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Are You Going To WPC?

I am. And I hope to see you there!

Man, is this my shortest post ever, or what?

|| posted by chris under biz, mobility, travel, webcast || comments (2) || ||

No, I Don’t Have A Crystal Ball

But maybe I can tell the future. [EDIT: But I completely forget the link. Doh!]

Been preaching the mobile device revolution was the next big thing for a couple of years now. And decent web browsing would be the key.

Honestly, there’s no magic. You can see what’s coming, as long as you are paying attention.

If you don’t, I can for sure tell you your future.

And it ain’t pretty.

|| posted by chris under biz, hardware, media, mobility, opinion, rx, travel || comments (0) || ||

So, How Was The NOLA Conference For You?

This weekend’s conference in New Orleans really seemed to go well for a lot of folks, both from the perspective of having fun and getting valuable info. And I’m glad, because the best way to get value out of any conference is when said conference is both fun, and eye-opening.

I was involved as a presenter in 2 sessions. The first was a panel discussion on data storage called Business Data Placement: The New Paradigms, which discussed both the current file system paradigms and the incomprehensibly slow march to SharePoint.

Honestly, we prolly should have just called it Why SharePoint Matters (to SMB)

I got to work with the ever-amazing Amy Babinchak, my MVP Summit roommate Kevin “The Human Alarm Clock” Weilbacher, Chuck Traywick, and our fantastic moderator Eriq Neale. That session really came together in some ways I don’t think any of us were fully aware would happen, which rocked.

The second session I did was called Why Mobile Matters (for SMB).

The response I received to that session has, quite literally, blown me away! I was nearly mobbed throughout the rest of the conference by folks eager to do more with Windows Mobile for the benefit of their customers and their own businesses.

So super big HUGE thanks to everyone (and there sure were a LOT of you) who attended my session on Mobility. Most heartening to me were all the people who said things like…

You’ve really given me a lot to think about.

I’ve already mapped out changes I’m planning to make when I get back.

I never felt like I could make it work, but you’ve given me a starting place to rethink that.

I even got a congratulatory text message from a certain outspoken Floridian not even in attendance who heard how smashingly it went.

Believe me, it’s a good good feeling knowing that so many folks got some much motivation toward rethinking and reshaping the way they are delivering services to their customers from hearing my session.

|| posted by chris under biz, community, hardware, it pro, migration, mobility, rx, thumbs up, travel, webcast || comments (1) || ||

The Universal Answer To Mark’s Question

You can’t be everywhere, man.

|| posted by chris under community, travel || comments (1) || ||

Going Topless At MVP Summit

Last week at MVP Summit, I went totally topless the entire time.

Now, before anyone within arm’s length of me decides to commit justifiable homicide, here’s what I mean by that.

I had seen something about companies issuing dictates against takign laptops into meetings. That they were too distracting. I thought that was a pretty good idea, but for a different reason. I simply hate lugging all that weight around with me all the time. So, thanks to some recent additions to my trusty utility belt, I pulled off a feat that some folks might think impossible.

I didn’t take my laptop out of the hotel room AT ALL! That’s right, (lap)topless baby!

Now, think about that for a minute. Being at an intensive, uber-deep-diving tech conference for a full week, and never dragging a laptop around with you even once.

This mission was a super-secret skunkworks experiment I codenamed  More Mobile Than Mobile AKA MMTM.

And it was a resounding success! As in…

Hoo-RAH! Who’s your mobile daddy NOW?

Here’s a list of stuff that made MMTM possible:

• Treo 750 running Windows Mobile 6.1
• Treo A/C charging cable (Thanks to Steven Lai for the lend of a USB cable when I forgot one day. Also to Amy Babinchak for a spare USB port from which I leeched some power)
• Palm wireless keyboard with Bluetooth
• Motorola Bluetooth Active Headphones S9 

I also had the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 with me for capturing all the images and video I wanted. That camera is playing at a whole other level of awesome, but was ancillary to MMTM, really.

There was really only thing that truly SUCKED about MMTM.

I didn’t have anything to use to carry the A/C cable and the headphones around. So my pockets were about to burst from all the junk crammed into them.

Obviously, cargo pants coming back into style would fix that, at least for a while. But a longer term solution would be some sort of small case.

Kinda like the one being given at the Mobile MVP dives, for which I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to attend. But as a guest, I didn’t think it would have been proper of me to receive one, instead of someone who was a Mobile or Mobile Dev MVP.

Even with that one little issue, everything else about More Mobile Than Mobile was AWESOME! I didn’t have to worry about where I was gonna stash my stuff. No bootup/shut down stuff to deal with. I could setup in even the tiniest of spaces. Just plug in for a little bit of juice here and there.

Well maybe moreoften than that. Battery life with Windows Mobile is beyond atrocious, and needs to be on the planning doc for the next version.

The part of MMTM that ROCKED? Nearly everyone who saw it wanted to know how well the keyboard worked. Once I showed them how fast and awesome it types and controls the Treo, I saw quite a few raised eyebrows.

I did notice some difficulty using the Bluetooth keyboard to type while simltaneously using the Bluetooth headphones to play music. Typing responsiveness would slow until it was basically unusable. I chalked that up to bandwidth limitations of the Bluetooth receiver on the Treo. As soon as I paused the music playback, the typing returned to normal.

Also, I found that changing the screen orientation to Landscape (right-handed) allowed the Treo to sit comfortable on the keyboard pop-up stand, while still being connected to whatever type of charging cable I happened to have at the moment, and without blocking or otherwise impeding access to the side volume and action button. A faster (as in one-tap) way to do that screen re-orientation would be nice, however.

All in all, a smash success. More Mobile Than Mobile is now my new standard way of attending conferences.

As soon as I find a decent mini-case, that is.

|| posted by chris under hardware, mobility, more cowbell, rx, thumbs up, travel, utility belt || comments (5) || ||