Rob Liesland » Services

Gboard

robhyland — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:58:41 +0000

I just learned about a device that exists called the Gboard, I have never seen or heard of anything like it, and I think it rocks. How cool to have a keyboard just for Gmail shortcuts? Bluetooth would be good, but maybe that will come out with the next one.

Ever seen anything like this? Let me know.

MozyHome

robhyland — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:21:50 +0000

I keep a lot of stuff on my machine and I am not interested in spending a lot of money on an external backup solution, so I decided to give MozyHome a try. I like the offsite nature of it, and the fact that I don’t have to do anything other than install their little app.

What I would love to see from the program is the ability to archive files. I have a bunch of pictures that are not on my local machine that I would love to backup off site.

New Google Search Page?

robhyland — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:39:52 +0000

I was just reading this article comparing Google Search and Bing and I decided to check out both pages. I usually do most of my searching via the Chrome ‘Omnibox,’ or whatever it is called. When I went to www.google.com I noticed that it had a different, slicker appearance than I was used to. The buttons were styled diferently. And then, after about 3 seconds, more content faded in. Anyone know anything about this? How long has it been like this? There are some screenshots in the review I was reading and they don’t even match the new look and feel.

I think they might also be doing some browser sniffing, because it looked better in Chrome than in IE – and not just the normal stuff. It looked like different styles were being applied.

Importing from Blogger ftp to WordPress

robhyland — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:27:26 +0000

When I first heard that blogger was disabling its ftp service I figured I would just import by blogs into WordPress. It turns out that the WordPress importer for blogger doesn’t support ftp. Here is a simple solution:

Log into blogger and select the blog you want to import into WordPress.
Go to Settings->basic and export your blog.
Create a new blog, in blogger, and import the export you just created.
Import this new blog into WordPress using the WordPress importer (tools->import).
Delete the blog you created for import/export purposes.
Drink a Coke.

Goodbye, Blogger

robhyland — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:46:45 +0000

For the past 6 years I have maintained my family’s blog using blogger, but they apparently decided to cut the ftp service. I have been thinking of moving the blog to WordPress for some time now, so I guess I have a good excuse to do so. I have enjoyed my time with blogger, and will definitely miss it. One thing I liked about blogger is that I could maintain separate blogs and ftp them all to my one web site. Now I need to find another solution.

DrPic.com

robhyland — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:14:40 +0000

I was helping my kids’ principal with the school newsletter and she was having an issue with a Word document that was too big (8MB). She was on her school computer with no way to resize the 3 huge images she was trying to insert. I was thinking about our options when she said, “What about picture doctor dot com?” I had never heard of such a thing, but after a little searching, I found it.

DrPic.com is certainly not going to replace PhotoShop anytime soon, but it worked great for her. I don’t know that I will ever use it, but it is nice to know it exists.

Google Wave Notifier

robhyland — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:50:48 +0000

IMO, if you are using Google Wave, you need the Google Wave Notifier plugin for firefox.

One thing I don’t like about Google Wave is that it does not integrate with gmail. Since not many people are on yet, I don’t like to check it all the time because I don’t get a lot of activity. Google Wave Notifier puts a little notifier in your browser status bar, alerting you to a new wave. I dig it.

Embedding Google Wave

robhyland — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:23:53 +0000

One cool thing you can do with Google Wave is embed it in a page. I am not quite sure where this will come into practical use, but it is pretty cool. I have embedded a test Wave into a page on my site to see where it goes.

»Check it out

DM Trails on Google Maps

robhyland — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:12:04 +0000

What I love about Google web apps is that they are constantly improving, without taking a step backwards. With some apps (facebook) I feel like they are two steps forward, one step back, but Google gradually integrates new features enhancing the user experience. Not only that, but the features don't require a learning curve. They are usually automatic, optional, or intuitive.

Aside from Gmail and Google Calendar, the app that I use the most is Google Maps. We moved to Des Moines almost a year ago and I have used Google Maps a lot as I try to figure out my way around town. I have also use Gmaps Pedometer, which utilizes the Google Maps API, to plot out my runs. Today I was pleasantly surprised to see that Google Maps has added many of the Des Moines bike trails, making my life even easier.

Google Wave

robhyland — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:56:09 +0000

I got my Google Wave account yesterday. I am not yet sure what I am going to do with it, but I think it shows some promise. The first thing I am wishing for is integration with Gmail. There aren't many people using Wave yet, so it will be cool when I can interact with them.