New on my "Don't leave home without it" list - Freespire Linux Live CD

So my work laptop BSOD'd on me. Not Windows - it was the hard drive. This is actually the third work hard drive to die in the past two years. I also had a personal PC hard drive fail on me two years ago. Add that up and I've now had 5 - that's right - five hard drives die on me in the last two years.

I don't exactly baby my laptops, but I do use them long, hard hours. Often times 12+ hours a day, every day, more or less. My laptops do travel with me everywhere and I'm sure they have the same kind of typical insults other hard drives encounter in laptop form factors.

But that many failures would be enough to devastate most people - myself included, up until a couple years ago.

Now, though, I more or less live in a cloud.

- My personal and work mail is web-based.
- My most imporant documents are all in Google Docs and Spreadsheets
- My digital photos are all uploaded to Google's Picasaweb
- My personal laptop is backed up by Mozy online automatically every day
- My work laptop is backed up to a server automatically every day

It's nice to know that ... should my hard drive die on whatever machine I'm on ... I can drop my Freespire Linux Live CD in, connect to the web and get going again in just a couple minutes.

In fact, the main thing that lives offline is my Firefox configuration - which I keep on a USB drive.

Freespire, it turns out, is really nice. Easy to set up and use. I'm pretty amazed at how well everything works - and it's fast. Well, except for certain javascript apps in Firefox. Yikes - really, really slow.

It will be nice when I can simply go with a solid state flash RAM hard drive to boot my OS and then simply connect to the cloud. Speed, energy efficiency, battery life and durability should improve, all without sacrificing access to data.

Walk Score - Creating a metric to measure how "walkable" a neighborhood is

Walk Score - Helping homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods.

Awesome mashup for finding apartments and homes with access to stores, recreation, education, restaurants and entertainment within walking distance.

I scored a 71 - not bad for suburbia!

Time Waster - WSJ.com

Time Waster - WSJ.com

Hilarious articles and photos related to internet humor memes. I'd never heard of icanhazcheezburger.com before. And the bukkit stuff - pretty priceless.

As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes - New York Times

As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes - New York Times

Another reason I'm not really interested in working overseas in China. The air in Beijing when we visited was absolutely horrific - several multiples worse, at least from a particulate matter perspective, than I recall ever growing up in LA during the late 70s and early 80s. Living there could take years off your life.

Cancer is the #1 cause of death? Yikes!

Navigating Uncharted Territory: How We Developed a Strategic Product Marketing Role — Pragmatic Marketing

Navigating Uncharted Territory: How We Developed a Strategic Product Marketing Role — Pragmatic Marketing

Great commentary on the disconnect between product marketing and product marketing.

How to Be More Effective

Excellent insights from my home slice at Trizzle on how to be more productive. We can have a tendency to get ego involvement in finishing that one thing ... that ONE thing ... that we lose sight of the fact that among the other things on the list, this one isn't really as important as we think it is.

I love this guy.

 

 

Sent to you by Mark via Google Reader:

 

 

How to Be More Effective

via Trizle by The Trizle Team on Aug 15, 2007

Scenario: "Yo, let's spend the entire day on fixing ____. We-so-determined! Yay!"

Peep this:

Johnny Orangeseed runs a small factory in Fremont, Californ-i-a. This crazy mofo employs twenty employees.

The company ain't runnin' so well:

• His managers need resources.
• His accountant needs balance sheets.
• His employees need software.
• His customers need shipments.

But-oh-no-no-no!

Sure, Mr. Orangeseed thinks subconsciously:

• "Oh-gee-golly! I have so much work to do!"

But consciously, what does his booty do?

• "Just wait right there! I gotta fix our customer feedback form first! Once I fix this thing, that will free up my time to help others! Shebang!"

So, what does the Johnny do?

• 10:00 a.m: He tries fixing teh report.
• 11:00 a.m: Still tries.
• 12:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 1:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 2:00: p.m.: Still tries.
• 3:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 4:00 p.m.: "Gee-golly! I just fixed it!"

Then, he tells himself and whoever's listening:

• "See...when you put your entire heart into completing something, you can accomplish anything! Yay! Believe in yourself!"

So, he goes about his daily days with his self-indulgent victory trips, as:

• His managers drain morale.
• His employees lose productivity.
• His accountant's getting woozy.
• His customers start cussing.

Boo.

Why Accomplishing ______ Ain't So Important

What was the most important thing you did last year?

"Oh-no, not-one-thing!" you scream.

"My badass completed a plethora of things that contributed to my effectiveness last year!"

1. Take the the most important thing you did last year?
2. It'd still be a fraction of what you accomplished.

(And probably, within that context -- you still completed numerous mini-tasks.)

A ridiculous collection of tasks contributed to that 2006 story.

And the times when you focused 100% of heart, energy, and soul on fixing that itty-bitty problem that bugged you?

• In the grand scheme of things, that itty-bitty problem ain't so important after all.

If a future situation like that happens:

1. Delegate/trash it.
2. Move on.

It's not worth your time.

The Goal

1. Finish something quickly.
2. Start next task.
3. Repeat.

Productivity. Soar. Eagle.

Big Shots Think Bigger

Hewlett and Packard had no business plan.

As did Salesforce's Marc Beinoff, Virgin's Richard Branson, and Michael Dell, Gates, Buffett, yadda.

Walt Disney's behind just wanted to sell something.

We still know folks that tell us they're still "perfecting" their business plans -- after 5 years.

Boo.

Spending 9968987408609587094 hours on one thing gets you nowhere.

It Just Doesn't Matter

Sure, you hear those "success gurus" telling you:

• "Never give up! Yay!"

They.suck.suck.

Hanging onto something for too long suffocates productivity.

It gets to a point where spending any more time on Task A will contribute nothing to Task A.

Remember:

• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.

One-two-three-five-twenty years from now:

It just does not matter.

Sidebar: Measuring Real Productivity

A sweet measure of productivity:

Measure how many tasks you accomplish, daily.

That is:

1. List the items you'd want accomplished today.
2. Tackle dem suckas.

Rule of thumb:

The more tasks you accomplish in a day, the crazier more productive you'll see yourself by the end of the week.

Doing many things drives you to focus on bigger pictures.

A collection of tasks drives freakish progress.

El entire enchilada.

 

 

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