When I switched to webOS from my old iPhone, it felt like I was using the future. The inductive charging and reliance on cloud accounts for contacts, calendars, and email permitted me to be have a truly cord-free phone.
I totally agree with Ian here. I loved using my Palm Pre and webOS was so much fun to interact with. The hardware was a weak point but over time I figured that would be solved. It’s truly a shame Palm couldn’t make it in the marketplace.
Ian Beck’s post the other day inspired me to jot down some notes here about what I recently read. Similar to Ian, I am a binge reader of sorts. There are months that go by where I hardly crack open a book. Other months I will finish a half-dozen.
Before I moved this site to WordPress.com I had a custom post type that listed out which books I recently completed in a special page template. Since that is no longer, here is what has kept me interested recently.
A relatively easy read but superbly interesting. Matthew Crawford writes about his experiences in life as a mechanic and at a think tank. The guiding philosophy behind the book is one I agree with.
I just finished this the other day and loved it. I had heard good things from others and the book did not disappoint.
This has the benefit of being a 7-part series. I have been a Stephen King fan since 5th grade but I really think this is his finest work. I started the series a couple times before but this time I finally have consistent time to finish it. Since August I read volumes 3-5 and am about halfway through volume 6 now.
The Dark Tower is a wonderful mix of futurism and western fiction with a few dark twists thrown in. Handily the first volume is short and easy to read. I would encourage anyone to give that a read. If it hooks you the series just gets better from there.
Fairly interesting. Extremely fast read. This was decent but not great. I would recommend reading it and then listening to John Siracusa tear it apart in “The wrong guy” (pt. II).
Michael Pick recommended this to me at our Budapest meetup. It was fascinating. If you don’t mind non-linear fiction with a bit of imaginary world construction I cannot recommend it highly enough. Possibly the best piece of fiction I read this year.
If you are interested in ideas around managing teams this is a good one. Yes it is from the 1960s, but the advice is solid. Unlike some other business books it focuses on the concrete with digestible advice that actually gives you something to take back to your work.
Ian Beck recently wrote about what blogging is (and what it is not). Perhaps my favorite quote:
Blogging is not giving a damn about whether people visit your site, and publishing for the sake of creating something interesting, public, and potentially useful for others.
That’s why content comes first. Without compelling content and quality writing a blog is far less likely to gain a following. Combine both of those features and you may end up with a blog that allows you to go full-time.
Reminds me a bit of Matt’s recent essay, which makes the point that a blog is where you go when you want flexibility and control in crafting your words and ideas.
Daniel Jalkut’s idea of a dedicated site for teaching the basics of blogging is a very interesting idea. It could go a long way toward helping people publish effectively on the web.
From iPhone to Palm Pre: a comprehensive review. Ian Beck reviews his Palm Pre with an eye toward the devices HP recently announced for this summer. Ian’s observations about hardware and the webOS software match my experience pretty closely.