The Idea Dude

Digital books are eco-friendly

2010-08-29T13:37:00.002-04:00

I bought my first digital book last night. They didn't have it on iBooks so I ended up buying it from Amazon using Kindle for iPad.

The 512 page book was compressed to less than 5MB. Before I knew it, it was downloaded onto my Kindle. It's a blast to use, bright screen, adjustable font sizes. I think I just shrugged off my fear of not have a hardcopy on my table.

There are so many pluses to this. The publisher makes more money because each copy is effectively zero cost. Hopefully it gets past onto the author. I received my book within seconds and without leaving my kitchen where I made the purchase. I can carry any number of books with me without the physical weight and I can download it on my Mac if I choose to read it that way.

Imagine if they had an exchange program where you can hand in a physical book and get a digital copy, there's probably at 20 books that I would immediately hand in.

Just lovin' it.

To blog or not to blog

2010-08-15T09:00:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure where the last 6 weeks went. It went.

So I hang my head in shame looking at the void in my blog since my last post. The spirit was willing but the work piled up. There was no shortage of ideas and inspirations just lack of time to think them through.

And there lies the rub, thinking them through. Is it better to publish a post that is half complete or not to publish at all? Maybe that's why people twitter. There is no expectation of quality or premeditation. The worst that can happen is you waste 10 seconds reading a maximum of 160 characters.

So here's a post perhaps is much ado about nothing. Hmm, maybe that should be the byline for Twitter.

Otherwise enjoying a vacation in Washington and New York. Experiencing the magnitude of history in DC and the magnitude of diversity in NY. I feel so small.

Hearing is believing

2010-07-21T20:14:00.004-04:00

Logic never comes into the equation when it comes to buying the things we desire the most. Those decadent objects are never bought because you need them but rather because you want them. Think Porsche sports cars, Coach handbags, Apple iPhones, Centrance headphone amplifiers. Wait... did someone say headphone amplifier? Yup, I sure did.

Most people in the world listen to music as if we're driving a car with a muddy windshield. We buy an expensive music player and proceed to use $20 headphones listening to music ripped as MP3s. Like drinking cheap wine, if that's all you drink, you'd be happy for a long time. Until of course one day someone offers you a great Chardonnay or a 10 year old Cabernet. After the first sip, you savor what would seem like liquid heaven... and then you damn the person who offered it to you because life will never be the same again.

The only thing I never loved about my MacBook was the sound. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. My Thinkpad of old had Intel High Definition audio. It spoilt me to a point, I never really listened to music on my Mac for long periods of time. The sound was flat, boring and unimaginative. Finally, I relented and purchased a headphone amplifier, the DacPort from Centrance. Computers are not meant to be hi-fi devices so they put components that are generally decent and good enough but not stellar. The DacPort was designed to be a high end audio device that takes raw digital output and converts it to analog signals to drive headphones and preamps.

If you're expecting sound that's immediately a 100x better, you would be disappointed. It's not that immediately obvious. But like a good bottle of wine, take a little time and all the goodness is revealed in its own time. Here's why it shines:

You have to pick the right music and performances. The garbage in / garbage out principle applies. Pick a live performance with great voices and acoustic instruments, you'll hear the rasp of a sultry voice, the squeal of fingers on the nylon strings. Details you only thought you could hear if you sat next to a live performance.
Audiophiles like to talk about the soundstage. That's another way to say, the music sounds three dimensional, not flat but has depth. Instruments and artists are every distinct from each other giving you the impression that are in different places around you. The DacPort gives you that soundstage.
Here's the shocking thing. I have a pair of Shure, Grado and Sony Studio Monitors. In the past, they sounded pretty close to each other, presumably because the audio quality was vague enough to mask their differences. With DacPort giving very clean and distinct sounds, each headphone had an entirely different character. I was aware of the differences before but never to that extent.
Unlike many headphone amplifiers, the DacPort works great with in-ear headphones like the Shure. No hiss, no noise, just clean, clean sound.
The mark of a good amplifier is how much detail you hear in low volumes. I was able to turn it pretty low (while programming) and still enjoy a lot of detail in the music.

Warning: some of your favorite music you listen to will invariably sound bad, either because they were ripped with too much loss or the recording wasn't great. The DacPort isn't discriminate when it comes to revealing your music to as close to its original form as you can get. It's like watching the beach form a distance. They all look beautiful until you get really close, not everyone is made equal (unfortunately).

