March 20, 2009 at 10:17 am
rf44 (3/20/2009)
Hi! ... What comes next ? Take it with me when I go to the bathroom?
So you are saying you don't ever take your cell in there?
March 20, 2009 at 10:22 am
Having twin monitors is a huge productivity boost. Microsoft's internal research found it was a minimum 10% productivity boost for virtually any job, and from what I can see most people here have at least two these days. Not sure how the guys with four keep track of 'em all, but it would be fun to try!
Finally having a tablet with enough battery life to last most of the day is extremely helpful. Not just because I don't have to cart the power cord around everywhere anymore, but because I can do useful work while riding the shuttle across campus or catch up on less important email/tweets/RSS feeds during lunch.
Most recently, though, Live Mesh has become a huge time saver to keep my various workstations and notebooks synchronized with PasswordSafe files, OneNote notebooks, favorites, etc. Just being able to have all the same data to hand no matter which keyboard I'm sitting @ is extremely helpful. I'm fixin' to try it out with my Windows Mobile phone, if I can get a WM version of PasswordSafe compiled.
March 20, 2009 at 10:22 am
Malcolm Daughtree (3/20/2009)
Woot. First In ....I have to say Blue tooth. No cables, No running over your mouse tail and no Leads to my headphones to get in the road. I wonder just how many extra Kilomenters my hand has had to travel because I've had to skip because of jumping cables.
CodeOn
😛
Oi... this was the first thing I thought of also. Mouse, headphones, video, networking: I like cordless... but still waiting for point devices to get better than the too-large finger-print of a tablet and the clunky mouse.
Table top looks interesting, but now you have even more footprint and prohibitive cost. At least table top is bringing in the technology for multi-cursor interfaces... that looks promising.
Still waiting for better...
March 20, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hyperdata (3/20/2009)
Oddly enough, vitamins! For some reason, I get distracted easily, by the internet & emails(SSC). I forget which of the 10 to 15 things I was working on last. I also can't seem to focus on work. So, one day I was distressed about it and thought about why my brain was not like it used to be. Then, I started thinking about what could I do to help my brain work better. I thought about what foods are helpful for the brain, fish & vitamins. So I took an extra Vitamin B superComplex and some Ginko-Biloba. It seems to help. Maybe, I am just getting older. I am 39 and will be 40 in August. When do I get my mid life crisis? I am thinking about something fast in red! Are you thinking what I am thinking? Yeah, a new laptop! 🙂
Vitamins? You need some Ritalin, mate 😀
For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden
March 20, 2009 at 10:34 am
David Reed (3/20/2009)
Most recently, though, Live Mesh has become a huge time saver to keep my various workstations and notebooks synchronized with PasswordSafe files, OneNote notebooks, favorites, etc. Just being able to have all the same data to hand no matter which keyboard I'm sitting @ is extremely helpful. I'm fixin' to try it out with my Windows Mobile phone, if I can get a WM version of PasswordSafe compiled.
I am very interested to know how that turns out... I have heard a lot about Live Mesh lately, so I will have to give it a whirl soon.
March 20, 2009 at 10:35 am
1 - Internet in general and Search engines in particular
2 - Excel (I can design, implement and deploy what would otherwise be small developments that would take a couple of weeks in less than a couple of hours. I've got tons of BI spreadsheets that just read raw data from a database and use that wonderful OLAP tool called Excel Pivot Table that would take months to develop as a full-blown datawarehouse. All in all, it's the best piece of software ever written)
3 - Last generation IDEs (MS VS 2005/2008, Eclipse). Younger programmers have no idea what a pain in the neck it was to write code without Intellisense, automatic refactoring, just-in-time compilation, etc.
March 20, 2009 at 10:45 am
I second the votes for iPhone, internet, Google, Excel, Word, Access, relational data bases, etc.
But when I need them, things like regular expressions, scripting languages (VBA, Perl, Korn Shell, etc.), and, when I was doing Unix, the whole "assemble multiple tasks and connect them with pipes" thing.
