After the Deadline – I wish I’d found this ages ago.  If you do a lot of writing on the web, this is the best contextual spell-checker and grammar fixer.

Apple TV – anyone that knows me knows that I’m pretty passionate about this device, even if Apple isn’t.

Basecamp – at work, this is where we keep track of all of our projects (milestones, messages, to do lists)

Dreamweaver – I’m not a big fan of Adobe, but I use this HTML editor every day (especially helpful for table layouts in HTML emails)

Fireworks – this goes with Dreamweaver; still my favorite “quick and dirty” image editor (both bitmaps and vectors)

Freshbooks – in my side business, this is how I stay organized with sending invoices and getting paid

Google Apps – I use Google for email and calendars, mostly.  Great email service.

Highrise – used to track contacts, conversations, and tasks related to contacts

iPhone 3G – most important device I carry

Screenflow - a really great Mac app that allows you to create screencasts, and video tutorials

Seismic Desktop – My favorite desktop app for Twitter and Facebook (largely because it supports multiple accounts)

Skitch – I use this about 10x a day.  The best screen capturing app for a Mac.

TextExpander – I probably use this 25x a day.  Expands a shortcode to a specific piece of text (ie. “AAmailing” becomes the full mailing address).

Twitter – I’m still a big fan.  Micro conversations, completely searchable, makes it easy to share content.

WordPress – last on the list, but probably first in terms of importance, is the WordPress platform. I use it personally every day and also use it as a CMS for people that buy a website from me.

Staying at your computer for an hour, and grinding until you figure out the solution?

or

Going for a 40 minute walk and figuring out the solution?

North America has a “sitting paradigm” for doing work.  If the boss sees you staring at your monitor he might assume that you’re working.  But sitting at your computer isn’t the best way to focus your mental energy.  This Fast Company article suggests that the unfocused mind is the key to real breakthroughs.

Better problem solving involves getting out of the office; standing, walking, or laying down.  It could include nature, exercise, or closing our eyes.  Food, color, sound and textures could also stimulate creative solutions.

Sitting at a workstation doesn’t equal working hard.  Stand up, get out.  Problem solved.

Here is the video:

A company called OfficePOD is building beautiful, self-contained “work pods” that you can stick in your backyard.  It’s time to skip the commute.

On the Mac I use TextExpander (I even paid for it).  On my PC netbook, I use a free app called Texter.

Here’s how to make the Apple TV better:

Make it snappy

The controls on the Apple TV currently feel slow and cumbersome; things don’t just “happen” when you click on them (there is often a delay).  Speeding those response times up will give the regular couch potato the same feeling they get when flicking through channels.  It needs to change from a “browsing” (web) paradigm to a “flicking” (TV) paradigm.

Apple TV apps

Just like the iPhone, the Apple TV is ripe with potential for mini-applications that can be downloaded and enjoyed instantly.  Here are a few app ideas I like:

Games: it could be an actual gaming system, if the games were played using your iPod touch/iPhone as a controller.  Simple games, like Tetris, could use the existing Apple remote.

Social networking: see what people are tweeting about the current show you’re watching or maybe see how you’re friends on Facebook reviewed the movie you’re about to rent.

Boxee: come on Apple!  These guys have done all the hard work for you; just allow people to install it easily.

Keynote: display slideshows on your TV

Video editing: this app allows you to create quick videos and slideshows on your TV screen

Push notification: allows on-screen alerts for calendar events, new TV episodes,

Add the ability to view streaming content: sports, news, and major events.  These all need to be enjoyed in real-time.  There are a dozen providers (like Ustream and Justin.TV).

Web browsing

Using the iPhone or iPod touch as a touchpad and keyboard could actually make browsing the web on a TV screen a good experience.  People are using their iPhone for browsing the net at home already; expanding that same type of experience to a bigger screen in the living room is a logical next step.

Know your market (improve parental controls)

After talking to a variety of Apple TV owners, I think Apple doesn’t realize who the primary market for this device should be: families.  My wife doesn’t know what a torrent is, and doesn’t want to watch movies on the computer.  She wants to be able to sit down on the couch, and navigate a system that allows her to watch movies and TV: the Apple TV does that.  My kids have their favorite TV shows (Shawn the Sheep and Wonder Pets are two of them).  They want to watch them over and over again.  When we had to rely on DVDs, the discs would get scratched beyond use after a couple of months.  On Apple TV we buy their favorite shows, and watch them as many times as we like, and there’s no physical media that gets damaged.

Despite the fact that Apple TV is perfect for families, the parental controls are terrible.  The new user interface from the latest update is slick, but it shows scary thumbnails at the top of the screen that can’t be turned off.  Furthermore, while I can set parental controls for the movies and shows that I own, I can’t control what movie trailers my kids could access (or even turn movie trailers off at all).  These things need to be fixed.

Quit calling it a hobby

When Steve Jobs called the Apple TV a hobby, he put a nail in the coffin before the device even had a chance.  Steve: there is a lot of potential to reinvent the “TV world” the same way you did for mobile phones, and portable music players.  Get off the “hobby train” and make it happen.

Ironically, it’s not the idea of having 10 screaming 7-year-olds in my house that gives me the most anxiety: it’s the gifts.

I’m finding that the challenge of being a “North American” parent isn’t putting food on the table, it’s dealing with the mountains of toys that our kids get from McDonald’s, family, Christmas and birthdays.  Our kids have way too much stuff.

On the other side of the coin, shopping for birthday gifts for other people’s children is equally stressful.  When I was young, kids gave one GI Joe or one Ninja Turtle.  The cost was around 5 bucks.  Nowadays, at least in our area, the average gift is $20.  There also seems to be an underlying competition to see which kid can bring the most extravagant gift to a party.  Invariably, a birthday party invitation means driving to Wal-Mart, and trolling the shelves for something that you hope will “fit in.”

With my 6-year-old’s birthday party approaching we decided to try something different: A Sir Laurier party. Here in Canada, it is Sir Laurier who graces our $5 bill.  In the birthday invitations we invited our guests to make a creative card, and give “a Sir Laurier” instead of a gift.  Our hope was to:

1. Teach our daughter a valuable lesson about materialism and waste
2. Reduce stress amongst parents (so they wouldn’t have to run to the store to purchase an expensive gift)
3. Reduce stress amongst the invited kids (so they wouldn’t compare each others gifts)
4. Reduce our own stress that comes from the clutter of having to many plastic items laying around our home

It felt like a risk: we were all a bit uneasy about it.  My daughter wasn’t sure it would be as much “fun.”  My wife and I were worried about the kids and parents misinterpreting our intent.

Well, it was a total success: parents called to thank us, kids made the most beautiful cards, and our daughter had an amazing party.  She is now saving her “birthday money” for something (that we hope) will be of high quality and use for her.

This is H1N1 scare is havoc on a parent’s nerves.  Our 2 year-old son recently became sick with a serious fever.  It was the weekend, and the first question that entered my mind was: when should I take him to the hospital?

Taking a sick child to emergency is the worst: putting them in an uncomfortable car seat, being jerked around during the drive, and then sitting in a crowded waiting room with other sick people is completely unsettling.  And if you think about it: it doesn’t make sense.

Why are unhealthy people driving themselves to the hospital?  Why are they driving at all?  Let’s think of all the things that are prescribed when you’re feeling ill.  You know: lots of rest, don’t move around, no additional stress, stay away from other sick people.  Driving yourself to the hospital exposes you to all these things.

What happened to house calls? A mobile doctor, visiting a person in need of care in their home is a better way to do things.  Why are we having all the icky, bacteria infected people congregate together in one place?  Let’s stop this madness.  Let’s give our doctors a cell phone, a Honda Fit, and the directions to our homes.  We’ll all be better for it.