Darren Straight’s Blog

On the 19th of March 2008 both IT Professionals and Developers alike will be flocking to the ICC (The International Convention Centre) in Birmingham for the UK launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

But the question is have you registerd to attend for this exciting hereos happen {here} event? And if so which session tracks are you going to, IT Professional or Developers? And if not, then why not, as it’s too late now to register, all places are full!

Don’t worry though you’re in luck, can still register for the Virtual Launch Experience (VLE) Wave of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Check it out here, it shall be just as interesting too see how the launch goes online.

For those of you going to the hereos happen {here} event in Birmingham, let me know, as I myself shall be attending the IT Professional tracks.

Last month I was contacted by Steve Cater who works at vccp as part of O2’s Marketing Team. He asked me whether I would be interested in trialling one of O2’s new phones in a seeding program, similar to that of the O2 cocoon seeding program which gave developers and technology lovers a chance to trial the phone. The idea sounded interesting and it looked like the cocoon program did well so I said yes to testing this new O2 Phone (didn’t know the name of it then).

Last week a package arrived, I opened it up and lo and behold it was an O2 Xda Orbit 2 Phone along with all the necessary accessories and a sim card. I got straight into taking some photos of this shiny new device along with testing it.

Technical Specifications:

General

• Name: O2 Xda Orbit 2
• HTC Code name: HTC Polaris (HTC Touch Cruise)
• Operating System: Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Size: 110 (L) x 58 (W) x 15.5 mm (T)
• Weight: 130g (including battery)

Display

• Type: Graphical TFT LCD Touch screen, 65000 Colours
• Size: 240 x 320 pixels

Memory

• ROM: 256MB
• RAM: 128MB
• Storage: Micro-SD (Up to 32GB – when available)

Networking

• Internal antenna
• UMTS (850/1900MHz for NA, 2100MHz for Europe) and GSM/GPRS/EDGE (quad-band, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz).
• HSDPA
• 3GPP Release 5 compliant
• DL up to 3.6 mbps and UL up to 384 kbps
• EGPRS Functionality
• EGPRS class B
• Multi-slot class 10
• PBCCH
• Built in Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• GPS in-built (Global Positioning System)
• FM Radio: 76-108MHz

Digital Camera

• Main camera: 3 mega-pixel CMOS imagine sensor with AF
• Secondary camera: VGA CMOS imagine sensor

Power

• Battery
• Removable and Rechargeable Lithium ion battery, 1350mAh
• AC adaptor
• AC input: 100~240V, 50/60 Hz
• Standby time: up to 400hrs for GSM and up to 450hrs for UMTS
• Talk time: up to 7hrs on GSM and up to 4hrs on UMTS

What’s in the Box!

Inside the O2 Xda Orbit 2 Box you will find the following:

• Xda Orbit 2
• Xda Orbit 2 pouch + Screen Protector
• Xda Orbit 2 battery to power your Xda
• AC charger for recharging your Xda battery
• Car Charger and Car Holder
• USB sync cable which is used connect your device to a PC and synchronizes data.
• Extra stylus to tap items onscreen.
• Hands-free stereo headset
• Quick Start Guide
• Full User Manual (available on the CD)
• Warranty card for Europe
• In-box CD: Applications Getting Started, Full User Manual - CD contents include: GPRS Monitor & Sprite Backup. Windows MobileTM software, including Microsoft® ActiveSync®4.5 Connectivity Software and Microsoft® Outlook® 2007 (trial)
• CoPilot 7 Live CD containing: Installer for CPL7 Live (as backup to the version in ROM), CPL7 maps for the UK are Northern Ireland, O2 Specific version of the PC CoPilot Central Application

Applications and Settings

The Today Screen and O2 Custom Today Plug-in

The Today Screen is pretty much the same as most Windows Mobile Phones, however there are some nice additions that can be added to the today screen, that of which include:

• Last Call
• Profiles
• Meters
• O2 Calendar
• Shortcuts
• Running Apps (My personal favourite as it let’s me close my Apps without having to go to memory control and end the running application)

Programs 

A nice list of programs and applications are found on the device:

