Author: Dusty Reagan

TIL The Term Blanching

Posted on by Dusty Reagan

I’m starting a new blog category called Today I Learned (TIL). My goal is to write one short TIL post per day, indefinitely, starting today!

TIL that the some of the most delicious fries I’ve ever tasted are blanched 4 times. WTH is blanching? Apparently it’s the cooking process of plunging food into boiling hot water for a brief time, then after removing the food, immediately dowsing it with cold water to halt the cooking. It’s usually done to soften the food. For french fries it helps make the inside soft and the outside crispy. Delicious!

I learned the term blanching eating BBQ for dinner with friends when one of the owners came over to ask us how our food was. He really geek’d out about cooking, which I admired.

Life-hacking Productivity Tip #1: You’re gonna’ die.

Posted on by Dusty Reagan

Yes my friends, it’s true. You’re gonna’ die. This is my #1 productivity tip. Don’t forget, that someday, maybe tomorrow, you’re gonna’ die. How does this help productivity? Remember all those things you’ve been planning on doing. You better do them… soon, because you’re gonna’ die.

Not only is remembering that you’re gonna’ die (and possibly soon) a good productivity tip, it’s also great for work life balance. When you think about the fact that you will die, you suddenly have a good sense of priority. Naturally family and friends come to mind first, but work is important too if you love what you do. For example, I’m a programmer and entrepreneur. I make stuff. How does this tip help me? I release my products early and often. Why? Because I might die tomorrow.

Thinking about death can be dark, and if you think about it too much you’ll make yourself depressed, or possibly find yourself in a religious frenzy. But by remembering your mortality, you’ll have the motivation to really “get things done,” the things that are most important to you.

To quote William Shatner, “Live life like you’re gonna’ die, because you’re gonna’.”

How to reference Smarty variables inside {php} tags

Posted on by Dusty Reagan

I gotta’ be honest, I’ve never used the Smarty Template Engine before in my life. I’m currently working on a project to integrate WordPress and JobberBase so they use the same WordPress theme. JobberBase uses Smarty, so I’m getting a crash course.

You can use PHP in the template (.tpl) files and reference the values of the assigned Smarty template variables like this:

{php}
  $html_title = $this->_tpl_vars['html_title'];
  $echo $html_title;
{/php}

I’m sure Smarty users cringe at this sort of thing, being that it adds business logic to the template files. But, this is just the functionality I need to hack the JobberBase templates without mucking around in core JobberBase code.

I found this solution in the Smarty FAQ after hours of Googling.

Map the Apple key to Ctrl in Windows Boot Camp

Posted on by Dusty Reagan

Heavy computer users are familiar with keyboard shortcuts such as ctrl-c to “copy” and ctrl-v to “paste.” If you’re a Mac user and you switch back and forth from Windows to OS X often you’ve probably felt some pain using keyboard shortcuts.

For some silly reason Apple decided to default standard keyboard shortcuts to use the Apple key (also called the Command key) instead of the ctrl key. That means to copy text in Windows you press ctrl-c, but to copy text in OS X you press Apple-c. RIDICULOUS!

Never the less, I’ve gotten use to working with the default OS X keyboard layout, and this has made switching back and forth from Windows Boot Camp to OS X incredibly confusing. I’ve started pressing ctrl when I should be pressing the Apple key and vice versa.

Luckily I’ve discovered a nifty tool that will update your Windows registry to make the Apple key act like ctrl in Windows. Here’s the simple step by step guide.

  1. Download and install SharpKeys.
  2. Run SharpKeys and click the “Add” button.
  3. In the “From key” column click “Type Key” and press the Apple key. Click “OK.”
  4. In the “To key” column click “Type Key” and press your left ctrl key. Click “OK.”
  5. Click “OK” to dismiss the key mapping menu.
  6. Click “Write to Registry” and reboot your Mac.

Alternatively, you can set your ctrl key to behave like the Apple key in OS X by going Settings -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys : then swap “Control” and “Command” key functions in the drop down, and click “OK.”

Now you can have some hot-key sanity when switching back and forth from Windows Boot Camp to OS X.

On Strategic Life Goals

Posted on by Dusty Reagan

Strategic life goals are those fuzzy goals that are hard to quantify, like “better humanity” and “create a legacy.” They’re your purpose in life. Everyone’s goals are different, and they may change overtime. Some folks even choose not to have broad overarching goals, and that’s fine. Me however, I need them. I need autonomy and I need to occupy myself on things I believe somehow matter. Goals create a road map for your life.

Strategic goals should not be confused with tactical goals. Tactical goals are things like “climb a mountain” whereas a strategic goal might be “experience nature to the fullest.” The tactic and act of climbing a mountain helps you achieve your broader strategic goal of experiencing nature to the fullest.

Everyones life goals will be different because we all have different world views, but here are some examples of broad strategic goals to get you thinking.

  • Feed the world’s hungry
  • Become exceedingly wealthy
  • Affect peoples lives with art
  • Entertain people
  • Help people
  • Rule the world
  • Be happy

You can probably think of much better examples than me, but you get the point.

Take the time to write down your life’s strategic goals, and reflect often on how you are achieving them. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and to-do lists and forget what you’re really trying to achieve.

In my attempt to measure my progress towards my strategic life goals, I’ve created a dashboard that attempts to mimic the behavior of unlocking achievements and leveling up in a video game. It’s certainly a work in progress, but you’re welcome to check it out on my Strategic Life Goals page.

What are your goals? How do you measure your success in achieving them?