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I’m very particular about my backpacks (not to mention luggage in general). The perfect pack must strike a balance between form and function. It must be black (or mostly black), waterproof, have three compartments for laptop, small gadgets and large gadgets, be compact enough to fit under an airplane seat and expand to hold at least three days worth of work clothes.

My first backpack was not a backpack. It was a messenger back; or the circa 1989 equivalent. Hung one shoulder or slung across the body, it had a single main compartment with a flap cover and a set of outer pockets for knickknacks. That was middle school. By the time I’d gotten to high school I realized that two shoulders carried the weight of a a half dozen books better than one and promptly upgraded to my first real backpack. A rucksack style with a drawstring top, button flap and a front zip pocket it served me well through to college and beyond. When I started carrying a laptop (plus other “stuff”) I quickly realized the benefit of having a built-in pouch just large enough to pad the laptop from everything else that was thrown in there.

In 2003 after much googling I final found the perfect backpack. A Samsonite Black Canyon for a fire sale price that lasted me the following five years and endured three continents and a dozen some odd countries worth of travel. This pack was love at first sight. There was a large main compartment with a padded laptop sleeve that was just the right size, a flap top with an extra outer zip and a front zipped pouch with a few pockets for various trinkets. As a bonus the bag had two size Velcro pockets for easy access to keys, phones and small devices.

Sadly after five years I finally broke it’s will to live. The bag that had endured rain, sun, sea water and coffee and eight different laptops was showing signs of strain. A few patches here, replacement cords there and some well placed tape could only do so much. It was time to find a replacement. Thinking back I probably should have bought two (or ten) when it was still available. Alas the naivety of youth - I thought the pack could last forever.

Today I inaugurated backpack version 4.0. After many more months of searching for flat top backpacks and rucksacks coming up empty I focused in on variations of camera bags, designed to protect a diverse set of sensitive equipment under the most grueling conditions. I finally settled on LowePro, a well reputed manufacturer of top quality camera bags that expanded their line to include bags tailored for the digital camera buff (who carries a laptop). Thus the LowePro CompuRover AW became backpack 4.0 and I bid farewell to my trusted 3.0.

A few modifications here and there, some padding and unnecessary plastic parts removed and I’m starting to think it might just do the trick. The back has a very nice drop down pouch at the bottom with a clip (and a finicky zipper - let’s hope it loosens up over time). This holds my book sized gadgets (see my previous post on the RedFly) as my power pack (iGo everywhere130). Above it is an expansive pouch with three fixed pockets and one removable one as well as room for all my small cases and devices. On the left and right are zip pockets for keys, phones and small devices. And in front is a nice deep pouch for…well…I’m not quite sure what yet, but I expect to find a use. It’s black and waterproof and includes a built in rain cover. The laptop pouch is a side loading one. Overall it has a few too many zippers but the structure is growing on me.

Update 7/13/2008 (Friday no less) with pics:

“Control panel extension is incompatible with driver version?…It’s a mouse!”

Celio corporation recently began shipping their Redfly Windows Mobile companion. Being a gadget freak (some would argue rivaling the fictional king of geeks Mr. Gadget himself) as well as a Windows Mobile nut (I use it for everything), I had to get one. Having placed the order on Monday it complying arrived today, just in time for a weekend gadget fest. I’ve been using it for a few minutes now (including typing this post) and I have to say that aside from pressing up arrow instead of shift with my right hand, it is eminently useable. However useful I have found my phone in the past, the Redfly takes it to a whole new level.

Out of the box the first thing that surprised me was the weight. Actually, in the box I was surprised by the weight. I was fully expecting a 500 page manual. While it weighs in at 2lbs even, combined with the diminutive size (roughly 9×6in), it’s a very dense device. Like the HTC TyTNII, the Redfly has a solid build and feel to it. The keyboard is very typeable (if cramped) and has a good feel. Slightly squishier than my thinkpad but the given only goes down to the middle of the device, not all the way through.

The outside is a deep burgendy and has a rubbery finish (like the back of the HTC). The device definitely does not require a case, which is a plus. Connectivity is painless, especialy after setting it up. Drivers on the phone install ota and connecting it via USB authenticates the device. From there I just need to click the bluetooth button and I get my phone on a 7″ screen and 9″ keyboard. Combined with 3g (hello AT&T) that makes this a ery practical laptop alternative for 75% of what I do all day (now if only I could get openvpn to work).

The device is not without its faults. There’s some wierdness on my home screen and it doesn’t really work well with touchcommander. Of course I can see all of your programs (I have about 40 installed) on one page, so that’s less useful. A touch screen would be nice as would a standard plug (anyone know of a way to get 9v out of an iGo?). The screen updates and scrolling can be jerky, but that’s a Windows Mobile thing. Celio has also indicated that there are some optiizations to come wrt the display. I’m also using it primarily over bluetooth, which is slower than USB but wires are the spawn of the devil so it’s a resonable trade off.

