Non-techie Talk

Twitter drops the ball

2012-01-22T18:09:00.001-05:00

I''ve got the AFC championship game on between the Patriots and Ravens, while editing a book manuscript, and it's been a good game thus far. I'd like to tweet some of my thoughts and play reactions but, if I may borrow from the immortal words of Howard Cosell, "Down goes Twitter."

People may not know this, but one of the leading server manufacturers in the world is...Google. They came to the conclusion that their up-time was so important that they couldn't trust anyone but themselves, so they build their own servers.

Google, for all its faults, at least demonstrates clarity on what side its bread is buttered. Twitter should get their act together and build a server infrastructure to support their service promise.

Like a moth to a flame, social search brings us ever closer to SkyNet

2012-01-11T21:45:00.001-05:00

So, Google+ is now showing up on Google search results. While this is big news, it may not even be the biggest development in social search, which is continuing to evolve into all kinds of interesting directions.

My very first post here at Non-techie Talk was a review of two search apps for my Palm Pilot. As I mentioned in that article, a capable search engine is what supports storing information in the first place because, if you can retrieve the information you need, there's no point in storing it - the value of putting information in is being able to get it out. Search is a big deal.

That's what originally made Yahoo! a great internet destination. As a portal, it helped give the limitless expanse of the internet some shape, it helped us find information. But, it had pre-packaged what information was presented, and searching for exactly what you want was a secondary consideration.

That's the opportunity Google recognized. Most people would go to a portal, scan what was on the menu, and then just order a la cart by searching for exactly what they were looking for. So, Google stripped out all the links to the usual suspects - you know, "news", "weather", "sports", etc...and said "here's your search field, enter what you want and we'll find it for you."

That "strip out process" works. After all, isn't Twitter, for all intents and purposes, essentially just the Facebook status update stripped out?

Anyway, fast forward to present day. It's no secret that Facebook was looking to leverage its mine of personal information as a personalized web experience, to become as it were not just a web-within-the-web, but a web without Google. Nor is it a secret that many are concerned that this "walled garden" approach is not cool.

They built it...

Google's new development - including Google+ information in search results - appears to offer a social media "open field" of access to anyone. As Google+ grows and users actually increase their use of it for social interaction, we're going to see Google+ become an increasingly present data source in search results.

...but, will they come?

In order for this to take flight, people have to start using Google+ to interact socially. Until there is critical mass, it won't threaten Facebook. However, in order for people to start using it, at least Google had to do its part and build something to use. And Google+ does have some nifty functionality. If Google+ grew underground back in the early 2000s, it might have become the standard. However, it's trying to occupy a corner of a room dominated by the Facebook elephant.

The elephant is pretty big

Facebook still holds the advantage. It has the user base, almost a billion people, and can already offer right now what Google is trying to build - search results that integrates personal/social information with wider web information. Why can't a Facebook user do a search, within Facebook, that returns Facebook results as well as internet results using Bing? That would provide results, in one window, from both the walled garden within Facebook as well as the open field of the wider internet using Bing. Essentially the same results, and no Google.

Other options

Have you ever heard of Greplin? This is another twist on search. Sign up, set up all your various accounts (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Basecamp, LinkedIn...), and it will search all of them. Just not the open web.

Where are we going with this?

Skynet, right?

Rogers Bank

2011-09-07T12:23:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Rogers is considering offering banking services http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1049879--rogers-applies-for-banking-license

Take a look at the general tone of the comments following the article. Clearly, the issue with Rogers (as discussed at length here in previous posts) won't be solved by adding new products and services. I snapped a shot of Moneyville's poll (after casting my vote).

Rogers needs to stop looking to extract more revenues out of a battered, bitter customer base, and put some tangible effort into taking care of the customers they have while they still have them, perhaps even making it possible for customers to actually enjoy being a Rogers customer

Of course, I'm not holding my breath.

HP dumps webOS

2011-08-18T16:00:00.005-04:00

Just yesterday I wrote that it was time I come to terms with the reality that Palm/webOS was dead, and today HP announced it is discontinuing its webOS operations http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/hp-punts-on-webos-discontinues-touchpad-cuts-outlook/55386?tag=content;feature-roto

Unbelievable.

Now that Microsoft has bought Nokia and Google has bought Motorola, is there a hardware company out there that is smart enough to make webOS competitive?

James Kendrick at ZDNet suggests that HTC, cornered by the prospect that Google's purchase of Motorola leaves them on the outside looking in, should grab webOS. An internet search will also show plenty of banter suggesting RIM, on the ropes but with a hoard of cash, should buy webOS.

A "strange week in tech", indeed.

HP TouchPad not selling well

2011-08-17T13:01:00.005-04:00

Larry Dignan reports for ZDNet that HP's TouchPad sales are underwhelming and ponders who's to blame, HP or Best Buy? While he concludes both, I lay it squarely on HP.

Last I checked, the product has never been called the "Best Buy TouchPad." It's HP's baby, and it was up to them to do a proper launch and give the TouchPad a fighting chance.

Jason Perlow's account of his buying experience reveals the sad state of affairs with the HP listless effort and their dysfunctional Best Buy relationship, and demonstrates the strength of the Apple ecosystem - owning the Apple stores gives Apple control of the environment and the experience, ensuring a closer connection between the products and the company.

One would assume that HP has not only the money but also had the opportunity to develop a better experience for its customers through Best Buy. If not, they perhaps should have considered a better plan for how they'd come to market and meet their customers.

Perhaps it's a chance for me to snag one on the cheap, which is great. But, if it's going to die an ignominious death anyway, it might be better to simply give in and go with the iPad (which my Mac shop boss considers a no-brainer in the first place).

I'd previously written It's not over - HP buys Palm, expressing my hope for the survival of the Palm OS. At this point, it's starting to sink in that it was indeed over, I just hadn't come to terms with it. This latest fiasco (and yes, I consider it a fiasco - HP needed to hit a home run, not hope for a walk or base-on-balls) is absolutely beneath the corporation that we thought HP - shame on them for thinking they can just "show up" and compete in a marketplace that is proving unequivocally that such could never be the case.

Ubuntu Software Center makes it easy

2011-07-24T02:58:00.006-04:00

At some point I'm going to have to discuss the frustration with installing applications that are not found in the Ubuntu Software Center. However, at this time, it's good to know that there are plenty of options in each category a ton of applications to choose from in the Ubuntu Software Center (USC), and that using USC is easy.

You can browse by category if you don't know what specific application to look for. You can also search by a keyword and see a list of applications to choose from.

You can install several alternatives and try them all. In the new v11, you can now try an app before you install it, which sounds pretty cool as well. Here in v10.10, however, that's not available. However, all applications are free, so if you install something and you don't like it, uninstall it with no worries (and no "registry" to declutter).

Not everything is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy in Ubuntu for the non-techies out there. When it comes to installing software, the Ubuntu Software Center is really helpful at making things easy.

The next step

2011-07-20T00:10:00.007-04:00

I've moved up to a full installation of Ubuntu 10.10 yesterday.

I got a desktop with Windows on one partition and Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat installed on its own partition.

Up till now, I had been using the Wubi installer to get acquainted with Ubuntu and, although I'd seen enough to know it would be well worth further exploration, it was clear a real test of its performance couldn't be had in such an environment.

Why didn't I go with release 11 Natty Narwhal? Well, a few reasons:

I still haven't really taken Maverick through its paces. Now that it's properly installed on its own partition, we can get a real feel for what it can and can't do;
Maverick will be supported until April 2012, which is plenty of time to test drive and decide whether to invest the time in getting comfortable in the Ubuntu world;
issues with Natty Narwhal will work themselves out with updates etc., by which time I should be comfortable enough in the Ubuntu experience to face that learning curve;
my next computer should be a Mac anyway, so I may not have to bother with the Natty at all.

To date I've been generous and forgiving because I couldn't know for sure how Ubuntu was performing in its unnatural test environment. Now that we're full on, I can be objective and also tougher on the things that really are not cool. I've already begun to appreciate that Ubuntu certainly isn't for everybody. It may not even be for me - we shall see.

Twitter for news

2011-07-06T15:18:00.005-04:00

Last year, during the G20 session in Toronto, the ground shook. I first wondered if some political bombing or subway crash had occurred. News sites seemed jammed...but Twitter started showing an increasing number of people asking "was that an earthquake?" and "did you feel that tremor, too?"

Within three minutes I knew that indeed an earthquake had occurred, with the epicenter in Quebec just outside Ottawa and that it had been felt as far east as New York City, as far north as Barrie, as far west as Detroit and as far south as Baltimore, just because I could see the tweets of real people in real time.

I was reminded of this when, just the other night, I was out and was curious about what was happening at the Rex Jazz Blues Bar. While their website provided a monthly calendar, I could feel the vibes from tweets on the Dave McMurdo tribute, and one tweet even reminded me that there was no cover, just come on down and enjoy.

In other words, the real-time aspect of Twitter provides an intimacy, and an immediacy, and an authenticity to the nature of shared information. For me, before I make a move these days, I check Twitter for public transit or traffic issues, as I'm much more likely to know what's happening on the ground "right now" than some sanitized report through the PR department's main stream media releases.

Granted, it's not always "truth". The other day, there was a shooting at transit station in the east end of the city. Some were tweeting that the station was shut down as a result, but I was there, and buses and RT trains were moving through, although having to shuffle where they picked up and dropped off riders since the south-east segment had been cordoned off due to police investigation. I was able, however, to toss in my two cents and let people know that the station was not shut down.

This is but one more nifty feature about Twitter - it's open, decentralized, and in aggregate becomes an honest capturing of what's going on. When 300 people in two countries across a 1,000 km radius all ask "what was that shake?" within a 2 minute time span, I know it wasn't a subway crash in Toronto. What other single event could it be?

Yes, the meteorological affirmation and subsequent coverage would eventually get to us from "the authorities" but, during those 18 seconds and the ensuing two minutes of wondering "what the heck was that?", there was a place I could go to reach out and connect to others experiencing the same thing, and put together a rough idea of what was going on - and that place was Twitter.

The key thing to watch is the interplay between Twitter and the media establishment. There will be times when Twitter goes off wrong, and it takes confirmation from the media to correct the false information. A hoax over the Independence Day weekend announced that the American president had died and, what's more, it was a media Twitter account that had been hacked. That false report was subsequently corrected.

When Michael Jackson died, news first broke via Twitter, but there was naturally shock and doubt and the world waited for the media establishment to verify the tragic news. Human nature is such that Twitter can be abused, as news can now spread around the planet more quickly than ever before, long before that news is ever researched and verified as truth. We will continue to need the media institution to use its sources and resources to help us validate truth.

By the same token, there are plenty of examples, not only of real stories being squelched, but also of mainstream media essentially disseminating lies in response to some external pressures.

Socio-politically, it's important for society that open communication is supported. Yes, censorship and ratings are a part of free society, and hate communication cannot hide behind free speech rights...but truth in news is not a given 100% of the time, and technology that helps people connect and share information can be a force for good.

My approach to Empire Avenue

2011-07-06T12:41:00.004-04:00

I get the impression that most people who've already embraced Empire Avenue have all their eggs - LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, a blog - in the one basket that is themselves. So, all their social presence is plugged into a single identity.

Empire Avenue, assuming all people are like the above, only allows you to connect to one Twitter account, one Facebook account, etc...so, whereas I might have liked to add all six of my blogs and their respective Twitter accounts to my single Empire Avenue account, I can't.

But I think I've found a way around this limitation.

Head Office
I set up my personal ticker, (e)DGA as a holding company. My personal Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube accounts are all connected to this, but aside from LinkedIn, my activity in these are not high, and are not going to push my share value through the roof.

The only shares this holding company owns is from my six blogs which I call subsidiaries. I do buy shares from outside my conglomerate, but that buying happens at the appropriate subsidiary level.

Subsidiaries
Each of the six blogs (including this one) with their respective Twitter account are connected to their own ticker. All of my blogs are endorsed and approved as blogs. So now, all my social media activity, across my entire landscape, will blip the (e)DGA radar, including the nifty feature that its activity feed shows each blog entry and each tweet, all funneling into the one location.

Activity
Empire Avenue is a game and, as such, it may reflect reality in some aspects and not so much in others. To be sticky, it also is attempting to bring more to the table than merely a place to track online activity - it has created its own environment, vocabulary (dollars are "Eaves", etc...) and methodology for ascertaining value which is not linear.

The more blog posts that are written do not necessarily equate to a higher ranking. The same for tweets. Beyond quantitative valuation, there is also a qualitative valuation which may or may not reflect reality as you might. Their FAQ explains that they continue to monitor how well their approach works and will tweak and evolve the approach over time. It's not perfect but then, neither was Monopoly - they are both games with a set of rules that not only somewhat reflect reality but also create their own reality.

As such, my subsidiary share price may not skyrocket like other shooting stars, as I don't play the game like others or engage social media to the extent that others do.

But I'm also growing and learning and, as my social media engagement evolves, perhaps I'll be able to track that with an objective measure such as the price of my shares.

Value
It is, however, a little more than "just a game." For example, if you increase your Twitter followers, your Twitter ranking goes up as does your share price. So, if someone buys your shares, it makes sense for them to also follow your Twitter account.

