Help me vote up this feature request for Visio import

Help me vote up this feature request for Visio import
http://feedback.cacoo.com/forums/32527-general-/suggestions/446700-import-from-visio-format


MS Visio is a great tool. But it is ridiculously priced and somewhat of a bloated beast.

In other posts to the web, I've mentioned a few cloud based diagram building tools and even an analog ruler w/ stencils built in for those that love pen & paper.

Of those mentioned, I've come to really like http://www.cacoo.com. I've even gotten a few co-workers using it for internal projects.

As much as I love Cacoo.com (and saying the name around the water cooler like a gang call), I wish it had more import & export features - namely - Visio import.

For $50 a year, I can have SVG - pretty cool, but not perfect.

How much would you pay for Visio import?

What about importing stencil sets - important?

Do you know of a better Visio alternative for individuals and/or SMB/SME looking to get their flowchart on during a budget crunch?


Discussing it over on Google+

Apple Snags Additional Dead Weight To Take Into the Cloud

After reading Preston Gralla's article (on Apple's newest cloud ballast) over at ComputerWorld, I immediately had the following thoughts:

If I were looking for a big gun to lead a team into the cloud, I wouldn't hire someone from Microsoft, the company that thought that the Internet was just a fad and to this day, still thinks in terms of shrink wrapped, slowly upgraded software w/ fewer iterations a year than Google has in a quarter. 

Want to soar in the clouds? Microsoft will rent you a hot air balloon chained to the earth. You may get a little lift, have a nice view, maybe even feel an elevated breeze, but you will be going nowhere.

Apple has all the legacy ballast they need. Steve should have poached someone from Amazon or even Google - someone that thrives in the misty altitudes of the cloud.

Four Barriers I Face When Evaluating Microsoft Software Products.

In a survey I took today as part of my membership on Microsoft's IT Advisory Council, I was asked the following question:

Other than the areas just rated, what other part of the product evaluation experience (excluding trial) do you consider critical to your business that was not listed above?

I answered:

Open source software provides amazing value to our organization because we can test drive it at no licensing costs to our company. This allows us to see how the application fits and gives us time to adjust and prepare for company wide deployment. If the software/system fits, in the past, we have hired VARs to help us implement. We do not get the same length of time to test Microsoft applications.

Licensing costs & fear of legal entanglement is one of the biggest barriers to MS product evaluation.

Another major barrier is how poorly Microsoft products play with other products/standards et cetera.

Whether I am building a communication/collaboration infrastructure or just trying to subscribe an internal user to a customer's Google Calendar, there is no end of frustration to find out that something won't work with a MS product because it isn't part of MS vertically integrated platform.

Artificial barriers to seamless interoperability between competing software products is the best way to alienate me as an end user/decision maker/thought leader.

Three Things that Soil my Nexus S Shine

Living Large in the Face of Three Bling-killing Irritations

Don't get me wrong, if you were to call me an Android fanboy - you wouldn't be far off base. Being able to freely tether my phone to my laptop for Internet access anywhere I can get 3G data is AWESOME! Not having to deal with TouchWhiz or HTC Sense UI or MotoBlur is AWESOME! Not having to live in the iPhone nanny-state is AWESOME!

I am living the big life (smartphone-wise) and have very little to complain about. But, as one cyborg to another, if I were to complain, there would be 3 items worth putting into words.

Of the three biggest irritations keeping me from complete Android bliss, the T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto is the most ire-rattling, nerve splitting of the three. I have learned to live with the battery slaying nature of the Nexus S and I am coping with not having a microSD slot or the option for a 32 GB Nexus S.

So yes, life with the Nexus S is almost 100% wonderful. Almost.

One: The T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto

In the T-Mobile Flex Pay Ghetto, conditional call forwarding (or any call forwarding except to T-Mo's voicemail) is not allowed. Without this feature, there is no seamless Google Voice voicemail on my premiere Google phone and is a severe irritation that might lead to me selling my Nexus S and quitting my T-mo service.

Two: The Nexus S is a slayer of batteries.

If I am listening/watching a netcast, it drains the battery faster than it can be recharged. I did find some suggestions in the xda forums. For under $30, I purchased 2 additional batteries and a charger. Not a perfect fix, but workable. I've tried Tasker and other software approaches - ultimately, to me, more hassle than physically swapping batteries.

Three: The One with the Bigger GeeBees

I had the white iPhone 3Gs 16GB model. After a year of swapping music in and out and being tied to one instance of iTunes (for me, installed on my desktop), I realized I needed a phone with more storage.

When I purchased the Nexus S, I had some how talked myself into believing that I didn't need it. I think the logic went something like this: With apps like AudioGalaxy or Rdio, I don't need to store music files on my phone. All I need to do is stream music from the cloud to my phone.

Well, in theory, my logic was sound. In reality, the economics of Rdio are inflated in my opinion. $10 a month for music when I get so much more streaming content for less than $10 a month from both Hulu.com & Netflix.com. If Rdio were $4.95 a month, I doubt I've think twice about signing up.

As far as AudioGalaxy is concerned, if I ran it on a server in a data center, it would be rock solid. In reality, things happen that leaves me without access to my music just when I need a fix of Renegades of Funk or the entire Indigo Girls discography or some old-school Outkast.

So, what kind of things rained on my cloud logic parade - things like the power going out longer than my UPS could keep my NAS drive running. Another streaming fail: Windows Update rebooted the PC that hosts the little AudioGalaxy server agent and the PC wouldn't reboot back into Windows because I left a thumb drive in the USB port. What else? Well, there were a few times that I got paranoid that the AG server agent was slowing down gaming performance so I shut it down telling myself that I will definitely remember to fire it back up after my virtual slaughter of animated agents of evil. Repeatedly, I forget to relaunch the AG server.

Quick Thoughts on Nexus S, Swype, T-Mobile and leaving iPhone/AT&T

Battery Life
As a Nexus S owner coming from an iPhone 3Gs on AT&T, my biggest disappointment with the Nexus S has been battery life. I could list a 100 things that irritate me about how Apple controls use of the iPhone but the one thing they impress me with more than anything else is how they seem to defy the laws of physics with amazing battery management.

Swype: Input Interface Innovation
I have heard people complain about the stock virtual keyboard in Android but I've never used it for any length of time except to do what it takes to get Swype installed. Swype is the most innovative touch screen interface I've ever seen and I've tried them all (as far back as Palm OS on Handspring.)

If it weren't for Swype, I could easily go back to iPhone. The only other better input method I can imagine on a touch screen is a direct telepathic interface with one's brain.

The Flex Pay Ghetto of T-Mobile
My T-Mobile 3G experience has been as good as my AT&T 3G experience. I am not happy with how T-Mobile seems to be railroading customers into the "Flex Pay" ghetto. Flex Pay accounts comes with restrictions that essentially break the Google Voice app as a voice mail app. I have a credit score of nearly 800 and I am not eligible for what they are calling a "Post-paid" account.

My primary question - will the Nexus S support 3G functionality on AT&T

It would be excellent if this phone worked on AT&T's 3G network. But for the time being, it appears as if it won't.

Some other things that don't seem to be on the list of features:
a.) MicroSD card expansion.
b.) Front facing camera
in reference to: Android 2.3 - Google Mobile Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Android dominating the smart phone space

This is pretty much what I've been predicting in the smart phone space for about 2 yrs.

The only wild card that nobody - and I mean NOBODY (but maybe Steve Ballmer) - saw coming: Microsoft coming out w/ a strong smartphone that even my mom could use... The Windows Phone is still an infant and could take a year or so to gain traction if it ever does. Android is the real disruptor - quite possibly killing Apple's gadget dominance (phones, tablets & MP3 players) over the next 3 years. 

Demand for Android Skills Up 710% from Last Year

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/11/demand-for-android-skills-up-710-percent.php

[D]emand for developers with Android skills is up 710% in October 2010 versus October 2009. The increased demand is not surprising, given the mobile operating system's rapid climb over the past 12+ months, now reaching its new status as the number one mobile OS in the United States and number two worldwide, as of Q3 2010.

CNET's Top 5 Reasons Android is Better than iPhone

http://cnettv.cnet.com/reasons-android-better-than-iphone/9742-1_53-50095696.html

Android market share gain coming at the expense of BlackBerry

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/11/android-market-share-gains-come-at-the-expense-of-blackberry.ars

Android's market share has continued its rise in the third quarter of the year and Apple's iOS and RIM are struggling to keep up. According to NPD's Mobile Phone Track, Android was installed on 44 percent of all smartphones sold during the third quarter, up from 33 percent in the second quarter, while iOS saw a slight bump from 22 to 23 percent and RIM dropped into third place at 22 percent.

