Real World Computing

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...

So, you're an Apple person, or a Windows person, and y ou already have an iTunes or Windows store account. Y ou can get your books, music and movies from their stores. Why would you bother getting a Google Play account? It's worth it. That's why -- even if you only buy the FREE things.  Actually, there's four very good reasons; Cross Platform Functionality Downloading to Other Devices Uploading Your Own Materials Free Stuff  Cross Platform Functionality If you have iTunes, then for the most part, your music and movies are only available on your apple device(s).   Your iPhone, iPod or iPad, maybe your apple computer and possibly, in some cases, your windows computer.  Essentially, purchases on the apple platform, stay on the apple platform. This is not the case with Google Play . Movies, Music and Books from Google Play works in; Android tablets and phones (obviously) Apple iPhones, iPads and iPods (Do a search for Google Play) Windows P...

It's been noted all over the place that the browser wars are starting again (well, they've been going strong for the last few years). I've been a long-time Firefox user ever since I forced myself to live with the browser for a month just to try it out. I coudn't go back to IE. I've tried Safari, Opera and Chrome without feeling too tempted. I was impressed by the design of Chrome but the lack of familiar features (add-ons and scripting) failed to win me over. I'll admit though that I've found Opera to be the browser of choice on the Blackberry. Recently, I decided to give IE8 a go. Ok, so it was on the morning of the FIRST day of release but that doesn't mean I'll be lining up for any other MS products. I decided to see how well it worked doing the normal things I do every day. It almost made 45 minutes but then it crashed and I haven't used it much since then. I then switched my attention back to the Chrome 2.0 beta browser I had been testi...

There's no doubt that most people with any kind of computing background would agree that the most forward-looking and influential IT company in the world today is Google, some may say Apple but most would say Google. Microsoft, once an industry unto itself no longer holds that coveted position. They didn't so much lose direction as, fail to take the correct turns along the route to today's platforms. While the world is heading towards open source, platform independence and service orientated architecture, Microsoft is more tightly bound to proprietary systems on the windows platform than ever before. A little whinge about IBM's Marketing So where is IBM in all this? Well, to be perfectly frank, they're not in the sweetest of spots even though they deserve to be. Why? Because although in my opinion, IBM's technology is more than a match for Google's, they haven't yet caught the attention of "Joe Public". Their marketing team has the "kil...

Introduction Since the release of Google's new "web browser", Chrome yesterday the web has been buzzing with speculation about how Google will be hurting Mozilla. The funny thing is, that if you read the comic about Google chrome, you'll see that it is being positioned more as an operating system than as a browser. Cloud Computing The idea is that the Web browser will become the operating system of choice for cloud computing . The Google Chrome "browser" has certain advantages over the current generation of browsers, particularly in the area of robustness and multithreading. The browser changes are similar, in a way to the fundamental chanages from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP. Under Windows 3.1, all applications shared the same address space and one faulty application would result in the dreaded "General Protection Fault" message and would often pull the entire system down. I see that kind of behaviour all the time in Internet Explorer and slight...