james kahn's scratchpad
a blog on technology – cloud computing, software and strategy

After upgrading from an iPhone 3G:

• Wow, this thing is fast.  Navigation, apps, typing.
• Autofocus camera is very cool.
• Video recording is even cooler.  And the quality is very, very good.  Much better than I expected.
• Voice control surprised me by working exactly as expected on first go.  The second and third weren’t quite as expected, but I think that’s because of the strange name of the playlist I was trying to play – “The Iron Game”.  Playing different artists and playlists worked great.

Edit: Voice Control actually really sucks.  I can’t see myself using this.  It only does what I expect around 25% of the time.

First, the application ran on a computer, isolated.

Second, the application ran on a computer, had its back end on a server and information was shared.

Then the application ran on as a web page, on a server.

What’s next?  The application runs on the cloud.

So is the cloud an evolution of the second phase of the application’s evolution, or the third phase?  Is the cloud a collection of resources or is the cloud a way an application behaves?

Google is betting one way.  VMware the other.

Huge, complicated software products often tout having a single admin console as a benefit.  Sounds great, and the marketing makes it sound good.

Think about this for a minute: Do you use the same application to write documents as to build spreadsheets?  Do you work with your email from your FTP client?

Specific tasks call for specific applications or UIs.  There is no extra benefit to having a single console for multiple products over single purpose consoles with solutions that integrate on the back end.

Of course, the counterpart of this is having multiple consoles for the same product (as those familiar with Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 would be familar with) – that’s just plain wrong.

As far as software goes, I’ve been thinking about how IT choose tools to use in their environment – whether backup, security, application delivery or email.

After checking which software ticks the boxes, there should be another major factor in the decision: How long will it take before we can use this?  In other words, what is our time to benefit? The time to benefit can have a very significant impact on the ultimate ROI of a solution, even if specific figures are difficult to measure.

If one option requires that you send each administrator that will be looking after it on a week long training course; whereas the other option can be installed and in use in under an hour, clearly the easier to use software is better in this regard.

I have a Dell M1330, which has generally been a great little laptop (aside from the nVidia graphics card blowing up one day).

Now at not quite 13 months of age the battery is pretty much dead.  Kaput.  Goneski.  What used to be 3 – 4 hours of wireless productivity has shrunk to less than one, and is getting less by the day.

I’ve ordered a new battery – luckily, work gets to pay for it, as it’s a work machine – but I’ve got to say I’m a little disappointed.  My old Dell Inspiron 6000 is still going strong with a couple of hours of battery life and it’s approaching four years old.

Makes me want one of those new Macbook Pro’s.  Seven hours of wireless productivity and five year battery life?  Yes please.