revjim.net

There are a lot of web based tools that I use on a day to day basis. Some of them are small, silly, time savers. Others allow communication and collaboration in ways that were never before possible. Here are a few of those tools. If you find this information useful, let me know and I'll write about some more of the tools I use.

Even if you've heard of these tools before, or even used them once or twice and decided you didn't like them, read over my comments on each of them. You may find that it does more than you initially realized.

"FaceBook":http://facebook.com/
("profile":http://www.facebook.com/p/Jim_Reverend/514942252, "Daniel James group":http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2226049614)

FaceBook is just about everything most users wants out of MySpace, and then some. The only feature it is missing is the aspect of MySpace that allows musicians to upload music to share on their pages. So, if you're a band, you might prefer MySpace. However, Facebook provides ways to do the same thing (just not as easily) and with all of the other things it does it may be worth it anyway.

It's built better. It's not filled with annoying ads. It isn't always broken. It isn't slow as hell. It doesn't make my computer grind to a halt. It doesn't do that annoying "RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE:" thing when you reply to a message. It doesn't force me to click a thousand different things to get where I want.

It has event handling, photo uploading, blogging, messaging, status updating, and relationship tracking. If you already have a blog elsewhere, it'll even import your blog entries for you so you don't have to do that annoying copy and paste thing.

On top of all that, Facebook has an open API that allows all sorts of cool things to be built on top of it that the Facebook authors didn't intend or don't want to build. For instance, you can "Map Your Friends":http://www.booksnearme.com/fb/, "Find a Date":http://matchdust.com/, "Lickuacious":http://www.thaichaiguy.ocfoodreview.com/lickuacious, "Rate your Friends":http://www.shallowfriend.com/, "Chat and Send Attachments":http://www.blabbook.com/, "Split bills and track lent items":https://www.billmonk.com/, "Make Classified Ads":http://www.fblistings.com/, "Link up with Flickr":http://www.telcobox.net/PhotoFlick/index.php, "Poll your friends":http://www.votetronics.com/vote/, "Find your social ranking":http://thaichaiguy.ocfoodreview.com/lickuacious/, and "much, much more":http://developers.facebook.com/products.php.

So ditch MySpace and give FaceBook a try. I'm sure you'll like it.

"Twitter":http://www.twitter.com/
("updates":http://www.twitter.com/revjim)

I've just started using Twitter today, but, so far I love it. It allows you to leave small updates about where you are and what you're doing. These appear on a site and function in much the same way that Facebook's Status updates do. However, there's more. You can update your status via text message by sending a message to 40404. And that's not all. When the people you follow announce a new status, you can request to have those announcements sent to you by IM, text message, or even a desktop client. It makes keeping up with your friends and where they are at a breeze.

Plus, on top of all that, it has an open API that allows all sorts of cool things to be built on top of it that the Twitter authors didn't intend or don't want to build. Twitter's still new, so there aren't many examples of such applications out just yet. But, the fact that the system is open means that they will be created. It just takes time.

"Flickr":http://flickr.com/
("photos":http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/, "profile":http://flickr.com/people/revjim/)

Flickr is place to host your photographs. But, it's more than that, really. It's a place to look at pictures from your friends and family, a place to see stunning new photographs from amazing photographers all over the world, and a place to discuss even some of the smallest facets of photography, people and society.

You can, of course, upload photographs. You can title them, describe them, and tag them. If you use the right software when you edit your photos, you can even set a title, description, and tags directly from your editing software. You can arrange your photos into albums or sets. You can protect your family photographs. You can comment on other photographs. You can keep track of your favorite photographs from other people. You can add your photographs to various groups interested in a similar style or subject matter.

On top of all that, Flickr has an open API that allows all sorts of cool things to be built on top of it that the Flickr authors didn't intend or don't want to build. For instance, you can "play a game":http://randomchaos.com/games/fastr/, "make a comic":http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/, "tell the time":http://www.quasimondo.com/clockr.php, "find a photo of something":http://www.forestandthetrees.com/findr/, and "much, much more":http://www.flickrbits.com/.

So, if you're using Gallery, or Zen Photo, or pbase, or imageshack, or any of those other image hosting services, and you don't need custom scripting or commercial services, give Flickr a try. I'm sure you'll like it.

"Google Calendar":http://calendar.google.com/
("calendar":http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=revjim%40gmail.com, "agenda":http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=revjim%40gmail.com&mode=AGENDA)

All online calendars suck. Google Calendar sucks less. It allows you to do all the standard calendaring things. You can also share calendars with others and allow other people to add items to your calendar.

Plus, it has an open API that allows all sorts of cool things to be built on top of it that the Google Calendar authors didn't intend to don't want to build. For instance "ScheduleWorld":http://www.scheduleworld.com/ can link with Google Calendar to allow you to easily Synchronize a copy of Microsoft Outlook, iCal, or even a Windows Mobile Device with Google Calendar.