170 Spoons

Consolidate Blogs for better Effectiveness

WHY? Sometimes you spread yourself too thin by blogging in many places.

Somtimes it’s a great idea to run multiple blogs if the theme or niche can carry their own audiences and you have the capacity to author them all well.  That’s why I maintain a personal blog and a business blog separate – I don’t want to mix business and personal (much). But it’s not always the best strategy.

To be honest, it’s been tough maintaining this blog. I think separating it from my main blog hasn’t served me (or possibly you) well. So I think it’s about time to shut this place down.  I don’t think we got to 170, but it was a good run.

I’ve actually already started the change over when I posted yesterday My Current Twitter Tools | Orangejack LLC

Here’s the new plan:

• This blog will stay archived for a while — at least until the domain expires (early January 2010)!
• I will continue posting tips and tricks but I won’t do it here. Instead, I’ll post technology tips and tricks on Orangejack.com.
• If you’ve been kind enough to link to 170spoons, I ask that you consider updating your link to point to orangejack.com instead (I plan to give it a make-over in July anyway).
• If you are subscribed to 170spoons, the notifications will cease.  I encourage you to subscribe to the Orangejack Updates instead for it’s there you will not only get these tips, you’ll get even more great webby things!

I think that’s it for now. Thanks for following. Hope to see you on orangejack!

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Double-Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings

WHY? Because you probably put stuff on Facebook and you might be surprised who can find out what you put there.

Facebook is an always-on, always-available information machine about it’s members.  Most people publish photos, status updates, videos, notes, and comments all the time – some all day long!  The question is “who gets to read YOUR stuff and what stuff do they get to see?”

Facebook has a lot of privacy settings that are very specific for answering this question and I encourage you to double-check your settings.  One reason is because it’s good practice.

Another reason is I’m thinking Facebook is going to make some moves soon to try and make information about you made more publicly available.  You of course can control it if they make the changes, but that’s why it’s good to double-check your settings.

It’s real easy to do – after you log into Facebook, hover over “Settings” in the top bar and click on “Privacy Settings”. Or just go to http://www.facebook.com/privacy

When you get there you might be surprised at what you’re already allowing Facebook to share with others on your behalf.  Just take some time to click through all of the options and make your settings the way you want.

Personally, I’ve chosen to make Facebook private so only my friends see my stuff and my public information is limited.  Others may want to open it up more. Good on you! The point here is to just be aware and get your privacy settings in order.

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Use a Cell Phone to Remember Where You Parked

Quick tip – when you park in a big parking lot that has signs to tell you what zone you parked in, snap a shot of the sign with your cell phone. When you’re ready to find your car, you can look in your cell phone photos to help you remember where you parked.

It’s helped me a few times – particularly at a local theme park you might recognize!

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Manage Facebook Friends with Lists

WHY? Because you follow a lot of people, but don’t want to miss updates from particular groups of people.

You may be like me where on Facebook you have a lot of  ’friends’ connections. So when you log into your Facebook homepage you get an onslaught of updates from everyone in your News Feed.  It can be overwhelming.  On top of that, there may be groups of people (like family) that you want to sort out to see what they are up to.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to do this using Facebook lists.  It’s quite easy to set up and manage.

On the left when you login, you’ll notice there is already a list of items you can choose.  The default is the “News Feed” which is every update from every person and “page” you are connected with.  If you click around on the list you’ll see all of the updates are filtered so you only see, for example, the recently uploaded photos from your connections.

If you notice at the bottom of your list you’ll find two buttons. One will open up more of the filters you already have.  Facebook adds several for you already.  

With the second button called ‘+ Create’, Facebook is giving you the ability to create your own custom filters.  When you begin to create lists, you’ll get a pop-up window where you can create anything you like.

I created a couple filtered lists that suit my liking.  You may find several groups you’d like to use.  One, for example, I created is called “family” and I put in it every person in my family that is on Facebook.  Now I can click that family link and only my family’s recent updates are displayed.

With the drag and drop feature at the bottom of my lists I sorted my filters to suit my liking. Dragging ones that were once ‘hidden’ up above the ‘more line’ will allow those filters to always show up.  At the top of mine I have “Public Profiles” which is a filter for the pages I’m a fan of, a couple of personal filters, and a filter so see only what my connections are linking to.  Below the line are a few others that are less important filters for me.

Now then, if you have a sense of humor for the [slightly?] crude, here’s a video to see how at least one ‘person’ has sorted his lists.

