CNN have an interview with David Allen, the creator of the Getting Things Done (or GTD) methodology for organising your life.

I came across GTD around 12 months ago, and can honestly say that it transformed the way I tackle my everyday life!

I won't get all evangelical about it here, as there are literally hundreds of web-sites covering the subject (just Google on GTD to read some more!) - but if you regularly find yourself with "too much to do", get stressed because you have so many tasks that you don't know where to start, suffer from "Information Overload", or find yourself working too many hours - trust me, read David's book and it will help.

Some other sites you might find useful in your quest for an organised life:-

http://www.43folders.com/

http://www.lifehacker.com

Matt over at Ostrich IT pointed me in the direction of a new VNC based Tool, CrossLoop.

CrossLoop is a very small download, and once installed and run enables a user to host a remote session (i.e. allow someone to remotely view their desktop) on his Windows PC by generating a Connection Key. The Remote User then drops that Connection Key into his local CrossLoop session, clicks Connect, and voila - a few seconds later you have a functioning VNC session!

No changes to any Firewall required - no fuss, no muss.

I've used UltraVNC before, but I feel it's not a polished solution. Other free tools such as LogMeIn have their limitations such as requiring a fixed password.

I used CrossLoop for the first time today to help someone install a VPN client onto their Home PC. It was a Vista machine, but CrossLoop worked without a hitch, and made life so much easier than trying to talk the end-user through each part of the work required!

It was a while ago now, but I attended the "Smart Homes Show" at the NEC earlier this year and I thought I'd share some of the cool gadgets and gizmo's I found there.

2TechVisuals were displaying a number of Digital Picture Frames including a portable Digital Picture Key Ring that had a 8mb Memory (enough for about 56 photos) and a 2.5 hour Battery Life, along with a USB port. Cost was about £35.

There was lots of Home Entertainment innovations, the biggest display being from Ivory Egg who had a huge range of wallet busting items on show. How about a Plasma TV built into your Fireplace? Very cool - but with prices at around £3k for the fireplace, not a cheap toy!

My favourite was the Fridge/Freezer with a LCD Screen and a CCTV feed (so you can see who's at the front door when you are in the kitchen, naturally) plus built in DVD unit. Cost? Not an unreasonable £1100.

Logitech were in attendance with their latest Harmony Advanced Universal Remote Controls. I was very very tempted, but my glowing One-For-All Kameleon retains it's living room home at Chez Tubb.

AVNex were demonstrating their Nexus Multiroom Audio, Video and Control System which works over CAT5. If I were renovating my home from scratch again, I'd go with this system - as it is, I'll stick with my existing generic CAT5 system.

BT were displaying their Home Monitoring system, which alarms your house and is accessible via the Internet and Telephone. Cost ranges, but started at about £85 for a System, plus a few pounds ongoing monthly charge. It looked good, but I still prefer an X10 Alarm system with it's greatly increased configuration features.

On the subject of Security - how about a Fingerprint activated Front Door Lock? For the Luddites or those fearful of losing your fingers whilst out shopping amongst you, it comes with a standard key backup too. Having been in a situation recently where I drove to my other house in Wigan and realised I'd forgotten my house keys, then being faced with a 90 minute journey back to Birmingham to pick them up, I reckon I can justify the £225-£350 outlay on one of these babies!

Attached to the Smart Homes Show was the National Homebuilders and Renovators show - so the group of us in attendance took a wander over to take a look at what was going on there.

Very interesting, as lots and lots of "Green" Environmentally Friendly ideas - Micro-Generation, Conservation, etc. The products that specifically grabbed my attention were the SolaTube - a device for getting natural daylight into dark parts of the home, various Ventihilation and Filtration systems from AllergyPlus and my favourite - the integrated Central Vacuum Cleaning System! My excitement with this system was tempered by an outburst from the GG who accused me of never doing the Vacuuming at Chez Tubb as it is. My response? I would if I could have one of these systems!

Sadly, I lost this argument and the poor Vacuum salesman looked dejected. But I got the last laugh, as the GG will have to continue to vacuum the house with our old fashioned Hoover!

(Only joking, of course...)

In 1994 I took my first steps onto the Internet. Migrating from the old regional dial-up Bulletin Board system using it's FidoNet messaging system, I had my first taste of the Internet when I started using Almac BBS in Scotland which had - gasp - Internet e-mail connectivity. A few weeks later, spurred on by the glimpse of the "big network" I joined Demon Internet - an ISP which offered dial-up access to the Internet "proper" at a "tenner a month".

Cliff Stanford founded Demon Internet in 1992. It was one of the first Internet Service Providers in the UK and allowed budding geek's like myself to get on-line and experience E-Mail, Usenet, Telnet, Gopher, and later a budding technology known as the "World Wide Web".

As a member of Demon, you felt like part of a real community. What's more, the staff at Demon were helpful. They were happy to provide "under the hood" help, Technical information that enabled you to fix your own issues. Maybe time makes things seem better than they were - but I rarely remember any serious complaints about the service.

In 1998 Demon Internet was sold to Scottish Telecom, who went on to become Thus plc - and it's here where my story takes a turn for the worst.

One of my customers chose Demon as their ISP last year, to provide a 1mb SDSL line in their Head Office. Demon weren't my first choice, but it was the customers decision and they were a name I recognised and remembered fondly.

The first hint of problems was when my customer, frustrated with the fact that repeated dates for installation of the SDSL line had been promised but not delivered upon, turned to me to get to the source of the issue. It was at this early stage that I became familiar with Demon's ideas of a "Premier Service". The service costs more, you telephone a different number for support - but hey, it's "Premier" so it must be better right?

Earlier this month my customer lost their SDSL connection. They tried to telephone Demon's "Premier Support" - but after an hour on hold, the line rang out. This happened repeatedly. E-Mail to the Support Department wasn't responded to, and the customer was left wondering what was happening and when it would be fixed.

When they finally get through to Support, they are told that there is an "Authentication Problem" affecting Premier Customers. There is no ETA for resolution.

One day of downtime turns into two, then three, then four - each day the cycle continues - the customer telephones Demon, spends most of the day (literally) on hold - then is told that there is no update on the issue.

So the customers turns to me to see if I can get any more information from Demon. "We're a Premier Customer, but we're getting shoddy service", "Why are 'Standard' customers working, but we aren't" and so on. I explain that an SLA for any xDSL service isn't worth the paper it's written on, but I promise to see what I can do.

I then too experience the horror of a wasted hour on the telephone to Support only to be cut off - so I turn to other support methods. There is no response to e-mail, but behold! Demon offer an Text based Instant Messaging service - why don't all ISP's do that?

So after a few minutes wait, I get through to my Demon Support representative. "I appreciate there is a system issue affecting Premier Customers - but it has been almost 7 days now. What on earth is the problem?". "I'm sorry Sir, we don't deal with Premier Support issues through Instant Messaging - can you call 0845 blah blah for Premier Support". "But all I want is a shred of information!". "Sorry Sir, we simply cannot help".

Unbelievable. The first time I've ever seen a case of a "Premier Customer" being penalised for paying extra!

Some 7 days on, the service was restored. Not that Demon told us - I just had the customer rebooting the Router on a regular basis in the hope that it would spring into life. In fact, if you check Demon's Network Status Page - you'll see the same "Authentication issues on Premier Broadband" message that's been on that page for almost 2 weeks now!

The customers contract with Demon is up in July and guess what - they can't wait to get away. I've already recommended an ISP that takes Support seriously - they aren't the cheapest, but then if you're relying on your Internet connection to power your business, price shouldn't be your first concern.

As for Demon - it's a sad sad story. From being the company that got me online all those years ago, providing all the technical information I ever needed, they are now a faceless corporation who think their customers are too inexperienced to be fed even the slightest bit of information on issues.

Demon - go to hell!

Had a chuckle today as I received an e-mail from Schmap Dynamic Travel Guides asking for my permission to include a photograph I took and placed on my FlickR site in their next London Guide release.

Before I get carried away thinking I'm the next David Bailey though, it's worth pointing out that my photograph isn't actually a shot of London at all, it's of a miniature London from Legoland Windsor!

This is all sure to make my brother Paul laugh out loud, as he is a "proper" photographer who has an eye for a good shot - whilst I'm a happy snapper who literally points and clicks. He'll definitely say this is a case of a Mickey Mouse Photographer with toy photographs! :-)

It's that time of year again. Like many people, even though the weather is scorching hot - I'm keeping the Windows closed in the house and when I drive the car. I'm popping tablets and stuffing decongestants up my nose. I'm sneezing and wheezing, or walking around like the Living Dead. In short, it's Hayfever season.

Hayfever affects 20% of the population in the U.K, and I've suffered with it personally since I was very small. One of my earliest memories of Hayfever was as a child, gleefully rolling down a local grass hill with a friend. Trouble was, the grass was freshly cut and when I returned home covered in allergic reactions and with eyes swelled shut, my Dad thought I'd been in a car crash!

It's affected me pretty badly this year. Over the past few weeks I've had a straight choice between a runny nose, sneezing and wheezing - or taking a Antihistamine tablet and being turned into a Zombie. Non-Drowsy? Yeah right!

So two new treatments that have popped up this year have intrigued me.

The first is Medinose. It's a small battery powered device with two prongs on a cable that you place up your nose. You then press a button and the device delivers four minutes of red light that is meant to condition your nasal membranes to inhibit the release of Histamines - which cause Hayfever. Do you look ridiculous using it? Yes. If it works do I care? No. I've been using the Medinose for about a week now and have noticed an improvement in my condition. What's more I enjoy the excuse to lie down for four minutes three times a day, shove the thing up my nose and use the time to contemplate the universe. Antihistamine Meditation you might say!

The second treatment made the front page of The Independent newspaper today. It is called Grazax and it's a pill developed in Denmark that is taken once per day to dissolve under the tongue. Unlike other medicines, it doesn't treat the symptoms of Hayfever, rather it neutralises the cause - your bodies over-reaction to pollen. Clinical trials have shown it reduces symptoms by 36% in it's second year of use. A cure for Hayfever? Possibly. The only downside is the NHS in the UK won't take it onboard because of it's potential cost. With over one million seriously affected Hayfever suffers in Great Britain - that's a bill big enough to make your eyes water without needing any pollen!

So for the time I'll continue to check out web-sites like Allergy UK, take advantage of Zirtek's SMS Text Pollen Alert service to warn me of impending doom, and continue to shove space age probes up my nose! :-)

I stumbled across this web-page through Carnage4Life's Blog. It is created by Microsoft to impress upon potential employees as to why working in Microsoft's on-line services team is a good idea.

It includes a funny little video of some existing employees chatting to a camera which I thought came across well!

Last month I wrote about Community Wi-Fi and that I'd signed up to FON - a commercial project aimed at creating a network of Wi-Fi hotspots that could be accessed by members who, in turn, share out their own Broadband via a Hotspot.

Well my FON equipment arrived this week and I set about installing and configuring it.

Inside the box were a "La Fonera" (pictured right) - a white FON branded Router box with a Wi-Fi aerial and a single Ethernet "Internet" port at the back. There was also the additional Hi-Gain Antenna I'd ordered.

Setting up the "La Fonera" (which is only slightly bigger than a cigarette packet) was simple. Connect it via the provided 1m long Ethernet cable to your existing network (ideally your existing Broadband Router), switch on, and then grab your Wi-Fi enabled laptop.

The Router did take it's time to startup compared to other Routers I've used - but once powered on two new Wi-Fi signals appear for you to connect to. "MyFON" (your private network access) and "FON_AP" (the publically accessible signal).

I stumbled across a problem initially as the FON Router configures itself to an address of 192.168.10.1 - to avoid clashing with existing networks. Unfortunately, my network is set to - you guessed it - 192.168.10.x, and so the FON Router did get confused when it tried to share it's address with my existing Router.

To fix the problem I simply connected to "MyFON" (my private network) and used the Web Management Interface on the FON Router to set it's address to 192.168.10.2 - all sorted. Note:- The Router Web Management Interface can only be accessed when you are connected to your private FON Access Point! That one stumped me for 10 minutes...

Once that niggle was overcome, I connected to the "FON_AP" public hotspot and fired up a web-browser which took me directly to www.fon.com. I signed in with my FON username/password and was then asked to register the new Hotspot. This involves giving details of the location of the Hotspot, dragging a pointer to it on a Google Earth map, and setting up your Router Homepage - which other FON users can view to find out more about you when they use your Hotspot. In my case I put details of who I am and what I do, although you can also embed FlickR photos and YouTube videos if you wish!

Further configuration of your Router can easily be done through www.fon.com - which is a nice touch as it means all your FON configuration info is in one place. You can also set how much of your bandwidth is available to use, with a simple slide bar ranging from 512k to 10mb and beyond.

One reboot of the FON Router later, and everything was online!

I then did a quick tour of Tubb Towers trying to find the location that gave the strongest signal to the outside world. This was eventually the window in my downstairs living room, but disappointingly this still only saw the FON signal get a weak signal to the nearby road - even with the hefty high-gain antennae. If any FON users want to sit in the middle of my lawn though, they'll get a great signal! As that's unlikely to happen, I'm reading up on my Wi-Fi hacking again, and have already ordered an additional directional antennae to see if I can fix this issue. FON have also mentioned their "La Fontenna" - a more powerful, weather-proof antennae to help boost signals outside - looks interesting!

So how can you use FON? Well, in my case I'm what is known as a "Linus" - I give away broadband to other FON users, and in turn I can then log on to their Access Points for free. Other ways of using FON including buying a day-pass to use the existing AP's, and becoming a "Bill" - where you effectively charge people to use your Access Point.

Overall my experience of FON has been very positive! I like the idea of giving away from Wi-Fi access in my community, seeing who has used it (a log is kept at your FON homepage) and it was fun to search the FON Map to see if there were any other "Fonero's" in my area. In my case, there were, and I knew one or two of them as well!

If you've got Broadband and want to share it securely, go to www.fon.com to find out more. If you're already a FON user, leave a comment to let me know your experiences thus far!

I'm back from my trip to the Czech Republic (having consumed my years allocation of Pilsner Beer in one weekend) to find my e-mail inbox bulging with mail and that a new version of Windows Live Writer has been released.

If you are blogging, and specifically using Windows Live Spaces to blog, then as I've previously mentioned Windows Live Writer is for you. The latest beta has a new look and feel, and a much welcomed inline spellchecker.

It's free, so definitely worth taking the time to download and look at!