The only remaining desktop app regret I have as I sit in my browser writing this on my iMac is no longer being able to quickly and easily jump to Viso on Windows to draw out that diagram that could save a 1,000 words of descriptions, and let's face it drawing in Google Docs is still a bit lame. This online drawing tool from Gliffy is helping me get over my loss.
Very cool. Thanks to Alexey for pointing me in this direction.
Fantastic analysis of the possibilities for the Chrome operating system from a user's perspective.
I think it's possible that we'll see an ARM-based Chrome OS portable for $200 sometime next year.
What I still haven't seen however is the discussion of what this OS means "for always on the net" appliances. Appliances that serve a purpose for a user or company or anyone just passing by rather than a lite secondary netbook that someone adds to the inventory of computers they already have. The dedicated appliance for digital signage suffers from all of the ailments of what is described in this article - synching, bloated operating systems, security issues, cost barriers, etc. etc. Chrome OS could address all of these for the dedicated appliance market.
via Chrome OS: Internet failing at PC > PC failing at Internet.
We all run into clients that have data on their side of the firewall but they want to publish it on their digital signage which is provided by a web service - like Rise Display Network. Hence the dilemma, sending this data to the hosted digital signage content management server (on the other side of the firewall) goes against most corporate security policies, but with the latest from Opera it could become allot easier to publish that private data as client side web pages that the hosted digital signage shows. Displays within the network display the data no problem whereas a display outside of the network would not be able to get at anything. Digital signage content people happy, IT happy, and everyone keeps the costs to a minimum by fully leveraging cloud computing for their displays. Check it out:
With Unite, users can share photos, music, notes, websites, forums and calendars - but unlike standard web apps, these apps are hosted on the user's computer.
via Your Browser is Now a Web Server: Opera Includes Opera Unite in Opera 10.10.
One year ago it costs us about $5,000 per year per developer for the software operating system, development environment, tools, MSDN subscriptions, etc. etc. We then changed our viewpoint and focused on leveraging cloud computing and the open source community.
Our costs today per developer for software are $0. Zero dollars for a developer software environment per year.
Combine this with the elimination of server hardware and software, IT infrastructure support and maintenance, moving from a large office environment to a virtual work place with a drop in as-you-need-it office, and leveraging free video conferencing and the savings are off the chart.
The creation of intellectual capital is becoming cheaper and cheaper.
YouTube just posted on their blog support for 1080p HD. Is there any reason left to want to store, manage and stream your own video's to digital signage or for that matter any other type of display? If you can offload video management to the cloud in full glorious 1080p for free, why not do it?
Byron Darlison