Windows Mobile IE To Render Web Pages Accurately

From Electronista: The next version of Microsoft’s mobile OS beyond Windows Mobile 6.1 will be the first to directly tackle advancements brought about by the iPhone, according to statements the company has made at the recent Mobius conference and echoed by Engadget. The unnamed update will effectively port a desktop version of Internet Explorer to … Continue reading “Windows Mobile IE To Render Web Pages Accurately”

From Electronista:

The next version of Microsoft’s mobile OS beyond Windows Mobile 6.1 will be the first to directly tackle advancements brought about by the iPhone, according to statements the company has made at the recent Mobius conference and echoed by Engadget. The unnamed update will effectively port a desktop version of Internet Explorer to the handset environment to render web pages in a largely accurate manner similar to that of Apple’s mobile Safari browser.

Wow, two updates.

  1. they’re going to port desktop IE to Windows Mobile
  2. they’re going to make IE render web pages in a largely accurate manner

Frankly I don’t know which is the bigger surprise.

No schedule, no timing, just a bit of vapourware to keep the FUD machines running.

Top 10 reasons for IT to support the iPhone

Philip Elmer-DeWitt makes an entire article for Fortune out of blockquoting a Forrester Research article Forrester predicts that the iPhone will find its way into many enterprise environments — if it hasn’t already — because C-level executives are buying them and expecting support from IT. It’s only a matter of time before the iPhone filters … Continue reading “Top 10 reasons for IT to support the iPhone”

Philip Elmer-DeWitt makes an entire article for Fortune out of blockquoting a Forrester Research article

Forrester predicts that the iPhone will find its way into many enterprise environments — if it hasn’t already — because C-level executives are buying them and expecting support from IT. It’s only a matter of time before the iPhone filters down the corporate pyramid, and IT should have a strategy to handle these requests.

and goes on to provide 10 reasons why IT should not or will not support the iPhone.

Balls to that. Here’s my counter-offer.

  1. Supports industry standard POP and IMAP with SSL out of the box This gives the IT manager a huge amount of choice in which mailserver to use. No longer is he limited to using Exchange and the legacy that entails. And yeah, you can get Push email too.
  2. Developer support is huge months BEFORE the SDK is out. Companies such as SAP have admitted they have early access to the iPhone SDK and are into the development of an iPhone app for their software. When the SDK hits the general public in February you’ll see an explosion of applications.
  3. Lacks a keyboard so more of the real estate of the device is usable Especially relevant for the web where we spend more time consuming data and reports. Instead of 30% of the device being turned into a chiclet keyboard which you need to learn to use, you have all of the size of the unit as a screen.
  4. The best support for web standards anywhere because it uses WebKit at its heart – the same rendering engine used by Nokia’s smartphones and also Google’s Android OS. Open source and developed by Apple. I did some shopping the other day, first time I’d ever shopped online using a phone. On the company’s REAL web site, not some cut down mobile version. And yes, over EDGE too.
  5. Premium features for standard prices as the iPhone’s features far outstrip the capabilities of other smartphones yet is priced around the same. Again, reduce your support burden as you find executives don’t need to lug around their fragile laptops.
  6. It’s made this splash and it’s been out less than six months which has to be remembered. Already iPhone web browsers outnumber people browsing the web on Microsoft’s Windows CE/Pocket PC operating system and that OS has been shipping for 10 years now. It would be stupid to ignore the momentum.
  7. It’s built upon a UNIX based operating system, with cutting edge developer tools, and a revolutionary user interface.
  8. It’s got RIM, Microsoft, Nokia and others scared. Being a good IT person is about providing technology that provides a competitive advantage. These companies wouldn’t be scared for nothing. It’s up to the IT department to squeeze the iPhone for the competitive advantage.
  9. This is the first generation Not a usual advantage? Perhaps not. But the iPhone beats the pants off anything out there in the first generation with 1.0 software. Sounds like time for the IT department to kit themselves out with one and learn this new device.
  10. The End User will use it. That’s absolutely terrifying to a legacy Microsoft-styled IT department. Their entire subculture is filled with FUD. It’s too fragile to enable anything useful and anything that isn’t taught on the MCP course is simply beyond them. God forbid that anything should be “easy” or that it should work as planned. The two biggest bluffers I ever met were a Laurel and Hardy duo of Wintel SysAdmins. Nice blokes I’m sure but utterly useless in IT.

