David Piccione.com

On the first of August, I stopped watching TV cold turkey. I wasn’t a huge TV watcher to begin with, but I often found that sitting down to watch the news at six ended with me watching the news at 11. Five hours of channel flipping, not really watching anything important.

So I quit. Going into the second week of September, I’ve only watched half a football game - this because I was sick and didn’t feel like doing anything at all.

What’s TV worth: Nothing.

To tell you the truth, I don’t miss TV in the least. What’s changed:

• My nights are longer once I get home from work
• I’ve been much more productive with personal projects
• I’ve spent more time with my son
• I’ve read more
• I’ve had some great Scrabble games with my wife

It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s made me a good deal more content with life in general. As a nice side effect, I’ve actually cut down on the regular weekend video rental as well.

Give Up Your Addiction

I’d recommend that everyone give up TV for a month and see what results. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

This has been a rather slow posting week. To the regulars: my apologies.

Some different links in the file today.

“Red Canary is an online publication that connects Canadian software professionals to what matters to them.” Interesting to see what becomes of this site. It’s always good to see some focus on Canadian IT. Backed by a recruiter though so who knows.

No wonder I always get fuchsia mixed up - it’s three different colours! At least I’ll be able to use this site as somewhat of a reference though.

How to use AJAX with classic ASP. If you’re stuck using it as I am, this might be of interest to you.

One of the most interesting ideas I’ve seen in a while, Kiva.org allows you to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries in amounts as small as $25. What a great idea to help empower people around the world. A great concept that deserves your support.

I’ve been pretty happy with my Mazda3 since I bought it back in 2004, but the new Mazda6 takes things to the next level. Of course, if I had the money I’d get the RS6, just so I could be the one to blow by your rice rocket in a station-wagon.

Apparently, this is the best pic ever. Pretty cool site.

Well, summer is over after this weekend. It’s time to get back to work, and I hope to have some exciting news this September to share with you all. Actually, autumn is my favourite time of year, I’m sick of summer already. (Don’t kill me)

For now though, the Friday File.

A funny take on Corporate IT, or should I say “doing IT for a bank“. Unfortunately it’s more accurate than it should be.

The Tracksuit CEO on how to avoid raising an “approval addict“. A good one for all the parents out there.

If you didn’t see this on reddit this week, you probably didn’t catch this one either. Both are pretty funny.

Finally, in case you’re wondering about the list of flags on the sidebar, my site is using a new tool called Feedjit. Mark Maunder built this little widgit in 10.5 hours a couple of weeks ago. It’s a great little piece of code and is an amazing example of testing your idea early with a quick release.

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend!