Deviant Abstraction

OK not always… But this link is a good list of points to consider before taking an important decision.

(from Flickr)

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Science fiction writers were right again (usually they are the first to spot/create new ideas). Hibernation would happen soon and if this technology is industrialised, it would change a lot of things. At least, we will have different timesets for different people (as in sci fi books).

Why now? Someone got by himself into hibernation and it saved him. Now scientists are trying to reproduce it and then understand it. Now that we have a proof, funding is there again.

(from Flickr)

It seems we are on the verge of much more change than my father has seen for his whole life. This is only on of the “cool” and short term hot research area. Results will soon start to pour in.

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I have recently relocated from a big city to a small town in the countryside. This lifestyle change pointed out several limits of the web application paradigm since I have now only a very limited Internet connectivity.

At first I tried to use web applications extensively for my private life: agenda, text processor, todo and so on…. But it turns out this is a far from ideal situation.

For instance:

• No confidentiality. I don’t want to expose all my data to outsiders especially on a wifi network. I send and receive sensitive data like my credit card number.
• Only online access. OK this one is obvious but my Internet access is limited and irregular. This is is the first time in more than ten years. It is destabilizing. How do I access my calendar even when there is no Internet around? Web application do not provide this.
• Silo effect. I usually process subset of my data with custom made scripts. Those scripts are not web aware. There are as far as I know no find or grep for the Web. Not even a universal and easy way to parse any HTML page from any computer language.
• Lack of customization. I have tailored my desktop to my needs and this is a huge value add for me. For instance, Evolution, Skype and Gaim are automatically launched at startup times, my SVN repositories are updated… Web application does not offer any way to configure them this easily. What I need is kind of NetVibes on steroids
• Integration with current application. Desktop applications are heavily integrated. For instance, I can load with my desktop computer my Ipod. I can not from web applications.
• Interactivity. I need speed and efficiency. This is the basis of interactive applications. Web applications (even Gmail) are slow and clumsy for obvious latency reasons. This is OK for email not for code editing.

One silly example that happened yesterday. I need to fill online my tax declaration. For this French’s government is generating a certificate. But no web applications allow me to store this certificate for me (and for good reasons).

You might object that I could have built a web application to take care of those needs, this Netvibes on steroid. Actually I started but I found in between a much more elegant solution: the use of a remote desktop system. One issue remains though. Its cost: a dedicated server is expensive.

(USB systems have also their own limit mainly “no background mode”.)

A virtual machine paid by the hour such as EC2 is perfect and nearly free (it could even be financed by advertisement if a company wanted to operate such a service). It is my Personal Virtual Machine (PVM). Some companies have started offering them for free (ie Desktop On Demand) but their offer is unreliable, slow and you cannot run all the applications you want/need.

In the end I installed KDE and NXE on my dedicated server (NXE is a great WAN remote desktop tool. Truly impressive). It solved all my problems really fast although it is costly (more than 30 euros per month). Marketing hype is on web applications but now we should start to explore alternatives especially if they empower users and are a cheaper alternatives (I can demonstrate it if needed). I can access it from my corporate PC, my cellphone or a cybercafe.

As a final note I am not saying that WebApp are bad. Just that they are not the universal panacea. Especially for lonely, interactive and heavily used applications. I will discuss this in more depth later. The PVM vision is not either the perfect solution but for heavy computer users such as myself it offers real advantages: no need for backup ever,r power consumption alway the lowest possible, you access your machine at your will without leaving it on.

The next steps is to be able to tie a virtual machine to a physical computer and then sends it back in the cloud. VMware system allows such trick. I will discuss this later in more depth too and I will tell you how it was to use this prototype for a month.

What do you think of this idea? Would you like me to explore those ideas more in depth?

“We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation. The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”
Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

Link via Rough Type

Marvel is pleased to reveal the World War Hulk Countdown Clock, the only official way to count down the days, hours, minutes, even seconds, till the Hulk returns to Earth to smash those who exiled him into space! It’s the summer’s biggest event and now you’ve got a front row seat for the biggest return of the year!

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This artist tells us all about how to make it in this post-Internet world and it resonates well with Chris Anderson’s Long Tail ideas: this is the long tail at work.

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Email is so twentieth century

Where did I hear that? How?

This is simply one of the best career advice’s post I have read so far.

Excellent questions (as always with Guy) and insightful answers. They come from Penelope Trunk. I have actually added her book on my Amazon wishlist.

Having looked recently for a job for the first time in my life, it sounds right with what I have experienced and what I have felt.

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Fellow geeks, this will entertain you. No need for the others to click

Between I recommand you to subscribe to this wonderful blog.

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Interesting read on the next step of the browser. More to come on this subject.

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