The past few years have been extremely busy. Building RMG has been a 6- or 7-day work week from day 1, way back in the spring of 2008. After my son Karl was born, I pulled back a bit to a fairly consistent 6-day work schedule with Saturdays off. An ideal Saturday is spent with Ahu and Karl playing outside, going for walks, going to the pool, and ending with quiet time for Ahu and I after Karl goes to sleep. Saturday is my day to rest, recover, and recharge. However, lately, Saturdays (and Sundays also) have been overly stressful because either I send or receive email that results in me picking up work and thinking about work, etc. As a result, Saturday is no longer a day to recharge; it becomes simply another workday with the same (sometimes greater) level of stress. The reality of email, though, is that none of these emails really needs to be sent or read until Monday. The sky does not fall and the earth does not stop spinning because I don't open my email client. So starting now, I am closing Mail on Friday nights at 5pm. I have an AppleScript that runs on Monday mornings at 8am which reopens my mail client automatically so it is waiting for me when I get to my desk. I will spend the next 20-30 minutes plowing through all of that email and then will be caught up. I already tried this approach last weekend but I ran into a snag with my iPhone. On the iPhone, two notifications occur when you receive email. One, which I turned off long ago, is the "mail has been received" sound that plays. The other is the little red badge that hangs on the Mail icon which shows you the count of unread emails. As anyone who know me knows, I have my iPhone with me all the time. I use it for Facebook, reading the news, keeping track of tasks, playing music when I work out, etc. So every time I looked at my Home screen on my iPhone, I was seeing the reminder that I have emails to process. It's pretty tough for me to resist opening the Mail app to clear that red badge. However, I finally figured out a solution. I moved the Mail app back to the 3rd page of apps on my phone. I rarely go back to that page in the course of a normal day. Out of sight is truly out of mind. I haven't looked at the Mail app on my phone since. Of course it is still there if I need it. Since there is no way to differentiate between work and personal emails in that little red unread count badge, this means I also am not checking personal email either during the weekend. Again, they can almost certainly wait. Anyone who really needs to get in touch can call or SMS, anyway. As you see, I also took the opportunity to reorganize my Home screen so that the apps I really use all the time are in the Dock. I feel pretty good about this new arrangement. I'll write more in the future after I see how it actually works out.

Ah, it feels good to be writing casually again.  As some may know, I recently gave the Kindle for iPhone app a spin.  I bought the latest book from Lincoln Child - Terminal Freeze - and I finished reading it on the iPhone last week.  It actually is the first book I've finished in over a year.  The reason I was finally able to start and finish a book is because when the book is on the iPhone, it's with you all the time.  I was able to sneak a page here and there and almost everywhere until at last, there were no more pages.  It was a bit different and I suspect the actual Amazon Kindle device would be a better experience but the simple fact is, I was able to finish a book because it was in electronic format on my phone. Today I was in my basement where I have the monster homemade bookcase that acts as my everlasting archive of tomes once bought and perhaps read.  As I was looking at this collection of over 1,000 books, I realized that the vast majority of them are over 10 years old and some over 20 years old.  There are plenty which are even showing that age, getting musty and yellowed.  So I decided to start culling my flock. My books fall into several categories:

1. Books which I never read.
2. Books which I read and didn't care for.
3. Books which I read and loved and are available at Amazon anytime.
4. Books which I read and loved and are unavailable.
5. Books which hold some sentimental value, i.e. the Amiga System Programmer's Guide!

The culling will go like this:

• Books in categories 1 and 2 will be noted and donated to the library or given to a used bookseller.
• Books in category 3 will mostly be noted and donated or given.  However, a few favorites will be kept around, just in case :-)
• Books in categories 4 and 5 will remain, albeit with more shelf space.

Note that all of this applies only to paperback books.  So far, I don't feel the need to eliminate any of my hardbacks, of which most are college textbooks and other similar books or references.

