Wufoo Review

Quick Summary
Wufoo is an online service that allows you to build webforms, online surveys, and invitations so that you can collect data, registrations, and payments without having to write any code. The service is aimed at people with no coding experience. The service is free, but has a tiered pricing plan to get much more functionality. They have some extra functionality that allows you to sift through your data, graph it, and export it to Excel of CSV. You can embed the forms/surveys through HTML of CSS, if you know how.

Things I Like

• Remove all complications from the form/survey building process. 
• Has more functionality built-in than google forms.
• Looks nice. 

Things I Don't Like

• If you have much experience with web stuff, this doesn't entirely work from a customizable standpoint. 
• Much like google forms, just have more functionality right in the same place.

Tinychat Review

Quick Summary
Tinychat allows you to create video chat rooms with as many people as you want. It allows video and audio. It is a free service, which means there are ads. It's all through their website so you don't download any program. There is an ability to have a group whiteboard. There is also a text chat too that can be used. You can also join a random chat room, although I'm not in need of that sort of people connection some people might like it.

Things I Like

• Login using FB, Twitter, or create an account with them. 
• Currently this is the only service I know of that allows you to create a large video chat room. I can't do it with skype, you can do four people in iChat, but nothing quite like this.
• Simple site, doesn't try to be a social network in the same way that FB or Twitter do. 
• All through their website, I don't have to d/l anything.

Things I Don't Like

• Because of the technology involved with chat and video, the site is a little slow and wonky at times. 
• Banner ads are large and distracting.
• No search option to find a chat room (at least I couldn't find it).
• By allowing people to join random rooms, you get some pretty lewd stuff (think Penis on your computer screen)

GoodGuide Review

Quick Summary
The GoodGuide is a website that provides a reliable source on information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products within your home. The help you to do the following:

• Find save, healthy, and green products
• Search and browse tons of products to figure out what is under the label
• Read expert advice and recommendations
• Make better purchasing decisions based on what's important to you
• Create a favorites list

Essentially, the GG helps you to learn about a product and "greenify" your life. 

Things I Like

• Allows you to learn about products, food, toys, household chemicals, and other stuff in ways that you cannot from the manufacturer. 
• They have a mobile application (currently only on the iPhone).
• Real tips on how to increase your life's environmental conscience

Things I Don't Like

• Somewhat hard to cull through all their information. I mean we use so much stuff, its just not possible to learn about all your things. 
• No wiki format that allows you to contribute information that you find. While this might cause problems with fact checking, it would also help to increase the information. 
• Only iPhone mobile app.

Fluid Review

Quick Summary
Fluid is a free application (for mac) that allows you to create a site specific browser. Essentially, you are able to take the tabs that you always have open in your browser, like email, calendar, pandora, or what have you. What this allows you to do is make a window that is devoted to a specific application and makes it easy to find something rather than find your tab when it is one of forty.

Things I Like

• Makes specific windows. 
• Easier to find tab than when its open in a browser. 
• Highly customizable. See their website for more information on how to configure it. 
• Can install growl scripts. 

Things I Don't Like

• Still has some bugs. 
• New interface options to get slightly used to.

Flavors.me Review

Check out what I made using the service: http://flavors.me/jeffpatzer

Quick Summary
Flavors.me just sprung into existence a few days ago. Essentially it is a system that allows you to create a personal webpage in literally, about 5 minutes. You sign up for an account (free) and then are given a dashboard that lets you build your site by pulling in information from multiple other services like facebook, twitter, etc...So  you can have a quick blurb about yourself and then all the services that you link to the page are listed under that. It allows you to pool all the various sites that you use into one place fast and easy.

They have a paid version that allows you to have some extra features like a personal domain, analytics, and a contact page. Nothing to really write home about, but I guess the have to make money somehow.

Things I Like

• Super easy, quick, and customizable.
• Pulls everything from different sites into one place.
• Makes a pretty site.

Things I Don't Like

• Doesn't really allow you to expand your site. You are limited to the information that you can pull in from other sites. 
• The site might be the best for bloggers and social networkers, but doesn't really provide much other functionality. 
• To get their main function, analytics, I'd have to pay 20$, but google analytics is free.
• Kind of like a simplified myspace without the social networking.

Shoes of Prey Review

(This ones for the ladies!)

Quick Summary
Shoes of Prey (SOP) allows you to create women's shoes, designed online by you. You choose the heel, toe, fabric, color, and embellishments (I don't know what those are, but I'm sure they are important). Then they make the shoes and ship them straight to you. That's it!

They ship internationally. Pay for shoes to be altered to fit your foot is they are a little off once you get them. They make all the shoes by hand.

You can check out the shoe gallery here:
http://www.shoesofprey.com/gallery

Things I Like

• I don't have to go to a store (with the GF). 
• She can make what she likes. 
• Seem to have a great emphasis on customer service and quality.

Things I Don't Like

• Expensive: 150 for the cheapest shoe, 25 for shipping (flat). 
• Only do flats and heels. 

Bumptop Review

**As a quick disclaimer. This was a research item that I read about last spring in one of my classes. It is awesome to see a company that actually implemented the system and ideas behind it. I'll try it out for a while and get back to everyone on how well it works.

Quick Summary
Bumptop is a new way to organize and interact with your computer's desktop. Essentially bumptop is trying to enhance the metaphor between your real desk and your computer desktop. It uses concepts like piles, walls, throwing items around, and so on. It runs on either Macs or PCs. If you buy their pro version you get some extra features, but they do have a free version. Their free version runs great and only lacks a few features.

Its a pretty awesome way to think of using your desktop. Check out the video explanation below.

Things I Like

• Really awesome concept and implementation of a desk metaphor on your computer.
• Allows for organization as humans organize things.
• Customizable.
• Allows you to organize similar file types into piles

Things I Don't Like

• Completely visual based. Could make it somewhat harder to potentially find what you are looking for.
• Its a new way of thinking about my computer, requires a new workflow adjustment. 

DailyBooth Review

Quick Summary
dailybooth.com

This service is essentially a video twitter, that you can link to your twitter. In a nutshell, you take a picture, then share it on their site. So its real-time picture updates of people. You can choose to follow certain people or have them follow you. Either way.

While this service is just another way for you to share things, its got a much better interface for photos than twitter. I think the coolest thing is probably their live map that you can watch. It has pictures of people pop up where they are taken.

Things I Like

• Does picture sharing well. 
• Cool interactive live map to watch. 
• People put up stupid pictures. 

Things I Don't Like

• I don't need another site to share more things about myself. 
• Hard to import and find friends.
• No reason to keep using beyond liking to take pictures of myself and sharing them with strangers.

Foursquare Review

Quick Summary
Foursquare is a social application that you can use on your phone. You can use their mobile app on a iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, or any other phone simply by texting. The idea is that you provide checkins to places that you go. So say I go to my local restaurant, checkin that I am there, then my friends can see that I am there.

You get "points" for providing checkins. You get "badges" for providing interesting checkins. The idea is that the more you do the more you unlock. So its kind of like a real life game, but by earning points you can become the "mayor" of a place, where the business will give you a discount or something similar when you show them that you are the mayor.

Foursquare is attempting to let you create your "urban mix tape" by keeping track of things you do and things you want to do. It also lets you find things near you that you might want to do. They aren't necessarily looking to be a review site, more like "Go to Barneys, get the avocado burger" (do it!).

You can sync the service to update your facebook profile and twitter account. So if your friends aren't using foursquare you can still update them about where you are.

What I Like

• Essentially a location-based combination of Twitter and Yelp.
• Lets you connect with and track friends. 
• Combines a game element to the whole process.
• Separates the concepts of "checkin" and "tip". The idea is that you may be at a place and then separately provide a tip about the place. 

What I Don't Like

• Suffers from the network effect. If none of your friends are using it then what's the point.
• Having to update at places I go to. Means I'll be selective. They have a quick checkin option that helps.
• Telling my friends where I am all the time, although you can provide "off the grid" checkins. I am a little unclear how this is done. I think it has to do with not telling your friends.

Google Voice Review

**To sign up for google voice go to voice.google.com and add yourself to their invite list. You should get the invite fairly fast. Also, any phone and service can use voice.

Quick Summary

Google voice gives you a single number that you can use for all your phones. This number is tied to you, not a carrier or provider or location. (Confused yet?) Okay, so its like this. You sign up for google voice (actually you have to be invited) and then you get a inbox like view for phone messages. You can set it up such that you get google voice calls to your phone. Also your voice mails show up like email messages and you can have them sent to you as emails or texts. But with a slight variation (see the picture). It isn't really a phone service (although like Skype you can use it to do VOIP on your computer). Additionally, you can add rules for phones calling you by customizing ringtones or voicemail messages. Voice works great on your android phone by letting you call any domestic number (it will use your minutes so beware of that) for free, and calling international numbers for a nominal fee (like a few cents a minute). You can also send SMS for free.

What I Like

• Cool features. Free. Lets you manage multiple phones (although I only have one...for now)
• Cheap credit to call internationally and I can do it through my android phone (AWESOME!)
• Get my messages emailed to me. 
• Syncs with my phone, email, and all the other things Google has with which to control me. 

What I Don't Like

• The voice transcription of my messages are not readable. I mean, its like a 2nd year old translated it. This needs to get way better before I fully switch to voice. 
• Using Voice on my phone still uses my minutes. So, whats the point right?

Windows Phone 7 Series Review

**Microsoft has finally released a competing mobile operation system that can rival android and the iphone. Wow, that took a while.

Quick Summary
As I mentioned above, Microsoft has finally come up with a mobile operating system that can rival the iPhone and Android operation systems. It only took three years for the biggest software company on the planet to do it, but they did. The OS will appear in phones this year, but not until the holidays. This operating system did something very crazy for microsoft, they got rid of their old system and started from *gasp* scratch.



Essentially, Microsoft took their zune HD and packaged it into a phone. The interface is like the zune and the various functions of Music + Video, in addition to People, Pictures, Games, Marketplace, and office are all designed to be navigable and interesting. Imagine using Windows 7 on a phone and you've got a good idea of what the interface looks like.

MS built a great social networking app that does a great job of integrating a contact's updates from FB and Windows Live. No Twitter support yet.

MS also made it possible to integrate XBOX Live on your phone. Mobile gaming, from the best mobile game platform on the planet, in your phone. Worried yet Apple?!

The Browse is IE. So bummer, but heh, maybe it will get better. The Mail app is supposed to be amazing. Considering this is one of the things I use the most on my phone, its great to hear that it has been made so well.

They will be using Office and Marketplace on the phone. Apps are gone from Windows Mobile. Now the marketplace will bring your any applications you wish to buy. However, whether or not there will be multitasking has yet to be determined.

Things I Like

• Brings together the best of Microsoft's services. Zune, Xbox, and Bing. That's awesome.
• One of the prettiest and most novel interfaces I've seen yet for a phone. 
• Big and nice screen.
• Competition for google and apple, it means their product will have to become even better which is always a plus.

Things I Don't Like

• The name. Windows Phone 7 Series. Really! Really?!
• No Twitter. Potentially no multitasking.
• Won't release until the holidays, plenty of time for other companies to compensate. 

For more info check out this site: http://bit.ly/dcCTUe

Silverlight Review

Quick Summary
According to Silverlight's official website:

Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline.

Essentially Silverlight is Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash and ASP.NET AJAX. It allows a developer to build applications, create more interactive experiences on their website, move beyond the browser by taking an application offline, stream video at high quality, and runs on any platform and browser.

What I Like

• Scalable and interactive application development. 
• Starts up video and plays it quickly. The quality of the video is great. (The Olympics are using Silverlight to stream a good deal of the events).
• Creates competition between services, which will only make the quality of applications that consumers get even better. 

What I Don't Like

• Have to develop in Windows.
• Another plug-in I have to install on my computer. 

Google Buzz Review

I don't have a recommendation at this point, because I have mixed feelings over the service. 

Quick Summary

Google Buzz is a service that was introduced just a few days ago to let google combat social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and so on. However, it has some serious issues with privacy. Essentially, Buzz is a feed that you can post thoughts, pictures, blog posts, videos, google reader, and more. It lets you sync most google services and also some other services like flickr and twitter. It only pulls these services in and lets you share the content from them, but not publish to them. Essentially buzz is another form of social networking, but rather focused on google gmail users. 

What I Like

• Lets you share things with your google gmail contacts very easily. 
• Greater than 140 characters. 
• Easily accessible from gmail.

What I Don't Like

• Privacy settings are completely out of whack at the moment. Needs to be made way more secure. 
• Another distraction in my inbox when I am already distracted by too much mail.
• You can "turn off buzz" but other people still see you, you just don't see them.

Interesting links to articles about buzz:

Privacy Issues - http://tcrn.ch/aplJdL

Buzz Hatred (F*&k You Google) - http://bit.ly/coTgSB
Extensive Privacy article: http://bit.ly/arvvNY

Farmville Review

**This is a facebook game. You will have to be on facebook to play it. Even their website requires you to have a facebook account.

I recommend this game for people looking to waste time and build community (not mutually exclusive).

Quick Summary
Farmville is a facebook game that allows you to manage a "farm". You invite your friends to be your neighbors and then you get to farm together. This is essentially the most social based game I have ever seen. You can send gifts (get your friends involved), add neighbors (get your friends involved), invite friends (get your friends involved), and so on. Once you have neighbors you can help each other by doing farming tasks for them.

You have fake gold coins that you earn by harvesting, spend by planting, and earn more of by paying real money for them. I mean that makes sense right, spend real money for fake money.

This game is a super simple, social game. I wish I had thought of it.

Things I Like

• Super simple
• Addictive
• Fun thing to get your friends involved with.

Things I Don't Like

• That I didn't think of it first. 
• Addictive
• Takes real time for crops to grow (soy beans take a day, etc)

Sorry for the absence

My deepest apologies for the absence. I've been busy playing racketball, hosting a superbowl party, and trying to stay above water on my assignments and three jobs.

Back to posting though.

Posterous Review

I  recommend this service to people looking to easily post content to the web and at the same time create a website.

Quick Summary
Posterous is an online service that allows you to post online to a blog that they create for you simply by emailing them. You can attach documents of many types (pretty much anything), including music, videos, docs, etc. The idea is that you only have to email them the post and they do the rest for you. They turn youtube links to videos, mp3's to podcasts, photos to slideshows, and text to well, text.

A cool thing is that you can email them a post and then they do reposting on a bunch of services automatically. So for instance, I email them my post (or use their website interface), then they post my thing on facebook, twitter, and any other service that I added (which they support).  Pretty convenient for sending out my stuff to many things at once, saves me some time.

You can also have a special URL point to the site. So for instance, I could buy jeffpatzer.com and have that  be the URL of my posterous site. The downside to this is that you have to buy the URL.

Essentially posterous is a combination of website creation, blog creation, document backup, social networking, and bookmarking. It's a lot to wrap your head around. I think how much you would find this service useful is how much control you want to have versus the ease with which to create something. While posterous is somewhat easy to use, it gives up some stuff that you could control were you monitoring your own site.

Things I Like

• Easy to use. Easy to add your other social accounts.
• Use as a backup service.
• Creates a blog/website for you as you build your content up.
• Can use google analytics with it.

Things I Don't Like

• Tries to be a bunch of things for me, which means it takes a while to figure out how I would want to properly leverage the system. 
• I lose some control that I have by using my own system for blogs/website stuff.
• Their name makes me think of post it notes, not necessarily website building. 
  

***Oh and I'm going to try posting this through their service and see how it does.

PadMapper Review: Interactive Rental Finder

I highly recommend this application for people looking for a rental. This is an AWESOME service that does everything an apartment searcher could possibly hope for.

