internet 101

Digitwirl: Mint.com— Show Me The Money!

Posted on May 18, 2011

We first wrote about Mint in 2008; at that time, I was inspired by another blog’s post about Quicken online. Fast foward nearly three years, and Quicken has acquired Mint. Funny how that works.

Since then, the service has gotten better in some ways and worse in others. On the “better” side: it connects with more financial institutions, and does so more reliably, and trend reports have gotten better. On the “worse” side, the interface is starting to show signs of the Intuit acquisition: with more and more options and choices. Choices can be good, but they can also create an overwhelming experience. And part of what really sets Mint apart (or has, in the past) is how simple the interface is, and what a pleasure it is to use.

It will be interesting to see if Mint can maintain their lean, simple approach to finances or if they’ll start to be bogged down by the things that led me to flee from Quicken in the first place.

Regardless, it’s still my favorite go-to place for managing my finances. Not necessarily taking action (you can’t move money or pay bills with the site — you can only view data) but for creating budgets and watching how my earning and spending is trending over time.

Digitwirl: Mint.com – Show Me the Money!

Keeping track of your life is challenging enough, so who can remember when your next credit card payment is due or that your checking account is on life support? But there is a simple way of keeping track of all your finances in one secure place: Mint.com.

With a few simple clicks you can upload your bank account balances, bills, mortgage statements and student loans and Mint will organize them so that you always know exactly what’s going on with your finances. No more searching piles. No more late fees. And, Mint gives you an up-to-the-minute view of all your transactions, analyzes your spending habits and lets you set up a budget. It might just surprise you to see where your cash is going and how you can save money. With the Mint app (available for both iPhone and Android) a quick peek at your bottom line will help you decide whether to purchase, or pass on, that little “me gift” you’ve been eyeing.

Watch this week’s Twirl to learn how you can gather up all your finances into one safe financial manager. Oh, and let us know what you think about Carley’s hat. Yay, or Nay?

Digitwirl is the weekly web show that offers simple solutions to modern day problems. In 3-minutes, Digitwirl brings busy women the very best time, money, and sanity-saving technology, and then teaches them how to use it, step-by-step. Digitwirl was created by technology lifestyle expert Carley Knobloch, who uses lots of technology to manage her busy life as mom of two and entrepreneur. Subscribe to get weekly show alerts and exclusive deals at Digitwirl.com, or follow Digitwirl on Twitter at @digitwirl

Digitwirl: The Password Manager That Hackers Hate

Posted on April 20, 2011

I swear, sometimes it’s like Carley is spying on me!

I’ve been noodling over password management software for far too long. I’m not sure what’s stopping me from actually doing something about it, aside from just the hassle of switching from my current system: creating a variety of hard-to-guess passwords and either trying to remember them, or keeping a list of them. Both of those methods make me nervous. My brain, because I don’t trust myself to remember them all and the list, because I’m worried someone could somehow get access to it.

I’ve looked at 1Password, and friend and fellow geeky girl Adria Richards suggested KeePass (which, I’m sorry — doesn’t that totally look like it says Keep Ass?!) on an earlier post I wrote titled, “What to do after you do something dumb.” But, purely for the hassle factor, I’ve had trouble making a decision. I had an “If ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” mentality. Do I really need password management (Um, yes. I think we all do.) and which one is the right one (The answer: whichever one you’ll actually USE.)

Digitwirl to the rescue! Carley breaks down LastPass: a service that I sorely need to help store and manage all those many passwords I have. Which will give my brain a much-needed rest from trying to remember them all.

(In other password news, our colleague Dez wrote a great blog post earlier this week about the importance of changing your password and disabling apps if one of your accounts that uses OAuth gets compromised. It’s a good read, check it out!)

Digitwirl: The Password Manager That Hackers Hate

If you use the same easy-to-remember password on every site, you’re not alone. Did you know millions of people actually use 123456 or PASSWORD to gain access to things like their favorite shopping sites (which has personal and credit card information stored), email accounts, and even banking sites. Well, heads up Twirlers: hacking is on the rise and becoming easier than ever.

Have we scared you smart yet? Good, because we have the perfect solution.

LastPass is a free password manager that does for passwords what Superman does for Lois Lane—provides total protection. LastPass stores all your passwords safely and securely so you’ll never have to worry about forgetting them ever again. So please get rid of that desktop folder named “Passwords,” ok? And, LastPass is also a strong password generator so it will create unique, highly secure passwords for every one of your online accounts.

In fact, the only password you’ll ever need to remember from now on is the one that opens LastPass. Check out this video to see exactly how LastPass will allow you to give the ol’ “Nyah Nyah” to would-be hackers everywhere.

Digitwirl: Personal Scanner

Posted on March 8, 2011

I have a confession to make: my husband and I just finished our 2009 taxes about a month ago. Yep, you heard that right. We finished our 2009 taxes in 2011. Nice, huh?

Here’s hoping Carley’s latest Digitwirl helps us get our 2010 tax act together a little earlier. As a gadget-lover who also appreciates organization and simplicity, I love how small and light this thing is. Weighing in at less than a pound, and smaller than a three-hole punch? Yes, please!

Aside from taxes, I can see this coming in handy for the medical receipts I need to save for our HSA. And I love Carley’s idea about using it for kids’ artwork as well! I just went through a somewhat painful and time-consuming process with my five-year-old in which we had to decide which super-special artwork we wanted to put in the archives, and which pieces needed to go to, uh…that great recycling bin in the sky. It would be great to scan some of those things we’d like to look at again later, but don’t have room to store. (SERIOUSLY. My kids generate so much artwork, I feel like I’m personally responsible for more deforestation than any other human on the planet.)

So, without further ado: NeatReceipts. Enjoy the twirl!

Digitwirl: A Personal Scanner that Organizes My Receipts? Neat!

Whoops, taxes are due April 15th and you still have your receipts “filed” in a shoe box. You’re trying to put in for medical expenses and can’t find the bills. Sound familiar? If you’re looking to transform that wild pile into organized digital files you’re going to love our how-to video for NeatReceipts. We couldn’t believe what a beast this tiny gadget (it weighs less than a pound) was when it came to scanning receipts, business cards, important forms — even our kids artwork — to create searchable pdf files.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, the NeatWorks software helps create IRS-friendly reports that make it super easy for your accountant to do your taxes. And easier for them equals cheaper for you. We likey.

Digitwirl: Sell Your Cell

Posted on March 1, 2011

In this week’s Digitwirl, our pal Carley gives you a tour of Gazelle: a marketplace where you can get rid of your old, unused gadgets. I don’t know about you, but I have a closet jammed with old stuff I don’t use anymore. Rather than let them collect dust, why not free up all that closet space and either make some money or feel good about recycling those old relics?

That’s right, you might be able to make some money from all the junk in your technology graveyard!

Digitwirl: The best place to sell your cell

What’s the deal? Doesn’t it seem like cell phone manufacturers time the release date of the next generation iPhone or Droid with the exact moment you plunk down money on the “current version?” So, what do you do with the gadgets you’ve outgrown when you’re ready for the latest and greatest? Stash them in a drawer? Nah, too messy. Toss them? God we hope not, landfills are full enough already. Here’s a better idea: sell your cell, computer, or e-reader on Gazelle.com. The site helps you appraise your old electronics and tells you how much they’ll pay you for it, while you sit back and collect the cash. It’s not easy being green? We beg to differ, Kermit!

Introducing Digitwirl

Posted on February 23, 2011

This week, we’re happy to start sharing Digitwirl, a new video series from Carley Knobloch. I met Carley a little over a year ago when she heard a podcast that I recorded with David Allen (of Getting Things Done). A kindred geek girl and GTD fan, we connected immediately. I’ve been keeping up with Carley ever since then and when she launched Digitwirl earlier this year, I knew it would be a great how-to supplement for Geek Girls Guide readers.

So, enjoy! We’ll share a new twirl with you here once a week. We hope you enjoy these fast, helpful videos as much as we do.

