After using Windows Mobile for a good 4 and a half years, I’ve finally decided to call it quits. While part of me wanted to wait for the new Windows Phone 7 launch, it seemed that Windows Phone 7 was just too little, too late. So instead, I ordered a Google Nexus One last Thursday (which is currently en route to me here in Toronto). The Android user interface was what really sold me on the phone (see below for a short video of that interface — not created by me).
Thinking back, my original decision to go with Windows Mobile was largely based on interoperability — I run Windows at home and at the office, and I wanted a phone that would work seamlessly with my work and home machines. Funny enough however, my Windows Mobile phone ended up having pretty much zero interaction with any of my machines, except occasionally moving some music from my home computer to my phone.
The services I did end up interacting with the most on my mobile were almost all Google services — I use Gmail, Google Maps and Google search by default, and ended up using pretty much nothing made my Microsoft (I access my work email through Outlook Web Access on my phone, since my firm doesn’t support non-BlackBerry mobile devices here in Canada).
I’ve owned knowledgecog for a few years now, and the site has went through a few radical transformations. For about the last year, I was working on a few ideas for knowledgecog, but nothing really definitive came out of it. So instead of coming up with something completely new, I decided to get back to basics.
Originally, I had the idea of publishing some of the news feeds I’d created for myself using Yahoo! Pipes — and I’ve decided that since that was the original point of knowledgecog, why not just get the site working as I had originally intended it? So I put 4 feeds (business and competitive intelligence, enterprise search, knowledge management, and social networking and collaboration) on the main page, and I’ve got a few other lists of potentially useful information about KM at the bottom. It’s simple, and it’s going to stay that way.
You can click through to a longer list of feed items from the main page, and you can also subscribe to the Pipe itself using the RSS link beside the title (which will take you to the RSS version of the Pipe page). I’m going to be working on the news feeds over the next few weeks in order to refine the results as much as I can. Enjoy the new knowledgecog! And of course, any suggestions or feedback on the new site are always welcome. Just leave a comment or get in touch with me through the contact form.
I was speaking to my father last week (who is recently retired), and he told me a story about a friend of his who was going to be doing some public speaking. His friend was feeling rather nervous about the prospect of speaking in front of a group.
My father, who’s done his fair share of public speaking over the course of his career as a manager, wrote up the 10 points I’ve detailed below. I thought these points were great and wanted to share them. So here you go:
Tip #1: Remember that no one in the audience knows as much as you do about the topic. You are the expert.
Tip #2: The audience is interested in what you have to say. Slow down and take the time to think between the points you want to emphasize. This will demonstrate your confidence and the depth of your knowledge of the subject.
