Using Del.Icio.Us November 20, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : RSS, Uncategorized , add a commentI finally got around to installing plug-ins to all my browsers, both on my laptop and on my desktop. I still use IE, because (a) I always have(!), and (b) I access some corporate applications that simply work better in IE. For my reading and blogging, however, I’m a happy user of Firefox, and have also been playing with Flock — in fact, I’m writing this post from within Flock now. I like that Flock just needs me to hit one button, nice and clear, on the menu bar, to get stuff into del.icio.us. I have a bookmarklet for IE that does the same. Firefox, I choose to use a plugin, although I’ve got the bookmarklet as well. The plugin is more functional, but you have to right-click I can live with it.
In any event. having made it easy to push links, with comments, into del.icio.us, I’ve also configured it to post my daily links into the blog.
Why?
Well, personal convenience for a start – the blog is going to turn into a personal knowledge repository, that I can readily reference and search. I subscribe to my own feeds, using Newsgator and Outlook, so I get a copy of every post I make as an email. Those sit in the offline file with the rest of my email, that I can refer to wherever I am, and that I can index using the MSN Desktop Search or the Google Desktop. I see a lot of different websites, most days, like most people. Some will generate “real” posts to the blog, others will just be “background information”. This makes an easy way for me to remember that “oh yes, I read an article on that subject a while back…” and then find it again.
So, if you see a post full of links, brief notes, and some tags, with no substantive comment in and of itself, you now know what it is.
Some reference links:
technorati tags: del.icio.us, tagging, blogging, tags, plugins, bookmarklets
WordPress.com Error? November 20, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Weblogs , add a commentWordPress won’t let me set the categories on the previous post to “GTD” and “Time Management”, insisting on my default category of “Random Observations” instead. Working through possibilities now, and I’ll file a bug report as appropriate… In the meantime, I’m leaving the post (”What is GTD?”) in the “now”, rather than backdating it where I want it.
Update:
Seems related to including an image. I created a new post, and it accepted the category settings correctly. I then pasted in the text of the original post, and it was still fine. Added the photo, and boom! Category locked to “Random Observations”. Take the pic out, and all is well. Change the timestamp on the new post, and it correctly goes where it needs to.
I’ve marked the troublesome post as “Private” so that it stays in the blog, as I’ve submitted this as an issue to WordPress.com via the Feedback option.
What is GTD? November 20, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : GTD, Time Management , add a commentGTD is the acronym, and common nickname, for Getting Things Done, a time and personal organization management methodology, written by David Allen. The book of the subject can be found at Amazon here, David Allen’s company is here, and his own explanation of what GTD is can be found here.
I personally use the GTD methodology, with a few minor tweaks to my own circumstances and preferences, as is common to many practitioners of it. I use a Blackberry as my primary communications tool; it often becomes my always-available capture device (read the book…), as it is always with me. But, depending on the circumstances, I may also use a HipsterPDA, again, modified to my own purposes (which is the whole point of the hPDA), or Microsoft OneNote, or MindJet MindManager — the important thing, in GTD terms and techniques, is that no matter who I create actions or record information, everything ultimately ends up in one Inbox, for later processing. In my case, I use Microsoft Outlook, and the NetCentrics GTD Add-In.
The book retails for less than ten dollars. There are a multitude of sites, blogs and discussion groups around the web discussion the application of the methodology; you could read those without having read the book first, but the maximum benefit comes with the book. It’s an easy read, although actually implementing the processes for the first time may require you to set aside a weekend, or a series of evenings (everyone’s circumstances are different). If you only read one organizational management guide book, this would be the one I recommend.
The rest of the “GTD” category on this site will have comments about specific situations and scenarios relating to the implementation and use of GTD, and any relevant articles about the topic I see and recommend. The separate “Time Management” category will contain more general observations and links.
Check it out, let me know what you think – comments are always welcome.
(Sidebar: This is a backdated post. I’m actually writing it at 12:20 on November 20th. I want to put this into the early part of the GTD category as an explanatory post, as I intend to refer someone to this, and the whole category block. I’m also interested to see if the post, being backdated like this, turns up correctly in the RSS feed, if at all, as a basis for future knowledge).
