Category Archives: Life

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[Bronnie Ware](http://bronnieware.com/), a worker in palliative care, summarized the top five regrets of the dying. Number 2 is “I wish I didn’t work so hard”.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

I could sit and nod my way through this article every day. I’ve bookmarked it for regular revisiting (hoping it will lead to future good choices). With some introspection, I’m sure most would agree these are regrets many of us have today.

Add missing file extension to file names

For Mac users: if you ever happen to download a bunch of similar files and they’re all missing extensions (like a directory full of photos crawled using wget), here’s a quick one-line command to add the extension to all the files: for i in * ; do mv $i $i.txt; done;

Unless I hear otherwise…

1 Reply

Most people are drowning in email at work. Often times you’re asked to provide one of a few responses: positive confirmation (I received this, read it, understand it all, and explicitly approve), negative confirmation (I will tell you my thoughts and describe what is wrong with this), or a passive confirmation (if I don’t respond, consider everything good to go!). The trick to managing people that receive a high-volume of email is to stop sending lengthy letters looking for a confirmation, waiting days and days and days. Sometimes, in order to keep things moving or get things done without asking permission (with folks you trust, and who trust you), simply ask for a passive confirmation: “Hey John, here is the final set of comps for the landing page. Everything we discussed yesterday is shown here including the new form style and the green button. Unless I hear otherwise, we’ll go ahead and implement this on Friday.” No more response email clutter, no debate, just delete. If you did this right, you won’t get a response. Otherwise, you’ve severely done a misdoing and you’ll hear from those folks “too busy to respond” nearly immediately. ;)

My favorite gadget: JAMBOX

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I’ve been using the JAMBOX from Jambone since January and it’s become one of my favorite gadgets that I didn’t know I needed until I started using it.

What is JAMBOX

The JAMBOX is a portable bluetooth speaker that is about the size of a 20oz soda bottle. You can pair it with a handful of devices including phones, laptops, iPads, etc. The sound quality is tremendous. It’s no Bose but it’s leaps and bounds better than the built in speakers on the aforementioned devices. You can charge it through a wall adapter or a USB cable and holds a charge for weeks. I typically use it for 10 minutes every morning and an hour on the weekend and only recharge it once a month. It comes in multiple colors but black is the only acceptable color, in my opinion.

Why and when do I use it?

I love music, podcasts, and NPR programming (mostly the news). JAMBOX allows me to have this in a variety of scenarios I usually wouldn’t, or where headphones aren’t appropriate.

Getting ready in the bathroom: after a shower in the morning I like to put on the morning news from NPR while I get ready for the day. I just grab my iPhone and pull up the NPR app. It sounds much better than the iPhone speakers and I can even hear it in the next room.
Trips to the mountains in the car: we don’t have an auxiliary input in our car so our choices are listening the radio (not always available in the mountains) and CDs (we never remember to make new ones). This allows us to listen to anything: podcasts, new music, streaming music, even TV shows or movies.
Conference calls at home: it’s pretty awkward for two people to crowd around a cell phone and yell into it when having a conversation with someone on the line. This has a great microphone and excellent sound quality for a true conference call solution.
Watching laptop in bed: we have a laptop that runs Hulu and other movies at the other end of the room hooked up to a monitor but the sound from the laptop isn’t loud enough. By simply pairing the laptop with JAMBOX we can have the speaker rest on the headboard behind us and watch in comfort.

All in all, it has become a very handy music solution. This summer I expect we will use it outdoors on our new patio for entertaining and lounging.

What about Sonos?

We have two Sonos systems which are great but the JAMBOX can be taken anywhere and isn’t tied down to a pair of speakers. Plus, I can use literally any audio source on my iPhone or iPad (which have Bluetooth) which the Sonos does not.

All in all, this is one of the best audio devices to have and would recommend it to anyone.

The power of Time Machine, Dropbox, and Subversion

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I’ve been testing a certain unreleased [operating system](http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/) for the past month or two and I’ve been largely pleased. That was until I ran into a nasty little bug (which has been documented to happen on Snow Leopard, too). It goes like this:

* Type on your keyboard
* Observe as a Kernal panic wipe your screen
* Reboot

A nasty little bugger, no doubt. But here’s the rub: you no longer have any login accounts.

Let me say that again because it’s important: once you reboot, you are prompted to log in to *nothing*. Not a single user account is available to select. You can type in any combination of username and password, but don’t bother, they won’t work.

The neat thing is, I could usually just grab my OS reinstall disk and do some sort of reset trick to tell the OS to create a new administrator account. But the neat part of being on the bleeding edge is… this one happens to crash when you try that.

### “No problem” says Time Machine

I plug my computer into two [Time Machine](http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/time-machine.html) drives almost every day. One at work and one at home.

With a quick reboot and “Restore from Time Machine”, within three hours my entire computer had been brought back to the exact state it was in on a Friday morning and I was back in business (e.g.: I could log in again).

### “I’ve already got this” says Dropbox

Once I log in, [Dropbox](http://db.tt/SwXMrCf)[^1] is already busily computing how many files I have on my machine and which ones are different than what they have on their servers. It was a lot, but within an hour everything had been re-downloaded and my documents, music, and photos were all back to exactly the way there were moments before the dreaded key combination occurred.

### “Just a few more things” says Subversion

Luckily it was a Saturday evening and I wasn’t working on anything of much importance (remember kids, commit early, commit often). So, with a quick “[svn up](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/re28.html)” on my work file directories I had all the code and documents back on my drive from Friday. I’m sure a few local changes I made are missing, but nothing of much significance. I’m a manager, not a maker.

—

And with those three simple tools: local incremental backups, storage in the cloud, and a version control system I went from utter catastrophe to right-as-rain in an afternoon. If I had my Super Duper drive it would’ve been even faster.

Bad things don’t have to happen to data. This stuff really is that easy…

[^1]: Sign up for Dropbox with [this link](http://db.tt/SwXMrCf) and we will *both* get some extra megabytes!

Lame ways to close an email

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Over the past few years I’ve been surprised by the ways people chose to close an email. I’m not sure if everyone is aware how a few simple words can completely destroy whatever content proceeded it.

Some stress out about the *right* way to close an email, especially in business settings. Do I say “Best” or is that corny? What about “Cheers” if I’m not from England? How about I just state my name? That may be too informal and abrupt…

It seems though, the wrong people may be worrying about this.

Fair warning: those that *aren’t* thinking about this and choose to use any of the following may be ignored for a few days:

Please advise.

What? You likely just sent a long, ranty email with paragraphs explaining some troubles you just had. Likely no where in there was “this is how I tried to solve this on my own.” And so you’ve now made it my responsibly to sift through half of the equation (the problem) and advise you? Is it because you said please you’re so entitled? Okay, you may be a customer who pays me big bucks to do this, but this seems far too abrupt and impolite.

How about: “I tried X and my result was Y based on my understanding: Z. Is the right approach?”

Thoughts?

No? This is the kind of abrupt conclusion that typically follows a roundabout email that is far too long to digest and easily respond to. Instead of simple points that can be individually addressed (interleaved is the only way to respond to email) I now have a single prompt to give my thoughts to all of that? Which items do you want my thoughts on? Maybe I’ll write back with a long form email in the same fashion you gave and you can sort through my solicited “thoughts.” There’s certainly *no* way that will result in a lot of back and forth, misunderstandings, and missed points.

How about: “I’ve decided that X is the best product because of Y and Z, can you think of any reason not to go with it?”

I await your response.

Fan-frickin-tastic. I hope you’re sitting by your computer hitting refresh until you see my beloved response. This typically makes the conclusion of your email sound passive aggressive just like saying “I expect you to” makes you sound more entitled and demanding than I’m sure you intended. By an email addressed to me, I’m aware of the fact you are expecting a response; this is why we typically send emails, especially with question marks in them. But, now you’ve made me grumpy because I’m picturing you standing there tapping your foot with your arms crossed.

How about: “I look forward to hearing from you. Have a nice day.”

These are some of my favorites. If you’re really looking to communicate frustration or annoy someone on the receiving end, be sure to borrow these. Or just write passive aggressive blog posts to blow off that steam.

Thoughts? Are there others that should be listed here? Please advise. I await your responses…

SXSW Interactive is like a college, not a conference

Lots of classes

SXSW Interactive is a 5-day event with 1,041 sessions presented by 1,648 speakers. (lanyrd)

That is absolutely insane! Can you learn anything from a show this big? (Signal vs Noise)

Of course you can. Different vocations require different subject matter. Interactive has become a catch-all conference for anything having to do with the internet. This is like trying to attend a conference about “business” or about “food” — there are niche subjects for everyone. Much like university, you have arts and sciences and drill down into art history, or music, etc. At Interactive, you can learn about startups, and drill down into running a business, finding customers, marketing to customers, etc.

Lots of people

Sure, the conference has grown. Estimates put this year at nearly 20,000 attendees for Interactive alone. Some say that’s too much and I could agree. But, I also attended a state school with nearly 25,000 undergraduate students. Interactive was transformed to mimic a downtown campus: remote facilities for different types of sessions (e.g.: journalism in the Sheraton). I never felt like Interactive was too crowded because we are all spread out, focusing on our own things, seeing our own circle of friends, and going to the parties that interest us the most.

