Nur Ahmad Furlong

Tag: Online Tools

  • Does Google Friend Connect deserve a beta test?

    google_friend_connect_diagramSo you might have noticed the box to the top right of this post with some friend avatars in it. I signed up to be whitelisted as a google friend connect beta tester and then as usual when signing up for these types of things forgot all about it. Google sent me a notification a few days ago that my request had been accepted so I went through the motions of checking out what they had to offer.

    To be honest I’m not very impressed although I suppose things are still in development, the features available are currently not very usable. For example the widget I used in this site, which allows friends to connect with me on my site and invite others to do so, only allows me to see one or 2 profile links and doesn’t really allow me much interaction with the person who signed up as my friend. Maybe someone needs to develop a wordpress-friendconnect plugin to integrate some of the functionality.

    I admit I haven’t spent an awful amount of time going through the limited documentation, but so far it seems very raw and nothing to write home about, though I do love getting some additional little functional elements to play around with and spice up my site with.

    We’ll see what the community comes up with once the serious developers start throwing their social dev weight at this thing. As a non-hardcore-developer I can only but wait for now and throw in my 2 cents worth. How about you register as a friend and tell me if you found the process easy or valuable at all.

    The promise of Open Social seems to be working it’s way towards something but I don’t think it’s fully arrived yet. Next I think we’ll try Facebook connect and see how it compares.

  • Time to refresh my GTD approach with GTDinbox for gmail

    Having spoken a bit about GTD (Getting Things Done) in the past and being a fan of the personal productivity system, I seem to be making all the major productivity mistakes of late. So I made a mental note in the last few weeks to start taking steps to fix some of these problems, but as you all know, the mental note approach is not always the most reliable.

    I have a problem with the paper based systems I’ve tried, including the hipster PDA which I found sometimes just went missing in my many pockets & bags or just got a little clumsy or messed up after a while.

    GTDinbox with Firefox & Gmail – starting afresh.

    No matter how much effort you put into staying organised, when you let things slip and don’t take corrective action, chaos “will” start to develop, and you “will” lose control. I found a really great solution to keeping track of tasks and TO-DO’s. I’ve already been using Gmail Labels to send myself important notes and resources and keep control of the many varied bits of info and reminders I need to quickly access, but the GTDinbox extension for firefox has just made this a whole lot simpler & cooler.

    This cool extension was developed by productivefirefox.com. Because I use Gmail all the time and am pretty much permanently attached to my gmail account on any given day it makes sense for me to maximize my use of it.

    GTDinbox1

    The Firefox Extension adds a few crucial little bits to your gmail account which allows for better task & resource management. As you can see I’ve already got a few coloured labels for different types of messages. Now with GTDinbox I can assign messages as tasks, within projects and track them through the expandable panel at the top of my gmail window. It works with the gmail labelling system and adds GTD labels which are then organised in the top panel according to the GTD system.

    GTDinbox3

    In general Gmail is a great tool to use and it can be used in conjunction with other email accounts. I just wish Google would work on integrating it’s many services like docs, google notebook and others into a more jacked up online app which allows quick crossing over between the different apps.

    It too me a while to get used to labels after using yahoo’s cool drag & drop folders for a while but slowly I’m seeing the light here.

    Setting up filters which automatically label mails from specific clients, and other personal messages you send to yourself is a simple way you can start getting into the power of gmail if you don’t think you’re ready for something like GTDinbox quite yet.

    GTDinbox2

    If anyone needs an invite to Gmail I’ve got a few lying around, It’s free, powerful, accessible from anywhere with a connection and can be integrated into quite a growing number of online and offline apps. Post a comment if u need a gmail invite sent to you.