Outside Look

Good Advice

LinuxWorld has good advice for companies: Trying stuff is cheaper than deciding whether to try it. (Compare the cost of paying and feeding someone to do a few weeks of [Perl or PHP] hacking to the full cost of the meetings that went into a big company decision.) Don't overplan something. Just do it half-assed to start with, then throw more people at it to fix it if it works. Via Kottke.org. This speaks to what I call 'analysis paralysis' that you see in many large organizations (not jus...

The Right Sort of Software

Did you even want to work on a document with a full featured desktop client, but have the flexibility to access it anywhere and collaborate with others easily? Sure you have, most everyone has. downloadsquad is featuring an article on a new OpenOffice extension that offers import/export between OO and Google Docs. This is an exciting first step, and one I certainly need to try out. I think we all dream of a "write anywhere, access anywhere" method of authoring and managing documents, but that...

What Google is Doing Right

One of the key things Google is doing correctly is making it easy to access Google services from a variety of places and a variety of devices. Just today a mobile version of Google's Notebook service was released (found here). Suddenly, Google Notebook has become nearly as valuable to me as del.icio.us. The key element is Google is increasing the value of their services, increasing the stickiness, and increasing the general use per person (and therefore advertising). For example, with Gmail I...

Take a Looks at TEDTalks

If you haven't checked out TEDTalks check the link and/or pull it up on iTunes. There are literally dozens of some of the most interesting speakers doing short (less than 30 mins) talks on a topic. Some are funny, others are serious, but all of them are thoughtful, interesting and enlightening. Some of my favorites include Ze Frank, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennet, Micheal Shermer, Julia Sweeney, Steven Levitt.

Using LinkedIn Answers Effectively

LinkedIn is a great networking tool, a really useful business and job hunting tool and a place to get real life expertise and something not unlike primary research. The LinkedIn Answers feature can be a really useful tool, both for people with question and people with answers - the real trick is using the features effectively. Asking Questions In 'real life' face-to-face communication, most people are effective at asking questions. We all know that we need to be clear, concise, provide enoug...

iPhone 1.1.1 Update

Just a quick note on my experiences with the new iPhone firmware - had a few problems, and got things working. First - I did have 3rd party apps installed. After reading initial updates at The Unofficial Apple Weblog and initial reports at Gizmodo I thought it best to do a factory restore the 1.0.2 firmware and then do the update, but for some reason iTunes didn't want to do this - I'd suggest trying to disconnect from the network, doing the restore and then doing the update. iTunes downloade...

A Big Win for Software Users

According to the New York Times, IBM has indicated they are offering Symphony, an office suite based on the very solid OpenOffice. It looks like IBM will be devoting some development resources to the project as well. While the NYT focuses on the competition with Microsoft, there is much more to it. This is great for users of all stripes, but I think small and medium sized businesses will win the most. This is the segment that will pay retail or buy small blocks of licenses. A free set of offi...

The Fine Art of Negotiation

Through a friend, I found this article about negotiation. While many books and articles on negotiation focus on a 'act like you have nothing to lose' strategy, this focuses on what one can bring to the table, an offer providing a better situation for everyone involved.

Corporate Integrity

Today Google made another announcement about the impending end of the Google Video's download to rent/download to own program. This is an excellent example of a company (big, faceless company?) admitting a mistake, doing right by their customers, and being really honest and forthcoming: When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you've made a mistake, it's good to listen. So we'd like to say thank you to everyone who wrote to let us know that we had made a mistake in t...

Lions and Tigers and Emails, oh my!

One of the most challenging aspects of day to day work for most of us is keeping up with the flood of tasks and communications that come our way. There is email, phone calls, voice mail, coworkers 'popping by' and for some the added streams of instant messaging, RSS feeds and so on. Merlin Mann of 43 Folders (among others) has a video of a presentation at Google about efficiently and effectively handling email: The video is about an hour long, with the first 30 minutes or so of presentatio...