DominoKeys.com

My favorite magazine is Business 2.0. Since I discovered it (while desperately trying to find something to read in an airport newsstand) I have found it to be the one magazine I read cover-to-cover. Its the perfect blend of business and tech. It highlights ways that new tech and new business ideas are converging to shape the landscape of some of the most exciting start ups out there today. And my favorite part was a section that highlighted tech the writers couldn’t live with out. Each new issue, I opened the magazine to that page and my browser to Google to find and buy many of their recommendations.

Apparently, they’ve had enough.

According to TechCrunch, the magazine will release their final issue. It may be my fault. Just yesterday, I noticed the renewal subscription notice which I intended to send in last month but which ended up at the bottom of my laptop bag. — OK, so its probably not my fault, but if I read that they were “close” to having enough subscribers to keep going, I’ll feel really, really bad.

Goodbye, Business 2.0. You’ll be missed. R.I.P.

I’ve resisted long enough. I’m going to post my two cents on the Apple event yesterday.

• New iPod Shuffles – Honestly, I liked the old colors better.
• iPod Nano – I like that this does video, but it just looks kinda funny (and fat) to me. Still, its nice to see it now does what I consider to be “baseline iPod” functionality.
• iPod Classic – 160GB of songs!? Woah! That fixes a problem I don’t yet have.
• iPod Touch – If I were Jobs, I would have released this next year as a replacement for the iPod Classic. Obviously, the question is “how do you replace an iconic product with something that looks drastically different?” Jobs’ answer is “you don’t, you make them both be viable products.” I’m not sure that’s the right answer, but hey, I don’t have a multi-billion dollar company to run. — Regardless, I like the product and think it looks nice.
• iPhone – I can’t talk about this. I paid $200 to be cool for 2 months?! UGH!
• Ringtones – While I personally think that ringtone ability should come with an iTunes purchase, I “get” why they want to bring in another $0.99 on it. The tool to create them looks cool, too.
• iPod WiFi – Again, very cool feature. I think it helps strengthen the iPod quite a bit. It also makes me understand why they refocused on an 8GB iPhone, dropped the price, added the iPod classic with more space and redid the whole line. This one feature really put everything else they announced in perspective for me. It makes sense now.
• Starbucks – First off, I’m a fan of Caribou Coffee. That said, when this launches near me, I can see myself visiting my local Starbucks more often. I think its BRILLIANT that your iPod will tell you what songs played and let you buy it. This should just “exist” everywhere you go! — I also thought it was lame to have the Starbucks “dude” give the run-down on their launch schedule. It really made it seem like a last minute deal that they were in no way prepared to actually make happen. Apparently, this time next year, there might be 5 Starbucks locations in my state (MN) that have this. Chances are, I don’t live or work near any of them.

Today’s Labor Day. As I sit in my kitchen enjoying a bowl of Rice Krispies, Tropicana OJ and a cup of Caribou Coffee, I can’t help but think about what tomorrow morning will bring at the office.

It seems that people often use holidays like this as milestone for when they should call you up and check-in on some long-term project. Most often, its consultants and vendors that think “this isn’t going anywhere now, I’ll put a note in my calendar to call back after Labor Day.”

It happens ever holiday and I’m sure tomorrow will be no exception.

And that’s why you can’t get ahold of me. I’m the kind of person who fills up any available office time (and time that isn’t available) with stuff I want to get done. I’m constantly emailing, IM’ing, meeting or calling people to get things done. The projects I work on move very quickly and there are usually a few things happening at once. To stop all of that momentum and answer surveys, talk about the company infrastructure to a stranger or bring hopeful consultants up-to-speed would slow things up quite a bit.

Now, I was once a consultant, so I’m not heartless on this topic. I understand that knowing where your customers are at is a crucial part of managing the consulting business. However, that’s why I’m extremely honest with where we are at. If a project is dead, I’ll say its dead. If something is stalled out, I’ll call it that and offer to call them up if it revives itself.

Yet I continue to get people who call to find out if its still dead. So many calls, infact, that I rarely answer my external extension throughout the day. People who know me know that email is the best option and a call on my cell is needed if its important.

I also don’t call “cold calls” back. Again, heartless, I know. But no where in my job description does it say that I get paid to do that. The average call takes 3-10 minutes and a few of those each day means that the company isn’t getting their total value from employing me.

So … if you’re reading this considering calling me tomorrow, let’s recap. My coffee is almost gone, I don’t answer cold calls, I won’t lie about a project, I’ll call you when we have something to talk about and email is the best way to reach me. Oh, and I’m not trying to be cold or mean, just honest ’cause hey, your time is valuable too! So now you can go on to your next call.

Nothing.

How sad is that?! The biggest release of Notes since R5 (in my opinion) and I’ve done NOTHING with it. The big reason is the lack of a Mac client. Having a Mac means you make every attempt to un-tether yourself from any “Windows” applications you’ve been dependent on. Thankfully, I’ve been very successful at that.

The only time I go into Windows is to use the Administrator or Developer clients … and I do far less of that these days than I ever have in the past (the whole “management” thing, ya know). But that means that Windows isn’t part of my daily system startup and its just one more annoying step I have to take to get into Notes 8.

That being said, our office does have a Domino 8 server installed and a handful of clients stating to pop up to test things. This week, I was in a meeting about an application that will accelerate the Domino 8 deployment a bit as well. So … we’re moving forward, its just the first time I can ever remember where I’m not pushing it on a daily basis.

I am, however, anxious to see what the Apple event next week will be all about. — Proof once again that I should change this site to be “AppleKeys.”