Avi's Blog

The CTK Foundation is taking nominations for Heroes with a Heart to award over $17,000 in grant money. What’s the CTK Foundation? Well you may remember them from their Heart and Soul Grant poetry competition last March. My wife submitted an awesome poem in support of Epic Change and while she didn’t win, I was impressed with CTK’s creative approach to community to grant awards.

Now their back with asking for nominations to award a ”Heroes with a Heart” Grant to thank exemplary volunteers, changemakers, and community members for their hard work. There are three award categories.

• $15,000 for Three Heroes One Hero with a Heart from each of the three categories of Health and Human Social Service, Animal Rights and Environmental Protection and Arts and Literacy will be awarded $5,000 USD and a professionally produced video about their affiliated nonprofit for use in public awareness or education.
• $1,500 for One Hero The CTK Foundation will also be offering a $1,500 (USD) President’s Choice Award (the Susan Lee Winter Grant Award) for an individual working to provide creative and innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS education or prevention.
• Blogger’s Choice Award Lastly, there will be a Blogger’s Choice Award of $1,000 (USD). The CTK Foundation will choose a blogger (hopefully me) who will hand-pick one winner from any category.

I have some ideas of my own for heroes and I’m sure you can think of other exemplary community members making a difference. Nominations are open the entire month of February. Who’s your hero?

Here are some reasons people support causes and nonprofits with money. Credit to Seth Godin for inspiration with the title and format. The first example is straight from his list of reasons I spread your idea and a lot of his other points apply here too.

1. I give to your cause because it makes me feel generous.
2. …because I was asked.
3. …because I want to show support for a friend who is involved.
4. …because I want to be recognized.
5. …because I don’t want to look like a tool when my friends who did give realize my name isn’t in the dinner pamphlet.
6. …because I have a personal connection or stake in the challenge you focus on and the solution your organization is working for.
7. …because you inspire me.
8. …because I identify with your story.
9. …because I need the tax deduction.
10. …because my spouse volunteers with you or sits on your board of directors.
11. …because I want the prestige of sitting on your board of directors.
12. …because I want the T-Shirt (mug, calendar, raffle prize).
13. …because I was in a giving mood at the check-out counter.
14. …because I want to pay the benefit I got from your organization forward.
15. …because your organization’s professional staff are so nice to me.
16. …because it’s automatic or it’s not my money anyway. Businesses I patronize have pledged a percentage of their proceeds to your cause. (See Facebook’s new Charity Deals feature that’s now integrated into Facebook Places.)
17. …because your changing the world somehow and I want you to keep on making changes.
18. …because giving makes me feel cool.
19. …because giving makes me feel hopeful.
20. …because giving makes me feel part of a community.

Dave Weinberg has organized a lot of interesting things in the Jewish community and Jewish communal nonprofit world recently. Dave’s up for a big grant in the Jewish Federations of North America’s Jewish Communal Heroes competition right now and I’m pulling for him to win. Go vote for him.

I sat down with Dave recently to talk about some of his projects and in particular the Genesis of Parnasafest since I’m interested in job search resources and career development. We talked about the importance of sustainability in nonprofit organizations, the hugeness of just getting started with your ideas, and babies. I have a long way to go with my interviewing skills, but I had a good time with Dave and also learned that I share a first name with his son

Interview Links:

• Vote for Dave in the Jewish Federations Community Heroes competition
• ParnasaFest
• Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit
• The Jewish Institute

This post is part of Jewels of Elul, which celebrates the Jewish tradition to dedicate the 29 days of the month of Elul to growth and discovery in preparation for the coming high holy days. This year the program is benefiting BeitT’shuvah, a residential addiction treatment center in Los Angeles. You can subscribe on Jewels of Elul to receive inspirational reflections from public figures each day of the month.

Today my family will be celebrating the bris of my nephew. I’m finally an uncle! Many families, mine included, have the tradition to first announce a new baby boy’s name to the world at the bris. While we’ll all be learning a new loved one’s name later today, I find myself getting used to a new name of my own as  I get used to hearing family refer to me as Uncle Avi. Wait, who? Oh right, me.

