What's happening to our phones? What's 21CN all about?

I met with a senior director of BT recently and he was really excited about something. He was falling over himself to tell me all about "21st Century Network" or 21CN as they call it. Working more at the application and systems levels, I found it hard to see what was so special. Sure, I can appreciate that £14billion will buy BT something very impressive, but at the end of the day don't telecom networks just get faster, more resiliant, higher bandwidth? We know that we've reached optical so surely nothing can be faster than that. So that leaves resiliant and higher bandwidth right?

Well, yes that is right. But I've been digging around on YOUR behalf and there is another dimension to this.

In essence 21CN is replacing the traditional phone network, PSTN, with an IP based solution. So what that first tells us is that BT will not just be interested in phones. Or rather, any IP-enabled device (which will be most things in a few years) will be able to be a phone given the appropriate software. BT will not be billing addresses. Accounts will not centre on the phone line. BT will be billing humans.

Services will be driven out of the core of the telecom network. What does this really mean? Well you might not realise it, but you're probably compartmentalising your life into your landline answerphone, your mobile answerphone, your email account etc. Well, this will unify all your services architecturally (although I'm sure the retail market will be competitive as ever). You will access your communications from any device at any time. You might feel that you have this already, but in reality it is being delivered by a mish-mash of technologies enabled by providers and applications that are a veneer across the top of many infrastructures. That costs. That costs alot. That's flaky.

That also has limitations. At the moment you cannot transfer your voice call between devices beyond a phone switch. And what if you want to continue your conversation as an Instant Message chat because you've stepped onto the bus? Seamless. No longer will your contacts need to be synched between different parts of your life. It isn't just stored centrally, at the deepest level, but it's everywhere- ubiquitous.

Bandwidth becomes unlimited.

Then things get really clever. Imagine if you buy your applications as services from your telco. A whole world of applications as yet unimagined is going to explode into out lives from 2007 and I, for one, can't wait. I think we forget how much of a chore it is to constantly log in and out of applications through our modern working lives. I'm going to start counting. But, 21CN holds the possibility of never having to log in ever again. Never will any consumer or SME ever need to buy data storage hardware again. You will pay per byte for storage. You will pay for data transfer in many different ways. Your application will decide how to route a packet of data. Sending a Petabyte of data from London to New York in the next minute will not only be possible, but it will be priced differently to if it doesn't need to be there until 24 hours later.

And it will be cheap. In the last 10 years the cost of calls has dropped by 80%. This will continue and, I believe, accelerate.

So, when you hear BT talking about 21CN, sit up and listen. So far, it takes some leap of imagination to picture what they are describing, but as the time approaches for services to launch the message will become clearer about what it means to us.

Tags: technology, telecoms, telco, phones, futurology, bandwidth, BT, British Telecom, 21st Century Network, 21CN, IP

News Map GUI

Many thanks to John Ludwig whose post led me to the NewsMap. Now this is a fantastic example of a great GUI. Not only does it cleverly use size, colour and shades to denote the scale, topic and age of each top story on Google News in a tapestry, but the screen holds its validity as you resize it. According to the file extension, this presentation layer seems to have been built with Macromedia ColdFusion MX and looked great on my MacBook Pro with Safari and Windows Laptop with IE6, no matter how I resized the windows.

It reminds me that I should catch up on where Macromedia is at with ColdFusion. Is this observation part of a concerted client device independence strategy? Is this inherent to ColdFusion or something Marumushi worked hard at?

Marumushi have a whole range of clever visualisations of data to play with.

I WANT THESE IN MY COMPANY'S FACILITIES AND OUR MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM.

Tags: technology, web, Internet, useability, GUI, Macromedia, ColdFusion, Marumushi, visualisation, Google, MIS

Technology Usage and Wealth- the Postcode Survey

Ilkley is a town nestling at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales. Nothing too controversial ever happens there, so when you do read about Ilkley in the news, it is often as a result of some sort of survey into wealth or affluence. For example, in this HBOS survey, Ilkley is named amongst places such as Altrincham, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Harpenden as having an average house price which exceeds the Inheritance Tax threshold (the only place in Yorkshire on the list). On a different aspect of life 'affluent' Ilkley is reported as having an infant mortality rate of 5 times less than Bradford and Keighley- just 16 and 5 miles away respectively.

Well now another survey, this time in the area of technology, singles Ilkley out for special attention. The research by UCL and published through Spatial-Literacy shows that Ilkley is made up of the highest but one of seven groups of people measured by tech savviness (and top but two of all the twenty three subtypes), and twins them with such postcode districts as Alderley Edge, Cheltenham, Woodstock and Wirral. If you know anything about these areas, the inevitable conclusion you have to draw from this is that technology usage is associated with wealth. This needn't be as obvious as it seems, but this survey is probably the most detailed study yet as it looks at all 17 million postcodes cross referenced against Experian (credit reference agency) data.

Tags: technology, usage, survey, post code, postcode, wealth, spatial literacy, UCL, Ilkley, Alderley Edge, Cheltenham, Woodstock, Wirral, Richmond, infant mortality, HBOS

What will Foo Camp deliver this year?

Last year Foo Camp, the invitation-only geek ideas-fest, caused a bit of a stir by not inviting one or two folks who felt they were a shoe in. They went on to found an alternative event... Bar Camp.

So, with Foo Camp set to kick off, what will happen this year? As always, this is a low key event- not needing to market itself to draw a crowd. However, this means that in the build up, you see many a technologist lamenting the lack of an invite. Is this deliberate on the part of the organiser, Tim O'Reilly? Does he have his finger on the pulse? Has he got it wrong? Does he turn over the invitees to keep things fresh?

Who knows? Well, I will have to ask one of those who has been invited how it went (and how he got on with the tent).

Tags: technology, Foo Camp, geek, conference, unconference, wiki

Power Mac becomes Mac Pro and Intel

Further to my earlier hint, Steve Jobs has finally unveiled the replacement for the Power Mac and unsurprisingly it has Intel Dual Core (Intel Xeon) under the hood.

The Mac Pro... Windowstastic.

Tags: technology, Apple, PowerMac, Mac Pro, Dual Core, G5, PowerPC, Intel, Xeon, Leopard, World Wide Developers Conference, WWDC

MacBook Pro Trial

Here at ClickTowers we have two new MacBook Pros on trial courtesy of Apple. So firstly, apologies that this is taking longer to type, but I'm just getting used to all the basics. Hopefully you will wait for me at the end of the post.

