Beeswax - Mind Your Own Beeswax

Wow, this looks like a really interesting project to watch — a GNU-licensed, command line productivity app that finds inspiration in a bona fide classic:

Beeswax is an information management system inspired by Lotus Agenda. It aims to recreate Agenda’s flexibility and efficiency in a clutter-free, text-based (ncursesw) user interface with vi key bindings. Beeswax views & reports will have specifications for sections, columns, filtering, and sorting…

The relationships between items of information are highly flexible. An item can be easily assigned to several different categories and the view immediately displays the new relationships. An item can just as easily be detached from categories. As you move items through Beeswax, their relationship to each other remains highly flexible.

You still hear a lot of people saying Agenda is the closest they ever got to their dream productivity app. And, depending on who you ask, Agenda’s endless flexibility was either incredibly powerful or infinitely fiddly.

Beeswax is a very young application, but I’ll definitely be giving it a spin. There’s certainly a long-standing itch for Agenda that lot of folks would love to have scratched.

[via Anarchaia]

How to nap - Boston.com

I’m a big fan of napping and often evangelize the transformative power of a quick Pzizz. If you’re new to the nap habit — or if you buy the propaganda that naps are only for infants and layabouts — treat yourself to this cool infographic from The Boston Globe (shown in part above).

[via Arts & Letters Daily]

It’s full of handy tips for learning when you’re most likely benefit from a nap, how long to snooze, as well as what you can do to improve your environment for good sleep.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve heard it before: napping shouldn’t require a guide and software. But an astonishing number of people I’ve talked to just can’t bring themselves to sleep during the day (and many sleep poorly at night as well). As a marginally sleep-deprived Dad, I’m all for anything that helps people get rested and refreshed, and the advice in this little guide comports with everything I’ve learned about making naps work.

Happy napping.

How to nap - Boston.com

I’m a big fan of napping and often evangelize the transformative power of a quick Pzizz. If you’re new to the nap habit — or if you buy the propaganda that naps are only for infants and layabouts — treat yourself to this cool infographic from The Boston Globe (shown in part above).

[via Arts & Letters Daily]

It’s full of handy tips for learning when you’re most likely benefit from a nap, how long to snooze, as well as what you can do to improve your environment for good sleep.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve heard it before: napping shouldn’t require a guide and software. But an astonishing number of people I’ve talked to just can’t bring themselves to sleep during the day (and many sleep poorly at night as well). As a marginally sleep-deprived Dad, I’m all for anything that helps people get rested and refreshed, and the advice in this little guide comports with everything I’ve learned about making naps work.

Happy napping.

• Make It Stop! Crushed by Too Many E-Mails : NPR - I think somebody on Massachusetts Ave. must have called “Oy Vey, Email!” Week at NPR. Here’s another one on email overwhelm, including tips and technology on “email organization.” How ‘bout that. At the risk of repeating myself, organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling! Call me, Yuki. Let’s talk.
• Spark | CBC Radio | Episode 41 - June 11 & 14 - In my latest Spark segment, I shared some ideas on how to deal with annoying forwarded email from friends and family, or what I call “turkey bacn.”
• lonelysandwich - Why Me? - Adam thinks “MobileMe” signals Apple’s big move behind what used to be considered enemy lines. “Apple is removing the Mac from the Apple computer experience and laying the foundation for a browser-based OS…”
• Jonathan Coulton ?? The JoCo Primer - Jonathan has a really smart series of pages for introducing new fans to himself and his music, as well as suggesting where to go next. Memo to self, internet: steal this idea.
• Ars at WWDC: Exclusive preview of mobile NetNewsWire - Not only is my beloved NetNewsWire coming to iPhone, but let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Brent on his outstanding taste in demo web content.
• The $100 Distraction Device - “Why giving poor kids laptops doesn’t improve their scholastic performance.” I dunno. I respect that there’s lots of sides to the OLPC debate, but this particular one’s got a bit of damp straw and double standards to it.
• OmniFocus for the iPhone snags an Apple Design Award! - Congratulations to my OmniGroup peeps on their award. After getting lots of little sneak peeks from friends at WWDC [cough], I am so excited for the apps that are coming to the iPhone. This is going to be huge, people.
• Start! - I’m honored to be speaking at Jeff and Bryan’s amazing-looking one-day conference for indie web folks, here in San Francisco. And, talk about a bargain. Register today.
• Word Spy - tweetup - “A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.” Kinda scared to try this; I’m pretty sure a lot of my Twitter friends are bots created by the influential Butt Joke industry.

• Make It Stop! Crushed by Too Many E-Mails : NPR - I think somebody on Massachusetts Ave. must have called “Oy Vey, Email!” Week at NPR. Here’s another one on email overwhelm, including tips and technology on “email organization.” How ‘bout that. At the risk of repeating myself, organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling! Call me, Yuki. Let’s talk.
• Spark | CBC Radio | Episode 41 - June 11 & 14 - In my latest Spark segment, I shared some ideas on how to deal with annoying forwarded email from friends and family, or what I call “turkey bacn.”
• lonelysandwich - Why Me? - Adam thinks “MobileMe” signals Apple’s big move behind what used to be considered enemy lines. “Apple is removing the Mac from the Apple computer experience and laying the foundation for a browser-based OS…”
• Jonathan Coulton » The JoCo Primer - Jonathan has a really smart series of pages for introducing new fans to himself and his music, as well as suggesting where to go next. Memo to self, internet: steal this idea.
• Ars at WWDC: Exclusive preview of mobile NetNewsWire - Not only is my beloved NetNewsWire coming to iPhone, but let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Brent on his outstanding taste in demo web content.
• The $100 Distraction Device - “Why giving poor kids laptops doesn’t improve their scholastic performance.” I dunno. I respect that there’s lots of sides to the OLPC debate, but this particular one’s got a bit of damp straw and double standards to it.
• OmniFocus for the iPhone snags an Apple Design Award! - Congratulations to my OmniGroup peeps on their award. After getting lots of little sneak peeks from friends at WWDC [cough], I am so excited for the apps that are coming to the iPhone. This is going to be huge, people.
• Start! - I’m honored to be speaking at Jeff and Bryan’s amazing-looking one-day conference for indie web folks, here in San Francisco. And, talk about a bargain. Register today.
• Word Spy - tweetup - “A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.” Kinda scared to try this; I’m pretty sure a lot of my Twitter friends are bots created by the influential Butt Joke industry.

• Make It Stop! Crushed by Too Many E-Mails : NPR - I think somebody on Massachusetts Ave. must have called “Oy Vey, Email!” Week at NPR. Here’s another one on email overwhelm, including tips and technology on “email organization.” How ‘bout that. At the risk of repeating myself, organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling! Call me, Yuki. Let’s talk.
• Spark | CBC Radio | Episode 41 - June 11 & 14 - In my latest Spark segment, I shared some ideas on how to deal with annoying forwarded email from friends and family, or what I call “turkey bacn.”
• lonelysandwich - Why Me? - Adam thinks “MobileMe” signals Apple’s big move behind what used to be considered enemy lines. “Apple is removing the Mac from the Apple computer experience and laying the foundation for a browser-based OS…”
• Jonathan Coulton » The JoCo Primer - Jonathan has a really smart series of pages for introducing new fans to himself and his music, as well as suggesting where to go next. Memo to self, internet: steal this idea.
• Ars at WWDC: Exclusive preview of mobile NetNewsWire - Not only is my beloved NetNewsWire coming to iPhone, but let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Brent on his outstanding taste in demo web content.
• The $100 Distraction Device - “Why giving poor kids laptops doesn’t improve their scholastic performance.” I dunno. I respect that there’s lots of sides to the OLPC debate, but this particular one’s got a bit of damp straw and double standards to it.
• OmniFocus for the iPhone snags an Apple Design Award! - Congratulations to my OmniGroup peeps on their award. After getting lots of little sneak peeks from friends at WWDC [cough], I am so excited for the apps that are coming to the iPhone. This is going to be huge, people.
• Start! - I’m honored to be speaking at Jeff and Bryan’s amazing-looking one-day conference for indie web folks, here in San Francisco. And, talk about a bargain. Register today.
• Word Spy - tweetup - “A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.” Kinda scared to try this; I’m pretty sure a lot of my Twitter friends are bots created by the influential Butt Joke industry.

Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast - NYTimes.com

Is Information Overload a Billion Drag on the Economy? - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

If you’ve seen the video of my Inbox Zero talk at Google, you may recall the moment when a few attendees start mentioning the hundreds of internal email messages they receive (and send) in a given day. I still remember, because I almost fainted.

Whenever I hear these and similar stories, the same question always comes to mind: “What does a company get out of its employees spending half their day using an email program?” Well, apparently, it’s a question a lot of people are starting to ask. Including Google.

A story in today’s New York Times covers Sili Valley’s new interest in curbing unnecessary interruptions and helping stem the flow of endless data.

Intel and other companies are already experimenting with solutions. Small units at some companies are encouraging workers to check e-mail messages less frequently, to send group messages more judiciously and to avoid letting the drumbeat of digital missives constantly shake up and reorder to-do lists.

A Google software engineer last week introduced E-Mail Addict, an experimental feature for the company???s e-mail service that lets people cut themselves off from their in-boxes for 15 minutes.

A few more stats for you:

A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times…

I’d also draw your attention to this infographic illustrating data points from recent studies on “workers’ efficiency at information-intensive businesses.” 28% of a typical worker’s day is spent on:

Interruptions by things that aren’t urgent or important, like unnecessary e-mail messages — and the time it takes to get back on track.

Sidenote: According to that same graphic, 20% of an average day is spent on meetings. Wow. Expressed as a year, that means a meeting you start on New Year’s day would let out around the middle of March. Yikes.

Sounds like these folks have their work cut out for them.

---

I think it’s important to clarify something here: there’s nothing fundamentally wrong or irreparable about email as a tool. Given my position on how email gets (ab)used, you could be forgiven for thinking I want everyone to write each other letters once a year and ride cows to work. No. Not at all.

My point has always been that, as with any tool, email can be used for good or ill depending on the problems you’ve decided it can solve. One trouble is that our use and widespread adoption of email hasn’t brought with it an equally widely-adopted understanding about how to use it, what content it’s appropriate for, and what expectations we accept regarding when it’s allowed to take us away from everything in our life that’s not email. There are very few shared rules of the road right now. And that’s making life hard for a lot of people.

I’m thrilled to hear that these ideas are bubbling up and getting the attention they deserve; email pain is usually a quiet, lonely, and shameful one, where people’s work and home life suffer from the silent understanding that “too much is never enough” — that trying to tamp down this always-on hysteria is a sign of weakness or sloth. That’s ironic, given the biggest reason we reason use email so much: it’s easy.

There’s no cashier, editor, or therapist through which your message must pass. You set your own rules for what’s appropriate to send, ask, or demand. You decide what it means when someone reacts (or doesn’t react) in a given manner or time frame. Email is still the Wild West, and companies are paying billions of dollars a year to supply the six-shooters and Stetsons. Yeehaw.

---

I’ll keep following these stories, because, I must tell you, I think it’s going to be a rocky road for businesses to patch. Will whacky experiments like “No Email Fridays” have an affect on how we think about this medium? Only as much as “No Ice Cream Sundays” can help fix your eating disorder.

But, I’m glad they’re trying, and I’m really glad the conversation has started at a higher level.

As for the decision-makers who are struggling with this stuff: these stats are great for getting companies off the bubble, but before you start breaking crockery, I suggest talking to lots of real employees about how they work, how they communicate, and how they might be able to help you.

Every time I speak to a company, I hear half a dozen depressing stories of management disconnection and communication bedlam, alongside one or two completely inspiring tales about how employees and small teams are working to fix things at a squad or platoon level. It’s really amazing, and I wish it were something C-levels and managers were more cognizant of.

So, I suggest you be open to seeing email as just one tool among many, and be gracious about listening to those teams about how they’ve worked to fix or ameliorate these problems.

Bottom line (and I’ll never stop saying this): stop trying to eradicate human communication problems by introducing waves of new technology or made-up rules of social engineering. A company with email problems is also experiencing people problems. Until you understand why the wetware isn’t working like you’d expected, don’t go nuts with top-down technology solutions and over-clever edicts.

There’s a million tiny ways to improve how a business communicates with itself, and a lot of that intelligence is currently trapped, unmined, in the heads of people who’ve never been asked for an opinion. I like to think articles like this represent every knowledge worker’s opportunity to raise his or her hand and say, “Hey, I have an idea.”

[NYT links via Mrs. Mann]

Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast - NYTimes.com

Is Information Overload a Billion Drag on the Economy? - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

If you’ve seen the video of my Inbox Zero talk at Google, you may recall the moment when a few attendees start mentioning the hundreds of internal email messages they receive (and send) in a given day. I still remember, because I almost fainted.

Whenever I hear these and similar stories, the same question always comes to mind: “What does a company get out of its employees spending half their day using an email program?” Well, apparently, it’s a question a lot of people are starting to ask. Including Google.

A story in today’s New York Times covers Sili Valley’s new interest in curbing unnecessary interruptions and helping stem the flow of endless data.

Intel and other companies are already experimenting with solutions. Small units at some companies are encouraging workers to check e-mail messages less frequently, to send group messages more judiciously and to avoid letting the drumbeat of digital missives constantly shake up and reorder to-do lists.

A Google software engineer last week introduced E-Mail Addict, an experimental feature for the company’s e-mail service that lets people cut themselves off from their in-boxes for 15 minutes.

A few more stats for you:

A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times…

I’d also draw your attention to this infographic illustrating data points from recent studies on “workers’ efficiency at information-intensive businesses.” 28% of a typical worker’s day is spent on:

Interruptions by things that aren’t urgent or important, like unnecessary e-mail messages — and the time it takes to get back on track.

Sidenote: According to that same graphic, 20% of an average day is spent on meetings. Wow. Expressed as a year, that means a meeting you start on New Year’s day would let out around the middle of March. Yikes.

Sounds like these folks have their work cut out for them.

---

I think it’s important to clarify something here: there’s nothing fundamentally wrong or irreparable about email as a tool. Given my position on how email gets (ab)used, you could be forgiven for thinking I want everyone to write each other letters once a year and ride cows to work. No. Not at all.

My point has always been that, as with any tool, email can be used for good or ill depending on the problems you’ve decided it can solve. One trouble is that our use and widespread adoption of email hasn’t brought with it an equally widely-adopted understanding about how to use it, what content it’s appropriate for, and what expectations we accept regarding when it’s allowed to take us away from everything in our life that’s not email. There are very few shared rules of the road right now. And that’s making life hard for a lot of people.

I’m thrilled to hear that these ideas are bubbling up and getting the attention they deserve; email pain is usually a quiet, lonely, and shameful one, where people’s work and home life suffer from the silent understanding that “too much is never enough” — that trying to tamp down this always-on hysteria is a sign of weakness or sloth. That’s ironic, given the biggest reason we reason use email so much: it’s easy.

There’s no cashier, editor, or therapist through which your message must pass. You set your own rules for what’s appropriate to send, ask, or demand. You decide what it means when someone reacts (or doesn’t react) in a given manner or time frame. Email is still the Wild West, and companies are paying billions of dollars a year to supply the six shooters and Stetsons. Yeehaw.

---

I’ll keep following these stories, because, I must tell you, I think it’s going to be a rocky road for businesses to patch. Will whacky experiments like “No Email Fridays” have an affect on how we think about this medium? Only as much as “No Ice Cream Sundays” can help fix your eating disorder.

But, I’m glad they’re trying, and I’m really glad the conversation has started at a higher level.

As for the decision-makers who are struggling with this stuff: these stats are great for getting companies off the bubble, but before you start breaking crockery, I suggest talking to lots of real employees about how they work, how they communicate, and how they might be able to help you.

Every time I speak to a company, I hear half a dozen depressing stories of management disconnection and communication bedlam, alongside one or two completely inspiring tales about how employees and small teams are working to fix things at a squad or platoon level. It’s really amazing, and I wish it were something C-levels and managers were more cognizant of.

So, I suggest you be open to seeing email as just one tool among many, and be gracious about listening to those teams about how they’ve worked to fix or ameliorate these problems.

Bottom line (and I’ll never stop saying this): stop trying to eradicate human communication problems by introducing waves of new technology or made-up rules of social engineering. A company with email problems is also experiencing people problems. Until you understand why the wetware isn’t working like expected, don’t go nuts with top-down technology solutions and over-clever edicts.

There’s a million tiny ways to improve how a business communicates with itself, and a lot of that intelligence is currently trapped, unmined, in the heads of people who’ve never been asked for an opinion. I like to think articles like this represent every knowledge worker’s opportunity to raise his or her hand and say, “Hey, I have an idea.”

[NYT links via Mrs. Mann]

Linda Stone: Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?

Linda Stone — who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention” — makes a thoughtful distinction between managing time and attention, deflating the misconception that making long lists and then overscheduling your day can be a bulwark against distractions, interruptions, and the crippling feeling of being overwhelmed.

In this recent blog entry from the Huffington Post, Stone talks about a pattern she’s noticed from talking with people about how they think about and plan their day.

What did surgeons, artists, and CEO’s have in common? Most of them reported that they managed both their time and their attention. In surgery, in the studio, and in the time carved out to think through strategies and issues, these professionals reported shutting down the devices and endless inputs (email, phone, interruptions), at scheduled times, and claiming those moments to focus. In almost every case, these professionals reported experiencing “flow” (a la Csikszentmihalyi) in their work.

[HuffPo link via Boing Boing]

She also goes on to include some tips about managing attention and focusing on outcomes rather than just obsessing over building a long and un-doable list. Good post — and a great reminder that time management has no prayer of working if it’s not accompanied by even tighter attention management.

I also have to share this William James quote, which Stone’s post mentions in passing (my emphasis).

Every one knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.

“Zerstreutheit.” I love it when there’s a German word for my problem.

Linda Stone: Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?

Linda Stone — who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention” — makes a thoughtful distinction between managing time and attention, deflating the misconception that making long lists and then overscheduling your day can be a bulwark against distractions, interruptions, and the crippling feeling of being overwhelmed.

In this recent blog entry from the Huffington Post, Stone talks about a pattern she’s noticed from talking with people about how they think about and plan their day.

What did surgeons, artists, and CEO’s have in common? Most of them reported that they managed both their time and their attention. In surgery, in the studio, and in the time carved out to think through strategies and issues, these professionals reported shutting down the devices and endless inputs (email, phone, interruptions), at scheduled times, and claiming those moments to focus. In almost every case, these professionals reported experiencing “flow” (a la Csikszentmihalyi) in their work.

[HuffPo link via Boing Boing]

She also goes on to include some tips about managing attention and focusing on outcomes rather than just obsessing over building a long and un-doable list. Good post — and a great reminder that time management has no prayer of working if it’s not accompanied by even tighter attention management.

I also have to share this William James quote, which Stone’s post mentions in passing (my emphasis).

Every one knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.

“Zerstreutheit.” I love it when there’s a German word for my problem.

How to Be a Productive Procrastinator : NPR (Talk of the Nation)

The Talk of the Nation that’s on right now (available for streaming later) is on the topic of procrastination.

Why do today what you can do the day after tomorrow? Procrastination expert Timothy Pychyl and self-professed “structured procrastinator” John Perry discuss the latest research on this type of behavior and how to prioritize what’s really important.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll remember John Perry for his excellent piece on “Structured Procrastination.” Great stuff.

How to Be a Productive Procrastinator : NPR (Talk of the Nation)

The Talk of the Nation that’s on right now (available for streaming later) is on the topic of procrastination.

Why do today what you can do the day after tomorrow? Procrastination expert Timothy Pychyl and self-professed “structured procrastinator” John Perry discuss the latest research on this type of behavior and how to prioritize what’s really important.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll remember John Perry for his excellent piece on “Structured Procrastination.” Great stuff.

The Omni Group - OmniFocus for iPhone and iPod touch

[Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.]