Sometimes GUI Interfaces, for 'Doing things' fast, but often at the expense of 'Learning things'. Sort of today's equivalent of copying JCL cards!
March 20, 2009 at 10:57 am
What technology has really improved your efficiency?
WOW !!! There have been so many over the last 25 years that come to mind that have made contributions to productivity at different times. I'll enumerate a smattering of them in somewhat chronological order.
- A keyboard and disks - it beats the pants out of punched cards
- event driven computers vs. interrupt driven computers - DEC VAX vs. IBM (event driven computers will later include ALL PCs)
- the Altair
- affordable multi-user Unix systems - Altos and MS Xenix anybody ?
- IRC and email - back when the internet was still run by DARPA
- the IBM PC
- BBSs
- the GUI and mouse
- ISDN modems - 128kb as dual 64kb channels beat 19,200kb dialup hands down
- the laptop computer (one weighing less than 10 pounds)
- the cell phone
- the 'Internet'
- VPNs
- the Blackberry - from the original blackberry colored one !
- broadband 'Internet' access
- wireless 'Internet' access
and now the most important of all - the 'snooze' button on my alarm !!!
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
March 20, 2009 at 11:00 am
Looking to the very near future, I am excited to see the wireless video come out... imagine your PDA being the sender to a much larger screen...
Laptops will descrease size almost overnight, bringing about an ultimate marriage between laptop and PDA. And as flash and other solid-state parts increase in speed and capacity, this is just around the corner.
The newest SD spec allows for a terrabyte or more on a flash device.
I don't think we have even begun to invent.
March 20, 2009 at 11:07 am
rudy komacsar (3/20/2009)
and now the most important of all - the 'snooze' button on my alarm !!!
I read something about "home spun" remedies. They suggested putting an armed mousetrap on top of the alarm clock. :w00t: Ya don't hit that more than once.
ATBCharles Kincaid
March 20, 2009 at 11:15 am
You’ll take my 'snooze' button when you pry it from my cold dead fingers 😛
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
March 20, 2009 at 12:11 pm
1) WebEx, LiveMeeting, GoToMeeting-type tools - I used to travel a lot more to meet with customers, give presentations, demonstrate software, etc. Now we can do most of it via WebEx - so I can give several presentations, demos, webinars in the same day. One to someone in Chicago, the second to someone in Mexico City, then to someone in New York. Talk about an improvement in productivity! No airplane trips, no driving to and from the airport, no hotels needed, it's GREAT! And sometimes I do them from home without the audience knowing... or caring really. Last summer I took an hour from my vacation and did a webinar from our lakeside cabin wearing shorts and flip-flops... and I didn't even shave that day. Shhhhh don't tell anyone!
2) Dual monitors - can't imagine not having them now.
3) Controlling how and when I can be reached - such as not allowing constant interruptions via Skype. This lets me focus on what I need to get done and be more productive. E-mail is a fine way for someone to reach me and doesn't demand immediate response, i.e. immediate interruption to whatever I'm working on. In the same way, Voice Mail, though not new, is a great thing since I can respond when it's convenient for me and not interrupt what I am doing.
Not technology - but important for productivity:
4) Exercise - staying healthy and in shape keeps me more productive at work. Hard to be productive if you are sick or lacking energy - no matter what techno-gadgets you have.
5) Sleep - getting enough sleep is a proven productivity-booster. Most people need at least 8 hours, 9 is better according to sleep research. And it also is important for your general health - more and more research studies showing that these days.
March 20, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I look forward to advancements in cloning so I don't have to take my laptop everywhere: 😉
Karen Gayda
MCP, MCSD, MCDBA
gaydaware.com
March 20, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Coffee and RedGate tools
March 20, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Help/manuals/discussion groups/Google searches online. In the old days I would sit and read the manual for a couple days. Now I can come up to speed in a couple of hours or sometimes, a couple of minutes.
Rather than wait a year to go to a conference, I can ask a question in a discussion group and immediately be informed by some of the best minds on the subject. How amazing is that?
Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 61 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply