Monday, February 28, 2005
USB Flash drives will hold our digital lives
You know those cute little USB flash drives you can get for about $70 AU which hold 512M of data?
Well, they are going to be the future of personal digital storage.
The average user can now easily hold all the documents they have ever written on one of these little devices, and unless you create lots of digital video or create (that means paint/draw/etc - NOT download) a lot of graphics files, then this storage medium is currently the best thing we have for the average user to keep all their info in one place.
There was a horrible period of PC sales from about 1997 to 2002 when the average computer shop offered no wayfor a person to backup their own data - prior to 1997 you could fit almost all your files on a few floppy disks, and after 2002 CDR's where cheap and commonplace (and more importantly, they were included as standard in PC's).
Of course, the problem is that most people dont backup their data to CD on any sort of regular basis - and this is where I see the USB flash drive as being important.
In a few short years (months even - the way the prices are dropping), we'll have 1-4G USB flash drives for under a $100, and this is will be able to handle the storage capacity of 95% of the computer users [remember - this doesnt include downloaded files - if you downloaded them once, then you didnt create it and you'll be able to get it again if the worst comes to the worst.]
We will get into the habit of saving files which we create directly to the USB drive - it will be the 'My Documents' of the future, and it is completely portable (sits in your pocket - or on your keyring) and can have encryption built into them if you are worried about other people reading them.
The main benefit will be - that we will always have our own personal and *useful* information at hand - your favourites list, email and Instant messenger contacts, personal documents (resume, budget, ) all the source code you've ever written - and the best thing is that they act like a normal drive - you simply plug it into a normal computer and bingo - all your info is there.
As long as Moores Law continues as it is, then we will have more than enough storage space for our *important* digital documents which make up our lives and not the hundreds of gigabytes of mostly junk which lives on our hard drives.
Well, they are going to be the future of personal digital storage.
The average user can now easily hold all the documents they have ever written on one of these little devices, and unless you create lots of digital video or create (that means paint/draw/etc - NOT download) a lot of graphics files, then this storage medium is currently the best thing we have for the average user to keep all their info in one place.
There was a horrible period of PC sales from about 1997 to 2002 when the average computer shop offered no wayfor a person to backup their own data - prior to 1997 you could fit almost all your files on a few floppy disks, and after 2002 CDR's where cheap and commonplace (and more importantly, they were included as standard in PC's).
Of course, the problem is that most people dont backup their data to CD on any sort of regular basis - and this is where I see the USB flash drive as being important.
In a few short years (months even - the way the prices are dropping), we'll have 1-4G USB flash drives for under a $100, and this is will be able to handle the storage capacity of 95% of the computer users [remember - this doesnt include downloaded files - if you downloaded them once, then you didnt create it and you'll be able to get it again if the worst comes to the worst.]
We will get into the habit of saving files which we create directly to the USB drive - it will be the 'My Documents' of the future, and it is completely portable (sits in your pocket - or on your keyring) and can have encryption built into them if you are worried about other people reading them.
The main benefit will be - that we will always have our own personal and *useful* information at hand - your favourites list, email and Instant messenger contacts, personal documents (resume, budget, ) all the source code you've ever written - and the best thing is that they act like a normal drive - you simply plug it into a normal computer and bingo - all your info is there.
As long as Moores Law continues as it is, then we will have more than enough storage space for our *important* digital documents which make up our lives and not the hundreds of gigabytes of mostly junk which lives on our hard drives.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Why Software Patents Suck
1. Most software patents which have been granted are completely obvious to a first year computer programmer - e.g. 'one click shopping'
2. There have been thousands of these stupid software patents granted, and even though they haven't been enforced yet [the big players are in a sort of mexican standoff - they each have patents which can hurt the other big player, but that company will retaliate and hurt them in reply. Can you see the pattern - its a bit like the movie 'Wargames' where the computer realises that the only winning move is not to play. This is a bit like how the current patent crisis sits.]
3. BUT - should the 'big players' decide to *target* a small business or individual then that target will be completely crushed due to the overally general nature of the existing software patents. Mind you, this will cause a complete media storm (and rightly so) which would damage the big companies, but the problem still exists - the big boys can crush the newcomers quickly and legally at will.
2. There have been thousands of these stupid software patents granted, and even though they haven't been enforced yet [the big players are in a sort of mexican standoff - they each have patents which can hurt the other big player, but that company will retaliate and hurt them in reply. Can you see the pattern - its a bit like the movie 'Wargames' where the computer realises that the only winning move is not to play. This is a bit like how the current patent crisis sits.]
3. BUT - should the 'big players' decide to *target* a small business or individual then that target will be completely crushed due to the overally general nature of the existing software patents. Mind you, this will cause a complete media storm (and rightly so) which would damage the big companies, but the problem still exists - the big boys can crush the newcomers quickly and legally at will.
Friday, February 25, 2005
XML is overrated bullshit
There - I've said it. It's posted on the web, its public - cannot be retrieved and will be probably cached by numerous search engines only to come back and haunt me years later.
My shareware products will be using XML in the future, but I still stick with the overall comment that XML is overrated bullshit.
I've seen many fads come and go, some good, some bad, some fantastic and some plain silly. But the XML craze that began is odd because 'people were already doing it'.
It is essentially a structured text file - whoppee do! Smart windows developers and almost all Unix/Linux developers have been using text files for years. But now we slap a few HTML tags around the data and bingo - new industry springs up overnight, heralding a new age of interconnected computing.
"Why are going to use it, if its so overrated?" I hear you cry.
I already use text files for all configuration and data options in my applications, so its reasonably trivial to convert them to XML format. This is my main point - I believe (and others will back me up on this) that we should have been using text format all along, and my problem with XML isn't that its not a good idea (it is), its just that it was being done by thousands of others for years and it comes along as if it’s the new messiah.
By the way, XML is actually the reason I started a blog - just so the world knows that *someone* doesn't think the sun shines out of XML's bum.
Cheers.
Duncan
My shareware products will be using XML in the future, but I still stick with the overall comment that XML is overrated bullshit.
I've seen many fads come and go, some good, some bad, some fantastic and some plain silly. But the XML craze that began is odd because 'people were already doing it'.
It is essentially a structured text file - whoppee do! Smart windows developers and almost all Unix/Linux developers have been using text files for years. But now we slap a few HTML tags around the data and bingo - new industry springs up overnight, heralding a new age of interconnected computing.
"Why are going to use it, if its so overrated?" I hear you cry.
I already use text files for all configuration and data options in my applications, so its reasonably trivial to convert them to XML format. This is my main point - I believe (and others will back me up on this) that we should have been using text format all along, and my problem with XML isn't that its not a good idea (it is), its just that it was being done by thousands of others for years and it comes along as if it’s the new messiah.
By the way, XML is actually the reason I started a blog - just so the world knows that *someone* doesn't think the sun shines out of XML's bum.
Cheers.
Duncan
Who the hell is this guy?
Welcome to my blog.
Here is where I intend to rant and rave about the pro's and con's of any technology that I feel like talking about.
There will be bold predictions - unjustified whinges - insightful comments and, yes even some humour!
I am 38 years old, Male, currently working as a Senior Business Analyst and run a part time shareware company. I've been a computer programmer for over 20 years now, and I have a wide range of experiance with all sorts of technological junk.
Here is where I intend to rant and rave about the pro's and con's of any technology that I feel like talking about.
There will be bold predictions - unjustified whinges - insightful comments and, yes even some humour!
I am 38 years old, Male, currently working as a Senior Business Analyst and run a part time shareware company. I've been a computer programmer for over 20 years now, and I have a wide range of experiance with all sorts of technological junk.
