Have a slooooow Internet Connection ?

Gina Trapani, over at lifehacker, has an excellent piece on 'how to optimize for slow internet connections'.  She had been home for the holidays and had to post to lifehacker over a dial-up connection. She now details her experiences and how she overcame them in this post.

Check out the full article here.

Use firefox without the rodent

Adam Pash has an excellent article in lifehacker, about using firefox totally without the mouse. He says in a very retro-fashion, that 'moving his hand every now and then to click on a link is soooo 2004" :)

Read the full article here.

Three excellent technology articles

Two excellent technology articles. Very good reads - all three of them.

1. The first one is from eetimes. It talks about how computer science is still rocking. It details how there are so many problems which are still out there waiting to be solved, and how there are new breakthroughs in computer science even in this day. Very good read.Read the article here.
2. I should admit that I found the second article by its catchy title - Robots of Arabia. It is about how, the Qatar government is replacing child labour (child jockeys) with robot jockeys. Yes, I am not joking. These are 2ft tall robots, built by a Swiss firm, which are robot controlled. They are bidextrous - one hand using a whip and the other pulling the reins. Very cool. Read the full article here.
   

10 Rules for Web Startups

Evan Williams of Blogger fame, has a neat set of 10 rules for web startups. He even has some GTD stuff going on. Check out rule #10:

#10: Be Balanced
What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food-fueled, balls-to-the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights? Answer?: A lot more enjoyable place to work. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. And yes, crunch times come and sometimes require an inordinate, painful, apologies-to-the-SO amount of work. But it can't be all the time. Nature requires balance for health—as do the bodies and minds who work for you and, without which, your company will be worthless. There is no better way to maintain balance and lower your stress that I've found than David Allen's GTD process.

Read the full article here.

The Gauls are coming !

This posting is not related to personal productivity, or gadgets, or anything related to the two in its remotest incarnation. But I could not pass this up. An amazing article written by L Suresh in newindpress.com, where he draws analogies to the current state of the Indian Cricket team and the Gauls (from Asterix). A very nice read.

While the series ended like a good Gaulish adventure — on a happy note — there was only one sequence where the Indians deviated from the typical Gaulish finish. After each match, the grand banquet was held amidst great celebration, but one wonders why Mohinder Amarnath, unlike Cacofonix, was allowed to break into song.

Read the full article here. (Thanks Usha)

Capital Punishment for Software

Michael Hyatt of 'Working Smart' writes about his recent decision to sentence software to death row. Over the last year, he has been using his ' mac extensively and loving it'. But he says that, he suddently found that an overwhelming 150 new software titles had gotten into his power book. And to reduce the clutter, he has created a folder called Death Row. If he does not use any software in deathrow over the next 30 days, they would get uninstalled. Nice way to reduce clutter. Read the article here.

Who is afraid of Google

Just read a wired article titled 'Who is afraid of Google'. Interesting read on how the tech industry views Google.

It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce.

Read the full article here.

Creativity as an Investment

Adrian in his Coyote Within blog has an excellent post titled 'Coyote and the Grim Reaper'. Wow is all I can say. He writes a post about seeing the Grim reaper outside a corporate office. He talks about how 'The One' above invests in creativity. Investment planning is done in earnest. People are assessed about the investment returns - on how creative they have been. If they have not been productive, the investment is withdrawn. The best that I really liked was when Coyote asks about insects and dogs, and the Grim Reaper replies:

"Sure," said the Grim Reaper. "We put a lot of our investment into safe holdings like those. You don't invest much in an ant, but there are billions and billions of them, so it all adds up. And the investment is totally safe. Insects and such do what they do and we always collect a tiny dividend when they die. The more advanced the creature, the more investment it takes and the higher the rewards. Of course, the risk goes up too. Humans demand a huge investment and they're very, very high-risk. But when it works as it should, the rewards from just one human are immense. All that creativity and learning. Beautiful stuff! You know, I collected our investment from Socrates — and Albert Einstein. You could barely quantify the rate of return, it was so massive."

Read the full post 'coyote and the grim reaper'.

The man behind the IPOD

The Telegraph (news.telegraph.co.uk) has a great writeup on Jonathan Ive, the man behind the IPOD and the iMAC. The man is supposed to be a very shy, yet a very personable, charming, and gentle figure.

Ive's reticence has added to the fascination about the man, particularly among the millions of Apple devotees.

The new iMAC has an entertainment center bundled with it. It has a remote with one large button which performs 14 functions (compared to the nearest competition which has 40 buttons). The remote even has a magnet in it, so that you can stick it to the side of the computer - so that it does not get lost.

Read the full article here.

Why techies are going back to paper ...

Doug Johnston of diyplanner.com fame, has a very cool guest article in Communication nation. Just about summarizing an experience that he had with a co-worker. This experience made him switch back to paper. Read the full article about why the man behind diy planner shifter here.

Production of the XBOX 360 a truly global operation

Microsoft is a manufacturer of software, which even if made globally, is fairly easy to manage. The XBOX is a piece of hardware and it was a challenge for these guys. The Wall Street Journal has an article detailing how the global production is carried out for the XBOX 360.

• The core chip is made by IBM in the US
• The graphics chip is made by ATI in Taiwan
• The buttons of the console come from Lacrosse, Wisconsin
• Scores of small companies around the 2 main production plants in South CHina which make the capacitors, cooling fans etc.
  
• 25,000 workers work in 2 production plants in China to put all these together.
  
• The units get about 2 hours of manual testing
  
• Get shipped either through air freight or shipped to the US of A

Wow. Right out of a globalization text book. Read the full article here.

Testing moblogging

Posting this by sending an email. Let us see if it works.

Very cool website for webdesign style geeks

Do check out the following site for a very good utility. Colors that match. Especially valid for people like me, who get confused even while choosing which shirt to wear with which trousers ! Visit stylephreak by clicking here. Screenshot

More presentation tips

Continuing on my carnival of presentation posts, I found this excellent list of powerpoint tips in Particletree. Chris has picked up a really cool list of URLs. Ofcourse leading the pack is presentationzen (which has made its way into this blog sometime back). The one which picqued my interest this time and I checked was Seth Godins Ebook - titled 'Really bad presentations'. It is pretty good. Go check the list yourself at particletree. If you want to go directly to Godin's book, click here [pdf].

Earth-friendly trucks ...

(via slashdot .. via wired) HFI is short for hydrogen fuel injection. This is a very cool concept. An aftermarket part, which basically injects small quantities of hydrogen along with air intake in diesel combustion engines. The deal is that hydrogen combusts faster than diesel. Hence, two nice things happen. One, there is faster combustion and you get more energy than if you just burn fuel. Two, you burn more completely, and hence lesser black smoke (which contains partially combusted hydrocarbons) is emitted. Truckers in North America are trying out this concept - which is saving them big bucks.

"We're saving $700 a month per truck on fuel," said Sherwin Fast, president of Great Plains Trucking in Salinas, Kansas. The company tried the HFI system on four trucks and has ordered 25 more.

"Drivers like the increased power and noticed there is a lot less black smoke coming out of the stacks," said Fast.

"You get more work from the same amount of fuel," said Gilchrist.

Read the full article on wired here.

Ego ...

Steve Pavlina has written a nice piece in his blog about why you should not be worrying what other people think of you. A few quick take-aways from his post:

• At the time during which you are worrying about what other people are thinking of you, they are actually worrying about what you are thinking about them. Henceforth, everyone spends time worrying about what everyone else are thinking about them.
• Just because someone told you not to go through a path because it is wrong, do not just shrug it off. You may encounter failure (and they may point it out to you that they told you before), but that is ok. Now you have learnt your lesson, you brush off the dust and continue.
• Failure is not the opposite of success. They aid in the path to success.
• Self-trust is a far greater possession than anything you might lose along the way.
• Faith in yourself isn’t a result of success. It’s the cause of it.

Read the full post here.

Robert Frost quotes ...

All of us would have read the famous quote by Robert Frost:

• "Woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles and miles ot go before I sleep".

But has anyone heard the following two quotes by the same man ?

• "Until that point, he was lonely and desperate. Then his life took a turn. Then, he was desperate and lonely."
• "A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella during fair weather, and ask for it back when it rains".

Satire at its best ! :)

Gen Y

In the US, the generation that saw the WW or the sons of those who saw the war are often called the Gen X or the baby boomers. As a natural consequence, their sons are hence called Gen Y - this is the generation which was born around the late 70s and early 80s. SavvySaver has an excellent post pointing to a yahoo biz article on how the attitude of Gen Y towards financial planning and work is totally different from how the Gen X used to look at it. Very nice. Interesting point qouted by savvysaver from the article:

After witnessing the financial insecurity that beset earlier generations stung by layoffs and the dot-com bust, today's newest entrants into the workforce are generally savvy when it comes to money and savings. They care about such benefits as 401(k) retirement plans.

Thirty-seven percent of Gen Yers expect to start saving for retirement before they reach 25, with 46% of those already working indicating so, according to a September survey by Purchase, N.Y.-based Diversified Investment Advisors. And 49% say retirement benefits are a very important factor in their job choices. Among those eligible, 70% of the Gen Y respondents contribute to their 401(k) plan.

and

Unlike boomers who tend to put a high priority on career, today's youngest workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives. They want jobs with flexibility, telecommuting options and the ability to go part time or leave the workforce temporarily when children are in the picture.

The 401(k) plan in the US are retirement plans - kind of like the PPF.

Management guru Peter Drucker dies ...

R.I.P. Management guru Peter Drucker died at the age of 95, at his home in Clarement, California. A well respected figure and a great author of management books. He is also known for coining the terms 'knowledge workers' and 'management by objetives (MBO)'.

Microsoft Express

M$ is making available Microsoft Express free for download for a year. The edition would be "Lightweight, easy-to-use, and easy-to-learn tools for the hobbyist, novice, and student developer". It would include Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition,Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition,Visual C# 2005 Express Edition,Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition and Visual J# 2005 Express Edition. I think it is pretty cool that they are doing this. They are basically working on creating a better image. This would pacify a big subset of users who think that M$ are very very expensive and cannot be used by the "common man". Download it here. (news courtesy lifehacker)

Clutter

It is autumn, and you should be doing fall cleaning - and oh ! I dont mean your house, I meant your planner. Innowen at diyplanner.com has a wonderful piece on how we tend to forget cleaning our most beloved, trusted planner that we personal productivity lovers live on. We clean our desks at work, we clean our homes, but we forget our planner.

All sorts of scraps of paper fill those little binders or booklets. Receipts for purchases you can’t recall what you purchased, phone numbers quickly scribbled down on post-its and website addresses with unrecognizable names. If this sounds like the way your planner looks like now, it’s time for a good old fashioned Fall cleaning.

Read the full article here.

To each their 'best'

Every one has heard of the saying - 'To each their own'. I beg to differ. In this age, people have choices. 'Own' is singular. People get to choose what they like 'best'. So I coined my own saying - To each their 'best' :). Anyway, that is me trying to play the philosopher. Anyone wonder what secret does ultra-cool Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame, employ for her daily productivity needs. What hi-fi or lo-fi system does she use ? Check out her post here. Very nicely written post which supports my philosophical rambling above. My favourite part of the post is:

Taste-testing is easy. Committing to a tool is more difficult. With the daily onslaught of new and sexy apps out to help you get organized, it’s hard to settle on just one. Don’t get stuck in continual evaluation analysis paralysis, hopping from one solution or software package to another, relentlessly re-working your process for the sake of finding the perfect system. Don’t let Shiny New Thing seduce you. Stick to what works.

Do read through to the end of the post to see her secret weapon.

Happiness and Worry.

The two conflicting words that make up the title coincidentally showed up on lifehack.org on the same day. Wow. There are two nice articles on "How and why you should be happy" and "How to stop worrying". I think these are important things that everyone should know. The first article (read here) talks about why you should spend some time and analyze what makes you happy. And then work towards getting into these situations or achieving such things that will make you happy. One good tip which I strongly agree with, is to surround yourself with happy people. Good read. The second article (read here) is from Anxiety Culture. Very nicely written piece on why one should not worry. Nice intro.

We're raised to worry and aren't considered "grown up" until we perfect the art. Teenagers are told: "you'd better start worrying about your future". If your worries aren't at least as frequent as your bowel movements, you're seen as irresponsible, childish, aimless. That's a "responsible adult" game rule.

Gives a couple of nice tips. One that seems plausible is to "postpone" worrying. At any given time, if you start worrying about something trivial, write it down on a worry sheet, so you can mull over it later. The author says that, eventually most people forget about it.

GTD ! using Yahoo !

Chris Wright explains in his blog an cheap, simple, and elegant way for Yahoo ! users to leverage on the suite of tools that Yahoo ! provides to implement GTD. Defenitely a good read. There are two parts to it. Not sure if there is more coming, but it is no doubt a fairly comprehensive document (with screenshots). He goes by David Allen for most of the time - but for some exceptions like 'keeping the tickler file digital'. He says it is because of his liking to move away from paper. Read Part 1 here . Read Part II here .

Do presentation styles matter ?

I think it does. One of the best presentations I have seen are from Steve Jobs. Again, my humble opinion is just from the slides that I have seen, and the rave reviews that I keep seeing on the web, on how fantastic Steve presents the slides. There was recent criticism of how bad Bill Gates did the presentation for Windows Live. I did not attend this event either, but I can just picture how it would have been, by just seeing some of the slides. A beautiful comparison is done in Garr Reynolds blog - Presentation Zen.Check out these two pictures below for a preview and then go to the presentation zen for some more good analysis.

(Both pictures courtesy : http://presentationzen.blogs.com)

IE inside firefox ?

Wow. If you are one of those professional website creators and one of those people who are paranoid (and should rightfully be) about UI/appearance differences between mozilla and IE, your ears should perk up N.O.W. These guys have a firefox plug-in where you can invoke IE inside a firefox tab ! How is that for interoperability ? Check it out at the mozilla add on site here.

Low tech solution for maintaining your Contacts List

If you are totally into low tech stuff like the Hipster PDA and printing out planner pages from diyplanner.com etc, consider this. How do you maintain your contacts ? Kevin Kelly has an exteme-low-tech solution (which I incidentally use too) for maintaining your contacts. Slip that visiting card into a clear sleeved rolodex visiting card holder. You can sort it and slip it in (like me), or just slip it in chronological order (like Kevin does). It is easy to look up and extremo-cheapo. Try this before you get that expensive card reader for your palm. Read Kevins full entry here.

Make sure your blog is read ...

Paul Stamatiou has a very good writeup on how to get your blog read by other people. I used to have a personal blog at one point in time, and I had a very loyal readership. Lots of people commenting. Lots of people writing in to me etc. Due to circumstances in real life (as opposed to my cyberlife), I had to terminate that blog. Recently I started this blog hoping to write every day and archive some of the finds that I make on this topic. And since this is a very niche and upcoming topic for a blog, I do not think I have readers yet. So I went and had a peek. Paul has a nice write up on how to build readership. First and biggest thing I noticed was that it was almost essential to get into technorati (and yes I did it :)). I now need to figure out if there is a way of getting out RSS feeds from blogger. Read Pauls full article here.

I am back ....

Howdy all ! I am back. Hope everyone in India had a safe and fun Diwali. I got back to reading some of the older articles (a week old) today morning, and the first thing that struck me as worthy of posting here was the following article on "How to avoid Monday Morning Blahs" (well fondly called blues). Almost everyone that I know have monday morning blues - all the way from Computer Engineers to CFOs to Executive Directors. The below article points out 5 super duper tips to "possibly" avoid or optimistically put, reduce monday morning blues. The best two points that I liked were :

3. Start something on Friday that you can finish on Monday. Many times we dread Monday mornings because we know that there are certain projects that we have to tackle for the week. Why not get a headstart on Friday and begin something? That way, you don't have to overcome the initial procrastination tendencies that are present when you are starting something. You've already got momentum started from the week before.

and ...

5. Get up earlier than normal on Mondays. Mondays can be hectic enough without feeling like you have to race everywhere or feel like you're already behind because you slept in. Get up a half-hour to an hour earlier and take your time. Have a leisurely breakfast. Read the paper. Exercise. If you start out the day racing, it will have a negative effect on the flow of your day.

Read the full article here .