PI in the Sky – Paul Irvine

The Palm Pre Plus / webOS comes with built in sync for exchange calendars, but not for outlook calendars. I have Outlook 2007 and use it for accessing a couple of hosted exchange accounts (POP without calendar), and multiple imap accounts. So there was no apparent way to get my Outlook calendar data into my Palm Pre Plus. I found several commercial software tools that could do it, and it wasn’t that I was bothered with paying for software that does a good job, but it wasn’t a deal breaker and so I left it a day or so. I’d just got my several contacts info sorted out from my old phone (by adding them to my gmail account) when I saw that Google has a calendar sync utility you can download to sync your outlook desktop calendar to your Google Calendar. I hadn’t used Google Calendar before but decided to check it out. It was okay, but the interesting thing is the widgery allows you to do full sync, sync Google to Outlook only, or sync outlook to google only. Very cool. Select the last option, and google calendar has my outlook calendar in it. Fire up the Calendar tool on webOS on the Palm, and bingo… there’s my new google account data all sync’d in with my other calendar information, nicely merged and color coded.
This Palm Pre Plus continues to impress. Very nice.

After dragging my heels on the whole smartphone thing, I finally decided I had to switch from my aging flip thingy. And it takes me ages to review everything on the market, consider what’s coming, and make a choice. A key factor for me is I need to stay with Verizon Wireless, as they are the only carrier with effective reception where I live (about 35 miles outside Portland, OR). I might have considered the iPhone, except I’m now glad I never donated to the Steve Jobs Church of megalomania! Imagine banning Flash from his device and then also banning the use of cross-compilers to his iPrecious? wow, that’s iPriceless. And what a price rip-off they are anyway.
Back to the main story, I had also considered the Droid, and after waiting forever for Verizon to announce the Nexus, I gave up waiting and was just about convinced I needed a Droid.
I tried one out in store, and although I was sure I liked the slideout keyboard idea, I was underwhelmed when I tried the Droid. It just didn’t feel like a ’solid’ phone. That’s entirely subjective, I know. so is this blog.
Anyhoo… to the point, I was comparing the online discounts and rebates, and was absolutely amazed at some of the offers. Particularly the Palm Pre Plus from VZW. It had it all, and then had something the others all struggle with… wi-fi tethering for free under the same data plan. no hacking required. just pair it with your laptop and you are rolling.

Then the kicker… it was FREE!! With VZW online instant rebates, and my new-every-two credit, it was entirely and astoundingly FREE! Sign me up! How wrong can I go??

So what else do you get? I’m a three day old user so far, but I’m impressed. The phone itself feels outstanding. substantial yet small and comfortable. really solid. the keyboard is better than droids. webOS lives up to the hype too. a really smooth multi-tasking experience out of the box. And the built in calendar/contacts/mail work perfectly for me because I run three calendars and ten email inboxes (check my side links out… I have several business adventures running). So this thing not only brings all my inboxes in, it syncs and merges my calendar into one, and handles the contacts the same way too. It can integrate to your facebook, linkedin, or twitter, google, exchange, any imap or pop email. And its easy to set up. and the UI is very well thought out to handle all that. It wasnt an afterthought.
If you want faster access, and you are near an available wi-fi hotspot, you can switch to using the wi-fi instead of your carrier data plan. It is really good. For me its outstanding as I cannot get any signal actually in my house from any carrier – even VZW.
And if you need to use your Palm Pre Plus as a wifi hotspot, just pair your laptop with bluetooth (if not built in to your laptop, you can get a bluetooth USB dongle for about $15). Surprisingly, try Barnes & Noble for best price and free shipping!
The apps catalog is often cited as weak, but quite frankly there is nothing more I need right now. Having 100,000 poop applications? I saw some stats the other day that showed that over 80% of all app downloads from iphone app store are uninstalled within the first 30 days. I’d rather have a few good ones that worked really well. And Palm Pre Plus with webOS works exceptionally well. I’m a happy camper.

Did I mention the big surprise? This phone was free!
Hope you found this useful.

Today was fun.  It was the first day that my new product, Basecamp Viewer, was officially available as a freeware product.  Yes, there is a subscription SaaS version coming soon, but this was ready to roll, so why not.

And downloads have started already!  Which is even more fun!

I’m busy working on a Systems Strategy engagement for a local client in the Portland area at the moment – do please check the services I’m now offering both in PDX and across the US.  As a veteran VP of Engineering myself, and a three time CIO Magazine award winner, I often had a “I can get it done myself” perspective too.  But even though I’m doing the same things I’ve done from inside technology departments, I continue to be surprised at how clear and straightforward it can be to diagnose a client’s problems when you are an ‘outsider’ looking in. Whether organizational, process, or technology.   Or perhaps rephrased, I recall now how extraordinarily difficult it can be to see the obvious problems and do something about them, when you are the incumbent.  So much can be fouled up in inter-department politics, precedents, personalities, or assumptions about what other people’s responses can be.  With an outside perspective one can cut through all that and within a very short space of time, craft a strategy that resolves problems, enables growth, sets the foundation for success, and supports the teams that are affected.

