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I got a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro. I want to use the Vision Pro for productivity and typing is a must. I hooked it up (it is charging in the picture) and I was surprised to see this typing display that floats above the keyboard. it also knew which keyboard I was using?

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Minneapolis Downtown Council 2024 Annual Meeting

I got to attend the 2024 Minneapolis Downtown Council annual meeting today at the Armory. Our own Karin Lucas chairs the board and addressed the crowd. Amelia Santaniello emceed the event, with special appearances from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

There were many, many statistics shared about all the great things going on in downtown. It did seem like there was a lot of development going on. There is also a strong focus on safety and law enforcement. It was cool to see that SPS Commerce is the 9th largest employer with 1,465 people, up one spot from 2023 when we were 10th with 1,346.

A large indoor event with crowds of people milling around tables, a projection screen displaying information, and the logo “mpls downtown council” illuminated on the floor.

Karin Lucas on stage at a conference with a large audience, large screen display above showing the speaker, and banners indicating the event relates to the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

Mayor Jacob Frey on stage at an event, with their image displayed on a large screen behind them. The audience is seated at tables in a large venue, with banners reading “mpls downtown council” and “ARMORY” visible in the background.

Governor Tim Walz speaking on stage at an event with an audience in the foreground. His image is also displayed on a large screen above him. The stage is adorned with floral arrangements, and banners with “mpls downtown council” logos are visible in the background

Leaders from SPS Commerce sitting at a dining table in a festive event hall with a live performance in the background.

An event setting with a large audience and a stage where four people are seated, engaging in a discussion, with a large screen displaying a close-up of a speaker. The Minneapolis Downtown Council branding is visible in the background.

See also: 2023 Meeting; 2020 Event, 2020 Music, and 2020 Speakers.

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Ordered a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro so I can dive into more of the productivity use cases.

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I wanted to celebrate getting my Apple Vision Pro and what better way than with a POAP! I’m sharing this POAP with anyone that demos it with me and experiences Spatial Computing — likely for the first time! I’m attaching POAP Moments to this event, and see on POAP Family.

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You can drink a coffee while using the Vision Pro, but you may need to tip your head back so the coffee mug doesn’t get blocked by the Vision Pro.

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Tammy and I had a great night seeing Words & Music by Dan Wilson at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. He was joined my John Munson for a few Semisonic songs. The rest of the night he shared stories of various writing sessions and sang the songs that came from them. Laamar opened the night. It was great. 🎶

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First experience in Spatial Computing. 🤩

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At the Apple Store picking up my Apple Vision Pro!

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The #TeamSPS tech team gave out this “I Stopped by the Tech Lab at SKO POAP” in the Product Partner Fair at Sales Kickoff 2024. We continue to have fun with POAP.

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Curious Experts with Diana Kander

The guest keynote for #TeamSPS Sales Kickoff 2024 was Diana Kander. She shared how expertise can slow down innovation and how to keep curiosity alive — ultimately being curious experts.

She emphasized focusing on big questions when looking at “things to do”.

  1. What is the real problem I’m trying to solve? It is really easy to jump into solving and not have a good grounding on the problem.
  2. How would you rank the importance of this, 1-10? Get rid of the good to focus on the great.
  3. Is this a zombie? Zombies are tasks that just exist out of inertia. How would we know if it is a zombie?
  4. How could we reimagine this?
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Day 2 of #TeamSPS Sales Kickoff 2024 was another great event. We started with an inspiring call to action from our Chad Collins and similar to previous years the Product & Partner Fair was a highlight. Over 30 teams in SPS setup booths to engage with the sales team on our products!

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I was using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and stumbled on the Changes feature. It took a while for the visualization to populate but it is a cool way to see the rate of changes on your blog. I’m a happy supporter of Internet Archive.

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I had a great first day of #TeamSPS Sales Kickoff 2024! So much energy and excitement in the room.

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A warm welcome to the newest slate of Minnestar board members: Kathryn Frengs, Tim Herby, Muneeb B. Hafeez, Kevin Jansen, Robert Tomb, Matt Decuir, and Valerie Lockhart. I continue to be a big fan of Minnestar and their mission to catalyze the Twin Cities technology community.

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Backed Project Tapestry from Iconfactory

Iconfactory launched a Kickstarter campaign for Project Tapestry today. Iconfactory is a great company that has built some of the most delightful experiences (Linea, Frenzic, Twitterific). Tapestry intends to be an open “timeline” of content from a variety of services. I’m intrigued because of the focus on open systems and the world-class skills of Iconfactory. Backed!

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Today Buttondown released a new comments feature! I’ve turned this on for the Weekly Thing — it is something I’ve wanted to try for a while. You can leave comments on any issue in the archive.

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Online Handle

Jim Nielsen’s Online Handles blog post caught my eye. I figured I would share too.

Recently I started using jthingelstad just for clarity. However, decades prior I always went by thingles, which was my very first Unix account username at the U of MN. It was just my last name truncated to eight characters, but the list had misspelled and transposed the e and l in my name.

I embraced it, but it aggravated even more the most common misspelling of my name.

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Trying a Roomba for the first time and have it on a mapping run. I find myself talking to it:

“No, don’t go there.”

“Avoid that shag rug! You got stuck there before.”

“Nice job on that turn.”

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Jumping into Obsidian

I recently decided to give Obsidian a serious investigation and voluntarily dive down the “rabbit hole.” 🕳️🐇

The tipping point for me was this post by Daniel Tan reflecting on his journey with Obsidian and how it has become an “indispensable tool” for him. I once ran my own personal wiki which likely makes me a prime candidate for Obsidian, but the complexity of these setups has always made me steer clear. About two years ago this was my perspective on Obsidian.

When I read articles from people sharing their bespoke Obsidian setups I think one of the best things I’ve done for my productivity is to completely ignore Obsidian.

While I’ve been ignoring it I have noted a lot of continued momentum with Obsidian. Additionally MacSparky has continued to be a big advocate of Obsidian and even released an Obsidian Field Guide. MacSparky’s strong endorsement is a big deal for me, we share OmniFocus enthusiasm and his OmniFocus Field Guide was a game changer for me.

I signed up for a year of Obsidian sync service, have a couple of different “vaults” setup and have started using them mostly via Daily Notes, and I signed up for MacSparky’s field guide so I can accelerate my learning and avoid mistakes. Wish me luck! 🍀

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I’ve followed CJ Chilvers writing for years now. His newsletter is one that I learn from and find inspiration in. He just released Principles for Newsletters that brings his 37 years of newsletter experience together in 49 lessons. Just $5. Instant buy for me.