In this week’s video, Carley introduces Evernote, which is one of those applications that EVERYONE I know raves about, but which I haven’t managed to find time to try. After seeing how she uses it to keep track of travel itineraries, business cards, photos and kids’ artwork I’m even more convinced that I really need to make time to check it out.

Digitwirl: Digital storage that keeps track of all the information life throws at you

Look around your house. Are you seeing stacks of papers that you keep meaning to go through? Boxes and files bulging with stuff you put there for safe-keeping, but couldn’t find what you need if your life depended on it? Don’t worry, we won’t judge, it’s the exact overload we were facing that made us think there has to be a better way.

Wouldn’t be amazing if you could store information you needed to remember in one place and more importantly, find it instantly, anytime, from anywhere? Good news! It exists, and it is a total game-changer. Evernote is a website, a free app, and an extension that builds functionality into tons of programs you already use.

If you can email it, scan it, type it, snap it, record it, or find it on the internet you can keep track of it all with Evernote. You won’t believe how simple it is to use. Watch the video, and then forget about forgetting important information ever again.

Quick Tip: Forwarding Google Alerts

Posted on October 15, 2010

Geeky reader Evelyn from Florida wrote in with this: “I read your post The Five-Minute Guide to Google Alerts. I’m trying to figure out how to forward only Google Alerts (not all emails) to another email address that’s not Google (in other words, to my work email address). Do you think you could help?”

Yes! This one is pretty easy, but you don’t do it from Google Alerts. This one you take care of in gmail.

From mail.google.com, go to: Settings > Filters > Create a New Filter

From there, you can specify that if the subject line contains “Google Alert” it should be forwarded to a different account (like your work email address).

Setting up filters is possible in most email systems and can be a great way to keep the massive tide of emails under control. As an example: when we are hiring at Clockwork, I filter resumes into a separate folder that I can review when I choose, instead of having those emails choke up my inbox.

So, that’s it — just a quick little geeky tip to make your life easier!

Geek Chic of the Week: Widgets!

Posted on July 30, 2010

The Geek Girls received this reader question recently:
Eeeeek. Tell me about widgets! Are these like a Flickr badge that I might put on my blog? What are they for? How do they work? What’s in it for me or for the widgetee?

Sincerely,
Wondering about Widgets

So let’s begin a the beginning: what is a widget? A “widget” in the interactive world is typically used to deliver content to a web page or a desktop. They usually involve some sort of feed that goes out and brings back the specified information to the location you want, rather than you going to different locations.

Web Widgets

Web widgets are commonly used, well, on the web. Generally, it’s a box containing information from another site that is embedded on web pages, user profiles (like Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace), and blogs. Below is an example of a widget (provided by Facebook) embedded on a different web site.

Common web widgets include tickers, event countdowns, Twitter feeds, photo galleries, and profile badges. These types of widgets are usually available to the user (you) by embedding them on your site via a set of provided HTML code or JavaScript.

Widgets make it easy to incorporate dynamic content into your site, and make it easy to connect all your profiles together. For example, on your blog or website you could embed a Twitter widget to feature your tweets, a Facebook widget to link to your page or company’s page, and a Flickr widget to feature your pictures. All of these things also ensure that people who are interested in your content are aware of all the different places they can connect with you.

It’s important to note that you can only embed widgets on pages that you have access to add or author the HTML or JavaScript code.

Below is an image showing the process of creating a FourSquare Mayor widget for your location’s site or blog.

Step 3 shows you the snippet of code that you need to embed in your site’s code to display the widget. This may feel far too technical for some of you — luckily some of the new blogging platforms make this really easy. You just drop an HTML component on your page, paste in the code and bam! Easy-easy and you don’t even have to dig into the page code if that’s not your thing.

Desktop Widgets

Desktop widgets run on your local machine: y’know, on the desktop. 😉

These widgets are sometimes called applets because they are like mini-applications running on your computer. These widgets are typically associated with content that the user accesses often, like a clock, calculator, weather feed, or up to the minute stock market results.

On Windows Vista and Windows Live they are found in Microsoft Gadgets; on a Mac, widgets live on the Dashboard (pictured below). By default, there is a dashboard icon in the toolbar; clicking it will reveal the widgets.

Who Wins?

So, why bother with widgets? As a web widget user, you get an easy tool to share the widget maker’s service or product, which in turn generates more traffic or notice for the maker’s product or service. Do you think Twitter would have gotten as big if there was no way to share it within spaces that people were already going to? And what about something like Flickr? Widgets make it easy to feature galleries and share images, but you still have to go to Flickr to upload the actual photos. In the end it’s not taking traffic away, it’s creating traffic by using spaces and sites that people already frequent.

Some desktop widgets exists for the same reason: by downloading a news widget you are interacting with the news outlet’s content and, in some cases, going to their site for additional content. You win by getting the headlines delivered to you, they win by keeping you engaged with their brand and driving traffic to their site. Other desktop widgets (like, say, a desktop lava lamp) are more like phone apps; they’re just for fun.

So, Wondering…I hope we answered your question. Let us know how the widgeting goes.

Email Extensions

Posted on July 13, 2010

A while ago, geeky reader Lorelei from Seattle wrote to ask, “Does the type of email you use matter (yahoo,gmail etc)? A tech guy on NPR seems to think it really says a lot about a person. Thoughts?”

Here’s how I personally feel about this:

1. Your email prefix means more than the extension (e.g. lorelei@ vs. sexygirl27@). Whenever possible, use your name or some variation of your name for your email address. If possible, avoid numbers. Numbers just seem outdated and less professional. If you have an old “unprofessional” email address, go ahead and keep it for personal stuff. You can set up a new one to use for more professional communication.

2. The extension might mean something to some people, but it means less than the prefix. The only extension that seems really outdated is @aol. @gmail seems more current. @msn, @hotmail and @yahoo are just sort of…whatever.

I think the geekier you are, the more those extensions “mean” to you in the sense that you may pass judgement on people based on them. But reallly? I don’t think I’d refuse an interview to someone just because they had a Yahoo email address. I may, however, think twice if their prefix is krazzygurl1980@. (Man, I hope that’s not someone’s real address, but it probably is. I’m sorry in advance for using you as an example! I’m sure you’re a nice person.)

Resources

Here’s the original piece from NPR that prompted Lorelei’s question.
Here’s a cartoon from the always-funny The Oatmeal about email addresses.
A fascinating piece from Credit Karma that looks at what your email address may say about your financial health. Crazy!
A post from Lifehacker that pretty much agrees with what I just said. (I swear I didn’t read it before I wrote mine!)

Lifehacker brings up a good point in their post: there are times when what’s most important is to have your own domain. Like my address @meghanwilker.com vs. my address @gmail.com. If you own a small business, it adds to your credibility to have an email address at your own domain instead of one through a free service.

Again, it depends on your audience. Most muggles could care less about what kind of email address you have, so if you’re selling teddy bears on eBay it probably doesn’t matter. But, if you’re looking for venture capital in Silicon Valley, it’s a different story.

Hope that helps! Now let’s just hope krazzygurl1980 doesn’t come after me…

The Five-Minute Guide to Google Alerts

Posted on November 18, 2009

If you’re not already using Google Alerts, you should start. Now. Google Alerts is an easy (and free) way to monitor news articles, blogs, videos, and other media.

We often say you can’t afford not to listen online, and Google Alerts is just another tool to help. With that, here is the Geek Girls Guide to Google Alerts:

1. Delivery Method
We start with the end only so you know where all of this is headed, and can think about how — and how often — you are going to want to monitor particular search terms. You can choose to have the alerts delivered to an email address (either as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week); or you can have the alerts delivered to an RSS feed (as-it-happens). If you want the alerts delivered by an RSS feed and don’t already have one set up, you can read the three part series on how to get started with RSS. You can go ahead and do that. We’ll wait here.

Okay, let’s move on.

2. Brainstorm Words & Phrases
This is where you need to put your thinking cap on.

First, get creative: if you’re monitoring mentions of your own name (which we highly recommend) don’t just set up an alert for your first and last name. Do you need one for your maiden name? A common misspelling? What about monitoring for close relatives’ names? (You think Meghan doesn’t have a Google Alert for her husband’s name? She totally does!)

