Sunday, June 21, 2009
Google Voice is about to launch to everyone
How I have been using Google Voice so far is as an extension to my Verizon cell voice mail. Here's how it works.
- Set your Google Voice to "do not disturb."
- On your cell, dial *71 (then your new Google Voice number). This command on Verizon means No Answer/Busy call forward.
When someone calls your cell and you don't pick up, it gets forwarded to your GV account and you get all the features of GV: transcription, visual voice mail, SMS, search, permanent archiving, and much more.
But, here's the tidbit I wanted to share with you today. When you are on the road and call to check your GV messages, they've added this awesome feature:
After you listen to a message you can press "2" to return the call. GV then uses the caller ID of the person who left you the message and calls them back without you having to write down the number, hang up then call them. IT DOESN'T STOP THERE. After you are done with this call, simply press "*" to return to your messages. Yeah. Oh, it works flawlessly too.
Do you have Google Voice? Do you want it? Share any thoughts below.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
6 tools to make Twitter better
Since I am the gadget guy and "I read the entire internet so you don't have to.®", I though I'd share with you some tools I use to make using Twitter better, easier and more fun.
1. Tweetree. The site I use most when reading Twitter. What Tweetree does is make reading and posting tweets better. For reading: when there is a link in a post the site is displayed in with the tweet, allowing you to simply stay right on Tweetree and read the linked to site/video/picture inline. For posting tweets: it's URL shortner works awesome. Just paste a URL and click Shoren URLs.
2. TwitterGadget. If you use GMail, iGoogle, or Firefox TwitterGadget is a nice little add-on. For Gmail, it resides below the chat box and in Firefox, it resides in the sidebar. It has most of the functionality you'd want in a twitter gadget - and works really well.
3. Powertwitter Firefox addon. Powertwitter is similar to Tweetree in that it adds functionality to each message, except that you simply visit Twitter.com while using Firefox and it:
-search and recent searches
-search scoped to a specific user
-status history peeking on mouseover
-Facebook status updates
-inline YouTube, Flickr, TwitPic, Google Maps, song.ly, and more
-url expansion
-url translation to page titles
-open web update (news feed) mapping
-custom settings
-@mentions
-photo uploading
-link shrinking
-#hashtags
4. TwitPic. TwitPic is a way to share photos on Twitter. You can MMS a photo or email one to TwitPic and the subject line you use will be used as the text in a tweet that links back to the photo. Here is my TwitPic page. If you are a Flickr user, they recently released an update that works similar to TwitPic.
5. Picfog. Picfog is a fun little site that aggregates all the most recent shots from TwitPic. It's fun to watch the slide show and see what others are posting in real time.
6. iPhone/iPod Touch users: TwitterFon is an awesome free app to read/post on Twitter.
Got a suggestion or a tool that you use? Share it below.
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Google Wave
Lars Rasmussen is the engineer behind Google Maps and the lead engineer who rolled out Google Wave on Thursday at Google I/O conference.
The below 1:20:12 presentation shows how truly amazing software engineering can be. You probably won't hear about Google Wave going live for a few months, but you can sign up for a new account at http://wave.google.com/
The below 1:20:12 presentation shows how truly amazing software engineering can be. You probably won't hear about Google Wave going live for a few months, but you can sign up for a new account at http://wave.google.com/
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Vietnam Veterans Memorial "The Moving Wall"
This is a half sized replica of the Vietman Veterans Memorial wall in Washington D.C. It has been touring the country for over 20 years. Seen here at Mayfair in Allentown, PA
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Baby sparrows
These little guys (5 of them in total) were hatched 2 days ago in my bluebird house. I know, they're not bluebirds, but they are fun to check out.
If you look closely at the one on the left, you'll see a little treat in his beak.. maybe a left over leg from a spider or cricket?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Letter from a Dodge dealer
letter to the [American Thinker] editor, and totally worth the re-post.
