People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Let this serve as a reminder to the incoming elected representatives of all parties, you are where you are now because the people of the nation put you there, so please try not to disappoint.

FoodFoo is one of the web ideas I’ve got lined up for this year. Please head on over to FoodFoo.com and drop your email if you want to be notified when it’s ready for launch.

FoodFoo is a social food discovery engine that will help you unearth new and more interesting places to feed that appetite of yours. It’s still not quite ready for prime time but if you sign-up to be notified, you’ll be the first to know when it launches.

The new feed is at:

• http://prashantrajan.com/blog/feed/

Notes:

* All Tossbox.com permalinks will continue to be honoured (for now at least) but it’s best to update your links with the new address.

* New blog and feed address will become active over the next 24 hours.

Execute my ideas for building web applications.

So there it is, just one main resolution but the personal satisfaction it will bring me will be incredible. I’ve got a couple of other mini resolutions too but I’ll keep those private for now and blog about them at the end of the year.

To help get the ball rolling, here are some inspiring quotes to keep motivated:-

From 37signals‘ compelling Getting Real book:

Ideas are worth nothing unless executed.

From Mark Cuban’s inspiring Success & Motivation post:

Everyone tells you how they are going to be "special," but few do the work to get there. Do the work.

So here’s to a successful and blissful 2008. Let’s get the party started…

• Lost weight - lost 20+ pounds and counting.
• Less stuff - I buy and own less stuff than ever before and I’m much happier.
• New language - learnt the Ruby programming language.
• Smash-free - didn’t "total-loss" for the first time in years.

… and a couple of other mini life changing achievements.

So here’s a big thank you to everyone I know who helped make 2007 so good and memorable.

The challenge online is this: smart people are bored by frequency. The people you’re trying hardest to reach won’t sit still for repetitive messages. I used to read a certain blog religiously, but after the 300th irrelevant post about his new book, I had to flee. I haven’t been back since.

I had a similar experience recently with a blog I faithfully followed and happily recommended to others, the Dilbert Blog. However, after his millionth time of adding unrelated references about his new book to his posts, I decided enough was enough. It was just too distasteful for my liking. I too haven’t been back since. I wonder if we’re talking about the same blog, after all, they say smart people think alike All that being said, I still believe Scott Adams has incredibly unique  viewpoints and puts them to words in very entertaining ways. Definitely worth the read, just not for me right now.

See the video appeal from Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales here.

The XO is packed with many smart and practical features. Here are some of the highlights:

• A single keystroke can reveal the underlying code of almost any XO program or any Web page and allows it to be safely modified; this is a great idea - higher chances of some school kid from a third world South East Asian country improving upon or writing the next killer software app/widget/whatchamacallit.
• A single battery charge lasts for 6 hours. It can last so long because it consumes less power than your typical laptop. This also allows it to be recharged by hand for where power is not available. The battery also has a longer lifecycle  and costs only $10 to replace; why doesn’t my relatively new laptop have a battery like this!
• Mesh networking; every machine is literally a wireless router.

This November OLPC is running a Give 1 Get 1 campaign in North America whereby for every XO you purchase to empower a child in a developing nation, another one will be sent to you.

Here’s a quote from Seth Godin regarding the XO and how he feels it will change everything:

When you give a kid a net connection, access to wikipedia and to the rest of the world, things change fast. Things you wouldn’t necessarily predict. Like a ten year old who can diagnose his dad’s illness. Or a farmer that can ask his daughter to find out where to get a new part for the tractor.

One can’t help but wonder what the reported USD30 million (real-world cost or so I’m led to believe) spent to send the first Malaysian astronaut to space could have been better used on. Perhaps on these XOs - empowering the Malaysian children of today with technology and maybe, just maybe, someday in the near future we’ll have the the smartness and ingenuity to build our own spacecraft and then make a genuinely meaningful voyage to space.

• 4 ways to make more time
• Be honest with yourself and you’ll get more done
• Networking for a new generation: Be authentic
• Specialist careers are the key to freedom
• Breaking the Perfection Habit (good read)

She also recently published a book called Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. Guy Kawasaki had this to say about the book:

“Take everything you think you ‘know’ about career strategies, throw them away, and read this book because the rules have changed. ‘Brazen,’ ‘counter-intuitive,’ and ‘radical’ are the best three descriptions of Trunk’s work. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat hole…”