Last week a colleague, who had been forced by corporate policy to switch to a Verizon Treo, donated his Blackberry Pearl 8100 to me.

It was a Cingular/ATT locked phone. I unlocked it, stuck my T-Mobile card into it, and upgraded my plan to the unlimited data plan. I the MIS department at work add an Exchange redirect of my work mail to the Blackberry-provided email address (Blackberry Enterprise Services are evil), so that I could claim a real work usage for this. But there is also a personal email on it (and you will have to ask me for that one!).

[Author Sidebar: Two days later, I managed to lose my T-Mobile Z3 Rizr. Lose. Like can't find. Likely in the hands of another happy user who has figured out the GSM thing. I am an idiot.]

What is my main purpose for this thing? I previously had not had email on my mobiles. This restricted (prevented) my ability to use services like Flickr, BrightKite, TwitPic among others. Also, I can add services such as Google Maps and other mobile apps for the Blackberry. Still waiting for Skype for the non-wifi Blackberry.

My opinion thus far is positive. While there are obviously newer and better smartphones out there now, but the Pearl meets my needs for now. And the price (donation free!) was definitely within my budget. I am still adjusting to the 3/4 QWERTY keyboard, but it is not anymore difficult than MOTO’s intellitype (yeah, I know it’s a stretch) system.

Will keep you updated on my joy/frustration factor.

Tags: blackberry, blackberry 8100, blackberry pearl, GSM, opinion, review, smartphone

As many readers know, I am going through the process — if you call filing a bunch of paperwork and not hearing anything for 2 years a process — of obtaining Permanent Residency in the United States, often referred to as the Green Card.

This morning, on NPR, there was a story about a foul-up in the processing of Green Cards that is suspicious, to say the least.

I have started referring to this process as the Dream Card because it leaves one thinking that the application they completed was done in a dream, a long time ago. An like most dreams, it is a fable of the subconscious mind and as likely to come true as those blue, flying penguins in my dream last night.

The degree of complexity that accompanies the application process has made bureaucrats from the Byzantine Empire write letters of complaint to their members of Congress, saying that the USCIS is giving them a bad name. Kafka has been seen rising from the dead at night, and penning a new tale based on this experience.

Other people covering this story.

NY Times
The Guardian
Times Of India
Miami Herald
San Jose Mercury News
Sacramento Bee Editorial

A few media outlets have grabbed this story as an example of just how broken the US system is when it comes to immigration, especially given the irony of the recent debate over the immigration bill that was tossed out of Congress. How could the immigration system have hoped to deal with the new regulations, if thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of valid visas go unused every year, due to government inefficiency.

Why would an illegal immigrant bother to go through a legal process that punishes the very people who are taking the time to follow the rules?

I would raise my voice in protest; but it would do no good. Drawing a pool of highly skilled, well compensated indentured servants from around the world to these shores to keep the wheels of innovation and development rolling appears to have become the American way.

And like indentured servants everywhere, we are a disposable commodity, to be teased by the promise that some day, we could, we might, just maybe be able to live here (and still not be able to vote) as Permanent Residents.

Tags: Green Card, fiasco, scandal, State Department, USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, indentured, servants, work visa, visa

Tags: app, application, ARIN, dreams, EAD, government, Green Card, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Immigration, India, IP, ISP, it, leave, live, media, NY Times, Om, One, opinion, permanent resident, PHP, pr, Technorati, United States

Tonight, I received a very lengthy email from a friend of GrabPERF who had some comments and concerns.

The hardest thing I have had to learn to do in my professional life is to listen to criticism, and not take it personally. It is something that does not come naturally to me, as my first reaction is to lash out and say something that will do more harm than good in the long run. With my personality type, it is even harder to stop yourself from writing that gut-reaction email when you are tired, frustrated by things in your professional life, and coming off a week of illness.

My first reaction to the email was…well, not polite. But years of experience have taught me to stop and think about my response before I send it. In the past, those emails and words have haunted me, and have destroyed some opportunities that I may have had.

I respect the judgement and opinions of the person who sent this email, and he is held in high-regard by someone I hold in high-regard. So an off-the-cuff answer was definitely not the right way to go.

I stopped. I took a breath. I walked away from the email for an hour.

When I came back to it, I was able to see that not only were his comments constructive, but they actually meshed well with my professional philosophy towards Web performance data and were ones that I should be acting on to improve GrabPERF.

In IT, sometimes we forget that walking away from the problem is the best way to solve it. With so many of us in this space saddled with various degrees of ADD and introverted personalities, sometimes we do have to step back and ask ourselves, “what would the smartest manager/director/VP/executive I know do when presented with this email?”

Opportunities and ideas come from everywhere. Some of the best are those that come from other people.

Technorati Tags: introverted, gut-reaction, mistakes, growth, criticism, opportunities

Tags: data, GrabPERF, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Om, One, opinion, performance, personal, pr, run, Technorati, web, Web Performance, web performance data

Looks like Jeremy Wright and Darren Rowse have their own beefs with Google Blahnalytics (Term Courtesy of Jeremy Wright).

Gee Google, these two guys are opinion-shapers. I think maybe you should come out and say that there are issues.

Or say something.

Anything?

Or are your Overlords at the NSA still pawing over the data and won’t let you release it?

Technorati: Google Analytics, Google, analytics, NSA

IcreRocket: Google Analytics, Google, analytics, NSA

Tags: analytics, blog, Darren Rowse, data, Google, HTTP, Issues, it, Om, opinion, pr, Technorati, tinyurl

Looks like the folks at MSN Search have decided to block the GrabPERF measurements of the standard search term.

Oh well, doesn’t bother me. I never really considered them a viable contender for any search title. “Too little, too late” is my personal opinion on the MSN Search experience.

Also, it was the slowest of the Big Three.

Average Performance — Oct 1-19, 2005

MEASUREMENT        AVERAGE  NUMBER
---------------  ---------  ------
Google - Search  0.3524125   18891
Yahoo - Search   0.6395253   18849
MSN - Search     0.7182230   18876

Looking forward to see if anyone from MSN notices…or cares.

UPDATE: MSN Search appears to have fixed their problem. the measurement is now re-instated.

Would sure like to know what happened here.

IceRocket: MSN Search, Search, GrabPERF

Tags: app, blog, Google, GrabPERF, HTTP, IE, it, measurement, Om, One, opinion, performance, personal, pr, search, Technorati, update

UPDATE: Geek News Central sees it another way. They see Cogent as hitching a free ride and getting thrown off the bus finally. Either way, the bacbone providers are about to realize that they aren’t the ones with power anymore.

The lawsuits from this should be interesting, and are likely going to expose many of the dark edges of the connectivity market that will shock most people who use the Internet.

Cnet has the news here.

One of the sites most notably affected was the Boston Museum of Fine Arts — quoted in this story. So I took the MFA as a bellweather of when the Internet would return to normal.

CLICK IMAGE

Using the GrabPERF system and one other measurement network, it appears that the Level3 and Cogent networks started speaking to each other again at approximately 16:00 EDT (20:00 GMT) today, with recovery times varying by company, backbone, and location.

CLICK IMAGE

I was having a conversation on a completely unrelated matter with one of the journalists who covers the Internet space, and mentioned this event to him. He hadn’t heard of it (hey, I know how hard he works), but we both were kind of shocked that this could still happen.

A large backbone provider rarely does this just because they can; if that were the case, the Internet would be divided into petty fiefdoms where no one could talk to anyone else, which sounds awfully familiar to some of us who remember pre-Internet networks.

A large backbone provider does this to strengthen their position, and diminish that of their peering partner.

There is a lot of money being made on the Internet again. This breakage was, in my opinion, is a result of the Tier 1 backbone providers staking out their turf for what they see as another flow of big and stupid spending resulting from the frenzy around Web 2.0.

Level3 summarily terminated the peering arrangement in an attempt to marginalize Cogent, perhaps in an attempt create the impression that Cogent is less valuable to the Internet than “real” Tier 1 backbones.

What does this pre-emptive attack on Cogent’s reputation gain them? I think that the core reason is that Level3 may be trying to reduce the perceived market value of Cogent, making them a more vulnerable target for acquisition.

It will be interesting to watch what happens in a month when this flares up again.

IceRocket: cogent, level3, peering, internet

Technorati: cogent, level3, peering, internet

Tags: Acquisition, app, backbone, blog, Boston, connectivity, conversation, GrabPERF, GrabPERF.org, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Internet, it, measurement, media, normal, Om, One, opinion, outage, pr, search, Technorati, tn, update, web, web 2.0

Apparently, the CBC wants all of the negative blog posts by the Canadian Media Guild members locked out for the last 50 days removed from their personal blogs.

CBC: Please consult the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Most notably, Section 2:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.

Oh, and if the CBC isn’t going to hire Shelagh Rogers or Rick Mercer or ANY of the CBC Unplugged Bloggers back because of their blog posts, I will tear up my Canadian Passport and become a US citizen.

I am ashamed of my country, and especially of the CBC.

Via: Mutually Inclusive PR

Tags: app, blog, blog posts, cbc, HTML, HTTP, IE, it, media, Om, One, opinion, personal, posts, pr, web

Karl:

Dan Gillmor, a journalist (not one of your paid flacks), has come up with an alternative history which places you and your Republican allies in the light you like to paint the enemies of the state…errr, people who hold independent opinions on topics such as the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and balanced budgets. [here]

Ya know, Dan gets one thing wrong; I am not sure that the private sector is willing to deal with someone who is willing to leak some of this nation’s top secrets to satisfy the wishes of Dick Cheney…errrr, his political masters.

Hope today is a better day for you.

PS: CIA operatives tend to carry a grudge. Try to stay out of dark alleys for a little while.

Technorati: Karl Rove, KarlRove, Valerie Plame, ValeriePlame, Dick Cheney, White House, CIA

Tags: blog, HTTP, IE, it, LAN, Om, One, opinion, pr, Technorati

Tyme hits for six with this posting about how Scoble is unique in the world of corporate blogging.

I have to agree with her on her opinion. In discussing the possibility of establishing a blog at our company, the conversation between myself and the other contributor came down to one final point: could our company handle the content that is necessary to make a corporate blog work?

In most companies, blogging about work, even if you don’t talk about futures, financial, and other company confidential information, would most likely get you removed from your desk by a large security person.

And before I get flamed, we all know it’s true. Companies, despite lip-service to the contrary, don’t like transparency, because they cannot control the message.

As an example, if the corporate commandos at Microsoft discover who Mini-Microsoft is, he will be looking for a new job. I have no doubt about that.

So, Scoble, be glad you are unique. Live in the moment. But keep your resume up to date, because somedy you will need it.

Tags: blog, Blogging, content, control, conversation, corporate, cro, hits, HTTP, IE, IM, information, IP, it, live, Microsoft, Om, One, opinion, PHP, posting, pr, the other

Skip Angel has taken and expanded Marcus Buckingham’s 12 Questions on measuring success at work. [here]

Many of these were eye-openers for me. I have marked it as unread to re-visit again.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? (This will check to see if the person’s roles and responsibilities have been clearly communicated.)

2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right? (This will get to the roadblock with tools that the individual is using so the manager can resolve.)

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day? (This question determines if the job is taking advantage of the individual’s strengths or desires.)

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work? (When I saw this question, it was an eye opener and a reminder to give recognition and praise more often. Not to assume that “no news is good news”.)

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person? (Another eye opener, does the individual believe that they are getting my attention and I care about how they are doing?)

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development? (This will provide information on the individual’s mentors as well as for you to see some of the leaders in your organization.)

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count? (This is a great question and will deal with issues where an individual is feeling shut out of decisions.)

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important? (Like the first question, this question really tests the employees on what has been communicated — in this case, the company vision and strategy.)

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work? (This question helps to see how this individual relates to others and their contribution to the team.)

10. Do I have a best friend at work? (Work is a community as sorts, so this is an interesting question to ask and get responses to see where there are tighter relationships between individuals.)

11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress? (Just like the recognition question, this is a gentle reminder to a manager to keep up with the progress of people on their team.)

12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow? (This question sets the stage on aligning personal goals to opportunities either within or outside of the organization. It also tells the individual that you care about them wanted to learn and grow.)

Tags: 3G, Adblock, attention, blog, community, EAD, HTTP, IE, IM, information, IP, Issues, it, live, Om, One, opinion, personal, pr, strategy