I Got a Big Ass Pocket – hilarious! (via The Duty – a new fav)

Padnotes – iPad annotation and drawing – seems clunky to me.

Tron Legacy – can’t wait. Also need to watch the original again.

Innovations in e-Learning – really wish I was going to this…we’ll see.

The Future of the LMS – add your thoughts and link it back here so I can read it.

JuneCloud – creators of Delivery Status – love these guys.

Faking It – Very interesting read – and a very real situation.

SCORM Cloud gets easier to play with (via)

Interaction Colour Associations – Good stuff in the comments also.

Why You Can Never Work ‘Full Time’

The Importance of Teaching Your Clients and Being the Boss

Work/Life Balance

Modern Browsers for Modern Applications – Google’s take (and mine)

The 3rd and the 7th, a short film by Alex Roman – Absolutely amazing. (via Gruber)

Computers are Dumb – Make Smarter Learning – Good article. I am increasingly frustrated with lame interactions in e-Learning. You’d think that we’d have something better by now.

This quote is the key:

“Don’t just have your learners interact with the computer — have them interact with other people.”

Validation, collaboration, accountability, etc. are better defined, delivered and received by humans. Use the computer to deliver some content – use humans to deliver the rest.

Dreaming of an Apple Tablet – I’m in the same boat. 95% of the time, my Macbook Pro is a desktop. But I need it to be portable that other 5%, and I want all my music, files, photos, etc. when I’m on the go. Not sure where I’m headed with my setup.

An Amalgamation of Predictions and Questions Regarding the Apple Tablet – Amalgamation, indeed. Thorough and thoughtful.

Viewing PDFs in a Browser on a Mac – Good stuff from Philip – I’m tired of Adobe.

First off, their Save $5, Make $5 program is still going strong. It’s easy money folks. Use code D8BYCM when you sign up for the subscription, and you get your own discount code. Find four people who need this sync functionality, and you’ve made your money back. Find more and you’re making money for using a tool that you’ll use anyway. Pretty sweet.

In addition, Spanning Tools are available, and they’ve recently announced a Spanning Backup service that is looking for beta testers. They also helped Postbox develop their referral program. Pretty sweet. It’s a Save $10, Make $5 program. For $10 off Postbox, use coupon code R7AJZ. Postbox is a mailbox manager for Windows and Mac.

If you’re on a Mac, and you use Google tools, or if you just want to make some easy money, you need Spanning Sync.

**These links are affiliate links. As always, 50% goes to charity.**

It’s the iPad.

While I don’t need one, I think it would be cool to have around the house. Not sure $500 (for the bare bones edition) is worth it for a 3rd or 4th computer, though.

I hear lots of people talking about getting one for the family, including kids. Not so sure about that. My five-year old girl with grubby syrup hands does not need to mess with the $500 piece of glass.

No SD slot? No multi-tasking? No thank you.

What it is, is an awesome gadget for those who will use it for specific things. Like to read e-books? Perfect. Kindle-killer. Like to sketch/draw? Go for it. (Philip is an example).

I won’t use this thing a lot. If I traveled more, maybe. But then I’d have to have my Macbook Pro and my iPad. Two devices. Why not just use the MBP?

Around the house, sure, it’d be awesome, but $500 for an additional machine that gets used occasionally is not in my budget.

My uses would include: reading mags/books/RSS on the pot and on the couch, occasionally writing blog posts and updating Twitter. I can do these now with my iPhone, and I prefer real books.

I think doctors, students and older kids could use these quite a bit. However, in most cases, they also need a full computer for some activities the iPad cannot perform. So, again, this becomes an extra device.

It’s a very cool product. And, of course, Apple did it right, and waited until they could do it right, to launch.

There is a market for these. I’m just not in it.

Flickr vs. SmugMug – nice review from 2008 – need to post my photography setup and storage and reasoning. Also need to take more photos!

The Square – Revolutionizing mobile transactions? Could be interesting.

Three things about Marco Arment – Great stuff about the creator of Instapaper, a huge part of how I read the internet.

Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free. – no words can describe how awesome this is (via Gruber)

Disable Invisible Flash in ClickToFlash – Good advice – why? Here’s why. (via Gruber)

Hubble Telescope Snaps Deepest-Ever Image of the Universe – Amazing how small we are.

The Unbelievable World of Snowflakes – Amazing macro photography and back story. Show your kids.

Dreaming of an Apple Tablet – Excellent stuff – awesome graphics. I’d buy 2 also. (via DF)

Enter Instapaper. Integration with Twitter apps and all my browsers, and a iPhone app. Brilliant and simple. If it’s worth reading, I’ll “read it later.”

My other favorite tool is Readability, which makes most websites 20 times better by cutting out the sidebars, ads, Flash, and other crap and just giving me the article I want to read, in a wonderful typeface of my choosing, at the size I prefer.

I’ve set my father-in-law up with Readability, because he, too, hates the crap on websites that disturb good content. It’s good stuff. Arc90 deserves a medal.

So here’s how I read the internet:

1. Twitter to Instapaper (to read later) or to Safari/Readability
2. Safari to Instapaper or Readability (depending on time)
3. Google Reader in Fluid with Helvetireader
4. Email – I still prefer some email newsletters and Feedburner because it, again, is just the content.

More goodness:

• Give Me Something to Read – a list of the most “Instapapered” articles.
• Netvibes – was my primary for a long time. Works well with Fluid.
• Instapaper Restyled

They are decent at adding new functionality, but mostly they just got it right with the core app, except for one thing:

$14 per month.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it? But look at it this way: $168 (one year). Now how about $336 (two years). That is a LOT of money for one tool in a freelancer’s/small business owner’s toolbox.

Less Accounting ($12/mo, $144/yr) and Blinksale ($6/mo, $72/yr) are other options, but they’re still expensive.

I’m switching to Billings for a one-time payment of $39. If I upgrade, it’ll probably be once, maybe twice over the next two years ($25 or $50), bringing my total to a max of $89 over two years.

I’ve been drooling over some amazing graphics and diagrams recently, but this is the best I could do to show my potential cost savings over the next two years:

Just thought I’d share my thoughts and recommendations. Freshbooks is awesome. Less Accounting seems like a good tool. Blinksale is good also. If you run multiple computers or have more than one employee, it might be worth the extra cost for the online services.

But as a freelancer/small business owner with one or two employees (the wife does some HR consulting occasionally), and only one responsible for estimate, invoicing, etc., I’m going with the cost savings, while retaining the same functionality (albeit local to my machine) as the web-based tools.

I’ll probably have more on this subject after a few months or a year with Billings.

(Thanks to Aaron for the nudge).

Think about it. Amazing. There’s more out there. Hope I’m alive when we find it!

A plea to those who enjoy giving this time of year:

Patrick posted this over at Minimal Mac and it got me thinking.

All of this stuff will generate a bunch of stuff to be thrown away or recycled. Wrapping, packaging, spent gift cards – they all have to end up somewhere. Not to mention all of the stuff we had to build and machines we run in order to make the stuff we give and receive.Then once the season is over, in fact the very next day, comes the inevitable stuff we have to return (for cash to buy stuff if you have the receipt, exchange for different stuff if not).

Last year, we pledged $50 each (half our gift budget) to a charity, and cut down on gifts. We’re doing the same thing this year, and, again, I ask friends and family to consider donating to charity or the kids’ college funds in place of more stuff.

We have enough stuff. We need less of it. I’m trying to minimize. If it’s meaningful, functional and worthwhile, awesome. If it’s frivolous or wasteful, save the money and put it to better use, please.

Think about all the good we can do! We welcome the generosity, but would like to redirect it to something more substantial, that’s all.

Thanks in advance!

Simple, but effective idea. Think outside the box. It doesn’t always have to be a page turner, video or job aid. Make a comic!

(via Thiagi)

Anyhow, a while back I took some shots with my iPhone as I rode the trails. Nothing special, and mediocre iPhone quality, but neat to share, nonetheless.

I will venture out with SLR in hand at some point, but these should give you an idea of the area.

- Mark Oehlert, Defense Acquisition University

Quotes to Remember:

“Start small, think big, move fast.”

“Let’s move from subject-matter experts to subject-matter networks.”

“Teach capabilities, not content.”

The New Knowledge Management

• Companies with strong Knowledge Management departments adopt social media earlier and build stronger systems.
• Educate your users about tagging, categorization, organization, etc. Figure out how the tools can work within the organization and train it.
• Must have Knowledge Management strategy in place for these tools to work. What’s the goal? What will we do with the information generated? If it’s poorly presented, poorly tagged, poorly organized, what’s the value?
• Don’t choke it by over-regulating. Too many restrictions will keep people from using it openly and sharing. Let it flow and moderate, rather than dictate and restrict.
• Balance must be found here, because too open leads to a mess of information, too closed leads to a lack of information.

