Alex Muller

I received this by email, from somebody trying to plan when to book a train journey:

This illustrates something that’s become really clear to me since I started work: people don’t get links. Being able to quickly dissect a link is something I (and, I suspect, most geeks) have definitely taken for granted.

The solution is pretty clear: at any point in your app, a user should be able to copy the URL and share that exact screen with anybody who should have access.

I’d change that ticket-booking link to be something link:

…combinedmatrix.aspx?command=timetable&from=kgx&to=yrk&datetime=2011-01-12-1915

David was kind enough to invite me back to St Paul’s yesterday to hear Fraser Speirs, the chap behind FlickrExport and Darkslide, talk about his rollout of an iPad to every pupil at Cedars School of Excellence near Glasgow.

Fraser spoke about the situation that led up to the iPad decision; the scarcity of MacBooks in his school, the lack of faith in the iPod touch as a complete desktop replacement. He talked about the deployment process, and how it’s completely changed the way many subjects are taught.

The example he gave that stuck with me was Art. A teacher can use Brushes on the iPad to create a drawing that illustrates a particular artistic technique. Brushes will create a ‘recording’ (a timelapse) of the creation, which can be exported and played back. And then, the magic: during a class the teacher can talk over the video and carefully explain the technique. If you’re an Art teacher and that doesn’t make you want an iPad… I’m speechless.

Then, the Q&A (I’m paraphrasing from memory – please correct me if I’ve got this wrong). George asked whether Fraser was worried that he was sending kids out into the world who couldn’t use Microsoft Office.

Fraser responded by saying that it wasn’t a worry, but it was something to think about. He went on to say that there’s no way to tell what the world of work will be like in 2023, when some of these kids will leave school.

Having worked in a huge organisation for (only!) six months so far, this worried me. I’ve experienced the brain-achingly slow rate at which IT in corporations—at least this corporation—moves. Internet Explorer 8 was released in March 2009; it’s being pushed out in June 2011, over two years later. Our Windows 7 release will start in November this year and conclude in September 2014, a full five years after the retail release. By 2015, all 100,000 employees will be running Windows 7. I’m willing to bet (and this is a total guess, I don’t work in IT or have any inside information) that even in 2023, Microsoft will be an important part of this company’s infrastructure.

Is that a good thing? Nope, not one bit. But what’s going to happen here? Will the next generation start avoiding job ads that require some kind of Microsoft Office competency? I’m really worried about the future for large companies that have such a heavy reliance on Microsoft who haven’t learnt to adapt yet. To offer, for example, new starters the OS of their choice. This talk has prompted some really interesting conversations here about the future of education and work, thank you Fraser.

I recently got a 23″ Samsung monitor, my first LED-backlit display. I hadn’t noticed there being a big difference before, but my MacBook display now looks dim and hard to read.

Our broadband speed has looked like this for the last ten years. Here’s hoping we get to 50Mbps within the next year or two – and who knows where we’ll be in another ten years.

Here’s where we’re going at the moment:

• BT is saying that 40% of homes will have the ability to have a 100Mbps connection by the 2012 Olympics: GigaOM
• It’s possible to get 50Mbps from Virgin Media at the moment, for £30-£40 per month
• Virgin promise 100Mbps by 2010: TechRadar

My Favourite Windows 7 Feature from Alex Muller on Vimeo.

The taskbar glow is just gorgeous. It takes the most prominent colour in the icon, and makes the entire application bar glow that colour.

I was talking to Michael yesterday, and we decided (I think I got this right) that university was really pretty cool because at times we actually get a say in the way things work. Today, that was verified as I got this reply back from the college administrator:

I was all ready to write this post dripping with praise for the college, and the university and whatever, except I just got another reply explaining that we don’t have Wi-Fi because of the prohibitive cost. Really, "prohibitive cost"?

The pink is where there’s currently Wi-Fi available on campus. The blue is where I asked for it. How is that more expensive to the point where it’s not possible?

Part of me is tempted to try and do something with this (meetings, petitions, voting?) but another part of me thinks it isn’t important enough to waste time on.

Spending a week with people who aren’t completely insane over technology has been refreshing. They don’t mind giving me their laptop to use, whereas I’m crazy to the point that I can hardly leave people alone with my lovely shiny new machine.

The family computer here is a Dell Inspiron which is at least four or five years old, reinforcing (to me at least) something that Leo Laporte mentions on his US radio show, The Tech Guy, relatively often: you don’t need a new machine, you want a new machine because the old one looks clunky. This Inspiron still runs XP (albeit slowly) and Office, and can surf the web fine. To be honest, I’m surprised that some part of it hasn’t given out yet, but I suppose it’s only a matter of time.

And I have to look on the bright side – it means my MacBook looks even prettier than normal.

Photo by robertrazrblog on Flickr (creative commons license)