Amazon S3 as storage backend for MySQL

I found on the agenda of the MySQL Conference & Expo 2007 that Mark Atwood presented in his talk A Storage Engine for Amazon S3,how to use the Simple Storage Service to store the data of a MySQL database.

That MySQL allows to exchange the storage engine with plugins is a well-known fact. That's how the transition from MyISAM to the transaction-capable InnoDB storage engine was made. But to move the storage completely on the internet by using S3 is an unusual, yet interesting idea.

Amazon offers S3 as

a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.

S3 users don't have to deal with RAIDs, storage volumes, scaling capacity, doing backup or any other technical details. It's all taken care of at the Amazon data center.

I'd be interested how well this internet storage system can be used as the storage backend for MySQL -- what about latency, bandwidth and other issues? For example, what happens if I do a full table scan over a big table that's stored on S3?

Maybe there's some MySQL expert out there that can shed a bit more light on that topic?

Don't just apply, communicate!

I still am looking for Linux sysadmins because my responsibilities grow faster than my team. Unfortunately, good Linux admins seem to be hard to find. Of all the applicants, fewer than the half get an appointment to present themselves.

But what really surprises me is that not even 10 percent of those that get invited make contact before or at least after their interview. This happens so seldom that those who do always make a positive impression. Why is it that people applying for an IT job at a huge internet company don't seem to be able to do a Google search for the names of those they got invited to meet in person?

That's why I'd like to give all job seekers a hint: People that were rejected only had applied; those who got the job, communicated.

So, do communicate -- before, while and after your job interview.

h2. Before the interview

When you prepare for your interview, not only get to know the company you'd like to work at, but especially collect information about those people that are going to do the interview and may probably be your future boss.

Many people warn not to publish compromising material about yourself because it may be found by a future employer. But that works the other way around, too. And it's not only the employer that's entitled to look for references either.

Ask about who will conduct your interview and make use of the mighty Google. Are they technically savvy? You'd better be prepared accordingly. Do they blog about their hobbies? Maybe you share some of them; mentioning that could build some common ground to talk about.

There are other people you could contact, too: your potential future colleagues. For example, Guy Kawasaki sees a tight connection between LinkedIn and the Art of Avoiding an Asshole Boss

h2. During the interview

During the interview, always keep in mind that its purpose is to get as much valuable information as possible -- for both sides! They want to see if you have the necessary skills to do the job and the right attitude to fit in the team. So concentrate on the points that will convince them that it's you they're looking for.

But don't forget that there are also things you need to know. While your interviewers aim to confirm the positive impression they got from your papers, you should put to the test the impression of the company that made you apply. Additional to job details, work environment and perks, there are other things to ask. Alexander Kjerulf has the following suggestions for questions that may lead to interesting insights:

• Whats been your best experience working at this company?
• When do you have the most fun at work ?
• Who do you enjoy working with the most here? What do you like about them?
• Which manager do you admire the most in this company? What do you admire about that person?
• Whats the greatest thing your manager has done for his/her people?

h2. After the interview

Even if you get rejected, don't stop communicating until you've asked about the reasons of your dismissal. You may not get a useful answer everytime, but I know at least one person that will tell you honestly why you weren't chosen. Don't let that opportunity of improving your job or interview skills slip away unused.

h2. Conclusion

Apart from Dr. Frankenstein, almost all employers expect their staff to successfully communicate. So, put in the extra effort to get into the position of doing so to your best.

And, by the way, if you're an enthusiastic Linux system administrator that's looking for a new job at a workplace in southern Germany that's as much fun as it's challenging, please do apply. And don't forget to confirm that someone actually reads my blog. ;-)

Sometimes, you don't need expensive instruments

All you need is 6 drummers and an apartment to really get grooving.

And, maybe, exact timing.

Someone, please get a needle

Could anyone please deflate Comic Strip Blogger I'm listening to Adam Curry's interview of CSB on episode 586 of The Daily Sourcecode and I can't get the image of a blowfish out of my head. Remember the one in the fish tank from "Finding Nemo" that blew up everytime he got excited?

When I first noticed how people picked on him about a year ago, I thought "Come on folks, cut the guy some slack!" But over time, CSB's babble has been getting next to unbearable to me too, and now Adam is offering him an even bigger soap box.

This guy is nothing but a walking, talking image neurosis. In the interview, Adam's EU-resident "savant" is frantically babbling to just get his point across without looking right or left. In the part where they talk about Nokia, CSB calls his former employer "bastards that just have good marketing". Adam barely manages to throw in that he is really satisfied with how his E61i works and how using it is generally enjoyable. Oblivious to that short intelligent intermission, CSB continues his argument how Nokia only has good marketing. I really wonder why CSB hasn't yet started his own podcast where he can rant uninterruptedly for hours. Asked about what his problems with Nokia actually are, he staggers shortly and mutters something about "personal reasons". That's what I call a hidden agenda. And that from the guy that questions everone's intentions and doesn't hesitate to call people hypocrites.

Marc Yoshimoto Nemcoff did the right thing when he took apart CSB's overly inflated ego in Daily Source Code episode 585. Unfortunately, seeing how Adam is going to engage his regular callers even more, that beating CSB took (and reacted to with a sickening slimy "Okay, Marc, we're friends") obviously won't reduce his presence in future episodes.

But as Adam closes his pocast, "that's what the fucking fast forward is for". I'm afraid I'll have to use it more often in the future.

How MMO rules would help evolution

Sometimes, you wish a Massive Multiplayer Online Game was more like the real life.

And sometimes, you wish it was the other way around

Happiness Reality Check

In Happiness boosts productivity, I announced that I would interview my team about things that make them unhappy. Alexander reminded me in his comment not to forget to ask about sources of happiness, too.

In two meetings, we collected the following issues and discussed necessary consequences.
h3. "What makes me happy working here?"

• Challenging tasks: Having opportunities to demonstrate the know-how and creativity necessary to solve problems that don't arise every day is a great motivation booster.
• Colleagues: Working with like-minded people that not only share expertise but also a sense of humour is, well, fun. A team BBQ is highly indicated.
• Open atmosphere: The relaxed way we treat and communicate with each other creates an environment where work can be fun and where you can learn from mistakes instead of having to cover them up.
• Technical infrastructure: Working in the data center of one of Germany's biggest ISP and hosting companies is a huge opportunity to develop new skills. And learning always leads to a great sense of achievement.
• Online team chat: To have a channel for "stuff" helps communicating small chunks of information without cluttering up mailboxes. It's also nice to joke about colleagues without them noticing.
• Off-topic talk: That it's okay to have some watercooler talk helps to get the mind free for the next task and prevents burn-out.

h3. "Things that I really don't like"

• Short-term solutions: Time pressure often leads to ugly workarounds that don't actually solve the problems but just cover them up. We're going to educate our customers by making them aware of more thorough solution alternatives.
• Office noise: Loud conversations from people walking by or from adjacent areas are really bad on concentration. We'll try to get walls installed that block some of the noise.
• Repetitive tasks: routine work simply is boring. We'll use our technical abilities to automate them as much as possible.
• Interruptions: Our problem no. 1 is that we get interrupted so often by telephone calls, or worse, people coming to our desks asking "May I disturb you?" We'll define a "disturbed of the day" that we'll forward all interruptors to. Everyone that doesn't want to use our ticket system will have to talk to that person, while all others will be able to stay "in the flow".

Our two "happiness at work" meetings were wholeheartedly welcomed by my team. We agreed upon having such meetings in regular intervals.

Michael Dell runs Linux

If you've given up hope that Dell will ever ship Linux with its systems, take a look at the list of computers used by Dell's Chairman of the Board&l=en&s=corp. At the top, you'll find that at home, he's using a Dell Precision M90 with the following software on:

• Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
• VMWare Workstation 6 Beta
• OpenOffice.org 2.2
• Automatix2
• Firefox 2.0.0.3
• Evolution Groupware 2.10

I'm impressed, his software is even more up-to-date than mine!

Getting another blog done

I just wrote an introduction to Getting Things Done on the latest addition to my own little blog network: on selbstadministration.de, I'll cover the topics of self management, organization and using your time reasonably (e.g., for maintaining another blog). Since I'm an IT guy, I'll also have a look at tools and tricks for a more effective and efficient life.

Merlin Mann begged me to not make him obsolete, so I decided to write in german language. ;-)

I wouldn't mind if some of you supported me in feeding the blog -- it doesn't have to be a one-man-show. So, if you're interested in writing about productivity and life hacks, give me a nudge!

Focusing on strengths proves most effective

Via All Things Workplace, I just discovered David Zingers blog about employee engagement, where in his latest entry, he points out the different results of focusing on strengths or on weaknesses of employees.

He explains that the Gallup Management Journal had found the following conclusions in their research of employee engagement:

If your manager primarily ignores you your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%.

If your manager focuses on your weaknesses your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%.

If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%.

Obviously, pointing out weaknesses of employees and working together in resolving them isn't the best choice. For someone that always wants to help people develop, this felt a bit weird to myself first. Shouldn't I help my directs overcome their weak sides?

But after some thinking, it occured to me that focusing on their strengths instead is actually a very reasonable approach. Employees aren't clay sculptures who I'm to shape, rounding all edges to a perfect state. I'm a leader, not a sculptor. And I don't like to be looked at and treated with the perspective of a sculptor, either. (Hm, why am I thinking of my spouse at this point?)

People want to do what they can do best and to be recognized for that. Since it is one of my core beliefs that it's my foremost duty as a leader to make sure that my directs can work their magic as effective as possible, it's actually quite natural to focus on their strengths and to arrange their work in a way that they can employ them most effectively. A good thought to start the next week with.

Live microblogging from re:publica

Since many attendees of the german blogger conference re:publica in Berlin are avid Twitter users, I'm receeiving my own little live comment stream to my desk.

I can see what talks get positive or negative notions and how the conference is going as a whole. As a presenter at re:publica, I'd use this Twitter stream as a source of feedback to improve my presentation style, attitude and choice of topic

It's also interesting to watch attendees even make appointments over Twitter.

And I already have one very clear insight: at a blogger conference, there's one thing that's even more important than WiFi and power outlets for all the MacBooks: coffee Good coffee :-)

PS: For the non-Twitterati, there's also a TumbleLog and a Onelinr backchannel live from re:publica.

Code of conduct my sweet little behind

What ever happened to

• education?
• common sense?
• existing laws?

(Hm, seems like Twitter is affecting my blogging style. But others have already written prosaic treatises why a code of conduct is utter bullshit anyway.)

Mein soziales Netzwerk

• Twitter
• "XING"
• 30boxes

What do you mean, "without DRM"?

Is it just me or has the ground temperature just dropped by 30 degrees?

Lessons learned

There are no technical solutions for mental problems.

Vitalist upgrades its features

After using Vitalist for some weeks now, I think I really found my task planning solution. It's the complete concept of David Allen's Getting Things Done book (by the way, there's finally also a german translation) implemented as an easy to use Web 2.0 application.

Over the weekend, the folks at Vitalist Solutions have released new features they had announced on their blog over the recent weeks:

• Contexts as Tags: the contexts a task can be handled in are displayed more prominently.
• Sub-Projects: you can now build a project tree by splitting a big project into several small ones.
• Quick Add/Edit: entering new tasks is now even easier.
• Priorities: you can give every task one of four priorities, symbolized by a coloured star.

Michael Ramm has a detailed review of Vitalist over at the Black Belt Productivity blog. Like Michael, I see no need to get the paid version with features like encryption, attachments and collaboration. The free version has everything I need to get the calming feeling that everything gets taken care of in time.

So, if you're looking for a GTD solution that you can access from everywhere you have net connectivity, give Vitalist a test drive. (Robert, it's time to offer an affiliate program!)

Happiness boosts productivity

Last week, I added another card to the board that displays my team's tasks for the coming weeks, saying "Having Fun". It stands out because it's green, in contrast to the white task cards.

And tomorrow, I'm going to ask them what things there are that rain on their parade. We will talk about sources of unhappiness at their job and how we can get rid of them.

Yes, I've been on a kind of happiness trip over the last weeks. But it's not because I've joined some joyful cult but because I get paid to maximize my team's productivity. And there is a direct relation between happiness and productivity, as Alexander Kjerulf points out in his blog entry Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster

The 10 reasons he explicates on his blog are:

Happy people work better with others

Happy people are more creative

Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them

Happy people have more energy

Happy people are more optimistic

Happy people are way more motivated

Happy people get sick less often

Happy people learn faster

Happy people worry less about making mistakes - and consequently make fewer mistakes

Happy people make better decisions

That's a buttload of advantages happy people have over their unhappy colleagues, isn't it? Therefore, I find it one of my foremost duties to take care of my team's happiness. Let's see how well they do on the "I feel good" scale.

It's the employees that keep innovation alive

There's a theory named The Peter Principle that says that, provided that you get promoted because you deliver above-average performance, everyone will finally end up occupying a position they are not fully qualified for any more. Therefore, the real work is done by those who still haven't passed their performance peak.

Nitin Borwankar from the blog The Walrus and the Carpenter" now applied this principle to a company's innovation. "The Peter Principle of Innovation goes as follows:

Every company innovates until it finds a cash cow. At that point only innovation that supports the cash cow is promoted. Further, any innovation that threatens or does not support the cash cow languishes or is actively killed. Eventually, most of the true innovation ceases as the innovators leave and start new companies and the cycle repeats.

Most of the time, a company puts a lot of work into competing for a place in the market and into developing a success product. You can't blame management if it then focuses on said product and tries to protect it from detrimental influences, be it from inside the company or external. But every product has its lifespan and at some point the time to let go will come. The market moves on and companies have to keep up. If management misses that time to define and aim at new goals, it will eventually lose its competitive advantage as well as its innovative minds. The Peter Principle of Innovation will set in with full force.

But is it inevitable that this kind of focusing on the cash cow will bring innovation to a halt? I don't think so. Just like it's not a law of nature that we have to get grumpy and closed-minded as we get older, a company doesn't have to lose its innovative drive. It just has to keep the necessary flexibility to adapt successfully to changes.

The key to that kind of flexibility is the workforce, as Kathy Sierra points out in her article Knocking the exuberance out of employees If management prefers lifeless robots, there's not much innovation to expect. If, on the other hand, a company gives its employees enough room to be creative, they will in turn generate the energy to drive innovation. Take Google, for example: People there get the opportunity to spend 20% of their paid time for playing with new ideas. And look how the company has long ago left the confines of the search engine market to reinvent the application service business.

If a company sees far enough to embrace new opportunities, it's because management is standing on the shoulders of giants. Leaders that are aware of this won't have to fear the Peter Principle of Innovation.

I'm IM

(Since I don't want to translate the complete text of the test result, I kept the rest of the entry also in German.)

Ich bin ein "Individualistischer Macher", sagt der Egotest:

Der individualistische Macher ist ein selbstbewusster und sehr unabhängiger Mensch. Er ist eine ruhige und sachliche Person, sehr rational, ein ausgesprochener Verstandesmensch. Seinen Individualismus pflegt er intensiv und er genießt es, seine analytischen Fähigkeiten an neuen Aufgaben zu messen. Dabei ist er jedoch ein sehr spontaner und impulsiver Mensch, der gerne seinen plötzlichen Eingebungen folgt. Der individualistische Macher ist ein guter und genauer Beobachter, der aufmerksam alles registriert, was um ihn herum vorgeht. Für Zwischenmenschliches hat er allerdings weniger feine Antennen und wundert sich, wenn er bei anderen durch seine direkte und unverblümte Art gelegentlich aneckt. Verpflichtungen schätzt er nicht besonders; lässt man ihm aber seine Freiheit, ist er ein unkomplizierter, umgänglicher und fröhlicher Zeitgenosse.
Herausforderungen mag der individualistische Macher ganz besonders Action und ein wenig Nervenkitzel gehören bei ihm einfach dazu. Er liebt es, das Schicksal herauszufordern, und viele Menschen dieses Typus pflegen riskante Hobbys wie Fallschirmspringen oder Bungeejumping. Das gilt auch für den Arbeitsalltag. In Krisen läuft der individualistische Macher zu Höchstform auf; er kann blitzschnell Zusammenhänge erfassen, Entscheidungen treffen und das Notwendige in die Wege leiten. Hierarchien und Autoritäten beeindrucken ihn wenig; wenn ein Vorgesetzter nicht kompetent ist, wird er ihm auch keinen Respekt entgegenbringen. Der individualistische Macher übernimmt gerne Verantwortung. Er hat einen ausgeprägten Realitätssinn und findet immer die angemessenste und zweckmäßigste Lösung für ein anstehendes Problem. Konflikte trägt er offen und direkt aus; gelegentlich fehlt ihm dabei ein wenig Fingerspitzengefühl, aber immerhin kann er Kritik auch sehr gut selbst einstecken.
Als Freund ist der individualistische Macher treu und anhänglich; viele seiner (eher wenigen) Freundschaften halten das ganze Leben. Seine optimistische Lebenseinstellung und seine Fähigkeit, zuhören zu können, machen ihn zu einem beliebten Gesprächspartner. Er zieht es jedoch vor, über gemeinsame Interessen und Hobbys zu diskutieren, statt über theoretische oder philosophische Fragen - das ist ihm zu wenig handfest. In der Liebe braucht er viel Freiheit und Zeit für sich, ist aber umgekehrt auch seinem Partner gegenüber sehr tolerant. Dass ein individualistischer Macher sich Hals über Kopf verliebt, passiert eher selten; dazu ist er zu rational. Lieber wählt er seinen Partner aufgrund gemeinsamer Interessen und Vorlieben, die er gerne mit ihm teilt. Überschwängliche Gefühlsausbrüche schätzt der individualistische Macher nicht sonderlich, er zieht es vor, seine Liebe durch Taten unter Beweis zu stellen und erwartet dies auch von seinem Partner. Wer einen individualistischen Macher an sich binden will, braucht viel Geduld, denn es dauert, bis er bereit ist, sich wirklich auf einen anderen Menschen einzulassen.

Auf der verlinkten Website gibt's dann noch eine Seite zum Job (hallo Kollegen, hallo Chef!) und eine weniger interessante zum Liebesleben.

Ob's stimmt, müsst ihr mir sagen. :-) Ich bin gespannt!

New plans for Highrise

The guys at 37signals not only have an eye for details, but also an ear for their customers. Only 36 hours after launching their web-based CRM tool Highrise, they announced changing their usage plans in response to customer feedback.

For example, there's now a "Solo" plan for lone warriors that need lots of the features of the "Plus" plan, but no additional user accounts. And every plan had its storage space increased.

It's so easy to conquer your market. Just switch from "Know your enemy" to "Listen to your customer".

Rock bottom

"I ask you, where else can you catch a behind-the-scenes glance of some very awesome people?"

Awesome" might be a bit of a stretch in the case of "Rockstartup.com This website (from where I got the quote above) claims to be a reality TV show about the infamous web startup PayPerPost.com. I can only guess that the purpose of Rockstartup is to display PPP as a hip, relentlessly honest and real hands-on startup.

But watching these two episodes only conveyed to me that PPP has to be a bunch of clueless dolts:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwrkUKmVZe0])

The IT guys are in real stress. But that doesn't surprise me, seeing how they determine their project deadlines. This time, the change has to be finished for the board meeting. If they hold their board meetings periodically, this probably isn't a very realistic way of setting milestones.

I sympathize with how they crap their pants deploying live. It seems that there wasn't time for testing at all. In their place, I would get the heebeejeebees, too. But in their place, I would also refuse responsibility completely. I may handle my personal web server that way. But if you have a serious business, deploying untested versions is pure negligence. And they get what they deserve -- the site goes down.

It may be the way the video clip is cut, but it seems like the team lead is reporting immediately to his boss (which is the CEO of PPP) that "a network circuit blew." I'll have to watch it again to look if there's a BOFH excuse calendar somewhere...

And it gets worse:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELea2bbL_2g])

All right, PPP has guys running around claiming the title "Code Ninja" who test a secret new feature on their public blog because that's the only one they have. And they don't seem to mind very much. Let it put me another way: they don't seem to have much of a mind.

Another brilliant idea demonstrated is executing database queries on the production database. Whoops, forgot the WHERE clause. Database FUBAR. Well, there's always the backup. Oh, there isn't? Hooray, site down again.

This time, by the way, it's a demonstration for investors that's putting everyone under severe pressure.

I wonder if these people don't know better or if they just are denied the necessary resources, mainly time and budget, to do their jobs right. Working in the IT department of one of Germany's biggest web companies, I know how doing the job right looks like:

• When determining project deadlines, you make sure everyone has the same understanding of issues and consequences. That shouldn't be difficult when the CEO resides just a few tables away.
• You employ only people that know what secrecy means and are able to read the corresponding passages in their contract.
• You don't deploy software into the production system without having it tested on a staging system. For that purpose, we've built a huge VMware farm that resembles the production environment as closely as possible.
• You have people who are responsible for operating the production system and who are the only ones having the necessary access rights. Those are different people than the developers.
• You don't do manual queries on production databases that haven't been approved by the chief DBA. If you do, you don't do them at times when they can severely disrupt the service.
• You have standby databases in the case the main one is hosed. Since unintended content changes will get replicated, you also have a backup. One that's as fresh as possible and that has been proven to be recoverable.

And as a manager, I don't think humiliating your staff by making them wear a ridiculous hat if they make mistakes betters the situation. To err is human. To make people afraid of errors means adding just another source of mistakes. Your job as a leader isn't that simple. You have to determine the causes of the mistakes your people make.

• If it's lack of knowledge, train them.
• If it's pressure, improve their working conditions.
• If it's lack of resources, get them what they need.
• And if it's negligence, hold a private feedback talk to make them understand that diligence is crucial for your operation. If they keep on being stupid, don't fool around with hats. Fire them.

I really wonder if "Rockstartup" means that this company is going to sink like a rock. At least, that's the impression I got from those videos. I really put a lot of time into deciding what I write in my blog about my work and what I don't. And hey, of course there would be many juicy bits to report every week. But if I published such proof of incompetence as these clips, I'm afraid I would not only get fired but would disappear under dubious circumstances...

(via Nik)

A series of tubes

It's time to be afraid when your minister for economy and technology utters the following, don't you think?

Thank god I have people that operate the Internet for me.

This indeed was said by Michael Glos, german minister for economy and technology, at a visit to CeBit,6298,16863,00.html, the world's biggest IT fair.

Well, there goes the neighborhood. I guess I'll be going soon, too.

(via Indiskretion Ehrensache)

Watch the world tweeting

David Troy is a one-man Twitter mashup factory.

First, he built TwitterMap, a mashup with Google Maps. People that answer Twitter's question What are you doing?" can now also answer the question "Where are you doing it?". You just have to insert a "L:" followed by a place description that Google Maps understands into your tweet. With TwitterMap, you can now easily find twitterati in your neighborhood. For me, that makes "Plazes obsolete, because with Twitter, I'm able to not only see who's near me but also to get in contact with them immediately.

A few minutes ago now, Dave published his newest work: TwitterVision It's a mashup with Google Maps, too. But its purpose is to visualize in real-time what's tweeting. On TwitterVision, every time someone uses Twitter, a bubble pops up at his location displaying his message, together with his icon and Twitter name. And it's simply amazing to watch Twitter in realtime.

Now all I need is a 60" screen to build my own Twitter command center!

TwitterVision: Watch the world communicate. Watch your productivity go down the drain. ;-)

Groovy, baby!

I have to make a confession: I like to watch and listen when guys play with their really big organs.

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=illlK3qd_5k])

Now that you know my obsession: is there an organ jazz band you would recommend? What CD should I buy next?

Why I use Vitalist to keep track of my tasks

Andy asked about an update#c2060 with a comparison of Nozbe and Vitalist, and here it is.

I discovered Nozbe first, and I realized again what I was missing using Backpack for Getting Things Done Backpack just isn't made for building a task database that connects actions with contexts and projects. An application built for that special purpose is naturally more comfortable and easy to use. And Nozbe is such an application.

But Nozbe also has its shortcomings. The Quick review on the GTD blog lists them, and for Julie Sohn's criticism, see my initial article I especially hate that every action has to be connected to a project. I'm just not that project-driven. While in the meantime, Nozbe got a new feature for adding custom contexts, it's still second place when I compare it with Vitalist.

Vitalist is a Web 2.0 application for the Getting Things Done concept, too. I like the interface because it's mostly text and uses pastel colours. Take a look at this screenshot of the input form for an action, and you will see that there is everything you need to get things done the Allen way.

The whole interface feels much more straightforward than Nozbe's. If I realize that I haven't yet created the corresponding project while entering a new action, I can just switch the project choice list to a project input field and add the new project name right with the action. But I'm not forced to choose a project if the action is a single one.

Vitalist covers all aspects of the GTD concept. There are not only next actions, contexts and projects, but also a sometimes/maybe list, a reference section and a searchable archive. Another important feature is that actions can have a due date and Vitalist reminds me in advance by email.

What impresses me further is the quick development of Vitalist. Since I started using it, three cool new features were added: you can now view contexts as tags, projects can have sub projects and a new add/edit form makes entering actions even easier now.

Vitalist is feature-rich without bloat, it's fast and easy, it's flexible and matures quickly. That's why I'll manage my tasks from now on with Vitalist.

Using Twitter for good

Many people don't get or like Twitter Gee, even I didn't like it until recently! It seems so much like a source of steady interruptions. But there's not only a downside. Chris Brogan wrote an article on LifeHacker titled 5 ways to use Twitter for good where he lists reasonable uses for this new "web text messaging":

Quick Human Answers

Conference / News Briefings

Friendsourcing

Micro-Attention-Sharing

Direct People to Good Causes

And as a bonus, as he points out, you get to inform people about the central question that Twitter poses: "Where are you now?"

By the way, I just installed TwitterAdium&xtra_id=3484 so that my IM away message always displays my Twitter status. It's so great when you can mash up software and services!