I Don’t Hear Voices – the Voices Hear Me!

In other news, I read that experiments to beam voices right into your head have been successful. While the story itself scares the crap out of me, the comments are hysterical! Lots of references to Real Genius (you know you’re a geek if you get it.)

Internet Productivity

Lately I’ve been trying to simplify my life, and where I can’t simplify, then automate. My most recent adventure in home automation was to purchase an automatic litter box. Although ultimately I decided on the ScoopFree system with a permanent replacement tray from Forever Litter Trays,it required a lot of research. There were a lot of visits to Amazon.com and LitterBoxCentral.com. (Yes, it’s a real site. No, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to.)

In the early days of my job, I could have done my research at work – I had plenty of downtime. But now that we’re so busy, I had to (gasp!) rely on my personal time. (And this is why I’m trying to simplify – because I have no personal time. See how we made a full circle there?) Apparently, though, there are people out there that are not as slammed at work. According to a recent Salary.com poll, about sixty percent of respondents admitted to wasting an average of two hours a day on the Internet. That adds up to a lot of cat litter!

If you’re one of those people (and you know who you are) you probably want to be productive at work but it’s just so easy to lose track of time once you start surfing! The good people at 8aWeek have developed a Firefox toolbar that will help you reclaim your lost time. The toolbar works by presenting your browsing habits in graphs so that you can analyze where you’re spending the most time (see pic at left). If you find that LitterBoxCentral is taking up a good chunk of the day, you can add it to a restricted site list. Let the toolbar know the maxium allowable time you can spend at restricted sites per day and it will count down the time for you. When time’s up, you get reminded.

If something a bit more hard-core is needed, switch to block mode. (It’s okay – you get periodic cheat times thoughout the day so that you don’t have to go cold-turkey. Cheat times can be set up in the preferences.)

The toolbar also lets users save interesting sites to a list that you can be visited at a later time (presumably when the user is not at work.)

Although 8aWeek features privacy functions (logging can be done locally, on the 8aWeek server for additional functionality, or completely turned off.), I am curious as to what is done with the data that is collected – since they offer the toolbar for free, they have to be doing something to make money, right? Their privacy policy takes great pains to point out that logging can be disabled at any time and that user information won’t be disclosed without “express permission” but a little farther down in the “Information Usage” section it says:

“8aweek may use information collected through our website or toolbar for research regarding the effectiveness of the website and the marketing, advertising and sales efforts of 8aweek and its trusted affiliates.”

Hmmm… In any case, if you’re okay with your data possibly being shared, this is probably the thing for you. Personally, I’m hoping that the time I save by not having to clean the litter box can be spent online – at home.

I’m back – maybe?

Well, I think I might be back at Blogger. As you may remember, I was having incredible problems with getting Blogger to work. An incredibly busy schedule made it impossible for me to troubleshoot the rather extensive issues, so I took a hiatus.

I’ve recently switched over to their new format, so we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I’ll start working on some new reviews of the coolest 2.0 websites and gadgetry available.

SparkPeople.com Helps with Weighty Matters

SparkPeople.com, a free, online weight loss and fitness application, might truly be the best thing to hit the Internet in a long, long time. SparkPeople launched in 2002 as a FREE way “to help millions of people reach their goals using health and fitness as a springboard to success” but somehow I’ve only found it now, four years later.

SparkPeople was founded by Chris “Sparky” Downie, one of the architects of Up4Sale.com, and Ebay’s first acquisition right before it went public. Presumably this left Chris pretty comfortable financially, and he was able to start development of SparkPeople.com, his long-time passion, when he left Ebay three years later.

SparkPeople boasts a clean, if somewhat dated, design and an intuitive interface, but the sheer amount of information may overwhelm some people. Even though SP advocates taking your time and getting to know the site, it took me over a month to work up the desire to wade through all the information.

A wizard makes the initial set up quite easy, and once your current weight, target weight, fitness level, and nutritional preferences are entered, a meal plan and nutrition and fitness targets are generated. (A note on the nutritional preferences: While I found the options to be quite flexible, i.e. vegetarian, low-cholesterol, etc., I was disappointed that low-sugar/diabetic choice wasn’t offered.)

SparkPeople is so feature-and-content rich that it would be impossible to accurately review it in anything less than a volume the size of War and Peace, so this examination will focus on just the highlights.

Nutrition
In addition to a comprehensive food database that contains over 10,000 entries, including fast-food and name brands, SP includes a food journal to track your daily food intake. From this input, SP will calculate your total calories, fat, carbohydrates, and any other nutrient you’d like to track. If you’re not near a computer at mealtime (who is?) and you own a camera phone (who doesn’t?), you can email a photo of your meal to your account so you can enter an accurate accounting later. Both the food journal and meal planner are flexible and allow you to add your own foods and meals. In addition, a bank of healthy recipes is included and can be added individually to your meal plan.

Motivation & Goal Setting
Goal setting and staying motivated are an integral component to the SparkPeople concept. As mentioned in a SparkPeople article, most diets just tell you what to eat and don’t even address the #1 roadblock to weight loss – lack of motivation. SparkPeople.com counters this obstacle by teaching users to start small and develop effective diet strategies. A thriving user community provides support and encouragement along the way.

