markwilson.it

Category: Technology

  • How sending email to SMS led me to a world of event-driven programming

    A couple of nights ago, I was messing around with SMS alerting after checking out some websites to let me know the best times to see the Northern Lights in southern Britain. Lancaster University’s AuroraWatch UK site, has an alerting system including advice on sending emails to a phone via SMS.  The exact steps are carrier-specific, however O2, who operate the network I use (Giffgaff), works with MMail (send a text consisting of the word on to 212 and a confirmation from 21203 will tell you your email address, which should be +447xxxxxxxxx@mmail.co.uk – turn it off again with an off text to 212).  Even so, it is a risky service to leave active as each text message sent or received costs the recipient (it’s supposed to be 10p, but for me it seemed to be £0.20), so it’s possible for a spammer to run up a hefty phone bill for you… on that basis, MMail doesn’t sound so attractive.

    There are a variety of SMS services available from SMS2Email but a little bit more digging around (on the Giffgaff forums), turned up reference to If This Then That (Ifttt) – a website that someone had mentioned to me recently but which I hadn’t looked at yet.

    My verdict? Wow! Event-driven programming is cool.

    Register at the site and build tasks that match the “if this, then that” construct, based on:

    • Triggers – the this part.
    • Actions – the that part.
    • Channels – the “things” that triggers and actions take input from or output to .

    Tasks poll for input every 15 minutes but they can be turned on/off and you can also create recipes for sharing tasks, so for example, I’ve created a task/recipe that polls the AuroraWatch UK Twitter RSS and sends an SMS message when there is a red alert (i.e. a chance of spotting the Northern Lights anywhere in the UK). I’m sure there are loads more things that can be done with Ifttt as there stacks of channels to build from – in fact, wading through the recipes that people have shared brings up some pretty cool ideas.

    Ifttt is definitely worthy of further investigation…

  • Giffgaff gotcha

    A few months ago, I wrote about Giffgaff – and I’m still very happy with paying less for a mobile service on the O2 network than I would from O2 (and earning credit for referrals, answering questions, etc. in the process).  Unfortunately I fell foul of a little complexity in the service this week and I think it’s worth mentioning.

    Giffgaff account detailsAfter getting cut off a call mid flow, I logged into the Giffgaff website, under My giffgaff, looked for the My account panel, and saw that my credit had reduced from around £5 to just 16p.  The reason was that my “Goodybag” (a bundle of calls, text and data) had expired and that the “Auto Top-up” only applies to my “credit” balance (a separate pay as you go balance for chargable services that are not included in the Goodybag, like 0845 numbers).

    It is possible to buy your next Goodybag to pick up where an expired one has left off (as you can see, I’ve done this now) – but that’s not the same as Auto Top-up.  (Quite why my Auto Top-up didn’t trigger is anyone’s guess but I’m kind of happy it didn’t as I would have carried on chatting and surfing, thinking I was using my included minutes/megabytes, but actually spending money…)

    Get a free giffgaff SimAs I recommended Giffgaff to readers of this blog (indeed, I still do recommend them), I thought I should highlight this potential source of confusion, in case anyone else trips up like I did!

    [Update 18 June 2012: Giffgaff have announced that they will launch recurring Goodybag topups on 20 June 2012)

  • A week of BYOD discussions

    My corporate laptop infuriates me* – which might explain why I’m such a big advocate for the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model that a lot of people are talking about right now (and which I’ve written about previously).

    This week saw the culmination of a couple of initiatives I’ve been working on in this space and I thought it might be worth sharing some of what I found.

    First up is some work I’ve been involved in with University College London, presenting an industry view on BYOD to students studying a Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) module as they work towards an MSc in Human Computer Interaction.

    SSM is an approach to information gathering and analysis, not really oriented towards problem solving but for arriving at a situation where all stakeholders can work with some form of concensus. The students have listened to views on BYOD from me (as an IT technology and services supplier) along with IT directors from the government, education and media sectors and, earlier this week, I found myself on a panel listening to the students presenting their findings.

    It was interesting to see what they had to say and, whilst the SSM approach didn’t necessarily answer my problem (which is helping customers to adopt BYOD without negatively impacting their business), there were some little nuggets that I thought were worthy of highlight:

    • Firstly, the students told me that my company needed to think about “consumer-driven product design”. Basically, they want sexy laptops [preferably ones with aluminium cases and an illuminated picture of an apple on the lid?] but seriously, vendors like HP, Dell and Lenovo [Fujitsu?] need to either, leave the consumer market to others (because it’s massively commoditised anyway) or come up with something that’s attractive to consumers, rather than to IT departments.  Whilst I can’t comment on what Fujitsu might do in future – it was good feedback – and some of the recent announcements at MWC and CEBIT might show some direction towards meeting this demand.
    • The students also told me that IT vendors need an expanded portfolio of device-agnostic services, that meet security requirements for protection of corporate data, yet provide flexibility (I happen to agree entirely – let IT managers concentrate on data, not devices – more on that in a few paragraphs’ time…)
    • They also want consumer-driven support services, citing AppleCare as an example. I did quip that they meant “expensive” then, but again, it’s interesting to see Apple held up as the gold standard in the eyes of today’s young consumers (many of whom also have jobs – I have to admit having been surprised to see that many of the students were not 22 year-olds straight from their first degree but mature students, studying whilst balancing family and work pressures).
    • Interestingly, generation Y does not think that the demand for BYOD is in any way generational (I’ve long since thought this was something used by companies for marketing, rather than a true phenomenon) – their assessment was that desire for BYOD is more driven out of an attitude to change, combined with personal needs. In addition the students felt that cognitive ability (the ability to abstract or problem-solve) presents an opportunity upon which to focus training in the workplace, and one group suggested the provision of training that provides each generation with an understanding of how others work. Another group felt that BYOD could even be an equaliser between generations.
    • One group felt that, where BYOD is a step too far, the choose your own device (CYOD) model (employed by Avanade, I believe) could work – with employees choosing one of a number of standard devices from an approved list.
    • And another consideration was that not everyone wants to carry a device around with them – either through fears of security with high value items on public transport (that may be a London thing: I’ve taken my devices on buses and trains for years) or because of social activities after work.

    Then, yesterday, I was with a group of senior architects, listening to CIO Connect present on some of their research findings in the BYO space, before I gave my own take on things (and how we, as an organisation, can respond to our customer’s needs in this area). For obvious reasons, I won’t be spilling the beans on my employer’s plans but it was interesting to see what CIOs are saying about the trend:

    • Consumerisation is the second-largest change CIOs have seen in their careers, behind ecommerce, joint with business re-engineering and ahead of cloud computing [I found cloud’s position surprising – maybe that’s because I work for a systems integrator].
    • Many BYOD initiatives are being driven from the boardroom (e.g. the CEO’s Christmas present) but there are advantages across the business (dependant upon role).
    • Benefits are employee productivity (44%), employee satisfaction (29%), end user innovation (15%) and cost reduction (12%).
    • Funding model is split with 48% using company funds, 15% co-funding and 37% requiring employees to fund the device costs.
    • Concerns are mostly around security/leakage, company/brand reputation, technical support, costs and software licensing.

    In terms of the solutions being employed, I found a little too much emphasis on what I would call transitional technologies (sticking plaster, if you like) – virtual desktops, and hosted shared desktops – but if that’s helping to move things forward in terms of device ubiquity then I guess it’s a step in the right direction.  Ultimately BYOD depends on greater adoption of service-oriented architectures (which is being driven by adoption of cloud applications); on de-perimiterisation (moving from a system of trusted endpoints and secure networks to a new model based on a combination of user, device, application and location); on switching from a mindset that sees devices as assets to one where the data is the asset; and on a willingness to work through a plethora of non-technical issues.

    I’m sure I’ll be returning to this subject in future…

    *My Fujitsu Lifebook S7220 is a perfectly good machine – and was great when I used to run lots of virtual machines to do lots of techie stuff – but the BIOS doesn’t support client hypervisors, my IT department has crippled it with some awful disk encryption software (not BitLocker, which is built into Windows) and it’s just too big and heavy. In my current role I’d like something a bit smaller and lighter – an ultrabook would be nice… I just have to wait for mine to hit it’s fourth anniversary so I can order a replacement.

  • Thoughts on consuming newspapers with a Kindle

    I’ve become a bit of a Kindle convert of late. First Amazon added the ability to send documents to the Kindle app (it was previously just for “real” Kindles). Then, I discovered the highlighting and social sharing. More recently, after buying my wife a Kindle, I’ve been reading the newspaper.

    I don’t normally read a daily paper – I might pick up one of the free papers (Metro or London Evening Standard) on the train to/from work and I’ll flick through the local rag (Milton Keynes Citizen) when it drops through the door but most of my news is consumed from the BBC (website, Radio 4, or the ten o’clock news). If we get a quiet weekend though, I do enjoy one of the weekend papers – Sunday Times for me (at least, until the “phone hacking” scandal uncovered so much evidence of wrong-doing at News International) or The Guardian on Saturday for my wife (if only it had a decent technology/motoring section).

    So we decided to try The Guardian and Observer Kindle Edition, partly due to the existence of a free 14-day trial.

    Unfortunately, once the trial is over, the cost for the Grauniad on Kindle in the UK is £9.99 a month, whilst it’s $9.99 in the United States. We’re used to US prices coming across with almost 1:1 parity over here but this is not a simple import duty/sales tax mark-up  – it’s just plain wrong  (remember, this is a UK newspaper). That leaves me feeling ripped off, and less likely to extend my occaisional 99p single issue purchase (which would just be 75c in the States) to a full month.

    It’s not that I think £9.99 is a lot of money for a months’ worth of newspapers – actually, I think it’s fair, given that the cost of distributing electronically must be so much lower than in print but that newspapers still need to derive a revenue stream to avoid declining into the pit of dumbed-down celebrity trivia that threatens real journalism.  My issue is that US consumers of The Guardian on Kindle pay so much less – perhaps as part of Guardian Media Group’s drive to gain a foothold in the United States?

    So, back to the point, what’s it like reading the paper on a Kindle?

    Actually, it’s rather good – all of the paper laid out by subsections with sensible navigation.  If you’re reading on an E Ink device, then there may be limited value in some of the illustrations (remember the days of black and white newsprint?) but in the Kindle app on my iPad, I see the paper in glorious colour.  I also like that the paper is there for me in the early hours so that when I leave home to catch the 06:52 to Euston it’s ready for me to read on the train.

    Unfortunately though, there are some downsides. Despite being delivered in the Kindle app, the digital edition lacks highlighting and social sharing – so many times I’ve wanted to highlight something, tweet and link to the online version of an article… only to find that to do that I have to drop out to the website. And I can’t even bookmark articles to come back to and look up on the web later – surely that’s a missed opportunity for integration of online and offline content?

    Perhaps The Guardian would rather that subscribers didn’t realise how good the website is?  It seems that a lot of the tech news that hits me on the web via various Guardian Twitter aliases/podcasts is absent in the print edition and that, sometimes, the Guardian website might be a better place to spend some time than flicking through the paper… (but don’t get any ideas about paywalls – that’s why you never see me tweeting Times or Financial Times stories…).

    My subscription to The Guardian Kindle Edition runs out on Friday and, sadly, I won’t be renewing. I may buy the odd copy on a weekend but, then again, I might buy a different paper instead (perhaps The New York Times, or The Telegraph?)… and the challenge for newspapers to find a new business model for the digital age continues.

  • Useful Links: February 2012

    A list of items I’ve come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny:

  • Raspberry Pi: a case study for using cloud infrastructure?

    In common with many thousands of geeks up and down the country, I set my alarm for just before 06:00 today for the big Raspberry Pi “announcement”.

    The team at Raspberry Pi had done a great job of keeping the community informed – and I was really impressed that they gave everyone a chance to hear where to buy their miniature computers at the same time. Unfortunately the Raspberry Pi announcement didn’t quite have the intended result as it effectively “slashdotted” the websites for both of the distributors (RS Components and Farnell).

    Whilst Raspberry Pi had moved their site to a static page in anticipation, the electronics retailers probably aren’t used to their products being in such demand and both buckled under the load.  Which left me wondering… I know Raspberry Pi’s goal is to support the UK electronics industry (hence the choice of distributors and not simply selling via Amazon.co.uk or similar) but surely this is a case study for how a cloud-based solution could have scaled to cope with demand? Perhaps by redirecting Raspberry Pi purchasers to a site that could scale (e.g. on Amazon Web Services), still fulfilled by RS and Farnell?

    [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/edgillett/statuses/174746146999242753″]

    It didn’t help that the links given were to the main pages (not deep links). I got in during the first 5 minutes at RS and followed the instructions (“Search for Raspberry Pi, and then follow the normal shopping and checkout process.”) only to find that there was a “register your interest” page but no purchase option. A few minutes later, Raspberry Pi said on Twitter that was the wrong page, and I couldn’t find the right one from a site search. Later in the morning, reports on Twitter suggested that RS are not putting Raspberry Pi on sale until the end of the week…

    [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/ghalfacree/statuses/174758677331451905″]

    [It now seems that doesn’t fit with RS Components’ Raspberry Pi press release]

    With the mainstream news sites and even breakfast TV now running Raspberry Pi stories, the interest will be phenomenal and I’m sure Raspberry Pi can sell many more devices than they can manufacture, but I can’t help feeling they’ve been badly let down by distributors who didn’t take their warnings seriously.

    [blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Raspberry_Pi/status/174747109046755328″]

    Or, as one open source advocate saw it:

    [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/opensourcerer/statuses/174757001908322304″]

    With any luck, my success at registering interest from RS at about 06:03 this morning will have worked. Failing that, I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer…

    [Update 07:49 – added link to RS Components press release]

  • Getting to grips with the Amazon Kindle

    It takes a special gadget to capture my wife’s attention but the Amazon Kindle seems to have done quite well. Actually, I think that the Kindle’s success is largely down to the fact that it appeals to non-geeks (the low price helps) but I recently bought Mrs W. one as a present.

    It was my first experience of using one of these devices (I’ve only used the Kindle app on iOS or Windows Phone until now) but it really couldn’t have been much simpler to set up. This is the latest incarnation of the Kindle (the Kindle 4 – officially known as “Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display“) and when it arrived, I wasn’t sure whether to open the “frustration free” packaging to find another box inside and wrap it as a gift, It turns out that the brown, wedge-shaped box with the word Kindle on the side and a rip-tab is the actual product packaging (typically functional and no-frills, but substantial enough to prevent damage).

    After unboxing, all that was needed was to:

    • Plug the Kindle into a computer using the supplied USB cable.
    • Select the language.
    • Connect to a Wi-Fi network (using the soft keyboard).
    • Register (in this case, to an existing Amazon account – more on that in a moment).

    That’s all the basics to get going but, in the Manage Your Kindle section of the Amazon website I also:

    • Edited the name (not much point my wife having a device that had defaulted to “Mark’s Kindle”).
    • Added an email address from which to receive personal documents (if emailed to the Kindle).

    At this point it’s probably worth mentioning something about sharing Kindles.  Because I’ve been using the Kindle app on my devices, it made sense that we should be able to share publications with one another. Unfortunately, sharing requires the use of a single account (hence why my wife’s new Kindle was automatically named “Mark’s Kindle” and why the welcome note is addressed to me…). In the United States, there are limited options to lend books but it’s not universal, and it’s far from the model that we see in print (walk to shelf; pick up book; give to friend; friend returns book at some stage a few weeks later) – although I did find an interesting analogy on the Amazon website.

    With multiple Kindles on one account:

    • We can select purchases individually but they are charged to one card.
    • Purchases using the Kindle will go to the Kindle being used at the time.
    • Purchases from the Amazon website can be sent to whichever Kindle is chosen.
    • Any purchase made can be also loaded onto other Kindles on the same account.

    I’m not sure how easy it would be to damage the E Ink display but I didn’t want to take the chance – we bought a cover for Mrs W.’s Kindle which does have the downside of increasing weight and volume but also looks quite nice.  Amazon’s official cover is expensive (the one with a built-in light is even more so) but there are plenty of third-party alternatives available (the one I bought was less than £10 from Amazon.co.uk).

    Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the Kindle. Strangely, buying one for my wife has increased my use of the Kindle app on my iPad (partly due to our increased use of our Amazon account) and a Kindle Fire could well be my next tablet, assuming they make it to the UK before the rumoured iPad Mini…

  • Deleting large quantities of Facebook notes

    A few years ago, I followed the example of a “social media guru” and set Facebook up to consume my blog’s RSS feed and republish each post as a note.

    This was A Bad Thing for a number of reasons, not least:

    1. Copyright – I’m sure that when I upload anything to Facebook, I give them some rights over it (which is why my images are still on Flickr).
    2. Traffic – reproducing content on Facebook might get eyeballs, but it takes that traffic away from your own website and only Facebook gains any revenue. This may be OK if you are selling goods/services that can be monetised via Facebook links but my revenue is from ads: ads on my site = revenue for me; ads on a Facebook copy = revenue for Facebook.
    3. Layout – invariably, despite my best efforts to write good XHTML, the blog posts look better on my site than when scraped into Facebook as notes.

    I turned off the feed but deleting the notes was far from trivial. There is no bulk delete option that I can find, and that meant opening each note, scrolling down, clicking delete, etc. In a word, tedious.

    I forgot about the notes until last week, when I switched over to timeline view. Arghh. Yes. Must delete those…

    …and then I found another method – much quicker – using the iOS Facebook app.

    By opening the Notes section of the Facebook app on my iPad, a quick swipe and press was all it took to delete each note. Still tedious, but a lot quicker to get through…

  • Locating Office 365 invoices

    Unlike me, who is not VAT-registered and only does his company accounts once a year when he needs to submit a tax return (usually on or around the last possible day…), my wife needs to be a bit more organised and, since she shares the same Office 365 hosting arrangements, I needed to dig out some VAT invoices for her today.  I can never remember how to do this, so maybe blogging it will help me in a few months’ time (and may help someone else too)…

    1. Sign into the customer portal.
    2. On the admin page, on the left pane, under Subscription, click Manage.
    3. Click on the plan name – for me, that’s Microsoft Office 365 (Plan P1).
    4. On the subscription details page click View bill.

    If you want to download/print a bill, printable invoices and a graphical billing history are available (links in the top-right corner of the Online Bill portal)

    Incidentally, I hadn’t previously noticed that the rate of VAT on my account is 23% – that’s because it’s billed in Ireland, allegedly to avoid* UK corporation tax…

     

    *Tax avoidance is legal, even if morally dubious (particularly on the scale at which large corporations work). Evasion would not be

  • Removing backgrounds from images in PowerPoint 2007

    One particularly useful feature in PowerPoint 2010 is the ability to remove backgrounds from images. Unfortunately for me, since I returned to using a corporate PC build (after years of building my own, I succumbed to the standard build as the bureaucracy of adding a machine to the domain, installing encryption software, etc. became too much to bear) I’ve gone back to  Office 2007 and that feature is no longer available to me.

    But there is a way – last week I found out how to remove the background from an image in PowerPoint 2007.  By selecting the image, then chosing Recolor from the Format menu, it’s possible to Set Transparent Color.

    Obviously this is not as simple as in PowerPoint 2010, and it will only work for plain backgrounds, but it can still come in useful at times…