Jul 2, 2012 | blog, featured
Microsoft Surface with Black Type Cover
The question in my mind is why Microsoft hadn’t acted on the hardware front earlier. Yeah, I know all about it’s relationship with it’s hardware vendors. Sure, it is a threatening move. Apple stuck with that decision from the beginning. Of course, they were a hardware company that produced software to help sell the hardware. Now, of course, they’re an ‘experiences’ company that sells hardware.
The surface is what it is, and we have few real details about quality, feel, and usability to make any kind of good analysis other than how this might impact the marketplace.
In my opinion the x86 market needed a really significant shakeup. The predictable, mundane hardware advances, and lack of real innovation is screaming for disruption. Microsoft itself is delivering that disruption – the company who has demonstrated its ability to keep the status quo, and try to accomodate all players and customers for way too long is leading that disruption.
I know that Microsoft’s moves are causing concern for their corporate customers. It’s causing concern for their developer community and causing some confusion on the consumer side. Its causing relationship issues with their hardware partners who now feel betrayed, and making some competitors curious of their actions, probably evaluating technology & usability patent infringement issues. Its causing competitors customers to laugh outright at the wild changes of what “used to be” so predictable – as if Microsoft is simply stabbing in the dark.
Thing is, this move is significant for the technology industry as a whole. It signals that computing as we’ve known it for 30 years is changing radically. Quicker than many established companies can adapt. Take a look at some of the moves in the industry: Nokia and RIM in steep dangerous decline, Palm & it’s tragic demise at the hands of HP, HP itself who has always made great laptops and desktops and servers but can’t understand mobile to save its life, Yahoo which is only now figuring out that it diversify enough in other technologies, IBM selling off it’s PC division back in 2004 (smart move guys), Dell trying all sorts of new things to find something that sticks so it has a place to hang it’s hat in the future.
When you start looking at the larger picture, and I’ve only pointed out a small handful of things, you see how the Surface is both bold & brilliant, while still being a stunning reversal on one of the cornerstones of modern computing. The Surface will succeed, the definition of success of course is with Microsoft. It was not designed to be an iPad killer (those headlines are overhyped link bait), it was designed to demonstrate Microsoft’s vision for tablet computing. Something it knew that its hardware partners were not able to execute on properly without Microsoft demonstrating some of it’s ideas.
Microsoft Surface… I’ll buy one.
Jun 29, 2012 | blog, featured
Here’s something that I don’t usually share here on the blog, and I hope some won’t take it the wrong way. A few years ago I discovered the joy of a properly made martini. That’s a true martini, not the 007 version, or those sickly sweet abominations (chocolate martini, wtf!?).
Real martini’s are made with gin – and good gin at that. My personal fav happens to be Bombay Sapphire, a smooth gin if there ever was one. Of course, after making one or two of these, a person starts thinking about a good dirty martini – one of the few good bastardizations of the best cocktail in the world. Of course, I happen to have a personal favorite recipe for one, and I thought I’d share it here tonight.
Oh, I should note that I take the original approach to the drink – it is not a “dry” martini as I have found vermouth to truly be the keystone of the drink. If you want straight booze – do shots, if you enjoy sophistocated tastes, put the right amount of vermouth in which really should be anywhere form 1/4 to 1/2 ounce. Try it once, you’ll see what I mean. Oh – and if you absolutely have to use vodka, you can lean more towards 1/4oz as the vermouth would otherwise overpower the delicate flavor of the vodka (you use good vodka – right?).
My “dirty” Martini recipe.
First, place martini glass on ice or in the freezer – it really should be nicely chilled for any martini.
- 2oz. Bombay Sapphire Gin
- 1/2oz. Dry Vermouth
- 1/8oz or 1tsp Olive Brine
- Small Pinch of Smoked Celtic Sea Salt (Yes, it has to be smoked sea salt – bacon salt won’t do here, but might be worth investigating later
- 3 Queen Olives
Shake (stir if you prefer, but this drink benefits from a cloudy rather than clear presentation) Gin, Vermouth, olive brine and half of the salt crystals with a small handful of ice. Place second half of salt crystals in bottom of chilled Martini glass, place olives in next, then pour mix over olives.
Enjoy.
Apr 20, 2012 | blog, featured
Ideas Notebook By Matthew Allard
Sometimes you find that you’ve got too many ideas. Ever have that problem? I do this week, and I swear I’m going to do something about it. I’ve got blog post ideas going back several years covering things from social media to technology to life topics and so on. It’s time I liberate these post ideas. I’m giving them to you to take and run with, just in case you’ve run out of ideas and need some inspiration. What better way to end the week, right? Alrightly, here we go:
- Social Networking & The Impact On Your Personal Brand
- Moleskine Notebooks – Going Analog For The Fun of Writing
- How To Balance Social Network Participation In The Workplace
- 101 Uses for Twitter
- Why I Believe The “Smartphone” Isn’t So Smart
- Your Blog IS Your Social Network
- Online Communities – You Get Out Of Them Only What You Put Into Them
- The New Social Economy
- Social Media Is About Sociology Not Technology
- Never Stop Experimenting To Grow Yourself Or Your Brand
- If Words Mean Things
- Old Media Using Social Media
- Building A Better Branded Blog
- Decline Of Technology In America?
