More suckers than I care to know...

Ok, I get it - the iPad looks cool.

But seriously, do you really want to end up with something you can't really use for 500 bucks?

Apple products have become the standard for status seeking yuppies. I can't argue with their marketing techniques; they do know how to sell a product. They even had a whole episode of Modern Family dedicated to the iPad. But creating a want and needing that want are two very different things.

The iPad is beset with flaws, most notably the lack of Flash compatibility. Eighty percent of all websites use Flash to enhance the surfing experience with rich Internet applications (RIA). This means that most of the sites you visit, including most social networking websites, will not appear properly on your new iPad if you manage to see anything at all. Forget playing online games - they all use Flash.

Maybe Apple's success has gone to their heads. If so, it sounds extremely arrogant and ultimately stupid.

Here's a couple of other things you can't do with your new iPad.

You can't plug in any peripherals because there are no USB ports. That means no photo downloads from your camera unless it's got bluetooth/Wi-Fi and no report printouts unless your printer's got bluetooth/Wi-Fi. In fact, you can't use any peripherals unless they have bluetooth/Wi-Fi and that includes an external hard disk, something that will be essential since the iPad only has a between 16GB and 64GB of memory. By today's standards, that's nothing. You can buy a USB pen drive with more memory.

In the end, you're stuck with a nice looking product that does a few things well (screwing up your whole music library when you download iTunes) and which you will tire of rather quickly. And then, you'll come to the stark realization you could have had something different for much less with a lot better performance and capacity.

I make no bones about it - I've never been an Apple fan. I just can't trust a company that locks you out of your own product. It's like an open-source guru once told me, "You wouldn't buy a car that denied access to the engine because the hood was welded shut, would you? That's what Apple does."

The way I see it, Apples are for people who don't know about computers but want to look good doing it.

Salesforce.com and the value of social networks

Anybody who is even mildly tech savvy probably has an account in one of the popular networking sites. The fact that you're reading this blog proves it as I've only posted it on Facebook. Such is their popularity that these sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) have become the ideal platform to share messages, photos, videos and comments with family and friends. Best of all, they are cloud operated platforms requiring no aplication downloads on your own PC.

But for big business, what is the value of a social network?

Social networks are the natural evolution of the first collaboration productivity tools. Initially, these consisted of email and instant messaging. Later on, wikis, user forums and developer communities appeared on the scene allowing a greater level of interaction. Subsequently, these different productivity tools made their way into social networking sites offering all-in-one functionality.

One of the greatest benefits to end users of this evolution is the concept known as crowd sourcing - user forums or communities that share experiences on specific subjects. Nowadays, we no longer rely on sales hype to determine the cost-benefit of a product or service. We go online to see what type of experiences other users have had with the product and base our decisions on these personal assessments. It's the equivalent of customer testimonials on a massive scale.

Until now big business has not really known how to profit from or take advantage of social networks as these sites are available to anyone free of charge. Site revenues come mostly from advertisers wanting to maximize demographic reach. Facebook, for example, has 350 million registered users.

That is, until now.

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, is the world leader in cloud computing CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions. CRM is an automated system that traces the life-cycle of sales, from lead generation to post sales service and maintenance. Residing in the cloud as Software as a Service (SaaS), Salesforce.com's CRM solutions require no downloads on the client's PC and is OS agnostic. Because of the flexibility of its CRM solution (highly configurable and secure modules), Salesforce.com pricing model is just as flexible (subscription or per-user basis). Since its incorporation, Salesforce.com has steadily grown and refined its product and service portfolio. Today, they have more than 50,000 customers and over 100,000 contributing developers.

In 2007, Salesforce.com launched Force.com, a new concept in cloud computing known as Platform as a Service extending the capabilities of CRM's SaaS model with the incorporation of collaboration tools in an integrated, flexible and secure suite of services. As with their CRM solutions, Force.com's mashable aplications offer a high level of user customization and configuration.

Peter Coffee, Salesforce.com's Director of Platform Research, states that Force.com has experienced impressive growth in the emerging markets of India, Brazil and Australia where there is a large concentration of outsourcing companies and developer communities. Companies like Infosys and Tata, for example, have had such a great success with Force.com that they have actually been able to export their processes to the US. In other words, the high level of efficiency (read cost minimization) these companies have achieved through the use of the Force.com platform has permitted them to export the whole process (sales, service, help desk)to countries where costs are considered to be prohibitive.

Force.com consists of four basic components: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Custom Cloud and Chatter. These components are available as independent modules as well.

