Clapp On tag:theclapp.org,2009-06-18:/mt-blog/1 2011-06-08T20:20:39Z Movable Type 4.23-en Save your productivity with Chrome's StayFocused extension tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.48 2011-06-08T20:16:11Z 2011-06-08T20:20:39Z StayFocused"You sit down at the computer, and you swear you'll be productive. Next thing you know, it's twelve hours later. You've checked your email, updated your Facebook status, browsed the trending topics on Twitter, read your RSS feeds, [read Reddit,... Larry Clapp 
StayFocused

"You sit down at the computer, and you swear you'll be productive. Next thing you know, it's twelve hours later. You've checked your email, updated your Facebook status, browsed the trending topics on Twitter, read your RSS feeds, [read Reddit, my drug of choice,] looked up your favorite band on Wikipedia, vanity googled yourself, cyber-stalked your ex, looked at all your high-school crushes' Facebook photos, watered your plants on Farmville, and lost a week's pay playing online poker. 

What you haven't done is WORK.

StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day."

Of course, you have to be running Chrome.
]]> QFTD, 6/6/11 tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.47 2011-06-06T18:15:03Z 2011-06-06T18:15:32Z Don't sell your soul for peace of mind.... Larry Clapp Don't sell your soul for peace of mind. Would you eat a stack of 16 sugar cubes? tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.46 2011-05-31T02:54:20Z 2011-05-31T12:45:50Z http://www.sugarstacks.com/ Wow.... Larry Clapp http://www.sugarstacks.com/

Wow.
]]> Three great new tools tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.45 2011-05-25T18:55:29Z 2011-05-25T19:54:15Z Larry Clapp http://www.toodledo.com.  Different than Remember The Milk, maybe better.  I'm trying it out and may switch permanently.

BetterTouchTool: http://www.boastr.de/.  Lots of gestures for your Mac.

BetterSnapTool: http://blog.boastr.net/?page_id=2342.  A subset of the gestures in BetterTouchTool, but in addition allows you to move a window by pressing a modifier key and moving the mouse.  If you use a touchpad, this is actually just a modifier key and dragging your finger.

All are free.
]]> Acrimony, Disagreement, Debate tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.44 2011-05-24T17:05:47Z 2011-05-24T17:29:27Z Manager Tools Newsletter: Acrimony and Disagreement != A Good Debate.... Larry Clapp Acrimony and Disagreement != A Good Debate.
]]> QFTD, 5/24/11 tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.43 2011-05-24T13:37:27Z 2011-05-24T13:41:03Z Larry Clapp
Dunno if it's original to Andy.

Of course, you can come up with something completely on your own and still have it happen that somebody else thought of it first.  Witness "iPhad". ]]> Rapture Saturday, sort of like Super Bowl Sunday ... tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.42 2011-05-19T12:01:57Z 2011-05-19T12:10:18Z ... except that the Super Bowl actually happens.So how come "The Rapture" is always supposed to be soon, like this year, next year, maybe five years out ... and never, you know, 500 years out?Even if it IS this Saturday,... Larry Clapp
So how come "The Rapture" is always supposed to be soon, like this year, next year, maybe five years out ... and never, you know, 500 years out?

Even if it IS this Saturday, that still means that 1000 years ago it was 1000 years in the future.  And yet I'm gonna guess that believers back then thought it was around the corner just like they do now.

Of course I've never studied the history of prophecies of the end of the world, so maybe there're some out there that DO say we're cool for another thousand years.  See you then.  (Except that I'll be dead, of course.  :) ]]> Unintended consequences tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.41 2011-05-17T12:45:11Z 2011-05-24T14:03:23Z Larry Clapp Problem: Editor creates "backup" files.  Solution: create a script to find all "*.bak" files and delete them.  Run it manually whenever appropriate.

Problem: Files are too big.  Solution: Use the "split" command to split them into 10k line chunks.  Files are big enough that the "split" default (foo => foo.aa, foo.ab, etc) needs to be changed to a 3 character extension, thus foo => foo.aaa, foo.aab, etc.

Solutions collide: foo.bak gets deleted the next time I clean up my backup files.  Oops.
]]> More than one Apple tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.40 2011-05-17T12:21:44Z 2011-05-17T12:26:31Z Larry Clapp
I made this up myself.  But Googling it reveals that I'm far from the first with this idea.  Bummer.  But not surprising.
]]> QFTD, 5/17/11 tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.39 2011-05-17T03:59:53Z 2011-05-24T14:04:18Z Larry Clapp ife is too long to know C++ well."  -- Erik Naggum, via Peter Seibel

Interesting factoid: I coulda sworn that said "too short".  To the point that I half-suspected it'd mutated in my cut-and-paste buffer and went back to check.  It's weird when you mis-read something consistently.  It's like those experiments where you can read short to medium length words, even if they're scrambled, as long as the first and last letters remain the same.  I didn't see "long", I saw "life is too X" and filled in the blank.
]]> "My" first official board meeting tonight tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.38 2011-05-12T21:12:58Z 2011-05-12T21:19:50Z Larry Clapp
Luckily I bought my own gavel the last time I was in Tennessee.

hillbilly-hammer.jpg

]]> SiriusXM continues to amaze ... tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.37 2011-05-11T19:52:34Z 2011-05-11T20:04:48Z Larry Clapp
I have a SiriusXM account.  I want to "listen online".  I reset my password, 'cause I couldn't be bothered to look it up in the other room.  I try to log in with the password that I just reset.  It doesn't work.  I reset it again.  I try to log in again.  It still doesn't work.  I look it up in the other room and try that.  The old one still works.

I don't know if they have some latency between resetting the password and when it becomes valid (which is dumb), or if they have different credentials for you "SiriusXM account" vs. your "listen online" account (which is dumb).  But if the latter, what is ESPECIALLY dumb, is that the "reset your password" link on the "listen online" login page RESETS THE WRONG PASSWORD.

Did I mention that this was especially dumb?
]]> Mr. President tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.36 2011-05-11T16:53:44Z 2011-05-11T17:31:51Z Larry Clapp
I'd gone to our District's Leadership Academy President's Class, so I was not entirely unprepared.  Heck, that's why I started this blog.  And it has, by and large, kept me too busy to post very much.  Alas.  And here I'd wanted to give a blow-by-blow description of the life of a Presidential hopeful.

Oh well.  Here are some things I've discovered along the way:

  • A lot of stuff that the President has to do, nobody tells you about.
  • Andy Andrews's book The Traveler's Gift is great.  So is its companion volume, Mastering the Seven Decisions.
  • When you build a to-do list, avoid questions.  For me, at least, questions provoke free floating anxiety.  Instead of "Who's doing <whatever>?", write down "Find out who's doing <whatever>."
  • Who is on your board is important.  Find out what their job is, and decide whether they're doing it as they need to be doing it.  If they're not, help them improve, or ask them to step down, and replace them.  Failing that, make sure the right person is on the slate the next year.
  • Decide your chapter's major goals.  If you have a vision or mission statement, review it.  If you don't, write one.  Ours are 1) Sing better, 2) Build membership, 3) Make more money.  It's not accidental that these are interrelated.  Does your board agree with you?  Does your director?  (Realize that you could be wrong!  :)
  • Checklists are great.  This article made a big impression on me: The Checklist: If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do?  (To be clear, I read this a while ago.)
That's all I have time for this afternoon.  See ya!
]]> If not me, who? If not now, when? tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.35 2011-05-11T16:47:08Z 2011-05-11T16:53:17Z Larry Clapp
But sometimes the answer is Someone Else, and/or Later.  And it's important to remember that.

There's a famous prayer that goes

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

That last line is also very important.  Some things you think you can't change, you can.  Some things you think you can change, you can't.  And it's important to know which is which.
]]> Random tidbits tag:theclapp.org,2011:/mt-blog//1.34 2011-02-27T21:18:38Z 2011-05-24T14:04:44Z Larry Clapp
  • VirtualBox's "seamless" mode is really cool.  Make sure your guest additions are installed and working correctly.
  • EPUBReader for FireFox is my favorite ePub reader on my Mac (and the only ePub reader on the Linux VM running on my Mac :).  Prefer it highly over Stanza Desktop or Sony's ebook reader.  Stanza on the iPhone rocks, though.
  • Land of Lisp is cool, as is Modern Perl
  • The airport at Detroit is really big.  Or maybe it's not.  But certainly my plane taxied for what seemed like a very long time before takeoff.
    • ]]>