Google Buzz has certainly been generating lots of buzz. Here are some privacy tips that you have been clamoring for.
Disabling Buzz - Go to the very bottom of the page. There is a link that says “turn off buzz.”
Removing a Follower - Right above your posting text box, there is a link that says “# followers”. You can then click the “Unfollow” link to remove the person.
Blocking a Follower - Going a step further you can click on any name in your buzz and they will show up at the top of your page with links to “Unfollow” and “Block [name].”
It has been noted that blocking a user may not work. If the person has a Google Profile, you can block them; however, if the person has not yet setup a Google Profile, they will remain unblocked no matter what you do. Google dropped the ball on this one.
Limiting who can see your Buzz - You can choose who can see your posts on a per post basis by setting up contact groups.
]]>I remember Macromedia Flash 5 with ActionScripting 1.0. WOW! This is the future of the Internet. This will really open up the possibilities to developers. Or so I thought.
Ten years later we still have this proprietary, resource hogging, buggy standard we call Adobe Flash. I don’t blame Adobe in anyway; they do the best they can. I blame ourselves, the developers. We have all the power and time to create an open standard, but we sit by and watch DHTML fall and HTML5 flounder.
Since we drag our feet, developers have no choice but to continue developing in Flash. I grant you, there are some great things being done in Flash:
But the fact simple fact that any semblance of Flash nails my Core2 Duo to the roof tells us all we need to know about this standard. There is something really wrong with it.
The Apple iPad, frustrating as it may be, rightly omits Flash from Mobile Safari. Besides being a resource hog, Flash is buggy beyond belief in almost all flavors (different browsers and different operating systems). Battery concerns aside, I support Apple’s philosophical stand in forcing change at the annoyance of their own customers.
I said before, the Apple iPad is not about flexibility or power. It’s simply a device that is supposed to provide one, easy way to get a task done. Maybe you don’t agree it’s the best way, but if you’re about to adapt and evolve, then you need a more flexible platform than the iPad. This device is not for you.
The Apple iPad is a closed system that is supposed to provide it’s users the best user experience to the tasks they commonly need to accomplish. By definition opening up the system introduces confusion, complication, and contradiction. Flash introduces all three of these unwelcome concepts.
Give me HTML5 (or some widely accepted open standard), and Apple will give you rich content in Safari.
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The target audience for the iPad? Baby Boomers. Steve Jobs invented a device for his people. An APPLICATION COMPUTER.
The generation that introduced YOU to the computer is the one in greatest need of a computer built for them. My dad (electrical engineer and at-first-glance-geek) has had computers all his life starting with punch-card mainframes. But as he ages, he becomes more and more resistant to change.
He went the Apple route starting with an Apple II. This was followed by a Macintosh, a PowerBook, a Macintosh II, and a G3. But System 9 was really showing it’s age and our entire household went to Windows. Despite the return of Steve Jobs and the innovation brought by Mac OS X, my dad kept to Windows XP. He understood it and could use it to do everything he needed.
Despite his familiarity with System and Finder moving him to OS X 10.4 Tiger was somewhat more difficult than I expected. In fact, I think it was easier to move my 90 year old grandfather from Windows XP to Tiger (in truth, because my grandfather doesn’t do as much with his computer as my father).
Computers are flexible. There’s many ways to do the same task. Some are more powerful than others. Some are easier than others. Some are faster than others. It seems things can be powerful, easy, or fast, pick two.
Let’s look at things my dad and grandfather do:
Both of them have a Mac Mini. My dad sits far too close to his, and my grandfather uses a 60” DLP at 720p. Oh, and have you ever watched a 90-year-old use a mouse or touch pad? They just don’t have the muscle control us young’uns do.
The iPod Touch can do everything they need, in a much easier interface that they can’t screw up, but neither of them can see the screen worth a darn. Also, the lack of keyboard is troublesome.
Enter the iPad. It’s a great size for them (132ppi might still be small, but with 2x scaling of iPhone apps we essentially get 66ppi). There’s a keyboard for them to use for e-mail. They can’t screw anything up. It’s $499.
Netbooks, even laptops, are too small for them, and they’re too complicated. Desktops are too complicated. This is a device that fulfills a role that there is no competitor. The iPhone interface might not be the best, but when it comes to easy and intuitive, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of any desktop OS.
This audience is not looking for flexible. They’re not looking for powerful. They’re looking for one easy way to get stuff done. the iPad gives it to them.
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In my last post I argued the iPad is aimed at a new Target Audience. Who is that exactly?
First, let’s get the obvious out of the way:
The Apple FanGeeks will buy a nice pile of steaming poo if it had an Apple logo on it. Don’t be insulted; that’s just the way it is. The sooner you can admit this to yourself, the easier it will be to accept who you are. By the way, we know you’ll buy the Wi-Fi version in 59 days and then buy the 3G version 30 days after that, and that’s what makes Steve Jobs a brilliant marketer and sales guru.
Technophies and gadget lovers will buy this device because it’s in their blood. Love it or hate it, you’ll still buy it because you’re curious; at the very least you’ll buy it to publicly post how much you hate everything about it as you continue to use it day in and day out. You too, might also buy both versions.
CEOs like to be up on the current trends and they have the money to make it look like they’re hip to what’s new. Some might be legit technophiles, but most like the status symbol of carrying around a hot-market item.
]]>Yesterday, I said I was underwhelmed. I think a lot of other people were too. Many people probably had grandiose expectations from a company and visionary the likes of Apple and Steve Jobs, and many people assumed the new iPad would be a revolution in computing that would make us all ditch our netbooks and laptops; it clearly does not.
No, the iPad is probably something akin to what Jef Raskin had in mind when it comes to the human interface to a computer.
Is the iPad powerful? Questionably. Flexible? Definitely not. Adaptable? Not without Apple’s say-so.
Much of the detraction I hear about the iPad is that it can’t do x, or that it will never be able to do y. Here’s where I (and it seems many other people) are missing the point. It’s not supposed to.
Steve Jobs clearly places the iPad in a space that is not yet defined and a supplement to the other technical devices we use. It’s not meant to replace the laptop, and by correlation the cheaper, less powerful laptop we dubbed the netbook. The iPad is aimed directly at a new target audience.
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Ketchup could not be any simpler to use. The registration takes mere seconds, and it takes less than two minutes to figure out how to use every feature. Simply start using Ketchup.
If you want to share online, simply tick a checkbox to make it public. You be given a URL to allow others access to your meeting and notes.
Since it’s still under development, Ketchup is free, “but pretty soon [they’re] going to start charging for it.”
I signed up and grabbed my “early access” account, and you should too. I still think Google Wave will be my go-to collaboration tool, but the simplicity of Ketchup certainly has it’s charm.
Ketchup (http://useketchup.com)
]]>Technology has spoiled me. On my way to work this morning I realized I left my flash drive at home. I immediately thought “damn, I wish I could browse my Home and transfer the flash drive to my Car without having to go back” T_T …
Ah, yes, the good old days of USB flash drives. So, what do you do when you leave your flash drive at home? I guess you’d have to go back home and get it, but what if you didn’t have to carry around a flash drive.
If you have access to the Internet and are able to download files to the computer you’re using, then you do not have to.
DropBox (http://getdropbox.com)
getDropBox.com is my go to place for all my files. Simply sign up on the website and you have 2GB of online storage, but if you get me to refer you we both get even more storage space (hit me up on Twitter or facebook).
There is a very good demo video on their home page if you want to skip the rest of this post.
“But you could do that with Google Docs or Gmail!” you exclaim.
It gets better. getDropBox.com has a client program that will install on Mac, Windows, or Linux. It runs in the background with very little fuss. It creates a folder on your computer called a DropBox and every time you create, delete, or edit a file or folder within that DropBox the changes are automatically synced to the website and to any other computer running your DropBox account. That way you never have multiple versions of a document to confuse you. The website also keeps old versions in case you accidently deleted something, or in case you wanted to go back and see what any file looked like a week or even a month ago.
You can also share files and/or folders with other people via the website, or even keep in sync with other getDropBox.com users which makes it a great collaboration tool.
They also recently launched their iPhone app and have a mobile optimized website for Blackberry and other users.
Additional space is available for a monthly fee, but 2GB for free is a great deal considering all it does.
