automaticable

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a favicon is the icon that rests on the left side of the tabs or navigation bar in your browser that is unique to different websites.  For example, the favicon for automaticable is a red wrench on a black background.  See it?

Earlier today I noticed that my iGoogle page had a new favicon. Instead of the capital G surrounded by Google’s primary (and green secondary) colors, now a blue, lowercase g stands on an opaque background.  For a second I thought my browser had loaded the wrong page, as such a drastic change really threw me off.  The favicon change actually applies to the google.com page as well, so if you do not use iGoogle you can check out the new favicon simply by going to Google search.  Also, if you don’t know or don’t remember what the old Google favicon looked like, Google Blogoscoped has a short story, including an image, of the favicon change.  You can find that story here.

So why do I bring this up?  Well, to me this is a huge branding play by Google.  Their capital G has long represented them as a clear, powerful symbol.  It looks like Google has decided they do not want to have as powerful of a symbol representing their brand, as consumers generally trust super-powerful corporations less than mom & pop shops.  Moving to a lowercase logo has been a trend in the past for companies that want to feel more personal.  The first that comes to mind is AT&T, the once megapowerful telecom provider for the United States, which has recently rebranded themselves with a lower case at&t.  Whether people actually change their feelings about a brand simply through upper case and lower case lettering is a mystery, though I can tell you personally that lower case lettering definitely looks inferior and weak to me.

Is this a good idea for Google, changing from their iconic G symbol to a plain, lower case g?  No, not in my opinion.  I’m sure this favicon change is just a single step in a long-term rebranding campaign for Google, but if they think they are going to be able to position themselves as one of the little guys, I think they are going to have to decentralize the entire company.  There is no way a company with 60%+ market share in their realm (search, here) will ever convince consumers that they are still a small personal company.

Then again, I am just a single consumer that spends a huge part of his day on Google doing SEO work.  Do you think this is a good idea? How do you think something as small as a favicon change will effect things vs. a full branding campaign?

We just added a new Wordpress plugin here on automaticable so you can use OpenID login IDs. If you’re not familiar with OpenID, it’s a framework that allows you to use the same login information on a variety of webpages.  From the OpenID site:

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

So what does this mean for you?  Well, if you like to leave comments here, you can claim them with your OpenID login, rather than actually registering for automaticable.  This is convenient if you’re a casual visitor and like to leave comments on a variety of blogs– you can use the same login on any blog that supports OpenID.

If you already have a login on automaticable, you could associate your OpenID login ID with it, and enjoy all the same benefits.  Check out your profile page for details.

A few weeks back Scott posted about his summer workout program. I have also been trying to work out more, as a full time job of sitting in front of a computer has done wonders for my figure. As brothers, we have been sharing a common trait with our workout plans: we lack motivation. Because we don’t have workout partners or at the very least someone else around to peer pressure us to actually get out and run, it has been really easy to find excuses not to go.

Those days are now gone. Scott came up with a brilliant idea: motivate each other, long distance, through a drinking game. We are going on vacation together at the end of July, and whoever runs less owes the other one beer. How much beer, exactly? One beer for every 2 miles one runs more than the other. We have about 8 weeks until vacation, so if one of us falls behind, that could add up to a LOT of beer.

We created a worksheet using Google Docs where we will be tracking how much running we’ve done and subsequently how much beer is currently owed. You can follow along with our progress by clicking here watching the spreadsheet below. As you can see from the picture above, we haven’t actually started running a whole lot yet, but at least I am in the lead! Free beer, here I come!

Edit: With a little Google Documents magic, now you can watch our progress via the spreadsheet below.  Cheer on your favorite in the comments!

By default, Ubuntu Hardy Heron uses PulseAudio for audio mixing, which disables surround sound by default. I just bought new 5.1-channel speakers, but I was only heard sound coming from the front two. Disappointed, I went searching for the answer in the forums. If you want surround sound on your Linux setup, keep reading below..

Continue reading “How-to: Enable Surround Sound on Ubuntu Hardy”

This Memorial Day weekend marked the culmination of months of planning and bad chicken jokes for my parents: Saturday was their First (Annual?) Chicken Cook-off. I wasn’t able to make it, but from what I can tell it was pretty fun. My mom was so excited, she even wrote a guest blog post about it. Keep reading below for the details, as well as some pretty funny pictures.

Continue reading “Bawk: Memorial-Day Weekend Chicken Cook-off”

Most of bands I listen to are little known and obscure. This is a sad fact since I think many of these bands are more than deserving of a little attention. Therefore I have decided to share one of my recent finds, Mayday Parade. I am not going to review any of their albums like I have done with other bands in the past, but since I don’t own both of their CDs you can assume most of my opinions have been formed off of Mayday Parade’s latest LP, A Lesson in Romantics.

Mayday Parade is reminiscent of my high school love of pop-punk; they are easy to listen to, rock out fairly often, have a few emo tendencies, and most importantly, infuse their music with fiery intense passion. I think that last point is why I enjoy them the most. Lead singers Derek Sanders and Jeremy Lenzo don’t just sing lyrics like most bands out there. They have some serious energy backing their vocals, and it shows.

Another aspect of this band that I really enjoy is the fact that they have 2 lead singers. Neither singer dominates the other and both have very unique vocal inflections, though they compliment each other very well. Maybe I am a sucker for duets or something, because I absolutely love bands that feature more that on vocalist, and Mayday Parade can pull it off with the best of them.

Even though I consider Mayday Parade a pop-punk band with a matured sound, they also slow it down and sing some amazing lyrical ballads. Their song “Miserable At Best” is made up of simply vocals and piano. They leave their guitars, keys, and drums behind to belt out one emotional tune. I can’t even tell you how many times I have listened to this song, it is so good. It is personal, passionate, and super emo. It is also another great duet, which is obviously a signature of the band.

I wish I could comment on Mayday Parade’s live performance, but sadly I haven’t had a chance to see them perform. I only discovered this band a few months ago and since then they haven’t toured through Atlanta. The next time they will be in town is on Warped Tour 2008 in July, so hopefully I will be able to catch them then. In the meantime I’ll keep playing their album repeatedly since I seriously cannot get enough of this band.

Check out Mayday Parade’s website here. You can find them on Myspace here.

P.S. Doesn’t their album art rock? I love that style, and it really embodies the feeling of A Lesson in Romantics well.

Reading Gizmodo when drunk is WAY more entertaining than when sober.  I mean, the Giz is kind of comical all the time, but not really funny. It takes a special kind of inebriation to really crack up when reading that blog.

Anyone think automaticable is only entertaining when drunk?  Anybody?  Hello?

And no, this doesn’t count as one of my posts for the week.  I already had one of those for today.

If you work with raw data on a daily basis, you are probably more than familiar with Microsoft Excel. But do you really know how to use Excel to its fullest extent? My goal is to be a master of efficiency, and many of Excel’s native features allow me to achieve that and are only a click away.

I would like to make a habit out of posting Excel tips, so if this first installation seems rudimentary to you (it is Excel 101, after all), make sure you check back for more advanced tips over time. But don’t run off too fast, even Excel 101 might teach you a thing or two.

Continue reading “Excel 101: 4 Tricks Everyone Should Know”

While the majority of people browsing the internet use Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, these are not the only options available to surf the web. One browser I recently started testing that I have learned to love is Flock, a social web browser based on Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. A fusion of social networks, user generated media, and super-fast web browsing, Flock brings together the best parts of the web in an easy-to-use interface.

Above is a screen shot of Flock’s initial home screen. The only modifications I have made are to log in to a few of the social sites Flock supports, Twitter and Facebook. Flock also supports social sites such as Flickr, YouTube, and almost every blog platform you can imagine. Below I’ve outlined a few of the major functions of Flock, but with so many innate features it will be worth your while to check out the Getting Started page on Flock.com for additional information.

