More and more, better and better, faster and faster

Taylor series of sin^3(x)

Two days ago, Stephen Wolfram launched Wolfram|Alpha (if your last name was Wolfram you’d have an ego, too, even if you were smart, and apparently this guy is). What is Wolfram|Alpha? It’s a “computational knowledge engine.” Not a search engine, a COMPUTATIONAL KNOWLEDGE ENGINE. In other words, say you want to compare the GDPs of Hungary and Paraguay over a series of non-contiguous years, or just want to know how many herring, on average, will fit into your Goyard Courier Trunk, then this is the place for you. In still other words, imagine a real 1950s/60s-style sci-fi computer (HAL 9000, Enterprise ship’s computer, etc.), one that you can ask complex questions in lay terms and Wolfram|Alpha does the work for you. For instance, you can ask for the Taylor series of sin^3(x) and it will give you, among other things, the graph displayed above. If you aren’t convinced of how cool this is and how mind-blowing the next generation of freely available computing tools is going to be, go check out the demo. If I’d had this in high school, lab reports would have kicked ass.

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I’m an Apple fan, user, and occasionally an apologist. I love my Mac(s).

On the other hand, let’s just say I’m something less than a fan of AT&T wireless. So much so that I will not be laying down the plastic for a new iPhone. As much as the iPhone is designed to be the prima donna of mobile connectivity, I bet it’s going to be like driving a Ferrari in NJ at rush hour. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m willing to wait until I’m proved wrong or the next generation is running on Verizon Wireless. Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 got me thinking about my reasons for not getting an iPhone (it’s funny how we’re all coming up with reasons for not getting one, a defensive consumer posture; Apple’s marketing ju jitsu is strong).

The most important thing in mobile connectivity is the network infrastructure. AT&T can boast all it wants about having the largest digital whatever, it doesn’t mean squat if the coverage is lousy. My unscientific survey of Cingular/AT&T users in cell-phone saturated NJ gives it the big thumbs down. I’ve heard more complaints about Cingular/AT&T than I have about Sprint. And that’s an accomplishment.

The customer review metrics at online cell phone clearinghouse Let’s Talk.com bear out my impressions:

Cingular/AT&T gets an overall 2.7 rating (out of a possible 5) at Let’s Talk, with 2.9 for coverage, and for 2.8 quality (amazingly, a horrible 2.4 for customer service is what really drags them down). Compared with Verizon Wireless’s overall 3.3, with 3.7 for coverage and 3.5 for quality, you know Steve Jobs blew it when he argued over customer service issues with Verizon. I know the CW is that Verizon was the chump for not letting Jobs have his way with them, but unless they’re locked out of iPhone forever, and I doubt that will be the case, it’s AT&T who will take all the knocks (and rightly so). Then, when the second and third generation iPhones are released, customers will flock to Verizon, especially if the cost of breaking your contract is less than the cost of the new phone (there’s no real monetary connection there, it’s a psychological one, I’m man-facting, but I bet I’m accurate).

When you look at the other numbers at Let’s Talk, it affirms what everyone knows: Verizon is the most popular carrier. What it also shows is that Cingular/AT&T is the least-liked of the big ones. T-Mobile gets an overall 3.1, with 2.8 for coverage and 3.0 for quality. Sprint gets an overall 2.8 with 3.0 for coverage and 3.1 for quality, and Nextel is about tied with Cingular/AT&T with 2.7 overall, but 2.8 coverage and 2.9 quality.

Those numbers make it clear why AT&T let Jobs dictate the terms; they’re betting the iPhone will put them back in the game. But sorry Charlie, what will put you on top is better service overall. Because as much as the iPhone is more than just a phone, it has to be a phone first. To be a wireless phone it has to work almost everywhere and sound good on both ends. All of those things are network issues, and they aren’t Apple’s responsibility. AT&T probably won’t kill the iPhone, but it won’t help it.

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At MBF! we love gadgets and toys and new things promising to help us improve performance. Organizers, planners, systems, perspectives, philosophies; we’ve got our fingers in every pie on the sill.

Why it took us 1,440 mentions at 43 Folders to notice Quicksilver we have no idea, but it’s evidence that we’re far from the early adopters we like to imagine ourselves.

It’s like a brand new pair of running shoes for your OS X.

Developer Blacktree says “at first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher.” That doesn’t do it justice, and though accurate, doesn’t even hint at what this app has under the hood. They also call it “a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.” A little more to the point, but doesn’t quite give you an understanding of what it can do.

Quicksilver helps merge OS X with your subconscious.

Anything but mercurial, launching applications and performing all kinds of functions becomes as transparent as touch typing.

Hot keys on steroids.

Imagine not needing to memorize hot keys to launch and perform functions within the program you just launched. Think of a bookmark, type the first couple of letters and the bookmark is there in front of you, hit return and the page is there. Think of a song or artist in your iTunes, type a few letters, the song is there, hit return and it’s playing. (It’s several orders of magnitude faster than using iTunes search and scroll, especially if you have tens of gigs of music.) Want to zip up a bunch of files and data into a nice package? It’s a few simple keystrokes; you may never juggle Finder windows again. Search contacts without going to whatever program they’re stored in. Compose and send e-mail without pointing and clicking. It may save you time, but you probably won’t notice that as you’ll just be more efficient. You’ll see your desktop less as it starts acting like the extension of your psyche you’ve been trying to get it to be for years.

This is a must-have for Mac users. There may be one or two out there who are so visually oriented that they will not immediately benefit from the swiftness of an intuitive letter-key interface (if you always would rather use a mouse than a keypad). But try it first. Take the three minutes to download and install, and then give yourself another ten to run through Dan Dickinson’s A better OS X in just 10 minutes before deciding. The rest of you won’t need to decide–you’ll be running through the other possibilities and tweaking the plug-ins to customize Quicksilver to your needs. Then you’ll be using it. And you’ll be getting things done faster, you’ll have more time, and you’ll feel better.

(Sorry Windows and Linux users–Quicksilver is a Mac app.)

And it’s free!

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Oh joy, while reading my 1283 feeds this morning, a great article at Read/Write Web jumped out at me. That’s because it’s the first to explain why, despite the absence of recreational substance abuse, my brain feels a mixture of drugged, speedy, flitty and fragmented all at once. There’s a name for this condition, and it’s not “ADHD.” It’s called Continuous Partial Attention.

What kind of new-fangled jargony state of affairs is this? Alex Iskold explains it nicely in his post:

We are splitting our attention over a rapidly growing body of online information.

To cope with that we replaced reading with skimming and learned to work in an environment with constant interrupts. We no longer have time to pause and reflect, let along think for a while.

Today we have successfully replaced attention with what Linda Stone coined and Marc Orchant recently wrote about: Continuous Partial Attention. So are we making a mistake by stretching our attention thin? Not necessarily, it is just a new way of doing things that we have to adapt to.

Now, being a web dude, Iskold goes on to talk about software solutions and of course mentions one of my favorites - Basecamp. And also goes on to mention, and I agree, that it’s not the mecca of one-stop-software application that many of us crave. Basecamp does a few things well, but it leaves you relying on outside calendars and contacts, which are central to collaboration as well. Things like a Google Home page help aggregate needed applications into one place, but it still lacks the integration and connectedness of Basecamp.

In any case, two things I take from this. I am not alone in feeling like I’m on caffeine overload doing too many things at once, and there is, by god, a name for this condition.  That and I shouldn’t panic over this. Maybe it’s not worse, but just different. I don’t actually feel that way, but I am trying to believe.

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I work for a large university doing a lot of “information” work, as David Allen would classify it. That means my productivity comes in fits and starts, often. Sometimes I take my work home and do it during the evenings or on weekends–all uncompensated, of course. If I didn’t have to show my face at work when I had nothing to do, I wouldn’t mind so much.

However, I work in an environment that has the classic conveyor belt factory work structure of 40 hours with management being able to see your face. I thought as long as I was completing tasks well and going above and beyond expectations, as I normally do, I was okay. Seems now the university wants to police my in-office down time as well (and yes, I have plenty of it, as most people who do my kind of work will admit in private). So, being someone who uses the internet a lot at work for purely non-work related purposes, this notice in my inbox today caused me great pain.

Within the next several weeks (BIG BROTHER UNIVERSITY) will be putting into production a program called Surf Control.

This program will immediately block access to a large number of internet sites considered non-business related, such as:

Gamboling Sites (ed. note: Is that really what he meant to say? I think he meant gambling…)
Pornographic Sites
Streaming music sites

In addition the software will give (BIG BROTHER UNIVERSITY) the ability to monitor and report on the surfing habits of its staff. It will be providing reports to administration on the sites which are being accessed by users and highlight users who are high volume surfers.

This software is being put in place because (BIG BROTHER UNIVERSITY) has a limited amount of bandwidth available to support its clinical and business processes. The use of bandwidth for non-business activities is hampering business and clinical processes from being done. To resolve this issue the University will be monitoring the use of the internet and will consider adding other non-business sites to the blocked list as we go forward. This decision will be made by an appropriate non-IS group of (BBU) staff. In addition there will be a process for requesting access to a blocked site for business related reasons.

This is just a heads up to let you know that this is coming. Once it is instituted you will receive additional information from the University and from me.

