Identify Roadblocks - Don't Give Up on Change

I came across a good article by Marshall Goldsmith about roadblocks or traps you can fall into, and how to prepare for them. Very useful for the 4D NLP base-model (Current Situation, Wanted (changed) situation, Blocks and Resources) checking for congruence, future pace and especially realistic / SMART goalsetting.

Question for Ask the Coach:
Change is hard. It takes forever and I don't even know if it's working. Any tips for making this process easier?

Change takes longer than we think and the process is difficult. Acknowledging these facts can make your attempts more successful. My co-author Dr. Kelly Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, and I researched why people give up on their goals. We discovered that there are five common reasons. Understanding these roadblocks will help you apply some preventive medicine — and increase the odds that you won't fall into the same old traps.

1. Ownership
"I wasn't sure that this would work in the first place. I tried it out — it didn't do that much good. As I guessed, this was kind of a waste of time."
The classic mistake made in leadership development, coaching, and self-help books is the promise that "This will make you better!" After years of experience in helping real leaders change real behavior in the real world, I have learned a hard lesson. Only you will make you better.
To have a real chance of success, you have to take personal ownership and have the internal belief that "This will work if, and only if, I make it work. I am going to make this work."

2. Time
"I had no idea that this process would take so long. I'm not sure it's worth it."
Goal setters have a chronic tendency to underestimate the time needed to reach targets. In setting our goals for behavioral change, it's important to be realistic about the time we need to produce positive, lasting results. Habits that have taken years to develop won't go away in a week. Set time expectations that are 50% to 100% longer than you think you will need to see results — then add a little more.

3. Difficulty
"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It sounded so simple when we were starting out."
The optimism bias of goal setters applies to difficulty as well as time. Not only does everything take longer than we think it will, but it also requires more hard work than we anticipate.
In setting goals, it's important to accept the fact that real change requires real work. Acknowledging the price for success in the beginning of the change process will help prevent the disappointment that can occur when challenges arise later.

4. Distractions
"I would really like to work toward my goal, but I'm facing some unique challenges right now. It might be better if I just stopped and did this at a time when things weren't so crazy."
Goal setters have a tendency to underestimate the distractions and competing goals that will invariably appear throughout the year. A piece of advice that I give all of my coaching clients is: "I'm not sure what crisis will appear, but I'm almost positive that some crisis will appear."
Plan for distractions in advance. Assume that crazy is the new normal. You will probably be close to the reality that awaits.

5. Maintenance
"I think that I did actually try to change and get better, but I have let it slide since then. What am I supposed to do — work on this stuff the rest of my life?"
Once a goal setter has put in all of the effort needed to achieve a goal, it can be tough for him to face the reality of what's needed to maintain the new status quo. When one of my high-potential leaders asked his boss, the CEO, "Do I have to watch what I say and do for the rest of my career?" the CEO replied, "You do if you plan on ever becoming a CEO!"
Here are the cold, hard truths. Real change requires real effort. The "quick fix" is seldom a meaningful one. Distractions and things that compete for your attention are going to crop up — frequently. Changing any one type of behavior won't solve all of life's problems. And finally, any meaningful change will probably require a lifetime of effort.

[The original Ask The Coach article 'Don't Give Up on Change' by Marshall Goldsmith was copied from: Harvard Business.org]

47 Ways to Fine Tune Your Brain

47 Ways to Fine Tune Your Brain (by Steven Aitchison)

Your brain is a complex organ. It is the controller of your body, your thoughts, your state of mind and your ultimately your life. There are some who abuse it, some who underuse it, and some who overuse it to the point of meltdown.

In this article we'll look at dozens of tactics that will help you maintain your brain into old age and help to increase your mental agility and cognitive development.

1. Don't try and multitask, it can't be done.
   Our brains can only focus and concentrate on one thing at a time, this is a proven scientific fact. While you can most likely handle multiple menial tasks, anything that requires you to concentrate, reason, or decide deserves full focus.
   
2. Exercise your brain, not just your body.
   A lot of us leave learning behind when we leave school, college or university. Keep the brain fit by learning something new, whether it be a language, a new skill or musical instrument.
   
3. The world is a mystery.
   Use your brain to constantly ask questions and explore your surroundings. Continually exercise your brain by not accepting everything you see and hear: question it and free your sense of curiosity.
4. Use both hemispheres
   Use the left hemisphere of your brain to practice logical, mathematical problems in your life. Use the right hemisphere to unleash your creativity. You will know what side is dominant so make it a point to practice using your non dominant hemisphere.
5. Get to know your sleeping pattern.
   Your brain needs sleep as much as your body but everybody is different. I function on 5-6 hours you might work best on 8-9 hours.
   
6. Feed your brain decent information.
   Your brain is learning throughout the night, so give it something worthwhile to feed it. Our brain is not restoring energy whilst we are sleeping it is cutting out the noise and going over the days events and processing it; give it some great material to process.
7. If you want to learn more whilst studying, start pacing.
   If you are reading a book, start pacing. Movement gets the blood flowing and this helps oxygenate your brain. I walked my way through university and have taught my sons study walking to help them memorize information.
8. You've heard it before.
   Exercise is probably the number 1 way to increase the brains capabilities in every way possible, from memory to creativity. There's no getting around it, we all need to exercise.
9. Keep Social
   Staying socially active has been shown to keep your brain sharp well into old age.
   
10. Use the internet to keep your brain active.
    A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centers in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning.
11. Eat dark chocolate.
    Yes, eating dark chocolate has been shown to be beneficial for releasing an important brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine aids in learning and memory.
12. Learn a song.
    Learn the lyrics of some of your favorite songs to keep your listening skills and memory skills alive.
13. Watch brain stimulating movies.
    Movies that make you think (such as mysteries) help keep your brain and mind active.
    
14. Play video games
    This has been shown to increase cognitive abilities and can help fight Alzheimer's.
15. Practice doing things with your non-dominant hand.
    This stimulates the brain in many areas and also can be quite fun.
16. Use meditation as a way to alleviate your stress.
    There are thousands of studies about the beneficial effects of mediation and keeping your stress levels down is good for you. You lose brain cells the more stressed you feel, so controlling stress levels is important.
17. Laugh as often as possible.
    Laughing out loud boosts the immune system and releases endorphins, the bodies feel good chemicals.
18. Think positive.
    Thinking positively is a great way to keep your brain alive. Constant negative thinking depresses the mind and goes on to literally depress the immune system. Thinking more positive thoughts is a good way to keep stress down and spur you to take action for a better life.
19. Practice gratitude.
    Practicing gratitude can increase your happiness level significantly which helps to alleviate stress which helps your whole brain and body.
20. Sex
    Sex is another great way to keep your cardiovascular system healthy which means more oxygen to your brain which keeps the brain healthy.
21. Read a great book.
    No matter what type of books you read, they are all beneficial in keeping your brain healthy and active and ward off the aging process.
22. Drink less alcohol.
    Alcohol in moderation can actually be good for the brain, however too much alcohol can kill brain cells and your ability to be able to think and reason effectively.
23. Working.
    A lot of people look forward to giving up work as we get older, however, working even in a part time job can keep the mind active. If you are retired you can do volunteer work to keep you active.
24. Keep up to date with current events and news.
    Keeping your brain fit is about feeding your mind with new information. Watching current affairs programs can help with this so long as they don't stress you out.
    
25. Listen to music.
    Listening to music that you wouldn't normally listen to is another good way to keep your brain active. Music has the ability to release positive emotions in you.
26. Dance.
    Dancing is a great all around for both mind and body. Learning s a new dance helps your cognitive skills, your spatial awareness, your social skills, your motor skills and helps keeps your body healthy.
27. Throw a ball.
    Throwing and catching a ball is great for sensory-guided movement. It can improve your brain’s visual, tactile and hand-eye coordination responses and keep them sharp well into old age.
28. Eat well.
    Eating certain types of food can really be beneficial to your brains chemistry. Avoid fatty foods and eat more vegetables and fruit. This is sound advice for brain and body.
29. Drink plenty of water.
    Drinking water helps the cells function properly and keeps you feeling hydrated from the inside out.
30. Have a cup of tea.
    Drinking tea, hot or cold, can stimulate your brain in many ways. Tea contains caffeine which can be good for you if drunk in moderation.
31. Take a trip.
    Have you always fancies traveling well it has been shown that traveling really does broaden your horizons.
32. Use your debating skills.
    Having friendly debates with friends and family can improve your logical, thinking, reasoning and creativity skills.
33. Sleep a little longer.
    Sleeping an extra few hours every now and again is good for rejuvenating your brain and help you learn faster.
    
34. Take naps.
    Taking a nap throughout the day can help keep you from feeling tired and help stave off 'brain fog'. A ten minute nap will do to help you function throughout the day.
35. Turn down the TV.
    If you watch a lot of TV turn it down to hone your listening and concentration skills.
36. Break the cycle.
    If you tend to do the same thing day in day out, try and break the pattern of your activities. Your brain relies on doing something different to keep it active, break your normal routine to do this.
37. Learn a new word.
    Learning anything new will help keep your brain healthy. Learning a new word each day is a simple way to accomplish this.
    
38. Look at old photographs.
    This is a great way to keep your memories alive and to strengthen cell connections within the brain.
39. Do something outrageous.
    Doing things we would normally never do like a bungee jump, a parachute jump, hill climbing, a helicopter ride, etc., will keep your brain alive, literally.
40. Train your brain.
    The 'cogni-fit' industry is huge and is growing every year and for good reason. Start playing some of these 'cogni-fit' games to keep your brain healthy and active.
41. Take supplements.
    Supplements like omega-3, folic acid with vitamin B-12, CoEnzyme Q10, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, and an all round strong multi-vitamin supplement, has been shown to slow down the aging process. Check with your doctor before taking supplements.
42. Mindfulness.
    A simple mindfulness exercise is to just sit and relax and pay attention to your breathing. This helps to promote relaxation, keep your mind focused, helps with concentration and does the body a world of good.
43. Develop critical thinking skills.
    Critical thinking involves you asking questions of yourself and the world around and looking for evidence of your assumptions.
44. Become a philosopher.
    Not literally, but start thinking about the bigger questions in life. This develops your brain on many levels. More than likely you will never come up with a definitive answer to the big questions but it keeps your brain and mind active.
45. Make your own affirmations.
    Affirmations are a great way to keep your mind focused on your life goals. When you use affirmations you are also using your imagination, and activating other regions in your brain which can help with memory, creativity and even releasing feel good chemicals.
46. Thinking outside the box.
    I always thought this was a strange saying as you cannot really think outside the box when you are always living inside the box of knowledge. However over the years I have come to realize it really means thinking without using your reasoning skills to look for alternatives and it can be a great way to keep your mind active.
47. Sing out loud.
    Singing is a great way to help you focus and get rid of stress. People who sing out loud feel happier as they are not internalizing thoughts but focusing on an ext renal action, their voice. It also aids memory.

Scientists now know that our brains continuously make new neurons throughout our lives and it does this in response to the what we do in our lives. Neurons are important for transmitting and making connections with other cells. If we lose the neurons, we lose the power to think properly, to use our creativity, to learn, to memorize effectively, basically our brains slowly die. Exercise and brain stimulation is one of the best ways to keep making these new neurons. Using some of the examples above you will keep your brain healthy and active for years to come.

[This Article was copied from another Blog:  Dumblittleman.com]

Online sources for Geeks & Infoworkers

In the past I may have resented the term 'Geek', but since it has become more mainstream I find myself using resources targeted at Geeks and informationworkers.
Here they are:

• Geekbrief.tv - Shiny Happy Tech News. A very information rich, professionally produced vodcast by Cali Lewis. A must see for Gadget-geeks.
  
• Bright.nl - Innovative (Dutch) Lifestyle Magazine. Good news articles and product review vodcasts.
• Lifehacking.nl - Dutch Bloggers with useful articles about Lifehacking. Working smarter instead of harder. Lifehackers frequently use technology and systems to create shortcuts for redundant or unnecessary tasks in their life.
  More about Lifehacking: Lifehacker.com and Life Hack (Wikipedia)
• Wired.com - Wired Magazine is a strong brand for Geeks both online and offline. Wired reported and maybe even set many trends in the past. Sections include: Cars 2.0, Culture, Entertainment, Gadgets, Gaming, How-To, Med Tech, Multimedia, Politics, Product Reviews, Science, Software, Tech Biz, Tech Jobs, and Dual Perspectives.

And the review Blogs I came across looking for specific articles

• Geek.com - Large Technology News and Reviews site divided into categories: Apple, Gadgets, Mobile, Games, Chips, Geek-cetera, Forums and a Shop. Geek.com also has a weekly podcast.
  
• Geeksugar.com - Geek is chic. The female oriented GeekSugar Tech Community has lots of special interest groups and is following news and gadget trends.
• Engadget.com - More in-depth reports about media-gadgets, Mobiles and HD-television.
• ThinkGeek.com - Stuff for smart masses. Gadget webshop selling: T-shirts & apparel, Geek Toys, Gadgets, Home & Office supplies, Computer Stuff, Caffeine & Candy, Electronics, Geek stuff for Kids, and Books.
  
• Corporategeek.info - a blog for sharing tips about project management and improving productivity at work, alongside practical advice for business communication and effective presentations.
  
• IT-Geek.info - Info Tech, Reviews for Geeks. Coolest IT, hardware, software news for g33ks!
• Twittergids Geek Top 100 - 100 Geek twitterers to follow (if you like)
  

Not really Geek but highly related and interesting to Geeks:

• Mashable.com - The Social Media Guide. Mashable is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. Mashable reviews new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what's new on the web and offering social media resources and guides.
• TED.com - Ideas worth spreading - Strategic, tactical and practical information in videoformat (and audio) from inspirational leaders in the fields of Technology, Engineering, & Design. Also available trough YouTube and the TED iPhone app.
• Dutchcowboys.nl - Popular Dutch Weblog about Web 2.0, social media and interactive marketing.
• Techlicious.com - Tech made simple. Sections: Tips & How-Tos, Guides & Reviews, Fab Websites. Maintained by and targeted at women. (Practical stuff for Geek wannabees)
  

Holidays – My Danmark vacation with minimal Internet

This was written on my final night in the family cabin in Heijlsminde, Danmark where we have been the first two weeks of july 2009.

Internet & iPhone

There is no Internet-connection here so I used my iPhone for checking my mail once a day for urgent messages. The mobile phone and dataconnection on the Telia DK telephone network is expensive (€ 2 / MB) so I had my iPhone in flightmode most of the time. Unfortunately, almost all but a few iPhone apps (38 items) need to be upgraded for OS3 and this needs to be downloaded. Some apps require a fast WiFi connection and iTunes connected to the Internet. I tried to download and upgrade apps when I found an open WiFi network in a shopping street in Fredericia. Since my wife and kids were walking ahead I finally had to catch up and loose the connection (I could upgrade 3 non-essential apps). A Danish student told me most McDonalds supposedly have WiFi hotspots but the two restaurants I visited had none.

Maybe If I really set my mind to it I would have been able to localize an open wifi network but I choose not to. No Twitter, no news, no downloads, no TV (there were 3 Danish free to Air channels). I did not even miss Twitter, even though I still get followers (Why if I’m not posting twits at all?)

As a precaution I was advised not to use Twitter during my vacation since this could alert unwanted visitors. Does anybody have experience with this?

Cultural impressions

We drove by large parts of the famous Marguerite route in Danmark which gives a good impression of the beautiful Danish scenery (just follow the flower on the boards).

We visited Legoland Billund two days which was fun for the kids. I had a personal record of waiting 40 minutes in line for hotdogs. Fransk hotdogs seem to be the favourite fastfood snack here (being a round bread with a hole in it for the sauce and hotdog. (Traditional hotdogs are 'risted' with dry baked onions). Also we had our first lakritz (licorice / drop) salty icecream, probably a variation of the famous Smorredrop. The Danish bread and sweet bakery products are really a specialty. Every supermarket and most gasstations have a large selection of freshly baked Danish products. We have seen second hand shops in almost every town or city we visited. Sales of used products seems to be more common in Danmark than in the Netherlands given the many second-hand shops and flea markets we have seen.

We visited Kolding on several days with its large swimming & wellness center. The last thursday we went to the Legepark in Kolding with the kids. This park is build and run by unemployed (according to the brochure) and is free to visit. There is a large playground with moonbikes, a pond with rowingboats and waterbikes. We played minigolf and my daughter wanted to play chess with large pieces (I need to teach her the rules of the game first). I highly recommend the Kolding Legepark if you want a relaxed afternoon with your kids. Earlier this week we had a tour to Ribe, climbed the stairs of the Church to the top. Esbjerg city center and Harbour. We went to Haderslev, Fredericia with a waterstream running through the streets, Vejle, Odense with the large railway museum and Fyns Hoved (the top of the island) with the beautiful scenery and many Rocks.

On our way home we visited Tonder where they just had a cultural festival where people were dressed up for in antique clothing. We made a carriage horse-ride with our family. We waited 3 hours at the Elbefahre (boat) but we had a good vacation in Danmark.

Technology on the move - a personal history

Most technological inventions need some time to get acquainted to and settle in. Although I consider myself an early adopter for general technology and gadgets, at the current rate new technology and systems are being introduced it is a real challenge to keep up tacit knowledge by using and adopting all the available technology. In this short personal history I will review some changes in technology (related to games, music and available networks) I experienced in the last 25 years.

Around 1984 I had my first walkman (for playing my home-recorded cassette-tapes with music) that I used in the early mornings on my newspaper delivery route. We had a Commodore 64 computer (64 kByte that is) with a cassette tapedrive for external memory that I used for loading games. Before turboloader a large game could take up to 45 minutes to load (possibly limited by the maximum lenght of a tape?), later an application called 'turboloader' brought it back to a minute.
Back then you had friends at school who introduced and helped with using new gadgets and technologies. Handheld pocket games like Donkey Kong (from Nintendo) and PacMan were a real rage back then, to the point that it was forbidden to take it to school. Surprisingly these games are still very popular today on several gaming platforms. Parents now would probably call it peer group pressure since the result of playing with a technologically privileged schoolfriend was also getting or begging for one yourself.

In 1985 I got introduced to 27 MC (CB) and bought one 22 channel (0.5 watt), in 1986 I started buying and experimenting with larger CB (4 x 80 + more lineair power), FM transmitters (building them) and pirate stations (with a few CB friends) since I was inspired by the story of Radio Veronica. My vinyl recordcollection grew these years from 3 to more than 800 12 inch album records mostly from Koninginnedag (Dutch Queensday) and fleamarket sales. In the early 90's I added some more to my current 1200+ vinyl record collection (about 80% various artists albums). The reason I bought second hand LP's on fleamarkets initially was that it was affordable. An average between € 0.50 - 1.50 per record. An interesting observation for me is that the perceived value of a secondhand Compact Disc (CD) is still much higher (€ 1.00 - 5.00) than that of an LP even if it is the same album. Same is true for secondhand and even more supprisingly new VHS-tapes (low price) and DVD's (high price), it is even more interesting because the productioncosts of a DVD's are less than 25% than that of anVHS-tape. Yes of course do I know VHS is phased out in favor of DVD-R and memorycards but my point is it seems to follow a common trend when substituting old with new technology.

Around 1987 I bought myself an autoreverse walkman with external mic-recorder and FM radio-receiver. There was no music-station on the Dutch radio during my early morning paperroute, so I had my personal FM music broadcasting station (Radio GoGo) in Hilversum during my paperroute. The whole idea of creating a music compilation on tape as my personal radiostation with jingles and then broadcasting it to myself appealed to me. The radio broadcast was fulfilling my personal need for early morning uptempo music but possibly serving a much larger audience of spontaneous listeners who just happened to scan for radiostations from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m.

In 1988 the media-laws in the Netherlands changed and commercial radiostations were permitted to broadcast the ether, including these early hours. There was no explicit need anymore and of course no way I (or any of my friends) could compete with these commercial stations. The RCD (Radio Control Service) also became more strict and held frequent coordinated razzia terminating all amateur pirate radiostations. Some larger / professional pirate stations applied for FM-frequencies and continued legally. Radiolegends Adam Curry and Jeroen van Inkel have their roots in the Amsterdam radio-piracy scene.

I continued making thematic cassette-tape compilations from my record- and growing CD-collection untill I went to college in 1992. To me it is still a real art to compile a lineair 90 minute tape (or CD for that matter) with a fixed moodsetting or theme and still have an interesting but balanced set of songs. You're searching for a good complete experience, like a composer. You need a strong beginning and end, variation in vocal vs. musical, man vs. woman, solo vs. group, fast vs. slow, rhytm-compatibility, and familiar (popular) songs vs. unknown jewels. Creating a playlist on an iPod (CD / MP3-player) is much easier because it is shuffled automatically and you can skip a song with one click.

In 1991 I bought a secondhand 80-286 PC with MS DOS on 2 720 Kb floppy-diskdrives from my school and used a spreadsheet (Lotus 123) and database (dBase) for the first time. That's when I understood the real potential of computers. In 1994 I created my first free mailaccount from DDS (a so called 'digital city' or virtual community) which I could read twice a week from the University Library computerroom. I also made my first homepage in DDS. Software was shared through BBS. For messaging (me) I had a Seiko Message Watch a 16 character pager, the prequel of SMS. My roommate had a computer running windows 3.1 a 80486DX50 with 8 MB RAM and a 4 speed CD-Rom with a 15" monitor. Around that time we played all the levels of Lemmings and Wolfenstein3D.
I bought my first greyscale handheld scanner to scan pictures and OCR textpages from books for college and my first 16 bit Gravis Ultrasound (full duplex) soundcard with wavetable and oncard memory. Although clipart in documents was very hot, printing real (greyscale) pictures was not very common then. Around 1995 I assembled my first PC, a 80486 DX 66, all the components were bought on a computer fair. Unfortunately the intel processor was dead (I had traveled to the supplier of the motherboard, that board was tested OK and he sold me a new processor after which my PC worked). Months later I went to another computerfair and located the supplier of the original defective (DOA) processor who gave me my money back, the price had dropped 30% in 3 months. Moore's law still seems valid. The 56k6 baud modem was introduced (for a faster dial-up connection to the Internet). Storage devices also became larger. I have used the portable iomega Zipdrive (with 100 MB disks instead of 1.44 MB floppydisks) for several years untill I had my own CD-burner. Nowadays most people use USB-flashdrives. Interestingly not all input devices change: I still use my single line OCR penscanner from 1996 occasionally; I did needed to upgrade the driver and OCR software from Irislink so I also bought a USB version. A pen scanner is still recommended for students and researchers quoting lines from (paper) books and magazines.

In 1996 CD-burners (CD-ROM) and inkjet color printers became popular. The new operating system Windows 95 boosted sales and multitasking (more than 1 program open and working on your computer desktop) became common use. Wordprocessor WordPerfect 6 became ancient and MS Word became the new standard in the computer room. Midi and Mod audio-files were replaced by .wav and MP3 after ripping whole CD-collections using CDDB for track info. In 1997 I bought a Sony MiniDisc-player/recorder with optical I/O and USB as a possible non-lineair (random-access) replacement for my cassette-tapes. Since transferring MiniDisc recordings to a computer took a lot of time (only real time single speed transfer, meaning a recording of 80 minutes takes 80 minutes to transfer) and some optical output limitations for consumers probably resulted in the fact that MiniDisc didn't make it as a new audio-medium. I really liked the ability to edit MiniDisc tracks and recordings with a portable recorder and add track info (Text) to an audio-track. Unfortunately it was not possible to tranfer this MiniDisc trackinfo directly to the audio-track on the PC or to CD-text when burning it on a CD-Rom. MP3 as an alternative did have the ability to add track info like: artist, title, album, genre, tracknumber and comment (read: Meta-information) to a file with the ID3-tag preferably added automaticly through CDDB.

I'm still using MP3 as my primary audio storage-format today. Since 1987 I ripped most of my CD-collection to MP3. I stored it by putting it on CD-Rom, later on DVD-Rom and now I have an audio collection of more than 300 GB. At first only PC's and some DVD-players could play MP3-files but nowadays almost all audio-hardware can play MP3. Portable MP3-players became popular around 1999. I know that around the year 2000 I bought a portable NAPA MP3/CD/VideoCD player with ID3-display. This player definitely substituted my walkman and tapes, the MiniDisc was only used for recording.

I had my first portable GSM cellphone around 1998: A large Motorola 8800 with only a day of standby time, but what a freedom feeling being able to call while riding a bike. Before my gsm I had a portable housephone with large (extended) range around the house (approximately 2 km range, somewhat illegal but effective). After the pocket-pagers hype around 1995 with short text-codes, GSM introduced text messaging to the masses with SMS.

Currently (june 2009) Twitter (on twitter.com) is the hottest trend introducing gps tagged broadcast messaging by cellphones, smartphones or pda's connected to the Internet. Twitter is mostly used as a micro-Blog (with only 140 characters in 1 message) but also as a social networking application. Twitter is a logical follow up of instant messaging or chat (irc) which was a popular application from the early 90's on the Internet.
Other popular Internet applications from around 2000 were ICQ, MSN. and peer-to-peer MP3 filesharing Napster (P2P filesharing later evolved to Kazaa and torrent-sites). Videochat or videoconferencing became more popular when broadband Internet (by ISDN, Cable and ADSL) and webcams became affordable. Skype (introduced in 2003) set a standard (by reaching a critical mass of users) for connecting Internet-telephony to normal PSTN telephone-lines. Voice over IP (VOIP) is now offered by ISPs as an acceptable alternative or substitution of the (old) analog PSTN telephone system.

Mobile phones became more advanced, starting with WAP (only textbased) and and specially designed WML Internet pages. After my 2 relatively cheap Motorola phones I invested in a (more advanced) Nokia 6210 with build in 9k6 modem so I could fax and email with a laptop. A bit later around 2003 the pocketPC with Windows mobile became the new standard for handhelds. Personally I used an HP iPaq 4350 with wireless connectivity: bluetooth & wifi and a seperate (bluetooth) gps receiver for use with the TomTom Navigation Software.

Portable music became a new lifestyle with the Apple iPod. I personally ignored and even rejected the overhyped adoration of the early iPod adopters for a long time but I got more acquinted to the idea of thematic playlists. And lists based on specific ID3 metatags. USB-stick MP3-players were only able to shuffle and play folders (usually an album). Also Apple Inc. introduced a music marketing and purchase model through iTunes. The popularity and maybe also the acceptance of iTunes as a music store and library environment on Mac and PC was hugely enhanced by the easy way to find and subscribe to (free) podcasts. FYI: A (current) comparison of online music stores.
The iTunes musicstore introduced $0,99 per song in the USA, frustratingly this was copied to the European countries to €0,99 (with the current exchange rate Europeans pay more than 40% extra!). It was not until 2007 that I bought an 80 GB iPod video, now referred to as iPod classic (the 5th generation) which makes me late mayority in gadget marketing and innovation adoption terms. My main motivation for buying one was the long playing time (over 20 hours) and the fact that iPod is the industry standard (a leading example for others) which means several accessories are made specially for- or compatible with the iPod like docking stations, speakers and microphones (this is my favorite mic for recording with iPod:griffins italk pro).

When Apple marketed (and hyped) the long awaited iPhone in the summer of 2007 I was even more sceptical than with the iPod. I decided to wait and see. That fall of 2007 I did buy a new HTC P3300 smartphone running Windows Mobile with 2 MegaPixel camera, wifi, touchscreen, and build-in-gps to replace my Nokia 6210 (after almost 8 years).

And yes, I finally bought an iPhone 3G 16 GB with a T-Mobile business package deal in march 2009 and I must say: I really like the iPhone. I am a great fan of the App-store (more than 50.000 apps available in less than 2 years on the market). The intelligent use of the build in sensors and features makes the iPhone so unique. Somebody just thought of the idea that a Multitouch-screen feature creates the opportunity of playing multi-finger piano on the iPhone. That is creativity and brings back the fun to technology.