• Office Mobile Use the complete suite of Microsoft® Office applications for your mobile device.
  • Excel Mobile Create new workbooks or view and edit Excel workbooks.
  • PowerPoint Mobile View PowerPoint slides and presentations.
  • Word Mobile Create, view, and edit Word documents.
• Calendar Keep track of your appointments and create meeting requests.
• Contacts Keep track of your friends and colleagues.
• Internet Explorer Mobile Browse Web and WAP sites as well as download new programs and files from the Internet.
• Messaging Send and receive e-mail, MMS, and text messages.
• Phone Make and receive calls, switch between calls, and set up conference calling.
• Help See Help topics for the current screen or program.
• Games Play two pre-installed games: Bubble Breaker and Solitaire.
• ActiveSync Synchronise information between your device and a PC or the Exchange Server.
• Adobe Reader LE View PDF (Portable Document Format) files on your device.
• Audio Booster Enhances your music experience by providing you with controls for adjusting equalizer, 3D sound, treble, and bass settings.
• Audio Manager Browse for music files by organising music files into categories.
• Bluetooth Explorer Search for other Bluetooth devices that have file sharing enabled and access their Bluetooth shared folder.
• Calculator Perform basic arithmetic and calculations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Camera Take photos or shoots video clips with accompanying audio.
• Camera Album View photos that you captured using the device camera.
• Comm Manager Manage your device’s connections (including Wi-Fi, GPRS, Bluetooth, and ActiveSync), turn the phone on or off, switch to ringer/vibration mode, and enable or disable the Direct Push function.
• File Explorer Organise and manage files on your device.
• FM Radio Lets you listen to your favourite FM radio stations.
• Internet Sharing Connect your notebook computer to the Internet using your device’s data connection.
• Java Download and install Java applications, such as games and tools, on your device.
• Messenger This is the mobile version of Windows Live™ Messenger.
• Notes Create handwritten or typed notes, drawings, and voice recordings.
• O2 Operator Settings Choose a wireless network operator according to your geographical location and configure device connection settings.
• Pictures & Videos View, organise, and sort pictures, animated GIFs, and video files on your device or a storage card.
• QuickGPS Downloads satellite data over the Internet via ActiveSync, Wi-Fi or GPRS to speed up the time for determining your current GPS position.
• SAPSettings Enables Bluetooth Remote SIM access on your phone.
• Search Search contacts, data, and other information on your device.
• IM Manager Manage the contacts that are stored on your USIM/SIM card. You can also use this program to copy USIM/SIM contents to Contacts on your device.
• Spb GPRS Monitor You will find this program in the provided disc. You can install and use this program to measure the amount of data transfers that you have made via the GPRS or GSM network connection, and calculate network usage costs.
• Sprite Backup Provides you with a quick and easy way to create backups of your data.
• STK (SIM Tool Kit) Service Access information and other services offered by your wireless service provider.
• Streaming Media Stream live or on-demand video.
• Tasks Keep track of your tasks.
• Voice Recorder Record your voice, play it back, then send it via e-mail, MMS or beaming. You can also set the recorded voice as your ring tone.
• Voice Speed Dial Allows you to record voice tags so that you can dial a phone number or launch programs simply by speaking a word.
• Windows Live Use this mobile version of Windows Live™ to find information on the Web. It also lets you sign into your Windows Live account so that you can access your Live Mail messages and send/receive instant messages in Live Messenger.
• Windows Media Player Mobile Play back audio and video files.
• ZIP Save memory and free up storage space on your device by compressing files in the conventional ZIP format.

Audio Manager and Audio Booster 

As well as Windows Media Player, the Xda Orbit 2 comes with the HTC Audio Manager and Audio Booster, which lets you create, edit and delete playlist and listen to your songs which in turn you can fine tune as you have the ability to vary the Bass, Treble, and 3D effect of the sound output as well as choosing from various pre-defined profiles.

Camera and Camera Album with Slideshow

Overall I love the Camera and The Camera interface, though I would love to see the camera have a flash or even just a light, comes in handy for them close night shots!

Here’s some example photos, all photos were taken with the Xda Orbit 2 on it’s highest resolution and quality settings.

Communications 

Communicating to someone is simple and effective just like it should be with it’s smart dialling feature and big keys. The Video calling feature looks great though I must admit I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet. The sounds great on voice calling though.

CoPilot Live 7

The Xda Orbit 2 having both built in GPS and CoPilot Live 7 is great, I’ve taken it to the test on both short and long routes, the longest so far being from Sittingbourne in Kent to Gatwick Airport. (49 Miles). Shall be using it when I travel to Heathrow Airport soon on a press tour of the new BAA Terminal 5 Building and again when I travel up to the Alton Towers Theme Park in 3 weeks time.

Having GPS and CoPilot 7 makes me want to switch from my MDA Vario 2 which has no GPS, though it does have something else which I value, that being a sliding keyboard.

FM Radio 

Haven’t used it a lot yet due to the fact that every time you want to use it you have to plug in the headsets but I’m sure if I do switch fully to this phone then I’ll soon be using it, always great to have some live music on your phone!

RSS Hub 

I love this RSS Hub, it helps you keep up to date with the latest news from your favourite news sites, blogs and podcasts.

Settings 

There’s a ton of settings options to help you customise the Xda Orbit 2 just the way you want it. 

Touch Keyboards and Keypads 

The Xda Orbit 2 has 6 different ways you can enter text onto the screen, the newest ones being the Touch Keyboard and Keypad, now while these are great, I do somewhat miss having a physical keyboard like my MDA Vario 2 Sliding keyboard. On the other hand however not having a sliding keyboard makes the Xda feel much more lighter and less bulkier. So I guess it’s just a case of getting away from the good old keyboard and getting to grips with touch keyboards.

TouchFLO 

TouchFLO has been added to gives you better touch panel experience. Using TouchFLO, you can easily scroll and pan the screen by sliding your fnger on the touch panel. TouchFLO also has the Touch Cube where you can add your favourite contacts, access media, launch programs, and more. Also while on a web page, document, or list (such as contacts list etc.), you can slide your finger upward to scroll down or slide your finger downward to scroll up. To scroll to the right, slide your fnger to the left. To scroll to the left, slide your fnger to the right. 

Overall Conclusion!

I love the O2 Xda Orbit 2, it looks great, it’s weighs less and is is less bulkier than my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2. It also has GPS which is a great addition to a mobile phone for someone like me who loves travelling. I can’t wait to start using it more and more every day.

