Somedays I just wish I was a koala bear http://bit.ly/a8Bq61 #

Which one had the largest impact: Y2K or PSN20100301: http://bit.ly/aWPDPK #psn #ps3 #

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Harley rider to Honda rider that just dissed Harley-Davidson on Facebook: "107 years is not a fad, you Honda-riding douche bag" #

@lizasisler You're welcome in reply to lizasisler #

Het vriest niet meer, maar het regent wel de rest van de week pijpestelen, en Frank doet alsof dat goed is. Alles is relatief #

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(Video) The Medieval Help Desk: http://bit.ly/Lbo1z (Feels slightly familiar ) #

@gillcleeren They could have made a little bit more of an effort than one single empty Excel sheet though in reply to gillcleeren #

@ToJans En heb je ooit antwoord gekregen op je brief? Of nee, laat maar: ik kan het al raden in reply to ToJans #

@katriendg Is this being recorded somewhere? (I have to go to a meeting ) in reply to katriendg #

Winodws Phone: too bad I just threw out my XBox (after I had three Xbox's in a row with Red Rings of Death) #

Windows Phone looks very "Zuney" #

@YvesGoeleven Now you're hooked. You'll never be able to cope anymore without one in reply to YvesGoeleven #

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While I agree that we read information on websites differently (I see that in myself also), I disagree completely with the argument that this would make us dumber. That would be the same as saying that I am dumber because I don’t remember phone numbers any more ever since I carry a mobile phone with me.

The ubiquity of mobile phones and internet access and the ever decreasing form factor and availability of computing devices allow us to find, consume, and even catalog and bookmark information on the spot, no matter where we are, and that makes for the fact that we don’t need to store all information only in our heads anymore. We’ve got auxiliary memory.

Don’t get me wrong: storing data is not the same as understanding it. I agree completely that we still need to digest information to understand it: we need to chew the fat, availability alone is not enough. But the sole fact that we choose to not store a whole bunch of data in our heads anymore, but instead rely on the internet to gain access to bewildering amounts of information almost as fast as we can in our heads, does not make us more stupid.

Having resources at hand that, whenever I read something that I want to truly understand, allow me to conjure up on a moments notice almost any type of related information from a wide and diverse variety of sources ensures that I can correlate things in my head more easily, place it  in its context and gain access to different viewpoints on the subject. All that allows me to gain a much better and and also a much faster and more thorough understanding of any subject.

And isn’t it precisely that what sites like the ones mentioned allow us to do? Even more so: using these sites I can link information to stuff that I had no previous knowledge about or wasn’t even aware existed. They allow me to discover, instead of just understand.

The internet is a hive of information connected to our brain through sites like Google, Bing, Wikipedia, and a bunch of social sites via the devices we carry around. That allows me to understand any subject better, and it also broadens my vision, expands my horizon, and give me the capacity to understand different views. Our knowledge is not confined to our brain anymore, but extends onto the internet via our devices.

Thinking that that makes us stupid comes pretty close to my definition of the word.

I seldom read setup instructions. I just download stuff (making sure that it’s scanned for malware, of course), and I blindly run setup.exe. (And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that does that…) Alas: if you’re running Office 2010 Beta on Windows 7 or Windows Vista, and you have run the default setup of Office 2010, and you haven’t followed the instructions on this page, the result will most likely be that  Outlook 2010 crashes at startup.

Luckily, it’s easily fixed, though.

1. Uninstall the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector
2. Follow the instructions on this page to remove the version of the Outlook Social Connector that comes standard with Outlook 2010 (bet you didn’t know that it was there!)
3. Re-install the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector
4. Done

That should get you back up and running.

And while you’re at it, you can also install LinkedIn for Outlook, and keep watching the Outlook 2010 Blog for announcements of the upcoming Facebook and MySpace connectors.

Also, I’ve always had issues with the “Windows on a tiny screen” metaphor. As Steve Ballmer rightly put it in yesterday’s press conference at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona: phones are not PC’s.

I don’t think it’s so that we use PDA’s and PC’s for very different purposes (although, of course, sometimes we do…), but that much more the circumstances under which we use them are completely different. PC’s are used intently, when there’s room, time to start it up, etc. SmartPhones are used all the time, most often for very short periods of time. I think I pick up my phone at least 50 times a day, just to check the time, messages, calls, contacts, etc. I do that everywhere – in bed, when I’m eating, in the car (I know: I shouldn’t…), when I’m on the move, at my desk, in meetings, in front of the TV, etc. – and anytime, during day and night, at work and in my free time.

The current version of Windows Mobile really isn’t geared up for that. When I’m on the move, I seldom have two hands free to fiddle with a stylus (which I keep loosing anyway). The tiny menus and fonts require me to put on my glasses (I have presbyopia) even to check if I’ve missed any calls. The myriad of settings spread over lots of different places mean that there’s always something that’s not configured right. Its inability to natively integrate easily with social networks, without additional software, holds me back.

I’m also not a big fan of the thousands of form factors and UI implementations these phones have. Because they all have different capabilities, it’s hard to know what to expect when you fork over a huge sum of money for a Windows Mobile device. The user experience differs widely from brand to brand and even from model to model, and manufacturer-specific shells like HTC’s Sense have a bunch of problems of their own.

That’s why, when I bought an iPhone about 18 months ago, I never looked back (but being a Microsoft fanboy, I’ve always felt a bit guilty )

But yesterday, I was really pleasantly surprised to see what Microsoft came up with Windows Phone 7 Series (well: apart from that typical Microsoft name, then…) .

A simple, intuitive and clean UI that will be more or less the same on all devices, geared for touch (and multi-touch) so you can operate it with one hand, big fonts, logically organized information, a more tightly controlled hardware platform, deep integration with social networks, a controlled application platform and store (which I hope will increase application quality): all of these are things I really like.

Have a look for yourself here: Windows Phone Newsroom: Video Gallery and on the Windows Phone 7 Series website

@nanske "Fair use" is een schoon woord voor "limiet" in reply to nanske #

@bramwallach Maar bij Fortis ligt de tent nog steeds plat http://twitpic.com/123ict in reply to bramwallach #

@ToJans Ach ja. Je bent IT-er of je bent het niet hé in reply to ToJans #

@sergevm Ah cool. More reading stuff for the next weeks in reply to sergevm #

That said, I really like the new stuff in @tweetdeck v0.33 #

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@mkogeler Guess we'll have to wait till monday to find that out. I've got my credit-card out already in reply to mkogeler #

@lvb Beste TV tip van de afgelopen weken #

Just booked myself a week's vacation in the Big Apple, soak in some American culture. First on the visit list: http://bit.ly/9O62CI #

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@bennuk Well, we haven't heard the price yet. #ipad in reply to bennuk #

@bennuk I bow humbly in reply to bennuk #

@signaleleven Believe me: you're not #

I was all poised for a new version of the iPhone OS. Instead they come up with this iPad or something #

@bennuk The New York Times agrees with you http://bit.ly/cpN5bD #

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Get it here.

Get it here!

Get your grubby little hands on it here.