My take on using Agile acceleration with SharePoint is pretty straight forward. SharePoint provides, for a price, to users and developers a massive set of code and function for reuse.
At the start of a project you can deploy a SharePonit virtual machine during requirements gathering. This will allow you to rapidly spike requirements in the first days of analysis. This is something that is a bit difficult to precisely describe.
A spike is when you take a discovered use case all the way to a proven implementation. You can start this rapidly in SharePoint. You can also get rapid feedback.
In most SharePoint projects I have worked on the business driver is generally to use SharePoint to meet as many business needs as possible at as low a cost as possible. Technically that is not much of a business driver I know, but the key base of development is that a client exists who wants something. If what they want is to use SharePoint for as much as possible than that is the requirement.
I generally start out a conversation with stakeholders by doing a mind map of communication uses in the company. I will move this to a set of gaps as quickly possible. These I will then spike out during the initial conversations, sometimes building things on a virtual machine with the users right there.
Then development will always be done in 2-3 week iterations. Iterations in SharePoint are short because its fairly easy to scope out BUT testing is critical. All code developed in SharePoint Object Model will have tonnes of dependencies on code you have no access to. You have to test constantly and developers are more researchers than creators much of the time.
Once you get your clients machines set up, which should be done in weeks and not months and should start with virtual machines when ever possible to start out. You can start moving work as a mixture of back ups and/or features and solutions.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL04/
How Microsoft uses Team Foundation Server and a review of Team Foundation Server 2010.
If you need to produce custom code should you use TS over VSS? VSS is still good for teams of at most 5-10 team members. If you go over that you probably need to look at some other system, but Team Server comes with high user cost and frankly it is not the easiest software to learn and deploy, and it comes with some frustrating problem like no ability to link component to their use cases (without cheating).
I guess this question I can answer with this anser: if you need to ask you should not consider Team Server.
Taking a step back the great code version control community has been mostly abuze about going Open Source, which is probably what you should look in to. I have used CVS on a very large project back when I still cut code and it work very well, and the price is right.
How Microsoft uses Team Foundation Server and a review of Team Foundation Server 2010.
If you need to produce custom code should you use TS over VSS? VSS is still good for teams of at most 5-10 team members. If you go over that you probably need to look at some other system, but Team Server comes with high user cost and frankly it is not the easiest software to learn and deploy, and it comes with some frustrating problem like no ability to link component to their use cases (without cheating).
I guess this question I can answer with this anser: if you need to ask you should not consider Team Server.
Taking a step back the great code version control community has been mostly abuze about going Open Source, which is probably what you should look in to. I have used CVS on a very large project back when I still cut code and it work very well, and the price is right.
Labels:
Team Server,
Version
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Social Marketing Stats
http://marketingwhitepapers.s3.amazonaws.com/smss09/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport.pdf
A little information about Social Marketing.
A little information about Social Marketing.
New Internet Democracy
Facebook users say yes to changes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8016532.stm Source BBBC
Facebook users have voted to back changes which give them control over data and content they post on the site.
Early results suggest 75% of those who voted support the proposals.
The vote was triggered by changes Facebook made to its terms and conditions in February.
The move drew fire because it appeared to hand the social network site ownership of images, videos and data that users posted on profile pages.
(Comment: The key to social network is giving the keys to the inmates, after all people control the institutions they lived in all along. They and you just did not know it)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8016532.stm Source BBBC
Facebook users have voted to back changes which give them control over data and content they post on the site.
Early results suggest 75% of those who voted support the proposals.
The vote was triggered by changes Facebook made to its terms and conditions in February.
The move drew fire because it appeared to hand the social network site ownership of images, videos and data that users posted on profile pages.
(Comment: The key to social network is giving the keys to the inmates, after all people control the institutions they lived in all along. They and you just did not know it)
Friday, 24 April 2009
Clissold Park Synth
Another synth from London. I love Photosynth and simply want to promote this amazing tool. In the past year I recall so called "experts" making fun of information from Facebook and Photosynth. I hope to help Photosynth take off. I hold to the principle that experts are generally the last to know much of anything.
So what is Photosynth? Photosynth is a framework that takes images and constructs a 3-D scene in which they are arranged. Behind this scene Photosynth works to create a Synth, a 3-D image created by identifying points of an image. The tool is probably the most amazing thing coming out of Microsoft Cloud and has amazing potential.
Star Trek the Movie is Coming: With Microsoft Photosynth
Star Trek the Movie is Coming: With Microsoft Photosynth
A synth from Gail Orenstein photos. A pretty amazing experiment. I am happy to say that Photosynth now can be viewed via an install for Linux, so I can go nuts with my favorite tool and not have to regret the fact Linux users can't see it.
Labels:
Gail+Orenstein,
photosynth,
Star+Trek
Yahoo pulls the plug on GeoCities
Yahoo is to close its personal web hosting site GeoCities later this year.
In a statement, the firm says it will no longer be accepting new customers and will focus on helping "customers build new relationships online".
Yahoo bought GeoCities for $3.57bn at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999.
At its peak, GeoCities boasted millions of active accounts, but it has since fallen out of fashion, with users migrating to social networking sites.
Yahoo says that existing GeoCities accounts will remain live for now, although it stresses that users should start looking for alternative sites.
"You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured web-hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service," the firm said in an online post.
The closure of GeoCities spells the end of Yahoo's free hosting, although other services - such as e-mail accounts - remain unaffected.
