I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
CJ just posted to this crazy video of the worlds first jet assisted, level, sky dive.
http://www.bird-man.com/?n=windtunnel&nose=6
Wow! You gotta love the leg jets.
Shot by Jezz, ex Microsoftie from Wellington.
Heading back to San Diego tomorrow for Exchange Connections.
We’re exhibiting, come and say hi.
Got it Friday.
Thoughts on day two …
- Not sure if the new key board is any faster than the on screen keyboard.
- I like the wifi.
- Often slows right down.
- Screen often doesn’t repaint properly.
- Much thicker than the older Jam.
Windows Mobile is getting better, but also fatter. Hopefully there’ll be a software update soon.
Visual Studio 2005 and SQL 2005 is (finally) released to manufacturing. We’re into a brave new world.
Developers get latest Microsoft database, tools
Delighted to announce that Phil Cockfield has joined our team.
Phil is one of the most talented Interaction Designers and Communicators I’ve ever met so we’re really excited about having him on board.
Maybe I’m sad but it’s nice to get a few quiet hours in my home office, catching up on stuff while playing mp3’s on my home pc, thru a $70 dollar vintage (1970’s) amplifier with big analog nobs and slides (brought on TradeMe), connected to speakers built into the ceiling.
Having been back in corporate mode for the last few years I don’t get much time in my home office. It’s a mess as I’ve just been stacking stuff up.
When I built my home office I went it bit crazy. It has a hidden sink, beer fridge and a dishdrawer (used once in 5 years).
I do like it in here though. It’s the geek equivalent of a tool shed.
The stuff just keeps coming …
Google wants your car listings, events, etc.
Computerworld sends around a weekly summary/opinion email that often raises a smirk.
Today in an article entitled NZ still Broadband Basketcase …
The OECD broadband survey figures for the first half of this year are out. Once again they show that New Zealand is doing pretty badly in the telecommunications stakes. We’re placed 22 out of 30 OECD countries in terms of broadband uptake with 6.9 subscribers per 100 people. The OECD average is 11.8 subscribers and to hit the top half of the table, New Zealand would need about twice as many broadband users as it has today – around 570,000.
As we’ve noted before, the low broadband uptake figures are evidence that the Telecommunications Act and entire regulatory regime around it are dismal failures. Stopping short of admitting this, the once again minister of communications David Cunliffe got a review of the Telco Act 2001 underway last term and published the proposed changes to it in August. They’re too little, too late though. The rest of the world isn’t standing still waiting for us to catch up unfortunately.
Then on to this great quote …
Meanwhile, I wonder if Telecom isn’t reading the Telecommunications Act like the devil reads the bible. On top of low datacaps and high pricing, what makes DSL less attractive in New Zealand than overseas is the ridiculously low upstream speed of 128kbit/s.
Too funny.
Here’s an early pre-advertised opportunity. We’re looking for another ASP.Net Developer for internal systems. E.g. public website, reseller portal, scheduling etc.
This is an intermediate role. Lots of mini projects and great experience as we leverage technology to communicate internally and with partners.
You need to display initiative and be passionate about software.
Role is based in Wellington. Send me your CV’s.
Plenty of other roles available as well for good people. Don’t be shy.
And speaking of PocketPC, at boys breakfast this morning, a tradesman mate of mine was explaining how he measures up buildings using a laser.
The laser bluetooth’s to his PocketPC, sketching out a map of the floor plan! He can then send that to the carpet manufacturer who sends back the cut design and costs.
http://www.measuringlaser.com/soft_floorsketch.asp
I love it when I hear about technology crossing into the real world.
And a comment received from the Sun camp …
“Microsoft’s FUD (the kind we see being dished out here) has failed to stop the BB as a movement. What makes it work is its absolute simplicity. You turn it on email arrives. No hitting buttons. It just works. The newer generation BB works fine as a phone. I’ve been using it for awhile.
Where I do agree is that Exchange is outrageously expense as a mail environment. I used my BB using Sun’s environment, no exchange, $100 per user per year for the entire JES stack. BB is not dependent on MSFT/Exchange from a user perspective. The carrier makes the RIM server transparent.
The only reason I carry another phone is a) the absolutely tragic quality of service in the US and b) it works out cheaper to have two different plans given the volume of minutes I use.
The reality is that both MSFT and BB are in deep trouble once full WiFi is available on these devices because then I switch off MSFT and BB to Skype…â€
When in the US I’m stunned by the adoption of Blackberry’s. Instant mobile email.
But most BlackBerry users also have a normal phone as they don’t like the BB voice features.
Almost no-one has Pocket PC phone.
I can get my emails on my Pocket PC phone when my phone goes and check for new mail, but what BB users like is that email is delivered immediately. This is often called Push. The BB requires a RIM server (pricey) and I guess that it keeps a GPRS connection with the device to alert it when a new email is available. Either that or it’s short cycle Poll & Pull to give the appearance of Push. (Most Push systems are really Poll & Pull).
I’ve been wondering why MS hadn’t directly taken on RIM. Pocket PC does have SMS notifications, but that seems expensive (someone has to pay for the SMS).
Microsoft are almost there with an IP replacement. Exchange 2003 SP2 (just out) has the server bits and an update to Windows Mobile 5 is due out early next year. I can’t understand why its taking so long as this would be so valuable to MS and Pocket PC Phone adoption. It’s also confusing why this wasn’t just in Windows Mobile 5 and is only available later.
