Oh boy. If I even mention a new development platform around the office, people start to break out in hives. Let’s just say the phrase “Now what?!” has been bandied about on more than one occasion.

But this time it’s different… honest!

If ever a bandwagon felt like a good one to jump on, Ruby on Rails is it. This looks to be, based on a weekend or so of fiddling, a fantastic framework. Just reading the API gave me any number of No Freakin’ Way! moments. In all fairness, I have to admit that I have very little experience with some of the also fabulous (I’m sure) Java frameworks, but they’re… well… Java. And .NET? That’s not even Java, it’s… you know who.

Can’t wait to see how this pans out.

Recent sales of the iPod can make it easy to forget that Apple can also produce crap

Last night I was browsing, reading feeds, generally minding my own business when I came across the Roku SoundBridge. I’ve known things like this existed, and for some time considered Apples Airport Express, but nothing really clicked. This clicked. I had an old Onkyo receiver that wasn’t being used, so I dropped that in my bedroom, plugged in the SoundBridge to the analog jacks and fired her up. There was my shared iTunes library via wireless and rendevouz - instantly accessible. The joy is that it comes with a little remote so I don’t have to be near the computer to manage what I’m listening to. It will also play internet radio directly, without needing iTunes running. Oh, and it looks cool, too. Pretty nifty, if you ask me.

My recent experiment with Getting Things Done has been a huge success. With it, I know that everything that needs doing will get done, and sometimes even on time. I still tend to do the fun stuff first, but at least I know what I’m neglecting, thanks to the ever-present Next Actions list. The concept of “capturing everything in a trusted system” is the key. So, for those of you who might be interested, here’s my Trusted System™…

Capture

Moleskine mini notebook - Mine goes with me everywhere. I love it. It feels good, looks good and works exactly how it should.

Inbox - Just a physical inbox for collecting new paper that needs processing (several times daily)

Email - My email inbox gets processed and filed regularly. I transfer the relevant information directly into one of the other capture apps, usually Tinderbox.

Tinderbox - Expensive and kinda funny-looking, but I always have a Map View open for dropping in quick notes about things that need tending to. This also gets processed several times a day.

DEVONthink - This isn’t really a GTD app for me, but it does capture a shitload of stuff. Text snippets, quotes, parts of web pages, images, pdf manual, you name it, it goes in there. And it’s all easy to find and organize later.

43 Folders - Yep, one unit with 31 daily slots and one with 12 monthly. Drop bills, notes, even heartworm pills in there and forget about them until the time comes.

Process

Tinderbox - I use Tinderbox for organizing everything that has been captured and processed. My Projects, Next Actions, Someday/Maybe lists go here. I wanted to fall in love with OmniOutliner 3 instead, but it feels sluggish and most of the improvements aren’t implemented as well as I’d hoped.

There you have it, in a nutshell. Works for me.

As a side note, the newcomer here is DEVONthink. I’ve not even finished the demo period yet and it’s become indispensable for keeping track of things I read online. Better than bookmarking in most cases because I just copy the relevant bits over. Really improves the signal/noise ratio. And for research it’s nearly perfect. You can see a nice example of DEVONthink usage by Steven Johnson.

If someone were to ask me, “What is an artist?” I’d probably just stare blankly and shrug my shoulders. On the other hand, watching Rivers and Tides, a film about Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy made me want to jump up and down screaming “There’s one, right there!”

While the movie was beautifully filmed and scored, the best part was being allowed to sit quietly and marvel at Mr. Goldsworthy’s work and his approach to creating each piece. I can’t imagine a dedication so strong toward things so ephemeral. I sat with a big stupid grin on my face, head slightly shaking in disbelief while watching him build great, delicate structures, soon only to have them destroyed by tides or sun or wind.

I watched it alone, and wished immediately that I hadn’t. It needed to be talked about.

At lunch a few weeks ago, Matthew mentioned that he was interested in the GIF file format. I had no idea how interested - until now. He’s written an extensive document, What’s in a GIF which will tell you everything you need to know about GIFs - and more. Only thing missing is the final word on how to pronounce “GIF”.

A List Apart publishes a pretty good overview of Use Cases and their, uh, uses.

I was feeling pretty important a few minutes ago. Not so much now

I’m going to put together a small web application using Ruby on Rails. I have no idea why.

I’ve used Firefox daily, since it was an early Phoenix release. On Windows it was pretty much either that or IE, and we all know that’s a no-brainer. Firefox followed me faithfully when I switched to using a Mac and I still think it’s a great browser. But…

Since OS X is so impressive and useful, It makes sense to take advantage of what’s available. Things like integrated spellchecking, text services and all of the loveliness that is Cocoa. It occurred to me that Firefox misses on most of these. It’s time to take a look at what else is available. Safari is pretty good, but I just can’t get used to the brushed metal-ness of it. What I’m interested in is OmniWeb. It’s not free, but that’s never been the deciding factor for me anyway. After about 15 minutes of the demo, I know a few things.

• It’s slower than Firefox. Not significantly, but noticeably.

• Graphic Tabs. The little “tab” thumbnails are great. The ability to select a tab visually is one of those “Doh!” things.

• Real OS X widgets. Yes children, you can navigate web forms, including select (popup) elements with the keyboard. No more filling out a form, stop! grab the mouse, select the state from a popup, and move on. Love this.

• Integration with OS X services. Selecting text and pushing it into DevonTHINK with a single keystroke is the way to do research.

• Some Javascript doesn’t seem to work very well. The nifty calendar thingy I’ve been using for web apps, for one. Hope this doesn’t become too common.

Another 15 minutes will probably reveal even more. The good/bad ratio remains to be seen.