My “Smartphone” And Windows Mobile

Another Reason Why I Can’t Stand Microsoft Products

Supposedly setting up ActiveSync is a breeze. Months ago when I actually used my Motorola Q for work email, it was a nightmare and I really never got it working correctly. Now, for the time being, all I want is to get my short videos and pictures onto a personal PC (scroll down to page 14 for the simple step-by-step guide). Is it wrong for me to assume that, even though I work with computers, I should not have to be a software engineer to figure out how to sync my Motorola Q with a PC? The other day I installed the Sync software and instead of being able to plug it in via the USB port and have it work its magic, I got the error message “Cannot find the mobile device.” Great. Then, I had to run a component of the software to “help” me find everything wrong with this failed connection, leading me to pages of confusing tips.

I just figure that, if the software on my Q is made by Microsoft and the software on the PC is made by Microsoft, and the software on my Q carries the name of Windows (Mobile 5.0) and the software on the PC carries the name of Windows (XP), then it should be a fairly seamless process, right?

Mark my words: the person who is going to make some of the most money in the next decade is the person who figures out how to make this digital mess work together: my AIM account (brandingme) through my Q, my Q to my MacBook (ugh, do I even want to subject my MacBook to that???), all the world’s web pages with FireFox, Safari and IE (and I guess Opera), and hell, even Microsoft software with Microsoft software.

You get my point. And trust, that person who makes it work together, he will be rolling in the dough.

[note to self: become programming language god]

What Won’t Google Do?; Lazysphere Blogging

“The Search Party”

Recently the New Yorker published an article about Google’s foray into, well, just about everything.
Kidding.
Anyways, here’s a great quote:

As Google expands beyond search […] the risk is that the company will come to believe that its engineers can master any business, solve any problem, and that Google will lose its focus.    

So, I don’t run a multi-billion dollar corporation, but even to me it seems Google is spreading their talent too thin; it’d serve them well to stick to their corporate mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” That’s quite a task… so why distract yourself with other things? Is Google running the risk of Starbuck’s, that of diluting the brand? Okay, that may be an apple to oranges comparison, but I think I’ll hold my ground on that argument. I.e., Google should stick to organizing content, not producing content.

Are You A Lazy Blogger?

Steve Rubel once again makes a good point: bloggers can be lazy, meaning bloggers are joining the “Lazysphere” instead of producing thoughtful, quality content. Interesting, because a while back Rubel stated that he’d rather post less on Micro Persuasion in favor of being “into the whole micro-blogging revolution”.

Now, my two cents: it’s hard to constantly produce good content. For some of the longer posts you read here, I can spend one to two hours simply doing research… yes, that time does not even include writing. My process is to go through all of my RSS feeds, hit up some of my favorite blogs and see if I can spot a theme; then I dig a little deeper through search engines in an attempt to find more articles. I read them all. I grab the url’s of the pertinent ones and then try to form a post that includes my analysis and opinion. That takes a lot of time. And what do I get for it??? About 3 pageviews a month.

So what’s my issue? Maybe I’m a horrible writer; maybe I don’t have original, quality, thought-provoking content; maybe I don’t post enough; maybe I might not engage in the blogging community enough to draw others to my blog; or maybe people are simply not interested in my ongoing thought process of how to monetize Web 2.0 sans advertising. Whatever the reason (I’m guilty of a lot of the things I just listed), it’s hard to keep it up when you can tell for certain that no one gives a $h!t about what you have to say…