I suppose they can't help themselves. They are a phone company, after all. How many of you out there use your smartphone to get online with your laptop by tethering the latter to the former?

Uh, huh! I don't have to see you to know there are a lot of hands shooting up right now.

Bad news if you're a Sprint customer. Sprint announced this week it will no longer allow its customers to tether their way online with their smartphones. From now on, you'll have to use a special Sprint dongle and get yourself a separate data plan (No, you're not wrong. You are being turned upside down by your ankles while your carrier shakes you down for more cash).

Eeeee-vil!

That's just wrong as my best friend, Zelda, would say.

You can bet the other carriers will be right on their heels with this one.

I got one word to say: netbook.

That's what this is about.

Let me harkin back to a posting of mine from earlier this month, "Will Telcos Kill The Netbook?"

I made the prediction that the telcos are aiming to co-opt the netbook business with their own business model that is not so user-friendly.

It's already happening.

I bought my netbook for $330 this summer, competitively priced to undersell the larger, more powerful laptops. I fear these days are dwindling. It appears the phone carriers are hoping to sell netbooks like mobile phones with a monthly data plan and a two-year contractual commitment (plus whatever extras they can sell you).

Of course, in order for this to work, they need to make sure you can't use your smartphone to get your netbook online,

This would be like your cable television provider making you get separate accounts for every television in your house with cable access (instead of a nominal monthly fee on the same bill for each additional outlet).

This would be like your electric company making you set up a separate account for every plug in your house.

This would be like the water company making you set up a separate account for every faucet, washer and dishwasher hook-up in your house.

This would be like your electric company no longer allowing you to power small appliances with a handful of Duracell batteries. Instead you would have to use a proprietary battery of theirs set up under a separate account with a monthly basic fee that is double your basic electric bill fees,

Not much will be said about this up front. Trust me, there's going to come a time when the consumer catches on and realizes what a shameles stick-up this is.

We pay for Internet access at home. Businesses pay for it at work. We pay for Internet access on our mobile devices. Now Sprint wants you to pay separately for netbook access.

Monthly Internet access should not look like a car payment.

People use the Internet on the move across multiple devices. People should not be forced to pay for separate data plans for every location and device they use to go online.

I wish I were a Sprint customer so I could dump them in protest.

I was recently interviewed by a reporter from ComputerWorld about overhyped technology, and it got me thinking about artificial intelligence. When I was reading books about LISP in the 1980s, I envisioned that by the 21st century we would have come up with multipurpose devices to both understand and react to the reality surrounding them. Instead, all we have are toys like the Roomba.

So what have our biggest advances in AI and robotics actually been? I did a little research on the web (and YouTube) to gather some examples.

Robots on the Battlefield

Peter W. Singer just published “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century,” which focuses on how military forces from 44 different countries are already taking advantage of this kind of technology. You can watch an interview where Singer discusses his work on YouTube (below).

What does this kind of technology mean for the future of warfare?

Related links:

The U.S. Military's New Warriors: Robots and a superman exoskeleton.

Boston Dynamics BIGDOG Robot

Curt works for Journyx, a time and project management solutions company.

AT&T has what I call a happy problem; too much traffic on its 3G network.

That's happy as in for AT&T, not so for their customers who suffer through dropped calls and out of service time (see my blog posting earlier this month, "Smartphones and Dumb Carriers".

AT&T by its own admission can't scale up its 3G network fast enough. A big part of the problem is dealing with so many local bureaucrats and each municipal fiefdom's own unique maze to get approval to add equipment in public areas.

While all this hashes out, one make-do solution appears to be all those AT&T hotspots. There are now more than 20,000 of them in the United States.

On AT&T's end, WiFi through a hotspot is much easier and cheaper

Customers seem to be catching on, as well. AT&T's own 3rd quarter report on hotspot usage shows there were more than 25 million WiFI sessions at AT&T hotspots. That's up from 15 million sessions in just the previous quarter of this year.

In other news:

Microsoft announced this week that it will retire MSN Direct on January 1st, 2012. Question: does this have anything to do with Mayan prophecy?

Oh, sorry, you have some real questions about this? Chances are you will find answers in the following FAQ at the MSN Direct site.

A researcher at Microsoft has spent the last 10 years putting all of the information in his brain onto computers in order to preserve it. According to CNN, Gordon Bell “carries around video equipment, cameras and audio recorders to capture his conversations, commutes, trips and experiences. He also saves everything -- from restaurant receipts (he takes pictures of them) to correspondence, bills and medical records. He makes PDF files out of every Web page he views.” The total size of his “e-memory” is over 350 gigabytes (not including streaming audio and video). He believes that by 2020 we will all have such transcripts of our lives.

