Google Moderator

I've recently been experimenting with one of Google's less well known tools, Google Moderator.  Google Moderator allows you to easily create an online discussion page were you can ask for and receive feedback from other web users about just about any subject you like.  The site's help files explain:

What does Google Moderator do?

• Google Moderator allows you to create a series about anything that you are interested in discussing and open it up for people to submit questions, ideas, or suggestions. These are called submissions. 
• Anyone can come to the site and submit a question, idea, or vote, and anyone can vote. Google Moderator shows you a question in the box with the blue background. This is called the Featured Question.
• A topic is a way to break up your series into smaller, more manageable topics of discussion. You can have one topic, or multiple topics. For example, if you create a series of 'Book clubs' for your organization, topics could be 'Fiction,' 'Non-fiction,' or 'Auto-biographies.'

You can create your series right on the Google Moderator website. There is also an option to embed Moderator in an IFRAME on your own website if you wish.

Explore Google Moderator Here

Clavier+

Some software applications become such a normal part of your daily computing routine that you almost forget they are there. For me, once such software is Clavier+. This little freeware program lets you create and configure universal keyboard shortcuts that will work in just about any program you are using on your computer.

I mainly use Clavier+ for quickly adding snippets of text to various documents such as email, Word files, HTML documents, Evernote notes and more. To set up a shortcut, you input your desired text into the software's simple interface, choose a key combination and save your settings. Then, whenever you key your chosen combination, the text will appear magically in the document you are working on. If, like me, you often have a need to enter the same snippets of text over and over again, this can be a real time saver.

You can also create shortcuts to open specific programs, files or websites.

The software can be configured to start with Windows which means it is always available.

Visit the Clavier+ website

Exploring iPad

Well, my much anticipated new toy is here at last and, of course, I'm in geek heaven - at least until the next cool gadget comes out! Right now, I'm still exploring the device and installing essential apps like Evernote for iPad. It's certainly well worth the wait. It's just the right size for both portability and ease of use. For example, tying to blog from an iPhone is a little fiddly, but blogging from an iPad (as I'm doing now)is easy and fun and I can do it from my lounge room or where ever else I may be!

Xmarks Bookmark Sync

I've just downloaded and installed Xmarks for Firefox. Xmarks is a browser tool that allows you to easily sync all of your bookmarks across computers. The "Features" page on the Xmarks website notes:

Install Xmarks on each computer you use, and it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and keeps your bookmarks safely backed up and in sync.

Xmarks will sync across browsers too. Today we support Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari (Mac OS).

You can also simply login to your Xmarks account from any computer and access all of your bookmarks very easily. When using another computer, you can even remotely load tabs (including Firefox App Tabs) that are open on the computer that has Xmarks installed.

Xmarks has quite a lot of other features that I've yet to explore properly. But even as just a quick and easy way to access your bookmarks when away from your primary computer, it looks to be a very useful application.

Check out Xmarks here

New Facebook Page

I've now set up a companion Facebook Page for the Nibbles and Bytes blog. The page is a great place to discuss and recommend cool software and websites and a lot of other stuff. When I post a new article here on the blog, I'll also post a link to it on the Nibbles and Bytes Facebook page. So, "liking" the page is a good way to stay notified of new blog posts as well as participate in what I hope will grow into a lively and interesting little community.

Check out the new Nibbles and Bytes Facebook Page