I’ve been using Ping.fm for a few months now and have found it extremely useful for updating my status on multiple social networks at the same time.  I use it to update the Wizkid Sound profiles we’ve set up, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Plurk.

There are several ways to submit updates using Ping.fm: via IM (several services), through the web interface, by email, and others.  I update using the email option from my iPhone because I don’t have to worry about my internet connection…the email will get sent as soon as there’s connectivity, and my updates will get processed.

The development team (Sean?) is very active…it seems that every week there’s a new service to ping (that I just have to sign up for) or new features, like automatic link shortening, the ability to send updates to a specific set of services, and also the ability to post to blogs.

Send me a message if you’d like an invite as Ping.fm is currently in private beta.

Sure, you could just throw it away, but isn’t there a saying about this? Your trash, someone else’s treasure? Here are some options.

Craigslist is a great place to sell or give away pretty much anything, and you might be surprised at how much people are willing to pay. I have sold a car, furniture, computer parts, and various other items. I prefer Craigslist over Ebay because buyers are usually local, so you don’t have to deal with shipping.

If you have stuff to get rid of that you don’t necessarily want to sell, try Freecycle. Most major cities and a lot of smaller cities in the US have a Freecycle group, which is a Yahoo! group where you can post an item you want to get rid of for others to pick up. I’ve used this service several times and have gotten rid of everything I’ve posted.

Two sites I discovered recently but haven’t looked at in depth are Wigix and Ztail. Wigix (an acronym for Want It Got It eXchange) is essentially an online classifieds system with a pricing structure similar to but cheapter than eBay’s. Ztail lets users post and sell items and have other users determine their value or worth. There’s also Costco’s Trade-In program. I haven’t tried it yet, but it might be worth a shot.

Of course you could use most of these sites to acquire more stuff, but that would be defeating the point, wouldn’t it?

Until recently, I bought all my CDs in physical form (strange that I have to specify!), mainly because I like to rip (using Max) at a higher bitrate than is available on iTunes.  I also like being able to flip through the album notes and artwork, and the option to play it on my CD player.  Yes I still have one.

There are plenty of arguments supporting digital downloads, some quite surprising, like the environmental impact of purchasing and (eventually) disposing of compact discs.  Lately I have been thinking more about the clutter aspect.  I have many CDs that I’ve listened to once or twice on disc, and have ripped to my hard drive.  Of course there are some that I’d prefer to have on disc, but what about albums that would be fine in MP3 format?

I recently tried out Amazon’s MP3 Downloads and was surprised to find their prices were cheaper than Amazon’s, and all of the downloads are DRM-free.  So I downloaded a couple of albums at $9.99 a piece and am quite pleased with my decision to save a few dollars on albums that I don’t need a hard copy of.

What about this price difference?  According to some sources, the major record labels are offering companies other than Apple, such as Amazon, a price break because they’re not so happy with the iTunes domination.  Check out the Coding Horror article about this.

All that to say, check out Amazon’s MP3 Downloads.

Justin.tv lets users stream video for free.  And it’s almost that simple.  I’ve been testing it out using my Macbook Pro’s built in iSight and microphone, and the results are great.

Here are a few features worth pointing out:

• Broadcasters have a “channel” where viewers can watch most recent broadcasts and highlights if there is no live feed at the time.  There is a standard chatroom-type interface for communicating with the channel owner and other viewers, again, even if there is no live feed.
• Broadcasters can schedule shows and have MySpace bulletins and Twitter tweets sent out when a broadcast begins.
• The quality of the broadcast can be tweaked for specific applications by adjusting bitrates on video and audio independently
• Starting a broadcast is really simple…it takes a matter of seconds to get up and running.
• You can embed a video player into any site, meaning a viewer does not have to visit Justin.tv to see a broadcast

I have not played around with the service enough to get a good feel for it, and have not yet tried it using a wired internet connection.  There are other services, too, like Ustream, and supposedly Youtube will have a live feed service soon.

You can visit our recording studio channel at http://justin.tv/wizkidsound.

I recently began training for the Atlanta Marathon at Thanksgiving this year, and have been using a few tools to help me stick to my training schedule.

I have a “Workouts” calendar in Google Calendar, which I print out each month and put somewhere visible (i.e. the fridge!) to help remind me of what’s coming up, and have shared it here.  I have a few friends who have subscribed to it so we can work out together occasionally.

I use Joe’s Goals to keep track of my progress.  Joe’s Goals lets you set, yep, goals, and mark off each day you complete a goal.  It’s similar to Jerry Seinfeld’s calendar technique, and provides motivation by encouraging you not to break the chain.

For mapping out running routes I use Gmaps Pedometer.  You can save routes for future reference or for sending to friends.

