No, not the clouds in the sky, but cloud computing. It’s a broad category, with folks meaning everything from Google Mail to widely-distributed applications (think SETI at Home) when they talk about cloud applications. I just wrote a blog entry at InfoWorld on the question of what happens when your cloud fails. I’m going to be looking deeply at cloud computing this fall — you’ll hear more about why in an upcoming post.
Audio slide shows (or SoundSlides) are wonderful ways to tell a story — they are, in fact, one of the best tools I’ve found in the last year in school. At InfoWorld, we’ve put up another SoundSlide on the Pimp Your Datacenter project. This one was a great collaborative effort, with photos from several contributors, narration by Brian Chee, and production, well, by me.
Of course, now I have to go out and buy a new copy of the software for the Mac, but that’s a small price to pay. The functionality of the Sound Slide software is superb and the Mac is the best platform I’ve used in years. The combination — well, I’m looking forward to seeing how much I can do with it this year.
OK, so I’ll admit that being able to work in Honolulu is a very cool thing. I’ve been working on reviews and project with Brian Chee, director of the Advanced Network Computing Lab (ANCL) for nearly a decade and I remain in awe of his technical abilities. The fact that he’s also a great friend makes working out here even more productive than normal technology field trips.
On this trip, we’re working on firewalls. When I was here in March, we were finishing the work for the InfoWorld Pimp Your Datacenter article. We took some of the photos and had Brian narrate them into a couple of slide presentations. Here’s the presentation on the air-conditioning installation — I’ll have the electrical installation show up soon.
It’s been a while since I’ve sat in a computer lab well into the night. We’re deep into a big test, things are working as we’d hoped, and very talented engineers are looking deep into data packets in an attempt to coax expensive hardware into doing as its told. My role in all this is peripheral; I take notes, ask questions, and nod thoughtfully at appropriate times. I’m a reasonably knowledgeable guy when it comes to computers and networks, but the folks in the lab tonight are playing well over my head.
I walked outside a little while ago and remembered one of the facts of late-night work: the air feels different in the early morning. Years ago, when I worked the third shift at a steel pipe mill, I enjoyed going out to inspect rail cars at 3:00 AM. No matter how hot the day had been (and Birmingham, Alabama in July can be very hot, indeed), the early-morning air was soft and gently warm against the skin. Walking out in the orange-yellow glow of the sodium lights, I walked through velvet-soft air to the rail cars stacked high with lengths of seamless steel pipe. There’s an excitement to working when most of the world is asleep, and it almost makes working through the night worthwhile.
There’s a considerable difference between the view tonight and the view way back then. The Honolulu skyline is mottled light and dark with offices and apartments occupied and bright, or empty and dark. Thirty years ago, most offices left the lights on all night long; in places like New York City, it was as though no one ever slept. That’s not to say that Honolulu is dark tonight — the light is still well above the baby turtle confusion level, and the city has an energetic hum, but it’s obvious that people have started thinking about turning off lights when the room is empty. It’s a small thing in the overall scheme of things, but it shows that office managers and homeowners are thinking about energy and efficiency at least as much as the high-profile eco-celebrities who are always private-jetting off to lecture the less fortunate on the evils of consumption.
I’m typing this on ecto, and like most of the Mac software I’ve tried, it works. That may seem like damning with faint praise, but after more than a year of wrestling with Vista operational software is a blessing. The nifty design of the Mac hardware, while nice, is not a compelling issue for me. Software that works when I want it to work is. I’m sure I’ll be disappointed down the line, but for now I’m a happy camper. We’ll see if the feeling holds when I come back to the lab in the morning.
You know, I had high hopes for re-building my website and being a dedicated blogger this Summer. Then reality intruded. Suffice it to say that I’ve done little besides work and basic life functions over the last couple of months.
I’m in Honolulu now, working on a huge firewall test for InfoWorld, and it’s interesting thinking about what’s going to be required for the Fall. I’m learning a new computing platform (yes, I’m moving to the Mac), and trying to figure out how to let the computer help me with time management/time tracking functions.
