Flickr Photo Download: my (angirankin's) tweetcloud

well, it is official ... myself, sharepoint, work, and samnagle are my most tweet-worthy topics. Is that a cause for concern do you think??? hey, ya'll, angirankin rocks - you should follow her on Twitter if you want to learn ... more about angirankin. =P

Windows Mobile 6.1 – New Windows Mobile Software for Pocket PC and Smartphone

If I haven't made it clear enough thus far in my previous blog posts, I have a strong overwhelming desire to acquire new technology on a consistently regular basis. When I am forced to trudge along with the same laptop, mobile device, or mp3 hardware for over a month I get itchy ... 2 months and I start surfing CNET with drool running down my face ... 3 months and I can barely function for the green-eyed monster I become looking @ my coworkers new MacBook Air or iPhone.

There was a time when I replaced my mobile device every other month on average (timeline below spans about 9 months) :

• Device #1 / Motorola Razr: dropped in toilet
• Device #2 / Blackberry 7290: replaced after a month (became obsessed with a Sidekick)
  
• Device #3 / Sidekick: replaced after 2 months (Sidekick 2 released)
• Device #4 / Sidekick 2: covered with swarovski crystals (shut up peanut gallery), replaced after 2 months because it couldn't receive corporate email
• Device #5 / Blackberry 8700g: sensible device (tool not a toy), got bored after 1 month and upon my new obsession with TBYL w/ Outlook 2007 (made weak explanation that I needed a Windows Mobile 6 device to fully adopt the principles of the book)
• Device #6 / T-Mobile Wing w. Windows Mobile 6: This was one of the first Windows Mobile 6 devices and I have had it for about 3-4 months. It is slow. It is clunky. The battery life sucks. And I am B-O-R-E-D with it.

So the mobile device dude @ work had pretty much convinced me to return to Blackberry ... when I caught the news that Windows Mobile 6.1 is released... the website promises an easier and faster interface. And I realize it's just a .1 upgrade ... and the promised features/upgrades aren't all that fantastic, but it will justify (at least in my mind) getting a new device ... and we won't be able to get corporate email on iPhones until at least July (if even then)... so let's see, if I get a new Windows Mobile 6.1 device in the next month, I will be totes ready for something new again come July / August.

Perfect! Review of whatever I get pending =P

Time for a TBYL check-in ... see, I refuse to leave you hanging out there wondering if maybe I am keeping up on things, or if maybe I'm not ... I have committed to seeing this through and therefore I gift you with a view of my awesome inbox:



yah ... so as you can see indicated by the 140 emails in my inbox (including 32 unread messages) ... as well as my bright red tasks (that means overdue =) ... I have not completely kept up on the TBYL principals, however, I am doing better! Perhaps real changes in my life need to be reached after long winding roads where I make small gains and have the occasional set back. hmmm ... that could be an angirankin life lesson (will have to think on that).

Needless to say, the image above was my "before" as of 3:11pm on 3/30/08. And below is my "after" as of 3:31pm ... a whole lot less email and a whole lot more tasks.



And here, my friends - is what my calendar for the week now looks like (I dutifully booked out time to attend to my major strategic next actions).



And now, 3 hours later - I am proud to say that I just addressed my inbox again and it is still gloriously empty.... however, I did not address about 8 of my assigned SNAs for today - so it may be time to revisit how much care I am putting into scheduling out my time to complete the individual actions.*smile*

Finally released from lock down, thanks to BiggestFan for the head's up that my SL Blog is available once again (yah, duh, Blogger - I am not a spammer - eesh).

Anyways, I published the draft posts I had from the last week ... and some of them are way long and rambleee so if you go there make sure you bring to cup of coffee and like I dunno a game of mahjong or something to entertain yourself.

word-life-son.

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Goodreads | it's what your friends are reading!

Woot! Always on the look-out for something new to scope on the web (not new to the web, but new to me) ... I just came across a site that combines two of my loves: online social networking and books. goodreads is a site where you (and your friends) can share recommendations, ratings, and reviews of books you have read or are going to read. Using the super simple "bookshelf" tools you can also save books to your "to-read" shelf as a way to organize what you want to crack open next. Recommendations are made to you based on the books you have read/rated - and of course you can add friends to your list based on similar likes/dislikes.

I like to think of this site as an online book club without the commitment or the requirement to invite people to your house =) ... so far I don't have any friends so if you join, add me! (wow that sounded a lil desperate ...)

Well, our return train trip wasn't quite as eventful as the outbound trip, but while my daughter watched a movie I allowed my thoughts to drift back to my conversation with SquarePants on the way to Seattle a few days ago. Blerg ... as always, dwelling on what is past - I am beating myself up about not getting some kind of copy of the letter that went with SquarePant's Mobility Package.

I have been putting some thought into it and I think there were some misses on that letter, but it could be that I just skimmed over them because they are so obvious.

• IM
• Online Networking Sites (SP? Facebook?) / presence management
• Conferencing Information (Audio / web)

So if I were to build the perfect Mobility Package I think it would consist of the following:

• Blackberry 8830 World Edition / Verizon Business Service w/ unlimited text, international calling, and unlimited data
  
• yes - I would choose a Blackberry, I have had multiple Blackberrys and multiple Windows Mobile Devices ... if I had it to do all over again in a corporate environment it would be crackberry all the way. That said, if an iPhone were currently viable in corporate land I would fully toss one of those in there - because then the new employees would know how dang cool our company was.
  
• IBM Thinkpad
• rugged and reliable (as a person who has dropped her share of laptops, IBMs stand up to the klutz test)
• w/ wireless broadband card
  
• Software Authentication VPN Access (no need to carry a stupid token)
• Corporate Instant Messaging ... MSN Messenger
• If the company uses MS office suite, I would encourage use of the integrated messenger service for presence management
  
• Twitter
  
• okay, I really want to say Facebook here ... for community networking and status updates, but I am going out on a limb and saying just use Twitter. Twitter is tons lighter, and much faster. I know it isn't all the rage yet, but I have a feeling it will be ....
• Audio / Web Conferencing: Integrated into IM?
• You know, ideally all 3 - IM, micro-blogging, and audio/web conferencing would be presented in a single package - but nothing too heavy or expensive. I am not an expert on this by any means so instead I will just say that it is a worthwhile concept.

Okay, so those are the things I would suggest for a mobility package, as well as links to training resources (online) and also the dreaded printed hand outs for initial configuration. At the training resource online location I would also set the frameworks for community user groups, so that employees using the tools could showcase what they do for others. It would be a place where new employees could get help or utilization ideas.