Just about everyone these days has a smartphone. To support our student’s needs for on-the-go information we recently launched http://m.tru.ca.

Simply enter this url in any smartphone browser to access a number of TRU campus services including TRU News and Events, Food Services Information, Wolf Pack sports updates,computer lab availability and wireless printers, campus maps and  Security contacts.

More services to come.

Nerds the world over rejoice, wearable gestural interfaces are enroute

Most laptop computer users will notice their lap getting very warm while they use their machine. Very recently there have been incidents in Vancouver and Kamloops where laptop computers have shorted out or overheated causing burns and even a fatality.

From the CBC article –  a list of laptop safety precautions:

• Always operate on a hard surface that allows ventilation. Soft materials can block the airflow vents and cause it to overheat.
• If it is not possible to avoid using a soft surface, an optional heat-sink base should be used to maintain cooling.
• Always shut down your laptop, even for short periods of time, especially when placed in a carry bag.
• Inspect and clean the air vents on a weekly basis. Forced-air dusters can be used to keep the vents clean and free from debris.
• Replace any equipment or parts that do not work.
• Using a laptop desk or cooler to allow air circulation between the laptop and the desk
• Visit the Health Canada recall listings website to see if a laptop has been recalled.
• Review the manufacturers’ website for additional safety tips and recommended maintenance.

With the end of the car culture upon us, it has suddenly become unfashionable to own big, expensive cars.

For the very first time, Americans are driving less than ever before. This is bad news for bankrupted GM as the market for its products has perhaps gone forever.

Americans Driving Less for the First Time

Today, the best car to own is no car. That said, I did  replace a gas-guzzler for a small car recently. While not a hybrid or electric vehicle, the car gets excellent fuel economy and qualified for a tax incentive because of its ultra low emissions.

For all its green values, the thing I like best about the car is the iPod interface. That USB port connecting the iPod to the car and 4,000+ songs and audio books had me thinking about how simple technologies could make driving really better. If I had a smart-phone connected to my car’s USB, (instead of my first generation iPod) and that USB talked to all those sensors in the car, I could transmit speed, location and my direction to a car “network” to other cars sharing the road, we’d have some pretty cool things happening.

This network could improve traffic flows and reduce air pollution by load balancing roadways based on current use. Toll booths and truck scales could be eliminated through automation. Accidents could be reduced by automobile equivalents of collision detection systems. New business models like metered use of shared cars and insurance-by-the-kilometer arrangements could be developed.

Imagine if you just wanted to borrow/rent a truck for the afternoon to move some unfeasibly large wicker chairs. Your smart phone would tell you where an available truck-for-hire was waiting. You could then unlock the vehicle from your phone and do your errand, leaving at it your house for the next user. Heck you wouldn’t even have to own a car at all.Or if you owned one, you could rent out your vehicle on the car network while you were toiling away at work.

Maybe GM could build this network, using open source standards…

There’s a great article in this week’s  Economist on Automobile Technologies on this topic too.

Popular in Japan for ages, the QR (Quick Response) tag is coming to a bus advert, book or newspaper near you. I’ve generated one below. The concept is referred to as “hardlinking”: creating a link between the physical world and the virtual. Users simply load the software to their camera phone, iphone or blackberry – point the camera at the object and voila – your phone takes you to the webpage embedded in the tag.

The process to incorporate them into your media is simple too: you go to a site like beetagg, generate the barcode of your choice, add the tag to your copy (say for the newspaper, Vancouver Skytrain or Bus)  and you have provided a targeted link to the website. Marketers would also collect information of where the ad was viewed which can then be used for improving reach.

I’ve been thinking these two dimensional, user-created bar codes would have been around ages ago in North America but until now not all cellphones had cameras.

QR tags aren’t just for ads. More and more of the half million visits to the tru.ca website each month are from mobile devices.  Educause  talks about how these tags could be used for library book renewal, linkages to equipment manuals and other uses.

Ok, for the grand prize, where did my tag take you?

Happy Spring!

Netbooks

Earlier I predicted this would be a big year for netbooks at TRU and now in only March that has proven to be an understatement as students and faculty snap up the $300 machines. This supports a trend away from the sale and use of desktop units, especially Macs. 

While desktop growth has plummeted, PC laptop sales are up. Microsoft attributes the success to its new ad campaign but the growth is probably the result of netbook sales with Windows.

