43 Folders

43 Folders feed subscription icon - Shiny!Time, Attention, and Creative Work. After 4 years and a lot of productivity pr0n, we’re shifting gears. Re-learn how to use 43 Folders. Then back to work. [»]

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Remaindered links, 2007-03-21

Lower threshold links to stuff I wouldn’t want you to miss. It’s been quite a while since we’ve done some shorties, so what the heck.

Inquisitor

  • Inquisitor 3. Spotlight for the web. - I tried Inquisitor when it first came out, and, for some reason, it didn’t move me. But now, I love its smartypants, mind-reader replacement for Safari’s search bar. Sogudi is still my first love for ad hoc location bar searches, but the ability to add custom search engines to Inquisitor is hot hot hot. Free as in beer, too.
  • Picked up one of these Behance notebooks the other day. It is very lovely and well-designed. Not sure if it’s a quantum functional improvement over a sheet of printer paper, but it’s definitely a classy piece of productivity pr0n. And the Helvetica! Ah the Helvetica.
  • Service Scrubber - I’ve mentioned before that I think OS X Services are one of the most woefully under-utilized tricks in the current Apple world. But the actual Services menu can, over time get cluttered. This handy little donationware app will shut off Services you don’t want to appear in the menu and let you re-map the key bindings of ones you do use. Very handy.
  • 010: Interview: John Vanderslice, Part 2 | The Merlin Show - John Vanderslice on high-volume email: “You can’t make sense of all that correspondence. You just can’t.”
  • On the advice of my pal Katie Spence, I picked up Unstuck, which looks to be a pretty neat little book about generating ideas and then seeing them through into real “stuff.” Presented in a “choose your own adventure” style that makes for interactive fun. They also have a website that (with a bit of typo-correction and expansion) could turn into an excellent adjunct to the hardback edition (the book clearly wants to be hypertext).
  • Gizmodo reports on less costly options for hooking up your new Apple TV. My take: A) it’s crazy for Apple not to include at least gratis composite cables for a device aimed at the fat part of the media-viewing curve, and B) the charlatans at Monster and their ilk should be horsewhipped for what they’re charging media noobs for cables.

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Everyday Weekender's picture

Thanks for the links!!.. ...

Thanks for the links!!.. I really do appreciate the short posts with tons of links ;)

Eric Diamond's picture

I just picked up some...

I just picked up some of the behance products…yummy. In response to some of the responses, I’ve been using dot grid notebooks for about 3 years. Much much much nicer that graph paper with all of the bennies that graph paper gives you.

A Japanese company makes them, they are called Gamma 64 degree (letter gamma, 64, degree symbol) and are avaialble in A4, B5, A5 and small pocket size. Paper is nice and smooth, fountain pen friendly. I buy them 10 at a time from Kinokuniya stationery in SF. They are a little less expensive than the Behance version, but the Behance version is both perfed and 3-hole punched, which is a definite advantage.

The Behance ones are nice too…my only wish is that the wire coil was a little beefier. If you’ve ever seen the ones the Japanese use, you’d know what I mean. But they are beautiful and take all kinds of ink well. I was initially concerned about writing on the inked areas in the action areas, but those inked areas take ink from a pen quite nicely.

I also picked up small action pads and the index cards, which have become an essential part of my hPDA-ish rig. Thanks for the p-pRon, Merlin!!!

Chris's picture

I'm totally going to invest...

I’m totally going to invest the kids’ college money in a venture to expose and discredit Monster cable. I’ll sell cables at a fifth of the price with the same dubious quality, and full disclaimers that it’s just a cable, dude, don’t miss your house payment so you can hook up the plasma screen. I’m working on the little diagrams of electrons moving around right now.

You’ll eventually be able to visit my on-line cable warehouse at itsjustcopperdummy.com

(then I’m going after text messaging, and then I’ll tackle inkjet ink…)

GTD for creative professionals at Sune Lobedanz’s blog's picture

[...] A couple of days...

[…] A couple of days ago I was contacted by a guy from Behance, a fairly new online magazine for creative professionals who also develops products for the creative professional community. Apart from praising my writing(!), he advertised his website well (whatever you read after being praised is looked at with mild eyes!). They’re probably trying to get the word-to-mouth ball rolling, and seems to have a fair amount of success, including being a Yahoo pick. […]

Chris M.'s picture

Thanks for the tip on...

Thanks for the tip on Inquisitor. Great download.

Also, love the Merlin Show.

I think the Behance notebook looks interesting, but I use moleskine for most of my note taking.

Dan Muldoon's picture

As a former "noob" that...

As a former “noob” that monster managed to gouge for cables, I am with you 100% on the horse-whipping deal. Isn’t it wartime? I think this qualifies as profiteering. Grab the water psitols. Would they like a blindfold? A shower cap?

Ready, Aim…..

Thomas's picture

Thanks for the tool. Inquisitor...

Thanks for the tool. Inquisitor sure made me glad I am using safari.

Julius's picture

If you are looking for...

If you are looking for dotted paper, it is easy to create some for yourself here: http://incompetech.com/beta/plainGraphPaper/

Elias's picture

Good links, thanks for published... ...

Good links, thanks for published…

Sergio M.'s picture

I just love Inquisitor, It...

I just love Inquisitor, It makes Safari a better browser (spotlight for the web). But, unfortunately, it seems that InputManagers are not going to be supported in Leopard… means the end of Inquisitor, SafariStand, Sogudi…

About Merlin Mann

Merlin Mann's picture

Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who started the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today. Also? He looks like this, answers questions, and has something like a life.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written recently is a short essay called, “Better.”

 
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The Podcast Feed

Inbox Zero

The original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation.

Making Time

3-part series on attention management for artists and makers. Read Bad Correspondence, The Job You Think You Have, and One Clear Line.