SMS to twitter for free from Norway – what’s next?

My twitter service @RyghSMS is fully working, and offers a free SMS gateway to twitter. You can post to twitter by sending your text to a Norwegian number. The number is hosted by Netcom (teliaSonera) who offers a sms to email service.

RyghSMS has four web applications. One that reads the mail received from Netcom with PHP/IMAP, the second that post the text to the RyghSMS database, then a script that checks if the message has been posted before by RyghSMS or if it is one of the last 20 messages posted to the twitter account. The last script posts the message to twitter (and/or identi.ca).

RyghSMS also has a premium service. You can get the direct messages received on twitter forwarded as sms. This service costs 0,5NOK per message. (Pre-pay in bulks of 100NOK). This feature can also be configured to send sms to you when you get replies.

As twitter is growing in popularity maybe Telenor or Netcom will provide this SMS service together with twitter to their customers – and in that case will @RyghSMS be discontinued. The point of the service is to provide a free service, so if somebody with bigger resources want to provide it – then be my guest.

But for now – if you want to try it, ping me on twitter!

Printed newspapers died 2009 – RIP

This is just a short follow-up on my “Printed News Papers will be gone in the year 2059”. I think it will go a lot faster. You could say they already died just because news isn’t fresh the day after, so why do people still buy them? Because that is something you do. A lot of my friends are subscribers to Aftenposten, a daily newspaper from Oslo. Some of them do it because they find it relaxing to read printed news, but a fraction also keep it because it is trendy – or it is what “grown-ups” do. But I think this is something people born before 1985 will do. The next generation is grown up with internet – they don’t know about the life without a cellphone. The web and SMS is more important than electricity (even if you need electricity to keep it running). Being online and available is more important than ever. People have become, and will continue to be more available. They demand the same availability from the people that should provide them with everything news. Having a state-of-the art platform for handling news will be way for the big media players to win the consumer in the future. When the people born before the internet isn’t the majority – then cost of printing will be too high.

But until then, we’ll see the ghost from 1890 killing of trees with yesterday’s news.

What will be the next iPhone?

For sure the iPhone has grown into a real player in the mobile market. The big players Nokia and Sony Ericsson are probably using a lot of energy on their iPhone-killers. Personally I favor Nokia so I know more about their models. I currently use two; one N82 on my leisure time and E75 when I am at work. The question isn’t if the current iPhone is a great phone with its current features:

The question is who will make the next phenomena in the mobile phone industry

Some features are adopted as features you consider standard. When I got my first mobile over 10 years ago – talking was the key feature. It had the possibility for SMS –but I didn’t know about it when I got it. It was as an Ericsson GA628. It had one “hidden” very nice feature. And that was the possibility to turn off the phone during a conversation, and by this not getting charged by the mobile company. This feature made operators in Norway change their pricing from counting outgoing to incoming. But the key feature was still only the phone – just that it was mobile.

After this phone I upgraded to a Nokia 6110. It was very nice, and I stayed with the 6xxx-series for years until I wanted a mobile with a camera. Nokia has also changed their way of naming the phones – but the last 6xxx-mobile I had is still probably the best phone (basic features) I have ever had. (I still keep one 6310i in my travel pack as a backup phone – even after a year (or two) the battery probably has some power left.

I have tried both iPhone, QTEC, HTC (last two with windows mobile), Sony Ericsson and Samsung. One of the key reasons for choosing Nokia is the operating system. The Symbian OS is developed only to be used as a mobile platform. This is an advantage. The iPhone is developed using the Apple OS X, just like Windows Mobile is the mobile version of Microsoft NT. There exists a lot of different mobile OS (even some Linux based). Google has joined the mobile industry with its Android.

Maybe this Google project also will be a winner – time will show!

The best would be if you could buy your favorite hardware – and then load it up with the operating system you prefer. I don’t think Apple will let you use their OS on alternative hardware – just like they don’t want OS X to be installed on something else then Apple hardware. Nokia has their own Symbian, but they have given the code to Symbian Foundation making it Open Source. This will make their OS available to everyone. Linux is Open Source – and Microsoft doesn’t sell hardware, so it makes sense providing their Mobile Windows to everybody. To simplify will the battle be between hardware producers using off-shelf OS; proprietary like Windows – or open like Symbian, Android or something Linux-based. Or companies like Apple who want to make proprietary software that only runs on their hardware. The fight on the mobile arena will be just like the fight on computers.

