martinlittle.com:thinkThin

Phew, posting the first bit has gone well.

One of my friends asked me why I was actually keeping this Weblog, and I've been working through this recently. Initially, it was just because I could - I like using technology. Now, I keep it so that my friends can see what I am up to, and what's interesting me - most of my friends live in other countries, and I see them rarely - and they can feedback ideas and things I should check out (technology, MUSIC, books, films, places) which I always value. The idea of being able to look back one year, two years or five years and see what I was doing & thinking appeals to me too (as Eric noted a few weeks back) - I can see where my plans worked or failed, who my friends are, what I thought of particular places and where the spots I liked were. As many of my friends will atest, my memory is somewhat going, so it saves me effort in that department!

The whole thing really is fantastically simple, too. I'm sure I could write something similar for my site in PHP or whatever, but when this tool is here, with some cooler added functionality, why should I bother. If I kept a diary, I KNOW that I would rarely update it, and when I did, if I came to read it some time late, I would struggle with my handwriting! 99% of the time, my laptop is beside me anyway, and so long as I have at least a mobile phone signal, I can publish from pretty much anywhere in the world.

Finally, fun - I do it beacuse I enjoy it. I have no delusions of grandeur that my site will become THE site to visit, and I am very happy with that.

The next question, 'why is it called thinkthin?', can be answered more easily:

• Tech reason: I love the paradigm of network computing - having a physically small piece of hardware, flexible to a large degree through the application of different pieces of specialised software (who said applets?) that links in to a server holding all the data via a network. My eventual aim with my edna MP3 server is to rip enough of my CD collection to file, and have that accessible on the Internet, that I can connect an MP3 player anywhere in the world, and listen to my tunes. Perhaps hardware will advance at a rate as to make this pointless, but I have quite a few CDs! When I talked at Berkeley, I proposed two ways forward for mobile phones - that they become large devices, stuffed with lots of things like combined MP3 player, PDA, phone functionality - things that are primarily synchronised at a 'base station' (the 'American model'), or else they become blank pages on which a user can 'write' what *they* want their phone to do for them. The phone companies (either the hardware people or the telcos) sell software functionality add-ons for small amounts (billing systems for micro-payments are half of what telcos do), boosting the functionality of the phones (hardware companies) and/or use of their network (telcos), reducing the complexity to manufacture and physical size of phones, and ensuring an increased ARPU (Average Revenue Per User - all the rage these days) (the 'Japanese model'). With data prices on mobile networks as they are just now, only the first model can work, but thinking back just four or five years, I paid a LOT to use my mobile phone in comparison to the cost nowadays, and phone penetration is so high now. I still don't own a PDA - my phone syncs contacts, calendar and tasks with Outlook (yeah, Micro$oft), but what else do I really need? I've got WAP over GPRS.
  
• Non-tech reason: for better or worse, I have been physically thin my entire life. I've tried to put on some weight - I could eat all day - but to no avail. Being thin (and light) was not so good when charging with two much bigger guys for the one shower in University flat days, but I've been assured I will be very glad of this in years to come! So, when I go to try on clothes, or buy anything, I always 'think thin'. Thus I have a thin Thinkpad, and a tiny Ericsson T39.