However there are some problems, unlike my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2 the O2 Xda Orbit 2 doesn’t feature a physical sliding keyboard, just it’s virtual touch keyboards and keypads, so that is somewhat disappointing as I have got quite attached to my sliding keyboard as I use it regularly to write texts, emails and posts while at tech events. Maybe I just need to have some more time away from the sliding keyboard and more time getting used to the virtual keyboards and keypads.

Also there’s no Flash or Flash Light for the camera so night photos is a no.

Here’s a quick list of some Pros (The Good) and Cons (The bad) of the O2 Xda Orbit 2:

Pros (The Good)

• Fast processor
• Large memory
• Inbuilt GPS
• Light weight not bulky
• FM Radio
• O2 Added Extras
• Good batery life
• TouchFlo system and Cube
• Good quality screen
• CoPilot Live included in ROM
• Micro-SD Compatibility
• O2 HSDPA network coverage in my area (T-Mobile doesn’t) so the internet is much faster.
• Lots of Extras!

Cons (The Bad)

• No HTC Home application
• No sliding keyboard
• No Flash on Camera
• Camera could possible be more than 3 Mega Pixels though not totally necessary

Now the question is should I switch fully from my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2 to the O2 Xda Orbit 2? As doing so would mean I would have to change my mobile number from T-Mobile to O2. Also I’m thinking about paying for unlimited web/internet each month depending on what I do, however there’s pros and cons to both T-Mobile and O2.

T-Mobile as a larger fair use policy of 1GB (The Max plan is 10GB) per month on it’s so called unlimited web access plan, however there’s no HSDPA Network coverage in my area with T-Mobile so it’s quite slow - get annoyed at how slow it is at times when the pages don’t even load.

To ensure a high quality of service for all our customers a 1GB (of data both sent and received in the UK) per month fair use policy applies. If you exceed 1GB per month, we may tell you to reduce your future use. If you again exceed 1GB per month, we may tell you that we are going to apply network protection controls, resulting in a reduced network speed for 14 days. If you exceed 1GB per month for a third time , we may tell you that we are going to apply further network protection controls, resulting in a reduced network speed until you upgrade your price plan to include a larger data allowance. We do not permit use of this service to provide modem access for a computer or for peer to peer file sharing, internet phone calls or instant messaging. 

O2 however has a much lower fair use policy of 200MB per month on it’s so called unlimited web access plan, however O2 does have HSDPA Network coverage in my area and I love it! Just a slight problem if you normally expected to only use 200MB per month with HSDPA that would soon be overrun.

The O2 Web Bolt On can only be used for internet browsing on your phone. A fair use policy applies and if your usage substantially exceeds that of other users, which is normally expected to be below 200MB/month, you will be charged standard rates for additional browsing. We will send you a warning text message advising you to limit your usage before this occurs and a text message to confirm when you are being charged

It seems there is a O2 Web Max Plan which is 3GB per month for £30, I’ll have to look into that!

Special thanks and Links 

Just want to say special thanks to Steve Cater who works at vccp as part of O2’s Marketing Team for giving me the opportunity to test the O2 Xda Orbit 2, it’s certainly been a great experience so far and I’m looking forward too seeing what else I can do with it, there’s always great tweaks and stuff over at the HTC Polaris section on the XDA Developer Forums.

Here’s some useful links:

• O2 Xda Home
•  O2 Xda Blog
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 Product Information 
• HTC Polaris section (XDA-Developers.com)
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 Review (4WinMobile.com)
• Getting to know the Xda Orbit 2 (Neville Hobson)
• O2 Orbit 2 / More on the O2 Orbit 2 and CoPilot (Simon Judge)
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 (Stephen Davies)
• The O2 XDA Orbit 2 My Office On A Phone (Keith Bond)

The other day I was browsing around the web as I do, when I came across an image of an old windows game I used to play some time ago (1994/1995) - it was then that I once again found out the name of it, that being “Slay” by Sean O’Connor. Happy that I had found this game again, I bought two copies of it so I could play the multiplayer option via lan, though it does have the option to join and create hosted public games.

Can’t beat classic games that you had hours of fun playing with as a kid!

Slay is a simple to learn game of strategy and cunning set in medieval times. The island is divided up between the six players, and you must try to capture your enemies’ land and link up your own territories to create larger and stronger ones. You begin capturing land by attacking with your peasants. Once your territories become richer you can combine peasants to make stronger and stronger people (Spearmen, Knights and then Barons) who can kill weaker enemy troops, or knock down their castles. Just be careful that you don’t create too many expensive men or the territory will go bankrupt!

The latest version of Slay for Windows allows you to design your own islands and to play network games. There is also a built-in lobby system to find opponents on the Internet.

Check out Slay here: http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/slay.html

It is with great sadness that the Computing Laboratory mourns the death of David Shrimpton, who died on Saturday 29 December 2007 in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury. David was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and bile duct in January 2007, and throughout his illness was remarkably positive about his condition and his circumstances, and was very much helped in this by his wife Terry and his children Ian and Hannah.

After a first career in mental health nursing, David studied Computer Science at Oxford Brookes University, remaining there to complete his PhD and subsequently to stay on as a member of staff. In 1998 David joined the Computing Laboratory as a Lecturer, and in his nine years in the department he contributed hugely to its life and work.