I’m excited for the new responsibility of being an uncle. It’s powerful stuff holding a new life and seeing this world unfold as we welcome a new person into our family. I have amazing uncles myself and I am really looking forward to playing a role in this little one’s life has he grows up.

Being near my sister and her new family and sharing in this simcha has catapulted me upright for the new year. This Elul I’m embracing the new year and my new name.

Uncle Avi.

Update: His name is official now. Shai Aviv, welcome to the family.

You don’t have to be on the blog tour to write a blog post on “The Art of Beginning… Again”. We invite everyone to post this month (August 11th – September 8th) with Jewels of Elul to grow and learn.

What do the average subway rider, person waiting at an airport, and coffee shop patron have in common?

That’s right. They’re all glued to their smart-phones.

World In Your Pocket

As the web has trained us to rely on instant recall for almost any piece of information on command, and more of our personal lives have moved online, people are less willing to be separated from the web. Just a few years when I was in college, I remember this meant that many of my friends would whip out their laptops when they arrived somewhere and check their email. Now it’s a smartphone and the checkin (no not that check in) is a lot less cumbersome.

In the next five years, mobile data usage will surpass desktop data use and it already exceeds the data used for voice communications on mobile devices. I realize that there is world-changing potential in text messaging and regular cellphone use being tapped now in innovative ways, but I’m going to restrict my thoughts here to smart-phones.

I’ve had a smartphone for about a year now and like so many others, I’m hooked. I grab my smartphone and my favorite towel and I’m reading to conquer the universe (or at least my little corner).

Why don’t you have the iPhone?

So far I’m an Android user. I’m not a total fanboy and I’ll consider switching to the iPhone if/when it comes to Verizon. My Android preference boils down to

• Choice of carrier (all my family is on Verizon)
• Great integration with Google Apps – When I edit a contact in Gmail, the information syncs to my phone seamlessly through the network, no wires, no iTunes, all network. Even my search history is constant between my desktop browser and web browser so when I find a location in Google Maps in Chrome and then look up the same location in Maps on my phone later in the day, my earlier search query for the location appears first in the suggested list.
• Trust – The Epic Change team all use Android and while I watched AJ Leon tweet from Africa on the G1, he drilled into my head that I had to give Android a fair shot. I’m scared of him and do whatever he says. (Just kidding guy! No really. That guy is scary.)
• Music isn’t that critical an app for me – I’m fine relying on last.fm and Pandora for most of my music on the go. If you have an extensive music collection and know you’re going to be using it a ton, the iPhone which doubles as an iPod might be more your style.

Managing Contacts in Android

1. To really carry your contacts in your pocket with an Android phone you’ll have to spend some time cleaning up your Google Contact. That’s probably a good idea in any case. Lifehacker has a great guide on cleaning up Google Contacts.
2. Sync your Google Accounts to your phone
3. In Android Contact, click Menu, and choose Display Options
4. Choose the Google Contacts System Groups you’d like to appear in your Android contacts.

Extend your battery life

• Uninstall apps you don’t need
• Add the Power Control Widget to your home screen – That way you can easily toggle wireless, bluetooth, and GPS.
• JuiceDefender – Enable this app and set it to enable data use when the screen is unlocked, while data exchange exceeds 50KB/15seconds, and on a schedule for one minute every 15. Aside from the screen, your data connection is the biggest battery suck your phone has. This app will allow apps to use all the data they need while you’re actively using them, but prevent them from using your data connection in the background while your phone is idle except on a scheduled interval.  You’ll want to install the Home screen Widget too which shows you a multiplier number for the time you’ve extended your battery’s normal life while the app is active.
• TasKiller or Advanced Task Cleaner 2.0 – I’m not sure it’s critical to use a Task Killer and I suspect it will become even more irrelevant as handsets improve, but you may be able to squeeze some more battery life by using one of these apps and setting up an ignore list so the app kill your favorite apps that you do want to continue running in the background like email and Twitter which you may want to receive notifications from. You’ll want to install the Home screen Widget too  so you can easily kill unneeded apps.

All about the apps

I love to talk to strangers and I’m always on the lookout for good app recommendations both online and in person from friends and people I meet. These are the apps that are working for me. I hope some meet your needs and work out for you too and hope you’ll use the comments section to share your own recommendations of app gems you’ve found.

