Its been reported by IT News of Australia that at a Gartner symposium recently analyst Dennis Gaughan said none of the big four IT vendors (Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP) are “re-imagining” IT,  “You won’t find innovation in their product portfolio,” he said. “You might find it if you try and talk to the research parts of these organisations. I would argue that a lot of what they are trying to do is keep status quo and find ways to increase share of wallet. There isn’t an innovation agenda. They have to think about investors. If they get on the leading edge, it exposes and impacts them on the short-term.”

In other words, these vendors are trying to hold us back.

Microsoft are partciularly keen to lock users into the Windows stack to protect their cash cows of Windows and Office. The analyst advised CIOs to consider migration to Windows 7, Office 2010 and SharePoint 10, but said they should only consider Windows 8 for tablet deployments in the short and medium term, and take extreme caution before deployment of Office365.

While for the most part the IT industry loves Microsoft (it provides many a techie with lucrative employment) I personally find the underlying complexity and sometimes downright ineptness of some of the company's products hugely frustrating. As an example the management of file permissions under Windows server is at best a blunt instrument and at worse a mess. Something that annoys me on a daily basis. Most IT people now won't know what I'm on about, but anybody who has used the no longer fashionable Netware and it's asociated directory services will understand how these things should work. In my view it's the weakness of Microsoft's file system that's driven the demand for Sharepoint.

Fortunately innovation can be found in other quarters. Apple are making inroads into the traditional desktop space which is increasingly going mobile, and Google is after Microsoft's crown jewels of collaboration and email (although Google brings with it another set of worries). Meanwhile, on the web, Open Source software, which has failed to make much impression on end users, is dominant with the majority of webservers running an open source stack ( Linux / Apache / MySQL PHP ).

Interesting times to work in IT, where an increasingly broad range of skills are going to be required.

Reference: IT News of Australia

I have blogged a couple of times already about Kashflow, an online accounts software package aimed at small businesses. I've been using it for a couple of years now and it's been a big help in managing my least favourite task - keeping the paper work in order. The only criticism I had of Kashflow was that there was only one user account - only one login that gave full access to the system. This is ok if you do your own accounts but for bigger businesses where you might employ someone to manage aspects of the business it's a bit of a no no, you shouldn't have to give your username and password to somebody else. At the time Kashflow said they wouldn't implement multi-user accounts but there has been a change of heart and now I am pleased to say you can setup Accountant's access. This allows you to give your accountant access to your Kashflow account, for free, without giving away your username and password. For Kashflow to be usable by larger organisations it needs still more user account controls, but this is definitely a move in the right direction.

For more info on Kashflow small business accounts click here.

Anybody involved in running websites should by now be familiar with Google Analytics, a remarkably useful tool as it is, but now Google have taken another leap forward with Google Analytics Real-Time. Google Analytics Real-Time (beta at the time of writing) can be found tucked away under the optional new style user interface in your Google analytics account.

What it does is quite remarkable. As the name suggests you get a near real time display of activity on any website currently configured to use Google analytics. The display shows you the number of currently active visitors, whether they are new or returning visitors, how they have found your site (if by search the search term they used) which pages are active, the number of page views in the last minute and per second. There is also a top locations map which shows you roughly where your visitors are located. (Note: Google Analytics says it does not collect personally identifiable information).

In my own tests I've found some variance in the number of users on a site reported by Google Analytics Real-Time compared with the "Whose online" function on the site. I've noticed anyway that Google Analytics usually reports fewer site visitors than the server logs. This could be that Google Analytics is missing some data, or it could be just a difference in the way things are measured - if someone spends some time on the same page analytics may not see them as being "active". Bearing in mind that the actual numbers may not be too precise it makes fascinating viewing and offers insights into how your website is being used that might have otherwise required some digging to discover. If you use Google Analytics already then Real-Time will add considerably to your understanding of how your site is being used, and it's free!

Read more on the Google Analytics Blog.

Not had much time for keeping this blog updated lately but another thing thats getting on my nerves about Windows 7 is the way network connections are managed. If you wanted to "reset" your network connection (for example after a change in configuration) in XP you could right click the icon for your network adapter in the system tray and select "repair". This would do useful things like flush the DNS cache, re-aquire ip address if using DHCP .. etc.  This useful feature now seems to be gone in Windows 7, instead  you are offered a link to a network troubleshooter (two clicks instead of one). It's not clear to me technically what this does, and what it does seems to vary depending on what it thinks you are trying to do at the time. It isn't as obvious as "repair", isn't as easy to access and isn't as useful. Another giant leap for mankind. 

Changing the settings for an existing Wireless network under Windows 7 is obscure to say the least. If for example a wireless network has been wrongly configured, or the settings on the router have changed (the WEP key for example) there is no obvious way of changing the configuration on the laptop. The wireless network will be detected and the machine will try to connect and subsequently fail because the settings are incorrect. One would then expect to have the option to right click and change the properties of the connection. But no, all you get is a network repair wizard which never at any point suggests that your settings for the network might be wrong.

The way round it is to manually configure the network via the Manage Wireless Networks utility accessed by right clicking the system tray icon for the wireless adapter or via Control Panel | Network and Internet | Network Sharing Centre. (If you don't see the Manage Wireless Network option you may not have your wireless adapter installed properly or the WLAN auto-config service may not be running, but that's beyond the scope of this post).

If the network you want to connect to is listed it should be possible to edit it's properties and correct the settings.

In the case that prompted me to write this post I opened the Managed Wireless Network utility but the network I was trying to connect to wasn't listed, even though the network card was showing it as available. So in this case I opted to manually add the wireless network.

Click on Add and enter the information for the wireless network you want to connect to and click Next, you should then see the network listed.

However you may still need to edit the network properties as the last step doesn't allow you to set whether the WEP key is shared or not, so depending on how your wireless router is configured you may need to go back in and change the security type to "shared".

Microsoft have begun rolling out Windows 7 Service Pack 1. While this appears to have been largely successful some failures have been reported, these have been attributed to some inconsistencies in the Windows update code. The quickest and easiest repair option is the Windows Update Troubleshooter. Open Control Panel, click in the search box, and type troubleshoot. Click the Troubleshooting link at the top of the search results, then click System and Security, and finally click Windows Update. 

Microsoft have also produced an update readiness kit to detect and fix these inconsistencies. If you have problems installing Windows 7 SP1 and the above process fails download and run the update readiness checker appropriate to your version of the operating system. If you, like me, approach the installation of major service packs with trepidation, run the update readiness kit before applying the service pack.

• 32-bit Windows 7
• 64-bit Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only)

Of late I have been driven to the point of insanity by incessant disc activity from my Windows 7 desktop. As this does actually sit on my desk the constant clattering of the hard drive for no apparent reason had become quite a distraction.

At first I blamed my anti-virus software thinking it was scanning the drive even though I had configured it to not do that. I was also ready to blame sync centre which I use to replicate files between my server and desktops - the idea being that normally my files reside on the server but sync centre keeps a local copy so that if I'm not connected to the network I can still access my files. Good for laptops and as a business continuity measure. Sync centre was in the frame because the problem only seemed to occur  when attached to the network, but sync centre itself appeared to be inactive (according to the system tray icon) most of the time this was happening.

Well I think I have tracked down the culprit, it is a process called superfetch. Superfetch preloads frequently used programs and documents into a RAM cache. Apparently it tracks usage patterns and learns what you do and when so that applications load faster. It also interacts with defrag to optimise the boot process. That may well be, but disabling it appears to have stopped the disc thrashing and that's a big performance boost so far as I'm concerned. Generally it's not recommended to disable superfetch, and my problem may be due to some interaction between superfetch and sync centre that won't affect everybody, but for the time being superfetch is staying disabled.

To disable superfetch run services.msc, scroll down the list of services until you find superfetch, edit it's properties and set it to disabled. If it is running you can stop it immediately by clicking on stop (obviously).

Links:

Microsoft superfetch overview    Microsoft pc accelerators download paper

There are probably three hot topics in IT at the moment, "the cloud", "mobile" and "virtualisation". There is overlap between these areas but it is virtualisation I want to address in this post. Virtualisation is technology which appears to make something out of nothing. Where you might have had five physical file servers, for example, you now only need one which can be split up using software into a number of virtual servers. These in logical terms appear to be physically separate (if you browse the network from a pc you'll still see apparently x different file servers). Virtualisation at the server end makes perfect sense to me. Done right it offers huge benefits in saving on hardware costs, operational reliability, scalability and business continuity.

What I am not convinced of is the benefit of desktop virtualisation, or more specifically Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). This is a scenario where the end user, instead of having their own relatively high power pc with all its peripherals and applications, is given effectively a keyboard and screen which gives a view of an instance of the operating system or application running on a server in a remote datacentre somewhere. A 21st century equivalent of the dumb terminal "green screens" that were appearing in business up to the mid 80's, except this technology allows on demand provisioning of applications and data on pretty much any device.

The arguments for virtualised desktop infrastructure is that it is easier to manage and deploy, cheaper to install and more secure with no data saved locally than a conventional client server arrangement. The cost issue would have to be argued on a case by case basis, all I can say is that pc's are relatively cheap now and you'll still need a screen which is probably half the cost of a pc anyway, but virtualisation pushes a lot of the hardware and software costs back to the datacentre along with a stack of complexity. There would be a saving on power, particularly the cost of power distribution to desktops which in a large estate would be considerable - but that's it. To be fair Microsoft themselves don't make any claims for cost saving.

Yes, virtualising the desktops makes them easier to manage than Windows clients, but there have been tools available to configure and lock down desktops and remotely install applications available for ten years or more. Similarly "self-service" user provisioning has been possible for nearly as long. The advantage VDI has over these more traditional techniques is that it separates the application from the device and it's operating system

So what's driving this? In my view it's the legacy hardware and software manufacturers who have made their fortunes out of the dominance of the Wintel (Windows and Intel) alliance over the past decade. Windows still dominates the desktop, certainly in business, but it is almost certain that the computing device most people use on a daily basis isn't running Windows - it's their mobile, and Windows has a declining share of that space. The applications those users are accessing via their mobiles are also not likely to be Windows based either - in most cases they will be accessing the web which runs on open source technology. Facebook for example uses open source technology (see here), as does Google. Most of the web runs on open source software. For example in 2010 Apache, the open source web server, took it's share from 46.6% to 59.4%, a gain of 12.8% while Microsoft's IIS went from 21.0% to 22.2%, a 1.2% gain (source Netcraft).

The corporate world is still largely wedded to Microsoft but increasingly organisations are using a mix of technology. Apple computers are starting to appear on desktops beyond their traditional media stronghold and open source is appearing in the datacentre / server room.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not predicting the demise of Microsoft (not just yet anyway) but the once dominant corporation has got a battle on to keep up with the pace of change and user expectations.

So virtualised desktops offer advantages in some situations, but could it be that the major manufacturers are just trying to squeeze a few billion dollars more out of the Microsoft stack before user pressure to consume true web based applications (as opposed to thick client apps presented in a browser) on mobile devices finally takes over the corporate space? Will we still be talking about VDI in ten years time?

Follow these links to find out more about VDI ...
Microsoft VDI  - VMWare   -  Citrix

Kashflow, the UK based hosted accounts software for small business, has recently rolled out a new look. The new interface has a cleaner design, is sized for wider screens and allows greater customisation of screen colours (although I quite like the pink and blue default scheme!). Existing users need to go to "settings" on the Kashflow menu to select the new look. New users get it by default, but can select the old look if they prefer.

This is just one of very many updates to Kashflow that have been rolled out (for free) since my earlier article on the product. The great thing about hosted software like Kashflow is that updates are seamless, you don't need to do anything to take advantage of them. It's great to see a product develop in the way Kashflow has, increasing it's useability and capability, but at the same time maintaining the jargon free ease of use which is Kashflow's main selling point for small business.

Kashflow offer a no obligation free trial (currently for two months). No card details are taken so if you don't like it you just stop using it. In my view Kashflow represents great value (which is why I use it) currently £15.99 per month, but use my affiliate link here to get £1 a month discount.

To read my earlier article on Kashflow click here.

Google have begun the roll out of an enhancement to the Google search engine they call Google Instant. Google Instant takes the predictive capabilities of Google search a step further by streaming results as you type. Without Google Instant you start to type your search term and a list of possible search phrases appears allowing you to pick the most relevant looking one, only once you have clicked on your preferred suggestion, or hit "Enter" or clicked "Search", does Google present a results page. Google Instant takes this further by listing results as you type, and modifying those results as you continue to type, until such point as you see what you are looking for.

A report on Google Instant on Radio 4 this morning was rather misleading in that it suggested that this feature personalised your search and would disrupt the process of website search optimisation. In fact the ranking your website achieves will not change at all according to Google (source Google), you just get there faster, although it has been suggested here that use of Google Instant will skew results away from sites optimised for longer search terms and enable Google to increase the cost per click for more generic terms. The suggested search terms are an aggregation of searches made across the web and while the streaming of results is new the listing of suggested search terms isn't so it remains to be seen what difference this will make.

Google claim that we take longer to type than we do to read (certainly true in my case)so Google Instant they reckon will save 2-5 seconds per search, at least once you get used to it.

Google Instant only works in modern browsers (Chrome version 5 and 6, Firefox version 3, Safari version 5 for Mac and Internet Explorer 8). You also need to be logged into a Google account for Instant to work and Google don't explain why this should be so, and it does beg the question what data are they collecting in the process, particularly if it is associated with a logged in user, but if that concerns you don't use it - either don't log in or use the preferences page to turn it off.

2-5 seconds saved per search - what will you do with your new found spare time?

To get the low down on Google Instant direct from Google click here.

I was a bit surprised to see that Google have halted development on Google "Wave" (for the announcement go here). Wave was only launched a year or so ago and offered a radically new way of communicating and interacting via the web. Probably too radical as it turns out as despite some very clever technology Wave never really caught the attention of users.

This will not only be disappointing for the Wave development team but the growing number of third parties that were building apps and gadgets for the platform. In particular it could come as a setback for Novell who have had Novell Pulse, a similar product intended for enterprise collaboration, under development designed to integrate with Wave. A statement from Novell here indicates that they are continuing with their plans for Novell Pulse which is pitched at the enterprise where they see a growing demand for better collaboration and networking tools (beyond email).

While this may seem a defeat for Google It takes some confidence to pull the plug on a project like this and shows just how fleet of foot the company is. Wave was pitched betwen corporate e-mail (it takes a while for businesses to adapt to new ways of working) and social networking sites such as Facebook. I don't think it was that Wave was no good, far from it, but it's competition is currently too well entrenched, particularly in the consumer space. Google realises this and, having developed technology in the Wave project that will no doubt turn up in other products, has decided to move on. Can't wait to see what they come up with next.

An interesting talk from Dr. Jim Wild of Lancaster University's Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group recently highlighted the ever present threat from the Sun. I'm not talking about the risk of sunburn, it will take a little more than factor 15 to mitigate this risk.

Our planet is constantly bombarded by charged particles emitted from the sun. It is these particles which interact with the ionosphere to cause the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

Every now and then the Sun will discharge a massive burst of these particles into space associated with Solar flares, and sometimes these flares are directed towards Earth.

Now normally our planet is pretty well protected against solar radiation by a force field (not invented by the writers of Star Trek as you might suppose)  which has been protecting our planet for millions of years - the Earth's magnetic field.

The danger comes when particularly massive solar flares occur. The stream of electrically charge particles is effectively a DC current flowing through our upper atmosphere. This current is grounded as it travels along the lines of our magnetic field which direct it towards the poles. This induces a corresponding current in the Earths crust and it is this current which can take out power infrastructure on a continental scale. An event such as this is now thought to have been responsible for the collapse of Quebec's power grid in 1989 leaving six million people without power, and this isn't just a case of resetting a trip. DC currents flowing through ac transformers can destroy the transformers, which are not trivial to replace, so the grid can be out for weeks if not months (good news for transformer manufacturer's though).

Actually there is not much you can do to mitigate against this, but when you are doing you business continuity / disaster recovery planning be aware that infrastructure you rely on on a daily basis could very easily and with little or no warning just not be there.

For further reading and better science than my explanation go to ...

http://www.sunearthplan.net/3/16/Space-weather

Jim Wild's website