The points system provides additional motivation, and of course, the comprehensive progress reports offer great feedback.

Exercise
SparkPeople boasts an impressive library of fitness articles. In addition, there are illustrations and videos that demonstrate the proper technique. Exercises are categorized as beginner or advanced and require little, if any, equipment. (Medicine balls, Swiss balls, and a towel are the three props utilized.) Exercises can be tracked in the fitness log, and like the food log, users can use the prepackaged exercises, or add their own. Reports can be generated from the log results.

Community
This is where SparkPeople really excels. Personalized pages, a la MySpace, allow users to chronicle their weight loss, post photos, and blog. Lively message boards provide a positive place for users to offer encouragement and tips to each other, while the journal feature sets aside some virtual quiet time for reflection. There’s also a Diet Buddy forum where users can partner with another user with similar goals.

Tracking/Reporting
Track nutrition, fitness, and weight goals using SparkPeople’s extensive collection of printable reports, including weight, measurements, water intake, exercise frequency, and goal setting.

All in all, this is by far the most useful fitness site on the web. If you’re looking to lose weight, you can’t go wrong here.

Note: If you do decide to join, consider listing me as your referrer. Even though there’s no reward as such, I really am coveting that next level’s icon (think of it as profile bling) and SparkPeople awards 10 points for each member referred. While you’re at it, add me (daniesq) as a friend. No points are offered for adding friends, I believe, but I’d welcome your company!

Tags: health, fitness, nutrition, exercise, tracking, reports, diet, weight loss, SparkPeople

Leaving Las Vegas

I’m seriously considering moving from my Blogger account to a WordPress setup. It’s not because I have to re-publish my entire blog every time I add a new post, or that Blogger sometimes won’t even let me add a new post. Not playing nice with other blog software annoyed me and not being able to extend Blogger exasperated me, but that’s not it either. No, what’s really got my panties in a wad is not being able to edit my posts after they’re published.

Invariably, I discover a mistake immediately after publishing the post – and re-publishing the entire blog – that needs to be corrected. But Blogger says it can’t find any previous posts. Not a one. Gone. Into the ether. Vanished. However, my errors have managed to hang in there and are out on the Internet for all the world to see, in perpetuity.

Tags: Blogger, WordPress, blogging software

There’s a Word for It

If you’re into word games, then you’re going to love PlayBabble.com. The premise is simple – form words of four letters or more from the grid of 40 letter tiles. However, the word has to be formed from adjoining tiles and the letters must join in the proper sequence. Oh, and you have twenty-four hours to do the puzzle before a new one is posted. This is harder than it sounds – I recommend that you play with a dictionary nearby.

PlayBabble comes in two versions; free and Pro. Pro users, of course, get more features, such as a stats panel (to view your ranking in the community), an online profile, a personal icon, and a graphic of your country’s flag.

Like all good online games, a chatterbox is available so you can “talk” in real time to other players. However, if you’re antisocial, you’ll be fine with the free account. (I use the free account. I don’t want people chattering at me while I’m wracking my brain for a word that starts with C-O-M-F and uses either an “e” or an “s” for the next letter.)

There are a lot of small features, too, that make the game more interesting, such as a points per word feature and a look up the definition icon next to each word you enter. (Although I would presume that you knew what the word meant if you entered it.)

Note: For other games like this one, visit http://www.allwords.com/Word_Games.php.

Tags: games, word games, PlayBabble, Scrabble, Boggle

A Water Bottle You Can Drink To

Forgoing the lattes is starting to pay off. A little over two weeks out and I’m down six pounds. I dared to try on a pair of pants that hasn’t fit me in a couple of months, and they fit! I was ecstatic and proceeded to dance around the living room, frightening the cat so badly that I think she’ll need therapy.

One of the hardest things for me to do while dieting – aside from getting on the treadmill – is drinking enough water. Even though we have no fewer than six gallons of Ozarka in our kitchen, I still seem to forget to drink water – or anything else. So you can imagine my interest when I read about a new, “interactive”, water bottle. Billed as the “water bottle that nags you”, HydroCoach calculates the amount of water you need,  the amount of water you consume, the time it takes for you to drink your water (so you can pace yourself), and your average water consumption. Although it isn’t as quite interactive as the Shockulate Vault that delivers a mild electric shock to would-be diet cheaters (or my personal favorite, the device that delivers a similar shock to snoring spouses), it does seem like a neat idea. Not neat enough for me to part with $30, the suggested retail price, but still – neat.

Now if they would come up with one that would nag my kids to clean their rooms, they’d have my money in a heartbeat.

Technorati Tags: HydroCoach, water bottle, diet, hydration

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Hiveminder Gets It Done

I’m back after a long, restful weekend, only to find that Blogger is having issues. I’m not able to see any of my previous posts, but it does look like it will let me create a post, so hopefully I’ll be able to tell you all about Hiveminder, a free web service that helps you keep track of your tasks. There are other task tracking services on the web, but Hiveminder is certainly the most feature-packed, and I’m really surprised that more people don’t know about it. This might be the best-kept secret on the web.

