RickScheibner.net

Think about the software that you use day in and day out, the ones you absolutely couldn’t live without. If you’re like me, that list probably includes an e-mail client, an office productivity suite, browser, and a messenger service of some type. I might also throw Windows Live Writer in there for my purposes, and you might have some other apps you use daily in your professional life. Next, on the useful-but-not-100%-essential list, I have things like image editing/storage programs (I’m partial to GIMP and Picasa), music software (iTunes) as well as some other fun goodies (Google Earth and Dreamweaver on my computer).

Evernote is software that is quickly moving from my second list and making it’s way onto the first one. It’s job is a simple one, but it does it quite well: Collect tidbits and snippets of information from a variety of sources, and archive them for later. This is a niche that has proven to be essential for me since I first signed up for the service a couple of months ago. Evernote sweetens the deal by allowing for multiple installs on computers and handheld web devices and providing syncronization to their web service. Find something at work, clip it to Evernote, and it’s waiting for you at home when you power up. Or, if you’re away from your own computer, you can simply log into your account via any web browser and access it from there. What’s more, Evernote indexes all of your information so you can quickly search for it later on.

Evernote contains some other powerful features as well, including the ability to recognize writing in an image file. In the coming days and weeks, I’m going to be publishing a series of posts on this impressive application. We will take a look at each of it’s features and run it through some examples.

I rarely get excited about a software title, let alone devote a blog series about it. This is one of the rare exceptions. Just today, Evernote moved from the invitation-only stage and opened it up for the public. Give it a shot, and follow me while we explore this together.

Next up: We examine the dashboard and operating environment.

Technorati Tags: Evernote, education, technology

Embedded Video

Tags: wiki, YouTube, Common Craft,

First of all, thanks to everybody who participated in this not-so-scientific survey about some habits and attitudes regarding Twitter.  We had 26 responses in just a little under 24 hours, so I’m pleased with the results.  Take a look at some graphs and observations that came out of it:

1.  How often do you use Twitter?

No surprise here.  Apparently, one of my readers doesn’t use Twitter.  Given the up-to-the-minute nature of Twitter, I’m also not surprised that nobody selected “Once a week.” 

2.  I use Twitter mainly for…

I probably loaded this question a little, but I’ve found that Twitter has blurred those professional and social lines for me. 

3.  What is your current attitude toward Twitter?

I’m sure that the person who reported not using Twitter above is the same person who wonders why anybody would care what they’re doing right now.  That’s exactly what I thought about the service before I found what it could do for me.  I think it’s just one of those things you have to experience to get. 

4.  What kind of effect has Twitter had on posting to your own blog?

I don’t think Twitter was ever meant to take the place of your own blog, but I’d wondered if that had happened to some people who used to blog regularly.  I’ve noticed a decrease in my own output, but that is likely due to reasons that have nothing to do with Twitter.  I was a little surprised that there are a few people out there who Twitter who don’t have a blog of their own. 

My own take on Twitter

Like many of you, my attitude went from “What’s the big deal” to “I can’t believe how much I’m using this” in a very short time.  I have to admit that it does have some addictive qualities to it, and as such, how long will it be around?  For me, I think that once the initial coolness factor wears off, I will continue to use it perhaps less often, but for more specific purposes.  Many of you know that this actually started out as my professional blog, and have since merged my own personal blog with it.  As such, I’ve struggled a little bit to rediscover my own blogging voice and establish a consistent readership base.  I believe that Twitter will help me accomplish just that.  Oh, and if you haven’t done so already, feel free to add me to your own Twitter list. 

Your thoughts on these results?

I’ve put together a quick anonymous survey regarding our Twitter habits.  Six questions, should take you <5 minutes.  I’ll share the results soon.  Thanks in advance for helping a brother out.

Twitter survey

Tags: Twitter, survey, Web 2.0, collaboration

Ok, last post for Flock.  Just a few random thoughts:

• I like the feed reader, I’m just not ready to switch from web-based Google Reader.
• It’s a great way to keep up with Twitter while I’m doing other things.
• I’ve got it set up almost exactly like Firefox; I hardly notice the difference any more.
• Watch a YouTube video some time and see what Flock does with it.  I especially like the ability to do one-click embedding for a post of my own.  Cool feature.
• Streaming media out the ears.
• One last request:  When I click on favorite, it goes to my del.icio.us account.  Can we set that up to go to Google Bookmarks also?

What more can I say; I’m sold.  I’m ready to just use it instead of talking about it now.

Have you tried it yet?

Day 2, and I’m rather enjoying it for the most part.  A few things:

• When I log into YouTube and go onto the site, it automatically adds that account to the People Sidebar, whether I want it there or not.  I figured out how to go in and delete it, I just think it will be a pain to do that every time.  I don’t see a way to keep it from doing that.
• The built-in feed reader is actually pretty nice.  I converted my Google Reader feeds successfully, and I was able to import them without too much trouble.  (Thanks for the tip, Evan).  One thing I miss from Google Reader is my ability to scan titles, then have them open up individually when I click on them.  With the Flock reader, I can have all posts open, partially open, or closed.  It’s an all or nothing deal. 
• I got all of my regular Firefox extensions to work (so far) in Flock.  Google toolbar, FireFTP, ChatZilla, Adblock Plus all work like a charm.   I still have a few more to try out, but these are the important ones.  In fact, I’ve been able to get Flock to look and act more like my Firefox setup than I had originally anticipated. 
• I really, really like the Media Bar that goes across the top.  What a great way to scan and preview a series of media files, then get them out of the way quickly when you’re done.

So am I switching yet?  Still haven’t decided.  I’m really into Twitter these days, and I’ve been doing that from my Google Talk client that resides in my Google Desktop sidebar.  Twittering from the People Sidebar as well would be more cumbersome and a little redundant.  Even on my 1280×768 resolution screen, I lose a little more real estate than I’m comfortable with.  If I end up staying with Flock, I’ll probably lose the Google Desktop sidebar. 

Tags: Flock, browser

I probably should be doing something else tonight–like working on homework for a class this Wednesday, but instead I’m prioritizing my time by checking out a relatively new browser called Flock.  Called a “social” browser, Flock is actually built on the Firefox engine and integrates several of the more popular social networks and makes them easily accessible within the sidebar and toolbar of the browser itself.  I’m still playing with it, but I like what I see so far.  Here are some random thoughts as I make my way through it’s features:

• I can post directly to my blog using the built-in editor and publisher.  It’s better than the Scribefire add-on for Firefox, but still doesn’t allow for inserting the html code to open a link in a new window.  Typing in target=”_blank” each time is a pain.  It quickly and efficiently found the settings necessary for my privately hosted WordPress blog, though. 
• I’m using the native Flock blog editor to post this right now.
• GMail notifications are quick and painless. 
• I’d like to import all of my feeds from Google Reader, but I will need to first figure out how to convert an .xml file to .opml. 
• Twitter and Facebook fit in here quite nicely. 
• I like the ability to view photos from Picasa Web and Flickr in the top of the window, then remove it quickly when I don’t need to see it.  Note to family:  Please start using Picasa Web!

Some things to check out in the future:

• Firefox extensions that also work with Flock. 
• Importing my favorites and other settings from Firefox.  It gives you the option to do this upon first installation, but of course I didn’t do that.  Now, I need to go back and see if I can do that manually.

That’s it for now.  I’ll post about this again when I get a little more familiar with it.  A few little quirks, but so far I really like it. 

Tags: flock, browser, tools, Web 2.0