How Windows 7 handles Bluetooth - Not My Idea.

I have a few bluetooth headsets as well as a couple of bluetooth stereo headphones that double as telephony headsets. My experience on Windows 7 has been way south of awesome, and I have a screen cast to prove it :)

 Until I put Windows 7 on my netbook and laptop, I could enjoy the same switch from enjoying Netflix audio in bluetooth stereo to making a Skype call with ease. Today - I'm lucky if I can close bluetooth device configuration window in Windows 7 without losing audio altogether in the bluetooth headset - only to find it blaring loudly through my laptop speakers.

Since I use noise reduction headphones, when this happens, it isn't immediately obvious to me that my family or my co-workers are suffering from an auditory onslaught of whatever form of audio might have my attention at the moment.

Bluetooth in general has been a failure of implementation in a number of dual use cases, but connecting to a single device at a time, say a laptop, netbook running Windows XP or Ubuntu (or even an iOS device) led to, if not an enjoyable experience, at least a convenient, functional, reliable experience whilst switching from media mode to telephony mode and back again.

I wish the same were true for Windows 7. I did a quick screen cast of just one of the many ways in which Windows 7 completely flakes out on bluetooth. [One day I'll get the pro version of Jing so that I can upload to YouTube and embed videos directly into my blog posts. The link to my screen cast: http://screencast.com/t/3Z9QZkfgKQ ]

Super shame too - because all in all, I have been digging Windows 7 as an end user.

As an IT support professional, I have some use cases that illustrate how Windows 7 makes everyday routine support tasks a for more clicks than is necessary in XP - but I'll save those for another blog post. It maybe that I just haven't spent enough time RTFM.

Thom on POP Mail

I think of POP like an old screwdriver - it served its purpose for a time - and for a while, it was the best screwdriver in the toolbox, but these days, it's just lost its edge and ends up causing people grief as much as anything else. RIP POP. 

Today Only - Kodak EasyShare 12MP Digital Camera for $39.99 + $5 shipping

I've had a few ppl ask me about cameras recently so I thought I'd pass this along.

Anyone needing a decent inexpensive camera, http://woot.com/ has a refurbished Kodak EasyShare 12MP Digital Camera for $39.99 + $5 shipping - comes w/ a 90 day warranty.

For those of you not familiar w/ Woot.com, they have 1 deal for 1 day. By 11:59pm CDT tonight, or sooner if they sell out, this product will not be available.

Pretty good deal if you are in the market for a really inexpensive digital camera that takes great color photos in a small point & click form factor and don't mind buying refurbished product (at $39.99, not much risk, especially w/ 90 day warranty.)

3 Types of Crap You Can Keep Off Your Computer

So, we are purchasing you a new laptop, and you want to make sure that all the "crap from the old one" doesn't get migrated to the new one, and you are looking for some suggestions.

Before you can keep crap off your PC, you have to have a clear idea of what is and isn't crap - and the PC needs to know what is and isn't crap so that it can protect you programmatically.

So - how does one define what is and isn't crap and do it in a way that the PC understands? It depends. I'll define 3 types of crap that we have the most problems with and I'll touch on some ways to keep it off your new PC.

1. There is junk or crap data - in other words data files that are no longer useful to you. Documents, PDFs, Spreadsheets, photos, videos, audio files - all these things will require you to make a decision on what is and isn't crap and to take action on the crap.
   
   For example, you could sift through all your files and put all the crap into a crap folder for composting. The better you are at keeping your files organized, the easier this will be.
   
   
2. There is malicious & trifling crap - such as spyware, malware, adware, et cetera. Most of this crap has to be "installed" or "executed." Such crap can actually sit as an executable file on your PC completely inert w/out doing any damage until it is executed (program ran). The good news here is that we will not be installing (or executing) any of that crap on your new PC. Even if we copy such a file to your new PC, it won't be executed.
   
   The other piece of good news is that there are programs & people out there that are cataloging tons of this kind of malicious crap and they've built software that will block & delete this kind of crap for you automatically. We use Microsoft Security Essentials for this and it does a decent job if your PC is type 2 crap-free to begin with.
   
   
3. The 3rd type of crap is the software that you seem very fond of - stuff like Outlook, Quickbooks, Internet Explorer, iTunes on Windows...
   
