From the Blogosphere

RhoHub: GPL and Dual Licensing

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:15:00 EST

Some people say “oh, you’re dual licensing like MySQL. So does that mean that I get to use it and not pay as I don’t with my MySQL based website?” Companies such as Google have thousands of MySQL servers running without paying license fees for it, due to a loophole in the GPL (in both GPLv2 and GPLv3) known as the “Google exception” or “ASP exception”. Specifically that access to your derivative work over http does not count as redistribution (or “conveyance” in GPLv3 parlance). It is for this reason that there Affero General Public License was created. Unfortunately for software vendors that have chosen to use the AGPL, it isn’t really accepted much as a widespread license. The Rhodes framework however is not subject to this loophole. So even with our status under a popular license such as GPLv3 closed source customers must purchase a commercial license for it.

Werner Vogels, Bradley Horowitz, and Jonathan Zittrain

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST

I’m at Supernova. (live stream) I’ve come in a little late on an afternoon session. Werner Vogels talks about cloud computing. He contrasts it with a 1900 Belgian beer brewery that had to have its own electricity generator, which took a lot of maintenance and didn’t help it make better beer. He warns that any offering that taps into the large social networks may find itself with traffic suddenly spiking by orders of magnitude.

COO of Vodafone Talks ‘LTE and the Rise of the Mobile Prosumer’

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST

Such consumer and technology transformation has distorted the way 'Prosumers' consume their products and services, and interact with their mobile devices. The industry waits to see if Asia's Top Telecom guns can decide on a unified approach to map revenue streams back to the operators. Leading operators are now finding themselves in the hands of the ever-creative software/hardware companies and the changing consumer culture. iPhone appstore was the first to take advantage and make millions from the operators' customers, creating a financial redistribution within the Telecom industry. Despite this the world’s largest mobile-phone company (Vodafone) has just posted a 2.9 percent rise in profit. A consortium led by Vodafone COO Kyle Whitehill is currently meeting in Sentosa at the NGT Summit held by GDS International. This closed meeting featuring Zhang Fan - CTO - China Unicom, Anil Tandan - CTO - Idea Cellular, Ravinder Jain - CIO – Aircel and Mu Piao Shih - President - Chunghwa Telecom was called to debate the rapid pace of communication, transforming from the one-to-one (direct) voice communication to the fast, informal and responsive opinion and thought exchange we have today and how operators can reduce the immense cost of a large network but maintain a high level of customer experience.

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie on Mobile Applications and the iPhone

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:15:00 EST

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, recently commented in an interview with CNET, "Yes, iPhone has a lot of momentum, unquestionably. But I think the phenomenon we're in right now is the app phone. And if you look at the depth of apps that are on these phones, they're not very deep. It's not like Office or AutoCAD, where there are just thousands of man years that have gone into developing these apps. They're relatively thin apps that are companions to some service."

Feature Checklist of Mobile Device Management Tools

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

Mobile Device Management (MDM) refers to the approaches or solutions used by companies to remotely manage their mobile devices (PDAs, Smartphones, Laptops, Netbooks). Variety of devices involved pose a big challenge for anyone who intends to implement a Mobile Device Management Solution. In fact, a single solution may never fully satisfy the all the requirements. Using hybrid solutions (multiple solutions from different vendors doing complimentary tasks) is a common approach that is used to solve this problem.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Complains

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

In September I mentioned that Michael Hickins had reported on phone spoofing with cell phones to avoid sanctions for calling to Iran. Now The Economist reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan complains that “they eavesdropped on me for six years.” "They" may possibly be the Turkish Justice Ministry. Have something sensitive to say? Take the battery out of your mobile phone, as Bruce Schneier has been saying for years. (Check that link in The Economist before 11/19/2010. After a year all Economist content is only available to paid subscribers.)

Will the Windows Store Fail?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

I’m in Scottsdale, Arizona…and thought it might be interesting to visit the new Windows Store in Fashion Square Mall. Here’s the picture I took…with my iPhone…from the front of the store… Notice anything? I’ll bet you do! If the logo on the front was absent, you would think you were walking by an Apple Store! Sure, there are some cosmetic differences…however, it is SO blatantly derivative of the competition, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Look, I’m an Apple guy…in the interest of full disclosure…I’m typing this on my MacBook Pro from the Phoenix Airport. ...

Would You Like to Touch My Mono?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST

At one point I was actually thinking about writing a book for .NET developers to learn Cocoa but other plans, time constraints, and life issues all got in the way. I have posted countless times comparing the worlds of Cocoa and .NET and have twice presented at Apple's WWDC comparing both the desktop and mobile programming environments of Apple and Microsoft. So you can imagine the raw, unfiltered, pure geek joy that coursed through my veins when I heard about Monotouch, a programming library coupled with an IDE (MonoDevelop + Interface Builder) that would let me write my iPhone applications using C# and the .NET Framework (the mono version).

Instant Professionalism Online Despite Yourself...with Ulitzer

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:45:00 EST

I read an article by an author on Ulitzer.com and was amazed at the professional image it provided him. I immediately researched Ulitzer to see if there was yet hope for me. I am a technology blogger on the subject of mobile computing strategies. As I was doing research I came across the author Ian Thain, a fellow mobile computing blogger, who had a very professional website on Ulitzer (www.ulitzer.com). Professional envy motivated me to investigate this thing called Ulitzer. Ian's website looked like he had spent a great deal of time and money on it - all things I am short on.

Five Days with a Droid

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

I got my Droid about five days ago, and immediately took it on the road with me, which meant I didn't have the quality time I wanted to settle into a nook and read Persian love poetry to it. But, I did get a sense of how it looks to ...

Using Game Salad for Rapid Game Development for the iPhone

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:10:00 EST

Talk to iPhone developers and they will tell you that game development for the iPhone is not hard. OK, that’s great for them, but what about us mere mortals that quake at the thought of having to write code. For us there is now alternative: GameSalad.com GameSalad is two products. The first product is a piece of software you download to your desktop that allows you to build your games. The second is a service you upload your game too and have it converted for your iPhone.

Google Plays the Openness Card

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST

While Apple has blocked the Someecards app because some of the cards have made fun of public figures, Google has asked the app to port on over to Android phones. (BTW, I got a Droid today.)

What FINRA Doesn’t Want You to Know About Social Media

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:15:00 EST

Topic A at the recent Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Annual Meeting (SIFMA) was what to do about the fastest-growing communications phenomenon since the invention of the Internet: the explosion in social networking. Whenever compliance and communications come together there is sure to be a tussle and this meeting was no different. Chairman and CEO Rick Ketchum cited the current policy as “currently constructed, these sites would not permit you to easily supervise these communications. For that reason, most firms prohibit their employees from using these sites for their business.”

Mobile Smart Phones for Work & Play

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:45:00 EST

I am consulting now days and my iPhone is used for both personal and professional purposes. Several weeks ago I complained in an article about having to use my personal phone number and voice mail for business. A kind reader suggested that I try the new Google Voice service. I did and am still learning it but it has some interesting feature that I find handy for mobile workers.

Mobile Software Companies and Their Online Marketing Strategies

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

For many years I have developed and managed marketing campaigns for mobile software companies. I ran seminars, Pay Per Click campaigns, white paper distributions, email blasts, webinars, Web 2.0 strategies etc. As a result, I am very interested in seeing which mobile software companies advertise online. It costs money to place an ad on websites, blogs and on search pages. Many companies simply don't have the money to advertise these days.

Mobile Convergent Devices and Applications

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

I can't let this experience go undocumented. I am sitting in Starbucks drinking a Mocha, writing a blog article, chatting with an international client on skype, checking and responding to emails, taking phone calls, recording voice memos, accessing spreadsheets on Google Docs, scheduling meetings and listening to music all on my iPhone.

Data Loss in MAC OS X

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

Mac OS X is a multi-tasking operating system that allows you to execute one or more processes at the same time. In some situations, you need to restart your Mac computer to clear several system processes to free system resources. This is the best solution to prevent system freezing. But sometimes when you restart your Mac computer, you encounter gray screen of Mac with a gray spinner.

Mac File Recovery

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

HFS Wrapper is a popular and reliable Mac OS X file system. The HFS+ volume could be made to contain within the HFS file system volume in a way that make it look like the HFS volume and not the HFS+ volume to your system

Barcode Scans and Prices on Mobile Handheld Computers and Smart Phones

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST

Last week I wrote an article pondering the benefits of using my iPhone to capture the bar code on grocery store products, using the integrated digital camera, and then have my iPhone use its GPS coordinates to look at the prices of this product in other grocery store locations that are close to mine.

Moyea Video4Web Converter V2.1 Released

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:15:00 EST

The new Moyea Video4Web Converter V2.1 with optimized menu display pattern, fast video codec encoding speed and perfect bug-fixings, makes video to flash video conversion the easiest and quickest ever.

First Week Fast Growth

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

So, the first week "on the air" went very well. Not an easy week, but remarkable good. We rapidly increase our midstock and microstock collection of royalty free images and this keeps our hands busy all the time. The infrastructure we choose for www.pixamba.com is extremely versatile and can be adjusted according to the system load and storage capacity. Since both the load and the images collection growth all the time, and fast, we work around the clock ensuring high system uptime and short response time. It seems that we are on the right way: the response time of the system is very good even now and it is going to be even faster soon, when we'll do some more IT & development work.

Work in Progress

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

The number of submissions grows daily, hope it will keep going this way. The MIN upload size went down from 6 MP to 4 MP, thus helping our contributors to submit many stock illustrations that were prepared for other stock agencies at smaller sizes. We also have found and fixed a few site issues, including MS IE tricks with our categories tree.

Pixamba.com Beta Opens to the Public

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:45:00 EDT

I am very excited to show you up some initial results of our hard work for quite a long time. Pixamba.com opens it doors for the contributors and image buyers. You are warmly welcome to join us and start selling your photos and illustrations with Pixamba. We offer high resolution stock images at very affordable prices and we are here, online and offline for any question or suggestion you may have.

Thanks Everyone

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:15:00 EDT

First, and friend par excellence, is Jeff Blackwell of SalesPractice.com. Even though we don’t know each other well, he fell in love with Buying Facilitation® and my decision facilitation model quite a while ago, believing that Buying Facilitation® completes the sales model – with integrity. He has been tirelessly, and obnoxiously (smile) pitching me and the new book daily for months. He humbles me. My friend Jill has been my sounding board, my mother, my friend, and my coach. Without her, I might have had a different book – certainly be a different person.

Umoo Opens Private Beta to Launch Social Gaming Tournaments

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Today is finally the day that Umoo tournaments is coming out of private beta and into the public arena. I can now set up my own tournaments with a larger crowd, maybe I can push the magic “Invite my Facebook friends button’. Currently, I mostly play Fun games, without any entry fee that is, but I am itching to do the real game. For a few bucks I can make some real money with this game. We are interviewing Umoo players and some of them make a lot of money on Umoo. Surprisingly, they make more money than I ever made juggling my 401K account on the real stock market. However, after playing for a couple of weeks now, I have concluded, I am not going to quit my day job just yet.

Sony Ericsson C905

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Sony Ericsson has time and again come up with exciting and rather different looking gadgets. They have revolutionized the music phone segment with the Walkman series, created waves in the camera phone segment with Cyber shot series apart from introducing exciting touchscreen phones. The one such handset which has once again managed to stand apart from the crowd is indeed the Sony Ericsson C905. Within its bent edges and sleek design are incorporated a number of functions that would compete against any 3G enabled handset available today.

Is Email Dying?

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Have we reached the point where email’s influence over our electronic lives is waning? It is hard to imagine, especially for those of us who grew up in the minicomputer/PC era. For two generations, email was the killer application. It delivered information reliably and within a few minutes. But today the properties that made email so attractive for so long are now a liabiliity. “A few minutes” for a response is so last year, driven in no small part by texting and cell phone ubiquity. At the same time this was happening, wikis, blogs and social networks have begun to erode email’s document exchange role. The notion of sharing photos or a slide presentation using email attachments is becoming quaint.

Alfred Poor’s New Video Reviews

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:45:00 EDT

My long-time former PC Magazine colleague Al Poor has begun his own series of video reviews of consumer products on his YouTube channel here. You can find a new Epson photo printer, the Buffalo Terrastation, and other products. Like my WebInformant.tv series, they are sponsored by the vendor and are short, fact-packed five minute pieces. [...]

Now that's a Da Vinci!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:15:00 EDT

Poor Leonardo. After losing out to Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni during his lifetime, he still doesn't get the credit or recognition his work deserves. Finally, someone trusted their intuition, and bought a sketch which looked to him like a Leonardo, and, lo - it was! His $19000 investment is now worth $150 million.

The Future of Mobile and Route Sales Applications for Smart Phones, Part 2

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:15:00 EDT

In this second article in the series I want to focus on the use of business intelligence and business analytics as it relates to mobile applications. If you are driving a vehicle and/or using a Smart Phone, you do not want to be doing a lot of research and analytics on your small screen while driving. There should be a workflow already created in your central database application that you can simply activate through a request on your mobile device. This could be a series of queries, filters and reports that can all be activated and analyzed by the business analytics software in the central office. The resulting report of this analysis is your instructions and action steps as a sales person or route driver.

Help Me - RFID on the Road

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:15:00 EDT

I want to obey the law. I want to stay within the legal spend limits, but it is so hard when you have two dogs in the car, kids asking questions, the radio on, a hot cup of coffee and you are trying to read a text message while driving through the rain.

American Sins, GPS, GIS and Mobile Software Applications that Show It All

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EDT

A team at Kansas State University using per-capita stats maps out the regions where there is the most sin. This is interesting not just for the sensationalism of it, but for the cleverness of the team at Kansas State. How does one take per-capita stats and make them interesting for the masses that suffer from sound-biteitis? We can learn from this team. Let's first take a look at the 7 deadly sins.

