Monthly Archive for August, 2006

Google launch attack on the Office Enterprise market

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 28/8/2006
in Technology
. 4 Comments

Google has released Google Applications for Your Domain - you can sign up and check it out over at http://www.google.com/a.

Google Applications for Your Domain currently allows you to run Gmail, Gtalk, and Gpages (a web publishing tool) through your own domain. One immediate advantage of doing this is that Gmail’s spam filters seem to be very good so running company mail through it should reduce spam problems you may be having.

It is also planned to integrate Google’s online word Processor (Writely) and Google Spreadsheets so that Microsoft Office need never be fired up (or even installed!).

When you sign up you get the following screen:

Google Applications for Your Domain

The functionality is sparse right now but the great thing about software as a service is that updates are constantly being rolled out to the benefit of the consumer. One nice feature in the setup is the bulk uploader which allows you to upload a csv file for setup of your users:
Gayd advanced tools

Microsoft needs to be worried. Not because this threatens them from the point of view of functionality but because this new model is quickly becoming the accepted norm. And although Microsoft are getting into this arena too, who would you trust with your company’s data, Google or Microsoft?

UPDATE: D’oh! I forgot to title this post. Title added subsequently along with bang on the head to remind me not to do that again!

Thinkhouse PR spam the wrong guy?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 28/8/2006
in Technology
. 1 Comment

I see Damien is stirring it up again - sticking it to an Irish company (Thinkhouse PR) who spammed him repeatedly despite numerous requests not to.

Good on ya Damien - hopefully the data commissioner will show them the error of their spamming ways and teach them how to become good corporate citizens.

Any questions for Sam Sethi?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 28/8/2006
in Interviews, PodLeaders and Web 2.0
. 1 Comment

Sam Sethi is an entrepreneur, technologist (entrepologist) and consultant. Sam has worked in the IT industry for over 15 years for companies like Microsoft (strategy director in MSN UK ), Netscape, Gateway Computers and CMGi, in a variety of senior technical and marketing roles. Most recently Sam has been charged with setting up TechCrunch UK.

I’m interviewing Sam this Wednesday morning (30th Aug 2006) for a PodLeaders podcast. We will be talking about TechCrunch, the Live Web (Web 2.0) and anything else that may arise in the questions!

As always, if you have questions you’d like me to put to him, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll put them to him.

ComReg - the Telecoms Poodle

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 27/8/2006
in Technology and Telecoms
. 0 Comments

ComReg is the Irish telecoms poodle as opposed to the Irish Telecoms regulator which is what they claim to be! This is the organisation which has presided over Ireland being one of the most expensive countries in Europe for broadband and consequently Ireland having one of the lowest rates of uptake for broadband in Europe.

As a regulator, ComReg is worse than useless because they do nothing to help the rollout of broadband and thus are part of the problem.

So when you get the telecoms regulator rolling over every time Eircom says “boo!” you know you have a telecoms poodle not a regulator.

Are Microsoft at the Web 2.0 races?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 24/8/2006
in Ajax and Web 2.0
. 7 Comments

I have been asked to give a presentation, on Microsoft’s relevance in the Web 2.0 arena.

What do people think, are Microsoft a player in this sphere? They have Office Live, Windows Live Mail, MSN Spaces and they are a big supporter of RSS - it will be baked into the next versions of Internet Explorer (IE7), Office and Windows Vista.

Hell, Microsoft even have Atlas, a free framework for developing Ajaxy Web 2.0 applications!

Blip.tv enable in-browser video recording

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 23/8/2006
in Mac, PodLeaders, Podcasting and video
. 3 Comments

I have mentioned Blip.tv previously but I didn’t mention their in-browser video recorder.

Today I decided to try it out and I have to say, apart from a few minor quibbles, I am well impressed. Especially since this function is still in Alpha.

Blip.tv's browser based video recorder

What quibbles did I have? Well

  • The counter counting off the time on-screen isn’t very accurate. On my first try, I finished after what the counter told me was 30 secs only to find that the recorded video was 99 seconds!
  • There is no pause button - a pause button is very handy in any recording medium and this is no different. It needs one.
  • The file sizes generated seem inordinately large (one minute 29 seconds - 324mb)
  • I failed to get the video to upload to the site! I had to upload it using UpperBlip (Blip.tv’s free upload tool) and most disturbingly
  • You can now see how far my hairline has receeded!

As I said, this functionality is still in alpha but it is indicative of the great spirit of innovation at Blip.tv. I recently published an interview with Mike Hudack, the CEO of Blip.tv, and you can tell from that interview that Blip.tv are going places.

[Non-disclosure] - I have absolutely no affiliation whatsoever with Blip.tv, I just happen to think they are cool!

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