Most of us are in goal-setting mode right about now. We’re making lists of all the great things we will accomplish in 2010. Alas, all too often the items on the list look a heckuva lot like the ones on last year’s list. We’re all guilty of it. I know I am. It’s time to make sure that doesn’t happen again a year from now. It’s time to scan and sift the list, and turn those high-potential, high-priority goals into cool projects.
What I like about a project mindset is that it makes goals more real, because a project has a distinct start and stop. It requires me to think about the possible result, the consequences, and the resources I’m going to need. It forces me to pick, plan and prepare.
That first step, the “pick,” is critical. And for about a decade, ever since I read Tom Peters’s The WOW Project in Fast Company magazine, I’ve kept five simple criteria in mind when choosing a cool project.
- Passion. Personal passion for your project is a good indicator of just how engaged in the project you’ll be. Does it call on your key talents and strengths? Does it require you to stretch them, so that you’ll learn and grow? If it’s a team project, are the talents and values of your project team aligned to the project? Does your project team believe in the purpose of the work?
- Impact. The last thing you want any project to be, results-wise, is a shoulder shrug, for you or for others. You want impact. By impact I mean positive change. Will this project have great impact on your intended audience? Your audience can include all those on the receiving end of whatever it is you’re going to deliver, and who have an interest in the outcome of your project.
- Rave. Will your project create raving fans? Raving fans are those whose expectations, needs, or requirements you have exceeded. In other words, you’ve “wowed” them. Your project, in effect, creates followers and zealots! Those zealots will tell others. And so on and so on. In today’s connected, Twitter world, it’s much, much easier for a raving fan to broadcast your project’s virtues, so “rave” is an important consideration.
- Breakthrough. Does your project represent a breakthrough or revolutionary improvement or innovation? Does it require your best creative thinking and problem-solving ability? This entails delivering something distinctly better. Let me say that again: better. Better as in greater value. Too often we think about “new” or “different.” New and different isn’t always better, but I think better is almost always new and different.
- Visibility. High profile, high stakes projects attract resources (people and money). If your project never sees the light of day, or if you or your project team can’t propel it into the limelight at least a little bit, your project may never get the recognition and resources needed to have great impact. If the first four criteria have been met, the chances are pretty good that any project pitch will garner the visibility and resources it needs.
As you look at the list, you may want to add another dimension or two, or decide that one or more isn’t applicable to you, your project, or your team. And certainly the weighting of each will vary from person to person and project to project.
I’m not suggesting that these five criteria will guarantee anything more than a set of guideposts for taking that first critical “pick” step. Planning, prep, and project management are all different discussions. (Take a look at my September 28, 2009 OPEN column, The 7 Laws of Projects, and How to Break Them.)
But if want that well-constructed 2010 goal list to do something more than gather dust for a year, you need to pick some cool projects now!
Matthew E. May is the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. He blogs here. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Pick Your Cool Projects Now! : The World :: American Express OPEN Forum
HTC Hero review - the iPhone killer?
The HTC Hero is a path-breaking smartphone that introduces the HTC Sense technology to the Google Android operating system. HTC Sense promises to take the Android's user-experience to the next level. With features such as multi-touch and wide screen, it is little wonder that the HTC Hero is being talked in the same breath as the Apple iPhone.
Ergonomics of the HTC Hero
The first thing that strikes you about the HTC Hero is its unconventional design. The base of the HTC Hero has a 15 degree tilt; forming a 'chin' to the phone's profile. Bevelled edges offer a good grip and the tilt helps in grasping the phone easily. The 3.2-inch touchscreen comes with an anti-fingerprint finish, which prevents smudging. Although we noticed while testing, that leaving fingerprints is inevitable and you will find yourself constantly cleaning the screen. The Hero has only five buttons along with a trackball. The trackball though, is a redundant addition, if you ask us; rarely used except for when using the camera. The volume control knob is located on the left hand side of the phone.
Features of the HTC Hero
The HTC Hero runs on a Qualcomm 528MHz processor with inbuilt support for Adobe Flash. The phone runs the Android OS v1.5. However, HTC has announced plans to upgrade the OS to v2.1 by March 2010.
The capacitive touch sensor is very smooth. The phone's display is crisp, and flipping through the various screens does not leave any lag. More on the screens in a bit. The screen's response is quick but at the same time it is advisable to not get carried away running multiple applications on the home screen as that slows down the performance of the phone.
The HTC Hero offers as many as seven home screens, each of which can be customized according to the your taste and choice. Each of the seven home screens can be set to a pre-defined one or you could customise them. So what's a scene? A scene basically is a collection of applications that can be placed on each of the seven home screens of the phone. The HTC Hero comes with scenes for: Social, Work, Play, and Travel, among others. Let's take an example of a businessman to understand scenes better. During the weekdays when he or she has to take care of a lot of office work, then the Work Scene would be helpful as it puts work related widgets such as email, stocks, and connectivity right there on the home screens. During the weekend when it's time to switch off and relax, the Play Scene would be more appropriate. Activating which would put up widgets such as games, Facebook, Twitter, etc. on the home screens. Likewise you can also make your own customised scenes and set them to particular days of the week, or a particular time of the day. The Scenes mode is a part of the Sense UI which enables the user to have multiple phone screens on the same device, thus adding an extra bit of personalisation.
The menu button on the phone's face is programmed according to the application chosen. The search option offers contextualized search, based on the screen on which the user is (apart from the normal Google search), thus saving on a lot of time.
An interesting feature while dialing phone numbers is the option to search for your contact with the number pad. The idea to integrate various facets of the contact: such as phone details, messaging, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter onto one screen, prevents the user from toggling between different applications to access details of a particular contact. This is a very cool feature.
The HTC Hero recognizes files directly from the MicroSD card and you don't need to paste the file inside dedicated folders. Before connecting the phone to the computer, you do need to download HTC Sync to enable communication between the phone and the system.
Viewing Office documents such as Word files, Excel sheets, among others, is a cakewalk. For Word documents, you can maximize the document size, and the screen readjusts the document such that the user does not have to use the horizontal scroll bar. Viewing PDF files on the Android OS is much faster as compared to the Windows OS. It allows the user to view the PDF in continuous as well as reflow size - it disables the need to use the horizontal scroll bar at any magnification.
The camera of the HTC Hero
The phone comes with a 5MP autofocus camera along with an inbuilt geotagging and 'Footprints' applications. While clicking a snap, the focus can be adjusted to any point in the frame by just touching that particular spot on the phone's screen. The shutter release button is the track ball which can get very annoying due to the ultra-sensitive nature of said ball - one tends to get a lot of blurred photos, no thanks to it. A separate standalone shutter button would have been a much simpler option. Absence of a camera flash makes shooting in low-light very difficult. Video recording can be done at a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 which is not that great. Video shooting mode does not provide many options to the user. The HTC Hero cannot play HD-quality videos either.
Footprints is an interesting app on the HTC Hero. It essentially adds location information to a photo snapped using the HTC Hero. Footprints allows you to take a picture of a particular place with the Hero's camera and geo-tag it, so that it can be located on Google Maps. You can also add other details such as ratings, phone number, a website, and a voice memo. The Sense UI also allows one to categorise the place for options such as shopping, dining, etc. This is a great application for frequent travellers as it allows them to make up a list of their favourite places. It would have been better if there was an option to send this information across; maybe as an MMS - to family and friends.
Audio quality
The HTC Hero comes with a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. But music output of the phone is not up to the mark. Moreover, there are no options for manually adjusting the equalizer. FM radio is also absent on the phone. The speaker quality of the HTC Hero adequate; nothing to get excited about. In short, this is not a phone for the audiophile.
Internet Experience
The phone performs wonderfully when connected to the internet. The HTC Hero reflows text on websites, which, alongwith the magnification is a very useful feature. Although the phone supports Adobe Flash, playing videos on YouTube left a lot to be desired. For instance, while waiting for the video to buffer, the phone would go into its lock mode; upon unlocking, we found that they video could not play. Unfortunately, you can't let YouTube stream in the background, which would have been a wonderful feature.
Some of the widgets makes the online experience truly amazing, like Google Maps, for instance. While using Street View on Google Maps, the phone acts as our eyes on the street. We tried looking at the Eiffel Tower through the phone using Google Street View. One neat touch here - if you move the phone from the ground to the ceiling, you can actually see the Eiffel Tower from its base to its peak. It's an ideal app for couch surfers and travellers.
