GNU founder Richard Stallman,  the free software campaigner, recently stated in an interview with The Guardian that web-based programs like Google’s Gmail will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time.

Stallmann claims that cloud computing is the latest fashion and marketing hype, Nothing more, nothing less.  We should not use web applications to do our computing is because  we lose control and it is just as bad as using a proprietary program.

Hmmm….we lose control and it will cost more?
From a business perspective, isn’t cloud computing all about using commodity services and products and getting rid of the ‘black sorcerers’  in the (corporate) IT departments that drive end users nuts not being able to deliver the same high standards that cloud computing service providers can provide? Do I lose control as a company because I can keep my IT department focused on what they should do with lesser resources?

Not my definition of losing control.

Will it cost more in a world where cloud computer service providers compete against one another and create tools to make it as easy as possible to switch from one provider to another?

I have my doubts there.

How many manufacturers do you know that have their own electricity plants just to be in control and to be –supposedly– independent of pricing?

I don’t.

Cloud computing is not a fashion, nor is it a hype. It is here to stay because it provides more better alternatives and at lesser cost than doing everything ourselves.

Working as a consultant I have many times been confronted with IT departments in large corporations.

IT departments obtain, and in some cases, retain power in the organization by morphing minor business demands into seemingly complex IT problems that need additional resources and budgets. Now with the financial crisis budgets –all budgets– are under close scrutiny but will this create the conditions for moving applications and services ‘ into the cloud’ in order to get more bang for the buck?

I have serious doubts about that. Many heads of IT departments still want their CRM, ERP and even e-mail infrastructure, close to their chest because they obtain the power to say ‘No’ from this position. In many cases empowering their end users to work in a collaborative way, independent of location and devices with the latest technology in the cloud apparently undermines their importance in the organization.

May be 2009 will be a wake-up call for them. Not by choice, but rather by necessity.

I am pretty sure however that small businesses will lead the way in many cases. For example by switching from internal Exchange servers with huge costs related to licensing, updates, storage and spam prevention. Just read this blog entry ‘Does payback on email alone make Google Apps’ $50/yr. worth it? (Docs, etc? That’s icing)‘.

I have been using Google Apps for a pretty long time now. I guess I most probably was one of the early subscribers as soon as the service became available.
I am particularly fond of GA’s Google Mail, Google Sites for quick-and-dirty wiki like sites and the occasional document editing in Google Docs.

However, the main reason why I am –or was– still using a traditional email client is Gmail’s inability to write emails while on the go. Despite a 3G subscription and the occasional open wifi network in a coffee shop, there are plenty of occasions where there is simply no Internet access. Without access, no mail up or download…

That changed earlier this week.

After being rolled out earlier to regular Gmail users, offline functionalities became apparent in Google Apps through an implementation of Google Gears. Now you can synchronize your email account when you get online. Works like a charm!

Gmail syncing

Now I am really tempted to stop using Apple’s mail (combined with Gmail over IMAP)…

Yup, finished configuring CloudFront. All images of the site are being served by Amazon’s CDN set up.
Pretty straight forward job to configure… unless you forget to set the access rights of the files on S3 to ‘everyone - read’ (me == stupid *ss).

If interested these links I found to be very good:

• http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/12/08/how-to-getting-started-with-amazon-cloudfront
• http://www.labnol.org/internet/setup-content-delivery-network-with-amazon-s3-cloudfront/5446/

Also, be sure to download the Firefox extension S3 Organizer.

Depending on the situation I am using either my Macbook Air, MacBook Pro or even a Dell workstation. Pretty soon the usual problems rise: managing browser bookmarks and getting access to files.

I have become an avid supporter of two great apps: Foxmarks and Dropbox.

Foxmarks is a Firefox extension that synchronizes your bookmarks in the background with their server. Add a new bookmark on one machine and a couple of seconds later it is also available on your other connected machine. Quite recently Foxmarks also added the ability to sync your passwords…

Dropbox is more or less the same idea, but for your files. A client application syncs the files in the Dropbox folder in the background.

Both apps are pretty neat for the nomad –but connected– worker.

UPDATE: Just saw that Foxmarks now supports Safari and Internet Explorer!

Over the last couple of months I have been on many occassions ’subjected’ to Powerpoint presentations and information overload. The typical Powerpoint presentation has bullets ‘a go go’, is rich on effects and graphics. Preferably has complicated charts and will ultimately lead to ‘Death by Powerpoint‘.

I have been (naively?) passing on different copies of ‘Presentation Zen‘ by Garr Reynolds to co-workers and have adapted my presentation style in line with Garr’s recommendations.

If you are interested in communicating more effectively to team members or management, this book most definitely is a MUST READ.

Currently this site is being hosted in the US. Different images are stored on the same server.

A couple of weeks ago Amazon launched a new service called Cloudfront. Amazon CloudFront delivers your content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for  objects are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance.

Being an avid Amazon web services fan — read my trial VoIP setup of Asterisk on Amazon’s EC2– I want to find out more about this service.

Should not be that difficult to store images on Cloudfront, especially with Firefox that has a S3 extension with provisions for Cloudfront.

Not food for thought any longer, but rather food for action… soon!

Say you have a hundred or more people living all over the globe that you know and that you would like to send a personalised SMS for New Year. How do you go about this?

I almost feel like Piet Huysentruyt –a Flemish TV chef– by saying that you need the following ingredients:

1. An account with South Africa based Clickatell. With the same API you can send out text messages to more than 700 networks in more than 200 countries.
2. Ruby installed on your Mac, Linux or Windows computer.
3. The Clickatell gem ‘cooked up’ by Luke Redpath.
4. Some free time to tinker

This dish can be served in less than 10 minutes.

The script below is quite self-explanatory and is accompanied by a small ASCII text file containing three entries per line: first name, full name and mobile phone number (preceded by its country code).
Just run the ruby script ‘my_script.rb my_numbers.txt’ and you are good to go…

I have a couple of friends that are active in the real estate business. One of the problems they face is getting a proper insight on how their ads –in whatever form– are performing. Suppose that I place two identical ads either on the web or in a traditional newspaper, how do I know where I get the most leads from?

Is there a solution available that clearly reports per property on how many people clicked the ad and ultimately called for that ad? IMO, there is not… unless you make it the habit of asking the caller for it.

How about using a range of DID numbers, one or more assigned per property that registers the calls and then forwards all calls to the ‘regular’ phone number used by the real estate agent? Call it a ‘Grand Central‘ for real estate agents.

Would something like that be interesting enough to seduce realtors in times of real estate crisis?

I think I must have been one of the first users of VMWare Fusion, VMWare’s solution for Mac. I started using it while it still was in beta because my bank uses Windows’ ActiveX for the online banking. Vmware is great software.

Recently I upgraded to version 2.0. Some of the new features also introduced some ‘quirks’ and some strange messages when you run a Windows image.

A couple of weeks ago I added a Dell 24″ monitor to my set up. My MBP is just fine, but working with an additional larger monitor is nicer for my aging eyes.

After a couple of months waiting I finally obtained an iPhone last week.

Great phone. Not too convinced about battery life and lack of VoIP support and/or clients. I did however find some interesting (free) applications. I really like Shazam.  When running, it ‘listens’ to whatever song that is playing around you, looks up the electronic fingerprint of the song and returns the title and iTunes Store data. Pretty cool!

More on iPhone next update…

Or roughly translated ‘iPhone3G, the iPhone that everyone is waiting for’.

After being excluded from the initial release of the first iPhone, all Belgians were delighted with Steve Jobs’ announcement that the second generation of iPhones would become available in Belgium on the same date as in the US and the UK: July 11, 2008.
Apparently the entire inventory of 4,000 iPhones in Belgium was sold over that weekend by Mobistar, the mobile operator with the iPhone exclusivity.

So only a few days later I went to a local Mobistar shop and asked when I could obtain one. I was told it would take 6-8 weeks!
Meanwhile Mobistar keeps promoting the iPhone3G with banners on different websites in Belgium.

Roughly translated ‘iPhone3G, the iPhone that everyone is waiting for’. Yup…. waiting for a long time now.

I feel that this is so ridiculous that I will wait for the special promotions near the end of the year.

I have been using NeoOffice on my Mac for nearly two years now. Strangely enough it is more compatible with Windows Office than Office 2008 for Mac. The only times I have had Windows users complaining about documents that I created were when the documents had been created with Microsoft’s own Mac product…

A couple of days ago I also downloaded the Beta 2 version of OpenOffice 3.0 for Mac. My previous encounter with OpenOffice for Mac was a disaster. Slow load times and application crashes a-go-go. Now apparently things have changed. The Beta 2 seems to be very stable. Not only that, but it seems that OpenOffice is a lot more efficient with file sizes.

I started off with a Word document and then saved the same document in the Word and OpenDocument version of NeoOffice and OpenOffice. Below my findings:

137728 test_neo.doc
128397 test_neo.odt
49152 test_oo.doc
41893 test_oo.odt
65024 test_word

Documents saved by OpenOffice seem to be 40% smaller than the ‘genuine’ Word version; NeoOffice seems to bloat file sizes.

Interesting to say the least.

Apparently the new iPhone3G will be available soon in many ‘forgotten’ European countries like Belgium. Steve Jobs announced availability from July 11, 2008 in Belgium.

In Belgium Mobistar has the exclusivity of the iPhone. Immediately after the announcement I checked the Apple site. It seems that someone made a few errors (logo, name and reference to T-Mobile ;-( ).