The only problem was this: the 350watt PSU (which had fairly glowing reviews when it was produced) wasn’t enough. One CPU, one video card, one hard drive. (To be fair, I wasn’t using a SATA drive, so there was a whole power rail that was unused.)

The concept that I was pushing the PSU past its limits on a machine that was several generations removed from the current era of computing made me wonder - how much power ARE we using?

CPUs have made serious strides in reducing power consumption, but the rest of the machine hasn’t. Video cards that require 200watts. Stacks of hard drives. All expected for power users, but what about when we’re NOT gaming, or compressing our digital media, or creating the next wave of independent digital entertainment. What about just listening to music, or checking our email? Chatting with friends via IM? We don’t need a quad-core supercomputer to do that.

I’ve been involved with a couple of low-power computing programs in the past, like the Efika Open Client. Plagued with hardware limitations and sub-par hardware support, these projects never got much farther than a couple of isolated business deployments as little more than thin-clients, and developer toys. Power usage on the system was amazing, however - 1 watt to run the system, minus video card and hard drive (yes, you could run a headless, diskless system, although nobody would want to for any kind of desktop use). Addition of video and a non-flash local drive usually bumped the power usage to about 12 watts - still pretty amazing.

The performance of the system however, was abysmal for anything you would do on the internet nowdays. The hardware limitation of 128MB of RAM made it impossible to run most common web browsers without having to resort to incredibly slow virtual memory on the hard drive.

Most of this was remedied for the Efika by the release of MorphOS 2, which introduced a light, fast, Amiga-inspired (and somewhat compatible) desktop OS to the system. However, this solution comes at a price - about $260 for the OS, not counting the original cost of $150+ for the base system itself. Software support is limited, as you’re running applications designed for an operating system that most of you (or your tech friends) have never even heard of.

Next was Zonbu. They introduced a relatively low-power computer with a very attractive form factor as an initial low cost purchase. Their trick however, was the subscription you must purchase from Zonbu for the use of the computer. This subscription did include system software upgrades, as well as upgraded security and software applications for the Zonbu machine. The underlying system was based on Linux though, and many begged the question “Why pay for something that I can get for free?”.

Zonbu responded well, stating that you’re paying for the constant maintenance, attention to security upgrades, customization for the Zonbu environment, and the online storage space that was a part of the subscription package, providing a safe place for your documents and other data to reside in case of a hardware crash. Unfortunately, people didn’t bite.

Enter CherryPal. They offer a small, low-cost computing package much like Zonbu, with the exception that there is no subscription fee. Total power usage is 2-3 watts, which seems unrealistically low until you read the specs. It uses a low-power embedded PowerPC cpu, not unlike those Apple used in earlier Macintosh computers, although with much upgraded memory and video capabilities. CherryPal also introduces a concept that may be foreign to many - “cloud” computing. There will be a few standard applications installed on the system - such as Firefox - but your heavier apps will be running in the “cloud”, a farm of servers dedicated to running applications and crunching data, sending their output directly to your CherryPal PC. You have 50 GB of storage space in the cloud, so all your data is safe from hardware crashes or power outages.

All this aside, how does this benefit us, the users?

First off, the obvious improvement of decreased power consumption. Many power companies in the US charge for power in a bracketed scheme. The first so many kW is so much money per kW, the next xxx kW to yyy kW is so much money per kW, etc. The amount of money per kW increases as you move from bracket to bracket, increasing the amount you pay in a decidedly non-linear manner. Using a 2-watt computer to do most of your casual computing instead of a 200-watt computer might be the difference between one power usage bracket and the next, saving possibly hundreds in power costs.

The second major improvement is the “cloud” itself. For any serious work, you’re using a network of powerful computers to accomplish your task, instead of a single comparatively underpowered workstation. For example, you connect your camera and upload a set of photos, and need to remove red-eye, crop, and color-correct the photos. All the work is done elsewhere, on a set of powerful computers dedicated to the tasks such as these. You don’t need to purchase expensive software, or an expensive computer to churn out good-looking photos.

