Hack the planet, errr your life I mean

Finally, I can make a technology post without bitching about my life :)

I've recently been introduced to the blog Lifehacker (http://www.lifehacker.com/). It's been around for a while, but I'm almost always the last to find out about anything cool. They usually feature some really nice freeware that you can use to better organize your life and computer, in addition to practical tips (such as physical ways to organize your desk better). They've made me aware of a few decent productivity sites.

One of them that I'm definitely liking is Remember the Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/). Essentially it's an online task manager that you can use for free to create tasks, group them together, assign due dates, tag them, and even pin them on a map so you can group them by location. I'm using it to get a head start on 2009's resolution to be more organized.

So far it's working out pretty good. I've used it to plan out finishing the bathroom, as well as other stuff that I want to do (games to finish, books to read, etc) as well as any projects that I might have for work. If you want to get organized with tasks and don't want it tied to just one computer like on a standalone mail app (outlook, etc.), I recommend this site.

Evernote (www.evernote.com) is supposed to be another good site as far as organizing notes but I haven't tried it yet (mainly because it's a blocked site at work). The cool thing about that is that you can take a picture (even from your cell phone) and then upload it or text it to the site. It then saves the picture and you can search the text in there or convert it to words.

Jott (www.jott.com) is another interesting site. How it works is that you sign up and link your cell phone to your account. You can then call their number and use voice activation to leave a voice note for yourself on the website or you can use it to vocally post to Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, etc. The free version will only allow for 15 second messages that are only for your own use (that is, you can't send them or text to anyone else). The paid version allows you to send outbound texts from your voice among allowing you to interact with Remember the Milk and a bunch of other sites. The only downfall of the free version is that (as of yet) I have not figured out how to RETRIEVE your notes on the go in audio. You can set up a text reminder, but if your message is more than 160 characters when transcribed you won't get the text. Plans start at $4/month or $40/year, but I don't quite see enough value in it to justify it. I mean if I can set my notes while not at a computer, I want to be able to get to them as well. That's on top of the fact that I don't have much for spare cash at this point in the year.

I'm actually kind of working on being a completely legit software user in the next year. By legit I mean all legally purchased or GPL licensed software. I don't know if I'll really be able to pull that off as I use a few important pieces of software that I haven't found an adequate replacement for. Yeah, I know I'm naughty. I'm a naughty ninja pirate robot monkey vampire god!

"I think they should allow it [Prop 8] although I think they're cowards. Marrying a man is easy, women do it all the time, how hard can it be? It's marrying a woman that's the hard part" Tommy Blaze on gay marriage (heard on the Bob and Tom show)