Parties

For many, the college experience is simply classes and studying spattered with parties. Or perhaps the inverse. Depending on your personality and what you’re looking to achieve, Interactive can be about sessions, parties, or both. You get out of the experience what you put into it.

Who you meet

This is largely self evident but Interactive is about like-minded people coming together and having a shared experience: grabbing coffee, a drink, setting up an ad-hoc meeting in the Hilton lobby, etc. Friendships and acquaintances made during college usually last long into adulthood and careers. Personalities may change, career paths may diverge, but keeping in touch with smart folks who you shared late nights or classes with is invaluable. The people I met at university and continue to stay in touch with are amazing and always fun to catch up with. So are those that I’ve had the opportunity to see again or meet for the first time at Interactive.

The supposed wisdom of the crowds

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I enjoy watching people think they’re smarter than those around them. I don’t just mean the wise guy in the kick-off meeting or the blowhard in the First Class cabin. I enjoy watching this behavior magnified in large groups.

I see this a lot while skiing. People of all ages, backgrounds, experience levels, and familiarity all come together in a handful of locations:

As people get off the mountain after a long day they just want to get to their car and go home. But, before they reach their car they have to take a short bus ride to the parking lot. Unfortunately they aren’t the only ones and spot two long lines of people waiting for a bus. Instead of thinking “these people all must be waiting patiently for the next bus which has a front and back door” they start to question the crowd and believe they have a better plan. They likely try two “outsmart” stunts: first, they see the next bus, spot it dropping skiers off at the drop-off zone five yards away, then run over to the bus which promptly closes it’s doors and pulls up to the two lines. Then, stunt two is realizing they should have just stood in line, but then spot a much shorter line with a smaller bus just a few feet away. They immediately jump on that bus and pat themselves on the back for beating the wisdom of the crowd. Of course, they arrive at entirely the wrong destination just a few minutes later and come back to start this over again.

I also hear a handful of individuals “outsmart” the 50 or so people that get on the bus with all their gear (skis, poles) in-hand despite the ski-shaped slots appearing on the sides of the bus. Instead of thinking “all of these people must not place their skis in the slots for a good reason” they spend 15 seconds trying to jam their wide powder skis into holes that were designed for narrow downhill skis many years ago. We all know it’s a round hole and that you’re carrying a square peg.

I get it: sometimes you don’t understand the situation presented to you and you want to figure it out, perhaps even improve it. I love disruptive technologies and ideas that question the status quo. But in a crowd that may consider the current experience routine, there are literally hundreds that have been there before you and learned so you don’t have to. Why not realize there is prior knowledge implicitly being shared?

Do individuals really think they are smarter than everyone around them in these situations? This is not a rhetorical question. I simply don’t appreciate the line of thinking previously described. Is there a inhibition of common sense when you think you can defeat a situation?

What surprises me even more, though is the inverse: the mob mentality. I’m shocked by the terrible things said and done when people become anonymous in a crowd. Whether it’s encouraging potential suicide victims by chanting “jump” or yelling hateful, racist, ignorant comments at people different from themselves.

Is there a wisdom of the crowds? At what point do you ignore it and which situations benefit learning from it?

Sync bookmarks across browsers and iOS devices

Xmarks

This thing is stupid simple: install the browser-specific plugins, create an account and you’re done. It runs in the background and I’ve never noticed it. I’ve installed Xmarks on my Macbook Air for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox and everything is always up-to-date, no conflicts, no trouble.

This is especially handy since I can transition from one browser to the other and use the address bar the same way: type a few characters of a word, select the website I meant, and hit go. This quick, fluid motion is valuable when visiting thousands of websites each and every day. But, here’s where it gets interesting…

MobileMe

Arguably, the biggest time suck in my life is typing on an iOS device. I’m fine at the typing, but I use my iPad and iPhone almost exclusively at home. So, it annoys me to no end to try and type in a long website address with two thumbs.

Though, when a website is saved as a bookmark, the address bar will surface it to you immediate as you start typing. Much like any other address bar, this means I can type just a few characters and almost immediately tap to go. No more “fiacardservices.com” typos anymore! No more “google.com/webmasters/tools” marathon sessions.

But, how do I get all those bookmarks from my web browsers onto two more Apple devices? Easy: I pay the $99 subscription fee for MobileMe (get 30% off if you ask nicely at an Apple Store). Then, I spent 5 minutes configuring my iOS devices and personal computer settings. That’s it.

Now when I add a new bookmark *anywhere*, I don’t even have to think about it. It shows up everywhere wirelessly and effortlessly. (Sidenote: I think Apple will do very well when it adds more cloud-based offerings to MobileMe, this stuff “just works”).

Has anyone experimented with anything else?