Archive - Tech RSS Feed

Remember The Milk Cheat Sheet

May 17, 2010 in Tech with 7 Comments

If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to do things faster. I’m on a never ending journey of becoming more effective and efficient in my daily workflow. One of the components of most people’s workflow is a task list. I’ve been using RememberTheMilk.com (RTM) as my task manager for a few years (excluding a brief experiment with Google Tasks) and I can’t imagine trying to be productive without it.

There are a TON of ways to add tasks to your lists, but one of my personal favorites is using a combination of their add tasks via email feature (you’re given a unique email address that allows you to add tasks) and a newer feature called Smart Add. It’s a trick I picked up from the book Bit Literacy. If I get an email that requires an action on my part, I’ll forward the email to RTM and just change the subject line to something that helps me remember what I’m supposed to do. The body of the text is attached to the task as a note, which is nice to have to get a context for the task.

The downside to this method for me has been I can’t easily remember some of the feature codes for Smart Add, which I like to use. They have a lengthy discussion on how Smart Add works, but I don’t need all that. I just need the codes. I fixed my little problem today by typing up a nice little cheat sheet that I tacked to my cork board. Now I’ll be able to have a little more control over my tasks via email and you can too. Just print out the doc or this blog post, cut the cheat sheet up to your preferred size, and you’ll be all set.

Enjoy!

RTM Smart Add Cheat Sheet

^ Due Date
! Priority
# List / Tag
@ Location
* Repeat
= Time Estimate

 

If you use RTM and you have a tip I’d love to hear it! Share in the comments.

iPad Quick Review

April 23, 2010 in Tech with 0 Comments

It took me three years to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, but I’ve already jumped on the iPad train. This thing is really, really cool. When I first heard about it from the Steve Jobs keynote I scoffed. I thought this was the biggest miss that Apple has done since the Newton, but I was wrong. This thing is awesome. It’s not quite a computer and not quite a smartphone, but it makes sense to me already. I think it will especially be a really big hit for parents with little kids, as there are already a bunch of apps for it and there will just be more and more that get developed.

If you’re on the fence about getting one, and you have the cash to burn, get it. It’s fun and elegant. It’s not perfect, but it’s still great.

And yes, I did write this post from the WordPress app on my iPad.

Problems With My Blog

March 5, 2010 in Tech with 2 Comments

— UPDATE (3/5/10, 4:45 pPM): Everything seems to be working right now. Let me know if you run into any issues. —

I’ve been trying to work out some problems with my blog for the past day. You may not even ever see this post, but just wanted to put something up that hopefully will show up on the front page.

Image by flickr user jmarty.

Google’s Newest Experiment: 1 Gbps Fiber to the Home

February 10, 2010 in Tech with 0 Comments

Google announced today that they’re going to start experimenting with delivering extremely fast internet directly to people’s homes. As in, 1 Gbps. That’s blazing fast no matter who you are. To put the speed in perspective compare it to my current ISP. I currently have 15 Mbps from Verizon Fios, so Google’s planned service would be 67 times faster than what I have now. That would be incredible. I really, really hope Flower Mound, TX gets early access to this, but I won’t hold my breath.

In their blog announcement, Google said that one of the reasons they’re doing this was to help developers create cool new web services and apps. They wrote:

Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.

Check out the video announcement below:

Your thoughts?


Stuck Trying to Figure out What or How to Blog? Check out ProBlogger (Book Review).

February 5, 2010 in Tech with 0 Comments

 

ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

Over the past month or so I’ve been wanting to get back into blogging and trying to figure out what my personal blog should be focused on. What’s my niche? Why do people read my blog? What should I write about? It’s the type of questions that I believe every blogger asks at some point in the life of their blog.

Through the course of asking myself these questions, having a couple of conversations with a friend about a new joint-venture in blogging, and looking for some ideas to generate a little extra money on the side I decided to buy a copy of the book ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. I’m glad I did.

The sub-title of the book is “Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income,” so I was expecting the it to be mostly a “I got rich blogging and here are the ways that you can get rich quickly, too” type of book, but getting rich quick was not really the main focus of the book. There are a few chapters on money-making blogging strategies, but the majority of the book is devoted to helping you figure out how to run an effective blog. In fact, throughout the book the authors stress that most successful/profitable blogs are the result of years of work.

The main takeaway that I got from the book was that the best blogs are ones that focus on a niche market. The more specific the niche the better. Beyond that, the book was filled with practical ideas on how to write content that people want to read and gave numerous specific examples on how to generate ideas for new blog posts.

Overall, I’m really glad I spent the time to read the book. I don’t know whether or not I’ll make even a dime from blogging, but it has given me some motivation to get back in the game, as you can probably tell from this new post.

If you’re new to blogging, a veteran blogger looking for ideas to get unstuck, or trying to figure out how you might make a little money writing in your spare time I highly recommend getting a copy of the book for yourself.


Check out the blog that inspired the book at ProBlogger.net.

Page 4 of 19« First...«23456»10...Last »