Vertigo / Group

A Millennials Computer

Musings

My proclivities toward only purchasing Apple equipment aside, the MacBook Air screams Gen Y. Ignoring the fact that studies show Millennials have a greater tendency to remain brand loyal and are therefore willing to pay more for products they feel are ecofriendly and sensible, the MacBook Air is essentially built to meet their discrete requirements.

Many will have you believe the MacBook Air is built with the business traveler in mind, and this very well might be the case, but like all stereotypes, they only possess part truth. Business travelers do need a small, compact, light laptop, capable of performing most actions, but reducing clutter, ergo reducing the weight.

For Millennials’ efficiency, design, and brand are very critical. Weight is certainly very important, but it is not the primary decision maker in choosing a computer. Case in point: Millennials’ generally own a single computer and because of their distain for being tied to any one particular place, mobility is a must, therefore laptops are preferred.

For mobility to be achieved—in the most effective and minimalistic way—the utilization of “cloud” computing makes the most sense. The ability to take all files—media and the like—on the go and have access to these files from any location in the world is paramount. Software services such as Evernote, Dropbox, Backpack, and Google Docs combined with email services such as Gmail makes this type of mobility a reality. Additionally, most Millennials’ rely on social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with friends, family, and coworkers. Again, removing the need to have traditional applications installed on their computer.

For Millennials, all that is needed is an Internet connection and a means to access the Internet. The MacBook Air meets all the aforementioned requirements and then some. Hard drive space is now not a determining factor, RAM is no longer as important, and processor speed is a thing of the past; why? Millennials are not gamers; Millennials are not interested in performing processor intensive programs or applications on their personal computers. Should they have a professional need for performing such tasks, they rely on their work computers to do the job. Work certainly does not crossover into their personal life.

A MacBook Air and even an iPad make perfect sense for Generation Y. So, I can hear the questions now, “why not a netbook.” This one’s easy, because it is not an Apple product…

Learn to write succinctly to enhance communication skills

Musings

Many people have a difficult time being able to summarize their thoughts into a clear, simple sentence that is both coherent and succinct. It is in our nature to expand a single sentence into three sentences. Why? It’s not because we are all novelists or poets writing 10 descriptive words about a single flower without writing it is a flower, it is primarily because people have a difficult time dropping inconsequential details and words. Additionally, people do not write like the speak; they try to use words they don’t understand and think that by expanding simple sentences into longer simple sentences they are somehow writing more intelligently…

This is true of all generations previous to Generation Y. Millennials are the creators of Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr, and every other social network one can think of. Why is this so important? Simple. The maturity of any social network can be gauged by the reduction in text and the increase in media such as pictures and video. Generations now write in shorthand, they leave nonessential words out of text and while it may break every grammar rule in the book, the message is effectively communicated in a rather efficient way. When one has only 140 characters in which to write, one is forced to be as efficient as possible.

So why is this so important? How can this help me in my business, schooling, or line of work? For starters, you remove the risk of misinterpretation. Like seeing a naked woman—or man—there is very little left to ones imagination, the same applies to writing. By stripping out unnecessary words one removes the risk of having someone misunderstand the context of the sentence. Marketing experts know this all too well! Their entire job revolves around getting a message across. The worst thing in marketing is conveying a convoluted message or no message at all.

Unfortunately, educators have and continue to teach us that the longer or more complex our sentences are the more intelligent we appear to be. This “must be four pages” crap is pure insanity!

I have said it before; intelligence is based on conveying any idea or thought into as few words as possible. Anyone can write four pages of nonsense…

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

Business, Entrepreneurship, Organization, Simplicity, Technology

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The Gen Y Email Signature

Marketing, Technology

While email is so Gen X the fact remains that we all–Gen Y included–still use, and will continue to use for the foreseeable future, email as our main method of electronic communication. Knowing this, how does one–specifically Millennials’–personalize their email signature? Everyone knows how Gen X’ers use email signatures. You know, name, title–usually very large font–company, phone, fax, mobile, home, address, email, mothers maiden name, etc…, but this boring and static signature does not exemplify who we are as a group. Our calling card so to speak.

