Still, it’s worth pausing to look into what BlackBerry brought to mobile email, and to point out how iPhone and Android users can replicate some of RIM’s best features.

The Core Difference Between BlackBerry and iPhone/Android: Email

In full disclosure, I began writing this post after a bunch of former BlackBerry users moved to AwayFind.  I started digging deeper into what AwayFind had to do with BlackBerry, and it all made sense: BlackBerry is a server-to-server enterprise email tool with a mobile device serving as the frontend.  Android and iPhone are mobile computers with email clients as one of their applications.

What these different architectures mean for smartphone users:

• The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) sits behind a corporation’s firewall and talks directly to a mail server, in realtime.  It stores all the mobile device’s settings, and thus only communicates with the BlackBerry when there’s something it needs.  The BES is designed to make email on the BlackBerry as fast and efficient as possible, and utilizing the phone (and its battery) only when necessary.
• Android and iOS devices check the email on their corporation’s mail server directly, over the internet.  This happens in one of two ways, either the phone asks every few minutes, “is there any new mail?” or the phone does its best to maintain a connection with the mail server(s) directly, waiting for a change in the inbox.  In either case, it takes up battery life, and is neither as quick nor as reliable.  Without a server in the middle, the phone does the hard work.

The reason for this is simple: BlackBerry is an enterprise email device; Android and iPhone are consumer devices with software that checks email.  If you’ve ever traveled with a laptop, you know that email software sometimes works great and sometimes works unreliably—email isn’t at the center of the universe on laptops.  And the same is true on Android and iPhone.

Without a server-to-server mail environment, iPhones or Androids will never perform the same as BlackBerry devices, but the gap in capabilities is narrowing.  There are now both native and third-party ways to bring the worlds together.

In case you’re curious: the parallel to AwayFind is that the AwayFind server talks directly to the mail server and only notifies an iPhone or Android device when necessary, similar to BES.  Since AwayFind uses the push notification service provided by Apple/Google, it’s usually faster than SMS.

Features that BlackBerry Users Miss on iPhone and Android devices.  And how to replicate them…

AutoText / Word Substitution

BlackBerry has a robust shortcut-> common phrase tool, that even lets you insert variables like the current date/time.  For instance “lmk” can automatically turn into “let me know.”

With iOS5, this is now relatively easy…but Android still hasn’t quite caught up.

On iOS, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts.  Type the full phrase in the “Phrase” and the abbreviation in the “Shortcut.”  You can see some of my examples to the right…

On Android, you most likely won’t find Auto Text with the keyboard that comes pre-installed.  Even Swype (the most popular third-party keyboard) does not include it.  Auto Text Keyboard is one the most popular apps for this.  Just be aware that when installing a tool like this, you are changing the entire keyboard on your phone, and not just adding Auto Text.

Once you have Auto Text available, I’d recommend taking a couple minutes to insert common phrases.  As you can see in the image above, I have shortcuts for my email address and common phrases.  For instance, “afloc” transforms into “I’m at 169 11th St, SF — http://bit.ly/sfawayfind” (which is my office address).

Blinking Indicator for New Emails

BlackBerry is perhaps best remembered for its multi-colored blinking LED, which let you know of various states for the phone.  By default, red means “new message,” green means “low battery,” and blue means “bluetooth.”  People were particularly keen on the red display (more on this in the next section, in the video especially).

On Android, there are many applications that allow you to customize the color and behavior of the LED, however not all work on all phones.  One popular application is called Blink (pictured to the right), which can display a particular color indicator for an SMS or phone call.  While this won’t let you know about new emails, you could use a program (like AwayFind ;-) that converts an email into an SMS to accomplish this.

On iPhone, you can navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility > LED Flash for Alerts and turn it On.  If you place your phone face-down on your desk, you’ll see the LED flash light up once for any notification.  There isn’t a way to set a persistent blink (without jailbreaking it and using a program like FlashEnhancer).

Notification of Only Certain New Emails

On BlackBerry, one can even further customize their LED to only blink for emails from certain specific people.  This is one of the most popular BlackBerry features, since it can be distracting to see a blinking light every time an email arrives.  A quick story about why BlackBerry users love this this:

If you use Gmail and Android, you have the ability to send specific senders to specific labels.  Then on the Android Gmail app, you can set specific labels to trigger a notification.  (On the Android Gmail app, Go to Settings, click on your email account, and then click setup both Email Notifications and Labels to notify.

At present, iOS does not offer this.  However, on iOS6, they’re introducing an Email VIP feature where you can star specific people.  Then, when those people email you, a notification will appear with the context of the message.

Even with these features, this need is one of the main reasons people come to AwayFind.  AwayFind offers this for both iPhone and Android, integrates with Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, and Google Apps, and can be deployed throughout a company (even for non-smartphone users through SMS).  It’s also much faster than the push functionality built into the iPhone and Android OS because AwayFind talks directly to the mail server.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Compose

On the BlackBerry, it’s always quick to create a new email. From the Home screen, you need simply press C (since there’s a physical keyboard!) to create a new email or SMS. There are all kinds of shortcuts for similar things.

While this might be possible with iOS’s new AssistiveTouch, it’s definitely not designed for this, and I wouldn’t recommend trying. Fortunately, tapping the Home button, clicking Email, and pressing Compose shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds. The Compose button is available from every email display view (except when you’re already composing an email).

On Android, it can take a little longer to navigate to Compose (about twice as many clicks in some cases), but you can use a gesture to navigate straight to the Gmail application. My Gesture Shortcut Launcher is one application to try, which will at least cut a few steps.

BlackBerry vs iPhone and Android for Email

If you spend all day replying to emails on-the-go, BlackBerry will be faster.  But not because of the above features—it just comes down to the keyboard.  Swype for Android may help, and the iOS keyboard is pretty good, too…but nothing beats a physical keyboard.

On the other hand, if you spend more time reading and processing email, then the bigger screens and easier navigation will make the email experience more pleasant, and perhaps as productive.

And, it goes without saying that iPhone and Android have a much larger array of both productivity applications and games.  From multimedia to news to task management, and even just keeping the device in sync (with things other than Enterprise mail), BlackBerry still needs to catch up.

How Have You Found the Switch?

While many individuals made the switch a long time ago, a lot of enterprises are going through the jump just now.  If you’re running into difficulties getting your users moved over, I’d be curious what challenges you’re experiencing?  Maybe there’s something I can help answer in the comments or in a future article…  Feel free to respond below or email me at jared A technotheory.com.

But there is a reliable process for building the right habits.  In The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss pulls from lifehacking and game mechanics to break it down.

The 4-Hour Body may seem like hype, but at its core it’s a disciplined approach to physical transformation.  Whether or not you take Tim’s specific advice on weight loss/karmic sex/whatever, his approach is a guide toward coaxing yourself into new behaviors.

Aristotle talks a lot about habit, but was rarely prescriptive in his advice around it.  Rather, he discussed in detail about making habits of things and how that will change who you are—the whole “we are what we repeatedly do” bit you hear quoted all the time.  The 4-Hour Body goes into detail on how to get there.

The meat of the discussion begins on page 58, in “From Photos to Fear.”  It starts with a story of someone who lost 40 pounds and went from running barely a mile to several half-marathons.  I usually take these with a grain of salt, but it happens to be a story of a mutual friend, and the story was accurate.

Then the book digs into the “four principles of failure-proofing” your transformation:

1. Make it conscious.
2. Make it a game.
3. Make it competitive.
4. Make it small and temporary.

You’ve probably heard of “lifehacking.”  Jon Evans credits Tim Ferriss with “promulgating the [lifehacker] ethos to the general population.”  And though I’ve written for Lifehacker.com and spoke many-a-time on personal productivity, changing my behavior and that of those around me has always been murky business.  “Okay, great, that’s what I should be doing…but I’m going to go back to how I was before.”

And that’s where Tim steps in.  He’s taking the measurement ideas that are core to lifehacking and lean startups and throwing in a bit of gamification.  And it works.

A Brief Summary of the Points

Make it conscious: establish a baseline for where you are, and find a way to remind yourself of it regularly.  When it comes to weight, that means taking a “before” photo and placing it somewhere you’re going to see regularly.

Make it a game: it’s less about what you measure, and more that you measure at all.  Measuring is what makes you aware of what change is taking place.  Tim recommends specifically that you track something at least five times to get in the habit of being aware of it.  And that game bit is that you give yourself bite-sized goals around it—i.e., track your miles and then aim for 25 in a week, etc.  (Say what you want about this, but when I run with my Nike Plus, my times are faster and distances greater. – see chart to the right)

Make it competitive: rely on peer pressure, involve other people through websites like DailyBurn, a newsletter to a group of friends, or a regularly scheduled call…preferably where you’re working toward the same thing.  (There’s a bit more to this in the book)

Make it small and temporary: don’t set an ambitious short term goal, but start with one part of it.  Maybe it’s changing your breakfast.  Maybe it’s writing for 15 minutes one day per week.  But it’s definitely not trying to take on the whole kahuna at once.

So What About the Rest of the Book…

The 4-Hour Body brings together a lot of different information that are worthwhile to understand.  Some complain parts of it are variations on popular science in various fields, but I don’t think most people know enough about those fields or topics.

For instance, I’m familiar with today’s research with carbs and newer theories around long-distance running… but I was woken up on how much bodyfat percentage plays into appearance, things that only a serious weight-lifter would understand as fundamentally as Tim lays out.

The thing is, Tim pulls information from a lot of sources—some popular, some unfamiliar.  And he brings them together in a fun way while adding a prescription for taking advantage of them.

In 2007, The 4-Hour Workweek changed my perspective on balance and making a living.  I think The 4-Hour Body (along with Born to Run and Good Calories, Bad Calories) will play a big role in my health and energy-level in 2011.

I hope you’ll use pieces of Tim’s formula above and do believe the book is a worthwhile read.

Here’s a review of 2010—but feel free to skip to “slogging to speediness”—those changes are what got me through 2010 and may help you, too.

Sink or Swim…treading water on the critical path

I began the year with the goal of simply making it through the year—as my theme was to swim.  In 2009 I had set a lot of things in motion, and I suspected that 2010 would determine whether those things would prove fruitful or not—whether I’d sink or swim.

The first half of the year was swimming—treading water, actually.  I waited a long time for the big things to come through.  Claire, Yvonne, Tim, Paul…you all heard me go on and on about how things were going from a 20% likelihood to 50% likelihood to…FINALLY.  July ended up being the magic month—when I got a big check for selling SET and raised the first big bit of money for AwayFind.  Prior to that, it was a long, and at times cruel, waiting period.

And then everything changed.  Sure, I was ready for the changes, but they couldn’t have come too soon.  I up and went to San Francisco.  Or, first I went to London and Barcelona (had some fun goofing off with my friend Maria, to the right), and then San Francisco. 

I’ve re-learned a lot this past year—the power of patience, what it means to focus on one thing and give it everything, where I have skills and where I don’t, the power of bringing people together, and that you can never give too much but you can give enough.  I hope to write more about those lessons in the coming year.

I don’t think there was another path to where I am today, and I couldn’t accelerate it.  There are also opportunities available to me now that weren’t a year ago, and I know in a year there will be more opportunities.

What that means to you—it takes forever to get to your dream, so you’d better be working toward it.  As 2011 approaches, I really hope you have an idea of your critical path, and that you’re ready to both work and wait it out.  I don’t mean to be cliché, but take it all starts with a first step.  Take it.

Some People and Places

When you look back at a day, it feels like nothing happens.  But when you look back at a week, a month, a year, there can be so much.  I know I checked some more boxes, grew a business,  danced with beautiful girls, and grew up a lot.

