Ken Villines 1.0

Film/Video Industry Mixer

Ken Villines — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:36:49 +0000

I am heading down to Norwalk, CT for a Film & Video Industry Mixer. It should be a great event because of the rave reviews from years past. My newly formed Digital Media company is looking to make some connections.

More later…cheers

GTD Software Solutions (Mac & Web)

Ken Villines — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:30:32 +0000

One of the biggest trends to hit the tech world in 2007 is the new religion of “Getting Things Done”. The concept is really a time-honored subject and not new at all, just a bit stale for the times.

I was a heavy Franklin Covey user back in the 90’s and really loved it, but a change eventually happened- the more my life became my “Digital Life”…the Franklin process became old. Writing down, by hand, your daily to-dos became bothersome and time consuming. Email programs like Outlook came into the picture, giving users the ability to create a task directly from an email. And we thought, “Cool”. We started using software applications to manage our daily to-dos, but that process was also broken because it wasn’t as easy to carry around like a planner was. Then companies like Franklin Covey started producing software for your email program, based around their GTD methodologies. We now have a mix of software and printing our lists out…argh! oh yah, the PDA, oh the PDA!

We now have three different areas where our daily info lives. The PDA, Desktop machine, and the printed out pages for our planner, because we really like the feel of having that book in our hands. The main problem is syncing the data so that whatever you look at remains current. That never happens so there are issues with keeping our lists straight….hmmm. I don’t think that is what GTD should be about.

Fast forward about 6-7 years, to a vast array of GTD web applications, desktop applications, and mobile applications. They all have their own philosophies of how we should organize our day-to-day lives. They all have learning curves. These new apps also have the “Is this really current?” question that surrounds them. The solutions are webservices that allow users to sync their data to a master database and have all their applications work with the master. I think we are getting closer to having a true digital workflow without roadblocks. If we still need a planner, then grab a Moleskin and jot down observations from time to time. Or you could transpose from Moleskin to digital if that keeps things a little more solid for you. I am interest in what others have to say, Please Comment!

2007 GTD Applications:

Spanning Sync (Sync iCal with gCal) (Mac)

Anxiety (Mac)

DoBeDo (Mac)

Yojimbo (Mac)

Google calendar (gCal) (Web)

iCal (Mac)

Mail.app (Mac)

Remember the Milk (Web)

BackPack (Web)

Shovebox (Mac)

Sidenote: Some of these new applications go to the extreme and are really MORE then GTD apps. They are more like “Thought Buckets” and collect everything from to-dos, notes, pictures, projects, to the information about the warranty for your kitchen sink. Hey users! Throw it all in here and forget about it. If you just need a place to throw everything so your bipolar or OCD stays in check then the EXTREME GTD apps will work. I don’t know if a person could actually get anything done except give their minds some relief…kind of like a data dump.

PhotoSharing Solutions

Ken Villines — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:00:12 +0000

I am researching online photosharing solutions because Yahoo has drop Photos! This hurts because the only Yahoo! alternative is a Flickr unlimited account that costs money. The following are solutions I am checking out:

Photobucket
SmugMug
Gallery (self hosted)
Picasa
Webshots
ImageShack

I think there are probably many others….I just have to do “The Google”. Any suggestions?

technorati tags:Photosharing, Flickr, Gallery, Picasa, Photo

Turned on Spam Filter

Ken Villines — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:10:59 +0000

I turned on the Akismet WP plugin and it works great! I will now open my commenting back up to the public. I hope this makes everyone a little bit happier…..cheers

Coming around again

Ken Villines — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:39:51 +0000

I’ve had a long hiatus from posting to my site but in my defense a lot has changed in my life over the past 10 months. I was a little overwhelmed and had to take a step back to compose myself. I have done that and am able to get back into the fold.

What changed in my life you ask? Well, my wife and I moved from Massachusetts, where we have lived for 10 years, back to Connecticut where she grew up. This was harder on me then on her. The move happened in June and I ended up commuting 120 miles back and forth to Boston for work. YUK! That equates to 3600 miles and $700 a month in gasoline. The total commute was 5 hours a day plus my 8 hours in the office. This scenario took about 120% of my time so my side projects had to give. This went on until October of 2006.

