Categories
Technology

Stepping Away from Google

I’m beginning a long process of trying to move away from as many Google services as I can. Here is what I am now using:

Email – Atmail Cloud

I was lucky enough to stumble upon their offering right around the time I was really looking to move my personal and business email accounts elsewhere and they fit the bill. I can host many different domains from the same account, take care of forwarding accounts, and a lot more.

They offer ActiveSync and IMAP (which were requirements) and a lot more that I don’t use. So far besides some growing pains with the new service they have been working very well. Support has been great and I have even had the pleasure of talking with a real human being so far.

Would recommend.

Calendar & Contacts – iCloud

I was going to switch everything over to MobileMe, but Apple changed everything again and now I’m working with iCloud.

I keep my personal, business, and work calendars within iCloud and sync everything between my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. Along with that I share calendars with my wife. I’ve never had any issues, plus it is now free.

I do the same thing with my contacts and it works the same way. I’ve never had any issues and I hope they don’t now show up.

Search – DuckDuckGo

Sadly, this is the one place where I will probably not be able to get away. While DuckDuckGo has worked pretty well, the lack of image search and the slowness of the queries really is hard to swallow. There are things that I like, and it is really clean and infinite scrolling can be nice, but the deficiencies are enough to likely push me back to Google.

Telephony – Google Voice

Is there anyone else that can just give me a forwarding number for free?

Closing

In closing, I’ve been relatively successful so far in moving away from Google’s other services, but there are areas where they really excel (and search is the main one). I’ll keep looking, but right now I’m happy that my email, calendar, and contacts have now been moved away.

Categories
Business Life Technology

Keeping Track 2

I’ve experimented with the best way to keep track of “stuff” for a long time and I have never settled into anything for even a semi-permanent time. Most of the time I drift between  different programs as I try and find something that sticks with me.

I’m no closer right now, but I’ll go ahead and document what I am working with right now.

There are three categories of “things” in my life right now: tasks, lists, and projects. I’m using three different ways of keeping track of everything.

Tasks – Field Notes

I have Field Notes notebooks both at home and at work at Martin Luther College. The brand really doesn’t matter, but I use those notebooks to keep track of the little tasks I need to complete each day and to take stock of what I will need to complete right away the next day.

It really is that simple.

Lists – Reminders

I’ve settled on Reminders for now even after trying Clear for a week or so. Clear was cool, but Reminders really has three things going for it:

  • iCloud integration
  • shared lists
  • standard application

I use the iOS applications exclusively right now and share a list or two with my wife so she can have access to them on her phone. From there, I’m excited to get my hands on Mountain Lion so that I have access to those same lists on my Mac as well.

Projects – Things for Mac

I’m being very specific here. I’ve removed the iOS applications for the moment because they don’t serve any purpose when Things is used only for larger projects.

I keep three “Areas” for now and then add projects to each area so that I have some semblance of structure to what I am doing. I try to make sure I have a due date for every project and then add tasks into the project and work from there.

I’m not sold on this right now, but each category has its own special needs and I really don’t know if a single program can really beat any one of the above methods … but I’ll keep looking.

Categories
Life

MLB.com At Bat 12

Go get it now. Baseball is almost upon us!

Categories
Technology

One Needed Thing

If I was going to recommend a single piece of hardware for every person to have (who owns a computer system), it would have to be an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or battery backup.

I don’t really care as far as the manufacturer goes (I have two APC devices in my basement office), but you should really plop down the $50 or so dollars on even the smallest one and hook up your computer and monitor at the very least.

If you are in an older house with poor wiring, it is maybe even more important.

Go out there and get one. There is going to be a time when you will be happy that you did.

Messages Beta Redux

I’ve been using Messages Beta since its release and I’ll go ahead and post my thoughts below:

  • Being able to iMessage my friends and especially my wife has been really handy
  • There is no major distinction between people you are chatting with with an IM account or using iMessages
  • The window is large, but I have grown accustomed to it
  • I do not find the moving pictures to be distracting … but I usually have the application minimized
  • It has worked really well for beta software from Apple

Now, I’m not a heavy user of IM and I mainly use it for messaging my wife and a couple of close friends and family members, but I have been really impressed with Messages Beta so far and am looking forward to its final release in Mountain Lion.