Category: post

It’s that time a year where pundits, analysts, and self-proclaimed experts are weighing in on the biggest tech stories of the last year and what they think will be the ones to watch in the year to come. And, while all of these make for interesting water cooler conversation and drive traffic to tech websites, to you they are likely irrelevant (unless you work for RIM, knew Steve Jobs, have a personal connection to Facebook, etc.)

There is only one big tech story for the year and only one to watch for the year to come. The biggest tech story of last year is the one that mattered the most to you. Perhaps that is your privacy concerns when using certain social networks. Perhaps that is the new gadget you got and how it makes your life just a tad bit better. Perhaps that is the concern about a tech company you have come to rely upon now that its leader has passed (or, in the case of some, gone insane). No matter what it is, it is the story that affects you the most.

The biggest tech story of the new year will be what you are going to do to change it.

Is there an app or service that is not meeting your needs? Learn to code and build a replacement for yourself.

Concerned about the ownership of the things you share? Create a Personal RSS feed or pipe everything through a service like Pinboard. (You can and should subscribe to mine)

Feeling overwhelmed by all of this info-tech-social-stuff? Get yourself on a proper information diet.

The point is that the biggest tech story of 2012 will not be anything talked about in the media or some blog. The biggest tech story will be the same one it has always been…

You.

Here are a random and incomplete collection of things I learned this year…

• Having a regular weekly check-in with someone who challenges you and helps you think beyond your limits is vital to creativity.

• I don’t listen to music nearly as much as I wish I did and am reminded of this fact whenever I look up from my keyboard after a long writing session to run off to an appointment and think to myself that I should have turned on some music before I started.

• Writing a book can drive one between the polar extremes of self-loathing and grandiosity so violently that it really can send one prone to madness and depression to the edge of the abyss.

• Why writers drink.

• In the very short time I have done so, one can find frequent utility from a good knife if one carries it daily.

• Forming a habit is really difficult and takes an nearly life or death desire to do so. The trick then may be to fool your brain into believing that your life actually does depend on that thing you want to do.

• Doing the things you really want to do is easy. If something feels hard its because you don’t really want to do it.

• When it comes to my online work, I want to own as much of every word and pixel as possible.

• I want the same when it comes to my offline work too.

• One can safely ignore most information and communication for a few days or a weekend with few ill affects. Especially if expectations are appropriately set and there is a system in place for folks to get in touch should a urgent need arise.

• I could not recommend AwayFind enough.

• For thinking and tasking, nothing beats good old pen and paper and I should stop flirting with anything else.

• That a life well lived is a life well loved, and vice versa.

• That, for me, solitude is essential to living and loving.

• The only thing more valuable than telling the truth is having a truth to tell.

• One can also safely ignore most news and information sources. 99.9% of it is information theater designed to titillate and distract one from digging deep into an issue through research, analysis, scrutiny, and bias. Such digging takes time and effort so choose those things you wish to know about carefully. Then, form an opinion based upon such research.

• Don’t think you have the wit to debate any subject unless you have done the above.

• That our fear of death is, in fact, a fear of missing out.

• That when you have purpose, intentions and actions follow naturally. If intentions and actions are not flowing, examine your purpose.

• My Pinboard public RSS feed could (and perhaps should) replace most of what I share other places.

• I should make a point of writing one thing I learned down in my journal every day from this point forward to a) make learning a habit and b) make this list easier.

• Life is a big place shared by many. Ignore most of it and concentrate on yours.

• That the line between technology and magic is increasingly blurred for me.

• That all things are impermanent and transitory.

• That one should embrace the delete key, the trash can, and the word no.

• Saying no is actually saying yes to other things.

• That when you have said all you can about something, it is OK to be done. Shut up and walk away.

Every well known artist I can think of has a singular transformative work. A turning point if you will. One that is clearly better than anything that came before it. Also, one that distinctly shapes everything that will follow. At times these works are a pinnacle of sorts. A point at which an artist has stretched themselves and given the full limit of ability. Therefore, everything else to follow is less great. Other times, such work is just the beginning. Where an artist has finally found a stride that sets them up for a long and successful run.

Sometimes these are obvious. For instance, a great indie band that has a hit single, gets signed to a major label, assigned some famous producers, and suddenly things are no longer the same. They are markedly different. Perhaps it is the production – less or more raw. Perhaps it is that the band, now flush with major label money, has fewer or more creative constraints. Perhaps it simply because now they can afford steak dinner over ramen.

And, of course, there are countless stories of film actors who spend the later half of their lives trying to regain the career making performance they once had. Or the visual artist who after years of struggle in their medium finds that one element that sets them apart.

Sometimes, the forces of change come from within. The author who decides to stretch himself and take on a subject much more different and requiring much more research than he previously has. Or, perhaps she has been featured on Oprah and now has experienced success so great she can’t possibly live up to it again.

In rarer cases, such transformative work causes the author, actor, or artist to go nowhere from there at all. JD Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye being the most obvious example that comes to mind. Following the success of this work he became a recluse, published infrequently, and what he did produce were clearly things he could have just as easily thrown away. Perhaps he knew the work had transformed him in such a way as to never want to produce such work again.

Of course, as this year draws to a close and I reflect upon it, thoughts of transformation are natural. Along with impermanence, I’m going to make transformation part of the scaffolding that supports the structure of my work in the year to come. These are two of the three chairs I plan to sit upon and dialog around in the coming year.

So, the Internet is shaking with the power of ten thousand wagging fingers over Go Daddy’s support of SOPA, the evil legislation that threatens everything we know and hold dear about the ‘verse. It is even so evil that it threatens the things we don’t care about too.

I have never used Ho Daddy (mis-type intended and a bit more honest judging from their commercials). They always came off as unsavory to my discerning tastes. There is an ocean of good hosting and domain registration out there that does not smell nearly as fishy.

As for me, I have been using Dreamhost for what seems like forever. Good hosting, great support, and they have a sense of humor. They are great for the .coms, .nets, and .orgs. Then there is IWantMyName for the fancy stuff. You know, the .me, .in, .wtf. They have a nice clean easy to use interface and can register just about anything that is registrable. I have also heard great things about Hover though I’ve not used them myself.

The point being, if you have a domain parked or hosted with So Daddy please know that they likely don’t care about the Internet you care about and therefore you should consider taking your Internet business elsewhere.

Update: Here is a step by step guide to do just that. Only 19 simple steps.

When it comes to social change, I think we often get caught up in the big ideas. That a movement or a cause is about human rights or civil liberties or freedom of choice. And, certainly, it is about all of those things. But, in practice, it is about things much more simple and more personal than that.

It is about being able to have a seat on a bus.

It is about being able eat a sandwich at a counter.

It is about being able to enter a raffle so you can be the first one to kiss your girl…

Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, left, kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Va., Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2011 after Gaeta’s ship returned from 80 days at sea. It ís a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings – one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one. On Wednesday, for the first time, the happily reunited couple was gay.

 

I’ve been doing some thinking lately on impermanence in a digital world. Permanence is often assumed despite the inherently impermanent nature of existence itself. Life is impermanent. Nothing that exists will exist forever. Why should our data be assumed to be any more so? Why do we treat it with such perpetuity? Does it in some way represent immortality? Do we take comfort in some potentially mis-applied idea that these things could outlast us and therefore will?

We would like to believe that that which we put up on the internet or save to the cloud is available forever. But how can we, who shall never see forever, possibly understand what forever is or agree on what it means? And what happens when we have the skill and the will to decide to erase our creations for that same forever — permanently?

We all now have access to tools that allow us to recover those things we delete — either through accident or purpose — for as far back as the backup storage space will allow. What then is to stop us from hitting delete instead of sorting it to some virtual folder and saving it? Why not let the clouds we are building do this for us? Why not erase these things with the knowledge that, in the rare times we might need them later we can get them back? Especially for those items we are not certain we will ever have to access again? Is it that despite our desire to have faith in digital permanence we, in fact, know the truth of all things in inherent impermanence?

I know people that have had a hard drive crash and lost everything because they had no backup. Years later, it happens again. I then inquire as to why they did not have a backup — especially after the lesson they should have learned the first time. The reason: Though the previous loss was painful at first, they rebuilt. They moved on. They survived. They saw no value in backup because they knew if the drive crashed they would rebuild, move on, and survive again.

I’d like to think that embracing such impermanence grants them a level of effortless peace. It gives them a certain confidence that their digital creations are not stronger than their ability to survive without them.

Perhaps it is this peace and confidence that fuels one to declare Status 410 and walk away. Knowing that what good you could do has been done — in a place, for a time. Now, it is gone. Life and all of it’s creations are permanently impermanent. When the permanence we and others have come to rely on suddenly reveals itself to be less so, we can only rebuild, move on, and survive.

What worries me are the consequences of a diet comprised mostly of fake-connectedness, makebelieve insight, and unedited first drafts of everything. I think it’s making us small. I know that whenever I become aware of it, I realize how small it can make me. So, I’ve come to despise it.

Better – Merlin Mann

This piece is really resonating with me today. There are things I know in my gut I need to do and want to do but am struggling with the courage to actually do them. That said, I think I am beginning to realize that I’m on a course to make bold moves in the near future regardless of the fears that may hold me back. Because, ultimately, they are the only ones that makes sense.

And, yes, I know I’m being a bit cryptic. I’m being so purposefully. I’m not even sure I’m being fully transparent with myself. All will be revealed when the time comes.

MicroPod | Office | Gear.
I would love a place of my own like this one.
(via Christoph Schobel)

The Buddha Machine is not an iPod. It’s not loaded with features. It’s simply a small plastic box — available in an assortment of colors — that plays nine different loops. The possibilities of how you listen to it, however, are infinite.

I received one of these today, a surprise gift from John Carey of Fifty Foot Shadows (THE place to get beautiful desktops, by the way). I have know about them for quite some time and wanted one but never pulled the trigger. It was incredibly thoughtful of him and it is even better than I imagined it.
My little girl has suffered with a really bad little flu bug that had her over a bucket all of last night. Not wanting to risk the same tonight I was looking for a way to ease her misery and lull her to sleep without her normal bottle of milk. I turned on the Buddha Machine and laid down next to her. She was calmed and asleep within minutes. Magical.

Levenger Leverage Punch Review from Patrick Rhone on Vimeo.

I review the new Circa Leverage Punch from Levenger. I include a tip for one possible use for the Circa System that might make a great gift idea.

Links to items mentioned include:

• Circa Leverage Punch

• Lap Desk

• Freeleaf White Annotation Ruled Pads, Letter

• Circa Notebooks – Get Organized with Levenger Circa Notebooks and Daily Planner Pages

• Lakota Circa Foldover Leather Notebook

• Helvetindex Cards

• Circa Portable Punch

• Circa Discs