Jott.com

I'm really starting to get into Jott. One thing I hate doing is taking notes or action items. Now with my iPhone I use Jott. I can call into jott and publish a list for myself, or I can just record a list on my iPhone. I can also post to my twitter feed as well as my blog, just be calling in and they record what I want to say. What an amazing use of voice to text recognition.

They also have a desktop app called Jott express so you can push notes from your desktop while offline. YEA.

Thanks Jott.com

This is a test from...

This is a test from cellphone blogging to my blog.
Bye. listen

Powered by Jott

I'd hate to be that programmer

So, why is QA and high volume testing crucial to deployment of an application?

Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes

The long story is here. The short story, is that a programmer had a logic issue with their code, and when there were high volumes of votes coming in, it would "lose" some of them. So 1+1+1 would sometimes equal 1 vote instead of 3.

So the next time management asks, do we have to do volume and load testing? Refer to this story and ask them if they want to make front page news?

2.0.2 firmware: Battery Life with No 3g

Usage: 5 hours 52 minutes
Standby: 12 hours, 25 minutes

So 3G eats approx 30% more battery life than no 3g. Anyone besides me see an issue with that? Why would a company put out a product with this type of battery drain? If I have to plug it in, it isn't very portable.

2.0.2 firmware: 3g Battery life

So today, I fully charged, turned 3g on and didn't plug it in again.

Usage: 4 hours, 10 Minutes
Standby: 8 Hours, 56 Minutes

So I can use 3G for 4 hours, and then I get the 20% battery life message.

You make the decision, but being the Road warrior that I am, 4 hours just doesn't cut it.

Chime in, what are your times?

Let me know

2.0.2 Firmware: iPhone 3g Speed Tests

I know everyone is complaining about 3g speed on the iPhone. Where I'm sitting, on my couch, with 3 - 4 3G bars, I'm getting 1 mbps or .125 MBps which is pretty good in my estimation. My 3G cellular cards gets aprox 1.1 mbps.

Anyone else care to chime in? If you are looking for a good way to test the 3G, go to i.dslr.net/iphone_speedtest.html.

Let me know your speeds.

iPhone 2.0.2: will it be the saving Grace?

So the great features about the new iPhone 3g? 3G, which I' ve had to turn off because the battery life goes from aprox 8 hours down to 2. WHO would release a phone with 3G in the name with those kind of battery issues?

So I just downloaded 2.0.2. The discussion thread on Apple is here. I've noticed the Contacts aren't delayed anymore. Since the 2.0 release, when you went into contacts, the contact list was unusable for approx. 2-5 seconds which is really annoying.

The 3G looks no "Stronger" or weaker in this release. I hate that Apple only said "Bug Fixes" and didn't outline what fixes were made. How RUDE.

I doubt that 2.0.2 has done a whole lot. I will check out battery time today and see where it stands.

Gobi 8: Update 2

I tried using the Gobi 8 via cellular wireless this last week. It was hit or miss to say the least. The concept is great, but the implementation is less than desirable. Couple of new features that need to be added before I would take this Thin laptop on the road.

1. Cellular status: Why can't someone show me a strength meeter either on the screen or in lights on the frame by the battery.
   
2. being able to setup Profiles differently: Today the profiles and networks are setup together. I'd rather have the Sun Ray server and VPN information saved separately from the network information. I typically only use 1 Sun Ray server and VPN server but attache to many networks

Other than those 2 things, the Gobi 8 is great, and I have used it via ethernet and Wi-FI with great success.

Accutech Gobi 8: Thin Laptop?

If you read my last post there is a picture of a "THIN LAPTOP". I know most of you are going, Come on Thin Laptop? So, I decided to write this post on my thin laptop. It handles WI-FI, Wired, or Cellular wireless. My first thought was, Can Cellular Wireless really support a full Screen being streamed to it.

Before we go further, I want to give you the details of the setup.

1. Using the Gobi 8, I inserted the Cellular Wirelles (ATT Serria Wireles 875) into the Laptop
2. When it asked me what profile I wanted to use, I choose one that had all of the settings setup for my Sun Ray Server.
3. It then asks me if I want to modify the settings before applying them, and I said yes.
4. I choose the correct server settings and then when it went to which network, I choose HSDPA (Cellular)
1. For APN use: wap.cingular
2. for Dial String use: *99***1#
5. Apply the settings and BAM I was on. So thin Laptop via Cellular. IT's AWESOME

Performance.
So sitting in my house, the performance isn't bad. I can type faster than the letters are displayed back to the screen, but that's not all that surprising is it? Let me tell you though, not having to worry about hard drives dying and losing data is great. It's usable. I will be letting my sales rep use it this week, we will see what she says.

So the Accutech guys want there Gobi 8 back, but that's ok, because Dynamic Graphics is sending me there version of the Thin Laptop.

Hope this helped

Sun Ray and Peripherals: Page 2

In my last update, I gave you a general overview of Sun Ray's and a General Architecture. This post will be on Peripherals. This post will assume you are using Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS). Each Thin Client solution has there own way of doing Peripherals

USB:

Today, USB Sticks and Devices work on the Sun Ray's. I have even hooked up a USB DVD ROM drive and it worked well. Remember, that these are all done over the Network, so the speed of the device attached to the USB port is directly affected by Network Speeds.
Network Speeds:

10 Mbs = 1.25 MBs

100 Mbs = 12.5 MBs

1 Gbs = 125 MBs

10 Gbs = 1250 MBs

The USB storage devices show up as Network drives. By default these are on the U drive. I haven't done anything with printers yet, so I won't speak on those

Serial:
First thing to know, is the baud rate on the Sun Ray serial port is 9600 Baud. If your device is anything other than 9600 Baud it won't communicate. I've tested 3 different serial devices from printers (IER) to Bar Code Readers (Desko) to Magnetic readers built into the Keyboard. They all work well. This week I hope to have them all hooked up to the same sunray to see how that goes.

I had to change the VDA script, to add in the Serial ports, as they are passed through to the UTTSC script automatically. This is in /etc/opt/SUNWvda/sessions I beleive.

I can add more about this if you want, just let me know.

Sun Ray and Peripherals: Page 1

Some of the biggest problems that customers have with "Thin" technology is External device support. Sun came out with Sun Ray's, our version of "Ultra - Thin" 10 years back. As usual, it took 10 years to create the perfect storm.

So what's the perfect storm?

1. RDP: 10 Years ago RDP didn't exisit. It wasn't until Version 5 (Which was actually version 2 as Version 4 was the first realease. Don't ask me why Microsoft did that.)
2. Vista Upgrade: Who really want's to go out and touch and replace all of these PC's again? Are companies getting sick of "Desktop" support?
3. Cost of Electricity: Keeps going UP and UP and UP
4. Economy: I'm not sure I need to say anything about this
5. HyperVisor support: This allows each person to have there "OWN" desktop for the day. Many "FAT" applications need to have there own Serial ports and IP address and do not like to share.

Shameless Sun Comercial

1. VDI: This allows a user to be assigned a pool. The pool will have a number of VirtualMachines started, but can, on the Fly, spin up more or decrease them when needed. So you don't need to have one VM per user in the Organization, just one per active user. This will cut down on the amount of software needed to purchase.
   
2. x86: 10 years ago, x86 wasn't part of Sun's portolio. It is today, which allows Sun to put together a full end to end solution for a customer.

Architecture

Below is an architecture that I put together for a customer. The great thing about Sun's implimentation of "Thin" is, it is very flexibile. From the same client, I can display Windows, Solaris, Linux, or a Mac Desktop. That's flexibility. It makes the OS more of a commidity that can be easily changed, as it all sits on the servers.

So you want to test Vista with a couple of users? Just create a vista pool and assign that user to it. You don't even need to leave the Data Center. Want to move them back? Have the log out and point the user back to the orginal Pool. It's that simple.

Below is a demo I just recently did with Windows on the left, Solaris in the middle and Linux on the Right. Yes that is a "Thin" laptop. No Hard Drive, No Solid State Disk, No memory. Just firmware to support Wireless, Wired, or Cellular connections.


Below is an architecture of a VMWARE/VDI environment. This is a small architecture. If you want to scale it, you can just do this multiple times. Want Redundency in Data Centers? No problem. Do one of these in each DC, and use a Global Load Bancer to balance acros DC's.
If you have any more questions, let me know, leave a comment