Indoor Skydiving
[Thilo](http://www.lemming.name), a friend from Germany arrived on Saturday in San Francisco. After cruising around the Bay Area with a rented convertible we were on the watch for some more fun.
We stumbled across the [website of iFly](http://www.iflysfbay.com/), a indoor skydiving facility. That looks great!
Unfortunately, they are booked up until Wednesday. I'll let you know how fun this is!
**Update:** Although it was kind of expensive (2 mins for $49) it was awesome! And it is harder than it looks. 
My First Geocache
After I bought a Garmin outdoor GPS device last week I was looking around the web for some additional information about GPS.
What I found was a website about [geocaching](http://www.geocaching.com ). I didn't know what geocaching is before so here are a few words about it:
Don't Trust Beta Software
Yes, we all know this. Don't trust beta software. But if you do, **make backups**!! Well, making backups is no bad idea, anyway.
Sorry folks, but an update of [ecto](http://infinite-sushi.com/software/ecto/) killed the article I was writing. Thanks to [Time Machine](http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html) I could restore the article but the work of two days is lost. 
GTD Inventor David Allen at Google
I found a nice little video (45 min) at YouTube showing David Allen giving a speech about Getting Things Done at Google. If you already know GTD you won't find anything new, but it gives a nice overview what GTD is and why it may help you getting more productive and relaxed.
[youtube]Qo7vUdKTlhk[/youtube]
I've been using GTD for a [couple of months now](http://www.stiefels.net/2007/08/23/getting-things-done-hopefully/) and I can tell you that it works. But it only works if you have the discipline to use it for all of your stuff. As soon as you start disregarding the usage of your trusted system the whole system may get out of control.
Also, today OmniFocus 1.0 (a GTD trusted system) [was released](http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/). With over 13,000 pre-orders this is a huge success for the guys at the [Omni Group](http://www.omnigroup.com/). Congratulations! It's a really great product!
New Design
It has been a few weeks since I last wrote an article. I've been busy the last time and I will be for the next four weeks. But right before 2007 ends I found a few minutes to change the design of this website. Also, the next article is "in production" and will be posted the next days.
Getting Things Done, Hopefully…
Although I'm in my semester break now I hardly can find any time to get my things done. During the day I'm [working](http://www.cmo.de) and in the evening I currently don't know where to find additional time to get on with my [personal projects](http://www.stiefels.net/projects).
The last months I repeatedly heard about a concept called [*Getting Things Done*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done) developed by [David Allen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Allen_%28author%29).
According to what I have read about this concept so far and what people say who are planning their time according to *GTD*, it increases productivity by simultaneously decreasing your stress-level. Sounds great, doesn't it?
Well, I just ordered my copy of [Allen's book *Getting Things Done*](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0142000280%26tag=ws%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/0142000280%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002) to try it on my own. I'll let you know if it worked for me.
New PGP/GnuPG Public Key Available
Since my old PGP/GnuPG keypair expired, I created a new one. The new public key can be found [here](http://www.stiefels.net/contact/gnupg/).
Funny Hotline
Recently I called a hotline of a not-so-small software company because I had a question regarding an order I placed a few days ago.
As expected a nice computer voice read out a endless list of possibilities from which I had to choose from.
THE Bar for Apple Fans?
Last weekend I was out with a few friends and as we walked through the city I noticed this signboard of a bar.
I really couldn't figure out why there is an Apple logo in it...
IBM Certified Database Associate & Administrator
Today, a guy from [IBM](http://www.ibm.com) showed up at [my university](http://www.hs-esslingen.de) to offer DB2 certification exams. The long days of preparation and experimentations finally paid off. I passed both the Fundamentals (700) and Administrator (701) exams for the [IBM DB2 Universal Database](http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/9/). It's a pity, DB2 doesn't run on Macintosh systems.
