RSS is great though it is always missing ‘something’. What is that something you ask? Well that is a good question. Everybody has their own wants and needs, and each business has different uses for it. Today we’re going over all the best ways to grab your RSS feeds! Yup, a change for once. Instead of talking about how to give something I’m talking about how to get something! WOOT! I’ll cover web-bases RSS, Windows RSS programs, Linux RSS programs and even Mac RSS programs! Woah, big list aye?  I’ll try to keep it to a list of the best from each. No need to list every single one on this post

Universal RSS programs/services – Web-Based RSS

There are a few web based RSS programs. The best well known is:

Google Reader

http://www.google.com/reader/view/

Google reader is the bes known web based RSS reader. You can add subscriptions from virtually any source, share items via e-mail/twitter/facebook/buzz and heck … you can even make a RSS of your rss collections! Best part of being on your google account is that you have access to it from anywhere you are! All you need is a internet connection.

FeedShow Reader (Beta)

http://reader.feedshow.com/

Feedshow isn’t as popular as Google reader, but it sure is versatile. It’s got a very smexy and VERY simple layout to use. Unlike Google’s interface which is a plugged with this&that google service, FeedShow is simple: RSS feeds on the left, your current feed on the right. Very simple, very fast and efficient!

Bloglines

http://www.bloglines.com/

This one is something a bit different than the rest. Sure you’ve got your share button, easy rss aggregation and all that jazz but that’s not what makes this stand out. Have you ever heard of an Autoblog? No? Well, it’s more or less a blog which writes itself. Bloglines allows you to do just that (up to 10 feeds if I remember correctly). So if you want a self writing, self promoting and self publishing blog this is the way to go. It has a very slick interface, VERY easy sharing abilities and it can even pull information from Netflix! Almost everything is customizable about ‘your’ site, so feel free to jump right in and create your own free RSS based website!

Windows RSS Aggregators

Windows has no shortage of applications. RSS readers is no exception. Probably one of the best and most versatile comes as an actual surprise because it isn’t a stand alone RSS reader. It’s a full blown mail application

Thunderbird

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

There isn’t much to say about this. It’s simply one of the best applications out there (for any platform) period. So go check it out at this link.

FeedDeamon

http://www.feeddemon.com/

FeedDeamon is the little (useful) brother you never had. The Genius little brother. Very helpful and very smart!

FeedDeamon not only has Google Reader Synchronization, but it also has automatic keyword tools. It can find feeds given a specific keyword and even do live scans to see if your keyword comes up in any new feed! Pretty cool aye? It also has the ability to share feeds and specific article with friends. Sweet aye?

The interface is rather simple to use and neatly organized. Nothing gets in the way of you and your reading. Which is what puts this rss reader in this list.

Awasu Personl Edition

http://www.awasu.com/

Awasu almost didn’t make it here because it is primarily a paid program. Though the “Personal Edition” is free. It has a very configurable layout with plenty of options. Their website needs some new decoration, but the program does not. It’s rather new age (not completely new though) with more feature than I’m willing to count.

Be sure to download from the “Personal Edition” link in the products page, NOT the commercial paid version! Personal is free!

Bonus mention: Outlook 2007 and newer

In the latest version of Outlook (2010 or Office 11, whatever they call it these days) RSS is built in. The reader is actually pretty darn good from what I hear. You access your RSS feeds ‘just like reading an e-mail’. Or so it says. You can check that you on the MSDN blog post (made two years ago).

Linux RSS Aggregators

Akregator  KDE based and integrates perfectly with the KDE PIM (Personal Information Management) Suite especially with Kontact (the KDE default mail client). Currrently updated to work with KDE4 and updated to the latest QT libraries and function. Simple, clean works well. It’s the RSS of choice for me.

It’s extremely fast, very easy to use best of all free . the layout is very simple: RSS list on the left and article stuff on the right. The right pane is split up into upper and lower. The upper part shows the latest posts from the selected RSS list (or folder) and the bottom pane is the message. This is re-arrangeable.

Other linux RSS readers:

There are plenty of other RSS readers in Linux, each one a bit different to suite your needs. Though Akregator is probably still your best stable choice. I found this link pretty helpful to see what other Linux rss readers are around: ‘My Favorite RSS Feed Readers In Ubuntu’ (not on my blog, external link).

Why don’t I mention more RSS readers here myself? Well, because I have no read interest in other Linux RSS readers. Akregator does everything I’d want it to and more. Plus it’s part of the Kontact e-mail/time-management/to-do-list/everything PIM suite. So it fits nicely into my work flow. Your mileage may vary.

Mac RSS Readers Aggregators

Ah, the good ol’ Mac. There is never a shortage of Mac apps, applets, widgets and nick-nacks. Whatever the program, it’s a Mac program so it’s bound to be every so sexy! (on a side note: wish Linux rss readers were this pretty!)

Today I only present two Mac RSS readers.

NewsFire

http://www.newsfirerss.com/

This is sure smexy there. The program has a VERY very nice interface which is extremely usable, but it doesn’t sacrifice any functionality for just for looks. All the essentials are there and more!

I don’t say much about it since I only used it a little bit. But ever since I used it, I ever only wanted to use this as my RSS reader. So if you got a Mac, get this.

NetNewsWire

http://netnewswireapp.com/

NetNewsWire can be called one of the leader Mac RSS apps, if probably not THE leading app. I can’t say much for this program because we only used it a little bit, but it is pretty damn cool. It’s also build on the Coca (is that what it’s called) interface thingy. So it’s sexy right off the bat. Give it a try!

You can check this link out for more Mac RSS goodness.

Have fun with all this RSS knownledge. Let me know in the comments if you have any other awesome RSS readers you use!

Dropbox is a great file backup service, or file transfer service depending on how you use it. In Linux though, you used to have little option. You could either use Gnome to have nice GUI integration or you had to use the command line. But not anymore. There is now a super easy way to integrate Dropbox into KDE. You do this with KDropbox.

Note: If you do not know what KDE or Linux is, then this post is NOT for you.

I previously wrote about how to get Dropbox running correctly in KDE here. It was a slightly round-about way to do it but it worked flawlessly and it was/is much easier than what the Dropbox WIKI says.

But, there is now the new and easier way. All you have to do is install KDropBox. Best of all, it’s super duper easy. Did I mention that it’s uber easy?

First thing you have to do it go to the KDropbox website on OpenDesktop.org:

http://opendesktop.org/content/show.php?content=123269

Then scroll down until you see the download links (the follow is just an image, not actual links):

If you do not know which ‘flavor’ of Linux you have, it’s probably best that you compile from source OR you use the method I wrote about previously.

For any future versions of KDropBox please go to the OpenDesktop site and download from there. As of this writing, the latest version is version 0.4.0, so here are the direct SourceFourge links:

Ubuntu x64

Ubuntu x86 – this is the 32bit version

SUSE i586

SUSE x64

Source code for version 0.4.0

Once you have downloaded the correct version for yourself, install it. From here on out, I’m using you’re using Ubuntu, or in this case Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu).

If you know how to install it via command line, then you need no more help from me really. For everyone else, here’s how to install the file you just downloaded:

1) If you have single click open enabled (default), then single click on the file you just downloaded. Else you’ll probably have to double click.

2) GDebi, or whatever the program in called in Kubuntu is called, will open up your file and it’ll look something like this:

3) Click “Install Package”.

4) A password dialog box will pop up, enter the root password. This is required. If you don’t have root, ask your sys-admin to install this for you.

5) It’ll take a bit to install, nothing too long though. Once it’s done it’ll show something similar to this:

Now you can run the application easily! There are a few ways:

• Press ALT-F2 to bring up the run dialog and type kdropbox. Press enter to run
• Kmenu -> Applications -> Internet -> kdropbox
• Kmenu -> search for kdropbox -> click on the icon
• run from command line with > kdropbox

Assuming everything goes correctly you’ll be presented with a happy Dropbox window! (click the image to see larger version)

Notice the nifty system tray icons! Woot! Why are there two? Ones for setup ones for the actual drop box. Don’t worry about it for now. Enter your information in the “Dropbox Setup” window and you’ll be good to go! WOOHOO.

You can safely close the “Dropbox Preferences” window.

With that everything else should be self-explanatory.

Let me know if this, or the older method worked for you! Good luck!

Twitter spam sucks in so many ways it’s not even funny. One good way to reduce the amount of spam you get AND to reduce the load on twitters servers is to simply unfollow the bad and the ugly. Why unfollow? Because by following back spammers and useless ‘stuff’ you are only serving to aid the evil swarm. But this isn’t all about spammers. This is about removing followers who are just bad, annoying or down right useless (or hindering) to your cause/goal/aim.

I previously wrote about Twitter spam (and my plans for a anti-spam twitter project) here, so if you have a minute check it out and let me know what you think. Also, there is a lot of good info for you on using TweetDeck to cut down on Twitter spam.

Before reading on, I have to state this: This article is only about unfollowing users on Twitter in-order to clean up your following’s list. This has NOTHING to do with whom you choose to follow in the first place nor about how to grow your followers. It’s also very likely that following any tips will decreases your amount of followers. You have been warned

So lets talk about something very important first.

Why You Should Unfollow Twitter Followers:

Unfollowing Twitter followers will clean up your profile, improve your following/followers ratio and help you manage your followers. Cleaning up your profile doesn’t actually ‘do’ anything per-say. But it will help make twitter a better place and help stop the grown of the spam cancer. Plus, you’ll probably feel better for knowing that everyone you follow is a genuine person who doesn’t spam.

Having a better followers/following ratio makes you look better, sort off. If you have 10,000 followers and follow 10,000 people then people will know that you have some authority. People are also more likely to follow you if they know that you will follow them back. But on the other hand, you’ll have people following you who will never contribute to your cause and follow you only so you will follow them back and improve their numbers.

If on the other hand have something like 10,000 followers but only follow 3,000 then people will really perceive you to have a lot (more) authority. People like authority. But then again, a bunch of people will also not follow you because you won’t follow them back.

That all depends on how you and others use Twitter. But as far as I have ever known, seen, read or learned … there is nothing wrong with having more followers than whom you follow. Might actually be good for you too!

As for helping you manage your followers: why would you want to follow ‘bad’ users? I’m using bad very generally here, mind you. Sure there are Twitter lists and groups/lists/folders/whathavenots in programs (like TweetDeck and HootSuite), but still why follow users who will not contribute to your Twitter experience?

Top 3 Types Of Twitter Users To Unfollow

The most obvious reason is:

1) SPAM.

If you get any spam from a user or notice someone spamming, block them immediately. Better yet, “Block and Report Spam” (as you were taught in the video on the other twitter post). The big question with this one is:

Is this person really spamming or are they just over zealous with their marketing?

Fair question which I’ll cover in another post. But for now, it’s generally safe to say if it smells like spam it probably is.

2) Obnoxious, mean or generally annoying users.

Why keep following someone who is mean and rude? That just doesn’t make sense. If someone is pestering you, especially in ‘real life’, what do you do? You usually ignore them and stay away. Doing so on Twitter is very easy and it’ll save you a lot of headaches.

No body likes a bully, so don’t give them power by remaining a follower.

3) Users constantly Twitters useless tweets

Whether it’s a form of spam or it’s just the way they use Twitter, someone use constantly tweets useless things (like quotes all the bloody time) is probably not someone you’d wanna follow.  Of course that is your choice to make, but by follow someone who is:

• only tweeting quotes
• only pushing their products and nothing more
• Tweeting completely random tweets that don’t seem to do anything with one another

by following such people, you only waste your time and precious Twitter resources (as anyone who’s been on Twitter for a while will tell you that Twitter doesn’t exactly have a lot of computing resources).

Stop spinning wheels and remove useless people from your Twitter life!

Clean up your account and take out the garbage! It’s starting to smell!

Phew, spam smells the worst.

Those are the three types of ‘users’ I plan to start unfollowing tomorrow. What types of people do you unfollow on Twitter, do you not unfollow? How about Follower/Following management? Do you use any of that?

Let me know in the comments. Hopefully together we can create an awesome “Twitter Special Report: Efficient Unfollowing” together!

Chrome is great in many ways, but it also severely lacks in features. Now don’t get me wrong. Chrome pioneered in many new features. BUT Firefox beat’s Chrome without breaking a sweat in the plugins/extensions department. As we all know, Extensions can (and do) add A LOT of needed (and some not) functionality to the browser.

The biggest issue is that Google’s Chrome isn’t mature yet, not as much as Firefox, and some people are reluctant to port their old Firefox plugins to Chrome. Other’s who have ported their plugins, haven’t been able to do it completely. For a variety of reasons, some plugins just aren’t as good in Chrome as in FF.

That being said, I found a nice list of plugins (many far from the standard list of ‘top chrome extensions’) that (mostly) complete the Chrome functionality list.

First and foremost, my choice of the single most important plugin for Chrome:

1) Google Chrome Session Management – Session Manager - Version: 0.3

One of the biggest complaints about Chrome that I’ve read was the sloppy session management. Well no more! This plugin adds more control over when you save sessions and can restore them as well! WOOT!

Yes I know, the latest version of Chrome have a “restore last open tabs on open” feature (under the Basics tab in Options) and even if it crashes you can get back all your tabs from the “Last Opened Tabs” bar at the bottom of the home screen … but it didn’t have session “management”. This finally bring it to ya!

This is truly a must have extension for the power user.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bbcnbpafconjjigibnhbfmmgdbbkcjfi?hl=en

2) Block Ads in Google Chrome – AdBlock

Most people don’t like the idea of ads in the face all the time. Especially with the way today’s internet is going, ads are virtually everwhere on every website and ever page. It gets really REALLY annoying after a time.

So, to combat the whole ad problem the good people who brought us AdBlock for Firefox have brought it to Chrome! yey! No more ads!

This extensions is rather interesting because it even blocks the simple .jpg ads on my website. I made the images myself in The Gimp, they are small and cheap … so I’m kinda surprised it blocked em!

So be assured it’ll (mostly) do the job! The latest version can (it’s still in Beta so it might not) prevent the ads from downloading to your computer! How sweet is that?

This is also right up on the top of the list of need to have extensions for Chrome.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=en

2.1) AdBlock Extension Button

This adds the little Ad block button to Chrome. Since theory states that the orginal plugin does not add the button. Very useful and you should install this as well if you install the AdBlock extension.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/picdndbpdnapajibahnnogkjofaeooof?hl=en

3) Better Password Management In Google Chrome – LastPass

Browsers for some odd reason have always sucked with password management. I really don’t know why though. Oh well. If you use Windows you have several options open to you, but for the rest of us AND those of us who like a cross-platform solution there is LastPass.

The service free to use, but they also have a paid “premium” version. I’m not interested in that since I’m currently broke. (Any want to donate to the “Piotr Krzyzek Please Buy A Vowel For Your Last Name” Fund  ?)

Now what exactly is LastPass? It’s a website to store all your passwords safely. So if you do NOT want to send your passwords to a third party, stay with Roboform or KeePass/KeyPass/KeePassX.

Personally I would have MUCH preffered an offline solution (like Roboform for linux), but sadly there is not free nor paid cross-platform solution with auto-fillin and what not. So that really sucks.

The service and extension need a little bit of setup, but it’s very easy. Took me all of 2 minutes (if even that) to do. It can import your passwords from Chrome’s normal password manager, Roboform, Keepass and a bunch of others.

Though from experience (and from what others have said), the password import feature DOES NOT WORK in Google Chrome on Linux (at least not the latest version on x64). Also I have read that people on Mac are having trouble with it.

So this plugin is a hit/miss situation. Though I’m using is because I’m tired of typing my passwords all the bloody time and all these websites. Bleh! Gimmie a break!

