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Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

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ifttt: such a simple app, so useful

5 February 2012 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

Some privacy concerns I have with it are mentioned at the bottom of this post, but for the most part I’ve found ifttt to be a very handy web app. It solved one of the problems Google created when they revamped Reader several months ago.

Like many users, I was very unhappy with the Google Reader changes. I subscribe to hundreds of columns, blogs and alerts via RSS, then scan the headlines in GR for items I want to read in full. GR allowed me to mark articles I found interesting (from my RSS feeds or from anywhere on the web) and post it to my feed/page with just one click. Also through the GR interface I was able to share and see/comment on (or vice versa) items that friends marked interesting in their feeds, so I got exposed to a range of interest areas.

But after carefully building up this content chugging service and community – which was different from my twitter, facebook or bookmarking networks – Google killed it without notice!, presumably to force users into sharing on their G+ platform.

There are probably myriad ways to recreate the above setup. Unfortunately most are beyond my tech-unsavvy abilities, especially since the baby allows me much less time these days to tinker on the web. I still miss those lost GR functionalities though (sharing articles with friends and having an RSS feed for the posts I found interesting), so this weekend I dedicated some time to investigate options.

On the first problem I simply lost that network and slowly had to migrate back to Twitter – not ideal since now my attention is divided between two services instead of GR being my one go-to platform for consuming media. On the second problem I now use Tumblr to get an RSS feed of my collection of posts; there’s a “Send To” feature from GR which sends articles to Tumblr. But some mobile devices don’t allow this.

Enter the handy tool ifttt.com. So simple it’s incredibly useful. It allows you to write macros across different web apps in this format: If This Then That. Given certain triggers on your specified channels, a set of actions can be activated by ifttt on other channel(s). In my case, when I mark an article interesting (eg star it in Google Reader), ifttt grabs that article and posts it to my Tumbler. There are hundreds of formulas, with many pre-made on the site. It’s a great tool, and I’m playing with it a lot right now.

  • If there’s snow in the forecast, send a text to my phone.
  • If someone tags me in a Facebook photo, call me plus download that photo to a dropbox file (helps you track and keep your image clean)
  • If I favorite a tweet, send it to Evernote.
  • Apartment Therapy illustrates how ifttt can help jobseekers scour jobs sites for relevant posts.

Note on privacy concerns, though: I don’t know how much data ifttt can mine when it’s allowed access to, say, your Google and Tumblr accounts. Plus, the more channels you give ifttt access to, the better you’re centralizing a data trove of your life!

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: evernote, facebook, Google, Google Reader, ifttt, job sites, twitter

The New Idealist Social Network

14 April 2010 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

The New Idealist Social Network, from the kid who co-founded Facebook and got Barrack Obama into the White House: a new social venture for connecting volunteers with their causes, Jumo.

Whether the non-profit sector is ready to embrace a new social networking platform remains to be seen, especially given these organizations’ often-limited staff time and lack of familiarity with cutting edge technology. And there’s competition—Ning, for instance, allows non-profits to build their own branded social networking websites using pre-fabricated tools. But the most formidable rivals are [Chris] Hughes’ old friends at Facebook, which already offers the application Causes, on which users can donate money and promote non-profits to friends. Hundreds of thousands of non-profits are members of Causes, and in the application’s first two years, 25 million Facebook users “joined” at least one of the causes. But according to a Washington Post report, the majority of Causes non-profits have never received a single donation through the application.

Filed Under: Interests, Life Tagged With: chris hughes, facebook, jumo, obama

Facebook Terminates Relationship, Couple Stumped

15 December 2008 by Nathalie Abejero 1 Comment

“I just wanted to toggle a few things,” marveled NA, a relatively new user of the public relations megatool. Her husband KK, suddenly single, is being treated for Facebook hysteria. “It’s gone viral!”

Over the weekend, by simply changing details in their profiles, Facebook remastered the events and issued a statement that the couple ended their relationship, thereby driving traffic through the roof. “I was deleting info that doesn’t necessarily need to be public and it somehow got twisted and broadcast,” says K, as the couple found themselves in a quandary with Facebook for attempting to withhold personal information. “I mean, our friends and family know we’re married. Why bother posting it?”

“What’s happening– who am I married to now?” demanded a baffled N, while K asked more plaintively, “Would I have to move again?”

But Facebook responded that that information is released only on a need-to-know basis. It did, however, retract its request for the couple’s dental records.

“I just worry with them being so far away in a country with crocodiles and– and– mosquitos!” commented one of the parental units, wringing her hands. “If it says so on Facebook it must be true!”

The dramatic affair left an unnamed relative, whose son’s sister-in-law’s nephew’s dog walker has a facebook account and apprised her of the doomed couple, with a case of “the vapors”.

The couple plans to issue a joint smiley-face statement to reassure friends and family… right after N figures out what the poke feature is for.

We love you guys, thanks for calling/emailing to ask if we’re ok! We are! :-)

….and thanks to JW , who masterfully exploited the comic potential and principal-authored the article above for the FarEastern Onion Syndicate! ;-)
.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: default announcement, facebook

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Those little feet pitter-pattering about rule our lives lately. But on the occasional free moment I get to tap out scatterbrained bursts of consciousness about raising toddlers in Cambodia, traveling with them and working abroad. These posts are my personal updates to friends and family. But since you’re here, have a look around. Thanks for stopping by…

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