Techiedog-blog

So this blog has been once again rather sparse for a while. There are many, many posts half finished in draft (and some of them are absolute corkers, believe me, you don't know what you're missing) but I just haven't had the time - and "Why's that?" (I imagine) I hear you call. Well, I'm just so darned busy. Its not just the stuff, but also the traveling to the stuff as well - a thought that also reminds me how much of my cash keeps going to line the exquisitely tailored Telco pockets for the 'privilege' of consuming a bit of WiFi while away from home and office. God bless all you forward thinking coffee shops, hotels, airports, University Campuses and the occasional Foneros (yes, they are out there is you look really hard) for providing a free data life line to a struggling Tech Entrepreneur. Someone really should put together a searchable, location based directory of all these freebies .... no, not me - I'm too busy! My 'business' rig...

Some time back I stuffed up the archive links - they are fixed now!

I have generally found Google maps to be an extremely useful tool which has helped my timely arrival at many a new destination when working on both sides of the Atlantic. However this must be the strangest route suggestion I have come across. I was recently invited to lunch at the Wolsey restaurant in London by a business colleague. Now I have only a passing acquaintance to this area of London so after finding an address for the restaurant I Google Mapped (there's verb creation for you) it and knowing it was somewhere near the Ritz I put that in as a Landmark to help orient myself when I break the surface at Green Park after a subterranean journey. It turns out that the two places are practically opposite each other, but look at the route Google maps recommends from one to the other - maybe it is assuming I need to work up an appetite.

Its weird being back in start-up mode again - last time I was in the position was in 1999 when money was secured before the idea was fleshed out! Things are different now, start-up costs are cheaper (well for the Internet tech anyway), the world is more aware of the Internet and domestic broadband is the norm rather than wishful thinking. The whole world feels very different. But what really makes me feel like I'm a free-wheeling tech entrepreneur is the very same thing that reminds me how much the environment has changed and that is the fact that my 'office' is now split between my cubby hole at home and the rather fine Coffee Evolution with its free WiFi - which is where this very post is coming from!

As the working year draws to an end, so too does my current employment contract, which started nearly seven years ago when I joined Freeserve - which re-branded to Wanadoo after France Telecom acquisition and then changed name again to Orange earlier this year. Its been an interesting ride from fresh faced Dot Com to corporate monster. I initially joined Freeserve (after being pursued for some time by a rabid pack of recruiters) because it seemed like a place with pockets suitably deep enough to offer some shelter from the dot com bubble bursting. However, having made the transition from senior producer to Innovation and technology consultant early on in my tenure I must admit that it turned out to be far more fun than I anticipated. But now, the time is right to once more venture forward under my own steam, so its back into the heady world of freelance consultancy and start-up stress. So, I'm going to enjoy a Christmas break at get stuck in on Jan 2nd 2007 when the hang overs...

Due to fatherly responsibilities I had to cancel my trip to Le Web 3 at the eleventh hour and I kinda feel that in the end I lucked out. Thus I legitimately get to avoid passing comment on the event which by all accounts was hijacked by French political agendas. There is little point my adding anything to the TCUK debacle 'cept to point you at a couple of posts from my homies. Monoman: TCUK Farrago Imran: Le Web day 1 I was however in IM contact with several of my friends and colleagues who were less than impressed. If you want to know more, tap into the blogosphere - it's rife with comment.

I have, at various times in my career, been tasked to look into the viability and functional specifications of backup systems for domestic computing. There are some pretty good technical solutions out there but this is never an easy sell to the end user. Until you have had a bit of kit go bang, you can't really appreciate the trauma of loosing its contents and capabilities. Would everyone really buy car insurance if it wasn’t compulsory or would they gamble on their driving prowess or the grace of St Christopher? Even now, when the personal generation and collation of digital media in ever greater quantity on our computers suggests we have more to loose, few indulge in regular back up activities and fewer still are prepared to pay to do so. To this end I am not sure that backup is something that can or should be sold to the domestic users (there are all sort of compulsions on the corporate world). Rather it perhaps makes sense to charge for retrieval or restoration. Save for the ob...