Tech Tips for Catholic Teens

I recently found out about this cool new site called PickAFig (www.pickafig.com) from a comment on our site.

Just what is PickAFig?

Think “Digg”, only Catholic!  It is a place where you can “pick” your favorite blogposts, online news articles, and really anything Catholic related.  It is social bookmarking at its finest!

So head over to PickAFig now! (or whenever you have some free time, which is never, so you better go there now ; )

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I’m amazed at some of the great comments people have been posting on Catholic Tech Tips.  You can subscribe to the comments feed and feel free to join in on the conversations.

MyChurch.org is donig a great job of using applications to draw folks to their social networking site.  These include a Facebook app simply named My Church, a MySpace app called Famous Christian Quotes, and they have a couple blog tools as well.

Here are the descriptions of each of these apps that I’ve listed above:

Famous Christian Quotes (MySpace App) ↓


Display Inspirational quotes from famous Christian preachers and leaders on your profile and share them with your friends.

My Church (Facebook App) ↓


Show what ministry, denomination, or church organization you’re a part of. You can also find others on Facebook who are members of your church organization. Stay in touch with your larger church body.

Your Church Calendar on your own Website (Blog or Website Script) ↓


Share your church’s events on your blog, Myspace, or church’s main website.

I had an interesting conversation with my mom today - the most interesting part of it was that she SKYPED me!! This is the woman whose most exclusive computer usage revolves around playing solitaire and forwarding “funny” stories from her Juno email. So needless to say when I heard those familiar skype tones, I was not expecting my kids’ grandma to be on the other end!

Good for her - I’m so proud of her for choosing to investigate cost-cutting measures, for figuring out the technology involved, and for actually following through on something productive. That last part is not a surprise - this woman raised five children and continues to actively parent each of us as well as our spouses and children. But for so many of us, we put things like learning to use Skype on our “maybe someday” list and never seem to get around to them. Mom mentioned to me yesterday that she and my dad were contemplating some economizing and I mentioned Skype to her - less than 24 hours later, she’s dialed in and good to go.

What cost-cutting or time-savings measures have fallen onto your “someday maybe” list? What can you do, today, to cross one item off that list? It’s ok to start small - even baby steps take us in the right direction towards greater personal productivity and lives lead more fully and happily.

In the mean time, if you’re trying to Skype me and my line is busy, you know with whom I’m likely chatting!

Skype official website – free download and free calls and internet calls

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

My new favorite application for Facebook is Pieces of Flair.  I noticed a few weeks ago people adding this app to their profiles, but I’m pretty picky about what I add to my profile; that was until I saw my parish priest’s profile.  I actually thought he had a collection of pins and that he had taken a picture of it and posted it to his Facebook profile. It wasn’t until I clicked on the picture that I suddenly realized, So this is Pieces of Flair.  And then I spent about three hours searching for some of my own flair before creating some custom pieces.  Below is a picture of my flair collection : )

So if you happen to be my friend on Facebook and create some cool Catholic flair, be sure to share them with me! : )

As many of you may have heard, Summize.com has been acquired by Twitter.  For those who don’t know what Summize is (was), think Google for Twitter.  It lets you search Twitter for key words or phrases.

In a post titled “Finding a Perfect Match”, on the official Twitter blogsite, they stated the following:

“We’re excited to announce that Twitter has acquired Summize—an extraordinary search tool and an amazing group of engineers. All five Summize engineers will move to San Francisco, CA and take jobs at Twitter, Inc. This is an important step forward in the evolution of Twitter as a service and as a company.”

Below is a before and after shot of the Summize interface.

As you can see, there really isn’t much difference.

Want to search Twitter?

So I decided to give a new downloadable software a try.  It is called TweetDeck!  What is TweetDeck you ask?  Well, according to their website, “TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.”

Here are just some of the features I love about this little program:

• It enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets.
• Being database driven TweetDeck allows the user to continue twittering even when offline or when Twitter is down.
• Resize TweetDeck as either an unobtrusive column, full screen or anything in between.
• Especially useful running full screen on a separate monitor.
• You can filter tweets from up to 1 hour to the last 7 days using the Timeframe bar.
• Auto updates from the Twitter API.
• TweetDeck is available for Mac OS X, Windows (Vista & Windows XP), and Linux (manual installation).

I asked the TweetDeck Team if there will be skin/theme capabilities or different color options, as well as what other types of things are in the works?  The Developer & Co-Founder of TweetDeck, Iain Dodsworth, answered with the following:

“You’ll be pleased to know that there is a version of TweetDeck coming which will have multiple themes. We are also looking at notifications, support for different languages, integration with TwitPic. Then we will start with integrating other social networks, more about that nearer the time!”

If you are really into Twitter, this might be a program you will want to try for yourself.  Feel free to comment.

For the past few months, I’ve enjoyed using Twitter.com to stay in touch with friends. A few times a day (ok, more than a few), I take a break from what I’m doing and pop over to Twitter to see what my online buddies are up to. Since I work from home, Twitter has made my workday feel a bit less isolated. But those of you who use Twitter know that, as of late, it’s been down more than it’s been up, with repeated service outages.

So today, I finally took the leap and followed a few of my friends over to Plurk.com to check it out. Since I’m a type A personality, Plurk’s funky timeline approach is a bit chaotic for me. I’ve started posting, but will admit to feeling a bit more at home in the “mobile” view which replicates Twitter’s more linear approach.

The big question for a Personal Productivity blogger is this - does use of either of these social networking applications contribute to or detract from getting things done? I think the answer lies in a person’s self discipline - if you can master your ability to use these types of sites as tools to communicate and occasionally socialize, then sign up and get started using them. If, however, you find yourself distracted by the constant barrage of cross-chat to the extent that you can’t get your work done, you’re better off not venturing anywhere near them. The more “friends” you connect with in these sites, the more information there is to keep up with. Another important thing to note is that these communities flourish and do well as communication tools only if you play your part. Use them to share information that is helpful for your contacts and don’t abuse their intent.

For me, the jury’s still out on which quick update site will win my vote - for now, I’m going to try to update both a few times a day and watch what happens. More importantly, I’m going to see which site - Twitter or Plurk - ultimately adds to my ability to get things done.

Do you have a preference? Chime in - I’d love to hear from you! And if you’re on either site, feel free to follow/friend me:

Twitter / LisaHendey
Lisa on Plurk

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

This past weekend I attended the first ever PodCamp Ohio.  It was great!  I learned some new stuff and, had I not had this stupid head-cold, probably made some new friends. While at the event, I heard a lot of chatter about Ping.fm, which is a new service that makes it simple to update your many social networks.

Now one of the other things that I learned while at PodCamp Ohio, in the “Orchestrating a Viral Explosion” session, was how to drive “talk” about your online program/application by making it “invite only”.  To suggest that a person is part of an elite.  Gmail is a perfect example of a company that tried this tactic and found it to be quite successful.  This is why Ping.fm is requiring a “beta key code” to join.  Notice that on their login page they give you a hint that it is pretty easy to acquire this important key code. All you need to do is simply contact them and ask for one.  So, does this type of product campaign work?  I’m blogging about, so I would have to say that in many cases it does.  Go get your beta code and see what Ping.fm is all about!

Lisa, one of our contributors to the Catholic Tech Tips Blog, posted some pictures from the inaugural Catholic New Media Celebration in Atlanta, GA!

Click the iPod trashcan below to view Lisa’s Photo Album.

You will also see some other familiar faces.  Actually, a couple of the other contributors to Catholic Tech Tips, as well as some of my fellow PodCasters!