Productivity Posts

Since going full-time as an iOS developer, I have worked from home exclusively. Sometimes I am asked why I am not open to travel. Beyond personal reasons like wanting to be home to spend time with my family, the most important reason is that my home office is designed for maximum productivity. My primary machine is a 2013 27" iMac with 32 GB of RAM. I use two external 27" LED Cinema Displays - one in portrait orientation - and I have a 15" Retina MacBook Pro open and running all of the time also. With this setup I can get a lot done very quickly. If I was to travel with just the MacBook Pro, it would significantly reduce my productivity. Simply put, my clients get the best return on their investment in my time when I work at this desk.

There was some kerfluffle today about telecommuting. Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, has recently banned employees from working from home. Apparently, she believes that working from home decreases productivity.

Ah, it feels good to be writing casually again. As some may know, I recently gave the Kindle for iPhone app a spin. I bought the latest book from Lincoln Child - Terminal Freeze - and I finished reading it on the iPhone last week. It actually is the first book I've finished in over a year. The reason I was finally able to start and finish a book is because when the book is on the iPhone, it's with you all the time. I was able to sneak a page here and there and almost everywhere until at last, there were no more pages. It was a bit different and I suspect the actual Amazon Kindle device would be a better experience but the simple fact is, I was able to finish a book because it was in electronic format on my phone.

All of my websites are in the process of migrating away from my homegrown blogging software - Exposition / Narrative / Rendition - in favor of the latest version of WordPress. The reason? Simply put, I am much more interested in blogging than the building of blogging software. I originally created Narrative because there wasn't a good blogging package for ASP.NET. Now, almost 6 years later, while I still work as a .NET architect, I spend all of my time on a Mac, which means I have access to a LAMP stack, etc. Anyway, you'll see a lot of changes here due to the conversion, the first of which is that comments are now open on all posts going forward.

I ordered a new MacBook Pro last week, the day the new hardware refresh was released. Actually, I spent a bunch of time running around to Apple stores to see if anyone had one in stock but no one did so I had to order mine custom from the Apple store.

Apple released the MacBook Air today. It is the world's thinnest laptop. At it's thickest, it is thinner than any other laptop's thinnest. It is a nice boon for the executive traveller who is tired of lugging around extra batteries and a heavy laptop. The MacBook Air weighs only 3 lbs. and has a battery that lasts 5 hours. That's a long battery life, really. My work laptop (not a Mac) has a 30 minute battery life and weighs 10 lbs. The MacBook Air has a full-size keyboard and a bright, clear 13.4" LCD screen.

When I commute to a client downtown, I have to take the Metra train. When I take the Metra train, I have to park in the Metra parking lot. Parking there used to cost $1.00 per day but was recently increased to $1.25. So instead of simply slipping a dollar bill into a payment slot, now I have to find the dollar bill and change. Who carries change in their pockets in the morning any more?!?!? Not me. If I use cash during the day and end up with change, I put it into a big change can at home at night for future deposit into the bank. I certainly do not grab a handful of change from the can on the way out the door in the morning, hoping to snare a quarter I can use for my parking fees.

At long last it is now possible to get your GMail by mobile phone. Just go to m.gmail.com and login. If you type this URL into a normal PC or Mac browser, you can see what you'll get in your mobile.

Recently, I realized that most of my monthly bills are for recurring services. Not including landline telephone bill, electric bill, or gas bill, my monthly service charges add up. These are the services I use which are business-related:

I like writing on the train, as mentioned in this previous post. However, it's nice to take a break and do other things sometimes. Here's a list of the other ways I pass time on the train.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I commute to the Chicago Loop now from West Dundee and that gives me almost 3 hours on the Metra Milwaukee District West Line train 5 days a week. That's 15 hours on the train every week, folks - a longer commute than anyone should ever have. To make this lovely ride more bearable, I have started bringing Ahu's laptop with me to work and spend at least 45 minutes of each ride writing articles for my various blogs. It's actually turned out pretty well. I always wanted to find more time to write and the train provides exactly that - time. In a way, it also allows me to use the best part of my day for personal use as my brain is sharpest and most creative first thing in the morning. As I get into the habit of writing every morning, I find that I come up with more article ideas than I can keep up with and generate lots of ideas for improving Narrative as a useful content management tool. In fact, I am now writing some articles days in advance. This gives me a sort of queue to pull articles from, ensuring now that I always have one post per day, even on weekends, hopefully. Perhaps, eventually, I will come to look at this time on the train as a blessing in disguise.

I've read some articles on various blogs about how people are using GMail to maintain certain lists. GMail allows the "+" syntax on email addresses. For example, the two email addresses "potsie+Incubate@gmail.com" and "potsie+Goals@gmail.com" both get the email to "potsie@gmail.com". However, the "+Incubate" and "+Goals" part of the address allows you to set up rules in GMail which automatically apply labels to incoming messages. So, continuing the above example, Potsie could create Incubate and Goals labels in his GMail account. Then he can create the appropriate rules. One rule would automatically apply the "Incubate" label to any incoming emails which have been sent to "potsie+Incubate@gmail.com", for instance. It is easy to have the rule automatically archive the message also so that you do not even have to see it again. This is useful for reference items and other information which needs to be collected but not reviewed until some time in the future.

I have an issue with the usual attitude toward calling in sick at work. I think many Americans have this attitude that you should not call in sick to work unless you are barfing up a lung or something. In other words, you should "tough it out" and get into work and support your company or team. This policy, in my view, causes more harm than good.

Yes, yes, I am taking the unusual step of sharing my NY resolutions with the whole world. I have no issues with this because I plan on sticking to all of them and letting others know what they are just further cements the commitment. So, here they are: