Productivity

If you are a developer, blogger or a client who manages or participated on a technical project, screenshot-taking tools are a very useful way conveying your thoughts and ideas to others on your team. Screenshots save you from lengthy explanation emails and keep your team on same page while discussing an idea. This blog post is about different screen capturing tools available out there and which to use and why.

1. Skitch(mac only):

Skitch is more than just an image capturing tool. It is very quick, simple and efficient. You can edit your images - crop them, draw figures on them, write notes on them and share directly via uploading to skitch, flickr, ftp with many other options. This all is mere drag and drop with nothing complex to learn. Download Skitch. Images in this blog are captured using skitch only.

Shortcut keys with skitch:

• Command-Shift-5 – Crosshairs Snap
• Command-Shift-6 – Fullscreen Snap
• Command-Shift-7 – Frame Snap

There is also a great short video on the Skitch website that gives you a quick overview of how it works and what it can do.

In Developing A Personal Email Management Strategy I discussed the sorting, filtering and processing of the seemingly endless flow of email I receive. Recently, I took the plunge and converted my non work email to IMAP in preparation for converting work email to the same. The goal is to be able to see important direct email on my iPhone without seeing all the list traffic, commercial communications and other solicited bulk email

First, Some History

Google Aps For Your Domain) for different types email traffic, travel@ for example for when i signed up for travel related services and lists, buy@ for commercial email and receipts after making purchases. This made sorting and filtering the incoming email really easy, just set up a message filter in Thunderbird based on the To: address. But all of these email addresses were just aliases delivering the mail to my primary account. Thus when checking email on the iPhone, sifting through all the solicited bulk email for the personal messages was like finding a needle in a hay stack.

Last week I emptied my inbox completely. And from this point forward I pledge (to myself I guess) that I will only "check" email if I am going to "deal" with my email. Every email that lands in my inbox and is not filtered into a specific mailbox will be dealt with: archived, deleted, responded to.

Without a doubt, the most productive time in getting through my inbox is when I'm on an airplane, sans Internet access. This week I'm exploring Freedom to help me accomplish the same result. Essentially, Freedom disables all wireless and ethernet networking on an Apple computer for up to 3 hours at a time. After the time is up, Freedom will re-enable your network adapters and display a confirmation that you're back online. If you absolutely need to pull the cord and MUST get back online, just restart your computer to reset. Let me restate that: just stopping or quitting the Freedom application will not re-enable your network adapters - and yes, this is purposeful! Freedom is a program designed to help you get things done, away from the distractions of network connectivity. http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/

"Who do you want to Jott?" These simple six words have changed my life. About four months ago, I found Jott.com, a simple and free service that lets me dictate messages into my cell phone that are transcribed instantly into txt and emails. However, the best part is these same messages can be time-delayed and you can have the Jott service send a reminder (i.e. "tomorrow at 5pm") straight to your phone. Given that I often find myself in the car or on the run, Jott has become one of my most used tools and provides just the perfect blend of simplicity with stellar technology.

I've been checking out Codeweaver's Crossover for Mac, an application that runs on Intel macs using the X11 system to simulate Windows operating systems. This has proven particularly useful for running IE6 on an emulated Win98 system. Crossover uses the metaphor of "bottles" which are essentially contained operating systems with all the right files and functions to run and install windows applications on a mac. You can have a windows 98 bottle, a XP bottle, etc.. And it rules.

Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York... And the airports of those cities are just some of the places I've worked from in the last two weeks. I get through security and my eyes shoot furtive glances at the bottom 2 feet of walls searching (sometimes in vain) for a power outlet, preferably one that is next to a seat. Recently I have started seeing Samsung "charging stations" in some airports. A brilliant idea who's time is long over due: multiple outlets on a bistro hight mini table.

There were to good stories on NPR and PRI about technology today. The All Things Considered bit is about back to school technology, back to school sales and what is "wanted" vs "needed". Market Place ran a story about wireless email access and vacations.

What type of searcher are you? Slate distinguishs the seven ways people search using the mistakenly-released AOL search logs of 650,000 members. Or go to Valleywag to search the logs yourself. Like User 1912452, "a psychiatric counselor looking for a job in Colorado, obsessed with quick weight loss. She's turned to the book of Revelation, the zodiac, psychic schools, private investigators, and Victorian poetry. She (or a patient) dreams about being drenched in blood."

I have bitched about Craig's List before, but i needed to blog this for once. The Seattle Craigslist covers way more than Seattle. It might as well be called Western Washington CL. I am trying to find a dresser. I only want something close by, but i get stuff in Tacoma, Renton, Edmonds. If CL simply had a zip code function, the utility of the site (and productivity of millions of Americans) would rise instantly. Basically, every posting on the classifieds would have a zip code field and the when searching you would be able to limit your search by zip code proximity.