- Social Media And The IT Professional
- Anonymity – Pros & Cons
- Can You Connect Up To 6 people?
- Linux: Ubuntu Or Fedora Or ?
- The Most Powerful Social Media Tool: YOU
- Decisions: iOS Or Android
- Personal Branding And The IT Professional
- 10 Reasons For A Windows Hack To Love The iPhone
- Disengage From The Collective That Is Your Corporate Mindset
- “Who Am I?”
- How Can I Help People?
- Linux Software Installers – Why Do They Suck?
- Essential Software For The Blogger
- The New Intellectual
- Is the Theme/Style Of Your Blog Important To Readers?
- Social Realities Of A New Generation
- What Do I Do?
- What Can I Accomplish?
- Powerful Writing…
- Do I Realize How Lucky I Am?
- Social Media In The Enterprise
- Negativity In The Workplace
- Don’t Talk, Just Do
- Social Media Is An Evolutionary Step
- Tear Down This Wall (Cubicles That Is)
- What Is A “Social Entrepreneur”?
- Enterprise/Corporate Culture Clashes
- Good Enough
- Social Media Shoehorn
- Blogging Is A Commitment, Social Networks Are A Fling
- Making It Happen
- Why My Blogging “Rock Stars” Are From the Z-List
- SharePoint Can Be An Internal Enterprise Social Media Tool
- Labeling Things And Why It’s Ok
- Why Paper Publications Will Never Go Away
- A Culture Without Culture
- To Meme Or Not
- Step Away From The Ledge – It’s Going To Be Ok
- Help People
- Want To Be A High-Buck Consultant?
- Positive Growth Through Negative Feedback
- Virtualization: For Technology Only?
- Build Your Own Brand Armies
- Networking For Fun And Profit
- Fostering New Communication In The Enterprise
- What Social Media Has Taught A Techie Geek
- Afraid To Succeed?
- Stodgy Or Stale Brand? 10 Sure-Fire Ways To Freshen It Up
- Social Media Does Not Equal Marketing Or PR
- Fearing Free (Free Rage Fears?)
- The Problem With Technically Excellent Solutions
- Be Your Own Editor
- Thinkers – The Ones To Watch
- Getting Back To Where We Came From
- Go Where Your Forefathers Couldn’t
- Unsung Heros: Headhunters
- The Line In The Sand & When You Step Over It
- Landing Pages – Why Bother?
- Put It On paper
- Gen Y & Why They’re different
- Engage HR For Change
- Friend Counts Do Mean Something
- Anatomy Of Twitter
- Lack Of New Examples
- The More You Share
- The Android Dilemma
- Is Your Day Job Your Only Gig?
- When Self Promotion Goes Too Far
- The Joys Of Building Community
- Is Social Media Respected In Corporate Environments?
- Lets Not Screw Around
- Why The Old Tools Don’t Work
- Why The Old Tools STILL Work
- Corporate Obsolesce
- The changing Face Of Social Media
- What’s The Big Deal About 4G?
- What’s Next For Social Media
- The Dark Side Of Social Media, And Why It Sucks
- You Will Live Online
- Why Tablet-Haters Loose In The End
- 10 Billion Apps
- Do What Comes Naturally
- The Decline Of Social Media
- Social Media Posers
- Ongoing Standards Wars
- Shortsightedness Of Newspaper Publishers
Well, there’s a handful of the post ideas I’ve got in my notes. That was just from one page of a OneNote notebook of post ideas! Sometimes, you just run out of time or simply never get back to the ideas you had when you thought of the topic. Whatever the case, I figure somebody might make use of one or two, or ten of these. Better to set them free than keep ’em in a dusty digital notebook right?
Blog Header Photo credit:
JOH_1994 by
star5112. Thanks for a neat picture of post-it notes that captured my thought!
Mar 30, 2012 | blog, featured
'Toshiba Libretto 50CT' by Jon Callow
Some call it the latest ‘fad’, others point to a long history of people bringing their own technology solutions to the workplace, it’s currently referred to as BYOD.
It’s all the rage right? After all, the ability to set your own course, control your own computing destiny, and pick the phone of your choice is our right as modern humans. Besides, IT departments are too overbearing and controlling – they don’t understand our need to get our work done in a timely fashion.
At least, that’s what it may seem like to those hip ‘movers & shakers’ types, and may be those Millennials too. Ok, maybe I’m stereotyping with the Millennials… but experience tells me otherwise.
