The voice in my head says:

Another blog? Really? Don't you have enough of these already?

The real answer, is that I have too many of these and I need to consolidate. When I post something online, it’s usually either a link to something I found interesting or it’s a full page blog post that’s been gestating in my brain for a while. Up until now, I’ve had two separate avenues for publishing this content. Links went to my linkblog (and from there to Twitter and Facebook). Full posts went to my blog (often with a link to the post being added to the linkblog).

I rarely post full posts, most of the stuff I post are links to other sites. The linkblog is great, but it has one flaw: there’s just not a good place to add my commentary. This is important because often I will want to share a link that I do not agree with, but find interesting. When you post a link to Twitter, it’s implied that you like and agree with what you’ve just linked to. I really want some space (more than 140 characters minus the url) to add my 2 cents.

This blog represents the combination of the full blog and link blog. Most posts will be just a link to something else with a quote and some comments. Nothing more. Occasionally I’ll hop up here and ramble for a full page, but that doesn’t happen too often.

What's with the name?

When I was in kindergarten, I published a newsletter called Ted’s Tidbits and passed it out to my classmates. (Actually I’m pretty sure my Dad did most of the work on this one.) I don’t remember much about that except for what it looked like and the name. Considering I’m really just commenting on what I find as I read the internet, I think the name fits this format perfectly.

Like everything else I’ve done online, this is an experiment. We’ll see how well that goes.

Oh yeah, I definitely ripped off daringfireball.net with this site.

From blog.tedchoward.com.

The State Fair of Texas starts today, and I’m very excited! The State Fair is a family tradition for us, and so we go early and go often.

This year, we’ve decided to take our combined 160 years of fair-going experience and share it. If you want to learn how to visit the Fair like the Howards, make sure you follow http://howardguide.com. We’ll be posting our tips and reviews on all things State Fair of Texas.

Now, I’m off to the Fair!

From blog.tedchoward.com.

I was talking with my friend Josh the other day about how easily we forget things. We both have a problem with reading books: we tend to forget most of the material. When reading for fun, this isn’t a big deal, although it can be embarassing. (I read Ender’s Game twice without realizing it.) When reading a business or technical book, it can become problematic. What’s the point of reading the book if you don’t put it into practice?

This morning, I was again thinking about how to best retain what I read, when I ‘heard’ the word retain in a different context in my head. Bear with me now as I attempt to compare self-improvement with iPhone application design.

When you build an iPhone application, you store lots of ‘stuff’ in memory: images, web content, other information, etc. Often that same stuff will be used in different places inside the same application. For example, in a game, you might want to display the high score on the game screen itself and on another summary screen that could include a list of high scores, so you design the application so that both screens have access to the section of memory that stores the high score. When you do this on the iPhone, you also need to tell each screen to retain that section of memory. The reason for doing this is that as soon as the iPhone doesn’t think that memory is being used, whatever was stored there is erased and made available for storing something else.

Did you catch that? Unless your application specifically retains a section of memory, whatever was stored there will be lost forever.

Back to reading. When you read something important, you need to do something with that knowlegde quickly or it will be lost. This is why the best students are the ones that take notes in class and when they read. It’s not necessarily that the notes are beneficial later (although they often are), it’s that the act of taking notes engages the brain in a way that casues it to retain the knowledge.

Taking notes is a good step, but an even better solution is to attempt to use the knowlegde for something real. The best way to learn a new programming language is by writing a real program in that language. If you’re reading a book on time management, put the strategies to practice immediately as you are reading the book. The more you use the knowledge, the more of it you retain.

A few years ago, I read Getting Things Done. It’s a great book, and it’s helped me a little, but not very much. I’m practically as disorganized as I ever was. Why? Because I read that book a few chapters at a time either in bed or in a comfortable chair. I read it the same way I read a novel. I picked up some decent tips, but I’ve forgotten most of the material. I’ve decided to read it again, only this time I’m going to play along as I read. I want to retain and use all of the knowledge in that book, so I’m going to try to put it into practice immediately. I hope it sticks this time.

What about you? How do you retain what you read?

From blog.tedchoward.com.

On Saturday, I wanted to share a video I had made with some friends. I used iMovie to produce the video, so I just used the built in sharing support to upload the video to Facebook. It was really easy to to, and just a second later my phone dinged with a Facebook notification for me, but it wasn’t what I expected. I figured my video was done encoding and was ready to be shared. Instead it was a message that Facebook had removed my video because it contained copyrighted material. I had to acknowledge that I had read the message and understand that if I uploaded copyrighted material again, I could be banned from Facebook.

Did I include copyrighted material in my video? Well, yes I did. The music was the opening theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I legally obtained. I didn’t really think much of it because I wasn’t doing a promotional video for a company or trying to sell anything. I just wanted to share a fun video with my friends. Then I thought, maybe YouTube has a different policy. I’ve seen videos with copyrighted soundtracks in them there before.

So I uploaded the video to YouTube. It uploaded, processed, and I received an email telling me that they discovered a copyrighted soundtract, but that I shouldn’t worry about it. They took care of everything. So I went to view my video and discovered what they meant. The way they took care of it was by removing the audio completely from the video, which in my case, ruins the video.

This is completely ridiculious! I’m not trying to profit off of their material. I think 2001: A Space Odyssey has been out long enough that a silly video shared between friends isn’t going to dilute or damage their brand. Plus, isn’t everything a remix anyway?

Then my solution became very obvious to me: I’ll just host the video myself. That’s kind of the point behind ec2 for Poets, Blork and the World Outline: control your own content. Those tools made it very easy for me (once I had my video encoded) to build a landing page with a video player, create an easy to remember link (odyssey.infoted.com), and share it with my friends.

Self Hosting Matters.

From blog.tedchoward.com.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

From blogs.tedchoward.com.

I usually avoid making predictions about what Apple is going to do, but when this one came to me on my way to work this morning, I felt it was too good to ignore.

Here’s what we know:

• The iPhone 5 launch was delayed until the fall when the iPod event usually takes place.
• iOS 5 will also be released then
• iOS 5 has a feature called iMessages that replacetes the text message system for all iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad).
• iOS 4 introduced FaceTime, a video calling app that works with all iOS devices

My prediction is that in this fall’s announcement, the iPod Touch will be going away, and that it will be replaced by the iPhone Wi-Fi.

Most people refer to the iPod Touch as an “iPhone without the phone.” With FaceTime and iMessages, the iPod Touch essentially becomes a phone. The only difference is that it can only connect to a Wi-Fi network, not a 3G network. The iPad line is currently split into Wi-Fi and 3G, it makes sense to me to do the same with the iPhone.

I’m probably wrong, and I’m ok with that. You have to admit, this sounds plausible, doesn’t it?

From blogs.tedchoward.com.

I’ve been privilaged to be part of a bootstrapping comminuty using a collaboration tool called an Instant Outliner. It’s an interesting tool built around the concept of a shared outline. I’ll probably write more about this at some point, but for now I have one specific point I want to talk about.

When the outine is updated, the computer beeps, and the person’s node that updated is bolded. This works fine when I’m at home and at my computer. But when I’m at work, I often have the volume down and the outline in the background. I found myself wanting a visual notification of some sort when the outline updated.

I’m on a Mac, so the obvious solution is to use Growl.

Like all the other tools for this community, the Instant Outliner is built on top of the OPML Editor, which I have previously described as a Swiss Army Knife. If I want Growl notifications for my Instant Outline updates, the OPML Editor needs to know how to talk to Growl. So, I wrote a tool.

Growl.root adds support for sending Growl notifications from scripts written in the OPML Editor. There are basically 2 verbs (OPML-speak for functions) that you need to care about.

growlSuite.newNotification(title, enabled) will tell Growl about a type of notification I want to send. For the instant outliner I would execute:

growlSuite.newNotification(“Instant Outliner”, true)

growlSuite.sendNotification(name, title, description) will actually send the notification. The first parameter(name) must match a notification type from the previous verb. The second parameter is the title of the notification and the third parameter is the text of the notification. To notify that I updated my outline I would execute:

growlSuite.sendNotification(“Instant Outliner”, “tedhoward”, “Guys, check out my new growl scripts”)

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, you can download growl.root here.

From blogs.tedchoward.com.

Have you ever noticed that you get some of your best thinking done in the shower? I certainly do. Some of my best and worst (i.e most creative) ideas have come to me in the shower. Often I will come up with a solution to a problem I spent the pervious day struggling with while taking my morning shower.

What is it about the shower that brings me to such a level of clarity? Is it the all the steam? It it the water? the soap? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. It occured to me that when I’m in the shower, I am not consuming any outside information. In the shower I have no TV, radio, books, podcasts, web sites, etc. It’s just me and my thoughts. The only other time when this is true is when I’m in bed trying to fall asleep. When I’m in the shower, Im trying to wake my mind up, and with nothing to fill it, it begins processing the information it already has.

Maybe the magic of the shower is simply the fact that I can’t bring anything else into it with me. It’s just me and my thoughts. I wonder what it would do to my life to take more time out of the day to just think. No reading, watching or listening. Just thinking, and maybe some writing. How big of a difference could this make? I guess I’ll have to think about it.

Do you set aside any time each day just for thinking?

BTW: The idea for this post came to me this morning in the shower.

From blogs.tedchoward.com.

Almost a year and a half ago, I took the Zen TV Experiment and wrote about my experience. For the first time, this caused me to really evaluate the position of television in my life and question its value. It also caused be to be aware of the tricks that TV uses and the effects it has on me when I watch it.

The immediate aftermath of this was a conversation with Megan where we decided to no longer eat our meals in front of the TV. It was a great improvement. It also started a series of events that resulted in us watching less and less tv over time. We would have these moments where we’d go through our season passes on the TiVo and eliminate shows for various reasons. I also resolved to only watch TV on purpose. In other words, I would only watch shows that I wanted to watch, I wouldn’t just sit down to “watch something”.

This past month, Megan decided to give up TV for lent. She went through a similar transformation of thought on the value of TV and it’s place in our life. She too is resolved to watch less and be more purposeful about it. And then we come to last night.

Yesterday was Easter; lent is over. Now that Megan is “allowed” to watch TV again, we had some decisions to make. We turned on the TiVo and looked at the list of recorded shows for the first time in six weeks. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much there. Several episodes of the Oprah show, The Office, 30 Rock and The Chicago Code. Having not watched any TV for six weeks, we are faced with the question: “Are any of these shows worth the time it takes to watch them?"

Not watching TV has freed us to do so much more with our evenings. Megan has become a fairly prolific blogger. We’ve both read several books. We’ve had some deep, meaningful conversations, played some games, had people over, gone out, worked on side projects. Which of these things are we willing to give up to watch a TV show?

It’s a difficult question, because the shows we watch together (I don’t watch Oprah) are really good shows. We really enjoy watching them (most of the time). But are they worth the half-hour every week commitment?

Last night we decided to quit watching The Chicago Code. It’s a fairly new show, and it’s off to a pretty decent start, but neither one of us is heavily invested in it. That left The Office and 30 Rock. We decided to table the discussion for later. We may finish out the season and then be done with them (especially since Steve Carell is leaving after this year).

Once we quit watching those shows, do we still need the TiVo? Do we still need the TV? It takes up a lot of room in our living room. These are questions that we will have to answer over time.

Could you give up watching television? Have you taken the plunge? What was it like?

From the link blog:

• URL Hunter game takes place entirely in your browser's address bar, courtesy of HTML5. engadget.com
• Can't update really old rubygems 1.0.1 on Mac OS X Server 10.5 - Geoff Coffey's Posterous. gwcoffey.posterous.com
• How to use the new host-a-website feature on S3. scripting.com
• Airport 'Nude' Body Scanners: Are They Effective? The Government Accountability Office -- Congress' investigative arm -- concluded in a report last year that AIT scanners might well not have found the explosives concealed in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
• White Rock Local Market returns this Saturday.pegasusnews.com
• Apparently spell checkers were included in the President's budget cuts. curry.com
• Leading Off (3/8/11). Leading Off Is DMN-Free Today. Finally, if you didn't notice, your favorite early morning FrontBurner feature was compiled today without use of the Dallas Morning News, whose paywall was officially erected this morning. I think we can all agree -- subscribers and non-subscribers alike -- that the phrase "officially erected" makes us a feel just a little uncomfortable.
• Our mayor just sued the city to cover up the release of an embarrassing police report. When's that election again? blogs.dallasobserver.com
• Chefs for Farmers dinner at Highland Park Cafeteria benefits Family Place. Some of the best chefs in Dallas are teaming up with their favorite farmers to bring a cafeteria-style Chefs for Farmers dinner at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 13.

From my new link blog:

• 9:44 PM - Freeloaders beware, the Dallas Morning News starts charging for online content tomorrow. [orrenmedia.com/2011/03/0...](http://orrenmedia.com/2011/03/07/paywall-ho/)
• 2:41 PM - Everyone wants to blame the tunnels now. Personally I think they're kinda cool. | Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth says downtown Dallas' tunnels crippled city center. [www.pegasusnews.com/news/2011...](http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2011/mar/01/downtown-dallas-tunnels-crippled-city-center/)
• 2:39 PM - This is an interesting set of questions about Bradley Manning, the alleged wikileaks source. [www.dvorak.org/blog/2011...](http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2011/03/07/bradley-manning-whats-going-on-here/)

Introducing my new niece:

[video mp4=“http://static.tedchoward.com.s3.amazonaws.com/video/baby_lila/baby_lila.mp4” ogg=“http://static.tedchoward.com.s3.amazonaws.com/video/baby_lila/baby_lila.ogv” webm=“http://static.tedchoward.com.s3.amazonaws.com/video/baby_lila/baby_lila.webm” poster=“http://static.tedchoward.com.s3.amazonaws.com/video/baby_lila/baby_lila.png” preload=“true”]

Many strategists within the church are asking for paradigm shifts in our organizational life. But the paradigms they recommend are primarily those found in the business world. We should rather be searching the Scriptures with an open mind, uncluttered by preconceived notions, to see whether we have lost some of its teachings on community life. The Scriptures are usually used today not to derive truth but to reinforce or illustrate truth derived from secular management studies.
--Ajith Fernando: NIV Application Commentary on Acts

We live in a very connected world. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from people only having phones at home to everybody carrying a cell phone. Half of the cell phones out there are smartphones which allow you to not only make and receive phone calls and exchange text messages, but you can also connect via email, Twitter, Facebook, and a long list of other “social” networks.

As a technology enthusiast, I’ve been an early adopter of these new ways to communicate. I’ve maintained a personal website since the late 90s. I think I had a livejournal sometime around 2002 and a MySpace some time after that. I joined Facebook in 2005 and Twitter in 2007. I also signed up for many of the now defunct (but superior) Twitter competitors (Pownce, Jaiku, etc.). I’ve used Brightkite, Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Latitude and other more “location-centric” networks.

When apps came to the iPhone in 2008, many of these networks became instantly accessible to me wherever I was. When push notifications came along, I became accessible to those services wherever I was.

It’s really quite incredible. The moment someone mentions my name on Twitter or posts to Facebook or checks in at a restaurant near me or sends an email to my Gmail, I’m notified. In some cases I can receive up to three notifications: my iPhone, my iPad, and my laptop. When breaking news happens, I can know immediately. Remember when the plane landed in the Hudson? We all had pictures of it on Twitter before the TV news reports even began.

And so, enamored with the apparent ability to know everything as it happens, I continued to sign up for more and more services with phone apps that can push information directly to me so that the incoming stream of information is so much that I can no longer process it. A great example of this is the new Twitter Mac app that has a live feed from Twitter. Every one or two seconds, a few more tweets scroll by. Not so fast that I can’t read them all, but fast enough that I could sit and read it all day and do nothing else. I realize that in my eagerness to embrace this connected future, I never bothered to step back and question whether this is a good thing.

Yes, I can be connected and notified immediately when anything happens, but do I want to be? The more I think about that question, the more convinced I become that this level of connectedness is more harmful than it is helpful. Last week, I turned push email off on both my iPhone and my iPad. Now, if I want to read email I have to go to my computer and check it. I’ve discovered that I haven’t missed much. I’ve also been distracted less than normal, which is nice. I’m now looking at other ways of continuing this trend.

I don’t want to completely unplug, but I definitely want to reduce the noise coming in, so that I can focus more on things that actually matter. I think a reduction of Twitter followers may be next. We’l see. I plan to chronicle my experiences here, so, if you care, stay tuned.

In all seriousness, Merry Christmas!

Ted and Megan

The other day, when the air turned cool, I had the thought: “This is Fair weather!”  My husband, Ted, and I practically live at Fair Park for those 24 days of the Great State Fair of Texas.  People are always surprised by how often we go, saying things like, “There can’t be that much to do,” or “It’s the same every year!”  I dispute the first statement:  there is plenty to do.  The second statement is mostly true, but, I also think that is one of the reasons I love it so much.  When I breathe in the fried grease mixed with smells from the livestock pavilion, see Big Tex waving his hand and booming out a Hello, it’s like visiting a good friend you only see once a year.

