http://devin.reams.me Thoughts on life, business, and technology. posterous.com http://devin.reams.me/http://devin.reams.me/wp/wp-content/themes/carrington-text/css/dr-logo.pngdevinreamshttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with GoogleThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:06:00 -0800 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/l8aOZNJvVf8/great-web-apps-you-may-not-know http://devin.reams.me/great-web-apps-you-may-not-know <p> <p>I have five web applications that excel in so many ways (beauty, simplicity, usefulness) and I wanted to share them in case you hadn't heard of them yet.&nbsp;</p> <p /> <div> <ul> <li><strong><a href="http://trackthepack.com/">TrackThePack</a></strong>: Much like Google's homepage, it's so simple it's perfect. Enter a tracking code and you have a simple look at where your package is. Register an account and you suddenly have a history of your deliveries, an iCal feed (history plus visual indication as to when a package should arrive). Plus, a smartphone-capable interface.</li> <li><strong><a href="http://instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a></strong>: need to read something later? Keeping dozens of tabs open wastes resources. Bookmarks are for typically for locations you want to reference or save. Instapaper is perfect for pages you want to read later; that's it. Magazine articles, blog posts, essays, they can all be saved and re-read in a simple text-only (or the original) format. Plus, it extends onto iPhones, the Kindle, and so on.</li> <li><strong><a href="http://posterous.com/">posterous</a></strong>: posterous is to Delta as the rest of the internet is to Southwest. Delta pioneered the hub-and-spoke transportation system: start in one place and go out from there (all airlines do that now, it's efficient... in theory). The internet could work in a similar way: simply start at posterous and push your content (photos, text, video) out from there: YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter. It's much easier for me to post one photo over on my <a href="http://devininhd.posterous.com">photo blog</a> and have posterous do the heavy lifting than me individually posting to Flickr, Facebook and then twitter. Check this diagram for more on the <a href="http://www.steverubel.com/lifestreaming-evolving-the-model-from-import">hub concept</a>.</li> <li><strong><a href="http://foursquare.com">foursquare</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">: where are my friends? I visit foursquare (via iPhone, Android, web, etc.) and I know. If I want to discover fun restaurants or bars I can simply look at where people visit a lot (mayorships), read tips, or explore nearby favorites.&nbsp;</span></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="http://dopplr.com/">dopplr</a></strong>: I love to travel and I love to visualize it. dopplr simply creates a map and a timeline of where I've been and where I'm going. Throw in some niceties (posting via twitter, sharing flickr photos from the travel) and this is my favorite web application thus far.</li> </ul> <div>The best part of web applications (as opposed to iPhone applications, or Windows applications, or Facebook applications) is that they share a key value that we may be slipping away from: widespread availability. The network is the platform.</div> <p /> <div>Yes, there is value when all my friends are on Facebook; we can all play the same game together or we can share content. Installing an iPhone application means it is faster, beautiful, and can do things that a website can't (the gap is narrowing, though). But, applications shouldn't begin on those closed platforms first, should they?</div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/great-web-apps-you-may-not-know">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/great-web-apps-you-may-not-know#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/l8aOZNJvVf8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/great-web-apps-you-may-not-know Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:11:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/Jkx-Yf95Ca0/my-backup-plan http://devin.reams.me/my-backup-plan <p> <p><p><b>Devin Reams Backup Plan.pdf</b> (101 KB)<br/><a href='http://devin.reams.me/my-backup-plan' style='color: #bc7134;'>View this on posterous</a></p></p> <p>I can't value backups enough. They're the protection that just sits in the background, and like insurance, you essentially forget about it until that tragic point when you need it. I know many people that have been burned by their lack of backed-up content and I never want to go through that (knock on wood).</p> <div> <p>My biggest fear is the loss of my MacBook Air as it's my only computer. Everything lives on it; both my personal and professional data are stored on it. So, instead of spending a lot of time describing exactly what I've come up with over the years, I've put together a diagram.</p> <p>Some highlights:</p> <ul> <li>Having two physical drives means I can lose both the computer and one backup drive. The odds of losing the machine are slim, luckily. The odds of losing the machine and two drives is catastrophic and very unlikely.</li> <li>Having a snapshot (using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner) means if my machine was lost, I could easily plug the bootable device into another machine and be right back up and running in no time. Time Machine, while providing helpful incremental backups (OMG did I really delete that file last week?!) takes a lot of downtime to restore.</li> <li>Using the cloud (internet storage) is easy. I feel fairly safe putting my timeless items (like years and years of photos) up in the cloud as providers like Rackspace and Amazon allow for tons of cheap, easy data storage which they, too, are backing up (though no guarantees usually).</li> </ul> Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on backing up your personal and work data? Is this overkill? Not enough?</div> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/my-backup-plan">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/my-backup-plan#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/Jkx-Yf95Ca0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/my-backup-plan Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:56:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/dtdrWTlCUAw/create-your-own-url-shortener-use-it-with-twe http://devin.reams.me/create-your-own-url-shortener-use-it-with-twe <p> <p><span style="font-size: large;">I hate URL shorteners, but that's not the point</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">I really hate short URLs; on both the giving and receiving end, either way I feel like I'm handing or being handed a package of confusion and uncertainty. But, unfortunately, they're useful if you:</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Are trying to send a link to someone and have limited space (Twitter)</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Want to provide a URL that is long with lots of unique variables in it (Google Maps)</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Need a URL you can easily tell people or have them write-down (during a presentation)</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The confusion comes in if nobody takes the time to tell you what they're handing you. Take Twitter for example, people who post a link usually give little context ("this is so cool: link" or "wow, I wish I had this: link"). Screw you guys! At least give me a hint as to what you're handing me (other than yet another bit.ly or tinyurl link). Luckily, there are some mitigating factors:</span></p> <ul> <li><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Custom contextual short URLs:</span></strong><span style="font-size: small;"> Flickr's awesome flic.kr domain is a great start. If WordPress turned wp.me into the same for user's posts, awesome. Even Posterous autolinks with their own post.ly. I know what kind of content is behind this domain.</span></li> <li><strong><span style="font-size: small;">URL expanders:</span></strong><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><a href="http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/"><span style="font-size: small;">Tweetie for Mac</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> has a expander service built in for known shortener endpoints (click the bit.ly link and a popup tells you what the actual URL is). </span><a href="http://longurl.org/"><span style="font-size: small;">LongURL</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> can be used to determine where a URL will </span><em><span style="font-size: small;">really</span></em><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;take you.</span></li> <li><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Smarter friends:</span></strong><span style="font-size: small;"> don't follow people or ask them to stop giving you contextless links (not likely)</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-size: small;">So, with all that said, I want to roll my own URL shortener to tell people: trust me, I took the time to create my own service and hand-pick this URL for you to look at. Since I wrote about this, I'll be sure to go the extra mile and make sure I give context when a shortened URL is necessary.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: large;">How to create your own URL shortener using Lessn</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Shaun Inman has created a handy script and guide to create your own shortener: <a href="http://shauninman.com/archive/2009/08/17/less_n">Lessn</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The installation steps are simple if you know your way around a web server:</span></p> <ol> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Pick a short domain or sub-directory:</strong> you need to first figure out what domain you want to use (I chose devinr.com), you have to own it so you may use an existing domain and stick the shortener at a sub-directory (devinr.com/x/)</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Install the Lessn package:</strong>&nbsp;follow the README, but basically you just drag and drop the files using a FTP client (make sure you include the top-level .htaccess file, which is hidden by default in Finder on Mac OS X), setup the config file, and you're done.</span></li> </ol> <div><span style="font-size: small;">So now I immediately have my own bookmarklet, shortener endpoint (via API), etc. Now I can take it with me to <a href="http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/">Tweetie 2 for iPhone</a>.</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;">Setup Tweetie 2 for iPhone to use a custom URL shortener</span></div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://twitter.com/atebits">Loren Brichter</a> has done an great thing for his latest Twitter client (<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=333903271&amp;mt=8">iTunes link</a>): he allows you to have a <a href="http://developer.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/custom-shortening/">custom URL shortener</a> endpoint defined for use. In other words, every URL you post can be shortened using whatever service you want (including your own).</span></div> <div><ol> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Go buy and install the latest <a href="http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/">Tweetie 2 for iPhone</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Browse to the settings page (bottom of the accounts screen)</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Select URL shortener &gt; Custom...</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;">Insert your endpoint using your API (so that Lessn returns plaintext to Tweetie): <a href="http://example.com/-/?url=%@&amp;api=">http://example.com/-/?url=%@&amp;api=</a><em>[Lessn API here]</em></span></li> </ol> <div><span style="font-size: small;">It's as simple as that. Now all your URLs in Tweetie can be auto-shortened using your own service. Neat.</span></div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/create-your-own-url-shortener-use-it-with-twe">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/create-your-own-url-shortener-use-it-with-twe#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/dtdrWTlCUAw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/create-your-own-url-shortener-use-it-with-twe Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:16:43 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/b8m-JUOwVfo/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0 http://devin.reams.me/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0 <p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/devinreams/cDmlDrFswJkppksFxEnAHzIJnItlbEyfvxilfiCqeACoiGlEerBoGxyzwkjo/IMG_0020.jpg.scaled1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/devinreams/cDmlDrFswJkppksFxEnAHzIJnItlbEyfvxilfiCqeACoiGlEerBoGxyzwkjo/IMG_0020.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="667"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/devinreams/mgwHEuBAHmgllHtyccxrykuGHgIgCavfcbDnbmwrEGrmAnjhpaDmDlHjDEnE/IMG_0021.jpg.scaled1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/devinreams/mgwHEuBAHmgllHtyccxrykuGHgIgCavfcbDnbmwrEGrmAnjhpaDmDlHjDEnE/IMG_0021.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="667"/></a> <div><a href='http://devin.reams.me/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0'>See the full gallery on posterous</a></div></p>We had a nice dinner in Keystone at the Bighorn Steakhouse then went for a walk around the lake. <p>She had no idea. I went to tie my shoe...</p><p>We're both very happy.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/b8m-JUOwVfo" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/rachel-and-i-are-engaged-0 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:16:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/qCXA9Jjk7Ko/playing-with-android-quick-observations http://devin.reams.me/playing-with-android-quick-observations <p> <p>I'm a huge fan of Google, it's no secret. I finally found the opportunity to play with an <a href="http://www.android.com">Android</a> device. I've used a first-generation iPhone exclusively since March 2008. I like <a href="http://al3x.net/2009/08/10/switching-season.html">change</a> so I've taken a <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/product/dream/overview.html">HTC Dream</a> for a spin (using <a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-1.5-highlights.html">Cupcake 1.5</a>) for the last two days.</p> <p>I have a few quick observations that may or may not have been covered elsewhere:</p> <ul> <li><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><strong>The hardware is awful:</strong>&nbsp;I don't know why phone developers are so terrible. They have been for years. Apple shook up the scene with a top-of-the-line expensive device and now it's mainstream. It's been over a year, why does everything still fall short (design, speed)? Just copy everything and at least pretend like you're trying.</span></strong></li> <li><strong>The software is awesome:</strong> I'm jumping into the game mid-stride with Android so what I saw out-of-the-box is very impressive (push notifications, background processes, video recording, etc.). But it's arguably right on-par with Apple at this stage. Things like the notifications bar (I can see I got an email and text message and missed a call) and widgets (I can see the weather or the score of the Rockies game on the home screen) are like a breath of fresh-air coming from the very tunnel-visioned iPhone.</li> <li><strong>Slow slow slow:</strong>&nbsp;I don't know if it's the device, the software, or some mixture of both but it seems memory and speed are lacking. I'll sit and wait for 5 seconds at a time just to watch an application pop open. Perhaps the background processes need a way that help the user protect them from themselves (yeah, I should open up 10 things at once, sure).</li> <li><strong>Awkward clicking instead of tapping:</strong>&nbsp;as of the writing, no pinch to zoom makes weird zoom levels that require a lot more tapping than a simple pinch would. This is software and hopefully Google will decide it's worth sticking it in. It's important to keep in mind, not all Android devices will have touch screens (televisions?) so it's understandable.</li> <li><strong>The browser is hard for users:</strong>&nbsp;zooming, changing windows, opening bookmarks: all things I do often and require at least two-too-many clicks.</li> <li><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><strong>Application offerings are so-so:</strong>&nbsp;I've found a lot of great applications (tools, games, widgets) and I'm really impressed with what's out there. There is a lot to be desired and lots of empty space to fill. Now is probably a good time to become a big player in a growing space.</span></strong></li> <li><strong>No good media sync off-the-shelf:</strong>&nbsp;you have an SD card (awesome, removable storage!) but you lack the ability to sync with something like iTunes. You are forced back to the drag-dropping of files onto a drive. But if you don't use this as a media device, no worries</li> <li><strong>The applications are as bad as the developer makes them:</strong> a huge criticism is the lack of polish on Android phones and in the applications. Sure, Apple hands you everything you need with their SDK, thus, you get a lot of nice UI elements for free. But, you get stuck with a closed system, an application "review" process, and a bunch of hoops. Android says 'do what you want'. Think Facebook and MySpace: that profile page on MySpace looks only as bad as someone chose to make it.</li> <li><strong>More buttons means more depth:</strong> a lot of people look at the iPhone/iPod touch and see two buttons: 'power' and 'home'. Though it may seem cluttered, the additional buttons on most Android devices ('menu', 'back', 'home', scroll ball, etc.) means more application depth. I can quickly scroll around a list with the ball. I can click and hold the ball (or my finger) to bring up more actions. Each screen can respond to a 'menu' button which allows you to stick things like "Settings" and "Refresh" somewhere where the user isn't always faced with it.</li> <li><strong>Virtual keyboard and touch-screen is so-so:</strong> the original Android device only offered a keyboard (arguably much nicer to type on, I forgot about mobile keyboards! The tactile response virtual (on screen) keyboard is nice but the overall size seems small and tight. Oh, and the way I use my thumb on Android seems to 'hit' right below where I always intend to. Apple must do some calculating to shift those touches upward. (Put your thumb against a flat surface, the curvature means the bottom usually hits first and is immediately recorded, not the overall footprint of the finger)..</li> <li><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><strong>Integration with Google Voice is nearly perfect:</strong>&nbsp;it's not seamless, but close enough. I can send text messages from either my cell or my Google Voice number. I can set my calls to do the same. Maybe this way I'll get everyone 'switched' over to my new, preferred number.</span></strong></li> <li><strong>Additional Google integration:</strong> I don't even know where I would to go change which Google Account is associated with the device. All I know is my calendar, contacts, and GMail are all there. No settings page, no picking ports.</li> </ul> <p>As of right now, with a mix between the hardware offerings and software, I'd give the overall experience a 7/10 (iPhone is an 8, Blackberry Pearl is a 5).</p> <p>It wouldn't take that much to knock Apple off it's throne; in fact, it'd be better for everyone. I'm rooting for Android but likely sticking to Apple. We'll see if the costs outweigh the benefits in the next few days.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/playing-with-android-quick-observations">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/playing-with-android-quick-observations#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/qCXA9Jjk7Ko" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/playing-with-android-quick-observations Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:23:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/q9gBoY12Htw/rethinking-food-and-farms-animal-vegetable-mi http://devin.reams.me/rethinking-food-and-farms-animal-vegetable-mi <p> <p><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/devinreams/CEMttn4th3Z3gJY94lkmGNjqYU3FhgLqvrcNPw33u9OiGkq6VB5c7ChGW77K/avm.jpg" width="500" height="500"/> </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div>I finished reading an eye-opening book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Vegetable-Miracle-ebook/dp/B000QTD62Y/">Animal, Vegetable, Miracle</a>&nbsp;by Barbara Kingsolver. I feel it's a must-read for every American. Barbara and her family moved to her farm and lived entirely on the local production for a full year.</div> <p /> <div>You may not agree with them, you may not understand them, you may not appreciate them. I put myself in all three buckets before reading this book. But being exposed to the ideas presented is worth everyone's time. I'm a believer.</div> <p /> <div>We've all heard about how farming has changed (moving to big corporations) and how they destroy the environment (<a href="http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/research/enviro/fact_sheet_greenhouse_gas.html">gas emissions from farm animals</a>, lack of crop rotation destroying soil). But what is less appreciated is how we can change things by eating and growing food closer to home.</div> <p /> <div>Though awareness is growing, this book has helped make it clear why we should change our habits:</div> <p /> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote">If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country&rsquo;s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That&rsquo;s not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big difference</blockquote> <p /> <div>Also gaining awareness is the fact that we rely so much on just a handful of crops. Corn is in nearly every item we buy at the grocery store. From the sugar in soft drinks, to the feed that fattened up our chickens. History has shown this isn't a good way to live:</div> <p /> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote">History has regularly proven it drastically unwise for a population to depend on just a few varieties for the majority of its sustenance. The Irish once depended on a single potato, until the potato famine rewrote history and truncated many family trees. We now depend similarly on a few corn and soybean strains for the majority of calories (both animal and vegetable) eaten by U.S. citizens.</blockquote> <p /> <div>I find it interesting that the more 'affluent' society becomes, the less good food we eat. We shift from water to soft drinks. We&nbsp;go from eating local fruit to munching on kiwi and banana year-round...</div> <p /> <div>Because of this book I'm looking forward to trying new, local, organic fruits and vegetables. I'm excited about a shift in my diet and a new appreciation for food. Again, I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.</div> <p /> <div>Some useful resources:</div> <div> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com</span></a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets</span></a></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://www.localharvest.org"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.localharvest.org</span></a></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://www.doortodoororganics.com"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.doortodoororganics.com</span></a></span></span></li> </ul> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/rethinking-food-and-farms-animal-vegetable-mi">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/rethinking-food-and-farms-animal-vegetable-mi#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/q9gBoY12Htw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/rethinking-food-and-farms-animal-vegetable-mi Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:48:25 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/aSdasRUDeXU/use-google-reader-as-a-deliciouscom-alternati http://devin.reams.me/use-google-reader-as-a-deliciouscom-alternati <p> <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a> has only recently added social features (<a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2009/07/following-liking-and-people-searching.html">following, liking, people searching</a>) but I've found them to be amazingly powerful. <h3>Consuming information</h3> If you use Google Reader, you likely consume a lot of information through it via RSS feeds. Everything from news (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm">BBC</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html">NYTimes</a>), <a href="feed://news.google.com/?topic=s&amp;output=rss">sports</a>, humor (<a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com">ICHC</a>, <a href="http://www.xkcd.com">xkcd</a>) to photos from your Flickr contacts, <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40devinreams">Twitter mentions</a> and so on. Reader is one of my most important online web applications. <h3>Consolidated contacts</h3> And to pile on even more Google fanaticism (friends in college thought I worked for Google), all of my friends and family contact information are stored in <a href="http://www.google.com/contacts">Google Contacts</a>. The best part about this is that my Gmail, Google Voice, iPhone and Address Book contacts are all pointing to the same place: Google. Some argue that's a bad idea, but that's another discussion. Point being: there's no need for me to try and messily sync lots of contacts across multiple sites. <h3>Google Shared items</h3> Since Google now has public pages to display your 'Shared' items (through Google Reader, you can have one spot where you consume <em>and</em> share the cool content you find. In essence, you can help filter the signal from the noise for your contacts and friends. <div style="text-align: center; margin: 15px;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/G05Obt4qYboTflip8UTjgQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCITl2NK_tvvl5AE&amp;feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/EfAvybtFtIsCmpcIkqgrgzdqgtBnnbxsejleDtluBpjkhrDcllxyvFjtgwFr/media_httplh4ggphtcomCLIldRqAOhoSnDAjVhwGIAAAAAAAAAI0TfZaBNS4mp8s400googlereadersharepng_iwngtHIjtJIzDog.png.scaled500.png" width="400" height="146"/> </a></div> Once you share an item, other people that 'follow' you will be notified of the new item. Awesome, I can read consume new cool things that my friends have filtered. <h3>Replace delicious bookmarks altogether</h3> If you visit your Shared settings page (Your stuff &gt; Shared items &gt; Sharing settings) and scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll notice: <blockquote class="posterous_short_quote">Try the Note in Reader bookmarklet to share non-feed items from around the web.</blockquote> Drag and drop the 'Note in Reader' link to your browser's bookmarks toolbar and suddenly you can 'share' content from all over the web. Friend linked to something cool on Twitter? No problem, just 'Note in Reader' and everyone else knows about it. Tags and comment come standard. It's that easy. <div style="text-align: center; margin: 15px;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ckvf-uuDc7h7UrEAS_2thw?authkey=Gv1sRgCITl2NK_tvvl5AE&amp;feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/iJgebnauajojzelrsDvytABhwvfGADsImBebiCyiaqecndHxChzHunqEjvfF/media_httplh5ggphtcomCLIldRqAOhoSnEAgjHVikIAAAAAAAAAJIGMEHRpx7TMs400Instapapergoolesharepng_GEuebitJIJhcIwm.png.scaled500.png" width="400" height="267"/> </a></div> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/use-google-reader-as-a-deliciouscom-alternati">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/use-google-reader-as-a-deliciouscom-alternati#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/aSdasRUDeXU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/use-google-reader-as-a-deliciouscom-alternati Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:29:03 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/8fQUcVgWBuk/most-underrated-iphone-applications http://devin.reams.me/most-underrated-iphone-applications <p> I love the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone">iPhone</a> (on <a href="http://www.t-mobile.com">T-Mobile</a>). It's been an awesome phone slash iPod slash internet device for me for almost two years now. As I check out some of the other mobile phones out there I realize I may never leave the iPhone because of its applications. It's always fascinating to me to see what other people's home screen looks like (what applications do you use the most? why is that one up there? why do you have two red icons next to each other? etc.) and I've found some of my favorite applications just by seeing what other people use. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/devdev/3765054407/" title="iPhone home screen by devinreams, on Flickr"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/xFhqEsnosfnbvCbkviACzpIpHyhAvkGCGJJDssIrtbqAaijByyklIclpgJnz/media_httpfarm4staticflickrcom303937650544077d5011cbfdojpg_IBouhIwCcrGagFG.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="320" height="480"/> </a></div> In fact, word of mouth, like many other products, is the best way to find the best applications. Talking to a trusted source with similar interests and behaviors is a great way to find applications that match your lifestyle. <a href="http://twitter.com/mg">Matt Galligan</a> introduced me to <a href="http://www.groceryiq.com/groceryiq/index.html">Grocery IQ</a> and it's served as my grocery list ever since. So, with that said, here are my favorite underrated apps for the iPhone: <h3><a href="http://www.instapaper.com/iphone">Instapaper Pro</a> ($5)</h3> <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a> is one of the greatest free services on the web. <a href="http://www.marco.org/about">Marco</a> has spent a lot of time building a site where you can flag web pages you want to read later (built in to Tweetie, bookmarklet available, etc.). Instapaper takes the page, saves it, and adds it to your very simple list of unread articles. The iPhone application is perfect because it syncs with your Instapaper account, downloads the text-only (optional) version of the page, and allows you to read it on your phone. The fonts are customizable, the orientation can be swapped (portrait/landscape) and it even uses the accelerometer for tilt scrolling (look ma, no finger swiping). Even though I don't need all of the 'Pro' functionality, I bought this app just to support an excellent product. <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288545208&amp;mt=8">Instapaper Pro</a> (download) has <a href="http://twitter.threadless.com/product/1868/Having_an_iPhone_has_completely_changed_the_way_I_poop">changed the way I poop</a>. <h3><a href="http://www.mint.com/features/iphone/">Mint</a> (free)</h3> If you use the web-based money management service <a href="http://www.mint.com/">Mint</a>, then the iPhone app is the natural compliment to the site. The application shows your account balances, recent transactions, and budgets. Everything you need in your pocket to decide "should I really buy a burrito for lunch?" or "should I really be buying a round of shots tonight?" You may not focus on finances that often but by having the application, you can check your money's pulse in a few taps and start to understand important things like: where is my money going? Am I on track this month? <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300238550&amp;mt=8">Mint</a> (download) has helped me <a href="http://www.scroogestrategy.com/">cut costs and optimize my spending</a>. <h3><a href="http://playfoursquare.com/overview">foursquare</a> (free)</h3> Hands down, foursquare is one of the best location based applications available. You simply 'check-in' to the various places you visit (socially) and start to gain points and badges based on where you're at. But that's not the point, you can see where your friends are this weekend, where they've been ("hey, what's the scene like there? is it worth stopping by?") and discover some cool places through to-dos and tips left by other players. The iPhone app has push notifications so you can be alerted when your friends are out and about. Mayorship status (most check-ins at a location in the last 60 days) sometimes <a href="http://foursquare.tumblr.com/post/142829810/superamit-off-for-foursquare-checkins-and">gets you a free drink</a>. <a href="http://itunes.com/app/foursquare">Foursquare</a> (download) is an amazingly fun, social location game that makes me want to live a more interesting life. <h2>But those are just a few...</h2> What are your favorites? I'm sure there are tons out there that I've never even heard of. Leave a comment or start your own post and leave a pingback. <em>Note: <a href="http://www.seankovacs.com/index.php/2009/07/gv-mobile-is-getting-pulled-from-app-store/">GV Mobile</a> had originally been on this list but has since been <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/apple-is-growing-rotten-to-the-core-and-its-likely-atts-fault/">pulled from the app store</a>.</em> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/most-underrated-iphone-applications">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/most-underrated-iphone-applications#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/8fQUcVgWBuk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/most-underrated-iphone-applications Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:10:50 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/GTTMgMXHaXw/recent-graduates-how-to-find-work-you-love http://devin.reams.me/recent-graduates-how-to-find-work-you-love <p> My friend <a href="http://charliehoehn.com/">Charlie Hoehn</a> just released a free ebook: <a href="http://charliehoehn.com/2009/07/14/announcing-my-first-e-book/">Recession-Proof Graduate</a> and it encompasses a lot of ideals that I've learned over the last few years. <img src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyNDgyNzQ1NDY5MzAmcHQ9MTI*ODI3NDU1MzY2MyZwPTEwMTkxJmQ9c3NfZW1iZWQmZz*yJm89ZjY2MzJjODhiOTZmNGIwOWIyYTI2NTRlMzIxNDkxNjYmb2Y9MA==.gif"/> <div style="text-align: left;"></div> <h3>Rethinking the typical "job hunt"</h3> Charlie has done a great job capturing a lot of the secrets to finding meaningful work out of college. They include: <ul> <li><strong>Steer clear of the beaten path:</strong> don't send resumes everywhere, don't do what you <em>think</em> you should do. Go find the people and companies you want to work with. Do this even before you graduate from college.</li> <li><strong>Offer to do a project for free:</strong> it's a scary notion, but doing a side project before working for someone is far better than sending a resume and interviewing with them. This is how you set yourself apart, learn along the way, and do things on <em>your</em> terms.</li> <li><strong>Forget about the money:</strong> expecting to earn a big salary out-of-the-gate is a silly way to filter the world around you. Be realistic and realize you don't get a "trophy just for showing up."</li> </ul> <h3>Is free work a good idea?</h3> I want to expand on Charlie's point about performing free work. From both the employee and employers perspectives (I've been on both sides) free work can be beneficial to everyone: <ol> <li><strong>The individual finds something to do.</strong> You pick what you want to do, you learn as you go, make mistakes, have more flexibility, take more risks. This is ideal for the self-starters, self-motivated individuals looking for great opportunities (ie: you create them).</li> <li><strong>The company can learn about you.</strong> From my few experiences, it's becoming clearer that interviews are mostly wasteful and hardly indicative of how a prospect will perform. But, if you someone offered to do work upfront, I'm at no loss, I can become comfortable with your results, and I can bring you on to do many more excellent projects. Note: this is not solicited <a href="http://www.no-spec.com/">spec work</a>.</li> </ol> <h3>Useful advice for graduates</h3> Charlie then dives into some great advice on how to create the lifestyle and find the work that you want (not the job that everyone else is aiming for). To paraphrase <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/">Tim Ferriss</a>: it's lonely at the top, aim high because the rest of the world is competing for mediocrity. Sidestep the familiar routes and try some of these different approaches: <ul> <li>Find the people and companies you want to work with, not the ones that match your college degree</li> <li>Start to define your desired lifestyle and aim for jobs that are aligned with it</li> <li>Cut your losses and realize everything up to now is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs">sunk cost</a>, stop basing future decisions on your previously invested time</li> <li>Go learn something and bring some <em>real</em> skills to the table (not 'Microsoft Office' and 'Communication' skills)</li> </ul> <h3>This is exactly what I did</h3> I've been on both sides of the fence and Charlie is spot-on with this book. I went through college trying new opportunities, working remotely on <a href="http://devin.reams.me/about/">fun projects</a> like helping organize a conference, I even met with <a href="http://www.coloradostartups.com/">David Cohen</a> to talk about <a href="http://techstars.org/">TechStars</a>. But, I watched what everyone else around me was doing and I left college with a job lined up at a Big 4 accounting firm (the job matched my degree). I wrote about <a href="http://devin.reams.me/the-one-about-the-new-job/">my lessons as soon as I left</a> to go work for <a href="http://crowdfavorite.com">Crowd Favorite</a> and haven't looked back. I recommend you check out <a href="http://charliehoehn.com/2009/07/14/announcing-my-first-e-book/">Recession-Proof Graduate</a> and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/charliehoehn">subscribe to Charlie's blog</a>. <em>PS: Charlie asked me to contribute to the book so I wrote about building momentum through your online presence. Find me on page 22.</em> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/recent-graduates-how-to-find-work-you-love">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/recent-graduates-how-to-find-work-you-love#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/GTTMgMXHaXw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/recent-graduates-how-to-find-work-you-love Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:34:23 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/-dmveaOGrD4/twitter-is-the-new-myspace http://devin.reams.me/twitter-is-the-new-myspace <p> I get a lot of good emails but Rachel made a great observation today: <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote">Not only is "Spongebob" a trending topic on Twitter, but it's "Wich Spongebob." The fact that we have gazillions of people taking quizzes about their similarity to a Spongebob character is sad, but not nearly as sad as the fact that the word 'which' is being so persistently misspelled.</blockquote> Twitter has become MySpace. We knew it was coming when celebrities showed up. We knew the site was a big deal even before the illegally stolen, internal, not-for-public-consumption documents were released. The obvious difference being the "openness" of Twitter. MySpace, Facebook, etc. required at least some level of friendship to get to people's intimate details. Not to mention this level of aggregation, which is only skimming the surface, has never been so public before The original beauty of Twitter was the quick-yet-personal musings that everyone could see (private profiles are often condemed by "social media experts") and chose to follow. But now the rest of the world is here and it's a bit frightening. Its not the small ecosystem that we initially enjoyed being a part of. Senators, porn stars, real estate agents, company executives: they're all here. Plus, everything is indexed, searchable, retweetable, and easy to find. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more people revert back to a more "closed" system in the near future. We are teetering on the edge of novel and unnerving. </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/twitter-is-the-new-myspace">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/twitter-is-the-new-myspace#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/-dmveaOGrD4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/twitter-is-the-new-myspace Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:00:22 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/EETyLOWfopE/mailchimp-releases-analytics360-wordpress-plu-0 http://devin.reams.me/mailchimp-releases-analytics360-wordpress-plu-0 <p> At <a href="http://crowdfavorite.com/">Crowd Favorite</a>, we often have the privilege of working with some very cool <a href="http://crowdfavorite.com/clients">clients</a>. These last few weeks we worked closely with <a href="http://mailchimp.com">MailChimp</a> to help release a WordPress plugin called <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/analytics360/">Analytics360&deg;</a>. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/analytics360/"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/twtFauwJrczrwsDDzHdCltGIHcCtpkDebpyuvDkIDCsmkAaeaeyhwhwDhxIv/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200907analytics360dashboardpng_caetgnBsxttIJjC.png.scaled500.png" width="475" height="325"/> </a><br /><b>Dashboard view of the Analytics360 plugin</b><br /> From the <a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/google-analytics-plugin-for-wordpress/">MailChimp blog</a>: <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote">...it uses the power of Google Analytics to tell bloggers what kind of an effect they’re having on overall website traffic. We’ve made it super easy to tell if your blog posts (and email campaigns) are driving traffic to your website...