So yesterday Surround SCM 2008.1 finally hit the street. Well, the internet actually. Let’s call it the internet street. What’s this really means is that I can finally write about the two features I really love but haven’t been able to publicly talk about.

Neither one of these things are huge changes but they made a big difference in my daily life.

*insert joke about my lack of a life here*

Feature Numero Uno: The New Branch Dropdown

For years and years my Surround SCM setup looked something like this:

So I had the branch pane on the left, the repository pane in the middle, and the file list pane on the right. Some people I’ve seen have the file details pane shoved in there somewhere too but I never got into that. It’s just how I roll.

The problem is that if you use lots of branches (which you should) the branch dropdown would have so many items in it that it would be unusable:

In this new version that dropdown isn’t linear anymore, it has a new progressive disclosure tree hierarchy hotness control. That means the branch pane has essentially been shrunk down into snack size dropdown form:

So now I can turn off the branch pane, still have no file details pane, the repositories are get upgraded to the left side instead of the center seat and the file list still gets the window. It’s all much cleaner but with all the same functionality:

Feature Numéro Deux: Reveal in Finder

Anyone who frequents this blog, or for that matter has ever read it, knows that I have serious Apple leanings. That being said it has always bugged the beejerbers out of me that the file list didn’t have a contextual “Reveal in Finder” item. Many a time have I done a get of something, usually some kind of document that is outside of the main source tree, and then had to have a click-fest through Finder to get to it.

For a while I used Quicksilver and I thought I would be all cool and do some ninja moves to avoid the click-fest. In the end I just managed to accidentally email the iTunes executable to someone.

I don’t use Quicksilver anymore. I need to wait until the safety scissors version of it comes out since the real version is too dangerous for me.

All sharp instrument jokes aside “Reveal in Finder” is now available in the context menu:

When you click on it, well, it reveals the file in the Finder:

This also works on platforms other than Mac OS X but it has a different name to fit better with those operating systems. I’d look up what the names were but this is a blog with the word “Monkey” in its title not CNN. Read: If you are looking for hard hitting reporting you’ve probably come to the wrong place.

One final thing to note on this is that for new installations of Surround SCM this item will be in the context menu. For existing installations that are upgraded you’ll need to go into the User Options menu and add it yourself. We argued about this a great deal and finally decided that customers have their context menus set up how they want them already so just jamming a new item in there wouldn’t be proper:

Think of it as our nod to Emily Post.

There are other new features besides these guys too. Those are just the most awesome ones the ones that I like the best.

(And so should you.)

I have the feeds for a number of the Revision3 shows set up in iTunes but I particularly like the quick hitter episodes that last around a minute. You see, if you keep the show under two minutes then it falls into the GTD “Do it now” workflow path. Thus, watching internet TV becomes a productive activity.

Yep, I’m a genius sometimes.

Other times I complete idiot because this Tekzilla Daily clip shows some sweet ninja gmail moves that I had no idea existed. (Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work on gmail hosted domains, only regular gmail.com ones.)

Something happened to me a few years ago. I’m not exactly sure where I got started on it or what caused it but I became very interested in the topics of productivity and organization. I think it had something to do with having a zillion and six things to do at work and a paralyzing fear of forgetting to do one them.

Since then I’ve been in a constant battle to find the best system by which to keep organized and productive. I’ve talked about this stuff a number of times here before. I even considered writing an application of my own to help me keep it together.

Now a huge influence in all of this has been Merlin Mann. For those that haven’t seen it his Inbox Zero presentation was spot on to an email method that I already swore by, empty out that inbox. Get a drink, watch the video and then starting deleting like its going out of style:

But it was when I first heard him mention OmniFocus on one of the Macbreak Weekly podcasts that I knew that I had found what I was looking for. My requirements, they’re so modest:

0. It had to subscribe to the GTD system or something darn close to it
1. It had to be a native Mac application, bonus points for Cocoa
2. It had to be ridiculously stupidly easy to use

You’d be amazed at how hard it was find something to fit those criteria. Well, ok, maybe you wouldn’t. Chances are you never even thought about it before just this moment. Chances are even better you’ve already moved on mentally.

