With my heavy use of Gmail in the last 2 years, the trial of Google Reader when it was released was relatively easy. I have since become hooked on it as my RSS Aggregator of choice, and have adopted a few habits that help me manage my barrage of RSS feeds in a more optimal way.
1. Use the shortcut keys
These improve your "read-through" time tremendously.
2. Organise your feeds into folders.
My folder structure follows the 80-20 rule. I know 80% of my most valuable readings come from 20% of the material I read, so I created a folder called 80% for those feeds I found most valuable.
To make this work I realised my most valuable feeds had to meet 2 criteria namely:
a. The volume of updated content could not be so much that I could not read through a day's worth within a 2 minute period. This eliminated fun but overall less valuable feeds from Slashdot and Digg immediately.
b. I had to learn immediate lessons from those feeds OR they must have historically provided insights on which further pondering and discussions with colleagues could be based, and those in turn led to high-value lessons for myself.
3. Always find a category folder for your feed.
If one doesn't exist yet, don't be afraid to create a new one. At the same time, impose rules on yourself for categorisation that stop you from running away with categories.
For me that means I have locked it down to about 5-6 folders. I keep a folder called "high volume" just for feeds that generate alot of content daily and which I often use the "mark all as read" button on if I fall a day or two behind in "feed reading".
I have my "80% folder" which I never delete all but rather make time to read each article, and also keep a folder called "geek" which holds my useful, but not quite applicable to my day-to-day life feeds. Another called "career" holds feeds that offer career tips and advice. Podcasts go into a "podcasts" folder and my MBA research readings go into an "mba" folder.
The general idea behind this structure is if you don't have time to read all of your updated feeds' content, or you're just in a mood for one particular type of content, it's easy to lock down quickly what you want to read.
It's also easy to purge content you're 99% sure won't be missed if you didn't read, but you would have if you had time for the pure enjoyment of it.
What is your RSS aggregator of choice? Why do you use it? What are your optimisations for getting through a day's worth of feeds?
Friday, 14 March 2008
Thursday, 13 March 2008
What is RSS? What's an Aggregator?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. For anyone who has frequented websites such as Slashdot, CNN or even your local newspaper's site, the advantage of having an RSS feed to keep up with the constantly changing content needs no mentioning.
RSS aggregators, also known as feed aggregators, are those programs which help channel the content of these RSS feeds into a common interface. A comprehensive list can be found here. Even Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Mail Desktop have the ability to function as feed aggregators. I started initially with Juice, formerly known as iPodder, since the first feeds I subscribed to were Podcasts.
In tomorrow's post I'll list the ways in which I optimise my RSS reading experience.
RSS aggregators, also known as feed aggregators, are those programs which help channel the content of these RSS feeds into a common interface. A comprehensive list can be found here. Even Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Mail Desktop have the ability to function as feed aggregators. I started initially with Juice, formerly known as iPodder, since the first feeds I subscribed to were Podcasts.
In tomorrow's post I'll list the ways in which I optimise my RSS reading experience.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Hating on Facebook Applications
I love Facebook. I think the idea of social networking is quite marvellous really. Recently though I've quite become fed up of Facebook Applications. Every day it's a host of new invitations for applications I have no interest in, or will never have any interest in. The Facebook blog acknowledges this new trend, calling it "application spam".
My new favourite Facebook feature has in fact become the ability to "blanket ignore" all requests in Facebook. I share the opinion of this blogger that it is in fact a sledgehammer approach and not quite yet attacking the root problem and agree I would love the feature to include the ability to ignore both now and in the future an application's request to add itself to my profile. The techniques to counter this problem mentioned in the Facebook blog doesn't seem to be working.
The creative outlet that Youtube now affords many folks has also led to this video, which I find both quite amusing and quite true in expressing the pain of my Facebook experiences these days.
My new favourite Facebook feature has in fact become the ability to "blanket ignore" all requests in Facebook. I share the opinion of this blogger that it is in fact a sledgehammer approach and not quite yet attacking the root problem and agree I would love the feature to include the ability to ignore both now and in the future an application's request to add itself to my profile. The techniques to counter this problem mentioned in the Facebook blog doesn't seem to be working.
The creative outlet that Youtube now affords many folks has also led to this video, which I find both quite amusing and quite true in expressing the pain of my Facebook experiences these days.