I don't normally do product reviews and I paid full price for this baby, so it's not some shameless endorsement here. At close to 400 big ones, you could get a netbook. But as far as audiophile equipment goes, it's a steal. It isn't rational. At the end of the day, as you step into your Porsche and turn the key, or sling that Burberry handbag over your shoulder, the price is irrelevant, it's how it makes you feel. Right now that's the way I feel when I crank up the volume.

BTW: When the CEO takes the time to answer your many emails very patiently, you realize there is a passionate team of people who really care about what they do and the quality of their products. Thank you Michael.

My MacBook is now even cooler!

2010-07-16T09:58:00.005-04:00

I finally decided to buy a laptop cooling fan. After upgrading my MacBook to 4GB, adding a higher capacity hard drive and driving a 24 inch external display, things starting to heat up. When I first bought my MacBook, the temperatures were in the 50's and now consistently it is in the 70's and sometimes 80's. (all figures in centigrade)

So I sprung some well-earned dollars and got a Zalman cooling fan. It's not ideal, the two fans are smaller than others and the airflow is towards the bottom 2/3's of the cooling platform. The MacBook gets the hottest at the top where the exhaust vents are and on the top left where the graphics card is.

Your notebook will heat up if:

You add more hardware like more memory, bigger / faster harddrive or connect external devices like an external monitor. More hardware means more current. More current means more heat.
Running screensavers will keep your CPU's and GPU's hot because there is very little or no disk access. Your CPU's will end up running 30% or more capacity and more importantly (all the time, not just sporadic bursts). This translates to more heat and less battery life.
If you leave your browsers open, be aware what is running in the windows. Rotating ads, flash advertisements, animations will drive your CPU and GPU nuts just like screensavers. Your CPU could reach 50-80% depending the page. And all this is happen while you step out to lunch or throughout the night.
Keep an eye what what is running in the background and what their CPU consumption is. If it is occasional like a printer manager waking up for a brief period, you're ok. But it all adds up. I've noticed that Google Docs have some bug that occasionally, it gets into a loop and my CPU max's out until I close the browser window. And I wasn't even editing the doc!

There are so many threads about notebooks mysteriously draining power overnight or overheating when not in use. Because you're not using it doesn't mean the notebook is being used!

So on to cooling pads, here are some tips:

If noise is important to you. Get the cooler with the larger fans. They range from 70mm to 230mm. Large fans don't have to run as fast to generate the same airflow. Fan speed is the biggest source of noise. Small fans have to run faster and generate more noise. I would have love to get the ones with 230mm fans, unfortunately, their design means the whole notebook is raised by an inch which is not acceptable to me. I type pretty much 8-12 hours a day.
Most of the cheap products don't tell you what the airflow is (usually this is measure in cubic feet per minute (CFM). You can usually guess by looking at fan size and fan speed when comparing different products.
Before buying a fan, look at where the hotspots really are on you notebook. Sometimes it is on the side furthest from you (MacBooks) or on the side (ThinkPads). Remember, the fan is there to move hot air away from the hotspot.
Running a cooling pad will not necessarily reduce your normal operating temperature of the CPU as much as you think. Here's why. The CPU gets hot, the heatsink draws the heat away from the CPU, the fan blows the air away through the vents or towards the body of the notebook. Under normal conditions if you can remove the hot air from the notebook body and the vents, the internal fan detects the internal temperatures are down and slows down or stops. The CPU stays relatively hot. So extra cooling on the outside at some point doesn't translate to lower CPU temperatures. You're reached steady state and the temperature gradient from inside to outside doesn't change. To reduce the CPU temperature, you have to make the internal fan run even if it thinks it doesn't have to so the air from the CPU can be moved away.
External cooling fans do their best work in the extreme cases. That's when the CPU's hot, the internal fan is blowing and you need to move hot air fast. Since getting the notebook cooling pad, the temperature seems to be fairly constant between 66-75 deg C while running the internal fan at around 3000rpm. This is true even when watching a YouTube video or the SlingBox TV channel. Before the cooling pad I would see temperatures rise over 80 deg C and the fan blowing over 4000-5000rpm.
Don't forget that your ambient temperature impacts your steady state. My office is good 5-6 degrees cooler than my loft at home. My MacBook sensors show the notebook body is correspondingly 3-4 deg lower at work than at home. Ambient affects what your steady state temperature flow.

So my conclusion, notepad coolers are great. Don't expect them to do much at normal loads (but then you would be buying one anyway). But they help keep heavy load conditions close to normal operating temperatures. High temperatures shorten the life of your components and increase the risk of failure.

