The anti-priority dogma—er, canon—of GTD and OmniFocus

So I’ve been playing with OmniFocus alpha to see if it can work for me as a personal productivity/task manager, but as I noted before, the system lacks a way to prioritize tasks. It seems rather obvious to me that you want to identify the important must-do items before you start filling in your day. I could spend all day answering the phone, reading and writing emails, catching up on my feeds, having meetings, doing conference calls … and not getting done the things that need to get done....

 · Laura Lis Scott

Marilyn Monroe is now in public domain

When it comes to post-mortem publicity rights, this decision is BIG: The Southern District of New York has just issued a bombshell decision in this area. In Shaw Family Archives v. Marilyn Monroe LLC, it held that Marilyn Monroe’s heirs cannot claim post-mortem publicity rights because she died before the enactment of the statute that creates them in California (and, for reasons that are not important here, Indiana). So, according to this Court, her image, likeness and persona are all in the public domain....

 · Laura Lis Scott
diamond-shaped chart representing how much attention is given to each release of software

How to use open source (and how not to)

The open source path can be a delightful and cost-effective way to go for a web-based project. However, if you don’t understand the primary dos and don’ts of open source, a “free” open source website can quickly become a costly and difficult bear to manage. As open source software becomes more popular and more relevant to the needs of non-tech-minded people and organizations, we thought we’d offer some basic background on how to use – and not to use – open source for a web platform....

 · Laura Lis Scott
large ship burning up on re-entry into atmosphere, as people watch from the ground

Battlestar Galactica is back in space

I’m a little astonished — and I suppose I should be embarrassed, but I’m not — by how I behaved watching Battlestar Galactica this past Friday night. Exodus: Part 2 was one of the most exhilirating and most moving episodes of the entire series so far. It was one of those episodes that makes the exceptional pilot miniseries — which I just saw again last night showing it to a friend who was a Babylon 5 fan but she never had seen any Galactica — almost pale by comparison....

 · Laura Lis Scott
movie poster with young adult woman in pretty summer dress blowing a bubble gum bubble

13 Going on 30 Redux; or: Happy Girls Don’t Do Careers

So last night I saw 13 Going on 30 on DVD, and while I enjoyed it, the movie left me in something of a funk. It took me a little while to figure out why. After all, the movie was funny, Jennifer Garner was really terrific – what a shock that this is her first big comedic leading role in a feature! – and the tone at the conclusion was uplifting....

 · Laura Lis Scott