Friday, 7 March 2008
Impossible is nothing!
The challenges these two dancers had to overcome to reach the excellence they demonstrate in this video should be an example that no obstacle is too big to overcome for us to achieve excellence in our passions, however "disabled" we may feel when roadblocks are hit.
Originally found from this post on the "Escape from Cubicle Nation" blog.
Originally found from this post on the "Escape from Cubicle Nation" blog.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
An Apology From TSTT
Background information:
TSTT is one of two major telecommunications providers for Trinidad and Tobago.
They offered a feature for their bMobile (cellular service) customers whereby pre-paid users could add credit to their phone's account via the web using credit card payments. The service, called ETopUp, was recently cancelled and an email sent to all registered users of the system indicating the service's cancellation.
I only used the service once, but because I knew the service would be carrying my credit card information I signed up for it using my main email address, one that's rarely known and thus rarely spammed.
I normally would be glad for such a proactive notification from TSTT, given not just my, but other people's problems and gripes with their services. Sadly, even in this small attempt to be more customer friendly, they managed to muck it up.
In sending the notification email, whatever person or program doing the mailing saw it fit to put my address, along with that of at least 50 other customers, into the CC: (rather than the Bcc:) field of the email.
I was so annoyed at this violation of my privacy that I fired off an email to the address that sent me the notification, indicating what had happened at my displeasure at now having opened up my private email address to many others, one of whom might be a potential spammer.
Today, about 48 hours later, I received this response from TSTT:
From: ETopup
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Subject: Apology From TSTT
To: ETopup
Dear Customer,
We refer to the email correspondence sent advising of the suspension of
the online self top up service. We note your displeasure with the
disclosure of your personal information in the email and acknowledge
that this action was inappropriate.
The disclosure of the email addresses was a regrettable human error for
which we sincerely apologize.
Please be assured that this action is not in accordance with TSTT’s
Privacy Policy. We take the matters of information security and privacy
very seriously and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that this
does not reoccur.
Thank you for your understanding and continued business with us.
Sincerely
Manager, Top Up
Etopup
bmobile
T&T's # 1 Mobile Network
Common courtesy would have one think that the "Manager Top Up, Etopup" would have a name, and would be nice enough to attach it to his "apologetic" email.
It makes me wonder if it wasn't a manager but some customer representative, especially given that the ETopup service is now defunct, so why have a manager for it?
An email from the person who was responsible for sending out the email in the first place, and their apologies for the mistake would have been so much more effective. I would now know that the person who made this mistake was now, at the very least, more aware of the "TSTT Privacy Policy" and thus more aware of how he handles sensitive customer data in future when having to publish mass notifications.
It was a nice gesture perhaps, but I would be happier with it if I actually thought TSTT management was ever planning to spend a little more time making their own staff aware of their own privacy policy, especially now I know they have one.
TSTT is one of two major telecommunications providers for Trinidad and Tobago.
They offered a feature for their bMobile (cellular service) customers whereby pre-paid users could add credit to their phone's account via the web using credit card payments. The service, called ETopUp, was recently cancelled and an email sent to all registered users of the system indicating the service's cancellation.
I only used the service once, but because I knew the service would be carrying my credit card information I signed up for it using my main email address, one that's rarely known and thus rarely spammed.
I normally would be glad for such a proactive notification from TSTT, given not just my, but other people's problems and gripes with their services. Sadly, even in this small attempt to be more customer friendly, they managed to muck it up.
In sending the notification email, whatever person or program doing the mailing saw it fit to put my address, along with that of at least 50 other customers, into the CC: (rather than the Bcc:) field of the email.
I was so annoyed at this violation of my privacy that I fired off an email to the address that sent me the notification, indicating what had happened at my displeasure at now having opened up my private email address to many others, one of whom might be a potential spammer.
Today, about 48 hours later, I received this response from TSTT:
From: ETopup
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Subject: Apology From TSTT
To: ETopup
Dear Customer,
We refer to the email correspondence sent advising of the suspension of
the online self top up service. We note your displeasure with the
disclosure of your personal information in the email and acknowledge
that this action was inappropriate.
The disclosure of the email addresses was a regrettable human error for
which we sincerely apologize.
Please be assured that this action is not in accordance with TSTT’s
Privacy Policy. We take the matters of information security and privacy
very seriously and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that this
does not reoccur.
Thank you for your understanding and continued business with us.
Sincerely
Manager, Top Up
Etopup
bmobile
T&T's # 1 Mobile Network
Common courtesy would have one think that the "Manager Top Up, Etopup" would have a name, and would be nice enough to attach it to his "apologetic" email.
It makes me wonder if it wasn't a manager but some customer representative, especially given that the ETopup service is now defunct, so why have a manager for it?
An email from the person who was responsible for sending out the email in the first place, and their apologies for the mistake would have been so much more effective. I would now know that the person who made this mistake was now, at the very least, more aware of the "TSTT Privacy Policy" and thus more aware of how he handles sensitive customer data in future when having to publish mass notifications.
It was a nice gesture perhaps, but I would be happier with it if I actually thought TSTT management was ever planning to spend a little more time making their own staff aware of their own privacy policy, especially now I know they have one.
Cool tool: Google Calendar Sync
One problem I always had with Google Calendar was that Microsoft Outlook already had great calendaring features and some folks I worked with preferred it but it could not sync easily with Google Calendar and yet Microsoft Outlook could not be a powerful collaboration tool without Microsoft Exchange Server in the back end.
At a small company it's easy to get fresh, inexperienced folks to use one tool, but as a company grows there are going to be new team members with already honed and optimised habits that may or may not be tied heavily to tools like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook.
Hopefully this tool, Google Calendar Sync, will help with that issue.
Here's a link as well to Google Blog's own entry on it.
Let me know what you think of it.
At a small company it's easy to get fresh, inexperienced folks to use one tool, but as a company grows there are going to be new team members with already honed and optimised habits that may or may not be tied heavily to tools like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook.
Hopefully this tool, Google Calendar Sync, will help with that issue.
Here's a link as well to Google Blog's own entry on it.
Let me know what you think of it.
Friday, 29 February 2008
Quick Update...
My how time flies!
After getting caught in the Carnival rush I then got caught up in my new Software Developer job at Teleios Systems Limited.
To complicate things my Internet access at home went down so I've turned that negative as a positive and instead of using my "relaxed" time for writing blog entries I have been focusing for the last few weeks on catching up with my reading since my list of outstanding books bought but not read has gone past the one dozen marker...
Update: I have an outstanding part 2 to an article I started writing on Home Media Centre options. The TTCS has graciously offered to do a session where hopefully I'll be able to demo the solution I came up with on Sat, Apr 19, 1pm – 5pm
To maximise the session's possible attendence, I'm going to hold back on posting that part 2 till then since I believe the attendee input will make for good feedback in constructing that article.
Hopefully I'll be able to churn out at least one article a week of good substance from here out as I adjust once again to working life :)
After getting caught in the Carnival rush I then got caught up in my new Software Developer job at Teleios Systems Limited.
To complicate things my Internet access at home went down so I've turned that negative as a positive and instead of using my "relaxed" time for writing blog entries I have been focusing for the last few weeks on catching up with my reading since my list of outstanding books bought but not read has gone past the one dozen marker...
Update: I have an outstanding part 2 to an article I started writing on Home Media Centre options. The TTCS has graciously offered to do a session where hopefully I'll be able to demo the solution I came up with on Sat, Apr 19, 1pm – 5pm
To maximise the session's possible attendence, I'm going to hold back on posting that part 2 till then since I believe the attendee input will make for good feedback in constructing that article.
Hopefully I'll be able to churn out at least one article a week of good substance from here out as I adjust once again to working life :)
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Home Media Centre Pet Project. Part 1: The history
Note: Shipping DVDs and Electronics to Trinidad incur a 20% duty as well as 15% VAT (Value-Added Tax) when imported, making them roughly 37% more costly than a buyer in America. Different Caribbean islands have different duty and VAT rates and I'd appreciate any persons reading this who might be willing to share this information to e-mail me at (nissan at_ redditech _dot com).
One pet peeve I've always had is when my DVDs got scratched and I'd lost playability of them. As a preventative measure I learnt well before the days of DVD burners about software like CloneAd that allowed me to rip DVDs and then compress them using the DivX (and later Xvid) codec and VirtualDub into formats storable on a typical CD.
