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For the past four months, my main job included taking care of the boy a few days a week and catching up on episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and Torchwood. And keeping up with the Internet.

So I started a new job this week and found myself effectively unplugged. Without realizing it, I’d come to dread the daily trudge through my ever-growing list of RSS feeds. There is some truly interesting writing and insight online. But there is also a lot of recursive linking and repetitive information. I probably wouldn’t read an article about thirteen ways to show Facebook contacts in the Windows Vista sidebar. I definitely don’t want to see the same link on four different sites.

After a few days off the Interweb, I felt refreshed. Liberated. Much better. Better enough, in fact, to venture back online to see what I missed. I opened up Google Reader and found I just wasn’t interested. The spell had been broken.

The saying goes that a project will expand to fill out the time allotted. For me, I’ve found that without Real Work, I’ll fill that node of my productivity with trying capture a ton of online content. I like the fact that I can keep learning things about myself–even if it’s not positive.

I dug a little deeper over the weekend. I had a bookmarks folder entitled “Good Reads” for a bunch of blogs that I had found interesting, but not compelling enough to add to my RSS feeds. I started poking through this list a bit and found a series of snapshots of my online life. I could remember what had drawn me to each site, what particular project or hobby had put the site on my radar. And I could also remember exactly why I wasn’t interested in these subjects any longer.

There are a few things going on here that make me think the web is starting to evolve a bit. We’ve had an explosion of voices online thanks to all the well-equipped publishing tools. Everyone has a venue for their opinions, and everyone has a choice for inputs other than mainstream media. Myself included. But perhaps the novelty may be wearing off. I can imagine how other may be experiencing the same fatigue under the burden of all this content. Maybe the whole thing will collapse. Or maybe a few strong voices will emerge, effectively becoming the mainstream of the web.

Regardless, it’s a true first world problem when we need a word for those sites we find interesting, but not interesting enough to add to our RSS feeds.

Or maybe it’s just winter in Ohio and I’m ready to go outside.

Some links for Tuesday, 19 February 2008:

• Things - Task Management on the Mac: I’ve just tinkered with this a bit, but it’s really polished. Too bad I’m stuck with Windows at work.
• The Anonymity Experiment: via kottke: “We don’t know what information is being collected about us, whom it’s being shared with, what it’s being used for, or where it’s being held.” Scary stuff. Makes me want to retire to my hideout and work on my manifesto.
• OpenCongress: Maybe a web 2.0 look will make people pay attention to what our leaders are up to. Lots of good information here. Information we should all watch. Congress works for us, people.

There’s been a bit of buzz recently about The Commons Flickr pool from the Library of Congress. The Library has posted some of its collection on Flickr so people can access part of the archives and also help in tagging the photos. I like this idea. Not only do we get to see some pretty amazing historical photographs, but this effort is a great example of what the web is good for.

Personally, I’ve been pretty blown away by these pictures. In particular, I find the 1930s-40s in Color collection astounding. I’ve seen plenty of Depression and WWII era photos before, but all in black and white. These images pop in color, the people moving from Historical Subject to Real People. Kind of makes it all hit home. These were all real people, and they look pretty much like we do now.

Anyone with a significant amount of digital photographs and an organizational preoccupation will know what kind of effort can be involved in organizing a collection can be. Imagine having millions of pictures. Imagine having millions of pictures that you didn’t take, of people you don’t know, of places you’ve never seen. How do you organize that? So the Library of Congress has outsourced the work to a group of digital photography enthusiasts. This is harnessing the collaborate nature of the current web in a manner we don’t see much, especially with government institutions. And Flickr users are, on the whole, a communal and friendly lot. Everyone wins.

However, some people are idiots.

Take a look at this picture. Or this one. What kind of person would leave insensitive and rude remarks on photos like these. It’s almost as if we need some oversight to block this kind of digital defacement–but that kind of goes against the spirit of the network, right?

Here’s the thing: We have all these new open communities on the web. People interact with one another in ways thought impossible just a few years ago. Especially young people. The freedom and lack of rules really foster this type of communication. But when the freedom is abused — as in making off these off color comments — it makes our entire society look ignorant. When you see a picture of a guy whose face is black with coal dust from working 12 hours in a mine with inadequate safety equipment, and then proceed to make a joke about the guy’s outfit, the entire group suffers. Suddenly, anyone using Flickr looks like a self-absorbed dolt with absolutely no sense of history.

Those of us on the web today are a pretty lucky bunch. On the whole, we have a lot of the things we want, get enough to eat, don’t lose sleep over bands of marauding raiders. But this wasn’t necessarily the case for people in these photos. This isn’t necessarily the case for a lot of people in the world today. We probably shouldn’t forget that.

My wife is an extremely hard worker. Recently she was awarded an iPod Touch from her company for her work on a difficult project. With this, my wife has taken a decisive lead in our household iPod arms race. My third generation iPod is getting a little long in the tooth, so I’m auditioning for replacement in the not so distant future. This little thing goes with me everywhere, making commutes and waiting rooms enjoyable. It would be nice to be able to watch video and maybe look at some pictures once in awhile. However, I seem to have trouble committing to a new model.

On one hand, I like the idea of packing up every media file I own to cart around on an 160Gb iPod. But do I need to carry everything with me all the time? Don’t I have a lot of music that I never listen to? And how often am I away from my computer for syncing anyway? Wouldn’t the sleek form factor of a new Nano much more convenient?

My wife complicated this first world problem further when she walked in the door with this new iPod Touch. To be honest, I never really considered the iPod Touch. Until I touched it, that is.  I just didn’t get it. But once I started flipping through album covers on this device, something clicked. This little object had been solely a music player a few years ago. But now it’s evolving into something much more.

It’s tough at times for our analog brains to make the leap to digital. What was once a music player has evolved into a music and video player, photo viewer, email client, web surfing tool, online mapping, etc. While I was preoccupied with the device as a media player, I was missing out on the idea that devices like these are going to move into a more central role in the lives of many people. Instead of something attached to our computer, these devices become what we use instead of our computers. The relationship between our devices has changed.

What made me pause when I first ran a greasy finger across the iPod Touch’s screen was that it reminded me of something: one device to rule them all. For years, I’ve fantasized about a portable device that would become the center of our computing world. The idea of a work computer and a home computer always frustrated me. This is all my data, so I should be able to get at it anywhere, right? I was totally surprised when someone had created this device while I wasn’t paying attention.

The environment I envision looks like this:

• All your data (documents, music, pictures, etc) exists on the device.
• While on the go, you can access the data in limited ways: listen to music, view pictures, go online, edit text and spreadsheets, enter contacts and appointments, etc.
• Once you plug the device into any computer, the device becomes an attached drive. You can use the applications on the computer to do more advanced file manipulation: edit photos, advanced word processing, watch movies on the larger monitor, etc. You also back up the device while connected.

This vision appeals to me so much because it would allow one to carry one’s whole digital life in a small package. You could use any available computer without ever leaving your own little environment. What’s more, you could actually pull out the item on the bus and access the data. How very Cory Doctorow!

More classic PDAs got close to this. Very close. But not with the grace and UI of the iPod Touch. Even if you can’t edit Word  documents on the Touch — or even access it as an external drive — the UI metaphor still comes closer to my vision than any PDA I’ve used in the past.

The iPod Touch isn’t the end all. There are still significant hurdles. There is no file manipulation on the Touch. And all the music is locked away in iTunes. And  even 32 Gb isn’t nearly enough room for everything. Further, flash memory isn’t well-suited for lots of read/writes. Still, with the software development kit coming from Apple this month, it may not be long until we see a word processing application for the Touch. It may not be long until we truly have a device from Science Fiction in our hands.

Some links for Tuesday, 12 February 2008:

• Organize Yourself- Create Your Own Personal Personnel File: I’m starting a new job soon (on top of our recent move), so this feels like a good time to make sure I’m keeping track of everything I need to. (via Lifehacker)
• Developing an improved online environment for educating computer users: There’s a bigger story here that I’d like to flesh out. Back in my tech writing days, I was always frustrated by the industry’s inability to shift its paradigm of how to present information. Everyone seemed to just take a standard user manual, shove it on the web, and call it online. There is an increasing divide between technical and non-technical users, and it’s about time we started using some new tactics to close the gap.
• Watt Watt: Haven’t had a lot of time to drill into this, but this site talks a lot about energy consumption and alternative power sources. (via Make)
• Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends on Google Video: I used to love Theroux’s show and am delighted to see it online.

I’ve got some baggage. Rather, I’ve got a thing for baggage. I’m always on the lookout for the perfect bag for some specific activity. Disc golf, hiking, geocaching, work. You get the idea. Everything should have its place, I say. All my gear should be ready to go, allowing me to grab the appropriate bag and hit the door for adventures unknown.

The thing is: I rarely have adventures. I’ve got work and dogs to walk and prime time television to watch, just like everyone else. I’m uncomfortable in rental cars. I dislike airports. And with a small child, the potential for adventure travel is somewhat limited. But this doesn’t stop me from browsing REI for a better daypack.

Whenever I travel, at some point I find myself organizing my gear, making sure everything is accounted for and in the right place. I never noticed any of my friends doing this. Anal-retentiveness, I suppose. But I should wonder what it is I am really doing when I find myself sorting through my stuff, when I find myself making doubly sure pens and keys and batteries are all in the proper pockets. Am I worried about my stuff, or trying to maintain some control over life itself?

Maybe this is all just anal-retentiveness. But lately, I’m questioning my motives, my purpose. As a father, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to raise our son. I want to instill in him a sense of wonder in the world, a hunger for curiosity that will make him want to see what’s around the next bend (even if it is just another bend after that). I have this fantasy of going on family vacations. On these vacations, I would keep all my essentials in one small bag. This would teach my son how to travel light yet remain prepared, how to not fixate on “stuff”. Then my fantasy seems to derail into an itemized list of what exactly I would keep in this bag. And how would I use this bag? If we go hiking, do I dump everything out and load it up with hiking stuff? Or do I grab another bag?

This all seems to miss the point, if you ask me.

Maybe keeping myself organized is a way to overcompensate for the randomness of life. But it’s a sucker’s bet. You can’t prepare for life by keeping necessary items close at hand. The only thing you can do is remain flexible, ready for anything. Ready for change.

So not only is organization a deceptive activity, it also leads you away from how to truly remain prepared. While I am increasingly obsessed with having the proper bag for the proper situation. To be ready for life is to keep things easy, to not worry about keeping things organized. Keeping things orderly places too much emphasis on the items themselves.

I realize that I can never teach my son these things I wish to teach him because I don’t know them myself. Not yet. It seems I’m much more likely to instill a sense of organizational paranoia and object worship in my son–hardly the best gift a parent can give.

On the other hand, I think of my Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. I’d also like to be the kind of father who is ready for any crisis that might emerge. But not at the expense of carrying a purse.

You have to remember what’s important. And usually it’s not anything kept in any bag.

I like to see to see people who are way into something. Maybe it’s model trains. Maybe it’s political punditry. Whatever flips your switch, I say go for it. All the way. Too far is where you always want to go, to paraphrase Patton Oswalt. We have enough people in this nation hanging out in front of the TV, never following a passion for anything.

The downside if this can be a loss of perspective. It’s easy enough to forget that the rest of the world doesn’t care that there were significant storyline anachronisms in the final season of Farscape.

This is why I want to applaud Leo Laporte. TWIT (This Week in Tech) is Leo’s wonderful podcast featuring a number of minds sharing insightful views about weekly technology news. But even these folks can lose sight of the larger picture at times. However, I was pleased to see the panel in TWIT #129 step outside the fold a bit. The group was discussing the new Mac laptop, the ultra thin MacBook Air. In general, they were unimpressed. But the interesting part came when Leo noted how the current economic downturn puts such a fetish device in perspective. It’s not often that you see people downplay the role of their interests in the bigger picture, especially people who make their living in these fields.

Perspective is always good to see, especially in journalism.

But I still want a MacBook Air.

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