I may be biased and looking for more business like this, but I’d have to say that if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t hesitate to hire a pair of outside eyes on a regular sanity check basis!

At who? Accero. Watch out for this one.  I was minding my own business with the wonderful team at Earth Class Mail… you know… changing the world and slaying dragons (wrestling with sweaty Titans as one of my ex-team used to proclaim!)… and along came this rather unique opportunity. Especially for Portland, OR. Accero Solutions is the reincarnation of Cyborg, which was and still is a powerhouse in the Payroll and HR/Benefits administration.  There’s just a wee snag… it’s all in COBOL!  The market potential is real and quantifiable. Accero has the domain expertise and a stellar reputation, along with some very blue chip accounts.  And now under new ownership, it has the backing and strength in management to light up a new future.  Where do I come in? I’m used to the startup environment, and have had some success in putting together new platforms and teams in the web world. What is less obvious in my profile is my extensive background in COBOL on mainframes and minis.  So as VP of Technology Development, it’s time to marry all that together and help make Accero the market leader in payroll, HR, Benefits, and other related spheres. Ease of use, timely access to information, and ease of integration will be hallmarks.  Watch this space…

It wasn’t something I was expecting to hit, but cholesterol issues can hit anyone. And its getting worse across the US it seems. My case wasn’t especially bad, 40 on the HDL (the good stuff) and 150 on the LDL (the bad stuff) put me up over recommended levels (40/130) for my height and weight (5′10″ and about 170lbs). But at my annual checkup, it was enough for my doc to compare to my family history (dad had three bypasses), and declare me at risk and I needed to do something about it.

The goal was to get to to 130 within eight weeks through diet changes. The doc reckoned I’d need to work hard at it, and if I missed the next check-in, it was statins (like Lipitor) for me. I’m not a huge fan of being on medication long term. I’d rather avoid it if possible. My wife is predominantly vegetarian anyway, and I don’t often eat meat, but I must confess that for the last year, I had probably had more junk and high fat/high cholestorol food for lunch at work than I realized.

I actually went back for the blood test after six weeks. My HDL was still at a good level of 40, liver function was fine. My LDL (the bad stuff) had plummeted to a mere 97. My doc must have been having a bad morning, as he looked at the results and mentioned “hmm… the drugs appear to have worked very well…”. Nope… no drugs. Not even aspirins, which he’d said might be a good idea to start on. As he reviewed the results in some surprise, he asked “so what is the secret? what did you do?” and then confessed that he himself was stuck on Lipitor to to try to help control his own LDL levels.

So I thought I’d share it with anyone who is interested. Here we go…

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Even if you manage to get to an interview, an engineering hiring manager isn’t going to give you an appraisal of your resume. Your friends and family are somewhat less than objective. Your work colleagues are probably not the ones you want to trust with brushing up your resume, either.

A little while ago, I started giving a few candidates with awful resumes, some pointers pro bono. They committed some cardinal sins in my book, yet clearly they believed they had a sharp resume. They were tripping all my yellow and red flags, and with just a few changes, they might have made interview instead of the express lane to the reject pile.

But it takes time to do that properly. And I can only really offer help to those in the software engineering space. I’m VP Engineering at Earth Class Mail, and actively recruiting at the moment. But I decided that I’d carry on offering the service to a few people each month, and created Resume Redux. I personally do the review either just on your resume, or in the context of the job you are applying for. And I’ll help on all levels, from experienced VP’s and Directors to entry level positions.

Are you getting all the interviews you could? Or are you inadvertently setting off my alarm bells?
www.ResumeRedux.com

Yet Another Reality TV Show! Except ‘yours truly’ is actually in this one!

Startup Junkies airs on MOJO HD channel (comcast) in the US.  It follows the ups and downs of life in a high risk, big play startup, Earth Class Mail – as some of you know, I’m the VP Engineering there.  The first episode is also being streamed from MOJO’s website right now! No need to wait for the TV premier on Jan 24th at 10PM EST.  There are eight episodes in total, and they track us from the early days of gettting traction and trying to convince investors that we have the next billion dollar idea, through to closing the Series A, and implementing high speed sorting machines, and moving up to the next tier of being a viable, well planned company with a (hopefully!) glowing future!

Is it reality?  You be the judge!

Laugh? I nearly cried. The latest sitcom from the UK, called “The IT Crowd”, is soundly poking fun at us poor techies in IT land. There have been six episodes so far on Channel 4, in England, and although it has had only a warm-ish reception in the UK, it has taken off around the world. Largely due to Channel 4 posting it at their website. Don’t rush for that link though, on the official site you need to be in the UK (or have a proxy) to view the streams. Google video to the rescue! These stream in flash video at very viewable rates, and are well worth a watch.

Here are the episode links: Read more