Balance, Technology
November 15, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Depending on what kind of a user you are, you might use or ignore the widgets on your Dashboard. Lion has made them easier to access, thanks to a swipe gesture, but what widgets will serve you best? Anyone working from home will appreciate this round up.
1. PEMDAS Scientific Calculator: This calculator widget has won an Apple Design award, and it’s quite easy to use. There’s an equation history view, and you can switch between degrees and radians. It’s a step up from the calculator included with OS X and will serve when you need to crunch numbers.
2. iStat Nano: This little widget (above) allows you to check up the stats of your Mac, including CPU and memory usage, hard drive space, bandwith usage, fan speeds and temperatures, thanks to animated menus and transitions. If it’s not enough, you can upgrade for free to the iStat Pro.
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Technology
October 4, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Consider Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one representing the intellectual side, the other our most base inclinations. It’s often the case our Dr. Jekyll is unable to get work done because Mr. Hyde wants to browse Pinterest and jettison some angry avian projectiles. Unfortunately, dealing with a case of short attention span is worse now thanks to online access, the myriad of diversionary entertainment options, and even that smartphone you keep checking every few seconds. Distractions like these divide attention, time, and therefore affect the quality of work you do. However there’s one trick that can keep you on the straight and narrow to build better work habits.
It’s all too easy to get distracted from work on the computer. But there’s a simple technique to help regain focus: create a new User account, one specifically designed for getting work done. That means creating a desktop stripped of extraneous bookmarks, applications, music and movie files, plug-ins, extensions…unless they’re designed for task management or your work related projects. Think of this desktop as your work persona. Creating a dedicated account for work related tasks is like having a work outfit compared to the comfy-cozy sweatpants of leisurely online time.
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Technology
March 15, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
As much as we like to think that Unplggd is your only daily stop on the internet, we recognize most readers shuffle through a set of favorite websites throughout the day while taking a a break/avoiding work. We recently implemented a little shortcut that has made it much easier to stay on top of the primary sites that we like to read that we thought we’d share.
All of the major web browsers let you save bookmarks to folders. You can then open all of the shortcuts in any given folder all at one time, each in its own tab. If you’ve got a slow computer and a ton of links, this may take a slight bit of effort on your computer’s part. Then again, should you really be reading blogs all day at work? [Perhaps!]
General initial steps
- Create a folder in your bookmarks and name it “Daily Reading”
- Save all of your favorite sites to this folder
Mozilla Firefox
In Firefox, you can store this folder in either your Bookmarks Toolbar or your Bookmarks Menu. Wherever you prefer to keep the folder, simply click the folder from either location and then select “Open in All Tabs.” You can also right click the folder to see this option as well.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer requires you to open the Favorites Bar and then mouse over the folder you want to open. A little arrow shows up to the right and you click it to launch all of the sites into separate tabs. Microsoft doesn’t give you the option of using the file menu to launch all of your sites at once.
Google Chrome
Chrome has a bookmarks bar where you can keep your daily reading folder. Here you simply right click the folder and select “Open all bookmarks.”
Apple Safari
Safari has a Bookmarks Bar as well. You can click normally or right click on your daily reading folder and then select “Open in Tabs.”
You’re done
Now it’s quick and simple to take a break during the day and get through all your favorite websites in one fell swoop.
By Jason Yang
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.