Java Jane's Good Stuff

What the HELL is "Twitter" In Plain English? No Geek Speak...

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:33:15 -0400

Although I have posted in the past my disdain for Twitter, that did not keep me from signing up for an account and even enabling the ability to post to Twitter from my address bar. Once I watched the video below, I finally "got" it. Maybe I will turn into a Twitter Bug now. I am uber busy, and keeping people posted in this manner really can work. Now I just need some friends who really care about whether I just drank coffee or cleaned the toilet. ; P

What the HELL is Twitter

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Life is Good With My Moto Q

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:10:56 -0400

There are plenty of reviews out already for the Motorola Q Smartphone, so I don't want to "reinvent" the wheel. Here are some in depth reviews (not necessarily my opinion):

Moto-q-qwerty-keyboard

I bought one on Monday afternoon, as I was eligible for my Verizon new every two once again. After mail in rebate, I was able to get the $300+ phone for $79. Of course, that was before I added in a Bluetooth headset, stereo mini jack earbuds, a 512 mini SD card and a BodyGlove cover, which I felt essential, since it was one of the only covers to also cover the screen, which is essential as the Moto Q, although sharp and clear is prone to smudging and this prevents that.

Now that I've had a couple days to use it, I couldn't be happier. I need Verizon for service coverage, as where I live, most other carriers tend to be spotty. The other half has T-Mobile, which has been good, but still not quite the performance of Verizon, especially on our travels out of the country. Yeah, people gripe about the cost of Verizon's data plan, but when you compare apples to apples, the $80 (before surcharges, etc.) is really no more than anyone else's unlimited data plan (with phone minutes) when you add in all the extras Verizon bundles in with the plan.

I read all the reviews, and for my non-business purposes, this phone was "it". There was one BlackBerry in contention, but there was no camera, and I wanted to use the phone for moblogging, so that ruled it out. T-Mobile had a few BlackBerry smart phones that would have worked, but having to change my longstanding cell # for lesser service for a phone didn't seem worth it and I'm glad I didn't. That being said, a lot of folks like Cingular's Blackjack, but service coverage where I use my phone is horrible.

Anyway, for me, blogging, email, SMS, phone usage, web surfing, listening to music and watching video clips, including my own while I'm out and about made this the perfect smartphone device for me. I love, love, love it. Since Verizon doesn't partner with Yahoo!, I downloaded Y! Go Beta for my phone and now I can push email from gmail, my broadband provider and Yahoo! without subscribing to Yahoo's premium service. It also allows for maps, easy Flickr uploads and viewing and other nice Yahoo! features.

I love that I don't have to carry a phone (formerly a Moto Razr V3m, pink) and my iPod now unless I want to listen to or watch larger file size items. I can just put my music on my Moto Q, along with video clips and listen to them through the onboard stereo speakers using Windows Media Player, or I can put my headphones on and listen, take a phone call and go back to listening again. Schweeeeeeeeeeet.

This phone should help me be more consistent about blogging, even when I am untethered to my computer, as there are times as of late, I've had extended absences, but have been places I wish I had internet and keyboard access as I had time to answer mail or post.

Anyway, my Moto Q is my new toy and making me a very, very happy camper!

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GTD: Giant list of "To Do" Apps

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:46:32 -0400

From MakeUseOf.com:

Here's the list - would love to hear feedback on who is using what, why and what you primarily use it for...

Thanks,

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GTD = Life Enhancing Tools for the Daily Grind

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:59:23 -0400

Many of you probably wonder what the heck is GTD? Go to Dallas? Grip the Dashboard? Get that Dollar? No. Get Things Done. Who doesn't need to, from domestic engineer to CEO? You don't have to be militant or OCD to be organized and productive. Even the most ADD, chaotic, forgetful and haphazard among us can benefit from a little GTD.

Although I do not go out to a formal "job" daily, my days are so full, that even in my home life and moonlighting, I feel like I need to be paid for an 8 hour day plus overtime, as I go from early AM to very late at night. I need to be organized and efficient to get through my massive "to do" list, make all my appointments and deadlines, to feel a sense of accomplishment, fit in time for my hobbies and interests and to manage my household. I do, much to the amazement of my family, friends and neighbors without being rigid, anti social or uptight. I still manage to be organized and spontaneous, which is an oxymoron to some.

So how is it done? Some of it is innate, but you can learn. There are many fabulous GTD sites and blogs. Right now, I have recently discovered a few tools that have seriously streamlined my daily grind and help me be productive and enjoy my day. Here are some of those things:

Netvibes. Switched from Google Personal and MyYahoo! to Netvibes with some careful selection of modules, feeds and podcasts (listen to them right through Netvibes) and now I have everything I could ever need waiting for me in the morning all from one site including email. I grab my coffee and dig in. My plans for the day are there as well as a virtual custom "newspaper". LifeHacker has a great post on customizing it with the most essential modules, we are trying to streamline our lives, not add bloat, so chosing carefully is key. In the comments section of that post, there is another nice Easter Egg by dep for further tweaks. The best part? If you set up a tab called "Mobile" you can customize a mobile friendly page for those unfortunate times you are away from your computer aka "command central". I use it along with some well selected feeds in Google Reader mobile. It doesn't get much better than this folks...
30 Boxes. Do I love this or what? ?? Slim and functional, this has it all! You start by opening up a wizard which has you put some initial dates to remember in, like birthdays, then you import email addys and a bunch of other stuff. It's an all in one scheduler, social networking tool, reminder, to do list, emailer, will send SMS reminders of your daily activities to your mobile phone/device and has a module that integrates with Netvibes. Best of all, you can set it to "webpage" which is my new Firefox start page and it gives you one column with the days events/to do list, upcoming events then your embedded Netvibes page and a docklet to launch your most important sites and information. The look is clean and I can't say anything more than this RULES.
Remember The Milk. Another GTD blog/utility which integrates with Netvibes. Right now I think, 30 Boxes is for me, but I am also test driving this as well. Probably more handy for those with structured jobs in a corporate environments, but could be used for anyone.
Launchy. How did I manage without this? I have StarDock on my computer so I can have my desktop visually pleasing and uncluttered, yet tweaked just the way I like it. I chose for the most part to keep my Windows Task Bar hidden. Now I don't even have to move my mouse to the docklet to activate an app, search or what have you. I installed Launchy freeware, and just by hitting ALT + Spacebar and typing in a couple letters it will launch almost any app intuitively. Not limited to apps, it will find and open photos, documents, mp3's, computer and web searches and is a full function calculator. Everyday time I use my computer, I still marvel at what a gem this is! (Are you using CoolIris? If you're not, you should be using that too!)
LifeHacker, Black Belt Productivity and TheCranking Widgets Blog- daily must reads. Yeah, I'm a geek, you know it...

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