Google 101, Part 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I attended a presentation put on by Google, Friends of CASA, and the NEW Center about the advantages of several of Google's products for nonprofit organizations. One of the first areas they discussed was the suite of tools called Google Apps.

Google Apps includes Docs, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Calendar, Gmail, Page Creator, and Sites. All of them are useful, but the folks from NEW Center placed a particular emphasis on the first three. They hold particular benefit because they address some of the fundamental issues that many nonprofits face with their IT infrastructure. The list is long:

• Donated (read "old") hardware. "There isn't enough disk space on this computer to load Office 2007!"
  
• Non-standardized hardware and software. "Ralph has a Mac Powerbook. Randi is using an old Windows 95 machine and I've got a Linux computer. What software will run on all of them?"
  
• Lack of professional IT staff. "Charlie is our IT guy. He's here every Tuesday. Or was that every other Wednesday? Was this an emergency?"
  
• Lack of adequate backup procedures. "Uh-oh, the computer crashed with the only copy of the grant application. Now what do we do?"
  
• Un-updated software. "I've got version 2.0 and Sally is using 3.1. Why can't I open the files she's creating?"
  
• Complicated procedures to share work effort with standard desktop software. "Who's got the most recent version of the grant application? What happened to all of the changes I made?"
  
• Frequent turnover of staff and volunteers. "Bob was the only one who knew where we kept all of the original disks for the software and he left a year ago with no forwarding address!"

Google claims that Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentations address a lot of these problems. Since the documents are located on Google's servers, you don't have to worry about backing things up. Google also maintains the software (it's always the latest version). As long as the computer can run a modern web browser and has access to the Internet, you can use these programs. They even have a fairly sophisticated sharing mechanism which allows multiple people to access and edit documents at the same time.

Now, to be sure, these applications are not perfect. You don't have access to all of the functionality that modern productivity suites offer. Documents are suited for web display, so if you are writing something which requires specific layout settings, you might have to use MS Word or OpenOffice.org Writer to do the final formatting. You also won't have access to all of the fonts that you would have on your desktop machine.

That all being said, though, just the aspect of being able to maintain your important documents someplace other than the computer on Shirley's desk is probably a good thing.

So, have you tried Google Apps? For what do you use it?

Google 101

I attended an exciting presentation this morning put on by Google, Friends of CASA, and the NEW Center's npServ program. The lecture focused on the many benefits of various Google applications and services for nonprofit organizations. I'll go into some of the details in a later post, but there were two tools that I wanted to mention right away, just in case anyone reading this might have use of them.

The first is Google Checkout. This is a credit card processing service similar to PayPal. Right now, Google is running a promotion such that 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations pay no transaction fees. That's right. Every cent that someone donates through the nonprofit's website using Google Checkout goes directly to the NP. This deal runs through January 1, 2009. After that, the fees increase to 2% + $.20 per transaction. Unless you plan on doing more than $100,000 per month in donations, this is cheaper than PayPal.

It might even be cheaper than getting a merchant account from a bank, setting up an online card-processing gateway (such as Authorize.net) and hiring a programmer to set up the whole thing on your website. It's certainly a lot easier.

The second tool is Google Adwords.

I'm not going to go into detail here about how the whole thing works -- suffice for now to say that it is the facility which places those "sponsored links" at the top and right side of search results in Google. Again, I'll cover the details in a later post. The cool thing here is that Google has a program called "Google Grants", which offers what is essentially free advertising to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations.

As I understand, "free" is a price that most nonprofits can handle.

Both of these services have an application process, so you might want to check them out if you think you might be interested.

So, what might your nonprofit be able to do with these services?

Read Part 2 of this story.

Bluetooth: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Before I get going on the topic of the day, I just wanted to send a quick shout out to my buddy Bill MacConnel (I delivered a welcome bag to Bill as a new Chamber member back at the end of December). Bill has decided to jump into this whole blogging thing. His first post shoots a few pointed barbs at the marketing and advertising industries. Might be a fun one to follow!

Anyway, on with our story.

A few weeks ago I finally picked up a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone. For those who don't know what that means, Bluetooth is a wireless communications protocol -- which means that I can have a headset (or in this case an earpiece) connected to my cell phone with no wires between them. I bought mine (a Jabra BT135) through Buy.com for $15, though you can get them for much more. After using it for a couple of weeks now, I have a few observations.

First, the Good

I love this little gadget. A tap on the control button (there's only one button) and it takes me right into my phone's voice control feature. Hold it down a little longer and it re-dials the last number. The sound is clear despite the fact that I don't actually have to stick it in my ear. My wife, Lisa, says that she can't even tell that I'm using it, it picks up my voice so well. Heck, it's even comfortable to wear.

Next, the Bad

Actually, there isn't much bad to it. It does what it's supposed to do. About the only thing that doesn't work the way I'd like it to is that I can't listen to music through it. I have a "smart phone" which I use for a variety of purposes, including listening to podcasts that I've downloaded. As I understand it, if I wanted to do this, I should have purchased a Bluetooth stereo headset. Oh, well. Not that big a loss for me.

Finally, the Ugly

OK, I've seen people with these gadgets sticking out of their ears. They look like Borgs. Now I can understand doing this in an airport or something like that, but when you show up to a meeting wearing one of these? Well, you might not intend it to look that way, but it makes me feel like I am so unimportant that you would take any incoming call and interrupt our meeting. Not cool.

So, do you have a Bluetooth device of any kind? What do you think?

Jott Updated

In one of my recent e-zine issues, I wrote about the service called "Jott". It's a neat tool which allows you to call up a toll-free number, leave a voice message, and have that message transcribed and sent to anyone on your contact list. It is a great way to send yourself little reminders if you don't have a pen and paper handy. In fact, it makes a great way to make your calls and take notes in the car if you have a BlueTooth headset and voice-activated calling.

I just got an email from them today that they'd updated their site and some of their services. It's worth a quick look. They've made it easier to organize the messages that you've sent and you can even listen to the original audio that you recorded. My favorite new feature, though, is the ability to register your own custom Jott Link.

I know, I know. You're all excited about that, too. And you'll be even more excited if you knew what the heck a "Jott Link" is.

A Jott Link allows you to manipulate other online services using Jott as the go-between. For example, I can call Jott and have it record a meeting in my business calendar on Google Calendar. I've also got it set up to record tasks on my favorite "to do" list service, Remember the Milk.

With this new feature, if you have a home-grown or proprietary web-based system that you use on a regular basis, you (or your Web programmer) can connect that service to Jott. So, for example, you might have your own proprietary contact management system. Using this feature you could set up something which allowed you to call up and record the name and phone number of a new acquaintance.

So, how could you use a free automatic transcription service?

Trust Me, It's Not You

Seth Godin had an interesting post last night about the nature of communication. Essentially, we can blame our audience for not understanding or we can look to ourselves for not being understandable. Guess which one is more likely to lead to success?

This is one of the aspects of my industry that bothers me more than a little. I shudder every time I speak with someone and they tell me that they are too stupid to do anything with the computer (or on the internet or whatever). I always tell them that the problem isn't them, with only one exception:

They shouldn't think that they have to conform themselves to the tool (computer, Internet, etc).

So often, people in my industry build systems and expect the user to change -- the way they think or the way they work -- to fit how the tool builders think things should be done. In reality it should be the other way around. The best systems conform themselves to fit the needs of the user.

No matter what the system designers think.

So, what was the last piece of software, website, or online tool which forced you to change the way you did things? Are you better off as a result? Are you happier?

Keeping on Track

Before I went full time on my business, I used to be able to keep track of my clients in my head. I rarely had more than one or two at any time, so keeping track was pretty easy. Afterwards, though, my client list began to grow and I knew that things would begin to fall through the cracks if I didn't come up with a system.

So, I started keeping a list on the whiteboard next to my desk. It was pretty simple -- just a list of the clients and a one-word status message. I kept a more detailed document as a Google Docs spreadsheet. It's been working pretty well, but, as you can see, my business has continued to grow and now I'm starting to run out of room.

Maybe I need a bigger whiteboard?

This is all an overly long preamble into talking about an online tool that helps to keep track of all of this information. It's called CreativeProOffice.com.

CreativeProOffice is a free service (I'm not sure how they pay for it as there don't seem to be any ads). With it you can track clients, projects, tasks, files, and even submit invoices. It's a remarkably complete service. It's not perfect for me, but I could easily adapt it. So, why am I not converting everything over to using this service?

