Do More than Just Display a "Support Our Troops" Car Magnet

They are everywhere these days-- flexible yellow car magnets that proclaim "Support Our Troops." While this is a wondurful sentiment and no one can argue against supporting our troops abroad, just exaxtly how does this support them?



If you want to support the troops, you need to DO SOMETHING SUPPORTIVE.



Here are some suggestions:

• Write them letters.

• Send them a USO Care Package.

• Support their families here at home.

• Send them Books to read.

• Give them a Gmail account.

• Give them long-distance calling cards for the holidays.

Now THAT is supporting our troops.

I've launched another website: MacGadgetry

What do you do when the website you want doesn't exist? I guess you make it yourself. I've launched a new Blog-based website called MacGadgetry.com, a place where you can find a new Mac-related gizmo every day (pretty much).



The plan is to alert readers not only to new products that make your Macintosh life better, but to also share personal experiences with my own gadgets.



It's not for the 95%-- it's a website for the rest of us.

GTD Three Months Later

Three months ago today, I posted a detailed description of my brand-new implementation of David Allen's Getting Things Done system. It seems as though enough time has passed to get a little perspective and share some lessons, so here goes.





Setting it All Up



In the first two weeks, I bought the supplies, did the Big Collection, revamped my filing system to be purely alphabetical, streamlined my e-mail processing, and created my lists.



It took me most of a weekend to work my physical IN to empty (it was enough stuff to fill at least five classic "in" baskets), but it was a very satisfying activity.



The hardest part is establishing those new habits: Checking the right lists within the right context, looking in the tickler file, and checking the calendar (no, I never really checked my calendar before).





Solving Some Initial Problems



I kept having trouble with physical items from my IN basket that required more than two minutes (e.g. "Complete benefits enrollment forms"). Obviously I needed to add them to one of my electronic Next Action lists, but what to do with the physical item? I finally settled on the creation of a file folder labeled "Next Actions," which I placed in my Timbuk2 bag. All physical items attached to deferred next actions go in this folder. My bag is always with me, so I always have the items when I decide to actually do them.



I also had the problem that physical items might come to me somewhere other than at home, and I wanted to get them into "IN" back on my desk. I solved this in a similar fashion: I created another file folder labeled "IN" which resides in my Timbuk2 bag. Anything that needs to make its way into my GTD system while I'm away gets dropped in that folder (e.g. a business card, a travel brochure, mail I picked up from my P.O. box), and then I take all the stuff out of the folder when I get home and drop it in the IN basket.



It was obvious pretty early on that carrying my Powerbook around while shopping was not the best way to have access to my @errands list. I'm not willing to download my lists to yet another device (such as my never-used PalmOne Tungsten), so I decided to send my @errands list to the printer. I do this fairly often, and always carry the latest version in the back pocket of my Moleskine.





Benefits Realized After 3 Months



The counter stays clear in the kitchen. I always had a huge stack of accumulating mail on the kitchen counter. I didn't have a clear system for processing it, and would just wait until it was complete chaos to do anything. Now, everything goes into the IN basket on my desk, and I work it to empty often (it's fun!).



I am much more successful because I now can identify the true "next action." I've talked about this in previous posts, but this is a key improvement for me. In the past, I would often have items in my "to do" lists such as "Call Dr. for annual check up". I'd find myself siting somewhere waiting for my kids, look in my old Franklin Planner, and decide to do this task. Oops! I didn't have the phone number in my address book. Clearly, the next task for me should have been "Find Doctor's phone number." GTD has helped me focus on identifying the true next action.



I actually do my filing. Filing is a built-in part of emptying the IN basket, so it actually happens. I got rid of my "TO BE FILED" basket, which was always overflowing and had actually become the chronologically ordered filing system.



Everything is out of my head. Sure, I still worry about stuff, but it tends to be more conceptual things. I no longer have recurring urgent flashes like "Geez! I gotta remember to buy a surprise gift for my wife!" Instead, that's on my @errands list, which I look at every day.





Areas for Me to Improve



I'm really bad about checking my tickler file often enough. It's in my lower desk drawer, and suffers somewhat from the "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome. Unless I can create the habit of checking it on time, I'll need to abandon it (or I'll end up missing a bill due date). Does anyone have any ideas on this one?



