Kapil's Korner » lifehacker

Facebook dos and don’ts

Kapil — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:35:45 +0000

Everybody is on it. Everybody loves it. But not everyone can manage it. As much as we all love Facebook, I think at times it can be annoying to see holiday photos where 100 are of animals and trees with just 2 where your friend is also seen. Or those Farmville and Mafia War updates which you really can’t do much about.

So here’s a quick guide on how to be a good ‘facebooker’ and it will probably even get you more popular in your network.

Photos – We love them but let’s also respect them.
When your friends let you click photos it’s because they know you respect their privacy. So make sure not all goes online, especially the ones you wouldn’t like somebody to get embarrassed about. There is always email to share it with a few selected friends.

Just because you loved your holiday spot doesn’t mean you can torture your network to see a 100+ photos. Select a few best which gives your friends a good idea of the fun time you had. At least spare them the over-exposed blurry shots. Trust me, they’ll appreciate that very much.

Add a personal touch to your photo uploads. A description line telling where you are, why you clicked this photo or describing a random object always helps people connect more. Should get you more comments too.

Status updates – Quality matters, not quantity.
Status updates every 1 hour don’t make your profile interesting. Besides when your friends login, they only see your latest one. So ideally you should wait about 12 hours before you make yet another status update.

And think twice before you make that update. It not only talks about your state of mind but also draws a personality picture. And you surely don’t want that one to be messed up.

Original content – nothing beats that.
If you’re the creative sorts who generates original content like a music piece, poetry or a painting go ahead and upload. It will get you more views and comments than all those email forwards going around the place.

If you’ve got a flickr photo album, a twitter account or a bookshelf at shelfari – connect it to Facebook. Will make your timeline a lot more interesting.

Avoid the ‘Select All’ button.
Took a fun quiz? Your farm just got bigger? GREAT. But is everyone on your network interested? Always make sure you are not clicking the ‘Select All’ button for just about everything you come across. Filtering helps and avoids annoying everyone on your list.

And last but not the least remember whatever you share on Facebook is probably being seen by all those people you’ve given access too. And some people have good memory so don’t put up something you would be sorry about later.

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5 super tools which power my office PC

Kapil — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:35 +0000

It’s often seen that people spend too much time doing the most basic computing operations. Here is a list of some of my favourite tools which power my PC at work.

Launchy

Always a problem finding the right file? Look no further. Launchy has been the most useful piece of software to get me directly to a file/folder or application by just typing out it’s name. Of course you need to make sure you index your hard disk, the right way. [Download]

ObjectDock

Is your desktop messed up with short-cuts to files & folders? Get ObjectDock, the Mac look alike taskbar. Easy access to folders and other applications without cluttering your desktop. [Download]

IrfanView
Simple, light-weight image editor. Crop, re-size your images quickly without having to load a heavy application like Adobe Photoshop for simple actions. Also with a few plug-ins it will let you view some of the more complex image formats without those heavy software installs. [Download]

Dropbox
A popular online storage which I only recently started using and it’s been super useful. I don’t bother with file transfers to the USB pen-drive anymore. Just copy the file in the Dropbox folder and it syncs with my Macbook at home. So I have access to important files at all time. [Website]

GTD wallpaper
If you don’t fancy those lovely desktop wallpapers here is something which is great to sort the files and shortcuts on the desktop. [Download]

And here is a bonus:

AvaFind/Google Desktop
If you’ve been unsatisfied with the search results given by Windows default search engine then get yourself one of these application. Google Desktop does a superb job of indexing content of the files, email applications so you can probably end up finding that needle in the haystack. [Ava Find Home Page / Google Desktop Download]

What’s your favourite piece of software that makes computing easier for you? Share your thoughts in the comments area.

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Valentine gift shopping simplified

Kapil — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:02:41 +0000

Let’s admit it, buying gifts is a difficult task. Ok, so how many people out there just went yehhhh! Look no further because what I am about to share with you may make shopping for your Valentine this year a lot easier and even convenient.

Asthetika is a place where you can go shopping and look for that special gift which is just perfect for your partner. Choose from a variety of products with a mix of flowers, chocolates, soft-toys and even personalised messages/photos to go along with your gift.

I am sure you’ll find something suitable for your partner at Asthetika. So if you struggling to do your Valentine shopping just go across to the Asthetika’s Facebook Group, see the full collection and get your customized gifts in no time. Gifts can be delivered in India via courier/speed post. But for Mumbaikars, they are giving free delivery within Mumbai limits.

For details contact:

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To-do for a smarter richer and funnier 2010

Kapil — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:38:31 +0000

The new year party hangover has been tackled. Pics from the crazy night uploaded to facebook. 2010 calendars sit on the desk. Look forward to a smarter, richer and funnier year. Let’s see how.

Read more. [My Shelfari book shelf]

Listen to a new genre of music. Move on from the Hindi film soundtracks and my current list of trance. I don’t know – maybe jazz, piano recitals.

Experience more audio books. I am currently listening to Timothy Ferris – The 4-hour Workweek

Watch/appreciate cinema beyond the block-busters. Also catch up on my pending list of photography related talk-shows and documentaries.

Travel more. See, soak and enjoy new environments.

Exercise the brain – probably start solving Sodoku, play poker.

Re-enter the kitchen - haven’t done this in a while but I know it’s fun and I love it.

Rise and shine earlier in the day. A continuous effort.

Get better at money management. Identify right channels and invest wisely & regularly.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, do check out Robin Sharma’s – 62 WAYS TO MAKE 2010 YOUR BEST YEAR YET.

And of course do share your thoughts in the comments area on how you plan to make 2010 a great year.

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Twitter Tool: TwitThis

Kapil — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:35:39 +0000

For a few weeks now I have been enjoying Twitter. It’s fun because I basically use it to share interesting things I am doing or places I am visiting. Today I read up on Lifehacker what other people are thinking about Twitter and it really wasn’t pleasant. But nevertheless I think it’s fun and it would be more fun if I could get some more friends hooked on to it. So give it a try.

While at Lifehacker I found a nifty tool called TwitThis. Basically what it does is lets you easily send messages about a blog post or website to your Twitter. There are sometimes posts or websites which I don’t want to book-mark on my del.icio.us so I am now going to use this to share with readers at Twitter.

Happy twitting!