Well, I'll tell ya. It has to do with the nature of free software. If it were an application that I could download and use on my desktop, I probably would. Even if UpStart Productions (the maker of CPO) decided to stop supporting the application, I would at least have it on my computer and could use it for many years before I might run into problems. Unfortunately, this is an online service. If UpStart decides to stop supporting it, the site could vanish overnight, leaving me without a tool that I might have come to depend upon. I need to think long and hard about whether that is an acceptable risk.

So, would you use such a service to track your clients and projects? What are you using right now?

Cell Phone Tools

I just sent out volume 2, issue 3 of the "Clearing Up the Confusion" e-zine. Here's an excerpt:

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a bit of a cell phone junkie. I use my phone for everything from taking snapshots, to reading email, to keeping track of my "to do" list. Heck, I can even use it as a GPS when I'm out looking for a client's office.

Some of these tools are a part of the phone itself. Others, however, reside out on the Web. That means, whether I'm sitting at the coffee shop, or relaxing on vacation, as long as I have a cell phone connection, I have access to my information.

So, what are some of these services and how well do they work? Here's a quick rundown of some of the ones I've been using...

To read the rest of this article check out the e-zine issue. You might even like to subscribe!

So, what cell phone tools would you recommend?

An SEO Primer

As I mentioned the other day, I've been catching up on my podcasts recently. For free content, I'm always surprised about the amount of quality information you can get from them.

Take the one I was listening to last night. My buddy, Ross Johnson of Ingenex Digital Marketing, recorded one of his presentations about search engine optimization (SEO), the techniques and strategies to improve the position of websites in the search results of the major search engines.

If you've any interest in SEO and how it works, I recommend you give this one a listen. He covers these topics and looks at some basic strategies he recommends for his clients to improve their search ranks. He also talks about techniques you should avoid at all costs -- the kinds of behaviors which will get you "thrown out of the pool" if Google catches you trying to use them.

The caveat I have is that this is a recording of a presentation. Ross does a great job, but there are questions from the audience you can't hear. Most of the time you can get what they are saying from context, but not always.

That said, though, if you are at all curious about whay you aren't on the first page of results from Google (and how you can get there), you should really check this out. Spend 40 minutes and get a much clearer understanding of how it all works.

So, for what phrases are you on the first page of the search results?

Going Wi-Fi

As a self-employed entrepreneur, I tend to spend a lot of my working hours in my home office sitting in front of the computer. Every once in a while, though, it's nice to get out. I can pack up my laptop and head out for one of many locations around the area which offer free wi-fi.

Of course, I have some of my favorite spots (the various branches of the Ann Arbor District Library especially). Sometimes, though, I would like to meet a client in a location like a coffee shop that has connectivity. What can I do then?

Well, I could wander from shop to shop with my laptop to see whether I can connect. Or, I could call around for the information. Or I could check out an online directory of services such as WiFiFreeSpot.com.

WiFiFreeSpot has listings by city and airport showing who has the free connections. Some of the information is a bit dated (there's a restaurant listed in the Ann Arbor section which doesn't exist anymore), but in general it's the most comprehensive listing I've found out there. There were even a few surprises on the list for me -- one of the local barber shops even has a free connection!

I don't know how often I'll need the service, but when it is time to get out of the house, it's nice to know I'll have a variety of options for my office away from home.

So, have you ever camped out with your laptop at a coffee shop? Did you get more or less work done?

Show Your Colors with iGoogle Themes

I've written a couple of times now about the custom themes for the iGoogle personal homepage. My favorites include the beach scene (where I swear I saw the Loch Ness Monster at around 3am one night) and the images of different planets.

Now Google has gone one step further to allow those of us with the desire and skill to make our own themes. They've got the instructions available online with everything you need to know to include your favorite sports team, the memories from your last vacation, or even your business' logo at the top of the page. What's more, if you think the theme you designed is really good, you can submit it to Google to be included in the catalog of themes available to the public.

Imagine how cool it would be as a up-and-coming graphic designer to be able to include "Created iGoogle theme used by 1000's of people" to your list of achievements!

So, what images would you use for your personal home page?

Silly Phone Fun

Have you ever had a phone message that you really wanted to keep? Maybe it was your family singing happy birthday to you, maybe some friends telling you that they were officially engaged, or maybe it was a bizarre message for your cats from your delightful sister-in-law -- letting them know that she would bring the tequila and catnip. Whatever the message, it sure would be nice to be able to save those moments for posterity, wouldn't it?

Well, I figured a way. Oh, sure I could have hit the play button and held some sort of audio recorder up to the answering machine speaker (of course, that doesn't work so well if your voicemail is somewhere else), but I decided to go the technical route.

As I've written before, my cell phone is the LG enV. It's a nice phone with a ton of features. One of the more unusual ones in my book is the ability to record your phone call. OK, to be more accurate, you can record the other person's half of the phone call. I actually made use of this feature last year when I was making my video about Bruce Tegner. I found one of his students and performed an interview, recording his responses with the cell phone.

So this time what I did was call my voicemail and play back the messages while the cell phone was in record mode. After I had the audio on the cell, it was a simple matter to email it to myself, edit out the unnecessary parts (using Audacity, a great audio editing package I've written about before), then convert it to MP3 format (again with Audacity), and save it on my audio player.

Yes, this is the kind of thing that techno-nerds do when we are left to our own devices.



So, have you explored all of the fun tricks your phone can do?

Speaking of fun tricks, read about another one in my most recent ezine issue. Heck, with such great information, you might even want to subscribe!

Talkin' Trackbacks, Part 4: One More Tool

I mentioned yesterday that I had a better tool to do outgoing trackbacks. It will only work, though, for people who are using Blogger and are using Firefox (and why would you be using any other browser??).

The tool is a script written by Stephen Weber of Singpolyma. It uses the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. OK, I'm sure I saw some eyes glazing over out there, so if you would like to try this excellent tool, just do the following:

1. First check to make sure that you are running Firefox. If you are running Internet Explorer, you can't use this tool. See yesterday's post about Haloscan
   
2. Install Greasemonkey. Go to the Firefox add-on site, and click on the "Install Now" link. If it pops up any dialogs, just click "OK" or "Yes" or "Allow" or whatever you need to to make things continue running. At the end of this step you may need to restart Firefox. After you do, come back here for the remainder of the step. Remember this is the Jan 28, 2008 posting in the "Clearing up the Confusion" blog. I'll wait while you do this.
3. OK, still waiting.
4. Huh, he must have gone off to get a sandwich or something. Oh, well, for those of you who returned, now you just need to install the script.
5. Go to Stephen's blog. Be patient. his blog seems to be a bit slow to load.
6. Click on the "Install the new script" link. Again, click on the "OK"/"Yes"/"Allow" buttons.
7. I don't think you have to restart Firefox again, but feel free to do so if it makes you feel better.

Now whenever you go to post a new entry on your blog, you will see a new entry field right under the title of the post. When you want to do a trackback, you just paste the trackback URL into that spot. When you publish the entry, the trackback engine will do its thing without any further intervention from you.

Oh, the first time you try a trackback with this tool, it will ask you for your del.icio.us ID. If you have one, feel free to enter it. It will give you a one-click link to post your new entry on the social bookmarking site, del.icio.us. Or hit "cancel" and it should stop pestering you about it.

Well, I hope these last few posts have gotten you excited about the possibilities for using trackbacks with your blog. If you do decide to give it a try, let me know what you think and whether it was worth the trouble.

So, have you tried out any of the other add-ons for Firefox?

Talkin' Trackbacks, Part 3: The Tools

So, if you read through parts one and two of this series, you might be getting pretty excited about exploring the world of trackbacks. If you are blogging using WordPress or MovableType, then you are in luck as the trackback facility is already available to you. You might have to go into your blog settings to enable it, but otherwise, you're golden.

But what about the rest of us? Many of us are using Blogger, one of the most popular blogging systems available and it doesn't support trackbacks natively (it has a feature called "backlinks" which is similar, but as I've mentioned before, I haven't noticed too many other people using it and it is only available to other Blogger users). Still, if you look at the bottom of this post, you'll see that I do have a trackback link. How is that possible?

In a word: Haloscan

Haloscan is a service which manages comments and trackbacks for blogs which don't have those features natively. The basic service is free (though it does include advertising), but for only $12, you can get their premium service which is ad-free.

Sign-up is easy. The form doesn't even really request that much information from you. The installation process can be a little daunting if you aren't comfortable editing HTML, but if you follow the instructions for your blogging platform you shouldn't have too much trouble. If all else fails, your friendly neighborhood web developer should have no problem getting things set up for you. In fact, for those of us using Blogger, they have an automatic installation took (just be sure to back up your settings before you try anything like this).

Haloscan give you support for both incoming and outgoing trackbacks. I use it for only the former. The latter is a bit too clunky for me. In order to send the "ping", you have to locate all of the information required (the title, permalink, excerpt, etc) and then fill in a form on the Haloscan site. I much prefer that all of this information be collected for me automatically.

I have a few other minor complaints about Haloscan. First, it is a bit slow. I did a test trackback on one of my older posts and it took almost an hour before it appeared on my site. Update: This seems to be a lot faster now. Perhaps my first test was during a bad time.

Second, the trackback listings aren't incorporated directly into the site. If you click on the trackback link below, it pops up a separate window with the listings (a window over which you have no real control regarding its look and feel). Finally, Haloscan doesn't seem to have any sort of moderation for trackbacks (though it does for comments). This means that anyone can automatically create a link to their site from yours. Of course, you can just delete anything which you don't want included, but if you are someone who likes to have control from the beginning, this might be a show-stopper.

Despite these problems, if this is the only way you have to send and receive a trackback ping, it's a long sight better than nothing. And until Blogger decides to support the trackback protocols natively (chances are somewhere between slim and none), your other choice is nothing.

Tomorrow I'll do a quick piece on a better tool for some of us.

So, are their any blogs you read on a regular basis which support trackback? Which ones?

Talkin' Trackbacks, Part 2: How

OK, so after reading the first post in this series, you might be mildly interested in this whole trackback thing -- especially if you are a blogger who would like to increase his readership. I can hear you thinking, though, "How does this all work? If it's too difficult, I'm not going to do it."

Fair enough. I'll tell you, though, that if you have the wherewithal to actually post in your blog on a regular basis, then doing a trackback should be a breeze.

Warning: Technical Content

Now, some of this is going to be dependent on which blogging software you use, but, in general this is how the procedure works. By the way, if you'd like to see a good example of a "tackback-able" blog, check out Seth Godin's. His was the first one to which I sent a trackback ping (which resulted in the first day that my readership exceeded twenty readers for the day).

So, here are the steps:

1. Read a blog post on a blog where you have an interest, whether it be "new marketing" or "knitting sweaters for weasels".
2. Discover that you have something important to say on the subject. This is actually a pretty important step. Remember that the response you are crafting will be a post on your own blog (What? You don't have a blog? What are you waiting for?). Also, many authors moderate their trackbacks, so if they don't think what you are saying is worthy of a reverse link, they don't have to include you.
3. Find the "trackback URL" for the original post. Usually, when you click on a trackback link for a post, there will be a short message that looks something like: Trackback URL for this entry: http://haloscan.com/tb/kaymbre/375279646963837696 -- remember where this is.
4. Write your post -- Of course, using your normal amazing powers of prose.
5. Paste in the trackback URL. This is the one area where you might have to do a little research, but there should be an entry field for this information. You are in especially good shape if you use one of the blogging packages which supports trackbacks natively, such as MovableType or WordPress (What? You use Blogger, like I do? Tune in tomorrow for how we can take part in the fun!).
6. Publish your post. Yep, click on the "submit" or "Publish" or "Make it so" button -- whichever gets things going for your blog.
7. Let the trackback facility do its thing. What happens next is your blogging software sends out a "ping" to the blogging software for the original post -- sort of a computerized "hello". It sends along some other information, like who you are, the title of your post, the URL for your post, and a short excerpt of your literary masterpiece. The system on the other end takes that information and either puts it on the trackback page or queues it up for approval by the original blogger.

And that's pretty much how it works. Essentially, it's just a couple of extra steps for you (copy trackback URL, paste trackback URL) and you've got a great new way to carry on a conversation and make more people aware of your blog.

What's that I hear? You're all excited about using trackbacks, but your blogging software doesn't support them? Tune in tomorrow (and the next day, probably) to find out what else you can do.

So, what do you think, would you be willing to try trackbacks?

Talkin' Trackbacks, Part 1: What and Why

One of the exciting aspects of blogging is the ability to interact with your readers. There's something about the rich interplay of ideas and opinions which really fuels the creative process -- even when they tell you that you're being stupid. Also, let's face it, someone commenting on your post means that they probably read it, and we all like to know that we're communicating with somebody.

Most readers interact with the blogger through the comment feature. They click on the "comment" link, enter their well-thought-out response and go on their merry way. This is great as far as it goes, but, if you look to the bottom of this post, right next to the "comments" link, there's a link to a better way.

It's called a trackback.

What?

