Twiggtowers

Cisco social media guidelines June 2010

2010-06-18T22:26:00.001+10:00

A great example of social media guidelines for big business

Cisco social media guidelines June 2010

Cimbal Launches Private Beta of Mobile Payment System

2010-04-10T07:48:00.000+10:00

Cimbal announces the launch of a private beta for a new software only mobile payments ecosystem. "Cimbal is an entirely software-based solution which does not require any additional hardware for consumers or merchants to process electronic payments. A smartphone with a camera for the consumer and a software update for the point-of-sale system at the store is all that's needed to pay with Cimbal."

"Cimbal offers a strategic opportunity for merchants, banks and mobile carriers to enter the mobile payment space with a solution that will gain fast consumer adoption," said Alastair Campbell, chief strategy officer at SingTel. "It's easy to use, and importantly doesn't require any new hardware - which will be key to its fast adoption by the ecosystem."
"We have tremendous interest from consumers, merchants and banks who demand a safe and cost-effective alternative to plastic,"said Christopher Boone, president and CEO of Cimbal. "We are working with many of the Fortune 500 retailers and we are excited to open the doors and have people sign up for Cimbal."
Cimbal is the first electronic mobile payment solution that works in-store, online and person-to-person. Cimbal's server-based solution ensures secure transactions at every level for stores, e-commerce transactions and between individuals. Because Cimbal is an entirely software-based solution, it is easily shared and adopted to quickly gain critical mass.
Cimbal is currently available in a private beta program and will be publicly available in U.S. markets in the third quarter of 2010.

The Fridge Benefits Of Failure And The Importance Of Imagination

2010-03-17T09:53:00.000+11:00

Two years old now but a very thought provoking speech from JK Rowling on the fridge benefits of failure and the importance of imagination.

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Just How Fast Does Our World Change!!

2010-02-25T06:53:00.002+11:00

Been doing a little background surfing for technology and social trends. The following three video's overlap in a lot of content but there is some good unique stuff in each. The really scary thing however is that they are already out of date in a lot of respects!!

Channel Innovation Requires A Channel Agnostic Architecture

2010-02-20T16:02:00.000+11:00

A an insightful blog post from Jost Hopperman VP at Forrester Research. I've copied out a short section from the summary but I would recommend reading the full post here.....

"Multichannel applications and architecture today need to take care of the different behavior of channels to provide a basis for the full emergence of ubiquitous banking (Intelligent Devices Will Drive Ubiquitous Banking). Bank executives involved in application development and delivery as well as architecture need to ensure that their applications don’t support any individual channel, but consist of a layered approach isolating channels and business functionality. App dev and delivery staff needs to:

Focus on either building functionality or delivering functionality over the channels within the framework of a defined multichannel framework or solution – but not at both at the same time.
Build or select the multichannel architecture in a way that channel-specific aspects are located in a clearly defined and cohesive layer of the architecture.

With this approach, a bank’s business decisions will become independent from channels that may or may not be used for a given product or service: The mobile channel won’t exist anymore. As soon as we will see more convergence of channel technology, the need for this kind of multichannel approach will become smaller and smaller."

The Knowledge Workers Challenge To Organisations

2010-02-19T06:57:00.000+11:00

Very interest still results from a 7-year, 197,000-person, 23-country study by Innermetrix into how today knowledge workers achieve success.

The old belief is that the role is fixed and to improve requires 'fixing' oneself to best fit the demands of the role, identifying and improving weaknesses to optimise skills and abilities to the demands of the role.

Today's successful revolutionists, however, do the exact opposite. They don't assume they need to change themselves to better fit the role they have. Instead they focus on fixing the role to better fit them instead, accentuating strengths rather than fixing weaknesses.

The Iron Triangle, Cost, Time and Scope?

2010-02-15T07:24:00.001+11:00

Just read a great post on Federico Zuppa blog Agile Booknote about the differences in creation and measurement of value in Agile and Waterfall projects. For those considering Agile I would recommend reading the entire post however I thought I'd pick out a powerful twist on the oldest project management rule in book.

"Value is so important that Jim Highsmith suggests replacing the traditional iron triangle for one that includes value.

This is his proposition:

In the old triangle, if "scope" grows either the project will take longer (time is modified) or the cost will be higher (cost is modified). This triangle was used to take management decisions, and to measure the success of the project. Using this triangle, a project is successful if it delivers the scope, on time and within the required budget. The new triangle has value, quality and constraints in its vertices. A successful project in the new triangle is one that delivers value with the expected quality and conforming to the constraints.

Performance measurements, processes and activities are designed to optimise value a project that sticks to an outdated plan that doesn't provide any value won't be successful, even if it finishes on time and with the required cost. Processes should support the delivery of value in a sustainable way, even in changing conditions."

Are Your GUI 'Telling' Skills Stunted

2010-02-10T07:11:00.000+11:00

I have only picked one tiny part of Bret Victor's fantastic paper on Information Software & the Graphical Interface to illustrate the challenges but as you will see from the contents page extract below Bret sets us some real challenges to 'perceived' wisdom and I think provides a glimpse into a future we should be running towards. For the full paper click here...

Because the child’s “telling” skills are underdeveloped, he communicates complex concepts throughshowing. Similarly, a GUI’s stunted grammar makes telling tedious, but software’s dynamic display is ideal for showing. A user can specify context by pointing somewhere on an information graphic and saying, “There!”

What is software?

Of software and sorcery. Is “interaction design” the cure for frustrating software, or the disease itself?
What is software design? Software is not a new and mysterious medium, but a fusion of two old ones.
What is software for? People turn to software to learn, to create, and to communicate.
Manipulation software design is hard. Creating software for creating is tricky business.
Most software is information software. People spend more time learning than creating.

Graphic design

Information software design is graphic design. People learn by looking. Looks are all that matters.
Demonstration: Showing the data. Redesigning Amazon as an information graphic.
Demonstration: Arranging the data. Redesigning Yahoo! Movies as an information graphic.

Context-sensitivity

Context-sensitive information graphics. Software trumps print by showing only what’s relevant.
Inferring context from the environment. The outside world can suggest what’s relevant.
Inferring context from history. Memories of the past can suggest what’s relevant.

Interactivity

Interactivity considered harmful. The user can suggest what’s relevant, but only as a last resort.
Reducing interaction. Approaches to easing the pain.
How did we get here? The popular focus on interactivity is a vestige of another era.

Intermission

Case study: Train schedules. Designing a trip planner as an information graphic.
Demonstration: Trip planning redux. Redesigning Southwest Airlines as an information graphic.

Changing the world

Designing the information software revolution. Five steps from artifice to art form.
Designing a design tool. Dynamic graphics without the programming.
Engineering inference from history. How software can learn from the past.
Engineering inference from the environment. A platform for implicit communication between software.
Information and the world of tomorrow. Why all this matters.

Culture Is The Biggest Barrier To Agile Adoption

2010-02-06T08:16:00.000+11:00

With so much focus on getting the 'right' culture in large organisations, it seems ironic that rigid cultures are the biggest barrier to Agile adoption.

For a full list of survey results click here

How Much Is User Experience Valued In Your Business?

2010-01-30T09:13:00.000+11:00

The last cartoon made me think about an old favourite of mine. How many times has this happened in your projects.........

No You May Not Outsource Your Homework To India

2010-01-30T09:01:00.001+11:00

Came across this today and it made me chuckle so that I'd share....

How Testing Should Be!

2010-01-28T07:06:00.001+11:00

I came across the following post by Sam Danes which I think is a great summary of how testing should be.

"I think the next level in test automation is to combine logically with a test engineer's skill set. The traditional "I don't code" testers are becoming less and less needed as the bulk of a testing team.

Automation moves hand in hand with proper white box testing, building stubs, harnesses, emulators that are capable of testing each component in a system in isolation are a near required component of white box testing.

Testing needs to take the step it always should have in the first place where the bulk of your testing team are actually capable of building the product they are testing. You will find far more defects far earlier in the development process by practicing proper white box testing and building good performance tools than you ever will with traditional black box and UI testing.

If you look at most traditional software house testers, even though the may be highly skilled at black box testing, they are mostly not capable of writing their own applications or understanding the full SDLC. In essence testing has always been looked down upon as a "less skilled" discipline than software development. In essence if you had a heirarchy of engineers by skill alone most places would put developers above testers in level of and needs of skills.

If you look towards software companies like Microsoft or Google, testing is actually the opposite. It is harder and more complex in many ways to be a tester (most often refered as something like a Software Engineer in Test) than it is to be a developer. To be a tester you need to be able to do all the things a good developer can do PLUS be able to understand and conduct testing.

You can in fact accomplish a lot with the traditional mostly black box test teams but if testing -- and by proxy automation -- are to take the next logical step test engineers in general need to evolve along with the tools they use.

A fully functioning, deeply technical test team, capable of everything from sitting in on code reviews, to true white box testing, to writing and maintaining the myriad of tools and testing applications in a modern organization on top of understanding and implementing good test practices can bring tremendous added value to the overal SDLC."

Verizon 100Gbps Backbone Link From Paris To Frankfurt

2010-01-28T06:51:00.000+11:00

On Monday (Dec. 14) Verizon became the first telecommunications carrier to successfully deploy a commercial 100G (gigabits per second) ultra-long-haul optical system for live traffic. This system was deployed on the company's European optical core network between Paris and Frankfurt. The accomplishment marks the first time for deployment of ultra-long-haul 100G using a single channel on a production network.

"This latest 100G-first gives Verizon the edge in meeting the growing bandwidth demands of our customers," said Mark Wegleitner, senior vice president of technology at Verizon. "By consolidating traffic onto one large pipe rather than several smaller ones, customers will benefit from increased network capacity, improved transmission quality and greater network efficiencies."

Full press release....

Agile Is Now Mainstream In Large Organisations According To Forrester

2010-01-26T01:24:00.000+11:00

In a recent report Forrester acknowledge agile as mainstream. "In the past few years, Agile processes have not only gained increasing adoption levels; they have also rapidly joined the mainstream of development approaches. And while more organizations are adapting to Agile conventions, Agile is also adapting to the workplace. Perhaps the clearest sign of the mainstreaming of Agile is the abandonment of orthodoxy: Teams are puzzling out the mix of methodologies and combining them to fit within their organizational realities, blending Agile and non-Agile techniques and practices to create a hybrid methodology that fits larger organizations. Other changes, such as new team dynamics and the redefinition of roles such as the business analyst, show the genuine force behind Agile adoption. It's time for software development professionals to stop sitting on the fence where Agile is concerned. According to those who have successfully adopted Agile, the benefits are well worth the effort, and with the recent dramatic increase in Agile adoption, the probability of working in or with an Agile team has increased for everyone."

8 Minute Video Overview Of SCRUM

2010-01-17T18:06:00.002+11:00

A really useful 8 minute video overview of SCRUM by Hamid Shoajee of Axosoft for those who would like to know a little more.

