Web 2.0

I've been taking a look at the wonderful apps surfacing from Demo 08, and I can only say I'm impressed.  I'm not even sure it's really Web 2.0 anymore, as perhaps we're really starting to get into the Web+ realm.  I mean, in my mind, Web 2.0 was really limited to all the cool things people suddenly realised you could do with browsers, using technology that was old but suddenly had a cool new name - AJAX. 

All the apps appearing now seem to be RIAs - Rich Internet Applications.  And while you could probably build a RIA using AJAX, and do a pretty good job of it, the REALLY cool boys use AIR or Silverlight.

If you're not familiar with these, both technologies provide a cross browser / cross platform runtime - that enables rich applications to run inside the browser.  The cool thing about these runtimes are that they abstract the differences between browser implementations, so that we finally truly have a write once, run everywhere world.  Remember that - Sun promised that with Java back in '97....

So, what makes these new kids so cool?

Well - for a start - we're talking rich media - video and vector graphics in a very lightweight runtime.  Performance tends to be excellent.  On the Silverlight side, developers have access to a subset of Windows Presentation Foundation (a fairly large subset), but without the overhead of the massive .Net runtime.  This makes it an extremely compelling environment to create business applications in.  Not only do you have a very rich presentation mechanism without the overhead of coding to a large number of different browsers - you can deploy these apps to any OS (Apple, Microsoft or Linux) without any additional work!

Sounds too good to be true?  It might, and there are obviously some details I'm not mentioning here.  However, to whet your appetites, you should have a look at:

Buzzword - a truly cool word processor,

Blist - an online database that's excellent, and 

JournalSample - an demo of some Silverlight abilities

Both platforms are new, but already there's a large number of developers following each camp.  As users, we get to benefit as the applications created with these tools will surely enrich the Web.

So, is this Web2.0, or is it Web+ ?

I think - as we haven't had another crash yet, we should probably stick to Web 2.0 :)

Over the next few weeks I'll focus on these in a bit more detail.  Specifically, Microsoft is gearing up to the next release of Silverlight, which will be announced at Mix'08 in early March.

Keep watching.

Mmmmm - Microsoft delays some products again, while some products released earlier

Well, the news that SQL Server 2008 has been delayed should probably not have taken me by too much surprise, as I haven't received any great degree of confidence from Microsoft that the release date was set for Q2, and there wasn't even a beta in sight!  The publicly available CTP has not so far even been feature complete - so it looks like there's still a lot of work to do.

This is not necessarily a problem.  As a database platform, we expect this to be VERY solid once it does ship, so I prefer them to take the time to make sure it works before releasing it.  The constant focus on trying to line up the release with the large February release party for Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, probably driven by marketing, is what really let this one down.

In fact, over the years, Microsoft has a lot to complain about when it reviews it's marketing efforts.  Just look at the chaos confusion that surrounded the .Net release.  no one could figure out what it was at the time.  In fact, I'm still trying to explain it to some colleagues.

It's a shame though, as I've been harbouring a secret hope that the improvements I've seen around the VS2008 release (coming out slightly earlier that expected, and being considered a VERY solid release all round) would be visible in the other products too.  Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case for release schedules, though the quality of the other products should be excellent.

More info here.

Potential long term memory improvement discovered accidentally

Researchers at Toronto Western Hospital, Ontario, have accidentally discovered areas of the brain that produces vivid recollection of events happening more than 30 years ago.

The discovery occurred while they were treating a patient for morbid obesity, and trying to identify potential appetite suppressant sites in the hypothalamus by stimulating the electrodes that had been implanted there.  The patient suddenly reported vivid images of 'deja vu', describing scenes of himself with a group of friends in a park, an event that had taken place when he was about 20.  As the stimulation increased, the detail of the recollection increased.  These sensations were later replicated in a double blind study.

In ongoing treatment after the patient was released from hospital, they found that continuing stimulation of the area improved the patient's learning ability and the ability to remember unrelated paired objects.

The full results will be published in Annals of Neurology in the January 2008 issue.

Another step forward in understanding the complex machine we all depend on.  It will be interesting to see if this 'stimulation' can possibly be produced by a drug of some sort, as that will have a massive improvement on a large number of people's lives.  Not only improving life for aging individuals, but certainly allowing everyone to improve studying, researching, knowledge gathering etc.

We could all become sources of millions of useless facts :)

More here.

Lego - 50 Years old

Can you believe that the not-so-humble Lego brick was 50 years old on Monday?  The anniversary is defined by the date 50 years ago when the patent on the brick was granted.

Growing up, I have to say I spent many a happy hour playing with Lego's and you can still find the odd bionicle on various desks of mine.

The big move ahead is of course robotics, and this has made Lego a continued favourite of even jaded players like yours truly :)  Now you can create your own Aibo!

Here's to wishing Lego another 50 years of success and enriching the minds of our kids!

Brave new world

The breakthrough work done by Craig Venter and his team that takes the second step to creating synthetic life is truly amazing.  Never before have we been so close to radical change in the way we live, work and interact with our environment.  The potential for this research to be used for everything from cleaning up the planet to replacing fossil fuels to curing disease should not be underestimated.

As with every new development, there are a number of critics, all claiming that he's trying to play god, setting up an environment in which a madman will be able to use the technology for evil etc.  This will inevitably happen whenever something new and different comes along. 

Generally, scientists working with DNA synthesis liken the progress of work to that of computer chips, with cost falling swiftly while capability escalates.  One of the main potential benefits from this research, would be to identify the building blocks required for life.  The genome they've used for the experiment has only 485 genes, the smallest number for a known living organism.  They think that some of these are unnecessary for life, but don't know which ones.  The synthetic living organism will allow them to experiment with these genes and so discover the most basic building blocks of life.

The final, and most challenging step in creating synthetic life, is to insert the artificially created chromosome into a living microbe, and have it take over the organisms functioning, and be capable of self-replicating.  The team believe that this goal is within their reach in the coming year.

The website for his research institute states:

"Synthetically produced organisms with reduced or reoriented metabolic needs will enable new, powerful and more direct methods of bio-engineered industrial production. We believe that a synthetic chromosome, and eventually a synthetic cell, will become an integral tool for the energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries."

More info on the current work can be found in the published paper here, or for the less technically minded, here.

Worthy goals.  We'll have to keep watching...

Wow

This is indeed a remarkable product.  Surf on over to skyfire to get more detail, but basically we have a mobile browser that does everything your PC browser does.  That includes flash, video and presumably javascript.  Not sure if Silverlight will work but I guess it will, as it seems to translate everything before it hits the client.  I can't test it out yet as the private beta is US only for now - but the video below is VERY impressive.

If you're in the US you can sign up for the beta, but the rest of us will have to wait a little while longer...

Catching up

You know, however much you try to keep up with everything happening around you, sometimes it's just not feasible to blog everyday.  That's what happened yesterday, and so I've missed my first day.  I trust this won't happen too often, but only time will tell.  There are at least 3 stories that need to be put up here, but having a family, a day job and at least one private software project on the go makes it tricky at the best of times to be as responsive as I would like to be.

It should be noted that my intention is not really to bring you the 'latest gadgets' or review new products before anyone else gets their grubby mitts on them, but rather to provide an overview of events, products, technologies and discoveries in a more leisurely fashion.  In these overviews I hope to specifically focus on how these will impact on our lives, and note some potential product improvements along the way. 

These may sound like lofty goals, but I believe that improvements can be achieved in almost anything, and for the most part even small changes will have a large positive impact.  Only time will tell if this view is correct.

As there's no specific picture to go with this story, I've provided a link to the the EarthShots photo of the day - that shows some beautiful images from around the globe on a daily basis.

EarthShots.org

Monday's Shot

MacBook Air

Engadget has plenty of good to say about the McAir, with the main gripe being the non-replaceable battery.  Still, the McAir comes off as a beautiful machine that should suit a large number of users.  Whether it will become the iPod of laptops as they suggest, we can only wait and see.

The main missing ingredient to all these reviews, is that we still don't have any info showing the performance and battery life of the SSD version.

We're waiting with bated breath...

The full review can be found here.

Xbox Profits !!!!!

How about that?  The Xbox division has finally turned a profit, after spending billions on resolving quality problems.  This is indeed a milestone worth mentioning for Microsoft, as it's taken 7 years to get here, with the original Xbox launching in 2001.

Of course, the fact that they shipped earlier than Sony, and by now have significantly cheaper manufacturing costs helps a lot toward this.

And then there was (is) Halo 3, which holds the record for the highest grossing opening day in entertainment history.  US $170 million in the first 24 hours!  I find it incredible that gaming, which is still not really considered a mainstream activity, can generate that amount of revenue.  The future is surely bright for everyone in this industry.

Bungie, makers of Halo, have parted ways with Microsoft now, but the success of the game should continue to enable Microsoft to capitalise on the Xbox platform, and of course the next-generation Xbox should be the one REALLY worth waiting for.  That is, if you take the traditional view that Microsoft doesn't get it right till the 3rd release...

Well done Microsoft!  Now let's hope the next Zune can be as successful as the 360.

SKY+ software still bad after years...

One of the things I've always found amazing, is how people will put up with mediocrity or just plain terrible experiences when they're not aware of anything better.  SKY+ is one of these. 

Sure, it's a hard disk recorder, allows recording more than one program at a time, has on-screen program listing, improves on the old VCR experience by so much it's very hard not to love it once you've tried it, but.........

