Follow-up on my iPod Rant
After my rant a few days ago about the quality of new-fangled electronic gizmos I got various emails. Most interesting was this link to Walt Mossberg's comments about the scratching of the iPod nano's, where he says:
"If I were reviewing the nano today, I would still call it "the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I've tested," as I did in my review. But I would include a strong, prominent, warning that it scratches too easily in normal usage. This is a real downside to an otherwise excellent product." (from Mossberg's Mailbox)
I can 't claim that my rant caused Walt to write this clarification, but it sure is timely. I haven't bought my nano yet, so I am going to wait, at least for a few weeks, to see what happens. One of the emails also pointed me to this David Pogue Video commentary on the nano. Funny. Technorati Tags: iPod
How long should a Treo 600 last? How about an IPod?
A confluence of five events:
My two year old Treo 600 stopped working : Despite my best efforts to revive it. Reboots, hard resets, new software - it was dropping calls all the time and had finally become unusable. Took it to the Sprint Store where their tech played with it for 1/2 hour and came to the conclusion that it was defective. As it was out of warrantee, my only option was to turn it back in to them for a $50 credit towards my next phone. There is no repair option. There is no authorized repair facility. This is a $400 device, 2 years old. Throw it out.
My two year old iPod stopped working: Despite my best efforts to revive it. Reboots, hard resets, new software - more and more often it would hang in the bootup mode, to the point now that it had become unusable. Took it to the Apple store where their tech played with it for 1/2 hour and came to the conclusion that it was defective. As it was out of warantee, I was basically SOL. Apple doesn't repair them and doesn't authorize any other repair.
Walt Mossbergstrongly endorsesiPod Nano.In fact he really really loves it. Walt Mossberg of course is one of the top journaists covering consumer electronics, computers and software. He's hard-core -- doesn't give any quarter when it comes to the user experience. Here's some of what he says: "… In fact, the nano has the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I've tested -- including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one…"
Palm Treo Owners sue Palmin a class action lawsuit: According to Om Malik, a frequent commentator and well known blogger: This just in…. things are getting decidedly bad in the Palm-land. Disgruntled users are suing the handheld/smart phone maker over all the technology related issues."
iPod nano Screens crack? This has been reported all over the place, up to the point that Apple (who never does this kind of thing) has agreed to replace some small set of nanos that they agree are defective.
Ok, so what do we make of this confluence of events? I was somewhat outraged at Sprint not taking responsibility for a 2 year old, $400 device simply ceasing to work. And I was somewhat outraged a few weeks later at Apple for not taking responsibility for a 2 year old, $350 device simply ceasing to work. In both cases they were like, "well it's out of warantee so of course we can't replace it." And I was, like, "I am not asking you to replace it, I'll be glad to pay to have it repaired." And they, "Well, we don't repair them." SOL. I guess my expectations are out of whack. I guess I should just plan that my multi-hundred dollar electronic gizmo is only good for 2 or so years. Shouldn't we expect more? If Walt Mossberg can be outraged at some piece of software being a little hard to use or crashing now and again, why not be as outraged at some piece of hardware not lasting more than 2 years? I think that should be a consideration before giving it two thumbs up? Technorati Tags: iPod, sprint
Scoble’s conundrum
His conundrum is that he loves both Web services (browser based applications) and Windows applications and can't seem to pick a one-size-fits-all preference. Apparently some of his readers noticed that and are calling him to task on it.
"Some see my condundrum as being one brought upon by where I work. OK, it certainly is a possibility that I'm drinking the Redmond Koolaid," (from Scobelizer)
Read Scoble's whole post, it has a very good perspective, and actually I totally agree with the dilemma. Maybe it's not a dilemma at all. Maybe it's not being religious and just picking the best tool for the job, balancing all factors relevant to you. Whether it's Windows or Web is one of many characteristics, and not at all the most important one. I wrote about this recently over on the BlogBridge blog:
"I am not going to tell you that having an application is always better than being a web site - and I am not necessarily agreeing with the opposite either." (Click on the link to read the rest)
If you review my post comparing it with Robert's you see some similar and some different reasons cited, but the overall sentiment and conclusion to be the same. Hey Robert, forget about the Redmond Koolaid , that too is just one factor. It's been a while since you checked out BlogBridge and there are a lot of new ideas we are trying out there which would be perfect for a user like you: direct del.icio.us integration, SmartFeeds (like Outlook Smart Folders), collaborative filtering, intelligent sorting and sub-setting, and on and on. Check it out, or better yet, let me give you a demo! Technorati Tags: blogbridge, scoble
A big laugh
Help me with my Instant Messaging shorthand … Is it :-)) or 😀 for a big laugh? And, anyway, is it 🙂 or 🙂
[GEEKY] Ajax? Flash? Java? What’s the best way to create a rich browser based application?
This is a perenial debate with lots of sides. Here' s just some fodder for
those of you who are pondering the question: I guess right off the bat I would
exclude Java for a browser based application. Why? Unfortunately it
requires a so-called JVM which may or may not be present. AJAX on the
other hand requires a 'modern' web browser, which I think in this day and age
(FireFox) is a pretty safe bet. And Flash requires the Flash runtime,
which again, in this day and age, is also a pretty safe bet. ** Exhibit
1** : Check out Zimbra, which, if you
believe the web site is built with AJAX. Very impressive. All I was able to see was the Flash demo (ironic isn't it?) but it's quite nice. Technorati Tags: ajax, flash, Geeky
[GEEKY] Why, oh, Why, Mr. Macintosh?
This is one of those handy dandy tips that you wish were not hidden, buried and kept secret: "Hold down the option and control keys while launching iPhoto and you will be treated to a very nice set of options for trying to recover your photos that have mysteriously disappeared." I write this to save the next person a few hours of blind allies. Technorati Tags: iphoto
Web 2.0 – what is it?
Web 2.0 is one of those phrases that gets used and used and then people go nuts because they realize that they are all talking about something different. It becomes a heroic fight of personalities , emotion , politics , ego and oh, a little technology. Haven't we seen this with other terms (memes) on which careers got built? "open source", "blog", "journalism"? As usual, Dave cuts through the crap and figures out the way: "What if Web 2.0 is actually about sex?" 😀 Technorati Tags: web2.0
Help us find out what’s going on in enterprise blogging
Here's a survey being conducted by BlogOn, where I am on the advisory board, about the state of enterprise blogging. If you have a couple of minutes, you can participate and be in the running for an iPod nano, and who doesn't want one of those? Click here to participate in the survey. Technorati Tags: blog, enterprise
Gibberish?
Interesting and amusing little article from ACM Queue:
"One of the students, Jeremy Stribling, explains how they had developed a computer program to generate random sequences of technobabble in order to confirm their suspicions that papers of dubious academicity were bypassing serious, or indeed, any scrutiny. In fact, the students claim ulterior, financial motives behind this lack of proper peer review." (from Call That Gibberish?)
Technorati Tags: funny, interesting
Microsoft blogging: “What do managers do…”
I often cite Microsoft as an example of corporate blogging that seems to really works: If you work with, for, against Microsoft (and who in the computer industry doesn't do one of those?) Microsoft Bloggers will give you a view into Microsoft's thinking, attitude, plans and challenges that is incredibly valuable. You (generally) won't learn any trade secrets. You will hear what you might have heard if you ran into this or that Microsoftie in a Starbucks or at a conference. But few people do. Exhibit #1 is a recent post by Steven Sinofsky, a very senior Microsoft manager, about how Microsoft thinks about management, how it structures its development teams, and what kind of people and performance it values.
"The typical organization in Office development is one where there is a group of about 5-8 developers (we'll use developers for this post, but the discussion is just points of the dev/test/pm triad) managed by a lead developer. That is the first level of management called a feature team. There are then 3-5 leads that report to a development manager. That is the second level of management, usually called a group. The development manager reports to a general manager or an executive manager that represents the place that development, testing, and program management come together. This structure is matched by development testing and program management (where there are about equal numbers of testers, and about half that number of program managers). The general manager or executive is where the product or technology comes together (think SharePoint, or Excel, or the new Office "12" user interface). In some groups, if there are a lot of products or a very large team there might be one additional level of management. I manage these general managers. My boss manages the overall Office P&L, so marketing, finance, HR, etc. as well as other products report to him." (from What do managers do and how big should my team be?)
If you have ever tried to develop a relationship with a Microsoft product group information like this, basic as it is, is really important. Check out Steve Sinofsky's blog. It has many other gems just like that one. Technorati Tags: microsoft