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 Desktop Customization, Skype and Google 2009-08-06 I think I have made a bunch of posts on productivity, each touting my latest effort to improve my personal productivity. I have to admit, while these have generally resulted in spurts of effort none of them have been sustainable. Basically I think it all comes down to self-discipline. Although it is possible to maximize your own efforts. Recently I did a little overhaul of my laptop since I have decided to use it more for typing (at times sitting in front of the 30 inch monitor makes it difficult to work on text) and I also removed it's ability to play flash animation. This means no youtube on this computer. While I can check my reader I cannot spend hours watching random videos from the internet. This has helped greatly with the realization I can just save these posts and then watch them at a later time when I have finished my work. I have noticed it is a lot easier to sustain an effort without this very time consuming distraction. The other bit of customization went to both computers, customizing the desktop. I really don't want too much style but I do want one big ass clock displaying all the time. That and the date. I don't know why, but it helps me organize myself better when I can keep track of time. Rainmeter and customize.org for the pc and conky for ubuntu and I had made the desktops I want making my work environment just a little more pleasant. Screenshots unavailable since for some reason my screenshot program doesn't do the embedded images. The cpu usage meter and whatnot just look cool. I have also begun using skype and google talk since my wife is still in Canada. For international calls it makes sense but I have found I have a lot of im conversations that go on a lot longer than they should as opposed to actually just speaking to the person. Especially when talking to co-workers about work. I would prefer to only use google talk since it integrates my google chat as well, but it only is available for windows at the moment (although the page says you can use it directly from gmail, but I need a mac friend to try to to see how well it works). Most of my friends seem to be mac users, go figure. I am hoping google gets on a linux version so I only have to have one chat program open on a computer at any time. search tags: computer skype google talk custom linux add comment to post #253 Peter:Here are the much desired pictures of my desktops. I know you don't really care, but shut up.   Peter:Literally two weeks after I dump Pidgin for google talk exclusively they add support for the service. Sometimes I wonder if the world really is paying attention to my blog. 
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