Todd Myrick Web 2.0 Blog

A Bold Epic Fail for Typepad blogging & other Blackberry Bold annoyances

It's Tuesday, with the Warcraft servers being down, I felt I needed a catchy title so that I could drive more readers to my blog :)

So it has been a week since I bought the Blackberry Bold, and I have to say, I like it a lot, but there are a few annoyances I discovered along the way to digital nirvana that I would like to share with my readers.  (All 4 of you... hi mom).

What I like about the Bold

• It replaces my Ipod Nano and with Blue-tooth support, I can listen to my tunes over my radio's FM channel.

• Wireless LAN and 3G coverage works great at work.  Other then my bosses office, the device works in the deepest bowls of the NIH Clinical Center.

• The plug-ins for Web 2.0 sites works pretty well (with one exception ... see annoyances).  I upload a lot of content to my Facebook page.  I might start using twitter, since it is NIH / Federal Government friendly.

• Games play pretty well, but cost $10.00 each if you want unlimited usage.  Not a huge selection, but it has Poker, Chess, Casino Games, and Civ 4... so I am covered.

What annoys me about the Blackberry Bold

• There was an annoying pop-up window when entering my device password.  If the password contains a number in it, after the 5 key-press it flashes a window telling you to press ! to make an Emergency Call.  Thus messing up the flow to the 6th character and causing a bad password entry.  Solution was easily found on the forums... just make sure our password doesn't have numbers and the message doesn't come up.

• When using the GPS, or watching a long video, the screen blanks out if there is no input on the keyboard.  I get the idea of extending battery life, but I would prefer that the keyboard just lock when using these two applications.  I am still messing around with the settings to identify a possible workaround... please comment if you have a solution.

• The built-in camera is great, but I find that I get a lot of shake when pressing the button to snap the photo.  I wish it had a timer so that I could steady the shots more.

• The Typepad application doesn't have an auto save option so if you mess-up on long posts, you lose all the text.  I wrote this article last week using the mobile blogging tool, but it wigged out during the post option and I lost the work.  That makes me a sad panda.

• It took many attempts to get my phone ported over to my device.  This isn't a device option, but AT&T and Verizon seem to not tell time the same, so don't count on them meeting any pressing deadlines.  It took over 72 hours for the number to be ported correctly.

• I couldn't look up other peoples wish-list on Amazon, just my own.

Overall, I am very pleased with the device, and I look forward to more enhancements as the device matures.

To Boldly go where I swear I wouldn't go before

So about 5 years ago I was eating lunch with my best friend Steve and we got into this heated discussion about the viability of Blackberry devices.

My rant went something like this, Blackberry devices cost us three times the money to support verses a standard email client... it is basically an executive toy, it is easily misused, and complicates peoples lives by extending the reach of work beyond the 8 hour a day job.  At that time, the Blackberry just started to offer phone service, it was black and white (Really just shades of gray), and the features were pretty much limited to text, and a crude cell phone.  Hell even the games sucked on the device.

Flash forward 5 years later, and I just purchased my first Blackberry.  Why you ask?  In my mind it is out of necessity.  5 years ago I purchased a new car as part of my divorce settlement.  I really wanted a navigation system, XM Radio, and bluetooth support.  I wasn't able to get these features in the car, so I opted out of them.  I spend about 2 to 3 hours in the car each day, so I really wanted to the option to listen to better audio programming, have access to a catalog of music and not carry around 100 CDs, and have a navigation system in the event I needed to locate a place.

So last year, I bought a Verizon Envy phone.  For the most part I got all the features I wanted except for the media.  I probably could have uploaded some music to the phone, but it wasn't the IPOD NANO replacement I was looking for.  On top of my personal cell phone needs, I also needed to carry my Blackberry more since I took over as the lead for the CITRIX team.  What I found though is that I pretty much couldn't use the phone & email features for either device inside of work as a result of a lack of cell coverage.

So at the end of the year I am carring three devices, personal phone, work Blackberry, and IPOD NANO and looking to converge.  None of the devices I own have all of the features I am looking for.  I never really considered an Iphone due to the lack of keyboard.  So when the new Blackberry 3G devices came out, I gave a serious look at them.  Long story short I chose the Blackberry Bold, and I am happy.

The reason for choosing the Bold was basically it supported WiFi, and offered the media support I wanted, and I was able to integrate the use within my current car without having to buy a new vehicle or look for a compatible radio.

So in the end, am I a sell out?  Probably, but I think my reasoning for acquiring the device doesn't make me such a hypocrite.

These are the features I weighed in on before making the bold step to acquire a Blackberry.