The problem with this technique is that CDs can also get scratched, and also tend to degrade over time if they are really low quality CDs. I had a few unused hard disks and so chose to invest as well in external HD enclosures and keep additional copies of my backups on these.
I also had a TV tuner card in my desktop and a piece of software called Snapstream Personal Video Recorder (now BeyondTV) which allowed me to record tv shows for storage and later viewing. Having the portable hard drives available as media storage for these often large files proved quite useful. The files were large because the version of the software I had then only supported Windows Media Video (wmv) encoding which was not very strong compression at the time compared to DivX.
The local cable company has since switched their pricing to using a pay-per-decoder box pricing and the cost justification of a decoder box just for the computer just was never there.
My collection of media files now includes content such as YouTube videos, audio and video podcasts I subscribed to as well as webcasts I usually use for self-training.
I downloaded and converted many of these to store on my Zune for future offline viewing while on the go, but still had no real means of sharing the content on my home TV.
When DVD burners became affordable I was already seeing the convenience of having all my media files in one central location and playable within a few clicks on my PC. DVD backups were useful in order to maintain menus and extras for DVDs, but this added value did not justify the more-than-double space these backups took on my portable hard disks when weighed against using a compression technique and easier playback nature of compressed video files.
My collection of DVDs grew to a point where I sometimes found it cumbersome to sort through the lot looking for a particular movie if I wanted to watch it on my regular TV with my family....watching the backed up version stored on my laptop/desktop just was not a family viewing experience.
One short-lived solution I tried was using an S-video output on my laptop to hook up my laptop to the TV but this created several problems.
First, the dependency was on me to setup the laptop, hook up the external hard disk and TV connectors and open the right file to play on the TV. (My parents were, and to some extent still are not fans of technology and know very little about using a computer)
Secondly I could not use my laptop while it was in "movie-mode" since it was now a community event and disrupting folks to check my email or chat with a friend was just impolite.
So thus was born this project.
The initial goals of it for me were as follows:
1. To be able to play ALL my stored media content on my TV as easily as if I were using my laptop. This included my DVD backups as well as downloaded content.
2. To make it as easy as possible for my other family members to do the same with minimal help from me
3. To be able to record and take offline any TV content (like we would with the VCR)
My next post I'll continue with what options I came up with.
One pet peeve I've always had is when my DVDs got scratched and I'd lost playability of them. As a preventative measure I learnt well before the days of DVD burners about software like CloneAd that allowed me to rip DVDs and then compress them using the DivX (and later Xvid) codec and VirtualDub into formats storable on a typical CD.
The problem with this technique is that CDs can also get scratched, and also tend to degrade over time if they are really low quality CDs. I had a few unused hard disks and so chose to invest as well in external HD enclosures and keep additional copies of my backups on these.
I also had a TV tuner card in my desktop and a piece of software called Snapstream Personal Video Recorder (now BeyondTV) which allowed me to record tv shows for storage and later viewing. Having the portable hard drives available as media storage for these often large files proved quite useful. The files were large because the version of the software I had then only supported Windows Media Video (wmv) encoding which was not very strong compression at the time compared to DivX.
The local cable company has since switched their pricing to using a pay-per-decoder box pricing and the cost justification of a decoder box just for the computer just was never there.
My collection of media files now includes content such as YouTube videos, audio and video podcasts I subscribed to as well as webcasts I usually use for self-training.
I downloaded and converted many of these to store on my Zune for future offline viewing while on the go, but still had no real means of sharing the content on my home TV.
When DVD burners became affordable I was already seeing the convenience of having all my media files in one central location and playable within a few clicks on my PC. DVD backups were useful in order to maintain menus and extras for DVDs, but this added value did not justify the more-than-double space these backups took on my portable hard disks when weighed against using a compression technique and easier playback nature of compressed video files.
My collection of DVDs grew to a point where I sometimes found it cumbersome to sort through the lot looking for a particular movie if I wanted to watch it on my regular TV with my family....watching the backed up version stored on my laptop/desktop just was not a family viewing experience.
One short-lived solution I tried was using an S-video output on my laptop to hook up my laptop to the TV but this created several problems.
First, the dependency was on me to setup the laptop, hook up the external hard disk and TV connectors and open the right file to play on the TV. (My parents were, and to some extent still are not fans of technology and know very little about using a computer)
Secondly I could not use my laptop while it was in "movie-mode" since it was now a community event and disrupting folks to check my email or chat with a friend was just impolite.