Give this extension a try and see what you think. It might not be right for you. You might wanna stay with Roboform (Windows) or well … save em all in KeePass and manually copy over?

Overall I still stay give it a go! You might just like it.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hdokiejnpimakedhajhdlcegeplioahd?hl=en#

By the way, there is a Roboform for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/kidhjpmgjfbkmcfpfakmdddddgfbhahj?hl=en#

4) Increase Security With Website Ratings – WOT / Web Of Trust For Google Chrome

The awesome WOT extension finally on Chrome. This plugin rates each website by community input. If a website was rated good by the majority it will have a green icon by in, or if many people flag it as spam or malware then it’ll have a red symbol.

I don’t actively use this extension, I just quickly give it a glance before I click on any link though. So I find it pretty good to keep myself, and my computer safe.

Probably also a good idea to use it with tighter restrictions if you have kids and what not.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bhmmomiinigofkjcapegjjndpbikblnp?hl=en

5) Bookmark sync in Google Chrome other than with a Google Account – XMarks

Previously known as FoxMarks, XMarks made headlines as a cross-platform browser bookmark syncing extension. It have finally arrived on Chrome. I used it a lot in Firefox to sync 5 different operating systems and their Firefox browsers to my bookmarks. It kept everything nice and orderly for me whenever I switched to a different OS.

This generally one of the first plugins I install in any OS with any browser that supports it. Love it! <3

If you’ve never used XMarks before, the setup is very simple. You create a XMarks account (required, but totally free), click next a few times and POOF. You’re browser(s) will be automatically synced with the XMarks account all the time.

You can also manually sync! Even better, it can also sync passwords and Tabs (tabs is windows only) in Firefox. For Chrome it’s still in the works, but the bookmark syncing is still just as perfect.

Also, you can do one way sync’s. Meaning, you can download from the server to your local browser overwriting everything. Or you could even go the other way! Your choice.

But this is one of the most highly recommended plugins by me.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ajpgkpeckebdhofmmjfgcjjiiejpodla?hl=en

If you’re serious about Web development or just want to get a handle on things, here are some plugins which are finally making their way from Firefox. But I’ll say this already, if you want the best SEO/Web-development browser go with Firefox because it has the widest array for extensions and the most mature (and stable) extensions for exactly this. Google chrome is just playing catchup right now.

6) Performance Test and Speed Test Your Website … How Fast Does Your Site Load? – Speed Tracer

This plugin is actually made by Google, so that’s nice … I guess. It’ll tell you how fast your site loads and what loads when. Simple as that. It also gives you pretty pictures of everything. Very good to know what you gotta optimize on your site!

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ognampngfcbddbfemdapefohjiobgbdl?hl=en

7) Check How A Site Looks As a Specific Resolution – Resolution Test

As the title says, it’ll test a specific screen resolution for your website. All you do it click on the icon and select the screen size you want to test, and poof! You’ll insta-see how it’ll appear to people who use a screen that size/resolution. Nifty aye?

I really wish they had it a while back though, woulda saved me a lot of grief!

This is also more aimed at the hardcore programmers and designers. If you’re the average Joe-type person, you probably won’t need to bother with this.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/idhfcdbheobinplaamokffboaccidbal?hl=en

Inline LIVE CSS/HTML/DOM editing of Website – Firebug Lite

Sadly no ‘full’ version of Firebug for Chrome yet. So we’ll made do with this lite version. Plus, if you are doing heavy web-dev, you should probably be using FF anyway.

Anyway ……… This plugin is an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE for any web developer. It’ll allow you to change practically anything on the site without ‘actualy’ editing the files. Kind of like a live preview.

Also makes it easy to find any element on a page and debug. WOOT!

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bmagokdooijbeehmkpknfglimnifench?hl=en

9) Get SEO and PageRank Statistics – Chrome SEO

There are a few extensions for this, but this one has a nice built in feature that allows you to see the current pages RANK on most of the useful statistics sites. It’s also rather fast, which is good

From the description: ”

The Google Chrome SEO Extension provides easy access to Search Engine Optimization Tools that can help you with Competitive Analysis, Keyword Research, Backlink Checks, PageRank Checks and other daily SEO tasks."

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/oangcciaeihlfmhppegpdceadpfaoclj?hl=en

Now for some useful plugins. Not really needed, but rather helpful at times.

10) Improve Intra-Window Tab Management – Tab Manager

This makes the tabs a bit easier and faster to work with especially if you have many chrome windows open. So, if you really only use one Chrome window at a time, it’s not really for you.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/coonecdghnepgiblpccbbihiahajndda

11) Change Google Accounts Quickly In Chrome – Quick Google

If you have multiple Google accounts then you know how annoying it can be to keep switching between them!

You either have to have different browsers open, or keep logging in and out. It sucks. This extensions solves this exact issue. Just set it up and POOF. Click and switch! That easy

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cbgngpehipfmfmpjmhonhacgbkjpdidp

12) Watch Videos In A More Cinematic Way – Turn Off The Lights

This is a simple idea: why keep the whole webpage so bright and distracting when watching videos? For example, Youtube is white themed and very bright. It’s rather annoying to watch, especially if you watch a series or something.

So this extension, when enabled, with isolate the video (hopefully) and darken the rest of the webpage. It’ll just leave the video nice and bright to watch! YEY!

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bfbmjmiodbnnpllbbbfblcplfjjepjdn?hl=en

13) MegaUpload Download Helper

If you download a lot from MegaUpload you know it has those pesky timers, time limits and it’s easy to forget to come back to the page to download it after a minute of waiting and stuff.

So this plugin will do the waiting for you. It won’t auto solve the Capthca (however it’s spelled), but it will ‘wait’ and download for you.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/leekjckogogidfhpejjmaaekecplpdcg?hl=en

14) RapidShare Download Helper

Same as #13 except for Rapidshare

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/afpbkpjjkfakdcakapanjoeijlphieei?hl=en

15) Automatically Write Signature In Google Chrome – AutoPen – Email Signatures

This is a recommendation by Rob at MidLifeOp.com so thanks Rob

What this does is add a nice signature for you anywhere text is. Particularly useful in Gmail and google apps (so the description says). Check it out!

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cmjcoiohflenpehfaalahocpmacjloof?hl=en

and last but not least:

16) Fastest And Best Proxy Wwitcher In Google Chrome – Proxy Switch!

Suffice it to say, if you use proxies then this is the plugin you want. It’s easy to use and works very fast. It has a very pretty interface and easy to understand.

This is what I have been using and I have never looked back because this plugin has the EASIEST proxy switching feature of any extension. And it was first I think.

Though it’s not perfect, it’s annoying to configure if you have a bunch of proxies and there is not bulk setup feature. Also backuping up the proxy list is not possible … so that really blows.

But other than that it’s my fav.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/caehdcpeofiiigpdhbabniblemipncjj?hl=en

So that’s it. 17 awesome plugins which will help you in your day to day Chrome life! I’ve missed a few I’m sure and I intentionally skipped a bunch. The ones I skipped I skipped because I think they are rather useless (as features) or the extensions seems to be poor quality.

Things I skipped:

• RSS extensions – because I think for a real RSS reader you should not be using a browser to handle it. Just get a real RSS reader application. Or use the Google reader thingy, I hear it’s actually pretty good (I’ve never used it so I can’t vouch for it)
• Youtube ‘addons’ – Go to site. Watch a video. Done. I don’t see any need for other ‘features’. Except for maybe a double-size button. Other than that, everything else seems like a waste.
• Google app addon apps – never use google apps, so I never tested em.
• Website capture extensions – Useless waste of resources. If you use windows: Use Jing. It’s great. Even as a Linux user I pray to the higher powers that we Linux people will get something as great as Jing (free version). Mac, you’ve got plenty. In Linux, use KSnapshot … it’s the best one out there.
• Facebook/Twitter/Social stuff – … why? just go to the site or use a real social app like TweetDeck or FriendFeed. It’s a browser people not a Jack-in-a-box + addons!

You get my drift

With that all said, what are you favorite useful addons? Lets me know in the comments, hopefully I can learn something new and then spread the awesome knowledge!

Time management is a topic so tough and gargantuan that it requires specializes courses at colleges like Harvard and MIT just to understand the basics. For those of us who cannot afford (in money or time) to go study productivity and time management we’re gotta help each-other out and figure it out ourselves.

So recently I was doing a quick browse through Lifehacker and this jewel caught my eye. It’s more powerful than most people realize. So, let me start out my saying this isn’t an original idea, so it wasn’t thought up by me nor the Lifehacker peeps. But it sure as hell is a good one.

The idea is simple: Use a daily log (a time sheet) to keep track of what you work on and when!

See! The idea is simple, and if you hold any sort of day job (other than self-employed) you already know the ‘fun’ that is the hourly Time-sheet we all had/have to submit.

To outline the Lifehacker post for you:

• In Windows, use notepad to keep a daily activity log
• Review the log … daily!

They also offer a few short-cut tips to working with a daily ‘log’ file with Notepad.

The benefits of using a daily log:

You might be thinking “well wait, why on earth would I want to do something so time wasting?” Fair question. But this isn’t wasting time.

This lets you know, if done correctly, exactly how much time spend on actually productive tasks and how much of that time is spent mucking about.

I don’t have a file to show you yet, since I just started using it right before writing this post, but I can already see it’s benefits. So far I’ve spent about 15 minutes thinking and writing this post (up to this line) and about 20 minutes looking for a few ‘extra’ tips and tricks to add here. So, the actual productive time in writing this post so far is about 16 minutes.

EK! I already know I have trouble focusing, so see’ing how much time I waste on other things can (and will) surely help both of us concentrate on the things that need to be done.

Remember, when you are your own boss you really have to command and boss yourself around.

With a daily log, you’ll be able to see:

• How much time to spend actually working
• How much time to waste on ‘other’ things
• When you work the most/best
• How much time is spent dilly-dallying (ie: mucking about and not working)

All of this will keep a log for you and allow you to analyze yourself and your work habits. Is there something that keeps distracting you? At a certain time maybe?

As the Lifehacker post also recommends: “review your daily log!”

Keeping a daily log doesn’t do much good unless you periodically review it. Personally, I like to use Notepad directly to add my notes so I can see what I’ve accomplished recently—you’ll be more motivated to accomplish something useful if you’ve gone through half the day without getting anything done that’s worth writing down.