Further, even they they don't go to Twitter and follow you there, once someone owns your shares, they can see your blog posts and tweets, which effectively increases your exposure anyway.

Through Empire Avenue, which is social environment, I've met people from around the world, and I'm not a heavy player or online personality at all. The opportunity to reach out and meet people is very present.

Of course, there will be the "Invest in me" flotsam that has nothing to do with any real connection of humans or ideas. But that's the nature of the beast - the game can be what you make of it. As it appears set to grow, it makes sense to at least pay attention to it. It may be a flash in the pan, it may burn brightly and then fizzle out, but trying to keep abreast of all the various entities on the Conversation Prism and the growing pantheon of social media properties, demands that we pay attention to this rising star.

Potholes and speed bumps on the Avenue
One criticism I have of my EA experience thus far is, it's a "busy" interface, perhaps not altogether unlike the sensation of an 80s video arcade. I find it a tad buggy, actually (and that's with a relatively high speed DSL connection and using Chromium or Firefox in Ubuntu/Linux). That's not cool, and I'll be interested to see if the entire slowness is all on my side or if others have a similar problem.

Also, from an engagement point of view, engaging a real conversation with real people has not yet been my experience. When it comes to LinkedIn, conversations in Groups is a very popular and engaging feature, and I contribute to plenty of conversations in the various groups I've joined. There are groups in Empire Avenue, so delving into that part of the street should make for an interesting follow up to this first post.

I hate WordPress (sorta)

2011-07-05T17:23:00.007-04:00

I maintain six blogs - five in Blogger and one on my own domain using WordPress, a decision made on a recommendation. I find WordPress to be a royal PITA.

The image management sucks. I actually draft my articles in the previous blog on Blogger and then copy the html code into WordPress in order to make it work. Sure, I could "figure it out," but given that I've spent exponentially more time trying to figure out WordPress than Blogger already, the fact that I can make Blogger "go" means that, pound for pound, Blogger is simpler. Granted, "simpler" doesn't necessarily mean better...but we'll revisit that in a moment.

I try to add widgets to WordPress, but they look crappy, displaying in text or misaligned. I paste the identical code in Blogger and, voila, presto, the badge or button looks great, and functions as it should.

New versions of WordPress can break plugins and widgets...in order to protect against this, I've got to set up some sort of child theme that I don't understand. And, since I don't understand, I therefore can't upgrade my WordPress. Blogger has never prompted me to have to update anything, it has always just worked.

Yes, there are things I like about how WordPress presents a blog; any professional blogging platform should have the features that WordPress has, such as:

the ability to include and edit exerpts
the ability to determine whether the entire article or just the exerpt is displayed when someone lands at your home page'
the revision control to revert to a previous version if necessary
in addition to tags, the use of categories for organizing content

And, chances are, if I was a professional coder, I'd probably like WordPress better because it has so much muscle under the hood.

But the headache and stress associated with using WordPress on the back end, for a non-techie user like myself, is becoming of such degree that I felt compelled to vent about it here. Every time I go looking for community help or instructions on how to do something, the response invariably starts with "with a little PHP this can fly"...but I don't have any PHP know-how. Sue me, tar and feather me for not being a computer programmer, but I'm not a programmer.

Blogger is accessible to non-coders, but the price to pay for this relative simplicity is that there is a limit to how much of the professional features are available (that I know of; it's not impossible to imagine that it can do all kinds of things of which I'm not aware because I wouldn't know how to make it work anyway).

Yet, while it appears relatively simple, if things work then there must be some complex things happening on its own without my help, and that actually makes Blogger more solid, doesn't it?

There is no way in the world I'd even think about handling my other five blogs in WordPress - on Blogger, they're all a breeze and while I would like the additional features of WordPress, the bottom line is that my content is up in Blogger, and I'm able to be nimble with the platform.

It would be fine if I could afford to just send my content to someone else, wave my hand at them and say "make it happen." In the hands of professionals, WordPress is surely a fantastic platform.

But for regular people like me, using WordPress is no fun at all.

Some light on the dark side

2011-07-04T15:34:00.007-04:00

Previously, I tried to explain a little of why there are still Palm OS-5 die-hards out there, myself included. Now that I've begun experimenting with an iPod Touch, it's time to share some first-hand reactions to the new standard.

In reality, my trusty Treo 680 is tired. It's clunky, the online landscape has changed such that it's not compatible with so much of the action, and it's rather painfully slow at certain times when I want to do something, if it can do it at all. Then there's the relative lack of connectivity to all the things I'm doing, compared to the relative synchronicity of today's devices.

Which isn't to say it doesn't have its use. Take email, for example - if I access my gmail via the Treo browser, I can select from the 14 from addresses, depending on to whom I'm replying. With the iPod Touch? Nope, whether the built in email app or some 3rd party installed app, it always replies from my single account email address. That's pretty lame, and essentially reduces my iPod Touch to an email viewer - if I have to respond from the appropriate email address, I have to fire up my Treo and get some work done.

Be that as it may, I couldn't run Dropbox on my Treo, and it's a piece of cake on the iPod Touch. Similar for banking software. Truth be told, the functionality available via the installed app for my bank is identical to the web version I can access via Treo's browser. But, it's much more vibrant, and smoothly functioning with the iPod Touch.

Several of my professional techie friends, who run both Windows and Apple shops, will tell me that Apple hardware rules the world and Apple software sucks. Apple has an approach that renders the union of form and function among the greatest of any manufacturer of anything, ever. My son's iPod Nano is a remarkable little thing to hold and use, and the same goes for the Touch. It's a solid device, impeccably crafted, down to the finest of details at the edges, with the weight, the balance, the feel of it... I used to think my Treo looked cool, but compared to the sleek slick lines and finish of the Touch, my trusty Treo is positively stodgy.

And, beautiful as the iPod is, it's not fragile. Hand-helds must be able to endure 4ft drops with regularity (the industry standard is a 3ft drop, but more often than not I fumble it while in motion so it's dropping at a forward trajectory, not straight down). I've already dropped the iPod a couple of times, and I've had no problem with it. It's solid.

Getting the thing to work required iTunes, which I'd previously taken an oath never to install. Having no choice, I took the plunge, ensuring I paid attention to the install steps to prevent iTunes from even knowing what folder my mp3 collection is - I do not use iTunes for managing my music.

However, it's a fairly interesting environment for managing the iPod. I learned, for the first time, that iTunes backs up my iPod which, for a Palm guy, was pretty cool. I've yet to actually attempt to retrieve data from the iTunes back to the iPod, but it's more of a back up rather than a sync - there is no "desktop" where I can, for example, see my calendar or create a memo pad entry, or edit a contact's information. It's just a back up, but seems to do the job.

Now, the music player on the iPod itself is also crappy in my opinion. I find it difficult to play a set of songs without having to make a playlist, and it appears to only be able to play a list in shuffle mode. It also assumes mp3 tags are all perfect, and if they're not (as mine aren't, don't ask me why) then of course I can't select an artist and get a list of all their songs. My Treo mp3 player allowed me to see a list of songs by their file name, and my mp3 files are all named by artist and then song title, so it's easy for me to pull up a list of one artist. I've also saved my songs in genre folders, so it's easy for me to play "jazz bop" or "jazz fusion" or "R&B jazz" on my Treo. On the iPod, it's not near as easy. So, generally, I'm just not a fan of iTunes as a music tool, whether on the desktop or on the iPod.

It also showed me that not everything I install requires an internet connection. Yes, most apps require a web connection, but apps are installed on the iPod, which was news to me.

Now, I don't have a data plan with this thing. I got it from work as an introduction to the world of Apple (my boss is a Mac guy, our office hardware is Mac, so I am being assimilated and have been advised that resistance is futile). But, it does have a slick wi-fi manager, so I have full use of it from home and wherever I can pick up a signal, such as Starbucks, etc.

But, if you read that previous article on the Palm OS die-hard, you would appreciate that the different demographics inform how people interact with and use their hand-helds. And a recent situation underscores this.

Me and the boss were heading back from a meeting last week. We were down in the city, and he said "I wish I could find a gas station." Strangely, we were in an area of town where we hadn't seen one in blocks (much unlike the suburbs where just about every intersection has at least one gas station). I said to him "I've got an app on my iPod called AroundMe, but it's not connected to the web now. Give me your iPhone while you're driving, I'll install it from the app store."

Here's another example of the ease of use of the iOS ecosystem - no screwing around with .pdb files, just tap here, tap there, it's installed and ready to rock in a minute. We had AroundMe running and found a gas station approximately 661m from where we were at the time.

The thing is, I'm a Palm guy. I would expect my hand-held to be able to help me out. My boss the Mac guy was driving around on E with the gas gauge light on...and didn't think "there's got to be an app for finding a gas station when you need one." But it didn't dawn on him to deploy the tool that his iPhone really is - it took me, the Palm guy riding shotgun, to apply my Palm way of looking at things to leverage the power of the iOS ecosystem.

It drives me nuts

that the system calendar won't allow me to set an appointment reminder any further in advance than two days.
that the system note pad does not include alarms and there's no system task list.
that the task lists I've installed to test don't show up in the iPod search functionality
that I can't swap out a dead battery for a fresh one. When this battery is dead, I'm out of commission until I can recharge it

etc...but we've already discussed the fact that the demographic target of the iPhone has an entirely different priority than the demographic clutching their crumbling Palm OS 5 devices like grim death. And, there are a gazillion 3rd party offerings in each category with varying degrees of sophistication.

At the end of the day, I know that Palm OS 5 functionality will die out as the online landscape continues to evolve beyond its legendary but tired capabilities. I watch movies and episodes of NewsRadio and other TV shows on Crackle or YouTube, which is very cool. YouTube is hit and miss on the Treo (mostly miss), and Crackle? Forgettabadit.

Test-driving the iPod was an attempt to grease the slope for a slide into iPhone, but I'm now thinking I'd like to see if HP webOS can deliver a decent hand-held (the Pre pebble is just not happening) and cultivate an app ecosystem. Either way, I realize there's so much going on these days that I will have to release my grip on my old Treo and move on before too long.

Are there holes in Dropbox?

2011-07-04T10:48:00.009-04:00

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The Information Age
Ours is the Information Age. Pieces of information - data - are the currency of the times. Data are created, supplied, demanded, stored, distributed, lost, destroyed, aggregated, replicated... and there are human beings involved every step of the way, because information is a product of the human experience.

There are all kinds of pieces of information to which people need access in more than one location. Today's technology allows for one person to make sense of using any number of devices in the normal course of their personal and professional lives - desktops, laptops, PDAs and mobile devices...privately owned machines, publicly-shared machines, corporately managed machines...

I use and have recommended the use of Dropbox over the last six months. Recently, Dropbox released a new Terms of Service attempting to present its terms in non-legalese language, and it has created a furor over understanding - and misunderstanding - the implications of some of its terms.

For me, it's much ado about nothing. Yes, many more technically-adept people recommend dropping Dropbox asap:

J. Daniel Sawyer at Literary Abominations thinks we're nuts to use the cloud;
Dave Winer at Scripting News has canceled his Dropbox account.

It's also informative to read the comments/conversations following the articles as well.

But, there are also those out there saying "don't listen to the bloggers...um...including us" as they speak words of calm.

Agile bits affirms that, after testing many alternatives for their professional purposes, Dropbox is still their choice, as it does a few things no one else does as well, if at all.

The Cloud
"The cloud" is a two-edged sword from jump. But it does provide a solution to the two-edged sword of trying to ensure the safety of your data on a single machine. Unless you are an uber-techy, you might not be inclined to do what is required to maintain your own data safety. "Backing up" is not as simple as it sounds, and all kinds of software solutions are out there to try to make it easier...but there is no dominant standard, which itself is telling - the concept is not sexy and does not enjoy mindshare, usually until after something bad happens, and at that time it's likely too late.

"The cloud" can provide some ubiquity and redundancy to your data, so if something happens to a copy of it here, you can access a copy of it there and keep on writing/working/reading/whatever. But, then there's the privacy issue. And the monetary matters. And the legal landscape...

What is the issue?
Basically, the language reveals implications that don't sit well for many, especially those who are creative (artists, writers, and others for whom protecting their copyright is an important matter). Personally, I understand and thus interpret the language as a simple function of what's required for Dropbox to offer its service.

For example, the time it takes for me to access a file on Dropbox remains relatively the same - the ability to deliver a request to open or download a file requires server strength that inherently requires redundancy - which means, they had to save the file to many different locations (in case one server site burns down). The company has promised a user experience - how they deliver is their problem, and these terms help them deliver.

Consider also a matter of copyright. I write a manuscript and save it to Dropbox. If they copy the file, should I be able to charge them for it? If every writer charged Dropbox for making a copy in order to provide the service, Dropbox would become insolvent. In order to provide the service, Dropbox says "look, if you want to save your creative material on our service and we copy it in order to ensure its availability to you, don't charge us, okay?" Seems reasonable to me.

"Oh, but then they can sell my work and not remunerate me." Yeah, sure, it suggests this is a possibility. But honestly, do you believe Dropbox is a front for some clandestine organization who is looking to steal your next novel so they can make money on it? Some actually entertain this possibility, hence the defections.

Then there's the issue of my saving a copy of some material I did not create and, therefore, cannot grant copy rights. So, for example, if I save music I have bought to Dropbox so I can listen from any location/device, I still cannot grant Dropbox the right to copy the music, but I now have been advised that Dropbox may, in the course of doing what it does, make a copy of the music that could be accessed by someone else and, in that event, Dropbox is not responsible because it's only managing files that I provided and granted permission for them to do what they need to do. So now, I'd be guilty of copyright infringement.

However, if I extrapolate this out, it seems planet would sue itself out of existence - it's just such an impractical eventuality, it makes no sense. The easier it is for people to use and enjoy digital music, the more they'll buy. Killing the golden goose by making people afraid to save, share and access their digital collections is not in the best interest of the copyright holder in the first place. Is ABC Band going to subpoena Dropbox to divulge who all are sharing their music files and then sue each of their loyal fans individually? Well then, where are their concert ticket sales coming from on their next tour when all their fans are broke after having been sued?

Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and maybe I'm totally out to lunch on this point. And if this scenario applies to you, you may have to reconsider whether Dropbox meets your needs. My only question here is, whatever online alternatives are out there that can deliver a similar user experience as Dropbox, are they not in the same boat with whatever methodologies they use that enable that similar experience? [edit: Ed Bott summarized the language from various cloud services, and they all retain the right to copy for purposes of providing the service. Microsoft's language goes on to say "if you don't want others to have those rights, don' t use the service to share your content."]

Why am I sticking with Dropbox?
It is still the most simple, elegant and reliable system for non-professional, personal use, and the majority of my use is personal. You don't have to be a techie to make it work, and once it's running it's quite seamless and unobtrusive. It also has plenty of techie chops - its API tools are respected, and it supports native file structures better than most direct competitors.

And, of course, I don't save ALL my files on Dropbox, especially those with information I wish to remain private. That's not much different than having a wallet with me on the move for certain pieces of information, and a fireproof safe at home for others. Managing our information in this age is an increasingly complicated patchwork of methods, tools, hardware and software. Dropbox is but one piece of a larger puzzle.

Are there alternatives?
Sure, there are. In every flavour, size and shape you can think of. By all means, go ahead and test alternatives, if you have the time and knowledge to understand the strengths and functionality of each. If you search you'll find plenty of lists of alternatives with summaries of what make each worth considering. It will take time - if you have the time, great.

For professional applications, there are security steps that work well with Dropbox. And there are more professional alternatives out there. In the professional space, even if you are a small office, you should have a professional techie advise, implement and support the solution that meets your professional needs.

Bottom line
Dropbox isn't for everyone, and alternate solutions that are perfect "right out of the box" are rare and will require techie chops. Dropbox's new TOS have implications that can be interpreted to be an uncomfortable compromise of valued protections...or they can be interpreted as facilitating the offering of the service.
As long as there is some choice, we're in fairly good shape.

[edit: here's an article with plenty of technical heft in the article and following comments that discuss Dropbox's design that creates security concerns].

Finally, a negative experience in Ubuntu

2011-05-15T17:53:00.004-04:00

It had to happen, at some point. I've found something that is very definitely much easier in Windows than in Ubuntu - creating PDFs.

Sure, spitting out a document from OpenOffice to PDF is easy - there's a print as PDF option built in. But, I don't like using OpenOffice, I prefer using Microsoft Office, and I'm able to use MS Office in Ubuntu thanks to CrossOver.

In order to set up PDF as a print option, here is an example of instructions for making it happen. I actually tried to follow other instructions, it never worked, then found these, and haven't even bothered to try it.

For techie people, sure, as the writer said, "this is easy." But for regular people, it ain't easy at all, and it had me wistfully recalling how easy it was to install a PDF print driver in Windows.

There are online services that will create a PDF for you - you upload your document, they generate the PDF and email it back to you. That's all fine and dandy, unless you'd prefer not to expose your information to "some website".

So, this is one of those processes where I find myself saving a file, rebooting to Windows, and creating the PDF there. I really am amazed that the open source community hasn't created a more simple application to make this easy in Ubuntu, but at this stage, this is one area where Windows currently still is better than Ubuntu.

And you know that was painfully difficult for me to concede.

Dropbox rocks

2011-05-03T17:18:00.002-04:00

I migrated from Live Mesh beta at work, defecting to Dropbox, and I'm extremely pleased with my decision thus far.

First, some background to set the context of my enjoyment of Dropbox.

I used to use a pretty good piece of software from Microsoft (seriously, good software from Microsoft, I'm not kidding) called SyncToy. I synced my data between my laptop and desktop with a portable USB drive in between them, driven by SyncToy. Then I found myself in a Windows 7 environment, and SyncToy didn't play nice, if at all. So the sands of time buried my use of SyncToy and I had to find an alternative method of keeping my data backed up and accessible across the machines I use. Along with Windows 7, we had Microsoft Live Mesh Beta for file-sharing. I used it, it had its usefulness, but I never liked it - it was not elegant at all, quite cumbersome, in fact.
Using Live Mesh beta was just non-intuitive. The interface was slow, and it also wasn't readily apparent how to invite someone to share a folder. Then Microsoft announced that it would be ending the beta and launching Live Mesh 2011. The notice included that Live Mesh 2011 will only work on Windows machines, and that iced it for me, given that I had recently started using Ubuntu. I promptly told my boss "we need more flexibility than this, I'll find something else."

Live Mesh beta phased out at the end of March, and Windows Live Mesh launched April 1st, merging Live Mesh and Live Sync... and SkyDrive, um, sort of. Confused? Yeah, me too - what a cluttered, dog's breakfast.

Enter Dropbox, a simple name, a simple idea - just drop all your files in this box and access them anywhere - regardless of device, regardless of operating system - through an interface that is clean, bright, fast, stable and provides clear settings and options.

A free 2GB Dropbox is more than twice as small as Live Mesh's generous 5GB (but hold that thought).

I copied all our shared files to a new folder in my Dropbox, shared that new folder with my boss with an invitation to set up his own account and all of this took about ten or twelve minutes....oh, and both he and I got an additional 250MB tacked on to our storage limit, free. I can, through sharing and inviting others, expand my limit up to 8GB of free storage (60% bigger than Live Mesh).

And sharing is easy because I don't have to ask "do you use Windows?" (and, truth be told, more and more people in my world are answering "no" to that question). Dropbox works exactly the same on Windows, Mac AND LINUX, on Blackberry and iPhone (and, I will assume and verify) on webOS. Currently, I've got 3.2GB of free storage, and I'm sharing with clients, colleagues, peers and family members in Canada, the United States and Australia. One of those with whom I'm sharing is my son - he was able to have a Dropbox installed at his junior high school computer lab (and he's decided he's a "Mac guy"). Many of these people first got into Dropbox in response to my invitation to share and they have since implemented Dropbox in their world, sharing with their various networks of people. All of them are now enjoying a seamless, easily-implemented solution.

Going forward, if I migrate my info management from my trusty Palm Treo to the new webOS, or if my next computer comes without Windows at all (whether full Ubuntu, or a webOS ToughPad, or Mac or whatever) or if I get my engineer son a Mac like he uses at his school's computer lab or an iPad...whatever the case, finding good web tools that are platform-neutral will be increasingly preferred and sought.

Dropbox puts an icon in the system tray that shows a green checkmark when all files are synced, and blue, dual recycle-arrows when changes have been made that are being updated across folders. The icon also allows a user to launch Dropbox on the web where additional tools and settings can be accessed.

Users can install Dropbox on any machine and that Dropbox folder is added to the shared network for that log in ID. When working at a place where Dropbox can't (or shouldn't) be installed, all files can be accessed via the Dropbox website (when working with files, you can download, edit/modify and be sure to upload back to your online Dropbox). When next you access an installed Dropbox, whether at home, at work, or on a laptop or smartphone, your files will be updated and kept in sync.

I did read an interesting blog article that provides a solution to a problem with Dropbox. The writer's concern is that the Dropbox servers are not opened, so sensitive or confidential data may be vulnerable. He provides a detailed workaround to set up an encrypted folder within your Dropbox. Having said that, he also mentions that his solution requires encfs which, according to him, is only available on Mac or Linux [edit: Ed Bott went the other way in wake of Dropbox's new TOS and demonstrates some of the features and functionality of Live Mesh that he appreciates.]

So, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Dropbox may not be perfect for every use. But for what it is, what it does, and what it costs, it's fantastic. That same blogger began and ended his article with glowing accolades, notwithstanding the issue for which he offered the encryption workaround.

So, yeah, get Dropbox.

CodeWeavers CrossOver - a definite difference maker

2011-04-26T00:01:00.008-04:00

There is debate about whether one should want to be able to run Windows applications in Ubuntu or find and learn to use open source alternatives that may be as effective for getting work done.

Some argue that using Windows apps in Ubuntu is in reality hindering growth for the open source developers. Others say that trying Ubuntu at all might not happen for some who have particular software needs that are either not met by currently available open source aplications or are under-served by open source apps that do not deliver the performance or user experience of the Windows favourite.

There are many other good reasons to support a Linux operating systems ability to run Windows applicaitons, explained very well here.

As a user who is still in "trial mode" (using the dreaded wubi installation in dual boot mode with XP on my machine), I've earnestly tried using whatever open source apps approximate my experience. For the most part, I've actually embraced the open source alternatives (for whatever I can't do online to begin with).

And then there's Microsoft Office.

I'm not a programmer, I don't write code of any kind, but I have built spreadsheet models in Excel that have managed in excess of half a billion dollars in inventory, fleet and other assets under management. I personally think Microsoft Excel is among the most useful pieces of software in the history of computing.

I've tried open source office productivity alternatives and, for me, I've got to stick with Excel. So, what to do?

Well, there are several ways to make Ubuntu (or any other Linux OS, AFAIK) co-exist with Windows on one machine. There are folks who are either very techie or have a techie friend who can hook them up with a system that can run two different operating systems on the same computer, at the same time (one on each monitor with drag and drop capability across monitors). There are other set ups where Windows is installed inside Ubuntu and runs in its own window, one step removed from the critical system files that viruses seek to terrorize by being cradled in the utopian open source operating system. Then there is a dual-boot set up, where one has two operating systems (or more, if they're so inclined) but must "shut down" from one in order to boot into another (not the most elegant or efficient when working on something across platforms).

The point here is, while I'm technically still in "try it" mode, I would have to shut down Ubuntu and switch to Windows to run Excel. That is not elegant. Ideally, I would want to be able to run Microsoft Office from within Ubuntu.

Most people who also want that functionality end up running Ubuntu and a program called Wine (previously linked with respect to reasons for supporting Windows apps in a Linux operating system). I took one look at the instructions for installing Wine and said "there's got to be a better way." It was just too technical for my patience (this IS "non-techie tak", right?)

Well, there is an easier way. I found CrossOver, from the good people at CodeWeavers.

They've got various levels of installation at tiered pricing. "Pricing", you ask? But, isn't everything on Ubuntu supposed to be free? Of course not. Do all Windows apps charge a registration fee? Of course not. But, you know what - the price for CrossOver was well worth it. I did take it for a 30-day free trial spin, and that showed me all I needed to know, I had to register it, keep it running, and maintain my use of MS Office while in Ubuntu.

Sure, Wine is, um, "free". But it requires more of my time than I could afford to invest (or, waste, as the case would most likely have been) in figuring it out. How much is your time worth?

Let's be clear. I'm not slamming Wine, not at all. In fact, you've got to read CodeWeavers very passionate and driven commitment to Wine in their own words to appreciate that paying to register CodeWeavers software very specifically supports the Wine project.

You see, contrary to popular misconception (in part due to over-zealous open source fans over-promising on "how simple" Ubuntu is), a Linux operating system is very complicated and can require honest-to-goodness programming chops to really leverage (not unlike...any other operating system out there. After all, it is a computer operating system). One of Linux's strengths is that it is a "command line OS", meaning that while the graphical user interface is pretty and solid and mouse-navigable, there's a whole lot of muscle under the hood for those so inclined to get things done with commands via the terminal (almost like DOS lurking behind Windows).

There are those who just love getting their hands dirty with code to make Wine work wonders. Those types may not need something like CrossOver. I'm just not one of them. As such, if I was going to be able to use Ubuntu, I needed a simpler way to run MS Office, and CrossOver provided it.

It was easy to install, easy to make work. The support is great, which is another key value to paying for registration. I should pause here for a moment - to say "the support is great" really needs to be underscored, because the concept of the Zulu word "ubuntu" ("I am, because you are"; beautiful, isn't it?) is all about appreciating others for their contribution to one's whole being. It's about a sense of community, belonging, and not only getting from others in the community but also giving to others in the community; it's about sharing. In this context, read again, with a new depth of understanding, when CodeWeavers says "thank you, esteemed customers....we deeply appreciate your support of our business philosophy" - because I am a paying customer, CodeWeavers can be Codeweavers. They are, because I am. And vice versa - I am able to do my thing because CodeWeavers is out there doing their thing. Okay, end of group hug.

Thus, "support" is not a hassle, it's not a burden, it's not a "necessary evil" - it really is a part of the entire product and promise of CodeWeavers.

Bottom line, I now can run Microsoft Office in Ubuntu. I will admit, I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan (not a fan of Windows, I absolutely do not use Internet Explorer if I can possibly avoid it, etc...) but I use Excel. Come to think of it, I'm not the biggest fan of MS Word, either. But, I use Excel, and now I can use it in Ubuntu, which means I am almost completely free of having to boot to the Windows side at all.

And that makes me very happy.

Understanding the Palm OS 5 die-hard

2011-03-30T11:33:00.008-04:00

With such a wide variety of smartphones out there, some may be puzzled as to why there remains not a few Palm OS 5 die-hards apparently so unwilling to join the rest of the world in the 21st century, yours truly among them. This article is an attempt to contribute to the discussion and help support understanding.

To begin with, I really appreciate Philip Haine's article 1995 Palm Calendar creams the 2008 iPhone's. He methodically breaks down a comparison of doing things on both calendars and deftly demonstrates what Palm OS users have difficulty parting with - its productive functionality. Do yourself a favour and read the article - it's extensive, not glib at all, and puts in real practical perspective the relative ease of using Palm OS vs the more modern OS of today's leading smartphones. The comments below further speak to the real difference.

I'm on a mailing list for a community of users of a piece of software I use in Ubuntu that helps me continue using my Treo 680. This membership is full of software programmers, engineers, university professors and other professional and educated people, all of whom can't let go of their Palm OS5 (and earlier) devices. It's most reassuring for me to know that, if I am crazy, at least I'm not alone and in fairly good company.

The question that comes up for us quite regularly is "where do we go from here?" Is there a modern platform that finally can stand up as the functional next step beyond our trusty Palm OS devices? The answer is a resounding "no".

Each of the leading platforms - Blackberry, iPhone, Android - have their niches and strengths. None of them separate from the pack as the obvious heir apparent to the Palm OS loyalists.

iPhone
Returning to Haine's article, it's clear that the people at Apple had a different demographic in mind when they designed their functionality. Apple designers, both hardware and software, are pretty good. They didn't get the calendar wrong due to trying and failing to get it right; they got it wrong because the kind of calendar use that typifies the Palm OS devotee is not a priority for the demographic that has bought up iPhones. In other words, while the calendar functionality is woefully inadequate for us, it's not an issue for all those who love their iPhone, because they didn't get an iPhone with calendaring functions as a primary concern.

The iPhone is essentially an iPod with a phone in it so that iPod users didn't have to carry many devices and gadgets. In other words, it was initially an entertainment product, a toy, something more for fun, not work. Yes, iPhone is growing and has become a rather viable work platform - but work wasn't the initial driver of the company's foray into the smartphone space. That brings up Blackberry.

Blackberry
There was a time when "smartphone" was only the Palm Treo, adapted from the Handspring Visor which was developed by the original Palm Pilot designers after they left Palm (Palm's corporate history is quite a melodrama, I'd seen a more entertaining article on ZDNet but can't find it now). Anyway, businesses had started deploying the smartphone for its managers and road warriers, but it was awfully unstable. One of Palm OS's strengths was that it had a broad software development parameter that allows all kinds of 3rd parties to develop applications for the Palm OS (long before there was an "app store", there were Palm apps available). This would accommodate too much instability and Palm became known for crashing and a nightmare for IT to support.

Research in Motion (RIM) saw the opportunity and entered the space with a solid, stable handheld communicator - the Blackberry had a closed, proprietary OS by which RIM could control the user experience and take more responsibility for providing a stable platform. Blackberry's focus was communication - phone, email and text was the name of its game, and it delievered almost flawlessly, to the degree that Blackberry became the #1 smartphone on the planet, a ubiquitous device that dominates the corporate space.

However, its controlled environment and focus on stability had to come at some cost, and what the Blackberry ecosystem lags in is that "app store" buzz and variety of applications. Again, since most Blackberrys were deployed from an IT department for business use, end users were not going to be installing their own apps with any frequency or regularity. As such, the Blackberry OS is not the most stimulating in terms of customizability, or even the kind of functionality/flexibility that, again, are hallmarks of the Palm OS loyalists priority.

Android
I've heard quite a few postulate that the OS to bet on is Android, but it is still a bet and they're not sure they'll be right, so haven't been able to rush in and "just move on" with an Android device. One of the key issues with Android is that it is right at the opposite end of the spectrum from the success model of Blackberry and iPhone - both OSs are proprietary while Android is open and is too fragmented for proliferation of 3rd party apps that have too many different devices/specs to account for in the code.

webOS
Ah, HP webOS. It showed promise, but as of the date of this post, it's still a disappointment. No stylus (so engineering/schematic and other applications that require pinpoint data entry are a no-go); devices with no expansion card/slot, and an arm-twisting push to "the cloud" with no local hard drive data sync is just too much of a slap in the face. Data - and its security - is a key priority for the Palm OS loyalist, and "the cloud" is just not trustworthy enough for such a paradigm shift.

And, clearly, the hardware itself is designed for some other demographic than the Palm OS loyalist. That pebble design looks like a make-up compact, perfect to toss in a purse, but hardly the rugged appearance that speaks to the majority of Palm OS loyalists (don't get me wrong - there are plenty of ladies who love Palm OS 5 as well, and Centro was the best-selling Palm OS device of all time, so small and cute has its value; but with the Pre and now the Veer, HP has established small; they need a device with a bigger screen than the Pre that is still a smartphone, the TouchPad is a nice competitor to the iPad, but it's a pad, not a smartphone).

One day, we will be forced to move on. Progress is what it is. We will reminisce of simpler, better times, fondly recalling 8-track tapes, rotary phones, cars without airbags, and it will be a topic of conversation to recognize that not all that is labeled "progress" is better than what we had before. Palm OS 5 will fall into this conversation - with all its faults, and so many alternatives available, it's still around because it works. I do wish I could install Dropbox on my Treo, and hope against hope that webOS fixes the few complaints and shortcomings so that I can move on and stay (relatively) within the "Palm" family (even though HP is killing the "Palm" brand).

But for now, Palm OS 5 lives on.

New York Times paywall heralds social media tethering

2011-03-20T12:49:00.000-04:00

Readers who land at the NYT site via social media links will still be allowed to read the full article.

Thus, it will make sense for people to search, not for a link directly to a NYT article (which will continue to be metered/monitored/limited), but for commentary in a social media site that links back to the article.

If your work regularly consults the New York Times, you can become essentially an NYT tether - your readers can continue to access New York Times articles through your references.

Hitching a ride

The New York Times knows that the paper subscription base will continue to erode, and the electronic space will continue to grow. Engaging the electronic space by hitching a ride on social media is a smart way to leverage the popularity and reach of social media venues to build the future readership where they are and drive their advertising revenues in the internet era.

Transform to stay relevant ("the more things change, the more they stay the same")

This move resonates with me on many levels. Sure. It might not work. Social media guru Paul Gillin's web site newspaperdeathwatch.com is aptly titled and skillfully documents the sunset of the paper era of news dissemination/distribution. As I discussed previously, "news" is alive and well, it's the "paper" part that is dying. The challenge to media outlets is to transform to stay relevant, and the leadership position of the New York Times can only stay the same if they do some things differently and not continue to think they can depend on paper as the primary form of distribution.

A nod to the blogosphere

This move should elevate the value of the blogosphere - on the way to reading a New York Times article for free, visitors of a social media site will be exposed to that commentary, so that the social media content creators become a part of the conversation in a subtle new way; rather than read an article and then get down to the comments, people will see commentary before getting to the article. Obviously, it's a good idea for bloggers to get their New York Times subscriptions, so that they have full access to whatever articles they themselves are referencing; without it, they might miss context or that quote that either strengthens their views or refutes them, and not being aware of these would lower the merit quotient of writing. Thus, the symbiotic relationship would be confirmed, the circle complete - the New York Times would be generating subscription revenues from bloggers, and bloggers would be positioned as distributors, in a manner of speaking.

Win win

There are plenty of articles out there covering this development, and for good reason - the New York Times is a venerable media icon. One of the gambles the company is picking up is that the unique content of the NYT journalists will be valued by the public and paid for. If not, it could go the way of the growing list of papers on Mr. Gillin's site. The key take-away here is that social media comes out on top either way:

if the NYT succeeds, it will credit its piggybacking on social media as a great piece of the strategy;

if it fails, it will be due to the relentless march of the internet.

It's no secret that a free press is important. The extent to which citizen journalism contributes to the concept of a free press is an ongoing debate, but the access to distribution that today's internet provides is known - anybody can write, whether to an audience of thousands, hundreds, or five. Professional journalism is a valued piece of the media puzzle, and if journalism as an institution can figure out how to remain viable in the modern world, the world is a better place for it. We'll be following these developments at the New York Times with rapt attention.

A tale of two updates

2011-01-07T18:38:00.007-05:00

My boss lost data from his Blackberry because a Windows Update screwed up Outlook's auto archiving function. Of course, Windows didn't tell us it did this, that would just be too helpful - nah, it just dumped data and the update removed the user's ability to turn off auto-archiving.

Tech support people at various organizations kept telling us to go to Tools|Options...blah blah and then click Auto-archiving to turn it off...but the button wasn't there, and no one knew what to do about it.

I ultimately found solid guidance from AskWoody.com as well as How-to Outlook - what we did was to remove Update KB2412171, and at least got the button back so I could turn the feature off.
Meanwhile, I had installed 64-bit Ubuntu, and couldn't get Skype to work. It installed fine, but when I entered my log in info it wouldn't complete the process.

Ubuntu regularly let's you know when there are system updates available. I ran the latest and, on a whim, I intuitively thought "what the heck, let's try installing Skype again." So I did, and whaddya know? Say it with me - it just works.
By the way, this system update took about 3 minutes and did not require a system restart. I trust Ubuntu updates.

Windows? Not so much.

I should mention one more thing, about using Ubuntu. I saw a comment on another site where a user lamented "sometimes it feels like Ubuntu is not made for humans," as an application required compiling in order to use.

My blog here is called non-techie talk because I am not a programmer, not a web designer, not a coder. And there are a few people out there like me, believe it or not. In fact, compared to many of my acquaintances, I'm relatively technically-inclined. But I've yet to do anything with the terminal.

After installing the 64-bit Ubuntu, I couldn't get Skype to work. I found all kinds of information showing how to tweak files through the terminal in order to make Skype work, and I threw up my hands and said "forget it." It can be technically daunting to make Ubuntu do what you want it to do, and it would be wrong to give the impression that everything is easy as pie in Ubuntu.

However, this is a great example of what makes Ubuntu so much fun - in this particular instance, I didn't have to attempt to figure out all those crazy instructions. A system update came along, I ran the update, and the intuitive thought to give it another shot paid off - it works now. No terminal, no trying to figure out arcane computer language...

It's about time

2010-12-27T17:38:00.001-05:00

I maintain blogs on both the Blogger and WordPress platforms. There certainly are other platforms out there as well. I was about to migrate all my Blogger blogs to some other platform over a technical glitch on Blogger that had tested the furthest reaches of my patience - search.

Forever, the search widget made by Google did not work. Shouldn't it be inexcusable that the company who built its billions on search couldn't get a search widget right?

However, I'm delighted to observe that it's finally actually working, for now. This is a relief for me because migrating to another platform and learning how to make that new platform work would have been a major headache. Sure, in the long run I'd be better for the growth. But, growing when you must is not as much fun as growing when you want, and I didn't want to grow in that direction at this time

So, thanks Google - I'll stay a while, yet.

Little things mean a lot

2010-12-03T12:15:00.011-05:00

In Windows, a dialog box pops up. It's annoying, we reflexively click just to make it go away, and then ask ourselves, "wait...what did I just do?" In Windows, the "proceed/yes" button is on the left and the "cancel/no" button is to the right. When we read from left to right, the "proceed/yes" button is the first button we see, and we tend to click it without thinking. Every once in a while, we're realize too late that we've done something we can't undo, much to our chagrin.

In Ubuntu, the dialog boxes put the "cancel/no" option to the left of the "proceed/yes" option. Our first reflex to click the first button our mouse hits will more likely hit the "cancel" button in Linux. If you really want to do something, there's no damage, you can just do again what you were doing to prompt the dialog box. It's a little thing, but it speaks to an elegance about the way Ubuntu was coded. It's more humane, more in tune with how people work. I love it. Especially coming from Windows familiarity, each time I see a dialog and see the cancel option first, it actually makes me stop and pay more attention to the information in the dialog, and makes me slow down and think about my response. That means I make less irreversible mistakes.

My guru, the guy who encouraged me to give Ubuntu a try, observes that “I knew there was something intuitively different about Ubuntu dialog boxes. Myself, I never 'just click' on the dialog box, because many nasties use them as a method to get unsuspecting users to OK an install. I have even experienced dialog boxes that will not let you cancel or select "no", allow only "yes" as a selection. This is cause for alarm, because it is for sure a virus installer. User beware. So having "cancel" as a type of default makes good sense. Again, smart thinkers at Ubuntu.”

Take particular note of the order of buttons on the image for connecting to a server. In Windows, the first button would be "yes/go/shoot" and, if there was "help", it would be at the farthest right, last, or away from the range of eye focus up in the top right corner. Again, it's a button arrangement that shouts "shoot first...ask questions later."

Here in Ubuntu, the first button in this dialog is "Help". Then it shows server options. Then the "cancel" button. Last is "connect." It follows the logic of collecting the information needed to make a more informed decision click. Yeah, sure, most dialogs are so routine there's no need to discover new options, just click and get it done (ever watched an IT guy set up a configuration on a company machine? They are nearly “clicking to a spot” before the dialog shows up, like a quarterback throwing to where the receiver is going to be by the time the ball gets there...click click click...it's so routine one would think a script would have been written to just execute it). But when users at home are fiddling around, it's not good to encourage blind, reflexive clicking - that "wait a tick, what did I just do?" is all-too-often the last thing said before a call goes out to the guru to come and fix a mess.

Windows' vulnerability to malware is not always a matter of programming. If Windows builds a firewall through which a user is empowered to make decisions about what's installed on the machine, then Windows can't be responsible if a user says "yes, install this crap." Fair enough. But a simple rearrangement of buttons anticipates how the average user interacts with a computer, and presents choices in a way that more users are likely to actually pay attention and make a real decision. That's smart, yet simple. It's intuitive, elegant.

As such, I would label this a "behavioural default", and give a nod to Ubuntu programmers who write software that appear to more intuitively work the way humans do. This is the difference between programmers who just put their heads down, code away, and marvel at how cool their code is even if it is disconnected to the real world application, and the view from the user-sensitive perspective.

So, while I could cut Microsoft some slack that their approach respects a user making informed decisions with their mice, I'm still going to lay some blame back on Microsoft's doorstep - with all their cash, they should have had the smarts to have learned this themselves and come up with a better way to ask users to make decisions. Being the biggest and being the best are two different things, and the open source community - with billions less dollars to work with - yet somehow manages to innovate and lead.

Good for open source. Good for Ubuntu. Good for us.

Thoughtlessly, intuitively, Ubuntu just works

2010-11-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be discussing my experience in exploring Ubuntu over the next little while, as I learn new things.

Here's what made me smile just this morning.

For work, I went to check the earnings release for a company we're looking at, which they've posted on their website in pdf. So I click on the link, the pdf downloads, I click on the downloaded link, and the Q3'10 results pop open in Evince Document Viewer. And that's when it hit me - I didn't even think about going to find a viewer, didn't have to install a viewer. Having installed Ubuntu, the OS included this open source software as part of a minimum package the developers decided the average user should have.

I didn't have to think about it. It just works.

Ubuntu is not Windows. It will take some time to learn. Some things will not "just work" with ease. But, even at this early stage, Ubuntu has demonstrated it doesn't want to behave like Windows at all. It wants to be helpful, it really wants to get out of the way and not be a distraction from productivity, but rather offer productivity, stability, reliability - by taking care of its business in a dependable manner, and freeing up my attention to focus on what I'm sitting in front of the computer to do.

As I look out at the next several months, I can see all kinds of accumulated stress melting away. I have this strange sense of hope that I won't spend inordinate amounts of time wrestling with this operating system as I have had to with the incumbent market share leader.

I have a distinct feeling I'm going to be saying this a lot when it comes to Ubuntu - it just works.

I'm running free in Ubuntu

2010-11-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

While I am an Iron Maiden fan, I was never keen on the single Running Free, and couldn't quite understand how it became somewhat of an anthem from their earlier material in spite of its relatively uninspired musicality from a band that was on its way to becoming the defining act in the story of the heavy metal genre, the final book end culminating the legacy of their countrymen, Black Sabbath, the band that ushered forth the new era in music. However, the chorus just keeps looping in my mind as I attempt to put into words how I feel during this first exploration into using a Linux operating system.

My computer guru at work had highly recommended I try Linux (Ubuntu, specifically). I was hesitant to install it and begin what I've been warned is a steep learning curve, having been a Windows user for the last 18 years.

But, after enough annoyances and frustrations with Windows on both my work laptop (which I couldn't change) and the home machine (which I was hell-bent on changing), I was looking for a legitimate alternative. Yes, I probably could have/should have gone Mac, but I figured, hey, trying Ubuntu won't cost me a cent; I'd still have the familiar comfort of Windows incase the experiment didn't work out, and Apple is always standing by for the conquest should I wash my hands of PCs altogether and find the money to invest.

So, I went dual-boot with Ubuntu and XP and, thus far, I'm quite enjoying the experience.

I actually found a PIM, J-Pilot, with which I can hotsync my Palm OS 5 Treo. I've got Skype hooked up, media play flawlessly right out of box; I installed an app to manage my webcam, installed Opera and Chrome browsers to run alongside Firefox (for secure transactions online)...Internet Explorer? Muahahahahahahaha, I hope to never see it again.

I'm writing this post in the Ubuntu environment right now. The rest of the family all have their own user accounts, set up was simple, and it works (Windows was such a mess in handling multiple users I was sorry I implemented it...but that was yesterday, and this - the peace and serenity of Ubuntu - is today. And tomorrow.

I fully expect that not everything will be perfect. But, guess what? It's FREE. What's amazing is that it works this well for free while...other operating systems cost no small amount of money and may never be as stable as this is. Shucks, the install took a few minutes and was itself an indication of the pleasant environment into which I was about to enter. No stress, no fuss, no muss...

No, I have not bothered to even look at the console yet. I want to see how much I can do, as a non-techie user, without having to deal with a command prompt. That will no doubt be a head ache.

I have read warnings of what "not to do" when making the jump from Windows to Linux. I got similar tips from my guru at work. They hold true. Only on entering this new world does it become so painfully clear how cluttered my mind is, with Windows annoyances that I can drop like so much dead weight. Installing applications in Ubuntu can be a piece of cake, things just work, no need to restart the machine (sheesh! That alone is worth the price of admission...oh, wait, it's FREE, there is no cost beyond the time to learn). It will take a while to get familiar with this environment, but, I'm tellin' ya, the first impression is just so refreshing.

Back in Windows, I use Outpost Firewall, and Avast Anti-Virus, and CCleaner, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. In Ubuntu, I use...none of the above. (I may find out that it's still a good idea to use a firewall perhaps, or use anti-virus to avoid being a carrier...) but the fact that there's no registry in Ubuntu is another dead weight I'm dropping - how an operating system has so many "back doors" through which malware can insidiously install itself on your machine and wreak havoc boggles my mind. For free, I now have an operating system that has nothing to do with such foolishness.

At work, we're on Windows 7. I don't like it. Why? Because the settings that were in place when I first got the machine (the nice visual effects, etc.) have slowly reverted to a "Windows XP feel". I didn't tell Windows7 to do it. Windows7 didn't tell me it was going to do it. It did it, and didn't even have the courtesy to tell me how to undo it. And there it sits, Windows7 looking more like XP. I really hate that.

One of the things I read during my research with people who like Linux is "it does what you tell it to do, it does not do what you don't tell it to do" and "you set your settings and they stay how you set them." I really love that.

What's the big deal? A computer is a computer is a computer, right? Um, yeah no. If you're sitting in front of a computer for six hours a day (minus lunch and time to stretch your legs, cruise by the logistics department, etc.), little annoyances add up to the kind of subconscious stress that makes people less productive, less happy, more irritable, less able to focus... this is an operating system that gets out of your way so your energy is better spent doing other things such as, you know, getting your work done.

Yes, there are all kinds of flavours of Linux. I did spend time trying to understand "which was right for me." Ultimately, I returned to the brand recommended by my guru (in case I'd need support, of course). I may find myself getting to know others in the Linux family over time.

Some apps I attempted to install didn't install. Or, at least, I don't know where to find them to make it go. That's just because I have no idea what I'm doing. But, I'm still in my first week - for all the hassles I've endured with Windows, I surely have all the patience in the world for an operating system developed by people without pay. By this standard, you'd think an operating system developed by a company with billions in cash would put out a perfect product. You'd think.

Anyway, so far, so great. I'm fast becoming a big fan of Ubuntu and the open source community.

Rogers falls short

2010-10-26T12:23:00.001-04:00

The headline today: Weak subscriber growth hits Rogers.

The joke is that these results "sailed below analysts' expectations." It's funny, because the current results are merely the answers to questions we here at Non-techie Talk were asking six months ago.

What Rogers has failed to understand is that a company offers more than just product. Can anyone argue that a McDonald's hamburger is a better burger than a Harvey's hamburger? What does McDonald's do that makes it the largest fast food operation on earth? They understand product is only one part of the offering mix, and that other factors - price, service, what-have-you, can be even more important than product.

If "a phone is a phone" and the product is available somewhere other than Rogers, what will make someone either choose or stay with Rogers? Good service. What will make them leave or not try Rogers? Bad service. Which of these two would the average person say Rogers offers its customers?

Again, the answer is in the profit drop.

Sure, Rogers must charge less to compete with the new, cheaper competitor offerings. People wanted affordability all along, and now that it's more available, of course they are choosing affordability.

But dropping prices isn't stemming the flow of lost subscribers. So we're back to the other factors. Are competitors offering better phones? Or terms that are more comfortable for customers?

Whatever it is, as mentioned back in April, Rogers must work hard to make its offerings desirable in order to stay on top of its game.

Otherwise, it's game over.

Google Wave subsides

2010-08-06T00:08:00.000-04:00

Official Google Blog: Update on Google Wave

Previously, I mentioned that I got Google Wave, from a theoretic point of view. Now that Google has squashed it, and having read some of the reactions to it, I join those who suggest this is no failure at all.

Google is Google in part because they are not afraid to try things, to see if they might work or not. That they're not afraid to fail is, in the bigger picture, part of the key to their success. At least, that's what Michael Jordan said, and it seemed to work for his basketball career.

To say that "Google has gotten a few things right" is an understatement. That's what's helped propel them to the stratosphere. Through history, many companies have come and gone who got it right for a time and then, for whatever reasons, lost the handle on it.

The challenge for Google is to keep doing more things right than they do wrong. As human beings, they're going to be no more perfect than any other human beings. What's neat about Google is, they've managed to reach their hands into a lot of cookie jars. Some wonder if they're spreading too thinly and losing focus, but then, pulling the plug on Wave should be a good thing, one less cookie jar to distract them.

Let's also keep in mind that Google Wave was in beta - which is the period of evaluation. They did their evaluation and pulled the plug. That's what the exercise is for. Is it reasonable to expect that every product they push out the door will be a smash success? That's a tough expectation for any company.

Having said all this, pieces and concepts of Google Wave will continue to exist and show up as part of other things and, we've forgotten about Wave, I suspect Google will still be here, doing what they do, and doing it well.

It's not over - HP buys Palm

2010-04-29T13:42:00.000-04:00

HP has announced an offer of $5.70 per share or $1.2 billion, for Palm Inc. Palm isn't going to say no, and there will be no review of competitive advantage because the two companies barely blip the radar in the handheld space, so it's pretty much a done deal.

I'm still trying to figure out what it all will mean, ultimately. For time being, however, it should be safe to say that Palm is not dead yet.

It's a move that has a lot of interest and potential implications for many key players, including Microsoft, Apple, RIM and Google.

I couldn't see the Palm webOS, in its current feature-set, replacing my old Treo. But, if HP does more than just slap the OS on their own hardware, there might be some hope that the more technical tenacity of the old Palm OS 5 might return, especially as early indications are that HP is looking to compete more squarely with RIM's Blackberry in the professional space (Blackberry, for all its communicative stability, is bland and not the most app-rich platform/environment). Where Palm originally owned the professional space and fell off the map allowing RIM to step in, perhaps they might return to the battle field with a new platform that can carry the workload.

Further, for non-Apple people, Palm OS could be that entertainment platform for media and games due to its superior multitasking and seamless web integration.

HP appears to provide not only a big infusion, but the global reach, brand respect, and strategic synergy that gives Palm some meaning in a bigger picture, a bigger picture they simply couldn't create for themselves.

Social Media, Celebrity Endorsements and the Phantom Referral

2010-04-27T11:47:00.001-04:00

I always wondered why a battery company thought I'd buy their batteries because Michael Jordan said they were good. I mean, he played great basketball for sure, but how in the world did that make him an authority on batteries?

And, honestly, with all Tiger's money, did I really believe he actually drove a Buick? And that, if he says so, I oughta go ahead and buy one myself?

The concept of the celebrity endorsement depends on a socio-psychological reaction to a perceived person of power or authority. Note that "power" and "authority" are not the same: in the cases above, there's no logical connection between the athletes and their knowledge or expertise in batteries or cars - it's not their authority that influences us, it's our perception of their power to which we're more willing to acquiesce.

Similar to the celebrity endorsement is the phantom testimonial. We've all been pitched by someone selling something, and along with their spiel is the obligatory "John S. in Springfield says it's the best widget/investment/decision he ever bought/made." Whoa, stop the presses - who is John S.? Is he even a real person? Who knows, but the approach is fairly standard. I just received a promotional email today telling me to "act now" (of course, the offer is time-limited) because I don't want to miss out on what one "actual subscriber" (yeah, right) wrote in an email: "everything is wonderful, thanks for changing my life!" Signed, First name-last initial, from somewhere in some state.

One might consider these age-old stand-by methods as the standards that inform an industry. However, it's not a stretch to consider them potentially misleading, perhaps even a little manipulative. Thankfully, like so many other relics of the Industrial Age, these standards may be pushed aside by the new referral standards of the Information Age's Social Media platform.

What's the difference? With Social Media, you can know four things that didn't exist with either the celebrity endorsement or the phantom testimonial:

you actually know the person making the recommendation;
you know if they actually used the product or have experience with the service;
you know if they liked it or didn't, and would recommend it to you or not;
you'll know if their experience was local, near you, accessible to you.

These factors make Social Media far more reliable an indicator of your chances of experiencing satisfaction with a product or service than some paid actor or athlete talking about something they likely neither use nor even actually like, and surely can't discuss in your immediate local circumstances.

Even the more contemporary online reviews are suspicious when you see glowing accolades. Somewhere in the comments thread you're likely to see someone accuse a raving fan of being a confederate of the seller, seeding the comments with biased recommendations with something to gain by increasing sales. Again, since we don't know who's making the reviews, there is always some smidgen of doubt eroding confidence.

But not with Social Media. If you get a referral from a friend, you're far more likely to trust that friend, and be in a position to explore their recommendation locally. That's just based on the assumption that they told you because they had an honest emotional reaction - they either loved it, or hated it, and wanted to share that experience with friends.

"We got together at this restaurant and everything was fabulous - the menu had something for everyone, the prices were reasonable, and the service was perfect. We're going next week, want to come?"

I went to buy football cleats, they tried to tell me soccer cleats are just as good. They don't know what they're talking about. And their prices? Don't waste your time there.

You need a saddle bag for your bicycle? Go to that bike shop, they're great. I took my son's bike in to get his gears fixed, the guy did it in 5 minutes and didn't even bother to charge me. Knowledgeable staff, great service, I told them I'd tell my friends about them in appreciation, so I'm telling you. When you go, tell them I said "hi" so they know I'm trying to help them out, too.

It's only just begun

2010-04-26T10:13:00.000-04:00

Rogers Communications stock is down. No kidding.

To date, analyists and stockholders have appreciated that RCI has been able to generate ROI. This is understood to be a result of a number of factors, among which is the position of being the sole nation-wide GSM carrier. This position has provided a competitive advantage that has served the stockholder well. And, it's about to evaporate. Will it take profits along with it?

Bell/Telus' entrance into the nationwide GSM space was highly anticipated, providing a new faucett of supply to a thirsty demand.

The fundamental questions that are being asked are

do Rogers wireless customers choose Rogers because they want to, or because they must (in order to get GSM)?

when wireless customers can get nation-wide GSM service from somewhere other than Rogers, will they stay with Rogers or explore other GSM service opportunities?

would Rogers current reputation prompt a non-Rogers customer to try Rogers if there are alternatives?

I think the answers to the above question pose a serious problem for RCI stockholders. If my reading of the2008 Annual Report is clear, Wireless represents over 55% of revenues and nearly 70% of operating profit. If Rogers' market share is slashed by 40%, what will that do to the bottom line?

It is time Rogers took very seriously the issue of its poor brand image and customer service.

Rogers is a telecommunications company purporting to be a leader in the field. For a company that makes its living in the telecommunications sector, Rogers should be bringing industry leading technology and functionality to the consumer in a way they can understand. Using Rogers on-line services is an exercise in frustration - just ask the many customers who don't bother, and choose rather to subject themselves to the abhorrent service on the phone.

If customer dissatisfaction is not motivation enough, at what point does professional pride compel Rogers to step up and take the lead in more than just generating revenues out of a disenfranchised customer base?

Pricing, features, PR and customer service are all areas that can become selling points to attract and retain customers - on these points, frustrated customers are looking to the competition in hope for available alternatives.

It is unfortunate that such an initiative would appear to be put in place as a reaction to the impending competition and dilution of supply. Brand care and customers service should be a pro-active part of any company's expression of appreciation for the customer base; if in fact showing appeciation to the customer is a priority.

This cannot be a band-aid, short term, narrow approach. Company-wide, Rogers needs to shift sufficiently that jaded customers can tangibly feel a marked improvement in how they are treated, as well as what procucts and services are available.

It is time for Rogers to adapt. The challenge is to refocus the company to a position of strength not propped up by competitive advantage due to a lack of competition. Strong companies thrive in the midst of competition by being better than the competitors, not by being the only game in town. Now that there will be other offerings, Rogers should see this as an opportunity to show what makes the Rogers offer better. If you've turned off your customer base, they won't even be able to hear you when you tell them, so you've got to show them. Show them clearly, consistently, passionately, sincerely.

We are living in times when companies who previously enjoyed stability and market share crumbled beneath our feet (I need not cite examples, you folks are bright and read the news). It is incumbent upon Rogers, as leaders, to humbly recognize that "IT CAN HAPPEN TO EVEN YOU." One of the mistakes these companies invariably have made is living under the delusion that they were "too big to fail". Such is not truth, neither for them, nor for Rogers.

Maybe the angle of attack is to slash pricing to stabilize the market - the new guys need to make a return on their investment; if you use some of your cash to make offerings rock-bottom priced, you'll keep a decent share. You've got the cash, this may be the right time and right way to use it. However, if customers are leaving regardless, dropping prices won't help...how about dropping prices on existing customer agreements...? Yeah yeah, you've got a contract. So, how do you add value to existing customer based out of cash reserves/war chest?

One recent update to Rogers strategy is to add distribution, by selling through Shoppers Drug Mart. What I find particularly interesting is this move is ostensibly in response to "customers telling us they want more choice in where they acquire Rogers and Fido products." Of all the things Rogers decides to listen to from customers, it's more choice in where to acquire products? Yeah, right, that's a real priority for all the customers who already have a phone and just want decent service. Sheesh.

This isn't fooling anyone - it's merely an attempt to boost new subscriptions, to retain that precious market share. But it doesn't speak to the issue of customer service at all.

Last observation - it was quite easy to find all kinds of coverage of this big news of selling through Shoppers Drug Mart. Finding news on the profit drop or the drop in new subscriptions (adding a mere 109,000 new contract subscribers last quarter, down from prior year's 158,000 and even below analyst's expectations of 145,000 additions).

This would be like GM adding new dealerships to try and maintain sales. You know GM, the company that lost over $60 billion dollars in an 18-month period before finally declaring bankruptcy? For a number of reasons, this shouldn't happen to Rogers...but then, look what happened to Bell.

Is this how it ends?

2010-04-18T20:35:00.002-04:00

The Globe and Mail ran a story on Palm Inc. looking for a buyer and, some five days later, there are no comments on it.

Not one.

Nobody cares.

That's sad. Palm was once the PDA standard. Sorry. Let me rephrase that - Palm was once the PDA, period. I began my smartphone love affair on a Palm IIIx way back before the dot.com bubble burst.

I still use a 680, just not clear which platform should be the one to which I migrate when it finally dies (I've had recommendations for both iPhone and an Android phone from former Palm users).

But, to see this, that even the remotest possibility that some company has interest in Palm should garner nary a notice, is just sad.

It is the end of an era.

Vultures are circling

2010-03-12T13:28:00.002-05:00

The headlines are grim:

Palm teeters

Palm at a crossroads

Palm Circles the bowl

Seems like a long time ago when the "newness" of the Pre ushered in a wave of hope that sent Palm's stock rocketing. But sales have been lacklustre, and what went up has surely come right back down.

And so, I mourn.

I've been a Palm OS user since 1999. I had been using a paper-based system (DayTimers) since approximately 1992, and by "using" I mean I never went anywhere or made any plan without "checking my book" to avoid conflicts.

I lost that paper book while out of town, and it dawned on me that paper was too static, too local, to do the job it was intended. Yes, I could replace that leather monogrammed cover, but the data scribbled within its dog-eared pages was gone forever. Migrating my life management to an electronic environment - with its relatively easy backupability - made sense.

For a number of years, I carried "multiple devices" (PDA and cellphone). Juggling these multiple devices became hassle enough to venture forth and try one of those new-fangled "smartphones". I was somewhat late to the party, finally jumping into a Treo 600. The convergence of the phone with the contact list made sense, and I never looked back. From 600 to 650 to my current (albeit now somewhat tired) 680, I remain a member of a cruelly dwindling community - the Palm OS loyalist.

After hanging on like grim death to my aging Palm OS, well documented as being based on an architecture that really didn't have the multitasking and internet connectivity at the heart of its code back in the heady days of the late 90s, while people moved on with Blackberry and then iPhone, it was with much anticipation and hope that the news of an update to the Palm platform was in the offing.

The simultaneous release of that new promised operating system, which was called webOS, along with a new hardware, the Pre, was underwhelming for me, as has been mentioned previously. There were just too many things that didn't connect to what I knew, and too many new things I couldn't connect to, at the time.

There were a few ideas that appear ahead of its time (synergy in theory makes sense, but in execution leaves too many questions), but the skin, that pebble-like Pre, was just not business-enough to challenge RIM's Blackberry, not slick/cool enough to dazzle Apple's iPhone and frankly, not functional enough to bridge the loyalists who had SD expansion cards with lots of data, and wanted a bigger screen, a stylus for technical apps we'd come to use and love over the decade, a desktop so we could continue to obsess over having control over our data...the Pre just didn't connect to anybody.

And so, I mourn.

At some point, I will have to let go and move on. I don't know what "the next PDA" looks like for me. I'll continue using my trusty 680, I'll continue to get laughed by people merrily doing their iPhone and Blackberry thing, I'll continue to back up to my computer via USB cable (although I configured Bluetooth hotsync to my office computer, which is pretty cool in a 2008 kind of way), and I'll continue to remove the battery every few days when (not if, much to my chagrin) it crashes, as it invariably will since I've installed all kinds of apps that really customized its functionality to my particular needs (long before there was an App Store, there were the various communities online from which I could browse more software than I could use, try and then buy what worked for me. Here's another area Palm failed to capitalize on, most people think the concept of getting PDA apps online was invented by Apple...but then, to be fair, many consider the Newton a precursor to the PDA which puts Apple right back into the humblest beginnings of the PDA space, so I suppose all's fair).

The new p-p-Palm Pre Plus had some improvements, yes. But it's still "only CDMA" (I'm a GSM fan, too).

Is there any hope for Palm? Well, if vultures are circling it means they haven't landed yet, so until they finally do land and begin their macabre meal, the object of their desires may yet get up and send them circling elsewhere. The Palm Pre proved that, technology-wise, this company has plenty left in the tank. It appears, however, that they may just run out of cash before whatever is left has a chance to produce any more progress.

Reality is starting to set in, that there's likely not much more coming.

And so, I mourn.

Google Wave - I get it

2010-03-12T11:06:00.001-05:00

Collaboration is a remarkable thing. I remember trading hockey cards as a kid - at recess, in the schoolyard, we'd huddle, whip out our collections wrapped in elastic bands, and start shuffling through them, looking to trade multiples of one player for cards we were lacking, so we could say we had every one of the 1978-79 New York Islanders. As one kid started shuffling his doubles, kids would should "got'im, got'im got'im, NEED'im!" and then the bartering would start as that kid shuffled through his for a card the other kid needed. There was jostling, and no adults chaperoning the mayhem, yet, like a stock market trading floor or a fish market, there was order to the chaos, and in that fluid environment, deals were made and folks left the scrum better off than they came into it.

Can a piece of software possibly replicate the dynamic fluid collaborative environment. Google Wave is one more product that is trying to do so.

Do a search for Google Wave and you'll see plenty of feedback - positive and negative - about its usefulness and potential. While there may be good merit in the negative, I think positively of the idea and can immediately see uses for it in my various working endeavours today.

First off, it's of value to appreciate the context in which Wave is being offered. "Email" as we've come to know and love it, was invented some forty years ago which, in our rapid-pace society, is a long time ago. How long ago? Picture what cars looked like back then, or recall that we didn't even have answering machines, let alone voicemail. We're going back to before fax machines. Picture golf clubs, tennis racquets...I think you get the idea. The world has progressed, so at some point even email should undergo some manner of progress.

As such, whether Wave has actually moved things forward or not shouldn't be considered without first appreciating that any attempt to make email work better is a legitimate exercise.

Now, does Wave succeed in making progress? I think so, but the scope is beyond "just email". Here's a simple example: today we had a meeting with our legal department to discuss a matter. A number of people from our department went to one of the other buildings on campus to meet our legal team. In preparation for this meeting, I was asked to pull together a list of documents and versions of documents to print and take them to this meeting.

Had we done the meeting on Google Wave, we'd have needed no printed paper, saving the cost of paper and toner; we'd have been able to stay in our office, and not incur the cost of travel; I wouldn't have had to pull documents that had been emailed back and forth (multiple iterations, I might add, as emails were replied to and forwarded ad nauseum, increasing the amount of server capacity required to store all these email attachments...) right now, today, I can see how our getting together in Wave to discuss the matter could have been done effectively and efficiently.

Will Wave succeed? It's important to understand that the answer to this question is not dependent solely upon the merit in the technology. Marketing history shows that Beta was better than VHS, and McDonald's isn't the highest quality food out there...business success is not always tied to intrinsic value in a good or service.

Should Wave succeed? I think real-time collaborative tools are worth developing until they can work without a whole lot of learning curve involved. I remember doing a video conference back in 1995 with the VP who was across the continent - a webcam was a new thing, and seeing someone talk to you in real time on a computer back then was a big deal. Since 1995, has communications technology replaced travel costs? There's research out there showing that such is in fact the case, and increasingly so as the tools to do video conferencing become easier to use.

And, here's a key issue, wherein Wave injects itself: conferencing - that is, having a group conversation in real time - is one thing, but the interaction (of voice, documents, a chronological history of who said what, images, video, links and references, all of which effectively serve to automate meeting minutes) is a whole next level that goes well beyond a group of people in a room scribbling their own notes on the proceedings and leaving the meeting saying "can you forward me that attachment we discussed?"

At the end of the day, there are limitations to the linear nature of email. Google Wave imagines another environment that is collaborative, non-linear hence dynamic and fluid, and open for various media to co-mingle along with a conversation. Competition in this space is not a bad idea, so if Wave isn't getting it just quite right, hopefully someone out there is fixin' to go ahead and do it better.

And yes, there are companies who have made product offerings which attempted to develop this idea. Is there one that rises to the top every time as the shining example of the standard that Wave is attempting to meet or exceed? I can't think of one. Today's typical social networking sites currently are likely to be banned from use on work machines (we can't get onto Facebook at work, for example). Lotus Sametime? Yeah, right. I've been in several large corporations who made me use Lotus Notes for email and none of them leveraged their commitment to Lotus Notes to implement the use of Sametime. Chances are, if its interface is anything like Notes, it'd be just another nightmare.

Google does have a leg up, though. From Google Docs to Google Search to all the other components of Planet Google, the consistence in technological platform should translate to a more seamless interface with various pieces of a Wave conversation, which should go a long way towards a tool that is as natural and intuitive to use as having a group conversation. Perhaps Google hasn't nailed it down perfectly, just yet. However, unlike other software, aren't you glad that Wave doesn't cost you anything to find out it doesn't work? Ultimately, Google has as good a chance as any company to come up with something workable.

It only took an 8 year old kid a scrum or two before he was trading hockey cards like a pro. Intuitive, natural. If a piece of software is on approach to translating that dynamic, I'm all for it.

From one extreme to the other, both bad

2009-03-31T23:29:00.000-04:00

Palm has sent a cease and desist order to Tealpoint to stop distributing its nifty launcher TealOS. I'm not the only one absolutely mystified by such a move. This is outrageous on several levels, and here's why.
Bread and butter
3rd party apps and the developers who make them are the only reason Palm OS 5 is still being used by anybody. Palm itself would have been dead, long ago, had it not been for the sheer usefulness that 3rd party apps provide to die-hard loyalists like myself.

Tealpoint offers a bevy of software that users value. It has made itself a leading developer and a recognized name among Palm users. Palm needs to appreciate what these developers have done for them.

Tealpoint's TealOS breathes new life into the aged, decrepid OS 5. I use it on my Treo 680 and, forget its resemblance to the new webOS, it really is the best launcher I've used with many features I'd been looking for and having not quite found in any of the other launchers I'd tried before it.

Confusion and lack of clarity
Palm is under the delusion that TealOS might mean less people buying the new Palm Pre and webOS when, or, if it should ever become available to the public. What a crock.

First, TealOS is not an operating system, it's a launcher that might be best compared to a "skin" - the functionalities it offers emulate but do not actuate the true mult-threading multi-tasking environment of the webOS. If someone really wants all that webOS offers, TealOS is no substitute.

If you're so confident that webOS is a true leap forward, how can you send the message that you feel threatened by an OS 5 skin?

Second, people like myself will not be updgrading to Palm Pre and the webOS as it is today, because it is a paradigm shift that we can't understand in the context of what we do habitually on our trusty old OS 5 devices today:

we do lots with expansion cards, yet Pre has no expansion slot;
we like the concept of hotsyncing and would have enjoyed a more automatic enhancement, yet Pre/webOS has made no mention of Palm Desktop;
we like to backup our data in accessible media, webOS is trying to push this cloud concept that doesn't clarify how we'd get our data when we're not connected to the internet or in areas where service providers can charge exhorbitant connect and data transfer rates;
we like the decentralized flexibility of GSM units, yet there's no mention of if or when GSM will be available;
we have lots of software on our OS 5, yet webOS has no backward compatibility.

The lure of the competition - including but not limited to Blackberry and iPhone - is strong. If I'm not upgrading to Pre, do I abandon ship altogether and leave Palm once and for all?

Up until Monday, I might have said "no, I've at least got TealOS to make my old OS 5 look slick and help me launch apps more easily, I'll stick with Palm for a while yet."

But after this bone-headed move, I'm not so sure.

Everyone wanted to cry for Palm when Apple took legal action saying webOS infringes on its intellectual property rights - Apple is now a Microsoft-like giant using its billions to beat up on a little company hanging on to its life by a multi-thread instead of focussing on competitive innovation and product improvement.

Now Palm turns around and, instead of putting their energy and attention to actually getting this Pre/webOS released, they beat up on one of their most serious and respected software developers.

That's just low grade, a really poor showing in my opinion.

Hey Palm, just so you know, I registered my version of TealOS before you bullied Tealpoint, and I'll stock up on GSM 680s until there's none left. Come up with a true "prosumer" device with a bigger screen, (yes, even bigger than the Pre; the rootword of spreadsheet is "spread" and when I'm getting email attachments from work, I want to be able to open them on DocsToGo, another leading 3rd party app that renders MS Office documents better than Windows Mobile devices do) - until then, I'm sticking with my Palm OS5 device, built when you guys knew what you were doing.

Don't get me wrong, webOS shows promise. But the mistake you guys made previously in not getting network connectivity the first time is now being repeated at the other end of the pendulum - you've swung to an opposite and equal extreme: now you're all about the web when we still can't be, thanks to the extortionistically priced telcos. The web is neither ubiquitous nor affordable to the extent required to make the concept of webOS truly practical.

You were trailing too far behind, now you're leading too far ahead. Either way, you're out of touch with where your customers are right now.

I hate Lotes Notes

2009-03-25T01:24:00.000-04:00

I hate Lotus Notes.

I will admit that it isn't the fault of the developers, not totally, anyway. After all, they'll be the first to admit that it was not designed as an email client first, which is how most people (especially those like me who hate it) interact with it.

Searching for sympathy, I found the website Lotus Notes Sucks. It's a shame that the creator of the site appears to no longer be updating it. What is available on the site, however, is still sufficient to justify the simmering hate that users feel when they are unwittingly subject to the madness that is Lotus Notes.
There are other sites (many other sites) that also share insights into just what makes the Notes user experience so truly awful. This one, written in 2001, may seem a bit dated, but trust me, the issues mentioned pretty much remain to-date, which is all the more shameful. Look for the well-documented technically sound comments by the user named sockpuppet.

Anyway, why this post now? Well, I would have sent my contributions to the Lotus Notes Sucks site, but again, it's not being updated. Yet, there's so much more to vent about. So, I'll make my posts here, which is more for fun (and some therapy), and a bit of a break from the more serious entries.

Here's one that happened just today.

I was sending an email (by the way, why does Notes call an email a "note" in most places, but then from the directory there's a link to create a "memo"? That bugs me...but I digress...) to 5 recipients, so I typed their names into the to: field. One of the addressees was, let's say, "Keyser Soze." The other four names automatically found their respective email addresses, but Lotus Notes found two employees in the company directory named Keyser Soze.

Here's where Lotus Notes does what Lotus Notes does best - bug me.

First of all, I can't see the actual email addresses for either of the two Soze entries. This itself is so annoying it's not funny.

I determined by the office location which of the two Sozes I wanted, and double-clicked on it. Lotus Notes won't intuitively put the name in the to address line which is where I was when the company directory opened. This too is a royal pain. Lotus Notes opens a new email with the address from the name upon which I double-clicked.

So, I copied that name into the original email to: line and Lotus Notes attempted to find the email address that is connected to that name. Guess what happened? It brought up the directory for me to choose which was the right one.

This is where I want to swear out loud. There are two employees with the same name. Somehow our IT department has differentiated the two employees, but I can't see how. I determined by the office location which one I wanted and copied the name into the email to: line. Why in the world does Lotus Notes still not know which one I want? Why take me back to the directory? To do the same thing again?

Now, there is probably a way to correctly identify the employee I want. But, in the name of the almighty Zeuss, why must I get an IT person to do it for me? Why can't it be as simple as...every other email client on earth?

Hmmm, come to think of it, I do know the reason why.

Lotus Notes sucks.

My take on the Pre? I'm keeping my Treo 680 for a bit yet

2009-03-09T20:44:00.000-04:00

OK, we've seen, we've heard, we've liked what we saw...and yet...and yet...

I can't quite wrap my head around this new paradigm,
to whit:

no expansion slot. So, 8GB is 8Gb and if I want more, I've got to buy a whole new unit? That's ridiculous. And, how do I back up my data? I love Resco Backup. I dropped my Treo 680 last year and the screen cracked. I got a new GSM unlocked Treo through CraigsList, popped in the SD card I use for backing up my data, hit a button and voila - in a few minutes the new 680 looked identical to the old 680 - data, system preferences, everything. Pre won't do that.

no mention of desktop hotsync. So, not only is there no expansion slot for additional memory, there's no mention of a desktop application. Where's my data?

cloud claptrap. My data, in the ether? But, what if I don't do Facebook, and what if I don't keep contact info in my yahoo mail? And what if I don't have access to the internet all the time? And what if I do, but the data transfer fees my ISP charges are extortionist? That Palm has left us Palm OS5 users without answers to these questions is so frustrating.

data security. Never mind data integrity (where IS my data?) but how safe is it? Palm OS security isn't the most bulletproof. Does Pre automatically log in to all the various stations on the web where pieces of my data reside and stay logged in all the time? Or does it "check in" periodically incase one of my Facebook friends changes their profile? And, if I lose my Pre, does someone easily have direct access to all my website IDs and passwords...? Again, Palm has failed to walk us from what we know to what they are trying to push.

GSM? Anyone? Bueller? In Canada?

leaving legacy emulators to 3rd party. In other words, the loyalists who have invested time and money are not a part of Palm's vision - meeting our needs is someone else's problem. This almost doesn't bother me since so much of Palm's success has been the opportunity for 3rd party developers to make a little money and provide variety of software for a truly personalized customized PDA in a competitive market providing affordability. However, there still should have been some mention, some acknowledgement that Palm OS5 users who have stayed the course while all our friends have been iPhoning and Blackberrying away with glee have, after all these years, become very comfortable with the software we have been running.

no stylus? So, all the unique software we've installed that require the input precision of a stylus tip? I can't do sketching or selecting small checkboxes with a finger. Can I run a Pre?

price. Why so secret? Price is part of the 4 marketing Ps of a product. I cannot think of "upgrading" to this odd platform, having to leave behind an entire way of thinking about my data, not to mention the accessories and media, and then, on top of all of this, having to spend >$300 to do it? Regardless of the foregoing, this one thing could be the deal breaker.

I'm afraid the webOS and Palm Pre appear to be aimed more at people who do not take seriously their personal data management, people who are looking for "a cool phone" more than the robust info management platform we Palm OS5 users have held onto for so long hoping for the next generation to acknowledge our needs.

This Pre seems to ignore, totally, the very areas that Palm loyalists were looking for. How do I make the jump to this new paradigm?

Or, should I hit eBay and Craigslist and stock up on GSM Treo 680s?

Times change - get over it?
Granted, times and technology changes. I get that. My collection of 8-track and cassette tapes are nearly forgotten as I now carry nearly my entire collection on a single SD card in my Treo. The 600 was a step forward. The 650 is legendary. The 680 was a nice stabilizing offering. No doubt the Pre standard will become accepted and we'll move forward from there. Fair enough.

The lesser of two evils
And, after too many incremental updates that had Palm OS5 users whining that there was no good reason to upgrade (I know a few Treo 650 users, and there are people still actually running Treo 600, which I find absolutely astounding), Palm has not disappointed in coming to the table with a serious bevy of major advances that are truly pace-setting, industry-leading. Had they done less, we'd have complained.

So, I can readily admit that, between not doing enough and doing too much, the latter is the lesser of the two evils.

However, as I've written previously, it just seems that this monumental step forward didn't keep the core loyal users close enough in mind, on two fronts. Not only has Palm forced us to re-conceive of how we interact with our information, but they've also not shown any sensitivity to hold our hand and walk us through how we would migrate our way of thinking. I needed to see them connect the dots and say "you used to do this this way, now you do this that way."

When so many of our peers were jumping ship to get a Blackberry or iPhone, we OS5 die-hards hung in there with the jibs and jabs and laughs and scorn. We fumbled with our expansion cards, cursed when AudioGateway crashed, pouted when we were alone in our misery while others enjoyed their wi-fi, and tried to take comfort in the custom software we had installed that made our PDAs truly unique to our needs. We've become so set in our habits and use of our PDA in part because Palm was so long in coming up with something better.

And this is how Palm thanks us? By totally dismissing our way of doing things and acting as though learning a new thing will be a piece of cake?

If you are a Palm OS5 user who has installed more than three 3rd party apps to make your PDA meet your needs, I'd like to hear from you. Am I alone, am I nuts?

In Defence of Starbucks

2008-07-09T13:00:00.000-04:00

I don't fully understand why all the vitriol aimed at Starbucks these days?

