The Cloud with a silver lining

In continuing one of my previous posts about platforms and ecosystems, I think its time I laid out my perspective of an emerging trend, often referred to as ‘Going To The Cloud’.

What the heck is this Cloud anyway?

Well, the Cloud, is nothing but a hard disk that is accessible through the internet. Thats it, and thats all.

So its that simple, so what is all this buzz all about?

What makes the Cloud interesting is the amount of innovative ways you can put it to use. Large vendors like Google and Amazon are able to offer this virtual storage on their vast server farms to their customers, enticing them to buy more and free content from them that can be stored on this internet hard disk, therefore its accessible from any internet enabled device.  Netflix takes it to the very extreme where you can view/stream media from Netflix servers, to any internet enabled device giving you the ability to pause your play on one device and resume it on another. Again, like I said, the concept of cloud is very simple, the usages are abound with innovation, often obscuring the very simple concept underneath it all, making it very mystical to the common user.

Why would anyone need a Cloud Service?

Anyone who needs access to their data from multiple locations, without worrying about having to maintain several copies and losing their data in case of their computer crashing or getting infected by a virus, needs a cloud service.
Personally, I highly recommend it. Its where the world is headed to, and seriously, it makes a whole lot of sense to keep all your important data securely in the cloud, and access it from any internet enabled device. If you still don’t get it, then stop reading, I give up, I can’t get through to you...

Aditya’s quick and highly opinionated guide to picking the right Cloud service

this goes back the concept of Ecosystem. Roughly defined, an Ecosystem is a amalgamate of Cloud enabled features and content offered by different vendors. Let me discuss the top few, and perhaps during that discussion, the concept will become clearer.

The Apple iCloud

The Apple iCloud consists of iTunes Store, where all crap load of media and apps are available for Apple Customers to purchase, which mystemagically (thats a word I made up) get synced to all Apple devices. The concept is simple. the Apple iTunes software operates on Apple’s Cloud called iCloud, and what you get for free is 5GB thick slice of that big iCloud cake. All the stuff you buy and have is kept on your personal slice of Apple Heaven, and that storage is common to all your Apple devices, thereby facilitating the syncing. Once you run out of space, your love for Apple will be put to the test, when you will be presented with the choice to either stop buyig Apple iTunes stuff, or give Apple money to give you a slice thicker than 5GB.
People who already are price insensitive (I assume so, because you already have an Apple device), or those who simply love Apple, and who are very heavily invested in iTunes and Apple TV etc, for their media, should certainly invest in iCloud.

The Amazon S3 storage

Similar to Apple, Amazon houses its flavour of the Cloud on what it calls the S3 storage Cloud. That too offers 5GB free storage and ideally meant for people with Kindle Fire Tablets who are heavily invested in the Amazon Ecosystem of the Amazon’s Store and the Amazon’s App store for Android.
Similar to Apple, if you need more storage, pay up, and you shall get it. Sadly, Amazon’s Cloud storage was the hardest one for me to understand and use.

Microsoft Skydrive

Microsoft has had Cloud storage for ever, but very few knew of it. It all started with Microsoft live, and now exists as Microsoft Skydrive. What I like about Skydrive is its tight integration with all Microsoft products, mainly Office and the OS in general. Again, you get 5GB of free Skydrive storage and the price increases as you need more. With Windows 8, Skydrive and Cloud storage will shine..and Microsoft will become a serious contender in the Cloud space with launching the Surface line of Tablets as well. It would be the the true (finally!) Microsoft Ecosystem with Windows 8, Surface Tablets and the Microsoft App store working together glued together by their Cloud a.k.a Skydrive.
Folks who are heavily invested in Microsoft tech, who only use Microsoft Office for their files and have Windows for home and office, who do not want any additional complexity, Skydrive is best for them, no doubt. Very soon, like I said before, the true power behind the Microsoft machine will be felt when Microsoft’s Ecosystem gets a reboot with Windows 8, Surface Tablets and The Microsoft App Store.