Personally I am not a gamer but throughout the years I have played some PC based computergames. My favorite game was a turn based strategy game named Civilization 2. I was not really into shooters like Doom and DukeNukem 3D although I liked the idea (concept) of modifying and creating your own levels and putting your own pictures on top of the monsters. The adventure shooter TombRaider had nicer graphics but I never took the time to play the whole game. Black & White was the last big (God)game I spend serious time on. I liked this game for originality and for the AI-features in the game. About two years ago we bought two DDR dancepads which I liked for fitness and interactivity (this gaminggenre is now referred to as Exergames). Recently we got the handheld Nintendo DS (now mostly used by my 6 year old daughter) and the interactive Nintendo Wii using the Wii-remote and Nunchuck with build-in 3-axle motion-sensors. I extended our Wii-system after a few weeks with the Wii Fit + balanceboard. My wife uses the Wii mostly for fitness and training.
[On the side: A really thought provoking TED-talk about the history and future of games]

Skipping to conclusion:
What I think we need is a gadgetized playground or sandbox to get acquinted to gadgets and new technology first before we use them as new tools, but what we get is a mass marketed, overhyped, interconnected network of electronic stuff with unpredictable spinn-offs and possibly unwanted symptoms like information stress. Too much info and stuff without a real (physical) context or place to put it. Don't get me wrong, I like gadgets and technology a lot, but we need to put things in perspective. Aim for ideals and goals that really matter. Use technology as a tool and not as a target. I'm trying to make a point here but I am unclear about the form. I will stop here and leave this writing as is. Later I will write more about connectivity, technology and the iPhone as a technological milestone in particular.

Extra: Just a Meta-Idea
While writing this piece I realized a personal gadget history (or going through your past by telling stories about your stuff) could be an interesting cultural or sociological perspective indicating (technology driven) changes.

If you publish(ed) your own technological or gadget (toy)-driven personal history just put the link in the comment.
Thanks, Toine.

Alternative Money Systems

At the moment I am researching some alternative Money Systems for use as an online software system for a LETS job agency in Groningen in the Netherlands (Dutch: LETS uitzendbureau). We will work under the name LETSwerk.nl

Looking at the following softwarelist (http://www.complementarycurrency.org/software.html).

The system should be able to have multiple currencies. We will use time (like time-banks), LETS (local barter units) and conventional money (Euro). 
After lots of research we will begin to use Cyclos as our main banking and administration software. Before this I tried CuroMuto.com as a test environment but I could not get this barternetwork to work.

Just before this post I joined http://stroomgeld.ning.com/ (dutch) aiming at an ecosophical approach using Bernard Lietaer's book 'The Future of Money'. A good portal-page about complementary economics in the Netherlands (including international links) is: http://complementaire-economie.startpagina.nl/

There are many web sites dealing with alternative money systems and related issues. The following are some of the most interesting (list from: http://www.ces.org.za/misc/links.htm)

Alternative Money Systems

• Access Foundation (Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies)
• Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies
• Alternative Money Systems
• Altruists International
• CC Information Technologies WorldWide (CCIT)
• ccPedia - an open collective knowledge centre on complementary currency systems
• Crom Alternative Payment System
• Local Exchange Systems in Asia, Africa and Latin America
• Community Information Resource Center (CIRC)
• Complementary Currency Resource Centre
• Creating Community Currency
• EF Schumacher Society
• Forum for Stable Currencies
• Ithaca HOURs Online
• International Journal of Community Currency Research
• Letslink UK
• LETS-Linkup
• LETS.net
• Living Economies
• Local and Interest-Free Currencies, Social Credit and Microcredit
• The Money Fix
• Online Database of Complementary Currencies Worldwide
• The Open Money Project
• P2P Foundation
• Reinventing Money.com
• Community Exchange System
• Strohalm for a change
• The Terra - Trade Reference Currency (TRC)
• Time Dollar Institute
• Transaction Net - Enabling Markets Online
• The Transitioner - TheTransitioner.org brings together those who want to marry the economy and Collective Intelligence in order to build a fair world.
• UniteDiversity Wiki
• Workgroup on Solidarity Socio-Economy - Social Money

The following resources are to help you understand the nature of money-as-we-know-it and why we need a new money system.

Documents, Books and Articles

• Altruists International Money-Related Downloads
• Bibliography of Community Currency Research
• Community Currency Materials, Information and Resources, compiled by Appropriate Economics
• Complementary Currency Bookstore
  
• Complementary Currency and Exchange - The Movement to Reinvent Money, by Thomas H Greco, Jr. [HTML] [PDF] [PowerPoint]
• Community Currency Guide by Bernard Lietaer and Gwendolyn Hallsmith
• Flight from Inflation, the Monetary Alternative, by E.C Riegel. A posthumous compilation of his essays, Los Angeles, CA, The Heather Foundation, 1978 (PDF 488K)
• Interest and Inflation Free Money, by Margrit Kennedy
• History of the CES, by Tim Jenkin, June 2004
• I Want the Earth Plus 5% - the story of money
• Money and its Alternatives - Strohalm Foundation (PDF 575K)
• Money, Bona Fide or Non-Bona Fide, by Dr. Edward E Popp, 1970 (PDF 685K)
• Money and the Crisis of Civilization by Charles Eisenstein, March 2008
• Money: A New Beginning by Charles Eisenstein, April 2008
• Money - Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, by Thomas H Greco, Jr. (PDF 893K)
• The New Approach to Freedom. Together with Essays on the Separation of Money and State, by E.C. Riegel, 1949 (PDF 244K)
• The New Approach to Freedom, web site hosting the writings of E.C. Riegel
• Poor Because of Money - Strohalm Foundation (PDF 941K)
• Private Enterprise Money. A Non-Political Money System, by E.C. Riegel (PDF 537K)
• Reinventing Money. The emergent path toward peace, harmony, and equity.
  Presentation by Thomas H Greco, Jr. [HTML] [PDF] [PowerPoint]
• The Great Cookie Jar - Taking the Mysteries Out of the Money System, by Dr Edward E Popp, 1978 (PDF 774K). HTML Version
• The Monetary Philosophy of E.C. Riegel, by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. (MS PowerPoint 35K)
• The Money Myth Exploded - The Financial Enigma Resolved, by Louis Even
• The Natural Economic Order, by Silvio Gesell
• The Nature of Money, by John Kutyn, 5 March 2000
• The Nature of Money, by John Kutyn, 16 March 2005
• The Nature of Wealth, by Fred Lundgren, August 2002
• The New Money Text Book - Economics Made Simple, by Doctor Edward C Hamlyn, May 2007
• The Politics of Money, by EC Riegel
• Private Enterprise Money: A Non-Political Money System, by E. C. Riegel, 1944.
• The Credit Theory of Money by A Mitchell Innes, The Banking Law Journal, 1914
• What is Money? A history of credit by A Mitchell Innes, The Banking Law Journal, May 1913

Monetary Reform

• The American Monetary Act and the Monetary Transparency Act, 21 September 2006, American Monetary Institute
• The American Monetary Institute
• British Association for Monetary Reform
• COMER - The Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform
• Forum for Stable Currencies
• Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education (FAME)
  FAME is a not-for-profit educational organization whose sole mission is to educate people about the benefits of honest monetary weights and measures and the harm caused by our current fraudulent fiat money monetary system
• Global Research.ca. Centre for Research on Globalization
• James Roberston, working for a sane alternative
• The Money Reform Party
• People for Mathematically Perfected Economy
• Prosperity. Freedom from Debt Slavery
  Prosperity is a monthly Money Reform journal based in Glasgow, Scotland, which is dedicated to spreading understanding about the nature of our debt-based money system, and campaigning for publicly-created debt-free money.

Monetary History

• American Monetary History
• FX Micheloud Monetary History
• Gold: prices, facts, figures & research. Monetary episodes from history
• Monetary history documents
• Money - Past, Present & Future, Information on Monetary History, Contemporary Developments, and Electronic Money
• Money, Value, and Monetary History after Milton Friedman

Miscellaneous

• Money, Banking and Credit. This site is devoted to the issues of money, banking, fiscal, and monetary policy and their impacts on families and the nation as a whole
• The People vs The Banks - Class action suit on behalf of the people of Canada alleging that financial institutions are illegally creating money.

Peak Oil

• Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas
• EnergyBulletin.net
• Peak Oil Clock
  
• The Wolf at the Door

Video

• CC Video. Collection of videos on complementary currency systems
• Money as Debt [Google video]
  Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its "Duncan Initiative" received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States.
• The Money Masters [Google video]
  How International Bankers Gained Control of America
• Monopoly Men - Federal Reserve Fraud (1999)
• Suzao Media
  A good collection of videos on money and debt

[this post was updated on december 3, 2009.] 

Online presence and awareness

Going for an online presence with a steady track record is a bit of a challenge. Personality and entertainment-values aside: When does one reach a new awareness, a new Eureka? Discoveries, innovations and inventions that one did not have before and are now emerging.
Can I really use my Blog as a personal inspiration Journal, subjectively reflecting on external and internal input? Or could it be compared to the Captain's log (without the personal log) like Jean Luc Picard in Startrek?

Awareness as a whole is a pretty big issue and I have collected and read many books and articles about this subject. Recently I noticed the great overlap of David R. Hawkins' work regarding the calibrated consciousness scale (the map of consciousness) using applied kinesiology with the inspiring channelled work of Esther & Jerry Hicks (also featured in the movie 'The Secret' about the Law of Attraction).
Hawkins calles it calibration levels and Esther Hicks called it frequencies or vibrational interpretation (this jargon or terminology is also used in therapeutics and NLP). Eckhart Tolle, author of 'A New Earth', featured on Oprah's website probably calls it identification with a certain form and at the lower levels (Hawkins Scale: above 200=Truth / below 200= Falshood) identification with the (collective) painbody. Caroline Myss, medical intuitive & author of 'anatomy of the spirit' also identifies the collective tribal energy circuit (First Chakra in eastern terminology). Myss greatest methaphor is the analogy of your bodies energy system with a bank-account and identify where your energy flows. Stop the leaks or you become energetically bankrupt which causes illness in your body. My association when watching Caroline Myss explaining this Energetic Bankaccount concept was with Robert Kiyosaki, author of the book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' in which he explaines the flow of money of the poor, the middle class and rich people [video] identifying assets (puts money in my pocket, will feed me) and liabilities (takes money out of my pocket, will eat me). The comparison of the importance of educating Financial Literacy and educating personal Energetic Literacy is rather interesting.

Back to awareness: When I meditate using only the Silva Method I am tuned in the Akasha field somewhat (Zero Point Field for scientists but what's in a name), but when I also use the Heartmath (HeartCoherence) techniques I unlock and release creativity and new potential.
Burt Goldman, an 81 year old (retired) Silva instructor also known as the American Monk created a course named Quantum Jumping where you go to parallel dimensions when meditating using the Silva Method. In Silva you just go to your Lab and you meet your 2 advisors, but what if you just create a board of advisors, a mindteam if you will, and check the outcome in a parallel dimension immediately after your consult or brainstorm. Even if you only imagine it or visualize it: This is very powerful stuff and I haven't even mentioned ESP or remote viewing.

I am aware that everyone chooses his or her own path in life, but although a skeptical approach is custom when dealing with these claims, one cannot ignore the impact experiences like these ideas have, even if it is just imagination and overwhelming evidence is pure luck according to witnesses. I'd like to end this personal awareness piece positive: Suspend (your thinking) & Hang in There, (free interpretation of Peter Senge's Presence) and close with the wonderful affirmation:
"Everyday in every way, it is getting better and better!"

Online Collaboration

Looking for online collaboration tools I came across the following info from the Mashable Blog:

Business Productivity

37Signals.com - Maker of collaboration tools including Basecamp (others listed below).

8apps.com - A mixture of social network and productivity applications.

BlueTie.com - Online collaboration directed towards small and medium sized businesses.

Businessitonline.com - Centralized cash flow, documents, calendars and more for a team or small business.

CentralDesktop.com - A full work suite for project teams including spreadsheets, file sharing, calendar and more.

Colligo.com - Allows you to work on projects off-line and then sync them when you can login.

ConceptShare.com - Share concept designs and allow invited workers to mark-up, comment, and give feedback.

Confluence - An enterprise-class wiki with features such as PDF exporting.

ContactOffice.com - Allows groups to share documents, calandars, contacts, and files. They can then access them from a number of different mobile devices.

Coventi.com - Upload your documents, share, and allow others to highlight portions or edit.

Copperproject.com - Share projects, tasks, documents and timelines with your entire team.

CrossLoop.com - Allows two computers to connect securely to share their desktops for collaborative work and transfer of files.

Eloops.com - Share files, calenders, projects, and then create RSS feeds to share your public ones.

Foldera.com - Allows for communication over projects, and centralizes work to make sure version is always current.

Glide - Facilitates group meetings to review projects together.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets - From the behemoth known as Google, collaborative documents and spreadsheets.

GroupSharp.com - Allows you to share lists, databases, file sharing, and wikis for your team.

Huddle.net - Designed for collaborative work in the fields of PR, advertising, marketing, design and more.

Instacoll.com - Allows real-time sharing of documents to work on them with colleagues.

Joyent.com - Get collaborative software and backup services in one package.

Longjump.com - Offers standard collaboration, but also the ability to build new applications for your team to use and even market.

Mindquarry.com - Work on projects online or off-line, then synchronize as soon as you are back.

Near-Time.net - Build wikis, blogs,create documents for your team to work on, and have the ability to sell your content and expertise.

Nexo.com - Share files and notes amongst your company, or even with other companies you invite.

Octopz.com - Allows your team to work a wide range of documents including video, audio, and flash animations.

OpenTeams.com - Allows your team to create cPages of your project.

QuickBase.com - A collaborative tool from Intuit, the makers of Quicken.

PlanHQ.com - Specifically for groups working on business plans.

ProjectSpaces.com - Share and work on documents, notify team members via RSS and email.

Solodox.com - Create, access, edit, share, and collaborate on documents & projects.

TeamWorkLive.com - Track tasks, centralize communication, share documents and files, then collaborate with clients and remote teams.