</blockquote> There has already been a lot of <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mailchimp+plugin">nice things said on Twitter</a>, and over <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/analytics360/stats/">1,000 downloads</a>. Check out <a href="http://blip.tv/play/gfBPgY6hOIrgIw">the video</a> to learn a bit more about how it works: <div style="text-align: center;"></div> Overall, this was a great team effort. The folks at MailChimp had a great idea, access to great APIs (both MailChimp and Google Analytics) and a lot of foresight. We at Crowd Favorite were greeted with the challenge and built one of the slickest WordPress analytics plugins out there (those <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/">visualizations</a> are easy, but not <em>that</em> easy). </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/mailchimp-releases-analytics360-wordpress-plu-0">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/mailchimp-releases-analytics360-wordpress-plu-0#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/EETyLOWfopE" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/mailchimp-releases-analytics360-wordpress-plu-0 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:47:00 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/MmLo9Nk-n7k/how-to-merge-existing-gmail-accounts http://devin.reams.me/how-to-merge-existing-gmail-accounts <p> <em>If you're like me you have a GMail account (something like <a href="mailto:yourname@gmail.com">yourname@gmail.com</a>). But, one day, <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html">Google Apps</a> came along and offered the opportunity for Google to host and act as your domains' email provider. I immediately forwarded all my incoming gmail.com email to devinreams.com and set up the domain on Google Apps. Then a year later, I decided to change my domain to reams.me, so I set up another Google Apps instance and started forwarding email there. Now I had three GMail accounts, all with different email saved in them. Oh, and suddenly, Google Voice and Contacts appered on the scene. I realized I wanted go go back to my gmail.com account. I had email all over the place.</em> <h2>I had Google email stored in three difference places</h2> I wanted to consolidate the email from my two Google Apps accounts (devinreams.com, reams.me) and have my thousands of emails stored all in one place (gmail.com). "No sweat", I thought. But, this process is harder than may appear on the surface. Below I outline a multi-step process where I <ol><li>physically copy email to one account to another, and </li><li>setup rules so that new mail (incoming and outgoing) is coming to/from the right places.</li></ol> <h3>Step 1: Setup Mail.app using IMAP</h3> The biggest endeavor is moving the mail which is a process of: configuring multiple IMAP accounts in <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/mail-ical-address-book.html">Apple's Mail</a> (I assume you can do the same in any IMAP-compatible email client), and physically copying the messages between the two servers. A few notes before we get setup: <ul> <li><strong>Labels:</strong> Using IMAP, GMail labels will appear as 'folders'. This means that one email with a label applied can appear in at least two places (All Mail, Label 1, Label 2). For simplicity's sake, I decided to abandon the two-dozen-or-so unique labels that I had across the three accounts. There was no easy way to reconcile the different wording or usage I had evolved over the three years of different accounts. So, I stuck to simply moving 'All Mail' to 'All Mail' across accounts.</li> <li><strong>Connectivity:</strong> In order to make this (potentially HUGE) move, your network connection (upstream) will be in use the entire time. Basically, the email client is constantly sending commands such as "Copy Message A from Account A to Account B." Needless to say, this will take a while and will require some bandwidth.</li> <li><strong>Timeouts means batching:</strong> In my experience, Google had a hard time keeping a connection open if I simply tried to copy 12,000 emails at once. I couldn't tell if it was idling out (idle commands were queued to be sent <em>after</em> the copy commands...) or just choking on the request. I found I could easily queue a month (about 1,000) emails without Google disconnecting.</li> <li><strong>Duplicates</strong>: Despite my initial connection failures, IMAP and Google were smart enough not to copy duplicate messages. In other words, if I copied Message A already, and tried it again, it didn't. So, if you lose your place when batching, don't worry about it.</li> <li><strong>Crashes:</strong> Mail will crash when you first try to open your 'All Mail' folder (or any large IMAP folder for that matter). Just relaunch a few times and it'll get there eventually. Trust me, it may take a few tries. This is where the 'Activity Window' can help tell you what's going on.</li> </ul> With all that said, here's the process: <ol> <li>Go into your Gmail accounts and enable IMAP (Settings &gt; Forwarding and POP/IMAP).</li> <li>Open Mail.app and set up your first GMail account (do not check 'Automatically set up account') following these <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;ctx=mail&amp;answer=75726">IMAP instructions</a>. <strong>DO NOT</strong> check 'Take account online'.</li> <li>In the 'Accounts' screen, select your first account and disable all the 'Mailbox Behaviors' (not necessary, but prevents server-side things from happening).</li> <li>Switch to the 'Advanced' tab and change the 'Keep copies of messages..' setting to: 'Don't keep copies of any messages'.</li> <li>Repeat this process to set up your other account(s) that you're moving to/from.</li> <li>Close the 'Accounts' screen and save your changes.</li> <li>Open the 'Activity Window' (command + 0) so you can watch what's going on in the background.</li> <li>Now you can 'Take All Accounts Online' from the Mailbox menu.</li> </ol> At this point, you now have a Mail client setup so that your emails can simply copy across accounts without locally downloading each message. Now the fun part. <h3>Step 2: Copy all your email from one account to the other</h3> <ol> <li>Browse to the account you want to move email from and open the '[Gmail] All Mail' folder (this is where the crashing is likely to happen, relaunch, watch your 'Activity Window', repeat).</li> <li>Start wherever suits you and select a good batch of emails (I would do one month at a time, approximately 1,000 emails per month). Do <strong>not</strong> try to copy all of them at once. If it works, congrats, if it doesn't, you'll have no idea how far it got before crashing or timing out.</li> <li>Right click your selection and select 'Copy To'. Browse to the '[Gmail] All Mail' folder of your other account. (notes: you can also drag/drop or 'Copy and Paste', you can also repeat this process using your labels instead of 'All Mail').</li> <li>Sit back and watch the bits and bytes fly through the internet in the Activity Window.</li> <li>Go ahead and queue the next batch of emails (eg: February). Repeat as much as you'd like. You can see these batches saved in the Activity Window and monitor progress.</li> </ol> Over the course of 3 days I was able to move about 30,000 emails in the background (set this up before you go to sleep and use an application like <a href="http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/">Caffeine</a> to keep your computer awake). Trust me, this is <em>much</em> faster than the 'POP import' process that GMail has built-in (don't even look it up). Once you've arrived here you've successfully copied all your email from at least one account to another. You can confirm by browsing to your account online and doing some math. Now, I want to make sure all my future email goes to and comes from the right place. <h3>Step 3: Setup forwarding from the old account</h3> Very simply, all you need to do now is visit the old accounts and browse to 'Settings &gt; Forwarding and POP/IMAP'. Configure your old address to forward to your new address. Perfect... moving on. <h3>Step 4: Setup your new account to send 'from' your old account</h3> You're likely aware that GMail can send email "on behalf of" other email addresses. Set your primary email account to send from your old ones (if so desired): <ol> <li>Browse to 'Settings &gt; Accounts'</li> <li>Under "Send mail as" click the 'Add another email address you own' link</li> <li>Follow the instructions, your old address will be sent a confirmation (it should appear in your new account if you followed Step 3)</li> <li>If you want to use an old address as your primary outgoing address (eg: all email comes to gmail.com but I want to still send as if I'm at reams.me), then click 'Default' next to that address and check the "When receiving a message:" options below.</li> </ol> Now you can send email from your primary account as if you were still at your old ones. <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;ctx=mail&amp;answer=22370">Learn more about custom 'From' addresses</a>. <h2>The consolidated life</h2> Great, now I have all my email accounts flowing into my gmail.com account. My GMail contacts and Google Voice contacts are all synchronized (in addition to my iPhone contacts and Apple Address Book contacts). Plus, I have over 4 years of email all in one place. I can find receipts from 2004 without having to login to my old accounts! I tell you, I'm living the dream... <em>If you have any questions, be sure to post them in the comments.</em> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/how-to-merge-existing-gmail-accounts">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/how-to-merge-existing-gmail-accounts#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/MmLo9Nk-n7k" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/how-to-merge-existing-gmail-accounts Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:25:37 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/6d5tYiKJ1m0/new-site-hunch-helps-with-decision-making http://devin.reams.me/new-site-hunch-helps-with-decision-making <p> I've been experimenting with a new site for the last month or two. <a href="http://www.hunch.com/info/the-hunch-team/">Hunch</a> is a new endeavor by some <a href="http://www.hunch.com/info/the-hunch-team/">really smart folks</a> (Flickr co-founder, SiteAdvisor folks, Ivy League individuals, etc.). The basic premise: <blockquote class="posterous_short_quote">In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma, on hundreds of topics.</blockquote> Although Hunch is in a private beta for one more week, it has amassed over 2,100 topics on everything from <a href="http://www.hunch.com/preview/browse-topics/electronics/">Electronics</a> to <a href="http://www.hunch.com/preview/browse-topics/sports-fitness/">Sports and Fitness </a>. <h2>Hunch is the lazyweb</h2> Frankly, Hunch is a great idea and I have no doubt will become another staple of the internet. <strong>What Wikipedia is to knowledge sourcing, Hunch is to decision making.</strong> With the ability for anyone to make edits, suggests decisions, vote up, vote down, and leave comments in the form of pros and cons of a decision, Hunch will become <em>the</em> platform for decision information. <a href="http://www.hunch.com/preview/browse-topics/"><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/ApCsAabguieuEpmBwGGvzgdJHEpuDzBkAeAuIqsjFewspxtmooGjbknDqDkt/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200906hunchbrowsetopics1png_lpjDjBqyysruqvH.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/ApCsAabguieuEpmBwGGvzgdJHEpuDzBkAeAuIqsjFewspxtmooGjbknDqDkt/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200906hunchbrowsetopics1png_lpjDjBqyysruqvH.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="317"/></a> </a><br /><b>With thousands of topics, one can make a decision about nearly anything.</b><br /> If you think about it, people are making decisions every day. Very often we involve our friends. Too often I see friends on Facebook or Twitter ask questions like: should I buy the new iPhone 3GS or the Palm Pre? What should I do over the weekend? What graphic design book should I read? Or they're answering the questions like "What cocktail am I?" [note: who cares?] My selfish dream is that this chatter disappears and relocates to Hunch; a site dedicated and perfectly designed to handle these questions (much better designed than 140 characters on Twitter). <h2>Badges are always a win</h2> If you want to build a web application that encourages people to immediately sign up and be active: add badges. I've used Hunch maybe a dozen times and I already have 8 super sweet badges. No doubt I'll be back to get more. But seriously, credibility is important on the web. Banjos are to Hunch what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page">edits</a> are to Wikipedia and reputation are to <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/16248">Stack Overflow</a>. It encourages more participation, though, arguably may incentivize people to add junk. That's fine though, in theory, as the community will sort out the user generated signal from the noise. <h2>The hidden value: Teach Hunch</h2> Hunch asks a lot of questions about you. It gains a lot of information not only from your decisions, edits, recommendations, etc. It also asks you, point blank, "Do you enjoy shopping for clothes?" or "Do you have a car?" <img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/pBdtfymnjurkgeywlHgjgwChGEFfCnAJaCihpkbzzFmhxazfrIkvltiaJHFI/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200906teachhunchpng_EvwkasjJGjJeJEm.png.scaled500.png" width="347" height="280"/> <br /><b>My previous answer was the same as 48% of respondents. I From the plethora of information that thousands of users are providing you can quickly get some very cool (anonymized) correlations. <a href="http://twitter.com/hunch/status/2078375764"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/wxEqxGjpbyctpqIesyuAoonemkaFmHIFGExDjmEbewrgscmcIdmxlctnmiwn/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200906twitterhunch1png_teshkwizFAGiadd.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="218"/> </a><br /><b>Liberals are about twice as likely to prefer arugula to iceberg in their salads, but the exact opposite goes for conservatives.</b><br /> Of course, the concern being how much Hunch can learn from us, where that information will go, how it will be used for/against us, etc. Some will argue its harmless in the beginning, others say thatm in the minority?</b><br /> From the plethora of information that thousands of users are providing you can quickly get some very cool (anonymized) correlations. <a href="http://twitter.com/hunch/status/2078375764"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/wxEqxGjpbyctpqIesyuAoonemkaFmHIFGExDjmEbewrgscmcIdmxlctnmiwn/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200906twitterhunch1png_teshkwizFAGiadd.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="218"/> </a><br /><b>Liberals are about twice as likely to prefer arugula to iceberg in their salads, but the exact opposite goes for conservatives.</b><br /> Of course, the concern being how much Hunch can learn from us, where that information will go, how it will be used for/against us, etc. Some will argue its harmless in the beginning, others say that </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/new-site-hunch-helps-with-decision-making">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/new-site-hunch-helps-with-decision-making#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/6d5tYiKJ1m0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/new-site-hunch-helps-with-decision-making Sun, 10 May 2009 12:27:52 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/KaqXnSx-qzI/cataloging-reviews-and-bookmarks http://devin.reams.me/cataloging-reviews-and-bookmarks <p> In a prior effort to minimize my online activity I removed myself from using a lot of websites. Two of which I've come back to: <a href="http://yelp.com/">Yelp</a> and <a href="http://delicious.com/">Delicious</a>. I find a lot of interesting sites and articles online and I've continually found myself thinking "shoot, what was that site name?" or "where did I read that article about ____?" I've come back to <a href="http://delicious.com/devinreams">Delicious</a> to help catalog these sites. I'm also interested in sharing my thoughts on restaurants and bars I've visited. Yelp has been an invaluable source for finding good places to eat. I love being snarky and sharing my opinion, so, I'm also back on <a href="http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=9uoDujDA8KD3kXKfwvJiqg">Yelp</a> posting reviews. An interesting side-note: I've stopped actively using <a href="http://brightkite.com/">Brightkite</a>. In the numerous interactions, I've found little-to-no value in cataloging and constantly keeping track of my location. It is fun to engage in conversations at conferences and get togethers.. but certainly nothing that <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> can't achieve. </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/cataloging-reviews-and-bookmarks">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/cataloging-reviews-and-bookmarks#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/KaqXnSx-qzI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/cataloging-reviews-and-bookmarks Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:26:30 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/tNcz2Js0oDM/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves http://devin.reams.me/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves <p> <span style="background-color: rgb(255,251,204);">The following violates the fine-print for the MyFaves plans and I do not suggest you break rules. As mentioned by Josiah in the comments, the following guide goes against this statement on <a href="http://www.t-mobile.com/templates/generic.aspx?passet=Pln_Lst_MyFavesLrnDemo">T-Mobile's website</a>: "Your five numbers must be US domestic numbers and must not include ... customers' own numbers; and single numbers allowing access to 500 or more persons."</span> Some quick background: I've been a long-time customer of T-Mobile and have been extremely happy with their service. There have been four or five of us (friends and family) on a <a href="http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?catgroup=Family-Time-cell-phone-plan&amp;WT.mc_n=Family_PlanFirstTile2&amp;WT.mc_t=OnsiteAd">myFaves FamilyPlan</a> for over four years now. We have free Mobile-to-Mobile, nights and weekends, unlimited SMS, five unlimited-call myFaves contacts and 700 minutes to share. With the $6 T-Zones internet, I pay only $37/month. life is good. But it gets better. I rarely, if ever, am forced to use our daytime minutes thanks to <a href="http://google.com/voice">Google Voice</a> (formerly, <a href="http://grandcentral.com/">GrandCentral</a>). <h2>Add your Google Voice number as a Fave</h2> <img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/ktfdCccdDGqGcBefhqAxglwiromgfmbmuzBaoxDhdciIxsygBkkDDlJtuGeb/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200904fave5png_xnfvmfzzaiJEHCe.png.scaled500.png" width="415" height="367"/> It's not crazy, you <em>do</em> want your own phone number as a contact. Once you add your number to your MyFaves you can receive and make calls from/to that number with no charge. But first, make sure you set your incoming calls to display your Google Voice number instead of the caller's number (so the calls appear from your MyFave contact): <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/vuxvdefJuImIBjlsGGvwqCvArtaJmqGsjDueicuelqobexskfyABtqoahsyr/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200905voicecalleridpng_pauFdtzasoakneo.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/vuxvdefJuImIBjlsGGvwqCvArtaJmqGsjDueicuelqobexskfyABtqoahsyr/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200905voicecalleridpng_pauFdtzasoakneo.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="271"/></a> Why is this awesome? You never use your minutes and have more than one way to complete a call: <img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/jJrgrtfcuHnkfIkmdopllflAfdGBqukIGGfrhjBnmltmDDxqwxzzIeovwHJD/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200904png_wACgGamaCDbbcic.wpwp-contentuploads200904png.scaled500.jpg" width="285" height="352"/> <ol> <li><strong>Call your number, dial a number:</strong> though not very practical, when you dial your Google Voice number from one of your existing phones (added to your Voice account) you are then prompted to listen to voicemail OR press 2 to dial a call. You can then dial a number and, while you're still on the line, Google Voice will connect the call (unlimited talk time!). Keep in mind, the receiver will see the incoming call coming from your Google Voice number.</li> <li><strong>Use the web service:</strong> your Google Voice contacts are the same as those in your Gmail account. If you sync your phone's contacts with your Google Contacts then this is a seamless integration. All of your friends' phone numbers appear in the Google Voice dashboard and you can click to call them. You are then called (the incoming number is your Google Voice) and your friend is connected. Again, since the call was from your Voice number, no charge!</li> <li><strong>Use the mobile interface:</strong> same as the web interface, you can select a contact and have Google Voice connect the call by dialing your number (incoming from your Google Voice number).</li> <li><strong>iPhone app:</strong> An application called <a href="http://www.seankovacs.com/index.php/gv-mobile/">GV Mobile for the iPhone</a>is available in both a free and premium versions and will interface directly with your iPhone contacts. The premium version also allows you to do cool things like review your call history, incoming SMS messages (to the Voice number), and listen to voicemail. AT&amp;T/Apple have pulled all iPhone applications for Google Voice (including an official one from Google).