All of my websites are in the process of migrating away from my homegrown blogging software - Exposition / Narrative / Rendition - in favor of the latest version of WordPress. The reason? Simply put, I am much more interested in blogging than the building of blogging software. I originally created Narrative because there wasn't a good blogging package for ASP.NET. Now, almost 6 years later, while I still work as a .NET architect, I spend all of my time on a Mac, which means I have access to a LAMP stack, etc. Anyway, you'll see a lot of changes here due to the conversion, the first of which is that comments are now open on all posts going forward.

I ordered a new MacBook Pro last week, the day the new hardware refresh was released.  Actually, I spent a bunch of time running around to Apple stores to see if anyone had one in stock but no one did so I had to order mine custom from the Apple store. The computer left Shanghai, China on the 6th and arrived in Anchorage, Alaska today.  According to the FedEx tracking system, it has already left Alaska and is en route to me.  This is my second MacBook Pro and a significant upgrade to the one I have now.  The new one has the following:

• 4 GB of memory (2 GB plus 2 GB I have waiting here on my desk to install as soon as it arrives)
• 512 MB nVidia 8600m GT graphics card (2x as much video memory and a faster card)
• 200 GB 7200 rpm hard disk (50% faster than the one I have and almost 100 GB more storage)
• 1920x1200 LED display (less power consumption bumps battery life to 5 hours with 20% more pixels)
• 802.11n networking (to take advantage of my Airport Extreme)
• 2.6 GHz Intel Core Duo 2 processor (75% faster than what I have now)

and...the new multitouch trackpad for all of the new gestures.  I use the existing gestures constantly so I am looking forward to the additional productivity.

Apple released the MacBook Air today. It is the world's thinnest laptop. At it's thickest, it is thinner than any other laptop's thinnest. It is a nice boon for the executive traveller who is tired of lugging around extra batteries and a heavy laptop. The MacBook Air weighs only 3 lbs. and has a battery that lasts 5 hours. That's a long battery life, really. My work laptop (not a Mac) has a 30 minute battery life and weighs 10 lbs. The MacBook Air has a full-size keyboard and a bright, clear 13.4" LCD screen. The downside: it has no Ethernet port, the battery is internal and not user-changeable, and the laptop does not have a DVD or CD-ROM drive. Let's look at each of these "shortcomings" and how they might affect a road warrior:

1. The lack of DVD drive is not a big deal. The road warrior can leave home his stack of movies. Instead, simply download or rent (yes, rent) any movies to watch directly to the laptop via iTunes. Watching movies from the hard drive is more battery-conserving than watching a DVD.
2. The internal, unchangeable battery is slightly annoying. I really prefer to be able to switch out a battery if I want to. But, of course, I've never had a battery that lasted 5 hours. That kind of battery life means I can use my laptop constantly on a flight from New York to LA. Road warriors who wanted to do that before had to either plug into the airplane power or bring extra batteries. Extra batteries are no longer required.
3. Not having an Ethernet port is sort of disappointing. Not every office or hotel is going to have wireless connectivity. For example, at my work you have to have a certificate on your Active Directory account to gain wireless access. No certificate, no access. No Active Directory account, no certificate. So all visitors at "the firm" have to plug in to Ethernet. Obviously, with no Ethernet port, the MacBook Air would be a no go in this environment.

But other than that, it's outstanding. I could almost stick it into my coat pocket...

When I commute to a client downtown, I have to take the Metra train.  When I take the Metra train, I have to park in the Metra parking lot.  Parking there used to cost $1.00 per day but was recently increased to $1.25.  So instead of simply slipping a dollar bill into a payment slot, now I have to find the dollar bill and change.  Who carries change in their pockets in the morning any more?!?!?  Not me.  If I use cash during the day and end up with change, I put it into a big change can at home at night for future deposit into the bank.  I certainly do not grab a handful of change from the can on the way out the door in the morning, hoping to snare a quarter I can use for my parking fees.

So it was with much happiness and joy that I found that Imperial Parking - the company responsible for giving out parking tickets in the lot and collecting the fees - now offers cell phone parking payment.  You simply set up an account by phone where the system records your cell phone number and credit card information.  In the morning when I need to park, I simply dial a number.  The system recognizes my account from the caller ID of my cell phone.  I punch in number identifying the lot I am parking in (Big Timber) and the spot number where I am parked.  The parking fee goes on my cell phone bill.

