I often get asked about Mobility Solutions for CRM 3.0. The good people over at Sonoma Partners recently conducted an online event showcasing two of the leading solutions: CWR and TenDigits for Windows Mobile and Blackberry respectively. More information is available here on the Sonoma site.

While chatting to Rory in the hallway of building 20 before filming our Channel 9 video he mentioned he was leaving. I made a very poor impassioned plea for him to stay - but it's hard to do when don't know someone all that well. It is a shame he couldn't find a niche within Microsoft. Sometime the lure of the creative urge and one's hometown is too much to resist. He did mention he was a big fan of Stumptown in Portland and specifically purchased a condo to be close to it: so he isn't without taste (albeit he said this while using the Starbucks iBrew. If the Daleks had a special 'Coffee Dalek' it would be the iBrew).

I've read Rory's blog for years. I've followed the ups and downs of his life. When he came to Microsoft I was excited for him and Microsoft. When he came to Redmond I hoped he would be the 'technical' Scoble (sorry - I never liked Scoble - but that is another story).

Good luck Rory. I'll look for your book on Amazon.

My fellow 'people who live in America'. TV just got a little better. Tuesday sees the addition of The Tudors (on basic cable thanks to our Canadian friends) and Cavemen. I love the Geico Cavemen. Can't say what it is exactly which endures them to me. Perhaps it's the anti-establishment tone or their nonchalant way of ordering duck with mango salsa.

Unfortunately it won't be until 2008 for the return of Battlestar Galactica. A show equally enjoyed by wife and I (no mean feat when it comes to Sci-Fi).

Last night I dropped into Tullys on the way home and ordered a double shot of espresso (or a doppio as they quaintly call it - I felt like screaming at the teenage countergirl: "if you are going to pretend to be Italian at least make your coffee like one). Their grinding machine automatically ground the coffee beans, their tamping machine tamped the coffee, their barista (I use the term loosely), took the portafilter from the grinder/tamper over to the brewing device and hit a button. The machine then poured for a present period of time - oblivious to the colour of the actual coffee. This was my 'control' espresso. Needless to say: it tasted like burning liquid dogshit. What makes me mad about this: it's the same price as a proper coffee shop. This isn't a $5 vs $500 bottle of wine. Unbelievable. Disclaimer: I do own SBUX (sometimes it doesn't hurt to profit from the poor choices of others).

Then today I went to Vivace. My intention was to decide the Ritual vs Vivace question. Which, for a straight shot, is better. I think Vivace's blend has a more complex flavour. If I was to drink it every day (which only proximity prevents me) Vivace's dolce roast is a clear winner. However Ritual's sweet to the last drop's roast was amazing. It's the kind of shot I'd like my child to try before any other coffee: to teach them that coffee doesn't have to bitter. However I think that Vivace's subtle complexity is more attractive than Ritual's overt sexy sweetness.

Verdict: Vivace by a nose.

BTW: This is my first post with Windows Live Writer. I don't mind it. I tried the earlier betas and they were 'of similar quality to Tully's doppio espresso'.

If you see this post it means that BlogEngine.NET is running and the hard part of creating your own blog is done. There is only one thing you need to do from this point on to take full advantage of the blog and that is to set up the first author profile.

Setup

Find and open the users.xml file which is located in the App_Data folder. Edit the default user and provide your own name as the username and a password of your choice. Save the users.xml file with the new username and password and you are now able to log in and start writing posts.

Write permissions

To be able to log in to the blog and writing posts, you need to enable write permissions on the App_Data folder. If you’re blog is hosted at a hosting provider, you can either log into your account’s admin page or call the support. You need write permissions on the App_Data folder because all posts and comments are saved as XML files and placed in the App_Data folder.

On the web

You can find BlogEngine.NET on the official website. Here you'll find tutorials, documentation, tips and tricks and much more. The ongoing development of BlogEngine.NET can be followed at CodePlex where the daily builds will be published for anyone to download.

Good luck and happy writing.

The BlogEngine.NET team

Michael Höhne reminded me (via his blog post) that the Titan NDA drops on October 1st. I have lots of stuff to blog about - but I am unsure of what the inaugural posting should be. I'm having a lot of fun with Camtasia BTW so expect to see some nice screencasts.

Michael and some of the other top CRM consultants/trainers were in Redmond this week for Instructer Led Training (ILT) 'train the trainer sessions'. It was great to see some the best people in the broader CRM technical community in one room (eg. Aaron Elder, Michael Höhne, Guy Riddle, David Yack etc). Guy even managed to find time to pop over to our building and hold a lunch session with some our Program Managers to give us feedback on Titan and to give us some inspiration for future releases.

I met someone at my friend Ben's birthday on Friday. This guy reminded me of this article which is worth sharing. Lets just say he won't be retiring at 50 and he wasn't the one in the Payless shoes.

Once conformism was a relatively guaranteed way to affluence. It's still true that to move up in class (and yes - there are classes in every society) you must break the rules. However in today's world conforming means being a consumer. It means being a voracious consumer who loves debt. Conformism today puts people at huge risk of sliding backwards: not slowly advancing forward.

Before you take your next trip to the big box store you should watch Fight Club and decide if you really need more crap.

"The things you own, they end up owning you." - Tyler Durton

That guy BTW: I should have fought him...

I took an interesting walk from the W to Ritual this morning. Ritual delivered on its reputation as one of America's finest coffee houses. Their espresso was a finely pulled ristretto which was sweet to the last drop. Utterly fantastic.

I wish I could have dragged the occupants from last night's wedding table to Ritual. They had been discussing their favourite brand of coffee: folgers (I won't even dignify it with capitalisation - let alone a link). If they knew that such elixir, such as Ritual's espresso, existed they would abandon their camel piss.

Here is my new cafe lineup:

1) Campos (Newtown, NSW, Australia)
2) Espresso Vivace (Seattle, WA, USA)
3) Ritual (San Francisco, CA, USA)
4) 2kf (Mona Vale, NSW, Australia)
5) Stumptown (Portland, OR, USA)
6) Anywhere in Melbourne (VIC, Australia)
7) Anywhere in Leichhardt (NSW, Australia)
8) Victrola (Seattle, WA, USA)
9) Anywhere in Italy that doesn't cater to tourists
10) Zoka (Seattle, WA, USA)
11) Segafredo (Shinjuku, Japan)

Note Italy is ranked low. The Italians make great coffee: but they don't take it seriously enough (not neccessarily a bad thing).

Update: I re-ordered some of the cafes and added Stumptown (which I totally forgot about - Sorry Rory). Went back to Ritual on Monday/Tuesday and it was good good good. It came close to displacing Vivace at #2.

Clover Moore is proposing a Small Bars bill in NSW parliament. If you've been to Sydney you'll know that most places are filled with the evil poker machine (aka slot machines). I believe NSW has the more machines/people than anywhere else in the world (including Nevada). Sure - the pokies are great for government revenue - but not great for a night out. Even Russell Crowe (now the co-emperor of South Sydney Rugby) is planning to take the club pokies free.

When I go out to drink: I want to drink. I don't want people smoking. I don't want people gambling (a casino is never like a James Bond movie - so get over it).

This very interesting summary of Citizen Relationship Management turned up in my inbox. Worth a read.

I'm now here in SFO. My hotel kindly gave me a room early (and upgraded me).

The Global Readiness Tour (GRT) starts tomorrow and I'm presenting a decent chunk of the technical track (in the afternoon). Normally it's not R&D's responsibility to conduct customer/partner training but we often help out with content development and speaking engagements. In this case I'm road testing the GRT content for the marketing team. I'll also be doing the same in New York in a few weeks. After that it is back to the 'cave' to work on the final stages of Titan and to do some 'deep thinking' on the release afterwards (externally referred to as Titan+1 - although we do have a codename - but I believe it is secret).

I'm excited to be here in SFO. I is the 'heartland' of one of our big competitors (their banners are flying from the street masts outside my hotel). For me, as a 'diehard CRM person', it is great to see other companies who are also passionate about CRM. To me CRM is about and organization giving their customers/consumers/consituents/partners the best experience possible. In our market driven society: I think this is a noble goal.

SFDC: I salute you. You've helped make the world a better place. Now we intend to make it even better .

I felt compelled to share this.