Rupert Goodwins, editor of the ZDNet website, said the closure of GeoCities was the end of an era.
"I think GeoCities was the first proof that you could have something really popular and still not make any money on the internet.
Microsoft suffers first sales dip
Microsoft has said sales in the first three months of 2009 fell 6% from the previous year - its first quarterly drop in 23 years as a public company.
The world's largest software maker said profit dropped by 32% to $2.98bn (£2bn). Sales slipped to $13.65bn.
Microsoft makes most of its profit selling the Windows operating system and business software such as Office.
However demand has been hit by falling sales of personal computers as consumers and businesses trim spending.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told the BBC World Service that its results had been "impacted" by the downturn in the world economy.
He also admitted the company would have had less total sales "than we would have had before the downturn".
"We expect the weakness to continue through at least the next quarter," said the firm's chief financial officer, Chris Liddell.
The world's largest software maker said profit dropped by 32% to $2.98bn (£2bn). Sales slipped to $13.65bn.
Microsoft makes most of its profit selling the Windows operating system and business software such as Office.
However demand has been hit by falling sales of personal computers as consumers and businesses trim spending.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told the BBC World Service that its results had been "impacted" by the downturn in the world economy.
He also admitted the company would have had less total sales "than we would have had before the downturn".
"We expect the weakness to continue through at least the next quarter," said the firm's chief financial officer, Chris Liddell.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Botnet 'ensnares government PCs'
Botnet 'ensnares government PCs'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8010729.stm
Almost two million PCs globally, including machines inside UK and US government departments, have been taken over by malicious hackers.
Security experts Finjan traced the giant network of remotely-controlled PCs, called a botnet, back to a gang of cyber criminals in Ukraine.
Several PCs inside six UK government bodies were compromised by the botnet.
Finjan has contacted the Metropolitan Police with details of the government PCs and it is now investigating.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which is charged with setting standards for the use of information technology across government, said it would not comment on specific attacks "for security reasons".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8010729.stm
Almost two million PCs globally, including machines inside UK and US government departments, have been taken over by malicious hackers.
Security experts Finjan traced the giant network of remotely-controlled PCs, called a botnet, back to a gang of cyber criminals in Ukraine.
Several PCs inside six UK government bodies were compromised by the botnet.
Finjan has contacted the Metropolitan Police with details of the government PCs and it is now investigating.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which is charged with setting standards for the use of information technology across government, said it would not comment on specific attacks "for security reasons".
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Photosynth from my vacation
Some Photosynths from my vacation to Instanbul
New Mosque
Grand Bazaar
Inside the Haga Sofia
Outside the Haga Sofia
Archaeology Museum (Arkeoloji Müzesi)
I took these with a blackberry. I was thinking that the new technology like photosynth means we need new kinds of cameras.
New Mosque
Grand Bazaar
Inside the Haga Sofia
Outside the Haga Sofia
Archaeology Museum (Arkeoloji Müzesi)
I took these with a blackberry. I was thinking that the new technology like photosynth means we need new kinds of cameras.
Labels:
Istanbul,
photosynth
Photosynth of New Mosque in Istanbul
Photosynth of New Mosque in Istanbul
I love this 3-D technology. The thing is that 3-D VR technology and collaboration technology are still 2 separate items for Microsoft, whereas the 2 technologies work together in Second Life.
Labels:
photosynth
The Long Now, slow down and think
The Long Now
(Not really related by a cool link I saw on facebook)
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
The Name
The term was coined by one of our founding board members, Brian Eno. When Brian first moved to New York City he found that in New York here and now meant this room and this five minutes, as opposed to the larger here and longer now that he was used to in England. We have since adopted the term as the title of our foundation as we are trying to stretch out what people consider as now.
(Not really related by a cool link I saw on facebook)
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
The Name
The term was coined by one of our founding board members, Brian Eno. When Brian first moved to New York City he found that in New York here and now meant this room and this five minutes, as opposed to the larger here and longer now that he was used to in England. We have since adopted the term as the title of our foundation as we are trying to stretch out what people consider as now.
Google Recovery
Google, the internet search engine, has announced strong results for the first three months of this year.
"Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
"These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online," he added.
(Remember that the dot coms all bombed?)
"Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
"These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online," he added.
(Remember that the dot coms all bombed?)
Monday, 20 April 2009
Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 due to ship April 28th
Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 due to ship April 28th
Jie Li, Microsoft's Technical Product Manager for SharePoint announces:
"Office Service Pack team announced Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 would be available on April 28th. It provides many fixes and performance improvements, as well as some new features. Also with the new service pack, Internet Explorer 8 will be added into browser support matrix as level one, and Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 as level two. We recommend every customer to start planning their patch window to apply this service pack. Please look out for more details on April 28th."
To firms planning to apply the patch remember to test the patch installation in the UAT environment and test. But lets be honest, what ICT firm has the time and resources to firstly maintain a UAT environment, to test patching and to document patching results? So my advice if you don't have this budget, and given the difficult economic times is to hold off on patching until user stories come in on the Internet and to at the very least test on a VM for the time being.
Jie Li, Microsoft's Technical Product Manager for SharePoint announces:
"Office Service Pack team announced Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 would be available on April 28th. It provides many fixes and performance improvements, as well as some new features. Also with the new service pack, Internet Explorer 8 will be added into browser support matrix as level one, and Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 as level two. We recommend every customer to start planning their patch window to apply this service pack. Please look out for more details on April 28th."
To firms planning to apply the patch remember to test the patch installation in the UAT environment and test. But lets be honest, what ICT firm has the time and resources to firstly maintain a UAT environment, to test patching and to document patching results? So my advice if you don't have this budget, and given the difficult economic times is to hold off on patching until user stories come in on the Internet and to at the very least test on a VM for the time being.
Labels:
Service Pack
Exchange Server 2010
Exchange Server 2010 Beta now available on TechNet Plus!
To make a short story even shorter, this offers just a few added features, forces you to go 64 bit and does not solve the BIG problems with Exchange. Exchange Server remains a massive black hole in which your staff communicate secrets that you are liable for and can not see or even find.
In my opinion these Exchanges are some of the last Enterprise versions to see wide distribution. Email servers by logic will migrate to the Cloud over the next 10 years. Companies would be wise not to invest to heavily in Exchange Server implementation or rely too heavily on revenue for thier company.
Windows 7 Release Candidate due date is May 5
Mary-Jo Foley reports:
Looks like Microsoft’s March slip-up that pinpointed the next milestone delivery date was correct. The Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) — the one and only public RC — is set to be available on May 5.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2547
Looks like Microsoft’s March slip-up that pinpointed the next milestone delivery date was correct. The Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) — the one and only public RC — is set to be available on May 5.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2547
Labels:
Windows+7
(Considering I cover collaboration this is a major event to me. Not having followed the case very closely my first impression is this is all very extreme, and it may be necessary to get a better resolution through social action like voting and protest)
The first PirateBay server, now a Museum piece in Sweden, locked up like its founders but not visible to the public.
The first PirateBay server, now a Museum piece in Sweden, locked up like its founders but not visible to the public.
A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail.
They were also ordered to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.
Record companies welcomed the verdict but the men are to appeal and Sunde said they would refuse to pay the fine.
Speaking at an online press conference, he described the verdict as "bizarre".
"It's serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It's really serious. And that's a bit weird," Sunde said.
"It's so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it's even more bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team. The court said we were organised. I can't get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you're going to convict us, convict us of disorganised crime.
"We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."
The damages were awarded to a number of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and Columbia Pictures.
However, the total awarded fell short of the $17.5m in damages and interest the firms were seeking.
Speaking to the BBC, the chairman of industry body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) John Kennedy said the verdict sent out a clear message.
"These guys weren't making a principled stand, they were out to line their own pockets. There was nothing meritorious about their behaviour, it was reprehensible.
"The Pirate Bay did immense harm and the damages awarded doesn't even get close to compensation, but we never claimed it did.
"There has been a perception that piracy is OK and that the music industry should just have to accept it. This verdict will change that," he said.
The four men denied the charges throughout the trial, saying that because they did not actually host any files, they were not doing anything wrong.
Speaking on Swedish Radio, assistant judge Klarius explained how the court reached its findings.
"The court first tried whether there was any question of breach of copyright by the file-sharing application and that has been proved, that the offence was committed.
"The court then moved on to look at those who acted as a team to operate the Pirate Bay file-sharing service, and the court found that they knew that material which was protected by copyright but continued to operate the service," he said.
A lawyer for Carl Lundstrom, Per Samuelson, told journalists he was shocked by the guilty verdict and the severity of the sentence.
"That's outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours."
Political issue
Rickard Falkvinge, leader of The Pirate Party - which is trying to reform laws around copyright and patents in the digital age - told the BBC that the verdict was "a gross injustice".
"This wasn't a criminal trial, it was a political trial. It is just gross beyond description that you can jail four people for providing infrastructure.
"There is a lot of anger in Sweden right now. File-sharing is an institution here and while I can't encourage people to break copyright law, I'm not following it and I don't agree with it.
"Today's events make file-sharing a hot political issue and we're going to take this to the European Parliament."
The Pirate Bay is the world's most high profile file-sharing website and was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright organisation Piratbyran, but for the last five years it has been run by individuals.
Millions of files are exchanged using the service every day.
No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users' computers.
Labels:
PirateBay
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
BBC NEWS | Technology | Pirate Bay confident of trial win
BBC NEWS | Technology | Pirate Bay confident of trial win
One of the founders of file-sharing website
The Pirate Bay has said he anticipates victory in the court battle over
alleged copyright theft.
Peter Sunde said: "We are quite confident we are going to win."
Mr Sunde said the site would continue operating even if he and his three co-defendants were found guilty on Friday.
The Pirate Bay is the world's most high profile file-sharing website. In
February 2009, it reported 22 million simultaneous users.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde founded The Pirate Bay in 2003.
No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users computers.
The file-sharing program BitTorrent, which is a legal piece of file-sharing software, uses the torrent links to manage the transfer of files online between those who have parts of the data and those who need parts of the data.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
When I was right and when I was wrong
Every career is a series of gambles. Some bets I have made over the year have been very good. These are some of my best:
1. Go in to the Internet space
I was doing Office installations at an insurance company when I read that the Heaven Gate Cult had all killed themselves. What struck me was the massive mansion they owned, all earned by web development. That month I started my own Internet company.
2. Staying in the Internet
It seems odd now but in 2003 I had to clean up my CV to remove references to web and Internet. Against the market trends I kept my faith in the long term potential of this technology, and didn't go in to real estate or banking.
3. Staying out of finance
Enough said
4. Going in the SharePoint
The 2003 product was a bit, well bad. At my job at the time no one wanted to have anything to do with it, so the roll-out of a multi-million pound SharePoint deployment just landed in my lap. As long as I billed time on other work I could promote, train and support SharePoint. Best technology bet of my life.