I really need to empty my IN basket more often. Fortunately, it's not very big, so it fills quickly. This kinda forces the issue.



I still have not fully implemented a parallel GTD system at work. I use GTD to manage my personal tasks only, and this hasn't been a real problem since my work life is so much more straightforward than my personal life. Still, I know things will go better once I convert over.





Current System Limitation: Actions Lists Apply to Multiple Contexts



Some "next actions" belong to multiple contexts. There are clearly some contexts in which I find myself to which more than one action list applies.



Examples:

• When I'm sitting at my desk at work, the @online, @offline, @work, and @calls lists are all fair game.

• When I'm at home in the evening, there are candidate actions on the@home, @online, and @offline lists.

• When I'm waiting in my car while my daughter is in her cello lesson, I can choose actions from the @offline and @calls lists.

It seems that what I really want are super lists for each context which are really just groupings of multiple action lists. It's important that an action list can appear in multiple super lists. The alternative would be a tagging scheme, like that provided by del.icio.us. Of course, it turns out that a number of people are experiencing this same problem, and there's a great thread going on over at the 43 Folders Google Group which is trying to address this very issue through the creation of a new tool. I'm keeping an eye on their progress.



I still hope to present a detailed posting containing my current lists, tools, etc.



Update: Merlin Mann has posted a terrific three-part series looking back over his first year of using GTD techniques: A Year of Getting Things Done.



I'm relieved to hear that even the founder of 43Folders.com has a problem keeping up with his 43 folders (i.e., the tickler file).



And I STILL want a simple conduit which will take the text files I use as my lists (and edit it Smultron) and sync 'em with my Palm. Does anyone know of a tool?

Firefly Movie "Serenity" Delayed until September

Say it's not true! I thought it was bad enough having to wait until April... now the studio has tacked on 5 more months. Apparently, the execs are worried that too many movies targeting the same demographic are coming out in April, so theyre gonna flood the theatres with previews all summer and debut the film in September.



You can keep up on Serenity happenings at the unofficial Serenity Movie site. That's where I read this bad news.



The only thing that's gonna save me is that I still have one Firefly episode on my DVD set that I have never seen. Looks like April will be a god time for that...

NaNoWriMo in the Spotlight

As I drove back to work after lunch today, I heard Neal Conan announce that in the next hour of NPR's Talk of the Nation, they would be talking about writing a novel in one month! Yes, National Public Radio dedicated 45 minutes of programming to NaNoWriMo, The National Novel Writing Month project.



Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, was the guest. They took calls from people who are currently endeavoring to write 50,000 words in 30 days... people like me! What I managed to listen to was fun. It's nice to see the project get some national attention.



Read more about NaNoWriMo on NPR.

Cory Doctorow: the Baroque Cycle is Worth It

Cory Doctorow just finished System of the World, Neal Stephenson's final book in the Baroque Cycle. In his post on Boing Boing, Cory makes the case for reading all three, saying it's a big, sometimes irritating investment, but it really pays off. He describes the Cycle thusly:

...these books are like a good curry. They're mild and interesting when you first taste them, but after you've swallowed, they grow on you, spreading a warm fire throughout your digestive system, making beads of sweat appear on your forehead. Since finishing the first two books, I've been practically haunted by them. Ever time I spend money, or walk through London, or see a ship, or think about math and science, some snippet of those books springs to mind, a lens through which to reexamine my thinking and assumptions.

I never made it past about page 50 of Quicksilver, but maybe the time has come to do my chores and get my reward.

New Short Story from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow, one of my favorite new authors, has published a new short story in Salon, entitled Anda's Game (you need to subscribe to Salon to read the whole thing, or just read my PDF version below).



Here's an excerpt from Cory's posting to Boing Boing:

Salon has just published a brand-new short story of mine, called "Anda's Game," which is a riff on the way that property-rights are coming to games, and on the bizarre spectacle of sweat-shops in which children are paid to play the game all day in order to generate eBay-able game-wealth. When I was a kid, there were arcade kings who would play up Gauntlet characters to maximum health and weapons and then sell their games to nearby players for a dollar or two -- netting them about $0.02 an hour -- but this is a very different proposition indeed.

