More than Specs

One of the arguments that I try not to get into with people happens to be about specifications and features. Yes, there’s something to be said for checking more boxes in the “my device can do this more than yours” bucket. But, really, when it gets down to it, every device choice that we make really is about the experience that we are trying to derive from life by having it. And from there, we are either happy or not. And usually, when we aren’t happy, we try to validate things by talking about features (which are good points, just not very valid to the minds of those looking at their devices in glee).

For example, the Nokia N97 gets a lot of flack for being the flagship mobile from Nokia. If you meet someone who’s happy with what it does, you can see where Nokia was going with it. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have issues, or that it has the best specs, but that the compromise of features and the availability of its use has made for an experience that’s just not rivaled with other devices – especially those with similar features.

In the same way, you can think about the new Honda CR-Z. The CR-Z is a hybrid sports car that was designed to be great to drive, not necessarly the fastest or quickest. And when you look at the numbers (its as slow as a Prius and gets way worse gas/electric mileage), you’d think that it has a problem. But, it doesn’t. At least not according to the persons who eventually signed off on it. It just felt like a great ride. And that experience tends to count for a ton.

Thinking about life and tech in this manner is new(ish) to me. That’s not to say that I’ve not always had to be happy with what I’ve purchased or was given, but I always had to find the silver liniing. Thing is, if you can get your head wrapped around the designer’s intentions, then you can find some fulfillment – and even some enhancement to how you live life – with whatever device that it is you have.

It takes a lot, one could even argue that it takes a certain kind of maturity. But, I tend to believe that we are not jsut entering a point in time of great innovation, but a point where we have to do a better job of appreciating what it is we have and the opportunities that they afford. Shiny devices only shine for a while, after that, they are still devices with a purpose.

Tired But Not Doting

Tonight, I’m tired. Me and the Trek Valencia that I purchased last year took a roughly 20mi ride. I rode just before and slightly towards the evening rush. And my body hurts right now. I did 30mi yesterday, and so today’s ride was to be a cool down. And it was, but it hurts.

But, that’s just it. It hurts, and I’m tired. I’ve somehow gotten out of the funk that I’d been in for weeks and found some solace on a bike and with the hope that something will be coming better (soon?).

I’ve gotten some needed focus and clarity concerning where MMM is going. Suffice to say, its going to be a major push, but its what’s been given and so I’m going.

I’ve gotten little clarity about much else, and so I’m standing pat (though I want a convertible kind of badly – just no car payment).

But, even in all of this, I’m not doting. I’m not sitting around waiting for things to happen. I’m ready – renewed kind of ready – to push forward and see what happens. And you know, I kind of don’t even care where things land. I just know that I’m on a heck of a ride.

To that end, I’m planning all kinds of trips for the coming months. Vacations, personal, and professional. I’m taking advantage of my bed more often by sleeping better. And Lord willing, Taco Bell might take me into eating a good deal less meat (yea, I know about the preservatives and sodium, I’ll get there).

Its just a matter of a bro moving forward. Yea, life isn’t what I’d like. I’m reminded too often of things that I want which just aren’t mine right now. But, I’ve got a present to continue to unwrap. And maybe, just maybe, I won’t get tired tonight before getting to the gift at the bottom of the box.

Maybe the gift is just knowing that today was made for me to not twiddle away

A Mobile Working Tempo

Since the Skype application has been made available (first beta, and now fully at v1.0), I’ve been taking some chances in how I go about working with my mobile. Mostly speaking, I’ve seen some possible changes.

For example, I’ve already reduced my monthly post-paid contract costs by going to the bottom-most minutes level. I’ve not changed the unlimited data and messaging however since those are my main needs.

Beyond that, I started with making all the “daytime” calls via Skype. Since I’m either in a 3G or free Wi-Fi area, this makes a lot of sense as I can simply put $10USD on my account, and then go from there. Last week was my first week doing this fully and I had about 2-3hrs of calls for under $2 used. Can’t say that’s a bad deal one bit.

This week, I’ve got to maintain the same kind of use since I’m near the end of the plan minutes. I’ve got about 6hrs worth of expected calls and only a few mintues to use them. If I can just stay on task with Skype, this will work out very well.

