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Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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

Daily Links

Favored links for June 16th

  • Make It Stop! Crushed by Too Many E-Mails : NPR - I think somebody on Massachusetts Ave. must have called "Oy Vey, Email!" Week at NPR. Here's another one on email overwhelm, including tips and technology on "email organization." How 'bout that. At the risk of repeating myself, organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling! Call me, Yuki. Let's talk.
  • Spark | CBC Radio | Episode 41 - June 11 & 14 - In my latest Spark segment, I shared some ideas on how to deal with annoying forwarded email from friends and family, or what I call "turkey bacn."
  • lonelysandwich - Why Me? - Adam thinks "MobileMe" signals Apple's big move behind what used to be considered enemy lines. "Apple is removing the Mac from the Apple computer experience and laying the foundation for a browser-based OS..."
  • Jonathan Coulton » The JoCo Primer - Jonathan has a really smart series of pages for introducing new fans to himself and his music, as well as suggesting where to go next. Memo to self, internet: steal this idea.
  • Ars at WWDC: Exclusive preview of mobile NetNewsWire - Not only is my beloved NetNewsWire coming to iPhone, but let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Brent on his outstanding taste in demo web content.
  • The $100 Distraction Device - "Why giving poor kids laptops doesn't improve their scholastic performance." I dunno. I respect that there's lots of sides to the OLPC debate, but this particular one's got a bit of damp straw and double standards to it.
  • OmniFocus for the iPhone snags an Apple Design Award! - Congratulations to my OmniGroup peeps on their award. After getting lots of little sneak peeks from friends at WWDC [cough], I am so excited for the apps that are coming to the iPhone. This is going to be huge, people.
  • Start! - I'm honored to be speaking at Jeff and Bryan's amazing-looking one-day conference for indie web folks, here in San Francisco. And, talk about a bargain. Register today.
  • Word Spy - tweetup - "A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service." Kinda scared to try this; I'm pretty sure a lot of my Twitter friends are bots created by the influential Butt Joke industry.
TOPICS: Daily Links

43f Links for 2008-06-01

And, in passing, a personal note: many thanks to you for your patience while I took some time to see to other projects; my more normal (which is to say, irregular, by most “pro blog” standards) habit of posting to 43f when I have something to share or say restarts now. I’m grateful for your hanging with me.

TOPICS: Daily Links

43f Links for May 7th

TOPICS: Daily Links

Links of favor for April 18

  • NEAT Receipts Scanner - Sharp-looking receipt scanner for the Mac, coming soon. I tend to avoid one-off gadgets that have any kind of permanent footprint on my desk, but this looks pretty handy if it works.
  • Footers In Modern Web Design: Creative Examples and Ideas | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine - Inspiring collection of ways to use the space at the top and bottom of a web page. The first advocate for this approach that I can recall is Derek, who always uses his footers to such lovely and functional effect.
  • A Pattern Language for Productivity - Gah! I feared I'd waited too long. I've totally been meaning to start something like this on the 43f wiki for a couple years. (curses self). Nice start, here. Should be useful for folks.
  • The Fishbowl: Twitterpated - I get a surprising amount of flack for not following more people on Twitter. Which dumbfounds me. It's like being angry at someone because they aren't watching enough TV. Anyhow, some of these hyper-following people strike me as either nutjobs or cynics, e.g. "in one case, 34,000. If you were truly following all these people, and they updated only once per day on average, you would be reading a Twitter message every two seconds." Yeah. That sounds really fun and enriching. [via anarchaia]
  • Word Spy - speed mentoring - "Getting advice in a series of short conversations with experts and other mentors." I need me more of this.
  • BENTWOOD by contexture design workshop - My gosh, what a lovely idea; a wooden bangle that turns into a coffee cup sleeve. Smart. [via Erika]
  • Ten typographic mistakes everyone makes | Life, Tutorials - Guilty as charged on a number of these. I think the one I'm laziest about is straight quotation marks (""") where I really mean inches (""). I do love that people care this much about this stuff (most of the time).
  • Mac Mini Media Centre / journal / hicksdesign - Jon has been sharing how he's setting up his Mac Mini as a home entertainment juggernaut. This post outlines his basic setup, the apps he uses, etc. He also has a companion Flickr set. I'd love to hear more from folks on workflow. How -- hypothetically -- an AVI from out in the wild gets downloaded, encoded when necessary, and then dropped into the "~/Movies" folder. Maybe Automator? As a new Mini owner with the same goals, I'd love to hear your tips here in comments.
  • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (Event Video/Audio) | Berkman Center - Clay's book is justifiably hyped right now, because it's just so damned good. If you enjoyed seeing the Claymeister General on Colbert, you might want to catch this swell talk, where he gets a bit more room to say his piece on a world where things get organized without organizers.
  • Spark | CBC Radio | Disaster Preparedness Kit for your digital life - "...Nora and Merlin Mann (of 43Folders fame) are putting together a 'Disaster Preparedness Kit' for your digital life. Do you have a tip, trick, or tool that puts your mind at ease and keeps you from worrying about data loss?"
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TOPICS: Daily Links

Href affection for March 31st

Timbuk2 Sleeve

TOPICS: Daily Links

Linky love for March 19th

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TOPICS: Daily Links

Links we like, February 6, 2008

  • Kevin Kelly -- The Technium - "When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied." That pretty much sums it up. I suspect this might be the most succinct, profound, and prescient sentence I'll read this year. A must-read post.
  • Dogcow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "The original dogcow was named Clarus by Apple employees. The sound she makes is 'Moof!'"
  • Rands In Repose: Out Loud - "Developing a compelling presentation involves a series of decisions and exercises to align your head with the fact that you’re delivering your content directly to people. No internet. No weblog. Just you." [via Daring Fireball]
  • Quiet your Home with Ambient Noise - O'Reilly Digital Media Blog - Living in intimate proximity to a tribe of suburban Wookiees has made our family very familiar with white noise generators. They're a godsend. (Most especially if you have an infant) [thanks, Gordon!]
  • How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap! - I like the idea of using the Skype connection only as a "monitor." I'd add that it doesn't hurt to do a "clap" at the beginning so you have something common to sync around.
  • Your Prep Card: Don’t Leave Home Without It - "Take a 3″ x 5″ index card and write down 3 key points you want to mention in simple clear language, nouns and verbs. At the bottom, give yourself 2 reminders to avoid your bad habits." Good idea. Once you're out of a comfortable environment and feeling stressed, your head starts to swim. (And by "you" I mean "me")
  • The Smart Set: Night Terrors - "Chronic sleep loss of even two to three hours per night held the potential to hamper body and mind functioning, not to mention quality of life."
  • Being Funny - Steve Martin: "About to pass me by, Elvis stopped, looked at me and said in his beautiful Mississippi drawl: 'Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor.'" [via MeFi]
TOPICS: Daily Links

Mostly not-Wookiee-related links for January 23rd

Hand-picked, artisanal links for January 10th

TOPICS: Daily Links

Links for December 26th

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TOPICS: Daily Links
 
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