In my humble and estimable opinion, Inkjet's are right up there with Bernie Madoff when it comes to hoovering up your money.  If you have kids, the cost of replacement inkjet cartridges during their primary school years could in all likelihood pay for an ivy league tuition.  The printer companies sucker you in with ultra cheap prices on the entry level inkjet printers just like the Cellular providers get you with a cheap phone.  Once they get you in for a Penny, they're into you for their Pound.  Personally I am not sure what is the more usurious, the amount of coin the phone company charges for text messages or the cost of inkjet cartridges, both are blatant ripoffs. Thankfully, most of the cheap inkjets printers give up the ghost within a few years, but the intervening time will be filled with jams, agonizingly slow printing, clogs and endless trips to Staples for more ink.  One Ink or two ink refills and you have probably already shelled out the original purchase price.  Before you do your cost bene analysis, it has been my experience that the ink cartridges don't last nearly as many pages as the manufacturers estimates.  Don't count on getting cheap third party replacement ink, the manufacturers change the cartridge design frequently and some have chips inside them that will expire the cartridge and render it useless after a period of time.  Believe me, they guard this revenue with an intensity unmatched by the most bloodthirsty Yakuza.  Even if you already have one, just toss it or sell it on e-bay and get yourself a decent Laser Printer.  It might cost you three or four times the price of the cheapy inkjet, but a good laser printer is worth that differential many times over.  There is also a hidden discount over an inkjet, the laser printer will probably come with toner.  Sure the Inkjet comes with ink, but it won't last 1/20th as long as the laser toner.  Bear in mind, that replacement toner cartridges are mind numbingly expensive, but they last a good long time.  My Dell laser's original cartridges lasted for well over a year and my kids have by now printed off a hardcopy of the internet. If you are a professional photographer, by all means get a high quality inkjet, but your average household will be much better served with a laser,

Let's get this out of the way first and stipulate that the ENVY line's design is a total ripoff of the MacBook Pro design, shamelessly so actually. And why should they be ashamed? The MacBooks are by far the best looking, best constructed laptops on the planet and there is no shame in learning from your rivals. Isn't imitation the highest form of flattery? These new HPs actually out gun the Mac books in a few ways (and they ought to, they are a newer design after all), the 13 inch version ponces into the local Starbucks sporting what is purported to be the brightest screen on the market, a core 2 duo low voltage processor and a very slick, ultra thin extended battery pack that magnetically adheres to the bottom of the case, kinda like an ultra thin docking station. All said it's nice to see HP move their design into more restrained territory than their current, sometimes over-blinged, mass market consumer lineup. The new ENVYs also come with "premium" support, whatever that means. And herein lies the rub, I was a victim of the HP ZD7000 debacle and have not bought an HP product since. Like the new ENVY line the ZD looked great, but was poorly engineered where it counts, poorly documented and almost unsupported. So, as much as I like these new HP's I will wait and see. HP has been on somewhat of a roll since Carly F left (coincidence? I think not) but time will tell if they have really changed.

MS released a technical preview beta today, and the broader world got a good look at what the web version of Office is going to look like. Color me impressed, at least from a look and feel perspective, the apps look very much like their desktop cousins. I have only seen very small previews, but if the apps perform like the desktop cousins, Google is going to have a tough row to hoe. We'll see how this whole thing plays out, it could turn out that the online versions suffer from the complexity and bloat of the desktop versions and that simple really is better. Still though, Enterprise customers will likely flock to the MS solution, if for no other reason than familiarity. It remains to be seen how much MS will attempt to charge and how or wether they will have free versions and if those suck. If Google can spruce up apps, I am still betting on "Free" winning the day. This could turn out to be similar to the ISP wars in that the winner will be whomever can afford to give away the product the longest without going bust. Should be fun !

Here is a new SaaS company with an interesting project and process management tool. I have not personally tried it yet, and it looks like it might be a little shallow functionally, but they have a unique way of linking the various layers of a project that I have not seen elsewhere.