I think this is just completely fascinating. We are all going this way already, whether we know it or not - an increasing percentage of your life is digitally available. The trick is getting Big Brother to work for you instead of against you. How can you be sure all this data is solely under your own control at your own discretion.

Imagine using this sort of data to automatically fill out your timesheet, for example. As long as it's your data - controlled by you - and you have the right to edit and control the timesheet before submittal, then it can only help your day.

Curt Finch writes for a project management blog as well.

And there was much rejoicing!

Wow! Microsoft has announced that it will be opening up it's .pst file format (i.e. Outloook files) next year and allowing third party developers free use.

Yup, you read right; Microsoft Outlook is going open source.

It is unclear whether this will only be for the 2010 version or previous versions, as well.

At first blush, you might wonder why Microsoft is giving away the store. Let's think this through, however.

First of all, Microsoft doesn't do anything unless it's good for Microsoft (businesses do have that tendency, don't they?).

There's no doubt that this will cost Microsoft some business. This will allow other e-mail vendors (Google and Mozilla come to mind immediately, but there are countless others) to make it a lot easier to steal Outlook clients. That's because it will be possible to switch and save old data from the previous Outlook account.

That's surface stuff, however

What bits of market share it loses to other e-mail competitors, it will more than save by keeping much more important enterprise and small business clients happy.

Here's how:

- This will make it possible to develop tools to scan Outlook files for viruses and data mine for specific information (especially helpful for compliance and e-Discovery in legal matters),

- This means companies will be able to data port ,pst files to the "Cloud" and not require Outlook to access them. (That's the biggie right there!).

Microsoft, I believe, made a Hobson's choice. In order for Outlook to survive the long haul, it has to interoperate with other applications, specifically the applications of thier customer's choice.

This is the paradox of open source software, itself; the more you give it away, the more you get back by making it a more robust tool. Stand-alone tools are less and less robust in today's environment. It looks like Microsoft is finally figuring that out

That, or they're just trying to throw a bone to the European Union's investigation into other interoperability issues.

Mea Culpa! This one got by me last week when Apple announced a slew of new product upgrades (not to mention that South of Market cool and just downright precious button-less mouse).

Thanks to my faithful blog reader, Matt P., for the heads up about the new and improved Mac Mini Server offerings and raising the question whether this is better bang for the buck than Windows for a small business.

Hmm...

Here's what Apple has done to make the Mac Mini a more attractive server (at the $999 price):

- They are throwing in the OSX Snow Leopard Server at no extra charge, which would otherwise cost you $499 off the shelf.

- Did I mention Snow Leopard includes unlimited clients. With a Windows server package, it's priced in increments. 10 client access licenses cost about $1200; 25 cost $3999.

- At $999, it also includes two 500GB hard drives.

- The Mac Mini is about two inches high and six and a half inches wide. What would you do with all that extra rack space?

- The Mac Mini uses less power than the typical PC server. Think about the savings on your electric bill!

Keep in mind:

- Windows Small Business Server edition is limited to 75 users. If your business needs more than that, you'll have to bump up to the Enterprise version. 100 users would cost around $20,000 just to give you some perspective

- You can't put more than one Windows Small Business server on the same network You HAVE to upgrade to the far more expensive full enterprise version if you need to scale up from there.

- You CAN string together as many Mac Mini Servers as you want on the same network.

- The Mac Mini Server is poised to get a boost from the iPhone. Business types are flocking to the iPhone. The Mac Mini Server throws in collaboration tools like Wikis to work seamlessly with the iPhone. More importantly, it offers security features for users tapping into their company e-mail,etc from their iPhone.

Like I said; hmmm...

Business Week reports that book publishers are learning to love the web because they have no choice. They have resorted to new business practices in recent years, as evidenced by the popularity of electronic readers like the Amazon Kindle. Possible new tactics include “Netflix-like online book rentals, sales of individual chapters, and placement of ads alongside digital books.“

Anyone can be an author now (like for example, me). You do not have to convince a publishing company that you're going to sell a million copies, you can self publish, and get it on Amazon yourself.

Since it's easier to be an author now, there are lots more of them. Same is true for music. A colleague of mine has created a published a fine album without ever talking to a record label. It's on iTunes and every other online music store.

Of course my book competes with millions instead of the few that Newton competed with and my buddy competes with an endless supply of musicians instead of just Bach and Mozart. Everyone's A.D.D. and only the consumer wins - if he can navigate the endless choices he faces.

Curt's company has software that helps the accidental project manager.

Forget Web 2.0 mashups for a minute. We are experiencing the mother of all mashups in terms of the economy, social networking and rapidly changing attitudes of consumers.

Here is a link to a must-read on the subject from Mark McDonald at Gartner, "The Ten Trends You Have To Watch: And What They Mean For IT".

Here are some of McDonalds most interesting points (but in my words, of course):

- Consumers and workers (don't forget, these are generally the same people) have gone through hell in this economic meltdown and their faith in business is a bit broken right now. Rebuilding trust requires communication and good, consistent communication is going to require some fancy footwork from IT.

- Globalism is not the new black. It's the new goat, in fact. Public sentiment and grumblings for more protectionism are suddenly in vogue. What does this mean for your global, one world market place taking place in cyberspace?

- Your business plan is a rough draft again. Industries are having to redefine themselves on the fly, identifying new markets and hustling up new products to serve their changing needs. You better have some efficient technologies in place to help you navigate.

- If you haven't invested in pricing analytics tools, think about doing so now. How exactly do you charge for products and services in such a volatile economy? If you don't hit the sweet spot between too high and too low, make no mistake - you're dead! Pricing is not something you set and forget. It's a moving target that has to be monitored, constantly.

- Consumers are not consuming the way they used to. What kind of technologies are you using to manage the volatility of consumption and distribution?

Let's hope your IT staff are MVP material.

I can't resist responding to your comments this week.

It's Microsoft people. No matter how you put it the same people who designed, coded, and tested Vista were the same ones who designed, coded, and tested Windows 7.

- From Jupsdgreat

True words, J. Even Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, was tamping down the hype earlier this week. Unbelievably he reminded us all that Vista got decent early reviews from the beta testers, etc. before it's launch. At the time, there was no indication it would bomb (not his words, those are mine) and look what happened.

Ruth Seeley.. Busted on my numbering thing. Hehehehehe! Now you all know. I was not a math major. Good thing, no? I remember those $700 microwaves back in the 70's. All that and could cook your liver if you stood in front of the leaks too long.

Regarding my prediction of Windows 7 selling like hotcakes, Vulpine disagrees:

While Microsoft is going to see a huge first week or so, this is mostly due to preorders that started over 4 months ago. Once these preorders are shipped, I expect sales of Win7 to drop drastically and level out somewhere just above the sales rate of Win7-equipped hardware, including said hardware.

Interesting scenario, Vulpine. You may be right. Let's see if the pre-order rush has a dead cat bounce afterwards.

And Matt I think you make a very good point that Windows 7 just might not have enough of a hook to rope in consumers.

It will be interesting to see if anyone cares. A launch of an OS that people are not likely to feel safe loading up on day one in new stores that don't have a clear purpose.

I also think eight years of Windows XP may be a hard habit to break, because after all "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". We've all gotten by this longh. We've learned what's the rush to upgrade.

Have a great weekend and we'll get back to business on Monday.

There is a new way to blog these days, and it's called Tumblr.com. I recently found out about it through IBM's Smarter Planet website and decided to check it out. It allows you to create and host your blog, but what differentiates it from sites like WordPress and Blogger is the fact that it allows you to “post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be.” 'Tumblelogging' or 'tumbling' is considered a quick, to-the-point form of blogging. Users can wander around the internet and snag everything they find interesting to share with their followers.

Like EBCDIC and TokenRing, it's just another thing IBM has to be different on. But this one is pretty cool I have to say. It feels a bit like FaceBook + Stumbleupon to me.

Curt helps people improve business execution.

This morning I cautioned you dear readers to not be the first in line today for Windows 7 (as an upgrade or bundled into a new PC).

For those of you that can't wait, the good news is Microsoft and most of the major PC makers and sellers are offering some pretty sweet deals to nudge you into taking the plunge NOW.

Microsoft is calling this coordinated blitz "Seven Days of Windows 7".

Among the bargains they hope you can't refuse:

- Best Buy is offering a total computer makeover: a netbook, laptop and desktop and a wireless router all installed by the Geek Squad for $1199 (Okay, that's a good one. Get your small office tricked out in one fell swoop; Laptop for the boss, desktop for the receptionist and netbook for the college intern).

- There's a three upgrades for the price of one, as well.

I stand by my earlier posting today, however.

Well, let me correct myself. Launch day means a whole lot to the company launching the product; more specifically to the sales and marketing departments.

Today is the official launch day of Microsoft's much anticipated Windows 7 operating system. Let me be clear, I think Windows 7 is a big deal. The actual launch of Windows 7 is another matter.

Tech companies especially live for launch day. Let's put it this way, if Windows 7 was a teenage girl; today would be her Sweet 16 party. Today is all about proverbial ballgowns, shelacked up-do's and first dances under moonlight.

For us consumers, the coverage may be interesting and pique our curiosity to see all the new features and get some of that first customer feedback. I always caution people, however, to let someone else be that first customer, especially when it comes to technology (and cars, for that matter).

Here's why:

1. The only user testing that really counts is testing by real customers. All the early reviews about Windows 7 are favorable. By all accounts its stable and elegant and secure. In other words, it's everything Windows Vista never was (meow!). That being said, it's technology. There will be bugs the beta testers, etc. didn't run up against. Let the hackers in Sweden and Singapore get a whack at it first. Believe me, they'll find the major holes that need to be fixed up front (and then the rest that crop up along the way will get fixed on patch Tuesday every month from there on).

2. The deals will only get sweeter. Microsoft and most of the major PC makers are offering all kinds of deals up front to woo a rush of customers (more on that later today). The deals are pretty good. But make no mistake, it's technology. You can always count on good deals. What costs a thousand dollars today will likely cost $799 just in time for the holidays; and $599 by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

4.Avoid the rush! Even my mother who is a retiree in Florida is busy, busy, busy. Who has time to stand in line waiting or help or suffer through a slow download from an overwhelmed web site? Wait for the broo-ha-ha to die down and accomplish the same thing in a fraction of the time.

5. You just thought tech support was slow! If you are planning to upgrade an existing PC, what do you think the chances are that you will get through upgrading your entire operating system (Windows, no less) without needing tech support? How busy do you the lines will be during these first days and weeks? Do you really need it that bad, right now?

I'm just saying.

Huh?

Seriously, it's true. Amazon's UK arm is reporting that Windows 7 is the largest pre-order item ever in it's history dethroning Harry Potter from the title.

There's a muggle joke in here somewhere, but I'm just to breathless to think of it right now.

Must go lay down now.

There's never a dull moment in technology, and the newest interesting thing that might come down the pipe is a battery that you can power by walking. CNN reports that nanotechnology researchers are working on making electrical power more efficient, and this is just one of the solutions they are looking into. “Even the simple act of moving your fingers while typing creates energy that could power a small device, and these researchers are showing that nanotechnology can enable this transformation.”

Devices have been implanted into rodents, to generate electricity from the beating of their hearts.
This energy can be used to power certain devices embedded in the animal. Doing something
similar in humans is one step on the road to self augmentation - having your iPhone built into
your skull.

Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Curt works for Journyx, a time and project management solutions company. Clearly he has watched far too much Star Trek.

Who will win? Short answer: both!

This is supposed to be Microsoft's week. The new long-awaited Windows 7 operating system comes out tomorrow. Launch events are scheduled around the world. Microsoft and the PC Industry are planning to blitz consumers with bargains, bling and, er uh, did I mention bargains?

By Friday, you won't be able to swing a dead cat without hitting something pre-loaded with Windows 7.

That's tomorrow.

Right now, this week belongs to Apple. First Apple announced it's fourth quarter earnings, which just happened to be their best quarterly earnings report ever (Nine billion plus in gross profits, 1.67 billion in net profits). But that's mumbo jumbo for Wall Street and shareholders to wonk out to.

For consumers, both personal and business, more importantly is the announcement of new offerings in its Mac line. Apple is clearly not taking Windows 7 while laying down.

Their cheapest Macbook will stay with the $999 price tag; but it's getting a significant upgrade in style and power (including that much ballyhooed unibody and glass track pad).

There's also a new and improved Mac Mini, bigger screens with more pixels for the higher end models and even an upgraded mouse. No, Apple has not finally added a right click button. In fact, it got rid of the left click button too. The button-less mouse is basically a mouse with a glass track pad surface to be controlled by moving your finger around.

Sound like another Apple versus Microsoft cockfight?

Tick, tick, tick! It's T-Minus two days until the launch of Windows 7.

The question is will personal users and businesses rush out (or at least walk briskly) to make the upgrade.

My guess is that many will at least walk briskly.

