Friday, October 07, 2005

Folknology has begun Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Our new experimental blog is up at Folknology, it will be much more than just a blog as it develops through various planned projects etc.. But the blog is at the very centre of it, being the 'Conversation' that we use to develop the projects around.

There will be more meat added to it over the next few days as we deal with the making it live issues..

To subscribe to Folknology use this link : RSS2.0

 |  | Tags :

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Sorry for the pause.. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Not that there hasn't been good stuff to cover, wow what a couple of weeks of news, and it's still comming.

But it is not the what has kept me of the blog for the last few days rather, I've been busy in the Hiearchical labs etching new plans. As such I will be eating my own dog food shortly by starting a new blog using own HL-blog engine (It's a plugin engine for our clients). Stay tuned...

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Google launched their blog search today Permanent link to this item in the archive.

See Google blog search It seems pretty fast also

Tags :

Interesting comment from Nick Sieger regarding yesterdays PDC announcements, he has one of his own for Microsoft -> Right fork!

I'm still digesting much of the news from PDC and Microsoft, Scoble has performed admirably on getting this stuff into the blogosphere and has obviously done some excellent work along with other forward thinkers behind those Redmond walls. Although I know there is more to come and digest I have to share some of my thoughts about it all...

 First I still have a problem with Microsofts 'Windows centric view' of things. Obviously this (along with Office) is their existing cash-cow and is therefore unlikely not to be at the centre of everything. To me however it is one of their achilies heels, the world of today is moving away from windows centricity to internet/interactive centricity. So no matter how you dress these announcements they still fail this basic test and revolve around devloping and deploying and living on windows.

 Second they are designing from the top down in a traditional Microsoft way. The have this BIG vision thing where everything comes down from this big .NET pyramid. I think the world has changed and moved away from this, software and services are being rapidly deployed and developed in interaction with it's users. The new paradigm is small incremental evolutions, Microsoft don't seem to get this. They are trying to deliver great big ideas and not now but at some point in the future. Sure I will keep them on the radar but right now I have customers who want better software and better services, they want interactive quick delivery, if I don't provide that they go else where. Thats the issue, nothing announced so far will help me today, it's debateable that when it is available to Jo public in large enough numbers that it will be as good as what will emerge between now and then, we might be on Web 10.0 by then!!

 You might also say but what about Apple and Jobs, thats a top down big thing. Well yes but with Apple and Jobs they are at the forefront opening new markets they are not trying to comoditise existing markets like Microsoft. Also I would add this : Look at this shiny new IPod Nano wow... and guess what I can buy it straight away....... or today take Google's blog search it's there now ready to rock. I personally don't have time to play with the new Microsoft stuff interesting though it might be, it delivers nothing for my customers and business now, it's old school future selling.

 Tags :

 | 

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

The rise of the Slim Clients Permanent link to this item in the archive.

There's lots of buzz around the Microsoft announcements at PDC (Not quite the Job's reality distortion field, but a buzz more or less) see Scobleizer for Roberts promised updates on this event. In particular I want to speak about Microsoft's new Gadgets.

 First of all I'm not going to do the 'isn't this just Konfabulator or Dashboard' story far to obvious for me, and we all know that anyhow right..

 No I'll be straight up with you, what I'm wondering here is if this 'slim client' thing is the new battleground, A.K.A Internet Explorer vs Navigator. Woah hold your horses before you gallop off, hear me out here..

 Lets just look at a few things and roll forward to the future a little ways..

 Imagine that both desktops (OSX and Vista) have three dimensions. That is the two normal ones (X & Y), plus some new ones : Layers (Gadgets/Dashboard) & Time (RSS anyone?).

 Lets ignore the Time dimension for now (Thats worth another post) and concentrate on the layers provided by the likes of Gadgets and Vista. These new dimensions to our interactivity (desktop experience) take much from the web (thin client) and mix it with some of the desktop app (rich client) feature set hence slim clients (I'm not the first to use that by the way).

 OK sounds logical but not enough, so here one of the other parts. We are moving into Web X.0 (Currently 2.0 and ascending) now this introduces web services (REST/XMLRPC/SOAP whatever) and a web offering both mark up based GUIs and loosely coupled API's. This is also Remix territory and social software where user participation is key. Now the old browser model was just not designed for this kinda two way, social participation and loosely coupled interaction. After all the browser is just a big fat desktop consuming window (maybe now with Tabs .. Ooohhh, big leap ;)). Hence the Widget/Layer thing, this is like having a whole bunch of light weight browserlets with added programming power to handle the web X.0 stuff brighter than the brightest whites. And it's Daz versus Persil in a fight to the death.

Now I could be wrong, this is just a hypohesis a view of futures that could be. But if it is true we will have a new war on our hands : 'The war of the widgets!'

 |  Tags :

Monday, September 12, 2005

Problems with those annoying sales calls ? Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Use The Telecrapper 2000 , really check it out it's fun and usefull!!

 Also we used to get very few business sales calls on our lines until we advertised with yellow pages services (particularly Yell.com), since doing so we now get many per day. The lesson is that when budgeting for the upside of such advertising also account for the bugging sales call costs that you get alongside!!

 Tags :

Display no big enough ?

 Check out this puppy at Engadget, Awesome, think I would need a bigger desk though..

 Tags :

I Have a good idea about why eBay are buying Skype  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I think they are making a move around identity (not their first either)

 Think about it, it can't just be the technology there are plenty of alternatives around SIP. So if it's not the technology it must be the user base. And thats the crux, the user base is an identity pool, one which is growing extremely rapidly. eBay know how important identity is moving forward, this is an easy way to get on that path with a nice skip, hop and jump. Also check out Rosss Mayfield's take on it, he has another really good angle.

 Tags :

 | 

Thursday, September 08, 2005

The newly emerging patterns of software development Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Bottom up rather than top down

Wisdom of the crowds rather than wisdom of the corporation

Evolving practices vs a beuracracy of standards

 The social imperative -
'Blogs, wikis, and social tagging have shown us that group intelligence, amplified by nothing more than linking and search, can manage flows of information more effectively than most of us would have dared to dream.'
I qoute from Jon Udell who nails it with regard to Microsoft's proposed WinFs. Basically it's not following any of above, it is rather old school - pre social software thinking.

 More evidence of wrong or old school thinking opinion from Phil at ZDnet

 Randy Holloway responds to similar critisisms and tries to defend Microsoft's attackers and indicates quite correctly 'That doesn't mean that Google and MSN won't gain more share here, it just means that they won't serve every need for every user (or perhaps for any user).' but seems to miss the point using two arguments : "Users not trusting online services with their data' and Scobles 'you can't run Photoshop in a browser yet'. Both of these are quite weak arguments in my opinion, the first is answered by the many internet businesses looking after their customers and users critical data (SalesForce.com for one classic example). And as for the photoshop quote well very few users actually need that level of interactivity, most are satisfied by flikr's online tools. It is also safe to say that both of these points become less relevant as more innovative web based software emerges everyday (Ajax gimp anyone?). I also dissagree with Randy's comment 'The world of web-based services (and XML Services) is rapidly expanding and is certainly important. But the value of the client (whichever platform you choose) to orchestrate, integrate, and deliver new experiences based on those services can't be underestimated.' I beleive the winning web services so far have been RSS, XMLRPC and REST (if prolification and use is any indicator) which have done exceptionaly without the big boys 'Orchestration' that is specified as essential by them (This deserves it's own post, and I will create one soon).

 Don't get me wrong, I'm not willing to give up my own desktop yet, there are desktop apps I use every day (although getting fewer, and most serve the web in some way), but much of my time is web based rather than desktop based and that is likely to increase rather than decrease. Also I don't mean to pick on Microsoft here, they just happen to be a big target.

 *UPDATE Tim Oreilly blogs on Phil's post here and more about Microsofts web 2.0 announcements Alex Barnett, ZDNET and CNET

  |  | Tags :

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Katrina, been through disturbed and shocked, are you angry yet? Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I have purposely avoided commenting about Katrina, sitting safe over here in the UK. But as it has unravelled accross blogs, and the media I have become more and more confused as to the lack of preperation and action, it's like I'm watching an unrealistic movie. I keep saying to myself this is happening in America not some third world island, surely they must have better plans and crisis response, but unfortunately it appears not. The coverage over hear has become very negative to the administration, and much I read now online is similar. I have just read this unbeleiveable post , if this stuff checks out it is truly shocking and thoroughly currupt. I also appreciate this sources politics (through my near zero American political knowledge) are likely to be biased, that however does not change the facts.

 |  | Tags :

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

New header graphic - Chateau Lez Eaux Permanent link to this item in the archive.

