If you have ever worked for a large organization, you should easily relate to this Dilbert cartoon. As the IT guy trying to make everyone happy at work, I've spent the last year making sure everyone that needs two monitors gets two monitors. It's not an easy task in an era of tight budgets and cycle replacements but we're getting there...
Not having the opportunity to own an iPhone due to lack of coverage by phone carrier AT&T, I haven't been a smartphone user. Then a few weeks ago my carrier, Verizon, introduced the Motorola Droid and I purchased my first smartphone. Since then, I've been carrying the Droid where ever I go and taking full advantage of the phone's features.
I was reading an article this morning regarding the use of ARM-based chips in a number of devices including "smartbooks". It appears the industry would like you to now call those smaller and less powerful laptop computers a smartbook instead of netbook.
To describe these devices as a smartbook is idiotic marketing for two reasons. First, "netbook" is a term that has been around for two years and most people today recognize the term being applied to smaller sized notebooks. When you hear the question, "What is a smartbook?" it seems very natural to just answer by replying, "a smartbook is a netbook". Secondly, I have to say it's very moronic (worse than ironic) to call a dumbed-down notebook a smartbook. At least when you say "smartphone" it is in reference to increased functionality over the traditional mobile phone and not less functionality.
I do not like the word "smart" being attached to devices and applications that are far from actually being intelligent on their own. Is marketing that insecure in the devices they're selling that they need to attach the word "smart" to cover up their own lack of intelligence? I have a theory that any time we attach the word "smart" to software or devices it is inviting doom into our lives.
Last month I began my annual break from technology. Using previous technology breaks as my guide, I had expected to spend a lot less time at the computer and cell phone. My plan was simple, straight forward, and summarized in a simple slogan, Blog Less, Relax more. A month later, I write this blog post with the realization that my Technology Break of 2009 was a complete utter failure.
It was only a matter of time before someone was going to ask the final "what if" question for Internet users.
I'm sorry, but you're dead. Now what happens to your gigabytes of online data, Websites, automatic payments, and "virtual money"?
A new category of online services is emerging: A "Last Will and Testament" for Internet assets. It's just the start, and perhaps we'll see businesses producing "daemons" or "after-death worms" delivering payloads that represent your interests in perpetuity.
Every year, there are some key information technology people that make mostly sound and trustworthy predictions for the coming year. I'll be updating this page through the week with links to these visions of what we may expect in 2009. My own thoughts and vision for 2009 and CMS Report will come later in another post (I am not worthy to place my own comments here).
Content Management and Social Publishing Predictions
Dries Buytaert (Drupal Project Lead) - Drupal, Acquia, and Mollom
In keeping with tradition, the following are seven articles that were posted here at CMSReport.com and received less attention than I had hoped. Either the reader didn't show up to view the article or there was little discussion on the subject matter. I'll let you be the judge on whether these articles deserved the obscurity they received in 2008.
There is so much that I want to do here at CMS Report, but my time has been limited these past couple weeks. Some things that have been going on in my world:
Mark Van Pattern has written a piece on PBS's MediaShift titled, "How the Focus on Print Hurts Our Newspaper Site". His story is a common story I hear time after time from those in the newspaper business.
Last year, I started looking for a linux laptop and ended up just migrating my old Windows laptop over to Ubuntu Linux. Since my personal preference is for smaller sized laptops, I have also been keeping an eye on the new low-cost netbooks. Currently, I'm leaning toward the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with Ubuntu already installed. However, my personal sweet spot for a laptop seems to be in the 10 to 12 inch range.
Today, at Dell.com I came across reference to a yet to be released Inspiron Mini 12 (1210)! While there have been rumors circulating on the Web that Dell will be introducing a 12.1 inch Mini netbook or (and) E Slim, I don't think anyone has reported seeing actual references of the Inspiron Mini 12 at Dell.com. Until now! Perhaps we'll be seeing the Inspiron Mini 12 released this week or possibly next week? If the price is reasonable and Ubuntu is available, this Mini 12 will be my next notebook.