So far I have to say that this has been a pleasure. Macs feel good. It's a product design thing- this is simply a highly desirable machine and using it makes you feel good. After all the expectation of contacting our office IT folks to arrange to set the machine up on our network, I just plugged the MacBook Pro in and it worked. Ok, only at the network, wireless access point and file server level, but that's easier than I expected. By the end of the week we should be running Entourage on one and Parallels Windows XP with Office on the other. That's right, Microsoft.

Then we'll be road testing them for a couple of months and deciding what role they will play in our technology strategy. I have to say that no matter how clinically you approach your technology architecture, you can't fail to be impressed by things such as the power supply being attached with a magnet so that if someone trips over the cable, it just detaches without causing any damage to equipment... or the mains power light being on the MacBook Pro connector end of of the cable rather than hidden on a black brick under the table... or the built in camera... or the remote control...

Tags: technology, IT, Apple, MacBook Pro, OS X, WindowsXP, Parallels, Entourage

When will the OS cost more than the PC?

There was a time when a computer cost about $1,000 and the OS was about $100. Many factors have come together to drive hardware costs down (most of which are embodied within the Dell Corporation). However, operating systems from Microsoft have stayed at around the same price point. Therefore, the OEM OS license makes up around a third of the price you pay for an entry level PC which works out of the box.

Here's an example. Right now Dell are shipping their entry level PC (with monitor) for $299. It is preinstalled with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and that's included in the price. Pricegrabber found me CDW selling the same OEM license of XP Home Edition for $101.99. Therefore, in the Dell package more than a third of the price is comprised of the OS. I wonder what the proportion would be if you excluded the monitor? Incredible.

Not only is that an amazing indicator of the pace of change in the industry over the last ten years, but it also makes you wonder whether the OS will eventually be more expensive than the PC. How will that change buying patterns?

Tags: technology, IT, PC, Microsoft, Dell, WindowsXP, Home Edition, economics

SyncML- what's that all about?

My recent post about frustrations with my Nokia N70 led Undone to comment that I should try a http synch of my contacts and calendar to an online service such as Zyb. Being the dutiful blogger, I do everything my readers suggest (I wonder where I find the time too) so I watched the video as to what it's all about, read a little bit more to ensure I wasn't sending my contacts straight to Mr Bin Laden (turns out it will be in the hands of some trusty Danes) and then went through the set up process. How easy was that? Simple, and with every step explained, right down to the phone specifics. Now I can see and manage all my contacts and calendar entries online through a very rich and intuitive interface. All the contacts fields seem to transfer ok (including images and notes). The calendar was a little less successful with the recurring meetings and all day events not being transferred. When will I be able to upload my tasks and notes too?

Zyb is free to use as a back up and to transfer info between phones. They're quite open that they will charge a modest fee for extra services which they will introduce. Can't argue with that. One such service I will be delighted to pay for...as long as it's not too much... is to sync between Zyb and Outlook. Then I can throw away the menace of the cable and, hopefully, bring the whole sync between phone and laptop back to life (yes, that's right- still no fix to the original problem).

Tags: technology, mobile, internet, Zyb, phone, productivity, office, Outlook, tasks, notes

That was Yorkshire Day

As Yorkshire Day draws to a close across British Summer Time, I ask you to raise your glass of broad acres' finest and drink a toast to moors, dales, snickets, short arms/deep pockets, stubbornness, white roses, queer folk and t'internet baht 'at.

But not whippets. Definitely not whippets. I'm a Yorkshireman (if you hadn't guessed) and I don't know anyone with one.

Anyway, for those who were caught outside the county today, I recommend using Flickr to find images that bring the homeland back- for me I suggest SovietUK's Ilkley set... but there's plenty more inspiration out there.

And in conclusion, it's not grim up north.

Tags: Yorkshire, Yorkshire Day, Ilkley

The World's Greatest Site gets new Blog...

...in my opinion.

That's right (as if you haven't guessed what I'm talking about), the mighty Justgiving has a new home for its blog on Typepad. It looks like it has the making of being a more potent tool for folks fundraising for charities. Very Web 2.0.

It's great to see people really making their fundraising pages work for their chosen charities. On the Another Chance to See site (inspired by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine's trip around the world to see endangered animals), they're using their Justgiving thermometer to track progress of their fundraising for one of Douglas's favourite charities, Save the Rhino.

In another example, a group are raising funds for Sam, a little boy who was paralysed in a car accident, by selling books via Justgiving.

Inspiring. It's not all marathons you know.

Hop to it. Do something daft and raise some doh.

Tags: Justgiving, Firstgiving, blog, web 2.0, charity, fundraising, stuff4sam, Save the Rhino, Douglas Adams

Visual and Audio Search Engines

Popgadget reminded me of an idea I looked into a while ago. If you take the search engine and put an image recognition wrapper around it, could you create something which tells you what real world images are of? I call it a Visual Search Engine. Clearly this works in niche applications such as biometrics and the manufacturing industry, but what about something with as broad appeal as Google? Unfortunately for my bank manager, my research showed that someone has this seriously in hand, but Popgadget has showed how a UK designer called Callum Peden has added a new dimension to this- a Google Device. You'd have to question why you wouldn't just use a phone with in-built camera, but I'm intrigued by the notion of Google moving into appliances and devices. Will it happen one day?

This is possibly also an opportunity to mention an Audio Search Engine called Shazam I was made aware of several years ago and, to this day, remains the mainstay of my party piece repertoire. Basically, forget their website for a moment and engage your mind's eye. Imagine, when you want to know the name of some music you're listening to, just dialling 2580 (down the centre of your phone) in the UK and holding your phone to the music... wait a few seconds and a text message arrives with the artist and title. Marvellous eh? Yup, and this actually exists... right now. It's one of technology's best kept secrets (which doesn't say much for their marketing).

Tags: technology, search engine, IT, audio, audio search engine, visual search engine, visual, Shazam, Google, device, appliance, biometrics, manufacturing

More bad news for NHS IT, but let's not lose focus

According to e health insider, the NHS PAS outage reported in an earlier post as being due to be resolved by last night... is still down. Some Trusts face being without systems until Thursday.

We need to keep this in perspective. Yes, it is a disaster. No, this should not have happened with the plethora of systems and knowledge available today. However, many people are taking this as an opportunity to knock the vision of an integrated nationwide electronic patient record. I disagree with this tactic wholeheartedly. Why? Well, if I have a life threatening illness, actually any illness requiring intervention by a surgeon, I would happily travel the length and breadth of the country to find the best qualified surgeon, with the best measured results, for my specific condition. I do NOT want to be constrained by what the chaps at the local golf club... ahem, sorry, General Hospital can do.

A car crash does not make the car a bad idea.

Tags: technology, healthcare, IT, healthcare IT, NPfIT, Electronic Patient Record, NHS, CSC, Hitachi, Connecting for Health, CfH, outage, failure

Integration Engines Turned on their Head

Integration engines have emerged over the last 5 years or so to enable businesses to orchestrate interoperability between systems and facilitate electronic data interchange. Platforms such as BizTalk from Microsoft and Ensemble from Intersystems lead in the marketplace. At the same time, industry specific standards have emerged, such as HL7 for healthcare and "adaptors" are available to help developers of BizTalk and Ensemble to work with these standards.

However, today Shahid's Healthcare IT blog pointed me at an example of this adaptor layer taken to the next stage. A whole integration engine specific to an industry vertical. This might not be a new thing, but Mirth is the first sector focussed integration engine I've seen. In this case, WebReach Inc have made their interface engine (as they call it) open source which has obvious cost advantages when you cannot spread the platform investment across other parts of the business; e.g. billing and procurement EDI.

I did notice that on the website there is no mention of SOAP as a supported messaging protocol with Mirth. Not sure if this is a deliberate ommission.

Has anyone else seen anything industry specific before?

Tags: technology, healthcare, IT, healthcare IT, integration, integration engine, Mirth, WebReach, Microsoft, Intersystems, BizTalk, Ensembe EDI, Electronic Data Interchange

NHS's Strange Mode of Failure

The title of this post isn't some sort of engineering metaphor being used to explore the tribulations of the UK's National Health Service. Although it could be. No, this post is about a massive IT failure which has resulted in NHS employees not being able to access Patient Administration Systems (PAS) across Birmingham and the Black Country, Cheshire and Merseyside, Cumbria and Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire and Staffordshire and the southern part of the West Midlands. PAS systems are used to administrate hospital bookings, so as well as managing the patients, the systems schedule the facilities of the hospitals too. The systems, which are centrally hosted by CSC and their supplier Hitachi, have been off line since Sunday morning. I've only been able to find information on the BBC and The Guardian so far, where it is claimed that the problem was caused by a Network Area Storage failure. According to a spokesman from NHS Connecting for Health "The nature of the incident meant that service could not immediately be provided by the back-up systems." Now that is a strange failure mode.

It wouldn't be strange for a home user. It wouldn't be strange for a small business. However, it's quite strange for anything supporting more than several hundred users and extremely strange for as large a deployment as this.

I hope there's an enquiry into how and why this happenned. It's a terrible indictment of the state of IT in the NHS.

Tags: technology, healthcare, IT, healthcare IT, NHS, CSC, Hitachi, Connecting for Health, CfH, outage, failure

What the UK needs is a Cafepress impersonator

Ok, it wouldn't be very creative to just copy Cafepress, but their business model of printing your pics on all sorts of merchandise for your own, or other's, delectation would work well here in the UK. I must have placed half a dozen orders with Cafepress over the last 2 years and I've probably spent the same again on the US Postal Service to get the goods to me. There are imitation sites in the US such as Threadless but whoever does this in the UK will make a fortune.

There you go... free advice.

Tags: technology, Internet, website, business, Cafepress, Threadless, UK, merchandise, printer

Foxhills in Surrey

Money burning a hole in your pocket? Looking for another monthly subscription? Well, this photo sums up everything I'd want in a golf club. What else do you need?

Tags: golf, country club, helipad, squash, Foxhills, Surrey, UK

Nokia N70 Update

Further to my earlier post about my Nokia N70, I'm still "generally satisfied" with the product. There seem to be a myriad of features which my network (Orange) doesn't support such as Push Talk and Orange Synch- or is it just me who isn't able to use them? Also, the Symbian OS does not provide enough utility for me to manage the files and applications on the device. Specifically, I can't remove some of the games which came preinstalled.

Anyway, my current main gripe is that after 6 months or so of working fine, the PC synch is being stubborn as an Ox (no disrespect to any of our four legged friends who might be reading this). The cable connection icon on the phone only seems to be working intermittently. When you first plug it in, it works and then seems to change it's mind after anything from a few seconds to a minute. When you do seem to have a good connection (according to the icon) the PC Synch software runs on the PC, but does not react at all when you press "synchronise" or "settings" (and it's not because they're greyed out).

I have the same problem with both my home PC and my work laptop so I can only presume it is something at the phone end or in the cable. The fact that the icon does appear at first suggests that the cable is fine.

This is beyond the limit of the inbuilt Help menus and is driving me nuts.

Tags: technology, telephony, mobile, 3G, Nokia, N70, fault, synchronisation, Orange, Symbian

Skype and Jajah- how much room is there?

When technologies are heavily based on commodity, you wonder how much room there is in the marketplace. Or at least I do. There's little room to differentiate, so do Skype have the whole market in the bag?

No, of course not, and along comes Jajah to prove it. Free calls between registered users- globally. They make their money on 'off network' calls. Sound familiar? Well, how about this- you need to install NO software. In fact, you don't even need broadband! Why, well you use their website to register, log in and set up your call by entering YOUR phone number and the person's who you're calling. From then on in, it is like a normal landline/mobile call using your normal landline or mobile phone.

Impressive. Ok, so I've not tried it because something says this is too good to be true. Am I being too British about this? Probably.

Oh, and they have a Jajah blog too.

Tags: technology, telephony, VoIP, Skype, Jajah

Orange E-Campaign Stops Before it Starts

Apparently Orange are experimenting with a new way to experience the Internet. Well, that was what the text message they sent me said. Unfortunately, I figure they told too many people at once because the Apache webserver they led you to was showing a 500 Internal Server error.

Curiously, the URL in the text message contained the folder /opera. I wonder if they've finally realised that the browser the Nokia N70 ships with on the Orange network is far slower than Opera and they want to show you this.

Tags: technology, business, marketing, campaign, mobile, browser, Opera, Orange

Microsoft makes Biggest move into Healthcare yet

In what I think is an effort to kick start its Healthcare efforts, Microsoft seems to have moved away from its core strategy of selling platforms and enabling partners. The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has bought Azyxxi (pronounced ah-zik-see), a Washington Hospital Centre incubated business who have implemented retrieve and display technology in their own hospital. Microsoft have also bought quite a sizeable team (when you think this is internal to a hospital) of nearly 45 people.

