New Year, new week, back to normal, and ... a time of change.  Everywhere people are changing their lives, their approaches, their attitudes; something about marking this point in our annual trip around the sun causes people to take stock of their lives and make changes.  I am faced with a few myself.  Change can be good, but change is scary...  While already taking road A few people will willingly switch to road B, even if, given the choice at the start, they would chose B over A.  Disconcerting.

So be it, some things don't change...  like me, making a filter pass :)

2011: The Enterprise Resets.  In which companies are forced to confront the outside world: clouds, smartphones, tablets, and live without Microsoft.  Change! 

From Scott "Dilbert" Adams: Confidence.  "The reality is that there are only two conditions you can be in. You can either have an accurate view of your own abilities or an inaccurate view. Confidence is similar to will power in the sense that neither of them exists and yet society is quite certain they do."  As usual Scott raises an interesting topic, but this time I must disagree; the key attribute of confidence is it affects other people.  Even if you're deluded yourself, the effect on others can make the delusion self-fulfilling. 

This would have been good to read a month ago: The Importance of Vacation, Far Away from Your Computer.  "One of the great luxuries of the 21st century is vacation without e-mail.  If I had to choose between a pampered resort with constant internet access or a dowdy motel without any cellphone service, I'd go for the motel every time."  There's a weird tension between wanting to be connected - as in, checking your Facebook - and wanted to be free from being connected. 

Can't wait: Eye-Wi's Direct Mode unites phone and camera.  A transitional product, useful for the time until cameras' phones are "good enough" and we don't need stand-alone cameras anymore.  What would you guess, two years?  Some would say with the iPhone 4 we are there already... 

Meanwhile: Mobile Wallets are already coming true.  This is *so* going to happen, the only question is when.  With credit cards only physical possession is required, while with phone all sorts of other authentication can be added, and meanwhile it eliminates carrying the cards.  Smartphones are the vacuum cleaners of your pockets, as they slowly take over everything else you might have carried... 

This is cool (literally): Dutch Winter, a video shot in frozen-over Lemmer, in which everyone skates slowly to the sound of music :) 

Never said about restaurant websites.  Dead on.  How many times have I tried to access a restaurant website from my phone, only to find it was unusable.  In fact many are unusable from a computer too.  Another reason for the rise of Open Table :) 

Wow, these are incredible: Don Shank's iPad paintings.  Never mind that they were made on an iPad - that's cool - but they look like 3D Picasso's.  Check out the whole Shank Pile.  I love it. 

Dave Winer: the minimal blogging tool.  "I don't just write about the reinvention of RSS, I'm working on it."  Keep your eye on this one, Dave is great at skating to where the puck is going to be.  A gather the idea is to edit RSS directly, and generate HTML from it, instead of vice versa.  Huh. 

Great news!  Michael Rasmussen's team secures UCI license.  "The UCI has issued a Continental license to the new Christina Watches team of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, the team’s owner announced on Wednesday."  We'll have to see whether he still has it, but back in 2007 he was the best climber in the world. 

Finally, ZooBorn of the new year (so far):
 a baby DeBrazza's monkey.