Here’s an updated 2012 list of resources that I regularly use living life “in the cloud”:
1. Writethat.name: This is a pay service, but it’s pretty cheap. It works with Gmail. It scans incoming email for contact information and automatically updates your Google Contacts list, bringing in things like email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, etc. It’s a great time saver. Since my Google Contacts address is automatically synced to my phone, and becomes my phone address list, it’s also helpful for updating the phone book on my phone. Much better and less privacy invading than Plaxo!
2. Google Docs. Most everything I write and save is in Google Docs these days. I have 400GB of additional storage from Google (cost: $100/year). I have never run out of space yet.
3. Picasa. I use Google’s online photo storage to archive and backup all of our photos, thus making them available from any computer we use. But I keep the privacy controls pretty high; very few of the photos in my collection are publicly available.
4. Google Voice. I use this more and more for my phone calls. Skype is being used less and less. I’m going to be testing Google Hangouts for regular use pretty soon.
5. LinkedIn. This is rapidly becoming the center of my social networking in terms of business use. What I post here gets automatically shared on Twitter. I know everyone I’m connected to and what their role in the mission world is. So it’s more useful for networking than Twitter.
6. Twitter. Twitter is the center of my news world. I have several carefully curated lists which cover breaking news, top news sources, global thinkers and influencers, activists, mission agencies, and the like. I use Flipboard on the iPad, as well as Hootsuite, to access this.
7. Google Reader. I still consume a lot of material via Reader RSS feeds, and I have custom software which automatically shares anything that I star in Reader via Twitter.
8. Facebook. This is the center of my “closest 1,000 friends” world. This is where I share lots of personal stuff like pictures of our dog or what our family is doing or the latest thing I’m trying to cook. I have a Facebook Page for the Long View (echoing the Twitter feed) so it doesn’t overwhelm the personal stuff; people can choose which they want to follow.
9. Scrivener. This is a wonderful writing app that is becoming my dear friend for my dabbling in novel-writing.
10. Camtasia Studio. This is what I use for recording videos for the Mission Manual. I got it pretty cheap through a non-profit license via Techsoup.
11. Adobe Indesign. This is what I use when I’m working on the Global Guidebooks. I do a monthly subscription rather than buy it outright, and I only pay for the months I’m using it ($49/month).
12. Microsoft Access. Still use this (dinosaur?) for maintaining some of my larger and more complex databases (like my workamong database) because I have yet to find a suitable alternative that does what it does as well.
13. Tripit maintains my travel calendar automatically. Anytime I purchase a flight, Tripit (which monitors my Gmail account) automatically sucks the flight data in and gives me a nice itinerary. It syncs to the iPhone/iPad app as well, so that’s always up to date, and shares the itinerary with my wife, so she has quick access to my schedule.
14. Spanning.com maintains a complete backup of all of the data I have in Gmail, all of my Google Docs, my Contacts and my Calendar. I am not afraid of some hacker logging in and wiping everything, because I can easily restore from backup. (Also, not afraid of deleting a file and discovering 30 days later I really wanted it–but it’s gone in the trash). Cheap: $3/mo.
15. IWantMyName.com: cheap domain registration. Simple, no frills, better than GoDaddy (which I’ve used in the pst).
16. Hostgator: probably, for the money, the best domain hosting I’ve ever had. Very responsive customer service. No, it’s not Rackspace, but I can’t afford them, and I’ve never ever had a problem with Hostgator. And, their service is quick, no frills, no long download times (unlike GoDaddy), and never doing intrusive upsells.
17. Kindle: I love Amazon Kindle. I probably have 200 books/files in it. Apple’s iBooks is nice, but at this point I have so much in my Kindle that I would be hard pressed to abandon it. I actually use my Kindle App on iPhone/iPad far more than I do my actual Kindle, at this point.
18. Google Apps for Domains: we use this internally at MUP for email, documents, calendaring and the like. So I include it here just to mention it.
19. Paypal: I use this a lot for donations and small purchases that people make from me. I’m very satisfied with it.
20. FileZilla: this is my FTP transfer program of choice. I’ve tried a bunch (including CuteFTP Pro) but this is the one that’s the simplest.
21. Putty: This is my SSH terminal of choice. I use it when I need to login to my host server and make minor changes or run programs on it.
22. SmoothDraw 3: What I use in conjunction with a Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet to make graphics for the MissionManual training videos.
23. iTunes: what I use to play and scan in music. I know, others find it kludgy. It works for me. Besides I pretty much need that because of the iPhone and iPad.
24. LastPass: my password manager. My passwords are typically phrases (not crazy alphanumeric codes) but Lastpass is great for automatically logging me into sites so I don’t have to remember all the passwords I’ve used.
25. Chrome: the app I am in nearly every working day of the week. I’m a Chrome guy. I like it more than any other browser I’ve ever dealt with. I run it pretty clean.
26. Delicious: where I save links that are of interest to me long-term. I have the Chrome plugin, which makes it very easy.
27. Instapaper: where I save articles to read later. I also tried ReadItLater but Instapaper worked better with some of the other apps I use. I have the browser bookmarklet, so I just hit it when I want to save an article, and it syncs to my iPad for later viewing.
28. Storify: I use this periodically to curate links about a story for this blog. I’ve also tried curated.by but came back to Storify as I like its interface better.
29. Bit.ly: my link shortener of choice, although this is becoming less and less relevant as so many services (like LinkedIn and Twitter) have their own link shorteners these days.
30. WordPress: what my blog runs on. I don’t think I could ever move off this platform. WordPress is fantastic.
31. Thesis: the theme I use in WordPress, which is incredibly extendable. I’ve glanced at other themes from time to time, but I seem to keep this one around.
There are some other tools I’ve tried out from time to time, but these seem to be the ones I come back to over and over again: tried and true. What would you add to this list?
UPDATE (How could I forget?)
32. Gmail: duh.
33. Shortmail: I use this for my day-to-day work emails (justindlong@shortmail.com) because it’s nice to have shorter blurbs. It gets archived to Gmail.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Justin
I’ve seen your name pop up again and again on Bills Daily Ywamer.
Love this article, especially the Indesign monthly subscription. how does that work?
You just subscribe via the Adobe.com website. Once you have subscribed (using a credit card), you download the software and activate it. They charge you every month, and the software stays active so long as your subscription is.
Re: #1, do you know about/have you tried Rapportive? Maybe it doesn’t quite do everything the same way, but I have found it helpful. Of course, my Android phone syncs to my Facebook AND Gmail–when I move to the Iphone, I’m going to need to find a whole new set of tools, I’m guessing.
I have used Rapportive in the past, but I actually prefer Xobni (which I forgot to mention in my tools). It’s a plugin for Gmail. The iPhone syncs to Gmail automatically, so no worries there. It’s got a Facebook app but I haven’t found any way to sync contact information from FB to Contacts – not sure I’d want to do that, anyway.
Thanks…I’ll look into Xobni. And yes, I agree that the Facebook/Android connection is creepy–it does weird things to some of my contacts, too, depending upon how they have their phone number listed on FB or what name they use. I’ve given up caring about privacy, however :-/