Technorati Tags: Time Management, GTD
TVTAD – Bittorrent and RSS for Television November 16, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : RSS, Technology , add a comment“TVTAD is an RSS feed reader with support for unlimited feeds. It will automatically download newly released TV episodes that have been added to your favorites.”
Gary’s thoughts on bittorrent and TV, and the views the cable companies might have: guys, I’ve already paid for this stuff. I could have watched “House“ last night; or I could have set my DVR to record it. Let’s say I forgot. And I get a torrent of it. What’s the big deal? Make this stuff available on line for me to download directly from you, pretty please?
Movie torrents, music torrents – OK, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
There’s a news article “The day the broadcast died” that might be of interest.
technorati tags: Bittorrent, Torrent, RSS, Television
Microsoft Windows Desktop Search – Enterprise November 16, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Technology, Uncategorized , add a commentAnnounced at the IT Forum, from the press release:
The availability of Windows Desktop Search enabled for enterprise deployment. Windows Desktop Search enables information workers to save time by providing a single search starting point from which people can quickly find relevant information on their PC desktops, in e-mail, on network file shares, or across intranets and the Web.
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technorati tags: Search, Desktop Search, Enterprise Search, Microsoft
Exchange 12 – 64-bit Only November 16, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Technology, Uncategorized , add a commentFrom the IT Forum Press Release:
As part of its commitment to 64-bit computing, Microsoft has been delivering products that are optimized for 64-bit, including the newly released SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and Virtual Server 2005 R2. To help customers take full advantage of the power of 64-bit computing, products including Microsoft® Exchange Server “12,” Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows Server™ “Longhorn” Small Business Server, and Microsoft’s infrastructure solution for midsize businesses, code-named “Centro,” will be exclusively 64-bit and optimized for x64 hardware. In a future update release to Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Server “Longhorn” operating system, code-named Windows Server “Longhorn” R2, customers will see the complete transition to 64-bit-only hardware, while still benefiting from 32-bit and 64-bit application compatibility. For the highest-scale application and database workloads, Windows Server on 64-bit Itanium-based systems will continue to be the premier choice for customers for years to come.
Heads up on the Virtual Server pricing stuff, same source:
As part of its broad strategy to help customers realize the benefits of virtualization and progress toward self-managing dynamic systems, Microsoft has released to manufacturing (RTM) Virtual Server 2005 R2, which will be available in volume licensing and retail the first week of December. Virtual Server 2005 R2 delivers improved performance, availability and scalability for server consolidation, legacy application migration, disaster recovery, and software testing and development. Microsoft will be offering Virtual Server R2 Standard Edition for $99 (U.S.) estimated retail price and Virtual Server R2 Enterprise Edition for $199 (U.S.) estimated retail price. This new pricing represents Microsoft’s commitment to making server virtualization more accessible to customers at the lowest price point.
technorati tags: Exchange, Technology, Virtual Server
Real-Time Flight Tracking November 15, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Family, Random Observations , add a commenthttp://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3562656
Gary Price reviewing Real-Time Flight Tracking. Appropriate, and useful, as the folks turn up on Thursday. I’ll update this when I find the one I prefer.
technorati tags: Flight Tracking
The Myth of Multitasking November 13, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Time Management , add a commenthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/timothymorgan/62139938/
I don’t know that I agree, but the picture amused me.
technorati tags: GTD
Monitoring The NTP/RIM Lawsuit November 11, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Blackberry, Technology , add a comment(Update: My latest post on the NTP/RIM lawsuit, and see the “Blackberry” tag under “Categories” over on the right for other posts). My timeline of the NTP/RIM lawsuit is online as well.
From Canada’s “National Post”:
The U.S. government waded into the high-stakes legal battle between Research In Motion Ltd. and patent collector NTP Inc. yesterday, saying a possible U.S. ban of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device could put essential government services in jeopardy.
