The ZX Spectrum is 30!

So today, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum turns 30. Apart from making me feel my age, this seems like quite a milestone because I, like many others in the UK software industry, learnt to program by messing around with that little black box.

The machine was designed to keep cost to a minimum, and also to allow people to write their own programs very quickly and simply. When you switched the machine on, you got a flashing cursor which you could instantly use to start writing a program and electrical stores were constantly filled with screens where some spotty kid (like me) had gone and typed in variants of:

10 PRINT "James woz ere"

20 GOTO 10

Computer magazines in the 80s came with programs you could type in (it was only later that they started sticking a cassette to the front so you could bypass the typing), and even if you were just in it for the games you had to type a BASIC command, LOAD "", to get going.

In 2012, we have computers several times more powerful than a Spectrum in each of our credit cards, and our desktop computers have around 100,000 times more memory. It would take about 100 Spectrums just to hold a single 4 minute MP3. And yet, we are completely dependent on stuff other people have built. Gone are the days when the curious kid could open their Christmas present and within 10 minutes be making it say rude things about their siblings in flashing letters. I suspect that for my children and most of their peers, the first computer they actually own will be a cheap Android tablet or an iPod Touch. Fantastic machines of course, but to even begin to program them you need to hook them up to a desktop machine on which you've installed a development environment. Not exactly conducive to casual tinkering is it?

If we want, as a nation, to stay near the forefront of software as it becomes all-pervasive, rather than just consume the stuff as we do with many other things, we need to find a way of inspiring children to program. It's great to see projects such as the Raspberry Pi, and a recognition within government that ICT in schools needs to be about more than learning to use Word and Excel. But as parents, we also need to do our bit.

I've written code since the age of 10 so it's easy for me to get excited about it. As with anything where you create something from nothing, from painting to house-building to cooking to engineering, programming is fantastically rewarding because you are making something which no one has made before. It also requires and encourages you to be both analytical and creative at the same time, things I certainly want to encourage in my own kids.

So, with this in mind, here are a couple of useful links:
Scratch, kids' programming language
Alice, "an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation..."
This book for kids (and adults!) who want to learn to program

It's great to see that my generation who grew up with their Spectrums (yes and the C64, BBC Micro and so on as well) is beginning to realise that in the search for usability we've lost something along the way and is beginning to do something about it.

Reform patents for the modern world

I've blogged about this before I know, but this article outlining how a patent troll is now exhorting taxpayers' money from US transit authorities really shows how broken the patent system is, especially in the USA but also elsewhere.

So, here are my three proposals to make it better. I'm sure no one will act on any of them, but it makes me feel better to post them online!

1. Exclude Patent Trolls
This is the most important, and will stop people buying up patents cheaply (from liquidations for example) and then making money off them without contributing anything to the wider economy. The way to do it is that if you create a new patent, you have 3 years to bring a product to market before the patent lapses. If you buy a patent from someone else, you have 18 months. If you bought the patent then you cannot claim compensation for patent infringement until you have brought a product to market.

This would still protect innovators by giving them ample time to bring a product to market to validate their patent, but immediately shut out those who only have patents for the purposes of extracting money from others.

2. Narrow the scope of what can be patented
You should not be able to patent an idea, only a way of implementing it. Or to put it another way, you should only be able to patent algorithms or mechanical/technical solutions, not the way they might look. So Amazon would not be able to patent one-click purchases per se, only the way of implementing them. But Dyson would be able to patent its cyclone technology. It would also prevent the ridiculous situation like where one of the biggest beneficiaries of the success of Android smartphones is Microsoft, due to patent claims, despite their historical hostility to and attempts to undermine its Linux/open source foundations.

3. Put a limit on the revenue you can generate from a patent before it becomes unenforceable
This is probably more controversial and difficult to implement, but my argument is that a company of the size of Apple or Samsung should be competing on its ability to innovate and produce designs that consumers want quicker then it's competitors, and that it should not be able to lock others out because it has a patent for a rectangular computing device based on touch input. The patent wars these companies fight mean higher prices for consumers and they make it much harder for smaller companies to enter the market.

