Keith Lightfoot Blogosphere

Has anyone noticed that people don’t talk on phones any more?

Young people have developed a whole new abbreviated text language (coupled with RSI speed thumbs) and prefer to send strings of often misunderstood half duplex messages describing tiny happenings in their day/night.

I have to confess that if I receive a text message from a less-than-my-age person (which now includes most of New Zealand), by the time I’ve read the message and begun the typing process, I’ve often received another text message from the same person saying “Hello?”

Technology continues to accelerate and change our lives, sometimes subtly, sometimes very blatantly. Most people have forgotten that the LCD they sit 40cm from is larger than the initial family sized televisions in this country. When the iPad was released I visited a dealer, picked up the iPad and said to myself “wow, this is quite heavy!” then laughed as I realised… “compared to what; an IBM 370 Mainframe?”

There was a time when we used to actually visit our local bank (provided we could make it before it closed mid-afternoon); we used to go and see the second hand cars for sale instead of firing up Trademe on our Android phone; we used to take photos and develop them a year later (only when we had used the whole film, of course) and then discover that many of the images were blurred or out of focus (but we kept them anyway because we’d paid for them).

As technology advances, so does our concept of time. If the microwave is taking two minutes to heat our meal, we strum our fingers on the counter and sigh (conveniently forgetting that this cooking process used to take our parents a couple of hours); if we can’t find what we’re looking for on the internet immediately (or if the internet is running “slow”), we shake our heads in frustration and wonder why we even came to work that day.

Imagine saying to your great grandparents that one day you’ll able to “carry” a single very-small device, that plays movies, talks to a satellite and tells you where you are; sends and receives written messages, photos and videos through the air; has your diary inside; enables you to read and buy books without going to a library or a book store; takes high quality photos and videos; enables you to write a book anywhere any time; allows you to video chat to your family thousands of miles away; pays for goods without money; carries your ID for boarding an aircraft; allows you to draw and paint without ink, canvas or pencils; can recognise your voice; can read a book to you; stores thousands of songs and hundreds of movies; enables you to watch TV anytime anywhere and acts as a remote for electronic devices in your home or office. Wow!

Oh, I almost forgot, it also allows you to “talk to people”… if you really want to.

Photo:
Collage shows author crawling on the grass using Android mobile phone as camera, typical meeting room with technology strewn across the table, beautiful 1947 Morris Eight, a “proper” telephone, advertisement for an ICT 1301 mainframe computer and a photo captured with the mobile phone (quality of capture is better than most dedicated digital cameras a couple of years ago).

“Excuse me” said the young bird,
“You are older than I, so can you tell me where to find the sky?”
“The sky”, said the older bird “Is the thing you are in now”.
“But this is just air?” exclaimed the young bird,
“What I am seeking is the sky!” and he flew away to search elsewhere for it.

Our house is old (think “well loved”) and needs some DIY when time and funds permit, but we love it, we feel it has a special kind of inner peace, we have made it our home and people that visit comment how “tranquil” it feels when they are here.

Sometimes late at night we stand on the decking and look into the silent sky. The stars are so much brighter without street lights, passing traffic or the city glow. I know it sounds romantic and foolish to speak like this, but we feel truly blessed in our little piece of tranquillity.

The last time I lived in Southland I was far too busy-being-busy to be looking at stars, or family, or thinking about finding a quiet spot to live (think “IT geek who looked like a young Bill Gates, working equally as hard, but without the money or lifestyle”).

Sadly I was like many young men, full of my own importance, overflowing with testosterone, pursuing a career like “a dog chasing an invisible rabbit” and instead of stopping and looking up into the night sky, I kept my head down and charged headlong into the darkness.

Becoming a celebrant has been a dream for many years. There are already many wonderful marriage celebrants in Gore and many Southland weddings are testimony to the care and professionalism of these dedicated people.

Our goal is to work alongside the established Gore marriage celebrants. It is time for me to give back to the community that cared for me during my wild youth.

A special thanks to those people who have believed in me and supported me.

GOD Bless
Keith Lightfoot

I have discovered that the longer I am alive, the less I “know”.

We all have our opinions about everything and everybody. Yet most of what we “know” is actually our accepted definition of the world around us.

I like to think of myself as a computer geek, someone who has worked hard to stay abreast of hardware, software and system usage patterns. Many people see me as that person and until recently I managed to convince myself that there was no generation gap between me (think “old computer pioneer with far too much technology information in his head”) and the new social media user (think “young person with the ability to consume a Gigabyte of bandwidth a night, just chatting to friends online”).

Video talking on Skype, taking notes in Word, checking emails and drinking coffee “all at the same time” used to make me feel proud and almost geeky, until I discovered these power-users lurking in their bedrooms.

It seems that a whole new breed of person has evolved around me without my knowledge. They have developed skills that I do not wish to master, skills that allow them to connect with similar beings, using multiple forms of social media communication. They surf the internet, chat on 3-4 video calls, respond to instant text messages, watch TV, text each other, play online computer games and watch youtube movies, all simultaneously.

