så blir det smiley hos mottakeren hvis du f.eks. skriver “:-)” og “;-)”, bare husk på å ta med “nesen”, altså bindestreket.
En leser spør i kommentarfeltet om nettopp dette, og nevner programmet My A-SMS som et mulig alternativ. Jeg har ikke prøvd det, men ser på Q&A på My A-SMS’s side at det krever at mottakeren har det samme programmet. Så da utgår jo egentlig det.
Jeg har funnet et program som heter ThreadSMS som fungerer på S60-telefoner. Det gir som navnet sier SMS’ene i en trådoversikt, slik at man holder rede på SMS’er som er sendt til samme person. I ThreadSMS er det også smileys. Jeg installerte prøveversjonen og har testet den i et par minutter, den gir smileys på innkommende SMS. Men når du skal sende SMS er den sperret. Du må altså kjøpe fullversjonen.

Programmet kan lestes ned her (finnes en gratis prøveversjon, evt. kjøp den). ThreadSMS koster $14.95, altså ca. 85,- kroner.

Sikkerhet
En profesjonell smarttelefon bør ha flere sikkerhetsfunksjoner, noe f.eks. Nokia E71 har. Jeg vil nevne noen viktige funksjoner her.

Låse mobilen manuelt
Trykk på AV/PÅ tasten, velg Lås telefon i menyen. For å åpne telefonen igjen trykker du venstre valgtast (knappen øverst til venstre) deretter knappen nederst til venstre, så skriver du inn koden. Standard kode er 12345. Dermed låses telefonen opp igjen.
Denne koden anbefaler jeg deg å bytte. Det gjør du slik: Meny > Verktøy > Innst. > Generell > Sikkerhet > Telefon og SIM-kort > Låskode Her oppgir du den gamle koden (12345), deretter skriver du inn den nye koden du vil ha. Den kan ha fra 4 til 255 tegn, små og/eller store bokstaver og tall. Lag en avansert kode (og husk den!). Det gjør telefonen sikrere.

Fjernlåse mobilen
Dette er en snop funksjon. La oss si at du har glemt telefonen hos en (u)venn, og ikke vil at vedkommende skal lese dine meldinger eller se dine bilder. Eller la oss si at du rett og slett (krise!) har mistet telefonen. Da kan du holde uvedkommende borte fra innholdet ved å benytte funksjonen Ekstern låsing.
Denne funksjonen må aktiveres først, det gjør du slik: Meny > Verktøy > Innst. > Generell > Sikkerhet > Telefon og SIM-kort > Tillat ekstern låsing > Ja Så skriver du inn meldingen som skal låse telefonen. den må ha minst 5 tegn, f.eks. ‘steng E71‘.
Så hvordan bruker du denne funksjonen da? Jo, du sender en tekstmelding til telefonen din som kun inneholder teksten ‘steng E71‘. Dermed blir telefonen stengt, og kan kun låses opp med låsekoden nevnt over.

Låsing av minnekort
Dette er også en svært viktig funksjon. La oss si at du har mistet telefonen, og at de som finner den ikke klarer å åpne den fordi du var så lur å fjernlåse den (se over). Finneren er alikevel ikke helt idiot, han/hun tar selvfølgelig ut minnekortet ditt og setter det i sin egen telefon eller PC. Så kan de i ro og behag lese innholdet/se alle bildene. Kjipt!
Her er løsningen å låse minnekortet slik: Velg Meny > Verktøy > Minne. Der inne velger du Valg > Angi passord. Passordet kan ha inntil 8 tegn, store eller små. Dette passordet lagres på minnekortet, slik at når du setter kortet inn i en annen telefon eller PC så må passordet oppgis. Dermed får ikke uvedkommende lese innholdet. Skulle du selv glemme passordet kan du bare formattere kortet så blir det (og alt innhold!) borte.

Kryptering
Vil du heve sikkerhetsnivået enda ett hakk på telefonen så foretar du en kryptering av den. Du kan kryptere selve telefonminnet og/eller minnekortet. Det gjøres slik: Velg Meny > Verktøy > Kryptering. Vil du kryptere telefonminnet velger du Telefonminne. Vil du kryptere minnekortet har du flere alternativer, velg det du ønsker i menyen. Dermed blir innholdet kryptert og ingen kan lese innholdet hvis de prøver med sitt eget SIM-kort i din telefon.
NB! Husk alltid å dekryptere telefonminnet og minnekortet (hvis du har kryptert dem) før du gjør en programvareoppgradering!

(*) Facebook på E71/E72
Som nevnt lengre opp i dette innlegget så kan man nå Facebook via Snaptü. Noen har kanskje også lagt merke til at etter oppdatering til siste firmware på e71 så har det dukket opp et Facebook-ikon på telefonen. Dette er imidlertid kun en snarvei til Facebook’s nettside.
Nå er endelig en Facebook-applikasjon klar for E71/E72, denne laster du ned fra Ovi Store på din telefon. Enkelt og greit! Gir bedre funksjonalitet enn tidligere snarveier til Facebook.

Siste betanytt fra Nokia
Nokia har siden http://betalabs.nokia.com hvor du finner betaversjoner av nye programmer til mobilen. Mye interessant der!

Til slutt…
Dette var noen av de tipsene jeg kom på nå, skal oppdatere dette innlegget etterhvert som jeg kommer over mer godstoff til Nokia E71/E72 (og andre Nokia som benytter Symbian S60).

Lykke til med din Nokia!

What am I doing? Not sleeping.

Frustration = need to make something of this time, since I’m not enjoying some much-needed rest. What did I decide to do? Fix my RSS subscription issue. Let it be known that I love Google, but I am not a fan of their reader. I do not like the layout, I do not like how the feeds come up, I do not like the visual clutter. Enter my new favorite Mac app: RSSOwl (also available for Linux and Windows)

It’s lovely to look at, and so organized! I may have a sleep-dep headache, but I have a smile on my face that RSSOwl helped put there via OCD-High.

Now, if it could only double as a sleep-aid…

Snowl 0.3 (2009-09-17) Mozilla Labs (미국)

Firefox 내부 새로운 RSS Reader 프로젝트. 마이크로 블로깅(Twitter 같은) 서비스와의 효과적인 연동이 목적인 듯 하나 아직 명확한 특징은 보이지 않는다.

Snowl 0.3 (2009-09-17) Mozilla Labs (미국)

Firefox 내부 새로운 RSS Reader 프로젝트. 마이크로 블로깅(Twitter 같은) 서비스와의 효과적인 연동이 목적인 듯 하나 아직 명확한 특징은 보이지 않는다.

kdsksdl;dskjfds;k

Day 25/30 of Experiment:  views 258
Main Referring Sites: 201 StumbleUpon (Endorsed link), 13 StumbleUpon (LinkedIn), 9 BlogSurfer.us, 1 Facebook, 1 RBKartworks.com, 1 Twitter

Today’s Activities:

1. Bought an IPhone, installed wordpress, tweetdeck, Flikr, and facebook.
2. Replied to comments posted in discussions and on blog
   

Thoughts out Loud

So I logged in to my dashboard (stats board) tonight after a full day of face-to-face networking and did a double take. I actually went back and checked that I was on the right blog thinking perhaps I was viewing another blog’s numbers. Today’s numbers nearly doubled my highest traffic day so far, here’s what happened.

My stats board gives me a quick outline of where my traffic came from, what pages and posts they visited, and even what links they clicked on from my posts. Today’s big winner was “Day 23, RSS Readers Rock!“. I followed the biggest originating link and found the following message:

Your page is on StumbleUpon

One of our members added your page to the Unknown topic on StumbleUpon. Each time our members who are interested in Unknown “stumble upon” your page using our toolbar, it will record an entry on your referral logs.

Google has released yet another toy to play around with in their lab today. Their new news viewer, called Google Fast Flip, is an entirely new way of viewing articles and publications. And by an entirely new way of viewing, I mean a very old way, for actual physical texts at least.

The idea of Fast Flip is to give internet readers a much easier way to read there articles. Think about how you currently have to read articles if you dare to brave them online. Maybe you use your RSS reader, which means opening the reader, choosing the publication you want to view new articles for, and scrolling individually through all the articles reading their names and captions to find an interesting one.

But now imagine picking up a magazine while waiting at your local car repair shop. You would more or less just breeze through the book, really only stopping when an article caught your eye. It’s a much faster, more natural way of reading. And that is what Google is trying to duplicate.

With Fast Flip, you can organize articles by several attributes: Source (NY Times, Washington Post, Slate), topic (Jay-Z, swine flu, newspaper), section (science/technology, business, world), or by popularity. Within each of those categories (and more categories I haven’t listed),  Fast Flip displays small pictures of each article, along with the article title. What this allows you to do is quickly browse through many different articles to find the one you want to read. Just like in a real newspaper or magazine.

Google’s Fast Flip has its pro’s and its con’s, like any other application. On the plus side, I found it very easy to use and it was a huge time conserver as far as reading articles goes. I liked it a lot more than I like Google Reader, or any other RSS feeder. Also, a huge benefit of Googles Reader is that you can view all these articles to find an interesting one without having to wait 10 seconds for all the media and content on the page to load, before realizing you don’t even want to read the article.

On the negative side, Fast Flip is only working with certain companies at the moment, and so there selection is fairly limited. Of course, some big names such as the NY Times and Washington Post are amongst the Fast Flip contributors, but other’s such as Mac World that make for good reading arent’t. I’m sure that once Fast Flip becomes better known, more and more groups will contribute articles. It is, after all, only the first day.

All in all, I would highly recommend Fast Flip to anyone who enjoys reading online articles, rather than paying for the daily paper. If you do happen to be one of those electronic article guru’s, then Google Fast Flip will pretty much make your day.

Access Fast Flip here.