Times have changed, and that old address is a black hole for spam. You never check it, and you don’t want to. But your stupid ISP, your stubborn family members and high school buddies insist on sending you important things there.

The research confirms that the best time to submit a new story on Digg is a weekday afternoon in the US.

So if you are based on the other side of the world (e.g. India), make sure you postpone all Digg submissions until midnight for maximum diggs exposure and do take a Digg-break on weekends.

Afternoons in America are the best time to Digg.

Some of these things may seem like a lot of work up front, but that’s the price you have to pay to lounge around all day.

1. Be effective.

The indigenous lazy tribesman knows the value of hard work. But he also knows that he can get more done easily and more efficiently by being effective. That means focusing on the things that matter. What matters more to you, having a color coded underwear filing system, or writing that world dominating book you’ve been talking about for the past 12 years?

Focus on being effective, instead of trying do everything perfectly. Let things slide, let your house get a little messy, let your desk be a little less than immaculate. Let your email inbox gasp go unchecked for a day. Whatever it takes to focus on what actually matters.

2. Do your research.

This might not seem like something lazy people like to do, but it’s essential if you want to waste a lot of time doing things that, you know, you actually enjoy doing. If you want to work less, it’s important that you do your research. Study trends, follow what major movements are going on in your industry. If you know the right time and place to act, you can be miles above others that were simply working hard, hoping things would turn out for the best.

3. Act from your gut.

People that work hard and achieve little spend a lot of time thinking about the best course of action. They plan and plot incessantly. What eventually happens is these come up that they never could have planned for. The lazy man knows that planning is useful, but often overrated. It’s better to act from your gut then to have a highly detailed plant you’ll simply throw away later.

But in order to combine all these elements of Web design together and achieve successful results you must have a clear direction, a direction that will guide each and every aspect of your design towards common goals. You must think strategically.

Each time I failed in my quit attempt, I felt guilty and weak and unsure of my ability to overcome such difficult hurdles. But looking back on it, it was the failed attempts that taught me the most about what works and what doesn’t.

And on my seventh attempt to quit, I was prepared. I knew what got in the way of success, and I planned for it. I had researched habit changes, and had multiple strategies for success in my plan. And the things I learned from this successful habit change were keys to changing all the habits that have made me the person I am today.

Reader Tarra recently asked:

Unfortunately I’ve never had to do so many things at once, so I can’t give much advice on that. However, I have quit smoking and have changed other bad habits, and I think the same principles for changing one bad habit will apply here.

There are a few keys to changing bad habits … I highly recommend that you create a plan based on these keys, before you start to implement your habit change, so that you are well prepared and well positioned for success:

Go to your Gmail Labs settings and enable the “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” feature. The facility is currently available only for US phone numbers.

AARTI
http://rapidshare.com/files/157971450/Om_Jai_Laxmi_Mata.pdf

more at http://www.desihotmasala.com/2008/10/procedure-of-performing-laxmi-puja-in.html

So what should a critically-ill patient do if he/she has to fly?

From the traditional diyas to funky modern lamps, you can use lights to transform your home into a splendid haven for your family and friends.

2. Make free phone calls
Whether it’s Skype or your favourite chat software, why pick up the phone when voice and video chat is free?

3. Cut your credit card rates
If you don’t clear the balance every month, high interest rates could be costing you a fortune. Use MoneyExtra to find a better deal.

4. Get cheaper gas and electric
Energy firms make a lot of money from inertia – that is, customers sticking with the package they’re on instead of switching to better deals. Use Uswitch to compare different providers.

5. Collect Airmiles
Airmiles aren’t just for flights – you can use them for hotel stays, too. The Airmiles website shows you where to collect the most miles.

The software is available for Windows Vista and XP only but you may run Writer on a Mac as well via VMWare Fusion. Not sure about Linux support though.

Now if you are a Windows Live Writer fan already, let’s explore some simple hacks and tools that will make you even more efficient with Windows Writer.

1. Insert Screenshot Images

You don’t need a third-party screen capture program to insert regular screenshots in your blog articles. Minimize Windows Live Writer, press Print-Screen and then paste that image from Clipboard into WLW using Ctrl+V. You can also crop and scale the screenshot in Writer itself before publishing.

2. Backup Windows Live Writer Settings & Drafts

If you are moving data across computers and like to make a copy of all your Live Writer settings and draft posts, get this Live Writer Backup utility. You can also move drafts manually.

It may be a bit premature to say if this redesign had any affect on the traffic as search engine take time to re-evaluate rankings but let me show some graphs for the past 8 months (the new design went live in the last week of August).

The number of RSS subscribers stayed the same at ~30k, the pageviews increased by ~16% and the monthly advertising revenue went up by ~40% after the redesign.

There’s no secret sauce and this redesign was more about implementing the various things I have learned in the last 5 years. I’ll try to cover all the points here as they may help people who are planning to launch a new website or getting a fresh coat of paint for an old site.

Business Accounting

GoBootstrap.com – Helps you fill out forms, remember to pay estimated taxes, get the most deductions possible, generate graphs to see how your business is doing and more.

LessAccounting.com – Attempts to be a more streamlined, less labor intensive accounting system for small businesses in an attempt to free up more of your time.

Peachtree.com – Peachtree brings their popular accounting software online, giving you features such as check writing, invoicing, sales and all of the other bells and whistles you would expect.

Quickbooks.Intuit.com – The well known Intuit program also has an online version that can allow multiple people to log in and view finances, perfect for businesses with multiple partners in different locations.

TheBudket.com – You can use this system for financial planning, cash flow analysis, collaborative accounting and more.

Q: How do I upload all my Microsoft Office documents from the desktop on to Google Docs?

A: List Uploader is a Windows utility that enables you to bulk upload files to Google Docs via drag-n-drop or through the right click menu.

Mac OS X users can upload documents through GDocsUploader – simply drag-n-drop the document onto the uploader icon. Another option is GDocsBar – just drag your files in the Firefox sidebar and they’ll automatically get uploaded to Google Docs.

Q: How do I associate the common Office file extensions like doc/xls/ppt with Google Docs so that desktop documents open directly in the web browser?

A: Get the Google Toolbar for Firefox and select the ‘Google Docs’ checkbox from Toolbar options. This will let you open Office documents directly in the browser bypassing Microsoft Office.

Colorization Tutorial
This short tutorial showcases a method for colorizing a black and white photo to achieve an aged, vintage look.

Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design
Mesh vintage pop art with grunge to create a unique mash-up of the two popular design styles.

A: Go to FeedBlitz, type the address of the feed in the Subscribe box and choose Twitter from the subscription options. The other option is Twitter Feed but that requires you to have an OpenID.

Q: I know that TwitPic allows me to post pictures on Twitter but I want to use my existing Flick account with Twitter.

A: Go to TwitterGram and associate your Flickr name with your Twitter account. Now assign a special tag (say Twitter) and any picture that you post on Flickr with that Tag will automatically get posted in your Twitter account as well.

Q: I just ordered a laptop on eBay and the owner shipped it via UPS. I want to track this package on Twitter.

A: Follow TrackThis on Twitter and send this bot a Direct Message with your Airway Bill Number. You’ll be notified each time your package changes ip Works with FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS.

Font selection usually depends on the type of product or service offered, and it also must be consistent with the overall design. On many pricing tables, the font size of prices, titles and important headlines are larger and stronger to make them stand out. As a designer, you need to make sure that the price is given the appropriate weight, both visually and semantically.

Solution: There are several options / workarounds but my favorite is Blog It! – this blogging editor is available as a Facebook application and lets you send the same article to multiple blogs in one go.

Customize Firefox themes – Provides a large collection of new themes for changing your Firefox look and feel.

Mozilla’s Official Way to Customize Firefox – shows undocumented features and ways to customize their browser.

How to Use GreaseMonkey – A must-read if you truly want to take your browsing to the next level.

Office Firefox Add-on Library – Contains an amazing amount of add-ons that you can install with a simple click.

