As someone who's always taken a fairly chaotic approach to life on the general assumption that my subconscious does a fairly good job of keeping track of stuff I'm having to get to grips with some side effects of aging, yet another country move, a job that features more metal juggling as the focus is broader and a growing family (so I want to spend less time on work).

The logical solution would be that there must be a technological solution to all this right?

Intelligent Messenger plug ins that I can fire off pithy instructions, Outlook rules that can triage my email and respond to my boss appropriately, a subsystem to make sure bills get paid on time and we always have dogfood and milk in the house.

Well, for better or worse HAL doesn't yet exist in a form where it can make my life easier so I needed to find a better solution.

My Dad had a simple rule. He would decide what to do with it when it came in - process there and then; file for follow-up (either on a specific date or within a period of time; file for reference or throw away.

Over the last few years I've peeked at the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) methodology (I first encountered it thanks to a neat utility called ActiveWords which sadly doesn't really do what it used to back then anymore) but while GTD seems to be very empowering it also takes time and practice (some folks say a year) to get fluid, and seemed to require yet more tools to learn. Which if they integrate perfectly with Outlook and Windows Mobile suits me fine, but most of them don't (or work with old versions of the software that I no longer use).

The neat thing is that I've been meaning to try to get to grips with OneNote for a while, and there's a GTD with OneNote approach so maybe I can combine the two...

Failing that... I guess I'll have to train my dog as my PA ;)

It's been an interesting day on the interwebs for ways to experience computing in an every day setting.

First Microsoft officially announced Surface Computing (which I can see being the beginning of something amazing), then Palm announced the Foleo which while it's an interesting idea inspired Wired to detail some very good alternatives that don't cost much more and put a heck of a lot more computing power in your hand.

In the last few days we've also seen a lot of talk about flexible displays and dynamic keyboards.

All in all it adds up to lots of gadgets, lots of creativity and hopefully a bright new computing future.

But it got me thinking... what would my ideal mobile computing solution be, and what's my next laptop going to look like.

The next laptop is probably easier to answer given it's not going to involve any paradigm shifting technology to deliver.

Currently I'm using a Sony Vaio SZ390P. It's the latest in a long line of laptops* that I've lugged around with me. It's not terrible but between Sonys inability to care and Vistas hardware related tantrums it's also far from perfect. Over the years though there have been some neat features that I wish could be combined into one unit that I could be happy with

• Good size/weight ratio. I think 15" is about right. 17" get's to be unusable on a plane, but 12" makes you squint.
• Performance. I don't want to care who makes the chip, or how it's rated, or how many gigabytes of RAM it has. I just want it to work so the operating system and apps are as near to invisible in my perception as possible.
• Battery life. It's a laptop. I should be able to use it on the go, all day (real all day) without having to stop services, shut things down and panic because I didn't bring a whole life support systems of cables and chargers.
• Storage. Give me a big enough hard drive. Doesn't need to be terrabytes (ideally by the time I get this someone will have worked out a decent sync/replication solution so I can use the network at work and home and in the cloud as a virtual hard drive)
• Removable Media. Support lots of them. 95% of the time I don't need to carry around the DVD player but make sure I can boot from flash drives or attach to a DVD drive on the network to install software. I don't know if my next camera will use SD, xD, miniSD, microSD, MemoryStick, MemoryStickDuo, CF (type I or II), something magic using an ExpressCard slot or whatever. Ideally the camera (and every other peripheral) will connect (and recharge) using a standard USB 2.0 mini cable so I won't care... but just in case make sure I can attach a reliable, quick memory reader (though if it's built in and I don't have to carry it around just in case I'll be happier)
• Decent keyboard. Real keys that move properly, and enough of them. Don't make me use obscure arcane Fn/Alt/Shift combos to do something obvious like Delete (Apple BootCamp - I'm looking at you now) and coupled with that a decent tracking device that's not too sensitive that the mouse jumps around all the time but that is responsible enough that when I want to move the mouse or click somewhere it works. If it can avoid giving me carpel tunnel syndrome at the same time (so I don't have to lug around a separate keyboard and mouse) that would be great. Ambient condition aware illumination for the keys would also be very welcome - makes it so much easier to use in a darkened room. A combination of the Apple solution with timeout and the Microsoft proximity sensor would be great.
  
• Media Keys. Play|Pause, Fwd/Rwd, Stop, Vol+/-, Mute, properly mapped so I can use them in Windows Media Player, iTunes, Songbird, Pandora or whatever I want. Reliably. Especially the volume ones. If I can use it as a Zune without having to power the whole machine up that's a real bonus. I really like the idea of the MacbookPro remote control but make sure I can slot it into the case and use it there (while it charges) and use it from across the room.
• Webcam with decent resolution, a driver that can cope with backlight and general poor ambient condition and for video calls ideally some face tracking software to at least try to keep me in frame so I don't have to bolt myself to my chair.
• Secure fingerprint reader and/or other biometrics (face recognition?) - something that IT will be happy to have used, not worried that someone with a jelly bean will be able to break.
• Plugs and connections. I'm usually WiFi connected so make sure it's reliable and works with the full alphabet soup of ABG and N, and Bluetooth 2.0. Of course, every now and then I'll need to connect to a wired ethernet so make sure I don't need a multitool to get the cover off (or back on). I also want decent outputs. VGA (d-sub), DVI, HDMI, S-Video/RCA. It might be mobile but that means I might want to watch a movie from my laptop on a hotel TV rather than squinting at the 15" screen... (referring back to media keys from above... in this scenario hopefully Joost or whatever media app I'm using will support the remote keypress because they're standard and published right...)
• Touchscreen. It's a personal thing but I like being able to reach out and touch some things. Going from my K-Jam to the PC seems retrograde because I can't push on-screen buttons! The problem with most TabletPCs now-a-days is that they're underpowered and overpriced compared to their clamshell cousins (and only the Origami class UMPC machines get to run the Origami experience which IMO is a real shame)
• An Operating System and driver stack that works. 100% reliably. No Blue Screen of Death because of a USB device being plugged in. No problems sleeping, suspending or hibernating - it should be instant and invisible to the user. Vista is really good (ironically the best sleep performance I've seen is on a MacbookPro) and almost at the OSX level of never having to care (and Vista does give me a bit more control). Docking and undocking (I like docking stations. not having to plug/unplug a dozen cables every time I sit down is great) should be totally seamless so I can shut the lid and undock as safely as pressing the undock button, waiting while it does some magic then selecting sleep from a menu. Require no more thought than my phone.
• Indestructible. It doesn't need to survive an explosion but the day to day knocks and drops and spills that a laptop living with someone who's in and out of TSA queues at airports, works in cafes, has a dog and daughter running around at home...
• No flashing lights. When I'm not using the machine I want all the lights to go out. Keyboard, Mouse, Power, whatever. If I'm in a hotel room and can't sleep because the thing keeps winking at me and lighting up the room I'm going to take a roll of duct tape to it. If you're going to have a glowing logo (Apple) or internal lighting (Dell XPS) let me change the color and brightness (including an off option) through a simple software app. The former stops me annoying people, the latter to save some battery ergs.
  

It's a fairly long list but pretty much all these things exist today. It's just getting the combination right that seems to be the challenge. My T27GP had great media keys, the Macs have perfect power management, the Thinkpads were robust. Mac and Asus (and others) have media remotes, there are plenty of docking station solutions... I just want someone to line the pieces up and then work on making sure all their Vista drivers are rock solid.

Then I've just got to work on finding the seamless LAN/Cloud storage solution that's smart enough to make sure I've got what I want where I want when I need it.

Oh, and my perfect mobile solution... pretty much as above but ideally in a smaller form factor for managing email and reading on the bus, but unfolds/unfurls to do real work in a cafe and docks at home/office to a smart base station that gives me all the computing power and screen real-estate I can ask for. Ideally paired with a minimalist clamshell phone handset (and an elegant SPOT watch) working in perfect harmony to give me simple voice calling and messaging everywhere I go.

Vaio SZ390P, 15" and 17" MacBookPros (sadly loaners, gone back to their owner), Vaio T27GP (Still using), 12" RevA Powerbook (on my daughters desk), Vaio C1MT (PictureBook, still using), Compaq E500, Compaq Presario, IBM ThinkPad (about 3 of those), IBM P75 and P70, Toshiba T6400

One of the really cool things Microsoft has formally unveiled at CES this year is SideShow. This is a sub-PDA functionality set used to produce smart, low power, functional devices. For instance imagine being able to check your calendar without turning on your PC, or view the weather forecast or stock tips.

