Posts Filed Under ‘People’
Just like the rest of us, Outlook user Scott Hanselman gets too much email, and he's come up with some rules that auto-prioritize incoming email into folders before he even looks at it. Scott uses Outlook at work, and messages from his co-workers inside his company are higher priority; also, he gets invited to a lot of meetings via Outlook. If this is similar to your situation, check out Scott's strategy. He set up three rules which separate incoming email into 1.) messages that were sent directly to him (he's in the To: field), 2.) messages he was CC:'ed on, 3.) messages from outside his company, and 4.) meeting invitations. Hit up Scott's full post for step-by-step directions on how to set up these rules.
As always, your preferred email processing system depends on your situation. As a freelancer who doesn't use Outlook, rarely gets meeting invitations, and almost always gets messages from outside my non-company, this strategy doesn't work as well for me, but for a nine-to-fiver inside a corporate firewall, it makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks, Scott!
The Three Most Important Outlook Rules for Processing Mail [Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen]
VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin--you know, the guy who invented the spreadsheet--has delved into mobile development and released his first iPhone/iPod touch application, Note Taker. Rather than use keyboard, in Note Taker you jot notes using the tip of your finger on your touchscreen as if it were a pen on an index card. (See my bad handwriting in Note Taker in the screenshot here.) Note Taker looks and sounds more awkward than it actually is: the application employs some nifty interface mechanisms that make it easy to write long sentences across your screen. For example, it scrolls right while you jot without requiring swiping, and it shrinks your words to a legible version for reading while you write. Note Taker doesn't do text recognition, but you can transcribe jotted notes using the keyboard. (Update: You could also just email your Note Taker image to Evernote to do the recognition for you.) This app isn't for folks who are comfortable typing on the iPhone keyboard and have terrible handwriting, but it is for folks who like to sketch, mind-map, or list without fat-fingering small keys. You just write the way you normally would on a notepad.
My favorite part about this app is the fact that it comes from a giant in personal computing, who, after 30+ years in the business, is still motivated enough to pick up a book, learn a new platform, and release software. Bricklin explains:
Read the rest »
Bruce Schneier’s Answer to Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Privacy · "...if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable." This is what you say in response to "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." (via) · December 9th, 2009, 6 comments
In an early episode of the excellent TV series Mad Men, agency partner Roger Sterling walks into creative director Don Draper's office to find Don gazing off into space.
"I'll never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like you're doing nothing," Sterling quips.
Sterling should take comfort in the fact that our best creative work is done in times of reflection and idleness. Studies have shown that the wandering mind is more likely to have a "Eureka!" moment of clarity and creativity. Taking breaks and zoning out from everyday tasks gives our brains time to do a kind of long-term, big-picture thinking that immediate engagement with bosses and clients and email and meetings does not.
Designer Stefan Sagmeister takes these findings seriously. He works time off into his schedule in a way that will make you green with envy. Every seven years, Sagmeister closes his New York City–based design studio for an entire year of creative rejuvenation. During his sabbatical, Sagmeister "works," but not for clients. (He's serious about that, too. Last year, he turned down an opportunity to design a poster for the Obama campaign while he was on sabbatical.)
Read the rest at HarvardBusiness.org »
Founder of the TWiT Netcast Network (and my co-host at This Week in Google) Leo Laporte did a fantastic talk for the Online News Association last week about his path to starting TWiT. Laporte's goal is to create a live news channel for techies online: content for smart, devoted people who are conversant in this stuff, not the mainstream BS tech coverage you get on TV. There are several gems in this talk, especially for folks wondering about the economics of niche publishing online. My favorite, however, was this part. Leo says that back in the day, after explaining to a TV exec that it's worth targeting a small group of smart computer enthusiasts, the exec told him:
Advertisers don't believe it's worth advertising to smart people, because smart people don't pay attention to brand. Smart people make an actual choice, they can't be tricked or convinced. They research. So we can't sell ads to a network for smart people.
Then Leo said, "Suddenly television makes sense, doesn't it?" to a great big laugh.
Read the rest »
Thanks to FOXNews.com's Clayton Morris for having me on his Gadgets and Games tech show today to talk Google Wave, Twitter geolocation and more.
The hour-long episode is embedded in its entirety, after the jump.
Read the rest »
In their new-to-me "Lifehacking"* section, Slate asks a few celebrities what kind of tricks they use to get things done. Here are my favorite responses.
Patty Stonesifer, chairwoman of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents:
I do a short exercise with every request that comes through—I ask myself "If I had to do this today, would I be glad?"
