Tobias Ratschiller's Blog

Over the last year I've obsessed about productivity. As I became a dad, I needed to squeeze more into less hours. Here's a few tools I found and today I can't imagine being without them.

1. LastPass. Rule number one for any Internet user is not to use an easy to guess password. Rule number two is not to use the same password for more than one service. So you need something to manage your passwords and store them securely. I used to use KeePass, but LastPass is so much better with its tight Firefox integration and an iPhone application.
   
2. Remember the Milk. If I am to use todo lists and shared task management, it has to be extremely easy and efficient. Remember the Milk is. You can add tasks with a Google-Calendar-like command prompt, saying for example "remember to buy milk ^today #shopping" to give the task a deadline of today and tag it with shopping. Adobe AIR-based clients and Google-Calendar integration make interaction a breeze.
3. Synergy and DisplayFusion. At work I have a four screen setup using two computers (one desktop, one laptop). Synergy lets you share one mouse and keyboard for multiple computers - I can use my desktop keyboard and mouse to control my laptop. Unfortunately, sometimes the mouse or keyboard gets stuck, and the software was last updated in 2006 or so - still it's an indispensable tool until I find something better. DisplayFusion is an utility to expand the Windows taskbar and wallapers to multiple monitors.
4. SugarSync. I regularly use three computers (desktop at home, desktop at work and a laptop). Pretty soon I will add an iPad to that. I barely remember life before SugarSync, but what a hassle it must have been! I actually used to email myself important documents so that I could access them from home. SugarSync keeps my "My Life" folder that stores all documents and pictures synchronized between all computers that I use. Plus, it has an iPhone version, version control ("access the document version from two days ago") and file sharing.
5. LogMeIn.com. In my company, we deal with large data sets, such as directories with millions of companies. Sometimes it's handy to leave the work PC on to do some number crunching or complex SQL queries - and with LogMeOn I can access it from my browser at home to see the results.

Since this month we had to develop and launch our newest batch of country tourism websites (Visit Brazil, Visit Argentina, Visit Chile, Visit Peru, Visit Bolivia and Visit Paraguay), I wanted to see some official country logos and asked a colleague to compile a list of country tourism brands.

Here it is - enjoy! I think my favorite is France.

... is that misunderstandings are frequent.

I asked a designer for references on illustrations similar to this:




(source: theoatmeal.com Twenty Things Worth Knowing About Beer)

and this is what I got:

1. iPad Mini:
   
   
   
2. Hitler doesn't like it.
   
   
3. No women in the iPad team?
   
   
4. Big iPhone:
   
   
5. The real iPad: