Hello, I'm Evan. I write about tech from my perspective – that of the average tech geek, sometimes with my lawyer glasses on. You can also find me on Twitter and at my real-life job as a lawyer. MORE ABOUT ME.
Being a tech fanatic can be a bit disheartening if you’re not in a tech job. You’re aware of all sorts of great tech tools, but have no reason to use them (hello, Google Wave). Some tech apps, though, actually are useful in non-tech jobs. Here’s our take on five of them. Do you have some tech tools that you use in a job that isn’t tech-focused? If so, let us know in the comments.
If you’re a blogger who uses FeedBurner for your RSS feed, have you noticed occasional FeedBurner glitches that result in large fluctuations in the number of reported subscribers for your site? We sure have. Numbers seem to have stabilized lately, but it isn’t uncommon to read complaints from bloggers whose subscriber counts have fluctuated dramatically on occasion. Some bloggers that are considering publishing their subscriber count might hesitate to do so when they realize how erratic these numbers can be when the inevitable glitch strikes.
The site Cats Who Blog has some PHP code you can use in a WordPress blog to take an average of your subscriber count for 7 days, and publish it on your site. The site also provides instructions on how to use a different time window, if you want a time period other than 7 days. The site also explains how to get round numbers, and what will display on the site:
On my sidebar, I’m using my “average feed readers” function to display an estimate of my RSS readers. In order to have a better display, I have replaced the last two numbers by zeros and added a plus sign.
This way, if I have 1287 readers, you’ll see “1200+ readers” instead.
Hit the link for full instructions.
How to Get a More Relevant Feedburner Count [Cats Who Blog]
Traveling around the Internet, it is impossible to miss Tweet buttons on websites. You know what Tweet buttons are – those buttons that say “Retweet” or “Tweet This” at the beginning or end of posts. The big player in Tweet buttons was, until last week, TweetMeme. Now, though, Twitter itself has thrown its hat into the ring, teaming with TweetMeme to create an official Tweet Button. In fact, the official Tweet Button works much the same way that the TweetMeme button works.
One of the drawbacks of most notetaking apps is that they require you to fire up an app or a website, and log in to an account before you can start typing. What if you want to quickly enter a note from your computer, that you can later access from any browser? Digitizd (one of our favorite sites) took a look at one such app, notepad.cc. Notepad.cc is simple. Just go to the website, and you're presented with a mostly blank page. Type your note, and then just use the URL from the address bar to access that note from any browser (when you visit notepadd.cc, you're redirected to a page with a unique address). That's all that there is too it.
If you want, you can change the URL to something of your choosing. You also have the option of adding a password to the page, if you want some security or privacy to the note.
On its auxiliary site, Digitizd Plus, Digitizd also looked at using Notepad.cc as a universal clipboard. The article explained how the cross-platform nature of Notepad.cc is a great way to get a link or other text from one computer to another, just by copying and pasting, and then opening Notepad.cc on the other computer.
One drawback? Don't lose the URL of your note, or it is lost forever.
For a more detailed look at notepad.cc, check out the writeup on Digitizd, or the look at Notepad.cc as a univeral clipboard on Digitizd Plus.
notepad.cc [via Digitizd]
This is the first of a few articles over the coming weeks that will evaluate potential alternatives to Google Wave, which Google is discontinuing. Check out Part II (Google Services) and Part III (Socialwok).
While many people had no use for Google Wave, the recent announcement of its impending demise is a disappointment for those who found it to be a useful tool. Are you looking for a replacement? If so, come along with us as we try out some alternatives over the coming weeks. The first candidate that we’ve tried out is Zenbe Shareflow, a tool that is surprisingly Wave-like. Read on for our impressions, and then let us know in the comments what you think of it.
