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It's got what ? .. and I am not referring to an iPad!
Is that trip to the computer store worse than going to the dentist. The young store assistant looks you up and down and then just looks... and looks. You scan the array laptops on display, different shapes and sizes and you have no idea of where to start. Eventually you get the cool dude to amble across. He can't look too eager to help, might not be cool.
"I would like to purchase a laptop. Can you please advise me?" you ask. " Sure, no problem" he says in a ’here’s another one” voice. "What type of chip were you thinking of? There's AMD and Intel, Athlon, Phenom, Core + V pro or Core 2 version. Perhaps Atom or Itanium? Any thoughts on the clock speed? You can have 1.8 giga hertz or 2.8 giga hertz or ... Oh, and what sort of memory would you like? DDR 3 or GDDR3 and what speed would you like and how much of it would you like? 2 Gig ? 4 Gig? Any need for large SDRAM on the graphics card? And how big would you like the hard drive to be and how fast should it spin? You can also go for a solid state drive. The screens differ and some machines have x by x pixels and different refresh rates. LED or LCD? What are you going to do with your screen? The contrast ratio may also something you need to consider. Do you want something that is HD ready? What sort of slots do you need? USB, SD, firewire ? What type of video port? RGB, DVI, HDMI? This machine has 801 b/g wifi and this one has n..... So, um, like, I say, like, what would you like?"
The iPad three months on... did the novelty ware off?
It is now six months since the iPad was launched and three months since I first laid my hands on one. As you will recall my first impressions were, well..... awesome! I have now played with this piece of technology, every day and in every way. I have browsed the app store and tried a number of different apps I figured would be useful for my every day life. What follows is the first of a couple of thoughts which I will cover in a series of blogs.
The challenge is where to start as the iPad being used to write this blog has so many different uses. It is probably best to categorize the way in which I use the iPad and talk about my the apps I use in each. In broad terms I have two uses for the iPad, business and pleasure and will touch on different aspects of these in a series of blogs in coming weeks.
Whilst the iPad will not (yet) replace your lap top or desktop it certainly has taken a place in my everyday business life. This is also true for the leisure category but more about that in a future blog. The user interface of touch screen keyboard and finger gestures to navigate felt great to start out with and to be honest, they still do. The small form factor (no thicker than a laptop screen) , light weight and long battery life make it more comfortable for portable use than a traditional laptop. My laptop is almost becoming a desktop! Around the house, at clients and in the coffee shop the iPad has become my favourite computing tool.
Mad about attachments?
Emails with attachments are extremely common these days. For many of us it is an easy way to pass on information but do we ever stop to think of the inefficiency or time waste that opening and reading of attachments can create for the receiver. Is this not a cop out? Does it end up with a frustrated receiver? For example, does this email seem familiar:
QUOTE
To: Boss
Date:
From:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Boss,
I have just returned from a three day meeting with the marketing team. Some really useful stuff and some things you may want to take note of.
Please find attached the 5 presentations that were made at the meeting.
If you need anything else please let me know.
Regards
Subordinate
UNQUOTE
So which of these is your response?
1.) Thanks.
2.) Hmmm... Please set up a meeting once I have had a chance to work through the material ( 3 days).
3.) Thanks for nothing. Suggest we discuss over your performance review.
Whilst the wording on the last response may be a little harsh and not used in an actual response, it gives you an idea of how one feels when receiving an email such as this.
Email Attachments - Do you know what you're sending?
Unless you are in the realms of the spy world, paper is paper and ink is ink. Turn it upside down, back to front, or any way you like, all you see is paper and ink. In the electronic world however, documents often reveal far more than the sender may intend.
Email makes it very easy to send a variety of document formats to clients, suppliers and the like. Typically these are word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations but can also include a number of other document types.
The problem with these documents are that they often contain the logic used to create the document as well as a host of other information gathered whilst editing the document. Do you send original documents to suppliers and clients? Examples are quotes or contracts done in a spreadsheet program or word processing document, sometimes with a request for them to be signed and faxed or emailed back to you? So what is the problem with this you may ask? Quite simple. Unless explicitly protected or hidden in the software, the formulas in a spreadsheet are visible to anyone that chooses to take a look. They may reveal cost or margin information, options or scenarios and if understood by a person you are negotiating with could seriously put you on the back foot. Similarly sending an editable document through to someone for signing and faxing back to you can lead to some key part of the document being changed. How often do you check that the document you received back is the same as the one you sent? Do you or your staff have the time to re-read your own detailed document in case of change?
If only Paddy had and iPad....
Paddy is off this week doing what he enjoys most, being outdoors in some remote and obscure place either hiking GPS in hand or going for a run/riding his mountain bike. He is maintaining that all important balance and living the motto “work to live, not live to work”.
The world moves on and there is always work to be done. We have prepared a number of newsletters that deal specifically with our general leadership series that are ready for publication. The mail technology we use also allows us to schedule and send the newsletter even if were are both away. But what about our blog posts? Those you like to read every week, the ones based on current news events such as our posts on the BP Gulf Oil Spill. (A little inside information - the blog posts are written jointly and involve intense debate between the two of us which then culminate in a ydangle view of the world.)
How do we have the debates and prepare the content when either or both of us are doing our balance thing? You could argue that we don’t but would our loyal followers be happy with that?
Corporate travel and the iPad - "take your life with you"
A couple of years back I used to work for a large multinational organisation. The nature of the job require a significant amount of international and local travel. Besides being extremely tiring, both from a physical and mental point of view, it is disruptive to your personal life.
You have just had a pleasant Sunday afternoon lunch with friends or family, the clock hits 3 pm and it is apologies as you get ready for a flight to some part of the world. You pack your bags and off you go only to return on Friday evening. You leave everything behind, family, friends, music, photographs, personal finances etc. Why you may ask? Family and friends in person is understandable but the rest.... well in a number of corporates these days laptops are "locked down". None of the software and applications you normally use on your home computer are available to you. Whilst one tries to mitigate this with different devices i.e. iPod's, Blackberry's etc. it means lots of chargers, cables and other accessories. At one point I was carrying a personal laptop with me in addition to the corporate one. Whilst this helped, carrying two bricks around through busy airports took it's toll.