The question is if Apple will continue to add features (both software and hardware) faster than companies focusing on only hardware, and companies focusing only on software. Will the Apple strategy of creating a need with their products work in the future? I think the current iPhone is to big as a mobile phone, and it doesn’t have the capabilities like small computers (missing a QWERTY-keyboard). With their smart-phone and buzz have Apple made an icon – but it isn’t next generation; it is only as good as its features. The camera is nothing compared to the ones sitting in Sony Ericsson and Nokia. Nokia’s partnership with Carl Zeiss ensures the best lenses possible in their next mobile. The Apple iPhone needs a new killer feature – if not will somebody else create the next Phone!

Printed News Papers will be gone in the year 2059

50 years from now will the newspapers as we know them today be gone. The idea of printing yesterday’s news is not environmentally friendly or good for journalism. The best news providers will adapt to technology – and I therefor predict that printing will be replaced with digital technology in the “close” future.

Why can’t we just stop printing?
The change can’t come suddenly – just as the banks couldn’t just go online. They had to show their customers that banking online was safe and more efficient. In addition the banks could have fewer employees and therefor run at a lower cost. Something the owners of the banks like. The big media houses needs to bring their readers online – and find a business model that make their owners trust that the future isn’t in printed media.

How to generate income
When the News provider of the future is designed – the key will be how income can be generated. I think readers will pay for online content – but only for premium content. News that can be found everywhere isn’t premium. It is about branding. The big media houses will need to sell something more than just the news. Just like football teams. They need to be something you want to represent: “Yes, I am a New York times reader”, or in Norway “Yes, I am a Dagbladet reader”.

Journalists are just people – and the master journalists can present their ideas and words online on their own site. So the media houses needs to ensure that they have a credibility that makes them a place you trust. Just like you today go to cnn.com or bbc.co.uk when something is happening in the world – and you want top of the line coverage. These news providers have created a brand – and they present content using the available channels. They will adopt new technologies to ensure that you can get the news from them in whatever form you want in the future.

What should a newspaper like Dagbladet do?
Dagbladet is selling less and less printed newspapers. They have an online presence. But they don’t duplicate everything from the printed newspaper in the online version. It has had a more sensational news focus the last years losing more and more credibility. The owners of Dagbladet should make tomorrow’s version, as they already have paid for printing it, the last printed edition and make everybody producing news a part of the web team from Monday. The journalists that don’t want to be a part of this transition should find somewhere else to work. Taking away all the energy used on deadlines, printing and distribution will give time and economy to focus on providing the valuable news in the best way at the best time: NOW!!!

Yesterday’s news should have been sold yesterday!

Other medias
I think we’ll have books (as when know them) for a long time. We’ll see more digital books as reading quality on these eBooks-gadgets improve. But books aren’t there to present fresh news. For the same reason will magazines continue for a long time. Another story is technologies that should be killed off… Why buy a CD when you can get it with higher quality for a lower price online? (Hmm. The same argument could be used about printed newspapers…)

Secondbrain with less brain-power?

Seconbrain.com went back to basics some weeks ago. Seconbrain.com was an advanced site where you could sync in all your content from everywhere. The capabilities included syncing in your bookmarks from bookmarking services, your shared entries from Google reader, micro blogs postings, and blog postings – basically every service with an API. A lot can be said about the finance in web startups these days, and I guess the secondbrain.com team has a good reason behind the decision about killing of all the advanced features.

For me the value became less just because the delicious bookmarks don’t get important automatically anymore. This key feature made me stop visit the site – as the toolbar from delicious is the key to my use of the internet. I use this as the only place I keep my bookmark, and the toolbar is configured to show my most visited sites. This way a new site we’ll need to get some visits before it is in the top 15 that is visible on my screen. Currently the list includes twitter, Google reader, Gmail apps, vg.no, Facebook, my own SMS-application, dn.no, db.no, ++. First of all this shows me how I spend my time, and how it changes when I am off work – and what sites I prioritize when I have more restricted time to spend online. Secondbrain.com has dropped on my “most visited” links just because the new site doesn’t add value. Delicious who stores my bookmarks is providing me the service of keeping my bookmarks available to me in the browser, even without me visiting their site.

Secondbrain.com was a site where I kept a backup of all my content. It was synced in, and a nice place to keep comments about my bookmarks. Comments and putting the bookmarks into collections was the key feature. I guess the site was complicated, and not driving a lot of new users as they have removed (or temporarily taken away) key features – but they have changed the model. It needs to get the brains back – bookmarks isn’t the feature.

It is the context of content that is the feature when we approach web 3.0.

DVD Backup - dvd101

Rygh Jr (2yrs old) has found DVDs to be entertaining and a lot of fun - both inside and outside the DVD player. But the DVDs isn't always playing as well after it has been on the floor or used as a plate. So what should you do? you should make a copy before you play the new "cars" or "Madagascar" movie. This is easy. Download the excellent software DVD Shrink. It can't be easier. Top it off with burning software from nero.com - and you have the ultimate system to copy your DVDs before you (or yours) starting destroying them.

So what's next. Personally I add the movies I buy to my private DVD database. It is connected to Amazon's API - so I get the cover art connected to the entry. This way I can search my database from my mobile when I am in the store to ensure that I don't buy a DVD I already own.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I use Google analytics on my homepage and my blog. And as a part of my transition to a new blog have I analyzed what gave me traffic on the old blog. Two topics gave more traffic – hacks and studio60. Hacks will be a part of the blog in the future, but “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” will not as it was cancelled back in 2007. This show was great, but it didn’t get the ratings needed in the US. Even with strong names like Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme behind the script. If you havn’t seen the show – buy it!

Hacking a WD MyBook into a time machine

The post to get your MyBook to become a clean Linux server can be found here. The next step was to enable the box to be used as storage for the Mac Time Machine software. Thanks to AussieGekko over at macosxhints.com for the commands - this is easy. First you need to enable your MAC for unsupported storage devices. Start your Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal), and enter:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Create a sparse file (please change YOURCOMPUTERNAME and MACADDRESS to fit your computer:

hdiutil create -size 290g -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname "Backup of YOURCOMPUTERNAME" YOURCOMPUTERNAME_ MACADDRESS.sparsebundle

Create a share on your MyBook, ensure that you give the user full access to it, and then open the share on the Mac by using Finder. (GO>Connect To Server). Enter:

CIFS:// your-mybooks-IP/name-of-your-share

Copy the sparse file you created to this file share, and then start time machine. It will take a long time to make the backup the first time – so connect to your router with LAN not wireless.

(image source: wdc) 

Hacking a WD MyBook into a fileserver

Let me start by saying that it was my own MyBook I hacked. I got one some months ago, installed the software on my computer, and got a nice backup in a white box. Connected with LAN to my router, I could get to my files from anywhere with the software. Or not anywhere – I had to have the software installed, and it had to be a windows computer. So with a Mac in the household the goal was to access the files from multiple operating systems.

I found several sites about hacking the Mybook. So it was easy. I'll add some short comments; you can find the details on Martin Hinner's homepage.
First I created a user on the web interface from Wester on the box. Just typed the url assigned by my router to the box and followed the instructions. A script that enables SSH access is downloaded as a firmware upgrade. You start the process by entering the following:

http://your-mybooks-IP/auth/firmware_upgrade.pl?fwserver=martin.hinner.info/mybook/firmware.php

It takes some minutes, not the 30 minutes it says. Then your MyBook has enabled SSH access. After installing putty (a SSH client) I connected to the box with SSH and got the bash shell. I logged in using the user I created at first, and then used the command "su – " to get to the root user. I added "::sysinit:/usr/sbin/sshd" to /etc/inittab.

The next was to remove the MioNET application (the server part of the software needed when you don't hack your Mybook). I then added support for sharing folders (NFS). I found more cool stuff on Hacking WD Mybook World Ed.

