Words and Links

The Manhattan Supreme Court has required Google, the host of the blog “Skanks in NYC”, to release the personal information of the blogger behind the blog to Liskula Cohen.  Cohen is a fashion model who was referred to in the blog with the line “How old is this skank? 40 something? She’s a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank”.  At best this is needlessly offensive and at worst slanderous.

But is the court justified in forcing the identity of the formerly anonymous blogger to become public knowledge?  Absolutely!  While being able to be hidden behind blogs and posts has encouraged people to express themselves to a far greater degree than anything else in modern times, these people do need to take responsibility and be held accountable for what they say.  If you craft your words you can avoid civil penalties and still make your point, no matter how offensive.

Freedom of speech should in no way be confused with a freedom to remain anonymous.

Here’s just a quick look at two sites that I have used recently to look up some old acquaintances.  The first is Classmates.com.  This is a fairly comprehensive service geared mostly to school based lookups.  The value of the information you get will only be as good as the profiles the members have filled out.  I would recommend signing up for their free trial (you can do that here ) before using their paid subscription service.

The other is a pay-only service called US Search.  This is good for a background check type of search.  For $1.95 you only get the persons last known address, but for $19.95 you can get quite a bit of information about the person.  You can try them out Here if you’re interested.

Yes, you can click on the above and Google will place your call to one of my phones, or to voicemail as I choose.  This is just one of the nice conveniences of Google Voice services. 

When you sign up for Google Voice you get a permanent number that you will give out to people that can be directed to whatever phone you choose based on the number that is calling.  For example if Joe from work calls, you might choose to have his call go to your cell, but when Mom calls you might route her call to your home phone.

Their call screening feature will announce callers and can allow you to listen to the message that is being left before answering.  Also you can create a list of numbers to block and phone spammers can be eliminated by banning them according to Google’s spam list.

SMS messages can be sent, received, and stored through this service and accessed through your phone or on the web.  The web interface allows for easy configuration of all services and management of call information and messaging. 

When a voicemail is left it is automatically transcribed and can be read on the web or sent right to your cell phone.  The transcription is not perfect, but this is a convenient feature allowing you to skip calling into voicemail to check messages.

Some other features are conference calling, the ability to record calls, saving preferences by groups, the ability to switch phones mid-call, and GOOG-411 directory information.

For more of the 411 on Google Voice check out their info site.

We have all sat and wasted away hours at our PCs with little to come out of it other than looking at the clock and finding out we’re late for something.  Why not find some productive things to do while you are entertaining yourself on the computer?  Here is a list of ten ways to gain a little personal improvement while giving your computer a little workout.

1. Start a blog.  There is no better way to learn about yourself or a topic that might interest you than by writing about it.  There are many places to start, but two good free ones are Google’s Blogger, and WordPress.com.  You can get started in minutes and go on from there.
2. Learn how to program.  Visual Basic by Microsoft is an easy to learn high level language that will let you develop programs that can range from simple to the most complex.  Freetutes.com is just one online provider that has tutorials for VB.  The Visual Basic Express Edition program itself can be downloaded for free here.
3. Create art of your own.  Pick up a copy of a graphics creation program and go crazy with it.  A good one to work with is Gimp.  Then just search for Gimp tutorials to get started.  Some good ones can be found here.
4. Make a little money online.  Be careful of the scams (do some research, and don’t pay for any programs or services) but see what’s out there that can let you do a little computer work for a little cash.  You can try Short Task for example.
5. Become active in an online social community.  You can start with your MySpace account and then go on to other sites such as Orkut and Windows Live Spaces.
6. Learn something that you didn’t even think you were interested in.  Go over to How Stuff  Works and hit the Random Article button on top of the page and this will bring you to something you can learn very quickly.
   
7. Do some maintenance on your computer.  It is probably not running as fast as it used to so clean up your hard drive and see if there are any tricks for your operating system, either Vista or XP.
8. Play some games.  Ok, not terribly productive, but you can stretch it and claim improvement in the whole hand eye thing!   You can try some nice flash games at Addicting Games.
9. Volunteer for something.  There are many possibilities for this one, but one might be doing some work for an open source software project.  Or maybe becoming an editor for the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org).
10. Read a book online.  Haven’t got your Kindle yet?  No problem.  You can find many worthwhile reads for free online.  Start here at EduChoices for some good virtual libraries.