During this same time period, we were holding two mortgages because the condo in Mass. hadn’t sold. I was completely stressed out to say the least. Having the second house caused extra trips to Mass every other weekend to keep up the other property. I am really lucky the winter was extremely lite.

Fast Fwd: I landed a job at CBS here in CT and the house sold in December. I am finally getting my life back so here I am

Must be logged in to comment

Ken Villines — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 13:23:29 +0000

I have finally changed my blog preferences to “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”. I am tired of dealing with 200 spam comments a day. The problem just keeps getting worse and I make no money from my personal blog. If people get use out of my site, gain insite into tech problems, or use code I have written, then registering to comment shouldn’t be a big deal. The people who don’t like this policy will just have to live with it.

WordPress Plugin - PostControl 1.0 is released

Ken Villines — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:45:08 +0000

After many requests for a plugin “like DraftControl” but for posts, I have actually written one — PostControl 1.0 is released.

Feature List:
Supports Versions 1.5+, 2.0+
Number of viewable posts per page is changeable
Unpublish individual Posts from PostControl
multi-unpublish if you need that kind of power
Add Categories to a post without leaving PostControl. (support for multiple cats coming soon)
Change the Owner of a post for individual entrees without leaving PostControl.
Delete individual Posts from PostControl
multi-delete if you need that kind of power

Installation:
Save the postcontrol.php file to your wp-content/plugins/directory
Activate the plugin within Wordpress in the Plugins section

Usage:
Go to the Manage section of WP and then select “PostControl”.
The controls are pretty much self explanatory.

Download PostControl 1.0

Wordpress DraftControl Plugin - 1.2 Beta 2

Ken Villines — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:20:24 +0000

DraftControl Beta 2 is ready and fixes a couple problems reported by users.

Beta 2 Fixes:
Fixed a problem where all metadata wasn’t being deleted during a batch delete.
Fixed a problem where if the $table_prefix wasn’t the default “wp_” DraftControl didn’t function properly

Installation:
Save the draftcontrol.php file to your wp-content/plugins/directory
Activate the plugin within Wordpress in the Plugins section

Usage:
Go to the Manage section of WP and then select “Draft Control”.
The controls are pretty much self explanatory.

Download DraftControl 1.2 Beta 2

Jumped Personal Site from MT 3.2 to WordPress 2.0.2

Ken Villines — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:58:22 +0000

I have used WP for over two years and even coded plugins for it but never had time to convert my personal site to using Wordpress. I have finally marked this task off my to-do list.

It was actually easier then I thought it would be and I plan to outline the steps I took to preserve my MT permalink structure in WordPress. What I had to do isn’t outlined anywhere on the web. I had to improvise with a variation of a couple different methods. Wordpress 2.x imports differently then past versions so that was the real trick…..outline coming in the next week.

Wordpress DraftControl Plugin - 1.2 Beta 1

Ken Villines — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 05:57:15 +0000

The next release of DraftControl is ready for beta. It is pretty stable so I am confident it is production ready. I would like some feedback about where the controls are located on the DC panel. I think all controls should be located at the top and bottom of the page depending on how many drafts are being viewed. (i.e. If 5 drafts are viewed per paging then controls at the bottom only are fine, but if 100 drafts are viewed per paging then sometime scrolling to the bottom is a pain. Let me know what you think…I haven’t implemented that yet.)

New Version 1.2 Features:
Supports Versions 1.5+, 2.0+
Number of viewable drafts per page is changeable
Publish individual Drafts from Draft Control
multi-publish if you need that kind of power
Fixed adding Categories to a draft without leaving Draft Control. (support for multiple cats coming soon)

Previous Features:
Change the Owner of a draft for individual entrees without leaving Draft Control.
Delete individual Drafts from Draft Control
multi-delete if you need that kind of power

Installation:
Save the draftcontrol.php file to your wp-content/plugins/directory
Activate the plugin within Wordpress in the Plugins section

Usage:
Go to the Manage section of WP and then select “Draft Control”.
The controls are pretty much self explanatory.

Download DraftControl 1.2 Beta 1