Monthly Archives: January 2010

Things I’m Thinking About – Jan 2010

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Major changes occurring in data center networking and storage.  Networking in the virtualization arena .

Unified Communications, particularly mobility.  SIP, Phone Proxy and more and more video conferencing.

Internal business collaboration, fostering ideas and innovations, getting ideas out from and to everyone and allowing others to feel they are truly contributing and appreciated as well as credited.  Too often things have to filter up through layers of mgmt and red tape, anywhere along the way one manager could simply not have the vision or foresight and have a great idea come to a stand still.  Or how often are great ideas actually credited to those who came up with them?

Slate Computers.  Yes I like and have adopted the term for that form factor of computer.  Slates are going to have a huge impact I think.  iPhone started the touch revolution IMHO because they got it right.  To this day, nearly 3 years now, there has not been one touch device that comes close to the accuracy and responsiveness of the iPhones screen.

For most people these days our PC needs are pretty simple.  Web and email are primary.  Most of what people are doing is social media stuff which is all web based.  Actual applications are becoming a thing of the past for many.

Laptops got people away from the desk and fixed locations.  People want information at their finger tips right?  Started sitting at Starbucks or on their couch with laptops, often looking up information as it strikes them.  Thoughts that pop up, news they read, conversations they over heard, something on TV, all of these things made people want that ability to Google or Wiki something anytime from anyplace.

Phones / Smartphones started helping us satisfy that need.  But none of them were as good as we hoped or wanted.  Needed something between a Laptop and Smartphone.  Thus emerges the netbook.

Netbooks have been a huge hit.  Great for the coffee shop or couch.  Cheap.

eReaders came along for many reasons I’m sure.  Print world is hurting, particularly news papers and mags.  Desire by some to make the print world head in the direction of the music world after finally recognizing how digital music is changing things.  iTunes showed the world what was possible for music, so its easy to see how Amazon could want to apply that same model to the book and print world.

I suspect the “Green” iniative also helped the eReader world.  The form factor of most eReaders is great and handles book very well.  eInk is easier on the eyes and form factor is smaller than the Netbooks but larger than say the iPhone.

However we find we are getting ourselves back into a problem that I think many of us hoped would be solves one day and thought was solved recently by the iPhone.  Gadget creep.  Too many specific devices are being needed again to solve specific needs.

I can remember almost 10 years ago sitting down with a good friend and boss in Denver for lunch one day and having to place gadget after gadget on the table so I could sit comfortably.  Pager, PDA, Cell and MP3 player.  I recall the conversation we had about hoping that in the near future we would have one device that did it all.

The iPhone did solve the gadget problem in my life for the last few years.  However I find myself really want an eReader these days for all the PDF’s I go through constantly.  There have also been moments I wished the iPhone was bigger when doing some web browsing and thought about getting a Netbook.

So yes I have my eyes on Slates.  I think they might be able to help replace the netbooks / ereaders in the very near future.

PC’s and Gaming.  There has been some debate lately about the future of PC gaming and well 5 years ago I would have considered anyone questioning the future of PC gaming as one who probably needs a pysch eval.   Today however I think PC gaming is dying.  Yup I said it.

What the Xbox360 and PS3 are capable of and still pushing out today despite being a few years old now is amazing.  I know the quality on the PC for most games is superior due to the resolutions.  However with todays large HDTV’s and the constant improvement in consoles I really think PC gaming is dying.  I use to hate consoles.  The weird controllers and small TV’s just didn’t cut it for me.  However, I broke down and bought a 360 after getting an HDTV a few years ago and have been thrilled.  Funny thing is it’s not for any reason I have mentioned so far.  My main reason for enjoying consoles now is that I never have to wonder if my console can handle this new game.  No more upgrading a home PC to play a game.  And this is from the guy who lived for doing PC upgrades early on.  Now I just want to have fun with as little hassle as possible.  Time is valuable.

Finally, yes I am still thinking a lot about the service provider industry and particularly that of the cable industry.  I have seen some positive articles and things lately that at least tells me others are concerned with and thinking about some of the same things.  I still think something major has to happen soon within the industry and there needs to be an expedited shift or transition from what the industry was to what it could and should become.  I still read and see too much discussion on transitioning old to new and talk of improvements to older technology.  To much energy, money and talent is being focused in the wrong areas in my personal opinion.  Time to rip that bandaid off and start over.  Otherwise the same thing is going to happen to the cable industry that happened to the phone industry.

Sure there is more I would love to say but will have to try getting to it later.

Corporate America and People Observations

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First its important to make a disclaimer that I am not specifically referring to anything that is or has occured at my current place of employment of course.  I have spent 15 years in IT and in that time I have seen a lot go on in the corporate world particularly as it relates to those around me.  I haven’t spent much time in or around the upper echelon types and for that I am actually very thankful.  Those people kinda scare me as I know I simply can’t relate to the type of person they are and what drives them.  Nope, I prefer to spend my time in the trenches and behind the scenes.  I like working with the technology, particularly the machines.  Things are either working or broke.  No politics, favoritism, emotions and all the other crap that comes along from others self interest.

I have what is apparently a very naive and wonderland like view of what work is suppose to be.  I believe that people should be the best they can be at the job they choose to do.  I believe that if you are great at what you do others will recognize this talent and reward it (not just financially).

There are LOTS of flaws with this basic logic however.

  1. “job they choose” – not everyone is in the job they choose to do.  No one stuck a gun to their head but people get forced into jobs they don’t particularly choose and want to do.  Many reasons why this may be, such as being fired and having to take something to make ends meet or management moved someone and well the employee hoped it would only be temporary.
  2. “others will recognize” – others should recognize but either don’t for a number of reasons or does but because of politics, favoritism or simply chooses to ignore.
  3. “reward” – most will instinctively think money when you see reward, and some would argue that yearly raises are rewards.  In actuality rewards mean many different things to different people.  It’s important to know and recognize how to reward someone if you really feel they deserve it.  Personally I think a good manager is one that can recognize what drives a person and what their idea of a reward is.  They can usually get the most out of an employee by satisfying them through some of the non traditional rewards.  For instance, some may value learning and training or might just like to be taken out to lunch after a job well done.

It’s nuts all the things I am thinking about just in what I have typed so far.  I wish someone could tap into my head and sort all of this stuff out and put it in words for others.  I think way more about even some of the most subtle things then most people do and I really believe others might find some of it interesting.  Don’t get me wrong, nothing I say is new or ground breaking, simply just things I think of from conversations with others.

Some of the things racing around right now:

Managers/VP’s/CXX’s – What happend to earning respect?  Its not bestowed just because of a title right?

IT People / Geeks – There are people in IT and there are those that ARE IT (Geeks).  Understand the differences and reward / promote correctly.

Movers and Shakers – Ughh these people irk the heck out of me!  These are the people who obviously only care about themselves.  Wake up and see this corporate america!  If someone is jumping to a new position every chance they get within a company something is wrong.  This person doesn’t care about the company or the job they are doing or the people working with or beneath them.  How can they if they can’t stay in one place long enough?  They are only after power and money.

Things aren’t always as they appear on the surface.  This is something that has always puzzled me when it comes to management and executives.  Many create an environment where they (the manager) is very out of touch with those working for them and sometimes its the employees that exclude the manager.  Regardless there are so many things that don’t come to the surface that an out of touch manager will not see or hear about for various reasons and thus some bad employees can “float” around for a while.  Sadly many employees will unwillingly protect the bad employees without even knowing it.  In one breath they will talk among themselves with nothing good to say about someone, however in an effort to prevent things from affecting them or the department the good employees will often over compensate and pick up the bad employees slack.

Ah well, just some random thoughts.