Adam Reineke

Google’s ad that aired tonight (shown below) covered a bunch of features in just 52 seconds. Here’s what I saw:

1. Auto-suggesting related searches
2. Spelling correction
3. Google Translate
4. Searching for local businesses
5. Google’s Dictionary feature
6. Clean, minimalistic interface
7. Tracking flight status

They did several more “search story” ads too: check them out at http://www.youtube.com/searchstories.

Well, I’ve dropped Calc 2 for this semester (soon as I get my professor to sign the drop slip). 18 credits was too much to handle and Calc seemed like the best thing to put off.

That means I’ll need to stick around Ames this summer and finish Calc 2 (May 17-July 9), so my summer break will run from July 9 until August 23rd (or 44 days without class). That’s still plenty of time to have fun.

“Improve your presentation by remembering one simple truth: humans are animals. They like shiny objects, funny things, good tasting foods, and enjoying themselves.”

– Mouth Breathing, StuffPresentersLike.com

I’ve decided to spend Spring Break huddled up in my trailer reading a book a day. (Unless, of course, my teachers decide to assign a ton of homework.)

• Saturday: Re-read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz.
• Sunday: Re-read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
• Monday: Re-read John Eldridge’s Wild at Heart.
• Tuesday: Reflect. Write.
• Wednesday: Restart reading Tim Irwin’s Derailed.
• Thursday: Read John C. Maxwell’s Winning with People.
• Friday: Reflect. Write.
• Saturday/Sunday: Prepare for school to start. Read The Pragmatic Programmer if I have time.

I think it will be a very refreshing break.

The following is actually a re-post of a note I wrote on Facebook in August 2009. Now that I have a real blog, I thought I’d re-post it here.

This morning’s message at the Ames E-Free church was about laziness. Pastor David Staff has been preaching a series of messages out of Proverbs, and this one came at a great time for me.

First though, notes from the sermon are available. Scroll to the bottom and search for “Proverbs about WORK – A Call to Diligence” and click the icon that looks like a sheet of paper. In the zip file that downloads, the file name that starts “Got Wisdom #8…” is probably the note sheet you’d want to read (either PDF or Word format, they’re identical). That page also has an MP3 as well as video of the sermon.

In the notes, it lists how Proverbs describes a sluggard:

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RSS What?

I was surprised how many of my friends don’t use an RSS reader. If you’re reading this, maybe you’re one of those friends and you don’t have a clue what RSS even stands for. (RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.”)

The RSS feed was created to provide a way for website publishers to easily share information about the content on their website that is updated frequently. Many websites and browsers indicate an RSS feed with an orange icon (pictured on the right).

An RSS reader is a program that organizes a bunch of RSS feeds from different websites and checks them for new information, creating a single, convenient place where you can look for new posts from your favorite websites.

So What’s Google Reader?

I’m glad you asked. As you might have guessed already, Google Reader is an RSS reader that Google makes. It is a free, web-based program that you can use from anywhere you have an internet connection (and a computer). Even better, if you already have a Google account, you can hop right into Reader! If not though, you’ll need to create a Google account quickly.

First step: Follow this link to get to the Google Reader page. If you don’t already have a Google account, click the big, blue “Create An Account” button. The worst part of this process is trying to read the CAPTCHA image they use to make sure you’re human.

I’m not totally sure what sort of welcome screen Google will give you since it has been forever since I signed up, but I’m sure you’ll manage your way to a screen that looks something like this:

Screenshot of my Google Reader homepage.

Whoa. So, where to start?

First, you’ll need to find some RSS feeds to follow. I’ll show you two ways: looking on a website for a link to their RSS feed, and using Google Reader’s “Add A Subscription” feature.

One of my favorites Michael Hyatt’s blog. He’s the CEO of Thomas Nelson and has great posts on the topic of leadership. We’ll practice finding an RSS feed on a website with his site. His website has a gray and white version of the RSS icon located on the right. Click on the icon, then on the next page, click the blue link that says “My Regular Posts.”

Screenshot of the Feedburner page. You want to select where the blue arrow is pointing.

That takes you to a fun page on Feedburner (see the screenshot above). That’s a topic for another day, but for now, click the link on the right that says “Google.” A blue arrow is pointing to it in the screenshot. It should pull the feed up in Google Reader and have a yellow message that says “You are not subscribed to this feed yet.” Click the “Subscribe” button at the bottom of the yellow message.

You’ve now subscribed to your first feed. Now let’s find the feed for Lifehacker, another one of my favorite sites, using Google’s “Add Subscription” button. This is located in the upper left of the Reader homepage. Click that, type “Lifehacker” in the search box, and click “Add.” It will bring up a list of possible matches for the site. The first one is what you want. Click the big “Subscribe” button under the description of the feed.

There you go, feed number two!

Three more of my personal favorites:

• “Seth’s Blog” — The blog of author and marketing guru, Seth Godin.
• “John Maxwell on Leadership” — The blog of leadership expert, John C. Maxwell.
• Gizmodo — a fantastic blog about cool tech stuff.

Go ahead and search for the sites that you frequently visit and start subscribing! Don’t forget to subscribe to mine too! You’ll need to search for this site address, not just my name: “http://adam.reineke.me”

In an upcoming post, I’ll explain how to organize your feeds and take advantage of the other cool features that are offered in Google Reader.

I’m a part of the Dean’s Student Leadership Council, a group that meets with Dean Whiteford about every other week to learn more about the college administration and the issues faced by the university, as well as offer feedback and a way for the dean and his staff to interact with a varied group of students on a personal level.

Over break, the group was assigned to answer the following questions regarding ISU and the tuition we pay:

• What is my education worth?
• Where do I think ISU’s tuition should be?
• What kind of strategies should the college use to convey to students that we are a valuable entity?
• What are the three most important things I am getting from Iowa State?

Although I hadn’t initially written my response with the intention of sharing it, I think that someone may find it of interest, so I thought I’d post my thoughts…

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It’s 2010 and I need a blog to share more in-depth thoughts than I can using Twitter. This is that blog. Happy New Year!