Unfortunately the article in the NYTimes is under subscription so I can't just cut and paste it or provide a link.

I wonder how Microsoft's healthcare developer partners will take the news? They might fear that they will end up competing with their own technology provider. Maybe they will welcome Microsoft's, perhaps long overdue, recognition of the healthcare vertical.

Tags: technology, business, Microsoft, Azyxxi, Healthcare, IT, Washington Hospital Centre

Successor to PowerMac to be Announced?

The word on the street is that at their World Wide Developers Conference, Apple are due to announce the successor to the Power Mac G5. The G5s are the only computers in Apple's line up to still use the PowerPC processor, with the rest of the range moving over to Intel. I could put two and two together and guess that...

...nah, we'll wait for the conference to open on 7 August and for Steve Jobs to deliver the keynote address. As if there wasn't enough to look forward to with the unveiling of the Leopard OS.

Tags: technology, Apple, PowerMac, G5, PowerPC, Intel, Leopard, World Wide Developers Conference, WWDC

Monopoly

In a story breaking on the BBC site, future versions of the Monopoly board game will have the paper money replaced by a cash card and electronic bank.

Part of me laments the loss of the feel good factor of cash and the fun I used to have in stashing my notes away, but I suppose the makers need to get with the times.

One question- do I need to wait for my chip and PIN number to come through the post before gameplay begins?

Tags: technology, games, Monopoly, Parker Brothers, cash, paper, money, cash card, transaction, bank, humour, humor

Consolidating GTD Collection Points

Merlin Mann, in his 45Folders Blog, today focusses in on the collection phase of "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. He ends by describing how important it is after the initial sweep to maintain your collection systems and keep them by your side at all times.

A colleague and I, both keen advocates of GTD, have taken this to the point where neither of us have a landline desk phone. The reason is that this removes an extra collection point- the landline answer phone. If we were to have one each, it would add time and complexity to collating tasks into our personal productivity systems (especially when away from the office).

Sure, our mobile bills are a little more, but that's the least of our worries.

Tags: personal, productivity, GTD, Getting Things Done, David Allen, 43 Folders, collection, mobile, telephony, landline, answerphone

Google Dips a Toe in the Columbia River

Ever wondered what it takes to cool the thousands of servers Google uses? Well, a new hosting facility is being built by the Columbia River, Oregan to provide Google with access to cheap hydroelectric energy in the area... and they need it. Look at the cooling requirement of the building in this series of pictures.

The page you're reading now will physically be in that building one day. Wierd.

Tags: technology, web, internet, hosting, servers, Google, Columbia River, hydroelectric, Oregan

Do Safety Features Breed Unsafe Behaviour?

An order for a Bournemouth bar to switch to polycarbonate 'glasses' on safety grounds is being challenged by the owners. They want to retain glass in a move to attract a more sophisticated clientele. I can see their point although two recent glassings do rather suggest that the clock is ticking.

I've heard things of this ilk described as "The Volvo Effect"- that is the propensity of drivers of very safe cars to drive with less care and attention than they otherwise might. The sub conscious can tend to think that you're immune to the consequences of lane drift etc.

Talking to an architect and an interior designer recently, they were suggesting that barge boards designed to protect walls in public buildings can actually engender a 'culture of disregard'. Staff and visitors see the boards and actually bounce trolleys and such like off them and drag bags along them. The professionals argue that in many circumstances it is better to create a desirable building which people respect- unwittingly or not. Apparently, how people react is not affected by their level of education or background either- everyone respects interesting and arresting buildings.

Tags: architecture, Bournemouth, glasses, polycarbonate, care, attitude, psychology, barge boards, buildings, interior designer

New Tactic for Al Fresco Drinking in Bournemouth

Certain in the knowledge that this blog will not reap enough initiated readers to ruin our fun, I'm going to let you into a little secret which MissClick and I have adopted. The problem we are solving is that on the most glorious days, Bournemouth can be inundated with 60,000 beach crawlers. Therefore all the decent pubs and bars with outdoor space are packed, leaving you queuing at the bar, fighting for seating space and generally being disappointed by the experience. We've found how to have an enjoyable, peaceful drink in Bournemouth on days like these...

We head for one of the great hotels... The Royal Bath and The Marriott Highcliff have been tried and tested so far and have proved to be not only chav free experiences, but all round pleasant afternoons. You'd think that they'd be really expensive but for a round or two I've not noticed the wallet becoming thinner noticeably faster than at anywhere else. In fact, the jug of Pimms for £15 at The Royal Bath is a great accompaniment to relaxation in the sun and sandwiches are available for little more than at the chain bars across the town centre.

If you're lucky, you might even get a recliner. How decadant is that?

Tags: Bournemouth, drinking, relaxation, The Royal Bath, Marriott Highcliff, de vere, Pimms, sunshine, summer, al fresco, Dorset, South Coast, UK

Technorati Refreshes Itself

David Sifry today announced a relaunch of Technorati to coincide with its 3rd birthday. Technorati has always been really useful for its core functionality- blog searches. There's been some incremental tickling round the edges, but the revamped site now seems bang up to the mark in terms of ease of use and new features. It also looks like a few things have been ironed out behind the scenes in terms of updates and stability, but time will tell on the latter.

Unlike the quick visits I've been making over the years, I can now expect to lose many hours to Technorati over the coming weeks.

One complaint is that I look a bit of billy no mates- with only ClickRich favoriting the ClickRich blog. I'm sure my, ahem, intelligent readers have more important things to do!

Tags: technology, Internet, blog, blogger, blogging, search engine, Technorati, web

Pirelli Advert

Here is an advert unlike anything I have ever seen. To use the word advert belies its genius. Even John Malkovich cannot be accused of selling out here. This is intense.

If you hadn't checked the URL, you'd be left wondering what it's all about until quite a way through.

Tags: advert, innovate, pirelli, video, film, Malkovich, advertisement

Female stereotypes in IT

Information Technology is a male dominated industry. Every one knows that. Lots of steps are being taken around the world to redress the balance. We all know that too. Are we waiting to see what the results are? NO... everyone just wants to see how the Australians are handling this, and expecting a good laugh.

