And, when using my favorite FTP utility Transmit, selecting “Open With” within it would result in an even longer delay and would ultimately present me with a list of apps containing duplicate entries of every app listed.

In wondering about what was causing this, I thought that it might have coincided with me beginning to use shared folders within VMware Fusion (sharing selected folders between my iMac and the Windows virtual drive). I had been doing this for a long while, but maybe one of the recent VMware updates changed something.

I similarly wondered about Transmit, and whether a recent update to it may have impacted the Finder utility by virtue of the way it “hooks into it.”

Then, I wondered if it could just have been upgrading to Snow Leopard 10.6 (or a subversion) itself, and I suspected this to be the more likely case.

Anyway, it got so aggravating that I looked for ways to fix it, and found a way to do so with the nice little utility Onyx.

As shown in the following figure, I chose the Finder part of the Parameters section of Onyx, and deselected almost all of the window animation settings (all were selected originally), and then changed the Menu Bar Background from transparent to Gray. That fixed it!

The problem with dual entries in Transmit’s “Open With” list still exists, though. I have used the Rebuild LauchServices feature available through the Maintenance tab of Onyx, but it just hasn’t done the trick. I may need to disable shared folders in VMware (since I really no longer use them anyway).

So, I’m back to being a happy camper again.

Note that this is something you may want to look into even if you are not seeing sluggish response in the Finder. If you have one of the newer Macs or Macbooks, the combination of faster processors and more RAM may be keeping you from seeing a problem. My iMac is almost 4 years old, has only one 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and only 2 GB 667 MHz SDRAM. (It could be that I might not have seen much responsiveness change on a newer system.)

Regardless, I highly recommend that you grab a copy of the free utility Onyx, as it has a lot of nice features.

You might suspect, as I would have, that someone like super-author J.K. Rowling uses pretty sophisticated planning software, maybe even a product that is specially designed for authors, and maybe even a product designed especially for her. But we would be wrong: she uses notebook paper, and lays everything out in a spreadsheet-like format.

If we stop and think about it, though, this is not terribly surprising. For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article discusses how handwriting boosts the brain. The article notes that

… researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development

And, in my article on would you know if you have ADD, I note that using a paper planner helped reduce my ADHD-like symptoms. (Similarly, in my recent article on the Kindle, I noted that I was much less ADD-like in using it than in using my iPad or computer for reading, because it is designed for reading and doesn’t have a lot of other distracting features. Paper doesn’t have bells and whistles, either, and that helps you focus on the task at hand.)

Whenever I need to plan something really complex, out comes the paper. That’s despite the fact that I have about every planning tool one could have on my computer. Paper helps me think in ways that software doesn’t.

But, that’s me. It may describe lots of people, but I would not try to sell you on doing things my way. Do what works for you: just remember that paper could be one thing that does work for you, and don’t be held back from using it because you’re afraid someone will see you and think you are not tech-savvy. What do you care what other people think?

(Of course, there are projects for which software is the best way to go, no matter how much you like paper: if your project is one that takes a lot of collaborative effort, for example, you need a planning medium that works in that environment.)

Well, I’ve got a couple of videos that will help us with this. The first is from our friends at D’Addario. They have put together a YouTube that shows how to string a guitar so you don’t wind up with slipping strings:

I just used it to restring my Godin Classical SA and found it to be very helpful.

My late friend Buster B. Jones also put together a YouTube video on restringing a classical:

Note that Buster emphasizes a pre-stretching of the strings, and I’ve heard pros and cons on that. Some say that it can permanently stretch part of the string (resulting in a deformity), resulting in a need for constant retuning. Yet, I know Buster wouldn’t have emphasized it if it didn’t work for him. My guess is that it might work better for folks who change strings often, like Buster did, and that it’s potential negative effects might catch up with you if you leave the strings on long enough.

On my previous restringing, I tried it Buster’s way and, after a while, my first, second and third strings required constant retuning … I’m talking about barely being able to get through a tune without have to retune. I don’t know if that was from pre-stretching, leaving the strings on too long, or just having a bad set of strings.

