Robin's Hood

Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 on my Dell Mini 10V

2009-12-09T19:53:00.002Z

I have belatedly installed the upgrade to the first release of Ubuntu NBR on my Dell Mini 10V and it is a major hit. It is more attractive, a bit like the way a Mac is more attractive than a PC. It installed the new Google Chrome beta with a single click of the .deb file just like Windows does with an .msi file (I am writing this in Chrome on my 10V). It is faster to connect the wifi. I can browse my NAS through the file explorer. It has a super high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). I cannot find fault with it. It is as competent as Windows in every department with all the advantages of Linux, reliability, speed, compactness, cost.

I had been getting excited at the Chrome OS pre-previews, but I vote this new NBR as a winner not just in the mean time but perhaps for all time.

I have Facebook Frankness

2009-08-07T16:28:00.004+01:00

"Road rage" occurs in part because you are surrounded by a metal cage and separated from the drivers around you by glass. The feeling of invulnerability I get from a car sometimes makes me behave in a way which I would never normally do. I wondered if the same psychology applied when using social software?

I think I experienced a case of "Facebook Frankness" last week.

I was using the company social software Jive SBS (like Facebook but for the enterprise) when I came across a discussion about the iPod Touch. Now I think the iPod Touch is a pointless device bought only by Apple fan-boys and I said so. I got into a frank exchange of views with an individual who turned out to be the Chief Technical Architect of one of the company's major divisions. To put this in context this is someone way further up the pecking order than me. This is somebody who I would normally be much more respectful towards. On several levels I felt this person didn't know what they were talking about and I told them in a very public way. I had lunch with a colleague today who knows this person and told me that they thought the same about me.

So Facebook Frankness allowed me to make much more aggressive comments than I would if I was talking face to face. Have I burnt my bridges with this individual or strengthened his respect for my honesty? Definitely the former.

I felt protected. I was frustrated. I was honest. I was frank. I didn't know what I was doing, but I did it anyway. I couldn't help myself. I am sorry. No I am not. I am sorry. No I am not. I am sorry. No I am not.

CentOS Forks Off Almost

2009-08-03T11:30:00.001+01:00

The open source community are sometimes their own worse enemy.

Which distro should I use and what is the difference between them? Well the answer is complicated. One size doesn't always fit all even if Microsoft Windows is very popular. In the corporate world supported distros are king which is why Red Hat is such a bit hit (really?) And what about Fedora? It is Red Hat without the cost of support. And where does Ubuntu figure in all of this?

Well the problem is that all Linux distros are good. They are based on the rock sold Linus Torvalds kernel. However the perception is that Linux is a fragmented and therefore unreliable OS which does have the reliability and predictability which big business demands. This is also true. This article about the threat to CentOS being forked (aka destroyed) just because their founder went on holiday and was off grid for a few days (I exaggerate) is a great example of what open source communities are worse at: P.R.

"Let's stick with Windows because we know what we are getting".

Two days after a core group of developers posted an open letter to primary admin Lance Davis, threatening to fork the open source OS if he didn't discuss his apparent disappearance from the project, Davis has answered their call - and he seems to have quelled their complaints.

Chrome Bumpers Popular With Speed Merchants

2009-07-14T17:34:00.006+01:00

They are using social software at one of the places I work which is a strictly Internet Explorer 6 only company. There was a poll which asked which browser do you use. These were the repsonses:

Internet Explorer 6 (38%)

Internet Explorer 7 (19%)

Internet Explorer 8 (25%)

Mozilla Firefox (0%)

Apple Safari (6%)

Google Chrome (12%)

Opera (0%)

Interestingly enough when the sysadmin actually looked up the figures in Google Analytics they found that the numbers were:

Browser	Visits
1.	Internet Explorer	78.97%
2.	Chrome	10.42%
3.	Firefox	9.07%
4.	Safari	1.54%

I am saying nothing but it seems to me obvious that:

Corporate droids sometimes break their programming
Chrome is gaining traction at a higher rate than at first thought
Microsoft cannot build a browser for toffee nuts

Google Succeeds Where Others Have Failed

2009-07-08T10:10:00.003+01:00

Google Chrome certainly has innovations and given enough time it may prevail as the preeminent browser, but I am talking decades not years. So why do Google think they can create an operating system where others have failed?

This is like Pepsi designing the perfect cup for drinking Pepsi and it becoming the cup of choice for Coke drinkers too. It just ain't gonna happen.

However if they can create an OS which is as good at one thing just as Chrome the browser is very good at being quick, then they might be able to build a niche for themselves. Anything which increases competition is a good thing. Should Microsoft be scared? No.

Google have alwasy targeted business. Google have traditionally targeted the end consumer. There are some execpetions in both directions but for the most part they have been unsuccessful. Although I am generalising here.

Microsoft's reputation was built on thirty years of quality, reliability, innovation, in fact all the good corporate values that large enterprises like. Google are a bunch of young people in California who ride Segway's and wear their pyjamas to work. Microsoft has lacked innovation in their software for the last five years culminating with the disaster that was Vista.

I am writing this on a netbook as I have the option to use a netbook for my work computer. There are some excellent Linux variants which are optimised for netbooks such as Ubuntu 9.04 NBR (Netbook Remix) which I run at home. Moblin and Maemo are two others as is Android which is also owned by Google. However none of these have anything other than a niche in the market. Even the excellent Android is still outsold by Microsoft's appaling Windows Mobile platform.

No, I don't think Microsoft has anything to worry about.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

Should we Wait for Android to Arrive on Netbooks?

2009-06-08T15:39:00.005+01:00

Ubuntu NBR seems like a very serviceable netbook OS which you can have right now. No need to wait for Android. No need to wait for Windows 7. Go ahead and jump in, the water's lovely.

Being a netbook addict I thought it was high time I tried Linux (again) on my latest arrival. I have seven netbooks scattered around the house and office which I use for my business and for my tech education. I have had Asus Eee PC's, a Samsung NC10, an MSI Wind, and two Dell Mini 9's. The Dell's shipped with Ubuntu 8.04 and the Asus' came with Xandros. I had a tough time accepting either OS so I ended up changing to Windows XP.

The latest addition to my stack of netbooks is the Dell Mini 10v. This arrived with Ubuntu 8.04 which I upgraded with the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (NBR) so I could play with it for a bit. I intended to install Windows XP just like all the others but I have had my mind changed. Here are my experiences.

First the Dell Mini 10v:

It has a wonderful keyboard, bigger and more usable than all the others.
The half-height SD Card slot means that you cannot easily extend the meagre 8gb SSD without an a card sticking out the side (I am sure the marketing team at Dell triumphed over the engineers on this one).
The ultra bright screen is the best I have seen, but the reflecting glass can be annoying. I prefer a mat finish eventhough I know this makes me a bit uncool.

