Any plans for an iPhone app? That would be really great!

Good Question!

I don't know. Maybe Bud or Al can answer that for you....they're the programmers.

There are alot of things I'd like to do, but never manage to get around to tackling. For several years, I've wanted to get more video on the site...and possibly webcams of some sort, like what they do over on www.surfline.com

Just this past week, I printed out two articles for my co-workers at the printing plant where I work. Both are related to the changes we've seen -- during the past ten years - and what new tech to expect during 2010. I'm going to post one of the links below.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/180565-10-technologies-that-will-rock-2010?source=article_sb_popular

If you do, dont forget about the Palm Pre.

I own a Palm Pre (not an iPhone) but from what I've dabbled with, the SDK's are similar enough that coding for both would be relatively simple. Having said that, the company that designs and maintains UBB threads is going through some changes (all good from what I've read) and is planning a major software release (date TBD). The changes I read about will make viewing much easier on the current and future generation of web enabled phones like the Pre and the iPhone.


In the mean time, what kind of functionality would you be looking for from an app?

Good to see you, Al....hope you had great holidays....we sure did...

Everything has been so quiet around here, and I hadn't heard from you in so long, I was beginning to think you'd left on an African safari until the economy recovers in 2011... {:o)

It's good to be back - I took 2 weeks off for the holidays and spent the last 2 weeks catching up at work - just now getting back to being ahead of the game.

I did check in on TON but didn't see much activity over the holidays - and didn't see where the bat-signal had been activated so I assumed all was ok.

Our customers at my real job are clamoring about Droid and IPhone apps. Unfortunately, they see these new devices and that they can connect to the Internet and decide they would like their Windows Apps to run on them. Well we do support Windows CE and you can run your programs on those devices (we have a thin client product) but your standard business form is a tad bit larger that will work comfortably on those small screens. To believe that we're going to provide them a complete "magic" solution to their customer requests for portable device support is not realistic. Sometimes I think we're all too quick to try to respond to someone's incomplete thought processes. (Crap, sounds like I'm being political doesn't it?)

Thus the "In the mean time, what kind of functionality would you be looking for from an app?" question was right on target. Bull's eye! Notice the defending sound of responses coming back?

When I did performance tuning in the old days, my first question to someone that said their system was slow and wanted it to go faster was "What do you consider to be acceptable performance?". Once upon arriving at H.R Donnelly and Company (yellow pages) in Terre Haute, Indiana (in the middle of winter), the response was "sub second". This was on a networked system with 9600 baud terminals. When the customer said that I closed my briefcase and stood up to leave. He asked where I was going and I said "Back to Dallas. I'll never be able to achieve a sub second response time with this configuration." After a bit more discussion, he decided two seconds would be acceptable. I found a way to accommodate that.

The moral to the story is to begin as Al did by setting realistic expectations.

Not much I can add to that that Bud didn't already cover. Checking for and setting realistic expectations is always my first step.

This year is going to see a huge interest in manufacturers producing tablet pcs. Now granted, this generation will see very cool advances and alot of the gotta-have-new-tech folks will go out and overpay for them, just like so many did with the netbook pcs (that don't even have a cd drive).

But my point is, very soon - in late 2010...or during 2011...(2012 at the latest) - we are going to see a new wave of small portable tablet-like pcs that really do serve the needs of 80% of computing, surfing, business, email, etc...to replace the big laptops and the tiny-screen handhelds...and any website or company already ramped up to service that market need will jump to the head of the line very quickly.

Looks like my multiple monitor desktop will be old school...and we're voluntarily going back to those annoying 15" or smaller screens!

2012?

I thought the world was ending and only a few people would be living beneath the new Denver airport.

http://www.2012endofdays.org/more/Conspiracy-Theory.php