Since I became a Mac user about two years ago, I’ve had basically zero problems with my Macbook Pro. It just works.

However, when I was on vacation in Oahu last week, I installed an update to the OS (via the automatic software update feature) and the machine quit booting and started complaining of a crash in Spotlight. Basically, it wouldn’t boot up and it was unusable.

I tried a bunch of stuff on my own based on articles that I could find on the Apple support site and elsewhere. I also ran Disk Warrior to try to correct the problem myself. Nothing was working - and I was “without laptop.” Yikes!

I was returning to Boulder from Oahu yesterday, so before I left to catch my flight I made an appointment at the Apple store in Boulder at the Genius Bar for 8pm last night (Friday). I had no idea what to expect, but figured I’d try it out. So far, so good - it was nice that I could get an appointment for the next day, even at night when it was very convenient.

I got there a few minutes early, and they called me right on time at 8pm. I explained what had happened, and the guy got right to work on my Macbook Pro. He had the ability to easily do a network boot from my machine, and that included all sorts of diagnostic tools he could use. Within 3 minutes, he was rerunning the cumulative O/S updates for Leopard. This took about 10 minutes to complete, and my machine started working just fine again. I left the Apple store by 8:30 - no charge.

This is great customer service.

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I’m in a nice hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, and I see this. Is Steve Wozniak really staying here too and is he on the same wifi network as me? Neat, or a good joke.

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My normal email routine has been (for about ten years):

• Keep it open all the time, letting my email client check for email once a minute and potentially make a little “ding” sound if my speakers are on.
• Check my email very often - sort of a constant micro task within any major task I am working on (even while I was programming)
• Treat email items in my inbox as a sort of to-do list.
• Once a month or so, go nuts and “clean it” down to about 20-30 items.
• Repeat.

This is obviously pretty distracting and disorganized, but somehow it’s always worked for me as a knowledge worker.

I’m always late to the party on stuff like this, but I’m giving Inbox Zero a shot based on all the hubbub from my Twitterverse. When I read about Inbox Zero, it really boiled down to just common sense. You convert every message in your inbox into an action. Those actions (for me) are (in order of preference):

• Delete/Archive
• Forward/Delegate
• Respond Now and Delete (I’m using a relaxed 3 sentences rule at the 95th percentile - it’s stupid to me to be so rigid as to never allow more when there’s merit to having more)
• Defer (goes in my to-do list, I’m using the GTD-influenced tool called “Ghost Action” for it’s utter simplicity - so far so good)
• Do it Now (just do the necessary thing, if it will take me just a few minutes)

Today was the first day I committed to trying this system, and I had 150 messages in my inbox. My inbox has alway acted as a near term to-do list for me. Of those 150 messages, I applied the first action (Delete/Archive) to about 60% of them - I was really surprised it was that many. After all, this had been my “to-do” list that was sitting in my inbox. Well, I had already done a bunch of them but hadn’t gotten to a “clean up/purge” event for my inbox yet so they were still sitting there, annoying me every minute of every day. I delegated a few things, and just took care of a few things, and created to-do items in Ghost Action for about 15 things. So, really, only 10% of what was in my inbox at the start of the process was really a to-do like I thought it was.

And now, my inbox gives me a really nice feeling when I look at it:

I also set my mail app to only check for email once an hour. There are really very few “fires” that have to be dealt with right now in my email. My goal here is to not be so distracted by email and consciously “process” it on a schedule rather than to just “check it” all the time to see what’s going on and react randomly to some of it but not all of it. This is really the key insight of Inbox Zero - again it’s just common sense.

I’ve tried “getting organized” in my email before, and have failed. This time I am using some best practices that I found and a key difference is the process vs check philosophy, so I feel like this time it can work.

My only real fear is that people will not perceive me to be as “fast” to respond on email. I have about 10 contacts that often write me for a very quick answer to something. I often respond in minutes, and I think they often count on that. I’ve taken pride in that. But when I think about that expectation, I think it’s bogus. Hopefully it won’t be a big deal.

I’ll blog more about my progress with it and let you know if it’s sticks for me or not. If you’re using this system, please let me know any key tips/insights that you’ve learned.

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Since I got my new iPhone, I’ve read a million stupid tips. Maybe this is another one, or maybe you’ll find this one really nice to have like I do.

Let’s say you want to type “Goober5A” as a user name (no, this is not my user name - I’m making it up - really).

When you get to the 5, you’re probably hitting the little 123 button to switch to number mode, hitting 5, then hitting the button to switch back to alpha mode. Quit doing that.

Instead, hold down the 123 button, slide your finger to the 5, then let go. Magic. Genius.

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It’s windy today here in Boulder. Really windy.

Like up to 60mph gusts windy, according to weather.com.

Coincidentally, I went to Wendy’s today. How strange is that?

That reminds me of my favorite Twitter friend. You have to give him an add. He’s making me laugh daily.

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I love NetNewsWire, and I just upgraded to 3.02. It’s awesome.

But Newsgator didn’t add the one feature I really wanted.

I want to be able to set a threshold of the maximum number of “tabs”, and have it automatically (or offer to) close the oldest / least accessed tabs.

Tab proliferation is a huge problem since I open a new tab with each article I read (thus giving me other benefits).

This neat little feature would make NNW essentially perfect for my taste.

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Scorching hot. Especially when the battery gets low, like down to 20% or so.

I have to put it on a pillow on my lap.

Is this normal?

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Today is a fine day.

Once in a while I google my name to see what comes back.

Today is the first time I’ve ever noticed being first on the list of all the David Cohens in the world, according to the wisdom of Google.

Cool.

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Thanks to my friend Alex, I discovered these amazing Hubble photos today. I love the top photo of the aptly named Sombrero galaxy, which apparently has some 800 billion (yes, with a B) suns.

You don’t seriously think we’re alone, do you?

Yep, my name is on the moon. I admit it. I don’t actually carry the card, but I’ve been a Planetary Society member for about 10 years now.

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I have been using SpinVox for a couple of months now. It’s one of those “never look back” type of services. If you’re an email junkie, and find voice mail messages as annoying as I do, then SpinVox is for you. I’ve also heard Simulscribe is great, but I haven’t tried it. These services both translate your voice mails into email, which is very convenient.

Except that today, as I was processing my Junk Mail folder, I noticed a two week old voice mail message!

My spam filter caught the translated message as SPAM, so I never heard it. I never actually listen to the voice mails anymore, since I know they end up in my inbox anyway.

Obviously, the solution is to remember to whitelist the SpinVox email address.

It’s kinda fun to discover whole new categories of “gotchas” when you use cool new services like these.

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