google - Grant Winney

7 Results tagged on "google":

Apr 28, 2020

Let's google "a failure to communicate"

2 years. 1000+ users. 4.5 rating. Then Google freezes my browser extension without a clear reason. It was a frustrating waste of time trying to work with them, and reminded me how badly the behemoth of tech stinks at dealing with people....

google analytics privacy googlexit tech

Mar 09, 2020

Replacing Google Analytics, respecting user privacy, and owning your data

If you just want simple stats about your blog or site (i.e. popular pages and referrals), you don't need Google Analytics - the data is already on your server! You just need a tool that can display it nicely for you, and there's a number of privacy-minded alternatives....

google calendar tech

Feb 27, 2020

How to find the iCal address for a public Google calendar

Behind every great Google calendar URL is an equally amazing iCal file. Here's how to find it....

google privacy mailbox.org tech googlexit

Dec 09, 2019

Replacing Gmail with Mailbox.org (and calendar, docs, etc)

Google provides some amazing tools, but at what cost to privacy? One of the biggest blockers in eliminating them has been finding a reliable and affordable replacement for email (and ideally, calendar, documents, tasks, etc too). Well I may have finally found it, in Mailbox.org....

google googlephotos backup synchronization tech googlexit

Aug 09, 2019

How to backup Google Photos to your PC now that Google Drive doesn't sync

Google stopped syncing pictures between Photos and Drive because ... reasons. So why's this a pain? Well, they have a nice utility called Backup and Sync, which backs up Drive (and thus your photos) to your PC. Photos don't sync anymore, so it no longer backs them up. Let's look at workarounds....

api ebooks google googlebooks programming

Jan 30, 2018

Managing your books and shelves with the Google Books API

The Google Books API provides access to Google Books, which lets you search for any book and, at a bare minimium, see meta data about it. Depending on copyright status, you might also be able to see sample pages or read the entire book. You can also buy books....

api maps geocoding google data programming 15 APIs in 15 Days

Dec 22, 2017

Accessing directions, timezones, coordinates and more with the Google Maps API

Continuing my search for 15 APIs in 15 Days, I checked into the Google Maps API. It a series of APIs - for Android, iOS, web, etc - and each is focused on a small set of tasks. At first it seemed a bit overwhelming, but each of them is easy to use. I'll pick a few out to play around with....

Experience gets you far, but good tools and services keep you moving in the right direction. Here are some of my favorites:

DigitalOcean is a versatile, affordable cloud provider. You can serve up a blog (like this one!), deploy a wiki, try out ansible, or do something much bigger. They host the annual Hacktoberfest too.

Backblaze offers an affordable, unlimited, set-and-forget backup service. They saved me from the click of death a couple years ago, and I've been a grateful customer ever since.