Google just announced their intention to move into the OS space with a new operating system called Chrome OS that will be available in 2010. From what I can gather it seems as though it's primarily aimed at netbooks and similar low power computers. Google aims to make Chrome a lightweight, speedy and secure "Cloud Based" offering. I am just guessing, but I would imagine their goal is to get as close to an "instant on" as possible on a SSD equipped netbook. I am not sure what "Cloud Based" will mean, but I would guess that it might include either online extension of the HD and/or apps running on the Google apps platform and open sourced. My reasoning is that these are the current and future limitations of netbooks are processing power, storage and OS overhead, and if Chrome could mitigate those limitations they will have a real value proposition. Allowing developers to create and host apps on the Google Apps platform (a-la iphone apps store) would also drive some revenue for Google and Developers. For more check out: The official announcement Gizmodo's Take on Chrome

I took my daughters and their cousin on a day trip to Battleship Cove in Fall River MA last week. When I was a kid in the 1970's I loved going there, but after 30 or so years, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. More... In addition to the battleship and it's long time neighbors the WWII submarine Lionfish and the Vietnam era destroyer Kennedy, they had two complete WWII PT boats displayed in a covered shed and an Eastern Block missile corvette from the 1980's, very cool. The place was also hopping and all the boats were mobbed with people. The Massachusetts was a bit worse for wear topside than it was 30 years ago, but there was a lot of restoration work ongoing, so hopefully they have a handle on it. The ship made a trip to the huge drydock #3 in Boston for a thorough reconditioning below the waterline (photo above). The most impressive thing as an adult visiting the ship, is the sheer complexity of it. The engineering spaces and fire control rooms boogle the mind. In the digital age we are used to sensors and embedded processors doing all work for us. One may as well be on an alien space ship, and ultimately as an adult, that is the best part, trying to piece together the whole of the ships pieces, how did it work? That and trying to imagine what life was like for those aboard in the 40's.

From the BBC: Money Quote: "It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette." Here's the Link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

HP dropped the new Mini 5101 Netbook today, and I have to say it looks like a winner. HP is kindof an odd duck in the Netbook world and they have had a somewhat incoherent product suite. Their first Netbook had the form factor and design right (sporting an Apple like aluminum case and awesome keyboard & display), but it was saddled with a high price, Windows Vista and the less than stellar Via processor (rather than the de-riguer Intel Atom). HP then followed that up with a me too Netbook that offered nothing to diferentiate itself from say, the Lenovo S10 I am writing this on. Add to that a "Mini" with a 12" screen and stir. The Mini 5101 looks like the inexplicably good looking child of awkward parents. More... It has a 10 inch LCD available in the standard 1024 x 600 resolution, or you can opt for the high end 1366 x 768 sortof HD. Like the first Mini it features exemplary construction with a brushed aluminum lid and magnesium chassis and 95% full sized Macbook like chicklet keyboard. The new HP Mini has an Intel Atom processor and a unique set of Hard Disk options. The standard drives are high performance 7,200 rpm spinning disks, but optional are the first (to my knowledge) high capacity SSD (solid state disks) offered in a Netbook @ 80 or 128 gb. I could not find specs on the SSD's however and they vary dramatically in performance, given the high price of decent SSD's (The OCZ SSD I mentioned in an earlier post - which will outperform a 7200rpm drive) I suspect they are the low end, but the pricing details will reveal that. You can get the Mini 5150 with XP, Vista or some McLinux and it starts @ $450. This is a pretty serious computer though, and like HP's other Netbooks and many German cars, the "as ordered" price will probably be at least 1/3 to 1/2 higher than the loss leader.

In '07 Google acquired Grand Central, a VOIP telecom company and Grand Central services are about to be re-launched as Google Voice. Currently the service is only open to legacy Grand Central users, but Google has just acquired 1 million phone numbers from Level 3 in Boulder. Just from the basic information on the Google Voice home page, Voice seems to have an exceptionally rich and deep feature set, covering the gamut of VOIP features and best of all, it's free (at least for individuals). While it's clear that it is going to be a slam dunk for consumers, it's less clear but potentially more revolutionary for the Enterprise. More... With the addition of Voice, Google has a very wide and complete communication & collaboration product set, but where is it all leading? Currently, there is little integration between the various products on the Enterprise side. The possibilities are staggering, imagine if Waves and Voice were integrated, now you're cooking with gas, all of your project communications Voice, SMS, E-Mail, BBS, Documents and Instant messaging could be accessed from one place, and most importantly searched with Google's familiar search. Why not add the RSS feeds as well, Project Tweets, Calendar and etc. The possibilities are really intriguing, The trouble for Google in my opinion is how to maintain focus and avoid falling into the same trap as Microsoft, who's Massively integrated product suite is clunky, complex, bloated and just really tries to do too much, ending up doing none of it well. I have no idea where this will end up for Google, but it is terrifically exciting and I can't wait to see what happens.

I have had my Lenovo S10 for almost a year now, so I thought it would be a good idea to update folks on how it's been going. In short, it's been great, in fact, almost unbelievable given the low price. More...I have been using it as a backup, travel laptop and I use it pretty much every day. The light weight and compact dimensions are really the killer feature of Netbooks and in my experience it is well worth the trade off in performance and display/keyboard size. The only modification I have made to my S-10 was to max out the RAM (which was a snap to do BTW, one panel on the bottom of the computer gives you access to everything you need). Performance wise, it has performed perfectly well in run of the mill use like web surfing and apps and office productivity work. I have MS Office and Open Office draw and both suites work just fine, which I had not expected. The small size is perfect for plane use, where the small screen height is a decided advantage. Battery performance has been somewhat meh, and in actual use lasts 2-3 hours. Take this with the following caveat, I run the s-10 on the highest performance energy setting. The battery management software is o.k., but it seems to turn down the processor and display as power runs low (I am sure as designed). The trouble for me is that it keeps it there even after a recharge, it's a small PITA, and you may be able to fix it somewhere, but I can't be bothered with looking. If you are a Project Manager and have a lot of meetings, this is the gadget for you, take it to the meeting and make all the updates on the spot. By the time you are out of the meeting, the minutes are already in the team's in-boxs.

86 The PMBOK and Get Cooking - Three things the IT PM can learn from a Chef An IT project has a lot in common with a commercial Kitchen. Scott Berkin made this point in his book "Making Things Happen", and I could not agree more, in fact I have been saying the same thing for years. Why? A busy restaurant kitchen is an incredibly stressful and challenging environment, one that during the dinner rush is on the knife edge of the possible. Sound Familiar? Most of us have cooked for friends and family at Thanksgiving and have experienced the stress of cooking for a big group. The phrase "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen" is undeniably true during these moments, and yet, you are only cooking one meal for 20 or so people. How does the relatively small restaurant kitchen crew pump out hundreds of individualized meals in just a few hours and what can that tell you about IT Project Management? Meticulous Preparation Appropriate Risk Management Ruthless Efficiency More... Meticulous Preparation: Nail the Basics This is the ante, without it you don't even get to play. For every meal service there is at least another 3 days of prep. Menu's & specials are planned, portions and recipes are set, staff is trained, food is ordered, baked goods and deserts are made overnight and finally food is prepped as close as being plate ready as possible. Nothing is left to chance. Why? because shit happens, that's why...... learn it, expect it, embrace it. Look at the picture again, the guy on the left is clearly dealing with some "shit" that just "happened". What's the rest of the staff doing? Their jobs ! That guy is called the "expediter" he is akin to the project manager. He is able to resolve the issue without derailing other activities because they have nailed the basics. Appropriate Risk Management: Nobody Likes Eeyore IT folks as a group are so risk averse that they spend an incredible amount of time worrying about and planning for every little thing that could possibly go wrong (no matter how unlikely). This is incredibly counter productive and inneficient, unless you are doing Military or Medical work, if that's the case, knock yourself out. Plug the obvious holes and move on. In a commercial kitchen as in a large IT project, there is an unimaginable number of things that could go wrong; orders are late or incomplete, waitstaff get flaky, cooks get cuts and burns, food goes bad, people get sick or no show and random things catch fire. If the kitchen were run by IT folks, there would be an ambulance and fire engine stationed outside and two of everything inside. There would also probably be meetings held before and after every plate is prepared, but that's another story. You and your IT project team and business partners need to understand that all kinds of things will go wrong and be mentally prepared, because if you have nailed the basics in planning and prep, and don't freak out, you'll recover. Ruthless Efficiency: If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean. In a well run kitchen, you are always working. Why? because management makes sure your working. The Chef doesn't send you an e-mail or wait for you to tell her that you're finished, she constantly walks around and makes sure you know what to do if you are idle. Let MBWA (Management by Walking Around) be your mantra. If a cook is not pulling their weight they are GONE - even in mid shift. It will kill your staff's morale and their respect for you if a team member doesn't pull their weight constantly. Be visible and keep people busy, don't be a jerk about it, but do it, quality, team cohesion and efficiency will all go up.