The iPhone and AgileMarketers.com

The iPhone and things like it will play an important role at AgileMarketers.com. I'm figuring out the exact formula that works best for me today. Eventually, it will be the front-end for apps.

But for starters, I will post pictures and blog posts from the phone, from the notes application, into Blogger. That gives me HitTailing from my phone, which in itself is pretty amazing. At very least, this approach provides quick idea capture.

It's easy enough to tap out messages like this, then forward them as email. The trick is to include a photo, which I can do if I started out from the iPhone photo albumn app. Ironicallally with no cut and paste, I see no way to combine a post from notes with a photo from albumn, and send it as a single email.

Still, I'm going to incorporate the iPhone into Agile Marketing as much as I can, as I believe that mobile pocket computing is an important trend. When you think about the fact that I made this post without a computer, it's really amazing.

The same should be true for monitoring systems, alerts and the like. The iUI interface that iphone.facebook.com is using looks promising. I wish apple would release something. Happily, I'm about to get very close to programming again. I look forward to using the most modern Ajax and Agile programming techniques.

Cheap Laptop and Windows Grief

Until the iPhone has an offline RSS reader, I will be using my subway downtime to blog. It seems I have line-wrap issues, which I have to go back and edit in Blogger. Ugh! Still worth it.Anyway, the $269 laptop I got yesterday died, and I swapped it off for one that is $120 more, bringing up to just over $400 after tax--very close to what a new Acer laptop would cost after mail-in rebate from Radio Shack, or the price of 2 OLPC's, assuming you donate one.

Still, I don't have the time, and just have to bite the bullet and do it. I don't look forward to installing another 88 critical updates, after the Microsoft Installer, then another bunch to patches to IE7, and even more if I accept Media Player 11, then even more to patch Office, but not till after installing Windows Genuine Advantage.

Even for me, a Windows fan and lover of VBScript, this is ridiculous. Now, I see why Vista was necessary. XP has been patched into oblivion. It seems that the system's architecture should strike a better balance between security and ease of use without requiring investing an entire night into innocuoation. Its so bad that deleting temp files and doing a defrag and full system backup have to be the last step.

The iPhone in comparison can do so much less than a laptop, but I see where they're going with it. Technology won't acheive its promise until it serves us more than we serve it.

Sent from my iPhone

Agility Vs. Hacking

The whole concept of agile programming, which I'm playing off of for
the field of marketing, is being catapulted to the front of our
awareness, primarilly by the Ruby on Rails agile programming
framework. I'm doing this post to put the term agile in perspective.

Agile implies the fact that you don't know everyhing you need to know
at the outset of a project. Often, the first step of a project is thw
creation od a requirements document. But with easier programming
platforms, and the removal of the danger of committing to code too
soon, some magical effects happen.

First, the ACTUAL problem domain owner can do the work, eliminating
all the inefficiency of communicating to a non-invested programmer.
All the important nuanced details that make all the difference, but
which are usually lost in communication are not lost. The vision can
be more directly realized.

Second, fear disolves away. Agile frameworks create a ready, fire, aim
approach that we've been trained to despise, because of the inherent
risk of wasting time, money, and other resources. But when you're told
your mistakes won't be held against you, but are rather encouraged as
part of a "zero'ing in" process, then you can be playful and
experimental, right in the implementation stage.

In the past, such a shooting from the hip approach would be frowned
upon as hacking. But today, hackers have become so much more
efficient, and able to turn their rapid productivity skills into
personal fortunes in the Web 2.0 world, that everyone else now wants a
piece of that action. Ruby on Rails walked into a perfect storm.

Anyway, now that you don't need a computer science degree to be an
effective programmer, and Marketing people are the biggest customers
for such apps, the time has come for Agile Marketing.

Sent from my iPhone

Agile Marketing = First Writing Suggestion

Here I am on the subway again, blogging from my iPhone. Their grammar
and punctuation correction really is all that. Very appropriate for
building up those 100 initial posts required for HitTailing.

Within four days of launching the site, it was on the first page of
Google on the targetted keyword--answering the venerable question if
how long it takes to get into Google: 4 days.

But the targetted term was agile marketers, the same as the domain,
and not the more popular present participle form: agile marketing.
This us the FIRST HitTail suggestion issued for this brand new site,
and illustrates the importance and meaning of HitTail writing
suggestions.

So, a day or two later, I accept it as a writing suggestion, and work
it into the headline of a new blog post.

BAM!

Sent from my iPhone

Laptop for $269

Laptop for $269
I'm in NYC and needed a new laptop quick. I've wanted to do that $400
OLPC charity deal, or maybe even that Asus $200 competitor.

But I knew I'd have to load Excel files and give PowerPoint, and
didn't want to wait. So after avoiding being ripped off from one of
those fancy electonic stores with a killer window display, I Googled
refurbished laptops NYC. I immediately found a place downtown, The
Little Laptop Shop, with its phone-number ready to tap. I called,
verified that they were open to 7:00PM. I went over by subway, bought
one, a 500MHz Pentium M Compaq Armada, for $299. For me, Google
default search even controls who gets my local business--especially
now with the iPhone.

I'm now on my way home, tapping out this blog post on my iPhone. Now,
that's agility!

Sent from my iPhone

Versus the Daily Grind

The daily grind is the enemy, making intelligent people average, and average people into virtual no one's. The trick is to deliberately take time apart and away from the daily grind to think, brainstorm and evaluate.

Don't let your mind or body acclimate to this time away. Mix it up. Be unpredictable, even to yourself, as a means of breaking out of your rut-worn paths.

HitTailing from my iPhone

This latest post is from the notes app in my iPhone. Part of agile marketing is blogging frequently, so as to build up the critical mass of content as required by the HitTailing process. And that means putting our downtime, such as riding the subway, to work for us. So, post to your blog from email from your phone. Don't be scared of short posts.