Category: technology

I only have two things to ask of Mr Jobs for August. This developer conference I would like you to unveil, with a flourish, if you please…

1. Some really galactic improvements to iChat. I'm sick and tired of running Skype and Adium (connected to MSN and AOL/ICQ/.Mac). Give me some cross-network compatibility and some good 'ol calling facilities so I can dial people's real phone numbers. Then I can chuck Skype with its kludgy heavy interface, 1980s style walled garden and closed interface.

2. A nice little refresh of the MacBook Pro – nothing huge, just some additional processor oomph and fixes for those Rev A niggles. Then I'll bite.

Thank you.

PS. I know lots of people are whining about iPod updates, but I'm real happy with my old one. You know until we can actually download TV shows from the UK iTunes store you're not going to sell me a video iPod.

I've been trialling OpenDNS for the past week and I've been very impressed.

What do they do? They offer DNS servers which provide added value compared to the bog-standard ones your ISP provides.

They make three claims at the moment:

• Safer
  OpenDNS block known phishing sites at the DNS level – thus their protection is operating system and software independent hence providing additional security on top of anything else you already have in place. Personally I'm not a big phishing site clicker but this is an excellent feature. If you have a fixed IP address you can turn this feature off.

• Faster There's no doubt that slow and poorly configured DNS services create a slow Internet experience. openDNS does a bunch of things to make their service faster. I've noticed a slight boost but I expect more when they open up in London. (Currently they're in Seattle, Palo Alto, New York and Washington,DC with Chicago, London and Hong Kong all billed as coming soon).

• Smarter Common spelling mistakes are corrected on the fly taking you to the correct website most of the time. This has have been useful to me numerous times this week already. If you have a fixed IP address you can turn this feature off – especially useful if you do some funky spam filtering using real time blacklists.

Plus this service is completely free and there's no lock-in or hassle. You can start or stop using it any time. They make money by showing some ads on a page if they can't find a server to send you to – such as if you type in a really badly mispelled address or a non-existent server name. Seems fair enough to me.

These guys deserve to succeed… It's a good idea well implemented and it's high time DNS got some upgrades.

It's a common temptation in many industries: completing a project, change process or innovation in one massive fell swoop, a big bang. Case history and information systems literature tend to argue strongly against big bang approaches. Yet so many decision makers are oblivious to this and continue to insist on big bang completions for their projects.

Many believe that Apple Computer also takes this kind of approach. We hear nothing about a product, we see no development roadmap and then Steve stands up and unleashes something new on the unsuspecting world. That's, if you will, a big bang-ish approach to marketing.

But when it comes to hardware and software nothing could be further than the truth. Let's look at three examples, briefly…

The iPod
The first iPod was developed and brought to market in around a year. This built off three previously cancelled MP3 player projects as well as the work Apple's suppliers such as PortalPlayer had already been developing.

Since the first iPod's launch we've seen continual software and hardware revisions driven by continuous small improvements in ease of use, storage capacity, battery life and functionality. Instead of trying to launch a player which did audio, video, radio and photos each of these features was added slowly over time only once the other features were firmly established.

Many early reviewers complained that the iPod should have video or radio but the iPod is stronger and more stable thanks to Apple's incrementalist approach.

Mac OS X
Microsoft's Vista was originally an attempt to build a complex, rich new operating system with an advanced file system, search, multimedia and much more. Most of the exciting stuff has actually been left out of Vista's launch as they just were never ready for a big bang launch. Stripping down the features means Microsoft will get something out soon.

In contrast Apple started OS X with betas and then regular major and minor releases of the system which have incrementally added modern graphics, an advanced file system, incredible search and so on.

If Apple had tried to launch the first release of OS X with Spotlight searching, Expose, Automator, the new Finder and so on they would never have got it out (and their market would have shrivelled away while waiting).

So while we don't get everything we want straight away, at least we got solid features which can be iteratively built upon.

Mac on Intel
I don't think Apple have been given enough credit for the huge transition they've so successfully set upon. This success can be directly attributed to a sensible iterative process.

Rather than bursting onto the scene with a new product/platform on a new chipset Apple have very sensibly first got existing products working with Intel chips. The very first system the public got to experience was the developer machine – a PowerMac G5 with an Intel chip in there.

Now we've got iMacs and PowerBooks (aka MacBook Pros) running on Intel. They're faster (by how much, I don't care) than the previous models and by all accounts run beautifully. The incredible Rosetta technology to support PowerPC software gets a solid set of machines to stretch its legs.

With one set of innovation done now I'm sure Apple will use the Intel chip's strengths to create whole new machine designs. But this is only possible thanks to their sensible incrementalist strategy. (A strategy which, incredibly, has taken veteran Apple watcher Jon Gruber by surprise)

Apple don't bite off more than they can chew, they focus on manageable chunks of change and innovation. Too much results in greater risk and quality declining. Apple don't believe in big bang launches and neither should you.

Comments from the previous version of this blog:

Apple will eat away at Microsoft

…..continually and continually. With the advent of Mac OS X on Intel the Mac will now survive Steve Jobs. Also the Mac will be hacked at some point perhaps soon so that it can run on generic boxes. Apple cannot affect this also but they may choose to accept that they will lose some models to hackers. What will be different is that legal entities are in place so that anyone cannot SELL cloned Mac white boxes. You will be able to build one for yourself, and you may, but Apple will still be in the driver’s seat, thus the “hacker” approach will also help fuel Apple’s growth, and there is no downside here, unless you are Bill Gates and are faced with the company you built up go down the tubes eventually as your operating system is so flawed as to be dangerous. Vista already has viruses out there written for it.
23:30:46 GMT 21-01-2006 Christopher J Smith

Hacking OS X for your box

There’s certainly a small community who find it an attractive idea to run multiple operating systems on one box and more power to them. You’re right, they’ll do it themselves and help spread the Mac word. Legally nobody will be able to package and sell their work so Apple is safe.

I think consumers don’t really care that much about which OS they use and this whole talk of Apple breaking through only if they allow dual booting to Windows is just techie journalist rubbish.

Some corporate IS managers probably like the idea of Windows programs running on more reliable Mac boxes but with Windows comes unreliability. The whole Mac proposition and quality differential comes from integration.

Sure Apple are scary to some by providing the whole shebang – hardware & software. But most people buy all BMW or all Ford when they get a car. I’m not worried and I really don’t think the switch to Intel is that big a deal (now I got over the shock). I think the Intel switch is a great innovation case study though and I’m fascinated to see how their Media Centre-type strategy plays out (for want of a better term).
16:18:43 GMT 25-01-2006 Jason Kitcat

I certainly didn't expect my wish for a faster PowerBook to come so soon.

Ok it's called MacBook Pro (which doesn't have quite the same ring to it as PowerBook had) but it's fast and the FireWire ports stayed put (sorta).

Some notes: * I am irked by the loss of the FireWire 800 port as I just love my LaCie FireWire 800 disk and was about to buy a 500Gb one. I hope they at least create an ExpressCard with FireWire 800.

• I'm not bothered by the loss of PC Card as it's a flipping ancient standard.

• Also not bothered by slower DVD burn speed, that's hardly the slowest thing in the process when creating video.

• I was really bugged by the loss of an old-fashioned dial-up modem. At first I just thought it undermined the roadwarrior nature of the machine. But then I had a think and realised I haven't used a dial-up modem in a year and a half so I certainly can live without one. Of course as someone who was heavily into the BBS scene and ran my own BBS I'm nostalgic to lose the modem and the lovely sounds of the connection negotiation. But that's life, constant change.

Have I ordered one? Not yet, I'm probably going to give it 3-4 months. As much of my most used software – Mailsmith, Fireworks, Office, Skype etc is not universal yet, there's no point rushing and who knows what other goodies are in the pipeline…?

P.S. I'm also holding off the iLife / iWork updates not because I don't want them but because my hard disk is nearly full and there's no point replacing if I'm trading up in 3 months.

The snow and the vodka of Christmas in Poland are but a distant memory now.

I'm knee deep in one of the banes of my professional life: Islands of information.

Years ago we produced a detailed Flash presentation explaining how large companies suffer when their data is stranded in islands of information created by the different software used by various corporate functions such as accounting, stock control, marketing, payroll and so on. Our client was a leading ERP supplier for the construction industry – their message was all about switching to a single integrated system. Despite spending a huge amount of time on this presentation never once did we think the islands of information would be an issue for us and our school clients. (The presentation is still online here [3.3Mb Flash])

Every week I'm presented with a new format for storing alumni, parent, pupil and teacher data. Naturally every vendor has designed their database in a unique way and, if they provide an export feature at all, outputs in their own special layout of columns and rows. Some don't believe in normalisation so you end up with three people per row. Others believe in such levels of customisability it's impossible to create a re-usable tool.

