Matt Loney's Blog
What it says on the box
Tuesday 3 June 2008, 4:26 PM
Goosh, that's a neat interface
It's nothing new - in fact the command line interface implemented at Goosh.org harks back to the days somewhere between the fall from grace of the punched card and the rise to fame (or infamy) of the GUI. But I was rather struck by Goosh because it recognises Google for what it is - a command-line interface with a thin veneer of GUI on top.
Google has long been known for the (almost fanatical) simplicity of its front page, which hides an ever-increasing range of services. Some put its success down to this every bit as much as to its famous PageRank algorithms (for there are many), and AdSense service.
Learning any command line syntax is like learning to snowboard - you have to get through those first few days of pain to really 'get it' and start to have fun. Once you do this, the benefits of the command line start to reveal themselves: you can often do more, and do it more quickly than in a QUI, with less rick of RSI. For me Goosh is still slightly the wrong side of the pain barrier - I suspect I'll find myself sticking to the GUI for now. But if one of the promises that command line interface hold out over GUIs - that of enabling an actual conversation - I could be tempted in future to switch.
Friday 16 May 2008, 12:49 PM
Nominate your IT Community Hero
CNET Networks UK is currently accepting entries for the CNET Networks UK Business Technology Awards 2008, and for the IT Community Hero award we though we’d put it out there to ask you who you think deserves to win.
The award is meant to honour the person, team or organisation who has done the most to make the lives and jobs of people in IT easier and more productive through building connections fostering a sense of community. The judges will be looking for a strong community focus on IT through inclusiveness, outreach and collaboration. We could be talking anything from a blog to work on a project with community aspects, to sponsorship of a community project.
Please take a moment to tell us about your nomination for IT Community Hero – either use the form below or, if you have a ZDNet account, feel free to leave a comment to this post.
(Your name and email address will help us if we need to contact you to discuss your nomination. They will not be used for any other purpose.)
Friday 25 April 2008, 12:53 PM
Upload your own avatars to ZDNet Community
OK, its a pretty small piece of functionality, but we've just added a feature to allow you to upload your own avatars to ZDNet. When you're logged in and go to you profile page you'll see a 'change picture' button below your picture. You should be able to figure it out from there. Just note that images should be 100 pixels square. You can upload larger images and they'll be scaled. You can upload rectangular images, in which case they'll be cropped automatically to a square, which means that if your face is over to one side of the image it might get lost altogether. Best stick to squares.
If you already had one of our stock avatars your profile will retain this until you decide to upgrade to a real picure of you. Go on, you know it's always good to put a face to a name.
Friday 25 April 2008, 12:42 PM
The real way to pronounce MySQL (it's not what you think)
How you do pronounce MySQL? I've spent a good few years correcting those who say it 'mysequel', firm in the knowledge that My.S.Q.L. was correct, only to discover today from co-founder David Azmark that I have been sorely deluded. Instead, I should have taken lessons from Ali G.
In the austere confines of London's ancient Royal Geopgrahical Society today, Azmark poured forth on many aspects of MySQL's history and its future under Sun.
Among them was the history of the name. MySQL is named after the daughter of the other co-founder Michael Widenius, as Wikipedia already knows. According to Azmark, the correct pronounciation of My is 'Me', and the correct way to pronounce MySQL is and always has been 'Me.S.Q.L.', making it sound to the English ear like Ali G's database. Azmark then proceded to pronounce it as in 'my', noting that now even he's started referring to it this way. I suspect the widely used pronunciation will stick, though there is something about the original pronunciation that I really do like - it is a great prefix. Just think if you were running it on MeSUSE.
Thursday 20 March 2008, 9:56 PM
I will blog, despite Vista's best efforts
I was going to blog this evening but Vista, as I shall relate below, had other ideas. Still, I found it an illuminating example that captures much of what is wrong with Microsoft as an operating system vendor.
