Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

These days, The Cloud is all the rage in the computer world. Cloud storage is probably as far as most folks want (or need) to go - think Box.com, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive/Docs...the list goes on. You can collect quite a bit of free off-site storage if you're of a mind to.  These are all examples of  SaaS - Software as a Service . PaaS - Platform as a Service - gives you a specific pre-configured platform to build applications or services. Finally there is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which is virtualized hardware: CPUs, hard drives, networking, firewalls and the like. A little background:  at my day job at Sisyphean Corp, I manage hosting for a couple dozen big websites (I lose count sometimes).When I first took this on, we were on physical hardware. Trouble with this is once you make your decisions about the hardware, you're sort of stuck with it for a while. If you've predicted your needs poorly, or they change, well... I migrated one o...

Okay, not long after my rant about Amazon dropping support for Linux in their MP3 market place, I cooled down and did a second look. I'd rather fix my problem than bitch - here's what I figured out. In case you missed it, here's what prompted my outrage: to download albums from Amazon, you download an AMZ file, which is essentially an encoded list of URLs to the MP3s in the album. After supporting this functionality for Linux for a number of years, they suddenly dropped it. If you are a Linux user, they now inform you that you will need to download your MP3s from their Cloud Player, one file at a time . Click, download, click, download (repeat ad nauseum). If you purchase much music, this is a completely unacceptable solution. First rule of computer troubleshooting: no matter how outlandish or obscure the problem, somebody has experienced it before you. I did what any self-respecting geek did: I Googled. Breaking this down, there are actually 2 problems to solve. O...

I confess - even though I have an iPad, I've really been wanting a 7 inch Android tablet. And I'm sort of a cheapskate. So when earlier this spring I read about the upcoming Google tablet, I was consumed by gadget lust. Alas, when it was finally rolled out I did a double take and then said, "No thanks." I had the same experience earlier in the year when Amazon introduced their Fire tablet. The Google device has a lot going for it - fairly decently powered CPU, good screen resolution, access to lots of apps (not like the bastardized Nook Color and Nook Tablet), good battery life; even had a front facing camera. It kicks the Amazon Fire's ass, and the Fire is not too shabby a product either. The deal breaker for both? Only 8 GB of internal storage (a 16 GB Google model is now on the market) and no expansion capacity. Google and Amazon want you to use the cloud - more specifically, their clouds - to store everything. Buy music, buy movies, buy books, and ins...

I'd gotten an invite for Google Music a month or two ago but hadn't done much with it until recently. The other day I logged in again and started playing with it again. Here's a few notes for those who are interested in that sort of thing. Here's the short version: Google Music is cloud-based music streaming service, which you can use to upload (I hesitate to say "store" for reasons I'll describe later) and playback MP3s. You get to store 20,000 files, apparently regardless of size. Right now it's in Beta with limited availability (get in line and wait for an invite). It's similar to what Amazon recently launched and what Apple seems to hope iCloud will be. I don't want to call this "cloud storage," because, although you can upload music to play back, there's no way to natively download it - so you won't be using it to back up your music collection. So far it's a one-way street. That being said, I've seen a coup...

Okay - update to my unfortunate brush with the Google+ Identity Police . My "old" identity, "Dr Ralph," did not past muster. Having read the reports of how Google+ was cracking down on fictitious identities, it came as no real surprise to discover they'd finally sniffed me out and suspended my Google profile , although the Gmail account associated with the account was untouched. They *did* offer me an opportunity to edit my profile to come up with something less overtly fake. Amazingly, "Post Ralphaelite," was good enough (this is also the ID that Facebook found acceptable). So I'm back.

Well, I suspected this would happen when I started hearing about Google+'s "Identity Policy." Boiled down, it says users must use their real name or a name they use in everyday life on their Google+ profile . Yeah, well that's not going to happen here. Do you think I'm out of my mind? So, for the record "Dr Ralph" did not meet their standard for real names. Am I surprised? Not particularly. To their credit, Google does give you a chance to edit your profile so as to meet their standards. We'll just see if "Post Ralphaelite" passes muster. I have a feeling it may take several passes before I wiggle past their Identity Cop. For the record, Facebook didn't like "Dr Ralph," either. Stay tuned.

I got a Google Plus invite a little while ago. In case you ignore some of the chatter in Geek Land, it's Google's latest attempt at Social Media. After trying it for a couple of weeks. my verdict: thumbs up. It's still in "Field Testing," which means you can't just go and sign up - you need an invite from someone who's already in. Which is easier than it sounds. There are numerous sites that will send you an invite just for asking (just Google " Google Plus Invites ."). Heck - even I will. Why would you want to get Google Plus (or G+ as it is sometimes referred to)? Let me list a few reasons I see. Biggest reason you'll like Google+ : "Circles." Circles are how you organize the subtle balance that exists within your relationships. They allow a high degree of granularity in what you choose to show. By putting someone in a Circle, you define what you want to share with them. When you post something you choose who to ...

I regularly go off on how great I think Google's application suite is. The centerpiece of all this goodness is Gmail . PCMag.com has a good great article on getting the most out of this first class (and free) service, from managing your mail most effectively, to using the many options and add-ons. Enjoy.

Gmail is now five years old. This has to be one of the longest and most stable "betas" around. I remember when you had to get an invitation to get a Gmail account. If you wanted an account, you had to badger all your geek friends until one of them agreed to send you one of their invites. One only had a limited number of these chits and they were jealously guarded. Matt T (thanks, TDawg!) generously shared one of his with me. My "welcome" email from the GMail team is dated 10/21/04. Gmail was actually announced on March 31, 2004 with an unheard of 1 GB of storage. At the time, Yahoo mail gave users with free accounts a measly 30 MB. The amount of storage was seen as so large, many people assumed it was yet another of Google's April Fool jokes. Early concerns over privacy, based on the fact that advertising keyed off words in the body of the current message, were eventually forgotten. Features were constantly being added; some cool, some (in the opinion of some) r...