Google Docs Has Forms!

Wow! How did I not know about this already? This will incredibly simplify the task of collecting data on the web. Try my sample form below:

I WANT a DROBO!

If you've never heard of DROBO, you should definitely read this. You can also win one at the Managing Your Digital Life blog. Here's why I want one:

My day to day workflow involves layout of a local paper I publish and ad design for the paper, web design for clients of the other half of my business, and web design and digital communications design work that I do for the church of which I am a member. Everything I do on a daily basis involves storing, retrieving, and incorporating digital media (primarily photos and graphics). It’s kind of like I have three jobs but it’s not as bad as it sounds since there is so much over lap.

I have two machines that I use every day. The older of the two is a 5 year old PowerBook G4 with an 80 GB hard drive (only 2.8 GB free). The newer machine is a 4 year old iMac G5 with a 160 GB drive (only 7.4 GB free). Both were large drives when I bought them. I’ve added a 500 GB external drive for backup and I also store vital files on my iDisk (when it’s working) as a backup of my backup.

How would I use a DROBO? After wiping the tears of joy from my face, I would immediately set it up as the central media storage device for my home office network so that I could free up the limited memory on each of my machines and have the peace of mind that knowing my livelihood is stored on a DROBO would bring!

Be sure to head over to the Managing Your Digital Life blog to find out more about DROBO and how you can win one!

Do I Sound Funny?

I tried a new app this week called Voice Candy. I'm not sure how practical it is. I guess maybe for those of you in the witness protection program it might be handy. At any rate, it really is a lot of fun. It's made by Potion Factory. They call it a "fun, effortless recorder" and it is. Basically what it does is record your voice in one of nine preset filters. Take a listen to a recording I made:

Vader


I do think I might find it useful for recording a quick memo that I can then save to desktop, iTunes, Mail, or as a reminder with one click. I loved the voice memo app on my Palm Tungsten T3 for that reason. Almost daily, I would hit the record button on the side of my T3 and say something like, "Call JoeBob about the doodats and don't forget to mention that smatzles are half off." --Yes, I worked for Acme. Then I would set it to play the recording as an alarm at about 5 minutes before I wanted to make that call. It was like having a to-do list alarm sound and the item read itself to me.

I can totally see (or hear as the case may be) me using Voice Candy this way. I might actually cough up the $13 and register it just for that. You can download a free 15 day trial and check it out for yourself. You never know when you might want to kidnap some CEO's kids and place a ransom call. This could come in handy!

It's All There In Black & White (Part 2)

Waaaaay back in May (okay, it was only a week ago), I posted Part 1 to this topic and promised to continue soon with more on tools that are available to help you with distraction free writing. I know you're all on the edge of your seats, so here it is.

I am writing this post in a program called WriteRoom. It's a program designed to provide a distraction free environment for writing. The way this "pure" environment is achieved is very reminiscent of the old WordPerfect days where you have only a blue screen and white text. There are no visible menus or toolbars; it's just you and your text.

I actually like to work with a black screen and green text and pretend I'm Neo trying to hack into the matrix. I also couldn't resist the temptation to set the screen to black and the text to white and type the words: "Want to play a game?".

Another cool feature I tried was "Edit in WriteRoom." This setting is supposed to add a WriteRoom option to your edit menus in all your other programs. You should be able to just type a magic keystroke that triggers a switch to WriteRoom, work with your text sans distractions, and type -s to switch back to your original program and insert all your text. It didn't really work that way for me. It did show up in my services menu but the selections were all grayed-out. Not sure what I did wrong.

WriteRoom has tons of options to let you customize your experience. That's really what this app is all about-controlling your experience. It even gives you the option to use the old-timey block insertion point. Overall, I find it to be a useful program. I have the attention span of a...Oh look, a puppy! What was I saying? Oh, yeah, I can use all the help I can get. If you suffer from hyper-distractability too, you should check it out.

If only it could lock my Apple Mail, hide my TV remote, and mute my kids. Then it would be a complete distraction-free writing solution.

UPDATE: The "Edit in WriteRoom" feature now works in Safari and my other apps. I have restarted my PowerBook since the first attempt to use that feature. I don't know if that's what fixed it or not. If you have trouble getting that item to appear in your edit menus, try restarting your Mac.

It's All There In Black & White (Part 1)

I read a neat tip from Merlin Mann over at 43folders a while back that you might find helpful if you spend a lot of time in front of your computer. He was reviewing a program called Nocturne that causes your display to run in "night vision mode." The effect is kind of like looking at a negative of a photo. The tip that I found so interesting was that you can get a similar effect using a built in feature of OS X.

