"Today Music, Tomorrow Our Lives"

I'll post more about this later, but in the meantime, an interesting article to consider. Simple devices, increasing usefulness, should make it easier to get the most out of the time we use them.

A (side)step toward usefulness - Bluetooth

Still wishing I had a bluetooth-capable phone, I'm finding more uses for bluetooth to transfer files between laptop & handheld. Using a PowerMac G4 laptop and a (now "old")Palm T2, I can at least get events, vcards, pictures, files, and Palm applications *to* the handheld from the laptop. The bummer is that the software between the two isn't so reliable getting files or data *from* the Palm. Sigh.

Close, but clearly no banana.

Point of convergence - cell phone data: a way to go yet

Ever since I heard that the "3G" cell phone networks were being developed, I was hopeful that within 3-5 years, I would be able to use my phone to get network access anywhere I had phone service. While the networks are slowly being developed, the cost to use cell phones for data are still prohibitive to anyone that isn't critically dependent on a network connection for input.

From what I've seen & read so far, Verizon Wireless currently has the best data capabilities, but I can't find any online information about the kinds of costs associated with using their data network.

T-Mobile doesn't seem to have the fastest data network, but as far as I can tell, their pricing is the best: $20/month for unlimited data access. I currently use T-Mobile as my cell phone provider (as I have since 1996 (nee Voicestream)), and while I'm quite happy with the voice service (and my ability to use my phone as a modem, for at least 19200 speeds), the price of even having the data functionality annoys the heck out of me. My wife and I got the phones we currently have, Nokia 6610 phones, for $35 each during a promotion through T-Mobile. I enjoy the phone, the SMS and WAP features work nicely, but I cannot use the phone for data without buying a data cable, which I have yet to be able to find for less that $30-$40, which seems silly to me, especially when I would need to also add $20/month to be able to use the data features with my laptop.

Ultimately, if I just bit the bullet and spent the money on a Sony Ericsson T610 I would have all of the features I wanted (data features as well as synchronization of contacts using Bluetooth) and the option to use the phone as a modem or a 2.5G/3G gateway.

Yet again, technologies are verging on convergence, but cost and difficulty hinder widespread use.

A good read

To date, my specialization in Information Technology has been Apple's Macintosh. It all started in 1993 when my first wife and I were trying to decide what to get as a home computer. She was a Unix programmer, and most of her programming friends had Macs, and after looking at all of the options, the "hot item" Macs at the time (660av and 840av, for those interested in the "ancient" history) offered many more built-in features than their Windows-based counterparts for the price. In 1996 I began getting more familiar with Windows as I worked for CU Boulder's Computer Advising group, answering questions in computer labs on campus.

Since then I have gotten much more familiar with many popular platforms, to an expert level with Mac OS, and an administrator level with Windows variants. Bringing this long-story post to a point, AnandTech has posted an excellent article that is basically an anecdotal examination of what "a month with a Mac" was like for the author, a Windows-based technologist & writer. I appreciate the level of objectivity with which he approached the project (either before or after using the system), and I am happy to link to the "review," as it has a number of good descriptions of the strengths and shortcomings of using a Mac.

Having worked with many platforms for the past 5 years, my preference for the Mac has only increased, both due to the fact that I am so much more knowledgeable, and the constant experience of tasks and projects "being easier" using a Mac to get various tasks done. For the media projects and everyday use that I do, a Mac is the best choice, hands down. But for anyone that feels like a Mac is far too alien, this article offers excellent insight into a different world.

A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User's Perspective

Happy reading!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Silver Mountain Consulting weblog! Here I'll be posting musings about things that pique my interest in the Information Technology world, both links and my thoughts about the topic at hand.

My goal is that this will be an interesting and useful resource to anyone trying to get the most out of technology in everyday life, but as most blogs are, it'll mainly be my space for venting views on what's working, and what's frustrating about technology in everyday life.

Happy reading.