Overnight Microsoft has made Windows 8 Consumer Preview available for download, in multiple languages. I have downloaded the 64 bit ISO and installed it on a 60 GB virtual HDD under VMWare Player.

Tip: According to their FAQ, if you boot your PC from the media (ISO or USB key) then you will be asked for a product key. In this case use the key NF32V-Q9P3W-7DR7Y-JGWRW-JFCK8.

Installation was quick and had no problems with the virtual environment. You can chose to login using a local account, or your Windows Live Id. When using Windows Live Id your account information is automatically populated and things like Messaging (Windows Live Messenger), Mail, Calendar and Skydrive are ready to use.

You can at any time open Mail and add an Exchange or GMail account - in my case I added my Office 365 Exchange account.

The Weather tile quickly figured out I am in Wellington, New Zealand and is now showing the appropriate information. Bing Maps seems to have a bit of a problem searching locations outside the US though.

The interface works ok even without a touch screen, but it will get some time to get used to the different elements in the UI.

Like Windows Phone, the social permeates through the interface. If you open the People tile you will see all your contacts, pulled from Exchange, GMail, Twitter, Windows Live and going to What's New will show you the latest updates from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. Clicking on a person's tile will show you ways to contact the person, latest updates and interactions, exactly like the Windows Phone does.

Obvsiouly, being a Consumer Preview it's advisable not to install this build if you are not comfortable with new technologies and the inherent problems it may carry. Mainly be aware that some hardware may not be supported due to lack of drivers, so if your PC is vital for your daily use consider installing this on spare hardware or virtual machine.

Anyone going to the New Zealand SharePoint Conference 2012 in Auckland 28th-29th March 2012? I have been to their previous conferences here in Wellington, and they were always buzzing.

If you are a business leader who wants to know how SharePoint can transform your organisation, or a technical wizard who needs to understand how to make SharePoint hum, this is the key event for 2012.See world-renowned presenters:  SPC 2012 has the greatest concentration of SharePoint knowledge outside Microsoft HQ.  Come and learn from the best in the business.

Hear real customer stories. Follow their journeys and learn from their experiences.

Learn about the hot topics in SharePoint and related technologies.

Participate in extra activities at the events, connect with people and get involved in our great selection of pre and post conference workshops.

Long discussion on Twitter involving @PaulBrislen, @SteveBiddle and @plambrechtsen. I will summarise my view on this:

• I don't like data caps either.
• Data cap is a symptom. They are not the problem.
• Find the root cause to fix the problem then data caps go away.

Data caps will disappear when the roadblock is removed. What do you think is the problem?

Received this today from IDC. Do you agree?

The following represent the top 10 key ANZ Infrastructure predictions from IDC for 2012. IDC believes these trends will have the biggest commercial impact on the ANZ ICT infrastructure market:

1. Android Smartphones Will Take Over Apple iOS in 2012

2012 will set the stage for an intense client OS battle for smartphones.

2. Apple iPad Will Maintain Its Dominance in the Media Tablets Market

Apple will maintain its dominance in the media tablets market in 2012 despite Android growing at a faster rate of 36.2% year-over-year (YOY) with iOS tailing at 8.8% YOY growth.

3. Windows 8 Will Help the PC Market Stay Resilient in 2012 and Beyond
The release of Windows 8 expected in 2H 2012 will set in motion the extension of personal computing beyond conventional platforms and form factors while also fuelling enterprise mobility.

4. 2012 Will Be the Year Channel Partners Take Managed Print Services to the SMB Market

Channel partners will increase the penetration of Managed Print Service (MPS) in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in 2012. IDC expects managed print services (MPS) revenue to increase by 15% in 2012.

5. Client Virtualisation to broaden to mobile virtualisation as a result of BYOD and Consumerisation of IT

IDC believes in 2012, corporate users will introduce more consumer mobile device types than IT could effectively manage.

6. 2012 is the year mobility will come of age in Australia.
Mobility will be at the top of the CIO priority list in 2012, and it can be either in the form of application requirements or hardware device strategies in the workspace. IDC expects commercial media tablets adoption in Australia to rise to over 14.5% of total shipments by 2013.

