Raam Dev’s Weblog

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote about how I thought the iPhone was the future of mobile computing:

I am fully convinced that the iPhone, along with the developer tools Apple is providing, will lead the way for a new generation of mobile devices over the next few decades.

I don’t usually make such bold statements, especially given how fast technology changes and how quickly fads come and go, but the iPhone was different. It seemed like less of a phone and more of an enjoyable computing device; a toy for children, a toy and a smartphone for adults, and a beautiful piece of technology (as in looks) that people love to show off.

In Jeff Atwood’s latest blog post, he made similar statements that describe the revolutionary level at which the iPhone is changing the way we define mobile computing (talking about the latest iPhone 3GS):

A landmark, genre-defining product, no longer a mere smartphone but an honest to God fully capable, no-compromises computer in the palm of your hand.

We will look back on this as the time when “software” stopped being something that geeks buy (or worse, bootleg), and started being something that everyone buys, every day.

Jeff’s post gives a great overview of what’s amazing about the iPhone. He says to check back in fifteen to twenty years to see if he was right about his prediction on the historical impact the iPhone will have on computing. It looks like I’m one year ahead of you, Jeff.

A few days ago (actually, a few weeks ago; holy crap!) I wrote about my wondering if I should move back to the city. Well, I still haven’t made up my mind. I have, however (thanks to inspiration from this comment), come up with some alternate solutions.

One option I came up with was to use something like AirBNB to rent a cheap room for the two nights that I’m in Cambridge. I would drive (or take the train) to Cambridge on Wednesday morning, stay overnight somewhere local until Friday, and then drive back to NH Friday evening. This would save me about six hours of commuting and would be a good balance between the advantages and disadvantages I outlined in the earlier post.

However, renting a room twice a week would also mean an additional $320 a month spent on rooming (assuming a $40/night room, which seems to be the cheapest in the area). Even with the $115 I would be saving on gas from not commuting as much, that’s still an extra $205 every month. For quite some time now, I’ve been doing everything I can to save money and cut down on expenses, so spending money on something that really just solves a big inconvenience doesn’t seem to make sense.

So I continued thinking of other ways that might be cheaper and still offer the same result. That’s when I remembered reading about couch surfing. What is couch surfing? It’s exactly what it sounds like (well maybe not exactly): someone offers to let you sleep on their couch (or floor) at no cost! People do it out of the goodness of their hearts (and/or the desire to meet people and/or socialize). The CouchSurfing.org website is the primary resource for couch surfers around the world (including those hosting a couch) and there are over a million registered users, including me!

While I’m couch surfing, I can continue to make up my mind about whether or not to move back to the city and at the same time work on adapting more of a mobile lifestyle. There are no long term (monthly) commitments and I will be saving money (on gas) instead of spending it. Also, one of my 2009 New Years Resolutions was to “improve my social skills”, so at the very least couch surfing will help with that!

I’m sure couch surfing will prove to be an interesting experience — I’ll be sure to take notes and write about it.

While eating lunch at Life Alive today, I picked up a book called The Essential Koran (the Qur’an is the most important religious text of Islam). I consider myself very neutral when it comes to religions: I’m not atheist, but I follow no religion. I remain open minded.

From the forty pages I read, the following excerpt really stood out. (It’s very important to read slowly, and understand each line. The context changes a lot, so you might need to read it a few times to fully appreciate it.)

(8-20)
Is it not that they are in fact
the troublemakers,
without even knowing it?

And when it is said to them,
“Believe as the people believe,”
they say, “Shall we believe
as imbeciles believe?”
No, it is they,
they who are the imbeciles,
though they do not know.

And when they encounter
those who believe,
they say, “We believe.”
But when they are alone
with their obsessions,
they say,
“We are in fact with you;
we were only joking.”

While everyone will of course read the text from a different context and therefore interpret it differently (that’s what makes humanity so interesting), my take on it was that it seemed to explain the way so many people in this world behave: deceptive. And while I’m sure there is plenty of intentional deceptiveness that goes on in this world, I’m also fairly certain there is as much, if not more, unintentional deception that goes on under the covers (”troublemakers without even knowing it”). But how? How can people be deceptive without even knowing it? Simple: By deceiving themselves! In deceiving themselves they are unable to be fully aware of their actions towards others.