Price and conclusion
All in all, this a very good phone for working professionals who are active on the social media platforms. If you are looking at a phone that offers a good camera or one that delivers a good music experience, then the HTC Hero is not the one for you. The Hero's smooth interface and convergence of applications works to its advantage. However at Rs. 31,990 (Rs. 34,600 in Maharashtra and MP) the HTC Hero is a tad overpriced. Anywhere in the Rs 26,000 to Rs 28,000 bracket and the HTC Hero would have been a steal.
Live3D marries webcam data with Google Earth to bring life to locations
Ye olde style, conventional maps shown on Google Earth will soon be a relic if Austin Abrams, a PHD candidate at Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, and his team had their way. They are working on a project to make Google Earth look “ALIVE”.
In this world of data changing at light speed, even technology can’t keep pace and what was yesterday is often too old to be useful. The satellite and aerial imagery shown while you browse Google Earth may be the world that was, and not what it is, at this very minute or hour.
Enter: Austin Abrams’ project, Live3D. The project leverages a massive database of constantly-updated webcams which stream in views from all over the world; it then uses that data to keep the virtual world of Google Earth alive and up to date.
Continuously drawing from AMOS images, Abrams’s web-based application Live3D (http://amos.cse.wustl.edu/live3d/) maps and models the 2-dimensional images from a web cam into a 3D model of the location. So if it’s snowing in Shimla, you might not see a clear sky while you use Google Earth to check the place out.
Austin Abrams developed a technique that replaces the normal ‘static’ facade of the virtual buildings, monuments, etc. which constitute Google Earth images with images from the Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes (AMOS) (http://amos.cse.wustl.edu/). AMOS was designed by the Media and Machines lab of Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, to ease and facilitate high quality research in the area of computer based vision. AMOS is an archive consisting of images that are captured regularly from web cameras that are publically accessible. The cameras used for building this dataset are carefully selected by a group of graduate students and 24-bit JPEG images from each camera are captured regularly using a customized web crawler that is designed to discard duplicate images and to record the capture-time.
Live3D is presented as a web interface. Head over to the Live3D website to begin. To setup Live3D you first need to outline a region of the webcam image by adjusting the corners of a polygon using the web interface. An adjacent window shows the Google Earth feed of the same location; outlined with its own polygon. The Live3D program then fetches the 2D image from the webcam and transforms it to fit on the 3D geometry of the Google Earth feed. After you map a few 2D regions from your webcam feed onto the 3D surface, Live3D can work backwards to deduce the location of the webcam (to within a few meters), making further regional assignments easier and quicker. Abrams and his team at Washington University have a few working examples of university campuses where you can actually see students walk across the surface of Google Earth feeds.
According to the researchers, Live3D would work particularly well for urban areas where the content would change frequently -- new flyovers, changing billboards, and so on. Though the technique needs refinement, the main constraint to overcome would be the quality of the webcam images as almost all webcams offer a low quality output.Yet, the concept is sound and we wonder how long it will be before we see this option in Google Earth itself allowing you to see both static and real-time 3D models of the location you are looking at.
Firefox for mobile released
Yes! The Fox has found another prey in the N900. The long awaited mobile version of Firefox, which had been code-named Fennec has been released.
Unfortunately, for now the release is available only for the Maemo OS and will run on the N900, N820 and N800 Nokia devices. While the browser will finally be available for the Windows mobile platform as well (an alpha is available now) there are no plans for porting it to some of the other smartphone operating systems such as Symbian.
Undoubtedly no version for Firefox for iPhone is planned, however a Blackberry port for Firefox is also difficult due to its Java-based OS. Android users however might see a Firefox version as such versions are undergoing testing and development.
As Firefox enters the mobile market, it does not leave behind its powerful add-on centric roots. The Firefox mobile browser promises extensibility and in fact launches with the new Weave add-on which is Mozilla's official synchronization system for Firefox mobile and desktop.
It is amazing how much of Firefox you get with Firefox mobile, the browser while meant for mobiles packs in almost all of Firefox's salient features. Even so the browser manages to provide an interface which is relevant for the current touchscreen mobiles.
The Mobile interface for Firefox hides everything till you actually need to use it, saving all your space for the interface of the website that you are browsing. Most of the interface is hidden just outside the visible area and is accessible with a simple slide.
By sliding the interface towards the right you get access to all the open tabs as thumbnails of the open windows. Sliding the page to the left will reveal on the right side, the back and forward history controls and a button a bookmark the page.
An settings button is also visible on the panel at the right, which takes you to the interface for managing you browser settings and configuration. Here you can mange you installed add-ons and search for add-ons in the catalog. You can also manage your downloads here.
For entering URLs, an address-bar is appended to the top of the page which is available when you scroll to the top of the page. Since the interface supports kinetic scrolling, you could easily reach these interface elements by the flick of a finger.
Important features of Firefox such as the password manager and popup-blocker are available in the mobile version too, and missing ones can be added back with the help of add-ons. The add-ons gallery already has quite few add-ons which work with the mobile version, and more will be available soon.
While plug-ins support is possible in Firefox Mobile, it has been disabled in the final version due to performance concerns. In Mozilla's tests, the Flash plugin performed fine for websites such as YouTube, however it was detrimental to a good browsing experience when using websites with multiple plug-ins. An add-on is in the works which will allow enabling plug-ins on a per website basis.
Firefox's mobile standards support is at parity with Firefox 3.6, so yes even complicated HTML5 applications such as Google Wave will run on it. Support for features such as location aware browsing and off-line support means that websites such as Google search and Twitter can use you location data, and web application which support it can continue running even when you don't have network or internet coverage.
So all you lucky N900 owners can now get the Firefox browsing experience on your phone. Just visit
ZInstall XP7 - For a painless upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 [Review]
Due to the disaster that was Windows Vista, many Windows users would have been left stranded with XP as the time came for an upgrade to Microsoft's latest Windows 7. This was since Microsoft did not leave users with a clear upgrade path between Windows XP and Windows 7. This is despite the fact that Microsoft claims Windows 7 is more compatible with Windows XP applications than Vista.
Here comes ZInstall XP7 which takes away the pain from upgrading your Windows XP system to Windows 7 and with no loss of data or installed applications! Using virtualization technology, it ensures that your older copy of Window XP continues to run without problems as you switch to Windows 7. It is different from installing Windows 7 in parallel to Windows XP on your computer in that it allows you to run both operating systems at the same time, without reboot; and it is different from running XP in a virtual machine in that it is more integrated with your system and retains your settings.
With an upgrade coming nearly eight years after the release of Microsoft's last favoured OS, Windows XP - for many users it is not a matter of choice but one of necessity to upgrade to Windows 7. Eight years is too long in this industry to be using any technology, especially one as integral as an operating system. That is quite like using Windows 3.1 in 2001 after the release of Windows XP!
Windows 7 comes with Windows XP mode, which is near-guaranteed to run any Windows XP application that is out there by running it on a virtual machine. However, the reason that an upgrade is preferable to this approach is that an upgrade retains the older applications' configuration and settings, some of which cannot be transferred even using the Microsoft Easy Transfer wizards.
Since ZInstall XP7 is also based on virtualization like Windows XP Mode, it offers the same benefits. It however lacks the closer integration with Windows 7 which you get with XP mode, wherein files can open in virtualized Windows XP applications and application installed in the virtual mode will have entries in the Start Menu, etc. Oddly enough, while the application is called ZInstall XP7, Windows Vista is one of the supported operating systems, and it is possible for you to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista, or from Windows Vista to Windows 7.
Even so, ZInstall XP7 offers some significant features which make it better than using the bundled and free Windows XP mode, and might be worth the $89 price. To begin, Windows XP Mode is only available as a free download for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate, others need to own a copy of Windows XP, and install that in their VM -- of course, if you’re thinking of upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, it is assumed you have a Windows XP license in the first place!
Another important thing about ZInstall XP7 is that it even supports running without hardware virtualization which is essential if you wish to use Windows XP Mode with Windows 7.
Most importantly, ZInstall XP7 does not give you a fresh new install of Windows XP in a virtual environment on which to install your old applications, instead it converts your entire old system into a virtualized instance with your applications, settings and files intact! So as soon as you are done migrating your old computer with ZInstall XP7 all its applications are ready for you to use.
While the entire procedure of converting your physical machine into a virtual one takes quite some time (and space), it is quite effortless, and takes only a few short steps.
The ZInstall XP7 application is a single large (nearly 250MB) EXE file which launches the migration guide and install the virtual machine. You merely run the executable to begin the process, and after a short loading period, you are asked to accept the licence terms and activate your product. This requires an internet connection.
Once you are done activating, you are asked to specify your migration scenario, whether you have only the computer you are using, or you are migrating from an older comp on a network. In our case, we performed a migration on the same computer. After this point, you can select if you want to perform an in-place migration or migration from another hard-drive.
In the case on an in-place migration, you need to have installed Windows 7 on the same hard disk partition as the one with Windows XP installed. This renames your old Windows installation system to windows.old. ZInstall XP7 will then gather all this data to construct your new XP virtual machine.
Migrating from another hard drive is done when you have installed Windows 7 on a different hard drive than the one with Windows XP. If you have purchased a new computer and installed Windows 7, you can connect your old hard drive and use this method. We performed an in-place migration.
This was all the information ZInstall XP7 needed, and it then set about finding our old Windows XP installation, and its final resting place. After it is done, you see your migration scenario, with the source Windows XP hard drive and the destination drive to contain the virtual machine. A destination drive with enough space needs to exist of course, and since it retains your entire old machine it will need considerable space.
At this point, your work is done! The following procedure takes quite a lot of time, however it requires no intervention, and you can leave the computer to its task.
In the case of a migration over the network, you need to have both computers switched on and on the same network. You then run the application on both computers and choose "I am moving between two PCs." After this point you are asked to select which computer is your old one, and which is the new one.
Once the migration is done, you will see an icon on your desktop and one in the system tray which will allow you to start your virtual Windows XP instance. Switching to your old computer is as simple as double-clicking on the icon in the system tray which will start the virtual machine and boot into your old Windows XP. After you have used it once, the virtual machine can continue running in the background and you can easily switch to it in less than a second by double clicking on the system tray icon. Once your virtual XP installation is fully booted and the VM tools are activated, switching between your old and new computers really is as simple as changing TV channels, as the software makers claim.
The virtual Windows XP machine will also have the ZInstall XP7 tools installed which will allow you to instantly switch back to your Windows XP install by double-clicking on a similar icon in your virtualized install. In your old computer, drives from your new computer are accessible via a shared drive.
While it might seem too much to pay for Microsoft's mistakes especially after you have paid for the OS itself, ZInstall is more than just a migration guide, it is a product which continues to run on your computer. Being quite a powerful product it is quite sad that it is limited to just migration between Windows versions, such a solution would have been quite awesome if it could allow you to arbitrarily run multiple OSs with the ease of switching between them at any time.
In the end, for those who want to retain their applications, data and settings without losing productivity as they ease into the new OS, ZInstall is a brilliant solution, however if your needs lie in just running you old Windows XP applications with full compatibility even when you have moved to Windows 7, you might be better off with the greater integration provided by Windows XP Mode.
Furthermore installing a fresh OS is a much better and less buggy solution than upgrading your XP to Vista to 7, and ZInstall XP7 lets you do that without losing your old desktop experience
How To Browse The Internet with Microsoft Word
Nice title isn’t it? This is actually another way to browse the Internet while fooling your boss and make him think that you are actually typing some work related documents with Microsoft Word. The tool that you will use to increase your procrastination levels today is WorkFriendly.
Actually, you don’t need to have or run the real Microsoft Word program. All you need is to open the WorkFriendly website using your favorite web browser. The site looks very simple but never underestimates the joy that it brings. Enter the website address that you are trying to disguise as a Microsoft Word document, for example: this website and press the “Is this good for the company!” button. (lol!)
A Microsoft Office look-alike window will pop up showing the must-subscribe-to-this-website. From afar, your boss will never know that you are actually browsing the Internet! The only down side is that the website will be missing some of its original images.
If your boss comes a little bit closer, move your mouse to the “Boss Key” on top left. A document with a “how to combat procrastination” content will quickly cover what you are currently browsing. 
You can get back to the website that you are visiting by moving your mouse back to the “Read” button on top left.
That was fun! And do make sure that your boss is not a Microsoft Word power user or else he can tell the difference. If you are looking for a better tool to hide what you are currently doing from your boss, try the “Magic Boss Key“.
Happy fooling your boss! (This post does not come with a job safety guarantee.)