Just letting people know I’m still alive.  Just swamped.

On the agenda:

• Finish the rework of my Maemo Summit 2009 Corporation-community-engagement presentation, upload and discuss here
• Blog here and at maemo-guru about the N900
• Provide update articles on the US employment situation
• Discuss the new Maemo Greeters program at talk.maemo.org.

Maybe this weekend…

…and in my opinion it then becomes the iPhone killer.

See if you can spot it, and figure out why.

What's right with this picture?

Enter guesses or arguments in the Comments section!

Before I get into the details surrounding my participation in Maemo Summit 2009 and its aftermath, I wanted to make something clear:

As your newly-elected maemo.org council representative for the next six months, I expect input and feedback on what YOU expect.  So I’m not just begging for participation, I’m insisting on it.

The way I see it, there is a “currency” to complaints.  By that I don’t mean timeliness but rather value and cost.  Registering a complaint against an individual or organization is an implicit demand for response.  Usually the level of response is disproportionate to the original demand or request; i.e., more time and resources are spent addressing the issue than in presenting it.

So if you’re lodging a complaint, keep in mind that there is an expectation of further engagement on your part.  Dropping a little bomb into a discussion and running is trolling.  We can all do better than that.  Your bombs create craters that require filling; complainants should participate in that.  Such an effort takes many forms but it could be as simple as providing greater detail to your original issue or even nurturing it through to a conclusion of some sort.  Take ownership of your ideas!

Only a few hundred people out of perhaps thousands of potential voters bothered to indulge us in this past election.  I won’t go into the theories around that but I will say it is humbling.  It suggests to the current council we have no community-driven mandate and that it will be difficult overcoming the perception of a “government of, by and for the few”. We intend to face that challenge head-on.

One way to overcome the stigma of low voter turnout is high member follow-up.  Don’t just complain idly about issues– post clear, detailed and objective complaints or suggestions at talk.maemo.org and participate constructively in the subsequent discussion.  Try not to succumb to raw emotional impulses or appeals; stay objective and focused on your goal.  Be tolerant of minor distractions but firm in your resolve.

I am hoping you will use the Comments section of this blog, twitter, maemo.org channels or any other means you have of contacting me openly and honestly.  I will gladly respond in kind.  Together we can achieve Great Governance of maemo.org which will lead to other great things!  YOU decide what those should be.

Just an FYI– I am actively maintaining 3 blogs now dedicated to different purposes:

This one: just as the tagline describes

Texrat’s Trap: personal ramblings that help keep this plain clean

Freelance Rider Company: the blog for my musical pursuits.

And I haven’t forgotten that I owe everyone some Maemo Summit and N900 goodness… just want to make sure I do the topics justice.

Okay, I’ve been asked to update everyone on my experience during and after Maemo Summit 2009 and I apologize for being late in doing so.  Catching up with work (the $ kind) came first.

I’m putting some things together so this post is just to let you know I didn’t fall into the Atlantic on the way back.  For one I want to work further on what was to be my presentation (more on that embarassing fiasco later) and I also owe the Maemo Guru a piece on the N900 that Nokia so graciously loaned me.  Not to mention entering a few pages of bugs, quirks and ideas into Maemo Bugzilla.

So, bear with me a bit and I’ll try to do some serious word crunching tomorrow.

No, that’s not a typo– I don’t mean packaging.  I’m getting ready for the Maemo Summit 2009 in Amsterdam and thought I’d share some experiences and ideas for fellow travelers.

I learned a lot from my last boss at Nokia, who was constantly jetting off here and there.  But I also gained hard-earned wisdom from embarassing experiences as well.

On my first trip to Helsinki (my first overseas) I unpacked in my hotel room to discover my laptop was missing.  I realized I did not remember checking it anywhere along the route– which meant it had apparently been left behind.  A colleague back in Irving confirmed it with a chuckle at my expense.  I had taken everything but the computer.

Fortunately I had prepared my N800 with a trial enterprise solution some Maemo guys had put together as a side project.  This meant I had a VPN client with which I could reach Nokia’s intranet resources, and was able to perform about 80% of what I needed to do there… albeit with some squinting.

Lesson 1: keep your wits about you, slow down, and make a checklist.

As the N800 preparation shows, even though I can be scatterbrained I’m a big believer in contingency planning.  Maybe because I am scatterbrained.

This means I carry a backup phone and extra clothes.  But on my first few trips I overdid it.  This became obvious in Zurich when the military took extra interest in the wires and devices in my backpack.  Other passengers in line were not amused.  The subsequent inspection delayed me a bit but thankfully not by too much.

Lesson 2: try not to take so many gadgets, regardless of how fun they are.  And if you must, then perhaps put them in checked-in luggage instead carry-on!  (edit: just keep in mind the risks, as Antonio notes below).

On that note, it occurred to me today that since I will be bringing a few electronic items to Amsterdam, it might be wise to include a note and some printouts related to the event atop the stuff in my checked-in bag.  Something to assure the inevitable inspectors that my gear has a harmless purpose. 

I have also learned that dry cleaners will gladly fold and seal your shirts if you ask, rather than hanging them.  This way they take up less space and arrive neater.  I have also discovered that putting shoes in the outer pocket of a bag is a very bad idea, no matter how stiff the material is.  Finally, printing out directions and destination details beforehand is very, very useful.  Trust me on that.  Same for loading your cell phone with important contacts.

I also make sure I bring at least two days clothing in my carry-on luggage.  During two out my last three trips my checked-in stuff has gone on separate journeys… and clothing in Helsinki is expensive.  I sympathize with the citizens.  Hint: avoid Stockmann.

Things I tend to lose or forget (other than laptops) are toothbrushes, combs, deodorant, belts and writing materials… so those get high priority on my list.  Shopping for deodorant in Mexico is not high on my list of things to do.

lesson 3: remember the checklist?  USE IT.

Anyway, I will be off in a few days and there remains a lot left to do.  Time to quit blogging and get busy!

Since starting this blog after my last job loss I’ve taken Nokia to task over what I perceive to be shortcomings and errors, particularly in staffing and ambitious enterprise projects like Ovi.

But in the spirit of fairness and balance, and in preparation of my trip to Amsterdam for the Nokia-sponsored Maemo Summit 2009, I want to take a moment to acknowledge one team that I believe is doing a fantastic job: Maemo.

The Maemo project started small but with a big promise: deliver a commercial, highly-mobile touchscreen computer running a (mostly) open source Linux-based operating system named Maemo.  This began with the simply-designed 770, improved dramatically with the retro-inspired N800, saw the introduction of a handy keyboard with the sturdy N810, and now stands to fulfill a large part of the potential with the exciting N900.

Through it all the Nokia Maemo software team has been the firewall for developer and even consumer frustration, and I say with much professional admiration they have seemingly weathered it well.  The device guys appear pretty much insulated from outside criticism but I have to wonder if that will remain so very long– the N900 is garnering attention from a much broader audience than previous models, as one would expect, and surely this will in turn broaden and intensify the light of scrutiny.

But for now I’m focusing on the software guys and what they’re managing to do on incredibly short timetables and fewer resources than I would allot if I were king.    I get the feeling sometimes their efforts are not always fully appreciated so this post is for them: I am thankful for your work.

One thing Nokia does very well is identify, hire and cultivate extreme talent.  In the case of Maemo, the company has outdone itself.  Thanks all, and I look forward to what you do next!

As a connoiseur of irony I enjoy it all, from the low-brow stuff to the really abstract examples that I find aren’t easily shared.

So I got a real kick tonight out of seeing Microsoft’s Bing zing itself in my Hotmail inbox.  While performing the daily spam-extraction ritual I was struck by one quarantined email in particular.  It wasn’t about the usual male member enhancement or internet bride offers, but rather something that should not have been placed there:

Microsoft's Bing has an identity crisis

I’m tempted to mark it as spam, but I’m concerned that this may cause a rip in the time-space continuum as Microsoft’s mailbots spin into a frenzied loop of escalating send/spam cycles.

