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June 29, 2007

3 tools for collaboration

I love collaboration tools, because they mean I can stay warm and comfortable at home, rather than dragging myself out to the office to meet with Real People. There's the three staple tools of course - instant messaging, email, and phone (including tele-conferencing) - but there's other useful tools as well. Here's three which I've started playing with recently - please add a comment to let me know of any great tools you use.

Thinkature

Thinkature is just what I've been looking for - a simple way for people to get together and brainstorm. I'm a big fan of using stacks of cards in Real Meetings, and having people throw down ideas onto cards and then stack them, move them, etc. Thinkature lets groups do this even if they are not all in the one place.

Protonotes

Protonotes is another simple online collaboration tool - and like Thinkature, it's free. It lets you add annotations to web pages, which is great for discussing mockups of pages that you're working on.

Another similar tool, but for images instead of web pages, is ConceptShare. However this one costs money.

Webex

Webex has been around but it keeps improving, and gaining in popularity. It has become something of a standard for companies that want to collaborate both internally and externally.

Webex is an "online meeting" tool. It provides a shared whiteboard, group chat, online Powerpoint slides, and shared desktops and applications. There's plenty of other options that provide these tools on their own, but Webex brings them all together into a nicely integrated package.

The big downside is the price - US$50/month for individuals.

Posted by Jeremy at 03:43 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

June 27, 2007

Internet Radio goes Silent

Looking for a distraction and something new I hopped on over to Pandora to listen to some tunes and to my surprise I was greeted with the message "We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S" which no doubt took me by surprise to say the least. A quick jump over to to Techmeme to see what's going on and I find that not just Pandora is offline so is Yahoo! Launchcast, Radio Paradise, Live 365, Shoutcast and MTV Radio to name but a few. Why are all these Internet radio stations offline you ask? They are all participating in the 'Day of Radio Silence' protesting against increased royalty rates that come into effect July 15 that are retrospective back to January 1, 2006 and simply state that these sites cannot afford the rates that are being proposed. You can read more at any of the links provided above or check out the full list of Internet radio stations that are (or were) participating in the 26th June 'Internet Radio Day of Silence' or read more at the SaveNetRadio.org website for more information.

What can us Aussie's do is anyone's guess except support our favourite Internet station to the best of our abilities...

Posted by Stephen at 03:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 20, 2007

Coalition Broadband, 11 1/2 years late!

To quote Roger Clarke yesterday from the ANU Link e-mail list, 'It's a cracker' with a link posted to an article from the 21st November 1995 'Howard puts Australia Online'

Under the Coalition, more competitive prices and better quality of service will enable the online services industry to have a fair go at the national and international markets which they must win to sustain their growth.

And all Australian businesses and consumers will have access to the services required to put Australia at the forefront of the Information Age.

Stilgherrian has already followed this up with his post and an invite from Crikey to write a follow up article which should make for some more interesting reading.

Just think about that. In 1995, a cutting-edge PC was an Intel 486 DX66 with 64MB of RAM and a 2x CD drive. The year’s big software release was Windows 95 — the very first version of Windows with Internet connectivity built-in.

Senator Coonan rejects the claim that the Government has been left behind. “You can’t really say that,” she says, “when you look at the Government’s record in rolling out broadband.”

Can’t you, Senator?

Posted by Stephen at 06:16 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Living With Windows

We've had a few people on the forum buying new Windows PCs, upgrading older ones. And we've been discussing backup and maintenance approaches. Which segues into this thought.

Microsoft Windows XP (and it's successor, Vista) is quite a mature (some people call it geriatric) product. Archeological evidence of this is in the extreme number of freeware, shareware and commercial programs. There are lists of such software and there are lists of such lists. Microsoft has no doubt helped this proliferation of detritus carrying out the Raymond Chen principle - engineering some mix of compatibility into every subsequent Windows version.

There are some of us who barely use Windows. Let's call people like that Category A. I've got this theory that Category A people seldom need a tech support. They don't get bitten by rabid bugs and if their luck and modus operandi does not deviate, never will. I'd put that category at 25%.

Then there are those who generally use Windows, a little Word, some light surfing in the course of everyday activities. Let's call people like that Category B. I'd put regular users in Category B at about 50% of the general public.

Finally, there are those miscreants who install each and every inscrutable utility at the drop of a hat and subsequently spoil their Windows often (yours truly included). Let's call these people Category C.

So, as a Category C, when I turn around to the next person and proffer some advice about backup, maintenance, and playing it safe, I don't get much credibility - it's like I'm hidden by a perception filter.

So how do you Live With Windows?

a. Do you keep using the machine until it manifests some BSOD?

b. Do you take the vim and brush at yearly intervals and remove programs, files with vigour, regardless of whether the machine is misbehaving?

c. Do you knee jerk and call  _put your poor IT literate person here_ the moment an email you're waiting for doesn't come through?

I'd put it to you, that a saner way to Live With Windows, is to come up with some Key Performance Indicators for the machine. For once, it would be a proper use for KPIs. I'll come up with some points in another article. Feel free to contribute in the comments or at the forum.

Posted by Anandasim at 05:16 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Feeling hungry Microsoft?

Lately I have for numerous reasons been spending a fair amount of time calling Microsoft and each time I call I typically need to a dish out some abstract permutation of my personal information including my full name, telephone number, e-mail address, company name, MS Partner ID or TechNet ID though the next time I call the algorithm has changed and a different combination is required and it has started to frustrate me no end at the time wasted by both myself and presumably the MSFT employee on the other end of the phone.

Microsoft are renowned for 'dogfooding' and after recently looking into the Microsoft Customer Care Framework for a client I think it is time Microsoft started 'chowing down a bit more dogfood'.

Considering I can ring my ISP and they pickup my CallerID and have my account on screen when the call is answered it cannot be that hard with your own CCF now can it Microsoft?

Posted by Stephen at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Give the Gift of Sight

In some rather exciting personal news, I've recently gotten myself married! I've even got a photo to prove it.

We didn't have the usual gift registry, but instead asked our guests to "give the gift of sight". You see, there are 37 million blind people in the world, and for 75% of those people, that blindness is avoidable. In fact, it only costs around $20 to restore sight to one person! This is the work done by the Fred Hollows Foundation. We asked our guests to donate to the Foundation, as their wedding gift to us. I also gave AU$10,000 myself. I'll probably never meet any of the 400 people who I gave the gift of sight to - but I feel great knowing the impact I'm making.

So, will you help my wife, Evelyn, and I, to celebrate our wedding, and give the Gift of Sight? Just think - you can let a blind person see! To give this gift if you are a FastMail.FM user, in FastMail.FM click "Options" and then "Donate" (in the "Purchases" section, on the right). If you are not a FastMail.FM user, you can donate directly through the Foundation's web-site (if you do this, please choose the option "A Community Fundraiser" when asked "I decided to donate because:", and enter "FastMail" in the "Please Specify" section). We will let you all know how much we raise.

More about Fred Hollows and the Foundation

Fred Hollows was voted one of the top 3 greatest Australians of all time (although he was actually from New Zealand!) He was an ophthalmologist who dedicated his life to helping the blind to see. He started the Fred Hollows Foundation with the mission to develop better and cheaper ways to cure cataract blindness. The Foundation has created labs in countries with low labour costs and trained local doctors, as a result of which they have managed to slash the cost of surgery from over $100 to around $20.

So far, the foundation has helped over a million people, and it operates in 20 countries!

Posted by Jeremy at 02:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 16, 2007

Jeremy's dev blog has moved

Just in case anyone is wondering where my other (maths and programming oriented) blog has disappeared to, it's moved to blog.howard.fm.

