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AdamPash posts

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, Troubleshooting

Confused about Google Wave? Now you can read the bleeping manual.

Google Wave is an innovative new communication tool, but part of innovation is that it's not always intuitive to use. Early adopters have been jumping into Wave with little guidance on how to take advantage of all its features. I guess you could watch the 90-minute Wave video, but that's not exactly a quick-start guide.

Well, there's a saying almost as old as computers themselves, and it goes: RTFM. Read the, um, flippin' manual. Now Google Wave has a flippin' manual that you can read, but it's not from Google: it's from Lifehacker's Gina Trapani and Adam Pash. Sounds a lot better than "watch the frickin' 90-minute video," eh?

Gina and Adam's guide is quickly making the rounds on the web, being promoted by the likes of Mashable. I'd like to add Download Squad's endorsement to the list. The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a straightforward, well-organized volume that goes a long way toward demystifying a new and complex tool. It's available to read online for free, but you'll be able to buy it as a DRM-free PDF soon, and in print in January.

Still don't have Wave? Go throw your name in the hat for Download Squad's Great Google Wave Invite Giveaway.

Filed under: Finance, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware

Manage your budget with an AIM bot

BudgetBotOver at Lifehacker they've come up with yet another novel way to manage your finances: Over IM. Adam Pash has written a cool tutorial on how to build an AIM BudgetBot, which makes entering your income and expenses and generating reports as simple as sending an instant message. The BudgetBot is based on a Perl script, which takes some setting up and tweaking, but once it's set up you can add that $150 car repair bill, for example, to your budget just by sending "150 car" to the bot. The coolest thing about it, though, is that once you've got it set up you can send the bot text messages from your cell phone, which means when you're out on the town you can check to see if you can afford those new shoes, and immediately record the purchase before you forget. Head over to Lifehacker to read the tutorial and grab Adam's script.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

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