It’s also a good idea to add a reminder to your calendar to periodically check through your log and see what you’ve actually accomplished for the week, or month, and then check the completed items on your to-do list. It’s a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your to-do list, and help you tune things for higher productivity.

Timestamps with VIM/MS Office/OpenOffice

If you do not want to use Notepad (or can’t/want … like me) you can use the awesome ViM text editor. You can even do this with MS Office or OpenOffice.

ViM Timestamps:

If you don’t know what ViM is, don’t worry you can skip over this section.

In ViM there are several ways. You can download a plugin for it, but I don’t recommend it. It was a bit weird. So here is the most recommended and probably the simplest way:

1. Open a new file
2. Type the following command in Linux:      :r! date
   1. This will run the date command which returns the time and date
   2. Feel free to add commands and output options like through a normal command line
3. Type the following command in Windows:      :r! date /t or   :r! time /t
   1. Both ‘should’ work, but just the date /t should be fine.

That will add a timestamp on the current like. If you want to learn more about ViM stampstamping and stuff like that check out this nifty page at a ViM Wiki site: Add current date and time in ViM

Also, to make this easier, it’s probably a good idea to add it to a macro.

To add a ViM macro:

1. Exit out of editor mode in ViM, so that you are in the default command mode.
2. Press ‘q’ … simply press the q key. Then press any letter (or number) on the keyboard to bind the command to. For example, I used ‘t’. So I pressed ‘q t’. Meaning, I pressed the q-key and then the t-key. (NOT AT THE SAME TIME). This starts recording the macro.
3. Enter the desired command (:r! date)
4. Press q again to stop recording

To use the new macro:

1. Since we bound it to the t-key (though we really could have bound it to any ‘normal’ character key), to use it we press ‘@ t’.
   1. Press shift-2 (this is the @), then press the t-key
   2. Do this in the command mode (ie: the default mode).

MS Office timestamps:

1. Go to Insert -> Date & Time
2. Click ‘Adjust/Update Automatically’
3. Insert one time/date.
4. Next time just press this key combination to insert a new time stamp (all at the same time): Alt-Shift-t

Open Office timestamps:

This one isn’t as nice and easy. But there is always the Insert-> Date & Time method. Though I think it’s called something like Insert->Special … or something. I haven’t been in there for a while.

But, I did find this. An extension for OO to help! I haven’t checked it out but it might help ya’ll. http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/taxonomy/term/70

Did you like this tip? Let me know! What other simple yet effective tips do you all know that helps keep your organized?

(image from ihazcancheezeburger website with cats!)

“1% Inspiration, 99% Perspiration.”

Many people have ideas. Many people have many ideas, but only a few people create and implemented their ideas. Even fewer people create original ideas.

Why care though?

It’s simple: it is those people who stand out, make a difference and create original ideas (and implement them) who “make it” in this world. They are the old money, the international rich bankers, the leaders of the new free world.

You never ever hear the story of Mr. X down from the south (not to make fun of any southern Americans … even though it’s fun too) who washed his car again. No. You head about Mr. Richy Rich who implemented this new marketing strategy for his company and took his company public all while creating better products, getting more customers and increasing revenue for everyone.

With internet marketing you could stay in the dark for a long long time really. You could use aliases, and hire out work to anonymous sources … but why?

Life is short and those who stand out generally have the best lives.

Let’s take an example from the comic books. Spider man is extremely popular, I know I have a few Spiderman Vs Venom comics laying on my old shelves. Superman is a classic. Green Lantern is a great hero but yet stay hidden-ish.

And how, let’s take a look at Tony Stark. President and CEO of Stark Industries. Iron Man. He is a playboy, a super star and has a claim to fame to powerful that he, ever since the comic original release, was the #1 super hero (in terms of popularity). He is also the best liked super hero in the comic books because he is known and is different.

He didn’t hide, he didn’t run. He had brand new ideas on how to get things done and he did them. He lead the way in many occasions. Rock on dude.

In Asian countries, people are trained from birth to NOT stand out. And most don’t. They become, more or less, mindless slaves to “the system.” They’ll whine and complain about everyone else making the monies.

But let me ask you this, have you ever seen one rich and famous Asian person who DIDN’T stand out? Make a difference? Create new ideas? Lead the way?

Nope. Whether it’s the “kawaii” J-pop stars or the old school Toyota CEO, they all took their ideas and made it happen.

In my own life, this has never been more true. Having been raised in lower middle-class American society I got to experience the joys of the USA public school system. Trouble as it may be, it is the best school system I have ever known to teach this: Diversity.

Out of all the students, guess which students where the most popular (of course excluding the hot blonde chicks and the jar head sport ‘dudes’): those who stood out and made a difference.

We had one classmate who I can’t say was a looker and he was probably odder than me (which says a lot). But boy, he loved to sing. And sing he did. When he sang everyone listened, and when he ended all you could hear was the roar of applause.

He stood out, took his love of music (and singing). Added his own ideas into it, his own persona into it, and flew with it. Sadly I dunno where he now, but I bet you it’s probably somewhere in the music biz.

So you you my friends: when you have ever tried to ‘stand out’, be creative/innovative and a leader? I’d love to know how it turned out. Because I’m very sure just by finally being different and being an idea CREATOR instead of a follower you got far.

For whatever reason, once in a long while WordPress will just break the RSS feed. Why? God only knows.