I had several thoughts that I imagined might be interesting to share: about how, despite all the advances that have generated all the product upgrades from the 'Wintel' duopoly, I have this week discovered that an eight-year old Toshiba laptop with a slow PIII processor and humble Windows XP boots approximately five times faster than my almost brand new Asus Core 2 Duo with Vista Ultimate. Why? Well, despite the Asus having a nice fast SATA hard drive, the Tosh is booting from a Samsung SSD.
Who'd have thought that a simple hard drive could make such a difference.
I thought about blogging about how valuable Windows XP discs are set to become as there is an increasingly widespread opinion that XP is the only Microsoft operating system worth owning because, quite apart from application compatibility issues, it is the only decent Microsoft operating system without the truly obnoxious product key checks and associated penalties that come with Vista. (Indeed, my own observations are that XP discs are regarded as gold dust, and I've never seen people so anxiousy to hang on to copies of an old Microsoft operating system).
I also thought I might blog a little more in-depth about Google Docs, and particularly the formiddable brew that is fermenting in the Google spreadsheet department as that company continues to quietly expand the functions and, as I blogged very briefly about earlier, adds to the gadgets that can be built using spreadsheets.
But Vista had other ideas, and has left me with a salutory tale to tell.
As I fired up Vista on my Asus to a) time accurately how long it takes to boot, and b) take another look at Google Docs and those eye-candied gadgets, Vista informed me that the product key I entered is not valid, indeed the whole operating system is not valid, and that unless I enter a correct product key it will only run with reduced functionality. That essentially means that all I get is a browser, through which of course I can buy a valid product key.
Like hell I will. The copy of Vista that I'm running came with the laptop, so I followed the instructions on screen with the intention of speaking to someone and explaining the situation, hoping to catch a sympathetic ear. Failing that, well, I suppose I could also pull rank and plead with an understanding Microsoft PR. Unfortunately, this being Thursday evening before Easter Friday, everybody is stuck in a traffic jam somewhere as they head off for the weekend. Phone lines are open 8 to 6 on weekdays (and, I imagine, not public holidays).
I'm sure others have found themselves in a similar position. Like them, I suspect, my main problem is not so much being asked to pay to continue to use something that as far as I am concerned I already own. No, my real problem right now is that because of some admin error far off in the ether, my laptop has been locked down.
And yet here I am, happily blogging away, on my Asus running Vista with reduced functionality. I could easily reboot into Ubuntu, and in fact was abot to so so, but something occurred to me.
It occurred to me that even when Vista brings down the shutters and bars me from virtually all my applications but one (Firefox), I can still do some pretty cool stuff. I can type this blog entry in a fully-featured word processor with spell checking and so on. I could if I wish create a pretty slick presentation. Or I could go and create a fairly complicated spreadsheet of the type that generated the widget in my previous post. In fact I could go and create more of those widgets, publish the data for others to edit and collaborate on. Yup, I'm in Google Docs. I appreciate this is pretty obvious, basic stuff, but it illustrates an important point.
The point is that Microsoft's business model relies on making life difficult for me, as a user, and ensuring it extracts every penny that it *thinks* it is due from me. Google on the other hand is firmly in the opposite camp when it comes to my perception as a user: they really are very good at making things exceptionally easy. Granted, Adwords have been known to cause headaches for advertisers, Google news has caused news operations some sleepless nights, and Google Search has turned out to be heroin for many publishers, but thinking purely as a user, I'm bowled over by how easy it is to collaborate on, create and publish some pretty sophisticated content -- despite Microsoft's best efforts.
Microsoft may buy Yahoo. It may bring out another OS upgrade. It may even produce an online version of Office - oh wait, it has, let's go and try that.
"BROWSER OR OPERATING SYSTEM NOT COMPATIBLE
Your Browser or Operating System is not compatible with the Test Drive System. The Test Drive System supports the following:
* Windows 98, 2000 and XP
* Internet Explorer 5.5 and later"
Oops. Well that didn't work very well did it? As I was saying, Microsoft can try all these things, but this is not about acquisitions or about poducts, or even about licences. It's about a company's fundamental philosophy and attitude to its customers. Until Microsoft truly gets that, I'll be sticking Ubuntu - or XP as a backup if I really need to run Windows. Hmm, now where's that old Tosh...
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