shahine.com/omar/

I HATE my Cingular 2125 and my k-jam. I hate these phones to death. They are buggy and impossible to use and I feel like the hardware is unusable. Just look at the power button on the 2125 to get a sense of how silly it is. And the k-jam is unusable with my constant fight from keyboard to pen mode... I LOVE it when the T9 on my 2125 goes berserk or when my 4 way joystick stops responding to down. I also love it when my stylus falls out of my k-jam or when it stops reminding me of meetings for a few hours. Oh, and I love the anemic tasks application on the Smartphone that won't even let you set a due date for a task. Sweet. The fact that the Motorola Q doesn't have copy and paste! Awesome.

So I was relieved to see that there are finally spy photos of my next phone.

The bottom line is this:

1. Need a windows mobile phone (although I have thought many times about getting the next Palm OS based GSM Treo).
2. Smartphone Formfactor is better, but you need a keyboard
3. The Q is a nice idea, but flawed because Smartphone was never made with a keyboard in mind and the phone is clumsy.
4. Pocket PC lacks many of the features of the Smartphone, but Palm has done a nice job on the Verizon Treo 700p of addressing this.
5. HTC can't write a Radio Stack to save their lives and my phone is always "waiting for network" making my MSFP update useless as my phone never gets any email when it's supposed to.
6. Keyboard on the k-jam is unusable.

I'm hoping that Palm will come to the rescue and finally save us GSM users from bad HTC made phones.

Today I looked at my credit card bill and saw the $10 charge for Urge. I had forgotten that I signed up for Urge, and of course was annoyed because I've used it 3 times. That's right. I went through the rigmarole of getting WMP11 and getting all the urge software installed, then of course dealing with some DRM corruption issues that were perplexing requiring that I download some software from Napster to fix the problem. Ugh. So I went and cancelled service today. At least they make that easy.

Anyway, I didn't find Urge to be anything special. Not $120 a year special. It reminded me of my Napster experience albeit Windows Media Player has a bit more lipstick on it (still not pretty, no amount of lipstick will fix my complaints with WMP... take a look at the mess called the options and skins dialog to see what I mean).

The other day I read something that Thomas Hawk wrote that really resonated with me.

"Why else doesn't this excite me? Because Windows Media Player largely sucks right now and this is the software I'd likely use to interact with the device if I were to own one. This fact, Windows Media Player sucking (to be fair for me as a large digital music collector), has in fact dampered my whole spirit these days when it comes to digital music."

While Thomas does a lot of complaining about WMP, and while I don't agree with 100% of what he says, I do feel the same way. I am not excited about audio on my computer any more. It's a dreary, unfun, boring experience interacting with music through my desktop or laptop. I don't even bother copying my music collection to my laptop any more. The only place I have "fun" with my media library is on my Windows Media Center (which has a great music browsing/playing experience) and my iPod + iTunes. iTunes isn't an amazing piece of software, but I like using it. And please, I'm not going to get a 2 GB Clix so that I can have a tolerable experience syncing and playing my music on a portable device.

Lets hope Zune moves the needle.

PS - What is the deal with removing the menu bar from the applications? I don't understand this. It's one thing to remove the menu bar if it's clear and obvious how to do all the features that require the menu bar w/o having to use the menu bar. Sorry, but WMP doesn't do this right. They made it even harder in WMP11 to get to the menu which seems to be the only way I can figure out how to change a skin.

Losing a pet is quite possibly the hardest thing to deal with. I don't know why, but the emotional bond you have with an animal that is pretty much completely dependant on you and your family their entire lives results in a drastically different reaction to their death than you might expect. Losing our dog Pucky was the single hardest thing I'd dealt with... for me and my family.

Reeves and Paula lost Nala last week. Nala was such a special dog. When my dog died, I too was thousands of miles away, and it was especially hard knowing that I wasn't there when she passed. Nala was such a special dog, even though she only had 3 legs .

Back a few years ago, our campus had a policy that allowed you to bring your pets to work. I used to hang with Nala and Jack a lot, and it was really nice having dogs around. A few years ago, a dog bit some one and they canceled the dog policy :-(. Although, Nala was so quiet and well behaved that you would often find her sleeping in Reeves office anyway.

Nala, we'll miss you.

There seems to be a lot of trash talking going on in the hallways. I pity the fool who messes with my scooter.

A lot's been going on in the ClearContext world, and I thought I'd do a quick highlight.

