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Gmail’s Spam Filter Threw Up Today

Posted on November 28, 2006 ·

So far I’ve found Gmail’s spam filter robust, reliable: catches 99% of spam without false positives.  In fact I liked it so much that I recommended using Gmail’s services even for non-gmail accounts.

Today is a bad day: Gmail threw up on me, dumping hundreds of spam items in my inbox.  Interestingly enough, it only happened to one of my gmail accounts.

Anybody having similar experience?

Update (11/28): How timely .. this Reuters piece on spam, via Techmeme.

Update (1/14): Mine is OJ now, but now it’s Marshall’s turn… 

 

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software ·
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ProtectMyPhotos Protects More than Just Photos

Posted on November 27, 2006 ·

Update: This service is no longer available.

I’ve been a happy user of ProtectMyPhotos for over a month now. The best thing about it is that I’m barely aware it’s working: after installing the client one can completely forget about it. Now, this is exactly what I said about Mozy a little while ago, so what is different here?

First of all, let’s define what ProtectMyPhotos is: an online photo data backup/restore service with quite a few bells and whistles added. As usual, TechCrunch has the detailed review, so I will focus on positioning and some comparative analysis here, which is not quite easy, for it resembles/competes with several other services, yet does not fully replace either.

When it comes to online photo storage, we tend to think of Flickr, Zooomr and the like – but those services are primarily focused on sharing, and you have to manually upload photos. This is the part that’s fully automated by ProtectMyPhotos: just like with Mozy, you download a client application, set your preferences on what you want to back up (let it find photos or manually select directories), then leave it alone. From now on all your photos are synchronized with the online version, non-intrusively, as the program runs in idle time and throttles back when you start using your computer. The system keeps multiple versions of your photos online, so you get to pick which version to restore from (“userproof system” in case you mess up your current versionsmile_tongue) .

Unlike Mozy and other backup/storage services, ProtectMyPhotos allows easy access to your online pictures: your original directory structure is preserved, you can browse and display, even do basic photo manipulation online that is synchronized back to your PC.

When I first looked at the pre-launch service, it clearly focused on photos only; since then they added support for several office document types (doc, xls, pdf …etc.), as well as financial documents like Quicken and MS Money files. This is of course great, but why the restriction? Without the file type limitation this would be a full-featured online backup / storage service. Of course then it should be called ProtectMyFiles, but that domain name is taken. smile_sad

A mobile edition, publishing to Flickr, opening files locally (not just photos, Word, Excel ..etc also) and automatic synchronization of multiple computers are amongst a host of new features recently announced.

The last one is a (potential) biggie for me: it could replace useful but unreliable FolderShare – if it wasn’t for the file type restriction.

In summary, I’m somewhat puzzled: ProtectMyPhotos definitely does more than just protect my photos, overlaps with several other services but the file-type limitation forces me to run redundant applications: Mozy, FolderShare and ProtectMyPhotos. I certainly wouldn’t mind reducing the clutter in my systray…

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, SaaS, Software, Startups, Technology ·
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The Wikipedia Enterprise 2.0 Debate – Epilogue

Posted on November 25, 2006 ·

The heated debate over the fate of the Enterprise 2.0 entry in Wikipedia ended in a compromise – it would stay under Enterprise Social Software. Back than I said the debate was largely irrelevant:

Enterprise 2.0 as a term my be relatively knew, but it’s not some theoretical concept a bored professor is trying to sell the world. It’s a disruptive change, a confluence of technological, social and business changes in how corporations conduct business using new IT tools. No Wikipedia gatekeepers can prevent this seismic shift. Let’s move on, do our work, and in less than 6 months Enterprise 2.0 will find its way back to Wikipedia.

Enterprise 2.0 Panel: Prof. Andy McAfee, Jeff Nolan, Ismael Ghalimi, Zoli Erdos, Rod BoothbyNot in 6 months, but in 3 a lot has changed and the term is gaining de facto acceptance. Case studies on Enterprise 2.0 penetration, panel discussions, analyst writeups, (thanks, Susan, for spotting it), and now a full-blown conference. CMP Technology announced the renaming of the Collaborative Technologies Conference to ‘Enterprise 2.0 Conference’. If this is not full vindication of Enterprise 2.0, then I don’t know what is (well, actually, I do – more penetration into business day by day…). On a sidenote, it’s worth observing how as the term becomes “fashionable”, new players claim ownership. The current Wikipedia entry barely resembles to the original, Harvard Prof. Andy McAfee is mentioned in a footnote only, and the most prominent entry is about a US Service Mark filed on May 25, 2006 by Alvin K Chang. I have no clue if he is related to CMP Media, or just the opposite, he tried to prevent assimilation by them (for good reason), all I know is that if “Enterprise 2.0” can be “owned” by anyone, it should be Prof. McAfee. Of course, knowing Andy I think he cares more about practical adoption in business then about turf-wars. smile_wink

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software ·
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Cool Intro to Inkscape and the Enterprise Irregulars

Posted on November 25, 2006 ·

Rod posted this cool video introduction to the Enterprise Irregulars, and to an open source drawing tool called Inkscape.

 

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Enterprise Software, Software, Technology ·
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IdeaWins: Microsoft Contest for Innovative Small Business Idea

Posted on November 16, 2006 ·

I still don’t know if Microsoft’s Software by Parachute initiative was real or just a prank, but here’s another one:  IdeaWins: The Ultimate Challenge – a contest for Innovative Small Businesses.

