smerickson.com the personal website of steven m. erickson

Technology Tuesday returns! Recently I decided to make a switch from using a desktop mail client like Outlook to only using GMAIL. After having made this switch I realized that most of the apps I use all of the time are on the web. This is great because it doesn’t matter what computer I am using, I always use the same applications with the same settings, with the same data. Whether I’m at work, on my mac, on my pc, on my roommates laptop, on a public computer or 1000 miles away at home, I can always use the same working enviroment for my main applications and I don’t have to have a laptop. I’ve found that this is a really a great thing. There is now a separation between the applications that I use and the machine I use to access them. Here are some of the web applications that I use most often which I highly recommend:

GMail

Gmail is by far the best webmail client out there. I love all of the fancy interface features that they have; especially labels, shortcut keystrokes and limited page reloads. Recently I also came across some great Greasemonkey scripts at userscripts.com They add even more functionality to make gmail my only mail client.

LINK: gmail.com

Basecamp

Basecamp is a great project management tool. It lets you collaborate with a bunch of poeple around a certain project using messages, to do lists and milestones. Currently I use it to manage a website that I created for StudentBody and the sunday school class that I teach.

LINK: basecamphq.com

Backpack

Backpack is similar to Basecamp but on a smaller scale. It is designed for making simple one page webpages. The pages can have notes, lists, images, etc. You can also set up reminders that will send you an email and a text message on certain dates when you are supposed to do things (like pay the bills).

The other great thing about both backpack and basecamp is another app that they both have called Writeboards. Writeboards are basically just simple text editors on the web that you can use to write, store and share text. Now that I have writeboard I don’t even remember the last time I used MS Word.

LINK: backpackit.com

del.icio.us

del.icio.us is my online bookmark management tool. I have all 700+ of my bookmarks online and with me whereever I go.

LINK: del.icio.us

FeedLounge

FeedLounge is an online RSS feed reader. I love its user interface and it is just as fast as a desktop client. But the best part is that if I check a feed during lunch at work, it will be marked as read when I look at later at night at my apartment. Before when I used a desktop application for reading feeds I would have to mark something as read twice; once when I read it at work and then again when I read it at my apartment. Having a great online application is much better.

LINK: feedlounge.com

All in all, I really like having all of my main applications online. I feel much more portable now and best of all, I don’t have to carry a laptop around with me.

Which web applications do you find most helpful?

Today begins the first in a series of posts I am calling “Technology Tuesday”. Each Tuesday I hope to post about some neat piece of technology that I think is important and that others should know about. I will give some background about the technology and then provide some resources for how the technology can be used. I believe that technology should helpful and so these posts will focus on those technologies that I find to be very helpful. Enjoy.

RSS

Have you ever wished that instead of visiting a website to see if it has been updated, the site could tell you that it has new content and what that new content is? This is one of the benefits of a growing technology called RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. (There is also another format called Atom that accomplishes the same thing.) The best analogy that I can think of to describe RSS is the concept of a magazine or newspaper subscription. There are two ways to get a magazine or newspaper. You can go to a newsstand and buy one or you can subscribe to the magazine or newspaper and have it delivered to you. This is one of the main purposes of RSS. It allows users to “subscribe” to websites that they visit often (or not so often) so that information will be delivered to them rather than forcing them to retrieve the information themselves. For instance, many blogs and news sites use RSS to deliver frequently updated content to their visitors; so someone could subscribe to CNN.com and receive updates on the latest news headlines instead of constantly checking the site to see if it has been updated.

I find this to be something that is very useful. By subscribing to websites, I am able to stay up to date on information that is important to me. It also enables me to keep track of a large number of sites very easily. At present I subscribe to over 100 sites. If I had to visit each of these 100 sites each day to see if they had been updated, I would spend all day. But because of RSS feeds I am able to spend only 15 minutes reading just those sites that have been updated.

RSS has become very popular, very quickly. As a result, there are some really creative adaptations of the technology. For example, someone thought, “Hey, what if, instead of syndicating text content, I published an RSS feed of pictures.’’ So now you can subscribe to a feed and receive the latest pictures from your favorite amateur photographer (ex. http://www.flickr.com). There are many other uses for RSS, here are some ideas:

• Weather :: Receive updates on the current weather conditions and forecasts
• Calendar :: Share your calendar with a group of people using RSS (ex. http://www.rsscalendar.com)
• Share to-do lists :: There are some online to-do list programs that allow you to share an RSS feed of your to-do list. (ex. http://www.tadalist.com)
• Bookmarks :: Many online bookmarking services allow you to create RSS feeds for a specific person’s bookmarks, or any bookmarks with a specific tag(s). (ex. http://www.del.icio.us or http://www.spurl.net)
• Track packages :: Most shipping companies offer RSS feeds of the status of your package.
• Broadcast Radio programs :: This is called Podcasting. My next post will go into more depth on this growing technology.
• File sharing :: Store files online and alert others, via RSS, when new files have been added or updated. (ex. http://www.box.net)

By this point, you should be asking yourself, how can I subscribe to RSS feeds? In order to subscribe to feeds you’ll need the appropriate software. There are three main varieties of RSS Readers.

1. Browser plugin

Many newer browsers have support for RSS feeds built in. For example, Mozilla Firefox or Safari allow you to track feeds in the browser.

2. Stand alone program

Another way that you can subscribe to feeds is through a stand alone program. A good option here is FeedDemon.

3. Online reader

The third kind of RSS readers available are online readers. I use a new website called FeedLounge. This is nice because it allows me to check my feeds from anywhere and to keep track of which feeds have been updated.

Hopefully you can see how useful RSS can be. People are constantly coming up with new ways to use the technology and I think it is an exciting thing to watch going forward.