Google TV

Referring to this post, here's my thoughts.

Google has significant inertia right now. Microsoft has (very) effectively abandoned the Smartphone market, allowing Apple and their "more proprietary and more closed than anyone" iPhone to make significant inroads and almost totally wipe Microsoft out of this marketplace. Then along comes Google with Android, taking the Smartphone market by storm... if not by surprise.

Google is so obviously the dominant search player.

Android, laughed at by many, has stood up well so far, and with Google's CEO actually having a clue about it's client base (as compared to The Steves who are both relatively clueless, but each in their own special way) this OS looks to have a bright future. The consumer electronics market is *massive* and until TV is (almost) totally replaced by on demand web-based content in the forseeable future, a device that acts like a toaster which combines the two will be welcomed in many homes and office lunch rooms. Windows Media Center is great for geeks, but *way* too unlike a toaster to work in a regular consumer environment and Apple TV is too proprietary and closed to be taken seriously.

Google has the world at it's fingertips here. I just hope they can pull off what has eluded so many before them.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Software - Is It Too Hard For Microsoft?

Oh, the wry smile this brought to my face was a sight to behold!  ;)

Microsoft, it seems, finds it too hard to manage the deployment of their own operating systems and applications and are outsourcing this to an Indian outsourcing company, Infosys, for the next 3 years.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Ian Curtis

Today is the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis' death. Joy Division has influenced a great many bands and Ian will be remembered through his music for many years to come.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Dio

RIP Ronnie James Dio  Your music will play on.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Office Pro Plus for MAPS

Just to let all those MAPS folks know, Office Pro Plus 2010 is now available for download on MAPS!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Securing Your Facebook Profile

The *FIRST* rule to all Social Networking sites is this: If your grandmother would be embarassed or shocked or disappointed by this, then don't post it.  Of course, if you're not concerned about what your grandmother would think, then you can safely ignore this rule.

The *SECOND* rule to all Social Networking sites is this: If your employer or a future employer would be embarassed or shocked or disappointed by this, then don't post it. Of course, if you're not concerned about what an employer would think, then you can safely ignore this rule.

The *THIRD* rule to all Social Networking sites is this: Assume everything you post and everything people post to and/or about you is going to be made public.

Now, having said all that, Facebook seems to have issues in defining what Privacy means.  Or should I say that have a constant need to redefine *down* what your privacy means to them.  If you want to ensure your Facebook profile contains some semblance of privacy, have a read of Jason Perlow's steps to put Facebook in lockdown.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Humble Indie Bundle

Now, even though I'm not a gamer (well, aside from Minesweeper, occasionally), here's a great bundle for those of you who like nice, well written, cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) games including the *exquisite* World of Goo- go to http://www.wolfire.com/humble and make a payment - it's your choice how much to pay.

Your money will be split evenly between the 5 game developers, the EFF and Child's Play - or in any percentage you so choose between all of these.  Not only the price you pay, but also the final resting place of your money is in your hands.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Reality Distortion Field Increases

It seems that the Reality Distortion Field that has been in place since Steve Jobs first opened his mouth just after birth has started to affrect Steve Jobs himself - he's either starting to believe his own bullshit or he no longer thinks that anything he says has any chance of being seen for the bullshit it truly is.

Have a read of this article to see what I mean!

Just imagine if Microsoft tried pulling this trick and the court cases and EU fines (not to mention the Apple fanboys crying foul) that would result.  Why can this slip under the radar of the legal system?

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Silently Releases SQL 2008 R2 To Manufacturing

I don't know why they are embarassed about this, but on 21 April 2010, Microsoft silently released Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 to manufacturing.  You can even find SQL 2008 R2 Express with Management Tools on Microsoft Download right now!  :)

Thanks to Peter Hale from Naish for bringing this to my attention.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7

Well, this nice add-on to Windows 7 was previously only available to large OEMs like Dell, HP, IBM and Toshiba, however it now seems that Microsoft has opened its use up to all of their Windows 7 multitouch users, not just those from these large partners.

You can go here to download this pack.

(Thanks to Dennis Tan, MS PAM in Brisbane for alerting me to this information.)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Melbourne Storm - Fucking WHACK!

Ouch:

“Melbourne Storm has today accepted the findings and outcomes of an NRL investigation in to the club’s salary cap accounts,” Melbourne Storm Chairman, Dr Rob Moodie, said...

The National Rugby League today stripped the Melbourne Storm of the 2007 and 2009 Telstra Premierships, the Minor Premierships of 2006-8 and of its 2010 competition points after confirming a series of salary cap breaches amounting to at least $1.7million over five years.

The club will lose all competition points earned to date in 2010 and also the right to accumulate points going forward in 2010 (competition tables will record wins and losses but the club will not be awarded competition points on the basis of any wins). These measures are effective as of today.

The club has furthermore been fined $500,000 and will be forced to return $1.1million in prize-money with the prize-money being distributed evenly among the other fifteen clubs.

Individual awards by players will continue to be recognised but records will be adjusted to show that the Premiership is not recognised even though the result cannot be overturned. Neither Manly nor Parramatta will assume the Premiership titles in their respective years.

Regards,
 
The Outspoken Wookie

Wanna see my big, dirty crack?

