I subscribe to quite a few RSS feeds and read them via Google Reader daily. All too often, about a third of the articles, usually coming from Doggdot.us have a title like “40 Best Design Blogs” or “100 Resources for Sharing Files”.

Personally, I rarely read these articles because I don’t find there’s much value in a large list of resources that usually lacks a per-item description. If I want a list of resources, I can perform a Google search. A long list of resources usually means the article’s author hasn’t actually reviewed anything.

I would find greater value in an article titled “Top 3 Recommended Design Blogs” with a subjective review of those three items, and perhaps a link to a larger list. I personally don’t have any need to read about more than 3-5 resources in the same category. Granted, there are situations when a large list is valuable, such as when you have a very specific need for a tool or website, but that’s a rare case, at least for me.

Of course, using “valuable” in the title of this post brings into question the value of this rant.

The time has come for better things. I’m planning a site redesign for this site and for Wizkid Sound which I also maintain.

I’ve decided that Wordpress might not be the best option anymore, mainly because I’m not in need of all the features it offers. I’m looking for more simplicity, and I think Tumblr offers that. Getting started with Tumblr is really simple, and their website claims you can be up and posting in 10 seconds, which I can attest to. All you need to enter on their signup page is your email address, a password, and the URL you want (i.e. whatever.tumblr.com).

I’ll be using Disqus for commenting. The main advantage is that Disqus allows you to track conversations across multiple websites, meaning you don’t have to sign up on each blog you visit to comment (or leave anonymous comments).

I will be using Sweetcron for my “lifestream”, which includes Twitter posts, Flickr uploads, Youtube favorites, etc. Sweetcron checks the sites you specify at a specified interval and converts any new items it finds to individual posts. I’ve incorporated Sweetcron into Daniel Novick’s website.

Sweetcron is self-hosted, whereas Tumblr is not. However, a Tumblr blog can be embedded into a site, which is what I plan to do. I am currently using Dreamhost, but have a Slicehost account I have been playing with. I’m going to benchmark the two to get some sort of speed comparison. I’m hoping the Slicehost account will beat my Dreamhost account, because that means more geekery on the backend. I must be clear that I’m using the bottom account for both Dreamhost and Slicehost and that I’m confident upgrading either one would yield very different results.

The general theme is streamlining and centralizing, and I think this combination will help achieve that. I plan to use the same tools to build the new Wizkid Sound website, but with more media-specific elements including a music player and some sort of embedded Mogulus feed.

As for the design, well, I’m thinking Helvetica. That is all.

A while back I signed up for GrandCentral, which was bought up by Google and recently rebranded/upgraded as Google Voice. I’m going to talk about the SMS features, as that’s all I’ve messed with so far. There are plenty of other reviews of Google Voice, and you can request an invite here.

It appears the final goal is to have voicemails and SMS messages show up in Gmail, but for now you have to log in to the Google Voice interface. Sending text messages is dead simple, and if you have all your contacts’ info in Gmail (or synced with your OSX address book) you can simply click the SMS button and type the person’s name. Messages show up in a thread-like display, and you can archive and mark as read as you would a Gmail message.

There are a couple of things that I’m hoping will be improved with the SMS interface. One of those things is the SMS notifications. If you have your Google Voice number linked to a cell phone (as I do) by default you will receive any SMS messages sent to Google Voice on your cell phone as well as in the web interface. This is ideal if you’re not at your computer, but what if you’re sitting there with your browser open? It seems counter-intuitive to read SMS messages on your phone and in the interface. What I’ve been doing is disabling SMS notifications in the Settings > Phones > Edit when I’m at the computer. But what if you forget to do this, or don’t re-enable it when you leave the computer? You’ll either end up with double notifications or none at all.

Another item that is slightly confusing is, when someone sends an SMS to your Google Voice number, it shows up on your phone as being from some random 406 number. This is so that when you reply to the message it gets routed through Google rather than through your cell provider, and Google explains it here. Makes sense, but still confusing.

Overall, very promising, particularly from the SMS side. I like not having to get my phone out when I get an SMS…I can just stay at my computer and get to the SMS when I want to. I’m not going to port my number over just yet, but would entertain the idea if the features continue to improve.

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.