I run my entire life in Emacs Org Mode. I’ll write up more on that later, but for now, check out this little trick.

You can create tables in Emacs Org Mode by just starting a line with a pipe (|). Then, just add in another pipe when you need to add columns. When you add new lines, it automatically resizes all the columns to the length of the data.

This is incredibly handy when you need to keep a running tab of something in the context of your to-do. (Like, say, if your document server is constantly leaking memory…)

Another little delight with working with Emacs — Aquamacs in my case.

Why not. I just did a list of my popular sources. Why not the analogous list of the top topics I’m reading about…

• Boston Red Sox
• Personalization
• Parenting
• Gardening
• New England Patriots
• Advertising
• SEO
• Boston Globe
• Newspaper Industry
• Joss Whedon
• Supreme Court
• Terminator
• Revenue
• Lisp
• Lost
• Ruby
• Real Estate
• New York Times
• Weight Loss
• Journalism
• Awesome
• Fashion
• Artificial Intelligence
• Scams
• Bankruptcy

Not sure if there are any patterns there, but it’s reasonably reflective of what interests me at the moment. (Bankruptcy is strictly about the automobile industry; Serendeputy the company is doing just fine.)

At the bottom of every page of Serendeputy is a list of your most popular sources and topics. It only puts out ones with articles you haven’t read yet, so it’s a little thinner than it would be if I’d been away from the site for a couple of days, but here’s my current most popular sources list

• The Economist
• Universal Hub
• Christian Science Monitor
• Work it Mom
• Entertainment Weekly
• The Atlantic
• Pro Football Talk
• Obsidian Wings
• Balloon Juice
• WEEI
• New York Times
• New Yorker
• Soxaholix
• Sports Illustrated
• TV Guide
• CQ Politics
• Salon.com
• Forbes
• Mark Bernstein
• TechCrunch
• Glass Hammer
• Eating Well
• MediaMemo
• Science Blogs
• Search Engine Land

I’m into the double-digits with betatesters right now. I’m looking forward to opening it up further in the next few days. See you then!

After reading the comments in Fred Wilson’s piece about American Express, I’m really nervous about continuing to work with them. I have all the servers automatically paid with my Corporate Amex card. If their systems are this brittle, I’m no longer sure that’s the best way to handle it.