YouTube – What Facebook Is For

Have fun creating lists and filters for your friends.  If you’ve done this, what sort of filters do you use?

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Simple but Useful gMail inbox Tweak

I use gMail online exclusively – and I don’t like to have unnecessary downloaded programs like email notifications.  So I always keep my browser open with at least 2 tabs open at all times: gMail and Google Reader. One of my frustrations was I had to click over to the gMail tab to see if there’s new mail.

No more after this simple title tweak!

Yes, I realize this sounds more like a Billy Mays commercial, but this simple tweak makes it so much easier and efficient to see if new mail has arrived.

BTW, it also works when you minimize your browser to the system tray.

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Use Bookmarklets for More Browser Power

WHY? There’s a lot you can do with just one click.

I had a conversation the other day with someone and mentioned ‘bookmarklets’.  They said they were familiar with bookmarks, but not bookmarklets!  So I thought I’d take a moment to introduce you to these little yet powerful tools and share with you the few I’m using.

What Is A Bookmarklet?

From Wikipedia:

A bookmarklet is an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark…they are designed to add one-click functionality to a browser or web page. When clicked, a bookmarklet performs some function, one of a wide variety such as a search query or data extraction.

Ah, did I lose you already?  Basiclly it’s a bookmark that when clicked will do more than just take you to a webpage.  

Bookmarklets I Use

It’s probably better to show you what I’m using so you can get a better idea.  I’ll show you how to set these up in a minute.

As you can see above, I have 5 on my browser.  The first one, when clicked, will take the web address of the page I’m on and convert it into a small URL.  Next is one that will send a link of the page I’m on as an email.  Next will give me options to add the current page to many social media sites. Next will put the current site into my RSS reader allowing me to subscribe to it.  The last one I use will add the current page to a list I can read later – like a temporary bookmark.

The motivation for me is that I can quickly (in one click) do something with the web page I’m currently on: share it with others, subscribe to it, or mark it to read later.  One advantage to bookmarklets over browser plugins is that they are lightweight and don’t need time to load every time you start your browser.

Setting Up Bookmarklets

The way to get the most out of bookmarklets is to have them quickly available to you.  Every browser has a bookmark toolbar that will go across your browser. In Internet Explorer it’s referred to as “Links” in the bookmark folder.  If it’s not already showing, right-click somewhere at the top of the browser until you get this window and check the Links toolbar.

For Firefox it’s called the “Bookmarks Toolbar”.

I’m now using a new browser from Google called Chrome. For it, click on the wrench and then “Always show bookmarks bar”.

It’s this toolbar where we’ll put the bookmarklets.  We do this so they are all literally zero clicks away.

You can find bookmarklets all over the web.  Usually all it requires to use it is to drag a link in a webpage up to your bookmark toolbar and you’re set.  I typically rename them by right-clicking the link.  I like to add the + sign to remind me that it’s going to do something.  Here’s where you’ll find the 5 I’m using:

• + url: I use the web address shorting service from is.gd but there are plenty of others.  Most common is tinyurl.com.  You can read the instructions on how to add the is.gd bookmarklet or try dragging this link to your toolbar: Shorten with is.gd!
•  + gmail: This one of course requires that you have a gmail account.  When clicked it opens a “compose email” window with the title of the page as the subject and the link in the body. I got my copy from about.com called Gmail This or try dragging this link to your toolbar: Gmail this
• + add: This is one of my favorite ones as I can send any page to a number of sites like bookmarking it in delicious, sending it to digg, stumbleupon, or twitter about it.  I’musing the service AddThis. There’s about 40 sites you can send that page! I don’t know where I found it (I can’t find a page with it now) so try dragging this link to your toolbar: AddThis!
• + rss:This is a nice shortcut to preview the RSS feed of a blog or website (when available) in Google Reader.  It doesn’t subscribe you, just puts it into your reader.  From there you can either subscribe or even just share a post to your Google Reader Share blog (if you’re using it – mine). Take a look at the Official Google Reader blog – they show a couple of them.  I use the one that is labeled “–> Subscribe”. or try dragging this link to your toolbar:  ? Subscribe
• + later: I’ve recently found this one and really like it.  Say there’s a site I want to check out but not now – and I don’t want to bookmark it because I’ll probably forget about it.  ListMixer will help with those throwaway bookmarks. There’s several ways to use the service but I use it by subscribing to the RSS feed.  So when I use it to make a temporary bookmark, it ends up in my Google Reader and I’ll manage it better there. or try dragging this link to your toolbar: Add to ListMixer

 
If you are using bookmarklets, which ones to you like the best? If you have questions about this, let me know!

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Manage Social Media eMails in One Place

WHY? Your network may be trying to reach you privately but you don’t have to go everywhere to find out.

Most social media websites have an inbox for email so you can send and receive email with other members of your network.  Often it requires you to log into that network to check your email.

However, most, if not all of these networks will allow the email (or at least a notification of new mail) to be sent to your regular email account.  When you set this up, you’ll be sure when someone sends you an email inside your network because it will show up in your regular inbox.

To set it up, log into each profile that has email notifications and look around in the account or email settings.  For example, in Facebook it’s under My Account | Notifications, in Flickr it’s under Your Account | Email, for LinkedIN it’s under Account & Settings | Email Notifications | Receiving Messages,  and in Twitter it’s under Settings | Notices.  These are just a few, but you should be able to find the others.

BONUS TIP: If you are using an email manager like Gmail or Outlook, you can set up filters or rules to sort all of these messages into it’s own folder. This will help separate it out from your normal email so you can deal with them when you’re ready.

Photo by Your Secret Admiral

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Extend Your iPod to Your Stereo

WHY? Because you don’t have to buy a docking station with speakers to listen to any portable music player.

I’m motivated to write this up because Santa brought my nieces iPod shuffles and I was talking to my brother-in-law about these tips.  I thought I’d share them with you as well.

Do you have a portable music player like an iPod?  I have the iPod shuffle seen above.  In fact, that’s my home stereo I bought in High School!  Old school meets new school!

You see, I don’t always want to use headphones to listen to my iPod (I actually refer to it as my iRob).  If you’re the same way and you have a stereo that has an unused right and left input channel (RCA plugs), then all you need is this cable.  It’s what I’m using in the photo above.   This cable will actually work for any audio player.  One end plugs into the hole where your headphones go and the other ends go into the stereo.  Sometimes I plug my laptop into the stereo using this cable.

Now if you want to extend it even further and you have an input hole on your car stereo the same size that your headphones would fit, you have the ability to listen to your iPod in the car as well.  Using this cable you can plug one end into the headphone jack of your iPod and the other into the car stereo.  I use this as well and I can tell you it’s much better than any other method.  If your car stereo doesn’t have the input this obviously won’t work.  However, newer cars have them. And if you rent cars often, you might consider picking this cable up because most rentals have the input.

So there you go.  Happy listening – and sharing your music with others without headphones! 

You can find more of my recommended products at the Orangejack Mall at http://mall.orangejack.com.

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Conversating on Twitter

WHY? If you are on twitter, you need to know the ‘rules’ for carrying on a conversation.

Have you checked out twitter yet?  I’ve been on it for a couple years now and it’s really gone through some real growth. In short, it’s like a chatroom or instant messaging service only you get to pick who you want to pay attention to (read wikipedia’s definition or watch a video on Twitter in Plain English).  One limit of twitter is that your posts need to be in 140 characters or less causing you to focus your statement.  The character limit is there because the purpose was to allow the conversations to be used on mobile phone text messages.

Here’s my twitter account page if you want an example.

Here’s how it works: you create an account and get your own twitter page, you then find people you want to keep up with and follow them, decide how you want to get their updates, then have conversations with them.

Create An Account

1. Go to twitter.com and join.
2. Please use your real name.
3. Please use your real face as a photo.
4. Please put in a short bio so we know something about you.
5. Please use a web address so we can learn more about you.
6. Optional: make a custom background.

When you do these, it’ll make it a lot easier for others to decide if they want to follow your updates or not.  To be honest, this is what I use to make a decision about who to follow – and I make that decision fast based on the above.

Find People To Follow
There are plenty of tools to find people you might be interested in to follow.  Or do it the old-fashioned way: find a couple people you already know and see who they follow, or ask around.  Start with me if you like.

Decide How To Keep Up
The thing that sets twitter apart as an interesting communications tool is that it’s not tied to a web browser.  Many use their mobile phones for texting or browsing on a web-enabled phone.  You can use RSS, email, or downloadable programs to keep up.  Pick the method you like and go for it.