Oh, man. It’s so nice to lift the veil on this one. It’s been like I knew you guys were getting the big Lego Millennium Falcon for Christmas, but I couldn’t tell you until Santa had gone back up the chimney (in his black mock turtleneck and jeans). Anyway.

Merry Christmas, Mac productivity nerds: iPhone synching for OmniFocus is coming. And it is gorgeous, usable, and location-aware. More here on OmniGroup’s blog.

From the OmniGroup site:

Using your location, OmniFocus can create a custom list of actions to complete nearby. Buying groceries? OmniFocus can show you the closest grocery store and create an instant shopping list.

Capture tasks anywhere, anytime with OmniFocus: you can enter text, take a picture, or even make a quick voice recording.

Yum. Screengrabs and more — including a reminder that you should totally visit me at the WWDC OmniFocus meetup tonight — after the iJump.

FWIW, I’m going to let OmniFocus answer any questions people have (blog post comments, forum) about details of their apps and plans and what have yous. I just wanted to take the opportunity to fist bump the OmniNerds on their fine hard work. They’re pathologically dedicated to taking care of their customers, and you can see that in this app. It’s crazy-smart and a lot of fun to use.

---

So! Yes. Tonight. Come to the OmniFocus meetup at the W and fistbump me:

The Omni Mouth ?? OmniFocus meetup in S.F. on 6/10/08

What: OmniFocus meetup When: Tuesday, June 10th 2008, 6:30 - 8:00 pm Where: W Hotel (map), San Francisco ??? 3rd Floor, Workroom 2

Please RSVP. Max capacity for the room is 150, so make sure you arrive on time to snag a good seat.

---

Also, completely off topic, there’s a rumor that there might be a totally informal, last-minute You Look Nice Today meetup in SF tonight featuring @scottsimpson and me (@lonelysandwich is at a Fannypack Convention in Prague). Stay tuned to @ylnt for details as they emerge.

---

[Again, with the Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.]

The Omni Group - OmniFocus for iPhone and iPod touch

[Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.]

Oh, man. It’s so nice to lift the veil on this one. It’s been like I knew you guys were getting the big Lego Millennium Falcon for Christmas, but I couldn’t tell you until Santa had gone back up the chimney (in his black mock turtleneck and jeans). Anyway.

Merry Christmas, Mac productivity nerds: iPhone synching for OmniFocus is coming. And it is gorgeous, usable, and location-aware. More here on OmniGroup’s blog.

From the OmniGroup site:

Using your location, OmniFocus can create a custom list of actions to complete nearby. Buying groceries? OmniFocus can show you the closest grocery store and create an instant shopping list.

Capture tasks anywhere, anytime with OmniFocus: you can enter text, take a picture, or even make a quick voice recording.

Yum. Screengrabs and more — including a reminder that you should totally visit me at the WWDC OmniFocus meetup tonight — after the iJump.

FWIW, I’m going to let OmniFocus answer any questions people have (blog post comments, forum) about details of their apps and plans and what have yous. I just wanted to take the opportunity to fist bump the OmniNerds on their fine hard work. They’re pathologically dedicated to taking care of their customers, and you can see that in this app. It’s crazy-smart and a lot of fun to use.

---

So! Yes. Tonight. Come to the OmniFocus meetup at the W and fistbump me:

The Omni Mouth » OmniFocus meetup in S.F. on 6/10/08

What: OmniFocus meetup When: Tuesday, June 10th 2008, 6:30 - 8:00 pm Where: W Hotel (map), San Francisco • 3rd Floor, Workroom 2

Please RSVP. Max capacity for the room is 150, so make sure you arrive on time to snag a good seat.

---

Also, completely off topic, there’s a rumor that there might be a totally informal, last-minute You Look Nice Today meetup in SF tonight featuring @scottsimpson and me (@lonelysandwich is at a Fannypack Convention in Prague). Stay tuned to @ylnt for details as they emerge.

---

[Again, with the Disclosure: I’m a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don’t like.]

Apple - MobileMe

There’s lots to digest from today’s WWDC Stevenote — not least of which was the dramatic announcement of a 3G iPhone for only $199. But you’ll be hearing lots about that in a million places. I want to talk about my first impressions about something even closer to my heart that’s at least different this time around, if not entirely new.

Today, Steve announced the upcoming release of Apple’s MobileMe service, which will replace the existing .Mac service at the same price of $99/year for an Individual account, while adding some new features, including:

• Individual account quota doubled to 20GB of storage, including email and files (.Mac currently offers 10GB at the same price)
• MS Exchange-like “push” syncing between applications on multiple Macs as well as your iPhone, via the MobileMe “cloud”
• Revamped, web-based Me.com versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, and iDisk applications

As someone who’s had strong feelings, high hopes, and occasional disappointmens with .Mac, I’m going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking into what these changes will mean for the always-on knowledge worker — particularly now that the service is clearly moving toward tighter integration with iPhones, the iPod Touch, and web-based usage. But first, just a few things to note here (quickly and on first impression):

