Web hosting from iWeb.com isn’t trustworthy

Imagine you operate a few web sites, based on WordPress. Simple enough yet, you’re in grave danger of having your entire account suspended if you’re hosting it at iWeb.com.

You see, iWeb.com lures its victims (or “clients”, whichever fits) into its web of deception with extra-low hosting prices, especially if you pay for ten (10) years. It initially makes financial sense to go with them but again, it’s just a trap to lock you in their crappy shared hosting scheme.

Since so many people fall in iWeb.com’s web hosting trap, their web servers quickly get loaded up.

That means that although bandwidth is allegedly unlimited, the server resources aren’t. As such, having more visitors come to your site will inevitably put more stress on the “shared” server.

And this is where it gets ugly.

The typical web hosting customer, running a few WordPress sites, doesn’t see anything coming when more visitors come to read his articles and that’s when “it” happens: the account suspension!

Yep! A total account suspension of all of your web sites — just like that!

This is what your web visitors will see:

It’s a mix of absolute horror… and humiliation.

What kind of hosting company acts like that? iWeb.com, it appears.

Nevermind your reputation going down the drain or the unbearable stress for any normally constituted person who sees his web sites being made completely unavailable, at the same time both his control panel and FTP account have been locked.

One would think iWeb.com would have a sensible “account suspension” customer service team looking to help explain what’s going on (usually too many concurrent visitors or a variant, coming from more traffic) but that’s just not the case. iWeb.com will “suspend” your account in the blink of an eye but it might take days or weeks before your account is allowed back online.

Some might call it a genuinely “horrible service”.

Apparently, this has absolutely no significance for iWeb.com which continues to suspend accounts for dubious and sometimes downright secretive reasons.

How can such an untrustworthy web hoster be allowed to continue doing business, with such a poor record? Apparently, uninformed investors continue to pour money in this operation and they must be praying that scorched customers don’t take the time to tell the world how bad their company really is.

Just to add insult to injury, their staff has trouble communicating in English. Quebec being a French-speaking province shouldn’t be an obstacle to finding truly bilingual individuals, especially in Montreal but at iWeb.com, true respect for the customers seems like a distant concern so it just goes inline with the rest of their web hosting service.

So if you’re still thinking about hosting your web site at iWeb.com, don’t! Unless you absolutely want to be humiliated in front of all your web visitors, iWeb.com isn’t a credible option for any remotely serious web site.

The AtMail 6.0 messaging platform

Email, calendaring and groupware don’t necessarily have to go through Microsoft Outlook to be enjoyable.

One such alternative which deserves to be seriously considered is built onLinux using AJAX and is aptly named AtMail 6.0 and you can download a free version of their client, with or without the server, which can handle up to five (5) users, for free.

This client and server ensemble provides an enterprise-class solution which helps everybody in the team actually feel part of it.

Along with full source code for easy customization (in AJAX, which makes it humanly comprehensible), version 6.0 adds…

• a single interface for all email needs (with tabs for direct access to the features);
• a conversation view of email messages (so you see the list of the latest emails while reading one, in particular… like Hotmail’s interface, if you prefer);
• new thread support (which helps you keep your sanity when you play “message-tennis” with many people); and
• direct reply capabilities (akin to some forums where you can “quick reply” to any thread).

Because the platform is built on AJAX, development is zippy and heavy on all advanced features you expect from an enterprise-class email solution.

AtMail 6.0 also offers integrated web-based email management for remote install, upgrade and maintenance.

This product is solid and clearly on the right path but, it isn’t “there”, yet.

This being said, the fact that it’s built on AJAX should appeal to the web 2.0 crowd and those who undertstand that the open source community tends to move faster than the closed source folks who can hardly compete with thousands of passionate developers who just ooze with creative ideas to futher AJAX‘s feature set.

The free version is obviously as affordable at it gets but the paid version of AtMail 6.0 are probably a bit steep for smaller companies with a 25 seat client going at 400$ and if you add the server, it jumps up another 100$. Cutting that price in half would’ve surely helped the product gain wider adoption with smaller customers. For 1k users, it’s just 1,250$ which, for that kind of volume, is surprisingly affordable.

So if you’re courageous enough to look past MS-Outlook and Gmail types of solutions, AtMail 6.0 may well be worth your while.

Tags: atmail, atmail 6.0, 6.0, email client, email server, e-mail, full source code, linux-based, built on ajax, ajax, ajax email server, email needs, conversation view, remote install, remote upgrade, remote maintenance

Eaton’s intelligent power management

Power management for our computer devices and appliances has come a long way.

Now, using setups such as Eaton‘s Intelligent Power Manager, an administrator can oversee and entire network, without having to walk to a specific device to -really- understand what’s going on. Well, in extreme situations, that might still be necessary but under normal circumstances, it’s all mouse clicks and smiles.

For those who aren’t yet familiar with Eaton’s technology, the Intelligent Power Manager software is designed to be a cost-effective and secure way for IT administrators to remotely monitor and manage networked power and environmental devices, across the enterprise.

And even if you run a smaller operation, being able to flip the switch remotely on any device is pure bliss.

The software can carry out a scan for UPS systems (all vendors are supported) using both XML web services and SNMP protocols.

The Intelligent Power Manager also discovers and manages other critical power components, suc as ePDU products, shutdown modules and the now ubiquitous environmental sensors.

The idea of having total remote control on all powered devices is just too much of a thrill to ignore, especially if your job involves darting through the corridors to see what’s going on every time somedy calls-in saying “hey, the server’s not responding”!

Eaton isn’t the only player in town offering these kinds of solutions but you might want to check out their Intelligent Power Manager to see if it can fit your particular needs.

Tags: eaton, eaton corporation, intelligent power manager, ipm, environmental sensors, shutdown modules, epdu, xml web services, snmp protocol, power up, power down, power on, power off, computer devices, network appliances, remote management

FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer 4.0 feature a smoother workflow

Network managers need to react quickly when something goes wrong and one way to achieve that is to tool up with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer 4.0, which have your single or thousands of Fortinet appliances under your control.

In the new version of both FortiManager 4.0 and FortiAnalyzer 4.0 unified threat management security platforms, the new firmware enhances the management capabilities, thus providing greater flexibility and control for multiple devices, in enterprise setups.

This major update includes improvements in the performance and scalability of FortiManager which allows administrators to both deploy and manage tens, hundreds or even thousands of FortiGate (or FortiWifi, usually for remote offices) devices within the network and from a single FortiManager platform.

But the real kicker here is the enhanced workflow in FortiManager which allows administrators to reduce the amount of work required to manage a large number of devices.

You can also factor in improved disaster recovery features and slightly improved correlation between vulnerabilities and security policy in FortiAnalyzer which, from this point on, includes a vulnerability management component.

The end-to-end network monitoring is rather elegantly presented and easy to work with. Network admins who are used to overseeing large groups of user will appreciate this added control.

Keep in mind that FortiManager delivers a lower TCO for Fortinet implementations by minimizing both initial deployment costs and ongoing operating expenses.

In bigger enterprise environments, network managers can control administrative access and simplify policy deployment using role-based administration to define user privileges for specific management domains and functions by aggregating collections of Fortinet appliances and agents into independent management domains.

By locally hosting security content updates for managed devices and agents, FortiManager appliances minimize web filtering rating request response time and maximize network protection.

Yes, managing Fortinet devices is now smoother than ever — it’s still a lot of work but it definitely gets done faster.

Tags: fortinet, fortigate, fortiwifi, fortimanager, fortianalyzer, 4.0, network devices, network appliances, network security, network administrators, network management, security platform, disaster recovery, security policy

Fortinet’s wireless LAN protection products lineup

Protecting your network is no small task.

Nowadays, the rage is all about unified threat management security platforms and the new Fortinet wireless LAN protection products lineup will help you do that without the wiring headache.

Large companies may have a bunch of Fortigate 1000-and-over appliances setup at their head office but for medium-sized office settings, the more affordable wireless counterparts might be enough to protect your digital realm.

Let’s start by saying that the FortiWiFi line of wireless security gateways add a built-in 802.11a/b/g wireless access point to the enterprise-level, multi-threat protection of FortiGate appliances. Again, if you’re not a wiring fan, this is “it”.

