Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
For whatever reason, the Achilles Heel of my life online has long been my bookmarking system. I read a lot, write a lot, and am constantly looking for “that thing I read that one time that would be totally perfect right now!”
In my search for the perfect system, I’ve learned that many, many people have the same problem: we come across all this cool stuff, and there’s no system in place to put it somewhere we’ll reliably find it, or remember it exists, ever again. I promised that, if I figured out a system, I’d share it.
Well, here goes.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
I hate Microsoft Word. There, I said it. As much as I loathe it, though, I’ve mostly stuck with it for the last few years, just because it’s the best option out there for word processing.
Or so I thought. Google Docs, as it turns out, offers a huge number of features, some of which don’t get nearly enough press, that make it better for anyone, but especially those working remotely, than Word. I’ve talked about how much I love Buzzword and Zoho before, but Google Docs is really the standard.
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This is a guest post from Corey Nagle. Like it? Check out his blog, a Lukewarm Mess, or follow him on Twitter.
If you’re anything like me, you start your day off by checking email, Twitter, then Facebook, [insert favorite social media site],maybe the weather, reading up on your RSS feeds (which are backlogged into the hundreds, if not thousands), looking for stuff to post to Twitter… Not to mention the fact all this is done while trying to get ready for work, or while at work.
Not that I would ever cruise social media sites or any other site not work-related while working.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
It’s staggering how much information I now have online, in a place that I can’t control or own. Facebook has become my default photo album; Twitter’s where a lot of communication happens; Gmail’s where everything piece of important information in my life currently resides. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.
Most of the time, that’s not a problem. But what if Twitter suddenly shuts down? Or Facebook decides to take its ball and go home? Or, perhaps more likely, what if Google closes your account after it’s been hacked or misused (which has happened more than once)? Then, frankly, we’d be screwed. But not if you have Backupify. Backupify is a brand-new tool that is incredibly hard to type for some reason, but is also incredibly useful.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
I don’t own an iPhone—I have an iPod Touch. Every list of “Best iPhone apps” includes a lot of apps that are totally useless to those of us without constant Internet connection. Do you see the problem here?
For an application to be great for the iPod Touch, it needs to meet a few criteria: it has to have excellent offline capabilities, as well as fully-functioning online usage when you’re connected to Wi-fi. It has to be simple to use, because many Touch owners aren’t super tech-savvy. And, last but not least, it has to make your Touch a lean, mean, awesomeness machine. Which is a totally objective measure, I promise.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
Generally speaking, I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist. More accurately, I’m nothing even remotely close to a minimalist. I buy too many things, try too many things, love things bursting with features, and am a firm believer that more is more.
But the more I work, the more I realize that there’s enormous value in a tool that doesn’t do much, but excels at what it attempts to do. There’s no need for all the bells and whistles, and no matter how fun they might be, they can be more of a hindrance than a help. Bells and whistles are really loud, too.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
I’m a serial early-adopter, and a fickle user. That means it takes basically nothing to get me to try something, sign up, and drink the Kool-Aid for a few minutes. It’s also incredibly hard to convince me, as a user, to keep using your product and devoting my time to you.
This is particularly true for social networking applications—I try a ton, and quit almost all of them. Most of the time, social networks don’t have any real value unless everyone you know is using them, and most don’t have any value even if everyone is. But Foursquare? Foursquare’s different. I’m hooked, and I don’t care who knows it.
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Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about how to watch TV online for free. With a few tools that are readily at your disposal, it’s easy to find any show or movie you’re looking for, without spending a dime or wasting a minute. I don’t have cable TV anymore, and I couldn’t care less.
What’s great about the Internet is the same basic rule applies to music. There are a ton of tools (some more forthcoming about their legality than others) out there that let you play, save, and share enormous amounts of music. For me, someone who’s at my computer more often than I’m anywhere else, listening to music online means saving money on CDs, iTunes downloads and more.
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