New tools are killing my screen real estate
February 4, 2008
This is what I use on a daily basis and always have open:
Browser:
- Gmail - general email
- Sitemeter - stats monitoring
- Basecamp - secure discussion and project sharing
- HighRise - secure email and case tracking
- TactileCRM - simple collaborative CRM
- Wordpress entry screen - blog
- Google reader - online RS reader
- HelloTxt - multiple network site updater
- Seesmic - video
AIR client applications:
- Twhirl - Twitter client
- SeesmicAir - in private beta so no link at this time - Seemic client
Other applications (desktop):
- NetNewsWire RSS reader
- Fetch FTP - simple file upload
- Taco HTML Edit - for editing HTML, PHP and CSS files
- iTunes
- Vienna RSS Reader - for those apps that don’t play nice with Google Reader
Other apps I regularly use:
Desktop:
- iWork (presentation only)
Browser:
- GoogleDocs and Spreadsheets - collaborative documents creation and sharing
- Blinksale - billing
- del.icio.us - bookmarking articles
- Feedburner - stats checking
- @eventtrack - people aggregation around events
- Flickr - photo and image sharing
- Qik - real time video from Nokia N95
In addition to this lot I may have up to 30 tabs open in the Firefox browser
It’s just not possible to see everything on a 15.4 inch screen. I desperately need at least a 23 inch screen and coupling that with the 15.4 inch screen. I’m not at all sure about that. Some folk have suggested going the whole hog and lashing out on a 30 inch screen. I’ve tried both. I could think about 2×23 inch screens as that’s the same cost as the 30incher but with 20%+ more screen real estate.
Whatever I do, it is a HUGE decision. Get it wrong and I end up wasting a lot of money.
Pot, kettle, black: Google fires back at Microsoft
February 4, 2008
In what can only be described as classic Silicon Valley FUD, top Google lawyer and proxy for the executive board David Drummond characterizes Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! as ‘troubling:’
Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.
Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.
As might be expected, pundits have plenty to say about this. Ina Fried gets it right for me when she makes the pot, kettle, black reference. If Google’s ‘Do no evil’ mantra meant something in the past, it sure as heck is pretty much meaningless today. Ask a Google engineer to give you a rough idea what they’re working upon and the answer is likely to be: “It’s a secret.” So much for openness.
Mike Arrington sums up the position Google now finds itself in when he says:
But 2008 may be the year Google can no longer hide behind the “David v. Goliath” defense with Microsoft. Google is the reason that Yahoo has stumbled so badly, and may be Microsoft’s last hope to be a meaningful player on the Internet over the long run. To put it bluntly, the roles are reversed. Google is now the Goliath, and they’re public whimpering on the acquisition makes them look petty and scared.
MaryJo Foley has a slightly different take when she asks:
The monopolist slug fest officially has begun. Desktop-operating-system monopolist vs. online-advertising monopolist. Or maybe monopolist of tech worlds past vs. monopolist of tech worlds future?
Truth be known, Google has had a pretty easy ride of things the last few years as its revenue and earnings rocketed skywards. It is only now, when it has seen its stock take a pounding following an earnings miss that Google is having to react. Only it’s picked the wrong fight. Attempting to catch the regulator’s eye with such an obviously hypocritical position won’t work. If anything, it is likely to bring Google unwelcome attention as the numbers come under scrutiny.
Microsoft wasn’t going to give Google a pass on their statement. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel returned fire with:
Today, Google is the dominant search engine and advertising company on the Web. Google has amassed about 75 percent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow. According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65 percent search query share in the U.S. and more than 85 percent in Europe. Microsoft and Yahoo! on the other hand have roughly 30 percent combined in the U.S. and approximately 10 percent combined in Europe.
Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals.
He’s right. And before anyone screams ‘liar’ about his ‘openness’ gesture, it’s worth noting that outside of the Windows franchise, Microsoft has been remarkably open.
This story is going to run and run but regardless of the posturing, Microsoft looks set to win this one. It’s been in the planning for a very long time, the bid timing was near perfect even if many think the outcome could be a disaster. Clearly Google is not in that latter camp. It’s running scared at a time when it can least afford.
ENDNOTE: for an entertaining view of the Microsoft-Yahoo merger, check Zoli’s round up of metaphors. Or Kara Swisher’s interpretation of Steve Ballmer’s letter to the Yaho! Board.
Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo! but wait a minute…
February 2, 2008
Shortly after noon yesterday, Microsoft announced a cash and stock offer for Yahoo! of $31 per share or $44.6 billion. That pretty much wiped out the remainder of the day and much of the evening for me. Techmeme provided a regularly updated summary. By the end of the day the ‘noise’ from so many people posting was deafening.
The primary reasons behind the approach are well understood. Microsoft wants a big piece of the online advertising pie. So far it’s been unsuccessful in stopping the Google borg. It fears that Google will one day ‘get’ the business apps business and make a serious play for Microsoft’s core business. Microsoft needs content to support its advertising play and Yahoo has that in spades, along with 500 million users. As Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO said, the industry needs competition and it needs large players.
There was a lot of speculation about how well the deal (if it goes ahead), will work in practice with doubt being cast on Microsoft’s ability to absorb a large acquisition without losing momentum to Google. Then there’s the question about what happens with services like Flickr and del.icio.us and, more to the point, what users will think. In the meantime, Mike Krigsman poured cold water on the deal, arguing that enterprise customers will become confused. I disagree but hey - yesterday was a day when everyone had an opinion.
And sure as night follows day, there is speculation that News Corp will tip their hat in the ring. Puhlease. This is a crock of stock pimping rumour and speculation by people invested in the situation. Check out Blodget’s disclosure page. Fortunately, Matthew Ingram expresses the voice of sanity when he says: I think MSFT has already won. After all, who’s going to stump up a rival bid of this magnitude? Microsoft has had the planning on this in the works for a long time. It’s done its sums and when it chooses to strike, it has shown itself to be determined to win. That’s why anyone considering a bet against them is either mightily brave or insane.
Neither of the two major publications - AccountancyAge nor AccoutingWEB deem the story sufficiently important to discuss. That’s interesting because technology - and more specifically Microsoft technology - lies at the heart of what the profession operates upon. Assuming this deal goes ahead, there will be an impact and right now no-one has much of a clue as to how important that impact will be. Perhaps we’ll learn more at Convergence 2008 next month (assuming the deal is either done or ongoing.)
In the meantime, Vinnie’s take is worth reviewing. He argues that a Microsoft-Yahoo combination is a good thing because Yahoo! brings significant innovation to the table. I’m minded to agree though I wonder how much impact that will have on Microsoft pricing.
The next few days will see which way the wind blows.
As Hugh MacLeod says: we live in interesting times.
Solving HMRC’s woes by simple methods
February 1, 2008
Each year UK professionals go through a pantomime of endeavouring to file their clients’ self assessment tax returns only to find the HMRC service is broken. Earlier today I reported on the outage and later, I learned that HMRC has granted a one day extension for those unable to complete their filing. This is of little comfort to practitioners who through no fault of their own are forced to burn the midnight oil in an attempt to keep their clients compliant.
There will always be clients who leave things to the last minute. So what? HMRCs systems should be robust enough to cater for that situation. Once again, it seems they are not. How might this be resolved? There are several solutions.
First, HMRC could re-evaluate its approach to scaling. Amazon, with its EC2 architecture has proven that cloud computing is a viable proposition even if EC2 isn’t great on handling demand spikes. Joyent, which handles around 12 per cent of Facebook’s daily applications traffic - ie 3.8 million requests - knows how to provide virtualized scale. There is a quantum difference between a Facebook application and data pumped via the SA Online system. But the architectures needed to make this stuff work are well known. That requires a different type of consulting engagement than those to which HMRC is used.
It’s hard to know who’s doing what these days but clearly one of EDS, KPMG or Accenture have failed to come up with a scalable model. That surprises me because all have plenty of experience in moving data around for banks in real time. But then I appreciate HMRCs requirements are fundamentally different.
The alternative is to take what does work - and SA Online does work when not totally stressed - and simply provide different filing dates for different parts of the country. HMRC has enough statistical data to broadly calculate where demand is coming from and it could easily figure how to make this work. That’s the method that has been followed in France for years and it just works.
HMRC would take a short term PR hit but that would be easily outweighed by the positive PR it would attract from those practitioners who are currently staring bleary eyed at a failed system.
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