Archive for the ‘Series’ Category
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Habithack: Email Filters
Everyday people gets tons and tons of emails (at least I do) and for the most part they were all going into my inbox, which would pile up pretty fast. With filters though, you can easily organize your email as it comes in and decide when you want to read what email when, if at all.
First, have a look at this easy to read chart I drew up and find out Do you need to use Email Filters?
Filters are fairly easy to set up if you’re using Mozilla Thunderbird (it’s not rocket science in other clients either, but we’re going to be focusing on Thunderbird today). The first thing you want to decide is how you want to separate your email. I have my personal email separated like this:- Family (pretty self explanatory)
- NewLet (Newsletters)
- Confirm (Confirmation, private message notifications, ect)
- Junk (spam)
Though these are very simplistic, it keeps my inbox fairly clean and allows me to see if something new is in, or just old stuff coming up again.
Now, the How To:
- Firstly, create the folders you want to have them put into (File->New->Folder. Put in in ‘Inbox on email@address.com’).
- Once you have all your folders created, it’s time to create the filters. Go to Tools->Message Filters.
- Make sure the email address you want to use the filters is selected (if you have more than one email in the client) then click the ‘New’ button. At the top, enter a name for this filter, we’re going to use ‘Family’ for this example.
- The next step is to decide how it’s going to filter them there by selecting the variables from the drop down menus, we’re going to select ‘From’ and ‘is’ since we’re adding family. Now enter their email address in the text box on that line and click the ‘+’ button.
- On the bottom half of the screen select ‘Move message to’, then click the 2nd drop down box and find your folder named ‘Family’, select and click the ‘+’ button. Click OK. Now all email from that address you entered will go directly into the desired folder.
You’ve added one and it wasn’t too hard right? Well you can continue doing that. It may seem like a lot of work right now, but it will save you time and hassle down the road when your inbox has over 3000 emails in it when you come back from vacation. I find it useful too if you use the ‘body’ and ‘contains’ as well most of the time, more than email addresses. This is simply because I get a lot of ‘buy Viagra’ and ‘replica watches cheap!’, so adding the words and making them go to spam is easier than adding all of the dummy emails they use.
Not all Habithacks are tech-based (we’re not machines after all), tomorrow we’ll be covering Wallets and why you’re better off without them.
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Habithack: Communication
I’m going to start with one of the biggest time savers first, communication. To be more precise tacking email. Not a week goes by that I don’t hear a conversation including the line “Which email did you send it to because I didn’t get it”. If you take the extra time to set it up, it won’t matter. The two biggest problems with email are having multiple addresses and having no filters (or bad filters) set up, so lets tackle the first of those two issues today.
The best thing to do for those who use more than one email address is to get a client. Some people like to use Microsoft outlook or Outlook Express, I recommend Mozilla Thunderbird because it’s clean, functional and easy to add extensions to if needed. For those of you that use a shared computer the client still requires the use of a password, so put your minds at ease, nobody is reading your email.
When setting up an email address in a client, the main components you need to know are user name, password, pop3 address and SMTP address. These aren’t hard to get, the user name and passwords ar the same you would be using for checking your email in a browser. For addresses they’re usually just something like “mail.website.com”, and can most often be found under one of the options tabs of mail settings. For some larger, free services however such as Hotmail and Gmail, they use longer addresses. I recommend checking out the webmail extension to simplify setting them up if they’re you’re service of choice.
Once you have your first email address set up, you’re more than half way done. When you have that working go to File->New->Account and put all the into in again. Now both email accounts will have all the emails coming into the same spot: You’ve just cut your loading, logging and waiting time in half. If you want to add another email account, you’ll cut it down even more. I recommend to add all of your emails to a client, it will save you lots of time.
The reason that I recommended Thunderbird is because it can add extensions and themes really easily, and these are what puts this client on the top of the list. You can see all the extensions and themes on the add-on site. Here are some useful ones that I’ve found useful:
MinimizeToTray: Allows you to minimize the Thunderbird window to the system tray and alerts you when a new email comes in.
FoxyTunes: Allows you to control your music player from within your mail client. Also available for Firefox.
Crossover X theme: Nice Macish theme. And blue
Another quick Thunderbird tip: You can use Thunderbird Portable to install your client on a flash drive. Works with all the same functions and no need to be strapped down to one computer. Great for home and work.
Tomorrow’s topic is Email filters: have the client organize all of your mail for you as it comes in!
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Habithack: Intro
When people think of me, I’m sure “wow, he really has it together” isn’t the first thing they think. But contrary to first impressions, when I do something I think I do it pretty well.
Most of what I do in life is simple, when something gets too complicated I usually end up breaking it into pieces and attacking things in parts and it works. Starting Monday I’m going to share some simple tips of how I save time and get things done by stripping it down and putting it back together how it should have been built, so stay tuned.
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Ticked Tuesday: Dear Bad-Timing
Why do you always show up where you’re not wanted? Is there somebody that calls you up and says “Hey, we’re OK here can you come fuck it up?” I mean seriously, where the hell do you come from?
Lets take for instance the latest issue: writing this post. Any day of the week EXCEPT for today I could think of at least one thing that is annoying me, but today when everything has gone right and I can’t think of anything: It’s Tuesday. Why couldn’t you have let today be Monday or Wednesday, I’m sure I could have come up with something then. How dare you bless me with a good mood on the day that I’m supposed to be vengeful.
So in conclusion I think if you and I want to have a healthy relationship we have to set some boundaries, or we’re going to have to stop talking. The main one being not to show up when you’re not wanted. If you can do that, we’ll be BFFs. If not, sucks to be you.
See ya soon (or not),
JeffP.S. I hope you get this when you’re having a good day so that it makes you sad. Go go irony!
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Ticked Tuesday: Why won’t you people just go die?
It’s fitting that I get so erk’d about this on a Tuesday. Maybe I’m taking Eggo’s gig for the week?
Anyhow, I really am hoping that all these crazy ass feminist bitches go die. I mean, we can vote, we can wear crazy slutty clothes anywhere we want, we can be like britney and go flashing our va-jay-jay all over hell’s half acre if we wanted to. (not that I do, so don’t ask.) Yet we can’t enjoy Disney Princesses because they’re a bad influence to young girls and provide an unrealistic image.
What. The. Fuck.
Look morons, IT’S A FUCKING CARTOON. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can honestly say that when I was watching Beauty and the Beast 14 years ago I was NOT thinking “boy, I can’t wait to be a french girl and fall in love with bigfoot”. And quite frankly, if your kid IS thinking that, there is something more wrong with them than a couple disney movies.
Also, I’m just annoyed with these crazy femibitches going on about how slutty the Disney princesses look. Strange, I didn’t know FLOOR LENGTH GOWNS and gloves were slutty. (well, I’ve seen the Tudors, but thats beside the point..) Granted, Ariel is a little bare, but she’s a mermaid. You try swimming in a floor length gown. I’ve never done it, but it would be a bit difficult. And again, if your kid is a mermaid, more issues than a disney movie. And yes, I know the argument “But it’s how they LOOK at you!”. Bullshit. They’re cartoon characters. If you’re looking for a cartoon character to seduce you, move to japan. I hear they really dig that shit over there.
In conclusion, the whole femibitch hatred of Disney is getting old. They’re not pedophiles (for the most part), they’re not trying to lure your children into prostitution, and they’re not ruining the ability for children to be children. Most of these characters are as old as you bitches are. Get over it.
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Google Greatness: iGoogle
We’ve come to the end of the Google Greatness week and we’ve covered a variety of webapps and tips. First we had Google Reader, our trusty and reliable RSS feed reader. We met all of your email needs next with Gmail, followed by the oh-so-colorful Google Calendar, then Google Docs and lastly (but not least) Google Maps. But wouldn’t it be great if you had a central hub for all of this? Well your prayers have been answered, we’re going to look at iGoogle
This is a hub, simple as that. There is no need to jump around for everything, it’s all there on one page (Bing bang boom), You can add ‘stuff’ aka gadgets that you want displayed such as a preview of your gmail inbox, active doc files, your recent rss feeds in your reader, the top videos on youtube, picture of the day, news articles and even the weather! You can add more by clicking on the ‘Add stuff’ in the right of the screen. You can even add a new tab (left) so it’s like running a complete secondary igoogle window (great for those of us that are too organized)You can also add a ‘theme’ to the site, though it’s very limited. You can use some of the tweaks (see helpful links) to make it a little better.We haven’t covered all of Google’s Greatness this past week, just the tip of the iceburg. Here are some honorable mentions that almost reached Greatness:
- GOOG-411: A free 411 (information) service from Google. A good alternative for those who still pay for this info.
- Google Talk: Google’s instant messenger service. A good product, but still behind in users compared to others.
- Google Earth: It’s the earth. All of it. Google has mapped it out and is now even starting on outer space, a great look.
- Google pack: A Wonderful package of free software. The products are not google-made, but are free and recommended. A great collection.
Some Helpful Links
15 iGoogle Gadgets for Web Word Productivity
Pimp your iGoogle with Greasemonkey @ Mashable -
Google Greatness: Smart Searching
Do you ever find yourself searching something and coming back with a ton of ads and having to go through page after page of search results for what you want? Chances are you can use some searching tips.
Google Blog Search: This is always a great place to start. Blogs aren’t always personal journals, simply weblogs. Most sites today are done using a ‘blog’ format, the smarter ones make sure to get indexed in the blog search. There is much more content and nowhere near as many ads in this engine. This works especially well for finding answers to questions.
Google News: A search engine for news. There are many news sources listed, all compiled into one big blob or site for your viewing pleasure. The only issue I have with this is smaller sites aren’t often considered as reliable sources (which can be a good thing) so are not listed. Blog Search (listed above) can help if you’re not finding what you want.
Google Book Search: An interesting feature, this actually lets you see what’s inside of books. A great tool for checking to make sure you get quotes right. However, there is a limitation of what books are in this engine because of copyright laws.
Google Images: I have to point this out because I talk to SO many people who don’t know about this. On the main page simply click the image text (as seen in the image) or go to images.google.com. From here you can search and it will come up with images, so you don’t have to search through a ton of sites looking for an image you want, Google has already found them for you.Google Directory: Categories, categories who has the categories? This is a FANTASTIC way to search, cut down your results by category. This tool makes it easy to cut down exactly what you want, where you want it. The only problem is that this doesn’t seem to be as up-to-date as the normal engine (they need to get on updating that better).
Here’s some more neat tricks you can do with Google, simply type:
- “Define: word” and you’ll get a definition of that word from multiple sources.
- A mathematical equation (such as 4+4) and Google will solve it and show you the answer.
- A conversion statement (such as 100 lbs to KG or $10 USD to CDN) and it will figure it out for you.
- “Weather City-name” This will give you a 4 day forecast (available in most places, you may need to include province/state)
- “Spell: word” to have Google check to make sure the word is real.
More Helpful Links
Google search features @ Google
7 Clever Tricks Worth Knowing @ Marc and Angel -
Google Greatness: Maps
Everybody uses maps, but not everybody uses them right. Google Maps is a great alternative. No need to get a GPS or yell at your wife “I know where we are”, just use Google.
GMaps are great for 3 reasons: 1) You can have fun finding your house using the ‘satellite’ mode. 2) Directions tells you where to turn and where, as well as how long each step in getting there to take. 3) You can plan your bank heist without having to leave the house!
First lets play with Searching: Just type in an address. This can be In the form of ‘City, Province/state’ or you can go all out and find a specific place such as ‘Road City, Province Postal Code’ (in most places just putting in the postal/zip code works, but the more information you put in the faster it will find the place you’re looking for. Remember, it’s searching the whole world). You can also try writing names of stores and the city/province that you’re looking for and Google is usually pretty good at finding them. Once you find your location try clicking the ‘Hybrid’ button located on the top right of the map. This will display both roads and a satellite image of the map, you can then zoom in (using a scroll wheel or the bar on the left of the map) and try to pick out your location’s image. The search feature is more a free-for-all locating tool, directions work better, so lets head over there.
To get into directions mode, click Get Directions just under the search bar. You’ll now have 2 search bars, a start and end address. Once you find the two places you’ll see a green marker (start) and red marker (end) connected by a blue line, this is your path. You’ll also notice some new information show up on the left of your screen: How to get there. There will be total KM, time it takes to get there, any additional info (toll bridge, crossing a nation’s border, etc) and what signs to look for. It’s as if somebody was sitting beside you reading a map (correctly!).
By default, Google will choose the quickest route from A-B, but you can change this. There is an option you can check on the left that says ‘avoid highways’ which is good for you older people who drive slow. You can also change your route yourself by dragging the line. For example, if you were going from Kingston, Ontario to Saint John, New Brunswick you’d be going through Montreal, Quebec by default. If you don’t want to do that, drag the path down to where you do want to go through, in this case Vermont. You can drag down parts of your path to avoid the French province completely (it just adds about 5 hours to the trip, minor details). This can be useful also if you want to stop by somewhere that isn’t on your route, you can go there without getting completely lost.
Another nice feature is ‘My Maps‘. This allows users to add content to Google Maps, just as businesses, real estate for sale and many other features that could prove helpful for people in the area. Google is available on many mobile phones now as well. It has implemented a street view feature in some cities where you can ‘virtually walk’ along the street, but it’s still very limited. You can also embed or send your maps to friends by clicking on the buttons located on the right just above your map.
More Helpful Links:
Google Maps Nighttime: A nice view of lights from space at night.
Cool Google Maps -
Ticked Tuesday: Dear Web 2.0
FUCK YOU! I mean, Hi. No wait, I meant fuck you. There’s no nice way of putting this, but you pushed the wrong buttons and I hate you. I’ve been around the internet for nearly a decade now and the only reason it has lasted that long is because there were people on the other side of the computer keeping me here, thus the ‘net’ part of the term ‘Internet’, the network. Just because you’re just catching on doesn’t mean that it’s new, you’re just slow.
Communication and networking as always been the driving factor, no matter what ‘version’ of the web you’re using. Weblogs, chat rooms, forums, and instant messaging tools have all been created solely for the purpose of sharing data and networking with other people. If you think that websites were created and left as they were without multiple people contributing then you’re foolish. What is it that turns EVERYTHING online into ‘web 2.0′? Honestly I’m sick of seeming the term. Every blog now has a big “2.0!” written on it now. Did they actually change anything? Nope, but ‘web 2.0′ is all the rage these days. Every marketing asshole now says their product is made for web 2.0 yet there is no change from the same crap they’ve been producing before, they just added an ‘email us’ button at the bottom.Just because everybody and their dog can now point and click to have their own ‘website’ doesn’t mean that we’re in a new version of the web, it just means we’ve lowered our standards. Saying that all this new crap is 2.0 means that there is a distinguishing difference from the older 1.0 stuff. Aside from the lack of intelligence and creativity required for internet use I haven’t noticed anything change.
As the net gets bigger people find more ways to organize it. All of these social networking and bookmarking sites are just that. They’re not creating a new product, they’re simply adding on. Because the internet isn’t a stable thing, you can’t define the difference between versions. You’re dumb.
Plugging my peripherals into your motherboard,
Jeff -
Google Greatness: Google Docs
Google Docs, Google’s version of the popular Microsoft Office suite. The difference between the two though is that with Google there is no need for a download, you can access it from anywhere with a net connection and it’s free. So you can spend the $400 on something that’s actually worth the cost.
Spreadsheet (Excel)
This is a very basic spreadsheet application but from my experience seems to cover all of the basics. Some features include color coating cells, quick sorting (A-Z, Z-A), charts (Columns, line, pie, bar, scatter), and easy use of popular formulas (Sum, count, average, etc). The formulas are very intuitive of what you want done which makes use a lot easier.Document (Word)
It’s a word processing application. It has all the normal word formatting, comments (footnotes), tables, separators, bookmark (anchor) features. As well, it also includes the ability to quickly upload and insert pictures and links.Presentation (PowerPoint)
Google’s newest addition to the Doc package, and in my opinion the most impressive (or at least showing the most potential). This application proves its simplicity in form of slide creation and organization, as well as modification. It does this most prominently by supplying a variety of default themes and formatting for the user. As with the other Document applications, the ability to upload and add text/pictures is found here as well. Aside from the creation features there is also a ‘Presentation mode’. This allows you to invite users to view the presentation with you as you move through it. Beside the slides there is a chat window allowing easy conversation. This would be good tool for virtual meetings (voice would make it amazing!)What makes all of these stand out though is the way they’re used by groups. Each document can be shared or published to allow groups to view or even edit them. This saves from having a million copies on everybody’s computers, as there is only one copy that is being edited. Google also makes backups of the file, so you can easily review the changes that were made and who made them. The only issue I find with this is that both collaborators as well as viewers must have a registered Google account. This is understandable for those editing, but the service would prove better if this was not needed for visitors.
All office files you already have are easily uploaded to Google without any need to play around with converting or reformatting, so the switch is completely painless. Give it a go, you’ll be glad you did or your money back (Oh wait, it’s free!)
More Helpful Links:
Fun explanation video by Google
5 things you probably didn’t know you could do in Google Docs & Spreadsheets by Josh Lowensohn
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