Over 23 years ago, Star Trek: The Next Generation artists and writers dreamed up a tablet-like electronic reading device. These hand held flat book-like devices looked very similar to Apple’s recent iPad. It was flat, sleek, easy to read and easy to use. It included a touch-based interface. We never saw how the space explorers inputted large amounts of text into the device (no keyboard). Instead, they passed them around like books. In some scenes, the crew carried around more than one device. Apparently, the writers never imagined cloud computing, wireless 3G/4G internet, and the ability to send files/documents to each other.

Why the iPad is a magical device

After owning the iPad since the day it was released, it took a long time before I truly appreciated its value, more than simply a big iPod. As software developers created better touch interfaces and apps, it became easier and faster to use. I do almost all my reading exclusively on the iPad, including webpages and books.

1. Lightweight and easy to carry around – This is so much more pleasant to use than a laptop.
2. Fast bootup time – There’s no power up power down, sleep, hibernate, etc. Simply click a button to turn on and click a button to stand by.
3. Intuitive – Touch apps require virtually no computer knowledge or learning curve to master basic functions.
4. Long battery life – The efficiency of these devices really make all day computing possible.
5. Low cost apps – Compared to the traditional software model, apps in the price range of $0.99 to $9.99 is a steal. Even though people gripe and complain, the prices truly are really low compared to $300 applications of the past.

What needs to improve

Since this is a first generation device, here are a few more improvements that need to be made before this can be a mainstream device.

1. Lower price – To be mainstream, the device needs to continue to be mass produced and push the prices down a bit more.
2. 3G/4G internet on all devices – A wifi only device was useful to keep the prices low, but in reality, unless there’s free wifi everywhere, it really needs to be internet ready.
3. Front and rear facing camera – conference calls.
4. Larger storage – Either the device should include additional storage space or faster network access to store files on the cloud.
5. More memory – Many apps crash a lot due to limited memory, boost this up to improve stability.
6. Built in device-to-device networking – iPads should be able to communicate with other devices seamlessly without much configuration other than security protocols.

I’m a user of Dropbox. It’s an online data syncing service that allows files that you put into a folder on your computer to be synced to their online servers and any other computer and devices that you authorize. Dropbox is a great way to automatically get your files backed up online and synced to your other computers as well.

In addition, it allows you to share folders and files to facilitate collaboration. Take a moment and sign up for an account. I personally use this service on a daily basis.

photo credit: SearchNetMedia

Signup for an account and get a bonus 250mb of data.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

When small business is competing with big business, money usually beats out when it comes to hiring. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop small businesses and even governments from attracting the best and brightest by offering perks and benefits that big business cannot provide.

Small businesses are nimble and can offer an entrepreneurial environment that big business may not always be able to.

Here are three things that Michael Hess, founder and CEO of Skooba design, suggest to make create an attractive environment for potential employees:

• Create an outstanding work environment
• Find anything and everything that can be turned into a benefit, no matter how small
• Still, pay as well as you can

Beat the Big Guys at Hiring the Best {BNet}

When I was going to Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy, my career counselor said she heard from a fellow faculty member that Daniel walks on water. What does that mean? Walking on water means living without limitations. Just because we’re told that we can’t walk on water and that we’d sink and drown doesn’t mean it can’t be done. From a practical perspective, I can’t physically walk on water. However, on a day to day basis, I live as if I can.

When working on a problem, I take it from the perspective that nothing can’t be done, no matter how hard or how impossible it may be. Nothing can’t be solved, it just may require a unique solution.

Walk on water.

I’m a cat person. I like their independence, but also their ability to manipulate their owners to serving their every wish.

We’ve had Mochi for exactly a year now, adopting her from the vet school in Davis, CA. We recently started looking for a companion for Mochi while we’re at work. On a whim, my wife and I went out for a quick lunch over in Ballard in Seattle. We stopped by unplanned at the PAWS adoption center and fell in love with Pepe. He was a domestic short hair with a white stripe down his back, making him look like a skunk. He had a kink in the middle of his tail and a meow like a raptor. Of the 15 or so kittens in the room, he was the first to run out and climb up our leg. It was love at first site for my wife. He wasn’t the prettiest kitten, but definitely had quite the personality.

It took a solid week before Mochi would accept him. My wife had long nights while I was traveling at work keeping the two separated and having Pepe scream all night. After a week, they finally were able to live together.

About a week ago, he started having diarrhea. He had a chest cold when we brought him home. A visit to the vets office revealed no problems. We held off on the vaccine shots for a week until he got better. Yesterday, after coming home from work, I found him laying on the couch exhausted. His body was limp and he was completely lethargic. I had work to do but instead held him on my chest while I watched TV. Holding him seemed to comfort him as he laid there with no reaction to my petting. Each time I moved him, his head dangled freely. I called the vet trying to schedule an appointment but they weren’t able to see him until the next morning.

He wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t drink. At this point, I started to worry. All I could do was sit there and be there with him. An hour later, he started to sneeze  a lot. I put him on a cloth napkin to absorb the discharge. Periodically, he would stiffen up and start wailing his paws in the air.

Another hour went by and he started to have a discharge out of his mouth. I wiped him and held him the whole time. At this point, I started looking for an emergency clinic nearby. The closest one was about 20 minutes away in rush hour traffic.

He started to breath through his mouth, struggling with each breath, his mouth opening wide. He reminded me of a raptor, the feature that we fell in love.

At about 6:35 PM, his breathing slowed. His paws were cold. I knew there was nothing I could do. The inevitable was to happen and I knew that attempting to rush him to the hospital would result in him dying at the table. I loved him too much to have him die scared in the car ride and if he made it, in the hands of a stranger.

At 6:40 PM, his eyes stopped reacting to my petting and he urinated over the blanket. His body went limp, his body wasted away. He went from a kitten with a cold to skin and bones over two days.

I sat there in shock. I called his name, petting his head. He didn’t react to my hand movements over his eyes. They had completely dilated. I touched his eye and it stayed open with no movement.

He spent his last few minutes curled up in my hands. My friend had passed.

Tukie came home within minutes, smiling as she saw me hold him in the window. I told her that he had died. She didn’t believe me. We had joked the last couple days that he looks dead at times.

We held each other, looking at his limp body. We had lost our love.

I miss you Pepe.

Here’s an ironic video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at the 2007 All Things Digital executive conference. Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal asks Steve and Bill what is the principle device of the future. Ironically, Bill describes the future as a range of devices including a tablet form factor, a mobile device, a home media center, and the traditional PC. Steve then says the future is the PC.

Fast forward to today, Microsoft is struggling produce the range of devices. Instead, Apple has now produced the iPhone, the iPad, the Macbook Pro, and to some extent, the Apple PC.

So here we are in 2010, what is the future of computing five years from now? This question is incredibly difficult to answer considering two CEO’s of the top technology companies struggle to see three years out in the future.

In watching the video, I think Bill has a much better vision of the future, one where we’re not reliant on the perfect device. Instead, we’ll use a range of devices depending on where and what we’re doing. On the go, we have a mobile device similar to the iPhone. Around the house and in casual settings, we’ll pull out our tablet, or iPad. On the go, and if we need to do intensive work, we’ll use our laptops. At home, we have projectors or walls of displays that run on servers/desktop PCs. Everything will be touch based. Even farther out, Bill says the future is 3D, or some sort of “Minority Report” style flicking screens.

Most importantly, the key to this future is the ability for the devices to recognize the user and customize the applications available. I’d like to see my iPhone display my top favorite and frequently used applications when I pick it up. When I hand it over to another user, it should recognize that user and change the interface and available applications based on preferences, and security settings. This means I should also be able to work on a document on my laptop, run out the door late to a meeting and have instant access to that document on my mobile device, and come home and view it projected on my wall in my home office.

Shockingly, this technology is available and we’ll be seeing it sooner than we expect.

Disclaimer: Walt Mossberg is a terrible interviewer and I want his job.

Traditionally, companies and governments perform what is known as a risk assessment, to identify the likelihood and impacts of potential vulnerabilities, threats, and dangers. While this is a worthwhile management exercises to keep the risks on management radar, it often focuses on negative events such as internal control weaknesses, security, and disasters.

photo credit: yomy17

In light of the economic conditions, many organizations are faced with budget cuts, often in form of across the board cuts. Department heads are asked to cut a fixed percentage of their budget. However, this siloed approach means we’re over-cutting vital functions and under-cutting under-performing functions. Instead, organizations should evaluate performance on an enterprise level, identifying synergies or lack thereof.

What are the key features of this organization-wide assessment?

• High-level, broad sweeping review of all functions
• Assessment conducted by management interviews, documentation review, and observations
• Focus on performance improvements and efficiency gains
• Identifies consolidation and streamlining opportunities

What are the outcomes of such an assessment?

• Consensus on the key issues affecting the organization
• Identification of improvement opportunities
• Inventory of priority initiatives

Nearly everyone has a blog in some form or another. I so often see individuals, and even companies use a service provider to manage their blog. This is referring to the many popular ones such as Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, and so on. They’re easy to use, simply provide some basic information and they’ll set you up with a ready to use blog with easy configuration. However, my biggest concern is ownership of data. Who owns the data you post? With the recent Facebook privacy issues becoming a hot topic, it’s time to step back and evaluate the information you post online.

photo credit: Forrestal_PL

This blog is hosted through Dream Host. I pay a monthly fee for shared space on a server. They provide the tools to assist me in installing the WordPress application, the SQL database to house the information, and ongoing backups. That middle part is the most important one, the SQL database. This means that I own my data. Every comment, picture, post, link that I post on this blog is kept in a database, that I own, can save and archive.

Here are some basic questions to ask your provider. You may have to pull up the dreaded terms of service to answer these questions.

1. Who owns my data?
2. Can I export all my data into a file for future use and backup?
3. How much control do I have over the configuration?

What do you think? Am I being paranoid or is there legitimate concerns?