In his most recent role as Head of Teaching, it was David’s role to negotiate and agree staff teaching loads, and he always accomplished this onerous task smoothly and with great good humour. The reason that it ran so well - and this was something that he brought to all his interactions with students and staff - was his uncanny ability to understand other people, and what made them tick. This empathy made David an excellent teacher, on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as an outstanding PhD supervisor, who will be very much missed by his present and past research students.

When David joined the Lab his main research interests were in distributed systems and support for multimedia applications, particularly the convergence of digital television and Internet technologies. This led more recently to interest in many aspects of the World Wide Web. David played a key role as evangelist for new web technologies, and had taught a number of tutorials for the World Organization of Webmasters. Its Executive Director, Bill Cullifer, said “David was an amazing man and he’ll be missed.” David was also the Computing Lab’s representative on the World Wide Web Consortium; the Chief Executive of the W3C, Steve Bratt, also extended his condolences to David’s friends and family.

In tribute to David’s life and work, the Computing Laboratory will be planting a tree on the campus later in the spring.

Authored by Simon Thompson
Published 14 January 2008
University of Kent

Happy New Year Everyone!

I owe it all to you out there who stop by this site to read, comment, subscribe and spread link love. As always, I’m very grateful for your support and encouragement as goodness knows how blogging can be a time-consuming and work-intensive activity. A lot of the fun I derive from it is not just from the fulfilment I receive from baring my thoughts to the world but also from the interaction I get from my wonderful readers.

Once again I wish you all a Happy New Year, may 2008 be filled with blessings, joy, health and prosperity for you, your family and friends.

Happy Christmas to you all, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and an even better New Year, thank you all for visiting my blog this year, it’s been a pleasure having you here!

Please Enjoy The Snowman animated movie from 1982 below, it’s a great story:

Just want to shout out to everyone who went to Sallys 18th Birthday Celebration last night in Canterbury it was great fun, was just what I needed. :) Thanks for inviting me sally - you rock!

For those of you wanting more pics - check them out here!

Yesterday evening I attended The Great Facebook Debate at the BT Centre in London. That of which was being filmed live - you can watch the webcast here.

The Schedule was as follows: 
17:00 - 17:15 - Registration
17:15 - 18:00 - Networking
18:00 - 18:15 - Welcome from the Host, Paul Walsh.
18:15 - 18:35 - Panel Presentations (setting the scene)
18:35 - 19:00 - Q&A with Panel (turn up the heat)
19:00 - 20:15 - Debate (is it me or is it getting hot in here?!)
20:15 - 21:00 - Networking
21:00 - till late - After-party @ The Livery - thanks to Trusted Places!

Registration
I Arrived a little earlier than 5pm for registration, 4:25 to be precise, only to be told that they were still setting up and that they were kicking off at 5pm, of course I was a little confused as I’m sure it said 4:30pm on the web (checked the internet on my mobile and I was right), anyhow I was invited to take a seat and wait or come back later. So what I decided to do was to do a little bit of walking - quite glad I did actually as I came across a section of The Old Roman London Wall near the Musseum of London.

At 5pm I returned to find a queue of people registering!

Networking
Networking was good along with the food and drinks!

Welcome
Nice little introduction from Paul Walsh on what The Great Facebook Debate is all about and in 30 seconds what BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) is all about.

Panel Presentations
Paul Walsh - Chair
JP Rangaswami - “The significance of us having this conversation”
Chad Wollen - “Making money from Facebook”
Hugh MacLeod - “Changing how we communicate”

Q&A with Panel
Various questions thrown towards the panel!

Debate
Rules of engagement - Oli Barrett, Moderator.

There were 3 Motions which were as follows, though we had to all vote on which one we didn’t want as we could only have two motions go through for debate.

Motion 1 “This house believes; Facebook should be banned from corporate networks”

• For: Sam Setih & Damien Mulley
• Against: Robert Loch & Josie Fraser against

Motion 2 “This House believes that Facebook’s decision to open up its platform to all developers was a mistake”

• For:  Josie Fraser and Robert Loc
• Against: Sam Sethi and Damien Mulley

Motion 3 “This house believes that friend requests from your boss are best ignored”

• For: Sam Sethi and Damien Mulley
• Against:  Josie Fraser and Robert Loch

The motions choosen were “Motion 2 - This House believes that Facebook’s decision to open up its platform to all developers was a mistake” and “Motion 3 - This house believes that friend requests from your boss are best ignored”

I think as do many others who attended that the motions brought up some interesting conversations along with some laughs but that they didn’t really focus on things we didn’t already know or could have worked out for ourselves. It would have been nice for there to be more talk about how we can monetize facebook and some more talk about privacy and where do we think Facebook is heading next along with conversations such as should facebook stop trying to expand before it’s turns into a myspace site instead of what facebook was originally intended for.

Networking 2
More chance to do some networking with drinks from BT!

After-party @ The Livery
Yet another time to do some more networking - with drinks sponsored by Trusted Places - when me and Kevin (University Student I meet at the Future of Web Apps the other week) first arrived at the Bar there were not many people there yet - so we decided to take a walk around the block and come back in a bit and see if anything was happening yet, this time round there were some more people I remember seeing from the debate, including Alex Tew (http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/) - got my self some pixels on his site when it first went live before the media went crazy about it - there were still pixel corner spaces available at this time!

Conclusion…
In overall the debate was pretty interesting in the fact that it had a different format, that being instead of the usual presentations and questions and answers at the end. However it certainly does need some tweaking in places – which is expected considering it was the first one – so well done Paul and everyone else for a great time!

The Kent IT Clinic (KITC) at the University of Kent has been awarded Technology Enterprise Kent’s ‘Enterprise and Training Award for excellence’ under the category of IT Support.

The award, which was presented to David Soud, Co-ordinator of KITC, on 4 October, is in recognition of ‘the considerable achievement of KITC consultants in delivering the intensive assists on behalf of Medway Authority in 2006 and 2007′.

Launched in October 2005 and with branches at the University’s Canterbury and Medway campuses, KITC provides high quality, low cost IT support, services and consultancy to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises in the Canterbury, East Kent and Medway area. The Clinic is unique in that its consultants are undergraduate computing students, many with industrial and consulting experience gained through placements at major organisations such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and Microsoft.

The relationships between KITC and its clients are managed by full-time IT professionals, monitored by KITC management and mentored by academic and technical members of the University’s Computing Laboratory.

David Soud said: ‘I am very pleased that Technology Enterprise Kent has recognised the achievements of the IT Clinic and the excellent work carried out by KITC consultants during 2006 and 2007. This confirms the position of the IT Clinic as a training provider of excellence and affirms its status as Medway Authorities IT provider of choice to small and micro enterprises in the Medway area. I look forward to further distinctions for the IT Clinic in the coming year.’

Professor Simon Thompson, Director and Head of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent, said: ‘I am delighted that the Clinic has received this recognition. Student consultants in the Clinic are giving real benefits to the local community as well as equipping themselves with invaluable experience for a career in computing and IT. Until this year, Clinic consultants have been undergraduates, but this autumn we began teaching a new MSc in IT Consultancy, based in the KITC.’

Carole Barron, Director of Enterprise at the University, said: ‘The University is understandably proud of KITC and its achievements. This award closely follows its success in receiving national recognition in 2006 when they were shortlisted for the Computing Award for Excellence. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the students and their supervisors in supporting businesses across the South East.’

I Myself as a Student was an IT Consultant last year for The Kent IT Clinic, so I know just what it’s like working within the KITC - At times it can be hard trying to work for both The Kent IT Clinic while also attending the other university modules you are taking, but I think it’s all about balance - you need to try and balance the two.

The great thing is I can say I’ve worked at The Kent IT Clinic and be proud of it. It was a great experience and it’s great knowing that I was in the first group of consultants to be at Medway and that my work done there (Server Configuration, Laptop Training Guides etc) as helped the KITC get to where it is now!

Well it’s been a busy and crazy week but I’ve finally got some time to tell you all about my 3 Days in London attending The mashup* demo event and of course the awesome Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo which included the Live Filming of Episode 118 of Diggnation and the Carsonified Relaunch Party!

Unfortunately I didn’t have a laptop to do any Live Blog coverage like I would have liked to so instead I took what notes I could on paper and took plenty of photos along with a couple of videos.

Mashup* Demo Event - Day Before FOWA

First up let me tell you about the Mashup* Demo event, In running order the following companies demoed, yes they only had 5 minutes to demo, this made sure they got to the point of why we should try out their site/service/product etc and why investors should invest in them:

3.30pm - Serena Software
3.35pm - Mobestar
3.40pm - 15 Second TV
3.45pm - BabelTV
3.50pm - WeLoveLocal.com
3.55pm - Rummble
4.00pm - Magpie
4.05pm - Inspire
4.10pm - Bondaii
4.15pm - Meecard
4.20pm - Serena Software
4.25pm - Rollsense
4.30pm - Fav.or.it
4.35pm - Kwiqq
4.40pm - Tipped
4.45pm - testcard.tv

I have yet to test fully every site/service/product on this list; however I hope to do very soon. The venue it’s self was great and I had some interesting talks with people such as James Dyer (TestCard.Tv) and Dominik Grolimund, Co-Founder and CEO of Caleido who has created Wuala, which is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet.

I would however like to make some suggestions for improvements, mainly on the after party hosted by Blognation, as part of their UK Launch of Blognation. Me and a few others agreed that some music would have been nice to go along with that disco ball they Club had, along with some food/nibbles as it was dinner time by then…

Other than that it was pretty good, I’ll be sure to be checking out each and every site/service/product in more detail. By the way Richard Brooks (Managing Director of The 100 Year Website) where were you - someone said they talked to you but we couldn’t find you again - hope you had a good time and that my invite for you to come was worthwhile!

The Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo (FOWA) - Day 1

Ok now let me tell you a little lot about The FOWA Conference and Expo.

Welcome from Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA Conference Chairs
We were first welcomed by Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA Conference Chairs, along with Ryan Carson, co-founder of Carsonified (Carson Systems), they gave us a quick talk on what we could expect over the next 2 to 3 days at FOWA.

What is the Future of Web Apps? We Discuss! - Om Malik, (GigaOM) & Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
After this brief welcome to FOWA there was a discussion between Ryan Carson, Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, Inc and Michael Arrington, serial entrepreneur and operator of TechCrunch. In this talk they talked a about how web apps are changing the web and how we can benefit from them.