Anyone really have any objections to this? I think the only people who stand to lose are intellectual property lawyers and patent trolls.

Mobile Web Apps

Nuvola has been doing some interesting work recently with mobile web applications, and thought I'd share some of the benefits we're helping our clients see from this approach.

Firstly, I'm talking here about business software rather than mobile websites aimed at consumers, although mobile websites are certainly a growth area which I'll be blogging about in the near future no doubt. But this article is about how to use mobile web applications to enable field staff to keep up to date, and most importantly keep the rest of the business up to date on what they are doing.

Today, we launched version 2 of a mobile web application for our long standing client, AzteQ Solutions. AzteQ does IT maintenance and installation, one of whose largest customers provides point of sale services to retailers - they subcontract their installation and maintenance to AzteQ.

Previously, Nuvola had built a solution where engineers received and accepted job details by SMS, but the new mobile app takes things one step further. It provides full features to accept and close jobs, and to log movements of stock. Basically it puts the full power of AzteQ's job management system literally in the hands of engineers in the field - I guess it's pretty obvious how beneficial that can be in terms of operational efficiency.

But the really interesting thing about this is that because it is a web application, it really doesn't matter what sort of smartphone the engineer has, and there is no installation or maintenance of the device necessary - just a URL. It has all the security measures in place for a traditional web app, and it can also be used easily by subcontractors without having to supply them with expensive equipment. We used the jQuery Mobile framework to build it, which gives you the easy look and feel of an iPhone or Android app, but as a set of web pages that are a natural part of their existing system.

For me, this really is the way forward in terms of mobile development. But of course the one drawback is that it only works if you have an internet connection, and this is why the other mobile web app we're working on is really exciting. It will allow engineers for another field service business to take readings when they're in plant rooms and the like with no mobile coverage, and then sync them back to a main server where anything out of the ordinary can automatically be flagged back to the customer. All from just a URL sent to their smartphones.

With some mobile field service systems selling at well over £1000 per handset (and that's before you've bought software and services), it's great that there is now a real way of bringing some of this functionality within the reach of the smaller business.

Insurance of the virtual kind

I was having a very interesting conversation with my hosting partner, Dudobi, a couple of weeks ago about how some of the stuff they're doing now around cloud and virtual services can be really beneficial to SMEs.

One of the things that I found really interesting is virualised disaster recovery, which admittedly sounds like something from a Stephen Spielberg movie, but is actually far more mundane. The idea behind disaster recovery (DR) is that if your office burns down (for example), you have an alternative location where you can decamp en masse and fire up desktop computers and servers which have a copy of your data and installations and carry on as normal.

Sounds like the sort of 'insurance policy' every business should have, but in reality the cost is prohibitive to smaller companies. Also it doesn't really help when people are stuck in the snow outside their homes! This is where virtualised DR is such a great concept. The idea is the you set up virtual servers which have a copy of your business information, and virtual desktop computers which have all of the software you use. Then you turn them off, just doing some low-cost regular data replication. As they aren't physical machines, they cost very little to have switched off.

Then the disaster happens, which could be something nasty like fire, theft or flood, or something mundane like the British inability to deal with snow. Rather than the business stopping, one call to the hosting company and your virtual DR is brought online. Your employees then just have to connect to them from their home PCs, and away you go.

Why this is so good is that you pay a charge to set everything up, and then a small annual cost (a few hundred pounds) to store the virtual machines and keep the data up to date. And then you pay by the hour when you have to use them.

This is another great example of how cloud computing is bringing some of the technological benefits that were previously only available to really big companies to those with as few as five or ten staff. And that has to be a good thing.

January Blues?

I thought it was really time, now that we're well into January, that I wrote some ramblings on my thoughts for 2012. Apparently this is the most depressing week of the year, so I'll try to be a bit more positive!

One of the really exciting things from my perspective is that a lot of commentators are predicting that this will be the year when Cloud Computing really takes off. 2011 I guess was the time where it entered the mainstream consciousness, so will 2012 see everyone moving their business systems to The Cloud?

