Do Things Now

Wunderlist vs. Todo for iPad: To-do application everywhere

2012-01-22T12:38:00.001-05:00

I’ve used so many todo application over the years, I’ve already lost count. I’m always looking for that one application that has all the features I’m looking for so it can help me have a perfect and organize life. Unfortunately, I don’t think such an application exist. Even Wunderlist, which is my new favorite, isn’t perfect, but it was a good option to switch from the previous todo application I was using: Todo for iPad. In terms of UI and features, I think Todo for iPad was a lot better, but Wunderlist had one very important feature that won me over: it can be used almost everywhere.

Note that the remarkable app developer Appigo (the makers of Todo for iPad), also offer Todo for iPhone, Todo Desktop (mac only), and todo Online; so you could also use them everywhere, if you’re mostly a mac user (I am, however, a mac and windows, and android and iOS user. Due to my work as web developer, I basically have to use it all). Todo for iPad also offers synchronization with Toodledo; I think, overall, if your life is iPad centric, I’d completelly suggest Todo for iPad over Wunderlist (I haven’t try Todo for iPhone, but I’m guessing is also a very nice todo application for both iPhone and iPod, so if you’re on that platform, give it a try).

Advantages of Todo for iPad:

Todo for iPad has a very nice UI, and I’m not just saying it looks pretty, it is also a very usable application, it has a better more organized layout, that helps you see what you have to do.

The other main advantage is that it is not too focused on “lists” or “projects” but on “getting things done”. It has several ways to show you what you have to do today and what are your top priorities. Wunderlist is list centric, so almost everything you see will be divided first by list, then by priority or date.

Todo for iPad lets you create sub-tasks, and assign different levels of priorities for each task.

And finally, probably one of the features I look for in any todo application, but most of them simply ignore it: Todo for iPad lets you color code your projects, so that you can also differentiate between your tasks. I think I’m a very visual person, and I believe that the visual aspect of task management is also very important to help keep your tasks organized.

Advantages of Wunderlist:

Wunderlist is minimalistic. This can be considered a disadvantage to power users, because you’ll definitely see this application lacks tons of features other full gtd applications will consider basic (like priority levels and tags); however, this also means it is very simple and straightforward to use, and it doesn’t get in your way: you basically type what you need to do, and then see what you need to do.

The main advantage over almost all other todo applications is that Wunderlist is available everywhere: there’s a web version, and there are apps for mac, ipad, iphone and ipod, android and windows. They also mention in their blog that it is available for Ubuntu, and there’s also a beta version for Blackberry. The nicest part of it all is that you can use it in more than one device and they’ll all be in sync. So you can start your day looking at what you need to do on your phone, then continue on your iPad and end on your laptop. That, I believe, should be the future of all applications: you can do things regardless of what platform you are at a precise moment.

I don’t consider this an advantage, but some might: Wunderlist is completely free. Download, sign-up, and start using it. That’s it. In my opinion, free is good, but not always better. Wunderlist is so nice, that I’d gladly pay for it.

I wish Wunderlist could have some other features, specially set several priority levels (high, medium, low, none) and let me color code tasks. I wish it could have a better layout for showing the task list. So it’s not a perfect application. It seems that they are working on a different application that might have all the good things of Wunderlist, and more features for a more organized life. It’s called Wunderkit, but it’s not here yet.

So what do I use?

I’m currently a Wunderlist user. The main reason, as I mentioned before, is that I have access to my todo list almost everywhere: my Samsung Galaxy SII, my laptop, my tablet, my other tablet, my work laptop, etc.

I also use it because I also wanted to try something very very simple. Sometimes, I spent too much time organizing my tasks, setting priorities, and tagging, and changing things and settings. Wunderlist is a way to go back to basics. It’s almost like using pen and paper.

So, what todo application do you use?

Organizing and managing cables with cable clips

2012-01-20T15:06:00.001-05:00

Cables are one of those things that really annoy me. There are cables everywhere, and you can’t really escape them. You need your phone charger, laptop charger, camera charger. Your monitor has cables, there’s one for your ipod, 100 usb cables on your desk, etc. Most of use stay sane, but I’m pretty sure a few people have gone crazy for excess of cables in their lives.

Anyway, this little things I’m writing about in this post have made my life a bit easier. Is not the perfect solution for organizing my desk and keeping it cable free, but they definitely help with cable management.

I’m talking about the multi-purpose cable clips by Blue Lounge. When I first saw them, I thought they were relatively expensive (almost ten dollars for six of them), but I decided to spend the money (and have already ordered a second pack, because I’m in love with these clips).

They have a really simple purpose, and are very easy to use: you stick them to any clean surface (I have a couple on a wall next to my desk, and another two on one side of the desk) and pass any cable you want through it. They can hold more than one cable, depending how big the cables are.

What are they good for?

That’s a good question, mr. Question-Asker. Let me tell you what I use this cable clips for: I’m constantly connecting and disconnecting devices near my desk, and have a few usb cables I’m constantly using. Before using these cable clips to organize my desk, the cables were always falling behind the desk, or getting tangled with other cables, making it very hard to find them the next time I needed them. These little cable clips keep the cables in place. So, for example, I can disconnect my ipod, disconnect the cable from my laptop, and the cable will stay there, attached to the wall, until the next time I need it.

They are also great to separate and organize your cables on the back of your desk (simply stick some of these cable organizers to the wall, and start passing cables through them).

In conclussion

This is not rocket science. These cable clips will not make your life perfect, and they are not a full solution for cable management or a clean and organized desk, but they definitely help with the eternal problem of cable management (that is, until everything in these world is wireless).

They are, yet again, one of those small things you might never consider buying, but once you do, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t buy them before.

Where to buy them

You can buy them from amazon: Blue Lounge Cable Management System for All Cables up to 5/16-Inches

Another option that I found interesting, but haven’t tried yet is the Quirky cordies accessory. That thing might be more useful if you have several cables that you are constantly connecting and disconnecting (like usb cables, ipod cables, phone charger, etc). It might be perfect to put on your desk.

What do you use to organize the cables on your desk?

A small pocket knife for a simple reason

2012-01-15T13:16:00.001-05:00

I’m always buying things online, therefore, I’m always receiving packages at home. Those damn cardboard boxes are usually a pain to open, so I thought I needed a nice little tool to make my life easier.

I wanted something small enough that I could carry around everywhere; something well built, but light, durable, and maybe something that could have multiple purposes.

The Leatherman Micra multitool felt so perfect. It was exactly what I was looking for. Even though it is a pocket knife, and has other useful little tools, I really liked the fact that the scissors where the main focus of the tool. They are little, but sturdy and really good quality. I really wasn’t aware of how much I needed to carry a pair of scissors everywhere until I started carrying the Micra attached to my keychain.

Yes, it also is a pocket knife, and has a screwdriver and a bottle opener; even tweezers. This thing is very handy, and I think it’s one of the best purchases I made in 2011.

There’s only one issue with my initial logic: I receive packages at home, and when I’m there, I usually don’t have my keys with me (they stay upstairs in my room). Meaning, I usually don’t have my Micra with me at home. It angers me. So, what I might end up doing is buying another one of these little tools to keep it downstairs.

If you want it, you can buy the Leatherman Micra Multitool on amazon.

Note: the other option I had was the Leatherman Squirt PS4, which also gets very nice reviews. I don’t own it, so I don’t know how good it is, but I might buy it one day. The main difference is that it has pliers instead of scissors (although it also has a smaller pair of scissors), and it’s a bit smaller than the Micra. The reason I didn’t get it is because at that size, I really don’t see a lot of use for those pliers, but maybe I’m mistaken. If you want to try it, buy the Leatherman Squirt PS4 on amazon.

2 versipacks

2012-01-15T02:18:00.001-05:00

I’m still looking for the perfect way to carry my gear anywhere I go. Maybe the perfect backpack, or the perfect camera bag, or laptop bag, maybe none of those exist, but there are some cool ones out there, so I wanted to share with you about the few ones I think are pretty cool.

First of all, let me tell you that I’ve been a fan of Jansport forever (at least since I was in high-school). All of the backpacks I’ve owned during the past 14 years have been Jansport. The reason? they were built to last forever, they looked cool, and simply because it was the popular brand when I was in high-school (again, that was more than 14 years ago).

I wanted to try a few new ways to carry my stuff, and I wanted to try new brands. For now, I’ll talk about two Maxpedition’s versipacks, which I thought were cool, and now I think are pretty awesome and useful. So here we go:

Maxpedition Colossus Versipack

I’m quickly becoming a big fan of Maxpedition’s products. Maxpedition is a company specialized in tactical bags and accessories; their bags are rugged and amazingly well built. It’s the type of bag you’d carry with you into a war zone (maybe you won’t survive, but your bag will).

Anyway, I wanted a bag for my DSLR (Canon 60D), but my main requirement was that it had to be a camera bag that didn’t look like a camera bag. I actually own a couple of Lowepro bags, and they are pretty cool (maybe I’ll talk about them in another post), but when you’re walking around the city, sometimes you don’t want people to know you’re carrying a camera (where I live, it can be an invitation to thieves to pay attention to you).

The Colossus Versipack was exactly what I was looking for: it’s not too big, not too small. It’s the right size to carry a DSLR with a decent zoom lens. It’s padded, so it’ll protect your camera, and it looks cool. For the most part, it looks cool, but it’s also a bag that won’t stand out, so you can carry it without worrying too much.

The more I use this little tank of a bag, the more I’m amazed with it. It’s so well built, it almost feels it’s bulletproof.

Buy the Colossus Versipack at amazon.

Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack

This one seems to be more popular than the Colossus Versipack. It also has two additional models (the E.D.C and the L.E.O versions). I, however, decided to get the classic one. The main reason was simple and maybe a little dumb: the classic version has a pocket to hold your bottle of water (or vodka, or whatever you drink).

This versipack is slightly smaller than the Colossus (which is still my favorite); it isn’t padded, but it’s very well constructed, and it’s material (ballistic nylon fabric) is strong and durable.

This is the bag I use when I need to carry a few things (my bottle of water, maybe a notebook, glasses, a small camera). I just drop the stuff in there and away I go. I don’t know if you’d define this as a man-purse. Maybe it is, maybe some people will see it as one, but even so, let me tell you that at least this man purse is manly. You’ll look more like a messenger than like an ambiguous fashionably sensitive hipster.

Maybe the one problem with this bag is that it’s small (a lot of times, I wish I could carry a lot more stuff in it), but it serves its purpose quite well: a bag to grab with every day carry items.

Buy the Jumbo Versipack at amazon

That’s it for now. I was going to write about my other bags/backpacks, but I ran out of time, so I’ll leave that for another day.

Do you have any maxpedition bags, or similar ones? What is the one bag you carry with you all the time, and can’t live without?

Project: 5 goals

2012-01-01T18:29:00.001-05:00

New year, new resolutions, right? I actually don’t like that, because we all know that new year resolutions are the things we wish we could do, but consider unachievable.

Instead, I’ve set my mind to achieve six things I know I can achieve, some small, some big, some easy, some complicated. I have invented a set of rules for my goals, and how to make them a reality. Those are based on my past experiences with procrastination and trying to organize my life, and also based on one of the biggest goals I achieved a couple of years ago: quit smoking. First my rules, then my goals:

The Rules:

Aim to small goals, but dream big: your goal can’t be the big prize. It can’t be the end line. There always has to be something bigger and better you’ll want to achieve after your little goal.
Make it a routine; don’t work for it: don’t think of your goals as work, or as something you have to do. They have to become something you want to do, and something you enjoy doing. They have to become a small daily task that doesn’t take away your time, so that when you least expect it, you’re already more than half way there to achieve it.
Take it one day at a time: the biggest problem of a big goal is that it can’t be done all at once. You have to break it in smaller pieces, little tasks, doable steps. Plan to do something each day, or each week, to help achieve your goal, but never think beyond that. Just do what you need to do that day, or that week, and be happy with what you’ve done. Eventually, you’ll become better at it, and you can take on more or bigger tasks.
Start doing it: Procrastination has taught me that you can never finish something, if you never start doing it. Actually, the start is the hardest part of any task, project, or goal. After all, there’s always something better, or more urgent. Or you think tomorrow is better to start your project. It isn’t. Today is as good a day as any. Believe me, the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get there.

The Goals:

Improve your drawing skills. How? Do one simple drawing a day. It can take you five minutes, or an hour, or 10. It all depends on how much free time you have. But draw something every day.

I’ve already started this, but have forgotten about if for a couple of weeks, so it’s something I’m retaking.

I don’t want this goal to be a burden, which is why I can take 3 minutes or 10 hours on it each day, as long as from now on, I keep drawing one thing a day.
Make $300 of extra income each month: How? create a website or product or website that can produce an extra 300 dollars every month. It has to be sustainable (after the goal is achieved, I should be getting that extra income every month without much extra work).

I know it’s possible, because I’ve done it in the past (think google ads). However, I never kept working on the sites, and focused on other things (like actual work), so that extra income has almost faded.

This one might be the hardest goal from my list, but I know it’s not impossible.
Wake up as early as possible: to be more specific, wake up at 6 or 7 am every day. How? finish pending things a lot earlier, and go to bed earlier.

I’ve realized that I like doing a lot of my work during the night. It’s more relaxing and quiet, and I tend to focus better. However, when I wake up early, I tend to do more. Days seem to be longer, and I feel like I have more time. I might be wrong, but I believe that you are more productive during the morning.

So, my goal is to wake up early every day, to go run, and then do as much as possible in the morning. That way I can do nothing in the afternoon and at night (well, there’s always something to do, right?)
Get a six pack: How? eat better, do more exercise. I don’t think there’s a magic trick to look good, or be healthy. It’s all about your daily habits.