The magic keystroke for this built-in night vision feature is ctrl-opt-cmd(a.k.a. )-8. Go ahead and try it. Now type it again to return to normal mode. It doesn't have quite the same effect here at Geekbert since I've already chosen a reversed color scheme (see, I do care). If you are viewing a document that has black text on a white background, you'll get the right effect. It kind of reminded me of the old WordPerfect bluescreen word processing. It is a little easier on your eyes after long hours in front of the computer.

As I understand it, the benefit of using Nocturne, as opposed to using ctrl-opt--8, is that Nocturne gets rid of the crazy looking rainbow effect on colorful items in your display (looks weird just like in a photo negative). I think it does this by changing the display to gray scale before reversing (just a guess). Nocturne also automatically hides the desktop to prevent you from having to look at the freaky looking rendition of your family's photo that you use as your desktop wallpaper.

I like to use built-ins whenever possible but Nocturne is free, so check it out too and use what works best for you.

In my next entry, I'll be showing you some other tools that are available to help you with distraction free writing. Be sure to stop by again soon!

Geekbit: OS X Hits The Spot

This geekbit is a little longer than usual but some of you will get the time back right away. The next time you go looking for that file that you know you saved on your desktop, somewhere (if you could only find your desktop), just call on Spotlight to find it in a flash! Take a look:

Geekbit Review: iClip Lite

Thanks to Doc for turning me on to this great widget. Be warned, this is one of those little utilities you'll use a few times and wonder how you did without. After you watch the video, head on over to Inventive and download it for free. There is also a helpful review of the difference between iClip and iClip Lite over at TwisterMC. Enjoy!

Geekbit Review: OmniDiskSweeper

If you're running out of space on your hard drive, you need this. Watch to find out how it can help. This cool little program is available from The Omni Group. You can head on over and down load it to try out for free. If you like it, it's only about $15.00. This is a great program, well worth the money and if you're a laptop user, it will be invaluable to you. (NOTE: The initial scan takes a few minutes in real time. I ran the scan ahead of time for this review.)

Geekbit: Quick Email Attachments

Geekbert Cares

If you've spent any amount of time blog-slogging you know how easy it is to get lost in the blogosphere only to emerge hours later wondering how you wasted so much time. Well, be thankful you have a friend like me to suggest subscriptions to you.

If you have several blogs that you enjoy on a regular basis, you can use subscriptions to help you keep up with the latest posts all in one place. Then you only have to check one place to see if there is anything new on your favorite site(s) without getting sucked into the vortex that is the blogoshphere. Many browsers now have the ability to manage subscriptions for you. You can also use one of many online services to manage your subscriptions.

Which brings me to the reason for my post. I've recently added, out of generous consideration for your time, links in the sidebar for you to subscribe to www.geekbert.net. You can subscribe to posts (via reader or email) and comments. A few days ago, Brian asked about subscriptions to comments. I believe I have it all set up correctly. If you have any trouble with subscriptions, please let me know. And remember, Geekbert understands the value your time.

Review: Text Expander

I love this great little app from smileonmymac.com. It's a real time saver. They've even made pre-programed snippet files available for free. TextExpander can automatically correct misspellings and typos as you type. The free file contains approximately 100 common mistakes. The incorrect versions are added to the TextExpander snippet library as abbreviations that are replaced by the correct versions when typed.

Watch the video to see how it works. At $29.95, it's not cheap but how much is your time worth?

Snopes the Pastor

Obviously, technology is rapidly changing the way we live. It even affects how we do things like church. Some of the impacts of technology in church are obvious like microphones, speakers, and video projectors. Here's an interesting way in which technology impacted my experience at a theology conference I attended today.

As I listened to the pastor's sermon, one of his illustrations intrigued me. He mentioned the concept of sympathetic resonance. I had never heard of it. Intuitively, I exited Documents to Go on my Treo 650 and opened the browser to Wikipedia and looked up sympathetic resonance. I read the article, switched back to the MyBible app, and rejoined the sermon still in progress. Some might think that such portable connectivity is a dangerous distraction. For me it was a way to put that curiosity to rest in my mind so that I could better focus on the rest of the message. I guess it's all in how you use it.

A side note: one of the speakers was using his PDA's Bible app as his Bible while he preached (I've done this on occasion). I loved it when he held up his PDA (it was in a black case...which made it look somewhat like a Bible) and said, "This is God's Word!" We all knew what he meant. :-)

Schedule, Schmedule!

I can't believe I missed this one. I remember looking at Google Calendar some time ago and thinking "This is awesome! It's what iCal should look like when it's published to the web." I love iCal and it's publish feature, but if you ever want to reference it online, it's UGLY. If I wanted UGLY software, I would own a PC (Sorry, PC friends). There's also the limitation that you cannot make an update on the web. iCal is the only place where you can make changes. And you have to make the changes from the computer that publishes the particular calendar you want to edit. It's not really a syncing of your calendars so much as a broadcasting of them.

