Cloud Computing update

A while back I made a post questioning the hype surrounding Cloud Computing. Since that time, I've read a number of articles which support this sentiment.

Since last week's outage at Microsoft's Danger subsidiary, a number of articles like this one have been written questioning the security of data in cloud services. Personally, I trust my incentive to ensure adequate backups much more than I trust any company I could outsource that task to.

This article questions customer's ability to export data which has been committed to a cloud service. I share this concern. Companies have huge incentives to make it easy to get your data into their cloud storage. There's absolutely no incentive for them to make it easy or even possible to transfer your data in the other direction.

Finally, this article points out the dangers associated with storing your data. I'd feel much safer storing data on multiple drives or on a RAID array than in the cloud.

I'm not sure what type of evidence I'd need to see to make me trust cloud computing, but I certainly haven't seen it among all the overly optimistic articles touting this latest buzzword du jour.

Really tough word quiz

Wow. I was lucky to get 4 out of 10 on this really tough word quiz. It features words from the 14th through 17th centuries. I feel like such a Jobbernowl.

iPod Touch update

I'm relieved to report my enthusiasm for the iPod Touch as a replacement for the long line of Palm PDAs continues unabated. This little device continues to amaze me.

I managed to find this very useful article which helped me get secondary calendars in Google Calendar syncing with the iPod Touch. That was really the last piece of the PDA puzzle I needed to solve.

Tonight I downloaded the free Apple Remote application which allows me to control our Apple TV from the iPod Touch. It's not earth shattering but rather a bit of fun with a device which is already ranks among the best technical purchases I've made.

I typically find several reasons to be dissatisfied with any new gadget after a month of using it. Not so with the iPod Touch. It makes using a PDA type device fun again. I recall feeling this sense of enjoyment when I first started playing with most of the new Palm devices I've owned (aside from the Centro which was horribly disappointing).

By the way, the iPod Touch serves as a very nice music and video player in addition to its stellar performance as a PDA. It also works nicely to do some light web browsing at night. The mobile version of Safari is by far the most useful web browsing experience I've seen on a small device.

If you're in the market for a small device which can serve multiple purposes, investigate the iPod Touch. You won't be sorry.

Life after Palm

I've finally settled upon using my iPod Touch as the best PDA replacement device for my Palm. Having used Palm PDAs since I bought my first one at the employee price working for U.S. Robotics in 1996, I've come to rely heavily on a number of key applications to keep my life organized. Fortunately the iPhone application market has matured to the point that I could easily find replacements for all my "must have" applications.

First and foremost, I needed a way to sync my contact information from my Mac to the iPod Touch. Luckily, Apple anticipated that by adding that capability into iTunes.

It was also imperative that I be able to sync memos between my desktop computer and the iPod Touch. Mark/Space has a product called The Missing Sync which takes care of that problem for me.

It was also important that I be able to sync calendars between my desktop system and the PDA. Fortunately a combination of iCal on my Mac, iCal on the iPod, and Google Calendar was able to handle that thorny issue. This article on using CalDAV with Google Calendar and iCal helps explain the rather tricky configuration.

For a number of years I've been using a Palm application called SplashID to keep my passwords secure and yet easily accessible. The good folks at SplashData have created a version which runs on the iPod Touch. Using a new version of the same application made conversion very simple.

I've also grown reliant on having access to a simple database application on my PDA to keep track of things such as books I'm interested in reading as well as a number of other topics. I've used a great little Palm application called JFile for many years to fill this need. One of the best known names in Mac databases, FileMaker, has recently released a personal database application called Bento. They also have an iPhone/iPod Touch version available which can sync with the Mac version of Bento.

The last important thing I required on my PDA was a way to read books. I'd been using the mobile version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader on the Palm. I discovered that there's a free product called Stanza Desktop which is available for both Mac and Windows machines. They also have an iPhone/iPod Touch version which can sync books from the desktop version. Couple this with the fact that Google Books has announced that they have over a million public domain books available in the EPUB format (which Stanza supports) and my needs for a PDA book reader is more than met.

It's been a bit of a challenge but I've finally got all these applications installed and my data transferred. The only problem which remains is I'm still not able to see subordinate calendars from Google Calendars yet. Aside from that, I'm very happy with the new device. It's thinner, easier to read, and has better battery life than my Palm did. Plus it functions as a very good music player to boot.

25 worst tech products of all time

PC World has an interesting list of the 25 worst tech products of all time here. I agree with most of their choices.

I think I might have added most MP3 players aside from the iPod and a general category for "stupid gadgets which derive power from a USB port". You've probably seen examples of this. Little Christmas trees complete with lights, humping dogs, etc. Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean someone should build it.

Northern VA Summer Brewfest

I just got back from a very pleasant afternoon at the Northern VA Summer Brewfest with a couple friends. A good time was enjoyed by all involved.

Here are some of the beers which I enjoyed at the festival. I'm definitely right about the breweries. I'm not quite as sure about the actual beers I tasted from each. I was too busy enjoying the beer to take notes at the time.

Stone Brewing Old Guardian Barley Wine - This was pretty potent at 11.3% ABV but Stone always does a great job of blending flavors so their higher alcohol content doesn't overpower the beer. I was happy to snag a t-shirt from here as I enjoy so many of their beers.

Bell's Porter - It's hard to go wrong with a beer from Bell's and this is no exception. I was lucky enough to visit their brewery back in May when we went to watch my stepdaughter get her PhD.

Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale - I'm very happy to see that Tupper's is back thanks to a recent brewing agreement with St. George Brewing Company. Their beers used to be brewed at Old Dominion Brewery which had a brew pub I spent many happy evenings at until their purchase forced them to move out of the area. Curse the macrobreweries! They can't product decent beers of their own so they buy up the microbreweries and move them away from their devoted fans.

St. George Brewing Company Brown Ale - There's a good reason why St. George's beers keep winning awards... they're awfully tasty!. Their web site appears to be down at the moment so I've included a link to their page on Beer Advocate.

Founders Brewery IPA - I hadn't heard of Founders before but after tasting their IPA, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for their beer from now on.

Olde Richmond IPA - Yet another tasty beer contract brewed by St George.

Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale - They bill themselves as the dark beer specialists. Judging by this very tasty beer, I can't say I doubt their claim.

Legend Brewing Brown Ale - Another tasty brown ale.

Original Sin Hard Cider - I'm not usually a big hard cider fan but this was pretty good. Not too sweet and not too strong. All in all, a very nice blend.

I'll close by imploring everyone to support their favorite microbreweries. The alternative is to be stuck with the tasteless offerings from the macrobrewers. That's too horrible a fate to contemplate.

e-audiobooks rock!

For a long time I've been listening to audiobooks to make commuting or exercise more bearable. Our local library used to have a great selection of audiobooks on cassette. The last time I checked, they were slowly transitioning to CD based audiobooks. I never borrowed a book in that form as they only seemed to stock recent bestsellers and I don't find most recent books as engrossing as some of the old classics by authors like Nevil Shute, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson among others.

Fast forward to a couple years ago. I discovered that our local library had started carrying e-audiobooks which could be downloaded to an MP3 player with support for Windows Media DRM aka protected WMA files). With mixed feelings, I purchased a refurbished MP3 player capable of playing protected WMA files. It irked me that I couldn't play this protected media on the iPod I used for most of my music. The MP3 player gave me a years worth of service before developing some interface quirks which became so bothersome as to be unbearable. It's hard to believe that with an iPod as a model of how to design a decent user interface, other manufacturers do such an abysmal job.

The refurbished replacement I purchased from another manufacturer was slightly better but still paled in comparison to the iPod's interface. It lasted me another year before refusing to connect using its USB interface without jumping through a strange series of steps I found on a user forum for a different model player from the same manufacturer. The prospect of spending more money on yet another unsatisfactory MP3 player didn't thrill me.

Fortunately, my library wasn't sitting idle during this time. They've recently made available a new service from Overdrive, the company which offers e-audiobooks for download. They offer an MP3 version of some of the e-audiobooks. Sadly this is a fledgling service at the moment so the selections aren't nearly as extensive as the WMA selections are yet but I'm hoping this will improve with time.

So far I've listened to Kipling's Captains Courageous and Stevenson's Kidnapped. Both were wonderful and made me choose longer paths when walking the dog so I could listen longer. If you've got activities which might benefit from distractions such as a good book being read by a skilled narrator, I recommend you check with your local library to see whether the offer e-audiobooks.