La presentazione del concetto di Chrome OS

Dopo Mac, Windows e Linux ecco in arrivo un altro sistema operativo. Made in Google, ovviamente.
Se ne sentiva il bisogno? Forse no, ma con l’esplosione dei netbook (soprattutto fra i banchi universitari e fra gli studenti fuori sede) un sistema operativo basato totalmente sul browser può far comodo. Incredibile? Sembra proprio di no!

Un intero sistema operativo basato sul web browser (Google Chrome), nato da basi Linux e totalmente open source: per memorizzare utilizza una cache su SSD (dischi a stato solido) e promette tempi d’avvio in 10 secondi spaccati!

Detto così sembra l’orgasmo dei sistemi operativi del futuro ma, rimanendo nel tempo attuale (novembre 2009), serve fare una serie di precisazioni importanti:

• L’Italia non è l’America, soprattutto sotto il profilo della connettività ad Internet. Da noi la connessione a cavo si paga (sonoramente) e quella wi-fi gratuita si trova nei vari pub/paninoteche/biblioteche e università (ovviamente in spazi limitati, un’intera università wi-fi sembra ancora un sogno in Italia mentre in Svizzera è già realtà).
  Se il mio netbook (portatile ideale per questo esempio) non è connesso che faccio? Una benemerita mazza, visto che la connessione è il prerequisito di base.
• Gli SSD (dischi a stato solido) soppianteranno quelli odierni, rimuovendo ogni parte in movimento e donandoci notti serene e sonni tranquilli. Al momento però costano parecchio, sono più lenti e più limitati (max 128 gb): sicuramente la tecnologia del futuro ma serve un maggior numero di investitori/concorrenti, in modo da poter abbassare il prezzo.
• Se devo masterizzare un disco (cd/dvd/blu-ray disc) come faccio? Se devo montare un video? Non tutto è disponibile online, inoltre devo utilizzare programmi freeware: ottimo per il portafoglio, un po’ meno se ho periferiche che non vengono riconosciute a causa della mancanza del driver apposito.
• Siamo sicuri della stabilità? Della resistenza  a vari crash/perdite di connessione? E se voglio usare un altro browser al posto di Chrome (ad esempio per modificare il codice ebay delle inserzioni) come faccio?

Insomma come avrete capito il sistema Google offre enormi potenzialità ma deve far fronte anche a tutta una serie di problemi (e non stiamo parlando di cose secondarie, anzi): il fatto di prevedere solo l’operatività online riduce nettamente l’uso alle aree coperte da connessione e il fatto di utilizzare SSD alzerà il costo del portatile (nonostante il sistema sia open source quindi gratuito).

Sarebbe interessante prevedere la possibilità di un avvio da disco esterno (un 2,5 pollici da 320/500 gb classico, costa meno ed è più capiente) tramite connessione usb, in questo modo potrebbe diventare un sistema operativo portatile di computer in computer, sradicandolo dalla concezione S0=PC e rendendolo maggiormente versatile rispetto ai sistemi in commercio.

Ma per ora Google a questo non ha pensato, presa com’è dallo sviluppo del suo giocattolino: dopo Android per gli smartphone ecco il sistema per desktop e portatili.

Vedremo cosa tireranno fuori dal cilindro questa volta: dopo aver rivoluzionato la ricerca online, il modo di lavorare tramite web-app e la posta elettronica riusciranno a creare un sistema operativo che non sia una scopiazzatura traballante e crashante? Speriamo!

Marco

Check out my article in the November issue of the ABA GP/Solo & Small Firm Technology eReport: Setting Up a Web-based Virtual Law Office.  From the article:

Consumers are actively seeking more affordable and convenient access to legal services over the Internet. Due to the cost of traditional legal services, they are turning to cutting and pasting together sample online legal documents or purchasing cheap legal forms online without the benefit of attorney review. The economic recession has further hastened this trend. To address consumer demand, more attorneys are opening web-based virtual law offices (VLOs) or adding a VLO to an existing traditional law firm structure to deliver legal services to clients online.

There are different ways to define and structure a virtual law practice. Simply put, a virtual law practice is a professional law practice where an attorney is able to work with clients over the Internet through a secure portal from the establishment of the attorney/client relationship through to the payment of and final rendering of legal services. The technology used to create and maintain a VLO is a software as a service (SaaS) hosted system, often referred to as practicing law “in the cloud.” To set up a virtual law practice, an attorney should be aware of a number of practical and ethical considerations discussed below.

For ages, man has significantly changed the way he lives and reacts to his surroundings.  It is a fact that whatever man has created, is only temporary.  However, men who left marks that turned into legacies forever remain.  History educates us, our sons and daughters, and it’ll continue to do so, with our grandchildren and their future off-springs.

The world has become the greatest witness to all that has happened and occurred since the world started evolving.  Great historical events, famine, revolutions, liberation, natural calamities are just some facts that are few to mention.  When it comes to technology, I believe that necessity is truly the mother of all inventions, and I also believe that we should all honor the inventors that have answered all these needs.  They have provided us Technology that was only imagined ages ago.  And as the world ages more, we have evolved within our own environment, and with his environment, man has always been accountable.  In the high-tech world we live in these days, it is our duty and responsibility to take good care of  how we use it, and how we affect others.  Awareness is the key to using it properly and how we could benefit from it proactively.

Personal files, important government documents, records, etc. have to be safe and secured at all times.  These are birth certificates, different forms of registrations, medical records…and the list goes on.  Just think of the time, resources and trouble we could save, when we put these things safe and in order.  If one organization or office can save in these areas, just imagine what it will do to one nation, or the whole world.  During the last week of September this year (2009), the Philippines was badly battered by Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana).  All victims, rich and poor became helpless as they witnessed their properties and livelihood devastated.  Natural Calamities like  typhoons remind us of how easy it is to lose our very valuable possessions, that includes our very important documents at work.  So, why not go paperless and web-based?

(found at http://mywebspiration.com/)
I chose to start with this tool because I know that several faculty members use Inspiration with their students.  This tool is a web-based concept mapping application that was designed by the Inspiration folk.  It works in much the same way as Inspiration does and the interface is eerily similar.  For those of you who use Inspiration, you know how concept mapping can be used as a pre-assessment or as a post-assessment.  In fact, the Foundations bloc uses concept mapping as one of the final projects in their courses.  The bonus with using MyWebspiration is that it’s free and web-based.  This would allow students to work from home without downloading a trial copy of the software or paying $75 for a copy.  The other added bonus is that it allows for collaborative concept mapping.  Groups of students can concept map together is the same online space.  If you’re thinking of jumping in, you will need to set-up a username and password but the rest of the site is pretty easy to use.  I would think that folks with a moderate level of technology expertise could handle it with ease.

Das Modehaus tobi.com setzt die AR-Technologie (“Augmented Reality”) für die Online-Kleideranprobe ein. Um ein Kleidungsstück anzuprobieren, muss ein individueller Marker für das jeweilige Kleidungsstück ausgedruckt werden. Dann kalibriert man Kopf und Körper mit Hilfe einer Schablone auf dem Bildschirm, hält den Marker vor die Kamera und das Kleidungsstück erscheint. Mit virtuellen Bedienelementen kann die Anprobe bewertet oder ein Screenshot erstellt werden.

Pixel Button è un generatore online di antipixel, ovvero quei bottoni molto in voga su blog e siti web.
L’interfaccia web vi permette di personalizzare testo, colori e bordi del bottone e una volta salvato lo renderà disponibile attraverso una codifica chiamata Data: URL. Questo fa si che la risorsa possa essere raggiunta mediante una stringa di codice html da inserire nel corpo della pagina senza dover salvare l’immagine prodotta.

Accedi alla risorsa: http://www.pixelbutton.com/

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It’s that time of year again to consider sending in your nominations for the ABA’s James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering. The Award is presented by the Law Practice Management Section’s eLawyering Task Force at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago at the end of March.  My virtual law office, Kimbro Legal Services, was the recipient of the 2009 Keane Award and it was a great opportunity to share my VLO with the legal profession.    

If you are or know of an attorney operating a virtual law practice and using technology to deliver legal services to clients, consider submitting a nomination for the 2010 Keane Award.  More detailed submission information will be made available on the LPM site shortly. 

From the LPM website:

The James I. Keane Memorial Award gives recognition to law offices or legal organizations that have developed legal service innovations delivered over the Internet. Thus, the focus of the award is the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class.

Brizzly is a web based Twitter client. Its an excellent client, clean interface, fast loading times, auto-refresh.

Brizzly is a reader that works with Twitter and Facebook. It simplifies your browsing and updating experience, while adding a few nifty extras. We’ll take some of the work out of keeping up to date with the people, trends and news you want to know about. -From brizzly.com

Screenshots:

Click on the images to expand them.

I have 10 invites up for grabs, for anybody who wants. If you want an invite comment on this post, or @reply me on Twitter.

EDIT 1 – I have 9 left.

Dupa cum ati putut vedea la profil jocul meu preferat este un joc numit TheCrims.

TheCrims

TheCrims este un web-browser MMORPG, adica se joaca pe net, prin intermediul unui browser.
In joc esti un infractor tradat de prieteni, care in mod miraculos a supravietuit si care trebuie sa dea spargeri si sa atace alti infractori pentru a castiga cat mai mult respect si pentru a se razbuna pe persoanele carel-au tradat.

Daca sunteti curiosi si vreti sa aflati mai multe despre acest joc puteti accesa ghidul online

It seems 2009 is the year of online outages.  All the major web-based email and collaboration providers have had some glitch or another with their systems.  That includes Google, Yahoo (today!), and Hotmail.

The fiasco with the Danger (T-Mobile Sidekick) units is another example of how people nearly lost all their important data.

It never hurts to have a backup of your data on a file on your computer.  Never.  And doing it takes less than 5 minutes.  In fact, you don’t even need to purchase a full version of CompanionLink to do it!

If you use Google, you can just download a 14-day CompanionLink evaluation version from our website and use it to back up your data to desktop software like Outlook, Lotus Notes or Palm Desktop.  You can also export it from there to a CSV file or other data format that you can save somewhere safe.

A recent LinkedIn discussion in the Software-as-a-Service Group (membership required to view the entire discussion) received a lot of comments last week, and for good reason. Customers and vendors alike must grapple with this issue every day.

The most common response: If an Internet connection is vital to your business, than a back-up Internet connection is vital to your business.

Some of the other comments from LinkedIn users included:

“Go buy a cup of coffee and bring your laptop.”

“Most customers don’t really make a difference between ‘my Internet is down’ and ‘the SaaS service is down.’ Yes, of course the result is the same: The customer cannot use his SaaS but in the first case it’s up to his IT services to fix it, in the second scenario it’ a SaaS provider’s fault.”

“Two Internet providers for backup connection… You need it and if your application is critical, this is essential.”

“For me it’s a case of getting the customer to weigh up whether the offset cost of an extra internet line outweighs the cost of purchasing their own hardware and having a staff member available to do the system updates manually.”

All good points.

NetSimplicity offers another option for Meeting Room Manager users – our In-House application. In-House means Meeting Room Manager lives on your servers. If you open your room scheduling to the Web, then certain aspects of the software may be down, but for the most part, a broken Internet connection should not affect Meeting Room Manager In-House.

As you weigh the pros and cons of installing our room scheduling software on your servers versus using our SaaS/Web-based application, you should also consider the benefits of a back-up Internet connection.

Yes, a back-up Internet connection may add to your initial cost of Meeting Room Manager On-Demand, but if your organization uses the Internet for any other applications – which, of course it does – then a redundant Internet connection, like Meeting Room Manager, will pay for itself.

Online Workflow Software

Every business has procedures and methods of implementation for day-to-day operations. Actions like leave requests, invoicing, customer complaints, time sheets and status reports, all form part of the daily processes necessary for any successful business.

Without streamlined and efficient procedures in place, businesses often face chaos and frustration when confronted with problems such as missing paper work, missed deadlines, incorrect information and lost time spent searching for the lost documentation.

Online workflow software is the solution to the above problems. So, what exactly is workflow software? And how can it help you?

Efficient online workflow connects the tasks, employees, procedures and tools that are needed for successful operations. Good online workflow processes also ensure that employees are knowledgeable in basic areas, such as which email templates, spreadsheets, shared documents and paper forms to use – and when to use them.

Web-based workflow software is simply a task list that is accessible by all relevant employees in real time. This task list keeps track of all the items that need to be addressed by everyone in the company. Once certain tasks are completed by the assigned company employees, the workflow software will automatically send off other to-do tasks to the appropriate company employees. If deadlines have not been met, the workflow software will send out a reminder.

 Workflow software also has the ability to distribute the required documents or data necessary for successful performance.

Online workflow software tracks progress visually, providing all involved stakeholders an immediate overview of where the task is. Problems are highlighted well in advance, as employees and managers can see at a glance, in real time, where the bottle necks occur.

Web and Flo’s flagship online workflow software – Kontinuum – offers a precise, web-based business process management tool that saves you time and streamlines your processes. Once you have used an efficient online workflow software application – you’ll never look back.

Contact us for a no obligation chat on how Kontinuum can help your business processes.

Tel: 1300 859 894 (in Australia) or info@webandflo.com

google chrome OS (gOS)

it was about time that a global player would announce to launch a web based operation system (OS). google (who else?!) recently confirmed rumors about chrome becoming an operation system. for me it is now clear why google initially launched chrome – not to become a player in the browser business but in the OS business (think big!).

the idea is as simple as genius: most office applications are nowadays available as rich internet applications (RIA) which are accessed via a browser. by making a browser an OS the initial OS-layer (like windows XP) just vanishes. the available RIAs replace the office package. only precondition: a broadband internet connection. google offers one of the leading RIA office suites, google docs, which will for sure be integrated into the chrome OS.

splashtop interface

the idea is not that new, but finally a big player announced to launch it.  splashtop, a DeviceVM, Inc. product, provides a similar OS for Lenovo and Asus computers. but splashtop normally is installed together with an OS, because it is seen only as a browser shortcut and not as a platform to work with.

‘Splashtop is intended to be integrated on a read-only device and shipped with the hardware, rather than installed by the user. It does not prevent the installation of another operating system for dual booting. It boots in about 5 seconds, and is thus marketed as instant-on’ wikipedia.

advantages a browser based OS:

1. faster boot time: splashtop needs 5 seconds to boot the browser
2. less memory and RAM costs: the application are running on the server of the provider, eg google. the computer does not have to carry out any computing.
3. locally unattached: using RIAs all data is stored on servers, no longer on local computers

the google announced stated the following reasons for developing chrome OS:
‘We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.’

google heralds a new age of computing, the one we all dreamed of since using a computer: no boot time, locally unattached and always connected.

Manage Leave Requests with Online Workflow Software

With Christmas rapidly approaching, requests for leave are on the rise.  Businesses need streamlined processes in order to handle multiple holiday requests each year. 

Web-based Workflow Software ensures that the necessary details are delivered at the right time to the right people within an organisation, speeding up the approval process and allowing business to continue without interruption.

Web-based Workflow Management Software provides a real-time overview of who is  approved for leave, which employee is waiting for approval – and the approval times and bottlenecks within the process.

 
Online Workflow facilitates and automates business processes that require tasks to be performed by people (such as leave requests).  Leave requests can be approved with ease, as the online workflow application will have already ensured that the employee has correctly completed the required forms necessary for approval.

 
By automating your leave processes with Web-Based Workflow Software, managers and employees are always aware of potential staff shortages and can prepare accordingly.

Many of you have read the news that VLOTech, the company co-founded by my husband and I, was acquired last week by Total Attorneys (TA), a Chicago-based company providing services and products to legal professionals.  The acquisition is going to be great for clients of VLOTech as well as other attorneys considering virtual law practice.  Check out the post by Richard Granat over at his eLawyering blog about the news.

Joining forces with TA means that 1) my husband now has the ability to work with other programmers who speak his language and can bounce ideas around with to further develop our vision of the virtual law practice software (I may use the tech but coding is all greek to me.) , and 2) that I will be able to continue to educate on the topic of virtual law practice and share my experiences and the benefits of this form of law practice management with others.  Over the past couple years, we have gotten wonderful feedback on the VLOTech software and have an exciting development list.  Joining with TA will provide us with the resources to develop the software into the vision that our attorney clients have been and continue to build with us for the software.

One of the great things about joining up with TA is that they are encouraging me and giving me the freedom to continue writing about virtual law practice and in doing so to continue to remain balanced in the information that I share.  I am writing a book for the ABA’s LPM Section on virtual law practice and will continue to practice law from my NC virtual law office.  In the spring I’m looking forward to attending the Get a Life Conferencefor TA as well as speaking at other state bar association CLE programs.  All of these experiences will help spread the word to the legal profession about online law practice, the delivery of legal services online and the benefits that it provides to attorneys and the general public.

Questo servizio on line vi permetterà, con una semplice registrazione gratuita, di crearvi una lista dei vostri siti preferiti on line in modo da poter essere raggiunti da qualsiasi computer.
E’ possibile creare diverse categorie per tenere sempre in ordine e a portata di mano la vostra lista di siti preferiti.

Accedi alla risorsa: http://www.only2clicks.com/

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Se avete bisogno di realizzare rapidamente un semplice ma efficace logo da abinare alle più svariate attività, questo servizio on line è quello che fa per voi.
Easy Logo Maker vi offre la possibilità di scegliere tra tantissimi tipi di caratteri e una vasta libreria di simboli (frecce, stelle ecc) e semplici disegni. Potrete altresì caricare una vostra immagine ed integrarla facilmente nel logo.

Accedi alla risorsa: http://www.onlinelogomaker.com/design

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