Just Enough Technology

Seeing through the cloud

Let's blow away the swirls of mist surrounding internet based services. What we see is a complex technical infrastructure which, as consumers, we don't need to understand and extremely simple Terms and Conditions  which we do understand but wish we didn't. Starting with Google, their services are generally free, generally "in beta" (a jargon term meaning unstable) and have no guarantee of being available. Moving on to the paying services their Terms and Conditions are as close to the Google model as possible. Now let's look at what is really important - your treasured data whether it be accounts or family photos. Unless you have a copy of this data under your control you should assume that it is not important and can be lost at any time. Never has it been easier to copy and propagate data so all your personal data should be dispersed amongst trusted friends and family. If you are a big company you can hire serious,unsmiling suits to deal with all the commercial and legal  stuff. For the individual creative person in a small, self-owned business it's a lot harder. I have some experience in this field - contact me and we can start a conversation about removing your concerns about computing and result in more time for you to do the real creative work. The world has too many computers but not enough creative people!

New technology makes your childhood disappear

No matter how closely you look at a camera memory card you wont see any photographs.
Your childhood memories are encrypted and can only be unlocked by the exact combination of a specific piece of hardware (card reader) a controlling and viewing device (computer) and a decryption  code (software). How far do you need to fast-forward before any one of these components is no longer easily available?

Consider the case of a UK broadcasting  organisation wanting to mark the 900 year anniversary of the Domesday book. They produced a virtually indestructible video disc and used the latest in computer and software to produce a multimedia celebration of the state of the country in 1986. Now, twenty years later a conservation project is needed to access this data. See here for a summary
How can you keep digital data for longer?  The justenoughtechnology answer is both surprising and interesting. Just make sure everything you want to keep is labelled. Keep notes about interesting events and your collection of gadgets.
It's not worth trying to second guess about which technologies will last.
As long as future generations know what is on that tape/card/disc they will be able to decide whether your treasures are worth restoring and then find an enthusiast with  the appropriate old technology.

How to save storage space and time

Edit.
Took 100 pictures of the wedding? throw away the 90 that aren't much good. Do what the professional picture editors do. Give each picture your undivided attention for 3 seconds if it doesn't immediately grab you just  delete it.
Emails? throw them away. An email is just an envelope  so extract the action you need to take or the attachment you want to keep and delete the email.

Don't overthink.
Let your computer do the tidying up. It will store deleted stuff in a "bin" So if you need to you can recover it. When the bin gets too big you can set it to automatically clear some space

Another useful tip for any computer platform from JustEnoughTechnology

Is data immortal?

The case for:-

It has become a new nerd sport - getting old computers from car boot sales or rubbish dumps and telling the newspapers that their discs still contain confidential personal data. You cant get rid of data and need training, experts and expensive equipment to deal with this Major Problem

The case against :-

As soon as a hard disc emerges from its clean room production environment it becomes more delicate than a politicians ego. It needs to be treated with reverence, continuous power and protected from shock. An ill-timed sneeze will delete all your data

The reality :-

• Make copies of the important stuff - it is cheap and easy

• Don't put secret stuff on a computer

Pain in the RSS

Here is a simple concept, RSS.

Instead of needing to manually check to see if there is anything new on a webpage, such as a newspaper or blog, RSS will automatically let you know.
The good news is that such a service is available, it can be free and it can save enormous amounts of time by providing you with an up to date list of what is new. The bad news is that the implementation of this simple concept can be a nightmare.  Too much choice, too much jargon - there is even disagreement on what the letters RSS stand for!

My advice - you will probably have an RSS reader hidden away in your browser or email client. Use that, if you can quickly understand it and get it to work ( Mikes 10 minute rule ).

The need for big and expensive data storage

I have just invented another Mike's Laws of Computing " No data storage device should be smaller than a basketball" This will stop people using them and losing them. A UK television production company had a data stick stolen. This had the  personal details of  250 children who had applied for auditions. If it had been the size of a baseball rather than a thumb it might not have been stolen. More importantly it would not have been used for confidential data which properly belongs within a controlled database.
This is a powerful argument for "cloud computing" where one copy of data is held on an on-line server and can be accessed from anywhere. It is as secure as your password procedures and avoids people taking ad hoc copies of parts of the database  to work on over the weekend. As well as being the size of a baseball the purchase price of a data storage device should be commensurate with the value of the data. For example that data stick should have cost the equivalent of a lost contract with a major broadcaster.

Presto - the printing mailbox

Presto Is this the magic answer to email?. It comprises a service (only available in the U.S at the moment) which converts emails into files which are then transmitted to a colour HP printing mailbox connected to your recipients phone line.

• Completely independent of a computer
• Should be spam free.

The marketing is clearly aimed at old people (or whatever the current American euphemism is) So the down side is patronising advertising and the option to have your email enhanced by clunky clipart graphics.

Pretty soon we are all going to need to use the internet for banking and paying bills so will end up with a printer and email address by default . The JustEnoughTechnology answer is to make email easy to use so that you can avoid an additional lump of hardware and monthly subscription

Vacancy : Implementation Manager

Where did all the Implementation Managers go? The One Laptop per Child needed one, Apple needed one to ensure that they could get iphones to customers and now the Apple mobileme service is finding out what happens if you try and release software without an implementation plan.

The job description for an Implementation Manager is straightforward. She needs to track down the shy and retiring development team and get them to confidently assert that the product really is ready, not perfect but just ready. She then needs to get the Head of Marketing firmly by the throat and bang his head repeatedly against the wall, on a daily basis to, ensure that no commitments are made about release until marketing and development agree on a timescale. She then needs to take sole responsibility for delivering against that timescale. It's so much easier to keep your software in permanent beta testing.

What has this got to do with JustEnoughTechnology? For the majority of customers computing really is a cloud, they are uncertain as to the difference between hardware, internet and software and just want a product that is finished.

Linux Vista and OS X compared

Here is all you need to know about the comparative benefits of these operating systems

It doesn’t matter.

If you really must use a computer to do something it will be absolutely clear what software you need.

choose cheap hardware that runs this software.

The only important part is your data.

Backup important stuff - paper is a good solution

Congratulations on completing the world's most comprehensive computer awareness course!

Government IT - It's always a people problem

A report into how personal and financial details for 25 million people were lost in the mail has just been published.
As usual it is a failure of business process and management that has led to to this security breach.
The records were lost by a UK Government Department. Fortunately the independent consultant brought in to investigate decided against an upgrade in technology to solve the problem and will have to settle for the spin-off business of providing annual training for thousands of civil servants.

We can't let technology do the thinking for us.
Just because the data was on 2 discs rather than a truckload of paper print out doesn't make it less confidential. Perhaps all inter-departmental transfers of data should be on paper.That should ensure it is minimised and controlled. If you are a Government Department please do not hesitate to contact me for further advice on justenoughtechnology.

Be aware that I require cash payment since I can't trust you with my bank details