Maybe it didn’t like a plugin you just added or it just doesn’t feel like working that day. Whatever the reason, your WordPress RSS feed has stopped working and all hell has broken loose! Many people are dependent on their RSS feed and heck, at the height of this website before the change I had a good 60 people following me on RSS! WOOT! I know that’s not many, but it sure as heck was a traffic kill when the RSS went down!

So if for some reason you get this error when loading your RSS feed in a browser (like Chrome):

wordpress error on line 2 at column 6: XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document

Or it fails to pass the ever vigilant W3C RSS Validator and gives an error such as:

Sorry

This feed does not validate.

• line 1, column 1: Blank line before XML declaration [help]

DON’T PANIC!

There is a simple solution for this. It doesn’t require some crazy plugin. It doesn’t require hiring a super hacker geek to fix it AND it won’t require hours upon hours of Google’ing for the solution.

Now, if you want to try there are a few possible solutions. You can try:

1. Reading this helpful article on the RSS Validator site: http://feedvalidator.org/docs/error/WPBlankLine.html
2. Try the FIX RSS FEED plugin for WordPress (didn’t work for my clients site at all)
3. Paying someone lots of money [like me ] to do it for you.

Or you can simply do this yourself. It’s REALLY really simply and only require one file upload and one line of code. I’ll guide you through the whole process.

1) FIRST. Download the following file. http://wejn.org/stuff/wejnswpwhitespacefix.php.

If you’re a geek you can check it for yourself, but I (Piotr Krzyzek) assure you this file is Virus free. If you don’t trust that file, you can download the exact same file from my server which I won’t change at all. So you can 100% rest assure that this file is safe from my server. You can get it HERE from my server. But if you download it from my server, rename the file from the “.ph” extension to “.php” so that it will work on your server too.

2) After downloading, upload the .PHP file into your WordPress site ROOT directory. This means wherever the wp-config.php file is. Do NOT upload it into the themes folder, NOR the plugins folder. Only the root directory.

If you don’t understand that, it’s ok. Leave a comment or poke me a twitter and I’ll explain it better.

3) EDIT your index.php file and add the following right after the first line:

include("wejnswpwhitespacefix.php");

So at the end, your index.php should look something like this:


<?php
include("wejnswpwhitespacefix.php");
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
require('./wp-blog-header.php');
?>


That’s of course a condensed version of the index.php file and your’s will probably have lots of comments and stuff in it. But the important thing is to add the include code right at the top.

After that, poof!

Reload the feed page and/or your site and it’ll magically work!

It did for us!

Let me know in the comments if this worked for you or if you know of any other better solutions!

Since the inception of Firefox, it has been (more or less) the defacto standard browser for a wide array of corporations, groups and people. It quickly rose to be the dominant browser due to it’s open source nature, it’s speed and it’s ability to properly display a web page. There are plenty of other reasons (like it is/was much more secure than IE6 … no clue how it stacks up to IE8 though), but one of the most important reasons was it’s add-ons/extensions.

With extensions anyone could go in and create an extension for Firefox which augmented some functionality, added something new, removed something they didn’t like and completely redesigned the interface. Heck, now-a-days Firefox is still THE browser to use when creating webpages simply because of it’s power extensions  such as: SEO-Firefox, FireBug and YSlow just to name a few.

Users finally had a (really) great free alternative to all other browsers. Opera and Netscape really didn’t compare back then, though I here the latest Opera is rather nice. But the battle raged on mostly between Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It is a real David vs Goliath battle here folks. Though there was a new comer to this ancient struggle.

The ever benevolent (as benevolent as any rich and powerful US corporation could be … which isn’t much) Google announced, a while back, it’s plans to create a browser. Rumor upon rumor spread and eventually it was actually released. And it did surprisingly well.

As of this writing Google Chrome is up to version 5.0.375.99 in the Beta (or so). It’s based off of the Chromium project which is open source, while Google Chrome isn’t technically 100% open source. Either way, it’s a extremely fast and powerful browser which makes headway each and every month.

Why the switch:

I love Firefox and have been using it for a long long time. If anyone asks which browser I recommend they use I say Firefox. BUT, I myself have switched over to Google Chrome (in Linux) for several reasons (in no particular order)

1) Google chrome is simply much prettier. They eliminated the usual window borders from the Xorg display, which is nice. Of course, if you prefer your Metacity or KDE borders, you can enable all that jazz too. But I really prefer it without. It gives my browser more space to actually display a site!

My website is blue, and Chrome is by default blue. Works for me. Plus, it was the first browser (which was popular) to include styles/themes/whatever you wanna call it that can change the look of the browser by default. Which is cool. I don’t use it (yet), but it’s nice to have albiet useless except for putting my companies own logo in it.

2) Google Chrome starts up significantly faster. I have found that on a cold startup (meaning after a reboot or a normal boot up in the morning) Chrome will open almost instantly, but firefox will take up to 10 seconds to load! Yikes! That ‘could’ be because of all the extensions I installed, but either way it’s slow (to start).

3) Easier bookmark manager. Before I comment on this, I gotta say this: I really dislike both bookmark managers because they all suck and are boring. Firefox has it right, I think, with the tags and all but it was kinda cumbersome. They all need some automated way for this. Anyway … Chrome bookmark manager is easier to deal with and less bitchy than Firefox’s, except that if you close it and open it again all the bookmark folders are open. Which is annoying. Overall, still much easier to organize bookmarks in Chrome IMO.

