[geeks] Re: [rescue] Flying Pigs - OT WIN2K speed

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 05:30:19PM -0400, Kurt Huhn wrote:
> Attempting a moe to Geeks...
> 
> > I bet that many of us could create something superior (though perhaps not
> > a "scalable") for small workgroups within a year.  A smaller group of us
> > (I don't claim to be part of the second group) could probably create
> > something superior on all fronts in another few years, with all the
> > replications features, etc.
> 
> A group of are already working on it :)
> www.bungo.com - unfortunately, the free service is going away in a matter of
> days.  Costs too much to maintain, and it is frequently abused by folks
> distributing pr0n of all things...

Bleh to pron abuse.  What I really am interested in is the idea of home
application servers.  Imagine being able to make a groupware package aimed
at organizing and running a home, that runs on a dedicated server for a
cost of $150 (server included)?  The market isn't ready for this.  Servers
cheap enough to include in such a package aren't yet here (but I feel they
are close), and home networking isn't really ubiquitous enough yet.  But,
I can hack now, and someone can sell it later when the market is a bit
closer to being ready.

> At any rate - we're making serious progress, and things look good at least
> for the short term.  We don't sell the software - instead we sell the
> service.  I don't think we have plans to sell the software yet - but we've
> at least recognized the potential.

For business purposes, I feel strongly that this is the way to go.  Give
them the software (you don't have to make it easy for them to use
though...) after you sell them the service.  They have a fully supported
package, but if you go out of business, well the package was GPLed, so
they aren't SOL.  But, I notice that you didn't say anything about giving
them the GPLed software.  Oh well.  Services are still the way to go even
if you don't give them the software.  But, I think any sizable company
would be follish not to demand it if they really are going to depend on
your services.
 
> The services require no specialized client - just a current browser.  IE and
> Netscape seem to work wel - Mozilla and Konquerer show some issues though.
> Our developers are working on the problem...

I think that Mozilla support is extremely important, but then I'm not
likely to be one of your customers.
 
> >
> > The real fun would be integrating it into things like video survailence,
> > palm pilots, mapping GPS unit thingies, and all the other day to day
> > devices that perhaps could be better automatted if they could just know
> > what we intended to do before hand.
> >
> 
> Palm Pilot support is scheduled.  We started to work on it, then the dev
> environment we were using became unavailable (read: went OOB).  However, we
> recently found some very helpful stuff, and we're going to pick this up
> again soon.

You probably don't feel that this is ready enough for you to use, but I
personally really enjoy using PocketSmalltalk for Palm dev.  It is fast
and easy.  I still haven't been able to find a decent form designer that
I can afford though so I find myself doing it by hand.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd