The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
I spend a lot of time online. According to my wife, some nights, far too much. But the funny thing is, the more time I spend online, and the busier my schedule gets, the less time I want to spend surfing and looking around for information. I get tired of going back to the same websites constantly trying to find if anything is new or if anything has changed. To deal with this, I have two main tools: Google homepage and RSS feeds. If you begin at Google's search page, on the top there is a link that is simply called "more." Going here will first get you behind the scenes at Google, a complete list of all of the services they offer. As great as this is (and there is a lot of stuff here worth exploring!), if you click on Google labs, one of the choices is to personalize your homepage. A simple one-time sign in gets you a Google account and the chance to set up exactly what you want for information on your homepage. They first give you a lot of suggestions and choices. Many of the top weblogs, news services, and feeds are listed, and by selecting them, the information on these sites will come directly to you. But more importantly, there is a link to create your own section. You can simply cut and paste the address of most websites, weblogs, etc. and create sections that are important to you. Once you have your page designed (I also have my Gmail, Google's webmail application, come to this page so I can check my email), and things placed in the desired order, you simply set this page as your browser's homepage. You've now created a personalized information portal for yourself. The second tool that is invaluable for me is an RSS Ð Really Simple Syndication ÐÊaggregator. I've written about it before, but it continues to grow in importance. I have an account at Bloglines.com that collects information from whatever websites I choose. The only catch is that the sites you subscribe to must have an RSS feed. If you are thinking of subscribing to a site, simply look around on the homepage. Many sites have a tiny red rectangular button on them that say "RSS" or "XML." The address of these sites can simply be cut and pasted into your your Bloglines subscription space. Now, instead of having to surf through many different sites, I just go to Bloglines and pick up all of the new information in one place. This saves tremendous amounts of time for information junkies like me. The best part is, it doesn't matter what you are interested in, what kind of information you want. Between Bloglines, RSS feeds and a personalized Google homepage, it will all come to you. ([email protected])
