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Archives for Technology
Uncluttered search results with Google SearchWiki
In November, Google introduced its SearchWiki to public use. Now, you can customize your search results by “re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting” items in your returned list.
Here’s how it works:
The application makes repeated searches more efficient and gives you the power to clear the cluttered, unwanted results from your searches.
(via Steve Rubel)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Easily limit e-mail access while on vacation
I love Lifehacker because 1.) Gina, Adam, Jason, Kevin, and newbie Jackson are rock stars, and 2.) I constantly find ways to improve my life from reading the site. Recently, Gina wrote about AwayFind, and this post has revolutionized how I approach e-mail.
Here’s how AwayFind works: When you set up your auto response message in your e-mail client, you write a few words about how you aren’t really checking e-mail. Then, you stick in a final sentence that explains if there is an emergency that you can be contacted via AwayFind. You put a link to your AwayFind page in the text of your away message, and then people receiving the e-mail have a way of getting emergency messages to you without you having to publicize your cell phone number.
If someone believes that they can’t wait until you return from your vacation to get into touch with you, they click the link and are taken to an online form where they can customize their emergency message to you.
I like the program because you don’t actually have to go on vacation to use it. If you need to do some heavily focused work for a few days, set up an away message and only receive emergency messages. Once your schedule returns to normal, you can weed through all the non-emergency messages that came in for you. You stay focused, but not out-of-contact when you’re truly needed. You remain in control of your e-mail with AwayFind.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Seeking advice for cleaning laptops and keyboards
Immediately after Apple released its new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop computers earlier this month, my e-mail account was inundated with questions about how to clean dirt and grime off white Apple laptops and keyboards. My assumption is that these readers want to upgrade to the new machines and sell their old laptops on eBay. Machines that look like new tend to grab higher prices on the bidding site.
I own a white MacBook, so I decided to try my hand at cleaning my laptop in an effort to help our readers. After making a few calls and asking for advice from my friends, I repeatedly heard that the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser was the cleaning tool for me to try.
Here is a picture of my laptop before I tried cleaning it. You’ll see that there are dark spots where my wrists rest while I type:
I then scrubbed the affected areas with the Magic Eraser:
And, it was successful at taking off a good portion of the dirt and grime:
However, I’m not going to say that it was a gleaming success. The side-by-side comparison shows that although it did get rid of a good portion of the yuck on the wrist rest, it wasn’t a perfect solution:
What have other people done to get dirt and grime off of white laptops and keyboards? I thought the Magic Eraser did an adequate job, but I’m hoping there is an even better product out there to help clean up the rest of the dirt. Let us know what you have found to clean laptops and keyboards in the comments.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Lightbulbs next wifi hotspots?
According to Cellular-News, the College of Engineering at Boston University is launching a program aimed at developing the next generation of wireless communications based on visible light rather than radio waves. From the article:
“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little. “This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs.”
Fewer wires and increased communication with all of your devices sounds like a winning advancement to me. The technology for LED-based wifi has just begun, so I’m cheering for the labs at BU to work diligently to get this to market.
(via Engadget)
Popularity: 9% [?]
Share and store files using Dropbox
Dropbox is an incredibly useful file sharing application that can be added to your Mac or PC (and even a Linux operating system). If you are looking for a way to share or store files on the web, and are averse to using Google Docs, this may be the application for you. It is incredibly easy to use and your files can be accessed from any computer via your Dropbox account. Here is a quick overview on the basics:
- No complicated interfaces to learn. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop.
- Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web.
- Sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device.
- Sharing files with your friends and family is just two clicks away.
- View your photos in a gallery and share them easily with anyone.
This is what Apple’s iDisk should be, but isn’t. Dropbox offers a superior product that is easy to use and runs in the background. For a video tour of the application in action go to Dropbox and watch the informative presentation.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Rules for computing happiness: Software simplicity
Once again, I would like to welcome Alex Payne as a guest to Unclutterer. When Alex isn’t writing guest posts for us, he’s the API Lead for Twitter, and he’s a genuinely awesome guy.
Several weeks ago, I published on my personal blog a post on the rules for computing happiness, a set of personal guidelines that have kept me happy and productive when working with computers. People all around the web have added and subtracted from my list, and published their own lists in response. Erin saw the list and asked me to elaborate on the software-oriented rules that compose the majority of the list, as their general theme is toward uncluttering one’s computing experience.
When it comes to software, in my opinion, there’s no better way to keep it simple than to use as little of it as possible. All software exists to offer some solution, but with software comes problems: a learning curve, bugs, upgrades, security issues, and so on. Clearly identify what you really want to accomplish and you might find that you don’t need a new piece of software, or that an application to meet your goal is already installed on your computer.
Once you’ve identified your goal, pick an application that helps you accomplish that goal and nothing more. Extra features mean more bugs and less focus. Microsoft Office is the perfect example of an over-featured application: it does so many things for so many different types of users that most of us are scared to dive into its seemingly unending menus and settings. If you just need to write, use a simple text editor like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on the Mac. Good software gets out of your way.
Picking stable, quality software makes a huge difference. Don’t try beta (pre-release) software unless you know how to submit a bug report and/or have time to do so. Be sure you’re using software that’s written for your operating system. If the application looks and feels wrong next to software you know and trust, chances are good its author didn’t take the time to learn the ins and outs of developing for your platform. You wouldn’t buy a bicycle from a skateboard shop, right? There are plenty of applications for every need on every operating system, so pick one that’s native and nice.
Ever more applications are moving online, and this poses a new set of challenges when trying to keep your computing experience simple and enjoyable. Chances are good that if an application requires that you sync over the internet in order for it to work, it’s going to be a source of frustration. Syncing is a perennial spring of bugs and lost data, as there’s plenty that can go wrong during a sync. Instead, put data that needs to be available to multiple computers on web-based applications. For example, rather than trying to sync your documents across computers, put the ones you need to share on Google Docs. Just don’t get in the habit of using web applications for everything — not everything needs sharing, they’re no good when you need to get to your stuff while offline.
The web age is also the age of free, but good software is still worth buying. If you’re on a budget or have a one-time need for a program it might make sense to search for a free solution, but for tools you use day-in and day-out you will want to invest in the best program. Before buying, try an application out for at least two weeks, and be sure it’s being actively maintained. Check out the program’s website and see if it has an active blog, news page, or Twitter profile. Good software is never finished, so be sure you’re investing in the developer’s ongoing effort to improve the tools you use.
Finally, when an application you’ve tried out doesn’t work for you, do more than throw it out: delete every last trace of it. Lots of software installs supporting bits and bobs around your system, cluttering it up and potentially eating up precious computing resources. If the application provided an uninstaller, run it. If not, use software like AppZapper for the Mac to clean up after unwanted applications.
If you’ve got rules that help you keep your computer a simple, stress-free part of your life, please do share them in the comments.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Never find yourself without your business card
I recently came across a useful recommendation for anyone who has ever been caught without his business card and wished he had one. The suggestion comes from Matthew Buchanan, who decided to scan his card and put it online at a location that is easy to remember. In his case, he purchased the domain IMetMatt.com, and he posted the business card image there.
I did a similar thing today, and followed his lead:
Now I don’t have to worry about ever being in a situation without my business card and miss making a connection with a potential client.
Popularity: 9% [?]
New Eye-Fi products
Last fall, I posted about the new Eye-Fi memory card, which wirelessly uploads your photo files to your computer. Eye-Fi has now released a more powerful version called the Eye-Fi Explore and a lower priced Eye-Fi Home. Also included in the new lineup is the Eye-Fi Share, which can upload photos to the photo sharing website of your choice (like Flickr).
The Eye-Fi memory card has been out for less than a year and noticeable improvements have been made in that time. These new cards offer faster upload speeds, online sharing capabilities, and geotagging. I’m surprised that they didn’t increase the storage space, which is still at 2GB. It is only a matter of time before that is doubled or even tripled. And, for those who have a camera that uses Compact Flash cards rather than an SD card, you can use an adapter for use with the Eye-Fi SD cards.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Coverleaf may be a way to curb magazine clutter
If you are tired of receiving magazine subscriptions in the mail, but still enjoy reading them, you may want to check out Coverleaf. Coverleaf is a way to read magazines online and forgo the hard copy altogether. From their site:
Coverleaf.com is a service that provides digital editions of many of your favorite magazines allowing you to conveniently read your magazine anywhere with Internet access. No software downloads are required. If you are a current print edition subscriber, you can access your magazines for free by verifying your subscription. You can also browse the selection of magazines on coverleaf.com and look inside any issue for a free preview. If you opt to register on coverleaf.com, you can clip, save and share pages from any issue. Coverleaf is provided by Texterity, a leading provider of digital publishing services, in partnership with leading publishing and fulfillment companies.
