Now that the secret of the Pecha Kucha session is out in the wild (or ‘Pikachu’ as Laura kept referring to it!), I thought I’d post up a few notes and links to the sites I talked about. Everyone else that spoke used del.icio.us for their links, and although I tried using it at one point; I much preferred the Google Bookmark interface. For all the del.icio.us users, it was as simple as sticking their userID into a lovely interface website, or a random userID instead as the hilarious Will was coerced into doing! I wanted to speak to a few sites, so I loaded up about 18 tabs on my browser and gave a high-speed explanation of each (and hopefully i didn’t run too far over time…). I haven’t seen any video of this session yet, so here’s a run-down of some of the sites I recommended that day…
Google Reader
When it comes to RSS, I used to be a NewsGator aficionado, but it really started wigging me out last year - I would keep marking posts as read and the page would refresh and they would still be there, mixed in with the new ones. I decided to make the switch to Google Reader based on recommendations made in several blogs that I read. It couldn’t have been easier, I was given full instructions in how to extract my feeds as a list and imported them into Google Reader - 5 mins later I was up and running. As we often hear from Scoble, you soon get used to pressing ‘J’ to move to the next item and ‘K’ to move back to the previous (and ‘R’ is refresh!). I can scan through my feeds much quicker and it’s a lovely clean interface to boot.
Continuing on the RSS theme, while Google Reader is excellent at finding any feed available on a webpage, it’s of no use if there is no feed available. That’s where Page2RSS comes in - it will monitor any page for updates and then deliver them direct to your RSS reader. Furthermore, if you use Firefox, then you can create a toolbar button to make it into a one-click process (well, one click to create the RSS feed and another to add it to Google Reader in my case!). Recently it came in useful for me to track the changes to the BarCamp SouthEast wiki.
I posted a review of VideoJug previously, and i have to say that my opinion hasn’t really changed. I still mainly use the site to find recipes, and I’m often to be found in the kitchen with the laptop wirelessly connected as I review a video ‘one last time’ before beginning to cook! The recipes are mainly simple and rarely use hard-to-find ingredients, so they’re perfect for store-cupboard cooking (as I like to refer to the night before I go shopping!). My favourite recipe so far? Has to be Pan-Fried Tuna!
I’ve been trying to get all my information online this year, so that I can access it from any computer - I ended up with half my information on my work laptop and the rest on the main PC at home. I was looking for an online document storage and collaboration solution, and while Google Docs and Spreadsheets is good for basic Word and Excel documents it doesn’t cover my needs regarding PDF’s, JPG’s, PowerPoint, etc… Box.net doesn’t give me in-line editing and collaboration, but it does allow me to store my life online and access it from anywhere, so it’s half the battle won! and not to mention that you can have up to 1GB of storage for free…
BookMooch
BookMooch has to be one of my all time favourite sites. I’m an avid reader and I can’t afford to support my book habit, so secondhand shops and Amazon used to feed it slightly cheaper instead! But BookMooch allows you to trade your old books and request other people’s second hand ones in exchange for points. Points are gained for listing books, sending them to other people and leaving feedback amongst other things. You can then spend these points on requesting books that you desire from other members - the only thing it ever costs you is the postage of sending your books out. I worked out how much I had ’spent’ on books from there recently and it worked out that for every book I was receiving, it was costing me about €3.00 - not bad!
Beaut.ie
If you haven’t discovered the delicious mix of wisdom and wit that’s being dispensed on the subject of beauty by the two beautiful babes of beaut.ie then you need to head over there quickly! Sisters Aphrodite and Kirstie along with their ever-growing band of guest writers post about everything beauty related and answer their readers questions whilst questing for the next great beauty bargain. They’ve burst onto the Irish blog scene in a big way over the last few months and have even managed to persuade two of their readers to go test-drive a colonic hydrotherapy procedure! Rumours abound that I may be doing a guest post or two for them in the near future…
Google Customised HomePage
Finally, I left the longest for last: A lot of people don’t realise that if you have a Google Account, then you can customise your Google homepage with lots of cool widgets - as you can see below, on mine I currently have a ton of stuff that I access frequently:
Sticky Note - I’m a list maker, that’s for sure. I can’t start work on anything until I’ve made a list of what needs to be done. Unfortunately, lists end up everywhere, so using Sticky Note means that i can access my personal to-do list from anywhere.
To-Do List - Used in conjunction with Sticky Note, I use this is to keep longer term tasks handily listed.
Bookmarks - this is just a quick link into my Google Bookmarks, after all this time I’m finally trying to pare down my 700+ favourites that I’ve been carrying around for years and make them accessible online.
TinyURL Creator - if you haven’t found TinyURL yet, then head over there and watch them work their magic!
Toggle Search Bar - Handy widget that toggles the main Google search bar on and off at the top of the page - usually toggled to ‘off’ on my page, as I use the built-in Google search in Firefox.
Google Analytics - Handy little snapshot that lets me see ‘at-a-glance’ my Google Analytics stats for the day so far.
Dictionary.com - A nice little widget allowing you to query a word on the dictionary.com site.
Currency Converter - Living in Ireland as I do, I regularly shop on the internet and buy things from around the world - this is how I check that they really are cheaper, that I’m not just imagining it!
The Google 15 - there is a myth that most new Google employees put on at least 15lb in weight over their first year, due to all the free food and drinks that they get at work. I don’t work there, but I’ve certainly put on my own version of that weight over the past 2 years! This widget tracks your weight on a daily basis, showing you a running average and your goal weight.
Google Calculator - I was never able to convert from oz to g, km to miles or any American weight measure to any UK weight measure - this does it for me!
Google Docs & Spreadsheets - Displays any documents I have stored in Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Date & Time - that has to be self-explanatory, surely?
ColorJunction & Geography Zone - a couple of little game widgets for when I have a sec to spare! and finally…
Weather - I like to track weather in several cities at a time, especially since I work as part of a virtual team - it’s always nice to be able to chat to someone without first having to ask, “So what’s the weather like there today?” - it’s much more interesting to be able to say “Ooohhh, I see you’re having a heat-wave at the moment, wish I was there!”
If you don’t like to have things as cluttered as I do, you can create multiple tabs on your homepage and store things as you please.
That’s the end of my review of my ‘can’t live without’ websites from last year - so let me know -