This is a great system!  Not only do I not have to have any change, I, technically, don't even need to carry cash.  I definitely don't have to look through my pocket for a dollar bill which then has to be neatly folded to fit into the payment slot.  If I am in a hurry, I can even board the train and pay for my parking then, instead of having to pay before I leave the area.  All in all, a great little enhancement to my morning commute.

At long last it is now possible to get your GMail by mobile phone. Just go to m.gmail.com and login. If you type this URL into a normal PC or Mac browser, you can see what you'll get in your mobile.

Recently, I realized that most of my monthly bills are for recurring services. Not including landline telephone bill, electric bill, or gas bill, my monthly service charges add up. These are the services I use which are business-related:

Business Use

• MyFax, $10 per month: MyFax provides us with an incoming fax line. While we have a fax machine at home, it's never in Receive mode because it shares a line with our other phones. MyFax receives our faxes and then puts the pages into a PDF file and emails the PDF to my email acct, which also allows me to read faxes received during the day from work.
• Strongspace, $14 per month: Strongspace provides 6 GB of storage space where we can store backups of critical files offsite.
• StatCounter, $9 per month: StatCounter lets me keep track of all the web statistics for all of my websites with just a snippet of Javascript per site. I use this service to track all of the ways that people reach my websites.
• TypePad, $8.95 per month: I don't actually use TypePad but I keep a basic account there so I can keep up on what new features are being added to the Moveable Type blogging engine that powers the site.
• KeepMedia, $4.95 per month: A very inexpensive news service which lets me read dozens of magazines and papers for which I would usually have to have a full subscription. Example periodicals include BusinessWeek, NewsWeek, Esquire, USA Today. Have been using this less and less lately so I might cancel this soon.
• Backpack, $5 per month: A very useful site for collecting and sharing digital information regarding concepts I am working on.
• Cell phones, 2 for $150 per month: Waaaaay too expensive for how much I use it.
• Comcast, $95 per month: Ah, the cable and Internet connection bill....my favorite. Not. Am hoping that the a la carte channel selection concept goes through soon.
• Basecamp, free: This is an excellent online project management website. I use it only for managing one project: Narrative.
• Ta-da Lists, free: A nice little task management application - sort of a simplified Basecamp - which lets me track the other tasks on my mind.

So the total for business services is just under $300 per month. We just switched this weekend to Cingular with the goal of reducing that service cost a bit. The following services I keep just for personal use:

Personal Use

• UT2004 Server, $10.50 per month: I rent space on a game server so Petey and I can have low-lag Unreal Tournament 2004 games.
• World of Warcraft, $14.99 per month: I play this every weekend in the late evenings. As of this posting I have a level 21 mage, level 18 warlock, and a level 11 rogue.
• Ventrilo by Darkstar, $4 per month: A great voice conferencing client which allows multiple people to talk to each other at the same time. Great for communicating during quests and raids in WoW.
• Flickr, $25 per year: Possibly the best online photo sharing website. I pay the extra $2+ per month so I can have a ton of extra "sets".
• XM Radio, $12.95 per month: I listen to XM whenever I am in the car.

So another $45 for personal services. All together, almost $350 per month for services related to the digital world.

I like writing on the train, as mentioned in this previous post. However, it's nice to take a break and do other things sometimes. Here's a list of the other ways I pass time on the train.

• Playing video games. The Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) that I have is great for passing time. Each game comes on a little UMD disc and so I can easily carry a library of games with me. I currently am switching back and forth between the Tetris-like Lumines and the racing game Need for Speed. Sometimes, while playing Lumines, I kick off a game at the Big Timber station where I get on the train and, before I know it, I look up and see the Hancock Tower as I approach downtown. Time flies...
• Chess. This is a special case of "playing video games" as chess is in a class by itself. Rather than the fast-paced brain calisthenics of Lumines, chess is a deep-thinking exercise requiring concentration in the face of a chaotic train environment filled with overhead speaker announcements, moving terrain outside the window, embarking passengers choosing seats, and the occasional loud conversation. Typically I put the headphones on and listen to music while playing to isolate myself somewhat from my distracting surroundings.
• Reading novels. I like to read novels and I get a lot of reading done on the train. When I first started taking the train, I was finishing a 300 page novel every 3 days or so. Now I try to limit my reading to about 30 minutes per day, which is still a lot of pages daily. I finish a book now in 2 weeks or so, making my orders to Amazon.com slightly less frequent.
• Reading magazines. I have quite a few magazine subscriptions that I read each month and I usually pick up several magazines per month from the newsstand. I can spend up to 30 minutes a day going through these periodicals catching up with the world.
• Reading newspapers. I don't do this often but if there is something big going on in the world - like Hurricane Katrina - I might scrounge around on the train until I find a discarded copy of the day's Tribune or Sun Times. There are always a few copies laying around in empty seats by the time I get on the train. I take the 8:40 train in the morning so there have already been hundreds of rush hour passengers on the train before me. There are lots of people who read one of these dailies and then just leave theirs in their seat when they leave. It becomes a free read for me.
• Sleeping. There are days when I need some extra sleep. The train is not usually the best place to get a restful nap but there are days that I am so sleepy that I fall asleep even there. This is usually on the train home in the evenings. To this end, I bring my North Face fleece in my backpack. When I want to take a nap, I take out the fleece, form it into a pillow, and put it on top of my backpack. Then I lay down in the seat with my head on the "pillow". Again, since I ride the less crowded trains, I almost always have a seat to myself so my laying down in the seat does not inconvenience anyone. Also, as a "bonus", since I get off at the line terminus, there is no risk in oversleeping and missing my stop.
• Thinking. Sometimes I put my headphones on, tune out the world, and just stare out the window, thinking. I always have at least a couple of challenges queued up for processing and I use the train time to apply a little brain power to those challenges at hand. The early morning time is often my most creative so I often solve these challenges on the train.
• Organizing. I often spend some time on the train figuring out my project and task list, reorganizing my personal productivity data, GTD-style.
• Homework. It's pretty easy to read textbooks and do written or typed homework on the train, provided one has a laptop computer to work on.
• Flashcards. In my never-ending quest to learn more words in Turkish so that I might eventually speak Turkish fluently, I write many vocabulary words on index cards, i.e. flashcards. When I am on the train, I take out the deck of flashcards and go through the words, memorizing each one.
• Crosswords puzzles. I never understood why people enjoy crossword puzzles until recently. Ahu and I were driving on a long roadtrip and were trying to figure out something to do in the car. For lack of a better idea, I pulled into a truck stop and bought a small book of crosswords puzzles. Ahu would work on the crossword puzzle and ask me for "a word for 'froth'" or something like that. It's surprisingly entertaining brain work. So now I do crosswords on the train. It's almost as consuming as Lumines.
• Correspondence. I am attempting to resurrect the idea of composing hand-written letters as opposed to email. When on the train, I write letters to friends in a little notebook and then tear out the pages and send the letter via snail mail when I get home.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I commute to the Chicago Loop now from West Dundee and that gives me almost 3 hours on the Metra Milwaukee District West Line train 5 days a week. That's 15 hours on the train every week, folks - a longer commute than anyone should ever have. To make this lovely ride more bearable, I have started bringing Ahu's laptop with me to work and spend at least 45 minutes of each ride writing articles for my various blogs. It's actually turned out pretty well. I always wanted to find more time to write and the train provides exactly that - time. In a way, it also allows me to use the best part of my day for personal use as my brain is sharpest and most creative first thing in the morning. As I get into the habit of writing every morning, I find that I come up with more article ideas than I can keep up with and generate lots of ideas for improving Narrative as a useful content management tool. In fact, I am now writing some articles days in advance. This gives me a sort of queue to pull articles from, ensuring now that I always have one post per day, even on weekends, hopefully. Perhaps, eventually, I will come to look at this time on the train as a blessing in disguise.