• Lovely tweaks - This is where Apple just obliterates the competition; all the tiny little changes we saw to GUI and workflow on the MobileMe web apps and related iPhone apps reflect a lot of thought and look well-suited for real-world usage. I can’t wait to see the improvements to iPhone’s Calendar and Contacts, in particular. Kudos, team. An iPhone that makes MobileMe easy and transparent to use is a big win all around. (N.B.: as you might expect, Apple’s site has many lovely demonstration videos in their MobileMe section)
• Love the “Push” - No longer having to physically plug in your iPhone to sync stuff like Mail, Calendar, and Contacts is terrific for the multiple-device user. Knowing that (at least as long as you’re online) everything matches up just means big peace of mind to me. Maybe most importantly, one hopes that the new Push approach addresses some of the previous sync problems that have plagued .Mac users (Nuclear reset, anyone?).
• Love the (baby) steps toward true cloud computing - Having such gorgeous and functional apps on the iPhone is a big step in the right direction. How the services that those apps access evolve will be interesting to watch; adding something like broader support for Preferences syncing and better/easier iPhone password management would also be big wins.
• Hiya, Windows hold-outs - I don’t know enough about “Enterprise” buying decisions to speak intelligently about business adoption, but I will say that MobileMe seems like a smart way reach out to individual Windows users and say, “See? Look how easy this all is!” Similarly, a lot of people I talk to these days are down to a single Windows device, and that’s the one they have to use at work. MobileMe potentially keeps them connected to their Apple world, even when they’re on a PC. That said….
• Where the heck is a modern, functional iDisk? - It looks like the iDisk web interface has been updated (very pretty, actually), and yeah, there’s double the storage, but what can I do with all that stuff when I’m not in front of my home computer? Where’s the mobile part? I was really hoping to see something more impressive with iDisk this time around — like a website with honest to gosh, Google Docs-like editing and management. And what about the iPhone? Can I do anything with my iDisk documents on there? That feels like a swing and a miss for a service with mobile in the name.

Questions

• Will stability and reliability of MobileMe greatly improve over .Mac? Take everything else away, and at the heart, any .Mac/MobileMe product will not survive if Apple doesn’t fix the uptime and sync problems. I know sync is hard. But, lots of things are hard and when other companies are doing it more reliably and for free, it should be easy to see there’s a bar consumers expect you to reach.
• How will iPhone additions like Push and GPS affect real battery life? If Steve’s battery estimates are anything like real-world, it’ll be great. But I have a feeling those are CandyLand Gumdrop numbers. I realize this is an iPhone-specific note, but I’ll say that a half-day of “Every 15 Minutes” email checking was an eye-opener for me. I can’t imagine what kind of power that thing pulls when it’s running full-time GPS for an hour or so.
• Ready for some competition? With the introduction of independent applications using the iPhone SDK, we can look forward to a bonanza of new functionality that — based on the game demoes we saw today — could be pretty eye-popping. Although I don’t know details of what functionality is exposed to developers, I have to imagine that the combination of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and speedy 3G access will bring some much-needed competition into Apple’s back yard. I wonder how Apple will react to that.

Bottom Line

Boy, if there’s any product that us fanboys want to love, this is it. But it’s been a tough few years, even for the superfans. We’ve watched half a dozen or more other companies’ services build similar or better features, provide higher reliability, and charge lower or zero cost in a way that seems to outpace Apple’s offering without breaking a sweat.

So, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this and reporting back to you on how it’s working for me. I want it to work great, and I think it can, based on Apple’s high standards and ability to control all the pieces. I also stand by what I said in this post from January about the untapped possibilities of .Mac:

…Apple might eat the lunches of about three different industries over the next couple years.

If they can pull it off, if they can fix .Mac, and if they have the vision to re-imagine themselves as the company who makes your entire digital world safe, fun, ubiquitous, and flawlessly integrated.

Please share your thoughts, hopes, wishes, and remarks about MobileMe or anything else related to the Keynote announcements here in comments.

[These were quick notes I jotted this afternoon. Pardon any typos; I will fix them as I see them, as well as giving myself a day or two to add links on other coverage as it arises. I have a feeling a lot of people will be talking about MobileMe]

Apple - MobileMe

There’s lots to digest from today’s WWDC Stevenote — not least of which was the dramatic announcement of a 3G iPhone for only $199. But you’ll be hearing lots about that in a million places. I want to talk about my first impressions about something even closer to my heart that’s at least different this time around, if not entirely new.

Today, Steve announced the upcoming release of Apple’s MobileMe service, which will replace the existing .Mac service at the same price of $99/year for an Individual account, while adding some new features, including:

• Individual account quota doubled to 20GB of storage, including email and files (.Mac currently offers 10GB at the same price)
• MS Exchange-like “push” syncing between applications on multiple Macs as well as your iPhone, via the MobileMe “cloud”
• Revamped, web-based Me.com versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, and iDisk applications

As someone who’s had strong feelings, high hopes, and occasional disappointmens with .Mac, I’m going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking into what these changes will mean for the always-on knowledge worker — particularly now that the service is clearly moving toward tighter integration with iPhones, the iPod Touch, and web-based usage. But first, just a few things to note here (quickly and on first impression):

• Lovely tweaks - This is where Apple just obliterates the competition; all the tiny little changes we saw to GUI and workflow on the MobileMe web apps and related iPhone apps reflect a lot of thought and look well-suited for real-world usage. I can’t wait to see the improvements to iPhone’s Calendar and Contacts, in particular. Kudos, team. An iPhone that makes MobileMe easy and transparent to use is a big win all around. (N.B.: as you might expect, Apple’s site has many lovely demonstration videos in their MobileMe section)
• Love the “Push” - No longer having to physically plug in your iPhone to sync stuff like Mail, Calendar, and Contacts is terrific for the multiple-device user. Knowing that (at least as long as you’re online) everything matches up just means big peace of mind to me. Maybe most importantly, one hopes that the new Push approach addresses some of the previous sync problems that have plagued .Mac users (Nuclear reset, anyone?).
• Love the (baby) steps toward true cloud computing - Having such gorgeous and functional apps on the iPhone is a big step in the right direction. How the services that those apps access evolve will be interesting to watch; adding something like broader support for Preferences syncing and better/easier iPhone password management would also be big wins.
• Hiya, Windows hold-outs - I don’t know enough about “Enterprise” buying decisions to speak intelligently about business adoption, but I will say that MobileMe seems like a smart way reach out to individual Windows users and say, “See? Look how easy this all is!” Similarly, a lot of people I talk to these days are down to a single Windows device, and that’s the one they have to use at work. MobileMe potentially keeps them connected to their Apple world, even when they’re on a PC. That said….
• Where the heck is a modern, functional iDisk? - It looks like the iDisk web interface has been updated (very pretty, actually), and yeah, there’s double the storage, but what can I do with all that stuff when I’m not in front of my home computer? Where’s the mobile part? I was really hoping to see something more impressive with iDisk this time around — like a website with honest to gosh, Google Docs-like editing and management. And what about the iPhone? Can I do anything with my iDisk documents on there? That feels like a swing and a miss for a service with mobile in the name.

Questions

• Will stability and reliability of MobileMe greatly improve over .Mac? Take everything else away, and at the heart, any .Mac/MobileMe product will not survive if Apple doesn’t fix the uptime and sync problems. I know sync is hard. But, lots of things are hard and when other companies are doing it more reliably and for free, it should be easy to see there’s a bar consumers expect you to reach.
• How will iPhone additions like Push and GPS affect real battery life? If Steve’s battery estimates are anything like real-world, it’ll be great. But I have a feeling those are CandyLand Gumdrop numbers. I realize this is an iPhone-specific note, but I’ll say that a half-day of “Every 15 Minutes” email checking was an eye-opener for me. I can’t imagine what kind of power that thing pulls when it’s running full-time GPS for an hour or so.
• Ready for some competition? With the introduction of independent applications using the iPhone SDK, we can look forward to a bonanza of new functionality that — based on the game demoes we saw today — could be pretty eye-popping. Although I don’t know details of what functionality is exposed to developers, I have to imagine that the combination of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and speedy 3G access will bring some much-needed competition into Apple’s back yard. I wonder how Apple will react to that.

Bottom Line

Boy, if there’s any product that us fanboys want to love, this is it. But it’s been a tough few years, even for the superfans. We’ve watched half a dozen or more other companies’ services build similar or better features, provide higher reliability, and charge lower or zero cost in a way that seems to outpace Apple’s offering without breaking a sweat.

So, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this and reporting back to you on how it’s working for me. I want it to work great, and I think it can, based on Apple’s high standards and ability to control all the pieces. I also stand by what I said in this post from January about the untapped possibilities of .Mac:

…Apple might eat the lunches of about three different industries over the next couple years.

If they can pull it off, if they can fix .Mac, and if they have the vision to re-imagine themselves as the company who makes your entire digital world safe, fun, ubiquitous, and flawlessly integrated.

Please share your thoughts, hopes, wishes, and remarks about MobileMe or anything else related to the Keynote announcements here in comments.

[These were quick notes I jotted this afternoon. Pardon any typos; I will fix them as I see them, as well as giving myself a day or two to add links on other coverage as it arises. I have a feeling a lot of people will be talking about MobileMe]

My pick of the week on the latest episode of MacBreak Weekly wasn’t so much my new Kindle (which I do like a lot), but rather a few services that make it easier to find and download free books you can read on the Kindle. These picks included Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, and the wonderful Feedbooks.

Feedbooks is the service I highlighted as being the most interesting of the three to me since you can download one Kindle/Mobi book (more info) containing clickable links to hundreds (thousands?) of free and Creative Commons-licensed books that can be downloaded directly to your Kindle, usually in less than a minute or so. Zesty. Hello, 1984 and A Princess of Mars.

In addition to all the great stuff Andy has enumerated, these free book services have made me see the Kindle as a flawed but fascinating game-changer. More tips and buying advice coming soon (short version: it ain’t for everybody, by a long shot, but it’s surprisingly great for commuters and travelers who devour novels in particular).

And, if you’re still hungry for more Kindle-friendly book sites, check out Free Kindle Books and Free Ebooks Online. The post contains a large collection of links that can help fill your reader in no time.

My pick of the week on the latest episode of MacBreak Weekly wasn’t so much my new Kindle (which I do like a lot), but rather a few services that make it easier to find and download free books you can read on the Kindle. These picks included Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, and the wonderful Feedbooks.

Feedbooks is the service I highlighted as being the most interesting of the three to me since you can download one Kindle/Mobi book (more info) containing clickable links to hundreds (thousands?) of free and Creative Commons-licensed books that can be downloaded directly to your Kindle, usually in less than a minute or so. Zesty. Hello, 1984 and A Princess of Mars.

In addition to all the great stuff Andy has enumerated, these free book services have made me see the Kindle as a flawed but fascinating game-changer. More tips and buying advice coming soon (short version: it ain’t for everybody, by a long shot, but it’s surprisingly great for commuters and travelers who devour novels in particular).

And, if you’re still hungry for more Kindle-friendly book sites, check out Free Kindle Books and Free Ebooks Online. The post contains a large collection of links that can help fill your reader in no time.

• Best. Paper. Ever. - Miss Conduct’s Blog - Advice column with manners and etiquette information - Boston.com - “Thus, when we conclude someone is ‘simply a bastard,’ we feel both relief (because we have finally hit on a way of interpreting their behavior that makes sense) and guilt (because we feel we ought to have done better).”
• Research Brief: Minorities Dominate Use of New Media - “According to the analysis, minorities have a higher regular usage of new media than Whites across all media types. They are more likely to use iPods, text on cell phones, play video games, use video/picture phones, instant messaging online and watch video on cell phones.”
• The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet - Very handy printable guide with white-hat advice and best practices for pleasing Google without spreading unnecessary cheese. - [via Global Nerdy]
• Research Brief: Online Video Viewing Surges - In March, “84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).” Damn. Could you ever have imagined this, even 5 years ago?
• Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam - New York Times - Related: “Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000.”
• XBMC For Mac: XBMC Turns Your Mac into the Ultimate Media Center - Wowzers! Nice work, Gina. This looks like a go-to solution for using OSXBMC to turn a Mac Mini into a pain-free media center.
• Hacking the Kindle part 3: root shell and runtime system - Oh, sweet fancy Moses: here are some inexplicably undocumented key commands that will so improve yr Kindle world. Kiss me, ragged-right justification! (BTW: ??? my new Kindle, and am collecting my favorite time- and money-saving tips for a future post)
• 8 fonts you probably don???t use in css, but should - Personally, I’m not so big on Copperplate or Impact, but I’m a fool for Gill Sans. Nobody asked me, but I’d also add Mac-friendly faves Hoefler Text, Futura, and American Typewriter. [via anarchaia]
• We’re sorry this is late; we really meant to post it sooner - “Most people’s New Year’s resolutions are doomed to failure…Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination…Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation” In keeping with my return to posting here, yes: that’s meta-research on procrastination. Swish.

And, in passing, a personal note: many thanks to you for your patience while I took some time to see to other projects; my more normal (which is to say, irregular, by most “pro blog” standards) habit of posting to 43f when I have something to share or say restarts now. I’m grateful for your hanging with me.

• Best. Paper. Ever. - Miss Conduct’s Blog - Advice column with manners and etiquette information - Boston.com - “Thus, when we conclude someone is ‘simply a bastard,’ we feel both relief (because we have finally hit on a way of interpreting their behavior that makes sense) and guilt (because we feel we ought to have done better).”
• Research Brief: Minorities Dominate Use of New Media - “According to the analysis, minorities have a higher regular usage of new media than Whites across all media types. They are more likely to use iPods, text on cell phones, play video games, use video/picture phones, instant messaging online and watch video on cell phones.”
• The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet - Very handy printable guide with white-hat advice and best practices for pleasing Google without spreading unnecessary cheese. - [via Global Nerdy]
• Research Brief: Online Video Viewing Surges - In March, “84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).” Damn. Could you ever have imagined this, even 5 years ago?
• Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam - New York Times - Related: “Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000.”
• XBMC For Mac: XBMC Turns Your Mac into the Ultimate Media Center - Wowzers! Nice work, Gina. This looks like a go-to solution for using OSXBMC to turn a Mac Mini into a pain-free media center.
• Hacking the Kindle part 3: root shell and runtime system - Oh, sweet fancy Moses: here are some inexplicably undocumented key commands that will so improve yr Kindle world. Kiss me, ragged-right justification! (BTW: ♥ my new Kindle, and am collecting my favorite time- and money-saving tips for a future post)
• 8 fonts you probably don’t use in css, but should - Personally, I’m not so big on Copperplate or Impact, but I’m a fool for Gill Sans. Nobody asked me, but I’d also add Mac-friendly faves Hoefler Text, Futura, and American Typewriter. [via anarchaia]
• We’re sorry this is late; we really meant to post it sooner - “Most people’s New Year’s resolutions are doomed to failure…Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination…Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation” In keeping with my return to posting here, yes: that’s meta-research on procrastination. Swish.

And, in passing, a personal note: many thanks to you for your patience while I took some time to see to other projects; my more normal (which is to irregular by most “pro blog” standards) habit of posting to 43f when I have something to share or say restarts now. I’m grateful for your hanging with me.