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I’ve Upgraded……..but which bit of tech?
I’ve upgraded
Christmas time always brings me some form of new tech, or at least I hope it does. Last year, yes it was last year already, I decided to put a money present to use by upgrading my Android wear. Now there is a lot of speculation about wearable and the lack of uptake etc. so read on and get my views on it and why I have stayed with it.
How it all began?
Well, I have covered this really in my blog about getting the LG G watch and using it to see if it could better my work and life tech experience. You can check it out here. This was always a first generation watch and was expensive when it first came out, but also rather limited in what it could do, still as per my blogs on the usage of it I found that it became part of my everyday activities and it was now something that when my watch strap broke on one occasion I felt I couldn’t function as well without it. So it became a part of how I handled my daily tech and all the emails and social media I deal with.
So why Upgrade?
I did, however, realise that it was limited and the next generation of devices was out there and when funding permitted I would upgrade to a more recent version of Android Wear and see what the new features would offer me. My son had told me he had researched and ordered the Huawei W1 watch. I had known about this watch but the price was very high when launched and not something I would invest in. However checking the deals around Christmas I found it at a reasonable price and purchased it. To the chants of you copied me, dad. (OH, well)
December excitement
I was lucky enough that the supplier delivered before Christmas and I have been using it for around 3 weeks now. I opened and set it up quickly and hence no unboxing video, but the photos show the impressive box and the kit inside. It felt like quality indeed.
Specifications
Here are the specs for the watch: –
| Body | 42x42x11.3mm |
| Build | Stainless Steel (Cold forged 316L)
IP67 certified – dust and water resistant Water-resistant up to 1 metre and 30 minutes 18mm straps |
| Display | AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
1.4inch 400×400 pixels (286 ppi density) Multitouch: -Yes Sapphire crystal glass Always on screen |
| Platform | Android Wear OS |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400 |
| CPU | Quad Core 1.2Ghz Cortex – A7 |
| GPU | Adreno 305 |
| Memory | 4Gb internal, 512Mb RAM |
| Sound | Vibration, MP3, WAV Ringtones
Loudspeaker: – Yes |
| COMMS | WLAN 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth V4.1, LE |
| Features | Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer
Messaging: – SMS, Email, IM Fast Charging MP3 Player Photo Viewer Voice dial/ Commands |
| Battery | Li-Ion 300 mAh battery
Talk Time: – 48 hours (mixed usage) |
| Misc. | Various strap options available on purchase. |
These knock the first generation LG G watch into a cocked hat so my excitement is beyond bounds. I know I am a GEEK.
What do you get?
The box as you can see is amazing and reflects the top end price.
Inside this nice looking package was the following: –
- Outer shell box with all the labels and tech details
- Inner box with spring loaded flip open lid
- “Timeless design, smart within”, as the tagline in the lid.
- Top watch mounting padded shelf, Watch was fastened to this with cover on screen for protection, this was in the removable inner section and had two metal pins to remove shelf from box
- Inner section now has a tab the lifts the small container holding the handbook and manual
- Under this is the charger and charging cable and base, all in white.
- The whole package felt of quality and the weight was quite substantial, even when empty.
I ordered the leather strap and wore this until my metal replacement arrived after Christmas. So now have two straps that are very easily changeable due to the small pins with pull sections allowing quick strap changes. Even this is a clever idea.
Easy strap removal pins
Usage
The watch had to be charged and, I have, to be honest, the claim of fast charging is amazing, it charges in no time at all. I then went through connecting it to my phone via Android Wear and this was painless and happened easily. I had disconnected my old LG G watch and asked it to forget it. Then paired up the new watch. All went well. The watch itself comes with 48 watch faces to choose from so no hunting initially for a new watch face, my LG had a rectangular face so now needed circular one. Some lovely build in options….
It works a treat and gives me the extra options of heart rate monitor and answering phones calls on the watch not even needing to remove my phone from my pocket. To be honest, I have only done this once so far at home, but it went well and I could hear the caller and they could hear me. Useful indeed. I and my phone were in different rooms.
