1. It has to be invincible – rendered illegible by flying coffee or left on bus cannot be reasons to miss a task. I love paper, but hate that it burns, smudges, rips, etc. Digital was the only answer.

2. It has to be everywhere – Paper didn’t just lose because I’m a klutz – I’m also forgetful. A digital task system, accessible from every device I’ve ever owned AND anyone’s computer, was the perfect solution. I couldn’t leave it behind.

3. It has to be simple – If entering a task takes 10 minutes, I’m not going to do it. Duh.

When I decided on those 3 rules above, I never thought about the data that I would generate after using these tools for 4 years. On a lark, I went through three months of data today in Toodledo and was amazed. It’s actually interesting!

Although it’s thoroughly geek, I thought I’d share, just to show how powerful the data we’re generating can be. I’m not sharing anything personal, professional or even the numbers. The graphs of relative values speak volumes.

First thing I did was pull my tasks completed by month from Toodledo.

The result made sense: Late November, I started using Toodledo. December was spent working my tail off. January was when my little girl was born – huge dip there – but by February, I was completing tasks again at full force. March I started a new job, so mid-way through the month, we’re already heading for a record breaker.

Next I tried to find a trend, something to make it more than just a total. Here is how I complete tasks based on the days of the week:

Interesting eh? I come out of the weekend strong, completing fewer and fewer tasks until Friday, when I  push before the weekend. My theory here is one word: meetings. As the week goes on, I have more and more meetings, reducing the time I have to complete my tasks. There is something to explore here…

My personal tasks, often the lesser quantity, generally don’t get done on Saturday and therefore Sunday is higher. This probably contributes to that sinking feeling I get on Sunday when I have to pack in my tasks and try to enjoy the last of the weekend.  Again, something to explore…

Next I grabbed the planned due date of my tasks:

What I love about this data is that it shows how I think about tasks too… These are the tasks by the day I schedule them for. Notice that I tend to come out of the weekend with a lot scheduled for Monday, but Tuesday – Friday, I plan to complete pretty much the same number of tasks. To me, this supports the meetings idea – I’m adding tasks to the list because new things are coming up. However, as we saw before, I’m not completing them.

In a similar story, on the weekend, I tend to forget how hard is to complete tasks on Saturday and I schedule equal efforts for both days.

Finally, I decided to compare how I’m finishing tasks this month vs last month:

The month isn’t over yet, but it looks like I’m getting better at closing out  my tasks on Fridays and keeping a steady stream of completions going through the week. Thursday is still a low point for me. I’m sure it’s related to meetings, but it’s a point of focus for improvement!

After playing with all this data from Toodledo, I exported my data from Remember the Milk going back to 2007 and did the same sort of analysis, finding almost identical results. I’ll spare you the details, but one favorite was that I seem to start the year off strong in January every year, but slow down as the summer approaches. I guess that’s why my resolution each year is to be more organized :)

Thanks for indulging me. The bigger point is that I was collecting this data without really thinking about it. I wonder where else I’m capturing useful information that could improve my efficiency? I’ll poke around and get back to you.

~ab

“Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information, are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like the electricity grid.” (Wikipedia)

I’m a geek and the above, although well intentioned is about as easy to understand as the other buzzy language I hear on the topic.  Let’s write our own definition (in a few parts):

1.  The “cloud” is the internet – the mass of computers connected together all over the world.

2.  Often we use software on our computers (Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, ITunes, etc).  We have seen the disks to “install” these things.

3.  Sometimes, we use software on the internet (Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, etc).  This software is not on our computers as it’s “on the internet”.

4.  ”On the internet” means that internet applications are really on someone else’s computer (according to our definition of the internet – point 1).

Therefore, in super, super simple terms:

Cloud Computing = Making someone else’s computer do the work.

Soooooo – if cloud computing is just making someone else’s computer do the work, I try to make my computer do the minimum amount of work possible (it’s only fair).

A great example of this concept is the Chromium OS – Google’s attempt to make an operating system that’s based on “cloud software” (this would be in place of Windows or Mac OS that may be on your computer now).

Here’s a quick video to learn more…

So now you know what cloud computing is, but you might be wondering “what’s the big fuss???”  Imagine this futuristic world:

You no longer need a computer.  Everything around you has an internet connection and you can login to your website from everything (even the toaster). On your website, you have your documents, which you can edit with Microsoft Office.  However, the software for Microsoft office is also online, so there’s nothing to install… You can just open a document and start typing.  When you’re done, you click email and your email opens.  Your photos from your camera have uploaded to the site and are available to email to your friends (remember everything is connected).  You write yourself a few reminders in your task application and head off to work.  All this information is available via your phone if you need it (or the next toaster you come across).  In fact, no one cares what program you have or device you carry, because it’s all instantly and universally available.

Thus ends my reverie…  Maybe I’m biased, but to me, cloud computing is the amazing attempt to simplify our lives into a single internet presence.  It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but the steady shift of our software from our computers to the internet is the first phase. Buzz word it may be, but it’s still an awesome concept.

Not much else I can add…  Hope this has been a fun post.  Ping me with questions – ab@justansterisk.com.

