Solid State Group Tech Blog

Why really pay for anything ? is the web really free?

Hans Helbig — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:11:58 +0100

Why really pay for anything ? is the web really free?

Posted by Hans Helbig on 30 June 2009

Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame has just launched his latest review of the digital world; Free – the future of a radical price. It takes a look at the ‘Free’ attitude we have towards content and ‘stuff’, all caused by the web. I haven’t read the book yet, but feel it might be a bit of a management text book overhype/also ran. It’s an interesting area, but not an earth shattering concept…the free/paid struggle on the net is something the industry lives with all and every day.

Let’s face it; the ‘plight’ of the music industry is old hat. File sharing has been around since the beginning of the web, some ‘free’ sites are heavily subsidised by a bigger profitable brother (read YouTube et al) and rogue websites selling cheaper products are popping up and being closed down all over the place. All of these provide free or cheaper products and as a result or time and people getting used to it, this is now ingrained in a user experience. It’s a business condition.

In reality though, each instance does have a cost. It might not necessarily be attributed directly to the user, but there is a cost nonetheless. Ad funded to support ‘free’ content has been the model of the TV stations and newspapers for longer than most of us have been alive. The music industry is no different; the songs are now ads for concerts, public appearances, endorsements (all massively increased and highly lucrative) and record sales. ‘Free’ applications use different cost models too; some, like Google Mail have user limits and advertising, some use open source to fund development – i.e. people enjoying doing stuff for others for ‘free’.

Some sites provide free information about things to encourage a ‘retail’ sale which is viewed by non-transactional customers; travel sites for example. Some sites simply charge, with cost models operating from the ridiculously cheap to the full charge with associated benefits.

This idea of instant gratification without cost is nonsense, and we all know it. If it weren’t, the commercial world would cease to be, on or offline. Yet there will always be people selling fake goods at the market and still the world does business. We are in slightly new territory with a lot of these virtual concepts, and a lot of the business models themselves need to prove their sustainability, but that’s nothing new for a market segment.

The bottom line is that the web is not free, and there are a myriad number of payment mechanics cursing through its veins, we just don’t always perceive them. Sure you can get by on free stuff, but if you are a serious player you will eventually need to upgrade and most of the time getting a decent content management system for example is worth much more to your customer than the set up cost is to you. The real win is that with all the variable options for your infrastructure, your costs will remain flexible and that’s a massive advantage. That’s the beauty of the web, all of these options exist, you know about them and it’s only because of the web that some of these options are possible. It’s simply a case that your business choices are freer than ever before and that brings your costs down.

As to Chris’ book, save yourself the cover price, read the reviews and excerpts online for free.

It's not just about the content, but how you position it.

Hans Helbig — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:24:33 +0100

It's not just about the content, but how you position it.

Posted by Hans Helbig on 29 June 2009

Users think data is a free commodity. It's the Internet, that's the way it works. End of. It really is that simple in their eyes. The truth is that it just isn't that simple any more; costs for running sites at scale are prohibitive. The economic climate has put an end to cheap cash and riding the wave of never-never profits. Businesses have to make money and content has to be of good quality to drive this. It's what economists call 'legitimacy', something evaluated in terms of 'effectiveness', and that means it all needs to make a viable return.

The first thing to consider is that you are not alone; the web is a big place and if people don't like your offering they will go elsewhere. The web is a breeding ground for new ideas, concepts and usurpers who will steal your thunder at flip of an IP.

There are also people out there who have different motives to you, as well as there being a lucky few who don't need the money at all. Look at Wikipedia and BBC Online. Neither of which I want to see go, both of which have independent models of existence. I – as many millions of people around the world – love these sites.

The point here is to be aware of these factors and look at a realistic solution to sit at the core of what you do. Be clear on this and then consider some of the following:

1. Choose a position, have an opinion and be honest. Provide an honest service, charge with clear benefits, but don't discourage use at any level

2. Give a 'Free' option that lets people explore with some key limitations that you save for the preserve of your subscriber. Free options build brands and create future users, don' talk to them any differently and don't be condescending. For example give a usable bandwidth allowance or server ads only on every other page. Consider using the freemium model proving successful around the globe.

3. New charging models: Look at new ways of doing things, good example in what people thought were hopeless markets are Spotify and LoveFILM. Look at micropayments, bundles and good old fashioned sales techniques.

4. Sell advertising if it works, it works

People pay for content that has a) a tangible benefit, and that is b) easier to use than getting the content from other sources. Be honest with an honest product (at all entry points). Find your cost efficiency and work it hard and well. Either that or build your model quickly and sell it for small fortune, then retire to a tropical island and drink cocktails and let someone else worry about it.

Some freemium sites I love:

www.yousendit.com use it with impunity up until 100MB

www.spotify.com the way music needs to be online, with a very clear reason (with options) to upgrade

www.ft.com whatever you say them knows their onions

Microsites a discourse

Hans Helbig — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:02:59 +0100

Microsites a discourse

Posted by Hans Helbig on 16 June 2009

Campaign Microsites, a discourse

They are everywhere and it seems everyone is at it.

Executives want some of it, and agencies are happy to peddle it with grandiose proclamations of untold users and clicks galore. The cost apparently – according to agencies and their clients – is 'missing out' and 'not being part of the digital revolution'. Newsflash: the revolution has happened and we are living in a fully mature market with highly experienced users.

Don't get me wrong, I am not having a go at campaigns, just the randomness of some of the big, pointless and expensive looking campaign microsites that seem to have been created to spend budget. Worst of all, they seem to be built without thought for any existing company websites or platforms. The following is what I always think about at the start of a new campaign.

Integrate your activity to your existing portfolio
Make sure whatever you do has a point or a purpose
Don't ask your user for too much

Most people won't spend two hours in Photoshop to make an animated GIF about your product in a funny situation. Most will want instant gratification. If they are gratified, then they will want to keep or share it. So make sure the site has a critical mass of content to keep people engaged right from the beginning...make everything from the concept to entry quick, easy to use, easy to understand and to pass on

Give it depth
Keep it alive
Only do it if it's a good idea

This final point is probably the most important for the client to remember; know what your objectives are, know what you want and above all don't be afraid to get creative. Look at all the options available to you; is there a way you can integrate your campaign into you existing site, with nice little ideas that carry the story through? Is this the point to add new customer focused functionality to your site, or improve the ecommerce conversion rates? Could you make CRM the core of the campaign and rebuild your platform and resource to support? Is the budget better off being spent on promotional pricing (BOGOF)?

I am genuinely never more disappointed than when I see a big corporation or agency ticking the box with a bland campaign site. They have talent, lots of cash and they know your customer, how hard can it be? You see we like the web and want stuff to be good...if you get stuck, give us a call.

Digital grows up

Hans Helbig — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:55:01 +0100

Digital grows up

Posted by Hans Helbig on 16 June 2009

Digital Emancipation comes a step closer

This week, Crispin Porter & Bogusky – a huge global traditional ad agency – bought Daddy, the Swedish digital design hotshop, and put them in charge of their entire European operations. That's on and off line. To be really clear; a digital agency is now in charge of a large pan-European, globally owned ad agency and all it's clients. Brilliant.

Companies have for an age been talking about putting digital at the core of their operations, but very few have done anything about it really. Sure there were heads of online and digital directors, but most had an office in one of the side wings. Campaigns were produced 'afterward' by the comm's departments, or a small team at the back of the agency away from the core creatives. There is a definite air of them and us.

This is different: Heinz calls a campaign meeting and the first person to get the message is the digital guy. The digital guy likes and understands digital, so they start to think cross-channel ideas, not off line ideas that get shoehorned onto online. I like this a lot and feel like we are getting close to what we the digital agencies always knew was coming; we have been given the keys and asked to pick the direction. All in all, this means a digital growth spurt is on its way.

Here's to more digital good news stories.

Why Google continues to make me smile...

Ben Rometsch — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:13:59 +0100

Why Google continues to make me smile...

Posted by Ben Rometsch on 29 May 2009

Not only are they releaseing incredible looking software like Google Wave in an open source fashion, but their sign up page tickles me as a developer...

Social reform? Let me just put you on hold.

Hans Helbig — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:45:19 +0100

Social reform? Let me just put you on hold.

