Lately I have really been enjoying RSS feeds via Google Reader. The ability to share favorite articles and view your friend’s recommendations has finally made RSS a worthwhile application on my taskbar.  Still, as I look at my Google Reader, I am reminded of PointCast from circa 1996.  PointCast was WAY ahead of it’s time. PointCast used push technology to send stories direct to your computer. I remember thinking at the time that PointCast was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Remeber, we’re talking about the equivalent of RSS back in the Windows 95 days!  In 1996 you honestly could surf the entire Internet. And I did. At work, all day long, thanks to PointCast.

Looking foward, I can’t remember a technology I’m more excited about than Google Wave. I signed up for the beta and will hopefully receive my login in September. If you haven’t signed up, head over here and reserve yourself a spot!

Here’s to looking back at RSS in a few years with fond memories.

-web based SMS
-voicemail transcribed to txt. (very slick!)
-advanced call routing/handling, including time based clauses
-easy to use Gmail like interface
-integration with Google Contacts

Google Voice centralizes all of my SMS and voice communications with the added benefit of using my Google Contacts.  I can offer a single phone number to callers, change where those calls ring on the fly, block callers and give priority to friends/family.

At first I was not impressed with Google Voice, now that the dust has settled, I am definitely a fan.

I tried the voicemail transcription to text feature and it was 100% accurate. Impressive.

Removing Hulu integration with Boxee is a lose/lose idea for Hulu, Boxee, Content Providers and Users.  Let’s break it down.

Content Providers:
The content providers want eyeballs because eyeballs mean revenue. To gain those eyeballs content providers want NEED to expand across multiple delivery services. Discontinuing a popular cutting edge LEGAL content delivery frontend like Boxee is shortsighted and hurts the content providers’ revenues.

Hulu:
Hulu is an early leader in delivering almost real-time media content via the Web. Boxee took the Hulu idea and enhanced it with direct integration into their (very slick) Media Center application. Viewing Hulu on Boxee is still a Hulu experience and it retains the revenue stream for the content providers.  Discontinuing Hulu on Boxee upsets a lot of loyal Hulu users who access Hulu content solely via Boxee. No more Boxee integration means less Hulu viewers. This hurts Hulu which hurts the content providers and Users.

Boxee (aka the users!):
Boxee has a loyal following in the Home Media Center space. Boxee is producing a socially integrated media center experience. Think Facebook for your Movies/Music and TV. The potential of services like Boxee are huge for Hulu and their content providers. The market Hulu is destorying by nixing Boxee consists of consumers that are Hulu’s IDEAL customer. Your average Boxee user will consume more Hulu content with a larger audience on their HDTV’s than the typical Hulu user chained to their monitor in front of their keyboard. Plus, Hulu/Boxee users can go viral with media via Boxee’s built in “recommendations” feature. Taking Hulu off of Boxee discourages a large subset of Hulu’s power users and encourages media torrents. This hurts the consumer which hurts Hulu which hurts the Content Providers.

How did we get here?
The problem is that the Content Providers agreed to sign up for Hulu but are poorly equipped to understand how Hulu, and their content, integrates with other “new media” products. When an application like Boxee writes their code to support Hulu the networks feel like their control on content distribution is slipping. The predictable result: the networks freak out and demand that Hulu discontinue Boxee support. This is short sighted. Content Providers want NEED Boxee as a legal frontend to the content which generates revenue for them on Hulu. However, Content Providers don’t understand the entire situation, feel threatened and would rather take their ball and go home. Dumb!

The media companies who want consumers to view their content so they can monetize the activity via advertising have just removed one of the most creative and legal ways for them to accomplish their prime directive with the added beneift of advancing the stereotype of clueless “old media” and alienating loyal fanbases.

What else can you say to that? While you’ll be discussing this article I’ll be resuming my commercial free torrents.

If you’ve never heard of Twitter, bear with me. Twitter is a funny name, but one you should know. In its’ most basic form, Twitter is a website that asks the simple question: “What are you doing right now?” You are free to answer that question as often as you like, as long as the answer is under 140 characters. Why 140 characters? The main interface for using Twitter is via text message, which has a 140 character limit.

While the above definition of Twitter is true, it only scratches the surface. Twitter is also described as a micro blogging service. Users can update their readers with mini-posts on a very frequent basis. Consider that power users on Twitter have upwards of 50,000 subscribers to their Twitter feed and over 17,000 updates. That is a lot of direct communication to a specific audience. That’s straightforward, but there’s more…

Twitter has a pyramid effect. If I share information on Twitter and people who consume it also share with people who read their Twitter you see that a single post can rapidly spread. There is already the “Twitter effect”, defined as when a popular Twitter user shares a website link and the resulting swell in traffic crashes the site.

Further delving into the question of “What is Twitter?” Some would argue that Twitter is the tip of the Social Media spear. Social Media is another relatively new term. From Wikipedia: Social media are primarily Internet and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.

Still with us? Great, why should you care about Twitter? Twitter is impactful because people are moving towards consulting their peers in real time about their experiences via Social Media. Had a great steak? Take a picture with your phone and share it, instantly, with all of your followers. Wondering why traffic is so bad? Ask the “Twitterverse” and find out. Looking to interact directly with the consumers of your products? Bingo! Twitter is your answer!

Not convinced about the power of Twitter? Consider this, the first pictures from the crash of flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January were posted via Twitter and picked up almost immediately by mainstream media!

There are a lot of resources about Twitter and how to use it for personal and/or business gain. We suggest you spend some time learning about Twitter before actually using it. We would be happy to get you started. And of course, I am also on Twitter.

Running Windows on a Mac is not new to me. I have been using VMware Fusion for over a year. With VMware Fusion Windows is not installed directly on the Macintosh but rather in a Virtual Machine. Simply put this means that the entire Windows environment is just another application for the Mac OS. For basic business purposes, VMWare Fusion works great. With Fusion, Windows can be accessed without restarting the Mac and files can be seamlessly shared between the Mac OS and Windows running under Fusion. However, Fusion cannot run applications that have intense graphics (design programs, games, etc) as well as BootCamp.

While Fusion allows the Mac OS to treat Windows as another application, Apple BootCamp partitions part of the Macintosh Hard Drive for a native Windows installation. With BootCamp, you partition the drive, install Windows and then during the boot process hold down the ALT key and select either Windows or Macintosh. The advantage of BootCamp is that Windows is running directly on the Mac hardware instead of a virtual machine therefore increasing performance. Windows looks great on a Mac, in fact Windows looks better on my Mac than my PC at work! Keep in mind that with BootCamp, changing environments from Windows to Mac or vice versa requires a restart.

So, which option is the winner in the VMware Fusion vs BootCamp bakeoff? It depends on your needs of course. For casual access to Windows from within a Mac without a reboot, VMware Fusion is a great option. For those users who would use Windows on their Mac for graphics, gaming or spend a fair amount of time in a Windows environment, BootCamp is the clear choice. Keep in mind, both options require a license and media to install Windows. (BootCamp is free, VMware Fusion costs ~$75)

A word of advice for BootCamp users. Be sure to leave plenty of disk space for your Windows installation. I was overly aggressive and had to increase the space for my Windows installation after the install was complete. Luckily, this is not as difficult as it sounds.

1) Install a copy of WinClone
2) Create an image of your Windows partition to an external drive.
3) Use BootCamp Assistant to delete your Windows Partition. (reboot for good measure)
4) Use BootCamp Assistant to create a larger Windows Partition.
5) Use WinClone to restore your backup to the newly created BootCamp parition.
6) From within WinClone, use the tool menu and choose “Expand NTFS Partition”

There you have it, your BootCamp version of Windows now has more space!

I feel the mini9, except for a few keyboard oddities and a slightly dim screen, was a great purchase. If I’m not on the Internet, computers have little value to me. Everything I do requires that I am connected. I may not match the needs of every user so YMMV.

Which brings me back to the cloud. I was at the ConnectWise conference last week where several panels discussed the threat the cloud poses to traditional IT consultants (the cloud supplants internal IT services, thereby lessening the need for IT service providers). I’ve been thinking about the cloud threat and how to move forward in a way that benefits my clients and my business.

I believe a lot of consultants will fail as their bread and butter is moved offsite to cloud services provided by Google, Microsoft and others. To remain viable, consultants will have to focus on providing their own cloud services or focus less on managing technology and more on integrating existing cloud services into business processes.

We are still a few years away from mass cloud adoption, but as I type this out on my 2lb notebook on free WIFI, I am reminded the future always gets here…eventually.

Just like Email became Gmail, it appears Google intends to replace the PC with the GC (Google Computer).  The Google Computer will run Chrome as an OS and a suite of Apps Google will provide in the cloud.  Once Google picks up a decent finance package (Intuit has already moved a lot of their apps to the Web) and some sort of CRM (Salesforce – web based) Google would have a compelling package for businesses.

I think Google is the most disruptive technology company in the world.  Google has stated they want to be integrated into people’s brains.  Laugh if you will, but it shows the level of their ambition.

Creepy? Yes. Funny? I think so….