Enjoy,

~ab

What the program does

This program is for emailing new events to your Google Calendar. It checks your Gmail account for new events that were sent to a special label every ten seconds. It can only process one calendar entry every ten seconds (but if you’r emailing in more than that, it’s pretty impressive and you are far too busy to be playing with my software).

I couldn’t find any 3rd party services that do this, so I had to improvise using AutoHotKey and a script I wrote previously for quick adding events to Google calendar.  The result is a bit rickety, but it does the job. Improvements may or may not occur over time and currently it does not work with google apps (although it couldn’t be that hard to fix this).

Setup

It requires three pieces of setup (these are the defaults which can be modified if you know how to script):

1. Create a Gmail filter that puts take email sent to youraddress+jaacal@gmail.com into a new folder/label called jaacal.  You can also say skip the inbox so these emails don’t clutter things up.

2. Download the zip file from this link – Email to Google Calendar (452) – and unpack it to a directory of your choosing.

3. Change the logon.txt file to include your email, your user name (email without @gmail.com) and your password.  Make sure you keep this file in the same folder as the EXE file.

Workin’ it

Once you’ve done these three steps, run the EXE file and walk away.  Send an email with your quick add text in the subject line to the address above and it will appear on your calendar within about 20 seconds. An example of a quick add subject line could be something like dinner with Dave to thank him for such a good idea tommorrow 10pm.  It doesn’t matter what you put in the body, the program will just ignore it.

Download Email to Google Calendar (452)

And that’s about it! Let me know your thoughts at ab@justanasterisk.com or in the comments.

~ab

If you’re trying to decide between the hot new Nexus One vs. the iPhone 3Gs, here’s the skinny on what sets them apart. Both phones sport the aesthetic appeal of that sleek “wow” factor sheen, but there are a few differences you should know about which may make one a better fit for your needs than the other.

Despite its light weight compared to the iPhone 3Gs, the Nexus One picks up where the iPhone left off in the bench-press department. Its faster processor and more efficient Organic LED screen will keep your video sizzling sharp and your images pinpoint crisp while making the overall screen color reproduction more accurate (though strangely enough the orange colors on some of the YouTube videos I streamed to the Nexus One appeared a little too red for my liking).

The built in camera flash on the Nexus One is a very useful feature in low-lighting. It’s also a feature that the iPhone currently lacks, though rumor has it that Apple already put in a big order for flash devices for its next generation of iPhones. No doubt Apple will also be ramping up its camera resolution which is currently only 3-megapixels on the iPhone compared to the whopping 5-megapixel deliciousness of the Nexus One camera.

Unlike the iPhone, the Nexus One sports a full hands-free driving GPS navigation system with turn-by-turn directions functionality included right out of the box. On the iPhone, you only get the standard Google maps directions right now which is basically a little dot moving around on a 2D map…not very impressive unless you are willing to shell over the cash for a third party navigation application such as the $70 Navigon or the $80 iGo My Way.

Aside from these extra perks included with the Nexus One, the main point of difference I encountered between the two phones was their dependence upon wireless connectivity. iPhone applications run as smoothly when you are out of wireless range as they do when you are in range because your data is largely saved to the phone and is re-synched when your phone reception returns. This approach keeps your most of your data on your physical phone device, at risk of being lost along with the device if that data has not been synchronized and backed up first.  The Nexus One takes the opposite approach. It seems geared toward storing as much of your personal data as possible on Google’s computer clouds rather than on your phone’s memory. Unfortunately, while it does mean that your data is theoretically safer, it also means that you have to have a strong wireless connection for many of your applications to be useful. This is particularly true if you’re looking to leverage some of the coolest features Google provides such as voice recognition (see below).

The included Android Calendar application is a perfect example of why storing data on the cloud isn’t always the best solution. The included Calendar application is barely functional without a direct link to the internet, and it will not operate unless you have first assigned it to a preexisting Google Calendar account. While these limitations may not be an issue for someone who already uses Google Calendar and who has frequent internet access, I found it an unnecessary burden, and wasn’t thrilled about being forced to use a the Google Calendar which was only recently endowed with integrated Task features.

There are a few other ‘gotchas’ you should be aware of before you buy, such as the not-so-multi-touch feature of the Nexus One’s touch screen. The iPhone’s multi-touch feature is more than just fancy hand-waving; it allows you to use more than one finger at a time to interact with your mobile phone screen. This makes the phone easier to operate and cuts down on the number of buttons that would otherwise clutter its interface. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Nexus One. Though the Android interface itself has been given an appealing facelift, (with live animated backgrounds and the like), it is currently limited to single touch functionality. [Note: You can enable multi-touch yourself if you are brave enough to attempt a ROM hack on your Nexus One].

Another iPhone feature I missed in the Nexus One was a simple notepad. You may be able to download one from the Android Market, but not having one pre-installed is inconvenient, and it makes taking notes or jotting down ideas difficult when no pen and paper are handy. If you’re creative, you could record videos of yourself talking and then sync them with Evernote, but if you’re looking for more direct digital copies of you paper masterpieces, check out the Scan2PDF Mobile application which instantly converts phone photos of your notes into fully searchable PDFs.

As any personal trainer will tell you, you won’t see your best results until you’ve put in the necessary hard work and preparation. In the same way, the Nexus One really starts to shine brightest once you start using one of its most underappreciated yet most awesome features, its voice recognition technology. Leveraging the technology it has long been toiling over for its Google Voice telephone service, Google’s Nexus One makes searching as easy as pressing a button and telling your phone what you want it to find. Seriously, it’s that simple! After a few tries, the phone will train itself to recognize your voice patterns and will identify pretty much any word you throw at it. And since every search you do is logged with Google, I’m guessing that your subsequent search patterns will be used to teach the software so that it continually gets better at recognizing which of your verbal commands it interpreted successfully.

Even more useful, and novel by comparison to what the iPhone offers, is the voice-to-text feature which magically transcribes whatever you say to your phone into an email or text message. This voice recognition feature, in particular, turned out to be a big time saver for me, just like using voice recognition in the built-in GPS navigation made hands-free navigation that much easier and safer while driving.

If you currently have an iPhone and are looking for those extra features that will squirt a few more ounces of productivity into your life, you may want to wait until the next iPhone iteration comes out. The additional benefits the Nexus One offers are mostly under the hood, and while they do add up, the margin of difference they make depends upon how ambitious you are about tackling the learning curve burn cycle, especially if you’re already acclimated to the iPhone interface. On the other hand, if you aren’t in love with the iPhone or if you are upgrading from a previous non-iPhone model and are looking for a top of the line phone with tremendous long-term potential, the Nexus One is probably your best bet.

And in case you’re still deliberating over the technical details behind the gloss, I recommend checking out Gizmodo’s definitive smartphone comparison chart for a great side-by-side comparison of these top two contenders.

~jp

Justin Palmen is a recovering technoholic with a passion for everything fast, mobile, and cloud enabled.  When not working in cyberspace, he enjoys traveling to exotic locations and would love to travel in real space some day.  He’d also love to receive your questions or comments at jp@justanasterisk.com

Despite my mistake, I still want to go into the anatomy of a domain.  I want to try convince you that (no matter who you are) you can have your own web domain.  You can have your emails go to me@bobsagget.me or me@JAAismyfavoriteblog.com.  It’s not hard, nor should it be only done by professionals.  If you want a weekend project, and don’t mind reading a little bit, you too can have your own space on the fantastic interweb…  I should point out that this isn’t entirely free.   However, for less than price of 3 lattes, we can get you up and running.

Step 1:  Plant a flag to make your claim

The web is comprised of domains.  Each domain points to a specific location (in fact a server) where the web page(s) are stored.  Google.com is a domain.  Justanasterisk.com is a domain.  When a domain name is created, the name is passed across the world (very quickly), so people in dubai can log into the same site, with the same name, even though their server is not necessarily connected directly to yours…

To get your own domain, go to this site.  Whoooooa you say – What are google apps???

What if I were to tell you that an email address @gmail.com is for sissies?  You can use Gmail (which I love, as I think we’ve established from my previous posts) but you don’t have to work with the masses.  You can access it from the lofty heights of your own internet ivory tower! Moreover, Google calendar and docs are just part of the deal!

Let’s take an example:  I registered the domain justanasterisk.com.  Then I registered for Google Apps.  Now when someone emails ab@justanasterisk.com, THAT is my Gmail address.  Pretty cool eh?  To get started go the link.

When you get there, click on get a domain from Google tab and search for the name you want.  Hopefully, one of the names (or a variation proposed by the system) will be something you think you’d like to live with.  Notice that you’ll be setup with Google services for free! (see the box in red)  From here continue to registration.

On the next screen throw in your information (this domain name is going to be legally registered to you after all).  When you’re ready to pay, Google will send you to their checkout, where you can put in a credit card and register officially.  If everything goes well, you should see a picture like the one below.  Click on the link “Return to Google Apps”.

Now you are a proud domain owner!!!  Congrats.  Let’s get it setup as your home.

Step 2:  Setup Google Apps

The first thing you’ll have to do is setup an administrator account for your Google world.  This is just the username for the main account (you get 50 accounts for free), so don’t worry.  It doesn’t have to be your final choice of email address.

When you’re ready, continue with the setup.  In the following Google is going to walk you through your new site.  I recommend using their guide to get you started, but remember – you’ve done the hardest part.  From here on in, you’re just icing the cake.

Step 3:  Customize the crap out of your internet home

The coolest part of having a custom domain is that you can add sub-domains.  With your new domain, if you get it from Google, you can get all of this done for you.  Straight from the first second,  mail.yourdomain.com should lead to your email and docs.yourdomain.com should lead to your google docs.  Browse through your dashboard to see what else is available.  For some, this may be the end of the line.  However, if you’re feeling particularly nerdy, I suggest reading Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker post called “Trick Out Google Apps for your Domain” which can be found here.

Remember that once you’re setup, you have all the same features you had when you used Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs.  The only difference is that you’re now your own brand!  Well done!

Feel free to ping me with any questions in the comments.

~ab