Here's why:

- A new survey put out by Softchoice shows 88% of all corporate PCs in North America have enough power under the hood to support Windows 7; that's in term of RAM, memory and processor speed.

- When Vista came out three years ago, only 50% of all corporate PCs were Vista-ready for an upgrade.

"It's pretty clear that hardware upgrade costs won't be the stumbling block for Windows 7 that they were for Vista,"

- Dean Williams, services development manager for Softchoice.

- Microsoft has the right strategy in this economy to get Windows 7 out there. Three words: bargains, bargains, bargains.

"This is where we've put a lot of coordination effort to make sure that customers more than ever get some great, great value, starting on October 22 and continuing. Customers can expect deals, deals, deals."

- Tami Reller, VP Microsoft as quoted by CNet

In addition to the Crazy Eddie blitz, there will be some of the typical Microsoft launch drama. It's not a tech launch without the proper amount of circus antics, hype and hysteria.

Here's what to expect on Thursday:

- Microsoft will be the opening act for NASDAQ on Thursday.

- Look for huge launch events in Japan, Great Britain and, of course, New York City.

According to IT World, “many major social networking sites are leaking information that allows third party advertising and tracking companies to associate the Web browsing habits of users with a specific person.” This assertion is based on research that was recently done by AT&T Labs and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that recently blogged about the research findings, wrote, “"In some cases, the leakage may be unintentional, but in others, there is clever and surreptitious anti-privacy engineering at work.”

You can also download a PDF of the full study.

The study is pretty technical, but suffice it to say that a smart coder can figure out a whole bunch of stuff about you from online sources that wouldn't be obvious at first, based on cookies and other data hidden on webpages that you visit. It's actually kind of cool from an academic perspective (but scary from others).

–

Curt is the founder & CEO of a timesheet software company in Austin, Texas.

P.S. Happy Anniversary Amanda!

Recently I went on a fairly lengthy rant about Nokia and AT&T's new netbook alliance. Nokia will start selling its first PC through Best Buy on October 22nd. The Booklet 3G will go for $299 with a two year AT&T contract at $60 a month. Without the contract, it's a cool $599.

Today, I feel the need to go a step further and rant about the business model itself and the bigger picture.

AT&T didn't pull these price points out of the air; more like Verizon's web site. This is pretty much what Verizon is charging for a HP netbook, as well. As I pointed out yesterday, I paid $330 for my HP Mini. If I had more money than sense, I could have paid just under $600 for virtually the same PC if I had bought it through Verizon (or better yet, $1750-ish if I had gone for the teaser price and the 24 month contract).

For the past couple of years, netbooks have been selling like hotcakes. While laptop sales have looked like typewriter sales figures by comparison and abacus sales have been mopping the floor with desktop sales; truly, the only bright spot in the PC industry during this perfect storm known as "Mr. Economy-meet- Mr. Vista" has been the netbook.

So why have people been snapping up netbooks? Answer: because they've been snappable.

I snapped up mine one weekend after my six year old killed my laptop (I prefer not to discuss the details - too painful!) and I needed a cheap, fast, no-brainer PC replacement.

I would not have done the same if it had required a marriage contract with my mobile service provider. That's not a fast solution. It's a slow bleed off my bank account and I have enough of those. I love my netbook, but it's not a $60 a month kind of love; especially when I can just tether it to my $30-a-month data plan smartphone to get online when I'm out and about.

My concern is that PC makers (Nokia now being one of them; how weird is that!) will take the easy money cutting deals with the mobile service providers. Let AT&T, Verizon, etc. do their sales and marketing for them!

The telcos in return will demand that their business model be the only business model. Their business model dictates that netbooks should be priced like smartphones. Up until now, they've been priced to undersell full-sized laptops.

I see the future and its not pretty.

Wouldn't it be nice if the reverse happened instead. Let PC makers sell smartphones priced like the low-end PC's that they are.

I know, I know; it would also be nice if the IRS went away, too. A geek can dream.

Okay, it took me two days; but I am now stepping down off my soapbox.

ComputerWorld has published an interesting new article on common misconceptions about data disposal. Many companies tend to save everything, which can be an enormous cost drain. The writer claims that “there is a tremendous opportunity for companies to defensibly dispose of data and dramatically lower their data storage costs.”

It turns out that the 'save everything' strategy gets exponentially expensive as companies mature and the cost of data production drops. Sound familiar?

–

Curt Finch is the founder & CEO of a resource management software company.