A Tongue In Cheek Look At The 8 IT Personality Types : See How Many You Recognise, Very Funny

2010-01-16T09:57:00.000+11:00

IT personality type No. 1: The Empty Suit
Job title(s): Department manager, business analyst

Profile: Hired to be a liaison between top-level management and the techies -- with whom top-level management, or anyone on the business side, would rather not deal directly. Acts as a go-between during client visits to keep the geeks at a safe distance. Has memorized most of the important acronyms and mastered the art of nodding knowingly in meetings and then surfing Wikipedia afterward to find out what everyone was talking about. May possess an MBA from a dubious online university.

"This guy may not be the most detailed thinker, but he's the most popular guy on the team -- and he would agree," says Tim Jewell, CTO at Data Deposit Box, which provides online backup services for SMBs. "If you're looking for some fun, ask him a complex technical question and watch him wiggle around the room. Despite this, he's the only one who can talk to customers because he has verbal ability and may actually care about what the end-user has to say."

Despite making him the butt of inside tech jokes, the geeks at times flock to him because he's the only one in the department with a remote chance of picking up chicks, Jewell adds.

Hobbies: Picking up chicks
Last book read: "The ClueTrain Manifesto" (Cliff Notes only)
Greatest accomplishment: Consistently losing at golf to the C-level executives, despite possessing a single-digit handicap
Identifying marks: Cheap knockoffs of Brooks Brothers suits
Role model: Michael Dell
Most resembles: Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) in "The Office"

IT personality type No. 2: The Scary Sys Admin
Job title(s): Network administrator, database administrator

Profile: Your company can't run without him -- and he knows it. Fortunately, he likes dealing with machines far more than people, so you can rest easy, confident that he spends way more time keeping your systems up and running than may even be necessary. Friends? Who needs friends? That's why God invented computers.

"This is the person on the team who will agree to do the 48-hour server upgrade on the weekend and have everything up and running by 6 a.m. Monday -- all for two extra-large pizzas and a case of Red Bull," says Jewell. "He's very helpful around the office because people interact with him -- unlike his dolls at home."

But get on his bad side, warns Jewell, and you'll find yourself swiftly locked out of all your computer accounts -- and possibly your home and your bank accounts as well.

Hobbies: Getting certifications; writing network security subroutines in binary code to safeguard logic bombs or surreptitious SQL queries to the HR database
Last book read: "Get Even: The Complete Book of Dirty Tricks"
Greatest accomplishment: Holding the network hostage by refusing to release passwords to the Empty Suit
Identifying marks: Handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit
Role model: Terry Childs
Most resembles: Terry Childs

IT personality type No. 3: The Human Roadblock
Job title(s): Software developer, enterprise architect, systems administrator

Profile: No matter what task or project is presented, the Human Roadblock responds in exactly the same manner: It can't be done. This is then followed by a painfully detailed list of all the reasons why this task or project will cost too much, deliver too little, and can't be implemented in anything resembling the proposed time frame. And, oh yeah: It was a stupid idea to begin with.

"This individual presents this feedback under the auspices of being the only 'rational voice' in the room," says Travis Van, co-founder of ITDatabase, a research tool for IT professionals. "The points may often be valid, but typically lead to 'paralysis by analysis' for the development group -- when a more optimistic look at 'what's possible' would have been preferable to their predictable laundry list of 'why this is not possible'."

Hobbies: Complaining
Last book read: "I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life"
Greatest accomplishment: Not accomplishing anything of note since 1979
Identifying marks: Knit shirt with collar, khakis; still carries a slide rule
Role model: Eeyore
Most resembles: Marvin the Paranoid Android from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

IT personality type No. 4: The Angry Support Drone
Job title(s): Support tech (what else?)

Profile: Hired to schlep from desk to desk fixing the computers of people deemed unworthy of their time. Will do what you ask, and not one iota more. Know more than you do about computers -- a point they manage to work into virtually every conversation -- but not really interested in sharing useful information. Might otherwise be flipping burgers if they could be trusted to handle sharp instruments around other humans.

"The IT support position in a startup is invested with near magical skills from the perspective of peers and yet manages to consistently disappoint 90 percent of the people he deals with," says Don Rainey, general partner at VC firm Grotech Ventures.

So they'll install that printer you asked for, but they won't test to see that it works correctly. Why not? Because you only asked them to install it. And if you question their abilities or work ethic, prepare for the consequences.

"These people are like the Energizer Bunny of anger," Rainey says. "Maybe it's the line of work, or it's because they're the starting point of a feedback loop for whatever is going wrong with the product or customers. But in any case, the Angry Support Drone can create a special kind of crisis."

Hobbies: Guns, shooting, random acts of violence
Last book read: "What Color is Your Parachute?" (unfinished)
Greatest accomplishment: Halo triple kill
Identifying marks: Permanent scowl, pair of Nikes circa 1982
Role model: William "D-fens" Foster (Michael Douglas) in "Falling Down"
Most resembles: Milton Waddams (Stephen Root) in "Office Space"

IT personality type No. 5: The Übergeek
Job title(s): Software engineer, senior programmer

Profile: Fiercely intelligent, stubbornly logical, and disturbingly anti-social. In other words, what most people think of when asked to describe a techie. In Myers-Briggs nomenclature, the Übergeek would be classified INTJ -- an introverted, intuitive-thinking, and judging person -- says Beth Armknecht Miller, co-founder of Executive Velocity, a professional coaching service. If the Übergeek absolutely must communicate with beings of inferior intelligence (i.e., you), she would rather do it by e-mail. But if she can avoid all human contact, that's OK, too.

"I call this type 'Mr. Artiste,'" says Don Rainey. "He is creating software -- sometimes the company's core product or hope for future success -- and he isn't limited by the contents of the requirements document. He isn't limited by it because he isn't reading it. He is creating, damn it, and brings his own vision. Plus, staying consistent with his vision keeps him closer to his imaginary specification with its imaginary time line -- and yes, he's on schedule."

Hobbies: What are these things you call hobbies?
Last book read: "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software"
Greatest accomplishment: Completely rewriting and debugging every line of system code without anyone noticing
Identifying marks: Sometimes confuses real life with Second Life; unconscious "air typing"
Role model: Mr. Spock
Most resembles: Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) from "Big Bang Theory"

IT personality type No. 6: The OS Fanboy
Job title(s): Help desk, support tech, programmervista

Profile: There is only one true path -- and, more important, only one true operating system -- for this person. All nonbelievers are heretics whose tech needs will be quietly ignored. Though most commonly associated with Apple products, often aligned with Windows or, more likely, Linux -- the more obscure the distro, the better. Every conversation ends with a discussion of why their OS of choice is superior, despite the fact that your company doesn't use it. Actually solving your problem with the OS at hand is an afterthought.

"The 'I'm really an Apple fan' is misplaced in the IT world," says Kevin Lightfoot, vice president of Affiliated Computer Services, a managed services company. "He or she really should be focusing on Apple products but, because of poor career decisions, is forced to support your desktop needs. Their lack of aptitude always leaves your computer performing slower and with more bugs than it did when you first called the help desk."

"The Serious IT Guy wants nothing to do with your toy Macintosh or Linux machine," counters Brian Dunning, technical editor for FileMaker Advisor magazine. "He's a Microsoft-certified engineer all the way, and he'll stand for no tomfoolery. If you're experiencing any kind of a problem or you have a question, it's your fault for not following strict Microsoft security guidelines and published Best Practices. Since nobody actually does all of those things, nothing is ever his fault."

Hobbies: Posting angry point-by-point rebuttals in the comments to online articles criticizing his/her OS of choice.
Last book read: None; only reads blogs about his/her favorite OS
Greatest accomplishment: Jailbreaking an iPhone, sticking with Windows Vista, taking complete editorial control over the Ubuntu wiki
Identifying marks: White ear buds, non-ironic Microsoft Bob T-shirt, stuffed penguin
Role models: Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds
Most resembles: Genius Bar lackey, Steve Ballmer, a stuffed penguin

IT personality type No. 7: The Promiser
Job title(s): Outbound sales, business development

Profile: There is nothing this person won't say to close a deal. You want features the original product was never designed to deliver? Done. You need it within six months? The Promiser will get it to you in three. Of course, he or she doesn't have to deliver anything -- that's a job for the developers. Delays, cost overruns, and impossible feature-set requirements are all someone else's headache. On the Insights Discovery Wheel, the Promiser would fall into the "Fiery Red" quadrant.

"The Promiser does not appreciate erratic emotional outbursts if they get in the way of getting things done," says Jewell. "A master strategist, he is a born leader and doesn't like to be told what to do; instead, he'll tell you what to do. He's the guy who will tell the customer the code can be written flawlessly in two months when he knows it will take six -- and then work the team until they drop and do it all over again on the next project. But you're thankful he's on the team because if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be the star team you are."

Hobbies: Golf, Michelob Ultra
Last book read: "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu
Greatest accomplishment: Closing a multimillion-dollar enterprise software deal using a demo downloaded off the Internet
Identifying marks: Starched button-down blue oxford, used car salesman smile
Role model: Blake (Alec Baldwin) in "Glengarry Glen Ross"
Most resembles: Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) in "30 Rock"

IT personality type No. 8: The Shadow
Job title(s): Unknown

Profile: It's not my problem, it's not my job, it's not my fault -- that's the mantra of the Shadow, who somehow manages to take up space in the IT department (and on the payroll) without actually filling it. No one's sure what the Shadow does, mostly because he or she has become expert at doing as little as possible. Over time, the Shadow may be handed management responsibilities, at which point this individual morphs into the Human Roadblock.

"The Shadow knows everything that's happening around the office, ignores it, and is very happy that way," says Deborah J. Graham, senior programmer/analyst for a teaching hospital in Massachusetts. "This person doesn't report anything bad happening for fear of the paperwork and making it his or her 'responsibility' to fix, and avoids additional responsibilities by declaring -- so everyone around can hear -- that the job/task/problem is not his or her job."

And when things go wrong, says Graham, the Shadow is quick to point the finger elsewhere: "They're always able to find someone else to blame, no matter how shaky a relationship between cause and effect. The Shadow is never the one to take the heat."

Hobbies: Selling decommissioned company hardware on eBay during "breaks"
Last book read: "Ninjutsu: The Art of Invisibility"
Greatest accomplishment: Taking a month-long vacation without the boss noticing
Identifying marks: None, because the invisible don't have any
Role model: Sergeant Schultz (the late John Banner) in "Hogan's Heroes"
Most resembles: An unidentified cell in a payroll database

Take the quiz at Infoworld IT Adventures and find out which type are you? What do you think I was?

The Importance Of Leadership For Agile Methods To Work

2010-01-09T07:55:00.002+11:00

Great interview with John Goodpasture about his new book Project Management The Agile Way, from Todd's Tech Bites

Todd's Tech Bites -- Agile Methods

View more presentations from John Goodpasture.

Re-thinking Lean Service : The Best 56 Minuets Managers May Spend This Year

2010-01-07T03:18:00.003+11:00

I have always had a problem with using lean principles in financial services but I've never been able to put my finger on it but it just didn't feel right to use manufacturing tools in service industries but then I clicked on this link to a presentation by John Seddon and it all became clear. The presentation brought to us by the team at InfoQ is possibly the best 56 minuets an operational manager may spend this year. John Seddon is a brilliant presenter and has some amazing insight and a huge back catalogue of experience into problems with Lean in service industries.

