Category Archives: Technology

Internet

Gmail is Gelicious

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As the wonders of a Gmail invitation were extended to me (thanks Nick!), so I extend them to you. Anyone interested in getting their own Gmail account, let me know. I’ve got six invitations to share.

And if you’re wondering what the big deal is, Gmail is basically Google’s free, web-based e-mail offering. Only instead of some paltry 3 or 6 MB of space, you get 1000 MB. Yep, that’s 1 GB. They also have a nifty new way of handling and sorting e-mail, as well as a kick-butt spam filter. Even if you use a web-based account simply to sign up for stuff and protect your real e-mail address (like I do), Gmail is the way to go. Plus, since it’s new you have a much better chance of getting an address you like. Much better than kev_d_hendricks2004634@hotmail.com.

Speaking of excessive e-mail accounts, how many do all of you have? (different interations of the same account only count once, and if you have your own domain that only counts as one). I only have four five right now, which I think is an all-time low (MonkeyOuttaNowhere, ReALMagazine, Bethel, Gmail, and my ISP). Once upon a time I had a Hotmail and a Yahoo, but they’ve become green and crusty with spam long ago. I also had bgea.org and nps.gov e-mail addresses once upon a time.

Internet

What the Heck is RSS?

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OK, I understand what RSS is and the whole syndication deal. It sounds brilliant. Yet I don’t use it. I don’t know any of my friends who use it (at least they don’t talk about it much). But it still sounds brilliant. Every day, multiple times a day, I go through every blog in my list of bookmarks (30+ sites) looking for interesting tidbits. Every time at least 50% of those blogs haven’t been updated. Seems like I’m a prime candidate for a news reader.

So today I signed up with Bloglines, a web based news reader. For those of you who I’ve lost, basically it works like this. Most blogs publish a file that has their most recent updates in addition to the entries you read. A news reader takes this file and displays the newest updates to you. So you have the advantage of only having to see what’s new and updated. You don’t have to go the news, it comes to you.

So I signed up with that today and subscribed to most of the blogs I read. Yet it seems a bit weird. This blog, for example, only gave entries from last month, as if my blog had stopped publishing a news feed last month. I’m not sure if it’s just funky because it’s new and it needs to be whipped into shape or what. Several blogs were like that, not always giving me the newest posts. I know Bloglines only crawls sites at most once an hour, but I think it’d do better than once a month.

Anybody have any insights? Anybody use a news reader to keep on their favorite blogs? Anybody reading this blog in a news reader? Anybody know of a better newsreader than bloglines? Anybody know what I’m talking about? Anybody listening?

Technology

President You

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The Political MachineForget waiting until November. You can decide the election right now. The Political Machine is a new PC game that lets you run for president. You take a stand on a total of 64 issues, run political ads, make speeches, and wheel and deal like a real politician in your bid for the virtual presidency. You can use historic candidates and see if Abe Lincoln could unseat FDR, or create your own candidate. The game runs on actual polling data and demographics to make it as real as possible.

You couldn’t time the release of a strategy game better than in such a hotly contested election year. Check out the official web site for more.

Internet

Tracking Down Long Lost Friends

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It’s amazing to me how difficult it is to track down my old high school friends compared to my college friends. I’ve been on this kick all weekend, but it’s just amazing how consistently true that statement is. Granted there’s certainly more distance between now and high school verses now and college, but I’d expect to have a least some success finding high school folks.

A simple Google search almost always pulls up something for my college friends that would allow me to track them down, if not their own personal web site or blog near the top of the results. That’s only true for one of my high school friends. Is it possible that not everyone in the world is as plugged in and as Internet-addicted as me and my college friends? Is it possible I’m somehow the techno-geekiest of all my high school friends? Or am I just that bad at searching Google and this is all a fluke? Or is that my college friends all have unique names while my high school friends tend to share names with lacrosse stars, actresses, and race car drivers?

What I find most depressing about this whole search is that every classmates/reunion/high school site I could find that allows alumni to connect charges you to get the most basic info. I realize they have to make a dime, but I can’t believe somehow hasn’t developed a totally free site that manages to subsist of ads. Or perhaps the basic info (e-mail address? hello?) is free and you can pay to get more. What’s with giving me their country, pets, and political leanings? Who cares? I would think some business-minded genius would make a free reunion site and rake in the advertising dough. It might not make as much as a fee-based site, but I have to believe it’d pay for itself and then some.

Sheesh.

On a stranger note, googling my dad brings up pigeon pages (photos of baby pigeons, a pigeon photo from 1975 and pigeon genetics).

Blogging

More Bloggers with Book Deals

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Just a Geek by Wil WheatonA few weeks ago I spotted the Wil Wheat book, Just a Geek, and couldn’t resist checking it out. The title alone is gold, and a confessional of a semi-washed up Star Trek actor is just too good.