The other thing is that this particular model is one that Android Wear have been using to create Android Wear 2 that is due to launch this year. The rumours say this will create much more functionality and allow you to do even more things. I am now a convert to using a smart watch and think that I will always use one unless the whole project gets dropped. I now glance at it every time an email or post comes in and can vet if it needs an instant response or can be dealt with later. I can mute my phone from my watch and even locate my phone from my watch. Open the camera on my phone and see it on my watch for photos etc. I am still finding all the things I can do but I feel this has been a great investment and look forward to the things I will find over the coming months and the upgrade to Android Wear 2 when it comes out.
Wearable tech what are your thoughts?
IoT’s, I don’t have any IoT’s do I?
IoT devices, do I have any?
Here is a newish term that has been getting brandished around the Internet for some time now. At first as a techie I may think, Institute of Technology devices, Oh, I don’t have any of these. However, I would be so wrong. So what are they and what does it stand for?
IoT’s or Internet of things devices are now all around us whether we like it or not. They are devices that require an IP address to access the network or Internet. I like to think of them as Internet on Technology.
Your mobiles and any tech wear that you have, card reader machines, cash points, smart TV’s Tablet computers and any smart home devices that you may own. Your car, security cameras, home thermostats, amoung other things, even ticket machines and some vending machines.
What does it mean?
It means that things have progressed along a road that had been predicted, but the faster broadband speeds and methods of connectivity have meant it is now a reality.
Let’s rewind a little, A few years ago we have a desktop PC and then maybe a laptop and at first they did not connect to the Internet at all. We then got dial up Internet and we all tentatively put our toes in the water that was the Internet. Well, from there speeds just got faster and faster and Mobile phones came along, then they became smart. This meant connecting to the Internet and using it as a resource to feed you constant information. This meant improving phone signal strength and so we got up to 4G with 5G on its way.
Other devices then came along and allowed us to stream content around our houses and cars, how great was all this connectivity. Well, it is amazing how far we have come in such a short time.
So what’s all the fuss about, surely this is great news?
The reason that these devices are in the news a lot today is that there are now hundreds of thousands of them, being made by well-known companies and also so not so well known but less expensive alternatives and they all connect to the Internet. Now, securing our stand alone network that had no Internet connection was easy, what you put into it was the only danger. Now that these devices are on the Internet all the time they are able to pull all sorts of data into your device and if it is connected to your network, then onto your network as well.
You would think that this was matter of the device being smart and you being able to configure all the settings and hence protecting all that is does. However, loopholes in the software on these devices, not them all, but some are causing the security world a massive headache and some of the attacks to systems that you have read about recently have been because the software on these devices is not well written and is very insecure. Hackers are catching onto the fact that the world has a massive amount of these types of devices and there are more switched on each day and they are targeting their weaknesses.
So really the question is, “When is a smart device not so smart?” when it runs badly written software that has security holes that you can drive a programming bus through.
Here are a few articles to give you some more information: –
What are your thoughts about this and have you bought into any of these devices and are you using them. I have to admit I have some.
A flaming product review.
Review of Optimyst Oakhurst Electric fire
I purchased this fire last year around March 2015 and have been using it ever since. It was part of a modernisation I was doing in my main lounge area. Removing a fireplace and creating an opening that this model would fit into.
The flame effect had caught my eye when I had passed it in a store and intrigued me how it worked.
I did some research and read up on it. I purchased the unit once the fireplace was ready and installed it. The flame effect was very impressive and once I had mastered the correct intensity so the door could remain closed and not have vapour over the inside it worked a treat. It all runs on filtered water you know, no ashes to clean etc.
However…..
I thought I would write this review to make you aware of the various areas where Dimplex may want to develop solutions that will last longer when the unit is used frequently.
- Issue one
- When using the fire the smell of resin was quite high. I assumed this would eventually settle but it persisted. I could tell that this was coming from the logs themselves as they were resin cast. I did contact Dimplex and you kindly sent me replacements as some had left the factory prior to curing properly. Most appreciated. The replacements however arrived and the main log across the top was loose and had disconnected at one end. I reported this and was told another set would be sent out and they duly were. Again the main log across the top was loose. The third set was dispatched and wrapped in a lot more layers of protection and it was OK. So that problem was resolved. Thank you for all your help here and patience.
- Issue two
- I clean the unit as recommend and made sure that the water is put through my filter jug prior to using. When cleaning the internal pieces I noticed that the transducer unit that creates the vapour was starting to pit and become rusty.
Fig 1
(Fig 1) I photographed this and emailed Dimplex to ask if this was meant or expected to happen. Someone kindly phoned me back and we had a chat and they said it would not be expected and they would send me another replacement unit. My one was still producing the flame effect so I kept using it until a few weeks later it seemed to stop producing the flames. I then popped in the replacement they had sent me. I have now been using the replacement for a good few months and it is starting to become pitted again? I clean the workings and dust etc. every 10 days approximately. I have not reported this as I decided to write this review to see if some of these issues and comments might help in bettering the product development. (I work with a lot of manufacturing companies and understand the review process and complaint handling, leading to product improvements or modifications.) This has also been sent directly to Dimplex.
- I clean the unit as recommend and made sure that the water is put through my filter jug prior to using. When cleaning the internal pieces I noticed that the transducer unit that creates the vapour was starting to pit and become rusty.
- Issue three
- The log effect resin unit that sits on top of the tank and lights up nicely has a foam seal around the outside edge to prevent light leakage coming up at the edges and taking away from the overall effect I assume. I have noted over the last four months that the foam at one side, at least, the glue has melted and become sticky.
Fig 2
(Fig 2) The foam edging has come off or slipped down. I constantly push it back into positon when I put the logs back in. But the heat from the bulbs is obviously causing the glue to melt and the foam to detach. A solution for this might be a thing to consider.
- The log effect resin unit that sits on top of the tank and lights up nicely has a foam seal around the outside edge to prevent light leakage coming up at the edges and taking away from the overall effect I assume. I have noted over the last four months that the foam at one side, at least, the glue has melted and become sticky.
I have not at this stage used the fan heater as this unit was purchased for the flame effect only and the overall look of the lounge when finished.
Credit where credit is due
I want to take this moment to say that the look of the fire is exactly what I expected and makes the lounge look the way I had expected and has been commented on by visitors and family alike. A great idea and looks and plays its part well. If it wasn’t for these small irritations that I have explained above. The unit is not even a year old yet.
This is an unusual piece of tech for me to review, but hey it is not all about the latest watch or phone. This is practical and looks great.
What are your thoughts?
Are you a trail blazer?
White noise
Information overload
With all the feeds we get each day, whether they be Tweets or Facebook or email or news reports or telephone calls or even, yes, even a face to face meeting. It has been occurring to me that there is a lot of interference and traffic out there. Noise if you like. A white noise that obscures sometimes some very useful and genuine comments and info.
Filtration
Do we have a good method of filtration going on or are we being guided by everything that comes our way. I liken it to a video I once saw of an ant colony and the researchers were studying their behaviour and determining how they travelled and how they made their way back to base.
Obviously, they must use sent trails and they lay them down and everyone else follows them as well. Hey presto a fool proof system to get about and never get lost. Being researchers off course they have to test their theories and after the ants had created their best laid plans and trails the researchers created a circle of scents and trails all around some ants to see how they coped and would they get past it. Basically they surrounded them, with too much information to process, or white noise if you like, and they could not get back to the well laid plan. They were too distracted and could not get outside the circle. They really needed a method of filtration to find that one trail and stay on it at all costs and against all other distractions.
Unsung heroes
I know in amongst everything that bombards me every day there are unsung heroes who have gems of wisdom to help me on my way and keep me focussed and yes I do get a bit overloaded and distracted, but I do try and say to myself, be yourself, do not try and be anyone else. Because someone finds a certain feed or path the way to go that is maybe not for you and you need to focus and keep going on the scent trail that you have visualised an laid down.
So do we curb our appetite for more info?
So what are the solutions and how do we cope? Do we simply switch off a lot of the noise and, I know a lot of contacts who have done this and are off various platforms and are in their case thankful for it. Bur remember that is maybe not the best approach for you.
Can we apply a filter to things then and just cherry pick what we see and what we interact with?
Well, yes off course you can, but there is always the fear that you filter out and disconnect from some info and miss a great nugget of gold and a gem that would benefit your business and your life. But hey, that is always the case, sometimes it is about being in the right place at the right time. Don’t let anyone tell you anything else.
Conclusion
I have to admit and say that it is an every changing medium for me and do encourage business owners to use the social media platforms and get out there. Join groups and contribute to what people and business are saying. I am, always changing what I look at and I am rather pleased with myself in the fact that I am now not getting as worked up about some of the feeds. No longer thinking every post is a nugget of gold but applying my filters, where do I want to be and how am I getting there, who can help and what can I do to contribute. I seem to be surviving OK.
How do you cope with all the info and what are your measures of filtration? Would be good to see some comments here. I hope to learn a lot.
Big Brother is watching you and has been for a while
Big Brother is watching you
“‘Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'” Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 37
The above is all inspired by someone the other day putting up a quote about the fact they had read 1984 and couldn’t believe how bad things were back then. Which made me laugh.
George Orwell’s 1984 was a book I read at high school for my higher in English prep. I was into science fiction and that genre and this sort off ticked some of those boxes. Obviously, it was about the state watching everything that the populate did and the perceived freedom people had was really not freedom at all. Orwell based it on the communist state in 1948 and his publisher’s enforced that he change the title to 1984 to make it more sellable and not offend the communist state of Russia.
History lesson over now, I came across a comic photo of Cortana, Microsoft’s office help in Windows 10, based on their game character from their Halo franchise. She will listen to you and answer questions to help. Similar to the OK Google in Android Google NOW.
But what are these helps really doing?
In the comic photo I saw that someone was happy that Cortana was there and they could chat, until eventually they had to switch Cortana off as she was so intrusive the person’s privacy ceased to exist.
My title is that Big Brother, the state in Orwell’s book that spied on everyone, has been watching us for a long time is in fact very true. Since the Internet has been around we have been spied on and catalogued in our preferences and histories and then email allowed us to be spied on. Particularly when it went online and became web based. Our shopping habits are spied on by supermarkets and stores, again with loyalty cards, as we scan, they record. We get vouchers emailed and sent through the post that give us money of the things we buy each week and use. Isn’t it amazing how do they know?
Should we be worried and concerned?
I meet a lot of different people in my IT travels from training to techie talks with geeks like myself. They range from the extremists who are so paranoid that they don’t use a lot of the available tech and systems that are around just now, to the laid back who use everything and deal with the aftermath.
I must admit to being nearer the second type of person with some criteria on what I would and would not do. I do love the latest tech and am slightly addicted to where it is taking us.
I would suggest to you that you are kept on record on the World Wide Web at a host of locations from government bodies who use your ID and unique NI number to shops and web page stored info. (Cookies and their friends). So worrying would be a fruitless activity and probably not get you any real benefit. Paranoia is the other extreme I find and people go to amazing lengths to avoid their real data and identity getting out there. It will get out there and to be honest it already is out there, is the amazing and correct answer to that.
Precautions
Of course I am not saying forget everything and lay abandon to any security and common sense, now that would be absurd, and I do meet that category of person as well.
We really need to use the latter, common sense and be aware of what we are doing.
- Not clicking on everything that pops up.
- Not filling in every form of filed that is asked of us by companies.
- Unticking boxes that want to store our info and sent us data all the time.
- Have all updates on and installed.
- Make sure we have the latest and up to date Anti-Virus and spyware/Malware kit on our machines.
- AND above all use common sense.
What are your thoughts on this and what do you do? Are you paranoid or very open?
Great to hear your comments.
Who’s in control?
Eye Contact
I spend, probably like yourself based on the fact you are reading this, a lot of my time interacting with connections and friends on social media. Technology has become my tool for everyday life and connection to the correct people and areas for my personal life and my business life.
I often here myself tell people when I meet them, that I love technology and where it is taking us. We can handle and do so much more than we have ever been able to do in the past.
Until I bumped into this chaps YouTube Video, wow this made me think and challenged me and touched my sensitivity about what it happening all around me.
Check it out the read on for my initial thoughts after watching this video.
Well what do you think? I hope you watched it all to the very end.
I think it was well written and constructed and touches a lot on what society is now doing. Where we are placing our time and ideas. For some the security of having instant friends that interact with you remotely can be reassuring and social media in the past has been known as a medium to save people’s lives because they posted on it in a time of need and help was given.