I used to be really skinny, but I gained a lot of weight since I stopped smoking. While I’m not fat, I have some extra weight, specially in the tummy area, that I’d be happier without. I used to think: I can always get rid of it, I just need three weeks of not eating and do lots of exercise. But I failed. Now I know it’s not that easy.

So, to start with, my goal is simple: eat better (less rice, more protein, less chocolates and hamburgers, more fruit), and exercise (at least 30 minutes every day). We’ll see where that gets me after a couple of months. All I want for now is get into a daily exercise routine.
Learn Japanese: I travelled to Japan in 2007 and I loved it. I want to go back (maybe in 2012), but I know I need something: I need to be able to understand and speak japanese. I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t communicate with people (although in the touristy places you can get around with english), and I couldn’t travel as much as I wanted (because I was on my own, every simple task became hard because of the language barrier).

I already own a “learn japanese” audio cd, and a book, and some android and iphone apps. However, it’s not about the tools, but how you use them, right? So far those have been useful because I’ve never set this goal as a priority for me. I’ve learned the Hiragana 3 times already, but keep forgetting, because I keep forgetting about learning japanese.

So once again, this goal is all about establishing a daily or weekly routine to learn and practice on my own.

Bonus goal: go to the top of the Cotopaxi. This was last year’s goal, and I’ve failed (mainly because I thought the people that I was going with had the same desire to go there, but it turned out they preferred to go partying instead of climbing the mountain). I’ve been getting in shape to achieve this little goal, and I’m expecting to go there by the end of January.

So, what now? I don’t know. That’s why I wrote such a long post. I want this blog to be my witness of all the steps I take, and whether I’m successful or fail. I know there’s a big chance that I’ll forget about these goals in two weeks, or maybe “I won’t have time, and I’ll do them later”, just like a lot of things happen to be forgotten nowadays. I know I have to put some effort (at least in the beginning) and create routines, and work on little tasks (hence my set of rules). So we’ll see, we’ll see…

I’m curious, do you have any goals for 2012?

I’m an android

2011-10-09T16:43:00.001-05:00

I used to love Nokia’s phones. I was proud to own the impressive n95, and later, the slim and great e71. My love affair with Nokia and Symbian stopped when I bought the disappointing n97 (slow, awful touch interface, buggy). I wanted to give Nokia one more chance, so my next phone was an Nokia N900. It wasn’t perfect, but still is one of the best gadgets I’ve ever owned. Its operating system, Maemo, is linux. Linux on a phone. It wasn’t a phone, it was a computer. Nokia’s lack of support for that wonderful operating system was, one more time, disappointing, and that’s when I decided it was time to move on and try something new. I needed to switch, and I wanted to try Android.

My first Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S, and I recently upgraded to the Samsung i9100 Galaxy S II. I can honestly say, I’m happy since I started using Android.

One of the things I like the most is the apps. As a Nokia user, I always struggled to find a useful application for simple tasks like keeping a todo list, or logging work hours. Now, I have a few apps installed on my phone (from thousands available), that help me manage my time and my online life a bit better.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is an amazing piece of technology. Its screen is huge for a phone (like 15% bigger than an iphone, if I’m not mistaken). The phone is fast. After all, it has a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. I no longer think of it as a phone, but as a computer.

It’s amazing how much phones have evolved (in part, thanks to the introduction of the revolutionary iPhone) in the past 5 years. I can’t imagine how awesome they’ll be in the next 5 years. That is, if the world doesn’t end in 2012.

Anyway, there is no point to my post, really. I just wanted to say I’m a happy Android user. Although, to be honest, most of my GTD stuff is now managed by my wonderful Ipad (I’m still using an Ipad 1; I’m not sure if an upgrade to the Ipad 2 is worth it).

What phone do you guys use?

Desktop applications for Remember the Milk

2010-03-28T11:00:00.001-05:00

I love remember the milk, but for some reason, I always stop using it after a while. I just forget about it for weeks, and with that, my organization starts falling apart.

One of the reasons is that there’s no remember the milk app for my phone (an n900). I do have the remember the milk app installed on my ipod touch, but I almost never use it.

I thought that, as I spend most of my working hours in front of the pc, I could try and use a desktop app for remember the milk. It’d be just as easy to open a browser window and go to the remember the milk site, but there’s one huge advantage in a desktop app: it’s always there, handy, reminding you that is there and it won’t leave.

So, in my search, I found two, and decided for one: Remember the task. The interface will look very familiar, and that’s because it should. This app is just a wrap for the remember the milk gmail gadget. That’s why I liked it. It’s sort of official, and it doesn’t try to replicate all the functionality of the website. It’s a simple widget, with enough information about your tasks, and it makes it easy and quick to create new items for your lists. Simple.

