Ed’s Tech Blog

We can finally synch Google Calendar with Palm and Outlook. http://www.companionlink.com/clgoogle.html
But Airset does that for free, plus you can pay them to synch to your mobile phone over the phone company’s network.

Will Google want to use the Big 4’s networks for that, or will they focus only on synching over the internet (and push for more ubiquitous wifi?)

hmmm, Google innovates consistently, but the Big 4 mobile phone companies stifle innovate products and services at the drop of a hat. My guess is that part of the 4 will cooperate with Google to let users synch Google calendar and part of the 4 will want to create their own calendar app, and charge for it monthly.

Of course, how good does Google Calendar look and respond if I try to view it with a mobile phone web browser?

Hmmm, scatch all this. Somebody already made a mobile phone syncher for free using Java:
http://www.gcalsync.com/

But it is not polished.

Security?

If a business is going to move confidential data over the mobile phone network, then it needs to be securely.

Interesting: If I switch either calendar manually to https on a normal computer browser, they both work fine. However, I don’t see a preference that will force secure viewing each time upon a secure login.

Todo: Check for secure synching and viewing over the phone network as well.
So, I need to start synching both of these to both Outlook and my phone: Airset and Google Calendar.

Costs:

Airset.

Synching Palm and Outlook: Free

Synch over mobile phone:

“AirSet Mobile is a subscription service, available through Verizon at a price of $6.49 per month. Airtime charges are incurred only while synchronizing, which typically takes 30 seconds or so, resulting in 1 minute of airtime utilization. ”

Cost with non Verizon Java enabled phones?

Google:

Synching Palm and Outlook: $30 per user, but some known bugs
Synch over mobile phone: Free with Java J2ME enabled phones, but buggy.

Conclusion:

I lean towards Airset, depending on how they work out the J2ME client. They say it will be a monthly recurring charge. Which seems fine since most of our office users would be using only the Outlook, Palm synching for free. That makes it cheaper than Google option. Plus, Airset is committed to developing the synchronization software. Since Google is not pursuing professional development of synchronization, I would give Airset the edge.

note: This all changes if Google releases professional synchronization. However, synch is such a dangerous function because it touches ALL THE DATA for a user. And bad synch’s can destroy every single bit of data for a user. I think I want a dedicated team getting paid to make sure synch does not ever lose a client’s data. Airset.

Can I copy an existing computer installation into a Virtual Machine?

Advantages (if possible):

- Freedom to make more daring tests without running risk of losing data

- Ability to instantly revert to original status if a given fix did not work

Furthermore,

For business machines, it would be great if I could order the following from Dell.

Linux secure install on the base hardware. (and set to autoupdate drivers and security patches)
Vmware Player or Server preinstalled.

Windows XP VM installed. (and a backup installed as well.)

Have VMware set to create snapshots periodically. (and copy Outlook snapshots nightly).

So, if the user gets a new machine. I just copy the old virtual machine of XP over to it, and I am done. awesome.

If user gets nasty spyware, virus, deletes system files, etc. I just pull the latest vmware image snapshot, and we are 95% finished. (5% is reverted to the saved Outlook pst if necessary.)

a. ignore the gui program for critical updates. It’s worthless.

b. Open a terminal. Type: yum update

c. Watch in amazement, as that command actually works.

d. Wonder why you have to search Google to find the hack to get critical updates to work in Linux? Me too. Shitty Usability.

e. Wonder why ‘Everything’ in Linux  ends up being a hack? Who cares. That’s just the reason it will never be a desktop option for the world. Hacker mentality and my mom’s desktop don’t mix.

Just not able to even begin to run basic Use Cases. Just unbelievable.

Please. Get a Usability guru from Apple to sponsor Linux usablility for a year. Just hand that person the reigns, and let them transform Linux (from a users point of view) into something reasonable.  No voting, no community input. Just let an expert ‘MAKE IT HAPPEN’. B/c the current community has failed.

Linux needs a torvalds of  usability.  Get  someone/someteam to make the UI great (like Apple did with BSD.)

I spend literally 50 - 75% of the time baby sitting and debugging my Linux installation, instead of doing real work on the problem I need to solve.

Just give me an install shield program like we have in Windows any day. I install the program. I use it. I continue to solve my problem. Installing programs on Fedora? That takes me back to 50 - 75% of time baby sitting a series of “simple” installations.

Unreal that people put up with it. I suppose I’ll switch to Mac one day and wonder why I spent so much time ‘under the hood’ of my WinXP box, instead of “getting things done” on my Mac.