Web/Tech

Windows Server 2008

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On Friday we went live at Gold Systems with Windows Server 2008.  I don’t mean it’s running in a lab, I mean it went into our production environment.  I knew something was up when I saw that "this is so cool" look on Ned’s face, so I stopped in his office to see what he was working on.  He said the install went better than any server deployment he’s ever done, and he’s been around the block a few times, on lots of different platforms.  He’s taken our beautiful server room with hundreds of blinking lights and virtuallized so much hardware that we now have more iron in storage than we do in racks.  Windows Server 2008 is just going to make it that much easier for us to consolidate and simplify our infrastructure, and the virtualization means that we can put up new servers for developers very, very quickly.

We’ll probably always have an environment that includes all sorts of different servers and operating systems, because that’s the environment our customers have, but in our own production environment we just knocked out two more BSD boxes, with only one left in service.  I can’t say I understand all the technical details, and why Ned is so excited about Hyper-V, so here’s a link I found that explains how Windows Server 2008, virtualization and Hyper-V come together.

On Saturday I got an email from Ned saying, "Server 2008 Rocks! This is by far the best Server OS I’ve ever used!"  With all the grief that Microsoft has got over Vista (more on that in a future post) it’s nice to see that it looks like they’ve nailed it with Windows Server 2008.  I had suggested to Ned that he should do a guest blog post on this, because he’s so proud of the improvements he’s made in our infrastructure, but I think he’s got his eye on another server to virtualize, and he’d rather do that than write about it.

$30 billion to be spent on US network security

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The front page of the InformationWeek website is all about the breaking story about Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo!  That’s interesting, but it wasn’t the first story that caught my eye this morning, so I’ll talk about this other little article that I read about this morning and let everyone else spin in circles about Microsoft and Yahoo!

According to George Hulme, who writes the InformationWeek Security Blog, the U.S. Federal government is planning on spending $6 billion on network security next year and up to $30 billion over the next seven years.  I’ll have to admit, I have a hard time wrapping my head around just how much $30 billion is.  I guess one answer is, "Less than Microsoft plans to spend on buying Yahoo!"  From that perspective, having the federal government spend less than that over seven years seems like a good thing.  I’m sure we need good network security for our government.

But here’s where a little perspective is helpful.  According to the article, "last year Infonetics Research estimated the entire worldwide network security appliance and software market to have reached $5 billion in 2007."

So we (it is our money after all) are going to spend more on networks security in one year than the worldwide market for network security appliances and software?

One final quote from the article.  "Unfortunately, the White House is being tight-lipped about the plan, citing that to explain the plan publicly would jeopardize security."

Wow.  Even if there is a big chunk of money allocated for speech-recognition enabled password reset products, that seems like an awful lot of money to me.  It makes Yahoo! seem like a bargain.

You can read the article here.

The End of Spam

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I’ve been thinking lately that Spam is all but gone from my life.  I almost never get Spam at work and what I do get is usually clearly related to some email list I signed up for.  One of my New Years resolutions was to unsubscribe from any mailing lists that I don’t really care about, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well that is being handled by most companies. 

The best companies have a link in the email, that when clicked takes me to a very simple page that says something like "Sorry to see you go, thanks."  The worst make me login to an account, that I’ve generally forgotten so I have to have them remind me of my account and password, resulting in several more unwanted emails.

This was on my mind because last night I logged into my email account tied to terrygold.com, which I almost never check.  Usually it is full of spam, but somehow magically my ISP had implemented spam filtering and it was all gone.

At work we’re using Spam Assassin, but we’re in the process of moving to Microsoft Forefront.  I have no idea what my ISP uses, but it works.

If you are still slogging through spam, make a New Years resolution to change email providers or to get a good Spam defense application.   Given the crude nature of a lot of spam, I’m surprised some attorney hasn’t claimed "hostile work environment" on companies that don’t deal with the problem.  Do it now and don’t keep wasting time slogging through all the spam.

(And as always, thanks to the unsung heroes of IT for getting this under control!)

More Kindle Books

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I’m still loving the Kindle, Amazon.com’s new ebook reader.  I’ve read four full-length books on it now and except for reference books I think it’s better than paper.  I just checked to see how many books are available in the Kindle format and was really surprised.  The last time I checked a week or so ago, I’m pretty sure there were less than 10,000 books.  Now there are 93,756!  I also just read that the first third-party books are available.   Even 100,000 is a small fraction of the books in print, but it’s more than enough to keep me busy.

Thank you DIA

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It must be tough running an airport.  When things go well, people pretty much take the airport for granted, but when a big storm parks itself over the airport and shuts down flights or an airline has trouble keeping their commitments for departing and arriving on time, the people running the airport take a lot of heat.

I myself am a frequent flier, and I’m pretty quick to think I could do it better when things aren’t working well.  I’ve heard myself say more than once, "If I were running the airport there would be plenty of power outlets and WiFi would be free."  I hate paying for 24 hours of access just to sync Outlook for five minutes before I jump on a plane.

The people running the Denver International Airport (DIA) must be listening to their customers, because months ago I started noticing that more power outlets were available and now according to an article in the Denver Post by Elizabeth Aguilera, DIA is offering free WiFi service.  Thank you DIA, and the next time my flight is delayed, I’ll try to remember that you are trying to make traveling a little more convenient for people like me.

Kindle ebook weekend update

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Kindle2 I promised I would do an update after getting some experience with my new Amazon Kindle.  After only a few days, it’s pretty clear to me that I won’t be buying many more books of the paper and cardboard variety. 

Before you write me off as a techie who doesn’t get how important real books are let me say that I love books.  If I had to choose between technology and books, I’d probably choose books.  And I have a lot of books – I’m going to guess I have about 2,000 books between my bookshelves at home and work.  I’ll always love the books that where mine as a child, and books that were my dad’s as a child.  I even have some of my grandfather’s books.  No amount of electronics will ever replace them, so I get that paper-based book are important.

I also love the random books that fall in my hands when I’m traveling, or that friends give me because they know that I will want to read them.

So I love books, but mostly I love reading.  I love the way that I can escape, and learn, and focus, and create my own pictures.  And it turns out, I can do that without paper.  After having spent a long weekend with my new Kindle, I just went and deleted all the books on my amazon wishlist that are available for the Kindle, but not before having Amazon send me a free sample of each to my Kindle.  My iPod, and then my Zune and most recently my Zune Pass changed how I listen to music, and now I’m certain that the Kindle is going to change how I read.

The think I like most about it is that it just works.  Right out of the box, with only a few minutes looking at the user’s manual and NO setup, and I was comfortable.  Since Wednesday, I’ve read a novel and started a second, I’ve read copies of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Seattle Times, and I’ve listened to the first part of an Audible audio book while sorting laundry.

I’ve read the Kindle everywhere I’d read a paper book.  This afternoon I took it outside into the bright Colorado sunshine and compared the display to a paper book.  The Kindle was easier on my eyes.  When the light is low, I just make the font a bit bigger.  When it’s dark, I clip my book light onto the leather cover that came with the Kindle and the experience is even better than with a paper book.  With a paper book, I’m always having to readjust the book light as it moves every time I turn the page.  With the Kindle, I just touch a button and I’m silently on to the next page.  One criticism of the Kindle is that the display is not back-lit, but they were trying to duplicate paper and I think they made the right call.  I don’t feel any fatigue from reading it, whether it is in bright sunshine or total darkness with a book light clipped on the cover.

While you don’t even need a computer to use the Kindle, and you can buy a book or magazine without a computer connection, you can connect it if you want and manually copy over any documents or unprotected ebooks that you already own.  As a test, I went to the gutenberg.org web page and downloaded a Mark Twain book (it’s public domain now and free) and I had no trouble saving it to the Kindle.  It occurred to me that I could also save music lyrics to the Kindle too, and that worked just fine.

I’ve been working on writing a book of my own for about five years.  OK, I haven’t been working very hard at it, but this just might get me going again.  Amazon makes it easy to publish for the Kindle and this might be the perfect format, or at least an interesting option for me.

So, what could be better?  At $399, it’s not cheap.  It’s new though and I imagine the price will come down.  eBooks are about half the cost or less of printed books, so in time I might make it back.  I haven’t dropped it yet, but it feels like it might break if I dropped it on to a hard floor.  I was at a friend’s house last night, and a good friend who loves books wouldn’t touch it because she was afraid she might break it.  It hasn’t hung or done anything strange since I first turned it on and the (free) high-speed wireless connection has always been there when I needed it.  I’ve found more than enough books that are available for the Kindle to keep me occupied, though it’s a small fraction of the books in print.  This will change though, and I imagine most new books will be available electronically.

My first review was picked up by thekindleblog.com, and they seem to be collecting reviews, so check them out.  Or as I’ve already told a couple of my techie/bookie friends – just buy it.

Amazon Kindle in my hands

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I’ve been a big fan of Amazon.com from the very beginning, and I’ve written about them before.  After reading Brad Feld’s blog on Monday and realizing that their new ebook was shipping, I ordered an Amazon Kindle and it arrived today.

Wow.  This is the closest thing to magic I’ve seen in a long time.  The photos don’t do it justice and the praise that has already been written doesn’t come close to describing how cool this is.  The design feels right to me, starting with the box it shipped in.  I was using it effectively within two minutes, and I had already sampled a book and bought today’s New York Times (75 cents) within five minutes.  It just works.

It was shipped to me already connected to my amazon.com account, and it came loaded with a letter from Jeff Bezos addressed to "Terry" which was a nice bit of personalization.  The wireless just worked.  No setup, not searching for a hot-spot, it just worked.  The display is amazing.  It looks like paper.  I did not realize that the electronic paper technology was here but apparently it is.  Even with it asleep, it displays a nice picture that reminds me of an old book.  Here’s how it looks, but again, the photos don’t do it justice.  This is going to be big.  Really big. 

Kindle

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Tech and Car Computer Update

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I’ve been really busy – Gold Systems is having a record year and I’m just not getting as much time to play as I’d like!  Still, I get a lot of questions about the car computer project and other various gadgets that show up from time to time at my house, so I thought I would do a quick update.

  • Car Computer – I’m still stuck waiting for the touchscreen to ship.  It was mid-June when the Infill T3 died and I still haven’t got the new machine ready to go.  I’ve got the computer (thanks Mp3car.com!) and it’s hot – Dual Core, 4 gig of ram – but I’m still waiting for the touchscreen.  It’s a new transflective device that is readable even in direct sunlight so I’m hoping it’s worth the wait and the fabrication that Team FJ is signing up for to get it installed.  It should be here the first week of December.
  • Zune 2 – I ordered the new Zune months ago from amazon.com, and after a last minute delay, they emailed on Saturday to say it has shipped.
  • Chumby – What’s a Chumby?  Find out at Chumby.com  It’s on my kitchen counter right now but it could end up anywhere.  This is part of my quest to find an inexpensive, programmable, wireless-internet-connected device that I can use around the house.  This one might even have a place on my desk at work if I can hack it a bit.
  • Amazon Kindle – Brad Feld reminded me this morning in his blog that the Kindle was just released. Twenty minutes later, mine was on the way, scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. The Kindle is an electronic book, with some great inovations that just might make the idea work this time.  I read my first eBook on my Palm VII years ago, but the screen left a lot to be desired.  The Kindle is getting great reviews by people who’ve played with it, and people who haven’t tried it seem to hate it.  I love my books, but I’d be happy to trade a few bookcases worth for a device that really works.  My favorite quote comes from Zoot, commenting at Gizmodo, who said, "Any nerd who, on seeing one of these for the first time doesn’t just stand there playing with it and giggling uncontrollably for ten minutes has no soul."

That pretty much blows the gadget budget for awhile.  I’ll do an update after Kindle determines whether I have a soul or not.

Guitar Hero II – Banjo Hero

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(I should have posted this on the 1st – sorry, I’ve just been too busy.)

About ten years ago, Brad Feld gave me a copy of The Axe, a great piece of software created by a start-up he invested in called Harmonix.  The idea was that non-musicians could use the software to create music.

Harmonix_the_axe 

You played by pressing buttons on the keyboard and the software was smart enough not to play any "wrong" notes.  You can read more about the company here, but to make a long story short they went on to create Guitar Hero, a big hit, and the company was acquired by MTV.  Big success.  I had heard of Guitar Hero and how crazy people were for it, but I never played it until this week when it was released on the Xbox 360.  (Thanks to Amazon.com for the Guitar Hero II photo)

Guitar_hero_bundle

Guitar Hero is great, and while it’s not like playing a real guitar, it’s fun even for people who generally don’t like video games.  The Person Who Prefers Not To Be Blogged About has even gotten hooked on it.  I went through the Rock N Roll phase years ago, but I’m anxiously awaiting the next release – Banjo Hero!

Here’s a prototype of the controller.  I expect many of my Bluegrass favorites to be available and that it will be bigger than Guitar Hero. (Click on the photo to see more detail.)

Banjohero_terrygolddotcom_3

To the person who also got Guitar Hero II this week – try calling 1 800 4MY XBOX.  It’s a great speech recognition application and it has some tips about your scratched disk.  Max (the automated persona) doesn’t say anything about not hitting your Xbox with the guitar, but he does say not to move the Xbox while it is turned on.  Knocking your Xbox onto the floor with the guitar also just might have something to do with the green button sticking now, but that’s just a guess.

(Note: Banjo Hero will initially only be available in my home state of Kentucky.)

Intelinside_2

The future of search?

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Thanks to Bo for sending me a link to www.msdewey.com/  You’re going to want to check this out, because in about 10 minutes everyone is going to be asking if you’ve seen it, er "her."  It, uh "she," is a real search engine but when you first go there Bo instructed me to not do anything for a few minutes.  You’ll then probably waste 20 minutes typing in different words to see her reaction as I just did, which is why I’m posting this on the weekend.  I don’t want to be responsible for a dip in the GDP on Monday.

Msdewey2   

New Apple iPhone

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My buddy John was the first to tell me that the Apple iPhone has been announced. A few minutes later I got a newsletter with a link to a review of the announcement. It sounds great and I look forward to seeing one, but if it won’t sync with my Exchange server I’m not going to be able to try it. If it raises the bar for phoneset design, then we (the consumers) all win, whether we buy one or not.

WiFi Fridge

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I got so excited when I saw this that I dropped my phone and my memory card popped out and flew under a washing machine. This is a pretty common reaction I think.

On the right door is a TV display. I’m not sure if it is HD. The small display on the left is where you set up the wireless connection, get recipes off the internet and view your photo albums.

I wonder if I could hook up the Xbox to it?

Update 1 The fridge is made by LG and it has already been discontinued from Smarthome.com.  It only has one connection to the display, and it is Coax, so you could connect an Xbox, but the resolution wouldn’t be good and you’d need a switch to be able to watch TV or a DVD.  It’s a nice Version One by LG.  Being able to get the day’s weather is something I’ve always wanted to do with a refrigerator, and the Aniversary Reminder feature is a nice touch.  I can’t wait to see Version Two.

Update 2 This is a video of the fridge.