The FortiWifi appliances provide network, content and application protection for wired and wireless networks without penalties in performance or manageability. They combine Fortinet’s FortiOS security OS with FortiASIC processors and other hardware to provide a comprehensive and high-performance array of fully integrated security and networking functions including:

• Firewall, VPN and traffic shaping;
• Intrusion Prevention System (IPS);
• Antivirus, antispyware and antimalware;
• Web filtering;
• Antispam;
• Application control (e.g.: IM and P2P);
• VoIP support (H.323. and SCCP);
• Layer 2/3 routing.

FortiWiFi appliances are fairly accessible, as far as deployment and management go. With a web-based user interface that allows users to be up and running in less than an hour, sometimes under 15 minutes, it’s a highly functional line of appliances.

It’s important to add that these wireless appliances can also be managed remotely via the FortiManager line of management appliances. This combination of local ease of use and remote management makes FortiWiFi appliances valuable for…

• remote office settings;
• wireless service providers;
• retail stores; and
• broadband-connected telecommuter sites.

In addition, FortiWiFi devices can be powered by Power over Ethernet (POE) to further ease installation and deployment and reduce your equipment investment. Obviously, it’s better if you can find an electrical outlet but POE can be a lifesaver in remote spots (like when the FortiWifi is installed above the ceiling fixture).

So let’s take a look at the lineup…

• FortiWiFi-80CM
  • A wireless security gateway that adds a built-in 802.11 b/g/n wireless access point to the enterprise-level, multi-threat protection of FortiGate appliances.
  • In addition, 3G wireless broadband connectivity via an ExpressCard slot and a built-in analog modem for dial-up failover capability enhance deployment and failover options.
  • The FortiWiFi-80CM boasts market-leading performance for remote office, SMB, and retail applications.
• FortiWiFi-60B
  • It offers standard 802.11 a/b/g support plus 3G wireless broadband connectivity via a PC Card slot and a built-in analog modem for dial-up failover capability, making it the perfect choice for rapid Point of Sale (POS) deployments or flexible security offerings by wireless service providers.
  • It has dual Wide Area Network (WAN) ports for load balancing or redundant internet connections, a DMZ port, and six integrated switch ports for multi-user environments.
• FortiWiFi-50B
  • It’s more affordable and ideal for small remote offices and telecommuting applications.
  • It offers standard 802.11 b/g support, dual Wide Area Network (WAN) ports for load balancing or redundant internet connections, and three integrated switch ports for multi-user environments.
• FortiWiFi-30B
  • This one offers full-featured, enterprise-class UTM inspection for the smallest remote offices, branch offices, and retail outlets.
  • The FortiWiFi-30B adds 802.11 b/g support to Fortinet’s easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy entry-level platform.

As you can see, your entire network is now easier than ever to secure.

There are many products on the market that can help you secure a network but going with an appliance-based security model frees up precious processor time on all your computers.

If you already have Fortinet products in your mix and you like their management capabilities, you’ll probably want to expand your realm of protection, up to thousands of Fortinet devices, with their line of wireless appliances.

Tags: fortinet, fortiwifi, secure, security, wireless device, wireless appliance, 30b, 50b, 60b, 80cm, switch ports, multi-user environments, poe, remote office, 3g wireless

The trouble with Ubuntu Server for beginners

At one point or another, any web publisher who is hosting web sites elsewhere will be tempted to bring a few of them closer to home, say, on a web server located downstairs, in a work-at-home office.

And when that happens, operating system-related choices need to be made.

Sure, there’s Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 or Apple’s MacOS X Leopard Server which come with their fair share of goodies but both are somewhat mediocre —and prohibitively expensive— compared to UNIX and Linux-based alternative, which are the crowned server room favorites.

So after dabbling around in either Windows or Mac server offerings for a while, initially weary of the “nix” alternatives, web publishers will likely cozy up to the idea of firing up such a box, namely to have access to the vast universe of options related to Apache, PHP and MySQL, running a rock solid, non-bloatware OS.

By the way, Apple came real close to building a winner with it’s MacOS X Leopard Server but it falls short on just about every count, the moment you try to go further than what Apple expected you to do with your server.

For instance, GD and ImageMagick aren’t available and installing them is the proverbial equivalent of landing men on the moon.

