Chromebook – first thoughts

Google yesterday launched the Chromebook and a lot of the coverage has been about the 3 year leasing model which they offering.

I am still waiting for more details but based on the information here I have some first impressions.

Chromebooks essentially appear to be thin clients in netbook form – data and apps are stored remotely with the device essentially being the presentation layer.

On a 3 year basis the cheapest device has a cost of $28 x 36 or $1008 as opposed to the one off purchase cost of $349.

So the question is “Is the service wrap worth $659?”

The only details I can find so far are here.

Cost savings seem to be mainly captured in this paragraph:

Chromebooks and the management console automate or eliminate many common, time-intensive IT tasks like machine image creation, application distribution, patching, and upgrades. Additionally, there is no need to purchase licenses for anti-virus, data encryption or data back-up software. Subscription pricing means that you only pay a low monthly amount.

Minimum quantity is 10 so service wrap will be a minimum of $2197 per annum.

But someone still needs to do configuration, deployment, run the management console etc.

Will do some more detailed modelling and realworld comparisons but will be interested to see a) how the thin client model works in operation and b) whether the netbook form factor is now too unfashionable for the market to accept!

What’s my language?

Words spill over my tongue,

Dart from between my teeth

 

Dropped ‘aitches and Yiddish mix with

South Yorkshire “Baths” and “Bizaaaaaare”.

 

My shibboleth is not “Broagh” but “Three”.

 

My Spanish has a French accent,

If only my French did …

 

My language is words but my language is hands,

Hands twisting and pushing to shift reality.

 

I know the meaning of words,

I know the tocsin of words.

 

So tell me, what’s my language?

A Pound of Email Please

Is email like cheese or is it like air?

Cheese is a finite resource – no matter how much you may like cheese you can only eat so much, your larder can only hold so much and all the cows + sheep + goats of the world can only produce so much. We could indeed run out of cheese!!!!

Air is an infinite resource – we do not even think about it save in very rare circumstances. It just exists and we can use as much of it as we like, indeed we do not even consider that we are using a resource – it is so invisible and ubiquitous.

Users of email think of it as being like air, providers of email services think of it like cheese.

Social World

The terrible events in Japan over the past few days have affected many of us. A lot of people have been using social media to share information, discuss the tragedy and find ways to help those affected. And some have used social media in ways that make you want to bang your head on the table.

So let me repeat three very simple points about social media that people and companies should ALWAYS bear in mind:

1. Cause precedes effect

Offering to donate a sum of money to disaster relief if people “Like” or retweet your brand is magical thinking which puts effect before cause. Donate the money first and that way people will “Like” and retweet your brand because they respect you.

2. There is only one world

If you or someone in your organization uses social media to post something stupid or offensive in a public space then it will be heard by the entire world. This is not about private vs. public but local vs. global. Once uttered it is there forever and for everyone.

3. Write then edit

If you have to explain a tweet then you are either trying to describe something that simply cannot be done in 140 characters or you are assuming knowledge on the part of the reader when you cannot safely make that assumption.

The basic rule for social media is the same as the basic rule for life – think.

If you would like to do something to help Japan then one way you can do so is through the Red Cross.

Zen Bosons

What is the simplest possible universe?

One answer is that it is ours because ours is the only universe we know to exist and one is simpler than two.

Another answer is to start from scratch with a blank sheet of … well what? Vacuum foam? Dirac sea? Hilbert space?

So rather than building up perhaps we should start by simplifying, decluttering the universe we have. We could start by getting rid of some of those high end elements from the periodic table, the ones with half lives measured in fractions of a second…

But although they seem to have no relevance to our world they exist because of the laws of nature so we would gave to unpick the laws of nature and elements, are in any case, merely energy situationally described in information terms so which laws do we need to start unpicking?

So perhaps we need to go back to the start from scratch approach?

And so this cycle of random night thoughts continues until I fall asleep.

Night all.

Two different stories, one platform

Twitter release an updated client for iOS which puts a large black hashtag bar across the top of the screen which results in users complaining bitterly that the functionality of the app had been sacrificed to the demands of monetization.

