The secret was poorly kept, key figures had dropped hints and clangers and at least one NDA seemed to have expired 12 hours too soon, but nonetheless the anticipation for the formal unveiling was significant. I’m a reader, I like to read and my library will testify to this. Not only do I consume new books at a significant rate, I’m also happy to re-read books often a number of times. I’ve also out in quite a few air and hotel hours over the years and I do enjoy killing time with a good book. For this reason I’ve been hanging my nose over e-Book readers for the last few months looking for ‘the one’ which would satisfy my need for ease of use, portability, battery life and library access. The number of books being ‘e’-d is on a significant upward curve and this was pushing me more and more towards an electronic rather than paper buying habit – much the same way that I now purchase pretty much all of my music on-line (good by DRM and good riddance!).

The problem I had was that all of the e-readers I picked up and tried left me feeling decidedly bleh. They were, it felt, a bit… backward, a bit simple and just a bit one-dimensional. Certainly not something I could justify £200 and upwards upon.

I love my Macbook. It’s just a simple Black one, nothing ‘Pro’ here, but it’s in almost constant use, even at home where I’ve got the big machines, and I have used it to read stuff on too, but the problem is that it’s the wrong shape. Wide-screen is great for movies and I love having desktop acreage to spread out upon but it’s 90 degrees out from what I want when I’m reading – web-sites are bad enough but at least these are, mostly, formatted for the standard screen. And then there’s that big bit sticking out the front… the keyboard. Great when I’m typing (some would say essential) but decidedly in-the-way when all I want to do is read. Plus I need to put in on something, it’s not a hold-in-your-hand device. The MacBook is not an e-book reader.

The iPad though, certainly looks like it could be. iBookstore fills me with a warmth of anticipation which (I know inside) is going to be tempered, at least initially, because my favourite SciFi authors won’t be available. The reader application looks like it’s going to deliver the ease of access and flexibility that I’ve been looking for too. So far – tick!

Now then, let’s look further ahead. The Times application they showed was lovely. Seriously, newspapers online should be multi-dimensional and this one is a massive step in that direction. I don’t read a daily paper in print, but I consume a huge amount of information from “Teh Internetz” – SIDEWAYS STEP! do you remember Ananova? This little darling was touted as the rebirth of news consumption, aggregation of the stories YOU wanted and delivery to you personally. It fell far short of this, but I’d probably put a few pennies a day into a service which delivered this to me in a digestible and multi-dimensional format ir not just text.

Anyway, the morning news is something which people ‘do’. My partner Sarah drags over the MacBook in the morning and scans three or four websites every day. Scrolling up and down, up and down because the laptop is the wrong shape for this kind of information. The iPad would certainly make this exercise easier. Once again, for making life easier – Tick!

But here’s where I start drifting off. Remember the iPhone initial release? Remember the depression that set in after the hype blew over? Remember how everyone said it was a mistake for Apple to get into a market which Nokia, RIM and Microsoft were tearing up? Remember how utterly, utterly wrong everyone was!

My problem is that I can only ‘feel’ the use I’d get out of the iPad, I can’t describe it in any way which would justify the £4-500 it’ll cost me.

My email I can happily do on the lapdog, as can my notes, scribbles and musings which get turned into various documents and psts along the way. My music lives on my iPod and will continue to do so. Movies are a significant variable, I still love DVDs and will more that likely switch, formally, over to BluRay in the near future. Or will I? Am I destined to ‘go digital’ in this area too? Anyway, the point is that this is not currently a consideration for me.

I want an iPad, believe me! I want the beautiful technology, the ergonomic lines and the overall sleekness and beauty of the idea. I’m a geek and happy to be one (although in more formal circles I use the term Technologist!). And PLEASE, this is not a “Well PC tablets have been around for ages – the new <ASUS, HP, Acer, blah> one will do all of that too” argument. Yes they may, I’m sure.

This is about my gut feeling, and that says “you’d like using this”. I’m having trouble finding a reason to disagree.

It does look good though...

There are, of course, many reasons for this but primarily my words are being used as a reference both generally and specifically by Planet Technologies and I feel that there needs to be a more focused area for them. After all I’m sue that the other stuff on Silesti.net, while interesting (of course!), aren’t necessarily too relevant!