Right now, my MacBook is even cooler in every sense of the word.

iPad goodness

2010-07-14T13:42:00.002-04:00

I managed to read a 197 page pdf document on the iPad. There's a neat feature that allows you to save the pdf to your iBook library. Best part it remembers your last page. But it's an exercise I have rarely attempted on a notebook or desktop.

The iPad format feels like a book that you can sit back, hold in your hand and pause to reflect on the content when you want to. Maybe I'm just old school.

I've been reading Marvel comics on the iPad too. The graphics are stunning but somehow it just doesn't feel the same as having a comic in your hand. I'm thinking it is because when we read comics, we don't just focus on a frame but our peripheral vision allows us to see the other frames that adds to the viewing experience.

BTW: The worst thing you can do on the iPad is browse car sites. Just about every major manufacturer requires a flash plugin and many just don't work at since the menu is flash-based. Must be a niche for some savvy developer.

Bridges of Madison County

2010-07-12T11:31:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to watching Bridges of Madison County. Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar, she should have won.

There was one moment that stuck with me. Clint Eastwood's character Robert Kincaid reflected on their relationship,

"This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime."

A great powerful comment. I thought about pivotal moments in my life, the crossroads where I made some important decision. How many of them were that certain. I'm not sure.

But often, in the face of risk, our gut will say something, maybe something like what Robert said. At that point in the time, we know what we should do, anything less we would live with a lifetime of regret.

The train has left the station

2010-07-06T16:51:00.002-04:00

I was watching Polar Express with my daughter over the weekend. Yes it was kinda weird watching a snowy Christmas movie when we're in a heat wave. But we're Tom Hanks fans.

There's a very poignant moment at the end of the movie where the conductor says to the boy, "It doesn't matter as much where the train is going, it is more important whether you choose to get on the train."

The older we get the harder it is to commit to new adventures. Perhaps we are all too aware of the cost and risk. Children never count the cost or see the risk. They definitely seize the moment whereas as adults we simply seize up like old machine parts.

There is a happy medium in between but often we forget to see the world through the eyes of children. If we forget, we may never know what we could have achieved.

What's in your knapsack

2010-07-05T07:47:00.002-04:00

Two elderly people were out walking this morning. Wrapped around their waists where sweaters... just in case. With the kind of weather we were getting, hand towels are probably better ideas, but instead they had sweaters. Just in case.

I wondered how much of our lives are cluttered with unnecessary articles, habits, thoughts, feelings, regrets, hate. Things we choose to carry around us because we are afraid by letting go, we would lose them. But what if we do? Would it be the end?

We do it all the time. I'm notorious for keeping boxes after taking out the items. Just in case I need to return them, I tell myself. 10 years, after the items have been thrown out, the boxes are still there. Just in case. My parents do the same, in their case, I'm sure it is because they know what it is like not to have things. For them, it is a habit of being frugal. And mostly it is a habit.

We are all hoarders in some way. Whether it is physical or emotional, we keep things around. Many of them are unnecessary. Maybe it is our primeval gathering instinct but I suspect it is just our insecurities.

George Clooney gives his knapsack lecture in his movie Up in the Air. One can read so much in that metaphor, e.g. empty knapsack means empty soul. It does make me wonder how often do we check what we have in our lives. How much is redundant? How much of it has no value or use anymore?

To have an empty knapsack would be a tragedy. There must be things, memories, feeling, people who help define us and build our world around us. I guess the problem is we seldom look inside to figure out what we should leave behind, to make space for the new. If we don't, our knapsacks will eventually drag us down and we remain the same.

They say if we continue to the do same things, we will get what we always gotten. It is always time to change. Not necessarily monumental change. Just tweaks here and there and before we know it, we become new "me's"/

Having room to breathe

2010-07-03T11:05:00.002-04:00

Once again, I slipped into the blogging abyss. I don't believe in frivolities, I'd rather not blog than fill this space for the sake of putting some content up. I make a poor candidate for Twitter and Facebook. I honestly don't know why people would care that I had a great day at the beach yesterday. I don't deny the value of the social network. I just don't believe in digital pollution.

To be honest, I have been criticized in the past for not initiating or speaking up because I was told that my voice does matter and the content always has merit. Unfortunately, I am an introvert and it's a gene or DNA thing. Like a sword, my voice is never used in jest but used when needed to. In truth, I am a thinker. I get lost in my thoughts, really.

The past month has been a hectic whirlpool of activities as we help a client with some much need features that would make their big marketing push. 14-16 days don't give one room to think of other things. Nor does it help with the morning quiet time I religiously set out for myself.

It did prove one thing. If you have no room to breathe, or have no time to reflect, you will stop growing as an individual. When you're in a jungle slashing away furiously around you, beating a path, you're not above the treetops looking at where you should be going.

We love our client to bits. They have given us the financial freedom to make them successful and so far I think we have done just that. At the back of mind, there's a nagging sense that it is like a pair of golden handcuffs, because we're not building our own futures beyond being terrific consultants. I am truly grateful for once again having our heads above water but I embarked on this journey exactly 4 years ago to beat to our own drum, not someone else's.

Tealeaf is away for 3 weeks and I'm holding the fort. A lot of things have changed in the last 4 years. I've learnt a lot on all fronts. Most of all you learn a lot about yourself. You faced with your own frailties, shortcomings and learn to build on your strengths. Most importantly, you learn to survive. They can't teach that, you must learn it on your own. After 4 years, I feel like I've just started, it was my apprenticeship, to build a set of tools for the next 4 years.

Where will the next 4 years take me? I'd be a fool to predict. Some things don't change. I love to empower people, build great products, offer superb user experiences. Basically make my stay in the digital space a memorable one to those we touch.

I always ended each of my journeys with the Toy Story phrase, "To Infinity and Beyond". Unfortunately, reality is around the corner and is much more tangible than infinity. Nevertheless, I'm always a digital dreamer. Microsoft used to have the tagline, "Where would you want to go today?" I need to start asking myself that question again...

Winston Churchill said it best, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning".

We've drunk the Apple Kool-aid the past 18 months. So it is only fitting I tell myself, Steve's 4 famous words...

"Stay hungry, stay foolish"...

Bling is in our DNA

2010-06-06T19:09:00.002-04:00

So I'm standing in the Apple store looking at the 15 inch MacBook with the anti-glare screen. Next to it is a standard MacBook with the glossy screen. It's been a rant of mine about how Apple and other notebook manufacturers have gone down the evil path of offering glossy screens that give off horrible reflections making it difficult to work over long periods of time.

Firstly, I pull up a long web article that consisted of lots of text. My theory is confirmed, that is much easier to read the one with the anti-glare. So I'm thinking that it would be great to trade up since I do spend 10-12 hours a day writing software.

But a strange thing happened. I noticed the photos on the anti-glare Macbook appeared washed out. The glossy screen seemed to show deeper and more vibrant colors. Indeed, the anti-glare screen seemed to put a snowy haze over everything, blacks looked like dark grays and the colors looked dull.

I reached an interesting cross-road in my analysis. Even though, I knew that as a programmer and someone who reads a lot of text throughout the day, buying the anti-glare Macbook was the right logical choice, the emotion side of me kept reminding me that I will miss the vibrant colors and deep blacks. I wondered if I would fall in love with the anti-glare version the same way as I have with my current glossy MacBook.

What happened to the logical, sensible me? My only explanation is that bling is our DNA. We love shiny things. As consumers we feast with our eyes. We buy shiny cars. We put sequins on our dresses. Our skyscrapers are monuments of glass. Every TV and notebook manufacturer has realized that. I played with my iPad the same night and wondered if I would have felt the same way, if the screen was also anti-glare. I half-suspect, I would still enjoy it but it would cease to be that new shiny thing that shimmered in my hands.

Most of our purchases are based on emotions and often on impulse. Yes, we'll compare features and do our research but our final decision is seldom based on logic. We will find ways to justify why we will buy the inferior one simply because it looked better.

Glossy is king and shiny is in. There are often stories of crows that lined their nests with jewelery, beads, marbles and other shiny things. Perhaps we are all birds of the same feather.

Apple needs to lighten up

2010-06-02T09:09:00.003-04:00

First up, I'm an Apple fan and have been since the Apple IIe in 1983. We have iPods, iPad, iMacs, iPhone, MacBooks. I loved the Mac commercials poking fun at the Microsoft products. I used to be a Microsoft fan too, still am. So for me, it's just great entertainment, nothing more or nothing less.

So I'm a little surprised at how they handled Ellen DeGeneres skit on the iPhone. First of all, it's coming from a comedian and talk show host. It probably borders on satire in some ways. But frankly, every mistake she made, I've made too. Typed the wrong characters, sent an SMS by mistake. It's not misrepresentation but reality. Apple saw fit to scold her and she had to offer a public apology. It's nowhere close to the constant stream of Apples ads ridiculing Microsoft.

Apparently what's good for the goose is not good for the gander. So it's a little disappointing to see that reaction. Apple, you should be fashionably sensitive but way to cool to care.

The 3 i's revisited

2010-06-01T09:31:00.002-04:00

I used to have the 3 i's on my business card. Funnily enough, if you have three words with exactly the same starting character, it's harder to remember.

The i's where Imagine, Innovate and Initiate. I believed in it and taught my teams to believe it it too.

Imagine - most of us don't practice the art of possibility (beyond the usual 'I want to be a billionaire'). We accept the status quot. We travel the same path every day, use the same gadgets, get the same pay check. Imagining means thinking of the what-if's and not worrying how absurd it sounds. Think about the microwave, the cellphone, wireless internet. A hundred years ago, it would be absurd. Today it is a commodity we take for granted.

Innovate - means bringing your imaginations into reality. Figuring out the path, finding the way. Innovating forces you to look at things differently, doing it differently because doing it the same way every day will get you the same result every time.

Initiate - get off our butts and doing it. The first step is always the hardest. Ask any toddler. But it doesn't stop him for trying and eventually he will learn to run and maybe, just maybe, become the fastest in the world.

The thing with the 3 i's is that they are things we do ourselves, they aren't things others do for us. There is no external barrier, just us. Sometimes we are our own biggest impediments.

Often I would imagine but too lazy to innovate and even if I find the energy, initiating is such a hill climb. But if we think of all the great inventions of our time, are these not the first 3 steps that they took?

The 3's are a constant reminder of what I need to do make a difference.

Far from the madding crowd

2010-05-29T08:42:00.002-04:00

6:30am and a stroll along the Niagara Falls. No crowds. Just some runners and a few tourists. The air is fresh punctuated by the twitter of birds and the roar of the water. Amazing!

Now I'm sitting by the pool on the 14th floor blogging while my daughter swims. I love my iPad. I could get used to this. Only regret? I didn't get the 3G version, there are definitely times when there isn't a hotspot available. I'm thinking of getting one of those mobile pocket wimax routers so I can use that with my iPhone, iPad and MacBook at the same time. Usually when we travel, there are also another laptop, netbook and another smartphone. These new 3G pocket routers are the size of a pack of cards and will connect up to 5 devices.

The protective layer over the iPad screen works well. I probably will forgo the customary screen protector. If I look back at all my devices, the Palm V, the Dell pocket pc, they all became obsolete before they broke down or became severely scratched. I know of families that wrap their couches in plastic. Yet we all drive $20,000+ cars in the worst conditions with hot sun, hail and snow. Isn't that ironic. I'm going to stop wrapping my life in plastic and live for the now.

Finding the beauty around us

2010-05-25T10:20:00.002-04:00

We visited the Royal Botanical Gardens over the weekend. Just an amazing explosion of color from the tulips to the irises and lilacs. Apparently there are only 20 natural occurring varieties of lilacs but over 1600 man-made / engineering strains. Boggles the mind.

I thought the possibility to moving closer to the gardens when I retire. The idea of being able to visit the many gardens and hiking possibilities were intriguing. Then I wondered would it be as special if I saw the wonderful display of flowers every week. Part of our amazement and wonder is because we visit the gardens once or twice a year.

Would we become jaded if we saw it every day? Would we stop looking and visiting after a while? Seth Godin talks about the purple cow. How a trip to the countryside gets everyone excited with the first siting of cows. 2 hours later, the cows are no longer a novelty and we hardly notice they are there.

We should take time to stop and examine the beauty around our daily lives that we too easily take for granted because they are always there.

Blogging via the iPad

2010-05-23T09:42:00.002-04:00

I had some good friends bring me an iPad several weeks ago from the US. Unfortunately we were so swamped with work we hardly had time to play with it. So here's my first attempt at doing something really useful on it. My first blog post on the iPad.

I can see how I would blog more often. It's a device that will readily on hand most of the time. No more jotting down thoughts so I can create the blog later on my Macbook.

I used to think Apple should have put the MacOS instead of the iPhone OS. I've changed my mind. It would create some issues like trying to be as functional as it's bigger brothers the Macbooks. The iPad should not be seen as a computing device, it is a digital assistant. The digital media companion and when you think about, that's all we really need 99% of the time. A little surfing, a little blogging, watch a video, read email and even play a game. Oh yes, as my daughter reminds me as she watches me type this. And read books.

Do we really need that big notebook / desktop? When we are away from our desks. Probably not.

Typing on the keyboard is not as bad as I anticipated.

Now to go and sit under a tree and read....

Finding the right lens

2010-05-20T08:45:00.002-04:00

This week, a local camera shop inserted a terrific flyer in our newspaper. Rather than the usual talk about great prices, advanced technology and all the gee whiz features of the latest cameras, it took different approach.

It simply told us, if you want to take a picture of that bird on a tree far away, there's a lens for that. Or if you want to focus on a beautiful person and blur the background so she stands out, there's a lens for that. Or if you want to squeeze a whole group of people into one picture, there's a lens for that too. And don't forget that funny lens that makes it look like you were in a fish bowl.

...And by the way, we have cameras that work with all the lenses.

Brilliant.

The message was simple, unexpected, engaging and told us about all the kinds of pictures we could take. ...And by the way, we have cameras that work with these lenses. They weren't selling product, they were selling possibility and opportunity. They were selling a result that you and I could easily understand. They were selling inspiration.

As I walked along the park this morning, (btw: at 6am, it always feels like there's only 10 people in the entire universe. And they all smile and say good morning, isn't that awesome?) I though about that ad, and about framing. How photographers have a great eye for framing a picture, using the right lens to take a picture that conveys the right message.

Made me think about how we forget to frame our lives, our moments, our activities with the right lens. Because we are gifted with great eyes that can see far and near pretty much at the same time. We always see the big picture, the periphery. Sometimes it's just too much information.

Often we forget to use the right lens to frame our lives. To focus on far and beyond when planning our goals and lives. To widen our arms to encompass our family and friends. To focus on special moments and blur our surroundings to make it special. And sometimes to take a really wacky perspective on the world because it's fun and makes us laugh.

The frame isn't the picture, but it sure helps us figure what the picture should be and what we should be looking at.

Using the right lens in life is about defining the moments, understanding why they are important and their context relative to our entire lives.

What's wrong with this equation

2010-05-19T10:19:00.002-04:00

I travel to our office every day for the past 4 years. It's about 12km. Within that period of time, I pass through 24 sets of traffic lights. 24! If they are in my favour, I can do the commute in less than 15 minutes. In the morning it's more like 40 minutes.

So during my commute, some external force aka traffic lights have the power to tell me what to do 48 times.

Got me thinking. We think we have free will from the time we wake up till we go to bed. Subconsciously, we are governed every day by rules beyond our control. How fast we should drive. When to start and stop. Where to park. What to eat. What we watch on TV and when.

We think we have choice but in reality our choices are never in a vacuum, they are always within some defining box. The designated parking spaces within the car park. What we can order at the local coffee shop.

Then there are the choices we think we are making but really are influenced by who we know, what we see on billboards and ads and what our friends may think.

I like to think I have the freedom of choice. But in reality for the most part of our lives, our choices have already been made or we are fooled into thinking we are choosing when someone has already defined the options.

Day 2, I joined the 50+ club

2010-05-18T09:05:00.002-04:00

It wasn't the mile-high club, more like the 50 mile-club. This morning, it was a walk in the park at 6:30am. As per my last post, I'm committed to giving myself the first hour of every day.

It is the best hour.

Just me, the birds and few other 50+ seniors.

There's a few ladies doing a few brisk laps around the pond.

An old man practicing Tai Chi on the bridge as the sun rises.

And me. Just me.

My kids are reaching the age where they are end their school era and entering adulthood. I'm fast approaching the 50+ club. Different perspectives, different goals. I wish I could tell them what really matters in life and what doesn't. I'm not sure they'll understand. I'm not sure I know either.

But I did learn in the last two days about perspective. About stepping back, way back and thinking about what really matters. And asking ourselves, the thing we think is so important right now, how would we feel about it in 5, 10, 15 years.

Oh, yes, I got my blogging mojo back it seems.

All I needed was a change in my routine and making time for me.

More often, I'm the March hare (aka white rabbit) in Alice in Wonderland. "I'm late, I'm late, no time to lose, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late". It's time I stopped to enjoy the Mad Hatter's Tea Party or talk to the Walrus about cabbages and kings.

Finding the inspiration

2010-05-17T10:08:00.002-04:00

Bloggers come in all shapes and guises. Some blog every thought, whim or desire. These people are probably avid twitterers, with active Facebook accounts, LinkedIn networks and a couple other social networks to boot.

