What I Learned From NaNoWriMo 2013

"We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."
-- Samuel Smiles

I finished my first National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) having accumulated 21,196 words of the 50,000 needed to win. It can be argued that a challenge bested on the first attempt is no challenge at all, so I am dusting myself off and taking a hard look at what happened with an eye to the next time. I'm the sort of daydreamer who has often fantasized about chucking away the career to write for a living -- short stories, essays, articles, novels -- hardcore writing that owns my most wakeful hours of the day and tops the priority on the daily to-do list. Surely if I could only do that, I could be the kind of Self-Actualized Human Being that Abraham Maslow would place at the top of his eponymous pyramid, from whose pinnacle I would gaze down at the rest of the world like some sort of radiant Sun-God...

But before checking in to that flight of fancy, I knew that there were more reasonable milestones, like finishing something, and paying my ego-dues in rejection letters until I finally published a piece. And the steps towards those milestones, according to every writer who cared to opine on the subject, were to WRITE. EVERY. DAY. Not to make excuses. Not to lie there waiting for inspiration. But to make myself prolific and practiced enough to call myself a writer without qualifying the word, or feeling like a fraud.

NaNoWriMo was the perfect opportunity to test myself. I claimed to want the Writer's Life, but could I live it for 30 days? Could I block off the time to produce 1,667 words every day, alongside my day job and parenting a toddler, no matter how tired, burned-out, distracted, or blocked I felt?

No, as it turns out. I couldn't.
But now I have a much better sense of why.

I Dropped Out Of Weight Watchers, Too

Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is no easy task. In a standard manuscript format document, that equates to writing about six pages every day. For me, the daily 1,667 words took around 3 hours of writing time; more, if I had to piecemeal it throughout the day and settle back into the groove where I left off. Falling behind was disastrous. It incurred a debt not easily paid off.

It reminded me a lot of another exercise in self-discipline I attempted a few years ago: Weight Watchers. Both NaNoWriMo and Weight Watchers are structured to help you establish a goal-oriented lifestyle. Both have a form of daily check-in, progress-charting to encourage you, and legions of cheerleaders to help you to your feet when you stumble. And in both programs I fought against the downward spiral of failure begetting failure because it's so much easier to let gravity win and stay off program than it is to get back on. But while Weight Watchers is open-ended -- you can spend two years to take off those last 20 pounds if you need to -- NaNoWriMo has a narrow time frame in which to win. Sure, the ultimate lesson is that any progress towards your goal is better than none or regression. But when you're playing the NaNoWriMo game to win, unless you have the discretionary time to binge-write, do not fall behind.

NaNoWriMo, like Weight Watchers, is about establishing and sustaining habits that support a goal. Some would call that "intentional living." In concept, it's a great thing, and there's no good reason not to do it. And yet, somehow it's hard. Because... excuses.

Excuses, Excuses

There are those who claim that there are no reasons you can't reach your goals, only excuses. As a motivational slogan it may have merit, but as a description of reality, of course, it's horseshit. The slogan's main merit is to force you to examine your values and make the hard calls on where writing fits into the demands on your time -- on what constitutes a reason and what is an excuse. 

Was winning NaNoWriMo more important to me than caring for my 2-year-old, fulfilling the obligations that allow me to draw a paycheck, or feeding and taking out the dog? It was not, and that meant that I would not be writing between 6:30am and 9:30pm (except during a few stolen moments), weekdays and most weekends (my kid doesn't nap). That left 9 hours a day of discretionary/sleep time to allocate. 

Was winning NaNoWriMo more important than catching up on Boardwalk Empire/Homeland/American Horror Story/TheWalking Dead? Yes, it was. And still, there were nights when I didn't choose what I valued, I chose what felt comfortable. (Lesson learned: stay strong.) 

Was winning NaNoWriMo more important than sleeping? Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. It depended on how many consecutive days I decided it was. (Lesson learned: I'm not as young as I used to be.)

And then, of course, there's that most universal of excuses: the holidays. I used to wonder why NaNoWriMo was in November. Thanksgiving is in November. There's travel (or houseguests), cooking, cleaning, interacting with family in real-time without the benefit of a computer screen and asynchronous communication. Now I think it's genius that NaNoWriMo chose November. Thanksgiving plans are usually made well in advance; the holiday is toward the end of the month, and there is ample time to plan your strategy around the holiday -- because if you're going to live the Writing Life, this kind of stuff can't knock you off your game. In Weight Watchers, they would devote an entire meeting session just before each holiday to help people plan how to manage the caloric temptations, and familial pressures to eat, that we all knew to expect. Was winning NaNoWriMo more important than cooking the family meal, or spending time with my mother who lives alone in another city, but had come for a week to spend time with her son and granddaughter? Hellz no. And I knew that before November even started. Lesson learned: plan for the holiday.

The clearest lesson out of this process of weighing values was that there was a set of things I was willing to give up, and a set of things I was not. That defines one's level of commitment to any new undertaking, and sets some practical boundaries and expectations. I learned a lesson in undergraduate that hadn't been true before, but has been true ever since: there are things that can't be accomplished even by staying up all night. When we were young, we were encouraged to know our limits so we could exceed them. In my 40s, I'm starting to feel the need to know my limits so I don't sprain something.

But I Did Some Stuff Right, Too

In October, I prepared for NaNoWriMo by creating an outline, and it was the smartest thing I did. I had never written a novella-length piece of fiction before, and I didn't know how to approach one. But I had written many a short story, and I figured out pretty early on that I wanted four point-of-view characters in my novel. Not only were they the smallest subset of characters who could properly represent the story's events, but they had some elegant symmetries and contrasts that seemed too clever for me to pass up. I started by having four headings, one for each character, and jotting down a rough chronology of events or scenes I envisioned unfolding under each point of view. I kept this outline electronically so I could review and tweak it on the bus, in the restroom, between meetings -- whenever I could. My goal before November was to have four reasonable character arcs, as though I were writing four short stories.

At various points, two or more characters' scenes would intersect, so I restructured my outline from a character chronology to a global chronology. For the outline, I used my favorite Web-based productivity tool, Workflowy, which let me create a line to describe each scene, and I tag each scene with the characters who appeared in it, as well as a "#todo" that I would later remove after the scene had become paragraphs in my manuscript. I could then use the tags and Workflowy filters to collapse the global chronology to a character-specific one, or even to just the scenes I had left to write. Before I even began writing the novel, I ended up with two things: a sequence of scenes that told a complete story, and some confidence that each character had his or her own internal journey over the course of the tale. I've trained myself to be ruled by checklists, so having an ordered (and re-orderable) set of bullet-pointed scenes made the whole idea of writing a novel much more approachable.

As I was writing, of course, I allowed myself the freedom to veer off the outline, and if I chanced upon something interesting, I retrofitted it back in to the plan. I also used the outline to jot down notes about the emotional core of a scene, and what experiences of my own I could tap into to make the scene ring true. Or I'd make a note about character voice -- channel a little Han Solo when writing this guy, or Hannibal Lecter when writing that woman.

I jumped around in the chronology. I wrote the first few scenes of each character, then the last climactic scenes. Then I started working backwards and forwards toward the middle. I stuck with one character until I got bored or blocked, and then I moved to a different one. I dispensed with scene transitions if I was eager to write the action. Or if I couldn't think of a good way to move a scene forward, I'd pour in physical description or prattling dialogue until something sparked (or until I got my night's word count).

And as the NaNoWriMo coaches encourage, I dialed down my internal editor as much as I could. The only metric that mattered for November was word count. If I used the same turn of phrase in two consecutive paragraphs, I let it slide. If the descriptions were workmanlike and lacking flair, I didn't worry about it. If I wasn't sure of a detail, and wanted to do some research first, I went with my gut and deferred the research. From my experience with short stories I knew that revision was where the magic (and much of the fun) happened. I committed to making my job in November the creation of a substantial draft that I could revise.

Even if I didn't win, I'm pretty happy with the result. I wrote 19 of the 26 scenes I had planned in my outline, and I have 75 pages of writing. This is a project I believe I could finish. And isn't that the bedrock difference between real writers and dabblers? Real writers finish things. And I now have the confidence I can do it.

The Answer Is 42, and I Am the Answer

It was my birthday yesterday. In his Hitchhiker Trilogy, Douglas Adams revealed that the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. The trickier proposition, of course, is figuring out the question that goes with the answer. In my younger days (as a 41 year old), I thought that -- at least by family history -- I'm well past my halfway mark, so maybe "42" answers the question, "what will I be when I grow up?" The glumly tempting implication was, "this is the end of my becoming." But that was when I was young and foolish.

Now, I AM the answer. 42. And I now know that this is the year when my insights will "stick." This is the year that, even if I've had the same realization a thousand times before, the ideas will motivate me to act. Example: yesterday, I went to a panel discussion of science fiction authors who had just published their first books, attended by mostly aspiring writers. Some of these authors had been working for more than a decade on their first work. All of them had “day jobs,” all of them had bills to pay. And they were all in agreement about how they got it done. They made the time. They were serious and passionate enough about this accomplishment that they used their problem solving skills to carve out the time to write, regularly. If it were easy, everybody would have done it. I’d heard that before, even agreed with it. But now, at the age of 42, when I am the answer, I finally get it.

I am the answer. It’s on me.

Chicago NATO Summit Journal: A Survivor's Tale

May 18, 2012, CHICAGO, IL. The Tribune, the Sun-Times, and WGN had warned us about the coming NATO Summit. They warned us of the protesters who were stockpiling human excrement to unleash on the police, the danger of having our wireless connections hijacked, the hair-trigger Chicago police, and the mayhem that would surely engulf and raze the Windy City to smoking rubble. They warned us to stay out of downtown, they warned us not to wear suits lest we be mistaken for targets/Visiting Dignitaries.

Many of us did not heed the warnings.

This, originally published as it unfolded on Facebook, is one survivor's story of the Chicago NATO Summit Apocalypse.

NATO Summit Journal, 8:19am.
It's Day 1, and the sense of wrongness in the air is tangible. It's like walking through invisible, greasy smoke. I can see downtown Chicago in the distance from the train platform. It is surrounded by a blood red haze. But the highway... Traffic is going the wrong way. Gods help us, it's going the wrong way.

NATO Summit Journal, 8:26am.
The lights are out in the subway. The only illumination comes from my phone. The train car is rocking, but I have no sense of moving forward. The air is becoming thin. I need my Ventolin. I wish I could see the sun.

NATO Summit Journal, 9:02am.

They've locked us in. Those bastards locked us in.
I found a sewer line to escape. Made it to the surface. Update later, when I can clean up.

NATO Summit Journal, 9:20am.
I escaped the subway station in a sewer pipe. The rats seemed afraid of something, not me. There was a dead man on the street near my office; his head was twisted completely around. Everybody is ignoring him. Why is the sky so red?











NATO Summit Journal, 9:32am.

Food is becoming scarce.















NATO Summit Journal, 9:36am.

I'm locked out if my computer. Someone is scanning my files. I try to ignore the ominous buzz coming from my Blackberry.

NATO Summit Journal, 10:03am.
A colleague logged onto the internet over unsecured Wi-Fi and his laptop exploded. There isn't enough of him to bury.

NATO Summit Journal, 11:14am.
A man with a "peace" sign on his t-shirt is sitting in the middle of the street, covered in filth, beside an empty barrel. He is weeping. Protestors have been stockpiling urine and feces for months in preparation for today. The only saving grace is that they didn't think through how to transport it.

NATO Summit Journal, 12:47pm.
I made it to the elevator, and turned to see a man across the lobby running towards me, clutching a piece of paper to his chest. "He has Facebook stock!" someone shouted. "The One Percent! Get him!" They swarmed like angry hornets. I let the elevator doors close. The look on his face haunts me. It was just a restaurant menu in his hand. Just a menu.

NATO Summit Journal, 1:23pm.
The protestors are filming the cops. The cops are filming the protestors. Passers-by are filming them both, and each other. Every eye is watching through a recording lens, waiting for someone to slip up. Waiting to capture the flashpoint. To document the beginning of the end.

NATO Summit Journal, 2:28pm.
They've hijacked my signal. All my Anytime Minutes are gone. The Sun Times warned me to use land lines only. But it makes no difference now. They're not just shutting down the cell towers. Oh my gods... they're tearing them down. THEY'RE TEARING DOWN THE TOWERS.

NATO Summit Journal, 3:13pm

.
Protesters pulled a policeman from his bike. We heard the helicopters just before we saw the blinding flash. When our vision returned this sign was all that remained. It says "Give Peace a Chance."













NATO Summit Journal, 3:21pm.

They've deployed the gun boats. Why are they aiming at the Michigan Avenue Bridge? Wait... NO!







NATO Summit Journal, 3:45pm.

The riot police have secured Pioneer Court. The bridge is down to the south. It looks like they're setting up some sort of bunker where the Marilyn Monroe statue used to be. Men in white lab coats enter and exit.













NATO Summit Journal, 3:52pm.
We were all warned not to wear a suit downtown during the summit, but one of our sales execs had a live pitch meeting in the West Loop. He pulled a hoodie over his jacket and covered himself with a shabby overcoat. He shambled past the milling protesters to the street corner where he could hail a cab. But as he stood there, some of the protesters were eyeing his shiny leather shoes. From the 15th floor window, I could see the agitation spread through the crowd, angry ripples centered on his business attire. The cab came too late. I remember he would always make a fresh pot of coffee whenever he took the last cup. Not many execs do that.

NATO Summit Journal, 4:06pm.
Email just came in, addressed to all employees:

Good Afternoon -


I have just been notified by the building that protesters have gathered on Wacker and Michigan. Arrests have been made. Your safety is our #1 concern so I advise everyone in the office to avoid the building's Wacker exits. You should exit via South Water Street or Stetson.


Please be careful when exiting the office.

NATO Summit Journal, 4:48pm.
The fighting is inside the building. The announcement went out just before power was cut to the elevators. I don't know if the underground Pedway system will be salvation, or a death trap. Either way, I have to move NOW.

NATO Summit Journal, 5:11pm. 
The Pedway is choked with the bodies of the dead and dying. I'll have to find another way.

NATO Summit Journal, 5:24pm.
My gods, I saw one. A NATO Dignitary. Under the eerie red sky, he was striding through the crowd, chest, shoulders and head above the tallest protester. His arms stretched impossibly far, and his too-long fingers coiled around someone's neck. His jaw unhinged like a python, and... I'm no hero. I ran.
The media was right. They wear suits. Tell everyone -- you will know them by their suits.

NATO Summit Journal, 5:39pm.
This isn't me. I give my seat to old ladies on the train, I don't grab them by the arm and pull them off to make room to board. What has this Summit done to me? What have I become?

NATO Summit Journal, 6:55pm, final entry.
I've escaped. Back in my neighborhood, far from downtown, the sun is shining and the sky is a soft, powdery blue. Birds chirp, a dog barks, and the scent of lilacs fills the air. My daughter plays in the garden. Here, one could believe that all the hype and worry over the Summit was overblown. One could almost believe that life will go on.

THE END.

AWS: Here's how you subscribe an SQS queue to an SNS topic!

Image via Wikipedia

There's precious few code examples for subscribing an Amazon Web Services' SQS queue to an SNS topic, especially using the SDK for Java. I've finally figured it out, and this is my way of giving back to the authors of all the hints I could find around the Web. The tricky part is the queue policy; if you create it incorrectly, you won't see any error messages -- it just won't work.

The methodology is this:

1. Create an SNS topic.
2. Set a policy on the topic to allow subscriptions.
3. Create an SQS queue.
4. Set a policy on the queue to allow message posting.
5. Subscribe the queue to the topic.
6. Wait for AWS settings to propagate and "take."
7. Send an SNS notification message.
8. Listen for the message on the queue.

And here's the code:


public class SnsWithSqsDemo {
private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(SnsWithSqsDemo.class);
private static final String TOPIC_NAME = "TestTopic";
private static final String QUEUE_NAME = "TestQueue";

/**
* This program demonstrates how to hook up an AWS SQS queue to an AWS SNS
* topic to receive messages.
*
* 1. Create an SNS topic.
* 2. Set a policy on the topic to allow subscriptions.
* 3. Create an SQS queue.
* 4. Set a policy on the queue to allow message posting.
* 5. Subscribe the queue to the topic.
* 6. Wait for AWS settings to propagate and "take."
* 7. Send an SNS notification message.
* 8. Listen for the message on the queue.
*
* @param args not used
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
AWSCredentials awsCredentials = null;
AmazonSNS sns = null;
AmazonSQS sqs = null;
String topicArn = null;
String queueUrl = null;
String queueArn = null;
String subscriptionArn = null;
LOG.debug("Beginning.");
try {
awsCredentials =
new PropertiesCredentials(
SnsWithSqsDemo.class.getResourceAsStream("AwsCredentials.properties"));
sns = new AmazonSNSClient(awsCredentials);
// 1. Create a topic
System.out.println("Step 1. Create an SNS topic.");
CreateTopicResult ctResult =
sns.createTopic(new CreateTopicRequest(TOPIC_NAME));
topicArn = ctResult.getTopicArn();
System.out.println(String.format("Created topic %s with ARN %s",
TOPIC_NAME, topicArn));
// 2. Set policy on topic to allow open subscriptions
System.out.println("Step 2. Set a policy on the topic to allow subscriptions.");
Policy snsPolicy =
new Policy().withStatements(
new Statement(Effect.Allow)
.withPrincipals(Principal.AllUsers)
.withActions(SNSActions.Subscribe));
System.out.println("Set SNS policy: " + snsPolicy.toJson());
sns.setTopicAttributes(new SetTopicAttributesRequest(
topicArn, "Policy", snsPolicy.toJson()));
// 3. Create a queue
System.out.println("Step 3. Create an SQS queue.");
sqs = new AmazonSQSClient(awsCredentials);
CreateQueueResult cqResult =
sqs.createQueue(new CreateQueueRequest(QUEUE_NAME));
queueUrl = cqResult.getQueueUrl();
System.out.println(String.format("Created queue %s with URL %s",
QUEUE_NAME, queueUrl));
GetQueueAttributesResult queueArnResult =
sqs.getQueueAttributes(new GetQueueAttributesRequest(queueUrl)
.withAttributeNames("QueueArn"));
queueArn = queueArnResult.getAttributes().get("QueueArn");
System.out.println("Queue ARN = " + queueArn);
// 4. Set the queue policy to allow SNS to publish messages
System.out.println("Step 4. Set a policy on the queue to allow message posting.");
Policy sqsPolicy =
new Policy().withStatements(
new Statement(Effect.Allow)
.withPrincipals(Principal.AllUsers)
.withResources(new Resource(queueArn)) // Note: queue, not topic
.withActions(SQSActions.SendMessage)
.withConditions(
ConditionFactory.newSourceArnCondition(topicArn)));
Map queueAttributes = new HashMap();
queueAttributes.put("Policy", sqsPolicy.toJson());
sqs.setQueueAttributes(new SetQueueAttributesRequest(queueUrl, queueAttributes));
System.out.println("Set SQS policy to " + queueUrl + ": " + sqsPolicy.toJson());
// 5. Subscribe the queue to the topic
System.out.println("Step 5. Subscribe the queue to the topic.");
SubscribeResult sResult =
sns.subscribe(new SubscribeRequest(topicArn, "sqs", queueArn));
subscriptionArn = sResult.getSubscriptionArn();
System.out.println("Subscription ARN: " + subscriptionArn);
// 6. Wait a bit for AWS to get all synched-up
System.out.println("Step 6. Wait for AWS settings to propagate and \"take.\"");
Thread.sleep(60000L);
// 6.1. Verify queue attributes
GetQueueAttributesResult gqaResult =
sqs.getQueueAttributes(new GetQueueAttributesRequest(queueUrl)
.withAttributeNames("Policy", "QueueArn", "ApproximateNumberOfMessages"));
if (gqaResult.getAttributes().size() == 0) {
System.out.println("Queue " + QUEUE_NAME + " has no attributes");
} else {
System.out.println("Attributes for " + QUEUE_NAME);
for (String key : gqaResult.getAttributes().keySet()) {
System.out.println(String.format("\t%s = %s",
key, gqaResult.getAttributes().get(key)));
}
}
// 6.2. Verify topic attributes
GetTopicAttributesResult gtaResult =
sns.getTopicAttributes(new GetTopicAttributesRequest(topicArn));
if (gtaResult.getAttributes().size() == 0) {
System.out.println("Topic " + TOPIC_NAME + " has no attributes");
} else {
System.out.println("Attributes for " + TOPIC_NAME);
for (String key : gtaResult.getAttributes().keySet()) {
System.out.println(String.format("\t%s = %s",
key, gtaResult.getAttributes().get(key)));
}
}
// 6.3. Verify subscription
ListSubscriptionsByTopicResult lsbtResult =
sns.listSubscriptionsByTopic(new ListSubscriptionsByTopicRequest(topicArn));
if (lsbtResult.getSubscriptions().size() == 0) {
System.out.println("Topic " + TOPIC_NAME + " has no subscriptions.");
} else {
System.out.println("Subscriptions for " + TOPIC_NAME);
for (Subscription subscription : lsbtResult.getSubscriptions()) {
System.out.println("\t" + subscription.getProtocol() + ": "
+ subscription.getEndpoint());
}
}
// 7. Send a notification
System.out.println("Step 7. Send an SNS notification message.");
PublishResult pResult =
sns.publish(new PublishRequest(topicArn,
"Mr Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you."));
System.out.println("Sent message ID = " + pResult.getMessageId());
// 8. Wait for message receipt in queue
System.out.println("Step 8. Listen for the message on the queue.");
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { Thread.sleep(2000L); ReceiveMessageResult rmResult = sqs.receiveMessage(new ReceiveMessageRequest(queueUrl)); if (rmResult.getMessages().size() > 0) {
// A message has been received
for (Message message : rmResult.getMessages()) {
System.out.println(message.getBody());
sqs.deleteMessage(new DeleteMessageRequest(queueUrl,
message.getReceiptHandle()));
}
break;
} else {
// ??? Why aren't we receiving messages?
System.out.println("No messages available, attempt " + (i+1));
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace(System.err);
} finally {
System.out.println("Shutting down...");
// Unsubscribe the queue from the topic
if (sns != null && subscriptionArn != null) {
sns.unsubscribe(new UnsubscribeRequest(subscriptionArn));
System.out.println("Unsubscribed queue from topic.");
}
// Destroy queue
if (sqs != null && queueUrl != null) {
sqs.deleteQueue(new DeleteQueueRequest(queueUrl));
System.out.println("Deleted the queue.");
sqs.shutdown();
}
// Destroy topic
if (sns != null && topicArn != null) {
sns.deleteTopic(new DeleteTopicRequest(topicArn));
System.out.println("Deleted the topic.");
sns.shutdown();
}
}
LOG.debug("Done.");
}

}


AWS: How do you subscribe an SQS queue to an SNS topic?

Image via CrunchBase

If there are any AWS (Amazon Web Services) gurus out there, I'm stumped on trying to use a Simple Queue Service queue to receive notifications sent out on a Simple Notification Service topic. Any pointers?

In the code below, I'm using the AWS SDK for Java (available here). The program does the following:

1. Create an SNS topic.
2. Set a policy on the topic to allow subscriptions.
3. Create an SQS queue.
4. Set a policy on the queue to allow message posting.
5. Subscribe the queue to the topic.
6. Send an SNS notification message.
7. Listen for the message on the queue.

Steps 1-6 seem to work just fine, but on step 7, it listens in vain for messages. All ten iterations go by without picking up any messages on the queue. As an added note, if I subscribe an email address to the topic, messages are delivered. Only the queue appears to be bypassed when SNS sends its notifications.


public class SnsWithSqsDemo {
private static final String TOPIC_NAME = "TestTopic";
private static final String QUEUE_NAME = "TestQueue";

/**
* This program demonstrates how to hook up an AWS SQS queue to an AWS SNS
* topic to receive messages.
*
* 1. Create an SNS topic.
* 2. Set a policy on the topic to allow subscriptions.
* 3. Create an SQS queue.
* 4. Set a policy on the queue to allow message posting.
* 5. Subscribe the queue to the topic.
* 6. Send an SNS notification message.
* 7. Listen for the message on the queue.
*
* @param args not used
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
AWSCredentials awsCredentials = null;
AmazonSNS sns = null;
AmazonSQS sqs = null;
String topicArn = null;
String queueUrl = null;
String queueArn = null;
String subscriptionArn = null;
try {
awsCredentials =
new PropertiesCredentials(
SnsWithSqsDemo.class.getResourceAsStream("AwsCredentials.properties"));
sns = new AmazonSNSClient(awsCredentials);
// 1. Create a topic
CreateTopicResult ctResult =
sns.createTopic(new CreateTopicRequest(TOPIC_NAME));
topicArn = ctResult.getTopicArn();
System.out.println(String.format("Created topic %s with ARN %s",
TOPIC_NAME, topicArn));
// 2. Set policy on topic to allow open subscriptions
Policy snsPolicy =
new Policy().withStatements(
new Statement(Effect.Allow)
.withPrincipals(Principal.AllUsers)
.withActions(SNSActions.Subscribe));
// ??? Is there no Java SDK constant for "Policy"?
sns.setTopicAttributes(new SetTopicAttributesRequest(
topicArn, "Policy", snsPolicy.toJson()));
// 3. Create a queue
sqs = new AmazonSQSClient(awsCredentials);
CreateQueueResult cqResult =
sqs.createQueue(new CreateQueueRequest(QUEUE_NAME));
queueUrl = cqResult.getQueueUrl();
System.out.println(String.format("Created queue %s with URL %s",
QUEUE_NAME, queueUrl));
// 4. Set the queue policy to allow SNS to publish messages
Policy sqsPolicy =
new Policy().withStatements(
new Statement(Effect.Allow)
.withPrincipals(Principal.AllUsers)
.withActions(SQSActions.SendMessage)
.withConditions(ConditionFactory.newSourceArnCondition(topicArn)));
Map queueAttributes = new HashMap();
queueAttributes.put("Policy", sqsPolicy.toJson());
sqs.setQueueAttributes(new SetQueueAttributesRequest(queueUrl, queueAttributes));
// ??? Why isn't the queue ARN in the queue attributes?
AmazonIdentityManagement idMgr = new AmazonIdentityManagementClient(awsCredentials);
String accountId = idMgr.getUser().getUser().getUserId();
queueArn = String.format("arn:aws:sqs:us-east-1:%s:%s", accountId, QUEUE_NAME);
// 5. Subscribe the queue to the topic
SubscribeResult sResult =
sns.subscribe(new SubscribeRequest(topicArn, "sqs", queueArn));
subscriptionArn = sResult.getSubscriptionArn();
System.out.println("Subscription ARN: " + subscriptionArn);
// 5.5. Wait a bit for AWS to get all synched-up
Thread.sleep(60000L);
// 6. Send a notification
PublishResult pResult =
sns.publish(new PublishRequest(topicArn,
"Mr Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you."));
System.out.println("Sent message ID = " + pResult.getMessageId());
// 7. Wait for message receipt in queue
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { Thread.sleep(2000L); ReceiveMessageResult rmResult = sqs.receiveMessage(new ReceiveMessageRequest(queueUrl)); if (rmResult.getMessages().size() > 0) {
// A message has been received
for (Message message : rmResult.getMessages()) {
System.out.println(message.getBody());
sqs.deleteMessage(new DeleteMessageRequest(queueUrl,
message.getReceiptHandle()));
}
break;
} else {
System.out.println("No messages available, attempt " + (i+1));
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace(System.err);
} finally {
// Unsubscribe the queue from the topic
if (sns != null && subscriptionArn != null) {
sns.unsubscribe(new UnsubscribeRequest(subscriptionArn));
System.out.println("Unsubscribed queue from topic.");
}
// Destroy queue
if (sqs != null && queueUrl != null) {
sqs.deleteQueue(new DeleteQueueRequest(queueUrl));
System.out.println("Deleted the queue.");
sqs.shutdown();
}
// Destroy topic
if (sns != null && topicArn != null) {
sns.deleteTopic(new DeleteTopicRequest(topicArn));
System.out.println("Deleted the topic.");
sns.shutdown();
}
}
}

}


2011: My Android Year

Image via Wikipedia

Gadget journalism on the Web seems to be held to the same standard as entertainment journalism, meaning rumors, guesswork and hype make up most of my Google News alerts and Twitter feeds. But (like entertainment journalism, to those who follow it), the hype is strangely addictive. And the hype isn't just about a new device hitting the shelves, but upcoming announcements about devices that won't see a shelf for months, or even announcements about upcoming announcements. It starts with leaked device code-names or Photoshopped concept images, then there are unconfirmed spec sheets and rumored release dates, followed by official teasers and then trade show releases (with the hands-on videos and device comparison sheets). Finally, YouTube starts getting the gadget version of amateur porn: the unboxing videos. It's an information strip-tease, showing just enough to catch the attention and drive the imagination wild with what isn't revealed.

I'm not an early adopter of technology, and when something starts to get exciting, I research it for months before I make the jump. I've been carrying around a Windows Mobile phone (the HTC Touch Pro 2), top-class technology that integrated well with work when I bought it, but it seems that Microsoft as a mobile platform is moribund, while Android is the new market share powerhouse. In early 2010, I started following rumors of a beast of an Android phone called the HTC "Scorpion" and for the next year, I submerged myself in Android hype. By January's Consumer Electronics Show, I was sold on two or three Android devices scheduled to release in the first half of the year.

I'd followed a rumored Motorola Android tablet code-named "Stingray," which was introduced at CES as the "Xoom." The Xoom is the hardware reference for Google's new release of Android, version 3.0 dubbed "Honeycomb," and it boasts a dual-core processor, rear- and front-facing cameras for video chats and HDMI output among its features. When the iPad came out, I couldn't understand where it fit in the gadget ecosystem: was it a bulky smartphone (sans calls), an underpowered laptop or a high-eyestrain eBook reader? Then, as I moved many of my computer activities into the cloud, live-blogged from geek conventions and trips, and grew weary of taking my laptop out of my carry-on at airport security, I began to realize that the tablet was the ideal travel laptop. The more I researched the applications and accessories (like a Bluetooth keyboard) that would be available, the more the tablet's niche solidified:

• Live-blogging
• Travel laptop that stays in the carry-on, through security
• Garmin navigator replacement
• Stream media (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) to any TV
• SSH into my work computers and Amazon EC2 instances
• Portable movies
• Document editing (with Google Docs)

As of this writing, the Xoom is supposed to release on February 24, 2011. But that information comes from the gadget rags: Motorola and Verizon are silent on the topic.

As for the Android phone, up until CES 2011, I was looking forward to the HTC Thunderbolt, billed as "Not your dream phone. The one after that." It's sleek like the Nexus One, thin but with a huge 4.3" screen. It's the first "4G" phone on Verizon's LTE network. But Motorola came to CES with a surprise: the heretofore un-hyped (and unheard of) DROID Bionic, with a dual-core processor (the Thunderbolt's is single-core), more on-board storage and an HDMI-out port. The Bionic's case is not as pretty as the Thunderbolt's, but it seems to be more of a powerhouse. Even if Android 2.2 doesn't utilize dual core processors (and that's a big IF -- I haven't seen it categorically demonstrated that this is the case), Android 2.4 will, and software always evolves to push the hardware. The Bionic will have staying power. My wife surprised me by turning down an iPhone to replace her dying BlackBerry Storm, so I'm going to get her the Thunderbolt and stick with my Windows Mobile phone until the Bionic comes out. I'll be able to do some real comparisons then.

Now, I wait. Neither Verizon, nor HTC nor Motorola have made an official statement about release dates, but the current rumor-mill has the Motorola Xoom releasing on February 24 2011, the HTC Thunderbolt releasing on February 28 2011, and the Motorola DROID Bionic releasing in June 2011. After that, I'll have to wean myself off of Android hype news, and enjoy what I have instead of lusting after the next cool thing.

Amrut Fusion: the acclaimed single malt whisky from... India??

Whisky writer Jim Murray named Amrut Fusion Single Malt the world's third finest whisky, giving it 97 out of 100 points. What's interesting is that Amrut Fusion isn't a product of Scotland, or Ireland or even Kentucky. This whisky comes from Bangalore India, a city known for outsourced information technology rather than fine spirits. As a friend put it, "Beating the English at Cricket or Soccer, well that's just fun... but beating the Scots and Irish at booze... that I have to taste!"

As did I. And this evening, my wife came home from work with a surprise for me. The local Binny's Beverage Depot carries the entire line of Amrut products. "Amrut" in Hindu mythology is the nectar of the gods. I've been looking forward to pouring a glass and sharing the experience with you. Let's begin!

This whisky is a lovely light amber color, and its aroma hits you right as you pour it: the first whiff reminds me of cedar and cherry. It's a very fresh profile, but if you stick your nose in the glass like a wine taster, you can smell an undercurrent of smoke and maybe a hint of peat.

My first sip bites at the tip of my tongue like a super-hot chutney. This is not a whisky I would typically drink neat. It's rough on the tongue, but full of flavors of fruit and vanilla-oak, with cloves and orange rind simmering at the back of the throat after it goes down. I'm not well-versed in whisky, but I've tasted a fair bit of wine, and Amrut Fusion has the same level of complexity I'd find in some of my favorite wines. It changes in your mouth, from the sharp, sweet attack at the tip of the tongue, to a spicy, smoky robustness at the end.

The Indian men of my parents' generation love their Canadian Club, and get excited when they get their hands on a bottle of Chivas Regal. Now, they can drink something light years ahead of their old standards. And best of all, it's from their homeland. Amrut, you've made a drink worthy of the name.

Related articles

• Whisky Bible Awards Ballantine's and Buffalo Trace Top Three 2011 Honors (luxist.com)
• Properly Sauced: Amrut "Fusion" Single Malt Indian Whiskey (chicagoist.com)

Daily Six Ounces: Murphy-Goode "All In" Claret 2005

My calorie-counting has caused me to seriously neglect my wine consumption.  So I resolve to budget for 6 ounces (2.5 Weight Watchers POINTS) of wine every day.

First up: the Murphy-Goode "All In" 2005 Claret.  A "claret" (pronounced with a hard 't') is a British term for Bordeaux red wine, so this is a Cabernet Sauvignon (59%), Merlot (28%) and Petit Verdot blend.  Poured in my glass, I can smell this beast a foot away, all dark red fruit and wood.  After a while, the wood becomes more pronounced, and that overused phrase "toasty oak" feels apropos.  (Mind you, the smell is competing with my wife's dinner of urad dal, but it seems to hold its own against even Indian food.)  At the rim, it's a deep brick red color, deepening to an inky purple inside.  It's a big, full wine in the mouth with a soft texture, notes of vanilla and berry on the tongue, finishing with a bit of peppery spice at the back of the throat.  Maybe it's just ghosts of meals past (in particular, at the now-closed Meritage restaurant in Chicago), but this wine makes me think of venison loin with a sour cherry sauce.  I think it would be great with a big gourmet burger too.  Even though it's so soft, the heft of this wine demands food.  I'm drinking it as a "cocktail", but it's making me hungry.  For meat.  Goode stuff, guys.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get myself a big old Carson's burger for dinner with my next six ounces.

The Alligator on the Chicago River

No dangerous thrill
About the river now that
They caught the gator.



http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/alligator-spotted-on-north-branch-of-chicago-river.html

We wore our boots, got our cameras and armed ourselves with sticks -- just in case.
We cut school and set out to the Chicago River, hoping to see the alligator.
We hunted through the reeds, stepping over the broken glass and soggy rubbish, making no noise (except when trying to scare each other).
We saw the river with new eyes.
We spied ducks, geese, some jumping fish and the tail of a beaver as it slid into the water, but our quarry eluded us.
We saw on the news that evening that the gator was captured an hour before we got there.
We secretly hoped it laid eggs.

American Ideals and Islamic Terrorism

Every time America has strayed from the principle of equality under the law for all people, we end up viewing it as a black mark on our history.

Every time Americans compromise their ideals (such as those codified in the Bill of Rights) in response to anti-American terrorism, the terrorists score a victory.

Every time Americans equate radical, Islamic zealots with all Muslims, Osama bin Laden comes closer to his stated goal of instigating a war between the West and the Islamic world.

Every time Americans justify repressive policy on our part by pointing to repressive policy in another country, we erode our claim to moral superiority.

Location, Location, Location

I used to be a regular at a bar near my apartment, "Garret Ripley's".  I'd go there almost every day.  Even when alone, I'd go to read or write over a couple of pints of Boddington's.  The owners and staff knew me by name, and I knew them; someone would start pouring my Boddy's the minute I walked in the door.  Cute servers would chat with me between rounds like we were old friends.  It felt special.  And that feeling of being special, as much as the Boddington's, kept me coming back.

This week, Facebook launched its "Places" feature, in line with social networking technologies like FourSquare and Gowalla.  You, with your GPS-enabled mobile phone, can "check in" to the places you vsit, broadcasting your city-crawling lifestyle to your friends.  You're also rewarded for "accomplishments" both wide (you've visited the most places in your neighborhood) and deep (you're the most regular of the regulars at your favorite pub).  Now, feeling special is easier than ever: these services will express admiration of your worldliness, and show appreciation of your repeat business -- all while providing businesses with valuable customer intelligence as outlined in the fine print of their privacy policies.

Commentators on the State Of Society have the same critique of these technologies as they had for blogging, Facebook and Twitter: they feed our narcissism, they substitute stunted forms of interaction for real human interaction, they publicize things better kept private, they create a barrier to "authentic" experience...  There's truth in all those notions, but that doesn't interest me much.  These aren't technologies that are aimed at solving particular problems, they're technologies that are looking for a use.  And while the initial applications are sometimes bizarre, it's interesting to see the uses people do find for them, and how that causes the technology to evolve.

FourSquare and Gowalla users can leave their friends messages, retrievable only when their friends check into the location it was left.  The messages can be useful, like "try the corn bisque -- it's dynamite", or just fun Kilroy-was-here markers, like finding a friend's initials carved into your school desk.  As the things you can leave for your friends to find become more sophisticated and multi-media, entire parallel dimensions of reality will be created, accessible through your mobile devices, where the public, physical world is only one part of what you can discover.  All the old haunts are new again.  It's easy to imagine "Dungeons & Dragons" types of games, played in a virtual overlay on the physical world.  "London Below", the hidden world existing sideways to the real London from Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere, seems prophetic.

Of course, if you're technically savvy, there's no reason to even leave your house to explore this virtual world. I have a friend who writes applications against the FourSquare API such that he has generated phantom digital proxies of himself who spend all day wandering plausible routes (plausible, to prevent FourSquare from noticing it isn't a real person, and blocking it) and checking into places around town.  He describes it as the "game underneath the game" of FourSquare.

Digital realities and phantoms who wander a world similar to our own, but invisible without the proper gear and permission.  The craziest science fiction is coming true in our lifetime.

Do you check into places using social media?  If so, what do you enjoy about it?  How would you like to see this develop?  If not, what's your biggest turn-off about it?  What changes would get you to use a location check-in system?

Bedtime, Age 6

    I’m already moving as I bat down the light switch. The dark pushes the light back into the bulb and then swallows it, but I’m flying, my feet clearing any shadowy arms that might snatch from under the bed.  Landing, I scramble to make sure nothing hangs over the edge.  I know the rules for avoiding what lurks underneath.  Following the rules keeps me safe.

    All the monsters in the dark have rules, and six-year-olds know them instinctively.  Light and grown-ups scare them away.  Things that live under beds can’t reach up on top of them.  Blankets protect whatever they cover.  Things that peer in the window won’t come inside if you pretend you’re asleep.  Things that live in closets can’t open doors by themselves.

    Oh, no.

    The closet door is cracked open -- just a little bit, but enough.  The opening is a black slash in the nighttime gloom.  The watching darkness freezes me.  I’m afraid to look, but terrified of looking away.  I carefully sit up, trying to make no sound -- and a bedspring’s creak sends a gasp to squeeze my throat.  The shadows shift around me but I keep my eyes on the closet.  The shapes that flutter at the corner of my vision want me to look at them.  I know better.

    I have nothing but my hands to push the door shut.  I have to reach -- to lean -- over the edge of the bed.  This is part of the rules too.  If you forget to check before the lights are out, whatever happens is your own fault.  That’s when they get you, when you make a mistake.  Mommy and Daddy won't always be there to protect you, you know.  I reach over the edge, trying to watch both the dark slash and the shadowy floor, suddenly forgetting whether something will spring from where I’m looking, or from where I’m not.  I imagine if I push too softly, the door will bounce on the latch and the crack will yawn open like a hungry mouth.

    I forget about whatever is under the bed as I slam my palm against the closet door.  It closes with a too-loud CLACK, and I dive back to the safety zone, burrowing into the warm covers, squeezing my eyes shut so I don’t see the fluttering things that want me to see them.  I lie very still, waiting for my heartbeat to slow.

    The danger fades, and feels a little silly; gentler dreams come out to play like wary mice.  Secure in blankets, all I need to do is act asleep -- until I am.  I'm safe again for one more night.

"Second Chance"

Image via Wikipedia

When Lucifer was invited back to Heaven to petition for readmission, he laughed -- even as he chose his best suit and tie.  Unfurling his long-unused wings and ascending, he mused that he was but a minion when he Fell.  Now he was a ruler.  What could Heaven offer him?  But as he walked the shining white promenades, inhaling the incense fanned by Seraphim's wings and basking in the ambient Grace, he was struck by how the mind kindly forgets the glories it deems forever lost.  Sitting in the waiting room, sipping complimentary Ambrosia, Lucifer couldn't stop stealing glances at the office door.  His palms began to sweat.

A cherub opened the door with precise punctuality and ushered him inside.  He introduced himself, inquired if Lucifer needed anything before they began, and then asked some casual “warm-up” questions.  The script was unchanged since Lucifer’s time on the other side of that table.  After the pleasantries came the only question that mattered in Heaven.

“Do you repent of your sins and come to the Lord asking forgiveness?”

Lucifer had no false modesty about his oratorical prowess.  He had prepared an ode of contrition that could inspire men to form new religions of redemption, and make the Archangels themselves blubber with teary compassion.  It almost seemed a waste to debut it to this fluttering baby whose name he had already forgotten.  His eyes downcast, a penitent smile on his lips, he gave his answer.

“No, and no.”

Lucifer blinked.  Words spun of gold got lost somewhere between his mind and his tongue, and raw truth -- unbidden, undecorated and irretrievable -- came out instead.  This place!  All his subtle talents, developed and honed in the long years since the Fall, counted for nothing in Heaven.  The final bit of artifice, his own illusions, flaked away like charred skin.  The cherub’s big eyes, the color of a clear noon-day sky, held bottomless pity.

“Thank you for your time.”

Lucifer stared at the objects in the tiny interview room, from the tasteful furniture and neat stacks of writing parchment to the way the color of the walls gently diffused light.  The smallest things in Heaven were truly lovely. But they would never value him here.  He could spend an eternity trying, with the same result.  Even Heaven wasn’t worth that. “Thank you for your indulgence, little brother.”

Outside, he could feel Heaven rejecting him, its spaces folding away like a delicate sea creature recoiling its fronds.  He expected the sudden wave of vertigo -- he had felt it first when being cast from the only home he knew.  A second time he Fell, his body gaining speed, his feathers bursting into flame, searing, curling black.  He felt no pain at all this time.  This time he was falling home.

Toy Story 3

I enjoyed Pixar's new movie, Toy Story 3, which elicited a few thoughts:

• It's not a "kids' movie". It's firmly a "parents' movie". The themes of being "outgrown" and having to let go probably resonate strongest with parents, especially of teens.
• Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head raise questions of the nature of the "self": an association of physical parts? Or a ghost in the machine?  The Potato Heads appear to be both.
• Mr. Tortilla Head was Dali-surreal and bizarre. Mr. Doo-Doo Head was just plain wrong.
• Toys feel things deeply, and "betrayal" can send them down dark paths. If any Micronauts come asking for me, please tell them nothing.
• If Pixar wanted to venture into Horror, they made a good start with Big Baby and the Watchful Monkey.  Yikes.
• Ken is not gay. He is merely fabulous.

Restaurant Review: Elate

Built in 1926, the Hotel Wacker, a holdout from less trendy times in Chicago's River North district, is gone.  In its place stands the Hotel Felix, bearing no resemblance to the shabby old apartment hotel, outside which transient folk would drink from bottles in brown paper bags.  Now, urbanites sip cocktails on the patio of Elate, the eight-month old restaurant in the Hotel Felix, which sports a modern, minimalist cool from its unadorned floors and tables to its high, exposed-ductwork ceiling.

Though separately owned, Elate shares some of the LEED-certified ethos of the boutique hotel, from its use of reclaimed materials, to its large selection of "biodynamic, organic, or sustainably produced" wines.  The menu declares that it promotes "local and organic products whenever possible," but also features Jidori chicken (California), Meyer beef (Colorado) and Rushing Waters trout (Wisconsin).  Explains Executive Chef Randal Jacobs, it’s about finding the best quality and flavor.  Premium products like these "distinguishes the restaurant" to industry insiders and self-educated foodies alike.

A gracious, gently-spoken host, Chef Jacobs likes to "let the good qualities of food speak for themselves."  They were eloquent in a four-course tasting, starting with an amuse bouche of a baguette slice with tomatoes and rosemary concassé, draped with a silky shaving of Serrano ham and topped with arugula.  The love of fresh herbs, the playful variations on classic pairings and the careful balance between acidity and richness echoed through the courses ahead.  

The citrus gazpacho smelled of roasted tomatillos with a spritz of grapefruit and looked like a minced fruit salad.  Indeed, bits of fruit were balanced against avocado, peppers and onions, with cucumbers and toasted bread adding crunch.  It is a joyous riot of sweet, sour, savory and spice: springtime in a bowl.

Serious earthy aromas heralded the second course.  A lone slice of pink grapefruit was no match against the nutty richness of meaty French Horn mushrooms and brussel sprouts, the outer leaves fried crisp.  A delicately herbed hollandaise softened the dish, a hearty contrast to the previous course.

Elate's barbecued pork belly is pure indulgence.  Typically a 50/50 fat-to-meat ratio, Chef Jacobs procures a Dutch product closer to 85/15.  This he brines, applies a Kansas City spice rub, slow cooks, brushes with barbecue sauce, and chars.  The resulting slab of piggy custard is sweet, creamy and decadent.  Only the assertive tartness and crunch of the accompanying sauerkraut in cider vinegar and Granny Smith apple slices cut through the glorious fat.

I love cilantro, but never thought to use it in dessert.  Chef Jacobs does exactly that in his Lime Curd Crisp, layering lime cream, toasted phyllo, raspberries macerated with cilantro, and a dollop of torched coconut meringue.  The sweet and sour, creamy and crispy confection has a lovely herbal freshness unlike any dessert I've ever tasted.

In a neighborhood already replete with dining options, Elate’s basic focus on quality ingredients in balanced compositions make it a noteworthy addition, one that I hope remains a fixture on Clark and Huron for years to come.

Elate at the Hotel Felix

111 W. Huron Street

Chicago IL 60654

(312) 202-9900

elatechicago.com

I'm Just Saying: It Begs the Question

From Wikipedia:

Begging the question (or petitio principii, "assuming the initial point") is a logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise.

It begs the question, for example, to assert that "might makes right" because morality is defined by the victor.  But presenting a plan requiring a mansion and a yacht may raise the question of how to acquire such resources.  Rule of thumb: If you're about to say "It begs the question..." followed by an actual question, you probably mean "it raises the question."

I'm just saying.

Moving To The Cloud

Recently, my hard drive gave out on my personal laptop.  Around the same time, my work laptop fell victim to malware and had to be re-imaged.  I back up my data, but restoring applications and configuration settings is a multi-day drudgery.  Making things worse, I was still stubbornly using Outlook as my Personal Information Manager, and though I synchronized with my phone, a hard drive crash spells a tiresome, error-prone restoration effort.  I love my HTC Touch Pro2 smart phone, but most of my synchronization is through Windows ActiveSync, and with this constant Windows Update and anti-virus/spyware arms race, I'm considering ditching Windows altogether.  (This installer for Ubuntu looks like it makes things easy.)

So now that I'm rebuilding from the rubble of my old laptop, I'm thinking I'll drag myself into the 21st century and move my data into the Cloud.  I want to get as much as possible out onto remote servers that are cared for better than I care for my hardware.  So I made a list of the things I do with desktop applications on my personal computer, and have started investigating Cloud alternatives.  Here's my first stab.

Email/Contacts/Calendar/Tasks
Let the shaming ensue, but I like Outlook.  I like dragging emails into my tasks or calendar and having them morph into the appropriate object.  I like the ease of synchronization with my WindowsMobile phone.  I like all the fun fields on a Contact record.  I like the interface.  But the data is hard to back up, hard to access except through Microsoft applications and not in the Cloud (I don't know if hotmail has sync features, but I don't need yet another email account).  So I'm thinking of moving to GMail and Google Calendar, probably moving my domain to GMail For Business for $50 per year.  Yes, their task manager is primitive and I hate the calendar interface, but if I'm that bummed about it, Google has APIs I can use to write my own damn UI.

Note: A colleague did show me a hosting service called dreamhost.com that allows not only Google suite integration, but shell access and an expanding list of plug-ins.  It looks tempting, but I don't know when I'll have the time to take advantage of all the things it offers.

Word Processing/Spreadsheets/Power Points
Google Docs is the obvious solution here, and there are convenient importer/converters for my Office documents.  The formatting and layouts aren't as robust as the desktop alternatives, but I can't remember the last time I used that extra control.

Personal Finance
I currently use Intuit's Quicken to track and manage my finances, and I can enter expenses on Landware's Pocket Quicken and syncrhonize it to my desktop.  It works great, and I love it.  But now, Intuit has decided to end its licensing to Landware and, following its acquisition of Mint, has scrapped Quicken Online as well.  It looks like their new Cloud product, Mint.com, will combine the "best" of both Quicken and Mint.  Sadly, the only mobile support is for the iPhone, but if the Web interface looks good on a mobile device, this won't be too much of a hardship. As long as I have Internet access...

Password Management
I currently have SplashID installed on my desktop, which synchronizes with the SplashID on my phone.  It's a great solution, and probably my most-used application -- on both my phone and my desktop.  Happily, the same company has a SplashID Live Cloud solution which can import/export (though not synchronize) from/to the desktop file format.  I think this might be a good product to have both in the Cloud and on the desktop, just in case I need the information and don't have access to the Web.

Programming
This one is easy.  Add a github plug-in to Eclipse, and your source code and resources are under Cloudy source control.

Photographs
Most of my data is digital photographs.  On my desktop, I like the ZoomEx utility provided by Canon, but I do like using Picasa on the desktop and its easy synchronization to PicasaWeb.  With my old desktop computer's CD burner broken, this has already helped me get all the old photographs off its hard drive.

Music
This one seems difficult.  I'm not an iPod/iTunes user and I'm not interested in becoming one.  But The Locker from MP3Tunes seems to provide a good solution for putting MP3s in the Cloud and making them accessible from various devices.  There's even an open API against which to program your own music clients.  Very cool.

That's my initial game plan for migrating my personal computing to the Web.  Has anyone encountered any better online solutions for these different areas?

I'm Just Saying: I Could Indeed Care Less

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I'd like to clarify something.

"I could care less."

You have some interest, however marginal.  You're saying that it is possible for you to care less than you currently do.  Your investment in the topic at hand is at some level greater than zero.

"I couldn't care less."

You are completely uninterested.  There is no way for you to care less than you currently do.  Your investment is zero, and the scale doesn't go negative.

I'm just saying.

Travel Tweets: Zanzibar and Homeward Bound

During our travels, I found Twitter to be an excellent tool to document the journey as it happened.  Even in places where I had limited internet access, I typically had a phone signal, which was enough to record a 140-character thought for my family and friends to see.  (Previous: Serengeti and Tarangire Tweets)

Here are the Tweets from the last leg of our Tanzania trip: our relaxation time in Zanzibar, just off the coast of Dar Es Salaam.  Times are in U.S. Central.  (See all the photos on my Picasa album)

Zanzibar! Local weather, hot and humid. Bela's in heaven. I need air conditioning. Or a cold drink.
6:55 AM Nov 6th from txt

At the Shooting Star Lodge in Zanzibar, in an adorably quaint bungalow with a back porch overlooking the Indian Ocean.
8:47 AM Nov 6th from txt

From Zanzibar

Played in the pool ("swam" is too strong a term) overlooking the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar. After lunch, we'll play in the ocean itself.
4:40 AM Nov 7th from txt

From Zanzibar

How the Muslim ladies of Zanzibar, completely covered in black, manage to keep cool in this heat and humidity escapes me.   
9:18 AM Nov 7th   from txt

Saw tiny, fast-moving white crabs on the Zanzibar beach. They ducked into holes in the sand whenever I approached. They're kinda adorable.

9:31 AM Nov 7th from txt

From Zanzibar

Saturday night at the Shooting Star in Zanzibar: beach BBQ with fresh-caught lobster, GIANT prawns, fish and squid. w/Chenin/Chard/Viognier.
12:43 AM Nov 8th from txt

From Zanzibar

Increasing annoyance with Zanzibar heat, humidity, bugs, critters and rustic settings means it's nearing time for vacation's end tomorrow.
12:50 AM Nov 8th from txt


Correcting past Tweet: we were NOT cheated on entry visa cost. Tanzanians have proven to be among the most honest folk I've ever met.
2:17 AM Nov 8th from txt

Ants in sugar, flies on food. Hotel guest panicked when she saw a green snake at breakfast. Al fresco dining in the tropics comes at a cost.
2:28 AM Nov 8th from txt



Powdered sugar: a sweet way to choke.
11:13 PM Nov 8th from txt



Watching the sunlight shimmer off Indian Ocean waves while waiting for ride to Zanzibar airport, DarEsSalaam bound.
11:37 PM Nov 8th from txt

From Zanzibar

I'm impressed by all the young Europeans and Americans backpacking through Africa. Adventurous kids.
1:46 AM Nov 9th from txt



Puddle-jumped from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam. Now killing time at Slipway and friends' homes before our evening flight to Zurich.
3:11 AM Nov 9th from txt



Rap/hip-hop in Swahili sounds pretty cool, though I can't understand a word of it.
3:24 AM Nov 9th from txt



Dar Es Salaam traffic at a dead standstill. Flight to Zurich in 4 hours. I remain optimistic.
9:28 AM Nov 9th from txt



is in the Dar Es Salaam airport, waiting to board his 10-hour flight to Zurich. The journey home begins!
11:00 AM Nov 9th from txt



is in Zurich, where they don't convert Tanzanian Shillings. Gonna buy some Swiss chocolate while waiting for flight to Chicago.

From Zurich

12:29 AM Nov 10th from txt

Caotina surfin Swiss Premium Chocolate Drink puts Kay-O/Yoohoo to shame. And I LOVE Kay-O/Yoohoo.
2:17 AM Nov 10th from txt



http://twitpic.com/ozboe - Electric bug zapper racquet! Genius!
3:57 AM Nov 10th from TwitPic

And so concludes the travel Tweets for our Tanzanian trip.