Domino Unplugged

Turn your car into a rolling WiFi hotspot

This is a slightly new wrinkle on the old car/cellphone connection: Chrysler has just announced a new option: in-vehicle wireless internet.

That is, the CAR is connected to the internet. It then serves as a 'rolling hotspot' - and WiFi-capable PCs and other devices (think games, internet 'tablets', cell phones w/ WiFi) will be able to access the internet through the car.

Details this morning from not only the local dailies: Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News but also from Cars.com.

The service will cost roughly $500 to purchase and install the device, plus $29.00 monthly for internet access.

What Dave Just Did

Having nothing to do with Notes, Domino or even iPhones, I had to draw your attention to Seth Godin's post: What Dave Just Did.

Required reading.

Mashable: There Are No iPhone Killers

There has been SO much discussion about the iPhone ... I suspect you've noticed.

On the heels of the announcement by Apple of the forthcoming (less than two weeks, campers!) new version of the iPhone, there were a flurry of different threads. First, there was the "what is IBM doing about iPhone" thread, and there's not much need to go into that further here. I think Ed Brill and Alan Lepofsky have covered it well.

The second wave of conversation threads were about iPhone competitors, about iPhone "killers".

With THOSE in mind, I wanted to draw your attention to a great post on Mashable entitled: There Are No iPhone Killers.

A quick snip:

I can’t help but notice that even on its most basic level, the user interface, the iPhone is a supreme product compared to everything else I’ve seen on the market; in fact, it’s not only better, it feels like the original one, which is the position everyone wants to be in.

Great read!

Nothing more frustrating than being "off the air"

Many of you may be aware (maybe only TOO well aware) of the repeated storms that have been rolling across the midwestern part of the United States the past couple weeks.

The folks at NuTechs, my old employer and the good people who continue to host this website, took a hit a week ago, and their  building (as well as the surrounding area) was without power for the entire work week last week.

Hence, 'Unplugged was "off air"  from Monday, June 9 though Saturday, June 14th, 2008.

Thanks to the folks at NuTechs for keeping me appraised of the situation, and especially to Buck who, I understand, pulled "Saturday Duty" to get everything back up and running over the weekend.

And, now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging ....

- Rob

Chiming in on iPhone

Echoing sentiments heard numerous places today, what's the deal with the deadly silence from IBM surrounding today's iPhone announcements??

I am among many, many people who opted NOT to purchase the original iPhone because of the crummy network connectivity. Particularly for a phone that is built to do internet work, being tethered to such a slow network would be painful.

In the meantime, however, I'd see the same screenshots, etc., that many of you did at Lotusphere - and wonder why things were so quiet today.

Ed Brill sheds a little light on the subject in a blog post today. Internally, a certain well-know Lotus tipster suggested signing an electronic petition.

But, nothing official at all ...

Do know that Shawne Robinson was hinting nearly six months ago that iPhone was a likely candidate for the next supported platform for Traveler ... THAT would be kind of sweet!

I have no inside scoop to share (unfortunately) ... but I'll try to rattle Shawne's cage and see what I can find out ...

- Rob

PS: Video of Steve Job's keynote is available.
PPS: Despite lower device cost, NY Times reports data charges make new iPhone MORE expensive.

Survived RSDC ....

As mentioned in my post the other day, it was more than a little strange being at the Dolphin for something other than Lotusphere, but overall, RSDC was a great experience.

My presentation on Web 2.0 went well (had great response from the audience, which always makes MY part better!!), and I thoroughly enjoyed a number of other presentations, even if I'm NOT a hard core Rational developer.

Came back from Orlando just in time to get involved in preparations for my youngest daughter's gala graduation (from High School) party. Where does the time go? I would have sworn it was only yesterday I was walking her to first day of kindergarten ...

Oh well.

A quick shout out to Rationalites Karen Lee, Paul Coates, Willy Farrell and Eric Long ,,, along with my department-mate Doug Tidwell ... was a lot of fun hanging out with you guys.

- Rob

RSDC - Mills and Booch team up for Tuesday’s keynote

First off, if you're looking for the Web 2.0 links from my presentation yesterday, check THIS POST.

TUESDAY MORNING KEYNOTE

Today's keynote at the Rational Software Developers Conference was kind of unusual - Steve Mills, IBM Senior VP and Group Executive Software Group (SWG) - meaning he's the head of IBM's software unit, was there talking from a customer perspective about using Rational Software to build all the products the software group is responsible.

A couple of incredibly interesting facts Steve threw out ...

First, IBM SWG employs 33,000 developers; "far more than 'the world's largest 'software-only' company." He also pointed out that legacy software never dies. "We have more people working on IMS today - which is 40 years old this year - than we've had at any time in its history."

Secondly, no small contributing factor in SWG's growth is acquisitions - IBM has had 54 acquisitions in the software arena since 2001.

Thirdly, there's a huge push toward componentization and re-use inside SWG. WebSphere Application Server, for example, is bundled with or re-used in 126 different IBM packages. But WAS doesn't come close to being the re-use poster child: DB2 has been reused 175 times, and Cloudscape 253 times.

Steve's talk was great - first time I've seen him speak and enjoyed it immensely.

Then, rock star time.

Grady Booch.

Grady is, to the Rationalistas, what Ray Ozzie is to the Lotus Notes world.

A rock star, basically.



Booch also looked the part, with a Hawaiian short and long, flowing hair.

But, he gave a great presentation on 'The Future of Software' to the assembled throng and, while I can't possibly do justice to the whole thing a couple points stand out.

First, he said that as an IBM Fellow, he'd been told he had two jobs: 'invent the future' and 'destroy bureaucracy.'  He says: "IBM is such a rich target for both."

But, on to the meat ...

He said the real challenges surround three things:

• Storage
• Multicore
• Connectivity

Storage is going to become a huge issue - Google currently processes 20 petabytes of data a day (the internet overall handles 627 petabytes). HUGE amounts of data.

For processing power, he says that we will no longer see the 'processor wars' as we've seen them before. Power consumption and multicore are going to become more compelling sales bullets than sheer frequency.

And, connectivity is going to be critical. China currently uses far more IP addresses than the US. (Like 25% more!)

Interesting ...

Both Stave and Grady were wonderful, and incredibly warmly received by the RSDC audience.

Now, on to the sessions ...

- Rob

RSDC - Web 2.0 Primer

Presented at RSDC this morning and had a great time ... hopefully the audience did as well (I apologize for the lightbulb jokes).

Here are the links I promised:

IBM/Rational Product Sites
www.ibm.com/rational
www.ibm.com/software/rational/jazz/
Rational Product Listing A-Z: www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/sw-atoz/
Rational Trials and Demos: www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/brand.jsp?b=Rational
developerWorks / Rational: www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/

IBM/Lotus Product Sites
www.lotus.com/connections
www.lotus.com/quickr
www.lotus.com/sametime
www.lotus.com/domino

Other Relevant IBM Sites
www.ibm.com/developerworks
www.ibm.com/alphaworks

IBM’s main “Web 2.0” home page(s)
www.ibm.com/web20
www.ibm.com/developerworks/web
www-949.ibm.com/blogs/web20/

DeveloperWorks Open Source
www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource

Open Source at IBM
www.ibm.com/linux/opensource

Bob Sutor’s blog:
www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/BobSutor

Kelvin Lawrence’s blog:
www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/KRL

Web 2.0 Definition from Rob's Presentation
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Economic Sites:
www.amazon.com (reviews, ratings, recommendations, "also purchased ...")
maps.google.com (mashup of maps and economic data)
www.housingmaps.com  (mashup of Google Maps and Craigslist apartment data)
www.zillow.com (mashup of MS maps and house listings)

Social Bookmarking Sites:
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.listible.com
www.trailfire.com
www.technorati.com

Social Networking Sites:
www.myspace.com
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com
www.livejournal.com
www.flickr.com (also serves as 'photo storing' site)
www.twitter.com (and the associated "Twisney" site we mentioned: www.twisney.com)

Technology Examples:
Google 'Suggest' beta: www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en  
Baby Name Wizard: www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
Many Eyes: services.alphaworks.ibm.com/ManyEyes/

Blog/Wiki Examples:
www.wikipedia.com
www.socialtext.net/web2wiki/index.cgi
www.engadget.com
www.techcrunch.com

Some Web 3.0 'Examples':
www.pandora.com  (Internet radio that 'suggests' new music)
www.adaptiveblue.com

And, finally ....

That infamous "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" video from the University of Kansas is here:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE


Enjoy!


- Rob

Down in Orlando at Rational Software Developers Conference

Lucky enough to have been asked to come down to the Rational Software Developers Conference (RSDC) in Orlando, Florida.

The conference started today and is to the Rational brand what Lotusphere is to the Lotus brand.

It is a little strange, though. The conference is at the Dolphin/Swan hotel complex here, just like Lotusphere. Yet, it's all different. As I walked around this afternoon, I kept having "hey, registration isn't supposed to be out in THIS hallway" moments.  We had the welcome reception today, but, unlike Lotusphere's 'party around the lagoon,' this party was held in the Pacific Ballroom (where Lotusphere fed everyone).

The Rational conference isn't as large as Lotusphere, but they've got something like 20% more registrants this year than last, and they had so many sessions submitted that they decided to add "night school" to the agenda (literally, sessions after dinner - we'll see how that goes).

I'm going to be doing my Web 2.0 Primer dog and pony show tomorrow morning - I'll give you a full report!

- Rob

 

BlackBerry Developer Conference Slated

At the risk of making this seem like "all BlackBerry all the time" I wanted to pass along another morsel ...

RIM has announced that there will be a BlackBerry Developer Conference (not to be confused with the "Wireless Enterprise Symposium").

Briefly, the details:
Date: two and a half days during week of October 20, 2008
Place: Santa Clara, CA

Press release HERE.  Conference website HERE.

See you there?

- Rob