If you’re not familiar with OmniFocus or David Allen‘s Getting Things Done methodology, please take the time to read ‘The Psychology of OmniFocus’ which is a better write-up than I would be able to put together on how GTD works and specifically

The last thought is that with this post (and the associated task ‘Write a blog post’), I will for the first time in longer than I can remember, be caught up with all of my overdue tasks. I’ve written about having challenges keeping up with tasks before and I have improved, but I seem forever behind. That’ll change when I wake up tomorrow and when I get to work on Monday, but if I can continue to keep due dates to a minimum, I may actually start getting to those things I’ve haven’t been able to get to. One can hope.

I don’t have anything against them, personally. You see, their terms of service is the problem. I like the flexibility and control of hosting my own domain and host it on a computer in my living room over the home’s Internet connection. Any typical consumer provider doesn’t allow you to host servers and want to require you to pay more for a commercial account (if they even offer one). DSL Extreme had very reasonable terms of service and generally allow their customers to do whatever they want as long as you don’t make trouble for them (e.g., hosting a spamming service).

So, between now and March, I need to decide if I should go back to plain ol’ DSL or switch to Verizon and move my services off my home server onto a hosted one somewhere. Fortunately, Verizon left the copper pair for our phone when they pulled the fibre so switching back to DSL is an option that shouldn’t normally be possible. I’m not looking forward dropping the bandwidth to a third of what I’ve gotten accustomed to, but I’m also not liking the idea of moving my services to someplace else.

Thanks, Verizon, for causing me this trouble. Please reconsider your decision as there are others that are being inconvenienced by it.

For the sake of those that may have not thought about backups, please take a moment to back up your data right now. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

While you wait for your first copy to complete, don’t think you’re done. Make sure you follow the 3-2-1 rule of backup:

• 3 backup copies of any data you don’t want to lose
• 2 different media types
• 1 copy at a different location (off-site)

Personally, I recommend CrashPlan for backups. It’s free software for basic use that lets you backup to any other user of CrashPlan (if they agree) over the Internet. Currently, I back up from my main server (the one you’re reading this on), to the upstairs computer, a machine at work, and to my mother-in-law’s computer. In the spirit of encouraging safe data, if you have a reasonable amount of data, let me know and I can be a backup destination for you (don’t worry, I’d be unable to read the data as it’s encrypted by the software).

Protect your data, folks.

My original Friday flight was canceled and while I was able to extend my hotel and move my flight to Monday (tomorrow) that has just been canceled. Currently, I’m on hold with my company’s travel agent to determine what options exist. One possibility may be to take a train to mainland Europe (Chunnel to Paris, probably) and then a train to Spain or elsewhere that still have operating airports.

I had fun yesterday visiting the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. I enjoyed it as I was just going to be here for a few days more. With no significant change in the conditions of the volcano or the airflow, there’s a chance airports could remain closed for an additional week or more. What was a inconvenience is now becoming a real problem.

I’ll try to keep my Twitter feed (public WiFi access permitting) updated with major developments.

Does it equal a laptop, no. That’s not the point. The iPad shouldn’t replace all the functions of a laptop. Yes, the iPad is made by Apple, and while it technically running OS X, it is the same variant that has been found on the iPhone for years. A desktop OS is the wrong metaphor for a tablet with finger input. As with any platform, quality applications (or lack of them), will ultimately determine the fate, but by judging the buzz and the early reviews, I think Apple has changed the game again.

Time will tell. Speaking of time, I only have about 36 hours to wait.

Here’s a quick demonstration of how it works. It’s free, easy, and quite nice.

Readability – Installation Video for Firefox, Safari & Chrome from Arc90 on Vimeo.

I liked my previous post comparing 1999 to 2009, but the interesting thing was while I was finishing it up, the family and I have been watching the original Star Trek season 1 via streaming from NetFlix on the PlayStation 3. New tech to watch old tech. Honestly, I was never much of a fan of the original series but they were interested due to the recent MythBusters episode where they tested the hand-made cannon that Capt. Kirk used against the Gorn (“The Arena”, s1 ep 18).

It’s fun to look back. It’s also good to give the kids some perspective on such an influence on modern science fiction.

I find it difficult to formulate my thoughts, however, as dictating is a much different method of composing than typing at the keyboard. I’ll give it a good effort as I really do want to blog more often but just can’t seem to find the time.