But, the questions I suppose we are asking ourselves are, are we in control of it or does it take control of us? And is it changing society for the better?
If you do what the chap in the video did and simply walk down the street and take a bus or tube train and watch the amount of face down glued to the device people there are, it will astound you. But because this is a current 21st century thing we accept it I suppose as a sign of the times we are in.
I wonder what the future will look back and say. Will museums and documentaries reflect on this changing social culture as a good thing or a bad thing?
I still think the flexibility of mobile working and connectivity is amazing for running my business, but I am now challenging where I stand with talking to people. Actually looking in their eyes and engaging with them. Hence my top picture. Laughing out loud together in the same room and space.
I am a people person and always have been since high school and I always like to get in front of a person to talk over things, whether work or private concerns. Remote working only takes me so far and I am sure others are in the same boat.
What are your thoughts on this video and does it challenge you in anyway?
Well done to Gary Turk for making this and challenging where are and where we are going.
How much rope is enough?
Give them rope
Reflecting back over my career and various positions in organisations, I can say that managers in various guises have played a major part in how well I performed and how well I progressed into a better person in the workplace and in the processes I adopted and now use. Transferable skills shall we say.
We all over time gather info and learn, it’s just built into our systems. That’s why you hear people say, “You learn something new every day.”, when they come across a fact they did not know.
So, in the workplace we are always learning, now I don’t mean gaining certifications here, even though that always helps. I mean we are constantly shaping and evaluating what we are doing and if it could be done better and changing it so that the next time we do that task or a similar one, we will do it differently. Experiential learning if you like.
Where does the rope come in?
Well the rope comes in as I reflect back on various line managers at the various posts I have had. Some managers obviously stand out for the way they behaved. Some for positive reasons and some for negative reasons. But the importance is they stand out.
A manager’s job is a complex one and staff see the manager in different ways: –
- The manager is in between me and the top brass, so they take the heat.
- The manager is there to bounce things off and I let them take the final decision that I run with.
- The manager is there to help me do what I do and advise and give experience where needed
- The manager is there to identify my strengths and weaknesses and help me grow.
- The manager is there to hound me and be on my back all the time
- The manager is there to micromanage everything I do
- The manager is there to bully me into doing things a certain way
- The manager is just an extension of the top brass and I don’t trust them
- The manager is just looking after themselves all the time.
The above are just some responses I have heard and I am sure you have heard many more over the years. The top ones are positive and the bottom ones are more negative. The culture the manager creates is one of the most important things in an organisation. It is either a culture of trust and growth and innovation or one of distrust and tolerance of the management as a whole.
The rope comes in where the mangers are switched onto their staff and not just processes and statistics. You see the managers that have stuck out in my past are the ones that saw my potential for self-motivation and gave me the rope to run with it. When I stretched the rope and I did on more than one occasion, they would grab the end and pull me back in a bit, but always with encouragement and not demotivation..
I have worked in some great environments where the people were such a massive resource and if they had been managed correctly would have been so innovative that the potential clients would be climbing over each other to come and deal with us. Sadly, a culture of short ropes and bullying was relevant and it destroyed the people and the innovative juices within a short period. Very sad indeed to be part of and watch. I did escape and got out before the whole house of cards fell.
So how much rope is enough?
This is a great question, don’t get me wrong I believe in systems and know they have to be there for so many reasons. I EVEN TEACH THEM.
But, I also have such a heart for innovation and letting people be creative. I teach a creative thinking techniques seminar that gets people to tap into the juices that made them creative when they were children. Which they have now parked as they have picked up the managerial styles over the years.
They come out and can create ideas that are normally outside their thinking processes. It’s like a relearning. I do believe that most people can be self-motivated and if given a brief and some rope may well shock you with the solutions they come up with. Once you trust and give them the opportunity they will impress. If not we all learn anyway and nothing is lost; I guarantee that more will be gained. It’s is easier to get the best out of staff with motivation than bullying. That I also guarantee, having experienced both.
What are your thoughts on this whole area, would be good to hear from you.
I want to stand on a platform with regard to this matter.