If you don't want to register for InfoQ you can see a very similar presentation by John at the Human Givens Institute below.

Cultural change is free from Mindfields College on Vimeo.

Patrick Hughes And His Father - Truly Inspirational

2010-01-07T02:28:00.006+11:00

Not a normal topic for my blog but I was so amazed and humbled by Patrick's achievements I thought I'd post this as a reminder to myself, for those times when I 'think' things are tough.

Matt’ “rags to riches” Barrett's retired Baraclays Chairman Gives Top Tips For Management Success

2010-01-06T09:00:00.000+11:00

I really like Matt’ “rags to riches” Barrett's (recently retired Chairman of Barclays Bank PLC and a long serving CEO of both Barclays in the UK and Bank of Montreal in Canada) top personal traits for management success.

Humble but very collected and confident
Sharpe / keen mind
Prepared to make tough business decisions when situation calls for one
Humanistic
Iconoclastic when warranted
Open, friendly and approachable
Engaging
Personable
Respectful
Goal oriented
Value focused
Always searching for new ideas that enable better ways of doing things
Team player no matter if he is the advisor, leader or subordinate
Excellent communicator (frank without being off-putting)

Nexus One includes support for Flash Player - Come on iPhone

2010-01-06T08:44:00.000+11:00

Adrian Ludwig from Adobe demos Flash Player 10.1 on the Nexus One

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/mobile_demos_fp10.1/popup_fp10.1_mobile_demo_nexus_one.html

Google Nexus One iPhone Killer Released - Engadget's 1st Impressions

2010-01-06T07:30:00.001+11:00

The team at Engadget have got their hands on a Nexus One and give their first impressions. Not so much of an iPhone killer apparently but a definite step up from the original Android phone.

Amazing Touchable Holography - Real Star Trek Stuff

2010-01-05T09:50:00.001+11:00

An includible video from the team at Shindo lab University of Tokyo. Real Star Trek stuff....

Internet Explorer Continues To Haemorrhage Share

2010-01-04T09:26:00.002+11:00

In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has beaten Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft's 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You'll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month -- making the veracity of its claims pretty robust.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T08:08:00.001+11:00

Wishing all my customers, friends, followers, well everyone a happy a very prosperous new year.

Best wishes

Alex

A Fantastic Set Of Web Development Analysis Tools

2009-12-30T12:02:00.001+11:00

UItest.com have pulled together a fantastic set of links to all sorts of web standards and performance tests. Well done guys!

Useful Free Web Tools For W3C Contrast Compliance

2009-12-30T11:55:00.001+11:00

Here are a couple of very useful web based tools for checking W3C compliance.

The first by Johnathan Snook enables you to check the colour contrasts of your theme for W3C compliance when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen. The tool will indicate that the colours pass the test if both the colour difference and the brightness difference exceed their threshold. It will indicate that it sort of passes if only one of the two values exceed their threshold. And finally, it'll fail to pass if neither value exceeds its threshold.

The tool will also indicate if the colours pass the newer WCAG 2.0 contrast ratio formula. The WCAG 2.0 formula differentiates between text smaller than 18pt text larger than 18pt (or text that is bold and larger than 14pt). For AA compliance, text should have a ratio of at least 4.5:1 (larger text, at least 3:1). For AAA compliance, text should have a ratio of at least 7:1 (larger text, at least 4.5:1).

The second by Juicy Studio enables you to check your CSS for validity against the W3C's validation service, along with a colour contrast test, and a test to ensure that relevant sizes are specified in relative units of measurement.

Funny Indian Airlines TV Advert

2009-12-19T10:43:00.000+11:00

I found this on the XO Blog, made my chuckle so that I'd share :)

Google Maps In Your Audi

2009-12-18T07:44:00.000+11:00

Google & Audi have announced they will collaborate to build a Androide based saterlite navigation system into the R8. Drivers will be presented with 3D satellite imagery, terrain information, and a variety of locational points augmented with useful data such as Wikipedia entries. It doesn't end at the car interior though, Audi A8 drivers will be able to search and send business directories and addresses from the office desktop computer prior to actually getting in front of the wheel. More....

extreme transaction processing patterns and write behind caching

2009-12-16T07:37:00.000+11:00

Below is the intro to a great article by Lan Vuong posted on InfoQ about extreme transaction processing patterns and write behind database caching.

Applications typically use a data cache to increase performance, especially where the application predominantly uses read-only transactions. These applications directly update the database for changes in the data. The issue here is that as the load increases then the response time on these updates grows. Databases are not good at executing lots of concurrent transactions with a small number of records per transaction. Databases are much better at executing batched transactions.

Eventually, the database will saturate the CPU or disks and at that point the response time will rise as additional load is added. Conventional in-memory caches are also limited to only storing what can fit in the free memory of a JVM. Once we need to cache more than this amount of data then thrashing occurs where the cache continuously evicts data to make room for other data. The required record must then be read continually thereby making the cache useless and exposing the database to the full read load.

There are several products currently available, including IBM® WebSphere® eXtreme Scale, Oracle Coherence, and Gigaspaces that allow all of the free memory of a cluster of JVMs to be used as a cache rather than just the free memory of a single JVM. This allows the capacity of the cache to scale as more JVMs are incorporated. If these JVMs are on additional physical servers with CPU, memory and network, then this allows scalable servicing of read requests. They can also provide scalable servicing of update requests by leveraging their write-behind technology. The scalability of write-behind caching makes it ideal to handle extreme transaction processing (XTP) scenarios. XTP is defined by Gartner as "an application style aimed at supporting the design, development, deployment, management and maintenance of distributed TP applications characterized by exceptionally demanding performance, scalability, availability, security, manageability and dependability requirements.”

In this paper, we will illustrate how to optimize the performance of an application by leveraging the write-behind pattern with examples using IBM WebSphere eXtreme Scale. The write-behind function batches updates to the back-end database asynchronously within a user configurable interval of time. The obvious advantage of this scenario is reduced database calls and therefore reduced transaction load and faster access to objects in the grid. This scenario also has faster response times than the write-through caching scenario where an update to the cache results in an immediate update to the database. In the write-behind case, transactions no longer have to wait for the database write operation to finish. Additionally, it protects the application from database failure as the write-behind buffer will hold changes through memory replication until it can propagate them to the database. more....

Performance profile your web pages with Speedtracer for Chrome

2009-12-12T18:05:00.000+11:00

Speed Tracer is a tool to help you identify and fix performance problems in your web applications. It visualizes metrics that are taken from low level instrumentation points inside of the browser and analyzes them as your application runs. Speed Tracer is available as a Chrome extension and works on all platforms where extensions are currently supported (Windows and Linux).
Using Speed Tracer you are able to get a better picture of where time is being spent in your application. This includes problems caused by JavaScript parsing and execution, layout, CSS style recalculation and selector matching, DOM event handling, network resource loading, timer fires, XMLHttpRequest callbacks, painting, and more. Learn more and download at.....

Google Chrome for Mac is finally here

2009-12-12T17:59:00.001+11:00

Google Chrome for Windows has been around for a while now and has been building a steady following based on it's lighting fast speed in comparison to IE. Now Google have launched an 'official' Mac OSX version although only for Intel based machines. It appears to only be a cut down version and a little flacky but Google say they will release a further 'stable' beta in January. Download....

Build your Flex applications natively for multiple mobile platforms

2009-12-11T06:10:00.000+11:00

ELIPS Studio3, winners of the OSEO prize at the Deloitte Technology Fast50 2009 launches free beta program. Looks like it should be worth signing up...........

Mobile Application Development in Flex Builder! ELIPS Studio 3 is a plug-in for Adobe Flex Builder, a widely used IDE for internet & desktop application. Our plug-in allows Flex to go mobile!

Use services from our Mobile Flex FrameworkThe product offers a mobile-optimized Flex Framework, plus numerous Flex extensions, including mobile UI components & access to mobile device features (voice call, SMS, access to calendar and contacts, to the camera, etc.)

Build for the Mobile Platform you wantELIPS Studio 3 is based on a native runtime.

It will automatically generate, optimize and package your Flex applications as native code for industry-leading platforms, including iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, etc. One code base for all platforms... and unforeseen performances!

Clay Shirky talking at TED about Social Media

2009-12-05T21:16:00.000+11:00

Well worth a watch for a in-depth analysis of the topic

What makes Google Chrome So Fast

2009-12-05T19:05:00.001+11:00

A great series of technical presentations on the three key techniques that haven given Google Chrome it's incredible speed:-

DNS pre-resolution
V8 JavaScript engine
DOM bindings and more

AS3 Performance Testing Harness by Grant Skinner

2009-12-05T09:33:00.000+11:00

Another tool in your toolbox in the quest for super quick applications. Keep up the great work Grant!

Performance test has been updated with support for synchronous tests and integration with unit testing and test driven development

Flash on the iPhone

2009-12-05T09:15:00.000+11:00

Flash on the iPhone is here...... Get the overview at Adobe Labs

And here is a link to Mike Chambers excellent presentation on how it all works

The 6 tribes of Homo Digitalis

2009-12-04T06:33:00.003+11:00

UK's mobile and broadband provider TalkTalk have up with the University of Kent to conduct the first Digital Anthropology Report, in search of homo digitalis. The aim was to go beyond traditional research methods and get a true understanding of how technology fits into people’s lives, by looking at people’s attitudes and behaviours to technology and communications more generally.

There are some people who think that modern technology is always a bad thing, damaging human relationships and causing us to spend more time in front of a screen and less time face-to-face with other people. On the other hand, the technology behind the screen allows us to stay in touch with people who were previously very difficult or wholly impossible to reach.

They found six distinct “clusters” of consumers, which we called our Six Tribes. Download full report

Google to Retire Gears for HTML5

2009-12-02T23:21:00.001+11:00

According to Mashable in a statement to the L.A. Times via email, a Google spokesperson confirmed that Google is shifting its focus away from Gears toward HTML5, and encourages developers to do so, too. This means that while they’re looking forward to a time when users can enjoy an offline-supported Web experience courtesy of HTML5, they’re “letting the sun set on its Gears project.”

Part of the shift in focus pertains to Google’s Chrome browser. While Google Chrome for PC includes Gears, the Mac version (which should be released any day now) won’t support the program. Apparently, there were technical issues that would make using Gears in Chrome for Mac problematic, especially since Gears isn’t compatible with the Snow Leopard operating system.

The following is the original statement from Google, as well as a subsequent assertion made after the L.A. Times published their story:

“We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites.”
“We’re continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers.”

Check out thefuntheory.com from Volkswagen, it's brilliant!

