GooglePlus versus Google Profile?

Posted on 29 July 2011 by john.kominetz

I’m wondering if Google+ is going to negatively impact other Google products given what I’ve noticed with Profiles and Buzz.

My profile URL [profiles.google.com/kominetz] now redirects to plus.google.com/{ugly-long-id}. I’m not sure I like the implication of this, because I use my profile for OpenID, and I’d like to use it as a homepage that links to everything so I can just tell people “go there, and you’ll find me anywhere I am on the Internet.” That URL going away would make me rather unhappy.

Buzz is still a tab there, but it seems totally disconnected from Google+. It might be good to have some separation between Buzz and Posts because they post/notification frequency on Buzz can be pretty high on a Google Reader catch-up day, but Buzz feels too disconnected–and somewhat redundant. Also, oddly, there’s no RSS feed on the Buzz, tab but there is on the Posts tab. I don’t pay attention to things on the web that don’t have feeds.

Finally, I just noticed that the would-have-been convenient “Send an Email” button on my profiles/plus page only works if I’m signed into another Google account. That’s probably a spam avoidance tactic, but it’s still a let-down since I was hoping to use it as my About/Contact page that doesn’t expose my email address.

Reposted manually from Google+ since it can’t do that …

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Google Circles: Aunt Ruth Doesn’t Need to Know

Posted on 14 July 2011 by john.kominetz

This Google Video sums up the philosophy of Circles perfectly in the last line: “Aunt Ruth doesn’t need to know.” Therein lies my problem with the motivation of circles: It’s preventing people from seeing things they shouldn’t, not necessarily showing them things they’re interested in, and not providing them any way to categorize incoming posts (i.e., streams). That’s where circles really fall down, on the streams side. I can put you as a poster in any circle–more than one circle–but there’s no real link between how I categorize you and what you’re actually going to talk about.

Reposted from Google+.

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There’s an Evernote podcast?

Posted on 3 July 2011 by john.kominetz

EvernoteI’m a pretty light user of Evernote; it was a good dumping ground for the accumulated snippets of text I carried around first on my PalmPilot and then on my Blackberry. Useable notes came late to the iPhone; frankly, they’re still a little less than indispensable.  That’s why Evernote landed on my iPhone, my Macs, and my bookmarks list last year.

I’ve been satisfied with the free account so far but haven’t taken Evernote to the next level because tools like OmniFocus, VoodooPad, and Google Docs are more integrated into my daily routine. That might change a little thanks to The Evernote Podcast. A podcast about a single app? I couldn’t imagine having enough to say about Evernote in a long-form podcast; something short form like Quick and Dirty Tips might make more sense. Then again, a show about nothing could be entertaining from time to time. I gave it a try, and it paid off.

Podcast #10 mentioned how to send blog posts from Google Reader to Evernote, a way to archive entire articles without leaving Reader. I live in Reader, so the odds of me using Evernote more–and listening to more Evernote podcasts–just shot up dramatically, especially because I added The Evernote Blogcast to Reader. The feed includes links to the podcasts, so I’ll probably delete the iTunes subscription and listen from the web when a summary catches my attention.

The podcast also mentioned using Evernote data as a screen saver since each note has a thumbnail image rendition. It’s not terribly practical since I can’t imagine anybody (sober) watching their screen savers anymore; flying toasters are so 20th century. Still, it’s a neat hack, and chance picked a relevant reminder about last week’s gay rights victory in New York and tomorrow’s distinctly Philadelphian holiday:

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

– John Stuart Mill

How to use Evernote as a Screen Saver in Mac OS X:

  1. Open “System Preferences”, choose the “Desktop & Screensaver” icon, and choose the “Screen Saver” option in the tabby thingie.
  2. Click on the “+” under Screen Savers pane and choose “Add folder of pictures”.
  3. Navigate to “{HOME}/Library/Application Support/Evernote”, choose the data folder, and leave that folder selected in the Screen Savers pane.
  4. Choose the middle option from the Display Style option bar.
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