True to form, the Oz strategy is to take IT rolemodel women and show them in a sort of Pirelli calendar. Exactly what we expect. Well done Australia.

Those who think that Sonja is a little close in composition to a certain UK TV advert which I was involved with in 2001, need not fear that I was in anyway involved in this calendar. I'm just a blogger.

Tags: technology, IT, women, calendar, glamour, stereotypes, pin up, sexy

When is RFID not RFID?

HP are keen for their new radio chips (or "Memory Spots") to not just be seen as another RFID technology. Developed at HP's labs in Bristol, UK, these chips will be able to store about 512kB of data- including video, sound or text.

Only readable at very short range, HP is being coy about the commercial applications (or they're not really sure). Putting the chips on patient bracelets with a full electronic patient record is a leading healthcare contender.

Tags: technology, IT, radiochips, memory spots, RFID, HP, healthcare IT, electronic patient record, Bristol, healthcare technology

Will Hack force Skype to Open Protocols?

With the alledged hacking of Skype's proprietary protocol is Skype's best long term tactic now to publish that protocol and enable developers to create alternative clients and hooks in other products? Will the efforts of the Chinese techies, who have built their own client to operate over the Skype network, open the floodgates?

Skype's first thoughts will be around panic, verifying the story, possible legal action and taking technical steps to protect their intellectual property and avoid instability on their network.

Should Skype turn this threat into an opportunity? Think of the extra users that 3rd parties could bring. Skype are probably the only VoIP player to be in a position to build a formidable barrier to entry by being integrated directly into a myriad of apps. If they can control the accounts, and therefore secure revenues, then this could be the opportunity of their lifetime.

Tags: technology, IT, VoIP, IM, Skype, open protocols, hacking, China

Freescale- One To Watch

Freescale is not a company known to most consumers. However, they are working on technologies which will thrust them to a near Intel-like status in the public limelight.

The first technology to put on your radar is UltraWideBand (UWB) as enabled by Freescale's Direct Sequence UWB chipset. This technology will take Bluetooth-like communications to where it is needed... more than 1GB/sec, minimal power consumption and plug-and-play connectivity. This will enable many industrial applications and, in the home, all manner of wireless media comms.

The second technology is the Magnetic Memory chip which uses magnetic switches rather than electrical charge. So why is that different to a hard drive? Well, there is a holy grail in enabling rich OSs such as the Windows platform to boot up near instantaneously. Accessing data from a harddrive is too slow. You need to use memory. The workaround in Vista might be to maintain power whilst the PC is effectively on standby. Goodbye environment. Flash has long term data degredation problems so is not appropriate. However, magnetoresistive random-access memory (Mram)might just be what is needed to boot up from.

Watch this space.

Tags: technology, IT, computing, power, MRAM, UWB, Freescale, Bluetooth, Ultrawideband, environment, magnetoresistive

Post-relational What?

I was visited today by a couple of chaps from Intersystems. My main hope from the meeting was to understand what 'post-relational' means when describing their database product Cache, and what benefits that brings. To be honest, they couldn't really satisfy my first hope thoroughly. Rather than storing data in rows and columns, it does some clever trickery around multidimensional arrays which means that you make fewer hard disk read/writes and you only store data (rather than the blanks in the fixed length fields).

Hmmm... onto the benefits. More promising, but how do you know what to believe? These gents were suggesting that if you rip out a MS SQL Server or Oracle database and do an ODMS or object port to Cache, then you can expect anything from a 4 to 7 times performance increase. Really badly written apps, or apps optimised for Cache could be as much as 200 times! Really? How do you measure that? Who can corroborate that?

The rest of the pitch was based on handling concerns. Yes, you can treat it like a relational database if you like. Yes, SQL statements run fine. Yes, objects using ADO .Net 2.0 will use the database unhindered. However, the jury is out as to what options you have if you are, for example, porting from MS SQL Server 2005 and using the integrated Business Intelligence-type services. Do you need a Business Objects to replace that?

My biggest question is that if it is so good, why is it not perceived as some sort of benchmark? Of course, what the salesmen won't tell you is what is wrong with it.

I'd love to know people's practical experience with Intersystems Cache.

Tags: technology, IT, computing, database, Intersystems, Cache, Microsoft, SQL Server 2005, Oracle, post-relational

IT Security misinformation in the NHS

After a review of a lightweight FujitsuSiemens tablet PC a reader commented that "I was dismayed by a Trust IT engineer response to a question about the timetable for wireless networking to the effect that the best wireless security can be hacked -wirelessly-in 10 minutes so the Trust is not considering it".

This is typical of someone who knows enough about IT to be dangerous being put in a position where someone actually respects their opinion. The IT "engineer" {choking on the abuse of the word 'engineer'} is living in the past. This was almost certainly true of Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) which could be decrypted from a finite number of data packets by finding patterns of known words in the header.

However, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) sorted all that long ago (was it Windows XP SP2?). Get over it and get using Wi-Fi.

Tags: technology, IT, mobile computing, mobility, TabletPC, WPA, wireless, WiFi, FujitsuSiemens, security

Business... Make it personal

In this modern age of IM, blogs and emails I've just had an extremely refreshing experience. I've had a one hour phone call with the CEO of a large technology company we are wanting to do some business development with around a BIG opportunity. We must have spent 90% of our time NOT talking business or technology. We've not met before and covered about everything from William Pitt the Younger to the demise of native Indians as Europeans populated North America.

I've little doubt that this 'small talk' was essential to building trust and therefore securing the partnership. Don't forget that business is done between people. Make those calls.

Tags: business, dealmaking, conversation, relationships

My 200th post, so put your feet up and watch this...

I can't believe that this is my 200th post on the ClickRich blog. So, I'm going to put my feet up and celebrate by watching this video by Frenchman Claude Lelouch who attached a camera to the front of his Ferrari in 1978 and handed it over to a Formula 1 driver who blasted round the open streets of Paris at speeds of up to 140mph. On release, Lelouch was arrested but to this day he has never revealed the identity of the driver.

A fine French achievement to detract us from Zidane's attrocious behaviour.

Tags: video, Formula One, Formula 1, Paris, motor racing, Lelouch, Ferrari, 275GTB

How sites used to be...

I was chewing the cudd with an old tech buddy tonight, lamenting how easy tech leaders have it today. "You can have a website without ever having touched a server", "I remember when we used to pay £36,000 per annum for our hosting" etc etc. We then started talking about "what the web used to be like". So, I thought I'd have a look to see what an antique website might look like. I figured that not-for-profits and associations might be fertile ground and sure enough came across The Channel Swimming Association.

