Some Changes in the Wind at Google

We will know in the next few hours if the Searchology press event being held by Google will reveal whether some of the features that have been in test mode over the past months are now part of the main offering.

A live webcast is being offered of the Searchology press event, to be held at its Mountain View headquarters, for those interested in the announcement.

When: Tuesday, May 12th, 10:00am – 11:30am PDT

URL: http://investor.shareholder.com/media/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=68846&CompanyID=GOOGPR&e=1&mediaKey=E739CC1B5640E66235B0EEBBB424B1E1

Speakers will include VP of Search Engineering, Udi Manber, and VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer.

If you aren’t inclined to watch the live event, make sure to pay attention to you favourite IT blog or website over the coming days for all the details.

Internet Explorer 8 On Its Way

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) has been coming for sometime now but with the release yesterday of RC1 (release candidate 1) it is closer than ever. IE8 has been in beta testing since March 2008 and the RC1 means that it is in the last stages before full commercial release to the public.

For those of you that use a windows-based computer, and have windows update set to automatically apply updates, you will see IE8 appearing as your browser in the not to distant future.

For those of us who are designers and developers in the online world it means that we have yet another browser to take into consideration with our designs (although it looks like IE8 will have better support for web standards)

For the people who are still using IE6 as their browser it is seriously time to move on. Your browser will no longer be “just the previous edition of internet explorer”, it will be the one before the one before.

For me Firefox will remain my browser of choice.

Still not convinced about Twitter?

When it came to Twitter I must admit that I sat back and watched for quite some time, trying to work out the real benefit and whether it was worth my time. Both my actions and beliefs have changed to the benefits of Twitter (you can find me here).

When it comes to real world examples of the benefits of Twitter as a tool for connectivity I will defer, at this point, to one of the hyper-connected people that I’ve had the pleasure to interact with both online and in real-life, Stephen Collins (also known as trib).

Just this morning Stephen put together a very compelling list of benefits he has received from using Twitter.

Twitter is a far more powerful and reliable search engine than Google or Mahalo can ever be. Why? Trust. I trust implicitly any person who chooses to @ answer a question I pose. I filter, of course, but the trust is still there.

Some pretty interesting real world benefits from some online connections!

2009 Compact Calendars are here

After a big year for the 2008 Compact Calendar, the 2009 Australian state-by-state calendar is here. I’ve researched the public holidays for each Australian state and territory and the dates, as at September 1st 2008, have been included in the 2009 calendar. As per the current edition, this 2009 edition is a MS Excel file (which is also able to be read by other applications such as OpenOffice Calc).

As you may know from this year’s calendar the Australian version was based on the original Compact Calendar created by David Seah, so I would once again like to thank David for his inspiration.

As per this year’s calendar, I decided to provide individual state-specific files with public holidays just for your state.  If I get some time between now and the end of the year, and if there is enough interest, I’m likely to update these with the public school holidays for each state as well.

For now, enjoy planning out your new year on the fabulous year-to-a-page Calendar and if you are inspired why not share with others how you make use of your Compact Calendar.

Compact Calendar 2009 – NSW

Compact Calendar 2009 – ACT

Compact Calendar 2009 – VIC

Compact Calendar 2009 – QLD

Compact Calendar 2009 – TAS

Compact Calendar 2009 – NT

Compact Calendar 2009 – SA

Compact Calendar 2009 – WA

2009 Australian Compact Calender

Over the past 10 months the most popular post on this site has by far been “Compact Calendar 2008 – Australian Version“.  And as the year ticked down more and more people were finding the Working Solo site and using the calendar.

It is been on my mind since July 1st that a 2009 version of the calendar would be needed in the not too distant future.  Today I was prompted by an enthusiastic call from Bill Curry at Affordable Home Loans to commit a date for the availability of the next version.  So you can keep an eye out for it on September 1st.

Good Browsers Take The Next Step

It has been a big week for web browsers with 2 of the most standards friendly and usable ones releasing new versions.

Both Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5 are in general release this week after many months of development and beta testing.  Both have outstanding features that will suit all levels of web browsing.  The landscape of web browsers and the ever evolving world of web design would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for browsers like this.

In my book there is no reason for anyone to be using Internet Explorer 6 any more (it is 7 year old technology)!! In fact if you or anyone you know still uses IE6 then let them know it is time to upgrade.  Even if they don’t want to move away from the Internet Explorer brand to a better browser like Firefox or Opera, then at least to Internet Explorer 7 (IE7).

If you are not on one of the more current browsers you might find that some of the great enhancements of more standards-compliant browsers will just pass you by.

