My Life in Practice http://mylifeinpractice.com This is my life. This is my blog. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:44:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 GTD with Windows Mobile http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/13/gtd-with-windows-mobile/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/13/gtd-with-windows-mobile/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:36:25 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=817 Every now and then I refocus my time and organisation efforts on “GTD” and ensuring that I have the tools I need to Get Things Done. I have several tools at my disposal that I use regularly on a personal basis: Evernote, Delicious, and my Windows Mobile PDA phone (the HTC Tilt 2). The nice thing about Evernote and Delicious is that they are incredibly portable. The nice thing about the Tilt 2 is that it is also very portable, and happens to run Windows. Unfortunately (?) I no longer run Windows as an Operating System at home, having instead made the switch to Linux, so syncing the phone with Outlook is not possible for me.

A couple weeks ago my wife and I had a distressing realisation one Wednesday morning: All the children had at least one, if not two, scheduled activities for the day, such as dentist and/or orthodontist appointments, teacher visits, etc. And, to make matters even more interesting, I had 5 hours of work meetings that day. At that point I vowed that we should never run into that dilemma again.

I already put all my personal calendar items in Google Calendar (yes, it is a good thing I’m a very boring person, because Google knows about everything there is to know about me), and I already sync my Google Calendar with my phone (Google has instructions here). The problem we ran into is that my wife did not have access to my Lotus Notes calendar at work to view my work schedule, so had no idea just how many meetings I was inundated with.  This, I figured, had to stop.

Now, my wife does not have access to my phone on a routine basis (it’s usually on my hip), but I got to think of an overall GTD strategy to help us both out. The first course of action was to find a way to share my Notes calendar first with my wife and then, if at all possible, with my phone, and then find the other applications I need to stay in touch and keep everything critical organised.

Awesync Lotus Notes <-> Google Calendar Synchronisation

Once I got looking I actually found several programs that will sync a Lotus Notes calendar with other calendering solutions. The one I chose to work with right now is the currently-in-beta Awesync. Installation and configuration were a little confusing, but once I got it working it has so far worked very well. Awesync syncs my Notes calendar with my Google calendar (I have it set up for one way sync only – I do not want my Google calendar synced with my Notes calendar) and keeps it up to date. My wife then has access to my Google calendar to see what I’m doing when. And, further, with the ability to sync Windows Mobile calendar and contacts with Google, I can keep everything nicely up to date on my phone, too.

Task Management

Remember the Milk has a Windows Mobile app that allows syncing with its services. This does require the Professional version of RTM, but in my view the small cost is worth it. Remember the Milk also has a mobile version, but that does not integrate with the phone itself.

Google Sync

Google sync’s its calendar and contacts nicely with Windows Mobile.  I do not sync tasks, and have email set to be pulled to the phone. Though I’m not a big fan of reading email on a phone, I will if I need to. And I have used the phone’s ability to take a photo and send it in an email right away.

Instant Messaging

Palringo is a great instant messenger for Windows Mobile. It supports all the IM protocols I need (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN) and has a nice easy to use interface. Lotus has also finally supplied a mobile version of Sametime which I was able to obtain through my place of employment, so I really do have  all my IM clients with me all the time.

Evernote

This might be all too encompassing a statement, but I really don’t think any GTD process is complete without a good note-taking/keeping application, and Evernote is it. Windows Mobile does ship with OneNote Mobile, but being that I don’t have Microsoft Office, I have no need for it. Besides, the mobile version of Evernote is a wonderfully full featured client, with the ability to store typed and hand written notes, as well as photos. Plus, its search capabilities are excellent.

IM, Notes, Tasks, Calendar, all on Windows Mobile, and all syncing with online equivalents. My phone really is my best GTD friend.

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/13/gtd-with-windows-mobile/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Outdoors Bird http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/09/photo-of-the-day-outdoors-bird/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/09/photo-of-the-day-outdoors-bird/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:07:07 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=851 With spring we’re seeing not only more squirrels, but more birds. Often we have nests in the front trees. This might be one of the birds that builds a nest.

Camera: Sony a100

Focal length: 300mm

Effective focal length: 450mm

Exposure time: 0.025 (1/40)

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 400

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/09/photo-of-the-day-outdoors-bird/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Partial Moon http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/08/photo-of-the-day-partial-moon/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/08/photo-of-the-day-partial-moon/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:01:43 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=849 Yes, I’m back with the moon pictures. I like the moon as much as I like icicles.

Camera: Sony a100

Focal length: 210mm

Effective focal length: 315mm

Exposure time: 0.077 (1/13)

Aperture: f/29.0

ISO: 100

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Camera: Sony a100

Focal length: 50mm

Effective focal length: 75mm

Exposure time: 0.013 (1/80)

Aperture: f/3.5

ISO: 400

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/07/photo-of-the-day-fireplace/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Ceiling Light http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/06/photo-of-the-day-ceiling-light/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/06/photo-of-the-day-ceiling-light/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:53:58 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=844 I’ve been looking for ways to take “non-horizontal” photos. The grandfather clock a few days ago was interesting. I took the same approach to this ceiling light, and lied down on the floor.

Camera: Sony a100

Focal length: 60mm

Effective focal length: 90mm

Exposure time: 0.008 (1/125)

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 200

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/06/photo-of-the-day-ceiling-light/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Tetra Puppy http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/05/photo-of-the-day-tetra-puppy/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/05/photo-of-the-day-tetra-puppy/#comments Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:38:08 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=841 Today I got to play an act I neve thought I’d play before: that of hte 1960’s TV Dad bringing home a puppy to an unsuspecting gaggle of kids. It felt good.

This isn’t the best photo. It was taken in the car with my phone while I was driving home.

Camera: HTC-ST7377

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure time: 0.048 (1/21)

Aperture: f/2.5

ISO: 531

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/05/photo-of-the-day-tetra-puppy/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Grandfather Clock http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/04/photo-of-the-day-grandfather-clock/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/04/photo-of-the-day-grandfather-clock/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:21:19 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=838 Focal length: 26mm

Effective focal length: 39mm

Exposure time: 0.033 (1/30)

Aperture: f/4.5

ISO: 400

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/04/photo-of-the-day-grandfather-clock/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Hungry Squirrel http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/03/photo-of-the-day-hungry-squirrel/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/03/photo-of-the-day-hungry-squirrel/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:17:08 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=836

Focal length: 300mm

Effective focal length: 450mm

Exposure time: 0.002 (1.500)

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 400

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/03/photo-of-the-day-hungry-squirrel/feed/ 0 Photo of the Day: Squirrel in Yard http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/02/photo-of-the-day-squirrel-in-yard/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/02/photo-of-the-day-squirrel-in-yard/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:06:40 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=833 Most of the snow is gone, now, and the squirrels are finally coming out to play. We have a lot of squirrels out back.

Focal length: 300mm

Effective focal length: 450mm

Exposure time: 0.006 (1/160)

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 400

]]> http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/02/photo-of-the-day-squirrel-in-yard/feed/ 0 Mount ISO Image in Linux http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/02/mount-iso-image-in-linux/ http://mylifeinpractice.com/2010/03/02/mount-iso-image-in-linux/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:05:42 +0000 Victor Wiebe http://mylifeinpractice.com/?p=794 Ever wanted to mount an ISO image in Linux in a directory, instead of burning it to a CD/DVD first? Here’s how.

mount -o loop -t iso9660 <path/to/iso/file> <path/to/mount/point>

For example:

mount -o loop -t iso9660 /tmp/filename.iso /mnt/filename

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