Tim Matheson's Productivity blog

Tim Matheson's Productivity blog

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And now a little dip into the online world of free-speech and self-expression. I found this little gem while looking at what other Medium users were surfing.
Now it is not really clear how often Tim posts to this blog - rolling down the entries on the opening page it seems to be random, perhaps only when he finds something he deems post-worthy.
But whether it averages out as once, twice or even three times a month, there's a massive archive of brilliant posts that will have you immersed in Tim's world for hours.
His posts are mainly centred around improving productivity. Thoughts and links to stuff he has found on the web - my suspicion from the vast collection of links here is that Tim Matheson probably spends too much time surfing the web to be considered productive himself.
Check out the How To section for some pretty neat examples of the stuff that he finds - like how to make a virtual reality headset using a Wii and some safety goggles - or how to make a hollow book to hide your valuables.

Best of youtube

Bestofyoutube.com
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Now, a vlog, vidlog or video blog that I wanted to share with you. Whatever you choose to call it, the video podcast is a growing attraction on the World Wide Web - and what better to blog video-style than the king of online clips, YouTube.
Bestofyoutube.com is a simple site with simple intentions - select the best of the You Tube posts and deliver one each week to its audience. You can sign-up for free and have the podcast fed direct to your desktop or even your iPod. I found signing-up through iTunes the easiest option.
You can also surf the previous episodes on the website. So shut the office door, plug in your headphones and try and keep a poker face, as some of these videos had me literally laughing out loud.

PicLens

PicLens

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With the web being such a visual medium aesthetics are important and the terribly thoughtful people at Cooliris have given us a totally new way to look at images, on a 3D wall no less.
Head on over to PicLens and hit the download button. If you want to find out more there is a very nice multimedia presentation under the Tutorials button, but trust me, download it ... it rocks.
Once the plug-in is installed - and you will need to tell your browser to allow editing by the site again - you can go to any site that supports the plug-in and view all the images on a 3D wall in a dedicated full screen environment.
Sites that support the plug-in are places like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Deviant Art and Google image search - so there is no end of relevance to this app.
Pop along to Google to familiarise yourself with its remarkably simple operation. Search a term - pick something image rich, like galaxies or cute kittens, whatever takes your fancy - and when the search is returned, click the special PicLens arrow in an image.
You can now use the slide bar at the bottom to zoom along the wall. Click an image to zoom in and use the slideshow controls if you just want to sit back and enjoy.
You can link back to the originating page of the highlighted image by clicking the link in the top left hand corner of the screen.

Me.Dium

https://me.dium.com/
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Surfing the web can be a solitary pursuit. Sure you have Messenger and e-mails popping up from friends, but it is not quite like hanging out, sharing a joke with a mate about something you have seen ... or is it?
For an increasing number of people that is exactly what surfing the web is about. I am hooked on Me.Diam - that is Medium to its friends - and if you are the sociable type, I think you will be too.
Click the three dots in the centre of the screen to learn more.
There are three panels of reasons to use this software, each of which invite you to sign-up and download at the end - rather annoyingly you have to use the back button if you want to read all three before taking the plunge.
That said, I was sold on the idea pretty quickly, so signed-up and then downloaded the plug-in.
You will need to tell your browser the Medium site may edit your settings, but the website even steps you through that before the download.
After restarting your browser the plug-in will display a people map in the sidebar - just use the view menu to switch that back to history or bookmarks if you want to.
There is so much you can do with this panel. If you invite friends to the network you can see when they are online, what pages they are surfing, and you can even jump onto the same page and send them a chat message about it.
You can also make friends with new people by making your presence public.

WooMe

WooMe

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Speed dating is all the rage these days - where you literally spend five minutes chatting to lots of different people to see if you make a connection.

And now this billion dollar dating phenomenon has invaded the web and you will find it at WooMe.

The idea of this site is to meet five people in five minutes. You will need a webcam and working microphone to take part.

Registration is simple and free, and the usual "dating site" profile options are there for you to complete.

But the real fun starts when you sign up to a session. Click the Sessions tab at the top to see what is on offer and if you do not like the look of any of them why not start your own session.

Before signing up to a session you can use the big green button on the left to check your equipment is up to scratch.

Then you just have to sit there and sparkle with charm as the site's software takes care of the rest.

WooMe is still in beta testing and is completely free for you to hook up with anyone else on the site.

But if you decide you have been "woo'd", you will be asked to pay $1 (£0.50) to get each other's contact information.

ThinkFree

ThinkFree

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Ever found yourself out and about on business and you need to make a change to that Microsoft Word document or spreadsheet?

Or had to make a last-minute tweak to the sales presentation and horror of horrors you realise that you have incompatible software.

Well now you can word process on the move through an internet browser. No fuss, no frills, and no file format issues.

The website is called ThinkFree. You will need to register, then you can choose to upload any documents you want to be able to work with.

You get 1GB of free space which should be plenty for day to day use. There is a premium service that provides much more storage space and cool drive syncing features, but you do not need to sign up for this to take advantage of the basic features.

Once you load a document you can choose to open and edit it, either using Quick Edit with limited options, or the more complicated Power Edit with many of the features you see on your desktop word processor.

The site's software is compatible with most basic MS Office features so you should have no problem making changes to existing documents or you can choose to create a new document from scratch and have it available for you to edit wherever you happen to log on to the net.

One feature I particularly like is the ability to share your document over the web which allows others to work on the page.

dr.dog

BT Podshow

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We have spoken a lot about podcasts and videopodcasts on this show, and why not?

The web is rammed full of amazing content on virtually any subject you can think of, but often finding something decent to watch can be like swimming through treacle.

If you find that is the case then you need to swim on over to BT Podshow, a portal and delivery site that allows you to create your own tailor-made channels full of your favourite shows, all wrapped up in a fast-loading and highly accessible interface.

You will need to register with a few personal details to get going, then you are invited to personalise your space with pictures and information about yourself. This is more important if you are going to be broadcasting your own podcasts. For those of you who just want to watch, you can click the Skip button until you get to the section where you build your own channels.

Click My Collection at the top to access your page of channels. You can browse through the sites content and when you see a show you like, click on it to add it to your channel.

You can even add shows that are not listed on the site by clicking the Add Show link and then entering the location it can be downloaded from.