The PhoneBoy Blog » workplace

Work, Truphone, Nokia Messaging, RoadSync, and Snowmageddon!

PhoneBoy — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:05:07 +0000

For those of you only follow my blog and don’t follow me on Twitter, I haven’t been saying much here. You might say my attention has been focused elsewhere. I still don’t know who my new employer will be. It is outside of my circle of influence, so I’ve dove head-first into a project related to the divestiture. This is clearly inside my circle of influence, and I’ve made serious headway on it. I may even finish it before whatever deal Nokia makes with the third party closes!

Meanwhile, I just have been completely uninspired in the blogging realm. I read the stuff that comes across my social networks–I haven’t bothered to look in Google Reader for at least a month–and it just seems like more of the same. How many of us are saying the same stuff?

The VoIP industry seems to be touting “lower cost calling” in these tough economic times, which I can’t say I can argue with. For example, the folks from Truphone have managed to make their iPhone application both make and receive calls over WiFi and launched a cheaper calling rate plan that requires a monthly fee. This just seems more of the same, even if it is a message that people are going to want to hear right now.

Other stuff of interest I’ve run across includes the new Nokia Messaging client (formerly Nokia Email). It’s finally usable now that they’ve made it so the client doesn’t jump in your face on startup. It also just seems more polished as well. Runs nice alongside RoadSync on my E71, which I’ve been trying out as well.

RoadSync provides a slightly nicer email interface inside the standard S60 mail interface. I’ve paired it up with the company directory only version of Mail for Exchange, which RoadSync seems to leave out. You have access to the Global Address List inside RoadSync when sending email, but I don’t see a way to search in the Global Address List and add any conatcts found to your phone as a contact.

Finally, of more immediate concern to me is our crazy winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest. After a relatively mild autumn, we started our descent into snowmageddon nearly a week ago. Temps dipped below freezing last weekend and have mostly remained there since. Precipitation has been in the form of snow–something we get around these parts around this time every year, but not to the point where we need roads plowed and sanded. Our municipalities are ill-equipped for this kind of weather, as are local drivers.

Hopefully, I won’t have to go out into the snow on Sunday, as it’s looking like it’s gonna be another nasty day, complete with snow and possibly ice. Depends on what the temperatures end up being, of course.

This work originally came from The PhoneBoy Blog and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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11-Year Old Becomes Network Administrator For Private School

PhoneBoy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:01:39 +0000

When I was 11, which puts me in 6th grade, our school had a couple of Apple ][e’s in the library. There wasn’t any network connectivity to speak of, but I knew then I had a future in them.

However, this just blows my mind. A sixth-grader in Millbrook, Alabama becomes the network administrator for a small, private school. He puts in a firewall, upgrades PCs to run Windows 2000, and generally tries to make the computing life better for the students and faculty of his school. And he has to justify certain expendetures in front of the school board. Talk about a hardcore lesson in the school of the IT business.

Both my kids have been in front of computers ever since they had enough of an attention span. I don’t know that they will have any exceptional aptitude at this, but if they ever want to practice their IT skills, I’ve got the equipment here at home they can practice on.

The scary thing is, this will likely be the most useful part of Jon Penn’s education he will receive. Certainly was for me in college when I was one of a couple of students helping to maintain the main engineering computing lab. Hopefully, he will continue to hone his IT skills and become certified. I bet he’ll make a mint at it, too.

Image from Network World

Comments

31 March 2008, anon writes: at the age of 12 i was not only teaching small groups(of children much older than myself) to use computers at my school at the request of teacher but was also regularly help the computer teacher for the school learn more about apples and ataris and trs-80s. he had been hired with knowledge only of cobol, fortran and mainframes. this have changed a bit in the last 25 years but i believe that a child's mind is still a bit more willing to take the experimental plunge that results in faster learning.

Technology Connecting People–In Meatspace

PhoneBoy — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:01:09 +0000

Let’s face it, I am probably more accessible than most people that work in my team, despite working out of my home office. My phone is on all the time. I am regularly checking–and responding to–email. I use IM. I work unusual hours. The people who work the overnight shift in our support team really like it that they can reach me–if needed–on IM during a good chunk of their shift.

And while all that connectivity is wonderful, when it comes right down to it, the near constant connectivity seems to demand actually knowing people–in person. Sure, you get to know people over the interwebs, but when it comes down to it, having at least some intimate knowledge of the person in meatspace seems to be key to getting things done–particularly when the going gets tough.

