As the end of Talking Tech Friday’s second year approaches, I thought I’d dedicate my last post of 2009 to my favorites of the sites I reviewed this past year.

I reviewed Mint, which I still think is a great budgeting and financial tool.

Wolfram|Alpha debuted this past year, and I still think it’s pretty nifty.

One of my absolute favorite sites I discovered this year is Dropbox – it’s made my life so much easier, I just love it!

I think one of my best posts this year was Anali’s Apps, where I describe all the tools I use on a regular basis.  I’m still pretty happy with it and hope you all found it useful.

Obviously, our experimentation with Wimba has been pretty fun and successful – hopefully we can start having more virtual meetings to make it easier for folks to join us!

I tried out Reqall for a few weeks and decided it didn’t work for me, but I’m so glad I reviewed it because it really helped out someone else!  It really makes all this blogging worthwhile when I hear about someone finding a great tool that works for them because of my review!

Maybe this is just because I just reviewed them, but I’m still pretty enamored with Springpad and Google Wave – I think they’re both going to prove very useful in the future.

What were your favorite tools this year?

If you want some fun reading about all the end of year and end of decade roundups, check out the Noughtie List on Kottke.org, where they’re taking on the ambitious task of collecting all the “best of” lists for the last decade.

Talking Tech Friday is on holiday until January 8th, so Happy Holidays to you all!

From Flickr user krisdecurtis

I recently received an invitation to join Google Wave, so I thought I’d use this column as an excuse to figure it out.  I love having excuses!

What is it?

Google Wave is Google’s attempt to reinvent email as if it were just being invented today.  They call it a “hosted conversation.”  It’s more collaborative than email – when you start a wave (like sending a message), you can see your contacts reply in real time if they are online.  It’s like a combination of chat and email, with the added abilities of group editing and non-text embedding thrown in.

How does it work?

Google Wave is currently in preview version, which is only accessible by invitation at this time. I have 25 invitations to give out, so if you’re interested, leave a note in the comments with your email address and I will send you one.  Likewise, if YOU have invitations you’d like to share, leave a comment as well.

Once you accept an invitation, you start with 2 waves – one that tells you how you can invite others to join, and one that gives you some great tutorials on how to use Google Wave.  I highly recommend you check them out.

When you create a wave, anyone you include can edit it, even when you’re still creating it.  You can see changes in real time and any changes that were made while you weren’t online will be highlighted when you return.  This is really great for collaborating with others on a document: you can immediately see feedback and contributions, as well as being able to see what changes have been made while you were away from the wave.

Google Wave has “extensions” to include non-text content, such as pictures, videos, maps, and a “Yes/No/Maybe” poll embedded right in the message.  These extensions have an open API, so there will be many more available as people start developing them.  You can drag items from your computer or other websites and drop them into a wave – very easy!

There are also “robots” in Google Wave that allow you to automatically perform various functions in a wave.  A ‘bot looks like a regular contact, but when selected, they can do things like automatically translate text to another language, or view your Twitter timeline, update your status, or save a trending topic search.  There’s also a “Bloggy” bot that will publish a wave to your blog.

You can keep your waves private, or make them public.  Public waves can function like a chat room or discussion board – anyone can see it and contribute to it.  You can create a search to find public waves that are of interest to you.

Possible Library Uses

Like most social/collaborative services, it’s only as useful as the community you build on it.  However, I can see great potential for Google Wave if you could get all your coworkers or teams to use it.  You could group edit meeting agendas and minutes, co-write articles or policies, automatically add information to a library website or twitter feed, etc.  I anticipate some great things in the future with Google Wave!

Remember – leave a comment with your contact info if you’d like a Wave invitation!

Resources & Reviews

An interesting report. Are we all data hogs? http://ping.fm/qpTLW

I’m preparing for my AzLA Annual Conference preconference presentation on productivity tips and tools, so you’re going to benefit from my research.  Today I give you Springpad!

What is it?

Springpad is a personal organizer service that stores tasks, web notes and clips, events, recipes, restaurants – pretty much anything you want to track.    You can organize your content by using premade “Apps” or templates, such as a notebook, date night planner, or shopping list.  Apps are searchable and also organized by broad category.  The user interface is very clean and intuitive.

How does it work?

The first thing I like about Springpad is you can log in using either a Google, Yahoo, Facebook, or Twitter account.  I love not having to register yet another username and password for a new service!

They have a useful tour and help page, which is a good place to start if you aren’t comfortable just jumping in to experiment.

It’s really easy to browse around and pick apps to suit your needs, and you just click to add them to your page.  For example, say I want to track a project.  I choose the Project Notes app and add it to my page.  I can change the title to the name of my project, I can set up events in a calendar (such as project milestones or deadlines), I can link notes or files to the project, and I can set up a list of tasks or link a contact.  You can set up email or SMS reminders using tasks or events.  The app lets you group all that stuff in one place, which I find really useful.

