Ian Waring

"Sticking Microsoft Office on a WOA (Windows 8 on ARM) tablet is as key to that platforms success as..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:57:00 +0000

“Sticking Microsoft Office on a WOA (Windows 8 on ARM) tablet is as key to that platforms success as Mario is to Nintendo.”

- Ian Waring

Populating my Pinterest boards

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:56:39 +0000

Populating my Pinterest boards:

I’ve uploaded some family pics, pointers to some good infographics/podcasts/videos, a link to the joke that made me blackout, my most highly rated business books, details of a few products I love, and finished with some logos of companies I’ve worked for. All on Pinterest.com/ianwaring. Will be interesting to see how Pinterest develops; it’s already serving more ecommerce traffic to some web based retailers than Google or Twitter.

Click the title to see my boards so far.

Woke up this morning to the news that Computacenter have won...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:53:21 +0000

Woke up this morning to the news that Computacenter have won VMware’s prestigious Global Solution Partner of the Year Award. Absolutely delighted for the team, recognition of the excellent leadership of Paul Casey and Martin Clarkson, for the first class teams throughout the company - and all the hard work from Lisa, Vicki, Kelly, Elena, Charlotte, Gavin, Fiona and Graham in Partner Management along the journey. Fitting tribute for a job well done.

Photo courtesy of Andy Goddard.

Pinterested?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:22:47 +0000

Pinterested? :

Yet another social media site, this one a cross between the Picture Post (or at least how my father described it when it was published) and a set of communal notice boards. The one stand out is the amount of traffic they are feeding into e-commerce sites (supposedly already more than that inbound from Google), with 55-60% of it from female users.

You can see me as ianwaring on www.pinterest.com. Meanwhile, I think I still need to improve my depth of immersion on tumblr. I’m sure i’m missing some tricks to link myself into the community fabric that seems to be the norm for other users. Until then, click the title of this note, and it’ll direct you to a nice article about Pinterest for marketeers. Enjoy.

An enemy that funds you? Google have them in spades :-)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:50:09 +0000

An enemy that funds you? Google have them in spades :-)

With thanks to Michelle. I know there was a campaign to get Jedi...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:02:43 +0000

With thanks to Michelle. I know there was a campaign to get Jedi listed as a religion in the last but one census, but didn’t know a church would go to these lengths to reverse the process.

While I’d refuse to buy a Samsung phone because of their...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:14:00 +0000

While I’d refuse to buy a Samsung phone because of their juvenile attitude towards iPhone users, one of my other expectations (watch out for Chinese vendors running Android) looks like it’s coming with a vengeance. Cue Huawei (pronounced “Who are we”), who already make all the 3G USB cards for folks like O2 and Vodafone, and who’s telco gear is of top notch quality.

The Huawei Ascend P1 handset (pic above), 4.3” Super AOLED screen at 960x540 resolution, less than 6.5mm thick and with a battery that holds 30% more charge than your average smartphone. Supports 3G GSM and HSPA+ 4G connectivity. Available in Black, White or Pink, and runs Android V4 ICS (aka Ice Cream Sandwich).

Available late March in China, but Q3 for Europe; shame it’s not the other way around. Apple must have pre-ordered all the industry OEM screen and gorilla glass capacity again.

Listened to Simon Mayo’s Confessions on Radio 2 while...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:08:00 +0000

Listened to Simon Mayo’s Confessions on Radio 2 while driving back from the local train station. Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie admitted making up several whoppers from his sordid past when he was a journalist for NME (New Musical Express - popular music weekly newspaper). Most, such as David Bowie inventing the game Connect 4, and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys being a part time Rugby League Referee, are largely long forgotten. However, one took on a life of it’s own; he alleged that Bob Holness (of Blockbusters fame) played the Saxaphone sequence on Baker Street, the lead track on Gerry Rafferty’s City to City album. He’s now insistent that it was his lie on June 14th 1991.

He shut his phone off when Gerry Rafferty died after he saw Bob Holness trending on Twitter that day. He met Bob Holness later on, who said he thought the rumour was hilariously funny. When Bob Holness died, Gerry Rafferty started trending on Twitter too.

The one remaining missing piece of data is whether or not “Baker Street” was played at Bob’s funeral. Does anyone know?

Update: True. Played at his own request. A fitting end (with a twist of good humour) to a great man.

At last - a good use for thousands of Rubik’s Cubes.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:16:04 +0000

At last - a good use for thousands of Rubik’s Cubes.

Naughty Demon Internet

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:33:23 +0000

Finishing the week having finally sussed that Demon had moved my fixed IP address from 80.177.104.232 to 80.176.156.176 without telling me, hence my amateur attempts to work out what was happening for a whole week. Wasn’t my Airport Extreme after all (albeit Jane has that up on eBay now). Demon Change Control? Hello!!!

Apple’s share of Profits and Revenue in the top 8 Mobile...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:38:16 +0000

Apple’s share of Profits and Revenue in the top 8 Mobile manufacturers. Stunningly impressive. See http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/03/first-apples-rank-in-mobile-phone-profitability-and-revenues/

The time the iPhone piece of Apple outgrew the whole of Microsoft in both revenue and profits also had one commentator reflecting what Steve Ballmer said just after the iPhone was first announced. See http://www.businessinsider.com/flashback-steve-ballmers-first-take-on-the-iphone-september-22-2007-2010-6

Apple's iPhone Business now bigger than Microsoft

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:32:00 +0000

Apple's iPhone Business now bigger than Microsoft:

In both revenue and profits. Amazing. Also very true about the fixation with Google, as Apple sailed past. In an environment when big bonuses to CEOs get dissed, no-one appears to be concerned with the $400m+ that Tim Cook received. Worth every cent.

Click the title to see the covering article.

With thanks to Oksana. Networks always defeat hierarchies in the...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:19:36 +0000

With thanks to Oksana. Networks always defeat hierarchies in the end.

Airport Extreme retired from service

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:33:15 +0000

Gave up trying to get it running in daisy-chained WDS mode, and reverted back to our Netgear router running on it’s todd. Updated the Airport firmware to 7.6.1, then reverted it back to factory settings. Anyone want to buy an Airport Extreme?

Take care before attempting to install the Apple Airport Utility...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:31:44 +0000

Take care before attempting to install the Apple Airport Utility 6.0 with the new AirPort Extreme 7.6.1 firmware update. The firmware doesn’t work if you daisychain your Airport Extreme to another router with an ADSL connector in bridge mode. Compounding this, the Airport Utility 6.0 removes the ability to go back to a previous firmware version.

Fortunately, I’d only done a software update on Janes MacBook Air, and still had the previous utility and firmware on the iMac upstairs. Restored firmware 7.6 and we suddenly have our network back.

I don’t think Apple will win many friends with the two bodges in one take. Here’s hoping they clear up the mess quickly.

Just looking at desk.com. I watch the price of Software products...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:16:30 +0000

Just looking at desk.com. I watch the price of Software products every now and then. Lots of pressure on costs by customers, and a never ending quest to show better value for their money. Not sure if it’s just me, but there seems to be a groundswell of hosted SaaS apps at the gates, and I can’t imagine it being too long before a few dams start to burst. The move from CapEx to OpEx (even with hardware) will further drive the change. The business models I’m personally adept at driving from my sordid past - low cost monthly subscriptions to SMBs - seem to be coming to the fore for folks that don’t insist on heavy customisation.

I’ve long thought really highly of 37signals Basecamp for Project Management, Blinksale for Invoicing, Salesforce for CRM and Google Apps. Add VMware’s SlideRocket for presentations, and Socialcast for information flows. Zuora for subscription billing. Huddle as a collaboration tool (just worry they put themselves in Microsoft’s cross hairs but bleating about their claimed supremacy to SharePoint at every opportunity). Today I’ve been looking at desk.com (owned by Salesforce), which is a Facebook/Twitter integrated helpdesk for small and medium sized businesses.

Think it’s neat that the first user in is free, $49/month per full time employee after that and there’s an hourly $1 cost for part time agents. All paid from the next months billing period.

The big needs locally are to keep the data in the UK geography, or worst case in Europe. Then to be able to get your data out in a useful form if you elect to leave the service.

It’ll be interesting to see how the adoption rates trend in the next couple of years.

Found the Secret Railway Bridge

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:09:14 +0000

I usually eat my lunch with my bucket of coffee reading stuff on my PC at my desk in Thames Valley Park. Having had a good week weight loss wise, I elected to go for a walk up to the BP Garage at the top of Shepherds House Hill instead. I’ve now found the bridge under the Reading to Paddington Railway line behind the Regus Building, and walked up past what used to be Earley Power Station. Felt great for the break and exercise.

Tomorrow, Jane’s asked me to repeat the trip to buy some of the Marks & Spencer Ginger and Honey Yoghurts they sell at the M&S Simply Food Shop inside the BP Garage.

I manage to burn about 2/3 the calories that a Mars Bar contains doing that walk. Good habit to keep repeating.

Nearly passed out again. Poor person trying to say that Grandma...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Nearly passed out again. Poor person trying to say that Grandma is back from hospital. Thank you, Michelle Laufer. http://damnyouautocorrect.com/16447/great-news/

Computacenter win two VMware European Awards

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:59:00 +0000

Just heard that Paul Casey and Martin Clarkson will be picking up VMware EMEA Solution Partner of the Year, plus VMware EMEA Emerging Products Partner of the Year, at Partner Exchange in February. Go team!

Carbs/Fat/Protein balance this week so far, having started the...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:23:58 +0000

Carbs/Fat/Protein balance this week so far, having started the diet mid-December. Just under 4 bags of sugar lost, and 58 to go. Long process, but two people mentioned an apparent weight loss unprompted today. Secret appears to put less in your gob, at reasonable times of day (microwaved dinners at 9-10pm unhelpful), and to exercise judiciously. Seems to work so far.