I’ve had a few of those recently.

That’s, I think, one of the reasons my updates here have been less than frequent and today I made the promise to myself to change all of that. There have been more than a few occasions where I’ve had a mental rant about something and come to conclusions which should be shared, there have also been a few interesting things going on in the audio studio which have also been kept secret – no reason either. So here’s the deal, I’ll be updating here more regularly about the non- and semi-work related stuff going on and I’ll also be letting you know about the other projects too.

The Project List:

1. Audio interface for iPhone to recording / mixing kit. This will be line-in and line-out from the IPOD interface, I can’t find anything out there some I’m going to make one. The point of this is to be able to take / make calls on the phone in the same way as I do for Skype, Live Meeting and other stuff, I’ll also be able to record calls for interviews etc.
2. Audio interface for Xbox Live to recording / mixing kit. Taking the feed which would go to/from the Xbox Live headset connected to the controller and using the desk to drive both the mic input and the audio received from the Live gaming sessions. Same reasons as above really.
3. Sell old bike, get new bike. I don’t think I’ve been fitter than when I was riding motorbikes, especially when I had the CR125 and did regular trips to practice tracks. With this in mind I’m going to be selling the Husqvarna SM610 and getting something I can use on and off-road. I’m thinking WR or DRZ at the moment, but it’ll depend on what’s around over the next couple of weeks.
4. Update CV. It’s been a while since this document last had a tickle and I think now’s a good enough time to get that sorted out. I’m using iProfile too – kind of an online CV for agencies etc – so I’ll marry up the two and tick that box off!

As you may, or may not, know I’m also writing on a couple of other sites (Hosting Thoughts, Ready-Up) and that’ll continue too, along with the audio work here at Studio 13 for Rogue Productions. Plus the Twitter and Facebook nonsense as well.

Holy crap! With that AND work to do I’d better get started!

“This is like being in Church!” I’m not a religious person – I respect those who are but it’s just not my bag – so this was a bit jarring. The speaker in question was very, very good. He knew just what buttons to press, he knew when to pause for reaction, he knew when to repeat point for emphasis, he knew ALL of the tricks. He also knew that his audience were drinking deeply from the corporate Kool-Aid and would lap up the digs at the competition.

This is where the jarring elements came for me. I’ve sat in on corporate keynotes before and they’ve certainly been corporate but they’ve not been ‘religious’ in their approach. By this I mean the deliberate deposing of those they believe are in competition – even those that are not, not really. The most bizarre example of this was a Microsoft Senior Executive who, during a keynote speech, took a stab at Apple and the iPhone4, describing it as “Apple’s Vista”. This of course drew cheers from the assembled congregation but I was simply left with the thought that there had to be a Vista first for that comparison to be made and that a bad version of a desktop operating system which occupies 95%+ of the market is actually a far more serious blunder than the issues which some users are seeing in signal attenuation on an otherwise good piece of hardware – one which can easily be fixed with a simple add-on.

I use both Apple and Microsoft technologies. I’ve already mentioned that I moved away from Windows Mobile to iPhone only this year but that was as a last resort when the – otherwise lovely – HTC TyTN II finally ticked me off. I use OSX and Windows 7 every day of the week and I believe that the Microsoft enterprise solutions are – on the whole – without peer. With this in mind maybe I have a more balanced view of the technology, maybe it’s my belief in using the right tools for the job, regardless of the brand it wears, which allows me to be a bit more dis-passionate about things and therefore a little more cynical about the exhortations and hyperbole which comes from the keynote speeches.

I figured that the best way to provide any sort of guidance was to run through the apps I’ve added on and what I use them for and if I can provide a little inspiration and/or help to others so be it.

1. iBooks – Self explanatory really, but I had to get a US iTunes account initially to download this app. It’s now on the UK store too of course. The latest update (as per iOS 4 release) adds in the features which were ‘missing’ when compared to the Stanza application which it is believed iBooks derives from. These features include the ability to mark text and add notes and create bookmarks for later reference. iBooks also supports PDF as a source document so is great for reference material as well as the ePub books. I use this every single night now as I read before I go to sleep.
2. Voice Recorder – As a fan of all things audio I was interested to see what (if anything) could be done on the iPad in terms of capturing audio. With the aid of the Samson Go-Mic and a pair of headphones I’m able to record interviews and other audio for later import and manipulation in Garageband.
3. Twitterific – One of  a (huge) number of Twitter clients out there. I’m Wi-Fi only but when tweeting from events and conferences it’s just the job!
4. TapTap Radiation – A simple rhythm game, I just like the music and graphics.
5. Pocket Pond – beyond simple yet very addictive. it’s a pond with fish in it, you can splash the water, release and knock down dragon flies and the fish eat them. It’s free… try it.
6. Live Messenger – it’s an iPhone App so either sits in the middle of the screen or is HUGE! But if you need to stay connected, it certainly works for that community.
7. Skype – Again an iPhone app, but either using the built in mic and speakers or the mic/headphones combo as above, certainly does the whole Skype thing well enough – NOTE: Only on WiFi not 3G.
8. iThoughtsHD – A mind-mapping application. I like this kind of note-taking mechanism as it matches how I think. has proved invaluable and well worth the few pounds it cost.
9. FryPaper – I like the way Stephen Fry thinks and writes. A must for Fry fans.
10. WoW Armory – another iPhone app but useful for WoW fans. now supports the premium services for remote auction management etc.