Of course our system uses its own unique data structure too, though it's fully normalised. Which is great apart from when I need to normalise 7,000 rows from someone else's program into 21,000 rows for our system. Dates are a horror too, some use yyyy-mm-dd or dd/mm/yyyy whilst others have a separate column for each portion of the date. sigh

Data conversion and transposition tools aren't new and the problem we face every week isn't new. And that's probably the most depressing thing. We've come so far in so many ways yet when it comes to representing people systems are continuously re-inventing the wheel. There are too many standards floating around to define people and their relationships to each other – the result being that none have been settled on.

If everybody could export and import vCard (or whatever I'm not arguing for any standard here, just a standard) life would be a breeze.

Instead I'm left to keep tweaking our command-line Java tool for data conversion. Because while mapping one field in one database to a different field in another is easy, it's the little yet big problems of normalisation and data formats that take a human to mess up and hence sort out.

Barry Wellman's short Communications of the ACM article on the development of online communities over the past 3 decades leaves you with a warm feeling.

Why? Because he concludes that while ICTs have changed the nature of our communities to more specialised, less-geographically based relationships overall our human contact isn't suffering. Our social networks are filling the gaps between face-to-face interactions and not taking away from them… Our networks are becoming ever more interlinked and much more person-to-person, so less place or institutionally based.

We're in the midst in some major shifts in the way social interactions and connections work. I've no idea where we're headed! Exciting.

The other night my wife's mobile beeped and vibrated as two SMS text messages barged into her phone at 4am. We were both delighted seeing as the phone was on the bedside table, waking us both. The next morning she checked and saw two lovely spam messages.

Hence the past hour or so spent trying to stop it from happening again. We're both with T-Mobile and they're call centre staff are usually quite helpful so I gave them ring. After faffing through the menus (joy) I got through to a human who told me one thing several times “There's nothing we can do about spam.” Right, thanks buddy.

He was nice and friendly as he said it. But still he could have said “Have you tried registering with x” or “If the spam persists report it to our unsolicited messages team” or “Your phone has a feature to block certain numbers” or even “If you pay us we can block it.” But no, nothing, zip, nada. Not interested.

So, as always, I went online and started by searching all of the barely usable T-Mobile UK site for 'spam' or 'unsolicited' which resulted in… nothing. With lots of fiddling, opening the site in Firefox and Safari eventually I found “Unfortunately, it's not yet possible to bar incoming text messages.” Great.

So after lots of Googling the best I can do, it would seem, is register our numbers with the Telephone Preference Service which may do the job. Let's face it, the network operators profit from every SMS message sent, so why stop the little money makers?

The information I've found has been sketchy and contradictory but I believe there is EU legislation pending to try and cut down on SMS spam. It's dependent on how each country implements it though… I think we're yet to see the UK version. I hope in the future phones will offer filters for this kinds of thing while the spammers themselves get thwacked by the authorities. Hopefully, maybe?

I'll let you know if we get less SMS spam too…

The Others

In the interests of completeness I then had to go and check out the other phone networks. So in descending order of patheticness here's my findings:

Vodafone have a VSPAM service which seems fairly pro-active. Any message sent to the VSPAM service is going to be blocked, they imply. If an 090 number is in the spam they also pass the spam to the appropriate regulator.
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_MainContent&pageID=AV_0054

Orange aren't exactly spectacular in their help but they do offer useful tips and advice online. They also implicity do something about spam as they encourage users to forward spam messages to a special short code number. Still they don't do Blackberries so not much good for me.
http://www.orange.co.uk/about/contact/spam/

I finally cracked O2's dreadful site with an advanced Google search which showed one page just telling people to report messages to the premium number regulator ICSTIS. Not helpful or proactive at all. http://www.o2.co.uk/help/spam_advice/0,,500,00.html

I could find nothing at all about spam from 3.

SMS Spam Links

43% of text messages in the US are now spam according to Wireless Services Corporation.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60404039

Text spam complaints skyrocket in South Korea.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000520024878/

Children burned by SMS Spam on the CBBC Newsround site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/chat/your_comments/newsid_2450000/2450311.stm

Legal moves to stop SMS spam around the world…
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61226,00.html

Excellent overall guide to SMS Spam.
http://www.wiredsafety.org/gb/law/spam/sms_spam.html

Across the communities we run at Swing Digital we've started tracking how often each field is changed in our members' profiles. It's proven to be an interesting exercise…

Across all our sites one field is the top or near the top of the most changed fields: email address.

Now I'm clearly not usual as I've had the same personal email address for around 10-11 years. I've got some other addresses in addition to that as time has passed, from my universities and work, but for most things I've registered with this one address. It's been a continuous thread for my online identity, but it would seem that this isn't the case for the membership of our clients' organisations.

People log on to the sites with their email address which perhaps helps them to be aware of when they need to change their address. Still members are actively changing their email addresses really often.

I wonder, is this due to the disposability of Hotmail and Yahoo addresses or just that people move jobs so often? Share your comments and experiences.

Comments from the previous version of this blog:

Spam
Need I say more?
15:42:18 GMT 28-10-2005 lee

Tinned Meat
Does spam *really* force people to change their email addresses so often? I always saw changing address as a short term fix only, seeing as so many spams just seem to try any and all addresses at every domain name they can lay their hands on.
Perhaps not. Before SpamSieve and SpamAssassin (yes it takes both) I was struggling with spam too…
19:16:09 GMT 28-10-2005 Jason Kitcat

not everyone is aware
My experience is that the average, who seem to compromise the majority, of internet users still don’t really know that much about spam and it’s prevention. I too have had the same personal (ISP provided) email for a several years, I haven’t changed it since I last changed ISPs and wont change it unless I change ISP again. I also have a ‘trash’ email which I do use if ever I need to enter details anywyhere that I think may be a bit risky (and yes I have ‘fun’ email addresses for when I feel like using them)- but it’s only ever needed to be changed once. So many internet users I come across though go around entering their email address willy nilly in any box that asks for it, posting it on public forums and handing it out to all and sundry – then they wonder why they need to change it.
00:33:54 GMT 01-11-2005 manny

It wasn't my intention but I ended up being an early adopter of the new Linksys Modem Router. So I thought perhaps a review would be of benefit to others.

In the past few years I've been through ADSL modems from BT, Binatone, D-Link, Hermstedt and Netgear. The BT one was like a rock, but I couldn't reconfigure it when I moved. The Netgear one was okay but I asked a lot of it and I ran into some firmware issues which wouldn't bother most, same for the D-Link but it was a little less user-friendly than the Netgear. The others aren't worth discussing.

Through this modem orgy I stuck by my Apple Airport Extreme basestation (sans modem or aerial port) and it coped fairly well. The administration software is lovely, the USB printer sharing is fabulous and of course it looks nice. But range and performance is pretty uninspiring, especially if you allow for 802.11b and 802.11g clients.

With my recent move the Airport was just not reaching all corners of the house and garden, modest as they are. I also was tired of the occasional game of reset the routers when one began to diagree with the other, or something, I couldn't be bothered to diagnose the issue hence my fiendish use of an unbent paperclip on the reset buttons.

So I warmed up Google and set about finding an all-in-one ADSL modem and Wireless router which was going to be stable, fast, secure and easy to configure for my occassionally demanding needs. It was harder than I thought it might be – really high-end stuff like the Proxim ORiNOCO AP-700 (for Xmas please!) assumes a big corporate network so have no ADSL functionality. At the other end loads of no-name boxes have minimal reliability thanks to their absurdly low pricing.

To cut a long story short I found out about the WAG54GX2 which wasn't actually showing on the UK Linksys site but I tracked it down on the oddly named NickKnows.com for an excellent price and had the box in my hands in no time.

Let's manage expectations here – it's not like taking an iPod out of its box, but nevertheless the out-of-box experience was pretty darn good. I was up and running in no time, once I read the help to understand the different terminology Linksys use compared to other vendors. The configuration interface is sensible and filled with piles of useful and intelligent options. The two aerials for MIMO (basically more speed, more range) are not precisely attractive, but who cares – I've been using this baby a week or two and it's been rock-solid reliable and fierce fast.

Here's my signal-strength test data collected using a 15″ PowerBook with an built-in Airport Extreme card with iStumbler's signal readout…

	Apple Airport	Linksys WAG54GX2
Study	19-33	37-49
Lounge	39-42	46-55
Garden steps	21-28	19-27
Hammock at end of garden	0	8-23

Quite a difference… I can actually surf from the hammock – bliss.

The only problem I can report is that the router's DMZ option doesn't seem to be honoured, so that if you set an IP address to be in the DMZ it should be fully accessible to the outside world but it isn't. I got around this using the port-forwarding options, more fiddly but good enough. I really couldn't recommend this box enough, it's the best I've found anywhere

Yikes, this is cool. There's gonna be some serious validation of Brighton's webbiness with the ultra-web 2.0 mini-conference d.construct on 11th November.

It's being organised by some CSS gurus and Cory Doctorow is speaking, what on earth else could you want from a tech event?

I'm going to have to change a flight to Marseilles to get to this, so if everyone snaffles the limited 100 tickets before I get one, I'll be peeved…