FINAL COLUMN

Reading Never Got So Busy…and Mobile

If you’re like me, you have to have everything at the tip of your finger.  Aside from slaving away everyday at work, I spend most of my time reading the latest news on global events, and the gadgets, gizmos, and thingamajigs that make life more entertaining for the rest of us.  Many people pick up the morning paper, browse for gaming news from Kotaku, and constantly visit their favorite websites.  The very process of shifting your sources around for this information can be time-consuming and very trying on your patience.

Luckily for the rest of us, we’ve discovered Google’s Reader.  It’s been out for quite a while, but I caught on only a few months ago.  If you’re familiar with RSS Feeds you won’t have a problem figuring this out.  However, most of Google’s products are so user-friendly even a chimpanzee can figure it out…or at least escape from its human captors via Segway.  Here’s what it would look like…and I’m not talking about that chimp:

You can also track your stats in the “trends” section of Reader.  Only there will you be able to witness the numbers climb as you continue to read, star, and share articles of interest with friends.  My top read sites are the BBC and Gizmodo, with 1,644 and 1,460 articles respectively.

Reader can be accessed on mobile devices (i.e. Apple iPhone, HTC G1, etc).  So if you’re really on the go you’ll be able to enjoy reading all your favorite articles on your phone…even when you’re dumping a doodoo in the shitter.  On my iPhone I’m able to read a small batch of articles at a time; this is good.  If I’m skipping through a group of uninteresting articles, I can mark those as read and move on to the next batch.

Somehow I haven’t figured out how to do that on a regular browser, in which I’m forced to view all articles and mark all as read.  To view Reader on a phone all you have to do is point your browser to reader.google.com.  Since my iPhone is linked to my Google account, it automatically logs in for me.  Here’s a preview of it in action:

If you’re using an iPhone and you want to set up a button for Reader on your home screen (aka Springboard), do the following:

1. Open Safari
2. Point your browser to reader.google.com
3. Press the “+” button near the bottom of the screen to create a bookmark
4. Select “Add to Home Screen”

To view my shares, see the Google Reader widget on the right panel…or go here.

Update:  Find yourself logging in everytime you access Reader on your iPhone?  Read this article at Ben.geek.nz…

Tags: Apple, bbc, gizmodo, google, google reader, iPhone, news, sackboy

The Financial District Pt. 2

Morning faces tell it all. Come the end of the day, you pretty much expect to see the grotesque, but the beginning of the work day should fill us with promise, not self-remorse…unless you just woke up to something or someone uncommonly “sloppy.” This is how I know that we’re doing everything all wrong.

It is my opinion that THIS is perhaps the largest similarity between the haves and the have-nots:

We all hate what we’re doing…at least a little bit.

Those who actually enjoy what they do… I haven’t met one of those in a long time. And, now come to think of it, those who hold that romantic view of professionalism must surely be oblivious as to how unfair life really is. It’s too short to enjoy all this world has to give us, but entitely too long for one profession to keep you interested through the years. Life gets to that point where it stops giving you things and starts taking then back long before you stop working. How and when are we to enjoy life?

San Francisco, my home, my city, is a Mecca for the modern professional ignoramus. We wake up in a shit mood, haul our asses to work, are in misery there, go home unsatisfied, “wash, rinse, and repeat.” My yuppie-filled abode, we have so much…but it’s all come at a great cost. Just look at our morning faces.

Tags: faces, Financial District, iPhone, morning, oblivious, professional, san francisco