I have already mentioned one way to do this – by organizing so you quickly know where you are, what is next, and what you have done. The third and key factor for this post is lowering the relative feeling of speed by doing things when you feel like doing them. Forcing yourself to do something you do not feel like doing will generally result in higher stress levels and lower quality work. I am not talking about being lazy. Repeat: doing something when you feel like doing it is not automatically lazy. Not realizing the benefit of doing something or mistaking the benefit as more important than the cost will cause laziness and other issues, but if something is beneficial and you know it at some point you’ll feel like doing it.

Dishes, for example. I don’t particularly ever want to do dishes, but there are definite benefits and the rewards are well worth the cost of not doing them. At some point every few days I glance at my to-do list and see “do a load of dishes” has appeared on it and doing dishes doesn’t seem all that bad, so I get up and do them. Sometimes dishes are the last thing on my list I want to do. So I don’t. Making it a choice rather than simple procrastination causes it to be empowering. I know the dishes will get done, albeit not this minute, and I choose instead to accomplish another task on my list I actually feel like doing. I’m still accomplishing things, I’m not neglecting something to the detriment of myself or others: it’s okay. Repeat after me: it’s okay to do this task later, this task will get accomplished in due time, don’t stress, don’t even think about it. It’s on my list. It will get done.

I commented recently upon a dislike of due dates – I do place due dates on tasks which must be done by/on a specific date, and repeating tasks in Remember the Milk (RTM) automatically have due dates, but my RTM list in Gmail shows upcoming tasks and because I’m constantly watching and weighing what I feel like doing I often complete things before the due date (this blog is “due” tomorrow but I saw it on my list and felt like writing now) and schedule them to be posted/sent/etc on the correct date or simply ignore them – they will still be on my list tomorrow. Due dates are generally flexible in my world, applying about a week before and after the actual date. It’s pretty given that somewhere in that two-week span I’ll feel like doing any given task. I also have a list in RTM for “stale” tasks I refer to that shows me the things I actually am procrastinating on – the search to save goes something like this:

not(addedWithin:”two weeks”) AND NOT list:*Someday AND NOT tag:waiting AND NOT (dueBefore:”two weeks”) AND NOT (dueAfter:”two months”)

The not dueAfter two months keeps tasks I have repeating on a yearly basis (birthday emails, etc) from showing up…and anything I’ve procrastinated on for two months I certainly know about and should have deleted or moved to the *Someday list.

Another key beyond knowing the benefits of a task is knowing your limits. Never accept/put on your list more than you can accomplish without negative stress, and ensure you leave time for yourself. Everyone needs down time, be it watching TV, taking an extra long shower, playing a video game, or reading a book: whatever relaxes you and your brain. If you can relax while still accomplishing something (reading->learning or gaming->socalizing) all the better. This is why I’m not a fan of TV – I rarely benefit from it, and the cost of subscribing to dubiously educational channels is far more than the content is worth to me. I have never and probably will never own a TV. I rarely even watch video online, usually reserved for when I’m completely brainless (probably sick and enduring cold medicine). My lifespan seems so short sometimes and there is so much I’d like to do with it. I think everyone should feel this way – wring everything enjoyable you can from your self and your life!

In closing I would like to say that not all stress and due dates are negative – I use milestones in my work because I enjoy the pressure of trying to get everything done before that milestone due date. Working within a tight budget of any kind can make people very creative, and the visual progress and impending feeling of accomplishment mitigates the negative aspects of stress. I also don’t stress much because I understand (to the nth degree) that software development always has unexpected things that come up which are often necessary and/or beneficial but will throw schedules off. Having a milestone list for tasks might well be useful, just keep an eye on the speedometer and don’t wait for your body to start writing you tickets you can’t pay for.

Project Hamster is a wonderfully easy and robust time tracking system written in python (cross-platform) and has a nice applet for the gnome toolbar among other features. I already use Trac and it’s Timing and Estimation plugin to track time related to code, tickets, and changesets, but not everything I want to track can be related to such things. I use Remember The Milk for pretty much everything I need to do aside from sleeping, eating, and various other things I can’t or don’t care to have on a “to-do” list – the Trac plugin Ticket2RTM ensures tickets are also in RTM, RTM becoming the base center of operations for my life.

Hamster, while I used it religiously for a time some years ago, fell by the wayside as just another task after the initial “wow!” realizations on how I spent my time. Recently I needed Hamster to step in and fill the gaps…but only the gaps. Re-entry of data is a very big no-no in my world, so I set about brainstorming a way to get data from Remember The Milk into Hamster.  After all, if I already wrote down what I need to do in RTM or Trac, no sense rewriting it for Hamster when I’m doing it.

Enter Greasemonkey, a Firefox plugin that lets you add and alter javascript on any webpage. Using a Greasemonkey script I added a “copy” link to tasks in RTM. The original idea of just clicking a link and having it go directly to Hamster failed due to Dbus issues with scripts, but I find I prefer the copy method as it lets me edit tasks before I enter them into Hamster (usually by prepending -10 because I’ve been working on something different for the last ten minutes and not noticed).

On to the Greasemonkey code!
// ==UserScript==
// @name           Copy Links for Hamster Tracking
// @namespace      http://jaciss.wordpress.com
// @description    Adds a copy button next to each task for starting Project Hamster tracking via a local python script
// @include        https://www.rememberthemilk.com/home/*
// @require        http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js
// ==/UserScript==
/*
jQuery inclusion code courtesy of: http://joanpiedra.com/jquery/greasemonkey/
jQuery is extreme overkill here, but it's (obviously) a quick hack at this stage.
!NOTE: The below are just examples to show what can be done!  I use Trac (ticket/bug tracking) and the timingandestimation (track hours by commit messages, now generated by these scripts) and ticket2rtm plug-ins for my work - ignore,  remove, or edit to suit your system(s) of choice where necessary.
*/
var $;

// Add jQuery
(function() {
if (typeof unsafeWindow.jQuery == 'undefined') {
var GM_Head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.documentElement,
GM_JQ = document.createElement('script');
GM_JQ.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js';
GM_JQ.type = 'text/javascript';
GM_JQ.async = true;
GM_Head.insertBefore(GM_JQ, GM_Head.firstChild);
}
GM_wait();
})();

// Check if jQuery's loaded
function GM_wait() {
if (typeof unsafeWindow.jQuery == 'undefined') {
window.setTimeout(GM_wait, 100);
} else {
$ = unsafeWindow.jQuery.noConflict(true);
letsJQuery();
}
}

// All your GM code must be inside this function
function letsJQuery() {
//alert($); // check if the dollar (jquery) function works
//alert($().jquery); // check jQuery version
var lists = new Array();

function compileLists() {
$.each(unsafeWindow.listList.list.entries,
function() {
lists[parseInt(this[0])] = this[1];
return true;
});
}

function htmlEntities(str) {
return String(str).replace(/&/g, '&amp;').replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;').replace(/"/g, '/quote');
}

function addCopyLinksToTasks() {
var entries = unsafeWindow.taskList.list.hashMap;
var locs = unsafeWindow.locationList.list.hashMap;

$('#tasks table.xtable tr.xtr').each(function() {
var entry_id = parseInt(/_(\d+)$/.exec($(this).find('td.xtd_check form').attr('id'))[1]);
if (entry_id > 0) {
var entry = entries[entry_id];
var loc = unsafeWindow.locationMgr.getTaskLocation(entry.series_id);
var tags = unsafeWindow.tagMgr.getTagsForTaskSeries(entry.series_id);
var url = entry.url == null ? '': entry.url;
var name = entry.name;
var src = entry.location_id;
var list = lists[entry.list_id];
url = url.replace('http:\/\/', '');
#I preface projects with p- for the GTD RTM script
#project = list.replace('p-', '');
name = htmlEntities(name);
name = name.replace(/\'/g, '\\\'');
tagstr = '';
if (tags.length > 0) {
for (i = 0; i < tags.length; i++) {
tagstr += ' #' + tags[i];
}
}
if (loc == 'none') loc = 'computer';
#if it's a trac ticket
if (url.match("trac")) {
pathparts = url.split('/');
ticket = pathparts[pathparts.length - 1];
ticket = ' #working ticket ' + ticket;
} else ticket = '';
text = 'python /usr/share/pyshared/myhamster.py &quot;' + project + '@' + loc + ', ' + name + tagstr + ticket + "&quot;";
if ($(this).html().match('copier')) {
$('copier_' + entry_id).replaceWith('<td id="copier_' + entry_id + '"><a onclick="netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege(\'UniversalXPConnect\');Components.classes[\'@mozilla.org/widget/clipboardhelper;1\'].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIClipboardHelper).copyString(\'' + text + '\')">copy </a></td>');
} else {
$(this).append('<td id="copier_' + entry_id + '"><a onclick="netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege(\'UniversalXPConnect\');Components.classes[\'@mozilla.org/widget/clipboardhelper;1\'].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIClipboardHelper).copyString(\'' + text + '\')">copy </a></td>');
}
}
});
};

compileLists();
setInterval(addCopyLinksToTasks, 3000);
}
So this adds a copy link that will alert you to the danger of allowing “outside” sources access to your clipboard. When clicked, it copies something like

python /usr/share/pyshared/myhamster.py "webpresence@computer, write blog about greasemonkey key to tying hamster & rtm together #focus #na"

Where, for me, webpresence is both a list in RTM and a project/activity in Hamster (having a positive web presence is a goal of mine). Now we paste this text onto a command line and it calls a script (myhamster.py) which looks something like this:
import sys
import re
import hamster.client
from decimal import Decimal

#where to add commit log entries
commit_file = '/path/to/commit.txt'
storage = hamster.client.Storage()
facts = storage.get_todays_facts()
last_fact = facts[len(facts)-1]

#is there an ongoing task?
if last_fact['end_time'] == None:
try:
#is it a trac ticket?
for tag in last_fact['tags']:
if "#" in tag:
hours = last_fact['delta'].seconds
hours = Decimal(hours/60)
hours = Decimal(hours/60)
commit_str = "%s closes %s (%f), " % (last_fact['description'],tag,hours)
#print "Ticket was being worked on, adding line to commit.txt"
print commit_str
cf = open(commit_file,'a')
cf.write(commit_str)
cf.close()
except KeyError:
print "no tags"
else:
print "No active activity!"

new_fact=' '.join(sys.argv[1:99])
new_fact = new_fact.replace('/quote','"')
if "#" in new_fact:
reg = re.compile('ticket\s\d+')
tractag = reg.findall(new_fact);
if len(tractag)>0:
print "Trac tag initiated."
tractag = tractag[0]
tractag = tractag.replace('ticket ','#')
else: tractag=''
reg2 = re.compile('#[a-zA-Z0-9]+')
tags = reg2.findall(new_fact)
i=0
for tag in tags:
tags[i]=tags[i].replace('#','')
i=i+1
if(len(tractag)>0): tags.append(tractag)
else:
tags=''

print new_fact
#print tags

print storage.add_fact(new_fact,tags)

Note that the above script writes Timing and Estimation formatted lines (for tracking hours/ticket in Trac) to a commit.txt file if it detects a # in the tag. I left this in as an example of what can be done with this sort of system. I usually have to edit the commit file before use, but I rarely forget to add things anymore, and certainly don’t have to re-enter the data, which was the point of this exercise.

• It’s a search engine – I can find results that are filtered by real people, and fellow geeks at that, with no extra effort from anyone.
• It’s an RSS reader – I can keep up with the latest news and trends, again with results filtered by real people
• It’s a powerful personal collection – I can recall what I was doing at any point in history, I can import my ever-changing tags/interests into other programs for use, I can browse and brainstorm in incredibly productive ways, etc.

…I use the API to leverage my information in a dozen ways, all of which are useful and important to me. I’ve written bookmark sharing scripts for small community sites based on the API…

I know I’m not alone and I find myself wondering what Yahoo! is thinking – it’s a terribly popular site that seems very flexible and well designed. I would think it could pay for itself, one way or another. Even if not, the bad publicity and community anger should be enough to stop this insanity.

Crowd-sourcing is a buzzword now, but it’s still a very powerful mechanism, and del.icio.us provides a wealth of information. I like Yahoo. I greatly appreciate their spirit of community and sharing, and find myself saddened by a potential loss greater than that of a single site. Del.icio.us is a valuable resource, and one that should be protected – I had every expectation Yahoo! would do that when they purchased it. It seems I may have been wrong.

From TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/is-yahoo-shutting-down-del-icio-us/

While I love Trac, creating new tickets can be annoying. Web interfaces will never be as fast as direct text input and I don’t usually need all of the options the interface provides. I do, however, wish to use Trac’s system instead of directly editing the database, as I have things tied into ticket creation that would be bypassed otherwise (crossposting to remember the milk, for one). Enter XML-RPC. With this handy plug-in one can interact with a Trac environment from outside of the web interface. My new_ticket.py code will work from within Komodo or on the command line and assumes a multiple project Trac setup. It goes something like this (feel free to use this hack, free as in beer, etc):

import xmlrpclib
import sys

print "Issue to submit:"
issue = sys.stdin.readline()

#get default project from passed arg
project = sys.argv[1]
project = project.split('/');
curproject = project[len(project)-1]
print "Project ["+curproject+"]"
project = sys.stdin.readline()
#if they didn't enter a project, use default
if(project.strip()==''):
project = curproject

print "Milestone [milestone1]:"
milestone = sys.stdin.readline()
if(milestone.strip()==''):
milestone = "milestone1"

#for example only, remove if you don't use timingandestimation plugin
print "Estimated Hours [1]:"
estimatedhours = sys.stdin.readline()
if(estimatedhours.strip()==''):
estimatedhours = '1'

attr = {}
attr['milestone'] = milestone
attr['reporter'] = 'Jaciss'
attr['owner']= 'Jaciss'
attr['status'] = 'assigned'
attr['type'] = 'enhancement'
attr['priority'] = 'major'
attr['estimatedhours'] = estimatedhours
print attr

#notice the /login - if anon access is disabled for xmlrpc
#you'll need extra code in this section
server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy("http://YOUR.TRAC.SERVER/trac/"+project+"/login/xmlrpc")

newticket = server.ticket.create(issue, '', attr)

#the below will print the new ticket number
print newticket

Obviously this will need to be modified with your own server domain and user name, at the very least. You may also need additional code to handle permissions. It should be fairly self-explanatory otherwise, excepting the project variable.

From the command line I type something like:
python new_ticket.py [project_name]

In Komodo Edit I created a command that opens in a new console:
python /path/to/new_ticket.py %p


The extra project code involves the above command, where %p is Komodo’s substitution variable for the path to the active project. Assuming project directories and Trac environments are named the same way, the python tidbit above which pulls the last part of the path would provide the name of the current project/desired environment, able to be used in the script and neatly skipping a step.

In summary: This is awesome because I can run the command, type the issue, and hit enter until it exits, getting back into the flow of writing code before my brain realizes it’s no longer in “the zone”.  My employer and myself use the wonderful grid modify plugin and regularly go over and modify lists of tickets, anyway.  It’s a simple case of doing the right thing at the right time.

Updated 12-12-10: formatting, adding comments to the code, general cleanup

Alias /projects /path/to/projects
<Directory "/path/to/projects">
...
</Directory>

To make mod_rewrite function as expected I had to use the RewriteBase directive in /path/to/projects/project_name/.htaccess (or equivalent):

RewriteBase /projects/project_name

…and that’s it.

Now I know without doubt: I have time.

For a few weeks prior to this one I’d been stressed and constantly forgetting things – I was saying daily that I wished I didn’t have to sleep and had so many things to do and never had enough time. Now I’m finding time to regularly blog – something I almost never feel I have enough time to do. To read my RSS feeds (and quickly discard what I don’t really need without guilt). To tackle small projects that take me toward getting my business ideas realized, getting my house built, living comfortably, maintaining good social relationships, and a dozen other things that just plain make me happy (including work, something I’m infinitely grateful for).

I’m enjoying the journey instead of grinding my mental hard drive on things I’d like to do or should do or probably forgot.  This is fun.

To sum up what I’ve done:

• created a list of concrete goals and actual singular actions to accomplish them
• placed (only) necessary computer folders/files in the cloud (via Ubuntu One)
• checked all code into version control on the office server (via git)
• posted/clipped goals, quotes, resources, and links to the web (via springpad)
• filed current and [possible] future tasks online (via Remember The Milk)
• posted code-related tasks/tickets/bugs online (via Trac)

Note: each goal has an associated springpad notebook, a remember the milk list, a folder in the cloud, and sometimes a Trac environment and git repository: organization based on what I want to do.

The best part?  Once set up, using these things is considerably less effort than trying to organize and remember without them.  When it’s time to do “something” I simply refer to a [smart]list of actions on Remember The Milk and pick a “something” I can do.  I can add or retrieve my somethings to/from any of the uberleet tools above in a few seconds and they all automatically do things to make my life easier.  Best of all, they generally work together – tickets put into Trac show up in the right place in Remember The Milk, complete with a link for when it’s time to work on it.  Code pushed to the server using git automatically closes referenced tickets in Trac, which marks the RTM tasks as done.  Files on any one computer I happen to be using are automatically synchronized across all my other computers…and everything I need is available everywhere, provided I have a computer and internet access.

