Technical challenges

I’m finding that I can learn to use almost any piece of equipment – even equipment that I once hated using – with enough patience and practice. (This is another good realisation.)

Take the mobile phone for example. Over the last six months or so, I have turned myself into a fan and happy user of SMS. I have long felt embarrassed and annoyed at my lack of mobile phone savviness and thought I needed to change this. Ages and ages ago I admitted that I didn’t like my mobile phone, and couldn’t use the “new-fangled dictionary helper thingy that’s supposed to make typing faster”. Well, now I can (after talking to a younger friend who showed me what I didn’t get) and I can’t believe how easy it makes things. At Barcamp someone said that iPhone release day was a historic day because the mobile phone paradigm had just shifted. I agree, and I think we’re going to get more and more mobile over the coming years.

And did I say I didn’t like my mobile phone? This is no longer the case, I lurve it! I’m sure this newfound pleasure in my mobile phone has been helped by the fact that I am no longer using the worst phone in the world, but am now the owner of a Nokia N6300. (No, you don’t need to be swept up by iPhone mania to be happy with your mobile phone.) This phone is easy to use, has a good battery life, and it even looks good.

The next challenge is to improve my use of the “nipple” (what’s the technical term) on the Tablet keyboard. I’ve been using it instead of the mouse where possible and am pleased at how much more dextrous I am with it already!