{"id":1622,"date":"2010-12-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T12:00:00","slug":"guest-post-gustavs-new-year-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/22\/guest-post-gustavs-new-year-recommendations\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Gustav’s New Year Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over the past year or so I’ve had the pleasure of working with a development lead who is younger, more handsome and more switched on than I could ever hope to be. That’s true of most young development leads of course, but Gustav Andersson excels in most areas. He is one of the few young* men who I can be bothered debating Agile with, far less agree to subject myself to it on a continuous (< see what I did there?) basis. But let’s not start talking about Agile – I’ve had enough of that for several life-times.<\/p>\n

No, this post is about some of the useful tools and processes that Gustav has used over the past year. He sent a mail to all his geek friends, mistakenly including me, to see if they had any suggestions of their own. As I am an unreconstructed dinosaur who can just about manage Tripit, the seeds fell on rather stoney ground. But I do have a blog and I know I have some readers who are similarly focussed on tools to improve your life.<\/p>\n

So here are Gustav’s recommendations. He does actually have some<\/em> good ideas** occasionally 😉 and I’m sure he would be interested in everyone else’s, via comments.<\/p>\n

* Of course, he probably thinks he is old. He’s not, it just feels like that for now. He’ll realise he’s going to feel much older.
** For example Glympse<\/a>. That’s a family favourite these days. Nirvana HQ is working out ok so far, too.<\/p>\n

This year, I’ve done a lot of tweaking of my tools and processes for
\norganizing my life and getting work done. I’m a geek through and through, and so
\nI use a lot of technology to do all of this. Well, I bet that I am not alone in
\nthis. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It struck me that I have a lot of geek friends (what ever happened to that
\nGeek Pride Parade anyway?) and that you probably have a lot of really good
\nsystems set up on your end too. I would love to know if there is something you
\ndo in your day-to-day life that works really well in making whatever you do more
\nefficient or just plain old fun.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So below are my tips and tricks:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
BACKING UP YOUR DATA:<\/div>\n
I use Mozy (http:\/\/mozy.co.uk<\/a>) to back up
\nmy data. It runs in the background and syncs selected folders to a remote site.
\nMy selected folders are all of my hard drives! Why not? Mozy doesn’t have a
\nspace limit to their service, and at \u00a35\/month, it’s pretty cheap.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
MUSIC:<\/div>\n
I mainly use Spotify to listen to music. I have a paid for account so I get
\nno adverts. It works well and so far it covers most of the music that I
\nwant.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PODCASTS AND AUDIO BOOKS:<\/div>\n
I listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books. I would recommend anyone to
\ngive those a go. It makes washing up dishes and hanging up laundry tolerable. As
\nfor Audiobooks, I would recommend Audible (http:\/\/www.audible.co.uk<\/a>). You pay \u00a38\/month
\nand get a book each month to own for life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If you are thinking of signing up to Audible, make sure you get a ‘first
\ntime customer’ deal like \u00a350 off Amazon or the first book for free.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PHOTO EDITING:<\/div>\n
Picasa (http:\/\/picasa.google.com\/<\/a>)
\nis really good for organising and doing common editing tasks. It is also nicely
\nintegrated with the Google suite of stuff like your contacts etc.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PHOTO BOOKS:<\/div>\n
For photo books, nothing beats Blurb (http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/<\/a>). Great prices and great
\nresults. The software is easy to use. No negatives.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PANORAMA PHOTOS:<\/div>\n
If you are into photography, and you want an easy way to stitch together
\nphotos into sweet panoramas, check out ICE (http:\/\/research.microsoft.com\/en-us\/um\/redmond\/groups\/ivm\/ICE\/<\/a>).
\nIt’s free and much easier to use than other systems I’ve tried. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PASSWORDS:<\/div>\n
Don’t use the same password on all your sites! You are begging to be robbed
\nof everything from pride to cash. Develop a system to derive the password from
\nthe page name. If someone finds out the passwords, they still don’t know your
\nsystem and hence they can’t get access to your other sites. <\/div>\n
I also use LastPass (http:\/\/lastpass.com\/<\/a>) to automatically log me in
\nto various sites. Works a charm.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
DISTRACTION FREE WRITING:<\/div>\n
If you write a lot then you should give a thought to your writing
\nenvironment. Q10 (http:\/\/www.baara.com\/q10\/<\/a>) is a neat
\nwriting application. Very simple, totally distraction free and if you choose,
\nsome lovely typewriting noises. It does saving as your go along and in general,
\nit works well. It is also extremely fast to start-up and is therefore a really
\ngood companion to the next point.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
DISTRACTION FREE WRITING ON THE WEB:<\/div>\n
If you are writing something on the web, and it is a longer piece, then you
\ncan get really tired of writing on the site directly. There are far too many
\ndistractions there. With various plug-ins your can ask your browser to start
\nyour favourite text editor, let you write there and when you quit, the text is
\ncopied over to the website. <\/div>\n
Firefox has got a plug-in for this called “It’s All Text” (https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/en-US\/firefox\/addon\/4125\/<\/a>).\n<\/div>\n
If you are using Chrome, then you need to install a separate application
\ncalled Listary (http:\/\/www.listary.com\/<\/a>).
\nYou can then just press Win+A to edit in an external editor.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR CHECK ON WEB:<\/div>\n
After the Deadline (http:\/\/afterthedeadline.com\/<\/a>) is really
\ngood, and it exist for both Firefox and Chrome.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
TASK ORGANISATION:<\/div>\n
I follow the ‘Get Things Done’ methodology for, well, getting stuff done.
\nFor an on-line implementation of GTD, check out Nirvana (http:\/\/www.nirvanahq.com\/<\/a>). They have a new
\nversion which is all HTML5 snazzy, but you need to opt-in for that version.
\nCheck out their forum for details or just ask me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
INFORMATION CAPTURE AND ORGANIZATION<\/div>\n
Work Flowy (http:\/\/workflowy.com\/<\/a>) is
\nan amazing list making web app. It has a clean interface, can cope with a huge
\namount of information (as much as you can throw at it) and is entirely keyboard
\nfriendly so you can give that mouse a rest. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
SENDING LARGE FILES:<\/div>\n
I use Send Space (http:\/\/www.sendspace.com\/<\/a>) for that.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
GEOTAG:<\/div>\n
If you have a GPS tracker when you are snapping away on holidays, and you
\nwant to get the coordinates into your photos, then I recommend using this java
\nbased tool for doing so (http:\/\/geotag.sourceforge.net\/<\/a>).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Right, that was about all I had. Like I said, I would love to hear if you
\nhave got similar tips. Come on, share; you know you want to.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Merry Christmas and a productive New Year!<\/div>\n
Gustav<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past year or so I’ve had the pleasure of working with a development lead who is younger, more handsome and more switched on than I could ever hope to be. That’s true of most young development leads of course, but Gustav Andersson excels in most areas. He is one of the few young*… Continue reading Guest Post: Gustav’s New Year Recommendations<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1636,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/26\/new-blog-round-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":1622,"position":0},"title":"New Blog Round-Up","date":"April 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I've spotted a few useful posts lately and a few friends have started blogging so I thought I'd draw people's attention to them.Neil Chandler is a UKOUG regular as well as a central and well-loved member of the informal London Oracle drinking massive (well, that's what I'll say about him\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":898,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/28\/orion-numbers-and-other-bits-and-pieces\/","url_meta":{"origin":1622,"position":1},"title":"Orion Numbers and other bits and pieces","date":"November 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Prompted by Jeff Moss' blog, I've been trying out Orion on a couple of servers. I've blogged about it over on the ISP4400 blog. (Actually, I've only just realised that hosting the blog html myself probably means I can't use permalinks to individual blog entries. Hopefully the ISP4400 blog has\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":887,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2005\/12\/30\/so-long-2005-and-thanks-for-all-the-memories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1622,"position":2},"title":"So long 2005 and thanks for all the memories","date":"December 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow is the final day of 2005 and my 40th Birthday. The next day I fly to New York for a one week celebration. 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I've enjoyed my time there, my colleagues have been good fun and some of the work\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":851,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/28\/my-hotsos-agenda\/","url_meta":{"origin":1622,"position":5},"title":"My Hotsos Agenda","date":"February 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a bit surprised how excited I am about going to Dallas for the Hotsos Symposium next week (have I mentioned it yet?). I've already worked my personal agenda out but it hasn't been easy with two streams of equally high quality presentations. The full schedule is here and here's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 11 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}