Google Reader announced some new features yesterday, so I thought I’d continue the Google theme of my blog lately by breaking it down for the uninitiated. The idea of an RSS subscription manager, or reader is foreign to most internet users, but it can be very helpful, especially for mothers and estranged friends and family trying to keep up with the blogs of loved ones. What follows is my attempt to de-mystify Google Reader, using more familiar language. Feel free, as always, to leave questions in the comments below, or on Twitter or Facebook.

What is Google Reader?

Google Reader is an RSS-based subscription service and manager. I know, I’ve lost you already. Put more simply, Google Reader is a tool used to put all the blogs you check regularly in one central location. From Wikipedia:

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

Google Reader takes the “RSS feeds” (or more simply, the constantly updated content) from your favorite blogs or news sites and constantly checks them for updates, so you don’t have to go to little Billy’s model rocket page 5 times a day just to see his latest launch. You just go to your Google Reader and wait for the post to show up.

It’s a lot like having an email account for your blogs. You don’t go to a hundred different sites to get messages from your hundreds of accounts, you go to one email account and let the messages come to you. Why should it be any different with the websites you frequent? Google Reader makes that happen. You go to one place and your websites come to you.

How do I get started?

Getting started is as simple as logging in. Go to the Google Reader homepage here, and either use your existing Google Account to log in, or register for a new one. If you use GMail or any other Google service, you already have an account and you should use that one, for reasons I’ll explain later. After logging in, you’ll be brought to this screen:

Google put some helpful tips in your feed to get you started. Go ahead and read them for a quick overview of what I’m about to talk about. There’s even a video to walk you through some of it. The first thing you’ll want to do is add your favorite websites. Click “Add a Subscription,” then enter in the address of any website. I’ll use this site just as an example. Enter http://www.afrowhitey.com and click “Add.”

You’ll notice “The Mighty AfroWhitey” shows up under the “Subscriptions” tab. Click on it.

Congratulations, you are now reading The Mighty AfroWhitey from your very own Google Reader. You can customize the way you see each feed by clicking on the “Settings” link. I prefer seeing my sites as a list, and using the “Previous Item” and “Next Item” buttons to scroll through them. To do this, click on “List” in the upper-right corner of the blue box. To go back to the old view, click “Expanded.”

As you add more subscriptions, you may prefer to read through all your websites in the order they posted. To do this, click on “All Items” and you’ll see all the posts from all your websites. You can then sort them by oldest or newest by clicking on “View Settings” (“Feed Settings” when in a specific subscription). “Oldest” puts the oldest posts at the top, “Newest” starts with the newest. I prefer to sort by oldest and cycle through the posts using the “Next Item” button.

Now what?

Now you’re pretty much on your own. Add whatever site you want to your reader using the “Add Subscription” button, or you can create a bookmark to add any site you’re viewing that will go in your toolbar. This can be found in the “Goodies” tab of your settings. To find out if a site is subscribable or not, check the address bar. If you see an icon next to the address that looks like a soundwave, you can subscribe and all updates will come to your reader (it’s the icon next to the star in the screenshot below).

I suggest starting with any family or friends’ blogs and moving on to news sites or even, like the New York Times or CNN or BBC, or even ESPN. You can also subscribe to specific columns, like sports or fashion, or specific contributors a lot of the time. I keep track of my movie reviews this way. You can subscribe to Roger Ebert or my personal favorite, Peter Travers. Just look for the icon on any page you’re reading and you’ll know if it’s an option.

Bonus features (A little on the advanced side):

One of the coolest features of Google Reader is the ability to share a post with any of your Google Contacts. This means that if you think your mom will like a post, you can email it to her without even leaving Google Reader. If you look at the bottom of any post in reader, you’ll see a bunch of links: “Add Star,” “Like,” “Share,” “Share with note,” “Email,” “Keep Unread,” and “Add Tags.” “Preview” is only there because I use a program called Better GReader for some added functionality.

“Add Star” is a way of organizing your favorite posts so you can come back to them later. You’ll notice a “Starred Items” link on the left below “All Items.” Clicking this will show you all the posts you’ve starred. You can also search all starred items by using the drop-down menu next to the search button.

“Like” is a new feature. Clicking like in Google Reader works just like it does in Facebook. Anyone who reads that post will see how many people have liked it. You can also see the individual people that liked the post. This is useful when looking for more people that share similar interests to discover more interesting blogs. Just click on the link below the title to see the individuals, then click on a name to see their shares.

“Share” will share the post with any of your Google Reader followers. Your followers are any of your Google Contacts you’ve allowed to see your shares. To choose who sees these, click on “Sharing Settings” under the “People You Follow” tab. You can also “Share with Note” to personalize any of your shares with a little message. My shares can be found here. Go ahead and follow me if you like. I share anything from cool technology, to movie news, to funny videos.

The rest of them are pretty self-explanatory. The most useful of which being “Email.” Click on this and you can email a post to anyone in the world. It will even auto-fill for you if you used your GMail account to login. It’s vey handy for sharing with those who haven’t yet taken the Google Reader plunge.

So there you have it. I hope I’ve de-mystified Google Reader for those who may be weary of joining. As always, leave any questions in the comments, or Twitter, or Facebook. And don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook!

Related Posts:

• Google Voice Update
• I Heart Google
• Google Voice is Your Own Personal Receptionist
• Sync Two Folders on a Mac With Aptly-Named App, SyncTwoFolders
• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Computers

I was looking for Mac-compatible syncing apps for the “How to Sync iTunes on Multiple Computers” post and Russell tipped me off to a great one.

I use the creatively named SyncTwoFolders for syncing on my mac.

I checked it out and it works great. I successfully synced both my iTunes folder and my wife’s (across the network) with my backup folder on an external hard drive. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Download the Program – Go here, click “Download Now,” then select either the “Mac Intel” link , or the “Mac PPC” (Power PC, for older Macs like the Powerbook) link next to the “SyncTwoFolders” icon. After the file downloads, unzip and drag the .app file to your Applications folder.

Step 2: Set Up Your Sync – Open the program and select your “Source” folder and your “Target” folder. For an iTunes sync, the source would be your iTunes music folder on the primary computer and the target will be the secondary computer, whether across the network or on an external hard drive.

Selecting your “Synchronization Mode” can be a bit confusing because of the terms used, so I’ll break them down for you. “Reciprocal” will only look at files that are in both folders, replacing any older file with the newer one. No files will be deleted in this mode. “Source up Target” will do the same thing as “Reciprocal,” but also copy any files from the source file that are not in the target folder (i.e. if you add new songs to your library). No files will be deleted in this mode either. “Source on Target” does the same thing as “Source up Target,” but also deletes any files from the target folder that are no longer found in the source folder (i.e. if you delete any songs from your library).

Select your preferred “Synchronization Mode” (I use “Source on Target” so I have an exact copy) and add any additional filters you want. If you hover over any of the options, a box will appear describing that option. If you want a test run to see what files will be affected without actually moving anything around, click “Simulation.” Click the right-most checkbox to see the log.

Step 3: Run Your Sync – Make sure “Simulation” is unchecked and click “Synchronize.” Then, just sit back and watch your files fly across the magical tubes. Now run to the kitchen sink and pour yourself an ice cold glass of Mother Nature’s life juice, because you just synced two folders.

I muted my sound because it copies each file individually and my computer was chiming non-stop. My only real complaint is that you can’t schedule regular syncs, but for a free app, that’s definitely not a deal-breaker.

Related Posts:

• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Computers
• What is this Google Reader Anyway?
• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Users
• Google Voice Update
• I Heart Google

This post comes at the request of sn9500, who writes,

“I have a couple of computers and all have iTunes which won’t let me use my Ipod on there without deleting what is on my Ipod, so I only use the Ipod on one computer. So even tho I have downloads on the other computers, I have not known how to add it to my Ipod.”

This is a common problem with iTunes. iPods only allow you to sync to one iTunes library at a time, but what happens if you are adding music on multiple computers? How do you add that music to your iPod?

The quick solution is to enable “Manually manage music” in the iPod preferences and drag the music manually to your iPod. But what if you travel and want to be able to access all your music all the time, whether on your laptop or home computer? What if you have multiple computers like our friend above and don’t want to worry about remembering what computer has what music? This post will attempt to resolve this more complicated scenario.

Step 1: Locate Your iTunes Library and Music – The key to making this work is tricking your iPod into always believing its syncing to the same library, no matter the actual computer or location. To do this, we must first locate the iTunes library on your primary iTunes computer, just as we did to enable multiple users. The easiest way to do this is to look in your iTunes preferences, then click on the advanced tab.

