I despise Flash. It slows down your computer, starts without being asked, and crashes my Internets. So until YouTube finally abandons Flash, as does the rest of the web with media-rich HTML 5, here are two easy plugins I use to grab life by the horns:

• For Firefox: Flash Block
  
• For Safari: Click to Flash
  

Both programs are free and make it so you dictate when a Flash file is played, as opposed to it taking over. Now that’s browsing with power!

When used properly, I think iPhones are nifty devices. I don’t own one, but like all Apple hardware, including my two Macs, they have an impressive interface. Still, iPhones are probably the most overstated status device of the decade. Case in point: Apple’s latest “Did you get my email?” commercial (shown), which attempts to embellish and sell three bad behaviors “without ever leaving a call.” Let me tear ‘em down for you, may I?

1. iPhones encourage email chasers. Caller asks, “Did you get my email?” Dude, first of all, stop calling me asking if I got your email. Like everyone else in the world, I check my email often and will respond to you shortly. If it was an urgent message, you should have just called, instead of chasing your email with a call. In any case, if the email demands a response, I’m happy to reply to it once I get off the phone. M’kay?
2. iPhones make you less productive. Caller asks, “Hey, can you change that reservation? Would be happy to… once I’m off the phone! Just give me a deadline when it needs to be done and I’ll do it. But I’d rather not have you “look over my shoulder” when dealing with a task that should have been prioritized and completed with the phone disconnected. If it’s an emergency, can it wait a few seconds until I get off the phone!?
3. iPhones make you a worse husband than you already are. Wife says, “I can’t believe our anniversary is a week away.” In response, you fiddle with your dumb phone trying to order flowers while she’s on the line, and offer an insincere “Me neither,” instead of engaging in a discussion with her, which is probably what she was hoping to do with that opening statement. In a stretch, Apple is trying to say that owning an iPhone will make you a better husband, when in actuality, it will further perpetuate the age-old, “Are you listening to me?”

A lower quality of life. “Can your network do that?”

Wanna search the web faster? Ditch your browser search bar and use URL commands instead. In minutes, you’ll be burning down the information superhighway (aka cyberspace) at neck-breaking speeds. To do this in Firefox, follow these three easy steps:

1. Select the drop-down menu from you browser search bar, and click “manage search engines.” In addition to adding more sites that you search often, the important thing here is to assign keywords to all of your installed sites. For example I use “goog” for Google and “wiki” for Wikipedia.
2. After hitting okay, enter the appropriate keyword in your URL bar followed by a single space, then the term or phrase you wish to search. For instance, I want to Google “godless marauding killing machines” so I’ll enter it like so:
3. Hit enter and “Bam!” you have your search engine results (pictured below).

URL keyword commands can be performed with all major websites, including YouTube, Ebay, Amazon, and more. For more obscure websites, like Metacritic or your own blog, you can create other URL commands from any search box on the internet in less than five seconds. Or you can search Google for existing Firefox search engine add-ons. Happy searching.

Two years ago, I launched the Smooth Harold Helpdesk and Open Lunch Invitations (see sidebar). In that time I’ve met with more than a dozen individuals I previously didn’t know, fielded upwards of 50 email inquires—ranging from typography design to how to make a pregnant wife happy—and rekindled relationships with countless friends, colleagues, and associates. To say the program has broadened my horizons and created new opportunities would be a gross understatement.

“If you have a specific question you think I might be able to answer (business, web, personal, etc), don’t hesitate to ask via email or in person over lunch,” I wrote at the time. “If I don’t know the answer, chances are I can refer you to someone who does. And no, this isn’t ‘you scratch my back I scratch yours.’ It’s just a genuine attempt to share the little that I’ve learned from talking with people smarter than me, reading good books, and seeing what sticks.”

The offer still stands, and I look forward to meeting even more of you in the near future. As an extension of that program, I’ve also isolated 10 individuals I should probably know. I did this by piggybacking (aka crowdsourcing) friends that have large Facebook lists and asking for their opinion. That way, I can target prolific individuals without having to actively manage are large friend list or maintain a productivity-killing Twitter stream. I’ll update you on how I made out.

See also:

• Using time wisely is all about prioritizing a daily calendar
• How to make your offline life easier
• How to unsubscribe from feeds
• Why I deleted my Linked In and MySpace accounts

1. Login to Facebook and grab your Status feed by clicking here, then copy the “My Status” RSS URL, which can be found in the lower right corner of the page. Share the link with others.
2. Optional: Login to Feedburner (if you haven’t already), enter the URL as a new feed, then activate “Buzz Boost” under the “Publicize” tab of your feed. Adjust settings to your liking.
3. Optional: Copy your “BuzzBoost” HTML code, repaste on your blog, then share your link and subscription with others.

You could just sign up for a Twitter account and enjoy a few additional networking opportunities, but I don’t know a Tweeter who isn’t also a Facebooker. With 50 million strong, the same cannot be said of Facebookers. As a bonus, rolling your own status updates gives you greater control and lets you keep all your third-party social networking efforts in one consolidated place. Sweet!

Lindsey and I took the girls and our friends The Andersen’s on Friday to Jumping Jacks, an indoor playhouse with more than 6 dozen connected trampolines. I especially liked the warning sign: “Please jump in control. Don’t be stupid!”

I love taking jumps in life, so long as they’re “in control,” and I hate the consequences associated with being stupid. Definitely words to live by. A cute picture of Lindsey and the girls after the break…

Left to right: Haley Andersen, Maya Andersen, Lindsey, Maddie, Sadie

Click here to view the embedded video.

At the time of his discourse (Sept. 2007), doctors said Pausch would have “three to six months” to live. As of today, he is still alive. His original full-length lecture at Carnegie Mellon can be found here.

See also: My attempts to be a shoe designer | You have a choice

I believe in the last line adamantly, but the experiment fails to consider certain variables that the privileged kid was unable to isolate. First, he’s male and white — that helps. Second, college is more than just a piece of paper, so even if the kid didn’t market his degree, he was capable of greater deductive reasoning, logic, and creativity than most homeless folk. Lastly, he was fortunate enough to carry (though he never used) an emergency credit card.

So was the experiment a success? I think so for the most part, though I’d like to see the result using a motivated individual with no background resources at all. Penny for your thoughts?

“My campaign to increase productivity had become yet another distraction — and a significant one. Suddenly I needed to time-manage my time management… [so] I forced myself to quit optimizing how I get things done and start actually getting things done.”

Amen to that — and precisely in line with what Timothy Ferriss counsels in The 4-Hour Work Week. Productivity, not efficiency, is paramount. Now if I could only practice what I preach…

But doing what you love is just some overused romantic expression that doesn’t really apply outside of über geeks like Jobs, right? Wrong. Despite its being cliché and having been hijacked by get-rich-quick schemes, doing what you love can be achieved by anyone assuming you have the patience to seek it out, have the guts to act on your instincts, and are not easily persuaded by societal pressures when determining your career path.

So what if you don’t know what you like to do? First, relax; then accept my warmest welcomes into the human race. Not knowing what you want to do is completely normal and can happen at any time. To remedy the obstruction, you need to first isolate the things you DON’T like to do. Write them down as a list including menial tasks, then focus on the things you enjoy doing. Don’t rule anything out, not even Head of Janitorial Services. Be honest with yourself and don’t let logic interfere with the list-making process. “What work-related tasks get me excited?” should be the underlying theme.

If you’re diligent, you’ll eventually find what you love to do. When that happens, reality will set in and you’ll need to ask yourself some tough questions: Can I support my family doing this? Can I sacrifice certain lifestyle habits for a shot at doing what I love? That may include forgoing or postponing certain luxuries for the time being like excessively eating out, a second car, or a costly mortgage. But with some creative financing and gumption, you can make it happen more often than you think.

Once resolving to do what you love, you’ll also need to face the societal music. “You were supposed to be a [insert reputable profession here],” “You can’t change careers now,” and “You can’t make money as an artist!” are all common statements made by the cynics. These views quickly fade, however, upon understanding the real purpose of a working professional: You’re supposed to find fulfillment and excitement during the 33 percent of your life that you spend working. As a bonus, you’ll likely (though not always) enjoy better financial returns, and easily become a more valued individual in the workforce.

A fellow business school graduate once told me that his older brother ditched a high-earning position as a lawyer in Silicon Valley to become a grade school teacher. He chose excitement (read: happiness) in favor of societal esteem and even personal wealth. Last I heard he was a very happy man making enough to support his family while doing what he loved.

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” Jobs rhetorically asked the same group of Stanford undergraduates. “Whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

You have a choice assuming your answer has consecutively been “No.” It just depends on how you want to live your life. — BLAKE SNOW