during the tornado warning in chicago.

Twitter??

I just joined a "keep in contact" type of site started by the odeo.com people. Ostensibly, anyone I call my friend can text my phone via their phone or the web and I can receive it via web or phone. I can see how it might be very useful to people who need to keep in constant contact, or for someone trying to coordinate the actions of several people at once, like an operator for a large phone system or messaging system. I'm sure there are other applications. I'll see how it works out for me. Coincidentally, I learned about a "service" called treasure trooper. you can make money by filling out surveys and participating in market research.

time management

I've got to change my icon/pic. I am sick of the cutesy one I posted a year ago.
There are so many time management and productivity methods available. A senior colleague of mine once said he tried to read a new one once a year. Not a bad method to stave off the boredom of routine; replace it with another! I just like to read about them, but I rarely put one into practice. They are just a time filler. Here is an article on families and multitasking and productivity from Time, link courtesy of Eszter's Blog: The Multitasking Generation (Time)

Early adopters, Web services, and viral agents

A post on Eszter's Blog about vanity license plates got me thinking about something completely different.
I read her blog in Omea reader. It is a bit much since it wants to be your feed reader, news reader and mail and browser all in one, and I just use it to read rss posts. Anyway, when I read the blog, the "Bookmark and share this post" icons are formatted in an unnumbered vertical list, so I noticed them more than if I was reading your blog from its native site. I wonder, in this nascent stage of web services, linking utilities, and folksonomies, are early adopters diligently posting to del.icio.us, reddit, digg, furl, spurl, etc. in order to proliferate or populate their favorite service? If so, are eager users becoming "viral marketing" agents?

test your bandwidth (and it looks cool too!)

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.



read more | digg story

Eric Staller's "ConferenceBike"

I couldn't resist posting this link to the conferencebike quicktime movie. It is a miraculous invention and a charming movie
From the site: "CONFERENCEBIKE, 1996 - present: We live in an age of mobility and convenience. Our technology, our cars and laptops and cellphones, are insulating us more and more. The CONFERENCEBIKE is an antidote, a symbol and a tool for coming together: where the boardroom meets the gym, takes a ride in the park and says YES! to life."

wikibooks

I knew Wikipedia was a phenomenal resource, but recently I discovered Wikibooks, "a collection of free, open-content textbooks that you can edit."