• People have given so much to me this year.  Nevermind our investors (thanks, guys!), people like Paul Singh (to the right), Lauren Jacob, Dave McClure, and Chris Gordon have made this year possible. Others, too—but you four above all.
• I visited Buenos Aires twice.  I have several coworkers there, and while I really enjoyed the city, I fell in love with my work again.  My team has grown into such a great group.
• Along with Paul, I put on the biggest event I’ve organized to date, Bootstrap Maryland’s second conference, which lit a fire under a lot of startups in the area
• I organized my second panel at SXSW.  And like with last year, that experience led to some great relationships.  Jay Cuthrell became an advisor at AwayFind, and Daniel Raffel became a good friend out here in San Francisco.
• From Snowmageddon to rainbows at Golden Gate Park to drives down the Coastal Highway I’ve seen so much beauty every day.  And I’ve begun to take out my camera again—I took this with my phone today after a dance at Golden Gate Park just today…

I could go on with these kinds of highlights, but I realize that that won’t help you a lot.  Sure, I had another good year, traveled, grew my business, yadayadayada…  but this blog isn’t about Jared’s adventures.  No, this blog is about how I can apply my experiences to help you and your business.  So…

What Really Happened in 2010 – slogging to speediness

What really happened in 2010 is not the exciting stuff, but a series of frameworks, processes, and routines.  So much has changed that I’m pretty much living a different life.

Take yesterday—I uploaded photos from March thru November (yes, I had gotten behind).  Though it was a ridiculous delay, the process yesterday was wonderful—it was smooth and fast.  Over several weekends I’d been architecting a process for editing and uploading.  So yesterday it was a joy.

That’s kind of like what this year has been.  I haven’t so much been iterating on the tangible, but on the intangible.  My biggest personal accomplishment for 2010 was probably the routine I built and managed to stick with. 

In other words, the real accomplishment for this year was all the processes that made it into my life and my company’s day-to-day.  It means that things have gotten a LOT easier, and will continue to.  It’s been a slog to make these changes, but the light at the end of the tunnel is bright and beautiful.

In the event that it might help you, here are some changes I’ve made to my day-to-day…

• I’ve eaten well nearly every day
• I’ve adjusted my diet so that I consume more protein and fiber, and very few carbs for breakfast and lunch, which has led to so much more predictable energy for me
• I’ve run at least 4 miles over 95% of the days that I’ve woken up in San Francisco
• I’ve woken up before 7am (and made it to work before 8:30) just about every weekday here in San Francisco
• I’ve found an environment that really contributes to my daily productivity and happiness—working at Parisoma has been a huge boost to my quality of lifeeverything.
• I achieve Inbox Zero every day, in no small part due to the tools below

These tools have changed my life:

• Thanks to Flickfolio for Android and Lightroom 3 for my computer, I can sync my Facebook, Flickr, and mobile photos without doing anything twice, thrice, or even storing things in separate places.  This has literally made me want to reinvest in photography as it made a huge burden into a great experience.
• I’ve switched my calendar over to Tungle, which has made scheduling so much easier.
• I switched from Exchange to Google Apps early this year, which meant that my mobile integration, particularly with Android, was way better.  And that meant fewer mistakes and less time spent looking things up.
• I switched to Google Tasks and installed some great sync apps for it on my Android and iPhone.  I feel so much more clarity in every day now.
• I switched to a secure password manager that syncs across my machines and phones, and now I feel much safer.
• Thanks to Pulse, I now read my RSS again.
• Thanks to Tweetdeck and lists, I once again enjoy Twitter.
• Upgrading to fancy noise cancelling headphones, and then to the best ones out there has helped my concentration a great deal.
• I managed a week at my new office without a big monitor.  Talk about a way to kill your productivity, if you don’t use a monitor in addition to your laptop’s then you’re simply crazy.
• And with my team, we’ve switched from Basecamp to Trac, which integrates with Subversion.  Nevermind the details, but this change means I now know and am able to manage the priorities of the whole company pretty quickly and clearly.

You know, for a few years I ran a newsletter about the tools I use, and I’d stopped that.  But this list makes me realize that I ought to go into depth about each of these in the near future..as I do believe they could help you, too.  Feel free to comment on that below if this was useful or I can provide more tips like these.

Wrapping Up

This has been a fantastic year.  I sold a company.  Moved across the country (roommate, Lauren, who is one the four people I mentioned above, is to the right).  Ran several large events.  Raised some money.  Acquired over 1,000 businesses and 10,000 individuals as customers for AwayFind.  And worked with some really awesome people along the way.

But in writing this post, I realize that these things are in no small part due to the changes to my workflow.  That’s crazy to me, because I’ve been writing about improving your workflow for years, and yet apparently there was a ton of room for growth for me.  And I already have a really big workflow change I’m excited about for next year…

Addendum

This post came in at over 1500 words.  But it only took a couple hours.  I’m not going to edit this as much as I usually do—for instance, now that I know the highlights, I’m not going to just place them at the top.

I want to write more often in the new year.  Expect more content from me, and hopefully a willingness to just sit down and purge, without holding back.  I move too slowly sometimes but I want to just get some stuff out there—so I can help you and share more—I won’t ever waste your time, but I need to show up more, even if that means less reworking and more quick content.

I won’t be writing posts this long much, but I will be writing more often.  I hope you’re in for the ride.  And I hope you had an amazing 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  If you’ve learned a lot this year, feel free to share those tips (or a link to them) below.

Tomorrow at 6pm EST, over 300 people will phone in to Jason Drohn and I go through the top seven productivity killers—and offer solutions.  It’s free, too.

I’ve been delivering productivity training for 8 years now, but never remotely to a completely open group. So it seemed like a fun opportunity to try it out, do it for free for a lot of people, and make it really really practical.

–> You can sign up here: Productivity Killers Sign Up – not sure what the attendance cap on the line will be, but I think we’re close to that limit, just fyi.

The content of this talk will have a bit of overlap with what I delivered at WordCamp MidAtlantic (Baltimore) and TECH Cocktail Conference (Chicago), and it may go through many material on the blog.  All of the content will focus on immediately actionable steps.

Examples of some of the productivity killers Jason and I will discuss include: interruptions, social media, email, meetings, and web ADD.

If you get to the site and see a sales page, don’t worry, I wouldn’t be leading you astray.  This is going to be my content and I believe it’ll be worth a listen.  Sign up here: Productivity Killers Sign Up.

If you can’t attend the session and you sign up then you’ll get the audio recording sent to you after the call.

Go have an awesome week, and I hope to catch you at 6 tomorrow.  If you have questions you’d like me to address on the call, feel free to leave a comment below.

Flickr photo credit: ashley_dryden

If you want to get yourself out of trouble and be more efficient in Gmail, installing these takes about 60 seconds.

To find these features, login to Gmail and then click Settings, Labs:

I’ve broken my list into three parts, those that just take one click and that everyone can save time with immediately, those that take a little more setup, and those that have less to do with productivity but I still wanted to mention.

Gmail Labs Time-Savers that Take Zero Time to Install/Use

Forgotten Attachment Detector – if Gmail detects language indicating you meant to include an attachment, and there are no files attached, it’ll warn you before sending the message.

Vacation Time! – We often forget to turn on or off our vacation auto response messages.  With this, you can now set start and end dates for your vacation message…so it’ll automatically turn on and off during the dates you select.

Send & Archive – When you respond to a message, the next thing to do is archive it.  But we usually forget to remove it from our inbox until much later.  This adds an option to both send a reply and archive the message thread at the same time, saving you the trouble to come back later and file it.  I LOVE THIS.

Undo Send – Did you ever press the send button and then realize right afterwards that you forgot something or that there was a typo in the subject or perhaps  something much worse?  Undo Send gives you a short amount of time (assume 5 seconds) to press a new Undo hyperlink before it mails out your  message.  So if you made a mistake, you can fix it before the message is delivered.

Title Tweaks – Sometimes I click over to the tab for my email just to see if I have new mail.  That’s because the count of messages often gets cut off by the number of browser windows I have open.  This fixes that by placing the message count earlier in the title.  If you use Google Apps for Your Domain this is a MUST feature.  Note the difference in the picture below (new result shown before old result):

Suggest More Recipients – When you start messaging a group of people, Google intelligently selects who else you frequently send to along with that group.  This is incredibly helpful.  For instance, in the message below, Melody and Tim are usually involved when I’m messaging Genie and Jessica.

Gmail Labs Timesavers that Take a Little Bit of Thought

Email Addict – Adds a link to your Gmail menu bar called Take a Break.  Clicking on it will force you away from email for 14 minutes.  Not for everybody, but it’s sure a great help for me!  (sadly you can get around this by opening the account in another tab. Shoot, I shouldn’t have said that!)

Offline – this is the only one that requires an installation, but it’s also pretty amazing to be able to read and respond to email while you’re offline.  If you find yourself on a train, plane, or generally without internet access, this can come in handy.

Tasks – For email to get out of your inbox, you either need to respond to it or save it for later.  To save it for later, you need a task list.  While Gmail’s task list is not the most robust in the world, it gets the job done.  Once enabled it will appear on the bottom right of your Gmail window.  When expanded, it appears like this:

Gmail Labs that I Use But You Might Not Need

Signature Tweaks – I don’t like my email signature going at the bottom of the email, I much prefer it just below the message I’m sending.  This takes care of that.

Advanced IMAP Controls – Since I use Postbox on my desktop I like to be able to control which labels (i.e., folders) are synchronized and which aren’t (I find the “All Mail” label to be redundant).  This lets me do that.

–

Other Gmail Labs or Gmail tools you find to be particularly helpful?

Tonight I delivered a presentation at Ignite Baltimore that addressed applying concepts in productivity to make for a happier life.

If you’re relatively new to this blog, this will be an overview of many of the concepts I hold dear.  If you’ve been here for a while this will serve as a refresher.  Either way, I’m very happy with the slides Keith (a co-worker at SET) helped to design for this—and I think you’ll enjoy looking through them.  Without further ado, you can learn why I used that photo of me and Suzanne above…

6 Minute Video from the Talk (the core starts at 1 min in)

Special thank you to Mike Brenner for filming this, and for the amazing organizers at Ignite Baltimore who put on such an energizing event: Mike Subelsky, David Adewumi, and Patti Chan.

Slides from the Talk

Further Elaboration and Notes

• A lot of people asked about Fonolo.  It lets you quickly choose a company you’d like to call (from their menu), select where in their phone menu you’d like to be, and then it calls your phone at exactly that point.  Yeah, it rocks
• The other two products mentioned were mine, AwayFind, and Mike Subelsky’s OtherInbox
• You might want some videos for how to turn off notifications on the social networks
• This was my first experience only checking email twice in a day
• Why you should turn off auto check on your BlackBerry or iPhone
• The value of extreme friendships for extreme growth
• How the company you keep can force you to be accountable
• My riff on loneliness and solitude was inspired by last week’s “The End of Solitude,” by William Deresiewicz in the The Chronicle Review [via @superfem].  I intend to write a post about this sooner or later
• And lastly, go home

–

Each time I link back to old articles it amazes me how much content is up here, and how much I’ve gotten to grow by bouncing ideas off and learning from you all.  Thank you for that.

PS I’m in NYC this weekend, so feel free to get in touch -– maybe we can get a cup of coffee.

The following is a combined “why photography?” and a brief guide to what I’ve found helpful both for equipment (my camera, bag, etc) and education.

Disclaimer: I’m no photographer, and am amateur by amateur standards.  But I’ve taken thousands of photos over the years and just recently invested in a more serious camera.  I’m once again in love with what can be captured…

Why Photography.

As you can tell from this blog, I have a tendency toward the practical, and continually struggle to focus while recalibrating my priorities.  Objectively it’s easy to aim for ‘get married sooner than later’ and ‘make money’ but there’s a lot missing from those aims; most conspicuously: life.  So as I sit on a train to Girona writing this post, it would be a serious pity to not stop for a few minutes and recognize the beauty of the Spanish countryside.

You probably want me to cut to the chase of the camera reviews.  Maybe all this ‘why’ stuff is common sense to people who are naturally visual and have always stopped to smell the roses.  But neither apply to me.  Asking myself to look at things from different angles, to apply order to an inordinate amount of sensory data, and to stare a moment too long adds a lot to my days, with or without a camera.