Something I recently learned from my friends at MisterGuitar is that one should put the stiff end of the string (applies to bass strings only) through the bridge and not through the head, as the flexible end is more prone to slipping (it can slip on the bridge, but not on the head). I’ve never encountered a problem in my 30 years of playing a classical guitar, off and on, but I don’t put my guitars through the paces that pro guitarists do. So, to avoid problems in the future, it makes sense to take advice from the pros.

As to tuning, I’ve tried several apps on my iPhone and iPad and prefer ClearTune. It’s also available for devices that run on Google’s Android operating system. A snapshot is shown to the left.

One more point on strings: I mentioned the D’Addario brand above, and it is a great brand. I am personally using D’Aquisto Flamenco #470 right now, and am very satisfied with them. This is the brand (and number) that Buster used, and he sent several sets to me and I still have a couple of sets left. I can’t recall the brand that I used when I seriously played the guitar (some 30 years ago).

You should change strings reasonably often. I have been known to leave a set on the guitar for months at a time (my previous set was about 10 months old), and that is just not good, even though I don’t play very often. You run into problems with tuning, as well as a severe reduction in sound quality.

I hope these tips are helpful to those of you who either play, or are thinking of playing, a classical guitar. If you have additional tips, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Update: Master guitarist John Knowles, one of the few guitarists to ever receive the Certified Guitar Player award from Chet Atkins, commented on my Facebook page that he leaves as little slack as possible when stringing a guitar, to minimize the time for stretching. He also noted that he changes strings every couple of weeks or so, because he loves the sound of new strings. For me that would be too often, no more than I play, but about every four to six to eight weeks might work good for me.

I do not use any sophisticated equipment. The video recording is done using the little webcam that is built into my 3 year-old iMac. The audio is done with a $25 Logitech USB microphone. (I’ve heard that it’s best to use a USB mic because it bypasses the sound cards and controls built into the computer, but I have not researched this.)

My amplifier is an old Sunn Alpha 112r (one 12-inch) speaker with the following settings:

• treble about 9 or 10 o’clock
• bass about 2 or 3 o’clock
• mids about 2 o’clock or so

(These are supposedly the settings that Paul Yandell recommends. Some of my recordings use a lot more treble than Paul recommends, but I think Paul’s recommendation gives the best sound.)

I do not use any special tone settings on my Godin Multiac SA: all settings are at their mid-points. All tone control is accomplished through my amplifier.

The only software I use for the recording is QuickTimePlayer, which comes with the iMac.

Now, if I wanted to add special effects, which I might want to do on some future recordings, I could record the video with QuickTimePlayer, as I currently do, and then import the movie into GarageBand. After importing, I could add special effects or even add additional tracks so that I could play along with the recording (doing harmony and/or rhythm).

As to the lighting, I just lucked into good lighting. I record in front of my desk that sets against a wall (I set about 2 or 3 feet in front of it). On the desk is a 60 watt lamp, and off to my left, by about 2 feet (maybe 3) is a 100 watt lamp. Then, off to my right about 20 feet is another 100 watt lamp (with an energy saving bulb, so it is soft white … the others are rather yellowish). Back behind me, at the end of the couch, is another 100 watt lamp. This all gives pretty good lighting. To further improve the lighting, I also sometimes open up the drapes in the room, letting in natural sunlight.

For those who use Windows-based computers, Roger Hardin, 2002 National Thumbpicking Champion, mentioned the following to me:

I have been Using Cakewalk Sonar for years. It really works great with Windows 7 but I never tried it with Vista. If you get a good audio card with rock solid drivers, Sonar is awesome. Another program worth looking at is Reaper. You can download a non-expiring demo without any limitations from the reaper download site. You can purchase Reaper for about $60. If I were starting out that is what I would go with but I am so used to Cakewalk Sonar its hard to break away.

(Note: Reaper is also available for Macs.)

That’s about it. For those who are interested, here is my latest video. The lighting in it is not that great for some reason (must be the time of day I recorded it), but it is not bad.