I’ll be cross posting some/most of the stuff back here anyway, but take a gander over at Hosting-Thoughts too.

I made a decision a few weeks ago that if I was going to be espousing the benefits of Cloud Services, as well as assisting businesses with understanding how to take advantage of them in their various different guises, I should really see what it’s like to be a small-scale consumer of these things and I set out to make MY life as easy as possible using the technologies associated with The Cloud.

Virtualisation is the main hanger for these service. Virtualised storage means access from anywhere – in theory. Virtualised machines provide portability and flexibility. So here is my situation.

I use Macs as my workstation of choice, there are many reasons for this, but suffice it to say that I can do what I want and need to do with ease. There are however a couple of items which mean I also need a PC- read Windows – environment to work within:

1) Visio – I do systems architectural diagrams and exchange these with others
2) Project – Project plans need to be built and shared
3) Groove – As a virtual team we use Groove for shared document library storage and for projects

These applications are not available for the Mac – Boo Hiss MacBU in Microsoft! I know that there are alternatives around which will read file formats etc, but the important thing is that I exchange these with others and I’ve not found a ‘clean’ conversion which works both way in any of the options. Groove is simple Windows only.

My adopted solution is to use Parallels Desktop for the Mac and run a virtualised PC o take care of ‘that side of things’ in my working life. now this has been fine for many months and I actually run the PC off a Firewire connected portable drive so I can use it on my iMac at home and my MacBook when on the road; a nice solution as far as it goes but there is still a catch. My data lives on that Windows PC image. If it goes, it’s gone.

This would be bad in a number of ways, all of which are, I’m sure, clear to all. YES! I could take regular backups, but that is mitigation not resolution I needed to be more portable and more de-risked. My solution is a Cloud Service: Microsoft Live Mesh.

The Mesh allows me to publish a folder structure and subscribe to it from many devices including Mac’s natively, updates are made through the Mesh to all of the devices and things are kept up to date. I no longerneed to carry data around with me. But if we think about it, that means I actually no longer need to carry my Windows PC around with me either, I just need access to one wherever I am.

A new virtual PC was created on each of my device ‘locations’ and was added to my Mesh, now with the right aaplications installed and my Groove workspaces also synced, wherever I am I have access to my data. The Mesh also lets me access my library via the web so if I’m guesting on someone else’s PC for an hour I can still work (No Groove, but.. well… a move to Mesh for the team seems VERY likely!). It’s also worth noting that our email service at Planet is hosted, another Cloud service, so it also follows me around or is accessible via OWA.

I should also mention that my new virtual Windows PC’s are running the Windows 7RC. As I write this, I have a Mac running OSX Leopard with Parallels running Windows 7 AND a Windows XP virtual machine too (Groove syncing!!) and eveything is right with the world. I can leave me desk go to another location and have EXACTLY the same functionality, data and access without carrying anything other than my login details This makes me happy.

And things seem to be moving along nicely too. I read with GREAT interest the updates coming to OSX with the Snow Leopard release, in particular the inclusion of Exchange server support in the OS! As quoted from the Apple site “something even Windows PCs don’t have”.

But I am a multi platform user and I have to say that Windows 7 DOES seem to work… on the whole. I’m aware that it’s RC and that there will be a few niggles so I’m living with them for now, but those aside, it’s reasonably speedy (remember I’m running virtualised too) and easy to use. Having bypassed Vista, my XP tuned brain is re-learning how to do things, but it’s not too bad! Niggles a around file extension handling – especially with Groove!!! – and the way it sometimes provides a little too much technical info about  a file type. The apps work well and I’ve not broken anything yet.

Anyway, think about the Cloud but not as a distant goal for corporate strategy, think of it as something hat, with a little planning can free you from the constraints of 1 system, 1 OS and 1 location, wander free and be productive for now is the time!

I got sent this today though:

Extract of Oliver Cromwell’s speech as he dissolved the long parliament:-

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

In the name of God, go!”

It could have been written today!

Have we really learned so little? Are we really so disenfranchised and disinterested  with our countries gevernance that we’ve allowed these blood suckers to carry on such?

Well, the answer is of course; “It was all within the rules” – so that’s OK then.

Many have sought and created definitions over the last year or so and all are without fail both right and wrong, how so? Because everyone uses things in a different way and their perception of them is also different.

The on-line services offered by Salesforce.com have been described as SaaS ( and as such represents probably the most visibly successful deliveries of SaaS ) but I don’t necessarily agree. “Where is the software?” I would ask. If this is Software as a service then show me the boxed product which I can purchase outright. This is of course my opinion only but serves to prove my point.

So for that sake of  this article I’m happy to stipulate that Software as a Service is an application delivering functionality over the internet (web-based or via client side applets), in a reasonably platform independent way, on a subscription basis – which I think sounds fair.

So let’s look at this for a moment… we, in the hosting and associated industries are looking at SaaS and it’s delivery and wondering ‘What can we deliver which has mass market appeal’ – the real question here being of course ‘ How can we make some money out of this?’! And it’s with this in mind that I would like everyone to take a step sideways and have a glance at the world of Gameing.

The Games market has grown considerably over the last few years, the birth of the 3rd generation consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) has introduced high-definition gaming to the mass market and the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii, which is really a 2nd gen console teamed with an exquisite marketing and positioning strategy, has shown that with the right products it’s relatively easy to gain a substantial share of a growing market. But there is another aspect to Gameing which is pertinent here and that’s the MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) the most popular and most discussed at the moment being World of Warcraft – WoW.

Ladies and gentlemen, in WoW I give you the most deeply penetrative SaaS application never discussed!

If I refer back to my previous stipulation on the definition of SaaS, then WoW hits the nail right on the head. It’s subscription based, platform independent and delivered across the internet. Moreover it further DEFINES SaaS in that updates to the core are made centrally and available to all, whereas expansions in functionality can be purchased separately by those who feel they need or want them. The notion of physical location of the service is never questioned, the communications channel is self monitoring to alert the user should a loss of effective connectivity occur, data is stored wholly centrally and, as long as the subscription is maintained, always available to you regardless of where or when you connect.

In-application interaction with colleagues is part of the service, data objects can be stored for later retrieval by the user or trusted associates, actions are limited and defined by the level of experience and the role which the user has and the environment is persistent, changing and expanding for ALL users based on the actions of ALL users.

There is a lesson here for service providers and SaaS ISV’s: Think outside of the traditional norms when thinking about SaaS and look beyond typical application functionality. If you’re a WoW player (which some of you undoubtedly are) think about how it delivers what it does and hoe WoW as a paradigm for SaaS really does show what’s possible.

The major question that I, and I suspect others will, have is ‘What am I going to need hardware-wise to run this’

I’ve not actually installed or used Vista to date. XP on a Parallels virtual PC on my Mac deliveres everything I need today and I can’t think of anything that Vista does which I need. My Laptop isn’t beefy enough to support it, well it”ll run it I’m sure but it certainly won’t run Project and Visio at the same time as Outlook and Excel that’s for sure, XP does.

I’m about to install a Windows OS on a new parallels virtual machine, on my MacBook this time, XP will again me my choice – although to be honest if it wasn’t for Project (OmniPlan doesn’t cut it I’m afraid) and needing access to specific web-based applications which require IE, I’d not even bother with that.

Now I’m in no way Anti-Microsoft. I think a lot of their stuff is fantastic but the  desktop OS’ technology space in my life is becoming an OSX zone for the simple reaons that it just works. Maybe Windows 7 will change or soften this and I’ll become a dual-ist user, I will wait an see.

A write up of some of the features in Windows 7 can be found here.

But time has moved on and I decided I was going to look at other things, principally the Server version of OS X Leopard and what it can do. I wanted to find out more about the Podcast Producer component (which is VERY cool by the way) but I hit a major issue during the installation process, a BIG error box saying (I paraphrase slightly here) ‘The “BaseSystem” package could not be validated, please go away’ or words to that effect anyway!

I was slightly miffed at this and was not able to find any reference to what could be causing this despite a good amount of time spent with Mr Google, so putting it down to a ‘bad’ DVD image I put that disk to one side and decided to put the original Leopard distribution back on (no real reason but a machine with no OS seems a little sad to me) – and got the exact same error message!!

Now I know that this installer works, I’d already re-installed a couple of times when creating the bootcamp split for the Windows Server install, so this set me to thinking.. what had I changed in the meanwhile? The answer was the RAM upgrade.

I’d done the previous installation and the Windows Server deployment with the original 1GB of RAM fitted, waiting for the 4GB to arrive in the post, which I subsequently installed. I still had the original 2 x 512MB SODIMMS so I popped the lid off and set about swapping things over. I left the lid of to do the testing – just in case – and BINGO the Leopard distro which came with the MIni installed without issue!

So, I retrieved the Server version from the corner of the room where it had been ’stored’ and gave that a go… after an anxious wait while the installer checked things over it worked!! YAY I AM A GENIUS! After the installation had finished I re-installed the 4GB upgrade and put the lid on.. my work was done.

So if you’re seeing errors like this and don’t know why – think about what you’ve changed hardware-wise and try returning to base config, it worked for me.

- J.

I wanted to share this little bit of knowledge, I couldn’t find any information out there so I played around until things worked.

Scenario:
I buy Office 2008 for the Mac – Home and Student Edition because it’s cheaper and I don’t have an Exchange server.
I update as updates come along, like the diligent user I am (should user be highlighted there.. I’m not sure!)
I use the Mac Mail application for ALL of my email, because I like it and it works well. I use iCal for my appointments for the same reasons.
I take on a job where I’m given a mailbox on an Exchange Server. Now, Mail will connect to an Exchange server using the IMAP protocol and this is fine on the whole, unless that Exchange SErver is 2007 in which case appointment invitations are irretrievable (this is an Exchange issue I believe as Outlook on a PC connecting with IMAP does the same thing).
Joy! I’m allowed to download Entourage with Exchange access from the service provider of the Exchange system – it’s hosted you see, a solution i wholeheartedly support of course!
Pain! I install the new Entourage and then am prompted to do an update, the update fails with the message:-

"You cannot install Office 2008 12.1.0 Update on this volume. A version of
the software required to install this update was not found on this volume."

This is of course no fun, it’s even less fun when I find that non of my Office applications now work either!

The solution was to remove the Office Suite from the machine (dragging the folder from Applications to the Trash and emptying it), re-booting, re-installing the Suite from the DVD, re-installing the new Entourage from the DMG I downloaded and then letting the updater loose on the system.

It looks like the bottom line on this is – if you change ANYTHING in Office, do it from a FRESH installation before you update. This is more than tedious, even today I had to re-downloaed SP1 and then get the 12.1.1 update too, this process is only going to get longer until the restrictions that the updater seems to be hitting are mitigated.

But it’s working now so I’m (reasonably) happy!

- J.

This isn’t necessarily the personal ability, it’s the ability to change minds and time-lines within the business or to overturn the deep-rooted beliefs that ‘ what we do is working so we don’t need to change it’. This is what causes the pain behind their eyes, the frustration below the surface which my words and discussions have simply inflamed and made painful.

I could be sorry about this, but I see it as birthing pains. We will collectively come through this in a better and stronger place, with superior services being available to a greater audience. More pain, more frustration please.. the results will be better for the struggle!!

- J.

• Work clothes x number of days with clients
• Tee-shirts x evenings away
• Jeans and cargos (1 pair each)
• Smalls to cover all of the changes.

Sometimes though I find myself thinking “If only I’d packed…”. Today is one of those times. Andover near Boston seems like a nice place, this is what I can see of it through the torrential downpour streaming from the skies outside the Chillis I’m currently ensconced within (GOOODD Habanero Wings!)

I got pretty wet on my walk here from the hotel to get my ‘MUST STAY AWAKE’ meal – actually as a side bar I’m interested in finding out anyone else’s routine to beat the clock? I have only 5 hours to gain somewhere but it seems that these short trips of destined to be tired and off-kilter! My usual routine, and this time was no exception, is land, get to hotel, get checked in, have an evening meal and stay awake until as late as possible (typically 9-10 pm). I then awake as fresh as a daiy at about 4 am ready for the world!!

Anyway, tonight’s meal segment of the process at Chillis (good margueritas too) has been accompanied by the thrumming of rain on the roof and I’m thinking that perhaps a raincoat might have been a good choice.. next time perhaps!avel

- J.