Sat, Sep 08, 2007

: GTD

A couple weeks ago I bought the book Getting Things Done and I have been hard at work since putting its ideas into practice. A key concept of the book is you must get your entire life in order: you cannot leave “open loops” of things unfinished. So my first task has been a mammoth one: sort and process the hundreds of boxes of stuff I have in my garage and house that I never unpacked from my move to Oregon two years ago. Much of that stuff was in boxes in storage while I was in California and it’s stuff I haven’t gone through in decades. I never had the time (or took the time) to sort through everything in the past and just moved it, and of course that’s been a huge open loop for me, always feeling like “someday” I needed to get around to sorting through things and getting organized. So for the past two weeks I’ve been working. I moved my office (swapped it with the spare bedroom) which is a zillion times better and makes much more sense structurally. The new office is larger and can double as a spare bedroom if needed, which is awesome. It’s also organized from scratch to fit my work needs, with places for all my office supplies, storage, files, and more. Everything is organized and labeled. For instance, I used to have four 11x17 boxes of nothing but cables and cords all jumbled and tangled together. We’re talking A/V cables, computer cords, electric cables, phone wiring, you name it. So I literally wrapped up every single cable with zip ties and filed them each in their own labeled plastic box (over a dozen of them). Now I can actually find an extension cord or USB cable when I need it!

Among other tasks, I have installed new shelving, new ceiling light fixtures, and bought and installed new shelving units in the garage. It’s been a long two weeks. I’ve been physically exhausted and tired — I haven’t done so much manual labor in years. But it’s healthy: I feel my psyche relaxing and being healed from all the stress and chaos I’ve put it through for years being so disorganized and carrying such a huge burden. I’m still not done: a few more boxes in the garage to process, a garage sale to do, and a few rooms in the house that are not quite purged of clutter yet, but I’m getting very close. I am not kidding when I say that I’ve accomplished more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. It’s amazing and I feel good. Next I need to use the principles of GTD to establish some organization routines for my daily life and work, create a filing system, and then actually start getting some real work done. It’s been a sacrifice to get here, but I am confident it will pay off. I’ll be more organized and able to concentrate, keep up with my projects, keep all the projects moving, and I’ve no doubt I’ll be inspired and more creative. I’ll also live without guilt and be able to relax and enjoy life instead of my subconscious worrying and nagging me about things left undone.

Topic: [/technology]

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Wed, Jul 04, 2007

: July 4 iPhone Showoff

Today I went to my aunt and uncle’s for a July 4th party. It was a whirlwind, though I did manage to find some time to eat. With seconds of arriving my uncle had let the word get out that I possessed an iPhone and suddenly I was mobbed. I must have done a dozen demos of the thing. There were several Mac folks in the crowd (I only knew a few people at the party) and that was cool, though one guy had just renewed his Sprint contract and thus is locked out from an iPhone (his family gets a huge Sprint discount via work). It was interesting seeing the reactions of people to the iPhone. Amazement was pretty consistent, along with little joys and delights when people discovered things like automatic rotation detection or pinch photo-resizing. The virtual keyboard was somewhat problematic, but interestingly, it was mostly so for experienced phone users: newbies went slowly and cautiously, tapping with one finger, and had few problems. I didn’t really take a survey of who was rushing out to get one, but everyone was pleased to see it and impressed. My mom had hers and was showing off her pictures from her trip to Togo to anyone who asked. It was impressive to see how she got long with such a new device. She asked me for a help a couple times, but mostly she was able to figure out how to use it just fine. Quite an excellent way to sell the thing, if you ask me!

Topic: [/technology]

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Sat, Jun 30, 2007

: iPhone First Impressions

Okay, I’ve had a chance to play with the iPhone a bit and let me tell you, this thing is astonishing. It feels like a third- or fourt-generation product. Apple has thought out so many tiny details it really does almost seem like magic. It blows away every existing product in ways to numerous to mention. People who argue it’s “just” a phone have no clue. Not only is this the best phone ever made, it’s the best handheld Internet device and best iPod. That is saying a lot. The thing is, Apple not only combined those three functions into a single device, they did in such a way as to make the thing easier to use, simpler instead of more complicated! That is revolutionary.

