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<div class="center_top">Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling <a href="http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?pt=TB-TAGLINE" style="color:yellow">Take Control</a> ebooks.</div>
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<p class="tearoffbox_text"> Jeff Porten is an Internet consultant in Philadelpha, PA, who practices maybe three out of seven effective habits.</p><p class="tearoffbox_text_email"><span class="shift_down"><img src="/images/gettb_button_email.gif" height="12" width="12" border="0" alt="Send Email to Author"></span> <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="document.check_human_309.submit_type.value='email'; document.check_human_309.author_id.value='309'; ShowTipBox('hc_309', 'hc_recaptcha_309', 'cb_item_add')">Email the author</a></p>
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<h6>Adding Links in Snow Leopard's Mail</h6>
<p><p>Apple Mail in Snow Leopard now has a Command-key shortcut for adding a link to an email.</p><p>If you use plain-text email, this will not be helpful at all, but if you send styled email, it's a nice shortcut for adding URLs to your email messages. Simply select the word(s) you want to make into a link, press Command-K, and enter the URL to build into the link.</p></p>
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<div style="padding-bottom:35px"><div class="tip_display" style="float:left"><p><br><a href="/tipbits/170">Link to this tip</a></p></div><div class="tip_display" style="float:right; width:150px">
<a href="/article/10977"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10977', 'show')">(Not) Getting Things Done with Bumptop for Mac</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10977" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10977">Frustrated by the way the Desktop doesn't work with Spaces for organizing files and folders used in different projects, Jeff Porten takes the desktop replacement Bumptop for a spin. Alas, its representation of the physical world ends up being more trouble than it's worth.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=7" class="category">Business Apps</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 03 Feb 2010 | <a href="/article/10977#comments">6 comments</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10901"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10901', 'show')">CES 2010: More ShowStopping Products</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10901" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10901">ShowStoppers isn't exactly related to CES, but many of the CES exhibitors showed up at this media event, showing off neat products ranging from a GSM-to-VoIP call router to a 3D printer, along with a service that will ensure Jeff Porten never again gets a second date.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 09 Jan 2010</div></div>
<a href="/article/10892"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10892', 'show')">CES 2010: Living in the Past</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10892" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10892">Covering the cutting edge at CES inevitably leads to a bumpy ride back to Earth. Jeff Porten reflects on how he has glimpsed visions of the future, all while struggling to get a decent Internet connection in the here and now.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=5" class="category">Networking</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 08 Jan 2010 | <a href="/article/10892#comments">1 comment</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10891"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10891', 'show')">CES 2010: Blending the Future</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10891" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10891">During the press days at CES, before the exhibition floor opens, some of the most interesting bits of technology are shown to members of the media, like our own Jeff Porten. Read on to learn about laser projectors, minuscule computers, iPhone-controlled hovercrafts, and yes, a blender.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 07 Jan 2010 | <a href="/article/10891#comments">3 comments</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10881"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10881', 'show')">CES 2010: Rolling the DECE</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10881" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10881">Jeff Porten returns to Las Vegas to cover (such as is possible) CES for TidBITS, and while trying to figure out what to focus on, he ran across a proposal to make DRM-protected video semi-portable. Whee!</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 05 Jan 2010</div></div>
<a href="/article/10325"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10325', 'show')">CFP 2009 Part 1: Threats to Privacy</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10325" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10325">Ironically, after being detained due to anti-terrorist regulations, Jeff Porten reports from the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2009 conference.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=2" class="category">Opinion</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 03 Jun 2009</div></div>
<a href="/article/10316"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10316', 'show')">Upcoming Coverage of Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2009</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10316" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10316">Interested in issues surrounding online privacy, security, and civil liberties? Stay tuned as Jeff Porten reports back from the annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 02 Jun 2009</div></div>
<a href="/article/9611"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9611', 'show')">Digital Rights Misery: When Technology Is Designed to Fail</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9611" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9611">While attending CES last January, roving correspondent Jeff Porten realizes just how broken technology has become in the name of protecting intellectual property, causing him to ponder the societal costs of such a dependence on technology that is designed to fail.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=2" class="category">Opinion</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 12 May 2008</div></div>
