Rhoneisms

Here is a quick little tip I have been using lately. Lately, in order to hold my place in books and magazines, I have been using a business card for a bookmark. The advantages of this are several, but here are the ones I like. First, I always seem to have one with me so I never have to search for a “proper” bookmark. Second, if I were to leave my book somewhere accidentally, it might have a chance of finding it’s way back to me, due to the information contained on the card.

I couldn’t not post about this right away. Looks like the fine fellows at 37Signals are finally going to give us the Backpack upgrades they have had cooking for a while now. You can find the first sneak preview here. It features the new ability to place item types anywhere on the page. It was frustratingly static before, so this will be a welcome change.
Not only that, but they have been doing some interesting things with OpenID. Now with several of their apps (Highrise, Basecamp, with Backpack to come), when you sign on to one of them using your OpenID, you get a bar across the top of the page called OpenBar. It has links to all of your other 37 Signals Open ID enabled applications which you are then able to seamlessly switch between. In other words, log into one and it will log you into all and allow you to easily switch between them. No need to keep verifying your credentials because OpenID has already provided them. It knows which Basecamp, Highrise, etc. accounts are yours because OpenID has told them who you are. It is the sort of thing that OpenID was made for. Brilliant.
In any case, I am super excited for all of the things coming down the road from these guys. If past history is any indication, I am sure I won’t be disappointed and it will be worth the wait.