This morning I awoke to an update from someone whose long established Twitter username had been claimed by an organization who post-dated the person’s use of that username but who were a registered commercial entity.

The thing which they have in common is that they both reflect the difference between open and proprietary platforms.

The thing which most differentiates Twitter from email is that the email we use is based around a series of open standards – RFC1939, RFC822, RFC5321 amongst others.

Twitter can change the rules at any time.

But it’s not just Twitter

I wrote earlier this week about the risk of a single point of dependency in business models, but what if that single point of dependency is in our social and personal lives instead?

C is for Cookie, G is for Global

Image by Tomi Tapio via Flickr

You may have seen the recent news about EU legislation about the use of cookies on websites to track individual users. You can find reports on the BBC, The Register,  Techcrunch Europe and GigaOm.

I cannot write about the policy details or the implementation, for a start I am not involved in either, but the discussions around this particular issue have triggered a couple of thoughts on my part.

The first is the trite observation that this is a reflection of the many local vs. global tensions which the Internet raises. It is almost insulting to compare cookies to democratic liberation movements but they are both the result of local barriers being replaced by global platforms. And in return, local communities seek to raise those barriers in the new global space – be it cookie management or content filtering.

The second thought is that Internet commerce is based on a single point of vulnerability – not security – but identity management. We have struck an implicit and at best slightly understood agreement that we can shop and access services online in return for our interests and our activities being tracked and being sold onto the highest bidder.

The EU cookie proposals challenge that implicit agreement at a local level but what would happen if online tracking suddenly became a global concern? What if the Mozilla work on Do-Not-Track and the Microsoft work on cookie filtering become the norm for all rather than the exception used by just some of us? What if online tracking goes the same way as smoking or wearing fur?

What does the Web, what do business models look like in that world?

Any business model based on a single point of vulnerability is problematic, if that business model drives much of the valuation of the Internet economy then what happens?

 

For Your Security

Image via Wikipedia

As part of our commitment to service excellence we have been reviewing how best to keep you safe online.

Your mobile phone is now much more than just a simple tool for communicating and allows you to access a wide range of services – read the latest news, shop for the latest fashions and listen to the latest music.

But as your mobile phone becomes more and more powerful and more and more a key part of your daily life, so too do the threats from your use of that phone grow and the risks to your personal information and the security of your finances grow.

As part of our world famousTM commitment to service excellence we want to make your mobile access simpler and safer.

So we are providing you with an additional service at no cost which is designed to protect the safety of you and your family.

From 03:17 tomorrow all Internet access from yo

let their hand go for it, grasp it

Image via Wikipedia

Idea plus execution equals outcome.

Without both parts the outcome cannot be achieved.

An idea can be great but with poor execution it will stall, a poor idea with great execution is simply a waste of time and money.

Even the biggest companies can get it wrong – Google’s troubles with wifi were a poor idea badly executed while Buzz was an ok idea woefully executed.

If the idea is good enough people will tolerate grit in the delivery – Twitter and the fail whale being a classic example.

If the execution is slick enough then people may be dazzled long enough for you to sell them version 1, but they soon arrive at your doorstep with pitchforks and burning torches.

Innovation is often approached by businesses (and yes Virginia, the public sector is a business in this sense) as something both mysterious and highly dangerous.

This conflicted attitude can be seen throughout organizations, from the CEO down.

And I suspect that a lot of it comes down to regarding idea and execution as separate concepts, not as part of a seamless delivery.

Now you may, and rightly, say that this is all obvious. And you would be right.

But if it is obvious why do we all, including some of the biggest and the best, keep getting it wrong?

 

Books I Will Never Write

A history of the Franco-Prussian War told from the perspective of the animals in Paris Zoo.

A guide to implementing ERP in your organization on a ZX Spectrum.

A version of Shakespeare’s Henry V where all the characters are bears, apart from one giraffe.

The Wit and Wisdom of Jar-Jar Binks.

“Yes, I know that bus is red!” – My Struggles With Daltonism

A Practical Guide to Stairs

Cooking for Drummers

How to Forget

Was Biggles Jennings’s Father?

A 400 page exploration of why, if the plural of foot is feet, that the plural of boot is not beet.