Windows 2000, Server 2003 RTM, XP SP2 and Vista RTM Support Ends Today

As per the Microsoft Product Support Lifecycle, support for the following products ends today:

Product	Support Ending 13 Apr 2010	Comments
Windows 2000 Professional	Extended	No future updates
Windows 2000 Server Editions	Extended	No future updates
Windows Server 2003 RTM Editions	Mainstream	Security Fixes Only.  Upgrade to latest Service Pack to remain in mainstream support.
Windows XP SP2 Editions	Mainstream	Security Fixes Only.  Upgrade to latest Service Pack to remain in mainstream support.
Windows Vista RTM Editions	Mainstream	Security Fixes Only.  Upgrade to latest Service Pack to remain in mainstream support.

So, if anyone's still running Windows 2000 systems, then you're SOL when it comes to updates. It IS a 10 year old operating system, so there's no surprises that all support has now ended.  As to Windows Server 2003 RTM editions, XP SP2 editions and F^HVista RTM editions, well all you need to do is to update to the latest Service Pack and you remain under Mainstream Support (ie all patches are being made available, not only security patches).

Basically, if you're still running something that has its support retiring today, you need to get that system upgraded - desperately.  Running obsolete and/or years old applications and operating systems on computers that are in any way connected to the Internet these days is simply asking for trouble - keeping up to date is a sanity, safety and business viability saving process that needs to be done on a regular basis.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Can Roman Catholics Get Any Lower?

The Bishop of Tenerife (Spain, not Brisbane), Bernardo Álvarez has now gone on record making the claims that "There are 13 year old adolescents who are under age and who are perfectly in agreement with, and what’s more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you".

How low can the Catholic church go?  Anyone want to place bets?  Will they soon say that all children in the Catholic church have the right to be abused by any clergy member and like it?

Now, even though god doesn't exist, a priest is supposed to be representing this non-existent being - and this god is supposed to be a god of love.  Should this love extend to sexually assaulting children and then claiming that the children asked for it, therefore the priests - who took an oath of chastity - get away scot free?

No sane person would agree with that.  So how can any sane person condone what's been going on in the Roman Catholic church?  How can any Roman Catholic be proud of what they belong to?  How can any Roman Catholic priest claim to be representing some supernatural being of love when they are being so vile and so damaging towards the children they are supposed to be protecting?

And WHY are the other religious denominations not outraged at what's been going on?  That is another cause of concern if you think about it.

Filthy, disgusting criminals.  That's what they are.  They aren't worthy of anything other than what society doles out to child molesters.

I wonder why those who have a clear mind and can use this to look at religion and see it for what it truly is - a false belief in a non-existent being and apparently a "boys club" where child molesters can be protected from normal society - are turning away from it in droves?  Religion is a crock.  God does not exist.  And if he did - what would he think of his church?

Enough said (for now).

Disgusted,

The Outspoken Wookie

What Cost The Cloud?

First, let me start by saying that we have some clients using cloud services, some clients not interested in cloud services, some using cloud services without realising it and some who are not interested in cloud computing in any way.  And although I can see that percentage changing a bit, I can't see it going all one way or another.  And it hasn't been all one way for quite some time now!

There are certain services that lend themselves well to being cloud based (or what used to be known as "hosted") and these include mail filtering, eCommerce and general web sites as well as mail hosting.  Services such as email can be hosted (like they have for years, even decades, such as when you use an ISP for your email account, or if you're using a mail hosting facility) or onsite and depending on your needs, both - or a mix - can work well.  The same goes for websites - sometimes it makes sense to have these on-premise, but more often than not they are hosted at a location with a faster Internet pipe than you can afford in your office.

Some services may work well in the cloud in a number of cases, but may work out a lot more expensive in many others - such as hosting your Windows Domain Controllers, Terminal Servers and/or SBS in the cloud.

Now, there's Internet connectivity to throw into the mix.  In your office, if you have your email/groupware and data all on-premise, then if the Internet connection goes down for a few minutes here and there (or more often, as is the case often here in Australia, especially for SMBs who tend to shy away from the multiple thousand dollar/month Internet connection options) then it is really no big deal - the email will sit for a few minutes and then be sent/received.  But if your data is up in the cloud, well, when your Internet connection goes down, so does access to your data.  This can be helped by redundant Internet connections, but this will cost more money/month than the old ADSL2+ connection you used to have.

And when your IT provider goes bust (or you no longer wish to work with them), you call another one in.  How does that work when the data's on someone else's servers in some data center somewhere?

In good times, companies generally buy hardware and software that will last them 3 to 5 years or so.  Even a subscription model, renewed annually, can be changed easily in many cases.  So, say you spend $30k on an SBS network when times are good, then you go through a slump.  You can often talk to your IT consultant and ask whet can be done to reduce costs (at the expense of regular upkeep) during this lean period and more often than not you can work through it with only a bit of labour as an expense.  If you're hosting your network services in the cloud, you'll have a minimum monthly fee that must be paid before upkeep/maintenance is even considered - and this monthly fee can be significant at times.  You will need to take this monthly hosting fee into consideration when comparing the cost of a hosted solution to that of an in-house solution.  Will your cashflow outlay that's budgeted in good times be able to be sustainable when times are lean?  Remember, this is for services such as email and line of business applications that you cannot often survive without.

So, not only is the initial outlay needing to be considered when comparing in-house and cloud based solutions, Internet connectivity, increased monthly minimum outgoings and the reliability of the cloud provider all need to be taken into consideration.  Just because you're moving a CapEx into an OpEx doesn't mean that all's going to be rosy when you find yourself in a spot of financial bother!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie