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.
I've been a little quiet this week due to a hectic schedule, but wanted to let you know that I posted about LinkedIn and Plaxo on the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog yesterday. If you haven't already seen it, and are interested in tools that can help you with your business and (to some degree) social connections, check out the post.
I have a backlog of book reviews to be written - look for them to start showing up in the next few days, carrying through to next week.
Read MoreHere are a few of the good links and fun items I've run across this past week.
The "Now Defunct Museum"
The Now Defunct Museum is a Squidoo lens dedicated to remembering some of the things that once seemed everywhere, but now have vanished from our everyday lives. Very entertaining - I like the picture of the old-school NBA uniforms (at right), for example.
How to Create a 15 minute Presentation in 1 Hour or Less
Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points, has posted an excellent walk-through post showing how to create a 15 minute presentation very efficiently.
i-Lighter now has a Mac version
A few weeks back, I wrote about i-Lighter as a wonder tool. Good news - they now have a Mac version available! Check it out at the i-Lighter home page and download a free copy.
Can you hear me now?
Read MoreI was thumbing through the SkyMall catalog on a flight home this week, and saw something I just had to tear out and post here. It's a hearing aid disguised as a Bluetooth headset - I love the way they spin the value in the ad (click the thumbnail at left to read it yourself).
I just wonder what people will think when you have this in one ear and are holding your phone up to the other ear when someone calls you?
If you want one, head over to SkyMall.
A while back I wrote about SameCell as a way to find out when you're near your friends, and SameCell's addition of a FaceBook app. The folks at SameCell have been steadily improving their service (I use it all the time and I like it) and have recently added a new twist. You see, they rely on cell tower locations to determine when you are close to other users. This can be a challenge when you're on different carriers or if you're bouncing off a cell tower that SameCell hasn't mapped yet.
To solve this problem, they've created a small mapping application for use on phones with GPS's (like my Blackberry 8310). The app "watches" the cells you connect to and correlates it with your GPS data to help SameCell build its database of cell towers and locations.
Money - for good or for yourself
What's in it for you? You could make a little money for yourself or your designated charity. SameCell tracks the new cells you've discovered and pays you a few cents for each unique one you've found.
The money may not be enough to change your life, but you'll certainly be helping improve their service (and, as an avid user, you'll improve my experience with that service). So, if you have a GPS in your phone, just click here in your mobile phone's browser to head over to SameCell (or navigate to http://www.samecell.com/cells), and start helping them map the wireless world.
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The folks at Fruitful Time have launched an interesting product called Fruitful Time TaskManager Electro, and it promises to eliminate procrastination. Yes, you heard me - it eliminates procrastination.
The product functionality is very intriguing - as Fruitful Time declares, "Trying to use programs which hinder your productivity is automatically detected and blocked through an innovative way... " And the results are no less impressive - they cite an independent research study which determined that use of this product "...increased productivity ranging from 50% to 75%." Wow.
Apparently, their advanced algorithms can detect when you are doing things that are in conflict with your next actions on your task list, such as "Loading up a game or randomly browsing instead of finishing off a paper due in two days time..."
The method seems a little unorthodox (and sounds a little dangerous) but according to the FAQ's it is completely safe.
The product is available now as a free download.
Read MoreA while back, I wrote about a tool called "ClipMarks" that I was using to share snippets of web pages with other people. I really like it.
However, I have now found a tool I like better for this, and I have converted to i-Lighter. I'd looked at it before and didn't like it, but they've made significant improvements since then and now I think it is awesome. What's so cool about i-Lighter? Read on...
Easy as a yellow pen (but much better)
i-Lighter is a free browser add-in (Firefox and IE) that gives you the virtual equivalent of a yellow pen that you can use to highlight all or part of a web page. You see the highlights right there on the page.
First, you download the browser add-in and create an account at the i-Lighter site (this stores your highlights centrally in a sort of catalog). Then you click the i-Lighter toolbar button to turn on your yellow pen, and start highlighting.
Share the love
Once you've marked the best parts of the page, then the fun really starts. i-Lighter has a bunch of options for what you can do with your highlights:
I use this quite a bit these days to share news article on interesting topics with my coworkers, and find that i-Lighter makes it very easy. If you want to see i-Lighter in action, check out the online tour.
By the way - this is Windows only for now, but the i-Lighter CEO's blog says a Mac version is likely in the future.
