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"The Miracle" - A Life Devoted to Privacy

Check out Cheryl Moynihan's latest published content on AC:

"The Miracle" - A Life Devoted to Privacy

Corporate email, Nokia E62, and Blackberry Connect

To all the corporate enterprise types (and just the overly connected), you may be interested in a new phone I am testing, the Nokia E62 from Cingular.  The Nokia E62 is the 'light' version of the Nokia E61, which eliminates 3G and WiFi from the line up.  In addition to testing the phone itself, I am also testing Blackberry Connect, which I find has little written about this fascinating expansion for Blackberry into non-native devices.

So far, my first impressions are very positive, the phone has a great form factor, and the screen is incredibly crisp.  I was concerned that I might be facing a steep learning curve adapting to the new menus (to me that is) of the Symbian Series 60 UI, especially after using Motorola devices for so long,... but then again I was a long term tester for the Windows based Seimens SX-66, and the Palm Treo 650… yet so far it seems rather easy and natural to navigate within the device.

After I have had the phone for a week I will detail my thoughts and experiences in a review, so expect something new in the pipeline soon!

Nokia E62 from Cingular
Quad Band, Edge
MiniSD
Qwerty Keyboard
Hi res color screen
Blackberry Connect Software

[Nokia E62] [Nokia E62 from Cingular] [Blackberry Connect]

Recruiting People

Recently I was reminded by something that I read by Guy Kawasaki on hiring people to work and effectively run your organization, and his message boiled down to a simple mandate, hire people better than yourself. 

Mediocre managers tend to hire people whom they will outshine, but I once remember reading a quote attributed to Warren Buffett that said something to the effect of, 'I do not have a PhD., but I have quite a few of them working for me'.

Below is the reprint of what Guy Kawasaki wrote.

The Art of Recruiting

July 31st, 2006, By: Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures and Author

The art of recruiting is the purest form of evangelism because you’re not simply asking people to try your product, buy your product, or partner with you. Instead, you are asking them to bet their lives on your organization. Can it get any scarier for them, and tougher for you, than this?

1. Hire better than yourself. In the Macintosh Division, we had a saying, “A player hire A players; B players hire C players”–meaning that great people hire great people. On the other hand, mediocre people hire candidates who are not as good as they are, so they can feel superior to them. (If you start down this slippery slope, you’ll soon end up with Z players; this is called The Bozo Explosion. It is followed by The Layoff.) I have come to believe that we were wrong–A players hire A+ players, not merely A players. It takes self-confidence and self-awarness, but it’s the only way to build a great team.

2. Hire infected people. Classically, organizations look for the “right” educational and professional backgrounds. I would add a third quality: Is the candidate infected with a love of your product? Because all the education and work experience in the world doesn’t matter if the candidate doesn’t “get it” and love it. On the other hand, an ex-jewelry schlepper like me can make it in technology if you’re infected with a love of the product.

3. Ignore the irrelevant. This is somewhat redundant with the prior point, but it merits repetition. Often a candidate’s educational and work experience is relevant on paper but irrelevant in the real world. Would a senior vice-president from Microsoft with a PhD in computer science be an ideal employee of a startup? Not necessarily–this poor guy has been working for a company with $60 billion in cash and 95% market share, and he woke up every day not worried about the competition or customers but the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. The flip side is also true: the candidate–using a jewelry analogy– without the “perfect” background could be the diamond in the rough.

Why people leave jobs...

Last year I left a job that I had been at for six years, I had a collection of reasons that prompted my departure, such as: wanting to back to school, wanting to concentrate on writing my blogs, and just a strong interest in doing something different with my life. 

But there were also a collection of reasons that related directly to the company I worked for that motivated me to seek other opportunities.  With that in mind, managers and executives would do well to read this survey of why people leave their jobs from Gregory P. Smith, the author of Here Today Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention.

The Blackberry cloud... RIM rain!

Earlier this week, one of my clients announced that they were eliminating the Palm Treo 650 from their enterprise lineup, due to frustrating call quality issues, and ultimately, to many missed sales opportunities from those dropped calls.

At first, I wanted to talk them out of it, especially since I felt some loyalty to the platform... ironically, I was one of the two original founders of the Capital Area Palm Users Group (now defunct) in 1998… but I couldn't find a valid reason to so. You see, I had experienced the same disappointment myself, and had migrated away from the platform in the last year, trying Windows Mobile devices to no avail, and now investigating Symbian OS SmartPhones.

Now this post ins't about the Palm per se, but it is about FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.).

As asked, my role as consultant was to find a solution for their needs. They had three scenarios, keep the Palm and live with the problems, get wireless cards for their laptops and additional handsets for voice calls, or find a device that would enable the same capabilities as the Palm, but had a better phone.

With Cingular decided as the provider, I went to work divining the hardware. For the combo solution I recommended purchasing the Motorola RAZR V3 or SLVR L7, both being stable quad band phones (I am aware of the slow address book...), and offering a choice of form factors, working in tandem with the Serra Wireless AirCard 860 PC Modem. For the SmartPhone only solution I recommended any one of the following, the Blackberry 8700c, the Cingular 2125, or the Cingular 8125.

As you can see, I recommended the Blackberry 8700c. Understand that I am not only cognizant, but intimate, with the ongoing litigation between NTP and RIM, as I cover cell phone news for one the most heavily trafficed cell news portals on the net, yet I still made the recommendation, and here is why...

A couple of Great Links...

A good friend of mine, John Engler, has a couple of great links on his blog, inluminent.com.

Some of the first Google Print Ads.

The art of scmoozing, via Guy Kawasaki

What do Newspapers do?

Weddings

As many have requested, following are a few pictures of my bride, the wedding, the grooms cake, and a close friend.

Hiatus

Today will be my last post until Monday, November 14th.

I would like to keep writing indefinitely, but my fiancé, whom I will be marrying this Saturday has put her foot squarely down, and asked that I do not work during our wedding and subsequent honeymoon (I know, I don’t get it either…).

Don't turn that dial!

Rosa Parks Passes Away,October 24th, 2005.

I wish to offer my sincere sympathies to the family and friends of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died on Monday at age 92. I chose the image at the right because it seemed ironic, yet fitting in dignified respect to her unsought notoriety. Rosa Parks will always be remembered for her refusal to move to the back of the bus to make room for 'whites', on a fateful day, December 1st, 1955. Her arrest, incarceration, and trial catalyzed the black community into solidarity, catapulting Martin Luther King Jr. to the national scene, and resulting in the 381 day Montgomery Bus Boycott that ended when the laws legalizing segregation were lifted.

The actions of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., among many others were instrumental for many recognizing the absurdity that is racism.

B. Drew Moynihan
Publisher
BAM 2 Media

Print is dead.

The statement "Print is Dead" sounds as if I am trying to be sensational, but let me clarify, print as we know it today, is changing, the traditional media we hold between our hands and sullies our fingers will disappear. 

Developments in e-ink or digital paper from the likes of Sony, Plastic Logic, E Ink Corp, and Phillips, are changing the way we read and ultimately interact with traditional print media.  Soon, you will be able to pull out your purchased e-reader, unscroll the page, and read this morning news paper, this weeks local, or this months national magazine, then roll the display back up and throw it into your brief case.  How soon you may ask?  That is for the technological soothsayers, engineers and marketers to determine, and it’s likely you may see the devices this year.   All the companies I mentioned above have working mockups; the current goals are A5 paper dimensions (5.8x8.3 inches) at 100 dpi resolutions, with larger sizes and higher resolutions to follow quickly in 2006, and mass adoption once fine tuning is complete in late 2008.  And as for the delivery method, it is already in place; it's called the Internet. 

What's in the bag

"What is in my bag" posts are pretty common these days, originally, I posted one of these lists on my (old), personal blog, nearly two years ago, but since then I have been pairing it down a bit, so I thought I would revist the topic.

Today I am much more mobile, and as such, I often look for smaller faster items that are easier to carry with me, and ultimately, use. This week I am undertaking the act of replacing a number of items at once. This list, in essence will be two list, what I have been using to date, and what I expect to have by the end of the week. In a couple of weeks I will revisit the post and tell you how all has faired in the real world.


What I carried with me until recently:
Dell X200 Leather Briefcase
Dell Latitude X200
Casio QV-R51 digital camera
Palm Tungsten
U2 iPod (b/w)
2 PQI iStick 1gb flash drives
1 Case Logic Pro Sleeve 40 CD Case
1 8.5 x 6.5 Daily Planner (I know, redundant)
1 business card case
1 Dell power cord/transformer
1 palm charger
1 USB cable

What I intend to carry at the end of the week:
Tumi Flow Shoulder Pack
Apple 12" PowerBook or Sony 10" T-Series (still trying to make up my mind)
Casio EX-S500
Audiovox 5600*
iPod Nano (4gb)
Versa Charger
2 USB cables
2 PQI iStick 1gb flash drives
1 8.5 x 6.5 Daily Planner (I still like having some paper)


All in all, my main goal was to eliminate weight, and ultimately have my 'kit' fit into a smaller package, in this case the Tumi Flow Shoulder Pack, which is a very small package indeed. Yet, with these changes I feel I have gone smaller with the camera and the iPod, and eliminating a transformer and the Tungsten all together, and finally breaking even with the new laptop. As for laptops, I am a Mac guy, but feel comfortable with Windows, yet I am leaning towards the Mac because I really don't like the hassles, security issues, crashes, and viruses Microsoft Windows brings to the table, especially when mobile.

When I speak of laptops, I must also address the software I use, this in itself is the most functional aspect of a laptop, and the actual 'stuff" I use to produce this motly collection of websites, as well as function in my 'other' business as a Systems and Sales Automation Consultant.

The software I currently use on a daily basis, and will continue to use if I choose the PowerBook is:
MS Office
Safari
Mail.App
iCal
iSync
iChat
Missing Sync
Adobe GoLive
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe Illustrator
Mars Edit
NetNews Wire
ecto

As for my current selection in phones, the Audiovox 5600, I am not pleased with a number of things. The 5600 frequently drops calls, it has very quirky menus, and many settings windows have check boxes are missing labels for the specific option. I expect to move back to Motorola phones when the new Q releases, I may even dump the the conveniences of Windows Mobile all together and use my old Motorola V3 RAZR because as a phone, it works beautifully.

Note: This entry was originally posted on Bam 2 Media, on 9/13/2005.