MacBreak Weekly 75: MacHeist Replies

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

Guests: Philip Ryu of MacHeist, Andrew Welch of Ambrosia.

Apple reports record earnings… then stock tanks, Philip Ryu of MacHeist and Andrew Welch of Ambrosia give counterpoints to MacHeist discussion, and more.

Here’s a direct MP3 download of our marathon 107 minute, nearly-ruined-by-Skype-farts MBW 75.

And, hey, whaddaya know? MBW is having its Diamond Anniversary. I should pick up a necklace or an industrial drill for Leo.  read more »

MacBreak Weekly 74: Hot Lips and Hawkeye

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, and Rich Siegel

A look back at Macworld, Office spreads out, MacHeist, .Mac future bright and cloudy, certain gestures and more.

Here’s a direct MP3 download of MBW 74.

I think this might be one of my favorite episodes of MacBreak Weekly. Say what you will about the podcast medium, it’s amazing to be able to pull an articulate person like Rich Siegel into your conversation midway — (~00:38:15) — just via IM and a phone number. Very cool.

So. That said. I really want the promoters and developer-fans of MacHeist to have their opportunity to respond to what Rich (and we) had to say. Clearly we all think a lot of the Mac indie community, so it’d be valuable to continue the conversation in a way that’s fair and civil for everybody.

Directions on how to get your voice heard appear around (~00:57:11) of this episode.

update 2008-01-25 08:21:01

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Macworld Expo wouldn’t be the same for me if I didn’t have the chance to hit the floor and talk to the kids for MacBreak.

This year, I returned to Tiny Town to talk to my new internet boyfriends, Cabel and Steven, at Panic, Dave Teare from my beloved 1Password, as well as the charming James from New Jersey who says he doesn’t want to punch Steve Jobs, no matter what.

MacBreak 121: Macworld 2008/Panic Software

Merlin Mann chats with Cabel and Steven from Panic Software.

macbreak MacBreak (iPod video) - MacBreak 121: Macworld 2008: Panic Software  read more »

How To Take Back Your Time And Attention — Merlin Mann — InformationWeek

Wow. Mitch Wagner did an ass-kickingly thorough job of summarizing my talk at Macworld about wrangling your time and attention. Really nice work, Mitch — thanks, man.

“When the value of your times is set too low, or not at all, it leads to waste and abuse,” Mann said.

This is a particular problem for knowledge workers. (How do you identify knowledge workers? “Look for someone with girlie smooth hands who can go to lunch whenever they want,” Mann explained.) Knowledge workers have huge amounts of freedom in how they work, they aren’t micromanaged, they just have goals to achieve. That freedom is dangerous. “You can find yourself at two in the morning staring at Wikipedia covered in pizza crusts,” Mann said.

Up top is a snap of the slides from my talk, which I’ll try to get up on Slideshare when I get a chance to tidy them up.

[Pimp: here’s information on my speaking gigs and how to bring me in to speak with your organization]

update 2008-01-21 12:39:42: Okay, she’s up. As ever, I’m not sure these’ll make much sense without me standing there, yammering, but here’s a clickable version of my slides:  read more »

MacBreak Weekly 70: Happy Life Day!

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, Chris Breen, Merlin Mann, and Scott Bourne

It’s the Macbreak Weekly Year Ender!

Here’s a direct MP3 download of MBW 70.

And here’s linkage to a few of the things I mentioned (adapted from this episode’s show notes):  read more »

Scott Underwood from IDEO was kind enough to invite me down to their Palo Alto HQ for a tour of the renowned design group (they designed Apple’s first mouse!) and to participate with him in one of the company’s internal “Know How” talks. It was very informal (and — because this was during my recent “100-year sinus infection” — I was completely high on cold medicine).  read more »

Very cool announcement to share — Ken Case, Ethan Schoonover, and I will be doing an after-hours demo of OmniFocus on September 27th at Tekserve in Manhattan:

Not only will you get a sneak peek at the forthcoming OmniFocus software, but Merlin Mann from 43folders.com, a popular site about personal productivity, will be here to lead a discussion on personal organization and life management.

Pete the Tekserve Guy says seats are filling up fast, so be sure to register for free now if you’re planning to attend.

This should be really fun — and we’ll all be hanging out after the presentation to talk, hang, and meet you. I’m pumped. It’s my first trip to Manhattan since 1989 (and, no, I won’t have a tragic mustache and a Meat Puppets shirt this time. Sorry.).  read more »

MacBreak Weekly 52: Ten Cents A Dance

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

We take a look at Apple’s new iMacs, and iLife and iWork 08…

Here’s a direct MP3 download of MBW 52.

Of course, when I chose iCal as my anti-pick, I said it with love. Much love.  read more »

Rule the Web show: Merlin Mann, Wednesday, July 18, 5pm Pacific

Forgot to mention that my pal, Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder, recently was kind enough to have me on his Rule The Web podcast (which is a companion to his swell new book).

We talked about jobs, procrastination, clutter, and a bunch of other stuff. We also took calls from a couple people, dishing out advice on topics like where to park ideas and how to fight distraction.

You can listen on Mark’s site, download an MP3, or listen using the player below.

Mentioned in passing: del.icio.us, DEVONthink, Yojimbo, Mental Case (app whose name I forgot), In Our Time, and The Sound of Young America.