Every year, Ted and I take off Friday to go to the Fair on Opening Day.  There’s nothing quite like beginning a celebration – and we definitely don’t want to miss it.  Most people think the Fair is only vomit-inducing rides and rip-off Midway games – but it is so much more.  Ted and I hardly spend any time on the Midway.  We don’t have time!  There are the pig races to see and the butter sculpture to ogle. The Vitamix demonstrations and the car show.  Open museums with new exhibits and African acrobats defying gravity.  Cooking shows to watch and searching for friends’ award-winning jellies in the Creative Arts building.  And the food – the glorious, decadent, completely unhealthy but totally worth it food.

If we did nothing else at the Fair but eat, I would be a happy woman.  I first have a round of all my favorites:  fried green tomatoes, a cinnamon roll (admittedly, I will have more than one round of this particular item), a barbecue sandwich from Smokey Johns, and my new favorite:  fried shrimp corny dog.  We, of course, must try all the new foods, especially the award winners.  Fried Frito Pie, here I come!  But sometimes the food vendors get a little too creative and come up with something I can’t stomach.  Sorry, Fried Beer, I won’t be tasting you this year.   However, last year’s most creative prizewinner, Fried Butter, was a surprising dose of comfort food.  I wish we could try every single food item, but alas, even attending all 24 days would not allow us to try them all.

The real joy of the fair is just soaking up the atmosphere.  The Fair, for us, isn’t so much a place to do as it is to be.  It’s a showcase of Texas culture and our exuberance for doing things BIG.  Everyone is here to have a good time, suspending any dower thoughts or harsh realities.  How can you frown while watching a hawk shoot out of the top of the Texas Star (the giant Ferris Wheel, for those of you squares who don’t know) and race above your head to the stage upfront – all while eating a corny dog and a Lemon Chill?

Sometimes the majesty of the fair can be too much.  The crowds are massive and the constant sun exhausting.  But even at the fair, there are places of reflective quiet.  After an exciting day of walking 9 times around the park and eating more in a day than I do in a week, I find solace in a little known spot – The Texas Discovery Gardens.  When the day is just turning into the first shadow of night, we’ll find a bench near the fountain to watch the casual butterfly float by.  We rest our tired feet and feel the cool mist from the fountain on our sunburned skin.  We talk over the day, the food we’ve had, the shows we watched, and the friends we unexpectedly ran into (which always seems to happen).  We sit and we remember, savoring the day, and feeling just a little sad that only 23 days are left.

I recently returned from Ghana, West Africa where we spent a week at a children’s home called the Village of Hope. There are so many things to tell about this trip, but first here are some videos I made about what we did while we were there.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY0DgqTQga4?fs=1&hl=en_US&w=640&h=385]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-mgQ4SZAFM?fs=1&hl=en_US&w=640&h=385]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcH5gK-nIbk?fs=1&hl=en_US&w=640&h=385]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAzEEQ7zaBs?fs=1&hl=en_US&w=640&h=385]

This week, the local Dallas media gave lots of free press to Erykah Badu. This came in the form of a controversy. As I’ve watched everything unfold, I have come to the conclusion that the controversy is all manufactured. Please allow me to lay out my case.

When the Story Broke

Ok, so here’s a quick summary of events.

• Erykah Badu films a video downtown in which she strips naked.
• This offends the sensibilities of the citizenry of Dallas.
• Investigations begin questioning how this could have happened.
• New laws are proposed.

Here’s the problem with that: According to our paper of record, the scene was shot on March 13, three weeks ago. The first reporting of the “incident” wasn’t until March 30. Why did it take almost three weeks to break a story about a celebrity stripping in the middle of downtown Dallas in broad daylight?

What else happened on March 30? That was the same day she released her new album featuring the song she recorded in the video. Coincidence? You tell me.

Where's the Outrage?

Aside from the fact that it took nearly three weeks for anyone to realize that a celebrity had exposed herself in the middle of downtown Dallas, why have there been no witnesses coming forward to complain? In an article dated today, our only paper mentioned this fact:

Dallas police said this week that no witnesses had come forward to complain. That has since changed; police now say they are gathering information and have spoken to at least one woman who said she witnessed the video shoot.

So no complaints from the citizens. The paper claims there was one witness, but we are not provided with a name or a statement. All we know is that somebody saw the video being filmed, a fact which is obviated by the crowds of people that appear in the video iteself!

The News Is Promoting the Video

Take a look at the original article again. I want you to notice a few things.

First, look at the page header. What section of the paper is the story in? Breaking news? Local news? Nope, it’s in Entertainment news.

