Productivity Apps

I clearly have far too many Productivity and To Do List type apps that I have used or am still using. I like to try out apps and I have to say that these productivity type apps are among the most frustrating for me. Some appear useful and I try them out, only to find that they develop no further and their usefulness is very limited. There are others that I like, then they fail and are shout down or sell to another company (who then closes them down). It is very difficult to find a truly great app that suits my own very specific needs.

I have been going through the ones I have used or still had accounts with and discovered that a good number of them simply no longer exist. Now that can be annoying!

Still, I have settled for various apps that I use on a more-or-less daily basis, so I expect I’ll be closing several more accounts very soon and sticking with those that have their usefulness in my own little world of value. These will often serve a specific function, while not meeting every single function I would like them to serve. Yet, that doesn’t upset too much.

In truth I find myself often returning to Google and the various apps they have available. Google Calendar is a very powerful web app which has become even more useful when using the iPhone app associated with it. I have about four calendars that serve various purposes. Using all the bells and whistles that come with the calendar app has made this a great tool for me.

Using Google Calendar along with apps like the new Lift app on the iPhone, and several others just about covers my needs in productivity apps these days. Still, my inability to say no to a new app I come across will probably always have me trying out more new ones.

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From My Armchair: 4 August 2012

At the BookShelf

I am into my last days of annual leave, so it is doubtful I’ll be able to read anywhere near as much as I have this last week. I’ll probably have the Kindle out at lunch for a bit, so I’ll still be getting some reading in even while I’m at work. The Kindle has certainly made it a lot easier to have good reading material available no matter where I am. Loving the Kindle.

 

Social Networks, Web Applications & Other Tools

Not a lot has happened with the social networks in the book/reading niche over this last week, except that I have been updating Goodreads on a regular basis as to what I am reading, progress and cataloguing the books as I go.

I did do a quick addition to Quotista, which has a lot of potential but doesn’t appear to be being developed any further, which is…

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Native Wildlife of the Area

It’s another wet and windy day in paradise, so not much to do but sit it out. It also means I haven’t got a lot to type about (as opposed to write about, given I’m using the keyboard). So I’m going back a little and posting about some photos I’ve taken in recent months here. In fact, what I’m posting about today is one of the great things about living here in Tea Gardens, which differs a great deal from other places I have lived down Newcastle and Lake Macquarie way and that is the abundance of wildlife around here. Sadly we have managed to kill of most of the wildlife down around Newcastle, or at the very least drove it all away. Here it abounds and I love it being so.

I’m not talking about just the smaller animal and bird species you might expect to find in a suburban area, but even the bigger examples of wildlife also. Kangaroos and Wallabies can be found all over the place in this area and it isn’t unusual to see them bounding down the main street in numbers. In fact, sadly, you often find them as road kill on the main road out to the highway. Where I work we have smaller wallabies and kangaroos actually living in and amongst the homes, with joeys in their pouches as well. The odd Dingo can also be seen from time to time. Koalas are known to live in healthy numbers around the area – not that I have spotted one here yet.

Reptiles abound here also, with large numbers of Red Belly Black Snakes, Diamond Pythons (pictured at above left) and Tree Snakes readily found in the warmer months, along with Blue-Tongued Lizards and Goannas. I have seen some Goannas that have been at least 1 metre long. Some of the Diamond Pythons have been closer to 2 metres in length.

It is the bird life that really thrives around here, especially the wetland varieties. The area is rich in bird life. At work you can see on a daily basis Wattle Birds, Blue Wrens, Finches, various Parrots and Rosellas, Black Cockatoos, Galahs, Water Fowl, Wood Ducks, Ibis, Egrets, Spoonbills, Herons, Black Swans and many, many more species of birds. There are the rarer sightings of birds also. A Tawny Frogmouth (pictured at below right) has made its home near where I live, trying its best to look like part of the tree in which it chooses to roost.

The area also abounds in sea life, of various types and sizes. It is not unusual to have Humpback Whales sighted of the coast here and Dolphins can be spotted almost every morning if you know where to look. The Sting Rays are also easy spot at the right time of the day.

You do get your not so welcome species of wildlife also, such as mosquitos and sand flies, but I guess these play their part in the general run of things, being food perhaps for the more welcome members of wildlife society.

One of the things I’m doing down here, tieing in my interest in web applications and social networks, is being involved with the Project Noah social network. This is a place to log wildlife spots with GPS markings using the iPhone application, along with the web application. I haven’t long been involved in it, but it is something I will be doing more and more. It will be good to build up a more complete picture of what species live in the area. Others can get involved in recording and mapping the wildlife of the area here by joining the ‘mission’ I have started at Project Noah.

The mission I have started for Tea Gardens can be found at:
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/12346009

Beta Li.st

Today’s link is to a Blog that is concerned with the latest Internet start ups, including various social networks and web applications. Being right into this sort of thing, I check out the site on a daily basis. A great Blog to go back to again and again.

Fore more, visit:
http://betali.st/

Diigo

Diigo has been about for some time, but I have only just registered an account. I use Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon and the other bookmarking and surfing web applications/social networks that I have posted about in recent weeks, yet diigo adds another element to my web adventures.

Diigo is a social network sharing site, in that you can share the bookmarks/favorites that you save. But the new element that diigo gives me in my surfing the net is that which I have at hand when I am reading a book or magazine offline – a highlighter and the ability to add notes to the written page (which in diigo is done via a sticky note that is attached to the page you are on). I can then return to the page I am reading with a bookmark as it were attached to where I got up to (by way of a sticky note), highlighted sections that were of particular interest to me and the ability to share what I have added to that page by way of my highlights and sticky notes. It is also possible to take a collaborative approach to this sort of online research by creating a group of users within diigo.

I can see diigo becoming a very important research tool that I will use for many years to come.

Visit diigo at:
http://www.diigo.com