I had expected this thing to be a like diet food: it looks appetizing but is tasteless and leaves you feeling hungrier than when you started. That’s the way of most promising tech gadgets. Instead, the iPhone is even better than the demos would suggest. No, it’s not flawless. I can think of improvements. But the problems are minor and one of the best things about the device is that it really is a sort of miniature laptop, so it’s infinitely upgradeable. A new software update could be released tomorrow that would fix the flaws I noticed or add some new features. Who knows what the future will bring? This thing is the future. The real Internet in the palm of your hand, and so easy a caveman could use it. Jaw-dropping incredible.

Topic: [/technology]

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Fri, Jun 29, 2007

: iPhone Mania

Today was “iDay” — the launch of the iPhone. If you haven’t heard of the iPhone, you truly must have been living under a rock. The nifty handheld device uneveiled by Steve Jobs last January caught the imagination of the world. It literally seemed like some piece of future technology sent back through time. Today it was finally released. I took photos of the lines at my local Apple Store and AT&T outlet — quite entertaining, though I didn’t understand the point of waiting in the rain all day. I went back in the evening and there was no line and plenty in stock. I picked up two, one for myself and one for my mom. I figured out a loophole to save $20 on the AT&T monthly fees by signing up onto my mom’s account via a family plan. Less voice minutes, but I don’t need many minutes. I just want the Internet features. Some people had activation problems, but because I’d gone to the AT&T store earlier in the day and had them pre-transfer my old phone number to my mom’s account, I was already an AT&T customer and the activation process just took minutes and my iPhone was working.

Quickly: this thing is breathtaking. The user interface is so fluid you have to see it and try it to believe it. The high resolution is greatly responsible as photos and icons look stunning, but also all the animations and text are crystal clear and completely smooth.

Topic: [/technology]

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Fri, Jul 04, 2003

: Air Conditioner

Today I bought and installed an air conditioner. It wasn’t that big a deal, but it was rather exciting tearing out a window in my house for the unit (my windows aren’t the standard double-hung kind so the install wasn’t as easy as it’s supposed to be). Anyway, got it in and it works!

Topic: [/technology]

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Thu, Jan 10, 2002

: MacWorld Expo

I don’t like big cities. I’ve been to San Francisco a handful of times, and usually the only thing going through my mind is “When can I leave?” However, this time I was taking a full day off of work to go to MacWorld Expo, and I had no pressing engagements or schedules to keep. I looked at the day as an adventure, and decided that I’d just enjoy whatever happened. Perhaps that new attitude helped. Whatever the reason, I had a good time, despite the traumas and few negative experiences.

It started out with the difficulties of getting to San Francisco. Even though I was driving through San Jose at 9 a.m., traffic was still bad, which surprised me: I figured everyone would be at work by that time. Driving in the City was even worse, though I tried to relax and tell myself to be calm. Nothing too terrible happened: I almost got run over by a fire truck; a few cars honked at me for not knowing what I was doing; I got stuck behind an armored truck for a bit when it pulled over for a pickup and the traffic going around wouldn’t let me out; and I drove the same parts of downtown SF several times, trying to figure out how to get where I needed to go. In the end, I figured out the secret to driving in the big city: there are no left turns. If you can get there by turning right, you’re fine, but with no left-hand turn lanes, you’re toast if you want to go left. Of course the parking garage I’d selected was to my left, so I ended up having to do a complex loop to my right and then go past the road I was on to end up to that road’s left and come back up it with the parking garage on my right. It took me a couple tries, but without a schedule, I didn’t have to worry about being late.