In addition to the requisite task list features (priority,due date, notes and comment), tasks can be grouped, assigned, and even hidden until a specific date. Moreover, Hiveminder supports dependencies, a feature that should make this app a real standout, especially with all the other task features. Another standout feature is the ability to tag tasks, and to search for tasks using a tag cloud. If you’re working collaboratively, there’s also a history view to track the changes to each task.

Entering tasks is easy and can be accomplished several ways. My favorite is the “brain dump”, a huge text field that allows you to enter multiple tasks to the to-do list as you think of them. Details can be added later, if you wish. Tasks can be entered individually, of course, and even by email. (Hiveminder assigns a random email, however, paid accounts will be able choose the email address they want. ) You can be reminded of your task as often as you want using email, iCal updates, ATOM feeds and plain text or HTML files.

Another neat feature is the task review. Basically, it cycles through your entire list of tasks and requires you to assign an action to it (hide for a month, done, assign it to someone else, comment on it, or do it today) before it will move on to the next one. This essentially forces you to deal with your list, a sort-of “Getting Things Done” methodology.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another entry into the online task management space, Bounty paper towels own Honey-Do list. While not as feature laden as Hiveminder, it is cute and accomplishes basic to-do list functionality with style. A simple form allows you to add tasks, priorities, a small note, your signature, and a choice of four backgrounds. The list can then be emailed or printed out for your honey. (Thanks to Emma Sometimes for the heads-up.)

Tags: task to do list dependency chores gtd

Social Sites Reaching Epidemic Proportions

Holy smokes! It was only 39 days ago that I posted about the lack of MySpace alternatives but the market has since exploded! (You can thank me later.) In the past week we’ve been introduced to:

• Koolanoo.com – A social networking site “For the Jewish people, By the Jewish people.”
• HoverSpot – HoverSpot hopes to differentiate themselves by rewarding users for contet. Uploading photos, filling out your profile, commenting, and blogging will earn you points, which in turn will become entries into contests and sweepstakes. Currently the giveaway is limited to a Nano every other month.
• Tired & Tested – A sports-focused social networking site, Tired & Tested bills itself as “MySpace with shorts on.” Those crazy Brits.

Other new social sites abound, including:

• Yardbarker - Digg meets Sports Illustrated meets MySpace. Sports fans submit their favorite sports stories, and other users rank them a la Digg. My husband thinks this is neato-cool, and I suspect my teenage son will as well.
• Hotspottin.com – Tell the world about your favorite hotspots.

In addition, the Australian site Faces.com relaunched this week, and according to the article by Mashable, they’ve gone all out with the features.

I still haven’t met a recipe site that I’m in love with yet, so if Frankenstein’s Lab could give the MySpace business a rest and get busy on cooking sites, I’d really appreciate it. (Oh, and don’t forget to make it sync with my Pocket PC.)

Tags: MySpace clone, MySpace alternative, Yardbarker, HotSpottin, Faces, sports, social networking, Tired & Tested, HoverSpot, Koolanoo

LibraryThing, aNobii Check Out Online Bookshelf Space

It looks like LibraryThing might finally have a real competitor in aNobii. Like LibraryThing, aNobii offers a virtual bookshelf for your tomes, and it covers the social aspect by recommending other readers with similar tastes. aNobii boasts a fairly powerful import feature that can add a list of books from any web page by either processing the URL, as does LibraryThing. However, aNobii can also parse HTML code that you paste in. (I used this method to copy my list from LibraryThing.) Adding a single book is simple at both sites, although I find that LibraryThing is much faster. (This might be because aNobii has a more graphical design.)

aNobii isn’t all brains and no beauty, though. The site has a beautiful, clean interface that’s obviously well-thought out and designed with the end user in mind. LibraryThing’s design tends to be on the clunky side, and while not counterintuitive, it’s not going to win any awards for usability.

Both sites offer blog widgets, rating systems, and tagging, and a host of social features, such as saving other readers as favorites. aNobii adds a nice touch, though, with the ability to designate the status of a book ( currently reading, not started, finished, unfinished) – a feature that is sorely needed at LibraryThing. In addition, aNobii lets users specify if a book is available for sale or swap. Finally, aNobii offers a wish list feature that lets users browsing the bookshelves keep track of future reads.

LibraryThing offers a mobile edition (very handy, that, when standing in a book store wondering if you have that book already) and an export feature that aNobii doesn’t seem to have. LibraryThing also has the advantage of time, having far more users – and shelved books – than aNobii. (LibraryThing just hit 5 million books on their “shelves”; in comparison, aNobii only has 8460 as of this writing.This is significant because the social aspects of both sites rely on matching readers with like tastes and books in common.)

Even without the mobile app and the export feature, aNobii still gives LibraryThing some stiff competition, and they seem to be pretty evenly matched. It will be interesting to see how this plot develops.

Technorati Tags: books, library, LibraryThing, aNobii, Amazon, social networking