1. Deva, one of the 3 behind ClearContext (and an all around cool guy) started a blog. He's already got some great posts on email management and overload. His post analyzing the Microsoft Email Overload Scale Research paper is really interesting.
2. The folks at CC have posted a teaser on what Outlook 2007 Support will look like. Yummy.
3. They also published the results of their 2006 Email Usage study.

Don't forget that you can now try some of the basic features in CC for free using their Inbox Manager. I suspect not many people know this but it's a great way to get your feet wet with a tool that I pretty much rely on.

I'm really excited to start playing with their new beta... it's got a lot of goodies I've been waiting patiently for .

The last 10 years were the best in my life . I have high expectations of the next 10...

Lora is taking me to the Village Pub for dinner. Yummy.

Nice to see that Sony is getting into the GeoTagging game with this little GPS device.

Simon has a really good post on some simple macros you can create for Outlook 2007 for us GTD users. Personally I've got a simple "Next Action" button that executes the following VBA Script (Ugh I hate VBA).

Mine is a hybrid of his and one I created. The difference is that the first time you run mine it will create a toolbar button for itself and when you create a task it will open the task so that you can make edits like add a due date and subject to be more descriptive. It also trims "Re: " from the subject of the email.

Public Sub CreateNextAction()
    Dim olExp As Outlook.Explorer
    Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application
    Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace
    Dim myTasks As Outlook.Folder
    Dim myFolder As Outlook.Folder
    Set myolApp = Outlook.CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
    Set myolExp = myolApp.ActiveExplorer
    Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Set myTasks = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks)
    ' check for the toolbar button
    Set myobjCB = myolExp.CommandBars.item("Standard")
    On Error GoTo MyError
    Set objNA = myobjCB.Controls("&Next Action")
    On Error Resume Next
    
    Dim cntSelection As Integer
    cntSelection = myolExp.Selection.Count
    
    For i = 1 To cntSelection
        Dim item As MailItem
        Set item = myolExp.Selection.item(1)
        item.ShowCategoriesDialog
        Set myTask = item.Move(myTasks)
        subject = myTask.subject
        subject = Replace(subject, "RE: ", "")
        subject = Replace(subject, "Re: ", "")
        myTask.subject = subject
        myTask.Save
        myTask.Display
    Next
    
    Exit Sub
MyError:
        Set objNA = myobjCB.Controls.Add(msoControlButton)
        objNA.Caption = "&Next Action"
        objNA.FaceId = 7264
        objNA.Style = msoButtonIconAndCaption
        objNA.OnAction = "CreateNextAction"
        objNA.BeginGroup = True
        objNA.TooltipText = "Create a Next Action task from this E-mail"
End Sub

I'll be blunt. Microsoft Money is the most important application that I use. My entire financial life is in Money. I use practically every feature and been using the product since 1998. I've also upgraded to every money version since I first started using it. However, Money 2005 left a sour taste in my mouth that both Money 2006 and now Money 2007 have not adequately addressed. Money is slow, and my file is now huge at close to 40 MB (which I'm guessing contributes to the slowness). I do not use any of the MSN online features after a DISASTER in 2005 when it completely and utterly devastated my accounts to the point that I had to go back 3 months and re-create my financial picture transaction by transaction. I have about 15 accounts in money that range from checking and credit card to car and house loans. I wasn't joking when I mentioned that each and every penny is accounted for.

Why do I do this? Dunno, habit I guess. I like going to one place to see everything. In doing so I've realized the benefits of having pretty accurate tax withholding, decent portfolio tools and budget tracking.

Anyway, both Money and Quicken are now available in their 2007 versions. I've contemplated the idea of giving Quicken a try (the last time I used Quicken was the Mac versions that I started with in College and stopped using when I installed Money 1999). BTW Money was the main reason I bought a PC to use at home back in 1999.

According to this web site there are 8 new features for personal users. Excuse me? I've also installed Money 2007 and can't tell you what exactly is improved about the Tax Estimator... it still won't do Alternative Minimum Tax or State Tax Estimates. The rest of the features are just not interesting to me.

Now, according to the Quicken website, there are 123 new improvements in Quicken 2007. A quick glance at that list has me going "Yes, Yes, Yes!!!".... oh, these are improvements to Quicken, not Money. Darn. I would pay $50 for the ability to simply attach all my tax documents or other digitized items to transactions.

So, for the first time in close to a decade, I am going to plunk down some Money for Quicken and kick the tires a bit. Making a switch like this is a huge investment in time for me, but I'm simply afraid that what I read in this post by Phil Su 2 years ago is still true today. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Once upon a time, I was an avid Mountain Biker. I used to ride close to 100 miles a week on and off road. I was in great shape. Back then front suspension bikes just arrived on the scene and I got an aftermarket Manitou Shock with my cool Sran Grip Shifters. A lot of time has passed and I've owned 3 different mountain bikes. 2 years ago my Trek Fuel was stolen and I never got around to replacing it.

Well the time has come. I now live pretty close to the hills and there is no excuse. Today I went and test rode some Full Suspension bikes, a Cannondale and a Rocky Mountain Element 50. I really liked the Rocky Mountain but have never heard of them. I've been a Gary Fisher/Trek guy for the past two bikes. Does anyone have any experience with Rocky Mountain bikes and have good or bad things to say?

Three days ago my little sister got married. It was a fantastic wedding in NYC (my first, which is weird since I grew up there). I got to give her a little roast at the wedding ceremony, and of course I was pretty stressed about it.

Anyway, she is now here, and I'm dammed jealous.

I think the IE team managed to address every one of my tabbed browsing needs, even better than FireFox. Check out this post for the skinny, especially the last preferences about ctrl-tab. I now have everything working the way I WANT, which is all I can ask .

They have come a long way since my last post on tabs (now obsolete).

This is simply awesome... I've longed for something that removes all the crap from new OEM PCees. The current version sure does remove a lot of junk, but I bet there is a list 10 times longer than that if you add in Sony and a bunch of other companies.

One thing I like about Fujitsu laptops... not much stuff on them.

[via Download Squad]

JetBlue is a fantastic airline. I'm about to board my return flight from JFK to SJC, and I'm really impressed with everything to date.

We took the red-eye out to NYC last Wed night. There are a lot of really small but noticeable differences between JetBlue and most of the other commercial carriers. Before take off our Pilot actually got up in front of the plane to make his announcements. You mean we actually get to see the guy who is going to fly this fuel tank strapped to wings? Yep, and what a cool idea. You know, it's like going to a Sushi restaurant. You sort of expect to see the Sushi Chef's out front and center. I won't eat at a Sushi restaurant where you can't see where the food is prepared. Why should flying be any different?

Anyway, the planes are nice. seats are comfy, and the bottom of the seat even moves as you recline back (a feature usually only found on wide body international routes). The quality of the TV and Audio is great, especially when compared to the crap you are subjected to on airlines like American (the constant electronic buzzing and hissing that is more audible than whatever you are listening to). And lets not forget just how cool it is to watch LIVE TV, not some pre-recorded CBS Eye on America or Everybody Loves Raymond re-run.

Oh, have you ever gone to put your bag in the overhead bin to find all sorts of emergency medical equipment hogging it up? Yep, not on Jet Blue, they have special little bins for these so almost 100% of the overhead bin space is usable... that makes a big difference on a full flight. And they all take 24 inch bags wheels first.

The flight attendants are also fun and helpful. They aren't patronizing, or pissed because the airline's bankruptcy just screwed them over. They serve fun snacks (unlimited throughout the flight) and on Red Eye's they give out these nice Bliss Spa Shut-Eye Kits.

The terminal in New York is a bit on the old side, but it's got a nice selection of food options, and free wifi. Why don't all airlines give away free wifi?

Anyway, for the money, you can't beat the service, convenience and amenities. I actually like the fact that it's a once class plane. Lets face it, first or business class is da bomb, except when your not flying it. The rest of the time it sucks, makes boarding slower, and makes you feel like cattle... Moooo.

One last thing. The seats starting in row 13 and higher have 34 inches of seat pitch compared to every other airline at 32 inches. So if you are willing to wait a bit longer to get off the plane, you can stretch your legs... and when you are over 6 feet tall, ever extra inch of seat pitch matters.

In response to my "Know of a good FTP Program?" post, I got a number of responses from folks who recommend FileZilla. Even better was a pointer to the PortableApps.com version. I loves me some portable apps. Why? Cause I throw all portable programs on a FolderShare folder and use Launchy to launch them. No start menu clutter, no installation, and my applications roam to all my PCees. Sweet.

Anyway, FileZilla is nice (thanks guys) but for some reason it will not let me drag a file from a remote server to the desktop (in the shell). WTF? I can drag a file from the desktop back to the remote server though. Plus the icons in the app look like crap. Oh well, it's free, it works, and it's not incessantly annoying.

Thanks everyone for the pointers!