I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the replicative effort that scientists attempt and achieve when faced with an unknown scientific proposition. Back in the day, we did this to patiently recreate how prehistoric cultures made flaked-stone tools. I think this replication is a necessary first step to understanding anything human produced or even other. At the human level, tool stone always acts in a certain way, detaches from its parent in certain ways, exhibits a blade or lack thereof in certain ways. I think geological forces act the same way. Glacial moraines act a certain way, deposit these lonely boulders in unlikely places but with a studied nonchalance. Its all measurable when you understand the measurement. I felt this way with how prehistoric humans built their warming or cooking pits.

I think it works this way for things like the Tunguska and for how we used to build our incredible stone tools. There are interactions that are caused by either natural aptitudes or limitations of the event. We either influence these interactions or learn by them and then influence them. In the case of the Tunguska event, scientists found multiple rationales for a thing. I think this is normal. Its the same with replicating stone tools. There are a few ways of achieving a goal but when you get down to watching an accomplished flintknapper at work; there is almost this detachment from the world around them. Its the stone, the hammer-stone, the material. You become the material. You know its stresses and limitations. Its a piece of you; that obsidian or chert. Same with the Tunguska at a bigger level, but we have not learned the right questions or replications even yet. Hell, we still don’t know why certain animals disappeared from the scene in our geologic past or why they occurred.

Science gains from replication, theory, hypothesis, creation. We need the entire sequence to gain an understanding of some event in the past. I truly enjoyed watching the Tunguska researchers painstakingly recreate the environment, take peat bog samples, take tree rings. What has occurred to me though is that we simply don’t know the right question yet so the answer eludes us. Once we know the right question to ask, we will start understanding how to replicate the event. Then we will be closer to knowing what really happened.

As a friend anthropologist once noted to me, “never stop questioning”. It works the same for prehistoric stone tools and mega-geologic happenings. Crawl through time and you can find all kinds of samples of this where we learned the next question which lead to the next answer. Will we ever know all the questions? No. Its not our fate to know all the questions.

In other news, my Nexus One Android Phone is happily perking along using the Modaco Custom ROM which operates on the latest release of Android. It seems to be much faster in regular operation but there are still some rough spots with things. I would expect nothing less from a operating system that is not done and will never be done. I looked at the new iPhone for awhile last night on the web and read some reviews. Is it really true that it actually sucks that much? Did you hear the rumor about the new miniPad which will be one inch in size and use OSX? Just kidding there fanbois. I’m always really shocked by the apple hardcore though who buy just about anything from them.

I’m working on a slipstreamed Ubuntu install which will have everything I commonly use in an image I can quickly deploy to new hardware. I have the AMD64 version done and I’ve tested it. Now on to the laptop one. I guess the pesky activation screens will not be bothering this project at all

I’ll be back home tonight. Back to the usual occurrences of life, kids, and home fun times. Yay. Blech.

I think by net 90 this thing will be rooted and debian will be on it. Its a ARM based processor so Debian is a good choice. As I said in other places, if it ran Android I would buy it yesterday. As it is, I’m sure that millions of Mac lovers and their geeks will buy it. I’m not overly impressed with what it does, how it does it, and the fact it runs on ATT&T’s 3G network. After net 120, ubuntu will be hacked on it. These Linux guys love challenges. By net 150, it will actually be useful and you’ll be able to mount up file systems remotely using samba, be able to run processes simultaneously, and actually get some use out of it.

Its not a platform either that can be improved upon. Its a phone with no phone. Its a single use thing that will only run a single application at a time. Its 499.00 for a big version of the iPhone OS. Somehow I cannot imagine some iBig version of the iPhone OS.

At a humorous level, the news has been full of a MAD TV show three years ago where Apple developed a feminine hygiene product called…

The iPad!!

Heh heh…

A second thing to try is Evernote to track your rapidly changing digital information. Evernote is orders of magnitude better than OneNote because its smartphone clients actually do something and OneNote locks you to a single OS. There is now an Evernote Client on the Android which works remarkably well. You fire it up with a 3G or Edge or wifi account and it sync’s the notes. If you don’t have a net connection it will then sync the changes when you do.