MacWorld Expo was very exciting. My entrance badge hadn’t arrived in the mail as promised, but they found on the computer in a few seconds and printed me one on the spot. Within ten minutes of arriving, I was inside the Expo. Moscone Center, where it’s held every year, is divided into two buildings, North and South (you can move between the buildings via a wide corridor that goes underneath the street that divides them). I started off at the smaller North Hall and was very pleased with all the booths. Everyone was friendly, demonstrations of products were lively and exciting, and I got some free stuff (T-Shirts, CDs, etc.). It had been oh, maybe eight years since I last went to a MacWorld Expo — I prefer the Seybold show, as it’s devoted to Electronic Publishing — and I was surprised to note that even I could see that the show was smaller than in the past. Curtain partitions had been erected around the perimeter so you wouldn’t notice that the booths didn’t extend all the way to the edges of the huge room. I don’t know if the show wasn’t sold out because of the economy or Sept. 11, but either way it was a touch sad. The expo organizers should have given more space to each exhibitor and used up that extra space: it would have felt like it was full. At any rate, the vendors who were there were excellent, and I discovered a number of products I’d never heard about, so that was good. At the REALbasic booth I met several of the REALbasic folks (REALbasic is the programming language I use), people I’ve talked with for years via email but never met in person. It was gratifying to walk up and not even have to introduce myself — they recognized my name from my columns and the software I’ve written. Later, in the South Hall, I ran into Matt Neuburg, author extraordinaire, the guy who introduced me to REALbasic via one of his articles. We had a great chat and he said he was eager to contribute to my REALbasic Developer magazine.

The South Hall was filled with larger exhibitors, including a monster Apple site which contains hundreds of the new flat-panel iMacs. They were impressive, by the way. I’d read the technical specs before coming and knew they’re excellent values, but seeing them in person you really get a feel for how fantastic those screens look. In the pictures, the new iMacs usually look like a bizarre kind of desk lamp (I call them iLamps). But in person, you really don’t notice the base: the screen takes all your focus, and with it in front of you, it covers up the base. The result is that the computer is the screen. Very cool effect but one that must be experienced in person. Overall, however, the South Hall disappointed me: most of the vendors were big huge companies, like Canon, Olympus, HP, Epson, etc., that are only peripherally Macintosh related. It was good those companies were there, sure, but their offerings are skimpy and not exactly innovative (gee, another scanner, another printer, whoop whoop). I liked the booths of the small vendors best. Here you were often talking with the actual programmer who wrote the software, or the president of the company would be giving you the demo of the product. It was a much more personal atmosphere. Some of the larger places were giving impressive demonstrations, especially the video and 3D software products, but those places were crowded, the demos long and technical (some of that software takes years to master and that assumes you’re already a video expert or artist), and the ones with chairs never had a free seat (I suspect most people just wanted to get off their feet). My suggestion to the Expo people would be to encourage more smaller exhitors. One thing I’d love to see, being a shareware author myself, is a shareware arena. Set up a large section with dozens of small booths, and allow several hundred shareware authors to promote their products. Each author wouldn’t necessarily get an exclusive booth but perhaps a set few hours each day. The cost would be free or minimal: just travel and living expensives to be at the Expo would be more than many authors could afford, but the benefits would be tremendous. I’d love to be able to demo my software to live people, meet users face to face, and listen to suggestions and problems and ideas for improvements. I’m sure I’d reach a new audience, people that hadn’t heard of Z-Write before, or didn’t understand it but suddenly do when seeing it demonstrated.

