My Googlefied Life

Yes, I am I walking, talking advertisement for Google. Well, at least my web browser is. Most of my web browsing these days is the result of something I have clicked on from a Google service. I utilize everything from Gmail to Google Page Creator, sometimes on a daily basis. Since Google is such a big part of my life, I have decided to list all of the Google services that I use and also provide a brief review of each of them.

Google Personalized Home
Google's personalized homepage solution was something that I was looking forward to for a long time. Having used other personalized homepage services from Yahoo (too flashy) and MSN (too bloated), I was left wanting more. Sure, Google's classic homepage is nice but it is all little sparse. Wouldn't it be nice to add your own content to the reliable old Google search box? That's exactly what Google Personalized Home allows you to do. My homepage in Opera is set to Google Personalized Home so I see it every time I start up the browser (which is more and more frequent since I have begun beta-testing Opera 9). Some highlights of my version of Google's homepage include my favorite RSS feeds (BetaNews, News.com, Wired News), a preview of my Gmail inbox, and various general news providers such as CNN, USA Today, and Google's own news aggregator. I think of the personalized homepage as my jumping off point into the wide world of the internet. I'm sure that's exactly what Google wants me to think about it. And, of course, best of all is that here is no ads. Pretty strange from a company that generates the vast majority of its revenue from serving ads to web surfers like me.

Gmail
I love Gmail. Since I started using it on August 24, 2005, I have sent or received 660 e-mails (not including those I have "deleted forever," of course) and have used 3% or 83 MB of my total allotted storage space. While other web-based e-mail providers may be flashier or easier to use,
Gmail just works (as long as you are using Firefox, Safari, IE, or Opera 9). It has a clean, simple interface and I love the idea of e-mails being kept all together and then being sorted by labels or other means (see my earlier review of Opera's M2 e-mail client, which utilizes a similar storage paradigm). The integration of Google Talk with Gmail is a nice addition and I foresee future integrations with Gmail, including Blogger and Google Reader (see below).

Picasa
Finally one that doesn't have a Google or a "G" in the name. Picasa is the best free photo organization software available. It is clean, easy to use, and incredibly good at what it is designed to do. First of all, what it is not: a photo editing program. For this, Adobe, Corel, and others have better solutions. Picasa is a phenomenal way to organize and share digital photographs. It's tight integration with Gmail is convenient and makes sharing photographs via e-mail easy to do, as many of my friends and family know all too well. It offers a complete set of simple edits, my favorite being the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option which almost always makes every photo look better by automatically adjusting brightness, contrast, and fill. It is easy to add labels and captions to photos. It also easy to export photos to webpages. The pages that Picasa creates are not flashy and I'm sure there are solutions out there that output better-looking photo album webpages. However, it is more important to me to have a complete package and that is what Picasa offers. For examples of the pages that Picasa exports, feel free to visit my homepage and click on the photo albums links. I obviously can't recommend Picasa enough and since it's a free download, I encourage everyone to give it a try.

Google Reader
I used to use Opera to read my RSS newsfeeds. While the Opera solution is still the best browser-based newsreader I have used (what the heck is a "live bookmark"?), I have moved completely to Google Reader for my feeds. Perhaps the best aspect of Google Reader is that it is fully portable, meaning that no matter where I am, I can check my feeds. Previously I had to remote in to my PC to read my feeds in Opera which is a tedious process and isn't always 100% reliable. Using intuitive keyboard commands, it is simple to quickly scan my unread items. In Opera, it is nice to be able to open the posts in background tabs as I go through my list. That way, when I'm done, I have everything I want to read opened up and ready to go. I look forward to Google Reader being integrated in to Gmail, which to me is a logical next-step. However, the difference in the basic interface may be a stumbling block. If anyone can figure out how to do it, I'm sure Google can. If you don't use RSS feeds or use a software-based reader, I highly encourage you to check out Google Reader. I have it open 24/7 in Opera and it is so easy to go to it and hit "r" and have all of my unread news items fill in for me to peruse.

