Pandora Radio
Written on 6 September 2008 by adminBeing an engineer music isnt on my list of top 10 loves of my life. However, I’ve found a way to rediscover a few of the sounds that make me happy - and what’s harder- a few of the things that I had no idea did.
I’ve started listening to Pandora Radio whenever I get a chance. It’s unique music selection method reviews 100s of song attributes that were determined by human listeners… And depending on your ‘votes’ it selects other songs that match your listening style.
It’s a hoaky thing to post here, but it makes me happy 
Global Warming in Ohio
Written on 13 July 2008 by adminAlot of sentiments in the midwest, including yours truly, follow this video.
Screen Shot Tool
Written on 30 May 2008 by adminFireShot is my new favorite screen shot tool for sharing “What I am looking at on the web” in a very LOW TECH fashion…
I use this tool for showing people cool websites I have found, for blogging images right here on this website, and for sending my customers ‘paper clippings’ of online news articles that I read about them or articles that they might find interesting.
Best Way to download YouTube Videos and replay offline
Written on 16 May 2008 by adminI have had the recent need to make online videos available offline, and have had friends and family ask for the same thing…. So its worth a simple post:
There are a myriad of choices out there to download and replay, but which are the best? Well I don’t know of the best- but I do know of the easiest tool chain I have tried:
#1 - Make sure you are using the FireFox Web Browser. If you aren’t using it - it’s a painless transition!
#2 - Grab the Fast Video Downloader Extension here:
With this extension, you get a small little icon in your status bar in the bottom bottom right of your web browser:
Once you are on your YouTube or other video site of choice, this download button, once pressed, creates a “SAVE AS” dialog box for you to save your *.flv file.
Now you say, FLV? well that doesnt sound like a movie file - I am used to AVI, and MPG, and MOV and such, what am I going to do with an FLV file?
Well you can either CONVERT the file from FLV to a more standard file with THIS tool: FREEZ FLV to AVI Converter. This converter might be helpful if you want to embed your new MPG file into a Power Point presentation directly.
Or you can just watch the FLV right on your desktop with this FREE viewer application: FLV Player. Be careful when you load up this program though- it contains lots of BONUS offers that you likely won’t want or need- so be sure to click NO on these.
Other suggestions?
Zoho Office Suite
Written on 11 May 2008 by admin
I don’t often find cool new tools to write about, and this year, the plethora of Web 2.0 platforms (thousands of which you can see at www.simplespark.com) all just seem to be new ways of barely squeaking out $40 in advertising revenue for the providers.
This year, however, I finally do see a tool that I can use. Just like Google Docs, Zoho is an online office suite that it tailored as a complete small business solution. Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentations and the like combine with online meetings, online chat, CRM, invoicing, and management tools. My current employer is starting to implement the entire suite…. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Create scheduled reminders with your voice using Jott and PingMe
Written on 28 August 2007 by adminI havent written about Ping Me before -but it is basically a reminder website that helps in Getting Things Done. Read THIS article on Zetetic by Stephen Lombardo about combining my previously mentioned JOTT tool with Ping Me to create calendear reminders for yourself while you drive.
Awesome combination of two great tools.
Web 2.0 - its hard to keep up with it.
Written on 22 August 2007 by adminAs I share interesting web applications with my friends and colleagues, and as I have in this post, I continually am flabergasted by the sheer volume of initiatives by web companies. As a tool to help sort through the web applications, a site called SimpleSpark.com is a cataloger of all web 2.0 applications. Talk about a lot of Venture Capital money out there…. as of today, SimpleSpark catalogs over 5200 different applications….. The below linked video shares all the apps in under 5 minutes. How many will stick and be used by enough users? Certainly not all of them.
Social Networking for Adults - Linked In
Written on 22 July 2007 by adminPersonally, Social Networking has not meant much to me on a computer. Sure I occasionally post to this blog, and make sure my name is relevant on Google Searches, but playing the “MySpace” deal has never held any interest.
HOWEVER, I recently came across, or was invited into a friend’s social circle - at LinkedIn. Linked In is for Business Professionals what MySpace is for teenagers. Basically, post your ‘resume’ and connect your friends and associates to your network. I initially felt it hokey when I only had 2 connections, but now that I have 15, and growing, its feeling well worth it.
Not only is LinkedIn good for ‘networking’, its great for finding old friends as well. The code writers at LinkedIn make it easy for you to find old school mates.
Take the quick tour, and when you are done, link me in
Voicemail Greeting Tips
Written on 19 June 2007 by admin
Voicemail is a necessary evil in our day and age, and if you are a professional, you have to do the best you can to make your callers comfortable.
I recommend a voice mail greeting that uses the following components;
- Greeting, name and company name
- Call to Action
- Salutation
Greeting
A greeting should be swift and simple.
“Hello, you’ve reached the office of Matt Orley of MattOrley Inc.”
Call To Action
A Call to Action should be very specific and command the listener to provide the right information on the call. Your goal, when you are listening to a voice message, is to find out what your caller wants without having to call them back. I recommend something like this:
“Please leave a message with enough information so that I can get back to you with the answers that you need.”
Salutation
A simple and quick “Thank you, and have a ____ day” is quick and lets the caller get right to what they want to do- leave you a message.
What here has been omitted??
- An apology about missing the call
- A statement about how important the call is
- A description of where you are - not near your phone
- A long good bye
These simple tips will make your voicemail transactions, atleast in your voicemail box, easy to manage.
Use netvibes to (re)mix the web
Written on 21 May 2007 by admin
Earlier this year my personal information that I had attached to my Yahoo! account was deleted along with my account - this being email, contacts, stored notes, favorites, etc… I won’t get into the details, but I believe it to be a tragic mistake revolving around Yahoo Answers and trying to hack out a bluetooth connection on board a Saturn Aura…. But that is a story for tomorrow.
I learned that letting a big company hold onto my information and in a wink beable to seperate me from it was a horrible mistake, so I caution everyone to keep your criticals away from the big guys, and keep it close…
I was big on using my.yahoo.com as a news and home page, and being miffed, I wanted something new, different, and better. So, I went exploring to see what was out there.
To my delightful surprise, I came across something that made me realize I had missed a couple of months of world wide web development.
Simply, Netvibes.com is my new homepage. With netvibes, all your digital life fits in one page. Blogs, news, online videos, podcast, pictures, e-mail: pick your favorite services to create your netvibes page.
I pull various news feeds (RSS) from various magazines and blogs, comics, weather, shopping deals, games, local radar, clocks, flickr accounts, todolists, etc.. and put them into neat little boxes that I can access just by turning on my browser.
Adding and removing content is easy in that everything is either drag or drop, or done with very easy to use menus. New ‘modules’ are being added every day.
All this - with no advertisements.
But the best thing is that I can download all of my settings at once, and keep it, just in case something goes bad…