Some people are content to choose one way to do a thing. I’m not like that. I am constantly re-evaluating the way I do things, trying to find the most efficient methods. Perhaps it’s a mental disorder. Maybe I should get help. I don’t find that it has much impact on my life, but it does generate a lot of thinking cycles in my head that might otherwise be used on more useful or profound thoughts.

Anyway, one of the things I constantly re-evaluate is the way that I store, catalog, and share my digital photos. Lately, I’ve been thinking about my next advances in this area, and after a little bit of research, I’m made some interesting discoveries.
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If you’re a geek like me, then you’ll love [CyberGuys](http://www.cyberguys.com/). They sell all sorts of special-purpose, hard-to-find, and custom computer equipment. Looking through their 180-page catalog, you’ll find all sorts of interesting things, like a hand-cranked universal remote control (never needs batteries!), a portable power center that can jumpstart your car or power your laptop on the road, the best waterproof tent review, or even an external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure that also accepts CompactFlash cards AND has a built-in fingerprint reader! This catalog is great for hours of fun, reading and dreaming of all of the great junk you’d love to buy (even if you never buy it). The website is okay, but you really need to order the catalog. While you’re at it, also order the catalog from their sister company, [X-Treme Geek](http://www.x-tremegeek.com/). X-Treme geek is more oriented towards entertaining toys than actual useful computer gear, but I think you’ll find both of them equally wonderful in their own ways.

Two thumbs up for two catalogs I actually *like* to read!

P.S. If you’re not as much into geeky stuff, but you are into the outdoors, then you owe it to yourself to order the [Campmor](http://www.campmor.com/) catalog. It is to outdoorsy folk what the CyberGuys catalog is to geeks… tons of cool and useful stuff for camping such as cool camper accessories, canoeing, hiking, etc…

Thanks to some birthday gift fundage from my parents (*Thanks Mom and Dad!*), I’ve been able to purchase a few useful gadgets for hooking up our iPod in various locations.

The first one is a device manufactured by [USA Spec](http://www.usaspec.com/), and sold at retailers such as [Circuit City](http://www.circuitcity.com/). The [DF-TOY](http://www.usaspec.com/aux2.htm) hooks up to the CD Changer input on our new Corolla’s factory stereo, and provides two sets of RCA auxiliary inputs. This allows us to output sound directly from the iPod into the car stereo, without the need for a radio transmitter (which provides mediocre quality at best) or a cassette adapter (which wouldn’t work in our car, since it doesn’t have a cassette deck).

Installation was a lot easier than I expected:

1. Remove the bezel from around the stereo. This is easily done by working a flathead screwdriver around the edges and popping it out.
2. Remove the four phillips screws holding the stereo in.
3. Plug in the adapter to the cd changer port.
4. Run the cable out from the back of the stereo, down to the opening just above the gas pedal.
5. Connect the cable to the input box.
6. Connect RCA cables from the device of your choice.

Voila! I have crystal clear sound, and I also have an extra set of RCA inputs should I ever want to have TWO auxiliary devices hooked up. Yikes! The only thing I ought to do is find a nice place to mount the input box, and clean up the cables. Right now it’s all sitting on the floor behind the gas pedal. I’ll take and post some photos if I have a chance.

The other gadget that I bought was an [Apple iPod Dock](http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9868G/A). The iPod model I bought did not come with a dock, and I’ve gotten by just fine with the basic FireWire cable for a while. But at the Apple Store they had a bunch of “refreshed” docks on sale for 50% off the regular price, so I grabbed one of those, and it’s working great. Now our iPod has a nice little home to live in when it’s on the desk.

**Update**

Here’s some [photos](http://gallery.prwdot.org/ipod_hookups) of the Dock and the aux input connectors.

This is almost week-old news now, but [Google](http://www.google.com/) recently [released](http://www.google.com/press/annc/reader_launch.html) their [Google Reader](http://www.google.com/reader/) software into beta. It is a direct competitor to web-based news aggregators such as [Bloglines](http://www.bloglines.com/). As it is still in beta, there are a number of kinks being worked out. You’ll sometimes get error messages when trying to read the news, and their servers are frequently slow or unresponsive. But as time goes by, bugs get fixed, and they have a chance to scale up to their demand, I think lot of the issues will be smoothed out. There are a lot of things you can do with Bloglines that you can’t do in Google Reader, and I have emailed all of my notes on those matters to the Google Labs folks.

In order to make my testing more effective and directed, I’ve imported all of my Bloglines subscriptions into Google Reader. I’ve also removed all of my links to Bloglines so that I’m forced to use Google Reader to get my news. Overall, I’m quite impressed. As usual, they have given the application those little touches that make an application oh-so-Google-y. Boxes that slide open and closed, search-enabled-everything, colorful icons and labels, etc. And so far I haven’t needed to go back to Bloglines for anything. I’m still getting used to Google Reader’s organizational methods. Reading the news from a specific source in Google Reader takes a bit more effort than it does in Bloglines. As I go along I’m sure I’ll learn some tricks to help make things better.

Anyway, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try. If you’re looking for a way to organize all of the news and blogs you read, check out [Google Reader](http://www.google.com/reader/) today!

[Meebo](http://www.meebo.com/) is a web-based instant messaging tool I’ve been playing around with for a couple of weeks now. It uses [AJAX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX) technology to display a buddy list and IM windows, and the [GAIM](http://gaim.sourceforge.net/) library to provide connectivity to various IM services. You can log in to AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Talk, and Yahoo Messenger. The interface is very smooth and simple, and while it’s not as full-featured as a traditional desktop-based IM client such as [Adium](http://www.adiumx.com/), it sure packs a wallop for a web application. It’s also a great choice for when you’re on a computer system that doesn’t have an IM client already, and for whatever reason you can’t download one. The Meebo team is hard at work on pushing out bug fixes and feature releases, and they deserve commendation. Their most recent [release](http://blog.meebo.com/?p=35) includes the ability to set away messages, and the ability to view a buddy’s info and away message while hovering over their icon.

If you’re away from your regular IM client, or even if you’re not, give [Meebo](http://www.meebo.com/) a try today! And if you’d like to IM us, you can find our screen names for various services on the [contact page](http://prwdot.org/contact.html).

I’m subscribed to Robert Ellis’ blog [Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/). Robert is a management consultant and Mac fanatic, and Futurosity serves as a place for him to post various Mac-related news and tidbits. I first encountered Robert’s work in his former standalone blog, Handpicked Software. It was a log of his reviews and notes on new Mac software products. I started reading Futurosity after he [rolled Handpicked Software into Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/5/handpicked-software-is-now-futurosity), and I’ve been following it ever since (you can still follow Handpicked Software – it’s now a [category](http://www.futurosity.com/category/Handpicked+Software/) on Futurosity).

Anyway, I recently noticed a post about [free HP black ink cartridges](http://www.futurosity.com/227/free-hp-printer-cartridges). This piqued my interest, since we have an HP printer, and those cartridges are $30 a pop! So I headed over to read the post.. only to find that this was an old offer, and that since he had no takers, he would be selling the cartridges on eBay. I fired off a desperate comment, and wouldn’t you know it, Robert decided to go ahead and send me the cartridges anyway! What a swell guy! I’m looking forward to getting the cartridges… our printer is running dangerously low on ink. In the meantime, head over and check out [Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/).

The [Gallery](http://gallery.menalto.com/) team announced today that Gallery 2 [has been released](http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery_2_0_released). Gallery 2 is a *complete* rewrite of Gallery, from the ground up. It has some very exciting and powerful new features, the interface is a lot cleaner, and it is much easier to administer than Gallery 1. We’re currently running Gallery 1 on our [photo gallery](http://gallery.prwdot.org/), but I have been looking into Gallery 2 for a while now, as it has been in alpha, beta, and release candidate testing. It will probably be a little while before we switch over, because there are simply so many things to adapt to in this new system. Theoretically, we could easily switch over to the new system in a day, but the resulting gallery would be less than optimal for our visitors. So I want to make sure we take the time to get things just right so that the gallery is as useful for our visitors as it is for us.

In the meantime, head over and check out some [screenshots of Gallery 2](http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery/screenshots/screenshotsG2/).

***Google|http://www.google.com/*** is reportedly going to be launching an instant messaging service/tool/thingy tomorrow called Google Talk. ***Niall Kennedy|http://www.niallkennedy.com/*** has reported that it’s possible to ***set up a Jabber-capable client|http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/08/google_talk_is_live.html*** to connect to Google’s ‘Talk’ server as of today.

I gave it a try with ***AdiumX|http://www.adiumx.com/***, and it seems to work just fine. Well, at least the logging on part. What I really need is for someone to try contacting me to test it out. If you are so inclined, read ***Niall’s post|http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/08/google_talk_is_live.html*** and try it out. You can contact me at peter.r.wood at gmail dot com.

Update
***Google|http://www.google.com/*** ***Talk|http://www.google.com/talk/*** is now official (though there has been no ***press release|http://googlepress.blogspot.com/*** as yet). They have a downloadable Windows client, as well as instructions for setting up other clients to use Google Talk.

Update
Here’s the ***official press release|http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/talk.html***, and the ***official blog entry|http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/google-gets-to-talking.html***. They’ve also introduced a new way to get a Gmail account:

qqq|…starting today, Google is making it easier for anyone in the U.S. with access to a mobile phone to sign up for a Gmail account. When users visit http://gmail.com and enter their mobile phone number, they will receive an invitation code via a text message. This code enables them to open an account.|qqq