You have seen this button all over the internet and probably even have one at the top of your browser right now, but have you ever used it or do you even know what it is?  This is the RSS button and it lets you know that the site you are visiting supports RSS feeds.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.  What it does is allow you a convenient way to stay current with your favorite web sites, blogs, and news sites without having to go to each site individually and regularly.  When you find an interesting site and want to keep up to date with it all you have to do is click this button and subscribe to it.  Then as the site is updated with new content you are immediately shown the new article or story.

You can download a feed reader program to manage all of this.  The reader programs will work in the background retrieving your feeds and then waiting for you to view them.  Another way is to use your browser.  Internet Explorer 7 users have a reader built in.  Firefox users can install the Wizz RSS News Reader.  Another easy way is to use Google’s Reader.  You will need a Google account and then all you have to do is use the reader program from your Google desktop.

Feel free to experiment with the RSS feed buttons on this page.  RSS is a great way to stay current, so start using it today!

We all know that Google is the best and most useful tool for finding information on the internet.  What you might not know is how much the company has to offer that is at least as useful as the search engine itself. 

1. Google Alerts.  Google can send you updates and pointers to information that you request, as it happens.  For example, if you are interested in keeping informed about your local representatives actions in Congress, just enter their name and when they are referenced on the internet Google will send you an Email telling you where to find the information.
2. Blogger.  Did you ever want to talk to the world about what you find fun and interesting?  A blog is the perfect platform, and Google will set you up with one for free.  They also have all the support and help a beginner could need to start blogging in a professional way.
3. Knol.  Share your knowledge by writing articles that can be shared with the world.  You keep your authorship rights, and quality writing will be propagated through the internet.
4. Calendar.  A great online calendar with typical Google quality features.  Import events easily from your Gmail account.  Share your events with friends and family.  Get important reminders via Email or text to your phone.  Never forget an important event again. 
5. Talk.  Chat with your friends using text, voice, or video conferencing.  Another free fun service from Google that will keep you connected to family or friends or even your business contacts.  You can also leave voicemails and transfer files with no size restrictions.
6. orkut.  An online social network where you can manage your existing relationships or form new ones.  Orkut allows you to search out and interact with new people based on common interests and your search of profiles. 
7. Google Blog Search.  A convenient and fast way to search the blogosphere for content that will interest you.
8. Google Groups.  A Google Group is a user owned group that allows you to manage your mailing list and provides a forum for communication and collaboration with your fellow group members.  You also have online storage and customizable pages to share.
9. Picasa and Picasa Web Albums.  Picasa is a photo organization, indexing, manipulation, and sharing tool that can be downloaded from Google.  Picasa Web Albums allow you to share your photos arranged in beautiful interactive web albums with your friends and family.  As usual this is a free Google service with generous amounts of online storage.
10. Google Pack.  An easy and convenient download of Google’s more popular and fun applications for your use.  Most of the above listed products along with Google’s web browser, Google Earth, Google Desktop, and more can be downloaded and installed with Google Pack.  You can also pick and choose which apps you want to install.

Have fun with this list, and explore Google’s site to find more useful tools and applications.

Are you ever just bored and wandering around the web looking for something new and interesting?  Maybe you have used up all of your usual sites or none have been updated lately.  Where can you go to find something else that is not spam or useless?  StumbleUpon, of course!

StumbleUpon is a social site that allows you to find new websites that other users with similar tastes to yours have discovered, categorized, and rated.

The way the process works is as follows…

• You or another user finds an interesting site.
• You find a category for the site and briefly describe or tag it.
• The site is now available to be stumbled by other users searching for sites within that category.
• As more and more users give the site a thumbs up or thumbs down it becomes more accurately rated.

The more you use the service, the more accurately your preferences and tastes will be reflected in what you are seeing.

All of this is done from a toolbar that can be installed in all of the most popular browsers.

You can also create or join a group of friends who have the same interests and share good sites with each other.  Your StumbleUpon home is the place to talk about yourself and connect with your friends.

Once you get started stumbling, you will be hooked and find it hard to stop.