Sales Cloud - offers the main benefits of Salesforce.com CRM including mobile communications and real time updates including collaboration tools and analytics.

Service Cloud - is centered on client's technical support. Aside from consisting of its own knowledge base for the Help Desk, Service Cloud also incorporates user's experiences (crowd sourcing). The advantages are clear. Different regions offer variations of the same product. For example, A Honda Accord in the US may have very little in common with a European Honda Accord. This means that the propietary knowledge base does not have to be exported to different data centers all over the world. Only the commonalities are exported as each region develops its own unique set of events. The result is a leaner, more agile base freeing up valuable compute resources.

Custom Coud - is the application database created by the developer community. Custom Cloud not only offers all types of applications for use in client's systems, it serves as a direct link with developers to facilitate the modification or customization of Force.com applications.

Chatter - is the latest component of Force.com and is slated for release in the Spring of 2010. On Chatter's release, it will allow the integration of social networking sites into the company's realm. According to Coffee, "Chatter will provide real business value to the whole phenomenon of social networking. It will be the integration of partners, manufacturers, suppliers, customers, service and maintenance techs using existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the networks will also provide professional tools such as forecasting and analytics. Everyone involved in the company's process will be connected at all times regardless of location providing instant feedback and results."

If your Help Desk or outsourcing partner is turning out to be a black hole of ever increasing costs and poor customer satisfaction, perhaps it's time to look into more viable alternatives. Specifically, Force.com.

For more information visit www.salesforce.com.

Novatel's MiFi - a new kind of wireless

I'm reprinting this article from the New York times verbatim because I've been using this device for a couple of weeks now and I plan to do a little lab analysis in a few days. However, that analysis will be in Spanish and will be totally irrelevant to anyone not residing in Spain.

Still, this article sums up nicely what Novatel's MiFi is capable of, and thought you might find it interesting.

The New York Times
May 7, 2009
State of the Art

Online Wherever You Like, in a Private Wi-Fi Hot Spot
By DAVID POGUE


Someday, we'll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they'll laugh their heads off. Every building in America has running water, electricity and ventilation; what's the holdup on universal wireless Internet?

Getting online isn't impossible, but today's options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot - in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people's apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)

If you want to get online while you're on the move, in fact, you've had only one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn't exactly cable-modem speed, but it's close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little antenna protuberance, or a
U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant's beverage cart.

A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but still drains the battery with gusto.

But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked - in a taxi, on the beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi - without messing around with cellular modems. What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere?

Incredibly, there is such a thing. It's the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It's a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone.

When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot.

The MiFi gets its Internet signal the same way those cellular modems do - in this case, from Verizon's excellent 3G (high-speed) cellular data network. If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay $40 a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the $60 plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don't travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: $15 for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFI itself costs $270.

In essence, the MiFi converts that cellular Internet signal into an umbrella of Wi-Fi coverage that up to five people can share. (The speed suffers if all five are doing heavy downloads at once, but that's a rarity.)

Cellular wireless routers, as they're called, have been available for years. The average person hasn't even heard of this product category, but these routers are popular on, for example, Hollywood movie shoots. On-location cast and crew can kill their downtime online, sharing the signal from a single cellular card that's broadcast via Wi-Fi.

Those machines, however, get no cell signal on their own; you have to supply your own cellular modem. They're also big and metal and ugly. But the real deal-killer is that they have to be plugged into a power outlet. You can't use one at the beach or in the woods unless you have a really, really long extension cord.

The MiFi is remarkable for its tiny size, its sleek good looks, its 30-foot range (it easily filled a large airport gate area with four-bar signal) - and the fact that it's cordless and rechargeable.

How is this amazing? Let us count the ways.

First, you're spared the plug-and-unplug ritual of cellular modems. You can leave the MiFi in your pocket, purse or laptop bag; whenever you fire up your laptop, netbook, Wi-Fi camera or game gadget, or wake up your iPhone or iPod Touch, you're online.

Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances. As I snuck counter-glances at him, I realized that he had no interest in what I was doing, but rather in the signal-strength icon on my laptop - on an airplane where there wasn't otherwise any Wi-Fi signal. "I'm sorry," he finally said, completely baffled, "but how are you getting a wireless signal?" He was floored when I pulled the MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.

If he'd had a laptop, I would have happily shared my Wi-Fi cloud with him. The network password is printed right there on the bottom of the MiFi itself. That's a clever idea, actually. Since the MiFi is in your possession, it's impossible for anyone to get into your cloud unless you show it to them. Call it "security through proximity."

The second huge advantage of the MiFi is that, as with any wireless router, you can share its signal with other people; up to five road warriors can enjoy the same connection. Your youngsters with their iPod Touches in the back of the van could hop online, for example, or you and your colleagues could connect and collaborate on a corporate retreat. Verizon points out how useful the MiFi could be for college
students working off-campus, insurance adjusters at a disaster site and trade show booth teams. (Incredibly, Verizon even suggests that you could use the MiFi at home as your primary family Internet service. Sharing a cellular-modem account was something it strenuously discouraged only two years ago.)

Some footnotes: First, the MiFi goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity, to prolong its battery life. Yes, it means that a single charge can get you through a full day of on-and-off Internet noodling, even though the battery is supposed to
run for only four hours a charge. (it's rated at 40 hours of standby). But once the MiFi is asleep, your Wi-Fi bubble is gone until you tap the power button.

It's probably the height of ingratitude to complain about having to press a single button to get yourself online. But if the MiFi is flopping around somewhere in the bottom of your bag, just finding it can be a minor hassle.

Fortunately, you can turn off that sleep feature, or even change the inactivity interval before it kicks in. This gizmo is a full-blown wireless router with full-blown configuration controls. If you type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser's address bar - a trick well known to network gurus - the MiFi's settings pages magically appear. Now you can do geeky, tweaky tasks like changing the password or the wireless network name, limiting access to specific computers, turning
on port forwarding (don't ask) .

A final note: If your laptop has a traditional cellular modem, you can turn on a Mac OS X or Windows feature called Internet Sharing, which rebroadcasts the signal via Wi-Fi, just like the MiFi.

But the MiFi is infinitely easier to use and start up, doesn't lock you into carrying around your laptop all the time, has better range and works even when your laptop battery is dead. (The MiFi recharges from a wall outlet; it still works as a hot spot while it's plugged in.)

It's always exciting when someone invents a new product category, and this one is a jaw-dropper. All your gadgets can be online at once, wherever you go, without having to plug anything in - no coffee shop required. Heck, it might even be worth showing the grandchildren.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Before I get into other apps every system should have, I just wanted to add this piece of information as a result of a demo I witnessed the other day by the techies at Kingston Technology.

Kingston is the largest independent fabricator of system memory modules (RAM). You might be familiar with internal/external disc drives, USBs or memory cards (SD, SDHC, etc.) from other fabricators like SanDisk. They are not the same thing.

At the very beginning of this blog I said, "You can never have enough RAM." The reason is simple: new applications requiere ever increasing amounts of RAM to function properly. Even if can't use all your RAM capacity now, sooner or later, you'll need it.

RAM is volatile memory. It's not meant to store anything; when you turn off your computer, everything you have in RAM is lost. It's a temporary workspace applications use to access frequently used data.


Having said that, the other day the nice people of Kingston performed a demo of their latest RAM module: HyperX DDR3. RAM, like every other technology, has evolved. The very first computers (IBM PC, Apple IIe, Amiga) had 8-16KB RAM, a far cry from the 8GB systems of today. However, today's memory modules are not backward compatible with previous versions. In other words, DDR1 is not compatible with DDR2 which is not compatible with DDR3.

The first thing you notice about the new HyperX is its heat dissipator. It's huge! And that can only mean one thing: it generates a lot of heat. But that's not a bad thing because that also means it's fast. In fact, the whole demo centered around HyperX's capacity for overclocking. In plain English, the user's choice to configure data transfer between RAM and application faster and beyond its intended limits. Techies do this with resource-hungry video games to minimize or eliminate frame by frame latency and is configured from the system's BIOS. What this all boils down to is: if it's capable of seamlessly handling the most resource-hungry video games, it's capable of handling even your most demanding mission critical applications.

I can't give you all the technical details of how RAM works or the specs of HyperX, but Kingston's website does a good job of explaining the development and evolution of RAM modules with this Ultimate Memory Guide.

Try and Decide


OK. After a much deserved break, I'm back. That trouble with the IRS, as it turns out, was just a hoax. I got all riled up over nothing. Still, work committments have kept me from updating my blog and I must apologize for that. So, let's get back to where we left off.


Try and Decide is a neat little function in Acronis True Image Home 2009 that allows you to test a potentially dangerous application (drivers, apps, updates, upgrades, etc.) before you actually install it on your system.

