I love today’s Dilbert cartoon.

Loyal reader, Jeff, shared this article from the Kernel Trap. 

It’s a historical summary of the release of Linux 0.01.  The article contains the original release notes and early exchanges from the comp.os.minix newsgroup.

When one considers how successful Linux has become and the wide variety of platforms that Linux runs on, I thought theses quotes from Linus were particularly funny:

“Simply, I’d say that porting is impossible.  It’s mostly in C, but most people wouldn’t call what I write C.”

“…just a hobby, won’t be big and professional…”

Odd, there is no mention of penguins

The International DB2 Users Group (IDUG) is inviting all database professionals to compete in an industry-wide contest that aims to highlight the benefits of the Deep Compression technology in DB2 9 on Linux, UNIX, and Windows.  All entries will be eligible for prizes including full-event registration to one of the 2008 IDUG events.

You don’t have to be a DB2 user to enter this contest. 

Follow this link to get all the details.

Below is a video of Merlin Mann, author of the popular 43Folders blog.  In the video he presents his approach to personal productivity and email management to an audience at Google.  Anyone familiar GTD will recognize the similarities.

Coincidentally, I have a very similar presentation that I have delivered to teams at the IBM Toronto Lab.  I’ve got to hand it to Merlin, his slides look nicer.

If you’re having problem seeing the embedded video, try this link.

Thanks to Karen for sharing the link!

Gina Trapani from Lifehacker.com discusses the benefits of scheduling time to perform a weekly review: Getting into the Weekly Review habit

Michael Dolan, a coach with the David Allen Company, gives some advice on properly defining your next actions: Defining Your Work

The DB2 Viper 2 Open Beta has begun.

Now’s your opportunity to test drive the new features we’ve been working on, interact with the development team, and provide feedback. 

Join the DB2 Viper 2 Open Beta today.

Judging by the traffic in my personal inbox, it seeems a number of my colleagues have just discovered LinkedIn.

Although I`ve had account for a few years, it wasn`t until I listened this podcast interview with Reid Hoffman that I recognized the some value of it.

If you’re new to the service, the folks at Web Worker Daily offer 20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively

Guy Kawasaki has written a number of articles about using LinkedIn:

• Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover
• LinkedIn and the Art of Avoiding an A**hole Boss

If you`re curious, you can find my profile here.

Frankly, I’ve never been very satisfied by the web browsing capabilities of mobile devices like cell phones and PDAs.

Lately, I’ve been test driving the beta version of Opera Mini 4 on a BlackBerry 8700 and so far it looks promising.

I’ve been most impressed by the zoom capability and `virtual`mouse. Both are demonstrated in this video.

One thing that makes Opera Mini different from other browsers is the fact that each web page is funnelled through a remote server for pre-processing. The Opera website claims:

Web content is compressed to reduce the size of data transferred, enabling handling on simpler phones and creating fast browsing at low costs.

I have experienced a noticeable delay while accessing the first website. I suspect this pre-processing is responsible for this. However, subsequent surfing doesn`t seem affected.

Here’s two handy articles from Lifehacker that were inspired by the ideas in David Allen’s Getting Things Done. 

• Separate your emails from your to-dos
  http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/separate-your-email-from-your-to+dos-272590.php
• The art of the doable to-do list
  http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/the-art-of-the-doable-to+do-list-270404.php

Enjoy!

Judging by the sluggish response and loud “clicking” sounds, my iPod’s internal hard drive is having experiencing a meltdown.

Before I shell out a couple hundred bills for a shiny new model, I’d like to try to resuscitate the internal hard drive by attaching it to a PC and running Spinrite. 

However, my iPod uses a 1.8 inch Toshiba hard drive.  Before I can attach it, I need to get my hands on an 1.8 inch to 3.5 inch IDE adapter.

Does anyone know where I can find one?