You may have heard of it, you may not – it’s called todo.txt – and is available on http://todotxt.com/ or http://lifehacker.com/5155450/todotxt-cli-manages-your-tasks-from-the-command-line

Recently, an Android client got released which made it the perfect tool for me. Especially since it’s working with Dropbox on Android. What I wanted to achieve was it to run on my machine as well – and it using the same todo.txt from my Dropbox. Effectively my to-do list would then be in the cloud, and updated where-ever I work with it :)

To set this up on your machine as well, download the release from http://todotxt.com.

Now, here comes the tricky part – how do you open/run the .SH file which is what todo.txt really is? This is where it gets tricky – you need CygWin. A bash command-line on Windows (I know, it’s more – but for the ease of reference I opted for this explanation) Yet another free tool available on http://cygwin.com/

Click on Install Cygwin and then on Setup.exe. Please save the file on your computer and then run it. During the installation, simply do not change any options at all. Just keep hitting that Next button ;-) When it asks to select a Download site try to find one that looks as if it could be close by (so if you are in Germany, look for servers with the .DE domain, if you are in France – for .FR etc.)

Then it will ask you to select the packages to install – simply hit Next again. The installer will now download and install the necessary packages on your computer – so have a cup of tea/coffee.

Once it’s done, click on Finish to close the setup.

Start Cygwin (from either your desktop or from the Start-menu) and once it’s ready – type in “exit” so it closes.

Now, back to the ZIP-file you downloaded from http://todotxt.com – extract the 2 files. Place todo.cfg and todo.sh in the the following folder:

C:\Cygwin\Home\JohnDoe

Replace JohnDoe with the username you use to login into Windows.

Open todo.cfg with Notepad (in case Windows asks what program to use to edit/open it with, select Notepad) and replace the Todo_dir line so that it reads:

export TODO_DIR=”/cygdrive/c/users/JohnDoe/dropbox/todo

Replace /users/JohnDoe/Dropbox/todo with the location of your Dropbox folder with the Todo.txt – in the example shown this is on a Windows 7 machine, with a default installation of Dropbox. Be sure to append/change where needed.

Save the file and open Cygwin and type:

./todo.sh

From that point on – please refer to the http://todotxt.com documentation on how to run or operate it.

Enjoy!

You might have also noticed that this site is experiencing slower then usual response-times and an occasional outage (21 hours this running month) I am looking at resolving this, but until then please endure with me. I hope to have this all sorted shortly, and the last few glitches sorted out.

Update for HTC HD2 Opening Java-messages;
http://www.htc.com/nl/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=297&cat=0&dl_id=921
Even if you do not update anything else, please install this security update. It will prevent your HTC HD2 from immediately (without prompting) opening Java messages, leaving your phone (and data) vulnerable to a lot of exploits, hacks, deletion and so on.

Update for HTC HD2 Music Stability;
http://www.htc.com/nl/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=297&cat=0&dl_id=938
It still stutters at times, but a lot less frequently

Update for HTC HD2 Car Kit Mode Function Enhancement;
http://www.htc.com/nl/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=297&cat=0&dl_id=940

Update for HTC HD2 Facebook Albums;
http://www.htc.com/nl/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=297&cat=0&dl_id=918

There also is a ROM upgrade for Vodafone NL customers, which upgrades your ROM version to 1.72.172.0. Note; this only applies to Vodafone HTC HD2′s and does not apply to any others!

HTC HD2 ROM upgrade for Vodafone NL customers only;
http://www.htc.com/nl/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=297&cat=2&dl_id=920

Once you have applied these updates, be aware that you will need to apply them again in case you hard-reset or wipe your phone. Of course, this excludes the ROM update for Vodafone. As a tip; the ROM update for Vodafone does not necessarily include the other updates so be sure to apply them as well.

During and after the move I no longer tracked or kept track of all of those infometrics. Why would I? It has served it’s purpose; I am aware that I need to watch the amount of sugar I consume, I stopped drinking caffeine completely – and well, my sleep is what it is. I learned a lot from tracking all of it though.

Throughout the last few months I have begun to shift my focus away from trivial matters and started focussing more on the things and people I care about. I have become more protective of those important items, and dropped anything that wasn’t important or mattered.

One of the other ‘casualties’ that I no longer use, is Google Reader. I have un-subscribed from all of my feeds (par my friends) and am quite happy with it. Why would I need to know everything that happens all the time? I stopped watching news and reading newspapers a long time ago but yet was still reading it via RSS. Granted, it was news from sources that I found interesting – but still.

In this hectic life with information, data and charts flowing around us all the time I stepped out of the noise – and into the calm. What I see, read and watch is about what I want to – when I want to. And it’s not backlogged, saved or stored. I jump into the stream of information when and how I want, and get out – when I want.

If anything, I am more happy and content with what I have, get and give. And about what I don’t see, hear or get in my inbox.

I should be able to post a few updates somewhere this week so – no worries!

More on later…

Moving is so much easier when you enjoy a minimalist life-style :-)

In the not-so-far future I should be moving to a new apartment, and that means packing up my stuff – and of course unpacking it. Since I do not own tons and tons of unwanted, unneeded and otherwise pointless materials it should be a jiffy. It should actually all fit into a small van (yes, I really own that little – and enjoy it) Now I’m aware that moving is not an annual (or even bi-annual) event – but it just underlines once more that living with only what you need, use and like – is a lot more sustainable.

Think about it; off all the stuff that you own and have around you – how much of it do you actually use or like? How much are you just keeping around ‘just in case’? Of course, certain items are a good idea to keep around for eventualities – but do you really need to keep a 3rd TV-set around just in case for example? Be critical, question whether or not you will actually use it in the next month or 6 months – or year (if it is seasonal related material) If the answer is no, then store it away for that period (month, 6 months or year) and if indeed you haven’t used in that time – get rid of it (give it away, donate or sell it :) )

There is a saying that goes along the lines of;

Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you?

In case you want to read up on this ‘minimalist lifestyle’ try visiting the following people’s blogs;
http://www.zenhabits.net
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

Start with these 2, or just one of them. Read their blogs (subscribe to their RSS-feeds to automate it a bit) and implement the advise you want to implement. Because being and living minimalist is not following a regime, it’s about being and living with that (or without) what you need and love – without the junk you don’t need.

- Go to http://m.opera.com.
- Select the Opera 10 for Windows Mobile Touch version.
- Download (to SD-card or main memory should make no difference) via a WiFi connection (or other high-speed connection, since the download is quite big)
- Install to main memory
- Enjoy Opera 10 Mobile.

This version comes with Opera Turbo, which can make a huge difference in terms of browsing speed on all types of connections, and can save a lot in terms of bandwidth usage. That is especially handy for those of you who are on capped mobile internet-connections. Plus, I like the interface just a tad bit more.

Note; you can also download the installation for your mobile via your PC/laptop by going to http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/versions.

Of course, don’t forget to set it as your default browser.

PS: You might see the icon twice in your Start-menu. However, I haven’t seen or found any bugs or problems with that yet.

The past few days I have been fiddling with the plugins of the site; installing and uninstalling them. One of the things that has gone out the window, as you can see is Bing search. I have also dropped the Tag Cloud, WordPress statistics (which only were shown to me) and the Twitter plugin. The graphical theme of the site has also had a bit of an overhauling, as I dropped some of the images – and optimized the CSS-file.

I have also disabled the smileys, disabled (most of) the comments (which allowed me to disable quite a few other items as well) and have implemented another plugin that caches the pages. Having done this has now dropped the average response time of the site from 1.7 seconds to the 0.7 seconds. Keep in mind that this is measured on a global scale. For those interested I use PingDom.com (which I highly recommend – even their free account!) to keep tabs on the response- and up-time.

Another thing I also noticed is the increase of traffic coming from Google on one of my posts here regarding the HTC HD2 and how to sync it with Google (for Google Mail, contacts etc.) I guess I stroke a chord there with people. I’ll try to focus a bit more on those kind of posts ;-)

E-mail overload has gotten a lot of press lately – the quantity, the distraction it creates, and our inability to do much about it. There was even a recent debate in a global newspaper between readers voting for keeping e-mail at zero vs. those who use the digital in-basket as a giant library keeping useful information at hand with no concern for the volume. The issue is tied closely with the popular concern about our always-on culture – that we seem to never unhook from the incessant demands of being in touch, put upon us by our clients, our bosses and ourselves.

Source:
The Problem is Not Information Overload | GTD Times.

I couldn’t agree more. The perceived problem is not the sheer amount of information we see and collect every day; it’s the pressure we put upon ourselves to find the meaning of it, if any.

Having a set of guidelines (rules anyone?) that help you process this information, and by banishing information flows you do not need nor want you are in the the better position to give the information you want or need the attention it deserves.

It’s not about sorting things out. It’s about filtering the ‘junk’ out and then sorting the meaningful items.

So in case anyone wonders how I keep my in box at work empty? See above. I process the email (based on subject-line, sender, the placement of my email-address in To, CC or BCC) and action it accordingly. That’s how I processed nearly 5 to 6000 emails a month. Over time I managed to cut this down to a more manageable number of 2 to 3000 a month (give or take a 100 a day). And that number will dwindle further. Yet I still have the same amount of time.

So, think about it. 6000 emails a month, versus 2000 emails a month. In which scenario of the 2 do you think I can spend the most time and attention on something that deserves it?

I found (and use) an incredibly cheap – and good quality screen protector on Amazon.

FX-CLEAR screen protector for HTC HD2: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo.

Note; I am not affiliated with Amazon – nor do I get any kind of endorsement or anything from the manufacturer. Just a happy consumer :-)

Just thought I’d share this find.