iPad and digital signage

Interesting post by David Haynes on his blog Nanonation jumps on iPad buzz, starts developing to it. David is wondereing what the iPad means for digital signage and he is intrigued that Nanonation has immediately jumped to announce that they are writing a digital signage app to support it.

As much as I am a huge Apple fan, own many Apple devices and will buy the iPad and as much as I am a software developer for digital signage, I just can't see how the iPad fits in just yet. I am sure most of my co-workers just hit the floor given my usual stance on all things Apple.

Here's why.

From everything I have read the iPad looks to be one heck of a device but what just keeps hitting me hard is the level of control that Apple has applied to it. This is an iPhone for all intensive purposes and Apple doesn't let anything run on it unless they approve it. They won't even let Flash run on it because they don't want Flash based apps circumventing their apps control.

I believe in open source, open systems, few if any restrictions and I believe in leveraging the web to reuse all resources that reside there. Putting the App store censor board between myself and my client is not something that I want to get involved in. But, if HTML5 based apps on the iPhone keep going the way they are and this becomes a great device to run a browser on, and I can point that browser to my app, then for sure I can see the iPad finding it's way into digital signage. Till then I am playing wait and see.

Open source isn't a viable business. Yeah right.

via Red Hat's Q3 earnings defy gravity | The Open Road - CNET News.

1. Revenue of $194 million, an 18 percent increase year-over-year.

2. Subscription revenue topped $164 million, up 21 percent year-over-year and 85 percent of the company's revenue.

3. Deferred revenue climbed 23 percent year-over-year to hit $619 million.

4. All 25 accounts up for renewal in the quarter renewed, and at 120 percent of value.

Daring Fireball Linked List: Google's 'Meaning of Open'

Made me laugh. Hard. And the scary thing is he is dead right.

"the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever seen from Google"

via Daring Fireball Linked List: Google's 'Meaning of Open'.

Google Dumps Gears for HTML5

If you believe in open sourced systems that are extensible and leverage the content of a non-proprietary internet then this announcement is in some ways a short term setback but in the long run everyone, consumers and developers, are going to be so much better off. Bring on HTML5. We can't wait!

As one Google rep told the L.A. Times, "We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites."

Believe us Google, no one is looking forward to the cross-browser, cross-OS implementation of HTML5 as much as we are."

via Google Dumps Gears for HTML5.

Creating intellectual capital gets easier and easier

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.