Mad predictions, my head in the clouds again.

So what is the future of computing going to look like in 5-10 years? Usually it's only a mad man or a fool who would predict the tech world. Ok, so I'm mad. ;)

I am going to stick my neck out and say that cloud computing is the future. Cloud computing enabling technology trends are converging. I see more and more lower powered computing products that have great connectivity appearing such as netbooks, and touch based tablets. Future cloud products will be greener, they will have a great battery life because they are so low powered, and will become incredibly portable.

All the heavy lifting is being done by powerful servers 'in the cloud'. Just a few weeks ago I would have said that cloud computing would be a niche because it would be impossible to play demanding 3D games or edit video purely using cloud based server technologies. I was completely wrong.

Look at the advantages:-

• Your computer will weigh almost nothing.
• It will last 20 hours on a single charge.
• You will be able to play Crysis 5 on every device you own.
• The difference between a desktop and laptop computer will just be the size of the display.
• Computer's will get much cheaper than the cheapest netbooks are today, since there is no need for a beefy processor or much if any storage.
  
• You will have 128 cores at your disposal in the cloud. In fact the number of cores your computer has will dynamically change depending on what processing needs you have.
• It is green computing in the extreme.
• Who could afford a top of the range gaming rig with 4 SLI extreme graphics cards to play their games with? Everyone can have one if it is part of your subscription to the cloud gaming service.
  
• Once you have edited your video, it can be instantly posted on every site you want since it is already compressed, and already uploaded.
• Want an extremely powerful computer games system to play on your 3D TV in the lounge? That will cost the price of two games. It might even be free with the subscription service to play games via any device in the house.
  
• Full data redundancy, no need to ever back up. You already have all your data spread amongst the cloud so that it would be impossible to loose anything.
  
• No need to ever upload anything, as every bit of content you generate is already out there. Instant links are simply created to the same data using smart tagged meta data.

The key to this working is the open cloud consortium and open id, if all data is inter-operable with every service then it does not matter if a service is unavailable for a few hours downtime. For instance if flicker goes down, simply access the same photos using the same account from another service that is working.

Having your data hosted by a datacentre is far safer than having it on your computer, even if you are careful enough to have local backup storage. How many of us have an off-site backup? Drives may fail in a datacentre, but no data is at risk on large industrial Raid storage systems.

Now for the really far out stuff

I believe Microsoft Windows' consumer market share will continue to decline. Microsoft (if it has any sense) will move into the cloud business big-time, to offer businesses and consumers back-end services.

Windows will all but disappear on the desktop, as Microsoft moves into back end cloud services. Linux finally gets its day as the desktop of choice for many people and is used almost exclusively in business on the desktop. Apple specialises in the very best consumer cloud computing kit and moves much of its software into the cloud, it also produces specialist computing kit for content production such as for film and video work. The apple experience will be delivered through OSX, Safari and Sproutcore and the iPhone will play a large part to show that cloud computing could be just the normal way computing is done in the next decade.

The sorts of software we already use day to day include many cloud services already. This blog is a cloud service, I started writing it on my Mac upstairs, I wrote some more on an Acer netbook, finally I checked it and posted it using my Ubuntu powered Sony laptop, everything created and posted in the cloud. This is normal, why would it be such a stretch to imagine many other computing tasks done in this way?

Entertainment and indeed work will just become subscription based services. The seeds of change have already been sown. Once you can play Crysis in the cloud on a netbook, anything is possible!

Linux is ready for the desktop?

After testing the new beta of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 I am convinced that it is more than ready for the desktop. I will certainly be installing it as the primary OS on my old Sony laptop.

The ease with which you can install Ubuntu on a variety of hardware is even better than Windows Vista / Seven. Windows does an extremely good job of automatically finding drivers, and yet Ubuntu manages to better this! Very impressive indeed. It literally takes a few minutes to install proprietary drivers (if needed) and the codecs used to play your favourite content using Firefox 3.

The whole process is seamless and automatic, not requiring any manual hunting or downloading from various websites. Ubuntu is pure class. Couple this with the fact that it comes with an extremely sensible set of applications including a full office suite and you are on to a winner.

Another huge advantage (of which there are many) of using Linux is that not only is it free, but it can be updated to the full next release without needing to re-install from disc. So install the OS once and it will update itself to major new releases forever. It is also incredibly fast and efficient.

The future of games!

I have seen the future, and it is kind of fluffy and cloud shaped!

An amazing service has been announced that if successful could improve the gaming landscape for all computer users, it could even have an impact on how companies provide us with software in the future.

Here is the idea... Run a server farm which has thousands of games installed on thousands of virtual computers, stay with me on this one. The user is able to connect to this gaming service, play the latest 3D games using any computer Mac, PC, Linux, netbook, perhaps even PSP or iPhone in the future. The gamers input is collected and passed in real time to the virtual machine running the game, the video and audio output is compressed and streamed in real time back to the player.

• Play Windows games without needing Windows.
• No need to keep updating your graphics card every 6 months to play the latest games.
• No need to ever install a game or have a hard disk big enough to store all the game data.
• Episodic gaming will be simple, as the game makers simply update the game in the cloud.
• No need for gigabytes of memory or fast processors to support complex games.
• The very best and latest games available to play through your TV with an incredibly cheap set top box. All the box has to do is collect your movements through a controller and stream HD video. This will almost instantly kill Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft games consoles.
  
• Social gaming would be great. Video of your exploits can be shared, any user with any computer can play any game with any other user!
  
• Start playing a game seconds after buying it without a huge download.
• Play as many demos as you like instantly
  

This has already been demonstrated playing Crysis (a particularly demanding game) on a netbook with minimal ram!

For the doubters out there, cloud computing is going to be massive. It is going to revolutionise many things, not only games.

It is possible to stream 30fps 720p video now on many broadband connections. As our internet connections get faster we will be able to play full screen 1920x1080 games at 60fps through the cloud.

Melinda Gates banned from having a Wii?

Bill Gates has perhaps unsurprisingly banned his family from owning any Apple products, poor things. Mellinda (Bill's wife) has been lusting after friends iPhones for a while but has resisted the urge, with commendable willpower. The adverse publicity that this could cause Microsoft's chairman (her husband) would be awful if she were to buy one, but would it?

Surely the adverse publicity is the sad fact Bill's family are banned from Apple technology. Indeed it could be argued that there is some great Microsoft technology in the iPhone with its implementation of Microsoft exchange and the fact that Microsoft themselves are writing applications for the iPhone. It's all a bit sad really.

I am sure that Steve Jobs personally uses some Microsoft technologies, and would not even think about banning his family from using Microsoft products. Remember that the next Apple operating system (Snow Leopard) will have full support for Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange built in.

My motto is use the best kit for the job, whoever makes it. Microsoft as a company seem happy to embrace some Apple technologies, as well as Apple having an extensive track record of embracing some Microsoft technologies. Arguably Bill has generated more adverse comments by banning his family from Apple than he would have done if he had let them embrace Apple's products.

This begs the question. Does this extend to any other companies that Microsoft is competing with? For instance is his family only allowed to play with xbox's, is Melinda banned from having a Wii?

Windows hates my camera!

I thought I was bound to have something nice to say about Windows for this post, but no alas, one more thing has decided to ruin it for me. I have a Fuji s9600 camera, often described as a bridge camera since it is a bridge between a digital compact and a full SLR. It's a great camera, but unfortunately Windows just doesn't get on with it.

The camera can rotate images by changing the exif data within the photo to say what orientation it was taken. This manual setting is set to 0, or 90 degrees so that when it is opened and edited it is the right way up. this ensures that the quality of the picture is the best, since the file does not have to be rotated and re-saved. Unfortunately Windows seems to completely ignore the orientation of the image.

Vista presents this portrait as a landscape, if I rotate the graphic and re-save it, it will open incorrectly on computers that understand orientation properly. Besides quality will be lost if I do this with a jpeg, since every time you save a jpg you get one generation loss of quality like ye olde video tapes.



Windows 7 shockingly still has this bug.



Mac here is displaying the same image, no surprises, everything works fine and I get a useful indication of the orientation data. Interestingly detected as TIFF data, which is what could be throwing Windows. Mind you, the Mac works whatever you throw at it.



Ubuntu does an excellent job of interpreting the orientation data.



My conclusion is possibly a tad extreme, but I don't think I could trust any version of Windows to give me consistent results in the realm of photography.

To be fair to Windows the fault probably lies with Fujifilm, except this does not explain why OSX and Ubuntu seem to work fine with every image I have thrown at them from many cameras. The issue can be sorted out by editing the orientation tag with a windows application.

Hello, I'm a PC

Steve Ballmer went swinging for Apple during an interview with PC Magazine (US). Amongst the snippets of wisdom displayed, Ballmer said that Macs were overpriced "Have you ever seen a cheap Mac?", and that Macs had little place in the workplace "Do Macs work in business? No, they do not".

He also dismissed Apple's extremely successful chain of retail stores as a desperate act "Apple started doing stores because nobody wanted to sell it's PC's". Remarkably Ballmer criticised a Microsoft application shooting himself in the foot, and the Microsoft Mac business unit in the back when he said "Can you find the applications you want on a Mac? Well, you don't really get full Microsoft Office". He then apparently tried to explain 'The Apple Tax' and that 'Windows offers far better value'

1. Have you ever seen a cheap Mac? Answer: No, although a Mac mini is great value. Apple tend towards quality rather than quantity.
2. Do Macs work in business? no they do not. I beg to differ, having used a Mac daily in my job building Windows installations and working with windows servers, fitting in perfectly with our Microsoft back end systems for well over a year without a squeak of a problem.
3. Well you don't really get full Microsoft office. Perhaps I have more faith in the Microsoft Mac business unit team than their own CEO, I find Office 2008 for the Mac to be quite a good deal. In some ways Microsoft office 2008 on the Mac is nicer to use than office 2007 for Windows, and it is improving all the time.
4. I must confess that I don't really understand the Apple Tax, can anyone enlighten me? Personally I have spent less money, and enjoyed computing much more since I have owned a Mac. I don't even have to mention the amazing digital lifestyle apps that come pre installed on a Mac as opposed to the 'crapware' that is installed on most PC's!

