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Keeping a Workout Schedule

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.

Adobe’s Buzzword – Online Word Processor

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.

Web Apps Directory

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.

Polling Tools

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.

Pandora and PandoraJam

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 Music Community

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.

Online Tools – Creating Documents

I tend to sign up for anything that looks even mildly interesting, including the Useless Account.  I have found some decent online tools as a result.  All of them have free accounts.  Here are some for creating documents online that I’ve tried:

• Zoho - Similar to Google Docs but some additional features.  I like Zoho’s interface a bit more than Google Docs.  Check out Lifehacker’s comparison.
• Buzzword - A word processing tool from Adobe.  Buzzword is a fully-featured word processor that aims to give the user a desktop-like experience.  Really fancy interface.  Here’s a review.
• Writer - Writer is an online version of the distraction-free Writeroom.  Nothing fancy…just type.
• Gliffy - Great for creating Visio-like diagrams.  You can export to SVG which Visio can read, too.
• Writewith - Aimed at collaborative writing.  Chat and version history of documents are really neat.

Utterz: Redefining Mobile Blogging

Utterz is a new blogging tool that lets users blog pictures, text, and video that you submit by phone, text, email, or directly on the webite. Utterz has its own social community, which non-members can browse. The fantastic thing about Utterz is the support for widgets, which let you put your “utterz” on your own pages, which can include MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Blogger, and even your own site.

Check out the Web Worker Daily review of Utterz, and my Utterz page.

Find Amazon books at your local library

Jon Udell at InfoWorld has written up instructions on how to create a bookmarklet to check your local library’s inventory for a book you look up on Amazon. It’s a little tricky, but John has a video tutorial on how to do it.

I managed to create one for my local library here in Atlanta, since there wasn’t one predefined. You can drag this link to your bookmark toolbar (see Jon’s videos on how to do this if you get stuck). Also, here’s a great tutorial at Don’t Try This At Home.

Google adds Mapplets

Google has added Mapplets, extra data layers, to Google Maps.  Once at Google Maps, click on “My Maps”, then select one of the “Featured content” options, or click “Add Content” to get a list of all available content.

A few I thought were interesting:

• Gas Buddy
• Flickr Photo Mapplet
• Famous Photos
• Google Real Estate Search
• Movie Showtimes
• JamBase Concerts

Check out other articles about this news.