Utilities

• Swype – An alternate keyboard that let’s you swipe your finger across letters instead of tapping. It’s awesome. (You’ll need to request a beta invite). @ElianahSharon recommends Slide Keyboard as another alternative.
• My Verizon Mobile – Review your minutes and data usage, and pay your bill from your phone.
• Mint.com – Bill tracking and mobile banking
• MeetroDC – Real time DC Train Schedule. New Yorkers should try Next Train NYC Subway or NYC Subway Status.
• Barcode Scanner – Scans bar codes and QR codes.
• Alarm Clock
• Calendar – syncs with Google Calendar
• Navigation – build in GPS navigation
• Guitar Tuner

Media

• Last.fm – my mainstay for streaming music. Check out my station.
• Pandora
• Movies (formerly Flixter) – movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, nearby theaters and showtimes.
• TV Guide Mobile

Personal Media

• DoubleTwist – Better than the native music app, DoubleTwist also let’s you easily import your iTunes music library to your Android device.
• Gallery – photo viewing and photo album storage
• InstaFetch – read things you mark for reading later in your regular browsing

Publishing and Capture on the Go

• Cinch – podcasting on the go
• mNote – note taking the cloud
• Springpad or Evernote – universal capture apps.
• VoiceMemo – record and store thoughts on the go
• WordPress – blogging app
  

Social Networking

• Facebook
• Foursquare
• Gmail – Of course  you can load in more than one account.
• HootSuite Lite – This is my mobile Twitter app of choice. You may prefer Twidroid Pro or the native Twitter for Android app, especially if you depend strongly on having bit.ly for link shortening. For me, the ease of HootSuite’s user interface made the decision for me.
• Skype Mobile – You can chat with other Skype users and also make paid international calls using your Skype credits.

Just for fun

• Air Control Lite – a fun plane landing app.
• Flood It – very addictive game from Lab Pixies
• Shazam – This app will “listen” to a song when you can’t remember what it is that’s playing and tell you what it is.

Moving Target

Given the speed of development cycles and changing technology, all the apps I’ve shared in this series are moving targets, but that’s even more so with the mobile apps in this post. There’s a huge development community building mobile apps.

What mobile apps have you brought into your own workflow?

(photo credit to Flickr user quinn.anya

I’m a big fan of cloud based applications so I find myself working increasingly in my primary web browser, Chrome. The extensions make Chrome really shine and enhance my workflow. I know I’m not alone in thinking this so I’m sharing my favorite sock-rocking Chrome Extensions here.

Enhance your web experience

These extensions add functionality to some of the sites I use the most in my workflow.

1. Better Gmail – This extension makes gmail prettier. Get rid of adds and remove some of the clutter in the gmail interface.
2. Rapportive – Rapportive shows you all the social networking profiles it can for the sender of an open email so you can quickly browse colleagues recent tweets, or click through to their LinkedIn or Facebook Profiles.
3. Boomerang – You’ll need to get a Beta invite for this one, but you can ask for an invite on the site and Boomerang will open up soon. The service lets you delay the sending of an email – useful if you remember a birthday a few days early, or  don’t want you boss or clients to know you were available and responding late at night and want your message to go out in the morning.
4. Reader Plus – The sister plugin to Better Gmail, this Reader Plus is packed with features and themes which are great if you’re a frequent Google Reader user.
5. Reader Plus Toolbar button – You’ll need this one if you want to use get Reader Plus to view the most current items from your toolbar.
6. PostRank for Google Reader – PostRank adds ratings to the posts that appear in Reader based on the number of comments on each post and the links each post has received on blogs, twitter, delicious, and other sites. This helps you find the stronger posts as you read.
7. RSS Subscription Extension – Adds an RSS button to the address bar on blogs and sites with RSS feeds so you can easily subscribe in Google Reader without having to hunt down the feed link, or copy and paste anything.
8. Facebook Cleaner – Removes some of the ads and unnecessary text from Facebook sidebars.

