Recently I have been focusing on becoming more mobile for a number of reasons, the number one reason being greater productivity on the road. Thanks to a friend I discovered David Allen’s ubiquitous productivity book Getting Things Done. That discovery propelled my productivity when working off a BlackBerry into the stratosphere, but I remain feeling a bit thrown off when on the road because I have to adapt to the working conditions of a hotel or trade show floor. Just last weekend I added a compact travel mouse to my arsenal this one, supplementing the great Monster Outlets To Go product I received at It Won’t Stay in Vegas.
The next item I am looking to add to my computer bag is this promising TRENDNET travel router. Hopefully it makes it out sooner rather than later, the press release is linked because I could not find the device on TRENDnet’s home page. TRENDnet PR - if you are listening, when will this be available, from where, and how much? And how about a review unit?
Update: As commenter Coop astutely points out, this is merely a D-Link DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router repackaged. I will probably pick one of these up before my next trip. Thanks Coop!
The folks over at OTBC have put together a mini job fair. Set for this Saturday in Beaverton, Oregon the event promises to be a great one for job seekers and employers alike. So if you are in need of work, or in the position to hire be sure to head down to the Round on Saturday from 12-3pm. Hit the read link to learn more about the event. READUpcoming Link
I wanted to get out with my camera for a little while this weekend, so the S.O. and I ran up to Mt. Rainier on Saturday. The weather was amazing - actually it scares the crap out of me to be truthful, we need snow and we need it bad. And not just for recreation; I think we may be in for a serious drought unless things change in a big way and soon.
Anyway, here are the pictures. It felt so good to pick-up my camera for a fun little outing. If anyone happens upon this post and knows of any cool events or meet-ups coming up in the Portland area please let me know, I’m going to start looking for every excuse to shoot.
Fresh off the plane from CES it occurs to me that the time has come to finally jump on the netbook bandwagon. If I am going to take my blog more seriously in the New Year I simply need something more portable than my standard issue PC to blog from. I was originally going to make this a $200 netbook challenge but I did put some constraints on the purchase that I think will drive the cost above $200. Below are the requirements, along with a nice to have list to make things interesting. Hit up the comments with recommendations and my oversights and omissions.
Desired features:
VGA port - This is a must for business.
9"+ screen
SSD - For shock protection, quick boot, and extended battery life
Webcam - The world is moving to video and I want the ability to create a video blog on the go or chat with the S.O. while on the road
SD reader - For quick access to images.
Nice to have:
Intel Atom processor
Ships with XP -If it doesn’t ship with XP I can always scare up a legitimate copy from somewhere.
While at CES this year I was very surprised with one device in particular - the BlackBerry Curve 8900. Having recently migrated from an iPhone to a BlackBerry Curve 8310 I have been looking at stepping up to a newer BlackBerry device. A good friend has the BlackBerry Bold and despite the amazing looks, quality build, and sharp screen - he has been plagued by 3G network issues on AT&T and also suffers terrible battery life. It should be noted that I talked to a RIM representative who explained it was an AT&T decision to remove the ability to disable 3G on the phone.
With my excitement for the Bold cooled by the known issues I turned my attention at CES to the Curve 8900. With a form factor that almost perfectly mirrors its predecessors I know it is something I could live with daily. The device packs a beautiful screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, WiFi, and the great looking theme of the Bold. Having come to BlackBerry from an iPhone 2G I really miss WiFi on my GPS enabled Curve 8310. The one point that might continue to lead me to the Bold is the impressive keyboard - the larger keys allow me to be much more accurate when typing than the Curve I currently use, and it should be noted the Curve 8900’s keyboard is comparable in size to the 8300 series phones.
Just got picked up from the Venetian on the LoveSac party bus heading to IWSIV - posting on WiFi from a bus on the Las Vegas strip - not a bad way to blog. Must go… there is a fridge full of beer about 6 feet away from me.
Just getting things going here in Vegas for CES. My colleague will be attending StorageVisions while I am off to the Venetian to begin setup for this afternoon’s CES Unveiled. Be sure to leave a comment or send a reply to @blaircook on Twitter if you will be at CES Unveiled tonight.
I was amazed this morning when I checked in on CES tweets and discovered the Boxee teams really creative way of staffing their CES presence this year. They have set up a contest among their users - the winners will receive airfare to Vegas and hotel accommodations for the week in exchange for a few hours of evangelizing a product they already use. Kudos to Boxee for finding a smart way to include their users and in the process bring fresh energy to CES.
Being a Boxee user myself I would certainly submit a video to the Boxee team if I wasn’t already traveling to CES with my own client responsibilities. Great job Boxee and I hope I can find time to stop by and say hello at CES.
. Having recently migrated from an iPhone to a BlackBerry Curve 8310 I have been looking at stepping up to a newer BlackBerry device. A good friend has the BlackBerry Bold and despite the amazing looks, quality build, and sharp screen - he has been plagued by 3G network issues on AT&T and also suffers terrible battery life. It should be noted that I talked to a RIM representative who explained it was an AT&T decision to remove the ability to disable 3G on the phone.
