DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Archive for 2009

There’s a stack of new video available on the pre-released version of Google Chrome OS.

Chrome is designed for small netbooks with a live internet connection. It loads in seconds and provides access to the web, web based apps and cloud based resources. All of which means I wont be using this on the train on the way to work in the morning.

More info at

http://www.youtube.com/user/googlechrome

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMrzw7JFzA&channel=googlechrome

Some business systems may well be redundant or costly…. so why do we still run them?

A great reminder via IT news.

How to kill the orphans and move on: Gartner – Software – Technology – News – iTnews.com.au.

Users of Jooma! and WordPress will know that that there are hundreds of plugins or extentions that you can use to pimp out your beloved free content management system, but I’m not here to talk about the fun stuff today. I’m here to talk bout the serious stuff – hacking.

You see the popularity of these content management systems is a double edged sword. Whilst the popularity of these platforms means that they are well supported by a community of users, they are also prime targets for attack.

As with any popular software, back bedroom hackers and even organised crime networks want to leverage their time effectively. If they can find a weak point to exploit they will. That’s the reason that you are constantly asked to download patches, security updates, hotfixes and so on for your operating system.

Joomla and WordPress are no different. They are constantly releasing new versions that both improve the product but also address security issues. It’s a never ending battle.

In  the same way, its important to keep your operating system updated, its just as important that you keep your wordpress, joomla and related third party extentions up to date too.

Luckily, there are some tools that will help to make this all fairly easy. These come in the form of plugins and extensions that will guide you through the update process and even prompt you to download back ups along the way (do this…. I’ll say it again… do this!)

So know you know why to do it, here’s how to do it.

You can get the extensions from

• WordPress Automatic Update
• Update Manager for Joomla!

If you get stuck, just ask..

The SMH have summarise a report on Laptop reliability from  warranty claim records. Interesting if your in the market for a new one…

Glad I bought Asus

HP Worst In Laptop Reliability Study | SquareTrade.

The guys at Synoptic have released a great new video, highlighting the difference between popular flow charting tools and fully fledged Business Process modelling tools.

Over to you Creon…

Worth reading…

5 Reasons Why the LinkedIn-Twitter Integration is Big News | Windmill Networking.

Thanks Neal for yet more great commentary on developments in the social networking area.

Beyond the obvious convenience factor of using twitter feed as status updates in linked in, Neal goes on to explore some of the further reaching effect.

An open apology to to all the people that I have annoyed through Netlog in the last few weeks…

I’d like to apologise to a few hundred people and to give a warning to the rest of you. As many of you will know, I have an active interest in social media so when I caught wind of a new playground for the early adopters in social media, it piqued my interest.

It’s well known that the social media platforms follow the traditional product lifecycle. I suspect Facebook is constantly trying to keep things fresh to avoid becoming another myspace and recoup its substantial investment. The new waves of digital natives are looking for a place to play away from an environment where you mum and your grandmar can throw sheep at you in an effort to remain ‘cool’. I heard that place was netlog.com.

Before you rush over there and reserve your username as I did, I’d urge you to read to the end of my post because this seriously backfired for me.

On a very busy day, I looked up netlog and created a short profile, just enough to reserve a username and get a general feel for what this new platform might look like. It was really easy to join and the layout was fresh and inviting, but on first glances, it didn’t offer anything new. You can do all the same things that you can do on the more popular networks.

So my thoughts went along the lines of “maybe I’m missing something, this is a social network so maybe I need to chat with a few people to see what the fuss is about’

I clicked the conveniently places icon that allowed me to check for people I knew by connecting to my gmail account. I entered my private email account details and proceeded to the next screen which told me something like, ‘we’ve just invited your entire address book to join you on netlog’.

‘Sorry what was that?!’

‘Is this some kind of joke?’

I quickly checked my gmail and found a barrage of out office replies, bounces and helpdesk ticket notifications. Disaster!  You see if you have ever sent me an email, even if your an automated helpdesk, then your in my address book and I want to make friends with you (according to netlog anyway)

I’m now in damage control, posting updates and tweats about ignoring my emails. To make matters worse, netlog then sends out round after round of reminders. I once had a friend who sent me these emails from bebo and it annoyed me no end. Now I was on the other end.

A few weeks later I spent quite a while trawling through the setting of my netlog account, trying to find ways to cancel these requests but can’t find anything. Along the way I found a nice help page telling me that netlog respects your privacy and didn’t send the email without consent. This might even be true, but i suspect the consent part was in the small print. The fact that this page is there in  the first place is evidence that I’m not alone in my frustration.

That’s just about done it for me. If they wont allow me to retract the requests, then I’ll leave. This turns out to be a task in itself but eventually I find out how to leave netlog.

Tip: the process step if cleverly hidden in the layout of the linked page. Clever use of layout here netlog! no big sheny buttons and a call to actions for deleting your account I see.

Some conclusions : It’s evident from this whole experience that starting  a new social network needs a very aggressive approach and the space must be very competitive. Whilst I suspect that the sign up and leaving process on the site were compliant, I’ve now left netlog. It’s left very bitter taste in my mouth and I’m unlikely to go back.

Netlog have, for obvious reasons made it easy to join and grow your network and difficult to leave but the cost that I suspect they don’t realise is that they have upset almost everyone I know on my email account in the process.

Is this tactic really likely to work for them in the long term? Do these automated emails annoy you too?

Here’s just a very brief ‘note of thanks’ for your support on yesterdays ride.

Kyah and I managed to make the whole distance into Wollongong safe and sound and we both had a blast along the way.

Thanks to contributions like yours we raised $355 and I believe there is more to come. Not a bad effort!

As a reminder, your money will be put to use by MS Australia to help current suffers of MS cope with the disease as well as funding research into a cure.

It’s been quite an education. I didn’t know much about MS before but I’m likely to support the charity again in the future now.

Thanks again

David and Kyah

http://register.gongride.org.au/?davebirchall

Working out our kit selection...

I might live to regret this but I just opened up my blog to comments. The fact is I seemed to have overlooked this in my original configuration. I always thought I had comments activated but when I looked closer I had asked people to register first…

The lesson learned here is if you have wordpress blog that you got up in a hurry, look over your settings when you have a moment.

Comments are important because a blog is afterall at the pointy end of the web2.0 revolution. Comments are a great way to build a community of users and likeminded people and to get feedback on your posts.

In my case I have always know people are out there. My analytics stats have told me that. I just wondered why people are a bit quiet

So now you have the chance, introduce yourselves and tell me whats on you mind..

The first wave

Google wave has been out for a few weeks now and its taken until now for me to get a preview invitation. Thanks to the guys at Anthill for inviting me and letting me into their inner circle.

First impressions of wave is that the interface is very easy and familiar. My suspicion was “If you know gmail then you know wave already” but I needed to test it out.

After trying to add a few people and getting no where I quickly realised wave was limited to a select few. It seems even those on the wait list wouldn’t be joining me any time soon. So there I was sitting in one of the most hyped online collaboration tools with no-one to talk to.

I turned my attention to twitter to see if there we any fellow wavers there. I added a follower who provided his email address and Wave told me that the “user was not registered, would I like to add them to my address book?”

From the address book, I could drag them to my wave and start chatting. I’m not sure whether wave has a bug in relation to adding people, or if I’ve exceeded my quota, or if its just me being a compete idiot, but either way it needs work.

So now there are two parties on the wave. It’s not so much “collaboration” but “dialogue.” From the reviews I have read, Wave gets chaotic and interesting when you have multiple parties talking at the same time.

“Dr Wave” (a character created for help) has provided me with a lot of videos that show me how powerful things can get but I want to see for myself. I’m forced to find out why I cant  add people and find the following article which tells me that I need to wait for a “wave” that allows me to invite more people.

Until then, I just can’t tell what all the fuss is about. That my honest opinion. Until then I will leave you with this top tip….

To embed a wave ino your blog, just add embeddy@appspot.com to auto generate the code.

Here goes!