Software and techie types don’t get your juices flowing just yet: apparently “innovation” is limited to retail businesses, and the award is not only $100K but a year’s rent of a Manhattan storefront, too.

It appears MS released the site in a rush and not all components are ready, as for now submissions are by emailing a downloadable form, but starting November 27th there will be an “innovative” interactive way to enter.

Four Finalists will be selected who can submit a video and the winner will be picked by a public online vote. (digg it? smile_wink)

This contest is basically a PR campaign to promote MS Office Accounting 2007 which is quite evident if you arrive to the IdeaWins Home Page: the FAQ is actually all about the Accounting package, and the contest terms are somewhat hard to find.  If you follow my link from the pic above, you get right into the contest page, where there is a seconds set of FAQ, this time about the contest.  Oh, and of course you’ll be prompted to download MS Accounting a few times along the way…smile_omg

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Filed Under: Business, Marketing / PR, SMB / SME, Software, Startups ·
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Microsoft Filters out Gmail

Posted on November 13, 2006 ·

ZDNet finds that every time they open Gmail, a warning is displayed telling the user they are infected with “BAT/BWG.A“.

 

A false positive sure to be fixed soon.  Don’t get the wrong idea though: Microsoft is not biased against its competitor… they had done the same to themselves:

Sure, just remove Windows Explorer smile_devil.    After all, A Dead PC is a Safe PC.  Or one that only plays the startup sound smile_baringteeth

 

Filed Under: Humor, Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·
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18 Months to Develop, 4 Seconds Long, But You Can Kill It

Posted on November 13, 2006 ·

AP, Seattle: “Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that’s how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.” 
That’s the Vista Startup Sound. Microsoft hired famous guitarist Robert Fripp for the job. 

Originally, in a perfect demonstration of product-focused thinking ignoring users, Microsoft planned to make this sound mandatory (impossible to modify or even shut off), but when Robert Scoble leaked the news, there was a huge backlash eventually Microsoft gave in, making the sound optional.

So in the end, 18 months of effort went into 4 seconds that you will turn off anyway. smile_party  Much ado about nothing… in the end, this is all that matters:

 Ready for Windows Vista?

Update (11/13): I’ve only discovered after writing this post that you can actually listen to the startup sound by clicking Play under the photo in the AP article. Wow… is that it?  The heavenly experience? smile_sad

18  months…. LOL.  Several years and latops ago I had my new mail notification sound set to a 3-4 second harp piece from Franz Liszt‘s Les Preludes.  It took me a good 30 minutes to cut/edit  it. smile_tongue

 

Filed Under: Business, Humor, Software, Technology ·
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24SevenOffice is More than Just Office – Watch Demo

Posted on November 7, 2006 ·

24SevenOffice is an innovative software company offering SaaS for the SMB / SME market that should really be called 24SevenBusiness smile_wink

Their system is modular but integrated with a breath of functionality I simply haven’t seen elsewhere: Accounting, CRM (Contacts, Lead Mgt, SFA), ERP (Supply Chain, Orders, Products, Inventory), Communication, Group Scheduling, HR, Project Management, Publishing, Intranet. Essentially a NetSuite+Communication and Collaboration.

They are innovators in many ways … had an AJAX system long before it was called AJAX and recently they created a “World’s First” by teaming up with a bank that becomes the SaaS provider offering its customers single sign-on Web solutions for banking and all other business software needs.

The system is really comprehensive so it may not be that easy to figure out all features, therefore they released a cool flash demo that walks through the major business processes. (hat tip: Espen Antonsen)

What I really like about 24SevenOffice is that they are proof to my favorite theme, i.e. that small businesses can now have “enterprise” system functionality. My only complaint is that so far they onu cover several European countries; I wish they were faster entering the US market. smile_tongue But I’m hearing that may not be too far now …

Update (11/12): check out Dennis Howlett’s post on Interprise Suite, another integrated system for the SMB market.

Filed Under: Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, SaaS, SMB / SME, Software, Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Yahoo Getting Stale

Posted on November 6, 2006 ·

I’m lazy. This must be an only reason my browser’s homepage is still my.yahoo.com, set 10 or so years ago, instead of Netvibes or some other hot site.  I rarely read stuff here, relying on social filtering – i.e. if something is of interest to me, it will likely show up in my feed reader, through a trusted individual’s blog.

Today I semi-automatically clicked on a news item and had that deja vu feeling… no wonder:

 

“Full coverage” (whatever the source) updated 4 days ago,  Reuters updated 4 days ago.  Not displayed, but AP Europe updated 3 days ago, San Jose Merc 3 days ago, Contra Costa times 3 days ago ..etc.

Is My Yahoo dead?

Update (116): Read about Start Pages / Widgets on the Read/Write Web. 

Filed Under: Blogging, Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·
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After SaaS Here Comes SbP: (Microsoft) Software By Parachute

Posted on November 2, 2006 ·

Microsoft invented (?) a new software delivery model: Software by Parachute.   Apparently they blanketed the town of Willow Springs, IL with aerial droppings of the new Accounting software.  If the embedded player does not work, watch the videos here and here. (hat tip: Julius Danilevsky)

 

 

Note: I have no way to verify if this is a hoax or real, but I suppose we’ll know within hours.

 

Filed Under: Marketing / PR, SMB / SME, Software ·
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