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Leo Laporte is annoyed by some Buzz glitz, and has gone back to good old blogging. The made me think of the difference between social networks and content creation. In a nutshell, social network and content management can be viewed as separate tools. Most of the tweets, buzzes or LinkedIn updates of any long term value I see are actually links to posts. This means that social networks are transport tools for the actual goods, not unlike public transport. You can use it to move around, but you do not want to limit yourself to one type of transport 1 or one carrier2.

John C. Dvorak, noted that cloud based service (of which all social network services are) are fickle. Other note that it is simply misused3. The case put forward by Efrat is that recruiters don't leverage social network with other HR tools, but simply use it to flush out information, and do not continue the discourse, either on or off the social network of choice.

1. 1. ship, train, plane or taxi
2. 2. Although they would love to keep you, which is why we have frequent fliers and transit cards.
3. 3. Thanks to Efrat Aggasi

Two excellent articles in All About Symbian:

• Ewan Spence questions whether whether Symbian needs a new user interface
• Steve Litchfield goes against the trend that puts the touch screen as the best phone interface.

To this, let me add my two cents worth.

I like my N900 for what seems like the wrong reasons:

• Resistive screen. Possibly because of the I am a Palm veteran, I find I like having a stylus handy, mainly for sketching, but also allowing for higher density applications or checklists.
• Hardware keyboard. Maybe Fat fingers; maybe a history with Psion and the E61; maybe the need to actually see whats on screen without the virtual keyboard hogging all the space.

Apple and Android developers would benefit from those articles. Nokia should pay more attention to them as well. If I understand it correctly, Nokia would benefit from having both MeeGo and Symbian with distinctive hardware and interface.

If you had the misfortune to upgrade to the latest version of Mail for Exchange for your Nokia smart-phone, and you are using Google Apps, you might have come across this issue.

The main problem is that Google recommends using the latest version (which is 3.0), while noting that the best supported version is 2.9. On the Nokia site (or rather, the OVI store), the only version available is 3.0. If you upgraded to version 3.0 and were lucky enough to have version 2.9 images around, you need to uninstall version 3.0 (loosing the configuration) and reinstall version 2.9.

The second issue is that there is no direct way to report this issue and get a response from either company. In Google you are led to a forum, with a lot of nice people, none are official Google employees. Google might be listing, and might not. In the OVI store you can comment on an application, but only if you install it directly to you phone from their site. As I downloaded it to my Mac, and I did not feel like re-installing it and un-installing it again, I could not comment.

I am attache the version 2.9 of the SISX files with this post (Nokia, if you have an issue with this, let me know....).

Another option is using the SyncML protocol for contact and calenders, and IMAP for mail.

As an IT manager, whenever I am faced with a new cool technology I am faced with a dilemma.
On personal level am always tempted to deploy it and see how it fans out. I am, after all, something of a geek. I am also outspoken and something of an exhibitionist.
On a managerial level I almost automatically call on the help desk to put on their flak jackets and helmets, arm the sysadmins with smoke and tear gas canisters, turn to the boffins and proclaim:
Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!
IT is primarily the art of provisioning. Finding the technology that provides additional value to your business, and implementing it in the least disruptive way. Data and processes are assets we need to both protect and utilize. Social networking, Instant messaging, blogging and other means of communication may enhance a business, but may also put it in risk. This is the business perspective of IT.
There is also a human element. The technology divide has not decreased due to Internet. People can do much more with our computers, but they do not necessarily understand the implication more then they did before. If any thing, shining new interfaces hide mode complex issues then those that existed before. Web 2.0 adds even more complexities.
Web 2.0 tools can enable people to be more entrepreneurial, even in a corporate environment. As those tools are abandonment, and most are freely (or cheaply available), it seems almost inexcusable not to use them. But not all business or business users are entrepreneurial in the Web 2.0 way of thinking, for some, the overhead of learning and managing new technologies can actually reduce their productivity.

Google has announced, that due to attacks on it's server from China, it will "...review the feasibility of our business operations in China".