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I just uninstalled Google Chrome on my Mac. It made me too sad, and here’s why.
First, the vertical tabs option was removed. The change report says
Sidetabs were an experiment that didn’t pan out. They’re in a half-working state and should be removed, says Glen.
We’ll try to come up with other approaches for this use case.
This is patently absurd. It worked great. I used it for a long time. Everyone I showed it to, loved it, especially on a wide screen display. That they took it away so quietly irritates me.
Second, the session restore doesn’t work if you click the red X on the window. It does work if you Command-q or quit straight from the dock as stated here.
The video linked in here is the best bit, and Merlin makes some great points, too.
I’m in the process of rebuilding my laptop. This is always a great time to re-evaluate my information systems. Yes, plural systems.
Here are my criteria:
Confidential data needs to be encrypted and protected.
Data needs to be archived.
The information systems need to be portable. The archives don’t need to be.
I have four, count them, four primary information systems – a Franklin planner, a Moleskine pocket notebook, a Palm Treo 700p, and my ThinkPad T60. Here’s the breakdown:
Franklin planner
I went pure Treo, hPDA, EMACS PlannerMode, GTD in Google Notebook, and a whole whack of other things for managing my tasks and calendar and whatnot since 2001. For eight years before that I was a Franklin Planner user, classic-size 2 pages/day. And I used it almost religiously. Beyond the tasks and appointments it was my journal and address book and project management tool and checkbook journal and so on.
I don’t remember why I moved away from it (more like threw it down on the ground and ran away, screeching like a little girl), but I think it had to do with changing jobs and getting my very first laptop.
I’m back to the Franklin now (technically FranklinCovey, but my planner is pre-merger) . I like having it laying open on my desk so I can visualize my day. I’m using the GTD kung-fu I’ve learned in the last several years, and I am loving it. It is not the Swiss-army knife that it once was, though.
The other thing that limits the Franklin’s usefulness is the lack of a well thought out planner page. I cannot justify the ink cost of DIY Planner, and the non-FC planner pages lack good paper – a lot of ink bleeding.
For the layout, at the end of my Franklin run I had started using the Metropolitan pack. It had a very simple, clean look to it. The current options are too busy and lose too much space to large headers with useless pictures and quotes or sports facts. Actually, I like some of the quotes, but not to take up a full inch at the top of the page.
Now I am using it for my task list, my calendar, and my daily unprivileged journal.
Moleskine Pocket Notebook
Very cool, very compact. I use this as my privileged journal or when the Franklin is overkill. There is no layout per-se, but I am indexing everything at the back. This I always keep with me.
Palm Treo 700p
Like I mentioned above, I tried using this for everything. And it can do everything. The problem – I can’t see everything I need in one view.
I’m using this as my Bluetooth tether for my laptop when I’m on the road. It works quite well. I use it for reminders (SMS from my Google calendar for personal stuff, tied into work’s email for work appointments). It also works fine for lite-weight web browsing and email. Its got games. Its got books. Its got music and movies. The extended battery is a must have. I use the voice recorder for ideas that pop-up when I have to go hands-free (like when driving).
Most importantly, it is my address book and phone.
ThinkPad T60
This is the problem child. Its my work PC. It houses both privileged and unprivileged information. Its dual boot with XP and OpenSuSE, NTFS and Ext3. When I’m on the road (which is often) it is my media center and game console.
Mayur Jobanputra wrote this howto for leveraging your Google toolbar for Google Apps access. This worked very well for me. I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t find a way to do this in the toolbar options. His solution is just what I was looking for.
Steve Rubel has an excellent write up of some craft ways to leverage Google’s tools. I’m moving some of my stuff over to my Google Apps domain, so cool!
This is very cool. I like the idea of using the ‘+’ sign in combination with periodic periods in the email address (see down in the comments).
I did this same basic idea a while ago on my sendmail server. Maintaining all of those addresses, and ultimately the email server itself, was way too time consuming.