Well, here's the thing. There is still a lot of scepticism out there around whether putting all of your key business information systems in a data centre somewhere is a sensible thing to do. The worry is that if your internet connection goes down, you lose access to everything. If you have a server in your office and you lose access to the internet, you can still open documents, schedule jobs etc. Not only that, but you need fast internet for things to work.

Well now this is true, and certainly for those with unreliable or slow internet connections (which is still quite a problem in rural areas), it would certainly be a worry. But for the rest of us, network speeds are improving and BT's rollout of their 21CN (21st Century Network) is leading to a national broadband network that is much more reliable and fault tolerant. When did your internet last go down, and how long for?

The other concern is often cost, because people compare the cost of a hosted office server, for example, with a bit of physical kit in their office and in some cases find the hosted option costs more. These costs are coming down of course, and you should also be considering what exactly you need. The benefit of a Cloud server is that you should be able to pay just for what you use, rather than having a whole powerful machine sitting idle most of the time. So it's up to hosting companies and consultants like me to help our customers make the right choices.

Also never underestimate the value of not having to worry about things like backup, and being able to access everything from anywhere if you can't get to your office. I was recently talking to our hosting partner, Dudobi, about virtual disaster recovery sites. While traditionally having a DR solution meant having real hardware and desks on standby at prohibitive costs, you can now have your data sync'd to a virtual backup server, with virtual desktop computers ready to be brought online for staff forced to work from home or serviced offices. Since you're really only paying for storage and a little data sync (which is pretty cheap), this can work out at just a few hundred pounds a year, and then an hourly charge if you have to use it.

So I think it's very exciting that these facilities are within the reach of even very small businesses, and I do think that 2012 will be the year where business people start to see the benefits from them.

I am optimistic then. And yes, it's cold and grey now, but in a few weeks the daffodils will start coming out and we'll all start to feel like spring!

What's a Virtual CTO and why do you need one?

Most business people have come across the concept of a virtual finance director at some point. The idea is that as you grow your business, you begin to need someone on your board who understands finance to ensure you are making the right decisions for the future - you need more input than just bookkeeping and creating annual accounts. But at this stage you probably don't need (or have the budget for) a full time person, so you employ a 'virtual' FD for as much time as you need him or her.

The same is true of technology. This is more and more the case as businesses become more dependent on IT for their operations, and customers expect you to make innovative use of the internet and mobile applications to differentiate yourself.

For example, if you are a training provider, you might already take bookings online but what is your strategy for complimenting your offerings with e-learning? If you provide commercial cleaning services, how do you complete timesheets and holiday requests with the minimum of fuss? For a field service company, how do you manage the parts your engineers carry in stock?

Technology impacts every business, and if you don't have technical skills in your company it's very easy to get either left behind or sold something that doesn't really fix the problem and costs a lot more than you should be paying.

This is where a virtual chief technology officer, or virtual CTO comes in. Without needing the budget or commitment for a full time resource, you can bring in an experienced technologist with an understanding of how technology can benefit your business and a knowledge of the latest market trends, and only pay for the amount of time you need.

For more information, please visit www.nuvola.co.uk/Virtual-CTO.

"I just need access to anything, anywhere, at any time!"

Someone said this to me at an event the other day, in an exasperated tone as they went on to tell me all the times they'd been visiting a client and had forgotten to put that important document from their office on their laptop, had tried unsuccessfully to access their project management tools from home and had spent ages trying to work out which of a string of emails back and forth actually held the final version of a proposal.

Apart from computers breaking down and just not working (and there are IT support companies for that!), this seems to be the biggest issue people have with IT - just being able to get at everything easily all the time. The good news is that there are lots of tools available either for free or at a very reasonable price which can sort all this out for you. The better news as that you don't need the technical skills of Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates to set them up.

The best news of all, though, is that Nuvola is running workshops this December to help you understand what tools are available, which are right for you, and most importantly to actually set them up. Interested? More details and booking information is at http://www.nuvola.co.uk/Events.