Isn't it quaint? I love it. You can't help but spend money on their 'regalia'... oh, but wait- you can't. You need to email them your credit cards after placing the order online. Superb. I love the level of manual intervention required to fulfill the order.

You have to ask yourself the question... why need they do any more? In no way am I intending to write a post which is either patronising or snobbish. It's a great website. I might even swim the channel to prove my sincerity.

Tags: technology, web, Internet, browsing, swimming, channel, The Channel, Channel Swimming Association

Early Firefox assessment

Recently, I reported the need to install Mozilla Firefox, so what do I think? So far so good. The download was very smooth with my history, favourites and cached data ported over automatically from IE. This made the transition far less problematical.

So, what about the user experience? Well, it seems faster than IE6.0 and I like the tabbed browsing, although I think it will become more profound as you get used to it (I was naturally trying to Alt-Tab between windows). Equally it was frustrating that some sites wanted to open new windows rather than use the tabs. Hardly surprising really.

I found a few pages being rendered differently to IE6.0 and certainly not as the web designer intended. However, none of these occassions really disrupted my life immensely. Once such instance was in the Blogger.com editing facility, the other was on our corporate website.

Oh yes, and the first time I came across Flash there was all this business. Not an unsurmountable problem, but it makes you think about cross browser compatibility.

I'd summarise my experience with Firefox as really good so far, but it is interesting to see to what extent sites are largely optimised for IE. It's been educating.

Tags: technology, Internet, browser, Firefox, Mozilla

My African ignorance

Ethiopia.

To me, the mention of this nation conjures up images of droughts and starving children. This is why, when I read that Ethiopia produces 90% of its electricity power from hydro, I nearly fell off my chair.

When I alight this train, I'll have to take 30 minutes to learn more about this vast country.

Tags: geography, Ethiopia, energy, hydro, power, electricity

Great tool for documenting software requirements

The problem with documenting IT requirements is that you either reinvent the wheel in the detail you go into, or you leave gaping holes. Either that or the tool is too technical for a business user so they cannot express their needs.

But now we have a tool from STP which cleverly uses MS Visio, Excel and Word to help formally capture requirements in a structured way. This is no substitute for Unified Modelling Language, but then few true business analysts use UML (it's the domain of the developer analyst).

stpBA Storyboarding allows the user to drag and drop screens, controls and other components in the Visio environment and automatically drafts Functional Requirement documents in Word and Excel. Of course, versioning is all looked after and there are some neat screen grab tricks for where you are starting with a legacy system.

Tags: technology, IT, development, software, business analysis, analyst

When people are cleverer than you

Don't you just love it when you step back home after delivering a Technology presentation at a Healthcare conference, sit down to read your RSS feeds and see that someone has done a far better job of the subject matter on one of your slides?

I'm referring to Electronic Medical Records. I referred to half a dozen reasons as to why they're a good thing...

... Let me introduce you to the person who has thought of 50 reasons. Actually, the best I can do is to refer you to the EMR and HIPAA blog because I don't know who's behind it.

The first 13 reasons are here.
Reasons 14-26 are here.

Stay tuned to see the rest.

Tags: healthcare, IT, technology, Healthcare IT, EMR, EHR, electronic medical record

Open Mic for President

On hearing this clip of Al Gore turning comedian on Davenetics Blog, I figure this should be part of the presidential campaign. An open mic spot. It's perfect.

On a serious note, this is a clever tactic. Making your audience laugh (especially at yourself) is engaging and disarming. Al Gore goes on to discuss what the audience can do to reduce their impact on the environment- it's not the most seemless of links between the comedy and tough talk, but hey, that's why he keeps coming runner up.

Tags: US, politics, Al Gore, presidential, environment, energy, climate change

OK, I'll Download Firefox

On signing up for the Attention Trust, I was presented with another reason to install Firefox- to use the Attention Recorder.

After an extremely satisfactory introduction of Opera for the Symbian OS into my life, I understand that there are serious benefits to be had from trialling different browsers. I've just never got round to it on my PC. Anyway, with AttentionTrust tipping me over the abyss, ClickRich should soon be enjoying faster browsing, tabbed browsing and live bookmarks.

Watch this space for a report.

Tags: technology, Internet, browser, Firefox, Opera, AttentionTrust, AttentionRecorder

Mobile computing in Healthcare- more secure than paper?

In a survey reported on the BBC News site, it is claimed that the NHS is failing to use adequate security on portable data storage devices.

I could explore this for hours with the authors.

Although there is the risk of self-interest in the survey being carried out by Pointsec, a mobile data security business, you have to acknowledge that this is how these surveys are funded. The involvement of the British Journal of Healthcare Computing should provide a steadying hand (although they need something tasty to write about).

Anyway, let's put that behind us and think about what we mean by adequate security in the context of healthcare IT. Sure, sensitive patient data is being carried around on mobile devices by doctors. If those devices fall into the wrong hands then we can do nothing but consider that to be a bad thing. It goes without saying.

However, what did we used to do? We used to carry all that sensitive information on paper in briefcases... often quite attractive, solid, leather cases. Emminently thievable. This is not a new risk.

I'm not saying that mobile security doesn't need addressing, but we should take this in context. The nature of the risk environment has certainly changed:

1. More records are stored on the mobile devices than was carried around on paper.
2. More details are stored in each record to improve clinical decision making.
3. Healthcare IT credibility is influenced by the consequences of security compromise- no one was responsible for paper!
4. Users depend on expert advice to assess and ensure security.

Tags: technology, business, mobile, IT, computing, NHS, healthcare, healthcare IT, security, PDA, Pointsec

Why is the NYSE trying to buy the LSE?

Storyboarding the future is a tried and tested trick of technology consultants, but this 2015 video by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is one of the most motivating agents of change I've seen. You can't imagine their managers being anything other than spirited to embrace change after watching this. I like the way that the BIG rival of Goldman Sachs is singled out for attention.

Want to see what happens to the likes of eBay, Amazon, Google and Sony? Watch the video. Although there is a disclaimer at the end, how can you not believe this video has been sent back to us from the future?

...you cynics.

Tags: technology, business, futurology, storyboarding, banking, money markets, trading, DKW, GoldmanSachs, eBay, Google, NYSE, LSE

LlamaGraphics Close but no Cigar

In an earlier post I lamented the limitations of the preinstalled Task management software on the Symbian OS of my Nokia N70. I thought I'd found the answer to the problem in LifeBalance from LlamaGraphics. However, Symbian isn't supported.

They do deserve an honourable mention though, for what appears to be a cracking piece of software (both from a review of the website and the plaudits of a colleague who uses the PalmOS flavour on his Treo).

I'll continue to twiddle my thumbs though...

Tags: technology, business, mobile, productivity, tasks, to do, Nokia, Llamagraphics, Life Balance, Symbian, PalmOS

4G Spotted

Just when you were thinking about upgrading to a new 3G phone, someone mentions 4G and you freeze...

What now?

Much like the annual hunt for the first Christmas Selection Packs to hit the shops, I've spotted the first public reference to 4G telephony outside of techy circles (and if I'm honest, without really looking seriously).

And it came from the Johnny Latecomers of the mobile industry- the US. They've caught up, and in the shape of Sprint Nextel's CEO, Gary Forsee, have announced their intention to go through the next step change.

However, after the performance hype of 3G, Mr Forsee is being more circumspect and referring to a "10 fold cost-performance improvement" which keeps the detail nice and wide open.

Tags: technology, business, mobile, telephone, 4G, fourth generation, Nextel

A Bridge Too High

Actually, more of "A Pun Too Far" as the Millau Viaduct is certainly very high (the highest in the world, in fact) but not too high (as far as my structural-integrity-o-meter can tell). MissClick and I visited the Millau Viaduct in the Midi Pyrenees region of France last week. To be fair, MissClick was largely being tolerant of my selfish wishes in agreeing to drive to Millau, but I think both of us stood in awe of the spectacle before us (over our emmental and chorizo half bagettes).

As you travel north you are suddenly launched out of a cutting into a cliffside onto the bridge. It doesn't carry water, so why it is named a viaduct is news to me- because it travels over water? Not what I was taught. Anyway, you are suddenly the height of the Eiffel Tower above the valley floor and marvelling at the cable stays and pylons, before you're scrabbling for change at the peage toll booth.

We then lunged down into Millau and, via a viewing point (and lunch), round to the information centre.

Rather cutely, the petrol forecourt of the supermarche in the shadow of the viaduct reflects the structure in the form of the canopy supports.

Still, I'm sure the British architects Foster & Partners won't be suing for infringement of intellectual property... and if you don't like bridges, just visit one of the Roquefort Fromageries round the corner and all will be good again.


Tags: Millau, bridge, viaduct, Foster, architecture, France, Midi Pyrenees

Redefining Healthcare

Although this book is only available on import from the US and is written about the woes of the US Healthcare market, "Redefining Healthcare" by the celebrated Management Consultant Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg, is essential reading for anyone in healthcare management.

The analysis is hugely incisive, lucidly delivered and astutely structured, leading to conclusions which apply in any country's healthcare market.

This is a future shaper... Shining the light on one of the megatrends of this generation.

Tags: healthcare, business, hospitals

Every Picture Tells a Story

Wouldn't you just love to know the story behind this car... and the number plate?

Tags: Ferrari, relationships, numberplate, humour, humor, automobile

BBC's Tech Savvy Credentials Proven

On Monday I commented on the fact that Robert Scoble's resignation from Microsoft was even reported by the front page of the BBC's news site. Well, for what should be a fuddy duddy organisation, the BBC showed how leading edge it is when Robert Scoble himself published his blog traffic stats. Who was the top referrer by a factor of nearly 3? The BBC website. Worth paying the TV license for.

Tags: technology, blogs, blogging, blogger, BBC, Scobleizer, web traffic

Business Rules Rule

I met with the founder, and what seemed like half the Board, of a business rules management system (BRMS) vendor this week. They pretty much defined the genre by convincing Forrester of its emergence. A natural extrapolation of the Expert Systems of the 1990s, BRMS is really starting to shake up the way us technology users handle short cycle requirement changes. Ian Grahms has written extensively on the subject. I believe all the ingredients are in place to make this sector explode- processing power, knowledgeable buyers, componentisation of enterprise systems etc. Watch this space.

Tags: technology, enterprise, business, systems, IT, BRMS, rules

Voicemail to Text

Has anyone (especially in the UK) tried any voicemail to text gateway services like SpinVox? I fancy giving it a go, but my voicemails are so valuable that even a free trial doesn't quite cut it. I'd like some recommendations from strangers please :) I lose so much time to catching up with Voicemails because I can easily do 4 to 8 hours of meetings a day. Whilst I can do sub-2 minute tasks and emails in some of those meetings, I can't check the voicemails. Then I need to spend an hour catching up at the end of the day and carrying tasks through to tomorrow. It would be so much better to deal with the voicemails as emails in the meetings.

I'm worried about setting it up and then not being in control. Anyone?

Also, any alternatives to SpinVox out there?

Tags: technology, message gateways, voicemail, email, productivity, Spinvox

Not all US Politicians are Blinkered

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore tries to break through US apathy towards the environment. Now we just need that other US politician (you know, the one that calls the shots) to watch the film. It might trigger something.

Tags: environment, climate change, Al Gore, film, An Inconvenient Truth

Even the Beeb Website leads with Scobleizer Story

You must have heard, it's all over the web, Robert Scoble has resigned from Microsoft. You can read about it e v e r y w h e r e.

As a sign of the growing importance of blogging, and in particular of the corporate blog, what is very interesting is how the story managed to break onto the home page of the BBC News website. You can read the stats on how many people read Scobleizer, but this is a real milestone.

Tags: technology, Internet, blog, blogger, blogging, Scobleizer, Robert Scoble, Microsoft, Podtech.net

Hobbits, Chewing Gum, Greensleeves and Fine Knit Sweaters

They don't sound like likely ingredients for the local history of Branksome Park in between Poole and Bournemouth. However, Iris Morris's book "Looking Back at Branksome Park" (one of a series of local history books by the same author published by Old Thyme Publishing, Poole) presents a painstakingly researched account of the area which links these disperate entities.

I can recommend this book for anyone who wants to see a history interwoven with residents such as JRR Tolkien, The Wrigley family (of chewing gum fame), Mantovani (the orchestra leader and musical arranger who had a best selling record with Greensleeves in 1952) and the Marsden-Smedley family (of John Smedley knitwear).

I never knew this area had such interesting characters chronicled alongside the better known residents such as the Duke of Westminster and Lady Wimborne (auntie to Sir Winston Churchill).

Tags: Dorset, Branksome Park, Poole, Bournemouth, Iris Morris, JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Wrigleys, Mantovani, John Smedley, history

3.96 Million New Websites Last Month

Largely fuelled by the blogging phenomenon, Netcraft measured the largest increase in the number of websites in one month since their records began. Their June 2006 survey recorded 3.96 million new websites (that's 4.7% in proportional terms). Back in March 2003 there was an 8.5% increase in one month, but this was beaten in absolute terms this time round.

In the rest of the analysis, it is interesting to see Microsoft platforms continuing to take share from the market leading LAMP brigade (with the Apache server).

Tags: technology, Internet, websites, domains, webserver, Netcraft, survey, Microsoft, Apache

43Folders added to my RSS feeds

Just as folk are maybe starting to thing that I AM David Allen due the number of plugs I give his book, I find a bigger blog-based advocate in 43Folders. The first article I read was advice on shaving which was a pleasant surprise. The author, Merlin Mann, takes a broad view of productivity and writes about 'life hacks'.

The name 43 Folders comes from the number of folders in a tickler file. Don't know what a tickler file is? Well, read the book and then go and set one up.

Tags: work, personal development, productivity, effective, professional, Getting Things Done, 43 Folders, tickler, David Allen

Nokia N70 Task Synch Problem

Anyone reading my blog recently will know that I'm on something of a mission in maximising my personal productivity and that of my colleagues. It all started with the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen (more to be found in this blog and more to follow).

However, I'm in need of someway of categorising my Tasks as they synchronise onto my Nokia N70. Obviously, Outlook is able to categorise what I need (agenda, office, PC, phone, projects, waiting). Unfortunately, the To-Do app on my phone (preinstalled) doesn't get that piece of info when I synch. The result is that my personal management system isn't working for me. Well, perhaps it's working, but is my next BIG hurdle in pursuing my increase in productivity (and a better lifestyle).

Any ideas? Anyone used an alternative java to-do/task list app for the Symbian operating system?

Tags: technology, telephony, mobile, 3G, Nokia, N70, productivity, synchronisation

NTL:Telewest report 2 hours a day of office timewasting

In a press release today, NTL:Telewest report that, on average, UK office workers waste more than 2 hours a day. Presumably this excludes pursuing futile bids and sales calls from water fountain companies :) 38 minutes was allocated to communication technologies not being used to good effect. This is something we're trying to manage sensitively in our office- especially email. You need to remember that each email distracts the recipient for a minute or two, so does that warrant sending the email- or should the subject be modified to indicate how it might be handled?

Several of us have been so impressed with "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, that we're rolling it out as compulsory reading around the office and even had a presentation by a particular long term advocate. I've started to embed the processes into my working life and am finding I'm much more productive and much more able to leave work behind (consciously and subconsciously) on an evening or weekend. I trust the systems I've put in place. Much more to do though.

Tags: NTL:Telewest, work, personal development, productivity, effective, professional, Getting Things Done, book, review, David Allen, Amazon

A picture says a thousand words

Few areas of IT sound dryer than 'Knowledge Management' which is quite something when you bear in mind that this is already spin on 'Document Management' *yawn*. However, in investigating extranet and portal solutions, I've just been given a demo of some visualisation tools from Information Graphics (or Infograph). They have quite a product portfolio, but I was I taken with the Brava! suite of apps that specifically deal with viewing and annotation of images. What is really, ahem, 'cool' is that using java or .NET (API/applet thingumbies) they have been able to let the browser view so many formats of images, from the obvious big 5 (jpg, tiff, pdf, bmp and png) through to specialist CAD formats and twenty or so document formats (no, not just Microsoft). You can then annotate what you see without touching the original- the data is stored in an xml layer.

With so many collaboration solutions making use of the Internet through products like Microsoft Sharepoint, Oracle Collaboration Suite, BEA Plumtree and Metadot, Brava is a company I'd invest my two-penneth in.

Tags: technology, Internet, visualisation, visualization, applet, Java, .Net, Infograph, Information Graphics, Brava, Sharepoint, Collaboration, Plumtree, Metadot, Microsoft, Oracle, BEA

How do they do that?

This weekend, we (the Royal 'we') visited the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2005 touring exhibition at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen (it must have taken the year to reach Bovey Tracey). It was much more impressive than I though it would be and was filled with amazing displays, but for me the real takeaway was an understated coffee table in the gift shop by Robert Kilvington.

Perhaps it is the engineer in me, or that my grandfather was a joiner and cabinet maker, but I REALLY want to know how Mr.Kilvington did these joints. I can see how to cut the shapes, fiddly as they may be- but think about it, how do you bring these two pieces together? It's a conundrum and would love to know the secret. Wonderful.

Tags: woodwork, joinery, furniture, table, art, Devon, Bovey Tracey

Believe in Magic? Don't Watch This

We all know that magic is a clever illusion right? Well, bear that in mind as you watch this video.

Guys are showing this stuff on TV now, so I'm not so worried about ruining Christmas, if you know what I mean...

Tags: magic, illusion, levitation

Low PC Pricing Driving Unqualified After Sales Pitches

Something I've been hearing much scorn over recently is how large PC vendors, driven to very low price points, are resorting to after sales pitches which take "batteries not included" to a whole new level. They should be wary of damaging their brands. Obviously after-sales warranties etc are nothing new to any area of consumer electronics, and neither is the phenomenon of excluding items which had hitherto been inclusive as the competition hots up.

However, recent techniques are generating a whole new level of chagrin. John Ludwig describes how, on buying a low end HP, he spent hours (on top of Windows Activation) being forced through pitch after pitch which stood between him and him and actually doing anything useful.

Extended warranties, internet access, HP registration, Symantec, Money, Quicken, Office, Rhapsody, AOL, AOL Music, Ebay... his list goes on. No doubt that joint marketing deals with HP are very carefully calculated to provide the hooks to turn a $500 purchase into something north of $600. You can't blame them for the effort, but its time we reminded these guys of how many frustrated birthdays were created for simply not including batteries. I still don't forgive Sir Clive Sinclair for not including a mains plug on my Zx Spectrum when my birthday was on a Sunday and the shops were shut.

I also wonder what would happen if you actually said yes to all these offers on a low spec machine. My guess is that you're on the highway to rebuildsville.

Tags: technology, computing, PC, hardware, business