How iCloud works with a shared Apple ID

Whew. What a relief. I was also wondering how this would play out. Thanks for working this out.

Live from Las Vegas - How iCloud works with a shared Apple ID

Requirements - Product Scope - Project Scope - Budget and Schedule

I need to print out slide 8 and keep it handy.

Better Projects: Scope=Requirements Slide deck

iCloud Match - a win for music companies

Ok, so everyone's on about how this supports piracy.  Here's a different take.

A problem for music companies must be that they do not know (accurately) what music is copied and what is played often.  They used to get this when physical sales were a good indicator of music appeal.

Now, with iCloud Match, the music companies can get back metrics on pirated music and, even better, metrics on which songs are played most often.

Good sales and marketing info, no?

Project Status Meetings

Barney Austin lists good points in 10 Dos and Don'ts of the Project Status Meeting but I would add some specific items for a Project Status Meeting:

1. Depending on the nature of the project and the PM's style, I see the status meeting as a place where the PM "receives" the status (or updates) from key contributors.  The alternative is the PM "giving" the status to attendees. But I'm not convinced that requires a meeting.  Ensuring that the PM does not fall into the trap of talking all the time will also ensure good participation.
2. The other trap that participants often fall into is trying to resolve issues that have been identified in the meeting.  Using some of the points in the article, this timesink should be avoided and the issue should be noted and a clear action/actor assigned.  The meeting is a good place to initiate some form of escalation, but this should be managed by the PM.  PMs hate surprises.

Test post via email

Just testing.

Just realised that you cannot post via email and use labels/tags.  Can't have the convenience and functionality together, I guess.

Time to re-awaken this blog

This post from an iPad. Which didn't exist when the last post was written.

The Blogger interface for the iPad is actually quite impressive.

What I like about Google Chrome

Simple.

1. It's clean and simple interface.
2. Speed, both to start up and to operate.

One thing that other (Firefox) users miss is the ability to install extensions.  Initially, I did too.  But then I found that a lot of what I was missing could be addressed by bookmarklets.  There are a few extensions that I do miss - especially Mozilla Weave.

But, as much as extensions are a feature of Firefox, they are a limitation of Firefox.  They contribute to slowing Firefox down and frustrate me when they are not always updated with newer versions of Firefox.  

It will be interesting to see when Chrome is released for Linux.  Until then, it's Chrome on WinXP and Firefox for the rest.

RememberTheMilk and Google Tasks

Although I am a great fan of RememberTheMilk, I was interested to see Google add tasks to the Gmail interface.  I try to use Google services/apps where possible, but Tasks is still a bit basic. 

It did, however, make me think about the things that currently keep me with RTM:

• Offline use.  Being able to use RTM with Google Gears is really good.  I can take my laptop to meetings or review tasks on the train.
• Being able to email tasks to RTM.  Work email is MS Outlook and I find the easiest way to transfer emails with actions to RTM is to email them to RTM.  Once you get the hang of the email "tags", you can forward a task straight to a specific list, with a priority, due date, and tags.
• RTM's keyboard navigation is also very useful.

When Gmail (and Tasks since they share the same interface) get offline support, then RTM may have more of a challenge.