It’s Official… New Blog is Online

Head on over to my new home on the net – http://rickmahn.com/. I’ll be keeping this blog alive, but don’t look here for new content – from here on out, all posts will be on the new site.

RickMahn.com RSS

BlackBerry Triumphs

So the company I work for has decided to go BlackBerry… I’ve got mixed feelings on this – I’m a Microsoft guy. While I know that this is a good decision for the company, it pains me slightly to not leverage our investment in Exchange the way I had hoped. Windows Mobile has made steady progress moving into the mainstream, and this quarter is probably one of the most exciting times for the platform as no less than 7 Windows Mobile phones have been released by all four nationwide carriers. The flexibility of the Windows Mobile platform is astonishing, and I’ve had the privilege of participating in the evolution of the platform for the last several years.

From a corporate perspective, choosing BlackBerry is a great choice for our end-users. The more intuitive interface of BB and a single support infrastructure worldwide is what is the real selling point of BB. The knowledge that RIM’s NOC and support structure will be able to help any of our BB users around the world and around the clock is as comforting as push-mail itself. Hopefully, as we wonder the path through the mobile woods that we are able to build on the strengths of BB and offer either “Web 2.0″ or AJAX apps that really offer new services to our end-users.

Unfortunately it will not be Windows Mobile. I really believe it is a better platform no matter what many others have and will say. The platform is just too powerful and broad in its approach to not support corporate America well. The ability for the device to be a phone, a PDA, media player, Internet terminal, data storage device, etc… the list is endless. The software solution set is endless. In our case though the support costs outweigh the platform strengths – or is it simply that the BlackBerry is just more “sexy”?

Technorati: Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Pocket PC, Smartphone

Another good blog…

While reading a post on Om Malik’s blog, I found Kent Newsome. Kent’s got some great points in his post about Scoble and getting A-Listed. I’m always fastenated to find out more about people who share some of my interests, some of the struggles in blogging that I’m just coming to understand – others have been experiencing for quite awhile. LIke trying to generate traffic and get better page rankings in Google, Yahoo, Techorati and the like.

I’m adding Kent’s feed to my RSS Reader (Pluck), alongside some of my other favorites. While I’m just starting to get an understanding of what A-List bloggers are or aren’t (both viewpoints are interesting), following the discussions in the blogosphere are really leading me to new and interesting bloggers that I was not aware of, so thanks to everyone for that!

Technorati: Kent Newsome, Blogging, Blog A-List

More learning done…

And more to learn!  I’m continually impressed with the depth of the WordPress engine, such a well thought-out CMS.  I’ve made more progress on the layout and such of the new design.  It’ll start out with the same theme you see here – its easy to read and very refined.  Though I will be working on designing my own theme – never thought I’d say that as I’m not really big into the graphics and fancy stuff, however I do like things to have a finished look.

Since I’ve been learning how WordPress uses themes, renders its pages, and how CSS is actually laid out, I have begun to understand how I would construct a theme.  The more I think about it – I’m going to try to create a clear, glassy theme, taking queues from Windows Vista and OSX.  To have a clean, easy to read design that doesn’t get hung up on ornate, or “heavy” graphics looks, or over-saturation of color.

Anyway, more to come…

The Rickster

Ok, I’ve been a little lax in posting the last day or two – I’ve been working on my development WordPress site. What I’ve got in the works is to launch a professionally hosted WordPress blog named “The Rickster” that will be my main online presence. One where I’ll post about blogging, the Internet, work, life, and all the rest. Currently I’ve got a Blogger blog where I post news and technical items, and a WordPress blog where I tend to talk about anything, though its mostly releated to blogging and the technology & contemporary thinking behind it.

So to get that done, I’ve been in a crash course in WordPress, PHP scripts, CSS files & formatting, and all the rest that goes along with learning a new system top to bottom, inside & out. I’m sure I’ll miss a few things, but I’ve found the format I like, customized the theme to include some additional items I want, identified a new domain name (more later) and a hosting service that I belive will work just fine for the new site.

Any suggestions on this site, or my blogger site on what works, or doesn’t work – just so I can work them into the new one? More deatils to come as I get the kinks worked out.

Technorati: Rick Mahn, WordPress, Blogger

Outlook Signature

Ahh, finally got around to creating a custom HTML Outlook signature.  Even looked up some CSS formatting to get it right, that was tough as I’ve never worked with CSS before.  Ok, so it wasn’t hard, just different since I’ve not used it.  I worked on two tonight, one for at home that lists all my personal online communications venues, and one for work that I *should* be able to put the company logo into.  We’ll see.

Speaking of work, there is supposedly a big announcement coming from the CEO and President, should be interesting.  We’ve got an ambitious 3 year plan ahead of use, and it should be exciting to see whats coming next.

The Growing Blogsphere

According to a study released Monday by Technorati, the tagging service is now tracking in excess of 27.2 million blogs web-wide. Also, its indexing over 75,000 new blogs a day with the update frequency of the average blog to be the same of around 50% after 3 months. Around 2.7 million blogs are updated at least once a week. Also on the rise are spam blogs which Technorati is taking a part in combating, and tagging which is of course Technorati’s forte.

You can view the report on Technorat’s blog.

via: BetaNews

Technorati: Technorati, Blog

Google Talk

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but (ok here I go) what is the usefulness of this? Guess its because I’ve tried IM services from ICQ to AIM to MSN, etc… and been disappointed all the time. Comes from being interrupted by family & friends when I’m trying to do real work, enjoy an article or media of some type. What happed – I used to think the technology was cool, but I’ve never been able to find a good use for it. I’d rather simply grab my mobile phone and call the person I want ‘chat’ with – oldfashioned I guess.

Yeah, Google has not had a chat tool up to now, and of course to be ‘well rounded’ in their product offerings I suppose they need this, and I’m sure its better in some ways than their rivals – Google always implements their tools in interesting ways. Of course, I’ll admit up front that any service that is hosted online and does not require me to install client software is a good product implementation in my book – I’m really excited about a lot of the new “Web 2.0″ tools that are popping up like crazy the last few weeks.

Good luck Google, but I won’t be using this service.

via: Techcrunch

Technorati: Google, Chat, ICQ, AIM

Om Malik on Slingbox Hating

Om’s got a good discussion going on the latest incarnation of the company-A hates technology-B story. Slingbox! Yep, a certain broadcasting president is shooting off about the Slingbox and how it violates broadcast transmission laws, and/or program copyright laws. You know, I get tired of all these companies going off on technologies that push them to inovate. I mean, is it that bad to come up with new products to offer to the public? Is it that scary to have to change (dumb question I know)? I have to continually change and adapt in my career (I’m in IT). Every day is a new opportunity to learn and grow. Some days are hard to find the inspiration, I know, but just for once I would like to see a company applaud a technology that makes them think harder – makes them find a new inspiration to push themselves to develop new technologies to put them on top and bring another new level to our lives.

Alright, /rant off

via: Om Malik’s Blog

Technorati: Slingbox

Russ Going Old School

Russell Beattie has gone “old school” as he puts it in his blog this weekend. He mentions how much time responding to comments takes up, and I’m sure it is a time-sink though I don’t have as much experience with that sort of blogging traffic.

Russ, in case you’ve missed it, there is a new comment-tracking tool that is currently in limited beta called coComment, and may be of help to you as you deal with comment overload. Interesting timing actually, the anouncement of this tool and your decision to turn comments off on your blog. Well I hope it goes well for you, and you find that extra time you’re looking for. In many ways, I don’t blame you, but I’m sure that you’ll get some feedback on the negative aspect as well. See ya round!

via: Russell Beattie Notebook

Technorati: Russell Beattie, coComment!