Finally, to share what you should be doing and are not tracking and if you either are or are not fond of GTD or my nGTD advances (notGetting Things Done) which focus more on not emptying your brain but finding reasonable receptables for the information you have to track, assigning statuses to each one, tracking it, and then finishing it without worrying about contexts and Nexts; try Astrid plus Remember the Milk. RTM by itself allows you to track that evolving and distinct bits that make up your various lives. We all have various lives that cycle around work, pleasure, fun, personal. I track things by using this combination. I guess you could use it for GTD but why bother. By the time you find the right desktop, web, and smartphone client all the “things” you must “Get Done” will be overdue

Finally, I see that Apple may have a tablet. Who cares? They always have some rumor that they incite with. Who cares about another silo? Another iPhone experience where you are locked into one OS, one experience, one view. I’ll take the original Slate tablet and carve into it using stone tools instead.

I’ve not wanted to openly advertise because I’m still deep in preparation for the trip. I’ve done similar things in the past when I did archeology. I left once for months, traveled all the way up to Montana or Wyoming and then returned through Las Vegas. Hiked one time from Barstow all the way to Vegas. Spent a few months in Needles, California out by the Colorado River. There was a  town I still remember there called cal-nev-ari. An unusual place to be sure. I met a hard rock geologist there who was walking down the road after doing some work elsewhere. I stopped in my rental car and asked him if he needed a ride to Needles. He had this grizzled scientific look, sparkling blue eyes. He smiled and we rode together. We talked geology, archeology, and meeting points. We ended up drinking beer together in Needles. I digress though.

This trip will commence on Friday and then I’ll be gone for some bit of time. I’ll be summering in Chennai and taking a few holidays here and there. I’ll be back but be blogging still from points over there. I’m very excited at this trip and the potential to do a thing I used to do which was travel and live in places. Thanks to the best job, boss,  and co-workers in the world for making this happen.

Anyways, Pondicherry is very interesting, full of history, chalked full of archeology; but we won’t see those parts sadly. It means another trip will have to be made by me alone.

Today we end the social touring thing and go back to being our own individual beings. Wish us well. Hey Jeremy, if you reading this, check out the wikipedia page on Pondicherry. I’d like to see what you think and your impressions.

Now I’m sitting in a hotel in Hong Kong I got for the day. I ate a too big burger and some fries and two cold beers. Now its getting closer to the time I must go. I need to head over to the airport at about 8pm or so. Then its about 12 or so hours on the high flight and I’m home. I think I will be able to sleep this time. On the flight today from Singapore to Hong Kong I did some naps for over an hour. I was really exhausted but after eating, showering, cleaning up; I’m feeling pretty good. Still tired though. Did not really sleep last night and flew from 11:15pm to 6am from Chennai to Singapore.

Its the last big flight on this trip and then I’m home. But next weekend is SCALE7x and I’m so there!

When I get back, I go to SCALE 7x the following weekend. I’m really looking forward to this year’s SCALE. It just gets better and better and the folks that do the show are very committed to making it evolve, attract more open source participation, and also ensuring it stays true to a community sense.

Getting Things Done in an Active Sense

I have a new post I’m working on which ties together how I’ve implemented a nice mix of tools which borrows from the Zen to Done and classic Getting things Done into a set of tools which focus on OneNote 2007 and Outlook 2007. I’m going to post the diagram when I’m done with it. I think people want to find easier ways than 12 actions, flushing the brain and ideas, and committing to a very intensive process to be more productive. My take is that anyone ™ can do what I did with the tools and it works! I managed a very time-critical project using it and was not late on any deliverables or actions.

I’ve given thought to how we Americans are programmed to do work. Its such a slippery slope for our lives. Work is a necessity and we’re basically socialized to expect a lifetime of 9 to 5 and then a few precarious years of wishing perhaps it was back. Can it be that there is more than just the 9 to 5 and then missing it? I’m at the point where I wonder what to do next. Do I just continue to do technology? I could see a point where its fundamental attraction leaves me. Where I would want another contribution. What would that be? I’m sure my wife wonders. She is dedicated to her career and I like seeing someone with that level of focus. For me, the whole work thing is good now; but I can see past it.

Perhaps my day dream is to have a thing which is more, less,different. Some thing which is a job but encompasses more. A dream? Of course. We’re americans and thus programmed to live those Thoreau “lives of quiet desperation”. There is nothing left for us as we reach those other years of ages. We’re locked in and locked down.

But our spirits and consciousnesses stream far away and into the clouds and sun and dimensions. I’m sure that our indomitable spirits see much more than even our day dreams show. Perhaps I’ll find that “other thing” that seems to hover forever right out of reach. Time will tell.