Posted by Hans Helbig on 27 May 2009

Hugo Chavez unveiled his latest in the line of quasi social revolutionary mechanics this week; a €15 WAP enabled phone for the people. A move that I think is very, very astute...well, at first I thought it was up there with beads and shiny mirrors.

...on reflection, it does seem to offer something for everyone;

The People:

Get a mobile phone with all the modern gadgets at a price that they can afford. This not only means instant gratification, but also learning and development. With technology come improvements in all areas; knowledge builds people. The phone itself is no iPhone or G1, but it delivers everything a contemporary society needs: a camera, WAP internet access, FM radio, MP3 for music and MP4 for video.

Hugo Chavez:

Show me the love. Just look at the reaction you would get from a teenager if you gave them an iPhone. He is now more than ever a benevolent leader who really cares about what we the people want (this is my shinny beads moment). He also now owns the channel and as Mr Berlusconi will tell you, that's not a bad thing. It's not just internally though, he is now seen as a progressionist and visionary across the globe (if more so in some places than others).

The State:

Socialism is good. Surely it can't be bad if I get a lovely phone out of it? Hugo is a man of the people and they won't forget that in a hurry. Just look a the reverse affect of the current expenses scandal. Who cares what our foreign policy is, just don't you dare charge me, the people, for your lovenest in Portsmouth and your bathplug. The next election/constitutional change is in the bag.

The economy:

The handsets themselves are being built locally, which means jobs, income with a price point that that corners the market. The $15 mobile has already got a massive waiting list. That's not even thinking about the network infrastructure, the channel and the revenue through usage. Venezuela now becomes a centre for mobile technology excellence in South America and the socialist world, which means outside interest (read cash and status), improved foreign relationships and knowledge sharing...a nice, premium export.

Businesses:

Someone has to build the WAP sites and propagate the content. Hugo isn't going to stop at the phone, he needs an active channel. So, from ring tones to information portals, it all needs to be built or re-built. And as soon as the money comes rolling in, so will the next gen.

As if all of this isn't enough, give the man his PR credit; the phone's name – Vergatario – is very close to the Venezuelan slang word for penis – Verga. Two stories for the price of one all delivered with a smile – happy and good news, the best kind.

Our advice is that if you have any South American connections, experience in mobile and a head for adventure give Hugo a call.

Mobile web, social reform in the palm of your hand.

Hans Helbig — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:44:53 +0100

Mobile web, social reform in the palm of your hand.

Posted by Hans Helbig on 27 May 2009

If the pundits are anything to go by, this is the year of mobile web. It's boom time apparently...again. I have been hearing this statement for years; I started out developing mobile products at Hutchison for their global 3G offering that no one ended up using; there were loads of world firsts that were technically brilliant, offering everything from a 'mobile wallet' to live video streams, most of which were financially viable...all of this way ahead of it's time if I look at current mobile services. It boils down to 3 key problems; users didn't emotionally know what we were talking about, so no one was talking about any of it, the hardware was ugly, and there were no services that needed a mobile version to make them complete.

The demand for ideas from our clients hasn't stopped over the years either and Solid State Group have pulled together a number of products including mobile SuDoku games for Ericsson and Yahoo!, supporting mobile billing and ticketing platforms, flash prototypes and a host of back end systems to support our existing product portfolio. So the basics are built and understood and we kind of knew they were important, it's just we were waiting for something to change in the minds of the users.

Now the numbers seem to be adding up to this change being in motion. More importantly consumers are reacting, the terminology and technology has become social currency; just look at the runaway success of the iPhone (apart from India), it has pretty much caused a social revolution in what we want from our devices. Android versus mobile OSX, and the social misfit Windows Mobile. They are all terms normal people are using everyday...and that's all before we mention the digital drug of our time that will be the catalyst; social networking. Britain also appears to be the world leader in mobile web usage, with figures of around 7.3 million users in the Q3 2008 (Neilson Online). In summary then, we have the customers, we have the channel (hardware) and we have the knowledge to deliver it without compromise.

In comparative terms though, I doubt that there are many companies who are actually doing anything specifically aimed at these users. And the first step is the easy one; Acknowledgment. Be aware how consumers are interacting with your brand and services.

Once you know this, just answer the following questions in order and add them to your next briefing session:

Q1. Why are people using mobile web when looking at our site?

Q2. What are they specifically looking for and asking, and how does it differ from traditional web usage?

The answers to both of these depend on what products you offer and what part of that the consumer want from you when they are out and about? Social sites for example will want the usual raft of updates and posts 'straight to gallery' functionality - updates. Offering this with a paired down bespoke mobile site to speed things up of course. The same for directories, with tweaked algorithms to make the returns more relevant, think nearest pub, cinema times, etc.

These minimised services need to reflect the second question, but don't rush in and dismiss the idea that a lot of sites are fine as they are...well, that your users are happy with the service as it stands without the need for a full redesign or a different experience just because they are out. All of this takes us right back to the simple rule of acknowledgment; look at your customer and understand what they want. We know how it works, we have the ideas, and most importantly we have the learnings from the early days.

So, roll on the new iPhone, the N97, Blackberry minus the suit and watch the social reform unfold...I know that might sound a little strong, but just take a look at Hugo Chavez and his new $15 WAP enabled peoples handset.

solidstategroup.com (#ssg) twitter integration

Matthew Evans — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:13:11 +0100

solidstategroup.com (#ssg) twitter integration

Posted by Matthew Evans on 27 May 2009

So twitter is going to be integrated into the new solidstategroup.com website and we had quite a long discussion about the best way to do this. We first thought about simply having a corporate twitter account and if we want something to go out on twitter we would post it through that account. We tried this approach for a while and basically no-one can actually be bothered to switch accounts to put out a tweet from SSG.

So now we have taken a new approach of simply adding the #ssg tag to any post that we want to appear on the twitter page on our new site. The advantage (and disadvantage) of this is that anyone using twitter can use the #ssg tag for whatever purpose they see fit, and when they do, those tweets will appear on our site.

To combat this we are going to block known twitter users that use an alternative definition of #ssg (there is someone using it for some Star Wars gaming purpose a little) so that there is less noise in the channel

One of the downsides though is that users of the site won’t be able to follow just one user, they would need to follow all the users that post to our site, or keep searching for the #ssg tag which is a pain.

So we’ve come up with a cunning plan. You can do a targeted search in twitter for a tag and a user like this:

Then you can view this feed as an RSS feed through the RSS tools pictured on the right hand side of that image.

Once you have this RSS feed, you can use tools like tweetbots.com to automatically tweet posts in an RSS feed, therefore retweeting anything I tweet from my personal account into our SSG account.

Now users can follow just the SSG account and will get all the tweets from our personal accounts with the #ssg tag, but nothing from external users using the #ssg tag. External users tweeting with that tag will however show up on our twitter page on our site (provided they haven’t been blocked by our known #ssg tag abusers ;-) )

So we should get the best of both worlds. Incidentally, this blog post will be auto tweeted using the same bot type tools so it’s always good to have the #ssg tag in the title.

Thanks to @joelangford for the research. :)

Using ExpressInstall.swf with Mootools

Giles Cambray — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:33:43 +0100

Using ExpressInstall.swf with Mootools

Posted by Giles Cambray on 27 May 2009

When developing in JavaScript it's always good not to have duplicate scripts that do the same or similar things. At Solid State Group we tend to use the Mootools JavaScript framework on many of our sites. If we are including this, and things like LightBox, swfObject, and other useful tools, code can get quite bloated and eventually slowing things down in the browser.

One good thing about Mootools is that you can use it to replicate many of these useful JavaScripts out there. One such class is the 'Swiff' class, which is their implementation of the well know swfObject. The other day I wanted to use the expressInstall.swf which would load instead of a swf file on the page if the client flash version was below a given value. I searched for ages to find whether this had been covered in Mootools, but in the end I gave up and wrote our own add on for it.

There's probably a whole load of optimisation you could do, but if you want a quick an easy solution to include the expressInstall functionally with Mootools (version 1.2) then here it is.

Building the new solidstategroup.com

Matthew Evans — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:44:16 +0100

Building the new solidstategroup.com

Posted by Matthew Evans on 27 May 2009

We are currently going through the concept stage for the next version of the solidstategroup.com website. Over the years we have referenced our site for good methods of navigation, search engine optimisation, aggregation pages, tag based navigation and other good features. In this industry though a website doesn’t remain current for very long and after only 2 years we find ourselves behind the times and badly in need of an update.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting some of the thoughts and discussions we are having about our new site and inviting people to get in touch with their ideas.