TheOpenDoc.com - Create multiple workspaces with multiple documents, then share them for group editing.

Thinkature.com - Collaborative workspace with voice chat and numerous drawing tools.

Tracbac.com - Workspace for your group that features versioning, IM, VoIP ad more.

Uhroo.com - Focuses on working on goals, estimates, client feedback and more.

Vyew.com - Your team can work on a project and then publish it directly to where you choose on the web.

WebOffice.com - Work on documents and more with live web meetings.

Wrike.com - Project management that allows you to assign tasks and then let people work in teams on them.

Writewith.com - Create documents and invite others to edit and chat while you do so.

Yugma.com - A catch-all collaboration site for files, tech support, presentations and more.

Zimbra.com - Email service with collaboration tools.

Zoho.com - Create documents and grant permissions for others to work on an entire page or just one portion or object.

Creative Collaboration

Kalabo.net - Site for musicians to collaborate on compositions together.

Freepository.com - Specifically for computer program development and allows storage of code to be worked on from anywhere.

Glypho.com - Site for group writing of fictional stories.

Novlet.com - Collaborative writing of non-linear stories in any language.

WebBrush - Focuses more on graphical sharing and includes drawing tools.

Writeboard.com - From 37signals, perfect for collaborative writing, journalists, bloggers and more.

WriteMaps.com - Designed specifically for creating and sharing sitemaps amongst web teams.

Family and Social Collaboration

Cozi.com - Helps families organize and communicate in a web based method.

Famundo.com - Built for families or small groups to organize and share contacts, calendars, and projects.

Grouptivity.com - Uses email to start a group discussion on any subject of your choice.

LooseStitch.com - Create to do lists and share them with whomever you choose.

Mecanbe.com - Post your goals in life, get suggestions on how to achieve them.

Stixy.com - Share documents, photos, to do lists and more with family and friends.

Wamily - For teams, families, clubs and everything in-between. Share photos, run a wiki, have conversations.

Mindmapping

Bubbl.us -Create and share your mind map with your team, also embed in to your website or blog.

Comapping.com - Mind mapping for everyone from students working together to project management.

Gliffy.com - Draw & share mind mapping diagrams.

Kayuda.com - Mind mapping for individuals or organizations.

Mind42.com - Mind mapping for one, or multiple users.

Mindomo.com - Has both free and premium accounts for mind mapping.

Mindmeister.com - A mind mapping tool you can share with an unlimited number of simultaneous users.

[Source Mashable Blog]

Getting things done isn’t easy. In fact, it’s incredibly tough. In this article, we look at four ways to get through your work faster: running your life online, mastering RSS news feeds, aggregating your social networks and using keyboard shortcuts to save precious seconds.

When it comes to getting things done, the web can be a real distraction. But thanks to the many new applications springing up online, it also provides invaluable ways to keep your life in order. To start, we look at the web-based apps that can help you most.

Word Processing Services

Online word processing provides you with ways to manage and write documents without a download - great for collaboration or those using multiple computers.

Google Docs - A way to create your documents and share them too.

Zoho Writer - Serious competition to Google Docs. There are some options present that Google Docs lacks and of course vice-versa.

ThinkFree - Think Microsoft Office, except this is the online equivalent.

Buzzword - A recently discovered service that is still in private beta. It has many offerings and a slick interface to boot! (Private Beta)

Web Portals

You have the potential to be productive the moment you turn on your computer and fire up that web browser. You can have all the information you want and need accessible to you immediately by using one of the following services.

Netvibes - Generally considered to be the first successful, independent startpage.

Pageflakes - Pageflakes could be considered the brother-in-law to Netvibes and both have very similar offerings in customization and content.

iGoogle - If you have a Google account, then the iGoogle comes part of the package deal, and since many of us have Google as our home page anyways, why not give iGoogle a trial?
My Yahoo - The offerings are somewhat more customizable than iGoogle, but essentially the same concept from a different provider.

Calendar Services

Let’s say you have your parent’s anniversary, project deadlines, and finally taking the family pet to the vet all coming up this week. Having all these things on a calendar is undoubtedly the way to go for keeping track of these events. Unless you prefer writing it on your hand…

Google Calendar - I personally use Google Calendar on a daily basis. It is just that freaking awesome!
Yahoo! Calendar - Yahoo provides a pretty good, but basic, calendar application for organizing your life
30 Boxes - Has a lightning fast interface that is really easy to navigate makes this a good contender.
Kiko - A very nice calendar application with a drag & drop interface.

Contact Management Services

Your cell phone and e-mail program are likely your primary sources for keeping information about your contacts. This is fine. You must ask yourself though, what happens if your cell phone is lost, your webmail account goes down or you lose all the data on your computer? You are pretty much screwed. Time to rethink the way we do contact management.

Plaxo - One of the best known services which allow you to keep track of contacts. Other services that can tap into your Plaxo account and utilize your contacts with your permission.
Tabber - was created with the notion of linking together friends from many social sites and services, but it still serves very well as an address book and contact management application.
Highrise - A premium option to manage your business contacts. If you are more serious about keeping your contacts and have hundreds of them, this could be a cost efficient solution depending on your needs.
HyperOffice - Another premium service that offers control of your contacts. This is for more serious contact management.

Communication Services

Stickam - If live video conversations are your thing, then Stickam provides you an excellent opportunity to mingle with friends, coworkers, or just random people if you so desire. We wouldn’t use it for business calls, though.
Google 411 - This service from Google is likely something you have never tried before, but once you do, you might use it for a long time coming. A good 411 replacement. (US Only)
Meebo - If you prefer to communicate with friends and colleagues through IM, then Meebo is the site for you to do it all in one easy to use program.
Gmail - The king of e-mail? We think so. Much more efficient at handling large volumes of email than rival services.

Charting & Diagram Services

Ever heard of brainstorming? Of course you have! Well, the following applications follow the same line of thought, but now you can throw your ideas in charts and diagrams often referred to as “mind maps” to plan any future project you may attempt. I personally use these types of applications very often.

Flowchart.com - The title says it all really. Flowchart allows you to create charts and diagrams in a nice drag & drop interface. (Private Beta)
MindMeister - Offering both a free and premium version, MindMeister focuses on collaboration in an easy to use “mind mapping”environment.
Mind42 - Yet another “mind mapping” web app that allows you to collaborate with others. This one is completely free.
Gliffy - Likely the most technical and detailed option on this list. It has many more options available than the others.

Mapping Services

If you need to find out where you are going, and how to get there, these tools can help prevent (or at least reduce) the amount of times you get lost on those long road trips.

Google Maps - Recently has taken over as one of the best mapping tools out there. Not only does it have streets, but you can get an insane amount of data displayed on Google Maps through other services like StreetAdvisor.
Yahoo Maps - Google has obviously driven Yahoo to improve its mapping services, and it shows here.
Mapquest - A very reliable source for getting you from point A to point B.

File Storage Services

Box.net - A very nice solution to uploading and backing up your files, as well as sharing them. You can sign up for free and get a gig of space, or you can have additional storage with the premium options.
MediaMax - Another powerful and useful service to regularly back-up all your important data.

