3 Troughs

Okay I’m going to adopt this triple feed reader strategy. Bloglines has served me well over the years, so well that I haven’t even moved to their new Beta version. I just love how simple, fast and easy the old version is, even better than the fancy AJAX-y expanding/collapsing in the Beta. So I’m going to keep feeds that I find to be of value, but which require some in-depth reading (ie. time), in Bloglines.

Unfortunately, Bloglines for mobile phones has a lot to be desired. Since Google Reader came out with a new implementation of its Mobile Reader, I’m going to migrate some of my feeds to that to try it out. Since I’d mainly be reading RSS feeds on my iPhone when I’m on the go, I figure it’d be nice to have access to news feeds and blogs that update frequently, as well as feeds that can be read and scanned quickly, so not too many pictures (Cute Overload and Cukisàg are staying in Bloglines!). I also really like the Sharing feature as implemented in GReader, which is miles easier and better than how Bloglines does it. So I look forward to being able to use that.

As for the third – I’ve been using iGoogle for some of the funner things, like Quotes, Overheard, and AppleInsider, since those stories aren’t urgent. I think I may keep those there. And I used to use My Yahoo! all the time, for Reuters and for “Oddly Enough” wire articles. But I haven’t visited My Yahoo! in months, and hardly missed it! So bye-bye, My Yahoo!

The only snag so far is that I haven’t quite figured out which feed would work best where. And del.icio.us popular is running on all three feed readers. I can’t decide where it fits! It might just stay on all three. (Check out del.icio.us 2.0 by the way, it’s nice).

Filed under: web2.0

iPhone!!!

i’m trying to figure out how to maximize my productivity using my new…iPhone! Well, it’s not brand-new. I spied a pretty good deal for it on Craigslist and found the seller to be pretty trustworthy, so I bought the original, 1st-gen phone. I think it’s worth it because I don’t need to pay an extra $20 a month for faster data speed.

In fact, I was originally gonna unlock it so that I could just keep my regular voice plan, disable EDGE, and go with just the WiFi, but I ended up activating it (which took exactly 3 minutes via iTunes), and now, after getting a taste of EDGE-speed access, I think it’s all right, worth the $15/month I have to pay.

Anyway, as soon as I activated and the Home screen appeared, it was Love. I’ve decided to name it Helmut.

Right now I’m loving Tap Tap Revenge, and Scribble, and the Maps application. Pandora would be cooler if you could run it in the background, and Twitterific would be better if it notified you of new tweets, like the desktop Twhirl app does. Maybe they should make Growl for the iPhone! Also, why do they constantly need to know where I’m located? That’s annoying and they should allow you to disable it.

Anyway, what I would like is for an effective way to tap in notes and tasks, and to get reminders, preferably without using SMS since I”m limited to 200 messages a month. Unfortunately, Remember the Milk isn’t free. So I’ll be working with gCal I think. And Twitter, I imagine.

Filed under: best thing, fun

nerd whine

Is it just me, or did the Mouse Gestures add-on change in Firefox 3? I use the “down-right” gesture to close tabs and windows, but now if there’s only one tab open (ie, a single web page in the window), I can’t close the window with the gesture anymore! I have to use the keyboard or *shudder* move the mouse all the way over to the red “close” button!

It’s annoying.

Filed under: computer , addons, firefox, mouse gestures

at the supermarket: trader joe’s fruit floes

These popsicles are excellent, with chunks of fruit and all sweetness and light with no artificial ingredients. I’m a big fan of the strawberry, and I just bought a box of Caribbean-flavored fruit floes, which contain chunks of pineapple and even coconut, and those are really good too.

The lime flavored ones are good as well, with just a touch of bitterness that reminds me of tonic. Great for a hot summer day!

The bars are a good size (flat), not too melty, and at $2 for a box of 4, a pretty good deal.

Note: I know about 70% of the products in this recurring feature are from Trader Joe’s, but I promise I’m not a shill for them, really! I just shop there more than I do anywhere else, so my sample’s biased. There’s a fair amount of stuff at TJ’s that’s a little on the crappy side, but for the most part they seem pretty transparent, trustworthy, and reasonably-priced, so they’ve got my loyalty. I had a friend who worked for them and liked it too, so they also get points on that front.

Filed under: food

And get off my lawn, etc etc

You know what makes me feel old? remembering a time when planning long trips entailed estimating how many rolls of film you had to buy. =P

That said, a lot of people don’t realize that film is still superior to digital in every way except convenience (and price). Not sure what to do about that, except to feel sad that film production is on its way out, and hope that real archivists do their job well enough to ensure that photochemical and optical methods of enjoying moving images persist well into the next century.

Filed under: Uncategorized

everything’s going to get lost

My family has to move out of our house in six weeks! The owners have decided to come back from wherever they’ve been for the past 20-odd years. I’m not sure exactly how long my parents have known they’d have to move out by mid-August, but they didn’t break the news to me until…let’s see…today!

They’ve been looking at houses and it looks like they’ve made an offer on one in Buena Park. It doesn’t really matter to me where they ultimately decide to live, but I’m not sure how I feel about moving out of my childhood home! That’s always a sad thing to see pass.

More urgently, though, I’m not so sure how to deal with the fact that I’m going to have to do some serious deep-cleaning and discardia within the next five weeks!

Filed under: Uncategorized

making progress

i think i know enough python now to be dangerous. as in, i’m glad i bought a new hard drive yesterday because i’m going to have to back up my machine regularly in case i accidentally write a program that deletes something important.

don’t laugh, it’s happened before =T

Filed under: computer

dog stories

A couple of friends of mine are driving up to SF this weekend, and two of them asked me to housesit/dogsit for them while they’re gone. I of course leapt at the chance, as I love their dogs AND their apartment is awesome. Plus they said there’d be a lot of leftover booze in the fridge from the party they’d had last weekend. If any of you guys happen to be hanging around near Beverly Hills/Century City that weekend, you know who to call!

Apparently my family had planned on going cherry-picking this weekend, so my mom was a bit miffed to find that I’d gone and made plans already. I don’t know. I guess I could’ve backed out, but to be honest I’m already chafing here, and feel like I should take every chance I get to stay in LA awhile longer.

In other news, this one job interview I’m up for has been going insanely, and slowly, to the point where I’m no longer sure I’d be willing to take this full-time one, even if I were to get it. I stand a 50-50 chance of that right now, since it’s down to me and some other candidate. But if the interview process is this demanding, I don’t know what I’ll do if the job turns out to be even more so. I think the fact that I’m even considering going on even now is a sign that it IS awesome enough to keep trying for; I’m trying not to overthink/second-guess myself, so keeping on trucking is what i’ll be doing.

And I hope it isn’t just the fact that two fluffy and adorable dogs play around the workspace there that’s making me want to continue.

Filed under: Uncategorized