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Top 10 Ways to Use del.icio.us - lifehack.org

Filed under: del.icio.us — bhardia at 11:37 pm on Saturday, May 26, 2007

 
 

Del.icio.us is an excellent system for archiving your favorite information from across the Net, tracking hot topics, and discovering new and useful sites. The power of del.icio.us comes in the form of it’s “collective intelligence”, which is constantly adding, reviewing, and filtering new information.

The community of del.icio.us allows you to find some of the best resources on the Internet without having to trudge through all of the junk.

It also gives you a centralized management system for organizing information from around the Net. However, many people are unaware of it’s complete list of features and valuable add-ons.

Here are 10 ways that you can use del.icio.us to its full potential.

1. Del.icio.us Firefox Extension

Del.icio.us Firefox Extension should be the number-one del.icio.us tool on your list. It allows you to quickly and easily add sites you like to del.icio.us with a bookmarklet. This tool puts a “My del.icio.us” button at the top of your browser, allowing you to view your save pages at the click of a button.

It also adds a “Tag this” button to the top of your browser, which allows you to bookmark websites while you’re browsing the Web.

If you use Internet Explorer, download this Internet Explorer Extension.

This Firefox Extension has saved me tons of keyboard time.

2. Desktop Shortcut for Delicious

Having to visit the del.icio.us website each time you want to access your bookmarks can be a time-consuming process. Why not plug your bookmarks into your desktop for easy access. You can do this with Delwin for Windows and Delibar for the Mac.

3. Increase Your Search Powers.

There are a variety of ways to search del.icio.us.

To view bookmarks tagged with a specific keyword, type in:

http://del.icio.us/tag/keyword

To view bookmarks tagged with two or more keywords, type in:

http://del.icio.us/tag/keyword+keyword

So for example, if I wanted to look for sites about organization and GTD, I would type in:

http://del.icio.us/tag/organization+GTD

If I wanted to narrow the search even further, I could include four terms:

http://del.icio.us/tag/organization+GTD+office+tools

If you are looking for the most popular sites in any category, than simply type in:

http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/TAGNAME

So if you are trying to find the most popular sites related to GTD, you would type in:

http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/GTD

4. Bookmark from Google Reader

If you’re a fan of Google Reader, then you’ll definitely want to start using Google Reader + del.icio.us. This is a Greasemonkey script that puts an “add to del.icio.us” button at the bottom of each post in Google Reader. With a single click, you will be able to transfer interesting posts from Google Reader into your del.icio.us bookmark collection.

5. Bundle Your Tags

Does your tag cloud look like a huge, disorganized mess. Bundle those tags into related categories for easy access. To organize your tags into bundles, click on the “Settings” link in the top right-hand corner.

From this page, click on “bundle tags” under the tags heading and start creating your own bundles.

Of course, if you’re not into the whole bundling idea, then you can always just use the search box in the upper right hand corner of del.icio.us.

If you want to limit your search to specific tags, then use the prefix “tag:”. An example for all you productivity junkies might be “tag:gtd”.

6. Newsmasher

Here’s a cool Greasemonkey script called Newsmasher that places a small “del.icio.us” tag on the upper left corner of your browser. When clicked, a small window appears displaying what del.icio.us users are writing about the page you are viewing.

This is a great way to get some quick feedback on any website you’re visiting. Quickly find out if people are giving it a virtual “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.

7. Use the Inbox

Navigate to http://del.icio.us/inbox. Here you can subscribe to various tags or specific users. This is an excellent way to discover new sites that you may enjoy. It almost reminds me a bit of StumbleUpon. Based on the preferences you submit, you will be given a flow of new items to check out.

8. A variety of del.icio.us Uses

You can use del.icio.us in a number of exciting and interesting ways. Here are a few examples

to get you started:

  • Bookmark movies you want to see
  • Travel planning
  • Bookmark books you want to read
  • Bookmark things you want to blog about
  • Research

9. Publish Your del.icio.us Bookmarks on Your Website.

In addition to all that, you can also share your latest del.icio.us bookmarks on your websites for all of your readers to enjoy. You can do this using Linkrolls and Tagrolls.

