Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Pleasant surprises on re-entry

I’ve been traveling a lot lately with less time online than usual, so I’ve been suffering a bit of blog withdrawal. That includes posting, of course, but it also means I haven’t been able to keep up with my usual blog haunts. Well, I’ve spent some snippets of time remedying that over the last couple of days, and have found some pleasant surprises.

There’s lots more to see on the way back in - take a look through your blogroll, or borrow mine. And, as Rosa always reminds me - sometimes it’s a good idea to get out of your RSS feed reader and visit the blogs live - you can find fun stuff in the sidebars.

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Fresh gear: IPEVO and Skype

I've been in the UK this week, and I'm trying a new approach to save money on phone calls during my travels. I recently purchased a Skype-certified USB handset called the "Free-1" from IPEVO, and decided to try Skype instead of my usual (costly) method of making calls back home using my mobile phone or my calling card. It comes in black and white color choices, and I chose black so it doesn't end up looking as scuffed from being tossed into my laptop bag.

I'm quite pleased with the results. The IPEVO handset is very small and easy to pack in my laptop bag, and it's a snap to use (plug it into your USB port, tell Skype to use it as its default audio device, and you're done). Once it's connected, it operates much like a normal phone, and integrates directly with the functionality of Skype, making it easy to browse your address book and dial calls manually.

For the calls back home, I didn't want to be constrained by only being able to communicate with other people using Skype, so I purchased 10 Euros worth of "SkypeOut" minutes (about $12.50 US). This allows me to call phone numbers anywhere in the world for about 2 cents per minute using any broadband connection. When I purchased my credits, I paid by PayPal and received a special block of 120 bonus minutes (eBay owns both Skype and PayPal), giving me about 8 hours of calling time for that same $12.50 - what a deal!

SkypeOut, coupled with the IPEVO handset, makes the experience a simple one - I simply press the "OUT" button on the handset (a green plus sign), then dial the number I want to call. I then press the green handset button to make the call and my call is dialed. When the call is complete, I press the red handset button to end the call. Skype keeps a running tab of my remaining SkypeOut credits so I don't have to guess.

Oh - and the call quality? It is excellent. My wife and some of my colleagues couldn't tell any difference between these calls and the calls I used to make via "normal" phone lines (in fact they found them to be clearer than calls made from my mobile phone).

While my interest in this began with a travel-centric view, I will likely end up buying another SkypeOut handset for my home and begin using it for international calling from home, as well.

By the way - IPEVO has recently released a handset driver for the Mac, so it's now certified for both Mac and Windows systems.

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[Update] The prints of blogs

I got a note from Dave the other day, telling me he sometimes wants to print out some of my blog articles, but can't get them to print in a sensible form from either Firefox or Internet Explorer. I'd never tried this before, but I quickly saw what he meant when I saw the screwy formatting that results. Apparently, this is an inherent issue with TypePad blogs (and possibly others).

I suggested a workaround that I'm sharing here, since it may help if you want to print out articles from the blogs you read.

  1. Install and run the free RSS aggregator SharpReader (this is my favorite RSS reader for Windows)
  2. Paste the URL for the blog you want to print from into the SharpReader address bar. SharpReader will autodiscover the RSS feed and you'll see a list of the articles in a list. If you want to subscribe to the feed, you might as well click the Subscribe button right now.
  3. Click on the article you want to print, and you'll see it appear in SharpReader's viewer pane.
  4. Right click on the article text in the viewer pane, and select "Print" from the context menu. From here, it's just a normal print dialog.

This works very well and doesn't require any changes to any of the blogs you're reading - and since SharpReader is free, the price is right.

Below, I've provided a link to a PDF (created using Nitro PDF Pro, of course) showing a sample of what the output looks like:

Update March 10:

If you don't want to install another RSS reader, another option (for my site, at least) is to subscribe to the email alerts on my site (in the left navigation bar). I use a wonderful, free service called RSSFwd that will email a print-worthy copy of each new post to you. You can then print out any articles you'd like to print. It's privacy-friendly, as well - I don't have access to your email address through this method, and you don't receive any emails other than the posts through this method.

And fellow bloggers, the service is a snap to set up and use, so give it a try if you want to provide alternatives to share your ideas.

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Free to create PDF's

A while back, I shared some of the ways I use PDF files to store, share, and annotate information. I also told you about my "tool of choice" for creating and editing PDF's (Nitro PDF Professional - still my top recommendation for price/performance in this area).

Now, I want to share an alternative that is absolutely free (yup) that allows you to create PDF that you and your friends can read with Acrobat Reader. This opensource gem is called PDF Creator, and it is available on SourceForge. Like Nitro PDF, PDF Creator installs a print driver on your system (Windows OS's) and you can print anything to that print driver and it will automagically create a PDF file for you. It even has good security features (see screenshot) to keep people from copying content from the file, disable printing, and things like that.

I will stick with Nitro PDF because I often edit, combine, and annotate files. But, if you simply want to create PDF's, you can't beat $Free.95. So pick up a copy of PDF Creator and go forth and share, the PDF way!

Also, check out my prior post for some ideas on how to use PDF's to increase your productivity.

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Audit time!

Lately I've been frustrated that, even after a very busy day, I don't have as much to show as I'd hoped. So, I have gone back to the classic approach as I wrote about last year: I'm time logging again.

This year, my time logging is going more smoothly - I'm doing a lot of it electronically. Here are the basics:

  • I'm using a Microsoft Word document called "timelog.doc" and have added a shortcut to this document to my Startup group on Windows. Therefore, my time log opens up every time I boot my system.
  • I have created a few ActiveWords macros to make things easier.
    • "newday" adds a divider, inserts today's date, and moves me down a couple of lines to start my logging
    • "ct" inserts the current time and a couple of spaces so I can easily timestamp things
    • "log" opens up my time log document (because I accidentally close it a few times a day)
  • I'm logging more "extra" details than I did last time, such as:
    • the activity I need to be doing (or should be doing, or want to do) for the next chunk of time ("Need to review slides for xxx meeting")
      • this allows me to see how many times I end up doing something other than what I intended to do
      • if I deviated from the plan, I fess up on the next timestamp if I didn't do what I set out to do
      • I also record unexpected obstacles - like yesterday when I tried to print my credit card statement for expense purposes, but Chase's card member site was down for a flippin' long time
    • how many messages are in my Inbox (I only do this periodically - usually before I start processing my inbox, then again when I shift to a new task
      • this enables me to see things like
        • how much time I spend processing email
        • how many messages per minute I'm processing (am I meeting or beating the 2 minute rule or not)
        • the impact of any ratholes I got dragged into while doing email
    • how many caffeinated drinks I'm consuming
    • my energy level (on a 1-10 scale)
      • I look at this to see what impact certain foods and drinks have on my energy, as well as which activities energize me
    • what and when I eat and have snacks

I'm only a few days into it, but I'm already uncovering some sources of unproductive time, particularly during the work day. Here are some things I'm seeing so far:

  • It seems my days are either too structured (filled with meetings) or too unstructured (on days when I don't have meetings, I am not being deliberate enough about what I *want* to work on - this is what triggered my previous post)
  • Any time email processing takes me to a web browser, I'm in danger land
  • My mid-morning and mid-afternoon Zone Bars are really good for my energy level
  • I've been drinking way too much caffeine - I've cut it by 75% in the last couple of days
  • I feel better when I take a walk outside at lunch (vs. sitting inside the whole time)
  • I gain energy from making phone calls, but lose energy when I receive them
  • I don't schedule enough "catch up time" after meetings to write up notes, etc.

I'm going to keep doing this for a few more weeks to see how I can tune my behavior, and I know I'll learn more. I'm also looking for a good PalmOS-based time logging system that is easy to use and (ideally) synchs easily with a PC. I'll let you know if I find anything I like.

I highly recommend time logging periodically. If you're interested, a couple of good places you can learn about it are:

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