A Long Day :)

Woke up at 4am, crawled to Brighton station, met Mr Falletti. Train to Gatwick where we checked in and met up with Neil from Puzzler. An hours delay on the flight meant an hours gratefully received kip, then 2 hours in the air and landed at Barcelona. Taxi to town where I dropped my kit off chez Dom and headed over to 3GSM.

"Look at the size of that thing"

3GSM is huge. Much bigger than I'd expected (and by all accounts it's twice the size of last year). Everyone seems to be here, from right across mobile: antenna specialists to porn shillers, operators to book publishers. It's quite nice to see aspects of the industry which I never normally come across.

We're based out of the UK@3GSM stand which provides meeting space and Wi-Fi - very convenient indeed. And I've spent most of yesterday either arranging meetings with the myriad folks who are here, or wandering around the huge halls. There's so much to see here that I doubt I'll get a chance to take it all in before we leave.

Yesterday finished here at around 6, followed by a drink with Neil before we headed over to the Carnival of the Mobilists. Great to finally meet Carlo and see Russell, David, the Shozu guys and many others. (Congratulations to the Shozu folks for winning at the awards last night btw!) Bizarrely bumped into Alan, a guy I recognise from BAF Summer Schools past, who sold me my first bokken.

Then out with Dom and Sergio for some food at the fantastic Ciudad Condal (my favourite restaurant in this city) and a quick drink then sleep-time.

Up this morning bright and early and back in for more. Much more wandering around and a few meetings with folks. 3GSM is providing a great opportunity to meet people who we just wouldn't normally have a chance to catch up with...

Good mobile browsers are not enough: "I think the mobile computing mentality is fooling everyone into thinking that phones are turning into PCs. Eh, that's not right. Yes, phones are turning into powerful computing platforms that can have rich applications - but those applications must be relevant to the way folks use their mobile."

Playing to win in the handset market: "otorola’s success in the market will not be sustainable in the long-term will it continues to focus on designing around form-factors, rather than designing experiences around users"

Right. I've been meaning to post something about this for ages. Now is the time.

I've been blogging on a personal basis since 2001 (though technically longer, as an early Future Platforms web site was - at the excellent suggestion of Mr Gooby - a weblog itself).

In that time I've written quite a bit of stuff: principally an awful lot about mobile and my take on what I see, but also I kept a diary of my aikido training for about 2-3 years (until I felt I couldn't write about it meaningfully any more), and also a fair amount of personal stuff. I like to think, in my more arrogant moments, that perhaps some of this is what I'm "known for" online: that if I were to die tomorrow, I'd cast some small but lasting shadow online as a result of my postings on these topics.

Not so.

My #1 post - the one which gets the most comments on it - is this one. Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? But look at the title.

This is what I will be remembered for: being the man who reminded people what the song from the annoying cereal advert - with Ross Kemp in it - was called.

How to be a Programmer: "To be a good programmer is difficult and noble. The hardest part of making real a collective vision of a software project is dealing with one's coworkers and customers. Writing computer programs is important and takes great intelligence and skill. But it is really child's play compared to everything else that a good programmer must do to make a software system that succeeds for both the customer and myriad colleagues for whom she is partially responsible. In this essay I attempt to summarize as concisely as possible those things that I wish someone had explained to me when I was twenty-one."