Now the Ubuntu NBR:

I effortlessly installed it from a 1GB thumb drive.
All devices were detected, sound, video, microphone, wifi without the need for additional downloaded drivers.
The default sound volume was a little bit quiet but I rectified this by upping one of the sound channels.
When I used the wifi for the first time it wanted to join the default keyring with a password which I had to enter every time I came out of standby, I soon got rid of that. This might be a bit beyond your average user.
WAF: excellent, she opens it, the wifi connects, she uses Firefox to find what she wants, she closes it and puts it down again.
I haven't tried printing yet but that problem is bound to come up at some point.
NBR does not come with Skype and the Synaptic package manager does not show it.
I had difficulty coming to grips with Synaptic package manager but the convenient Ubuntu 'Add/Remove' was a bit more friendly.
I accidentally installed the swfdec Gnome Flash player instead of the Adobe one which caused problems on Youtube. I had to rectify that.

All in all NBR is proving to be a great experience and until I find something better I am sticking to it. Dell had already tested NBR before they launched the 10v (check out Doug Anson's video here) so they must have been hedging their bets. The shipped Ubuntu 8.04 which is starting to look a bit long in the tooth. A year is a long time in tech. The fixes in 9.04 make a much more polished experience than its predecessors. The anti-aliasing and improved wifi are the features which tip me over the edge. Come back in three month's time to see if I am still using it.

Android Set to Replace Windows

2009-05-04T14:01:00.003+01:00

Android will supplant Windows. It will become the preeminent OS for phones, netbooks, laptops and desktops.

Google is full of very smart people. They have created a browser and bought an OS company in Android. If they had wanted to take over the desktop then they would have bought Microsoft wouldn't they? So why didn't they? Perhaps they didn't have enough cash. Or perhaps they decided that the future of Operating Systems is not like the current model of Windows, OSX and Linux.

Let me explain why.

Windows 7 will be as small and compact and efficient as Windows Xp so it can run on Atom chip netbooks, the fastest growing segment of the PC industry. Microsoft took a step 'back' because the market has spoken. During the development of Vista the market was going in the opposite direction. Faster chips and Moore's law. Until somebody woke up one morning and said, "I just don't need all this power to run Firefox".

A Dell Mini 9 is completely silent. It has more in common with a mobile phone than a desktop computer.

The Atom chip does not consumes a lot of power (no more than 2.5Watts)
it will compete with the ARM chip when Intel start fabricating 32nm.

When Asus start making an Android netbook with an Atom chip and 12 hours battery life and the tools to do your job and no license to pay to Microsoft for Windows 7 then you will have something genuinely new. But why stop there. Who said you need more than a browser and a basic office suite to do your job on a desktop?

Android is community lead, with the backing of one of the world's most cash rich companies. This combination will ensure that Android is reliable and easy to use. Google ensures that it will get continual financial support. Who do you think paid for Firefox after all?

If you don't believe me then all you have to do is this. Close your eyes. Remember for a second that Linux powers most of the world's routers. Linux powers most of the world's web sites. KDE and Gnome try and almost succeed to compete with Windows, arguably the world's most ubiquitous piece of software. The battle for the desktop is only a battle in the eyes of Microsoft and Apple. Most people don't care. If Android comes along and does the job for 100 USD less then people will go for it. Firefox will soon become the world's most popular browser if you split IE6 and IE7 apart. Google funded Mozilla for the most part. Google have a track record of staying the distance and they are backing Android. Now open your eyes. See what I mean?

Into My Fifth Fabulous Year

2009-02-09T14:17:00.004Z

Well I am into my fifth year of blogging kinda. I do all sorts of other things too in the social software space but blogging has been with me since the beginning.

Yes, this is my fifth year of blogging. Wil Wheaton has been blogging for over 9 years. Leo Laporte is in his 8th year. My first blog posting was back in 2005 which puts me into my 5th year (if you include 2005 itself). It is nothing to be proud of particularly but I thought I would mention it anyway :-)

Sinking into the Sand

2009-02-08T09:50:00.004Z

Dubai is emblematic of the risk taking speculation which characterises the philosophy at the heart of the global financial collapse. They may have had very little directly to do with the problems, yet they embody everything on which the crisis was created. Hedonists. Inefficient living. Profligate consumption. Property speculation with no day job.

The higher they climb, the farther they fall. The problem is that they are falling back into the British benefit system, schools, hospitals, police protection, all the things we pay for and all the things they didn't.

I have just read in The London Times that up to twenty cars per day are being abandoned at Dubai's airport by fleeing ex-pats. It is illegal to bounce a cheque punishable by prison under Sharia law and these ex-pats are understandably nervous. Nervous enough to abandon their vehicles at the airport in some sort of guilt trip payback to the Government.

Dubai has no oil. Abu Dhabi does. It has bailed out Dubai's failing banks into a 'state-owned entity'. This act was designed to restore confidence in a failing system. Dubai is in trouble and its wealthy immigrants are leaving it like rats deserting a sinking ship.

The End of the World

2009-01-19T15:00:00.003Z

Is this Black Monday? Does the collapse of the British banking sector start here? What else is going to happen today?

I grabbed this screen image from Google Finance this afternoon of the top 5 losing stocks today. I was appalled to to see four British banks in this list. Even by the standards of the crazy credit crunch these figures show that today is a dark, dark day.

I am not too worried by this though perhaps I should be. I don't have a lot of cash or stocks so my theory is that I will not suffer too much. However I was planning on having some money at some point in the future so I am taking an interest.

Open Sources Podcast

2008-12-17T18:51:00.007Z

I was a guest this evening on the excellent Open Sources Podcast (formerly Open Season) with Dave Rosenberg and Matt Asay. What I said may still be edited out for being too dull (at the time of writing it had not gone live) nevertheless I enjoyed the experience greatly. You can judge for yourself if you have 25 minutes of precious time to burn so go on over to their website and check it out.

[update] The mad fools! They hardly cut anything. Here are the show notes and mp3 download.

MPC RIP

2008-11-18T14:10:00.001Z

After the 'New Win' in the 'Federal Sector' things went downhill at MPC.....

Awards & Press

November 7, 2008
MPC Corporation Announces Chapter 11 Filling
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October 27, 2008
MPC Corporation Receives Notice of Delisting
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October 9, 2008
MPC Scores New Wins in the Federal Sector
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Visit Our Press Room
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Google Apps Replaces Microsoft Office

2008-07-22T13:23:00.003+01:00

The time is now right for corporations to start using Google Apps. Cut costs and simplify your IT all at the same time.

I read last month that 1.5 Million Australian students are dumping Outlook/Exchange for Gmail. I also saw this week that the venerable British newspaper the Telegraph is swapping Microsoft for Google for its 1400 users. Is this a tipping point? It is a tough business climate out there. As well as server-virtualisation and server-reduction, maybe now is the time for application-virtualisation and application-reduction. Is Microsoft's monopoly coming to an end? I only use 10% of the functionality in Microsoft Office so Google Apps suits me fine. I use it on my corporate website yellowconsulting.co.uk and because I am a knowledge worker, using my knowledge is how I make money. So if I am worrying about whether my infrastructure is up to the job then I am not making money.

Microsoft Office is successful due to its heroin selling model. Low barrier to entry, but once you start using it, it is difficult to stop. It is hard enough for me to persuade my wife to use something else (which I have now done) so I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a company like the Telegraph to do so.

I salute the Australian education board and the Telegraph for their brave move. There will be a lot of corporates watching closely to see how the move goes. I have been a user of Gmail and GCalendar since the first day they came out. I have not been dissappointed and I am sure you will not be either.

Littlewoods: Bad and Good at the Same Time

2008-06-05T12:20:00.000+01:00

I have recently been a victim of identity fraud. Someone has successfully applied for credit in my name at UK retailer Littlewoods. The first I knew about it was when some Wii peripherals arrived at my house. I phoned them and it turned out that two weeks previously I had set up a 1000 GBP line of credit with them and this was my first delivery. I cancelled the account.

The bad: they gave an account to someone who applied through the Internet and shipped the goods without me signing any kind of credit agreement with them.

The good: their fraud department dealt with the issue very professionally and signed me up with CIFAS (see below) who will protect me from now on from this sort of thing.

I have signed up with Experian to make sure they haven't applied for any other credit in my name but if you are a fraudster reading this, or even the actual fraudster who did this, please do yourself a favour and use your considerable resourcefulness to get a legitimate job which will benefit the UK economy and might make you feel better about yourself.

Welcome to CIFAS Online - CIFAS Online: "CIFAS is the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service with 270 Members spread across banking, credit cards, asset finance, retail credit, mail order, insurance, savings and investments, telecommunications, factoring, and share dealing."

Meeting Alfresco Management Team

2008-06-03T14:48:00.001+01:00

I attended a teleconference today with John Powell, John Newton and Denis Dorval. This was hosted at BigCo by Matthew Langham who runs the Open Source Community of Interest there. John Powell gave an excellent presentation covering Open Source : Myth & Reality, the Business Side of Open Source, and Outlook for the future. It was very interesting but things really got going during the Q&A. The two John's are really big hitters from the world of document and content management and their acumen really came through. I asked some questions about how BigCo might trust open source companies like Alfresco to still be around in 5 year's time and they gave excellent answers. We discussed vTiger and Interbase (remember them?). Rick Pittard asked some great questions as usual.

I have been a big fan of Matt Assay for some time. He is a regular guest on Open Season which is one of the excellent podcasts produced by Radio Reg (register.co.uk). Unfortunately he was not present today. Alfresco must really be interested in establishing a relationship with BigCo. On today's performance they stand a very good chance. Impressed!

Alfresco People - Open Source Content & Document Management Industry: "Alfresco People"

Ross the Boss

2008-05-09T10:16:00.002+01:00

I met with Ross Mayfield last night at the All-Bar-One near Tower Bridge on the South Bank of the river Thames last night. I was invited along by my friends at Headshift and I was struck by what a good combination Headshift and Socialtext make. I'm sure Lee Bryant would disagree with my assessment but I have thought for a long time that Headshift are a bit too locked into Atlassian Confluence and that greater ties with other software vendors would be good for them. When I was at PA Consulting we prided ourself on our independence and went to great lengths to remain technology neutral, courting and rejecting the advances of vendors in equal measure.

I also met for the first time fellow PA alumni Lars Plougmann who, even though he is Danish, knows the word 'blunderbuss'. Respeck.

Berndt Minge

2008-04-14T13:28:00.000+01:00

From now on please take notice that I shall be changing my name by deed poll to Justin Credible.

Worst bad name announced - Web User News: "In an internet contest to find the worst bad name run by the New York Times, Miss Knipl came out on top of a list that included Chastity Beltz, Wrigley Fields and Justin Credible."

Google versus Amazon's EC2

2008-04-12T18:13:00.000+01:00

I have been working with Amazon EC2 for two years now managing development projects which have been deployed there. I have had a wonderful experience and I won't go back to the old way of doing it unless someone holds a gun to my head. I was excited to see Google enter the space but closer inspection of there service shows some constraints which might make it less useful to me.

How Google's App Engine stacks up with Amazon's EC2 | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com: "Dion Hinchcliffe at ZDNet compares Amazon's approach to providing infrastructure services to Google's. He found that Amazon's set of services is more flexible but not as integrated as Google's App Engine."

Speaking Freely

2008-04-07T14:05:00.001+01:00

"Never ceases to amaze me how much this country suffers when it is been snowing. We had just a few centimeters of snow yesterday and it was big fun for me and the family it brought the infrastructure to it's knee. My wife was flying to Spain and she was delayed by 8 hrs because of a few flakes of snow."

spoken through SpinVox

Light Cycle 'Sweded'

2008-03-30T20:35:00.000+01:00

My son has been watching Tron a lot recently (or 'Tong' as he calls it) and this is his favourite scene. Perfect Youtube relaxation but you can't help feeling these guys have just too much time on their hands :-)

Tron's Classic Light Cycle Scene 'Sweded' | The Underwire from Wired.com: "Here, French filmmaker Freres-Hueon tackles the light cycle sequence in Tron, the '82 sci-fi cult classic that follows the adventures of a computer programmer who gets digitized by a laser."

Don't get Stuck in the 1990's

2008-03-28T12:25:00.001Z

This is a fight I have every day where I am working now. There seems to be a pervasive feeling that Sharepoint is the solution. Somebody says 'Microsoft' and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Stewart Mader explains here why you shouldn't get stuck in the 90's.

The Atlassian Blog: "Control, control, control...Sharepoint’s got it, and it’s the opposite of the open, minimally structured philosophy that makes the wiki universally useful for anything. Sharepoint also has an extremely complex, workflow-centric interface. Software should learn how you work, not the other way around."

Amazon Web Services adds 'resiliency' to EC2 compute service | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

2008-03-27T10:52:00.000Z

I am a user of Amazon EC2 in my business and as such I was very happy to see them introduce today features which increase the acceptance of their service to the Enterprise community. The less reason 'old school' data centre jerks have to criticise cloud computing, the sooner it will come become mainstream and dump them all out of their complacent jobs on to Unemployment Avenue.

Amazon Web Services adds 'resiliency' to EC2 compute service | Tech news blog - CNET News.com: "Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service now has an application programming interface (API) that lets developers choose where its application physically runs."

Cloud Computing Explained

2008-03-25T16:07:00.003Z

There is a great diagram in this CNet article on cloud computing which explains things well. Cloud is the next evolution of ASP, with SaaS branching off to the side. Nice explanation Martin LaMonica/Forrester Research.

Is cloud computing more than just smoke?via CNET News.com on 3/25/08 The hype cycle around cloud computing is picking up, just like utility computing did a few years ago. But new technologies, notably virtualization, are giving cloud computing more shape.

Build Datacentres in the Side of Mountains

2008-03-05T14:58:00.000Z

I have been saying for ages it is all about cooling. This excellent Economist article explains it all.

Data centres | Cool it! | Economist.com: "The data centres that power the internet demand a lot of power. Time, then, to make them more efficient"

Social Operating Systems

2008-02-12T11:40:00.000Z

"It is all about relationships."

How often do you hear that at work? Successful people concentrate on relationships not process or technology. This CNET article suggests that it is a logical step to build an operating system around relationships and not around the file system. I wonder how long we will have to wait for this to become a reality? Facebook is about as close as I have seen so far, but of course that is not an operating system... or is it?

Thinktanks hail era of the 'social operating system' - ZDNet UK: "A recent study has asserted that the next generation of operating systems will link users to each other on an unprecedented scale as developers incorporate social networking into their platforms."

OpenID is Open For Business

2008-01-17T13:36:00.001Z

I was intrigued when I first saw OpenID and I put it on my watchlist. Closed logins systems like Google and Yahoo promote loyalty to the brand and as such I thought it would be a cold day in hell before one of these two behemoths adopted OpenID. What do you know! Yahoo will support OpenID from the end of January. Kudos and respect to somebody at Yahoo for this brave move.

I wonder if Microsoft will ever adopt OpenID. They used to have passport didn't they, which was a similar thing.

For the record I have got a Yahoo account as I think my ISP (BT) uses them for email and other services. My heart belongs to Google though.

Yahoo throws weight behind OpenID standard

via CNET News.com on 1/17/08

One of the Web's biggest names has decided to support the universal log-in protocol for its 248 million users.

2007 The Year of Vista

2007-12-21T17:40:00.000Z

Well 2007 has been a great year for me.

I broke my habit of using Windows after being addicted for fifteen years (thank you Vista).
I managed some great open source projects which really opened my eyes to the possibilities.
I am less and less convinced that paying money for software saves you money.
I finally bought a green car (a 90mpg diesel Smart Fortwo).
I won an award at work and got my picture taken with some important people.
I discovered TWiT and Facebook.

I hope 2008 is as good.

Oh Sh1t!

2007-11-27T14:37:00.000Z

I just had to blog this one. I am weak. I couldn't help myself.

Large Raw Sewage Spill In Port Of Sacramento | EcoEgg: "Fishing in certain parts of the Port Of Sacramento are closed tonight as crews try to clean and test the waters from thousands of gallons of raw sewage."

iPlayer BBC Debacle

2007-11-22T15:56:00.000Z

Reading this excellent article in El Reg it reminded me of some information I did not previously impart to you my loyal readers. Although I have blogged about the BBC's ill-fated iPlayer before but what I did not reveal then was that I actually attended an 'interview' to join the project back in 2005. The interview was a disaster and in just one hour I could see clearly three things:

The person interviewing me was confused about what he wanted (see "didn't have a scooby").
The project was mired in politics.
I wanted no part of it

During the interview a Mandarin dropped in to oversee proceedings. I remember thinking at the time that something is wrong in the state of Denmark.

Why is the iPlayer a multi million pound disaster? | The Register: "The story of the BBC's iPlayer is of a multi-million pound failure that took years to complete, and was designed for a world that never arrived. More was spent on the project than many Silicon Valley startups ever burn through, but only now can we begin to piece together how this disaster unfolded."

PHP a Jewel, Ruby a Rock

2007-11-13T17:24:00.000Z

I project manage the development of websites for my clients. Where possible I like to use an open source package as basis such as Wordpress, Mediawiki, Joomla, etc. and then extend with PHP or whichever scripting language is to hand. Sometimes a project calls for pure old fashioned bespoke and I always go with PHP. It is easy to understand, easy to get resources for (for both development and support) and is ideal for quick cycle time iterative prototyping.

I was interested to read the experiences of Derek Sivers with Ruby on Rails below. He found PHP to be more appropriate to bespoking a website than its younger and sexier cousin.

7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails - O'Reilly Ruby: "I spent two years trying to make Rails do something it wasn’t meant to do, then realized my old abandoned language (PHP, in my case) would do just fine if approached with my new Rails-gained wisdom."

Accent on Accenture

2007-10-30T13:48:00.000Z

Here is a very interesting interview with Martin Illsley, director of research at Accenture Technology Labs. This kind of insight into the future of IT technology is very valuable to know in my industry. I have worked in the area of collaboration technology and as my regular readers will know I am an expert in blogs and wikis (is an expert just a drip under pressure?) When I worked at PA Consulting we all thought that Accenture were the enemy. It looks like I fell foul of Amara's law.....

Accenture's king of blue-sky thinking - ZDNet UK: "Amara's Law, which also goes by other names, is that people overestimate the short-term effects of an action or technology, while underestimating the long-term effects."

Honda Hydrogen Halts Hybrid Hegemony

2007-10-29T14:32:00.000Z

Well your correspondent doesn't know as much about hydrogen as he should. This hydrogen car is clearly aimed at getting Honda to the forefront of technology again and staying there. Although I don't drive a Honda any more I have long been a fan of these ultra reliable cars. Paradoxically I gave up my most recent Honda this summer due to concerns for the environment (I now have a Smart Fortwo diesel).

When Honda came out with the Insight it was one of the greenest cars in the world, yet it is Toyota who are the darlings of the industry for the Prius. Now Honda are embarking on a journey into a 'hydrogen economy' you may think that they are susceptible to making the same mistake again in assuming that being first to market means you can make a load of money out of it. Here are two reasons why I think Honda will make a success of the FCX:

1. Toyota have too much of a vested interest in hybrid technology - why give up such a big cash cow
2. Honda want to sell the home fuelling station for making hydrogen out of domestic gas.

Honda offers FCX for '08, bitchslaps Google | The Register: "Honda has confounded green-motoring analysts by announcing that it will offer a hydrogen-powered car for general sale in 2008, years earlier than expected."

Smarts for Smart People

2007-10-05T00:50:00.000+01:00

Well this survey from Cardiff University shows my car as the second greenest after the Smart Roadster which isn't made any more. I have a feeling that had they included the diesel variant of the Smart Fortwo, which isn't sold in the UK and which I had to import from France, then my car may have been top of the poll?

Smart Fortwo Roadster is 'greenest car' - What Car?: "
Greenest cars
1 Smart Roadster
2 Smart Fortwo cabriolet
3 Citroen C1 1.0i
4 Peugeot 107 1.0
5 Citroen C1 1.4 HDi
6 Fiat Panda 1.2
7 Ford Ka 1.3
8 Toyota Yaris 1.0
9 Fiat Panda 100hp 1
0 Peugeot 206 1.4
11 Mini Cooper D
12 Toyota Prius 1.5 S
ource: Cardiff University/Clifford Thames"

OpenID: an actually distributed identity system

2007-10-01T23:00:00.000+01:00

OpenID looks a promising way of federating your identity, reducing multiple logins, etc. Where I work at the moment they have an Active Directory which you can use on all company systems whether internal or external facing (Internet). I think these systems only work when lots of people trust them. I will track this one.

OpenID: an actually distributed identity system: "In short, OpenID is a way for individuals to create identity online and use it anywhere OpenID is supported."

Dump Your Porsche

2007-09-26T21:14:00.000+01:00

If you drive a Porsche then you should stop. I don't have too much of an issue with a person owning a high performance sports car if you use it for recreation at the weekend and you use a fuel efficient car during the week. Ian Wright (not the footballer for you Brits) thinks that us eco-warriors should be going after highly fuel inefficient vehicles like big trucks and supercars. This CNET interview may change your perceptions about a lot of things.

The Wright way to the electric car | Tech news blog - CNET News.com: "First, Wright doesn't care about gas mileage per se; he cares about performance, power, and most importantly, payback. Focus on the vehicles actually burning the most gas, irrespective of fuel efficiency. That is, instead of making tiny, compact, fuel-efficient target cars more efficient with EV and hybrid technology--focus on the gas guzzlers."

Europeans Don't Like TV on Phones

2007-09-24T21:46:00.001+01:00

And wolverines don't make good house pets, and there is such a thing as global warming, and night follows day, and the world carries on....

Smaller-screen content: Europeans say no via CNET News.com on 9/24/07 European consumers don't dig tv on cellphones.

Nekkid PCs

2007-09-24T15:17:00.000+01:00

The Globalisation Institute's concept of selling cold iron PC's with no operating systems is a brilliant one and a dumb one all at the same time. Let me tell you why.

Having worked in a corporate environment I know how cheap Windows XP is for what you actually get. It costs a mere few extra dollars on top of the cost of the PC. In fact to large suppliers like Dell I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft were giving Windows away. The real cash cow for them is Office of course.

The idea of simply inserting a DVD on a bare naked PC and having it work first time is absurd. There are all sorts of driver issues and compatibility issues that the man on the Clapham omnibus has no desire to contend with.

Having said that I am all for opening people's minds to the idea of demanding an alternative in the store. I would happy to see the EU invest money in an awareness campaign.

If fines are imposed or legal action taken like in the Media Player case then although it may sound noble, but it has all the hallmarks of protectionism, collectivism, and lots of other '-ism's from the Soviet era ;-)

EU thinktank calls for naked PCs - ZDNet UK: "'There is no meaningful competition between operating systems for commodity computers.'"

Saving Power with Linux

2007-09-23T22:17:00.000+01:00

I hate blog posts which begin "I read somewhere..." but I read somewhere that 3% of US electricity is consumed powering computers. This website below gives tips and tricks on how to reduce power consumption with Linux and it gets my endorsement for what it is worth. I proudly consume 17 times less energy powering my home computer by using a Zonbu. What do you do?

LessWatts.org - Saving Power on Intel systems with Linux: "LessWatts is about creating a community around saving power on Linux, bringing developers, users, and sysadmins together to share software, optimizations, tips and tricks."

Open Source Will Prevail

2007-09-23T08:43:00.000+01:00

I have become a big user of open source in the last few years. I increasingly only open source in my work where I favour MySQL over Oracle, Apache over IIS, and SugarCRM over Remedy, Eclipse, PHP, and the list goes on. In my home life too I am starting to roll out Linux on my home network. It just seems to be more reliable and greener than the commercial alternative. Less bloated, more configurable, and just plain reliable.

I get asked advice from time to time about which ISP to use, and I usually recommend BT Broadband. It is expensive but it is very reliable. I don't want 24 mbits some of the time, I want 2mbits all the time. It is the same with software. I don't need the slickest interface, I just need a familiar interface. Linux just works for me.

Open Source Is the Big Disruptor: "Gartner believes most commercial software products will include elements of open-source code by 2010."

Blind Bible Believer

2007-09-21T15:51:00.000+01:00

[warning: this posting contains the G word from the outset]

I have a visually impaired friend who likes to think about God on the move. It is her birthday soon and I just don't know what to buy her? Oh my God, just look at this:

Green Your Prayers With Solar-Powered Bible - Ecofriend: "The product is the best gift that you can give to any visually impaired friend of yours or to anyone who wants to think about god on the move."

Virtual Data Centres

2007-09-21T11:30:00.000+01:00

As Lynn Tan reports for ZDNet below, next generation data centres will be virtualised.

I was recently nominated for an award for my participation in a project to work with Amazon in their innovative Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). This data centre is virtualised on so many levels like you wouldn't believe. The servers are virtualised Linux. The backups are virtualised,. Your collection of servers are protected from others in a vitual data centre. I have little idea what the physical arrangements are and frankly I don't care much.

I suppose it comes down to this, if you trust someone then will take their word for it on certain issues. I work for an energy company, and IT is not their core business. Amazon is an IT company and it has a data centre at the heart of their business. I trust them to keep my data safe and to protect me from attack otherwise they would go out of business, right? I have been wrong before. Once in 1976 and once in 1995. I am not wrong on this one. In five years time all data centres will be like this.

Virtualisation key to next-gen data centres - ZDNet UK: "'IDC has identified virtualisation as one of the key technologies underpinning the successful evolution of existing data centres to the next-generation platform.'"

Linux Not Ready for the Mainstream

2007-09-14T00:18:00.000+01:00

After having used Gentoo on my Zonbu now for a couple of weeks I agree that Linux is not ready for the mainstream quite yet. For someone who works in IT it is simply wonderful, but my Zonbu was designed for 'your Dad' and I think it would confuse my Mum if not my Dad. It isn't that gentoo is not user friendly, it is just that folk are familiar with Windows and Mac OS and there just doesn't seem much of a point learning something new just so Jobs or Gates won't get a penny of your money.

I have been considering Linux on the desktop for a project I am managing for a major multinational, and my conclusion is no, not yet.

I was speaking to an old friend today who converted to Mac OS from Windows about nine months ago. He proudly told me that Macs did not suffer from slow down over time because Unix based systems don't have a registry. Today he sheepishly told me that even his Macbook seemed to be a lot slower these days.