My modus operandi is different. I prefer to blog about things that move me. Moments that I can go back several years later and still derive the same inspiration or emotion I had at the time of the blog post. That's just me.

Lately it's been tough, I get inspired many times in the day. Problem is it's usually squeezed between heavy workloads that really take it's toll. By the time, I get the 5 minutes, the inspiration is gone. The thought is still there but the ability to crank out a post that's just right has disappeared.

Today was different. There were probably 10 cars on the road. The birds were singing. The air was fresh. I was ready for the gym. Yes, it is Monday morning. The difference. It's 6am.

Developers tend to be night owls, raging into the night, laboring over the feature that just doesn't quite work. So getting up early is hard. Especially when the order of the day is wake up kids, get breakfast, make lunch and cart the kids to school.

This morning was different. At 6am. The world is pretty much still at peace. The drivers are courteous. Did I mention the air is fresh? There is a ton of parking at the gym and everyone seems to be absorbed into their workouts, deep in their own thoughts or maybe just not fully awake.

The epiphany came on the way home. As parents, spouses, workers, we grind out every day, waiting for that hour at the end of day to unwind. We drink from the bottom of the well. We eat the last crumb. We've been there and most of us are still there.

Surely we should give the best part of the day to ourselves, even if it is just a moment, an hour. And it shouldn't be 9pm at night. It should be the first thing we do for ourselves.

This morning showed me what Monday could be. And Tuesday. And Wednesday... So at least until the first snow, I resolve to slip out 6am every morning for me and only me. Whether it is the gym or a walk by the lake, I'm not saving the best for last. I'm savoring it first.

Who cares if the rest of the day is crappy? The main thing is it started right and if the rest turns out bad, there is still another sunrise to look forward to. Another new beginning. A new me.

Jumpstart your vision

2010-04-20T10:50:00.002-04:00

I was reading a John Maxwell article today. John said, "...Many people don't jumpstart their lives because they don't have anything to jump to! They plod along through life with little more than survival in mind. Visionaries dare to dream. They peer into the future and generate possibilities in their mind's eye..."

I believe most of the human race wake up in the morning waiting to be told what to do instead of thinking about what they want and should do. Jumpstarting your vision takes energy, guts and imagination.

Energy because we are entropic creatures by nature. All things being equal we prefer to settle to a low energy state, our comfort level. Jumpstarting a vision takes energy because it calls us to step beyond our boundaries and often into the unknown.

Guts because more often than not, we will be wrong. We will stand out from the crowd because our vision makes us different. It leaves us open to disappointment and ridicule. True visionaries will travel the path because they fear more that they will regret not travelling down the path.

Imagination because a vision requires bold thinking, exploring possibilities, questioning norms and asking what-if? Proust said "The real voyage of discovery consists of not seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes". Opportunities surround us each day, each waking minute. Too often we see our surroundings with old eyes. Discovery does not mean we have to travel far from where we are. Maybe all we have to do is look around us with a new lens.

Of course, all of the above is moot if we do not initiate. To make it to the top of the stairs means taking one step at a time.

I used to keep the three I's on my business card, Imagine, Inspire, Initiate. Imagining possibilities (don't box me in), inspire others around us (there is more power in the collective and me alone), and initiating to make a difference (just do it).

New Moon or Eclipse

2010-03-29T08:37:00.002-04:00

If you watched the opening scene of New Moon, you'll notice the moon getting smaller and smaller. As my astute daughter pointed out, that's an eclipse, not a new moon.

Frankly, I didn't get the movie. My daughter's a fan like countless thousands of young females like her. She didn't think the movie did the book justice but it didn't stop her enjoying every minute of it.

In retrospect, if I were a news reporter, the headline would go something like, "Suicidal teenager obsesses over 109 year old man who can't commit". In the end she gives up the buff-body of a teenage werewolf for bushy-browed vampire.

Based on the number of fans out there, the sequel is sure to be a hit. I wonder if Shakespeare would have got the same reception for Hamlet if he lived in these modern times.

Delighting your customers

2010-03-25T21:57:00.003-04:00

If you look at the reviews for our Email Signature Pro product for the iPhone, a common theme beyond being impressed with the product is that users love our customer service. I'm really proud of that. Sometimes we can't solve the issues due to technical limitations of the iPhone but we really do try to respond in a positive manner. Most times, we answer within a few hours and often we do solve the issues.

