Google’s Wifi Data Scraping – Impact to Developers

While many would argue that Google’s recent issue with accidentally collecting wifi packet data from public broadcasting networks will have minimal impact to developers, I disagree.

Having just left a corporate environment in which I would occasionally get to chat with the CIO regarding the pros and cons of some current technology trends, such as cloud computing, which would also include discussions around the enterprise suitability of those solutions, I can tell you – accidents like this are going to have an impact.

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Mobile Phishing Scams – A Business and Consumer Blind Spot?

While businesses and security professionals have done a great deal of work to educate consumers about online security, it seems to me that processes used by business are not of the same standard for the mobile channel.

This feeling was confirmed for me today when I received an SMS titled “**IMPORTANT MESSAGE**” from my bank saying I need to contact them. While I’m not going to tell you who I bank with (it was one of the big four banks in Australia), I will take you through my experience and attempt to highlight the weak points in the approach, as well as suggest what I think could be done to improve the process.

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Top Search Queries Improved in Google Webmaster Tools

It was great to discover the improvements to the Top Search Queries in Google’s Webmaster Tools amidst my frustration with Google AppEngine yesterday (yes unrelated I know). The changes really put data right in front of your face that even an SEO hack like me can understand and do something with.

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Pervasive Computing – Tightening Sidelab’s Focus

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m leaving the corporate world to start my own software development business. As I’m starting a professional services based business (with a hint of product development for flavour) I was going to try and keep the kinds of services I offer fairly broad to ensure I can capture different kinds of development work that comes my way. While I think this idea was fine in principle, I’ve been reading about the benefits of narrowing the focus of your business as a method of being effective and getting the “right kind” of work.

As a result, I’ve decided to scrap all of the fluff that was on the Sidelab site, and pull it right back to a single topic: Pervasive Computing.

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Starting Sidelab

As I indicated a little while ago, in I have been thinking about starting my own business and weighing that up against staying in a stable corporate job for some time. I finally reached a decision point around a month ago after much discussion with many different people. To those who spent the time talking with me about my options I am very grateful for your time.

After weighing up the options, my desires and history, I have decided to give it a red-hot go and start Sidelab – a small software development company, focused on innovation services (both development and consulting) for Australian business.

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Time to leave the corporate nest?

A little over five years ago now, my wife and I arrived back in Australia from a year over in the UK. It was a great year, and I’d enjoyed the work I’d being doing over there (coding at a smallish Biotech) as well as the ability to travel. Additionally, I’d left on good terms with my employer and had the opportunity to do some work with them from Australia. Great, I thought – an opportunity to get my own software development business started; which I guess has always been my dream.

While, I think the idea was good in practice, it wasn’t the right time. My current struggle is attempting to determine if now is the right time.

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Grasshopper – You must be different to be noticed

I just finished reading a great post on Mashable about a social media campaign run by Grasshopper. To me the campaign that grasshopper ran (read the mashable post for info) truly shows that innovation and a willingness to take a risk are what’s required to have some success in the noise of our current Web 2.x market.

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Opinions Needed – Mood Selector Widget

As part of the Global Mood project I am currently working on, I feel one way of allowing people to specify their mood is by using an x,y coordinate on a 2d graph (mood really doesn’t seem like a one-dimensional thing to me). I have my first design done for the mood selector widget (just an image at this stage) and really need some feedback.

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The OpenHub and Coworking

I was surfing around the blogs of some Australian consultants recently and came across The OpenHub in Melbourne. This is a coworking environment in Melbourne which sounds like a really great place to be if you are an independent developer or consultant.

The coworking movement looks really interesting to me – eventually I hope to go out on my own and create a successful startup, and what better place to spend the infant years of your startup that doing that with like-minded individuals. It just makes sense. I mean most of my ideas come to me when I am driving home from a day of work, so whilst at the time the ideas is formulating I am on my own, the idea is generally related to a conversation I have had with someone that day.

So, therefore, if I went out on my own and worked from home then firstly I wouldn’t be driving anywhere (and thus get my thinking time) and secondly, I wouldn’t be mixing with people from different backgrounds and experiences. Thus I could potentially get stuck in a rut… coworking seems like a great way to combat that. Not only that, but it’s an effective way to set up shop somewhere without the massive initial overheads.

Miro’s New Funding Model – Adopt a Line of Code

This is great – a really clever way of raising funds for an opensource product (probably the cleverest I’ve ever seen). It’s cute, it’s sustainable, it’s absolute gold in the social web (I think it’s more interesting than Susan Boyle – even though hers was a heart touching moment). This is just so much cooler (and certainly a bit heart touching as well).

I’m now a proud new parent of Timbert (see below – at the moment he hasn’t taken my last name as I had to pay through paypal and it didn’t give me a chance to provide my details).

Miro is a great product so I am really happy to see them pull together such a great campaign. I must admit though I would have been tempted to adopt a line of code if the product had been something I thought was ordinary. And now we sit back and wait for someone to start running a similar campaign for some old COBOL banking system – that’d be a laugh

If you too would like to adopt a line of code, head over to the url below and for just $4US/month you can:

https://www.getmiro.com/adopt/

Update:

1. It looks like a lot of people are getting a line of code with the last name of Swartz which probably means a lot of people have having to use paypal.
2. There is an excellent post on the adoption campaign over at ReadWriteWeb

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to feed the little guy…