Yes, I’m not the sysadmin type, with the pocket protector and the neck beard, who waits until it’s “safe” to install a new operating system. I’m the impulsive, geeky, shiny new thing admirer, so bite me.

I’ve lived through alphas, betas and RC’s of everything from Microsoft Office to Windows XP to Omnifocus to Firefox to Safari, etc., etc. I’ve enjoyed some spectacular crashes – all of them in the Windows environment so far, but I’ve never lost a single document or photo because of new software.

Truly, the only tears I’ve shed, have been tears of joy.

Friday morning, sometime before 10:30am, I expect FedEx to deliver Mac OS X 10.5. Shortly thereafter, I’ll usher in the next level of a computing experience that has amazed and pleased me to no end since I switched to the Mac in December, 2005.

Ahead of the transition to Leopard comes the most important work, and this holds true whatever your platform or OS.

• Backup: This is a regular procedure, or should be; it’s a mandatory procedure when upgrading an OS. I backup to two external hard drives every couple of weeks. This is the general backup that includes everything – photos, music, movies, documents. I also backup all my documents daily using Amazon’s dirt-cheap, yet rock solid S3 service. JungleDisk automates this process. My photo, movie and music collections grow over time, but change infrequently; my docs change much more often, and JungleDisk offers an incremental backup option to S3. After Leopard arrives, I’ll have an additional layer of security with hourly backups through Time Machine. However, I’ll continue daily incremental backups of docs to S3; and I’ll add SuperDuper, which has all kinds of backup capability, to automate the regular on-site backups, as soon as it’s ready for Leopard.
• Applications, Plugins: I go for the erase and install option because I like giving my computer a shower before it puts on new clothes. And unlike 97% of users, I enjoy reinstalling everything. Tonight, I’ve opened my Applications folder, and I’ve taken a screenshot of everything in it. I’ve also taken a screenshot of all my Firefox plugins. Those pics get tucked away until tomorrow afternoon, when I start downloading and reinstalling my preferred programs. Why don’t I clone the drive or create a disk image? That works, but I like putting each book back on the shelf. It’s kind of fun, it’s relaxing, and I use the opportunity to evaluate which programs are no longer useful.
• Passwords, Software licenses: I use 1Password to manage passwords, licenses, autofill, etc. Keychain data exists in my backup, so the OS’s database just gets imported back in. But after seeing several recommendations for 1Password, I’ve started using it and have been hooked by the portability of my data across browsers, as well as the improved stability of that data – browser crashes occasionally take password files down with them.
• Software Preferences: most of the time, I recreate these as I reinstall software, but some things, like my favorite places in Google Earth, are easier to grab as one chunk, so I reach into my backup drive and lift out a few pref files for import. Saves time.

The first app I reinstall: Quicksilver – Nicholas Jitkoff’s indispensable tool. I’ve become so dependent on launching programs, searching, and executing commands using the keyboard, that if it’s not installed, I look kind of stupid trying to engage the phantom program.

I talk to some of these people regularly on the phone or by email and these are great ways to stay connected when I can’t see them in person, but Twitter has allowed me to enjoy a small percentage of their daily mundanities – the little things I used to find out from these friends because I saw them face-to-face all the time; now that we’re apart, these are the things that get edited out of the more formalized phone conversations or emails – stuff that’s too small to care about, but when it comes from people you care about, fills in the spaces of their lives in a way that’s enjoyable and comforting. It’s connective tissue.
This ambient intimacy is the original reason for Twitter: what are you doing right now? Up until recently, it was my primary use for it.

But if you follow these things, you know that by March of this year, Twitter was not only growing rapidly, but it was evolving in a number of ways, driven by users themselves. A couple are notable. First, people started choosing to bypass the direct messaging capability of Twitter, and began addressing friends publicly: @toddmundt… This conversation, the equivalent of shouting across a bar to a friend, is like IM but, at least for me, breaks out of the prison of the instant message paradigm: you should be online now, you should be interrupted by the message instantly, you should respond nearly instantaneously. I’ve used IM for about 12 years, but I’m far more pleased with Twitter’s capabilities in this regard, and the way I can control interruptions compared with IM.

The second evolution came very quickly, too, and this is where I’ve found Twitter and Jaiku to be the most valuable: the information sharing that’s taking place. I find out about some news stories on Twitter before they reach the front pages of CNN.com and the New York Times. More importantly, as the conversation grows and I add more diverse, interesting and thoughtful people to my network, I’m finding out about trends earlier, and discovering new ideas – like this Twitter note from American Public Media’s Jon Gordon that arrived a couple minutes ago:

Listener-conducted interviews? Post raw interviews for listeners to edit?

So here’s the deal: do you work in public radio? Do you work in public TV? Do you work at a joint licensee? Are you a consultant to these industries?

• Do you use Twitter? Add me.
• Do you use Jaiku? Add me.
• By all means, add John Barth, Tim Eby, and as many of the other public radio and TV folks you care to add.

NOT because I’m so smart and have so much to offer. Add me because you’re smart and you have good ideas and I want to know what you’re talking about. It will make me smarter, and perhaps as more of us in this industry chatter about stuff outside of occasional meetings and conferences, we’ll share ideas more efficiently and move more quickly.

That’s something we’re not known for, if you haven’t noticed.

So, without further ado, Massively Useful Resource:

Inbox Zero is Mann’s continuing series on getting control of your email inbox. It’s among his best work, synthesizing some of the GTD concepts with a variety of other approaches to stay on top of an avalanche of email. He covers software and techniques, all of which are helpful, but I think his best work is in addressing the right attitudes with which to approach email – what email is for, how do plow through it, what’s important and what’s not.

I’ve followed the series religiously and added several of the techniques to my own arsenal, and the result is an email inbox with 7 items today, compered to the 50-100 emails I used to be dragging behind me. My system is far from perfect but I’ve not only been able to take care of my email faster, I’ve also felt more organized and more in control than ever, and that improves one’s sense of well-being immeasurably.

I recommend both 43 Folders and Allen’s book!