Quick Summary
Padmapper is one of the most awesome apartment finding services that I have ever seen. It is an interactive apartment finding system built to pull information from Craigslist, Apartments.com, ForRent, and The Rest about available apartments and then map them on a massive google map. You can then filter the results down to what you want for a rental (see picture below to view various filters). It's incredibly easy to use and extremely faster than reading through ads on craigslist. Once you have the rental areas filter you can simply click on a pin to see information about the rental. You can also subscribe to the area listing that you created via email (essentially, create you search once and then get that search sent to you daily or hourly)

Things I Like

• Interactivity.
• Super quick and easy to use.
• Highly customizable.
• Aggregates data from multiple listing services.
• Emails you your search daily/hourly if you want. You can also Link/Embed the search you made. 
• iPhone client also.

Things I Don't Like

• No easy way to print out a list of the apartment in your searches. This is to say, no easy way to see a text version of everything.
• That I didn't know about this service while I was looking for an apartment. 

Mac vs. PC: Which is more safe? (Special Report)

**Although this isn't technically a review, I think a lot of people are looking for better answers surrounding this topic. I'll try and offer some good programs that you can use for protecting your computer at the end of article.

So I know most people will knee-jerk respond to this question with "Well MAC, duh!", and I'd have to completely disagree with you. As far as security goes, Mac's are just as vulnerable as PC's. At this point you might be think, but those "geniuses" at the Mac store said Mac's are more secure. Well first thing, those people aren't geniuses (in fact, far from it), and second it's just a plain lie. In this special report I will give you a quick run-down about the types of attacks you can be subject to, the differences in what makes the different operating systems more "safe", and some countermeasures you can take to protect yourself.

Which OS is safer then? 
Well here is the problem, its not the computer that is the weak point (and don't take this personally), but it is the user. That's right, you are the problem. Human's are the weak link.

A PC can be just as secure as a Mac and vice versa. Essentially, being a conscientious web-user is your safest defense. You should technically be running anti-virus software on both systems. Mac's have as many security leaks as PC's.

So why are Mac's thought to be safer? One answer: there are less Mac's being used than PC's. It's a matter of numbers plain and simple. Hackers are looking to target PC's because there are more of them. That's it. However, as Mac's are growing in popularity, so are attacks targeted at Macs.

The security weak points are becoming less based on what OS you are using and more on the type of internet browser you are using. Additionally, your own knowledge of how to avoid phishing and social engineering scams is important. However, as a rule of thumb the safest, most secure browsers to use are the following (in order from MOST to LEAST secure): Chrome/Firefox --> Opera --> Internet Explorer --> Safari.

Oh and fun fact, most attacks originate from porn sites. Stick to print! :-P

Here is a picture describing what user's perceive as the security of an OS:

Types of Attacks/Security Breaches
There are multiple types of attacks that you might experience while using your computer. Some of the most common types are listed below:

• Social Engineering: This is where an attack is asking you to do something in order to get information from you. For instance, updating your information for your credit card or something. This is very similar to Phishing. This is a platform independent attack.
• Downloading "Plugins" to watch videos, read documents, etc...: Sometimes when you are trying to watch a video, you will be asked to install a special plug-in or another download from a weird/disreputable site. Don't do it. This is more platform dependent, but can happen to anyone.
• Spambots: This causes you to get a ton of popups, which are super annoying. 
• Trojan Horses: Programs pretending to be something else besides what they really are.

Possible Anti-virus Software

• AVD Anti-Virus Free Edition (PC)
• Avast Free Antivirus (PC)
• Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus (PC)
• iAntiVirus Free Edition (MAC)

For paid versions you can't really go wrong with 

• Norton 
• Symantec

But free versions are getting better all the time. Again, these will only take you so far, be aware of social engineering scams and stay away from disreputable sites. Being aware of the danger is the best defense against attacks.

A great place to download these is from CNET's download.com, they even have great reviews to read over about the various programs.

I pulled a lot of information from this article on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10444561-245.html?tag=smallCarouselArea.0

SocialVibe Review

I recommend this application to people looking to help raise money without really having to do too much work and you don't even have to pay for it. 

Quick Summary
According to SocialVibe's website they describe themselves as:

SocialVibe is the leading social media utility connecting people with brands to earn charitable donations using their social media properties.  Members complete and share branded activities to earn points, which translate into positive social impact via micro-donations for the member’s cause of choice.

Essentially SocialVibe lets you choose from a list about 40 "causes" that you can help support. The way you support these causes is by having people fill out survey type interactions that show them advertisements. The advertisements then donate to the cause. Pretty simple.
All you have to do is sign-up for an account or sign-in through your FB account. Then you can share your cause through FB, Myspace, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress. You name it, and you can figure out a way to share your cause and help raise money for it.

Things I Like

• Easy to sign-up and pick a cause. 
• Lots of causes to pick from. 
• You can track your progress for how much difference you are making for your cause. 
• As you get more support, you become eligible for receiving prizes and other goodies. Plus you feel better about yourself because you are making a difference.

Things I Don't Like

• You don't get to see exactly what your cause will be doing with your donation, but that's pretty standard across most donation type situations. 

Honestly, for what the site does, they do it really well. I'm having a hard time thinking of any serious things I don't like. After using the service for a while maybe I'll find something, but as of now I can't see anything major to complain about. 

iPad Impressions

Today I am bringing you a special edition on the newly announced iPad from Apple. If you didn't realize Apple did this, then I'm just not sure....

I cannot offer a recommendation about this product, because I haven't had the chance to play with one. If you want to buy one and send it to me I am completely okay with that. I will provide a recommendation at that point :-)

**Update - Some useful information I have found about the iPad
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10443887-256.html
http://lm.macworld.com/t/865500/7003017/50415/0/
http://lm.macworld.com/t/865500/7003017/50417/0/
http://lm.macworld.com/t/865500/7003017/50430/0/
http://lm.macworld.com/t/865500/7003017/50431/0/

Quick Summary
So Apple released a new device today called the iPad. Its a large iPhone with more power. It's got a 9.7" LED display that runs at 1024X768. Comes in a 16, 32, or 64GB model. It has a specially designed Apple A4 chip that runs at 1GHz. It does Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G (which will cost 30$ a month). Its got a 10 hour battery (wow). It does multitouch and its only about 1.5lbs. Those are the tech specs.
It runs apps from the App Store. You can also get books from their new book store. Read newspapers and magazines. Watch movies and listen to music. Most of the applications have been redesigned and remade for the iPad. What this means is the Mail, Photos, iPod, and most of the other main apps are all more streamlined and specially designed for the touch interface. The result is the iPad is fast, fast, fast.
The iPad is targeted at current iPhone/iTouch users. The idea is you can pick it up and use it perfectly without any hiccups. As far as whether I think I would use one, I don't think so. Essentially its a big iPhone without the phone feature. And while browsing the web with my fingers is cool, I think that for most of what I do the iPad is just not the right tool. I think that due to the price point (499$, come on just make it 500$), lots of people will buy it just to play with it. I saw sales projections for somewhere between 1M-5M.

Things I Like

• Looks cool 
• Super fast
• Newly designed chip (that's the EE dork in me)
• Weight is low
• 10 hour battery

Things I Don't Like

*so I have to say that as much as I think this is a cool product, I have a few major complaints.  

• No multitasking. Seriously WTF, a brand new processor and everything and still you can't listen to pandora while browsing the web. I can do this with my android phone right now!
• No camera. Once again, WTF?!
• No HDMI out. In fact no out period, you have to buy an adapter, for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Even a USB. Even a HDMI. WTF?!
• Go to this site for a longer list of complaints.

MOG Review

I recommend this application for music lovers that are looking for a service that combines their desire to specify songs and get a great internet radio.

Quick Summary
MOG is another internet music listening service, however they have combined some features that have been lacking in others. MOG allows you to search for specific songs, artists, or albums and play them instantly. So imagine this is the service you log onto youtube to do when you are hanging out with friends trying to find a specific song. You can then play the song using their internet player. You can play only that artist, or mix up the station by adjusting a slider to play similar music (this is adjustable which is nice, so you can play more or less of a mix).
MOG is a subscription only service that allows unlimited listening, but you can give their service a test for an hour. As far as music goes I would say the service is very similar to Pandora, but offers many more options for picking and fine-tuning (pardon the pun) the music you want to hear. The price for a subscription is 5$mth or 25$ for 6mths. Pandora charges .99$ for a month of ad-supported unlimited listening or 36$ for a year of high-quality, ad-free radio. Last.fm is a similar service (although free), but their radio service pales in comparison to either of these services and their main focus is on community building and artist discovery.
MOG is much closer to having your itunes collection online, but with the added ability that you can access any song anywhere. Their service is definitely better than Pandora or Last.fm, but lacks the mobile application I desire (for my android phone) and a free option that would entice me to leave Pandora and Last.fm.

Things I Like

• Extremely customizable. I can find music exactly as I want it. Play only one artist, mix it up, and essentially do anything I can with iTunes except that I have an unlimited library.
• Great player with awesome user interface for building playlists, sharing music, seeing lyrics, and finding new music. 
• Awesome site for finding music according to a variety of options and filters. Their site kills Pandora and Last.fm (except last.fm has a better community building feature set).

Things I Don't Like

• Comparably more expensive than Pandora or Last.fm (which although is has ads, is free up to 40 hours, and since I'm a student, any money saved is a good thing)
• No mobile application, which is something both Pandora and Last.fm offer.

Groupon Review

**Really cool service for those that love deals!**

I recommend this service for people looking to get cheap deals to various restaurants, stores, and services located in their city.

Quick Summary
Groupon self describes themselves as "Collective Buying Power". Essentially Groupon = Group + Coupon. The way it works is Groupon promises a business to get a them a certain number of customers by advertising a coupon, that will only get used if enough people buy it. For instance, a cupcake store gives out a coupon for 25$ worth of cupcakes for 12$, but this coupon will only work if at least 15 people buy the coupon. You only get charged if the deal gets enough people to purchase it. You could also purchase coupons for a friend if you think the service is something they will like.

The service works in up to 30 cities, but I'm sure they will be adding more all the time. You can have them email you the deal daily, or follow them on facebook, twitter, or as an RSS feed. Deals are typically at least 50% off and for cool things/services.

For instance today's (Jan 26) is for 50$ worth of 100$ spa services at a spa in SF. Save 50$, not too shabby.

Things I Like

• Saves you money!
• You can log in via facebook to save yourself having to make an account. 
• Super simple and easy to use. Coupons are printed from your computer with a map to the place. You can also read reviews of the service right on the home page without having to search for information about the service. 
• Businesses can use the service as a way to get customers in a cool advertising way. 

Things I Don't Like

• Not always services or things that I would like to purchase. 
• Need more cities! (Only have about 30 right now, but at least SF and SD are on there :-P)

Delicious Review (Social Bookmarking)

**In an effort to make this a more useful blog, I am paring posts down to the essentials. What this means is that I am going to focus more on providing a recommendation, quick summary, and things I like/dislike**

I recommend this service for finding out new trends and keeping your bookmarks backed up online, but not as a bookmark replacement system.

Quick Summary

"Delicious bookmarks is a social bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking." - Delicious Site

In addition, Delicious can show you bookmark trends by displaying the most popular bookmarks in many areas of interest. They also have a search and tagging tool that helps you keep track of your entire bookmark collection.
My understanding of the service is that beyond its basic online backup, delicious is essentially providing a social search function. What I mean by this is that it is search intelligence created by humans. Google uses an algorithm to create its index, delicious uses humans. This means that delicious is creating a contextual search service that has the potential to be more accurate than google can be, providing you with more relevant information.
This service is owned by Yahoo, so you have to use a yahoo ID to join/sign in

Things I Like

• Cloud bookmarks.
• Find websites that are applicable to your needs using their social search.
• Search your bookmarks fast. Find similar bookmarks on their site that have been added by others.
• Way to backup bookmarks online (but not sync).
• Easy to find things you are looking for. 

Things I Don't Like

• You cannot sync bookmarks between computers, only access them through Delicious's website. It requires you to be completely tied to their web interface. You can import bookmarks that already exist in your browser, but they will not be synced if you change anything. 
• It's not an entire replacement for the way that you have your bookmarks on your browser, but rather is more of a discovery tool for finding similar sites to ones that you have bookmarked. 

Out of Contact

Sorry for no blog post on Fri-Sun. I was too busy and then went snowboarding (which was awesome).

BackBlaze Review

I recommend this service for those looking to get a online backup system for their computer. Is 5$mth or 50$yr worth knowing that you can restore your computer if it gets a virus?

Quick Summary
Backblaze is an online backup tool which allows you to backup all data on your computer. It costs 5$/mth per computer for an unlimited amount of space (to test the service you can download a free trial that lasts for 15 days), you can also pay 50$ for a year and save a total of 10$. It backups ALL your data on your computer. You can restore your data from the web or order a USB or DVD to be sent to you via FedEx.

Things I Like

• 5$ a mth for UNLIMITED backup space. I mean you could have terabytes all backed up. That's awesome. 
• The various options for restoring your information.
• Installing the program and starting the backup took about 2 minutes, pretty quick. All I had to provide was an email and password and I had an account.
• You can plug in your external HD, and back that up to. 
• Reports: it's a breakdown of what type of files are backed up (i.e. music, movies, documents, etc...)

Things I Don't Like

• As with most backup systems, the first backup takes forever! You can adjust the speed at which it happens, but it still takes a while.
• How much they charge to order a 4gb DVD (99$).

Using the System

• Once you download and use the automatic install, it immediately asks you to create an account, and then backup commences. That's it. The program lives in the Systems Preferences area, so you never actually have an icon pop-up in your dock, it does have a configurable icon for the menu bar.
• You can adjust a bunch of settings that include: 
• Online name for the computer.
• Throttle - adjust the speed with which the backup is performed.
• Warnings for when you have not backed up within a certain time period
• Show backblaze icon in menu bar
• Select Hard-Drives to backup
• Schedule for backups: continuously, once a day, or when you click
• Exclusions: folders you don't want backed up
• Security: you can add an additional private encryption key
• Reports: a breakdown of the type of files backed up
• Logs
• You also have the option of "Restore Options", where you can go to their online repository or pay to have a USB or DVD sent to you. The DVD costs 99$ and the USB cost 189$. I prefer the download zip option for free. 
• You can pause the backup at any time, or resume at any time. 
• They use "military-grade" encryption to secure data. Essentially its some super complicated algorithms that I won't go into detail over. You can read more about that on their encryption blog post.

That's it. This program is super simple. My "first backup" is still in progress, because its a little slow I will update this post once it has finished. However the program is working great at the moment.

atebit's Tweetie Client Review

**Quick Disclaimer: This application is only available for MAC's or the iPhone. However, I will be illuminating features that you should look for when downloading a twitter client for your PC.

I recommend this client if you don't already have a Twitter client, but it does not possess huge advantages over any other twitter client out there (although it does have some).

Quick Summary
Twitter has made it possible to access their service through a variety of methods. These include clients for your computer, mobile phone, website, text (the list keeps going). The twitter space is crowded with a considerable amount of clients and finding one that works for you is the most important thing.

Tweetie is good because it is very clean and basic. It allows you to quickly shorten urls (see my bit.ly post for more information on url shortening), add photos, and add videos to your posts. It is a clean program that allows you to see your tweets in more of a IM type fashion, rather than just a timeline. Its appearance looks like it was almost built by Apple. This program is also available for the iPhone.

Things I Like

• Clean interface. Functionalities allow you to do everything you want with Twitter. 
• Allows you to see your @ replies, messages, and to search. That's it, nothing else clutters the program. 
• You can add multiple Twitter accounts. 
• By double clicking a user's image, it shows you all the person's tweets. By double clicking a user's tweet it shows you the conversation surrounding that tweet. 

Things I Don't Like

• When I want to send a new Tweet, instead of just giving me a small text box at the bottom of the program, it gives me a pop-up window. While this isn't a huge complaint, it might be cleaner to just have the entry part be part of the main window. 
• As far as functionality goes, it offers pretty much the same use as many other clients out there.

Using the System

You can download a free version from their website, or pay 20 dollars for a copy that doesn't have ads appear. This seems a bit steep for a twitter client, considering how many options there are. So if you don't mind seeing an ad every now and again, going with their free version (which you can use as long as you like) is not a bad route at all.

You don't have to create an account on their website in order to download Tweetie, which is awesome. You just download the program, start it up, it asks you for your twitter name and password, and voila you are using the program. This is a very streamlined process and makes the time required to get the program up and running very small.

The things that you should have in a Twitter client (no matter what platform you use) include timeline, @ replies, messages, and search. It should be able to shorten urls, include photos, and include videos. Most importantly, it should make these things easy to do.

Overall Tweetie stands at the forefront of twitter clients. It does what it needs to and does it well.

**My preferred client for my android phone is Seesmic. If you have one you prefer add it in the comments so people can see what are good clients to try using.

bit.ly Review

I highly recommend using this service.

Quick Summary

Many of you may know about bit.ly already. It is most commonly used as a url shortener for Twitter or to make urls more manageable for emails. However, bit.ly provides more services than simply url shortening. The most important service that is worth mentioning is the ability to track a link's usage (this is explained in detail below), and therefore provide valuable statistics to the person that created the link. This can be very handy if you are trying to gauge the effectiveness of a link. 

Things I Like

• Shortens url to something that does not take up multiple lines in an email or something other form of communication.
• Gives back usage statistics about how much the link is being clicked (details below). 
• Super easy to use and share through various social services.

Things I Don't Like

• While bit.ly has gone out of their way to think of ingenious ways to make it possible to shorten your link, it still takes a little bit of time to actually do the manual shortening. 
• Can't necessarily tell where the link is going depending on how you are viewing the link. In your browser you are supposed to be able to mouse over the link and get a quick preview, but this is browser dependent. 

Using the System

Usage Statistics: bit.ly provides usage statistics for every url that you create. These statistics include number of clicks, traffic broken down by date, referrers (how the person found the link i.e. twitter, facebook, ...), location from where the link was accessed, and various metadata. You are also able to see a total amount of global link usage for bit.ly user that has created a bit.ly link to your long link (so for instance if I create a bit.ly url to google.com, anyone else that made a bit.ly link to google.com will have their clicks included in my global account).

Using bit.ly: To actually use bit.ly it is very simple. You simply paste your long link into a text field, click Shorten, customize the link a bit, and voila you are done.

Tools: In order to make accessing bit.ly as easy as possible, bit.ly has built a number of tools that you can use to access their url shortening service. Most of these tools just provide a different interface for accessing their service, so it really depends on your personal preference. I have listed them here so that you can get a quick idea about the various options 

• Sidebar Bookmarklet: this is a flyout that provides shortening.
• Standard Bookmarklet: this is a link that allows for quickly shortening a url. 
• Browser Extensions: preview links...
• Access through twitter clients
• Access through mobile: m.bit.ly
• Gmail Gadget
• Track click on amazon affiliates

Sign Up Process

The sign-up is very easy. All you provide is a username, email, and password. You can also provide a twitter account at time of signup, if you have one.

** sorry about the formatting, the cat sat on the mouse and keyboard at the same time, i tried to clean it up as best as i could.

Dropbox

I highly recommend this application. The write-up for this is fairly short because the service is extremely easy to understand and use.

Quick Summary
Dropbox is a program that you install on your computer (platform independent) and creates a folder (called dropbox) that is synced across any of your computers that have dropbox installed on it. You can also access your dropbox folder via their website. You can put anything you want in the way of files into this folder.

The amount of space you have in your folder is determined by the type of user you are. You get 2gigs of free storage and any more than that you have to pay for it. The payment options are okay, you get  50gigs for 9.99mth or 100gigs for 19.99mth.

It has completely replaced my USB thumb drives that I used to use to move files around.

Things I Like

• Great way to keep files easily accessible between different computers and get the files from their website. 
• Good amount of free space for storage. By performing certain things (referring friends, etc...) you can increase your storage in 250mb increments.
• You can share folders with friends, which is a great solution for group projects and files that are larger than email will allow you to send. 
• Recent Events: this is a tab on their website that is a feed of all the actions that you have done. Kind of a cool way to see your activity and easily find files. 

Things I Don't Like

• Trying to create an account without downloading their program is not easy to do. They intentionally make it hard to just sign-up for an account without downloading their program. 
• To adjust certain settings (like sharing) you have to use their website interface. 

Sign-up Process

• To sign-up for an account all you need to provide is a first name, last name, email, and password. 
• You can do this by signing up on their website (which isn't all that easy to do because they want you to download their program). 
• You can also sign-up for an account once you have downloaded their program and are installing it. 

Overview of the Service and its Features

• The program creates a folder on your computer called Dropbox (original right?). You can put files into and out of this folder and then it remains synced with all your computers and their website. You can right click on the folders and files to adjust their settings. 
• Their website interface is somewhat like the google docs interface if you are familiar with that. 

This service is extremely simple to use and understand.

Animoto

I recommend trying this application just to see what it does (or watch my video below), but expect some issues because the service isn't too polished just yet. I think using the facebook app could be more appropriate if you have a lot of photos on your facebook. This will allow your friends to see the video you create easier too.

Quick Summary
Animoto is a website that allows you to upload a series of pictures, video, and music, from which animoto's service makes a video from them, automatically. It makes a music video that is completely customized to the soundtrack using a technology that fits the images to the music.  It also allows you to make greeting cards.

To use their free version you can only create videos up to 30 seconds long. To create full-length videos you can buy a all-access pass for 36$yr or 3$ a video. To get videos that are commercially licensed you can pay 249$yr. So as long as you are only making small videos you can use their free service happily, but anything longer than that and you will be left wanting.

Things I Like

• Making a video is very easy and works well. I couldn't make a greeting card without having to pay. You can see the one I made here: 
• Cool idea. Makes videos fast that also look cool. 
• Sign-up process is unique. 
• Facebook app allows an easy way to share with your friends. 

Things I Don't Like

• The website, FB app, and iPhone app are connected very well and almost exist separate of one another. 
• The websites app doesn't allow an easy way to find friends or network with the community. 
• The site needs some serious tweaking to be better in way of workflow, but the actual service that is used to create a video works great.
• Kind of nit-picky, but the color scheme of the website is somewhat hard to read because it is so dark. 

Sign-up Process

• Their sign up screen uses a really cool system that highlights blocks. The different blocks are Email, Password, and About You. The highlighting really helps to read parts of the screen because the color scheme is so dark. It is also fairly original, even if the sign-up information that is being provided is fairly standard.
• What I really like about their sign-up screen is that they provide an explanation for the information they are collecting. 
• After signing up you are taken to a Dashboard type interface.

Overview of the Service and its Features

• You can narrate your videos with text. 
• The service can be used on the iPhone and on Facebook.
• The facebook application uses the animoto's website tool, but pulls in your FB videos and pictures. However, trying to use animoto's website does not pull information from your FB. At least, after spending a few minutes trying to figure out a way to link my two accounts I gave up (I mean if I can't do it quickly, why should I keep trying?)
• The Dashboard allows you to see My Videos (the videos you have made), Friends (I talk more about this below), and iPhone (more below).
• Friends: The only way you can see friends is by having a video shared with you. So there isn't really an easy way to find friends videos unless you are using the FB app (which does let you find friends).
• iPhone: You are able to view your videos from the website and create videos on your iPhone, but you cannot view videos from created on your iPhone on their website. 
• There is also a Music Lounge that lets you browse the built in music the site has, but I don't see myself really using that. 

Creating a Video Process

• You create a video or greeting card by doing a series of things in this order: choose your images/videos, choose your music, and then finalize options for the video. 
• Choosing your images/videos: you can upload images from your computer, select from photos that animoto has on their website, or retrieve photos from another site. Those sites are flickr, facebook, smugmug, picasa, and photobucket. 
• Choosing your music: select from animoto's collection or upload your own music. 
• Finalize: allows you to adjust video length (upgrade your acct to make it longer), the image pacing (1/2 speed, normal speed, or double speed), and the video cover screen. 

Aardvark

I recommend trying this service. If you have an iphone give their mobile app a try if you are interested.


Quick Summary
The main idea behind Aardvark is a search engine with answers provided by humans. You can "ask" a question by typing it into their website or using your iphone application. The questions are then answered by people with relevant experience or knowledge. By creating an account you can start asking and answering questions. The website provides a good way to get appropriate answers to questions that can't be easily searched for. This is a great way of creating community crowd-sourcing.

Things I Like

• Great way to get crowd-sourced, appropriate answers to a question. 
• Easy to use interface. 
• Easy to configure how you want to interact with the site, how you want it to contact you, and your profile. 
• Easy integration with facebook.

Things I Don't Like

• IM Commands page is wayyyy to complicated for me to even considering trying to memorize and use. I'd rather interact with the site through their website or my phone.
• No Android application, only iPhone. (Where's the love?)
• No way to easily browsed asked questions to see if your question has already been answered. 

Sign Up Process
To initially ask a question on their website you need to have an account.
If you want to sign up for an account and join their site you can do so by either creating an account with the site or you can do it by joining using fbConnect.
I tried the fbConnect method and it seemed to work fine. The site pulled in information from my profile to help diagnose my "expertise" on certain topics. You can then fine tune that information to help make it more appropriate.
Once logged in, you have a dashboard type system.

Using the System
When you are logged in you can see along the top of the screen the following options: Home, Profile, History, Network, Share Aardvark!, Help, and Sign Out.

• Under Profile you can adjust your topics (things you know a lot about), settings (how much you want to be contacted, when to contact you, etc...), Nametag and Photo, IM & Email & Twitter addresses, and iPhone (if you have one you can download their application).
• Under History you can see Questions You've Asked, Answers You've Given, Referrals You've Sent. Pretty straight forward. 
• Under Network you can access Entire Network, Friends, and Friends-of-friends. Essentially it took my facebook networks (like berkeley, san diego) and ported them over. My friends were made of FB friends.
• When you click on Share Aardvark it brings up a page that allows you to send messages to friend through your email, twitter, facebook. This is pretty standard. 
• Under Help you see FAQ, Enabling IM, IM Commands, Tips and Etiquette, and Community. Under the FAQ you can be told how the site got its name, how it works, so on and so on. IM Commands gives you a page of commands you can use to interact with the site. Tips and etiquette are a good way to get an explanation on how to interact with the community.

Along the bottom of the website is a menu that allows access to all the items in the top menu, except that it is expanded at all times.

That is a breakdown of the features of the site.