WirelessDoc

Instapaper: making Web work easier

Instapaper is a great Web based widget for temporarily bookmarking sites you want to read later. I've found that if my Firefox bookmarks get too numerous, they're not as useful.

You drag their "Read Later" button to your toolbar so that whenever you're at a site, you just hit it and it's saved. Later, you go the very minimal Instapaper site, and see what you've accumulated.

This is great if you're following a topic such as the 700 MHz auction and you're scanning a bunch of sites, and eventually want to use material/links in a blog post.

David thinks that others should be able to see what you've collected in the spirit of the folksonomy movement typified by such sites as Del.icio.us, Digg, Tumblr, etc. I don't agree. If you can't synthesize the information you're reading, you're not providing much of a service to your readers.

Tab Mix Plus for Firefox

This is an add-on that I really like. Right now I have 25 tabs open in 3 rows at the top of the browser.

If you're blogging, that means you have to refer to a number of open tabs besides the ones that you normally like to keep open. When you're furiously surfing, 25 is not a stretch.

There are other settings, such as opening the new tab next to the one where you click. This makes a big difference in jumping back and forth between the tabs you're working on.

Just download it.

NB: I'm categorizing this as "GTD" because it really streamlines the process of getting things done online.

The antidote to Facebook

Seth has a post today about a young entrepreneur who took the initiative to bring a small group together to brainstorm ideas. Seth has said in the past that the worst thing about the social networking sites is that the bigger they get, the less you want to participate. I think this anecdote he provides is a good antidote.

From reading this, I got the impression that this was a challenge to the idea of spending too much time on Facebook, managing your social standing, rather than critically examining issues you and your friends might find important, in a productive manner.

From now on, I think I'll designate Sunday, non-orthodoxy day. A day for taking the initiative to do things differently, breaking the routines.

UPDATE: As it turns out, Chip Conley, the subject of the post has a new book Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow. He's referencing Maslow's hierarchy of needs for talking about management techniques.

Then, I guess today's quote should be:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. - Abraham Maslow