There was an article in Wired that expresses this sentiment:

Email doesn’t stop you from wanting facetime, too. Just the opposite: By enabling us to maintain productive business relationships with more people, it encourages more face-to-face contact. Have you noticed business travel dying out? Neither have I. Air travel is at record highs.

One day, perhaps, virtual communication will become so good we’ll no longer feel the need to shake hands with a new collaborator or brainstorm in the same room. But for now, the world seems to be changing in a way that actually demands more meetings. Business is more innovative, and its processes more complex. That demands tacit knowledge, collaboration, and trust — all things that seem to follow best from person-to-person meetings. “Ideas are more important than ever,” Glaeser says, “and the most important ideas are communicated face-to-face.”

This is something I need to spend some time convincing my wife about. It’s this facetime I get by going down to the office and simply “hanging out” that allows me to continue to be successful as someone who works from home most of the time. The last trips I’ve made up to our Ottawa office have made a huge difference in my ability to get things done with people in that office.

What do you think? Does all this “connecting technology” increase the demand for facetime?

Nokia Technical Assistance Center Earns SCP Certification 5 Years Running

PhoneBoy — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:22:07 +0000

Some days, it seems like I write about Nokia a lot here. But it’s almost never about the part of the company I actually work for. Today, I get to share something that I actually helped play a small role in–getting our Technical Assistance Center SCP certified for 5 years running.

So what is SCP Certification? Quoting from the Service Strategies website:

The SCP Support Standard provides clear guidelines that enable world-class support organizations to:

Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty through improvements in operational effectiveness and staff productivity

Implement a continuous improvement program that enables them to provide world-class service to their customers

Benchmark their support operations against best in class organizations and best practices to further enhance performance

The standards defined in the SCP program represent the broad scope of business practices necessary to deliver the highest quality technology support. Companies that execute well in all of these areas will ensure they are maximizing their capabilities and have optimized business processes to drive higher levels of operational performance, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

Back when we were initially working towards SCP certification, the group I worked with was considered a TAC, thus we had to go through the audit process. Since I was involved with our Knowledge Base and the processes around it even back in 2002, I got to put together some of the material we submitted as part of the audit.

Each year since 2002, I have continued to play some role in the SCP certification process, though my role has greatly diminished over time. Other people are now responsible for this audit, though even this year, I was asked to assist on something related to the SCP audit.

In any case, this is quite an achievement for this group, whom I’ve been working with for the better part of 9 years now. Bravo!

Comments

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22 December 2007, The running knowledgebase » Blog Archive » Nokia Technical Assistance Center Earns SCP Certification 5 Years … writes: [...] Want to read more? Full post is available at The PhoneBoy Blog [...]
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Dopplr Gets Funded

PhoneBoy — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:01:22 +0000

Dopplr is an interesting service. In short, it’s a way to share your travel schedule with others and possibly “hook up” with people when you’re someplace.

While I’m not sure where the monetization opportunities are for this service, they did receive some funding recently. Good for them. I hope they develop this idea further, but do me a favor: keep it simple.

This video gives a good description of the Dopplr functionality.

Mail For Exchange Goes 2.0

PhoneBoy — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:30:37 +0000

One of my favorite applications on my Nokia N95 just got better!

Mail for Exchange (MfE) is an application that lets you synchronize your Nokia Eseries and selected Nokia Nseries devices with an Exchange server using the ActiveSync protocol. A number of improvements are available in this release.

The most important from my perspective is the ability to look up people in the company directory. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve attempted to send email from my N95 and been stymied by the lack of ability to look up someone’s name to ensure I’ve got the right email address. Now MfE’s got it, not only when you’re sending messages, but as a separate application you can run. Anyone you look up can also be added to your mobile phonebook as well!

To show this feature off, I took a couple of N95 screenshots showing how this works. I looked myself up in the Nokia Corporate Directory:

The next cool feature is the ability to respond to meeting requests from your mobile phone. You were not able to do that before. Now you can.

Tasks are also synchronized, which is quite cool. My boss showed me how to use Tasks more effectively in Outlook. I liked his method, so I adopted it for the time being. And now I get nagged repeatedly to do stuff I know I should.

The MfE product is moving forward. I saw an internal roadmap for the MfE product and I was suitably impressed with the new features. The lightweight nature of the application makes it a clear winner for me. The new functionality in the 2.0 release was enough to push me over the edge to switch from Intellisync Mobile Suite on my main email device–the Nokia E61.

If you use Exchange and Nokia Eseries devices (or the Nokia N73, N76, or N95), then have a look at Mail for Exchange.

Via Eseries

Comments

18 August 2007, PhoneBoy writes: ActiveSync over the air (WiFi or GPRS, depending on the phone).
20 January 2008, attiq writes: I am using Nokia E61i. I want to Use my office email on my Mobile through Mail for Exchange option. However, mail for exchange requires microsoft Exchange Server while my company uses IBM lotus notes Domino Server which is not an exchange server. Do u know how to configure Mail for Exchange on a domino server?
20 January 2008, PhoneBoy writes: @attiq: if Domino speaks ActiveSync, then you can use Mail For Exchange. Otherwise, you should consider Intellisync Mobile Suite, which does work with Domino.
28 July 2008, domino server use as a mail for exchange: Web Search Results from Answers.com writes: [...] web servers (using just the HTTP protocol) are often used to ...www.answers.com/topic/icalendarMail For Exchange Goes 2.0Aug 18, 2007 ... Do u know how to configure Mail for Exchange on a domino server? Comment by [...]

A Word on SightSpeed’s Upcoming SMB Product

PhoneBoy — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:01:11 +0000

Thursday, I had a chance to talk to Peter Csathy, SightSpeed‘s CEO. The main reason I called him was to find out how much more traffic he was getting thanks to the Skype problems, but I also took the opportunity to ask him about the SMB product he recently mentioned in a video email update he mailed me.

The main reason they are attacking this space is because there is a huge hole between the Cisco CallManager-type installations–i.e. really huge and expensive systems–and the current consumer-focused SightSpeed application. Businesses that have more needs than the average consumer, but don’t have the money or the desire for the kind of overhead that a large Enterprise solution entails.

Their new SMB product will support a completely different user interface. Yes, this means a new application. It will support all of the following features:

File Sharing
Multipary calling enhancements
Call Transfer/Hunt Groups
Video Mail Enhancements
Included Phone Out minutes
Auditing
An administrator console to control the above features

One other thing to note is the “Community” calling feature present in the current client will not be part of the SMB client.
Peter wasn’t ready to share the price of this package with the world just yet. However, he privately told me what the price point for this is. Trust me when I say it will be extremely affordable and that I am likely to be signing up for this service.

Unfortunately, the only date he was willing to share for availability for this product was “soon.” Which I can totally understand. It will be worth the wait, though.

Comments

2 September 2007, Skype Alternatives | TechRave writes: [...] Check out a recent post by Phoneboy about it to get a flavor of some of its unique features — http://www.phoneboy.com/node/1654. And, the price point is, shall we say, “compelling!” Check out Phoneboy’s [...]

My Work Day on Tuesday

PhoneBoy — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:45:23 +0000

This is in response to the question on Web Worker Daily: Where Is The Strangest Place You’ve Ever Worked? My answer: my car, parked near my house.

Tuesday was kind of an odd day. We have people in from out of town, I work at home, but we’re trying to sell our house. We had a broker’s open house early in the day. Since I knew that was going to be a couple of hours, I decided to go work at the local Starbucks. A Venti Soy Chai Tea Latte and a few hours later, I come back home for lunch.

Shortly after that, we get a call from a realtor saying they wanted to come bring a client over to our house. I had just got home and just started working, so it was a little annoying. Packed up the laptops and phones again and decided to camp out behind the house where the road “dead ends,” or used to anyway. I could see when people arrived and left, but be sufficiently out of sight. And I could easily access my WiFi, remaining connected.

Well that showing was a bust. The people didn’t show up, which of course I knew because I never saw anyone drive up. I also checked the home voicemail to see if I got any calls. No dice. Called the realtor, got the reason for not coming. Wife, kids and guests come in, I get a call from a different realtor, this one is actually in the neighborhood showing houses to a couple. Get everyone out of the house again, back up to the street in the car.

What was I able to accomplish from my car? Quite a lot, actually. I was able to do the things I needed to do that day, which involved email and publishing knowledge base articles. The car I had, a Toyota Matrix, had both a cigarette lighter adapter, which charged my Nokia N95, and a 110V plug, which I kept my laptop plugged into. As long as I had the car on, both things were able to charge. I alternated between leaving the car on and off, depending on how warm I was.

That was, perhaps, one of the weirdest days I’ve had working from home. It’s something I plan on being prepared to do, at least for the next few weeks until we move into our new place.

Comments

5 July 2007, Eric Hanke writes: I once worked in a public library.

Mail for Exchange for the Nokia N73 and Nokia N95

PhoneBoy — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:11:33 +0000

It’s not all the Nseries devices, but getting the Mail for Exchange client for the N95 and N73 is a step in the right direction. Mail for Exchange is Nokia’s ActiveSync client, allowing you to synchronize the contacts, calendar, and email on your phone by using the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol. It’s a little lighter weight than the Intellisync Mobile Suite, which also offers compatibility with other (non-Exchange) email solutions and more control over the device.

The various sites announcing this show it as being in the Download! catalog, but not if you have a US SIM like I do (supposedly, the Download! catalog is different based on what country your SIM is). However, you can download the software anyway from the web. Select Americas region, other operator, and your device. You will be offered the 1.6.1 version of Mail for Exchange, which you can then install to your Eseries, Nokia N73, or Nokia N95 device.

Comments

4 July 2007, edie writes: cool and amazing
18 August 2007, IZK writes: This seems great. Is the Activesync sync over the air or through the sync cable? Just checking.
2 January 2008, nokia n73 mail for exchange clients - Eniro writes: [...] Mail for Exchange for the Nokia N73 and Nokia N95 [...]
22 March 2009, Samsung Cell Phones writes: to work. N73 - Nokia - Mail for Exchange 1.3.1 - 3G forum: your 3G … 13 posts-Last post:4 Apr 2007Hi all - I just acquired a N73, and from Nokia's forum I downloaded the 1.3.1 version of their [Mail for Exchange] application. …Mail for Exchange for the Nokia N73 and Nokia N953 Jul 2007 … It’s not all the Nseries devices, but getting the Mail for Exchange client for the N95 and N73 is a step in the right direction. … Mail For Exchange: N73 and N95 Released - Esato archive N73 M • unlocking the N95,

I Need Separate Home Office Space

PhoneBoy — Sat, 12 May 2007 07:54:48 +0000

The person who thought they could get away with out separate home office space should come live in my house for, oh, about a day. I can frequently hear my kids upstairs with the door closed. Not to mention my kids would be getting in my stuff left and right. Oh, and let’s not forget all the big computers I occasionally need to do my job that make a lot of noise.

Separate office space for me is not just a nice to have, it’s mandatory

Comments

12 May 2007, Herman Ransborg writes: In that case the soluthion from http://www.solicall.com/ might have your interrest :)

Sunday Roundup

PhoneBoy — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:59:58 +0000

I’m almost to Inbox Zero on Google Reader. Here are a few things that caught my interest this weekend:

You Might Be A Web Worker: It’s not about your “lifestyle.” Well, maybe it is. But it’s definitely not about whether you work for a large company like I do or you work for yourself. It’s about how you view and use the web to get things done. I would go so far as to say it’s not even about being a “Web Worker” but rather having the web being an integral part of your work and play, which it certainly is for me.
Full versus Partial RSS Feeds: I am not into partial RSS feeds. In fact, with a couple of exceptions, I basically do not subscribe to sites with partial feeds. I like full RSS feeds. Ads in the RSS feed, so long as they aren’t obnoxious, are fine with me. I just wish I could figure out how to get MHonArc to output a full RSS feed for FW1-Gurus.
Twitter is Better than Digg: I have to agree with Jeff Pulver: Twitter is better. It’s more immediate. It forces people to be concise. I am also more likely to see recommendations from like-minded people, thus a greater chance I might actually like what is being recommended.
Digital Media Archival a Challenge: With all the new data formats and the ever-increasing progress of technology, I have to wonder at what point all those pictures we took will simply not be readable. Maybe I’ll go through the CDs my wife burned and reburn them to DVD. And then I’ll have to reburn them to something else. I also have to wonder if the conversion process the studios are going through will introduce “lossiness” into the process. Did they store the data in an uncompressed format? If not, expect some extra “artifacts” to be introduced in the conversion process.
DD-WRT Going Down the Sveasoft Path?: This guy clearly has it out for the folks at DD-WRT, who make alternate firmware for the Linksys WRT54GS and other routers. The guy at the linked article claims that DD-WRT is starting to do some of the stuff that Sveasoft did with their “open-source” firmware, namely do some questionable stuff with other people’s code. I admit to not having verified all of this on my own, however it did give me a reason to try a new firmware I had been hearing about: Tomato. I loaded it on my WRT54GS. The interface is a lot nicer, or at least a lot less “bloated.”

