Real World Computing

There's no doubt about it, the concept of cloud and social computing is scary, particularly if you're a lawyer.  On the cloud front, everyone is so fearful of data theft and disclosure that they dig their heels in at the slightest mention of cloud, totally oblivious to the repeated warnings from security researchers that the majority of data theft occurs from within the organisation.  On the social front, things are even more shaky with executives fearful of the power of negative commentary. It’s not unusual to hear business leaders saying, “we can’t have a twitter, linked-in or facebook account because someone might say something bad about us”. Guess what. If people want to say bad things about your company in a public forum, then they most likely already are. By denying the company an official platform, you’re not denying your customers a chance to speak about you, you’re denying your company the opportunity to provide timely and “official” responses.. Like it or n...

I'm finding myself being increasingly frustrated by IBM Connections.Cloud. It’s a great product, don’t get me wrong. Arguably the most full-featured of its kind. Unfortunately it’s mired by some terrible executive decisions.  In fact, the problems are so great that it’s pushing us to investigate other products which are “like” connections but are provided by other vendors.  I came away from an investigation of Microsoft’s Yammer system yesterday shaking my head and saying, “that’s it. Game over”.  Yesterday afternoon was one of the few times I've found myself in the uncomfortable position of recommending Microsoft over IBM.  Today of course is another day. I'm a dedicated IT professional, so when I can’t sleep because a system is overwhelming my thoughts, I get up and make a list of my problems.  So, IBM, it’s 3.30am and this one’s on you … and you owe me at least 2 hours of sleep. Overall thoughts I can’t fault IBM’s support teams ...

About Chrome Remote Desktop Remote desktop is one of the great ways to access data from offsite because it not only gives you access to your data, it also gives you access to your applications. So, if you've got applications which you don't have at home, on your laptop, phone, android or ipad, then remote desktop is the answer. Unfortunately, the key to remote desktop is (usually) having a good VPN.  VPNs rely upon infrastructure and they need to be secure. For example PPTP VPNs are so insecure that they typically last under a minute in the wild. The more secure VPNs, like Shrew, are more robust but offer little compatibility for other types of devices, like Macs, iOS, Linux and Android. There's a few good point to point remote desktop solutions about though and these don't need a VPN. Even better, some, like the Google Chrome Remote Desktop are constantly being updated (as if simply being "free" wasn't good enough. The other thing that I like a...

You simply have to get IBM connections cloud. It's not only the "best of its breed" but it also has some very impressive licensing structures. It's not a choice of whether or not, simply a choice of when. I'll elaborate on those words in another post because I desperately want to get back to telling the positive stories about IBM but for now, the message is simply “I am convinced”. Let's buy this baby! A few posts ago, I went through the Google Apps for Work setup . Google have a pretty impressive cloud product too… In fact, I'd say that if you're running a very small business - or if you're looking for a system for an individual, then Google is your system. I was particularly impressed with Google's "New Company Setup" process which took half an hour. Of course if I wasn't documenting every step, it would have been 10 minutes. I wanted to prove that IBM could compete at that level, that you can set up connections cloud w...

I've mentioned this in passing before but it's important enough to be worth reiterating in a post of its own. In my opinion, it is the single technical failing of IBM connections.Cloud and the one technical issue I want to see resolved ASAP. There are currently two sites that you can choose to host your IBM Connections.Cloud data in; the United States and Japan (there might be a third site but I'm not sure, so I'll be sticking with the two for now). You can only use your email address for connections once in the world and it limits the people that you can invite to your communities. For example, say you didn't know about the two sites and you (Bill) just went through the default setup, your data would end up in the American data centre. Then say, Fred, who works at a more legally minded company decides that his data can’t be on American servers  The Problem In any case, Bill is now set up on the American server and he has a nice little c...

I was having a conversation recently and there was a couple with no kids who were annoyed that their friends were saying “the club scene is back!” when in their mind, it had never left.  They pointed out that it was the other couples who’d left the scene to raise children and that now that those kids were old enough to stay home on their own, they were able to return to the club scene. It was not “back”, THEY were back. It’s like the concept of object permanence doesn't apply. People assume that things are long gone, simply because they personally are no longer using them. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard IBM Domino pronounced “dead” over the years and yet it keeps going. People move to all-Microsoft companies and then they start at ours and say "I thought Notes was dead." No, it's not dead... in fact, we’re still developing in it now and its future today is much more assured than it was five years ago.  The fact is that the model st...

Computing has long been described as something similar to religion. There have been “nerd-wars” fought over Windows vs Mac and Word vs Wordperfect vs Wordstar, for decades so it’s really no surprise that the leaders of many computer companies are becoming “God-Like” in their evangelism -- but is it a good thing? To a certain extent, yes… it’s a good thing to have a person as a focal point for your company.  It's kind of like having a thought-leader as a "mascot" and it's particularly important in the early years as it helps to build recognition.  After a while though, the focus switches from the company to the person, and that’s not a good thing.  Apple The case in point is Apple. If Steve Jobs was the messiah for Apple, including being “killed” by his own people and resurrecting himself, then Tim Cook is his Saint Paul.  Tim Cook is full of letters and quotes but he’s simply following in Steve’s footsteps.  He’s not really adding anything particularly ne...