Raspberry Pi announces a camera module

This is a big deal. There will soon be a $25 HD camera module available for purchase that works with the Raspberry Pi unit. So many awesome projects come to mind, not the least of which is a complete day-to-day, webcam-equipped linux system that plugs into any HDMI-capable TV, a front door camera/peephole system, a party photo booth, and a self-contained, stand-alone video conference system for friends and relatives. With this new camera module, the possibilities of ways to use a $35 Raspberry Pi are endless! Also, the new A Model will be out soon, which is only $25. So you could have a fully working computer system with webcam for $50!

Raspberry Pi camera module sneak peek, and Model A unboxing | Raspberry Pi.

How to Set Skype to Automatically Start in Ubuntu

After installing Ubuntu 12.10 and Skype, I noticed that Skype doesn’t have an option to automatically start once you log in. I’m unsure if this is true for previous versions of Ubuntu, but if so, the fix is still easy. To remedy this, you just need to add it to the “Startup Applications” list in your settings. For the command, just use “skype” without quotes, like so:

Debating Migrating to a Pen and Paper Todo List

Reading these Lifehacker “How I Work” series posts about famous/successful internet people and the way they work (computers/phones/gadgets they use, where they work, what their home/office desk looks like, what tools/apps/tricks they couldn’t live without, etc) has me thinking about a few things considering the way I work.

For one, these people all make me feel and look super lazy and inconsequential. Being a nerd reading this stuff is what I have to assume current day writers feel when reading autobiographies of famous writers past and present. Its almost depressing honestly. Also, I’ve noticed that like 90% of them use the same combo for their day-to-day; MacBook laptop, iPhone, and paper/pen for their day-to-day todo list. Now, I could never use an Apple product as my everyday machine, not because they’re “stupid” but because they’re just too simple and “point-and-click” for me. I like to understand and be a part of my operating system and know what my computer is doing and how it works, as well as customize the hell out of it to my crazy dreams. In my experience, most Apple product users can’t tell you where the hard drive is in their laptop, they just know its the new 15 inch model and it has an iCloud.

The important and useful information I’ve taken away from reading these articles is that most successful people don’t rely upon a software-based todo list, which really surprised me, given that there’s so many out there nowadays. I’ve tried most of the big namers like RTM, Todoist, and my current one, Google Tasks. Google Tasks is great because there’s plenty of support for it and it syncs well since its, duh, a Google product (also it shows up in my Gmail so whenever I have a Gmail tab open I have my email, calendar, projects, tasks, contacts, and Gchat all in one tab). However, there’s this disconnection from what you have in your brain in a given moment and what you can type nicely formatted into a software-based todo list. For a little while I’ve been toying with the faint idea of going back to pen and paper for my todo list, but I can’t get past the idea of not having it synced online automatically with all my devices in case I need to modify it or add to it. On the contrary, using a pen and paper todo list makes editing and keeping track of a todo list much easier. No need to open an app or wait for signal to sync your todo list or fumble with an onscreen keyboard to type a quick sentence that would take just a few seconds to write with pen and paper.

What I think I’m going to compromise on is using one of the new project management systems (i.e. Basecamp, Wunderkit, etc) for my long-term projects and keep my short-term todos in my moleskine. I’ve actually been looking into Trello for awhile and been meaning to throw my projects in there (which are also at this point in Google Tasks) and give it a full-on test run. Here’s to hoping keeping my long-term projects in Trello goes well [and doesn’t bite me in the ass later].