Author: Patrick Rhone

What is Writeboard? Is it a Wiki? Is it a web based whiteboard? One that can be used for anything from brainstorming to mind mapping to basic word processing? Could it be yet another über-application for collaborative and organizational from our friends and yours at 37 Signals?
Well, to answer that question we will just have to wait. A painful wait fueled by the sort of wanting, dare I say longing, that org-geeks like myself seem to do with cool new toys. Jason Fried does give us some clues on Signal vs. Noise. I guess we have no choice but to wait and see.
That being said, if it is a brain-stormy-mind-mappy sort of thing, that would come in real handy right about now. Bethany Snugglewombat and I are going to sit down this weekend and start to brainstorm on all of the lists, projects, plans and hurdles we must overcome in order to merge our lives, and those of my sons, into one household (hers). We have already set up a Basecamp site to manage the project that will spring forth from this but will have to do all of our brainstorming on good old pad of paper (which has it’s benefits for sure).
In any case, I am looking forward to whatever the heck it is no matter what.

Sorry for the length of time between posts. I was in Seattle and Portland on vacation. Bethany had a conference out that way so we decided to have me tag along and tack a couple of days on the back end to enjoy a little R and R.
We had a great time. Seattle is a really nice city. Very hip and cool and all of the things I had heard about it. Good food. Good shopping. Great views and fast efficient public transportation. It reminded me very much of the Twin Cites with it’s well kept and defined neighborhoods offering a real since of community. Lots of local businesses and home grown flavor. Trendy without being forced.
My good friend Avery came down with his wife Maureen came down from Vancouver to hang out with me there while Bethany was slaving away at her conference. I had not seen him in a while and it was a real treat. Especially since he was kind enough to bring down some cigars that are not available in the states due to our country’s outdated and backwards thinking trade policies.
Portland was a little different than expected. I had read several recent magazine articles about the city and it’s revitalization and its new found swank. Therefore, I was expecting it to be like, well, Seattle. Like I wanted it to be more than it was. What I found instead was a city that was very bohemian. Hippy but not hip. Many nice little spots but no cohesion. No overall sense of what it was or wanted to become.
I always find it interesting to visit other cities in our fair and free country. Especially because I think the “feel” of a city directly affects the people, companies and press that comes from it. Portland has been getting a ton of good press lately. It is the sort of press that Seattle used to get in the early 1990’s before they became “Seattle”. It seems like a city on the rise, attempting to capitalize on and refine it’s bohemian roots yet not quite sure it wants to go there.
This is not to say that we did not have a good time in Portland. Seeing my friend Paul was a blast. I had not seen him in several years. He was an excellent host easily flowing from his personal experiences in the city (he has lived there most of his life) to local history, politics and geography. We did some hiking in the mountains, had some great meals (breakfast at the Tin Shed was a highlight) and some unexpected surprises (McMenamin Pubs and an impromptu art viewing at his friend’s gallery).
On a sad note, I lost my digital camera while in Seattle. Bethany, Avery and Maureen (his wife) ate dinner at The Bombay Grill on Friday night. The food was very good but I brought my digital camera in to take pictures. It was in a case and I sat it by my chair. I forgot all about it and, therefore, never moved it from beside my chair. We were having a good time and were the very last people in the restaurant besides the staff when we finally decided to leave. Bethany and I arrived back in our room and it was then that I realized that I left the camera at the restaurant. I called the following day and several days after and they claim that it was not found… Now, this means that someone must have taken it (i.e. one of the staff) as we were the last ones out that were not staff.
I wish I could say that this was simply a plan to provide a reason to get a new digital camera especially the one I have been lusting after for a while. Alas, if it was, I would have made sure that I could afford a new one first. Since I can’t, I guess I will have to be without for a while.

OK, unless you have been living under a rock or just plain don’t follow these things, Apple is planning on switching to Intel Processors within the next year. Not a special intel processor just for them but a regular old CISC based x86 processors just like the ones every PC manufacturer uses. The implications of this are huge. I am not entirely sure what Apple is thinking here and this all makes me very worried about Apple’s long term outlook. Why? Well, let me do the bullet point summary:
• Apple is a hardware company. Apple has always been a hardware company. Apple make the vast majority of it’s profits on the sales of it’s hardware. Apple has traditionally made software for one reason… To add value to (and, therefore, help sell) hardware. Take iTunes and the iTunes Music Store for example, Apple makes the player for Mac and PC and gives it away free. Apple sells songs on the iTunes Music Store that only work on the iPod and they make little to no profit on those sales (and by some accounts actually take a loss). Why? To sell iPods which have a huge profit margin and have been a huge hit. Mac OS X, while being an excellent piece of software, exists to add value and functionality and an operating system to the Macintosh hardware. That is where Apple makes it’s money.
• Running on special processors have allowed Apple to be a monopoly in their own little space that they have created. If you have wanted to use Mac OS X you have had to buy Mac Hardware as Mac OS X would not run on CISC based x86 hardware. They have not had to compete with Dell or any others in the PC space because, they did not make PC hardware.
• By switching to Intel based Macs they are now opening the doors for Mac OS X to run on Intel based hardware from any manufactures. No matter what hoodoo voodoo they try to do to prevent Mac OS X from running on anything other than Mac hardware, as soon as some enterprising hacker figures out a way to make it happen anyway (and they will) then there will be no reason for anyone to buy a Mac when they can buy a cheap PC from Dell and run Mac OS X on that.
• Since Apple can’t compete with Dell on price (they just plain can’t, I dare any arguments to the contrary) then Mac sales will plummet as Apple will no longer have a monopoly.
• Now, that they are no longer a hardware company they will have to compete with Microsoft in the OS/Software war. Once again, they can’t compete in tat spacer because of Microsoft’s dominance and monopoly. No matter how much better Mac OS X is, Microsoft gives it away for free. Apple can’t do that. Period. They can’t compete.
I am sure you can see where we are going with this. Apple, as a hardware and/or a software company is doomed if it has to compete in the same space it has stayed doggedly away from having to compete in and for good reason. It was inevitable I guess because IBM was just not able to give Apple the chip performance they promised. There is a lot of speculation about who dumped who in that marriage but it really does not matter. The future is coming and, for better or worse, it can’t be avoided. I guess we will see.

1) Apple to use Intel processors – Have they lost their F-ing minds?
2) Changes to the Patriot Act – They have lost thier F-ing minds!
3) My impending switch back to Safari – Maybe I have lost my F-ing mind.

I am at a crossroads. As I have mentioned previously, I now use a iety of web based applications for my daily tasks. I have even found an easy to use, password protected, wiki that I am experimenting with trying to use for notes and such. I love Firefox for all of the reasons I have mentioned before (speed, customizability, etc.) but it is missing some things that I did not know how much I relied on until I was not able to use them (Mac OS X Services support, built in spell checking, autofilling of web forms to name a few). This has become even more apparent since I got on the web app bandwagon. Safari a better choice for many of the things I do but I like so many of the features of Firefox…
If anyone out there has an opinion or suggestion I would love your input.

Well, as I suggested previously, I realized that I really do not use a PDA much at all anymore. The combination of Moleskine and Backpack and Mobile Phone are powerful enough that I need nothing else when out and about. I may still use the iPod on those rare cases when I need to look up an appointment or contact but since I can have Backpack send SMS reminders to my phone for events and my most used contacts are in my phone I have found the need to do this is minimal at best.
If nothing else, this has allowed me to test my system of using those tools and prove their soundness. As a matter of fact, I am amazed at how well Backpack has become integrated into my workflow and I will do another post soon regarding this subject.
Now, I am just trying to come up with another “Week With” experiment to try because I am feeling rather uninspired at the moment.