Starbucks would be the bad guy if they arrived on your local corner selling coffee for 39 cents. The mom'n'pop shops would cry that the big bad soulless corporate behemoth was undercutting them out of business. So, they show up and overprice their coffee, driving business to the mom'n'pops (studies are in - local coffee shops overwhelming do better when Starbucks is nearby) - that's not so bad, is it?
(yes, I've heard horror stories about overly-aggressive promotional tactics, but that's better levied against individual store management than to the national brand itself).

Starbucks doesn't sell anything we need. It is selling something we want. Which means, we have choice. It's not like the oil companies (I'll come back to this in a sec...). In other words, Starbucks isn't forcing anyone to buy their coffee. So, why is Starbucks to be blamed if someone chooses to buy a $4 cup of coffee?

Which is my next point. Starbucks isnt selling coffee. They're selling image. Like "$100 sneakers" (remember when?), or jeans that cost over $200 (still just cotton to me)... This is part of why Starbucks locations I know don't have a take out window or drive-thru - part of the product is being there, being seen there. For whatever that's worth (and, given their growth, it was worth a lot, not too long ago), that's what it is.

If there is blame to lay at Starbucks doorstep, it's that they have not done right by their shareholders in creating alternative revenue streams to offset lagging sales derived from the luxury of selling image. The market came to Starbucks, pushed their growth almost in spite of themselves (coffee across the board was selling), and they got fooled into thinking people really would keep buying, economy notwithstanding. But, as discretionary income has dwindled, and people are forced to choose what's really necessary, luxury things like a $4 cup fo coffee are quicker taken off the list than, say, buying gas to get to work.
Which brings me to my issue with allowing the stock price to be the primary determinant of value. Yes, the price of the stock is a reflection of the company's ability to sell in this economy, and as such does indicate management may have been shortsighted. That's no good, if you're a shareholder. But for all of us who are not, what's the problem? By comparison, consider the stock performance of your garden variety oil company - shall we conclude based on stock performance that these are "good companies", companies that people appreciate and are happy with?

Some might suggest the oil companies are extorting their money because we don't have a choice - we must get to work, to school, to whereever we are going, and have to make difficult choices when there's not enough money left after filling up the tank.

I can think of several companies whose stock these days are doing well, but do we embrace them? Canadian banks, internet and wireless service providers are doing well on the market, but are continually bouncing from one PR nightmare to another.

Valuing a company solely on stock price is illusory and shallow. How many companies can we think of that were shooting stars on the market for a time, and we allowed the soaring stock price to blind us to fundamental problems - Bre-X, Nortel, Enron....

Maybe Starbucks should be named among them, just another shooting star crashing back to earth. To-date, however, Starbucks hasn't actually been accused of any malfeasance. So, that's not the problem.

Recently there was public outcry over Rogers iPhone pricing, and they've been forced to respond. Is Rogers allowed to hide behind the defence I'm offering Starbucks? After all, both are being accused of charging too much for their service. I think the difference is one of the markets of these respective businesses - there is plenty of choice in the coffee market if you don't want to give your money to Starbucks. But, if you want a GSM cellphone, the infrastructure that the rest of the world uses, there's nowhere to go in the dominion of Canada but Rogers. As such, we may be able to accuse Rogers of taking advantage of a monopoly situation, but we can't levy that same charge at Starbucks, there's just too much choice in the coffee space.
Same goes for the oil companies. Even though they may argue there's "choice", there really isn't, for two reasons:

first, if there are eight oil companies selling a litre of gasoline and the high-low price range is approximately 3%, then for all intents and purposes the price is the same. A 3% swing in price on a $4 cup of coffee is a paltry 12 cents. Choice in who you buy from is only part of the equation. Choice in how much you pay is also a necessary component of the concept of choice;

second, and more importantly, as I've already mentioned, one doesn't need a $4 cup of coffee. Even if someone is addicted to caffeine, there are choices - not only in brand, but also in price. If I can buy a cup of coffee for 99 cents (or 25% of a Starbucks cup) the equivalent in gasoline would be finding a station charging 35 cents per litre (of course, you'd probably spend all day lined up to buy).

Any way you pour it, Starbucks is not as much of a corporate bad guy as other companies whose stocks are still performing well. The herd mentality has got people piling on Starbucks, but there's really no need, because Starbucks has done one more thing better than those other companies - they have remained accoutable to the general public. Whereas internet and wireless providers and oil companies can balk at being called to task by government inquiries and go right on exploiting their positions, we don't need to write a letter to our ward alderman or start an online petition to break The Beer Store monopoly when it comes to Starbucks, because Starbucks has remained accountable to the marketplace - the stock is down.

Edit - (Dec 13, 2008)

Recently I bought a medium beverage from a Second Cup shop, it was $4. And it dawned on me that I was right about this Starbucks defence.

Is anyone whining about Second Cup charging $4 for a medium cup of a hot beverage? Nope.

The issue, thus, isn't about whether Starbucks or any other place is overcharging for cup of coffee. It's about other things.

Edit - (Jan 27, 2010)

Here's a recent (January 2010) headline "Starbucks profit surges"

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/starbucks-profit-surges-lifts-outlook-2010-01-20

Management has apparently weathered the external storm, and righted the internal ship. As Gilligan was wont to say, "from here on in it looks like smoooooth sailing."

MyLocation now available on Palm OS GSM devices

2008-02-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

Palm inc. continues to frustrate its remaining core users, but one of its strengths is its strong 3rd party developer community. This latest offering is extremely cool, but also telling of issues at Palm that must be more alienating than endearing.

While Palm Inc. says that a Google Maps location-finding feature is only available on "newer Palm phones", the developers at Razix are proud to present MyLocation, for use with Treo 650 and 680, and get this - it's free.

I won't get into a rant on how frustrating it is to be a Palm user these days. Right now I just want to enjoy the benefit of being in a community that will do as much as it can, no matter how little effort Palm Inc. puts into supporting us.

Enjoy!

Palm's Identity Crisis

2008-02-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

Handheld electronics include several distinct though related devices: cellular phone, personal digital assitant (PDA) and the hybrid smartphone.

The convergence of a cellular phone and PDA makes sense, since they both share common data - the contacts. It's also easier to carry one device rather than two.

A robust operating system provides a platform to converge additional devices we may want to carry around - mp3 player, gps, etc... why carry a cell phone, a PDA, an mp3 player, a digital camera, and gps receiver in separate devices if we can do it all in one?
Some people are more inclined to identify with their cell phone, and additional components are driven off that form factor. Some identify with a PDA and its related functionality, and additional components are driven off that form factor. As an example, there are lots of people using a cell phone who have never used a PDA to keep track of appointments, to-do lists, etc... by default, their cell phone will contain at least their contacts names and phone numbers, but probably not birthdays, or notes, etc... By the same token, there are people who were using PDAs before cell phones became ubiquitous, and it only seemed natural to lose the clutter and converge their phone and PDA functionalities.

Palm was a PDA innovator. A close integration of operating system and handheld hardware made it simple and intuitive. A large 3rd party developer community grew providing variety in software choice. And everything was wonderful.

But cell phones continued to penetrate the consumer space, and new generations of electronic device buyers bought cellphones before becoming interested in PDAs. Palm threw phone functionality into their PDAs, but didn't do it well. Currently, their performance in customer satisfaction is in the basement, according to the article Palm Ranks Last in Cellphone Satisfaction.

The sad part is, Palm apparently missed Danny DeVito as Larry "The Liquidator" Garfield in Other People's Money, when he said "the best way to go out of business is to gain increasing market share in a decreasing marketplace." Palm is doing exactly that - PDA Market Continues Contraction, Palm Remains on Top.

Convergence is here to stay. It would make more sense for Palm to stop alienating its core users, who are "PDA first users who converged with a phone just to carry one less device", rather than cell phone first users who may still not appreciate the usefulness of a PDA. It would make more sense to devote more resources in making a converged device more stable, more reliable, more in touch with what's going on with its competition. Continuing to push non-phone converged PDAs does not make sense. Continuing to frustrate its core users with tired PDA functionality and poor phone integration does not make sense.

Why this pioneering company can't figure this out also makes no sense. Maybe Larry Garfield should show up at their next stockholders' meeting and take over.

Review of IntelligentFind and FindWiz

2008-02-17T12:28:00.001-05:00

Like many of us, I do a lot of things on my Treo 680. I listen to MP3s, watch TV shows and movies; I view and edit Microsoft Office documents and spreadsheets; I find my way around with Google Maps; I've got a Bible, a dictionary; I browse the web, send/receive email and text messages; I've got a voice recorder which is great for recording a conversation while I'm driving and can't write down some information. I do all kinds of things on my Treo 680, but the main reason I have a PDA, the single most important thing I do is not as exotic or glamorous: I manage my "life data" - personal ID info, online user IDs and passwords, family dates and obligations, the kids' doctor's appointments, work-related info, notes on speaking engagements (where, when, subject, etc...), travel information, notes to self, contacts information, to-do lists...
The built-in PIM - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos - is the primary purpose for my carrying a Treo. I throw every bit of information in there so I don't have to remember it. The challenge, however, is to FIND some piece of information if/when I need it - days, weeks or even years later. If all I had was Palm's built-in find, "good luck" would be a vain wish.

The built-in find function is so useless it makes me want to swear. Sometimes, I know I wrote something or copied an article to a memo, and I don't need to see hits from my calendar during a search. Otherwise, I may have years of event notes in my calendar, and only need to search the last three months, or specifically between two particular months, or up to 2003... with the built-in find I'm out of luck. Or, I may need to search my entire history and would like to narrow the search by using multiple words to zero in on what I'm looking for...but with the built-in? Forgetabadit.

I searched high and low, far and wide, for something better. After testing several potential replacements, two search apps rose to the top for me: FindWiz and IntelligentFind. Both have their strengths, perhaps one is right for you.

FindWiz is simply remarkable. There are enough configurable options in this app to satisfy the most technical user. Among the key things that make this app very powerful:

it searches databases directly rather than requiring the host app to do part of the searching. The bottom line here is that it can search pretty much any area of your device, including text messages and email;

it provides a case sensitivity toggle for EACH of the three search criteria, so you can change which of the criteria should be case sensitive, which should not;

it shows results in a split screen so you can see the context of the hit, and decide which is the information you are looking for before launching the native app. If that's not what you're looking for, you can continue by moving on to the next hit or scanning through the results;

it's zippy fast;

convenient buttons you can configure to save specific often-searched databases;

stores saved searches in a filing cabinet.

The sheer amount of documentation, help and support for FindWiz may seem overwhelming at first, but once familiar with the environment, it's a snap to use.

One of the few knocks on this app is it can't search parameters within an app, like, say between two specific dates in Calendar or only within specific fields in Contacts. The developer does communicate openly with the user community and is working on revisions that may include this functionality.

IntelligentFind is pretty awesome itself.

The developer has tried to depart somewhat from the typical search approach by offering two different ways to search - the typical way, where you would enter a few words or a phrase, and a new, novel way whereby you would type in a question in plain english and the app would find hits ranked by relevance. Personally, while novel, I haven't found this approach particularly useful for my purposes. But the standard approach is slick and that's what I use.

In the standard approach, IntelligentFind offers the ability to search with parameters. In Calendar, you can search a particular period of time, be it a particular month, or between two dates, etc... I love this. In Contacts, you can search different parts of the contact entry, whether various categories and/or even fields within the contact entry.

You can choose between space separator or carriage return - with the carriage return option set, you can enter any number of words and or phrases (not limited to two or three as is the case in others, or the single criteria of the built-in app) and it will only return hits that have all the criteria - this means you can really drill down to exactly what you're looking for. The hits are shown in a tab view that also shows the app in which the hit is found; clicking on the hit takes you to the entry in the app. Since it doesn't limit the search criteria, the more information you keep in your PDA, the more valuable this app becomes.

IntelligentFind searches email, which is also very cool, but I haven't successfully been able to search text messages for some strange reason. It also soft-resets my Treo a little too frequently. What's particularly irritating is that it requires me to re-enter the registration information, which is more characters long than I care to remember. This may be due in part to conflicts with other software, but FindWiz doesn't crash at all. A new version of IntelligentFind may clean this up, however in speaking with the developer it appears there will be no further revisions until Palm releases its highly anticipated new OS platform which is believed will be be based on Linux and may become available in late 2008 or early 2009. If Palm beefs up its built-in search, 3rd party search developers may be rendered moot - if not, you can bet they'll continue to provide their wares, much to the delight of users who need search muscle on their PDAs.

IntelligentFind's main strength is its interface - it's clean, pleasant, easy on the eyes. And it has its fair share of search muscle. FindWiz is a little less pretty to look at, but offers some powerful features including stability, which is important as well.

If I had to pick one, I couldn't, so I paid to register both apps. I tend to use IntelligentFind a little more often just because of the available search parameters that FindWiz doesn't offer. However, FindWiz is also highly valued for me since it handles text message searching flawlessly. Palm TX users might prefer FindWiz because IntelligentFind does not utilize the big beautiful screen TX users love about their PDA. Either way, if you juggle your life's information on your PDA, a beefed up search app can be very helpful, and these two provide enough muscle to find any bit of information you've tossed into your Palm.