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Contract Worker - Freelancing Experiences

Archive for the ‘Useful Tools’ Category

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

December 17th, 2007

Gliffy: A Free Charts, Diagrams and Floor Plans Creator

The benefits of Gliffy are that it’s free, runs on virtually any computer, and is a powerful Flash-based application. The chart, diagram, and floor plan creator features pre-built visual components which you can drag-and-drop to quickly compile an effective visual. It has proven pretty useful when I recently dabbled briefly in interface design. More so […]

By Rico -- 1 comment

November 27th, 2007

The Future of Mozilla Firefox as a Productivity Tool is Great

More users browse this site with Internet Explorer than Mozilla Firefox (42.2% and 18.8% respectively, according to my stats), but I really think more surfers should start using Firefox. From personal experience, it really has provided me with a safer browser experience. The expandability of the browser allows some great added functionality, such as the […]

By Rico -- 5 comments

November 15th, 2007

Free High Quality Fonts (Over 40+!)

You’ve probably read my posts on Free Fonts and More Free Fonts, but I’m sure you had a hard time looking through the catalogs I suggested. Especially since finding quality fonts is literally like looking for a needle in a haystack. Good thing Smashing Magazine bothered to compile a list of over forty great fonts […]

By Rico -- 0 comments

November 5th, 2007

The Benefit of a Singular Online Identity

If you’re involved in many online projects, you might want to invest in an online portal.
An online portal is a simple, no-frills website that lists links to the different projects you have on the Internet, complete with a short description. You can add whatever you like, but contact info availability and legibility are a must. […]

By Rico -- 3 comments