Work with meetings and calls across multiple timezones? Use TimeScroller on you mac dashboard. TimeScroller lets you easily see corresponding time in different regions corresponding to you local time. While iCal is very clever with with Time Zone, I found TimeScroller to be of great utility with limited screen area. 

TimeScroller is free and you can download it from MacUpdate. 

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If you need to convert Formula results of a column into absolute values, there is no standard feature in Numbers '09 that will help you achieve this. 

You would need this hack to make it happen. 

1. Select the entire column
2. Press CMD+C and copy the content of the column
3. Delete the content of the column by pressing the Delete key
4. Go to Edit menu and Choose Paste Values (not PASTE or CMD+V)

The column would now have the absolute values instead of the Forumla.

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It's been over a year since I switched to a Macbook Air. It is easily the best Mac laptop I have had till date. I loved the Pro but Air was great for two things: portability and temperature of the machine. The biggest compromise I had to make was the storage space. Having settled for a 128GB was way too ambitious given the fact I had a tons of music, pictures and videos. I thought external disks would make up but they were never as portable. 

I thought the next Air upgrade would actually have a 512GB factory build, but it didn't. I am expecting them to be available in the next release though. While, I had almost decided to wait - I thought about using 2 machines instead of one. Get the best of both the worlds. 

I discussed the idea with KS Sreeram and then read Elliot Jay's blog post. My thought was soon a decision. 

The challenge with a dual machine setup is the data sync. When I get home, I would need everything required to be able to continue work. This could have been slightly daunting task a few years ago but sounds rather achieveable today. iCloud, Dropbox and CodebaseHQ can take care of majority of syncing. And quite effortlessly. Email over IMAP and HappyFox would take care of emailing. 

Music, Photos and Video would primarily be available on the iMac. With their backups (along with the entire system back up) would be available on 1 or 2 external hard drives. I still need the ultimate remote, disaster ready backup strategry. 

So, I would be switching to a 27" iMac on monday and use my Macbook Air as a secondary machine. I'm excited to try this setup and would share my experience in upcoming enteries on the blog. 

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i dreamt

of a beautiful morning

a bright new day

tasting tears

with a smiling face

a little angel

came my way

held my hand

and said

'papa, lets play'

her sparkling eyes

had so much to say 

I felt her love

and joy within me

7 may 2011

Shalin Jain

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Akanksha & Me have become parents today of this little angel. One of those happiest moment that brings tears in your eyes. My gut feel feel months ago about *her* arrival: http://shalinjain.com/wishlist

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I have to admit this, whatever I have done in last 10 years for Tenmiles has been hugely inspired by people around me. I gave up on education soon after I joined College. I did enough to secure my degree and did everything to be surrounded by great minds.

Gautam Jain of Conceptworld was a huge inspiration to let me start a company at 18. Srinivas ramanathan of Eginnovations gave me early insights into building complex technology products. KS Sreeram, founder of Clay programming language, helped me turn my dreams into action plans and was largely instrumental in convincing me to stay-put with products.

And now, Swarna Rethas, who recently completed 7 years at Tenmiles makes me realize yet again in the power of people. Being backed by great people simply multiplies the strength of any company. There is no better metric that can excite you to remain in business and love the work you do everyday. It is an inspirational milestone and couldn't do without letting the world know about it.

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I wrote this little poem for my wife few weeks ago. We are extremely excited to become parents in a few months. 

Beautiful You

In your eyes

in your smile

I see the reflections

of our unborn child

I love everyday

that goes by

thinking of our little angel

and the beautiful you.

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PIctures of Unboxing Macbook Air 13" - Bought mine from Imagine Store, Chennai.
Side view of the box pack which sports the small apple logo. Like Macbook Pro packaging there is no name of the device on the top of the box. Just a picture (and it speaks!).

That's where the name is. Less is more.

Now, that's a beauty. Placed on a fairly thick black tray that has the Adapter and Installer media.

The small plastic flap lets you pull it and take out the macbook. Very simplistic and thoughtful design.

Under it, Guide, Installer and the adapter.

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The power cord placed in the side. Add the cord to the adapter and it becomes a fairly long.

The reinstall drive and the quick start guide labelled Hello.

Sure, the Macbook Air is known for it's slimness - so lets stack it up along with iPad and see.

The thickest edge of the Air is slightly thicker than the iPad.

But's it's amazingly thinner on the other end.

This Macbook Air is a 13' model, that much more bigger than the iPad.

We'll time machine back from my Macbook Pro and then using the Migration Assistant to get it all into the Air was simple and hassle free. A lot of time saved and ready to be used immediately.

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Nine years go, soon after I finished my under-graduation, my parents told me : "Go, get an MBA." 

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Will update my portfolio on http://shalin.in soon.

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I always seem to be in the middle of something. I think most of us with rich multi-tab browsing are often caught between writing an email, reading an article, updating twitter/facebook statuses and debugging some JS code. That is, if you don’t have an omni present web based IM, cricinfo scorecard, streaming music, google analytics, hackernews/reddit or a video on vimeo loading up. Wait, I am not going to talk about whether to multi-task or not. I want to deal with something smaller than that.

Endless tabs on your browser.

All seemingly useful. All wanting your attention right away. Everything that you always indented to do. You haven’t clicked up on some random banner ad that opens up in a new tab, not at all. You only realize there are too many tabs when you have to click on the little double-arrow button to switch to the newly opened CMD+Click (on mac) links or you just encountered the spinning color wheel (mac) or hour glass (win?).

At this point I would also like to admit I run multiple browsers at any given time. Typically Safari and Chrome. Occasionally, Firefox too. Most often there is a clear reason to do so.

Productivity

When I think about my most productive moments at work, I can only think of full screen code editor, writing something in an application like WriteRoom, reading up an interesting essay using the Safari reader feature or even writing an email in a desktop based mail client. In fact, even watching a movie on VLC on full screen results in almost no distraction. But then there is growl. In my interactions with some people who do really revolutionary stuff, take creator of the programming language – clay for instance, I found that he goes to the extent of turning off his phone and other devices to avoid being distracted.

So, Why does a lot of tabs bother?

Most apps that we use these days are turning out to be browser based. So, when you are at something productive, lets say a spreadsheet in google docs, you are continuously exposed to numerous tabs you have in the same application window. I think that hurts. Most blog articles end up referring to so many external links. To successfully understand a piece of article you often end up with few more tabs. And often, one of those links becomes responsible to distract you. I think this has been hurting my productivity. I have a feeling at times I haven’t done anything substantial enough or progressed much on tasks I was planning to complete. Then, I count the number of tabs open.

I am made to believe that I am more quick at replying to emails on my iPhone 3G than on the laptop (that is so geared for multi-tasking). I get more email done when I am away from work. Constraints surprisingly make me lot more productive. And I keep thinking about this Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz.  So, I started thinking to myself – what if I had a limit on number of tabs I could use. Would it make me more productive? Would it help me stay more focused and get things done faster? Would it make it harder (unproductive) for me to reference stuff?

And I think it wouldn’t be that hard. There are already a few things that help us reduce the number of tabs on our browser. Before I list some of them down, I am going to do a check right away – I seem to have 7 tabs open. With only one tab with actual work in progress, 3 references that I used to write this article that I don’t need anymore but haven’t closed them either, 1 tab (twitter) is redundant considering I have a desktop app running for it too. 2 tabs where I have completed my tasks but didn’t close tab immediately.

I think having a tab-limit is going to do me some good.

Apps that help reduce # of tabs

Thankfully, there are many applications like RSS feed readers save you from lot tabs. Helps you save time by letting you read content you want without necessarily having to land in web browser. Well, if you read a browser based feed reader it still probably saves you many tabs. Google search introduced previewing a website before you visit them. I guess that helps you a bit. Instapaper helps you save things you want to read later and get rid of tabs you would have otherwise tried to save for the day. Desktop version of apps like Twitter (tweetie, echofon) help by alerting you when you have a mentioned or DM.

How many are too many

I think I would start with restricting it to 3. Most of us should find having between 3 and 5 tabs sufficient. It would be awesome if someone could actually write a safari or chrome extension to help keep the tab limit in check. That way you wouldn’t have to be conscious about it. I am not sure how I would measure the increase in productivity but I guess I would know if it worked. Maybe, somebody already does this well and know that it helps. Would you experiment?

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She thought
I could count the stars
all of them
one by one

She thought
I could call the santa
make a wishlist
and get it done

She thought
I could cast a spell
toads to prince
and ogres as well

She thought
I could change the world
stop all wars
all at once

my little daughter
is building her list
of what daddy could do
and someday he will

7 Nov 2010
Shalin Jain

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I am a big fan of minimalism and about.me seems like the one page website you would want to have. One page that carries your personality and vision. And here is mine: http://about.me/shalinjain

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Do you think people buy your adjective and superlative filled tag lines?

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Spotted a huge billboard on my way from Bangalore airport to the city that read Men 2.0. Looked like television series, um, on the just upgraded version of men?

Ever since the web got 2.0, everything else in the world is catching up upgrading their first version. Next iteration 3.0 is treated as fake and impossible. 2.0 here is to stay.

When was it last you noticed two point something?

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