The browser is clean and runs very fast, but remember this is just beta, and there are several features that are missing. Darrell Etherington over at theAppleBlog lists out the missing features, and I particularly am looking forward to have App Mode in Chrome. We’re all excited to see progress being made to get Chrome on the Mac & Linux and hope the changes and improvements come quickly.

I am a self-proclaimed-learn-it-yourself type of a person, and I strongly believe that hands on experience is a very powerful way of learning new skills. For this reason I have enjoyed the tutorials on Lynda.com because it allows me to work at my own pace, whether fast or slow, to learn new skills or dust off unused skills with a good refresher course. I would say, however, that the cost may seem high to pay $25/month, but I think it’s worth it.

I’d like to know from any of you out there if you know have used Lynda.com, your experiences, and if you recommend any other similar resources online.

Reasons I’m holding out:

1. I am not a big fan of AT&T, I think they are a crutch for the iPhone. They are more expensive and their customer service is sub-par. I say this from personal experience with them, and I hear this from a lot of my friends on AT&T.
2. I have had phenomenal customer service with Sprint, and they have even improved recently based on some complaints about their level of service. The local Sprint stores are great in this area and being a regular they have helped me a lot (for example, as of late I have had some bad battery issues on my phone. I went to the Sprint store and my contact there, Drew, hooked me up with a brand new battery free of charge)
3. In regard to a Blackberry, I prefer a touch screen, although they are nice phones.

Well, enough of why I still have my Treo 700wx…now onto my search for a good, fast Twitter App for my WM5 phone. I tried Twobile and ceTwit, but both bogged down my phone so much and would crash often. I then came across Twikini, optimized specifically for WM phones. Within 5 minutes of using is I was already tweeting and texting my fellow WM friends that they needed to download it. Amazingly Twikini is super fast, feature rich, and extremely easy to use.

So for any of you stalwart Windows Mobile users out there, I would strongly recommend giving Twikini a try.

About a month and a half ago, a friend of mine told me about Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, and that it was changing his life in so many positive ways. I got the audio book and started listening to it to and from work. Little by little I started to see great advantages to many of the concepts he coaches on. There are loads of good sites on getting started with GTD, which a simple StumbleUpon or Google search will lead you too.

Here’s how I am doing GTD:

1. Treo 700wx – I know paper is a recommended way to get started, but I have my Treo with me all the time so that made an easier transition.
2. Pocket Informant 2007 – nice for the Treo to customize categories, lists, and a whole bunch of other cool features. This isn’t a necessary piece however to run GTD using the Treo.
3. Jello.Dashboard – very cool Outlook plugin that is very easy to install. I like Jello because I see at a glance my next actions, Inbox, contexts, projects, and calendar.
4. An In Basket on my desk
5. A Review Basket on my desk
6. I am in the process of building a tickler file system, but it is not at this point a highly critical piece to my GTD system because I don’t use paper that much.

That’s it so far for my GTD experience. There are tons of other things that I could be doing, but I figure I will ease into them as I create new habits and abilities. I will say, as most other GTD’ers do, that the weekly review is painfully hard – not because of my ability, but because I get so many distractions right during the time I have scheduled. I am gradually educating my co-workers and boss that I have a standing 2 hour block on Friday afternoons wherein I don’t want any interruptions.

Here are a few of the links I have found helpful:

• Getting Started – 43Folders.com provides a simple overview and steps to begin GTD.
• GTD in Windows Mobile – JeffKirvin.net outlines using GTD on Windows Mobile – very simple and easy to understand.
• Tons of GTD references – this site on zenhabits.net is jam-packed with great links to learn about GTD. I haven’t even covered the entire gammut yet, but many of the references on this site have shed light on how to cater GTD to my way of functioning.

Well There you have it – my simple post on GTD adding to the ginormous hay stack GTD references.

Happy New Year! Let’s make it the most productive year ever!

~CoolNerd

There are so many very cool things about Mint.com, but the biggest thing for me is that I no longer have to spend 2 to 3 hours a month manually figuring out our budget. Signing up was extremely simple and having the site auto categorize my expenditures was amazing! This site is definitely in my top five cool sites!

While browsing the Internet to find trail maps etc, I came across Backpacker.com and a free map tool called Trimble Adventure Planner. This software program is not super robust but provides some great tools for planning the hike.

Also Backpacker.com has it set up so you can download hike details from the website an import it into the Adventure Planner. So even if you don’t own your GPS unit you can benefit from the hiking and backpacking community on Backpacker.com to get some great details about the adventures you want to go on.

So for all you adventure hungry techies out here are some great tools to making your summer gnarly!

The whole video capture with Jing is awesome, but then the other day I started to play with the image capture piece in conjunction with Flickr – wow! I love using this feature! Now I can capture an image, edit the name, and share it on Flickr. Now with Flickr I am able to use the Flickr editing and notation features (Picknik) to indicate aspects of the image. I am using this for both bug issues as well as for doing research on the site.

One thing that is crucial for Product Managers is the ability for using communication when leading the product development. Often there are times when I try to be too diplomatic about a situation, and sometimes that is necessary depending on the circumstances and project. The most successful product managers use a the art “influencing, negotiating, relationship building and other similar similar skills” to make sure the product proves to be successful.

One thing I definitely need to focus more heavily on this year is to focus on the details more. Not sure exactly how to do it, but I am going to find out.

From what I gather, the primary difference between product and project management is that project management is focused on getting the project launched on time and within budget and oft times with no regard to what features are removed to get it launched. However, for the product manager, the customers or users of the product take priority number one and they concern themselves with even the smallest of details. Product managers realize that the cumulation of many small issues can make or break the site and cause users to stop using the product.

With the coming of the new year I will be taking a “cool nerd” approach to Product Management and will be providing periodic updates on what I discover through research and application.