Category Archives: Thoughts

Do the due

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Life has been busy for me at work. In fact, I can’t remember being this busy ever before. Sure, I have a position open that will help with the load but that has been proving hard to fill so things won’t be improving anytime soon. I also have been trying to keep myself organized so that I can manage all the tasks I have to worry about. David Allen‘s Getting Things Done method makes a lot of sense and I have been using The Omni Group’s OmniFocus which has kept me sane as I don’t have to sorry about forgetting things (if I’m good about capturing them).

The problem is that there is so much to do, too little time, and enough unexpected things that come up, my productivity is seriously disrupted. It gets so bad that the due dates I set on tasks to try and keep priorities set are becoming past due more and more often. What does one do? Do I simply keep pushing the due dates forwards until they start stacking up and becoming even more useless? Do I drop drop due dates from anything not truly essential and risk not ever getting to it?

There are several blog and forum posts on strategies that I’ve been meaning to read, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t made the time. Perhaps I have to take the time to make the time.

What is a band?

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I’m not overly into music but I do have bands and artists I enjoy, both past and present. However, a few recent events involving two of my favorite ones have been quite curious and has me asking “what is a band?”

Early this year, Steven Page, one of the founding members of Barenaked Ladies left the group to persue a solo career. His contribution to their catalog of songs and their sound is without question, as is both his and their future. The four remaining members released a live album recorded in March with Keavin Hearn stepping up his vocal efforts along with Ed Robertson, Jim Creeggan, and Tyler Stewart as well. They are all talented musicians so I have no doubt they will be able to develop a new style and voice and look forward to the fruits of their labors.

Separately, one of my favorite bands, Information Society, set up a Twitter account (along with the rest of the globe, btw) to communicate with their fans on upcoming events and other info. Personally, I think that kind of use for Twitter is quite valuable and I follow several sources who use Twitter similarly.

The part that got weird is the fact that “they” followed me back. That is normal etiquette in Twitter but it was a bit surreal when I received notice that I was being “followed” by a “band” I have enjoyed for over twenty years. It’s a strange fusion of old and new. Of course, the account is managed one of the members (my guess is Kurt Harland) but it’s still a bit odd. Now if I could only get them to come out here since I haven’t seen them in concernt since 1987 at Disneyland grad night at the Tomorrowland Café.

So, is a band a brand and is only measures by their product or are they identified by their individual members and creative contributers? Will BNL still be BNL without Steven? Of course. Was InSoc the same group when it was just Kurt and Paul Robb had moved on? Yes (albeit with a different sound). I will say their newest album, Synthesizer, which marked the return of Paul Robb and James Cassidy, is my favorite and I blogged about it before. Ultimately, I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll most likely keep following both of them no matter what (or who) they’re made up of.

Update: In my old post that I referenced, I said that I saw InSoc in 1989 and not 1987. I went to grad night both years (once for my graduation and once for Becky’s). It must because I’m 40, but I’m not not sure which year it was. Was it even them? ;-)

I’m Still Alive

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I know this is the Occasional Blog, but posts have been too far in between (the Twitter posts don’t count). Please forgive me. I’m not dead, just busy. For the sake of an update here are some highlights of the last several weeks.

  • I’m trying to find a Senior Systems Administrator at work (you’d think that Sony Playstation would have stacks of resumés)
  • My daughter turned twelve and after today’s haircut, she looks ready for high school
  • The pond got its spring cleaning a few weeks ago and looks abfab. Too bad the heron got all our koi and we’re left with only 4-5″ feeders
  • We took a family vacation to San Francisco to coincide with spring break and a business meeting
  • The MacBook Mini is working out quite well especially after adding 2G of RAM and an 8G SDHC card
  • I will be going to both E3 (definite) and WWDC (very likely) so June will be busy as well

I’ll do my best to do an actual post soon, but until I can find a candidate, things will still be busy.

MacBook Mini lives!

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I was happy to receive shipment confirmation on my Dell Mini 9 order on Thursday and it showed up Tuesday afternoon. After quickly archiving the SSD (I had considered evaluating the pre-installed Ubuntu Linux setup, but ‘eh, I’ve used Ubuntu before), I proceeded to install OS X Leopard (10.5).

My initial attempt didn’t work directly off of the install DVD (the easy way) so I had to resort to the more mucky copy-install-DVD-to-external-drive solution. On the plus side, the install proceeded fairly quickly as it was not hampered by the slowness of installing from DVD.

After a few reboots and updates, I now have this:

I must say that it is the cutest and coolest little laptop that I’ve used in a while. I’ve been able to install the apps I want to use (Firefox, OmniFocus, 1Password, iStat Menus, Growl, and Adium) as well as the VPN software for work so I can respond to any issue that might come up. After purging items mentioned in my last post, I have 4.5G free on the 16G SSD (formats to 14.03G).

It isn’t all paradise, however. Getting used to the keyboard is proving challenging. Not surprisingly, the keys are about 80% normal size, but I can live with that. The part that’s really strange is that the ‘/” key which is normally to the right of ;/: is now below ./> but the really annoying thing is the right shift key is half size right next to the up arrow. More often than not I end up moving the cursor up a line whenever I try to capitalize something.

While I will opt for my work MacBook or the family MacBook Pro for anything really serious, the Mini 9 is a great little “goof around” Mac that Apple never made. After our budget digests the purchase in a month or two, I’ll pick up a 2G DIMM as I’m noticing the slowdown of OS X on 1G. I’ll also get a 8G SDHC Flash card for scratch and I’ll be ready for anything.

A fun little time waster

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I really enjoyed Electronic Arts’ Mirrors Edge developed by Digital Illusions CE. It’s a first person platformer that has a very nice look and a unique gameplay.

While the PS3 version is cutting edge in many ways, a recently produced 2D flash version does a great job of duplicating the style of gameplay while being unique in it’s own right. What I like most is that the animation is very reminiscient of the original Karateka which I loved playing as a kid twenty-five years ago (ugh).

Give it a spin, it’s quite fun.

A little playing around

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As I mentioned in a previous post, a few colleagues at work have several of the ever more popular netbooks. One of the guys has been opting to use his personal one and leaving his work one sitting largely idle. He was kind enough to let me take his Acer Aspire One for a spin. At the same time, I’ve been taking a look at the recently released Windows 7 beta. This post is a mini review of both.

Acer Aspire One

First, the Apire One is certainly a cute system but it’s not without its faults. The screen is 8.9″ and 1024×600. It’s enough to get work done, but you don’t realize how spoiled you get with screen real estate until you don’t have it. The one I’m borrowing has a 6 cell battery (rather than the standard 3 cell) which gives it about 4-5 hours of use which is quite nice.

Acer Trackpad

For the Acer itself, I really dislike the fact the trackpad buttons are on the left and right rather than below which makes it awkward to use. Also, due to the smaller form-factor, my palms hang off the side which causes the case edge to dig into them. Of course, if I wasn’t quite so lazy it wouldn’t be a problem.

I’m watching the upcoming 10″ Aspire which has a normal trackpad but with all the other features. I’ll be keeping my eye on it and may look to get one for myself. As solid-state disk (SSD) gets cheaper, the idea of a 64-128G flash drive instead of 2.5″ disk is attractive as the drive on the Apsire is just noisy enough to be noticeable (though not bothersome).

Windows 7

If you know me or have read this site, you know that I’m a Mac guy. I’ve used Macs since 1986 and while I have access to just about any type of system in use, if I’m trying to get something done, I use a Mac.

I do use Windows every day and have since Windows 3.1. Microsoft has done some good things and some bad things. I’ve been using Windows Vista for a bit now and have been underwhelmed but I do think it isn’t quite as bad as the general public perception.

Windows 7 Screenshot

Windows 7 was released as a public beta a few weeks ago and I first created a VM on my MacBook and most recently installed it on the Acer. I can honestly say, for Windows, it is a nice operating system. Netbooks are, by design, lower end systems. As operating systems evolve, they generally require more and more resources. Vista’s requirements have been a source of complaint and at least one lawsuit. Windows 7, as I’ve seen, is far more efficient and runs quite nicely on the little bugger. It’s taken some effort to find proper drivers for things like wireless, touchpad, and video, but even stock, the system was usable.

Having a system you can simply cary around makes keeping a computer handy easy. Of course, I personally hope that Apple jumps into the game, but I’m not holding my breath.

But they’re so cute!

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I’ve been following the recent development of the new “Netbook” laptop category. It was started with ASUS and their EeePC but there have been many other entries by Dell, Acer, and others. Two of my colleagues at work got the Acer and like them and my brief look at a selection at Circuit City has sold me on the concept. A modestly-powered system (1.6 GHz CPU and 512M to 1G RAM) with a small screen (7-10″) but in a small and affordable package makes a very attractive option for things like web browsing and email.

I am quite hopeful Apple releases one at Macworld Expo next week, but I’m not holding my breath. While I think they would clean up with a $400-500 “MacBook Mini” I can’t help but think they are scared of what that might do to their bottom line.