Now, look for a box in the body of the story titled Also Online. Here is where they will typically link to related stories. There are three links for this story. The first is a link to an interview with her about the video. The second is a link to her website where you can watch the video. The third is a link to her Twitter page. This isn’t a news story, it’s a PR stunt.

The Disturbing Part

What really bothers me about this whole thing is the story that “broke” today in The News.

Regardless of whether Dallas officials decide to charge Erykah Badu with a crime for getting naked in Dealey Plaza last month, city law ought to be strengthened to prevent similar incidents, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway said Thursday.

Was this really such a horrible incident if no one complained and apparently no one even noticed it had happened until three weeks after the fact?

Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway had this to say:

None of this would have occurred had she stayed clothed. But since she didn't, it elevated the need for making sure that we have policies in place that will protect folks and the integrity of the city as best we possibly can.

Who do we need to protect? Who was injured? Has our reputation as a city been ruined by this incident?

He goes on to say:

What if there is a part two and we don't take some type of action or put it up for discussion and she comes out and really gets with it and does a Michael Jackson-type video and have 15, 20 people and all of them take their clothes off?

Right. We have to act now or we’re going be infiltrated with legions of people stripping and filming! It will be pandemonium!

Give me a break! Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating public nudity, but we already have laws and ordinances that deal with this. The fact that someone breaks a rule doesn’t mean the rule wasn’t strong enough. The solution isn’t more rules and ordinances. If she broke the rules (and I’m pretty sure she did), then she should pay the penalties. Then we should all move on with our lifes, and remember that if it wasn’t for the Dallas Morning News promoting her new album, none of us would have even known it had happened.

I went to Half Price Books the other day looking for a copy of The E-Myth Revisited, a book that’s been on my “to read” list for a long time. I arrived at the store, headed for the business books, found the Entrepreneurship bookshelf and started skimming. Sure enough, they had it! And then it caught my eye. Sitting on the shelf next to the book that warranted the excursion was another similarly titled book by the same author:

The E-Myth Enterprise: How to Turn a Great Idea into a Thriving Business.

How do you like that? Here I am, at the bookstore, with an idea that I’d like to turn into a thriving business. It must be destiny. So I purchased it and we left the store before Megan had a chance to grab her usual armful of books. (Just because they’re half price doesn’t mean we should buy twice as much!)

Over the past week, I devoured the contents of the book. I didn’t just read it; I underlined it and made margin notes. Then I turned those into notes on a separate notepad. Then I typed the notes. Then I reformatted my notes into a blog post. Yes, the very post you are reading right now.

Epiphany #1: A Business Must Be Designed, Invented

When you design a company, you design it visually, emotionally, functionally, and financially.

Epiphany #2: Business is Hard

...how do you provide an answer to a question that you know has no answer? ...that's the game called business.

and

...a free market system provides all of us with significantly more opportunity to fail than to succeed.

Yeah, he just barely comes short of directly telling me I will fail. Ok, well how about something constructive?

Epiphany #3: It's About More than Customers

There is so much in this book including the five essential skills of an E-Myth Entrepreneur (concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation, communication) and the four categories of preference that an E-Myth Enterprise must be aware of (visual, emotional, functional, financial). There’s a lot to be said about all of these, and maybe some will be the subject of future posts, but I don’t want to end up reprinting the whole book here. If you want to know more, go buy it. It’s a quick read, but it’s packed full of goodies.

In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of design work ahead of me.

This morning I did a little research on all the Apple themed stories with the purpose of making an educated prediction about what Apple will announce tomorrow at their press event. As I looked into this and discussed the possibilities, I realized that there is no good way to accurately predict what will be announced tomorrow. Therefore, I will lean on the eternal wisdom:

Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.

--Proverbs 17:28

I am a mobile app creator. It is my business not only to build apps, but to help clients understand what they need and want. As I advance down this path, I took some time to consider myself: how I use my iPhone.

First, I made a list of every app I have currently installed on my phone. Including web sites I've saved home icons for and the apps that come with the phone, I have 70 apps installed.

Next I divided the list into apps that I use and apps that I don't use. I tried to stay strict to this criteria. I was tempted to put apps that I liked but didn't use in the use list, but I didn't stumble. I also grouped the apps that come bundled with the phone together. After this, I have 17 installed apps that I use plus another 14 bundled apps that I also use. That leaved 6 bundled apps I don't use and 33 apps that I installed but do not use.

I was surprised by the number of apps that lay unused, taking up space on my iPhone. I decided to group them to help me understand why I wasn't using them. This is what I came up with:

Games (8 apps)

I've never been much of a gamer. I pretty much only play phone games when I'm stuck waiting for something and don't have anything else to do. I am rarely in that situation

Duplicate Functionality (4 apps)

I figure I would use these apps except for the fact that I have other apps that perform the exact same function.

Forgotten Social Networks (3 apps)

These apps are tied in to some social networking website that I tried out once, but never really got in to. These are the ones I forget to post updates, and never care about my "friend's" status updates.

Demo Applications (10 apps)

These are apps that I wanted to try out, and were free. Some of them are cool apps. In fact, they honestly get occasional use, but that is only to show off some feature or design element. I don't actually use these apps.

Poorly Designed Apps (1 app)

There is one app that I never use mainly because it is a poor design. All the app does is do a location check, and then launch a mobile optimized website that included advertisements for the very app I'm currently using.

Apps that Provide No Value to Me (4 apps)

There is nothing wrong with these apps, and I believe there are many people that use them religiously. I have just found that I have no need for them.

Apps I Use Occasionally or Forgot I Had (3 apps)

These are apps I like, but I either rarely need them or I forgot I had them. They were lost in the sea of apps spread all over my phone.

This was an enlightening experience, so I decided to do the same thing for the apps I used. I was able to divide those into three categories:

Tools (7 apps)

These are apps that are utilitarian in nature. They help me accomplish tasks and get through the day. Some of them replace real world gadgets completely.

Reference (7 apps)

These are books and news. If I do have any downtime on the go, it's nice to be able to see what's happening in the rest of the world. Also, part of the point of having an internet connected device is the ability to quickly look stuff up.

Communication (3 apps)

The other reason to have an internet device is for communication. I include social networks that I participate in as well as email in this category.

With all this done, what does it mean, other than the fact I have several apps I should delete? It reveals how I use my iPhone. I use it as a tool for communication, reference, and productivity. I don't play games, and I don't really play with the phone, but I do like to play with new apps (see the 10 "demo apps" and 4 "duplicate apps" I installed). Interestingly enough, I don't really use the phone as a media device. I do use the camera, and I occasionally use the iPod app to listen to a podcast when I walk my dog, but I don't really use it for playing music or video.

This is all well and good, but it brings up another question: Am I a typical iPhone user, or am I atypical? I would imagine that I am typical within a certain category of iPhone owners. I guess I need to do more research. I think I'm going to make a habit of asking people what apps they have installed on their phones, and which ones they actually use. This is interesting information, and also very valuable information to a mobile developer such as me. I wonder if there is a service or social network that collects this kind of information.

The raw data follows:

• Apps I Use
  • Bundled Apps
    • Messages
    • Calendar
    • Photos
    • Camera
    • Maps
    • Clock
    • Calculator
    • iPod
    • App Store
    • Phone
    • Mail
    • Safari
    • Settings
    • Contacts
  • Tools
    • Amazon.com
    • PS Mobile
    • Boxcar
    • Google
    • USAA
    • i.TV
    • 1Password
  • Reference / Knowlegde
    • PocketBible
    • DallasNews
    • Flixter
    • WeatherBug
    • USA Today
    • ScoreCenter
    • Showtime
  • Communication
    • Gmail
    • Facebook
    • Tweetie
• Apps I dont Use
  • Bundled Apps
    • YouTube
    • Notes
    • iTunes
    • Voice Memos
    • Stocks
    • Weather
  • Games
    • Dr. Awesome
    • Poker
    • Frenzic
    • iVey
    • Labryinth LE
    • EliminatePro
    • Triple Play
    • Ramp Champ
  • Duplicates
    • Banking
    • Bible
    • PhoneFlicks
    • TweetDeck
  • Forgotten / Occasional Use
    • Pandora
    • Public Radio
    • Yelp
  • Forgotten Social Networks
    • Brightkite
    • foursquare
    • MySpace
  • Demo Only
    • Greenbox
    • Starbucks
    • WhatsApp
    • Remote
    • Bing
    • TV.com
    • Stanza
    • Yahoo!
    • AIM
    • Library
  • Bad Apps
    • PegNews
  • No Value To Me
    • Bloomberg
    • Gas Cubby
    • Quicken
    • myWireless

Merry Christmas to everyone. If you haven’t yet received a Christmas card and you think you should have, please be patient. The cards came on time but the envelopes were late. They’ll be going out soon.