Networking

OK, so social networking isn’t often productive, unless you’re rubbing virtual shoulders with a potential employer. But if you must use all these sites (and most people do), how about saving time by aggregating all your profiles and updates in one place? These services do just that.

Profilactic

Profilactic has very recently been upgraded to version 2, which brought a decent amount of new features - a new look, support for Pownce, LinkedIn, Shelfari, and the ability to add more than one account for the same site. At its core, Profilactic still does the same two things: it displays your personal lifestream, which consists of your social networking activity, and a group lifestream from your friends. What it does, it does well; however, we’d still like to see more options to interact with the items in your streams. There’s also the option to create clippings - bits and pieces of information from the web; but this option is not really connected to the rest of the features on the site.

Minggl

Minggl is a browser toolbar that works with Firefox, IE and Flock and promises to “put you in control of your social web universe”. The idea behind Minggl is to “attach” social networking profiles to Minggl and then control them all from one place. You can see an overview of the main features in this video tutorial.

iStalkr

Another application that’s based on the concept of group lifestreaming, iStalkr perhaps chooses the most logical route of all the applications on this list. It enables you to follow your own and your friends’ social networking activities on a timeline, and to act on it directly from iStalkr’s interface. Working with iStalkr, we’ve noticed that the updates aren’t coming that fast; but we’re not sure if this is due to the limitations of various APIs involved or iStalkr itself.

Correlate.us

Correlate.us doesn’t really give you the ability to do much with your social networks, it merely gives you a nice overview of your activities on them. While the application is quite simple, it’s done well, and we think that it could be a good basis for a bigger project.

Explode.us

Instead of aggregating social networking information, Explode.us lets you search all the social networks with one form. For each found user you can see tags, friends, comments, as well as the latest content this user posted. Explode.us supports, among others, LiveJournal, Flickr, Twitter, Jaiku and 43Things.

Spokeo

Spokeo is a social network tracker which enables you to track what your friends are doing on various social networks from Spokeo’s interface. It aims to be the simplest of the aggregators, offering a kind of “RSS reader for social networks”. Our longer review of the newly launched Spokeo is here.

Profilefly

Create a profile with your personal information, clippings from the web and your personal social networking lifestream. Profilefly works as a widget or as a Facebook application, and it supports a huge number of social networks, including MySpace, Digg, Hi5, Facebook, Last.FM, Second Life and many others. The actual profile is a bit bland, with the lifestream - which should be the center of such an application - offering very limited options; for example, time stamps and any kind of interactivity is lacking.

PeopleAggregator

PeopleAggregator aims to become a social identity hub. It works through a desktop software application which currently runs only on Linux, and although we applaud its reliance on OpenID and open standards in general, the decision to start a service that aims to connect social networking users and their profiles, on a Linux platform, seems like a suicide. The official FAQ which is at the moment a bunch of spam links doesn’t help. Look at the presentation of the service in HTML form here.

SocialURL

SocialURL helps you organize your online identity and get back in touch with all of your friends and classmates. It’s a unified profile with support for photo galleries and videos, as well as a central portal with links pointing out to all your other social network profiles. It’s all spiced up with lots of additional features, like on-site email, reminders and bookmarks.

Socialstream

We’ve already said quite a lot about Social Stream considering that it’s not even in beta stage yet - all that’s available at this point is a vidcast presentation of what Social Stream can do. However, the huge amount of attention that Social Stream got is a clear indicator that some pieces of the puzzle are still missing in the social network aggregator space.

Tabber

Tabber is a personal profile page, which displays some information about you together with your latest activity on Digg, del.icio.us, your blog, Twitter, or any RSS feed. It’s very similar in concept to ProfileFly, and just like it, it lacks any possibility to interact with your lifestream.

Naymz

Naymz is another personal profile site, which goes a step further than services like Tabber or ProfileFly by giving you the possibility to actively monitor certain sites for mention of your name. Naymz also actively promotes your profile by trying to make it more visible on Google.

8hands

In contrast to the majority of the other services described here, 8hands is a desktop application which currently works on Windows XP and Vista. It allows you to access your profiles on social networks (currently supported are Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and many more) from a single IM-like interface. The idea is to have an overview of what’s happening on your social networks, and send instant messages to other users. 8hands software is currently in alpha (I guess we’re lucky alpha is the first letter of Greek alphabet, otherwise we’d have even more unstable software dubbed with a name that signifies even earlier stages of development), so expect some instability.

Second Brain

Second Brain takes a radically different approach to aggregation than other apps on this list. You organize your data - this includes data from your social network profiles, like Flickr photos or YouTube videos - into collections. A collection is basically a bunch of links, photos, or other bits and pieces of data thrown onto a dashboard; you can create your own collections or explore what others have collected. While the concept seems powerful, I’ve found myself trying to find something to do with it all. In any case, Second Brain is currently in invite-only beta stage and there will probably be some changes in the service until it goes public.

UpScoop

UpScoop lets you upload the contacts from your address book (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and AOL are supported) and it lets you discover which of your friends are active on social networks like Hi5, MySpace and others. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing UpScoop didn’t work with my perfectly valid Gmail address, so I couldn’t properly test it out. Hopefully, it’s just a temporary glitch.

ProfileOMat

ProfileOMat advertises itself as the last profile we’ll ever need - if only things were that simple! ProfileOMat doesn’t really aggregate your social networking profiles; it merely creates a profile from which you can reach all of your other profiles on social network. It does have a couple of nifty features, for example, you can set up your geographical location with the help of Google Maps.

MyLifeBrand

MyLifeBrand tries to go a step further by really integrating various social network sites within a MyLifeBrand frame. While this approach brings a far more streamlined experience, it’s unlikely that social network users will want to open their favorite website within some other website; also, there’s always the possibility of unexpected errors with this approach. At this time MyLifeBrand is in invite-only beta, so if you don’t have an invitation code, you won’t be able to try it out.

ProfileLinker

Amongst the rounded corners and reflections that have become the usual visual identity for Web 2.0 ProfileLinker stands out by looking very Web 1.0-ish. After registration, you can add your various social network profiles and your contacts, and all this activity will be shown on your ProfileLinker profile. The look and feel of the interface leaves a lot to be desired; for one thing, I’d like to be able to remove random information about ProfileLinker’s history that shows up on my profile; in general, the options for personalization are quite limited.

Snag

Snag takes a no-nonsense approach: no registration required; just enter some of your social network credentials (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and LinkedIn are supported) and you get a group lifestream of your activity on these networks. The application needs much polishing, though; for example, entering the wrong credentials won’t result in an error; instead, your lifestream will consist of login errors retrieved from that particular network. At this point, Snag looks more like proof-of-concept than a full-fledged app.

Socialnetwork.in

Besides aggregating your social network profiles, Socialnetwork.in spices things up with ratings. Perhaps I’m just unlucky, but testing the service resulted in numerous errors which pretty much prevented me to do any serious analysis. To see some basic features check out the screencast here.

MyMashable

OK, a free bonus for the 21st: Mashable also aggregates your social networking links in one place, with video, photo sharing, Flickr import and other features. It’s worth disclosing at least.

[Mashable Source Blog]