2009-12-02T17:15:00.000+11:00

The Fun Theory.com from Volkswagen is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

Three fabulous videos:-

Influential Islamic Finance Conference

2009-12-02T16:11:00.001+11:00

More than 1,200 industry decision-makers from over 50 countries are preparing to meet in Bahrain at the 16th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2009). This year's conference, to be held from December 6-8, will focus on new strategies for new economic realities and WIBC 2009 has set the stage for discussions that will shape the post-crisis landscape as Islamic banks grapple with the need to manage risk, seek new growth markets, deliver on market expectations as well as remain competitive. The theme of WIBC 2009 reflects this fresh outlook that the leading Islamic financial institutions are currently adopting as they compete in an increasingly challenging landscape. Read this rest of the article on Gulf Weekly

Reserve Bank Of India opposes mobile banking

2009-12-02T16:06:00.001+11:00

It is seen that there is strong opposition from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the home ministry has forced the government to drop the idea of a cost effective, convenient and efficient mobile-based model of financial services that allows transfer of funds outside the banking system. The RBI is concerned that regulating the system will be difficult and it would cause uncontrolled credit creation outside the banking system. The home ministry is concerned about the misuse of the facility from a security consideration.

But then Telecom industry which was abuzz till now with mobile banking coming in, and telecos were happy that they could reach out to more no. of people through this service and provide banking system for more people across the country, but then I guess that will never happen now, as RBI and the home ministry is opposing the move.

Check out the discussion on toostep.com

Contactless mobile payments

2009-11-29T22:43:00.001+11:00

This is a very detailed paper on the evolution of contactless mobile payments by Stephen J. Ezell a senior analyst with the information technology and innovation foundation (itif). It's long but well worth a read, download pdf

New iMac - I sooooo want one :)

2009-11-29T07:57:00.001+11:00

What next for the internet

2009-11-29T07:47:00.002+11:00

This is a must read presentation for anyone interested in the evolution of the internet and the coming trends for 2010. Download

New Flex-ActionScript3 MDI (Application Multiple Document Interface)

2009-11-25T06:27:00.001+11:00

Marcelo Marmoni of ATS has continued the flexlibs & Flexmdi project to build out a very nice 'windows' like environment within Flash under an MIT license so you can do anything you want with it. Nice one Marcelo!

You can find the code or download it here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/appmdi
Or you can see an online example here:
http://www.trueagile.org/examples/amdiBasicExample/amdiBasicExample.html

WebPageTest : Where web sites go to get fast!!

2009-11-24T16:27:00.000+11:00

Matt Cutts mentioned this tool in an interview with Mike McDonald at Pubcon 2009.

A very nice free online tool that allows you to analyse and fix the real word experience of your site visitors

UBank auction USB stick signed by social media expert and pop star MC Hammer

2009-11-24T14:20:00.001+11:00

SPDY: An experimental protocol for a faster web

2009-11-24T14:02:00.001+11:00

This time a great intiative from Google on speeding up the web. Exec summary below but well worth a read of the full article for those of you who also want greasy fast lighting speed from your web sites.....

Exec Summary
As part of the "Let's make the web faster" initiative, we are experimenting with alternative protocols to help reduce the latency of web pages. One of these experiments is SPDY (pronounced "SPeeDY"), an application-layer protocol for transporting content over the web, designed specifically for minimal latency. In addition to a specification of the protocol, we have developed a SPDY-enabled Google Chrome browser and open-source web server. In lab tests, we have compared the performance of these applications over HTTP and SPDY, and have observed up to 64% reductions in page load times in SPDY. We hope to engage the open source community to contribute ideas, feedback, code, and test results, to make SPDY the next-generation application protocol for a faster web.

Agile vs Waterfall : A visual introduction

2009-11-19T22:36:00.000+11:00

A very insightful video by chrisspagnuolo

Traditional Requirement Gathering - Absolutely Brilliant

2009-11-19T22:11:00.001+11:00

I stumbled upon this video which The was originally made for a one-time only showing at the 2007 iRise user conference held in Las Vegas. Made me laugh out load!

Who Wants To Build UI's When You Can Build Apps - 280North ATLAS

2009-11-18T22:56:00.001+11:00

This is a really great demonstration by Francisco Tolmasky co founder of 280 North of their new development tool for building Cappuccino applications. In addition to managing your project files and editing code, it includes a powerful visual layout tool for designing your interfaces without ever having to touch code. Designers are empowered to interact with their designs instantly, which means programmers get to finished applications faster.

Recomend you sign up for the Beta program here

Introducing Atlas: A Visual Development Tool for creating Web Applications by Francisco Tolmasky from Carsonified on Vimeo.

10 Consumer Trends For 2010

2009-11-18T18:31:00.002+11:00

Some good insight into the social trends that could infleunce products and services in 2010 from trendwatching.com/

Official Solar Charging Case for iPhoneTM 3G/3GS

2009-11-18T06:32:00.000+11:00

For all those of you who can't make the day on a single charge!

With NOVOTHINK's hybrid solar charger case, you can now power up your iPhone literally anywhere under the sun. Our solar panel technology enables you to be part of the solar energy solution.

Click link to purchase from Bigpond $99.95 + $12.95 P&P

Static Analysis tool for Action Script 3 - Flex PMD

2009-11-16T17:30:00.000+11:00

FlexPMD is a tool released by Adobe that helps to improve code quality by auditing any AS3/Flex source directory and detecting common bad practices, such as:

Unused code (functions, variables, constants, etc.)
Inefficient code (misuse of dynamic filters, heavy constructors, etc.)
Over-complex code (nested loops, too many conditionals, etc.)
Over-long code (classes, methods, etc.)
Incorrect use of the Flex component lifecycle (commitProperties, etc.)
A report is produced describing the violations of a given rule set. FlexPMD includes a rule set that is broad ranging and continually growing. It is also straightforward to create new rules and users are encouraged to do so.

An Engineer's Guide to Bandwidth

2009-11-16T17:07:00.000+11:00

Anouther great performance article from the guys at Yahoo, this time by Carlos Bueno
Software Engineer, Yahoo! Mail..........

Using the iPhone 3G as your minimum bandwidth devices for web browsing is starting to look like a very sensible thing to do. We are so used to broadband that we have become lazy with web2.0 richness. However as mobile becomes the new device of choice your funky web2 site can be basically unusable. So don't waste time and money creating 'lite' versions put your site on a diet, whilst maintaining all the funk and as a consequence reduce your cost of ownership.

Web graphic optimisation tool Smush.it

2009-11-16T16:39:00.001+11:00

Image optimization is an art few have mastered. Useful image editing tools exist that allow images to be edited to reduce their file size while retaining image quality. Using these tools is a good start for optimizing images, but more can be done using advanced tools like Smush.it.

Smush.it uses optimization techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a "lossless" tool, which means it optimizes the images without changing their look or visual quality. After Smush.it runs on a web page it reports how many bytes would be saved by optimizing the page's images and provides a downloadable zip file with the minimized image files.

This link gives you the ability to optimize six images at a time, however if you use the same function in YSlow report it will optamize all images on a page in one go. Detials of Firebug and YSlow can be found by seaching this blog.

Microsoft Surface Demo: Barclays Premier Lounge

2009-11-12T19:45:00.000+11:00

Barclays new concept branch in Piccadilly

2009-11-12T19:42:00.000+11:00

Animator vs Animation

2009-11-12T06:16:00.000+11:00

Just click on the link, click on play, then leave the mouse alone, sit back and enjoy a piece of creative brilliance. Copywrite Alan Becker 2006

UBank Moneybox video download links

2009-11-10T13:57:00.001+11:00

For all those people who have asked me for files they can use in presentations below are the links you need. The files are .flv so need the flash player plug in but are about a manageable size. As always if you do use any of this content please provide the appropriate aknowledgement to UBank.com.au as they own and retain all the copywrite ©

Specials
Saving Is The New Spending
S1Eps9 Money

Episodes
S1Eps10 All About Savings
S1Eps8 How The Share Market Works
S1Eps7 PaylessTax
S1Eps6 Supperannuation
S1Eps5 Enoughism
S1Eps4 Property vs Stocks
S1Eps3 Aussie Dollar
S1Eps2 Recession
S1Eps1 Credit Crunch

Thomas Cook Corporate FX TVC

2009-11-07T07:31:00.001+11:00

Twiggtowers is very excited by the success of Thomas Cook CFX, powered by FXpayport

Agile Demystified

2009-11-05T07:56:00.003+11:00

This is a fantastic paper written By Allan Kelly, consultant and author of Changing Software Development: Learning to Be Agile (2008) that encapsulates and answers just about all the questions and concerns I get asked by people about Agile. It is a 10 minute must read for any business or project person, even if you are the most ardent waterfall advocate.

Quickly validate your website against W3C standards

2009-11-02T09:18:00.001+11:00

This validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. If you wish to validate specific content such as RSS/Atom feeds or CSS stylesheets, http://validator.w3.org/mobile/, or to find broken links, there are other validators and tools available.

FlexMonkey automated test tool

2009-11-02T09:10:00.002+11:00

Gorilla Logic, the firm known for delivering enterprise application development resources with a 10X productivity and quality benefit, today announced their open-source, automated testing tool for Adobe Flex applications.

Very cool....

A bit of UBank halloween fun :)

2009-11-02T09:03:00.002+11:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Star cast includes:-

Paul G
Twiggy
Heir Schorkel

Get your vote in for the Mashable awards

2009-10-28T20:37:00.003+11:00

Realy usefull international meeting planner

2009-10-25T15:17:00.001+11:00

The future of the mobile internet

2009-10-25T14:37:00.001+11:00

This is a must see presentation for anyone wanting to understand the challenges and possibilities of internet on mobile devices. It's a bit technical in parts but every business person interested in the future of mobile should watch. Learn how a few simple decisions could be the difference between success and failure. There is some real potential competitor differentiation contained in this presentation.........

Going Fast on the Mobile Web

View more documents from grigs.

Great article on web site performance best practice

2009-10-25T07:43:00.004+11:00

Just because your site is 'Rich' is doesn't have to be slow. This article written by the Yahoo Exceptional Performance team, brings together the experiences of some of the biggest sites and provides some great coding standards and ideas for 'new site' migration.

Free Flex swf security vulnerability scan from HP

2009-10-13T20:24:00.004+11:00

This is a nice little automated tool that looks for all the standard web coding vulnerabilities but does it for a Flex application.

Oracle Open World Presentation

2009-10-13T18:36:00.003+11:00

The UBank story seems to grow more popular every day. Had a great turn out at my presentation today at Oracle Open World in San Francisco.

Handy website performance profiling tool

2009-10-13T18:20:00.006+11:00

Have been very impressed with Yslow a plug in for Firefox Firebug. Really simple and easy and covers all the basics

"YSlow grades web page based on one of three predefined ruleset or a user-defined ruleset. It offers suggestions for improving the page's performance, summarizes the page's components, displays statistics about the page, and provides tools for performance analysis, including Smush.it™ and JSLint. "

Oracle Global Financial Services Leadership 2009 Summit

2009-09-15T03:07:00.003+10:00

Just finished speaking at the Oracle global financial services leadership summit in Hong Kong. Seemed to be well received, well at least no one hurled anything :)