Secondly, other services launch a finished product, get complaints from users, and then re-engineer the product. Google purposely launched an incomplete service to allow us to help them improve it, thus avoiding the re-engineering part. Things will only get better from here on because they are engineering-as-you-go.

Another reason why Google Buzz will win is because they are doing everything with open source. Whatever mojo FriendFeed did, they didn’t share it before being acquired by Facebook. Now FriendFeed has not evolved, nor will it. Facebook is not about to open source, allowing their captive audience to leave the walled garden.

Finally, Google’s ultimate goal is not to make you a Google Buzz user. Their goal is to make Google Buzz the glue that holds your web presence together. They will be a nexus of your web presence. They will federate comments using the Salmon protocol; this means that if somebody comments on your Buzz, the Salmon-enabled blog will also have a copy of their comment on your blog.

You must remember that Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. You have to view Google Buzz through that lens. Otherwise, you fall into the thinking that Google is doing a “me too”. Google is not trying to catch up; Google is heading the competition off at the pass.

The proof of this is that they launched a stream, a mobile site with geolocation, and automatic integration with other products at the same time. In effect, they launched Twitter, FriendFeed, Brightkite, and Wave all at once; and, they’re just getting started.

Unless the other services start sharing their toys, Google will win.

Lately, I have been really into one of the games on the Wii Sports Resort, Sword Play. Through the game, I have reinforced a life lesson that I mentioned in another blog post about being deliberate to be effective. Well, it came up again.

First, a little about the game. You wield a lightsaber-looking sword against opponents. One game has you matched against an opponent where you have to knock each other off a platform, much like pugil sticks on a game show. In another one, you compete on chopping things with your sword. The game I enjoy is one where you fight through a gauntlet.

I just started playing this past weekend, so I’m still learning. I’ve made my way to level 15 already. It was tough getting out of level 6 with my beginner tactics. Naturally, when you are getting your butt kicked, you panic and start flailing with your sword. Not only is this ineffective, it probably helps your opponent defeat you faster. At the very least, it makes you amusing to your family.

I got up to level six simply by beating the players in the gauntlet on the head with my sword. Once there, I simply could not win no matter how hard I tried. Well, my son saved me. He told me that I should push a button to put my weapon in a defensive position. *HEADSLAP*

My son’s advice helped me pass the next couple stages. However, I got stuck soon thereafter. Well, one side effect of learning how to guard myself from attacks was that it slowed me down. Prior to learning about the button, I was attacking at break neck speed to keep from being hit, which only worked for a few levels.

Once I slowed down, some interesting things started happening. I noticed there is a rhythm to striking my opponents. Too fast, and your strikes are ineffective. I also started noticing body language. If you pay attention rather than flagellate your sword around, you can see that your opponents almost tell you how they are going to attack. I also notice that you are often better off letting them strike first so you can nail them on their recovery.

I am not the same player today that I was on Sunday. If you watch me now, my strikes are more deliberate and effective. I’m not saying that I am the master of the game. Far from it. It is difficult to fight opponents in bunches, because you are not always sure which one is going to attack. All it takes is three strikes to take you out.

So, the reinforced lesson is, take your time. Be deliberate. Don’t waste energy just looking like you are doing something. Being deliberate makes you more effective and reassuring to those who look to you for reassurance. In other words, being deliberate is a winning strategy.

This is what you would see on my public Evernote notebook.

Here is a screenshot of my original digital ink note written on the Evernote application.

You will notice that there are some differences between what you see and what I see. This does not make digital ink a bad idea; simply, your writing has to be that much neater to compensate for the differences.

This return to handwriting for me is a short experiment. I often wondered if blog scrapers would go so far as to take posts entirely written in an image and try to represent them as their own. Also, do blog readers really care if my blog post is typed or written? Presumably, it’s the content that matters rather than the style, right?

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Read more digital ink notes on my public Evernote notebook.

View more of my public Evernote entries.

You can use a mobile phone/GPS cradle as a camera mount for recording video while you are driving.

Please remember to be responsible by starting and stopping your recording from a parked vehicle. It is only necessary to give the illusion that you are fiddling with your camera while driving. You can trim off the ends of the video to hide the uninteresting parts.

The mount that I use is a general purpose mount sold by T-Mobile for use with the My Touch.

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Google recently announced that you will be able to use their Google Docs service to store files of any type. They are adamant that this is not the fabled GDrive. Based on my preliminary experience, I would have to agree. While Google’s new file storage service is very affordable, it has some serious limitations.

First, let’s spell out what Google offers, for the uninitiated. Google used to allow you to keep documents on their servers in the Google Docs formats. If you uploaded a Word or Wordperfect file, it would be converted to their format. Same for Excel and PowerPoint. Google recently announced that you will be able to upload any file up to 250 MB for storage in Google Docs.

It is true that you can upload any kind of file to Google servers. I tried a few. However, there is one big problem. While uploading your files to Google Docs is extremely affordable, there is a huge maintenance overhead. Your files can’t be tagged worth a damn. The best you can do is create folders where you can put your files. Otherwise, there is no way to keep track of what is where.

On the plus side, you have the cheap storage price. In addition, Google Docs gives you the ability to share any of your files. This is great if you have a large file, less than 250 MB that you would like people to download. No bandwidth charges.

Evernote Premium, on the other hand, allows you to upload up to 500 MB of files into your account per month. But, they offer unlimited storage. In addition, Evernote allows you to tag and organize your files for easy recall. The downside to Evernote is that the maximum file size allowed is 25MB, considerably less than Google Docs.

It is a tough call as to which service is better. While, Evernote offers unlimited storage, there are monthly limits and file size limits. Evernote excels in the ability to tag your files for easy retrieval.

Google Docs has a tiered storage price structure, which is extremely affordable. In addition, they offer a larger file size.

On the one hand, you have better archiving; on the other hand, you have better storage options. Each offers an advantage the other does not give. This makes choosing a better service difficult.

But then, both services are very affordable. Nothing stops you from subscribing to both. Each one has its strength; which may be prove to complement the other with a little imagination.

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Hellow Mind Racers! There may be a time when you are in a rush to get something done. It is tempting to make haste; but, doing so results in poor performance and unnecessary mistakes. If you have done the one thing often enough, you may move quickly; but every move is calculated and deliberate. Your mind is calm and focused on the task at hand.

This kind of experience, or muscle memory, often sets apart the veterans from the rookies. When you are new at something, your mind races, you forget details, you make hasty decisions, and generally do a poor job. Veterans, on the other hand, seem self-assured and collected, even during major challenges; because, they have been there before and know exactly what to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have that same level of mental clarity that a veteran has in your everyday life? The problem is that Mind Racers like us often find ourselves in new situations and without a plan on how to proceed. Like Indiana Jones, we make it up as we go. We can muddle through most of the time; but, sometimes we find ourselves in a big mess because of the approach.

In my case, my mind is always racing; but, not because I’m in a hurry to do something. It takes a conscious effort to clear my mind of the chatter, and focus on deliberately doing the one thing that needs doing. I mention this because it may help you in some way. Down-shifting into deliberate thought is great for making you effective in your work.

If you feel that your day is like watching a movie where you have to catch all the details so you know what is going on in the next scene, then you are definitely a Mind Racer. Here is how I break out of it so that I can accomplish something.

• Find a quiet place – This is important. Nothing breaks your concentration faster than having distractions around you kicking your brain into high gear.
• Focus on an item – In this case, it is alright to stare. Stare at an item, look at it, not through it. When your mind is racing, you often look through things while focusing your attention internally on all the thoughts passing through your brain. By looking directly at something and focusing on it, it forces your mind to disregard the noise.
• Start your deliberate thinking – Now that you have cleared your mind and primed it with a visual focus, substitute that focus with what you need to do. Think of the first step that will get you to your goal.
• Make a list – If you have the racing mind problem, you may find that you will still wander off in thought on occasion. Having a list of what you need to accomplish helps you stay on task. Your first focus is the list; afterwards, shift your focus to the individual items.
• Think on paper – You may also write your thoughts down on a computer; but, the problem is that it probably has Internet. That’s not good for focus.
• Take breaks – Focus is not natural for you, Mind Racer. If you do it for an extended period without rest, you will wear yourself out. Work for 15 to 20 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. I’m talking knowledge work here, physical work is never a problem for you, Mind Racer; quite the opposite, it allows you to zone out into thoughts while your body does all the work.
• Try to always write a plan – Have a plan for everything. Force yourself to make the time to think ahead. Plan speeches, meetings, talks with your kids, your work day, your dates, and any situation where you feel you are a spectator rather than a participant. If you plan ahead, you will be more deliberate and keep the noggin in low gear.

That is it, Mind Racer. This is how I keep myself on task. It doesn’t always work. If I’m exhausted, it becomes especially difficult to stay focused or achieve focus in the first place. But, it seems to work often enough to get some things done.

So, how do you achieve deliberate actions?

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