So thus was born this project.
The initial goals of it for me were as follows:
1. To be able to play ALL my stored media content on my TV as easily as if I were using my laptop. This included my DVD backups as well as downloaded content.
2. To make it as easy as possible for my other family members to do the same with minimal help from me
3. To be able to record and take offline any TV content (like we would with the VCR)
My next post I'll continue with what options I came up with.
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Restarting my blog...
Happy New Year!!
It's 2008 and much has changed.
Firstly, I have moved on from Medullan, the healthcare software company that I've been attached to for the last year and a half. I still believe it to be a great company with great people who I've grown to respect enormously.
Why leave then? This really is a difficult question to answer without risking offending these same folks, some of whom I considered my best mentors and some of whom I've hoped I provided some ground knowledge into their own paths to becoming great leaders in themselves.
There were small reasons such as my inability to manage my own time well enough to have enough for my pet projects, blogging (both reading and writing) and community activities which contributed to it. These were never deal breakers as I considered them part and parcel of the price of helping to build a new company.
One major factor was my health. Without going into too much personal detail, my quest to balance my work demands with an active exercise program was leading me to fail in both aspects. A doctor's visit after a trip to the US in late November and a talk with a few trusted family members provided what I think was one key items in my decision to leave and focus solely on maintaining a healthier lifestyle for a while.
Once I've gotten that right, I think I'll be able to return to a strong, active work life and have a better chance at maintaining the balance on both ends.
That being said, I realise now in retrospect there was also a second reason which contributed.
In reading Rajesh Shetty's mini-saga a subsection of it caught my eye since it expresses my thoughts best:
"While the pay and position were good, there was
some discomfort. He didn’t think that he was reporting to a person who
could lift him to the next level. He silently walked away."
While I respect the opportunities I was given to lead and the people I worked with greatly, there had to be this alignment between being in a position within the organisation to be a high value contributor and also feeling that the contribution was rising me to "the next level".
I don't mean to be facetious, and I don't claim to be right about my judgment call. But at the end of the day that's how I felt. It happens. It doesn't mean either party did something wrong, or that the company now sucked, or even that the folks there still aren't the best at what they do.
It just meant two diverging paths for now, and this doesn't mean they won't align again some day.
One positive for me now though is that I get time to blog again since I have time for my pet projects...more on one of them soon!
It's 2008 and much has changed.
Firstly, I have moved on from Medullan, the healthcare software company that I've been attached to for the last year and a half. I still believe it to be a great company with great people who I've grown to respect enormously.
Why leave then? This really is a difficult question to answer without risking offending these same folks, some of whom I considered my best mentors and some of whom I've hoped I provided some ground knowledge into their own paths to becoming great leaders in themselves.
There were small reasons such as my inability to manage my own time well enough to have enough for my pet projects, blogging (both reading and writing) and community activities which contributed to it. These were never deal breakers as I considered them part and parcel of the price of helping to build a new company.
One major factor was my health. Without going into too much personal detail, my quest to balance my work demands with an active exercise program was leading me to fail in both aspects. A doctor's visit after a trip to the US in late November and a talk with a few trusted family members provided what I think was one key items in my decision to leave and focus solely on maintaining a healthier lifestyle for a while.
Once I've gotten that right, I think I'll be able to return to a strong, active work life and have a better chance at maintaining the balance on both ends.
That being said, I realise now in retrospect there was also a second reason which contributed.
In reading Rajesh Shetty's mini-saga a subsection of it caught my eye since it expresses my thoughts best:
"While the pay and position were good, there was
some discomfort. He didn’t think that he was reporting to a person who
could lift him to the next level. He silently walked away."
While I respect the opportunities I was given to lead and the people I worked with greatly, there had to be this alignment between being in a position within the organisation to be a high value contributor and also feeling that the contribution was rising me to "the next level".
I don't mean to be facetious, and I don't claim to be right about my judgment call. But at the end of the day that's how I felt. It happens. It doesn't mean either party did something wrong, or that the company now sucked, or even that the folks there still aren't the best at what they do.
It just meant two diverging paths for now, and this doesn't mean they won't align again some day.
One positive for me now though is that I get time to blog again since I have time for my pet projects...more on one of them soon!
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