Just that. I was there also

It was a really joyful night.

In recent past time I’ve come to work with several lawyers, some of which were freelancers. I’ve noticed some trend in the way the work. This is what I saw.

1. Almost none of them have a personal website. However, all of them have several email accounts.
2. They move a lot. Inside the city mostly, but also on the road.
3. They never get too all-terrain.Their environment is always somewhat safe.
4. They need to get every call.

So what I think they need is:

1. Good reception, it has to be the best there is
2. Car integration, bluetooth almost mandatory
3. Medium size. Bulky is never good.

So in this case I’m going to recommend the Moto Krzr K1 that you can get from $175

But, and this is a big but, if you want to do things right, you need a push mail system, to get your emails right away, In this case you’ll want to go in the blackberry direction and the Pearl’s form factor is your best choice there. You’ll be spending a little bit more for the phone and a lot more for the service, but trust me it is the way to go.

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you need X and X is not around?

Well, it hapens to me all the time and I always get the feeling that there shoud be a pen or something with a shape factor that is resistant to everything and it is not necessarily a VictorInox Swiss Army Knife.

So I went and tried to find something like that and this is what I came up with.

But what I think a multi pen should have is

1. Laser pointer
2. Usb pen drive
3. Bluetooth or radio presentation controler
4. Roller ball
5. voice recorder

And I’ll stop just because I think it is going out of hand (price wise). I’ll settle for 3 of the above

This mini post is just to say that I’ll be one of tomorrow’s 215 confirmed attendants at the meeting in Palermo Valley.

As a plus, this is a good article about networking abilities I found at Palermo valley’s blog.

We’ll start  another post series today.

Your car is your life.

The point being that for most entrepreneurs it really is. You’re constantly going somewhere, keeping stuff there, etc., etc.,… You know.

The cellphone is pretty likely to ring while we are on the road and it is not nice (or legal) to pick it up and answer it. You need a freehands device and I will recommend one today.

I’ll say, at least for what I know, your best option is the BlueAnt Supertooth.  And this is why:

1. It is a bluetooth but a speakerphone, (I really hate  the ones that go in your ear)
2. It is not an install required gadget. You get off the car and you take with you. Take it into the (real) office
3. Easy to take calls (really)
4. if there is someone else that uses the car, or maybe you have two phones on you all the time, this gadgets supports multi-pairing, so both phones can pick calls with the same device.
5. excellent battery life.
6. you can get it for $99

We have said before that there is no perfect camera. Not in all aspects anyway. But maybe we can get closer to it by dividing the field of action.

I want to talk about Tatoos and Tatoo Artists this time. If your business is related to under-the-skin-art, your picture needs are pretty different from de rest of us mortals.

First of all, you do need a camera. In this area, your art tends to walk away and you need to keep it with you someway. So, what should the tatooer’s cammera do to be right.

• You want good close ups. This is called macro function, and its main limitation is the minimun focal distance. Anything in the 5 to 15 cm. (2 to 6 in.) would be just fine.
• Good color range. This somewhat technical stuff, but you can always ask a friend. Cameras are not the same, and there are some that do not get the colors right.
• you don’t really need depth of field, (you’re taking pictures of skin after all!) but the body is always a challenging target to shot at, so if you can, try to get deeper fields of action.
• Pixels are not a first need here. You’re not looking for big pictures. so anything between 4 and 7 Mp would be just fine.

So, for all the above, I think the best camera right now if you’re starting your tatoo studio or maybe you’re thinking about changing your current camera is the L11 from Nikon, that you can buy for something like $100  if you’re willing to look.

Many people out there  recommend (and explain why) to buy a mac with a conviction that resembles that of the most radicalised blood-signed-contract fanatics. Me for example

Macs are, beyond discussion, a bit more expensive machines, really difficult to tune up in hardware that usually ship more in capability than more of 90% of the consumers use.

The list of good reasons to buy a mac is also long and it is everywhere. However, if you are an entrepreneur, I think you should at least fulfill 3 of these 5 reasons to buy a mac.

1. You are relatively new to computers: Most people won’t try a new system just because it is new. They have to learn all, all over again. So, maybe, bad learned, why bother
2. you don’t like dealing with trouble: beyond the cruel truth (Macs being just  7% of US market) Macs almost never give you any trouble, and there is only one known virus over the las 5 years)
3. Image matters. If so, your only option is Mac.
4. Safe buy: In normal work conditions, a Mac will not grow old (that means it won’t become outdated) before 3 years passed. You’ll find it does all you want afterwords too.
5. If you are in a startup stage, presentations and all, the Mac is a great choice. It is great for presentations, it looks great, you have a remote, great projector compatibility. This reason alone could justify the mac purchase.

Maybe this entry is already old before I post it, but reality shows me every day it maybe not,  since there are a lot of offices out there that still have monitors on their desks that could have easily be built all the way back in 1980.

And it is really bad PR. CRT’s look really bad, not only because it sells an image of indifference towards technology, they are difficult as hell to clean and they use an enormous amount of space on the desk.

I don’t want even to get started with those places where image is the thing to have in mind, like the receptionist’s desk or the free Internet computers at the hotel’s lobby.

If your computers are going to be there to the public, customers or clients to see, you should be thinking about changing your monitor fleet to LCD. Mainly because they are so much prettier, but also the consume less energy and (of course) cover less space. They are so much easier on the eyes and I promise none of the myths surrounding the flat panel displays are going to become true.

I recommend the Samsung LCD systems, mainly because they always make me happy enough, contrast and speed ratios are acceptable in all the product line. Oh! and in my opinion they price tag is also right.

But if image is your thing, then you could look at the high end devices, there are some really tasty!

In fact it is a pity. For many reasons. But it is a fact that palm is going backwards and it has gone backwards.  for some time now.
Palm has not released an original product for too long now. Their last promising concept, the foleo, was killed, their last smartphone, the centro is not doing half as well of what they expected and is the last standing knight in a battle that is no longer fought in the cavalry fields.
So, let me give you some advice:

1. Don’t buy a palm device unless it’s perfectly clear to you what is it that you’re gonna do with it.
2. If you’re going the palm way, let it at least be smartphone.
3. If you own a palm and you use it as your personal organizer, start thinking about selling it on ebay, the prices are going down really fast.

I mean Blackberry-wise. And here is why: The Blackberry 8700 does almost everything you need and is the cheapest one out there.

No matter how many people tells me about how good is the “SureType” the Pearl has, after a day of trying it out I could not get it to do what I wanted the same way the qwerty the 8700 does.

Ok, I’ll give you the fact that you won’t have video playback, or big storage, but the bottom line is that when you’re working, multimedia is not that a necessity.

The screen is as good as it gets, and it handles images very (really) well.

So start there, with the BB 8700, you’ll have time, in the future, to buy more expensive toys, trust me.