Another step along the road to more time to actually do something productive. Jason knocked up a rather nice little script to take, create thumbnail and upload a screenshot. Which makes it much easier than previously to take a screenshot, as now I can just click a menu item and leave the script to do the rest. Quick and easy!

Though you can’t see it, I made a few changes to the backend. I changed the style sheet for the main backend so it looks quite nice and I also made a sidebar version of the posting system that I can use in Opera, making it easier to make ‘off-the-cuff’ posts. Also, using the sidebar makes it easier to flick between pages in Opera that I want to refer to without having to swap back to the blog post page. Another small timesaver. Ironically it will probably not save time as it means I’ll hopefully spend more time posting to the site!

So, it appears we are going to war with Iraq. In the past weeks I’ve been reading all the various view points put forward, both for and against the war. There seem to be compelling arguements for both sides. Now war seems inevitable, it is the time to support our troops on the ground around and inside Iraq, far from home, rather than being for or against the war. Hopefully it will be over with the least loss of life possible.

To those risking their lives for our country, we’re with you.

I’ve been thinking more about file organisation. From my comments before, you may have come to the conclusion I don’t like gui file browsers at all, but that isn’t the case. There are times when it’s useful to have the list of file constantly in front of you. I was arranging my mountain of downloads the other day and found this to be invaluable.

I also find the thumbnail view of many file managers very useful. I use it a lot for viewing image folders. This is an example of the different ways of browsing. In this case I’m viewing my files by content rather than by directory structure. Another good example is Apple’s iTunes that allows you to sort and search your mp3 files in ways that are specifically useful for music files, like Artist or Genre. This again allows you to view your files in a way suited to their content.

However, for many things the command line interface is good. When I am coding, for example, I’m using the command line for compiling, opening, viewing and managing files. Being able to do all these things in one place, rather than in several different places makes the task far easier as the console forms a focal point for the activity. It also means I am not distracted by windows floating around my desktop that are only used ocasionally.

So then, so far my conclusion is that different ways of viewing files are useful in different scenarios, and there is no ‘perfect’ file management paradigm out there at the moment.

Yay I finally got Xine to work… I like mplayer, but not having dvd navigation sucks as I watch a lot of anime series dvds and so need the nav to decide what episode to watch. Well I could skip to a title, but navigation via dvdnav is much easier as I don’t have to remember the title number for each episode ;)

Why not Ogle, you say? Well Ogle doesn’t stop the screen from blanking, which gets fairly annoying as you have to unblank the screen every 10 mins! Well it was like that in the last version I tried, maybe it’s fixed in newer builds. Anyways, xine and mplayer fit my needs perfectly, even if they do overlap rather. I shall prob settle on one or t’other after I’ve used them both for a while. I’ll get back to you.

Everyday we use tool to get jobs done. Whether working on the computer, on a production line or in outer space, it is the tools that enable us to get our work done. Unsurprisingly the main tools I use each day are those on the computer.

One of the things that surprises me every so often is how willing people are to adapt to inferior tool rather than try to find better ones. The case of web browsers mentioned in my last post is a prime example. On a computer you are not forced to use any particular program. For nearly everything you could want to do with your computer there are a plethora of programs avaiable, yet often we just use what is provided without thought to the other alternatives out there.