Mossberg's Ubuntu Linux verdict: Nope | Underexposed - CNET News.com: "Walt Mossberg, the influential Wall Street Journal reviewer who strikes fear into the hearts of computing and gadget companies, has weighed in on Ubuntu Linux"

One of My Heroes Dies

2007-09-10T22:13:00.000+01:00

I was saddened to read of the news of the death of Anita Roddick. I used to tell two stories about her. The first as a cautionary tale to help me in my consulting business. The second as an example of how it is actions that speak louder than words.

1. A quote of hers: "Look after your anarchists because when the going gets tough they will save you".
2. An anecdote: She used to remove all the extraneous food packaging in Sainsburys and leave it at the checkout. This was a protest against waste in an age when most of us weren't aware of green and environmental issues.

BBC NEWS | UK | Dame Anita Roddick dies aged 64: "Founder of ethical cosmetics firm Body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick, has died at the age of 64."

Zonbu Update

2007-09-09T17:45:00.000+01:00

I have been using my Zonbu for a couple of weeks now so it is time for a report.

The good news is that I am still using it. In fact i am writing this blog entry with it. it is perfectly good enough for every day use.
I have had to install rdesktop which i need to do my accounts. I hire a Windows VPS and run Quickbooks on it. This is the only Windows application I actually need day to day.
I have had very little luck with printing. The Zonbu supposedly supports my HP Deskjet 970Cxi locally which it doesn't. I have also not been able to get my Windows attached Samsung ML-1610 working either.
There are various other gadgets and Gizmos which won't work on it (scanners, Plantronics headset, etc.) but nothing that I need more than occasionally.
Mplayer plays all the kids movies very well. I hesitate to say perfectly as the frame rate doesn't seem to bequite as good as my Athlon 64 in the living room running Windows Media Center 2005.

I love it. It appeals to 'green' me, and 'annoyed by whining fans' me. I am glad I bought it and I recommend it to anyone who is prepared to compromise 10% in functionality to reduce their computer carbon by 90%.

Addiction Comes in Many Forms

2007-09-09T15:36:00.000+01:00

No wonder Facebook is banned in so many companies. I was walking in to work on Thursday morning and I passed a couple of likely lads smoking outside the building.

"I feel a day of facebook coming on" one said to the other.

"Me too" said the other.

[Editor's footnote: I was not walking to work, I was walking from the overflow car park to the building at Stockley Park]

Canoeist 'possibly hit by ship'

2007-09-09T10:31:00.000+01:00

It is just about your worst nightmare to be mowed down by a ship. I was watching the remake of Poseidon with Kurt Russel last week and it conveyed the size of a large ocean going vessel very well. BTW the film was a very pleasant surprise and even the missus stayed up late to see the end.

BBC NEWS | England | Canoeist 'possibly hit by ship': "The man's body was found two miles off Rye, early on Saturday, and a damaged canoe was later found floating between Folkestone and Dungeness, in Kent. Dover coastguard said the man's injuries and the damage to the canoe suggested he had been run down."

Try the Sneer Test

2007-08-29T14:00:00.000+01:00

I have been advocating Good Enough technology for ages. I think it is the underlying principle of the so called 'mashup'. I have managed several projects during the last two years which come under this banner. They provide tremendous value to the users, they are agile (ie. quick to get online), and they make heavy use of open source software.

If you want to know if you are going in the right direction then just try the sneer test. Every time I do one of these projects I am:

1. sneered at by the IT community
2. applauded by the user community.

Can you see the pattern emerging?

Commentary: Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough: "Say you have a crucial conference call in an hour and your phone goes dead. What do you do? A generation ago, this wasn't much of an issue, at least in the U.S. Phones in the days of the Bell monopoly were engineered to be 'mission critical.' You picked up one of those heavy receivers back then, and the dial tone was as prompt and reliable as water from the tap. It worked."

CNET Commentary by Matt Asay
I stumbled across this excellent commentary from Stephen Baker in BusinessWeek on "good enough" technology. It's actually a great foil to an earlier post I wrote on Software as a Service (SaaS).

Zongo Umbongo Zonbu

2007-08-29T00:14:00.000+01:00

I have ordered a Zonbu and it will be arriving soon. If it lives up to the expectations I have for it then it will make me very happy. If not, then who cares, it is only 125 quid. Read the blog posting below for further info.

Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles - Salon: "The Zonbu is the first consumer computer that meets the EPEAT 'Gold' standard, the highest rating given out by the nonprofit group the Green Electronics Council."

Tips For Keeping Cool

2007-08-17T14:58:00.000+01:00

This is a genuinely useful article about how to reduce your power consumption. It is aimed at the US where most power is consumed during the summer on air conditioning, but the principles still apply here in Europe. Warning: Good practical advice contained within:

15 Tips For Keeping Cool Without Air Conditioning | Cool-Off: "Here are some tips that will keep costs down, and will help you spend the warmer months in much more comfort than in previous years."

Linux is the biggest OS?

2007-08-17T11:44:00.000+01:00

Although I am using Linux at work for some of the projects I manage, it seems to me that the day when it dominates everything can't be more than five years in the future. I am laying down a marker now. By 2012 everything I will do will be Linux. Watch this space.

Could Linux become the dominant OS? | The Register: "Well Google, for example, builds all its own servers and is estimated to be the fourth largest builder of servers in the world - after HP, IBM, and Sun. It's not the only ISP that does this, but its activity is so great that it distorts the market stats."

Photos: Tapping the power of ocean waves

2007-08-15T13:24:00.001+01:00

I was pleased to see some genuinely new designs and technologies in this photo roundup from CNET. I like the 'limpet' especially.

Photos: Tapping the power of ocean waves

via CNET News.com on Aug 15, 2007

Among those at the forefront of renewable-energy research are several companies whose aim is to convert energy from ocean waves into electrical power.

Find Eco Friendly Water Saving Shower Head

2007-08-13T14:19:00.001+01:00

I'm not too bothered about saving water, but heating half the water, now that's worth it.

Find Eco Friendly Water Saving Shower Head - NaturalCollection.com

This innovative showerhead simply attaches to your existing fitting, conserving water and energy without sacrificing pressure. This amazing showerhead not only offers a truly revitalizing shower, but also makes water savings of between 30 and 70%. Its patented pressure technology accelerates, energises and oxygenates the water flow, allowing you to enjoy its massaging, deep cleansing sensation. The showerhead is easy to install onto any shower fixture (comes with hose and fixing kit) and has the added benefit of the manufacturer’s no-clog guarantee. Comes in brushed nickel finish.

BBC iPlayer: Aunty launches the public beta of its IPTV app - Crave at CNET.co.uk

2007-07-27T13:49:00.000+01:00

I have been involved in both betas of the iPlayer for nearly a year now and now that it has gone public I can concur with this blogger that iPlayer is a big fat waste of time and it won't get used. I know for a fact that the BBC have already given up trying to get their copyrighted material off Google Video and YouTube, realising that they are fighting a losing battle. Why o why o why did they ever let this project see the light of day.

