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Contract Worker - Freelancing Experiences

Archive for the ‘Useful Tools’ Category

April 6th, 2008

Testing Commercial Fonts for Free

So your client has given you a blank check regarding fonts: you can buy whatever you need for a project. But how do you get to test commercial fonts, especially those that are absolutely perfect for your needs? You can’t just buy them for testing, right?
Of course, fonts.com does a great job of with its […]

By Rico -- 0 comments

April 2nd, 2008

The Irony of Making Windows Faster

Adam Pash breaks the Gawker Media mold by writing over 100 words about nLite, a special installation package that strips the fluff away from Windows and leaves the useful stuff. Plus, he writes about two other solutions too, like Game XP, an app that wants to turn your computer into a gaming machine.
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By Rico -- 0 comments

March 24th, 2008

Protect Your Bandwidth From Content Thieves!

Content scraping, the process of automatically copying one website’s content and publishing it on another, has been gaining popularity lately. Content scrapers don’t really care if they’re caught plagiarizing the hard work of someone else, because they’re looking for better rankings on search engines, rather than a genuine audience to interact with. Nevertheless, it’s always […]

By Rico -- 2 comments

March 18th, 2008

The Best Text Editor I’ve Ever Used

Sure, Notepad’s great when you have to copy-paste snippets of info you want to use later. But have you tried editing a specially formatted text file like HTML and CSS with it? I can tell you it’s a bit hard.
Notepad++ is a must-have tool for any freelance programmer, web designer, and coder. If you can’t […]

By Rico -- 2 comments

February 13th, 2008

“No Links Please” Gets Rid of Productivity-Draining Links

Have you ever wasted time surfing because you simply couldn’t leave every last link unclicked? (Avid wiki readers know exactly what I’m talking about). No Links Please is a great browser add-on that simply removes all links from web pages aside from Google: “Without the knowledge or temptation of links you are free to devote […]

By Rico -- 1 comment

January 17th, 2008

Rearrange Your Taskbar Buttons With Taskbar Shuffle

The fact is that Windows’ Taskbar has its limitations. You can’t for instance, rearrange the buttons on the taskbar. These are usually arranged by the order in which you opened them. But this doesn’t help if there are a lot of Windows open, and you need to rearrange the buttons for the sake of keeping […]

By Rico -- 0 comments

January 12th, 2008

A Better Filler Text Generator

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick and tired of using “Lorem Ipsum Domum” as filler text for my design mockups. So it’s a good thing Rico Sta. Cruz recently shared with me his easy-to-use filler text generator. Ironically, you can find it at loremipsumdolorsitamet.com. Read on to find out why it’s better […]

By Rico -- 1 comment

January 7th, 2008

Reviewing Mistakes the Right Way

A Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em Poker player reviews a bad hand he played:

Perhaps only those who know poker can really follow what was happening, but that’s not the point. The point is that Daniel Negreanu made full use of his match’s video, going through his actions as he made a mistake. We freelancers can […]

By Rico -- 0 comments

December 29th, 2007

Music to Get You Going!

Even if you don’t know who Forrest Law is, I’m betting you’ll find his theme music better than coffee!
From the very start, Forrest Law’s theme is pretty upbeat, featuring an incessant rhythm as well as loud-and-proud instrumentation. During what could be considered the chorus, the pace slows down slightly. At this point, the inspiring melody […]

By Rico -- 0 comments

December 28th, 2007

Getting Things Right the First Time

Sure, for the sake of productivity, perfection has to take a back seat to creativity. Create first, and correct later. But what if you’re required to accomplish a complicated task ASAP—while getting things right the first time? Take medicine for instance, which requires a certain kind of creativity to accurately pinpoint and fix the problems […]

By Rico -- 2 comments