Daily Cleanup

PhoneBoy — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:23:29 +0000

I’ve done a fair amount of cleaning today. Thrown out a bunch of stuff I wasn’t going to ever going to use again that had no value. Meanwhile, here’s some stuff of value from Google Reader:

Cisco buying WebEx: Linked to the official press release. Coverage in the blogosphere from Irwin Lazar, Om Malik, and Jon Arnold. Funny, I actually used WebEx today. My take: it’d go great alongside some of the Linksys business phone solutions.
What the Verizon/Vonage Lawsuit Means to the Industry: Rich Tehrani goes into some detail about how this lawsuit will–or won’t–affect the industry. Best comment he referred to: Entrepreneurial companies will always find a way to survive – no matter what.
EDGE going 1mb/s: Ericsson has come up with a way to make the venerable EDGE technology used for data service in GSM networks to go up to 1mb/s with just a software upgrade. I can see Cingular and T-Mobile deploying this widely, particularly in areas with low population density. And yes, Virginia, it will require new handsets to take advantage of almost without a doubt. Blogosphere coverage from Engadget and Phone News.
NPR fighting RIAA on Royalty Rates: Glad someone is telling the RIAA where to stick it. Complete with discussion on Slashdot.
What is Vodafone doing with Skype?: Andy found this, and it does raise some serious questions. Is Vodafone going to set off the thermonuclear device that brings voice to zero worldwide?

Miscellaneous Wiring Closet Debris

PhoneBoy — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:21:45 +0000

This is a good chunk of the “extra wiring” I pulled out of my little wiring closet last night, where I spent far too much of my time last evening working in. It’s amazing how much “extra stuff” accumulated in that small space. Taken with my Nokia N73.

I also went on a tear through the rest of my office today and tossed a bunch of stuff that I’m unlikely to use ever again. Have room for a few more things now.

Inbox Zero Achieved

PhoneBoy — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:07:35 +0000

For once in my life, my inboxes are zero. That includes the RSS reader! Of course, I still have some things in my “to do” file in some of my other inboxes, but hey, I’ll take victories where I can get them. Meanwhile, here is the last of the debris:

Lunch Break Web Worker Style: Most of the time, I wander down to my kitchen, figure out what form of nutrition I will partake of, prep, and eat. While I’m prepping or eating, I will listen to something like KenRadio or one of the many TWiT podcasts. If I’m not in a listening mood, I’ll read a magazine.
Viacom Won’t Win Against YouTube: If you ask me, this could go either way. Like everyone else, I’ll be keeping an eye on this.
Vownage: A nice parody of Vonage commercials all around their loss to Verizon in a recent lawsuit.
Are WLANs Able To Do VoIP: While Carolyn Schuk writes about the whole WiFi/Cell handoff problem, my question is: is there enough WiFi bandwidth to handle VoIP calls? It’s a question my friend Matthew Gast answered a while ago.
Mac OS X 10.4.9 has 45 Security Fixes: While I tend to agree Apple could do more on the security front, I disagree with Paul Thurrott’s assertion that Microsoft is serious about security. Now they have gotten better, I’ll grant you that. However, even with Vista, I still wouldn’t trust a PC to a non-savvy computer user.
AT&T Going North for Spectrum?: That’s what Bloomberg is saying anyway. The Canadian rules would have to be changed for AT&T to be able to participate in their upcoming spectrum auctions in 2008 or they’d have to take a minority stake much like AT&T (or was it AT&T Wireless?) did with Rogers way back when.
GrandCentral Getting Some NYT Love: As Andy says, for anyone who uses GrandCentral, the article doesn’t go over anything new, though it does mention that having your GrandCentral number call more than 2 other numbers will start costing $15 a month. However, the video David Pogue did is priceless!

Hints for Successful Conference Calls

PhoneBoy — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:12:13 +0000

As someone who participates and has run more than his share of conference calls, I’ve become all too familiar with most of these 27 hints at Web Worker Daily on my own. I would add a couple hints to this list:

Test your conference bridge and tools beforehand. I’ve been on calls where NetMeeting and similar tools were used to present slides. There was some kind of NetMeeting or VPN problem that prevents the tools from working correctly. Instead of troubleshooting this live during a meeting, especially if this is a tool that is not frequently used in the meeting, do a dry run beforehand to make sure it all works.

Be prepared for things to go sideways. This can be anything from conference bridge troubles to missing, key participants to a lack of prepartion on someone’s part. Have a plan B, in case your tools fail, or if a key participant is missing. Keep their numbers handy so you can call/SMS them out of band.

The PhoneBoy Blog » workplace

Work, Truphone, Nokia Messaging, RoadSync, and Snowmageddon!

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