Name Withheld

Director, BBU Information Services

How do we create work environments that are demoralizing to staff? Well, insist that they sit in uncomfortable work spaces, even when their work is finished and deny them access to tools that they could be using for personal gain. Implement policies such as this that send the message, “We know you wasteful parasites are sucking our bandwidth! We’re going to hunt you down like the slugs you are and write you up!”

Do I think we have a big porn and gambling problem? Of course not. Maybe there really is a bandwidth issue and we need to stop streaming music and video (two things I never personally do at work anyway). So then, why not just send out a notice asking employees to stop doing that and see if it improves before going to this step? If they’d given the employees a chance to be responsive, a measure like this wouldn’t seem like such a slap in the face.

In any case, it’s all proof that I need to step up my efforts to convince my boss to let me work remotely. And that will be my next challenge. You can follow it here in the coming weeks and months.

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My office at a large university exists in an industrial building we acquired from a bank several years ago. While a little bit of renovation was done, the concept of “big open room with cubicles done in creativity killing colors (drab grey and beige, anyone?) and no natural light” managed to be a mainstay of the decor. I work in a “Research and Training” division, and believe me when I tell you that that environment, with it’s crap lighting, constant noise and depressing visual stimulation, does nothing to keep me on task.

One alternative I like is online office systems that allow staff to work from anywhere. For a couple of projects I’ve used Basecamp to collaborate with colleagues and with integrated messaging, to-do lists, write boards and milestone trackers, that works quite well. But why, I must ask 37 Signals, why do you stop short of integrating contacts and a more robust calendar in one application? Even so, it is hard to find competition for them–but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking.

If you are too, the article Rolling your own online office, posted by Read/Write Web is certainly a good place to start. There’s a decent overview of options for online collaboration, with pros and cons of different solutions. Another article I refer to again and again is Alternatives to Basecamp for Project Management by Web Worker Daily. Both articles point to plenty of helpful Basecamp alternatives for different tasks.

My next step is to convince my boss that online collaboration works, and that office cultures that cling to the mentality of “Hey, if you don’t spend 8+ hours a day slumped in your coffee stained roller chair, you’re not productive!” are out of touch. That’s another post, but I do intend to make this argument in my workplace, one good online office app at a time.

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Had to laugh when I saw this. I’m not saying it’s not good–I honestly have no idea. I’m just laughing at how “More! Better! Faster!” the marketing angle is:

 

Acceleration Squared
Four Days That Will Change
Your Life Forever.

 

Here’s What Acceleration² Will Do For You…

My ground-breaking seminar is called “Acceleration Squared,” and with good reason. Days one and two are all about personal acceleration. Days three and four are all about business acceleration.

It’s a “double-dose” of powerful, barrier-shattering tips and tricks that are sure to boost ANY business to the “next-level”.

Who knows what you might learn? Power in ambiguity! All hail the abstract!

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I’m the kind of guy who will order the self-help DVDs off the television at 5 a.m. Not all of the time–maybe once a year I buy into some new idea or method, possibly more often if we’re talking web trends. I’m not compulsive about the decision–I do the research. But, if I like it and it’s not snake oil, cult or pyramid scheme, I dive in headfirst. Then the diet/workout/productivity/spiritual growth/mental health package arrives in the mail. I follow the instructions. I alter my habits. I see the changes. Everything starts to come together. Then after a while I let it slip. A few months after the peak, I’m back on the couch staring at the TV in the pre-dawn gloom, stuffing potato chips into my maw, eyes bleary with caffeine overload, watching someone sell me some better version of myself. Someone with more self control, more skill. A faster, sleeker me. A me that is vacationing in the Amazon. I wonder if I’m really Walter Mitty after all and I shout, “No! I am not. I may not be a beautiful and unique snowflake, but I’m not only a guy who eats chips in the middle of the night. I’m the guy with the drive and the ambition that gets it together and wins!” And it starts all over again.

I’m no slouch. I’m still young but I’ve had a couple of careers. I’m in a happy marriage. Own a home I could live in the rest of my life without grumbling much. But like millions of people (billions?) I know I’m nowhere near my potential. Or at least I believe I’m nowhere near it. Could be this is it. But I don’t think so. Not at all, really. Today, that’s what More Better Faster! is about. It’s a chronicle of this process. A place to track all of the stuff I’m using and doing, to think about why, to examine it, break it down. Do Google Notebooks really improve my life? Or is is just more clutter on the desktop? What tricks actually get me to do my reading on the recumbent bike? Do I really need the ice cream? Can I change the way my brain works in middle age the way I could when I was 20? Maybe this will be useful. Maybe whoever winds up reading this will get something out of it, or have something to share back that will click. In the end, I expect to work. But I want to love my work, and I want to lessen the amount of drudgery. Work less, earn more. Trade up. Spend more time with the family. Spend more time helping my community. Make more art.

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