1.  WiFi & Bluetooth support
2.  SDcard support to expand & store more then the device physical memory.
3.  Good data plan.
4.  Good media support.

My co-worker Brad is weighing in on this topic, but is also keeping an eye on the new device features because he wants to a seamless transfer between our network and other peoples networks and UMA calling.

More to come...

Letter to my Dad about the bankruptcy news coming out of Detroit and retirement pensions.

Next year I turn 40, so I will be increasing my savings in order to afford to retire.  One of the reasons why I joined the government was because they do have a small pension plan and offer a 401K plan that contributes 50% up to 5% on contributions.  According to most financial experts, for people to retire using 401K plans they need to save at least 20% per year.  I save about 15% through my 401K plan, so I will look to save the other 5% through investments like Roth IRA's and other vehicles.

The news coming out of Detroit doesn't look good though, and it looks to affect my father and Uncle as a result. 

Hey Dad,

 

Just wanted to drop you a note and tell you I have been thinking of you.  Specifically with the news coming out of Detroit about GM and other automakers looking to claim bankruptcy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122903816924599853.html

 

The reason why I am concerned is that according to this report on Frontline, there are new rules to the game when it comes to pensions and how bankruptcy can be used to restructure the agreements to retired people. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/

 

Midway through the report, they cover the United Airline bankruptcy and how retires lost about 1/3 their monthly pension and how it was executed.

 

I realize that you aren't strapped for cash or anything, and I don't want to cause you to worry. But if the people who structure the airline bankruptcy are the same people Detroit retains, it might result in good people like you and Uncle Joe getting benefits slashed.

 

My only hope is the UAW leadership is wise to what happened in the Airline industry, and makes a stand....  Because in the end of a Bankruptcy, the banks get paid 1st, the lawyers and executives get paid 2nd, but the worker and US tax payers foot the bill and make the most concessions.

 

Love,

Todd

2009 is going to be a year of transformation and revolution

Welcome,

I dedicate this post to the memory of my friend Dominic V. Guarino who passed away in July 2008.  Dom's transformation was a kick in the ass for me to wake up and retool my life and prepare my agency for the revolution that is about to happen in the IT industry.  The revolution I am speaking of is the adoption of Virtualization computing platforms and Web Service Oriented Architectures aka Cloud Computing.

My first professional goal for 2009 is to adopt using several "Smart" technologies in an effort to simplify my life in some aspects and in other ways to become more efficient with my time.  The goal is to use as many Web 2.0 services as possible.

Specifically the three electronic smart tools I plan to use are as follows.

1. LiveScribe Smart Pen-  I have been using this device for over a month now and believe it to be one of the most important tools I carry.  Having my written notes and the audio of a meeting or pod-cast merged is really nice feature.

2.  Blackberry Bold- I plan to acquire one by the end of the year.  I need wireless LAN access because many of the locations I go to meetings do not have coverage for phone or email.  90% of my work is done via email so the Blackberry Bold's keyboard and screen are optimized for that usage, the improved network speed & multimedia / blue-tooth support will allow me to use this for pod-cast and music as well.  My hope is that FLASH, Silver light, and UMA calling are added over time.

3.  Netbook- This device technically isn't smart, but it is the cheapest and most efficient laptop design on the market.  My primary responsibility is to manage CITRIX, so my goal is to eat my own dog-food each day, and improve the quality of the apps we deliver on our farm.

My second professional goal for 2009 is to integrate two systems into my daily work.

David Allen's Getting Things Done - This system for prioritizing request and actions is very intuitive, it just takes some reorganizing of the personal filing system and selecting categories that mean stuff.  I live by the Outlook Plug-in for tracking tasks and adding them to my calendar.

Simple Iterative Partitioning and Autonomous Business Capabilities classifications - In the book Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises  Rodger Sessions outlines a system for identifying how much complexity cost in time and resources.  His approach when implemented correct can be used to construct very efficient system designs that allow for less dependencies, and less complexities.

My third and final professional goal for 2009 is to read and integrate the ideas in the Daily Drucker, The first 90 Days, The 80/20 Principle, and The End of Management as well as keep up on my technology RSS news feeds, pod-casts, and Tech Net Magazine.

Finally I am transforming my web-log and Internet presence in a effort to unify my on-line profile into a finite number of portals about me.  This blog being one.  The goal for this site is to share my more structured thoughts so that they are indexed and preserved.  I will also be using Facebook to track more personal interest.

Ultimately I am working towards a goal of starting a revolution on July 4th 2009 at the NIH.  Specifically that is to implement a secure web portal at the NIH Clinical Center to be used as an access vehicle to launch 32 & 64 bit programs, and virtual desktops.