7. Opportunities in the mining sector for "high performance computing (HPC) in the cloud" will accelerate in 2012.

IDC believes there will be an accelerated deployment of HPC in the cloud by mining and oil and gas organisations in 2012.

8. Server Platform Decisions to Dominate in 2012
IDC believes organisations will increasingly focus on evaluating server platform opportunities for their workloads with a view to minimising costly islands of technology and focusing instead on scalability and reliability.

9. Data Variety Will Become a Manageable Entity Ushering in a New Set of Decision Platforms for Organisations
IDC expects a newer wave of platforms to emerge - both hardware and software - to address the Big Data opportunity.

10. 2012 will be the year enterprises automate their environments en mass.
During 2010-2014, IT employment, now at 35 million, will grow by a factor of 1.3 worldwide. This is a constraint in an industry that will grow by a factor of 1.1 by spending but by more than 2 by devices managed, 5 by information created, and 8 by networked interactions between customers.

Vonage is again moving into the mobile voice space with a new  app that makes it easy to talk and exchange text messages with contacts - either free or for a very low cost. Vonage Mobile is available now as an iPhone calling app or Android calling app. Sadly, no Windows Phone version is available yet.

I was invited to try the mobile app for myself, so I fired my test Android device and installed the Vonage Mobile app from the Android Market.

Vonage Mobile scanned my contacts list, identifying anyone who is already using the mobile app. Those were automatically added to a tab "Free Calls". This means any call I place to these contacts through Vonage Mobile will not be charged by Vonage (mobile data charges apply of course if your mobile is connected to the mobile data network). Since I have my smartphone connected through WiFi, they were virtually free (excuse me if I use stock screenshots, it's a lot easier since I have no way to grab screenshots on my Android).

 

You can place calls to standard phones as well, and call costs are very low. For example a call to a New Zealand landline costs US$0.022 per minute, a lot less than the NZ$0.49 per minute I would pay if using my mobile plan.

Calls between Vonage Mobile app users are encoded using a HD (High Definition) codec. This means the voice sound is much clearer. So much so that when I tested a call to another Vonage Mobile user I was surprised how different it sounded from those highly compressed low definition standard mobile voice calls.

Text messages are sent between Vonage Mobile users, and the interface is pretty similar to what you'd expect from an instant message app.

 

Some people on Twitter asked me what makes Vonage Mobile better or different from Skype for example. With Skype you have to add people to your contact list, and you have to remember what's the username/alias someone is using before you call. With Vonage Mobile you can search your contact list from within the app and easily place the call.

Another difference is that Vonage Mobile allows you to topup your account (for standard phone calls) directly from the app, charging your Google Android Market or Apple iTunes accounts directly. And this is without ever leaving the app.

For a limited time Vonage Mobile calls to numbers in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico are free from anywhere in the world.

Users do not need to be a Vonage customer to use the app. All topups are done through the Android Market or iTunes.

When you install the app you will receive a SMS with a code to authenticate your mobile number. This means your mobile number will be used as the Caller ID when calling a landline or mobile.

Download Vonage Mobile now (iPhone calling app or Android calling app) and check it out. Invite your family and friends so you have someone to text or call, then let us know what you think.

This is a sponsored blog post, but I have used the Vonage Mobile app.

I posted a few years ago an entry about an old Burroughs building I found in Petone. That post received many comments from people who worked, either at that building, or worked for Burroughs (and later Unisys) around the world.

My first experience with Burroughs B and A Series computers was in 1986. My LINC training was on a B1714, but work really started on a B6910.

I joined Unisys Brasil in 1989 and in 1997 I moved to Unisys New Zealand, where I worked until 2006. All this time I worked with LINC, and from 1995 my focus was on the telecommunications vertical.

Today I found a couple of videos produced for Burroughs/Unisys in mid 80s showing the Veleiros Plant, in Sao Paulo. Veleiros was not only a manufacturing plant, but a software support centre and the administrative offices for Burroughs (and later Unisys) in Brazil as well.

In 1990 Unisys made a big push to move from being a hardware company to being a services company, while still supplying its specialised mainframe hardware.

While I was assigned to a small office somewhere else in Brazil, working with software projects, I had to visit and work in Veleiros many times.

Both videos below are in Brazilian Portuguese, but you can just watch for the sake of remember this old hardware (and people):

In this video showing the Unisys Engineering and Manufacturing (Veleiros) around 1988 you will see the mainframes and peripherals manufacturing process. Lots of B6900 and A series mainframes, line printers, T27 terminals, magnetic tapes and behind the scenes images showing people putting these together:



This one is a video from 1985 celebrating 100 years of Burroughs:

A Geekzoner (BarTender) has put together a few apps that may be useful if you ever wonder about mobile coverage...

The first one is a map of New Zealand cell sites. The second one (pictured below), gives you a view of which cell sites are available near an address you enter.

The third one is a link you can use in your smartphone. It is a GPS-based cell site map and will use your smartphone's GPS to show your current location and which cell sites are near you.

Bookmark these now... These maps show cell site information for 2degrees, Telecom New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand and Woosh.

Here are some data collected from the OECD Broadband portal. How is New Zealand doing?

1. Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (June 2011):

Rank		DSL	Cable	Fibre/LAN	Other	Total	Total subscriptions
1	Netherlands	21.2	16.0	1.3	0.0	38.5	6 392 000
2	Switzerland	27.2	10.6	0.2	0.3	38.3	2 983 281
3	Denmark	21.9	10.1	5.0	0.7	37.7	2 090 825
4	Korea	5.3	10.4	20.4	0.0	36.0	17 604 503
5	Norway	18.7	10.3	5.7	0.1	34.9	1 703 817
6	France	31.6	2.0	0.2	0.0	33.8	21 895 000
7	Iceland	29.3	0.0	4.4	0.0	33.6	106 896
8	United Kingdom	25.5	6.6	0.5	0.0	32.6	20 274 861
9	Germany	28.5	3.8	0.2	0.1	32.6	26 615 000
10	Sweden	16.5	6.3	9.0	0.1	31.9	2 995 000
11	Luxembourg	28.5	2.9	0.2	0.1	31.7	160 639
12	Belgium	16.9	14.6	0.0	0.1	31.6	3 433 746
13	Canada	13.5	17.6	0.2	0.0	31.2	10 653 342
14	Finland	20.8	4.8	0.7	2.6	28.9	1 550 400
15	United States	10.2	15.0	1.8	0.3	27.3	84 672 000
16	Japan	6.0	4.5	16.4	0.0	27.0	34 360 672
17	New Zealand	24.4	1.5	0.1	0.0	26.0	1 138 830
18	Austria	16.9	7.6	0.1	0.0	24.7	2 068 623
19	Israel	14.3	10.0	0.0	0.0	24.2	1 847 000
20	Estonia	11.9	5.5	6.1	0.6	24.1	322 523
21	Australia	19.9	3.9	0.1	0.0	24.0	5 405 000
22	Spain	19.0	4.5	0.2	0.0	23.7	10 933 389
23	Slovenia	13.7	6.3	3.5	0.1	23.5	480 785
24	Italy	21.8	0.0	0.5	0.0	22.3	13 507 951
25	Ireland	16.3	5.1	0.1	0.0	21.5	962 120