10 Real-world Apps That Represent The Future of Web Apps - Ben Forsaith (Adobe)
10 Real-world Apps That Represent The Future of Web Apps was a fast pace session presented by Ben Forsaith (Andrew Shorten), product specialist with Adobe UK, in which he demoed 10 Web Apps that were using Adobe technology such as Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime)

High Performance Websites - Steve Souders (Yahoo!)
High Performance Websites was the first developer track session of the day, and was presented by Steve Souders, who works at Yahoo! as the Chief Performance Yahoo!, where he has developed a set of best practices for making web sites faster.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Examples of High Performance Websites (Comparisons)
• Importance of the backend
• Memory Cache
• iFrames
• YSlow

The Future of Search - Tony Conrad (Sphere)
The Future of Search was the second business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Tony Conrad, who is a Venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who co-founded Sphere (previously Yodel Search).

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Sphere past/present/future
• Sphere Widgets (as seen on popular sites like the New York Times, Pop Sugar, TechCrunch, Cool Hunting, All Things D, TIME, AOL News, GigaOM, Wall Street Journal, Access Hollywood, Captains Quarters, ZDNet, O’Reilly Radar and many more)
• BlogBurst

The Art of Attractive Yet Useable Sites - Robin Christopherson (AbilityNet)
The Art of Attractive Yet Useable Sites was the second business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Robin Christopherson, who despite being blind, uses a computer very effectively by relying on speech output to access the full range of mainstream software including email and the internet. So he has a first-hand appreciation of the importance of good web design practice to accessibility, which is great for AbilityNet’s Web Consultancy services which he manages.

In his talk he talked about how over 90% of sites are still illegal because they do not meet the required accessibility standards and how sites which are accessibility friendly are really easy to use for people who are vision impaired.

*Lunch Break*
It’s Lunch Time, so I took a walk around the ExCeL Building and the FOWA Expo Hall.

How User Feedback can Influences Design - Daniel Burka (digg / Pownce)
How User Feedback can Influences Design was the third developer session of the day, and was presented by Daniel Burka, who is the creative director at Digg and is one of the cofounders of Pownce.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Gathering User Feedback
• Reacting to Feedback
• Are the changes worth it?
• Creating user feedback communities.
• Anticipating areas of friction.
• Digg Images “Digg Images: A dedicated images section (with thumbnails). Still on track to launch in late October. - Kevin Rose “

The Architecture Behind WordPress.com - Matt Mullenweg (WordPress)
The Architecture Behind WordPress.com was the fourth developer session of the day, and was presented by Matt Mullenweg, who is best known as the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software tool.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Wordpress
• Wordpress MU
• Wordpress.com VIP Hosting
• Wordcamp
• Equalities to look for when hiring people (e.g. Personalities, Ability to learn, Taste, Passion for space, Familiarity with Technologies etc)

Building a Community (Creating and Running Communites) - Matthew Haughey (MetaFilter)
Building a Community was the fifth developer session of the day, and was presented by Matthew Haughey, who is best known as the founder of the community weblog MetaFilter, where he is known as mathowie.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Building a community
• Community growth
• Build for yourself first / Eat your own dogfood
• Use Guidelines not Rules in communities
• Tailor to community norms
• Every community suffers a revolute eventually
• Ways to avoid community disasters (e.g. Be transparent, honest, responsive. Have a dedicated place to talk about the site/product etc. Explain why you made changes.)
• Always acknowledge your mistakes
• And last of all remember to find out what’s illegal and where?

Taking Your Application Mobile - Heidi Pollock (BluePulse)
Taking Your Application Mobile was the sixth developer session of the day, and was presented by Heidi Pollock, who having left Yahoo! Mobile, started to work as a contractor for Twitter and then more recently started work for the Australian start-up, Bluepulse, fulltime.

In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:

• Bluepulse
• Firefox Extensions
• Developing Mobile Web Sites for Mobile Phones.
• Optimising Web Sites for Mobile Phones.
• Mobile Acid Test (http://jwtmp.com/a)

The Future of Firefox and JavaScript - John Resig (Mozilla Corporation)
The Future of Firefox and JavaScript was the seventh developer session of the day, and was presented by John Resig, who is a programmer working for the Mozilla Corporation. As well as being a programmer for Mozilla, he is also the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library. He is also the author of the book ‘Pro Javascript Techniques.’ And is currently located in Cambridge, MA.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• The Future of Mozilla Fireox
• SVG/Canvas 3D
• OpenGL in Browsers
• <video></video> and <audio></audio> Tags etc..

7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About That You Can Use in Your Future Web Apps - Mark Quirk & Jon Harris (Microsoft)
This session was presented by Mark Quirk who joined Microsoft UK in 1992 as a senior support engineer for Microsoft development tools and is now the product manager responsible for Visual Studio and web development at Microsoft UK.  And also by Jon Harris who used to work for Macromedia but is now a Microsoft User Experience Evangelist.

• In their talk, they talked about some of the following points:
• Microsoft Visual Earth (Interactive SDK)
• PopFly
• Microsoft Codename Astoria (http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/ and http://astoria.sandbox.live.com/)
• Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon (http://labs.live.com/Seadragon.aspx)
• Windows Live and Silverlight

Lessons Learned From Launching Digg & Pownce - Kevin Rose (digg / Pownce)
Kevin Rose was up next for this last session of the day
In his talk he talked about some of the following points:

• Saving Money
• Making Money
• Digg 1.0
• Digg past, present and future.
• Scaling
• Chilling Effects
• Hosting

Live Filming of Diggnation @ FOWA London
What can I say about it - The Live Filming of Diggnation with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht was more than awesome! The place was packed out with people wanting to watch the show - The Crowd went wild - And I had a front row side seat!