By four-thirty I was exhausted. I’d wandered through the entire show, seen just about everything I wanted to see, and I was lugging around my big bag of Expo goodies and my digital camera. I decided to call it quits and get some food. It felt great to sit and relax for a while. I ate a leisurely meal and started reading the new programming book I got at the Developer’s Depot booth. After dinner (I took an hour), I wandered over to the Yerba Buena Gardens area that’s on the back of the Moscone Center. It was surprisingly pleasant. There’s a nice fountain and a neat waterfalls and a little park. There’s a museum or something, too, but I didn’t go inside. I went over to the Sony Metreon building, which I’d heard about but never seen, and I wasn’t that impressed. It’s basically just a mall with restaurants, a multiscreen movie theatre, and a few Sony stores (there’s a Playstation store and Sony Style, which sells Sony electronics and DVDs). One thing was cool: a series of kiosks which would beam a Metreon map and movie timetable to your Palm handheld. I had my Handspring Visor with me and was tempted to try it, but I didn’t really need the info, and it just seemed unbelievably geeky, so I didn’t bother to try it. I’m sure it works as advertised. In the Sony Style store I got a neat demo of a hardware/software package for the Mac that lets you control your entire Sony stereo system, in particular, Sony CD changers. You can connect up to 12 changers and the software automatically gets the ablum and song titles from the Internet for you, and then it can control the changers and play the correct CD/song when told to do so. You can even mix CDs and MP3s together in your playlist! It was very impressive, with some features that I really like. For instance, you can tell the randomizer to only play songs you’ve haven’t heard in the last week (or month or 3 months)! There were also a zillion methods of organizing or searching the songs. It was very powerful, but the setup’s expensive: $300 and that doesn’t include the CD changer or the stereo system!

Finally, it was time to go to the REALbasic user group meeting. There was about a dozen of us there, and we got to share our concerns and suggestions with the REAlbasic team, and they gave us some hints and details at what improvements we can expect in the future. It was a great session: I was impressed at how open the RB guys were. They were honest and frank and willing to admit there were flaws in the product, and eager to hear from us users at what they could do to make it better.

It was ten o’clock by the time I got home. My parking garage bill was for $18, I got occosted by a begger wanting money for something I couldn’t understand (he mumbled terribly), and I discovered a huge blister on my left heel from all the walking. Next time, better shoes. But overall, a good day. A pleasant change from the ordinary. I wouldn’t want to do that every day, and I certainly wouldn’t want to live in the City, but I’m glad I went. I’ve put up some pictures of MacWorld Expo, if you’re interested.

Topic: [/technology]

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Sun, Nov 18, 2001

: iPod

I actually bought my iPod on Nov. 10, the day they went on sale, but I am writing about it now that I’ve had a chance to really play with it.

If you’re not familiar with iPod, you’ve got to check it out. It’s a tiny — and I do mean tiny… it fits in your shirt pocket — digital music player. The idea is nothing new, but Apple’s implementation is incredible. This is the way a music player is supposed to be designed!

The key feature of iPod is that it uses a new Toshiba 1.8” 5GB hard drive. That allows it to store over 1,000 songs! (Most MP3 players can only store an hour or two of music.) Of course there are other hard drive-based players out there, but they’re huge (the size of a portable CD player), only last three hours on battery power, loading your entire music library takes hours, and the interface for browsing through thousands of songs is actually painful.

iPod changes all that. The unique scroll wheel lets you zip through a thousand songs in seconds, with just one hand! The unit’s 20 minute “skip protection” memory means it rarely needs to power up the hard drive (just three times an hour) and that means long battery life: try over 10 hours! The final major difference is Apple uses a FireWire connection instead of the more typical USB. FireWire is the standard for digital video and it’s fast: you can copy over 5GB of music (over 72 hours worth) in about ten minutes! That same FireWire connector also provides power, so you use it to charge your iPod. You can even use iPod as a portable hard disk: move files between work and home, or give your laptop extra storage!

Apple doesn’t stop there: they’ve incorporated iPod into their MP3 software player, iTunes. iTunes is free: you use it to convert your audio CDs to MP3 format and manage your songs. Plug in iPod and it automatically syncs your iTunes songs and settings with your iPod! Creating playlists is a snap in iTunes, and having them available on your iPod is terrific. iPod lets you browse songs by artist, album, playlist, or all your songs in one long list. It’s really transparent and amazingly easy to use. iPod’s going to be the hottest item on everyone’s Christmas list this year.

Imagine holding a jukebox in the palm of your hand: that’s iPod. Mine has nearly 1,200 songs on it, and there’s room for a hundred more (I’ve got a few hundred megs of data on mine as well). I carry it with me everywhere, and it connects to my car stereo with a simple cassette adapter. It sounds great with headphones or plugged into my speaker system. I love having the ability to use my playlists to restrict music to my favorites or a particular genre that fits my current mood. If you love music, you’ll love iPod.