We must make a conscious effort to be true to ourselves so that we may be true to others.

Tonight I watched Pontypool, a very “different” type of zombie movie. I thought it was awesome because I had no clue what to expect next. The story line is very original and doesn’t really follow the same boring script that all the other zombie movies follow. It’s definitely the most interesting zombie movie I’ve ever seen.

If you like lots of gore and zombies chasing innocent people around, then you probably won’t like this movie. However, if you have somewhat of an imagination (enough imagination to enjoy science fiction) and like to be kept guessing, then you’ll probably agree that this movie is awesome. (Fair warning: Everyone else watching it with me thought it was the stupidest thing they’ve ever seen.)

You can check out the trailer on Hulu.com.

I’ve been thinking about moving back to the city; Cambridge to be specific. A little more than two years ago, in January of 2007, I moved to Cambridge to be closer to work (the office was a 10 minute walk from the apartment). A year later, in January 2008, I moved to Arlington due to the landlord increasing the rent and because I was getting tired of trying to find a parking spot for my truck and paying so much money for such a small space (~450 sqft).

Then at the end of October 2008, only ten months after moving to Arlington, I decided to move again. The Arlington apartment was very nice; a first floor, two bedroom apartment, with off-street parking, a back yard, and plenty of storage space. For the first time, I had a place that felt like home. But all the space led me to realize how wasteful I was being. I was accumulating so much stuff without realizing it because the huge apartment made it easy to hide stuff. So I began letting go and decided to move back to NH, close to my family where rent was cheaper and outside activities plentiful.

I’ve been enjoying the outdoor activities in NH, but the long three-hour round trip commute to work has really been getting to me. I’m trying to decide if I should move back to the city, or just tough it out and continue living in NH.

Disadvantages of moving back to the city:

1. No easy access to running trails and forests (there are two huge conservations within 10 minutes of where I’m living in NH!).
2. The air is not as clean (I wrote about this two years ago when I first moved to the city, here and here).
3. The distance from my family means activities with them will be limited to weekends (badminton with my dad, volleyball with my brother-in-law, swimming in the lake at my parents house), and that’s only if I decide to even make the trek up there on the weekends.
4. Parking will be difficult.
5. Rent is a lot more expensive, which means I’ll probably need to settle with having a roommate.

Advantages of moving back to the city:

1. I’ll have more free time, because less time will be spent commuting (I spend about 3 hours commuting on the days I work in Cambridge!).
2. With everything so close, I’ll do more walking and biking, which are both a lot healthier than driving.
3. It will be easier to build my IT services business (a greater number of small businesses within 10 – 15 minutes).
4. Public transportation makes moving around the entire city very easy (providing plenty of places to explore in Boston).
5. I tried, but I couldn’t come up with a 5th advantageous reason to move back to the city.

There are more things to consider, such as my newly modified work schedule at Aerva (three days a week, instead of five), the higher price of gas making it cheaper to commute via the train (same three-hour round trip commute, but I get to sit down and work or read), and my desire to build my IT services business (building it in the NH area and still commuting to Cambridge makes it more difficult for me to be in two places at once, compared to building it in Cambridge).

I don’t usually write posts like this, but I figured writing it would help with my making the decision. And I think I can already feel it helping. I love the outdoors so much and having access to trails and being able to play volleyball or badminton after work with family is really great. Is it worth the increased opportunity for my business and the three hours of commuting I would save by moving to the city? That’s what I need to decide.

This is my first videoblog. I’m demonstrating my new Dyna-Flex PowerBall and explaining how I get it started with only my thumb. I’m still not to sure if I like the idea of videoblogging, but I figured it’s never too late to try something new.

Lots of things have been changing for me lately, mostly by my choosing. While I believe this is a good thing, I feel an increasing sense of disarray. My life, my goals, my plans, and even my thoughts, are beginning to feel more and more like the seemingly endless, and increasingly disorganized list of projects and tasks in OmniFocus (the application I use for managing tasks/projects).

Maybe I’m just trying to do too much at once. Maybe I need to slow down, define a few short-term reachable goals and stick with them until they’re met. Or, maybe, it’s time to take another 40,000 ft look at my life.