Last week a colleague, who had been forced by corporate policy to switch to a Verizon Treo, donated his Blackberry Pearl 8100 to me.

It was a Cingular/ATT locked phone. I unlocked it, stuck my T-Mobile card into it, and upgraded my plan to the unlimited data plan. I the MIS department at work add an Exchange redirect of my work mail to the Blackberry-provided email address (Blackberry Enterprise Services are evil), so that I could claim a real work usage for this. But there is also a personal email on it (and you will have to ask me for that one!).

[Author Sidebar: Two days later, I managed to lose my T-Mobile Z3 Rizr. Lose. Like can't find. Likely in the hands of another happy user who has figured out the GSM thing. I am an idiot.]

What is my main purpose for this thing? I previously had not had email on my mobiles. This restricted (prevented) my ability to use services like Flickr, BrightKite, TwitPic among others. Also, I can add services such as Google Maps and other mobile apps for the Blackberry. Still waiting for Skype for the non-wifi Blackberry.

My opinion thus far is positive. While there are obviously newer and better smartphones out there now, but the Pearl meets my needs for now. And the price (donation free!) was definitely within my budget. I am still adjusting to the 3/4 QWERTY keyboard, but it is not anymore difficult than MOTO’s intellitype (yeah, I know it’s a stretch) system.

Will keep you updated on my joy/frustration factor.

Over the last two years, Fisher Space Pans have taken on near iconic status with the leaders (and followers) in the trendy nouveau geek crowd.

Paul Fisher died recently at 93. [via Notebookism]

Having “donated” four space pens to the cosmos through my own absent-minded behaviour, I can say that I have done my bit to help spread the meme.

Paul Fisher, write when you get there.

On a recent musical connect the dots tour through Wikipedia, I stumbled across a reference to Nick Drake. I had first heard of Nick Drake through a review of his work on All Things Considered months ago.

The sound is ephemeral. The sound is haunting. The sound is a lost gem of our time.

It has shocked me how much the songs he made are what I have needed over the last few weeks.

If you get a chance, watch A Skin Too Few, the documentary of his life; you will have to look in the usual places online to find it, as it hasn’t been released on DVD yet.

Find him. Listen. You will never go back.

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you’re here
Brighten my northern sky.

Technorati Tags: Nick+Drake, Bryter+Later, Five+Leaves+Left, Pink+Moon, Tanworth-in-Arden

I sat down and finally read my copy of Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. Well, I agonizingly got my way through 80% of the book before I threw it across the room in disgust.

What a load of crap.

There might be a message in the book somewhere. But the book is mostly about Mr. Ferrazzi’s preening ego and self-importance.

He obviously thinks that all the world’s ills can be solved by reaching out your hand and saying, “Hey, I’m important and you need to know me!”.

Keith, get over yourself and your tale of the American dream. Focus on the facts. I don’t need to listen to a celebrity gossip story every 5 pages. In fact, your approach turned me off.

Obviously, if you took the time to get to know introverts, which I am, you would find that doing something is more important than who you know. We are people who don’t care who you know; we want to know what you have done.

Introverts have very tight, very small networks. But if you REALLY need to get something done, you usually end up working with an introvert.

I can truly say that I lost my money on this book. Maybe if he took the time to explore how the over half of the population works, he would find that his approach is seen as vacuous and disingenuous.

It’s not the number you know; it’s how well you know them.

Spend a month focusing on those people who are truly close to you. Then you will never eat alone.

Technorati Tags: Never+Eat+Alone, Keith+Ferrazzi, ego, superstar, preening, boasting

I am still swamped at work, but I have a glimmer of space available to me, so I thought that I would drop by and let everyone know what’s happening.

We are well on our way to being ready for the trip to BC and Alberta that starts Monday (June 26). We have a dining room full of luggage, and have a lot of information concerning travelling with Miss Wiggles. It’s been nearly 3 years since I was “home” to Victoria, so it will be fun to scout out and see what’s changed since the last visit.

As a sidenote, if anyone in the Victoria, BC area wants to do a meetup while I am in town, I would be happy to attend — need some lovely beer from Swan’s or Spinnaker’s.

GrabPERF continues to chug along almost completely unmanaged. One tiny improvement I made to scatter plot is the only code change in months. If things settle down at work (not likely until we get an extra body in here to support me), I will be updating some of the measurement code and back-end systems. Until I have time to go through a formal review process, the system is in maintenance mode.

While I am on vacation, I will likely been able to write some more; lot’s of thoughts on IIS 5.0, Net Neutrality, Firefly, and other things that are deeply buried right now.

Technorati Tags: Victoria, BC, Alberta, Canada, Vancouver Island, GrabPERF

Reading anything using a feed reader allows prevents us from discriminating against the content.

Start with an inflammatory statement, then back it up, using the wisdom gleaned from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Why do feeds prevent us from initial discrimination? Because we have no point of reference other than the text in front of us, and the occasional image. There is no way to make a quality judgement based on differences in appearance or layout.

In fact, the feeds we read are often filtered by the influence of others. We react positively to someone’s raving review of a feed, and we incorporate it into our subscriptions.

The decisions we make in those initial seconds may sour over time. Feeds grow old, stale, uninteresting. But the why did we subscribe in the first place? Was it a decision based on the layour of a site? The way the person looks?

No. It is based on the feedback of others, and the content we encounter.

Technorati Tags: Blink, feeds, blogging, Malcolm Gladwell

So, Jeremy turned me on to Chitika this morning, hence the new ads you see.

Turns out that their offices are less than 10 minutes from my house.

Heh.

We will see what the head-to-head comparison between Chitika and AdSense will be.

Scott Berkun’s The Art of Project Management: Buy it.

If it is half as good as Scott’s online essays, it will be an amazing read. And he is like a kid in a candy store!

Merlin of 43Folders has a great review of the book. I wandered out at lunch to buy it.

I need to stop reading blogs….

Merlin at 43Folders hits for six with this post that, in summary, says

 

GTD: What are you doing to make it happen in YOUR life? 

In the world of GTD, having a Moleskine and a HipsterPDA doesn’t cut it folks. It’s hard. It requires discipline. It requires dedication.

It’s mental exercise.

Having failed at several physical exercise program over the years, I can offer some suggestions.

1. Don’t do it alone. Having a GTD buddy will help everyone stay focused
2. Set aside time EVERY DAY to do GTD
3. Post the GTD Flowchart somewhere where you are ALWAYS reminded of it. Here’s a good one to use; it’s my desktop image
4. You will stumble. Get up, and review your cards, inbox, and notes. What can you DO, DELEGATE, or DEFER?

You can do it.

Teach. Share. Learn.

Live GTD.

Jeremy Wright flames the Old Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. [here and here]

There has been a thread in many blogs that indicates that there is an inverse relationship between the price and “quality” of the hotel, and the services offered, especially to the digerati generation.

As I have said before, I will take a Courtyard Marriott, or some such establishment over a prestige hotel anyday.

My wife and mother-in-law suggest that the 7th Floor party should be forced to rent out the sixth floor rooms directly beneath them as well; if I ran the zoo, that’s what I would do!^*

^* A quote from Dr. Seuss.