The Big Point

Enterprise is concerned about control. What controls do they have in place now for email, jump drives, copiers, laptops, etc.? Nothing is different with social media. Your communication policy already covers it. Don’t do anything bad, don’t release company information. Don’t be stupid. It’s the same as email, phone and other forms of communication.

Another angle: think people aren’t goofing off now? Think again. Think they aren’t going to Twitter because it’s blocked? Wrong. Seesmic, Hoot Suite, Brizzly, the iPhone, Blackberry client, portal widgets, browser plugins. If someone wants to use it, they will find a way.

Scenario

NSA is using A-Space built on Jive. Information was released that shouldn’t have been. Because people were active in the system, it was viewed, collected and fixed in 90 seconds. Had it been in an e-mail, the result would have been much different.

The Big Point #2

Enterprise is concerned about what might happen if they allow this. The better question is, “what happens if we don’t use this?” What do we miss out on?

• collaboration
• knowledge sharing
• new business generation
• new recruits
• much more…

Change

Michael T. Kanazawa:

“People don’t hate change. They hate how you’re trying to change them.”

This is a great quote. We need to remember the user when we make these changes. Think about how you will implement this change, and how it affects everyone in your organization. Also, let them adopt it at their own pace. Provide options? (SharePoint, Yammer, Communicator)

Check out more from Michael here or download the manifesto.

Takeaways

• Let’s change the mindset of the organization. Why do we push people out and cut them off? Why not encourage them to continue to interact and contribute?
• There is still value in portals. But let the user dictate what they see. Use 40% for your stuff (push). Let users do what they want with the other 60% (pull). **Netvibes example and idea generated**
• Corporate America is run using the OSS Sabotage Manual (seriously, check it out!)

Resources & References

In no specific order.

• introNetworks
• SocialText
• Yammer
• NetVibes portal for the enterprise
• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• IBM: Best Practices for Social Computing
• Open Government and Innovations Conference TweetBook
• Kodak Social Media Myths and Tips
• Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration

250,000 on Facebook Find Owner of Lost Camera – one of the great things about social media is shown here, when it’s used to help people. (via Palko)

Ten Things You Need to Stop Tweeting About – (via Philip)

Laptop Steering Wheel Desk – Read the reviews…great fun (via Aaron)

10 Things You Need to Know About Wordpress 2.9 – Good stuff. Improving as a CMS.

The Simplest & Most Efficient iPhone Stand – brilliant (via MinimalMac)

Microsoft Store Breaks Out in Song – First, that is pathetic retail store behavior. Two, what a horrendous song. (via DF)

Camino 2 – Try it.

Daring Fireball: Philip Elmer-Dewitt on Apple’s Advertising Budget.

Daring Fireball: Buzz Andersen on the Purportedly Upcoming ‘Twitter Peek’ Dedicated Twitter Device.

Dan Cederholm (SimpleBits) Goes WP – Wow. Another big player on Wordpress. Love it!

20 Social Media Comics (via Jeff)

Social Media is the Means to Achieve Workplace Collaboration – (via Ethan)

Gruber on Microsoft, McFarlane and Plagiarism – Be sure to click through to the video comparison of The Simpsons/Family Guy. I had no idea it was that blatant.

THE Vin Diagram – Bravo.

7 Creative Ways to Introduce Social Media to Your Team – Good tips, and very good links to other resources and books to use in your battle to get Social Media accepted in our workplace, something I’m involved in right now (via Jeff)

The Bacon Bread Patty Melt – Incredible (via Aaron)

Wordpress Users – Use a Favicon – Good advice (via Alex)

The Real Cost of Windows 7 – (via Eric)

ColorJive – awesome.

Levelator – If you podcast, or develop elearning, a MUST!

Right now, you can get FOUR of their themes for the price of ONE. Sweet!

They have spectacular designers on their roster, and they provide great and timely support. I highly recommend them.

Get in before October and two things happen.

1. Use my affiliate link and I’ll get a kickback, 100% of which goes to charity for the rest of October. (and 50% after).
2. WooThemes is donating a portion of October proceeds to charity, too.

It’s win-win-win. You get great themes, I give to charity, and WooThemes gives to charity. Awesome.

** All of my October affiliate revenue is going to charity (because I love boobs), so feel free to try out some of the other service and resource providers in my sidebar!

1. Copy this:
   

   defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

2. Open Terminal (I love little hacks via Terminal)
3. Paste (Command-V) into Terminal and hit Enter
4. Close and Re-Open iTunes

(via TUAW)

If you use SizzlingKeys, it now displays half-ratings, and hopefully will add the half-rating function soon.