Mashable’s List of 30+ Firefox Extensions – Extensions that enhance your browsing experience.

Remember that the client will always know more about their product or service than you do. They are the expert at what they do; their problem is usually that they don’t know how to explain it well. That is where you, as the designer, step in to help. You are a graphical communications ninja, but to effectively make your, and ultimately your client’s, point you must fully understand what needs to be said.

From the outset, make it a priority to get as much information as possible about the company, their product or service, the intended audience of your work and the reason that your work needs to exist. The better prepared you are and the more information you get out of the client before you start working, the quicker your design will be accepted, and the quicker you will get paid. Use that overflow of data from the client to form a coherent picture of what you’re trying to accomplish and then use your good judgment to make something beautiful from the madness. By spending ample time collecting information, you have allowed the client to share their knowledge and participate in the project. This is a good thing. When clients feel they are part of the process they are less likely to question the design decisions you make.

Symmetrical Illustration: Thug Bunny
Another detailed tutorial from IllustrationClass. This one again takes you through the whole process from sketch to finished artwork, this time to create a cartoon thug bunny.

How to Create an Open Book with Illustrator’s 3D Extrude & Bevel Tool
Learn how to create an impressive-looking book with some handy Illustrator tools.

Blueprint Style Text in Adobe Illustrator
A text effect that’s surprisingly not as complicated as it looks. The end result is a text logo that resembles a blueprint.

Sure, there are numerous tips that can help, numerous tactics and strategies I’ve used with success. But it really all boils down to two things.

And those two things are so deceptively simple that you might decide to stop reading after I name them: 1) make things enjoyable and 2) use positive public pressure. But read on for more on how to use those two things to motivate yourself for any goal.

The revenue sharing arrangement is such that all writers get to keep a fixed percentage of the actual AdSense revenue generated from articles that they have written.

This arrangement, from the perspective of team members, maybe better than dividing AdSense revenue based on pageviews because the author is getting exactly what he earned. You can have less number of pageviews but if the CPM of your niche is high, it kind of balances out.

Sometimes things gets a bit complicated especially in cases when the splog owner doesn’t have too much at stake and hence decides to completely ignore your request.

This is exactly what happened with digital-boom.blogspot.com – a blogger hosted blog that carried a copy of almost every article from Digital Inspiration. The blog was deleted by Blogger DMCA team yesterday though you may still see some content in the Google Cache and Digg.�

This hard-working splogger, who identified himself as Anushka Singh, manually edited every post before republishing to ensure that all traces of “labnol” were removed from the links.

We have created a list of 10 overused words, based on the documents we have edited over the last 5 years. We don’t recommend that you remove these words from your writing. Instead, we recommend that you become aware of how often you use them and that you revise your documents to limit their use.

1. There
When writers are not sure about the subjects of their sentences, they will often use this word as the subject. This results in weak writing. (For advice on correcting this problem, see our article “Where Is There?”)

Example: “There was no one at home.” This can be revised as “No one was at home.”

2. You

Today we are sharing 5 very simple and handy ways to save images from orkut albums.

Here are some of the (long waiting) routes :
b) Skilled worker with college degree in specialty occupation (Computer engineers or nurses) — Green card – 6 to 10 years, Citizenship – 11 to 16 years

If you are a computer engineer from India then it may take 11 to sweet 16 years to become a US citizen.

But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here’s what you need to do.

According to a survey, since men are rubbish at creating passwords, women can easily follow their partner’s electronic trail of adultery.

In this post we’ll take a look at a number of things you can do with WordPress coding that involve categories in one way or another. Hopefully this will be a helpful guide that you can refer to whenever you’re developing a new theme.

I had been hearing a lot about Twitter for the past few months but I was simply not interested in it. What good is a service that lets you post updates about your status? My Facebook account lets me do that, so why should I join Twitter? Well it turns out that Twitter is more than just about updating status. You can easily use it to drive traffic to your websites and blogs. You will probably not get too much traffic but it is definitely worth a try.