Other – Page 11 – Gain More Knowledge

Find data faster.

Stop wasting time and automate repetitive task. Automation increases your productivity and lessens your work load. Here are some few methods to do so.

Photo by: Nathan Eal Photography

Launching Programs :

The first improvement you can make is to use the keyboard over the mouse. Operating a mouse requires more concentration and time than hitting a keyboard shortcut and typing in the name of the program.
The easiest way is to use “Launchy”, a open source keystroke launcher. With Launchy, to open up a program like Firefox, you hit “alt” + “space” to bring up Launchy, then you type in “fox” and it auto completes for your and enter.
– Jump Directory ( Make a folder within side start menu for quick access to essential tools)
– Shortcuts

Finding Files

– Everything, (super fast searching).
– Spacemonger or WinDirStat (data storage visualization)
– Q-dir or xplorer2 (dual file manager)

Automation

Autoit (Windows OS Task automation)
Chickenfoot (firefox plugin for web automation)

More time saving tips

Regular Expression Tools: (Searching Through Text)
Poweroff ( schedule your computer to power off after events )
In conclusion, there are dozens of programs and other techniques that you can learn to save time. To take this a step forward, I suggest reading The Productive Programmer by Neal Ford.

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

Book Review: Don’t Make Me Think

After months of delay, I finally sat down and read “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.

don't make me think

Link: Don’t Make Me Think

Finished this short but informative book in 2 days. Steve Krugs gives advice on avoiding common usabilities issues.
With that, here are a few things I picked up.
– Test rather than argue with your team.
– Users read in a hurry, so kill the noise by having less design and small talk, while filling the page up with unique content.
– Avoiding ads on your home page, even though it has the highest traffic.
– Provide aid for lost users. That includes a way to get to the home page, a site id, and other means of understanding their location.
– Test each stage of your project at least once. The earlier the testing, the cheaper to repair.

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

Book Review: Free $ for College

Bought this book, Free $ for College, last month from a dollar garage sell and then spent my spare time reading through it to better understand how getting free money actually works. This book will come as a big help to others looking for ways to save while attending a university.

Here’s the book review I did at amazon.com.
link: Free $ for College

4.0 out of 5 stars Get help with education cost, October 4, 2009
By Larry Battle –

David Rosen and Caryn Mladen, the authors, cover every route for paying for college: Scholarships, grants, low interest or interest-free loans, tuition discounts, and other stuff. With that said, I found half useful and the other half irrelevant and repetitive.
This book gives good tips on what payment plans do and don’t work. Like how working during college to pay your expenses is a bad idea.
They also talk about scams, joining the military, athletic scholarships, and other means of reducing your tuition.
The best part of the book is how they help you discover what makes you unique and how to use that to win grants, scholarships, and discounted tuition.
After reading this Dummies book, I can now assist my friends and myself with getting free/discounted tuition.

Here are a few good tips provided in the book:
– Some states have early deadlines, so completing your FAFSA as soon as possible is a must. Most states funds require your FAFSA to be completed.
– No scholarships are guaranteed, so don’t pay money to get a scholarship or for someone to find it for you because most likely it is a scam.
– Apply to many small scholarship because they have low competition, helps you winner bigger ones, and they can add up quite nicely.
– When applying to scholarship, presentation is the key. Attach a cover letter, print on high quality paper and contact the scholarship committee’s office after your submission.
– College is a business, so you can negotiate a deal on your tuition. However finish college early because the price will keep on rising.
– You can get your student loans forgiven by working for a low income school for 3-5 years.

-Larry Battle

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

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