What I Learned

Welcome to the technology version of What I Learned. Over the years, obviously I have done a lot of things wrong for a long time and then I find out a trick and I am floored and I never look back. Here are a few things that I have found that make things so much easier when using the phone or computer. 

VPN: This is good for when you are using a lot of public networks and need security, or...if you are traveling and you want your app or website to think you are still in your country of origin. I have a good story about this which I will tell in another post but for now just know that your Netflix account does not have the same shows when you are in a different country. So if you want to have the same shows, or same subtitles etc. your IP needs to be in the country you come from. Also banking is much easier if you are "not" abroad! I use NordVPN, but there are several different options and they are not expensive, and it has saved my butt a few times!! 

Feedly Boards (Categories). I started using this when I first started using Feedly, but at the time, I only had a "favorites" category. Once I started having to use my phone to read articles, I quickly found that I needed more categories, as I like to go back to posts I have commented on to see if the author has replied to my comments. When I am on the laptop, I used to just leave the article open, then revisit it when I went back on the computer. 

However, with my phone, this is not as feasible. So now I have boards for the following: 

Commented: posts I commented on

Returned: posts I commented on and returned to and read the reply (once this is done, I remove the commented category)

Past due: posts I commented on, returned to and there is no reply after a certain amount of time (then I remove the commented category and don't go back again and waste time checking).

Book ideas: articles or posts about books that I want to add to my holds/loans on Libby

Vacation ideas: articles or posts about places I want to research more, go to, or review

Ideas: articles or posts about something that I think would be fun to write about at some point

You can bring up just the one category and see a list easily and you can also add or remove the category from the list or within the individual article or post. 

Google Reader Mode. If you use Chrome and you have any websites that use a lot of ads or photos and take forever to load or scroll, you will love the Google Reader Mode Extension. It breaks down the post into words only, and gets rid of all the pesky minutia. This also often works for posts where you can only see some of the post and then need to log in; if you hit the Reader button right away, you can get the entire article in Reader view. 

Here is an example: Purple travels a lot and retired early and I like reading her stories; however, I do not have the patience for the site to load due to so many pictures and inserts and ads! 

Big pictures! Too many ads and Instagram links!

So I pop it into Reader and voila. In Reader, you can also save, print, and read aloud. You can also change the font and size and things, but I have just left it on the default for this. 

So much cleaner! See top right for options.

Camera shortcut for phone. This may seem obvious to some but when I was on the Tour Divide, a guy I was with told me how he wasn't taking a lot of photos because it was a pain to get his phone out, swipe to open, push the camera button and then take a photo. I told him that he should have a shortcut to enable him to do it without all that fuss. For my phone (Pixel), you have to double click the power button. You can then take the photo using the volume button (either one) therefore enabling you to do it fast, or when it's wet outside, or when you have gloves on, all without touching the screen. My parent's Motorola is a quick wrist twist back and forth to activate. Also, in case you are scared, if a stranger does this, they cannot access any prior photos or other things on your phone, so you can have someone take your photo at Yosemite without worry. What is your phone's camera shortcut? 

Schedule send for text messages. Since I am often up at the buttcrack of dawn, and this is when I have time and motivation, I often set up a bunch of texts to go out later in the day when normal people are actually up. I also do this for birthday texts if I think of it the day before, I will schedule it for the next day so I won't forget. The only downside of this for me is that if I am not in service at the scheduled time, it won't go out, so it doesn't help me in that case. In Android you hard press the send button and it will give you an option for times; once you choose your date and time, you hit the send button again and it will be set! I am certain iPhone has something similar; can anyone confirm?  

What method do you use to check responses on comments if there is no auto email feature? What tricks to you use to keep track of ideas, future books to read or vacations to research? What tips and tricks do you use to save time with technology, the internet, or your computer? If none of the above, do you have any tips or tricks you often use in life?