1. The Social Sidebar – After logging in to all of the sites Flock supports, tabs will be added to the People Sidebar for quick access. Here I have the “All” tab selected, which currently has a chronological time line of when all of my Facebook friends and Twitter contacts have updated. On top of simply knowing what their most recent update is, the Media button will be highlighted whenever new pictures have been added to one of your friend’s profiles. Also, if you have any private messages, pokes, or other notifications, each tab will highlight individually notifying you of the update. What provides the most convenience, though, is the ability to update your own status across all of your networks simply within the sidebar instead of visiting all of the different sites individually. As someone who recently joined Twitter and is getting back into the Facebook game, this saves me a ton of time throughout the day.
2. Media Streams – Flock makes it easy to find, access, and browse all different types of media in the integrated media bar. You can load up your own streams from any site that supports picture and video updates, as well as access automatic streams that come from the social networks you are a part of. An example of this is the stream I currently have running. Because I am logged in to Facebook, I can access pictures posted by my friends, any recent photos that are public, or just pictures of myself. In order to keep Facebook’s embarrassing photos from marring the reputations of any of my friends, I only have my photos across the top. If there is anything incriminating up there, ignore it. Thanks.
3. My World – My World is a unique homepage powered by Flock that integrates many of its best features in one place. As you can see, there are columns that show the most recent updates to your Favorite blog Feeds, your Friend Activity from any social networks you subscribe to, and your Favorite Media as defined through Flickr, YouTube, Picassa and more. There is also a Favorite Sites widget you can include to show a set of bookmarks you access frequently. All of this can be customized easily and works great as a snapshot of everything you define as important across all sections of the web.
4. Other Sidebars – Even though the only sidebar you can see is my People Sidebar, there are many more options available. Flock includes an integrated RSS feed reader, accessible through the Feeds Sidebar. Although I am a big fan of Google Reader for RSS, Flock’s integrated Feed Sidebar reminds me a lot of the Firefox extension Sage, which is super convenient as well. Another sidebar available is the Webmail bar, which allows you to get up to the minute updates from all of your webmail services at once. This is a great feature for someone like me who is forced to subscribe to Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail for separate work groups. Other sidebars available are a Favorites (or bookmarks) Sidebar, a Web Clipboard manager, an integrated blog editor, and an amazingly convenient and efficient photo uploader.
5. Firefox Extension Compatible – Because Flock is built upon the open-source Firefox browser, almost all of your current Firefox extensions will work with Flock, though currently Flock doesn’t support additional themes. This is a saving grace for any diehard Firefox fans, as you get to keep all of the customization and work you have put in to Firefox while reaping the benefits of Flock at the same time. Pro-tip: Instead of reinstalling all of your Firefox extensions, you can copy and paste your current Firefox profile folder into the Flock profile folder. Make sure to name your new profile exactly like the original one. It should look something like: p61rvkbt.default.

These are just a few examples of the many benefits of Flock. If you are a frequent social networker, media-guru, or just want to add some power to your Firefox browsing, Flock is for you. Although I am currently testing Firefox 3 at work and at home, I spend the bulk of my time browsing, Twittering, and Facebook stalking through Flock. As I mentioned earlier, there are a huge amount of features available in Flock, so check out the Flock homepage for more information.

As an added bonus, Flock is not only Windows compatible, but runs seamlessly on Mac and Linux machines as well.

I know there are many other browsers than the few mentioned above, so if you have had success with any other lesser known browsers, leave some words on your experience in the comments.

[ get flock ]

A few weeks ago I joined Twitter not knowing why it existed or what purpose it would serve in my life. I was pretty skeptical, as a 140 character message limit in my mind meant people would only be sending messages like “Going to the bathroom!” and “I am so sleepy right now “  While many people do only use Twitter to this extent, I’ve found alternate uses that fit my needs.  Below are the benefits I have seen through Twitter:

• Twitter is social, but not that social.  What I love about the social aspect of Twitter is that there is no obligation involved with following someone else’s life.  Unlike Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc., I do not have to take the social leap and call you my “friend.”  Beyond that, there is no obligation for me to follow someone who follows me, and vice versa.  This, I think, might be my favorite aspect of Twitter.  I don’t have to act like I know you.  You don’t have to act like you know me.  But we can still have an interest in what each other is saying.
• Twitter brings like-minded people together. The majority of the people that follow me are internet marketing or SEO professionals.  They have followed what I have to say in an effort to better themselves in their own work through any pearls of wisdom I may have to say, and they have also extended their professional network.  Because of the type of people that have followed me so far, I have actually tailored many of my messages to include more of my professional happenings than I probably would have otherwise.  I consider this a good thing, as I don’t want to be limited to “Going to the bathroom!”
• Twitter is easy. Although a 140 character limit is, well, limiting, it also means there is no pressure to expand upon ideas.  This makes it easy to form questions and responses since there is not the expectation of a fleshed out response that cover every aspect of a topic.  What also makes it so easy is how accessible it is.  Since I started using Twitter, I have also started testing the FireFox-based Flock browser.  I will go more into detail about Flock in a future post, but at this point, the ability for external programs to feed Twitter information in and out of the system is super convenient.
• Twitter is a promotional tool. Like it or not, a ton of people join Twitter so they can promote their own content.  The great thing about Twitter as a promotional tool as opposed to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and others is that there is no negative connotation involved in self promotion.  Because people can choose whether or not they want to follow you, Twitter has no problem with people promoting their own content.  I know I have thrown up new automaticable posts as they are published, and this has added value to the people that follow me.  I have also read some amazing posts I would never have found if I had not joined Twitter.

Although there are plenty of other reasons I enjoy Twitter, those cover the main aspects.  At first I didn’t think I would stick with Twitter, but now that I have gotten the hang of things I think I will keep tweeting.  If you are on Twitter, or would like to jump in and give it a try, you can find my profile by clicking here.  Leave your profile link in the comments so I can follow you too.

Also, on a totally unrelated note, I’m doing pretty well on my one week promise, huh?  Stay tuned throughout the next week for even more posts.