By Eyebee, on July 23rd, 2008
I think I must be a Lifehacker. In her original book Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day
Gina Trapani says that Lifehackers have the following qualities:
- 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
By Eyebee, on June 7th, 2008
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.
By Eyebee, on April 4th, 2008
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.
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