The 60 pages or so I read in Barnes & Noble were pretty good. He’s a funny guy, and it’s great seeing his honest struggle with fame and pride. And of course the book stemmed from his blog, adding him to the pile of bloggers-turned-book-writers.

I empathize a lot with his struggle. Of course I never starred in a major TV show, but I have that same thirst to get some grand public slap on the back. It’s pride. And it shows up in the sneakiest ways, pushing me to be the kind of hip, trendy blogger who snags a book deal. Sometimes pride blows its cover with stupidity. I should really be downstairs with my wife.

Blogging

What Two Weeks of Blogging Can Do

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One Washington DC insider with a total lack of morals. One blog. How long until she’s fired, looking at a reputation as the next Monica Lewinsky, posing for Playboy and signing a book deal?

Two weeks.

Wow. I’m not even sure what to say about this story. I thought about posting it on the Monkey Outta Nowhere main blog, but I wasn’t so confident in how a slutty blogger story would help the company. Probably a wise decision. (But nothing’s too slutty for this blog! Especially after Olympic butts.)

So yeah: Jessica Cutler. You can read her resurrected blog, the overly-long Washington Post article and the chat with the writer of the Post article. (links via bloggedy blog)

Internet

I Have a Marketing Degree!

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Well, it finally happened. The immense redesign of billygraham.org (my former employer)—that was initiated only four months after the redesign me and my team slaved over—is finally up. Not everyone is happy with the new look, and I can’t say that I blame them.

For a sense of perspective, you can check out the Internet Archive for past versions of the Billy Graham web site (though the graphics don’t always load). I worked in the Internet Department from 2001 until halfway through 2003. You can see three different designs, though the difference between the first two is primarily cosmetic.

I hate to rag on the new design. I have friends who still work there, friends who don’t have the luxury of shaking their heads and moving on to something else. It’s painful to see some of the changes. We spent eight months working on our redesign, only to see it prematurely dismantled. You’ll have to forgive my bitterness.

I hate to be elitist and act like I know web design better than anyone. Or marketing or ministry or business. The fact is many organizations and businesses make decisions I don’t agree with, but none strike me so deeply as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Maybe it’s because I see so much unfulfilled potential, as someone else said. Maybe it’s because I invested two and a half years of my life in that organization. Maybe it’s because I like Billy and deep down I want him to be cool. I mean, OK, C’mon.

Technology

Even Better Than the Real Thing

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U2’s upcoming album, Vertigo How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, slated for a November release was stolen from a photo shoot in France last week. Worried the songs might end up online before the album’s release, front man Bono has a plan:

“If it is on the Internet this week, we will release it immediately as a legal download on iTunes, and get hard copies into the shops by the end of the month. … It would be a real pity. It would screw up years of work and months of planning, not to mention f*cking up our holidays. But once it’s out, it’s out.”

As a U2 fan, I find myself torn between hoping the album shows up online so it will be released early and I can legitimately hear it early, and hoping things go according to the band’s original plan.

Technology

Can you say iPod envy?

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Faster, better, smarter, stronger — and cheaper. The new iPod.

Yeah, I’m a little stoked about the newest iPod upgrade. I don’t know if I’ll scrape the cash together by ebaying more of my childhood treasures or not, but I’m definitely tempted once again. I’m sort of in a technological limbo where I’ve made half the digital leap — converting my music collection to iTunes — but it’s all stuck on my computer. I can’t take it with me. Yet.

The way we experience music is changing. It’s inevitable. I think it’s pretty cool, though I can definitely see some downsides. Getting free CDs in the mail for reviews has already drastically changed the way I listen to music. I rarely relish a CD and devour it like I used to. I take it for granted. A lot of stuff I just don’t listen to because there’s so much. It raises the bar. But such easy access to thousands of songs is also difficult and time consuming. Do I really need a soundtrack to my life? Do I really want to become a slave to my technology (how crushed would I be if I lost my iPod?)?

But how cool is it to play that song stuck in your head and move on?

Technology

iPod Envy

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iPod and Steve Jobs on NewsweekApple has turned to the cover of Newsweek for the announcement of the next iPod upgrade. The magazine covers the nearly life-changing status of the gadget as well as dishes the dirt on the new upgrade. The dirt includes a $100 price drop all the way around (though the low-end 15 GB priced at $299 is gone; but for the same price you can now get the 20 GB), a slightly smaller size, double the battery life, and an even simpler interface (as if it wasn’t easy enough, they dropped four buttons and went with the iPod Mini’s scoll wheel/buttons).

But more important than the latest offerings is the way the iPod and iTunes are almost single-handedly changing how people listen to music. The ability to carry your entire music collection in your pocket is having revolutionary reprecussions. The days of the compact disc are numbered and growing numbers of people now have a soundtrack to their lives.