.Mac Questions

After the keynote. I checked out Apple’s website. I reviewed what was posted regarding Leopard. The redesigned website takes a little getting used to. If you look at the bottom of the site you will notice there are quick links to a bunch of different items on the site. A screen grab is below.

I have circled the .mac link and if you visit the Apple site you will notice that it is the only text that is not a hyperlink. Steve Jobs at the D5 conference made a quick mention that .mac was do for an overhaul. Maybe there is more to the .mac overhaul than just adding the back-to-my-mac feature for .mac users. I’m hoping that there are more changes in store for .mac.

Software Shout-out: Hazel

I’ve been trolling the internet again finally getting something done. I’ve posted before about GTD personal productivity book by David Allen. While investigating that I’ve come across a couple of productivity sites.

43Folders – Merlin Mann productivity tips.

Kinkless creative productivity – Ethan Schoonover

Ethan did a series of screencasts entitled “Five Steps to a Kinkless Desktop” – the series describes among other things how to remove your desktop clutter. And how to improve your workflow. Some of the suggestions I’m already doing others I hadn’t thought about. Take a few moments to review the 5 steps Ethan has included a screencast describing each step. I found it well worth the time.

Here is why I’m really excited. In part 5 he mentions a piece of software Hazel. First it is a preference pane. It is easy to install. All you have to do is to double-click. Now Hazel monitors folders and then does what you tell to do. I currently have all my downloads go to a folder. Once I’ve installed the software or looked at the download I move the item to the Offloads folder. When my offloads folders gets a couple of gigabytes I offload it to a DVD disk. Now what has me excited is that now I can have Hazel do that automatically. I like to have that done behind the scenes. I can see a lot of uses for this software. At work I often just drop documents on my desktop. Well this would clean my desktop up completely. I do a lot of Filemaker Pro work and I usually drop temporary databases there while I’m working on them. This would be great to get them moved off to the file server for storage when I’m done. This software has got me excited. Take a look at it.

GTD – Getting things done

Personal Productivity – by David Allen. David Allen has created a personal productivity system. I’ve started reading his book to learn more about it. I’ve tried Stephen Covey’s productivity process and I didn’t stay with it. I’ve started to hear a buzz about GTD. There are several software pages available right now and at least one on the way. What I’ve read so far seems very do able. I’m a little excited.

One thing that I have learned about these different productivity systems is that they have to work the way you work. By that I mean the system needs to refine your style not necessarily create a whole new style. A system that refines your style of work you are more likely to stay with than a system that completely redefines how you do things.

Software Links -

Midnight Inbox

Kinkless GTD

iGTD

Update – (5-25-07) – Since I wrote this blog post I’ve started using iGTD, it is a freeware application that is simple to use and doesn’t get in the way of the GTD process. It also has a Quicksilver plug-in so that you can add items to GTD while your working in other applications.

Omnigroup is also creating a GTD application called Omnifocus. It is currently is alpha. The Omnigroup website site has a screencast demoing the application. Take a look at it. I found it helpful.

Business in the Internet Age

I was doing some thinking today about running a business. As a computer consultant I worked with different companies on different projects. I’ve seen a lot of different things. Some companies use services that are available on the internet. Basecamp, and EBAY are two examples. Does yours? What happens when your internet connection goes down? Would this be a minor or major disaster? Can you afford to not be connected for any length of time? If your answer is “No” then your chose of service probably isn’t the best one. You want to be able to continue working even if your internet connection is down. Your workflow may temporary change but you will still want to continue doing business. You may have to restructure your workflow to work around the problem. What are your options? Everyone has heard about backing up your hard drive on a regular basis. Because at some point the drive will fail. How many of us do this regularly? During Apple’s demo of Time Machine, Apple mentioned that about 4% of their customers regularly back up. The same thing goes for your internet service. At some point there will be a time when your service goes down, what will you do then? If you have a plan in place then all you have to do is follow that plan instead of rushing around trying to figure out what your going to do. I guess what I am trying to say is to plan ahead for disasters or problems. Large companies spend millions of dollars on disaster recovery, planning. While you don’t need to spend millions you do need to plan ahead. Here are some items to think about:

Your plan doesn’t need to be all inclusive.

Have a couple of alternatives for each disaster(problem)

Define when your plan should go into effect – each item should have conditions that cause that item to be put into effect.

Keep the plan in several locations

Review and update the plan regularly

As part of this plan you may want to rework your business processes to be more flexible with regards to disasters.

Hopefully this post will help you better handle the next “disaster” that comes your way.

GTD – Getting things done

Personal Productivity – by David Allen. David Allen has created a personal productivity system. I’ve started reading his book to learn more about it. I’ve tried Stephen Covey’s productivity process and I didn’t stay with it. I’ve started to hear a buzz about GTD. There are several software pages available right now and at least one on the way. What I’ve read so far seems very do able. I’m a little excited.

One thing that I have learned about these different productivity systems is that they have to work the way you work. By that I mean the system needs to refine your style not necessarily create a whole new style. A system that refines your style of work you are more likely to stay with than a system that completely redefines how you do things.

Software Links -

Midnight Inbox

Kinkless GTD

MacWorld 2007

Well, MacWorld is over the big announcements were the iPhone, Apple TV, Airport Extreme – a new base station with 802.11n, and a name change for our favorite computer company, Apple Computer is now Apple Inc.

iPhone – I want one, sort of. From what I’ve seen of the keynote and read on the internet. I agree the iPhone has the possibility of revolutionizing the cell phone industry. The iPhone is what I want a phone to be. Commentary predicts that Apple will also release less expensive versions of the phone like they have with the iPod line. I hope this happens as things are now the iPhone is too expensive for me. Also, I want to be able to purchase an unlocked phone so that I can use it with my current service T-mobile. All that said when do I get mine.

Apple TV – The iTV is finally released in its final form. The only surprise here was the include 802.11n wireless networks. Apple also announced that the latest round of computers with the Core 2 Duo chips have the 802.11n chip sets in them. Also announced was a new version of the Airport extreme base station that is also has 802.11n networking.

Missing in action – Leopard – no mention of the new version of the operating system. I was expecting at least something even if it was a minor mention of the new release. With Vista due out to the public at the end of the month. I figured that Apple would at least do something. Maybe we will see a special announcement before February. Also missing was any mention of iLife 07 or iWork 07. Overall I think MacWorld 2007 was a great success. I look forward to see what Apple has in store for us in the future.

Basecamp Project Management Software

As a freelance computer consultant, I’m always on the look out for new software, web services or other programs that might help my clients. I came across a new company called 37 signals. Who offer some WEB 2.0 services via their web site. The services include:

Basecamp: Project Management and Collaboration

Campfire: Real Time group Chat

Backpack - Information organizer and calendar

My day job manager voiced the need for some basic process tracking. Not necessarily, project tracking. We already use Microsoft Project for IT projects, but we had a couple of problems using MS Project in this situation, first not everyone that would need to be involved has MS Project loaded on their computer. Second some of the collaborators are offsite and wouldn’t be able to access the project. I had run across Basecamp when I was looking into the programing language Ruby. At that point at really didn’t have any interest in their services. I didn’t see where I could use it for my freelance consulting. I don’t do a lot of project type work. It has been mostly technical support type work. Well that has changed I signed up for a free account. This gives you most of the features and the ability to track one project. That is when the excitement started to build. The software was easy to use and there were only a few situations were we had to tailor how we do things to how Basecamp works. I can see using this in a variety of situations. One as a demo tool. Another to create projects as part of my work. Another possibility would be for a teaching aid. Basecamp manages your project by tracking milestones, and to dos, discussions, and by having the ability to upload files that you will need to share. Writeboard which are sort of like electronic whitebaords. You also can have unlimited client/users sign in and have access to your projects.

Details about accounts: One item that I like about the setup is that you can try it for free. You get most of the features, and the ability to see how the software/service might work for you. More expensive accounts allow you to track time against tasks and connect to the site securely. I also like the fact that it is a pay as you go. Only use what you need. Also there are some third party software that extend the functionality of the Basecamp product. And for Macintosh users there are dashboard widgets that will link to your dashboard projects.

I would recommend that you check out Basecamp and see if might meet your needs.

Basecamp

MacWorld 2007 Approaches

It is almost December and almost time for MacWorld. What is Steve going to bring us this year?

Here are my thoughts.

Leopard – with Microsoft having released Vista to manufacturing already and saying that it will be in the hands of consumers Jan 31st. I believe Steve will beat them to the punch.

iPhone with all the rumors and hype surrounding this product. Apple needs to do something soon or lose the momentum around this product.

iTV – I don’t expect this to be released until the 802.11n specification is finalized. But Steve may not wait.

iLife 07 – I expect and update these programs.

iWork 07 - There is still plenty of features that Apple could put in these two apps to improve them. And hopefully the rumored spreadsheet app (Numbers) appears also.

Other possibilities include the rumored touch screen iPod, and a tablet Mac. Whatever gets released I’m sure that the keynote will be interesting to watch. Stay tuned.

Computer Purchasing advise

I was visiting a couple of the forum sites that are in my routine and I cam across a posting complaining about Apple and the fact that they had just released the new MacBookPros and can the poster get an upgrade since they had just purchased a MacBookPro.

Here is my advise. By a computer when you need the computer.

Apple and other computer companies will always bring out something new, way sooner than you are ready for. One thing that I recommend is do your research. First research which computer will best meet your needs and in what configuration. Next find discussion boards and see what the rumors are. Are new laptops due next week? Can you wait a week to find out? If the answer is yes then wait a week. If you have to have a laptop to take with you on your business this week then by a computer this week. Something new is always going to come along. Be able to make an informed decision.

Here is my situation, I purchased a 1.83GHZ MacBookPro in August of this year. Apple was already selling the 2.0Ghz and 2.16Ghz models and wasn’t officially selling the 1.83 models from it online store. My local computer store still had 1.83 models at $1799. I can purchase a computer through work and the amount available is $1800. So I went ahead and purchased the 1.83 Ghz MacBookPro. At the time I had already heard rumors that maybe new MacBookPro would be coming out by the Christmas shopping season. My old computer was an aging Powerbook g4 (Titianium 550mhz) it was about 5 years old. And had seen better days. Do I wish that I had wait sure. Am I sorry that I didn’t, a little. Would, I change what I did no. I needed to replace the computer that I was currently using with something faster and newer so that I could take advantage of the new technologies. (Try doing 3D graphs in Pages or Keynote on a TiBook 550mhz or burning a DVD of a iPhoto slide show)

One last piece of advice, max out your hard drive size and your RAM if you can. Buy as much as you can afford. I have found that you will end up using your computer a lot longer than you had planned to, and eventually you will need more disk space and more memory. Remember the best time to buy a computer is when you need a computer.

New MacBook Pro Laptops

Apple announced new MacBook Pro Laptops Apple’s MacBook Pro Page. It appears that there have been a few changes beyond the Core 2 Duo chip. The Computer now have larger standard hard drives (100GB and 120GB) standard. They support more memory(up to 3GB). Double Layer support Optical drives 6x or 8x. And a Firewire 800 port. I nice update.