BBC iPlayer: Aunty launches the public beta of its IPTV app - Crave at CNET.co.uk: "The stupid thing is, iPlayer is being ruined by DRM and the associated technology required to make it work. Anyone can get TV programmes via BitTorrent by pressing one button and waiting 30 minutes or so. They then have a file that doesn't have restrictions, will play on a whole host of devices and doesn't expire. Of course, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, so most people won't do it, but until the iPlayer is as simple and pain-free as getting XviD files from The Pirate Bay, it doesn't stand a chance in achieving what the BBC wants, which is to control how their media is distributed over the Internet."

Social Networking Works for Business

2007-07-27T12:18:00.000+01:00

Social Networking isn't something you should be ashamed of. When your boss approaches don't minimise Facebook, or your IM client. This survey points the way for us Brits in terms of attitudes and behaviours in the US from where all good things IT come. As followers of my blog will know I am in the business of social networking systems so I am biased. but facts is facts, right?

IT pros give thumbs up to online communities | Reg Developer: "A survey of over 200 US-based IT professionals, published this week by King Research, shows that 100 per cent of those who participate in online communities say they get professional benefits from the experience. And 85 per cent also say they get personal benefits."

Silent Low Power Computer: What More Do You Need

2007-07-19T21:13:00.001+01:00

Only 15 watts and no fan. A great computer for the family.

Zonbu: Green doesn't have to make you Blue!

Zonbu is the first environmentally responsible computer without the hassle and high price.

Social Networking 1 vs Email 0

2007-07-18T23:47:00.001+01:00

I have been saying for some time that this kids don't use email any more and I am often greeted with blank looks. Young people just don't trust email, and when they enter the workforce all they are given is email. I have been lucky enough to be working with social networking software in a business context for 18 months now can there is definitely a divide between young and old. Young people are amazed that they aren't given a blog and a wiki and an IM client when they join the company. All they are greeted with is "...and your email address is young.person@bigcompany.com".

Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead | CNET News.com

Just ask a group of teen Internet entrepreneurs, who readily admit that traditional e-mail is better suited for keeping up professional relationships or communicating with adults."I only use e-mail for my business and to get sponsors," Martina Butler, the host of the teen podcast Emo Girl Talk, said during a panel discussion here at the Mashup 2007 conference, which is focused on the technology generation. With friends, Bulter said she only sends notes via a social network."Sometimes I say I e-mailed you, but I mean I Myspace'd or Facebook'ed you," she said.

Spin-my-Blog Post

2007-07-18T14:34:00.001+01:00

Hi, still haven't received the call from Mercedes about the conversion of my French Smart Car to UK specification. I find it gaulling(?) that it is taking so long & costing so much money to import a car from France

Voice-to-Screen messaging - powered by SpinVox

HEN Lifestyle : Leisure News : Brother and sister's TV goal is shot through with Integrity

2007-07-13T15:41:00.000+01:00

This guy works for me!!!!!

HEN Lifestyle : Leisure News : Brother and sister's TV goal is shot through with Integrity: "Brother and sister's TV goal is shot through with Integrity

A TALENTED brother and sister team from Cheshunt hope their hotly-tipped TV pilot will make a big impact on the small screen."

YouTube - Video: RSS in Plain English

2007-07-06T11:40:00.000+01:00

I think RSS will reach a tipping point in the business community in the next twelve months just like instant messaging did. Eighteen months ago nobody was using IM at work - now it is everywhere. They even opened up the ports on the corporate LAN so people could use it. RSS will surely follow as workers try to find better ways of dealing with the vast amount of email they are receiving. Enjoy this video and send it to all your friends so they can get their heads round this technology:

YouTube - Video: RSS in Plain English: "We made this video for our friends (and yours) that haven't yet felt the power of our friend the RSS reader. We want to convert people and if you know someone who would love RSS and hasn't yet tried it, point them here for 3.5 minutes. (more)"

Dell D600 Laptop Intel Centrino 1.6GHz 512MB 40GB 15\" TFT CD-RW/DVD Windows XP Pro 6months Warranty

2007-07-05T11:55:00.000+01:00

If you are looking for Robin's deal of the decade this week then this is it. 250 notes for this computer is a steal by any calculation. I use one of these myself for work.

Dell D600 Laptop Intel Centrino 1.6GHz 512MB 40GB 15\" TFT CD-RW/DVD Windows XP Pro 6months Warranty: "Dell D600 Laptop Intel Centrino 1.6GHz 512MB 40GB 15\' TFT CD-RW/DVD Windows XP Pro"

TED | Talks | Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo (video)

2007-06-19T18:20:00.001+01:00

If you watch one online video this year, on bended knee, let it be this one. This is nearly as cool as the Microsoft Surface computing demo last month.

TED | Talks | Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo (video)

via del.icio.us/pkullich by pkullich on Jun 19, 2007

Cool software which links all pictures published in the world together into a meta verse.

Mugabe gives email snooping green light | The Register

2007-06-18T14:42:00.000+01:00

Any article which begins with these seven words deservers to be read: "Zimbabwean despot 'laughing' Bob Mugabe's government has... ". Read it.

Mugabe gives email snooping green light | The Register:

Steve Jobs: struggling to redefine the TV paradigm

2007-06-15T16:00:00.001+01:00

This is a fascinating article from Faultline (http://www.rethinkresearch.biz/) on what Steve Jobs is thinking Apple TV is for. As usual it isn't straightforward.

Steve Jobs: struggling to redefine the TV paradigm

via The Register on Jun 15, 2007

The devil is in the detail for Apple TV

Comment Getting into the mind of Steve Jobs isn't all that simple, and sometimes you just have to wait until he tells you what went through his mind in order to explain the latest Apple phenomena. But the picture around Apple TV is starting to clear with some rumours and snippets revealed this week....

MYT Engine - an overhaul of the internal combustion engine

2007-06-13T00:57:00.001+01:00

I am not sure I believe it, but it is always nice to see a video of a real live mad professor with a karaoke microphone.

MYT Engine - an overhaul of the internal combustion engine

via Top Huggs Today by Celsias on Jun 12, 2007

At left, a Cummins diesel 855cc engine. At right, a MYT engine with the same displacement, but a fraction of the size/weight. The engine for the next millennium? >> original news

UK is a nation of net addicts

2007-06-08T14:44:00.001+01:00

Yeah and the rest.....

UK is a nation of net addicts

via Web User : Internet & Technology News on Jun 08, 2007

Almost half the households in the UK spend three hours or more online every day.

Lenovo's Thinkpad Reserve Edition?

