Posts Tagged tips

The “Where the Hell is My Wallet” Hack | Bridging the Nerd Gap

Oct 5

Posted by sheffner in lifehacks + cooltools | 2 Comments

I’ve been using Evernote more than, ahem, ever recently:

first, I discovered how it can help me go paperless (thanks to Brooks Duncan’s excellent advice on DocumentSnap – if you’re serious about paperless, do consider getting his Paperless Document Organization Guide);
next, I came across Daniel Gold’s “Unofficial Guide to capturing everything & GTD” which reminded me of ways to use Evernote for Getting Things Done, and also gave me tons of neat tips on tagging and searching and how you don’t actually need 52 Notebooks;
and finally I updated to version 2 of Brett Kelly’s definitive Evernote guide just to brush up on the basics as well as learn just what the heck is parent/child tagging (a fun game for all the family).

Going paperless is exciting, but it’s also more involved and less intuitive than I’d thought, so I’m grateful to the above guys for paving the way and leaving clues scattered on the info highway.

And this just in from Brett’s blog: some good advice on how to be prepared for when your wallet gets stolen. It just happens to involve Evernote, but that’s not compulsory.

Brett’s not only a fine writer and Evernote expert, but he’s also got a pretty darn good imagination, to be able to put himself in the shoes of some idiot who’s stupid enough to not keep important information together in one place, so that much valuable time is wasted when emergency strikes.

Even the most vigilant among us will occasionally, say, leave our freaking wallets on the table at the restaurant because the kids were losing their minds and getting the hell out of quickly became priority numero uno. Hypothetically, of course.

Losing your wallet doesn’t just mean you’re out whatever dough was inside; you’re also about to make several lovely phone calls to credit card companies asking them to kindly cancel the crap out of your Visa Gold before some jackass decides to use it to fill up his gas tank and the gas tanks of his 20 closest friends.

via The “Where the Hell is My Wallet” Hack | Bridging the Nerd Gap.

Tags: DocumentSnap, evernote, GTD, howto, paperless, tips

Using a Kindle in Japan

Aug 21

Posted by sheffner in lifehacks + cooltools | 3 Comments

I’ve finally figured out how to purchase and download Kindle editions of books onto my Kindle. It’s not straight forward because I don’t have an Amazon.com account and I live in Japan. Here’s how to do it:

Create an Amazon.com account (I have an Amazon UK account and was able to register with that; Amazon Japan accounts are not recognized by Kindle/Amazon.com)
On your PC, go to Amazon.com and log in.
Find the book you want (tip: add the word “kindle” to the book title in the search box; or select “Kindle Store” from the search-box drop-down menu).
(Doing the above “kindle” search – step 3 – on Amazon UK brought up the following message: “Kindle titles for your country are not available at Amazon.co.uk.
Please shop for Kindle titles at Amazon.com. “)
Select “alternative formats” if it doesnt automatically appear (it should be in the next section down, below the photo of the book cover)
If there is a Kindle version, it will be listed.
If you’re logged in, on the right-hand side of the Amazon window, where the “Add to Cart” button is, you should see the following:
Add to Cart (or Buy now with 1-click)
Deliver to: (followed by the name of your Kindle gadget. This is listed in the Settings of your Kindle and is created automatically when you register your Kindle)

How buying works

Available on your PC
Click “Add to Cart” or “Buy now with 1-click” if you’ve got 1-click switched on, and the book you’ve selected will be downloaded to your Kindle. I have a Wifi-only Kindle, so the book was automatically downloaded the next time I moved my Kindle within the range of my Wifi network.
You can also download the book to your PC and transfer it to your Kindle later. Here’s the help message from Amazon: “If you are outside a 3G wireless coverage area and cannot connect to Wi-Fi, select Transfer via Computer from the Deliver to menu when buying. You can then download the Kindle Edition to your computer and transfer to your USB connected Kindle. “
Voila!
Is Kindle cheaper than buying a physical book? I just checked with 2 books and found that the Kindle version is 72% of the hardback price, but (in 1 case) double the paperback price. In another case, the Kindle version was just 20 cents cheaper than the mass paperback version.

Tags: howto, Kindle, tips

WordPress blog tips

Dec 28

Posted by sheffner in lifehacks + cooltools, science & technology | 3 Comments

: Image via Wikipedia

Marko Saric has created a remarkably successful blog… about how to be a successful blogger! I just discovered his website and clicked on his free e-book (PDF), on how to optimize WordPress for successful blogging. I’ve only just started reading it, but already I have implemented one of his suggestions: to change my permalink from ?p=123 to a URL that includes the title of my blog post. Easily done in the Settings.

Next, I plan to explore his suggestion to use FeedBurner for the RSS feed,and to offer subscribers the option to receive my blog via email.

There’s lots more useful advice on his blog.