You can also just make more free form notes, or set up task lists, etc.  There’s a browser bookmarklet that lets you save snippets from webpages, so it’s easy to capture things like recipes, etc.

Springpad also works with several other services, including Gmail, Facebook, Amazon, and Yelp, to sync and add content.

Finally, there’s a social aspect.  You can share items with friends or make them public.  This could be very useful for collaborating on a project with colleagues, coordinating a grocery list with your family, or planning an event with your friends.

Importantly for nerds like me, there is also a mobile version of Springpad, so you can access your stuff wherever you are.

Possible Library Uses

Springpad looks to be a strong competitor with Evernote, which I have been using with great joy.  However, some of the apps are very tempting to me – I’ll have to spend a little time with it and see if it fits into my workflow.  Like Evernote, it can really help your productivity, which is good for all libraries!  Some of the apps, especially the project planner, could really be useful!

Reviews

• Mashable
• Lifehacker
• Web Worker Daily
• Did I Get Things Done

I apologize for Talk Tech Friday’s absence last week – I had a brutal cold and was unable to sit at the computer.

The season of excellent food opens next week with Thanksgiving, so I thought I would dedicate today’s Talking Tech column to recipe sites!

• First off, we’ve already reviewed Project Foodie before, but it’s worth mentioning again.  This site links to recipes in newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and TV.  Additionally, the blog gives some great cooking tips and suggestions (I think I’m going to have to try this pumpkin gingerbread), and you can save all your own favorites in a personal recipe box.
• Epicurious is one of my first favorites, and I have just discovered they also have an iphone app! (See, I always learn something new while writing these columns!)  This site indexes tons of recipes, and Bon Appetit and Gourmet are site partners.  You can also browse recipes and menus by holiday or genre (dessert, drink, etc).  There are lots of articles and how-to videos, as well as personalized options such as inputting your own recipes, saving recipes, uploading videos and participating in discussion groups.  Along with the mobile applications, there is also a useful dictionary, as well as premade, printable shopping lists for your selected recipes.
• Recipe4All is a new discovery for me.  It’s not fancy, it simply searches for recipes.  Some nice features include a glossary and recipes grouped by countries around the world.  The interface can be a little counterintuitive, however, and the placement of Google ads is very jarring (I know the sites above have tons of ads, but here some of the ads are tucked into the middle of search results, etc.  Very distracting, and easy to accidentally click on one).
• Cooking for Engineers is another no-frills website, but I think it’s very useful to both beginning cooks as well as those who like to know the method behind a recipe.  What it lacks for in sheer number or variety of recipes it makes up in step-by-step details and explanations for each dish.  Additionally, the author writes up experiments (such as different methods of cooking bacon) and kitchen gear reviews.  I like this site because I feel it helps me learn more about cooking, not just following recipes.
• A good friend recommended Cookbooker, a pretty new arrival on the foodie scene (it was also recently mentioned by Tim of Library Thing, so has a certain library cachet).  Cookbooker allows you to catalog, rate and review recipes from your cookbooks, as well as search the recipes and reviews by other members.  Like Library Thing, its usefulness will improve as more people join the community.  I think it definitely has potential.
• The Science of Cooking is a bit more kid-oriented, but gives some great information about cooking!

What are your favorite cooking or recipe sites?  Let’s see them in the comments!

There will not be a Talking Tech column next week, but I heartily wish a Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Roseline suggested that I post about Google Dashboard – your suggestions are my command! (Seriously, send me suggestions!).

Yesterday, Google announced the launch of Google Dashboard, which is a single place for you to go and marvel at how much of your life is involved with Google.  At least, I marvel.  The Dashboard lists all of the Google-owned products linked to your username and password, gives some data about each, and provides links to each account, as well as direct links to your personal settings.

You can also access the Dashboard under the “My Account” link whenever you sign into any Google service.

Google, being the fun-loving company that they are, gives a brief introduction to the Dashboard in this video:

I actually appreciate this service – as I said, I use a lot of Google services.  Here’s my list:

• Blogger
• Calendar
• Contacts (really part of Gmail)
• Docs
• Gmail
• IGoogle (I don’t really use this, I just tried it out. My heart belongs to Netvibes)
• Picasa Web Albums
• Reader
• Talk
• Tasks (also, just tried it)
• +6 additional products that are not yet supported by the Dashboard.  Most of these I just check out to see if they are cool enough for me to use, and none of them are in regular use – some I’ve completely forgotten about.

The Dashboard tells me all sorts of clever things about my use of these services – I can tell at a glance which of my information is public, I can quickly link to the account settings (for example, I notice something is public that I’d prefer to be private), and there are also links to the appropriate privacy policies and help pages.  Overall, I think this is pretty useful.

Possible Library Uses

I think that if you are using Google for any of your library functions the Dashboard is a really great tool – you can monitor activity and privacy settings for all of your library accounts on Google at a glance.  And, like me, you may have services that you’ve forgotten all about.

Resources

• CNET
• Information Week
• PC World
• Lifehacker

Unless you’re undead, you’ve probably noticed that a zombie craze has been sweeping the nation this year.  Since tomorrow’s Halloween, a prime night for zombie infection, I thought it might be a good idea to share some important zombie resources.

First, our friends at Common Craft provide an excellent introduction with Zombies in Plain English.

Next, the Zombie Survival & Defense Wiki demonstrates an excellent use of Wetpaint.

If you’d prefer to join the undead hordes instead of slaying them, here is the forum for the Arizona Zombie Walks – find a gathering near you!

Here’s an Instructable on How to Make Zombie Makeup to help you get prepared.

And one more more informative video:

Happy Halloween!

I know it’s been many weeks since I made a traditional Talking Tech Friday post, so today you’re in for a treat!  We’re talking about Prezi!

What is it?

Prezi is an online presentation platform that is a bold attempt to break away from slides.

How does it work?

First, you go through the usual registration process to create a Prezi account.  The free version should be sufficient for most uses, but there are two paid options that have some additional features.  The main thing I wish the free account would permit is the ability to make your presentations private – however, you must pay 39 Euros per year for that feature.  That’s an immediate drawback if you need to create presentations on confidential topics.

Learning Prezi is easy – there are a variety of introductions and tutorials available.  I would recommend watching these before diving right in.  Learning to present without slides is a new experience.  They also have a very extensive manual, so you can look for answers to your questions as you get started.

This presentation on Library 2.0 is a good example of how Prezi works.  Your presentations can be shared using email, Twitter, or Facebook, as well as embedded into your website or blog (except WordPress, of course).

I used Prezi to create a real presentation I have to give next week (I’m not linking to it because I have yet to give it!) and I enjoyed figuring out a creative way to organize my talk.  Some of the controls are a little frustrating and take some getting used to.  It would have helped if I’d actually looked at this Prezi Tips presentation first.  I think part of my problem is that I want more clear control – i.e. tool bars telling me how to make text bigger and so on.  You can have different text sizes, it’s simply a matter of zooming in or out to make them larger or smaller.  That’s too simple for me!

Possible Library Uses

We all have to give presentations or talks at some time or another, and sometimes (well, lots of times) powerpoint slides get boring.  Prezi is a nice alternative, but since the free account doesn’t allow privacy, you just want to take that into account depending on your topic.

Reviews

• CNET
• TechCrunch
• Lifehacker

Recent events in my life have kept internet security in the forefront of my mind.  I thought that was as good an excuse as any to share a few online security tips.  Some of this is common sense, but most I’ve learned from my favorite tech blog, Lifehacker!

Passwords

I spend a lot of time at the computer, online, and a great deal of both my personal and professional life takes place in the cloud.  Consequently, I have a lot of passwords.

Passwords are a pain: you’re not supposed to use the same one for everything, some employers require you change your passwords on a regular basis, but you have to remember them all!

Fortunately, there are some great tips and tools that can help:

First – here are some password dos and don’ts.

And – how to create some strong and memorable passwords.

But of course, there are tons of them.  On all of my computers, I use Firefox to save and remember my most important passwords, and on my work computer, I’ve locked them with a master password.  I will now be locking all my computers in this way, which is what I’d certainly recommend. (Internet Explorer doesn’t have a comparable feature, but there are other addons that will do the trick).

If you can’t use Firefox, or would like something more secure, here is a list of Lifehacker’s Five Best Password Managers.  A friend of mine has repeatedly recommended that I try KeePass, and I’m seriously considering it.  It can be a very powerful tool, especially when combined with Dropbox to sync across all your computers.  My friend gave another useful tip: store the serial numbers of your electronics in KeePass as well.  Here are some setup instructions.

Protecting data

Passwords are only part of protecting your data (though granted, the biggest part).

Top 10 Ways to Lock down your Data: some really great tips here

How to Secure your Laptop: some of these might be a little TOO paranoid for my taste, but they are useful to consider, regardless.

And a quick rundown on Internet Security 101

Be safe – but not scared. 

So, when we last left our Talking Tech Friday on creating electronic signatures, we had saved it to a transparent background, but determined that the quality was poor.

After doing all of that, I was wracking my brain on how to make it look less sketchy.  Aside from tracing over the whole signature with the pencil tool, I was at a loss.

However, I looked at the tutorial again and decided that I don’t really need a transparent background – went back to my original scan to crop the image.

Looks just fine, doesn’t it?  I’m just going to save it as is.  Most of the time, when I need a signature, I can just paste the image into the document and adjust the size.  I think, transparent background or not, I’m going to have to get all fiddly with it anyway so that it looks okay.  No need to tear out my hair over it.

There’s a super quick wrap up to electronic signatures.  Back to normal Talking Tech programming next week!