Web Worker Daily

This week, my husband was laid off for the second time in five years. This one hurts more than the first. At that time, I held a corporate job, so our health insurance and other benefits remained intact. But I became a full-time freelancer after he found a stable job with benefits. Now that’s all gone or won’t be around for long.

After I stopped reeling, it was time to start dealing. And deal I did — by taking these actions. Read the rest of this entry »

With the new beta of Firefox 3.6, new tab previewing functionality has been made available in Firefox — you can preview tabs using the “List all tabs” button, and you can see a preview when using Ctrl-Tab to switch between tabs.

These two new features are not enabled by default, so you’ll need to go to the about:config page and toggle “browser.allTabs.previews” and “browser.ctrlTab.previews” to “true” (either right-click on the entry and hit “Toggle”, or just double-click the entry).

I made a quick screencast showing how to enable tab previews and how it works:

(Via gHacks)

Just in case you missed any of them, here are the five most popular posts on WebWorkerDaily this week:

• Does Multitasking Make You More Productive?

It’s easy to think that just because you’re a demon multitasker, you’re automatically productive. But is that really the case? Karen investigates.

• Google Dashboard: Find Out What Google Knows About You

Google has just released Google Dashboard, a window onto all of the data it stores about you.

• What Is Google Wave, Anyway? New e-Book Explains

Charlie introduces “The Complete Guide to Google Wave.”

• 7 Handy iPhone Apps For Your Work

Aliza looks at iPhone apps from seven web apps that are favorites of ours.

• Do this One Thing Before You Accept that Job

Georgina explains why you need to get the get the inside story on what it’s like at a company before accepting a job.

My recent post “5 Web Office Considerations: Beyond the Buzz” garnered some thought-provoking comments, which got me pondering on the proper place for the web office suite (whether it is ThinkFree, Zoho or Google Apps) in today’s world.

As a technical writer by trade, I have fairly strong opinions as to how a web office suite can fit into the workflow of a team publishing moderately complex documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I do believe that a web office suite and Microsoft Office don’t have to be “natural enemies in the wild” and can coexist to offer web workers, their employers, and their clients the best possible document authoring, publishing and collaborative working solution.

This post is going to dive into some things web workers should consider in a mixed Microsoft Office/web office environment, and in environments where multiple web office suites are used. Read the rest of this entry »

MacHeist is well-known for packaging together and heavily discounting some great Mac apps. As reported over on TheAppleBlog, though, the latest MacHeist bundle, the “MacHeist nanoBundle” will cost you precisely nothing — zilch, zip, nada.

The bundle contains six apps that would normally collectively retail for $149:

• ShoveBox — A clippings organizer that lets you capture, view, organize and edit data.
• WriteRoom — A simple, distraction-free word processor that Sam wrote about here.
• Twitterrific — A Twitter client.
• TinyGrab — A screenshot utility that I reviewed last week.
• Hordes of Orcs — A tower defense game.
• Mariner Write  — A full word processor, unlocked when 500,000 people have downloaded the bundle.

The bundle is only available for a limited time (there are six days left as I type this), so go grab it now.

Yesterday I took part in my first Jelly session — and I’ve got to say it was a fun and productive experience that I will be repeating in the future. Jellies are informal, free coworking events that are open to anyone. There were 10 participants at the Jelly I attended, from a range of different backgrounds although they were mainly freelancers, as you might expect. At times, particularly in the morning, the atmosphere was studious and productive, but there was also some interesting chat and opportunities to make new connections.

I always find that a change of scenery does me good, but considering that I was working in a room with 10 other people, sitting around a conference table, and occasionally getting stuck into conversation, I was surprised at the amount of work I got through (and that’s despite the speed of the Wi-Fi connection getting a little slow with 10 people working away).

If you’re feeling a bit isolated at home (or perhaps you just want to brainstorm some ideas) and would like to try out the coworking experience, but perhaps aren’t quite ready to commit to membership of a coworking space, attending a Jelly would be a good first step. Read the rest of this entry »