#productivity
Getting things done https://yu7.in/cCZNKp (Expanded URL: https://mindaslab.github.io/2024/03/07/getting-things-done.html)
A monitor with a KVM switch was exactly what my dual PC setup needed
The right tool for the job can often make things very much easier. A KVM switch is ideal for switching quickly between two or more computers whilst using the same peripheral devices.
But also consider whether you otherwise need a multiviewer instead. A multiviewer is used more when you want to display maybe some extra external video on your screen in a split view or picture-in-picture mode. An example is you maybe want to always keep an eye on your security camera. It really allows additional HDMI video signals on one display.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/kvm-switch-must-for-dual-pc-setups/
#Blog, #productivity, #technology
The Green New Deal Is the Opiate of the Masses
Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/degrowth-communism-green-new-deal/
#Capitalism is always trying to raise workforce #productivity in order to cut costs. Rises in workforce productivity allow the same amount of #production to occur with fewer workers. When this happens, the economyās size remains constant while unemployment rates rise. But capitalism also makes it impossible for the unemployed to live, and politicians hate high unemployment rates. For this reason, thereās a huge amount of pressure for the economy to keep expanding indefinitely so as to maintain the rate of employment. This is why a rise in productivity results in the expansion of the #economy. This is the Productivity Trap.
#news #problem #work #society #system #politics #change #future #environment #climate #emissions #co2 #nature
Why Virtual Desktops and How they Compare to Virtual Activities
No matter what OS you use, virtual desktops, workspaces, and activities allow us to better separate and group our activities more logically together. If you dislike clutter, and want better productivity and organisation, then this video is worth watching if you have not yet explored this before.
Although this video focuses on general Linux and KDE users, I do cover why someone would want to use virtual desktops or workspaces. As these features exist too on Windows and macOS, this may be of interest to those users, and also to compare with how Linux does it.
This is not a step-by-step how-to-do-it video, as my videos focus more around an overview of why you may want to use something, and what it can do for you. If you like the concept of virtual workspaces, there are plenty of how-to videos to get started.
I specifically delve into the differences, too, between virtual desktops/workspaces and KDE activities.
Watch my video https://youtu.be/wq-7KEeH7_U
#Blog, #opensource, #productivity, #technology, #virtualdesktops
Why buy a Samsung phone with an S Pen and only use two of the 40+ things it can do?
I did buy my Galaxy S23 Ultra primarily for its camera, but I did justify the buy too, thinking that a built-in stylus would be really useful as wellā¦ But just using that S Pen for notetaking and signing the odd PDF is a real waste of what more that S Pen actually can do! It is more than just a stylus.
The video linked below really needs to be watched every month, as Iāve seen one similar to it a year ago, and Iāve forgotten most of this.
For me, some highlights are:
- Easily annotate PDF documents in Samsung Notes
- The S-Pen can open the camera app, switch front/rear cameras, zoom in/out, take the photo
- Similarly controlling music, gallery, etc apps by gesture
- Media controls
- Hover over word to translate
- Have any app in a small glance window
- Keeping phone unlocked while doing notes
- Pin a note to always-on display e.g. shopping list
- Screen-off memos for notes without unlocking phone
- Create a quick pop-up note over any other app (and make them transparent)
- If you have Galaxy Tablet, you can use your phone alongside it as a toolbar (very Apple this is)
The only way really to remember this functionality is to get into the habit of using some of the additional features, and refreshing your memory around what all it can do. I did make some summary notes in Google Keep at the time, but Iāve not really looked at them again.
Which brings me to two other points:
- Samsung Notes, especially with the S Pen, really makes Google Keep look very bland and basic (apart from maybe Keepās location reminders).
- Some of the fancier S Pen to Text functionality only works with the Samsung keyboard, so if youāre using a 3rd party keyboard like I do, that doesnāt work. My only issue with the Samsung keyboard is I just donāt find its autocorrect very good, but maybe I should also give it another try. For me, a fluid and accurate autocorrect is the most important function of a keyboard.
Watch https://youtu.be/B5DrJYScXT4?si=F7hJHLzRY1DiXFK4
#Blog, #productivity, #spen, #technology
We should reduce #productivity for environmental reasons.
#work #labour #economy #technology #future #climate #environment #meme #memes
"We're in a productivity crisis, according to 52 years of data. Things could get really bad."