Make DropBox More Powerful with SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/…)
You can download SyncToy for free if you’re using Microsoft Windows. Simply set up a sync between your DropBox folder and your USB key and voila! There are options as to set which direction or both to sync. SyncToy is a great tool for Windows and is highly recommended for backup purposes as well.
Apple Solution
For those of you with MobileMe can always use iDisk.
]]>Glad you asked, Anthony!
First, it’s important to have an understanding of your money and where it goes (hopefully you already know where it comes from). This is especially important in the “just married” situation that you find yourself since differing op pinions, values, and habits regarding money tend to crop up during this time, and it’s always best to identify and handle such situations as soon as possible.
A quick glance at Amazon will show that there’s only one choice now in the Personal Finance, Management market: Quicken. This is understandable as well, considering the relatively poor past performance of it’s closest competitor, the now discontinued Microsoft Money. Further, the integration with Turbo Tax and the similarity to oft used QuickBooks accounting software makes Quicken a natural choice.
Yes, it costs money, but a recent look at Amazon shows you can snatch up your own copy of Quicken Premiere for $30.00.
Also, note that Quicken comes under fire for forcing you to upgrade every three years. While obviously annoying, it makes sense from a software standpoint since newer, better, cheaper ways to accomplish the same tasks will be included in updated software, and it would cost a boatload of money to provide support for legacy users (something that Microsoft knows a lot about).
The popular trend is for software to be a “service” rather than a “thing” that you buy. The software is hosted online by the releasing company.
I tried Mint, Buxfer, and Quicken Online and have been using Quicken Online for the past few months mostly out of convenience. I have not properly compared the services.
You could get into arguments day and night about which software or service works best, and in the end, it comes down to personal preferences and how you use your software. No software can offer the best user experience to all people. For example, customization and diversity ALWAYS come at the expense of simplicity (although not necessarily, as commonly thought, ease-of-use). People want different things, and each of the above offerings target different people.
From all the reviews that I found online and by looking at their website, you cannot automatically update your accounts from your institutions servers. To me, that is a necessary feature of any Personal Finance Management Software. Further, the service does not offer automatic category tagging, and in general requires a lot of manual input which suggests you won’t be using the service all that often.
Reviews fair better than Wesabe, but again, no automatic updating from institutions.
By all accounts, Thrive is promising, but is simply too new a service. Not everything has been flushed out and automatic support for is touch-and-go at the moment depending on the institution.
These are your players. I highly suggest starting off with all four services and migrating to the one you like the best. The problem is you’ll probably like and hate things from each.
I personally use Quicken Online because:
Quicken Online, however does have limitations. I tend to be a “power user” and like to be able to customize my data. The biggest downside is the category system. I like having subcategories so I can track my spending in multiple ways. I want to see how much I spent on food in total and also see how much went to groceries, dining out, fast food, snacks, and drinks.
It seems that the majority of the Internet is flocking to either Mint or Quicken. I’m highly tempted to sign up for Mint and check it out. I tried it two or three years ago and found it unappealing, but Mint has a TON of venture capital and has made great strides over the past few months.
]]>Bank of America previously advertised their MyAccess checking with no minimum balance and no direct deposit. Their pricing changes show this account will have a $8.95 monthly fee which will be waived with direct deposit or $1000 minimum balance.
Perhaps the worst change is the revision of their overdraft fee which they advertised as a decreased to $10. However, this only applies if you overdraw your account by less than five dollars at the end of the day. They reserve the right to credit your deposit at anytime during the business day. Not only will this lead to many $10 overdraft fees, but also leads to sneaky advertising since the majority of overdraft fees will still be the standard $35.
Even worse, the small print says that they can charge you the overdraft fee up to 10 times in one day. If you lose track of your balance and make for purchases in and day or if you assume they will credit your account before you made purchases, even if you deposit or occurred before these purchases, you may still owe Bank of America $140 in overdraft fees.
Also, if you didn’t notice your overdraft within five business days there is an additional $35 extended overdraft fee.
I’m not sure that there are any other major banks that have better terms, but Bank of America seems to be leading the charge towards more and more asinine fees.
Consider checking out your local credit union or smaller local banks.
See the pricing changes outlined here.
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