Cell phun

So it's been over 6 months since I 'upgraded' from a Treo 700e to a VX6800. I still like the bigger buttons and the bigger screen. The slider is fin. and the whole thing fits comfortably in my hand (if a tad too small).

No, my complaint is Microsoft. The phone is running Windows Mobile 6.0. It's supposed to sync with my laptop--and perform the second most valuable function which is to provide me with my contacts, calendar and notes when I'm away from my electronic ball & chain. And god bless Microsoft, they've found a way to screw even that simple function up. This Monday morning the phone lost its little mind, losing the connection with my computer and forcing me to 'restart' the sync. So, it erased the data and connection information on the phone, all ready to re-import my contacts and calendars from the laptop.

And then the ghost of Microsoft arose, with voices wailing and blood dripping down the walls. Windows Vista on my laptop didn't recognize my cellphone. Wouldn't connect to it. Wouldn't talk to it. It might have been a rock trying to talk to a tree for all my laptop cared.

So, for the last 3 days, I've spent countless hours trying to reconnect these two pieces of electronic goo. I'm ready to throw in the towel and go back to the old standby: a pen & paper personal planner.

Microsoft will make luddites out of us all.

IF you guys have any suggestions, I'd appreciate hearing from you.


--Shawn

War Coverage?

An interesting article from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121797955889015047.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

Where are the MSM on this? As American companies, shouldn't they feel the need to report this type of information at the same volume and frequency as the 'negative stuff?' After all, it's our friends, neighbors, sons and daughters who are shouldering this burden--and pushing ever closer to a final conclusion.

I'm a big fan of trends. In every day, anomalies pop up to change your short-term picture and frame of reference. But over time, across multiple locations and as viewed through multiple sources, core truths do emerge and resultant trends are discernible. Yes, the housing market in Florida has turned. Yes, the world's demand for high-tech products and enabling technologies has increased over the past 12 months. Yes, the month-on-month overall status of the situation in Iraq is becoming a more steady, normalized one, with corresponding accelerating troop withdraws in the works.

Any picture viewed from a single point in time, through a single lens, by definition frames what is perceived to be the 'normal status' of the viewed picture. That's the fallacy of minuscule data sampling and limited perspective. Which is why you almost never should make business-altering decisions based on a single experience or event.


-Shawn

Olympic Fever

Is anyone out there really into this year's Olympic games? We all know about the disruption in normal viewing patterns created by the events being held when most of the US is sleeping, combined with the foreknowledge that the internet offers prior to 'live' TV coverage. But over the past month, everyone that I've spoken with seemed to have a hard time even remembering that the Olympics were coming up this August.

Maybe it's the time difference. Maybe it's the overall economic malaise. Maybe it's the lack of any compelling storylines. Wherever it is, I wouldn't want to be a large Olympic advertiser during these games.

-Shawn