I've been using iCal to publish my calendars to my .mac account for a few years now so that my wife can subscribe to them and know what's on my schedule. It's really is a great feature. She publishes her calendar too so I can subscribe and know what is on her schedule.

Sometimes I will get an update for one of the kids' school functions and I have to email it to my wife because I can't update her calendar. She has to update it and then my iCal will grab the changes.

Today I happened upon Spanning Sync. This great new release introduces your iCal to Google Calendar and finally you can have true synchronization of your calendars on multiple computers and even edit it from any computer with Internet access. Watch the video and take it for a spin. There's a free 15 day demo available for download. Let me know what you think.

MenuCalendarClock Review

Well, here it is. Sorry for the long wait. I hope you find this sweet little app from Objectpark as helpful as I have. This video is best viewed in full screen mode. You'll see a full screen button just to the right of the counter once the video is playing. Enjoy!

MenuCalendarClock

I have been using this great little program called MenuCalendarClock for several months now and love it! I'm working on a review of it that I will post in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

iPhone

David Pogue captures my sentiments exactly when it comes to the iPhone.

Drive Time

As residents in an ever-shrinking world economy, we are spending more and more time traveling. I don't travel nearly as much as my buddy Cliff who writes for a major auto-dealer publication; however, I do spend around 8 hours a week in my car for my business. Mondays alone I am usually on the road for about 5 hours delivering Coffee News. Since I live in Brownstown and my business is based in Dearborn. I spend at least an hour in the car round trip on days that I go to my area. That's a lot of time that until recently would be considered dead time.

A few years ago I got my first iPod. I say "got" rather than bought. I actually did get it for free from freeipods.com. All I had to do was convince 5 friends that I was worth applying for a Visa card or signing up for a free month of Blockbuster.com. Two months after signing up and sending out my petitions to my friends, I received a free 20 gig iPod in the mail. Nice.

That acquisition opened up a whole new world of possibilities to this commuter. I purchased several audiobooks right away. I really began to enjoy being the master of my own drive-time destiny. I could listen to that book that I had been wanting to read but never seemed to find the time. Even if I just wanted music, I could finally choose the music that I listened to (my little escort only has a cassette player).

As if that all was not enough to make you sign up to nag your friends and get a free iPod, then I discovered the world of podcasting. Podcasts are like pre-recorded radio shows. In the iTunes Store online, you can find podcasts on pretty much anything. They range in length from about five minutes to over an hour.

I really enjoy some of the technology podcasts as well as Doug Field's Simply Youth Ministry podcast. I even get all of my pastor's Sunday School lessons as podcasts since I miss them while I'm teaching the teens class.

The best part about podcasts is that when you find a show you enjoy, you can "subscribe" to it. That means every time you plug your iPod into your computer, your iPod will check for new shows and download them as well as delete those you've listened to. Talk about great service! I just "sync" my iPod once a week and I have a treasure trove of knowledge and entertainment to go.

It doesn't matter what hobby or trade you would find interesting, there is a podcast for you. And with iPods as cheap as $79 these days, I'd say that's a steal to buy back those wasted hours we all loose on our daily commute to the rat-race.

Monolingual

I remember my first computer–It was an Apple LC III (If you know what that is, then you're really an Apple nerd!). It came with a HUGE 64 MB hard drive. I remember thinking, "Wow! What am I going to do with so much disk space!"

Now we have the ability to store music, video, and pictures. Plus the rapid sophistication of software apps that have every bell and whistle to the point that they become memory black holes means that you can never have enough disk space. These days, my 9 year old daughter's camera sports a 1 GB removable SD card that is the size of a postage stamp. No matter how much memory you have in your computer today, you can be sure that it is not enough.

So what would you say if I told you that I could increase your available hard drive space by 4%? "How much is it gonna cost me?" That's what I would say. We're talking about recovering over 3 GB of disk space on My 80 GB dive in my Powerbook. 3 GB! I was actually down to 800 MB free when I found this wonderful little app called Monolingual. AND IT"S FREE!!!

Basically what Monolingual does is go through every program in your OS and remove all the language support for every language except English. After all, I've been using Macs for about 12 years and I have never booted up in any language except English. I'm certainly not planning to take up danish anytime soon. So at the cost of about 20 minutes of letting this little miracle program do it's thing, I now have 4.48 GB of free disk space. WOO HOO! You Apple nerds know you have sweaty palms now. Go download it and reclaim that disk space!