There are plenty of other tools to help you keep a workout shcedule, and there are plenty of articles that discuss ways to motivate yourself to begin and maintain an exercise routine.

There is no lack of online word processors out there, from the now-fairly-standard Google Docs and Zoho Writer to the Writeroom lookalike Writer and the collaborative Writewith. Is there really any need for another online word processor?

Adobe’s Buzzword is completely Flash-based, which may be a deterrent to some, but in my opinion it has allowed Adobe to create a word processor that provides a richer user experience than is found in other online word processors.

When you first sign in to Buzzword, you are presented with an alphabetical list of your documents, which you can re-sort by author, role (author, co-author, reviewer, reader), date viewed, date modified, or size. You can select a document or select “New” from the Document drop-down.

The main document window takes a no-frills approach to getting the task done, but it provides just enough sleekness and eye candy to make the user experience a bit…dare I say…fun? Instead of describing each feature, I have provided several screenshots of the Welcome document that appears in your account by default.

Here’s a list of some of the things that have caught my attention while using Buzzword

• Page numbers in the vertical scrollbar
• Document ruler
• Clean inline commenting system
• Paragraph alignment feels like a feature rather than an afterthought
• Ability to add headers and footers
• Dropdown menus have “native OS” feel
• Unobtrusive auto-save/synchronization
• Ability to save as Word doc, docx, xml, rtf, plain text, and zip

You can sign up now for Adobe Buzzword as they are in public beta phase.  Also, check out these other reviews, a video review, and an article about Adobe’s acquisition of Buzzword from the original developers.

* Note that Buzzword currently “supports” certain browsers, but I have not run into any issues using Firefox 3 which is currently my default browser, except the lack of paste support, which apparently is available when using other browsers.

I have posted previously about my weakness for web apps requiring a signup, including the Useless Account, but recently came across a site that makes my affliciton look somewhat insignificant.

The site is called Simple Spark, and it claims to be tracking 8,611 as of posting this.  They have everything broken down by category, and also by device (Mobile, iPhone, Wii) which is convenient.  There is also a feature you can access by registering (yep, I registered) which lets you create lists of apps you like in a sort of dropbox on the right-hand side of the page.

There are plenty of web apps out there that let you conduct in-depth surveys and polls (SurveyMonkey and Survey Gizmo are just a couple), but what about quick polls for a few people?  Like, for example, a poll to decide where to go to lunch?  (It usually ends up being Al’s or Chipotle in our office).

Doodle has a really clean and simple interface with no frills, and you don’t have to sign up for an account.  You can create a poll in no time, and send a URL to your friends to participate.  What’s neat about Doodle is they never get any email addresses.  There are Google ads on the poll itself, but nowhere else.

Zoho Polls has a pretty clean interface too, and a few more features than Doodle, but you do have to sign up for an account, even if you already have a Zoho Office account.  You can embed a Zoho Poll into your own website or blog, making it better suited to longer term polls and surveys.

To summarize, Doodle is great for really quick polls, and Zoho Polls is better at handling longer term polls.

I recently posted about Grooveshark which dubs itself as an “online music community”.  I think Grooveshark is great when you know what you’re looking for, but other sites like last.fm and Pandora are fantastic if you want to hear something new.  Based on the Music Genome Project, the idea behind Pandora is simple:  you type in the name of an artist that you like, and Pandora finds similar music.  For each song you hear you can choose to strongly approve of the song (in which case you’ll hear more material like it), disapprove of the song (you’ll be streamed a new song right away), or let the song play through, where Pandora assumes you liked it.

One issue with Pandora is that you can’t easily control it like you can a standalone program like iTunes, meaning you hvae to have a browser open at all times, and you don’t get hotkeys.  You also can’t stream your Pandora music to an Airport Express like you can with iTunes.  PandoraJam for the Mac solves these issues, and also gives you the ability to record what you’re hearing (tagged and added to iTunes automatically) and also scrobble to your last.fm account.

There’s a program similar to PandoraJam for Windows called Pandora Jar which was reviewed at Lifehacker.

Grooveshark is similar to other music sharing services like Rhapsody and emusic, but differs in that there is no monthly subscription.  You download the Grooveshark app (cleverly named SharkByte), and tell it where your music is.  Your music is uploaded to the Grooveshark server for sharing with other users.  You don’t have to specify your main music folder if you don’t want to share everything…just create a new folder solely for Grooveshark.  As long as the SharkByte app is open, you can stream as much music as you want through the Grooveshark website.

If you want to buy the music you’re listening to, Grooveshark has a flat rate of 99 cents per song.  Every once in a while, they have 29 cent download days.