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How often do have save bookmarks in your web browser? How many are categorized into appropriate folders? Finally how often do you revisit the majority of the links you saved?

I admit I only revisit no more than 10 percent (and that is a high number) of the web sites I have bookmarked. Why? 1.) After filing them away I forget they are there, 2.) Other things in life and online knock a lot of those things off the radar 3.) Other than knowing I may need that information “one day” I don’t have compelling incentives to make regular return visits

My future plans are 1.) see if any of the sites I visited a long time ago have RSS feeds and either subscribe to them in my news reader 2.) Cull information from static sites and save them in an informational database. I’m seriously looking at programs like Yojimbo to manage my information and set priorities on it. 3.) Seriously ask myself if I really need the links and delete a lot of them and only keep the one I know I will be revisiting on a regular basis in my bookmarks bar.

Hopefully Microsoft, Apple, Opera and the Mozilla corporation are rethinking the bookmarks concept. I know some progress is being made and Del.icio.us is an interesting alternative I have been playing with more and more.

Yes, I know the monkey washing the cat was a little out of character for this blog but I have a strange sense of humor so expect those odd, quirky things to creep in from time to time. My postings on this blog have been low the past week or so but I’ve been working on meeting some deadlines and have also been involved in some training to grow our business.

I may have mentioned this before but my tendency is to be a very “big picture” person and discovering and concentrating niches do not come easy for me. As soon as I was writing this I got a Twitter notification from fellow blogger, Chris Brogan in which is made a blog post called, 100 Blog posts I hope you write. Thanks Chris! I have bookmarked that post and and this post I will cover your #5, Technology that Empowers Me.

This particular blog is focused on helping people find ways they can be empowered by technology and not fear it so this topic really hits home. Last night I was attending a class I am taking called, Fasttrac Techventure in which we are learning as Entrepreneurs how to take our ideas to the next level and create a viable business. While I can’t go into deep detail I will share I am working on a project that will help both companies and individuals with their creative workflow. This is the reason got excited about technology in the first place. I didn’t get involved with technology because I love wires and circuits. I have a passion for technology because it allows me to organize, develop and share my ideas and creation in exciting ways.

During the early to mid 90’s I went through a bad slump where I didn’t write. This is coming from someone who majored in Mass Communication and minored in creative writing in college. I’m so thankful for blogging, micro-blogging, web forums and similiar technologies because they have gotten me excited about writing again.

I’m so thankful for digital photography and photo editing software. When I was younger I would have to spend what I considered a good bit of money to print photos and often I was disappointed when things were printed that were just plain bad. Technology allows me to experiment with photography in ways that would never have been feasible when I was younger.

Finally for most of my life I have been an introvert and despite what you hear about computer nerds being stuck in dark basement away from social situations it couldn’t be further from the truth for me. I’ve been able to create a business where I am forced to interact with other people to make money, share my creative works and to understand people of other backgrounds a lot better.

You can either see technology as something that brings fear and confusion or you can use it to empower you to live up to your potential.

In a past post I brought forth my frustration with how e-mail is used for the wrong reasons. One of the ways people abuse e-mail is by sending photos to friends and family. While one or two low resolution photos may be fine it’s not the best habit to get into. Yes, it is easy (at least for some people) to attach a photo and send it along.  The following is a list of reasons you should use photo sharing service instead of sending photos as e-mail attachments.

1.)  Large attachments can slow down the delivery of other e-mail messages as it usually involves an extra and sometimes technical step of resizing the photos for e-mail.

2.)  It gives the view a choice of downloading the photo or keeping it on the web for viewing

3.)  Some photo sharing services like Flickr have the ability to add subject tags as well as the ability to overlay information to explain parts of the photo better. For a good example see an arial photo I took and uploaded to my Flickr account.

4.) Other people have the potential of discovering your photos and you have the potential of making new friends who have the same interests as you.

5.)  It’s another way to backup valuable memories.

