Julie Minevich

Answers to Common Questions About Gchat

Julie Minevich — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:53:43 +0000

Below, I’ve done my best to answer some common questions about Gchat, Google’s free-of-charge Windows web-based application for instant messaging and voice over internet protocol (VOIP).

Scroll down to see all the answers or click on a specific question:

How are contacts added to Gchat?
Is there a way to receive an alert when a contact signs on to Gchat or becomes “available”?
Can my employer (my boss or my company) read my Gchats?
Can I be invisible to some people on Gchat and available to others?
Can you recommend an app for signing onto Gchat from an iPhone?
I have other questions about Gchat that you haven’t answered. Where can I learn more?

How are contacts added to Gchat?

Contacts are automatically added based on the number of times e-mail messages are exchanged. Contacts must be using Gmail as their e-mail provider.

Is there a way to receive an alert when a contact signs on to Gchat or becomes “available”?

Unfortunately, there currently is no way to receive an alert when a contact signs on to Gchat or becomes available.

Can my employer (my boss or my company) read my Gchats?

The short answer here is ‘maybe’. It depends on what/how your company is monitoring your computer use. One way to make it a bit harder for someone to track your Gchat conversation is to sign onto Gmail securely which will encrypt any data within (include Gchat). Here’s how to change the setting to make sure you are always signing in securely: Sign in to Gmail. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page. Set ‘Browser Connection’ to ‘Always use https.’ Click Save Changes. (Note that “Always use https’ is now the default setting in Gmail but it is good to double check this.)

However, companies can monitor every keystroke made and even take screenshots of what you are doing on your computer, so it’s best to be careful about how you use your computer at work!

Can I be invisible to some people on Gchat and available to others?

No. The status that you set – Available, Busy or Invisible – will be shown to all your contacts. Currently, there is no way to have different statuses for different contacts. If there are a few people that you’d to not be able to know when you are online, the best alternative is to block them.

Can you recommend an app for signing onto Gchat from an iPhone?

I think Fring and IM+ both work well for this, but I personally use Meebo. All three do the same. (I’ve just had a Meebo account for a few years so I liked that I could easily extend it onto my iPhone.

I have other questions about Gchat that you haven’t answered. Where can I learn more?

Simply leave your question in the form of a comment below and I will do my best to help you.

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A Few Thoughts on Facebook Places

Julie Minevich — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:16:40 +0000

Tonight, Facebook unveiled its new geo-location feature: Facebook Places. Here’s a quick video the company has put out to explain the new feature.

Now, for my thoughts:

I’m pretty excited for the unveiling of Facebook places. I’ve used Foursquare, a niche geo-location social network since March 2009 and I’ve definitely found it useful and fun. I think that many more people will be exposed to the concept of sharing their physical locations with their online social networks which will only add richness and value to all users.
I do think that there will be a backlash regarding privacy concerns. I don’t think that the general population is really ready to embrace this type of online/offline interaction. I give Facebook kudos by being proactive and explaining the privacy settings up front. Clearly, the company has learned its mistake of being too open with users’ data.
A huge win for Facebook places is its ability to also check users into Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp. This helps ensure that the early adopters who have built a community on those sites can migrate to Facebook and know that they will still be able to engage with those services.
Where are the women project managers in the video above? The video makes sure that the Facebook spokespeople are all culturally diverse but gender equality seems to be missing…

So, what do you think? Are you excited to try out Facebook Places? Concerned about how it may erode privacy?

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Day 695: Avenue Q

Julie Minevich — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:27:59 +0000

I finally got to see Avenue Q last night at the Lansburgh Theatre! It’s been on my to-experience list for quite sometime and I’m feeling pretty lucky that I was able to see it on the last night of its month-long run here in DC! I highly recommend it for twenty-somethings and beyond.

PS For a pre-show dinner I headed to Momiji (read my Yelp review), a sushi place in Chinatown, followed by a free sample of Rita’s Italian Ice as part of the Grand Opening of its 1012 H Street, NW location.

