Productivity on Sirius Stuff

Smart Google Reader Subscribe Button

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:12:12 -0700

If you’re like most people, you’ve got more feeds in your news reader than you can keep up with. What’s neat about this script is that it not only makes it easy to subscribe but also shows you if it’s already in your subscription list. If it is, it’s shown with a checkmark over the RSS icon.

My only objection is that it’s not posted to UserScripts, a central repository for Greasemonkey scripts.

Google Reader - Colorful List View

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:12:12 -0700

If you’re like me and like to read your feeds sorted by tags, you’ll find yourself jumping from blog to blog. Some Greasemonkey styles for Google Reader drop the feed name to save space, making it hard to tell articles apart.

Color is an efficient way to cue people that things are changing. Unless you’re color-blind, I guess. But since I’m not, I appreciate the Google Reader - Colorful List View script because it makes it simple to tell that there’s different feeds.
Note: updated to show correct script

OS X Style Google Reader

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:06:06 -0700

I’d referred to using CSS to make Google Reader look better.

If you’re using Google Reader, OS X Style Google Reader makes it much more usable. The font’s better, it’s much prettier in layout, etc., etc. Great stuff.

Google Reader Optimized

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:06:06 -0700

I’ve been using Google Reader more and more. I’m not thrilled with the layout, so I was really pleased to see that I could modify it either using the Stylish FireFox Extension or via Greasemonkey Google Reader Optimized

I started out with Stylish but am trying to cut down on the number of extensions I have. Of course, whether it’s better to have it as a Greasemonkey script seems more open to problems than an extension. You’re one level away from the scripts and they don’t go through the official Mozilla check-in process.

Bookmarks Power up Firefox with keywords - Lifehacker

Wed, 23 May 2007 05:05:05 -0700

I have this working on my laptop. But I have to remember to get it going on my desktop machine. That’s the only problem with having two machines - even with Google’s browser sync it’s hard to keep the FireFox configurations absolutely identical. Bookmarks: Power up Firefox with keywords - Lifehacker

Hack Attack - Firefox and the art of keyword bookmarking

Wed, 23 May 2007 05:05:05 -0700

Another article on FireFox and bookmarks. Firefox and the art of keyword bookmarking

How to choose the right screenshot program

Mon, 07 May 2007 05:05:05 -0700

I need to get pictures of screens for reporting problems. I don’t usually want to take the full screen or even a window - I want the smallest section that will show the problem. Using Ubuntu, I wasn’t able to find anything that would do it as easily as I would like. I’m guessing with some certainty that I could have rigged The Gimp or something to capture the screen but then I would have to work at reducing the size, etc.

Official Google Reader Blog - There are people who don't use feed readers?

Thu, 03 May 2007 05:05:05 -0700

Do you use Google Reader? I’ve thought that other readers were better beause they’re faster. I really like RSS Owl, which uses IE to display pages. It’s based on Java and is cross-platform, usable on Macs, Windows and Linux. It uses one file to track what feeds you read.

Problem is, there’s no standard way to show how far you’ve read in a newsfeed. Articles are updated, the online services fetch them at different times - Google and Bloglines are online all the time but your RSS reader probably is not. So I can’t easily keep offline readers in sync unless they’re hooked up to something to like FeedDemon.

Firefox - Open diverted links in new background tab instead of new window

Tue, 01 May 2007 05:05:05 -0700

I really like to be able to click on links while reading an article but not have to deal with the links until I’m done. I’ve got enough ADD issues without tabs popping up. So I was very happy to find this reference to making tabs work better (for me, anyway): Firefox: Open diverted links in new background tab instead of new window

It’s kind of an adjustment process because FF is relatively “quiet’ - the tabs are opening all the way to the right and not grabbing attention. Just the way I’ve wanted but it’s a little unnerving - I’m checking to make sure the tabs did open.

Great post on web design - Yahoo vs Google

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 06:06:06 -0700

Really liked the article Is Google Badly Designed? on Google Blogoscoped. He talks about the design considerations with Yahoo and Google and their home pages.

I thought it was interesting that Google was viewed as “friendly” because of its simplicity. Clearly Yahoo puts a lot of information on its page but it also feels very corporate.

From what I read, Google is having trouble getting people to use its other features. It’d be interesting to know what to degree this is because they’re not displayed the way that Yahoo’s are …

Good summary of what Google Base means to vertical web sites

Tue, 23 May 2006 05:05:05 -0700

Bill Burnham has a nice summary of what Google Base in general and the real estate section in particular might mean for vertical web sites like Trulia.

It’s not a lot of fun competing in a section where Google is competing. I can vouch for that first hand.