Tatum and Denim blog

Skype, SameTime & Notes for collaboration

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:57 +0000

While Skype takes a PR hit for their outage, there are some good stories to share…

It’s 4:45 AM. and I’m wrapping up a 3-way Skype voice+text meeting with my overseas development team; we’re working on the next code release for eProductivity. My counterpart and I are using Lotus Notes for real-time management of the project and code releases. He’s coding and I’m replicating every few minutes to test the latest code. Thanks to Lotus Notes, moving code changes is simply a click of the replicate button. The coming together of Skype for voice + IM and the ease of use of Notes as a distributed development platform facilitates collaboration at a level that was not possible (or at least affordable) just a few years ago. (Yes, I know that SameTime does Video and Audio; it even runs very well in my test lab. Unfortunately, I’ve not worked out the issues to get it to work in the real world yet. Fortunately, for high quality audio over IP, there’s Skype. It simply works.)

We’ve been on phone - oops, Skype - for 6 hours with impeccable call quality. Between, Skype for Voice, SameTime for collaboration, and Lotus Notes I’m getting more done in new ways with people I would have found it difficult to communicate and collaborate with before. I suppose the only missed opportunity was that we did not use video. Perhaps next time.

It was a successful meeting and we are one step away from the next code release. I’m tired.

I’ve been very slow at blogging. Client work and this new product development has required a lot of my attention in addition to my graduate studies and public speaking. I’ve got a lot going on. Now, more than ever, I appreciate the power of a good productivity tool kit.

I recently took the digital sandbox on the road and I’ve got two very interesting podcasts coming up: the first, with my friend and colleague, Kelly Forrister and the second with another good friend, Marc Orchant. Kelly and I will talk about how I use the Lenovo X61 Tablet PC, and Marc and I will talk about what’s in his gadget bag. Stay tuned…

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Windows Vista Search Whitepaper

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:36 +0000

Search is one of the really powerful and addictive features in Windows Vista.
Over on Geekzone Mauricio
has a great whitepaper
available for download.

The Windows
Search Technologies Overview for Business Customers is a XPS document written
by Arvind Mishra, Product Manager for Search, covering search from an enterprise perspective,
but with lots of insights that would be of interest for personal use and small business
as well

This is a great whitepaper that is currently only available from Geekzone.

New NASA Honcho Lays Out Bold Direction for Space Science

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:23 +0000

Alan Stern wants more money for astrobiology, an increase in science spaceflight missions and, most importantly, more suborbital flights.

Aug. 23, 1899: First Ship-to-Shore Signal to a U.S. Station

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:22 +0000

“Sherman is sighted.” The message is terse but complete. More importantly, it’s the first wireless message ever received by a U.S. station from a ship at sea.

OEMs missing the point with Windows Home Server.

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:17 +0000

Body:

Now that reports are starting to come in as to the specifications of Windows Home Server PCs it is apparent that OEMs are missing the point.

Every device that I have seen so far comes with one hard drive and usually options for a bigger one (take the Tranquil PC offering).

Why only one by default? Why offer a bigger drive instead of two drives?

Part of the beauty of Windows Home Server is it’s data handling. Build a WHS box with more than one drive in and your shared folders will be replicated much like RAID mirroring - with only one hard drive you have no redundancy.

Admittedly, you can add extra storage without having to open your server by using external hard drives but a WHS box is designed to be a small or slimline unit taking up as little room as possible (like a Media Center PC) so that it can be tucked away and be unobtrusive.

Also, a consumer is not going to want to buy a unit if they then need to buy extra bits just to take full advantage of all it’s features. WHS is supposed to take the fear out of losing your data - if anything happens to the hard drive in your Home Server then you’ve had it, at least with folder duplication you’ve got the extra security that Home Server offers.

Do the OEMs argue that installing two hard drives OOTB will add on extra cost making consumers less likely to buy them? It will work out cheaper to buy a system with an extra drive installed by the OEM than it will to buy the system itself and then a second drive from elsewhere.

Am I just being too fussy here?

UPDATE: the HP MediaSmart server has got it right in it’s 1TB model which comes with 2 x 500GB drives but NOT in the base 500MB model.

Category: Windows Home Server

Published: 22/08/2007 18:08

# Comments: 2

Tags: Windows Home Server

Michael Gartenberg agrees about WHS marketing.

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:16:09 +0000

Body:

Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research agrees that Windows Home Server needs to be marketed correctly in order for it to be the successful product that it should be.

In his post he states:

"The message is mixed. Is this about NAS? Backup? Remote Access? Nope, it’s all of the above. It’s going to be a challenge to get the message out about this. Where does this go in the retail channel? next to PCs? In the storage aisle? the networking aisle?"

His conclusion is that it should definitely go next to the PCs. Let’s face it, it’s meant for HOME users - hence the name - and the average home user is only concerned about their PC and don’t want any further complication.

Just as with Tablet PCs and UMPCs, Michael recognises that for marketing to be successful it MUST be a joint operation between Microsoft and its OEM partners.

Category: Windows Home Server

Published: 22/08/2007 20:46

# Comments: 0

Tags: Windows Home Server, Marketing

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:53 +0000

Dept. of Memes

Best lolcats EVER:

I fail to understand OEMs sometimes.

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:52 +0000

Body:

We have been looking for a cheap laptop for the kids to use now that they are getting a bit older. We don’t want anything too flash just enough for them to get on with some school work etc. - as long as it’s got built in WiFi we’re pretty happy (try finding one that hasn’t these days).

Now, all the laptops we have been looking at ship with one version of Windows Vista or another (Home Basic or Home Premium) and I think everyone agrees that the best way to get any kind of decent performance from Vista - especially on cheaper hardware - is to put in some more RAM. So why is it that so many OEMs still insist on shipping machines with only 512MB of RAM? And even worse are those with onboard graphics that take some of this leaving you with even less!

512MB may be the minimum spec for Vista but it’s going to run like the proverbial dog. It costs OEMs absolute peanuts to supply you with 1GB instead, without it you are just going to get a bad impression of the hardware, Vista or both.

Category: Vista

Published: 22/08/2007 11:55

# Comments: 0

Tags: Vista, Hardware

ATI Radeon HD 2×00 vs GeForce 8600

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:52 +0000

Situace na trhu s grafickými čipy je tradičně poněkud napjatá. Stále pokračuje nekonečný boj mezi dvěma hlavními hráči ATI/AMD a nVIDIA. V recenzi se podíváme na několik zástupců nižší a střední třídy.

Cold-Fusion Graybeards Keep the Research Coming

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:51 +0000

Despite a dearth of funding and a plethora of derision from other scientists and the public, cold-fusion scientists continue to publish papers. An MIT gathering creates a forum to renew the discussion.

Rip-off blogs.

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:48 +0000

Body:

Don’t you just hate them? Those blogs that just take stuff from RSS feeds and recycle them completely with no indication of the original source!

Take the "Tatum and Denim blog" for example. At a quick glance I can see my own posts and those from jkOnTheRun, Warner Crocker, Craig Pringle and others with no links back to the author or even a list of blogs they use for content.

OK, so it’s nice to think that someone wants to include my stuff in their list but credit where it’s due folks!

Category: Blog

Published: 22/08/2007 11:09

# Comments: 2

Tags: Blog

Sharp představuje ultratenké LCD TV

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:48 +0000

Společnosti zabývající se produkcí LCD TV se snaží v poslední době zmenšovat tloušťku svých modelů. Samozřejmě, jde o reakci na požadavky uživatelů. Firma Sharp je důležitým hráčem na poli zobrazovací techniky, a proto musí také reagovat na situaci na trhu. Její doposud nejtenčí displej má tloušťku 29mm. Nejnovější model by měl být ještě tenčí.

Aug. 22, 565: ‘What’s That Loglike Thingie Out in Loch Ness?’

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:47 +0000

A medieval monk makes the first sighting of what we now know, fondly, as the Loch Ness monster. Och, laddie, are ye daft?

Google Earth Looks to the Stars

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:27 +0000

The new Sky upgrade to the service lets users scan the cosmos as well as our own planet.

In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens (Miguel Helft/New York Times)

h7vg.newpc.cz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:09 +0000

In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens — After turning millions of Internet users into virtual explorers of the world with Google Earth, the Internet search giant is now hoping to turn many of them into virtual stargazers. — Google is unveiling within Google Earth today …

Source: New York Times

Author: Miguel Helft

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/technology/22sky…

Tatum and Denim blog

Skype, SameTime & Notes for collaboration

Windows Vista Search Whitepaper

New NASA Honcho Lays Out Bold Direction for Space Science

Aug. 23, 1899: First Ship-to-Shore Signal to a U.S. Station

OEMs missing the point with Windows Home Server.

Michael Gartenberg agrees about WHS marketing.

I fail to understand OEMs sometimes.

ATI Radeon HD 2×00 vs GeForce 8600

Cold-Fusion Graybeards Keep the Research Coming

Rip-off blogs.

Sharp představuje ultratenké LCD TV

Aug. 22, 565: ‘What’s That Loglike Thingie Out in Loch Ness?’

Google Earth Looks to the Stars

In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens (Miguel Helft/New York Times)

Dell’s Consumer Focus Hits Snags (Wall Street Journal)

TD Ameritrade In Merger Talks With E*Trade (Wall Street Journal)

Google now zaps faces, license plates on Map Street View (Elinor Mills/CNET News.com)

Analyzing YouTube’s Revenue Potential UPDATED (Henry Blodget/Silicon Alley Insider)

Already, Apple Sells Refurbished iPhones (John Markoff/New York Times)

Eight great, simple ways to hack the Web (Scott Spanbauer/Computerworld)

My, what a friendly ad - Is Larry Page now writing headlines for CNET? (Nick/Rough Type)

Surprise Surprise…TV Viewing Is Declining (Om Malik/NewTeeVee)

AMD’s Henri Richard to step down (Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

Recent Posts from Techmeme’s Sponsors

Sky: The final frontier (Lior Ron/Google LatLong)

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Apple’s surprise weapon: Computers (Brent Schlender/Fortune)

Google CEO says mobile auction bid still probable (Diane Bartz/Reuters)

Dr.byt 2+1, Karviná, ul.Divišova - 760 000

Firms, investors tend to prosper with founders at the helm (USA Today)

Troubled times for home networks (Mark Ward/BBC)

How Grey Is Your Valley: Making Money From Open Source (Duncan Riley/TechCrunch)

Hitchhikers Guide to Google Sky (Tom Spring/PC World)

Turn PS3 into a digital personal video recorder and record programmes … (scee.presscentre.com)

Stavební pozemek Horní Domaslavice - 300

AMD VP Henri Richard resigns (Willy Deeplung/HEXUS.net)

New ads jar some YouTube fans (Greg Sandoval/CNET News.com)

Google Earth Goes Beyond the Sky (Arnold Zafra/Search Engine Journal)

Google says mobile usage has surged this summer (Eric Auchard/Reuters)