Nokia N97: Upsetting the Apple Cart.

Nokia have apparently upset a few of their carrier partners by shipping a native Skype client on the new N97 mobile computer, well what did they expect? that Nokia's flagship mobile communications platform was going to leave out a key communications component. People are finding a way to get VoIP on iPhone, I use Fring, it's great, I can chat to people in the message window and if I really need to I can speak/crackle at them free; great for me I have a software developer in Brisbane.

Operators cannot turn back the tide, or squeeze the Genie back into the bottle. Nokia are right to offer it because if they don;t they will lose share to someone who will. If service provider doesn;t want to carry the N95, it's a free country... But one of their competitors will, that's a free market...

I switched to iPhone because my old Communicator lacked features the N97 now has. Though Mac compatibility may remain an issue, I don;t know yet.

Commercially the service providers are right to resist, and try to limit the leakage of voice minutes; they have shareholders and jobs to protect. But, in the longer term they must find a model that accommodates all aspects of ubiquitous and free Wireless Internet.

Maybe it's to charge a small fee for providing high quality long-distance backhaul for mobile VoIP users. Now, I'd pay for that.

Rain Cloud Computing

Having spent a long time in the business of information security I always get nervous when people talk about shared services; having seen poorly configured 'shared' firewalls allow one customer to find themselves on the intranet of another, sniffers installed on shared networks, and numerous less legitimate/benign activities.

The problems usually stem from programmatic errors, logic breakdowns, or misinterpretation of specifications by developers; this is likely to be the problem with Cloud computing for the next few years; it almost certainly what caused the problems experienced recently with GoogleApps.

Should this put you off Cloud computing? Probably not 10 years ago we had all the same problems with websites. It takes a while to learn how this new stuff works.