The technology week in view: 11th Jan 2008
Monday, January 14th, 2008Most technology news you may read this week is tied up with reports from CES - the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the GizmosforGeeks team have been hard at work reporting on all the juicy new gadgets. I haven’t been so lucky to visit and instead have been at work at the office trying to sort out a number of technology issues - however a few interesting things have popped up. The new Everex Cloudbook, a potential challenger to the Asus eee PC is promised to hit the shelves in Walmart by the end of this month - in the USA at least. The UMPC is an ideal machine for the non-technologist, and indeed for the technologist, with its no-nonsense low-cost approach offering just the applications that are really required - I really believe the UMPC, personified by the ASUS eee PC, will be successful.
I have always been interested in technology management systems having already shown interest in ITIL v2 and the recent broadening of its horizons into ITIL v3. A complementary framework that focuses on a number of key skills and roles is SFIA: Skills Framework for the Information Age. This looks a very promising development and finally starts to give ICT the formal structure that it needs. One of the big problems in IT is skills related and formalising functions into a sensible structure. Over the years there has been a swing in IT from all rounders (though in a small company like the one I work for they are still essential!) to IT teams where focus in a particular discipline is a necessity and this is where SFIA should really help.
I have finally started getting to the bottom of my ongoing certificate battle with mobile devices. The struggle has been trying to get push email, in particular ActiveSync, working with Exchange Server 2007 using SSL but this has been something of a hit and miss affair. It seems that some devices can read SAN (Subject Alternate Names) and UCC (Unified Communications Certificate) multiple host entries contained within certificates whereas other devices only seem to read the first line so it would appear that ordering of hosts is vitally important when requesting a certificate.
While we are on the fix it schedule, I have a few more tips you might find helpful - firstly that terrible blacking, almost redaction, effect that can occur in Adobe Acrobat v8 on Terminal Services - Corrupt text display in Acrobat and Terminal Services. Also, if you’ve been struggling to update your Blog thumbnail on Technorati - How to update your Blog thumbnail on Technorati.
You get get more tips over at my Blog at http://www.jasonslater.co.uk/ by clicking on the Tips Category.
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We know there was an absolutely stunning amount of stuff going down at CES last week — yet strangely enough nothing that really stood out. Before Macworld officially gets started let’s bring it home with a few of the highlights of the news week you might have missed!
Iomega’s svelte portable eGo hard drive lineup got quite a bit of love the first time around, and Iomega is working in new sizes and plugs at this year’s Macworld. The 2.5-inch drive now comes in 160GB and 250GB sizes, priced $140 and $210, respectively, for the USB 2.0 versions, while the Dual Interface editions (which toss in FireWire 400) will run you $160 and $230, respectively. Both versions can be powered straight from the data plug. The drives are available now in Cherry Red, Jet Black, Midnight Blue and Alpine White.
1080p and QuadHD / 4K can take a step back, the Japanese government has announced plans to bring Super Hi-Vision (a.k.a. Ultra High Definition) to life as a broadcast standard by 2015. With its 33 megapixel (7,680 x 4,320) resolution and 22.2 channel surround sound, challenges so far have included building a camera that can record it, and equipment to transfer the 24Gbps uncompressed stream. Fortunately, some forward thinker in Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry — that we are strongly considering as a write in candidate for the presidential elections — is beginning a joint project with private companies to make this happen, beginning with a research investment of about $2.7 million this year alone. If you’re still confused as to how much more res this is than anything you currently own, check out the handy chart after the break.