The act of getting everything synchronized and/or out of my head and online caused not only less stress but useful real-life organization (largely automatic thanks to the wonders of teh interwebs). It also prompted an evaluation of my goals and what I was doing to reach them. Usage has shown me that I’m now making excellent progress – faster than I would have dared to dream. And I’m still sleeping.

Similar things I’ve written:
Efficient Use of Remember The Milk
Organization for [true] Success

Instead of being swept through the days pushed by all the little thoughts and tasks, we can take control and push those thoughts and tasks – beyond and even more important than that, we can push those thoughts and tasks which are most important for us to achieve our goals and have a written record showing each little task is moving us forward toward those goals. This sounds very high-minded, but there is much down-to-earth about having a plan and intentionally working through it step by step. There is also much to be said for a system that can show the progress you’re making toward your goals with each little step. A system must not only be useful, it must be used.

So I’ll just jump into how I do this – examples are worth much and my system can be altered to fit someone else’s needs. As with anything, there is no one right way. It’s the core concepts that are important. I picked Remember the Milk and Springpad or Evernote for tools because they do what needs done with a minimum of fuss and training. I include little by way of usage because there is fairly little to do. Put stuff in properly and the systems do the rest, as it should be. The features on these services are great and part of why I chose them, but features are not why I’m writing this, so we will instead focus on the basics of efficient and worthwhile input and output.

Step One
Create a list of projects or goals – e.g., ‘buy a house’, ‘plan trip to Seattle’ and make sure each goal is SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. ‘Buy a house’ becomes ‘Buy a 3br 2ba condo in upper Manhattan before Jan 1st’ – assuming that’s a realistic goal that actually is relevant to what you want in life. I personally find the time/due date is useless or even harmful – I have an issue with organization, not laziness.

Each of these goals will have a list in Remember the Milk and a notebook in Evernote or Springpad – tasks go into RTM and research/bookmarks/information/etc goes into Evernote or Springpad (Springpad does a great job of organizing and supplying additional features for what you put into it, Evernote is faster and more flexible). I use short project names and put the goals themselves onto the Evernote or Springpad project’s/notepad’s [white]board. You will need the Springpad addon or bookmarklet or the Evernote addon for bookmarking or clipping web content, and any RTM addons or Evernote addons you’ll use (gmail, twitter, smartphone, etc). Combine twitterbar (tweet from your browser’s location bar) with RTM’s twitter service and all one has to do to add an item is type “d rtm remember the milk #Personal” and viola – a new task on a “Personal” list or tagged with “Personal”. With the gmail addon you can get you todo list right next to your inbox, not to mention the ability to reference google contacts or calendar events with RTM. But enough about features.

Step Two
Dump stuff out of your brain. Sort through bookmarks and documents and whatnot that you’ve accumulated for your projects and put it all into the appropriate notebook. Take an hour or three and get it all out…and into Springpad or Evernote and RTM – everything that’s been rattling around in your head taking up space and CPU cycles. This should be the mental equivalent of the emotional release one can get from “a good cry”.

The key part to this is making each task in RTM an action, GTD style. Much as making goals concrete is vital, making tasks concrete is also vital. Break vague todo items up into discrete actions – “buy a house” becomes “research neighbourhoods on neighborhoodscout.com”, “call bank about a home loan”, “call Jane Realtor about 3br 2ba homes in Y neighbourhood”, etc. Only add due dates for things which require them – once everything is available at a glance I find having fixed due dates a depressing bother. Life does not structure itself around my calendar, I choose instead to structure my life around my life and my goals.

Rinse and Repeat Steps
As it Happens
Whenever something necessary pops into your head or onto your screen put it into RTM or Springpad/Evernote. No excuses, no procrastination, just do it now and sort it later. It becomes easier as time goes on and there is less rattling loose. I often text myself todo items when I am away from my computer – look under account settings in RTM to get the address. I had to set up a tarpipe to alter the messages my cell sends out to work with RTM as my cell provider used to hijack the subject line.

Daily
We now need a way to reference tasks quickly whilst we’re in productive mode – at least once a day I go through each project list in RTM and tag “next actions” with “na”. Each “na” or “next action” task must be something you could do now if you had the time. I have created a smart list on RTM to display these things, and I work from that (search for tag:na and save the resulting list for future use). Update: I’ve also started a “focus” list for things that I’d like to accomplish in the next few days and should have mentioned my “lowfruit” list for things tagged “focus” (or or “na” if you prefer) which would take less than 21 minutes to accomplish. Pick the low hanging fruit first.

