Week numbering

I hope all of you have had a wonderfull start in 2015! As a new year has begun, people ask about week numbers. As I wrote a year ago, there are several numberings. In the Netherlands - where I live - Week 1 is the first week with at least four days in the new year.

Good luck!

In praise of slowness (video)

Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness, told his story at TED. The talked about the speed of our society, the slow movement and raising kids.

He enjoys speed in some ways, like squash and ice hockey. But he also understands that it is import to slow down to prevent burn outs and other health issues.

So, if you want to slow down quickly ;-) listen to his story.

Enjoy!

Portable OS

Picture:
Wikimedia Commons

Last time, I wrote about portable software. I use these sort of applications daily on 'my' worklaptop and/or on desktop PC of customers. All these machines are equiped with Windows. But let's take it a step further: carry your entire Operation System (OS) along with your applications with you!

There are several ways to do so. Most Linux distro's provide a Live CD or DVD. Boot your computer from the CD/DVD and you'll experience a complete Linux system. However, it's not possible to save changes inside it's configuration. Also, data can't be saved ín the system. Of course, one save data to other drives, like hard discs or USB sticks.

Live CD/DVD's are useful to test new distro's or new releases of them. They can also be used as install media. Furthermore, they are useful to investigate a broken computer.

A second option to create a portable OS, is to install it to an USB stick. On Pendrive Linux you'll find instructions and software to create thumb drive of choice.

Last but not least, my portable distro of choice. I like Puppy Linux very much. It's a small Linux system with 'light weight' applications. The image file is about 200 MB. As it is a portable OS, it runs from the RAM of it's guest computer. I use it on my netbook with 1 GB RAM. On this configuration, Puppy is rather fast. For minimalists there are some other tiny distro's.

Do you carry a portable OS?

Enjoy!

Portable software

Picture:
Wikimedia Commons

At work, I'm a nomad. Sometimes, I'm at the office but mostly I'm on the road. Working at a customer's bureau, I use intermittent 'my' work laptop or a desktop PC of my host. According to security and support issues, one is not allowed to install software at those machines. But what if I need certain software?

My solution is using portable software. According to Wikipedia:

"A portable application is a program designed to run on a compatible computer without being installed in a way that modifies the computer's configuration information."

So, this kind of software doesn't change the Windows registry for example. It stores its configuration in the user profile.

There are several methods for using these applications. The first is carrying a simple USB stick. The software  is installed on c.q. copied to the thumb drive and can be used from a guest PC if a port is available. Don't forget to mount and unmount the drive correct. There's a nice guide about using USB sticks at MakeUseOf.com.

The second method is to copy the programs to the guest PC. I usually create a directory Portable Applications in the user profile and start using the software.

Third and last is a nice one! Put the apps in the cloud. Personally I use a Dropbox. As the Dropbox folder gets synchronised accross several computers, one can use the same software at several machines. Even with identical configuration and history. However, this method will only work if one is allowed to install the Dropbox cliënt.

For my work, I use Office intensive. As this is normally provided, I don't need a portable versions of a suite like LibreOffice. To concentrate, I like listening to music. Therefore I always carry VLC with me. Along with some music of course. ;-)

Furthermore I use Dia to create process flow and organisation charts and occasionaly IrfanView. My PDF Viewer of choice is Foxit Reader as it's much lighter and faster dan the Acrobat Reader.

My passwords are stored in KeePass. For security reasons I store its database in a compressed archive with a password created by 7-Zip. I browse the web using a heavily tweaked Firefox or Iron. Both with the Readability add on and several bookmarklets.

Last but not least, I try to prevent RSI by using Workrave which I reviewed in the past. As I told earlier, I launch applications with Executor. For those who don't like application launchers, there are some portable software suites available. Some examples of these are LiberKey, PortableApps and winPenPack. They include menu's and the like.

Do you use portable software?

Enjoy!

Week numbering

Picture: Dan Moyle

First of all, I wish everyone a happy 2014! As the new year begins, we start using and/or organising a new calendar.

At work we have several discussions during the year about week numbers. Collegaes state that a particular date is in a certain week, in théir calendar. Others disagree. But who's right?

In many e-mail and calendar applications, one has to choose the weeknumbering. Options for Week 1 are:

1. the week of January 1st,
2. the first week with at least four days in the new year and
3. the first full week in the new year.

In the Netherlands - where I live - option 2 is correct. Ergo, Week 1 is the first week with at least four days in the new year.

Good luck!

10 Top time-saving tech tips (video)

At the moment, I'm terribly busy, both at work and at home. Therefore I haven't posted many articles recently. For now, we'll do a short but useful one. David Pogue suggests 10 time-saving tips in a short TED Talk.



Do you have some inspirational tips? Please share them in the comments.

Enjoy!

Application launchers

Some time ago, I told you which tools I use. I can't live without an application launcher. At work, I choose Executor. Why? Because it's lightweight, it's portable and it's handy.

First of all: what is an application launcher? Well it's a piece of software which enables its users to start programmes with a few keystrokes. You may call it a bunch of shortcuts. By using such software, one can use the keyboard as much as possible and therefore minimize the use of a mouse.

Installing Executor is easy. As it's portable, it won't change the registry of your computer. You don't even need Administrator permissions. The launcher comes with a set of commands by default. Like starting the Calculator, using some utilities and searching the web. 

Furthermore it's easy to add the shortcuts from the Programs Menu by importing them. Last but not least, it's possible to add applications manually. This is what I did. I added my Media Player, PDF Reader, etc. and assigned two character abbreviations to them. For instance, I start VLC by pressing Ctrl+Space (to start Executor) and "vl".

Picture: Executor

This programme includes an auto complete feature and saves its history. Therefore it's very easy to find what you're looking for. The skin is customizable; a feature I don't use. On my laptop, Executor eats about 7 MB.

Other well known application launchers are Launchy (for Windows and Linux) and Gnome Do (for Linux).

Do you use an application launcher?

Enjoy!

Bookmarklets

Book whats? According to Wikipedia, a bookmarklet is:

a bookmark stored in a web browser that contains JavaScript commands to extend the browser's functionality. 

Sounds interesting, not? But is it useful? Yes it is! Personally I use them for a couple of often performed tasks, e.g:

• to share a page or an article on LinkedIn or Facebook;
• to translate a site to English or Dutch;
• to read a page with Readability;
• to save a bookmark on Diigo; or
• to shorten a URL using goo.gl.

On the sites mentioned above, the bookmarklets are shown as a button. You'll only have to drag them to the bookmarks bar in you browser. Otherwise you may create a new bookmark and copy the piece of code in it.

But that's only my selection. You'll find more inspiration on Lifehacker.com, MakeUseOf.com, or in Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better by Gina Trapani & Adam Pash.

Do you use bookmarklets?

Enjoy!

Low information diet (manifesto)

Everyday we're overwhelmed with information: e-mail, RSS, social and traditional media, television, radio, news papers, bill boards, etc. Our brains aren't able to process that much data. But how to manage this  mass of information?

Personally, I use two e-mail boxes: one of my employer and one of my own. I use them strictly for their own purpose. Therefore the information is separated and it prevents distraction. Furthermore I filter e-mail: incoming messages are sorted according to topic (project, hobby, etc.). I close my inboxes during work. A few times a day, I check my mail. But most of all: I (try to) sent short and clear messages only to people involved.

I gather a bunch of information about topics I'm interested in. Supply Chain Management, information management, ICT, innovation, lifehacking, non-fiction books, recumbent bikes, cycling and so on. RSS is a my channel of choice. It's easy to subscribe to RSS feeds (also on this blog) and read them in a feed reader, like Feedly. In fact it's so easy, my overload moved in no time to my feed reader. Now I filter the feeds with Yahoo Pipes so I receive only those messages, I'm interested in.

Tim Ferris wrote a nice manifesto about this topic and published it a ChangeThis.com. You'll find several nice tips and tricks to handle information overload. According to me, Tim is rather radical; my approach is less extreme. For those interested, Ferris wrote an interesting book with an intruguing title: The 4-Hour Workweek.

How do you manage your information?

Good luck!

What I use

Some time ago, a few (former) editors of Lifehacker exposed the gear they use daily. You may read about the hardware, software and desk setups of Kevin Purdy, Jason Fitzpatrick, Adam Pash, Adam Dachis and Whitson Gordon. As a bonus, they also added some productivity tips. Altough some of their tools may be somewhat outdated nowadays, their choices, ideas and tips are still refreshing. Here's what I use.

Desktop

At home I use an ordinary, nameless PC of a few years old.

• Debian Stable with the XFCE desktop environment. Together this makes a stable and lighweight system.
• LyX, my favorite document processor (see my article).
• LibreOffice, mainly Calc en Writer (for reading incoming documents).
• IceDove: a rebranded version of Thunderbird for backing up e-mails.
• VLC Media Player
• Rhythmbox for organising music and downloading podcasts.
• Calibre for organising e-books.
• f.Lux for ergonomic purposes (see my review).
• Cooler Master Quickfire XT mechanical keyboard.

Laptop

At work, I use a laptop of my employer, Ordina. By the way, Ordina is an abbreviation of ordinateur, which is the French word for computer. In addition to the installed software, I use some portable applications. I carry 'my' laptop, along my other work-stuff, in a backpack of HP.

• Windows 7 + Security Essentials
• Office 2010, including Visio and Lync.
• PDF Creator for printing to PDF.
• LyX, my favorite document processor (see my article).
• FoxIt Reader: lightweight PDF Reader (in stead of Adobe Reader).
• FreeMind: mind mapping software.
• Executor: an excellent and lightweight application launcher (see my article).
• WorkRave: anti-RSI software  (see my review).
• f.Lux for ergonomic purposes (see my review).
• MW Snap to create screenshots.
• VLC Portable Media Player.

Netbook

Furthermore, I own a Acer Aspire A110 netbook. My software of choice for this machine is Puppy Linux. This is a very light weight operating system completely running in RAM. I use the netbook mostly for surfing the internet.

Browser and web apps

Both at home and at work, my browsers of choice are Iron and Firefox. The fox is heavily tweaked. Adblock Plus and HTTPS Everywhere are added to both browsers. At work I use Readability about which I wrote earlier. As mentioned elsewhere, I use bookmarklets, for instance to share articles or to translate them.

On the web I use GMail along with Rapportive, Feedly (since Google Reader stopped), Blogger and Diigo. And ofcourse, the social media mentioned on my profile.

Phone

Although my employer gave me a smartphone, I still like... the Nokia 6310i. It's reliable, easy to use, has a good battery life (even after years of intensive usage) and... enables me to call and to be called. Apart from work, it's the best choice for outdoor and sporting activities, like randonneuring.

What about you? Which gear do you use?

Readability

We read a lot on the internet nowadays. News sites, blogs, social media, etc. Are you distracted on many sites by blinking ads, news tickers, tweets and so on? I do. Therefore, I use Readability. According to its makers...

"READABILITY turns any web page into a clean view for reading now or later on your computer, smartphone, or tablet."

That's just what it does. And it does it prety well. Let's get an example. Here's an article on MakeUseOf.

And here's the same article, using Readability. Notice the difference?

Just text and pictures. Nothing else. Lines are also smaller which require less eye movements. I like it very much for deep reading. It's less suited for searching and scanning information.

It's also possible to save articles for later reading, sharing them on social media, e-mailing them and sending them to your e-reader. Readability is available for free as an add-on for popular browsers like Firefox/Iceweasel, Chrome/Chromium/Iron, a bookmarklet for any web browser, an app for Android and iOS and - last but not least - an webapp.

Happy reading!

Keyboard layouts

In my Cheaper by the dozen review, I wrote about the typing lessons in the Gilbreth household. I guess they used a QWERTY keyboard layout. It's the de facto standard. I know, there are exceptions like AZERTY in French speaking countries and QWERTZ among German oriented nations. Not to mention non-Latin script countries where other characters are needed. But why is QWERTY (still) so popular? Is it efficient? And what about preventing Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)?

Back in the early 1870's, Remington introduced their first typewriter developed by Christopher Sholes. It only printed capitals. During the evolvement of the machine, the keyboard evoluated. At first, the keys were alphabetically sorted on what's now called the home row, i.e the row of keys where the fingers are in rest. However, when typing speeds went up, they faced frequent typehead jams. The engineers tackled this problem by rearranging the keys in a way the most frequent used ones were placed apart. They experimented till less jams occured. Their solution was the QWE.TY layout. It's said that they finally changed it to QWERTY to enable their salesmen (...) to type TYPE WRITER from the top row.

Frank Mc.Gurrin invented touch typing. He won a typing contest in 1888 using a QWERTY keyboard. His opponent was a four finger typist who used a Caligraph 2, a machine equipped with separate keys for lower case and upper case letters. The match was covered in the newspapers which spread not only the news but also the opinion that QWERTY was most efficient.

The Scientific keyboard was introduced in 1893. The most common used letters in English were situated along the bottom row with the most common ones in the center. However, QWERTY continued to be the choice for businesses, those days the buyers of typewriters.

In 1932, dr. August Dvorak ("duh-VOR-ack") of the University of Washington and his brother-in-law aimed to enhance typings speeds. They developed the Dvorak simplified keyboard by moving around 31 keys. Studies showed significant improvements for typing English texts altough others questioned these results. In favour of Dvorak it needs to be said that recent studies confirmed the enhancements. However, Dvorak didn't become popular as businesses and typists were used to QWERTY. Furthermore, investments were low as many countries faced the Great Depression and World War II broke out.

The Dvorak simplified keyboard (picture: Wikipedia)

After the appearance of PC's and laptops on the desks at work and at home, a new interest in ergonomic keyboards arose. In 2000 Håkon Hallingstad introduced Arensito. It's suited for heavy use of special characters. Two year later, Peter Klausler created his keyboard. Michael Capewell invented Capewell in 2005 and designed optimized versions of QWERTY (C-QWERTY) and Dvorak (Capewell-Dvorak). In 2006 David Piepgrass showed the world Asset and Shai Coleman invented Colemak In 2010 O.J. Bucao introduced Workman and David Norman showed the world Norman. That's a whole bunch! Are they really better? And which one to choose? It depends. duhh

There's no best solution for everyone. Your choice depends on several factors. First of all: what's your purpose? Are you programming or writing? In which language? Secondly, how many time will you invest to learn a new keyboard layout? And last but not least: what's important to you? The distance covered? The number of 'hits' on the home row? Minimizing vertical or lateral movements?

If you're unsure, there are several applications available to measure your typing habits like Martin Krzywinski's carPalx and the Keyboard Layout Analyzer. The first mentioned, is also able to design your ultimate keyboard. carPalx and Norman published studies of the enhancements of the different keyboards according to QWERTY. Their results show amazing enhancements of total effort.

Source: carPalx and Norman

My keyboard of choice is Colemak along with a mechanical keyboard. First of all, it has the highest score. It's also relative easy to learn as its creator moved only 17 keys from the QWERTY layout, keeping  ZXCV in place. As an avid user of shortcuts, I often use these.  To learn Colemak, I enjoyed a good training in 9 days for free!

Colemak (picture: Wikipedia)

Back to our questions. Why is QWERTY still popular? Based on the studies cited above, it's not because of effiency. I guess, it's about standardization: 'everyone' uses it, so 'everyone' teaches it, 'everyone' buys it and so on. I presume there's also a correlation between typing efficiency and the risk of getting RSI. Therefore it could be interesting to investigate the differences between Workman, which aims to mininmize lateral finger movements, and the others whose focus is on minimizing vertical movements. I've still one question left. Did Dvorak suffer typehead jams? In neither of the articles and studies I read, it was mentioned. Do you know the answer?

Which keyboard layout do you use?

Enjoy!

Edit: One of our readers attended us on an informative article about RSI.

Cheaper by the dozen (book review)

Cheaper by the Dozen
Frank B. Gilbreth jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Harpertorch, 1948

Recently I reviewed Mind performance hacks and suggested how to learn Morse code. In that post, I mentioned Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth which I'll review now.

This book is about Frank Gilbreth sr. and his family. He and his wife Lillian were blessed with twelve children. Gilbreth was an early scientific management advocate and efficiency expert. He started his career as a bricklayer. Within a year, he designed a rack which made him the fastest of his colleaguaes. Later on, he became a building contractor. He was always looking for opportunities to turn down unnecessary movements. His personnel worked so efficient that after building a factory, many companies hired him to optimise their business processes.

Gilbreth often took along his children to his office and even to his customers. He applied his efficiency principles also at home turning his family life in sort of a laboratory. He filmed his descendants washing the dishes to optimise this activity. He also taught the kids to wash themselves in one (!) move and to tighten the buttons of their clothes from below to the top which is quicker then the other way around. Every child had to do some odd tasks which should be administered on labour cards. There were committees for services, purchasing and utilisation in which the children were responsible for some aspects of the household.

When working for Remington, Gilbreth brought home a white type writer. He coloured the fingers of the eldest kids and let them exercise on a dummy keyboard. After some practise, he allowed them to the machine. As the keys were plain, the kids were on their own. On every mistake, he 'hit' the young ones with a pencil on their head. He organised an inhouse competition and would have taken the winner to a national contest if mother hadn't objected. However, he filmed the kids - conscientiously avoiding the pencil - and soon they appeared  in cinema journals.

Cheaper by the Dozen contains many examples like these mentioned above. It's humorous and easy to read. It's also a business book with a wink, containing nice insights.

Later on Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth - two of the children - wrote also Belles on Their Toes in which they describe their family live after their father had passed away. There are also several movies about this family. I like the eldest.

Happy reading!

Learn Morse code

Last week, I reviewed Mind Performance Hacks. In this post, I'll feature # 53 Learn Morse code like an efficiency expert. Wikipedia defines Morse code as

"a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment".

Here's the alphabet and the numbers.

Picture: Wikipedia

Simple, isn't it? But how would one learn the code? In Mind Performance Hacks, Hale-Evans mentions Frank Gilbreth, an early scientific management advocate and efficiency expert. Gilbreth was blessed with twelve children. Two of them wrote Cheaper by the Dozen (my review) and Belles on Their Toes about the household. These books cover their family life including many efficiency tricks Gilbreth learned his kids. He taught them for example to wash themselves efficiently in the meanwhile studying foreign languages by listening to recordings.

During summer, Gilbreth taught his childeren Morse. In their holiday home, he wrote the alphabet on the walls (...). Then he added keywords, whose accents were a reminder of the code for the various letters like DAN-ger-ous, dash-dot-dot, DAN-ger-ous. Unfortunately only four of Gilbreth's study aids are left (for A till D). Therefore I'll use another set of mnemonics in this post. I like these as they are linked to the NATO phonetic alphabet.

For visual minded people - and who is'nt? - there's also another reminder.

Picture: Wikipedia

Have you ever used Morse? How dit you learn it?

Enjoy!

Lifehacking

Last week, I wrote about lifehacking. Recently I found a video of Epipheo with a short explanation. They interviewed Whitson Gordon of Lifehacker.com.

Happy lifehacking!

Workrave

Workrave is a program that assists in the prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). It alerts it's users to take a break frequently. Therefore it distinguishes micro-pauses and rest breaks. It also restricts the daily limit.

By default a 30 second micro-pause warning occurs after 3 minutes of using the keyboard and/or mouse. Workrave suggests a 10 minute rest break after 45 minutes of computer use. However, all preferences can be changed easily. Installing and configuration is simple as the menus are easy to understand.

Screenshot: Workrave

This software is a great aid to working healthy. However, when busy, it's very annoying to be confronted with the sheep. Therefore, I turn Workrave off sometimes. Workrave consumes on my (desktop) computer about 8 MB of RAM.

Workrave is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. It can be downloaded for free at the Workrave website. So, let's take a break. ;-) Do you use anti-RSI software?

Enjoy!

Mind performance hacks (book review)

Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain

Ron Hale-Evans

O'Reilly, 2006

Here's my next book review and again, it's not a new book. Nevertheless, I think Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans is interesting. It's more or less a continuation of Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb. The book contains 75 brain hacks. Just as I wrote earlier, this way of hacking has nothing to do with criminal activities. As the author states:

"Mind performance hacks are a technology as new as the newest smart drugs and as old as language. In the broadest sense, every time you learn something, you're hacking your brain. This book is designed to help you learn to hack your brain intentionally, safely, and productively."

Hale-Evans describes every hack in the same structure. It's possible to read the entire book at once or just the hacks that might interest you. They are grouped by theme.

• Memory
• Information processing
• Creativity
• Math
• Decision making
• Communication
• Clarity
• Mental fitness

Among others, the author learns his readers how to overcome the tip-of-the-tongue effect (# 12), to speak your brain's language (# 15) including why that's useful and to hold a question in mind (# 30) when solving a complex problem. Other examples are to put down the calculator (# 35) using some simple tricks and warming up your brain (# 66) before getting busy.

Reading the entire book - I really did - I learned some interesting things. As the author added also additional resources like reports, books and websites, the book contains tons of information. There's also the Mentat Wiki for still more information. However some of the tips and tricks, I'll never use as they seem useless to me or I simply don't like them. An example of these, is playing boardgames (# 67). Being a Christian, I neither like the hacks in chapter 7, Clarity. Therefore my advice is to read Mind Performance Hacks and use the hacks you like and/or are useful to you.

Did you read this book? What's your opinion about it?

Happy reading!

Lifehacking?

Some years ago, I used to work with Lotus Notes. In my opionion still the best software for knowledge workers. Their slogan was (is?) Work smarter, not harder. Since then, I kept their motto in mind.

This post is not a software review. It's about lifehacking. You may have noticed, I mention the term several times at my blog. But what is lifehacking about? At first, I won't give you an exact definition as the concept is not as easy to outline. Wikipedia doesn't either; it only describes the term.

Well, lifehacking is about doing things smarter. Not only at work but also in every day life. With or without tools. It's about saving time, money or both. Like tying your shoes efficiently, training your brain or finding the true north without a compass. There are also many computer related lifehacks like keeping your inbox empty, using keyboard shortcuts or an application launcher. Let's watch the TED Talk Smart in business, fun in life!, by Bert Verdonck to clarify the subject further.

Let's be clear: lifehacking is not about breaking in in computers, stealing private data and/or criminal activities. In fact a hack is a smart solution, often - but not exclusively - used by software developers.

The term life hack was introduced by Danny O'Brien, an English technology journalist. Later on, the words were merged into lifehacking. People started sharing their thoughts, tips and tricks. Merlin Mann started 43 folders, Leon Ho Lifehack.org, Gina Trapani Lifehacker.com and Leo Babauta Zen Habits. Among others, these websites provide tons of information, tips and tricks about the subject. 

As you may know, I am an avid book reader. Luckily there are plenty books about lifehacking. For instance: David Allen wrote Getting Things Done, Gina Trapani and Adam Pash Lifehacker and - last but not least - Leo Babauta The Power of Less and Focus. Later on, I'll publish a list with recommended lifehacking books and some reviews.

Are you a lifehacker? Do you have interesting tips or tricks to share? Don't hesistate to post a comment below.

Happy lifehacking!

f.lux

F.lux is a tiny piece of software that adjusts the color of a computer display to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

After installing f.lux which is a piece of cake, you have enter your location. The software adjusts the color and brightness of the monitor according to these daylight settings and actual time.

Screenshot: f.lux

It took me little time to get used to the new display settings. It's less bright at night and a bit 'warmer'. Since I experienced it's less tiring for my eyes, I won't live without it. Nor at work, nor at home. F.lux consumes on my (desktop) computer about 5 MB of RAM.

F.lux is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. It can be downloaded for free at the f.lux website.

Enjoy!