Steve's Seaside Life

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The End of Corporate Computing – Rubbish!

WaterIn this article Nicholas Carr describes the “End of Corporate Computing” and justifies as follows:

Three technological advances are enabling this change: virtualization, grid computing and Web services. Virtualization erases the differences between proprietary computing platforms, enabling applications designed to run on one operating system to be deployed elsewhere. Grid computing allows large numbers of hardware components, such as servers or disk drives, to effectively act as a single device, pooling their capacity and allocating it automatically to different jobs. Web services standardize the interfaces between applications, turning them into modules that can be assembled and disassembled easily.

I don’t see it this way at all for the following reasons:

  • Corporate computing is about people, employees, customers, suppliers etc and their interactions.  None of these people think of computing as Virtualised Servers, Storage, Grids etc.  These are the utilities that corporate computing runs upon, not the essence of Corporate Computing.  This analogy is like saying the end of corporate heating and lighting, just because electricity is supplied by a utility.
  • Slightly closer to the truth is the part concerning Web Services, but again he looses me when he says “modules that can be assembled and disassembled easily”,  surely this …

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X1 Now Searches Notes

X1X1 Technologies on Friday started shipping a version of its X1 Desktop Search software that supports Lotus Notes, the first time that the local and network search product has deigned to deal with IBM’s messaging product.  I installed it but Notes does not appear in the list of Email systems to index, so I will have to investigate 🙁

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RSS grows beyond blogs

RssThis article describes numerous uses for RSS that go beyond the ubiquitous blog.  It’s an interesting read, especially because it confines itself to implemented uses, rather than the hundreds of uses we can envision.  On a related note I noticed this quote in an article by CRN:

Microsoft partisans imagine a day when business users get realtime pings on their Office desktop software whenever their ERP systems detect inventories below a certain level. Beneath the covers, that simple-looking alert will rely on a confluence of technologies, including Office desktop applications, Microsoft’s planned “Maestro” realtime reporting server and a back-end SharePoint Portal/Excel Server combination.

Decidedly “RSS like” capability although probably not using RSS as the format.  The same article goes on to describe some of the conditional alerting that would be enabled by Excel Server:

“You’d set up an Excel model on the desktop, export it to the server, bind it to a [database] or, via Maestro, to an application source,” he said. “The model runs constantly on the server, feeding updated dashboard data via new Office 12 tools or a [business intelligence] tool. Or [it can] send you an e-mail or an instant-messaging or a VoIP call.” Microsoft, …

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Kids and Tablets

KidsusingtabletsMy daughter has recently inherited by old Tablet PC, a TC1000.  She has an auto-immune disorder and secondary Raynaud’s and these conditions mean that she suffers from cold hands, is very stiff and not that strong.  As a result she often struggles to carry her bag around and with writing.  About a year ago I wrote an article explaining why I thought a Tablet would help here and a few weeks ago I demonstrated my Tablet to the school teachers and her assessors.  As a result they have agreed that they will try and get her a grant for a Tablet ready for high school which is great news.  In addition they will get her a book scanner.  Although scanned books are not perfect, nor many eBooks, as I mention here, they are often better than paper.

In preparation she is taking her Tablet into school 3 days a week to get used to the logistics and the envious kids and how to deal with them.  Since she got the Tablet I noticed that she has started using the computer at home a lot more as well.  I often find her sitting in bed browsing the web, writing …

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More evidence that going paperless is a good idea!

Shot6I have thought for a long time that going paperless was a good strategy. Now I know why, Microsoft has posted 3 great videos that demonstrate the dangers of office stationary.  They really are worth watching, preferably with the family as they are very funny.  Another tip,  make sure you watch them through a few times watching the background characters as well for best effect!

First up, the Elastic Band next the Paper Cut and finally the Bad Pen

Visit the web site for more information

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GTD, Life Balance, Lotus Notes, OneNote!!!!

ProjectI only work part-time and have been struggling to find a way to manage my time, it’s been a long process and has so fair failed to control overload.

I started off using a traditional task list in Lotus Notes, this failed miserably as it seemed impossible to visualise the mass of tasks in a way that allowed me to make sensible decisions.

Next I tried OneNote, but this didn’t help, just another way to get confused

Then I tried Life Balance along with the GTD methodology.  This was better, as careful adjustment of the importance of each task relative to its parent objectives allows you to balance all areas of your life. Unfortunately Life Balance has no robust concept of work content, parallel activities, progress etc.  As a result  have found I have gradually accumulated activities and become hopelessly over-committed.  Life-balance had shielded me from this by showing me the priority activity to work on each day and by hiding next actions until the current action is completed.

So after probably 9 months of trying different approaches I am now able to state my needs clearly:

  1. I need a way of visualising the work content of the tasks, and scheduling them out …

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Windows Mobile 2005

Wm2005Here is a great review of a leaked version of Windows Mobile 2005, code named magneto, from Mobile Review.  Features are expected to include:

  • Improved support for one handed operation, (via two soft keys and improved joystick support), no stylus required for many tasks
  • Seamless roaming from one network to another
  • Push email, similar to that provided the Blackberry
  • Pocket Office, re-branded as Office Mobile
  • Improved Pocket Word and Excel, with text formatting support and charts
  • PowerPoint Viewer added
  • Support for pictures in Contacts, synchronised from Outlook
  • Additional field in Contacts (bringing the total to 37!); IM, Company Tel, IM2, IM3, Manager, Govt. ID, Account, Customer ID
  • Windows Media Player 10
  • USB Storage Device support (ie no drivers required to use it as a mass storage device)
  • A single OS merges the current different versions used for Smart Phones and PDAs

I think I will stick with my Treo for now!

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IT Conversations – Evaluating Horizons

BrinListen here.  In this talk David Brin, Ph.D. who has a triple career as scientist, public speaker, and author discusses Horizon Evaluation; a process for exploring what threats and opportunities may await us beyond the near term. It can suggest plausible scenarios for science fiction stories. It can also suggest ways to minimize threats and maximize opportunities. It may be particularly relevant for determining where to make investments. 

The talk rambles a bit, but don’t let that put you off.  To mitigate the rambling or disjointed nature I suggest that you listen when you are able to give it your full concentration, otherwise your mind will drift, and you will miss some great insights.

You can find a great write up on the talk on the Future Salon Blog.

David also has a infrequently updated blog and a more comprehensive web site.