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Money in Your Pocket, Not Your Gas Tank

Posted on June 24, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Read

According to the federal government’s fuel efficiency website, here:

“The difference between a car that gets 20 MPG and one that gets 30 MPG amounts to $1,020 per year (assuming 15,000 miles of driving annually and a fuel cost of $4.08).

That’s $5,100 extra in fuel costs over five years!”

Gas prices continue to go up and up, with no real end in sight. There are, however, a number of ways to save some money on your gas, and make your traveling life a bit cheaper, not to mention easier.

“The Bargainist,” a great site in and of itself, always looking to save you money (the site is here), published a list of “20 Tips to Save Money on Gas.”

The tips range from simply keeping your car maintained on a regular basis to not driving at all, and telecommuting. Some of the tips are really helpful, some strike me as dumb. Let’s think- if I walk, and don’t drive, then I probably won’t spend money on gas! Woah. Revolutionary. And really? A fuel efficient car means it uses less gas? Weird.

Anyway, a lot of the tips are really good. Keeping your tires properly inflated is a big one, and they mention parking in shade to save gas, which had never occurred to me, but makes a lot of sense.

The whole article is here. Given that gas is on its way to costing your first-born child per gallon, no tip that saves you gas money is a bad one. You might need that first-born child. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Read

Posted in Apps, Features | Tagged Driving, Money, Read | Leave a reply
8 Reasons to Get an Unlimited Texting Plan

Posted on June 23, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | 1 Comment

Explore

Not so long ago, letters were the primary mode of communication. Then it became email. Now, the trend seems to be tipping toward SMS, or text messaging.

Texting allows people to send short, quick messages between cell phones. Since it seems almost everyone these days has a cell phone, and always has it with them, it’s the easiest way to get in touch with someone quickly.

You can, however, use a text message to do a lot more than just talk to your friends. Here are 8 of the best and most helpful things you can do, just with a simple text message.

Update Twitter
Twitter is a popular micro-blogging site, located here. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you should get one. It’s a great, simple way to update what you’re doing, where you are, and stay updated on your friends as well. A text message to 40404 will update your Twitter account.

Never Be Late
Need to get your laundry in an hour? Need to remember to pick up the kids in 3 hours? Follow the Timer bot on Twitter, and send it a text message. For instance, send “d timer switch laundry 3:30″ to 40404 (Twitter again- get the account), and it will send you a text message reminding you. “d” for direct message, “timer” for timer, and then your reminder time. Or, you can say “pick up kids 1 hour” and it will remind you in an hour. It’s saved me a number of times. Really helpful.

Track Your Expenses
I use Xpenser, an up-and-coming money manager, a way to track where your money goes. I wrote about it a while ago, here. Anytime you spend money, you send a text to your account with “exp type $ notes,” and it keeps your money tracked. It’s really helpful, and does a great job of helping me figure out why I’m broke all the time.

Text Google
Send a text to Google (466453) with any number of things, and Google’s looking out for you. Here are the things you can do, fom the Google website:

Get Driving Directions
This is part of the above, but worth its own note. Are you lost all the time? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. And you’re not lost for long. Send “directions,” followed by the address where you are and the address you want to find to Google (466453), and you’ll get a return text with the directions. Sometimes it takes more than one message, but it’ll get you out of a jam.

Get Questions Answered
Even though Google will answer your questions, it’s not the best. For the best, go to ChaCha. It’s a website too, but is designed for the phone. You can call also, but the easiest thing to do is send a text message to 242242. You ask a question, and a live human being answers it for you. The answers are usually really good- use it to win a bet, or just generally look brilliant.

Get Movie Times/Buy Movie Tickets
Though Google offers this too, Fandango does a great job of movie times through SMS. Text the movie title and your zip code to 36436, and it sends back the listings. Some carriers even let you buy tickets!

Find a Starbucks
This one’s not as important, since there are Starbucks’ everywhere you look. If, by some miracle, you can’t see a Starbucks, then send your zip code to MYSBUX (697289) and you’ll get a response with the three closest locations.

If you’re interested, here are more lists of things to do with text messaging. There are a ton out there- the ones above are my favorites, but there are certainly a lot more of them. Here are a few sites:

16 Things You Can Do with SMS Text Messages

Five Great Things You Can Do With a Text Message For Free

Use Your Mobile Phone to Stay Organized On the Go

13 Ways to use Google SMS

Posted in Apps, Features | Tagged Cell Phones, Explore, Mobile, SMS | 1 Reply
Make Yourself, Your Life, and Your World More Efficient

Posted on June 23, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

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Productivity is sort of a hobby of mine. Learning how to do things better, more effectively, more efficiently- it’s something of a game for me. David Allen, with his “Getting Things Done,” is a definite hero of mine.