TiVO Coming to Australia

Announced in a Sydney Morning Herald article this morning -

Seven’s long-awaited TiVo digital television recorder will go on sale in Australia next month, priced at $700.

The TiVo digital recorder has been a HUGE hit in the USA and I expect that the same will be the case here. The difference in Australia is that the TiVo box will be sold as an outright purchase as opposed to the subscription model they have in the USA.

TiVO will you to record all the free-to-air television channels (eg. ABC, Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS and their digital add-ons) using a built-in program guide.  It will also provide access about 100 free internet video channels.

It will be interesting to see Foxtel’s response ….

Australian Web Applications Get Their Own Top 100

You may have seen lists of cool, new, or popular web applications that have been developed in the USA, Europe or Asia but now we have a list of the Top 100 Australian Web Applications (well at least in the eyes of the publishers of BRW anyway).

I don’t necessarily agree with the position on the list of some of the applications, and there have definitely been omissions, but it is still an interesting insight into some great applications that are being developed right here in Australia.

Firstly I want to say well done to a couple of Working Solo friends that have made the list – Marc Lehmann and the guys at Saasu have made the grade (just after picking up the top award at CeBIT Sydney again) and Myles Eftos is chuffed that his 88Miles time tracking application (which integrates with Saasu by the way) is also on the list.

A couple of things that struck me about the list …..

• there are a large number of social networking/forum/community applications
• a strong number of these applications are about personal organisation
• a number already have a strong presence in the USA and elsewhere overseas (aka it is hard to be a big success with a web applications just focused on the Australian market)

Thanks to Ross Dawson you can see the Top 100 list for yourself and make up your own mind. He also lists the scope for the selection (just so you can check out why your favourite made it or missed out).

Are any of these on your favourites list?

CeBIT 2008 Awards Saasu Top Prize

Congratulations to my friends at Saasu for taking at the top prize at CeBIT 2008 last night!! This is on top of winning the platinum prize last year as well.

I took some time as I was wandering around the CeBIT expo on Tuesday to catch with my main contact Marc Lehmann.  We are a great example of the connections that can be made in the virtual world without the need for face to face meetings and travel (even though we both live in the same city) Marc is a big fan of Twitter and last night while I was catching up on some computer work @marclehmann makes this announcement on Twitter.

Saasu.com wins CeBITs most sought after award again. So proud of our team!

I very proud to say that I’m a user of this top ranked application and a friend of one of the founders.  THey are a great example of the innovation in software that is available in Australia (if only people cared to look).

Have a look at some of the new features that their SaaS-based accounts and business systems package has – http://www.saasu.com/new-release-april08/

What to Do When They Cut Your Connection

So you’ve got a backup plan for your computer data (you do don’t you?) and you have started using SaaS services to ensure you have access to your business information from anywhere. But what plans do you have in place for the day that some bright spark takes to your telco’s infrastructure with an angle-grinder or back-hoe?

Thousands of services on the Telstra network were effected when vandals managed to cut 2 fibre optic cables in Sydney’s west on Saturday. Many businesses and homes they are still without service. The Sydney Morning Hearld is reporting that -

About 5000 western Sydney homes and businesses remain without phone, internet and cable television services after vandals cut a Telstra communications cable.

Even though this type of incident doesn’t happen everyday, it is not a one-off occurrence. Almost 20 years ago when I was working for Telstra someone with a big grudge and even bigger angle-grinder stepped into a communications tunnel in front of a major central Sydney telephone exchange and proceeded to take down tens of thousands of services. There are also numerous tales of cables being dug up during roadworks, general construction and even whilst laying other cables.

So what would you do if you came into work this morning and their was not telephone, internet, eftpos terminal …? Use your mobile? Ever thought how mobile phone traffic is carried across the network?

” … there are still thousands of customers without services like phones, Foxtel, internet, businesses without Eftpos and several base stations are still not working for mobiles …”
-Warwick Ponder, Telstra spokesman from SMH article [my emphasis]

So that area can forget about using their mobiles as a backup, unless they decide to do business away from the out of action base stations.

The chances of you not having communications are not restricted to Telstra customers or Sydney. Char Polansky at Essential Keystrokes had to deal with a hi-speed cable outage just a couple of weeks ago. Char asked readers of her blog for suggestions to get around not having communications. My suggestion was that she develop a relationship with another small business where she could set up her laptop and work from their premises (this is my suggestion to everyone by the way).

What would you do if you couldn’t communicate digitally with the world?

BTW – Go and have a look at my article in the latest edition of The Calm Space. It has a suggestion that might be useful during short term outage.

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