I’ve mentioned that the CherryPal PCs are low-cost, however I haven’t said what their selling price is. Think of the cheapest “decent” computer you can think of. The cheapest computer that you would use. How much did it cost? $400? $500?

The CherryPal PC is $249. No subscription, no contracts, just pure everyday computing. Shipping begins tomorrow, November 4th. 11/11/08 UPDATE: The CherryPals, to my knowledge have not been shipped. I and several others involved in the pilot project have had no communication in regards to the device’s status, despite our attempts to reach them. I’ll update here when I know more.

11/12/08 UPDATE: CherryPal units HAVE shipped according to schedule, they have been filling some large volume orders from the UK and Africa. If you do decide to snag one as a result of this article, entering  ”CPP240″ in the coupon area is supposed to get you a $10 discount. I’ll post a new blog when mine arrives.

Note, I’m not an employee of CherryPal in any way. I believe strongly in the principles of “green” computing, or “just enough” computing. It’s like having a fuel-efficient scooter to commute to work or to go visit friends with, instead of driving your V10-powered supercar around all the time. My CherryPal PC is on its way, and I’ll be writing about the entire experience of using it. Keep an eye here for my thoughts on CherryPal’s entry into low-cost, low-power computing concepts. No bull, no hot air, no fluff, no semi-related conceptual discussion.

I’ll be posting my experiences and reactions as a normal everyday user, and as the high-tech power user. Both viewpoints should give a well-balanced look at this new dawn in ubiquitous computing.

Here’s the link to the webcam I have set up at the house. If we lose power, the picture will stop updating, obviously.

The AppStore has some very nice applications, but we miss a lot of the apps we had on our jailbroken original iPhones. I had expected to see more of the early jailbroken applications on the AppStore, but realized that many of them were developed by people who don’t have Macs; therefore, they can’t develop applications compatible with the official iPhone SDK.

I have also read that the changes that Apple made to the firmware in order to implement the ability for the iPhone to run AppStore applications will prevent many of the applications written for jailbroken iPhones from working right on the iPhone 3G.

What this probably means for the short term is that even though the non-Apple and somewhat renegade "iPhone Development Team" have already demonstrated a jailbroken iPhone 3G, not many of the existing third-party, non-AppStore applications will run correctly on the new 2.0 firmware.

I really hope that this gets remedied soon as I miss these applications:

Twinkle - an incredible Twitter front end. Twitteriffic on the AppStore is a great start, but not nearly as complete.

THTouch - Texas Hold-em. NICE

Chuzzle - a Bejeweled-like game, but not a Bejeweled clone.  The Mrs. plays this a lot.

Lexitron - Text Twist for the iPhone. This game was very frustrating at times since the author would often allow non-words while disallowing real words.

Five Dice - Yahtzee for the iPhone

Snapture - This adds a lot of features to the iPhone camera that you’d expect from a nice cell-phone camera

I wonder if it’s too much trouble for Apple to create a development toolkit for developers who have not migrated to a Mac.

The AppStore has some very nice applications, but we miss a lot of the apps we had on our jailbroken original iPhones. I had expected to see more of the early jailbroken applications on the AppStore, but realized that many of them were developed by people who don’t have Macs; therefore, they can’t develop applications compatible with the official iPhone SDK.

I have also read that the changes that Apple made to the firmware in order to implement the ability for the iPhone to run AppStore applications will prevent many of the applications written for jailbroken iPhones from working right on the iPhone 3G.

What this probably means for the short term is that even though the non-Apple and somewhat renegade "iPhone Development Team" have already demonstrated a jailbroken iPhone 3G, not many of the existing third-party, non-AppStore applications will run correctly on the new 2.0 firmware.

I really hope that this gets remedied soon as I miss these applications:

Twinkle - an incredible Twitter front end. Twitterer on the AppStore is a great start, but not nearly as complete.

THTouch - Texas Hold-em. NICE

Chuzzle - a Bejeweled-like game, but not a Bejeweled clone.  The Mrs. plays this a lot.

Lexitron - Text Twist for the iPhone. This game was very frustrating at times since the author would often allow non-words while disallowing real words.

Five Dice - Yahtzee for the iPhone

Snapture - This adds a lot of features to the iPhone camera that you’d expect from a nice cell-phone camera

I wonder if it’s too much trouble for Apple to create a development toolkit for developers who have not migrated to a Mac.

I’ve loaded a several AppStore applications (mostly free) and notice that the iPhone 3G becomes unstable requiring a reboot, or reboots spontaneously even more often than my original iPhone running 1.1.4 firmware.

More to come.

Oh, I got a MARWARE Sportsuit at the Apple store… It’s going back because it comes with a glossy, clear plastic screen cover sewn into the case and it doesn’t stay flat on the iPhone screen, rendering it very for me to type accurately as the film throws off the touch reading. Other than that, I do like it.

I considered cutting the screen cover out (I already put the Apple screen protector on the new iPhone), but why risk the $35? I’ll see what else Apple has.

Look Mom, no access!

What are those extra holes?

Here’s everything except the packaging.

I was in a rush to get to work, so Julie, my lovely geek-in-training, jumped right in to getting hers activated. The woman who never dreamed she would get the use out of an iPhone to justify its cost or that she would even understand most of it only had to call me once with a question about pulling the SIM from the old (!?!?) iPhone.

I finally pulled mine out at work to start the activation and got a call from Julie saying iTunes won’t activate the phone. This gels with the news reports I am seeing that the activation servers are overloaded. Drat!

So here I sit with my iPhone 3G connected to my laptop, iTunes running, regularly retrying the activation.

See: iPhone activation woes hit early buyers - Network World

I wonder if I should just get the 2.0 firmware on the old (!?!?) iPhone while I’m waiting.

Nah..

Last count was 33 / 12 / 12 (that’s 33 8GB, 12 16GB White, 12 16GB Black), so we might get one.

More Later,

Ace

I had already convinced myself that I would not install Windows Vista or install it on my kids’ PCs (we have 8 in the house including the central file server). In fact, I was close to abandoning MS altogether which would have been quite a migration for me. Please bear with me as I don’t get to tell my story much.

You see, I am the rudder that has moved many ships. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, I worked for a somewhat renegade part of Shell called SWEPI (Shell Western Exploration and Production). Their IT was a BIG IBM shop and had already made the announcement that all desktops in the company would be migrated to OS/2. I led the assault on that decision and was able to get Shell to place the newly-released Windows 3.0 on the users’ desktops with OS/2 relegated to the developers at the Houston IT center. While at SWEPI I created the user interface for the Windows World 1993 winning program, “MIG” – the entry from Shell. That was created in Visual Basic 2 (beta).

While at Shell, I beta tested NT (3.1?) and started replacing the IBM LANMAN servers at our location with NT Servers. It made management of the network there so much easier.

VB was incredibly powerful and enabled me to create a shareware “helper” program that hooked into AOL v 1 (1990) to make my chat experience a little more manageable. You see, although AOL v 1 & 2 had chat, they had no way to create a list of online friends and track their online status. VB allowed me to hook into their GUI and track my “buddies”. I created the first “Buddy List” for AOL (and I think for any program like that) with AOTools v.1. I updated it for AOL v.2 when it released, then AOL included the features I had pioneered in AOL v.3. No, I didn’t even think about patenting the concept. At the time, who would have believed that IM would be so ubiquitous? I still have the source code in the original .LZH package I sent out. Help files and everything.

In 1994 I was beta-testing “Chicago” and loaded it on a grossly underpowered 486 (16MB) PC so I could get my beta version of Access 2 to run decently. You see, Enron wanted me to build a prototype electricity scheduling system for the newly deregulated wholesale electricity market – again, something that had never been done before. They expected to run my prototype for about 6 months while they started development on a Pro-C (Sun/Oracle) version. First, Enron threatened to fire me for loading a beta-test OS on their Netware-based environment, but then started asking questions about the OS and asked if I would help them investigate using NT as their network system instead of Netware. In exchange, they gave me a nice Pentium box for my development work.

PLS, the scheduling system, operated on Access 2.0 for a little over a year at Enron before we replaced it with EnPower, a client-server app written in Delphi 2.0 (VB 3 was just a little too slow at the time) with Oracle on the back-end. I had created a successful PC-based client server app prototype using Access 2.0, ODBC, and Oracle for them a few months earlier, convincing Enron to abandon Sun boxes at the user’s desk in lieu of PC/NT setups. They saved a ton of money there.

While at Shell, I was in the inaugural TechNet program. I was THE Microsoft evangelist there and at Enron. On two different occasions, I personally purchased MSDN subscriptions so I could stay with the latest MS software, and I have beta-tested more Microsoft systems than I can remember. Until a couple of years ago, I still had all my “Chicago” beta distribution CDs.

The ground is laid now. I’ve been a Microsoft advocate for all these years and a guerilla influence in every IT shop I work in or run. I’ve run MS on all my PCs at home (most home-built, so the OS wasn’t included - $$$). Now with 8 PC’s, it’s hard to keep them all in software. OS, Office (no, Works isn’t enough), and I really need some good parental control system.

Because of the anarchy in the Houston IT community caused by Enron’s bankruptcy and its domino effect on the economy, I am now a Project Manager at Citi. Still in the Energy industry (not the banking side). MANY times I have considered knocking on Microsoft’s door to let them know how much an evangelist I have been and wanting to get on the payroll.

OK, I’ve been long-winded. I simply can’t afford to keep up with MS software on all my PCs, so OpenSource was looking good as an alternative. Linux, OpenOffice,etc.

Then I went to the conference. Main reason – to get the free copy of Office 2007. I’ve been on the beta / trial since it was made available, but it will expire soon. I STILL had no intention of moving to Vista – especially with all the negative reports coming out. The keynote was flashy, but didn’t give me any reason to reconsider.

Then there were the developer sessions. Why would I go to them instead of the Management or IT Pro sessions? Because you don’t know what you are getting until you know how to develop in it. I’ve run companies – I’ve managed IT groups. Nevertheless, you don’t know an OS until you know what you can develop with it and what hooks are there for you. MS is NOT getting the message out very well, but YOU GUYS kicked butt. Now I HAVE to consider Vista. Doesn’t make it any more affordable, but it makes it something worth saving for. Perhaps I’ll just get MSDN again and populate my PC’s at home with those licenses.. After all, I have a houseful of geeks. They all take PC classes in school or are learning development on their own. I’m teaching my fiancée Excel for her work and have one son wanting to make a career of WebMastering. Yada Yada.

MS needs to know that YOU and your associates are the ones really convincing people that Vista is the way to go. YOU are showing us not just what Vista can do, but HOW we can do it in Vista. And Office 2007

Please feel free to forward this on to whomever you want. I scoured the MS site for email addy’s that I could CC this to to make sure you get the recognition you deserve, but couldn’t find any.

Thank you for your time

The documentation for AOTools tells the story about how I got the idea.

Quick note: The documentation shown here is for the last version of AOTools that I released in 1992 to work with AOL v.2. I created the first AOTools for AOL v.1 with all the same features. The first version worked on Windows 3.0, and I initially developed it using a beta version of Visual Basic. I was an early beta tester for several Microsoft projects.

AO Tools

Here’s some quickie documentation for AO Tools… You really shouldn’t need much more than this..

AOTools is designed to add ease and functionality to the Windows AOL software provided by the folks at America Online. A little history might serve well.

After I first started using WAOL and People Connection, I discovered that I was making LOTS of friends on AOL that I didn’t want to forget, So I used the Address book feature of AOL to try to keep track of them.. BIG MISTAKE. It was pretty clunky, and could only store names, no info. It also wouldn’t stay visible while I used the system if I wanted it to hang around for reference.

What I did next was to use the File / New to create a file called FRIENDS.TXT and typed all my friends names and as much as I could remember about them there. It looked a lot like this:

DADDIO from Deer Park
TMP DAD DADDIO alias
Buttrcup 8 Lauren
LaurenR1 BC in disguise

and so forth…

I would load the FRIENDS.TXT file every time I started AOL, and used it as a reference for “Finds”, “Profiles”, “IMs”, and “EMail”.. Soon enough, I got tired of typing the names in after hitting CTRL-F or CTRL-I, so I wrote a Visual Basic program that would help me maintain the list and do the keystrokes for me.

