Wednesday, December 25, 2013

One Great Life Story of Coming Back

The following story from the NY Times this Christmas Day (and I hope they let you see the video) is all about coming back and understanding the beauty of living and life. Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish has an artificial hip and returning to the rigors of ballet at 55 years of age had to take great courage. There is a lesson here for all, young or old; feel life now, let every minute touch you.

"When you're younger, you have everything - you have the flexibility, you have no fear. But you don't savor every step, every movement of every fingertip, every beat of the music. I feel like I'm tasting food for the first time."

ELIZABETH ROXAS-DOBRISH, on dancing Alvin Ailey's "Revelations" again at age 55.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/dance/100000002619817/returning-to-the-stage-at-55.html?playlistId=1194811622182

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Working with the Nexus 7

In the last couple of days I have stayed with my Nexus 7 while out of the house and I find it quite easy to use for 'most' things. The one limitation is reading magazines. I still like the larger format, 10", for reading magazines.

I also believe this is too small to use to teach from. I can learn from it however using it in the classroom is not easy. Again it is slightly small for that.

Someone mentioned the Samsung Note 8.1 the other day and I will have to see just what it looks like when getting something like a magazine on it.

In the next few days I will try annotating a PDF which is real easy to do on the iPad using Documents (Apple app). That, so far, is the best app there is for underlining, making notes, and highlighting a PDF. Actually better than Adobe Reader.

As this blog post is going up from email I will also be interested in how that works.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

It's cold, it's Sunday, and reading is good

I have always been one to read stories that impress what people can do and this morning I found one in a Forbes article. It's brief and you can follow up on the further bio that this links to.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2013/12/14/silicon-valleys-latest-star-got-pregnant-at-15-never-finished-high-school-and-now-employs-90000/

I can thank Flipboard on my Nexus 7 for letting me read this.

There were other great stories this morning and it allowed me to enjoy breakfast at Starbucks and grab the news.

Now to check Facebook.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Air Control for Amazon Drones Needed.

After listening to the 60 Minute interview with Jeff Bezos I am blown away with all the coverage today. “Amazon testing deliveries by drone – Fox News, Amazon unveils futuristic plan: Delivery by drone – CBS News, Amazon says testing delivery by drone – CNBC.com. It’s everywhere.

Jeff Bezos knows a ‘Mark’ when he sees one and I think he found one in 60 Minutes. “Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Looks To The Future” in which Jeff Bezos reveals that Amazon is working on using drones to deliver packages. Granted it’s out in the future. Valentine Michael Smith would be proud of Jeff.

dronepkgSuddenly today I had a thought: when Amazon starts its delivery service using the drones, we are going to have a great number of openings for Air Traffic Controllers. In fact we may need to have air traffic control units in every town.

In the report on 60 Minutes they discussed the fact that “Tomorrow, on what is known as Cyber Monday, it’s expected that more than 300 items a second will be ordered on Amazon”.

Now for the future of delivery. How many drones is Jeff Bezos planning on buying? I think I just might go into thedronepkg drone building business.

Let’s see; they all fly on wireless, use batteries, and fly under the radar. Oh this has got a lot of potential. Kids you have a future in flying.

Somehow I think we are all missing something. Yes it could be done but I am not sure we have enough air space. I suspect a big business will be in Drone Repair and where we used to scavenge for golf balls we can now scavenge for downed drones.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

How Fast Should We Be Moving With Process / Product Development?

In reading an the latest issue of Inc. magazine there is an article about Aaron Levie (CEO of Box – a cloud storage company). Aaron Levie is Inc’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year. In the beginning of this writing there is a quote that should be taken seriously:

“The research company Gartner predicts that by 2015, at least 60 percent of information workers will be accessing their content on mobile devices.”

Gartner is, a well thought of, solid tech analytical organization, so my question: When do we begin to develop for 2015? Now? Or do we wait to see if what Gartner predicts becomes a reality and then we go into crisis mode? What will our competition be doing in the next 15 months (actually we are only 13 months away).

Major question: How fast were you able to make the last major change in your MO or better, use of technolgy?

Prior to the quote above there is a reference to Aaron Levie saying something to the effect that the hard drive is dead and the PC “is on life support”. Hmm…. I can verify that in my own micro world and I am not the person to whom the writer is necessarily speaking.

inc-logoThis writing is so much more than what is happening today in the real world of technology and storage. It wants you to look at decisions made and people willing to understand changes for what they are;  Power to the people.  It would like you to think about what you are doing and what is going to be for the future.

There are clips about those that did not accept the tablet changes, who wanted to wait and see, and who are still trying to do as little as possible to give Apple credit for being ahead of the game. Google, with Android, was quicker to jump than others. Within the Android arena there are companies like Samsung making great headway.

I like to ask questions. Did you see BYOD happening? Do you see it now? On what scale? Are you aware what your employees, your B2B employees are using? What are your clients employees allowed to BYOD? Are you building for them?

In the last year alone I see more people in a MacDonald’s or Starbucks with tablets and phone’s (of all makes and models) accessing email, the Internet, and data of their own. I watch frequently as individuals or groups attend online meetings on these tablets while outside of their office. On these devices are apps for Box, Dropbox, iCloud, and perhaps Amazon. There are others.

Yesterday my friend Franz Dill posted on his blog, The Eponymous Pickle, “iPad Business at The Proctor & Gamble Company. In that article there is a link to an Apple iPad in Business profile page which has some interesting video’s. It may not be the number of companies represented but it does matter the number of people within those companies that have gone tablet and in this case with the iPad.

If you read this blog you know that I believe that the consumer will drive the Enterprise both inside and out. Do not build for Apple, Google, or Microsoft. Build for the people who use your products and services. The day’s of saying “To view this website correctly you must be using Internet Explorer” are over.

The Inc. magazine article can also be found online. “Don’t Bet Against Aaron Levie” and perhaps you should read it. 1) to read about Aaron Levie and Box, and 2) to grasp the accelerating speed of acceptance of new technology.

Note: You can also subscribe on your iPad or Android tablet to Inc. magazine.