Month: November 2013

Review: GroupMe

GroupMe logoGroupMe is a service I’ve been happily using with my friends for years now. It’s great for sending messages amongst a group of people. It’s device independent, in fact even people without smart phones can receive and send messages via SMS.

The basic idea is you have various people assigned to groups. Then you can send a message (whether that be an SMS to a dedicated number or a message using one of their apps) and GroupMe takes care of delivering that message to all members of the group. It’s really handy for a group of friends who regularly hang out. No longer do you have to send out a mass text only to get various responses from people and then having to send out another message to let the rest of those people know who replied to the first one and what they said. With GroupMe, you send one message that everyone in the group receives and their replies are also sent to everyone in the group.

Why use GroupMe? It’s easy. It’s free. It takes very little set up and you can add new groups with ease. Do I need to continue? It’s really a big time saver. Trying to get the family together for the holidays? Set up a GroupMe and everyone can stay in the loop. Going to the beach on Saturday? Start a GroupMe so everyone can plan what they’re bringing and where you’re meeting.

Various phones using GroupMeWhile GroupMe is designed to work with SMS, it really shines at its brightest with their apps. There are apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. With the native apps you can opt to have messages routed through the app instead of SMS (you can still be notified of new messages via push messages). This gives you the benefits of seeing all your groups in one place. Managing current and new groups is a breeze right in the app. Other app features include a “typing” indicator, profile pictures and an easy way to see who’s in each group.

The design of the app feels very native to each platform. They’ve done a nice job using their own design language, but within the expected experience of each platform. You know it’s a GroupMe app, but you’ll feel at home using it whether you’re an iPhone or a Windows Phone user. You won’t see one of those crappy ports here.

Over the years they’ve continued to improve the GroupMe experience. They’ve added the ability to send photos and videos with your message, and you can even include a location, so it’s easier to meet up with friends. There’s also a Web interface to make sure you’re always able to connect with your groups. One thing to note is that with the app or website, you can stay in contact with your friends when you’re out of the country (as long as you have an Internet connection). No huge roaming SMS fees; now that’s a bonus.

GroupMe has done a fantastic job with their service. It makes texting with multiple people a breeze, regardless of their phone type. I’ve experienced very little downtime while using the service, and anytime there is a problem, they seem to jump on and fix it very quickly. I highly recommend giving GroupMe a try.

Intro to Interactive Programming in Python on Coursera

For some time now I’ve been intrigued with Coursera. The idea of being able to take real courses, for free, online, just seemed amazing. My friend, Rachel, has been a big proponent of it, and had time and time again pestered me to give it a try. For whatever reason, I hadn’t until recently.

A few weeks ago I started a Coursera course through Rice University called An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python. As the title implies, it’s a beginner course dealing with Python (a programming language). While I’ve programmed some in the past, it’s all been pretty basic and mostly self-taught. I took a couple of classes in Visual Basic and C++ back in high school, but that was over a decade ago. Lately my coding hasn’t gone much beyond HTML and jQuery. The Python class sounded like fun, especially when reading that the final project is an Asteroids clone.

I’m now wrapping up week three of the class and I’ve already learned a lot. It turns out Python has a lot in common with other languages I’ve worked in (C++, Java, C#), but also has different features (like the lack of semi-colons after every line, thank you!). To make the class really accessible and easy to complete, the professors even created an in-the-browser environment to write and run your code, called CodeSkupltor.

Every project in this class takes the skills you learn about each week, and applies them to mini-games. The first few projects have included a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock game (based on the Big Bang Theory reference), a guess the number game and a stopwatch that tests your reflexes. All of these can be run from a modern browser, so click the links and give them a try. Just his the “Run” button in the upper left.

It seems like we are learning great amounts from week to week and I can’t wait to see what’s next. This has been a great experience with Coursera so far, so I’m already looking at what to take next. Have you tried Coursera? What did you take?