I've written about this before, but the trackback facility is a wonderful way, as my hero Scott Ginsberg would say, for bloggers to share "link love". The basic idea is similar to making comments, but instead of the reader leaving her message with me, she would write her commentary as a post in her own blog. Then the trackback facility would create a link between the two posts. Instant "link love!"

OK, Why?

Why would I, as a blogger, allow someone to link to my blog posts like this? Isn't the trackbacker basically trying to steal my readers?

Well, no, not really.

In fact, in order to make the "conversation" make sense, the trackbacker almost has to create a link back to my post. So, while she might increase her readership through gaining exposure to my readership, the reverse is also true, so I might get a slight bump in mine.

Amazing. We both win!

You can even make the argument that people are going to be more thoughtful and thought-provoking in their own blogs than they would in the regular comments section on a post. In fact, some bloggers, like Seth Godin, don't even allow comments on their blogs. They only have trackbacks.

Depending on the level of experience you've had with blogging in general, and the facility of trackbacking in particular, you might be intrigued, confused, or simply bored. I'm not sure I can do much with the latter, but we'll be taking a closer look at the details of trackbacks over the next couple of days in hopes of satisfying the former.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at how this whole trackback thing works.

So, what's your experience been with the trackback facility?

Best Laid Assumptions

About a week ago, our area had almost a foot of snow fall on us. Flights were cancelled, schools had snow days. It was a veritable Winter Wonderland. With that much snow, we were pretty much guaranteed a White Christmas.

Now, due to temperatures in the 40's and the torrential rains we had overnight, I'm looking out on a landscape which definitely doesn't fit that definition.

Of course, the lack of a White Christmas probably won't kill me or even inconvenience me much for that matter, but it does put me in mind of more serious examples of counting on things staying the same.

I'm working on updating and upgrading the website for Bruce Donovan Construction. In talking with Bruce it was clear that he understood that he not only had to be on the Web, but he had to look good on his site and provide his visitors with what they wanted -- in this case a portfolio of current and completed jobs, including photos.

Bruce could have ignored the situation, but more and more people are making their decisions based on information they get from the Web. If he hadn't met the need, I'm sure one of his competitors would have.

Construction isn't by any means the only industry where the technology of the Web is changing the playing field. Think of the difficulties that travel agents have had over the last decade. Now, you'd better be able to plan my whole vacation for me (at ridiculously low cost), otherwise Expedia is waiting. Local booksellers? As if the 800-pound gorilla which is Borders weren't competition enough, the 80-ton dinosaur of Amazon might easily crush you and never even realize you were there.

Even in my own business of web-development, nothing is assured. Tools are coming out which could easily make me obsolete. Website templates, gadgets and widgets, high school students who can undercut me -- these are all factors which I must be aware of. What value can I add which can offset them (and, worse, offset those which I never would have expected)?

I don't really have any answers right at the moment, but you can be sure I'm keeping an eye out.

So, how has technology changed your business, for good or for ill?

More TV on Your Desktop

Yesterday I wrote about Hulu, a service which allows you to play high-quality streamed video of both current and classic television programs on your desktop. Hulu is in private beta right now, which means if you want to use the service, you have to sign up to be a beta-tester and then wait for them to sent you an invitation.

This procedure can take some time so, if you would like to test the offerings of Hulu while you are waiting, you can point your browser to OpenHulu. This is one of several services which are licensed to stream the Hulu content. The site is still a little rough -- they are openly asking for help to refine the interfaces -- but the content is the same as you will get on the main Hulu site.

As an aside, I am continually bemused by the variety and quality of services which are coming out on the Web. I've been using the Web since the days of the earliest visual browsers and I remember when streaming audio was choppy and difficult to listen to. Now we have remarkably clear video streaming and Hulu is already experimenting with high definition video.

Amazing stuff.

So, what Web stuff have you found to be the most surprising and cool?

TV on Your Desktop

I was fortunate enough to be reading TechCrunch today when the notice went up that there were some private beta invitations available for the much-anticipated Hulu.com service.

What? You've never heard of it?

Hulu is a site which provides premium content on the Web. "Premium content" includes both current and classic programs from a variety of providers, including NBC Universal, FOX and a smattering of others.

When I logged in I was able almost immediately to stream a recent episode of "Monk" to my computer screen. I checked out "The Office" and browsed through a number of clips from the Sci-Fi Channel, including their recent "Tin Man" miniseries. I was especially thrilled to discover that Hulu has the complete run of one of my favorite short-lived shows, "Firefly".

The video quality was remarkably good. Despite that, my desktop computer had no problems keeping up with the playback. My "so old that Moses must have brought it down" laptop was even able to do a fairly respectable job (though I didn't try to run it on full screen mode -- I'm not expecting miracles, after all).

The videos show with "limited commercial interruption". In the case of the hour and 26 minute "Firefly" pilot episode, this meant that there were 5 30-second commercials. Not a big deal, but if you really can't stand commercials, then you may have a hard time since there isn't any convenient way to fast-forward (though you can attempt to restart the video after the ad spot).

Some interesting features include the ability to "pop-out" the video to a separate smaller window, go to full screen mode, and even to embed clips or even whole videos in your content. The latter facility even allows you to specify a smaller chunk of the video if you wanted to make commentary on a specific part of the offering. I would have loved this tool back when I wrote about meeting Gil Gerard of 1970's "Buck Rogers" fame (Hulu has a selection of Buck's adventures in their library).

I'll be interested to see how this develops. Right now the catalog of videos includes whole seasons of episodes, but not usually the entire run of a show. Will they continue to add episodes until the entire run is available? Will the episodes expire? Do people even want to watch TV this way?

So, how would you use the Hulu service? Or would you?

Fun Phone Tricks

I've had my LG enV "smart" phone for almost a year now. I have to say that it has been an awesome tool to have at my side. It's my alarm clock, my GPS, my web browser and my night-time reading. I've used it to take photos and notes and even to record an interview.

Heck, I even use it to make and receive phone calls!

Last weekend I discovered another neat trick. This one involves searching using Google.

Lisa and I were out doing some shopping to get some things for decorating the house for Christmas. I was looking for replacement bulbs for the lighted deer sculptures that we usually put out under the tree in front of the house. They were very specific bulbs. I needed clear, 3.5 volt bulbs.

After failing to find them at the hardware store, I was dreading the thought of driving from place to place in search of these little widgets. Then I realized that I could search for the specific stores I was considering using the built-in web browser on the phone and just jot down the phone numbers.

A few seconds later, I was searching Google for my first target. Up it came, with no problem, including the phone number. Then I noticed something. The phone number was a link. "I wonder what it's linked to?" I thought to myself.

I "clicked" on the link and suddenly the phone began to dial. Gotta say that I was quite pleased. It was such a little thing, but it made the whole process just that much easier.

I don't know if this works with all cell phones, but you might want to check this out. It's a heck of a lot easier than carrying a phone book with you wherever you go.

So, what was the last gadget that surprised you with its usefulness?

Cool Tool: Light Keeper PRO

Given that Lisa and I expect to be new parents right around Thanksgiving, we decided to get a jump on decorating for the holidays. Part of that process, of course, is bringing out the light strings from last year and trying to get them all to work or throwing away the broken ones and just buying new strings.

After spending hours trying to get things working last year, I was determined that this year if a string wouldn't light, we were just going to chuck it.

We stopped off today at our local Ace Hardware to pick up a few things (I collect the Ace Winter village buildings). I was browsing down the lighting aisle looking for 3.5V clear replacement bulbs for the lighted deer family which usually takes up residence under our big spruce tree out front. Suddenly I saw a gadget on the shelf which intrigued me.

It was the "Light Keeper PRO" and it has changed my life.

OK, maybe it's not quite that momentous, but I sure is going to make my life a heck of a lot easier in the future.

This gadget looks like a red plastic ray gun. What it does though is make dead light strings live again.

Apparently one of the main reasons that light strings die is that a bulb burns out and its internal shunt doesn't kick in. The shunt is the doohickey which completes the electrical circuit for the string which allows all of the other lights to stay lit. When the shunt fails, the circuit is broken and darkness reigns.

With the Light Keeper, you just pull a bulb from the dead area of the string and plug the socket into the front of the ray gun. Then you click the trigger a few times and presto! the lights come on.

Apparently, the gadget sends an electrical pulse down the wire which causes the shunts to trip in the dead lights. Once the string is lit, it's pretty trivial to change the burnt out bulbs.

Take it from me: If you are planning to put up any lights over the holidays (or ever for that matter) get one of these gadgets. I've seen it in a few places for between $15-$25. It is worth every penny.

So, how much time have you wasted tracking down that elusive burnt out bulb?