Google.

I really just need to tell you how unbelievable this company is. I was just kind of bouncing around to other photographers blogs checking out what everyone is up to when I asked Mike, is there something I can download that will just tell me when people have updated? I had heard about RSS but I didn't really know how to use it or what it was for...so google apparently has a lovely little RSS reader that will just let me know when my favorite bloggers have updated (or really anysite that has RSS feed)

The good thing is that I can add it to my iGoogle page...you do have iGoogle, right?

Here's a screenshot of my iGoogle page...I love that you can pick a theme...which by the way there are about million pages of them vs. when I first got it and you could only pick from a handful. They're fun and tend to change with the weather and time depending on your location. Top left is now my reader which will update me with new blog posts and such...there in the bottom left is my "to do list" on a sticky pad...top middle is the good old Google calendar that works with a lot of the meetup.com play groups that Emmie and I go to. There is a driving directions and quotes section below that...on the top right is my gmail and then the weather for Acton, MA...a sudoku section which I can sometimes play while I'm waiting for a big batch of files to convert and Emmie is down for a nap...and the top recipe of the day at allrecipes.com which is always fun to look at.

Honestly? You can have different tabs...say a game tab, a news tab, a gadget tab....you can keep it all on one tab like me (because really I wouldn't switch between tabs anyway) and you can totally customize it to what you want. I also love Picasa which is a Google program. It is so amazing how far we've seen the internet come in the last few years...I remember sitting in my friend Mary's basement waiting for AOL to dial up on her 56k modem thinking that my parents were behind the times not letting us get AOL.

One last thing...a nice MKD Photography desktop image that I just made for the laptop...feel free to download it and use it as your desktop wallpaper too!