// Internet Duct Tape

RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.

Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).

• [GTD] Tracks
  • A Ruby on Rails web app that is multiplatform and ships with it’s own web server (if needed). Implements GTD.
  • (gtd, productivity, software, rails)
  • (rousette.org.uk, 3630 saves, 100 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [CREATIVITY] how to be creative
  • From the article: ” Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.”
  • (creativity, inspiration)
  • (gapingvoid.com, 3159 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [DESIGN] 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography. Part 1
  • 15 screenshots and links
  • (typography, design, webdesign, inspiration, css)
  • (ilovetypography.com, 947 saves, 68 inbound links, 1624 diggs)
• [GEEK] Cory Doctorow imagines a world in which Google is evil
  • Cory Doctorow short story.
  • (google, fiction, scifi, doctorow)
  • (radaronline.com, 374 saves, 100 inbound links, 22 diggs)
• [HUMOR] lolsecretz – LOLCATS + POSTSECRET OMG!!!!!!!
  • My memes have met and multiplied.
  • (humor, lolcats, postsecret)
  • (lolsecretz.blogspot.com, 311 saves, 100 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [GEEK] How History Repeats Itself and the Death of Gmail
  • Joel recounts the death of Lotus 1-2-3 in modern terms and explains how Google and current AJAX apps will die when they don’t realize the changing SDK.
  • (history, javascript, joelonsoftware, strategy)
  • (joelonsoftware.com, 270 saves, 100 inbound links, 11 diggs)
• [CODE] 7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails
  • Interesting take: your new code is better because your a better programmer, not because it’s a better language.
  • (ruby, programming, rails)
  • (oreillynet.com, 259 saves, 26 inbound links, 30 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Code Conventions for the JavaScript Programming Language
  • Good to know for writing Greasemonkey scripts.
  • (javascript, programming, conventions, research)
  • (javascript.crockford.com, 259 saves, 24 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [INTERVIEWS] Thirteen Patterns Of Programmer Interviews
  • Humorous but very on-point. I wonder what the style of interviewing you perform says about your company?
  • (interview, programming, career, funny, interviewing)
  • (typicalprogrammer.com, 221 saves, 15 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] Secrets to Amazon’s success
  • From the article: ” People’s side projects, the one’s they follow because they are interested, are often ones where you get the most value and innovation. Never underestimate the power of wandering where you are most interested.”
  • (amazon, business, strategy, startup, workhacks)
  • (37signals.com, 176 saves, 26 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [CODE] Everything Is Fast For Small n
  • Good overview of computational complexity and why you should always test with large datasets (on slow computers :) )
  • (programming, performance, optimization, sort, algorithms)
  • (codinghorror.com, 165 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [FIREFOX] Top 10 Firefox Extension-free Tabbed Browsing Techniques
  • Things you didn’t know how to do with Firefox tabs.
  • (firefox, tips, tabs, lifehacker)
  • (lifehacker.com, 83 saves)
• [EMAIL] Save Time With Search Folders in Outlook
  • Use search folders to organize your email instead of putting them in different folders
  • (outlook, tips, search, email)
  • (howtogeek.com, 42 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [SMO] Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers
  • A very interesting hypothesis about how StumbleUpon decides how much traffic to send to a site.
  • (algorithm, stumbleupon, smo)
  • (ventureskills.wordpress.com, 40 saves, 19 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [EFFICIENCY] Time Saving & Automation Round-up: Let the Computer Do the Work
  • Get your computer to do the heavy lifting. I can’t spell.
  • (productivity, automation, lifehacks)
  • (ofzenandcomputing.com, 30 saves, 2 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [SMO] The Secret to Massive Digg/StumbleUpon Traffic Without Spamming
  • When someone promotes your post via a social media site, SAY THANK YOU and build a relationship with them.
  • (stumbleupon, digg, tips, socialnetworking, blogging)
  • (successful-blog.com, 26 saves, 16 inbound links, 75 diggs)
• [BOOKS] Author Robert Jordan Dies
  • Robert Jordan dies at 58 of a rare blood disease. Wheel of Times books left uncompleted.
  • (books, fantasy, news)
  • (ap.google.com, 8 saves, 100 inbound links, 10 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 4 reasons to write on the weekend and 4 posts to do it with
  • Mu argues against taking the weekend off from blogging
  • (blogging, weekend)
  • (muhammadsaleem.com, 5 saves, 6 inbound links, 51 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Nurture Your Relationships with Positive Flooding
  • You need 5 positive actions for every 1 negative action in marriages, 3:1 for work
  • (lifehacks, relationships)
  • (annezelenka.com, 5 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [PRIVACY] A Question of Privacy
  • Good overview of online privacy, data retention, cross-referencing, etc.
  • (privacy, internet, online)
  • (baekdal.com, 5 saves)
• [BLOGS] Copyright Notice
  • Finally a decent copyright notice for blogs! I’m going to copy it without giving any credit back.
  • (blogging, copyright)
  • (angryaussie.wordpress.com, 2 inbound links)
• [TV] 5 Questions Season Two of Heroes Had Better F#@king Answer
  • Great wrap up of Season 1 of Heroes.
  • (tv, heroes)
  • (cracked.com, 100 inbound links)

Legend

• saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
• inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
• diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

• 9 Techniques to Promoting Your Social Web Application

  How do you build a web app that has traction, gain users and hopefully explodes virally? I’ve been paying attention to this space for far too long and this is a round-up of the tricks and techniques successful and not-so-successful social web applications use to promote themselves.

• The Problem With Social Web Applications

  This is an exciting time because unlike traditional software that runs on your computer [1], web applications are created as social software where you have a friends list, collaborate on a document with multiple people and it is easily to share information and communicate. The downside is these…

• Best of Feeds – 55 links – programming, firefox, blogging, tips, lifehacks

  Tags: blogging, books, business, debugging, del.icio.us, delicious, development, digg, facebook, firefox, funny, games, geek, humor, life, lifehacks, management, organization, productivity, programming, security, smo, socialbookmarking, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, stumbleupon, tips, video

This Week at IDT Labs

• [DELICIOUS/STUMBLEUPON] Delicious Stumbles crossposting tool

  Last Greasemonkey script this week :) With Delicious Stumbles I get all of the super-useful features I like about delicious (speed, recommended tags) but I also teach StumbleUpon more about what I like without having to spend all that time cutting-and-pasting between two accounts. Submit a page…

• [WORDPRESS] Comment Ninja

  My WordPress Comment Ninja extension is available for beta test. Try it out and let me know what you think! Respond directly from the comment administration panel on your dashboard Respond by comment, email or both (without having to cut-and-paste your response!) Respond using your email…

Tags: blogging, inspiration, javascript, lifehacks, productivity, programming, rails, strategy, stumbleupon, tips