More soon — ecto really is a good blogging tool, and it should make it far easier to keep new material happening here. Thanks for waiting.
First, sorry that this is the first post of the week. For a “short week,” it’s been jam-packed with action. Where to start? How about this…
My second column appeared in the Gainesville Sun. This one revolved around on-line collaboration tools for small businesses, families, and students. The longer I do the things I do, the more I’m a fan of on-line collaboration tools. I remember what an effort it was to keep track of chapters when I co-wrote two books–now, we’ll just set up a project on a collaboration system and be in Fat City.
I had a first, this week, as well: I wrote a small feature article for the Sun, on the new AT&T usage filters for cell phones. After more than twenty years as a journalist, this was my first feature for a newspaper. Not much of what I’ve done could count as straight-forward reportage–it was nice seeing that I can do the job when I need to.
OK, so I love trying new things: After talking about my excitement over ZuluPad, I think I may have already found something I like better–at least for keeping notes for grad school. Debrief is a feature-packed application for taking and organizing academic and research notes. It’s not so free-form as ZuluPad, but it has great facilities for keeping track of references, setting up assignment reminders, and organizing class and research notes into usable groups. There are three versions: one is always free, and the other two are free for a 30-day trial, after which you can pay for them. I’m trying the Professional version, and I can feel a payment coming on in twenty days or so.
Speaking of school, first assignments are due tomorrow. Today was an incredible day–multiple articles to edit and file at InfoWorld, multiple assignments due for classes, a conference call to talk about changes to a production system, a newsletter deadline, and an evening stint playing the piano for a high-school drama audition. You know what? On the whole, I love it. The moments of panic are good for the circulatory system, and staying busy is good for me. About 15% percent less busy than today would be fine, but, hey, you shouldn’t ask for too much. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I’ll be posting links to some of my homework assignments (because I’ve been asked to do so, not because I have such a huge ego), but I don’t think this first assignment will be one of those. If you really want to hear it, let me know and I’ll send you the link.
Next time, news about an exciting discovery (or two) that are making my life ever so much better…
PC Magazine, the publication Jim Louderback has helmed for the last couple of years, has always been a staunch supporter of whatever Microsoft’s been doing lately. Now, Jim’s leaving, and as he changes roles he’s writing about a change in opinion. He doesn’t like Vista. I have to say, I agree with him on his major points, and have several of my own to add.
I moved to Vista on my Gateway laptop as soon as the OS became available. After using Microsoft’s latest for most of 2007, I’ve come to a solid conclusion: This software isn’t ready. I’m not positive I’d put it into final beta status, but it certainly isn’t a general release candidate. Promised features don’t work (see: sleep mode), drivers from key hardware and software partners don’t work, and the overall experience is much closer to rock climbing than rock steady. My latest adventure came after the most recent Vista updates, when my machine took to blasting off into blue-screen hell at every boot. It took several days of wrestling with Vista and ATI to return to something like normalcy, and I know that another Patch Tuesday is coming.
Microsoft became so fixed on making a ship date that they released software that isn’t consumer-ready. They shouldn’t have done it, and the fact that so many computers continue to be sold with Windows XP installed illustrates the extent to which customers and hardware partners recognize the very real limitations of Vista.
The truly frustrating thing is that it’s an OS with promise. There are many features I like (or, at least, I think I’d like if they worked), and the interface tweaks between Vista and Office 2007 make for an acceptable way of working. A few folks are looking at Linux as an alternative to Vista, but Linux remains an operating system with a high-geek perception. I know that recent distros have made great strides in ease of installation and use, but the general perception is that Linux is “too hard” for most consumers to try. I still think it would make for most interesting times in the computer industry if Apple were to release the next version of MacOS as a retail product for installation on pretty much any Intel-based computer. I know I’d install it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people who ask for my input on computer purchases. That’s something I can’t do with Vista right now: I will not recommend it to anyone who needs a computing platform that’s reliable and business-ready. I truly hope Microsoft can fix the myriad problems sooner, rather than later, but so far they’re giving few signs of moving in that direction.
I mentioned a while back that I am going to graduate school. This week was orientation–a most fascinating experience–and classes start next week. Since I’m going to be working full time (including a new gig that I’ll write about soon), I’ve been looking for the tools and tips that will help keep me sane and productive while I do a bunch of things. Here are some of the things I’ve found:
I’m going to try ZuluPad for taking notes. It looks like a rather nifty affair, and since the price is right, I’ll probably go ahead and try the Pro version. I’ll let you know how it works out, but so far it looks promising. Why not just take notes in Word? The big reason is that Word has so many features it tends to get in your way when all you want to do is type. I’m sure I could just use NoteTab Pro, which is my standard application for text and simple HTML editing, but it’s another very full app and, frankly, I just like trying new stuff.
I’m completely thrilled that AirSet has finally released a beta version that synchronizes with Microsoft Office 2007. Carol and I like AirSet for pulling our calendars together, and I’ve missed it since upgrading to Office 2007. There are a bunch of caveats that accompany the beta version, but it seems to be working pretty well, so far.
When it comes to paper, I’m sold on two things: 3 x 5 cards, and Circa notebooks. The Circa system just works beautifully for pulling lots of things together (including 3 x 5 cards), and it’s a pleasure to use for various projects. I’ve carried a bunch of PDAs, but for nearly 20 years I’ve rarely left the house without a small stack of 3 x 5 cards in my hip pocket. I carry them in a Levenger pocket briefcase that, unfortunately, they no longer make. When this one wears out (and it’s well beyond the “patina” stage now), I’m not sure what I’m going to do.
Another tool that I’ve come to depend on is Microsoft OneNote. Brian Chee introduced me to OneNote several years ago, and it took me a while to figure out how to really make good use of the software, but it has become a lifesaver since I’ve been working on a bunch of different on-line research projects. I’ve moved to the Office 2007 version, and it’s making my life much easier. This is one of the packages that I don’t feel bad recommending to a lot of people–if your work life involves a lot of research from Internet sources, OneNote is a Very Good Thing.
I have many more questions than answers at this point. I don’t know how professors will feel about taking notes on a keyboard (especially since I’m told that I pound the crap out of the keys), I’m not sure how collaboration with my fellow students will work out, and I don’t know how I’ll end up splitting my campus/office time. More on all those, and a whole lot more, after things really get rolling.
So I’m a big fan of iGoogle, but ran into an issue with my new job at InfoWorld: there are Google productivity features that the team uses to coordinate activities, but we’re supposed to use an account based on our InfoWorld information, rather than our personal Google accounts. Fair enough, but I like to keep calendars and such open, and Google says that you can only be logged in to one account at a time. What’s a geek to do? Well this geek started playing around and found that you can log in to two separate accounts as long as you use two separate browsers. Now, I use IE 7 for the work accounts and FireFox for the personal information, and everything seems to be working fine. If I can keep from having a third group that requires a separate account, I should be in good shape.
One of the things that Windows has never done particularly well is manage the process of getting rid of software. Sometime an application shows up in the “install/uninstall software” dialog, sometimes the software has its own uninstaller, and sometimes neither is true. Sometimes the supplied process gets rid of every trace of the unwanted software, and sometimes stray bits and pieces are left scattered across your system. Now, there’s a bit of freeware that helps get rid of software you don’t want: Revo Uninstaller. It’s a great little piece of software that gives you several options for zapping unwanted applications. There are also features for managing the software that automatically starts when you boot your system.
I tried Revo Uninstaller on a USB camera application that, it turned out, was incompatible with Vista. The app didn’t show up in the Windows dialog, and didn’t include its own uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller found it, got rid of it, and even asked about some stray registry keys when it was finished. I end up loading and unloading a lot of software on my systems, and I can see this being the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Thanks to the always-useful LifeHacker for the pointer.
So MSNBC has an article telling us that some folks are still complaining about Vista. They’re right about the major problems–driver incompatibilities and the utterly ridiculous way in which User Account Control was implemented–but they haven’t really touched on the basis of the bad feelings some of us have toward this product. I sat down over a year ago with Jim Allchin and other members of the Vista team, and they told me two things: First, Vista was going to be on time; and second, Vista was going to be fabulous. At that point, they had already been tossing features overboard to make the ship date, but by now it’s obvious that either the final feature set or the ship date should have been revised in a big way before the end of last year. Microsoft had become so heavily invested in their self-imposed deadline, and so wrapped up in the hype machine surrounding Vista, that it was beyond their corporate ability to give full value to both. I say this because most of the “Vista will be fabulous” talk we got that day on the Microsoft campus revolved around Vista’s 64-bit capabilities. Guess what? Installations of 64-bit Vista are still rare as hen’s teeth because Microsoft is working very hard not to sell the licenses. They work so hard because the still-growing number of 32-bit drivers dwarfs the number of 64-bit drivers available. I’m still using Vista on one machine, and the experience has spanned the distance from acceptable to intensely frustrating. Will I go back to XP on the one machine? No. I need to keep Vista for part of my work, and I’ve gotten it to a state in which it doesn’t interfere with most of my projects. Will I recommend anyone else move to Vista? Not right now…at least not if the anyone else is someone I like. If XP no longer meets your needs, look at Linux, try Mac OS, but don’t plan on shifting to Vista unless you feel you just have way too much productive time on your hands. I’m sure that Microsoft will eventually get it right, but I have absolutely no way to predict when that will happen. It’s a shame, because Vista does show promise. The slow-motion, dribbling release of Vista might go unnoticed at a lot of firms, but Microsoft isn’t a lot of firms. Microsoft will use bluff and bravado to try to convince the world that the Vista roll-out has gone precisely as planned, but if this is how things are supposed to work, God help us if Microsoft ever has a broken release.
Thanks to Instapundit for pointing out the MSNBC article. It’s worth reading.
Following up a link to blogging resources, here’s list of more than 70 podcasting tools and resources. Looking through the list, there are a variety of different ways of podcasting represented, so if you’re not ready to take the plunge with a home studio you’ll still find tools to help.
Get out there, and get podcasting! The world is always looking for great stories…
I also had a chance to do a couple of interviews for the Enterprise 2.0 conference in June. All the conference podcasts are here. I interviewed Bob McCandless and Irwin Lazar on the characteristics of Enterprise 2.0–and why an organization would want to embrace the new model. Thanks, on all these podcasts, to Carol. She’s the producer who makes the recordings sound far better than they would without her touch.
I haven’t recorded podcasts for this site–sorry about that. I have been podcasting, though, just for the Interop conference. If you’d like to hear interviews with a bunch of interesting folks, head over the the Interop Podcast Archives to catch up.
I am planning to start podcasting here–I’m just trying to figure out how it’s going to work with a bunch of other things that are happening in my life right now. Lots of work, school starting…it’s a good set of decisions to have to make.
Last week I was up in Washington, D.C. speaking at the Publishing for Impact conference sponsored by the World Bank. On the one hand, it was fairly heady stuff for a guy who’s spent most of his career talking to fellow geeks. On the other hand, it was exciting to hear people talking about using new technologies to reach audiences in developing nations. I was talking about podcasting, and was interested to hear folks discussing the possibility of podcasts for distributing public health information in Africa. In nations where neither electricity nor telephone service can be counted on as a 24 x 7 commodity, podcasts are a great tool, since they can be downloaded to a battery-powered device during connection times and listened to sometime later.
More important for me was hearing people talking about technology that’s critical to someone’s life. We get used to thinking about technology as convenient or important to the way we do business–for most of us, a podcast isn’t going to be a life or death issue. There are places and people for whom it is that important, though–and it’s good for me to remember that as I work on these systems.
I haven’t mentioned the book in a while, so I’ll put a link down here in this post. If you haven’t read it, yet, I can certainly recommend it. the book is The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting.
