Keeping a mental tab on things

Dave — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:39:34 +0000

So a small project I’ve been working on involves keeping a list of useful items, i.e. todo lists, grocery lists, etc. I got the idea reading a life hacking post about staying organised by keeping lists. The only difference is that I have chosen to keep tab of my lists in a MySQL database (instead of the funky moleskin notepad) and I will use a simple web interface to view and update my lists.

Since my web hosting company provides MySQL and Perl, along with the DBI module creating this virtual todo list is pretty easy. It’s just a matter of creating the 9 tables in a database and writing some CGI scripts that will allow a user (me) to insert entries into the database. A word of note is that you should always use taint mode for Perl CGI scripts and untaint any data from web forms before running the SQL query. I’ve also limited access to the CGI scripts that manipulate the databases for obvious reasons. However I will allow everybody to view my lists, by creating a new MySQL user and granting the user viewing privileges (select privilege).

The nine lists are (if you haven’t already read the life hacking post):

A wish list: if people don’t know what to buy you for special days
A gift list: awesome gifts to buy people
Minute list: stuff to do if I have a spare minute
BHAGs: Big hairy audacious goals, enough said
Bucket list: stuff to do before you die
Grocery list: a grocery list
Recommended list: stuff people have recommended to me, i.e. books, movies, etc.
Rememeber list: stuff to remember
Ideas list: for when you have that really awesome idea

I also plan to import my bookmarks into a database and use this simple web interface to update my favourite sites. Hopefully this will help me keep a mental tab on things.

davetang.org

Dave — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:56:08 +0000

So it has been a month and a bit that I have purchased this domain and paid for the web hosting. I haven’t spent as much time on it as I have wished. My web hosting company actually provides a lot of tools (if tools is the right word to use) for web development. They provide MySQL, PHP and Perl. Their control panel also makes it idiot proof to install popular internet applications such as WordPress, wiki, etc. I hadn’t expected this many features, especially since I only paid 80 bucks for the entire package, which includes a year’s worth of hosting. Perhaps had it been more expensive I would be doing more work on my site, just to get my money’s worth.

Nevertheless, as with all tasks the hardest thing is just to get started. At least at minimum I am now using the blogging software. I’ll try to put in a few hours everyday on the site or just update my blog with the catch of the day.

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Keeping a mental tab on things

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