Dean Sas’s Weblog

European Lottery Gambling

// January 27th, 2006 // No Comments » // General

The Euro millions lottery has rolled over ten times, and as a result the prize fund last week was 85 million, so presumably it will go up by at least another 8.5 million, taking the total to be close to 100 million. Not a small amount

This will be the first time I’ve ever played the lottery, and probably the last.

At work we’ve formed a huge one off syndicate in some wild hope that we can win. There’s 200 plus partners in the syndicate, and we have 332 lines between us. The 332 lines span 84 tickets. In case you ever wondered what that looks like here’s a picture:

Improving your blog

// January 27th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // General

I’ve just been reading five steps on how to quickly and easily improve your blog (via MJ Ray). I think that I have managed to do most of them, though perhaps not optimally. Hopefully I’ll find time to improve soon, and redesign the whole site while I’m at it.

Tracks: Gettings Things Done

// January 22nd, 2006 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized

For the last fortnight or so I’ve been looking for a way to implement David Allens Getting Things Done time management methodologies. I’ve tried using it on my Pocket PC but it’s native todo system didn’t leave me satisfied with it, so I drifted away from the system.

I was looking for something electronic which I could access from anywhere, so after browsing around different systems and how other people had done this. I decided to use Tracks to do it. It’s not perfect as it’s not available offline, but I can download the RSS feeds and can work with that offline, and print pages out otherwise.

Tracks has a few bugs in the latest released version, but I’ve downloaded the trunk version and it’s much improved, it has a lot of bugs fixed and some new features to ensure only your next actions are listed in your todo list.

There are a couple of things I’d like to see added in the short term – some kind of support for “someday/maybe” items and support for “people agendas”, longer term some 43 folders functionality would be nice.

It’s open source and written in Ruby on Rails, so hopefully it’ll give me more incentive to learn Ruby, so I can add this functionality.

Now if only I can find some calendar solution, I need to be able to publish it (and preferably edit it) online, and also be able to edit it with something that accesses evolution-data-server…

5 Cool Gmail Tools

// January 10th, 2006 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

I’ve spent a while looking around at different gmail tools so thought I’d share a few of my favourites.

1. GTray – A gmail notifier that’s better than the official one, it shows unread mail on startup, registers mailto: links and provides a notifier in the system tray.
2. DelBackup. Automated backing up delicious to your gmail account. (howto)
3. GmailFS – A linux filesystem which uses your gmail account as it’s storage. This gives you remote storage accessible from anywhere which you can operate on using any of the commands you’re used to.
4. GMail Drive – it’s similar to the above, but for windows.
5. Gmail + Bit torrent – Ok, so not strictly a tool, but it’s a pretty cool gmail hack.

Of course a gmail account is needed. I’ve got plenty of invites if you don’t fancy giving google your mobile number, just leave a comment and email address if you want one.

Belated New Years Resolutions

// January 8th, 2006 // 5 Comments » // General

While I’m doing lists. This year I intend to:

• be healthier – early starts at work and getting the car haven’t been the best things for me.
• • Go to bed at normal times
  • Do some excercise – I’ve already been Thai Boxing, once. It’s a start.
• Get things done
• • Make a significant contribution to open source – probably Ubuntu, this year. No more procastrination.
  • Do more programming. – I want to get something done and usable.

Bets on me looking back on this in fifty one weeks time and saying “I haven’t done any of this” aren’t been took.

Site Upgrade

// January 4th, 2006 // No Comments » // General

I’ve also upgraded the software that runs this site to Wordpress 2.0, there’s a new admin control panel and some internal code reworking. I’ve also relaxed the criteria for displaying comments, so it should now instantly display all comments except spam, that aside there’s not really much user visible change, but if you see something that does look funny let me know..

2005 Reviewed

// January 4th, 2006 // 2 Comments » // General

Here’s a quick run down of things that have happened in my world during 2005, it’s nice to look back and think.
To summarise: Passed my driving test, fell back in love with linux, finished uni for a year, moved back home, got a car, started my work placement, went on holiday, got a laptop.

Now on with the next year.

Post idea stole from Andrew Pollock.