"From 1870 -- 1970, there was an incredible 50x increase in the productivity of the average manual worker. Let me break that down so it really lands for you like it did for me:"
"50x Increase: Imagine getting 50 hours of work done in one hour. Or imagine doing the work of 50 people by yourself."
"On Average: We're not just talking about a 50x increase for the most ambitious, smartest manual workers. We're talking about all manual workers."
"To put the profundity in context, the 'Great Boom' is one of the most amazing and under-appreciated events in economic history."
"Bizarrely, in 1970, lots of things started going downhill."
"The productivity growth rate decreased significantly (known as the productivity paradox)."
"At the same time that productivity overall was increasing (even if the growth rate dropped), most of the productivity gains went to the top earners while the middle class stagnated. This is known as the Great Decoupling."
"This stagnation is a big deal. When you stop believing that your kids will have a better life than you, you stop believing in the 'American dream.' And according to a 2022 survey of 1,300+ people in 19 countries, 70% of survey respondents believe their children would be worse off financially -- a significant increase compared to previous years."
"Other examples of stagnation include:"
"The price of energy is stagnant rather than decreasing."
"Transportation isn't moving faster than decades ago (ie, cars & planes)."
"Biotech innovation is 1/3 the rate compared to 20 years ago."
"Healthcare costs are increasing significantly without a big results increase."
"Higher education fees are increasing significantly without a big results increase."
"The high school graduation rate plateaued."
"The average lifespan in developed countries is stalling."
"Agricultural innovation has decreased significantly for the first time in nearly a century."
"Large construction projects are more expensive and take much longer."
"While there are more innovations overall, there are fewer innovations per person."
He (Michael Simmons) goes on to dismiss Moore's Law. This kind of surprised me. I've been taking it as a truism that productivity moved from the world of atoms to the world of bits is still productivity. Digital devices still confer benefits to their users, even if they don't result in increased energy production or any other traditional measure. The amount of entertainment, to cite one example, available to anyone with an internet connection today, would cost a fortune if someone tried to buy all the same stuff (whatever the rough equivalents would be) in 1970. It is to the digital revolution's credit that it has delivered more and more benefit without increases in energy consumption, material consumption, and so on -- it should not be a criticism. If it delivers benefits that are free or very close to free, then it is to be expected that such benefits will be hard to measure by traditional money-based measurements.
He has the (now famous) graph of the decoupling between productivity and wages, and that's what I thought the real issues was. That and the skyrocketing cost of certain non-digital goods, like housing, healthcare, and education.
He goes on to predict dire consequences: war, currency collapse, rise of communism, and environmental catastrophe. Well, I guess whether "rise of communism" counts as catastrophic depends on your political orientation; a lot of people are pro-communism. When the word comes up in conversation, I always ask people to define "communism" so I know what they're talking about when they use the word. Here, he doesn't give a definition, but says, "The more growth stalls, the more people there are calling for revolution, not just reform." That seems to be his point: stalling productivity is likely to lead to revolutions within countries, not just wars between countries.
The Best Obsidian Note Plugins, nor Not?
I had not tried Omnisearch, but apart from that and Advanced Tables, the suggested ones are not really āmy best onesā. But the linked article does again highlight one of Obsidianās most powerful features ā itās community plugins. Many note takers are good Markdown editors, but few come close to rivalling Obsidianās plugin power, largely created by the community themselves.
Even though free Obsidian is not open-source, it gained a lot of traction and users have created so many valuable plugins. I also like that it leaves all my Markdown formatted files in place where they are. One excellent open-source notes editor I tried, insisted on inserting an odd character at the start of every new line as it was intended an outliner, not a notes editor. Thing is, I like to keep my notes as standard as possible so that I can switch to another note taker in future.
The ones I find really useful are:
- Advanced Tables
- cMenu
- Code block from selection
- Copy Image and URL context menu
- Dynamic Table of Contents
- Excel to Markdown Table
- Highglightr
- Kanban
- Kindle Highlights
- Local Images
- Markdown Formatting Assistant
- Obsidian Enhancing Export
- Omnisearch
- Ozanās Image Editor Plugin
- Related Notes Finder
- Tag & Word Cloud
- Tag Wrangler
- Text Format
- txt as md (edits existing .txt files)
- Underline
- Vault Statistics
But we all have different requirements (like some wanting to play Zoom inside Obsidian, use AI, publish to Nostr, etc), so it is well worth browsing the community plugins and seeing what is of interest to you. There are around 1,180 plugins right now.
See https://www.alphr.com/best-obsidian-plugins/
If youāve not seen Obsidian, I did quite a long video about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_4LR76g-jU
#Blog, #markdown, #notes, #productivity, #technology
Omnivore is an excellent open-source read-it-later alternative to Pocket, that can be self-hosted as well
I use read-it-later services extensively to save any news I want to do blog posts about later, or something I want to look at in more detail when I have time (and three monitors).
I had been self-hosting Wallbag for quite a while, and did a video about it too, but I had some issues re-installing it when I moved to Docker container hosting on my VPS.
Ominvore certainly looks very interesting, with a modern interface and quite a few useful features. Iām starting so long with their free cloud hosted service, and could register with ease, and even initiate an import from Pocket. They do have a docker-compose file for setting up containerised self-hosting, but Iām going to wait a bit just to see if that matures a bit, as it seems it is early days still and no proper guide has been completed yet for it.
Apart from the usual saving links for reading later, with tags, archiving, etc, it also supports a clutter-free reader view for easy reading without adverts. In the reading view you can also change formatting, highlight text, add/view notes (in a Notebook view), and track reading progress across all devices (each note also shows a yellow progress line on its tile view to indicate reading progress).
It also has a feature for subscriptions via e-mail. Omnivore can generate unique e-mail addresses you can use for subscribing to online newsletters, and it is intelligent enough to realise that if a mail contains a welcome message, note from the author, etc that will be forwarded by Omnivore to your main e-mail address (without exposing that to the newsletter service).
It also has integration with Logseq, Obsidian notes, webhooks, and more.
You can save links by adding them in the app, using a browser extension, or by using the share option on mobile devices and just selecting to share to the Omnivore app.
There is no price model yet set up for the service, but Iām pretty sure theyāll have an ongoing useful free tier with their online service, and probably only charge for some more advanced functionality. There is always the self-hosted option too. But for now, this looks very functional and useful to me, and Iāve started using it.
See https://omnivore.app/
#Blog, #opensource, #privacy, #productivity, #readitlater, #technology
I did not realise portable monitors were a thing: Best portable monitors in 2023 for laptops, smartphones, or tablets
To think, I had a second monitor for my laptop at my own office, and one at each of the two clients I spent time at during the week. Once you get used to working with two monitors, it is really difficult going back to a single monitor from a productivity point of view. So, I did not lug monitors around, but three were dedicated for my use when I could have just had one portable one.
These can also be useful as display units for a Raspberry Pi system as well.
Portable monitors are a great way to resolve this problem since theyāre more compact and easy to carry around. These smaller displays connect via USB-C and mini HDMI, meaning you can use them with almost any device, from the best gaming laptops to tablets, smartphones, and standard work laptops. Some monitors even come with their own batteries, so you can enjoy consistent productivity and media playback without impacting your laptopās battery.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-portable-monitors/
#Blog, #monitors, #productivity, #technology
Best Free (not all open source) Microsoft Office alternatives in 2023
LibreOffice probably still remains the most complete set of features and a pure open source option, but I can see why the free SoftMaker FreeOffice is also given a lot of credit: It opens very quickly, has a pretty slick more modern user interface, it has excellent MS Office compatibility, and it already has usable mobile apps for both Android and iOS (apart from Windows, macOS and Linux too).
So yes, on all of these fronts, LibreOffice does lag a bit. But LibreOffice is open source, and all advanced features are completely free. FreeOffice also does not open or edit existing PDFs.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/
#Blog, ##msoffice, #alternativeto, #productivity, #technology
How worker #surveillance is backfiring on employers
Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230127-how-worker-surveillance-is-backfiring-on-employers
Workers who are watched against their may also devote more energy to finding creative ways to subvert the very controls employers have put in place. In one case, recalled Siegel, a lorry driver with GPS used tin foil to cover the antenna of the #tracking #system. In another case from the field of automation, employees who were being monitored were more likely to kick and box the robots they used at work.
āIt raises our #stress levels to be under observation all the time, and it impinges on our sense of autonomy and dignity,ā says Levy. āSo, managers who over-monitor workers may also see people leave for workplaces where they feel more respected.ā
#economy #privacy #Monitor #work #job #problem #humanRights #news #management #productivity #orwell