If you’re monitoring for a business, put in your “official” name but also any common misspellings, or commonly-used shortnames. Put in industry keywords that you want to keep an eye on to help reveal industry content that you can comment on, blog about, or just be aware of.

Second, get picky: We suggest only searching for one term at a time, and if your term has more than one word make sure to put the words in quotes. Here’s what we mean: we monitor “geek girls guide” but not “geek girls.” Geek girls on its own is too generic and we end up with too many unrelated things.

While the full name of the company we work for is Clockwork Active Media Systems, lots of people just call it Clockwork. But, if we monitor “Clockwork” we get a TON of unrelated content, including lots and lots and LOTS of stuff about the movie, A Clockwork Orange.

Google has excellent tips on how to set up good searches (which applies to alerts as well):

Basic search tips: Including tips on how to use search-friendly phrases (which may be different from the human-friendly version).
More search help: This includes information on how to exclude terms. Remember my Clockwork vs. A Clockwork Orange example? One of the terms we monitor is “Clockwork -orange” which filters out a lot of the stuff we don’t want to see.

3. Get Alerts!

Go to google.com/alerts and enter the terms you would like to set up alerts for.

For each term or phrase, choose the type of results you want. These include: blogs, news, web, groups, videos, and comprehensive. We almost always choose comprehensive because we want to see as many results from as many sources as possible.

If you are choosing to have your alerts delivered to an email address you will need to enter that email address (if you’re logged into Google your email should already be there). Additionally, you will need to choose how often you would like to receive emails: as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week.

If you choose to have alerts delivered through a feed, the “how often” will automatically be as-it-happens.

Your frequency choices for each term or phrase will likely be different. You may want an alert about your own name as-it-happens, but only need to see an industry alert once a week. You can always change this later if you find that you’re being alerted too often or not enough for a particular term. Start somewhere, and tweak as you go.

4. Managing & Refining
If you are monitoring something with a specific end date (like an event) or things change (you break up with that boyfriend you’re monitoring), you might want to delete an alert eventually. From the Google Alerts main page you can click “Manage Alerts” and you will be taken to an admin section. To delete an alert simply click the check box and then click delete.

If a term starts making your mailbox overflow you might want to change the frequency or delivery method, or tweak the search terms if the results are not crisp enough. From the the admin section mentioned above, click “edit”, change any of the parameters, then save your changes. Boom.

5. Celebrate
Congrats! Do a little dance; you have now set up Google Alerts to help you monitor the ebbs and flows of the social media sea.

One note: Google Alerts won’t catch all tweets, so we advise setting up Twitter monitoring systems as well. To learn how to do that, read our Five-Minute Guide to Twitter Monitoring.

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes.

What the Hashtag?

Posted on October 26, 2009

One of the hardest things to explain to people who are unfamiliar with Twitter is hashtags. Many things about Twitter are not immediately self-evident, and hashtags are one of them.

What Are Hashtags?

The simplest way to explain hashtags is that they are a way to categorize a particular tweet.

The name hashtag combines the notion of tagging (using a word or phrase to categorize something) with the hash symbol (#). (I don’t know about you, but I always call that symbol a pound sign. I’m thinkng of starting a campaign to rename hashtags to poundtags. Anybody with me?)

If you are reading a tweet with a hashtag, the hashtag will be a link. Clicking that link will take you to the search page for that hashtag.

Who creates them?

Anyone can create a hashtag. It’s anarchy! The company I work for uses the hashtag #clockwork whenever we tweet about work, but other people in the world also sometimes use that hashtag to tweet about a Jiu Jitsu studio in NYC, or the movie A Clockwork Orange. So, even if you start using a hashtag someone else may start using it, too. (Or, they may already be using it. The only way to find out is to search for the hashtag and see if it’s already in use.)

How do you find them?

Sometimes, events that you attend will print the hashtag in the brochure. Sometimes, someone will create a hashtag that gets so popular it becomes a “trending topic” on Twitter. Sometimes, you might just see a hashtag in a friend’s tweets.

What does each hashtag mean?

One of my co-workers just sent me this amazingly cool site, http://wthashtag.com, which crowdsources what hashtags mean. This is fantastic because, since anyone can create a hashtag, a central directory of what each hashtag means has never existed. And because anyone can create one at any time, this approach of asking the public what they each mean is the only way it can be realistically managed.

If you see a hashtag and wonder what it’s for, this site can help you find out. If you start a new hashtag, you can add more information about it here for other people to discover.

How can you use them?

This is where it gets really interesting. Hashtags can be used in a bunch of interesting ways:

Industry Chats: People in the same industry, who are interested in a group conversation, sometimes start up a hashtag and have people meet at a certain date and time to talk about something. Kind of a like a big chatroom, but using Twitter instead of instant messenger. Some examples include #journchat (a PR discussion group on Monday nights), #blogchat (a blogging discussion group on Sunday nights) and #behindthefirewall (a group that discusses how social media is being used inside of corporations).

Events: I’ll use the recent MIMA Summit as an example: everyone who was tweeting about that event used the hashtag #mimasummit. If I want to see tweets that are only related to the MIMA Summit, I can use search.twitter.com and follow all tweets that contain that hashtag.

What’s interesting about hashtags for events is that they can be used both for those at the event, and for those that couldn’t attend. For those at the event, hashtagged tweets can be a way to keep up with breaking news at the event (“Session 1 is canceled” or “We know wi-fi is slow, we’re working on it now.”). For those not attending, it can be a way to listen in on what’s happening and participate from afar. At some events, you can submit questions to the speaker via Twitter and a person acting as a “Twitterhost” will pass the questions along.

Sometimes, as is the case with #mimasummit, people use the hashtags for days and weeks after the event is over to share follow-up articles, blog posts, and videos.

Companies/Organizations: I also mentioned the #clockwork hashtag earlier. Using Twitter’s API (application-programming interface) we created a custom search that appears on our homepage (the custom search allows us to filter out those other, non-related tweets that also happen to use our hashtag).

Fans and practitioners of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology use #gtd for any of their tweets that relate to that topic.

To Make a Statement: The other day, I got irritated with a conversation that was happening where working and at-home moms were being pitted against each other. I decided to start an #endmommywars hashtag, for no reason other than to give people a spot to voice their support for each other. This happens all the time with causes big and small.

For Fun/Entertainment: On Friday, someone started a hashtag meme #oneletteroffmovies. People were tweeting funny movie titles that were just one letter off. Like my contribution, My Big Fat Geek Wedding. Totally pointless, but entertaining. My husband and I were reading the submissions together on Friday night, laughing and trying to think of our own.

There are also hashtags for #MusicMonday (to share music suggestions), #FollowFriday and #Women2Follow (where you can suggest that other people follow someone whom you find interesting).

To Be Clever: The final way that people use hashtags is to add a funny, sarcastic sidebar comment to their tweet. As in, “I just changed my 1,000th diaper. #mylifeisglamorous”.

Spammers: It just wouldn’t be the Internet if spammers didn’t figure out how to ruin everyone’s good time. Depending on the popularity of the topic you’re following, you’ll often see unrelated tweets that contain the hashtag (and often a few others). That’s just spammers trying to get attention from unsuspecting Twitterers by dropping trending topics and hashtags into their spam tweets. Sad, but true.

So now you know. As you are tweeting, hashtags allow you to categorize those tweets. As a person who is reading tweets, hashtags provide a way to filter the overwhelming universe of tweets into a more manageable set of only those you are interested in at that moment. Looking through tweets related to a given hashtag can also be a great way to find interesting new people to follow on Twitter.

Feel like getting your feet wet with hashtags? Add #geekgirlsguide to your tweet, and we’ll see it. (Or just try #myfirsthashtag — it won’t hurt anyone!)

Hashtags?! I Still Can’t Figure Out What Twitter Is For!

If you need more Twitter 101, check out these other articles we’ve written: