Help me learn about coffee and tea

I've never been a coffee or a tea drinker.   I always laugh that I have plenty of other vices -- as I do like beer and the hard stuff, I like to gamble, I enjoy driving fast -- that I've never picked this one up.  I was always a soda drinker, to the point of a bit of insanity.   In college, I never picked up the coffee habit, but kept pounding soda.

The first time I lost weight, gearing up for my wedding, I switched from "regular" to "unleaded", moving to Diet drinks as part of the calorie management solution.   I did Weight Watchers, and it worked really well for me, and I was able to get down to a trim 175 for my wedding.   Sharon even thought it was too much weight loss.

I put the weight back on over the past two years, and with a rather stern warning from my doctor at the beginning of the year, I was told not only did I need to take the weight off, but that watching my sugars and carbs was going to be part of my life.   Yay me.

Thus, I geared up and dropped Diet soda as well as the other changes to my diet, and I'm well on track to target weight.   (Beer is currently under a restriction, where I only drink it in the UK, because mixed drinks in the UK is a waste of time and money.)  

What this has done, however, is leave me in a spot where, besides water, there aren't good "on the go" drinks.   With sodas out, and juices containing a lot of sugar I'm trying to avoid, and sports drinks off the table for calories reasons, I need to find myself something I can have.

Coffee and tea are things I've just not had the taste for, but I suspect it's because it's something I don't understand more than something I won't like.  For example, I didn't always like beer, and still don't like ALL beers (India Pale Ales just don't do it for me), there are beers I like and ones I don't like.   I feel like with this wealth of types of coffee and teas out there, there have to be ones I'd like!

But where to start is the bigger question.   I hear a lot of "go into a coffee shop and try things", but what to try?  When you don't know what things are, this isn't helping much.   I can't be adding tons of sugar to things either, as that defeats the purpose.

My preferences:

I like sweet things, and always have.  Of course, I'm on a sugar restricted diet, so no cheating and adding sugar.
Carb management is important, so watching those is important.

What to try?

I know there are a ton of coffee and tea drinkers out there -- how to best tackle this?

Am I getting bored with social media, or am I using it wrong?

I had this realization this weekend that I'm getting kinda bored with social media.

Maybe what is happening is I'm getting bored with my own social media presence, and maybe I'm using it wrong. I've never wanted to do two profiles, having profiles for personal and profiles for work. I've always thought the two are mixed, and in particular, I've always liked having a well rounded profile exposed to work people. This worked reasonably well when I had a smaller network, and there were less sites to manage.

Let's break this down by social media outlet.

Facebook is my "primary" one, and of late I feel like I'm not even getting content I want to see. By some obligation, I go there at least two or three times a day, but I don't feel like my news feed is actually giving me the stuff I care about. Maybe some of it is, but the whole interface is too slow to scan quickly, it focuses too much on stuff I don't feel I'm interested in, and the number of ads showing up in my feed is just insane (and even worse on mobile! Heaven forbid I try and read that there.

I like sharing things on Facebook -- that makes some sense to me, and seems to work rather well (at least, I think so), as people tend to like the stuff I post (meaning I get actual likes and comments, so some kind of engagement.

I've never gotten Twitter.  There, I admit it, I'm a social media "expert" who just doesn't get it.   If I thought Facebook had too much stuff I didn't care about, Twitter is even worse.    I try and be careful about who I follow, and thus not get too much info, but again, it's just this mass of stuff I never seem able to keep up with, and for something that's supposed to be about conversations I never seem to HAVE any conversations with people.   I've used automation to provide my stuff -- there, I admit it -- because I've never really figured it out.  Should I just follow less people?   Is it a matter of lists or something?  How do I get to just the stuff I want to see?

I want to like LinkedIn more than I do.   The feed seems useless to find out what anyone is actually doing, and the groups are just absolutely unmanageable.    I figured out how to make Foursquare (more on that in a moment) link to LinkedIn for just work-type places, and that seems really useful, but in terms of actually having meaningful interactions with people, what am I doing wrong?   I love it as a repository of who I work with and who I'm linked to -- but can it be a personal CRM too?   I can't link it to tasks (which I love, and use heavily, on my iOS devices synced with iCloud), but I can't link them to people very easily.  

