Pzizz

Merlin & MacBreak @ Macworld: Omni Group, MailTank, AppZapper, Pzizz, Cha-Ching and Flip4Mac

Merlin — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:31:08 -0500

A few more of my MacBreak segments from the Macworld Expo ﬂoor are now available for download:

MacBreak 51 Macworld 2007: The Omni Group - (MOV) - 8:03 - “Merlin chats with Ken Case from the Omni Group about their products and the application development possibilities for the iPhone.”
MacBreak 50 Macworld 2007: MacTank - (MOV) - 07:44 - “Merlin chats with the developers of MailTank and MailTemplate.”
MacBreak 49 Macworld 2007: AppZapper, Pzziz and Cha-Ching - (MOV) - 8:58 - “Leo and Merlin continue their tour of ‘Tiny Town’, visiting with the makers of Cha-Ching, Pzziz and AppZapper.”
MacBreak Macworld 2007: Flip4Mac - (MOV) - 5:59 - “Leo and Merlin chat with the makers of the Flip4Mac suite of digital media tools.”

More episodes coming later today. Never miss an episode of MacBreak by subscribing for free.

”Merlin & MacBreak @ Macworld: Omni Group, MailTank, AppZapper, Pzizz, Cha-Ching and Flip4Mac” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 12, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Naps: Endangered species in modern life?

Merlin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:22:25 -0500

TheStar.com - The modern world killed off the nap

What a bouquet of coincidence.

My Make column on napping is overdue, and yet right before dashing off to steal a rejuvenating 20-minute nap, I take a spin past del.icio.us/popular to ﬁnd this little gem:

A good nap is one of life’s great pleasures, and the ability to nap is the sign of a well-balanced life. When we nap we snatch back control of our day from a mechanized, clock-driven society. We set aside the urgency imposed on us by the external world and get in touch with an internal rhythm that is millions of years old.

A nap distils the sweetness of a whole night’s sleep down to a few minutes. Ideally, it starts on a soft bed, in a dark room, with a warm blanket. At ﬁrst your mind lingers on what you’ve done that day, and what you still need to do. Then your thoughts start to unravel a little, become less coherent, more dreamlike. You feel your breathing deepen, your body relax. You lose yourself; you’re asleep. After a few minutes you gradually become aware again of the bed, the room. You open your eyes, gather your thoughts, throw off the blankets. You’re a new person.

So nicely put. And, with that, Pzizz and I will say night night for now.

”Naps: Endangered species in modern life?” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 31, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Merlin on MacBreak Weekly: Wax On, Wax Off

Merlin — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:11:39 -0400

MacBreak Weekly 8: Wax On, Wax Off

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Alex Lindsay, and Scott Bourne

Get a better night’s sleep with today’s show. We talk about Apple’s podcast grab, Aperture 1.5, 802.11n in iMacs, Cingular and the iPhone, and Core 2 MacBooks.

Running time: 01:14:00

In which Alex is still on about the notional iPhone (and its current-day antecedents), Leo loves his lumber-swinging MacPro, Scott is completely full of beans, and everyone rags me mercilessly about my fondness for new age nap software.

Show note: that site for making one barcoded discount-club card to rule them all? Via Lifehacker comments, check out Just One Club Card. Haven’t tried it myself, but it looks promising.

[ Download MP3 ﬁle for “MBW 8: Wax On, Wax Off” ]

”Merlin on MacBreak Weekly: Wax On, Wax Off” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 26, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

"My Dream App" voting open til Midnight EDT

Merlin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:11:26 -0400

My Dream App » Voting

The My Dream App competition (for which I’m a judge) has reached the ﬁrst elimination round, so you have just a few hours to place your vote and help whittle down the competition.

Unlike the US election system – where you are often rewarded primarily with the unsettling feeling that you’ve chosen the least odious of available options – your vote for My Dream App also earns you a free (free!!) copy of Pzizz, a nap application that I happen to like a lot. How’s that for democratic motivation?

Off you go now, because the polls close at 23:59 EDT. And there ain’t no Katherine Harris to pop up and “ﬁx” things if you don’t like the outcome. So vote now!

”"My Dream App" voting open til Midnight EDT” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 22, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Pzizz nap app: On sale today only

Merlin — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:44:19 -0400

MacUpdate Promo: pzizz 1.7

Chris Messina points out that Pzizz, our favorite napping helper application, is on sale (38% off) for today only at MacUpdate.

If you want to whomp on your ultradians, deﬁnitely consider giving this app a chance – there’s way more than $25 worth of productivity in the daily 20-minute nap. But you better grab it fast, because (sigh) you snooze you lose.

”Pzizz nap app: On sale today only” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 11, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Ultradian Rhythms & the 20-minute Break

Merlin — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 08:25:54 -0400

I had a Psychology teacher back at New College (who’s now apparently an expert in the Klingon language), who used to talk about how the human body had these ±90-minute cycles. And that if you could become aware of yours, you could do Great Things – particularly because you could learn the optimal time to snag a nap versus, say, try to cure small-cell carcinoma.

Not sure if this is exactly what he was talking about, but I am certainly fascinated by the idea of ultradian rhythms:

Ultradians are the regular recurrence in cycles of less than 24 hours from one stated point to another, as certain biologic activities which occur at such intervals, regardless of conditions of illumination.

Commonly used in sleep research to describe individual stages of sleep that occur within intervals of an organism’s circadian rhythm, and especially to refer to the 4-hour ultradian cycle.

A guy named Rossi appears to be the mainstream gorilla in this ﬁeld, especially as it pertains to “healing” (or, to put it less fancily, rest and renewal). He wrote a book called The 20 Minute Break and has a site where I found this overview/interview:

The basic idea is that every hour and a half or so you need to take a rest break - if you don’t you may be well on your way to the Ultradian Stress Syndrome: you get tired and lose your mental focus, you tend to make mistakes, get irritable and have accidents - If you continue to ignore your need to take a break you can experience more and more stress until you actually get sick.

When you learn how to recognize your need to take a 20 minute break you can convert your stress into what I call The Ultradian Healing Response - Its that wonderful feeling of comfort and well being that you naturally have when you are tired but let yourself have the freedom to take well deserved rest.

Just learned about this stuff last night, so, no, I haven’t read much more than what I’m posting here yet. Thing is, I recently started taking 20-minute naps every day (with the assistance of the most excellent Pzizz), and the effects so far have been profound. So I’m especially interested in whether there’s a connection here. What do you guys say?

What’s the deal with ultradians? Is there anything to this? Does this jibe with your experience? Prof. Schoen, are you out there?

”Ultradian Rhythms & the 20-minute Break” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 07, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"