For the fingerstyle purists, you will note that I do not use the traditional 6-4-5-4 thumb pattern for much of the Hallelujah I Love Her So tune, because I wanted a specific sound, which also included occasional use of the thumbpick on the third string. I use a more traditional pattern on the Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright) tune. Note that, in addition to my YouTube recordings, several of my older mp3′s are located here. (These were all done about 3 years ago, mostly on my Alvarez, when I was in a particularly good mood for recording. Most of the tunes are originals.)

I read through it in one setting (it is easy reading), and was hugely disappointed. At the time of my first reading, I would have probably given it a 2-star rating on Amazon. It just seemed to be too contrarian, even for me, who normally likes to hear views that aren’t shared by the mainstream.

But about a week later, I decided to read it again: I knew that the authors, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, are smart guys and that I must have missed something.

Sure enough, I had missed a lot. I had read through the book too quickly and without stopping to think. For example, in reading the section entitled Learning from mistakes is overrated, I initially thought the authors downplayed the value of learning from mistakes. And, I knew from almost 61 years of living on this planet that learning from mistakes is invaluable. But, the authors do not say that one should ignore learning from mistakes; rather, they are saying that we should learn from our successes, too. My sense is that most people don’t do this well enough. I don’t do it well enough, as I can’t even remember the last time I sat down and asked myself what I could learn from my successes.

And, there were other sections that I had breezed through too quickly. For example, I was more than a little miffed when I read the section Years of irrelevance, because it seemed to me that it really downplayed the value of experience, almost suggesting that you should never waste your money by hiring someone with more than a few years experience. On my first reading, I wanted to ask the authors “would you want the pilot of a bumpy flight you are on to have six months experience or ten years?” Or perhaps, “do you want your cancer removed by a surgeon who has only six months surgery experience?”

But, on second (and third) reading, thinking while reading, I realize that the authors are saying that we do sometimes overvalue experience. If the authors do not object to my using one of their graphics, I think it says it all:

That is, you have to ask the question, for each hiring situation, “what does experience really mean for this position?”

As you might have gathered from the examples, my initial 2-star rating is now a 5-star rating. I highly recommend this book. It is chock-full of excellent advice, such as the following gems:

• Start making smaller to-do lists too. Long lists collect dust.
• Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up.
• Everyone should be encouraged to start his own business, not just some rare breed that self-identifies as entrepreneurs.
• Start making something.

I could easily list 30 or more gems from the book. And these gems of advice are not from some dreamworld laboratory or ivory tower: they’re from a couple of sharp guys who have applied the advice wisely in their own world. Want to know how sharp they are? Well, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos doesn’t invest in many companies other than his own, but he invested in 37signals.

You do need to wear your thinking cap when you read the book, or you are going to misconstrue some great advice. But, isn’t thinking what a good book is supposed to make you do?

Whether you want help running a business, getting started on one, or just some help with life in general, there is a lot of good advice in Rework that you can put to use. It is available via my Amazon Affiliate links as a Kindle Edition, or you can use that link to jump to the hardcover or audio CD (audiobook) formats.

The list includes such simple but helpful activities as donating some of your spare CPU cycles and hard drive space to massive computing projects, such as the following one:

Rosetta@Home– This project uses distributed computing to discover and predict the 3-dimensional shapes of biological proteins. It may not sound terribly exciting, but learning the structures of these complex proteins can help researchers find cures for major human diseases such as HIV, Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Malaria. Check out the system requirements and download the BOINC client to participate.

I have downloaded this client and will donate some of my iMac’s power to this cause. You may also want to consider this, or some of the alternatives that Mashable describes.

I think it is great of Mashable to put together this list. If you know of additional examples that could be added to the list, please let us know in the comments.

What we cover today is the situation in which you want your sidebar to have 2 columns for the top part and 1 column for the bottom, similar to the way my sidebar is setup. A screenshot of my sidebar, where it crosses from 2-column to 1-column, is as follows:

In the 2-column portion of my sidebar, the left column is 120px (12em) and the right column is 220px (22em). In the 1-column portion, the width is the combination of these two: 340px (34em). Now, let’s talk about how we make this arrangement work.

