Scott Hanselman has a post up about his four life changing gadgets. Being a diabetic (him, not me), I can fully understand the last one. But the first two, I only kinda agree with (GPS, DVR, iPod)
Here’s my “off the cuff” list, with my “actual” reaction to it, after thinking for a moment or 2:
- Smartphone. Especially with online integration to Exchange (so, that’d be Windows Mobile smartphone). Everything is in my pocket – appointments, contacts, email. However, I dont have a data connection here in the US, this one has become totally, utterly irrelevant. And I like that. My phone has become a $1000 watch. Seriously. I dont even carry it around anymore. Totally liberating.
- A DVR. I agree with Scott on this one, it is a habit-changing device. But when we got rid of the TV – and the DVR, which was on loan from Microsoft – and moved to the Divx Channel, even in NZ, we got more for less. We were watching less TV total (in terms of hours), and watching it when we wanted to. Lost and Heros makes more sense when you watch 4 or 5 in a row. Ads are irrelevant – with or without Divx, I wouldn’t watch them. However, I prefer to NOT have a TV (no watching mindless crap) or a DVR.
- My macbook. Didn’t really change my life, but not using windows, and exploring things like Ruby (yeah, I can do that on windows, I know) etc has made me start to think again. And that is a good thing. In the windows world, I was (am) getting lazy.
- Noise Cancelling headphones. In my case, blackbox M14′s. Half the price of Bose, New Zealand designed (and made?), and they work better. Why didn’t I get these earlier? The only other option for the environments I work in (open plan office or cube farm) is a door. Seriously. Massive productivity increase.
- iPod. No really life changing, but I like having ALL our music with us, all the time. iTunes (and download sites in general) have made me buy music again. I stopped buying music (or “getting” from other sources) for a long while, ‘cos it was 99% _crap_. iTunes and the like have made it worth my money again. An example: there is a suburb/city here called Verona. It always reminds me of the Elemeno P track of the same name. So I looked around (on Amplifier and iTunes (nope), and then on Digirama. 5 mins later it’s down and burnt onto a CD, and reimported into itunes. Nice. There is NO other way for me to get it here in the US – except have them ship a CD from New Zealand. This – iTunes/Amplifier/Digirama/others – opens up the market for New Zealand music way past what it could be before. The only thing left is promotion. I’m planning a guerilla drop of some Fat Freddys to a few of a the cafe’s here, once I make sure they are on iTunes so they can get the tracks for themselves…. ‘cos it IS NZ music month, after all!
I think, however, that the most life changing thing in my recient past has been Quest closing down, and us deciding to sell up and move. Not having “stuff” feels amaizing – much lighter, no clutter, few ties to anything. The stuff we have is either meaningful, or useful. I love it.
So, what about you? ;-)