Google News
I used to use Google News a lot more before the advent of Google Personalized Home and Google Reader. Still, I think it is a great service and it's nice to have news edited not by humans but by an impartial algorithm. Whenever I want to know what is happening in the world, I always check Google News to see what the top headlines are. In combination with a Google account, it is very easy to customize Google News with your own "sections." For example, when there was talk of Opera being purchased by Microsoft, I added a section to my personalized news page that showed every article out there that had the terms "opera" and "browser." It worked as advertised and I still have the section on my personalized Google News today.

Blogger
This one is obvious, isn't it? I'll be honest: I haven't tried every free blog tool out there. I have tried Xanga, and I found it quite limiting. Sure, it is nice to tell you what mood I'm in and what I'm listening to, but I think it's more important that you read my posts. If I want you to know what I'm listening to, I will tell you. What I like about Blogger is that it is infinitely customizable. There are dozens of templates to choose from, and if you don't like any of them, you are free to create your own. I have been using Blogger since January 2001 before it was a part of Google. Even though Google now owns Blogger, they have resisted the temptation to "googlefy" Blogger and have allowed it to develop its own identity. One thing I would like to see is a tighter integration of Blogger with Gmail. I wouldn't want the existing Blogger interface to be replaced, but it would be nice to be able to link your Blogger account with Gmail so that posts could also be created from the Gmail interface. I think it is natural to get ideas for blog posts from your e-mails so it would certainly be nice to draft a post without having to open up a separate Blogger tab. Overall I have been very happy with Blogger and it has served me well. If you don't have a blog and are thinking about creating one, I would certainly recommend Blogger as your first and only blog provider.

Google Video
One of the newest services from Google is Google Video. It is not the slickest video store out there nor is the most popular user-submitted video site. However, I think it offers a nice overall package. Features such as adding videos to websites and using Google Video Player to download video files to your computer are useful. Having added a video go Google Video myself, I found the process to be relatively straight-forward. Despite an approval problem the first time around, I found the idea of putting myself online for the world to see to be extremely exiting and I'm glad it all worked out in the end. I haven't purchased a video from Google Video so I can't give a reading on what that process is like but I have heard that improvements are constantly being made (as with all Google services). If I ever do decide to pay money for video content from Google, I will be sure to share my thoughts here.

Google Page Creator
The newest Google service (ok, Google Finance is newer) is Google Page Creator. It's been around for a few weeks but unfortunately new accounts were blocked for a while. However, last night I received a notice in my Gmail account that my request for access to Page Creator had been approved. My initial disappointment that Opera was not supported (I haven't tried to force Page Creator to work in Opera by masking its identity) was set aside when I actually began using the service in Firefox. It was extremely easy to move my existing homepage (created in Dreamweaver 8) to Google Page Creator by just copying-and-pasting and doing a little fine-tuning. I think the end result is very nice-looking and usable and fully CSS compliant. The ability to change the template at any time is useful and should make any amateur homepage creator happy. This service is certainly no replacement for software-based web development software such as Dreamweaver but I don't think that it is meant to be. It seems to be geared toward everyday homepage creation for casual users. I am most certainly not a casual user and understand HTML, CSS, and the like very well but I am also not interested in putting a lot of time and effort into maintaining a homepage. So, Google Page Creator is a good solution for me because of its simplicity and ease of use. Plus, like Google Reader, it is portable, allowing me to quickly sign in wherever I am to make changes that can be published to my page at ben.hinc.googlepages.com very easily. I haven't yet decided whether or not I will move my homepage to Google Page Creator permanently but right now it seems likely. I won't uninstall Dreamweaver but it will be nice not to have to start up the program every time I want to make a minor edit.

In Summary...
Google services are good and getting better. I have been happy with my experiences so far and look forward to trying upcoming services as well as testing new features added to the services I currently use. More Opera support would be appreciated, but I expect this will be coming once Opera 9 is final.

Google Page Creator

Leave it to Google to make creating a homepage amazingly simple. In a matter of a few clicks (and some copying and pasting), I transferred the homepage that I meticulously created in Dreamweaver 8 to Google Page Creator. You can view it at http://ben.hinc.googlepages.com/. The page appears to be fully CSS compliant since turning off the stylesheet in Opera results in a text-only version of the page. Small-screen rendering works well, too, which means the page will look nice in Opera Mini. The only glaring problem is that the Page Creator application itself only works in Firefox and IE. Will I move the homepage to Google? I'm thinking about it.... But for now, all changes to the original "Home on the Web" will be mirrored on the Google version.