This is the first story ever published by Salon under a Creative Commons license-- which means it can be freely distributed if it is not modified and no one profits from the distribution.



Here's a PDF version of the story.

Fallujah: Up Close and Personal

Kevin Sites, a freelance reporter currently embedded with Marines in Fallujah, has posted some new photos and insights to his personal blog. Kevin is seeing the sweep through Fallujah up close and personal, no doubt closer than he would like.



His writing is personal, and moving. I recommend it to anyone hoping to gain an understanding of what our troops are going through in Iraq.



Latest report: 22 U.S. deaths since the assault on Fallujah began.

Winning at any cost

Residents of a mostly-Democratic area in and around Painesville, Ohio received a letter claiming to be from the local elections board. It incorrectly indicated that anyone who had been registered to vote by the following organizations weren't really registered, and would not be allowed to vote until the next election:

• Americans Coming Together
• NAACP
• Kerry Campaign
• Capri Cafaro for Congress (in Ohio)

What we don't know is whether this is a fraudulent attempt by a group of Republicans to get Democratic voters to stay home, or some Democrats sending it to make the Republicans look bad when the lid is blown off the whole mess (such as coverage in a local paper). Either way, it is a further sign that rather than preserving the Republic, some elements in this election are willing to win at any cost.



Here's a photo of the actual letter, at Jason Schultz's blog (via Boing Boing).

Still an Undecided Voter? Then Watch This

Michael Moore publicly announced he supported pirated copies of Farenheit 9/11 on the internet... so I offer you this opportunity.



Mark Perkel invested $2000 to host the film on his website for the two weeks prior to the election (less than a week now) and you can get it here.



If you have already made up your mind how you will vote, don't bother. If you have your doubts, PLEASE WATCH THIS FILM.

The NaNoWriMo Cometh

Sounds like something Mork from Ork might say, but no! It's National Novel Writing Month! Isaac turned me on to this cool idea, and like an idiot, I jumped at it.



What is NaNoWriMo, really? Anyone who wants to participate has the entire month of November to write a novel that must be at least 50,000 words long. You must not write a single word until 12:01 am on November 1, and must submit your novel electronically for official word-counting before the end of the 30th.



Eschewing quality in favor of quantity, the main point of the whole thing is to get people not only to write, but to write a lot.



Blogger got involved in the process my setting up a directory (called NaNoBlogMo) for anyone who also wants to blog their novel as they write it. Here's mine (it's named for my working title): A November Like No Other.

Einstein Right Again!

NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft in orbit around Earth has allowed astronomers to confirm a prediction made by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. They were able to directly measure an effect known as "frame-dragging."

According to Einstein's calculations, when a large, massive body such as the Earth rotates, it tends to pull the surrounding space around with it slightly, just as sticking a spoon in a jar of honey and twisting it will tend to drag around some of the honey.

The effect is extremely small -- amounting to about 6 feet (1.9 meters) in the distance that satellites, moving at about 18,000 miles per hour, cover in their orbits in a year -- but it is within the ability of NASA's tracking instruments to detect.

Read more at TechNewsWorld about the Einstein Gravity Effect Demonstrated by NASA.

Neal Stephenson Comes Up for Air

Baroque Cycle author Neal Stephenson gave an interview on Slashdot recently. It's a great read, and I would love to see him create his own weblog when he's not buried under a writing project.



He provides some excellent illumination on the subject of literary vs. for-profit writers, and the apparent lack of respect literary critics have for the latter. Of course, everyone should read it for his response to the following question:

In a fight between you and William Gibson, who would win?

Please read the Slashdot interview of Neal Stephenson.

Yet another blog

I've decided to go back to school and work toward a degree in Anthropology, ultimately earning a Ph.D. in Archaeology. To chronicle my strange trip, and to provide hints and tips to those who might follow, I've created a new web log: Wanna be an Anthropologist.



I've included some photo galleries of archaeological sites I've visited, and I'll add more as time allows.

del.icio.us is Yummy

If you have not yet checked out the on-line link database known as del.icio.us, I think it is time.



This very useful, and quite simple, on-line tool has become a permanent part of my everyday web usage. Here's what it is/does:





Storing Links

• Lets you store links (URLs) you like in a database
• Lets you associate as many category tags as you want with each link
  
  
• Lets you add additional descriptive text about the link
  
  

Retrieving Links

• You can view all your links
• You can view your links by tag
• You can view your links by tag combinations
• You can see everyone else's links by person or by tag, or both

It is a simple to use system, but the documentation is minimal.



Fortunately, Brad Choate has posted a simple del.icio.us tutorial, which taught me how to combine tags. If you are going to register and use del.icio.us, it is a must read.



When I come across a web site that I want to visit again, I just click on the "Post to del.icio.us" bookmarklet in my bookmarks bar of my browser (you'll learn more about these bookmarklets when you register). The del.icio.us entry page is then displayed for the URL, where I can enter tags (many of my posts get the tag "readlater") and an additional description. Once I hit the return key, the link is stored in my del.icio.us database, and I'm returned to the web page I was previously viewing.



The "PAUL FREQUENTLY VISITS" area in the right margin of Lunch with George is the result of an RSS feed of my del.icio.us links (yep, del.icio.us publishes RSS feeds, too).



I think you should try it. It's yummy.

It's time to leave nested tables and spacer GIFs behind

One 5-minute visit to the website CSS Zen Garden, and I am completely sold that CSS is the way to go. The Zen Garden is a pleasantly designed web page, with clearly deliniated regions which provide a heading, a main body, a vertical nav bar, and a few other components.



It talks about the important lesson of the masters: Don't mix content with presentational data.



This is a great concept, much as the idea of separating presentation from business logic in a two- or three-tier architecture. But often the two start creeping back into one another...



But after you read the motivational words of wisdom, you discover a menu of other style designs from which you can select. Basically, clicking on one of the designs results in the re-display of the same HTML file, but using a different style sheet.



The results are stunning! It is as if you have visited an entirely distinct web page. But as you read the content, you realize it is the same... the content, that is.



Visit the CSS Zen Garden, read the wise writings, and move some of the objects around (i.e., select other designs), and you will see the light. There's no question that CSS is the ticket to site consistency, design control, significantly reduced development (and redesign) time, and faster load times for visitors to the site.

Crypto Expert Schneier launches Blog

Bruce Schneier, the author of several books on cryptography, the founder of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc., and the creator of the Solitaire encryption algorithm presented in Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon, has launched his own web log!



Bruce has been publishing a newsletter known as Crypto-Gram (which will still be available as a monthly e-mail newsletter) whose contents will now be available as he creates it on his new web log, Schneier on Security.



George and I read Cryptonomicon, and became interested in cryptographic methods (we actually carried around a deck of cards each for encoding/decoding messages for a while). I even presented a contest on this site where the readers had to decrypt a message using Solitaire to win a copy of Cryptonomicon, but it turns out I botched the encryption...



Check out Schneier on Security.

A Great Chance to Learn to Climb

George and I attended the Arizona Mountaineering Club's Basic Climbing school two years ago, and it was a great experience. The instructors are experts at teaching as well as climbing, and the final graduation climb is a blast.



AMC is offering the Basic class again beginning October 12th, and there are still openings. The class runs for two weeks, with lectures on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and all day on the weekends. The cost is $160 per student, and the fees include the use of harnesses and helmets plus technical equipment you get to keep.



If you are interested, you can get more information at AMC website.

Lazy Media Files Debate Story Before it Happened

I'm sitting in front of the C-SPAN broadcast of the debate as it is happening (I can't stand the face Bush makes while Kerry is talking), and I just noted on Boing Boing that the Associated Press filed a news story reporting on the debate before it happened.



Here's an excerpt:

The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election.

...

Although Kerry voted to give Bush authority to invade Iraq, he says he would not have followed Bush's path to war - a path that alienated allies and, the Democrat says, left Americans less secure.

After several major news outlets picked up the story, someone must have finally noticed and started taking the stories down or changing the verbs to future tense. Fortunately, several observant people captured the story and are providng mirrors. Here's a link to a copy of the version carried by the Guardian.

New Lunch Notes posted from August 24th

You're going to see some material on Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code over the next few lunches, since George and I have now both read it. This lunch, we cover the Da Vinci Code, talk some more about SF author Cory Doctorow, and we even address a new angle on time travel.