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Dating 2.0 – Best Medium for Post-Date “Thank You” Message

Julie Minevich — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:16:03 +0000

I date. I dig Social Media. And I spend a lot of time thinking about both. Because the problem is, like I always say, that in dating and in social media, it’s the blind leading the blind. Well, now, I think it’s time to pin down some answers. And that is what has inspired “Dating 2.0″ category on this blog. In each post, we tackle dating situations made sticky by this wired world we live in. I ask for your opinion. I give you mine. It’s fun, I promise. And maybe we’ll even set some standards along the way.

So far, we’ve tackled whether or not it is acceptable to getting a potential date’s phone number off Facebook and at what point to Facebook someone you are dating.

The digital dating dilemma of the day deals with the post-date “thank you” note. I think anyone who dates will agree that the process is almost like an interview at times. And so, the same way a follow-up note is almost mandatory for success during the hiring process, the same can be said for dating. In 1980, the only option to convey the message would have been through a phone call. In 2000, an e-mail might have provided another avenue of communication. But in 2010, with so many options, what’s the best medium to use?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Photo Credit: iain

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An Invitation to Live Life

Julie Minevich — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:31:47 +0000

The following is a guest post from my good friend, Michal, who is a twentysomething world explorer currently navigating life in the land of Israel.

When I first volunteered to write this guest-post for Julie, (by the way, it was over a month ago… Sorry Jules!!! ) I was intimidated by my freedom in selecting the subject matter. I could write about anything!? Anything at all?! Where would I start? I began to go over several potential subjects in my head. The Israeli political situation? I wrote a piece on it for Julie after our elections a year ago. I re-read my old post and found that all the worst-case scenario predictions I made have come true and then some. The situation is very depressing and not something I want to write about. I thought of more subjects to write about, (business, travel, friends, weight loss etc…) but nothing really struck me as worthy until one day last week a friend and I decided to watch some classic YouTube videos. Part of a classic video that I had seen many times struck me in a new way and kind of hit close to home. While viewing the always hilarious “David After Dentist” video about a little boy being driven home from the dentist while still under the effects of novacane or gas or drugs that he had been given. At one point in his ramblings he looks straight into the camera and says, “Is this real life??” His father laughs and assures him that this is in fact real life.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

I took David’s question differently this time. I think this is a question that is on the mind of many 20-somethings. After we graduate college we enter an unknown world. For many of us this was the first time in our lives where there was not a definite framework ahead of us (after middle school came high school then college etc…) The 9-5 world was looming and although some were ready to go out there and make tracks in the corporate world, others were dreading the day of their first punch in on the time clock. (Personally, I was so fearful of 9-5 and the office life that after graduation I took off to South America for 4 and a half months by myself with a backpack, but that is a story for another post…) A year and a half after I received my diploma I began working at an office. While it is not as terrible as I thought, I still get nauseated at the fact that I may be doing this for a long long time. As I have settled into the 9-5 routine over the past year and a half I find myself asking, “Is this it?” Has my real life started? After having many discussions with my other twenty-something friends I find that many of them are asking themselves the same thing. While many of us enjoy our jobs most of us are not sure if we see it as a career (or maybe just me). Those of us who are not in serious relationships wait for that to start as well (yet another subject for a later blog post)

So when does the elusive real life start? Is it when you are married? When you have kids? Could it be a career milestone, when we feel we have found our place in the professional world? When we feel settled? As someone who grew up in several countries with family all over the world, I often worried that I would never stop asking that question. I thought that I would always feel somewhat lost and while I was living in one place I would always miss another. After having resigned myself to the fact that I would always feel this way I saw a Visa commercial and while I am loathe to admit that I got an epiphany as a result of a Visa ad I did. At the end of the commercial, the announcer asks, “What are you waiting for, a written invitation to live life? You have one; it’s called a birth certificate.” This line struck me as profound. (Damn you brilliant advertising geniuses!!) Real life for me began on December 4th, 1984 and will hopefully continue for a very long time. While there will be times that I and many others of my generation will feel lost and discombobulated life is constantly moving and it is best to enjoy it while you can. In the words of one man who I considered a mentor in high school (and whose advice I should begin taking again), “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbR7axof1wk

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Moving Tips from a Packing Guru

Julie Minevich — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:44:32 +0000

Editor’s Note: Even though I’m cruising around the Mexican Riviera this week, per my recent resolutions, I didn’t want to neglect my blog. So I asked the very talented Vicki Boykis if she’d be willing to lend her time and thoughts to me and my readers. Vicki and I met at a tweetup last year, if you can believe it. She is an international trade analyst and product manager in Washington, D.C. and just like me, is a twenty-something Russian Jew trying to figure it all out. Below, Vicki shares some really great tips for moving.

