If you need a really, really easy way to blog..

Blogging has become very simple of late, but still you need to either login to a service (i.e. wordpress, or blogger), and enter you post which sometimes can be fool proof, and other times darn right messy. 

Tumblr started to make things really easy, although what about appealing to the lowest common denominator when it comes to “writing something”… of course Email!  and although many services do have some sort of email integration that you can configure, it still needs someone with either time and/or technical skills to even want to try to configure it.

Enter http://posterous.com/ where your blog is just an email away.. in fact that is how you update your blog.. simply by emailing a message (subject becomes the blog title, and the body of course is the main blog entry).

You simply send an email to post@posterous.com, and you are up and running.. you will receive an email back with a link to your blog, and ways to customise/secure.  But in reality, it has to be the easiest way for people to blog.. and of course it handles images/links etc.. just write an email and off you go!

Microsoft, Powerset and Hadoop

So with Microsoft buying Powerset (the natural search engine), it also means Microsoft may utilise Hadoop, the open source Map Reduce system similar to that of Google/Yahoo..

Full details here

Really portable printing

I was perusing the usual blog circuits (in this case web worker daily) and came across the “PrintStik”.

I have seen a few portable printers in the past, notably the Cannon range of bubblejet printers, although the printstik looks certainly smaller, and by the commentary, seems smaller, easier to use, less inclined to leak etc.

Not sure if it is available in Australia, or can be shipped here, but hopefully so, as it looks like the idea companion for “road warriors” out there.

Good Bye eBay, and thanks for all the…

Ok, I need to research this a little more, but from what I know (in Australia anyway), eBay are no longer letting you offer direct deposit etc and forcing you to only use paypal?  how crazy is that, is eBay so far gone that they have to try this?

I have loved using eBay.. but if this is this case, then “so long eBay”…  I like freedom, and although eBay seem to be saying it is to help with extra protection, where have we heard that before??  

So.. as I mentioned, I need to check the facts a little further, but there are LOTS of alternatives, and I think a lot of people will be moving from eBay.

Come on eBay, what are you doing?

How about storing files online? free storage options

 

** UPDATED **
Just added some notes from testing over the last week…

Well, I know there are quite a few online storage vendors out there.  One of the biggest impacts perhaps has been Amazon (yes the book people!).  Amazon introduced something called Amazon S3 which is part of their AWS (Amazon Web Services) range.  Don’t worry about the details as yet… the reason I mentioned it is because S3 allows developers to write storage based applications (online) that can offer/use large amounts of storage at a really really reasonable price.

So, why store files online?

Well, for myself, I need at least “one other” place to store my code/documents etc.  I have an external hard drive, a DVD burner (but lets face it, 4gb or so isn’t enough these days!), but I really need to store data “off-site”.

What about security?

Well, lets face it, unless you either memorise your data or burn a DVD and keep it on your person 24×7 (and even then it’s not totally safe), nothing is fool proof or 100%  so you have to weigh up what is really secure and what is secure.  Most online vendors have reasonable security, and if you think about email (i.e. your email zips around the internet and is usually stored on an ISP or server somewhere), then how many times have you emailed something with confidential info?

Choices and pitfalls

Well, I have been using a few online storage options with varying degrees of luck.  The table below shows some of the services, the pros and cons:

