January 2008

The following posts were written in January 2008.

Thursday, January 24, 2008, 6:19pm

Using Google Alerts with Gmail and WordPress

I make fairly extensive use of all the Google services. One of my favorite “workflows” requires a combination of Google Alerts, Gmail, and WordPress.

Google Alerts
In a nutshell, Google Alerts lets you monitor specific phrases and keywords and sends you an email alert whenever a blog, video, or website in Google’s database mentions it. So, for example, here are a few active alerts.

As you can see, I’ve set up alerts for many of the things that interest me. You can be notified whenever someone mentions your name, your blog, your local town, etc.. Then you choose the frequency that Google will alert you, either all at once at the end of the day or as often as new content arrives. So what do I do with these alerts? (more…)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 8:00pm

iPhone Blogging

Are people blogging from their iPhones? I’ve done some iPhone blogging on other blogs - mostly to a personal, non-public blog for note-taking - but haven’t found it all too useful here.

First, I use the amazing WPhone WordPress plug-in, which essentially is the only reason I even try to blog from my iPhone. The interface is very well thought out and makes navigation a breeze. It’s one of those pieces of software that immediately make you want to donate to the author. (more…)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 5:00pm

Simple Tool To Increase Your Productivity: ClipX

I was turned on to ClipX by this post by Coding Horror and in less than 24 hours I am completely hooked. I probably shouldn’t write about these things while I’m right in the middle of the high, but so far I see very little reason NOT to recommend ClipX to any Windows user that sees a need for a more powerful clipboard manager.

What is ClipX?
ClipX is a simple, one-trick application that lets you manage your clipboard history. There are a ton of clipboard extenders like ClipX out there for both Windows and Mac users, but many try to do way too much and many even cost money. ClipX, however, is very easy to use and doesn’t cost a dime. (more…)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 5:00am

Learn To Write Eloquent JavaScript (And To Think Deeper)

I know this post won’t be for everyone, but it’s certainly been helpful to me. Marijn Haverbeke has written an online book called “Eloquent JavaScript” that outlines best practices and good habits for the JavaScript programmer, although most of the advice Marijn relates is easily applied to other programming languages as well. Here’s a snippet:

To some of us, writing computer programs is a fascinating game. A program is a building of thought. It is costless to build, weightless, growing easily under our typing hands. If we get carried away, its size and complexity will grow out of control, confusing even the one who created it. This is the main problem of programming. It is why so much of today’s software tends to crash, fail, screw up.

The book goes on to provide a detailed look at the JavaScript language, complete with simple and complex examples of each point Marijn mentions. I found the content to be very well-written and extremely useful. (more…)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 9:12pm

Why Checking Email Twice A Day Doesn’t Work (For Me)

Like it or not, part of my job as a freelancer and marketing consultant is to solve problems and answer client questions usually sent to me via email. During the average day, I’ll get between 20-30 emails that I actually HAVE to respond to in some capacity. Frankly, I don’t have the luxury of checking email only twice a day, and I don’t think I’m less productive because of it.

Why would I want to save all of it for later?
As a client, I expect fairly prompt service and a quick turnaround time, which is why I like to respond to issues as soon as possible for my own clients. Unless you are a CEO or you have some other bigwig position, I’m not sure you can get away with pushing a response to an issue off until it’s more convenient for you. (more…)