I now had a nice fileserver, and my next step was to load it with my music. I have aprox 120GB with music and video in my iTunes library. I copied this over to the Mybook. But the mybook started to hide the files. Western has made the Mybook hide files with some file formats to avoid lawsuits from the music industry. The easiest way to get the files in the open was to use the dos prompt on my windows computer by entering the following command: "ATTRIB R: -r –h" (R: is the file share for the MyBook file share). The next phase was to get the files into my existing iTunes on another computer. I used iTunes Library Updater. This nice tool compares the current library with the folders you want it to check, and then syncs in the new media files. This is good when you want to import 24000 files. A normal "add folder" in iTunes will make the application "not respond".

Nice features like "Get Album Art" have now been done by iTunes. And I'll replace my backup of music and media with a backup of my new iTunes library.

(image source: wdc)

Why should I buy an iPhone?

No gadget gets so much attention as the iPhone. So I say it is overrated compared to the buzz it gets. What I really want from a phone is the basics. Good battery for a lot of talking, SMS and MMS. And if I wanted something more it would be a good camera, a slot for a memory card, Bluetooth, GPS and the possibly for corporate email. A qwerty-keyboard is a nice add-on, and more important than a touch screen. When coming to usability – it should be possible to hold and write a SMS with one hand.

So for me the iPhone fails on the following:

• Battery runs out to fast.
• Two hands are required for writing (one to hold).
• QWERTY is missing (based on the size of the phone).

It wins on:

• Applications available
• MobileMe platform
• iPod and video functionality

I currently have two mobiles, one private; and one for business. Both phones are symbian based and until this spring both had subscriptions from Telenor. With their special “free family” - could I forward calls and SMS to my work phone for free. The easiest was forwarding the calls as this is a network service. Forwarding SMS was solved with a symbian application named SMSAnywhere. It forwarded all messages received to my main mobile. This setup is no longer working for me as my employer has changed the subscription from Telenor to TDC (more on that in a later post…). SMS and forwarding calls is no longer free between my two mobiles. I am back looking for the perfect setup. If Apple offered an iPhone with slots for two sim-cards – then I would buy one! But currently the phone in the iPhone isn’t what I need.

Agile or not?

Agile Project Management with Scrum
Originally uploaded by rygh

Last night I read a blog post about running SAP projects using Agile. SAP projects aren’t normal run that way, but I say you could. SAP is just technology. The old way of running projects is sometimes called waterfalls. For me it isn’t Agile or Waterfall. Waterfall is the classic way of doing a project. You put things into faces; you have milestones and a project schedule. You have a plan for when everything should be done. It will complete when you reach the end of the project schedule. With agile you put your deliverables as your priority. You split your product into “potential shippable units” and hand them over as soon as they are completed. You split your time into fixed periods of weeks named sprints. And these periods the team commit to completing the units they include in this sprint.

For me agile and waterfall goes hand-in-hand. I would have an overall project schedule. And I would do all the normal project plans (finance, risk, schedule etc). Agile is just a way of doing the tasks. Splitting a large project members into teams or make the project members a team, and make them committed to the do their tasks is the key to a successful project. If doing it agile with your team members is what makes them committed – do it agile. If they get committed in another way – do it the other way. As a project manager you should make the team perform as best they can.

So, can a SAP project be Agile?
SAP is technology – and the technology should be chosen after you decide what to do. When you decide what to do - how you should do it is as important as the technology you chose. Agile is about team management and the tasks at hand.

Welcome to my new sandbox

I have planned this new blog for weeks – thinking about domains, names, platform – everything. It was time to do some big changes. So, I am starting over. Welcome to my sandbox of ideas – MrNR.

I have my own publishing solution on rygh.no, but I need a place where everything just works – not a place where I always want to make changes. So I went back to basics. I’ll write about my gadgets, the gadgets I want, the code I have developed, about project management, pilots I am in, life in big blue, economy and other stuff I find interesting. You should understand the domain, and the name of the blog. It is all me. Please post comments with ideas or general feedback!

Me the twitter way:

I am: 30yrs old; married;2super boys.Cellist. IBMer.PMP©,Norwegian. Master of Business and Economics.Starbucks! Mobile:nokia. OS:win6.1.7229