Watch Diggnation Episode 118 London Here.

Carsonified Relaunch Party @ FOX@ExCeL
Yet more fun, a big thanks goes to both Kevin and Alex for allowing people to take photos with them!

Me and Kevin Rose!

Me, Kevin Bing (uni student) and Alex Albrecht

The Future of Web Apps Conference and Expo (FOWA) - Day 2

The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) continues on Day 2…

Developer Stage: Welcome from Brian Oberkirch & Simon Willison, the FOWA conference chairs

The Future of Web Startups  - Paul Graham (Y Combinator)
The Future of Web Startups was presented by Paul Graham, who is the author of On Lisp (1993), ANSI Common Lisp (1995), and Hackers & Painters (2004).

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• About Startups
• Let the market design the product
• However many acquisitions Google does Microsoft should do x10.
• Do we still need Silicon Valley?
• Do Startup Founders Need Degrees?
• Will Colleges and Universities change?

Predicting The Future of Web Apps - Edwin Aoki (AOL)
Predicting The Future of Web Apps was presented by Edwin Aoki, Chief Architect AOL.
In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Edwin’s Near Term Industry Predictions:
  • A new industry group to develop standards for building web apps and content for low-cost, reduced capability devices
  • Aol to announce a major push for html and javascript apps on the desktop
  • new mobile computing device with a modem os and open deve platform.
• All of the above came true 10 years ago:
  • The Network Computer Reference Platform - 1996 Sun, IBM, Apple Replace Network with Mobile
  • Netscape Crossware 0 1997 apps build on javea javascript & html
  • AT&T/EO Communicator - 1994 - touch screen, handwriting recognition, live object embed, 33.6 kbps fax and data modem
• Technology evolves, impetus the same
• Build on Solid, Tested Foundations:
  • Storage - AOL Xdrive, Amazon S3
  • Message & Data Exchange - XMPP, JSON & REST based APIs to Open AIM
  • Publishing & Commenting - Atom
  • Idenity - Open ID, Open Auth
• Web apps of the future need to run everywhere.
• Learning from our past:
  • Small & beautiful beats large and clunky
  • Sweat the details, but don’t sweat infrastructure
  • Let the service provides do the heavy lifting for you
  • Standards and openness are important
  • But employ with an eye towards security and trust
  • Technology moves faster than society
  • It’s up to us to use it responsibly
• We won’t need a Future of Web Apps (FOWA) Anymore, instead we will have a Future of Web Stuff (FOWS) or just Future of Stuff (FOS) - 5/10 years from now!

Web app do’s and don’ts - Practical lessons we learned - Leah Culver (Pownce)
Web app do’s and don’ts - Practical lessons we learned Predicting was the first developer session of the day, and was presented by Leah Culver who is currently best known for founding Pownce with her friends Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka as a way of sending messages, links, files and events to each other.

In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:

•  Thinking about technology choices
• We could pick anything - made from scratch
• Social as well as technological reasons factored into our decisions
• Took risks to work with newer technologies
• Why Django?
  • Django is a Python web framework
  • Yah! Web frameworks!
  • Documentation and readability
  • Auto-generated admin
• Why S3?
  • Amazon’s Simple Storage Service
  • Pownce files are stored on S3
  • Less maintenance for Pownce
  • Inexpensive
• Why Air?
  • Adobe Integrated Runtime
  • Works on both PC and Mac
  • Easy to develop
  • Encourages good UI
• Do a lot with a little
  • Pownce has a tiny team
  • One website developer
  • Self-funded
  • Short deadline
• Small Teams - we wear many shoes
  • Multiple roles
  • Learn quickly - I have had to learn a lot about everything
  • Dedicated
•  Open Source Tools
  • Plenty of web application help
  • Someone has solved this problem before
  • … and they’re probably smarter than me
  • Lots of tools available
• Use your Resources
  • Get some help
  • Documentation websites
  • IRC
  • Network and learn from friends
  • Exchange knowledge with other sites
• Be kind to your database
  • Pownce’s databse is its main bottleneck
  • One MySql database - a bit embarrassed about, not a dba
  • REsponding quickly to slow querie
• Caching - I’ve already done that
  • Memcached
  • Caching at page and object/list level
  • Cached our static pages since launch
• Queuing - I’ll do that later
  • Taking a shorter note of a longer process to do later
  • We send notes via a job queue
  • Need to improve our queuing system
• Limits and Pagination - I don’t need to do all of that
  • Notes list, friends list, recipicient list
  • Good user interface as well
• Index - I’ll mark that
  • How would I search, set up database
• Avoid Complexity: I won’t make the db do that
  • Some queries are just to complicated for a new web app
  • Consider if they’re actually needed
  • Usually good to avoid abstract or conceptual data display
• Expect Anything
  • Young sites can run into many problems
  • Need to respond quickly
  • Can’t prepare for everything - stuff with come out of hte blue
  • Every web app is different
• Keep Backups - because stuff happens
  • Use version control
  • Have a system to revert to code changes
  • Tract dependencies and updates made
  • If developing locally, backup personal
• Duly Noted - Keep lots of data
  • Stats to monitor
  • Quantitative data
• Community - Keep in touch with your community
  • Let users know what you are doing
  • Respond to bug reports
  • Inform users of bug fixes and new features
• Friendships Matter - Social sites are all about friends
  • Strive to make it easy to establish, maintain or break relationships
  • Accurately represent user relationships
• Prepare to Scale UP - It’s a good problem to have
  • Don’t prematurely optimize
  • … unless you work with Kevin Rose
  • Design for success
  • Accept that your code will change 

Thanks goes to Jenifer Hanen for the gap filling - check out her post here!