5. Going with Microsoft
In 1999 most people working in the web were Unix Apache people. Good technology, with Java even better. Easy to deploy and maintain? No. Microsoft stack has had great success in that area.
6. Twitter
I have been "singing" my praises for this amazing piece of technology.
7. Tiny Linux Laptops
You can confirm this with my wife if you like, I have been converting old and small laptop to Linux for a couple years now seeing the future in a small light laptop. I know have built about 3 and own one very small one. They are going to play a big role in the futue. If only Microsoft had read my blogs.
8. Vista
I knew it was a dog first time I saw it.
9. Jorn Barger
Just because I agreed with everyone that he was something of a nut case was no reason not to religiously read his blog.
And when I was wrong
1. Telling someone who knew the facebook founders the field was too crowded and had no potential.
2. Dismissing .NET 1.0 as a fad and not training up before it came out.
3. Not understanding how .NET is kind of a fad, and how companies and public sector agencies still depend on ASP sites written in VB6.
4. Not getting a Second Life account in 2003. My first avatar was in 2005. I have gotten to see everything important but not the founding days.
5. Building a small Pearl "blogging" tool in 1998, using if for myself and my friends, and then forgetting about it. SUPER DOH.
6. Userland Frontier, not sure about this one. I learned a lot in the late '90s about web content management but I was sort to wasting my time on a tool.
1. Go in to the Internet space
I was doing Office installations at an insurance company when I read that the Heaven Gate Cult had all killed themselves. What struck me was the massive mansion they owned, all earned by web development. That month I started my own Internet company.
2. Staying in the Internet
It seems odd now but in 2003 I had to clean up my CV to remove references to web and Internet. Against the market trends I kept my faith in the long term potential of this technology, and didn't go in to real estate or banking.
3. Staying out of finance
Enough said
4. Going in the SharePoint
The 2003 product was a bit, well bad. At my job at the time no one wanted to have anything to do with it, so the roll-out of a multi-million pound SharePoint deployment just landed in my lap. As long as I billed time on other work I could promote, train and support SharePoint. Best technology bet of my life.
5. Going with Microsoft
In 1999 most people working in the web were Unix Apache people. Good technology, with Java even better. Easy to deploy and maintain? No. Microsoft stack has had great success in that area.
6. Twitter
I have been "singing" my praises for this amazing piece of technology.
7. Tiny Linux Laptops
You can confirm this with my wife if you like, I have been converting old and small laptop to Linux for a couple years now seeing the future in a small light laptop. I know have built about 3 and own one very small one. They are going to play a big role in the futue. If only Microsoft had read my blogs.
Publish Post
8. Vista
I knew it was a dog first time I saw it.
9. Jorn Barger
Just because I agreed with everyone that he was something of a nut case was no reason not to religiously read his blog.
And when I was wrong
1. Telling someone who knew the facebook founders the field was too crowded and had no potential.
2. Dismissing .NET 1.0 as a fad and not training up before it came out.
3. Not understanding how .NET is kind of a fad, and how companies and public sector agencies still depend on ASP sites written in VB6.
4. Not getting a Second Life account in 2003. My first avatar was in 2005. I have gotten to see everything important but not the founding days.
5. Building a small Pearl "blogging" tool in 1998, using if for myself and my friends, and then forgetting about it. SUPER DOH.
6. Userland Frontier, not sure about this one. I learned a lot in the late '90s about web content management but I was sort to wasting my time on a tool.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Microsoft moves ahead with plan for app virtualization for servers | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Microsoft’s App-V team is working on an app-virtualization product that will be optimized to run on servers, according to a recent job posting unearthed on the “Codename Windows” blog. From the job posting:Microsoft moves ahead with plan for app virtualization for servers | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Sunday, 12 April 2009
BBC NEWS | Technology | Small is big in gaming world
BBC NEWS | Technology | Small is big in gaming world
Small can mean big bucks in the world of gaming where micropayments are being seen as playing an increasingly important part in making money for the industry.
Amid a downturn in advertising revenues, a recent survey at the GamesBeat conference in San Francisco found that 66% of those polled "were excited about this growing trend" which is most often seen in so-called 'free to play' games.
That is where it costs nothing to play but developers sell items or different levels within the gaming experience.
"Micro payments have been proven to work very well in the far east, Korea and China," said Dean Takahashi from VentureBeat, which organised GamesBeat.
"Initially they took off there because there is such a big problem with piracy and with a micro-transaction, you can always verify the credit card transaction or the payment system so you are assured people will pay up.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Friday, 10 April 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo revive talks as Google leaps ahead | Business | guardian.co.uk
Microsoft and Yahoo are in talks over a possible search engine partnership less than a year after Bill Gates' software group failed in a $44bn (£21.3bn) takeover attempt on the internet company.Microsoft and Yahoo revive talks as Google leaps ahead | Business | guardian.co.uk
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Labels:
Yahoo
U.S. Online Sales Grew 11% in First Quarter, Survey Shows - Bloomberg.com What Recession?
