Brian Hogg

There seems to be a lot of talk going around about Windows 7’s pending October (ish) release. Will programs compatible with Windows XP still work? Will people care enough to switch? Is everyone scared after Vista? Will everyone finally upgrade their PCs to support the new OS?

I tried the Windows 7 beta for about 15 minutes, and found no reason to continue. Still a Start button equivalent. Still interacting with Windows in about the same way. Still the menu equivalent hidden in obscure places like IE7 and Office 2007 running on XP.

The reason I think it’s largely irrelevant is the majority of work done in a typical office is with an Office (Word, Excel) equivalent application and most of the rest is web-based software. Sure there’s helper applications like managing tasks, appointments and e-mail, but this can be found on any OS. Along with sharing documents and printing - again, found on any typical OS. Web applications for the most part being OS independent.

If the new OS offered fundamental usability changes then perhaps it might be worth the switch. Things like the ability to scroll a window without having to click and focus first that I’ve been getting used to in Mac OSX. I didn’t notice any such changes in Windows 7, Windows has been working pretty much the same fundamental way since 3.11 for Workgroups.

Am I way off base? Can a bunch of flashy marketing really make people shell out money to get a new look to the icon that runs Internet Explorer and Firefox, or is there something about Windows 7 I’m missing? I guess we’ll see in the fall.

I’m far from perfect in my business methods,  but one thing I’ve tried to do is maintain timely communication.  Nothing is more frustrating to me than sending an e-mail or leaving a voice mail and not hearing anything for several days, and I don’t want to cause that frustration for someone else.

There’s a few reasons I can think of that someone would intentionally delay replying to a message:

Don’t have all the information at hand
Maybe you’re waiting on a little piece of information before replying even though you have most of what the other person needs, or maybe you’re not exactly sure what the solution to a problem that’s being experienced is.  Either way, sending a quick message of acknowledgement will calm nerves and let the other person know you’re on it.

Avoidance
You knew this message would come and you know they won’t like your reply.  They’re order is delayed, or something has been lost and can’t be replaced in a timely manner.  Regardless, delaying a reply to avoid the situation can only make things worse.

Exerting Control
Not replying right away, or at all, could be a way of showing that you have more power than the other person.  Replying could show that even though you have limited time you still reliably engage with employees and clients - improving your image and making sure you’re in the loop.

Procrastination
You read or hear a message and know you need to reply to it.  You probably even think of what the reply will be.  But you don’t send the message.  By procrastinating, you waste a ton of time re-thinking about the situation or worse never getting it off your mind when you’re trying to focus on other more important tasks.  If it takes less than two minutes, why not just reply to it now?

I think clients really do appreciate fast replies, even if the communication isn’t 100% perfect.  You’ll be known as someone they can go to when they have a question that needs answering, have a problem that needs to be solved, or need an opinion about a potential new and exciting project (that you can then be chosen to work on!).

Or maybe there’s an even better way to show clients you care?

I just started learning Slovene and I’m starting to remember why I love languages so much.

But while I’m working my way through a book, listening to CDs, and speaking with an awesome language partner, I keep thinking how I want to be perfect at this.  Even though most people will understand me if I’m pretty far off being perfect, given the context of what I’m saying.  Why do I care so much?

The whole of most western education systems, for the last 100 years at least, has been centered around right and wrong.  Black and white.  You put up your hand to answer a question and you’re either praised for following the formula or immediately corrected.  Sure, universities give you more freedom of expression, but you still write the same exam as everyone else, and eventually get a standardized grade relative to your peers.

Sir Ken Robinson puts it best saying that we’re now being taught to be afraid of being wrong.  How on earth can we progress, personally or otherwise, if we’re afraid of making a mistake?  Can we reverse the damage?

(If you’re now somehow inspired to learn Slovene, you can start here and here.  And an interesting post on learning a language in 3 months.)

Well, I got a bit head of myself thinking that Facebook opening status updates in the API would spell the end of twitter.  Not that I thought the Twitter community could be dispanded by this, but perhaps a twitter clone or something resembling it could be built on top of the Facebook platform.

So I go and register fbtwitter.com, then get to work on reading the API and doing some tests using the Facebook developer page.  I promptly hit a brick wall:

1. You can’t seem to see the status updates of others unless they’re your friend
2. Multiple people can have the same name, so unless fbtwitter.com let’s people pick and locally store yet another username, getting someones attention with @”Brian Hogg” would go to any number of Facebook users
3. Thanks to 1., you can’t get a public timeline of all status updates, so trying to see trends in what people are talking about right now goes out the window.

Not to mention that adding people you don’t know is a big faux pas on Facebook, while completely normal (and sometimes annoying) on Twitter.  On the plus side, you could do things like Direct Messages relatively easily.

With the tools that surround Twitter, and the openness of their API, I can’t see Facebook destroying Twitter.  Ever. Agreed?

Update: Facebook’s new design is quite Twitter-esque, but still a closed circle of updates…