Rui CarmoI'm going to go out on a limb here and announce that I will be taking a little break. Not from "blogging" (which I don't really think is what I do on this site), but from trying to keep track of the deluge of tech news in general.
As such, I expect to spend a bit more time puttering about the rest of the Wiki than adding to the (already considerably vast) number of front page posts.
This is due to many factors, of which the following are plainly obvious -
- Despite my ability to speed read and the relative ease I have in (and enjoyment I derive from) writing, there is far too much to try to keep track of, and writing short (if pointed) commentary about everything takes its toll. As always, less is more, but I am starting to re-think my approach to writing and wondering if I should take up one of the occasional offers for writing a weekly column somewhere (maybe even in Portuguese), doing longer, but more focused pieces.
- Due to my Disclaimer, I cannot comment on any of the interesting news regarding mobile services, VoIP, IMS, HSDPA, convergence and whatnot. Even if I have personal views on any of those topics and keep track of a lot of news in the field, it just doesn't make sense for me to write publicly about them here. Furthermore, although telco strategy and broader regulatory topics used to be fair game, I now find myself more and more limited in what I can write about as I become involved in those issues (it's kind of a downer because I have to keep discarding ideas for posts, but I must abide by my own rules).
- I am about to start another fiscal work year in earnest (after the usual closure and re-focusing stage), and 2006 is going to be a very tough year for telcos. This is due to several reasons and none in particular - it's just the way of a saturated market and how it reflects on the organizations sailing in it. As such, I need to relax more deeply when I'm home, and, again, despite enjoying writing, I need to make some changes in how I manage my free time.
- Although I have pretty much given up on an MBA, there are other avenues open to me for expanding my interest in Management and business in general. I'm toying with the possibilities again, and all of them have an impact on my free time (it all boils down to it, since I can't see myself taking a leave of absence or some such thing).
- Most of what is considered "news" in the Mac world has become (thanks to high-profile, ad-driven sites) mostly speculation to capture eyeballs, and it gets tiring to wade through six nearly identical (yet often subtly wrong in different ways) tongue-in-cheek takes on the latest Apple rumor. You'll have noticed that I avoid linking to that sort of thing, but now I don't even want to read that sort of thing.
These are the five biggies. There's also a background issue that also has some bearing on my work (but which I've mostly indulged in during my free time during the past couple of years), and that is keeping track of phones, gadgets and mobile platforms. Well, it just isn't as much fun anymore.
As I wrote several times before, the current (near chaotic) diversity of devices masks profound issues in handset interaction design (in UI and functional terms), not the least of which is that phones now have far too many features that the average user will never fully take advantage of - and the current three-way split between Windows smartphones, Symbian ones and "everything else" isn't helping, either.
I'm probably going to be branded as a Luddite for writing this, but I still favor simple, task-oriented devices instead of universal tools. A Leatherman is cool, but it's not for the average person - you either really need a few of the tools a lot of the time, or you're the kind of person to take it with you everywhere because you like the idea of having it. Some people might think that is justification enough for anything, but it's not for me. I'm of a more spartan and utilitarian mindset.
So I'd rather keep writing about the interesting aspects of owning a Mac, comment on the occasional Apple (or third-party) product and throwing in a bit of common sense (and GTD-fu) now and then.
Odd thing, common sense - it seems to be absent in a lot of contexts lately.