I also add time estimates and contexts/locations to RTM items which don’t have them each day, but find this isn’t vital for me. Important and worth doing most times, but not vital – most of my activity is at my computer and it’s debatable that the effort of adding locations is less than ignoring tasks which are out of context. For me. I doubt this is the case for most, and I always tag errands to ensure I don’t forget something as I’m running out the door. I have smart lists to show tags without locations and time estimates so I can do this quickly (isLocated:false aaaaaaaaand not(timeEstimate:"> 0 min") AND NOT list:Someday AND NOT tag:someday, respectively). You may note that I have a Someday list and tag – this is again inspired by GTD. Not everything needs done now, but it all needs to get out of my head so I can focus on what is important.

In everything, as always: make use of hotkeys – vital if you don’t want to waste a lot of time clicking on things. Smartlists, web services, and hotkeys are the main reasons I don’t use Springpad for my tasks. Springpad is, quite simply, too slow and cumbersome. Update: Springpad added hotkeys! Not to the degree RTM has them, but useful indeed.

Weekly
Once each week I review my completed tasks and the goals I’m trying to reach, then brainstorm new tasks to achieve those goals. This includes a look at my Someday list, in case anything on there can be moved forward. Pretty simple, but vital – it gives a sense of accomplishment and progress that is priceless and keeps me going, in large part because I can see that I am going, and going where I want to go.

Update Dec 13, 2010: I switched back to Evernote from Springpad due to Springpad’s editor, lack of API, and general slowness. Springpad is awesome, but Evernote works better for me and with the API I can utilize it in my own creations, export data if I want to leave, etc. As I’ve previously written, I hate using things that don’t have an API or at least implement Google Gears sqlite storage.

Update Dec 26, 2010: …and I’m back to Springpad. I’ve been vaguely researching Springpad for weeks and like what I’m seeing (thanks for the hotkeys and del.icio.us import!). In a show of good faith for a good product I’m going to assume the promised API will materialize, the hotkeys will improve, and there will be a decent advanced search and saved searches implemented. For some reasons I’ve yet to cement I’ve never been able to get myself to use Evernote reliably.

sudo apt-get install gearman

This will include all necessary files.  If you wish, you can then use PECL to install the PHP extension:

sudo pecl install gearman-0.6.0

The newest version is 0.7.0 but has issues when installing on Ubuntu.  I will likely go into this later.  At this point I had to create a gearman.ini file in /etc/php5/conf.d/gearman.ini containing “extension=gearman.so”:

sudo sh -c 'echo "extension=gearman.so" > /etc/php5/conf.d/gearman.ini'

Then restart Apache:

sudo apache2ctl restart

And all should work as expected.

Caveats: after much idiocy, I habitually install any *-dev packages I find for things I use.  These may or may not be required.  I also hear that uuid and libevent are required:

sudo apt-get install libev-libevent-dev uuid-dev

UPDATE:

After much tinkering I was able to install Gearman using the PPA info on Launchpad.  There is a conflict with required packages – gearman requires libmemcached4 but libdrizzle looks for libraries from libmemcached2.  The error was such:

gearmand: error while loading shared libraries: libmemcached.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The ‘solution’ was to symlink libmemcached.so to libmemcached.so.2.

Yes, it’s an annoying phrase, but let’s not ignore the relationships between the things that make up the idea of web 2.0 – these relationships are creating the future of the web.

It’s easy to use, in the Google style, but really, it’s got nothing on remember the milk.  Much as I’d love tighter Google apps->tasks integration, I’ll live with remember the milk’s gmail plugin.  I find myself wondering how many people’s lives would be better if Google had focused on something else, or if they’d worked on integrating remember the milk instead.  I wonder this often when I’m visiting all-in-one sites that mimic the functionality of  the web 2.0 ‘do one thing and do it well’ sites.

I’d like to see an all-in-one site that utilized the best-of-the-best from the sites that got it right*.  Those sites that do that one thing, and do it better than anyone else.    I’d like to see more of a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, of helping one another to make the bucks rather than spending time trying to fake up something that offers the bare minimum in functionality and usability.

*as with most comments like this, I started something like this and never really finished, but unlike a number of other projects, this one is something I still think is worth doing.  The possibilities with machine learning…and similar users…