Posted by Jeremy at 11:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 02, 2007

Mobile phone furnishing

Here at Chez Bleeding Edge, or at least Chez Mobile Bleeding Edge, we have had the interior decorators in to help fit out our new place of on-the-road residence, the Dopod D810 PDA/phone which we wrote about recently.
For a couple of weeks we were surrounded by the bare walls, in the form of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, and the in-built applications, learning how everything worked … a process that seems, when one has been conditioned to the modus operandi of other devices, remarkably similar to navigating by white cane and guide dog.
More comfortable fittings and furnishings help the user extract the full potential of these devices, and stop stumbling over unexpected obstacles. Unfortunately, as we discovered, sometimes it’s the new furniture that one stumbles over.
Bleeding Edge is not yet committed to using the Dopod for email and Web browsing on the mobile networks. As we’ve mentioned more than once before, data charges on Telstra’s NextG network are painfully steep for the individual and small business user, and while the 3 network’s prices are much more attractive, and at least one of our friends is blissfully happy with their service, we’re concerned about the potential for higher charges when roaming. Fortunately the Dopod’s built-in Wi-Fi gives us the ability to use free wireless facilities at places like the State Library, so, with that and other free Wi-Fi sites, we do have an alternative, however limited, that doesn’t involve financial ruin.

The other potential saviour of our constantly depleted finances is a device called the PocketSurfer 2, from a Canadian-based company called DataWind Net Access Corporation. Unveiled last February at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, this device – 27mm thick, with a 640x240 pixel screen - compresses Web pages to up to 1/30th their normal size, and delivers them in an average of five to seven seconds per page. It doesn’t handle voice traffic, but it does cope with chat and instant messaging.
According to Peter Nadler at Calculator King, DataWind plans to launch the product in Australia in July, using the Vodafone network. He says the PocketSurfer would cost $399, including 20 hours of downloads per month for the first year. It seems an ideal solution that would allow us to check our email using a Web client, and use the Dopod for phone, GPS and other applications. [DataWind has just responded to our emails to inform us that the launch has been delayed until September.]
In the meantime we will pray for Telstra to decide to sell the Dopod D810 on its NextG network, and for the arrival of the PocketSurfer. An earlier prayer – for the free firmware update for the D810 and the Dopod 838 Pro, which includes Windows Mobile 6.0 and enabling of the GPS capability – will be answered next week, according to Dopod’s marketing manager, Michael Persolia.
We thought we’d improved the Windows Mobile environment on the Dopod with a program called Battery Pack Pro, from OmegaOne Software. It’s a suite of utilities that starts by giving you control over the two critical resources - battery life and memory usage – and throws in a good deal more. In fact, probably too much more.
What you end up with are several rows of tiny icons on your Today screen that are shortcuts to launching up to 160 programs, doing a soft reset, and tracking the time locally and in four international cities – it automatically gives you the current exchange rate and weather forecast in each – among many other useful things.
It allows you to close programs (rather than having them chew up memory running in the background), delete temporary files that can waste your storage, monitor your network activity, see your next appointments, and adjust alarms and reminders. You can assign a second function to each hard button.
If you’ve ever struggled with inserting a key into a lock in the dark, you’ll love the Power Light icon.
At $US29.99, Battery Pack Pro seems like a great bargain ... except that in our case, the Dopod started freezing intermittently after we’d loaded it. Then we discovered that the backlight was turned down, and we could no longer brighten it.
We’ve reluctantly removed it. You might find it works without any difficulties on another phone, but our advice is to avoid paying for it until you’ve thoroughly tested the demonstration version on your device.
Another program we’re still testing is phoneAlarm. It makes your communications elements more accessible, and allows you to log the cost of calls. It promises to be a useful safeguard against unpleasant surprises in your mobile phone bill.
We’d be interested in hearing recommendations from other Windows Mobile users about utilities they regard as essential additions to the operating system and applications, or perhaps more importantly, about programs they think should be avoided.

Posted by cw at 11:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack