CivicActions

Without a doubt, the most productive time in getting through my inbox is when I'm on an airplane, sans Internet access.

This week I'm exploring Freedom to help me accomplish the same result.

Essentially, Freedom disables all wireless and ethernet networking on an Apple computer for up to 3 hours at a time. After the time is up, Freedom will re-enable your network adapters and display a confirmation that you're back online.

If you absolutely need to pull the cord and MUST get back online, just restart your computer to reset.

Let me restate that: just stopping or quitting the Freedom application will not re-enable your network adapters - and yes, this is purposeful! Freedom is a program designed to help you get things done, away from the distractions of network connectivity.

http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/

"Who do you want to Jott?"

These simple six words have changed my life.

About four months ago, I found Jott.com, a simple and free service that lets me dictate messages into my cell phone that are transcribed instantly into txt and emails. However, the best part is these same messages can be time-delayed and you can have the Jott service send a reminder (i.e. "tomorrow at 5pm") straight to your phone.

Given that I often find myself in the car or on the run, Jott has become one of my most used tools and provides just the perfect blend of simplicity with stellar technology.

I've been checking out Codeweaver's Crossover for Mac, an application that runs on Intel macs using the X11 system to simulate Windows operating systems. This has proven particularly useful for running IE6 on an emulated Win98 system.

Crossover uses the metaphor of "bottles" which are essentially contained operating systems with all the right files and functions to run and install windows applications on a mac. You can have a windows 98 bottle, a XP bottle, etc.. And it rules.

Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York... And the airports of those cities are just some of the places I've worked from in the last two weeks. I get through security and my eyes shoot furtive glances at the bottom 2 feet of walls searching (sometimes in vain) for a power outlet, preferably one that is next to a seat. Recently I have started seeing Samsung "charging stations" in some airports. A brilliant idea who's time is long over due: multiple outlets on a bistro hight mini table.

There were to good stories on NPR and PRI about technology today.

The All Things Considered bit is about back to school technology, back to school sales and what is "wanted" vs "needed".

Market Place ran a story about wireless email access and vacations.

What type of searcher are you?

Slate distinguishs the seven ways people search using the mistakenly-released AOL search logs of 650,000 members.

Or go to Valleywag to search the logs yourself. Like User 1912452, "a psychiatric counselor looking for a job in Colorado, obsessed with quick weight loss. She's turned to the book of Revelation, the zodiac, psychic schools, private investigators, and Victorian poetry. She (or a patient) dreams about being drenched in blood."

I have bitched about Craig's List before, but i needed to blog this for once.

The Seattle Craigslist covers way more than Seattle. It might as well be called Western Washington CL. I am trying to find a dresser. I only want something close by, but i get stuff in Tacoma, Renton, Edmonds.

If CL simply had a zip code function, the utility of the site (and productivity of millions of Americans) would rise instantly. Basically, every posting on the classifieds would have a zip code field and the when searching you would be able to limit your search by zip code proximity.

I have been thinking about how i would improve Mozilla Thunderbird and calendar since before the GooToDo demonstration at BarcampNYC, but that really got my ideas swirling. Just yesterday, Hope and I were talking about email and productivity and the 800 messages in her inbox. So I started thinking a bit more about what I want from my email client and calendar tool.

Email:

• I want to be able to tag (think del.icio.us, flickr, web2.0) my incoming email. I don't want to have to move it into folders, and then remember where i put it it. I just want to tag it with the relevant keywords, and then be able to easily filter and search based on tags.
  

From the New York Times:

The United States has spent about $1.6 billion on [port] security since Sept. 11, but only about a third of the 600 monitors needed nationwide have been installed, so only about 37 percent of shipped goods are checked for a dirty bomb or other nuclear device. The Coast Guard has estimated that it would cost about $7 billion to equip ports in the United States to comply with security standards.

Overall, the contents of only 5.6 percent of containers headed into the United States are checked by the gamma-ray machines or manual inspections, customs officials said. That leaves about 940,000 containers that are not inspected before they are driven out of the American ports.

Mark Hurst from Good Experience and GEL Conference (Good Experience Live), gave a presentation that was basically about productivity, time management and a product he created called GooToDo.

GooToDo allows the user to quickly send an email to the service and it gets turned into a todo item that is dated. When the user logs into the GooToDo site you see ONLY the work that you need to on that day.

There was much skepticism about the utility of this tool for a broad audience.