Eric Mack On-Line

If you've haven't already seen these two narrated videos, demonstrating  the features of Windows Vista, head on over to Bruce Elgort's web site and for a preview.

Apparently, Microsoft has closed the customer-developer feedback loop for improved programmer productivity. (Pay close attention; there are several Tecra M4's in the video). Too bad WE-SYP was not active back in August.

I'm surprised Michael hasn't already blogged about this. I'm not worried, though. I'm sure he will find a way to sneak another jab in when I least expect it.

This is segment two of the paperless challenge podcast. You can find segment one here.

Listen in as I discuss my 8-week paperless challenge with my guest, Tablet PC MVP, Tracy Hooten, of The Student Tablet PC blog. This podcast covers the various aspects of the paperless challenge, its inspiration, how we prepared for it, the tools and methodologies used and the lessons we learned. Most important, we answer the many paperless challenge questions posted to our blogs or sent to us by email over the last several months.

Continue Reading "Paperless Challenge Podcast, Part Two" »

I've blogged quite a bit about my paperless challenge and my desire for innovation on the part of publishers - specifically, providing customers with books in formats that they want, will use, and are willing to pay for. At the same time, Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers has made several thought-provoking posts on the death of traditional book publishing and how publishers must adapt to the digital age.

Thanks to Calrion, a reader of my blog, I've just learned about an unconventional publisher that offers its books in print, PDF, and print+PDF.
But wait, there's more!

Continue Reading "eBooks: Have Your Cake And Eat It Too" »

I even have a place for him, on my shelf.

Sigh.

In our paperless challenge podcast, Tracy Hooten, of the Student Tablet PC blog, told me that she wanted to to reevaluate OneNote.

I shared my experiences and I told her that although I had worked with OneNote at 30'000 feet, I'd not really put OneNote a thorough evaluation in a production environment.  It told her it was something I was planning to do.  I'll probably draft up a new challenge soon, using OneNote. I'm particularly interested to evaluate the pros and cons of using OneNote and GTD.

In any case, you can read about Tracy's OneNote adventures here.  If you'd like to learn about OneNote for collaboration, be sure to listen to Amy & Wendy's podcast on OneNote and Shared Sessions.

I'll edit and post the next segment of the paperless challenge podcast as soon as I free up some more disk space.  If you've subscribed to this site's RSS feed then you'll be among the first to know about it.

How would a pen based scanner like the RC800 impact your digital lifestyle? Rob Bushway has generously offered to award a brand new DocuPen RC800 Mobile Scanner to the most compelling answer to that question.

If the RC800 would allow me to bring images into programs like Acrobat or OneNote in near real-time, it would make an ideal companion for my paperless challenge. I won't hide the fact that I'd really like to evaluate a small ultra-portable scanner; the RC800 looks like a nice solution. This evening I told Marc Orchant that I was trying to think up a compelling reason why Rob should pick me; I joked that I hoped my reason would be more compelling than whatever Tracy over at the Student Tablet PC blog might think up.

Although Tracy's not yet posted her reason, I think she would be an excellent person to get the pen. I'm sure that it would be a big help to her as she works with OneNote and I'm certain that she would tell us all about her experiences scanning documents into OneNote and Acrobat. This would add great value to the Tablet PC Community.

If you would like to tell Rob why you think YOU should receive the pen, visit his blog for details.

If you have experience successfully using a pen like the RC800 to scan documents into OneNote and Adobe Acrobat in near-real-time, I'd like to hear from you.

Thank you, Rob, for your offer. It's inspired me to think about sharing some of the goodies in my lab. I hope you don't mind if I copy your idea.

Shameless Hint: If the folks at DocuPen want to send me an RC800 DocuPen to evaluate, I'll certainly put it through a serious challenge and blog about it - especially if it works better than this attempt to scan on the run.

Listen in as I discuss my 8-week paperless challenge with my guest, Tablet PC MVP, Tracy Hooten, of The Student Tablet PC blog. This podcast covers the various aspects of the paperless challenge, its inspiration, how we prepared for it, the tools and methodologies used and the lessons we learned. Most important, we answer the many paperless challenge questions posted to our blogs or sent to us by email over the last several months.

Continue Reading "Paperless Challenge Podcast, Part One" »

Kathy and I met in the choir. We've done some interesting things vocally, but never anything like this...

Check out this commercial from the folks at Honda UK. It will tickle your ears and your imagination.

Click on "Watch Civic" and wait for the flash file to download. It will start automatically.

I wish I was still in choir. I bet my choir director would have a field day with this.

Update: Apparently this site has more reliable viewing.

After a long week, working with a client, I treated myself to the late screening of End of The Spear.  I'm glad that I did. It helped put things back into perspective for me. The "important" technology work that I did all week no longer seems so important. In fact, at the level of the people portrayed in the film, my technical work is largely irrelevant, other than it allows me serve others.

I deliberately won't blog about the details of this true story - I don't want to spoil anything or take away from the message.

I simply want you to watch the film and then ask yourself these three questions:

1. What was so important that would cause these men to do what they did?

2. Knowing all that he knew, what was so important that the son did what he did?

3. What would you do? How would you respond? Why?

The real message of this story lives in the answers to these three questions.

I hope you will go see the film and consider these questions.


I will tell you one thing about the move itself. Stay to the very end. There's are some worthwhile clips half way through the credits.

My paperless challenge was a success. It even led me to ask and research an interesting question. As a result, I've decided to do two things: 1) podcast to share what I've learned along the way, and 2) announce another challenge that I've committed to. (I'm still working out the details; more on that soon.)



As for the podcast on my recent paperless challenge., I plan to share some of my experiences and lessons learned and make a few recommendations. If you have a question that you'd like to ask, send me an email with your question (typed or audio file attachment) and I'll include it in the podcast. I do not presently have a co-host for this podcast. I thought it might be fun to extend the invitation for a co-host. If you'd like to nominate yourself, drop me an email and tell me why. I hope to do this in the next week or so, schedule permitting.

After nearly two weeks off the blog, I finished writing a paper that addresses this question and this week, I presented my research to my cohort in a fast-paced 50-slide, 12 minute, Dick Hardt-style presentation. I'd like to publicly thank my friend, Bruce Elgort for the inspiration and the excellent example at the LVNUG.  I think my presentation went very well, though I would have liked to have rehearsed it a bit more. I recorded the presentation, however, I've not listened to it yet. Perhaps when I have some free time, I'll put it on-line, though by now, you're probably tired of my blogging on this subject. I should probably find something else to write about for a while.

I really enjoyed my business law course, even though it was only a "survey" of the topic. I have a renewed admiration for the legal profession. I think one of my most useful takeaways from this course, in addition to what I learned about business law, was learning how to use the IRAC format to analyze cases. This is a great critical thinking tool that can be applied to almost any situation.



With respect to the photo above, the doctrine of First Sale permits me to do whatever I want with the physical book that I purchased - except for copying it. The Fair Use Exemption of the Copyright Law, however, provides guidelines for whether (or not) a copyrighted work may be copied without the permission of the copyright holder. Basically, there are four elements to the fair use consideration. These are: Purpose, Nature, Amount, and Effect. I believe that I made a compelling case that scanning my legally acquired (that is, paid for) textbook for my own personal noncommercial use, sufficiently meets the criteria to fall within the fair use exemption. *

So what?

Continue Reading "Wallpaper, Toilet Paper or ePaper?" »

Looks like my twinkies will remain on display in the Digital Sandbox for another year.

No, I don't plan to open them anytime soon; I don't want to break the freshness seal.

Happy New Year!