Cliff Saran’s FUD blog

I'm keen to look at the features in details, having looked at the basic productivity gains promised by Microsoft.

Today I spoke to Cian Weeresinghe, eBay Uk's marketing manager, about how the auction site was planning to make the most of what IE8 has to offer. eBay has developed three applications with Microsoft for IE8.

The first is an IE8 web slice,which allows web users  to keep track of things that interest them, using the Favourites menu bar. On eBay's  IE8 site (ie8.ebay.co.uk) users can click on a button that runs a PHP script, which sets up such a web slice. eBay uses it to enable eBay users to keep track of any activity on an item they are interested in purchasing. Within the Favourites menu bar, the web slice turns the item's descriptive text bold if there is any activity, like when someone bids.

IE8's Visual Search function works when you select eBay as one of your search engine. The browser allows you then to search for items for sale on eBay.

The other neat feature is IE8's Accelerator menu. So if we are searcging for a gadget or an iPod and the web page contains the word gadget or iPod, you can click on a menu listing items for sale on eBay that match "gadget" or "iPod"

I spoke to Microsoft earlier today about the beta 2 release of Internet Explorer, which can now be downloaded. Here are three features MS says will make web browsing faster and more intuitive:

1. Faster web browsing - MS says it has spent hours in usability labs videoing users to see what they do when web browsing. In IE8 it has attempted to  automate the common tasks people do. I often use Streetmap to get a map and figure out directions for a meeting. In IE8, when I right mouse click on the address, MS' accelerator web service brings up a list of options, one of which can be set to take the address from the my current web page and pass it on to my mapping service - Streetmap.
2. Quicker URLs - While in IE7,  when you type in a partial URL, you are presented with a list of recent sites, MS now checks a partial URL name based on recent sites, History and Favourites. Any part of the URL can be keyed in.
3. Visual Search - This works if you have opted to download an Open Search Description File from a supported site like eBay, Amazon or the New York Times. These web sites and others that use OSDF present images and text in the search preview window as you type in a search term.

I downloaded the IE8 beta 2 earlier. It eventually installed on my PC, after Windows update had downlaoded all those Windows XP patches I had avoided installing.It seems to run OK. I was hoping to write my blog entry using it. But there's a bug somewhere becuase the Moveable Type engine wasn't playing game, I I used Firefox instead. Oh well IE8 is a beta. I'm hoping to have acloser look at these features over the next few postings.

Microsoft and Novell have made a big splash about their Linux interoperability agreement from 2006.  So far it's worth $100 million over the last two years and there are about 100 customers including the likes of Walmart among others.

 

Sounds good? I beg to differ. $100m is Steve Balmer's loose change. MS probably spends more on its campus canteens per year than this.

 

Microsoft's CTO  meets Novell every six months. I guess that must show a real commitment to Linux interoperability.. I wonder how often MS senior execs meet HP or Intel - they probably don't leave it six months to catch-up.

 

Microsoft says customers are asking for Linux/Windows interoperability, and its investment in the alliance with Novell demonstrates its commitment to helping customers run Linux and Windows in their data centres. Get real. It's a tiny percentage of its annual revenue.

I recently came across an interesting posting on software quality from Bola Rotibi, principal analyst at Macehiter Ward-Dutton. In the posting Bola draws an analogy between "good enough software" and a one-star hotel. It's all about managing our expectations, according to Bola:

 

A one star hotel probably offers adequate and "good enough" services for those on a budget. But this would not be sufficient for five-star luxury seekers. The key, though, is that customers of each know what they are getting for their money and whether it is fit for their purpose. There is a quantifiable means of grading what is delivered and matching that to what is expected.

At the moment commercial software ships with a huge disclaimer which frees the software maker from any legal obligation to build software that "works". I am not aware of any other industry where a company is allowed to ship shoddy products. I think Bola has a good idea here, in terms of hotel ratings for software. Perhaps we need some kind of standard for "good enough" software and a rating system, which informs buyers what they are getting.

