tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112450202024-03-13T09:45:47.933-07:00info-designArthur Ignacio ConsultingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-59763365608419112352013-07-04T17:40:00.001-07:002022-03-29T11:18:00.762-07:00Douglas Engelbart, Connecting the Dots 2, and Portable Computing Gets QuaintI was saddened to hear that Douglas Engelbart passed away. Of course, there was the mouse, but it was the 1968 Mother of All Demos that shows how much we owe to him. As a Steve Jobs fan, I understand why Engelbart has been called "Steve Jobs' Steve Jobs." These were things produced not just for their own sake, but with a larger goal in mind of raising our "collective I.Q." We all wish he'd Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-75458669905281407382011-10-06T06:52:00.000-07:002022-03-04T20:11:40.061-08:00Apple without Steve JobsEven though it was just a couple of years ago that I riffed on Steve Jobs being named CEO of the decade, I'd taken for granted how much of an impact he has had on our lives. Set aside the iPod etc things, and look a little deeper as David Pogue shared in a piece that he wrote in 1998. Without point and click, for example, there would be no Web. Let's ponder that for a moment.
This is my first Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-60121019263697590802011-09-13T17:33:00.000-07:002011-09-13T17:33:00.211-07:00Social Media: Internet Time?Has it been already two years since Best Buy posted an "Emerging Media Marketing" position? In a historical moment of what has come to be called "social media," the original posting was sufficiently awkward that Best Buy pulled back and did a nice save by pulling the crowdsourcing card for the position. I voted for the description by new at the time Tweep @zamees who, of course, blogged the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-20010663846050709832011-04-16T22:13:00.000-07:002011-08-31T12:17:48.167-07:00End of The Flip: "We had no clue what we were doing.”And here we go with an occasional installment on portable computing. Cisco recently announced the end of life for the Flip camera. I didn't get it. I thought it was one of the most Apple things outside of Apple. Pure Digital got it right. What you need and nothing more. I remember pushing video from VCR tapes to digitize. Followed by Firewire connections to transfer the videos. Then this came Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-73609756554104155712010-04-29T16:19:00.000-07:002022-03-01T21:47:21.022-08:00Portable Computing Installment: Palm PilotToday's announcement that Palm has agreed to be acquired by HP reminds me that it's been a while since I've done an installment of my history with portable computing. On the subject of being acquired, it's probably worth remembering that Palm has had a few owners over time, including U.S. Robotics and 3COM. Of course, HP had recently acquired 3COM, providing another one of those Silicon Valley Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-52194436402468571582010-04-02T06:18:00.000-07:002022-03-01T21:45:32.530-08:00New Face of Leadership: the case for military experienceIn the past year or so, I've become a fan of Fortune Magazine. I especially like some pieces that look at the people and story behind the headlines, such as the first-person article on the auto bailout. So, I was particularly taken by the "Battle Tested: from soldier to business leader" cover article recently, complete with full cover photo of one of the people in battle gear.
As you would Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-5591193002372687022010-02-23T15:07:00.000-08:002010-02-24T07:35:45.502-08:00Bloom Box and the 408I recently saw an observation about some Silicon Valley companies being more 408 than 415. This refers to the area codes, with 415 being more on the northern end, into San Francisco, and 408 on the south end toward Santa Clara and San Jose. The implication was that 408 was more Old-School with its roots in semiconductors, with the other end being more Web.Another implication was that Green Tech Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-43711203230707432632010-02-19T20:37:00.000-08:002022-03-20T16:02:12.105-07:00Hundreds to connect the dotsI'd previously wondered if it weren't possible to apply some Valley technology to help strengthen our national security in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing. Since then, I'd come across Palantir Technology, a company the very much looks like what I had in mind. As heartening as this was, a recent New York Times piece, "New Teams Created to Connect Dots of Terror Plots," renewed my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-52496007923510257182010-01-11T19:37:00.000-08:002011-09-16T16:54:25.852-07:00Failure to "connect the dots"I'd guess my reaction to the Christmas Day attempted bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was shared by a few others: after 9/11 and the shoe bomber, how was this possible? I looked forward to President Obama's remarks, as well as the the press session with the President's Assistant on Counterterrorism, John Brennan, and Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano. I also read the Summary of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-82682364980489139372009-11-24T16:14:00.000-08:002010-05-04T11:10:52.631-07:00Would Steve Jobs go for it on fourth down?A thought mashup from recent events: would Steve Jobs go for it on fourth down?On the one side, Fortune Magazine names Jobs CEO of the Decade. On the other, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichik appears to have made a serious coaching error by going against conventional wisdom, resulting in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts.So there's the question: if Steve Jobs were the Patriots head coach, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-9392533703286784702009-11-11T14:34:00.000-08:002010-05-04T11:19:53.867-07:00Portable computing: pen and paperOne of the side notes on the Dan Roam presentation I attended this summer at BayCHI was his mentioning the prospect of using the pen-and-paper based product Canson Papershow for digitally capturing his drawings. It's been a type of product that keeps trying to get traction, but just doesn't seem to break through. Roam ended up not using it that evening, for some reason. Might have been another Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-530260466322977412009-10-01T12:39:00.000-07:002022-03-29T21:41:31.082-07:00No more death by PowerPoint : SlideShare's Best WinnersBusinessweek Magazine reported this year's winners, and the top was Dan Roam whose book I wrote about here. All of the top three are the types of presentations I try for. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes we get locked into required formats, like those RYG (red, yellow, green) types of status reports on projects. But given a choice, this is the approach that works so much better.
One of the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-6401282578025244112009-09-17T18:56:00.000-07:002022-03-16T11:16:17.187-07:00Employee Performance Reviews: inherently messed up?As a manager, I have always committed to getting employee performance reviews right. In an industry where the "resources" walk out to the parking lot every day, it just makes sense for the business. For me, while there's no escaping evaluating the individuals, it's been more the respect owed to them and helping them get to where they want to go in their careers. An employee who feels good about Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-36702185173340157622009-08-05T22:37:00.000-07:002010-05-04T11:49:51.500-07:00Back of the Napkin and Vision vs. ExecutionI thought I'd chewed enough for a while on Vision vs. Execution with my Vision vs. Idea post. Then I attended Dan Roamer's July BayCHI presentation on visual thinking and Back of the Napkin. I'd started the book a while back, but life got in the way. So, on the flight to Maui (yeah, I know), I finished reading it.Out over the Pacific I hit Roam's SQVID and had Vision and Execution staring out of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-88655080451174637042009-07-08T12:21:00.000-07:002010-05-04T11:53:33.828-07:00Portable computing - the Bill Gates iPAQ and the Crossing the Chasm GuyKnowing the "Crossing the Chasm" guy, Geoff Moore, comes with a lot of good stuff. He's a great guy, funny and, of course, serious smart. Over the years, it's always something to get his read on things and just kick things around.He's also generous, so I've benefited by getting the stuff he didn't need. In one World Economic Forum he participated in, Bill Gates was giving out PocketPCs, which Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-7155766558826379922009-06-28T19:19:00.000-07:002009-07-01T06:48:59.692-07:00Vision vs. Execution? Maybe start with Vision vs. IdeaA recent Sarah Lacy post on TechCrunch treated the question "Is Execution More Important than Vision?" One response was from Dave Morin, asking for a conversation on the subject, which is where I happened on it.There were some quick posts to the conversation, where the trend seemed to be in favor of Execution. One of those posting in response to Morin, Ben Bloch, had even posted a few days ahead Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-25570486790988889272009-06-28T16:39:00.001-07:002010-05-04T11:58:31.434-07:00Google Ad: good match!This isn't up there with the pairing of the suitcase ad with a murder news story involving a suitcase, and this doesn't look like an AdSense thing, but it's not bad. It's a great photo, but just unfortunate.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-75363723285592793892009-06-23T16:12:00.000-07:002009-06-30T12:18:28.432-07:00Portable computing (the second notebook) and the FBI raidThe second notebook I owned was a Mac PowerBook Duo 230. I got it used in 1995, a year past its introduction. To save space, it didn't have a built in floppy drive. It had an external drive, which I needed to do back ups while on the road.I needed a newer notebook because we were traveling a lot for one of my children who was playing soccer, and I was on deadline for a book. Although it was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-14667828142398078842009-06-20T08:37:00.000-07:002010-05-04T12:41:14.615-07:00What trumps social networks?Thomas Friedman (World is Flat) has a way of getting us out of ourselves, away from being the center of the world. He's seeing the excitement about the role of social networks in the current turmoil in Iran--and being as supportive. But earlier this week he added a perspective that's not a buzzkill, but does remind us. In his opinion piece, "For Iranian moderates, online networks replace the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-8229734053884450382009-06-15T16:42:00.000-07:002009-07-01T06:52:25.379-07:00Culture mattersIn a Mercury News article last week about the bidding war between NetApp and EMC for Data Domain, NetApp CMO Jay Kidd called out the better "cultural compatibility" between his company and Data Domain. In a world where "shareholder value" trumps pretty much everything, it was good to see someone calling out culture as a value. I've worked with Jay, so I took the perspective to be more than Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-65153592787539342212009-06-08T15:31:00.001-07:002009-06-09T10:13:18.087-07:00Portable computing - netbooks and nextPortable, solid state memory, instant on. No moving parts so you don't have to worry about drive heads bumping. The year was 1998. It was my NEC MobilePro 750c, on the right below next to my latest portable, an Asus Eee PC 1000HE:The MobilePro display is 640 x 240 256 color LCD touchscreen. Yep, it came with a stylus so you can tap, click, and drag directly on the screen. It also has character Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-81587006655261098972007-05-20T16:02:00.000-07:002009-06-08T16:53:53.432-07:00Portable Computing - first installation May 20, 2007 - I occasionally think about putting together a walk through my history of portable computing. But life keeps getting in the way, just look at the time between this and my previous entry. This isn't that walk through, but just a quick peek. Here are my first and latest portables together, an IBM Portable PC 5155 and a Blackberry 8800: What's interesting is that the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-1123615918220086442005-08-09T12:30:00.000-07:002005-08-10T12:12:22.363-07:00Will things ever be as they once were?Aug 9, 2005: 10th anniversary of the Netscape IPO - The question keeps coming up in the Valley: will things ever be as they once were? Those asking the question are not the relative newcomers looking for a "liquidity event" home run, but those who have been around a little longer, before the Internet boom. I am reminded of my time at the creation of Cadence Design Systems when, even with all the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-1112303216603380442005-03-31T12:58:00.000-08:002005-03-31T13:19:17.276-08:00Information Design STC SIG - rechartering inputI think the Information Design area is critical to the transformation that STC and the technical writing profession is undergoing. STC President Andrea Ames' references to the commoditization of writing, and the insights we get from the work of people like Barbara Giammona* are important foundations for the conversation. At the risk of stating the obvious, the changes to the profession are tied Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245020.post-1110830337109573982005-03-14T11:55:00.000-08:002005-03-17T13:20:58.510-08:00Technical Writing Profession - a transformationLast weekend, I attended a reunion of the Bay Area Publications Managers (BAPMF) "Founders" here in Silicon Valley. These are people who were considered early members of the organization. Although I have not managed a publications group for many years, I have always maintained a connection to the technical writing community. I was struck by the sheer amount of experience in the room, where I'd Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0