SideShow devices can be really small and stand-alone, or built into other bits of hardware - keyboards, speakers or remote controls - to extend their functionality in new and useful (not just cool) ways.

What makes them so neat is that with minimal changes they run Gadgets built for Vista, so apparently no complicated development path. Obviously because they don't have the same levels of connectivity as a PC (they rely on the host usually to talk to the web, though there is at least one device with a built-in WiFi stack and VoIP client) but the framework helps take care of that.

The architecture is new, but based on the .net microframework which has been around and evolving as part of the Microsoft SmartWatch platform.

Both Asus and LG have revealed neat new laptops with SideShow devices built into the lid so you can check information and play back music without powering up the PC. With both of these you can sync 1GB of music to the device or, if the laptop is powered up, access the full Windows Media experience as a remote control.

MSI have unveiled a Companion Device - a small credit-card sized device which syncs wirelessly to your PC and you can access your information anywhere... anyone remember Rex it's all grown up now ;)

They also demonstrated a number of Universal / Windows Media Center remote controls - allowing you to manage the TV guide without interrupting what folks are watching, or cue up music without turning on the TV - I really want one of those devices!

There was also a demonstration of a Logitech G15 keyboard and Z10 speakers hacked with SideShow drivers... official support for Q2 2007. By next Christmas I'll have so many ways to control my music I won't know which way to turn!

The one thing that doesn't seem to be available, but IMO would be really cool is have a SideShow app that can be downloaded to legacy PocketPC devices like my K-Jam... Maybe someone will be able to knock something up soon...

Check out the video demo at on10, the official blog for the team developing the product and a great (unofficial) site with heaps of information. Once you get your hands on a device you'll want to check out the Gadget Gallery for cool things top do with it.

Update: The folks at engadget spotted this really cool SideShow device embedded in a messenger bag!

Many years ago I worked somewhere that used cc:Mail as a corporate standard. I didn't especially enjoy the experience. Even after using Volvos Memo on a mainframe (yes, Volvo once developed an email system)!

Then they got the Lotus Notes bug. Productivity went down for about a month after the roll-out as people tried to fight with the (oh so powerful) UI to actually get anything (eg reading email) done. Luckily there was a connector available so I could use MS Mail to do the basics.

Then a small rebellion led by a few of us (and thankfully supported by our local IT folks and management) saw us migrate to Exchange (which shortly afterwards was rolled out company wide thanks to our acquisition by a nimbler, more profitable and dare I say better communicating company).

Not long after that I joined a company using GroupWise. Luckily for my sanity an Outlook connector existed for that and until our Exchange revolution there I was able to stay sane.

Fast forward another 6 or 7 years during which time I've been outside the normal corporate environment (using a third party hosted Exchange service for email though) and I'm getting to grips with what Exchange, Sharepoint and the Office Communication Server now offer (interestingly enough Ray Ozzie, the man behind Notes is now the Chief Architect here at Microsoft - and I think MS has learnt a lot from Lotus and IBM on how not to build groupware and how to get it right from Ozzies subsequent efforts with Groove) and I'm more impressed each day with how easy it makes life.

At Microsoft they don't just sell the platform and clients, the business is run on the latest versions of the products (and there are even some 'spin off' solutions such as OfficeLive that go to prove how capable and scalable these tools are) and the teams developing the products use them daily.

So, how is Notes fairing in the meantime? Version 6 (released in 2002) featured over a thousand new and improved features and opened up some brave new worlds for IBM (XML support, Linux etc). But you have to wonder if the enthusiasm for the product was waning within IBM as version 7 (released in 2005) revealed only a hundred new features. Given that level of support I wonder if 2007 will see version 8 with tens of new or improved features! Can't see me recommending it any time soon!

In the meantime Exchange, Sharepoint and the Office System (including the Groove collaboration tools) in their 2007 variants are evolving and innovating was as much (if not more) vigor as they were in 2000 (and with clients like Evolution, Entourage and Pocket Outlook the support if available anywhere you need it).

It's good to stay in touch, but it's hard to explain why some of the new tools out there are so good unless you've experienced them.

I'm lucky enough to now be working somewhere that gets the idea of unified comms (although I'm still trying to work out how to get everything integrated into one place - I think we need to buy a mobile operator to hook into our in-house IT to finally close that loop!) but I saw this and it expresses the benefits in a much better way than I can...

Video: The Devil wears Prada .. and does Unified Comms!

And don't forget to check out the (similar themed) introduction to the really cool video conferencing tool - Round Table

I really must see this movie before the spoofs totally ruin it for me forever!

As a small business owner / freelancer one of the most annoying things for me is chasing the money. I love having the money in my account, and I love doing the work to earn it... but the bit in-between is time-consuming and sometimes very frustrating. Over the years I've tried a number of solutions and never found the right one.

FreshBooks seems to be a pretty good solution though. And it's a very low risk trial (free if you only have 3 clients or less).

Account management, payment integration and setup is very simple - took less time to catch up on outstanding invoices for about 6 jobs tonight that I usually take with basic account management each month!

For clients where it's a simple case of billing against a PO or fixed price quote the process is really simple. For clients where you need to be able to produce a timesheet to track billable hours that's also possible (though only via web based time-entry at the moment... can only hope a desktop/PDA add-on eventuates at some point - for Windows, OSX, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian...a  tough call I guess, but no harm in hoping)

The system automates a lot of stuff that you either have to set reminders for (or pay your accountant extra to do) in other solutions and has seamless integration with a number of payment gateways (from a very simple PayPal solution, up to high end credit card processing solutions).

What makes FreshBooks so interesting is that it's not a big accounting firm, but a small 6 man team who really seem to love what they're doing (and more importantly remember what folks actually need the system to do)

Totally random thing... just found out that Billy The Kid was gunned down on my birthday (well, 86 years before I was born to be precise). It was also the day that the US$10,000 bill was officially withdrawn from circulation (2 years after I was born)

While these things probably have no direct bearing on my life it's interesting to see - in the same way as knowing what the #1 record was when you were born (it was Procol Harums "A Whiter Shade of Pale" which was at #1 in the UK for 6 weeks starting on June 8th)

... and the ramifications of some of the things that happened certainly have had an effect on the generations since.

So... why did I go looking for this? It was actually as an extension of demonstrating the interesting things you can find when ego surfing and we wondered what happened on particular important days for people.

Like ego surfing the results can be cool, but shouldn't be treated as more than an amusing waste of time (unless you discover something really startling about yourself!)

Currently listening to: Me'Shell Ndegéocello Make Me Wanna Holler

Both Outlook 2007 and IE7 feature vastly improved RSS capabilities over their predecessors, and there are already some cool add-ons to help leverage this.

What would be awesome for RSS feed support - to actually make life better for me - is having Outlook 2007 and IE7 cross-aware.

A scenario... I subscribe to an RSS feed (say for TheRegister.co.uk) in IE7, and also in Outlook. First of all I'd hope they'd be smart enough to share data and not double-dip to download the same stuff twice. Don't ask me why I want it in both places, just keep it tidy for me and don't use too many resources okay!

If I read an item in IE7, I'd love the platform to mark it as read in Outlook. And vice-versa. Then... and this would be really cool... if I read the referenced article directly via the browser... mark it read in both IE7 and Outlook because I don't need to check it again (unless I choose to flag as 'unread' somehow!)

That's integration and information overload management

Update: After installing IE7 (final release) and OL2007B2TR it looks like the two do share their RSS feed information... but they don't seem that smart at keeping the 'read/un-read' stuff synchronised. But it shows promise...

Both Outlook 2007 and IE7 feature vastly improved RSS capabilities over their predecessors, and there are already some cool add-ons to help leverage this.

What would be awesome for RSS feed support - to actually make life better for me - is having Outlook 2007 and IE7 cross-aware.

A scenario... I subscribe to an RSS feed (say for TheRegister.co.uk) in IE7, and also in Outlook. First of all I'd hope they'd be smart enough to share data and not double-dip to download the same stuff twice. Don't ask me why I want it in both places, just keep it tidy for me and don't use too many resources okay!

If I read an item in IE7, I'd love the platform to mark it as read in Outlook. And vice-versa. Then... and this would be really cool... if I read the referenced article directly via the browser... mark it read in both IE7 and Outlook because I don't need to check it again (unless I choose to flag as 'unread' somehow!)

That's integration and information overload management

Update: After installing IE7 (final release) and OL2007B2TR it looks like the two do share their RSS feed information... but they don't seem that smart at keeping the 'read/un-read' stuff synchronised. But it shows promise...