Simon's shared items in Google Reader

xAP Tutorial - Setting Up the Open Home Automation Protocol

2010-06-03T07:06:11Z

xAP is an open Home Automation Protocol, created by Automated Home readers almost a decade ago. It allows many disparate systems to talk to each other - for example your Caller ID interface could send packets to your Joggler to display details when someone rings. Or perhaps you need your Comfort Alarm system to be able to control to your C-Bus lighting? All do-able with xAP. Recent discussions on our forums have lead to a new beginners guide / tutorial on setting up and running xAP in your own home and with the kind permission of the author, we've re-created it here

One-time Passwords, SSL and More: New Hotmail Focuses on Security

2010-05-24T14:44:00Z

In the upcoming version of Hotmail, the free, web-based email service from Microsoft, there will be a greater emphasis on security. In addition to the numerous, new spam-fighting features previously announced, the new Hotmail will also offer additional security features, reports SC Magazine after confirming the changes with a Microsoft spokesperson.

For example, users will be able to associate a Hotmail account with their mobile phone so when a password is forgotten or lost, it can be sent via text message. That makes the password reset procedure more secure as only you have access to your phone.

Also new is a “one-time password” option. If you’re worried about security, like when using a public computer that may or may not be infected malware, this single-use password lets you into your account but can never be used again.

Plus, from now on, the entire Hotmail session will be encrypted via SSL, not just the login procedure.

Finally, inside your inbox, emails from “trusted senders” (those from legitimate institutions and businesses) will be visually highlighted with a new “safety logo” as being trustworthy.

These changes are just a small part of the upcoming revamp to the refreshed service. You can read about all the new features here.

IT Operations: From Day-Care to University

2010-05-24T23:41:38Z

After spending the day discussing IT operations, here are some musings on the future of IT ops.

Traditionally, IT ops has been responsible for managing operationally "dumb" applications. These legacy applications are like infants – they need constant care and feeding. They can’t take care of themselves, and they rely entirely on others to survive. Actually, these dumb applications are even less capable than infants – at least infants cry when they’re hungry!

IT operations today is like day-care. Every infant is different, has different needs, signals their needs in different ways. There’s not much economies of scale here at all. Not a lot that can be automated. And new infants are being added daily!

There are three major paths for IT operations in the future – and each of them is very different:

(1) The Day-Care for Clones: Limit IT operations to management of a single (or small number of) applications. Knowing exactly how these applications work allows you to custom design IT operations/automation to their needs. This is what cloud providers typically do today, and application-centric environments (around Oracle, for example).

(2) The Smart Day-Care: The effort for years has been to make the day-care smarter, more adaptive, more on-demand. This has been a huge challenge, and will continue to be a huge challenge. One new concept has been the introduction of virtual machines, that can be used to encapsulate workloads – which doesn’t solve the problem, but it does enable more automation. Ideally, you still want to have metadata about what’s inside the virtual machine, which can describe service topology, security requirements, even service level requirements.

(3) The University: Expect more from the applications. They need to manage themselves, describe their requirements. They don’t "trust" infrastructure at all – if there are failures, the application is designed to be resilient and extremely self-reliant. On the other hand, IT operations still has a role. With "smart" applications, IT operations can’t necessarily trust them. The role of IT operations is to set constraints, manage the amount of resource that can be used, monitor behavior, look for changes in behavior.

The issue in IT operations is that these three paths are each viable, but each has very different skill, architecture, process, and management tool requirements. This confusion will take place inside enterprise IT – managing a mixed bag of “dumb” applications, “smart” applications, management of virtual machines, private clouds, and public clouds. Get ready for a bumpy ride!

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh) (via @stevecla)

2010-05-10T20:23:53Z

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh) (via @stevecla)

Fitness Primer

2010-05-10T05:25:10Z

Always take the stairs, especially down.
Walk to the corner store.
Stretch regularly during the day.
Go to one Pilates lesson and find out how to strengthen your core.
Go to a couple of martial arts lessons and re-discover balance and co-ordination.
Go to a dance class and become totally exhausted and hit your MHR without even realising.
Walk everywhere you can: rain or shine.
Make exercise an essential part of your day: not an inconsequential 'add-on'.
Stand during more of the day.
At the gym do everything properly: quality over quantity.
Work all the body, not just the six-pack.
Address both CV and resistance.
Build in variety: cycling, swimming....
Expect it to be tough initially but eventually something you just love to be: fit.