The first thing we have to do is figure out which Thesis hook to use to get a single column to appear after the dual column. In scanning through the hooks references, we find that thesis_hook_after_sidebars is the hook we need. We are going to replace that hook with a function of our own, entitled custom_sidebar_bottom. We will add the code to our custom_functions.php file and then invoke the function using the following:

add_action('thesis_hook_after_sidebars', 'custom_sidebar_bottom');

Before we get into the details of that function, though, let’s talk about what CSS is needed.

Although the thesis_hook_after_sidebars will help us set up a column, Thesis does not provide any default styling for that area. (Nor should it be expected to: that area is totally custom, and warrants totally custom CSS.) So, we have to decide what CSS we need to define the column. I have chosen the following:

#bottomside {width: 100%;}
#bottomside a { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #ef7114; }
#bottomside {font-size: 1.2em; font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; }

I named the div of the area #bottomside, assigned it a width of 100% and assigned it the same font family and sizing that the 2-column area uses.

And, since we are talking about CSS, let’s go ahead and finish talking about it before getting into the hooking code. Specifically, the other CSS that I use in this area are the CSS for my “table-like” ads and the CSS for my Skribit module’s width:

.sbtable_ads_container {
	width: 270px;
	padding: 5px 0 5px 0;
}
.sbtable_ads_left {
	width: 85px;
	float: left;
	padding: 2px;
	margin-right: 8px;
	margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.sbtable_ads_right {
	width: 160px;
	float: left;
	padding: 2px;
	margin-bottom: 10px;
	text-align: left;
}
.sbtable_ads_clear {
	float: none;
	clear: both;
}
#skribitWidget {width: 80%;}

Now for the hooking code:

function custom_sidebar_bottom() {
    if ( !is_page('about') && !is_page('donations') ) {
?>
        <div class="sbtable_ads_clear">
        </div>
        <div id="bottomside">
        <center>
            <div class="sbtable_ads_container">
                <div class="sbtable_ads_left">
                    <a rel="nofollow" href="My Link David Allen Product"><img src="Link to Image" width="80" height="80" alt="GTD Unabridged Audio" title="Click to Purchase or See More Information" /></a>
                </div>
                <div class="sbtable_ads_right">
                    <p>The <a rel="nofollow" href="My Link David Allen Product">GTD Unabridged Audio</a> is an excellent way to learn or reinforce GTD.</p>
                </div>
            <div class="sbtable_ads_clear">
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="sbtable_ads_container">
            <div class="sbtable_ads_left">
                <a rel="nofollow" href="My Link David Allen Product"><img src="Link to Image" width="80" height="80" alt="GTD Unabridged Audio" title="Click to Purchase or See More Information" /></a>
            </div>
            <div class="sbtable_ads_right">
                <p>I've used the <a rel="nofollow" href="My Link David Allen Product">GTD Notetaker Wallet</a> for years ... great product!</p>
            </div>
            <div class="sbtable_ads_clear">
            </div>
        </div>
<?php 
if ( !is_front_page() ) {
?>
    <div id="googleads" class="widget">
        Code for my 250x250 Google Ads
    </div>
<?php } else { 
?>
    <div id="writeSkribitHere"></div>
        Code of my Skribit widget
<?php }
?>
</center>
</div>
<?php }
}

I’ve put generic values in for the links, ads, and Skribit code, rather than clutter this up with totally unnecessary detail. There is still some unnecessary detail, in that the conditional code for showing Skribit on the Front Page (but not Google Ads) is not necessary to illustrate the concept involved … but the conditional code might be useful to a few of you who want to use some conditional code in your sidebar(s).

I think this function is pretty self-explanatory. If not, feel free to ask questions of me in the comments. Also, feel free to correct me on any mistakes you see: perfection is not my middle name.

One thing that does warrant a mention, though, is the necessity of doing a “CSS clear” before beginning of the div=#bottomside implementation. Without that clearing, the new area tacks onto the right of the 2-column layout, rather than coming back over to the left and starting afresh.