Linkrolls display your latest del.icio.us bookmarks while tagrolls display all of your del.icio.us tags in a tag cloud.

You can see these unique features in action at this blog . His bookmarks are on the left and his tags are on the right.

10. Creative Tagging

My final tip is based on a bit of creative tagging. For my most important tags, I place an “@” in front of them. This moves them up to the very top of my tag list. So, for example, for books that I want to read in the future, I have a tag labeled @books. This simple trick allows me to place my most important tags at the very top of the tag list.

If you know of any other del.icio.us tips, please add them in the comments.

   
 

Inserted from <http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/top-10-ways-to-use-delicious.html>

 

Book Summary: Thinking for a Change

Filed under: Books — bhardia at 11:33 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2007

The book is written by John C Maxwell, ISBN 0446529575

Even if you don’t read the whole summary or book, reading the first few paragraphs of this summary is worth it.

One young person asked Jack ” When you were my age, what did you do to elevate yourself among all of your other associates? How did you stand out from the crowd of other young, ambitious and driven colleagues of your day?

GE’s Jack Welch said.

“Great question, young man. And this is an important pint for every person to hear. The first thing you must understand is the importance of getting out of ‘the pile.’ The only way you are going to stand our to your boss is to understand this simple principle.

WHEN A BOSS ASKS FOR SOMETHING..he already knows the answer he is looking for.

“Practically speaking, this means coming back to the table and presenting to your boss not only an answer, but three or more other ideas, options and perspectives that were probably not preciously considered by your boss. The goal is to add value to the idea and the thought by exceeding expectations when the question is given to you. This is true not only with questions, but assignments, initiatives and everything else ever given to you to run with by upper management.

Jock drove the point home empatically. “So if you understand that the question is only the beginning, you will get out of the pile fast, because 99.9 % of all employees are in the pile because the don’t think. And in time, you will be the one giving out the questions to others!”

SKILL 1 “HOW TO ACQUIRE the WISDOM of BIG_PICTURE thinking?

  1. Don’t strive for certainty
  2. Learn from every experience
  3. Gain experience from variety of people
  4. Give yourself permission to expand your world
  • Arranging matters so that you are continually learning and not getting bogged down in details
  • SKILL2: Focused Thinking
    • You will become as small as your controlling desire or as great as your dominant aspiration.
    • HOW TO FOCUS
      • Remove distractions
      • Make time for focused thinking
      • Keep item of focus before you
      • Set goals
      • Question your progress
    •  
    • Give up things to FOCUS..bcoz
      • You can’t know everyone
      • You can’t do everything
      • You can’t go everywhere
      • You can’t be well rounded
      • Being willing to give up some of the things you love in order to focus on what has the greatest impact isn’t an easy lesson to learn.
  • SKILL 3 : Creative Thinking
    • Stimulate Creative thinking
    • Ask….
      • Why must it be done this way?
      • What is the root problem
      • What are the underlying issues?
      • What does this remind me of?
      • What is the opposite?
      • What metaphor or symbol helps to explain it?
      • Why it is important?
      • What’s the hardest or most expensive way to do it?
      • Who has a different perspective on this?
      • What happens if we don’t do it at all?
      • In my wildest dreams, what can this idea lead to?

         SKILL 4 :Realistic Thinking

      What the difference ?


Misconception

Reality

I could make everyone happy

There will be conflict

People like change if it’s done properly

People resist change regardless

It is enough that the leader takes care of people

People must be developed to be effective

Good leadership makes tough call unnecessary

Tough calls must always be made

   HOW TO have it…..