2. Wireless broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (June 2011):

Rank		Terrestrial fixed wireless	Standard mobile broadband subscriptions	Dedicated mobile data subscriptions	Total	Total subscriptions
1	Korea	0.0	35.1	64.2	99.3	48,542,393
2	Sweden	0.0	49.1	44.4	93.6	8,778,000
3	Japan	0.0	80.0	0.0	80.0	101,869,228
4	Finland	0.4	23.2	55.6	79.1	4,243,800
5	Norway	0.8	52.7	22.8	76.4	3,732,917
6	Denmark	0.8	38.0	34.8	73.6	4,081,086
7	United States	0.2	29.1	35.8	65.1	203,180,000
9	Australia	0.2	26.9	37.2	64.3	14,609,000
8	Portugal	0.2	13.2	51.4	64.7	6,885,232
10	Czech Republic	6.9	32.8	15.2	54.9	5,777,828
11	Luxembourg	0.0	49.0	5.7	54.6	276,679
14	New Zealand	0.5	43.0	10.4	54.0	2,380,709
12	Ireland	1.7	39.3	13.0	54.1	2,426,865
13	Iceland	0.7	36.9	16.5	54.1	172,127
15	Poland	2.4	40.4	8.2	50.9	19,453,493
16	Switzerland	0.0	43.3	5.4	48.7	3,795,353
17	United Kingdom	0.0	36.5	8.0	44.4	27,642,015
18	Netherlands	0.0	32.8	11.2	44.1	7,318,000
20	Spain	0.2	20.6	21.6	42.4	19,542,586
19	Italy	0.0	28.6	13.8	42.4	25,644,685
21	Israel	0.0	37.3	3.0	40.3	3,068,443
22	France	0.2	38.0	0.0	38.2	24,776,000
23	Austria	0.3	14.3	18.9	33.5	2,807,234
24	Estonia	0.3	17.0	16.1	33.3	446,510
25	Slovak Republic	3.7	22.1	7.1	32.9	1,785,534

3. Fixed broadband growth by 100 inhabitants (June 2010 - 2011):

Rank	Country	June 2010-2011 penetration growth (increase in subscribers per 100 inhabitants)	Penetration percentage increase
1	Poland	2.43	21.3%
2	France	2.15	7.0%
3	United Kingdom	2.13	7.0%
4	Greece	2.11	12.4%
5	Estonia	1.79	8.0%
6	Hungary	1.66	9.3%
7	Korea	1.59	4.7%
8	Belgium	1.55	5.4%
9	Spain	1.51	7.1%
10	New Zealand	1.48	6.4%
11	Slovak Republic	1.46	12.6%
12	Czech Republic	1.38	10.8%
13	Portugal	1.33	7.4%
14	Austria	1.29	5.7%
15	Germany	1.29	4.2%
16	Switzerland	1.28	3.6%
17	United States	1.26	4.9%
18	Ireland	1.18	6.0%
19	Canada	1.17	3.9%
20	Italy	1.02	5.0%
21	Chile	0.96	9.8%
22	Mexico	0.92	10.6%
23	Japan	0.89	3.6%
24	Australia	0.71	3.1%
25	Luxembourg	0.70	2.4%

4. Percentage of fibre connections in total broadband (June 2011):

	fiber/total penetration
Belgium	0.06%
Greece	0.09%
New Zealand	0.32%
Austria	0.48%
Ireland	0.50%
Switzerland	0.50%
Germany	0.52%
Canada	0.53%
Luxembourg	0.57%
Australia	0.57%
France	0.71%
Spain	0.95%
Poland	2%
Italy	2%
Finland	2%
Turkey	3%
Netherlands	3%
Portugal	8%
Czech Republic	13%
Hungary	13%
Iceland	13%
Denmark	13%
Norway	16%
Sweden	28%
Slovak Republic	30%
Korea	57%
Japan	61%

5. Business use of broadband (June 2011):

	Latest year
Korea (2009)	98.6
Switzerland (2008)	98.0
Australia (2009)	96.6
Spain	95.4
Iceland	95.3
New Zealand	94.7
Canada (2007)	94.3
Finland (2009)	93.9
France	93.3
Sweden	91.3
Netherlands	90.9
Germany	89.3
Turkey	88.8
Belgium (2009)	88.8
Luxembourg (2009)	88.8
Estonia	88.0
United Kingdom	87.9
Slovenia	87.8
Norway	86.8
Ireland	86.7
Denmark	86.6
Czech Republic	86.5
EU27	85.4
Portugal	84.7
Italy	84.0
Austria	81.7
Greece	80.6
Japan	79.7
Hungary	79.4
Slovak Republic	78.3
Poland	69.0
Mexico (2008)	51.6

6. Average advertised download speeds (September 2010):

	Average advertised broadband download speed, kbit/s
Mexico	2 979
Chile	8 875
Ireland	9 644
Luxembourg	13 184
Spain	14 507
United States	14 665
Israel	15 872
Greece	16 091
Turkey	17 302
Germany	17 303
Hungary	20 087
Switzerland	20 779
Canada	20 821
New Zealand	22 016
Estonia	22 801
Poland	23 821
Belgium	24 891
Denmark	25 771
Czech Republic	26 317
United Kingdom	26 624
Iceland	27 051
Austria	29 157
Italy	29 975
Finland	30 674
Australia	32 401
OECD	37 503
Netherlands	39 595
Norway	46 144
Slovak Republic	48 000
Korea	55 593
Slovenia	61 771
France	66 839
Japan	80 612
Portugal	84 096
Sweden	85 612

7. Average caps in MB:

Hungary	219125.00
Slovak Republic	113888.89
Canada	98444.44
Portugal	86500.00
Australia	73434.78
Ireland	58500.00
Iceland	51791.67
Turkey	48045.45
Belgium	44428.57
New Zealand	34857.14
United Kingdom	34000.00
Spain	11000.00
Luxembourg	6666.67

The footnote in the data says "Advertised speeds are typically the theoretical maximum for the employed technologies. Users commonly have lower actual speeds. Also, often only parts of the country have been upgraded to the fastest speeds." It also points out that "New Zealand's download speeds are not typically advertised."

Plenty of spreadsheets to download and go over in the OECD web page... Most of the data about speeds and data caps are from 2010 though.

Incredible reading the "reasons" for DMCA notices sent to Twitter, asking for tweets to be removed. Here are some:

Where does this Tweet link to: The Tweet links to another website where the infringing material is made available.

Where is the infringing material: The linked website links to another website where the infringing material is available for display or download.

These people are sending notices to Twitter for what a third party posted. And it's not even to the site where something is made available, but it's a link to a web site that links to another web site.

Well, let me get the clear picture. Could someone please explain to me what part of "hyperlinked text" these folks are missing?

As per the linked page (hey, caution here, we are using the infamous "hyperlinked text" thing they don't like!):

Does a service provider have to follow the safe harbor procedures?

No. An ISP may choose not to follow the DMCA takedown process, and do without the safe harbor. If it would not be liable under pre-DMCA copyright law (for example, because it is not contributorily or vicariously liable, or because there is no underlying copyright infringement), it can still raise those same defenses if it is sued.

Twitter would not seem to be "contributorily or vicariously liable" as it is not hosting the material itself - no even in second degree, but they obviously don't want to get into a court to show how idiot is this kind of action.

I am not saying legitimate DMCA notices shouldn't be sent. I am saying DMCA notices shouldn't be sent left and right without aiming at the right companies.

Obviously, IANAL and we all know that logic is not something that prevails in the world these kind of people live.

While some have changed the world by creating design products and pushing for better user experiences, Bill and Melinda Gates are changing the world by saving lives.

Yes, I agree that saying "3.4 million lives saved from Hepatitis B" would be assuming every single person who received a vaccine would have been infected. But the thing here is actually that all those people were given improved odds of not getting sick, thanks to the vaccines paid for this man. Thanks to the research funded by his foundation. Thanks to the funds given to manufacturing companies that would otherwise have no way of making those vaccines, seeing large pharmaceutical companies are not interested in losing money making things that would go for free or small subsidies by governments and ONGs.

Bill and Melinda Gates have given US$ 28 billion to charity so far. This is 48% of their worth.

And while some in the tech industry keep saying Bill Gates should go back to working with Microsoft and change its current direction (a romantic vision of a cut throat industry), I think it's better for the world if he stays working on his foundation instead.

I do have a dislike for infographics but it's important for people that demonize Bill Gates to realise what he's been doing for years now:

This infographic was sourced from frugaldad.com, but I found out a page with very good specific programme ones from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.