My Tech and Spring-cleaning - Part 1 "The Desktop"

My Tech needs a place on the spring cleaning checklist this year. I maintain 6 computers between the office and my home and they all need at least a little attention and it might even be time to retire one or two from service. Time to clean. I'm going to start with My Desktop(s).

Reading - Lifehacker: A clutter free desktop

"A clutter free desktop" features a lot of great tips for cleaning up your desktop. I didn't implement all of them but I did implement the _working folder and the _downloads folder in my My Documents folder methodology for dealing with some of the desktop clutter that tends to accumulate on the desktops of busy tech professionals.

Now my desktop(s) are completely free if icons - you could call it true desktop Zen. I use the Quick Launch bar and the Start menu to organize my applications - the Quick Launch bar for applications like Firefox that I open and close frequently. The Start menu is for applications that are opened less frequently. Files are neatly filed away in one consolidated location - my My Documents folder. The _working folder is used for files that I'm actively working on and downloads are directed to my _downloads folder. Add a shortcut to your My Documents folder or even your _working folder to the Quick Launch bar for easy access. Consolidating all of your data files to one location like this makes it easier to implement an effective backup strategy and most importantly, it makes it easier to find things.

My desktop(s) weren't really a mess relative to what I see out there but they needed a good dusting. In the end, I don't really see a difference between my virtual desktop(s) and my oak or veneer desktops - they should both free of the clutter. In the end, I guess it comes down to habbit and preference.

Updated: Related / Geek to Live: Clear your dashboard

PeerMind & I.P. Theft

In a recent post, TechCrunch brought PeerMind to my attetion - also on GigaOM. "PeerMind registers millions of file-sharing events every week, and you can see the aggregated results on this site." My 1st reaction to the results - wow, a lot of people are stealing intellectual property. I'm a software guy so I looked at the "Software" results 1st. 412,000 copies of Adobe's Photoshop were available on peer-to-peer file sharing networks during the week. That's about 200 million worth. People, I.P. is about all we have left over here in the States - respect it and protect it.

State of the Blogosphere Posted

Impressive growth (chart: cumulative weblogs) in the blogosphere. Are MySpace blogs included in these stats? And I thought it was slowing down.

State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth

Summary: (Quoted from original article)

• Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs
• The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
• It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
• On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
• 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
• Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

China's President Visits - Stops at Bill's 1st

Hu Jintao, China's President, is making a historic visit to the United States. News, but not the type of news I usually click into. In this case it's more interesting than usual - he's stopping at Bill's house before heading to George's house. Funny stuff. That has to be embarrassing. Right? Cheney is probably consoling him right now - it's Ok George, go to sleep, Hu's still coming for a play date. News.com - China president at Gates house, not White House

Hybrid Shirt

I want one of these : ) Size: Large
Hybrid Shirt BUY now [via] Mule Design

Take great notes

[via] Geek to Live: Take great notes / Lifehacker

I'm a manager so I spend a lot of time taking copious notes. Microsoft OneNote 2003 is my primary note taking tool - take the OneNote tour if you're interested in learning more about OneNote.

Bumped into a great article on Lifehacker about methods for taking great notes. I especially liked this simple system for using symbols to mark specific types of notes.

[ ] A square checkbox denotes a to do item
( ) A circle indicates a task to be assigned to someone else
* An asterisk is an important fact
? A question mark goes next to items to research or ask about

Google Calendar

calendar.google.com  | Tour | Keyboard Shortcuts | Screen Shots |

TECH-RECIPES: importing

Add my birthday to your Google Calendar


Reading:
TechCrunch: Google Calendar is Live

Large Display = More Productivity

 
Image - Dell 2405FPW Buy Now $999 (04/13)

Large Display = More Productivity

Reading List:
Apple Study - Measuring the impact of screen-size on productivity
New York Times - Dual monitors increase productivity

Dell 2405FPW, the perfect developer's monitor?