alan.bradford

Online Savings Worth It?

Just read a post about the benefit of an online savings account. Does anyone out there have one? Is it worth it? I've been looking at ING Direct...

A Couple of Features On My Posterous Wish List

*Here's an email I just sent to the fine folks here...*

Hello Mr. Posterous Dudes,

I hope you're not getting sick of me yet.

I would like to be able to blog direct from my mobile phone. I do not have a phone that has internet access, just a basic Verizon plan that includes text/picture/video messaging. When I add my phone's email address (My10DigitPhoneNumber@vztext.com), the confirmation reply from Posterous is truncated to 160 characters. Even if the entire confirmation reply were to display, I would not be able to "click to confirm" like with a traditional email because I don't have Internet access on my phone.

Is there any other way to register my phone so I can blog via picture and text messages? Perhaps send a SMS short code like when you add a mobile phone to Google Calendar?

It would also be great if Posterous were compatible with Jott.com. This is a service that translates spoken words to text. They have a feature called Jott Links where they've opened up their API to third-party companies to be able to tap into their service. Lots of companies are using it so far. (Twitter, Remember the Milk, Google, Wordpress...) For example, I can call Jott, tell my account to "jott" my Google Calendar, and then record a message. My recorded message is converted to a new event on my Google Calendar. This would be awesome for quick responses to post comments.
Thanks!
 
Alan Bradford
Blogger
Arizona State University
http://geekstew.asu.edu

I am excited to see how this place will change and improve.

Dusting Off Thems Typing Fingers

There's something magical about a fresh start. There's something satisfying that comes along with erasing a chalkboard or mowing a lawn or watching a vacuum pick up a pile of dirt. Maybe it's just me, but I sure like starting something new. Tossing out the old cluttered way of doing things and working with a clean slate.

For me, the Posterous platform feels like a clean slate. Almost like the feeling I got when I switched from Hotmail to Gmail. Because Hotmail was so cluttered - there was so much dirt laying around on that floor. Gmail was a clean slate, and I've never looked back since accepting that beta invite from my brother waaaay back when.

I'm curious to find out if my blogging career is about to take a similar turn. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE Wordpress. I am not comparing it to Hotmail at all. I've been using it for quite a while now, and it feels very comfortable. The functionality is incredible; with Wordpress the sky is the limit when it comes to customizing my presence on the Internet. But sometimes I feel like I want to cut out the noise and just write - does anyone know what I mean? And sometimes when I want to write, I don't want to be limited to 140 characters.

That's what attracted me to blogging in the first place. I can still remember how excited I was that I could type something and have it be published to THE WORLD within a matter of minutes. That's the root of this whole blogging phenomenon to me. Somehow we get caught up in checking reader stats and page views and comment counts and how-many-times-did-Darren-Rowse-tell-me-I-should-post-this-week?!? It can get overwhelming - like an out-of-control lawn that needs mowing, or a carpet that needs vacuuming.

So I'm excited for a fresh start. I'm excited to cut out the crap and figure out what to write about. Because when you remove the feedburner chicklets and amazon affiliate widgets and flickr photo feeds, that's what it comes down to. Quality content. Interesting articles.

Watch out world...I'm comin' to getcha.

Shameless Promotion of My Brother and His Music

He's good. Check him out on myspace.com/willysmusik

Blogging Just Got Easier

Holy crap. This has got to be the easiest blogging platform I've ever seen. I think that even my mother could use this.

Although it's super easy, it is making me nervous. I have a feeling that I will want to have more features than this. We'll see how it goes... 

This Was More Difficult Than I Thought

These past couple of semesters have been a wild ride. It has been over five months since I've posted anything here. I don't even know if anyone subscribes or reads this blog anymore. I haven't taken the time to look at my stats. There was a short period of time where I even thought about taking down the site and starting over fresh after I graduated and was no longer blogging for ASU. I don't think I will do that. That would be like abandoning your three-year-old child on the side of the road and telling him/her: "Sorry. I'm just too busy for you right now. We've had some good times, but it's time to say goodbye." My main reason for not posting here so much anymore is because I'm posting it all on my ASU blog. (where I actually get paid!) It seemed weird to me to try and run two blogs that covered similar topics. I plan to re-think the content and format of this site. Maybe it will be focused more on healthcare/nutrition/technology. Maybe it will focus on my lifelong dream of becoming a professional tap dancer. Who knows. All I know is I've got three finals in the next four days. Sweet.

Thanks Matt.

I just got the news today that I've been upgraded to first class. Along with the rest of all y'all that host your blogs with Wordpress, my available space for picture/video/file uploads got a face lift yesterday. Instead of 50 Mb, the bigUGLYcouch now boasts 3 Gb. That's like having the storage space of 60 blogs all wrapped into one nifty package. Quoted from the announcement post, Mr. Mullenweg tells us of his intentions with this major step away from the competition:

To get the same amount of space at our nearest competitor, Typepad, you’d pay at least $300 a year. Blogger only gives you 1GB. We’re doing the same thing for free. Our hope is that much in the same way Gmail transformed the way people think about email, we’ll give people the freedom to blog rich media without having to worry about how many kilobytes are left in their upload space.

Incredible. It's been a while now since I've made the jump to Wordpress. If the boys and girls in charge keep showing off sweet dance moves like this one, I don't see any reason to ever go anywhere else. Thanks Matt.

Sing Us a Song, You're the Harmonica Man

I tried something new this year for Christmas. I got this crazy hair-brained idea a few days before the big day for a gift that I wanted to give my wife. I fancy myself a bit of a harmonica player. And I used to write poetry all the time. And all of my brothers play at least one instrument. Two of them play in bands and are really quite good. Check them out on Myspace here and here. So I wrote up some lyrics and emailed them to my brothers. We didn't make it in time for Christmas, but a couple days ago I presented my best friend with a song I made for her with the help of my talented siblings. (Watch out, Jackson 5. We're comin' atcha like a hot knife through butter.) Here's the linup of who-plays-what:

• Alan Bradford - Lead Vocals, harmonica, tambourine
• William Bradford - Drums, guitar, shaker, backup vocals
• Michael Bradford - Guitar
• Robert Bradford - Bass Guitar

Muchos Gracias to my brothers for helping make it happen. If you're curious how it turned out, go here to either download it or play it in your browser.

ADD, My Cell Phone, and the New Year

I'm scared of goals. Especially New Years' Resolutions. It's all peachy-keen at the beginning of the year when hopes are high and aspirations of greatness know no boundary. But it's the months of February-through-December that haunt me and have likely been preventing me from taking this January 1 ritual very seriously. I'm hoping this year will be different. Living with ADD, I have grown accustom to tired of going through the pattern of starting something new only to forget about it or stop after a couple of weeks. Because my mind is constantly "on," I can't seem to stop coming up with new ideas or looking for new ways to do things. Sure, it's great to find the next great thing, but sometimes I wish I could just stick to something for longer than a month. I really think this blog has become one of my longest running accomplishments. I've been writing here for over two years, and don't plan to stop. I've found some good medication that is helping, and I finally feel like I have the ability to reach my full potential. Here are the biggest three obstacles that I've had to deal with over the years:

1. Inability to focus - My mind rapidly moves from one train of thought to another, often with no predictable pattern. The smallest thing can trigger a distraction, and then it's 1 hour later by the time I've realized I've gotten distracted. This makes it difficult to pay attention in class sometimes, and especially when I have to sit and read a text book.
2. Hyperactive - random bursts of energy. Can't sit still. Wanna move around. Wanna run.
3. Forgetful - If I don't write something down immedietely, I will forget it. Guaranteed. If I don't put stuff back in the exact same place every day, I will lose it. Can't remember names, pieces of conversation, dates, events. You name it, I've forgotten it.

In addition to medication, there are several lifestyle changes that I've tried to adopt to help cope with the symptoms of ADD. Using my cell phone and its unlimited text messages, here are two of the top changes that have helped me this past year:

1. Use lists. I keep an electronic to-do list of tasks that I need to do throughout the day/week/month. Using Remember the Milk, I manage to keep on top of things fairly well. Since I always have my cell phone with me, I have established a habit of sending myself a text message to my Remember the Milk account. The message is converted to a task which can later be checked off when complete. Now that Gmail and RTM are playing nicely together, I can see my to-do list every time I check my email.
2. Use a Calendar. Together with my to-do list, I regularly manage an electronic calendar for any event or date I need to remember. Using Google Calendar, I can create events and receive reminders via text message. I can create a separate, color-coded calendar for each class I'm taking. (Last semester, I used this to help me remember assignments and exam dates.)

I'm far from perfect, but these two changes above have helped immensely. I didn't miss an assignment last semester and managed to walk away with straight A's. Not too shabby. With the medication I'm taking, I can actually sit and read my text books for longer than 15 minutes. I'm excited for the new year and for what it has in store for me. Now...to set some goals...

Open Letter to Scott Adams

Dear Scott, I've been reading the Dilbert Blog for a while now and recently noticed that you've recently switched to a partial feed. I use Google Reader to manage all my feeds. If you care, I wanted to let you know that I don't like that I have to go to your actual site to read an entire post. I'm actually reading less of your stuff now because it's not as convenient. An interesting post by Darren Rowse of Problogger.net discusses the pros and cons of Full vs. Partial feeds. He features opinions from both sides of the fence. One from Gina Trapani - editor of the famous Lifehacker blog - in support of partial feeds, and Rick Klau - former VP, Publisher Services at FeedBurner and currently in Strategic Partner Development at Google - in support of full feeds. Darren also conducted a poll with his readers to find out what they prefer. I think the results speak for themselves. So please, Scott, I beg of you: Bring back the full feed brother. I promise I'll read more. That's all I ask of you for Chrismahannaqwanzikah this year. Sincerely, -- Alan Bradford 480.251.6215 (cell) 480.452.0328 (fax) http://biguglycouch.wordpress.com Update 1/22/2008: It looks as though my letter has made a difference. (How's that for humility?) I was in Google Reader today and it looks like the feed is back to its normal Full self. Thanks Scott!