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I feel like its been a long time since I’ve been able to keep up with this blog. I feel that way, because it has been.

There’s two main reasons why things have been quiet around here lately. First, it seems that everything interesting I’m involved with comes with a non-disclosure agreement. I’ve been involved in some promising software testing/feedback, an advisory panel and a new product launch – all of which I’d love to blog about, but I can’t. When I can, I’ll be sure to head straight back here!

My podcast (Netcot) has been featured in iTunes for 30+ months and counting!

Secondly, I’ve found myself spending more time focusing on one of my other websites. For those of you who don’t know, that site (Netcot) has been around for a long time now, but its found new life in the last 3 years with the launch of my weekly podcast. I continue to be amazed at how many people discover the site and podcast and become huge fans. I’ll admit, I never get tired of hearing people rave (or even give constructive criticism) about the site/show.

One of the main ways people discover the site is through the elusive iTunes “feature” mechanism. Its not clear to anyone exactly how shows are picked to be on this, but Netcot has been a featured podcast in the Kids & Family category for over 30 months and counting! I even saw a mention this past week that it was featured in the main area of iTunes (I’m still trying to get someone to produce the evidence — but I’m hopeful I’ll see it!).

So if you were wondering, that’s why its been quiet around here. With Notes 8.0.2 out now, Lotusphere 2009 around the corner and a new role I’m starting to take on at my company, I’m sure the silence is short-lived

Tags: feature, itunes, netcot, podcast

It seems like every 6-12 months, my internet (Comcast cable) goes out on me and I suddenly realize how dependent I am. To me, internet, phone and TV are utilities just like electricity. They should always be there unless something pretty dramatic happens to cause an outage.

Not so with Comcast. Last night, I sat on a long tech call in which the tech told me three times that she wished I had cable TV so she knew if there was an outage in my area. She was trying to convince me to sign up for their TV service. At which point I finally said: you’re not really convincing me, considering if I had TV service, its likely that would be out too! — She then backed down on that idea.

… And then picked up another sales opportunity: home service. In short, she wants me to pay ~$4/month so that all wiring INSIDE my house would be covered through their technicians. This is insane. ALL the wire IN or OUT of my house was put there BY Comcast! Its a straight run into the router and nothing has changed. I felt compelled to ask her: “so, if my wiring is bad, then its because your techs improperly installed it – but you’re not going to cover their work unless I pay you to fix problems they caused?” — Her response: “yes, well, no, well, yeah…”

Brilliant!

In the end, a simple stop by my local Comcast location for a new router fixed the issue – as it does every 6-12 months. Its such a regular thing, that I’m putting a note on my calendar now to just walk in and get a new one for no reason six months from now. Seriously!

But that brings up the next challenge I have to deal with: TV. I have DirecTV and don’t have anything great to report there either. Their DVR unit is buggy, at best. Their service is expensive and I’m still upset over the tools their technician stole from my 2 years ago when it was installed. Until last night, I thought I’d switch over to Comcast, but now I’m not sure. Apparently, Dish is my only other option.

So why is it that all of this is so frustrating. We all pay top dollar for phone, TV and internet and at the end of the day, every service option has something about it that is frustrating. Shouldn’t all this “just work” by now?

</venting>

Now this is a great website design! I had to do a double-take on the URL to make sure I was really looking at a Lotus webpage, and I was.

The site design here is very contemporary, attractive and easy to get around. All of the key points of information are quickly brought to your attention (including the all-important “contact us” – which, let’s face it, is the one link every single company hopes you click on … assuming there’s not a “buy now” link that is).

The solution looks really nice, too. I really think they’re on to something here with a one-stop-shop server room in a box for smaller companies.

All that being said, I’m still a bit confused about what software is all included in this tool. It looks like a nice sampling of Lotus software, but its not clear if you get everything; turn on what you want to purchase; or only get selected pieces of software.

… and that’s probably intentional so that you click on the “contact us” links to get more information from a sales rep or business partner.

Tags: design, foundations, ibm, lotus, ui, website

One of my favorite sites TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) just put up a story about Lotus Notes coming to the iPhone. The article left the reader with excitement over the announcement (rightly so) and avoided any discussion about how the product being announced was a web application, not an iPhone application (again, probably a smart move).

I was curious to see if anyone else who read the article made a comment about this fact. And, they did, with the same degree (I’d argue a STRONGER degree) of concern that I’ve expressed over the lack of a true iPhone native application.

But that wasn’t the thing that struck me. It was all the Notes-hatin’ that was going on in the comments. I suggest reading through them yourself (perhaps it would be good to grab one of those stress toy things first, ’cause its a frustrating read). The thing I found interesting was how many people either “didn’t get” why people use Notes or condemned IT departments for still using it today.

It was frustrating to read it all. Thankfully, there were some people who stepped up to the plate and offered positive comments to help balance it out. I hope someone in the Marketing department at Lotus reads it and uses it as an opportunity to more clearly communicate the power of Notes in the future. Hint, hint. 

For a LONG time, I’ve been a huge fan of the RSS reader program (for the Mac) NewsFire. Its such a simple, elegant application. In a world of complicated software layouts, this one was only as complicated as it absolutely needed to be. It was also fast and well designed. Considering the number of RSS feeds I follow, I never felt overwhelmed when using this application – which is pretty impressive!

A couple of years ago, a friend tried to get me to switch to NetNewsWire. I tried it for a few days but felt that everything was the opposite of what I loved about NewsFire. This tool had a busier layout, too many panes and suddenly left me feeling like I was following way too many RSS feeds, despite the fact that I exported the list from NewsFire and deleted the default set that comes with NetNewsWire when you install it.

However, there’s been a tipping point: iPhone compatibility. This application not only gives you a great iPhone optimized version of the software, but also uses their synchronization services to keep your iPhone and Mac versions of the software in sync with each other. That one piece of functionality has been the tipping point that has caused me to now exclusively use this software over the other (NewsFire).

What’s more, if you read the reviews of it in the App Store in iTunes, you’ll see that people have complained about its performance and limited functionality (compared to the full-blown application). I understand those comments, but the sync utility it provides makes me simply not care.

Its a great tool. I suggest trying it for yourself!

Tags: iphone, mac, rss, software

In manufacturing, Kaizen events have been all the rage for some time now. If I over-simplify a concept that’s had numerous books written on it, the essence of the definition of the term, Kaizen is working on continuous improvement. The use of “zen” within the word is also notable, as that describes a

However, a lot of people mean to talk about Kaizen, and really pronounce it as Kaizan. That actually describes falsifying and tampering with something. I’ve also heard people define this by describing a sort of chaotic state that comes from the tampering.

So…

• If Kaizen is all about continuous improvement, and…
• if Kaizan is all about having a chaotic state because of tampering with something, then…
• Perhaps all the people who pronounce it wrong are really part of the problem that caused the need for improvement in the first place!

(Trust me, people in manufacturing are gonna love that line of thinking. And now all the IT people following my blog have something to chat about with them the next time you get pulled into redesiging an application because someone else came up with a way to improve it. Just make sure that it wasn’t a Kaizan that got them to their Kaizen.)

More info on getting your zen’s and zan’s straight can be found here.