There are two buttons I always install when using Firefox, I have found that these not only shorten the time it takes me to do things, but they save me from a lot of frustration.

I use ftp a lot to transfer files to my own blog and when I really get into writing I can close and open it several times. I use Fire FTP, a Firefox extension that lets you transfer files via FTP protocol right there in your browser. This is an immensely useful tool, but to access it you need to go to the tools menu and select it from the list.

Luckily you can install the Fire FTP button that will let you access it from any toolbar. Remember, you won’t see it after you install, you need to right-click a toolbar, click on customize, find the button and drag it to any toolbar. I placed it just to the left of my URL bar , so it’s quite accessible.

(more…)

Tags: addon, buttons, shortcut
Categories: firefox

I always knew that Lifehacker has some software available like Better Gmail, Better Google Calendar, but they actually have a whole line I didn’t even know about until a recent post.

They have some pretty useful stuff, all of them are “micro programs” designed for one specific use. They have a great text replacement utility for example, called Texter, which replaces abbreviated text, with the full one. You can use it to substitute “gH” with gHacks for example, or “sig” with your full signature.

Swept away is another good idea, it minimizes windows after a specified time when they loose focus. This means that if you have Photoshop always open (like I do), but only use it every hour or so, it will minimize itself. This is great for me, since it removes clutter from my desktop and enables me to actually work.

(more…)

Tags: free, lifehacker, productivity
Categories: Tools

I usually have big problems with online “X” creators, they are usually cumbersome, weird and have various results ranging from bad to awful. While Deyey also has these features, I find that it actually works better than most creators.

Deyey is a name card and business card creator which allows you design your business card from scratch, add text, media, and pre-designed elements. It has a very easily usable drag and drop interface, a click-to-select method you see in desktop apps, but rarely in web apps and many fun elements to spice up your card.

What I really liked about it is that the logos generated by the app seem to work like vector graphics, you can scale them up or down as much as you like, without getting that pixellated feel. You can also add context to the text, since you can choose if the selected text is a phone number, a name or a fax number.

(more…)

Tags: business card, name card
Categories: Online Services

If you like reading newspaper style news, as well as online style, DailyMe may be for you. It aims to give you content you like, in a sort of digest form every morning for example. It tries to mimic the experience of reading the morning paper as closely as possible and does a quite good job of it too.

First you have to choose the types of content you want to read about. I was surprised at how well this is structured, although it is a bit slow, perhaps this will change with time. There are a few top level categories like sports, science, financial news, you then choose a second level category, but you can also choose keywords to go with them, further narrowing your news.

So far this can be achieved via RSS if you’re good, although you can’t monitor thousands of feeds really effectively and you won’t get the newspaper feel. DailyMe has the answer for that as well though

(more…)

Tags: news
Categories: Online Services

When it comes to GTD I’m pretty picky about what I use. I do enjoy the simplicity of online applications like Simple GTD, but if I have a lot of very elaborate projects I need much more power. There are online solutions, but the great ones like Nozbe tend to cost money. While I have no problem with that, my picky nature means that the chances of an app working for me is slim.

Then along came ThnkingRock, an Australia based application that has all the power of the online apps, plus more, for free. It has been developed for Linux, OS X and Windows and is currently in its 2.0 epsilon release.

In short, ThinkingRock implements David Allen’s GTD methodology pretty much as close as any app can come to it and it stays true to it throughout the way. It keeps the stages of GTD distinctly separate and enables you to create advanced reports, print them or save them as pdf, xls, etc.

(more…)

Tags: gtd, organize
Categories: software

It came as a bit of a surprise to me that Microsoft is working on a list creation program, much like the web 2.0 list apps we can see around the web. I took a quick look, but since it’s only a tech preview, it’s quite basic, and only has bare-bone features. This shouldn’t be a huge problem, a lot of us are minimalists, and for simple task-managing it will work pretty well as is.

The interface is beautiful, simple lines, simple design all round. The text is a wonderfully ambient gray, bullet points are simply round dots, even menu graphics are refined and un-flashy. This is a big plus in my book, it looks great, while remaining subdued.

Creating a list and editing the entries is pretty much all the functionality right now, with clipping from the web as an added bonus. You can use bold text, linking, tagging and so on, but nothing like the advanced geotag features of Remember The Milk. There are some nice features though for ordering your lists, like indenting, collapsing all and showing all. While simple tools, these are really enough for creating an organized list.

(more…)

Tags: listas, lists, microsoft, to do
Categories: Tools

I was thinking on rounding up some of the net’s best freeware apps and putting them into one easily installable pack. As these things go, it seems like some clever people have beaten me to it. While I am a bit sad, I am actually really happy to have found this, since they did a really good job and it will help me a lot.

If you re-install Windows (or OSX) a lot, you know that you need to go through the process of installing Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, VLC Player and a whole lot more, and at times this can get a bit tedious. With the help of WinLibre or MacLibre all you need to do is download the installer and you can choose what you need, installing it with one click.

You can either get the 150Mb standalone version that contains everything you could install, or the 0.6Mb online installer version. I recommend the later, since you will be downloading the most recent updates for the apps. When you run the installer again, you can check for the latest software, without the need to download all 150 Megs again.

(more…)

Tags: apps, Open Source, Tools
Categories: Open Source, Tools, software

While browsing the GoogleDocs blog I found an interesting update about two updates already in this year. The less significant, although probably better update if you want to organize yourself is the ability to add sub-folders. For me this was a much awaited feature since no matter how many tags and other organizational stuff I can add, a good folder structure is always a must.

The more flashy update is the ability to embed your GoogleDocs presentations into any webpage. It works much like the YouTube videos, where you can embed your own video, or even someone else’s if you copy-paste the embed link.

The technology looks and feels much the same, you can click on menu and you’ll find the embed link, along with a link to view the presentation in full glory on the Google Docs page. I think it still needs a bit of polishing, especially on the looks side, but at least they’re listening to their users. This may not be the most beautiful update, but it’s usable and works.

(more…)

Tags: docs, documents, google docs, presentations, text
Categories: Google, Online Services