New GMail Feature – Canned Responses

If you often find yourself sending the same e-mail and you use GMail, then the new Canned Responses feature could save you a bit of time.

Described as “e-mail for the truly lazy”, Canned Responses allows you to set-up standard e-mail templates and then send them with a couple of clicks.

The feature can be turned on in the experimental Mail Labs section of the settings.  If you are already using one or more of GMail’s experimental features you can click on the little green flask icon at the top of the screen to get to the same place.

Once enabled you will notice a new ‘Canned Responses’ link under the subject line.  Click on the link to select a template, create a new one or save the current e-mail as a new response.

To save youself even more time you can use GMail’s filters to send canned responses automatically too.

Why Do I Blog?

Darren Rowse at ProBlogger asked the question  “Why Do We Blog?” on Twitter and Facebook and got some interesting replies. 

It’s made me think about the reasons that I like to blog (albeit not very successfully).

I guess the main reason is I like to explore, try new things tweak and see what’s what.  Blogging is just a part of that and at the same time a way of finding new stuff to play with.

Then, of course, there’s the vanity thing.  “Look I got a web site and ,hey, twelve people have looked at it today!”.  I could be wrong but I guess that every blogger, no matter how big or small, gets a buzz from knowing that other people are looking at what they’ve written – and if someone takes the time to leave a comment it’s a Red Bull mixed with ProPlus buzz.

I also find that blogging is a good way of solidifying thoughts.  When you write a blog post you know that there’s a chance that a complete stranger could read what you have written.  That forces you to bring ideas and thoughts together in a coherent(ish) fashion rather than having them floating about randomly in your head/bits of paper/mind maps/whatever.  I think that’s why I’ve started blogs in the past as I find new interests or enter new phases in my life only to abandon them as my interests change or I move through the phase.

So for me, at the risk of sounding like a round of ‘Call My Bluff’, blogging is a plaything, a way of leaving my mark and method of organizing some of the chaos of life.

Wallpaper of the moment

Angel

This is my current desktop wallpaper – an angel at Nottingham’s Rock Cemetery

To download a high res version click on the picture and then click on the “All Sizes” link.

New Software

I’m going through a bit of a New Software phase at the moment – Trying out alternatives to my tried and trusted apps.

Browser

I’ve been a longtime Firefox fan. Over the last few days though I’ve been trying out the Firefox derivative Flock.

Flock has taken the Firefox engine and integrated support for various online services, such as Flickr, GMail, Twitter, WordPress and a host of others. This allows you to keep up to date with your contacts from one place. You can also use flock to write blog posts, upload pictures to Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa.

One very cool feature of Flock is the Media Bar. If one of your contacts has uploaded new photos to Flickr, for example, click on their name in the People Sidebar and their Photostream will appear in the Media Bar at the top of the browser. You can also use the Media Bar to search for content and subscribe to media streams.

Being based on Firefox, Flock supports most of Firefox’s add-ons so it’s as customizable as you want.

Launcher

For as long as I can remember I’ve used Windows PowerPro for launching apps and to be honest I probably will continue to do so – but I thought I’d try out a couple of the new flashier launchers – namely RocketDock and Launchy.

They may look more modern but they don’t have the features and configuration options of PowerPro. I’m willing to give them a fair crack, however, and we’ll see how it goes.

firefox, flock, rocketdock, launchy

OMG I Have Nothing to Blog About

The problem I find with blogging is that the juices dry up.  One day I have nothing to write about.  One day turns into two, then a week, then a month (cue “Sorry I haven’t Posted in a Long Time” post) and before I know it I have a dead blog on my hands.

So the thing to do is keep posting.  Create a posting habit so that eventually it just feels wrong not to post and all the while keeping in mind that developing a Not-Posting habit is very very easy.

So what to do when I feel that there’s nothing to write about?

Thankfully help and inspiration is out there.

• Brian Clark at CopyBlogger suggests The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration. In a nutshell this involves looking at the slick Headlines on glossy magazines and adapting them for your own puposes.
• The Imagination Prompt Generator gives you a quick prompt to get the ideas flowing.  Click the button and you’ll get a prompt such as  “What is the most exciting thing that ever happened to you?” or “My 10 favorite works of art”.  I’ve seen lists like this in the past, but the beauty of this is that it presents the prompts one at a time which allows you to concentrate on one idea without getting distracted by others.
• Google Trends has a daily list of Hot Trends that people are searching for.  The home page has the top ten hot search terms, but click on the “More Trends” link and you’ll get the top 100.  Surely there must be something in there that strikes a chord – and remember this is stuff people are actively searching for so writing about one of the subjects (or perhaps a combination of two or more of them) could mean a boost to your site’s traffic.  Strangely enough, when I just visited the top item was “Cassowaries” – why the sudden interest in large flightless birds I wonder?

So, I have no excuse, there’s plenty of inspirational ideas for the taking.  And if all else fails I could always write a post about how I have nothing to write about – oh, wait….

Playing With Wikis

I’ve been having great fun playing with wikis today thanks to Wikidot.com.

I’m sure that almost everyone is vaguely familiar with the idea of Wikis (e.g. Wikipedia) but for those that aren’t, a wiki is a small furry creature that appears in Star Wars (Wikipedia is an unhealthy interest in the younger members of that species).

Oh OK I’m sorry. A wiki is a website that can be edited online by one or several people (Wikipedia is an experiment to see what happens when a vast number of people, all with different agendas, try to work together).

Anyway, Wikidot.com lets you set-up your own Wikipedia type of site for free. And when they say free they really mean it – there’s no ads on your pages or anything like that. You can have ads if you want, but if you decide to do so you reap the benefit!

As I said, I’m at the playing stage at the moment, but I’ve got plans for a site that could be quite interesting. More details will be made public as they become available.

Nitens Flickr Gadgets

If you like Flickr and also statistics then take a look at Nitens Flickr Gadgets.

Currently there is a Group Trackr which gives you all sorts of interesting stats about any public Flickr Group (Number of photos/members, recent contributors and tags etc.).  Naturally there’s all sorts of code snippets so you can post the graphs on your Flickr Group page, blog or whatever. For example, here’s the graph for my Views of Nottingham Flickr Group:

Yes, I know it’s pretty unimpressive at the moment, but give it a chance – mighty oaks and tiny acorns and all that.

The EXIF Explorer (couldn’t miss the ‘E’ out of that one sadly) is ‘coming soon’. This tool will extract statistics from EXIF data in your photostream and allow you to browse pictures by aperture, focal length, exposure and ISO speed.

One of the really cool things about these tools is that there is no sign-up required – just stick in the group’s URL or your Flickr username and your on your way to Flickry statistical goodness.

So, It’s Time to Drivel!!

So, what do we have here?  A personal blog?  How fresh and exciting.  Further more a blog with no purpose or goal? How edgy.

No doubt it will be full of great insights, each one framed with witty, well crafted prose.  A great cornucopia of wisdom and useful information.  When my grandchildren ask “What did you do with The Internet grandpapa?”, I will be able to tell them and be proud when I answer  “I was Actomart!”.

“No.” they will reply in hushed tones. “Not the Atomart? Surely not the longest running blog in history?  When they debated whether they should shut down The Internet, they decided not to because people just couldn’t manage without Actomart’s blog?”.

“The very one”, I shall say in a casual tone, “The very one”.

“Oh do tell us all about it grandpapa, please do!”

And I will.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Start at the beginning and work forwards, that is the key.

So I welcome you to the start of Internet history in the making that is Actomart’s Drivel