A short writeup on EVDO Rev. A by Katie Fehrenbacher over at GigaOM. With both Sprint and Verizon rolling out the service, there is a nice selection of plans and hardware options.
Rafe Needleman has an excellent guide for newbie Twitters. Just started using the service? Curious on learning some shortcuts and enhanced features? Check this one out.
Network Computing has an expose on deploying Windows Vista in enterprise environments. With the stability of Windows XP, it’s going to be a hard sell for awhile.
Been wondering what all the fuss is about Twitter and how to leverage this great new service? Rafe Needleman has written an excellent guide for new users of the Twitter service.
A Google executive has confirmed the existence of a Google Phone project. Some analysts believe this is a different project than has been reported in recent weeks, focusing on developing countries a viable affordable smartphone option.
So why “D2” you ask? It stands for “Desktop 2.0”, which is of course, a play on Web 2.0. While there have been many predictions and suggestions, I want to take this opportunity and posit my opinion of where the corporate or enterprise desktop solutions should be heading. My poor coworkers have got to be tired of hearing my pitches and ideas on this by now!
In a nutshell, I believe Window Vista to be the last large-scale revision and release of the operating system. As such, corporations need to figure out whether they want to continue the upgrade cycle of Microsoft’s high-maintenance operating system. Or, choose to go a different path to secure their data, lower management costs of their client systems, and bring more areas of the business under the business continuity (disaster recovery) umbrella.
To accomplish this, businesses need to look at the pros and cons of both options and take a hard look at their computing needs. The solution for a manufacturing company that merely needs to track production, finance and sales does not have the computing requirements of, say an engineering firm where most of the employees require high-powered CAD/CAM software solutions.
The problem with the traditional desktop is not the initial cost for the hardware, installation, software licensing and so on. Its obviously the ongoing support costs, hardware replacement, service calls, and much more depending on how skilled your technical staff is.
In another world with the proper use of terminal services or Citrix server farms, data replication, thin clients, system virtualization, and load balancing, a company could eliminate or significantly reduce the reliance in traditional desktops and laptops. The key thing to focus on is not reducing cost so much as realizing that you can take control and secure your data. You can create an environment where all data is backed up at your central hub and backup locations that you currently use. (Just think of all those unsecured hard drives that aren’t backed up storing, in some cases, critical business data!) You can also reduce or eliminate the complexity of supporting the Windows operating system.
Yes, Microsoft has made great strides in managing and deploying the operating system, but you do know that you will need to deploy yet another server system to manage the licensing of Windows Vista – right? Did you know that the methods for deploying Vista is different than deploying Windows 2000 & XP? Yep, start planning a big upgrade budget, even if you choose to slipstream the OS, you’ll need to plan the deployment infrastructure out properly. (*Shameless plug* Contact me if you want some consulting done on this – its what I do as an Infrastructure Architect and Analyst ).
There is a better way, and it doesn’t need to be the standard Windows desktop – also think about what Apple has been doing with the Mac lately, or Linux – several distributions have really made huge usability strides in the last few years. Do I have a chip on my shoulder regarding Vista – not really, but I think there are more solutions today than when Windows XP was fresh and new and the focus of everyone’s attention. I just think that the proliferation of web-based applications, increased bandwidth, robustness of terminal services, and the flexibility of virtualization, that there can be a simpler corporate environment than we have today.
Will an enhanced EDGE network help T-Mobile in 2009 while they are getting their real 3G network rolled out, or simply impead any progress on it? With Ericsson prepping an EDGE Evolution upgrade path capable of 1Mbps it would definitely be a nice fall-ba
I’ve know of only three books or projects so far based or inspired by blogs: Naked Converstations, Lifehacker, and the upcoming Global Neighbourhood. So it’s inspiring to me that there is a whole genre of blooks (blog blogs – get it) happening. Not that
If this doesn’t mirror what I’ve been saying for nearly 9 months now. DRM is an infeasible pipe dream, and is simply a legal mechanism to harass your existing customers and alienate new ones. Nice to see the MSM starting to “get it”.
As governor, the State Capitol will stand for unity and common sense.
In addition to the POW/MIA flag that has long flown over the State Capitol, we will fly two flags when I am governor: the Wisconsin state flag and the American flag.