Finaly question - is the Redfly worth $500? Given their target market (me?) - I would have to say yes. We’ll see how much less I open my laptop over the next week. That is, after all, the real goal.

I spent this past weekend suffering from allergies and probably something else that the kid gave me. I was also at Barcamp (trooper that I am) sniffling my way through two very exciting days. By far most surprising was the number of entrepreneurs, especially given the geeky nature of the crowd.

Sessions ranged from gaming to hardware hacking to rails, django, twitter and semantic web. If you’re not familiar with Barcamp it is an unconference. Registration is via wiki and donations are optional. There are corporate sponsors who help pay for breakfasts, lunches and snacks. Conference topics are self selected and each 30min session is as much a presentation as discussion. Some of the best discussions are in the hallway or ad-hoc groups assembling in the cafeteria. You can see the final schedule as well as links and presentations at barcampboston.org. There were also some links and thoughts twittered at #bcb3.

One of the cool new tools I discovered was snaplogic, a 100% python pluggable transformation tool. It’s more yahoo pipes than talend or kettle. Totally hackable. There was a distributed twitter talk that consisted of people discussing the need for distributed twitter. The google appengine discussion was mostly Q&A about appengine and a guy from google taking notes on feature requests. I’m going to have to look into wpbook - a wordpress facebook app theme - when I get some free time (when’s that?). The semantic web discussion turned up some interesting pointers (calais and opencyc). There was a great discussion about connectivity between platforms (the internet being a platform, mobile devices, real world, etc). And consensus among those who showed up was that the final cylon is either some random person we have yet to see or the ship. All in all a good weekend - save the allergies.

Things you don’t (yet) know about elevators

If ever the desire to blog strikes me while away from my laptop (as often it does) I can now satisfy the craving from my phone. You, dear reader, alas may ultimately suffer from this newfound freedom. as poor as my typing is on a full keyboard, it is attrocious on a thumbboard…and with no spellcheck to boot!

I’ve been playing with Xobni off and on for a number of weeks (at one point it stopped loading and it was a few days before I had time to re-install, we also had some exchange server issues and I had to stop using Xobni for a while to diagnose). That being said, as beta software goes it’s very stable. Rare symptoms are CPU spiking and when it once failed to load and turned itself off. Given the quality of the product and polish I fully expect that by the time they go public beta it will be very solid. With that note…on to the review.

If you haven’t checkout the website, Xobni is an e-mail add-on for searching and managing e-mail and relationships. The primary interface is an outlook sidebar that, when minimized shows you your next meeting and some information related to the person who sent you the currently selected e-mail. When open, Xobni contains a myriad of contextual information and links.

There is a search box and two top level panels in the Xobni side bar: E-mail, which shows you information related to the currently selected e-mail and Organize, which displays upcoming appointments, to-do items (including flagged e-mails) and a stay in touch panel listing contacts with whom you have not communicated in a while.

E-mail

I used to have to pause my current “e-mail train of thought” and search for e-mails from someone. Xobni gives me another view, but that’s just the first step. In addition to finding a person and e-mail from the, Xobni shows related people, conversations with threaded e-mail chain, attachments and quick links to schedule a meeting, send an e-mail or skype. It’s extremely useful for drill-down searching. I can click on a conversation, show various levels of detail, identify an e-mail, click on another recipient and repeat. Xobni stacks the context in small bars at the top of the screen so I can quickly jump back to any point in my search.

E-mail analytics is interesting but not immediately useful as a productivity booster. I can see how much I have communicated with someone and sent vs. received quantity. Xobni also shows me when an individual tends to send me e-mail in a nice histogram.

Organize

The organized bar shows upcoming appointments (but not the current one – minor inconvenience) to do list items (including flagged e-mails, which is great) and a “Stay in touch list” of people Xobni says you haven’t communicated with in a while. For those of us who are e-mail whores, this is a great tool. If you hate talking to people this is either a gentle reminder that you should keep in touch or an annoying list of names that you don’t care about.

Props to Xobni for minimal usage of space. These are lists where I want to see as much as possible and scan with my eyes, not with my mouse.

I’ve found that when I need to get in touch with someone who sent me an e-mail a while back, Xobni is a top notch replacement for the “sort by sender, scroll till you find the last e-mail” approach. With Xobni I type in a name and I instantly get links to call (via skype), e-mail, schedule time, list of related contacts, last conversations (no matter how old) and files exchanged (both sent and received).

Conclusions

Xobni is a very nice addition to Outlook. It gives you an orthogonal view both for your current context and more interestingly to pursue a tangential train of thought. If you’d like an invite, I’ve got four left (as of 3-21-2008) so drop me a line.

I’ve been looking through the features offered by Xobni which covers some of the things we were trying to capture with D.A.L.I. Software. They’ve got a neat referral program where clicking on this button:
will tell them that I’m referring people to their semi-closed beta program. If you click and I get to try the software I’ll write about it. If not, I’ll have to wait until they open it up…and then I’ll probably write about it.

The MBTA has been updating North Station over the past year and just recently installed new LED callboard for trains. I was amused this morning to see the sign transition and hear a simulated clickety clack that has log been associated with old style callboards that work by flipping cards.

Checkout my twitter profile.

Dial tone

“Standard” phone ring

Records

Cassette Tapes

CDs

Desktop computer

Live TV

Roaming

Being without a phone

Ethernet

Floppy Disk

Non-hybrid car

$1/gallon gasoline

The evening news

A regular commute

CRTs

Film

VCRs

Rewind to start

Commercial interruptions

Long Distance phone call

Manual car door locks

Turn-key ignition

Spitting watermelon seeds

“Stop wasting film”

7 digit phone numbers

Very cool
Rube Goldberg machine

I just found out that I can post to my blog from Word 2007. Very cool.

In a stroke of legislative genius, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to restrict access from any library, school or public building to any social website through which independent internet users can post comments or engage in any social behavior. With so many sexual predators sitting at home soliciting minors through social networking, the legislature sought to remove the possibility that anyone might fall vicitim to the Internet version of free candy while under the supervision of responsible librarians, teachers and government officials. In one simple bill, Congress has brilliantly obviated the need to shield public officials from litigation should some kid get into the car of an adult so long as they first met on myspace. Parent’s have been doing such a great job or monitoring their children’s Internet usage that Congress felt it proper to simply disallow any public Internet access that might be used for socialization. In a bout of paranoia paralleled only by that experienced at the height of the cold war, when asked why they might choose to restrict what is arguably the most useful aspect of the Internet an anonymous Congressman answered, “it’s a series of tubes.”

I wrote my one-click comparison for downloading Meet the Press while making coffee and thought it would be fun to contrast what I do in order to download the latest episode of a podcast (a relatively new concept) with the steps I go through in order to make fresh coffee:

1. Fill the kettle with water and get it boiling
2. Retreive the grinder and grind bin from the drying rack
3. Replace the grinder and bin and set it to coarse grind
4. Put about 15g of coffee beans into the grinder and press the button
5. Retrieve the french press from the drying rack
6. Remove the grinder and brush the inside
7. Remove the grind bin and dump the grind into the french press
8. Rinse and dry the grinder and grind bin
9. Wait about 10 seconds after the water boils and pour the water
10. Microwave a bit of milk in my coffee mug for 30 seconds
11. Plunge the press after 3-4 minutes and pour into my mug with milk
12. Enjoy fresh coffee

Just as dave says that his 22 step download only takes a minute, I don’t fret about the time it takes to make fresh coffee (except when I’m running late).

Dave Winer details the 22 steps it takes to download an episode of Meet the Press. To contrast, I have a program on my phone called Egress. It’s not perfect but it does this relatively well.

First time setup:

1. Go to my Bloglines account and search for feeds about Meet the Press.
2. Click on the serach results to preview the feed until one of them has an “enclosure” link in it.
3. Add that feed to my Bloglines (I keep it in a folder called podcasts).
4. On my phone, launch Egress and tell it to add a feed from a synchronized channel (Bloglines)
5. Give it my Bloglines username and password
6. Pick the Meet the Press feed from the list.

In order to get the new show, I click on the update button in Egress. It helps if I’m on a wifi network because the shows are pretty big for EDGE. though sometimes I leave the building before I download ;).

Wire reports that the Senate Commerce Committee is deadlocked on some net neutrality amendments in a current telecommunications bill.  The amendment basically says that a service provider cannot prioritize their own packets over competitors’ that are traveling on their lines.  It does not prohibit prioritization by type (e.g. all video can go faster than all e-mail).

I showed my wife the included quotation of Senator Ted Stevens’ attempt to explain why the amendment is bad.  After reading about his e-mail problem her first question was “Did he check his e-mail since Friday at 10?”  Well put.  Perhaps Senators should not use anecdotes from their own experience with technology to make laws.  I wonder why we have Senators who are obviously ignorant of technology involved in regulating it.

This is an election year.  It is a good time to promote some churn in Congress and elect new young faces into Congress.  Let’s elect some people who can represent the United States of America in the 21st century.