Twitter status for shawnblanc: Any suggestions for a quality video player similar to Brightcove?
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Why Wait?
- iPhone 2.0 software update is available for bootleg download. More info on MacRumors.
- MobileMe system update is aviailable for bootleg download. More info on GearLive.
- The iTunes App store is up, though not announced. You can find it by searching on iTunes for an application, or through an iTunes App Store link - like the previous one, or this one for Super Monkey Ball.
I’m installing the 2.0 software now, and so far so good. Also, the MobileMe update ran fine, but the Apple servers are still off-line.
What are the apps I grabbed already?
If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow -
Super insightful article, with some advice on how to respond when being mysteriously interviewed by an Apple V.P..
People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.
(via Gruber)
Holy Cartoons, Batman. (iTunes Link)
The Task Notebook
Though my whole professional and personal life seems to exist on my laptop, I will never be a completely paper-free individual. My to-do list has always existed on paper. And it always will.
Not only do I have a fond affection for writing on real paper with a real pen, there is also a subtle sense of gratification whenever I draw a black line through an accomplished task. A gratification that I don’t get when clicking on a check box or tapping the delete key.
Using a paper based to-do system is not the “greenest” thing I could do (don’t tell Al), and is starting to feel old fashioned in this PDA GTD world. So why am I still carting around my notepad?
Being organized is a learned behavior.
I sometimes teach a class to new staff members around here about how to manage their time. After the first couple hours of groundwork information (you’d be surprised how many people don’t have an idea of how to schedule their time), I emphasize what - in my opinion - is the greatest advice of all time for time management and organization: do what works for you.
This advice goes for all sorts of organizational efforts. Such as keeping your email inbox manageable, and making sure you don’t miss that important date.
We all think a little differently, and we all have unique quirks that make us who we are. Therefore, how we structure and organize our life should fit . . . our life.
Needless to say, I have been through a lot of notebooks in search of the perfect to-do list tool.
Not only do I need something I can write my task list on, I need it to take notes too. I need to draw in it. I need to cram excessive amounts of loose leaf paper in it. I need it to have character.
Necessity Necessitates the Necessities
For the first 25 years of my life my to-do list existed on my left hand. If something came to mind that I wanted to get done, I’d write it on my palm. (I wasn’t too busy in those days.)
Last February I built myself a bonafide Moleskine PDA notebook. It’s sole purpose was task management. And I swear, just the fact that I owned a task notebook made me busier. (It is amazing how many things you realize you need to do when you have a spot to write them down in.)
That small Moleskine was fantastic. It worked perfectly for over a year. It was handy, cheap and had grid-paper: the three most important elements in any good task notebook.
Handy
If my task notebook isn’t handy, it’s no good. Convenience is everything when you’re using something every day, everywhere. It’s a common misconception that size dictates handiness, but that’s not true. Handy means useful.
Gridded
I’ll never be able to use a notebook without lines. My handwriting inevitably starts to lean down to the bottom right corner of the page if I don’t have some pre-printed help.
But standard college ruled won’t do.
In seventh grade science I got hooked on grid paper. It has no top or bottom or left or right. You can turn it sideways or longways and it’s still right-side up. It’s fantastic.
Cheap
Cheap may be the least important, but it is never to be overlooked. You’d be surprised at how many folks get a nice, quality journal only to never use it in fear of wasting its pages. Now that is a waste of money if I ever saw one.
When looking for a task notebook you have to recognize the very nature of the notebook will necessitate throwing paper in the recycling bin.
Every hour or two I’m scratching something out. I’m constantly doodling notes, and tearing out sheets of paper to give away. If I hear a cash-register cha-chinging every time I do that it’s no good. If I feel like I’m robbing my notebook of all its character when I rip a page out, then it’s no good.
The right notebook must be guilt-free to destroy.
Evolving
About 3 months ago the Moleskine stopped being handy. Yes, it was small and portable, but no longer handy.
I’m a visual thinker and a verbal processor. Translated: the best tools for figuring out a solution to a problem is a person to listen while I draw on a white board. But if a white board isn’t around I need a sketch pad. Therfore I upgraded to letter-sized.
I started with a generic yellow pad like everyone else I see in management around here used, but it had one major flaw: it wasn’t grid.
I found a better solution at Walmart. A 150-page gridded goodness pad which has worked for the past month. However, the useful :: frustrating ration is quickly becoming exponential.
This pad stopped being useful once my to-do list was no longer able to be on page 1.
After I sat in a meeting and took some important notes on page 2, the next time I re-wrote my to-do list it had to be on page 3. Now it’s on page 11.
Time to find a new notebook.
Today I ordered a Levenger Circa Notebook. These guys may very well make the best day-to-day usable stationary in the world.
The Circa is a brilliant knock-off of the age old 3-ring binder idea. It comes with 100 sheets of letter-sized grid paper, on nice 60# text stock. It feels good to hold, and is a dream to write on.
What else is so gorgeous about the Circa is that my to-do list will always be on page one, and I won’t have to fold pages over the top binding to get to the page I want. It even folds over itself, and is infinitely accessorisable.
Will this be my final task notebook? I doubt it.
What I love about so many of Joshua’s photos is that they are left wide open for the viewer to imagine the story that coincides. They’re like blank pieces of paper and Joshua hands you the pen.
This shot from the Seattle/Tacoma airport is just one of many that I could stare at imagining scenarios, stories and goofy things happening in.
There used to be more - like this one really mysterious shot from a laundry-mat - but Josh cleaned out his flickr stream a couple weeks ago. Though you can buy some of his choice prints online. (Don’t miss 11, 16 ad 20.)
Domtar is a paper company, and they put out some excellent booklets and samples (a.k.a. junk mail) in their efforts to get me to use their paper. (Or influence my printer to start using it.)
I’m pretty sure I ended up on these guys’ database through my subscription to Print a few years ago, and they are only company ever who’s junk mail — the kind that gets hand delivered to your house by a mail man — I actually want to get.
If you get inspired by stellar design printed on rich, heavy paper that gets delivered to you for free, you may want to sign up for some free samples, too.
Wordle -
Super clever word cloud generator which lets you “tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes”.
Some incredible print work by French graphic designer, Fabien Barral. Don’t miss the Manouchian posters, the Harmonies Layout, or my favorite: the Louis Tinayre Global Communications Proposal (which ironically wasn’t chosen to be used by the client).
Adam Polselli’s photo collection of typography on some classic cars. They don’t make them like they used to.
Investing Strategies for iPhone Customers -
Khoi Vinh:
Take a look at the price of Apple stock over the past year, and note that the value of my iPhone is now way less than just one share of AAPL.
So does that make the Stocks app on the iPhone like lemon juice on an open wound?
From the Archives: A Review of the New MacBook Pro -
If you were holding out for a possible refresh/major update to the MacBook Pros, but are now off to purchase one anyway, here’s My 4,500 word review on the still current “reigning champ”.
me.com -
MobileMe is the new .Mac and - from what I see - the only way to get over-the-air syncing of your iPhone’s contacts, calendars and bookmarks without being on Exchange.
Is it worth $8.25 a month if you only have one Mac and an iPhone? Or even just one Mac? Absolutely. You get twice the current storage (10GB bumped to 20GB), a very impressive suite of web apps, and of course, an @me.com email address.