Try and Decide creates a virtual workspace which isolates systems resources during the testing process. All the user has to do is click on the Try and Decide function from True Image Home's main menu, click on the 'play' button and the computer automatically enters into virtual mode.

Not sure of your latest P2P client, mp3 download or website? Go ahead and try/install it within Try and Decide. If the client, file or program is infected with any sort of trojan or malware, it won't affect your system. Try and Decide allows you to check on program compatibility. When you click on the 'pause' or 'stop' button, your system reverts back to its normal state and you can then discard the infected application.

Try and Decide works within Acronis Secure Zone (ASZ), that disk partition True Image advises you to create upon startup. However, I noticed that Try and Decide tends to use up a lot of the space reserved for ASZ, meaning that you may not have enough space left over for your backup chores. Because of this, I have since opted to save my backup chores on a separate disk partition, a purely arbitrary decision designed to minimize having to manage space requirements.

Next up: More apps you can't do without

Time out

A thousand apologies...I know I've been remiss in my blog duties but I have a damn good reason for it.

It tax time once again and I just found out I have to pay a bunch of taxes this year because of capital gains. Plus, I have a Hacienda (IRS equivalent in Spain) audit this Monday. Now I don't know about you folks but I HATE having to pay taxes to any government, especially this one. My hard earned money is just gonna end up in the pockets of some crooked socialist politician. I'm an anarchist at heart and I detest any kind of government intervention on private personal gains. I pay more than enough with social security and taxes withheld at source. Why can't they leave me the damn hell alone?

So it was off to the shrink and anti-depressants for me. SIGH......

I promise to be back after my audit next week. Thank you for your understanding.

Back ups and recovering from disasters

Backup and restore 'best practices'

I started taking about apps you can't do without and 'best practices'. One of the things I forgot to mention, as part of best practices, is that everyone should get into the habit of creating restore points after any major event, usually the installation of an application, driver, patch or update. I got into this habit with Windows XP and I've extended it into Vista.

Windows allows you to create 'restore points' which are basically 'images' or 'snapshots' of your computer's configuration at certain points in time. Windows ordinarily creates these points automatically, although I usually do it manually.

If a problem should occur in your system after the installation of an app, you can always go back to the point before the installation to restore your computer to the most recent working state. However, this is not a foolproof method since some security products like Kaspersky and Norton prevent the proper functioning of this tool. These products have a Self-Defense mode activated by default that interferes with the system restore tool. Read it here.

Nonetheless, in Windows (XP and Vista), go to Start Menu-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore. You'll then be presented with an intuitive, self-explanatory dialog box that will allows you to restore your system or create and label your restore points. Now you can go back in time, as it were, to the last known working state. In theory, the Restore System function does not affect any stored files such as documents, music or videos. It only deals with applications, drivers, registries and libraries. However, just to be safe, store your personal files on a separate disk partition as mentioned previously in this blog. Read the full process as explained by a Windows expert. Pay careful attention to the sections that deal with Device Drivers and Compatibility Issues.

This expert, Joli Ballew, also recommends using the Restore System function as a last resort. Usually, a malfunction can easily be fixed by a system reboot. If that doesn't work, the other option is to press the 'F8' key when you boot your system. This brings up a DOS menu with several options. Use the arrow keys to highlight 'Last known good configuration' and press 'Enter'. This method usually works well most of the time.

If you have any experience with Windows, then chances are you've used some or all of these techniques in the past. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, I give this process a rating of 3-4 for anyone with average computer skills: more than a beginner but less than an expert and able to locate and use basic system tools such as changing the desktop themes, the disk defragmenter, or the most common word formatting funtions.

The second to the worst case scenario is that the operating system may need to be repaired, NOT reinstalled. This requires the original Windows OS installation disk. There are several forum sites that discuss the procedure which is too lengthy to describe here. However, this one is well illustrated and quite easy to follow and understand.

The worst case scenario is a complete system reinstall, something we want to avoid at all cost because you lose everyting. The plus side is you start with a totally clean system.

As mentioned earlier, the Restore System function may cause errors due to antivirus programs. Because of this, I have since decided to deploy a different solution.


Acronis True Image Home 2009

Because of my line of work, I'm always installing and uninstalling software products to try out. This causes great havoc with the registry entries and library files. Often, I'm left with orphaned entries that affect my computer's performance.

So, instead of having to depend on Windows to get me out of a fix, I chose to go with Acronis True Image Home 2009 for my new laptop. Acronis is a company that specializes in disk management, backups and disaster recovery both at the consumer and enterprise level.

