Oracle wins!!!
Big set-back for Allinghi scum… Larry Ellison‘s BMW-Oracle won a court battle to become the official challenger to America’s Cup sailing champion Alinghi owned by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.
Bertarelli said today in a phone interview that he won’t appeal the court’s ruling, adding “Let’s settle this on the water.” Bertarelli said the sailing event should be delayed until July 2009 because neither team would be ready to sail by this July as suggested by New York State Supreme Court Judge Herman Cahn.
Bertarelli has dishonored the legacy of all Cup winners.
Productivity tip #3
If you spend lots of time trying to figure out what time it is somewhere else, you can add multiple clocks to the Vista task bar. Follow these easy steps.
And, if that doesn’t work for you. Time and Date probably will.
Recommendations…
A post by Ross got me thinking about why the recommendations you see on Dell.com and Amazon.com work… it’s because they are a conversation… He points to an article by Michael Schrage exploring how information informs, in the form of advice, and how it relates to technology:
While technology’s future may not be the future of advice,” says Schrage, “the future of advice can no longer be meaningfully divorced from the media and mechanisms that carry it. There’s never been a time in history when ‘advice’ and ‘device’ have been so intimate, interdependent, and intertwined. Executive advice in the global enterprise is overwhelmingly mediated, automated, or augmented by some sort of technology.” From Blackberrys to iPhones, there’s no shortage of devices to enable streams of advice.
There’s also no stopping the “networkification” of advice, which has prompted new genres of digital counsel. As the variety of blogs expands, so too the number of wikis, shared online spaces that can be either communally or individually edited and updated. Together, they move advice beyond its mere giving and taking-it becomes interactive.
Interactive advice is especially useful to those who need efficient recommendations now. For instance, at several Bangalore call centers, customer-service reps often instant-message each other while chatting with their help-line callers. As more companies adopt such practices, Schrage offers his thoughts on firms that don’t. He ponders: “Perhaps some firms simply aren’t getting good advice about good advice.”
He makes the important distinction between advice and expertise:
Advice, however, is not the same as expertise. Whereas the latter focuses on being right, advice revolves around issues of good judgment. When it comes to advice, “there is no inherently right answer, but there are almost always questions and approaches that might facilitate desirable outcomes,” explains Schrage. “As a result, experts and advisers have different goals and different roles.”
The nice thing about advice in this context, is that because it is a conversation, authority matters less. With information, authority is the gatekeeper.
(btw… this post is also interesting with a story from baseline)
Pimping my dell m1330
I’m really enjoying my Dell M1330. Love the form factor and design. Given I’m recommending it to all kinds of folks, here’s how to pimp it out for trips…
- Dell Travel Adapter. This really small adapter enables you to run power to the unit from the socket or, clip in the “lighter” adapter for those long AA flights. Am also thinking about getting the long-life battery but haven’t really needed it so far. BTW – even though the M1330 has a hexagonal plug, the round ones fit as well…
- Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse. I find this is really handy on long trips. Although, the M1330 has a pretty large palm rest so I’m using it much less than when I traveled with my Dell D420.
- Jawbone Headset. When on the move it works great with my Crackberry. When in the hotel it is real handy for Skype calls. Perfect sound.
- Shure Headset. Frankly I don’t like these as much as the Bose but they are much more portable and deliver pretty good sound. For long trips I’ll typically burn a couple of DVDs to disk and watch them on the flight.
- Zune player. I really like the Zune interface and the player is great. I’ve got a black 8gb version.
- USB port. I still carry one but rarely use it now. My M1330 has plenty of ports and the SD reader means I just plug my Camera card in.
- I’m a bag junkie. At the moment I’ve got a Dell backpack which is pretty good and also a small Tumi briefcase. I found I needed something bigger than both to lug my Mac around – not necessary with an M1330.
I’ll post what I’ve got to pimp my m1330 out on the desktop…
PRODUCTIVITY TIP #2
Use categories to color code Outlook. I have a couple of basic categories:
- Q2: (picked this up from a Covey Workshop years ago). This is all the big stuff – the projects I am working that align with big goals and that make a monumental difference. This is the stuff you will be famous for.
- Hot: All those burning issues and crisis that come-up.
- Core: The “being a good manager” stuff. 1:1s. Networking. Opps reviews. Meetings with the boss.
I have a few other categories as well. The advantage of all this is that with one glance you can see where you are focusing your energy and effort. By seeing it in big colored blocks you know where you are out of alignment with priorities and the fundamentals.
There is a side-benefit – when you use these same categories for tasks, all the stuff you have to get done is aligned as well.
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