How we Really Use Mobile Technology

During my morning read, I visited Mitch Wagner's blog on the Information Week site. He pointed to a remarkably good story by Rick Segal about using technology to turn a 3 hour flight delay into a productive experience.

Green is the new Red, White, and Blue

Wow, just a couple of days after my post on an alternative energy initiative, Thomas Friedman wrote a compelling column on the topic. I'd post it here for you, but since the NY Times charges for that info, I feel it is a no-no. (I pay for a TimesSelect subscription just so that I can read the columns on-line.) That said, I'm sure that if you Google the phrase "green is the new red, white, and blue" you are quite likely to come up with the full text of the column posted elsewhere.

I wish I had Mr. Friedman's way with words. Here are a couple of excerpts from the column that I just loved:

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they [Bush and Cheney] ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do.

Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.

A couple of tools that will simplify your work life

I ran across a couple of tools this week that I plan to adopt. The first is ActiveWords, a utility that allows you to assign a metadata tag to any action that you regularly perform on your computer. (If, like me, you've been around the Microsoft product world for a long time it may remind you of creating and using macros.)

The other utility, which I'd looked at briefly before but not acted on, is Anagram. Anagram allows you to highlight text on a web page or in an e-mail and transfer it directly into Outlook using a single keystroke. For example, if you want to transfer someone's contact information from their e-mail signature to your Outlook Contacts, you merely highlight the data and then hit the appropriate function key. As I said earlier, I'd looked at this once before and procrastinated. After wasting time this week digging through my archived mail to find a couple pieces of contact info (because I'd been too busy to type it into my Contacts file when I received it), I remembered Anagram and gave myself a good forehead slap.

As long as I'm blogging about software that makes life easier, if you've never experienced MindManager you should check it out. MindManager enables you to quickly create Mind Maps of processes and concepts. This is something that I use for a variety of purposes:

• outlining books and articles that I'm writing
• organizing data on a topic that I'm researching or interested in
• strategic planning
• taking notes during conferences and seminars

In short, MindManager is a good tool for organizing your thoughts. I've been using it for several years now, and recently upgraded to MindManager Pro 6. I can easily import my Mind Maps into Office applications such as Word or Powerpoint. And I can embed hyperlinks, notes, and documents into a Mind Map to better organize information. MindManager has a viral impact--once other people see you using it they go out and buy it too, which makes collaboration a breeze.

TiVo Series 3 coming

Engadget broke the news that TiVo is coming out with a Series 3 box this year. The early details are: capacity for 300 hours of content, dual cable cards, and a remote with backlighting. Oddly enough, the item that really caught my interest is that they're also launching an external hard drive.

Alternative Energy Initiative for the US

I was thinking over the weekend about my goals for 2006. All of mine were "me" focused, and I wasn't happy with that. We should all reach outside of ourselves and participate in the world community, no? So, I thought about the things that matter to me and how I might contribute to making the world a better place in 2006. As a result, I've decided to focus some effort on encouraging the United States to adopt a fast-track alternative energy program.

What can I (an IT architect and "sock mom" from Texas) do to influence alternative energy research and adoption? Here's what I've come up with so far--I can:

• learn more about alternative energy
• adopt alternative energy sources for personal use
• encourage the Bush administration to initiate an alternative energy program with teeth
• encourage others to care about alternative energy
• encourage others to speak out about the need for an alternative energy program

I'm going to employ my usual goal setting methodology to approach this, and I've already taken some initial (albeit small) steps:

• I've re-read the Bush administration's National Energy Policy (and I'm still not impressed).
• I've purchased a solar charger for my electronic gadgets.
• I've put together a list of vendors to contact regarding solar panel installation for my home.
• I've written a letter to President Bush encouraging a more aggressive National Energy Policy.

My next steps:

• Contact my elected representatives to discuss the topic.
• Investigate an "online petition" format.
• More research.

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know how you can help.