Costs Of Technology
Therein lies the point of the BYOD movement, too many people think it’s a great cost-saving idea. The problem with that is the costs are simply shifted from client-side hardware procurement, to the data center. Actually, it’s likely to increase IT costs rather than cut them.
Like most great ideas, BYOD cuts both ways. It’s a triumph of corporate workers to have choice! Bringing flexibility to the main tool most productivity workers use every day.
Why can’t we pick a Mac over a PC? Why wouldn’t IT let me provide my own – I’m willing to pay for the privilege! Many more would start talking about the flexibility of different solutions, like tablets and even their phones. After all, are not all these devices computers of one type or another? I know a great number of people who argue the PC hasn’t been more personal than the devices we carry in our pockets every day!
Back to the costs question though. It’s not a simple answer once you start thinking about it. Yes, the company isn’t buying a computer, the support contract for it, the license for the operating system, the software licenses for your apps… um, if they don’t who does?
You see, there is the beginning of the complexity of simply bringing your computer to work and trying to use it in place of a company provided one. It’s not to say it can’t or shouldn’t be done, but there’s more to it than we might think. Sure, the hardware, support and client OS licensing might be eliminated. However companies need to protect their data, which means server storage for everything, which means increased storage costs, which bring increased electrical costs for the data center, and environmental systems which add more cost.
What About Software
What about software? That too needs to be maintained in a reliable, secure, and usable form. Sure, we can move lots of apps to the cloud, but lets face it – hard core spreadsheet users over in Accounting or those documentation wizards writing all sorts of material need real tools, not a web-based version of Notepad! So IT needs to host those applications and stream them to your personal device. This adds flexibility for us as individuals, but it also means the savings on the laptop you would have gotten now goes towards server capacity to host that application. Oh, and we need to think of floor space, and the power/environmental systems again… and more costs.
As an IT Architect, I have this kind of conversation with my peers quite often, and we continue to uncover more pros and cons. Somehow they mostly seem to balance each other out. But the real impact of BYOD, in my opinion, is the third dramatic shift in computing in my IT career. This one bringing a renaissance of choice to IT’s End Users, and expanding the idea of what the IT industry is capable of providing.
Behind The Firewall is an ongoing series where I talk about topics of interest inside corporate cultures. The experiences, ideas, movements, challenges, successes and more that we all experience in corporate environments. From an techy-geek’s point of view – behind the corporate firewall.
Mar 27, 2012 | blog, featured
They are.
Although, not for everyone.
You see, the key to any technological device in our modern age, the usefulness depends on the individual as much as the device in question. Not everyone is enamored with smartphones when their only need is to make and receive voice calls. I get that, though I know a lot of people who don’t.
The reality is that our technology is progressing far faster than many people can adapt to it. This reality causes people who don’t utilize as much computing or communications technology a bit of an overwhelming situation. What do you use it all for? Why the overlapping technology in multiple gadgets. If I can get email on my home computer, and maybe on a phone, why do I need a tablet? If I get streaming media on my game console, why would I want it on my phone? Does email I read on my phone still show up on my home computer? And so on…
Tablets are one of those in-between devices that are, technically, little more than scaled up mobile phones and, software-wise, nowhere near what a desktop or powerful laptop can do. Yet, that’s the interesting part. We’re comparing them to devices we’re familiar with, trying to find the part we’re already comfortable with in order to use it. Recognizing the tablet as a revolutionary computing device that disrupts our concepts of a “PC”, isn’t forefront in our minds.
As a technologist, I get excited by the technical specifications of the devices, and what that bodes for the future. I marvel at the standardization of all the complexities of mobile, connected computing devices in ways the average person doesn’t (FYI – it makes me a nerd). I understand that too – for many people, a device is supposed to accomplish some complex task for them. Quickly, if not more easily. The fast pace of innovation can make even the most ardent tech geek’s head spin at times!
So, back to the point of all this. A lot of people have said that tablets aren’t productivity devices. Other say they really are, and can’t imagine life without them. I think the reality is somewhere in between, and our existing concepts of the traditional PC are already changing.
What will the next evolution of tablets bring to our awareness of technology and computing? Give it a week, maybe two, and let’s ask that question again.
Mar 26, 2012 | blog, featured
You know, I think I’ve had enough of the silliness of Apple’s naming if the iPad. Being unpredictable sounds great, but not giving a product a differentiating name is simply stupid.
“The new iPad”. Great, next year we can refer to it as “last year’s new iPad”. Really Apple? That’s as brilliant as Microsoft’s year-naming of software. It was dumb in 1995, and it’s not any better now.
What the hell was wrong with “iPad 3” or “iPad HD”, even though its screen is a light year beyond HD. What about a name that really differentiates it from the iPad 2? Where was the originality that we expect from you? Guess it died with Steve. Why should we get excited about a product that can’t describe itself in its name?
Guess we’ll find out next year when you deliver “the new iPad 2013”.
Doh!
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