We are the generation of SMS, MMS, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Tumblr, WordPress, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, LinkedIn; insert your own social media outlet. These are our primary means of digital communication…not email. So, I set out to setup a dynamic email signature. One that integrates social media and email. Now, based on a post from a month ago, I HATE email signatures with images. No, I loath them. Read the article to understand why, but how does one create a stunning, creative, dynamic email signature without having images attached? Below I will show you how to do such a thing. Please note, the instructions below may be used with any email client on any platform, but since I am an Apple zealot, the instructions are geared for OS X (Lion) and Apple Mail.

Here is a screenshot of my email signature:

As shown above, I have a live twitter feed, showing my last tweet. I also have the following social media icons and associated links to the following: Twitter, WordPress (My Personal Blog), Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, Google+, Yelp, StumbleUpon, and Vimeo. You can have as many or as few as you’d like. The process is the same. My signature does not contain a single image. Everything is written in HTML and linked to external images hosted on my web server over at MediaTemple.

First, the live twitter feed is simple. There are many solutions available, but I chose TwitterSignatureStyles.com. They had the graphics I liked an the code was simple to integrate.

Since our signature will be HTML based, you will need to write a little HTML. I prefer TextMate, but if you need something a little more visual, DreamWeaver is the next best thing.

Next, go to Google or Bing and search for social media icons. There are tons of available icons, but I prefer something a little more traditional so I stuck with the standard set. Here is a link to the icons I use.

Upload these icons to a web server. Somewhere you can link directly back to them. Setup how you want your signature to look in DreamWeaver or TextMate.

Now, we simply cannot copy and paste the HTML code directly into Apple Mail’s signature line, we need to modify the actual signature HTML file that Mail stores in the Library folder.

Once you are happy with the way your signature looks, open it in Safari and save the page as a web archive file. Name it anything you like as we will be changing the name later on.

Next, create a blank signature using Mail’s signature profile under Mail’s preference pane. Leave it blank, we just need Mail to create the HTML file behind the scenes.

Once completed, go to: ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures/. In the folder, look for the most current file (the only file created today). Copy the name of the file–it will be something like 8D2D5123 and so on–and rename your web archive file to the same name. Move the Safari web archive that has your fancy new signature to the aforementioned folder overwriting the existing file and bam, new Gen Y signature.

Let me know how you like it or if you need any assistance setting this up.

Have fun!

Social Media: Are we sharing too much?

Observations, Technology

Those of us that proudly proclaim we are children of the Y generation know; sharing information about ourselves is about as second nature as driving a car (although many Millennials now ride bike…at least here in Portland). We tell the world where we are going, where we are at, and where we were. We tell the world all the mundane events that transpired for the day. We share our lives, the good and the bad for friends, family, strangers and employers…and future employers.

Are we reveling too much? Something is to be said about being mysterious. Something is to be said about not giving away the farm. I hate cliché’s and try to avoid them when possible, but people judge you on first impressions. Now days, our online presence is our first impression.

If we stop and think we’ll realize that not only are we being judged based on the post about the taco we ate last night, got sick from, and left a scathing review of on Yelp, they are also judging us on character, personality, writing ability, personal choices and preferences, honesty, and disposition. Of course, this is all relative. A comedian posting and sharing humorous and sometimes questionable material is fine. However, you better hope that gig works out. A business professional would probably want to refrain from slamming previous employers or confessing to office improprieties.

Again, are we sharing too much? Now days, someone is going to post something about you, like it or not. Knowing this, it is better to be proactive than reactive. I would rather get my name out in a positive way prior to someone getting my name out for me in a negative way. One can’t stop criticism, but one can combat it, by being proactive and remembering the golden rule.

Social media sites such as Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube, etc…provide excellent outlets for self-expression and communication. Now days many jobs are landed through social media. Long lost friends and family are located and reunited. News and information is shared in near real-time. It truly is amazing, but remember, be careful what you post as it is out there forever for the world to see.