MacGetIT

As an entrepreneur and start-up business I watch how others use their Macs in their business.

I recently received an email that had a company’s signature and Apple’s data detectors picked it up, but because of the way this person wrote their email signature the data detectors did not pick it all up and thus caused me time and energy to get things right. Here’s their signature:

John Doe

My Company, LLC – My Consulting

E-Mail:       mycompany@mycompany.com

The problem with this is Mail’s data detectors is that because of the spacing it saw the address and ONLY the “My Consulting” and not the rest of the line “My Company, LLC”. If this person had not added the “My Consulting” tag line for below their address then the data detectors would have picked up the whole business name and address. The correct way for the data detectors to work is to have the address as such:

This way ALL of the company address data is picked up. Adding other information before and after the address

The previous method left me having to work with many more mouse clicks that I was willing to endure, but a simpler solution is adding a vCard to his email signature which takes up far less of my time, and my perception of their view of my time, and thus improves my view of their business.

Or, do both. This allows one to cut and paste and address into something else such as another email or into a document and drag and drop the vCard onto Address Book with no typing needed.

Your thoughts?

Just had a discussion with a software engineer that stated the younger generation of college kids, and to a larger extent, people in general are having difficulty with their thinking processes. Namely, the difference between critical thinking and cynical thinking.

Critical thinking is where you analyze a problem and determine a solution using cause and effect of various processes. You take “no sides” of an issue and move forward with what’s best toward a vision of what’s possible.

Cynical thinking is where you lack or do not take into consideration various aspects of a problem and consider all of the alternatives to come to a logical and appropriate answer to a problem. A contemptuous or mocking attitude of various ideas or solution. Henry Ford told his engineers to work on an eight cylinder engine and they stated it could not be done. He said work on it until you solve it. It took them over a year, but they did it.

To often those in “political circles”, and we’re not just talking liberal versus conservative, but we also need to include businesses in this, both start-up and Fortune 500 companies, swap the definition of cynical and critical to fit their purposes. What is critical becomes cynical and visa versa.

So, which thinking do you have?

When asking someone what they do you often hear “I work for Apple/Microsoft/IBM as a software engineer” or you hear them say “I’m a doctor/attorney for such-and-such company.” On occasion you’ll hear someone say, and somewhat with pride, “I own my own car detailing business.” At the more aggressive person they’ll say “I’m a serial entrepreneur!”

What’s a serial entrepreneur? That’s someone that has started a company and grew it until another company bought them out. In some cases, they failed and have started again. And that’s the good thing. They keep going and learn from their failures and move on.

But what I recently heard by someone was they called themselves a “Parallel Entrepreneur.” While I could figure it out myself, I had to ask what he meant by it.

He stated that he had three companies that he was working on building and was looking to add more.

So there you have it. As an entrepreneur you are a parallel entrepreneur when you have two or more companies that you are building and growing.

So, a parallel entrepreneur builds multiple streams of income. Nice.

Is this what you are striving for?

After hearing tons of speculation about Apple’s Wednesday’s event I’ve come to the early conclusion that I won’t be getting an iPad/iSlate/iTablet from Apple. Why? Here are my reasons.

1. It’s another thing to carry around besides my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. While I MIGHT be able to substitute my MacBook Pro for the iPad thingy, I do too much work that the iPad would be more of a bother adding it to my repertoire of Macs.
2. An iPad might replace my MacBook Pro, but it only becomes a smaller MacBook Air and I don’t own one of those and don’t need or want one of them. I want something with a little more power.
3. I can only see that an iPad might cannibalize from the MacBook Air or MacBook sales for those that do light computing work, such as doctors that need to enter data into a hospital system or writers that travel more than most of us.
4. While the iPhone’s swipping and pinching motion makes it’s use fairly useful, for those of us that are keyboard “attached” such as UNIX geeks that don’t like the mouse are most productive with keyboard shortcuts and the pinching movements will limit productivity.

However, if Apple “limits” the features to the iPad it’ll upset the rest of the Apple customers. How?

1. If the “publishers” that Apple is “courting” for the game changing technology of the publishing industry does not port or translate the technology to the rest of the Mac platform then it’ll “force” Mac users to move or purchase the iPad.
2. No USB or display port to hook up larger screens or an external keyboard to do heavy workloads.
3. An Apple iTunes focus on the publishing industry whereas you can only get ebooks and may or may not be able to get a physical book for those that want both. If the same “experience” of getting an iPad book is not the same as getting a real one it’ll detract from the reader’s experience of both.

But want WOULD make me consider getting one?

1. The data “cloud” that everything on the iPad syncs up with my other systems seamlessly and I never have to bother about where my data/books/contact information resides. If I can read on an iPad and then bring it up on my  or my wife’s MacBook Pro then that’s a consideration.

But that’s about the extent of my reasons. For me an iPad is just another smaller laptop with added functionality that Apple has been stair stepping in that direction with it’s trackpads. It’ll be adopted by early adopters for sure, but the masses won’t change as the “back end” may not be there for the average users.

But by far the worse part of this potential publishing “arm” of Apple is: will Apple control the publishing content like it controls the iPhone apps? How much of your rights will Apple control for indie publishers?

But we can only wait until the 27th to see what Apple does.

I can’t say this any better. Napoleon Hill’s comments from an Andrew Carnegie meeting about success.

You have  a new year, begin it anew.

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William J. H. Boetcker

(Not by Abraham Lincoln as most think)

Here’s a good list of being innovative from a list of books by BusinessWeek.

Here’s a good link about why you need to consider web browsers and your web site design and the amount of money going through your business.

Here’s an interesting marketing chart of where people may be wanting to spend their marketing dollars for their company’s message. Social media seems to be taking the place of traditional media, so where does that leave you and your marketing? Will you be doing the same?

Your thoughts?

In this blog post “Relentless – the difference between motion and action” is quoting that there is a difference between action and activity. What is the difference?

• Activity = using your legs to march in place.
• Action =  using your legs to push a stuck car to get it moving again.

So quit marching in place and get out of the car and push. Here’s some other ideas:

• Activity = only talking about a problem
• Action = discussing how to solve a problem

What is the difference between the two?

• Activity = standing still
• Action = moving forward

Always move forward.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. Thomas Edison