23 Jul 08 Lifehacker
I think I must be a Lifehacker. In her original book Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day
- They are optimists – where there’s a will there’s a way.
- They expect to be able to find their data from any Internet-connected device.
- They would rather spend 2 hours and 59 minutes automating a 3 hour task than doing it manually.
- They get lost in their work and forget it’s lunchtime.
- Lifehackers live and work on their computers
Ok, I fit all the above, so I must be one. I spent the first half of my life without a computer. There were no computers at school. I didn’t get one until I was in my mid-twenties. I didn’t have a cellphone until I was in my thirties. Having said that, I’ve had a PC for over 20 years now, and a cellphone for 16, so they’re certainly entrenched in my way of life. What would we do without them, I find myself saying, but I did. When it comes to most of the latest technology though, I don’t want to turn the clock back!
You might like to check out Gina’s latest book at the link below too. I’ve really found Lifehacker to be a great time-saving read, and I’ve implemented a number of her recommendations. There’s stuff for Windows, Mac and Linux users in there.
Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better
Tags: amazon, geek, gina trapini, lifehacker, nerd
07 Jun 08 Gmail Labs
There’s a new tag in my Gmail. Exploring it igves me up to 13 items I can choose from. Some I think are much less than useful, some I don’t relly need, but are nice, and one or two are just what I wanted.
I chose seven out of the thirteen myself.
- Quicklinks – Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
- Superstars – Useful, in that it gives you the option to have different colored stars for different uses. I have my “star click” in Gmail set up in connection with “Remember The Milk”, but it’s still useful.
- Pictures in Chat – It’s a nice little feature, and I find myself using the Google Talk pop-up in Gmail more and more – in fact, I’ve not installed the client at all.
- Custom Keyboard shortcuts. As a old DOS geek, I’m more than happy with keyboard short-cuts, and usually prefer them to a mouse.
- Mouse Gestures – having just said what I did above, I thought I’d install this to see what I could make of it. Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. I’ll see.
- Signature Tweaks – allows me to place the signature above the quote of the message I am replying to. I think this could be useful. I wish I could have different signatures for different accounts (I’ve got 5 pop3 accounts running through my gmail).
- Custom Date format – as someone who spent many years on the railroad, I find military time, or the 24 hour clock comes second nature to me, and I in fact prefer it, as it’s less ambiguous. Definitely a must have – it’s great to see 16:30 instead of 4.30pm.
Tags: colored stars, custom keyboard, frequent searches, geek, gmail, google, google talk, keyboard short cuts, keyboard shortcuts, left column, military time, mouse gestures, mouse mouse, pop3 accounts, relly, second nature, signature, signatures, superstars, tweaks
04 Apr 08 The Pencil
Am I a geek? Probably. I don’t care really. Why is it said in an almost insulting way anyway?
I’m not a junkie, or a drunkard, or a philanderer. I don’t beg or steal. I sometimes borrow, but I try to return borrowed items in a timely manner.
Anyway, I’m thinking of buying a new book. I almost never read fiction. I like non-fiction – biographies, science, history, that kind of thing. Well, yes, ok, and computer manuals too.
Anyway, is this geeky or not? I don’t care! I think that this book all about the history of the pencil looks interesting.
Tags: computer manuals, drunkard, geek, geeky, history of the pencil, junkie, non fiction, philanderer, science history, timely manner
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