Wired but unstrung
I am sitting on the plane on the way back from a wonderful time at CMF2007 (pics) in Aarhus. Thanks to Janus, Sara, Flemming (my guardian angel), and the rest of the J. Boye crew for putting together a fantastic conference.
Before taking the trip, I made some changes to my computing toolkit to help me be more productive in the air. For those who don't know me, I am a proponent of server side tools for managing information. I use services like Bloglines for reading blogs, Wikis and Google Notebook/Docs for writing, and del.icio.us for bookmarks. Ideally I should be able to log onto any computer, connect to the Internet, and have everything I need.
The first change that I made was to migrate from my beloved Bloglines to Google Reader. While, I prefer the functionality and behavior of Bloglines to Reader, the addition of Google Gears makes Reader a perfect online/offline tool. I can still access my feeds from any computer but I can take my little slice of the web with me when I am offline. According to feedburner, my immigration appears to be on the tail end of a trend. The Reader wedge of the subscriber pie chart grows in proportion to Blogline's decline.
I also installed the blogging client Ecto, which I am finding preferable to the Blogger web client because it adds little touches that are difficult to reliably support in a cross-browser web client. If it were not for packed airplanes with coach seats that are too small to work in, wasted time in the air would be a perfect place to catch up on writing blogs. From a business class seat, or at least Economy Plus, Ecto would be even better.
And with that, I will dig my laptop out of my chest, power down, and watch the in-flight movie.