April 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers’ online sales rose 11 percent on average in the first three months of the year, according to a survey by Forrester Research and Shop.org.U.S. Online Sales Grew 11% in First Quarter, Survey Shows - Bloomberg.com
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Twitter Traffic Explodes...And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects! (comScore Voices)
Twitter Traffic Explodes...And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects! (comScore Voices)
For a while I have been discussing the explosion of Twitter, I see this month as important with Twitter really taking up speed and becoming the first real threat to Google's monopoly on findability.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Windows Live scares the hell out of thousands of people
A "temporary outage" of Microsoft's MSN, Windows Live and Hotmail services resulted in users being told they didn't have an e-mail inbox when they signed in, and they also were directed to sign up anew for e-mail.Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
Microsoft still has a lot to learn about the Cloud
Labels:
hotmail. Live,
Windows Live
Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
A "temporary outage" of Microsoft's MSN, Windows Live and Hotmail services resulted in users being told they didn't have an e-mail inbox when they signed in, and they also were directed to sign up anew for e-mail.Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
Microsoft still has a lot to learn about the Cloud
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
A "temporary outage" of Microsoft's MSN, Windows Live and Hotmail services resulted in users being told they didn't have an e-mail inbox when they signed in, and they also were directed to sign up anew for e-mail.Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
Microsoft still has a lot to learn about the Cloud
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
A "temporary outage" of Microsoft's MSN, Windows Live and Hotmail services resulted in users being told they didn't have an e-mail inbox when they signed in, and they also were directed to sign up anew for e-mail.Windows Live e-mail outage creates scare - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
Microsoft still has a lot to learn about the Cloud
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Was the 'gunman warning' a hoax?
In the aftermath of the fatal school shooting in Germany - where 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer murdered 15 people before turning the gun on himself - police said Kretschmer had posted a warning of his attack on the internet.
Less than 24 hours after the attack, Wurttemberg's Interior Minister - Heribert Rech - had read out a message thought to have been posted by Kretschmer.
"I have weapons here, and I will go to my former school tomorrow and then I will really do a grilling… you will hear of me tomorrow. Remember the place's name: Winnenden."
But it is now looking probable that the internet posting was a hoax.
Less than 24 hours after the attack, Wurttemberg's Interior Minister - Heribert Rech - had read out a message thought to have been posted by Kretschmer.
"I have weapons here, and I will go to my former school tomorrow and then I will really do a grilling… you will hear of me tomorrow. Remember the place's name: Winnenden."
But it is now looking probable that the internet posting was a hoax.
TweetBrain is a crowdsourcing service powered by the Twitter community
What?
TweetBrain is a crowdsourcing service powered by the Twitter community. It enables you to get a best answer or a solution to your question right away.
Why?
Tapping into the brains of millions of Twitter users, with their awesome collective intelligence, no questions are too difficult.
Need a suggestion for your project?
Want a cool name for your startup?
Wish more people to know of your business?
How?
Just post your questions. TweetBrain will broadcast them through the Twitter community right away.
TweetBrain also provides a public voting system that helps you choose the best answer to your question. Should you decide to make your question a contest by putting up a reward, TweetBrain has an integrated micropayment system to make it a fun and rewarding experience for both Questioners and Answerers.
https://tweetbrain.com/home/welcome
Rober1236 Jua the Cyber Trekker of Second Life
Microsoft will allow Windows 7 users to downgrade to XP
Mary-Jo with ZDNet drops this bombshell:
Microsoft will allow Windows 7 users to downgrade to XP
Is this punch drunk love, an understanding we are moving in to a post OS world, or a confession that the product may not only be poor but may, if this is possible, be worse that Windows Vista.
Frankly this is one of those things that you know about and talk about but before blogs could not write about to prove to people on job interviews. In 2003 as Microsoft was having trouble getting XP to be taken on from Window 2000 I told "VERBALLY" most of my contacts in the field that Microsoft had reached a Linux point with Windows 2000: it was stable enough, easy to use enough, and well understood enough that it would find Windows upgrades harder and harder and have to look for new sources of revenue.
Okay I also said in 2004 that "Facebook" at Harvard was a silly idea that was entering a crowded field, and I said this to someone who was in a position to pass it on the Zuckerman at Harvard so I am not claiming any deep insight here. But the trouble Microsoft had converting Windows 2000 users to XP showed a deep fault with the strategy of "addict them to trash and improve it just enough in each release."
Now I might be getting myself in to trouble on this but I think it has carried out this strategy with SharePoint.
Microsoft will allow Windows 7 users to downgrade to XP
Is this punch drunk love, an understanding we are moving in to a post OS world, or a confession that the product may not only be poor but may, if this is possible, be worse that Windows Vista.
Frankly this is one of those things that you know about and talk about but before blogs could not write about to prove to people on job interviews. In 2003 as Microsoft was having trouble getting XP to be taken on from Window 2000 I told "VERBALLY" most of my contacts in the field that Microsoft had reached a Linux point with Windows 2000: it was stable enough, easy to use enough, and well understood enough that it would find Windows upgrades harder and harder and have to look for new sources of revenue.
Okay I also said in 2004 that "Facebook" at Harvard was a silly idea that was entering a crowded field, and I said this to someone who was in a position to pass it on the Zuckerman at Harvard so I am not claiming any deep insight here. But the trouble Microsoft had converting Windows 2000 users to XP showed a deep fault with the strategy of "addict them to trash and improve it just enough in each release."
Now I might be getting myself in to trouble on this but I think it has carried out this strategy with SharePoint.
Monday, 6 April 2009
BBC NEWS | Technology | Net firms start storing user data
Details of user e-mails, website visits and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) from Monday under an EU directive.BBC NEWS | Technology | Net firms start storing user data
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AT&T ad
If you have not already embraced Web 2.0 concepts and Cloud technology like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube your enterprise is already in need of playing catch up in to a recession.
Given my recent posts on Microsoft "unsteadiness" in road maps and the tight equity and banking markets it makes sense to go Cloud.
Right now I would suggest any SME ask its IT partners how it can go Cloud NOW. I either they can't bring anyone who understands the Cloud or if they are making pitches like 64 hardware database for 1,000 or less users MOSS implementations, get new partners.
Road Map UTurn for BI
Above we see a 2 years old image of end to end SharePoint BI. One may notice that the Performance Management Application layer is now essentially gone.
How to read this? Well the center layer of Excel 2007 and MOSS has been expanded to cover the entire PMA to BI space with SQL Server. This means that in the future the entire BI to PMA space will be meet with MOSS Enterprise CAL, Excel Services, and SQL Server.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Perverted by Language - The Mutation
Perverted by Language - The Mutation
What does phatic language itself represent? The constant usage of phatic in terms of status updates does represent a dialogue being entered into, but it results in a parallel discourse as opposed to real discourse. Essentially, people are talking at one another, or an ill-defined notion of the ‘public’. It was Soren Kierkegaard who maintained that the public is people in general, but no one in particular. It is the thing that has the majority interest, the received wisdom, the widespread urge. It is a major force in our lives and thoughts, but no one is it. You can’t pick out a single person and say that they are the public.
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LinkedIn: Social Media Today Group
LinkedIn: Social Media Today Group
Its always the last place you look. I have been active in Twitter and Facebook and just expanded LinkedIn recently. What surprised me is that it is LinkedIn, full of its adult professionals that is the pit of spammers and scammers.
Really, the idea to use a great tool like e-mail, or a social network, to try and push some impossible business idea that is not well worked out, is not something teens or people interested in seeing who among their high school friends is gay are likely to do.
The interesting thing about Web 2.0 is that it is pretty safe in the hands of normal users. Social Networks become spams pits when business, that is people who think of themselves primarily as business people, get involved.
Presently I am more willing to wait for all my business contacts to join Facebook or twitter than try and make a go of it on what I can only see is the next version of highschool.com. And it does not even have an API or a good UI. Its funny that all the software business experts are using the worst software tool.
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Saturday, 4 April 2009
Week in review
New weeks sees the SharePoint best practices conference in London.
http://www.sharepointbestpractices.co.uk/
I am not going to be there but some great partners like K2, Code and Content, Quest, and Microsoft press will be there.
This week so the world learning that science had established that going on Facebook made for not only more productive workers, but significantly higher productive workers. It seems that short breaks help produce better concentration. I would also add that most traditional employees simply escape all day in to fantasy whereas facebook keeps them focused.
Will bosses start to change policies on these sites. It is my impression that generally in the short run business is not about money but power. The thing about a market is in time it becomes about money, and we will see major changes in coming years.
Also this week we learned that Jimmy Wales was giving up on a Wiki Search.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7976275.stm
After failing to touch search Wales, the man who gave away one of the biggest ideas in computer history will now try, and fail, to create a wiki social network.
Its hard to feel sorry for a guy since in my opinion his determination to pursue an open source alternative to Google (which he would be able to profit from unlike Wikipedia) was pursued at the cost of making Wikipedias search better, or lets say less bad. The end result is that Google is bring Wikipedias free content in its searches where it can make money off it.
The thing I think about web 2.0 is this. Someone is going to make the money, if you make a massive site with millions of hours of human labour someone is going to make money. If you selflessly refuse to make profit, like the Soviet Politburo that "runs" Wikipedia, someone else like Google will just make it for you.
http://www.sharepointbestpractices.co.uk/
I am not going to be there but some great partners like K2, Code and Content, Quest, and Microsoft press will be there.
This week so the world learning that science had established that going on Facebook made for not only more productive workers, but significantly higher productive workers. It seems that short breaks help produce better concentration. I would also add that most traditional employees simply escape all day in to fantasy whereas facebook keeps them focused.
Will bosses start to change policies on these sites. It is my impression that generally in the short run business is not about money but power. The thing about a market is in time it becomes about money, and we will see major changes in coming years.
Also this week we learned that Jimmy Wales was giving up on a Wiki Search.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7976275.stm
After failing to touch search Wales, the man who gave away one of the biggest ideas in computer history will now try, and fail, to create a wiki social network.
Its hard to feel sorry for a guy since in my opinion his determination to pursue an open source alternative to Google (which he would be able to profit from unlike Wikipedia) was pursued at the cost of making Wikipedias search better, or lets say less bad. The end result is that Google is bring Wikipedias free content in its searches where it can make money off it.
The thing I think about web 2.0 is this. Someone is going to make the money, if you make a massive site with millions of hours of human labour someone is going to make money. If you selflessly refuse to make profit, like the Soviet Politburo that "runs" Wikipedia, someone else like Google will just make it for you.
Could Web 2.0 become "Web squared"?
Could Web 2.0 become "Web squared"?
That was the conundrum raised by the man who actually popularised the Web 2.0 moniker that many have grown to love and hate in equal part.
But during internet veteran Tim O'Reilly's keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, he looked back over the past five years to demonstrate that the "baby we built with technology is growing up and it's starting to go to work".
He told the assembled audience of developers that the web was more than just a fun place to hang out and catch up with friends on Facebook or MySpace.
As proof of the "maturation" of Web 2.0 technologies, Mr O'Reilly described how they were increasingly interacting with the world through the use of sensors.
As proof, he cited the Google search application that predicted where flu would hit next, an energy metering aggregator called Amee and an internet sensor that Twittered people automatically when their plants needed watering.
"We are starting to see a co-ordination of these sensors. That is the future," stated Mr O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media, which organised the conference along with TechWeb.
He then told the audience that this led to a formulation "moving beyond Web 2.0 as it really engages with the world, it really becomes something profoundly different and we are calling it Web squared".
At that point, a slide came up with the words "Web 2.0 + World = Web Squared."
Alive and well
Certainly the Web 2.0 title is one that even Nate Elliott, a principal analyst for Forrester, feels is sounding tired.
"Yeah, it's time to call it the Web 7.0 conference or what about 9.2," he joked.
Co-conference chair Jennifer Pahlka from TechWeb acknowledged that the title definitely seemed to get under people's skin.
That was the conundrum raised by the man who actually popularised the Web 2.0 moniker that many have grown to love and hate in equal part.
But during internet veteran Tim O'Reilly's keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, he looked back over the past five years to demonstrate that the "baby we built with technology is growing up and it's starting to go to work".
He told the assembled audience of developers that the web was more than just a fun place to hang out and catch up with friends on Facebook or MySpace.
As proof of the "maturation" of Web 2.0 technologies, Mr O'Reilly described how they were increasingly interacting with the world through the use of sensors.
As proof, he cited the Google search application that predicted where flu would hit next, an energy metering aggregator called Amee and an internet sensor that Twittered people automatically when their plants needed watering.
"We are starting to see a co-ordination of these sensors. That is the future," stated Mr O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media, which organised the conference along with TechWeb.
He then told the audience that this led to a formulation "moving beyond Web 2.0 as it really engages with the world, it really becomes something profoundly different and we are calling it Web squared".
At that point, a slide came up with the words "Web 2.0 + World = Web Squared."
Alive and well
Certainly the Web 2.0 title is one that even Nate Elliott, a principal analyst for Forrester, feels is sounding tired.
"Yeah, it's time to call it the Web 7.0 conference or what about 9.2," he joked.
Co-conference chair Jennifer Pahlka from TechWeb acknowledged that the title definitely seemed to get under people's skin.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Robot achieves scientific first
Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers’ yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University.
Hey, boss! Facebook makes better employees - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.Hey, boss! Facebook makes better employees - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com
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Wednesday, 1 April 2009
As new social communities emerge, what happens to old real communities
Story just something to reflect upon:
Apr 1, 6:33 AM (ET)
By SEANNA ADCOX
SANDY RUN, S.C. (AP) - Mary Sue Merchant died of natural causes in a tightly locked house on 25 acres in this small community, with only a dog for company. Now her small town is reflecting on why no one noticed for 18 months.
Nobody knew the reclusive widow was gone - not even when the house was sold for back taxes while her decomposing body lay inside. Sometime later, the lonely dog died of thirst in the same room.
"We didn't know this lady existed," Sheriff Thomas Summers said.
Only after the 72-year-old woman's body was found last week did it occur to neighbors they hadn't seen her in a while. And some people wonder if they've lost a fundamental connection of small-town life.
"We've lost the community," said the Rev. Neil Flowers, who plans to talk about Merchant on Sunday at Beulah United Methodist Church, a few miles from where Merchant died. "We do our own thing. We lead busy lives. We go and go and go ... and stay within our comfort zone."
Apr 1, 6:33 AM (ET)
By SEANNA ADCOX
SANDY RUN, S.C. (AP) - Mary Sue Merchant died of natural causes in a tightly locked house on 25 acres in this small community, with only a dog for company. Now her small town is reflecting on why no one noticed for 18 months.
Nobody knew the reclusive widow was gone - not even when the house was sold for back taxes while her decomposing body lay inside. Sometime later, the lonely dog died of thirst in the same room.
"We didn't know this lady existed," Sheriff Thomas Summers said.
Only after the 72-year-old woman's body was found last week did it occur to neighbors they hadn't seen her in a while. And some people wonder if they've lost a fundamental connection of small-town life.
"We've lost the community," said the Rev. Neil Flowers, who plans to talk about Merchant on Sunday at Beulah United Methodist Church, a few miles from where Merchant died. "We do our own thing. We lead busy lives. We go and go and go ... and stay within our comfort zone."
Labels:
community
Wikipedia founder abandons search
Wikia Search, a project created by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales with the aim of creating a community-led search engine, has been ditched.
He announced the decision to "close the doors" on the project in a blog post.
Wikia Search "has not been enjoying the kind of success that we hoped for," said Mr Wales.
He announced the decision to "close the doors" on the project in a blog post.
Wikia Search "has not been enjoying the kind of success that we hoped for," said Mr Wales.
Labels:
search
Cassandra: Twitter is for tweets
Source: Cassandra: Twitter is for tweets
The postings on Twitter are called “tweets” and the idea is that it’s a way to stay connected with friends, co-workers and strangers by allowing brief status updates to be read by people who are following you.
The postings on Twitter are called “tweets” and the idea is that it’s a way to stay connected with friends, co-workers and strangers by allowing brief status updates to be read by people who are following you.