Just a few notes and thoughts on changing the position of television in my life.

First, Megan and I spent some time talking about this last night, and one of the things we decided to do was to eat our meals at the kitchen table and not in front of the TV. We tried that tonight, and it was nice.

Second, I finished the experiment tonight. I actually sat down and watched the television for 30 minutes with it turned off. It was an interesting experience. At first, I focused on the TV itself. I noticed smudges and things stuck to the screen, that I hadn’t noticed before. Then, I started to realize that I was tired. My eyes began to blur. I had to concentrate to prevent that. Then, my mind began to wander. I noticed a set of dominoes on the shelf below the TV and wondered how long we had them. I thought of different ways the furniture in the room could be configured. I caught myself, and went back to the TV. I noticed the silence. I noticed the sounds of the house. Eventually the 30 minutes had passed.

Tonight I learned that my mind is actively focused and engaged while I’m watching TV because it doesn’t wander, my eyes stay focused, and I don’t feel tired. I also experienced wasting away 30 minutes and being acutely aware of every minute that I could have been doing something else.

Also, on a related note, what you see on TV is even more fake than you probably realize.

If you watch television, you should take a look at this post. It’s a repost of an article that first appeared in Adbusters Magazine on the effects of television on individuals and society. It proposes four experiments to attempt at home. I did this, and I recommend you do it to.

1) Watch TV for 10 minutes and count the technical events.

What is a technical event? We've all seen TV cameras in banks and jewelry stores. A stationary video camera simply recording what's in front of it is what I will call "pure TV." Anything other than pure TV is a technical event: the camera zooms up, that's a technical event; you are watching someone's profile talking and suddenly you are switched to another person responding, that's a technical event; a car is driving down the road and you also hear music playing, that's a technical event. Simply count the number of times there is a cut, zoom, superimposition, voice-over, appearance of words on the screen, fade in/out, etc.

2) Watch any TV show for 15 minutes without turning on the sound.

3) Watch any news program for 15 minutes without turning on the sound.

4) Watch television for one half hour without turning it on.

So, What's the Point?

Television inhibits your ability to think, but it does not lead to freedom of mind, relaxation or renewal. It leads to a more exhausted mind. You may have time out from prior obsessive thought patterns, but that's as far as television goes. The mind is never empty, the mind is filled. What's worse, it is filled with someone else's obsessive thoughts and images.

Watching the TV without the sound makes it more difficult to connect with the story and therefore easier to observe all the technical events occurring. Switching to a news program you realize that there are fewer technical events.

With fewer technical events the news show appears realistic relative to other shows in the TV environment. Further, it appears super-realistic relative to the commercial shows in this environment. As earlier, we witnessed the joining of technical events in a coherent narrative. Here, we witness the reduction of worldly events into a narrative.

I admit I haven’t yet stared at a blank TV for a half hour, but I imagine two things would occur to me. First, I would realize just exactly how long a half hour feels, and I would be bothered by the things I could be doing with that time. Second, I would see the TV for what it is, an object, instead of what it is not, a companion.

If one is alone in one's room and turns on the TV, one actually doesn't feel alone anymore. It's as if companionship is experienced, as if communication is two-way.

Again, So What?

Maybe one day I’ll stop watching TV altogether (although I have no plans to cease watching the Dallas Cowboys, no matter how frustrating of an experience that may be). I don’t want to bind myself to a statement I won’t be able to live up to. At least for now, I feel encouraged to read more.

Dave Winer just wrote a thought provoking piece (as he usually does) on the importance of technology. In it, he makes this assertion:

...Technology is important because it empowers people. That's where you start. Not in novelty or neatness, not in the fact that it changes things, because it might change things by disempowering. Change is not in itself a valid reason for anything.

This is an interesting statement because it appears to contradict itself. How can something both empower and disempower? And how can both of those be important qualities?

I like this statement because it describes what we’re trying to accomplish with TileStack. TileStack is important first because it empowers people to create their own applications. You don’t need a computer science degree to build an app, you just need a good idea. It is this fact that described how TileStack is disempowering software elite (for lack of a better term). These are the people that decide what’s best for people, and charge people for access to their software. These are the ISVs and consultants that charge large amounts of cash for custom projects. Technology like TileStack takes the power away from the elite and gives it to the masses.

NOTE: I know TileStack isn’t ready for primetime just yet, so we’re not as disruptive as I’d like to be. But watch out! We’re coming!