If this concept makes your head spin, then welcome to the new generation gap. Kids who are fourteen years old have already mastered this multi tasking technology dance.

My experience (think “knowledge + mistakes”) tells me that this social trend is going to continue. Organisations need to consider Social Networking as an important part of their online strategy and they need to think very carefully before making their move into this online three dimensional maze. Some companies have succeeded in their deployment, others have failed miserably.

So I have decided to enter the social media world, but the thought of regularly entering text into my tiny mobile phone is too much to bear, hence the iPad evaluation.

A solid state device slim enough to fit into my tired briefcase, a keypad large enough to see, e-books to read and a battery life long enough to make it worthwhile taking on a business trip.

“Keith Lightfoot becomes Apple user!” Steve Jobs has probably been waiting for this day.

We have entered the 21^st century, we have conquered the moon (although some people dispute the reality of the landing), we have embraced technology in every aspect of our personal and business lives, and yet we still cannot get past the smoke and mirror of many computer hardware and software suppliers.

The general public have always had trouble dealing with computer sales people and computer consultants, and for short time maybe there was some justification due to the small number of computers users, smaller number of trained technicians and lack of knowledge in the industry.

Yet here were are only a few weeks from Christmas 2009 and nothing has changed!

There is a classic French quotation “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” … “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

We have simply moved our focus from mainframe computer discussions to personal computers, communications and website discussions. Everybody is an expert or nobody knows anything and most people are just confused and frustrated.

Acronyms for computer bits (a word formed from the initial letters of a name) continue to be invented and marketed, and spoken about as if they are real things. Computer specialists are often highly paid, some provide great service, some seem intent on annoying the customer and unfortunately the industry still has a bad name.

Sometimes the infraction is completely innocent due to inexperience or excess testosterone (in the case of a male consultant) and sometimes it is deliberate in the under selling of a computer solution that could never actually do the job.

Not listening to the customer’s requirements during the initial meetings is one of the major causes, resulting in assumptions about hardware or software capabilities or possibly someone did not ask enough “hard questions” during the scoping process. 

The more customers (and business owners) I speak to, the more I hear the classic tales of woe. Massive cost overruns, extended deadlines, not enough resource, lost data, slow connections, complete confusion, loss of revenue and real anger.

There are always exceptions to the rule and across every profession there are individuals who stand out as being truly interested in the outcome and who are prepared to take the time to explain clearly (in non-computer English) exactly how it works and the associated benefits.

These people have become my friends because of “who they are and how they treated me as a customer, consultant or business associate”. The list is completely biased (only my point of view based on my limited personal experience after forty years in the industry) and probably not complete.

During my time with Telecom I came across a softly spoken gentleman named Roly Rogers, CEO, ECONZ. Roly has a huge amount of knowledge in the area of communications and wireless technology, yet is able to relate to people with no computer experience and explain his services.

In my endless search for an SEO expert (think “lots of smoke and mirrors” for this category) I found Stephan Spencer from Netconcepts. Stephan is recognised internationally as an authority on SEO, but more importantly he also able to sit down one-on-one and explain to anyone how it works. Stephan runs a very popular and very informative blog on SEO with some excellent videos and downloads to explain the process.

My favourite individuals in the website development category are Mike Baddeley, Wired Internet Group and Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts. For spam filtering I can recommend Nick Bolton, Firetrust to provide a no nonsense email washing program to filter all unwanted messages from your computer.

Most computer retail stores have at least one truly informed salesperson (often the owner) so it is important not to just accept the first offer, unless you have been referred by someone you trust (and that person has actually bought from the recommended person).

Some basic tips on buying a personal computer:

1. Always buy more capacity, features and speed than you need, stretch your budget a little, because in 12-24 months new software, high resolution photos, operating systems and connected devices will begin to drag your computer down
2. Buy an established brand; eg. Dell, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Toshiba
3. If you are buying a laptop/notebook take the extended warranty option. Unlike a desktop computer where technology bits can be individually replaced, laptops tend to have lots of components squashed together to minimise size, so when one piece stops working, the whole device becomes useless without a complete heart transplant (sometimes more than the cost of a whole new laptop)
4. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of dumb questions before you buy it, you can learn from each salesperson and you can judge how they answer your questions and how they treat you
5. Keep backup copies of your important documents, photos, music and email on CD, DVD, memory card or external disk. The computer will fail one day, it may be years before it dies or a few weeks after you bought it, and it will give you no warning.

We all go through life looking for people to trust and people we can relate to, in business and in our personal sphere of influence. They are often more difficult to find that we might have hoped and when we discover one, we hang on and recommend them with great enthusiasm to our friends and family.

My entire career has been in and around the computer industry, initially as a long-haired computer geek and lately as a going-grey computer geek. I have met and worked with literally hundreds of computer people yet I am only able to name a handful of business owners who will always do their best to provide accurate information.

It is up to each of us to do the very best we can in our chosen profession, to always try to see the problem from the other person’s perspective, to remember that our knowledge and experience is different from theirs and to make sure that we treat everybody with courtesy, grace and integrity.

I truly hope you are on someone’s list of recommendations.