Late last week I finally completed the sale of my house, and moved into a condo in the north end of the city. In short, the new condo really suits me and I’m pretty happy about everything.

Coincidentally, I also completed and launched a web presence for my parents’ side-business, Boxes Boxes. If you’re planning to move and need boxes, check them out. They serve the Greater Toronto and Barrie areas.

Our company, formerly known as Sofea, just relaunched as Blueprint. (Our full legal name is “Blueprint Software Systems”, but we’re hoping that people will stick with the shorter version.)

I personally believe that this is a brilliant name, and couldn’t be happier. The credit fully lies with our VP of Marketing, Matt Morgan.

Choosing the right name for a company can be a challenge. I think we nailed this one, though, for a multitude of reasons.

Continue reading What’s in a Name? »

Both as a technical sales consultant and as a product manager at a software company over the past several years, I have had the pleasure of assisting with responding to the dreaded document called the Request for Proposal (RFP).

Continue reading Both Sides of the RFP/RFI Process »

Thanks to FeedBurner, I can now offer another way to keep you updated with my blog: by Email.

Just click here, follow the instructions, and you’ll receive an email every time I make a post.

The RSS feed is now also being routed through FeedBurner, so I can keep track of how many people are subscribing, and other statistics that Google Analytics isn’t catching.

Whether you like it or not, Microsoft calls the shots on the direction of user interfaces on the vast majority of desktop applications around the world.

The next major paradigm shift is just around the corner. Over on Lifehacker, you can catch a glimpse of the new Microsoft Office 2007 user interface.

The main difference over Office 2003 is that Microsoft opted to replace the traditional menu + toolbar setup you see in the majority of Windows applications with a tabbed approach, called the “ribbon”. Options are laid out on the ribbon based on the task the user in attempting to perform. The goal of the task-driven approach is to shorten the time it takes to perform an action, such as creating a table. Here’s a demo that shows this, and more on Microsoft’s site.

Even more importantly, however, is that Microsoft is allowing the Office 2007 user interface to be licensed, and is providing a set of guidelines. This means that you can expect to see the ribbon, and other new UI behavior, proliferate to most of your favorite applications over the next few years.

From a product management standpoint, there will be a major impact for product designers as that they will have to rethink how their applications are laid out in order to “conform”. But from what I have seen so far, this will be a positive change, if done right.

Getting Things Done (commonly abbreviated as “GTD”) is a book written by David Allen that prescribes a methodology that one can follow to achieve “stress-free productivity”.

I first read David’s book more than a year ago and, since putting GTD into practice, have found that it indeed works. The concepts worked so well for me, in fact, that I have since hosted presentations on the subject, and plan to write more about implementing GTD later on in my blog.

To start, however, I wanted to provide an overview of what GTD was that I could refer future readers back to.

Continue reading “Getting Things Done” in a Nutshell »

I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later:

A class action lawsuit (Tucker vs. Apple Computer) initially filed July 21 alleges that:

“Apple has engaged in tying and monopolizing behavior, placing unneeded and unjustifiable technological restrictions on its most popular products in an effort to restrict consumer choice and restrain what little remains of its competition in the digital music markets. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has himself compared Apple’s digital music dominance to Microsoft’s personal computer operating system dominance.”

Full story here.

I’m not sure where I sit on this issue. On the one hand, Apple has done a lot for the digital music market by creating a magical combination of hardware and software that provides a great user experience. As a result, I have been the proud owner of a first-gen iPod Shuffle for over a year now.

On the other hand, I’m sure record labels are choosing not to distribute their music on other online stores due to the Apple’s majority share of the market, thereby limiting the means by which consumers can get their music digitally. With digital rights management software showing up on physical music CDs, the average consumer’s choices are certainly becoming more limited.

It should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

With a mild December behind us, and not a spot of snow on the ground in the first week of January, I am more concerned than usual that something’s amiss with the environment.

Continue reading Climate Concerns »

Well, I’m off to spend some time with my family and friends over the next week or two.

I have a couple of writing projects underway and hope to have something in the new year for you. Until then, enjoy your holidays and see you in 2007!

I have just completed an updated Portfolio section, accessible via the About page. It is intended to showcase my creative works, and I am somewhat satisfied with how it turned out.

View my portfolio »