We already have our new brand which I’ll be releasing on the site soon, so now we are in the concept stage for the new site.

I’ll be talking through our decisions like choice of navigation, tagging structure, teaser modules, RSS, Twitter and other features.

Stay tuned.

What the Firefox?

Giles Cambray — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:28:41 +0000

What the Firefox?

Posted by Giles Cambray on 23 January 2009

Yesterday a strange thing happened.

I had been noticing that for a few weeks my browser (Firefox 3.0.5 running on OSX Leopard) had been getting a little slower. Flash movies were beginning to stutter every minute or so, pages were refreshing quite slowly and things were generally not as quick as other aspects of my system. The thought occurred to me that the browser profile might need "re-installing". Over time Firefox gets filled up with all sorts of cruft:

Browser Cache
Saved Passwords
Add-ons and their related bits and pieces
Site history

So I thought why create a new Firefox profile and see what happened. Semi-surprisingly things sped up a lot. After spending a few minutes re-installing the few add-ons I cant live without and importing my bookmarks from the old profile, I was set. Nice and clean Firefox install and no slow downs.

But all of this got me thinking. This is the sort of thing I used to do with my Operating System, not my Browser. I say used to as I moved to Leopard about 18 months ago and find it doesn't suffer from the same bloat-slowdown as Windows does. Anyway, fan-boyism aside, I think this says a lot about the state of computing in general in 2009.

In some senses the web browser is the operating system. Hence the chart below.

Red is Microsoft, Blue is Google.

iPhone background applications - the solution, sort of!

Ben Rometsch — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:56:28 +0000

iPhone background applications - the solution, sort of!

Posted by Ben Rometsch on 22 January 2009

I seriously, seriously love my iPhone. Growing up with consumer electronics in the early 80s and working in the software/web development business for the last 12 years means I've owned a lot of computers, phones, laptops and all that stuff. I can safely say that the iPhone is by a long way better than any device I have ever owned. I can't think of piece of electronic equipment that comes halfway towards the iPhone. Possibly the Amiga or the Nokia 8210. It really is that good.

Anyway, what with the explosion of App Store, I've loaded my phone with applications that make it even more useful. Instapaper, Byline, Things and MyRail (an app for customers of UK's decrepit train network; trust me if you haven't heard of this app, it's a good thing) are probably the 4 most important for me, but interestingly they all share a common problem, not of their own making. This problem is Apple's fault. Blimey, did I really just say that?

The problem displays itself with a simple use case. Let's say I am about to leave the office and get on the tube. I want to make sure that all 4 applications are fully up to date so that I can do some useful stuff on the tube. The tube is the only place in my day where I am away from an IP connection, so I need to prime all these applications to make sure I'm running fully up to date and not reading stinky 7 hour old news feeds. All these applications have a sync or update function, but I need to open each one in turn, hit update, wait for the sync to complete which in the case of ByLine can be quite a while, close the application, open the next, get frustrated, can't believe I'm doing this in 2009, swear...

There must be an easier way of doing this. I think there is.

So there's 1 icon I want on my iPhone home screen. It just says "Update". I hit it, and all those apps that need to be updated do just that. How would this work? Apple add a hook into their iPhone API that applications can register against. Whenever I hit update, the phone iterates over each application that has registered against the update API and runs the appropriate method within the application, most likely the one that is triggered when I hit the "sync" icon within all these applications. That's it. For most of these applications it's probably all of 4 lines of code. All I need to do when I leave the office is hit sync and head to the tube.

The inclusion of a single API call would allow this to happen, but it could get even more useful. Once these callbacks are set up, the phone could add all the applications that implement this callback to the system preferences, allowing me to control which applications perform this task automatically. Say I want Instapaper to update automatically every 2 hours, I could set the preferences to enable this. The iPhone OS does most of the work, all the application developer needs to do is implement this API method. 1 method, 4 lines of code, a lot of functionality.

