Christmas is coming

We've had an interesting year, not least of which brought the Raspberry Pi. The more I look at this innocent little computer, the more I want the time to play with it! At present learnig Python is a facinating experinece. this whole genre is brigning back a basic pleasure in computing that has been removed from us, since the advent of Windows.

My beloved Macbook Air, does so much, yet the simplicity and power of what comes in the box, is amazing. The automator function, a very powerful batch automator and scripting facility. Texedit, is a powerful editor and the Preview function has amazing hidden features, with the unix shell prompt a keystroke away.. So what i'm saying is that the simplest IT can often bring amazing results. 2013 will be exciting, what will come next?

Raspberry Pi - Could this be a game changer?

Well, not often I get excited about technology, however this little processor board has soooo much potential. http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ok, it's only a low powered single board PC, with tiny memory and no hard disk, but.....

It will mark my words, spawn a magazine or at least get a regular column in Linux format. It will have applications for Schools and colleges. for electronics students, for IT network geeks, you'll be able to use it to roll your own appliances (mini router, firewall, network tap, IDS etc.

For Amateur radio, it will be fantastic can run on a battery pack, mini video monitor etc. PC in the Car, someone will develop the bits for that too. Not every job in the world needs a full blown system.

Most of all regardless, it will spawn a whole raft of neat tested boot from card linux distress, with compilers built in. I sincerely hope it does encourage programming again. The machines of the 80's did get a whole generation interested in programming, electronics and radio engineering. I can't wait to see where this goes, the accessories it generates and the novel applications and third party add-ons, it really is exciting.

A moments pause

Steve Jobs was a guy with a vision. That vision was planted long ago. In 2005 he did a talk
At Stanford University, to the graduates that year. My oldest Dave shared this with me last year, I am now sharing it..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&feature=youtube_gdata_player you'll find it posted everywhere today, I do not apologise for re-posting it.

Flag in the ground

Recent press coverage of the Socitm "Flag in the ground" roadmap of public services reform, has me thinking about the "Islands of success":

Governance
Procurement
Legal compliance information sharing
HR
Identity and Authentication
Networked services
Media and communications
Security, privacy and information management

Plenty to think about in time for the
Spring Conference!

Moleskine app

Well it's finally arrived, to go with the new range of accessories, the Moleskine app!

Bow you can carry the spirit of Moleskine on your iPhone! Thanks to TravelDave for the tip......

Islands of success

Thinking about the Socitm routemap 2015, I'm thinking about islands of success. The government ICT strategy will be published very soon, that will have key components which will need implementation methodologies, that's the challenge!

We'll develop a rich picture which will explain it all. Still not to late to comment on the Socitm strategy consultation via www.socitm.net

Swiss Army Volcano stove

Presenting in a different way

I love presentations, actually I spent too much of my life writing, and presenting.
I've discovered a lovely new way to present information http://prezi.com/
give it a go!

TOGAF - the jewel in the crown

I've been looking at the TOGAF enterprise architecture model. It's a brilliant way to build components in
a standards based way. Why it's not as famous as PRINCE 2 I do not know, watch this space.....