tokerud's technology treats

Social Networking Made Easy, Part 8

Helping Each Other: Type 1 - Reciprocity

Besides the social aspects and enjoyment of meeting new people or the intrinsic value and importance of forming personal and business relationships, a major aspect of networking has to do with helping each other. At first glance, you might think of reciprocity or the, more primitive, old saw "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine".

There is an implied score-keeping to this. If person A does some special favors for person B, then B owes A some favors in return. Ordinary good manners might dictate this. For example, if someone invites you over to dinner, it is considered good etiquette to invite them over to dinner in return. Tit for tat.

When someone I know asks me for a favor and it's not ultra easy and something that seems immediately appealing, I might in a split second consult or construct a mental ledger and consider, has this person done favors for me already so I really owe them this favor in return or not? If they haven't done me a favor, and I don't feel like helping or it seems inconvenient, I might just decline or "beg off" with some excuse or another. I can "with good conscience" and without undue concern, just do what I want and figure my needs are important too and I don't want to help right now in the way I'm being asked to help. I'm good.

Then, there is a darker side of reciprocity. Someone asks me for a favor or I spontaneously think of something I could do that would be helpful to another person but, before I offer to help, I consult the ledger. I want to make sure that I'm not going to wind up being taken advantage of. I don't want to be so generous that it makes my intended benefactor uncomfortable (I'm so considerate you see) and, further, it would be nice if this person has the wherewithal to pay me back later.

I think reciprocity is a good minimum standard to follow in networking but it is short-sighted and doesn't create anything beyond the ordinary. It doesn't generate a virtuous circle. I'm not providing leadership in the situation. I'm still contributing to a status quo of scarcity and selfishness.

I would like to see a different kind of reciprocity that is more generous and more inspired. It wouldn't involve the ledger as a standard. The ledger might still pop into mind, it could still be there in our considerations, but what I would like to see is for us to (1) get in touch with, own and get enthused about our own deep desire to contribute to others, (2) stay in touch with our own needs and keep them in the equation when we decide whether or not to contribute and (3) ask for what we would like from others around us, so that they can experience the satisfaction and self-expression of contributing to us.

Creating Trust by Trusting

There's an important little story over on Kotte.org. It's called Business lessons from the donut and coffee guy. It seems that *Ralph* lets his customers make their own change. As a result, he probably loses a little change each day and he is able to serve more customers and has a really loyal following. Jason Kotte aces the breakdown of the dynamics of trust in the situation and how it makes Ralph's business successful. It's worth reading and pondering for my business and maybe yours...

Panther Address Book helps social networking

I am thrilled to hear that by the end of this year when Mac OS X Panther is released, I will be able to note connections between my contacts in my address book. The screenshot I saw showed fields for friends and assistants. It tells me who people know (at least who they know that I know they know). The new Address book will also have a Scripts menu which will hopefully spawn the writing of lots of AppleScripts to extract value out of the Address book.

Even though I'm no AppleScript programmer, if someone else doesn't do it, I will undertake to write a script that will quickly find all the address book records named in the friends field of a particular record or group of records. That would be step one... I'm hoping that some AppleScript geek will seek to chart the relationships in a scriptable drawing program like Omnigraffle after that. I would very much like to see such a chart of my own address book once these fields are filled in. [via Interconnected, write-up and screenshot at MacMegasite]

Branding Yourself Online

If you want to become known or better known in your field, read this book! The full title is: Poor Richard's Branding Yourself Online: How to Use the Internet to Become a Celebrity or Expert in Your Field. The author is Bob Baker and he's a good writer and a great nuts and bolts personal branding thinker. Branding Yourself Online was written in 2001, after the dotcom bust, so Bob knows that the internet is not the answer to everything.

Given the economic doldrums we've been going through, a very appealing aspect of Bob's advice is that it is geared to get you amazing results on the cheap. It's either do-it-yourself, here's a free resource or here's an inexpensive resource. This guy did his homework!

Now that we are free agents, personal branding is where it's at. But we've not yet switched gears and fully taken this into account in our marketing. At least, I haven't. But I'm learning quick! Some of my favorite parts are about "the brand called you", using email and designing your website. My absolute favorite part is about making your website interactive - once again - without spending a lot of money. I'm excited right now because there's so many things I haven't been doing that will be clearly beneficial to building my reputation and selling my product.

Check out these two free articles on his site to get some immediate value: (1) 10 Writing Tips for E-mail Branding Power and (2) 9 Ways to Create a Rock-Solid Identity Online. You can also get a free download of the first two chapters of the book if you are willing to sign up for his free Branding Yourself Online ezine - I just did even though I already have the book and don't need the free chapters - I want his ezine! If you want the book now, here's the Amazon link.

I signed up for T-mobile wi-fi

Although I occasionally seem to have trouble logging on, I'm liking it a lot once I get on. Their T1 internet access is faster than my home DSL. And usually I have it all to myself. Only $20/month on a month by month basis - no long contract to worry about. The $20/month price is only available if you are a T-mobile customer already. Otherwise it is $30/mo. I could deal with $20/month thinking of it as $1 per day. Since part of my daily routine is a morning walk to Starbucks, I'll actually get my money's worth. So, I'm trying this wi-fi deal for a month. I take my 5.4 lb Powerbook with me in a good backpack on my 1 mile out, 1 mile back walk. In a backpack, the weight is no problem at all. I'm a happy camper! Get it? I've tried it at Borders too. Now I'm really not going anywhere without my Powerbook. Well, at least not until I get a wi-fi handheld...

Sony Wireless Handheld due Friday

Brighthand reported today that Sony is announcing a new Clie PDA: 300 mhz, Palm OS 5.2, wi-fi, bluetooth, camera, nice keyboard. The press briefing is to be in San Francisco! The cute factor on this little guy is up there. It's got a landscape-oriented 480x320 screen - I immediately like the landscape orientation better for this device. It's believed that it will be called the Clie PEG-UX50 . Dimensions are 4" long x 3.4" wide x .7" thick and it weighs 6.17 oz. Not particularly light but oh so sexy! I know, I know. It's that darned techno lust again.

Ominous P800 Story

Bummer. I thought I was safe on this issue when I bought the P800. If you'll recall, I cited Dan Gillmor's post about Cory Doctorow's post saying that T-mobile was refusing to support Sidekicks that had unauthorized software put on them. I just assumed that this wouldn't be a problem with the P800 as there's a third-party software market out there. People routinely buy additional software for the P800 - as I said before, it is definitely a computer, not just a cell phone. So this latest comes as a surprise.

Mobitopia has a post about it and this month's Your Symbian ezine (I like this ezine - get their 9 back issues if you have a Symbian device) article is called "A lesson in 'warranty' replacement - Jordan". This is a well-written little story if you are interested.

Jim Hughes at Mobitopia summarizes:

Jordan's P800 crashed and wouldn't reboot so he took it to a SonyEricsson service centre, who eventually returned it to him unfixed because he'd installed unauthorised software on it.

Yes? Hello? It's a computer! That's what people do with computers, they install software on them and use them, but not in SonyEricsson's world it seems....

Here's hoping community wi-fi turns out to be more than a pipedream - and fast. These cellular carriers are for the birds! One last note, I just googled for Community Wi-Fi and up came Marin Community Wi-Fi Network. That pointed me to a hilarious war driving Doonesbury cartoon you gotta see.

Better Screen keyboard for Pocket PC

You know me. I want a keyboard. Here we have another creative response. The Spb keyboard is an on-screen input device in software. That way, when I don't need it, I can use the full available screen space as, well, screen space. And the price is right for a change - $10.

Of course, it would help immensely if this software worked on my new Symbian 7-based P800 cell phone. Oh well - another price I pay for choosing the cool but, not as dominant, Symbian OS for my new cell phone... Maybe, per chance, there will be a version for Symbian? Please. (Diego Doval has a lot to say about about Symbian's lack of appeal for developers and what to do about it over at Mobitopia - Symbian's Achilles' Heel.)