One of the places we camped during our vacation.

 I had real problems using the update header graphic, no success. so I now refer directly to the image I added into the decorations folder using the template, anyone else wrestled with this issue ?

 | 

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Right time for some brain dumping, stand back..  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Having the vacation gave me time to read and think (always dangerous). So here's some stuff that emerges :

 Books, I thought Tipping Point was an excellent read I loved the points Malcolm was making and the way he broke down the cascading changes described in the book. It is very thought provoking and appears to be written from the angle of someone who would imagine being able to tinker with the Tipping Point principles using his 'Mavens', 'Salesmen' and 'Connectors'. Thus in many ways it is an inspiring book, thus please don't let my comments take away too much from it, but my critisisms are :

 It can be a bit verbose and fluffy at times, in many ways the book could be reduced (boiled down) significantly, but thats not Malcolms style, it's is also what helps makes his books so popular.

 The entire book is pretty much devoid of any real backup in terms of proofs, maths, or concrete theorums. I don't think this is because they don't exist, rather Malcolm sews different example stories together to illustrate his key theories (By this I mean his intepretations).

 Some of the stories are not altogether convincing and I have read elsewhere different views on why the things occurred, this means Malcolms asssumptions could be leading one up the garden path a little. It may just be that others have had greater time to reflect on events than Malcolm and his researchers feature I am not sure. This is particularly true of the New York crime figures story.

 I also managed to read Critical Mass by Philip Ball. This book unlike TP above is quite comprehensive some 644 pages. I would whole heartidly however recommend you read it, I found it quite fascinating. A warning - is that it starts quite slow (A bit like walking through treacle), by providing a comprehensive historical backdrop for the real goodies in the book. The real goodies are kind of middle to the end of the book in my opinion. the reason is because Philip chooses a style of 'stack em up' before knocking them over with the new and better stuff! This way he explores the cul de sacs and wrong turns in history and makes good cases for why they were such. What the book talks about is applying modern physics math (it's actually quite simple and readable math by the way, not lots of equations, more logic and stats) to chiefly economics and social behaviour. He also covers a little network theory and things like wars, utopias and emergence but in all cases he shows underneath the same principles found in physics and draws excellent comparisons between them and physical examples. Much of it is focused around critical points, phase transitions, metastable and non-equilibrium states etc.. If that doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry read the book and it will.

 This is also one of those books that has changed something inside my head, you know flicked a few switches. Subsequent to reading the book I have noticed a whole bunch of things happening that where previously below my radar. As what I have consumed from the book slowly matures in my mind, I am seeing it's underpinnings in many different areas I once would have passed over without blinking.

 Here are my small critisisms :

 Its a real slow starter, that makes it really difficult to get into and will innevitably loose many readers.

 In someways there is too much historical background and getting to the crunch earlier could have meant putting more of the good stuff in those 644 pages!

 It is the kind of book that would be fascinating to see in multimedia with colour and animations etc.. this isn't really a critsism more a wish

 |  Tags :

Good wine found during my vacation

 Although we tasted and picked up many good wines including the excellent sparkling Saumurs (including sparkling reds!) I already new of these. I however, had never really been a Rosé drinker, but I discovered Cabernet de Saumur (2004). This wine is just so perfectly drinkable on a sunny afternoon, you can just drink it and drink it, it is so clean and smooth it sets a new sets a new definition of quaffable IMHO, serve chilled 10-12 ºC fantastic and really good value!!.

 Tags :

Monday, August 29, 2005

I'm Back ...  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Well I'm back in old blighty after our summer vacation, the Loire valley was beautiful (but is also very dry, the Loire is the lowest it's been in a long time apparantly). We only really got to see the Saumur area in any detail (well we tasted it in detail!). We also spent a few days in Normandy which was a great contrast, much greener and generally more lush, with suprisingly generous weather.

 After 10 days I have many thoughts to convey and will over the next few days manage to textulise them.

 I clean read 'Tipping Point' and am just completing 'Critical Mass', 'Wisdom of the crowds' however is merely started. More thoughts about these books shortly.

 Boy do I have some feeds to catch up on, thank god for RSS and my aggregator.

Click on the coffee mug to add al's Instant Outline to your OPML Editor buddy list. <-- What Is This?