Mingly Review: Maybe I'll Be Back, After It's Out of Beta.

In my previous post, I wrote about trying out Mingly. I was so excited! Mingly promised to organize my GMail, Twitter, LinkedIn (and Facebook if I was on Facebook) accounts and help me communicate better with everyone.

Sounded so good.

Still does.

However, my Twitter account never loaded; neither did GMail. LinkedIn did, but those accounts never seemed to full organize themselves on the site. So, I decided to back out of Mingly.

It took awhile.

I found that tweeting about Mingly got a response. I don't know that email ever did; I know that my phone message was never acknowledged or returned. I revoked access at Google.com and LinkedIn.com and it appeared that Twitter never gave access in order to allow revocation.

It's in Beta. 

Mingly is still working out the kinks. I hope they do, because I think they've got a great idea. However, I won't be using Mingly until it's a proven commodity out there. Till then, I'll make due with HootSuite etc. and just keep my fingers crossed that Mingly gets things ironed out soon.

Pinterest and Copyright Infringement: Beware - By Their Terms of Use, Pinterest Tries to Pass Any Copyright Claims Over to You

Clients, colleagues, my assistant, even the clerk at World Market ... everyone is talking about Pinterest.  Yes, another media site...and you were still getting used to Twitter, right?

Well, don't jump on that Pinterest bandwagon too fast, folks.  I admit that I was invited to join Pinterest in some long-ago email and I accepted the invitation ... but I never used the site.  Just put it on the To Do List, to check out in the future.

Recently, I did check out Pinterest.  And I promptly cancelled my membership.  Why?  I read the March 2011 Terms of Use, which include the following lingo:

You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services. Accordingly, you represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content, as contemplated under these Terms; and (ii) neither the Member Content nor your posting, uploading, publication, submission or transmittal of the Member Content or Cold Brew Labs’ use of the Member Content (or any portion thereof) on, through or by means of the Site, Application and the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other proprietary or intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation. ...

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Cold Brew Labs, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with (i) your access to or use of the Site, Application, Services or Site Content, (ii) your Member Content, or (iii) your violation of these Terms.

Now, from what I understand, the reason to use Pinterest is to grab images from various websites and "pin" them on your Pinterest page to share with others.  Different from bookmarking them, or Stumbling them and not the same as OneNoting them.

There are copyrights floating around in there, and I'm not going to mess with it.

Plus, reading these terms of use, I think it sounds like Pinterest understands that there are infringement issues swimming through its service stream and I don't like the idea that instead of respecting rights they've opted for passing the buck on any claims (or at least trying to do so).

I'm not the only one concerned about what's going on here.  Check out here and here.  

Yuck.  Life's too short ... and I'm busy enough without making time for Pinterest.  You read the Terms of Use, you check out the service, and make your own decision.  

Could Evernote Help You As You Write Your Blog Posts? I Think So.

A software guru that I respect recommended Evernote to me last month as a time-saving bit of software and I’ve been working with it for around a month now. 
I like it, maybe you will too.  You’ve got to like the price:  the basic version is free.   
So What is Evernote?
Evernote is software that you download onto your hard drive and it pops up in your internet search engine:  IE, Firefox, Chrome, whatever.  There’s also a little icon on your desktop; all this coordinates to provide you a platform for organizing stuff you find on the web.  You can save different things: the url for the webpage; an excerpt or article on that page; or you can store the complete page from its banner ads to its boilerplate footers.
Of course, it also works on your phone and your other stuff too.  Sync smart.
For the description the Evernote folk provide, go here.
What Have I Found?  It’s Easy and Fast, and There’s a Size Limit for the Free Version
I’m still trying out all its bells and whistles but I know Evernote is a keeper, and for those who write blog posts regularly, I think it’s a good tool to have in your toolbox, too. 
I’m not using the notes feature, but I have been routinely clicking on the green elephant to save stuff that I find on the web that I want to use in future blog posts for myself as well as forwarding to clients for their consideration in their posting. 
For example, I don’t have a lot of interest in blogging about the latest developments in the legal battles involving Florida’s disgraced attorney, David J. Stern and his foreclosure-focused law firm, but I have a client that is very interested in this stuff.  When I read an interesting article about the latest acts that the Florida AG was undertaking, I thought this might good for my client and quickly hit the elephant button.  Saved the url. 
Zip zip. 
No bookmarking.  Hate to clutter my bookmarks with this stuff.
No notes either on paper or on my PC’s sticky notes or on my iGoogle page.
I was back surfing almost immediately.
Bottom line, I am finding Evernote fast and easy to use for saving web stuff that I might want to use later.  The little button is the big help.
For more on Evernote, check out their descriptions of its various functions as well as watch their cool videos on things like Evernote Clearly, Evernote Food, Evernote Hello, Evernote Peek, and other freebies they offer.  
For what other users think as well as techie experts, check out the reviews of Evernote on CNET and AppBrain.
Oh, and Evernote was one of the top apps recommended by the New York Times last year – if you want to read old news. 

Google Alerts, Social Mention, and Spiral 16: Tracking Topics and Trends on the Web

Hopefully, you are aware of Google Alerts, a tool provided by Google, for free (as always) that notifies you when your name, your product, or just about anything under the sun is being discussed online. Google Alerts will let you know if your name has made the local news, for example, or if your daughter's soccer team got mentioned for winning regionals.

There are other sites that can help you keep track of things, too - Google isn't alone out there. Here are two for you to try:

1. Spiral 16

2. Social Mention.

Both of these services provide similar information to Google Alerts, but they target social media and they give more info to you than just links. Check them out, they are useful tools for you.

How?  Names are just one thing to search.  I have alerts set up, for example, under the phrase "death penalty" because I co-author a blog on capital punishment. (FYI, I also have an alert set up for that topic at Google Scholar, it's proven to be very helpful, too.)

How to Back Up Your Blog - Don't Assume It's Being Backed Up Already

Backing up your blog is important - and it has to be done as a specific task. You risk losing all those blog posts, comments, and images if you aren't routinely backing up your blog (or blawg).

Blogging Services Do Not Automatically Back Up Your Blog

I've had clients assume that their Blogger blogs were automatically backed up by Blogger. No, they're not. Blogger does NOT back up blogs. Neither does WordPress.

Website (and Blog) Hosting Services May Not Back Up Your Blog, Either

Whether or not your blog is being backed up routinely depends upon the service you're using. LexBlog, for example, does back up. Nice, and important to do, for a paid blogging platform.

However, I know of at least one web design company that promotes blogs as part of law firm website design but those blogs are not backed up. I learned of this situation because, sure enough, a series of law firm blog posts disappeared and there was no backup to fix the problem.

Easy Solution: HTTrack to Back Up Your Blog

There's a free service, HTTrack, that has proven to be safe and fast for me in backing up blogs. It has received good reviews from both CNET editors and users. (CNET provides a safe HTTrack download along with its review.)

You can also use HTTrack to back up your website - or really, grab a copy of any existing website or blog on the web - to save offline on your hard drive. This might prove handy for your website, your client's website, or perhaps a website that you might want to use in litigation ....

Daily Measure: Have Your Post Sent to Your E-Mail Inbox

Your blogging platform should allow you to automatically send each post as it is published to an email address (several addresses, actually). Make sure you take advantage of this safety measure, as well as periodically backing up your blog in its entirety.

Great Finds: Online Backup - I Love MozyPro

After years of steadfastly remaining loyal to backup solutions that I could hold in my hand - but which proved time-consuming and frustrating and annoying - I gave in.

I investigated online backup services, where you send encrypted copies of your files to be stored on their servers, and chose MozyPro.

I love MozyPro. It's easy to install. It will backup daily. Hourly. Whenever I tell it to do so. Quietly, in the background, it's protecting me right now.

And, if I want to see what's been stored and when, I just hit the little icon in the toolbar, and I see the long list. There are my emails. There are my Word documents. There is a spreadsheet.

PLUS - and this has to be the best part - if I get confused or scared or have a question, I can call and speak with a real, live human 24/7. 365 days a year. FOR FREE.

And, yes! One that speaks English as their first language. One who is patient and kind and knowledgeable, not a snoot doing his best David Spade impression.

Oh, and price. PRICE!! I'm paying less that $15/month for 20GB of storage.

I love MozyPro. So did lots of impressive reviewers, and I think you will, too.

(There's also a free version, but I'm not sure what bells and whistles you get tho I do know there's no 24/7/365 technical support.)

Writer Lawyer Tip: Great Find - Natural Reader

I use Natural Reader all the time. I use the free version, with the voice that is far from human-sounding. In fact, it sounds so much like HAL that I am always tempted to type the lyrics to "A Bicycle Built for Two" just for a grin ....

Remember that scene from the movie? Dave ... what are you doing, Dave ....

Okay, fine. Look, Natural Reader gives a final, verbal edit before I send the draft out. It's a big help, and I thought I'd share that with you today.

Managing Time: SlimTimer

Here's something that you might want to check out -- SlimTimer. It's an online timesheet service. It's free, too.

You get a tasklist and voila! the time shows up on your toolbar, the seconds passing before your very eyes. It will also provide reports for you, which will give you a good idea of how you've been using your time if you've kept up your SlimTimer entries like a good girl.

Me, I didn't like the idea of putting all the gory details of what I'm doing, day in and day out, on the Web. Just a little too spooky for me, but you may feel just fine about it.

I admit to being rather Old School, and I still have a passion for my FranklinCovey binder ....Maybe it's that lawyer in me, and all that early DayTimer training.

Stickies - Fabulous Freeware by Tom Revell

Tom Revell at Zhorn Software is a friend I've never met.

His Stickies freeware is a fabulous find as well as an award-winning bit of software. It gets Five Stars from users and reviewers alike.

The image shown above is directly from the Zhorn site -- it shows how you can alter the colors and fonts as you prefer. The actual stickies can be sized to fit your screen preferences, of course -- and they can be stacked, or hidden, unlike the example shown above. No, your screen need not be covered with stickies - these things are a help, not a hindrance!

Not only does Stickies 6.0 allow me to place virtual stickies on my computer screen, but it gives me an alarm function as well. I can share stickies with friends. I can hide them, make them opaque, attach them to specific files, and schedule them to open only when I need them.

Tom Revell describes his product this way:

"Stickies is a PC utility I wrote to try to cut down on the number of Post-It notes I was leaving stuck to my monitor. It is a computerised version of those notes.

"The design goal behind Stickies is that the program is small and simple. Stickies will not mess with your system files, or write to the registry. Stickies stores all information in a single text-based ini file.

"Stickies will never support animated dancing figures, or play "Greensleeves". They are instead yellow rectangular windows onto which you can put some text notes. Once created, they will stay on screen until you take them away. Just like a real sticky piece of paper."

I can't recommend this program enough - it's a Must Have, to quote one of the User Reviews at Snapfiles.

For reviews (all Five Star), see: FreewareGenius, Snapfiles, Softsea, CNetDownload.com, VersionTracker.