When finances improve a little, I'm thinking of getting a more powerful, more pixels, wi-fi handheld as my P800's portable companion. The Palm Tungsten C is still a serious contender. But, I don't rule out a Pocket PC. I like the slim and light HP iPAQ h2210 with the new Windows Mobile 2003 for PocketPC (couldn't they find a little shorter name?).

Back to the Spb keyboard. This could work. The keys are big enough for thumbs on the touch screen. I usually try to get by with my fingers on a touch screen rather than pulling out the stylus and putting it away and pulling it out and putting it away, over and over. This is a 2.0 release and it looks like it covers most of the essential bases. Way to go, Spb!

High Tech, High Touch

As much of a geek and technology enthusiast as I am, I feel the need to balance all this with a post about the rest of the picture that makes up my "good life". The phrase, Hi-Tech, Hi-Touch, hasn't gone away since it was coined by John Naisbitt in his book Megatrends in 1982. That book stayed on the best seller lists for 2 years! It was based on ten years of social research. With his eye on as much social and trend data as he could find, Naisbitt could see, even then, that as the world was getting more technological, malled and McDonaldized, people were reacting and seeking "high touch" to compensate.

I admit I'm a technology nut - a geek. I'm not much of a camper even. Too many living things all in one place, kind of unsettle me. I'm not a gardener. I love my computers and books. But, I go for walks every day. Usually twice a day. I get outside in nature. I couldn't be so techno without it.

I moved out of the city (beautiful San Francisco) to live ten miles North in a tree-filled and hilly hinterland suburb called Mill Valley thirteen years ago. It doesn't take much to get into the city via the Golden Gate bridge, but since I work from home, there's not much reason to expose myself to the smog and concrete of the city every day. It's more relaxing and life-sustaining here.

Don't worry. You don't have to move to the boring burbs! Notice I live only ten miles away from SF, first of all. Secondly, some prefer to live in the city with all its culture, diversity, resources and work. They get their nature hits by spending time in parks when they can, getting out of the city on weekends, skiing, camping, backpacking and adventure travel. That works too.

Some forward-thinking people live in the further out burbs and figure they're that much nearer to the real outback, countryside, etc. And some even live in tiny little towns in Idaho or Colorado or Wyoming. There are still a few traditional jobs out there and there's always working at a distance with the amazing Net as your vehicle. SF-area real estate prices being what they are and internet coverage and speed getting better all the time, these more remote options look pretty darned good sometimes. I gotta have my broadband, though, and satellite wouldn't hurt either.

Our techno-driven 24/7 lifestyles cry out for compensations like getting physical - quietly as in walking, hiking, yoga, gardening and exuberantly as in extreme sports, mountain climbing, backpacking, cycling, skiing and dancing. For many of us, pets can be comforting and delightful. Massage, saunas, hot tubs, showers, baths and physical and emotional intimacy are just a few of the ways we keep ourselves grounded, refreshed, healthy and happy.

Social Networking Made Easy, Part 7

Things have at least ostensibly become a bit difficult of late for our workingman and workingwoman heroes. We no longer have the 20th century luxury of being kept employees trading our freedom in for a secure job. That's really what the bargain was and still is when you can get it. And lots of people want that deal just so that they can follow the customary path to security.

We don't grow up safe and snug in our communities and families anymore knowing we'll be taken care of by our kin if worse comes to worse. So, this new heroic undertaking, is truly heroic. Being human is no doubt potentially heroic to begin with, but now many of us are thrust into the breach, perhaps without realizing it. A breach that calls for sustained courage and ingenuity.

It used to be that if you were born into or managed to gain the advantage in life, you could probably keep it. And that's certainly not all gone away, for those who have wads of money and aren't foolish with it. But promises can't be made for those lucky few anymore - because, the truth is, we're not sure what's gonna happen next.

Consider those poor souls in the World Trade center buildings. Quite a few of these people were hotshots. And I think you would agree, we didn't imagine that the twin towers would ever collapse. Sure we had some fears lurking about terrorism - we'd certainly seen some scary flicks - some which seemed possible - but not like that!

During the dot com boom, lots of people quit more conventional jobs and either started their own businesses or threw their lot in with a start-up. The cautionary tale here is that a few got rich and many more were worked almost to death without much reward and are now scraping by looking for a job or freelance work.

So, what's the answer? How do we do this 21st century hero deal and come out smelling like a rose? I hate to say it, but it sure looks like we are knee deep in shit. Did I mention navigating muddy waters earlier? Yeah. We - you and me - are going to have to dig down and find what it takes to get through this transitional or perhaps long-term period of uncertainty.

These are some of the trends that are emerging right now. The internet stubbed its toe in the dot com crash, but rolls on becoming even more entrenched and ubiquitous - globally. There are droves of free agents in the economy. Smartness, information, creativity and individuality rule, trumping natural resources, industry, and even cheap labor. Computers are now firmly established as tools for communication, not computation.

All I can say is, fire up that website. Get and keep yourself connected and in communication with your buddies and your not-yet-known but nearby friends of friends. Your colleagues and former colleagues. The people you've found in your life that you can trust, who help you move forward, who are on your side and bring out the best in you. And all those kindred spirits around the globe who share your values and interests. Open your eyes. Face up to the fact that this isn't the past - it's the future! [To be Continued].

TypePad Rocks - I'm planning to switch

I just read a partial but detailed feature list for the initial release of TypePad, the new, improved and easier-to-use blogging tool from the makers of Movable Type, a powerful but not so easy-to-use blogging tool. Unless I hear really bad feedback about the TypePad beta, I'm getting on the bandwagon as soon as it is out of beta. TypePad has several integrated features that I want and don't have:

• TypeLists: "Keep sidebar weblogs about what you're reading, listening to, visiting on the web... Share your TypeLists with others as importable and exportable files."
• FOAF (Friend of a Friend) technology is built-in.
• Keep track of daily visitors with "easy-to-read and unobtrusive referrers and statistics".
• About Page. Something I would like to add here but would need to do some research to find out how to do. It's not a built-in feature in Movable Type.

My only hesitation is that I like having my blog under my own domain name and that may not be possible - yet. TypePad is meant to have a community element to it that I expect to take advantage of, though. And using the TypePad domain may be the price you have to pay to partake. As an early adopter, I'll take that deal to see what's possible with some of these extra tools, especially the FOAF capability. I've been getting exposure to FOAF on the Ryze business network and really like what I've seen so far.

Social Networking Made Easy, Part 6

We've established that things have gotten pretty disconnected in recent years. Career and family ain't what they used to be. It seems time to create intentional social networks and - hey - that's what we're doing!

Personal Webpages exist in the millions. And now that digital cameras are cheap and available in every shape and size, people are putting their photos on the web en masse! Weblogs, the hottest things in personal publishing, are proliferating at a stunning clip and new, easier-to-use blog tools like TypePad will only accelerate this trend.

Email has become a mainstay of our communication system. It provides this incredibly convenient way to stay in touch. Although, there are still a few hold outs, you can count on using email to communicate with just about everyone. Sending out an email to any number of people is almost immediate and practically free - personal publishing any time you want (the magnitude of our spam problem is testimony to this).

Instant Messaging is a way to be closer to our buddies - real time. It gives you a sense of being in the same room with someone. IM is now progressing to real-time audio and video messaging. Apple's new iChat AV, just released in June, is showing great promise for free long distance and video phone if you've got a computer on each end of the line.

Mobile Messaging. With the recent wide availability of smarter cell phones, text messaging and, now, photo messaging are surprising people with their popularity. The Japanese and Scandinavians are crazy for it and the rest of the world is catching on quick! This is even cooler, because it's mobile. You don't have to be sitting at home or limited to times when you are lugging your laptop.

Howard Rheingold's latest book, Smart Mobs, explores the plethora of possibilities this leading edge cellular technology opens up. At the edge, cell phones with built-in global and cellular positioning systems allow you to arrange to be notified when someone of interest (perhaps a buddy) comes into your geographic proximity. Imagine a rock concert or even a crowded evening network event - you suspect that some of your friends are there somewhere -- well, it won't be long before you'll be able to find them and be at choice about whether to make contact. You'll be able to select how visible you want to make yourself - from moment to moment, depending on your mood or need.

All these communication channels are popular and growing. Because of the amazing build-out of global wired and wireless networks, none of these channels require proximity. You can IM or mobile message your friends in Norway, Hong Kong or Katmandu. Of course, you can call just about anyone, anywhere on the globe. But, regular long distance phone can be expensive. Even here, long distance phone rates have dropped dramatically of late. I'm currently using Bigzoo.com prepaid long distance. I get national long distance at 2.9¢/minute and can call from the US to the UK for 2.9¢/min and China for 2.8¢/min.

Add in the vast varieties of new online communities, bulletin boards, commenting and more and it is clear that the options for connecting are enormous and still growing rapidly. Participation in all of these options varies from near zero to near immersion in online and cellular communications. Wearable computing devices including watches, eyeglass cameras and screens are becoming available and the wirelessly networked geek elite is trying these now. These days, it doesn't take more than 18 - 24 months before these edgy toys start going mainstream.

With all these tools and infrastructure, what does our hero, the free agent, do to regain the sense of connection and, at least a semblance of the stability, that was once a standard feature of everyday life? [To be continued]

Social Networking Made Easy, Part 5

I was just saying that the workforce is a "really disloyal, hustling, hunkering or hostile group of people". That sounds a little harsh. I'm a compassionate fan of this workforce. It is just that the churning and fragmentation of the work and career scene has created a motley crew. Dumped out of the secure nest of traditional employment onto the street, we woke up into a world where everyone is a sort of free agent responsible for their own employment or business gig.

1. Disloyal: we know that our employer or clients will downsize or reorganize our jobs or contracts out of existence when it suits them. Dependent and dutiful employee behavior may never have been a good proposition. Now it is so dysfunctional that the norm is to keep your options open and be ready to move quickly when or before your job or contract is terminated - not if. This doesn't mean most of us don't try to appear loyal.
2. Hustling. Working hard, mobilizing, even scrambling to keep financially afloat, to forward his or her career, to keep an ear to the ground for changes and opportunities, to get or keep more and better clients. This is perhaps the Type A - active - response.
3. Hunkering. Short for hunkering down in one's home. It's the head in the sand method. Battening down the hatches. Playing video games. Ignoring the changes all around us. Gardening. Drinking beer. Being a couch potato. Either wracking up big credit card bills or skimping and playing it safe. Being apathetic. The Type B - more passive - response.
4. Hostile. These are the people who are pissed off that all this is happening. They're the ones left holding the short end of the stick. They may not be able to get a job better than McDonalds, if that. They've lost or never had faith in the system. They are cranky. Some are extremists, some are "crazy", and some are agile and amazing political activists.

The truth is that we use all of these responses at one time or another as we try to adapt to our new circumstances. The social and economic safety net has withered. But, we live in a pretty abundant society so, even in tough times, at the minimum, we can probably get some credit to tide us over until things improve and, if things really get bad, there's still bankruptcy and what's left of a social safety net for those of us who are in dire financial straits or know how to manipulate the system so that it thinks we are.

How does social networking fit in this world? It's what's needed. When traditional social structures have disintegrated to the point where we are all veritable free agents, we immediately face the need to to get connected for jobs, work engagements, business alliances, marriages, partnerships and friendships. We free agents are free to choose but it's never been truer that "freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose".

Luckily, we have a growing, internet-enhanced toolkit to draw on to get that close, cozy, connected feeling and economic viability we all want. A created rather than inherited (family, neighborhood, town, class) or indentured (traditional, hierarchical employment) social network can be our new succor and safety net. Whether by necessity, drive or enthusiasm, many of us are learning to navigate these muddy waters. [To be continued]

Social Networking Made Easy, Part 4

I bet you thought I forgot about this topic. Not quite. As I recall we had built a simple personal web page, done some discrete email marketing and worked the Ryze online community - all so that we could get ahead through social networking without having to go to dreaded networking events cold-turkey. That was a good start.

Remember that this all started because of the small world phenomenon we read about where everyone is connected within six degrees of separation. Even though we often feel really isolated and alienated, is that just an illusion? Well. Not quite. Compared to other periods of time, we are probably more isolated and alienated on average than ever before.

We've gotten all mobile in the last century. First it was moving off the farm into the city. Then everyone got cars. Then an awful lot of people seemed to work for corporations and move around a lot. Or they just moved anyway because they could. That was the nuclear family thing where we lost our close connections to our local communities and our extended families. We didn't know our neighbors anymore. All that.

Since then, all hell broke loose. Somehow, families sort of stopped happening. A whole bunch of people married really late or didn't get married at all. They lived together. Serial monogamy was and is still big. Divorce skyrocketed. Cities wound up being places where mostly singles lived. Gays came out of the closet and seemed to proliferate. Families, what was left of them, moved to the burbs.

Besides all that, the workplace kind of fell apart too. It used to be that you could count on having a career - blue collar or white collar. You could count on staying with a company for a long time. Somewhere after the sixties, that whole postwar phenomenon really lost its momentum. It's been a downhill slide since then. What we are left with is a really disloyal, hustling, hunkering or hostile group of people who make up a whole different kind of workforce - if you can even call it that now.

No, the small world phenomenon may be very real, but that doesn't mean we're feeling close, cosy and connected. However, we could be. We are in close proximity and we are a bunch of social animals longing for belonging. It just might look different - real different. Let's keep going with this and see where it leads. [To be continued]

Handheld Device Size Matters

As Christian Hauck pointed out in his comment to my last TIQIT post, "Since the size of humans does not change, it's the size of the devices...if the Newton was too big years ago, it's too big today. If the Optio fits into my pocket, it will fit forever." Chris apparently has not yet tried cargo pants. I'm serious, cargo pockets are working great for me. I use the regular pockets for wallet, P800, change and keys and then put things like my Minolta Dimage X camera and small books in the cargo pockets. I bet there's a reason this style of pants and shorts has become popular. Lots of people want to fit several gadgets in their pockets. I could carry a TIQIT in a cargo pocket without too much difficulty. The weight would be more of an issue than the size.

But let's assume we don't have cargo pockets for the moment. This size matters thing has been around ever since there have been organizers like Daytimers. People like different sizes. Some get a full-size 3-ring binder (subnotebook). Some get Clipboard or a book-sized binder (Newton, TIQIT) and others go for pocket versions (PDAs and smartphones). This is not a new problem! As soon as people figured out that it really helps to have your calendar, address book and categorized notes with you all the time, size became a problem.

If you work in an office - and stay there during the day, you might like the big version but you may still hesitate to take your subnotebook with you to lunch when you are eating out with others (unless they are geeks). Then, what do you do? You need a PDA at minimum and you might want your cell phone too. The two devices or single device should be pocketable - out of the way.

I think you could carry an intermediate-sized device like a Newton or TIQIT around with you (in one of your cargo pockets) almost all the time - if recording your ideas, messaging, surfing and reading was really important to you. I'm in the minority, the vast majority would be content with the highly functional P800 alone.

Until I discovered cargo-style shorts, I was carrying around a small leather shoulder bag most of the time so that I could carry my load of devices with me (camera, PDA, cell phone, iPod, headphones, etc.).

If you move around a lot on foot like I do, you want something light - a TIQIT is about the maximum practical size for regular use. I often walk to Starbucks in the morning to get my coffee and take a longer walk towards the end of the day to Peet's Coffee in downtown Mill Valley.

Let's talk about how many devices you want as an intensive knowledge worker. How about a notebook (or subnotebook with docking station), TIQIT and smartphone? An alternative would be desktop, subnotebook, smartphone.

As an intensive knowledge-worker, I want a third device to fill the gap between my P800 and my PowerBook. I want a bigger screen workspace and more than a gig of storage so I can have lots of files and documents with me without having to plan ahead. To me the middle device could be a tricked out Tungsten C or a OSX-lite-based TIQIT. The P800 gives me a single, small, take-anywhere device with the bare essentials including internet-anywhere and a camera. If I'm going to spend a few minutes in the coffee shop, though, and I have the room, I'll schlep a TIQIT-sized device because I'll really enjoy the extra screen real estate, functionality and storage for surfing and concept-drawing. But then, I'm a geek.

My Take on TIQIT

I've been doing some more thinking about this TIQIT brick. First, skip the XP. If this was Mac OS X, it would be a different story. If you are an XPer, have at it. You can run Outlook on here and who knows what all. I really don't recommend bloatware like Word and Excel, though, unless you must.

Here's what I like. A 10 gig hard drive for starters. Let's put a 10 or 15 gb hard drive in some of these larger 6 oz wireless PDAs. None of the other PDAs has a hard drive. And why not? The iPod has a hard drive. (Of course, the iPod doesn't have a touch screen, keyboard, or other means of entry. It's basically a read-only device...Steve Jobs, are you paying attention?).

Back to TIQIT. Don't ask me where they got the name - I suppose it is supposed to be a "hot ticket" or something. The major advantage is the 640x480 screen. Now you're talking! Wow! What a great web browsing device this is. I wondered when someone was going to give me more pixels in an almost pocketable form.

I finally figured out why it's called an enterprise device - it runs Windows XP. That means it can run a lot of enterprise apps. I don't think un-tethered individuals (read non-corporate types) need a desktop platform on a device this size. The PocketPC platform is as much as I would ever want. Of course, I would want the Mac equivalent of PocketPC. How far can that be away when we've got these new little Linux pdas and cell phones (Motorola is switching over) running around? These little guys will only get more powerful, so they will indeed run Mac OS X (if Apple wants them to).

Since I'm 99% Mac, I would like a couple of my thin and light OS X apps on here. For starters, how about NoteTaker? I would love that. Remember, I like to write down my ideas and the information I gather all over the net. I would need it to synch well to my PowerBook version of NoteTaker. I would need other basics like Kung-log to post to this blog. I would want OmniGraffle 3 for little diagrams and graphics. Oh, and Safari and Mail (or equivalent). iCal is not that good yet, but it would do for now. Address Book would be fine. Other options for the iApps would be OK too - I'm not married to iApps for a device like this.

Why all the fuss over this big brick? I guess it's because I'm an optimist and hoping for some econo-luck and a big price drop soon on a slimmer device with bluetooth, wi-fi, good keypad and 640x480. I figure running XP requires twice the baggage of any other OS so running OS X would be a piece of cake.

You probably noticed today that, for the first time, notebooks are outselling desktop machines - at least dollarwise. We are going mobile folks! Mobile devices rule and we want well-written, cool apps to run on them!

Money Prayer

Please, dear God, turn this damned economy around so I can make more money!

I'm hoping you, my dear reader, are not offended. Of course, the other method of making money is to do smart things. Right now I'm trying that approach since God has been letting me down of late in the $$$ department.

I spent the better part of this 4th of July weekend learning Dreamweaver and Fireworks MX. The immediate beneficiary, was my girlfriend's website which is not online yet. I really love playing with web stuff, but since I'm a FileMaker geek, first and foremost, I haven't allowed myself the luxury of spending lots of time on web-making activities.

Luckily, I decided that since my main market is graphic designers, I need to improve the look of my business website. My weblog, of more modern origin, looks much better than the Tokerud Consulting Group site. Designers may be turned away from my cool Studio Manager product simply because the website is pathetic by designer standards. Ergo, I get to play with web tools and have some fun improving it. One of my ideas is to try to build out my weblog and use this style for my business site. If anyone knows Movable Type and how to add extra pages or has a better idea, your input would be greatly appreciated!

TIQIT for mobile enterprise

Available Q1 2004 and priced around $2000, this inch-thick, 20oz, hand-top(?) isn't here yet. I wouldn't buy a TIQIT, if available now, only because of the high price. It runs Windows XP, has a 10 gig hard drive and 256 mb RAM and a 4 inch 640x480 touch screen! Has PC card slot, USB 1.1 and an SD slot.

This is my kind of a touchpad - small and light - compared to my 5.4 lb Powerbook. My brother, Doug, who has a lot more money than I do, will probably jump up and down about this device. I would too, if it cost about $700. That's all it would take for me - well, that and $700.

The reason this is called an enterprise device, I figure, is because of the price. It's pricey. But one of these days, it won't be. Notice the wi-fi card. There's another pic on the TIQIT site of a cellular PC card sticking out with a little antenna. Either I need to get rich soon, or I need to wait.

Next Gen mobile keypads

Randy Delucchi turned me on to a story over at Mobile Burn about this amazing overlaid keypad - with both alphabetic- and number-pad intermingled. Apparently, although it takes some getting used to, it works because there is software behind the scenes that can sort out cases where you accidentally hit both a number and a letter at the same time.

The shot here is of a Panasonic G87 demonstrator phone. This design is by Digit Wireless. The keypad system is called Fastap (just in case you want to google for it to learn more). I am partial to QWERTY, so this keypad is going to have to be good to win me over. But it looks like this design will solve a major dilemma in the cellular pda category.

You want a keyboard, thumbboard, whatever, so you can enter text conveniently for email etc. Since this is a cellular device, you want it to be your cell phone too and that means it would be nice if it is relatively narrow and phone-like. Finally, you need an easy to use numeric pad for punching in phone numbers. The fastpad is an elegant and creative solution!

Sony Ericsson says no P800 keyboard

I posted an enthusiastic and adamant request to Sony Ericsson Online Support yesterday at 5 pm:

The P800 is an awesome phone. The MAIN thing lacking in today's instant-messaging and email-dominated world is a way to type. We need wired (like your Chatboard) or wireless - infrared sounds good. QUICK. This will make a huge difference in the phone's popularity because, if there is a keyboard, the P800 beats all the other competition at Palm and Smartphones etc. It's great. Can you give me any tips on how to find a keyboard that will work or who is working on this? Or is there a way to get the chatboard to work with the P800?

They responded at 7:20 am today:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting Sony Ericsson Online Support.

Thank you for your interest in Sony Ericsson products, your feedback and suggestions are appreciated. You are also able to send your suggestions to www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld where you are able to work with the developers of Sony Ericsson products.

At this time Sony Ericsson has not manufactured any external keyboard, for the P800 mobile phone and there is not any kind I can recommend. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact the Sony Ericsson Contact Center at 1-800-374-2776; press 1 for English then 1 for Customer Service and Technical Support to speak with one of our representatives directly.

I felt the need to respond further:

Thanks for your speedy reply. I am very disappointed about the failure of SE to provide a keyboard accessory for the P800. If your phone/pda wasn't so good, I and many others would have bought a pda/phone with built-in keyboard like the Tungsten W or Treo 270, Treo 300 or the color T-mobile Sidekick. But, you guys are ahead of the curve with your built-in camera, bluetooth, phone-like shape and better screen (except for resolution of Tungsten W).

You would have all the pieces, if you provided some way for us to use a keyboard. As you know, keyboards are getting popular because of the increasing necessity of mobile access for sms, mms, ems, email and IM. Something small would be best to match the form-factor of the P800 - perhaps on the order of the size of keyboard that will be on the new Treo 600 when it comes out. A sleeve would be fine. Or wireless keyboard using infrared or bluetooth. Please forward this request up the line in your company.

Thanks again for listening and I hope you can help on this. I will be following up with the other SE contacts you gave me to continue to advocate for a P800 keyboard accessory.

Meanwhile, I'll practice my handwriting skills on the P800... The Sidekick keyboard was instantly usable. I'm handwriting at 1/4th the speed I could type on the Sidekick. I think I can crank that up to 1/2 the speed soon, but still. By the way. I now want both. I like having a touchscreen I can draw or free-form handwrite on and I want a keyboard to type on. I know. I'm awfully demanding. But, these wireless mobile devices are amazing and their value will increase dramatically as these refinements are made.