Google Drive

Google has had Cloud Storage for nearly forever a.k.a Google Docs. Google Docs offered you the ability to do most common Office related work online without needing any Office related software. Imagine it to be an online, scaled down version of Microsoft Office, except it's free and all you need is a web browser. With Google Drive, Google now has its own Android Ecosystem complete, with the Android Appstore, Google Drive+Docs and a crap load of Android Devices, including the recently launched Nexus 7 Tablets. As with other Cloud storages, you get 5GB free and then you can pay for more.

..And then the others

There are certainly other Cloud Storage options, which remain separated from the Vendor specific Ecosystems. These other Cloud Storages are ideal for folks (like me) who do not want to get hooked into one Ecosystem or another, who like more control and freedom use the best bits of all Ecosystems, and yet not get tied into any single one.
The better ones out there in my opinion are box.net, Dropbox and Dropplr. However, there are so many more that offer Cloud Storage options, feel free to search for them.
As with all services, you get a free chunk of space and and as your needs grow you can pay more to get more. Box.net boasts of a Cloud Platform, where they have exposed Cloud storage based APIs that allow developers to create apps that integrate with Box.net Cloud storage. Developers have writen box connectors to MS Office, for example, so can work on documents on your box storage right from within Ms Office. This is brilliant in my opinion, and they have my appreciation for opening themselves up to crowd based innovation. In my opinion, they will go far.
Dropbox is great to, its drop dead simple, cross platform and ‘it just works’ flawlessly. Its great for non-tech users, but as far as I know, they remain 'not-as-open' to developers.
Dropplr is somewhere in the middle, it is also simple and by far the cheapest Cloud Solution I know of.
I like all of three, they have their pros and cons.

My Advice

There is no single service that is ‘the best’. Pick the one that is right for you. Consider these for yourself, and make up your own mind..
1. Are you heavily invested in Apple, Google or Amazon? If yes, go for their version of the Cloud.
2. Do you wish to remain independent and not get tied into a particular vendor? Then, pick an independent Cloud provider (I recommend checking out the three I mentioned above).
   - Are you a hacky geek who likes to muck around in the Cloud space and develop apps and stuff? Go to box.net.

But hey, all of them offer free storage, definitely GET ALL THE FREE STORAGE YOU CAN.

The lesser Clouds

There are services like Crashplan and Carbonite that simply offer unattended back-ups to Cloud based storage. Your files are simply copied over to their Cloud and you can retrieve them if you want in case of a crash. Nothing fancy, very barebones, but the same cloud concept underneath it all.
For folks, who are simply interested in drop dead simple backups, these two services are pretty much the best.

There are services like Cloud-Ide and Cloud9 that offer developers browser based IDEs which can be used to develop software without the need to get desktop installed development tools. I love the idea, it's pretty cool, however, these IDEs have not yet matured and are very buggy at the moment.

The Cloud is here to stay. Whether or not you see its silver lining depends on what kind of relationship you cultivate with this concept. Whether you like it or not, you will have no choice but to Cloud-ify yourself. So get onto the Cloud now!

So says I.

Ok..its been a while, spent diligently in technical retrospect and learning. The Oracle vs. Google debacle nearly shook the technological world at its foundations, since Oracle was trying to get the legal systems to say that APIs are copyrightable. Oracle nearly got away with it, and that would have been terrible for JAVA and all JAVA based platforms and companies who would suddenly owe their existence to Oracle, and would be forced to pay royalties to continue to live. Made me wonder..what else exists out there which lets us create cross platform systems that can run an enterprise? Researching this opened a whole new area that I had been oblivious to before...and that is what this post is about.
PHP and Perl are great languages that offer both server side and client side programming capabilities which are free from the tentacles of Oracle. I enjoyed learning these and dabbling with them. Reminded me of a cross between JAVA and old-school Visual Basic. I am quite convinced that all that once was considered best done in JAVA can now be done quite easily in these open source languages and platforms. I strongly recommend these. MySQL  and POSTGRESSQL are awesome alternatives to proprietary databases, which remain open source, though I remain wary of mySQL since its really owned by Oracle, where Mr. Larry Ellison feels that he can change the meaning of ‘open source’ to fill his coffers.
So, people, before Oracle gradually starts milking everyone for using ‘their’ supposedly open source JAVA, I strongly recommend moving slowly away to something that Oracle has not yet gobbled. It will help you survive longer..especially if you are a small scale developer or a startup.