  • Develop an appreciation for truth
  • Do your homework
  • Think about pros and cons
  • Picture the worst-case scenario
    • Ask..all the what-f question
  • Align your thinking with resources
  • SKILL 5: Strategic Thinking ( PLAN YOUR LIFE, LIVE YOUR PLAN)
    • WHY??…bcoz…
      • When failure isn’t an option, nothing serves a person better than strategic thinking
      • Strategic thinking is the bridge that links where you are to where you want to be
      • The one with the plan is the one with power
    • HOW TO ??
      • Break down the issue
        • Weekdays
        • Weekends
        • Vacations or scheduled time breaks
      • Ask WHY before HOW
      • Identify the real issues and objectives
        • Jack Welch once said…”Strategy is first trying to understand where you sit in today’s world. Not where you wish you were or where you hoped you would be, but where you are. Then its trying to understand where you want to be five years out. Finally its assessing the realistic changes of getting form here to there.
      • Review your resources
      • Develop your plan
        • From 7 levels of changes..
          • Level 1: Effectiveness - Doing right things
          • Level 2 : Efficiency - Doing the right things right
          • Level 3 : Improving - Doing things better
          • Level 4 : Cutting - Doing away with things
          • Level 5 : Adapting - Doing things other people are things
          • Level 6 : Different - Doing things no one else is doing
          • Level 7 : Impossible - Doing things that can’t be done
      • Put right people is the right place
        • If not…
          • Wrong person: Problems instead of potential
          • Wrong place: Frustration instead of fulfillment
          • Wrong plan: Grief instead of growth
      • Keep repeating the process
        • The will to win is worthless, if you do not have the will to prepare.
  • SKILL 6: Possibility Thinking
    • HOW TO
      • Stop focusing of the impossibilities
      • Stay away from experts- who tend to limit possibilities
      • Look for possibilities in every situation
      • Dream one size bigger
      • Question the status quo
      • Find inspiration from great achievers
  • SKILL 7: Reflective Thinking ( It turns experience into insight)
    • HOW TO
      • Set aside time for reflection
      • Remove yourself from distraction
      • Regularly review calendar or journal
      • Ask the right question
        • RELATED TO VALUES
          • Personal growth?
          • Adding values
          • Teamwork
          • Leadership
          • Physical health
          • Personal faith
        • RELATED TO RELATIONSHIPS
          • Marriage and family
          • Friends
          • Inner circle
          • God
        • RELATED TO EXPERIENCE
          • Discoveries
          • Memories
          • Difficulties
          • Successes
          • People
          • Conclusions    
        • ALSO YOU CAN KEEP A JOURNAL for…reflecting pattern in your life
          • YEAR……………….Turning Point…………Impact
      • Cement your learning through action
  • SKILL 8: Questioning Popular Thinking
    Remember…the difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones.
  • SKILL 9: Shared Thinking
    None of us is as smart as all of us.
  • SKILL 10: Unselfish Thinking
    If you want to improve your world then focus your attention on helping others.
       
  • SKILL 11: Bottom-line Thinking
    • It makes it possible for you to measure outcomes more quickly and easily

    

Del.icio.us Tags

Filed under: Web Tools — bhardia at 11:37 am on Saturday, May 12, 2007

Notes on Web Service

Filed under: SOA — bhardia at 12:33 pm on Sunday, May 6, 2007

Soap is the communications protocol for XML Web services. SOAP is a specification that defines the XML format for messages—and that’s about it for the required parts of the spec. If you have a well-formed XML fragment enclosed in a couple of SOAP elements, you have a SOAP message. Simple isn’t it?

There are other parts of the SOAP specification that describe how to represent program data as XML and how to use SOAP to do Remote Procedure Calls. These optional parts of the specification are used to implement RPC-style applications where a SOAP message containing a callable function, and the parameters to pass to the function, is sent from the client, and the server returns a message with the results of the executed function.

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information

UDDI: Universal Discovery Description and Integration is the yellow pages of Web services
 

Source: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms996507.aspx