I’ve just finished reading Scott Berkun’s new book The Myths of Innovation. Like his previous effort, The Art of Project Management, its main redeeming feature is its no-bullshit tone. Reading The Art of Project Management, it was easy to see the influence of Berkun’s experience working on Internet Explorer at Microsoft, but it nevertheless stretched into topics other than mere software or technology, giving a less dry alternative to traditional project management textbooks. The Myths of Innovation is similar, and Berkun’s objective seems to be to cut through the Harvard-inspired hype and discuss some of the untruths around innovation - my favourite subjects include ‘The best ideas win’ and ‘Your boss knows more about innovation than you’. He never denies innovation - indeed, he is clearly a major student of it. But if, like me, you’re tired of hearing innovation as a buzzword and want a book you can nod your head to and say ‘couldn’t agree more’, this is probably the one.

Little Miss Sunshine is a film well-described by its title. Its playful and Amelie-esque opening accurately reflects the film to come: well-structured, and full of crazy characters. Steve Carell (The Office - US), in particular, plays a difficult role, that of a depressed man who learns to enjoy life. The stand-out acting, however, has to be from Abigail Breslin, who plays Olive, the little girl around whom the film is centred. It has always seemed unfair to me that child actors automatically get a lower billing, and this is a good example of that disparity. It is amazing to think that someone so young could get such a strong grip on acting.

As part of my cunning plan to move my data online, I decided to move away from using my Palm for managing my diary - and towards Google Calendar instead. I’ve already stopped using the Palm to-do list; all I really need to do now is find a decent online addressbook; Plaxo being one possibility that Chris suggested.

It took me a while to figure out how to get my data out of the Palm. Palm don’t provide a decent export to anything other than Palm formats for the datebook, so a third-party exporter was called for. The web is seemingly full of dodgy Windows shareware to do the job, but jpilot (which I already, but rarely, use on my Linux machine) turned up trumps. It exports directly to the modern iCalendar standard, fully supported by Google Calendar. Hurrah! Since this solution doesn’t seem to be well-documented, I thought I’d write it down.

'I don't want to be a product of my environment - I want my environment to be a product of me' - Frank Costello.

This noble sentiment from the mouth of a gangster - reminiscent of Milton Friedman’s reproof of JFK’s famous speech - kicks off The Departed.

Acting in it are a ‘who’s who’ of junior and senior male American film stars, including Leonardio DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, and Martin Sheen. Sure, the first two look a bit alike (yes, they do!), but once you’ve overcome that, it’s pretty easy to follow. And boy, are they all good.

It appears that all the cool kids are using Dopplr to run into each other more often. I’m kinda curious to know whether it’ll work (I ran some numbers on this a few years ago with some colleagues and we concluded it wouldn’t). So I’ve signed up. I’ve one beta invite left, so if you’d like it, let me know.

Of recent months, the frequency of posts on this blog has declined from a peak of about two a day to once every few weeks. This is primarily because I’ve realised that such a high posting frequency isn’t sustainable, and it isn’t giving me the ROI I’d hoped for. Combined with some personal projects I’ve been working on in the past week or two, I simply don’t have the time to write all the articles I want to. I hope my writing is still interesting to my friends, family, and strangers - but it has become, and probably will remain, more sporadic than it once was. This blog isn’t going anywhere, and I’ll continue to post - it might just not be as often as it used to be. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

OK, so leaving some time between connecting flights is sensible. But six hours is just silly. Silly, silly, silly. Nevertheless, I’ve bought lounge entry here at O’Hare, so am relaxing and enjoying what AA have to offer (even though they have the cheek to contract out wireless access to T-Mobile, who charge another ten bucks). Hopefully I won’t feel too knackered by the time I land at Heathrow tomorrow morning.

On the plus side, I didn’t get any argument this morning over the two huge, heavy bags I checked in. Why don’t more hotels have weighing machines, huh?

I don’t know exactly how recent it is, but Craigslist now has a Hampshire section. I’ve found the Bay Area incarnation to be fantastic whilst I’ve been out here in California, and I’m glad that their brand of free listings has finally reached the area where I live. The word needs spreading, so pass it on!

Well, I’m now staying down near San Jose again. I’ve rented a car again (this time out of my own pocket) and despite going for the cheapest option, Hertz have given me a Mazda (prounced in American English with a long a, according to the TV) with a semi-automatic option on the shifter (I think technically it’s actually Tiptronic, which is subtly different).

The first car - a Toyota which I gave back a week ago - had just standard automatic transmission, and was straightforward once I got the hang of it (never having driven an automatic before). This car is easy too, despite the even sloppier handling. The semi-automatic option is interesting though. I’ve tried flipping it across from ‘Drive’ (handle the gears for me please) to ‘Manual’ (pull stick toward you to change up, and push stick away from you to change down). And it sure does work. It’s even clever enough not to let you do stupid stuff (like downshifting when that would blow the engine, or upshifting when that would stall the car).

Black Snake Moan is rich, thick, and satisfying, like a good film should be.

Samuel L. Jackson plays a strong role as the Good Samaritan with an unusual method. Christina Ricci is unashamedly raunchy as the object of his ‘caring’ (which makes for slightly uncomfortable watching when you remember her first major role in The Addams Family aged eleven). Surprisingly, even Justin Timberlake does a passable job as the third wheel in the film.