Do you love Mondays?

 
Of course you do! Show the world how much a new week means to you – with an ‘I Love Mondays’ cube poster from Nicholas Bate. Awesome stuff Nick! I suggest a wallpaper for those of us digital nomads that don’t have a cube or an office this Monday…

Sunday Inspiration #3

  More inspiration for alongside your Sunday breakfast –

• The Worlds Best Presentation 2009 – over on Slideshare they are running a competition to decide the best deck of the year – lots of great influences to get your creative juice flowing
• Sunday Girl by Blondie -  listen to it now on You Tube – if this doesn’t put an extra 10hp in your engine this morning – I’m not sure what will!
• View from the Ledge – a cancer survivors blog, similar to ‘A Power Within’ – written by my Mum, on dealing with caring for a myeloma sufferer.
• The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz – one of my favourite books, the story of young Polish cavalry officer, imprisoned in Russia who escapes and walk thousands of miles to his freedom.

Who or what gives you inspiration?

Build your music collection #5

Not much great new music this week, but these are worth checking out – don’t take my word for it – click the link for the Amazon page for each of these albums.

• Conditions by The Temper Trap – you know that tune, it is being played everywhere – it’s called Sweet Disposition, and it is Track #3 on this marvellous album. A much better use of falsetto than the other annoying idiot.
• Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? by Paloma Faith – put aside the lazy Amy Winehouse comparisons (she’s not *that* good) , this is a lovely poppy album by a bonkers girl with a lovely voice.

What are you listening to? What should I be listening to?

3 good alternatives to iTunes..

Despite having two Zunes at home (a new HD and a 30), we still have three iPods on the go, and despite loads of changes – I am still not a fan of iTunes. Here are three alternatives the bloated Apple client.

• DoubleTwist – available for both the PC and the Mac, DoubleTwist is a full featured client that allows music to be downloaded to a number of devices including the iPod. The current release allows the Amazon MP3 store to be used to replicate the iTunes experience, as well as allowing video to be converted and loaded to your device.
• Anapod Explorer – from Red Chair software allows you to load music directly from Windows Explorer to your iPod and has a number of companion tools for backing up and recovering your precious shiny MP3 player.
• DOPISP – daft name, useful software that integrates your iPod with Windows Media Player, works with Windows 7 and is a lovely integration. I’ve used this for a while, and it has never let me down.

What other tools are you using to escape the Apple hegemony?

Expand Your Mind – read ‘Lonely Londoners’

Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend after discussing 1950’s calypso music, it’s a modern classic I hadn’t heard of telling the tale of a small group of (mainly) Trinidadian immigrants in London in the fifties.

Buy The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon on Amazon now

Sam Selvon eschews ‘Standard’ English and fuses the patois of the main characters into the language of the book – it is an interesting concept and challenges the reader to hear the characters much more clearly.

As the stories develop, the book exposes the pathos of an immigrants life in London, the colour bar, austerity Britain and a lack of jobs are in conflict with the natural indomitable spirit of Moses, Sir Galahad and Cap – the standout scene being a dance attended by all the key characters and hosted by a ‘lahdedah’ friend who tries to impress the white guests he has bought. Priceless images of calypso dances and ‘slackness’ ensue.

This is a marvellous book, that shows how cold and unforgiving London can be, and how the diversity of the city can also shine through.

Build your music collection #4

Monday morning – the day that all the new releases come out – and here is another selection of tuneage that will plump up your MP3 player or CD collection. Don’t take my word for it – follow the links, listen and buy.

• In This Light & On This Evening by the Editors – a significant shift of gear from this most fantastic British band, dark, brooding and mesmeric.
• My Way by Ian Brown – from the opening stomp and piano hook of Stellify, this signals the return of one of the most enduring voices in British rock music. Forget all the Stone Roses reunion guff – they aren’t needed.
• Music for Men by The Gossip – the voice is completely unique, but this album takes The Gossip to a new dimension. Easily straddling the void between club and concert – these songs will be ubiquitous into 2010.
• Skream! by Skream – innovative and completely original this is the future sound of London. If you haven’t discovered dubstep yet, then this is the ultimate primer – dark, dancey electronica at its finest.
• For lack of a better name by Deadmau5 – I’ve featured them in my DJ mixes (they are free to download!) for some time, but this third artist album really could propel them into the big time. Trippy, techy house music with collaborations from Rob Swire and Flipside.

What are you listening to? What should be listening to?

Sunday Inspiration #2

Another slice of inspirational links to take alongside your Sunday newspapers -

• Ready for Anything – from David Allen, the writer and designer of Getting Things Done – comes a book with 50 easily digestable nuggers that help you clear your head and focus on your productivity. Useful, inspiring reading.
• Rules for my unborn son – golden nuggets of advice, as valuable for YOU as for that unborn child. Favourites here – angry email, safety catch and crossword. (Bonus – soon to be released as a book)
• Olafur Arnalds – Icelandic rock drummer turned nu-classical composer – stunningly beautiful music. Download a full album (for free) here. Music to be inspired by and with.
• 6 key lessons in life from a 140 year old man – Mahatma Gandhi would be 140 years old today. Check out some wisdom from this unusually insightful and prophetic man.

Who or what gives you inspiration? How are you tracking them?

Expand your mind – read ‘Trust Agents’

This is a great book, combining sound theory, relevant examples and actionable suggestions with an easy readable style.  The main premise is that cultivating  ‘trust’ will enable you and your business to succeed. Most of this is talked about in terms of social networks or online media – but the key points can be practiced offline as well – be a trusted advisor and people will gravitate towards you when they need something, and then trust you with their information and leads.

It is sage advice indeed – and I ripped through this in a few days, coming away with some great suggestions on how to increase trust. Chris Brogan has an authentic voice in this area – having established a successful blog and social network, as well as putting his money where his mouth is – he is even open to giving the book away for charities and non profits.

The book proposes that it will help you drive sales, get hired without a resume or just make your business more awesome than the others. At the very least, it will be a disruptive influence in your current working styles, and that is never a bad thing

I wouldn’t disagree with any of that – I am confident this book will help you develop any relationship you have, beyond business.

Excellent read – buy Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith now.

What are you doing to build trust?

You’ll thank me for this… #1

You’ve decided to be awesome, your toolset is in place, your workplace is ergonomic and your productivity is up, nothing can stop you now. Can it?

Losing data is the number one fear for most information workers as they come to rely on their PC’s and mobile devices for almost everything they do. I propose you take 30 minutes to check out some of these options available to protect yourself and your data.

• Online Backups – consider backing up your data to an online service, it is a click and forget process to set up and ensure that you have continuous incremental backups running to a service like Carbonite or Mozy. I keep my essential work data in Live Mesh – which replicates it across machines, giving me the added benefit of being able to access it from any PC.
• Security software – make sure you have up to date and reliable security software (firewall, anti-virus, anti spam etc) – Symantec, McAfee are all available at a price – and new to the block is the free Microsoft Security Essentials – I’ve been using this on Beta for a while and it’s very reliable, lightweight and unobtrusive.
• Encryption – your data is important, right? Then consider encrypting your data on your drive (including portable), again you can pay for this, but there are free products closer than you think. I use BitLocker to encrypt my laptop and any USB drives that I use, its free and included in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

What else are you doing to make sure your data is secure and your work stays safe?

Build up your music collection #3

Another selection of music you really should be listening to now – don’t take my word for it, check out the links to listen to these essential tunes…

• XX by The XX – Hotly tipped band, vaguely reminiscent of Interpol. Intense and epic sounding music from south-West London.
• Trueloves Gutter by Richard Hawley – Memerising songs by one of Britains true national treasures. Truly a beautiful thing.
• Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z – Kanye, Jeezy, Rhianna and Drake amongst the collaborations on this, doesn’t detract that he is still the king of rap.
• Splitting the Atom EP by Massive Attack – a taste of things to come as Bristol’s finest  ready themselves for LP5. Features Guy Garvey, Tunde and Horace Andy.
• Declaration of Dependence by Kings of Convenience – it feels like ages since we heard new material from Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe, but business is as usual – gentle vocals, delicate plucked guitars, and a great sense of humour.