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Click “play” above to see me demonstrate how the Readability bookmarklet works with Evernote to create clean web clips without having to manually take out a bunch of garbage (blog comments, ads, etc.). Then, head on over to the Readability setup page to get yourself the bookmarklet!
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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.
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!).
In today’s podcast, I discuss the awesome “Delete Song” button on my new Sansa Clip Plus, and how the simple approach to life flies right in the face of fads like GTD, “debt reduction systems”, and our economy. Have a listen and leave a comment!
(If you can’t see the “play” button, click the title of the post!)
Most of you know that I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey and The Total Money Makeover. My fiancé and I are currently going through his Financial Peace University course at my church, and I am proud to say that I recently announced on my personal Facebook account that she and I had successfully completed "Baby Step 1" of his program. WOO!
"Baby Step 2" in Dave’s program is to pay off your debts, except for your mortgage. There are a lot of different ways that you can pay off your debts. Some suggest attacking the highest interest rates first so that you save the most money. Dave’s idea is a little different: line up your debts from smallest-to-largest and pay them off in that order. Some disagree with the method, saying you waste money by not attacking the highest interest rates. Dave’s philosophy? "Dealing with money is 80% behavior and 20% math." In other words, the momentum you build by paying off smaller debts psychologically will help you stick to paying off debt, rather than the frustration of having to pay down a giant debt with a high interest rate and not seeing any noticeable progress.
I have to say, I’m with Dave on this one. Paying off a small debt really encourages me to keep going, as that’s a result I can see. But this philosophy can be applied elsewhere, which is why I would like to completely rip off Dave’s "Debt Snowball" and introduce to you the "Life Snowball".
Here’s how it works: write out all the goals you want to accomplish, from easiest-to-hardest. Then attack them. You can apply this to a day’s worth of to-do’s or a lifetime’s worth. Either way, the momentum you build by checking things off will propel you to work on the other stuff.
For example, here’s a typical "to-do" list for me on a day off from the office:
Now, what’s most important on that list? I would say either the blog post or the 10 cold calls. If I start with those, I might be a little sluggish to get going, waste all morning doing those things, and then have to cram a bunch of stuff in the afternoon. The vacuuming wouldn’t get done, and the receipts might sit until the next day.
But, typically, if I have that list, I’m starting with the litter. That takes 5 minutes. Then I check it off. I’ll move on to the workout. Then I vacuum. Then I build my grocery list. With that momentum, I fly through the rest of the list. I love checking things off, and then the list shrinks until it doesn’t look like much. All of a sudden, I’ve cleared it and it’s only 3:00 in the afternoon.
In fact, you could compare it to a workout. You don’t walk into a gym and hop onto the bench press. You stretch, you run a little, do some lighter reps. You have to get that blood moving first. You need to warm up. When you are attacking a list like this, you need to warm up first. Then your brain will say, "Hey, we’re getting a lot done! Let’s keep going!"
The key to getting things done isn’t a complicated system, it’s about motivation. Winning over your brain is 80% of the battle, because your brain will fight you tooth-and-nail. Think about your own goals – could you work them doing the "Life Snowball" method? Try it out and see what happens. It’s not like it will hurt anything!