By far one of the best reasons for getting an iPhone would be to rub the nose of “ringzero” from Brisbane, Australia in it. His comments on the Fortune story highlight why most IT departments should be outsourced to some of the big outsourcing companies because then when your IT service is crap, at least you’re getting what you paid for.

His number one reason for why iPhone shouldn’t be supported?

  • Users are stupid. They will lose, break or abuse this.

Times like this I loathe other IT people. And it would be the primary reason I’m not keen on attending IT conferences. Sentiments like that, about your Users, don’t make you sound big and clever. They make you sound like an ass. And it’s exactly the same sort of stereotyping bigotry that makes cops think they are above the law. Wintel IT folk have to remember that they’re utterly disposable. There’s another guy round the corner who’s cheaper, smarter, better qualified and isn’t a bigoted prick.

More Windows Blowhards

Microsoft blogger I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. What are the things that spring to mind here? Vista is being derided as a turkey and here we have a Microsoft blogger selling us the next version? … Continue reading “More Windows Blowhards”

Microsoft blogger

I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7.

What are the things that spring to mind here?

  1. Vista is being derided as a turkey and here we have a Microsoft blogger selling us the next version? How about you finish Vista SP1 before you try and shark more money out of honest people, you utter bastards.
  2. Features in Apple’s current handheld first-generation product will be blown away by features in Microsoft’s unfinished shipping at some point around 2010 desktop/laptop operating system. Does anyone smell bullshit?
  3. Microsoft have been selling touch-screen Windows for years and years and they’ve all been turkeys. They couldn’t even produce a good Mobile OS.
  4. The last thing we heard about Microsoft’s “Surface Computing” was when they introduced a $10 000 coffee table to compete with the iPhone. That sank like a lead balloon though I’m sure they’ll sell four or five to a few Microsoft millionaires. Nothing like eating your own dogfood.

This made laughs. Spontaneously.

What is it about the laughing baby? Made me smile. Her indoors had the giggles… Related posts: Smile Strategies iPhone Belfast… 9/100 How I Find Blogging Ideas Beat the Rest. Be the Best.

What is it about the laughing baby?

Made me smile. Her indoors had the giggles…

This made me chuckle

\spazdor\ how do you get a Cisco Certified Network Administrator off your porch? \cnug\ …? \spazdor\ pay for your pizza Thanks to Conor for pointing it out. For a while there it seemed everyone was a CCNA – at least it seemed that way while I was at the Tech teaching people how to become … Continue reading “This made me chuckle”

\spazdor\ how do you get a Cisco Certified Network Administrator off your porch?
\cnug\ …?
\spazdor\ pay for your pizza

Thanks to Conor for pointing it out.

For a while there it seemed everyone was a CCNA – at least it seemed that way while I was at the Tech teaching people how to become a CCNA!

12/100 How Schools Could Use Social Media

At first glance, the association seems obvious. School is all about learning but also about socialising with other human beings (in the sense of trying to make you sociable). Pastoral care can also be a term generally applied to the practice of looking after the personal and social wellbeing of children under the care of … Continue reading “12/100 How Schools Could Use Social Media”

At first glance, the association seems obvious. School is all about learning but also about socialising with other human beings (in the sense of trying to make you sociable).

Pastoral care can also be a term generally applied to the practice of looking after the personal and social wellbeing of children under the care of a teacher. It can encompass a wide variety of issues including health, social and moral education, behaviour management and emotional support.

link, Wikipedia

Judging this, about utilising the positive aspects of peer pressure, the power of social media would seem to be greatly beneficial in a school or formal education setting.

Schools in this country, on the other hand, take a different view. They routinely block access, just like big companies, to social media web sites and punish those who try and access their services. The advantages of social media in terms of collaboration is rigidly controlled – and espouses a lot of the negatives. I loathed group homeworks because I knew that I’d end up doing the vast majority of the work because some people you could never depend on (probably because the peer pressure to not do the homework was greater than the pressure to do the homework).

Another negative aspect of social media was the recent suicide of a teenage girl who was harassed on Myspace by the parents of a girl in her school. Again, surprisingly these adults are not being incarcerated for cyberstalking at least.

By bringing social media into the classroom where it can be also viewed by teachers as well as parents, we could hope to get some increased transparency into the lives of our children as they grow and develop into young adults. By relegating it to an after-school pursuit, exercised while the child is at home and the parents may be trying to make dinner or just catch a breath after a days work, it becomes the province of the child alone. Parents and educators need to be embracing it – to use it as a way of spreading awareness and education, to help their wards make friends and at the same time, be on hand for when things turn nasty.

In the most simple terms I wish my kids schools would update their web sites regularly and would it be too much to ask to put together an RSS feed? I’ve done some work in this area for the campaign to improve Colby Park Playground in Four Winds and also with the What’s on Where for Kids web site. Having a school blog with comments open to parents would provide a very effective method of feedback and provides the simplest form of the read/write web, the essence of social media, turning the web into a conversation.

[Chris Brogan’s 100 topics]

Failure is very much your own fault

The thing about being in a small business is that everything is personal. In a massive company, you’re such a small cog that no-one has the same level of direct power (in a very negative sense). A CEO and his board can lay off thousands of people indirectly and can blame it on the market, … Continue reading “Failure is very much your own fault”

The thing about being in a small business is that everything is personal.

In a massive company, you’re such a small cog that no-one has the same level of direct power (in a very negative sense). A CEO and his board can lay off thousands of people indirectly and can blame it on the market, on restructuring the business, on the wrong kind of snow. There are sufficient degrees of separation to make it feel less. And before you tell me that CEOs of big corporations agonise over redundancies, I’m sure they do, while receiving a $40 million bonus. Real agony.

When you’re the manager of a small business, you’re close to the iron – letting one person go is a very personal, very intense activity – even if the person is being sacked for wrongdoing. But it’s worse with redundancies. This kind of failure is your fault. Your own personal, direct, no-excuses, fault.

I’m at the stage right now where I see a crossroads. I can continue down the safe path and things will be fine. Or I can take a step along the riskier path, potentially see greater rewards but expose myself and my employees to substantially greater risk. Over the last four years with Mac-Sys I’ve seen this kind of path unfold. Mac-Sys was a lot of work, it took a lot of soul and it meant breaking friendships and in some cases, making enemies of people. I’m told by some people that I have a great opportunity with it but that can be hard to see when you consider the attendant risks.

I honestly don’t know if I have recovered enough from the last time to take this next step – the stress of looking after 6 families was incredible and everyone involved contributed a little to it. My health suffered, my head suffered, my beard disappeared. Some of the wounds of those years haven’t healed but currently I’m feeling the need to move on, to take the next step. To push it.

11/100 My Children Will Do it Differently

I remember, about 100 years ago, in 1983 I was in school and being coached into writing a letter in French to a French person in return for a letter back in English. I remember not being utterly thrilled with the idea. About two years later a Spanish girl at a resort foisted her home … Continue reading “11/100 My Children Will Do it Differently”

I remember, about 100 years ago, in 1983 I was in school and being coached into writing a letter in French to a French person in return for a letter back in English. I remember not being utterly thrilled with the idea. About two years later a Spanish girl at a resort foisted her home address onto me as I climbed onto the bus to leave for home. She then followed me onto the coach and refused to get off unless I kissed her. I was horribly embarrassed as forty passengers on the coach sighed a collective “awwww” at the prospect of such young love. I was fourteen, she was sixteen. And it went nowhere. Making long distance friends just wasn’t convenient back in the 80s.

Due to life I made a lot of friends on the Internet over the years – some I got to know beyond their internet handles and some remain a bit of mystery. Some, I miss – like Coral and Wildeyes – and others I just keep good memories of. Making long distance friends had gotten a lot easier but because net access seemed to be restricted to diehard geeks and people in college, you might find that you lost track of people as soon as they graduated. And some people may not realise you were friends because your username now is utterly different to the username you had in college.