In the window that comes up, you’ll notice a box underneath “iTunes Music folder location.” Take note of this location. This is where both your music and library are located. Navigate to this folder and you should see all of your artists in their respective folders. Your actual library will be in a folder called iTunes, which may be in a separate folder from “iTunes Music,” usually still in your “Music” (Mac) or “My Music” (PC) folder.

Step 2: Sync iTunes Folder Between Computers – This step involves another application. Using a file-syncing application, you will copy both your music folder (and all sub-folders) and your iTunes library file to the other computer(s) you want to use. Make sure to put the folder in the same basic place, or wherever the iTunes music folder is on that computer. Then, using the same application, you will periodically scan all locations for any changes and make those changes on any computers necessary.

Lifehacker recommends SyncToy for PCs on a local network (under the same roof/wireless network). They even have instructions for setting it up here (scroll down the page to find the appropriate section).

For syncing computers across the Internet (i.e. to a work computer), Lifehacker recommends FolderShare. Instructions are at the top of the page here.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good free file-syncing program for Mac. If anyone knows of one, please share in the comments. Until then, I recommend installing SyncToy on a PC on the same network as your Mac(s), then using that to sync two network folders (both the source and the source and destination folders will be your individual Macs on the network).

UPDATE (6/3/09): Russell gave me a great Mac-syncing app in the comments. Instructions here.

Step 3: Sync Your iPod and Enjoy – All that’s left is to plug your iPod into any of the computers you just synced and test out your new system. If you get the “iPod will be erased” message, something went wrong. If not, you’re good to go, just remember to sync your folders anytime you download a new song or make a change.

I hope that helps any of you with this problem. I used this method for years to create a usable backup of my Mac’s music to my PC and it works great. As always, if you have any other questions or tips, leave them in the comments below or email me. I make house calls to the Las Vegas area!

Related Posts:

• Sync Two Folders on a Mac With Aptly-Named App, SyncTwoFolders
• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Users
• What is this Google Reader Anyway?
• Favorite iPod-Ripping Applications
• Google Voice Update

One of the largest investments that many of you will make in your lifetime is the purchasing of your own home. I wanted to share some ideas that should help you get into your first home, or renovate the one you already bought.

The 28% Rule

Those of you who are not yet homeowners are probably renting (or camping out in an abandoned part of town like I keep trying to convince my wife to try). If you are renting and want to save up some money for a down payment on a house, here is a useful tip that I have been trying. The first thing you need to know is what percentage of your income should be going toward your rent. Most experts will tell you that you shouldn’t spend more than 28% of your monthly gross income on your rent. So if you are making $5,000 a month, then you shouldn’t be paying more than $1,400/month for your rent (or mortgage payment).

Photo by Megan Ruth Stay

So, Now What?

This brings us to my suggestion: if you should be able to afford $1,400/month and you are only paying $900 then it makes sense to put the extra $500 under your mattress to help save for that happy home you hope to have. Now, if you are in a 12 month lease, and you tuck your money under the mattress, you will come up with an extra $6,000 to help with that house down payment (or closing costs, or finder’s fees, or whatever you anticipate paying for in connection with that perfect picket fence).

Boost Your ReturnAssuming you want to get a better return than your mattress can offer (and a cheaper chiropractor bill), here is what you can do: save the first 6 months for a total of $3,000. Put this amount into a six month Certificate of Deposit and continue saving during this last six month period. This will give you a small boost in your savings while keeping it nice and safe.

Photo by Megan Ruth Stay

If you already own a house, use this money to make those much-needed renovations you’ve been thinking about. Go ahead, get the wallpaper.

Want more ideas on building your budget and planning your financial future? Visit me at www.stefuinvesting.blogspot.com

Random Posts:

• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Users
• Tax Credit vs. Deduction
• Welcome!
• I Heart Google
• Share Your Favorite Movie Clips Legally With MovieClips.com

Everybody has an iPod these days, but managing multiple iPods under a single roof can become quite a chore. Chances are, little Suzie doesn’t want to listen to Dad’s Led Zeppelin box set and Dad certainly doesn’t want to fill up his iPod with the latest Jonas Brothers albums and videos. Creating playlists and dragging songs over manually can be a real pain, so one of the most common questions I get is, “Is there any way to give everyone separate iTunes libraries using a single computer?” The answer is yes, and I’m going to break it down so you can do it yourself.