I really wanted to post more about Backpack and how I have integrated it with my personal organization system-fu. As I may have mentioned before, I have become a bit of a convert to David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology (as has the rest of the world it seems lately). While I am no Merlin Mann level guru, I have taken on a number of the principles that best apply to my workflow. Ever since the introduction of Backpack I have found it more and more indispensable.
The first way in which I use Backpack is for my context based lists. Instead of having a master to-do list I instead have separate lists based on context. One titled “@Computer” for instance for tasks that need to be done on or while at my computer. “@Home” for items to be done at home. “@Errands” for anything to be done while out and about. You get the picture I am sure. In Backpack, I have separate pages for each of these lists and add, complete and delete items as needed. I can also add notes, files and pictures related to those list items to that very same page.
Secondly, I find Backpack a great place to be able to store info and then, if I need to, share that important info with others. Bethany and I are taking a trip to Seattle in June. I thought it would be great to have a page that we could share and collaboratively add stuff to regarding the trip. In minutes I was able to create a page with our flight and hotel information and share that with her so that she and I can both add to it (a list of restaurants we want to visit while there for instance).
Lastly, the reminders feature in Backpack is killer. It is so simple yet so powerful. Even though I put calendar items in Now Up-to-Date, I actually put the reminder for that item in Backpack if it is something that requires it. Why? Well because having it both send me an e-mail (which I then have forwarded to all of my accounts) and an SMS message to my mobile phone ensures that I do not miss the reminder and get it anywhere. It just plain works.
One of the great parts of Backpack is that I can log in from anything that has a web browser. Secondly, I can add content to the lists via e-mail (A nifty feature of Backpack is that you can e-mail items to any page) so I can fire off an e-mail to add items if that is more convenient.
So here is my extended workflow beyond what has been discussed previously:

1. Capture information in my Moleskine or in my Inbox (either the physical and virtual ones)
2. If it is a to-do item I put it into one of my Backpack Lists. If it is a calendar item, it goes into Now Up-to-Date and Backpack if it needs a reminder. Notes can go a iety of places right now depending on what they are. Notational Velocity, NoteTaker and Backpack are all possible destinations. Note: I would love to eventually stream all of my notes into one location. Maybe, in my progression into using web based applications for the majority of the storage of my info, a Wiki might be a good idea.

3. Rinse and Repeat

Well, there it is for what it is worth. As my org-fu improves I will provide further updates that it may also help yours or at least point you to some useful tools. At least now you can see why my last “Week With…” was a complete failure.

In a previous post, I noted that I was using my iPod to hold and retrieve my contacts while out and about. I have found that it’s as quick as using my Palm Tungsten T2 to do the same thing. This got me thinking, since the only reason I am using my Palm is to access my schedule, then why not sync my Now Up-to-Date data to the iPod, some key notes that I need to access to and see if I can just use that for all of the functions I was using my Palm for. It also means having one less device to carry around.
Therefore, I am going to do it. I will place the Palm on it’s charger starting today and will use my iPod for the remaining things I was using my Palm for. It is my hope that I can prove to myself once and for all that I really don’t need it anymore and that I can do just fine with the iPod, my Moleskine and Backpack for reminders (since the iPod alarm is much too short and quiet for me to hear).
Check back at the end of the week to see the results.

OK, I have very little time. We are in the middle of getting our computer deliveries in preparation for the summer here at work so I am swamped. Personal time? Well that is swamped too but I owe you, the reading public, an update to my (now more than a) week with Backpack. Therefore, this will be a short one.
I have mainly been using Backpack for my work related items and for that it has been great. I really like it, though it is still young and has some potential that it is not quite reaching. The ability to create reminders and have those sent via e-mail and/or SMS to your cell phone is a godsend. I also like the ability to create free form pages that can include lists, notes, images, links (both to other Backpack pages or to the web) and to share those pages with others. There are already many tips, tricks and hacks to extend this built in functionality to it’s boundaries. It is a great place to keep some lists, notes or light projects (if you are looking for a heavier project management tool then look no further than 37 Signals other product Basecamp which I have mentioned here before). Not only that but you can add any of these items by sending an e-mail to any of your backpack pages. A great way to add content on the fly.
There are some things I wish it had that it currently does not. For instance, I wish I could re-order the items on a page. the order in which lists (only one list per page – therefore, separate lists must live on separate pages!), notes, images and links live is very static. I also wish there was a “move this item to page named pagename feature was there so you could easily move these items between pages. This would make the “e-mail items” feature much more useful because you could just send everything to one page and move it around later. All the same, it looks like the folks at 37 Signals are working very hard to take feature requests and feedback through the Backpack forum they have put in place and so i have no doubt that many new features will be forthcoming.
Therefore, i will continue to use Backpack as I have been, mostly for work related items and lists but may move a lot of my personal stuff there in the future if the promise of the potential becomes reality.

My week with Backpack part 2 post will be delayed by perhaps several days as several items in my life will take much higher priority and I will not have the time to sit down and type it out. This will also most likely mean that my next “week with” post will be pushed back as well. I am really sorry but time has not been on my side lately.