A f(r)iend of mine..Ritu posed an interesting question.

“I am looking for some good resources for MVC patterns. The idea is to build a UI that sources data from the SOA infrastructure and be extended to be hosted on both desktop and mobile platforms.”

Now, considering the whole monologue about JAVA, before this, I realized that while JAVA offered plenty of MVC patterns, my technical conscience would not allow me to recommend a JAVA based solution.
While one can create their own pattern I would recommend using a pre-built framework. Such frameworks allow structure and standards to be enforced, which at an enterprise scale are much needed.
Here are a few examples of some good ones:
1. PHP: CodeIgniter. A good reference for MVC in PHP is this book.
2. Ruby, on Rails: This merits a little more discussion. What Ruby and Rails bring to the table is a very strict (and very different) templating language and framework for rapid MVC based web app development. The learning curve is much higher than PHP, but you save that time by getting basic apps up and running rapidly. Such templating mechanics represent that age old paradox. It was developed to create a fixed and well defined way of ‘doing things’ only in the Ruby way. Then a whole lot was done to give developers the ability to  do things differently or in a customized way. This tug of war leads to a bit of confusion, but in the end, the developers win...so it's a good thing.
Both these platforms and techniques, although very different, offer very good and solid MVC app foundations.
But wait..what about mobile?

Off late, I have become quite convinced that building native apps is really not the way to go, since the various App stores are very greedy. I really like the emerging trend where HTML5 mobile apps are becoming so popular (refer to Financial Times mobile app, which is a pure HTML5 app). My recommendation would be to create the MVC infrastructure, and create a lightweight rest web service with JSON to talk to a  mobile skin built with HTML5 and other resources like JQuery Mobile. If you want to really make native apps after you have built your HTML5 app, you can always use tools like Phonegap to create native apps.

The key is to remember to expose your model a.k.a. via a web service (lightweight and simple like REST with JSON is always preferable) so that the same model can be used in the same way with the same business logic by web, desktop and mobile apps. Resist the temptation to make your apps talk directly to your database/model.

Go open source as much as possible, otherwise get ready, it's only a matter of time for sharks bearing the Oracle copyright come to take a bite off you..

.. and so says I.

...Continuing on my post Get Smart (about your phone)

..from last month, I thought I should probably complete the thought process that I had started to project. So, once you figure out that you do need a smart phone, you will be presented with myriad choices. So, I put together a nice picture instead of words, conforming to the conventional wisdom (which I seldom do), that a picture is worth a thousand words:

Out of the 4 possible conclusions, getting an unlocked device is the most expensive route, and unless you have more money than me (which means nothing BTW), I would not recommend it, and so no reason to discuss it further. Let me do a quick break down of the remaining choices with another graphic, this time a pretty table:

What this table says (and before I proceed, please note that this is meant to be an oversimplification, with a liberal dose of personal experiences, expertise and biases) is that ultimately what really matters is the amount of money you want to spend and what you get in return a.k.a. value.

The carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint etc.) feed off the need for you to get a smart device, and base their entire revenue model by locking you in to a contract that milks you for a lot of money on the pretext of getting a better and more expensive phone at a subsidized rate. They quench your thirst for data (email, web browsing etc.) with a fountain whose nozzle they control. The more you pay, the more they open the nozzle and let you consume more date and a faster speed. And then there are the no-contract providers like Metro PCS and Boost Mobile who have very economical plan, but cannot offer the coolest devices and the best coverage.

[Get out of your cell phone contract]

iPhones are great devices, work very well, have great features and battery life. Apple customer care is the best in the world, in my opinion. In addition, iPhones (and other iOS) devices 'just work', requiring minimal intervention from the users. Their user interface is very simple and intuitive. However, iPhones, like all other iOS devices is a very controlled and monitored paradise, governed by very autocratic Apple policies and mandates. People who are satisfied with Apple's version of electronic paradise (which is by no means a bad one, it is actually pretty good), or people who are blissfully ignorant, will find their home in the Apple land, and live there happily ever after. They will be at peace with themselves when they shell out more money to get new iPhones and Apps, which on the Apple Store, are more paid than free. It is a good place to be, for a lot of people.