2007-06-08T14:19:00.001+01:00

Now this is a great thing to do. Put a laptop into a beautiful hide wallet. I carry my laptop around site here at the-oil-company-which-cannot-be-named and the feel of the antiseptic plastic case of my trusty Dell crap-top is not very pleasant in my hands. More leather is what I say. Car manufacturers cottoned on to the fact that if you make the steering wheel and the gear knob leather then you can make the rest of the car plastic. It takes a Chinese laptop manufacturer to come up with this great innovation. What good is Europe anyway?

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

Lenovo's Thinkpad Reserve Edition?

via Engadget by Thomas Ricker on Jun 08, 2007

There it is, Lenovo's Thinkpad Reserve Edition. According to our trusted insider, it's just the staid, Thinkpad design wrapped in cowhide. YeeHaw! Still maybe there's more than meets the eye, eh?

Gallery: Lenovo's Thinkpad Reserve Edition?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Things you can do from here:

Visit the original item on Engadget
Subscribe to Engadget using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Boffins demo wireless electricity

2007-06-08T13:38:00.001+01:00

What is the benefit of this technology? I must admit I do like the idea of it.

1. You wouldn't have to plug in your laptop to get a recharge.
2. Wireless mice which never need recharging.
3. Wall mounted televisions which don't need power cables chasing into the wall.

On the other hand, who cares.

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

Boffins demo wireless electricity

via The Register on Jun 08, 2007

Switching on lightbulbs from a distance

Researchers in the US have demonstrated an experimental wireless energy transfer system that could pave the way for truly wireless computing. The team has already successfully made a 60W light bulb light up from a distance of 2 metres....

Things you can do from here:

Visit the original item on The Register
Subscribe to The Register using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Xerox: Web 2.0

2007-06-07T16:53:00.001+01:00

I spent 15 minutes reading about this this drivel. That's 15 minutes I will never get back again. And to think I started my career at Xerox. How the mighty have fallen.

Xerox: Web 2.0 coming to a grey box office soon

via The Register on Jun 07, 2007

Banging the solutions drum on a rain-soaked Lyon river

Xerox has climbed on board the crowded Web 2.0 ship with the introduction of solutions-based document management for its customers....

Emily is removed from Big Brother

2007-06-07T13:23:00.001+01:00

Too bloody right. I am glad this woman was kicked out of Big Brother. The 'N' word is absolutely unacceptable in today's society. This girl is a dumb zarking blonde and she should be charged by the police. Before you think bad of me for the dumb zarking blonde comment, don't forget that the colour of her hair is something she can change.

For the record I don't watch Big Brother. No really, I don't....

Emily is removed from Big Brother

via BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition on Jun 07, 2007

Emily Parr is removed from the Big Brother house for using a racially offensive word to a fellow housemate.

OLED Heaven

2007-06-01T09:41:00.001+01:00

Apparently these OLEDs are 98 percent efficient, but don't quote me on that. What that means is that nearly all of the electricity is converted to light, so they are energy efficient and cool to the touch. Now if you combine large tabletop OLED screens with that Microsoft Milan surface computing demo they did the other day, then you could have something really interesting to play with during family breakfast.

OLED Light by John on May 31, 2007

Offline Web Applications

2007-06-01T01:46:00.001+01:00

Now I often manage development projects and a barrier I keep coming up against is the problem that you have to be connected to the Internet to use an Internet application. Not any more.

Those clever chaps and chapesses at google has come up with a clever way of doing offline webware. It is possible with Google Gears to have a web application which works online and offline - yes you heard me - offline, ie. when you are not connected to the Internet it still works. Google will be giving this away free to developers in a couple of months as part of their 'get-Microsoft' program. I think they probably developed it so they can improve their current Google Docs and Spreadsheets offerings. Whatever the reason I think it is a revolution...if it works.

Source: Google kicks offline Web apps into gear | CNET News.com

Welcome to Blogger

2007-06-01T01:43:00.001+01:00

Well here is my first post in Blogger after having lasted two whole years in MSN Spaces. I just got fed up with the advertising, you know what I mean.

See Dwad's Corner here

Robin's Hood

Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 on my Dell Mini 10V

I have Facebook Frankness

CentOS Forks Off Almost

The open source community are sometimes their own worse enemy.

Chrome Bumpers Popular With Speed Merchants

Google Succeeds Where Others Have Failed

Should we Wait for Android to Arrive on Netbooks?

Android Set to Replace Windows

Into My Fifth Fabulous Year

Sinking into the Sand

The End of the World

Open Sources Podcast

MPC RIP

Google Apps Replaces Microsoft Office

Littlewoods: Bad and Good at the Same Time

Meeting Alfresco Management Team

Ross the Boss

Berndt Minge

Google versus Amazon's EC2

Speaking Freely

Light Cycle 'Sweded'

Don't get Stuck in the 1990's

Amazon Web Services adds 'resiliency' to EC2 compute service | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Cloud Computing Explained

Build Datacentres in the Side of Mountains

Social Operating Systems

OpenID is Open For Business

2007 The Year of Vista

Oh Sh1t!

iPlayer BBC Debacle

PHP a Jewel, Ruby a Rock

Accent on Accenture

Honda Hydrogen Halts Hybrid Hegemony

Smarts for Smart People

OpenID: an actually distributed identity system

Dump Your Porsche

Europeans Don't Like TV on Phones

Nekkid PCs

Saving Power with Linux

Open Source Will Prevail

Blind Bible Believer

Virtual Data Centres

Linux Not Ready for the Mainstream

One of My Heroes Dies

Zonbu Update

Addiction Comes in Many Forms

Canoeist 'possibly hit by ship'

Try the Sneer Test

Zongo Umbongo Zonbu

Tips For Keeping Cool

Linux is the biggest OS?

Photos: Tapping the power of ocean waves

Find Eco Friendly Water Saving Shower Head

BBC iPlayer: Aunty launches the public beta of its IPTV app - Crave at CNET.co.uk

Social Networking Works for Business

Silent Low Power Computer: What More Do You Need

Social Networking 1 vs Email 0

Spin-my-Blog Post

HEN Lifestyle : Leisure News : Brother and sister's TV goal is shot through with Integrity

YouTube - Video: RSS in Plain English

Dell D600 Laptop Intel Centrino 1.6GHz 512MB 40GB 15\" TFT CD-RW/DVD Windows XP Pro 6months Warranty

TED | Talks | Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo (video)

Mugabe gives email snooping green light | The Register

Steve Jobs: struggling to redefine the TV paradigm

The devil is in the detail for Apple TV

MYT Engine - an overhaul of the internal combustion engine

UK is a nation of net addicts

Lenovo's Thinkpad Reserve Edition?

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

Things you can do from here:

Boffins demo wireless electricity

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

Switching on lightbulbs from a distance

Things you can do from here:

Xerox: Web 2.0

Banging the solutions drum on a rain-soaked Lyon river

Emily is removed from Big Brother

OLED Heaven

*OLED Light* by John on May 31, 2007

OLED Light by John on May 31, 2007