Along the theme of common sense reminders, I enjoyed reading when windows are not enough about how automating repetitive tasks is a key part of staying productive (and sane) when using computers. I like the “three strikes, you’re out” guideline for automation: when you find yourself doing something for the third time, write a script.
Towards the end Gojko Adzic talks about regular expressions, which every programmer should know and I don’t know well enough myself. Alexander Stigsen (via Ron Jeffries has posted a nice webcast and cheat sheet if you’re looking to brush up on you regex skills.
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Combining regular expressions with email archives and speech synthesis can be a fun way to recall the past, and reflect on aspects of one’s personality or relationships with others.
I wrote a little app a few years ago that would read aloud all self-referential statements from my email archives.
http://woj.com/whispers/
It’s a very solipsistic art app, but the point is that there are some interesting interaction possibilities when you intersect a few powerful tools.