   In my professional opinion, the only solution here is to quit cold turkey and soldier through the withdraw pains. Some crap feels good but really just brings you (and others that you work with) pain in the long run.

Internet Explorer market share slipping amongst corporate users due to security issues, stagnant development, sluggish speed and resource bloat

Not only are business users abandoning IE, but the real browser battles (not being played out in the mobile space) are between Firefox & Chrome. Many assume that IE has become the Netscape of the 21st century - once a giant of web technology, now dying under its own bloat.

From Network World May 2010:

On the browser side, Microsoft's Internet Explorer corporate market share of 72.5% is considerably higher than the approximately 60% share Internet Explorer holds in the overall browser market, which includes both business and home users.

But IE usage is declining in the business world as well, with users abandoning [IE] for Firefox and Chrome, Forrester said. Total business market share for IE declined from 77.2% in April 2009 to 72.5% in March 2010, with IE6 going from 41% to 21.1%. IE7 has hit 34% market share and IE8 is up to 17.3% share, but those gains have not been enough to prevent the rise of Firefox and Chrome.

Firefox share has risen from 17% to 20% in the past year, while Chrome went from 2.29% to 6.88%. Apple's Safari has suffered, with market share declining from 1.24% to 0.44%. The "other" browsers category dropped from 2.1% to 0.28%, making it clear that the race for corporate browser users is coming down to Microsoft, Mozilla and Google.

Firefox has become a mainstay in the enterprise because of add-ons that "simplify and automate everyday life," according to Forrester, while Google Chrome is being adopted by the most tech savvy workers.

"Further adding to its Web-centric portfolio, Google's Chrome has experienced a slow but steady growth in the corporate browser market, thanks largely in part to tech-savvy, empowered workers clamoring for more control over the applications they run on their work computers," Forrester said.

Then there is this from 5 Reasons Why Google Chrome Will Crush IE In Browser War by Jeff Bertolucci, PC World:

It's very fast: Google's browser is a speed demon. PC World's performance tests have shown that Chrome has the fastest page-loading times versus leading competitors Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera Software's Opera. Anecdotally, I've noticed that the speedy Chrome runs circles around slow, lumbering IE.

And

Better security: IE's security mishapsare well chronicled. To be fair, Microsoft has worked diligently to make its browser more secure, butnagging problems persist. By comparison, Chrome is a paradise of protection due in part to two factors: architecture and obscurity. Chrome's use of "sandboxing," isolating Internet commands from the operating system and other apps and data, makes it harder for hackers to load malware onto PCs.

Another reason that Jeff mentions in his PC World article on May 04, 2010, nails, for me, the single biggest reason Chrome will crush IE. Simply - Chrome leaves a lighter foot print on older PCs.

Firefox & IE both became too sluggish on my 5+ year old HP workstation. Chrome helped me eeik out a whole year of functionality from my nearly ancient tower. As the IT Director, I could have purchased a new PC for myself but I chose to practice what I preach.

My sermon? Throwing money at the newest hardware or the latest vendor product isn't always the answer. This message has been tested and is a personal pillar of my professional philosophy cultivated over 13 yrs in the industry. New hardware is not the fix-all magic weapon for tech support operations.

Obviously, hardware outlives its usefulness and at a certain point, the time & effort to keep old hardware running isn't worth it , but too often, I've seen support staff give up on hardware only 2 or 3 yrs old. I've seen new life breathed into products via firmware upgrades, a change of OS or OS refreshes among other things. In my case, while I should have replaced my PC a year or two ago, changing the way I use a web browser by using Chrome radically improved not only my PC's performance, but my productivity as well. Now when staff come to me complaining about year old hardware, I have a conversation starter.

When companies smartly select innovative software and make the effort to change old habits with new technology, not only do they find cost effective solutions, they keep employee performance sharp. As an added benefit, employers that smartly select innovation effectively lead their employees to stay mentally exercised, prepped to learn, adapt and excel as technology drives us all forward.

I am not surprised that corporate users are ditching IE for better browsers. Given the gains in worker productivity brought by Google Chrome to companies, I would be surprised if Microsoft could hold on to even 50% market share in 2011.

Exciting Google Apps news - Want more details

As a corporate admin for a Google Apps install w/ about 200-250 users, I am looking forward to these upcoming changes.

in reference to: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=181171 (view on Google Sidewiki)