2006 Chicago Auto Show

Due to "popular" demand, I have posted pics from our trip to the 2006 Chicago Auto Show on the homepage. Go there or click here to go directly to the gallery. I highly recommend visiting the page, though, as there are a lot of galleries there!

24 - 13 = 11

For those of you mathematically un-inclined, my equation is Total Hours of 24 - Aired Hours of 24 = Remaining Hours of 24. Yes, I know. It is always a sad state of affairs when a season of 24 is more than half way over. Even so, once again, Monday night's episode rocked. I have been privileged enough to watch the last few episodes with fellow 24 uber geeks so it has been even more fun than usual. What's the deal with Tony? He can't die too ... right? I guess we'll all have to watch and find out.

In other news, took the Mazda in to the dealer today for the mandatory recall regarding the intake manifold shutter valve. I'm not exactly sure what that is or what it does, but what I do know is that it starts better, runs better, and seems to be using less gas than before whatever they replaced was replaced. They also let me know (very kindly, I might add) that my 15,000 mile service is quickly approaching. Just the usual stuff: new air and fuel filters and a tire rotation. I may have them do an alignment as well - seems to be pulling a little to the right. All in good time.

New Pearl Jam doing well

Seems like the new single, "World Wide Suicide," is doing quite well. According to a news item on Pearl Jam's official website, the track is currently ranked #1 on three Chicago radio stations: WKQX (Q101), WLUP (The Loop), and WXRT. It is also ranked fairly in the Modern Rock charts (see this article for more info from Billboard). One interesting factoid was that this is PJ's 31st appearance on the modern rock chart, second only to U2's 33 appearances.

Keyboards, Mice, Screensavers: Who knew they were related?

My screensaver recently stopped working. This has happened before. Usually I just go in to the display properties dialog and change the delay time, hit apply, and voila. Not this time. And what was even stranger was that not only was the screen saver not working but power management seemed to be not functioning as well. After several reboots and "re-applications" of both the screensaver and power management dialogs, I came to the inevitable conclusion: it was time to go to Google and start searching. My initial search of "reset screensaver windows xp" yielded no useful results, so I changed it to "screensaver windows xp not working." This worked a little better, but often times with these technical issues it is better to search Google groups rather than using the general Google search. So...off to the groups I went. I went through a couple of pages of results, clicking on a few, but none were satisfactory. Finally I got to a post that really piqued my interest: someone's screensaver was not working and they had must installed a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000. Looking down, I noticed that my mouse was a Wireless Laser Mouse 6000.

It seemed that my shiny new Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 keyboard/mouse combo could be the answer to - or rather the cause of - my problem. Apparently something in the new wireless products from Microsoft (not sure if it is the keyboard/mouse itself or the IntelliType/IntelliPoint) conflict with certain components that load automatically on Windows XP SP2 Media Center Edition 2005 systems, specifically ehtray.exe and DVDLauncher.exe, part of PowerDVD. Disabling these two apps from the process manager (and removing them from the startup routine using msconfig) seems to have reinstated my screensaver to its former glory.

Seems like a lot to up with just for a new keyboard and mouse. But trust me, the laser mouse is worth it. It's like buttah!

Straw Poll - McCain still the front runner?

The SRLC is over and Bill Frist came out with a commanding lead in their straw poll. This was expected since Frist is from Tennessee and that's where the conference was. The front runner, McCain, took a unique approach and asked his supporters to vote for George W. Bush instead of him as a show of support for the consistently embattled president. So while First took the first spot which was no surprise, it was a surprise that Gov. Romney of Massachusetts took second place with 14%. McCain finished with 5% however Bush ended up with 10%. If 2/3 of McCain's supporters wrote down Bush as requested and the other 1/3 voted for McCain, it would seem to me that McCain actually came in second place with 15% of the vote. However, this was not the headline and Romney ended up with the lion's share of the publicity. Was McCain's stunt beneficial? Time will tell, but he is still the front runner in my book.

Categories Are Here

Ask and you shall receive, at least in this case. After sending an e-mail to the creator of labelr, I was quickly invited to join his "beta test." Thank you!!! This product is great - it does everything I need it to do - and it even has a slick Google-inspired interface. Very nice. I hope all of my readers enjoy the new categorization features. Go ahead, check them out and let me know if you encounter any bugs.

Politics: 2008, Already?

Yes, we are already thinking about 2008. And what better place to do this than at the GOP’s Southern Regional Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn. All of the contenders are there except for Rudy. Is he really a contender? I guess we don't know if anyone is a contender just yet since no formal announcements have been made. But I think it's a pretty sure bet that both Frist and McCain will be putting their names in the hat.

I am putting my stock in John McCain at this early stage of the 2008 presidential race. He has been out there for so long and I think it is his turn to lead the party and the nation. He has two qualities that I think will go very far with the general public: on national security and anti-terrorism, he is as tough as Bush if not more so (and he would probably do a better job at it), and on just about everything else he and Bush could not be further apart. If the approval ratings are correct (I saw 34% tonight, I think), then the country is definitely looking for a change in leadership. Rather than changing parties, let's change the party. I would hope that the GOP of John McCain would look very different than Bush's GOP. McCain is a reformer and that is what we need. But he is also steadfast in his dedication to eliminating terror no matter what the cost. This combination makes him unbeatable.

Look out, Hillary.

TV: Sons & Daughters, 24

I was skeptical about Sons & Daughters, especially of ABC's ability to pull off a show of this type. I found the first two episodes ("Anniversary Party" and "Bowling Night") were genuinely funny. I especially like the idea that some of the dialogue is improvised. It gives an unfinished, gritty, fresh feel to the show although it is not too "out there." There is still a story and a direction but I think that often times the best comedy comes from spontaneity, and it's hard to be spontaneous when you have a script all written out. I am looking forward two the next two episodes of the show, which will be aired back-to-back.

24 has been exceptional this season. Monday night's double-header was perhaps the most intense two-hour block of television I have ever watched. First Jack shooting an innocent woman in the leg and then Edgar dying - it was almost too much to handle. After two episodes like that, the producers/writers have a lot to live up to the rest of the season, and there's still quite a bit to go.

The Net: Categories, Labels, Tags, Whatever

I really can't believe that Blogger doesn't offer built-in support for labels, categories, tags, or some other sort of categorization for blog posts. I think it would be really nice to choose a label for my posts - politics, google, random thoughts, music, tv - and then have a menu on the right side of the page that lists all of the categories. Similar to the "archive" section which breaks posts down by month, the "categories" section would break them down by label. So clicking on "politics" would lead you to every post I've ever made on the topic. Being the nerd that I am, I would of course go back and attempt to categorize every post I have ever made. In the meantime, I will start titling posts in the following fashion: "Label: Post Title." This should give me a head start when I finally have a labeling solution that works. I have recently signed up to test out labelr, which aims to provide categorization functionality.

Another way to solve this would be to integrate Blogger directly in to Gmail. I think this is coming, since there has been so little work done on Blogger itself lately. Wouldn't it be nice to have "Compose Mail" and "Compose Post" right next to each other? You could even make "p" the keyboard shortcut to go to the compose post screen. Then you could label each post using Gmail's excellent label implementation. Another plus would be that all your posts - like all your e-mails and Gtalk chats - would be saved in the familiar Gmail interface. The labels could be used only internally (so you could find your own posts at a later date) or both internally and externally so the labels show up in your blog (and in a navigational menu). Wow, what a cool idea.

Well, Google, what do you think...?

Music: To all you closeted Pearl Jam fans ...

The first leg of the new tour in support of Pearl Jam's new self-titled album has been announced at Pearl Jam's new website. Thanks to the Ten Club (PJ's official fan club), I will be attending the May 16th show at the United Center in Chicago. I have two tickets (yay). Tentatively I'm taking my sister but if someone better comes along....

Check out the new single. You can listen to it on my MySpace or by going to the Pearl Jam Bootlegs download site. The MP3 download is completely free and there is no DRM so you are free to do with the file what you wish (copy it, burn it, etc.). All you have to do is register for a login which is also completely free.

Enjoy!