To Video Chat with Neil: Google Talk
Most of my readers live at least five hours from me and probably will not get to see Neil as often as they would like. You can get your Neil fix by video chatting with him/us online using Google's free voice and video chatting. Voice chat is like making a phone call from one computer to another; video chat adds live video to a voice chat.
Voice/video chatting is free, but you will need a webcam or at least a microphone to participate. If you have a newer computer, you may have a built-in webcam and microphone. Otherwise, you'll need to buy a little equipment. It doesn't have to be expensive. Voice chat requires a headset or microphone and speakers/headphones. If you don't have a webcam, you can still participate in video chats. You will be able to see Neil via our webcam, but we won't be able to see you. As long as you have a microphone, we'll still be able to hear and respond to you. All computers have jacks for headphones and microphones. You can buy headsets that use these jacks for about $20 at Walmart. Some headsets use a USB port instead. Full headsets that use USB ports tend to be a little more expensive, but they're very easy to use. I found a compromise and bought a Gigaware USB microphone that has a jack to plug in your own headphones for $10 at Radio Shack. Webcams are also available from Walmart for less than $25.
Chatting ability is built into several Google applications--GMail and iGoogle--and is also available as a stand-alone installation for your desktop called Google Talk. Google Talk works a lot like Skype, which is also free, but I find Google to be more reliable than Skype. And a Google account has many more uses, a real multi-tasker. The set-up is pretty easy, and Google provides good instructions for everything you need to get going.
To See Private Pictures of Neil: Picasa
By "private" I do not mean pictures of Neil's "boy parts." Private pictures are those restricted to certain viewers. Right now most of my online photos are public because a Google account is necessary to share the photos and the people who want to see them don't have Google accounts. Photos of children online is a security issue, and though I'm not overly concerned about Neil being kidnapped because his photo is online, I'd prefer to make most of my photos of Neil private. I will post a few photos on Facebook and on my blog, but most will be in my Picasa account. If you have a Google account, I can invite you to view the private collections of pictures. Picasa accounts also let you upload and organize your own photos for others to view. It makes sharing pictures and making slideshows easy and has cool features like face recognition.
Share Calendars
Google Calendar allows you to create and share multiple calendars. I have one for family birthdays and anniversaries. It has dates for me and Matt as well as our parents, siblings, in-laws, and niece and nephews as well as a few grandparents and Aunt Sandra. I'd like to make it more complete, so if you want to share birth dates and anniversaries, I'll add them to the calendar. I can then share the calendar with family members so that they all have the information, too. It's sortable by family (Oliver, Tanner, Sorbo, etc.) so that you can see the ones that matter most to you.
So I Have Someone to Wave With
Google Wave is one of the latest applications, and I haven't gotten to try it out because most people I know don't have Google accounts. I think Wave is really cool, but I can't say for sure because I haven't gotten to try it out enough. Help me out and Wave with me.
Customizable Google Maps
Matt and I used this for our trip to Louisville. When you search for locations, you can save the locations to a map. We made a map of bookstores, ethnic restaurants, used children's stores, and movie theaters that we were interested in. I was able to research restaurants that had good ratings and reasonable prices and add just the locations that were yummy, interesting and affordable. The map is still saved and can be used again for our next trip.
Best Email Ever: GMail
GMail's initial claim to fame when it started 5 years ago was its outrageous 1GB storage. Today I have 7 GB of storage. I love it for it's many features, and Google is always adding new features to try out. You can have GMail collect mail from other e-mail accounts you own, and it will let you send mail from GMail that looks like it comes from your other email address. This is really helpful if you're making a transition from one email account to GMail. Filters will put labels on messages as soon as they come in. You can video chat from GMail and send text messages to people's cell phones, which I do since I don't own a cell phone myself. I love my GMail and think everyone should use it.
If you sign up for a GMail address, you get a Google account with your new GMail address as your log-in. If you don't want a GMail address, you can use your current email address to sign up for a Google account at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount. If you have any questions about these applications or run into problems signing up for a Google account, feel free to contact me. I'm not an expert or a Google employee, but I'm reasonably experienced and very enthusiastic.
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