Winding down...

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Full size tablets still have the inking edge

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New Sprint USB modem

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Relax, it'll probably be ok...

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My Two Cents

I wholeheartedly agree that UMPC's need to be able to ink. Carrying a wireless internet tablet around is great, but being able to write on it is critical. The better the inking is the more productive I am. I take a note and I don't have to worry about what to "do" with it later. It's already done.

But by far the best stuff I can do with my tablet is annotate drawings, pictures, documents etc in seconds. It cuts down on the confusion, is fast, and I can deliver the results via email instantly. I used to describe an issue at work with "The roof drain on bldg X is clogged. It's the second drain from the edge on the southeast corner nearest bldg Y". I would then hope they figured out what I was talking about and would fix the right one. Now, with my tablet, I snip the picture from google maps, annotate it as below and email it to work control.




Quick, easy and clear. It's also much faster and easier for me to markup Powerpoint pitches in ink, rather than type comments etc etc etc. It feels so much more natural. I don't think I could go back to a "normal" laptop. I'm an inkeneer for life.

A Sketch I Did

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Try, Try Again

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'Nuther Launch Tomorrow

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Eastern District Champs!!!

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Blackberry Google Map

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Kindle or Not?

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Next Up, Nangahela Smith

The Knoxville news birth section has news of a new boy named "Holston River". That's an interesting name. They should just be glad they didn't grow up near Chickamauga Dam, or the Mississippi River. Actually, I sort of like it. It's unique, natural and not totally odd. He could be called River like River Phoenix, or just plain Holston.

This is from a guy whose named his kids West and South. Not a totally biased opinion.

http://knoxnews.com/news/2007/nov/25/1125births/

Green Project Ideas

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I Figured Something Out

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Google the Milk

I'm finding that Remember the Milk works better in the iGoogle interface. So I'm thinking about just paring down that interface to the essentials. Now I have it clogged up with quotes and other extraneous stuff.

Different subject, I'll miss my 30th high school reunion this weekend. Shame not to get to see everyone, but I have a ton of obligations right now and the timing just didn't work out right. So here's a shout out to the Green Hornets...

BoBo
BoBo Skenotinot
I been eatin' boskis
Skiddley dee
Skiddley doh
Come on Hornets...Let's Go!

Getting Closer

I've decided to try and really use Remember The Milk as my to-do list manager. I'm going to open it every morning in Prism and use it like a desktop app. I really like how I can send a direct message to it from Twitter and forget it. It then emails me my actions as they become due.

Twitter is still easy and I'm using it more and more.

I'm really iffy on iGoogle. I like it and all, but I'm finding that I'm not really referencing it that much. Maybe I put too much stuff in there. That's why Prism seems better for now. It's cleaner and less fluffy.

I'll try this for a while and see how it goes.

No Progress on Integration

I promise I'm going to do it, but my schedule doesn't block any time for it. I've got to finalize my personal organization system and chuck all of the extraneous stuff. Is this the classic "I'm so busy I don't have time to get organized"?

I'm liking Twitter more and more. Next week I'll be traveling and twittering almost exclusively instead of updating blog posts. It'll be interesting to see how it works, and whether anyone finds it worthwhile. It's how I'll keep my office abreast of what's going on.

I just bought MindManager software from Mindjet. This is mind mapping software that I've been wanting to use for some time. I've been mapping with pen and pencil for a while now and find it a great way to organize my thoughts, brainstorm etc. I'm a very visual kind of guy and looking at a picture really helps me absorb the information. I'm waiting on a new PC before I fire it up so maybe I'll play with it next week and give you some examples of what it can do. I'm reading the manual in the meantime. A first for me....

Did We Beat South Carolina?

That was the most unsatisfying win I think I've ever experienced as a Vol. We couldn't do a single thing right the whole second half. Not one.

I felt like I had cheated somebody or stole candy from a baby or something later. My wife asked "aren't you happy you won?" I said "Nope, not at all, it was gross".

Horrible, pathetic, miserable and we still won. Unbelievable. At least it was Spurrier.

Official Invite

Today I sent out an official invite to family members and a few close friends to join my Twitter micro-blogging experiment. It'll be interesting to see who shows up in the coming days. If it's just me, that's ok too. I'm working on some work applications that I'll be testing also.

Tech in Emergency Management

What if you used Twitter to send in short reports from the field and they were all viewed on the big screen back in the Emergency Operations Center or Headquarters Command Post? HQ would have a heads up on what is going on in the field, wouldn't have to take phone calls and translate into a database, and....everybody in the field could monitor what was going on in the other areas.

Seems to me there are good simple applications for Twitter like this. I see folks using it during conferences in a very similar manner. It's a big bulletin board.

The really, really nice part is that it seems to update so quickly and let's you know the age of the post. Quicker updates more frequently instead of the long, once a shift situation reports.

Integrate or Die

I jotted down all of the on-line free apps that I take advantage of last night and was shocked (or amused) at the number of systems I use occasionally. The number was like 15. Most all of them talk, and many have overlapping functions. Usually, they do some things very well, and other things only ok. I use some to update others, some to display others etc. For example, I use Remember the Milk as a to do list manager, and it sends tasks to Google Calendar which I view in iGoogle. Is this too much (many?) different apps? Is this level of integration ok or do I just need to pare it down more?

I'm going thru this list now and I've decided to really think hard about how I want to input, update, status and read my daily information as well as post to the different blog sites I use. I'll post my pared down "system" as soon as I get it figured out.

By the way, it's nice to have a suite of free tools to choose from. Not a bad problem to have.

Time to start posting again

I have been posting to other blogs since January and due to family concerns, decided to let this one go dormant for a while. I really enjoyed doing it but it was hard to post to two blogs at 5:30am each morning and then read the paper, deal with family, go to work etc. So I let this one go.

But now...I am giving Twitter a try and want to run my Twitter feed on this page. So I'm going to crank it back up. It won't necessarily be updated each morning. I update a work blog and that is my top priority. But I'll post fairly regularly I promise.

I want to test out the Silverlight Ink to Flickr to Twitter application and see if also I can use the same apps to mobile blog for work. So far it is working great.

More on that experiment as it goes.

You can catch my Twitter stuff at http://twitter.com/joelwalker

Oh No!

This is a really hard picture to take. Look closely....

I just realized Peyton will be going against Rex Grossman, a gator! In Florida! Ahhhhhh!

New dog

It's a mini-labradoodle, or what we like to call around here...a labradeedle. It's across between a labrador and a poodle, don't ask me how they do it.

By the way, how about that Peyton Manning going to the Super Bowl! I'm so happy to see it finally happen for him and it wasn't easy by no means. I was sure afraid New England was going to find a way to come back on them.

The Colts should whup the Bears easily.

On the road again...

Fred Hartman bridge at dusk. Pretty bridge, kinda sporty taking photos and driving by looking threu the viewfinder. But hey, art has it's price.

New Dawg

New Addition to the Family

We got a new dog the other day, She's Izzie, a fuzzy ball of puppy fur that likes to chew and needs to go outside into the freezing weather to do her business about every 15 minutes. It is really reminding me of a baby, although I didn't take much responsibility for them either.

I'll post pictures (I know you can't wait) as soon as I can find that cord that hooks the camera to the pc. I know it's here somewhere.

I know you don't care but.....

David Beckham just signed a contract to play for the L.A. Galaxy of the MLS soccer league starting in August of this year. David is one of the top two or three names known in the world when it comes to soccer. He is, as they say, ultra-famous. His wife is also fairly well know...she is Posh Spice. David's contract will pay him a million dollars a week for 5 years. Not bad work if you can get it. This is huge news for the MLS.

Could this spur Ronaldinho or Rodney to come play for the Dynamo? Keep your fingers crossed. For you non-soccerites, this is the equivalent of Peyton Manning leavng the Colts to go play European Football in London (and taking his wife Paris Hilton with him).

And why do I like Dynamo games? They are affordable. Last season I paid ten bucks a ticket for me and three kids. We had good seats, we got free Dynamo t-shirts and ball caps at the stadium and got to walk on the field prior to the game. We also got to shake hands with the players. Think that happens at NFL games? NBA games?

The Astros are still affordable thank goodness.

Ho Hum

So college football is over, what do I do now? The Texans are out...the Cowboys are painfully out...I suppose I still have the Colts for now. At least until somebody tries to run the ball a little on them.

The Lady Vols looked real good against UConn. We have some big girls with talent on that team. I can't imagine there are three or four other teams as good as us.

In Tejas, baseball tryouts are next weekend. My first coaches meeting is next Thursday. The draft is in January and practice starts in Febuary. The season starts at Spring Break and is over before June. This all seams real early to me. But it's nice to get it over before it gets real hot. We just had our first basketball games this past weekend.

High school soccer is now playing outdoors. Unlike in Yankee-ville which plays a Fall season, we play a Spring season culminatng in state championship games at Easter.

My Crystal Ball

Here's a few more good tidbits for you....

Enron stock is really hot now. Buy, buy, buy.

Emu's are the new pork. Invest heavily in Emu farms.

Britney Spears will make a big comeback this year.

The Big Game

Florida will keep it close in the first half...say 21-17. Ohio State will pull away late in the 3rd quarter to make the final 31-17. That's my prediction.

Millard Fillmore was born on this date in 1800. He was our 13th Presdient.

How about those Lady Vols? It's always so nice when we beat UConn, especially at their place. We have a honkin' good team this year. I really like the looks of them.

KnoxVegas

Today's My Birthday

Yep, 29 and counting.

Do you know what a "wiki" is? Ever played with one? I've been using tiddlywiki as a personal journal for a little while now and I'm amazed at what it can do. It starts as one file and grows from there. You can pack a ton of info into it, it indexes stuff, you can search, store etc etc etc.

It just blows me away with it's simplicity and it's power. Head on over to TiddlyWiki and try it out. Just look at it and learn a little bit. You may want to try it. I've got mine set up with a calendar plug-in that lets me enter stuff by clicking a date. It's just way hippy.

Oh...and it's free. Oh...and it fits on a little thumb drive so you can take it anywhere.

New Year Resolution time

OK, so one of my resolutions is to re-start my blogging. I pledge to do that starting today. It may not be a first thing in the morning affair, but I plan on doing one post a day. Here's what I did yesterday......