And then, there are the people who feel suffocated in the Apple land. They do not like people who seemingly possess mind control powers and control their users by controlling their device experience. People tend to lose their individuality and the power of defining 'whats cool' for themselves. These folks prefer to take the hi-way instead of the Apple way. They are the rebels, willing to challenge the conventions of coolness, which was first invented by Apple. They are the Android geeks.

Google disrupted the Apple universe and carved a place for people who could not afford to live in the Apple land. They made Android available to all manufacturers and allowed them to make Android their own. Suddenly the world was full of Android devices with a vast range of capabilities and prices from $50 to $500, in all shapes, sizes and flavors. Suddenly, smart phones came within reach of the masses, and they embraced Android with open arms. With this deluge of un-moderated and almost uncontrolled Android devices and Apps, we see good devices and crappy devices, good apps (usually existing iOS aka apple apps, ported to Android) and the misbehaving apps that crash creating an amalgam of very confusing yet rich set of experiences for the non-Apple consumer.

Android vs. iPhone

[iOS vs. Android - USA today] 

Rewind- when the smart phone wars began!

While the Android wildfire spread in the grasslands, the Apple forest remained unfazed and protected and the once glorious empire of BlackBerry declined rapidly. The world of smart communications was changing at warp speed. While boasting of a solid set of devices, with un-paralleled reliability and security, RIM the 'inventors' of original smart device, the BlackBerry, found themselves completely out-innovated by the Android vigilante free-thinkers and the Apple sophisticates with stiff upper lips. Their tunnel vision led them to see a future where they saw everyone trying out anything non-BlackBerry, but returning back the good 'ol faithful Berry. Alas, we have not yet invented a laser to correct tunnel vision, and the only known cure is bitter dose of Bankruptcy.

[Android vs. BlackBerry]

And while the BlackBerry was getting squished between Androids wrestling with Apples, slowly and silently, we see the Windows of Microsoft opening, giving way to the new world of Microsoft powered phones.

And thus, the battle of the smart phones, slowly transitions into the battle of the ecosystems, much to the delight of the techno-enthusiast. And that will be the topic of another monologue from me.
Q: So which smart phone would be Aditya's choice?
A: Wait for my post on 'Ecosystems'

And so, in this story fashion, I hope I was able to demystify this tech landscape, mix in my opinionated views. Getting a phone, like religion, is a personal choice.

An Android will let you jump off a cliff. A BlackBerry will warn you of the cliff, and tell you that you can use its old, unfrequented, very secure, dusty and trusty dirt-trail with hand-rails to go down the cliff if you really want to. An Apple will convince you that cliffs don't exist, therefore the need to jump is irrelevant, what you really want is a shiny new iPod and that resistance (to get one) is futile. (I hope a few of you actually get this joke…those who don't should go live in the Apple land).

There is no perfect phone, but there indeed is a phone which will serve you perfectly.
…and so says I.

iPhone Apps worth checking out!

I have been using these and they are proving to be quite useful to me. Take a peek..Enjoy!

Put your iPhone camera to good use, and turn it into a handy document scanner with this app:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/genius-scan-pdf-scanner/id377672876?mt=8

A good anti virus and intrusion prevention app for iPhone:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lookout-mobile-security-free/id434893913?mt=8

A good app to scan through a not of news very quickly. Perfect for keeping up to speed when you are up and about:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8

Tired of carrying a bunch of loyalty and reward cards all the time? With this app, you can put all those cards into your iPhone, and get them scanned at the store..very handy!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/key-ring-reward-cards/id372547556?mt=8

Are you running out of mobile minutes? Make unlimited VOIP calls using just your data plan:
http://www.nettalk.com/en/smartphone
Note: I have been using the VOIP service from nettalk for over a year..been working well, I'd recommend it. Check them out.

Make the most of your smart phone, else go back to your text-pager. And so says I !!

Get smart (about your phone)!

Today's tech world is very confusing to the lay person (notice how I expertly
avoided being perceived as a sexist). In order to make it simpler for a few and to dumb it down so the average person can understand Geek, I took a set of most commonly asked questions, and prepared my highly opinionated answers to them.
I will probably take one question at a time and discuss it to my satisfaction in individual posts with the mindset 'use em or leave em, your call'
(But I do hope that you find them useful). Feel free to comment and add your perspective for the greater good.

