dok About Blog Recommendations

A collection of web sites, services and tools that I love and recommend.

Communication

GMail

Besides all of the other benefits to having a Google account, GMail is hands down the best webmail service out there. It’s fast, free, powerful, and has a great filtering system. Everyone should, in my opinion, have at least one GMail account.

Google Voice

Scheme: give it out to non-friends and public stuff like clist, doctors, etc

Virtual Post Mail

I’ve described some of the reasons I use it in this post but essentially Virtual Post Mail is a service that allows you to have a virtual mailbox for physical mail. You get an address at “340 S Lemon Ave #XXXX, Walnut, CA 91789” and whenever you receive mail there they scan the envelope so you simply log in at VPM(virtualpostmail.com) and scan through your mail and decide which of the following to do with each piece: 1) open and scan it so you can read it online or save it as a PDF, 2) forward it to your actual address or 3) shred and delete it. I use this as my primary mailing address and billing address for anything I can.

Productivity

Google Calendar

Great, fast calendar app integrated with the rest of my google accounts and synced to my phone and iPad. What more do you need?

Google Drive

I don’t use Microsoft Office anymore. Google Drive (formerly Docs) can create any type of document I need it to and I can access my documents from anywhere on any device. The collaboration features are fantastic and it works flawlessly.

Evernote

Evernote is an online text editor of sorts but its aim is to be much more than that: a repository for all of your data, thoughts, and documents. You can upload documents and data, pictures, voice memos and pretty much anything you can think of and organize it with tags, notebooks and “notes”. You can also clip excerpts or entire pages from your web browser straight into evernote. There are clients for desktops, web browsers, and smartphones and tablets so you can access and edit your data anywhere. It also comes in free and very affordably priced premium versions. I use it frequently and love it.

Google Contacts

I sync all my contacts between my phone and Google. I never lose contacts this way and I can call or email any of them from my phone or from GMail as well as create and edit them. Awesome!

Money

Mint

Everyone should have a Mint account. Period. A central place to track and manage your spending, saving, credit, etc. and it’s almost entirely automatic. Just log in every so often and update any uncategorized or miscategorized transactions, and analyze your spending habits and budgets. Sometimes it’s terrifying but that’s not Mint’s fault and it’s fun to see your net worth and all your accounts in one place.

Credit Karma

Credit Karma is an awesome free credit score and credit monitoring service. It’s an alternative to the “big three” credit companies so it’s probably good to still get your credit

Venmo

Venmo is a fantastic free service for sending money to people. I’ve used it very frequently with roommates and friends for everything from splitting utility and grocery bills to bar tabs and trip expenses. It’s free and literally as easy as texting people money. A world where everyone had venmo would be a beautiful world indeed.

Square

Square allows you to take credit card payments with a smartphone or tablet. It’s quick, easy, and the reader is free! From a small business to things like craigslist, garage sales, girl scout cookies and more, Square is the perfect solution for expanding payment options when selling goods.

The Points Guy

The Points Guy is a site devoted entirely to demystifying and cataloging credit cards and the rewards accounts associated with them. They keep track of new promotions, the best cards, and news from all of the programs. Even if you don’t want to “play the game” with credit card rewards it’s a great resource for finding the best cards and keeping up to date on the things you should know about your cards. I recommend starting with the Beginner’s Guide

Shopping

Amazon Prime

There are few things that aren’t cheaper, or at least more convenient, to buy on amazon. If you have Amazon Prime (well worth it in my humble opinion, and half price if you’re a student) eligible items will be shipped to you in two days with no shipping charge. Even food and supplements are often cheaper and/or easier to find on amazon. And some things are a no brainer. Electronics cables, for example, sell on amazon for a small fraction of the cost at Best Buy or the Apple store. Prime membership also gets you access to a moderate library of streaming video and a number of Kindle titles which are free to read.

The Wirecutter

A fantastic site for electronics recommendations. They extensively review products in any category you can think of, compare them, and choose a favorite. They also generally list a “step up” at a higher cost and a “step down” for those on a budget. I check this site myself every time I am considering a purchase and refer others here frequently.

The Sweethome

Sister-site to the Wirecutter (above), the sweethome is a review and recommendations site for home goods and appliances. It’s free, well curated, and well designed.

Honey Chrome Extension

Honey is an extension for the Google Chrome browser that automatically finds coupon codes and other deals for products you are shopping for. No extra effort required!

Travel

Google Flight Search

Good for quickly ballparking price and analyzing dates and nearby airports for cheaper alternatives, Google Flight Search is by far the fastest and easiest to use flight search tool out there. I always check it first because it’s no-nonsense and extremely fast. I generally check other sites before actually booking as they can sometimes wrangle better deals but generally Google nails it and with a much faster and better designed interface to boot.

Kayak

Kayak is on of my go-to sites when searcing for flights or hotels. It aggregates results directly from the airlines and hotels as well as from other search sites like it. It also gives you a lot of options in terms of flexibility and narrowing results down. I generally use it in conjuction with Google Flight Search.

Airbnb

A great site where people can rent properties (anything from a couch to a whole town) for vacations and travel. Airbnb has listings all over the world for any variety of prices. The next time you’re traveling consider renting from a person directly instead of a hotel!

Couch Surfing

Couchsurfing is a huge network of people all over the world who will let guests sleep on their “couch” (anything from a spot on the floor to a private room or guesthouse) for free. It sounds scary – and could be if you aren’t paying any attention – but the community has overwhelmingly positive reviews and experiences and if you’re careful to choose a well reviewed host you can’t go wrong. This is a must for anyone looking to travel on a budget.

Computer

Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud file storage and sharing service and it is in my humble opinion an absolute essential for anyone who uses a computer. A free account will get you 2GB (expandable to 16GB by referrals) and paid plans from 100-500 GB. I keep all files and documents on my Macbook Air in my Dropbox so everything is not only backed up but also accessible on any of my other devices as well as any other computer via the web interface. It also recently saved my when the SSD crapped out and all I had to do to restore my computer after it was fixed was reinstall a few programs and reconnect my Dropbox. If you’re a power user consider syncing config files and more via symlinks in your home directory.

Chrome + adblock + flashblock

I like Google Chrome best for my browser and when combined with AdBlock and FlashBlock extensions it is fast and flash and ad free. Chrome is great for general browsing and also for developers as it has a great developer console.

Music

Songkick

Songkick is a fantastic way to keep track of concerts from bands you like. Simply track artists and venues and Songkick will let you know as soon as that band will be playing a show near you. I often get alerts before the tours are officially announced. Even better, Songkick has a spotify app so if you link it with your Songkick account it will automatically track all artists in your spotify playlists (including “Starred”!) which makes the whole thing automatic!

Roadee

Roadee is an iPhone app very similar to Songkick but instead of concerts it aggregates and displays new music from all your favorite tracked bands. Invaluable if you listen to a lot of music and you want an easy way to keep track of new releases.

Spotify

I love spotify and use it for hours most days. It has a massive catalog of music (the biggest of all the competing services to my knowledge), is reasonably priced, and due to some fancy technology is so fast it seems like the music is on your local disk. Spotify has also improved the social and recommendation features a lot recently so it’s great for sharing music with friends and creating collaborative playlist. Finally, it’s great for listening to music on phones and tablets. I no longer sync music to my phone. I simply stream from spotify or keep offline playlists for music I want to listen to when I don’t have a data connection (like flying).

Pandora

The original free streaming internet radio. Pandora still arguably has the best learning and matching algorithms to determine what kind of music you’d like to hear next. Pandora is great if you like a song or artist and want to hear more like it.