David Allen’s cool/convenient lists to have

David’s cool/convenient lists to have: "

David Allen’s list of cool/convenient lists to have

There are critical reminder-type lists that we all need to let our brain relax (re: outcomes and actions). There are other lists, though, that can be useful, fun, and interesting, that fit in the area of “reference” or “support.”

Account and $ numbers- credit card #s, PIN #s, etc. (make sure wherever you keep these, it is safe and secure.)

Affirmations- personal self-talk scripts for positive internal programming.

Basic personal numbers (self and family members)- drivers license, social security, insurance policies, Whatever you may need for yourself and others when filling out forms. (Again, make sure wherever you keep these, it is safe and secure.)

Birthdays- (if you don’t put them on your digital calendar system), group by date, as reviewable (those during a month, put in tickler for that month, etc.)

Borrowed stuff- things you’ve loaned folks and might care to get back someday.

Checklists- Travel, Take sailing…, Personal New Habits to Create, etc.

Gifts- organized by people and/or a general list of neat things to buy for others. Great for birthdays, ad-hoc niceness, and holidays.

Ideas I don’t know what to do with, now that I’ve had them…- we all have them, and they don’t fit anywhere except in an “they don’t fit anywhere” place.

Jokes- the current ones that you’d like to get some more mileage out of (but damn! they disappear out of our brain so fast.)

Might wanna buy…- could be one mega-list, or (more commonly) grouped by the type of thing it is: cds, wines, books, videos.

Might wanna do when…- possibilities when you’re in a certain location or doing a certain activity. By city, country, or region (things to do/think about when I’m in Napa Valley, London, Santiago.) Or by activity (Web surfing places to visit.)

Might wanna do with…- if you’re into any animate or inanimate objects: my kids, my spouse, my dogs, my piano, my woodcarving tools, my garden, my computer.

Previous addresses and employers- keep at least your last three. (What a pain when you have to supply them and you don’t have them!)

Quotes- quotes I’d like to see again from time to time.

Restaurants- for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.

Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things- oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeler cassettes, etc.

Tips/Shortcuts- speed-key codes, shortcut codes for new systems (voicemail, answering machine, pager, software apps, new Palm III, etc.) Any new skill set you’re learning can have a remind-me-about list specific to its features and activities until they are habitual and under your belt.

Vacation things to do- those things that you might like to do if you are into seriously doing nothing (take pictures, hike, hotels to stay in for a night, spa treatments, places to explore, etc.)

"

Owl City - Fireflies - Lyrics

Owl City - Fireflies - Lyrics

Buy Owl City - Fireflies at Amazon UK

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep

'Cause they'd fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude, but I would just stand and stare

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they try to teach me how to dance

A fox-trot above my head
A sock-hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
(When I fall asleep)

Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
'Cause I feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep?
(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep

To ten million fireflies
I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell
(They said farewell)

But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
'Cause I saved a few, and I keep them in a jar
(A jar)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
(When I fall asleep)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
(When I fall asleep)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams

Podcasts

At the Basingstoke Tweetup this month we got onto talking about podcasts and I promised to share my OPML feed (right click, save as...).

It's predominantly techy/geeky with a lean towards security, and a little snowboarding, TV, money and GTD.

You can see how my listening habits have changed and grown over the years as my commuting time has increased.

Feel free to share your listening faves in the comments.

Augmented Reality with the iPhone

Here is a collection of videos showing what we could expect in the way of augmented reality once the iPhone 3.1 software comes out.

Find the nearest subway station:



Twitter viewer:



Augmented ID identification app:



It should come as no surprise where the technology will get the most use:



More...

Close button missing from first tab in Firefox 3.5

I just upgraded to Firefox 3.5 and while it's still fairly familiar, there are a couple of things that have changed that aren't to my taste. The main one that bugs me is with the tab close button.

In Firefox 3.5, when you only have one tab open it doesn't have a close button. You can get this back by editing your userChrome.css file. For Windows users:

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to:
   
   %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<your profile>\chrome
2. Look for a file called userChrome.css. If it doesn't exist, create a copy of userChrome-example.css called userChrome.css.
3. Edit userChrome.css using Wordpad (Start > Run... > write)
4. Add the following code to the bottom:
   

   /*
 * Firefox 3.5 doesn't show the close button on the last tab
 * http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2009/07/disable-tab-tearing-and-six-other-firefox-3-5-tab-tweaks/
 */
.tabbrowser-tabs[closebuttons="alltabs"] > .tabbrowser-tab > .tab-close-button { display: -moz-box !important; }
.tabbrowser-tabs:not([closebuttons="noclose"]):not([closebuttons="closeatend"]) > .tabbrowser-tab[selected="true"] > .tab-close-button { display: -moz-box !important; }

5. Save your changes and restart Firefox.

The other thing that bugged me was that when I close the last tab, Firefox would exit. This is easily fixed by tweaking an about:config setting:

1. Open Firefox and type about:config in the address bar (and hit Enter).
2. If prompted with a warning, read and accept it.
3. In the Filter box at the top, type in closewindow
4. Double click the entry named browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab so that the value is set to false.

[ Found on Mozilla Links ]

Visit to Thorpe Park

Went to Thorpe Park today and it was great. I tweeted and twitpic'ed throughout the day, posted here for prosperity.

We planned our trip ahead of time:

-- "Off to Thorpe Park for the day. Have advanced booking, hope to be one of the first in the park, going straight to Saw!"

When we got there, we had to queue for our tickets (booked and paid for in advance), then had to join the regular queue to get in. No separate line, no VIP treatment:

-- "Might not be first in... #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/397ub"

-- "Having queued for advanced tickets, am now back out in the car park queueing for the entrance... http://twitpic.com/39834"

Once in we headed straight for Saw, and watched the engineers test Colossus:

-- "First test ride of Colossus #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/398gg"

Saw didn't open until 10am:

-- "Saw now open. Have been in the queue about 20 mins, and just been told it'll be 1h45m till we're on! #thorpepark. http://twitpic.com/398o8"

1h15m later and:

-- "Just off Saw. The beginning was better than the big drop, nice surprise. #thorpepark"

Things went downhill from there though, as we found out:

-- "Argh! Stealth isn't running, that was the ride I was looking forward to the most. Queueing for No Way Out now with fast track. #thorpepark"

A short while later:

-- "X:\ No Way Out a bit disappointing, Tidal Wave next. Looks broken down though. #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39aln

We dumped our bags and pockets into a locker (£1 non-refundable) ready for the Tidal Wave, and didn't make it back until we'd done most of the other big rides:

-- "Still loving Thorpe Park. Tidal Wave: done. Rush: done. Colossus: done. Nemesis: done. Fast Track ticket worth every penny. #thorpepark"

Yes, the £9 Fast Track ticket probably saved us 7 hours of queueing. By the time we'd done those rides it was time for some lunch, and when we were done the Accelerator Fast Track was sold out for the day. Not that it mattered so much:

-- "Slammer out of order #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39gjv"

Without the Fast Track to 'queue jump', things were a lot slower:

-- "Vortex at Thorpe Park. #thorpepark Queues gone mad now, 4 hours for Saw, 2h30m for Nemesis, 2h for Colossus. http://twitpic.com/39hy1"

While we were queueing for Vortex we saw Stealth was back up and running. Maybe things were looking up again after all? We went over there at 5:15pm only to find:

-- "Thorpe Park update: Stealth is running again after a motor issue. Queue time: 3 hours! (Park closes at 7pm) #thorpepark"

Some you win, some you lose.

-- "Bailed on queueing for Stealth, gutted we missed it. #thorpepark Home now, time for dinner and some relaxing in front of the TV. #reddwarf?"

A few additional photos:

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aasn - Saw at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aawi - Saw at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aawr - Stealth at Thorpe Park"

-- "http://twitpic.com/3aay3 - Stealth at Thorpe Park"

Overall, a good time had by all, definitely recommended.

Ministers 'using fear of terror'

Ministers 'using fear of terror': "A former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties."

How Do I Get People To Follow Me On Twitter?

It started off with Jonathan Ross talking to Stephen Fry about it on his show, and suddenly every man, woman and child in the UK is using Twitter.*

Since then, celebs like Phillip Schofield, Andi Peters and Chris Moyles have joined the party, broadcasting their Twitter names on TV and radio so people can 'follow' them.

The whole country is on Twitter now, following these celebs and asking "Now what? Is there more to Twitter than stalking Schofe?" Well yes there is, but unless people are following you it's unlikely you'll see the benefit. How do you remedy this situation? How do you get people to follow you on Twitter? Here's my three-step guide to getting followers on Twitter:

1. Be interesting.
Twitter was designed to let you answer the question, "What are you doing now?", but does anybody care? Nobody wants to know what you had for breakfast. Instead, read it as "What are you thinking about now?", and share your insightful thoughts, links to interesting stories or even ask questions of others. What would you like to read? Give the same back. Once you've written or shared something worth reading you can move on to the next step.

2. Find people with common interests.
Somewhere out there in Twitterland there is somebody who shares an interest with you. Whether it's online stalking of one of the aforementioned celebrities, or more benign hobbies like trading knitting patterns or sky diving. Maybe you both live in the same town, or support the same football team. Whatever your reason for wanting to connect, use the power of Twitter Search to find them. Simply visit https://search.twitter.com/ and type in something you're interested in. You'll get a list of recent Tweets mentioning that phrase and can see who is talking about that. Try following some of those people and, if your Tweets are interesting (which they are because you completed step 1 above), maybe they will follow you back.

3. Join in the conversation.
Hey, it's just like real life - you talk to people and they talk back. To reply to someone on Twitter just start your message with an @ sign and their username at the start of your Tweet (e.g. "@Schofe That's my hedge!") and they will be able to see it in their Replies tab. If you're funny and/or interesting they may reply back to you and may even follow you. Just remember that most people also have a life outside Twitter and might not be at their computer 24 hours a day waiting for your next Tweet. Their reply might take a while to arrive, so keep an eye on your Replies tab. Also, try using the search feature to look out for your username in case they don't reply with the @ sign or don't put it at the start of the message.


With these three simple steps you should be well on your way to making friends on Twitter. If you like this site, follow me (@surferbill).


*Footnote: In case you've been living under a non-social networking enabled rock for the past year (or two), Twitter is a microblogging platform where people share what they are doing (or their latest insightful thoughts) by 'Tweeting' each other with messages of 140 characters or less ('Tweets').

One For The UNIX Geeks

At 23:31:30 GMT on Friday, February 13th 2009, UNIX Epoch time will be 1234567890. :)

Jonathan Ross is back on TV and is the talk of the town (well, Twitter)

Watched Jonathan Ross tonight with Stephen Fry, and they talked briefly about Twitter. The Twitterverse was watching intensely and of course, Twittered about it the whole evening...