My desire to learn how to be productive comes from being lazy. I want to do things without expending effort, to do the least possible work for the most possible output.

To help me (and hopefully you) on that quest, Evan Carmichael, on his blog (here) created a list of “The Top 50 Productivity Blogs of the Year.” It’s a list of everything from GTD blogs, including David Allen’s, to some more broad-spectrum life tips, of ways to make your life a bit more efficient, and make you happier. The whole list is here.

I don’t entirely agree with the order of the list- Merlin Mann, a godfather of productivity blogging, ought to be a lot higher than 12. However, pretty much everything is there, except for one glaring oversight: Lifehacker, here. Lifehacker is HUGE, really important to me. I like it a lot.

Not everything on the list is great, but it’s got some really important stuff, and things that will make your life more productive, simple, and effective. I hope you all find something.

Enjoy!

Posted in Features | Tagged Blogs, Get More Done, GTD, Read | Leave a reply
If You Hate Doing Laundry…

Posted on June 20, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Lighter Side

…then I’ve got the solution for you. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I can’t make doing laundry easier, or happen less. I do, however, have a solution for making the process go faster.

I’m terrible- TERRIBLE- at folding laundry. I take about 10 minutes for every piece of clothing, and end up wrinkling everything worse. There’s one little trick, however, that figuring out made my life a lot easier.

Before I head out for the weekend, I thought I would share this with you. It’s a folding trick, easily explained. Grab a T-shirt and follow along- it’ll make doing laundry a quicker, simpler process.

Enjoy, see you on Monday.

Posted in Features, Linklog, Links | Tagged Lighter Side | Leave a reply
Want to Get Away?

Posted on June 20, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Explore

Traveling can be a huge hassle. For all the fun that it is, there’s a massive amount of planning that goes into it, often that exceeds the actual time spent on vacation.

To make your life easier, the people over at the Dumb Little Man blog (here) compiled a list of the seven websites you absolutely have to visit before traveling. The original article is here.

Some of the sites are pretty obvious- Google Maps is a no-brainer, whether you’re going to the grocery store or across the world. Some, though, are pretty great, and they’re ones not everyone knows about. My personal favorite: Kayak, here. It’s a site that compiles the prices of all the budget sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. You search once, and can get results from a number of different sites, so you make sure the price you get is the best one.

This list, though not complete, is a very good one. My biggest addition? If you’re going to a major US city, HopStop.com, here. It’s a public-transit map, and gives Google-maps like directions all over the cities it supports. It’s really helpful, and makes potentially-difficult major cities much easier.

The sites are definitely worth the bookmark, and will make planning and going on vacation a whole lot easier. Enjoy!

Posted in Apps, Features | Tagged Apps, Explore, Travel, Web | Leave a reply
Dominate the World!

Posted on June 20, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Play

Risk, for years, has been one of my favorite board games. Despite the fact that a game takes approximately 143 hours to finish, and the only skill involved is rolling dice, it’s actually really fun. It’s a great power-play game, and you get to dominate the world and destroy armies- in a word, awesome.

Now, instead of just playing the board game, your computer has become the platform for taking over the world with 3 red dice. There was recently an article over at Makeuseof.com, one of my favorite blogs, called “Five Places to Play Risk Online.” The whole article is here.

In short, here are the ways to play:

1. A Facebook app, called Attack! A LOT of people have this, and it’s a fun one to play against other Facebook users. It’s here.

2. A Java version you can download. It gets periodically updated, and lets you play the computer. It’s here.

3. A game called “Conquest.” It’s downloadable, and though, as the MakeUseOf guys point out, “the AI is very predictable and can be counted on to make the exact same moves and strategies again and again,” it’s a solid time-waster, and has portable versions. Found here.

4. LandGrab. Online Risk. I agree with the MakeUseOf post, it’s actually a lot of fun. You do need to make an account, but it’s not a big deal. Definitely a good way to goof off online. Check it out here.

5. DominateGame. Here’s a weird one- it’s free to download, but you have to pay to play on the Web? A bit weird, if you ask me. Solid game, though, just download it. It’s here.

Risk is a great game, and now there are tons of ways to play against yourself, the computer, or people a million miles away. Enjoy!

Posted in Apps, Features | Tagged Apps, Games, Play, Risk | Leave a reply
Here's Hoping They Hit it Big, Part 3

Posted on June 20, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

The Fratellis

The Fratellis are a relatively unknown Scottish alternative band. Their new album, called “Here We Stand,” is available now, as is their older album, “Costello Music.” Both albums are quite good, and these guys are going to be big before long. They’re already getting some play, and are relatively popular in the UK, but will only get bigger and bigger in the US as time goes on.