I don't mean to make Steve Ballmer sound incredibly stupid, he seems to have that one covered! But couldn't he just stop acting like a child and work with Apple, and the open source movement and embrace new technologies and open standards? Many talented engineers at Microsoft appear to be doing exactly this. Steve Ballmer seems to kick his own staff and Microsoft partners in their mouths every time he opens his own.

Steve Ballmer, oozes understated charisma and professionalism as he leads the worlds most popular business software maker. Steve Jobs on the other hand simply leads the worlds most popular consumer hardware and software maker. I'll leave you to watch further videos of the two Steve's, and ask one simple question. Which Steve would you trust with your computing needs? ;)

The six versions of Windows 7!

Yes, you read that right. From a PCPro story today, it looks as if Microsoft is wasting a massive opportunity to simplify a confused market.

Starter Edition: "A lightweight version for netbook computers, that will only be capable of running three applications concurrently. It will lack the vast majority of the advanced features, such as Media Center and touchscreen support, but will include the new Taskbar and Home Group feature."

So netbook owners are not expected to want to watch media, use a touch screen or do more than 3 things at once! How will Windows stop you running more than 3 things at one time, with a helpful error message? Sorry, but what a crock of crap. I'll stick to Ubuntu.

Home Basic: "For emerging markets only. Microsoft has, bizarrely, appeared to swap the meaning of Starter and Home Basic. Intended to "access the internet and run basic productivity applications"."

erm, so all this OS does is allow you to access the internet and run basic apps? Again, a crock of poo! Give me Ubuntu any day.

Home Premium: "The mainstay version that Microsoft will put the majority of its marketing weight behind. Will include Media Center, touchscreen support, full Aero glass graphics, improved media format support and streaming, and the option to easily share files across a home network with the new Libraries feature."

Ok, so this combined with Windows 7 Ultimate should be windows 7 home. I don't see why this would not run on a netbook since the Windows 7 Ultimate beta already works fine on many netbooks. However, I would like the windows installer to allow you to choose which bits of the OS you would like to install if you don't have much hard disk space on your netbook, like windows used to do. Unfortunately this version of Windows is unlikely to be included in any purchase of a netbook. Sorry, but this is another example of Microsoft missing a massive opportunity to cash in on the netbook craze!

Professional: "A business version for home workers and small businesses not operating on a volume licence. Will include features such as advanced network backup and Encrypting File System. However, BitLocker encryption is once again reserved for the Enterprise and Ultimate editions."

So home business users are not expected to want to use an encrypted file system? And the (finally) easy to use BitLocker encryption is excluded. Sorry, but I can't believe this is happening!

Enterprise: "For volume licence customers. Will include all the Professional features, plus BitLocker protection - including the new option to encrypt USB flash drives and external hard disks. Will also include DirectAccess, which allows remote workers to securely access a company network without a VPN."

So DirectAccess would not be usful for home business users that cannot take advantage of volume licences? Pathetic, I am growing more and more tired of technologies such as BitLocker and DirectAccess because they are not cross platform.

If somebody bitlockers a drive with a video on it to edit, then gives it to a Mac user, they just get an unreadable disk. It would be far better to use an open standard such as PGP which could be decrypted by all platforms and allow governments to not lock their precious data into a proprietory encryption scheme.

I am sure DirectAccess enabled servers for home working would not be usable with any other computer. Why not ignore DirectAccess and use open standards for remote working, or at least a third party proprietory cross platform solution. Struth!

Ultimate: The all-encompassing version of Windows 7, although there's no repeat of Vista's much-maligned Ultimate Extras. Branded as the "no compromise SKU for tech enthusiasts" it will include every single feature available in Windows 7.

What is wrong with having Windows 7 home, Windows 7 business, and Windows 7 server? Put all SKU's of Windows 7 on one disc, if you install it on a 64bit processor you get a 64bit version, likewise for 32Bit. Include an option for the user to do an advanced install and choose the components they would like.

Am I mad and completely alone in wanting Windows 7 ultimate to be Windows 7 Home, Windows 7 professional and Enterprise to be just Windows 7 business available to both home business users and as a volume licence, and Server 2008 to be Windows 7 server.

Microsoft seems to think they can charge a premium for Windows 7 Ultimate, which contains features that should be in all versions of Windows 7 home. Home users have different priorities than business users, fair enough, that's why there should be just two versions to cover this Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 business.

And there I was thinking Microsoft were actually improving and listening to their customers! Confused? You will be, this is looking closer and closer to a joke I was sent the other day. Enjoy!