RexFM Tips for surviving the information revolution. Also,
FM means "Free the Media!" | or »
Browsing all posts in: Productivity

Going Back to Firefox + Gmail Tasks for GTD

November 25

Just decided to switch back to Firefox (I’ve been using Google Chrome for Mac primarily for over a month) so that I can use Gmail Tasks in my sidebar: http://lifehacker.com/5145357/add-gmail-tasks-to-your-firefox-sidebar
Also, going to try using this tool as my method for Getting Things Done for a bit: http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/03/16/getting-things-done-with-gmail-tasks/

Curious to hear if anyone else is using Gmail/Google Tasks for GTD…

User-configurable Keyboard Shortcuts

May 20
Concept: A System that allows web surfers to configure their own Keyboard Shortcuts for web applications.

Probably a firefox extension or chrome plugin, but also a web directory where visitors can install greasemonkey scripts that will add keyboard shortcut functionality to various apps. The full add-on will be promoted to be able to notify you of configuration change possibilities and specific website productivity tips, all based on the current URL in view. Users will be able to change/add/remove keyboard shortcuts for every URL.

Challenges:
- compatibility
- change monitoring
- conflict resolution

HD Video at Vimeo

June 7

Here’s a video I did awhile back, now in "HD" so you can actually see it, versus what Flickr did to my video the first time I uploaded it.


Twitter Reply Notifications (Screencast) from Rex Pechler on Vimeo.

I’m also testing here if a "private" video can still be embedded publicly (for a friend).

Listen to RSS Feeds by Phone with Jott

June 3

Jott just released a new feature, allowing you to subscribe to RSS feeds with their service, and then listen to them by calling a toll-free number. If you’re not familiar with Jott already, they provide a speech-recognition service to save text notes for yourself, and also integrates with other sites, like allowing you to post converted text to Twitter for example. So, this text-to-speech feature is an interesting addition that somehow makes the service seem more complete.

I haven’t really figured out what RSS feeds I would prefer to listen to a robot reading… however I’m sure I’ll find a use for it. Now if only Jott Feeds would integrate with Google Reader and you could listen to your Google Reader news, and then Jott would mark those items as read. That could be really awesome in the car.

Link

Dictation Software

May 29

I’m considering using MacSpeech Dictate for blogging. However I can’t decide yet whether using dictation software is more liberating or more constricting in the writing process. So far I feel I have a limited vocabulary, and the dates it and the dictation software can’t pick up on my implicit punctuation. However the software is otherwise quite fast, and generally highly accurate.

The next thing that I would like to see, is MacSpeech Dictate implemented on the iPhone. A dictation application on the iPhone would be really awesome. However, I wonder about the accuracy of the built-in microphone. Although I imagine a Bluetooth headset, along with noise reduction technology, could be a solution.