Once again, I find myself in Hong Kong on business. After leaving San Francisco at 1:20am early Wednesday morning, our plane landed at about 7:00 AM local time Thursday morning. Out of the fourteen hours of our flight last night, I slept for about seven of them. Never very solidly, as we kept hitting patches of mild turbulence every half hour or so. I drank plenty of water during the flight, and am continuing to do so. Nevertheless, jet lag is already punishing me in full force. continued

Prior to seeing The flop, you make judgements as to how strong your hand could be based on two cards dealt to you, face-down. You peek at the cards, calculate the odds, then call, raise, or fold, knowing the flop is coming. Remember, the flop can change everything in an instant. Just don’t get too cocky, because a turn and a river are potentially just around the bend. continued

When I finally met Hugh Forrest for the first time in Austin this past week, I told him I keep thinking each year that SXSW is the biggest it can possibly get. That there’s no way the following year can top the previous year in terms of the talent he pulls in for speakers, and the amount of interesting people attending who are so open and receptive to new ideas. Each time I’ve been wrong.

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Joshua Heyer wrote me today with a question which I’ve never given much thought. Writing out my answer surprised me in how much I could articulate that which I do almost subconsciously. Joshua wrote:

“I have a simple question for you. How do you stay organized? I’m struggling with keeping things on point and I’m wondering what you use. [...] Any thoughts on how to improve my organization with software, practices, etc… are much appreciated.”

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After two years of sharing space with good friends at Adaptive Path, Stopdesign finally moves into its own office. Over the past week, I’ve been painting, moving, and assembling, creating a clean, comfortable space that Stopdesign calls home. I now sit high above Market Street in a funky little office with lots of windows and incredible views over downtown San Francisco.

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After more than a year of implementing my own measures, I think it’s time to help raise awareness of email security. And in doing so, document the way I use SSH to secure email when I’m on a wireless network. If you’re concerned about strangers having open access to your usernames and passwords, and all the email you send and receive while connected to a public wireless network — whether you use a Mac or not — you’ll want to read this. continued

In conjunction with the launch of Microsoft’s new search effort, MSN gets a pretty significant makeover. Significant, not because of the new look, nor because of the multi-million-dollar ad campaign which will attempt to oust Google out of the #1 search spot. But because the underpinnings of the home page represent a considerable move toward web standards. continued

Update: Good news! The templates I reference below are finally available for download by anyone to use. See the followup post: Photo Gallery Templates available.

Over the past two months, I’ve been lying low when it comes to the writing on this site. I’ve responded to very few emails, and fallen severely behind on the blog and news reading with which I normally keep myself updated. In the past two months, I’ve opened up my feed reader exactly two times. Both times, I quickly got disgusted with how many unread items popped up before my eyes. Too much to keep up with, especially after getting back from a month-long tour of Down Under.

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