Everyone I know, including me and Julie seems to be moving these days. I’ve been moving around ever since I went to college: first between dorm rooms, then to Israel on an internship, then back home, then to Philadelphia, then to DC. In the meantime, I’ve become a packing guru. Here are some tips I’ve picked up during and between moves. (Clever with the acrostic, eh?)

1. Make sure you forward your (low-tech) address
Luckily, the easiest way to do this now is online. I like to do this at least two weeks before I move and after I’ve signed a lease; that way, you can still pick up any spare mail still coming to your old address. Also, change all your addresses for things online like Netflix, credit card bills, and anything else you don’t want to miss in your mail.

2. Old packaging-keep as much of it as possible
Lots of apartments don’t have tons of storage. However, what storage we did have in ours, I used to keep boxes because I knew I’d eventually need them for moving again. I especially kept things like boxes from silverware and glasses, our TV box, and packaging for kitchen items like blenders. This automatically makes it easier to put boxes into a bigger box and you don’t have to worry about how to wrap.

3. Very carefully choose movers
Even if you don’t have a lot of stuff and tons of friends, it can still be a good idea to hire movers. Last time, my husband and I moved from Alexandria, VA to Bethesda, MD (about 35 minutes each way), and it was a huge hassle. This time, we’re hiring movers from Craigslist, but we made extra-sure to check them out online through references and making sure they responded on time. A friend pointed me to Moving Scam, which has a list of tips to avoid when you’re looking to move.

4. Evaluate: In my post, I mentioned that I as struggling to get rid of things. Emotional attachments are huge blocks to moving more simply with less clutter, and we all struggle with getting rid of teddy bears from when we were 11. The best tip I recieved on my blog was to take pictures of things I was especially attached to and keep the pictures, but to also keep a number of things you can still look back on. The fact that there are tons of blog posts on this issue signifies that it’s a big one.

Good luck! I know I’ll be needing it this weekend.

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Julie in DC: Part II

Julie Minevich — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:27:32 +0000

Friends,

I have some exciting news to share — I am about to embark on what I’ve been affectionately referring to as “Julie in DC: Part II”.

This week, I am leaving Amplify Public Affairs and will soon be joining RADIUS, a corporate travel management company (TMC) serving multinational corporations with regional or global travel consolidation needs, as their Online Marketing Manager. I have learned a lot during my time at Amplify but am now looking forward to tackling this new challenge of developing and implementing a complete online marketing strategy for RADIUS.

My last day as Social Media Strategist at Amplify Public Affairs will be Thursday, April 15th and, after a quick break to cruise around the Mexican Riviera with my mother and sisters, I will begin my new role as Online Marketing Manager at RADIUS on Wednesday, April 28th

Additionally, this past weekend, I moved into the apartment of one of my closest friends from college, Mindy. I feel fortunate to be able to share my home with a friend and we have already had a lot of fun decorating and making plans for future hostessing opportunities.

If you’d like to receive my new professional and personal contact information, just send me a quick note. I will be making the appropriate edits online in the coming weeks.

Best,

Julie

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iPhone OS 4.0 Revealed Today!

Julie Minevich — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:29:46 +0000

It’s always an fun day when Apple reveals the features of its newly updated Operating System (OS) for the iPhone. (Read all my iPhone-related blog posts.)

Here’s what got me excited about today’s announcement:

BLUETOOTH KEYBOARDS. In a October 2008 post, I wrote: “Only once Apple takes my advice (Ha!) and creates a iPhone-compatible keyboard will I really be able to leave my laptop behind…“. Perhaps that time has come!
Multitasking! iPhone users have been waiting for this one for quite a while. Now, I can use other apps while listening to Pandora, etc.
Folders to group app – which I had been doing anyway by grouping like apps in separate pages. But this will certainly save time and make it easier to navigate. Also, for app addicts, this means being able to have 2160 apps instead of the current possibility of 180.
A better mail app! The ability to read by thread and to have more than one exchange account linked to a particular iPhone!

