1Password and Browser Independence

2007-11-12T18:26:00.001Z

I use lots of web browsers, mainly Camino, Flock, OmniWeb, & Opera right now, and I'm constantly on the look out for tools that make it easy to switch between browsers. I've known about 1Password, which used to be known as 1Passwd, for a long time, but always resisted using it because I didn't want to pay $30. Last week I finally broke down and tried it, and it has made my browsing life much much better. I was thinking that I might actually buy it after my trial ends and then today, thanks to the Opinions section on the 1Password page at IUseThis, I learned that you can get a gratis 1Password license at this 1Password+Mac Gems promotion page. I don't know how long this promotion will last so if you're interested, I recommend that you sign up right away.

As you can read about on the 1Password site and blog, 1Password has won many awards and is a nominee for one of the Macworld 2007 Readers' Choice Awards.

See Also: Dancing With the Web Browsers, where I discuss strategies I use to make it easy to switch between browsers, and IUseThis: Social Networking for Nerds, where I discuss why I use IUseThis.

IUseThis: Social Networking for Nerds

2007-11-12T16:40:00.002Z

I pay a lot of attention to software as you can tell by looking at the sidebar on the Deflexion.com home page, where I list tools and services that I use or that I'm considering using. I recently started using osx.iusethis.com to track the Mac OS X software that I use. It's an easy way to find out about updates, to learn about tips & problems from other users, and to learn about other software that I might like. Lots of people blog about the OS X software that they use and I often bookmark such posts in my del.icio.us bookmarks with the tag OSX, but it's overwhelming to go through these posts and decide what software I might actually want to try. IUseThis is a fun way to browse through software lists and quickly get a sense of what software might be useful to me. To me, IUseThis is an example of social networking for nerds. If you're a nerd like me and wondering what all the excitement about social networking is about, I recommend that you try IUseThis or some other object-centric social network service.

To learn about social networking, see:

Social network service at Wikipedia.org
Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship by danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison

To learn about the distinction between object-centric social networks and ego-centric social networks, see:

Social Network Transitions by Fred Stutzman

I'm mainly interested in using object-centric social networks, such as IUseThis and social bookmarking services, and my guess is that this is also the case for my fellow nerds.