Thinkstick! » Technology

Chrome on Mac with Shareholic & Zemanta

Stick — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:53:44 +0000

As I was exploring extensions on Chrome, I foud two new services that will restart my blogging. Being a collector of any tools that make my productivity increase, I am hoping these two extensions will enable me to blog easily and enhance my content.

: Image via CrunchBase

Shareholic is a tool for people who are addicted to sharing the content they found on web through pretty much any communication channel. The list of services they support is quite long but it was pretty easy to customize which ones you want to use. I think just the fact that I’m posting something right now should prove Shareholic’s usefulness.

The second extension is called Zemanta. To be honest, I am skeptical of the quality of its recommendations. I’m hopeful to be proven wrong.

Related articles by Zemanta

What Is Zemanta? (yearn2blog.com)
Google’s Chrome Extensions and Zemanta (mobilebull.blogspot.com)
Google Chrome for Mac and Linux: They’re Here [Browsers] (gizmodo.com)

Recap from Product Camp Boston

Stick — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:34:25 +0000

With some randomness and last minute luck, I made it out to Product Camp Boston on Feb 28. The gracious hosts at the Microsoft Research Labs gave us this amazing venue for Boston Product Management professionals to learn, to teach, to network and just simply enjoy each other’s company. Check out the Flickr group to see pictures.

The organizers led by C Todd Lombardo did an amazing job with the event and I am grateful for all their hard work. I figured I should note down the books, tools and links that were flying around during the event for posterity sake.

Tools and Web Sites Mentioned

Over the web usability testing tool : Userfly

I recommended this web based usability testing tool to a few people citing the virtues : a) easy to set up, b) cheap and c) convenient for remote users. I think the easiest way to see how Userfly works is playing with the demo they put up.Check out their site

Product Innovation Through Playing Games : InnovationGames

This site was recommended by the session leader of Product Innovation Session. It appears to be a collection of interactive techniques/games you play to ultimately define your product’s future vision. The site and concept are based off of the book with the same name.

Book Recommendations

Bob Levy who led the session Requirements Management Best Practices recommended these two books for building relationships among different teams.

In my User Experience Session, folks were asking what books they should read to get the basics of User Interface Design and I recommended Steve Krug’s book : Don’t Make Me Think.

Here are a few more books you can read if you are completely new to this subject and you’d like to get more into it.

If you just want a quick and easy intro to graphic design, try The Non Designer’s Design Book.

If you just want to add some visual thinking to your life, try Back of the Napkin.

If you really want to get into the details, try About Face 3.

At the Innovation session, I mentioned this awesome little book called Why Not? by Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres. (Side note: these guys are the guiding forces behind Stickk, another one of my favorite sites.)

If you were at ProductCamp Boston and have anything to add, please let me know in the comments!

Things Google knows

Stick — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:38:20 +0000

Gmail

What stores I shop at and how much I spend at each
What credit cards I have/Which banks I use
Who my friends are
When I will not be home (from my flight confirmation emails)
How much I spend on gifts and for whom
Any social network acct I have and access to them
Any web app I signed up

Google Calendar

My social calendar : when I meet up with my friends, what we tend to do
My work calendar : what my meetings are about (if I use outlook sync)
My personal appointments (doctor visits, waxing, haircut, massage appointments)

Google Reader

Blogs I read
Blogs I pretend to read by subscribing but not actually reading
Blogs I deem important enough to share with others
My guilty pleasure blogs (blogs that I never share but read 100% of the posts)
Content type I love
Which friends’ shared items get my attention
The fact that I am an occasional insomniac (from the hours I use GoogleReader)

Web History (Google.com)

Basically every web search I made

Google Maps

Knows my home address and my office address
Any new place I look up directions for
Any road trip I plan
My commute hours from my live traffic searches

Google Profile

Knows my real name
Knows where I work
Knows what I do for a living

There’s probably even more that I don’t realize. Isn’t it terrifying? What else does Google know about me? About you?

Link of the moment : Webware – Google revamps Street View interface

Stick — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:04:06 +0000

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10108117-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware

Street View’s split screen, when it’s working.

(Credit: Google)

Tool Box: Webware – Feed Rinse

Stick — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:01:59 +0000

This Webware coverage of Feed Rinse caught my ever searching eyes for the best tools to improve my digital life. Google Reader is a huge part of my digital life and tools that will make it even more useful are at the top of my list.

Here’s an oldie but a goodie. Feed Rinse is a super simple and user-friendly way to tweak RSS feeds before subscribing to them in your favorite reader tool.

With it you can pick which authors or keywords you want to exclude, giving you complete control over what ends up filling your feed reader. For example, on Webware’s RSS feed you could very quickly choose to only get posts about Google (which is possible on our main site using tags), or a handful of keywords at the same time.