Step 1: Make Sure You Have the Latest Version of iTunes - This can be done by either going to the iTunes download page and checking the latest version against your version (found under “About iTunes” in the iTunes menu), or by clicking “Check for Updates” in the iTunes menu. These instructions should work for iTunes 7 and above.

Step 2: Create a New iTunes Library – This part can be a little tricky. Make sure iTunes is closed and then you can either hold down “shift” (“option” on a Mac) while you double-click the iTunes icon, or you can click on the iTunes icon, then hold down “shift” (“option” on a Mac) and press enter. A dialogue box should then pop up (don’t let go of “shift,” or “option,” until you see the dialogue box. If iTunes opens up without the dialogue box, try again), giving you 3 options: “Quit,” “Create Library,” and “Choose Library.”

Click on “Create Library,” and a new window will pop up asking you to name your library.

You want to choose a name that’s very specific to your library so it’ll be easy to find later on, like “Suzies Music,” or “Dads Library,” or “Mom’s Shuffle.” You also want to make sure you save it in the same place as your regular old library. In Windows, this is usually in “C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\” On a Mac, this is usually in “Music\iTunes Music\iTunes” and you will need to click the “down arrow” next to the file name to enable folder browsing. A new, empty iTunes library will then open up.

Congratulations, you now have your own, private library.

Step 3: Add Your Tunes – Now comes the fun part. Now you get to browse through all your music files and pick the exact tunes you want to listen to. Go to “File – Add to Library” and a new file browser window will open.

Go to the folder that contains your music (should be the same general place your libraries were, i.e. “My Music” for PC, “Music-iTunes Music” for Mac by default). If you changed the default music folder and don’t remember what it is now, you may have to do a search for music files. Just search your hard drive for “*.mp3, *.m4a, and *.m4p” for the standard iTunes music files.

Now that you’ve found your music, you have two options for adding the actual files. You can either select all the folders (“Ctrl-a” on PC,” -a” or “command-a” on Mac), hit enter, and delete the files you don’t want from your new library, or you can go through and select all the folders or files you want individually (hold down “alt” on a PC, “” or “command” on a Mac to select multiple files or folders) and hit enter. If you choose to delete the files from your library, make sure you do not send the files to the trash or recycle bin, they would be unusable by other libraries.

Step 4: Quit iTunes and Try Out Your New Digs – You have now succesfully created your own library, but you need to know how to access it in the future. Quit iTunes and do the “shift-double-click(PC)” or “option-double-click(Mac)” maneuver again on the iTunes icon. The old dialogue box will pop up again. This time, click “choose library” and select your new library (everyone who uses iTunes will have to open iTunes this way or it will just open up the last library used).

You can now use your library as freely as you like. Create your own playlists, get rid of stuff you don’t want, whatever you want to do. When you sync your iPod with the new library however, it will completely erase your iPod and fill it up only with the songs on your new library. If you don’t want this to happen, enable “Manually select files” in the iPod preferences and drag over the songs you want synced.

It is a bit of a pain, but until iTunes comes up with a simpler way, it’s either this or the old-fashioned select-and-drag. There are third-party applications that will manage multiple libraries with a little less hassle, but I’ve never tried any, so I can’t vouch for any of them. A quick google search for “iTunes manager” should turn up a few options. Either way, sit back wipe the sweat off your brow, turn up the volume to Queen’s We are the Champions, and throw back a bottle of your favorite syrup, because you have just conquered the iTunes libraries.

Related Posts:

• Favorite iPod-Ripping Applications
• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Computers
• What is this Google Reader Anyway?
• Sync Two Folders on a Mac With Aptly-Named App, SyncTwoFolders
• Google Voice Update

On June 12, 2009, almost every television station in America will be forced to stop broadcasting analog signals. What does this mean? It means that anyone still using bunny ears to receive their local stations may lose their signal on that date. Your TV may go completely fuzzy. Most people by now know about the DTV (Digital TV) switch that is about to happen, but not everyone knows what to do about it, so I am going to attempt a walkthrough to be sure you are ready.

Step 1: Will You be Affected? – The first step is to determine if you will even be affected by the switch. Anyone who has a cable subscription or who uses a satellite service such as Dish Network or DirectTV is already good to go. They will not be affected at all by the switch. The ones who have to worry, are the ones that are using a tabletop antenna to receive their television stations, but not everyone will need to buy a converter box, and some may not even need to buy a new antenna. Let’s see which category you fall under:

Any TV built after July 1, 2007 was required to include a digital tuner. That means that if you bought a TV after that date, you are probably okay, skip to Step 3. If your TV is larger than 36″ and bought after July 1, 2005, you are also most likely in the clear. Anyone with a TV older than that will probably need a converter box.

To check if you need a converter box, you’ll need to look at the back of your TV where the antenna plugs in. If it says “Digital Tuner” or “ATSC,” you’re okay, at the most, you will only need a new antenna and you can skip to Step 3. If not, you will need a converter box. Another way to check is to go into your TV’s channel setup and see if there is a digital tuner option. If not, you need a converter box.

Step 2: Order Your Coupons and Buy Your Converter – If you determined you need a converter box in Step 1, you should order your government coupons as soon as possible. The Government is offering $40 off any approved digital converter box to ease the transition. You are allowed 2 coupons per person, so if you are married or have a roommate and need more coupons, be sure to order some through them as well. The coupons expire after 90 days and there may be a waiting list to get one because of the late rush of requests, so order as quickly as possible here.

Now you need to find a good converter box. You can buy them at any place that sells electronics. Just ask a salesmen to show you the ones that are eligible for the coupons. Most of them will cost you nothing but a little tax. I recommend Dish Network’s DTV Pal. It is eligible for the coupon and it has a detailed channel menu that makes setting timers to record or watch your favorite shows a breeze. I bought 2 and they are very easy to use and set up. Unfortunately, as of this point, the $40 TR-40 is sold out, but the similar DTV Pal Plus is only another $20 on top of your coupon.

Step 3: Install Your Converter Box and Scan for Channels – If you bought a converter box, consult the user manual to hook it to your TV. It is usually as easy as plugging your antenna into the box and plugging the box into the TV using the provided cables. Now you need to scan for channels.

With a converter box, simply turn on your TV and the box and it should automatically scan for channels. If you have a TV with a digital tuner built in, access your TV’s channel setup menu and scan for digital signals using the digital auto-program. If you receive all your local channels, you’re good to go, if you receive “weak signal” messages or fuzzy pictures, you probably need a new, more powerful DTV antenna. Try moving the antenna around a little, and if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to buy a DTV antenna. Digital TV is always crystal clear because the signal is either there, or it’s not. So if you see snow or static, you will need a new antenna.

Step 4: Buy and Install Your DTV Antenna – You can buy a DTV antenna at any place you can buy electronics these days. I bought mine at Target and it feeds both of my TR-40s through a standard coax splitter. They typically cost around $40. Spend any less than that and you risk buying an antenna that isn’t powerful enough. Do not buy this antenna. I tried it first and it was just too weak. We were constantly forced to adjust it. The main difference between a DTV antenna and bunny ears, besides the price, is that DTV antennas are typically amplified through external power (they plug into an AC outlet in the wall). They sell external antennas that you can mount on the outside of your house, and you may want to consider that if you had trouble getting channels before the switch.

Why Bother? – Some of you may be thinking that this is way too much hassle to deal with and may be considering cable or satellite. What it comes down to is a matter of price. You can spend about $40 once and receive unlimited local channels in crystal clear, digital picture by staying with over-the-air TV, or you can spend about $10 or more a month for the rest of your life for the basic cable plan and receive what is often, sketchy, fuzzy signals. Those who already have cable or Satellite don’t need to worry about this, but anyone who receives over-the-air TV and is satisfied with the amount of channels they get should seriously consider it before switching. Digital TV is a good thing, but paying for channels I can get for free is not something I want to do.

As always, if you have any questions, or need help getting your TV ready for the DTV switch, feel free to contact me by commenting below, or using the links to the left.

Related Posts:

• Optimize Your DTV Antenna with AntennaWeb
• The Mighty AfroWhitey Will Save Your Life
• What is this Google Reader Anyway?
• Sync Two Folders on a Mac With Aptly-Named App, SyncTwoFolders
• How to Use iTunes With Multiple Computers