</li> </ol> <h2>Bonus: free conference calls</h2> One thing you'll notice about T-Mobile MyFaves is that toll and toll-free numbers can not be added as a Fave. Bummer! No free calls to customer service, conference call lines, etc. Lucky for us, there's <a href="http://freeconferencecall.com/">FreeConferenceCall.com</a>. FreeConferenceCall assigns you a phone number that is <em>not</em> a toll free dial-in (in my experience, all the numbers are area code 605). This means you can add your conference call number as a Fave, dial in, and never be charged for the call. (or, yes, you can just connect to the conference number through Google Voice) <strong>UPDATE:</strong> <a href="http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/google-voice-gvdialer-myfavs-awesome-possibilities-257883/index8.html#post2994750">Some users</a> have claimed that Google Voice acts as a forwarding service and you don't need to turn on the 'display Google Voice' number setting in order to have your minutes counted as myFaves. <em>This is false.</em> I'm looking at my call records from T-Mobile and can easily identify two calls that were charged to me though they came through Google Voice number. The display number does matter. The call presentation (announcing who is calling) does not. </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/tNcz2Js0oDM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:23:45 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/NMsjUK5ODX4/add-twitter-favorites-to-your-site http://devin.reams.me/add-twitter-favorites-to-your-site <p> <em>Hint: if you've never used <a href="http://twitter.com/devinreams">Twitter</a> the following won't make much sense to you.</em> I easily annoyed by people on Twitter who 'RT', or 're-tweet'; they simply post an update that says exactly what someone else says, plus attribution. Frankly, answering the Twitter mantra "What are you doing?" with "this is what someone else smarter, funnier, or more charming is doing" seems inane. It's poetic, though, in the sense that it's a quick litmus test for people worth "following." <a href="http://alexking.org/">Alex</a> has always been against this practice and suggested <a href="http://alexking.org/blog/2009/01/29/an-alternative-to-rts-on-twitter">an alternative to RTs:</a> favorites. <a href="http://twitter.com/devinreams/status/1461301788"><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/bolhseiCjBqaAuGensFehadwpGmdIrdzxhEnJgfnDikpeCFdnaevrsgoEBja/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200904twitterhistory2png_DzoDnAoHdxJlyiF.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/bolhseiCjBqaAuGensFehadwpGmdIrdzxhEnJgfnDikpeCFdnaevrsgoEBja/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200904twitterhistory2png_DzoDnAoHdxJlyiF.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="122"/></a> </a> There are very few features on Twitter: updates, direct messages, replies, <em>favorites</em>, followers, followings. I charge everyone to use the favorites feature more often. In fact, there's a site dedicated to finding the real good ones: <a href="http://favrd.textism.com/">favrd</a>. Point being: I'm a huge proponent of using the little star. I've started publicizing my favorites here in the sidebar of <a href="http://mindaverse.com/">Mind/Averse</a> and it took less than 30 seconds using WordPress. It's really quite simple. <h2>Add Twitter favorites with the WordPress RSS widget</h2> <img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/JjwFhoChCdJdeuCqgImddevBEdrIqpouGxpruDtJAhywgGlGcBeDbHyCBCbB/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads200904rsswidgetpng_qcEqvJfjdFJaaqb.png.scaled500.png" width="441" height="328"/> Assuming you have a widget-friendly WordPress theme installed, simply do the following: <ol> <li>From the WordPress dashbord, Browse to Appearance &gt; Widgets</li> <li>Select the 'Add' button next to the "RSS" widget</li> <li>Visit your <a href="http://twitter.com/favorites">Twitter favorites</a> page and determine your personal RSS feed (view the page source if you're stuck here; find the &lt;link&gt; tag with <a href="http://twitter.com/favorites/">http://twitter.com/favorites/</a><em>youridhere</em>.rss)</li> <li>Insert the favorites feed into your RSS widget, give the widget a title, pick your options, etc.</li> <li>Save the widget and save the changes to your sidebar</li> </ol> Now everyone who visits your site can immediately find the tweets you find useful. You'll get to be cooler, smarter, and funnier simply by association. <h2>Other ways to integrate Twitter favorites</h2> I can think of various creative ways for individuals and businesses to use Twitter favorites. For example, if I were a company with customers sending @replies to me telling me how great I was, I may favorite those. I can then use something like <a href="http://simplepie.org/">SimplePie</a> to integrate my favorites into my blog as a separate page of testimonials. I know 37signals uses 'buzz' from Twitter on their site. <a href="http://37signals.com/"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/wGFhColaaozzJByuJfezmivaaxgmfrlEgzrkAmklvGEaodIzJyogGtCqizdx/media_httpdevinreamsmewpwpcontentuploads20090437signalstwitterpng_xqIlahBcokacFJz.png.scaled500.png" width="411" height="304"/> </a> <h2>Bonus: do the same with @replies</h2> The @replies RSS feed is a bit different and uses the Twitter API and 401 authentication, not a custom RSS feed, for your replies. No worries, you can either pull the RSS feed from <a href="http://search.twitter.com/">Twitter Search</a> or you can do the same thing using the following syntax: <blockquote class="posterous_short_quote"><a href="http://twittername">http://twittername</a>:<a href="mailto:twitterpassword@twitter.com">twitterpassword@twitter.com</a>/statuses/replies.rss</blockquote> In theory, the API will include all mentions (any time @devinreams is included in an update, not just at the beginning of an update). Ha, this is why they call me a <a href="http://twitter.com/bleikamp/statuses/1423172299">social media pro</a>. </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/add-twitter-favorites-to-your-site">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/add-twitter-favorites-to-your-site#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/NMsjUK5ODX4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/add-twitter-favorites-to-your-site Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:01:56 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/5x7UcYDbjno/book-review-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich http://devin.reams.me/book-review-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich <p> I was trying to come up with an attention-grabbing title for this book to make sure nobody skimmed past. Frankly, I couldn't decide between "great personal finance book" or "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761147489?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=devinreamscom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0761147489">the greatest personal finance book</a><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/FfjgCtpsghstjpaBzftaghnypuadawJqdDvsFCJrkgCAfzyAqbsAdHDmkykk/media_httpwwwassocamazoncomeirtdevinreamscom20las2o1a0761147489_GybHvqqwzetyegm.eir.scaled500.jpg" width="1" height="1"/> ." Then I realized, the title sells itself: Ramit Sethi <em>will</em> teach you to be rich. Ramit Sethi is a brilliant guy (he hired me once or twice) and there's no doubt in my mind that he is, indeed, rich (you have to be to live in San Francisco). Insert one more joke here about him being Indian. Seriously, I've been a long time reader of his blog, aptly titled, <a href="http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/">I Will Teach You To Be Rich</a> and couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/JssHgDouCJklnqCpyBEsbHjDIlJsotxIptpgxBGrgbdfpdhghsAJGbfguetA/media_httpphotosbakfbcdnnetphotosaksf2pv1421148010200068n10200068364708014272jpg_aysxhbHHmgynCwn.jpg.scaled1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/JssHgDouCJklnqCpyBEsbHjDIlJsotxIptpgxBGrgbdfpdhghsAJGbfguetA/media_httpphotosbakfbcdnnetphotosaksf2pv1421148010200068n10200068364708014272jpg_aysxhbHHmgynCwn.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="281"/></a> Photo: <a href="http://devin.reams.me">Devin Reams</a>, <a href="http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com/">Ramit Sethi</a>, <a href="http://jonathanotto.com/">Jon Otto</a>, <a href="http://okdork.com">Noah Kagan</a> <h2>More than just a book</h2> This book serves as a six week, step-by-step guide to: <ul> <li>reducing debt,</li> <li>using credit cards,</li> <li>eliminating fees,</li> <li>maximizing earnings,</li> <li>automating finances,</li> <li>allocating assets, and</li> <li>reducing spending.</li> </ul> If these all sound like scary things, don't worry, Ramit will hold your hand the entire time. His cheeky, informal writing style sounds more like your best buddy chatting about money than some writer on a soapbox trying to impress you with big words. This book is easy to read, follow-along with and teaches you all the things about finance you wish you had known when you were in your 20s. <h2>Crash course in money</h2> I took two personal finances classes in academia: one in high school and one in college. The former taught me lessons like: how to write checks (I don't use paper checks anymore) and how to balance a checkbook (I use <a href="http://mint.com/">Mint</a> to track that information). The latter taught things like: the importance of owning real estate (we all know how that turned out) and how to manually complete your 1040 form (I use <a href="http://devin.reams.me/2009/02/taxes-filed-beware-turbotax/">TurboTax</a> for that). Point being: traditional finances courses and books aren't doing you a lot of good. I Will Teach You To Be Rich cuts through the noise (Jim Cramer, anyone?) and gives it to you straight: start saving now, don't invest in individual stocks, real estate isn't the best investment, banks sucks, but despite all of this, feel free to spend lots of money (on the things you love). If you disagree with any of the previous statements, you'll love this book. <h2>Bottom line</h2> Though I'm biased, I do think this is a must-read for anyone, especially anyone under 30. Plus, I have the benefit of hindsight: the book already hit Amazon's #1 best seller and is still #1 in personal finance. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761147489?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=devinreamscom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0761147489"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/JejnJjdrDfrEyeAjItHvGaGofAhButBfHckFBuoFalubAxDhfiieozkIFFvv/media_httpfarm4staticflickrcom36553367331268f6188d04edjpg_dApairIzhaahsCm.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="375"/> </a><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/FfjgCtpsghstjpaBzftaghnypuadawJqdDvsFCJrkgCAfzyAqbsAdHDmkykk/media_httpwwwassocamazoncomeirtdevinreamscom20las2o1a0761147489_GybHvqqwzetyegm.eir.scaled500.jpg" width="1" height="1"/> If I could walk up to each of my friends and slap them with a copy of this book I know it would make a huge difference in their lives. Seriously, I want all of my friends from school to read this book now. Pick up this book and start acting today. It's not hard stuff, and even the simple things like setting up automatic monthly payments have huge benefits: you'll never <em>ever</em> pay a late fee again. You'll never have to remember to set aside money for investing. Simply asking for an increase in your existing credit lines means you can raise your overall credit score saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars in financing (if you buy a house or car). Enough said: go buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761147489?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=devinreamscom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0761147489">I Will Teach You To Be Rich</a><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/FfjgCtpsghstjpaBzftaghnypuadawJqdDvsFCJrkgCAfzyAqbsAdHDmkykk/media_httpwwwassocamazoncomeirtdevinreamscom20las2o1a0761147489_GybHvqqwzetyegm.eir.scaled500.jpg" width="1" height="1"/> . </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/book-review-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/book-review-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/5x7UcYDbjno" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/book-review-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:12:50 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/t2jgB18wyp0/making-naps-popular http://devin.reams.me/making-naps-popular <p> Ever since SXSW I've rethought a lot of what it is I'm doing, what my priorities are, etc. I've also noticed that every night I get home from work and I'm tired. Crazy huh? I also get hungry at lunch time. But seriously, I hate getting home and not feeling motivated to do anything else. So, I've gone back to something I perfected in college: <a href="http://mindaverse.com/2006/02/21/biphasic-sleep-faq/">napping</a>. At the time, biphasic and polyphasic sleep were being (re)discovered online. I stopped taking naps after I started my big-boy job out of college. But now, I realize, it'd be great to take a nap and start a 'second day' every night. So my schedule is as follows: <ul> <li>08:00 AM - Wake up, go to work, etc.</li> <li>06:00 PM - Leave work, have dinner, etc.</li> <li>08:00 PM - Sleep</li> <li>11:00 PM - Wake up, start 'second day' (read, watch movies, blog, etc.)</li> <li>05:00 AM - Go to sleep</li> </ul> My body is, luckily, still used to the 80-90 minute sleep cycles so I can get away with two chunks of 3 hours and feel energized all day. Two days in and I've hit the ground running. I'm pretty stoked. If you have any questions and want to try biphasic sleep / naps just leave a comment. </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/making-naps-popular">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/making-naps-popular#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/t2jgB18wyp0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/making-naps-popular Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:49:04 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/5mK823GWcFU/the-kindle-looks-amazing http://devin.reams.me/the-kindle-looks-amazing <p> I had the privledge of touching a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00154JDAI?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=devinreamscom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00154JDAI">Kindle 2</a><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/zruInBIxBycCmtFamhiJmkejpbwbgCmsJJCrGlFfeDzwftDCtuHdtFkeyayC/media_httpwwwassocamazoncomeirtdevinreamscom20las2o1aB00154JDAI_hJmInDpJaisatzG.eir.scaled500.jpg" width="1" height="1"/> at SXSW when <a href="http://alexking.org/">Alex</a> and I bumped into <a href="http://begoodnotbad.com">Brian</a>. I learned one thing quickly: Kindle owners quickly turn into Kindle enthusiasts and evangelists. The display is like nothing I've ever seen before. The screen doesn't look digital, its almost like it was ink printed right on the device. Let me reinforce: this thing looks amazing! It's almost as cool as a <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090309.jpg">Book</a> (comic, Penny Arcade). But, nay, I mustn't buy one <em>yet</em>. With over a dozen books on my <a href="http://www.shelfari.com/devinreams">bookshelf</a> (the real ones, dead-tree books) I shall wait until I finish those before I buy up yet another gadget that may-or-may-not persuade me to do more of something (I'm looking at you Nike Plus). <em>Update: I bought one! And the dead tree books are still on the shelf. :\</em> </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/the-kindle-looks-amazing">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/the-kindle-looks-amazing#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/5mK823GWcFU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/the-kindle-looks-amazing Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:23:37 -0700 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/devinreams/~3/rXTmb9rJMKE/wordcamp-denver-2009-organizer-recap http://devin.reams.me/wordcamp-denver-2009-organizer-recap <p> The following is a behind-the-scenes look at <a href="http://denver.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Denver</a>, a local <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>-oriented conference, that <a href="http://crowdfavorite.com/">Crowd Favorite</a> (my employer) volunteered to organize for the Denver/Boulder community. From my perspective as the primary organizer (and not necessarily that of Crowd Favorite), a few lessons worth sharing with anyone organizing an event for nerds: <ul> <li><strong>Start early, anticipate bumps:</strong> no matter how many times you plan an event (this was not my first) you forget details. Get started early, take lots of notes and outline all the various things that need to happen (including the minutiae that needs to happen the day-of the event). Also, be sure to follow-up with people (speakers, sponsors, venues, printers, etc.). If we hadn't pro-actively followed-up on some details (and assumed everything was taken care of as promised) we may not have had shirts printed in time nor a venue reserved for the after-party.</li> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradcrooks/3319700851/"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/qpgItvehhlCfkjFIlHfqnuueuIydrvJAGippFyAihGCqwlrurdFrlihtgAJq/media_httpfarm1staticflickrcom1773319700851971215d41fjpg_fHJkdclgaGiaqsv.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="357"/> </a> <li><strong>Leverage your network:</strong> luckily for us, a lot of great friends and contacts in the Denver/Boulder area stepped up to volunteer their time (speakers) and money (sponsors). Because these people made themselves available, we were able to throw a full-day event at an awesome venue (<a href="http://www.denverartmuseum.org/home">Denver Art Museum</a>), and an after-party for people to mingle and mix (and still keep it accessible for 300+ people to attend).</li> <li><strong>Tickets will sell themselves:</strong> though nerve-wracking and always a concern, conferences and events like WordCamp will sell out. Every event I've organized has always had dozens of people clamoring for tickets at the last minute and offering cold hard cash at the door. As a participant, I understand the reasoning: you hear about it late, you realize cool people will be there, your plans were TBD up until a certain point, etc. As an organizer, consider setting aside some 'reserve' tickets that you can open up for the people that realize 'sold out' means 'I can't come'. Frankly, you can charge a premium for these tickets.</li> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexkingorg/3317760733/"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/import-hdgi/zDDosIEtduznihpJrjhJtHGtBbDCuglijCavrzafhBguduDylpspsdeyadeC/media_httpfarm4staticflickrcom35913317760733a164a87dc3jpg_cphuAjfFiaGfArs.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="375"/> </a> <li><strong>Let the people socialize:</strong> one criticism, though from a vocal minority, is that there weren't enough structured breaks. On the contrary, we set aside a full two hours at the Paramount Cafe so that people could mingle and meet each other and the speakers. What you'll often find at conferences is people will set aside their own time. If they don't like the panelists, they'll go into the lobby and strike up conversations. Make sure you have adequate space for people to step out and not disturb sessions in-progress.</li> <li><strong>You can't please everyone:</strong> it's a well-known fact that you can do your best and people will still leave your event unhappy. We tried to mitigate some of this risk in a number of ways. You'll notice a number of conferences split up sessions into multiple tracks so that individuals can attend those that appeal most to them. We also (thanks to sponsorship) were able to keep the ticket prices lower (which means a higher perceived value of the event): if people give you a hard time after organizing an 8-hour conference that only cost $30, well, it's hard for anyone to argue they didn't get their money's worth.</li> </ul> Keeping this all in mind: <strong>have fun</strong>. As an organizer it's amazing how many people will go out of their way to find you and say thanks; it's why we volunteer to put on events like this. Thanks to everyone who attended WordCamp Denver 2009. PS: nobody has perfected the art of wifi/phone service when massive amounts of people are in the same place at once (look at <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99617309">the inauguration</a> or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/att-adding-capacity-at-sxsw-to-deal-with-iphone-crush-2009-3">SXSW 2009</a>). I'm really, truly sorry you had a hard time live-tweeting about how young <a href="http://davemoyer.org/">Dave Moyer</a> was. ;) </p> <p><a href="http://devin.reams.me/wordcamp-denver-2009-organizer-recap">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://devin.reams.me/wordcamp-denver-2009-organizer-recap#comment">Leave a comment&nbsp;&nbsp;&raquo;</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/devinreams/~4/rXTmb9rJMKE" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/139420/devin-dixons-square.png http://posterous.com/people/4aAXXOf9lX0J Devin Reams Devin Devin Reams http://devin.reams.me/wordcamp-denver-2009-organizer-recap