Furthermore, FTP management is a complete and utter drag since they have to be linked to “users” and only 10 seats come with the US$500 version. Yes, it’s lame. Ditto for email. And just trying to make domain name aliases redirect correctly is a complete waste of time. In other words, Leopard tried but it failed.

And that’s, in part, why UNIX or Linux alternatives seem so enticing. Most people end up in the Linux camp and the Ubuntu Server build feel like a natural winner. After all, Ubuntu desktop is quite impressive so the server edition should deliver the same kind of experience, right? Wrong! Ubuntu’s Server Edition, like many other Linux Server-oriented releases come without a GUI.

No graphic user interface makes the download shorter and the OS lighter but it condemns the web publisher, the one firing up Linux on a black PC box, in his basement office, to typing long, hardly understandable commands even geeks find tedious for jobs that could be much more easily handled… through a GUI.

This is going to drive 5% of the “nix” gurus crazy but 95% of the would-be “nixers” are completely stunned, at that point when the Ubuntu Server installation states that it has finished and all that’s offered to the user is a black screen and a prompt line. Users are going “What is that?” and they basically scrap the whole thing, install Windows and use WAMP or XAMPP, half-way solutions which lack raw power but come with an comprehensive interface where some productivity can actually occur.

And then, UNIX and Linux gurus continue to question themselves why the “nix” adoption rate is stalling, even as their archenemy, Microsoft’s Vista is the epitome for bloatware and costly licensing fees.

The problem, with UNIX and Linux servers has everything to do with no GUIs or very darn poor GUIs with very little comprehensive server controls, if any. Sure, a user could type “apt-get install kde” into the command line and install a GUI but it wouldn’t sport anything to control the server stuff so it’s basically pointless.

So the message to the “nix” crowd is: throw in a GUI —with server-specific controls— that the GUI-addicted web publishers will digg or risk losing countless would-be converts who hit a wall when they see how utterly unwelcoming these GUIless servers are, for them.

Let’s assume the message will be heard and something will be done about the regularly decried GUI issue, on OSs like Ubuntu Server Edition. The guys developing Ubuntu releases are some of brightest people around and perhaps that’s a problem (if such a thing is even possible) because they seem to underplay the fact that web publishers aren’t all guru-level “nixers” and that’s seriously holding back their adoption rate.

But there’s a ray of hope.

Yes, a bright light is shining on some Linux distributions, like CentOS, through the use of VirtualMin which is a free and paid mixed offering that delivers the kind of Linux-server handling which should come STANDARD with all distributions, such as Ubuntu’s Server Edition.

Users can also opt for Webmin but it’s not going to win any beauty contests soon, as far as its interface is concerned. The engine underlying the Webmin script, however, is as reliable as the Linux OS itself. A good interface designer would do that project a lot of good.

UNIX and Linux are wonderful operating systems and once they’re setup and somewhat manageable through a web interface like VirtualMin, they offer the utmost in power, stability and versatility… but one has to get to that point and it’s not easy, right now.

Once the “nixers” figure out a way to make their server-oriented OS release interesting for human beings, their success, for that important niche, will grow exponentially.

Tags: unix, linux, open source, free, server os, servers, operating systems, nix, nixers, linux gurus, linux experts, linux server, unix server, ubuntu server, centos, virtualmin, webmin, windows server, leopard server, mac server, macos x, manageability, stability, gui, graphic user interface, guis, user interfaces

What social networking vendors offer, for businesses…

The social networking scene has taken the web by storm as Blogger, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace and countless others expand peoples’ reach way beyond their physical community to realms that span across cyberspace.

It so easy.

People create a profile and voilà !

They’re set to share content, ideas and opinions.

Social networking, especially for those who know their way around, is insanely cool. It’s no surprise that so many organizations are looking to setup their own, internally. Once a business social network is up and running, if it’s done right, employees and managers can connect among themselves with ease.

One theory, with regards to business social networks, is that good ideas get validated and bad ideas get discarded more quickly, which leads to faster product development — but it’s just a theory.

In general, companies will benefit, in various ways, from the content that’s being created, shared, added upon and archived for later use.

Any company can make social networking yield benefits but like most new things, it would be foolish to attempt to qualify its financial bottomline usefulness with hard metrics. For the time being, it’s more a matter of getting in early than trying to catch up, later on.

So assuming you’re ready to launch your internal social network, which solution should you choose? Well, that’s for the IT guys to decide but to get the ball rolling, consider the following vendors…

• Drupal
  • Open source.
  • Great at community-driven sites.
  • Blogs and profiles.
• IBM Lotus Connections
  • Paid software.
  • Helps you execute tasks more quickly by using dynamic networks of coworkers, partners and customers
  • Blogs, profiles, social bookmarks, communities and more.
• Jive Software
  • Licensed software or hosted SaaS.
  • Integrates the “enterprise 2.0″ capabilities of collaboration software, community software and social networking software.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, social bookmarks, tags, discussions and more.
• MS-SharePoint
  • Paid server software, MS SaaS or hosted by 3rd parties.
  • In its own words: connecting people, process and information.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles and communities.
• NewsGator
  • Paid software. Extends MS-SharePoint.
  • Empower employees, customers and partners to collaborate, communicate, and innovate in order to create business value through social computing.
  • SharePoint add-ons for tags, tag clouds, expert search, discussions and more.
• Scuttle
  • Open source.
  • Light on the more advanced features but does social bookmarking like it should.
  • Social bookmarking.
• Socialtext
  • Paid hosted service or on-location server appliance.
  • Used for all employees to get a collective view of what’s going on and share content.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, social bookmarks and microblogging.
• Telligent
  • Lease the software or buy perpetual licenses.
  • Designed for high-volume communities where performance and up-time are critical.
  • Wikis, blogs, profiles, groups and communities, social analytics and more.

And as you continue searching for vendors, expect to find lots of other worthwhile finds. Keep in mind that the big software firms are currently being swarmed by waves of smaller firms offering solid codesets and eye-pleasing visuals so expect the heated competition to go on, for a while.

In case you were just thinking about this…

Yes, open source has an advantage over most paid and hosted solutions: it’s free!

It’s also instantly available through a simple download and there’s no licensing fee, whatsoever. If you can make up for a little less “business-class support”, open source scripts will likely end up being your first and all-time best choice. Keep in mind open source projects evolve all the time and all those upcoming updates will also be… free. Which is nice.

And don’t forget that open source projects usually come with mountains of useful plug-ins which add bleeding edge features to your core script. Plus the fact you can dive right into your code and tweak just about anything you want. No encryption here.

But perhaps open source is not your thing.

If that’s your case, paid scripts (or software) or hosted solutions is where you’ll most likely end up as very few organizations develop their own social networking engine from scratch.

With such solutions, the deeper your pockets, the more features you’ll get.

And you’re not too picky, customizationwise, you’ll be up and running rather quickly. Software as a service (or “Saas”) is where many mid-sized companies like to do business because everything’s hosted externally. There can be some cost saving at first but as the content volume grows, it can inflate the rent to the point where it’s not that much of a deal anymore so watch out for that. Do your mathematical projections before you sign-up.

Paid software is generally hosted in-house and it’s generally yours for life but remember that the upgrades might cost you a lot of dough, over and above all the other technical maintenance cost. Again, do your mathematical projections before rearranging your server room to accomodate a business social networking software solution.

If you still feel anxious about deploying a social network in your enterprise, seek help from the vendors themselves or from local IT firms which specialize in web 2.0 stuff.

All in all, if your organization is still unsure about wether it’s worth it to have an internal social network, consider that employees will get access to blogs, wikis and tools that let them communicate, collaborate and share information.

The real bottom-line question might be, how much is it worth, to your enterprise, to have its employees using applications it controls and manages? Once that question is answered, everything else aligns itself accordingly.

Tags: social networking, social networks, internal networks, company social network, enterprise, business, social networking vendors, ibm, lotus, jive, sharepoint, saas, hosted solutions, paid software, .net, microsoft, blogs, wikis, search, information, connect, share, content, server

Business social networking done right

There’s a lot of talk about the value of adding social networking to the communications strategy, in countless organizations who see the benefits but fear the downsides.

While there’s little doubt getting employees communicating with each other will help bring teamwork to a whole new level, allowing everybody the opportunity to contribute the organization’s success through blogs, wikis and such might generate some initial confusion.

The following five (5) best practices tips will help you ensure your business social networking project gets done right.

1. Test the waters
   • People in the business world are asking themselves why they can’t have their very own Blogger, Wikipedia and Facebook, internally.
   • If a company doesn’t take it upon itself to offer such tools, employees will find a way to do it themselves, through open source solutions or otherwise.
   • Companies can try social networking with a low cost (or no cost) pilot, namely using open source scripts which are widely available. Hosted applications can also help.
2. Set modest expectations
   • To get a project off the ground, don’t try to oversell it. Don’t promise executives that enterprise social networking will unleash, ignite or synergize anything.
   • Pitch the project as a pilot. That’s very important. Insist on the option to walk away after a few quarters if it doesn’t work as expected.
   • Describe one or two business improvements you think are achievable.
   • Make sure to set reasonable goals in regards to user adoption and increase your odds for success by seeding an initial deployment among the teams who appear most eager to use these tools.
   • Try to find a way to measure business value.
   • Hard numbers might not be expected from a pilot -but- management will want to know the payback, down the line.
3. Don’t let fear stangle growth
   • Some businesses are wary about letting their employees voice out, out of fear that they’ll say improper things. There’s also a fear that the “social” part will spin out of control.
   • Even if you’re tempted to vigorously police employee-generaed content, resist that urge! It would have a chilling effect on participation and could tank the entire project.
   • First and foremost, it’s a human thing. Employees need time to grow comfortable with speaking up, sharing ideas and participating in company-wide conversations.
   • A social networking project will likely wither before it even has a chance of growing if people fear the throught police (don’t make “1984″, all over again).
4. Resist exclusivity
   • Gated communities are what they are, gated. Don’t let that happen within your social network. That approach defeats the purpose of social networking.
   • It’s a natural reflex to want all the named groups to be locked down but that will kill teamwork, team spirit and the social aspect of it all.
   • Exposing discussions to a broader community has —a lot— of value. Never underestimate this.
5. Don’t forget about search
   • Search underpins the value of social networking platforms. Poor searching (or indexing) tools make social networking less useful.
   • As you look for social networking solutions, ask the vendors about their search capabilities. At first, it’s not very important but as content builds up, it becomes essential.
   • Make sure the search feature allows for user-generated feedback such as tags and content-rating systems (it sometimes comes through the addition of plug-ins, and thats ok).
   • A good search feature helps prevent your social networking platform from becoming another silo, so if possible, consider federated search. As such, your internal search engine should be able to index content in other systems, query 3rd party search engines and pull results from other information repositories.

Regarding search, you could also allow for external engines to query your internal indexes and content but given that we’re dealing with business social networks, that might only be a good idea for a few companies.

Business social networks are all about offering the state of the art in online networking inside the company so employees don’t have to venture outside for such features as blogging and wikis.

Furthermore, many companies are still clueless on how to transfer knowledge between more experienced workers and those who will (some day) replace them. Social networks can help with this by creating easily accessible archives of work-related content which, in time, might prove quite valuable.

Many businesses also use social networking for recruitment purposes. Internal promotion can be simplified and external recruitment of fresh talent can surely benefit from internal referrals. Human resources people usually have good words for internal social networks because, among other things, it empowers them with a powerful communications tool that all employees are likely to use.

It’s pretty clear that your own deployment will be customized to fit your own needs but overall, setting up a business social network will never let management indifferent.

So, go ahead and fire up your own enterprise social network. You’ll quickly see just how wise “your crowd” really is.

Tags: business social networking, social networks, socially, employees, employers, companies, enterprises, social nets, blogger, facebook, linkedin, twitter, wikipedia, blogs, wikis, archives, information archives, user adoption, networking, community, search engine

Developmentwise, mobile phones specs are all over the map!

Mobile phone users are happy to report they’re getting more productive “on the road” than ever before with their snappy mobile gear.

Many mobile workers seem like they’ve been teleported from another galaxy to those who haven’t yet embraced the mobile revolution. With their handheld phone, they can message their colleagues, adjust invoices, browse inventory levels and launch a search on Google.

But any mobile worker will confirm this to you, not all cell phones are created equal.

And because mobile gear comes in some many variations, developers are having a hard time keeping up with it all.

So, what’s it like coding for the mobile crowd?

Well, it’s not exactly a piece of cake and in five (5) easy to understand points, here’s why…

1. Custom SDKs
   1. The sheer effort it takes for one to become proficient in a target platform’s nuances leaves little time to learn the other platforms.
   2. With Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia, Palm, Windows Mobile and others promoting unique software dev kits, a handful of mobile developers have any significant knowledge or experience with any two.
2. Platform frangmentation
   1. Flashback almost 30 years back, in the 80′s, when PC-related development was booming. Well, this time around, it’s all about mobile computing.
   2. Coders who craft their applications to fit the lowest possible denominator, mobilitywise, will not satisfy high-end smartphone users who’ll rapidly switch to native platform application alternatives if they feel like the “one size fits all” doesn’t fit them.
3. Security
   • Bringing security to mobile gear is a specialty unto itself.
   • Malware writers are having a ball abusing poorly written code which sometimes has so little security built-in that it’s just calling for abusers to tap into it.
   • Developers must be vigilant about the code they write but until that’s well understood by all developers, companies must be prepared to move quickly with a fix when a vulnerability is identified.
4. Unpredictable operating conditions
   • Phones take on so many forms that coding for all of them at once is downright impossible.
   • From being handled roughly on construction sites to sitting nicely on a VP’s charging craddle all day, no phone will be used in the same environment so that too becomes a challenge.
   • As such, developers must test their applications across broad platforms and external factors.
5. Variable screen resolutions
   • Forget “design once, publish anywhere” because mobile phones are more like armored silos than easily connecting puzzle pieces.
   • With a dizzying array of mobile devices with varying dimensions, resolutions and color depths, designing a single web user interface is (and will continue to be) a serious challenge.

As you can see, those who develop code for the mobile world have quite a few hoops to jump through before they can shine but hey, hundreds of millions of mobile phone users make for an incredibly attractive market to cater to and that’s most probably why so many talented coders are drawn to that specific growth market.

Search, maps, videos, email, calendars, chatting and contact management are just the start, as far as mobile phones go. It’s like the PC boom all over again, but for mobile phones!

And in all of this crazy mobile development rush, it’s important to remind yourself that mobile phones can also be used to phone home, once in a while.

Tags: mobile phones, mobile development, mobile software, mobile code, mobile security, mobility, cell phones, mobile gear, hard to develop for mobile devices, various phones, variety of specs, coders

Blazingly fast computer nanotech chips being tested at the MIT

Are you currently shopping for a new 2.4 GHz personal computer?

Do you feel it would be better to pony up a little more money to buy up a 2.8 GHz chip, instead of the cheaper (but slightly slower) 2.4 GHz?

Situations like these happen each day in computer stores around the world and yet, research funded by the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology and by the Interconnect Focus Center program, which is also being followed both in the federal government and by private-sector chip companies could radically change the shopping metrics consumers are used to.

How would you feel about a 500 GHz or even a 1,000 GHz computer processor?

That’s right, 250 to 500 times faster than today’s “state of the art” computer chips.

These new chips (or nano-chips, if you prefer) are made of a one-atom-thick lattice of pure carbon (or graphene) and use only a single transistor. This awesome technology could be commercialized in a year or two but it’s important to say that these are experimental chips.

Basically, MIT’s chip is capable of multiplying electrical signal frequencies in a way that may let it boost the clock speed to insanely fast ranges, like 500 GHz to 1,000 GHz. It’s a new application for graphene: a full-wave signal rectification and frequency doubling.

Technically speaking, given the extremely high electron mobility in graphene ($>$100,000 cm$^{2}$/Vs at room-temperature), such ambipolar devices have the potential to operate at very high frequencies and allow the fabrication of new THz sources and sensors, as well as high speed transmitters and receivers.

So that’s probably going to define our next computer processor speed jump to levels which will foster a whole new way to seamlessly operate with blazingly fast tech devices.

Business intelligence, advanced robotics, holographic computing and even artificial intelligence are all bound to benefit from such powerful computer chips which will convey data faster than ever before.

So, are you excited about buying your next computer, say, in two years?

Tags: 500 GHz, 1000 GHz, computer chips, nanochips, nano, nanotehnology, nanotech, nanospeed, carbon, lattice, one atom, graphene, single transistor, mit, experimental chip, signal frequencies, computers, processor speed, fast chips