4) MUCH better and faster extension/plugin handling/managing than Firefox. In Chrome, if I install an extension I do not have to restart the whole bloody browser each time. In firefox, you do … it’s annoying as hell especially since on average I have at least 20 tabs open.

4.1) Chrome installs extensions/plugins lighting fast. Firefox installs extensions rather slow.

5) Chrome actually displays websites correctly on a widescreen display in Linux unlike Firefox. This has been a real troublesome thing for me in Firefox. On my widescreen laptop, no matter what distribution of Linux I used Firefox would always display the wrong font sizes. Usually too large. And using the browser ability to shrink fonts didn’t fix any styling or display issues. It really sucked.

6) It ‘seems’ to navigate websites a bit faster. This one is completely unscientific, but it just seems like a faster browser overall. Just my 2 cents.

7) Takes up less screen space. Related to #1.

Chrome opens new tabs/pages from within other programs MUCH faster. If I click a link in my e-mail, it opens up within a second or so in Chrome, there is a small delay before Chrome catches the link and then starts opening it. Browsers have that. But with Firefox this delay was just so unbelievably slow. this is also the main reason I tried switching in the first place.

But it’s not all peaches and creame!

I use Chrome more or less exclusively now, but I wish it have some things that Firefox had. For one:

• Bookmark tags.
• More marketing/programming extensions (like FireBug … even though I think there is a FireBug like extensions for Chrome now).
• More stability, it seems to also be a bit more unstable than Firefox. Kinda odd, can’t describe it really. Though it crashes for some reasons, but very rarely. Firefox practically never crashed though. Then again … I am using Chrome Beta on Linux.
• The bookmark bar was somehow changed. It sucks, this option really blows in Chrome. I use my main bookmark bar a lot, in Firefox is was actually decently pretty and what-not. But in Chrome it sticks out like a sore thumb. Bleh … Maybe I need a new chrome style?

Have you had any browser changing experiences? How about your thoughts on Chrome? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to know what browsers ya’ll are using these days!

The CSPI is good at some things. Being rational and logical isn’t one of them. On a post at Fat Head, the author makes some hilarious points about CSPI’s current issues with the famous golden arches (McDonalds).

From the article:

How does “bombarding” my kids with advertising make my job as a parent impossible? Sure, advertising has made my kids aware of Happy Meals toys. That’s why we sometimes have conversations like this:

“Daddy, can we go to McDonald’s?”
“No.”
“Puh-leeeeeeeease!”
“No.”

Or, if we’re at McDonald’s …

“Can we get the Happy Meal?”
“No. Mom said to get six McDoubles to go, and that’s what we’re getting.”
“But I want that toy!”
“No. It’s not worth the extra money.”
“But I really, really, really want that toy!”
“No.”

Trust me, it’s not that hard to say no. I do it all the time. If there are parents in the world who are powerless to say no when their kids whine, those kids are going to have far worse problems in life than bad eating habits.

It certainly is a rather hilarious, and informative post.

The main points which the CSPI guy brings up against McD’s is that it markets directly to children (partially true) and that parents are powerless to stop their kids…. HUH?!

Since when can a parent not control their little young kid from getting a Happy Meal? As the author wonderfully said in the quote above: Just say no!

Though, I do remember briefly watching a commercial for a Jerry Springer episode (or was it Opera?) where the mother didn’t know how to say no or couldn’t say no and now there are problems. <sigh>

The author also brings up a few counter arguments and brings forth many contradictions in the actions and statements of the CSPI. Don’t you just love how consistent our government is?

Read the article (linked above) and let me know in the comments what you think!

A short time ago the WordPress people officially launched their latest and greatest implementation of WordPress. WordPress version 3.0 brings many new features and security enhancements … but is it really worth upgrading to?

Well lets ask a few questions first:

1. Is your current WordPress 2.x site working fine?
2. Does WP 3.0 offer something that you REALLY need?
3. Are your plugins compatible with the new version?
4. Do you know what to do if something goes wrong?
5. Are you sure upgrading won’t break anything?
6. Are you upgrading a ‘mission critical’ site?

So what are your answers?

IF your current site is working fine and you don’t need anything that the new version offers … why upgrade? It could possible break a few things (I know it did on my installation) and it’ll take time to fix everything.

If you are wondering what WordPress 3.0 offers, check out their site and articles about it.

A quick overview of the changes:

• They claim it’s faster, so far it feels a bit faster. Don’t know about how it really is though
• They say it has better security. How much better or whats improved? I don’t know either. It all seems the same to me.
• You can create custom menus.
• Easier bulk updates
• Better plugin handling

And that’s about it. Some people said that the new theme was awesome and a great thing … well, do you honestly care about their default theme? Like me, most people won’t care. So it’s not even a selling point.

So in conclusion: do you need WP 3.0? No.

It offers nothing really ground breaking or all that innovative that is worth the upgrade. But if you know it won’t really break your site and you can play around a bit, then sure go again.

The code base is a bit better, and it’s faster (a bit). So go nuts, have fun. But other than playing around, if you have a very active site with many visitors and interactions DO NOT upgrade until your test, test and then test again to make sure it won’t break anything.

How about you? Do you have any experience with upgrading to WordPress 3.0? I’d love to hear your thoughts about it! Let me know in the comments.