I’ve had this posted on the wall of my office for a couple of years now. I first saw this in an email that was forwarded on to me ages ago. I’ll occasionally look randomly through the list and it never fails that something in the list is meaningful in the context of whatever is going on at the time. Thank you Regina for passing on these valuable life lessons and thank you to whomever originally forwarded the email on to me.

Written By Regina Brett, 50 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio:

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled
over to 50 in August, so here goes:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

If you asked me 4 years ago if a multi-touch 3.5 inch screen mobile phone with great software support would be an amazing seller, I would have said yes, regardless of which company produced it. It was exactly what the general consumer didn’t know they needed. The iPad though? It can’t be carried in one’s pocket. Face it folks, it has limitations:

• can’t take pictures.
• wouldn’t be a very good portable music player.
• certainly wouldn’t be useful as a phone.
• no FLASH support
• no multi-tasking

At least that’s the kind of criticism I hear about the iPad – even from the zanny Apple lovers. And when most people speak positively about it, I don’t hear much that would convince my mother that the iPad was something she needed. When I asked my nephew what he thought about the iPad, he almost started foaming at the mouth. But when I ask what it is about it that he likes, his vague descriptions made it sound like the iPad is simply a large-screen iPod that is less effective than my $250 netbook. To some extent, perhaps it is.

But I believe that most people’s expectations of what the iPad should have been was grounded on, more or less, in what the iPhone and netbook or laptop are. The iPad will be neither of those. And it wasn’t meant to be.

• the smart phone or mobile device – fits in the palm of your hand
• the netbook or laptop or desktop – to do things that would otherwise require a keyboard and large(er) screen (not necessarily just email – documents, programming, photo manipulation, etc)

So where does the iPad fit in? It’s a tablet and as such fits squarely (with rounded edges of course) between the mobile device and netbook/laptop. It may be able to do some of the things that both of those devices can do, but will definitely not surpass them in their ability to do various specific things well (phone, writing, programming, music player, photoshop, etc).

The challenge that will face most consumers is getting over their expectations. I forsee lots of unsatisfied iPad buyers on launch day.

There is also a challenge facing software developers targeting the iPad. You can simply take your iPhone apps and blow them up for the larger iPad format. Doing so, however, don’t expect much. Those iFart apps lose their luster on the larger format. Or not… fart noises are still hilarious. But you get the idea. The iPad requires remodeling, rethinking, a different approach.

The question remains – what are some of the practical applications for the Apple iPad? Let’s not really discuss specific apps, but more target markets… I’ve been thinking about this and have some ideas.

Clipboarders - Anyone who would carry a clipboard or visit clients. This includes real estate agents, insurance agents, door to door solicitors, FedEx carriers, physicians, auditors, fitness professionals… the list goes on and on. Each of those markets could likely benefit from niche applications catering to what they would otherwise do with a clipboard or perhaps on a laptop.

Couch surfers – This market includes people who semi-casually want to look something up or show someone something while at home, probably sitting on the couch (or other place, unfortunately probably also including the toilet for some). Could be movie listings, the weather, photo albums, the family tree, security cameras feeds, youtube videos, TED Talks, vodcasts, Discovery Channel tv shows that you can’t watch because the rest of your family is hogging the tv… This list is endless. Sure these applications could possibly work just as well on a different device, but the iPad definitely has a market for these kinds of things and this is the kind of market that most developers will likely target.

Readers – People do still read books. Sure the iPad may not be as good as an e-ink device for reading, but I’m sure the market for ebooks on the iPad will be huge. I’m also sure that many iPad owners will additionally own a Kindle or other ebook reader that is specifically made for such a task. We aren’t heading to a single device World any time soon.

Makers – The makers market is probably one of the smaller markets that could be targetted by the iPad. Programmers would obviously have a hard time writing anything of any significance on the iPad. Writers would likely be somewhat unproductive at writing their next novel without a true keyboard. But for cooking, baking, music making, finger painting, proofing and other things that don’t necessarily require external input devices, there is room for some innovative applications. Of course, Steve Jobs is anti-stylus for some reason. He was quoted as saying “yuck” regarding a stylus. The lack of which means less impact to the maker market. The inability of the iPad to use a regular stylus may not be a huge constraint though as there are indications that third party companies have created a compatible stylus. Having this would no doubt increase the market penetration of the iPad on the maker category.

Gamers – This is obvious. At the iPad press conference, some low key uninspiring game demos were shown. I’m not convinced that driving games will rock on the iPad as much as they do on the iPhone, but there is no doubt an incredible oportunity for game developers to port or create for the iPad. With the larger screen dimensions, even two player board games are possible. Checkers or Go anyone??

Expectations that the iPad would be a device all encompasing in its ability to adequately handle all activities from A to Z is unrealistic. Also unrealistic is the idea that the iPad should have features that simply work better on other devices. It is not a camera nor is it a mobile phone. The iPad is what it is and will be successful in its own right. When I want to talk on the phone I will use my Blackberry. When I want to listen to music, I’ll use my iPod. To take a picture I’ll continue to use my SLR and to read an ebook from the comfort of my couch, well when the iPad comes out, I’ll probably use that.