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong. This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
George C. Joseph
President & Owner
Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong. This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
George C. Joseph
President & Owner
Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu
We're changing to Disqus [commenting system]
Disqus, pronounced "discuss", is an innovative commenting system for bloggers, newspapers, and publishers of web content, etc. It allows you, the reader, to create a free account and be able to track your "comment conversations" across the web in your personal Disqus dashboard.Lots of folks read and comment on blogs from Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc and each of these sites has their own login system and when you comment there, they are held captive. Imagine all of your comments aggregated in one place. Hello: Disqus.
What pushed me abandon the default Google Blogger commenting system is this little addition: When you connect Twitter to your Disqus account, anytime you leave a comment *anywhere* it can automatically update your Twitter account with a link to the article you just commented on. Check it out here.
As a publisher, this is great news because that means each Disqus commenter's Twitter page will now have the person's comment and a link to the blog post they commented on. The more people who comment, the more exposure my site gets.
For those of you looking to get "quality" updates on your Twitter page, why not create a Disqus account and start by leaving a comment on your favorite blogs?
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Forks Flag Football League (FFFL) Game
Below is the slide show, For best viewing results: Click to play, then click the box in the bottom right corner to maximize to full screen. Enjoy!
You can also view the entire Flickr page here.
You can also view the entire Flickr page here.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Crow vs. baby rabbit
Who knew crows would do this? They should be ashamed of themselves! Taking a poor little bunny foo foo and eating it like chicken.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Facebook on the go
Facebook is really trying to make itself more useful while it's users are on the go. A few days ago, I noticed this new link appearing under the profile pictures of my friends:
Subscribe by SMS. When I click it Facebook tells me "Jeff's status updates will now be delivered to your phone via mobile texts." Cool.
Here are some other things you can do while on the go. I particularly love the "Get cell phone #" option. Way useful while on the go. Here's the full list of what you can text to FBOOK (32665):
Update status: is at john's party
Message: msg john smith whats up?
Get profile info: srch john smith
Get cell phone #: cell john smith
Wall post wall: john smith happy bday
Poke: poke john smith
Add a friend: add john smith
Write a note: note this is a mobile note
Since Facebook is so easy to use on the web, this is their way of heading Twitter off at the pass in the mobile arena. Twitter is growing (by double), but even my Mom's on Facebook.
Subscribe by SMS. When I click it Facebook tells me "Jeff's status updates will now be delivered to your phone via mobile texts." Cool.Here are some other things you can do while on the go. I particularly love the "Get cell phone #" option. Way useful while on the go. Here's the full list of what you can text to FBOOK (32665):
Update status: is at john's party
Message: msg john smith whats up?Get profile info: srch john smith
Get cell phone #: cell john smith
Wall post wall: john smith happy bday
Poke: poke john smith
Add a friend: add john smith
Write a note: note this is a mobile note
Since Facebook is so easy to use on the web, this is their way of heading Twitter off at the pass in the mobile arena. Twitter is growing (by double), but even my Mom's on Facebook.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Photo assignment: Kids Co-Op
The girls' teacher asked me if I would take some photos so they could update their website. I'm pretty sure it was the first time I was on an "official" photo assignment. Here are a few of my favorites from the set.
I've got so much to learn, but this was fun. The lighting was pretty low, so the ISO was up to 1000 (hence the grainyness). Hope you like.
I've got so much to learn, but this was fun. The lighting was pretty low, so the ISO was up to 1000 (hence the grainyness). Hope you like.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Microsoft's Facebook Demo
Well, well, well. Microsoft has some tricks up it's sleeve with Silverlight (and maybe .net, we'll see), but take a look at what they did in just 72 hours with Facebook's new API.
It' s not open to developers (yet) but when it is - who the hell is going to actually GO to facebook.com? It'll be like Twitter how I get my data by using TweetDeck and Twittergadget.
It' s not open to developers (yet) but when it is - who the hell is going to actually GO to facebook.com? It'll be like Twitter how I get my data by using TweetDeck and Twittergadget.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
17,000 visits
Just wanted to say thank you to the 17,000 people who visited PatrickKaine.com
Y'all come back now, ya hear?
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