Take a look at the Macaroni Grill lunch notes.



I'm still a little behind-- there are two more lunches I have yet to document.

Actions that don't get done

Merlin Mann has posted a really insightful and helpful entry at 43 Folders which aims to identify the types of tasks that seem to stay on your @nextactions list for too long. He addresses why they stay there, and what you can do about it.



Most of Merlin's "culprits" result from poorly-formed or poorly-worded entries. Many turn out to be multiple tasks, meaning they need to be redefined as a project. Others might not be tasks at all. All I know for sure is that you should read it-- you'll get something from his analysis and proposed solutions.



This got me thinking about my tasks, and I looked through my various lists to see what was getting stuck, instead of getting done. I detected a couple of patterns:

• Tasks are too broad. For example, I have a task on my @home list entitled "Bring finances up to date." What was I thinking? Sure, it's possible to do it in one sitting, but it truly involves many, many tasks. Solution: Make it a project.

• Tasks I don't want to do. Hmm... this is a tough one. It seems that when I come to a list to get my next task, I often choose not to do the same ones over and over. I haven't really solved this one, but it might work to break the task down even further. GTD is supposed to help me with procrastination, but it has only helped to a degree. Solution: I don't know! Any ideas?

• Too many next action lists. I thought I did a good job creating context-specific next action lists, but maybe I have too many. If I'm at home, I have at least five different lists that I could choose actions from: @home, @calls, @offline, @online, and @saw. Solution: I want a tool that lets me create list groupings... if I'm at home, then all of the lists that can apply should be available in one list. If I'm sitting in a Starbuck's with WiFi, I want to look at both my @offline and @online lists. Does anyone have a tool that will do this?

The best suggestion Merlin makes in this post makes a ton of sense: Always word your actions beginning with an action verb: "Call about water heater", "Replace battery in smoke detector", "Buy dishwasher soap."

A big week for Spaceflight

As if Scaled Composite's first official X-Prize flight to space weren't enough (the launch is scheduled for this Wednesday morning at 6:00am PDT), Burt Rutan and Virgin Group announced this morning that they will be building a spacecraft derived from SpaceShipOne to use for commercial space flight.



Under the name Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson is planning to fly paying passengers to the edge of space for around $208.000 each, starting in 2007.



If that's a little pricey for you, perhaps you could just pretend you're going to space on a flight with Zero-G. For $3,000, they'll take you on their modified Boeing 727 and put the plane through several parabolic arcs, creating 25 seconds of weightlessness each time.

Rave Review for the iMac G5

Walter Mossberg's current column is devoted to Apple's latest version of its consumer computer: The iMac G5. Mossberg really likes this new offering from Apple. He points out that starting at $1299.00, the new iMac is faster, quieter, prettier, easier to use, safer from viruses, and cheaper than comparable Windows-based offerings.



Personally, I don't like it. I understand that it is significantly more powerful than the iMac G4, but I'm unimpressed by the fact that the entire computer is stuffed into the display. I got a chance to see and play with a 20-inch iMac G5 at the Apple Store last weekend, and I think its new form factor is a step backwards. Compared to the iMac G4's flat panel display that floats on an arm, the G5 is clunky and ugly. It only moves in one axis (it can pivot to

angle the display up or down), and cannot be raised or lowered. It cannot be turned from side to side to allow someone at the next desk to see what's on your screen.



And where are the new capabilities for this "digital hub?" My life now includes digitally recording television shows, but the iMac G5 offers no new support for this significant lifestyle enhancement-- no TV tuner, no PVR software. Mossberg also makes a point that a built-in memory card reader would be nice.



I was surprised to find that mentioning to the Apple Store "geniuses" that I didn't like the new iMac was not unlike yelling "God is dead" in a church. They were shocked! What wasn't there to like? When I mentioned the loss of flexible display positioning as my major gripe, they were unanimously dumbfounded... they had "never thought about that. Hmm."



I think I'll just hold onto my PowerBook, since I don't really need a desktop anyway. But if I did, it would be a close-out 20" iMac G4.

