Conceptual Integrity

One More Button for Lean GTD 2007

Thomas Drakengren — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:57:33 +0000

I’ve uploaded an updated version of my Outlook GTD macro package Lean GTD 2007. The main feature is that I’ve added another button, that simplifies the work of adding an “all day” event without a reminder.

I’ve also made the installation easier: now it removes any previous command bar, and always installs a new one.

Launched a New Web Page for Lean GTD 2007

Thomas Drakengren — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:34:13 +0000

I’ve just created a new webpage for my Outlook 2007 GTD macro package, instead of just maintaining it in its original blog post from 2006. I’d recommend anyone using Outlook 2007 and David Allen’s GTD methodology to try it out! It simplifies most basic operations significantly, to a very low price (that is, completely free). What I like most about it is that it doesn’t add lots of complexity, like handling dependencies between projects and actions, and in that way, everything can be synced to your mobile phone and to another computer without losing important information.

Just head over there or download it right away! Instructions are inside the .bas file.

LapLink PDASync Ditched, trying Chapura PocketMirror

Thomas Drakengren — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:03:01 +0000

Finally, I got enough of the instability of LapLink’s PDASync software, uninstalled it, and installed the trial version of Chapura’s PocketMirror software. PocketMirror appears to use the synchronization mechanism of ActiveSync (or WMDC on Vista) itself, and adds the ability to sync different folders in Outlook to categories on your Windows Mobile PDA. Very stable so far, so I’ll probably buy it. Works very well on my work computer, too, where I can put my private stuff in a separate .pst file, and the work stuff on the Exchange Server. You can also choose not to put any private stuff at all on the work computer.

This prompted me to update my GTD macros for Outlook 2007. The previous version always created tasks in the default folder, but now, tasks are created in the same folder as the task you’re standing on. So you can create work tasks as easily as private tasks. Previously I had all tasks in one folder, setting a certain category on the work tasks, letting PDASync filter on it for the work computer. Download here!

How to Make Agile Processes Scalable

Thomas Drakengren — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:29:24 +0000

Nick Malik writes about how to make agile software development processes scale up to larger projects. How? Through an agile architecture! Nice to read. Of course there are other complications, too, but this is an essential one.

Tasks in Google Calendar

Thomas Drakengren — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:11:06 +0000

This is promising; finally the Tasks that have previously appeared in Gmail as a Labs feature has appeared permanently in Google Calendar. What remains now for me to use that feature is that I can sync the tasks to my Windows Mobile phone. OggSync, are you doing anything about this? One challenge is of course that Google tasks are hierarchical, and Outlook tasks are not.

Change of DNS Host

Thomas Drakengren — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:14:04 +0000

My blog has been inaccessible today, first due to a failure in ZoneEdit’s DNS records, then to me changing DNS host to GoDaddy, where I host the domain for the blog. Several years ago, when I set up the this blog, GoDaddy didn’t have the required functionality for subdomains, as I wrote about back then, but now I realized that this wasn’t a problem anymore. So things should be up and running again!

Gmail in Offline Mode

Thomas Drakengren — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:14:02 +0000

You can’t ignore that now, you can use Gmail in offline mode, with the help of Google Gears. I’m still using Outlook for offline email, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Google offering develops. With the recent introduction of tasks to Gmail, they’re close to being a complete productivity solution. If only those tasks could be synced to my phone, I believe I’d stop using Outlook.

Hearing and Facial Muscles

Thomas Drakengren — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:43:40 +0000

Interesting; how you hear is linked to how you move your facial muscles.

Finally Tasks in Gmail

Thomas Drakengren — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:32:55 +0000

Finally, Google has added task functionality to Gmail! Just waiting for the sync solution, too.

Does Santa Exist?

Thomas Drakengren — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:27:02 +0000

This post is a favourite of mine, so I’ll try to keep posting it every year it when Christmas is getting closer.

Just a few months before Christmas! But be prepared when your children start asking you whether Santa really exists or not. It’s not as easy to convince them as it once were. The solution to convincing today’s enlightened children is of course to be very rigorous. We need to prove to them that Santa really exists.
So, let’s be pretty formal, and assume that S is the sentence “If S is true, then Santa exists”. That’s just a definition; nothing unusual going on. Seems that if we prove that S is true, then we’ll be done. But we’ll see. Now, the actual logical proof starts.

Suppose S is true. This is just an assumption.
By the definition of S, we can just replace S by its definition, and we get
“If S is true, then Santa exists” is true.

Well, not much gained yet. Probably we’re just warming up. But we can in fact use the assumption, “S is true” once more, together with that. Then we get “Santa exists”. Not bad! But this is of course only because we assumed that S is true. So we’re not there yet. Let’s summarize what we got from the assumption:
“If S is true, then Santa exists”. OK, well, this is the same as what S itself says. Finally something; we’ve proved S itself to be true!

But wait, if S is true, and “If S is true, then Santa exists” is also true, then obviously Santa exists. Done!

So, just sit down together, the whole family, a few days before Christmas, and carefully go through this proof, and you have removed one uncertainty from the celebrations. Also you need to know that there are also grownups who haven’t understood this fact yet.

This is my contribution for the people out there who still want to celebrate that old-fashioned Christmas!
(The proof freely from Boolos and Jeffrey, “Computability and Logic”.)