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.

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.