People seem genuinely surprised that a) they get an answer, b) they get a response the same day and c) sometimes it's an email dialog because the issue is harder to track down. I guess not all app developers are equal. I mean, if you give something away for free or 99c, how much time can you afford to give support. Something's gotta give. It's tough maintaining that level of support but I always think of me being on the end. It's the least I would expect so it's the least we should do, i.e. respond timeously, professionally and never get into a fight.

So I'm incredibly impressed when I get the same level of service from the Firefox team. I'm testing their new alpha build 3.7 and found a few bugs. Within the same day of logging one of the bugs, I get an email showing activity, it gets re-assigned, cc'ed and finally an email asking for an example because they can't reproduce it. I get around to mocking up a webpage with the problem at 6pm tonight. They respond just before 10pm that it was related to another issue that was fixed today and I should try tomorrow's build.

The fact that they fixed the bug is almost secondary. To know that they were looking at the problem within the same day and then tracked it down to another bug that solves this issue was what was amazing.

I'm left with the feeling, these developers really love their product and proud of it. I doubt I would get the same response for IE or Safari. Firefox has community written all over it.

Next time I find another bug, I'll be sure to post it. Just doing my part for the Firefox community and I have this perception, they really will appreciate the help.

Today, I was the delighted customer!

Change, change, change

2010-03-23T08:57:00.003-04:00

No one would disagree that drinking and drinking is hazardous. Nor would they argue that smoking is harmful to your health. And we all know that getting up just 10 minutes earlier will ensure we get to work on time. Nevertheless, despite our highly evolved human intellect and rationality, we continue to do the things we shouldn't do and resist doing the things we should.

I'm reading Dan and Chip Heath's latest book called 'Switch, How to change things when change is hard'. Their metaphor is the rational rider struggling to tame the emotional elephant. Being rational and logical is in fact paralyzing and saps us of our inner strength. Apparently will power is an exhaustible supply. So we need to use the elephant to effect change.

We actually know this when dealing with kids. We get our way by making it fun for them. Lego had the concept of Serious Play. We learn more when we are not aware that we are learning. Somehow, we forget this when practicing the piano, filling our taxes, brushing our teeth, sticking to our diets, taking out the garbage.

I'll have more when I finish the book. Right now, I'm going to tame that elephant.

What are you doing with the rest of your life?

2010-03-22T08:43:00.003-04:00

I watched The Bucketlist last night. Two terminally ill people played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman set out to do the things they always dreamed of but never did. Made me wonder why we would wait until we knew we were dying before doing the things we always wanted to do. I guess it our fear of death or eternal optimism that we will live forever helps us push out our goals and dreams. The reality is, we could be hit by a bus tomorrow or live to be hundred.

Not all of us would have the luxury of a rich benefactor. If given 6 months to live, I doubt I would be doing anything different, perhaps frantically reducing my debt. No luxury yaughts or climbing pyramids... just working to reduce my debt.

On a side note, if I could choose one physical character trait when I was born, it would not be to have the voice of Morgan Freeman or George Clooney. They probably would have been even be bigger stars on radio if television was not invented.

Back to my bucketlist...

BTW: George Clooney's Up in the Air was also amazing. What's in your backpack? Watch the movie to find out.

The bumps in the road

2010-03-16T09:48:00.002-04:00

Simon and Garfunkel (who???) had a classic song, Bridge over Troubled Water. Starts with the line, "When you're weary, feeling small...".

We've all been there, maybe several times a month or even within a week.

So, I'm driving to work this morning, thinking about a dozen things I need to do that can be best described as tedious and unexciting. Happen to drive across a rough stretch of road in need of repair. Riddled with potholes and cracks.

Then came my daily epiphany.

If I drove an exotic Italian sports car and the road was smooth and straight. It would be boring. The best enjoyment would be to take it through hills and valleys, hugging the curves, deftly avoiding the rocks and cracks in the road. That would be interesting.

So would life be, if we thought about all that is thrown at us - as challenges that make our lives interesting and memorable. Without them, life would be boring, we would be boring.

So today, I will embrace the things I care the least about. Treat them as events no matter how small that make my life interesting and not annoying.

I used to write on my whiteboard in my younger days. "Stop and smell the roses". A reminder I was running too fast, heading for a goal and forgetting to savor the moment.

Seems like I had a memory loss.

The bumps in the road may not be your friend but they sure make your drive a lot more interesting.

So the thought of the day is,

When life throws you a curve ball, you can crash and burn or you can hug that curve