Author Archives: Xavier Fan

PIM Over the Years

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I recently refreshed my PIM (Personal Information Management) setup, and having just finished re-reading my friend Dan Roam’s book on visual thinking (The Back of the Napkin), felt compelled to sketch out a little table:

A long time ago A few years ago Now
Mail Snail mail (Paper) Microsoft Outlook Gmail
Contacts Address Book (Paper) Palm Desktop Google Contacts
Calendar Agenda (Paper) Palm Desktop Google Calendar
Tasks Paper Palm Desktop Remember the Milk
Notes Paper Palm Desktop Evernote

I noticed a few interesting trends that mirror the overall evolution in how computing has affected the way we work and live:

Data Storage Paper > Single Device > Multi-Platform/Cloud
Sync Method Manual > Automatic
Mode Analog/Offline > Digital/Online

One platform still can’t do everything. Despite Google’s dominance and the advantages of a well-integrated set of services – specific competing platforms can still be better at certain niches.

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Web Development Environment – Refresh

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I recently updated how I set up my web development environments. Before, I’d set up Apache, MySQL, and PHP separately. This time, I went with one of the many WAMP packages – The Uniform Server.

I like it – it’s compact, quick to set up, and has nice configuration pages – while still allowing you to dig easily into the config files and error files. That’s what allowed me to adjust the Apache FollowSymLinks option and FileInfo directive so that I could use pretty Permalinks for WordPress.

On the Mac side, I’ve had good experiences with MAMP PRO.

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Solving a Rubik’s Cube

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Rubik's Cube

Rubik's Cube

Remember these things? I had one when I was a kid, but never figured out how to solve it.

Well, a few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s place and saw that he had one. I still couldn’t solve it. So I set out to finally learn how. The main difference is that now there are web pages with instructions for solving a Rubik’s Cube. I used this one.

I ordered one from Amazon, and got it a couple of weeks ago.

Took about a week to learn how to solve it all by myself, without referring to the solution. Got the first full solve this past Monday.

Now I’m averaging about 3-4 minutes to solve. 5-6 minutes if I screw up and have to backtrack. Fastest time a little over 2 minutes.

Practice makes a lot of difference, obviously. From not making mistakes on the algorithms, to being able to manipulate the cube more smoothly. The cube itself gets less stiff with more use.

Luck factors into it also – there are certain configurations that require less moves. I’m not good enough yet to “plan” it that way.

I’m sure I can get a little faster – but I won’t be spending huge amounts of time memorizing more algorithms. Still – great to finally learn how to solve one of these things!

Update: It has now been proven that it takes no more than a maximum of 20 moves to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

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