First up is the Kingston Wi-Drive, a portable wireless hard drive for iOS devices.

Leading Off

I’ve been using Kingston’s Wi-Drive for the last month. It’s a small, lightweight wireless hard drive for use with iOS devices. The model I’ve been using is 16GB. To connect, you use the Wi-Drive app (free in the App Store). Estimated battery life is 4 hours, which I found to be accurate. It comes nicely packaged, with a nod to Cupertino.

Three Up

1. Everything about it is fast. Using the app, setting up the connection, and accessing content on the Wi-Drive is fast. After about five minutes to set up the app and connect to the drive, I was streaming Batman Begins. Once I selected the movie in the app, it was playing in less than three seconds. And scrubbing forward and back in the movie was instant. Zero delays. Very fast. It also remembered where I left off in the movie I was watching.
2. It’s light and small. It’s slightly thinner than an iPhone 4s and can easily fit in any pocket, purse or backpack for easy portability (thought I don’t recommend it for reasons outlined below).
3. You can share the connection. Up to three users can connect simultaneously, allowing up to three people to access the media on the drive wirelessly. I experienced no issues accessing the same content on multiple devices at the same time.

Three Down

1. You can only connect via WiFi. This is limiting, because you have to disconnect from your regular WiFi network to use the device. You can use the app’s wireless network function to connect the Wi-Drive to a wireless network, but it’s not perfect. For instance, I couldn’t type in a network that wasn’t broadcasting its SSID. Also, if you leave the car or hotel room, your device may not reconnect to the Wi-Drive automatically. Having to connect to its WiFi network, then open the app, then find your media every time can become rather annoying. I’d rather just have the media on my device. Finally, you can’t use iPhone tethering while you’re using the Wi-Drive.
2. It’s expensive. When I received the drive, it was priced at $129 and $179 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. Currently prices have dropped to $69 and $99 on Amazon, which is much better.
3. It gets hot when it’s being used. Really hot. Scorching hot. Not good. While it’s built for portability, you can’t keep this in a pocket, a laptop bag or even resting near a piece of paper, for fear it might catch on fire or burn up the drive.

The Final Score

I can see this device being useful for someone with an 8GB iOS device, families on a road trip or a long plane ride, or possibly small teams during a business meeting. Outside of those scenarios, it’s doubtful that you’ll get much use out of a Wi-Drive, and the heat is a major concern. For the money, you’d be better off upgrading to a larger capacity device or upgrading your Dropbox account.

Nest does use Time to Temperature – which is based on your home’s thermal profile — to approximate how long it’ll take to warm or cool your home. So, yes, if Nest knows, for example, that you want it to be 72 at 6PM and that it’ll take 40 minutes to get to that temperature, it’ll start heating up the house earlier.

I’m in for two sometime in 2012.

It’s going well, and we’re having a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

My weekend plans are to add a beer list, a beer recommendation form and a show topic request form to the Emergent Radio site. (And, yes, in that order.)

So. Go forth and be enlightened by Episode #6.

In episode three, we discuss elearning development on a Mac, ZebraZapps and Articulate Storyline.

“Tapping a button, scrolling a list, or zooming a screen in and out should make the user feel as though they’re tapping that user interface element directly. It shouldn’t feel as though they’re tapping a domino that knocks over other dominoes inside device which ultimately causes something to happen.”

(via Daring Fireball)

Cubs Go With Quade as Manager

What’s next for Sandberg? No one knows. But we do know he has no future with the Cubs. And that’s a shame.

I’m bummed. I wanted Sandberg or Girardi. I’m glad it’s not Torre, but I hope Sandberg gets another shot with the Cubbies, or that Quade is a pleasant surprise.

The Future of Learning: Smarter, Simple, Social

The current learning and development trainer becomes pivotal in facilitating the establishment of network contacts, and empowering individuals to identify and customise their personal knowledge business processes to best support their knowledge and learning needs in the current complex workplace environments.

Empowering individuals… Do it.

Remove Flash from Safari Without Click2Flash – Very nice. Done.

YouTube HTML5 Safari Extension – Awesome

Distraction Crutches

I didn’t need to have any software blocking any website, I didn’t have to disconnect from the Internet, and so on. I finished my work on time, and I ended up feeling less tired than I thought. But most of all, I felt focussed and in control.

Good points. I like WriteRoom for its simplicity, but I don’t need it to write. I’ve had issues getting work done with Tweetie, Skype, Reader, etc. open. Growl is awesome, but can be a huge distraction. I shut down the app, switch to a new space, and get to work.

Ruining Usability Tests

Oh, and no copy/paste on launch. To quote their own commercial, “really?”

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.

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)

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.

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!

25 reasons why your company is boring

Set My Browser Size – excellent resource for usability testing, screencasts, tutorials, etc.

Oldest human ancestor discovered – intriguing

Give a little (via Brian)

Social media venn diagram (via Moehlert)

The Social Media Guru (NSFW) – Hilarious, and so true! (via Chris)

A big-assed post about Fireworks – a love hate relationship I have as well (via DF)

People of Walmart – for those of you living under a rock that haven’t seen this yet.

Cat shower – not sure why cat videos are so addictive and funny, but they are.

The great irony about Web 2.0 – never thought about it this way, but I have experienced it this way.

Did you know? 4.0

Twitter: A Trust Ladder – Good insight from Aaron Silvers.

Curing Your Restlesness – Another gem from AoM

The Next Generation Bends Over – Insight on the Mint/Intuit deal.

