Windows Mobile

Mary and Simon have just blogged about 6.5 here What changes Windows Mobile into a Windows phone?.

I've used mobile windows since 2000 (the first Compaq iPAQ 3630 - launched at Microsoft Tech*Ed 2000 in Barcelona). A second iPaq and then I moved from Nokia to 5 orange WinMo phones in succession to the current HTC Touch Pro2.

Of the 5 only the Pro2 deserved a true quality rating, but I've been willing to live with WinMo because of the close MS infrastructure integration. From Exchange 2003 SP2 and push email onwards why would I want a RIM server and handset?

OneNote mobile (with a real keyboard I take all my notes at TechEd each year), Voice Command (broken on TyTN II, but wonderfully working again on Pro2), multitasking (I need to switch between concurrent apps) are all great things. But all these are a tad overwhelmed by poor battery life.

The Pro2 was a revelation - with the HTC flo interface I have something in my hand I can hold up against iPhone users with some confidence and pride. In fact no iPhone user has shown me something I later covet (doesn't mean it's not there, but...).

So, what I don't get is why Microsoft doesn't get the interface thing. Simon and Mary blogged about going back to flo, that fills me with despair. Flo fixes pretty much everything broken with the WinMo interface - it's so fat finger friendly, menus work, the weather looks great (even when it's raining!). With a tweak here and there, even Jon Honeyball might like it (see what he thought recently on twitter)!

So why don't Microsoft just buy Flo, apply their extensive resources to the last 10%; get the hardware guys to sort battery life out and then I'd have no complaints :-)

Not so sorted...

I reported recently I'd fixed my vSphere4 problems. Well I thought I had, but I hadn't. In general it seems OK, but there are some issues around Update Manager not wanting to continue running, hmmm.
I was putting together some notes and lessons (as it were), and will do so soon, but the sleep deprivation has been a tad severe recently, and I cannot face it right now!!

So, how do you value yourself?

Setting prices in a knowledge industry is difficult. You can calculate:
* what revenue you want in a year
* how many days you are willing to work for that (but be reasonable!)
* your overheads (the usual stuff, but don't forget the high costs of keeping your knowledge up to date and relevant)
Do a quick bit of maths, and hey presto, some sort of daily rate.

But, that doesn't take into account the value of the work you are doing. At times you can have an incredible impact on a business which is manifestly worth a lot more that your "daily rate" to achieve. But if you charge by results, how do you bill for work that "had to be done", but has no directly monetary value (you simply cannot charge them the profits they now make because they remain in business :-) )

So a couple of tales:
Picasso (apocryphal):
Was once taking a quiet coffee on the pavement in Paris. A woman sits down, joins him for coffee and engages him in conversation. After a while she asks if he could do a quick sketch for her. He obliges and after a few minutes' work passes her a napkin with a drawing on it. "That'll be £2,000* please"
"But it only took you a few minutes!"
"No madam, it took me a lifetime"
For proof of the concept see yesterday's Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/24/pablo-picasso-horse-doodle-auction
*And yes, I know it would have been French Francs, but you see the point.

Jon Honeyball:
At a recent tweetup in London discussions turned to this topic. Jon came out with a great quote "never submit an invoice that does not embarrass you". I simultaneously see a) the point and meaning of this, and b) the potential for misrepresentation of the quote to clients!

But, the result.
My wife is also self-employed and was recently in a quandary about the rate to quote for some work for a client in a hurry. We threw some thoughts around and came up with a number, X. This just felt wrong, so I persuaded her to go to what felt embarrassing price of 1.5X. After a while, it actually felt OK, and not long after the client accepted without demurring. So should we have got to 2X?

Moral
NEVER underestimate your value to your clients...

Sorted!!!!!!

After stealing all my spare time and more, I have a working (again) vSphere4 VC with VUM and Convertor working. It's been a nightmare of testing and experimentation (and my original updated VI3-4 VC is still hosed), but I have a working system WITH the database from the VI3 days.

Too late to go through things now, but more tomorrow.

'night all :)