Apple's Developer's Conference in June

Apple is busy getting it's June Conference together. The high point will be the much anticipated Snow Leopard OS. At Learning Tree International, my Mac course on Integrating Mac OS into a Windows Environment will closely coincide with the new developments.

In addition, Apple released iPhone 3.0 Software last week and the anticipation for the Dev conference is a new model of the iPhone. Now that is exciting...

To learn more go to:

Apple World Wide Developers Conference or check the Washington Post article wire by Reuters.

NYT's 10 Rules for Blogging

The New York Times's 10 Rules For Blogging

by Nicholas Carlson|Mar. 21, 2009, 6:00 AM

This week, the New York Times standards editor Craig Whitney wrote a memo on style for bloggers.

It's cranky and pompous. But our main gripe is that it's just packaged wrong.

13 paragraphs? 4 pages?

Any decent blogger knows that a how-to memo has to be presented in bullet-pointed, listicle format.

So, because we care, here are the New York Times's 10 rules for blogging (in a format people will actually read):

• What should be avoided in all of them is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone — “snark.”
• If something could easily fit in a satirical Web site for young adults, it probably shouldn’t go into the news pages of nytimes.com.
• Contractions, colloquialisms and even slang are, generally speaking, more allowable in blogs than in print.
• Obscenity and vulgarity are not.
• Unverified assertions of fact, blind pejorative quotes, and other lapses in journalistic standards don’t ever belong in blogs.
• Writers and editors of blogs must also distinguish between personal tone and voice and unqualified personal opinion.
• A blog or news column has to give readers the arguments and factual information that led to the writer’s conclusion — enough argument and fact on both or all sides of the issue to enable the reader to decide whether to agree or disagree
• That does not apply to editorials or Op-Ed columns, which “are not intended to give a balanced look at both sides of a debate,” as the Readers’ Guide says.
  
• Headlines on analysis should try to capture the debate rather than taking sides in it.
• If the comments contain vulgarity, obscenity, offensive personal attacks, say that somebody “sucks,” or are incoherent, moderators are advised just to chuck them out.

IE 8 is out!

Here is a snippet from C|Net on the new IE 8.

It's no secret that when judged by several popular Web browser speed tests, Internet Explorer 8 doesn't hold up well. Beta versions of IE 8 have been available to the general public for more than a year, and today's release of the stable build didn't include anything revolutionary.

In addition to the browser being slow it seems they got a lot of their ideas from Firefox. I thirst for innovative products and was very curious to see what IE would come up with. I was hoping it would just blow my mind away. Oh well

9 Websites for Book Lovers

I've been a Shelfari user for about two years now and I like creating a list of my books as I go along and share it with my friends on Shelfari and other members of the site. One of my favorite features is when members ask if they should reading a particular title and whether it's worth their time. Books are so subjective that I don't know if someone would want to ask this question from strangers.
I found an article on iLibrarian which lists popular online social cataloging websites. These are sites outside of Shelfari and the well known LibraryThing. The popular sites mentioned in the article are:

1. BookSprouts
You can join and create book clubs.

2. Blippr
You can add short reviews of books, movies, music, games, and applications.

3. 22 Books
The primary goal of this site is to collect book lists.

4. Book Cover Archive
The site has a collection of over 1,000 book covers.

5. BookJetty
You can use the site to organize your book.

6. Book Glutton
The name is unappealing but I like the idea of a site where you can read public domain books and discuss them with others.

7. Listal
Based around entertainment including Movies, TV shows, games, DVDs, Music and books

8. GoodReads
Members can create lists, write reviews, form groups, create trivia questions which is fun.

9. Paperback Swap
This site is a community hub for trading all formats of books.

Branding My Strengths

I took the StrengthFinder2.0 online quiz and I was nicely surprised by the strengths I found. Not bad! And I can't disagree.

They are:

• Adaptability: Prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people.
  
• Input: Have a craving to know more.
  
• Ideation: Are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
  
• Communication: Find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
  
• Context: Enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.
  

I'll be working to make these strengths work for me as I'll be thinking about these strengths. The site has provided an action plan on how to improve on these areas. I wish they also provided another sub-set of 5 or so. That would be nice to know.

StrengthFinder 2.0

Last year about this time I wrote an entry on my other blog regarding the book: Now Discover Your Strengths. The book really didn't grab me and I soon put it aside.

Then when I was going through the list of the Personal MBA reading list, I saw StrengthFinder 2.0. So, it made me groan - just because the other book was so boring to me . Am I going to read another book that may or may not be worth reading... But guess what I'm reading it now. Part 1 is short. All I need to do now is take the online test. Then once my strengths are discovered I consult part 2 for more information.

So, I've put down what I think my strengths are and once I take the test, I'll check it against StrengthFinder 2.0.

I think it'll be fun to follow-up this post with what I'll find. Unless, I really don't like what I find. :-)

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"-- Benjamin Franklin

Inbox Zero

As I was reading more on GTD (see book cover on the left) and doing online searches, I came across the following presentation called "Inbox Zero."



Here is a brief description:
Merlin Mann, a well known productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website will talk about Getting Things Done, the importance of getting your inbox to zero, and strategies for dealing with high volume email.

This is a relatively short video and it amazed me at how in a very small amount of time I was able to manage my Inbox. He has used a lot of the processing recommendations from David Allen's book.

Getting Things Done

A few days ago, I wrote about reading a series of book to see if getting an MBA is for me. I referenced the following site:

• Personal MBA

The site recommends 77 best business books to read. I've started with Getting Things Done. I had heard a lot about GTD and it intrigued me. Now I have a real reason to read it. Besides, I'm trying to layoff the fiction. :-) Balance is good!

Here is a video on this concept. The author made a great presentation at Google and Google has put the video for everyone to benefit from this talk:

• David Allen: Getting Things Done
  
  
  

Obama faces Technical Challenges in the White House

About a few weeks ago I heard through IT friends that the White House is in need of a technical overhaul. So I was not surprised to see the following article in The Washington Post.

• Web-Savvy Obama Team Hits Unexpected Bumps

Issues of Technology, Security and Privacy Slow the New Administration's Effort to Foster Instant Communication