I’ve also set up a bunch of links on the iPad spaces for various web-sites which are then simply accessed. The above list doesn’t include the built in stuff like Safari, Email, Video, iPod, contacts etc.. because, wel you simply use them. Safari is great on the iPad expecially.

It is worth putting a note here about Videos. I’ve synced up a few audio albums – those in the “Recently Added” auto playlist in iTunes – but video is something different. I have a reasonable DVD collection (let’s call it a couple of hundred titles) but, unlike audio CDs, there is no easy way to get these into a digital format for use on your portable devices. There are a bunch of rights arguments going on and I’m not going to take any particular stance other than the personal one of “I own it so I’m watching it where I want to”. There are a few applications out there for mac and PC for DVD-to-iPad(/iPod/iPhone/etc) conversion. Some are good, some not so much. In getting my collection into digital form I’ve been through a few and I finally landed (via the well loved HandBrake) at RipIt on the Mac. This makes a copy of the DVD playable contents to your local hard drive and now supports the creation of an .m4v file with the results. This can then simply be dragged into iTunes and bingo, synco-magic. For those with an interest “Why RipIt and not HandBrake?” the answer is ARccOS.

So, @alibobbles, I hope this helps!

Apple do niche and consumer devices very, very well. the ‘i’ series have become the ubiquitous brand – you don’t buy an mp3 player, you buy an iPod, even if it’s actually not an Apple device. They all work together well and have a certain appeal.

It’s certainly been said that “Apple fans will simply buy everything Apple” and although this is somewhat of a slur, the facts are that an appreciation of quality will promote further adoption. The point here is that the very fact such a slur exists shows that something has promoted a loyalty in the brand.

If we move away from the consumer space and into Enterprise then the story obviously changes. Microsoft are king here and for many of the same reasons. Microsoft’s business systems and applications work well together and there’s not really a significant alternative to the Office suite of servers and applications which it comes to interoperability. Apple have a presence in the Enterprise but it’s very small and provides an interesting challenge to IT/IS teams in terms of support, management and integration.

So why does the Cupertino firm seem to be vying for the top spot? I see it as a combination of things, there’s been a growth in the use of Mac machines across the board, for education, in-home and in the enterprise. Adoption has been through the “It just works” experience and the availability of effective applications to provide the services these groups want. The second element is Microsoft’s effort to move into the consumer devices space.

Media players (they do so much more than MP3 now) belong to Apple. The Zune, although a nice device in itself, simply hasn’t had enough of a differential to be a decision point for most folks. If anything they’ve been the protest vote of those who, for their own reason, simply don’t like Apple. Windows Mobile was a great idea let down in execution by Microsoft’s historical position as as software vendor, “We build the OS, you use it in your devices”, this caused performance issues, inconsistencies in functionality and a general frustration with the devices. Oh, for sure they hooked up to the Enterprise environment well for Exchange support, but with the licensing of Active-sync out to the other Phone OS vendors, even that has become diluted. The new portable OS – Metro – is very slick, very pretty and certainly provides a different experience to anything else on the market, and it’s use as the base for Windows Phone 7 makes perfect sense or at least it would if it existed in a vacuum. The problem is that the model for WP7 is so radically different than that for the older Mobile OS and that change is actually going to be a barrier to adoption rather than encourage it.

“The third screen”, as Steve Ballmer coined the mobile device space, is certainly important as more and more services become remote and the delivery mechanism becomes more portable. Phones are no longer phone, they’re terminal devices but does this mean that Microsoft has to compete there? I would say not, they don’t. Microsoft needs to do what it does best and that’s to make solid reliable Enterprise systems and solutions which can be accessed by devices in such a way that promotes their adoption rather than inhibits.

Already I can here the shouts… “They already do that!!”. Yes they do, and that’s where they are successful. The news that the Exchange 2010 web application will now provide the will user experience on Firefox, Safari and Chrome as well as IE shows that some thought is now going into the process. Organisations are more likely to adopt a central system if it’s able to be accessed from anything, than if there are limits on the client side.

Consumer cool is great for press releases and “Oooo – Ahhhh” product launches, but Enterprise efficiency is where Microsoft made it’s big bucks and that’s where it’s strengths now remain. The current leadership is one of corporate stewardship, the previous was one of technical innovation. The products should reflect that position and in some areas do – but that’s the problem, it’s only in some areas. Microsoft’s internal structure sometimes provides some real differentiation in their products – look at the success of the XBox – but sometimes it shows a real disconnect in strategies. The business units have to do their job and that job is to make their products sell as well as possible, you can’t fault them for that. Bu sometimes they seem to be acting at odds with other business units and it’s this disconnect which confuses people.

Apple have a singular vision with which EVERY product aligns but this can lead to accusations of ‘closed systems’ and the associated negative aspects.

Which is right, which is wrong?

It would be great to have Microsoft delivering systems – either in-house or on-line – which could be accessed by the BEST remote / mobile devices available. That’s what will happen eventually, but Microsoft need to stop tying to be cool and remember what they do best and that’s Enterprise Efficiency

And if you wanted to add another service you’d, more than likely, add another server or two to run it. This was the easy way, the most trusted and risk free way because we knew that the requirements would only ever increase and we were building in future-proofing. We had to because these things had to last, to run and perform for 3-5 years! This was really about money, IT departments speculated at the start of each financial year as to what would need to be replaced, upgraded and what new systems or services would be required. They got their budget, or a part thereof, and then did what needed to be done, perhaps picking up a few ‘goodies’ along the way – because that’s what we did!

So corporate server rooms and datacenters and even small businesses with the typical too-hot, under-powered cupboards had server hardware spinning away just waiting, ever waiting, for the time when their capacity would be realised. Of course the reality is that, that time never really came. Servers went end-of-life and were retired, re-purposed and ultimately scrapped (or sold on eBay), budgets were re-negotiated to replace them with the newest models because “they will provide significant future-proofing” and the cycle of speculation began again.

The times they are a-changing though and the move is away from the old server-per-service model and we are now starting to talk about workloads. The Database workload, the Exchange workload, the Web workload, the Application workload… All are the new expressions of what needs to be done and none talk about the hardware underneath – and neither should they!
The correct and only way to deliver services is in the most resilient and efficient method possible. This means taking a number of physical resources sufficient to provide service continuity in the event of failure and making them run these workloads. If that sounds kind of wooly and fluffy, well that’s because it is! Server hardware should not, now, be the definition of a service infrastructure it should simply be the mechanisms upon which the services are built.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”), one of the three main “Cloud” definitions, means that I can define what I want in terms of workload and get it, I don’t need to worry about the numbers, the networking configuration, the will-it/won’t-it nature of any fail-over I’m expecting or speculate upon the “future-proofing” my hardware spend is assuring. This is because I have no hardware spend.

If my requirements are for a database and application workload I can simply buy the horsepower I need to support that DB/Application combination and use it, usually within a few hours. OK I don’t have the fun of specc’ing up a server set and un-boxing the kit when it arrives but they were short-lived pleasure anyway!

For smaller businesses and organisation there is the issue that this is going to be a hosted service, out there in “The Cloud” or simply on-line if you’re me! And this might pose something if an initial barrier to adoption. That’s OK! Really it is, there’s no-one telling you that you have to move your “stuff” out there today, or even tomorrow. IDC has predicted that we’re in the first phase of an adoption cycle which may last up to 30 years! It’s fine to hang back, make the most of your current investment, make sure you understand what it means to adopt an on-line/hybrid service model and make sure your strategies – both technical and business – are in place and ready for when you make the move.

For larger enterprise businesses though, it’s perfectly possible to build an IaaS infrastructure in-house. The technologies are available today and, depending upon the age of your kit, you might not need to spend a huge amount on server hardware to make it happen. The keys to delivery are virtualisation and automation and the tools are ready now to help you deliver this “Private Cloud”. It’s a change in thought processes for any IT Team but it’s also the right way to think about your technology services and how you consume them.

Remember the word is Workload, the method is up to you!

There are some great if not exceptional tools and systems available from the Redmond giant and I’m more than happy to use, endorse and promote them in the right space, but the presentation on Window Phone 7 I attended the other day left me wondering what they must have been thinking!

The pitch and positioning of WP7 was interesting in a number of different ways:

1. The “Chassis” approach Microsoft is taking to the release plan shows that WP7 is not being positioned just as a Phone OS for vendors to buy and load onto their devices. It’s going to be released to support very specific chassis – i.e. hardware – specifications only.
2. The OS build is “ground up”, so this isn’t a further tweaking or set of modifications and enhancements to the old CE/Mobile base. It’s brand new. This however means that it’s lacking a little functionality in some areas – there’s no Cut-Paste for example, neither does it support multi-tasking. I seem to remember a certain other device being lambasted for such shortcomings byt Windows Mobile users… times they do change!
3. Application development and management. Int he old days, anyone could pick up a copy of the Windows Mobile SDK and write themselves a little application – and lots did, there are quite a few, very specific, applications out there running to provide monitoring updates and information feeds written by and for technical teams (I’m sure there are many others too). Now though, all applications will have to be put through a formal approval process before – wait for it – being made available to install through a Microsoft owned and controlled portal! I’m having weird flashes at this point and the rest of the room are chuckling and exchanging glances too!
4. Windows Mobile Phone v6.5 will remain supported an available “For the forseeable future” to allow for applications to be ported over and to cover the lower end of the market, the sub £200 devices.
5. WP7 outfitted devices will, at launch, be pitched as “Premium”, this in price terms is £250 plus.

Well, well, well there is much hay to be made here isn’t there?! The comparisons are obvious and not a little invidious too and I for one can’t see why I’d buy something which looks and works like and iPhone but has – at launch – far inferior functionality. And it’s not just the iPhone either, Googles Android on top of HTC’s hardware is looking more and more like a platform people can relate too and ‘own’.

I left Windows Mobile 6.1 behind because, frankly, it simply failed to work properly. My TyTn II wouldn’t obey the backlight settings and I had to repeatedly switch the thing on if I needed the keypad during a call, even to hang up at the end! I eventually resented even having to pick the thing up and use it. Am I therefore likely to return to something unproven, with less functionality? Well of course not. I got an iPhone last month – my first one – and to over-use an over-used phrase, it just works.

Reasons to change to WP7 demonstrated so far = 0.

It used to be said that Apple created and maintained a niche market of brand-fans and I’m sure this, in some respects, was true but it was interesting to note a couple of things from the day. On my train to London, 3 out of 4 of us at the table were using iPhones, the 4th had a BlackBerry. At the event itself I’d estimate that a good 50% plus were touting Apples device too, if you factor in the BlackBerry horde and a good sprinkling of Nokia’s the Windows Mobile presence could not have been high. Are Microsoft then pitching a device at a hard-core fan base? Are we looking at MS-geeks replacing Apple-geeks? Perhaps…

My feeling is that Microsoft got stung, very badly too, by the iPhone and by Android. The very fact the WP7 is a brand new OS shows an acknowledgment that the old OS along with Microsoft “We do software” position simply wasn’t right. The death of the Windows phone has been predicted, it may happen, but it’s going to have a struggle to take ground back from the empires of Apple and Google.

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...

No  one can make you serve customers well…. that’s because great service is a  choice.
Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that  proved this point.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He  decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.
How  about us?   Smile, and the whole world smiles with you…. The  ball is in our hands!
A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary  in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not  give up… let us do good to all people.
Ducks Quack, Eagles  Soar.

And this is fine if you expect people to leave their brains at the door on the way out of the building and their mobile devices at the door on their way in. The problem is that neither of these are practical in the world today (OK certain security-sensitive organisations do actually require that you NOT bring mobile devices into the building but they kind of fall outside of my scope of general business here). So even if the strict policies of the organisation are enforced at the desktop, folks are still able to access Facebook, twitter, blog-spaces and the like from their “mobile  phones”. I’m quoting here because as time passes these devices have become so much more than phones and the name increasing doesn’t fit. These are the the small screens which make up the screen triumvirate of most of our lives; small screens = mobile devices, mid-screens = desktop systems (PCs, Macs etc) and large screens being our TVs which are also becoming a source of rich media and not just TV broadcast.

But I digress, the point here is that very few organisations have put in place policies and guidelines to help the individual employees understand what they should and should not share outside of the company, how they communicate what they are doing and who that communication is available too. An example of this would be the Facebook invitation to ‘Friends’ to attend a party. The intent was honest but the method and audience hadn’t been properly considered, the result was several hundred people turning up and a seriously wrecked house. Translate that into Business terms and you get my point.

I’m not any sort of advocate of nannying at all, and I believe that in the majority of cases common sense prevails and individuals are reasonable sensible. HOWEVER, we live in a statistical universe and given enough people, someone will do something stupid and potentially damaging unless strongly advised otherwise, simply out of ignorance or lack of thought.

So policies ARE necessary to help to mitigate these statistical certainties and to enable businesses to protect themselves. As an employer, ask yourself these simple questions:

• If someone blogged about their working day, could they unintentionally reveal sensitive information?
• Could someone updating their Facebook status as “This place sucks, no-one EVER listens!” reflect poorly on you as an employer?
• Could a Twitter update of “Another meeting, I wonder what bad news is coming now?!” impact your business confidence?

While it’s true that the comments of one person may not even register, it’s also true that it only takes one person to start a rumor.

Being able to identify and address ANY sort of communications channel and how it could be used or mis-used is vital. Those forward thinking businesses have adopted social media as a marketing medium and done so with great success, so it MUST hold true that bad news has the same, if not greater, impact.

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.