My Personal Infocloud
So
I am not sure this guy needs to open that bottle of wine, but here is a nifty trick to open a wine bottle with a shoe.
I have seen this work the opposite way, where if you pound on the open neck of a bottle the bottom will come off (granted, a slightly less useful trick if you are interested in consuming the contents).
Technorati Tags: fun
So
Augmented Reality is certainly getting a great deal of attention of late, with the emphasis (quite naturally) being on delivering this capability via mobile devices. Layar is on the several companies with a mobile offering in this area. Pity it is currently only available for Android based phones.
Technorati Tags: ideas, innovation, interfaces, mobile, android, augmentedreality
So
Google this week added some translation and other language functions into their online spreadsheet offering. The functions allow you to enter a formula that will translate text or detect the language text is written in.
Surely a score for localizing docs of all sorts as this type of function expands across the other Google Docs offerings.
Technorati Tags: google, googledocs, webtools
So
I thought this was an interesting clip showing a smartphone UI 'concept' that “Puts the 'Friend' in User-Friendly”.
Though the implementation has a slightly too childish feel to appeal to many potential users, it does expose the current crop of Apple, Palm, Nokia and Android UIs as catering to the look-and-feel of glossy futuristic, nay sci-fi-esque gadgets. And while that's resulted in some sleek technology, it may be missing out on the softer, more human side of human-gadget interactions, rather than “putting people first...”
Food for thought, but I think it also needs to be balanced with the lessons learned from the VRML/Virtual World interfaces that cropped up in the 90s: Cute to look at, frustrating to use and ultimately limited in what can be expressed in a purely visual interface metaphor.
Technorati Tags: ideas, innovation, mobile, nokia, ui, usability
So
I find it fascinating (and a bit disappointing) that Gartner and others are just beginning to figure out that an effective Enterprise Architecture practice needs to start with an understanding of business strategy and direction and cannot (successfully) exist as a purely technical concern.
Perhaps this is because the early days of EA was really more of an application or technology architecture focus. The much lauded (and, in my opinion, over-rated) Zachman framework is really nothing more than a taxonomy as much as it wants to be sold as an 'architecture'. If you can fill out the top row of Zachman, you have probably exhausted its usefulness (and really gained nothing more that the Who? What? so on perspective that you learned in elementary school).
Spewak then came along with another view of EA that was heavily technology oriented. The thrust of this seemed to assert that if you had a complete inventory of your applications and their interactions you were doing EA. No, actually you were on your way to doing portfolio rationalization – a valuable EA service, but not EA in its entirety.
Maybe it was the recent addition of Business dimension to TOGAF in release 9 that caused these 'pundits' to finally come to there senses and realize what successful EA practitioners were doing all along.
It would seem that this technology-focused approach has been the seed corn for the old saw 'IT needs to align with the business'. I always thought it was odd that there was never an exhortation to have Accounting align with the business or Marketing align with the business. I believe that both parties are to blame here — the business needs to articulate a vision and plan that IT can understand and execute against. Without a clear plan from the business, IT more often than not will turn inward and focus on technology in a way that may or may not support business direction.
This disconnect on having business drive EA sort of reminds me of the strange looks that I would get about 10 years ago when I would try to explain that before an enterprise rush into slathering pointy brackets on their data and declaring that they are 'service oriented' that they should take the opportunity to make sure that there was a single enterprise definition of enterprise data and use services to expose them in a enterprise uniform way. 'That has nothing to do with SOA!' I was told. Tsk, tsk, that is data management, not SOA. Now, this 'insight' is all the rage, with every vendor and consulting firm thumping their chests and proclaiming that 'data comes first' and 'the importance of MDM' as a pre-cursor to SOA.
Similarly the same pundits thundered on that it was laughable that BPM be tied to SOA. Problem is that BPM has a certain amount of ambiguity around what the M in BPM means for any given speaker. Is it Modeling? Management? Monitoring? Mapping? So, yes, for all of the non-implementation aspects of BPM, the service orientation part is largely irrelevant. But for any business process implementation that has system touch points (nearly all non-trivial processes do), services are (or should) play a role in exposing the business functions in a consistent, re-usable manner within the enterprise.
So, yes, Enterprise Architecture should be business driven, not technology driven. MDM is a critical underpinning for successful SOA. And BPM is probably the most visible part of service orientation and SOA is key to BPM implementation. What next, governance is key to enterprise SOA success?
Technorati Tags: architecture, consulting, dubious, enterprisearchitecture, ideas, soa, technology
So
I have been reflecting recently on all of the manufactured outrage, fanned on by the right wing press and shout radio: gun toting jackasses at town hall meetings, scripted shouting at same, the 'controversy' over the President of the United States addressing school children and impressing on them the value of getting an education and working hard (subversive, I know).
Friday was the eighth anniversary of 9/11 and I remember where I was and what I was doing when that horror unfolded (a cliche I know, but true, nonetheless). The intersection of these two thoughts jarred me to a frightening realization — what if Obama had been President when the 9/11 attacks happened?
I don't think I can fully comprehend or imagine the overdrive that the media hate machine would shift into – however, I am confident that these would be the foundations of the 'coverage': Accusations that 'obviously' the closet Muslim/Socialist/Communist/etc was in cahoots with the terrorists and allowed this to happen. I mean, his middle hame is Hussein after all! The searing depths that racist extremist would go to blame all minorities and hold this up as proof of their 'inferiority' ('cuz it never would have happened with a white man in office'). The howls from the roof tops that this is proof that Democrats can't protect the country and that they are to blame for the attack. Contrast this with the free pass that the chickenhawk Republicans received. The cries that would accompany any follow up action he would take: if he acted aggressively, it would be labeled as a 'wag the dog' effort to deflect attention; if he chose a diplomatic response, ha!, further proof that he is just protecting his 'friends' the terrorists. And it would just spiral down from there.
I am sickened just thinking of how divisive an issue this would be hyped into; I am fairly confident that there would be open violence and destruction as the right wing hate machine would fan and even encourage that people take to the street and do their thuggish bidding for them.
So, yes, I am fairly confident that the softball whitewash that Bush got from the media would be turned on it's head and amplified beyond control had a Democrat been in office. Even more so, if it was the first mixed-race president. Sad that this is the state of the 'media' in the US.
Technorati Tags: dubious, history, news, politics, predictions, racism
So
After one short week of upgrading to Snow Leopard, all of the software that experienced issues after the SL upgrade have been updated to be compatible. Currently running updated versions of Menu Meters, Cyberduck, OxygenXML Editor and Mozy without issue.
Technorati Tags: apple, snowleopard, software, upgrade
So
I upgraded this blog to Wordpress 2.8.4 this morning to avoid falling victim to a new exploit that has apparently already compromised a fair number of Wordpress-based blogs.
Yesterday a vulnerability was discovered: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. As a result, the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. This doesn’t allow remote access, but it is very annoying.
Once again, the one-click upgrade facility on dreamhost made this a quick and easy exercise.
So
This post was created on my Nokia N97 and posted to mobrec.com using the wordmobi app for S60.
Posted by Wordmobi
So
Upgraded my main system to Snow Leopard. Current casualties include:
Menu Meters Cyberduck Oxygen XML Editor Mozy Backup
Otherwise, it seems that most of the apps are holding their own. The new Quicktime looks sweet and plays AVIs natively (so no more dubious third-party plugins — maybe).
Overall, seems to be a bit snappier — which is always welcome.
Tried upgrading a second system and got the domain manager error when trying to run the install from the DVD. Booted from the DVD (by restarting and holding down C until you hear the DVD grind). This update is still running...
I'll update the post as new developments come to light.
Technorati Tags: apple, mac, osx, snowleopard, upgrade