Secure Login is a Firefox extension that makes signing into password protected web spaces more secure. That, I don’t really care about, although I probably should.
What I love about the plugin, though, is it actually speeds up the login process. Just clicking the little key icon it sticks in your toolbar causes the login blanks [...]

Secure Login is a Firefox extension that makes signing into password protected web spaces more secure. That, I don’t really care about, although I probably should.

What I love about the plugin, though, is it actually speeds up the login process. Just clicking the little key icon it sticks in your toolbar causes the login blanks to fill in and be submitted instantly. If you have multiple logins at one site, there’s just one additional click in the dialog window that pops up with all those loging. It also seems capable of doing its thing earlier in the page loading process than I can do manually (yes, I’m one of those people who starts trying to fill in the login blanks the instant I can see them on the page, with no regard for the 20 graphics that have to load above it and keep shoving the blanks elsewhere on the page).

Basically, WinTabber just takes the tabs from your taskbar (for all your open apps) and puts them at the top of the screen, inside a browser-like shell. What’s the big deal?
If you like to use Alt-Tab to switch between applications, you know that it likes to annoy you by sticking up 6 identical Word icons [...]

Basically, WinTabber just takes the tabs from your taskbar (for all your open apps) and puts them at the top of the screen, inside a browser-like shell. What’s the big deal?

If you like to use Alt-Tab to switch between applications, you know that it likes to annoy you by sticking up 6 identical Word icons to represent the 6 Word docs you have open – not too helpful. WinTabber lets you cycle through windows, not icons, so you can see where you’re landing.

It also seems a little faster to me, which is one of the website’s bragging points.

And lastly, if you’re trying to train yourself to keep your apps fullscreen (supposedly less distracting than having lots of little windows visible), this could help. Once you load your apps into it (you can pick and choose which ones you want to include in a session), there’s no minimizing or maximizing.

Alexa has finally released that Firefox toolbar they’ve been promising for ages. Alexa’s rankings bear only the occasional coincidental resemblance to reality when it comes to comparing site traffic. For a while, most of my sites were going up, up, up in Alexa as their traffic grew or stayed on plateaus. For the past few [...]

Alexa has finally released that Firefox toolbar they’ve been promising for ages. Alexa’s rankings bear only the occasional coincidental resemblance to reality when it comes to comparing site traffic. For a while, most of my sites were going up, up, up in Alexa as their traffic grew or stayed on plateaus. For the past few months they’ve just plummeted, despite traffic growing.

By installing the toolbar, I can help to boost my own sites. Oh, it’s all crap, but what the hell.

Call it speedlinking if you want – I call it a “bookmark” post because I regularly use my own site to find links to stuff I’ve come across that I checked out and loved or want to check out sometime. Here’s a batch for you:

Crop pictures online, quick and easy
See what’s showing in the top [...]

Call it speedlinking if you want – I call it a “bookmark” post because I regularly use my own site to find links to stuff I’ve come across that I checked out and loved or want to check out sometime. Here’s a batch for you:

• Crop pictures online, quick and easy
• See what’s showing in the top fold of your site in various browsers
• The Authority Bloggers Forum- great place to get suggestions, feedback, ideas and tips
• Turn your laptop into a hotspot
• SEOBook on how to tell if a link passes you any good juice
• Use iTunes Export to export your iTunes playlists and libraries intact
• Make a small station for recharging all your phones, that keeps those cords tucked away (I think I may really have to try this one)
• Resetting your master password in Mac OSX
• AskApache’s Ultimate Htaccess File Sample

LifeHacker managed to dig up both Windows and Mac free utilities that let you merge PDF documents, re-order pages and edit them with watermarks and stuff like that. If you ever thought of writing an ebook, these are potentially very helpful programs.
The ability to create PDFs in the first place is part of the Mac [...]

LifeHacker managed to dig up both Windows and Mac free utilities that let you merge PDF documents, re-order pages and edit them with watermarks and stuff like that. If you ever thought of writing an ebook, these are potentially very helpful programs.

The ability to create PDFs in the first place is part of the Mac operating system. For Windows, you need CutePDF, and then any program with a print option can generate you a PDF document.

LifeHacker had an article about a guy who realized he was spending inordinate time replying to emails that really didn’t require encyclopedic responses. To get this bad habit under control, he limited himself to five sentences per email reply, and set up a link in his signature to explain the change to anyone who found [...]

LifeHacker had an article about a guy who realized he was spending inordinate time replying to emails that really didn’t require encyclopedic responses. To get this bad habit under control, he limited himself to five sentences per email reply, and set up a link in his signature to explain the change to anyone who found it disconcerting.

What if we did that with other stuff, too?

What if I limited how long I will spend on writing blog posts per day? Would my posts suck? From what I remember of essay tests in high school, the time crunch made me more focused and productive. Some of my best work was hastily scrawled in a Number 2 pencil.

What if I limited how long I will spend on the feedreader, and when I get to the end and there are still posts left, I just mark them all “read” and move on? Would I miss the one blog entry explaining that the aliens have arrived to take over earth and want to make me World Ruler Extraordinaire to run things when they’re off conquering other planets?

It’s definitely not how much time you spend on something that makes it good – if it were, the slowest person at a task would be the best. You definitely need to give things enough time, but how do you know what’s enough if you don’t limit your time and see what you can get done in the time allotted?