by Matt on August 16, 2009
The new Western Digital Media Player has been announced by Western Digital, The WD TV 2 as I think it will be known pretty much offers all the same features as before, ridiculous codec support, plus… and this is the biggy for all of you Media Centre fans with silly amounts of media sitting on a NAS somewhere on your home network… an ethernet port!
Wow, this makes it a really attractive proposition for me, I have a bit of media sitting on one of my pc’s and I would love to be able to watch if on my TV.
Another important feature is DTS audio support and component video output if you have an older style plasma sitting around.
Continue Reading WD TV-2 spruces up Western Digital’s already attractive media player offering via Engadget
by Matt on November 28, 2008
My favourite Blogger Darren Rouse has suggested possibly the most remarkable time management strategy I have seen in recent memory.
“Batching”
The basic principle is about grouping tasks by function or similarity and doing them in quick successive order.
Here are some examples of batch “lists” that I would use:
- Blog posting – Peel off group of blog posts in quick order for later posting that week
- Redelegation - Moving multiple websites to a server at the same time
- Workflow - Mindmaping different workflow processes one after the other
- Strategy - Do all your strategy and “Dreaming” at once
In a way, what we are doing here is grouping tasks that rely on very similar brain functions to be completed. For instance, to my mind (no pun intended) it makes no sense to swap constantly from right brain to left brain constantly. Stay to the left for logic and repetitive linear tasks, and the right for creative lateral thinking tasks.
I have found personally it hard to get into programming, but after about 30 mins I’m in and a simple distraction to creatively deal with an issue in my workplace takes me out of the loop again. Stay in the loop by minimising distractions and grouping programming related tasks into a block of time.
This simple strategy is a process of personal development for me, I have found it hard to group and it does require structuring your life and having strong boundaries.
With a bit of discipline I know you can do it!