You also can purchase digital copies of a single issues for $0.99. The current selection offered by Coverleaf is pretty limited at the moment, but we hope to see their selection expand. They offer an Unclutterer favorite, ReadyMade, for $0.99 per digital issue.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Backpack: A digital version of a miscellaneous drawer
Once again, we’ve asked online social tools guru Stowe Boyd to write for us on digital information management. Thank you, Stowe, for sharing your insights with us!
In almost everyplace I have ever lived, there has always been one drawer — usually in the kitchen near the backdoor, or near a wall phone — filled with all sorts of junk: old chinese food menus, elastic bands, pencils, garbage bag ties, condiments, and nubs of crayons left over from elementary school. Basically a black hole of odds and ends that forms a backdrop of a hectic life, where there isn’t always a perfect place for every last thing. Sometimes you need a “miscellaneous” category, a catch all, a kitchen drawer for random things.
I have a hectic life, but one that has increasingly gone digital. In the same way as my non-digital life, I have found the need for a general purpose information organization tool: a place to store the myriad bits of information that I use and share on a regular basis.
My digital kitchen drawer is Backpack, an online information management tool from 37signals. 37signals is a company that has built an international reputation for its tools, like Basecamp (a collaboration tool for project teams), Highrise (a CRM tool), and Campfire (a chatroom solution).
I have the “solo” account ($7/month), but 37signals also offers accounts for groups and with larger storage.
All About Backpack
Backpack is based on the model of a collection of pages, and on each page you can add, edit or delete any number of information scraps: notes, lists, files, photos, and writeboards. Writeboards are a 37signals sort of online word processing document — providing styled text — but otherwise not much like Microsoft Word. Because I use other tools for serious word processing, though, I hardly ever use writeboards. However, I use all the other bits and pieces.
In the screenshot above, you see Backpack is open. I have already logged in — it’s password protected — and I have clicked on one of the many pages displayed in the right-hand margin, in this case one called “Thoughts about /Aviso.” /Aviso is a monthly, half-hour web show that I will be launching at the end of August, and I have been using Backpack as a means to collect my ideas, and to share them with my production partners. You can see at the upper right-hand corner that the page is shared: I invited some others to take a look at the page, and perhaps to edit it, although none of them actually made edits. Backpack also allows publishing the page so that it is completely public, but I have not done so in this case.
Here I have added an additional note field, created a title, and added some text. Note the asterisks arounf the word “text,” which is part of a markup language that Backpack supports called Textile. I could alternatively used HTML for markup, though, if I wanted to.
Textile has some great features that I have used in many ways, such as the music in the screenshot below. This is a song that I wrote (yes, yes, a Renaissance man, I know, I know), and I have taken advantage of Textile’s simple technique for creating tables as a means of aligning chords with words.
The Textile tables are created by simply placing vertical bars (’|') around the table entries, like this:
|Gmaj|F#/D|
|Halfway cross|the world|
Needless to say, I have found this extremely helpful. And, I use tables in some often-used pages. For example, I have a page where I store passwords and IDs for various services that I use.
The photos that can be placed on Backpack pages don’t really make it a replacement for something like Flickr, but if you were using Backpack to plan a dinner party you might include a photo of a planned recipe or a snapshot of the people coming to dinner. Backpack scales the image down to this gallery size, so it is not a good way to share images; for that, you would have to upload the image as a file, and manually add the HTML to a note, as I have done in the page, below:
Backpack pages automatically have an email address, and you can direct email to them, which occasionally can be useful. I have also used the email addresses for various online services that need an address, since it means that 1. I can later delete the page to avoid any spam, and 2. It keeps the email out of my inbox.
Backpack provides a calendar and a reminders tool, but I seldom use them, since I work with time through my Google Calendar; however, these might be useful for others.
As I have written about in the past, I keep the overwhelming majority of to-do items in my Remember The Milk account, which is tightly integrated with Gmail, but occasionally I find myself making checklists that aren’t to-dos exactly, or tasks as part of some activity that I am working on with others. For example, in the page below, I was making a checklist of travel arrangements that I shared with an assistant:
Online and Offline: Packrat
I know that many people are uncomfortable with keeping information like their passwords in a service online. Since Backpack is itself password protected and encrypts transmissions through SSL, I am personally satisfied with that aspect of things. However, I do want to be able to get access to the information in the rare situation that I am not online, like my seat on a flight. Enter Packrat, which is a companion application that runs on my Mac, and which synchronizes with my Backpack account.
In the above image, you see that I use Backpack to write posts for Unclutter, and the nice folks at Unclutterer copy the material and post it on the blog.
The only negative about Packrat is that I have to remember to synchronize with Backpack before getting on that flight to London or I won’t have the most recent information available.
It Must Be In There Someplace
Backpack uses a page and margin approach to organization, here shown by clicking the “all pages” option. (The reason for “all pages” is that you can opt to take a page out of the navigation in the right margin, dropping seldom used pages from view.)
Backpack supports tagging, so I can pull up all my recipes, all my music, or all the pages tagged “Bonnie Raitt,” simply by clicking on that tag.
For Groups, Too
Backpack was conceived principally for the needs of the individual, but scales up for small teams, or families.
I already mentioned being able to invite others to share pages, which can be done with anyone, even people who don’t have Backpack accounts. Plus, a Backpack account can be set up with mutiple users, and they could share pages, calendar, reminders and the other capabilities of Backpack.
One very interesting feature recently added is the “Journal,” which is designed to allow the members of a shared account to remain in contact like the popular Twitter service does. Similarly, 37signals recently added a “Newsroom’” feature that allows users to see what has been recently updated and by whom, which isn’t very interesting for a solo user like me.
I Like That Kitchen Drawer
It’s one of those obvious things, in hindsight: As I used Backpack more and more, I discovered more ways to use it. Ultimately, I closed down other accounts — including 37signals’ own Basecamp — and migrated the bits and pieces of my messy, messy life into the free form pages of Backpack. It’s worked out well for me, and seems just as natural now as that kitchen drawer.
Popularity: 17% [?]
E-mail: The great time waster
Yesterday, Lauren Halagarda discussed a number of tips for clearing clutter from your inbox. Today, contributor Sue Brenner explores how to keep e-mail from cluttering up your time.
Maybe it’s anxiety about e-mail that causes this form of communication to create so much stress? The sheer volume of messages piling in our inboxes begs us to sort through them first thing every morning to feel like we’ve made some progress. What starts as an innocent peek into Outlook can end up devouring an hour, a morning, and, in some cases, a whole day.
MSO.net, a UK and Australia-based web agency, reports:
“As the quantity of e-mails in workers’ inboxes increases steadily, productivity suffers as people spend less time doing the work for which they were employed and dedicate too much time dealing with the unwelcome e-mails. This increases anxiety since office hours may increase and thus the work/home life equilibrium is affected - ultimately more stress is heaped on the individual.”
How about setting periods of time when you’ll sift through e-mails and then let them gather again for later? For some, especially in the high-tech industry, this might seem impossible. But, getting a handle on e-mail time has its benefits. MSO’s study revealed that people underestimate how often they check e-mail, which potentially amounts to more wasted time.
“Of those surveyed, 34 per cent said that they thought they checked their inbox every 15 minutes. However, monitoring software reported a different story when fitted to those users’ PCs. In reality, many were viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour. The burden to respond quickly to e-mails appears to be partly to blame and when combined with the volume of e-mails being received, stress is the outcome for 33 per cent.”
It’s true that wanting to reply quickly to e-mails is part of the culprit. However, when we’re compulsively clicking on our inboxes 40 times an hour (unless you’re in a job that warrants that amount of e-mail checking such as customer service or tech support), productivity declines.
E-mail can be used to keep busy, deceiving us into thinking we’re getting important work done, when half of the stuff we open is a YouTube forward. There’s some funny footage out there, but it seductively steals time.
And, when you’re already stressed–a looming deadline, an important interview–e-mail is as easy a distraction as turning on the TV at night.
Unless I’m meeting with a client or have an early appointment, I check e-mail in the morning. As a small business owner, I like to be responsive.
Keeping it under control
When I start working for the day, I first check my calendar. Then, I write down on paper my top three priorities for the day. (I don’t want my e-mails influencing these priorities just yet.) The act of putting pen to paper helps me concentrate and hone in on what’s important for my day.
If I have a morning meeting, then I’ll head out the door. If my schedule is clear, it’s then that I will quickly dip into e-mail. If my e-mail unveils something urgent, I might replace one of my priorities on my top three list. Then, I draw a line under the top three and put other to dos there, in case I have extra time.
Throughout the rest of my day, I only check e-mail once every few hours. I get more done that way and my focus stays sharper. Every once in a while, there are a few important e-mails that sneak past me, but not many. If an emergency arrises, people will find me if they need me.
What helps you stay on top of e-mail enough without too much time loss? What strategies do you use to focus, block distractions and make the most of your time?
Popularity: 14% [?]
Have someone else digitize your old photos
How long would it take you to scan 1000 photos? I’m thinking it would take me quite some time and I don’t think I’d be able to do anything else if I wanted to get them scanned in a reasonable amount of time. If you have a large amount of photos sitting in closet, basement, or attic, you may want to check out ScanMyPhotos.com. The service promises to professionally scan 1,000 photos for you, the same day it receives them, and put them on a DVD for $50.
The company uses a Kodak scanning machine that can process a hundred photos per minute. From an informative New York Times article about the whole process:
Because it must feed your photos through this machine, ScanMyPhotos has set some rules. Photo sizes can range from 3 by 3 inches (Polaroids) to 11 by 14.
The photos must be put into similar-size bundles (4-by-6 prints together, for example) with rubber bands. The only way to label the batches is to write on index cards, which are scanned along with the photos like title cards. If you want the bundles scanned in a certain sequence, you can number the index cards.
The photos can’t be in albums or scrapbooks. That’s understandable, but it can be heart-wrenching to have to dismantle photo albums that somebody once spent a lot of time and effort creating.
Your photos can’t be in envelopes, either. For my test, I submitted about 20 years’ worth of pictures. (I found out later that there were more than 1,800 in all. I had no idea it was that many; those bundles look deceptively small.) They came from dozens of drugstore envelopes, meaning that I had to separate them from their negatives, probably forever, given that matching 1,800 prints with their original envelopes would take the rest of my life. And my descendants’.
The photos are scanned exactly as you send them. If one is upside down or backward, that’s how it winds up on the DVD. Similarly, you’re supposed to ensure that all horizontal photos are upright, and all vertical photos are consistently rotated 90 degrees the same way.
Finally, you pack your bundles into a box, stuffing it carefully to avoid shifting.
The company’s Web site offers copious photos of the right and wrong ways to pack up your pictures. The bottom line is, ScanMyPhotos will do the scanning. But you have to do the prep work, and it’s not insubstantial.
This seems like a pretty reasonable option for digitizing your old photos. Preparing your photos for shipment looks like the most labor intensive part of the whole process. It seems like a rather even tradeoff, though, for getting a DVD full of your digitized photos.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Ikea’s new Laptop Workstation: A highlight of 2009 catalog
Ikea’s 2009 catalog has hit the internet and people are going crazy talking about the new items. The one thing that has caught my attention more than everything else is the wall-mounted Laptop Workstation.
It’s very similar to the eNook Workstation we discussed in January, and a lot less expensive at $69.99. The front of the Laptop Workstation folds down and has cubbies for small-item storage.
It comes in white or red and matches the other items in the Ikea PS collection.
To pre-order your 2009 Ikea Catalog, follow this link:
http://info.ikea-usa.com/SignUp/
Popularity: 15% [?]
O’Reilly embraces ebook technology and releases 30 digital titles
Technology publishing giant O’Reilly recently announced that many of its popular titles will be released in ebook format. The press release “30 O’Reilly Titles Now Available as Ebook Bundles” explains how you can now buy these electronic titles through the O’Reilly store and download them in the ebook reader format of your choice.
The three ebook formats available are EPUB, PDF, and Mobipocket, and these formats are compatible with Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle, Blackberries, and Sony Reader.
The electronic titles aren’t just about writing programming code, like so many great O’Reilly books are. Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World covers strategic planning and Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management discusses project management strategies. Mind Performance Hacks includes strategies for improving your analytical reasoning and focus. There also are guides for using Wikipedia and Facebook, and a book on transforming your home into a smart house.
The fewer books taking up space on your bookshelves, the easier it is to keep your bookshelves in order. Thank you, O’Reilly, for embracing the ebook market!
Popularity: 19% [?]