Technology We Should Be Teaching in College – Good stuff. (via Aaron)

Hierarchy of Digital Distractions – Just about perfect.

Interview with Rob Janoff, Designer of the Apple Logo

Small Batch Business – Duce Enterprises, exactly.

Leopard 10.6.1 released – Gruber always has good one-liners.

Notational Velocity 2.0 Beta – The next step in my attempts to simplify (via DF)

I attended a session with a similar theme last year at the Adobe Learning Summit, which targeted the explosion of online video in training and the 80/20 rule.

“If that 80 percent number rings a bell, it’s because of the famous Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. And it happens to be a recurring theme in Good Enough products. You can think of it this way: 20 percent of the effort, features, or investment often delivers 80 percent of the value to consumers. That means you can drastically simplify a product or service in order to make it more accessible and still keep 80 percent of what users want—making it Good Enough—which is exactly what Kaiser did.”

The point being, users will put a higher value on lower quality material that is available right when they need it and want it, over higher quality material that takes longer to develop. It’s in line with the Just Enough, Just In Time model of training that I find highly effective in most instances.

Think about it, then talk about it. Here or on Twitter.

The new morning routine. So true.

The Missing Windows Disc – nope, not that simple…

Driver Side Auto Management Site – Nice, clean interface and a great resource for car owners

Working through video-editing backlog – I so need to do this.

ALA – Redesigning your own site: “Designing for your worst client: yourself” – Good read

Learning Objectives and Salsa Dancing

How to pick a barber

Just hold the Command key (the one with the apple logo on most Apple keyboards).

Click here to view a screencast.

Then, click the icon, and drag it off the menu bar. It will do the cloud dissipation animation like when you remove something from the dock. You can also use the Command key if you want to move the icons around. You can do this for most menubar icons (specifically the ones that comes with OS X), while some are only available via the application preferences.

The Four-Day Work Week Works

Design Checklist

I for one welcome our half-human, half-robot, overlords in the cloud. Be sure to read the commentary. Enlightening.

John Hugues Dies at 59. Brilliant work. So many great quotes and classic scenes. I’m with Gruber, though, Bueller is his best work.

The Beer Hero App – Brilliant

I had started a post a few months back outlining all of the things I use daily: my desk, software, hardware, backup plan, music library, etc.

Then I realized that it would be a gigantic post and my setup would probably change by the time I finished writing it! So, instead, I’m making it a series. I hope I get some feedback about what I use and how I use it so I can become more efficient and hopefully save some money. A series will also make it easier to update in the future.

Just as a disclaimer, there might be affiliate links on a few items I profile specifically (to help raise money for charity and keep this site running).

Here’s the order I plan to post:

1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Backup Plan
4. Network
5. Desk & Office
6. Music & Fun

FACEBOOK has agreed to let a third party advertiser use your posted picures WITHOUT your permission. Click on SETTINGS up at the top where you see the log out link. Select PRIVACY. then select NEWSFEEDS and WALL. Next select the tab that reads FACEBOOK ADS. There is a drop down box, select NO ONE. then SAVE your changes. (Repost this to let your friends know!)

My goal is to grow my business gradually, building long-term relationships with non-profits and small businesses.

I believe the most important tools for a small business are, in no particular order, customer relationship management (CRM), accounting and invoicing, and project management.

Now for my dilemma. For the first few years of business, where I had a very small number of clients, and several one-project clients, I hopped around between Blinksale, Freshbooks and some others on their free limited accounts, trying them out. They all seemed to work pretty well, and eventually Freshbooks won me over with their frequent feature enhancements and their wonderful product team and support.

So when I reached the next level in my business, I imported everything to Freshbooks and went with their lowest paid plan, at $14 per month. Since then, I’ve had no complaints, and no issues whatsoever, except for that monthly email notifying me that my card has been charged $14.

I absolutely love the simplicity to administer my account, monitor payments, automate recurring invoices, etc. But I’m wondering if something on my local machine, like Billings, would be a better solution at a one-time fee of $39 (less than three months of my current plan). At the same time, the simplicity and time savings of using a great SaaS app like Freshbooks is nice.

I’m hoping a few small business owners and/or freelancers read this post and can provide me with some feedback on what they are using.

Aaron is setup with Billings and Basecamp, which I’ve used sparingly. I’m not sure if they play nicely together, but it works for him. I’d love a fully integrated solution (or solutions) to manage my clients, both active and potential, billing, and project management.

Freshbooks and Basecamp play nicely together, as do several other SaaS tools. 37signals makes their case for web-based software. What do you use? What’s your experience? What’s your monthly bill for running your business? What other tips do you have for me?

I just read a very good article from the Times. There are many valuable points made about making the effort, however small – like helping a nonprofit get set up with Twitter and Facebook – to help make this world a better place. I’ve tried to work with my kids on this, and have been fairly successful.

I recently took my son (9) to the Village Learning and Achievement Center, the local nonprofit (where I volunteer) he chose back in January in lieu of presents (yes, we’re slightly tardy in our delivery).

He had an amazing experience with the director giving him a tour and meeting some of their clients. He did really well, and I was proud of him. He came out of there, and said, “that place was really cool.”

Anyhow, just wanted to share, and encourage you to talk to your kids, your friends, even your parents and coworkers, about doing something good and meaningful in this world.

Every dollar helps, every minute of time volunteering helps, in some way, to make this place better for all of us, and especially our kids.