Get your client's browser details via findmebyIP.com

Whenever I’m troubleshooting a problem on the web, nine times out of ten, it’s vitally important that I know what web browser the end user is using. However, getting this information can often be like pulling teeth. A lot of web users don’t know what web browser they use much less their browser version. That’s why it didn’t take long to sell me on findmebyIP.com.

After you signup for your free account, you’ll be given a URL that you can send to your clients. All they have to do is click on the link, and findmebyIP.com will generate a report that features information on their:

• Browser
• support for CSS3, HTML5, Forms 2.0 and CSS3 Selectors
• and IP Address & Geolocation

Check out the service yourself and get more details at http://findmebyIP.com.

Instapaper Lets You “Read Later”
Signing up for an account at Instapaper lets you add a “Read Later” bookmarklet to your browser. Now, any time you come across something you want to read later, simply click “Read Later” in your browser bookmarks, and the article is added to your queue at Instapaper. You can choose to have Instapaper send your unread articles to your Kindle daily or weekly.

Some of My Favorite Instapaper Reads
As an example of some of the content that reads great on a Kindle, here’s a rundown of some of my favorite recent reads on Instapaper (In addition to queuing articles I come across, I also recommend checking out the Instapaper homepage as I found many of these links there):

• The Essential Man – Esquire – “It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television’s most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped.”
• How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America – The Atlantic Online – “The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults.”
• The Comedy Circuit: When Your Brain Gets the Joke – New Scientist – The neuroscience behind humor.
• The Interpreter – The New Yorker – “Dan Everett believes that Pirahã undermines Noam Chomsky’s idea of a universal grammar.”
• One Woman’s Abortion – The Atlantic Online – “Each year for hundreds of thousands of American women there is a wide gulf between what the law forbids and what they feel they must do. The author of this article, whose credentials are trusted by the Atlantic, is a college graduate in her forty-sixth year, the mother of three children, living with her husband and family in one of the many commuter communities in the East”

Who doesn’t want to be taken out of the boredom or sameness or pain of the present at any given moment? That’s what drugs are for, and that’s why people become addicted to them. Carr himself was once a crack addict (he wrote about it in “The Night of the Gun”). Twitter is crack for media addicts. It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because I don’t think I could handle it. I’m afraid I’d end up letting my son go hungry.

See the full piece for more. (HT Justin Taylor)

via Stop the World: Interesting Times : The New Yorker.

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
The Google Apps team

Here’s a rundown of some of the services I’ve come across during my search:

Drop.io – Simple real-time sharing, collaboration, and presentation

Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want.

Box.net – Simple, Secure Collaboration

Over 50,000 businesses use Box to share files both internally and externally, collaborate in online workspaces and easily create online file systems.

Have you had any experience with any of the above, or do you have any other suggestions? Please share your thoughts in the comments:

As a proof of concept, today I signed up for an account at LiveStream.com. Their service makes it super easy to setup your own live streaming video using your computer, a web cam and an Internet connection.

• TechCrunch – Gmail Now Really Down – Can I Get My Email Back Please
• Mashable – Gmail Outage Causes a Google Frenzy

Fortunately, Gmail is back up this morning. So, for some of us that means we can get some work done, and for others I imagine that means you won’t get any work done. It all depends on whether you’re on a Maker’s Schedule or a Manager’s Schedule.

Given the growing popularity of Twitter, a lot of my clients have been jumping on board. Furthermore, they’ve been coming to me to design custom backgrounds and color palettes for their Twitter profiles. To service them and new clients better, I’ve setup ProfileExpert.com as a one-stop shop for getting your own custom Twitter background and color palette.

Although creating your own custom Twitter profile is a moderately simple process. I’ve found that my clients prefer to hire me for the job, knowing that I’ll be able to customize their profile quicker and with professional results. If you’re in the market for a customized Twitter profile, let me invite you to order yours today over at ProfileExpert.com.

Explaining what Twitter is is easy (i.e. it’s Facebook status updates without the rest of Facebook getting in the way); however, explaining why anyone would want to share their life in 140 character “tweets” is another story.

