Posts Filed Under ‘Bylines’
December 1st, 2010
I'm very happy to announce that my book publisher, Wiley, has commissioned a third edition of the Lifehacker book, due out late summer 2011. The book is a compendium of the best tech how-to's and productivity methods ever published on Lifehacker.com, and the second edition, published in March 2008, is in dire need of an update. The new edition will include material on the booming mobile space (smartphones powered by iOS and Android weren't around in early 2007 during the writing of the second edition), as well as new operating systems that have come out since publication, like Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard.
I've been out of the Lifehacker game for 2 years now, so I'm particularly thrilled my successor Adam Pash will be writing the new material for the third edition. I'll be the tech editor on the book, testing and re-testing every hack to make sure everything works as advertised. Adam has been doing a fantastic job leading the largest editorial team Lifehacker.com has ever had, turning out feature-length how-to's and video tutorials a rate that makes me wonder if any of them ever sleeps. He will fold much of that new material into the book.
The Lifehacker books have been some of Wiley's best-selling tech titles. Between the first two editions, they've been translated into Dutch, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Not many books get the opportunity to have three lives, so I'm thrilled about the upcoming refresh. The publication date hasn't been finalized yet, but right now we're aiming for late summer next year. Keep an eye here and on Lifehacker.com for more news as we get closer to publication.
New Twitter.com Screenshot Tour
September 16th, 2010, 2 comments
After using it in tandem with TweetDeck for a couple of days now, I'm still impressed with Twitter.com's revamp: no longer just a list of 140-character lines, the new Twitter.com is a rich iPad-like web application. Over at FastCompany earlier this week, I ran through a screenshot tour of the redesign and why it gives your favorite Twitter app a run for its money.
July 13th, 2010, 2 comments
Copies of The Complete Guide to Google Wave have been selling like hotcakes, and unsurprisingly, the ebook has moved a lot faster than the print version. We've still got a stack of full-color, hold-in-your-hand paperback books just dying for a home, so we've got a special deal: if you buy the paperback book for $25, you'll get the ebook free, emailed to you on the spot for instant gratification while you wait for the softcover to arrive at your door.
The electronic version of the book is now available as both a PDF and an ePub file; you'll get both when you buy the paperback. We're also happy to announce that The Complete Guide to Google Wave is now officially available in the Kindle store, no awkward PDF-to-Kindle conversions required.
Best of all, thanks to a partnership with a local charity, when you buy a copy of the paperback book, you're helping to employ developmentally disabled adults here in San Diego. Meet the folks who will fulfill your order when you buy the book, thanks to NBC San Diego:
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May 17th, 2010, 7 comments
Maintaining your privacy online isn't as simple as Pirillo puts it, but his tweet made me laugh, because it's such an important point. Awareness and prudence are more critical than any piece of software or privacy setting when it comes to protecting your personal data. Over at Fast Company this week, I took a stab at the most important things you can do to protect your privacy online. It's common sense, worthy of repetition.
Online Privacy: Check Yourself (Before You Wreck Yourself) [Fast Company]
April 28th, 2010, 5 comments
Just because you've set your Facebook profile to "Friends only" access doesn't mean someone who is not your friend can't see it. One of the most confusing aspects of Facebook's privacy settings is an area where you specify what information your friends can share about you through applications and web sites, even parts of your profile you made private.
By default, regardless of how private your Facebook profile is, your friends can share the following pieces of information about you, straight from the screenshot on the right: Personal Info (activities, interests, etc), Status updates, Online presence, Website, Family and relationship status, Education and work, My videos, My links, My notes, My photos, Photos and videos I'm tagged in, About me, My birthday, and My hometown.
This whole friends-can-share-private-things by default can lead to some awkward situations, like one I ran into last week.
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On Tweets in the Library of Congress
April 16th, 2010, 1 comment
Published my first opinion piece on CNN.com today, in which I argue it's a great thing that the Library of Congress is archiving billions of public tweets. Despite some parentheses trouble and unclickable URLs in the story (I've alerted my editor), I'm proud of how the piece came out, even though CNN.com commenters seem to think tweets are a waste of storage space. Thanks to @matty_g, @Jason_Pollock, @Swiftsfan, and @itwalkabout for the example tweets in the story. Who says tweets are trivial? [CNN.com]
I’m Not Buying an iPad This Weekend
April 2nd, 2010, 7 comments
Even though I'm desperately curious how one looks and feels and works, I'm not buying an iPad--just yet, anyway. I'll head down to the Apple store and fondle one on Saturday, just before TWiG, so that I can talk about it on-air. But I'm already suffering from gadget overload, with a netbook and an iPod touch and the Nexus One and a Kindle, so bringing another gadget into the house just doesn't makes sense. I will buy a tablet in the next year or so--after I eBay my Kindle and my iPod touch and get to see some of the Android models in person, too. If you're on the fence about whether or not to succumb to the iPad, read this: Why You Shouldn't Buy an iPad (Yet).
The Power Users Guide to Google Apps at Maximum PC
March 26th, 2010
My Maximum PC magazine cover story, The Power Users Guide to Google Apps, is now available online. In it, I pick my favorite advanced features in Google Maps, Calendar, Docs, Wave, Reader, Alerts, Profiles, Chrome, Search, Picasa, and Gmail--and trust me, there are a lot of them.
March 15th, 2010
I'm thrilled to announce that the online book by Adam Pash and myself, The Complete Guide to Google Wave, is now in print! Order your copy here.
The new edition is double the pagecount of the Preview PDF released last fall and it's packed with screenshots and examples. In this expansion, Adam and I went out of our way, page after page, to illustrate the answer the most common question about Wave: "What is the point?" We added two new chapters, completely rewrote several existing chapters, and since the book is now available in print, added an index for easy reference. We scored a Foreword from one of my web heroes, Lars Rasmussen, who with his brother Jens created Google Maps and Google Wave.
The coolest part of this DIY undertaking is that a portion of print book sales go to a great cause. San Diego-based charity Partnerships with Industry fulfills our print book orders. Instead of sending half the cost of the print book in an existing online print-on-demand service, your book dollars create a job for adults with developmental disabilities in my community.
The new edition of The Complete Guide to Google Wave is available as both a PDF ($9) and a print book ($25) and on the web site (free). If you've already purchased the Preview PDF, to thank you for your early support, we're upgrading you to the First Edition PDF for free. Keep an eye on your email inbox for that. If you haven't already bought a copy, order one here. Thanks for checking it out, and I hope you'll let us know what you think.
The Complete Guide to Google Wave
San Diegan Self-Publishes First Google Wave Book [NBC San Diego]
Four Google Apps Marketplace Apps Worth Trying
March 11th, 2010, 2 comments
For my latest column at Fast Company, I took a spin through the just-launched Google Apps Marketplace and found four apps worth hooking up to your domain. (One of my picks, TripIt, does a smart job of merging your existing account with your Google Apps account, too--the model for how any service that plugs into Google Apps should work.) Here's the full story.
March 9th, 2010, 2 comments
My latest two videos are up at Fast Company: one's on firewalling your attention with time blocking, and the second is on three ways to use Google Wave in your business.
The time blocking piece is actually a personal confession about my hermit tendencies. Sometimes I just shut everything off, fall off the face of the planet, and have some uninterrupted me-time. I've had co-workers say to me, "Um, where did you go today?" and the answer is usually "To my happy place, a distraction-free zone." As you'll hear in the video, at my last office job, I actually used to schedule a meeting with myself complete with a conference room to get away and focus on something for awhile. Here's the 2 minute, 37 second clip.
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February 23rd, 2010, 2 comments
My FastCompany.com video series continues with two new installments: one on reducing multitasking, and the other on claiming your name on the web.
The singletasking bit is timely, as I've been on a mental deep dive working on ThinkTank these past few weeks, surfacing to see what I might be missing on the internet very minimally. When your brain sinks its teeth into something worthwhile, time and space cease to exist--the key is getting to that special state of flow, the zone. Singletasking is one way to help yourself get there.
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What is Google Wave?
February 22nd, 2010, 2 comments
Over at Macworld this morning, I took a shot at explaining what Google Wave is (and isn't). Even in a Wave-backlash/Buzz-love world, I'm still bullish about Wave. It's the best collaboration webapp I've ever used. Once you've experienced inline replies in a wave with your group, you never want to email again.
February 10th, 2010, 5 comments
My latest FastCompany.com video segment, shot several weeks ago, is about managing your social media updates, partly by funneling them all into one place (like your email inbox).
Then Google Buzz launched.
So, here's my social media productivity two-punch: first the video, then a walk through Google Buzz's more advanced features.
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Must-Know Browser Tricks
February 8th, 2010
My latest at FastCompany.com dives into your browser's options dialog and keyboard shortcuts: Five Browser Secrets of Power Web Surfers
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