UPDATE November 30, 2006: Arrrrghhhh! Bad news on these pens. They freakin LEAK. I opened one today, started writing in my Moleskine, and noticed my fingers were covered in blue ink! In the bin they go!
As I sit here this morning doing my GTD Weekly Review (before my Productivity BuddyMichael Specht emails me to tell me he’s done his), I am impressed with my new Moleskine (yes, I’m still doing the Moleskine thing and LOVING it… quite the obsession) pen – the BIC Grip Roller. I think I picked this one up at Officeworks last week and they are inexpensive, fat, nice grip and, most importantly for the Moleskine, they dry VERY fast. The other pens I’ve been using over the last couple of months tend to smudge and blur if I don’t leave the page open for a few minutes after writing. And as I’m usually scribbling down notes and then shutting the book, it ends up looking very messy indeed.
Did you know…
BIC was founded in France by Marcel Bich with Edouard Buffard in 1945. The two bought a factory and set up a business making parts for mechanical pencils and fountain pens. In December 1950, Marcel Bich introduced his own ballpoint pen, and named it the BIC. The ‘h’ from Bich was dropped in order to avoid a potentially inappropriate English pronunciation of the name. Although the pens weren’t entirely new (Bich obtained patent rights from Hungarian inventor, László BÃró), the process of manufacturing was. An inexpensive, and at the same time reliable, ballpoint pen was introduced to the world. In early September 2005, BIC announced that it had sold its 100 billionth disposable ballpoint pen, making it the world’s best-selling pen.
Hell yeah. I’ve been waiting for this moment for at least a year. Today, after several failed attempts over the last few months, I finally managed to get Google Calendar and my Outlook calendar on my PDA synchronized.
I initially tried using CompanionLink for Google but couldn’t get that working, despite several emails with their very responsive technical support team.
Finally I turned to ScheduleWorld’s Funambol solution and got that working, again after several emails with their very responsive technical support team.
I could go into detail about how it works, but EngTech has done a terrific job here.
Why does it matter? Well now I can expose my Free/Busy times to anyone, anywhere in the world, using Google Calendar, and I think I can save myself several hours a week of “does this time suit you?” emails.
Australians all let us rejoice! For our Federal Government has been absolved of all responsibility for the AWB scandal! It turns out they knew nothing! Nothing at all! It’s all okay. Breathe easy Australia, your Government knew nothing. They didn’t read the secret memos and cables. Andrew Bolt seems to think this is a good thing. The AWB was secretly paying Saddam Hussein’s regime hundreds of millions of dollars of kickbacks, the Australian Federal Government was getting memos about it… but they didn’t read them, so it’s all okay.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m no leftie. I’ve voted for the Libs in every election, State and Federal, since I was 18. But this all sucks. It’s time for a major shake-up. Unfortunately, the ALP are a bunch of nogger-heads. (That was “nogger”, Kramer.). The Dems are dead. The Greens? Who is left? Those right-wing Christian nutters? Crikey. Slim pickings on the voting front this weekend. Whatever happened to those nice Communist kids who were around in the 70s?