The Future of Mobile and Route Sales Applications for Smart Phones, Part 1

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:38:00 EDT

I can see multiple mobile applications and technologies converging rapidly to provide some very interesting scenarios for mobile and route sales people. Consider the following scenario. A mobile sales person or route sales person is driving through an unfamiliar territory. She stops in a parking lot and activates an application on her Smart Phone that identifies her location and requests visibility into the location of all current and past customers, and any known sales prospects. Her application, using Google Maps provides a map with color coded "push pins" showing the exact locations of each. Tapping on any push pin identifies the street address, name, product and account history.

Russia Hates Apple Big Time

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:50:00 EDT

I never liked online forums where comments to the original posts could be rated (+ or - 1) by other readers. But today, I changed my mind. These negative ratings can tell you a lot. There is a Web site www.habrahabr.ru popular among software developers in Russia. Today, someone posted an information about newly released hardware by Apple. You'd say, "No biggies. Apple has a steady and growing group of followers and often releases well designed hardware"

Imagine There's No iPhone

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

The ultimate goal of any software vendor is...to make sure that their software runs on iPhone. The time will come when entire J2EE stack with EJB will run on iPhone. Singing... You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

Imagine there's no iPhone
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no iPhone
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no iPhones
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope Flash Player'll join us
And the world will live as one

Sorry, John :)

Artisan Pulls Plug on Digital Signage Content Group

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Toronto-based point of purchase printing specialist Artisan Complete, which for the last few years has been building a business and reputation as one of the leaders in content strategy and production for digital signage, has pulled the plug on its Artisan Live group.

Mike Brown had been leading the group and left recently, and then on Thursday the well-known face of the Live group, Stephen Ghigliotty and creative director Kris Steeves were shown the door. The group had at least a half-dozen people in it going back two or three years, and had won awards and a lot of recognition for its work.

Both Stephen and Kris are great, talented guys and will be good picks for anyone who wants to grab them, Stephen on strategy and Kris on creative.

It's too bad, as good, innovative work was getting done. But this has been a tough year for the printing industry and the people hooked in to it. The other big content shop based in Toronto, Alchemy, has been very quiet the last few months, as well, but I know it is still active. Alchemy's Dave Dolejsi, one of their key guys, had a cryptic Twitter note up on Thursday about a big account win of some sort.

I don't know if it is just me, but it strikes me as a few companies that manged to wobble their way through the worst of the recession are starting to run on fumes, and being forced to make some hard choices. Maybe the worst of the recession is ending, but I think we will continue to see more right-sizing and exits from the sector.

This is how you find Stephen (and he can get you on to Kris, I'd imagine):

iPhone 647.680.8512

stephen.ghigliotty at gmail.com

Twitter @ghigliotty

Kris Matheson, the other Artisan guy well known for his involvement in the sector, is still around but has been involved in non-DS stuff with the company for quite a while now.

Remember the Bruce Springsteen song “Glory Days”?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

My favorite blogger, Bob Lefsetz, writes about the entertainment industry, and he had a great line in a post yesterday: “The glory days of the music business are history. They’ll only return when the glory days of music come back.” He’s writing about music — but he’s right about everything. The glory days of the car business will return when we have American companies producing more glorious cars that customers REALLY want. Whatever your business, you can have glory days in your industry when you create and deliver something really remarkable for customers. The economic rising tide we experienced a few years back lifted all boats. Which, of course, means that mediocre players were also doing very well. However, when the recession hit us in the face, it appeared that the “glory days” were done. And, they were…for those of moderate performance.

All I Wanted Was to Buy an iPhone

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Long story short. Apple did cancel the order. But it takes 3-4 days for Apple to clear the transaction from ATTs system. In the meantime, they put a hold on my ATT account – so no new purchases or changes can be made. So basically – I can’t have a new phone until Apple's system releases my account. You gotta be kidding me? What transactions takes 4 days to clear in this digital age??

Building iPhone Apps for Business

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:41:00 EDT

Friday I’m speaking at the Mobile 2.0 conference in Mountain View. The topic is “iPhone for Business”, which, if I took the topic literally, raises many issues about distribution and maintenance of smartphones in the enterprise. But I’m really just going to focus on the narrower issue of “iPhone apps for business”: how do you [...]

Confessions of a Ulitzer Addict

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EDT

I was quite brazen at first, I just logged straight in not fully understand the ramifications. No thought of what could happen if.......? Within Days I was affiliated in magazines, aggregated on global sites, people were creating RSS feeds of my content, the whirlwind grew as my page gained traction amongst the community.