Later still, when I became single again, I made some more friends across the Internet. Some like Jared, Zach, Lewis, Stefano, Lynda, Ali, Suzi, James, Waleska and I’m sure there are others I could mention, have become regular friends. The girl I’m going to marry in 2008 I also originally met on the ‘net though it took a year of on-off real world friendship for us to become more than that. I love you, Arlene x.

What I’ve noticed about FaceBook, in the few months I’ve been there is that it adds very little to my online experience. It, and other sites, provide an online connecting experience for people where they can message each other, find old friends, make new friends and keep alive a tenuous connection which may become a friendship but may equally also remain as just a coincidence (oh, so we went to school together. How….quaint.) I’m not in touch with any of my classmates from school. I don’t know how it happened but I just didn’t have anything in common with them and it means that now school is a (very) distant memory, I see no reason to suddenly hook up with these people who, let’s be honest, I didn’t like much when I was 17 and I see even less in common with them now. The sentiment of “I knew you once” just doesn’t cut it.

I understand my experience to be comparatively progressive. While I’m impatient with the standard of social networks at the moment (FaceBook, Friendster, FriendsReunited, FaceParty, Bebo, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn and others), it’s more because I was using an analog of instant messenger and chat rooms back in 1991 with text-based MUD/MUSH games. QUB was surprisingly negative about the phenomenon but then their policies have always been short-sighted and their facilities excellent but crippled by jobsworths. Having friends online only has never been an obstacle for me. I have about 200 people on my buddy lists and though seldom more than 20 are online at any one time, I get enough feedback about them from their presence and seldom feel the need to actively communicate. Passive communication can be enough.

My kids are already waking up to a world where their playmates are not in the house next door. Whether it’s doing homework across a videoconferencing link, sharing ideas via email or instant messenger, meeting online with the Mii avatars to play online games or even just beating up Cogs in Disney’s MMORPG “Toontown” with other cartoon-themed players, they’re not going to be cognisant that in the “olden days” we had to travel to a friends house in order to play. Traveling will be one of many options – and I think it will be important to reinforce the importance of face-to-face play.

But this world of tenuous but less ephemeral connections I fully expect my kids to retain these coincidental friends for much longer on their buddy lists. Where I am wowed by the possibilities of the computer in my hand, I find non-technologists to be under-awed. Their understanding of what went before and what is possible now is not connected. They don’t necessarily realise how hard it is to build these networks and services – as much as I don’t really understand how a TV works.

I want to actively encourage their participation in these online worlds of connected presence. Where the four of them will have an online protected identity, connected securely to their friends and family.

[Chris Brogan’s 100 topics]

Tiny Supercomputers

The BBC is outdoing itself this week with coverage of technology topics: Supercomputers may one day be the size of a laptop thanks to research by IBM. Does anyone remember the marketing of the PowerMac G4 because it was possible to do 1 gigaflop which was a previous measure of supercomputers (as defined by mid-80s … Continue reading “Tiny Supercomputers”

The BBC is outdoing itself this week with coverage of technology topics:

Supercomputers may one day be the size of a laptop thanks to research by IBM.

Does anyone remember the marketing of the PowerMac G4 because it was possible to do 1 gigaflop which was a previous measure of supercomputers (as defined by mid-80s export regulations in the US).

Is it any surprise that some day in the future, today’s supercomputer power will be harnessed in a device the size of a laptop?

Stating the blindingly obvious….

iPhone versus 3G Phone web shootout

A German web site did a test between the iPhone and a recent 3G phone in web rendering. Time in seconds taken to render the following web sites Webseite iPhone(EDGE, 2.5G) Nokia E61i (UMTS, 3G) Die Zeit 76 79 EBay 30 26 Applephoneinfo 31 27 You also have to consider that the iPhone renders it … Continue reading “iPhone versus 3G Phone web shootout”

A German web site did a test between the iPhone and a recent 3G phone in web rendering.

Time in seconds taken to render the following web sites

Webseite iPhone
(EDGE, 2.5G)
Nokia E61i
(UMTS, 3G)
Die Zeit 76 79
EBay 30 26
Applephoneinfo 31 27

You also have to consider that the iPhone renders it better but that may be an entirely subjective thing.