Right there next to Don Box, Jeffrey Richter, Robert Scoble, Charles Petzold, Keith Brown is the Chris Sells Wikipedia page. There aren't any pictures (not this one or this one or even this one), the blog, articles and tools aren't listed and nobody's mentioned the interview questions, but it's there. I'd like to thank the academy...

In massive writing avoidance mode, I found my way to Seth Godin (who I don't know from Adam) doing a great presentation on stuff that’s broken at Gel 2006 (I conference I've never heard of) as a way to promote his site. I found the presentation itself at Presentation Zen, when I read about in Guy Kawasi's essay on The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint, which I found on the sidebar of the Startup Success 2006, which I got to from the Churchill Club web site. I can't for the life of me remember how I got to the Churchill Club web site, but it killed a lot of time (did I mention I was in writing avoidance mode?).

Scott created his podcast with the idea of not wasting his listeners’ time and he’s done it. HanselMinutes is the only podcast I listen to. In fact, I prepared for a long car drive by filling my phone w/ episodes I hadn’t hear yet and listened all the way (except when I called Scott to complain about one of them : ).

Not only does Scott have a fabulous list of topics for the Windows developer, but the way he explains them is wonderful, too. I don’t know where the guy finds the time to do all the stuff he talks about; I’m jealous!

In fact, I’m so enamored of his show, I’ve been trying to horn my way onto an episode (and not just ’cuz he had very nice things to say about me recently [19:53 - 21:12]). I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but either way, if you only listen to one podcaster this year, it should be Scott.

I'm a big Ted Pattison fan in general (you have *got* to hear the story where the cowboy shows up at the door in buttless leather chaps), but he's at his best when he's singing (or holding Don's hand). Of course, Carl Franklin's no slouch at singing either (I don't know how he his at holding hands or whether his chaps have a butt or not), so you’ll want to hear them singing “Why Did Shipping Vista Turn Out to be so Hard” sttto "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard," by Paul Simon. Enjoy.

I’m on MySpace. Now what?

Superman Returns has some cool scenes and Kevin Spacey does a great Lex Luthor, but overall there were far too many soulful looks between Superman and Lois Lane for my taste. It's a matinee at best.

I got my Qtek 8500 today. The bad news was that I got the French version of the manual, but that wasn’t so bad, since I wasn’t going to read the manual anyway. However, the worse news was that all of the phone menus where in French, too. The nice folks at expansys.com were quick to send me the set of menus to turn English back on, but the instructions they sent where themselves in English, which required me to do a little babelfish work to translate into French menu text, but I managed.

Things I like about my new phone:

• It’s a flip phone that looks almost exactly like the famous RAZR, but runs Windows Mobile 5, allowing me to sync my email, contacts and appointments, play my music, load my own apps, etc. Physically, it feels very nice — thin, but solid. Even the flat keypad feels nice.
• I really like the higher res screen (when compared to my Audiovox 5600) and the larger keyboard (handy when you’ve got sausage fingers like mine).
• I like the external screen with the clock (a nice round analog one, too), the battery, the email count and three buttons for controlling the audio.
• The reception is better than my Audiovox.
• The volume on both my existing bluetooth headset and the included headphones is louder than my Audiovox (which is good for an aging Def Leppard fan…).
• I love not having to lock the keys on my phone — just flip it!

Things I don’t like about my new phone:

• The single, proprietary USB port (they call it an “extUSB,” whatever the hell that is). It’s for power, data and audio, which is handy, but I’ve got a bunch of mini-USD cables that no longer work, as well no way to connect my fully music-capable phone to the mini-jack in my car. I can get a conversion from extUSB to mini-USB on expansys.com, but so far, I’ve found no way of connecting the phone to my car.
• The camera’s high-res (1.3M), but doesn’t seem to focus very well.
• I haven’t yet found the button or option that allows me to set flight mode. Given the amount of air travel I do, that’s kind of a problem. Hopefully the pictures in my French manual will provide a clue…
• My $19 1GB mini-SD card doesn’t fit — I need *micro*-SD (who knew?!?). Luckily, micro-SD cards are pretty cheap, but it’d be nice to use my existing mini-SD cards, especially since the included storage was just enough to hold a single MP3 file…
• I don’t like the Start menu laid out in a 3x3 grid — I prefer to have things in a list with numbers by ’em, like in WM 2003SE. As it turns out, the numbers still work, but they’re not shown.

It’s true that I’ve listed more things I don’t like than that I do, but most of the stuff I don’t like is nuisance and the stuff I do like is very, very cool. I don’t know about battery life yet or what I’m going to think over time, but right now, I really like this phone. Recommended.

I’ve just registered for the Portland Code Camp 2.0, July 22-23. It’s a free conference that includes 26 developer sessions (so far), food, a party and the potential to win an XBox 360. And did I mention it was free? I’m not sure about the name (it’s being held at the Washington State University in Vancouver, WA), but other than that, what’s not to love about a local, free, developer conference?!?

And if you’re coming from out of town and need a place to crash, I’ve got a spare room. Come one, come all! Tell a friend! Register today! It’s free!