Foursquare has been kinda interesting lately, mostly in that I like collecting checkins already, and now I can link to Facebook pretty easily, and collect a ton of them.  It's been really useful for exploring new places too (despite it's inability to find me a good coffee shop to work and try coffee in around my house).  I think I have the alerts up too high, because several other friends around me check in a lot too and it's just too much incoming information, but I think if I was just diligent I'd be able to clean that up. I got into Foursquare when they made the Facebook integration so good.

I admit I also like Untappd for beer (and linked to FB and 4SQ) because I like tracking what I tried (and can never remember what I like), the MLB At the Ballpark app because it also lets me link to 4SQ but collect the checkin in their app and see my game history.   There's one or two others that seem to work the same way, so when I think of them I use them. I think I like it because it's just a specialized "check in", and isn't in another place.  

Blogging is always something I've enjoyed doing but lack instant ideas.  I try and write something weekly for the corporate blog, and I just fired this back up because I didn't have a place to put it, but maybe I just need to develop a better writing habit.   Then the question comes up as to "Should I worry about sharing this, and if so, where".  Or do I have other things feed this blog?  (For instance, should I replicate my posts on the corporate blog here.  I mean, they're my words there too, and it seems silly to make people look for me in two places).

RSS Feeds I still love -- always have.   I love reading sites, and getting things in my Google Reader (soon to be something else) and in the Reeder app.  I feel like I can get information when I want it on the topics I want, and keep up.  I'm something of a completionist, so I like the fact I can catch up on all the stuff I missed since the last time I read.  

Where is the "main" one?  Should I have things feed into other things?  

And what about mood or time or intention?   Is that what I'm doing wrong with the integrated approach?  When I'm working, I want work information in front of me.  When I'm out having fun, I want to find others to have fun with, and share my fun.

I actually think I do a reasonable job of pushing OUT good content.   I try not to share crap, I try and be relevant, I try and connect others to good information, that kind of thing.  But when I'm looking for content, I feel like it's just too much and I'm not getting the stuff I'm looking for.  The end result is that I'm feeling bored -- or not engaged or not interested or whatever -- because I'm not getting enough of what I want out of it.  

I'm throwing this problem out there to see what I get back.  

How to best leverage the cloud for video…?

I've been giving a lot of thought recently to cloud services and their use for the consumer, particularly to deliver media experiences.  There's a significant disconnect in the way we're using different kinds of service, particular when music or books is compared to video.

Music has been incredibly easy to manage.  I have a clear option for purchasing music, MP3, which works on any device that I want.  I then have options for streaming it as well, such as Pandora, Spotify, and streaming for options when I want to stream music.     I can convert any music I have into MP3 too, meaning that I have a standard format to move music to.    The streaming services seem to work on just about any device I have too.

Books have proven pretty easy as well, particularly embracing Amazon.   Kindle, iPad, iPhone, they all seem to work -- Amazon has positioned itself well as a platform for this media.   Regardless of device, I've got a way to put Kindle content on it.

Video has proven to be much more difficult.

I divide video into two categories -- owned versus streamed.

Let's start with the devices I have.     Because broadcast TV will always be part of the mix, i have TiVo boxes all throughout my house.   TiVo recorded content moves nicely between TiVo devices, but is a pain to move anywhere else.    I have a single Apple TV in my main system, and I have a Roku too.   I also now have Xbox 360 devices on all the TVs in the house too.

Like music, there is something to "owning" video, certain movies, that I like to have.   Ideally, I want to find a system or format that displays on everything.   I have a pile of DVDs -- I'm not against converting them to some standard format too.  Of course, this isn't the way to handle HD content, which I want to get in some HD enabled format I can watch on TVs and portable devices.    However, what format plays on everything?  And how?

For streamed, I don't want to "rent" content.   Frankly, I don't want to think about having to pay a dollar or two every time I watch a show, but instead want to just pay for a service, and have content available when I want it.