This summary from Microsoft Watch confirms that move away from SMS as the Push Mechanism …
Microsoft is calling this push e-mail support “Direct Push.” Microsoft is playing up Direct Push as an alternative to short-message service (SMS) technology for automatic e-mail detection and retrieval. “SP2 will use an HTTP connection, maintained by the device, to push new e-mail, calendar, contact, and task notifications to the device,” according to the Microsoft Web site. Direct Push also will work over Wi-Fi networks, Microsoft officials have said, and will make use of additional data compression to speed up message sending, retrieval and synchronization.
Microsoft officials have said to expect the final versions of Exchange Server SP2 and the Mobile 5.0 Feature Pack are due to ship before the end of calendar 2005, according to the most recent information made public by Microsoft.
Comments:
1. From an MS employee
… all your email goes via a RIM server in Canada. Privacy is a big problem, single point of failure … their data center goes down and most BB customers cant get email. Whereas EAS goes directly to your exchange server so no middle man … The device/server you have to install next to your exchange box increases IO load on your exchange box by about 30% in our experience. Quite a price to pay in large Exchange environments.
2. From a Member of Parliament (oh yes, really)
I am a happy BB user now. Push, battery life, scroll wheel thing and small size won me over.
< We’ve just announced our Web Services.
AfterMail Unlocks Email Data with Developer’s Kit
I’m really excited about this as our vision when we started AfterMail was to make it easy to get to all of the valuable information stored in email.
There was a huge amount of plumbing and platform code required to get to this point. Now we have the email data stored efficiently we can really play to our sweet spot: creating business value by transforming email into enterprise information.
I think we’re delivering the benefits of Kodiak today.
I was wondering when someone would notice …
Indian president warns against Google Earth
Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has joined the list of government officials charging that the geographic details provided by Google Earth’s satellite imaging program pose a security risk.
My old company Intergen has brought another Wellington based dev/integration company, more consolidation.
Tony’s team is now up to 110 people!
Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about what the new iMac means. Building iSight into the base unit is simple but significant.
Having a young child, and frequently travelling, I’m excited that over the next few years it’s going to be easy to instantly connect back home with video. Nothing to think about, it’s just there. I could be at the start of the day in London and say good night to my boy in Wellington.
It would make those 2 week trips a lot easier.
The hardware/software integration that Apple is doing is making comms super easy. As I’m doing less development now, my computer is becoming a communications tool. I’m very close to flipping. When I flip it’s at least a PowerBook for work, iBook for the wife, iMac for the home office, MacMini off the TV.
Video, photo’s and music is just easier with the Mac platform. We’re doing more of that as the little one grows.
With Vista Microsoft has a powerful new platform that has the opportunity to be ‘apple sexy’. But MS does not have the tight hardware/software relationship. Compare just powering up the Mac with everything bundled with adding web cam’s etc to the PC.
Apple is doing it right, maybe MS has to take a hardware lead for the ‘all in one’ Communications PC. The iMac format where ‘it’s the screen baby’ makes so much sense.
You just know that all iBook’s are soon going to have a Camera built in.
MS needs a hardware brand or stamp out a tight reference platform. The have to pull hardware and software closer together. The current decoupled model can’t compete.
So another massive leak on Telecom’s Online Shopping initiative (project Sparky - likely to be called Ferrit) appeared in the NBR yesterday.
Points I picked up.
- This is a massive leak that really compromises Telecom. This must be one of the worst commercial leaks I’ve seen.
- The name Ferrit is negative. Though, as it appears Telecom were clearly lying in their messaging to the media this week, Ferrit is uncomfortably close to weasel words.
- The concept and plan doesn’t make sense. So phase one is a list of product information? I don’t see the value.
My favourite one though is … “We’ve built the environment as much as we can to replicate a startup, albeit we are Telecom.
A STARTUP!!
A startup is not offices in the burb’s with table soccer and free coke.
A startup is
- Devoting time after work and weekends on an idea you’re passionate about
- Going without pay for months while you build your idea
- Borrowing money from family
- Convincing your wife to wind up the mortgage
- Grovelling to get funding
- Calling in all favours to make your first sale
- Standing by the fax machine waiting for the order that was promised
- Sweating how you’re going to make payroll
- Spending months of your time trying to get through the bureaucracy at companies like Telecom who desperately need your solution but they’ll probably buy the crappy, safe, established product anyway.
This is not a Startup.
Microsoft Office 12 Screenshots
Outlook doesn’t appear to have changed much yet.
Just watching Steve Jobs latest unveiling. The new iMac is
- thinner,
- has the iSight camera built in (so nothing to do for Video Conferencing) and
- provides a media center experience complete with remote.
Wow!
Update: The media is jumping all over the video iPod. To me the interesting thing about that is that music video’s come on line. As broadband grows that will just get better and better.
To me the real interest in the latest SJ show is where they’ve taken the iMac. Adding the ‘across the lounge experience’ in a very slick package takes the iMac right into consumer territory. It has to be the dorm room machine of choice.
So I then thought, how long until we see a PVR? But when you think through what Apple has done they have been smarter than that. As you can download TV shows from iTunes the next day at $1.99 per episode this intermediate step through iTunes provides a business model where the content provider and Apple clip the ticket and dis-intermediate the networks.
Apple executes and changes the rules again!
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