Suggestions solicited… but time’s running out!

I have beaten up on ovi.com a bit so I wanted to commend the team today for recently getting a detail right… something small but important: persistent login and state-sharing.

For some time now I’ve been frustrated by Ovi Mail’s petulant refusal to hold on to cookies for me, or recognize my Ovi portal login.  Persistent login is a standard web feature we have come to naturally expect, even if there is a deadline attached (such as eBay’s 1-day limit), and shared user state across a portal is to be taken for granted.  After all, that’s part of the Ovi promise: single sign-on to a multitude of useful services.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see last week that returning to Ovi’s email service after a day away did not require a new login, and similarly logging into the portal on a different computer provided seamless entry to the email service.  Hallelujah!

Now it may seem I am making a huge production and wasting blog space on something insignificant, and cynics will rightly retort that this sort of thing should have been working from day one.  No argument.  But I exult today because it appears a fundamental principle of providing a delightful user experience has finally sunk in:

Little things mean a lot.

It is precisely the tiniest aspects of any endeavor that are ignored from day to day but stand out like a hairy elephant when they fail to function.  But in my experience they are often the parts left at the bottom of the to-do stack, as larger needs suck up available time and resources.

In past employment I ran into this as I managed an enterprise change review and incorporation process.  During the board meetings participants would go over new change requests and prioritize them on a variety of criteria, mostly boiling down to typically expected “bang for the buck” or customer demand.  The small stuff went to the bottom of the pile.

And stayed there.

As new changes came in, extant changes were reprioritized but inevitably those seemingly insignificant orders never moved– there were always bigger needs to tackle.

Frustrated by the lack of progress on these, and tired of complaints from the change owners, I implemented a slight policy change: Monday through Thursday would be spent on the high priority items.  Unless otherwise instructed, Friday would be spent pulling from the bottom of the pile.

This strategy worked beautifully.  The change incorporators loved it because it brought their completion numbers up easily, and made Fridays a breeze.  Change originators loved it because their old moldy requests finally saw the light of day.  Customers accepted it because we were doing our job.

Maybe the Ovi gang has discovered the simple beauty of such an approach.  Or maybe they finally cleared off enough of the showstoppers that it was easier to target the tiny ones.  I’m just glad to see progress made on this front, and hope it is an indication that Nokia’s Ovi is coming unstuck.

Last week I stumbled across an article describing how ASUS was poised to enter the electronic book market and take on Amazon’s successful Kindle.  One critical (and useful) difference with ASUS’ upcoming model is that it follows the traditional fold-open book form factor rather than Kindle’s slate shape, but a possibly more alluring feature is its color display.  There is also mention of it possibly sporting speakers and a webcam for internet video chatting or Voice over IP (VoIP)– at a retail cost half of Kindle’s $300 USD.  !

As a longtime user of ASUS motherboards I’m impressed with their workmanship and hope it translates to this product line.  ASUS also has the brand recognition I believe to attract early interest to these products, especially if the proposed price and feature set make it to market.

On a related but more speculative note, this thread at talk.maemo.org introduced me to the Microsoft Courier.  Check that engadget photo out.  Deja vu, anyone?  It’s also going to have to compete with Sony, whatever Apple eventually amazes us with and others.

Some pundits confuse the prospects of these devices with those of smaller handhelds like the upcoming Nokia N900, but while the latter may function as a usable eBook that’s not its primary purpose and the smaller screens can degrade the book experience for many.  Likewise, the difference in portability will compound the insurance that the two families will occupy mostly distinct usage environs with only slight functionality overlap.

This particular product type has been promised as far back as I can remember, as a big-dreaming teenager inhaling as many science fiction paperbacks as I could afford.  I’m encouraged by the final arrival of this cool technology but concerned over what it might mean for future human eyesight.  At least paper doesn’t glare at you…

Thanks to maemo.org member Rebski for the Microsoft Courier find.