Once again, it’s worth noting that I am a die-hard optimist.  I’m not sure how that came about, but I think it’s just my nature – I can’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t think that at some point things would turn a corner and get better.  It seems to me that the problem with being perpetually negative is that you end up relishing the bad times – you enjoy when things go as badly as you thought because it means you were right.  I’m sure my optimism probably annoys people who prescribe to the the doom-and-gloom prophecies of the future.  But even despite my continually, and admittedly perhaps frustratingly positive outlook on the future, I think there are at least three extremely positive things about this economic downturn that are worth reflecting on:

1. We’re no longer on a path unsustainable consumption to the point of both environmental and societal collapse.  Most people, even the extremely wealthy, are taking a moment to think a little more than they used to about their purchase and their needs, as well as their own personal responsibilities.  Hopefully this will snap us out of the narcissistic self-entitlement complex that seems to have a strong grip on society, especially American society amongst those of us who fall into the Gen X and Gen Y category.  Having a strong economy, strong country, etc. is all very important.  And I do believe that the principles of capitalism are truly the only way to have a free and just society.  But we’re all humans, and we all deserve to be treated like humans.  There is no question that we all should be entitled to our own pursuit of happiness, but we also all deserve to be treated with full dignity and respect.  That means that none of us ought to feel more entitled than the other, regardless of current or potential economic status, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender or race.
2. Almost everyone in the world is feeling and seeing the effects of this economic downturn.  It takes global situations like these to help remind us that we’re all a part of the same fabric.  Many of us have lived our entire adult lives in times of relative prosperity and wealth.  It’s hard for those of us with that perspective to empathize with those in less fortunate circumstances.  In both existential and economic terms, we’re inextricably linked to one another, and this worldwide environment helps remind us all of that.  Being reminded of this every so often helps put everything in perspective.
3. The downturn can’t and won’t last forever.  There have been times in both American and world history where we have faced these kinds of challenges and overcome them.  Once the economy begins to recover, there will be an open opportunity for everyone to find their own path to prosperity.  Our careers, our daily work, even our perspective on what makes life a worthwhile experience may change, but there will be new opportunities.  It’s a good reason for us all to pay close attention to how things unfold over the next few months, perhaps even years: it’s not clear when or how the economy might recover, but when it does there will be exciting and lucrative possibilities for many of us.

Here’s to a better future for the world and humanity as a whole.  May it benefit us all.

I’d left everything behind for a while – I haven’t even posted much to Twitter lately.  So much happens in a single day.  If I don’t manage to check in to my regular places (Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and Google Reader) once a day, I fall so far behind that I start to dread returning.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it to stay so connected, and other times I wonder if I’m just an information addict who hasn’t come to terms with his addiction.

1.) It pays to be humble.  There is always someone that knows more than you do.  If you step up to a problem and act like you know all the answers, you might end up close minded to a better way of solving that problem.  And nobody likes a know-it-all.

2.) You can never know enough people in the industry.  The more people you know, even just loosely, the more you’ll stay in tune with what’s new and emerging.  You don’t have to like everyone you know, but it really never pays off to burn your bridges.  People won’t respect you, and ultimately you’ll lose touch with the pulse of what’s going on.  People in the Valley remember you, for better or worse, long after you’re gone.

3.) You have to be willing to learn something new every day.  Never assume that you know everything there is to know about any topic.  As smart as you might be, you can always be smarter.  It doesn’t take much to fall behind on what’s going on in technology.

December 9th, 1968: the first mouse, made of wood and featuring only one button, was demonstrated by Douglas Engelbart.

[c/o BBC Technology News]

So ultimately I dropped Vista and went back to XP.  And as it’s been widely reported, I’m not the only one.  Some people are actually buying older laptops that have the original Microsoft XP license key stickered on the bottom just to save money from buying Vista and downgrading to XP.

But the original Windows XP look is, well, boring and old looking.

Here are ten of my favorite tricks for making XP look better:

1.) CrystalXP Windows Vista Inspirat Bricopack – this is a cool pack for Windows XP, even SP3, that installs a patched uxtheme.dll so that you can use unsigned Windows XP themes, and includes a very nice looking Windows Vista inspired theme itself, including all the icons and sounds.  Very easy to install, and also includes two of the other items on this list – Yz Shadow and UberIcon.

2.) Yz Shadow – A nifty little utility to add a dropped shadow to all the windows in XP.  This gives XP a look similar to the Mac OS.

3.) UberIcon – A pointless but fun utility to add animation to icons after you click on them.  UberIcon has different modes, including bounce and spring.

4.) VirtuaWin – A very good window manager for XP that allows you to have more than one window (similar to Spaces in Mac OS).  Switching between windows is as easy as using the Windows key and an arrow, you can move windows across different virtual desktops, and you can have some windows persist in multiple virtual desktops.

5.) VistaVG Blue Refresh – The default theme from Windows Vista Inspirat is nice, but if you want something a little fresher looking, VistaVG Blue Refresh gives you a nice gradient blue look.

6.) The Matrix Code Emulator ScreenSaver – Every geek should have this as their screensaver at one point or another, plain and simple.  This screensaver gives you that scrolling list of Japanese characters seen on the computer monitors in The Matrix movie.

7.) Google Sidebar – Similar to the sidebar in Windows Vista, the Google Sidebar (which is a part of Google Desktop) has a lot of very useful widgets, and is a useful add-on especially for newer 16:9 widescreen LCD panels.  Who needs all that horizontal space anyways, right?

8.) Taskbar Shuffle – Not so much a visual tool, but a very handy one nonetheless.  Taskbar Shuffle allows you to re-arrange taskbar items.  I tend to be a creature of habit – I always like having my email client as the first item on the taskbar.  But sometimes I have to close the email client and re-open it, and Taskbar Shuffle allows me to drag the window title back to the first position on the taskbar.

9.) Visual Task Tips – A handy visual preview of open windows.  Just highlight the item on the taskbar, and a small window will pop up showing you a preview of what that item is.  This is very handy for people that tend to open dozens of windows, but forget which one is which.

10.) TransBar – A utility to make your task bar transparent, allowing you to see your wallpaper behind it.

Got a tweaking tool that should be on the list?  Let me know!

Two-thirds of U.S. employers and recruiters plan to scale back hiring plans over the next six months, according to a new survey. One-third of companies believe that layoffs are likely.

Wow.  That doesn’t sound good.  So when will the downturn end?

A plurality of respondents (44%) say they are not sure and are waiting to see how the economy evolves. Of those willing to take a calendar guess, the largest percentage, 33 percent, are expecting hiring to normalize in the second half of 2009.

Considering that most companies are scaling back on hiring, there might still be a small opportunity for low-cost, highly effective productivity tools for the unfortunate souls left behind after layoffs.  Those organizations that do have to lay off employees will be looking to squeeze every last drop of blood from their remaining turnips, and they’d be likely to invest in low-cost software/hardware that has an immediate return on investment.

According to BetterPlace:

The state’s partnership with Better Place will play a significant role in the economic growth of Hawaii and will serve as a model for the rest of the U.S. for how green technology infrastructure can fuel job creation. The implementation of electric infrastructure will reignite the Hawaii economy with local jobs, while creating a model for renewable energy growth. It will also expose the millions of annual visitors to Hawaii to the real possibilities of life with clean energy and renewable fuel.

(Link: the full press release.)

Hawaiian Electric has signed on to build the infrastructure for the charging stations.  BetterPlace plans to have their electric vehicles in Hawaii by mid-2010, and mass-market availability of their vehicles by 2012.

This is either a positive sign in the right direction towards reducing our dependence on foreign oil, or the beginning of the next mega-bubble: green technology.  Hopefully this won’t end up like the EV1 drama in California, where we ended up with a lot of electric vehicle charging stations that virtually no one can use now. (Yes, I did watch and enjoy Who Killed the Electric Car.)

The combination of a leading Enterprise drive supplier with a NAND technology and manufacturing leader will produce world-class solutions in terms of reliability, performance and system compatibility. The two companies will work together exclusively to deliver enterprise SSDs with SAS and FC interfaces, with the first products expected to be available in early 2010.

I’m all for the idea of decreasing hard drive I/O wait time – especially the time it takes for drives to seek data on the disk – but I’m also a little weary of a drive that could randomly lose a whole chunk of data without any possibility of recovery.  At least when a standard magnetic-based drive dies, you’ve got some possibility of data recovery through an expensive drive recovery service.  If a chip blows in your SSD, you’re toast.

I suppose one could mitigate that risk with a RAID-1+0 array, but that’d be mega expensive considering the current and probable future prices of SSDs – at least for us ordinary folks.

Some people have commented to me on how it’s impossible to tell which is the best just by the name.  If you’re not keeping current, you might not be able to make heads or tails of something like “Core 2 Duo” or “Celery Dual Core Inside” (okay, okay, I made that last one up).

The problem is: Intel’s branding has never been stellar.  Does anyone remember Intel’s 80386? 486? 486/66? Pentium MMX?  They’ve always had problems trying to convey processor performance and capabilities.  Megahertz, and later Gigahertz, were a somewhat useful way to determine which was the best bang-for-the-buck, but anyone who kept current on Tom’s Hardware can tell you, that wasn’t always the best indicator of performance anyways.

At least Intel’s zombie food motif is amusing, and somewhat informative.

But the good news (depending on how you look at it) is that I’m back now. And I’m going to try an experiment: instead of writing long, complicated posts (who reads those, anyways?), I’m going to try to keep my updates short, and try to update at least once per weekday, if not more.

I’m also going to open things up a bit more in terms of topics and try to keep you guessing.  Generally I’ll still cover topics like emerging web technologies and general product management advice, but I’m also going to broaden my posts to other interesting things I find around the web.

If it sucks, please tell me.  I welcome failure as an opportunity to improve.