I used to live in the 'states, and had a Tivo.  This was 5 years ago, and even then, the software on that Tivo v1 box was SOOOOOO much better than the stuff on the SKY+ box today.  What's even worse, is that there's no indication that SKY is taking any steps to improve this situation.  The new HD box is no better, as it has essentially the same UI.  Geez, maybe we should ask Steve & Co to design us a proper set top box...

A few examples:

• This thing is a computer right?  Runs some version of Java presumably. So how come it get's 'confused' at times?  Quite often, looking at the info for a recorded program, I get a description for something entirely different.  Like getting a description of a recent CSI episode when you click info for Desperate housewives
• Once again, as a computer (and hopefully someone is thinking about the code behind this), how can programs EVER clash?  Sometimes when I try to record 3 programs at the same time, I get a warning.  Other times, it seems to decide I don't need the warning, and it will decide to stop recording a random program and later give me the helpful message 'recording clashed'.
• If you see an ad for a program that will air later in the week (but you can't remember which day), and you want to search by name, you're out of luck, as the stupid software will not search alphabetically more than 2 days in advance!
• On top of that, the alphabetic search screens shows EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE of every program. so you'll see an entire page of star trek, or something equally dumb, because the designers haven't figured out how a treeview control works. 
• And of course, you cannot type more than the first letter for a program, so you have to page through all these listings to find (or not, if it's more than 2 days off) what you're looking for.
• And then - series link breaks when there's a break in the series.  When the American shows stop for election week or sweeps week or Thanksgiving or any of the other reasons they may skip an episode, you have to trust that you will remember to reset the link yourself!

Funny thing, my Tivo box solved all these problems beautifully, and as I said, that was 5 years ago.  Surely, someone should be able to improve on the code in the SKY box.

Sadly, I don't think anyone cares, as SKY doesn't have any competition out here - so why should they pay engineers to fix the lousy user experience?

MacBook Air Reviews

Reviews for the McAir are starting to pop up, with my favorite quote so far from Walt Mossberg, the Wall Street Journal's respected technology / gadget columnist.  He says:

"It's impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand. It's so svelte when closed that it's a real shock to discover the big screen and keyboard inside."

He does go on to mention some of the compromises made by Steve & Co to produce this small wonder, but that will only put off certain classes of users.  He mentions frequent travellers as an example, but the main problem he sites is the lack of a replaceable battery.  Surely it must be possible to have an external battery working through the MagSafe connector?  That will solve that problem.

Additionally, I really don't use the optical drive on my notebook (a hefty Dell XPS) very often, and would happily go without.  Al programs I need are available on the network / web.

The key figures I'm waiting for though, are benchmarks that show the battery life improvement and performance improvement of using the SSD (solid-state drive).  The lack of moving parts should help the battery, and seek / load times should be faster, but no info has been released yet.

Another excellent quote comes from David Pogue, occasional columnist for the New York Times.  He says:

"It's a stunningly beautiful aluminum slab, three-quarters of an inch thick. Its edges are beveled to look even thinner. When it's on a table, you might mistake this laptop for a placemat."

and

"But for anyone who shares Apple's admiration for elegance, the trade-off is worth it. This laptop's cool aluminum skin and smooth edges make it ridiculously satisfying to hold, carry, open and close. You can't take your eyes or your hands off it."

Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on one, even though I've been a long-standing Microsoft supporter.  This thing is just too darn sexy :) 

The WSJ review can be found here.

The NYT comments can be found here.

Technorati Tags: McAir,MacBook Air,MagSafe,Walt Mossberg

Virgin Galactic

Space!  The final frontier...  For those with $200K for a ticket...

That may be  a bit expensive but travelling at over 2500mph sounds really cool!  Not just that, zero gravity too.

I have to say I haven't really thought about these new spacelines before.  However, looking at these images provided by Virgin Atlantic, and reading the experience description on the website here, it certainly seems like something that would actually be worthwhile.  Now they just need to get that pricetag to a more affordable level.

Technorati Tags: Space

iPhone sales fall short of O2 target

According to FT, iPhone sales have fell short of targets for the 1st two months.  Granted, that's only by 10 000, but most people (me included), expected actual sales to be  350K - 400K.  Will this get Apple to cut the UK price?

FT.com / Home UK / UK - iPhone sales fall short of O2 target

Technorati Tags: Apple,iPhone

Zune

No doubt about it, the iPhone / iPod Touch are amazing products, and just touching one of these is enough to give you goosebumps.  The excellence of design, form and function pretty much punches you in the face, as it's impossible to miss.

Jobs & Co has once again managed to do something fantastic.  Yes, I know they've been out for a while, but the popularity of these devices keep rising.

For all of this excitement though, there's one reason I won't be getting one... NO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE!

Yep - you're expected to pay for EVERY SINGLE TRACK you download / stream from iTunes.  I just don't want to buy music that way.

With Zune Pass, you get all you can eat music for a fixed fee of $14.99.  That surpasses anything Apple has to offer at the moment, and the Zune software KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

Technorati Tags: Zune,Microsoft,Apple,iPod

BBC - iPlayer

A quick rant about iPlayer Microsoft

If you haven't used it (and you live in the UK), I suggest you check it out immediately here.  It's a great site, easy to use, VERY quick, and I would use that over the retarded inelegant SKY+ implementation any day.  The limitations of SKY+ will have to wait for a later rant.

The iPlayer streams programs / movies, so there's no download and you have pretty much instantaneous access to anything that was broadcast during the past 7 days.  This means if you missed something, forgot to set SKY+ to record it, you stupid SKY+ box just plain refused to record it, you can still watch it whenever.  Extremely useful and the wife and I often catch up on some things or sample new shows on weekend mornings before getting up.

The primary drawback of the system is that there doesn't seem to be a way for me to get the content to my television without hooking up a computer.  That just seems dumb... 

While I have Vista Ultimate running on 2 laptops which are always around, neither of these are connected to my TV.  I have an Xbox360 that we use as an extender, but that cannot stream the iPlayer streams as there's no Media Center component for it.  A quick look at the SDK, and you realise you couldn't even do it as a quick 'hosted' HTML component, as that wouldn't give you the speed, and trying to create a 'native' component will not allow you to stream these flash format files, as the 360 only streams wmv...

To me it looks like MS is missing a trick here.  Both the BBC and ITV is making all their programs for the past 7 days / month respectively available, and if I could access it natively as streams on the 360 (no long download before you start), the 360 would instantaneously become a MUCH more compelling part of most households, as it would no longer be relegated to being a 'games only' machine.  The Xbox 360 should be able to do this without acting as an extender, which would further simplify the setup in most homes.

Sure this could be implemented quite easily by some of the guys at MS, so I'm not sure what the holdup is.  perhaps they're waiting for the Silverlight release? - but I don't see that replacing the current flash implementation.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Technorati Tags: Xbox 360,Microsoft,SKY+,iPlayer

Breakfast Thoughts

Global economic meltdown....

Global warming....

Potential US recession....

The middle of winter is approaching together with the worst day of the year - 24 January - due this week. Horrible weather, debt, extra flab from Xmas (interesting that flab doesn't make it into the official formula) - all these things contribute to my outlook, but at least I've started blogging, so I can share my misery with the world!

With all of these problems, it would be nice to focus on something positive everyday. The Free Game is probably the best we can hope for today.

UPDATE:

As the Fed has just announced a 0.75% rate cut - looks like we have more good news for the day! Now just need to watch and see if that's enough.....

Here in England, the effect on the FTSE has been positive at least.

Free Game!

How about that! Microsoft is giving away a game to all XBOX Live users.

Always good in my book, though I haven't tried this title, the reviews and rankings look quite positive. I'll let you know later when I've had a chance to try it out :)

Undertow Reviews

Gaming - News - Microsoft free game giveaway 'this week' - Digital Spy

Technorati Tags: Games,Microsoft,XBOX360

Air

The McAir is certainly a dream worth talking about. I find it absolutely ludicrous that a number of idiots people on the web are complaining about it, claiming it's not useful, doesn't have enough features, not light enough etc...

Bottom line, this thing looks incredible, and it's great that someone finally decided to get rid of the optical drive. The whiners need to realise that Jobs & Co do a few things very well - and great design is one of those things.

Now, you can of course argue that the design is not all there is, or that it's not perfect for you or your needs, but face it - it will appeal to LOADS of people.

What I can't figure out, is why Steve seems to be the only one on the planet that's figured out that beautiful (useful) things will sell better than ugly things, as he keeps repeating this little trick and no-one else even comes close.

Finally

It's taken a while, and Web 2.0 is already well underway, with thousands of new startups trying to get that venture capital, and this time they presumably have business plans that are slightly better than 'We've got a great plan for a website that reminds you to buy chapstick in winter...."  - yes that was the amazing plan behind echores, though I'm not sure what happened to them.  That was back in the day - '98 I think  - and living and working in silicone alley NYC gave me access to all these wonderful ideas :)

Now things have changed, and a number of VERY LARGE COMPANIES are quite successful.  I find it interesting that some of the more promising (but over-hyped) businesses from the boom years are re-appearing, and this time round they seem to be doing quite well.  A lot of this is related to improved infrastructure and improved access for everyone, so that suddenly 'always online' apps are starting to make a lot of sense.  You have to wonder how long it will be before Sun drags out the 'Network is the computer' marketing plan....

But enough of that - the focus here is just to say I've finally started this blog, to comment on and try to improve a number of things.  Along the way I hope to make some money, and perhaps influence a few people to create those products that I've always wanted. 

That's the goal - DREAM BETTER.