Anyhow, OmniFocus is from the same guys that do the awesome OmniGraffle so I signed up for the “Pre-release Alpha ‘This isn’t a beta’ it may just eat you computer and your family release.” That was a few weeks ago and I haven’t looked back. Everything that I was doing with BBEdit and some simple text files has been moved to OmniFocus. I have it running constantly and whenever I feel the attention starting to wander (like say, when I want to know how a water tower works) I immediately jump over there and choose the next action for anything.

I mean, seriously, doing any next action you have listed is better than wondering about water towers.

For you Mac folks out there go sign up for the sneak peak. Seriously. Do it now. Why haven’t you left yet? Then buy it when the folks at the Omni Group ship it, it’s worth it.

So it’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been trying to come up with an excuse and I keep waffling between “I’m a total slacker” and “I’ve been working like mad.” Let’s go with the latter and it keep it just between us.

Loads of work is being done here at the mothership. If you concentrate real hard you can almost hear the typing of the new software being written. Wait, I can hear the typing, but that’s because I’m here. You’ll just have to pretend. I’d tell you what all goodies are in store (and there are some good goodies) but that would ruin the suspense. It would be kind of like writing a detective story like this…

The rain had been coming in buckets for days, which was thoughtful of it from a container standpoint but it was hell on the head. Each question asked lead to three more and each answer left you more confused. Oh, and by the way, the butler did it.

See? It just wouldn’t work.

But enough of this, it’s time to get back to the real work. More updates will be coming, I promise. Well, mostly. I hope. Maybe.

Yesterday that was a Slashdot article referencing a Computerworld article by way of a Yahoo News article that basically says if you have a freaking huge monitor then you are more productive.

And cooler.

And funnier.

And all the chicks will dig you.

(Well, the article didn’t *exactly* say that but I’m sure it’s implied.)

Naturally the study it referred to was sponsored by Apple who just so happens to have a line of Freaking Huge Monitors that they will be more than happy to sell you for a cool two grand. One of the guys I worked with even joking sent an email asking to get one citing the productivity increase it will cause. The reply from the guy with the checkbook was “It’s ordered and will be here tomorrow. I expect to see the stated productivity number increases this week.”

Translation: I call your bluff, I have a full house, whaddya got sucka?

Needless to say, I wouldn’t expect him to have a package from Apple sitting on his desk anytime soon.

I know a lot of people here at work use dual monitors, typically a main LCD and an older CRT that the LCD was replacing. When I got the new Macbook Pro I tried doing a dual screen for a while using the built-in LCD and another monitor but I noticed that nearly all the time the external monitor just had a blank blue desktop on it staring accusingly at me.

Now, if you are planning to use the aforementioned article to try to weasel a new monitor out of the powers-that-be you can really stop now. Seriously, sometimes plausible deniability is a good thing. It’s a big internet out there, there’s lots of great stuff to read. There’s even lots of crappy stuff to read. Now might be your big chance to find some of that stuff.

Still with me? Ok. I warned you.

For me, the built-in LCD would have a zillion windows open but through the magic of Expose and Command-Tab I never really found myself wanting for more space or using that bigger monitor. I can hear the cries of anguish now, the gnashing of teeth, the shaking of fists. And if you’re a manager reading this and want to use it as evidence with which to deny a new monitor order, remember, I’m an idiot.

Seriously though, when I first got the notebook I made the conscious decision to try to adapt my work style to the size of the built-in screen so that wherever I was (desk, conference room, conference) I had the same user experience. Basically, I didn’t want to find myself in the situation where I was moaning about the screen size of the awesome laptop because I had gotten used to a big external screen. I figured that would increase the likelihood of whomever I was moaning to grabbing said notebook and bludgeoning me to death with it.

So, if we really read between the lines and pull things out of context, you could say that I am deathly afraid of big monitors. And I figure whatever productivity I currently have has to be better than what I would have whilst dead. At least I certainly hope…