All about Linux: A visual walk through of a couple of the new features in Vim 7.0.

Version 7.0 of Vim has some sexy new features under the hood, including the ability to jump back in time -- you can undo your app to where you were a few minutes earlier, for example. As explained by All about Linux:

New Scientist Breaking News - Email and letter writing share fundamental pattern

New Scientist article suggests contemporary patterns for answering email may not differ much from the way people had previously dealt with paper correspondence—we tend to respond in "bursty" patterns that give high priority and fast turnaround to important stuff while allowing the less pressing stuff to languish for weeks. The basis for comparison? The letters of Einstein and Darwin:

The pattern could reflect some basic biological encoding that shows up in everything from humans at work to birds foraging for food, according to Albert-László Barabási, a physicist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US...

Yet despite the differences between electronic communication and paper, the same pattern held up – both [Darwin and Einstein] answered most of their mail quickly, within about 10 days. But some of the answers took months or even years to send (Nature, vol 437, p 1251). "From the scientific point of view, the interesting thing is that there is a fundamental way that we do things," Barabási says.

I wonder if they also had to sift through 90% unsolicited ads for mens' patent medicines and daugerrotypes of Ladies Having Gone Wild.

Here's the home page for Albert-László Barabási and his book, Linked: The New Science of Networks.

[ Thanks, Mr. Kottke ]

Macworld is in full swing this week here in SF, and Merlin will be there, covering the expo floor for MacBreak, participating in a live taping of MacBreak Weekly, and much more. Details inside »

All subject to change, cancellation, force majeure, or ejection by security guard:

Monday

• 4:30-5:30pm - OmniFocus Meetup @ The Apple Store (Merlin will emcee the proceedings)

Tuesday

• Afternoon - On the Expo floor, shooting for MacBreak
  • Want us to stop by your booth?
• 6pm - MacBreak Weekly Podcast Live @ 21st Amendment (UPDATE: moved from the Apple Store)
• 8pm - MacBreak Weekly after-party @ 21st Amendment

Wednesday

• 9pm - DailyTechTalk's open Macworld Party at Swig

Thursday

• 6pm - Mac Podcaster Meetup Live @ The Apple Store
• 8pm - MacMingle @ Jillian's

Am I missing anything? Invite me via Upcoming.org.

PaulStamatiou.com » Why I’m More Productive on a Mac

Paul Stamatiou lays out some of the ways his Mac helps him be more productive.

There is a reason why I’m always that guy using one of the few Macs stranded away from the sea of PCs in the library. It’s not because Apple’s OS X is superior to Windows in terms of stability and speed, but more along the lines that OS X lets me be extremely productive with several key features. I am adept in utilizing each system to its potential, having used both for years on end. Macs just let me do more. Here’s why.

Paul's hit parade includes:

• Exposé (and some clever "corner" usage)
• Dashboard (he uses it as a ready toolbox for various small tasks)
• Spotlight (finding based on short strings of file names)
• Quicksilver (well -- practically everything else ;-) )

It's been a while, so how about some Friday remainders?

Years ago when I started my first job out of college, my employer sent its new crop of computer consultants to South Bend, Indiana for a week-long training session. Typical stuff: we watched a hilariously inappropriate sexual harassment video, learned how to use the company’s timekeeping system (a thick client C++ program named, aptly, “Data Time Entry”), and generally got used to the idea of living out of a suitcase.

Late in the week, an entire day was devoted to a presentation by a FrankinCovey trainer who showed us how to use the fancy leather-bound, three-ring binder/planner/organizer that our company purchased for us, complete with a storage case for archiving calendar pages. She ran us through the whole Covey system. We watched a video of one of Stephen Covey’s motivational seminars-cum-religious revivals and made lists of our goals, hopes, and regrets. I raised my hand and told a story about how lousy I felt for saying something nasty to my mom before I left that week. “Call Mom to apologize” went onto my Weekly Compass, marked Priority A.

At one point, the trainer demonstrated a little pocket notebook that could be detached from the binder when you didn’t want to lug around the whole thing, “a satellite that always returns to the mothership,” she called it. We snickered while she pantomimed writing down someone’s phone number at a Bears game; she was crazier than the guy in suspenders from the day before who taught us about management with a modified version of Monopoly. Most of us were planning to buy Palm Pilots with our first paychecks anyway. But I didn’t realize then how prescient that moment was. Training class Matt would laugh Matt circa 2008 all the way down I-90 if he could see me now.

Handy way to "set it and forget it."

David Seah - Better Living Through New Media » The Printable CEO

David Seah has a very clever method for making sure he stays focused on the kinds of activities that bring him and his growing business the highest value. He basically scores himself a weighted grade for how valuable each completed task is to his core goal of growing his business. Ooooo...SAT bubbles!

As stupid as this system may sound, it’s actually working. When I get to fill in a bubble, I feel a little surge of pleasure…I’ve been conditioned by standardized testing, apparently. I also get visual confirmation that I’ve done something to move my business forward. This is an interesting example of feedback in a game design sense; over the course of a week, it’s easy to evaluate your progress at any given time. It’s also easy to pick something to do, based on what you’ve done before. The bubble chart becomes a kind of game board in itself. Instead of feeling guilty for not getting to all your tasks on your ToDo list, feel good that you did make progress. Look upon your worksheet for the proof, and feel the sense of accomplishment in your gut!

He reports back a month later:

Upcoming.org: "Inside the Net" Taping & Meetup at No Regrets (Tuesday, October 3, 2006)

I'm heading up to Toronto next week for a whirlwind three-day visit -- including a podcast session with Amber and Leo for Inside the Net; shooting some segments for Call for Help with Leo; squeezing in a couple other little podcast-y, broadcast-y treats; plus sidling into a serendipitous Long Winters show on Wednesday night. And, yes, I'm leaving before Friday, so, no, I won't get to see Sloan in their adoptive hometown. C'est la vie, as they presumably say in Quebec.

Anyhow -- and I am actually going somewhere with this -- the Inside the Net crew invites interested geek Torontonians to come to a live taping and then stick around to hang and meet and talk and whatnot. I'll be the one with the frequently replenished CANADIAN (mmm...) and the weird hair.

From our Upcoming page: