How about using software that does many things poorly if it also smacks you on the head?
--- On Fri, 9/12/08, Tom Piwowar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Tom Piwowar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [CGUYS] Al3x's Rules for Computing Happiness > To: [email protected] > Date: Friday, September 12, 2008, 2:19 PM > These are my rules and they make me happy. I hope they make > you happy > too. If you have computing rules of your own that make you > happy, I > encourage you to publish them. > Posted by Alex Payne at 13:04 Sep 6, 2008 > www.al3x.net > > > Software > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > 1. Use as little software as possible. > > 2. Use software that does one thing well. > > 3. Do not use software that does many things poorly. > > 4. Do not use software that must sync over the internet to > function. > > 5. Do not use web applications that should be desktop > applications. > > 6. Do not use desktop applications that should be web > applications. > > 7. Do not use software that isn't made specifically > for your operating > system. (You'll know it when you see it because it > won't look right or > work correctly.) > > 8. Do not run beta software unless you know how to submit > a bug report > and are eager to do so. > > 9. Use a plain text editor that you know well. Not a word > processor, a > plain text editor. > > 10. Do not use your text editor for tasks other than > editing text. > > 11. Use a password manager. You shouldn't know any of > your passwords save > the one to your primary email account and the one to your > password > manager. > > 12. Do not use software that's unmaintained. > > 13. Pay for software that's worth paying for, but only > after evaluating > it for no less than two weeks. > > 14. Thoroughly delete all traces of software that you no > longer use. > > Hardware > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > 1. Do not buy a desktop computer unless your daily > computing needs > include video/audio editing, 3D rendering, or some other > hugely > processor-intensive computing task. Buy a portable > computer instead. > > 2. Do not use your phone/smartphone/PDA/UMPC for tasks > that would be > more comfortably and effectively accomplished on a > full-flegded computer. > > 3. Use a Mac for personal computing. > > 4. Use Linux or BSD on commodity hardware for server > computing. > > 5. Do not use anything other than a Mac at home and > Linux/BSD on the > server. > > 6. The only peripheral you absolutely need is a hard disk > or network > drive to put backups on. > > 7. Buy as large an external display as you can afford if > you'll be > working on the computer for more than three hours at a > time. > > 8. Use hosted services in lieu of hosting on your own > hardware (or > virtual hardware) for all but the most custom applications. > > File Formats > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > 1. Keep as much as possible in plain text. Not Word or > Pages documents, > plain text. > > 2. For tasks that plain text doesn't fit, store > documents in an open > standard file format if possible. > > 3. Do not buy digital media crippled by rights restriction > technologies > unless your intention is to rent the content for a limited > period of time. > > > ************************************************************************* > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, > archives, privacy ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at > http://www.cguys.org/ ** > ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