<a href="/article/9398"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9398', 'show')">CES 2008 Day 3: Robots and Wrap-up</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9398" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9398">CES is now over, but read on for Jeff Porten's final collection of products, booths, services, and more, along with an explanation of exactly how he ended up asking a Playboy Playmate for information on Tasers.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 12 Jan 2008</div></div>
<a href="/article/9395"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9395', 'show')">CES 2008 Day 2: From iPods to iShoes</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9395" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9395">Jeff Porten continues to wander the cavernous halls of CES in search of cool stuff... and this time he finds something that could help him get around: the 13 MPH iShoes! (Really. We're not kidding.)</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 11 Jan 2008</div></div>
<a href="/article/9386"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9386', 'show')">CES 2008 Day 1: Keyboards, Power, Eyewear, and More</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9386" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9386">CES is all about gadgets, and Jeff Porten has hunted down some of the most interesting ones, including a keyboard that can change the picture on each keycap, a USB flash drive that backs up files online, a head-mounted display for your iPod, and more.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 09 Jan 2008</div></div>
<a href="/article/9384"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9384', 'show')">CES 2008 Day 1: Finding My Bearings</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9384" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9384">You may have thought that Macworld Expo is a big trade show, and it's not small. But compared to CES, as our intrepid correspondent Jeff Porten found out, Macworld is small and (luckily) highly focused.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=6" class="category">Tech News</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 08 Jan 2008</div></div>
<a href="/article/9313"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('9313', 'show')">FileMaker's Bento: Undercooked and Slightly Fishy</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_9313" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_9313">FileMaker Inc. has released Bento, claiming it's "the personal database that's as easy to use as the Mac." Database consultant Jeff Porten takes the preview release for a spin and finds Bento conceptually interesting but unwilling to stray far enough from the FileMaker fold.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=3" class="category">Home Macs</a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 14 Nov 2007</div></div>
<a href="/article/8849"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('8849', 'show')">Build Your Own 23-inch MacBook</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_8849" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_8849">A couple of weeks ago I began sporting a new laptop: 3 GB of RAM, 200 GB hard drive, dual optical burners, 4 USB and 3 FireWire ports. But the best thing about it is the 23-inch monitor.
Yes, it's a Mac</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 05 Feb 2007</div></div>
<a href="/article/8622"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('8622', 'show')">Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh, Part 2</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_8622" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_8622">In part 1 of this article, I introduced David Allen's Getting Things Done system, and looked at several programs that could help you implement that system</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<a href="/article/8614"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('8614', 'show')">Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh, Part 1</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_8614" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_8614">Longtime readers of TidBITS and listeners of MacNotables probably recall Adam mentioning that he and Tonya have been users of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" method of personal organization</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<a href="/article/8519"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('8519', 'show')">CFP 2006: Life, Liberty and Digital Rights</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_8519" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_8519">Does it bother you that someone at the National Security Agency might be listening in on your phone call to your great aunt in Manchester? Does it matter if that's Manchester, New Hampshire as well as Manchester, England? Ever wonder about what U.S</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 08 May 2006</div></div>
<a href="/article/7529"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('7529', 'show')">Life Balance: Balanced Software for Unbalanced People</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_7529" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_7529">Like many people, I have been in search of the Holy Grail of personal organizers for years. All of us on this quest are motivated by an almost religious belief that somewhere out there is the magical device that will turn us into Highly Effective People, filling every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run, as Rudyard Kipling put it in "If."The trail on this quest is littered knee-deep with dead hardware, abandoned software, and heartbreak</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 02 Feb 2004</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_7431" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_7431">While there's been a bit of hoopla recently over the release of TiVo Series2 and the new Mac-integration features of its $100 Home Media Option (see "TiVo Series2 Improves on Original" in TidBITS-698), it bothered me that the TiVo wasn't a Mac-friendly device for its core function: recording and playing TV.It's possible, so I'm told, to pry open a TiVo and plug in various hardware adapters that enable you to grab the video off the hard drive and send it zipping around your home network</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Jeff%20Porten">Jeff Porten</a> | 10 Nov 2003</div></div>