Utilities

1. Google Mail Checker Plus – gives you the number of unread messages and lets you view them just by clicking the icon.
2. Day Hiker – I started using this once I finally got used to Google Calendar’s Quick Add feature. Clicking the icon gives you a drop-down of upcoming events, but more importantly you can copy paste event details in quickly from an email to create a new event.
3. Google Voice – This will hyperlink phone numbers on websites so you can start a Google Voice call from your browser by clicking. When you click a number, your phone rings and a google voice call begins, so when you google a restaurant or business to get the number,  you can dial the number without having to dial on your phone.
4. Google Chrome to Phone – Send a link you find in your browser over to your Android phone so you can read the link later when you’re away from your computer. Useful for sending directions to your phone so you can browse on your way without printing them out or having to navigate and type all over again in google maps.
5. Aviary Screen Capture – Get a screenshot of all or a portion of the current webpage. (I used this to create all the screenshots in this post)
6. Xmarks Bookmarks and Password Sync – Backup your Chrome Bookmarks to the cloud and sync bookmarks between browsers on multiple computers.

Social Networking and Social Sharing

For most of these I’ve started using my own quick Combined Bookmarklet which has all the same functionality, but if you’re not a fan of bookmarklets these are all individually helpful.

1. Chromed Bird – Twitter client in chrome to see homefeed, replies, and lists. The toolbar icon changes color when you receive replies or DMs.
2. Hootsuite –  Tweet the link and title of the current tab.
3. Facebook for Google Chrome – Drop-down to see your Livestream and messages from your toolbar
4. Chrome Buzz – Drop-down to browse Buzz updates from your toolbar
5. Note in Reader – If you’re fond of sharing items in google reader this one’s pretty handy
6. felicious – Browse and search your Delicious bookmarks and add new bookmarks from your toolbar. If you only need the tagging tool and don’t need to browse your bookmarks, you may prefer the Chromium Delicious plugin
7. Instachrome – post sites to Instapaper for later reading.

Bonus over to you

What Chrome Extensions would you add to this list. Any add-ons you miss from Firefox that you haven’t been able to find in a Chrome Extension yet?

Bookmarklets are bookmarks that activate web functionality instead of linking to a website. Here are my favorites.

Twitter bookmarklet – bit.ly sidebar – Tweet out the link and title of the current browser tab. There are extensions that will set up a tweet like this in a desktop Twitter client, but I prefer not to leave the browser. If you like bit.ly for click through stats this bookmarklet’s for you. You’ll need a bit.ly account for this to work.

Native Twitter Bookmarklet – Twitter’s own bookmarklet shortens links with the t.co shortener and will send the tweet from whichever account your browser is logged into.

Hootlet – Tweet from Hootsuite from within the browser. This is nice, because you can select the account you want to send the Tweet from within the pop up. Here’s how you can get the hootlet into your browser bookmarks.

Facebook Share bookmarklet – Let’s you share the current page as a shared link status update.

Tumblr Share bookmarklet – I haven’t gotten really into Tumblr yet, but I use it for some projects. If you’re a Posterous user then you’ll need the Posterous Bookmarklet instead.

Note in Google Reader bookmarklet – If you frequently share items with friends in Google Reader, this will allow you to share things from any web page, even on sites you aren’t subscribed to.

Delicious bookmarklet – Tag a page in Delicious in a popup window, or view your Delicious bookmarks.

StumbleUpon bookmarklet – Give a thumbs up to the current page.

Instapaper bookmaklet – Mark items for later reading on your phone or in your browser. Instapaper then does its magic so you can read pages later in a simple text and images format without loading a whole website.

SpringPad bookmarklet – Save items in life-organizing app SpringPad. You can Spring recipes, directions, maps, articles, and other web content and the Spring Pad will organize everything for you. It’s a lot like Evernote. Here’s LifeHacker’s review article.

Bookmarklet Combiner = Awesome Sauce

I’ve used bookmarklets for a while, but they only really became a big help to my workflow once I discovered Bookmarklet Combiner. The combiner creates a pop up menu for you so you can access your favorite bookmarklets from one link in your browser. This is super handy.

Feel free to use my combined bookmarklet by dragging it to your bookmarks toolbar, or save a copy and make it yours by swapping in some of your own favorite bookmarks. To the right you can see what the menu looks like.

Do you use bookmarklets? What are your favorites?

I’m always amazed at the different tools and apps that people use in their computing workflow. We all discover little tricks and tools and people are happy to share them with friends. Whether it’s a new iPhone or Twitter App, a browser add-on, or a hidden shortcut, people love to share their computing tricks and secrets. There are a ton of websites dedicated to efficiency tools and if you work with computers or social media often, your personal workflow and the apps and utilities in your toolkit are indispensable. I’ll be sharing my own personal workflow and bag of tricks, starting with my apps and setup for Mac OS X.

I’ve only been a Mac guy for two years, but I’m happy with the setup I have on my MacBook.

System

Dock – I automatically hide and show the Dock from System Preferences to maximize screen real estate. Once you set this up just drag your mouse to the bottom of the screen and the Doc pops up.

Expose – The hot corners Mac users set up are often the thing that trips up a PC user when borrowing some one’s Mac. Dragging the mouse to the screen corners activates certain functionality. Right now I’ve got the top right corner displaying all windows, top left shows all windows for the current application, and bottom left brings up Dashboard Widgets.

Desktop Folder Aliases – You can create an alias of a folder from the right-click context menu. Then drag the alias folder to the Desktop and you’ll have access to important folders there while still storing large files where you want them.

Stacks – You can also create aliases for applications. This is great because you can create a folder of app aliases and then drag the folder to the Doc to create an  application stack. This is great if you have a lo of  apps in a unique category that you don’t want littering up your Dock. I have an app Stack of applications I use for Broadcast and Media that comes in handy often.

Dashboard Widgets – I don’t use these Widgets very much but I do like the Weather Widget and iStat Pro for Mac for monitoring system resource in use.

Cinch – This utility brings brings the functionality of Windows 7′s Aero Snap Feature to the Mac so you can easily re-size windows to full or half screen. (nagware for free, $7 to eliminate pop up register reminder)

AppTrap – Each time you uninstall an application from you Mac, AppTrap prompts you to move related user files to the Trash. This keeps your system clean since a lot of software leaves behind preference files that your system keeps in case you ever install the program again in the future.

Unarchiver – Replaces the system unarchive tool for unzipping files. Unarchiver can sometimes handle file extensions that the system default tool can’t and it handles them faster too.

Growl – Lots of social media applications rely on Growl to provide system notifications and pop-ups for new messages. Growl shows up as an item in system preferences and enhances a lot of other programs including Skype, Adium, and most desktop Twitter clients.

Onyx – This is a great system utility. It’s great for diagnosing a problem if you’re ever having a problem with your hard disk. You can verify your disk, set lots of system preferences across your Mac in one place, and generally optimize your system. If you’re switching machines give this a go first to see if you can get a speed boost or turn off some preferences you don’t need.

Menu Bar

In Mac, Menu Bar Space is often at a premium, since application menus appear there and lots of apps keep additional controls there. These are the ones I’ve found worth the menu bar real-estate.

you control:tunes – If you’re always toggling between windows just to flip to the next song in iTunes, this handy app is for you. This brings iTunes basic controls (Play, Pause, Forward, Back) and info on the current playing song to the menu bar.

Flux – Flux adjusts your screen hue and brightness with the time of day. Based on your location, Flux knows when the sun is setting and adjusts your screen to the ambient light around you for easier night computer use. You can set it to match Halogen, Florescent and a few other kinds of lighting. You can disable the feature temporarily from the menu bar if you ever need Daylight conditions. You’ll get used to the change in a day or two and your eyes will thank you.

Caffeine – This is a must have if you often give presentations or watch movies on you Mac. Click the coffee mug icon in the menu bar and Caffein keeps the battery saver from kicking in. Your screen won’t ever  go black in the middle fo a presentation or key action film scene again.

Jumpcut – Enhances the system clipboard. With Jumpcut you can copy more than one piece of text into memory at a time and select which one to paste in from the menu bar or with the shortcut, Option-Command-V

Language options – If you ever write in a second language on your Mac, you’ll want to have it handy. In System Preferences, choose Language and Text, then choose Input Sources, check the languages you want, and check Show Input menu in menu bar. I use this mostly for when friends borrow my machine and want to switch over to Hebrew or Dvorak.

Utilities i Love

Crashplan – Free system backup on an external hard drive or, if you have a paid account, in the cloud (30 day free trial). Do you really want to lose your data? Even if your machine fritzes and you wind up able to get it fixed, you’ll be glad you did this while it’s in the shop.

Fluid – Lets you run browser based apps as though they were standalone Mac applications. That way you can keep apps like Gmail and Hootsuite accessible in the Doc.

Filezilla – My FTP client of choice. I’ve also heard good things about Cyberduck but haven’t tried it.

Handbrake – Convert video files of  practically any format to any other fast.

Burn – Save files, music or movies to CD or DVD in lots of formats.

Communication and Social Media Apps

Adium – The best IM client for Mac. I’m just waiting for them to add support for video chat through Google video chat and Skype.

Skype – I use this a lot for screen sharing and video chat.

Hootsuite – Lately my Desktop Twitter Client of choice. My only gripe is the lack of bit.ly integration, but that’s not coming any time soon given Hootsuite’s own ow.ly link shortener. I’m also like Nambu for it’s combined lists view that gives you a feed of all your Twitter Lists combined into one feed. Those two work for me, but Tweetdeck and Tweetie are solid too.

Twunes – Quirky and fun app that lets you Tweet the currently playing song in iTunes. I set it to include a last.fm link, but it can also link to the iTunes store page.

Media Apps

iTunes – My mainstay. I have a bunch of playlists I love. (Another reason to back up with something like Crashplan)

Last.fm desktop – Last.fm is similar to Pandora, except that the service learns your preferences on an ongoing basis by “scrobbling” what you listen to in iTunes or other music players. The Scrobbler also acts as an application for playing your Last.fm library and recommendations without using a web browser. I go through phases, but sometimes I use it as much as iTunes. If your a Pandora diehard, then consider PandoraJam instead to bring Pandora out of the browser.

Chrome – My browser of choice, mostly because of the speed and extensions. More on this later this week in part two of this series.

Firefox – I usually step into Firefox when I need to login with a different social media account and don’t feel like logging out my personal accounts in Chrome. Also, some websites and applications don’t play nice with Chrome yet so you need a browser backup. GoToWebinar comes to mind. I recently updated to the current Beta release and everything is much zippier. If Firefox is your primary browser I’d skip this Beta because it’ll break a lot of your add-ons until developers catch up to the new standard.

TextEdit – The default Mac Text Editor. If you’re a heavy coder you may prefer the more heavy-duty TextWrangler, though I haven’t tried it yet.

Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint. I’m surprised how much I keep in the cloud, Google Docs, and simple text files, but Office is still a must have for me. I default Word to Compatibility Mode so files I share by email are always accessible to people still on earlier versions.

ScreenFlow – Record Screencasts. (hat tip to John Haydon for the recommendation)

Over to You

That’s my basic Mac setup. What did I miss? What Mac apps are rocking your workflow today?

(photo credit – DeclanTM)

ToMamaWithLove is in full effect at the moment and as of this posting supporters have created 66 heartspaces showing their love for their mamas.

I’m planning a marathon Ustream session this Friday from 7am-7pm EST and I want you to join me! I’ll call people over Skype and broadcast the calls. We’ll talk about your heartspace, your fondest, funniest, most surprising memories of your mom, and our mamas have helped us dream and fly. You can share whatever is in your heart. We’ll also look at videos, photos of Mama Lucy‘s work with the Twitterkids, and check out inspiring heartspaces on the site. It’s going to be awesome!

If you’d like to join me on the call please contact me with the following:
2-3 times you are available Friday to join the broadcast over Skype – for example 8am, 10:45am, 2:30pm (times in EST please!)
Your Skype username
Do you have a webcam?
Do you have a microphone?

You can email me (Avi AT EpicChange DOT org), contact me on twitter (@MeshugAvi), or leave a comment. I hope you can join me! I am so looking forward to this. In the meantime ToMamaWithLove is rocking and the site is a lot of fun. Go ahead and create a heartspace now for your mama too!