What I Recently Purchased

With no intention to start a religious Canon vs. Nikon war, I’ll tell what I’ve purchased and why I’m so happy with the results.  I did my fair share of research, which primarily consisted of talking to photographer friends.  Could I have saved money or gone the Canon route?  Sure.

The Camera: Nikon D90

Most DSLRs will accomplish what you need.  The D90 has a few things I love:

• 3200 ISO with low noise – holy shnikeys!  Yes, I’m shooting pictures at 3200!  Remember back in the day when you used to buy Kodak film in 100, 200, or 400 speed?  You may remember that higher ISOs meant it was easier to shoot in low light settings?  Well on DSLRs you can usually get up to 1600, which is pretty amazing, but it often lessens the quality of your photos.  On the D90 you can shoot up to 3200 ISO and I’ve found little to no noise.  Here’s an album from a recent party where I shot at 3200 ISO (with a 50mm f/1.4 lens).  You will not find exactly this capability on a less expensive camera, but there are other ways to shoot in low light
• Huge LCD with Live Preview – it has a really big screen on the back, and the ability to shoot with the viewfinder or the LCD.  (Plus it has a protective cover for the screen so when it gets too scratched you can replace the cover inexpensively).  You will NOT find big LCDs or live preview on older cameras
• Lots of frickin’ buttons – buttons on cameras are like keyboard shortcuts.  If you’re trying to get the right shot you don’t want to go through menus and waste your time.  In playing with different cameras, I found it faster to adjust ISO, white balance, and bracketing on the Nikon interface
• All kinds of sensor and megapixel things – I’m not experienced enough to tell the difference with all these details about the picture quality.  But Nikon has a lot of frickin focal points and a big sensor.  Practically speaking what this means is that my auto focus works really well and I can crop photos since they’re very big to begin with (especially since I shoot a great deal of photos with a without a zoom lens)
• Movie mode – it’s coming soon on other DSLRs, but the Nikon D90 is the first to actually let you shoot HD quality videos.  It’s not earth-shattering quality (esp. the sound), but it’s quite handy and there are no DSLR competitors for the price-point yet

The Lenses: Zoom and low-light

I followed my friends’ advice and avoided a kit lens.  Two things that are important to me are not usually part of the de facto kit lens: shooting wide and shooting in low light situations.  A kit lens will usually get you more zoom, but 4-5x zoom is enough for me for now.  Big zoom/telephoto lens will come later…  Anyhow this is what I bought:

• Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX ED VR Nikkor Wide Angle Telephoto Zoom Lens – This fairly wide lens (smaller mm = wider but less zoom, basically speaking) also has a decent zoom.  In talking with many others I learned a great deal about both build and lens quality—this is high in both categories, especially for the price.  This is my general walking around lens, especially outdoors, with a tripod, or in generally good lighting conditions
• Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens – This lens is specifically for low light and artistic shots.  Since it’s 50mm it feels like a bit of a zoom, but I’ll save the debate on this for another day.  The point is it’s a very bright lens that will let you shoot many pictures indoors without a flash.  If you’re new to the photography world, let’s just say that being able to avoid a flash is often helpful.  Additionally when you use it at 1.4, it has very little focal depth, which means everything will be blurred except for the object in focus.  It’s kind of artsy but also very useful to bring more attention to your photo’s subject

Little Accessories

• Memory cards are fortunately cheap – Just make sure you buy the right class (i.e., fast ones).  I bought two 16gb cards—which should be enough to cover you for plenty of shooting (if you don’t have a memory card reader, for $3 more you can get one—and I hate connecting my camera with a USB cable, but there are plenty of arguments on both sides of this coin)
• Joby Gorillapod SLR Tripod – this thing comes in handy all the time.  It’s light and small enough to carry in my backpack, but convenient enough so I can use for shots like the one at the top of this blog post, where I need the camera to stay steady
• A wireless remote  If you want to stage anything, just get a remote and get over it.  Additionally if you want to have the shutter open for longer than, say, 1/30 of a second it’s much easier to have a remote than waste time doing things over and over with the delay button
• Microfiber Cleaning Cloth – This little guy comes in handy, just be careful when you’re touching your lens!  Look around and you’ll find cheaper non-brand name ones

Transportation

A bit of context: I’ve been traveling in Barcelona, where you don’t exactly want people to know that you’re carrying over a thousand dollars of camera (or other) equipment.  So my goal was to match practical with inconspicuous.  Thus I opted to stick with my existing backpack (that safely holds a laptop but has additional room) and buy equipment that would protect my camera inside another bag.

• Lowepro Lens Case.  Kind of straightforward, and it does the job well.  At a museum or when you don’t have a backpack, this comfortably and securely attaches to a belt, too
• Nikon D90 semi-soft case.  Though this can be used as a sole camera case, I mostly just use it to protect my camera inside my other bag.

Education: Helpful, Optional, and Required

If you’re getting started with photography or want to brush up on either the skills or the current cameras, here are a few places to check:

Websites I Recently Used for Research

Some incredibly helpful discussions on Nikons – this helped explain to me a lot of the subtleties of cameras, in particular the different Nikon models.  I believe they have discussions for Canon and other cameras here as well

Digital Photography School – Darren Rowse’s site covers every topic you can think of related to both photography and cameras

Books I Recommend

The Digital Photography Book – there’s a reason this is the number 1 book on photography.  Everyone should read it—it’s fast and very specific advice will immediately boost your skills.  You can read it in a few hours and you’ll be quite thankful for that time

Black & White Photography: A Basic Manual – it’s been about 8 years since I read this, but it was essentially my introduction to everything about photography.  No, it’s not about digital cameras, but it goes into great depth on the basics.  There may be better books that explain the basic concepts using a DSLR instead.  If you have one to suggest, please do so in the comments!

How to Look at Everything – I read this as I was just getting into photography in college, and it inspired me to do just that.  Note: the reviews aren’t so hot on this, but I’m being honest on what affected me when I was 20

Using Flickr For Inspiration and Guidance

Some of the best inspiration and guidance you can get is on Flickr:

• Search for photos on specific topics or locations.  Pay close attention to the angles and context the photographers chose
• While searching look closely at the camera settings, when available.  You can try those settings on your own camera to achieve similar effects
• Become part of various Flickr communities so that people can share ideas with you and help you to improve your shooting.  Of course, you’ll have to give a little of your time for this to work, as well

“But I Don’t Care for Photography!”

Well, then I’m amazed you’ve made it this far!  I feel that there’s value in activities outside of what we’re often focused on, and I personally love when those activities can change my frame of reference.  You don’t need to pick up a camera, a musical instrument, or go travel to Africa…but as the holidays approach, hopefully we can all take in a little more.

I know this verged off topic a little here, but I welcome your thoughts on the article, my advice, or any of your recent experiences with perspective.

Happy Chanukah, Christmas, New Year’s and beyond!

Today, social networks can stack the odds.  They made all the difference in my recent trip—and in this post I’ll describe how (with some specific tips).

Most of my trip I was traveling alone, but through friends and with the help of Facebook and LinkedIn I met some great people.  I almost met others through CouchSurfing and Twitter (logistically things didn’t work).  Next time I’ll work on improving my Dopplr network.

But I don’t want to just talk about the networks, I want to explain how to reach out…and why it works.  Put this all together and I hope you’ll build some great relationships when you’re out of town.

The Psychology of Distance: Why This is So Easy

Rarity + constraints make it easy to get together. Consider this: when you visit a city where you have an old friend, it’s fairly easy to get together.  However, you likely have good friends living within 15 minutes who you see equally as often.  When something is rare (being in the same city) and there are clear constraints (just in town for two days) things work out more easily.

The same can be applied to people you don’t know. If you can come up with a halfway decent reason to reach out to someone in the circumstances above, people will often make time.  I met with Ramit Sethi when I was in San Francisco, Tim Ferriss when he was in DC, and seemingly random people in places as diverse as Barcelona, Nashville, Reykjavik, Pittsburgh, Kowloon, etc.  People are receptive when there’s rarity+constraints.  More later on what to say when reaching out…

Where to Find People

For starters, take a look at your existing friends on social networks.  You’ve probably “connected” with people you don’t remember or know very well…who might be where you’re heading.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, and MySpace all let you search your connections by geographical criteria.  (I wish Twitter let me search my Follows/Followers!).  Heck, also try searching your Contacts in Outlook/Gmail/etc (you’d be surprised what you’ll find).

If you have friends (who you care for) in any of these regions, a trip is a good time to reconnect.  If you find that they’re not in town then, ask if there’s someone to whom they could introduce you. For instance, two of my friends were unavailable while I was traveling, but they introduced me to others who I met up with.

Then look for second-tier friendships.  LinkedIn and Friendster makes this easiest (but I don’t use Friendster anymore).  So I used LinkedIn’s advanced search.  I searched for people who worked in the “Internet” field in Barcelona, sorted by degrees of connection, and came across a friend of my buddy Jake’s.  (If you’re new to LinkedIn, then an advanced search by region (without any narrowing criteria) should still work well.)

If you’re going at this completely cold (no connection with the individual or through someone else), look for people with shared interests.  I swing dance and I’m into productivity and startups.  I used LinkedIn to find tech people.  I found a discussion forum focused on swing dance in Barcelona.

Still stuck?  Try CouchSurfing.  CouchSurfing is designed for people who are looking to crash on someone’s couch while traveling…or offering such couches.  Or at least that’s the idea.  What many people use it for is a way to connect with other travelers or locals when they’re in foreign cities.

When I was in Hong Kong I reached out to one of the several dozen active people on the site there and received a response within an hour.  My logistics kept it from working out, but the knowledge of other accessible people around was comforting (I’d been stuck inside during a hurricane that day.)

Some other options to consider

• Your alumni network on Facebook
• Your alumni network through your university (most have them now, just ask)
• Do you belong to any “groups” at home?  Whether it’s formal like Kiwanis or informal like a knitting/pilot/Halo/book/LAN/rollerblading/whatever club, look for ones where you’re going.  Everyone is curious of how things are different in other parts of the world (or country)
• Dopplr is a network all about travel that I’m getting more involved with (it also offers great travel tips for many cities)
• Posting where you’ll be on Twitter, a blog, or in a Facebook status can often lead to random meetings, good travel advice…or jealous friends
• Many conferences offer directories to attendees, and some of them offer city search functionality.  For instance, I could’ve looked up SXSW Interactive attendees by city; that would’ve led me to many like-minded individuals
• Do you have a friend who’s well-traveled?  That studied abroad in your desired destination?  Who was born there?  Ask for introductions!  Or at least for spots to visit…

If you try hard enough on your network of choice, be it Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or even OKCupid, you’ll likely find people interested in getting together.  You don’t even have to say something creative…

What To Say When Reaching Out?

If you’re familiar with the person you’re reaching out to (you read their blog, follow them on Twitter, etc.) then mention something that caught your attention.  But regardless, just be genuine.  Tell them…

• Where and when you’re visiting
• Who you are
• That you don’t know anyone there (or something to that effect)
• That you share something in common and are curious how that is different in this city / are looking to learn more about their city / something generic about how you think they get it in whatever it is you’re looking to learn about (My Obvious Point: if there’s no reason you’re interested in meeting them then there’s no point in reaching out, duh!)
• Confirm that you’re somehow not a freak by sending them some sort of social proof (link to your blog or Facebook or company or mutual friend, etc)

Everyone I reached out to wrote back, including the ones with no mutual friend.  Perhaps it was the psychology at work above, perhaps it was out of courtesy…but we all seek out connection.  We’re all curious.  And ties to different cultures are all the more fascinating.

Other Ideas for Meeting People…How about YOU?

There are things outside of technology and mutual friends that lead to meeting people while you travel.  Taking group tours, staying in hostels, going to certain bars, looking for the only person who looks like you in a crowded train… I imagine this stuff has all been discussed ad infinitum though in the past.  Do you have any tricks?

And how about the topic at hand: have you met anyone online while traveling?  Got any advice? Oh yeah, if you do any of the above, be careful.

Flickr Photo Credit: WordRidden, me

If you plan to travel domestically or abroad, I hope this will save you some money and help you travel lighter…while still staying connected (if you’d like). If you have other tips to share, I’d enjoy them, too!

Over the next 3 weeks I’ll be abroad.  I’m writing now from Keflavik, Iceland.  On Monday I’ll head to Barcelona, Spain.  That Friday takes me to Bangkok, Thailand.  And I’ll finish the week in Kowloon, Hong Kong.  The temperature gets hotter in each place and I’ll have some work to do, but this is mostly for fun.  Exact info are on Dopplr.  If you’re in any of these places at the same time, drop me an email and let’s get together!

I’m not going to pretend I’m the most well-versed world-traveler.  It’s been a while since I’ve visited Europe and I’ve never been to Asia (well, does Israel really count?).  So I needed to hit the web.  The following are resources and tips that were not readily apparent to me when I first started.  I hope they’ll help you!

Organizing With a Custom Map

For various destination I’ve made maps (some to share with others, some for just myself) that outline where I’ll be staying and where I’d like to visit…so as to get a feel for the transportation requirements.  I highly recommend creating a Google “My Map” in Google Maps by visiting maps.google.com and clicking the My Maps tab.  Then click Create New Map.

Search for a destination and then right click it and choose Add a placemark.  For more information on using custom maps in Google, visit the official user guide.

Finding Which Sites to Use

Maybe I’m exaggerating, but there appear to be tens of thousands of travel sites, and all of them are vying for a top ranking on Google.  So I skipped Google when looking for sites to use.  Many of my searches instead started on del.icio.us, so I could see, for instance, which hostel website was most popular.

Getting the Right Flights

After some research with del.icio.us, talking to friends, and using some of my old favorites, here are some tips for getting the right flights and spending a little less in the process.

• Kayak.com – where I always start for flight searches.  Their multi-city and filters are simply amazing
• EasyJet & RyanAir – so this isn’t news to most people, but it’s how a lot of people travel within Europe for crazy cheap (less than $50 for many flights)
• Microsoft’s Farecast is a great place to learn whether or not you should buy your tickets now, especially for domestic flights
• FlyerTalk’s Mileage Run Deals is THE place for fares that really are incredible deals.  Check here often!
• Elizabeth Terrell highly recommended I visit this site about cheap travel abroad
• Having knowledge of the major airline alliances is essential for frequent flier programs.  This way you can ensure that you’re always accumulating miles for the airline of your choice (since each of these groups has reciprocity with each other).  This is also helpful to know when you get errors trying to buy flights that don’t “have reciprocity”
  • Star Alliance includes Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, EgyptAir, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, United, US Airways, as well as regional airlines Adria Airways, and Blue1
  • SkyTeam includes Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, AirEuropa, Alitalia, China Southern, Continental Airlines, Copa Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air and Northwest Airlines

Choosing a Place to Stay

I’m not going to throw out some panacea for a cheap hotel.  But here are some sites that might alter your approach for finding a place to stay…

• Check your Facebook networks to see if you might have any friends in the area you could crash with (or at least hang out with) while in town
• Dopplr is a good site for seeing if other friends are traveling to those destinations at the same time as you
• Hostelworld is a good place for inexpensive hostels and hotels…and is a bit less expensive than the results you’d find on, say, Expedia (which I also used)
• If you’re really trying to travel on the cheap, check out CouchSurfing or the recently launched AirBed & Breakfast

Deciding What to Pack

• Flickr.  I went to Flickr and searched for each city I planned to visit (this is an example).  Then I clicked on the link for “Most Recent.”  This showed me a snapshot for how locals/tourists dressed in various circumstances
• Weather.com.  If you type in the city you plan to visit and then choose a period of time in the future, they’ll tell you the historical highs, lows, and other information

General Stuff to Pack

I’m not listing everything, just the stuff I chose after some time/thought/energy was expended.  I assume you can figure out to grab Woolite packs for washing your clothes, taking something that’ll wake you up, ear plugs, locks, etc.  The only real goal for me was that I could fit everything (including my laptop) into one carry-on size bag

• Tim Ferriss’ Guide to traveling the world in 10lbs or less was very helpful.  Though I’m a little skeptical of the tiny towel I bought at his recommendation…  The best purchase so far has been my tiny Marmot windshirt.  (Take your pick they’re all tiny and warm.)  I also have enjoyed my Kiva bag
• At REI, I bought more nylon/polyester stuff than you could bat a stick at.  I chose this backpack (medium gray), Ex Officio underwear and pants, as well as a nylon dress shirt, some Teva flip flops, etc.  This alone paid for my lifetime REI membership (via the discount)
• Where would I be without Zappos?  I was very happy to find a super light pair of shoes with which I could get in my morning runs and still wear with jeans/nylon pants

Geek Stuff to Pack

Your needs may vary from mine, but I plan to do some serious work on the road, since I have to help keep people moving at work.  Here were my picks.

• Extra, brand-new laptop battery
• Extra camera battery
• Clipping my Kiva bag (above) to my tiny day bag, which is just a WaterField laptop sleeve
• A power converter, of course. I went with this Belkin one
• Quad-band, unlocked phone.  A good place to find one is on eBay and this site (which I attempted to use but they canceled my order, so don’t order there at the last minute).  I ended up borrowing a friend’s unlocked T-Mobile Dash, which I wanted since it has ActiveSync and thus also doubles as a calendar/contacts/task list.  Turns out T-Mobile will unlock phones you’ve had for a little while.
• SIM card for each area – for phone or SMS.  I ended up going with one of Telestial’s passport cards, but if you want to be organized before you arrive somewhere they have a huge list of SIM cards to purchase in advance here.  (I found this on del.icio.us, where it had been quite popular)
• USB charge cables for my iPod and phone
• Plantronics Foldable Skype headset.  It’s a bit chunky and there are probably better models for portability…but the quality has been fantastic
• And if you’re curious, though you likely aren’t buying these just for a trip, I took a small wide-angle Canon point-and-shoot and a 12” Dell XPS laptop.  (photos so far are here)

I’m going to write a follow-up piece to this about the software and tricks for traveling abroad (in the next week).  For instance, AwayFind has helped a lot and I plan to explain how.  You can subscribe via RSS or email to stay in the loop.

Got any other tips for planning a long trip abroad?

Flickr photo credit: iNmO_Khem

Not only will this explain how I use Gmail and Outlook, but it’ll describe a fair amount of my workflow with email and social media.

Separating My Worlds

As a geek and business-owner who’s building a web product, my online activities overlap between personal and business worlds. Still, I’ve made distinctions between which email program and domain I use for each.

I use Outlook (and the setconsulting.com domain) for all correspondence related to work projects or with people where the role is generally work-related. That includes direct inquiries from this blog and any correspondence with people from a work setting.

I use Gmail (and dancingwithwords.com / goralnick.com) for all personal correspondence, social media activities, beta sign-ups, and purchases.

One caveat: even though it’s not particularly popular in the geek crowd, I use Outlook 2007 for reading and managing RSS. This offers me the benefit of having offline access to my feeds and takes little effort to flag articles in my regular task system. I mention this because to me it’s really all about convenience/workflow and not just about business vs. personal activities. The fewer places I have to check, the better for me.

Then why separate?

While part of my separation relates to identity and branding, that wouldn’t merit separate email applications—either program would let me send from multiple email addresses. It’s a matter of both convenience and the natural features of the products.

If you live in a top-down, things-have-their-place world then Outlook is for you. If you have a system for managing your data and tasks, then Outlook lets you do it that way (albeit, it may take some time to customize). Since Outlook has a task list (with many views for accessing it), it’s much better at managing things that need to be deferred or followed-up.

If you live in a bottom-up, let’s-jump-in-and-get-moving world then Gmail is your place. Gmail makes it easy to find things and work rapidly, especially for messages that can be quickly dealt with by short messages or archiving. They keep it simple so you can. For getting stuff out of the way fast, Gmail is great.

And perhaps as importantly, I can log into my “connected world” in Gmail or my mostly-work oriented world in Outlook. Outlook helps keep me safe: entering a web browser can be a dangerously distracting place for me.

My life has (at least) a couple modalities, so I have two email systems to go along with it.

Why I Use Outlook

Here are some things that I love about Outlook.

The Offline Experience

All my computers have a fully synchronized version of my Microsoft Exchange data that’s available online and off. With the exact same workflow I can process a lot of messages on a train, plane, or subway.

As I mentioned earlier, I use Outlook for my RSS, which means I can catch up on blogs while offline. I recognize that Google Gears offers most of the features for their Google Reader without an internet connection, but Outlook 2007 has the exact same experience online and off.

Tasks, ‘Nuf Said

Tasks can be intimidating in Outlook with so many options, but once you get going with them they’re darn amazing. I love the integration of the Task list into the calendar, which means that I can get the total picture of my day in one screen (the calendar).

I fully recognize that Remember the Milk has some pretty amazing integration with Gmail, but it still takes more steps and screens. And the fewer steps for me means the more likely it is to happen.

In addition, the fact that Outlook’s tasks are in sync with my handheld’s reminders, online or off, is a big help.

Message Flagging

One of my favorite features in Outlook is its ability to flag a message with a due date and then file it away. It’s the easiest way for me to make a task from a message and then plow through the rest of my Inbox. There is zero copying with all the benefits of a task. (Yes, I’m still caught up on the Tasks thing.)

Mobile Phone And ActiveSync Experience

As of now, Microsoft has a large chunk of the mobile phone market supporting both Windows Mobile and ActiveSync. Since they’re all designed to work with Exchange, things just play well. It’s an okay phone experience that stays in sync with my Outlook application on my desktop.

For BlackBerrys and iPhones there’s much better mobile integration available for Gmail, but sadly that doesn’t help me as it’s limited on Windows phones. However, both BlackBerry and the iPhone offer full Microsoft Exchange support.

Note: if you go through the trouble of installing a Java Virtual Machine on a Windows Smartphone then you can get Google Apps working on a Smartphone…but it’s an awful lot of trouble and not particularly speedy in the end.

Loving My Add-Ins

I’m actually not a big add-in guy, but I’ve been pretty happy with some of the tools I’ve installed in Outlook. At the moment I’m enjoying Anagram (which lets me turn an email signature into a contact in seconds, amongst other things), Xobni (which explains the relationships between contacts and offers a powerful search feature), and OneNote (a note taking and organizing application, and its Outlook add-in allows my notes to very quickly turn into tasks or other items).

Why I Use Gmail

Here are some things that I love about Gmail.

Gmail’s Rockin’ Filters

Gmail’s Filters just feel faster, safer, and more inviting. So I use them more. Thanks to filters I’m at the point where nearly everything that makes it to my inbox is a personal message. That makes my email processing so much faster.

Fast Search, and Stuff I Want To Hold Onto

I don’t have to worry where I put something in Gmail, because it’s so easy to find it, even if it’s stuff that’s years old. Yep, I actually moved all my personal email from 1995 onward into Gmail because it’s so lightning fast to find it there.

I can reliably search for a conversation, receipt, itinerary, login information…without any trouble. Outlook’s search is depressingly inaccurate sometimes and it still lends itself more to top-down than bottom-up searching.

Experimenting is Cheap

I love Google Apps for Your Domain because it gives me an inexpensive place to manage my family’s email accounts while offering decent spam filtering and pretty good administrator features. Sure, it’d be okay to get them on Exchange, but it’s not worth the money when they’re not going to use all those other features (like the ones I wrote about above).

It Just Works

Gmail to me is pretty simple. But not too simple that you can’t do stuff. It’s simple enough that if I don’t think too hard about workflow or organization, it’s easy to find messages, recall email addresses, and file things away. For the place where I put my less-urgent correspondence, it’s great that I don’t have to work too hard to manage it.

Where do you manage your email?

Do you use one place for all of your email and organizational activities? Two? Three? I’d be curious to hear what works for you.

Flickr credit: HarryArthur, rovlls