Exabytes

Thinking about exabytes – How much data is 5 exabytes, the amount of data that apparently moves through the Internet each month?

If:

• An exabyte is 10 x 18 bytes and a gigabyte is 10 x 9 bytes
• And a single layer DVD holds 4.7 GB of data and is about 1.2 mm thick.

So if you stacked the DVD’s holding a month’s information it would stand 1,276 kilometers high. Amazing. A year’s worth of those DVDs stretches from Toronto to Sydney, Australia. (You’d need glue to hold them together – I’ll think about how much glue later ;p) 

If your boss asks you to back up the Internet, say no.

Here’s some “blue-skying” for the year ahead in IT. Note that I reserve the right to be breathtakingly wrong.

1. Being Green Saves Green

Everything will continue to be about reducing IT’s CO2 footprint and reducing costs. Virtualization technologies (VMWare etc.) now rule the server room and are a no-brainer approach; desktop virtualization technologies (VMWare, XenSource, Citrix, nComputing, etc.) will improve student access to bespoke applications, improve access and reduce costs.

The total carbon footprint of technologies now guides all our purchases. We now consider the whole lifecycle of devices: how and where electronics are built, how much power they use and how the can be safely disposed of form the evaluation criteria.

Of course, all this virtualization reduces the number of machines required – spelling bad news for hardware vendors.

2. Disaster Recovery

2008 was a bad year for “cloud” outages. Google and Amazon had major service interruptions. Banks and stock market systems failed. In 2009, keeping things running will be the core competency of IT teams. To do this properly we will rely on new technologies and partners to protect critical data and networks.

3. The Year of Living with Video Conferencing

2009 is going to be the year when we have to start delivering good video conferencing services. We aren’t talking about 3D holographic telepresence just yet, but high definition cameras, good quality sound and wireless microphones, proper lighting will improve the videoconferencing experience and provide a sound alternative for in-person lectures and meetings. Improvements to videoconferencing and synchronous collaboration tools should slowly reduce the requirement for travel.

4. Can’t we all just get along – with all those new devices?

Over the last few years we’ve seen a veritable plankton-bloom of equipment on our wireless “bubble.” With laptops, net-books (ie mini laptops),  iPods, iPhones, iDogs (kidding), Smart Phones, RFID Tags, Security Equipment, dual mode phones,  – the number of new consumer devices connecting will continue to grow exponentially.  Survival for IT in this new landscape requires us to be really good at security and network availability – policing the stuff on the network may be tricky. Strong security and identity management will be critical here.

5. And all those new devices better work well together

This year expect better touch screens, cameras, power management, and, most importantly,  less wires connecting those devices. I’d loove to do away with the big plastic box of cables I have to plug everything in. Other vendors and Open Sourcers should follow Apple’s beautiful walled garden approach to device and application integration.

Walled Garden - by Paul Englefield

6. Speaking of Netbooks, is it the beginning of the end of Desktops?

Windows Version 7.0 will no doubt emerge this year but it’s overall presence will be a big yawn. How important are operating systems in a world of “information anywhere” devices? I expect to see continued use of mobile computing with users bypassing laptops to Netbooks or smart-phones. Applications via the Cloud will figure prominently in this shift.

7. Will ERP Vendors start to get “SaaS-y”?

I’ve got no idea how or when the (Enterprise Resources Planning) ERP vendors will get there but Small and Medium Sized (SME) customers, their last frontier for new revenue, will want their ERP solution as  Software as a Service (SaaS) where applications are used and rented on-demand. Here at TRU, I’d expect we will be using more SaaS solutions into the future as everyone rushes into the “clouds.” That’s probably the new gold dream.

8. I’ve Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now

While I don’t think things will change overnight, I’m a believer that if cloud computing offers a greener, cheaper and easier way of doing things to your standard data-centre model, it will succeed. That said, I don’t think people will shut down their IT infrastructures overnight. Look forward to seeing cloud-based implementations of productivity applications like MS-exchange, gmail, sharepoint, office, google docs taking a foothold in enterprises. On its heels applications from Intuit, Mint, 37Signals, and the like will continue to gain in popularity.

Big ERP’s may take much longer to migrate to the cloud. Perhaps “Platform as a Service” will be the approach that succeeds for core enterprise applications. Can you say Service Bureau 2.0?

We will continue to work with other schools to create “trusted clouds” of shared services.

9. Social Networking

Now that the whole world is on Facebook (fb) or some other social network, look forward to seeing more corporate implementations of social network-like packages. I’m not thinking that we would actually use fb for University collaboration (I’m not convinced fb groups or applications actually have much uptake)  but look forward to fb look and feel in collaborative applications behind the firewall to improve internal communications.

10. The Search for IT Talent Continues

Global Economic Downturn or not, the IT talent pool is shallow. We will continue having trouble attracting and retaining pros over the next year. Woe is me.

It’s really tough to lose a friend, especially your best friend. That’s right, I’m talking about the theft of your laptop. Wouldn’t it be great to recover your precious and catch the crooks? The smart chaps at the University of Washington and the University of California San Diego have come up with an open source tracking system for stolen laptops – Adeona – the Roman goddess of safe returns, or something. Proper details and all the instructions to set up the service are in the link.

Simply put, the system works by sending a small message, and for the mac, a photo, every so often to a server. During the installation process you build a credential recovery file that you need to keep safe by emailing to yourself. You then use this file to connect to Adeona and determine where your laptop has gone.

To Catch a Thief

Once the criminals connect to the internet with your purloined laptop, Adeona grabs the internal and external IP address of the machine, the wireless access point name and the nearest router. A number of online repositories are available to tell you where the heck these access points and routers may be. It also takes a picture of the bad guy (see above.) It does this update every 30 minutes or so you have updated information if the crook is on the move.

You can provide this information to your local law enforcement officer and Internet Service Provider. DON’T TAKE THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS, he shouted. If you install this software on a University computer that gets stolen, IT Services will liase with the RCMP directly to recover your machine.

I want simple applications that I can get to from anywhere, i.e., I want the City to tell me when the garbage truck will be at my house. I get confused with the calendar and the changes in pick up days. I want a message that comes to my mobile device, TV, computer screen, refrigerator, and car dashboard that says:

“Reminder: Recycling/Garbage Day Tomorrow“

then, suddenly the next morning:

“Garbage Truck will be here in 17.38 minutes. Get out of bed lazy!”

I also want to be able to book appointments using my mobile device, TV, laptop, refrigerator, or car dashboard directly with the doctor, salon, golf course, dentist, hairdresser, or doggie-day care people without an endless back and forth of calls, hold musak and busy signals. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I just want to get a message that says “wisdom teeth extraction tomorrow: 8am.” (Well not really.) If the dentist’s office could also book it in my e-calendar I’d be most appreciative.

I want to get an email from the washing machine telling me it’s done.

While the smart-phone wars rage on and on, I think we will be moving to a time when we won’t really care what shiny device we get our info from, just so long as we get our info. Any old point of interface will do. As long the thingie I’m using connects to the cloud that connects to the garbage truck that is rumbling down the boulevard, I’ll be satisfied.

I’m currently attending the Oracle World conference in San Francisco. Of course Oracle is the world’s third largest  software company with over $1 Billion in profit in the last quarter alone. There are 40,000 or so people at this years event. For all it’s corporate splendor, I’ve still not been able to track down a wireless signal.

The  modern equivalent of hunter-gathering is Man’s endless search for wireless connectivity. Tighter security on most wireless routers means that free airtime is getting more scarce. That’s not the case for TRU students, faculty and staff anymore. While we have had a wireless bubble on campus for many years, getting wireless connectivity at other institutions has been a big hassle. Wireless roaming off campus has been made much easier with a new service called Eduroam.

The link above will tell you how to get connected so that  every time you flip your laptop open on campus, or at campuses throughout British Columbia all you need to do is point at the EDUROAM SSID, login with your TRU ID and password and bingo you are connected.

Eduroam has been in use at universities throughout Europe for some time. TRU is proud to be a  Canadian pioneer with this service. Yes, we are awesome. With the leadership of CUCCIO, the Canadian University Council of CIO’s – Conseil des dirigeants principaux de l’information des universités canadiennes, the goal is to roll out this service to universities throughout Canada in the immediate future.

The Eduroam Project is an excellent example of a number of things:

• It is a quick hit in the world of Identity Management. Because a TRU student is trusted at TRU, they automatically become “trusted” to use resources at all public unversites.
• Because Eduroam uses 801.1X and is secured by WPA, it helps improve TRU’s security posture, and,
• Eduroam is an excellent showcase of inter-institutional collaboration at its best.

Contact the gurus on the  IT Service desk for more information or assistance.