“The injunction would literally prevent RIM from providing the services that would be essential for the federal government, as well as state and local governments, to continue their use of the BlackBerry devices,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a court filing.
The government department wants 90 days notice before a U.S. trial court enforces the potentially crippling injunction on BlackBerry devices in the United States to ensure public workers can keep using the devices
With a couple hundred Blackberry users at the company I’m at – including myself – I’m obviously “somewhat interested” in this lawsuit. I live by my Blackberry – it’s my phone, my PDA, where I make notes to myself when I think of things, what I use to browse news websites when I’m killing time but not at a computer. It’s a core component of my personal implementation of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. If NTP prevails in this, it ain’t going to be pretty. Corporately, yes, we could move to Windows Mobile – we have all the infrastructure in place. Personally though, having been a PDA user for a while, starting with Windows CE Pocket, then CE Handheld, jumping ship to a Psion and then a Palm Vx, before succumbing to a HP iPaq, and then abandoning THAT and moving back to paper, before finally getting a Blackberry – the Blackberry to me is everything I need in a communications package, and it “just works”.
Back to the article:
The U.S. government also said the extra time is necessary so the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can reconsider the validity of wireless e-mail patents held by NTP. The Patent Office has already overturned the five disputed patents filed by since-deceased inventor Thomas Campana Jr., although NTP has asked the patent office to reconsider its decision.
Good. I’m not going to get into a political debate on patents here; I’m just glad that the PTO seems to be siding with RIM so far.
Incidentally, NTP had previously agreed to a $450 million settlement fee. That deal fell apart with disagreement on the settlement terms. Guys? That’s a hell of a lot of money. Take it, and let us get back to working with our Crackberry’s, eh?
technorati tags: Blackberry
Newsvine November 10, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : RSS, Technology, To Watch , add a commentMike Davidson: Unstealth! Get Ready For Newsvine…
News, with commentary. And, it sounds like, presence information for others reading the same news as you, with interaction options. Sign-up for an account (”a column”), publish your own “stuff”.
Great URL process:
Simply save our “Seed Newsvine” button (a bookmarklet) to your browser and click it whenever you read a great story anywhere on the web. Tag it with words to describe it (e.g. “alex-rodriguez, baseball, world-series”) and a link to the original story, along with your comment, will automatically appear at the following pages:
newsvine.com/alex-rodriguez
newsvine.com/baseball
newsvine.com/world-series
… which brings me to one of my favorite features of Newsvine: our URL structure. Anytime you want news on any subject, say “supreme-court”, simply go to newsvine.com/supreme-court and every story we have that is tagged as such will be there.
Oh and we also have local news available at urls like “seattle.newsvine.com” and “newyork.newsvine.com”.
I’m looking forward to playing with this when it comes out. Be interesting to see how the “anyone can comment” model works out – it won’t, hopefully, get flooded with garbage.
technorati tags: News, RSS, Blogging, Technology
Media Streaming November 10, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Family, Technology , add a commentMy favorite techie toy at home – a D-Link DSM-320RD. Plays DVD’s (pretty much any format, pre-recorded, recordable or re-recordable), has inputs for the compact flash cards I use in my camera, but most importantly of all plays, without skipping or any other issues, any music or video that I have stored on my computer, streaming it on demand over my wireless network.
Posting this here for convenience, and the folks that were at a recent party asking me about it 
Details at D-Link’s site here, or for the UK, here.
Technorati Tags: home, family, video, technology
Lunch November 10, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Random Observations , add a comment 
I’m a happy man
technorati tags: Restaurants
New Torrent Search Site November 10, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Random Observations , add a commentAs with any of these sites, who knows how long it’ll be around, but in the meantime – not the worst interface I’ve ever seen, fast, and actually found my test material, which was pretty obscure.
We’ll save the debate on “should torrents be legal?” for another day 
Technorati Tags: Torrents
World66 Maps – Where I’ve been November 10, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : Random Observations , add a commentAll the States I’ve been to – so far. Not bad for a Brit, eh?
World66 – Visited States – United States
Technorati Tags: Travel, Family
On GTD and “Conversational” Email November 8, 2005
Posted by Gary Slinger in : GTD, Time Management , add a commentWritten for a friend of mine, who receives a lot of email that isn’t always actionable, but needs to be processed “right now”, and was suffering some overload as a result.
Email Processing and GTD, Some Thoughts
Starting Assumptions/Perceptions/Facts:
- Receives approximately 50 pieces of email direct to his inbox, per day, not counting mailing list messages.
- Gets overwhelmed with 20 4- and 5-way conversations in brief (10 minute) periods of time.
- Isn’t doing formal weekly reviews at present.
It’s important to remember from the get go that GTD is a system that sets out some guiding principles, rather than being an absolute set of procedural rules that have to be followed. Almost everyone that implements GTD, unless they actually work for the David Allen Company, are going to end up “tweaking” it somewhat, either modifying, removing or adding components, thoughts and methods, from other formal methodologies or from their own experiences, for their personal comfort and benefit.
That said, GTD is predicated on a couple of core elements:
- That everything goes into the trusted system, regardless of what that system is (Outlook, 3×5 cards, Moleskine, segments of toilet tissue stuck to the wall, whatever), unless it can be dealt with in a 2-minute “do it and lose it” moment.
- That trusted system has to be reviewed on a regularly scheduled basis. This is summed up in the phrase “Weekly Review”, as that turns out to be one of the most common, and “better” review frequencies.
Dealing specifically with you, I think one of the first things that I suggest is differentiating your email as soon as you see it into one of two types:
- Conversational email, which is the 4- and 5-way stuff referred to in my assumptions, based on our chats, and which you have a service level responsibility to address as quickly as possible, and
- Non-conversational email – everything else, that comes in directly to you, and can be dealt with in the normal GTD process – do it, defer it, delegate it, or delete it.
As an aside – I’m completely not considering mailing list email – my (brief) view on that is that if it’s important, and needs participation, process it as part of your regular email processing. If it’s informational only, put it somewhere out of sight, and refer to it as and when you have the spare bandwidth for this.
So, where are we? My understanding is that you’d like to “work from zero” in the Inbox, which is a good principle to work to, but that you’re getting overwhelmed, somewhat, with the conversational email. Turning email off and only processing it once an hour or so isn’t an option, because of your service level agreements. My ideas are outlined below, but they rely on two extra Outlook tools:
- the Getting Things Done Add-In. Not everyone is comfortable with this, but equally, a lot of people are, and I think it’s somewhat underrated. It does take a little bit of practice and getting used to, but it’s actually a very good “straight” interpretation of the GTD principles, IF you can accept using the Outlook Tasks interface. Not everyone can… An alternative is to implement the equivalent of this yourself, using either the PDF that David Allen publishes, or home-brew. Consistency is going to be important though.
- Any of the readily available desktop/email searches, emphasis on the email. My current preference is the MSN Desktop Search, but LookOut, Google or Yahoo variants are all going to work out fine.
So, specific recommendations – this is based on me thinking through “if I was in position, how would I make this work?”. These are ONLY suggestions, and I readily recommend ripping them apart and customising them to yourself, and even ignoring them completely if that’s appropriate to you.
- Have Outlook visible on a second monitor if possible, as a reduced size window if not, or check it regularly via Alt-Tab, new message popups, or the display “toast” feature. You may want to do some more tweaking with your auto-preview and preview-pane options here – what has worked previously may need to be tweaked to deal with things in a GTD manner.
- If new mail comes in and it’s conversational, deal with it. Engage in the conversation, get information as needed, provide information and solutions as requested – that’s what they’re paying you for J
- If you generate Actions as a result of those conversations, and you’re not going to do them right-away, remember you’re only a hot-key away from putting that task into Outlook – CTRL-SHIFT-K.
- When you’ve finished your conversation emails, LEAVE THEM. Just leave them in the Inbox. They’re marked read. Don’t worry about them.
