Back from Exile…

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve been absent from the blogging scene. There have been a couple of reasons for that. The excuses range from summer to running to kids to work. They aren’t good excuses, but they are there nonetheless.

What I do want to share is what I’ve been up to and what I’ve got loaded up for you.

• WordPress 3.0 – If you don’t know what WordPress is, don’t be too concerned. It is simply the behind the scenes stuff that takes all this information that I have a makes it all pretty for you to look at. A new version is out and I’m going to be upgrading soon. Hopefully it doesn’t wreck my site!
• Sprint HTC EVO – So I’ve been a staunch BlackBerry guy for years now. But for years, BlackBerry has been standing still while new mobile operating systems like Android and iPhone OS (now known as iOS) have been making huge leaps and bounds. The iPhone is firmly planted at AT&T so that is out of the question, but Sprint, my carrier of choice, recently got a major Android phone called the EVO. I’ll fill you in on all its amazingness soon.
• Friday Night Links – This has been the thing I’ve been missing most over the past month or two. I’ve got a bunch of great stuff that I’ve been saving but just couldn’t get put up because Friday nights have been busy, busy, busy.
• offcolortv.com – So this isn’t anything coming up but my Biggest Loser blog over there had a huge thing happen. Fan favorites Sunshine and Oatmeal ended up answering questions over there for everyone. It was pretty amazing to have them there to do that. On a secondary note, I’m going to be doing admin stuff for offcolortv.com, so that would include making improvements and upgrades as well as tweaking the look. I’m trying to figure out how to put each author’s picture in their post, so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

That is about it for the moment, but expect a second post tonight about my low-tech obsession as of late.

Google: The Rest of the Story…

So far we’ve covered the biggest tools that Google offers. I use Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Voice pretty much everyday. I find Google Docs invaluable for opening PDF files since Adobe Reader is such a slow and bloated piece of software. I have a new found love for Picasa and will most likely become a shut-in as I spend the next couple of weekends working on our photo collection.

However, Google has numerous tools that while I use with very sparse frequency, I’ve still found them to be well designed and useful.

Google Desktop

Imagine having the Google search box for the content on your computer. Imagine no more. Google Desktop is a powerful search tool for indexing and searching everything on your computer. To start up any program, you can just type in the name in Google Desktop, click, and go.

Google Earth

Admittedly, Google Earth is probably one of the coolest programs on God’s green internet. Once you download the program, you can begin exploring the Earth (both on land and under the sea) in 3D with real shading and textures. Cities contain 3D renderings of actual buildings. You can fly right by the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. Just be careful, since all the renderings get downloaded to your computer, this can start weighing down your computer quickly.

Google Groups

Need to organize people scattered across all those places you just looked up on Google Earth? Then you need Google Groups. You can organize in whatever type of group you want, invite others to join a private group, or leave the group open to the public. Or you can join a group that already exists. Groups can be customized visually with graphics and colors. Users can upload videos and pictures. It is a great collaboration tool and can be a fun way to socialize with other who have similar interests.

Google News

Google News is a bit more pedestrian than most other Google tools in that it simply aggregates the most popular news and allows you to browse. It does also allow you to great custom news feeds with topics that interest you and it allows you to enter your location (zip, city, or state) to get local news.

YouTube

Alright, so YouTube actually might be the most popular Google service there is, but I’ll admit, I’ve watched quite a bit of YouTube, but I’ve never uploaded a video and I’m embarrassed about that because I am such a techie and that is a really simple and easy thing to do. Perhaps after I get my photo collection all sorted out.

If you have any questions about any of these or other Google services and tools, you can always contact The Digitante by heading to the About page to find my email address, clicking on the Google Voice widget, or you can also visit me on Twitter by following clicking on my Twitter button. The Google Voice widget and the Twitter button are both on the right hand column of the website.