Philip and Jenny Cain: InspiredMumblings

With so much information available to us, it becomes increasingly important to know how to get the right information. Sometimes that means going to the right places and sometimes that means filtering out the noise.

1. Forward mission-critical emails to your phone’s SMS

If you use Gmail with an iPhone, you probably miss the push feature that gives you instant notification of new mail messages. But even if you have push support with your mail provider / mobile phone, this tip will give you an extra layer of notification. Mission-critical is mission-critical, right?

In Gmail, go to Settings and then Filters. Now, create a new filter based on your criteria. For example, you could filter messages from your boss that are directly addressed to you. If you get a lot of emails from your boss, you could filter it even further with a keyword such as “important” or “due.” Next, choose the Forward option and forward it to the SMS email address of your phone. If you have an iPhone in the US, that number looks like 5551234567@txt.att.net

Every time an email comes in matching that filter, Gmail will forward the message along to your phone. It is usually pretty instant, although Gmail timing can be a little funny sometimes. In addition to the regular email alert, your phone will beep/twirl that you have an incoming text – with a link to a mission-critical email.

2. Subscribe to Google Blogsearch results

None of us wants to subscribe to every blog/news outlet in the world; that would overload our capability to process the information. Instead, we subscribe to the feeds we enjoy. I read Slashdot, Boing Boing and Engadget pretty much daily. But what if you are interested in a particular subject that may span multiple blogs, and want to know what the latest, greatest news about that subject is?

You can use Google Blogsearch (or Technorati, if you prefer) to perform searches across blogs. These results are usually more updated than regular Google web results. For example, I want to know everything that’s being said about Pantano Christian Church (as any good webmaster would). I did a search for that name in Google Blogsearch and then was able to subscribe to the results in my feedreader. Now any time someone mentions Pantano Christian Church in a blog, I’ll know about it.

3. Organize your RSS feeds

There are two primary ways to process RSS feeds in a feedreader – “river of news” method, and “by feed/category” method. A river of news dumps everything into your reader like an email inbox, indiscriminately pushing the latest whatever to the top of the list. I find this method too difficult to handle. Instead, I prefer to organize my feeds into categories and read them feed by feed. For people who need to section or box things in their brain, this is perfect.

Here’s how I have things organized in Google Reader. The blogs I read the most are in a “Favorites” folder. To process and read everything, I start with my Favorites and go through each feed individually. I have all of my feeds categorized somewhere so I can switch to each state of mind when reading. Technology, Lifehacks, Gaming, Software.

Another important key to keeping your feedreader organized is to unsubscribe to feeds if you find yourself constantly skipping content from that feed. Also, when you come back to your feedreader from a long break (or vacation), don’t worry about reading everything you missed. Just mark all as read and start fresh.

4. Twitter: don’t follow the Twitter Spitters!

Twitter can be a powerful communication tool. It can even be fun like a virtual party. But when your friends update too often, it can really muck up the flow of information. When you feel like you have to organize your Twitter reader like a feedreader, you know there’s a problem. Drop ‘em like it’s hot. Seriously.

The nice thing about Twitter is that not following someone is a lot less socially stigmatic than removing someone from your friends list on Facebook or MySpace.

5. Develop your information archive process, and stick to it.

You are going to come across a ton of stuff on the Internet. Sites you need, videos you like, quotes that might inspire something in your next book… what do you do with everything? There a lot of options.

Browser bookmarks: this is the traditional way to save information online. They can get out of hand quickly so remember to keep them organized. I prefer how Firefox 3 and Safari handle bookmark organization.

Del.icio.us: The social bookmark website. You can post any page to your del.icio.us account and have access to the list from anywhere.

Evernote: This is an awesome notetaking, remember everything type of software that works on a lot of platforms: Windows, Mac, any web browser, plus a great native iPhone app. I currently use Evernote to store and sort specific thoughts and ideas. I’ve also been keeping track of every steampunk item I come across on the web. It’s great.

How do you filter out the Noise?

Disneyland is seriously fun. For all ages. Go there, now.

Oh NOES! We look at the Eye!

The advent of Twitter and Facebook microblogging has really put a block on my blogging consistency. Especially Twitter: if I can’t say what I need to say in under 160 characters, is it really worth saying? And so the blog goes untouched and unnoticed. And that is even as I hardly have any excuse, now that I can post entries from my iPhone using the superb WordPress app.

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I started writing a science fiction book. And by started, I mean I have three paragraphs from what should hopefully become the first chapter. I’m hoping to involve robots, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality (whether through bionics or nanotech lenses). I will post some chapters here as I complete them. The final product will be released under a flexible Creative Commons license, allowing anyone to download it for free and use pieces of it in their own works. Wish me luck!

(oh, and this sci fi book will be in addition to my dieting book, “Stop Eating Crap!”)

When I first got my iPhone 3G, battery life was pathetic. I’d have to recharge the dang thing before I even got home from work. The 2.1 software update promised us better 3G reception, fewer dropped calls, but most importantly, “significantly better battery life for most users”. I had my doubts, especially since the 2.0.2 software update didn’t change much of anything.

Well, I’ve finally gone through a full battery cycle using the new software. I’ve been able to get 5.5 hours of usage and 30 hours of standby. For me, “usage” includes a ton of web browsing and using 3rd party apps, as well as talking and emailing. For this cycle, I went in and out of WiFi networks, with 3G (not EDGE/2G) enabled the entire time. My screen brightness was set to about 1/3 (as usual).

I’d say 5.5 hours / 30 hours is a pretty sweet battery cycle. That’s much longer usage than my MacBook Pro battery ever lasted (although standby hours on a MacBook Pro are much higher because of sleep mode). Based on the Apple-provided tech specs, the iPhone 3G battery is living up to its name.

