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Trick Out Google Apps for Your Domain - Gmail - Lifehacker

Create a Catch-all Email Address

One of the advantages of having your own domain name is that you have control and access to every single word combination @ yourdomain.com email address that you want. If you create a "catch-all address," you can forward any email that comes to your domain and doesn't match a user to a specific address. This means that if you wanted to use custom email addresses on the fly—like amazon@yourdomain.com when you register for an account at Amazon, or lifehacker@yourdomain.com when you register for an account at Lifehacker, you can do so without having to create custom addresses. Instead, set up your domain's catch-all address to forward to your user account. To set up a catch-all address, in your Google Apps Dashboard, from the Service Settings drop-down choose Email. There you can either reject mail that comes to addresses that don't match a user, or set up a catch-all forwarding address as shown above.

via lifehacker.com

I never realized you could do this! Perfect way to set up email's for business users and have all kinds of email address' without adding users (which cost money in Premier). Going to remember this one. Check out Gina's excellent article for more great tips for Google Apps.

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Want To See Boondocks II? You'll Have To Demand It

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Want-To-See-Boondocks-II-You-ll-Have-To-Demand-It-15315.html

"The film's distributor hasn’t announced any plans to open the film wider yet but it looks like they may be trying to pull the same bit that Paramount pulled off a few weeks go with Paranormal Activity by asking that fans DEMAND it if they want it. A page which appears to be an official setup has been created here to allow fans to demand the movie in their area. Presumably if your town gets enough clicks, they'll will consider sending All Saints Day to your town "

Brian Bufalo

OK I've stopped bleeding!

Had a scare today that I just had to share with the world. I was getting through another day at work and without thinking scratched my arm.  A few moments I looked down to find myself bleeding profusely.  Thought it was odd but I patched myself up with the standard Alcohol and Superman band-aid routine and went on lunch.  As I wrapped up lunch I noticed I was bleeding through my band-aid!  I got a little scared and started getting worried.  A kind woman at work (who used to be a nurse!) helped bandage me up with an ace bandage but as I was heading home I loosened it up and check and was still bleeding! At this point I decided it was time to go get this looked at.  So Samantha drove me to the clinic and they took a look at me and decided I had somehow scratched a spot that was attached to a vein.  They numbed my arm and cauterized the wound.  Samantha's face was priceless!  Needless to say I am not scratching at anything now!  And now you know.  And knowing is half the battle!

Brian

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@DOGingham • GREEN SPRINGS DOG PARK OPENING!

Saturday, October 17 at 9:00am

George Ward Park on Green Springs Hwy, Birmingham, AL

Map here!

From Bark for a Park Headquarters:

You and your dog are invited to the official grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony with Mayor Langford for the Greensprings Dog Park at George Ward Park in Birmingham! (Boy, we’ve all waited a long time to hear those words!) Be prepared!
Creative Dog Training has posted podcasts on “Preparing Your Dog for the Dog Park” and “Taking Your Dog to the Dog Park.” We encourage you to take a listen. You’ll also want to read the dog park rules. (They’ll also be posted at the park entrance.) Please note that the ground is quite saturated. You will need to bring towels to dry your dog and something to protect your car seats before you let Fido back into your car after play. Be prepared for mud! Bring poop bags! Enough for yourself and to share. This all happened so fast the waste stations and bags we ordered haven’t yet arrived. Be responsible and clean up after your dog! Don’t come empty handed! We have lots of fundraising to do to pay for the fencing. We’ll be there with Bark t-shirts, coozies, cold sodas, bottled water and more to sell. If you’re not yet a Bark member or donor, now is the time!

HAVE QUESTIONS? Email Bark for a Park at barkforapark@yahoo.com

via dogingham.tumblr.com

Check out the grand opening of a new dog park in Birmingham! Might just have to get out there with Lucy!

IM+ for iPhone adds email push notifications

IM+ has been my instant messenger of choice for my iPhone. I recently
bought the full version and have been very happy with the app. And
today they have added a much desired feature, email push notifications
for Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail email accounts. The feature is a bit
hidden but you can activate it under the individual account options by setting it to "On".  It does work however in my tests it seems to be a bit slower than the actual email arriving via Gmail's own Google Sync.  However this keeps my from having to buy a seperate app and is great feature addition to an already wonderful app. Get it here: http://bit.ly/sdrlu. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

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I bought a new Mac, now what?

Many of my friends often ask me for help with their computers, especially their Macs! I've been working with Apples since I was young and they are my platform of choice for any computer environment. Because I get so many requests I often end up sending long emails with my recommendations over and over again so I wanted to take the time to write them down in a blog post, both to point to for future reference as well as to educate anyone out there who is buying a Mac for their first time.

First things first, welcome to the Apple community! There are many very dedicated and enthusiastic users out there who actually love their computers! This first article is to illustrate the getting started with commonly used applications for the Mac that are either compatible with or are a replacement for their Windows counterpart. This is to be a brief overview of these features and software applications, not a specific step by step how to. I wanted to write this because the most often question I get from people is "I bought a Mac, now what?"  People buy a Mac understanding they are investing in a great computer but don't know what to do once they get it.  So first things first, here are the first programs I install on every Mac I get in no specific order:

Firefox

Adium

Skype
NeoOffice (or OpenOffice)
Evernote

Google Earth

VLC

SMART Reporter

Onyx

Dropbox

Now some of these applications may sound strange to you but each either mimics the functionality you get with a Windows based application or are a free or inexpensive replacement for an Apple product and there are a couple that are just for fun!  Let me explain each one to give you an idea why these made the cut.

Firefox is a great web browser, in my opinion the best one out there and here is why.  You can install it on anything and have a consistent user experience across the board.  No other browser is to this point yet (Google Chrome is a close second but it's not quite to where I would like it to be).  For Windows users it is a must have application as Internet Explorer is dangerously tied to Windows.  If you hose IE you potentially hose Windows.  This is not as much a concern with a Mac but I still replace it.  And you should consider it too!

iChat does a great job of being a chat client allowing you to communicate with friends and family with quick messages or long, flowing conversations via the keyboard, with a microphone, or with video.  But what to do if everyone uses Yahoo Messenger?  I know there is a Yahoo Messenger for Mac but it's not as developed as the Windows counterpart and it's a pain to install a chat client for each service.  This is where Adium steps in and fills the gap.  It works with almost every major IM platform out there.  The only thing it doesn't do (last I checked) was audio and video (they are working on it!) and this is my plug for Skype.  Most everyone is on Skype and the interface is excellent for video and audio conversations, including to land lines (for a price).

NeoOffice (or OpenOffice) are replacements for Microsoft's Office suite that really are incredible.  For absolutely nothing in terms of cost you get a fully featured office suite that even opens and saves Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.  The software is open source and is actively developed.  What I recommend is try it out, there are subtle differences between it and Microsoft's offering but if you are open minded and give it a try you might find it covers all your needs.  And if you don't like it, you haven't paid anything and you can go out and by Microsoft Office for Mac!

Evernote has simply changed my life.  I use it for everything any time, any where. It is a note taking application that I can quickly jot down thoughts idea's, add photos or audio and find it later.  It works on everything (Mac, PC, web, iPhone, etc.) and simply has begun to take over my note taking world.  Every student needs this, every doctor, every lawyer.  This is the app to download and use!  Best of all the basic version is free and the premium version is rather inexpensive.

Google Earth is just for fun.  You can install it and check out maps and locations around the world including Street View, a sidewalk angle of most major cities. Really neat!

Apple includes by default iTunes and Quicktime players as well as a DVD player.  But wouldn't it be nice if you could have an app that would play almost any video file under the sun all from one app?  VLC does just that!  This one is another open source offering and it is amazing, playing everything you can throw at it.  I recommend it for when you get a strange video you can't open any other way you got from one of your Windows buddies!

The next two are system utilities for keeping your Mac ruining in tip top shape. SMART reporter is a program that keeps an eye on your hard drive for any signs of failure.  The icon lives next tot he time/date in the menu bar and changes color if bad things are going to happen.  The next one is Onyx and this one you have to be careful with, it's really powerful but can also mess up your system very quick so use at your own risk. Onyx will clean up your Mac's temporary files as well as customize your Mac to your liking.

Finally we have Dropbox, an amazing backup and sharing service that is simply amazing. I haven't been actively using this app until recently until it saved my rear when it was time for me to do a presentation and needed a file right away.  Dropbox gives you 2 Gb's of space online to backup your documents and photos and access them from any computer or even your iPhone or iPod Touch.  This is where it helped me out for my presentation.  I had the presentation for the projector but I needed to follow along so I dropped the PowerPoint into my Dropbox folder and pulled it up on my iPhone and was able to present the entire thing without worrying about if what I was saying was the correct slide.

Each of these apps have empowered me in one way or another and are absolutely indispensable for my work flow.  I wanted to add a honorable mention here and that is Google Apps.  If you have a Google account then you already have access to these features but they give you an online workplace that is accessible from anywhere.  The power of these apps are simply astounding and Google continues to improve them.  In fact this post was written from notes in Evernote and Gmail and finally written and posted using Google Docs.  The concern is you are trusting Google with your data so beware legal firms, HIPAA bound individuals, and crime syndicates to be careful how you use these features.

I hope this guides you the right direction in choosing some great apps.  The next post will focus more on dual booting your new Mac (that's right, your Mac can also run Windows) and then there will be a post about security for both your Mac and a Windows based system.  Questions or comments? Leave them below!

This is only a test, please disregard!

This is only a test, please disregard!

Traffic: Posterous vs. Blogger

I’ve noticed an interesting trend since I’ve started using Posterous. Every thing I do in Posterous generates so much more traffic than anything else I use. Now, I am by no means a highly read blogger.  I’m not even consistent, which is evident by the screen shots below.  But what is interesting though is my post’s generate a whole lot more traffic when using Posterous.  What is even more interesting is it seems viewer ship is also up on those sites’s I post to.

Posterous Traffic

Blogger Traffic

There are two reasons for this in my opinion, first, I find Posterous is so simple posting things is fun and therefore I post more often.  Second, I post everywhere with the services and because it’s all automated and the process by which I post to these services is centralized it is again easier and more fun.

By posting more often I get more hits and drive up the numbers. Posting is quick, either via email, text, or bookmarklet (I generally use the bookmarklet for sharing content and email for generated content such as this post).

Anyone else notice this trend with their own experiences? Anyone use a different solution?  Comment on it below!

How To Solve The Business Card Blues : NPR

via npr.org

I recently listened to this on NPR and really found some great tips including the amazing Evernote for organizing your paper into digital format. This is by far the best way to organize your life. I'm planning on purchasing the full subscription to this service for Christmas. Keeps my whole life organized!