Check out the full live coverage from Gizmodo and engadget.

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Real or Fake? Julie’s Favorite 2010 April Fools’ Jokes

Julie Minevich — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:05:08 +0000

April 1st, also known as April Fools’ Day, is a great time for companies to shed their corporate images and show a little personality.

Here are a few pranks I’ve seen so far today that I’ve really enjoyed -

“University President Dan Mote, who will resign his post in the fall, announced yesterday that to leave his final mark, he will push hard to get the school’s mascot changed from the diamondback terrapin to the endangered giant panda.”
Panda to be university’s new mascot | The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s campus newspaper

“The Johns Hopkins University announced today that it is bowing to the inevitable and officially changing its name to “John Hopkins.” ‘We give up,” university President Ronald J. Daniel said. “We’re fighting a losing battle here. And we strongly suspect the extra ‘s’ was a typo in the first place.’”
The “S” is out: We’re “John Hopkins” now | Johns Hopkins University

“Plenta™ (128 fl oz) and Micra™ (2 fl oz) cups arrive in Starbucks stores this Fall. Derived from Italian word for plentiful or small, the Plenta™ delivers coffee lovers record amounts of the world’s finest coffee beverages while the Micra™ delivers a quick and satisfying morsel of goodness.”
Starbucks Listens to Customer Request for More Sizes | Starbucks

“Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.”
A different kind of company name | Google

I’ll add my finds throughout the day as they unfold.

What are some April Fools’ Jokes you’ve seen today?

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Six Great iPhone Apps

Julie Minevich — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:38:41 +0000

This post is the fourth in a series which outlines iPhone applications that I find useful. Check out “My Favorite iPhone Apps” (October 14, 2008), “5 iPhone Apps That Rocked My World” (February 3, 2009), and “Seven Must-Have iPhone Apps” (June 20, 2009) to see my previous recommendations.

Boxed In	I’m not a big “gamer” on my iPhone, but I do enjoy a game that makes me work my brain. Boxed In certainly fits the bill for an addicting, intellectually stimulating game. In this puzzle game, you guide a robot through each level with your finger. There are boxes that must in the correct order and into the correct location in order for the robot to be able to make it through. I swear I used to play Boxed In on the computer maybe, oh, 15 years ago? In any case, it’s a fun little game to play!
LetsTans	LetsTans is another game I enjoy that allows me to put my problem-solving skills to the test. The premise is to correctly fit eight(?) shapes into an outline. The only downside is that I finished all the different configurations last night and have to say – now what? (There are additional similar games that one can purchase but I’m afraid I’ll run through them just as quickly as the original…)
LoseIt	I’ve included LoseIt in this list because it is a great, user-friendly, simple app to help one track their caloric intake, daily exercise, and weight. The accompanying website also has forums, different exportable reports and even predicts when one will reach their goal weight based on their weight-loss trend. Oh, and for extra motivation there are settings that will Tweet and update your Facebook when you weigh-in!
Meebo	I used to recommend IM+ as an all-in-one instant messaging application — until Meebo came out with its own. The “original” Meebo function is to serve as a web-based instant messaging aggregator. Now, the company brings those same capabilities to the iPhone. You can sign in to different instant messaging services while on the go. The interface is easy to use and you can sign in with your existing Meebo log-in (if you have one) or simply with the different services that you’d like to use.
TripIt	I do a fair amount of travel (mostly back to Boston although I have been lucky this year to have a full vacation itinerary as well). TripIt has been really useful for keeping all my airline boarding information in one place. It has further capabilities as well, but that’s what I mainly use it for. The app is an extension of the TripIt website which, again, lets you keep track of your travel. You sign up and then when you book travel, you simply forward the confirmation to an email. TripIt sorts it and allows you to see who will be nearby. A must-have, especially for business folks who travel frequently for work!
WhiteNoise	Remember those old machines with crickets chirping and rain forest noises that helped the masses (okay, so not the masses, but people from all over) fall asleep? White Noise is exactly what it sounds like – an app that has a variety of “white noise” sounds that can help lull you to sleep. My favorite? Waves Crashing. It takes me instantly to my summers on the Cape.

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