Service name	Storage	Pros	Cons
Live Skydrive	5gb FREE	Nice interface, easy to use.  You can store files privately, share with friends or have share with anyone type access.	Seems a little slow, although they are in beta.  No access via local PC/MAC as yet (i.e. you cannot access the online files direct from your own computer.. you have to go online), although this is in the works I think.
iDrive	2gb FREE (150gb for 4.95 a month)	Been on the go for a little while now, so established.  Also integrates with Windows or Mac, so nice an easy operation direct into your local computer.	Small size for free version.  Seemed a little clunky using the local version, however I have not in truth tested the latest version.
aDrive	50gb FREE	Whopping 50gb free!	At first, I thought the Java interface for uploading was a little clunky (I know they are working on Desktop integration).  But have to say, it was really quite easy, and quite stable.. and of course 50gb!
xDrive (yep, more ..drives!)	5gb FREE (50gb for 9.95 a month)	Again, quite a reasonable amount of storage.  Not used this as yet, although again will update this table shortly!  Also has a desktop component (Windows/Mac) that you can access without going online.	** Note, just testing this so will update this table shortly **
ElephantDrive	Unlimited for 4.95 per month (15 day trial which converts to 1gb if not subscribed)	A late edition (sure there are lots more), and this one uses the Amazon S3 service.. Also you do have local computer (Win/Mac/Linux) access	So far, I am using Elephant drive more and more.. tell it which drives/directories need to be monitored, and then backups happen in the background! and it really seems to work.. and doesn’t seem to take a lot of resources.. obviously you have to pay something per month.. but for unlimited storage?  4.95 is very good!

 

Summary

So, on the face of it, aDrive certainly is a very good contender given the 50gb FREE storage, however right now it doesn’t have local PC access (coming soon though!).

I have to say that Elephant Drive (late contender) looks impressive too, and I cannot think that 4.95 per month for unlimited storage ($99 per year for upto 4 computers) will but anyone off.  Again, the two wins here are huge storage (unlimited) and local access from your computer..

So far then, Elephant Drive is looking like my favourite, followed by aDrive… mainly due to the 50gb storage, and the upload tool for multiple files.. however having the PC/Mac integration will really make a difference!

Microsoft Velocity bridges memory caching across machines

Looks like an interesting idea which I will need to investigate further.

In brief, it seems Microsoft are approaching the memory cache angle from a developers perspective. 

To quote:

“Velocity” is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, available, and high-performance applications. “Velocity” fuses memory across multiple computers to give a single unified cache view to applications. Applications can store any serializable CLR object.

Here is the link.. more soon once downloaded and looked at!

IBM makes waves into business social networking

I guess with the popularity of social network platforms, and of course LinkedIn which caters more for the business oriented side of the social graph, it’s no wonder that there is a flurry of activity within the traditional IT providers to get in on the act.

IBM have released they latest update of Lotus Connections which allow you to do the whole business networking thing.. it looks clean and simple, although I cannot help thinking it is all a bit “sharepointy”…

Have a read here for more…

Why Twitter could become a “Microsoft” and how to fix twitter

Well firstly, the title is a little preachy, and I think it is extremely easy to sit on the side lines and tell companies/organisations how to “fix” a problem.  There has been a huge amount of commentary about twitter, and so why not throw in my own 2 cents (or pence/euro’s etc!).

Given the enormous rise of twitter, and the fact is was probably built as an experiment initially, it has done an amazing job of captivating people - I think mostly because of it’s “instantness” and direct channel to the internet world.  I actually like twitter; direct, brief and… instant! (not to mention using the most basic of comms devices - mobiles with just sms)

With lots of clones of twitter popping up all over the place, is it just a matter of time before twitter becomes a little monolithic like Microsoft?  I mean if twitter want to keep the service “closed” (as in the chat with Even WIlliams with Scoble), then I can’t help but feel a distributed, open twitter clone will eventually come into being, and take the twitter crown.  Of course you need to make money, and you need to protect IP to a certain degree.. but look at how Microsoft are having to change given the open source drive these days…

Again, I love twitter, and I really liked Odeo too by the way, and of course this is just one comment in tens of thousands that poses the “I know how to fix that” question that in reality isn’t that simple - arm chair fixers, don’t you just love them!

An open source distributed twitter mechanism

So.. what if the twitter guys kept twitter as is.. at least trying to stabilise the infrastructure as best as possible, but then organise the base code for open source.. they obviously have some great code there which handles the main twitter functionality.  But instead of just building (or re-building) twitter as is, why not look at a “quazi distributed client twitter”?  using say Google Gears to spread the load… and combine this with a peer to peer aspect (still keeping a public centralised view too), it would make an exceptional experience, and would off load some of stress from the “central infrastructure”.

Again, I know it is easy to just “say” things, however I am going to try to flesh out how this could possibly work with a couple of friends (perhaps if you are interested, please contact me!).

This could enable a future twitter version to be like the mobile phones of the internet world…

All words, and again it is easy to comment from the side lines, but I feel there is something there even if I do not posses the total knowledge to make it happen just yet!

Kudos to twitter for providing a service that people really use!

>> ADDITION <<

Coming soon!  Twitter-Torrent!  everything you love about twitter, but open, distributed peer to peer.

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Google Gears/Adobe Air.. "a little bit of history repeating itself"

Once again into the fray.. one of the latest “big buzzes” on the net (seems old saying that now doesn’t it?) is that of the quasi web/desktop Frankenstein monster.  A sort of bit of this from here and there all zapped together with lots of hype and viola! breeding season for all the tech blogger’s/writers.

So what is all of this?

Way back when the mainframes ruled the earth like the dinosaurs did, everything you did generally happened by a terminal.  In other words, the terminal didn’t have any brains as such, and essentially provided a “window” to the actual computer which was the big scary mainframe stuck in a basement somewhere. 

There then was a time when PC’s came on the scene and started  to have brains, and started to process “stuff” locally with updates back to the big scary mainframe monster occasionally/realtime or whatever suited.  Thus this made local response faster, shared data loads etc etc… obviously it didn’t cure all ills, although it certainly became very successful (think of most servers on the Internet these days.. I bet they are not mainframes

So.. Google Gears and Adobe Air… (amongst others)

The Internet browser has been like a mainframe terminal for some time, although of course it runs on PC’s etc so has some brains, but the idea has been pretty much the same… and of course we have had the times where the load of the web server gets to a stage where things slow down, disconnect, or just plain fail to work.  Yes there are things like AJAX etc to give the illusion of speed, but now comes….

The localised, distributed world of the Internet.  The mini-net if you will.

With apps like Gears, Air, Silverlight (and flash etc too), essentially it means the Internet if going offline baby!  some of the key points how, why this is happening are:

1. These apps provide (generally) a way to run web apps locally i.e. they include a mini web server if you like that will run locally on your PC, MAC etc
2. They include a local data store (interestingly SQLlite in the case of Gears, Air at least which is excellent small footprint SQL database).  This enables you to store large’ish amounts of data locally to reduce connection/speed/load issues, and allows the synchronisation back to an online server as needed etc
3. Most cases access to your local machine (good and bad there then!) for local file access etc
4. Worker pools, threading and background plumbing to enable speedy processing… lots of other bits too, but that’s the general idea.

So the Internet is on the move, and coming to a PC/Mac near you soon.. in fact it reminds me of the classic Internet joke about a person wanting to download the whole Internet? well maybe soon you will be able to!

Hard to know how things will pan out, but I have felt for years that this day was coming.. the localised distribution of processing like the mainframes/PC’s of yesteryear.  Not to say somehow that I “knew” this was going to happen, but actually I am glad it IS happening.  It means a new way to architect large Internet applications and if done correctly (for a given scenario), it will provide users of web applications with a real gain in usability, stability and enjoyment.

Heading for Cloud 9.. Aptana allows developers to use “cloud computing”

I have followed (I was going to say the antics.. but that’s not quite the right expression) Paul Colton for a while, ever since JRUN (which was bought by Macromedia and then of course Adobe).  I liked the work Paul did on XAMLON which seems to have faded away, although Aptana seems to be a hit for sure.

An IDE based on eclipse that caters for Javascript developers (amongst others such as Rails, PHP etc).  The great thing is the JS intellisense and the intellisense based around AJAX libraries such as ExtJs, jQuery etc.

In addition, Aptana also created Jaxer which essentially allows you to run javascript on the server utilising databases etc.

Now, Aptana have gone for the cloud.. similar to the Amazon EC2…

Read more here…
http://www.aptana.com/cloud

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