Enter AOTools. It actually read the FRIENDS.TXT file, and did the keystroke passing for Finds, IMs, Profiles, and EMail. The structure of the Friend file is still the same (largely) for simplicity sake, but I added lots of tools to utilize the data and marry it with AOL.

Another Addition is the ability to send the Text (Description) part of the Friend text to an EMail message, Chat Room, or IM. This is what users commonly call “macros”. They are actually better described as “canned” text. Macros imply some level of programmability, and these do not.

To understand AOTools, let’s examine the AOTools main screen, then we’ll explore the functions that are available.

Name List: This is a list of the “Names” that are in the Friend file (.FRD). Each Name can have an associated description (see Description Window).

Description Window: This displays the associated text for the Name currently selected in the Name List. The text is free-form and may contain embedded new-line (carriage return) characters and upper-ASCII text. This can be real handy.

Button Panel: A collection of 1 to 12 buttons that display together. You may have up to 100 panels numbered 00 to 99. The default button panels should work for most people, but you DO have the ability to re-program the captions and location of buttons (see AOTools Customization).

Buttons: These are they keys to AOTools Power. Each button is associated to a function that AOTools provides: Find a Friend, Send an IM, Get a Profile, etc.. Some buttons act on the Name in the Name list, and others on the Text in the Description window. These will be explained. To initiate a function, merely select the name you want acted upon, if any, and click the associated button. It’s that simple

AO Tools Functions:

Since AO Tools’ buttons are configurable by you, I will list the functions that are available, by Function Name, the Common Button Caption associated with the Function, and a description of the function itself. I’ll also list what it operates ON, when applicable, and where it will send information, when applicable. I’ll list them grouped common use.

Find (Find): Tells AOL to locate the selected user, if online.

IM (IM): Calls up a new IM window and types the selected user’s Name.

Profile (Profile): Calls up the selected user’s AOL profile, if available.

EMail (EMail): Creates a New EMail Message addressed to the selected user.

SendEnter ([Enter]): Sends the Enter key to the AOL session. Usually used to clear the message AOL sends after “Finding” someone or sending EMail.

CloseWin (WinClose): Closes the active AOL window - Same as Ctrl-[F4]

SendDesc (SendDesc): Sends the text in the Description Window to the active window on AOL (but NOT CRoom) and then Sends the [Enter] key.

PutDesc (PutDesc): Sends the text in the Description Window to the active window on AOL (but NOT CRoom) without sending the [Enter] key.

SendCRoom (SendCRoom): Sends the text in the Description Window to the C-Room window on AOL and then Sends the [Enter] key.

SendKey (): Here’s more power! This sends keystrokes to the active Window on AOL (NOT C-Room). The keystrokes that get sent are defined in the AOTOOLS.INI file. This is a flexible function that you can use to define your own new functions. Check the Customization section Reference for more info.

Hide (Hide): Hides the AOTools Window and places the [UnHide] button at the bottom right of the screen

FriendFile (File): Selects the source file for AOTools. It is possible to maintain many “Friend/Quote” files.

ToolOptions (Options): Sets various run options (AutoSave, StayOnTop) as well as define your default Friend/Quote file.

Customizing AO Tools:

The Options button brings up a window that lets you set the default actions for AOTools. The three things that you can set are:

“Friend/Quote” file: This is the file that is loaded by default whenever you start up AO Tools.

Stay on Top: When selected, tells AO Tools to always remain visible, obscuring any window located behind AO Tools. It should normally be checked.

Auto Save: This tells AO Tools to autmatically accept and save any changes you make to a Friend/Quote file during a session. If this is unchecked, it will prompt you to save changes before you load another file, or exit AO Tools.

Button Placement / Button Panels:

AO Tools has the ability to display up to twelve buttons in its main window, making twelve functions available to the user at any time. It also has the ability to store and display up to 100 “panels” of buttons for a total of 1200 combinations. The buttons displayed on the AO Tols main screen are defined in the AOTOOLS.INI file, grouped into panels. With a little effort, you can change the location and caption of any given button, and even design your own buttons & functions.

If you look at the AOTOOLS.INI file (located in your Windows directory), you will notice sections labelled [Panel1] and [Panel2]. These are the sections that define the button panels. Here’s a sample:

(AOTOOLS.INI)

[Panel1]

1=&Find|Find

2=&IM|IM

3=&Profile|Profile

4=&EMail|EMail

5=E&nter|SendEnter

6=Send&CRoom|SendCRoom

7=&SendDesc|SendDesc

8=Put&Desc|PutDesc

9=Win&Close|CloseWin

10=Fi≤|FriendFile

11=Panel&2|PanelSet 2

12=E&xit|EXIT

[Panel2]

1=&Add|ADD

2=&Delete|DELETE

3=&Log OFF|SendKeys “%G{Enter}”

4=

5=

6=

7=

8=

9=&Options|ToolOptions

10=&Hide|Hide

11=Panel&1|PanelSet 1

12=E&xit|Exit

Button Placement on Panel:

This diagram shows which button is applied where on the panel.

The structure of the button definition is a such:

x=Caption|Function [parameters]

x -Button location

Caption -What you want the button to say. The ‘&’ in the Caption sets the Hotkey for the button (which character is underlined)

Function -The function that you want the button to perform. They are listed above.

Parameters-Any parameters that a function may require

5=E&nter|SendEnter

means that the button at position 5 will display [Enter] (Alt-n will be the shortcut key) and will perform the SendEnter function.

3=&Log OFF|SendKeys “%K{Enter}”

Specifies that the button at position 3 will display [Log OFF] and perform the SendKeys Function, sending “%K{Enter}” as the parameter.

11=Panel&2|PanelSet 2

Specifies that the button at position 11 will display [Panel 2] and perform the PanelSet Function, sending “2″ as the parameter. This would load the panel set [Panel2] from AOTOOLS.INI.

Customization Hints: Remember when you set up your own Panel definitions to leave buttons available to navigate between Panels. If you go to a Panel that has no button to leave the panel, you’re stuck on it until you exit AO Tools and restart it.

Defining Your Own Functions

The SendKeys function gives you the power to create your own functions. When you specify the SendKeys, you tell AO Tools what keystrokes to send to WAOL. These keystrokes can select from Menu options, Call up hotkey windows, even fill in fields. Basically, if you can do it from the keyboard in WAOL, you can do it with the SendKeys function!

Since SendKeys can send Control, Shift, and Alt keys with Keystrokes, there are certain symbols that have special meaning to SendKeys, and will not sent as such to AOL. These are discussed below. Since I use the Visual Basic SendKeys statement, Here is the section of the VB manual that discusses SendKeys:

Each key is represented by one or more characters. To specify a single keyboard character, use the character itself. For example, to represent the letter A, use “A” for keytext. If you want to represent more than one character, append each additional character to the one preceding it. To represent the letters A, B, and C, use “ABC” for keytext.

The plus sign (+), caret (^), percent sign (%), tilde (~), and parentheses ( ) have special meanings to SendKeys. To specify one of these characters, enclose it inside braces. For example, to specify the plus sign, use {+}. Brackets ([ ]) have no special meaning to SendKeys, but you must enclose them in braces as well, because in other applications for Microsoft Windows, brackets do have special meaning that may be significant when dynamic data exchange (DDE) occurs. To send brace characters, use {{} and {}}. To specify characters that aren’t displayed when you press a key (such as Enter or Tab) and keys that represent actions rather than characters, use the codes shown below:

Key Code Key Code
Backspace {BS} or {BKSP}
Break {BREAK}
Caps Lock {CAPSLOCK}
Clear {CLEAR}
Del {DELETE} or {DEL}
Down Arrow {DOWN}
End {END}
Enter {ENTER} or ~
Esc {ESCAPE} or {ESC}
Help {HELP}
Home {HOME}
Ins {INSERT}
Left Arrow {LEFT}
Num Lock {NUMLOCK}
Page Down {PGDN}
Page Up {PGUP}
Print Screen {PRTSC}
Right Arrow {RIGHT}
Scroll Lock {SCROLLLOCK}
Tab {TAB}
Up Arrow {UP} F1 {F1}
F2 {F2} F3 {F3}
F4 {F4} F5 {F5}
F6 {F6} F7 {F7}
F8 {F8} F9 {F9}
F10 {F10} F11 {F11}
F12 {F12} F13 {F13}
F14 {F14} F15 {F15}
F16 {F16}

To specify keys combined with any combination of Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys, precede the regular key code with one or more of the following codes:

Key Code
Shift +
Control ^
Alt %

To specify that Shift, Ctrl, and/or Alt should be held down while several other keys are pressed, enclose the keys’ code in parentheses. For example, to have the Shift key held down while E and C are pressed, use “+(EC)”. To have Shift held down while E is pressed, followed by C being pressed without Shift, use “+EC”.

To specify repeating keys, use the form {key number}; you must put a space between key and number. For example, {LEFT 42} means press the Left Arrow key 42 times; {h 10} means press h 10 times.

Note: SendKeys can’t send keystrokes to an application that is not designed to run in Microsoft Windows. Sendkeys also can’t send the Print Screen (PRTSC) key to any application.

They once called me Colonel Kurtz. Mind you, I’ve never seen “Apocalypse Now”, so someone had to explain to me why that should be derogatory. I guess I can see why some people considered me dangerous… I upset the ox cart. I changed the rules and I won. Mind you, I didn’t break the law or even do anything immoral. What I did was my job and that bothered them. I just didn’t do my job their way.

Innovation in any area comes when people break “the rules” or when they don’t stick to the accepted parameters. It’s status quo that keeps us confortable, and keeps us “safe” - or so we think. My rulebook, unless otherwise dictated to me, was my conscience. What is right? What will benefit everyone and not just me or my company? I know Steven Covey talks a lot about that, but he is just echoing what so many of us have known for years. Do the right thing. Respect the other guy. Go for the win-win.

That philosophy applies everywhere, not just in isolated examples.

Let’s see. I had to lease space and build an office in no time flat, then build a Sales Team, Systems Admins, Office Manager, Product Specialists, and Implementation Consultants. I did it and we beat every sales number that the company had the year after I started. How?

There will be those who will assuredly debate to whom the credit goes, but as I made the bad bucks stop at me, I will let this good one as well. Let’s face it, the largest single license fee this software developer ever collected was on a customer that I brought to the table.

Nevertheless, I had a pretty simple philosophy that I expressed to many of the people that I hired during that first year. Yes, they called me a Managing Director, but I did not see that the most effective way to build this business was to manage people, so as I hired them, I told them this, “I am not here to tell you how to do your job. I hired you because you know your job. My job is to give you the tools you need to be most effective and then show you where to do it.”

I had done all of their jobs, except the office manager, so I know how to do them. I know how to tell if they aren’t doing it, and I know how to equip them properly to be successful at their job. What I don’t know, I ask and learn.

I found out that I was not nearly as good a communicator as I should be, and I let personal issues get in the way of being even more successful, but I did discover along the way that the best way to build a strong work force is to believe in people, equip them to do their job, and get out of their way.

I also learned that when you hire the best people, they are often eccentric. Sometimes they are downright pains in the tail, but if you work patiently with them to let them do their job and keep people out of their hair as well as keep them out of management’s hair, you can still win. I once told a prime consultant, “You can be my best friend or worst enemy; the choice is yours.” I let him know the trouble he was making for me and how I had been protecting him as much as I could. I fought for him for over a year, knowing that most of the things he was doing that irritated my bosses would pay off big time for them. They did, and they finally made it up to him after nearly firing him several times.

What are the salient points here?

• Find good people
• Pay them what they are worth
• Equip them to do their job
• Make opportunities for them to do their job
• Get out of their way

I know, these points are simple. Think about them. Pray about them if you have to. Most of all, implement them. When your people win, you win. Every time.