One final aside: I have used <center> within this scheme to center the contents of the bottom sidebar. This alignment code is not valid in a W3C strict-mode validation, although it does work in transitional mode. So, if perfect validation is a priority for you (I like to come as close as practical), you would not want to use that alignment code.

http://www.domain.com/2009/03/19/article-title/

I recently learned that such a URL is less about 10% (or more) less likely to get clicked than the following one, which is the same but without the dates:

http://www.yourdomain.com/article-title/

So, I researched how I could go about changing to not using dates. I found the following code to put into my .htaccess file:

RedirectMatch 301 /([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$4

Of course, I had to change “domain.com” to “keenerliving.com”

In doing this, I have learned a good bit, and have written an the following article on Search Engine Land: A case study in changing URL structure. It has a great deal of additional information, including a better redirect rule, and is useful for anyone considering such a URL change. You should definitely not just use the above rewrite rule without reading the Search Engine Land article first.

• Some of the noisy information (undesired information that is not useful) can drown out the useful information.
• Some information that you have not adequately processed “runs around in your head like noise.” In addition to just not feeling good, this can also impact your decision-making and your ability to process additional information.

So, given that we all have to deal with this, I thought it would be good to look at some ways that might help you process information better. We’ll look at the following:

• It Matters How Information is Presented
• Grouping, Labeling, and Filtering

I am also hoping that you will share your thoughts and tips on this important subject.

Before we get into a discussion of information processing, though, let’s deal with the following issue: What can you do when the noise is actually impacting your thinking? I have two answers for that: Mind Sweeping and Meditation. Perhaps you have additional answers, and I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Mind Sweeping and Meditation

Whenever you feel like your mind is “too noisy,” that’s a signal that you need to do a Mind Sweep. If you are not familiar with the term, Merlin Mann does an excellent job of explaining it.

When I recently realized that my mind was too noisy, a mind sweep got me all straightened out. I just grabbed a legal pad and started writing. This revealed some new projects, which I put into my “projects” folder, and I will work through them with appropriate “next actions.” I feel so much better. I’m just upset with myself that I didn’t think of doing this sooner — it had been several months since my last mind sweep, which is way to long.

Now, as for meditation, I cannot speak from experience on it. Not yet, anyway. I have made a resolution to develop the habit of meditating, though, because I have seen so many research articles conclude that meditation leads to clearer thinking, a greater sense of sense of peace, and can even combat Alzheimer’s. For those who already practice meditation, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the best book to guide me into it. I bet several other readers would like to hear from you, too.

It Matters How Information is Presented

To get a sense of how important presentation can be, consider some different ways that daily news can be presented to you.

If you are a fan of using Google Reader (GR), as I am, you might think it would be good to subscribe to some news sites in GR. So, you add Google News and Huffington Post to your feeds. Will that satisfy your craving for news updates? Maybe, but you sure will be flooded with a lot of headlines. And many of these will be of no interest to you, and many will be essentially duplicates (example: 8 updates to one story on the latest war in the Middle East). On top of that, the items are not presented in any order of importance.

To me, this is not a good way to present daily news information. My own preference would be to view one or more of the following a couple of times a day:

• CNN.com
• Alltop News
• Popurls
• Addictomatic

The latter three of these are aggregators: they aggregate information from a variety of sources and present it in a dashboard fashion. They are good for providing information-at-a-glance. If you haven’t tried any of these aggregators, I highly recommend experimenting with them. The latter two focus pretty much on the “what is popular/hot” stuff. While you can get that with Alltop, it has information available in over 400 topical areas. So, you can find just about anything you are looking for there. There’s once for science, Buddhism, Christianity, … , ADHD, OCD, … , NFL Football, … and on and on. If you are interested in further details, you might want to check out Chris Brogan’s excellent write-up on Alltop.

If you find the dashboard concept for information processing to be appealing, you’ll surely want to check out Steve Rubel’s making Gmail your gateway to the web. Steve, a Senior VP with Edelman Digital, is an expert on information processing. As I’ve said many times before, I recommend that you subscribe to his blog. When you visit it, you may want to search for the term attention crash, which he coined, and for which he has several very interesting articles.

if you like Steve’s idea of Gmail as a gateway, you might want to also look into a service called notify.me — it supposedly will email you about the types of information you sign up for, and, according to this post, it will even email you when one of your Alltop pages changes. I have not tried this service, because, unlike Steve Rubel, I prefer to use my Gmail account for just email: I don’t want it cluttered with anything else. (By the way, you could probably set up Microsoft Outlook to serve as a sort of gateway, too.)

