Leigh's Stuff

After seeing SRHuston’s list of what iPhone/iPod apps he finds most useful, here is my list. I think this list is a bit unique, since I don’t have an iPhone, but rather an iPod Touch. Not having phone/3G on the device does curb the usefulness a bit, but I do still use it often; hotspots are plentiful, and it’s fairly easy to create a mobile hotspot on my Nokia E63. The list is in no particular order, just that which popped into my head.

• Bewjeweled – Absolutely addictive game. This is one of my favorite ways to kill time.
• PopStar – Yet another really addictive game. I’ve actually been using this a lot more than Bejeweled lately.
• TweetDeck – I already use TweetDeck on Mac, Windows, and Linux, so it made sense to use it on the iPod too.
• MobileRSS – I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds, and while Google does have an okay mobile web interface, MobileRSS is significantly nicer and easier to browse on the iPod.
• Mint – If you use Mint.com already, this is a natural add-on.
• Clock – Okay, this is the built in application. Since I threw out my age-old alarm clock when I moved a few months ago, I’ve been using the iPod Clock application as my alarm clock.
• Facebook – As with Mint, if you already use Facebook, this is a natural extension. A lot nicer than the web interface, IMO.
• Now Playing – I use Netflix Instant Streaming extensively. This is a great way to manage my queue, especially when friends mention new shows/movies to check out.
• TouchTerm – This app isn’t as useful as it could be, mostly because it can’t run in the background. As a Linux sysadmin, though, it’s invaluable when travelling and I have to ssh into a machine to check it out remotely.
• Palringo - Obligatory Instant Messaging application. So far it’s the only one which has worked well enough to use on a regular basis, though I’ve been wanting to check out Meebo.
• Dropbox – Very useful for viewing files on the go. Example of a recent application: I travelled to Philly and kept copies of the Septa subway and rail schedules in my dropbox so I could view them offline.

That’s the majority of the apps I use on a regular basis. I’ve got lots more on the iPod, but rarely use them, so they’re probably not worth mentioning. Mostly small games and other things which looked neat at the time, but turned out to be less than useful.

Thanks to the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin and the Carrington Mobile theme, this website is now available in a scaled down form for mobile device use. It should detect your device automatically, but if you want to explicitly use the mobile-optimized site, you can go to http://m.blog.leighbert.net and opt to use the mobile edition. If you are using the mobile edition and want to view the full desktop site, there’s a link at the bottom to switch to it. I’ve tested the mobile edition on my Nokia E63 and Apple iPod Touch and it looks great on both. Thanks for looking, and have fun!

I figured it was time for some changes. I’ve got entirely too many domains and too much social sprawl. So, I’ve created a new About Me page with links to my usual hangouts. What’s there now is the beginning, but I hope to add more as I see fit. I’ve gotten rid of some excess pages on other sites and redirected some of those old urls to their corresponding pages in this blog. I’ve also gotten rid of my stand-alone Gallery install and now refer to my Flickr account, since I’ve been using that for quite some time anyway. Hooray for consolidation!

While I was at it, I figured it was about time to move to a different theme in WordPress and perhaps at least post something to the blog. The problem is, while I was never good at updating my blog, it’s been even worse since I’ve been using Twitter and Facebook as my primary outlets for what’s on my mind. I hope to change that, since Twitter is too small for some things, and Facebook is limited only to my friends. I’d still like to use this as a means to say what’s on my mind in more than 140 character chunks. I also want to completely rebuild my Links to other blogs and interesting sites,