Ariel Leve
flickr.com - Traffic Details from Alexa: The rise of Twitter
flickr.com - Traffic Details from Alexa
As Web 2.0 tools go Flickr and YouTube are the old hands. Yahoo, I have to say has failed against Google's YouTube. When you think that everyone in the world has a digital camera and can take digital pictures that can be posted on Flickr in SMS, and that it was one of the earliest flagship Web 2.0 its stagnation against a more restricted YouTube is a bit sad.
But Fickr has never helped people to achieve anything with its tool.
Facebook is a new comer which has recently become and established player much larger than Flickr. Not because it offers much of anything, but because its easy to use and offers the community a tool where it can own its contacts and discussions.
Its all about ownership in Web 2.0 and we can see what I think to be the ultimate Web 2.0 tool: twitter. Twitter I can't praise enough as a concept, and watch as it becomes the latest to break past Flickr in the major Web 2.0 field.
I've used Flickr now for about 5 years I think, and I have to say that in that time it has offered almost no improvement in function. Actually I like Flickr 2004 much more than Flickr 2008 and I almost never use the product.
The main problem is Yahoo. Yahoo does not get Web 2.0 and I hope Microsoft does take it over and bring some business sense to the product. Microsoft does not seem to know it but it always has been doing "Web 2.0", Microsoft provides the standard tools for users to communicate with, and it can extend Office to THE web 2.0 tool.
I was a bit sad to see Azure does not yet have a branded Office section. Office Live IMHO should not just be a PART of the mostly failed Live.com launch, but should be its own brand on the Internet.
flickr.com - Traffic Details from Alexa
Though Live's web presence is strong I find nobody comes to my blogs via Live.com even though I am blogging about SharePoint and Live.com!!!! I am using Live.com myself and its kind of a lonely experience.
Live is hotmail, IM and maybe Office and I think rather than pushing some strange Azure concept Microsoft should push extending and integrating Office via the Cloud and SharePoint.
And that's my penny
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Labels:
Cloud,
Flickr,
Live,
SharePoint
What is Azure? Should I care about it?
After a few days evaluation of Azure information I feel confident in these answers.
Azure is a marketing concept more than a technology. Microsoft is trying to transfer Windows in to the Cloud in order to translate its power in client and enterprise to the Cloud. What Azure promises to be is the OS of the Cloud. I have yet to hear anyone say they need an OS of the Cloud, in fact part of the entire thing about the Cloud is to abstract OS and deal with services. Microsoft is presenting Azure as a platform that can host services while abstracting data center infrastructure.
Should you care? Well it would be nice if there was a demo that worked. What I have seen on Microsoft page looks to me to be Hyper-V branded Azure. I can't for the life of me understand how its much different than just visualization. So until Microsoft can clearly present something you can do with Azure you can't do without why should you care?
I am deeply split on this technology. If Azure is a "everywhere" OS replacement to Windows that connects machines, enterprises and Clouds in a seamless abstraction then cool. If Azure is a desperate effort to insert a costly Microsoft technology in to the Cloud than no.
I guess its up to Microsoft to prove the technology over the coming months. Today it can't afford to wait, there are plenty of Cloud players who can do this stuff.
I mean I just rented a hosted service for $40 a year, unlimited storage and a vague promise of it being Green. Apache, Linux, MySql and PHP. There are some nice WCM tools in place. Beyond just the threat from Google and other new players, someone might just introduce a set of open source tools that run and host services, including .NET services, for free and just as good as Azure. Azure today is a lot of command lines!!!!
But I do rant. It will be interesting to see how this all comes out.
My own bet.....just for fun I will say there is a 65% chance you will never here of Azure again and a 95% chance the brand will be dropped in 2 years: gone the way of Bob, Vista, Encarta, and PerformancePoint.
I am sorry but this just looks like a doomed Microsoft hatchet job. Sorry if this offends anyone but that is what it looks like.
Azure is a marketing concept more than a technology. Microsoft is trying to transfer Windows in to the Cloud in order to translate its power in client and enterprise to the Cloud. What Azure promises to be is the OS of the Cloud. I have yet to hear anyone say they need an OS of the Cloud, in fact part of the entire thing about the Cloud is to abstract OS and deal with services. Microsoft is presenting Azure as a platform that can host services while abstracting data center infrastructure.
Should you care? Well it would be nice if there was a demo that worked. What I have seen on Microsoft page looks to me to be Hyper-V branded Azure. I can't for the life of me understand how its much different than just visualization. So until Microsoft can clearly present something you can do with Azure you can't do without why should you care?
I am deeply split on this technology. If Azure is a "everywhere" OS replacement to Windows that connects machines, enterprises and Clouds in a seamless abstraction then cool. If Azure is a desperate effort to insert a costly Microsoft technology in to the Cloud than no.
I guess its up to Microsoft to prove the technology over the coming months. Today it can't afford to wait, there are plenty of Cloud players who can do this stuff.
I mean I just rented a hosted service for $40 a year, unlimited storage and a vague promise of it being Green. Apache, Linux, MySql and PHP. There are some nice WCM tools in place. Beyond just the threat from Google and other new players, someone might just introduce a set of open source tools that run and host services, including .NET services, for free and just as good as Azure. Azure today is a lot of command lines!!!!
But I do rant. It will be interesting to see how this all comes out.
My own bet.....just for fun I will say there is a 65% chance you will never here of Azure again and a 95% chance the brand will be dropped in 2 years: gone the way of Bob, Vista, Encarta, and PerformancePoint.
I am sorry but this just looks like a doomed Microsoft hatchet job. Sorry if this offends anyone but that is what it looks like.
Labels:
Azure
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