Q: What is a 'smart phone' and why do I need it?
Aditya says: I myself find the term 'smart phone' very misleading. Is it a phone for smart people? or is it a phone that is smart for dumb people..who knows? or rather who cares?
From my perspective, a 'smart phone' is the evolved phone which can do more than just make phone calls. The more things a phone can do besides making calls, the smarter it is in my opinion. Thats it, its as simple as that.
The harder question to answer is, do you really need it? I suggest, before you decide that for your self, just make a list of all the things that you want to be able to do with your phone. Then pair your needs with the most cost effective device and provider in the market. Please, do not get sold on the hype and buy the most expensive thing in the market, and then wonder if your usage is worth the money you spent on it...that makes me sad. Here are the 2 most common set of usages (not unless you are a socially hyperactive teen), and my perspective on getting the best value:

Basic Scenario 1: Talk and text.
This is a very common scenario, which I think is the most common denominator for all communication needs today. This is simplest to solve. In today's world, every phone has that capability. To pick the right phone for this need, look for the phone that you find easiest to use, and that has a good battery life. I find that the low end Blackberrys are still the best in this aspect, so I'd have no problem recommending a Blackberry for this. Please note, Blackberry's are notorious for dying during an upgrade, so please do not muck with your Blackberry system settings unless you are adequately supervised. But again, for this need, there is a seemingly unlimited number of choices you will have today, and very economical too.

Basic Scenario 2: Talk, text and email.
Now we enter the realm of 'data' aka email. Remember, texting aka SMS messaging is NOT the same as email, and do not really require a data plan. Anyone telling you otherwise should be subject of your suspicion. For getting the ability to connect to the internet, you will need a basic data plan from your carrier, and a device that can connect to the internet and get your email. Note, the need is for you to be able to have access to email only, not really all the internet has to offer you. In this department too, Blackberrys do a decent job, but so does every other 'non-touch' enabled 'smart' device. Every carrier usually has a bunch of them on hand, but remember the sales rep will try their best to sell you the most expensive device, not the device that meets your needs the best. My advice is that you should just pick the device that does the above three tasks the best, with the least overhead and costs.

If your needs are above and beyond the two basic scenarios I described above, then you definitely need a smart phone. Get ready to enter the world of highly evolved devices (which are nothing but highly compacted computers running on batteries) with multiple capabilities, which you will need to spend a bunch of money on, and will continue to spend money on through out your carrier contract. In this realm, in today's world, you will have 3 primary choices: Android Phones, iPhone, Windows Phone. Note, I did not mention Blackberry here. While Blackberry makes solid devices for the basic needs, they need to play catch up to the other three. I do hope they do so, I wish them all the best! With more competition, the consumers win, and I am all for that.
In a subsequent post, I will talk about this realm, and attempt to demystify it from my POV. However, I will talk about them not from the perspective of the manufacturer/carrier, but from the perspective of the consumer.


In summation, get a device that serves your needs, and nothing more. It is not wise to try and do the work of a needle with a sword. NASA spent a million bucks researching and inventing a pen that could write in space, the Russians used a pencil. 
That says it all, and so says I   !!

The Wars'n Pieces..




The PC war has ended.
The OS war has ended.
The patents war are raging.
The Tablet war is starting.
The Cloud war will start very soon.
Long live Tech Wars!

To Pi or not to Pi, that is a very Raspberry question!

Well, here is something that I started officially thinking about on 'Pi' day. Being one of the few lucky ones to get to pre-order the newly released Raspberry Pi, I could not help reflect upon the technology trend that it represents - cheap computing to the masses! It is so refreshing to see innovation not being monopolized by the tech giants like Google et al. I do hope that this trend doesn't fall victim to the 'big fish eat small fish' sort of cut throat competition that is silently raging in the tech industry today. Innovation and invention needs to preserved and protected from being a form of corporate currency and a commodity that is acquired, traded and fought over unbeknownst to those poor saps called consumers…and so says I !!!
PS: Can't wait to get my hands on the Raspberry Pi and put xbmc.org on it and turn into in to something even cooler.