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!

Sorry everyone – life has been pretty hectic the last couple of weeks, leaving me no time to write a nice, thoughtful Talking Tech Friday column for you.  I anticipate resuming normal programming next week.

Until then, check out RUSA’s Best Free Reference Websites for 2009!

Or, because it’s Friday, check out Animals with Lightsabers!

Today, I’m going to do something a little different.  I’ve been meaning to create an electronic signature for ages, and it occurred to me that I  might not be the only one.  So, I’m going to walk you through the process as I do it.

I’m creating one by scanning my real signature and making my own file – not by sending it in to some company to make for me.  I guess you can do that, if you prefer.  That’s probably the easiest, if not the cheapest!

First off- here are the tutorials that I’m using as reference:

• How to create a scanned signature
• Creating a transparent signature stamp
• Electronic Signatures made simple

So first, and perhaps the hardest, is to write the signature!  I used a dark black ball-point pen and actually used cardstock instead of regular paper – I liked the texture of the pen better – with about 3 large signatures on it.

After scanning it, I saved the .tiff file on my computer and opened it using Microsoft Paint.  I selected the signature I liked best, and saved it to a separate file.

At this point, I spent a lot of time dithering around about what editor I should use – I don’t have Photoshop, and I don’t think my favorite online editor has the option to remove the background.  Fortunately, Gimp was already installed on my computer, so I thought I’d give it a try.  (Is it just me, or is Gimp really intimidating?  I seriously don’t understand what 90% of the tools do!)

Following the tips from commenter 1 on the first tutorial, I adjusted the color levels automatically, selected regions by color, and feathered the edges.  Then I copied the selection and saved it into a new file with a transparent background. However, once I did that, the final product looks too sketchy:

Clearly, I need to make this a little better.  But I can’t figure out how and am out of time!  To be continued next week!

In my eternal quest to improve my productivity skills, I thought I’d review a new-to-me to-do manager – Reqall!

What is it?

Reqall is a personal reminder system.  You can add information online, Instant messaging, via voice-to-text (which is pretty cool), and a Firefox extension.  There are also downloadable free applications for both the iPhone and the Blackberry, which sync with your online account.  You can create lists by category, such as to-dos, shopping lists, or just notes, and also sort them by location, such as home and work.  Reqall also provide the ability to send reminders to others, either via email or adding it to their Reqall account, if they have one.  Finally, you can sync your Reqall account with your Outlook or Google Calendars.

How does it work?

To sign up, just go through the usual procedures: name, email, username and password.  That’s it.  There are a few settings to tweak – you can customize your time zone, add your phone number if you’d like to add items by voice, dictate how you’d prefer to receive notifications (email, IM, or text message), among other things.

Adding information online is easy and pretty basic.  A real strength, however, is the text-to-voice feature.  One of the thing I’ve been looking for is a mobile task-manager to sync with my online activities – Remember the Milk, which I’ve been using, only offers an iPhone application to subscribers.  Reqall’s iPhone application is free – I downloaded it and immediately made a voice note to myself: “Catch bus 72 at 4:45 at the Tempe Transit Center.”  It was transcribed perfectly, and synced online very quickly.

For regular phones, you can just call Reqall to leave a voice memo.  It recognizes key words, like “buy”, “meet,” “call” or “note” to add items to different categories automatically.  As another nifty feature, you can also check your t0-do list by calling Reqall – it’ll tell you what tasks you have coming up.

You can import contacts from your email addressbook to share reminders with others, and they can respond to your regular email address.  You can receive reminders and the daily to-do list in your email as well.

Reqall offers a few additional perks for their Pro Account users,  who pay $25 a year, but for most of us, the free account should suffice.

I’m going to use Reqall for a few weeks and post an updated opinion after giving it a full test drive.

Reviews

• CNET
• New York Times review
• What’s On iPhone?

Diet and exercise sites have been on my mind quite a bit lately – for me, the start of a new school year is always a good time to adjust eating and exercise habits.  It seems to be similar for many of my acquaintances, as I know several people who are seriously working on weight loss or improving their health and fitness levels.

Considering how our country struggles with obesity, it’s probably no surprise that there are a huge number of social networking and diet tracking sites dedicated to weight loss.  I thought I’d give a brief overview of some of the ones that have crossed my radar.

Tweet What You Eat is a site that I’ve actually used. It serves as a food journal and allows you to keep a log of what you’re eating and totals up your calories for you.  It has an online component, as well as the ability to send food updates by direct messaging in Twitter (which means it doesn’t display in your Twitter stream).  If you’ve ever tried keeping a food diary, you’ll know the hardest part is remembering to keep it up – TWYE makes it easy since you can send messages from your phone.  Here’s a little video on how it works:

The Physics Diet is an online tool for those who are are following the Hacker’s Diet.  The theory behind this diet is that in order to lose weight, you just have burn more calories than you take in.  Like any good scientist, this means plotting your weight on a daily basis and making sure it’s on a downward trend.  If it goes up, you eat less.  This is a great tool for the data-oriented health conscious.

Foodsel is an online community that lets you look up nutrition and caloric information, as well as keep track of your own fitness. It has a BMI calculator, and a diary to track your weight, physical shape, mental shape, meals and sleeping pattern.  It includes a social networking aspect for those who like to find support as they track their goals.

FitDay is another diet and weight loss tracking tool and social network.  You can keep a food diary, keep track of your calories, and monitor your exercise, as well as get all sorts of nifty charts and graphs.  The weight tracker lets you set a target weight and will help you keep track of your progress toward that goal.  Like Foodsel, it has its own caloric content database, so you can look up how many calories are in your typical meals.  This is a pretty slick looking site.

NutritionData is another database and tracking tool that is chock full of useful information.  Without registering, you can search for caloric and nutritional information for lots of foods, including a special restaurant section.  They also have a very useful recipe analyzer where you can input a recipe and get the nutritional information.  I like this site, but there is a lot of advertising.

Traineo has many of the same features as the above, but what makes it stand out is a very clean and simple interface, as well as inviting specific people to motivate you to help you reach your goals. They have a friendly video overview of their features.

Daily Burn claims to be the fastest growing fitness site on the web.  It certainly looks very nice and has the added benefit of a corresponding iPhone application.  It has a nutritional database, tracking tools for exercise and diet and a community system. One thing that I haven’t seen on the other sites is the ability to participate in challenges to compete with other users.  You can also pick a pre-made workout program to follow.  Pretty interesting.

Finally, I just wanted to put in a plug for the 100 Pushup Challenge, which is a program to help you do 100 consecutive pushups in 6 weeks.  I’m struggling to do this, and you can track your progress at Pushups Logger.

Do you have any favorite diet or exercise sites? Any I missed?

The Gates Foundation is working to gather feedback on how your library currently maintains its public access computers. Below is a link to a new survey about the practices you engage in and the challenges you face in maintaining your library’s public access technology. This important study will help the MaintainIT, WebJunction, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand the technical support needed to sustain public computing and Internet access in public libraries. http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/267775/2e33/

Your response to this survey will help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation understand how your library currently maintains its public access computers. This knowledge will also assist MaintainIT Project (recently renamed TechSoup for Libraries) and WebJunction, two library-focused technical support organizations funded by the foundation, in developing useful tools and resources for public libraries. This survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete and is confidential. To complete online we ask that you enter your library’s IMILSID code. If you do not know this number, you can find it by clicking here: IMILSID code index (this link is also included in the survey itself).

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this valuable research! The survey will close on August 31. Questions regarding this survey can be sent to Andrew Robinson at Andrew@LFAgroup.com.