The other app that I wanted to mention is App for the milk. It has a lot of potential, and it supports all of the main functionality, plus offline access, which is great. I didn’t like it that much because to me, it didn’t offer any real advantage over the website and the widget, but maybe you’ll find it useful.

Does tracking time make you more productive?

2010-03-27T14:09:00.001-05:00

I’ve discovered a few things about myself in my quest to become a more organized person. One of the most interesting things I discovered is that I’m usually not as busy as I think I am.

Before I started tracking time, I felt that I was working all day, every day and night, trying to get things done, without seeing too many results. I thought that was because I had so many things to do, that I could never ever reach a point were my todo list would get small enough for me to be happy.

Then, I started tracking the hours I worked on my projects, and I realized that most of my time was spent in reading emails, visiting youtube, or simply, doing nothing (actually, not doing nothing, but just sitting infront of the pc, not knowing what to do because “I had to many things to do and didn’t know which to start with”). I realized that I wasn’t putting as much effort as I could.

Time tracking let me set a minimum of hours I wanted to work on certain things. I constantly look at my hours log and check if I’m really working or not. If I see that I’m not, I force myself to focus and just do what I need to do.

I think that time tracking has helped me become more productive and organized, although I still think there’s a lot of things I need to improve before convincing myself that I’m an organized person.

Organize your desk cables

2010-03-21T14:05:00.001-05:00

This is a simple, cheap and effective way to organize the cables we have on our desk, which need to be available and handy all the time. It’s so simple, yet so amazingly useful. Best “life hack” I’ve seen in a while.

Via lifehack.nl

Make Remember the Milk work on your symbian phone. Not Really!

2010-03-03T11:52:00.001-05:00

The nokia tips blog wrote about an alternative to use remember the milk on your poor little symbian phone. The solution? to use the widely used twitter client Gravity (if you don’t have Gravity installed on your symbian phone, you have been living in a different universe) as a way to send tasks to Remember the Milk. RTM has, afterall, a way to interact with twitter.

Personally, I think this is shameful and disappointing. Almost all other smartphone platforms have a Remember the Milk application. Not Symbian. While this is not Nokia’s fault, this is a clear sign that nobody cares about Symbian anymore. It might be widely use worldwide, but developers clearly don’t care about that platform anymore.

I’m really happy that I got Symbian out of my life, and got the N900 working for me (which doesn’t have a Remember the Milk app, either, but that’s because Maemo is really not widely used. It is mostly a hacker’s OS, for people that love linux).

Tracking time with toggl

2010-03-02T19:44:00.001-05:00

I stopped using my s60 phone. I still love my E71, but the Nokia N97 was such a disappointment that it made me hate symbian forever. I’m now using the nokia N900, which is absolutely the best thing ever. It’s like a computer with a phone application.

Anyway, due to this change, I wasn’t able to keep track of working hours with my phone anymore. Punch2go was one of the apps I used the most, but now that I don’t have a symbian phone anymore, I needed a different soluton.

I decided to use Toggl, which is an anline time tracking service. It has a little desktop application so you can write the description of the task you are working on and start tracking it immediately. It works offline and then you can synchronize it with the online site once you get online.

I really like it so far. It hasn’t given me any trouble and it has some nice reports (and graphics…everybody loves charts and graphics). Overall I’m quite happy with it, although I’d love it if I could have a toggl app for my n900.

What do you use for time tracking?

Remember the Milk for Android, and a s60 rant

2009-09-16T09:54:00.001-05:00

Remember the Milk now has an official application for Android devices. I'm not an android user, so I can't comment on the app itself. I am, however, a remember the milk user, and a s60 (nokia) user, and seeing this really breaks my heart.

I might be mistaken, but I believe s60 devices are used by way more people than Android. At least worldwide. Nevertheless, it still seems nobody seems interested in developing applications for this platform. I might be mistaken, but it certainly feels like it.

The more I read about new applications launched for the iPhone or Android, or even WebOS, the sadder I feel about still believing in symbian. Even after the total disappointment that is the N97: a slow and buggy device, specially when comparing it to the best phone I've owned, the e71.

I think it's time to quit Symbian. I tried. I really tried, but I feel abandoned. I know Nokia has its plan for the new version of Symbian, but that will take a while, and that might be too late. I still love nokia, so I just preordered their latest phone, the n900, which runs on Maemo (linux). Maemo is not new, but it's the first time it's used in a phone, so I bet it'll not have as many features as symbian. I know it won't have as many apps as there are apps for iPhone and Android. But I still love it. I love it more because IT IS NOT SYMBIAN.

I know that my next device will either be an Android phone, or a WebOS (Palm) phone, if Palm starts selling GSM unlocked Pres. I'm even thinking about buying an iPhone (it does have a remember the milk app, and 100 other apps to manage my todo list), but I still don't like the fact that it doesn't multitask, and it doesn't have a keyboard.

I hope that Nokia fixes the n97 with the new firmware version that is expected to come out in October or so. I might even buy another symbian phone: the e72. Symbian is a very stable OS; Nokia phones are really nice and durable; but there must be a reason why developers are not interested in that platform, and unfortunately, and I guess we symbian users can't wait forever. Eventually we need to go and use the platform that has the applications we need.

One more todo list app, a very good one

2009-08-29T20:18:00.002-05:00

Abstractspoon's TodoList is probably the most complete todo list application for windows. At least it's the most complete I've used.

Best of all, it's completely free (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic License.

It lets you create tasks (obviously), subtasks, recurring tasks, set categories, estimated time and time spent, priority and a bunch of other things. It is also completely portable (so you can carry it in a usb drive). I think you should give it a try if you're looking for a todo app for windows.

Now, while I have it, I have to confess that I rarely use it. The main reason is that it is "too complete" for me. I never get used to manage my todo lists, so I'm always looking for the most simple solution (the one with fewer options, and fewer features). Don't get me wrong, this application is great, it's just that I'm a disorganized person and an app with so many features as this one doesn't help me at all.

Go check the TodoList's official site to know more about it. Meanwhile I'm going to keep dreaming about the perfect app for me: a mobile app for Remember the Milk for my N97 (will that ever happen?)

Moving to gmail / google apps

2009-08-27T14:56:00.001-05:00

One of the emails accounts I used the most recently got moved to google apps by the person in charge of the domain (someone I work with). That means that now I almost don’t have the need for a desktop email client. Even though I love my thunderbird, it’s time to let go, I’ll miss it.

The main advantage of this change is that now I can access all and any of my emails at any moment from any pc connected to the internet. The secondary advantage is that I can do that via the cool Gmail interface. It’s a bit different than working with a desktop app, obviously, but it’s cool nevertheless. I still need to get used to this new way of using email (I have a couple gmail accounts, but I don’t use them as much as I’d like).

I think I’m going to love using gmail as my main email client. Are you still using a desktop client, or have you moved to “the cloud” already?

By the way, just a small tip for symbian / s60 users. I use the official gmail mobile application on my nokia N97, and I like it very much. It’s not integrated with the OS, and it’s a java application, but still, it’s a good application, and it lets you access several gmail accounts (not at the same time). If you want to know more, go read about this app at n97fanatics.

Ok, that’s it for now….back to work…you too!

Password manager

2009-08-26T11:13:00.001-05:00

It’s not a problem when you need to remember a couple of passwords, but it’s a pain to manage a lot of passwords, and remember them all. In my case, as a webdeveloper, I have a long list of sites, emails, ftp servers, mysql servers, and all kind of other things which come with users and passwords. It’s damn hard to remember them all.

My previous solution was to store them in my email, and tag them as “password”, but that’s hard to manage, because I almost never delete an email, so those tagged emails got lost and forgotten (even though they were still there)…and it took me at least 5 minutes every time I wanted to retrieve a password.

The other place where I have a lot of stored passwords is Filezilla (I use a bunch of ftp servers). It automatically saves the passwords of all ftp sites I use. Then, if I want to retrieve a password, I know there’s an xml file somewhere I can open and look at the full list of sites, users, and passwords (that’s not too secure, is it?). But again, it took me 5 minutes to find a password I needed.

I’ve been using something different lately. I admit I’m still very disorganized and don’t use it as much as I’d like, but the truth is that the more I use it, the more I like it. As that sounds a bit weird (if you’re a pervert), let me tell you what I'm talking about: KeePass. What is it? They say:

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish)

It’s a small app, but it has all the features I need. I mostly need a way to store users and passwords, and this app does that very well, of course. One of the things I like the most is that there’s a portable version as well, which means you don’t have to install it, as you can run it directly from a thumbdrive.

By the way, I just notice there are several versions of Keepass for pocketPc, java enabled phones, iphone, blackberry, palmOS and android. That’s sweet, isn’t it?

More on painting with the iPhone / iPod Touch

2009-08-23T18:53:00.001-05:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m planning on getting used to a drawing application for my iPod Touch (the app is called Layers). I just found out there are at least two more great drawing apps:

Brushes (which in some aspects seems better than Layers)
Paintbook (which uses vectors and not bitmaps)

I have a tendency to gather as many resources as possible, and then not use any of them, so for now I’m staying with Layers.

On a similar subject, it seems this “drawing on the iPod” has its own nice niche out there, and there are a few really talented artists creating amazing stuff with this apps. Check out Just iPhone Art, for example. I was amazed at the quality of paintings feature there, I couldn’t believe you could do that with a phone (or an mp3 player). FingerPainted.it also features some of this amazing art, and it focuses on resources (tutorials, videos, tips, etc) to help you create art on the iPod, too.

That’s it for now. I should be working.

A simple drawing application for my iPod Touch

2009-08-23T16:48:00.001-05:00

I like drawing. In fact, it was my favorite activity long ago (before I had to work so much), and it’s something I want to get into again.

I have a few empty sketchbooks, pencils, drawing ideas and all that, but I never have the time to draw. So I looked for an easy digital alternative: Layers.

Layers is a simple, but complete drawing/painting application for the ipod touch or iphone (ugh!). It’s not the perfect method for drawing, but it’s a perfect little tool to doodle for 5 mins. every day. That’s what I think, yes sir!

So, I spent about 5 dollars, and now I have one application (probably the only one besides remember the milk) that I might be using constantly on my ipod.

If you want a better review of Layers (because this is not a review), check it out at All about iPhone

Windows Live Writer

2009-08-23T09:54:00.001-05:00

I maintain several blogs (don’t ask me why) in different platforms as wordpress, blogger and tumblr.

Live Writer is a piece of software that I discovered a couple months ago, and the more I use it, the more I like it. I have to admit that I’m not a big Microsoft guy, but this time, they came out with a really good tool for bloggers.

Live Writer is a blog editor with support for Windows Live (no surprise there), Wordpress and Blogger (I haven’t tried any other platform yet). It’s quite easy and natural to use. After you setup your blog, you just create new blog posts as if they were normal desktop text documents, and then…bam!…publish them and they go right up to your site.

I know, I’m not the best at explaining things. That’s not my point. My point is: I like Windows Live Writer, and I think you would, too. Go try it out!

Do you use a desktop blog editor, or are you old school and use your blog’s original admin interface?

Sit down and work

2009-08-22T22:36:00.001-05:00

One of the main problems I have is that I simply don’t like to sit down in front of the PC and work. I guess it’s the same with all of us, we all prefer to do anything else, something more fun, or sometimes, something more productive (like watching youtube videos).

I struggle every day trying to get things done, and I think that I’ve improved a lot. I think one thing that has helped me a lot is to repeat to myself over and over that the less I wait to start a task, the earlier it’ll get done. As I work from home, it’s very hard to keep an office schedule; so, it’s very common for me to stay at my desk until 10pm or later, just because I haven’t finished all the things I wanted to do for that day. And I don’t like that. Now I try to start tasks as fast as possible and as early as possible, because I have the motivation that by doing so, I might be able to get rid of work by 5pm.

The other thing I’m trying to improve in my work is to minimize distractions, which is very hard. You know, as a web developer, you need to have the browser open all day, and it’s very hard not to go to check your Google Reader, or what’s going on at this or that forum. There’s no solution for that, other than repeating myself that the more distractions I have, the more it’ll take to finish my to-do list. And it works.

Oh, and one more thing…I am a podcast addict. I was subscribe to a lot of them. I decided to reduce my quota of podcasting, and currently I’m only subscribed to four of them. Why? Well, because it listening to less podcasts let’s me keep my focus in my work. I’m the type of person that needs noise to work, but sometimes working quietly is better.

What do you do to stay focused on your job?

A little trick with my to-do list

2009-08-05T12:13:00.001-05:00

I discovered something about myself and my todo list. If my todo list only contain big tasks (for example: finish project), it’s harder for me to achieve them, or even start them. However, if I break the big task in smaller pieces, very small pieces, it gets easier for me to work on them.

I think what happens is that when I look at my todo list and find ‘big’ tasks, I tend to leave them for later, because I think they’ll take a lot of time or are difficult to achieve. However, if I have a bunch of small tasks, two things happen:

I think my todo list is too big and I want to reduce it as fast as possible, so it’s some sort of weird incentive to work on it.
As all tasks are small and easy to achieve, I like working on them because they’re easy to finish.

In the end, that little trick helps me achieve bigger tasks, without realizing that I’m working on that. So, I’d say, if you maintain a todo list, be as detailed as possible, filling it with small tasks that all form a big task. Does it make any sense?

Open Atrium – opensource group collaboration app

2009-07-15T22:22:00.001-05:00

I have to check out Open Atrium, and if it’s any good, convince the people I work with to use it for our projects.

Quoting their site:

Open Atrium is an intranet in a box that has group spaces to allow different teams to have their own conversations. It comes with six features - a blog, a wiki, a calendar, a to do list, a shoutbox, and a dashboard to manage it all.

It sounds interesting, doesn’t it? I also read somewhere that it’s based on Drupal, which seems to be a very good and popular cms (I do want to find some time to learn it, but right now I’ve been busy using and learning modx).

What about Remember the Milk?

2009-07-14T19:28:00.001-05:00

I’ve always found Remember the Milk to be a very interesting and useful application/website. I specially love its simplicity, although that’s exactly what some people don’t like about it, some say it lacks features and point Toodledo as a better alternative. I think simple is good; simple is better. Specially if you are not used to todo lists and you want to get used to them to start getting organized. I recently discovered it also has gmail integration, which I find really cool (specially now that I’m trying to switch to gmail as my email client, and forget about Thunderbird).

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter how much I like remember the milk (I even have a pro account), I barely used it. The reason? the lack of a mobile application (remember I’m an E71 user, and soon a N97 user…although maybe I’ll be a palm pre or android user one day)….I have an ipod touch, for which there is an rtm app, but I want one for my phone (and no, I won’t be getting an iphone). I hope one day, somebody looks at the nokia s60 (symbian) users and give us a hand with some better and cooler apps, specially, a good todo app. Until then, I can only dream (or use gmail or the mobile site).

I realize this post has no point other than mentioning that remember the milk is cool….but yes, that was all I wanted to say.

Focus

2009-07-03T23:43:00.003-05:00

I think I have a problem when starting a new project: I start one today, and tomorrow I have 20 new projects. Not knowing which I should work on, I work on none, and the original project gets forgotten.

I usually start with a simple idea, but the more I think about it, I think of cooler things, more features (in case of a web project) then I research a bit, and find cool new technologies, tutorials, etc...so in the end, I spend a lot of time thinking and doing research and no time turning the original idea into a reality.

I think this problem has a simple solution: just focus on one thing at a time, keep it simple, and just do it. I have to struggle to achieve this, but it seems to be effective. I've started prioritizing my ideas/projects, and put myself the limit of not working on any new project until the one I'm working on is finished. Although this seems like I'm doing less, I feel like I'm achieving more.

Does something similar happen to you?

Colorzilla, a cool firefox extension

2009-07-02T13:37:00.001-05:00

Extensions (plugins, add-ins, however you want to call them) are probably the best feature in Firefox. There are thousands and thousands of them, although I don’t use many, as they tend to make the browser slow (and firefox is already very slow and a memory hog).

Anyway, one of the extensions I use a lot (for web developing purposes) is Colorzilla. It adds an eyedropper on the bottom corner of the browser, which you can click to activate. Then you move the mouse anywhere on the page you’re viewing and it’ll show you the color code (as hex or rgb, however you want).

I just noticed that the latest version has one really cool feature: the Webpage DOM color analyzer. It basically analizes the page you’re viewing, and retrieves its color scheme, with lots of details about each color and where it is used in the page. You can even save the color scheme. I think it’s a tiny, but very useful feature, specially if you’re a color freak.

A small rant about s60

2009-06-29T11:40:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned before, my phone is a Nokia E71 (definitely the best phone I've ever owned). I use it to keep track of the things I need to do. Unfortunately, s60 (symbian, nokia's OS) has a really lame way to manage tasks. While it does support them, they are poorly integrated in the calendar/agenda.

That's why you need to go searching for a better third party app to manage your todo list (and that's another issue, as s60 seems a bit forgotten by developers, as there are trendier systems like Android and the iPhone). There are very few options to choose from when you are looking for something that works, and as I mentioned before, sbsh's Calendar is the best app for me to manage my todo list, but it's far from perfect. It's buggy at times, it looks a bit ugly an outdated. Even the developers have forgotten about this app, as they've been promising a new version for months (or years?). There's a private beta (which I did test), but it seems buggier and uglier, without any real improvements. I don't know if Nokia is doing something to promote and make developing for s60 easier and cooler, but they should...I love nokia, I love my e71 (and soon I'm getting a N97, which I also hope to love), but there should be more apps for them. Yes, Nokia now has the ovi store, but to me, it is a complete failure. Really, search for apps, you won't find any, or at least you won't find any that is really useful...for example, search for Calendar, you just get a couple of results (none of which is a calendar application), even duplicate results.

Nokia needs to do something to increase the number of third party applications. I read somewhere, don't remember where, that s60 is like today's Palm (meaning, it's getting old, really old, outdated, irrelevant). Please Nokia, do something!