Saturday, November 23, 2013

Read Your Exported Google Reader Items With This Webapp

Read Your Exported Google Reader Items With This Webapp

With Google Reader closing in just a few days, it may be time to export your data. Services like Feedly are already building migration tools, but if you just want to look at the data, this tiny webapp has you covered.

Githubu user BriceMcIver built a simple tool that allows you to view the contents of your Google Reader data. If you want to use this, first you'll have to download your data from Google here. Once you have the files, extract the zip and point the file chooser in this webapp to any of the files ending in .json. It's designed to work with your list of Starred items (which many of us use as a makeshift to-do list or read-it-later bucket), but I tried it on shared articles, and articles from followers and it worked there too. It didn't work 100% of the time, but it's worth a shot if you just want to see your data without going through a whole big import process.

Google Reader Starred Items Import | GitHub

Kayak Step Cart

StepCart-10.jpgAn alternative to the DIY PVC cart - easy to make, doubles as a step for loading / unloading and folds for convenient transportation / storage.  It doesn't get much easier than this.StepCart-01.jpgNeeding a kayak cart, I was looking for alternatives to measuring / cutting / gluing (cursing*&$#! / re-measuring / re-cutting / re-gluing) a PVC cart.  In the process, I came across this folding step stool.  (ranging in price from $10 - $15 online or local store)

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The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

In the last few months, Feedly has been working tirelessly to please the Google Reader crowd. If you haven't looked at Feedly in a while, there are some changes you might have missed.

To be clear, Feedly probably won't entirely replace Google Reader for everyone. In fact, nothing will. Google Reader was a special app and it occupied a unique place for each person. However, the internet has exploded recently with attempts to fill the RSS void. We've already covered the best alternatives, but as Feedly starts to occupy the center of the playing field, it's worth a closer look. Here's what you might have missed in just the last few months.

The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

This is the big one. The one concern that trumped all the others when it came to Google Reader's closing was that while other RSS apps existed, nothing provided the backbone that an entire ecosystem of apps could plug in to. Very recently, Feedly announced the Feedly Cloud. So far, apps like gReader, Press, and Reeder have already built on top of it and, if it works well, we can likely expect to see more developers adopt this before too long if they want syncing features to continue after Google Reader shuts down.

The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

Previously, if you wanted to try out Feedly, you had to do so in an app or by downloading a browser extension. That works for some, but if you want to pull up your feeds on someone else's machine or if you don't like installing things, it's problematic. Now, you can head straight to cloud.feedly.com and go over your feeds on any computer with internet access.

The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

One of the biggest advantages of Google Reader is its ability to manage hundreds of articles easily. In what was referred to as a gift to Google Reader users, Feedly introduced a title-only view to make scanning feeds easier. One of the biggest problems with all the replacement apps has been that they aren't always great at professional-level reading. This doesn't fix it entirely, but it helps. There are also a bunch of viewing preferences that you can adjust here that can allow the power user to tweak the interface as they see fit.

The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

Not everything is a huge headlining feature, but the little things matter to. Over the course of the last few months, Feedly has added a bunch of new hardware to make sure its syncing service is fast, keyboard shortcuts that should be familiar to Google users, and even IFTTT support.

The Best New Features Feedly Has Added for Google Reader Switchers

The loss of Google Reader has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. However, as of right now, the Feedly team has already expressed plans to improve in-app search, group sharing, and Windows Phone/Windows 8 apps. Given that this list of planned features written at the beginning of the month includes at least one that has already come to fruition ("pure web access") it seems reasonable to think that the company can deliver on the others. When Google closes the doors on Reader next week, RSS aficionados will probably still be able to look forward to green pastures. In fact, it might be better than ever.

Feedly has positioned itself as the new centerpiece of the RSS world. While there are plenty of other great apps out there that are worth looking into (again, you can check those out here), Feedly has taken an early lead in the ecosystem competition, which has much bigger stakes. Chances are that as we look at any new apps coming down the pipe, some form of cloud sync will be expected. Whether you end up using Feedly as your daily driver app, you'll probably still be affected by these changes in some way. All eyes are on Feedly to see if it can handle its predecessor's mantle.

Work a Non-Standard Schedule to Avoid Consumer Traps and Laziness

Work a Non-Standard Schedule to Avoid Consumer Traps and Laziness

Most people work a 9-to-5 job, Monday through Friday. That leaves a very specific amount of free time on the weekend and little time during the weekdays. David Cain, writing for the creative digital magazine Thought Catalog, argues that this specifically designed lifestyle funnels us into a pattern that makes us lazy, inactive consumers.

The ultimate tool for corporations to sustain a culture of this sort is to develop the 40-hour workweek as the normal lifestyle. Under these working conditions people have to build a life in the evenings and on weekends. This arrangement makes us naturally more inclined to spend heavily on entertainment and conveniences because our free time is so scarce.

Businesses create services to help us do the things we can't find the time or desire to do on our own because we're almost or actually burnt out. Entertainment takes place on the weekend because most people have the time to indulge then. When we have time off, we're supposed to fill it with entertainment because that requires only as much time as we have and costs something. Physical activity, relaxing, and other free activities often have a higher time cost, plus we're tired, and so we opt for what is advertised to us. It's just easier.

A non-standard work schedule, however, helps to solve this problem. If your "weekend" falls during the week—at least partially—you get to spend your free time when advertisers don't expect it. You end up with less direction in your day. That said, you still suffer from limits. That's why it's so important to set time boundaries at work—so you don't burn yourself out. You can also ask your boss to let you work four days instead of five. If you can get just as much done and keep your quality of work equally high, you don't need to work for 40 hours. Instead, you can use that time to stay healthier, happier, and start to avoid sinking into the standard workplace trap. It isn't a perfect solution, but it's a start.

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed | Thought Catalog

Photo by Andrey Arkusha (Shutterstock).

Alcohol Inked Tile Coasters

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Classy Screen Door Repair

First off, this is int the fix-it contest, so if you like it, PLEASE VOTE!!!
(Thank you, much appreciated.)

Age-old story: Our back door screen ripped out thanks to the ever-gentle touch of kids and pets.

I was just going to replace the screen, but as it turns they didn't have the typical groove and spline but rather the screen was pinched against the door with a metal inner frame.  IMO, this is a stupid way to design the thing since the only thing really holding the screen fabric is a few screws.  One little push and *rip*.  Game over.

So, no doubt the best solution to this would have been to go down to Home Despot, buy a screen door kit for $25 bux, and slap it in. 

But where's the fun in that?

I decided to follow my current cedar fetish and make a victorian-esque screen door.  Not only will it help class the place up a bit, but  it will also hold the screen with a proper spline and also it will have wooden supports in the lower half to keep little hands and paws from pushing directly against said screen.


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Craftsman Style Sliding Doors

2013-03-22 door 003.JPGI was closing part of a room in my house for use as a workshop and had to add some doors.  The two ways in were both about 47" wide so I couldn't use a 48" door and I didn't want to use a smaller door.  I built two doorways- one a 48-inch slider and one with two 24-inch doors.  The doors themselves are plain hollow-core doors with craftsman-style trim added.  The hardware is actually pocket door hardware, installed on the outside.  2013-03-22 door 009.JPGThis is the 48-inch door.  It's two 24-inch doors stuck together.  My plan was to stain it, but it was cold and rainy here for a few months, and now the pollen count is in the thousands (and I didn't want it to be yellow).  I kinda like it the way it is, and might leave it this way. 

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