Cutting out the estate agents, Paul has put his house for sale on the Web.
My friend and client Paul Burton’s house is for sale
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Category Archives: Legacy topics
The Geek Tax has struck again
What a start to Monday morning. My Palm won’t sync. For reasons that I can’t understand, it has just decided not to sync.
I did my GTD Weekly Review on the Palm yesterday, and have made some diary additions to ACT on the PC, so I don’t have a full view of my life on the desktop or the Palm – GRRRR!
Flipping (I’ll be polite in public) useless technology. At times like this, I hate it.
So now what do I do? Is the world telling me to move to Backpack? (I feel I need more testing before making the jump). Shall I just throw technology and return to paper?
Backpack gets me thinking
I’ve spent too long this weekend playing with Backpack from 37 Signals. I’m impressed. Very impressed. The more I explore, the more uses I can find. It really is a Web-based application. It feels as if it has the potential depth and flexibility of a word processor or spreadsheet.
While I’m really enthusiastic about Backpack, I do keep having some niggling doubts. For example I don’t like the idea of my information being in the hands of a third party. But how is this different from Plaxo, which I already use?
A bigger worry is the issue of reliability of 37 Signals’ server – how often will I find my information unavailable?
But I can see that I will subscribe to Backpack once it has a few more features that I absolutely need – headed by recurring reminders. It’s another logical step in the evolution of my systems originally characterized by my movement to Fastmail’s e-mail service. Or, even earlier, my use of Movable Type for this blog.
The platform- and device-independence of having my stuff out there on the Net is hugely seductive. As more of my working and personal life moves away from the desktop, I have more choice of platform.
I wonder if I’ll still be using Windows in a year or two’s time? I guess that will be determined by whether Windows is truly the best platform for my needs as my ties to Windows applications decrease.
Ridgways Organic Leaf Tea bought in Tesco!
Wow! My habitual and usually fruitless searching for Ridgways Organic Leaf Tea hit the jackpot in Tesco in Shoreham yesterday.
I bought six packets, just in case Tesco gets bored with stocking it again.
Take a toke. Switch off that e-mail
Popping up in some of the RSS feeds I read has been the news that e-mail harms our IQ more than partaking of a spliff.
The posited mechanism – constant distraction – seems OK, but surely phone calls and in-person interruptions are far worse distractions? I know I have far more control over e-mail than phones or people. The more duplex the interaction, the worse impact it has on my productivity, that’s for sure.
So, maybe the the next headline will be Phone Calls harm IQ more than a Smack Habit.
2113Mb – what’s that?
Yesterday, I noticed a very strange version of 2Gig on my Gmail account. Seth has a theory.
Ten Laws of the Modern World
Some obvious ones, and some not so obvious, from Forbes Magazine.
Worth a few minutes of your time.
(And just to prove my categories are really broken, I’ve had to put this entry in ‘Stuff’).
Dangerous Thinking needs some reorganization
This blog has been around for some time now. As I think I’ve said before, its focus has shifted as my business, technology and personal focuses have shifted.
I’m currently looking at the categories and thinking that they’re no longer representative of where I am. But what should I do, go in for a weekend’s solid recategorization? Looking at what I already have in my GTD Someday/Maybes, that’s unlikely to happen this side of 2008.
So I guess the categories will have to continue as they are. I wonder if other long-term bloggers are going through the same kind of thought processes? And, more to the point, I wonder if anyone has a workable solution.
Ouch!
Internet addiction
This morning I started work at 7am, so I promised myself I’d knock off at 5pm at the latest and read a book or something.
I managed to leave my desk at 5:30. Not too bad, really.
I had a shave to get rid of that ‘working at home feeling’, had a glass of something cold to drink – so far, so good – and slumped in the living room with my laptop. It seems my idea of having a quiet evening with a book amounts to reading a load of RSS feeds using my laptop (I’ve banished RSS feeds from the desktop machine I use for most of my writing in my crusade against time wasting distractions).
Yes, I’m an Internet addict. But I guess that’s not really news. There are millions of us out there who never seem to unplug – my wife’s one of them, incidentally. She has just come in from work, and after exchanging a little small talk, she has gone off to chat to her friends on MSN.
What gets me about using a computer in time off is that even when I’m just reading stuff – like other people’s blogs – I never seem to get into a relaxed state. A book, however, allows me switch off and recharge.
So, is the lack of relaxation at the machine simply because I’m still responding to some cues from my work environment, or is it something else? I wonder if it’s the ease of use, refined user interface and high resolution reading technology(!) of the book that wins out every time over Windows?
Whichever way, I’m trying to make one day each weekend into a PC-free zone, when all three of my machines remain switched off, and I can feel that wonderful smoothness I often experience when I’m away from the Net.
Besides, I can always check my e-mail using my Palm or phone.