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Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Blogs

NYT on a Paperless World

Pushing Paper Out the Door - New York Times

Is it just me, or is the Times tossing softballs for organizational nerds on purpose? Today's story on the ways people are purging paper from their lives gives lots of ink (digital, of course) to our friend, the Fujitsu ScanSnap, and comes with the kind of grand statements that no trend piece should be without:

[M]any families may be closer to entering a paperless world than they realize. Paper-reducing technologies have crept into homes and offices, perhaps more for efficiency than for environmentalism; few people will dispute the convenience of online bill-paying and airline e-tickets.
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Clever web dev trick for checking browser history

Sniff browser history for improved user experience

Talk about sufficiently advanced technology. Although you will surely see this post linked many times this week, I have to throw in my own kudos. Fantastic trick, Niall!

In a nutshell, Niall shows how you can use a combination of CSS and JavaScript to selectively display information based on previously visited URLs in your visitor's browser history. Have you been to Digg? Then Niall's site displays a "Digg This" badge (and, importantly for Niall's purposes, not 100 other badges for sites you haven't used).

Try Niall's live example to see this stunner in action.

Dang. That sound you just heard? That's a few million people scurrying to hit "Clear History." Terrific work, Niall -- totally clever.

Now, regrettably, I suspect the race begins for seeing how horribly something like this can be abused.

[via Brian and Ev]

Links we like, February 6, 2008

  • Kevin Kelly -- The Technium - "When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied." That pretty much sums it up. I suspect this might be the most succinct, profound, and prescient sentence I'll read this year. A must-read post.
  • Dogcow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "The original dogcow was named Clarus by Apple employees. The sound she makes is 'Moof!'"
  • Rands In Repose: Out Loud - "Developing a compelling presentation involves a series of decisions and exercises to align your head with the fact that you’re delivering your content directly to people. No internet. No weblog. Just you." [via Daring Fireball]
  • Quiet your Home with Ambient Noise - O'Reilly Digital Media Blog - Living in intimate proximity to a tribe of suburban Wookiees has made our family very familiar with white noise generators. They're a godsend. (Most especially if you have an infant) [thanks, Gordon!]
  • How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap! - I like the idea of using the Skype connection only as a "monitor." I'd add that it doesn't hurt to do a "clap" at the beginning so you have something common to sync around.
  • Your Prep Card: Don’t Leave Home Without It - "Take a 3″ x 5″ index card and write down 3 key points you want to mention in simple clear language, nouns and verbs. At the bottom, give yourself 2 reminders to avoid your bad habits." Good idea. Once you're out of a comfortable environment and feeling stressed, your head starts to swim. (And by "you" I mean "me")
  • The Smart Set: Night Terrors - "Chronic sleep loss of even two to three hours per night held the potential to hamper body and mind functioning, not to mention quality of life."
  • Being Funny - Steve Martin: "About to pass me by, Elvis stopped, looked at me and said in his beautiful Mississippi drawl: 'Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor.'" [via MeFi]
TOPICS: Daily Links

Snow Day Hobbies

It snowed almost a foot here in Chicago last night, and looking at all that white stuff made me think about junior high, when my school was out an entire week for snow. I built most of the eastern seaboard in SimCity 2000 that week, on a 33 MHz PC no less. I was a nerd. It was awesome.

I thought about how fun that sounded today after I finished shoveling, and considered digging around for an updated copy of SimCity online. Then I reminded myself that the last thing I need is another hobby involving the computer. I use a computer for work. When I'm finished working, I screw around on the internet. When I'm tired of that, I read books, which isn't a whole lot different, if a little easier on the eyes and attention span.

Pardon me while I get out the nostalgia hankie, but I miss the days when my hobbies had nothing to do with staring at a glowing screen. When I was a kid, I could sit down in my room over an unopened wax box of Topps baseball cards and completely tune out the outside world until four hours later, when my mom called me to dinner, handed me a napkin, and told me to wipe the drool from chewing 36 sticks of gum off my chin.

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1Password beta: Secure name and password filling for iPhone's Safari

Safari AutoFill for iPhone and iPod Touch (Switchers' Blog)

Babies, iPhones and very-high-security passwords can be a bitter cocktail; it's really hard to enter a 28-character/mixed-case/special character password on the iPhone while you're holding 15 lbs. of undulating infant. Trust me.

So, if you caught video of my recent interview with Agile Web Solutions' Dave Teare, you could see how excited I was to learn about a then-upcoming beta which would support autofill name- and password-entering via secure bookmarklets on your iPhone. Well, the day has arrived, and, brother, am I ever loving this.


click to view larger

From Dave's post on the company's blog:

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Merlin on MacBreak Weekly 75

MacBreak Weekly 75: MacHeist Replies

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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay

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Guests: Philip Ryu of MacHeist, Andrew Welch of Ambrosia.

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Apple reports record earnings… then stock tanks, Philip Ryu of MacHeist and Andrew Welch of Ambrosia give counterpoints to MacHeist discussion, and more.

Here's a direct MP3 download of our marathon 107 minute, nearly-ruined-by-Skype-farts MBW 75.

And, hey, whaddaya know? MBW is having its Diamond Anniversary. I should pick up a necklace or an industrial drill for Leo.

read more »
 
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