I did want to point something out though, because, and this makes me laugh, I don't understand why it is that people always ask you what you're doing for your birthday.
It's always nothing, I mean, people ask this question, and then stare at your raptly, as if you're about to tell them, "this year, for my birthday, I'm going to sprout wings and fly to Berlin so that I can assassinate my evil doppelganger once and for all!"
Here's what I do for my birthday: I will go out with a few friends and get some drinks. Here's what I do a solid majority of Friday nights out of the years: I will go out with some friends and get some drinks. It's not special, it's not different, it's just stuff that I do.
Usually, I will turn the question around, "What do you do for your birthday every year?"
The usual reply? "Nothing."
I mean, I understand that when you're a kid, the answer might be, "bowling, or Chuck E. Cheese's", because these things are different than what most kids do on a regular basis. But, I don't know of many adults that are over 21 who make huge plans for their birthdays.
It's a silly question.
Over the last week, only one person has asked the right question: "So, doing anything special for your birthday?"
Now... was that so hard?
Google is closer than ever to taking over the world.
Google, a company that I think is doing almost everything right, has officially released Google Apps Premier Edition. As a part of the Gmail beta from the beginning, I enjoyed checking my email and finding they'd added new features and functionality. And now, being the Gmail is probably the largest Beta Test of all time, a lot of people are already familiar with it. This, I think, was google's plan all along.
When you use Gmail, there's a series of links at the top, they are:
This is, in essence, what Google Apps Premier Edition is.
You'll see that this is the core of all business productivity. You've got your email, your calender, your document and spreadsheets, and, image management. All of this is collaborative, and you can communicate in real time with anyone who uses the same services.
This is not what I would call an MS Office killer, but, I will call it a solid competitor, that's for damn sure. It's aimed toward business users.
Here's the deal, at it's core, you've got an email system with inline instant messaging. You've got a calender that can be synchronized between multiple users, or ALL users, and each user can have multiple calenders. This means that if you have a project with a specific schedule, the info on that schedule can be shared with all members of the team, but, does not need to be shared outside of the team.
The next function is Docs & Spreadsheets. It is a word processor and spreadsheet application that allows you to store your files online, you can make anything public, or shareable with specific people, making collaboration easy and quick. It has all the functions of basic editing, and it allows you to open office, openoffice.org docs, as well as save them in formats that can be read by anyone, or just a pdf. It's pretty powerful, and works really well.
In addition to these, you also get a website solution allowing you to build a website quickly and easily, and you can register your domain name to be used with Gmail, so that it is USER@YOURDOMAIN.com.
Of course, you also get Google's powerful search engine. You can find anything, anywhere, just by typing in a few words and pressing enter.
For businesses and enterprises, you get 10GB of storage per account, for schools and personal, you get 2GB. The cost per account is $50 for businesses, free for non-profit / personal.
Let's look at that cost. If I'm not mistaken, the least expensive business license for office is over $200 per machine, and that doesn't include exchange servers, web development etc... that's a huge savings.
Now, since I've been using these features for a while now, I can say that it's all a very tight package, and it seems like a great opportunity, especially for small businesses, to be able to get things done for less.
Google has gone on record as saying that they aren't trying to replace office, just augment it. But, I can't see many companies using both. Really, I think this is just another of the many steps Google is taking in supplanting themselves into every facet of human life on the planet.
The New York Times has a pretty decent article about it here. Check it out.
Xerox gives us more...
If you were alive during the mid 80's, or, have ever shopped in a modern retailer, you might be familiar with thermal paper. It's specially treated paper that prints without ink. The good: you don't replace ink. The bad: the paper is somewhat more expensive, and, over time, the information can fade.
Xerox has been focus on that last 'bad' part. They have developed and inkless printing system with information that fades so that the paper can be reused over and over.
The concept is interesting. People don't like to read extremely long documents on a computer screen. It's just not comfortable, so, most of the time, people will just print out anything that's over a few pages long. Then they throw it away.
This paper is geared toward that end. What if you didn't just throw the paper away?
It's another step toward the idea of a 'paperless' office. Something that will probably never come to be, but, if we can 'reduce' the amount of paper that's being used, that's a positive, right?
The paper uses UV to print, then, over a period of about 24 hours, the paper is blank and can be printed to again. They've been able to reprint up to 50 times on a single sheet.
It's interesting, and, if they can balance out the cost, it will be very useful.
Check out an article here.
Meetings Make Us Dumber...
According to MSNBC, a study was just completed that says that meetings make us 'dumber'. More accurately, it says that creativity is stifled and mob mentality reigns.
Well fucking DUH!
Of course, don't tell the Japanese, whose current culture actually revolves around 'mod mentality'...
That's it for now...
See ya next time!
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