Social Luxury is Personal

2010-05-10T10:52:41Z

Shared by Simon
Point 2 is especially interesting

The following piece was also cross-posted on Forbes.com.

Social Luxury is Personal

Social networking started out as "things" - destination sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that we browse to and use to connect with our friends, family and co-workers. Now, however, it is poised to become "everything."

Just like water blankets the Earth's surface area (and sustains life), social networking technologies will soon cover 70 percent of the web. This will breathe ubiquitous global social connectivity into once solitary experiences. The impact for luxury brands will be dramatic. For decades, luxury brands have appealed to an insatiable emotional need that millions share. As a society, we aspire to purchase products and services that make us feel wealthy, either financially or emotionally. This often changes with the times - and it's steered by local cultures as well - however, the trend spans centuries.

This raises a key question: in an era of ubiquitous social networking - one where every online and mobile experience is enhanced by the lens of our friends - how will luxury be defined?

Where once a single TV show or a celebrity could define luxury, that's no longer the case. The media environment is too fragmented today and it's increasingly personalized by the connections we keep. This means that luxury is fractional. A brand that's achieved luxury status among thirty-something moms in LA could be considered taboo by the same demographic in NY - all because of the types of social connections we keep online and how they shape our worldview.

With this dynamic in mind, here are three steps that luxury brands should consider to either maintain or grow their iconic status...

1) Make every online experience a social one

Every day consumers are talking about luxury brands online. This means we form opinions based on what we see/hear from our friends. To succeed, luxury brands will need to turn once static experiences into social ones that are personalized so that the right message is communicated at the right time to the right group of individuals in the right context - all while appealing to their higher emotional needs.

Facebook's new social tools, introduced last month, are a great first step in this direction. Levis (an Edelman client) have deployed them across their web site, turning every experience into a social one that's filtered through our friends.

2) Develop coveted social objects

Luxury goods are coveted. Many of us want to be seen carrying our Louis Vutton handbag or wearing a Coach watch. This could translate online as well. Just as millions hope to one day be able to afford luxury brands, they also might want to achieve some level of similar status online within their social network.

Enter luxury brands. Every single one of the iconic companies on this list has the opportunity to create and launch social objects that consumers can earn the right to embed and/or share on their social profiles. 3) Map and tap networks

Every individual has role models. It used to be, however, that celebrities dominated this space. Today, however, it's possible that our view of role models is changing, perhaps moving closer to the company we keep online. Luxury brands that can understand how role models are formed, map these networks and tap into their power will be in the best position to capture attention in a highly personalized environment.

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How To Achieve Your Goals

2010-05-10T04:01:14Z

‘How To Achieve Your Goals’ was written by Vincent, author of Health Money Success.

So you have some goals, but you just can’t seem to achieve them. You’re frustrated, right? Well, why is it so hard? Do only a few lucky people get to achieve their goals? No…

It’s all about creating a logical plan and executing it.

There are three big reasons why people fail to achieve their goals:

They never set achievable goals to begin with.
They have no plan.
They never take any sort of logical action.

Do you think Steve Jobs and Bill gates were just lucky, or did they have a plan? You better believe they had a plan – a long, long-term vision. And then they worked hard and took a series of logical, actionable steps to achieve them. They didn’t just ‘think it.’ They ‘did it.’

You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say, “I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built.” You say, “I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.”
You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.
-Will Smith

How To Achieve Your Goals

Over the years I have achieved many of my personal goals. And in all cases this is the methodology I used. It’s tried and true, and I assure you, it can help you achieve your goals as well. There are four basic steps:

Set achievable goals.
Strategize and plan.
Take action.
Review your progress regularly.

Let’s go through them one at a time.

Set Achievable Goals

When you are climbing the ladder, ensure that
you are leaning against the right wall.

You can climb the ladder as fast as you want, but it’s going to be a giant waste of your time if you get to the top and realize you’re leaning against the wrong wall. You will need to get this step right to ensure that you are not wasting your efforts on goals that you do not truly want to achieve. We as humans have a tendency to try to bite off more than we can chew, and this usually causes us to feel frustrated and annoyed.

Because we only have a finite amount of time, it’s foolish to attempt to conquer the world in a day. Yeah, you could set goals to be the best guitar player, basketball player, football player, lose weight, be financially savvy, earn $10,000 and join the public speaking club all at the same time. But does that sound logical or achievable? Not to me it doesn’t. How can you excel at anything when you are juggling everything?

So the first key is to figure out a few (1 to 3) things that you truly want. And make sure you truly understand why you want these things. Otherwise you’ll just lose interest.

Strategize and Plan

Here are the basic strategies you will need to employ to keep your motivation burning and your progress on track:

A) Paste up your goals where you can see them every day. – Without reminders, you will likely forget about your goals and become easily distracted by other stimuli. So print them out 10, 20 or 30 times and paste them up in the most prominent, visible areas around your house, office, etc.

B) Create a visualization board. – For most of us, our mind sees the world in images and we remember images more clearly compared to text and numbers. A visualization board is basically a large bulletin board filled with clear images of what you want to achieve. This added visual stimulation can help invoke powerful emotions that will constantly drive your motivation.

If you want to lose weight and get back down a few pants sizes, put an old photo of yourself up on the board. If you want your blog to start making a thousand dollars a month, find a few success stories online of people that have achieved that goal and stick it up on the board. You get the idea. Position the board right next to your work area so you can see it while you work toward your goals.

C) Form a small mastermind group. – A mastermind group is your support group. And believe me, this group is a vital entity to your success. The group can consist of any amount of people (at least 2), but the important thing is that everyone in the group must share similar goals. It doesn’t help much when you are trying to lose 30 lbs and other members in the group have goals of setting up their own company.

A mastermind group helps to hold all its members accountable. This will help you maintain consistency in taking action even when laziness gets the best of you. Be sure to meet with your mastermind group at least once a week.

D) Create a daily action plan with actionable tasks. – Bullet points A, B and C help you to sustain the desire and motivation to achieve your goals. This will ensure that you will not give up halfway though and fall backwards on your rear end. But you also need a real, actionable plan that you can follow every day until you actually do achieve your goals.

Every morning, brainstorm for tasks that will help to bring you closer to your goals and write them down. Try to create three small actionable tasks each morning and complete them before you go to sleep. Make them a priority and fit them into your schedule. Whether you complete them or not makes a big difference in whether or not you will succeed.

If you find it hard to generate the small daily tasks or an actionable plan that will bring you closer to your goals, seek out a mentor, search online, or purchase a book on goal setting.

Here are three books I highly recommend:

Breaking down your goals will help you avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed. When you are creating your action plan, keep the short-term tasks in mind instead of obsessing over the long-term end result. Obsessing over long-term results just creates stress. It is far easier to think on a short-term task-related basis. And as long as you complete your tasks, the results will take care of themselves. For instance, if you want to write a book, don’t obsess about completing the book (long-term results oriented), just focus on writing a page or two a day (short-term task-related) and soon you will have your book completed.

E) Set a deadline. – You will also need to set a deadline for your goal. A long-term goal without a deadline will not instill any sense of urgency in you. And defining a deadline also gives you something to look forward to.

Take Action

This step doesn’t need a long explanation. Just take your daily action plan that we created above and DO IT! More than anything, successfully achieving any goal hinges on the simple act of making a decision to absorb yourself fully in the process of getting things done – actually taking action.

Review Your Progress Regularly

An airplane goes slightly off its set course 70 to 80 percent of the time during an average flight, but the pilots always manage to land it in the exact location they intended. How? It’s quite simple. Every time they go off course, they make a slight adjustment to correct it.

Reviewing your goals regularly will help you to check your progress to determine if any adjustments are required. In addition, monitoring your progress will also likely motivate you to try even harder. Whenever we see positive results, we have the tendency to take more action so we can see more positive results.

Parting Words

This article was inspired by one of the comments I recently received over on my blog. It seems that people are often frustrated that they can’t stick to their goals and achieve the results they want in life. I hope this article helps. I would love to hear some feedback from you in the comments section below. I’ll be sure to follow-up. Cheers.

Author’s Bio: Vincent writes about personal development over at Health Money Success. His aim is to help people awaken the sleeping genius within them so they can achieve their desired success in life. He has also created a free ebook called Unleash Your Maximum Potential.

Photo by: James Jordan

A sliding alternative to CAPTCHA?

2010-07-11T17:17:59Z

Here’s an interesting idea, I’m sure it’s somewhat less than uncrackable though…

Once such approach brought to my attention recently can be found on They Make Apps. Instead of the distorted text strings that typify most modern CAPTCHAs, the sign up form on They Make Apps uses a slider that asks people to: “show us your human side; slide the cursor to the end of the line to create your account.” Moving the slider to the right completely submits the form and triggers error validation just like a standard Submit button would.

via LukeW

Twitter Blackbird Pie Plugin for Windows Live Writer

2010-05-09T19:43:33Z

Shared by Simon
Scott is truly a genius.

Twitter Blackbird Pie Plugin for Windows Live Writer http://bit.ly/c0Fobsless than a minute ago via APIsteve clayton
stevecla

Scott Lovegrove really is a damn fine chap and he churns out the best plugins for Windows Live Writer. Last week I casually suggested a plugin to make Blackbird Pie, Twitter’s active quote service, available as a plugin. Hey presto, a few days later Scott turns out the goods. If this post has a live quote above, then it worked.

It’s very easy to use. You simply click the insert Blackbird Pie button in Live Writer, you see the box below and paste in your Twitter link. Hey presto, you now have a live link. Yay!

thanks Scott and for those using Google Buzz he has a plugin available for that too.

~~As soon as Scott posts the code for the Blackbird Pie plugin, I’ll post here…and tweet it of course!~~

Scott just posted the download link as part of his own post on this new plugin.

"FCC allows blocking of set-top box outputs"

2010-05-08T00:51:02Z

Not sure if this will affect a lot of people but I thought I would post it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100507/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_fcc_movie_recordings

That volcano

2010-04-24T08:20:00Z

Mother nature really is an awesome force and we saw that over the last 6 days with the Eyjafjallajokul volcano. It almost stopped me making it home for a rather important event this weekend. Read the blog for more on that…fro now, enjoy some amazing images from Boston.com’s Big Picture

Redesigning the boarding pass

2010-04-26T18:09:18Z

Great idea, the boarding pass always verges on the edge of nonsense, here’s an example of someone taking the information and restructuring it into a useful, easy to understand for…

What you see above is the travel detritus it took me to make my journey from Seattle to London last week. Some of it is actually useful (like my passport) but some of it is superfluous and over engineered – the boarding passes in particular.

I also like one of the reader suggestions to make the boarding pass a regular business card size. You could argue the odd size they are today make them stand out a bit but I would love a business card sized one just to slip in to my wallet where I know it’d be safe.

Getting More Done in Less Time

2010-05-02T05:26:56Z

Have a plan.
Work that plan.
Batch together similar activities e.g. answering e-mail.
Don't strain. If you 'need another coffee', peak productivity has passed. Take a break.
Develop systems e.g. for writing or handling expenses or productive conference calls.
Identify blockers to getting more down e.g. frequent interrupts and solve them.
Regularly check that you are getting the right things done.

Microsoft’s HTML5 strategy and open dialogue

2010-05-03T19:53:08Z

I just finished reading Ed Bott’s fine post “Microsoft fires back at critics of its HTML5 strategy” and not only did it educate me, it reminded me of how we differ in our approach to Apple when it comes to communication. I’m not saying one is right or wrong but when I saw Charles Arthur of the Guardian call Steve Jobs recent missive on Adobe Flash a “blog post” I disagreed. As Ed points out, the big difference between the Jobs post and that of Dean Hachamovitch, (General Manager of the Internet Explorer division) is the ability to comment. Dean’s has it, Steve’s didn’t and whilst we can split hairs about what constitutes a blog, for me, one big feature is the ability to leave comments. Dean went on to respond to those comments in a further post.

I think it’s indicative of an open approach from Microsoft, one that invites commentary and acts upon it. The Engineering 7 blog is another example where Steven Sinofsky and team openly blogged about the process of creating Windows 7 and along the way, took feedback and changed things. (that blog has been short on posts for a while I’d add…hint hint :) ).

I wrote this post not to debate the merits of the approaches Apple and Microsoft take as I can see the benefit in both and the Apple approach serves them extremely well. Rather I was reminded as I read Ed’s post of an entertaining exchange on Twitter last week with a friend here in the UK. Nick thought it was ironic as an employee of Microsoft that I was chuckling about Apple and openness. In past roles at Microsoft I’ve taken a lot of heat for our lack of openness and in many cases, rightly so. As I said to Nick, things have changed a lot over the last 5+ years though and I sincerely believe we’ve become a much more open organisation, both in dialogue and in standards. For me, that’s a good thing but the exchange last week reminded me also how much work we have to do to change perception of Microsoft. It’s a big gig!

How To Get More Ideas 7

2010-05-06T03:40:34Z

Read broadly and widely, especially outside your core area.
Write often and at speed to flush out ideas.
Take time out to allow ideas to 'incubate'.
Carry a note-book at all times to allow the capturing of even the 'germ' of an idea for possible later 'work up'.
Try 'deliberate' techniques such as proposed by Edward De Bono.
Re-visit old ideas with added maturity.
Believe you can generate the fresh thinking you need.

British Seed Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo

2010-05-06T17:22:37Z

We already knew the outside was an amazing, bold design, but the inside is if anything, more impressive as each of the glass spires holds a single seed within in…

When we featured the first renders of the UK Pavilion back on August, 2009, many readers doubt that Heatherwick Studio’s design could be done (or at least look like the renders). The Shanghai World Expo 2010 has started and the UK Pavilion has become a favorite to many of you. Now you can see the complete projects.

via ArchDaily.

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time

2010-07-11T13:48:00Z

For the third time in the last 6 days, another line of nasty storms rolled through Chicago on Wednesday evening. In this clip you will see three of the tallest buildings in Chicago get struck by lightning at the same time. Willis Tower (Tallest), Trump International Hotel and Tower (2nd Tallest) and the John Hancock Building(4th tallest).

via Vimeo.

In Deep Water: Can we afford to spill any oil?

2010-05-05T17:29:27Z

Data here: http://www.bit.ly/InDeepWater

DESIGN: David McCandless
RESEARCH: David McCandless, James Key
ADDITIONAL DESIGN: Matt Hancock
SOURCES: International Energy Association, CIA Factbook, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, Press Reports
DATA: Explore in this Google doc

Ten Productivity Tips: Part III

2010-03-30T03:25:38Z

Parts One and Two.

Get physically fit. That'll give you stamina which will boost your self-discipline and self-motivation.
Address all areas of your Life when considering productivity, not just 'work'. Think career, wellness, finances, relationships, fun and contribution.
Above all, remember that productivity is less a list and more a mindset, less a Blackberry and more a methodology and above all less about getting stuff done and more about living Life long, wide and deep.

Bonus 1: Productivity101

Bonus 2: Boost Your Productivity (free) PDF

Bonus 3: Get a Life, the book.

Why do women's shirts button up the wrong way?

2010-03-17T10:56:24Z

Not something you’d expect to learn at a Microsoft conference right? Well, not every Microsoft conference has Bill Buxton on the agenda.

I just managed to watch Bill’s talk from MIX10 yesterday and as usual it was unusual….and educational. I did find out why women's shirts button up the wrong way. I also learnt how the flag of Catalonia came to be, and why XBOX Project Natal doesn’t work on an airplane. Okay, that last one was easy but the two others are not things you’d typically expect to hear at a Microsoft conference right?

Jump to around 2:14 to see Bill do his thing.

[update] – in case you don’t have time to view the video, women's shirts button the “wrong” way (i.e. opposite from men's) because when buttons first came to be used, they were expensive hence it was only the rich who could afford to have them. back then if you were a rich lady, you didn’t button your own shirt of course – you had someone do it for you. hence, when someone facing you is buttoning your shirt it’s the “right” way.