WHERE’S MY CLOUD

Technology news has been a little scarce of late – but just when you thought it was safe to go out in the woods – some news comes along!

One of the biggest email providers in the world today took a Kit Kat break causing a mass of internet jibber jabber.

GOOGLE’s GMAIL is not only used for personal accounts it is also used by many businesses around the world. Today the downside of what is more commonly know as cloud computing became apparent. As the world becomes ever reliant on the internet – today’s Kit Kat break is a stark warning of how much risk is placed on business in the cloud – however I cannot see past cloud computing in years to come.  How many years depends on technology and possibly a little creative marketing!

Virgin broadband 2mb subscribers amongst you will be happy to know that come May the limit will be increased to 10mb – hopefully GMAIL works at increased speeds by then!

A relatively new kid on the block is a music provider called SPOTIFY.

SPOTIFY is a streaming based music service from those lovable Swede’s that provides an incredible catalogue of FREE music with the occasional advert to justify being FREE. U2’s latest album has just been released to the UK too.

The next step in SPOTIFY’s global domination is a soon to be developed application for mobile devices that will allow offline caching while in areas without a signal.

2009 A NEW DAWN

It has been some time since I last posted, but finding the time in an ever busier world is proving hard to do.

Either way, I am going to post shorter blogs this year in an effort to improve my post ratio and hopefully the quality.

The quick tip today is on a newly developed font by a dutch company called SPRANQ.

What is currently being called the eco-font can reduce the amount ink used when printing due to a reduction in the amount of dots used amongst other things.

In short, if this works, it is actually a fantastic development that could not only save money for companies, but help the environment!…now that is a great plus in my book…..well done SPRANQ!!

The font can be downloaded for free and is currently open source, so look out for newer improved versions in time.

MAJOR HEAVYWEIGHTS

The big news this week is the collaboration of some of the music industries major heavyweights, EMI, Universal, Sony, Warner with MYSPACE.

The outcome is an offering of free streaming music from the heavyweight’s full catalogue of music, as well as the opportunity for unsigned bands to make their music available too.

The service means that it is possible to watch/listen to free music and if one is a member of MYSPACE, it is possible to create online playlists for free too.

Now, if one wants to purchase the music, it is possible to pay around 79p to download.  Finally iTunes may have a bit of competition.

The only caveat with the above collaboration is that the US has the pleasure of using the ground breaking development.  Other countries are currently in contract negotiations, as there is different rules/legislation to overcome….it is still possible to stream the music though, you just do not have the opportunity to create playlists.

So, if this is what is happening in the music world, is there something similar going on in the film world?  What are the comparisons?

 

A SLIGHT conCERN

OK, so today is the day that CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) turn on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which effectively is the world’s largest particle accelerator.

What this effectively means is that tests will be carried out to effectively create an environment similar to when the world supposedly was created in the ‘big bang’….think of Dr. Who and his escapades going back in time to watch a group of matter forming into what is now more formally known as the universe.

The plus side is that technology advances from the results could be at a level never seen before, the downside being, the scientists have no idea what the result will be from turning on the machine, thus potentially pressing a self destruct button….think of mission impossible and those voice messages saying there are only 10 seconds left to destruct. Therefore, the question is, do we have a new Millennium Bug scenario, or will we all be floating around in purgatory tomorrow….I MAY let you all know tomorrow!

A quick piece of background on CERN is that one of their scientists actually invented the World Wide Web, so they are not just a group of intelligent individuals with a bit of spare time on their hands…then again?

Also, is it me, but does this look like it was modelled on the set of an early Star Wars film?

SLIDE ON OVER

In what I would term to be a quiet few weeks in the IT world, it seems quite possibly the calm before the storm is in limbo while the movers and the shakers are all on their holidays.

So the subject of my blog this evening will be about a great idea for a website put together by the ladies and gents over at Slideshare Inc. The website in question being www.slideshare.net.

The nuts and bolts of the idea are to share presentations with the world’s community and create discussion, ideas and knowledge.

Now I already knew that the dynamics of creating a presentation are changing and grabbing the attention of an audience is actually not by providing a garbled mass of wording. But it was quite refreshing to see the quality of some of the presentations are actually outstanding and even offer an incredible opportunity to learn a story of a subject.

Of course the visuals are only one piece of the jigsaw that is the presentation package, however, getting the attention of an audience because of a quality and well thought out visual, can only be a step in the right direction.

DELICIOUS GOES ALL 2.0 ON US

The popular social bookmarking service delicious has received a new makeover.

The look and feel is now rather fetching and in line with the many other sites heading down the 2.0 route.

I am just about to have a proper look at the changes, but already it seems to be mighty fast in comparison to the previous version, which is a massive improvement.

Head on over to delicious and feel the warm glow of 2.0 too!

COMMUNITY POLL

OK, just a quick blog this evening, or should I say morning, as it is four minutes past midnight!

SMS Poll – Does what it says on the tin, but maybe a little better than others on the market…to a certain extent.  These great people allow one to run an online survey using SMS in realtime.  Head on over and take a look, as there is a free option, which of course is limited in features, but a small SME may get some benefit in the short term.  I will certainly be testing the nice looking functionality in due course.

COMMUNITY CLIPS – This is actually from Microsoft Office Labs and is a nice piece of software that doesn’t require rocket science to produce good quality recordings of keystrokes, screen image and mouse movements.  I will be making some very useful help tutorials with this little number.

HAVE A NICE DAY ON VIRGIN

Fancy a trip to space…have you got $200,000…

…Mr. Branson today unveiled the latest venture (into the unknown), the Virgin Galactic.

Not only will this be very popular with the stars, they will be literally heading into the stars, as this amazing piece of technology will be heading off on the most expensive journey of a lifetime for those who can afford it.  Hopefully Mr. Branson will be offering a seat or two to random people who couldn’t dream of having an opportunity to travel to the stars in any lifetime.

On the search engine front, most of us are used to typing away in GOOGLE to find all manner of weird and wonderful things.  However, there is a new kid on the block by the name of CUIL.

CUIL has actually been created by some of the boffins that helped GOOGLE become what it is today, so it should be interesting to see how it fairs over the coming months.  In fact, it actually crashed yesterday, due to the overwhelming traffic caused by the curious masses.

I actually quite like it so far, and it is quite fast too

THE HEROES OF TECHNOLOGY WINNERS ARE…

A quick blog this evening about some very hard working people who have made a difference in theirs and other lives.

The UK Catalyst Awards were hosted and the awards were given to some well deserved recipients.

For a better understanding of the award winners, head on over to the following:

Catalyst Awards Winners

The Revolutionary Award – Wheelies

 

The Self-Help Award – School of Everything

 

The Chalk & Cheese Award – FreqOUT!

 

The David and Goliath Award – Liftshare.com

 

The Individual Hero Award – Helen Anderson (SWBB)

 

The Community Award – Savvy Chavvy

 

The Enterprise Award – Slivers-of-Time

 

The People’s Choice Award – The Freeconomy Community

 

The judges also spoke highly of the following – LocalEyes and Harringay Online

1000 OF THE BEST

It has been some time in coming, but I will take 1000 hits no problem!

A big thanks to all who have taken the time to read my blogs and I hope that some have at least gained in knowledge from my posts.