Category: productivitySw

eCalendar + other prj tools #gmail,blog

Posted on by tiger40490

For task coordination, A eCalandar (gCalendar or outlook) alone is often insufficient (like “2023 mortgage rate hike”) because:

  • harder to search
  • hard to group related items into one condensed list
  • impossible to build a hierarchy of items
  • hard to put detailed comments/analyses into any item

In such a situation, I found it necessary to combine an eCalendar with one or two additional tools such as blog and spreadsheet. The “leader” among them is often the blog (multiple bposts). The various tools are hyperlinked together.

— gCalendar/gmail as logbook
Background: I have a well-tested and reasonably reliable habit of using google calendar for reminders , often containing valuable details.

Q: is it safe to rely on google calendarfor permanent/immutable logbook, similar to how I used gmail?
A: it’s not strictly immutable, without version control…. but still a useful system to meet the basic needs.

Gmail is less “mutable” :), can save more details 🙂 Good complement to google calendar

copy-paste: vi,git-bash,conEmu,

Posted on by tiger40490

It’s crucial to identify all the (hidden) software layers that could intercept mouse/keyboard inputs. These layers include conEmu, putty, git-bash.. I think the vi software may react strangely to mouse/keyboard actions.

This bpost is mostly about paste. (Copying is much easier.)

— git-bash alone .. adds two configurable methods to paste.

1. RightClick to paste, thanks to git-bash config. Can be non-intuitive to some, but easy to discover, and easy to learn.
However, vi can block it, and conEmu can block it, so both need config change!

2. shift-insert is a git-bash config hotkey for paste. Worth learning.

— git-bash } vi …. [git commit msg is a usage]
rightClick fixed, thanks to qq[ set mouse=r ] in vi config
shiftInsert good

— conEmu } git-bash } vi ..
shiftInsert good
rightClick good, after removing tweaking conEmu config: https://conemu.github.io/en/SettingsMarkCopy.html -> “Exceptions: far|vim” -> remove vim

— conEmu } git-bash .. rightClick good; shiftInsert good

— conEmu } linux bash ..
rightClick good;
shiftInsert good, thanks to conEmu config
— conEmu } linux bash } vi .. rightClick good, shiftInsert good

UltraEdit / EditPlus purchases: long shadow #printing mouse

Posted on by tiger40490

These experiences cast a long shadow. Therefore deserves revisits. The long shadow is cast over similar buying decisions like …

— how I decided to buy both about the same time .. I first bought TextPad for about $40. Then I found some unique features in UltraEdit (USD20?) and EditPlus (USD 10?). By then I had known how useful and how frequent they are, so I invested a “small” amount to have 3 alternative choices to complement each other.

Jolt: Would be more worthwhile buys if notepad++ had not emerged. I underestimated 1) tech churn 2) quality of shareware

— jolt: the absolute amount I paid was small compared to other under-utilized purchases
Deep scar? Should be small scar. Deep is over-reaction. Trauma would be Over reaction.

Similar buys, but mostly hardware buys:

  • $60 百胜楼 mouse that print a label
  • head phones, microphones
  • samsung camera
  • $8 iphone earphone

notepad++unable to restart#MS

Posted on by tiger40490

Q: Over-reliance on notepad++?
A: probably, but better than over-reliance on complex tools like MSWord or Excel. If I choose to rely on some productivity tool, it had better be fairly simple. The simpler, the more reliable. Usually, the most powerful tools are not very simple, so we need to strike a balance between reliability (+simplicity) vs power (+feature)

Let’s not spend too much time documenting this, as it may not happen again.

category — same as notepad++ posts…

–The story

Today my notepad++ always starts in a permanent freeze, apparently stuck while loading a file that I loaded yesterday. I notice the file is from a network drive mounted from a Linux host. Even though I only want to load a local Windows .txt file, notepad++ still tries to load that Linux file and get frozen.

PC restart didn’t help at all.

How serious is this problem? I am unable to use notepad++ to open any of my .txt files, including all my personal notes.

My tip — I renamed the file from inside Linux. Then I restarted notepad++. Notepad++ didn’t load that Linux file and able to start quickly.