Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Saturday Wrap-Up

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 31, 2007
in Geeky Stuff, Getting Things Done, Life, Small Business and Work
. 0 Comments

Well, this Saturday almost went by without me doing any for-profit work. It did go by without me doing any for-profit programming work. What that means is a) I did do for-profit work, but not programming; and b) I did do programming, but not for-profit programming.

The not-for-profit programming work I did wasn’t extensive. I wrote a quick and dirty survey form for the church; the long-range planning comittee is trying to get an idea of what people in the congregation think needs to be done to improve our existing facilities. It may have taken me an hour and a half, if that much

On the for-profit end of the spectrum, what I did was continue to work on getting myself back into a good “Getting Things Done” rhythm … by forcing myself to learn a new GTD application I downloaded last week.

The application in question is iGTD. When I downloaded it a few days ago, it was at version 1.2.2. However, I went back to the web site to see what I could find in the way of documentation (more on that later) and was thrilled to discover that version 1.3 had been released today.

I haven’t done much with it so far except start entering tasks and processing them, but it seems like it’s on the right track. It’s definitely faster than Midnight Inbox … which isn’t much of an accomplishment, but hey … it does count.

Since giving up on Midnight Inbox in frustration a few months ago, I’ve been using OmniOutliner (without the Kinkless mod) to keep up with my task list. It’s basic, but all it does is allow me to group my tasks hierarchically. I don’t have any “inbox” or context-type functionality.

Yeah, I tried Kinkless, but I just can’t get used to it. Perhaps when Omni’s OmniFocus is done, it will be slick and worthwhile … but they’ve yet to produce a public beta yet (though all indications are that one will be coming soon).

For what it’s worth, Midnight Beep is promising an update to Inbox in the very near future … as in days, from what I’ve read. I’d love to use it, since the interface makes me drool … but I can’t abide (to use an old North Carolina expression synonymous with “can’t stand”) the glacial slowness and weird quirks of the current version.

iGTD does a number of things well … maintaining contexts and projects, letting you set priorities, etc. There is a nifty QuickSilver plugin that allows me to easily add items to my inbox with a few short keystrokes. For each item, I can add extensive notes to help me remember what I’m doing. I can drag and drop stuff into the program. It integrates with iCal, which is super-nifty.

The down sides … documentation is lacking. As in … there ain’t any, outside of some tips and tricks, and a limited discussion of features on the web site. It would be nice … but hey, it’s a free project, so you get what you pay for. And, in this case … you really get a lot, even despite the missing documentation. Also, when you process items in the inbox, there doesn’t seem to be any way to select a project to place them in, although the pane you’re working in seems to indicate that such a feature exists. Other than those things … it’s been smooth sailing so far!

Here’s a screenshot of iGTD, just for good measure:

igtd-1_3.png

Weird Laws in North Carolina

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 31, 2007
in Just Plain Random
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, there was a discussion on the North Carolina Libertarian Party’s email list about strange laws in NC. This particular one was mentioned, and has to be my favorite:

§ 14‑197. Using profane or indecent language on public highways; counties exempt.
If any person shall, on any public road or highway and in the hearing of two or more persons, in a loud and boisterous manner, use indecent or profane language, he shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor. The following counties shall be exempt from the provisions of this section: Pitt and Swain.

Lest you believe that it isn’t really on the books, you can see for yourself.

I’d sure like to know what led to Pitt and Swain counties being exempt …

Children’s Clothes and the Demonic

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 31, 2007
in General Stupidity and Life
. 0 Comments

Deep down, I know that somewhere there is a little old lady with a demonic grin, giggling and cackling madly as she designs children’s clothes. “Oooh, let’s put snaps on this shirt … and on the back!!!” she says to herself as she emits a maniacal laugh. “Oh my … and imagine the fun they’ll have trying to get all of these snapped while the child is thrashing about like a wounded squid and squealing like a stuck pig!”

Come on people … snaps or buttons on the back of a shirt for a kid? Whose bright idea was that? Obviously somebody who has never tried to hold a baby in any position that makes him/her happy while simultaneously exposing the back of the outfit so that it can be operated on with any degree of success.

Spam Gibberish of the Day: Mar. 31, 2007

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 30, 2007
in Twitter Updates
. 0 Comments

Sometimes you get the best stuff out of spam. For instance, this gem: “She had two daughters, for example, who were the consistent and worthy throughout, with one all-pervading character: the absence of vegetable.”

I Feel Caught Up

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 30, 2007
in Getting Things Done and Work
. 0 Comments

This past Wednesday, an amazing thing happened.

When I finished my work up for the day, I realized for the first time in a long, long, long time, I felt like I was more or less caught up. Specifically, I felt like I’d reached the point where my workload was manageable within the constraints of a 40-45 hour week. Yes, I’ve still got plenty of work to do, but but overall, my tasks are getting done on time (or pretty close to it), and new projects aren’t piling up faster than I’m getting things done.

What a nice feeling! I partially credit the GTD methodology for getting me to this point, even if I did ‘fall off the wagon’ for a bit … because it’s helped me see the big picture better, make better decisions, and not forget little things that needed to be done. It also helps that I’ve been running in the black now for a few months, and cashflow isn’t nearly as much of a distracting problem as it was at this time last year.

I think it’s high time I give some of my personal (read: ‘non-paying’) projects some attention. I’ve got a number of libraries and goodies I’ve developed over the last two years to aid me in creating my projects, and I’ve been wanting to write up documentation on some of them and release them under the BSD license. The time has come to start doing that, and the first one that will get my attention is a little project I call “IntuiSite” … a handly little web app framework that I’ve been tweaking for a little over a year now. So far, I’ve used it in seven standalone projects, and I’m currently using it as the basis for my “big” personal project … one that will hopefully be unveiled in the next few months.

Keep your eyes peeled … I’ll post more information about IntuiSite here in the next couple of days.

Dr. Biggly’s Toolbar Heaven

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 28, 2007
in Geeky Stuff
. 0 Comments

Think you’ve seen Internet Exploder on Windows with a few too many toolbars? You ain’t seen nuthin’ until you’ve seen … Dr. Biggly’s Toolbar Heaven. I think I counted at least twelve … and there’s no telling how much non-toolbar producing malware is on there in addition to the visible stuff …

Back on the GTD Wagon

Published
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Jeremy Clifton
on March 28, 2007
in Getting Things Done and Twitter Updates
. 0 Comments

I have, as I mentioned a few days ago, started reading Getting Things Done again. I’ve started writing things down again. I’m nearly back to the same point in the book where I was before I lost the time to read in back in January. We’ll see if I can actually get further along this time. Yes, I know I need to post more photos. They will be coming soon …

Yes, I changed the name …

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 28, 2007
in Just Plain Random
. 0 Comments

Once upon a time, there was a guy who thought he was going to maintain a personal blog as well as a business blog. However, he never, ever, ever posted anything on the business blog, and seemed to sometimes sporadically post on the personal blog.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the personal blog was hosted on a domain that had been registered once upon a time when he wanted to start a business focusing on web design (rather than development) … the very nifty strych9design.com domain. But somehow, a personal blog hosted on ’strych9design.com’ just didn’t feel right. It didn’t even match the focus of the blog.

So one day, in a fit of madness, he decided to register four-eight-four.org, and rename his blog … and (gasp) have work-ish and personal-ish stuff there.

He figured it was appropriate, since his business is officially “Four-Eight-Four Software Works, LLC” … it’s sort-of related to the business, but not completely, hence the .org.

So what’s with this “four-eight-four” stuff?

Well, you see, it’s a railroading term. A locomotive of the 4-8-4 type has four leading wheels (on two axles), eight driving wheels (on four axles) and two trailing wheels (you guessed it, on two axles). A fine example of this particular classification is the Norfolk & Western J Class … one of my favorite locomotives of all time.

So there you have it. Maybe I’ll get back to regular posting now.

Mommy, Can I Have One?

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 23, 2007
in Life and Railroad Stuff
. 0 Comments

Wow. I mean, WOW! (Note: I did NOT shoot this video.)

Oh how I wish there were an operational Norfolk & Western Y6b hanging around somewhere, but this will certainly do in its stead …

Come Thou Long Expected Update

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on March 22, 2007
in Getting Things Done and Life
. 0 Comments

It’s been four long weeks since the conclusion of 1776, and my life is finally getting back in order. I’m once again nearly caught up with work.

That’s not to say that 1776 took up so much of my time that I couldn’t get work done … but I was unable to put in the sort of hours that I needed to catch up completely. Back in January, I was routinely working 10-12 hours a day, and some on the weekends in an attempt to get myself to the point where I needed to be … and 1776 prevented me from working that much, although I did still manage to get 7-8 hour days in most of the time.

So, it’s probably about accurate to say that I am now where I would have been in mid-February if I hadn’t done 1776.

In other news, I’ve sort-of fallen off of the GTD wagon. That’s not to say I’ve abandoned my to-do list and processing rules … I haven’t. However, I got lax about writing things down, and I started keeping certain things in my head again. I’ve put a stop to that as of this week, and I’m back on track. I’m also about to start reading from the book again, and perhaps in a few days I’ll actually finish it.

Finally, in more-or-less unrelated news, I purchased a 19" widescreen LCD this week, to replace my aging and malfunctioning Gateway 19" CRT. I’m glad I made the move … LCD screens are soooooo much easier on my eyes than any CRT I’ve ever dealt with. Even after a few days, my eyes already feel a bit better. Now maybe I won’t go blind by the time I’m sixty. :-)