BlackBerry PlayBook FIRESALE

Well I’m not sure if it’s actually a firesale, however RIM (makers of the BlackBerry PlayBook) has knocked off HUGE money off of their PlayBook line.

In Canada you can pick-up a 16gb PlayBook for $199.99 (regular $499.99), a 32gb for $299.99 (regular $599.00) or a 64gb for $399.99 (regular $699.99).

The original prices are too inflated.  I think at this price, they will move a huge number of devices.

I was thinking of getting a 7″ Acer Iconia A100 for $299.00 (only 8gb) but the PlayBook is a better deal and it has WiFi or I could plunk the same amount into a 32gb PlayBook.

What to do?  What would YOU do?

Here is a pre-defined Google search for BlackBerry PlayBook for your convenience.

What Drives You And Your Career Ambitions?

Are you passionate about what you do?  Do you enjoy what you do?  Or are you there simply to collect a pay cheque and be content with coasting.

New flash – managers can tell when employees are coasting, and generally they (coasters) don’t get new assignments, opportunities for promotions or anything else that may pique their interest at work.  Once someone has decided that they are content with coasting, generally there is going to be very little that a manager is going to be able to do – and eventually they will coast themselves out of the job either on their own (by quitting) or by getting themselves fired.

While many will roll their eyes at anyone who is passionate about their career, there are those that truly are.  Not sure what percentage of people that may be, but I’m happy to say that I am one of those.

I love my work.  I love what I do.  I’ve always enjoyed what I do.

My career started out in Accounting.  OK, I hated accounting – it really wasn’t my cup of tea.

But everything I’ve done after that, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed!  My next career switch was to go back into IT and specifically Software Development.  I loved it.  I still love it, but can’t imagine myself spending 10+ hours in front of a monitor anymore.  I still remember thinking to myself “They actually pay me to do something I love” when I started my first career related job at Saville Systems (later ADC Telecommunications, and since has gone through several hands…) as a Software Developer/Analyst.

My passion ensured that I moved onto more interesting projects, had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and Japan and work towards a Project Manager position.

Even with what I do today – manage a small Customer Support center, I still love what I do.  Every call can be a challenge, dealing with people can be daunting – but at the end of the day when you know you’ve helped someone resolve an issue no matter how big (or small) it is there is a certain satisfaction you gain.  I also love the challenge of managing people, and developing processes that ultimately decide how good (or bad) my department will function.

I am passionate about what I do because I don’t always want to direct the group, eventually I want to move up to VP in Customer Operations or Operations.  In fact when polled about what drives them, most employees said:

• Greater opportunity for advancement – 27%
• Better management team – 21%
• More flexible work environment – 21%
• Better compensation – 17%
• Less work pressure – 14%

Source: http://www.theworkbuzz.com/employment/employees-want-advancement-opportunities-more-than-better-compensation/

Having worked in IT I would say that the list will be a little different, with one of the top items being the ability to take on more technically challenging opportunities.  In fact when I was in IT, advancement opportunities were secondary to taking on more challenging development roles.

What drives you?  Anything from this list, or something else?

image source: http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/03/_one_of_the_mos.shtml

Need Unlimited Cloud Storage For Free

Wanted – CLOUD STORAGE, willing to pay $0.00

Yup.  I know I’m dreaming, there will always be a cost associated with cloud storage.  Many services out there will give you between 1gb and 5gb free.  Google will give you 25gb with Google Apps for free but come on, the days of measuring storage in the GB are done.

I was speaking with someone the other day and the topic came around to storage, and media.  He told me that he has 12tb (yes TERABYTES) of documentaries stored on a home server all connected to every TV in his house.  Many friends that I have are doing the same, perhaps not on as grand a scale, but have successfully networked their home so that they can pull TV shows, movies and music from anywhere in their house and in some cases when they are outside of their house as well.

For power users in the home measuring storage in TB is the new normal.  But what about for devices such as iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, or even Windows powered phones and tablets?

iOS devices don’t allow for any additional memory other than what you purchase — and trust me 16gb is not enough (I’ve since learned with respect to my iPad).  For Android and Windows powered devices you have more options in way of micro SD cards – however the largest I’ve seen is 32gb and for the prolific picture or movie taker (on your portable device) this is still not enough.

What is the solution?  Cloud storage.

Who is out there, what will you get and what will it cost for more?  I did a bit of research to see what’s being offered and at what cost.

I found several companies offering the type of service that I wanted: Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, SugarSync, ZumoDrive, MemoPal, and Box.

All offered between 1gb and 5gb of free storage and then plans if you needed more. Companies like Apple and Amazon will allow you to store products purchased from their services without any limit, so you could have several hunderd GB of music stored on Apple or Amazon and it won’t cut into your free space.

Most offered an iOS app or Android front-end. There were some that also offered Windows and BB applications as well, but I wasn’t interested in those.

I’ve not looked at any other platforms other than mobile, as the intention is to look at mobile solutions I’ve also not considered pure storage type of services (for backup purposes only) as my needs are primarily to be able to store photos and HD video to an online service that I can access through an Android or iOS app over several devices.

While all these services did offer something for free, I really wanted TRUE unlimited space and well, there isn’t anything out there — at least nothing I was able to find. So that’s when I started looking at GPL solutions that I could implement onto one of my own domains. The one I found most promoted and talked about was something called ownCloud.

Some of the information that follows is taken directly from ownCloud.org, I’ve added my own emphasis in certain places to stress things that were important to me:

ownCloud started with a keynote by Frank Karlitschek at Camp KDE’10 where he talked about the need of a self-controlled free and open source cloud. It is part of KDE’s, a project connecting you with your peers in the community. The Social Desktop aims to bring the power of online communities and group collaboration to desktop applications. What’s more, the Social Desktop integrates sharing and exchanging knowledge into your apps.

They don’t currently have a version of the client for Android, but one is in the works – you can find a beta version at http://gitorious.org/owncloud/android. However there is a WebDAV client available for Android, iOS and BB available at http://seanashton.net/webdav/.

I have only started to work with ownCloud and hope to get some time to install it in the next few weeks on one of my domains. Once I’ve had a chance to install it, use it on my iOS and Android devices I will provide an update.

Setting up ownCloud will require some technical skills, it’s not as easy as installing WordPress - however if you’re inclined to try it yourself you can learn more about ownCloud by visiting their site at http://www.ownCloud.org.  To learn more about what ownCloud can to today visit http://owncloudtest.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-you-can-do-with-owncoud-today.html.  Development is ongoing, here is the latest post of recent enhancements and additions to the application http://owncloudtest.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-in-owncloud-overview.html.

A whole bunch of goodness has been added to ownCloud – check the blog post http://owncloudtest.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-in-owncloud-overview.html for more details:

• Contact syncing
• Tomahwak media player
• Bookmarks
• Sharing
• Interface improvements

I’m really looking forward to installing ownCloud and working with it on my Andriod and iOS devices.

If you’ve installed ownCloud and are working with it, I’d love to hear from you – what challenges did you have when setting this up?  Is it meeting your expectations?  What should someone be aware of when installing ownCloud?

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