Once upon a time you only needed an AppleID for the iTunes store and MobileMe, important to some but not all. Now, with IOS apps, the Mac App Store, a download-only OS and who knows what in the iCloud, it is becoming increasingly important, practically the cornerstone of every customer’s life in the Apple eco-system. Unfortunately, the AppleID system reflects the “America only” thinking of many US companies. Take my own case as an example.

In 2004, when the UK iTunes store opened, I created my first AppleID, even though I live in The Netherlands because, as a Brit, I wanted to download music from British artists. In 2009 I bought an iPhone so wanted some Dutch apps, e.g. a public transport planner, alongside my English language apps. At first I switched countries every time, re-entering the relevant address and bank details, but this quickly became pretty tedious, especially as you cannot update an app unless you are signed in to the store you bought it from. To simplify switching I created a second AppleID to use for Dutch purchases, including from the online Apple Store.

Also, by using a second ID I have given myself a potential problem in the future because Apple does not allow you to merge accounts. That means if I ever move back to the UK I cannot consolidate all my purchases into a single AppleID.

Now I realise that this is not a problem for most people but it is estimated that over 4 million Britons live or work abroad. Add the number of foreigners living in the UK and multiply that by many countries and you will see that there are a lot of people who are potentially affected by this.

Of course, the root of the problem is the music & film industries’ attempts to control rights. It is ridiculous that anyone in The Netherlands can order a CD from Amazon UK but you can only use the iTunes store if you have a British bank account. It seems to me that the latter contravenes European free trade rules.

I do not object to DRM restrictions per se but I do expect them to accommodate reasonable real world usage. Apple should be making life easier for it’s customers rather than dancing to the music industry’s tune.

I have seen plenty of presentations in my time – some good, some not so good – and given quite a few myself. Of course, I would like to think that all of mine were excellent, realistically I doubt they were but I do believe that generally I am above average.

Good structure with relevant content is important but so is the way, the style, of the presenter. This article on “wrong body language” during presentations captures some really important “don’ts”. The only thing I have some issues with is number two: fiddling with your hands is definitely out but having hands at your sides can look rather unnatural, so I do sometimes clasp my hands, especially when someone else is talking. Number five is an absolute no-no but sometimes you do need to draw attention to a particular part of the screen. If it is a point you planned to make then make sure that part is highlighted in the slides but when responding to an audience question you may have to improvise. Whether you have a pointing stick, a laser or just your own arm I always position the pointer then turn to the audience to speak. Keeping on target can be tricky but a quick head turn can help you with that.

Another post from Mr “Starbucker”. Good stuff apart from the handshaking/backpatting which must be culturally appropriate (which he does imply).

http://www.terrystarbucker.com/2011/07/03/the-top-10-things-leaders-should-hear-from-their-teammates/

Well, I recognise the positive in all the things on this list, I have said quite a few of them and <blush> even heard a few of them myself </blush> but the last one is a bit vomit-worthy. Perhaps it is a difference in US & European styles.

Two pieces of bad news today: a “Dear John” email (“overqualified for the job”) and a “Dear John” call (“they really want someone with a consulting background”). What marks these out is that I actually got some feedback.

Most job applications, usually made online, drop into a black hole. Typically you do get an email acknowledging that your application has been received but usually that is the last that you hear. I give credit to LinkedIn for their system which at least tells you when your CV has been opened. Very occasionally you get an email with some feedback from a human, although in at least two cases I wonder whether they actually read my CV (by contrast, I think that the example above is probably fair comment).

Having been on the other side of the recruitment process many times I do understand the problem: when I got a couple of dozen applications (and it would probably be more now) they could usually be split into three categories:

• good candidates, say 25%
• possibles, another 25%
• no chance, the remaining half

The latter group can be told straight away that they have no chance but to give real feedback takes a bit of time. Say 3-5 minutes each for half the group is 45-60 minutes, which you may not really have.

The good candidates you invite for interview and I certainly want to give them feedback. I have found that doing so at the end of the interview is a good option: it gives them a chance to counter what may be a misconception on your part, it is quicker than writing an email afterwards and not prone to getting lost in the stream of other work.

The possibles are there in case none of the “goods” work out. I like to give them some sort of holding message and then let them know at the end of the whole process.

Well, here’s a conundrum: should I post links to job hunting articles like these:

• The Resume Is Dead, The Bio Is King
• Develop a list of sound bites for a more effective job interview
• 99 interview tips

here?

The first link says that it is good to show something about yourself in case a potential recruiter looks at your online presence as well as your CV. On the other hand if they do then they will also see the other two which might affect their judgement of you in an interview (“he only got 75 of the 99 tips”).

What is the right answer? I don’t know, perhaps there isn’t a perfect one but here’s my view: it is better to be open. I want to show that I have been spending my time on appropriate activity, being serious about finding my next job.

If it is one of those on this list of common lockcodes from Lifehacker then you should probably change it ASAP. This illustrates the difficulty that many people seem to have in memorising even simple passwords and codes.

What is mine? Actually I have two and neither is in that list. One is from a sequence that has meaning to my family so we use it for the iPad and other things like hotel room safes. The other I use for my iPhone, I learnt it as the door code for an office I worked in some years ago and it stuck somehow.

If you are reading this then the chances are you already know about Apple’s new iCloud service, announced at WWDC last week.

I signed up for MobileMe when I bought an iPhone as I wanted to keep things in sync with my Mac Mini. It was OK but as a long term Google user I ended up using that as “my truth”. The first version of this site used iWeb but I already had my own URL and a hosting package so MobileMe was no use there. I got into Dropbox pretty early and had built up a reasonable disk quota through referals and so on; I only used iDisk for occasional file transfers but I found it pretty slow. The only part of MobileMe I used regularly was the gallery but even there I have a Flickr account and recently a friend was unable to see some photos I had posted specifically for her. In short, MobileMe is of little value to me and the bits that are don’t seem to work fast or reliably.

So why did I keep a MobileMe account? Frankly, there is no good reason. When the renewal came around in April I thought very seriously about giving it up, only the rumours of an improved service coming soon convinced me to continue. I wish I had not. Sure, Apple has extended the expiry date on all  MobileMe subscription to the end of June 2012 but that is only a benefit if you delay upgrading to Lion. Big deal. How many people are going to do that? Given that MobileMe costs $99 per year whereas Lion will cost only $29 I think Apple could have given all MM subscribers a free upgrade to Lion.

IMAGE LINKS ARE CURRENTLY BROKEN

I have decided to re-arrange things here. This site was built with Rapidweaver providing the basic structure, the style, and a number of the pages, with WordPress powering the rest (via a clever little Rapidweaver stack by Nilrog). However, I have decided to switch to a primarily WordPress driven site, possibly with a bit of Rapidweaver for the photography section. Read the rest of this entry »

A thought provoking article via Lifehacker on why a different approach to a random password might be better. I have not done the maths on this so offer no opinion on whether it is better or not, but I shall certainly think about it. One potential downside is that individuals creating their own phrases are likely to fall back on the same one repeatedly, whilst the phrase might be hard to crack you are then vulnerable if someone cracks a site’s security and that password gets into the public domain (as happened at Lifehacker). Varying the phrase solves that but you lose memorabilty again. I use a secure password store with a random password generator built in. The password to the store is a phrase which has been subjected to a mathematical process so that I can recreate if necessary …. but I use it so often that is no longer a problem.