One final point on presentation: it’s generally better to use the List View mode of Google Reader than the Expanded View. I learned this the hard way. For about two years, I used the Expanded View and used the j and k shortcut keys (along with PGUP and PGDN) to page through articles. Well, a few weeks back, I switched to using the List View and can now quickly scan hundreds of items, speeding up my time on GR by a good bit. When I see a headline of interest, I either click it to read it, or Star it for later reading.

There is another advantage to using the GR List View, too, which we will cover in the following section.

Grouping, Labeling, and Filtering

Fortunately, most email tools make it easy to group, label, and/or filter emails so that you are not stuck with looking at a long unorganized list. Outlook has its stars/colors, which will force items to the top of the list, and it also supports folders, which you can use to organize emails into actionable, informational, project-related, proposal-related, … groupings. Gmail also supports grouping and labels (which act like folders).

Also in Outlook, you can use Rules to handle information from different people in different ways. For example, you can set up a rule that all items from your boss go into your “Boss Folder.”

An additional step that a lot of large corporations use is to enforce everyone in the company to use a prefacing code for email, to help distinguish actionable email from informational email. For example, emails that require a follow-up action would have a subject line that begins with “Action Required: ” with the remainder of the subject line specifying the subject. (It could also specify the due date.) Emails that are for information only would have subject lines that begin with “FYI: ” and so on. When you sort such emails, you wind up with all of the action-oriented ones in one place and all the info-only emails in another.

If your company is not using this, you might want to talk with someone in your IT organization to see if they can set it up.

You can also use labeling/grouping with Google Reader (I suppose other readers support this, too … I have not used any, though, so I cannot say for sure). This is illustrated with the picture on the right, which shows a few of my categories and their associated feeds. The nice thing about doing this is that I can choose to just look at selected topics, instead of wading through the new feeds for all topics.

Speaking of feed readers, have you ever wondered what percentage of your feeds you are actually reading? Well, if you use the List View of Google Reader, then GR will actually tell you the percentage you are reading, for each feed. You have to use the list view, though. If you use the expanded view, like I used to do, and use the j/k, PGUP/PGDN keys to navigate through the feeds, GR assumes you are reading every item you page through. That turned out being a hugely false assumption for my reading, as I often glanced at a headline, didn’t think it was worth reading, and hit the “j” key for the next item. GR thought I read the item, but I didn’t.

The picture below is a snapshot of my actual trends for the past 30 days, showing my reading percentages. Note that the first several days are from when I was still using the Expanded View instead of the List View. You can see the huge difference it makes.

Google Reader also tells you, for each feed, what percentage of the feed’s stories you have read. You can use this to weed out feeds that just aren’t giving you a good percentage of stories. For example, if you are only reading 5% of the articles from a site, is that site even worth subscribing to? I’m not saying that 5% is the magic number … it could be higher or lower, depending on your tastes and how clobbered with information you think you are (how motivated you are to cut back on the feeds). The bottom line, though, is that you can use this information to “right-size” your feeds.

Wrap-up

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to manage the information in your life so that it feels less noisy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips in this area.

One of these techniques is called change analysis, which this Wikipedia article describes as follows:

“An investigation technique often used for problems or accidents. It is based on comparing a situation that does not exhibit the problem to one that does, in order to identify the changes or differences that might explain why the problem occurred.”

This is a simple, yet powerful, tool for solving problems, and I am sharing it with you in case you are not familiar with it. It was brought to my mind when I used it to solve a problem I mentioned to you a couple of days ago. As I thought through the problem, I asked myself “what changes have I made to my site in the past several days?” Then, I just worked my way through the changes and found the one that had caused the problem.

You may very well have used this technique to solve problems in the past. If not, it is a good one to add to your skill set.