Apologies if you were trying to visit yesterday – for a whole five hours the server was down, which was more disturbing for me than it should have been. Not only was the website unavailable but my email was inaccessible. No email! I tell ya, I was a frantic mess. I was waiting for a couple of important ones (of course), so instead of being able to relax and do something else, I obsessively checked and rechecked my mail, and kept trying to get through to support to find out what was going on. I realised I am hooked into the internet like the matrix – I don’t function well without my mail, and I don’t like it when I can’t edit my blog.
While I re-compose myself into something resembling a normal person I though I’d share a couple of tools that are making my online life a little easier to handle. After all, time is limited, and even if I can’t always spare the time to type, I can lurk like it’s 1999.
Gruml – it’s a google reader app for Macs. I got tired of Bloglines, and a word about it being underfunded or possibly being bought or something (it’s an internet rumour that I vaguely remember and therefore can’t substantiate) made me think I should switch to google reader. But I don’t like google reader on the web much, which is where Gruml comes in. It syncs with your GR account, so what’s read stays read, and you can open new tabs within Gruml so if you want to click through to read the whole post, or leave a comment you don’t end up with lots of windows open in your browser. The only thing it doesn’t cope well with is pop up comments from blogger, but it’s in Beta so there’s still time. This is why I haven’t got round to having a bloglist on the side yet. I’ll get there…
Tweetdeck – about a hundred years ago I looked at Twitter via a blog called Random Acts of Reality (which is really very good and you should read it). Of course, I didn’t get it, because it was new & there was hardly anyone to follow, so I abandoned it. So after being a way too early adopter I waited to become a late one, and it’s much better now. I have tweetdeck on my iPhone too, so the accounts are in sync, which is great, and I turned off all the annoying little updates and noises, which is even better. It’s a great app, but boy, are those pop up windows annoying.
WordPress App – am I ever glad I got an iPhone before Fitz arrived. I would be lost without it. I tend not to write entire blog posts on the app, but if I’m out and I have a thought for a post I can easily create a draft for it, and then it’s safe. And what’s more in the right place, rather than tucked away in another place where I’ll completely forget about it for months. Yes I will, because I have. Oh, the joys you’ve missed out on.
Now you can all tell me: Is there anything I’m missing? What daily internetery could you not live without?