Twitter Personal vs Business Use

@matthewcornell asked "do you use Twitter for personal updates (I'm at the __) or quotes/information, or...?"

A few thoughts. Just yesterday my wife Liz and I were talking about this. I had set up Twirl on her computer so she would see my tweets and I also signed her up to follow a few other people I thought were interesting. These included @pearlbear who Liz doesn't know and who I only know via friends (though I think I've met her once). Liz remarked how strange it is that she now is following @pearlbear's move west across the country and she doesn't even know the woman. Twitter does produce a different kind of intimacy. People wonder if produces a somehow "false" electronic intimacy. In my opinion, any kind of connection between people is good. Twitter is a way to be connected to the lives of more people, more easily and what can be wrong with that?

Twitter does seem to divide between those who use it to connect personally with each other, both around ideas and around time and space ("headed to the coffee shop at Main and Hope"), and those who use it to pass tidbits of larger relevance back and forth. For my part, I tend to be following people who provide quotes and links valuable for my work such as @pkedrosky. When I joined Twitter I was amazed at how much more effective it is than other social networking systems at producing serendipitous connections to work-relevant people--for example the connections to the mobile-devices-for-good-crowd I know follow because of @Katrinskaya. Partly this is because you can follow people without the question of whether "friending" them is appropriate or not. There's a low bar to following and deleting a follower. I also follow those on Twitter who aren't work-relevant but are simply intersting, producing their own brand of haiku such as the irreverent and seemingly often drunk @warrenellis. Example of his latest: "Suck it up, hippie. Sarah Palin could break your limp wrist simply by flexing her womb. You Yank owl-huggers are in for it now."

Main point, that's been made by others: the Twitter limit of 140 characters forces a beautiful economy of language. If you can't say intriguing, relevant and catchy things within that limit, you're mundane and not worth following. A great practice for those working up to pitch movies or ventures, actually. Or those who need to be on TV or radio and come up with soundbites.

Salesforce and Google contacts sync

I've been experimenting with the newly released sync between Salesforce and Google contacts. Released as a free application accessible even to the lowest Team edition users, Appiro's product (LINK) does a good job in my experience so far. Customization is limited (as is the documentation) but with my Google Apps account the sync both directions works well, with some exceptions.

> Occasionally a contact won't sync. Usually I understand the reason. Sometimes it doesn't make sense. After each sync, if there are exceptions, you get an e-mail with exceptions listed.

> As far as I can tell, it will only sync the main e-mail field. I have multiple e-mail fields set up in both programs, but there's no way to set-up custom field mapping.

I'll provide a more comprehensive report later, but good news is no lost data so far.

(And for BlackBerry users, who are still without an easy OTA sync without use of BES, one nice thing about the Appiro product is that all of your contacts are in this way synced from Salesforce, over to Google and then accessible using the Google Mail application on your BlackBerry. Not the speediest service (though for me a switch to Verizon has made all the difference) but at least you can access them in a pinch. To get my contacts into the regular BlackBerry addressbook, I still occassionally sync one-way from SalesForce to Outlook, and then via cable to the BB.)

(More CRM posts on my personal blog, written before I established this tech blog. LINK)

GTD for GMail

There's a little outfit called Productive Firefox, a one-man shop that produces a very cool add-on for GMail that I can't live without. It's called GTD Inbox. Before you run away saying you've heard enough about Getting Things Done and you're just not competent enough to handle that level of obsessiveness, stay put a minute and listen. Even if you don't swear to the god that is David Allen (LINK), GTD is a wonderful add-on to FireFox and GMail. It creates an intuitive interface to categorize your e-mail and has all sorts of little nifty productivity features, like Hipster Print which takes the most recent 100 items in your inbox (or any set of search results) and prints a summary of these e-mails on one page. Also, the developer is diligent with his updates to the product, which is wonderful to see for a little shop.

Verizon and BlackBerry + GMail

I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon. The speed increase, at least in my area of rural Massachusetts, is dramatic. I don't think that 3G on AT&T exists in our area and so if I was able to get the BlackBerry Bold (or if I picked up an iPhone 3G) I don't think I'd see any difference over the anemic experience I had with AT&T. But with Verizon the speed changes the functionality of a BlackBerry. GMail on the BlackBerry actually becomes usable. This is an application that fetches at least the subjects of your GMail and keeps your mail all in sync (deletions on the mobile delete on GMail). On At&T GMail was usable only as a backup, if I needed to search for an e-mail and didn't have my computer handy. On Verizon, I'm actually able to use it as my primary e-mail application, ignoring the standard BlackBerry e-mail. Along with the ability of this application to also search my GMail contacts, which are now in sync with SalesForce AND the BlackBerry-Google calendar sync I'm pretty much set.

(Of course the thing that sucks about Verizon is that they disable GPS on BlackBerrys, but that's another story. Win some, lose some.)

Verizon disables GPS on BlackBerry

Just switched to Verizon, which is great for voice quality but wow, had no idea that GPS was disabled on this phone. According to Verizon, their navigator program uses cell phone triangulation Here's my chat with one of their reps:

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Ennis'
Ennis: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. How may I help you today?
JS: why does GPS on my new blackberry 8830 ONLY work with Verizon's navigation system?
JS: are there any plans to open this access to other services (like Loopt and Google maps)
Ennis: I would be more than happy to assist you with that information.
JS: ok . . .
Ennis: Verizon disables the gps navigation system and uses VZ Navigator. The only difference is vz navigator uses cell towers instead of satellites.
JS: so VZ Navigator is different from other navigation systems that also cost $10 per month and use GPS? And therefore is only accurate to 1000-2000 ft??? why would I pay $10 per month for that?
JS: and on Verizon's website it says "Can I see the GPS coordinates while viewing a location's detailed info? Yes"
JS: so doesn't that mean it uses GPS?
Ennis: It has gps listed but no Verizon phone has the gps application only vz navigator.
JS: but VZ Navigator doesn't use gps?
JS: and so therefore, it can only be accurate to 1000-2000 ft
Ennis: Gps is traceable VZ Navigator only lists downloadable directions
JS: ok. this isn't making any sense. I'm wondering if there is any value to paying $10 per montyh
JS: if VZ Nav doesn't use gps--which you stated--it is of minimal value
Ennis: VZ navigator does not use gps.
JS: ok. then I won't sign up. thanks!
JS: (don't understand how a system can navigate without gps!!)
JS: since cell phone triangulation isn't very accurate!
Ennis: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
JS: all set . . . sadly! love my switch from ATT to Verizon for voice quality but didn't realize that the 8830 on Verizon doesn't really use gps, has no navigation program that will actually navigate!
Ennis: I do apologize for this inconvenience.

But perhaps there is some slim hope: for $4 per month (vs $10 for VZ Navigator), you can sign up for Loopt on some Verizon phones, but not BlackBerry . . . perhaps someday. Loopt is a location aware service that shows you and your friends on a map. It makes use of GPS.

PS: Of course, VZ Navigator DOES use GPS and "Ennis" doesn't know what he's talking about.

GPS vs. cell tower triangulation

Great explanation here: LINK.

Steve Jobs' health

I found this a rather remarkable little article about Steve Jobs' health. There's been speculation about whether he might have cancer again ever since he appeared at his latest keynote looking gaunt. Joe Nocera from NYTimes summarizes that state of knowledge on the subject in an article, and then concludes by saying that he got a call from Jobs himself:

On Thursday afternoon, several hours after I’d gotten my final “Steve’s health is a private matter” — and much to my amazement — Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him out of it, but he said he wouldn’t talk if I insisted on an on-the-record conversation. So I agreed.

Read the article: LINK