Choosing a platform
During the time of election fever and the stance of many politicians and the media flooding our households, Internet and newspapers with all the spin and comments of election contenders, it occurred to me that many of them are launching the election campaigns on a platform of one thing or the other. If it isn’t the NHS it is migration and immigrants.
It got me a thinking
It started me thinking of what is the platform I stand on with regard to my business and how it operates and runs and then to take it into the techie world, what Social Media and Internet platforms do I use to get the message flooding to my customers and potential customers worldwide.
Platforms there are so many
It is the case that there are so many platforms, as with the election there are so many stand points that people take and you don’t know at times which one to believe, so we base our beliefs and decisions on past experience and their record if they have done the job before. When I set my company up I knew I did it out of passion. I wanted a company that had a drive and passion for what it did and did it well and honestly. So that was my initial platform if you like, I then structured the offering my company had around this. My testimonials from clients were my gauge as to whether I was achieving this each and every time. Then learning and tweaking happens. No one is perfect and it is the driving force behind our actions that should be considered.
So honesty, integrity and doing the best job as promised was my platforms and I hope I have achieved them as often as possible.
The other thing I did as an organisation was start to business network, before I even setup as a company I attended some networking groups to find out what business was saying about the climate and how they were getting on. I wasn’t setting up blind as they say. This paid off and I have continued to business network to this day. It is a great place to bounce ideas around, meet great people and pick up so much information and ideas.
What about online platforms?
With regard to online platforms, I have always been as you can imagine, the company is called IT Turning Point, very aware of what technology is doing and where it is taking us. The Internet has been with us for years and introduced so many changes in the way organisations and customers operate that it has dragged some organisations into the 21st century screaming and kicking.
The key of course is to decide your best and most appropriate route to market and then target the majority of your efforts there. This of course sometimes takes more than one attempt to get it right and is what I like to call a toe in the water scenario. We try and see if it works and tweak and try again until we hit the sweet spot. I decided early on to have a website and had it up and getting found before the official company launch, so when I launched people had a shop window to visit.
This of course was mentioned on all emails and literature to drive traffic in that direction. The site was optimised at the time for the search engines and we were off.
Social media was my next area of consideration and what should I do here and which platform would be best for me to use. I did the following and it has worked for me over the years.
My company was primarily B2B so LinkedIn to me was essential and getting my profile up to 100% as it was at the time and then making good honest connections with potential customers, existing customers and other companies and contractors that might be useful for me to touch base with and bounce ideas around. A company LinkedIn page was setup as well as my profile and maintaining it and promoting it became a goal.
For more awareness of brand name and getting me more widely known quicker I also thought that Facebook would be a great place to have a business page. So off I went on my next platform and got that page up and running and started to gain likes and awareness.
Remember, I am always aware of where technology is trying to take us and I launched a Twitter account at the same time to take advantage of the profile raising for my brand name.
In the corner of my eye I was always reading techie articles about search engine Optimisation and how you can get found online to make sure my efforts where not all in vain. This kept me informed that Google the main and most popular search engine was changing what it calls it’s algorithm that checks the Internet to find you and me and was placing more emphasis on Social Media activity and content. So this means and still does today that you need your website optimised, but you also need to be active in the realm of social media. You need to have link popularity, which means people are coming to your site from various locations and landing there and then leaving to go to other locations from your site.
Other social media platforms are out there, Google+, Kiltr, Pinterest and Instagram. It was now a case of deciding which platforms I felt I could benefit from and manage easily.
Again tools were there for the managing and these have helped immensely. Such as Hootesuit, highly recommended and there are others.
Email newsletters were the next thing I had always ran since setting up and had made a decision that a monthly newsletter would be the thing. So to this day we send out a monthly newsletter to a database of people who have signed up for it. Again there are laws about spamming people.
Have we reached our goal?
No, is the easy answer, we are always looking at tweaking and changing what we do and managing it differently and we do use other mediums to get the message out there, such as PR articles to business press, etc. We also run an online blog about technology amongst other things.
All these various platforms have meant that we have been able to vary our offering and develop it over the time the company has been running and as long as we keep to the company platforms of honesty, integrity and doing the best job as promised then we will keep it up.
I hope this helps, let me know your thoughts on the whole area of platforms, online or offline.
The Communication Revolution
Communication Revolution
Nice to talk to you, how are things going?
