going google

So I dissed Google Apps. Now I am going to have to eat my words.Over the past two weeks I have moved a lot further than I expected onto Google:1. The first step was a switch to Gmail. The switch was prompted when my Mac Mail account was put on hold for 24 hours because I had reached some message limit or other.  Accepted, it does take a lot of mail to get put on hold. However, I had received and forwarded a shed load of stuff.  Mail went down when I needed it most.  So I tried Gmail as a temporary solution for that 24 hour period. However, after that first 24 hours  I decided to experiment and have both my work and Mac Mail routed through Gmail. One thing that enabled me to do this is Gmails “reply to” feature, which allows me to hide the fact I am replying from my Gmail account. So I still get the benefit of a very nice @mac.com email address and nobody I know will have had any idea I am using Gmail rather than Mac Mail.  One thing I have noticed though is that my spam seems to have been cut right down . One thing that I have been wondering is whether accessing  Gmail  using the mobile google app in my Blackberry is less data hungry than actually receiving mail using the Blackberry “push” . 2. I have been working away from home for a while and I was sick of carting around  my laptop looking for wifi access. Using google documents I have been able to camp at a cybercafe or hotel pc and access my work. God knows why .Mac is not as functional. I have no objection to paying Apple £80 a year for my .Mac account but it’s not up to much at the moment. I hope Leopard is going to herald a real change with .Mac.  Problems? The major one is that Google documents do not work with Safari, nor do they work with any other browser, including Firefox and Seamonkey on my G5. So with my Macintels I have been forced to migrate to Firefox, which I think is ugly. However, I have the google toolbar now and I have migrated all my bookmarks to Google and I am using the Reader and Notebook, both of which are fantastic apps. The Gmail interface is not as pretty as Mail, in fact I kind of find it hard to follow email conversations, but I am getting used to it.

Times: Dvorak predicts iPhone Disaster

Today’s Times quotes Dvorak saying that there will be 20% returns on all iPhone sales as the keyboard is a disater.

I subscribe to Cranky Geeks and Twit etc. I know JCD is not an iPhone cheerleader, but I don’t recall him being so negative.

I can’t believe this…

» Leopard looks like … Vista | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

If you like Vista so be it. But if you are going to give Leopard a pasting for copying Vista please do some basic research.

What a stupid article.

There’s something afoot at Apple

Apple .Mac

I have been away for a week and since getting back I have noticed that the Apple website has had a considerable revamp. Not only that the Safari 3 beta has been released so that Windoze users can get a bit of Mac lovin in their lives.

Mail on the .Mac account has been revamped too. Subtly, but there are some nice new additions such as aliasing and the layout has been refined. Mac mail accessed from Safari 3 is very fast.

I think Apple are going to launch a suite of web based app’s that work with .Mac. I will probably be wrong. However,  Jobs hinted at something during the D5 chat with Mossberg, Gates and Mrs Annoying. Will Apple risk allowing Google to grab Apple users now that many Google app’s are availible for Mac? .Mac is underwhelming and needs a revamp anyway. If Safari is taken up by Windows users perhaps some app’s can be offered to them too as they will have a browser fast enough to cope with the speed needed to run .Mac app’s smoothly.

I think I am right on this one.

Working offline with web based app’s

Google Gears (BETA)

There’s a lot of chatter these days about the death of the rich client PC. Google is making some strides with Google documents and Gears.

Are we facing a future in which we have a simple shell PC/Mac opertaing through a browser, with applications hosted by someone like Google and files stored in some super protected nuclear bunker-like server centre?

Aside from the technical issues, such as problems with offline/online synchronisation and whether the relative inexpense storage will leave the online application economically unecessary in the first place, there are some issues that seem to me to be insurmountable.

The fundamental problem for me stems out of my responsibilty to my client

Let’s say that I am working on a witness statement for my client. The future, some would say, sees  me using a web based word processor. It all looks great in practice, perhaps I am sharing it with my client over the internet and we are working on the draft together seemlessly integrating whether online or offline.

Sounds great, but there is one problem: privilege.

No matter how much a lawyer may want to use online applications his client will always have a veto. Why? The witness statement I mentioned above, is not mine. The property in the statement belongs to my client. Ok it might be on my files, it might, if it is say, a draft contract, never leave my office. I might be able to withhold it should my client not pay his or her fees. However, that changes nothing, the privacy or otherwise of that document is for my client to determine and not me.

So let’s say my client has some wonderful new technical process, say a web based word processing application, and he seeks my advice on whether it is patentable. Is he going to want me to have the details of that patent advice on an application that is hosted by another tech company? Is he going to be happy to have all his proprietary processes documented and stored on “Mega Secure Hosting Inc’s” servers?

Would a wealthy private family trust, that wants me to set up some off shore companies in order to save tax, think the same way?

How about an alcoholic wife beater in the throws of a divorce?

Or a suspected terrorist?

And even if all 3 of those examples I have just given were to agree I would have no choice in having to have a back up rich client in case that client number 4 did not.

This problem recently arose for me. I have some confidental disclosure from a defendant in a case I am working on. It was supplied to me in PDF form. It would have been nice to have my co-counsel look at it in electronic form over the web. I nearly uploaded the files. But the truth of the matter is, that as if I  had uploaded it there would have been an instant breach of confidence, I would have effectively shown 4Shared the document and unwittingly involved them in a breach of confidence.

I cannot see a way around this problem. And it goes much further. Commercial data is as jealously guarded as privleged material, just think:-

-personnel records

- banking and financial data

- medical records

- customer/price lists

- proprietary data

On the subject of Islamic Schools

Muslim majority schools ‘pose security threat and should be closed’ | the Daily Mail

I don’t often agree with the Daily Mail. However, it is high time that the state booted religion out of the educational life of our young children. While they are at it the Bishops should leave the House of Lords too.

Evidence of racist treaching at Saudi funded Islamic school emerges in UK lawsuit

School’s books are racist, says sacked teacher | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk

I doubt that this is the only example, indeed I would guess it’s widespread in the many madrassas that seem to have proliferated in the past 5-10 years. I gather the kids’ textbooks teach them that Jews obey Satan.

DRM – sort of

Gone the way of the horse and buggy

The author of this article has more of an idea about what the music industry should be doing, quote:-

“Indeed, if the record companies could be persuaded to stop suing their
customers for 10 minutes, it might dawn on them that their best chance
for survival conceivably lies in buying interests in “stores” like the
Sam’s flagship and giving the music away for free — in an environment
where the customer, while he’s filling up his terabyte thumbnail hard
drive, is kindly given the opportunity to buy overpriced coffee, beer,
books, audio equipment, digital storage and concert tickets. But
instead they seem content to die from what amounts to a hunger strike
against the existence of the Internet“

IGTD Update 1.4.2.1

bartek:bargiel : iGTD

A slew of updates from IGTD recently, this is the latest.

Manila Mail

Jeff’s Apps – ManilaMail

At last (for me at least) a simple menu bar item to control Mail. It’s lightweight, and best of all it’s free.