I've always embraced TiVo devices for my TV use.   However, Amazon's streaming content and Apple content don't work here.

Hulu isn't bad, but it's TV only.    Doesn't help on the movie front.

Having a mismatch of services doesn't really help.

Anyone got an idea here?

Redecorating the basement

Ok, totally personal blog post today.

I've got it in my head to redo our basement.   For those that have been over, yes, the bar.   Now, before you think I'm pulling out the bar, I'm not.  I love the bar layout, and won't change that.  It's the rest of the room.

We never use the fireplace, or the couch downstairs.   Besides the very obvious "put in an HD TV so it's better"… what layout should we go with?  What would make that room more useable?

 

Hey, look, I have a blog...

I'm considering gearing this blog back up again.  So I'm throwing a post up with a virtual smirk to see if anyone's listening.

I suspect you aren't.  And I'm ok with that. ;)

Dave

Cloud buzz: is it cheaper or wiser?

I did a piece for an industry website which focused on opportunities for companies like mine.    I'm reusing that content, but thinking about what it means for our customers.

In that article, I discussed some content that my HTG colleague, Reed Wilson from Palmetto Technology, recently sent over.  He saw a marketing pitch a cloud software provider in the healthcare space.   The pitch boiled down to essentially "You were never trained to use Facebook or Gmail and you’ll never need to be trained on our software.  That’s the beauty of Cloud Computing."

Reed intelligently continues with some analysis.  He notes that it sets a very unrealistic expectation for the buyer.    Comparing practice management software to Gmail or Facebook is unrealistic.   Does the cloud application handle complex workflows and work processes?

It does, Reed continues, sell.  And some customers are buying the pitch, even if it doesn't always result in what they think it is.  The perception is that cloud computing is automatically cheaper than going with an on-premise one .   When we compare the on-premise with cloud solutions, they are often very similar.

The true promise of cloud computing is not “simplicity” or “cheap”, but in a wiser way to spend IT dollars, giving higher reliability and lower administration costs.  That doesn’t necessarily result in “simple” or cheap”.   This is critically important to examine when looking at a cloud solution.

This discussion expanded when Mike Ritsema with i3 Business Solutions chimed in.    He brought some facts to bear.

"IBM made 84% of their profit last year from services and software.  They’ve acquired over 100 companies in these areas over the last 10 years.  7% of their profit came from hardware.  They love the complication of integrating disparate technology."

Mike's list of ways companies integrate into the cloud was dead on:

•EDI

•Payroll

•Web browsing

•Buying

•RFP / RFI

•Collaboration

•Blogs, Social Networking

•E-mail

Mike outlined a recent customer solution, showing where he brought value to a small business.   "I just finished a small business a deal:  QuickBooks, Fishbowl Distribution Software, EZ Connector integration software, ASP DOT NET eCommerce, Authorize .NET Credit Card Processing, Cloud email, IBM Server, Cisco Firewall, implementation services, and Redundant internet access."   His company's value, and the area they see growth, opportunity, and the ability to make money in helping customers, is bolting and holding "this stuff together" for the next decade.

Mike continues, however, noting "It’s as complicated or more complicated than an on premise solution."  This means it's not necessarily "cheaper" but it does add significant capabilities to his customer, something they couldn't have before.

We see cloud computing as incredibly powerful -- but we also see more and more confusion in the market place.  Cloud computing is a new paradigm, a new way to deliver some solutions.   It offers high availability where it couldn't be delivered before.   It doesn't always mean "cheap", however.

Little to say, but financials on the mind

I've had little to say.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, as post WPC i had work to do, and then a week in the UK for HTG11 and a few more days in Chicago for HTG5.    Now that those are done, I'm in those few moments before I dig in again.

I'm doing a financial analysis piece that one of my HTG5 colleagues shared with me this week.  It's an interesting model -- looking at your rate of change over time to understand how the business grows and shrinks as the business ebbs and flows.   I've done the first round by putting the numbers together and seeing the trends.  I want to lay on our history and the information about the economy to see how much was "me" and how much was "outside me".

So I'm off to do that.   Financials on the mind....