Conversations
It’s easy to post and read other’s posts.  But it’s even better to have conversations.  There’s a few different ways to talk to others:

• A regular post (or tweet) talks to all of your followers – like an announcement at a party
• If you put @TheirTwitterName (like @orangejack) at the beginning of a post, all your followers can read it, but the person you @’ed will get a notification in the style they choose – like talking to someone at a party across the room
• If you put @ThierTwitterName somewhere else in the post, they may not get a notification but it’s similar to puting it at the front
• If you put d TheirTwitterName (like d orangejack) they will get a private message from you if they are following you back – like whispering to someone at a party
• If you like what someone posted, you can forward it (like in email) to your followers.  This is called a retweet. There’s no standard way to indicate you’re passing on someone else’s post, but it’s in good form to give them credit by including @TheirTwitterName in the retweet somewhere.  Most simply add “RT:” to the front of the post do indicate a retweet, others might put “FW:” like in email. Personally, I surround the retweet in quotes (like “@TheirTwitterName said this”)

So that’s how you talk, but you should listen as well.  In your twitter settings you can get an email whenever someone sends you a direct message (d) or an @ message.  I’ve found this a bit unreliable at times so I also set up a search and subscribe to the RSS.  Just replace your name in this search (include the @) and you’ll find out when someone writes to or about you.

There are other twitter tips on 170spoons as well as my personal blog (personal perspective on twitter) and business site (business perspectives of twitter).  If you have any questions, tips, or anything else to say, leave a comment.  Would love to hear from you.

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Don’t Get Phished

Phishing is the term used when the bad guys try to trick you into giving them sensitive information on a fake website.  Wikipedia of course defines Phishing well. Microsoft does a good job explaining it also.

But here’s a simple video explaining it.

YouTube – Phishing Scams in Plain English

There are ways to protect yourself from phishing scams.  What I recomend is to use a browswer (like Firefox) that has anti-phishing alerts built in already.  You have other software choices as well (notice most are just good, updated browsers!)

There are a few tips you should just be aware of:

• You probably know it’s a common rule to not give out your social security number or credit card number over the phone if you didn’t place the call.  It’s the same with email.  If they contact you looking for information, don’t do it.
• If you got an email from what looks like a company you deal with and they ask for information, don’t use the links in the email.  Instead, log onto the official website and go from there.  Or call them.
• Don’t trust the web links, email links, or phone numbers in a phishing email

Any other tips?

Personally, I’ve found that using a good spam filter on email gets most of them out of the way.  For the ones that make it through, an updated browser can usually recognize the scam.

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Update Facebook via Text Message using Twitter

If you are on Facebook and you tend to update your status line and you like to text message people, there is no reason you shouldn’t also be on Twitter. Let me explain why and how.

I’ve talked before about how I feel the new Facebook design is better for communication (not necessarily layout of extra stuff). The main reason is because there is a better flow of communication and interaction on the site.

Notice in these two images the same status message is on both Facebook (first one) and Twitter (the second one)

Why?

One of the limitations of Facebook is the only way to publish and consume its content is to be inside Facebook itself. At this point you can not update your status line via text messaging (SMS). But you can update Twitter via SMS. And you can link Twitter to Facebook status. Therefore, once set up, you can update Facebook via text messages.

The biggest motivation to do this would be so that you can let your Facebook friends know where you are, what you’re up to, or what you’re thinking about from anywhere. The bonus is that by using Twitter, you can also have a new community of people to interact with.

How?

It’s actually easier to set up than one might think. First you need a free Twitter account from twitter.com. We can talk about building that community later, but for now, just create the account and fill out the simple account information (please!).

Next head over to your Facebook page and install the Twitter application. When you install it into your Facebook profile it will ask for a few settings to link it with Twitter. There is an option to have Twitter updates automatically update Facebook status. Let it do it and you’re set.

Now what?

So now you have Twitter plugged into Facebook. If you post an update on Twitter.com it’ll copy it to Facebook. Now go back to Twitter and link your mobile phone to twitter. Once it’s hooked up, simply send a text message to 40404 and that message will double-post to Twitter and Facebook!

Now that everything is plugged into each other, I hardly ever enter a status line inside Facebook. I just publish it to Twitter instead and let Twitter update Facebook.  This way both communities will get the update – and Twitter offers many more ways to update.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter.

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Access Gmail Unread Messages Fast

Quick tip for Gmail users who need to see sort their email to see what is unread: perform a search by typing in the search box “is:unread“.  You’ll get the entire list.

For more on this, see the Google Tutor.

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