Monomorphic

I just got a new laptop, courtesy of the lab. Naturally, it’s of the fruity kind. One of the first steps: install essential software.

I thought I’d make a list of software I consider absolutely essential on any new computer, and it became longer than I thought.

General use:

NetNewsWire for news reading

DropBox for file syncing

OmniFocus as a task organizer (the GTD methodology actually works — it has liberated me from reciting a long list of things to do in my head all day long)

CircusPonies Notebook for note taking

iStat Pro for system monitoring

If I want to develop software:

Eclipse

Fink and MacPorts so I can get various unix tools (I can’t settle for one or the other, since some tools are in one of them only, but normally Fink is nicer since the packages are precompiled)

Apple’s developer tools

If I want to read and write papers:

TeXShop

Mendeley Desktop

So these are the “absolute essentials”. Of course web apps like gmail count too, but they require no installation. Anything I’ve missed?

One thing I do not install, but perhaps should, is Apple’s MobileMe. Considering how fruity my environment is, there ought to be some benefit. But between Dropbox, my own DAV server for calendars, and built-in syncing of apps like OmniFocus, I can make things stay in sync anyway, so MobileMe is probably not worth the cost… I think.

A cold, bright morning in Tokyo’s somewhat fashionable Azabu-Juuban district. I’m looking for a clinic, but I can’t find it. I’ve only visited it once before, more than a year earlier. I look for landmarks that I might remember, bring out the map on my phone, pay attention to every detail in the hope that I will recognize something.

The morning has turned into a game. It’s me against the city layout, me against my memory, me against entropy and the temporal degradation of my cognitive faculties. The ludic dimension has entered my life again. And soon enough, I find the place I was looking for.

When we have a sense of competition, that a victory against something or someone is possible, our awareness of life is heightened in every way. We pay more attention, we notice more, we become more here and now. The endless simmering chatter in our heads, nearly meaningless thoughts that usually refuse to yield anything meaningful, gives way to absolute focus.

It occurs to me that a society where everyday tasks can be carried out like they are games, victories to be won, might be a more moral society, with greater happiness and life awareness for everyone. In such a society, even if you lose a particular game, you win something else.