Mosquitoes bite. They bite hard. Well, really, “sting” is a more accurate description of what has caused me writhing agony these past few nights. “Writhing” is subjectively over-melodramatic, and that is quite the point. I hate mosquitoes. They have no business being in my house and they really have no purpose in the grand scheme of Nature, either. Worse still, in many places of the world they are considered prime disease-carriers. Bringers of nasty stuff like West Nile, a feverish virus with flu-like symptoms that slowly eats away at your brain. Okay, I may have embellished that part, but seriously, go read the Wikipedia article for some mildly horrifying factz on the West Nile Virus.

I can’t seem to figure out where the hell these little buggers keep coming from. There’s no standing water, that’s for sure. I packed up and nearly tossed out the little indoor Zen fountain. Not even the outdoor fountain has the privilege of being operational at the moment. And yet they still attack me in full force. Having eliminated all possible sources, defense is the only thing left. My defense systems are meager – a 12-pack of Off Brand (pun probably intended) deet repellent. Man, does it smell. Awful at first, like one of those nasty industrial chemical cleaners. But then it starts to get to your head. At least, it gets to my head. And I was practically swimming in deet. Eventually the smell starts to overwhelm, and then comfort me, with a bittersweet confidence that nasty mosquitoes will avoid me as their next meal. The little blood-sucking vamps can go find some other vic. This time, anyway. I considered it a declaration of war when they entered my home, and they even had the gall to attack first. Tomorrow, the world will have a few more stupid skeeters either dead or wallowing in self-remorse and self-pity when they discover how pathetic they really are, unable to eat because of a stupid smell.

I hate mosquitoes.

Cory Doctorow, a co-editor of Boing Boing and a published author, has a little FAQ* over on his Overclocked book site. I’ve quoted it here and added a few things in bold, which really make this a great copyright liberation manifesto for the new digital millennium. After arguing with a friend about possible legislative reduction in copyright extensions, and the expansion of Fair Use rights, I figured it might benefit a lot of people to be exposed to the hidden copyright reform wars. By the way, if you haven’t read Overclocked or Little Brother, do it. Now.

I think the idea that [writers, musicians & artists] deserve to get paid sounds great, but the truth is that most [writers, musicians & artists] — nearly all [writers, musicians & artists] — have not been paid through history. The Internet doesn’t change that. But it does make it possible for [writers, musicians & artists] to earn their living in new and exciting ways. That’s what I’m doing here. If you have a scheme to provide full employment to [writers, musicians & artists], I’d love to hear it, but I think you’re going to have some problems getting it rolling.

Giving [writers, musicians & artists] more copyright doesn’t make them more money. You could give me ten million years of copyright and the right to personally impale anyone who makes an unauthorized copy of my work and it wouldn’t change the word-rate at Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (nor the song-rate at iTunes).

More copyright just means that working [writers, musicians & artists] have to go through more permissions-clearance hell when they want to create new things from old. More copyright means that dead [writers', musicians' & artists'] works vanish from the historical record because their idiot descendants turn into lunatic saber-rattlers, or because no one can figure out who the right idiot descendant is. More copyright means that the public is denied the benefit of the 98 percent of works in copyright that have no visible owner, and that are out of print.

… from the Overclocked Blog Archive

Also see Creative Commons, the best way to retain ownership of your work while releasing it to the public for mashups, reworks, and republishings.

* I realize his post came from Jan 07, but I only just yesterday read all the short stories from Overclocked, when I happened upon this information.

Lol…I know, I know…..I can barely remember what we did that day!!!  In short, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  The view was amazing.  The crowds….not so much.  Let’s see, we waited in line over an hour just to buy our tickets, then 20 mins for the elevator up to the first floor. Then switched elevators to the 2nd floor, waited in line over an hour again for the elevator to the top.  Once to the top, it was so crowded it was hard to find a place to enjoy the view.  However, we went at sunset time and it was pretty incredible!  And it was fun to see the Tower all lit up for night time.  They had it lit up in blue lights, which was pretty cool.

I’m trying to remember what we did before that, b/c we didn’t go to there until evening….Oh! We went to see the Bastille, which is the most popular non-existant tourist attraction!  Technically, there is no Bastille standing anymore but there is a monument, called the July Column (Columne Juillet) in memory of the July Wars.  It is also by the modern day Opera House so we took a look at that too.  We were right by the Latin Quarter at that point, so we explored.  Did we go see the catacombs that day? WE DID.  Oh yes, that was one of the coolest things we did! The catacombs….1 hour of underground walking, walls of bones, and a damp coolness that literally does seep into your bones.  We REALLY enjoyed this.  Ok, so it’s all coming back to me….. 1. Catacombs 2. July Column/Opera House 3. Latin Quarter  4. Eiffel Tower

Tada! The end

Okay, so I can’t describe how cool my new iPhone is. The only bad thing is that not all apps have a landscape keyboard, including the new Wordpress app. Thus today’s post is super short.

You know, there’s really only one reason I can think why I shouldn’t get an iPhone 3G. Our monthly rate would more than double, because right now we’ve got a cheap voice-only plan on Sprint.

There are some pressing reasons why both Jenny and I could “need” an iPhone 3G.:

• I’ve still never owned a fully bona-fide iPod
• I desperately need access to my Google Calendar when I don’t have immediate access to a computer…
• There have been at least a hundred times I’ve had to call a friend to find directions for something. Google Maps would be the best piece of mobile technology I’ve ever touched.
• With the App Store, I can load up useful stuff for work like an oscilloscope, or fake beer. =)
• Most people are surprised that I don’t have one!

Now if we could just find an iPhone 3G in stock somewhere in Tucson, we’d be good to go.