So, rather than philophosizing about why one would want to “Twitter,” I’m going to take a different angle in this post and introduce you to some of the great people I’ve met during my first year on Twitter. These are all people I suspect I wouldn’t have met otherwise; however, Twitter has been our natural bridge for starting relationships, many of which have spilled over into real-world connections.

Meet Some of my “Tweeple”

Jack Lail
Jack was one of the first people to start “following” me on Twitter. At the time I was just checking Twitter out to become more informed, so I didn’t know that “following” someone was a good thing. However, I clicked over to Jack’s profile and saw that we work in the same industry (i.e. he’s the News Director of Innovation for the Knoxville News Sentinel). I followed Jack back, and since that time he has been educating me on the world of print and online journalism.

Knoxify
Around the time I started using Twitter, I was looking to expand my involvement in our community. I came across Knoxify and their post, “Follow Us on Twitter, And We’ll Follow You Back.” So I started following Casey, Brandon and Patrick. More on them later…

Chad Parizman
Somewhere in all of my early days of “tweeting” and “following”, Chad Parizman came up on my radar. He was one of the first, if not the first, to suggest that we have a Knoxville Tweet-up. So, back on April 9th, 2008, 12 of us gathered at the Lakeside Tavern for lunch. Since that time, I’ve collaborated with Chad on a project over at Scripps, and he was kind enough to treat me for lunch at Taste of Thai this past fall in return for some of my hard work.

Zane Hagy
Zane and I were seated next to each other at the first Knoxville Tweet-up. My impression of Zane is that he’s the kind of guy who’s hard not to like. Any time I run into him, I enjoy catching up on what he’s doing. His day job (which often spills into the night according to his tweets) is running Z11 Communications. He helps businesses and organizations navigate the complicated world of today’s Inter-webs.

Suzy Trotta
I met Suzy at the second Knoxville Tweet-Up. Suzy is a realtor who keeps her own real estate blog with a surprising twist: It’s actually interesting. I’ve enjoyed watching how she’s used social media to share her expertise in a natural and winsome fashion.

Casey Peters and Brandon Clarke
Casey and Brandon are the master-minds behind Knoxify.com. Knoxify is a Knoxville focused blog which serves as “the insider’s take on what makes Knoxville great.”

The positive focus of Knoxify was exactly what I was looking for as I began making my forays into more community involvment. As a part of that quest, I started writing more Knoxville-focused posts on this blog, and that led to Casey inviting me to write for Knoxify. Since that time I’ve had the chance to meet with Casey and Brandon and the rest of the Knoxify crew to work on furthering our collective vision for helping make our fair city a great place to work and live.

Social Media – Use the Force Wisely

As social media has garnered more and more attention in the national media, there’s been a lot of philophosizing about what it is and what it isn’t. Like any other powerful tool or resource, it all depends on your motives and how you use it as to what side you fall on. Can Twittering be an exercise in narcissism or blatant marketing and spamming? Sure. But, from the examples I’ve listed above, you can see it is also a tool for building virtual relationships which extend into the real world.

Twitter’s Third Wave

So far, I think Twitter has mainly been the domain of social media early adopters. As more and more people come to know what it is, I think it’s important for other people to understand why we use it. This post is a part of my answer to that question.

While I don’t think Twitter is for everyone, I do think that it would be a great asset to a lot more people. This next phase of Twitter’s growth will be what I call Twitter’s Third Wave. First there were technologists who invented it. They were followed by a steady stream of tech savvy early adopters. Now, I think we’ll start seeing more and more typical Internet users harnessing its power.

So, if you’re not Twittering, why not try it out? Give me a follow, and everyone I’ve mentioned above is worth a follow too.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Finally, as I currently follow 131 people on Twitter, I’ve left a lot of people out. As with any acceptance speech considering an achievement of this magnitude (1000 tweets people!), there simply isn’t enough time to thank everyone. So, I’ll end saying thanks to all those I follow and who follow me back. I couldn’t have done it without you!