Hmmm, an interesting idea struck me while at work today - actually an idea for a new opportunity.  This requires an in-depth understanding of the blogging culture and what drives it, feeds it, interests it.  This is kind of strange for me as I've historically been focused on hardware, operating systems, etc...

Well I've been working on my new blog which I intend to keep focused on news and happenings in the technology sphere that I'm interested in.  In addition, I'm planning on keeping this blog updated with more of a bent on my professional life.  I'll be discussing items about career decisions, opportunities, challenges, etc...  This blog will also be updated about information as push AC into reality.

 

Check out my technology blog at: www.rickmahn.com

Keep tuned here for occasional professional information in the IT world.

 

-Rick

I've created another blog over at Blogger.com.  Checking out the different formatting options available - also can't wait for the new features of Spaces to hit as well!

Another new service (in beta) from Microsoft Windows Live!  Their new Custom Domains services let you point the MX record of your domain to Windows Live for email services.  It also allows you to use your own domain email accounts in place of standard Passport accounts for other MSN services.

 

Check it out at Windows Live!

Microsoft is doing some interesting things on their new Windows Live site (www.live.com).  This site along with a number of services that they are currently developing (and have in beta) are really interesting.  Check them out!

 

-Rick

No particular reason for this post - just a  few thoughts about testing.  Beta testing in particular.  While I've been a beta tester for some time, the latest one that wrapped up in September was a bit of fun.  It was for a mobile web site & services that were focused on mobile phones & PDAs.  It was quite fun and as always a learning experience.

 

The past year, I've been increasing my beta testing for companies a bit and expanding form the Windows platform into the mobile space.  Mobile devices are a great area to work in as it is constantly pushing the boundaries for size, speed, and functionality.

 

As we move into the future, I'm planning on participating in more testing scenarios and starting some of my own mobile projects.  The mainstream PC market/environment is just that Mainstream, and is much to static at this point in time.

 

 

 

Been investigating Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition, and I must say that as soon as more devices are on the market, I'll have to pick one up.

 

The new operating system has many changes from previous versions, mostly in stability and UI enhancements.  The most striking addition is the soft keys at the bottom of the screen.  These have been on most cell phones for awhile and make the PPC more usable for a phone than it was in the past.

 

Another new "feature" for WM5 is the requirement of ActiveSync 4.0.  This version of AS seems to have some issues with creating a partnership, and also with different Windows XP configurations!  MS needs to address this as a #1 priority.

 

Other neat updates are WMP 10, better Bluetooth support, better WiFi support, better connectivity for tethering as a modem, and much more in the network department.

 

At the most basic level in the OS, a major change was to move to non-volatile storage.  This is also similar to what most cell phones have been using for a long time.  Everything in memory is not lost if the battery goes dead.  In previous incarnations of the OS and its supported devices, there needed to be constant power applied to the memory.  That is a nice change - it also has the positive affect of making more power available for the same battery capacity.  Previously in WM, the system had to reserve a certain percentage of battery life to keep the memory contents over a 3 day period - and would even tell the user that the battery was empty when it was not, just to support this requirement.  Now, that need is not there and that remaining power can now be used by the user for additional run-time.

 

Finding all the new features will take time, but there are a slew of people investigating the new OS and posting all over the enthusiast sites about tweaks and settings that improve the OS.

 

Lots of fun.

The opportunity to try out an Exchange 2003 "push" email account presented itself this past week.  I've signed up for a two week trial account at www.4smartphone.com.  The system sends an SMS message to my phone which then starts an ActiveSync session with the 4Smartphone email servers. Neat stuff!

For quite awhile I've been lamenting the fact that my mobile phone carrier (T-Mobile) is drastically behind on mobile data services.  They have offered GPRS for several years (~3) and just recently have rolled out EDGE services in over 90% of their service area.  This seems like they are behind on rolling out faster services since Cingular has been rolling out UMTS and is planning HSDPA rollouts which has very high bandwidth possibilities.  Verizon started rolling out EVDO last year and Sprint is deploying EVDO this year.  So it would seem that my favorite carrier is far behind.

 

Except when you start looking at viable connection devices.  Yes all carriers have some type of PC Card for their respective data networks, and a few phones with the data options.  That is all well and good, execpt that I've been waiting for a high-speed capable smartphone/pda phone.  Since I'm not a Palm guy, the Treo was not interesting enough, and the few proprietary "smartphones" from Nokia and Sony Ericcson just don't cut it.  Verizon did/does have a Pocket PC Phone running on EVDO, but I did not want to change carriers - plus unlimited mobile Internet was $80/month!

 

There are now Microsoft based Smartphone/Pocket PC Phone units from iMate and Qtek that fit the bill to a "T".  With Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi (yes "g"), and much more, I no longer view T-Mobile as being so far behind with mobile data services.  Especially since an unlimited Internet data plan is only $20/month.

 

This next few months will be interesting as I try to find the Smartphone or Pocket PC phone that meets my needs, but the possibilities are much greater than any time in the past of finding the best fit.

 

See ya later!

Rick

It sure seems slow today - but it is simply beautiful outside.  Hope to get out of the office early today and enjoy some of the nice weather.

Just a small bit about the last post.  What "DR" stands for is "Disaster Recovery", and is exactly what my employer was testing Thursday to Saturday of last week.  In essence, the ability to recover a working production IT system (or series of systems) that allow the business to continue to operate in the event of a disaster.  Not related to the events recently in the Golf coast states, we have been running DR tests for many many years.  Each time getting better, faster, expanding to include new systems, supplemental systems.  Upgrading our documentation and the methods of how and who does the recovery.  It is quite an interesting exercise, and one I hope to be involved in again.  The test allows you to critique your work, watch someone else try to work off your documentation and try to follow your logic.  It also allows for an enormous amount of cross-training within the IT team.  It's also a LOT of fun, preparing and participating.  Its a great way to review how well the team works together and how accurate our perceptions of recoverability are.

 

Anyway, a lot of time working straight through, and kudos to the team at both sites for all their hard work.

Worked on some web stuff this weekend, along with some things Amy needed done.  Updated my personal web as well and redirected the www.rickmahn.com domain to it again so everything works.  Found out late in the week, that Gmail can send email for other email accounts so I set it up to send email for my rick@rickmahn.com email address.  Neet stuff that gmail.  I may yet turn that into my catch-all address and keep the hotmail account for junk mail as I have for the last many many years.  That's interesting, I can't remember not having the hotmail account.  I think I created it not long after hotmail appeared on the web - a long time for sure.

 

Speaking of my "rickmahn" domain and email, I've begun thinking about simpy handing that email out to everyone.  I've got it set up to forward to my main ISP account, and it would be nice for everyone to remember instead of any other as its simply my name.

 

Whoa, didn't notice the time - gotta go.