Beyond SpaceShipOne

George passed on to me a link to an article at Universe Today about a new collaborative effort between SpaceDev (the company who built SpaceShipOne's rocket engine) and NASA to build a low-cost, sub-orbital, re-useable, single-stage spacecraft.



Naturally, someone couldn't resist spouting off about it being "one small step...". Geez!



Anyway, this spaceship meets all the specs for the X-Prize, but with a launch date sometime in 2008, they're over three years too late. The article noted that subsequent designs would be capable of reaching orbit, and would be used to ferry people and supplies to the International Spacestation.

GTD Nitty Gritty

I've been trying to put together a fully functional GTD (Getting Things Done) system for procrastination avoidance. Merlin, over at 43 Folders, has posted more insight into his particular (Mac-centric) approach : How does a nerd hack GTD? I borrowed some of his techniques, such as his Quicksilver text-append trick for adding tasks or actions to a particular action list (Merlin has now added a mini tutorial to help you get comfortable with QS). He also posted a template for his standard action list text files.





Here are my list files:

• @agenda_dad.txt - Stuff to do next time I see my Dad.
• @agenda_teri.txt - Stuff to do next time I see Teri (I have several of these agenda files).
• @buy.txt - Stuff I need to buy from a brick-and-mortar store.
• @calls.txt - Telephone calls to make.
• @home.txt - Things I can do at home.
• @inbox.txt - This is my electronic "IN" box. I try to empty it everyday.
• @work.txt - Things I need to do at work.
• @offline.txt - Stuff I can do on my PowerBook when I don't have internet access.
• @online.txt - Stuff for which I need an internet connection.
• @saw.txt - Stuff I can do to improve myself ("Sharpening the saw").
• @waiting.txt - Tasks that are waiting on other people.
• Projects.txt - A list of all the multi-action things I need to do.
• Someday.txt - A deferred list of stuff that I mighnt get to... someday.
• Movies_to_watch.txt - Yep, just like it says. Handy in printed form.
  
  
• Books_to_read.txt - More obvious file-naming.
• Tickler.txt - an electronic tickler file-- there are headings which correspond to each of the 43 folders. I check this file at the same time I check the physical tickler file.

I still haven't fully organized my e-mail to accompany these lists... I can't decide whether to have the same granularity, or to merge all of the actionable e-mails into a single folder and just refer to them from my detailed lists. Any ideas?



Update: I have now defined my e-mail folders, and they are much simpler than my action lists. I followed someone's advice at 43 Folders (I just went looking for the comment, but couldn't ffind it-- there's a LOT of material being added quickly to Merlin's site) and turned off periodic mail retrieval. Now, I fetch e-mails on demand only. No more interruptions from Mail.app!



Everything comes into the INBOX (naturally) when I tell MAIL to "Get Mail", and I then do one of the following with each message:

1. DELETE it.
2. If it's junk but Mail.app failed to flag it, I hit the JUNK button.
3. If it requires action, I use Quicksilver to append the action to my @inbox.txt file and move the e-mail message to the @ACTIONS folder.
4. If I need or want to read it for informative reasons later, I move it to the @READ_LATER folder.
5. If it requires no action but I want to keep it, I move it to the @REFERENCE folder.
6. If I only want to keep something for a few weeks (e.g. coupons that expire), I move it to @SAVE_FOR_NOW.
   
   

That's it, really. Unless there are unread messages, my INBOX is always empty.

Lots of Science Intact in Genesis Spacecraft

SPACE.COM is reporting that scientists are optimistic about recovering useful data from the Genesis spacecraft, even though it smashed into the desert after its parachute failed to open.



For more info, see NASA's Genesis home page.

Paul's Getting Organized

I found a link to a new blog dedicated to personal productivity, 43 Folders. Lots of cool ideas and recommendations there, but his intro to David Allen's Getting Things Done program really grabbed me! I read all I could find on the web, ordered the book from Amazon, bought the book at Border's cuz I couldn't wait, and basically dove in head-first.



By the way, "43 Folders" refers to the tickler file you create as a part of the system which reminds you of what you want to do when in the future. There are 31 folders, one for each day in a month, and 12 folders, one for each month in a year. Hey! that's 43 folders in all!



Come back later-- I know I'll have more to share.

LWG enters the blog era

I've finally given in to the blog mania... here's the first test post.