If you are as old as me you will remember the Cairo project, an attempt to create an object based layer on top of what was then Windows NT (remember that?). I was lucky enough to see some of the prototype Cairo builds but they never came to fruition. The best bit was the OFS (Object File System) which was the pre-cursor to WinFS (which also died), but the flashy bit was the UI which eventually was toned down in Windows 2000.
Well now some crazy guys are re-creating Cairo, or at least the shell bits, initially for Vista but also later for XP (Hooray). I’m not entirely sure what they will achieve with this, but almost anything is better than the current Vista shell. So we’ll have to wait and see, but it looks pretty.
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Here’s a good idea, hosted Virtual Servers. I needed a new Windows Server so I got a virtual one courtesy of VPS Land (http://www.VPSLand.com).
The reason this is such a good idea is that it reduces the cost of hosting because your hoster can put multiple machines on a single physical machine. ok performance will suffer somewhat, but they do make several assertions about minimum CPU availability. The virtual servers are built of Quad core physical servers and mine feels fast to me. Its cheap too, $17 per month, for a ‘dedicated’ server.
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I love SharePoint and I hate it too. Its great in concept, but often so rigid in structure when creating a project. I’ve often thought why not just code the site in ASP.Net when designing a SharePoint solution, but I usually end up with SharePoint because it just has some handy bits and so many corporates are familiar with it. I usually struggle explaining SharePoint to some customers as its more a dev tool than a solution and its only when we deliver a KM or CMS solution that people get it, or at least understand what it did.
I just saw this article in TechNet magazine about SharePoint as a Wiki, which is a great concept, but one I thought a bit out of SharePoints scope but its interesting. I’m not convinced about the presentation, but the editing tools are there. Seeing this would not necessarily encourage me to use a Wiki as a knowledge management tool, but at least its supported in concept.
So now SharePoint can be a Content Management System, and Knowledge Management solution or even a Wiki.
More here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/magazine/cc162514.aspx
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I was just looking at a friend’s Asus EEEPC which are all the rage right now. Its very cute, and I was sorely tempted to buy one, its £229 for the 4GB SSD model. However, its just not quite convincing enough for me, yet. The 7″ display is too small, I like the SSD but again its too small and needs supplementing with a USB stick, the keyboard is small but I could get used to it. Its cheap …. did I mention that? but hey, I can buy a full laptop for another £70.
What does attract me is the almost fixed function of the device. ie its designed to do a few things, but do them well, or well enough, specifically low impact tasks like email, web browsing etc. I thought about its possibility as an eBook, but really I need 1024×768 to get A4 page fidelity enough to read (fit to page view).
So, whilst I like the EEEPC, I think I would actually spend a bit more on a real laptop and then downgrade that to the capability of the EEEPC. this would be mega performance in comparison although I guess the battery life would be less.
Maybe I could rip the hard disk out and configure a bootable USB stick to start from to save battery. Windows couldnt save much this way as its too chatty with the registry and is always doing something even when you aren’t.
So, I think I’ll try that first, I have the measure of the EEEPC so thats my target for a ‘utility’ laptop.
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I’ve been waiting years for the eBook I need. I’ve seen and tried the Rocket, the Sony PRS, the iRex illiad, the starEbook and the Kindle. and they all fail miserably for me. Each one has something good(ish); worthy of note is the illiad has the much needed 1024×768 display; the Kindle has great connectivity. The downside is they all cost huge and offer low bang for the buck.
Tantilisingly, what I need is far simpler than what these guys try to produce. I don’t need something that works for 40 hours without charge, I dont even need something that weighs less than a feather. In fact I think my requirement is similar to many pro’s who want eBook capabilities for work purposes.
Actually what I need is more or less a standard cheap notebook and i’ll sacrifice a real keyboard for a tablet style display. I rarely need more than 3 hours running away from mains charging, and I can accept some weight. I can cope with a shared memory graphics adapter but I do want colour, a 1.4GHz core duo and 1GB RAM. Probably running some lightweight Linux preferably on an SSD disk to save power. At a minimum I want it to render PDF and preferably also DOC and PPT. I’d love it to be able to playback video and audio as well as view images. I definitely want an RSS client and a web browser.
Tesco can seel me a Fujitsu laptop for £299 with 1.8GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB Disk, DVD Rewriter, 128MB Graphics, 802.11g, Modem, and Vista! so why can’t I have that in my eBook format? Please!
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SPF, Sender Policy Framework thats what. Its a TXT record you can apply to your DNS zone to allow receiving mail servers to determine whether your email domain is being impersonated to send spam (UCE). Why is this important? Well if you have more than 1 SMTP sending server then your IP address ranges may be different. This means that some of your email may be rejected as spam at servers like Hotmail and never reach the recipients mailbox (even the junk mail folder). Once added, mail servers can check the SPF record to confirm your email is valid and hopefully your email won’t be rejected.
So what does an SPF record look like ? Well here’s an example;
v=spf1 ip4:62.21.98.128/24 a mx include:spf.myispmail.net ?all
But working it out is a chore, so go to an easy to use online configurator here http://old.openspf.org/wizard.html
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… or rather lack of it. No WindowsMobile 6.1 announcement from Microsoft, no real big announcements on Android, no iPhone SDK. pretty boring. The most interesting item for me was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 which departs from previous strategies and embraces WindowsMobile (6.1 in this case) and the Android impinging LIMO initiative.
Have to look forward to CTIA now …
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