ATIHome 2009, like Windows' Restore Point function, creates an image of your entire system. But that's where the similarity ends. Acronis, as opposed to Windows, is a comprehensive solution offering a wide array of options and a high degree of of granularity.

The main dashboard layout presents the user with 4 four backup tasks and chores (Backup, Manage and Restore, Task Management and Try and Decide) and 6 disk management utilities (System Information, Protection Tools, One-Click Protection, Clean Utilities, Search and Help).

Below, I outline the procedure I followed.

1. System Information

The first step is to go to System Information and get a visual of your disk partitions and their current state. The top part of the interface lists the first 3 tasks that have to be carried out to get started: System Volume Backup, Acronis Bootable Media and Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. These three tasks will have a red 'Not Initiated' tag right next to each one. To start the individual tasks, simply click on each one.

The most important of the 3 tasks is the System Volume Backup which creates a FULL backup of your system including application configuration and settings. You will be asked to save your backup file (.tib) in your choice of folder and partition.

The Acronis Bootable Media is not necessary if you've already created the Windows Recovery Disks. Otherwise, create a bootable DVD/CD.

The Startup Recovery Manager allows you to boot and recover your computer in case of system failure.

To be on the safe side, I executed all three.

Below these three tasks, Acronis presents a visual of the status of your disk. Right below, the user can create Aconis Secure Zone (ASZ). ASZ os a hidden, unaccessible partition that Acronis creates (if you so choose) to store your different backup files. When you create ASZ, the program will automatically determine the amount of disk space needed. In any case, you are allowed to manage (increase, decrease, remove) this disk partition via the Protection Tools feature of the program found on the main screen.

2. Schedule backup tasks

Once the System Volume Backup has been created, you can now set up the frequency of your backups (manually, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) via the Task Management utility on the main screen.

The nice thing about Acronis is that it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Task Management presents you with a three month calendar and 3 tabs: Scheduled Tasks (planned backup schedules), Unscheduled Tasks (backups performed manually) and Log (a register of the backup actions taken). Clicking on any of these tabs changes the contextual menu on the title bar (top of screen).

Click on the Scheduled Tasks tab and select the 'Create Backup Task' icon on the title bar. You will then be presented with several options: My Computer, My Data, System State, My Email, and My Application Settings. Below each is an explanation of the kind of backup that will be created. Ordinarily, choose My Computer which creates an image of the entire disk, and thus, is the most comprehensive of the options.

The utility then takes you through a process to specify the destination disk of the backup file (this is where you can designate ASZ to store backups), the frequency (dates and times) of backups, and the type of backups (full, incremental or differential).

In my case, I configured Acronis to perform an incremental backup every Monday morning at 2:00 am,and to store the consolidated file in the ASZ partition. By default, Acronis chooses the Incremental Backup method, provided you've created the Full Backup mentioned above. Whether you choose Incremental or Differential, you will need the Full backup to proceed.

So what's the difference betwen Incremental and Differential?

Incremental backups record only the changes made to the system since the last incremental backup, which in turn is based on the first full backup. In other words, if we were to number the logical sequence of the backups, it would look something like this:

• 1st full backup: filename.tib(1)
• 1st incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1
• 2nd incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1.2
• 3rd incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1.2.3 and so on...

As you can see, each succeeding backup is based on the previous one. Incremental require less space since they only record the latest changes. However, to restore from an incremental backup file, it is absolutely necessary to have ALL previous incremental backups and the original full backup, since the backups are all interdependent.

Differential backups, on the other hand, only record the changes made to the Full backup. It requires less space than a full backup but more space than an incremental backup. Differentail backups are almost as reliable as full backups since the backups are not dependent on each other but only the original full backup. The logical numbering sequence would look something like this:

• 1st full backup: filename.tib(1)
• 1st differntial backup: filename.tib(1)1
• 2nd differential backup: filename.tib(1)2
• 3rd differential backup: filename.tib(1)3 and so on...

As you can see, each backup is based on the original full backup and not the preceeding differential backups. To restore from a differential backup, you only need the latest differential backup and the original full backup.

SUMMARY:

1. Partition your hard disk to safeguard personal files.
2. Secure your system with a comprehensive security solution.
3. Create 'Restore Points' after the installation of any application, driver, update, plug-in, patch or Internet download.
4. If you require a more comprehensive backup solution, choose an application that creates volume images rather than one that simply creates copies of files and folders.
5. Employ a 'best practices' approach to your computing and surfing habits.

Next: Acronis Try and Decide function