Eric Mack On-Line

I've just finished watching Dan Pink present "A Whole New Mind," using MindManager and WebEx. For just over an hour, Dan presented concepts from his best-selling book.



I enjoyed Dan's presentation for two reasons. first, the topics presented in Dan's book are eye opening.

The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. The era of "left brain" dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which right brain qualities - inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate. Value shifts from Information to Conceptualization, and the way in which people work shifts with it.

Continue Reading "Mind Mapping A Whole New Mind" »

My buddy, Marc Orchant, sent me a link to this  Getting Things Done article in the Financial Times, by Linton Chiswick. It's become commonplace to find articles about GTD in key publications, but this one's a treat. The article features interviews with David, Marc, and Merlin Mann.

Thanks, Marc.

My friend, David Allen, says that you can lower your stress by lowering your standards. I may give this a try.

Last month, I was at a client's office (no, it was not David's office) and I happened to observe that there were post-it notes with passwords on the monitors. Some even had backup post-its with passwords in their desktop drawers. I suppose that these were in case the wind blew away the passwords on the monitor. It stressed me out.

I left the office quite stressed, even though everyone in the office was quite content with what was going on.

If I were to lower my standards by simply posting all of my passwords, here, on my blog, for the world to see, perhaps then I would not have any anxiety about what people do with their own passwords in their office.

Something to think about.

I decided to post this here, in the hope that someone in the Domino or web community will be able to offer some guidance to Tanny and me, as we prepare to post a number of screen movies on this site.

Continue Reading "I need help with DominoBlog and screen movies" »

Ivan Berger, of the New York Times, writes that you can increase your productivity by 20% to 30%, simply by adding an additional monitor. I've been using multiple monitors at my think space for the past 8 years and this has certainly been my experience. Steve Richards recently blogged about how he and Bill Gates work in a similar way. While Steve and Bill are dissimilar in compensation, they, like the New York Times, get the value of multiple displays as an extreme productivity tool. (See photos below)

This topic has come up a lot lately in various forums, including the Getting Things Done forum, the MindManager forum, [Both on Yahoo] and several blog sites. [Update: James Kendrick has just blogged on this topic, too.] For some time, I've blogged about the best external monitor for Tablet PC mind mapping. Microsoft has done extensive research on this topic and concluded that two screens are better than one. In 2005, Pfeiffer Consulting published their research report: Apple Cinema HD Display Productivity Benchmark. Bottom line: a bigger display area can help you get more done.

I don't have the time to write a lengthy narrative, however, I thought I would share a few photos of various incarnations of my think space.

Here's my current desktop:

Tecra M4 Tablet PC, Dell 24" Wide Screen Display, IBM TrackPoint Keyboard

Continue Reading "Multiple displays boost productivity 20% to 30%" »

This story actually began here, when Channel 9 Guy came to visit and decided to say, After a while, however, his smile wasn't.

Thanks, Rob.

Mindjet is a company that does more than innovate; it listens.

Do you think MindManager is an excellent tool for visual mapping of ideas? I do.

Do you think Lotus Notes is a powerful tool for collaboration and document management? I do.

In the next few days, I'll share some exciting news about the Eric Mack feature set, coming soon, from MindJet.

Stay tuned!

A truly glorious day! My best to you and your family.

If the title of today's post is not clear, check back. I'll post details in a few days, when things slow down.

Eric

My colleague, Tanny O'Haley, has been busy working on a series of impressive new site designs for several of the web sites I am preparing to launch, soon.

We decided to use this blog as a playground for some of the technology behind the web site. I told Tanny that I wanted to end up with an additional column on the right so that I could add dynamic content in the future; otherwise, he was free to do whatever he wanted with the existing site design.

Today, Tanny flipped the switch on a redesign for this site. The new design should be much more browser friendly across all current browsers. Tanny's also implemented a print style sheet to make it easier to print your favorite posts from this blog. (Unlike most TypePad blog sites I read, you'll actually be able to print pages from this site!) In addition, Tanny's eliminated the annoying Microsoft Explorer problem that prevented highlighting sections of text.

Most of the impressive stuff, however, is hidden. The site design is actually very compact, transparent, and easy to modify. Over the coming weeks we will be testing several new features of the site design, including live video, customized skins, and more. These features that will become a part of my other sites as well.

Rather than send you to a static "Under Construction" page while we modify the site, we invite you to watch as we experiment with a variety of technologies to improve aspects of this site. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks, Tanny! Well done!

Comments, suggestions, and feedback on the design are all welcome.

Behind the curtain ... ProjectDX Content Management System
For those of you who want to know what's behind the curtain, this web site is built on the outstanding ProjectDX content publishing engine, for Lotus Domino. (Formerly known as DominoBlog.) Tanny and I have worked with the ProjectDX Creator, Steve Castledine to help him test and integrate several features into his content publishing engine. If you use Lotus Notes and want to manage a web site, no matter how complex, you should look at this product. (It's free for personal use, by the way.) IBM recently hired Steve as part of their efforts to recruit top talent for Notes/Domino development. Way to go Steve!

Giles Turnbull has written a prayer to help him maintain his focus, keep his in-box at zero and live free from distractions.

Inspired by The Lord's Prayer, Gile's GTD adaptation of Jesus' lesson in prayer looks not to heaven but to an empty in-box for comfort ...

The GTD Prayer
Our lifehacks, which art in contexts,
In-box zero be thy aim.
Thy Kinkless done.
Thy Mind Sweep fun, in @work as it is in @honeydo.
Give us this day our next action.
And forgive us our open loops, as we forgive those who delete our email.
And lead us not into web surfing.
Deliver us from IM.
For thine is the Moleskine, the Project and the Due Date
For someday/maybe,
Allen.

An interesting perspective.

Source: GTD prayer, via the Getting Things Done Forum on Yahoo

I've been thinking a lot about my recent posts. I can't get the experience of working on a 24" Tablet PC out of my mind. it was great. Now, I want one. I'll put up with the size for the increased productivity and flexibility, even if it isn't as portable as some Tablet PCs.

Marc Orchant just posted his observations about booting Windows XP on a Mac. These are well and good and I'm all for increased competition (read: innovation) in the marketplace. Marc concludes his discussion:

Now, if Apple would just get off the stick and build a Tablet Mac that could also run Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, I would run, not walk, to buy one. Hey, a guy can dream, right?

For the record, if Apple wants to come out with an Ultra Wide-screen Tablet Mac, I'll switch, too.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

Here's a perfect application for the new Ultra Wide-Screen Tablet PC. Musician, Hugh Sung, of Tablet PC Musician, just wrote me to tell me how he would use the new Ultra Wide-Screen Tablet PC. Hugh wants to use it as virtual sheet music with a foot switch for automatic page turning. What a terrific idea. Now I want two units - one for my office and one for my piano. Read Hugh's email and then share your comments about how you would use an Ultra Wide-screen Tablet PC. I'm sure that the manufacturer would love to hear from us. The more of us who speak up, the sooner we'll see this on the market.

Dear Eric,
I'm a classical pianist who has been using Tablet PC's to completely replace my paper music library - in conjuction with my new wireless footswitch from Musebook, i'm able to turn pages without removing my hands from the keyboard (for musicians, that's a BIG deal!)  Anyway, saw your blog about the UWSTPC (ultra widescreen tablet pc) and I have to say - this would be PERFECT for orchestra conductors!  I've had several look wistfully at my system, envying the fact that I can carry my entire music library in the hard drive of my Fujitsu Stylistic ST5202D, but the 12.1 inch display is too small for the enourmous orchestra scores they have to lug around.  Seeing your picture of the pre-production unit made me say, "YES!!!"  This could be the perfect Tablet PC for orchestra conductors!

I hope your manufacturer friend will seriously consider making a presentation at next year's NAMM convention (NAMM is an arm of the International Music Products Association - www.namm.com ).  I would love to see our orchestras adopt tablet pc's - once you can convince the conductors of the benefits of the technology, you'll start seeing it trickle down (hopefully) to the rest of the classical music community.  
Have fun with the unit 'till Monday!
All the best,
Hugh Sung

How would YOU use an Ultra Wide-screen Tablet PC?

Post a comment with your ideas. I wonder if I can get the manufacturer to give a unit away to the best application posted to this blog. It's worth a try. ;-)

Sorry. Comments turned off by accident. All better now.

Here's a first look of the new ultra wide-screen Tablet PC format. Watch the video and you'll see why I think this is the dream Tablet PC for people who need a larger screen for their work.

Click on the podcast link below to watch the streaming video. (1 min 20 seconds)

OK, this new Ultra Wide-Screen Tablet PC rocks! Talk about productivity! I love the size of this screen! Finally, a manufacturer that listens to what their customers want. It's about time. It's not light but it's packed full of power. Did I mention that the screen is really really big? (That's my Tecra M4 in the foreground.)



Battery life is, as you might expect - short - however, there are 4 additional expansion bays on the back of this thing that allow you to extend the power from a measly 120 minutes (I got only about 88 minutes, at full brightness) to upwards of 5 hours. Still, I don't see this as a portable tablet. It's certainly not going to make James Kendrick's list of super small mobile computing devices. No one will use this Tablet while standing in line at the airport and forget using it on the plane, except in First Class and only if you have a power outlet at your seat or carry your own productivity juice on board with you. It's simply too big. Still, if you're like me and you want all of the functionality and productive benefit from a Tablet PC in a larger form factor, then this is the type of unit you want.

Continue Reading "Ultra Wide-screen Tablet PC Heaven" »