 

 

I recently bought a new car tax. I received a renewal letter from the DVLA with a reference that allowed me to log into its website. It took less than five minutes to order and pay for the new tax disc, and it arrived two days later. This was far better than queuing at the Post Office and making sure I had my car insurance and MOT certificates.

 

I think the really clever thing about this system is that it somehow links together data from car insurers and MOT testing stations to the DVLA. I suspect it is based on some sort of service oriented architecture.

 

The best thing about the DVLA online car tax renewal system is that it is very easy for the customer to use, and far better than queuing at the Post Office. It seems like it was designed putting the customer at the cente of the car tax renewal process, which is why it seems intuitive from a customer's perspective. It's a true customer oriented architecture.

I spent the last seven days without internet access; mobile phone coverage was almost intermittent and of course, Wi-Fi, simply didn't exist. Moreover cash machines were few and far between.

Yes  I was on holiday. What struck me was that this lack of basic networking and comms was in the south of France, a place called Ansouis, just 45 minutes' drive from Marseille.

Well that's my excuse for not updating the blog this last week. But I have to say, it is amazing how quickly we revert to the simpler life: fine food, wonderful wine and good-old fashioned cash.

Earlier this week I met up briefly with JP Rangaswami, managing director of BT Design.
and a former CIO of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

He was speaking at a Computer Weekly event on social networking. JP made a good point about the likes of Facebook that I'd like to share here.

He said that social networking on a website is no different to a conversation people have by the water cooler, or for that matter, down the pub, or outside when they are having a ciggie break. Now you can't stop people talking, so why are we so afraid of them using Facebook?

 

I think security companies grabbing headlines with horror stories of social networking misuse are missing the point.

This afternoon I was at the launch of a family of business laptop PCs from Sony.  Powered by the latest generation of Intel Centrino and Core Duo chips, the new Sony Vaios offer fingerprint recognition, a trusted computer module for encrypting data and the high-end model includes a SIM card for 3G wireless internet.

But you get this kind if stuff on certain HP and Dell machines. So what's special? Well first these are Sony laptops. Each machine in the line-up looks great. It's not quite drop-dead gorgeeous like the Apple MacBook Air, but in terms of good looks and street cred, I think the Vaio family is a definite 8/10. And of course it's a Sony, which means the screen and video are going to be superb. But unlike the more expensive MacBook Air, Sony appears to have made its machine corporate friendly.

Now this is great news for execs who lusted after the Apple MacBook Air but were told by IT that MacOS was not a supported platform. The businesses Vaios will run both Vista and XP Pro and there's a downgrade disc in the box.

So I guess IT departments won't so easily fob off exec users with the excuse that it's not supported. With a manufacturer price of under £850 for the basic Vaio, IT departments could soon find a stampede, as users demand sexier laptop models compared to the dull grey and silver HP and Dell machines.

Now I just need to get my hands on one to try out the Vaio for myself.

There's a buzz in the blogosphere. Apple's iPhone 3 arrives in the UK tomrrow. BA has created a flight info application for the iPhone. It's available from Apple AppStore site. Here's a screenshot from  smimoof:

 

 

 

Imagine if there was a resurgence of mainframes. IBM says they are greener than Unix and PC servers, and the savings in electricity are substantial. Could environmental savvy IT directors migrate applications onto the mainframe to lower their data centre electricity bills.

 

The mainframe is based on virtualisation technology that has evolved over the last 40 years, which makes it a great platform to run and manage virtual machines. IBM even sells IPL, an add-on  processor dedicated to running Linux applications. A single mainframe can run hundreds of Linux virtual machines.

 

The green mainframe argument simply states that it is possible to replace hundreds of physical Linux-based PC servers with a single mainframe. The total electricity and cooling costs of running the Linux PC farm is far greater than if the same software environment was ported to the mainframe and run as virtual Linux machines.

 

This may have made sense a couple of years ago. However, thanks to VMWare, PC server virtualisation is mainstream. IT departments can run many copies of Linux (or Windows) on the same physical hardware. So if the green sums are calculated now, is the mainframe really greener compared to a modern (ie green) PC server running multiple copies of Linux on top of VMWaare or Xen?