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I think we forgot about everyone else…

What happens when you live your life on the technology edge, and then find out that many of the people you hang out with just don’t share the passion?

Even better, what do you tell your friends about the services that we gush over for a day, and then move on.

The real question is what technology have we ended up using and reusing every day because it makes our lives easier.

When we live on the edge of technology and the social revolution, we are the early early adopters, many of my friends are early adopters or mid adopters, few but some are pointedly missing the party. I have friends that refuse to use Facebook, I have friends that have never shopped at Amazon, I have friends who look at me funny when I mention that they can track me on friend feed (“my gosh, they can read everything you are doing on line?” Comes the haggard breath, “what about privacy?”).

The merry band of individuals, from Robert Scoble to Louis Gray, to Gawker, to Toolbox, to Chris Pirillo, to Michael Arrington, we all live in a world where we work and live on the internet. For us, especially after blogging, tweeting, myspacing, facebooking, and other wise living on line for the last five years or more puts us into a distinct minority.

That is the problem, and a real problem that we need to help solve. As we move around technology like butterflys landing on each new company, saying how cool it is, then moving on to the next big thing, we are probably leaving over 99% of the population, any given population that is not living on the technological razors edge behind us.

We leave a scattered, confused, and bewildered audience behind us, because while we are saying that this is great, but this is better, and this is the best, we rarely round out our stories to see who has survived, thrived, and grown. Our importance to our audience wavers because the audience does not know what technology to use, because we are all over the map covering the latest best thing to come out. But what do we really use on a daily basis, do we honestly use all those nifty new companies? And if so what did we use them for?

In that thought, and for anyone who is interested, this is the technology or service that I use on a daily basis.

For tracking blogs – I use Ice rocket and Site meter; I used to use Google Analytics

For seeing what my technology friends are doing – I use Google feed reader and Friend Feed, I used to use bloglines. No one else in my family is on line, I am the only one.

For tracking how well my RSS feed is doing – I use feed burner, for the last 2 years nothing but feed burner, I have not found a better service

For a blogging platform – I use Wordpress, while I hate the upgrade process (blown two blogs out of the water trying to upgrade them, and will not risk the blogs that make money on a failure mode upgrade where I have to start all over again with the content) Wordpress has proven to be a sturdy platform on which to opine from. I have tried type pad, blogger, spaces, and live journal, Wordpress is just what I need. If I could make the upgrade work, and please don’t offer advice I have had plenty, I would keep on upgrading the platform. I also use Zemanta as a plug in, I like the idea that they also have little blogs that I can link to that I would never have found on my own.

For news resources – I use friend feed, I use Google news, I use the BBC, I use Wired, Slashdot and amazingly enough Fark (Geek), I used to use techmeme and Technorati.

For a social network – I use Facebook every day, I go to MySpace maybe once a month, I sometimes use linked in, usage on that varies, and sometimes it is intense for a day because I forgot it for 90 days.

I use a Motorola Q phone because it does what I need it to do, and have had it for two years now. It does video, pictures, has a memory card, no need to upgrade. I want an Iphone, but will not get one until Verizon starts carrying the Iphone, I can wait, I am not in a hurry to upgrade.

I use three computers on a daily basis, one provided by work, one Apple Notebook, and one Vista Notebook. I put more hours on the Vista notebook because that is where my copy of Microsoft Office lives; I use the Apple notebook for cutting podcasts, videos, and other audio/video editing functions using IMovie and Garage Band. I hate the apple because I can’t left click to open new tab, that is an important learned behavior for me, I left click open new tab all the time, with the apple I have to make 4 moves, rather than the 2 moves I have to make with a vista computer.

If you want to start a wiki, I highly recommend WetPaint or Sampa for all your wiki needs, I have two wiki’s one of them exists on each platform, and both are great.

I use Google mail, and have a legacy hotmail account. I would love to drop the hotmail account, but the hotmail account is tied to Amazon, and they won’t let me change my e-mail address because it is tied to an account, and that account is tied to my Amazon store which I use to sell books.

If you want to sell books, and don’t mind fixed pricing, I recommend Amazon, I love them, I do not recommend eBay, there are nasty shocks coming to them in the near future, and with the continual rebellion of smaller sellers, eBay is going to start looking like a regular come and visit us mall, filled with large chain stores with little ability to distinguish between them except for price. EBay is a sad story that is like looking at a train wreck in slow motion.

That is how I navigate through my electronic universe, how I connect with friends, and how I basically use technology to help myself and others do what they need to do. If you are interested in any of these systems, I’ll happily talk about them because I use them every day. They all help me out in one way or another, and help me keep track of those people I care about. For everyone who has asked the question, I also hope this helps.

So what technology do you honestly use every day? Drop a note in the comments; let’s see how popular some of these services really are.