I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with Squarespace, so as I’m a dog food fan, and I think hosting your own wordpress can be a clunky, frustrating affair (and because I never post here anyway), I’m moving my site.
Eventually it will be a direct link, but for today, you can see it at http://kagii.squarespace.com.
Not much there yet, but its up. I like the subtle look.
There’s been all sorts of talk about how the IPad will change the way we consume media, the way we read magazines and newspapers, and even how we interact with computers in general. Personally, I say no way. Its an interesting device, but everybody has to take a deep breath and relax.
I almost bought one. Really. Not for any of the hype, but we have a sales guy who walks around doing his sales thing, and I think the IPad would be a great way to do it. If only because for the next few months, just having it might get you a few minutes to pitch while you’re showing it off. The form factor is nice for the in person demo too.
Why did I REALLY want it? The data plan. Right now, if you want a 3G data plan you will be paying $60 per month, and will be locked into at least 1 year of a contract. That applies for all major carriers, if you buy the device from them or not. Its a really frustrating situation. The contracts are generally assumed to exist to subsidize the cost of mobile devices. However, even if you buy a laptop with a mobile card, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint require the contract and $60/month.
Why do they do this? Pretty much the same reason you’ll pay through the nose if you buy a plane ticket 2 days in advance. Because the only people who need that are business people, and in general, if $60/month is killing you, you either don’t need it or you seriously need to reevaluate your business plan. For you and I, though, its generally not worth it.
The IPad will not only have a full 3G data plan for $30/month, from what I’ve heard, its not a contract plan. Apple got this deal because they essentially have AT&T on a leash. I’m sure AT&T is quite scared of the day when they aren’t the only IPhone carrier, or even a preferred one. Every IPhone person I know complains about the network constantly.
So, anyway. The innovation will be more devices that have allways-and-everywhere-on network connections. Yeah, you can buy it to look at magazines too, or watch movies on your couch instead of putting them on your TV (I’m being jerky here. There are other uses, but still. Everybody has to take it easy on the IPad-changing-the-world craziness).
By the way, there is one card you can get that isn’t like the rest. Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go. Its $100 for the card. However, after that, you buy the data plan you want pre-paid. For example, 5G of data, that expires after 30 days, is $60. Same deal as the other networks as far as data and time, but its when you want it. No contract. Best of all, its on Sprint’s 3G network. Yeah, it would be great if it was on Verizon, but its not like its on some strange Virgin Mobile “network”. Yesterday I had a chat with a Sprint rep. I posed this scenario. If I bought a laptop from Lenovo, with a 3G card in it, could I get a month-to-month plan? She said all data plans are 2 year contracts, with early termination fees. I pointed out the Virgin Mobile deal, which uses the same card and runs on Sprint’s 3G network, for the same price, without a contract. Her response was, quote, “Can I help you with anything else today?”
No. Not today, anyway.
Earlier in the year I set up my personal/professional website for kagii.com. In an effort to save money and time, I went with the free stuff that Google hosts. Specifically Google’s “Apps for your domain – Sites” and their “blogger.com” service. That worked, but its a little flat, the code is rigid, and the whole thing is fairly disjoint. The blog is in one place and looks slightly different, the website in another, etc.
It took me like a few hours to find wordpress, get it up at a custom host, tweak the free theme I really liked, and have the whole thing running. Since then, I’ve been putting in time to organize the link layout and post enough content to make it usable.
So, ta-da. New website. Let me know what you think.
The old blog…
The old site…
http://sites.google.com/a/kagii.com/home
And, for the second time in my life, I’m linking to European Vacation…