6.) Some services and operate at a photo blog

7.) Your viewers have the chance to order prints as opposed to the old way of requesting you get duplicates printed or asking for your negatives.

Next time you are tempting to send a one or a group of photos think again and consider the advantages of using a photo sharing services.  Flickr is my photo sharing service of choice but they are other options.  Here is a good list of current service you can check out.

In a previous post I talked about how you could use Firefox as an alternative browser as opposed to the default ones that may come installed by default on you computer like Internet Explorer on Windows or Safari on a Mac.

Interestingly enough their is a great browser out there that in many areas outperforms Internet Explorer and Firefox and that browser is Opera.  One reason I think Opera had a very hard time being accepted as an alternative browser is for quite a long time the developers charged for it and people had gotten used to using something that was free or a part of what they had.  Later Opera decided to be ad supported and now it’s totally free of charge.

According to Wikipedia Opera is available in Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems as well as being available on game consoles like the Nintentdo Wii and large variety of Smart Devices like  cell phones, etc.

You might be pleasantly surprised at how fast Opera loads web sites and provides many other features that can make your day a lot more productive.

I recently read an interview of  Jon von Tetzchner, the founder and CEO of Opera. It’s quite a fascinating read.  If you are looking to use an alternative browser consider Opera. I definitely plan on using it more in my business as we develop sites that are not only optimized for the great web audience but for all kinds of portable media and non tradition screens like the TV via a device like the Wii.

E-mail is one of the most used and most abused technologies. Perhaps those two go hand in hand as something that is more often used has the potential to be abused as well. A lot of people will use e-mail because they know it and are comfortable with it but more often than not it can be like using a hammer when a screw driver is the tool for the job. Yes, the “job may get done but more often than not you will wind up making a mess and causing more problems than fixing them.
Among some of the ways e-mail is used when they are better tools are;

• Sending large files
• Sending short “chatty” messages
• rebroadcasting rumors and hoaxes
• sending and receiving newsletters
• sending confidential information
• Sharing photos

Are you using e-mail to do the above? Do you know about FTP (secure ftp preferred), Instant messaging, microblogging, free blogs, using an RSS news reader, the telephone, photo sharing sites, social networks, etc?

Would you use other tools besides e-mail if you knew about the other tools better? How can we help?

A lot of people will be content with the software that come on the computer when they purchase the machine. Current example of this are Internet Explorer on Window based machines and Safari on modern day Macs. I will also admit that if you are used to using something it’s hard to switch for the sake of switching.

The web browser I used most of the time is Firefox and it was not easy to convert. A few years ago my main computer for work was a Windows based computer running either Windows 2000 or Windows XP and for a long time I put up with Internet Explorer as my main browser but when popup ads, having multiple windows open and increasing security concerns mounted I finally made the commitment to switch to using Firefox, a product of the Mozilla Foundation which came about as a project to reprogram the original Netscape, the original “mass-market” browser. I currently us a MacBook Pro as my main computer and even though Safari (a very good browser) came installed by default I still chose to use Firefox as my main browser and on everyday basis. Since I made the switch to Firefox Microsoft has added features to Internet Explorer in version 7 like added security, tabbed browsing, better popup blocking, etc. I’m glad Microsoft has made those additions to Internet Explorer but I still find the Internet Explorer interface annoying and not as user friendly as Firefox.

I recently saw a great post at Lifehacker.com on Top 10 Firefox extensions that don’t require extensions (additions to the program that don’t come in the initial install).  It’s a great list and I know of at least one more that I love is the live bookmarks feature which allows bookmarks to show recent updates to the web site with out visiting the site first. This is done by using RSS which I have mentioned in the past.

I’ll be talking about the other current options in future posts. What do you use and why?  Internet Explorer, an Internet Explorer “overlay” like Maxthon, Safari on the Mac or PC, Opera, what?