It's so simple, I don't quite know why Apple haven't implemented something like this already. Maybe they are concerned about battery life in the case of the automated updates but if this is the reason, surely they can default to off, and allow the user to control if indeed they do update. Maybe they are worried about the concept being too complex for your average user. If this is the reason they could simply provide the update functionality as a downloadable app.

The update notification system that they promised last year is months late and as far as I am aware has not been mentioned by Apple for a long time. This solution seems so much simpler than Apple's notification update system, which appears to require a ton of infrastructure at Apple's end (maybe I'm wrong, please let me know if I am!). It's also not a functional. You still need an IP connection when you actually open the app that is showing an update, so if I'm on the tube I'm stuck until I get outside again.

I know people have said this of Apple before, but why not just give developers and users what they want?

Ready: FIGHT! Django vs Grails

Ben Rometsch — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:54:39 +0000

Ready: FIGHT! Django vs Grails

Posted by Ben Rometsch on 08 January 2009

Ready: FIGHT

I've been wanting a small, greenfield development project to come about so that we have an opportunity to test out two new frameworks within the company. We've played with them internally for a while, and one of the team has used one in a previous role, but we're not sure which one to use in production. We felt the best way to settle this dispute would be a good honest fight.

Well, a coding fight. So we're going to pitch two developers against each other and the clock. In the blue corner Justin will be using the java/groovy/hibernate/struts based Grails framework, and in the red corner I'll be using the Python based Django framwork.

Conceptually they are fairly similar. They are both full stack frameworks that try hard to get out of your way and let you focus on being productive. They are both request-based MVC, they have their own ORM libraries making them relatively database agnostic and they both have loads of helpers to do the dull heavy lifting that building modern web applications often requires.

Having said that, under the hood they are quite different beasts. Grails leverages some seriously heavyweight "enterprise" libraries: Spring and Hibernate have become de-facto standards in large scale Java web development, and for good reason. Grails acts as a wrapper around these two tools and adds in a decorator pattern (Sitemesh) as well as some bits and pieces to bring it all together.

Django has had a completely different childhood. Factored out of an internal project for a US-based newspaper, it has gained rapid traction in the Python world for being well designed, well documented, of high performance and generally quite Pythonic.

So Justin has used Grails in a previous job, and I've used Django for a very very small client project. Having said that, I'm no Python developer. I've written Java code for many many years, and have only spent a short while playing with Python, so I think Justin will have a slight advantage from a background point of view. I might do something amusing with Justin's mouse, some superglue and a small mirror to claw back some momentum.

When the project starts, I'm going to try and blog the results of each day's work to let people get a feel for the rates of progress for each respective project. When we're finished I'm going to load test them apps to see what sort of performance we get out of them.

Ready? FIGHT!

Continued testing via the hive

Matthew Evans — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:28:38 +0100

Continued testing via the hive

Beyond Java

Matthew Evans — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:45:39 +0100

Is there really life beyond Java?

The ramifications of my Mum and Dad missing Eastenders

Ben Rometsch — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:59:41 +0100

Google launches data (and lore)

Ben Rometsch — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:59:41 +0100

Google makes data (and lore)

Into the clouds

Giles Cambray — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:57:54 +0100

Into the clouds

Posted by Giles Cambray on 18 April 2008

There have been a couple of big announcements this week that probably aren't getting the attention they deserve, especially when you consider the paradigm shift that they actually represent.

Last weekend Google announced AppEngine, a mixture of a full-stack web development framework and hosting services to run AppEngine apps on. Although initially only supporting the (so hot right now!) Python language, Google have stated their intention to include other languages in the future.

This was followed by Amazon, who announced two significant additions to their EC2 elastic cloud computing service. Firstly they revealed the soon to be released feature of persistent storage of their EC2 service. Secondly, they announced professional support services to go alongside the EC2 service. This comes after the recent news that they now allow for static IP addresses to be assigned to their EC2 instances.

For those of you that read the last two paragraphs and now have absolutely no idea what I am waffling on about (well done for making it this far!), it can be boiled down to the three stages of hosting web sites.

Stage 1 (circa the mid to late 1990s) was real DIY stuff. If you wanted to put a web server online it generally meant selecting the hardware, procuring it, installing whatever operating system and application servers onto the box, driving it to the data centre, racking it, plugging it all in and then praying that the hard disks didn't explode in 6 months time. Life was painful.

During stage 2 (to the present day) things became more service oriented. If you wanted a server you gave a hosting company a call, told them what you wanted and a couple of days later they gave you the access details of the server. If the hard disk exploded you phoned the hosting company and they put a new one in straight away. Life was better.

In stage 3 (from this week onwards) things are getting really smart. The key difference between stage 2 and 3 is simply this: The server in stage 2 exists physically somewhere in a data center. You could locate it in the data center, pull the power cables out and your website would stop responding. In stage 3, you would be very hard pressed to even be able to find the server that your website is running on. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find out what country the server is located in. This is all made possible through technology known as virtualisation. If the hard disk fails, your website still responds. If there is a problem discovered in the server that is running your site, it hands over control of the site to another server and alerts a technician that it is unwell.

Think of stage 1 as owning a car before car manufacturers thought of selling after sales service, stage 2 as renting a car that is serviced by roadside assistance, and stage 3 as taking a cab.

Now think about the cost implications of all 3 stages. Buying a car, renting a car and taking a cab. Now think about the speed that you can alter your business offering depending on these three stages.

Welcome to cloud computing.

Notes on the iPhone

Ben Rometsch — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:28:50 +0000

Notes on the iPhone

Posted by Ben Rometsch on 18 March 2008

Having struggled with Windows Mobile Devices for a couple of years (they were good but crashed ALL the time, like when you had an incoming call) and a Nokia E61 (solid but oh so boring) I finally took the plunge and bought an iPhone.

I didn't have an iPod, so the cost factor was offset to a certain degree on that account, and fortunately O2 tripled the number of free minutes I get a couple of months ago, without me asking, which was nice. That puts the monthly tariff pretty close to what I was paying T Mobile with a similar package, and the O2 network is much, much better than T Mobile, but I digress!

Cutting through all the"Jesus Phone" hoo-haa, I have come to the conclusion that it is, indeed, a magical device. It's magical for three reasons.

It doesn't have GPS, but it knows where you are...

A recent free software upgrade by Apple provided a location based service on top of google maps. Now, the phone doesn't have a GPS chip, and it figures out where you are based on a combination of cell tower triangulation and Wifi hotspot database cleverness, but the bottom line is, I can be anywhere in London, hit a button and have the device show me, to within about 10 yards, exactly where I am.

At first I thought that it was just lucky at guessing where I was, but as I have come to use it more often, I can safely say that it is actually *better* than GPS. Why? Because I don't need to have a clear line of site to the GPS satellites, it doesn't take 5 minutes to get a signal lock and the accuracy is more than "good enough".

The other day I got a bus that I don't normally use, and wasn't sure which stop to get off at. I had the destination post-code entered into the Google Maps application, so the phone knew where I wanted to be. Every couple of minutes (and this was sat on the bottom deck of a double decker, try that with GPS...) I'd hit the "find me" button and it would update my location. No stress, no hassle, and I knew exactly where to get off. Brilliant.

It isn't 3G but is faster than my old 3G phones.

Huh? Really, it's true! 3G networks are a bit creaky, and the technology is still maturing. The network coverage is not great, and if you are on a train your 3g phone will spend most of the journey bouncing between 2G and 3G like a yoyo. Don't try and use it when it is doing that! The bottom line is that, when you need to get hold of some information on a mobile, having 3g isn't much of an advantage. In fact, I think it's a disadvantage.

The Edge/GPRS/Wifi connection stack on the iPhone is really superb. It can handle moving from Wifi to Edge to GPRS without a hiccup. You get the best connection available to you at the time. This, along with the simply superb implementation of the Safari Web Browser and hand gestures mean that it is actually *quicker* to get access to information online with the iPhone than it was with my old Windows Mobile Device (and that was using HSDPA, which is meant to be "faster" than 3G!).

It is an inanimate object, but it makes me smile.

The quality of the interface design is truly astonishing. I've had the phone for months now, and use it a LOT, but I am still finding all these little interface embellishments that make me smile. The windows mobile devices used to make me angry, on a daily basis. The iPhone makes me happy on a daily basis.

Testing by Turk

Matthew Evans — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:24:59 +0100