- While you’re flying through your Inbox dealing with the Conversational stuff, if you come across a Non-Conversational, LEAVE IT ALONE. Leave it marked unread, and move on to the next message. The only exception I’d make to this is if you get something that’s clearly instantly deletable – the announcement about a car with its lights left on (unless it’s yours!), the “donuts in the kitchen!” announcements, etc.
- Plan a couple of “Process Email” tasks into your day. I can’t recommend specific times and durations, because that’s going to be unique to you, but play around with it. And then USE those times – process the unread mail in your Inbox – because it’s ALL non-conversational, REAL email to you. One at a time, by the book – read it, and then delete it, defer it, delegate it, or do it. Remember that you can still have your Rules setup to bypass this and alert you, me and the National Command Authority if necessary for messages from your wife, your boss or your bookie… Remember, the idea is to get to a “trusted system” – put whatever safeties in place you need to make that happen.[i]
- When you’re processing these non-conversational emails, you should also be moving them out of your Inbox as you process them:
- Delete – that’s obvious.
- Delegate – use the Add-In button. Forward the message where it needs to go, and if you need to, have it put a reminder on your calendar or task list. Both options are there. The Add-In will move it out of your Inbox.
- Defer – put it on your calendar or your task list, whichever is appropriate. The Add-In will move it out of your Inbox.
- Do it – do whatever’s there, and then file or delete the message, or file the message for later reference. One of the reasons I suggested the desktop/email search is to make filing easier – just put everything in the same archive folder. Retrieve it using the search application. By all means, put a GTD Project tag onto the email if appropriate.
- At the end of every day, go back to your Inbox, and move all those messages that are left into the archive folder – because all that’s left there now is those marked-as-read, conversational emails, right?
- At the end of the day, consider doing a mini-review. Have a look at your calendar for tomorrow – anything coming up you’d forgotten about, missed the reminder of, etc.? Run through your task lists – anything showing a deadline, or anything that just makes you go “uh oh” when you see it, and make you want to pull it into the calendar, or even your Inbox? (There’s a button in the Add-In that can instantly move anything you’ve processed out of the Inbox back TO the Inbox. You can do this to reprocess it, if you want to. It’s not recommended, but there are exceptions to every rule!).
- The biggie. At least once a week, if you’re going to do this, you’re going to have to find time to do a proper Review. Scharff used to say “if you can’t Measure, you can’t Manage” – well, the GTD version of this is “if you don’t Review, you aren’t Getting Things Done”. There are a number of checklists out there that include a LOT of things you can include in your Review, and I can send you one if you want, but at a fundamental level, you just need to know that everything you’ve put into your system is in a place that it’s going to get done – either the Calendar, or appropriate context-based Task items, and that you’re aware of what’s coming up.
After that, possibly the hardest part of the concept, and one that needs some personalisation, is “working in contexts” – you have to be able to sit there and go “OK, I’m in the office. I have no conversational emails to process, and I’ve processed my Inbox to empty. I have three hours before my next time-based activity (the calendar stuff), so I’ll look at my tasks and see what I have in “@Office” and “@Computer” and see what’s appropriate to work on now.
If you find you have stuff on context lists that you’re consistently not doing or not getting to – take them off the context list and put them on the calendar. Commit yourself to doing them in that time.
There’s no doubt that implementing time management methodologies, of any flavor, requires change both in perception and in the mechanics of how things are done on a day to day basis, and sometimes in the usage of tools. Sometimes those changes are easy, and sometimes not so. Experimentation is necessary, although there’s a trap of “too much experimentation” – the goal is for you to find a methods that works for you, is comfortable, and perhaps most importantly is EASY so that you keep doing it.
Everything before this is just my thoughts. I hope they help. Do let me know how you get on.
Gary
2005-10-17
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[i] Remember that one of the fundamentals of the GTD process is splitting out and differentiating between COLLECTION (the 3×5’s, Outlook tasks or emails to yourself, post-its, whatever), PROCESSING (working through your Inbox(es) and getting Actions entered into your system, and DOING (when you pick an appropriate context and get on with it).
Technorati Tags: Time Management, GTD
