Spiceworks has started to unveil the new features for their upcoming 5.0 release. What promises to be their biggest release yet, is shaping up to tackle some long time feature requests. The 19th release brings page load speeds to the table that are 30% faster on average.

Here are some highlights on the new release, slated to launch in September 2010:

• A new TFTP server that can save and restore configuration files for network hardware. You can also compare versions of the backup configurations.
• Improved SNMP device support for a more accurate and detailed network map.
• Hyper-V support for deeper management of virtualized devices.
• Associate your help desk users with assets, and opening up the door for user administration like password resets and session unlocking.
• A unified management console for MSP’s who have multiple clients running a helpdesk, meaning you can work on all of your tickets from one place!
• Improved purchase tracking with updated methods of reporting and calculating costs.

The new TFTP server for loading/backing up network hardware configurations

Already a Spiceworks user? Check out the new 5.0 beta and news feed here in the community.

I attended a networking event recently where I was asked the question, “What do you think about India?”. When someone asks me a question I am usually pretty quick to respond with an answer that will at least start some conversation. This one stumped me, and for some reason my answer was “Well, it’s crowded”. Which is true, but not quite what the person asking was looking for.

The reason I was asked that question had to do with outsourcing. When I explained what I do on a full time and consulting basis (web development among other things), the question really meant what I thought about my job being outsourced to India. After the initial shock and a quick laugh I expanded on my original answer. The truth is, and I quickly added “I love India”.

To further expand on that- I actually love outsourcing. Many people may see it as a threat but the truth is that we (as developers and other techies) have no choice but to accept the fact that there is someone across the world who will do our work for half the price. Great. Instead of fighting it, embrace it. Embrace that many of the basic, tedious web development tasks can now be taken care of for a good price. It leaves us to pick up the pieces here on projects that may have been outsourced. You’ll always hear the success stories and how much money people saved. What you can’t forget is that we possess a very strong advantage. That advantage is communication. We have the ability to communicate effectively with the stakeholders in a project far more that someone facing a language barrier across the world.

So the truth is “I love India”. I love it because it puts me in the position to step into projects that have a decent groundwork laid out for me. Projects that I now can spend time on the parts that just didn’t work in an outsourced environment. More often than not I get to focus on the part of projects that I enjoy working on, and that is the chance to learn someones business and industry and put a real taste of technology into it.

Have you started a project that was outsourced and gotten to the point where you need someone to step in and really learn your business? Contact us, we can help.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitorcastillo

The official Blackberry Blog has released some more information on the anticipated release of Blackberry OS 6. Traditionally Blackberry has had such a loyal business following and focus for their products, but this upcoming release looks to harness the power of social media and make the mobile experience more personal. This is an obvious strategic move to align themselves to battle the Droid and iOS which have made huge improvements over the last 6 months.

Another big change is the redesign of the browser which is now powered by the open source project WebKit. As the launch gets closer, we’ll provide you with a more detailed list of changes and features as well as when users can expect the release.

Source: http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/07/blackberry-6-another-sneak-peek/

I was working on a project recently where I needed a date picker that I could easily style and configure. I wanted it to be easy for the end user and effective from a programming standpoint. The site was developed with PHP and Javascript so it was those languages I was looking to use for the most part. I ended up using the Yahoo Developer API, which worked out fine. However it was far from lightweight. This morning I discovered the jQuery UI only to find they have an excellent date picker that is very flexible.

Bottom line is you are looking for a datepicker and you can use Javascript, check out the jQuery UI.

The details for the iPhone 4 were released 6/7/2010. Apple brags the phone brings over 100 new features to the table, and is the biggest leap in innovation between device’s since it’s creation. While a version of this phone was leaked some time ago in a bar, Apple claims that we have not seen the fully baked product yet.  The iPhone OS is now named iOS (current version 4). Some of the major highlights include:

• Thin redesign(9.3mm), 24% thinner than the current.
• Front facing camera, with flash on the back.
• The new stainless steel design is part of the antenna, increasing GPS, Bluetooth, and Cell reception.
• Retina Display (326ppi), increasing the pixel density. Providing 4x as many pixels in the same amount of space.
• Bigger battery and new A4 processor, providing 40% more talk time.
• 32gb of storage, supports up to 7.2mbit down, 5.8mbit up.
• Gyroscope, increasing the accuracy of the accelerometer. Now provides 6 points of rotation.
• 5 megapixel camera, 5x digital zoom
• Camera records in HD, 720p @30fps, with iMovie video editing on the device.
• Camera embed geolocation into the video.
• Application multitasking
• iBooks coming to iPhone with iOS 4
• iAds which allows developers to embed ads in their app. When clicked, ad loads in a frame and does not close the app you are in.
• Video enabled calling via WiFi (requires iOS4), using the new Apple FaceTime

iAds, which will be enabled July 1st, provide a chance for developers to make money, similar to the way that artists are paid when a song is downloaded from iTunes. This is going to keep cost controls on apps, while providing developers incentive to create them.

The new Apple iPhone 4 will be on sale June 24th, $199 for 16gb, $299 for 32gb.

All information was gathered from the live streaming provided by macrumorslive.com

synergy-blog has just passed it’s one year anniversary, which prompted this post. Why Blog? It’s a question that I hear from clients and people I do business with frequently. It’s always a discussion on the table during a website pitch or sales meeting. My answer is usually “it depends”. That’s not a half assed answer by any means- it’s true.

A blog is the new media. A PR firm may be expensive to hire on a long term basis, and the time spent trying to get big media outlets to cover you may be very costly. Getting word out on your blog is a cheap way to begin to get the word out. Obviously the exposure is not even close to the same as what a media outlet can provide, but it’s a start. By blogging your ideas and becoming a thought leader, you can gain a following that can be far more valuable than what other traditional PR and advertising routes can provide. When the time comes, you can start to push your products and services to a prospect base that you already have a foot in the door with.

Being a thought leader comes with some baggage. Some people may not like what you say. Good. Usually if you are in position where people are starting to listen to you, chances are there is a group of people that think your crazy and bash you. Take that criticism with pride, and build on it. Their negative exposure to your thoughts may even fuel more people to come see what your all about. That’s the goal, isn’t it?

It works. Blogging has opened up so many doors both personally and professionally for me, and that is where the satisfaction comes from. That’s why I blog.

I recently needed to display an rss feed on a website. PHP is my weapon of choice, and was pleasantly surprised when I found RSS PHP. I was up and running with a CMS interface to change the feed location, and the option limit the number of items to display. The function is very simple to use and will return the results in an array.The newest version brags about being able to parse any XML document, which can also come in very handy. I’ll be using this for another upcoming project and will report the findings.

One thing that bothers me is that page load time can be slowed down because it’s relying on the speed of the feed. It would be handy to develop a script that can parse the feeds and store them in a database for faster display. Otherwise keeping a small limit on the number of items to display will help keep page load times quick.

Anyone who does web development for a CMS will tell you how nice FCKEditor is to work with. Not only is it nice to work with, but it’s an open source project with a huge community following. While support is optional, there is plenty of it you can find free online. The other nice feature of FCK is the integrated file manager to allow for uploads right from link or image creation. Making it very easy for people to upload PDF’s and link them right in their updates.

Then in early 2010 the new kid on the block rolled out. CKEditor. Tons of visual and functional improvements, but one big downfall. No integrated file manger. That to me really is a deal breaker, and luckily you can still download the latest version of FCKEditor with the filemanager from their website. They did create CKFinder which is a much more robust (and admittedly impressive file manager) but it’s plastered with DEMO all over it when you use it unregistered.

I understand that they want to make some money from such a wonderful project, but I think there were better and more tasteful ways to do this, than to surprise the users after upgrading to CKFinder to find no decent file manager integration. There are some reported hacks and workarounds to make it work, check them out below.

Open File Manager
Integrating FCK File Manager with CKEditor

Like most, I generally make it a point to keep an eye on my spam folder for things that may have slipped in. I don’t usually see much that surprises me in there, but I did see a fairly crafty and legit looking message that was actually spam. The message stated that it was from Twitter and that I had 3 unread messages. The style of the email was perfect and with some of recent changes and announcements involving Twitter, this almost got me. It was clear when looking at the real path of the link but I’m sure this is working very well across the web. Beware and share this with your friends.

Click to see full size

This afternoon I had a user who’s iPhone was fully charged (which we found out after we had gotten it to turn on) but would not power up. Screen was black and nothing could be done. Found a simple fix that worked.

1. Toggle the mute switch on the iPhone 4 or 5 times finally leaving the mute off.
2. Hold the power and home button down at the same time for 10 seconds or so.

Sure enough the device powered up and had a full charge. Oddly enough I remember similar issues with the earlier iPods where a similar combination of keys reset the device.