eWeek has done a review of Notes 7. Ed Brill has pointed to the bits that he likes.
Not enough detail for my liking, but if you want some basics about the changes then take a look.
Blackberry Accessory
There are so many people I know who need this blackberry accessory that I think I might buy some of them one.
Perhaps I should get Granddad and Jimmy fixed up?
via jkOnTheRun.
Microsoft Monitor does some Pondering too
Yesterday I did some pondering about what would happen if Apple had a monopoly. Today Microsoft Monitor talks to some of the issues I raised.
Related, I also would like to point out that Apple presses its advantages just as hard as Microsoft. I’ve heard lots of gripes (some justified) for many years about Microsoft’s bundling strategy and how it hurts competitors. Apple does the same. Yesterday, I tried to get product information at Apple’s Website, but Internet Explorer 7 would crash. I used Firefox with the same result. With Tuesday’s new product announcements, Apple retooled its Website with lots more QuickTime (Doesn’t everyone else use Flash?). So I decided to update my QuickTime version from 7.03 to 7.04. But when I tried to download QuickTime, Apple’s Website directed me to iTunes. Apple wouldn’t offer QuickTime download separate from iTunes. I did search Apple’s download site for QuickTime 7.04, but got directed to 7.03 instead.
Jimmy and Grandad
I’ve had a few questions about “Jimmy and Grandad” and there current showing on Oak Grove well here is an explanation.
In a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quite corner of Lancashire’s newest city is an upstairs room. Some would look at this room and believe that it was just an ordinary room. It has four walls, a window and a door, nothing special there. In one quite corner of this room though is a four storey wooden house. It has a basement with a garage for the car. It has bedrooms for the inhabitants. It has a bathroom in the attic. It has everything that a modern family could possibly want.
In this house lives a wonderful extended family; Grandma, Grandad, Mum, Dad, Jimmy, Emmy and Tilly the baby. There is even a full set of pets rabbit, cat, and everyone’s favourite Tyke the dog.
Most of the time they are just an ordinary family doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. But like all ordinary families they are really extraordinary. When Jimmy and Grandad get together anything could happen and it regularly does. Jimmy is a lover of gadgets and technology, Grandad his somewhat slower side-kick. Physical slowness isn’t a problem for the quick minded Grandad though and he gets it faster than Jimmy most of the time. In this world it’s mental agility that counts.
They may not look cool, they may never change their clothes, they may never comb their hair, they may be made of wood, but they are extraordinary.
Welcome to the adventures of Jimmy and Grandad.
AT&T Collaboration – Teleworking
Interesting article in Collaboration Loop on AT&T and it’s move to teleworking, particularly interesting is the political change that this change has made. It again promotes the issue of process to the top of the pile.
One of the reasons for the program’s success at AT&T is because there is no differentiation in terms of work habits between employees who work in AT&T offices and those who work remotely. AT&T has rather effectively embedded telework in the way all work is performed. Security policies do not, for example differentiate between “security at home,” “security on the road,” and “security in the office”: there is but one security policy, and it is designed to anticipate all facets of the knowledge worker’s environment, mobile or otherwise. People even work in a remote style when in office: the tools that teleworkers use, such as instant messaging and the telephone, are also frequently used to contact workers in adjoining offices.
If Apple had a monopoly?
This is a question I ponder sometimes. If we had chosen to buy Apple instead of IBM PC what would the world of IT look like today. For one thing we wouldn’t be dominated by Microsoft, would Microsoft still exist, etc.
I’m no great historian so this isn’t some great thesis, it’s just some simple pondering.
Apple has always been the deliverer of an an integrated solution – hardware and software. Get one, get them both. If Apple had dominated would this have continued? Would they have reached a monopoly in the same way as Microsoft is reported to have? Would they have fallen into the hands of the regulators earlier or later? Would the regulator have made them split the hardware and software sides of the business?
If all of the personal computers and their software came from one organisation what would have happened? We certainly wouldn’t have had Dell or Gateway; IBM, Toshiba, HP, Sony, would all be smaller.
Would Apple have chosen to leverage the dominance in the personal computer space to increase the scope of their monopoly into say the office productivity or media space?
Without the cash from Windows would Microsoft have been the ones shouting foul over the encroachment of Apple into it’s office productivity market? Would they have developed Exchange and would it be something completely different? SQL Server? SharePoint?
I like to ponder history because it tells me something about the future.
If Apple is dominant in the portable media player market will it try to use that dominance to build a dominance somewhere else. Well they already are, they are trying to build a dominance in music downloads. They aren’t building this dominance in an open accessible way they are locking people in. If you buy protected music from iTunes the only portable media player you can play it on is your iPod. Businesses aren’t really that different you see. If you use an iPod and you buy music from iTunes you’ve been locked in (well almost because you can get the tunes to another format but it isn’t easy and it will cost you money).
If the dominance continues and moves towards a monopoly will the regulators move in? Will they be told to open up their software to others (in the same way as Microsoft has)? Will they be forced to license the iPod specification to allow others into the market? Will they be forced to bundle other digital rights software from people like Microsoft and Sony? Will they see it coming and let others into the market once they have defined its shape and size? Will the global copyright structure fall apart before that happens, making all music free and removing the need for digital rights management?
It’s fun pondering – but remember, it doesn’t mean anything.
Or perhaps it does .
Count Your Blessings #46 – Pondering
Ponder: To reflect or consider with thoroughness and care.
I love to sit and ponder. I suppose I’m doing it now as I consider what I’m going to write, but this isn’t true pondering because there is a sense in which true pondering is done with a purpose but doesn’t actually produce anything for a long while. I know some authors ponder over words for days on end, but I’m not that precise. But I do ponder some things, I do consider them over and over again. Many of these pondering haven’t produced anything, and perhaps there isn’t anything to produce other than a sense of pondering in me.
Some translations of the Bible use the word ponder quite a lot particularly in the Psalms:
Praise the LORD! I will thank the LORD with all my heart as I meet with his godly people.
How amazing are the deeds of the LORD! All who delight in him should ponder them.
Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.
Another translation uses a slightly different phrase and I love that too:
GOD’s works are so great, worth a lifetime of study–endless enjoyment!
This Psalm talks about one of the things that I must ponder the most – God’s works. God’s works in my life, God’s works in those around me. God’s works in the broader world and in creation.
Some of the things I ponder go like this, and this is where I reveal my technical side I’m afraid:
If God is outside time and can do anything at any time with no limit to the number of times that He can do something He doesn’t need to be all powerful as well?
How does God constrain His power?
Does Heaven in an way follow the same line of time as the earth? If it doesn’t is Jesus on the earth and in heaven at the same time or is that an irrelevant question?
The point about pondering is that there is endless enjoyment in a lifetime of study. It’s not about quick answers, there may not even be an answer. Pondering is about the joy of laying with the study of something, using that study to broaden the mind to stretch the imagination, to reach beyond ourselves into something or some other place.
Having something to ponder is a wonderful companion when alone on a walk in some beautiful countryside. I could take some music or a radio or any number of electronic companions, but they are nothing compared to a question that requires some pondering.
Much of our current world is about quick answers to quick questions. We have all the information we could ever possibly want available to us. The other day I read a really interesting article on how we are answer rich but question poor and how this was impacting our ability to be creative. We have to learn to delight in the pondering, without it we are just information and not fully human. Some people ponder things for a lifetime and never find an answer, but that’s not the point of the pondering.
I was prompted to write this post after reading Maggi’s post on it earlier today.
Not at MacWorld
Continuing my theme of telling you where I’m not – I’m not at MacWorld.
It’s really interesting to see how the press goes into over-drive at these times though. The press must be one of the most environmentally friendly businesses in the world – they get to recycle the same material at least three times. We have rumours before the event, reports of the event and then comment on the results of the event .
Search Fun
One of the nice things about running StatCounter on this blog is that I get to see how people arrived. One of the ones that fascinates me is search strings. Some of them are truly comical.
Yesterday, for instance, someone found this site by typing “graham dull” into Google and yes apparently I’m the number 2 hit for that search . I get lots of visitors arriving by searching on “Microsoft system center capacity planner 2006” which is fine, that’s to be expected. I still get loads for happy bunny which I only mentioned once; now I think about it though I’ve mentioned it twice because I also posted about getting lots of hits for it; but now of course I’ve just made it worse . I also got one today for “stuart downes mercedes”. I know a Stuart Downes but I don’t think he drives a Mercedes and why would anyone be searching for his Mercedes.
(Oh dear I’m nearly out of Jimmy and Granddad pictures will have to take some more.)
It's not working – it's too cumbersome
Stuart Downes has written an interesting piece on why he believes that collaboration workplaces aren’t working:
However perhaps the least useful and most burdensome technology has been the workspace, in my organisation that takes the form of either a Notes Teamroom database or a browser accessed Quickplace. Am I the only person that finds these areas cumbersome and painful to use, and eventually I find that all they are used for is a document repository. Even where the project is staffed by collaborative engineers we still seem to revert to the more basics of communication (IM, email and telephone – and probably in that order).
Sky Scout – now that's a gadget
Many gadgets are just a faster sleeker version of the the thing that has passed before it. But this year at CES it looks like the SkyScout has created a real buzz.
“The SkyScout is a revolutionary, one of a kind, patented handheld device that instantly identifies and/or locates any celestial object visible to the naked eye, providing educational and entertaining information, both in text and audio.
A fun learning tool for all ages, the SkyScout personal planetarium puts the knowledge of an expert astronomer in the palm of your hand.”
This fits the gadget title in so many way. It’s definitely something you look at and say “I need knew I wanted one of those, that’s great”. It also fits the “Brilliant, take existing technology, put it together in an innovative way and this is what you get”. It isn’t going to solve world hunger though – shame .
Living in one of the cloudiest parts of the world the number of times I would use such a thing are limited, but that doesn’t stop me wanting one.
Ron Jacobs asks for feedback on TechED principles
Ron Jacobs is asking for feedback on a new set of principles for TechED sessions.
Graham Chastney 