I Think, Therefore I Rant!

Like a lot of people, I have become hooked on “desktop search” products. These products index your hard drive’s documents so that you can quickly and easily search for that piece of information you know that you have but are missing. The most popular version of this is Google Desktop but there are others and I particularly like Copernic Desktop Search because I find it more stable than the other utilities on the market and it can read my calendar in Outlook which is a big deal to me.

As much as I like these tools, I find that there is one big thing that they all miss. They don’t rank my favorite sites higher than other sites if I am doing a web search. This simply doesn’t make sense. Obviously, I have been to that site before (or else it wouldn’t be in my Favorites/Bookmarks folder). Therefore, I trust that information more than other information.

Your signature on an email is essential. It should contain the information that allows the reader to contact you without sending you an email. It should not contain images as these will only slow down the transmission of the email and may not be read by the reader’s email program (remember, assume they are reading this on their phone).

Your original email should have quite a bit of contact information. This may include your full name, phone numbers, address, and a link to a website about you or your company. However, don’t be a bandwidth hog and include that same signature on a reply email since it is likely the person already has most of that information. For replies, you should only have the basics e.g. your name and a pertinent phone number.

INCLUDE A SIGNATURE AFTER EVERY EMAIL BUT DON’T OVERLOAD IT WITH WASTED JUNK - EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO KEEP IT SIMPLE!

It is time to rant about email again. Yes, I know that email is the greatest thing of the Internet. It has become the “killer app” that has truly driven corporate America to provide computers to all of its white collar work force. More than Word or Excel, email has become essential to today’s workforce. For this reason, we need to chastise those that screw it up.

EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO DON’T SPEND TIME TRYING TO MAKE IT PRETTY!

Putting tables and graphs in an email is bad. You should use the rule of thumb that the reader is going to look at it in a pure text view (like on a phone). Don’t use bullets - use dashes instead or an asterisk (*) instead.

I read a lot of blogs. I enjoy getting thoughts on a variety of subjects that only the blogging community can give me. I encourage more people to create and run a blog, it is quite enjoyable and most people have something worthwhile to write.

A fairly common technique in the blogging community is to reduce the length of the post with the MORE command (check out this link for information and background). However, in my opinion, the MORE command doesn’t work correctly for most blogging platforms, especially Wordpress out of the box. The blogger must also use the equivalent of the Less plug-in for a better experience.

Why do people write emails without finishing the process?

I despise it when someone writes me an email saying that we should talk, have lunch, etc. but then don’t suggest a time and place. Asking someone if they want to go to lunch is not any easier than asking someone to go to lunch next Thursday at McSnoops at 11:30AM.

The former method simply creates more work if no one takes charge. You ask me to go to lunch. I say yes. You ask me where. I say McSnoops. You ask me when. I say next Thursday. You ask me what time. I say 11:30. 8 emails that should only take 2.

FINISH THE THOUGHT!

TAKE CHARGE!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm
http://www.emailreplies.com/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/to-bcc-or-not-bcc-email-etiquette.html

I despise software that thinks it knows best! I want it to be smart enough to know what to do no matter where I put it or where its data resides.

Why do software companies think they know where to put stuff? I hate it when the install of the software doesn’t allow me to put the application on the hard drive that I choose (it is rarely the C drive that it likes). Software programmers that don’t ask where to install should be FIRED and their software should be THROWN INTO THE BIT HEAP!

I also don’t like it when it tells me where to store my data. Sometimes, I want it in My Documents and sometimes I don’t. If I know I am going to back up that data then I want it in My Documents. If I am not going to back it up, I don’t want it in My Documents. Apple is really guilty of this with their iTunes software (don’t ever let them manage your music - it will be lost forever).

So why don’t iPods support WMA and similarly, why don’t other devices support AAC (Apple’s format)?

The why is simple. WMA is the format that many companies (e.g. Yahoo) use in their stores to sell music. WMA is developed by Microsoft and it is a competitor. Is it a better sounding format? For the most part, no it is not - the formats are essentially tied in audio capability for the average listener and the average audio speakers.

So it is a competitive issue. Apple makes the best device on the market with something like 90% market share. They don’t like Microsoft, so they don’t play nice to Microsoft. It definitely is not a revenue issue for selling songs on iTunes since at 99 cents per song, Apple isn’t making a lot of money on the songs. They do make a bunch of money for every iPod that is sold though.

I will dedicate my first rant to one of my least favorite things to deal with and try to circumvent: music formats.

I spend a lot of time listening to audio. I drive a great deal in my car so I regularly hook up my iPod to my car stereo to listen to music, audible books, and podcasts. I have owned a lot of different portable music devices over the years and the iPod is by far the best designed. At its basic level, it supports AAC, MP3 and WAV format. It doesn’t, however, support WMA. Why?

Why can’t all portable audio devices play all formats? Why can’t my iPod play WMA? Why can’t my daughter’s Creative Zen play AAC?

This makes no sense.

More on this topic later…