Tag: GTD

Decryptable, only on fridays

Published February 29, 2008 by lievenlb

The mini-post Bill Gates’ favourite prime number, encrypted below, can only be read on a friday. Here’s why.

[BEGIN URLCRYPT decode at lce.xamai.ca/urlcrypt.php]

cScSYXdhkQUWRwVOMHzMMFdHwVdCU3VU5LcSNgXc
1VB2plVn7jPqxmJD51UWFETGVWUTR2XNNmH89EBH
M3EYxUAKcxOPoEVwcjJgUCGX4Bdd0xTkAFW2YVGi
YoEqs1FulUWaZRQCalJRd0Ix0iNq4BnAdERckxfE
VEMYpRGwM1MUIlJSN0Sd2VVXETUdFTZwUDq6IEVe
Z1EZFDFVlUIDx0Y+ZRYXQyWCREGWs0RIVzPItGGh
MDLSZFEXZFWqAWXFpSVUN2VjU1R4FGVCdlFdlVLM
VUl8czJlZCWDBRXc9jFhoFRrYVGmAFZhplViMRXd
x0SOFTGVoVM10zNgAhUYl1RTglKUIEKZh1N8dFIU
sVLGZnM1ITz6UnXBcXc1FncGwQBJYgACQ3BJUHC1
tweDMnBAcnBEsQ3KkwBk0VUmcSJ8N9eQoAEDlzOP
ljQF3CELZCUpEUWhZlKdFlSIdRZLBVMkA4Al9CXe
J3EW5VMvRRHoEFVqEVIQZ115YFWYYVc98kM4c9Zr
12drRURBB0EJL1KVFBaZl0YeECjUQUNdFFTLZFWh
gNGZRSMqAiLRNlXrZUVWMyWRcDRQRC5bBCFSlyRQ
sUWYM/Wu0lQlZTJl9GXQbVXaB1UhUVShglWZYiWw
QRWoMxVWBZUMl1NXZVZ2ESIpbDXU5lWTIELUsgyo
EFVqEVIQZVOWJIWYYVUXATXXhCMgoSZwk1XE5FQe
9iF6lmYukXYklmcmxHdpNXauc3d39yLmrDc0RHaA
5FQTYV5TZDFEtSSZ0yVss0QXkCVZBFGL5lYMtEQp
ADIq4CESh1BHNBUqQxEoEFXzAvQlQxUzYlXagRX5
8lFa8DSPlEIuk1rFB0EUUEIAB1AQIbT20lJVdBOS
NEGTdFTXETUdFTZ3QSVrABWYR0EfgCQZNladt0Jf
cTWYYSQo+lFdVFW2gET3YiprpWeANERbtxaitkRU
lSUcFTUXQhU+3iUVpnGjdxOaVRXhAyLmICWXMkUE
dqFoEVR3kkSjdFLkD0FtJAAIoAGR1ymYkVKkISZm
g1QQkYXaZxKRlFMQ0kNjBnT50DTCUQAA4w5CoXAB
IXd2NneDAJAJsQBCEXDJMHBOAQdEM3BFM3CIoQyM
EAAxpQB0Znc8NrdIAAET4gF14DPF4UPRdzWzQha5
YlOEdxYIh2P+50JnEDLxISXr12SWJkHwQxQhYkVj
ZVIa5VmnYFVY0lTFdzWV0NJlNyKqMkQQw1RbZEPG
JFZV9UMHdyEUQFKHBUUURlUidlVaVWIhYjISdxQ+
IFRWASWUxyUqNW5GpSUaRCVRZVW1p1FxwUXiwiFl
9SUfNUWUplcldkFwYlqWBTX2clXMkTPy8aNFowfF
gAe4lHeH4XDK0gDOsAeJwQq51AB+9QeJoAfOkUDF
UQBKgUNHByJjmCMtAhUdpVQGVmGRVULCxELEViUX
EsZAVFTZ93FuQFXdcgC

[END URLCRYPT]

One Comment

bookmarks tuesday cleanup

Published February 20, 2007 by lievenlb

Geeky Mom : Why am I blogging?. Been there before. Sooner or later
all non-pseudonomenous bloggers are faced with the same dilemmas.
There’s really no answer or advice to give except : blog when you feel
like it, if not do something different, after all its just one of those
billion of blogs around.

Texmaker : another
LaTeX-frontend, possibly having a few extras such as : a structure-pane
including labels you gave to formulas, theorems etc. (click on them
brings you to them). Intend to use it now as I’m in another rewrite of
the never-ending-book..

Microformats : “Designed for
humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open
data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.” May
have another look.

Quicksilver : a recurring
link. At times when I feel learning key-strokes may save me a lot of
time I have (another) go at Quicksilver. Last week, Ive reinstalled this
blog more or less post by post and used keystrokes to send a line in the
SQL-file of the database dump of NEB as a clipping to Scrivener to
MultiMarkdown it further. I used the app Service Scrubber
to define my own key-strokes. Must have another go at Quicksilver soon.
Im sure it distinguishes ‚”power mac users” from the rest of
us.

List of GTDTools : a good list of GTD-software. I’m probably just
too chaotic for GTD to improve my workflow but somehow I cannot resist
trying some of these things out.

LifeDEV : One of those sites that tells
me I should take GTD more seriously

DoIt : One of
these GTD-tools. It is said to go well with Quicksilver, so maybe, one
day.

Think
: Here a little seemingly completely useless tool which works well (at
least for me). No, it does not make you think, but at least it helps you
while you are thinking (or doing anything a bit focussed). Install it
and enjoy! The principle is that it just blocks out all other open
windows (and there are keystrokes (yes, again) to get you quickly in
and out.) Besides, it looks great. It’s in my dock and this says it
all

Thinkature :
a brainstorming tool. Dont know why I did bookmark this. Perhaps one
day, a few years from now

Stafford Talk :
a talk by Toby Stafford I came across by accident. Maybe there are other
interesting talks on the site?

Science Scouts : a great
idea! Give yourself badges for how well you do science (or talk/write
about science). Have to collect my badges soon. I’m sure this only
works for people with a scouting-history, but who
knows?

MacResearch : Here’s a site
that may become useful. MacResearch.org is an open and independent
community for scientists using Mac OS X and related hardware in their
research. It is the mission of this site to cultivate a knowledgeable
and vibrant community of researchers to exchange ideas and information,
and collectively escalate the prominence of Apple technologies in the
scientific research community. They have some interesting articles
and tutorials on e.g. DevonThink and BibDesk etc. Worth to
revisit.

Jennifer in love : well‚ should I say something about this?
probably best not.

Breakthrough CLI : another pamphlet in favor of the Command Line! A
must read for those who perfer GUIs to CLIs.

p>CLI – the
site : Rod is working hard on CLI-20. Whenever he releases version
2.0, neverendingbooks will be among the first sites to run it. I still
love the idea.

Why do I bother? : an n-category post I got briefly interested in,
but was somehow flooded by professional
math-philosophers

Newton Legacy Reviewed : just that, a first review
on the next bookmark.

the Newton
Legacy : a free online book, a murder mystery with a physics touch.
Perhaps this is the best investment of time/energy : write a popular
science book rather than another paper. Read half way through it (sorry
but not the best prose Ive read so far), may continue but was held up
reading a (real) murder mystery Equinox featuring also Newton and
alchemy (must be in the air somehow), also not the best mystery read
so far

Stalking with Googleearth
: no comment

(to be continued)

Leave a Comment

the efficient academic

Published January 10, 2006 by lievenlb

Can
software help mathematicians to keep up with the neverending (sic) flood
of new research material? In the past I touched this already… Recently, there is a new fairly active Google group
the
efficient academic which describes its interests as

Professors, Instructors, and Graduate Students
interested in getting things done more easily and quickly. We discuss
organization, task management, and tools that helps us to be more
productive and not procrastinate. We tend to discuss David Allen’s
GTD system but not exclusively. (278 members)

Personally, I think GTD is far too management-driven to be useful in
research, but I’m equally convinced that there are nice programs
around that I have to delve deeper into, in particular DevonThinkPro.
Fortunately, Serkan Cabi has
written two interesting posts on applications of DevonThink to
physics-research :

which can help me a bit. In the second post
appears another useful resource for the average desperate present-day
ringtheorist. Joanna Karczmarek
can help you to put the Hep-th
on Your Harddrive. A mere 8Gb containing all material published on
hep-th over the years, just waiting to be put in a database-tool like
DevonThink or, if you still need an excuse to buy one, on your iPod to
read on your daily commute…

Leave a Comment

mind on tracks

Published May 2, 2005 by lievenlb

I just
started putting my mind on tracks but it will take
me a couple of days to offload most of the crap that keeps me awake at
night. There are three main components to Tracks: Next actions, Contexts
and Projects.

“Contexts are very flexible, and can
be places, states of mind or modes of working in which actions can be
taken. Next actions can be assigned to and sorted by context so that you
know when you are able to make progress with items. e.g. “Library”,
“Shops” or “Tired”.” So far I added only 10 contexts : _@inbox_,
_@books_, _@email_, _@home_, _@neverending_,
_@courses_, _@other_, _@papers_, _@computer_
and _@personal_. Probably I’ll have to add others such as
_@refereeing_ etc.

“Projects : any goal
which requires more than one next action to take it to completion is a
Project. In Tracks, you can view your next actions by Project.” So far I
added the first few things that came to mind ranging from small-easy
things such as _Learn
VoodooPad_ over _Paper with Jan_ to neverending-things
like Write nag@n !

“Next
actions : These are the heart of GTD. They are the very next
physical action that can be taken on something. It’s best to phrase
these in an active way e.g. “Call Bob about the committee meeting” or
“Search for a reputable garage”.” Up to now I merely added the next
foreseeable action in each project together with a few urgent persoanl
matters. It is a good idea to give each of these a deadline so they
appear on the screen with a color-code giving the date and red (urgent),
orange (coming up) to green (some day). I realize I’ve been rather
relaxed about my projects so far!

More information on tracks can
be found here. Try it
out!

One Comment

tracks

Published April 27, 2005 by lievenlb

Perhaps I
can surprise you by admitting that I’ve spend a lot of time lately
getting through Getting Things Done:
The Art of Stress-free Productivity, 250+ pages of management
babble. Probably you will even be shocked when I tell you that this book
is published in the same series as _Body Talk at Work_,
_Corporate Charisma_, _More Time Less Stress_, _Mrs
Moneypenny : Survival in the City_ and more of these. All in all, it
wasn’t so bad. It is a bit pompous at times, could be 50% condensed but
I wanted to find out first hand what all the GTD hype
was about (see this post for
some of the more interesting links).

I’m not looking for a miracle
method to become more productive or focussed (although I wouldn’t mind
either at the moment). No, my main motivation is simply : I want to be
able to sleep better!

This requires some explaining. The last
couple of months, I regularly wake up in the middle of the night and as
there are plenty of things on my mind, I start brooding on them and,
more often than not, loose a couple of hours sleep/night. And these
quickly add up! Now, the basis of the GTD-mantra is getting all the
_stuff_ out of your head to reach the _mind like water_
state whatever that means. And I can see some sense in putting all your
current projects and worries somewhere on paper or computer, setting up
a system that forces you to read through these lists at regular
intervals, plan _next actions_ and update the lists accordingly.
If you trust this system it just may free your mind from all the
stuff!

At a later stage I may end up setting up such a system
following the suggestions of the
DevonThink Forum or using
VoodooPad but at the moment all I want is to offload my mind as
quickly as possible to a GTD-able database.

Fortunately, But She’s a Girl has
compiled such a system : Tracks, a GTD Web
Application. At first I did the mistake following the generic
install instructions and quickly got lost in downloading packages from
SourceForge etc. until I found that there was an easy Mac OS X
Install Page. There is a Ruby and Rails .dmg
package but first you have to install Tcl/Tk Aqua. After these
easy steps, you have to follow the install man page which involves setting up a MySQL database and
filling it with the required tables (I have been using
phpmyadmin for this, but discovered in the process CocoaMySQL which makes all
this even simpler). Finally, you have to get to prompt-level and type
the magic commands

_cd Sites/tracks_

_ruby
script/server “”environment=production” port=3030_

(note
to self : make this a StartUp item as otherwise you have to redo this
step whenever you want to add material). Then,
_http://127.0.0.1:3030/login/signup_ gets you to a nice
webpage-interface and you can start to offload your mind of
_stuff_. I’ll report later whether it did have any effect at
all!.

Leave a Comment

markdown

Published April 17, 2005 by lievenlb

The nerd
implimentation of GTD is based on plain text-files, or more
precisely

– all lists in text files, kept in directory
“~/Documents/txt”
– all documents maintained in Markdown for easy
HTML conversion

I’ve been writing HTML-code since the times
that the best browser around was something called NCSA Mosaic so I’ve never paid too much attention to
Markdown
before. Here is its main purpose

Markdown is a
text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to
write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then
convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or >HTML). Thus, Markdown is
two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool,
written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to
HTML.

An example of Markdown-code followed by its
HTML-output can be seen at the BlueCloth website and I have
to agree that the Markdown text is very legible. I’ve been playing
around with Markdown for a couple of days now (in fact this post is
written in Markdown as WordPress has a Markdown-plugin) and have found a
few uses for it (more on this another time). Essential sites to visit if
you want to learn some Markdown are : its basic
syntax and in the rare cases that this doesn’t do what you want to
do there is also a full
syntax page.

If you want to use Markdown to write your
HTML-pages you need to be able to convert Markdown to HTML (and
conversely although the uses for this are not immediately clear, but
there are plenty of good reasons!). That’s what the
Markdown.pl Perl-script does for you (one way) and the
Python-script html2text.py (to be found here) (the other
way).

To get them working using BBedit
all you have to do is to put them in the _BBEdit Support/Unix
Support/Unix Filters_ directory (to be found in the BBEdit-folder in
_/Applications_). Then, if you have written a Markdown-text, do a
_Select All_ go to the !# menu and look for
Markdown.pl under _Unix Filters_ and voila, you have valid XHTML
(the other direction is similar).

This is a bit of work and one
would like to do both operations in nearly all Applications using the
_Services Menu_ (in fact, until a few weeks ago I had no clue
that there was something as useful as this menu hidden under the
program-name-menu of any Cocoa-program!). This is best done using HumaneText.service. The
installation is really as siimple as they say on this page (although it
took me a couple of trials before it worked, and I use the Services-menu
rather than the keystroke-shortcuts).

HumaneText works perfectly with TextEdit,
SubEthaEdit and (probably more important to mathematicians) TeXShop and
iTeXMac (the two most common front-ends for (La)TeX under OS X). A
noteworthy exception is BBEdit (hence the above laborious work-around).
Sometimes there are problems with punctuation in the conversion but you
can get around this using SmartyPants.

Leave a Comment

GMD

Published April 14, 2005 by lievenlb

I’m always
extremely slow to pick up a trend (let alone a hype), in mathematics as
well as in real life. It took me over a year to know of the existence of
_blogs_ and to realize that they were a much easier way to
maintain a webpage than manually modifying HTML-pages. But, eventually I
sometimes get there, usually with the help of the mac-dev-center. So, once again,
I read their gettings things done with your mac article long after it was
posted and completely unaware of the Getting Things Done (or GTD) hype.

At first, it just
sounds as one of those boring managament-nonsense-peptalk things (and
probably that is precisely what it generically is). Or what do you think
about the following resume from Getting
started with ‘Getting things done’ :

identify all the
stuff in your life that isn√ït in the right place (close all open
loops)
get rid of the stuff that isn√ït yours or you don√ït
need right now
create a right place that you trust and that
supports your working style and values
put your stuff in the
right place, consistently
do your stuff in a way that honors
your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment
iterate and refactor mercilessly

But in fact there is
also some interesting material around at the 43 folders website which bring this
management-talk closer to home such as the How does a
nerd hack GTD? post.

Also of interest are his findings after
a year working with the GTD setup. These are contained in three posts :
A Year
of Getting Things Done: Part 1, The Good Stuff, followed by A Year of
Getting Things Done: Part 2, The Stuff I Wish I Were Better At to
end with A Year of
Getting Things Done: Part 3, The Future of GTD?. If these three
postings don’t get you intrigued, nothing else will.

So, is
there something like _GMD : Getting Mathematics Done_? Clearly, I
don’t mean getting theorems proved, that’s a thing of a few seconds of
inspiration and months to fill in the gaps. But, perhaps all this GTD
and the software mentioned can be of some help to manage the
everyday-workflow of mathematicians, such as checking the arXiv and the
web, maintaining an email-, pdf- and BiBTeX-database, drafting papers,
books and courses etc.

In the next few weeks I’ll try out some
of the tricks. Probably another way to state this is the question “which
Apps will survive Tiger?” Now that it is official that Tiger (that is, Mac
10.4 to non-apple eaters) will be released by the end of the month it is
time to rethink which of the tools I really like to keep and which is
just useless garbage I picked up along the road. For example, around
this time last year I had a Perl
phase and bought half a meter or so of O’Reilly Perl-books. And yes
I did write a few simple scripts, some useful such as my own arXiv RSS-feeds,
some not so useful as a web-spider I wrote to check on changes in the
list of hamepages of people working in non-commutative algebra and
geometry. A year later I realize I’ll never become a Perl Monk. So from now on I want to
make my computer-life as useful and easy as possible, relying on wizards
to provide me with cool software to use and help me enjoy mathematics
even more. I’ll keep you posted how my GMD-adventure goes.

Leave a Comment