My name is Jan and I’m an Internet junkie. I started a loooooong time ago…back when Hotmail was just Hotmail and not MSN. Good lord, that was so long ago! But, it’s safe to say that I spend a good amount of time online (too much if you ask Tey). When I tell her that I just “crave information,” she just returns a stare followed by rolled eyes…HAHA! And with the boom of Blogs, my “information gathering” has reached a new level! Most everything I read now is in a Blog format and I read a ton of different stuff. There are so many great reads out there, but here are a few of my favorites that I think most everyone can enjoy. I try to stay away from diary-type blogs because I find those authors a little too wordy. I’ll keep photo related stuff out…there’s too many. Here’s some of my favorites that I think most people would enjoy:

Links

Kottke.org. A classic. If I scoured the internet for things that interest me and posted those links on my blog, it would probably sound/read/look like Kottke. A great collection of all things interesting from politics, music, fillm, arts, tech, etc.

The Cool Hunter. Had to throw this one in for good measure. Similar Kottke, but a louder, more fashion inspired style.

Design

Brand New. I read a bunch of great design oriented blogs, but this one captivated me from my first visit. They analyze corporate logo changes/updates and give their opinion as to whether or not the change works, etc. Because many of the companies are well known, it’s great reading that even the non-design person can appreciate. Just from reading this blog, I’ve learned so much about the thought process of good design.

Man Stuff

Uncrate. Their slogan is “The Buyers Guide for Men” and it’s pretty true. Their taste in products is pretty spot on with mine. Only the best! If those other gadget blogs are too over-the-top geeky for you, this is for you. Good mix of everything.

Pop Culture

Gawker. My connection to the world of hollywood and pop culture.

Thought Provoking

Post Secret. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad and everything in between. The premise is that people submit notes/images that confesses a secret. Sort of like a artsy public confession. It gets really interesting.

Productivity

43 Folders. Productivity and making your life a little easier. A lot of tech productivity. So much that we do is behind the keyboard and this blog helps me improve my “computer life”.

Unclutterer. I think you know what this blog is about from the name. Something that I struggle with everyday, so I need all the help I can get.

New

Zen Habits. I just started reading this blog, so I thought I’d put this in the “New” category. The posts are really interesting and I think they pertain to many including myself. His description of the site: “Zen Habits covers: achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.”

EDIT: Almost forgot

Fashion

The Sartorialist. Great way of seeing really cool fashions. The author photographs random people in which their attire catches his eye. From NYC to Europe, you get to see some really great looks from all types of people. Pretty famous blog.

In my quest of topics to blog about, I thought I would wax poetic on my little best friend, the iPhone. So, if you don’t have one, this is a warning! Reading further may force you to part with $400 and may make you an Apple lover!

I don’t really talk about my iPhone much but it’s been a pretty integral part of my life for the last 6 months, so I thought I could shed a little light on how I use it beyond its basic tools. Besides the basics of up-to-date email, synchronized calendars and address book contacts, which is AMAZING and pretty much what my personal life & business revolve around, I’ve also managed to squeeze out some fun out of the iPhone. The other things that get me through many a waiting room and traffic jams are surfing the web, games and other 3rd party apps.

Surfing the Web

There are more and more iPhone optimized websites out there and they are all pretty slick. The ones I used the most and find super functional are Google Reader (mobile) and Facebook. There are also a bunch of new sites that I’ve visited more and more: Tomatometer (movie reviews), Movies.app (movie times/locations), Poptakeout (tech stuff and news).

1. This is what my home screen looks like after installing a theme to change the look. More on this below. 2. My most used website: Google Reader. 3. The best implementation of an iPhone optimized site: Facebook.

Third-Party Applications

Don’t get me wrong, watching YouTube clips using the built in application is great, but you can only watch “Chocolate Rain” so many times. And if checking stocks and the weather isn’t enough for you, there is hope. So, to extend the functionality of the iPhone, some brilliant programmers out there have found a way to install custom made applications. Apple is set to open the iPhone to 3rd party developers, but this is not happening till next year. To make a long story short, I have been able to install over 30 different applications on my iPhone. There are apps that change the look of the home screen, help me manage my Netflix queue, an instant messenger client and most fun of all, games. To do this, just go to jailbreakme.com on your iPhone.

1. This is the Installer main screen, where you can install a ton of different apps. 2. Before Madden, there was Tecmo Bowl. 3. Not too shabby, either: MarioKart!

Get Nostalgic with Games

I’m not much of a gamer these days. I don’t have an Xbox, PS3 or a Wii and don’t think I’ll get any one of them anytime soon. But, when I found out that I could install a NES (Old school Nintendo!) on the iPhone, that was reason enough for me to “hack” it. I’ve been able to download almost a hundred games from my pudgy childhood years and I’ve had a blast playing most of them. I grew up on Tecmo Bowl, Contra, MegaMan, Double Dribble, Baseball, Golf, etc. So, I’m seriously in gaming flashback heaven…I can almost feel the zits growing on my face as I’m playing!

1. Solitaire, my life long addiction. 2. Tetris, a family tradition. 3. Tap Tap Revolution. Think Dance Dance Revolution, but with your fingers. Pretty awesome!

Bad thing about these “cool” things is that they can consume you in your so-called free time. And can make driving a little hazardous if you are a phone-driver like me. Just ask Tey. She thinks, the iPhone is my WORST purchase ever! :) Oh well. Now, I can play Tecmo Super Bowl on the same device that I can check my RSS feeds and my email. For me, that makes it the BEST purchase ever!

iPhone lovefest is complete.

Here’s some tech info for those interested. If you are scared of heavy acronym use, then stay away!

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Email is such an important facet of everyone’s lives these days and in many cases it gets to be a burden to many. It was for me but I think I’ve set up a pretty neat system that allows me to tame the beast a bit so I thought I’d share it with you. This post deals with setting up multiple emails (personal and business) on multiple computers and portable devices (iPhone), keeping it all synchronized for efficiency and having it all backed up at the same time. All without spending for any unnecessary or additional software and/or services. If this sounds good to you, then read on.

IMAP on Apple Mail

I like using a real application to access my mail. Even though there are many advanced webmail interfaces, they just don’t feel the same. Desktop apps are so much more functional. So, my weapon of choice is Apple Mail. For those with email addresses using your own web host, use IMAP. If you’re like me and hate doing things over and over again, it’s the only way to go. It basically keeps all the mail on the server and you just access it remotely. If you need an explanaition of IMAP vs POP, please read this. I use 3 Apple computers (2 desktops and a laptop) and an iPhone and using IMAP keeps them all synchronized ALL the time. So if you get a new email and you read it on your iPhone, it’s also read on your computers and vice versa. If you file it away on your iPhone, it’s filed away on your desktop and so on. You do NOT need to use Microsoft Exchange to do this. I could go more into this, but trust me IMAP works like a charm. If you want more info on how to set up IMAP on Apple Mail, here is a great article.

Figure 1. This is my Apple Mail. Notice the Inbox up on the top left containing my 3 IMAP accounts.

iPhone and Spam

One of the hiccups of the iPhone is that it doesn’t have the same good Junk mail filter as Apple Mail. Using IMAP mail pretty much takes care of this. When SPAM gets throught my web server’s junk filter, Apple Mail usually does a good job of catching it and files it in the Junk folder. Since we are using IMAP, that junk mail is filed away on the server. How does this benefit the iPhone? As long as I keep my desktop on all the time and the Mail application, too, it is doing the cleaning for the iPhone. It may appear temporarily on the iPhone Inbox, but next time it checks for mail, it magically disappears since the Mail application filed it away. Magic!

Gmail and IMAP

I know you’re getting sick of reading about IMAP. But it’s really done a great job of keeping my email simple. I use Gmail for my personal mail and I love it. But I only use the web interface for emergencies and like to use Apple Mail for all my email, inlcuding Gmail. Unfortunately, Gmail does not provide IMAP for its users. So I use a work around that let’s me use IMAP with my Gmail account so that I get all the benefits of both Gmail and IMAP. Basically, I forward all my email using Gmail’s forwarding feature to an email account (something like gmailacct@mydomain.com) that I created on my webhost. That takes care of all the syncing of the Inbox and folders. But, of course, I don’t want my responses coming from gmailacct@mydomain.com, so I use Gmail’s outgoing server on both desktops and iPhone. Long story short, Gmail email forwards to my “fake Gmail” on my host, Gmail keeps a copy on its own server, I get synced email folders and files with the fake gmail. And when I send mail, it appears to come from my real Gmail account. Some may see this as redundant…having the same email in two places. But this is good for me. I basically use Gmail as my backup (more on this later) that I can access in emergencies. I got this idea here, check it out.

Figure 2. Gmail’s forwarding allows me to use IMAP for my Gmail personal account. I forward and Archive Gmail’s copy so that the Gmail Inbox is clean.

Backup

One negative of keeping things synchronized is that if you mess up in one place, they are all messed up. But I’m really only talking about deletions. When using IMAP, if you delete an email, it goes in the Trash. If you happen empty that trash, it’s gone forever. I’ve had this happen by mistake and couldn’t recover it…really sucks. Anyway, I created an “extra” Gmail account that acts as a backup collection for both my work emails. My web host (Dreamhost) allows me to forward my email in addition to using IMAP, so I also forward all my emails to that extra Gmail account. Since Gmail allows an insane amount of storage space, it’s ALL in there and I don’t anticipate having to access it unless an emergency presents itself.

Inbox and Folders

Keep your Inbox empty. I’ve been doing that for a few months now and it’s worked wonders. I used to use emails in my inbox as a task list, but then they would all just accumulate and looked like a mess. Besides the Inbox, Sent, Junk and Trash, I use 2 additional folders: Archive and To Respond. Everything goes into Archive and those that for some reason I need to respond to later, goes into the To Respond folder. I check that folder a lot. If you have multiple email accounts in Mail, then you should use Smart Folders. It saves me tons of time. For example, I have 3 email accounts in Mail and they all have a To Respond folder. I, then, create a Smart Folder that displays the contents of all 3 To Respond folders. Nice and quick! More info on organizing email, check this out.

Figure 3.I love Smart Folders! I don’t use any Local folders because you cannot sync them easily. Just Smart Folders referencing IMAP folders (on the server) which are located on the bottom left of the Apple Mail panel.

Webmail

For those times that you are away from your computer and do not want to type with your thumbs, webmail is the way to go. Check your web host and see how you can access your email via a browser. And since you are using IMAP, it’s all there for you! If you are a Gmail user, then there is another way to send your emails via their Gmail interface. Only problem is that this sent email is not synchronized to your IMAP server and just resides in Gmail. But it’s good for emergencies.

Summary

So whatever email tools you choose, make sure you are making it easy on yourself and keep things easy and synchronized. Keep those clicks to a minimum, you’ll be happier. There is no perfect system but I think, overall, mine works pretty great. Hope this helps someone out there. I could probably write a hundred paragraphs on email, but hopefully, you get the gist. If anyone has questions, leave a comment or send me an email. Cheers.

After attending a seminar today, I’m in tech mode. So, please forgive my geeky rant. -jan

Earlier today, I attended a one-day seminar on Adobe Lightroom given by Photoshop master Scott Kelby. I’ve seen him in action on his podcast and his work is quite amazing. I’ve been using Lightroom now for about 3 months and it’s been such a great tool for handling my RAW images. I still shoot JPEG and use iPhoto (which I L.O.V.E.) for all my personal images but for all my portrait sessions and weddings, I shot RAW and needed a capable system.

I tried using Apple’s Aperture for one shoot and I was pulling my hair out. As an Apple worshiper, I will always give their products a shot and really want to use them all. While I love the interface and the organizing features are awesome, it is slow and the batch options for tonal adjustments are clunky. I haven’t tried the latest revision, but from what I hear, the batch features that I was looking for has not appeared. So, I dumped Aperture and was using Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW to process and organize all my images. But since Lightroom was released, it has been a great tool for me. While it’s organizing features are not the most intuitive, Lightroom is amazing for making batch tonal adjustments and even some new tonal adjustments not available even in Photoshop (Recover/Vibrance). But since you cannot make selections in Lightroom, making fine-tuned touch ups are just not possible. No feathering, no softening, no blurring, no stam tool, no filters. So, there is still a definite need for Photoshop. I was thinking about changing my proofing system to incorporate Lightroom tonal adjustments only but in some cases I need my selection tool!

RAW Tools, I have used: (Clockwise from top left: Bridge (w/ Camera RAW), iPhoto (for personal stuff), Lightroom (my current tool of choice) and Aperture (beautiful interface but clunky editing).

While I enjoyed the seminar and Scott’s presentation, I was a little bummed that it was geared towards beginners. I knew most of what he was showing, but it was still a good reinforcement of my decision to go with Lightroom. Eventually, I did learn some cool new things that I never really bothered to delve into. I guess, sometimes, it’s just nice to know how other professionals work. I do like how Scott uses Photoshop with Lightroom. I used to always export the files into another folder, work on them in Photoshop and just leave them there. Now, I realized that it’s ok to edit them using Photoshop and save them back into Lightroom. I was always worried about the extra file it creates and the file size problems, but I guess that exporting them was doing the same thing. iPhoto uses the exact same system when using an external editor. But, there was one thing hat Scott preached that I disagreed with. For choosing images, he is an advocate of the Pick/Reject Flagging method while I prefer to stick with the Stars/Labels method.

For picking images, I use stars but with a twist. Lightroom uses a 5 star rating system, but I only use stars 2-5. After backing up and importing all image files, I assign stars to every image. Two star photos gets deleted, 3 star photos are proof worthy, 4 star photos are slideshow worthy, and 5 stars is album stuff. So, for a typical wedding, I’ll have about 600-900 3 star photos, 80-120 4 star photos and about 30-60 5 star photos. For me, it’s a little more flexible that just flagging yes/no. I also use the color labels to determine which photos I use for the blog or which I want to print. I’ll usually end up with 15-25 blog picks with a red flag.

Below is what Lightroom looks like in my desktop. You can see the ratings on the images and the red label on a few of them.This is the grid view of the Library but it is filtered to show only 4 stars or higher:

Below is Lightroom in the Develop panel. I really love the way Lightroom handles batch changes (Copy/Paste Presets or Sync/Auto-Sync). It’s really a time saver. I’ll still make small tweaks here and there, but most of the time, it’s good to go. I’ve set up a few of my personal presets on the left panel.

It’s funny because while using Lightroom for the past few months, I’ve made some cool discoveries like the Recovery and the Vibrance settings which I thought were just amazing. Then, today, Scott says how they are just the greatest things on earth. So, I’m glad that I’m on the right track with those tools.

For me, the best things in Lightroom are:

1. Presets,Presets,Presets (individual photo or batch)
2. The preview thumbnail on the top left corner
3. Adding vignettes using the lens correction panel
4. Easy split tone adjustments
5. The little click and drag/eyedropper adjustment tool on the Curve and Hue/Saturation/Luminance panels
6. Recovery and Vibrance tool

So unless Apple steps up and makes Aperture more useable (for me, at least), I’m with Adobe on this.

Geeky rant is done!