Johnny Chadda

Writing

Articles, notes, links, and photos in one place.

A new approach to calendars

I have been thinking about ways to make my current GTD setup more efficient. One thing that makes it hard to keep on track and focus are interruptions and the way one has no control over them. At work, we use the standard calendar features…

Article19 Oct 20102 min read

Forced to use the iPad for better or worse

What happens to most users at least once, has now happened to me too. A couple of days ago, when resuming my Macbook Pro from sleep, it woke up as usual, but the screen would not come on. I digged around a bit and found that this is a…

Article17 Sept 20102 min read

Say hello to the iPad

I was considering buying an iPad, but I have to say that I was very sceptical about what it can do and whether I would have any use for it. After some deep pondering and a bit of gambling however, I decided to get one anyway. The 32Gb 3G…

Article28 Jul 20102 min read

GTD Implementation Guide

secure.davidco.com

David Allen’s GTD Implementation Guide is a just-released PDF guide to help those who have read Getting Things Done to take it to the next level. There is a lot more detail to all steps of the process and how much time it is expected to take. It can be thought of as a part two of the book.

I am looking forward to reading this as soon as I get the time!

Link25 May 2010

Rethinking Email

I have been a long-time Gmail user and prefer using their web interface for my personal email, which I love for a number of reasons. For instance, when receiving a new reply to an archived email, the entire conversation is always shown…

Article25 May 20105 min read

FogBugz 7.3 Now Available

fogcreek.com

FogBugz 7.3 Now Available. Highlights include:

  • New Plugin: Case Event Edit
  • New Feature: Bulk Reply
  • Upgraded Feature: Bulk Editing
  • Upgraded Plugin: Project Backlog
  • IMAP Support
  • Resizable Case View

… and lots of smaller features and fixes. See the site for details.

Link19 May 2010

Diaspora — The Open Facebook Alternative

joindiaspora.com

Diaspora is going to be an open Facebook alternative. Things coming in the first sprint:

  • Full-fledged communications between Seeds (Diaspora instances)
  • End to end GPG
  • External Service Scraping of most major services (reclaim your data)
  • Version 1 of Diaspora’s API with documentation
  • Public GitHub repository of all Diaspora code

It will be very interesting to see what they will make of this.

Link17 May 2010

Going from Things to Omnifocus

I have been a heavy Things users since the beginning, but there have always been certain features that I have found lacking, such as sub-projects and a distinction between areas of focus. Omnifocus has had all necessary features since I…

Article17 May 20101 min read

Developing Texts Like We Develop Software

freedom-to-tinker.com

This is an interesting article on how writing a book is in a way similar to software development.

There is something distinctive about how computer scientists write: we tend to use software development tools to “develop” our texts. This seems natural to us. A software program, after all, is just a big text, and the software developers are the authors of the text. If a tool is good for developing the large, complex, finicky text that is a program, why not use it for more traditional texts as well?

via Developing Texts Like We Develop Software

Link11 May 2010

Unity, and Ubuntu Light

markshuttleworth.com

Unity, and Ubuntu Light is a post from Mark Shuttleworth, describing the future of Ubuntu as a netbook and light web browsing operating system.

A few months ago we took on the challenge of building a version of Ubuntu for the dual-boot, instant-on market. We wanted to be surfing the web in under 10 seconds, and give people a fantastic web experience. We also wanted it to be possible to upgrade from that limited usage model to a full desktop.

He continues to talk about touch being a target input for this OS, so making it easy to navigate, changing applications with the touch of a finger has added to the design decisions.

Link11 May 2010

Habit Fields

alistapart.com

Habit Fields is an article from A List Apart, describing how different physical places assert certain behavior.

The more capable and multipurpose our tools become, the more the burden of deciding what they do shifts on us. Physical constraints must be replaced by artificial ones, and the effectiveness of our tools becomes an extension of our own willpower and self-discipline.

Just because you can have instant access at your fingertips doesn’t mean you should.

Link8 May 2010