Good News

Today we have learned that Lulu, who recently had a malignant growth and toe removed, is cancer free.

The biopsy on the removed toe showed no cancer cells.

A day to celebrate! Can you give dogs champagne?

The big connection…

I have blogged about Toodledo in the past, I think it is a great web based To Do application. Problem is that it is a web app.

I love the application THINGS, by cultured code: http://www.culturedcode.com/things/. [updated] Although this is an alpha product, and the complete feature list has yet to be announces, the problems I have with THINGS right now is that it is not usable on the iPhone, and doesn’t sync with .Mac, so I can’t have to do management across multiple computers. Perhaps these features will be implement in the BETA or final release, but as far as an alpha product, it is simple, clean, intuitive, and just plain-old good looking.

Since the iPhone lacks simple to do management, I have been constantly searching for something that works on the iPhone. Well today, I went back to Toodledo, and they now have an iPhone optimized web page (www.toodledo.com/slim/), along with many other features, that have pulled a lot of my loose end communications outlets together…

1) Simple iPhone Page:
I know the safari browser makes mobile browsing easy from the palm of your hand, but sometimes, it is a little cumbersome trying to zoom and swipe around a long list of links, like a to do manager. So, a simplified touch friendly page makes this to do manager tops on my list again. It even has a nice looking web clip icon (crucial for staying on my iPhone’s home screen).

2) New Views:
No longer is toodledo relegated to a long list of tasks, now you can view them by folder, due date, tags, your hot list, goals, and recently complete.

3) Connections:
This is where it all comes together. Connections. Since my last visit to Toodledo, they have expanded this area immensely.

TWITTER:
You can now add and view tasks via Twitter. I just started using Twitter, but can see how using this to add TO DOs could be useful.

JOTT:
You can now add tasks via Jott. I love Jott. Driving along, need to remember to do something, call the 800# and speak. In the past, I have had my jotts just emailed to me, now I can have them added to my Toodledo list.

iCAL & GOOGLE CALENDAR:
No matter what calendar you use, you can now have your tasks appear on your calendar. iCal can then sync back to the iPhone for viewing of tasks due each day.

FIREFOX:
FireFox Add-ons are new to me. But now I can have the Toodledo list as a side bar, and also add a link for a quick-add to my To Do list. Surf a page, remember something to do, add it. Easy.

RSS:
Just another way to view your list of tasks

SMS/EMAIL REMINDERS:
Now you can get reminders sent a specific times prior to your deadlines.

All of these features allow you to add/modify and check off tasks from many different applications and communication services.

Now there is never an excuse to not get something done, or at least know it needs to be done.

Check it out.

iPhone Travel

I am traveling to Phoenix in 12 days to watch some Spring Training baseball. This will be the 2nd year I have gone out to Spring Training, and with the Indians moving there next year, and rumors of them sharing a complex with the Cincinnati Reds, the 3rd annual Spring Training Trip could be a lot more rewarding.

But, I am confronted with a dilemma, do I take my laptop now that I have the iPhone?

On a day-to-day basis, I find the iPhone’s 8GB to be more than enough content to handle. I currently store 478 songs, 12 videos (including 1 movie rental, 1 copy of the Family Guy Blue Harvest, and the last 2 episodes of the Sopranos, and 8 video pod-casts), 981 photos, and 1 14-hour audio book, with 600MB left to fill.

Will this be enough for 8 hours of round trip flying, and 4 days of Phoenix travel?

What is the best ratio of content to use for travel? There is audio content for the drive to the airport, waiting in line, waiting to board the plane. After take-off, you can watch video, then after landing, you are back to audio.

So I am starting to think I can blow through the movie and at least 1 episode of the Sopranos during the flight, so what do I watch on the way back? Blue Harvest and the final Sopranos, sure.

So I need to decide, do I need to take my laptop so I can rent another movie and update new pod-casts, or just grab a book, and ingest content the old fashion way, and read when I run out of stuff to watch and listen to.

Twitter

So I started using Twitter.

I listen to a lot of podcasts, mostly tech podcasts, I am a geek, remember? And most of the tech-geeks on these podcasts talk about Twitter. So, I had an account set up from ages ago, I thought I’d give it a try.

Right now, I am twittering, or is it tweeting, to 2 people. Some random person I don’t know, and George Nemeth from Brewed Fresh Daily (Hi, George!). So I am basically tweeting to them.

I am following three people: George, Andy Ihnatko from the Chicago Sun Times, and Merlin Mann from 43folders.com.

Twitter, for those who don’t know, is an easy channel to push out information about what you are doing at the moment. There is no back-and-forth that SMS or IM allows. This is just a vehicle for putting out info like: “@the coffee shop having the best mocha ever”; or “sitting on my couch watching Lost”; etc…

You follow other Twitterers (or Twits? Tweets?), and other people follow you.

When you post that you just saw George Clooney at Starbucks, it is posted to the feed. When a fellow tweeter posts that they just bought a new iPhone, you see it on the feed.

I think if you get a good group of interesting people together who use the service regularly, it can be an interesting way of communication, without the, well, communication.

If you want to give Twitter a try, visit http://www.twitter.com. You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/alphabet/

What a month, what a week…

What a week, actually, it has been a crazy month…

I have finished running the Cleveland Reads Book Pavilion at the Home & Garden Show at the IX Center.

Lots of work. Lots of people. But a great success.

But, during all the hub-bub of the show, Lulu, our dog, had a growth removed from her front right paw. They got 90% of it, and sent it out for biopsy. It later turned out to be malignant, and she had to have the pinky toe amputated to remove the remainder of the growth. Now we are playing the waiting game. Biopsy results on the toe are due back any day. For now she is starting to walk on it more. We just need to keep her from licking at the stitches. She has gotten plenty of love and attention, as well as plenty of couch time (in a house that used to not let dogs up on the couch).

Then on Monday, after Meghan had a snow day and helped me load-out of the IX Center, we came home to find that Ted, the newer dog, had gotten Lulu’s pain pill bottle off the counter, destroyed the bottle, and ate her 2 remaining pills. So Ted had to be admitted on Monday. He came home last night after all the test came back clear. He got plenty of couch time last night too.

Homes, gardens, books, vets, growths, biopsies, over-dosing… I have had enough. Is it Friday yet?