Topic: [/technology]

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Sat, Oct 06, 2001

: Apple Store Grand Opening

This morning I went to Palo Alto to witness the grand opening of the new Apple Store. Over a thousand people were there and it was a terrific celebration of Apple. Steve Jobs was even there (I took his picture). It was great fun and hilarious to receive the funny looks of passerbys who no doubt thought we were crazy to stand in line for hours to get into a mere computer store!

Topic: [/technology]

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Tue, Mar 06, 2001

: Titanium PowerBook

My Titanium PowerBook G4 arrived today and it is awesome! There are a few glitches, widely reported on Mac websites, but the ‘Book is so fantastic I don’t even care! The 15.” screen is H U G E — it’s wider than most 17” CRT monitors. Incredible. Playing a DVD on that wide screen is impressive, to say the least. The laptop is very speedy, too. I can’t believe how light and thin it is. Really remarkable, considering all the stuff inside. I opened it up to install some extra RAM (I’ve got 384 megs) and the metal of the bottom of the laptop is right there — it’s like there’s no room inside! It will be interesting to see how durable it is over the long haul, but for now I’m amazed.

Topic: [/technology]

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Sat, Aug 26, 2000

: Ikea

I went to Ikea today. Amazing store. They sell furniture and other things for the home. It’s like a massive Costco except selling nothing but reasonably-priced home furnishings. Definitely an experience. I got a desk — really it’s their “IVAR” storage system — but as it’s configurable in to about a million variations, I was able to design a wall unit that will hold two complete computer systems, two printers, computer accessories, and much else. My current desk setup has never been optimal, being made up of a half-dozen pieces kludged together, and the maze of cords, contraptions, and awkwardness in the very small amount of space I have has made organization impossible. I’ve looked at many furniture stores for a decent desk, but either they’re big and wide and with no vertical dimension, or if they do have a tall hutch (maximizing space) it’s not big enough for my large screen monitors. The IVAR system looks to be the dream. We’ll see how it works out!

Topic: [/technology]

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Mon, May 08, 2000

: Event: Z-Write Released!

I’ve been watching few movies and reading few books lately because I’ve been working hard on my software program, Z-Write. It’s finally out! It’s an innovative word processor for creative writers: it lets you create multiple files within the same file — great for keeping together all the zillions of notes associated with a project. Microsoft Word is doomed! ;-)

Topic: [/technology/programming]

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Thu, Mar 16, 2000

: Broadband

I’ve got broadband! Yes, I finally succumbed to this Internet thing and subscribed to DSL. Now I can access the Internet 35 times faster than before. What an amazing difference! Highly recommmended. (And not costly, considering I was already paying extra for a second phone line anyway.)

Topic: [/technology]

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Tue, Dec 14, 1999

: DVD Player

Hey, my DVD player arrived today! I’ve been watching DVDs on my Powerbook. It’s great to have that feature, and the portability’s unmatched, but it’s awkward for connecting to the TV and the software’s sometimes glitchy and slow. So I bit the bullet and bought myself an early Christmas present: a home theatre system. If you haven’t tried DVD yet, do so. There’s no going back. The picture is unbelievably clear, even an on old TV like mine. DVDs have twice the resolution of VHS videotapes, plus there’s no rewinding! Most DVDs have extra content (director’s commentary, making of featurettes, delete scenes, music videos, etc.), too. I also like the fact that since they are the same size as CDs, they take up a lot less space! (Come see my tiny house, which is filled from floor to ceiling with videotapes and you’ll understand. One of these days I want to put my movie collection on my website. I suspect I’m approaching 1500 movies by now.) But DVDs are also about sound: they include Dolby Digital surround sound, just like you get in the movie theatre! Surround sound is amazing — it really puts you in the middle of the action. It changes the whole movie experience.

Topic: [/technology]

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