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.
Read More Comments
This is a guest post from Candis Bradshaw, a new contributor to Digitizd. She’s a classical musician turned court reporter turned alphatechnogeek, and she’ll be around relatively often, so make her feel welcome!
Does your computer take an eternity to boot or shut down? Do you have frequent system freezes or slowdowns during the course of the day? You may be suffering from the computer slowdown blues. The “slowdown blues” can be caused by many things, but here is what you can do to help cure those slowdown blues.
We’ve discussed a few ways before to speed up your computer, and tips for fixing other problems, but now we’re going to dig into Windows itself.
A note before we get going: before you do anything that deals with your computer’s system and internal files, make sure you’ve got your most important files backed up somewhere. Basically any problem can be corrected, but you don’t want to risk losing some important data. Put it on a hard drive, in Dropbox, on 8,000 zip drives—just make sure you can always get it back.
Read More Comments
Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
Music. It’s like the soundtrack to our lives or something. But, like any good soundtrack, different types of music fit different situations. I’m constantly surprised by how often I’m in need of a particular kind of music, and trying to put it together on the fly is tough.
Most people’s solution to “let’s listen to some music” is what I like to call Super Shuffle: you plug in your iPod or computer, and just let it play. Whatever comes on, comes on. That usually works great for about six songs, and then you either hit a track from an audiobook, a crappy version of “Time of My Life” you sang for your ex, or something equally mood- and party-ruining.
Read More Comments
Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
Once people figure out you’ve got some computer know-how, you’re sure to get bombarded over and over with questions like “my computer’s on fire. What happened?” and “should this be ticking like that?” Often, these are problems we could fix on our own computers, but with someone else’s, it’s a lot harder. If it’s someone else who’s far away, it’s even worse.
Read More Comments
Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
We all use computers these days–for a growing number of us, computers are even a critical part of our work and play. Over time, this can create some serious strain on your body. As someone who spends an ungodly amount of time in front of a computer every day, I constantly find myself achy despite not moving for hours—that’s a low, low moment, folks.
Whether you work at a desk in an office, or in coffee shops and libraries, or any number of other places, there are a few simple steps you can take to make using your computer a lot more body-friendly, and keep your eyes, hands or back from giving up on you after a long work session.
Read More Comments
Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.
(This is a new weekly feature, the Weekend Project. Every week, I’ll point you to a bunch of great resources for doing a particular thing on the Web – in this case, starting and awesomeifying a Wordpress blog.)
To anyone who asks me about starting a blog, I recommend Wordpress over and over. It’s the Firefox of blogging – incredibly extensible, impossibly customizable, and since everyone uses it there’s a huge community of helpful people to get you going like a champion.
But all that can mean it’s incredibly daunting to get started. With 50 kajillion themes out there, which one do you pick? And what the heck is a plugin?
Read More Comments
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.
Read More Comments
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.
Read More Comments
