Jay’s Weblog

I’ve been a fervent follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system for managing my personal and work life. I started using the GTD system about a year ago after purchasing David’s book from Amazon (More than 30 customers who bought this book have left favourable reviews). I won’t explain how the GTD system works, but you can get more information from here, here, and here. In my opinion, the most beneficial feature of GTD is that it allows me to capture and consolidate EVERYTHING I need to do in a systematic and logical workflow OUTSIDE of my head. This system has worked wonders for me in terms of productivity and stress reduction.

I started practising the GTD system using a combination of two physical in-trays (for bills, lists), some folders (Projects, lists, reference, Maybe), Mail, and iCal. However, I am now looking to modify my current GTD system as I now work on my Powerbook at home and my desktop machine in the office. An ideal system would be a web-based system that is both accessible from both the home and the office. These are some of the GTD systems that I have come across :

• GTDTiddlyWiki functions as a single dynamic HTML page (with some cool javascript) that you download and save on your PC/thumbdrive. It is fast, flexible, and easily customisable.
• MonkeyGTD TiddlyWiki is another standalone HTML application. The interface looks much better and than GTDTiddlyWiki and even adds support for notifications.
• Remember the Milk is a free online AJAX organiser that seamlessly combines Google maps (for location based tasks), SMS reminders, and tagging. Plenty of features but you need to register for a free account.

I’m currently experimenting with MonkeyGTD as I don’t like the idea of having personal ’stuff’ on someone else’s server. At least with MonkeyGTD or GTDTiddlyWiki, I can carry them on my pen-drive.

This week saw some interesting developments in social networks.

Why join MySpace and Friendster when you can easily create your own social network with the newly re-launched Ning. Now anyone and not just developers can easily create and maintain their own social network. You can see a video interview with the two founders of Ning (one of which is Marc Andresson who founded Netscape). There is also a brief video by Gina Bianchini (The other co-founder of Ning) showing how easy it is to create a social network using Ning.

The other interesting development is the integration of social networks and mobile phones with the recent beta release of Jaiku. Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar previews Jaiku and has the following to say:

The client app is available for Nokia Series 60 phones (over 100 million deployed). Once loaded it checks the contact database and checks for fellow Jaiku members. Once members are found they are added to your network and their listing gains a lot of new data and functionality. It gives you the following additional information about your Jaiku contacts:

• Availability - Green if the phone is on; Red if their phone is off. Also lists phone status such as silent, talking, and ringer on.
• Latest Post - Just like on IM, Jaiku users can set a status message that can be viewed by any of their contacts. They can also route other feeds to their status message (like their blog or Flickr feed). This can be done via SMS, the Jaiku website, or their newly released API.
• Location - User’s location is listed as the cell tower’s name. The name comes from Jaiku users. The one for ETel is “SFO Marriot - SFO Airport” The cell towers aren’t geocoded (though that may come in the future).
• People Nearby - This shows other nearby Jaiku users (this is detected via BlueTooth).
• Calendar - What you’re doing next

It has been a long time since I used Windows for work and software development. In the past five years, I have exclusively used Windows for games and nothing else. Most of my work were done on Linux servers and on my trusty Powerbook running Mac OS X. So it has been quite a change for me to start using Windows as my primary working environment at my workplace.

The transition to using Windows has been made relatively easy with the help of some available tools that I had read about previously. Most of these tools provide/mimic the functionality offered by Linux and Mac OS X. These include :

• VirtuaWin - A virtual desktop manager for windows. I need at least two workspaces to work efficiently - one for Mail/Communication and the other for web/terminals. I also create some keyboard shortcuts to change desktops so that I can switch desktops without my hands leaving the keyboard. This is particularly effective if you need to view documentation while coding/scripting.
• AppRocket - A Mac Quicksilver clone for Windows. This allows me to access programs and files without going through my cluttered Start Menu.
• Cygwin - The standard Windows command prompt sucks. Cygwin offers a full suite of common UNIX utilities including the BASH shell.
• Putty - A telnet/SSH client for windows.

What I still miss :

• Expose - A feature in Mac OS X that allows me to display(tile) all open windows as thumbnails - very useful when I have 15+ windows open. A similar feature exists in Vista but then I’m using XP.
• Spotlight - Windows Find doesn’t even come close and is terribly slow. Spotlight gets results in seconds, and presents them in an intuitive interface that allows me to easily narrow down my search even further.

So , do any of you Linux/Mac geeks use Windows at work ? if so, what tools/apps do you use to get some of the missing functionality available in Linux/Mac ?

It has been a hectic yet rewarding week. I was really surprised at how fast things are moving and the speed at which things get done at my new workplace. It took me only a day to get my e-mail, phone, and PC all sorted out, and the next day I was already logging into the servers to get stuff done. My colleagues are really friendly and were really helpful in showing me the ropes. The stuff that I am (and will be) working on all seems really exciting, and I get free reign to work on my own projects as well. I don’t think I will ever regret leaving academia for the Industry.

Shawn and Yeng Yee came down to East London for dinner during the weekend. After some excellent and fiery Briyani at the Fast food joint near Stepney Green station, we headed down to Canary Wharf. The scenery around Canary Riverside is really nice especially the view of London city along the River Thames.

In a nutshell, this has been a really great first week for me. I can’t remember the last time since I was looking forward to a Monday .

Today is my last day at The University of Manchester. Next week I will be starting my new job in London.

New challenges, new environment, new friends, new career - I’m really excited about this job. Wish me luck .