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Thoughts and things I care to sharelinks for 2008-02-28
- The iPhone & Apple is the example used to show how anti-competitive vendor lock-in has become in the wireless world.
- Check out this post for details on a number of important WP related news.
- I see Kevin Tofel, one of my favorite tech bloggers, has posted about AOL’s XDrive online storage service. Good stuff, and yes, you can set it up as a mapped drive on Windows systems. Should work excellently with the Eee PC!
Eee PC and online storage
Here’s an idea, and one I should have talked about sooner. As a cloud computing device, the Eee PC is the perfect example of a device that should take advantage of online storage.
Not only should mini-laptop, or Internet access devices be leveraging online software suites like Google Docs, Zoho Office, or ThinkFree, but also online storage as well. Services like Box.net, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and AOL’s XDrive (thanks to Kevin Tofel for reminding me of it) all offer up free storage with options for additional storage as a premium service.
AOL’s XDrive is really exciting to any Eee PC device loaded with Windows XP as AOL offers a utility to map a drive directly to your storage account. All three of these options (I’m sure there are others I’m not aware of) will work with either IE or Firefox and with Windows or Linux, so even if you don’t try to have a mapped drive, you can easily upload/download files as needed to any of these services.
Just one more way to solve the data storage concerns for potential Eee PC users.
Define your personal brand
Here’s a question that many people don’t often think about as they begin developing their personal brand.
What is your personal brand?
I wonder how many people have actually sat down and defined what their strengths and skills are before diving in. Realizing that you’re as marketable as your favorite soda, not to mention more valuable to employers or clients, is a very powerful revelation. Making the best use of this concept for your career and family shouldn’t be taken too lightly.
Personal brand has been described as “Reputation 2.0”, and it is to a certain extent. However, it’s also much more than just what people remember about you. As you start online social networking, blogging, using social media tools and techniques to build an awareness, you are also building an easily indexed and searchable history.
At the same time, don’t put too much work into a personal branding plan. When it starts seeming like a flashy PR campaign by some high-end New York firm, you know you’ve missed the point. Just like you should put some thought and define goals for your career and life, your personal brand should have just enough structure and focus to help identify a direction and/or methods to work on.
Just like your life and career, things will come along that will change the course of your branding strategy. Keep it loose and follow the opportunities that arise, think about them a bit to make sure you’re not making a rash decision… but make the decision and move on.
I am curious though, have you defined your personal brand? What is the message (mission statement?) that you are working to present?
links for 2008-02-27
- One of my favorite bloggers has some feedback on the new Google Talk Chatback widget.
- Check out this post at PocketPC Thoughts on a new Daylight Savings Time update for Windows Mobile devices.
- Seriously. Bijan Sabet penned a fantastic guest post over at GigaOm. Recommended.
Mobile post test
Testing a mobile post via Pocket SharpMT.
Mobile post test
Testing a mobile post via Pocket SharpMT.
links for 2008-02-26
- From blogger and biz card cartoonist Hugh McLeod.
- Interesting new feature of Google Talk…
The one thing holding me to Microsoft Outlook
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one feature in Outlook that is holding me to it at the moment. Can you help convince me that it’s time to drop Outlook?
See, I’ve been a longtime user and proponent of Microsoft software. It’s actually really good software, and a decent value… for the enterprise. For personal use, it’s long been questionable whether one needs such overblown feature laden software.
Also, Microsoft’s software is what I’d built my technical career on – and still rely on. It solves business needs, and integrates together very nicely. I’m not claming it’s the best-of-breed, or that it’s the most intuitive. It’s simply been the best value proposition for most businesses when compared to other shipping options, personal opinions aside.
Anyway, want to know what that one feature is? The ability to sync the contact list to a Windows Mobile phone. In nearly a decade, it has simply worked time and time and time again. It’s only failed me on one occasion, which was a user-instigated problem (I goofed up). In all these years, my phonebook has always been up to date and consistently backed up with changes replicated back and forth with no effort or thought about it on my part.
All my mail is online, I’ve moved my calendar to Google calendar, and all the rest – but the one thing left is that sync of my trusty T-Mobile MDA’s phonebook. With the MDA at 2 years old, I’m soon to replace it too – and it’s likely not to be a Windows Mobile phone… so is it time? Should my friends perform an intervention? Can I do it? Will I have get the shakes? I’ll keep you posted. 
Addiction photo credit: Mr Gonzales
Adobe AIR & Windows Vista
I’ve been enjoying some of the Adobe AIR apps during it’s development over the past year. Among several Twitter clients that have popped up in the last few months running on AIR, I’ve really enjoyed Twhirl.
Now, if you’re a Twitter user, you know that its a great way to share links and more. Works great – except when you’ve set a browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the default web browser. I happen to be partial to Firefox, and use it constantly, so when an Adobe AIR based app launches IE when I click a shared link – it’s upsetting.
Luckily in the final version there is an Adobe KB article with instructions on how to fix that problem. Personally I think their reason that it doesn’t work in the first place is lame:
Windows Vista does not make the required additional registry entries correctly when a browser other than Internet Explorer is set as the default browser. When an attempt to load the URL is made, Adobe AIR uses Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to connect to an open instance of the browser registered for URL requests. If that fails, Adobe AIR falls back on Shell Execution.
Other non-Microsoft (and Microsoft!) applications have consistently and successfully launched the correct browser for me. Why not AIR?
At any rate, here is how to fix the problem.
- Launch “Default Programs” off the Vista Start Menu
- Click on “Set Program Access And Computer Defaults” in the Default Programs dialog
- Select “Custom” from the list and choose your preferred browser from the list of recognized installed browsers.
- Click OK and your done.
Next time you launch your AIR app, you will be able to follow links and have them load in your preferred browser.
links for 2008-02-25
- It’ll be interesting to see what Microsoft comes up with to compete with Firefox in this generation of the browser. Of course this time around we have Apple’s Safari and the Opera browser to compare with too.
I’m sure IE8 doesn’t look very different,
- Twitter is useful for friends, co-workers, event planners, social media gurus, or people simply sharing things in life. Oh, and it simply rocks.
Mathew Ingram follows up on some new Twitter users that have “found the light” and are now singing it’s pr
- I know this post is from last October, but I was reading it again, and just had to link to it. There are some great take-aways for traditional IT types to learn from.
- Steve Rubel tries out a lifesourcing experiment and finds the results rewarding. Have you tried outsourcing small jobs you don’t have time for?
- Jeremiah Owyang lists 3 “Impossible” Conversations for Corporations. Good read.
- Syncy is covered by TechCrunch writer Roi Carthy. Looks like an interesting service that may provide real value to those looking to not only sync their phone address/contact information, but also use that as the basis for a social network.
- ArsTechnica takes a look at Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 5 release. There are some interesting new features, especially for dual-booting with Windows.
- Read/Write Web has the scoop on Adobe’s announcement of AIR, Flex3 and Blaze DS today.
😢
“We are not enemies but friends.”
Live your life.
Completely.
Without fear.
Live it with Love, compassion, empathy, tolerance and joy.
Treat every person with the kindness, respect and dignity they deserve by the very virtue of being a human being.
Out riding this rainy, wet spring. Got 1,000 miles on the clock with more to come this season. #IMRG #IndianMotorcycle
Watching early seasons of #GoldRush. Fun seeing @GoldrushRick in season 3! Hope his new season is off to a good start!
Oh yes I did! https://www.instagram.com/p/BsRDO9ogSO0/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1kha5yzhjq3ot