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Google Chrome is one of those programs that has been around for a while, but when you first tried it, you weren’t that crazy about it. It was somewhat buggy, it didn’t have any type of customization available, and you couldn’t block ads. As much as I wanted to make the switch (being the Google nutjob that I am), I couldn’t do it without a few features that just weren’t available:
1. I needed ads blocked. Period. Even most of them would be sufficient.
2. Add-ons. I want to be able to customize it.
3. A way to integrate my Google Bookmarks so that I can use them like regular bookmarks.
Then one day a couple months ago, I heard that extensions were finally hitting the mainstream. Google Chrome Extensions were a great idea, but you needed to download Chromium, which was the “guinea pig” version of Chrome (which means it doesn’t always work properly), and you had to do a lot of nerdy command-line work to get it up and running. It wasn’t pretty. Once one-click extension support came around, it was time to dive back in.
Now, a few months later, I couldn’t be happier.
Hey, Firefox is a great product. Go ahead and download it if you’d like. It’s stable and it’s popular. But Firefox is very prone to bloatedness. After a while, it takes forever to load Firefox. Chrome just pops right up. It just feels light. Check out the screencast I took below of a comparison between a Firefox start and a Chrome start and you will see what I mean. The little box that pops up in the middle is Launchy, which is my application launcher. In layman’s terms, the box pops up and I start typing the name of the program. When the box disappears, that means I hit “enter” and the application is starting. First I try opening Firefox, then Chrome. Check it out:
If you time it, Firefox takes a full 7 seconds to load up for use, and Chrome takes about 1/2 a second – that means Chrome, in this situation, is 14 times faster loading!
Interested yet? Here are my full reasons why you should give Chrome a chance:
Okay, okay – enough gushing. Time to get into the nuts-and-bolts: how do you set this thing up? Remember – it needs to do all the stuff that my awesome Firefox setup could do.
This is easily the most complicated part of the process, but it’s not that hard, really. Without a true contender to the ad-blocking throne, the best way to do it, in my experience, has been through a program called Privoxy. There’s a 7-step process to it that is awesomely-simplified in this post by Lifehacker and Geekzone. Just follow it, step-by-step, and you’re done. Bada bing.
Remember from my Firefox setup, I make full use of bookmarklets – little bookmarks that can do some awesome things in your Bookmarks Toolbar. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to open up a Firefox window next to your Chrome window and literally drag your bookmarklets from Firefox and drop them into the Chrome toolbar. If you don’t have that, here are links to my bookmarklets and what they do. Instead of clicking on the link, just drag it up to your Bookmarks Toolbar:
Like Firefox plugins, these add-ons help you further customize your browsing experience. There are plenty out there, so feel free to browse around. Here are mine:
No complicated Greasemonkey stuff. Just click “Install” on these bad boys:
Am I preaching to the choir? Do you already use Chrome? What are your favorite extensions/scripts? Why should we encourage more Chrome usage? If you’re a diehard Firefox user and you’re not convinced, tell us why. If you’re an Internet Explorer advocate, seek help immediately – we cannot help you here.
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Time for another edition of Big Pile o’ Links, where I feature some of my favorite links and groups of articles from all over the wonderful world we call “The Internet”:
Ah, Evernote. It’s one of the most useful and versatile programs/cloud storage ever, and yet so few Cooler People use it. It’s not just for tech bloggers and people with lots of crap to write about – it’s also incredibly useful for normal people in their day-to-day lives. I use mine every day, and I can’t tell you how useful it has been at the office, at home, or even running around. Here are some great links from recent times that list a bunch of great, easy ways you can start using Evernote more often in your life:
Job got you down? Feel like you’re headed the wrong way? Here are a handful of great articles (and one AWESOME documentary!) to help you make some changes:
It makes the world go ‘round. Here’s a quick handful of resources to further your knowledge on the subject:
Phew! There you go! Another Big Pile o’ Links for your pleasure. If you have an article or site or tool or whatever that you want featured in the Big Pile o’ Links, send it my way at tom@thepracticalnerd.com (it doesn’t have to be yours either, just something you like!).
Boy, do I hear this stuff a lot.
I’ve got friends and family who will ask about The Practical Nerd, and then they’ll spout off some reason why they don’t follow it and apologize to me. First, it’s not like I get offended for every person that doesn’t read what I have to say. My words aren’t for everybody (though, in most cases, they should be reading this stuff!). But as a blogger, you tend to thicken your skin towards that stuff. But the Cooler People of the world have an excuse for not reading a few blogs, and they think they need an excuse for everything. Just think of some of the long, drawn-out explanations you might hear for the following topics:
And the list goes on. Today, however, I want to go with the three reasons I hear most often for people who tell me they don’t follow The Practical Nerd, or blogs in general. Consider it my rebuttal to the Cooler People of the world.
Hey, back off! It’s only for nine months!
Yes, I have recently moved back in with my parents to save some dough before I get married and be a grown-up forever. But I want to list just a few types of people who have very successful blogs: brilliant marketers, people who have successfully morphed their lives into dream lives, sports commentators and pundits, best-selling authors, people who lost weight without having high-priced personal trainers scream in their ears while millions of people watch, and personal finance experts. These are not people who live in their parents’ basements. These are people who have changed lives and are darn good at what they do. They have valuable life experience and they share it with you. This leads to…
Bloggers do rant, there’s no doubt about that. But here are a few blogs I follow that have some ridiculously useful information:
That’s just the tiniest footprint of all the blogs out there. Sure, some are full of idiots who just want to complain about [insert topic here]. Some are celebrity rumor blogs like that piece of crap Perez Hilton. But some are honest, interesting people who are trying to teach and help. Those are the people I follow.
In addition, there are plenty that give you a good laugh after a long day, like 11 Points, Awkward Family Photos, Calvin and Hobbes (the best comic strip of all-time, every day).
This one is easily the most common one I get, and usually the word “life” is emphasized as a way to make me feel like some kind of loser.
Do you ever read a magazine? How about the newspaper? Ever watch anything on TV? Then you have time. It’s that simple.
What is the best use for your time? Is it watching another crappy fake “reality” show? These are shows with people who add nothing to society other than generally wanting a bunch of attention so that they can justify their giant contracts and sponsorships by playing to your emotions with overproduced crap. Why not experience the true reality of people’s lives and actually learn from and enjoy their experiences without corporate involvement? That’s what a blog does. The blog is the ultimate reality show. There are podcasts, video podcasts, and plain ol’ blogs that all exist for people to bare their lives. There are some captivating stories out there that would put the “I’m a single father with three kids and instead of getting a job I traveled all the way here to sing for you” stories to absolute shame. Put down the remote and belly-up to the monitor for a few minutes.
Newspapers and magazines are going by way of the dodo. Think you’re going to miss much? Most magazines have their articles on their websites, and most can be subscribed to. Same with newspapers. You can get your daily dose of news just about anywhere, and you can tailor it to just be news you’re interested in.
Then use an RSS subscriber like Google Reader to pull them in. Instead of searching through each individual website, it will highlight all the new content, pull it to the front, and you can move through it, skipping articles you don’t want to read and highlighting the ones you do. The other reason I use Google Reader is because it’s web-based, so I can access it on my work breaks or on my phone’s web browser, which is great for waiting rooms and other times where you just need to kill a little time. Plus you don’t have to carry around anything extra – you already have your phone! And finding that article from the past you were just thinking about is as easy and entering a few terms into the search box. All your sites are saved and past content can be searched in seconds.
The truth is, many blogs are written by respected, well-rounded people with inspirational and practical advice for you that can be read any time. You have the time. Start following a few blogs and see how your life will change for the better as a result. Or not. Then you can go back to sitting on the couch and watching Jersey Shore instead. I’m not here to judge.
Is there anything more frustrating than the local radio? Never is this more evident than at Christmastime. In Milwaukee, the only two Christmas songs available are that “Canon In D” thing with the boys’ choir, and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by freaking Mariah Carey. Yes sir, nothing gets me in the spirit like Mariah Carey. Ugh.
I love Christmas music, but this was killing me. Even better, at nighttime when they might play a few different ones, we have an annoying DJ named Delilah who intersperses each song with over-the-top mushiness and “inspirational” messages. Pandora came to the rescue, and here I am, still using it more and more.
Pandora Radio is a little web application where you tell the service an artist you like and it plays music by that artist and others like it. You can give the ol’ thumbs-up or thumbs-down to songs, and it will adjust your playlist accordingly. The more you rate, the better it gets at picking music you’ll like. You can even add more artists to a radio station for variety and even better chances of getting music you like. For music lovers like me, this service is a Godsend, as it is free and easy to use, and it helps me discover new music. But why else is it so great?
You can make as many stations as you want in Pandora. So I can make a country station if I want by just adding a few country artists I like. As you can see above, I added a Rockapella station to listen to a cappella covers of songs any time I want (I never said I was cool). What about Christmastime? Pandora had a couple Christmas stations created, and you can create stations with your favorite artists singing holiday songs, too. Bye-bye, Mariah, hello Straight No Chaser!
My biggest beef with local radio is the commercials. First, they take commercial breaks like every five minutes. We have a station here called FM 106.1, which is an all-country station, and they actually advertise the “No-Talk Triple-Play” where they play, wait for it… THREE whole songs in a row! WOW. And I think there’s something written in the laws of radio that every station has to take commercial breaks at the exact same time. It bothers me. A lot. If I’m in the car for 10 minutes, I don’t want to listen to commercials for 8 of those minutes.
Yes, I love my Zune with all my heart. But what about the days when I just want to sit back and let somebody else pick the music for me? That’s why Pandora comes in handy. When I’m in the car, some days I’ll just plug the adapter into my Blackberry and let Pandora entertain me. Most are hits, there are a few misses occasionally, but it’s nice to have a variety without dealing with all the crap of local radio. I even get (a limited number of) skips (per hour) that I can use for songs that drive me nuts.
Is there anything more pointless than the radio DJ anymore? I understand if you are on talk radio. For example, I’m a huge fan of Dave Ramsey’s radio show. But in those situations, I want to hear the guy talk, not play music. Delilah kills me. At Christmastime, I was listening to a local station during the day while I ran some errands, and they decided to spend 10 minutes in an interview with Ray Romano. *siiiiiiiiggghhhhhh*… With Pandora, it’s computer-generated and analyzed. I don’t have to listen to anybody explain any garbage to me about anything. I don’t have to listen to people winning money and big giveaways. I just get the music.
If you’ve got a pair of headphones, you can listen to Pandora anytime. First, it runs in a web browser, so if you are near a computer, just plug the ol’ headphones in and start listening. Or, if you’re at home, crank up the speakers! As you can see above, it’s available on almost any type of smartphone. I use the Blackberry app myself, and I love it. Plug that bad boy into the cassette adapter or FM transmitter, and it feels like you’re just listening to regular radio. [Bonus feature: when you get a call or a text, it pauses the station for you to take care of it, and then unpauses when you’re done automatically. Cool!]
Have other needs? Well, some boombox-type devices support Pandora music, and Pioneer has announced plans to bring Pandora to more cars in 2010. In addition, I have recently discovered Jamcast, which streams your audio to different supported devices, including my XBox 360 (see link for full list of supported devices, including PS3 and various DVD players), so that I can play Pandora on my computer and listen to it in my living room on my TV. Slick!
Yup. There’s no better argument than this one. It doesn’t cost a dime. You can pay for it if you’d like, and Pandora One offers some nice features, too. But if you want to stick with free, there’s nothing stopping you. The limitations aren’t ridiculous like some services out there, and you can still enjoy it fully.
Yeah, Pandora isn’t big news to anybody who’s been online for the past few years. But if you’re not all that tech-savvy, this can be a great new discovery for you. Check it out today!
If you are on Twitter and not following musician John Mayer, you’re doing it all wrong. Mayer continues to have some of the funniest tweets, but last night he had a beautifully-done series of tweets on how stupid the 2000s decade was as it draws to a close. Here’s a screenshot of the tweets:
Now, they are in reverse-chronological order, so they start at the bottom. Also, please try to ignore the side picture of him wearing a t-shirt with a plunging neckline and looking deep into your eyes. Unless you’re a lady, because I think that’s what he’s going for. What’s your view on the 2000s?