Read the rest »
Should You or Shouldn’t You Host Your Own Webapps · One of the smartest people I've ever met, Maciej Cegłowski, says you shouldn't self-host web-based software like WordPress or Fever or eventually, Google Wave, because it requires you to "devote half your life to learning and understanding [server] administration." Go with a hosted service or generate flat HTML files of your blog posts that you upload to your server automatically instead, he says. While Maciej's argument may apply to some (ok, most?) folks, I disagree: When it comes to a project you care passionately about, doing it yourself is much more educational and satisfying (and won't take half your life). Sure, most people should just buy instead of build, but they'll never get something that's exactly what they want and unlike any other. · September 21st, 2009, 13 comments
Voting for SXSW Interactive panel proposals closes end-of-day tomorrow, and your little green thumbs-up counts for 30% of a panel's chance of actually happening. Here's the panel I proposed, the one I'll be on (if it's voted through), and others I've voted for.
Post your picks for panels you've given the thumbs up in the comments, so we can help make the good stuff come to fruition in Austin this spring.
You like looking at beautiful things? You're in the right place. The full collection of pieces from my guest curator stint at online art gallery 20x200 is now available. Check out what they all look like hanging on a wall together. If I had to name this collection, I'd call it nerdy-nostalgic.
As I said earlier, my favorite piece is Rebecca Loyche's The Office, but Mark Richards' Apple I comes in a close second. (Aren't computer innards awesome?) I love all of the pieces, but the other image I can't get out of my head is Hosang Park's Howon aerial photograph.
Check out 20x200's full newsletter about the collection, which includes an IM conversation transcript between myself and gallery owner extraordinaire Jen Bekman. If you need to spice up your cubicle or home, pick up a piece or two (or eight) to support some amazing artists and the gallery who features them.
Being a purveyor of technology links and a coder feels like the furthest thing from a museum curator, but my friend and gallery owner Jen Bekman asked me to choose eight of my favorite images from her online art gallery 20x200 this week.
20x200 is a treasure trove of eye candy. Be prepared to spend some time there, and maybe even a little money--you want to buy and hang this stuff in your home and office. I had a ball making my picks, which will appear in tomorrow's next week's edition of the 20x200 email newsletter. In the meantime, I get to share my favorite of all the pieces: the one pictured here, a photo called "The Office" by Rebecca Loyche. Here's an excerpt of a chat transcript between Jen and I about the photo.
Read the rest »
Debunking the Lone Genius Myth · During their session at OSCON, Google programmers Ben Collins-Sussman and Brian Fitzpatrick say that it's coders who can collaborate with others, not lone ranger geniuses, who are best at what they do. · August 5th, 2009
Writer Dominic Ali came up with an unusual way to make office meetings more bearable--one that would make Ellen proud. In the comments of my recent post about meetings, Ali says:
At my previous job, I once took on a temporary acting communications director role. All of a sudden, I had eight people reporting to me. To keep impromptu meetings short, I instituted Dance Meetings. By playing some funk at low levels through my computer speakers, I'd encourage my colleagues to dance. We'd dance for the duration of the song as we discussed their projects, challenges, personal troubles, etc. The benefits were immediately clear.
Read the rest »
I've always been an avid daydreamer--so much so that my mind can wander off at the most inopportune moments, like in the middle of a conversation. But I've always come up with my best ideas and even made difficult decisions in the midst of totally idle thought. So it doesn't surprise me that a new brain-scanning study shows that a wandering mind isn't idle at all: in fact, it's hard at work moving you toward a flash of insight. The Wall Street Journal reports:
By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.
Read the rest »
New York Times technology writer David Pogue offers a few of his biggest productivity tips, from working at home (thus avoiding a time-intensive commute) to using voice-to-text transcription software, text expansion, and keyboard macros. What caught my eye is how he uses a personal database to store and find information he needs. Pogue writes:
Years ago, I started using an address-book program that's now called iData 3. It's a freeform database, meaning that the "cards" in this database don't have separate fields for Name, Street, City and so on; instead, you can type or paste whatever you want into each freeform card.
This program doesn't play well with field-based contact managers like Google's or the iPhone's, but the beauty is that it holds whatever you want: recipes, brainstorms, article fragments, driving directions, lists, Web addresses and so on. And you can find anything in a fraction of a second. (Actually, iData now lets you create field-based databases as well, but my freeform database has been growing since about 1988 and I'm not about to convert it.)
Read the rest »
Subscribe
Follow
2 comments »
I'm 