The Story Behind The Facebook Platform - Dave Morin (Facebook)
The Story Behind The Facebook Platform was the second developer session of the day, and was presented by Dave Morin who is the Senior Platform Manager at Facebook where he leads platform strategy and community

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Amount of active users on Facebook (43 Million)
• Amount page views on Facebook (60 Billion)
• Amount of people who have added an application - 80% of users
• The Social Graph
• Facebook Photos (Built in a week)
• Facebook Events (Built in a night)
• Developing for Facebook
• Generating Revenue

Preparing for Enterprise Adoption (The Future Of Blogging) - Suw Charman (suw.org.uk)
Preparing for Enterprise Adoption was the third business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by who Suw Charman, a social software consultant and writer who specialises in the use of blogs and wikis behind the firewall. Suw is also founder and board member of the Open Rights Group, a digital rights advocacy group which aims to raise awareness of digital rights issues, to campaign against bad legislation in Britain and the EU, and to support grass roots activism.

In her talk, she talked about some of the following points:

• Getting products out
• Getting your products bought
• Finding out what business want from your products and services.
• Supporting your products and services.

*Lunch Break*
It’s Lunch Time on Day 2, so I thought id go outside down by the water to take some photos.

On the ExCeL Victoria Dock Bridge I witnessed the filming of a film/movie/soap/drama/documentary… ehhh… no idea what it was but we were not aloud to cross the bridge until they were finished and as we were approaching we were told to be quite! I heard one of the actors say “Dial 999″ quite loud….

Click on this photo and Zoom in and you’ll notice they are still up there

Putting Users First - Thomas Vander Wal (InfoCloud Solutions)
Putting Users First was the fourth business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Thomas Vander Wal, who is the The Principal and Senior Consultant at InfoCloud Solutions, Vander Wal is an information architect best known for coining the term “folksonomy.” He’s also known for initiating the term “infocloud”. His works has been with the Web and with information design and structure.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Focusing on real people
• Tagging
• Folksonomy
• Magnolia
• Stikkit

Next Generation Visualisations - Eric Rodenbeck (Stamen Design)
Next Generation Visualisations was the fith business/entrepreneur session of the day, and was presented by Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen’s founder and creative director. He is a 10-year veteran of the interactive design field, and has spent this time working to extend the boundaries of online media and live information visualization.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Visualization
• Visualising Data
• Visualisation is a media
• http://cabspotting.org/
• http://oakland.crimespotting.org/
• Modest Maps
• Digg Labs (Arc, BigSpy, Stack, Swarm)
• Twitter Blocks
• Stamen.com

Comet: Making the Web a 2-Way Medium - Joe Walker (DWR)
Comet: Making the Web a 2-Way Medium was the sixth developer session of the day, and was presented by Joe Walker, a developer and consultant working on advanced web development techniques like AJAX. He recently developed Direct Web Remoting, (DWR) which has become one of the most popular Ajax toolkits for Java by making browser/server interaction intuitive for web developers. See www.drectwebremoting.com. He currently works through his consultancy, Getahead (http://getahead.org/), which is supplying a growing number of customers with AJAX and advanced web solutions.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• Comet and Examples using it
• SessionRater (http://www.webtide.com/sessionRater/)
• Polar Rose

An Insight to FireEagle - Tom Coates (Yahoo!)
An Insight to FireEagle was the seventh developer session of the day, and was presented by Tom Coates, who works for Yahoo Brickhouse where he develops new concepts in social software, future media and the web of data. He focuses on the shape of the web to come and how to make things that thrive as part of it. He’s worked for many of the UK’s most prominent web companies including Time Out, UpMyStreet and the BBC where he ran a small near-term R&D team for the BBC exploring media navigation, annotation and distribution. A regular speaker at conferences including ETech, XTech, IASummit and The Future of Web Apps, Tom also writes extensively at plasticbag.org as well as running the experimental online community barbelith.com.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• FireEagle (won’t be called this when released out of Beta)
• Applications that could use FireEagle
• Twitter Maps

Air - Next Generation Development - Ben Forsaith (Adobe)
Air - Next Generation Development was the eighth developer session of the day, and was presented by Ben Forsaith, product specialist with Adobe UK.

In his talk, he talked about some of the following points:

• What is Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime)
• Building your first Adobe AIR Application
• Aptana IDE
• Adobe Flex
• Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com)
• onAIR (http://onair.adobe.com/)

Best Tips & Screw Ups - Panel of FOWA speakers
This last session of the day was a discussion talk between Ryan Carson, Kevin Lawver, Lane Becker, Rashmi , Dick , Ted Rheingold, Simon Willison and Brian Oberkirch.

Check out all My Photos on My Flick Set!