The other side of things is that I’ve been using my N95 here and there. With the Skype usage, my *2* batteries for my N97 have been getting quite a workout. And so I move to the N95 for those times when the N97 is just tired. Thing is, I’ve moved to using that as Skype mobile. Hopefully, I’ll realize some extra versatility with Skype use over it, and probably limited other use (but using my single SIM). I think this would be a good use of my funds and comm abilities.

So what is effectively happening, is that I am using the devices that I have to stretch the ability of the services that use. When it comes to most of these though, its all about maximizing my investment in the data usage. While this means that I’d use more data, what it will hopefully mean is that I’ll cut down on the (overpriced) voice side of things.

I would probably want to move from SMS to IM at some point, but right now, SMS is more efficient to the network/carrier, and IM just isn’t as open as SMS. That being said, I’m thinking. And that always causes some kind of disruption and learning.

Interesting Fortune Cookies

Was out and about with my bro and his wife at WAM Asian Grill and got three notes within my fortune cookie:

• “You have an important new business development shaping up”
• “You are soon going to change your present line of work”
• “Simplicity and clarity should be your theme in dress”

My bro and his wife just said “woah” when I read those. Ya think something’s happening? I’ve got an inkling.

Beyond (Mobile) Intelligence

I think I’ve got my words now… I think. First the elements…

• Balmer
• Ahonen
• Herlihy
• O’Reilly
• Vanjoki

Then the tweet:

Bibles in hand, social network presence(s), mobile apps, SMS, etc… where do you take mobile ministry now that the intelligence is here?

Where I’m trying to go, where I was scraping around for an answer as I used Nokia’s Mobile Web Server product, where I’m scraping for an answer for MMM now, is just that…

Where does the collection of metrics (analytics), and the assumption of meaning (intelligence), go next? Where do we enable lifestyles that are healthier, economical, holy, educational, etc. beyond the blocks of stuff that we have now?

Every leader in every strata of life is dealing with this to some small degree, but I don’t know that I’m doing as great a job on the mobile side. We see the elements, and emphasize the shiny/new/weird, but are we actually putting ourselves in the position to go beyond simply replicating the past? I get that some innovations are merely small steps, but man, I’m trying to go beyond just stepping anywhere, towards stepping somewhere.

There’s more to life than mobile. And the more that I do my thing with mobile I understand this. There are elements, metrics, and the intelligence that comes from these. I’d like to move into wisdom and understanding. Because that’s where the fulfillment to this life is (for me) in doing tech anything.

MS Courier, Oooh (Again)

Engadget has more pics, another video and some more information about the MS Courier – a concept, tablet computer with dual screens and a pen-based interface. I really, really dig the idea of a dual-screened interface, and this is one of the best designs of it that I’ve seen (the canceled XO-2 was another). Loving the user process flow and the general UI feel. Not sure that it would be perfect, but it would be really close to it. And you know that it would be tied to Microsoft’s Azure services.

Unfortunately, I cannot video Engadget’s video with my N97 (Flash on my N97 is not compatible with this video player – uh, can I get that addressed in the next update). But, if I were going to a new device, this is the hardware target. Totally…

…the question of the moment then becomes, who is ready for their ideas of computing to be changed? I am

*side note: adding links isn’t possible with MoPress, hopefully, that’s something I can figure out as I like to link for attribution; no offense to anyone who’s posted this already.

Schooling Elroy and Judy (Jetsons v3)

Figured that I should stay on the meme of Jetsons since it seems that the previous posts were popular enough for folks to visit again (thanks).

One of the pieces that I read earlier in the day today started the thinking about education and what it means for mobiles to be a healthy part of it. Now, let me preface this in saying that I’ve got ample experience in teaching with mobile/web as well as learning with it. So the results of this thinking is very much rooted in personal experience, not just conjecture.

So what’s up? Think, if we go web and mobile, and the “cloud” becomes the important link [for affluent cultures] towards enablement, then what does that mean for education?

What does it look like when you’ve got a slew of Elorys and Judys who are looking at education through the lens of their personal technology, not their grandparents? Do we do things the same? Do we invent new ways to teach basic and appropriate content? I hope, I really hope.

I think it looks both like my previous example and also looks like this. The challenge isn’t that kids will go off the beaten path, but that we need to teach them how to embrace the off-beaten path and create the means for them to learn what they need to survive, not just what meets scores.

Can you tell that I’m just about as fed up with tech-in-education as I am with tech-in-enterprise? Well, think about it – you are reading the writings of someone who grew up with penmanship in the beginning of his education and was taking Illustrator and CAD classes before graduating high school. I was exposed to Dewey, InfoTrac, and Google in my educational travels. Frankly speaking, I know what won’t work for now – because it didn’t work then.We need to identify the gaps, and move forward.

How do we expect the leaders of tomorrow to lead tomorrow, if today we are holding them to the standards and limitations of yesterday? I didn’t see that when I watched the Jetsons – the kids were challenged to create their windows and become successful within it in the structures of learning. Are we embracing the same challenge, or just pushing the easy button to something that seems better, but is far worse?

Ego Stepping, Mobile Reppin’

I’ve got to get my ego in check. The past day(s) have seen and heard me a lot louder about life and mobile than what really needs to be happening. And even in this attempt to humble myself, I’m having to push ahead with thoughts and actions of someone convinced towards interacting in life and mobile as he believes. This is tough.

Simple Mobile Gets Another Look

Some months ago, I was pointed to the prepaid carrier Simple Mobile. While I really dug the concept and how they were going about mobile use – bring your own phone and unlimited talk and text – the part that was hard for me was the unlimited web. For me, I am mobile data centric, not just voice/text. and so Simple Mobile sat as something I’d recommend to others, but would not consider for myself…

…until now. I just took a visit over to their site and noticed that they’ve turned on the 3G aspect of their network, and with that added a new plan that gives the unlimited talk and text, with a bigger (albeit still limited) amount of data.

Its enough to get me into considering them. My issue is still the data end, but the packages they offer now are really appealing.

For example, Nokia announced a new mobile today called the C5. That mobile should be about $150 sold here in the US. That plus a Simple Mobile plan is easily a win-win for anyone. And the c5 is a smartphone.

Now, if Simple Mobile ever got to the point of a data-only offering, with a small bucket of voice/text, I just might jump. As it stands, my postpaid contract isn’t much more than their highest, and I’m limited in voice and text.

This is good for the industry. And very good for customers.

Intentional Living

I’ve moved my working location to home versus the client due to foul weather, and one of the things that I get to see when I’m in this state is how intentional that I can be about work when I’m not under the bear of location and context. What I mean is, how can I be intentional about work, while in a place where work is (for some) not so normal?

Honestly, this isn’t so much an issue for me. I used to work for me (freelance web and writing), and so I’m quite used to the idea of setting my own pace. In fact, I prefer it. I’ve never been the kind of person who likes the road laid out in front of him; I prefer discovery and learning over stability and predictibility.

That being said, this is something that makes itself very present in other areas of my life. For example, many months ago I stopped attending the church I was a member/partner of. While the people were (are) great, I needed to be more intentional towards being the church towards those people who were outside of our walls. In the time since then, I’ve seen all kinds of challenges towards sitting versus going – a challenge to live in Christ by getting out and being with others versus living with Christ by getting in with others (sounds like a play on words, but its not).

You see, much like I am professionally, I enjoy the activity of discovery and learning. I believe that its there that a believer not only finds out what it is they believe, but also finds new strengths towards growing into who they will become. Not to say that this cannot happen with others inside of certain structures and behaviors, only that I’ve found life worth living when I’m not inside of those.

That being said, this approach has its hurdles and pitfalls. For example, while I no longer deal with the issue of being a single in a married-church community, I do still deal with being single in a coupled-city/region. As one of my co-workers and I like to say, we get a lot of exercise bouncing our eyes and thoughts towards Christ to keep hearts and minds safe and pure.

Professionally, this plays out in ways that I think sometimes causes problems for former systems/managers and processes. If you will, I’m a self-learner who does best when I can be pointed in a direction and then unleashed. There are some processes and systems where this cannot be done, and I’ve got to play the role of adjusting to them, or asking questions of the processes so that something better for all could come about (I ask a lot of questions).

All of this tends to end up with moments like this where I’ve got to make the call towards being intentional. Intentional towards being a professional, intentional towards being pure, intentional towards growing spiritually/mentally/socially, intentionally living this life for all that its worth. This means that I cannot always get what others have, nor can they have what I do. I’ve got to embrace the freedoms that God has allowed for me during this time so that in later times, I might have something of value to give to someone else who is also looking to find a fuller life.

Jesus was intentionally living for the moments and people to whom He was given. Even if a person sees the product of His life and thinks they are not worth much, you can’t say that he didn’t give a solid template towards how to take this life that has been given, and life it to the full.