SMS (also known as texting) stands for short message service and has become more popular in the US than calling, a fact that was a surprisingly long time coming.  Although we’ve finally caught on to the trend, messages are still rather expensive if you don’t have an unlimited plan or are sending/receiving while out of country. Well there is a small solution built write into your Gmail account that you might not have found yet. Here are the steps to send text messages straight from Google talk!

The first step is to enable texting from your Gmail Account.  To change this, head to the little green flask next to settings.  This should bring up the “labs features”.

Scroll down to the labs feature “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and enable it.

Now head over to your Google Talk window (you might need to log out and then log back in).  When you put your mouse over a contact, you will see a “video & more” menu.  From there you can choose “Send SMS”.

If this is the first time you are sending a message to this contact, you will be prompted for a phone number.  Plug it in phone and click save.

Now you can chat via SMS! The recipient will receive a message from Google, but when they reply, it will appear in the chat window!!!

Now that is pretty cool…

Enjoy!

~ab

I’ve recommended portable applications before (here and here) but in the past year, capabilities have improved even further.  Running full-blown versions of some of the most popular programs from a flash drive has gotten easier.  Moreover, the open-source alternatives to unavailable applications are improving as well.  Here is a breakdown of what I’d recommend.  Download them and install them to your flash drive once, then make copies for friends (to carry around as thoughtful gifts).  My thanks to Lifehacker for giving me this idea last year.

Google Chrome – My favorite browser can now go anywhere.  Keep your favorite bookmarks and settings with you wherever you go.

Firefox Portable – Not everyone is a fan of Google Chrome.  For those on your list who prefer the Mozilla flavored browser, try Firefox instead.  Equally portable  – add-ons can even be installed on the portable drive.

Skype Portable – If your recipient is a road warrior, they’ll already love this application for chat and free calls.  I used it extensively from many countries, calling my wife for free.

Pidgin Portable – For those who use AIM, Google Talk, Jabber or the variety of other chat programs out there, try Pidgin as the be all end all in chat apps.  Pidgin can connect to most services and integrates  your buddy list into one place.

VLC Portable – Videos come in a bazillion flavors these days.  VLC makes simple work out of many formats, avoiding the complications of windows media player codex downloads and such.

Songbird Portable – Songbird is an alternative to Itunes, for those who want to carry a small media library (or a large one).  As Itunes doesn’t come in a portable package yet, Songbird makes a great replacement – even including a music store.

Open Office Portable – If you want to edit a word doc while on the go, Open Office is a great solution.  Capable of opening word, excel, and powerpoint docs, and these days a realistic office replacement, Open Office is a tremendous tool.

SpyDLLRemover – Spyware is not something to trifle with… SpyDLLRemover provide spyware protection and repair, in a tiny package – a great tool for keeping your computer safe.

7-Zip Portable – 7 zip is like winzip on steroids.  This is one of the cases where the alternative is simply better.  Carry this compressed file swiss-army knife with you and never be stumped by a file again…

Keepass Portable – Your mind might be a brilliant machine, but entirely too many passwords make life either very complicated or very insecure (if you’re using just one password for everything).  Keepass portable provides a safe repository for each of your passwords, without compromising security.

WinDirStat Portable – Is your hard drive mysteriously full?  Can’t seem to find that 20GB file that is hogging all your space?  WinDirStat scans your computer and maps out the contents of your drives.  The visual results make quick work of cleaning house.

Notepad++ Portable – A text editor to destroy all others.  Writing code?  Simply need a way to edit text files on the go?  Notepad++ will get you there.  Improved find/replace, among many other features, will make you forsake notepad for ever.

Finally, you’re going to need some flash drives – I don’t normally try to generate revenue from Just an Asterisk, but in an effort to recoup my costs for running the site, I ask you to buy your USB drives from the following Amazon link.  When you do, they throw a few bucks my way.

If you’re simply not interested in buying flash drives, you can always make a small donation (of any amount) via PayPal secure checkout using the link below.

Thanks for reading and the happiest of holidays to you all!

~ab

We are know that web pages can be bookmarked.  The act of saving web pages for future browsing has become second nature.  However, today we’re going to talk about the bookmarklet, which is a bookmark but with magical powers (sometimes).

First off, let’s recap on what a bookmark does.  A bookmark is designed to copy a URL (the http://… thingy) into your address bar and send you to that location.  The key point here is that the browser simply gets passed a bit of information that it understands and it executes the command (GO HERE!).

A bookmarklet is the same thing, just with (sometimes) a more interesting result.  Instead of passing a URL to the browser, it sends a little piece of code (called JavaScript).  This little piece of code has some restrictions for security, but it can be very powerful when it comes to aesthetics.  Anything on the page can be fiddled with using JavaScript.

To show you what I mean, here is an example bookmarklet explained:

A good bookmarklet is available from Twitlet.com.  Here you provide you username and password to Twitter and the site generates a bookmarklet for you to save.  Anytime you click on the bookmarklet, you receive this box:

Anything you type is sent to twitter as an update without leaving the page you are visiting.

Once you’ve found a bookmarklet to use, you can drag it into your browser toolbar for quick access.  For example, here it is in Google Chrome.

And here is an example in Internet Explorer:

If you don’t see a bookmark bar or favorites bar, you might need to enable it.

Now that you know what a bookmarklet can do, try searching the web for bookmarklets to your favorite services!  They exist for Gmail, Google talk, twitter, Google calendar, etc…  Just about everything!

Finally, here are some (overkill) points before you go:

1. If you want to try out some of my bookmarklets for Google tasks, Google talk and Gmail (including bookmarklets for Google Apps users) go here.
2. On thegeekiness.com, I went into some detail on how to create bookmarks and provided some examples.  Check this out if you want to know how to create your own bookmarklet.
3. If you’d like to wade through a ton of possible bookmarklets, try out bookmarklets.com.

Good luck in your bookmarklet endeavors

~ab