Their music is a little Arctic Monkeys, a little Killers, a little Oasis, some Elton John splashes, and a little bit of a Ramones feel (maybe I’m wrong here, but I think so.) It’s just fun, upbeat, poppy British music- great summer music, great in the car. I’m quickly becoming a big fan, and I bet you will too.

You can download their album, “Here We Stand”, here. Enjoy, and remember- I knew them when.

Posted in Features, Linklog, Links | Tagged Bands, Downloads, Here's Hoping They Hit it Big, Music, The Fratellis | Leave a reply
You Want to Talk About Toughness?

Posted on June 18, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

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Tiger Woods, for anyone who hasn’t lived on Earth in the last 10 years, is probably the best golfer on the planet. Or in the history of the planet. Though, in fairness, we don’t know about cavemen as golfers. They knew what they were doing with a club in their hands.

Tiger won the US Open on Monday- just a few weeks after having knee surgery- in a playoff after two birdies in two days on the 18th hole, both times keeping him alive and preventing Rocco Mediate from winning.

Golf.com just ran an article saying Tiger is out for the rest of the season to rehab and actually heal his knee. He’s shutting it down, missing two majors and a number of other tournaments.

That’s not especially surprising, for anyone who watched the US Open. He was visibly in pain, and something needed to give. Here’s the insane part: He was playing with a TORN ACL. From the article:

But it was revealed Wednesday that he tore his ACL while jogging near his home in Orlando shortly after the British Open last July. He elected to see if he could avoid a major operation, and won four of his last five official starts of 2007, including the PGA Championship and the inaugural FedEx Cup.”

He won four out of five starts, and then an 91-hole epic US Open, with a torn ACL? That’s ridiculous. Except it wasn’t even his only injury:

IMG released a statement saying the world No. 1 played at Torrey Pines with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a double stress fracture of the left tibia.

Two injuries that would keep most people out for an awfully long time, and Tiger not only elects to play, but WINS?!? And wins at an alarmingly high rate, too. It’s amazing- he’s truly one of the toughest athletes out there.

Curt Shilling, no stranger to playing through pain (hall of fame-worthy, no less), said it best: “I guess that’s why he’s Tiger Woods.”

Read the article in its entirety here.

Posted in Features, Thoughts | Tagged Read, Sports | Leave a reply
Keep an Eye on This One

Posted on June 18, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | 1 Comment

Listen

First of all, random question: Isn’t everyone who sings and writes songs a singer/songwriter? To call someone a “singer/songwriter” and have that somehow tell you what their music sounds like seems ridiculous to me. Yet somehow this means a genre of music.

Oh well. Here’s a better description: Josh Hoge is GOOD. He’s brand new to the scene, releasing an album, titled “Everything She Was,” in September- his debut album, and this guy shows some serious promise. He’s in the guy-with-a-guitar vein, but he’s neither as unilateral as some nor as whiny as others.

(Pic is Hoge and his brother, artist Will Hoge- also worth checking out.)

The music is a mix of fast and slow, but the upbeat “Stay Away” is likely to be what makes him popular. One part Jason Mraz, a couple parts John Mayer, even a little George Michael thrown in there- not a bad combination, if you ask me.

Right now, he has two songs available for download on his website, here. I would post songs, but it’s easy enough to go to the website, and it helps him out. Give your email, you get two songs.

For more music, tour info (just toured with Eliot Yamin, and now he’s touring with Ryan Cabrera), and info about him, go to his MySpace, here.

Enjoy!

Posted in Features, Linklog, Links | Tagged Bands, Downloads, Josh Hoge, Listen, Music | 1 Reply
YouTube, Google Video, Sclipo…. Brain Explosion!

Posted on June 17, 2008 by David Pierce David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Explore

There are just too many viral video sites out there. Some are hugely popular, some more niche products, but there are a ton of different places to watch videos online. Adding your video to all of these sites can be incredibly tedious, but you want people to see your videos!

Enter TubeMogul, found here. TubeMogul’s purpose is to aggregate your login info for a number of different video sites, and to distribute videos you upload to all the different sites.

TubeMogul tracks your videos, so you can see who is watching your videos, and on which sites. Their supported sites range from the ubiquitous YouTube to the totally unknown- Sclipo? New to me. Here’s a chart of all the supported sites:

If you’re a video uploader, this is your one and only stop. It’s easy, powerful, and the best way I’ve found to get your videos in front of as many eyes as possible.

Are there other sites that do this better? Is it even worthwhile? What sites do you use to watch videos? Let me know in the comments.

Posted in Apps, Features | Tagged Apps, Explore, TubeMogul, Video, Web | Leave a reply

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