I was speaking to someone in one of my business networks today going over some procedures regarding some new responsibilities I am taking over as president of a local chapter. In the course of the conversation I shared some alternatives with her in regards to sending large attachments in e-mail and also possible file sharing and collaboration solutions. She mentioned that she sometimes had difficulty sending large file attachments via e-mail and that is understandable as they are often limits as well as issues with time outs, etc. I suggested she try the Yousendit service from Yousendit.com . Yousendit is basically a service where the user can upload big files via their browser and the receiver get a link in their e-mail where they can download the file. I will frequently recommend this service or similiar services because e-mail was not designed to handle large files even though people will use it for that reason.

As we progressed in the conversation I realized a better solution to her needs was one of the online “virtual office” services offered by 37signals.com. From what I can tell the Basecamp product was probably the best solution for her needs and the more I look at it I think my business will be using it soon.

It really hit me when she said she had not heard of either service and that I hold back a lot of the good things I know or maybe I should explore ways to share the treasures I find that can help others. Making this post is a small attempt to correct how I communicate with others.

What products or services have known about or used for awhile but have neglected to share with friends, family, co-workers or clients?

Lately I have been receiving a lot of e-mail I know are spam and could potentially be very dangerous. The current batch of spam or phishing e-mails which address to my e-mail box have the body of the message start off by saying;

Hi. Class Mate

Hmm… Well I haven’t taken formal classes except for certification courses since 1990. Could it be a college, high school or earlier classmate? Truth be told it’s none of those but the spammer is hoping someone who does have classmates will fall for the e-mail scam. From what I have been reading clicking on the links in this e-mail activates a “worm” which in turn uses your computer to send out more spam.

Another generic aspect of the same e-mail is their is no defined purpose for sending the so called, digital postcard. Finally the web address they want me to click on is not a real web address but is an undefined I.P. address. by the way an I.P address is a series of numbers that any web address has but domain name system was developed to make finding and referencing web sites more user friendly.

Please be aware of this kind of e-mail at has at least 3 warning flags as I mentioned above. Information week has additional information on what is called the storm worm.

This post is a very simple one but it’s one where I need to admit I am guilty of not using the most obvious methods of getting help and information when I am stumped. One of my favorite Far Side cartoons involves and man and his wife out for a drive. The wife get on to her husband when she tells him, “look where the earth is! Move over and let me drive!” For some reason they took way too many wrong turn and were driving on the moon. In a lot of ways I am the typical man who hates to stop and ask for directions. I always like to try and figure it out for myself. Yes, I love to explore and learn that way but in doing so one wastes more time than they need. let me point out two technology aids and more low-tech aid for getting information quickly;

1.) The help file or section: Ever get stumped with a computer program? Most programs come with a quick way to access help on how to use the program. Access to the help section is usually in the upper right or right most part of the tool bar (list of words) at the top of the program window. The help file usually has several ways to search for information you need. A table of contents outlining the features of the program, an Index where you can search for common terms and a search or find section where you can look up your question by typing in related words. I see quite a few web sites that are also including “help” or FAQ section. Be sure to look for these helpful resources.
2.) Internet Search Engines: The search engine Google has become so popular that the term “Google it” has become commonplace in people’s vocabulary when some asks a question. A lot of people how don’t know how to use the search engines to the fullest however. One of the key “tricks” is to put the term or question in quotation marks in the search box. Another thing a lot of people don’t know or forget to do is use what’s called Boolean logic. It sound complicated and advanced but all it really means is using certain words and logical symbols to narrow down results. For example typing in “Patrick Greer” + Multimedia will give you the line to the contact form on my business web site as the first result.(as of 6/8/2006) This same methods will work at google.com , yahoo.com, ask.com and msn.com with varying results.

3.) Finally we can always ask an expert in person. From time to time I have had to swallow my pride, turn into some gas station and ask for directions. Nobody knows everything and it’s extremely prideful to think otherwise.