Can you drop me a day and time for a meeting?
When can we talk about the training you need?
You know I see around a hundred questions a day coming my way in various guises and usually keep on top of them, but I have noticed recently that I have dropped the ball on a couple and wondered why.
I use technology for most things and particularly admin, tasks and communication so how can this be happening? Well in fact the very saviour that I use to keep me organised is the very thing that is making me drop the ball.
How is technology failing me?
I have been doing some historical research and asking the question of how we communicate and of course using my age, no comments here please, as I remember using various versions of communication over my years in industry and business.
Here is a rough breakdown of what I experienced: –
- Phoned into the office once or twice a day to see if there were any messages for me
- Got a pager that bleeped when the office needed me, then found a phone and phoned into the office
- Technology improved and I got given a pager that had a scrolling screen across the top and I could read the messages. This was amazing, where was technology taking us?
- Got my first company car with built in car phone, large box in the boot and aerial on the roof. The handset took up most of the foot well and a microphone hung in your face as you drove. But, hey that was advances in technology and don’t be fooled I loved it. It also meant I now couldn’t hide anywhere.
- The next was a company car with a cradle and no large box in the boot and no aerial on the roof. The phone had it all built in and could be removed from the car. What…I was lost for words and it was great. It fitted in my pocket and I could call the office or any clients I wanted. This was just amazing.
- Then on top of all this I was given a small portable compute that had all my product range on it that I was selling and could work out a quote on the spot for a client. I was then hooked on technology. The tech kept me informed and allowed me to be more flexible in what I was doing, simply brilliant. I could juggle all these no problem and I was mobile even back then.
So where are we now? And I still haven’t answered why technology is letting me down?
Yes, sorry was caught up in nostalgia when times were developing fast and things were simpler.
Now I sound like my gran.
Well, now we have the Internet, the cloud, the web, back then we didn’t so communication was done differently. Now I can get communication from all sections of the Internet that I am active in and believe you me there are a lot of them. Because I am also mobile a lot of the time these communications come in as I am on the hop and I read them quickly and think I will answer that when I get back to base and have time to think it through and check a few things out.
So where do my communications come from now? Well here is the current list and I may have missed some: –
- Letter, or snail mail as it is called.
- Emails, quite a lot of emails to various accounts I use
- Direct messages I get from Facebook, three possible accounts
- Direct messages I get from Twitter, three possible accounts.
- Emails I get from LinkedIn
- Messages I get from my blog I founded and write
- Messages form my website activity
- Messages from any LinkedIn groups I am in
- Messages from Facebook pages I manage
- Google Hangouts, sometimes a few open at one time talking to more than one person, like holding two phone calls at once.
- Skype, which I must admit I don’t use a lot really
- Phone calls on landline and on mobile
- Text messages
- Even my file server at home emails me when it updates or has had a problem…….
So my dilemma is that I have on occasion been out the office and mobile and got a message through one of these mediums and read it over and thought I will answer that once I can put a reasonable response together. I then get back to base and there is something in my mind about a message I must answer so I open my emails and check each account, all emails have been read, which of course they have as I looked at it when I was out and about. So it doesn’t jump out at me.
Or on occasion I can’t find an email and think how else did the message come in and spend a bit of time going through all of the above until I hopefully stumble across it. An example recently was one that I had read over when I was out and about that it was a direct message and then my day got busy and confusing. When I got back to base I looked and it wasn’t there. I checked emails and other areas and couldn’t find it. Finally I think found it as a direct message to one of my Twitter accounts I use.
So maybe you can see my dilemma, the very thing I have embraced to make my profile and business public and found easily is also the very thing that is causing me to be juggling so many forms and ways to communicate that I occasionally drop the ball.
What’s the solution, or is there one?
Well, the solution is obviously a difficult one. I could peal back the activity to the essential areas and not over complicate things. Hence only check and receive important messages. But being into all the aspects of the current Internet I find this difficult to rationalise. I even teach people to use it to its fullest. No I will just have to be more organised again and make sure I am aware of the source of communications that come my way and prioritise and deal with them as appropriate. A few extra hours each day might be useful.
What are you experiences of this phenomenon, is it something you have experienced or is it just me?