Gmail still BETA?

Was in school over the weekend and I was surfing the net in elect library. Logged on to my gmail account and then it struck me; gmail is still a BETA service, despite all these years…I looked over to timba and popped the “why” question at him…he gave me the look that says: “does it look as if I have a desk at googleplex?”

As far as am concerned, gmail is far from being a beta service and the beta tag should be stripped away from it. It’s a stable enough application. And if any further work is to be done on it, it should be under the guise of new features being added not refactoring of a BETA service, but once again, I don’t work in Google so wouldn’t know whatz up.

And still talking about BETA services, I recently started the BETA testing of ednutey5 and if things work out like I envisage, I should be deploying to full fledge production in the next, say, 3 to 4 years…

So far eduntey5 has been a pretty, nice and sexy service. I haven’t encountered any major bug and guess what may be required of me is just proper integration so as to ensure compatibility with other services I’m presently running...

So far it has been fun.

Yeah, the web isn't the desktop

I have an entry in 60minuteswiththegeeks where I argued that trying to morph the web into a desktop might be a step in the wrong direction pointing out that such gestures fail to see the web as a unique platform…

This is not to say that I’m against the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS), definitely not! Saas is the future and it is the way to go.

I argued that wining on the web will involve a good understanding of the unique characteristic of the web and then building services that takes advantage of these characteristics. In that light the obvious ubiquity of the web is itself a chief characteristic of the web and so a model that allows for distributed or remote data processing is positively a strategy that will fit on the web.

My point was that taking advantage of the ubiquitousness of the web shouldn’t be the same thing as copying and pasting the desktop onto the web.

Quoting FORTUNE magazine, the technology section of July 23, 2007:

“The best SaaS offerings, however don’t just use the web but leverage its unique capabilities. They aren’t simple traditional, disk based software fitted with an online interface”

That is exactly the point I’m trying to make. Creating a parody of the desktop on the web is definitely off beam. Like someone aptly put it: “replication is not the same thing as innovation”

Lesson Learnt...

I got a scare at work recently...

I was working on a form that is suppose to jumpstart a service we will be deploying sometimes this year. And due to time constraint ( exams were fast approaching and my time table was looking like evil) and sheer carelessness on my part, I didn't put in place the necessary security measures and I apparently left the system susceptible...
Then I got a call from my OGA who says that there has been a security breach; that the database has been compromised...sqlinjection attack he said.


OUCH!!!

It was then I understood the value and importance of taking adequate security measures, I mean in like 5minutes I could have safeguarded the application and prevented this supposedly mayhem...right there I added "prevention is better than cure" as part of my guiding tenet when building applications...

So I got down to work, did some poking around to see the extent of the damage. At the end of the day, it wasn't what my OGA thought...but still, the lesson stuck.

When it comes to securing web application Jason Gilmore aptly put it when he said:

"Any Web server can be thought of as a castle under constant attack by a sea of barbarians. And, as the history of both conventional and information warfare shows, often the attackers' victory isn't entirely dependent upon their degree of skill or cunning, but rather on an oversight by the defenders."

You see, the interesting thing is that in most scenarios, the steps even needed to safeguard your applications are far from being complex. They are simple tasks that are so simple we sometimes forget how important they are.

So the lesson I learned from the scare? 'Never ever move from development to deploying again without first putting all the necessary security checks'.

40 Days Already?

...cause I've been in the lab wit a pen and a pad tryin to get this d*mn label off?--Dr Dre

Can't believe i have been away for 40 days!

Blame me?I have actually been busy with school and pushing 60minuteswiththegeeks alongside. And the online spot for 60minuteswiththegeeks is not doing bad; the blog has enjoyed over 300 page views within its 30 days of existence...not bad if you ask me. And still cooking up strategies to make the blog more popular.

So that is why i have been kinda silent over here, but school will be going on break soon and sure, will have more time on my hands then to share my thoughts here...not planning on forsaking geekabyte!

Pictures From The Last Gig

We had our first exclusive get together this last Saturday and here are some of the pictures:

Photobucket Album

View All Pictures

Filling You In On Events

From the pictures you know we already had the first exclusive meeting of 60minuteswiththegeeks. It featured Dipo Odumosu who did a presentation on 3D art, using WINGS 3d and Blender. It was an introductory expose where dipo took the audience through the process of modeling a mug.
I also gave a very concise CorelDraw tip and rant a little bit about APTANA an IDE for web application development.
The next rendezvous will be on the 20th of October and it will feature Muyiwa Oyedemi who will talk on developing mobile applications. Visit 60minuteswiththegeeks to get latest updates.

Now What Happened on The 15th September?

We were busted by security personnels who disrupted the program claiming that we lack the appropriate permission to use the venue (BOOB) for the show. On the contrary, we had an official permit given by the Dean of faculty of science, but you know, everybody has a right to express their illogicality, and the security guys did on that day.
I won't go into details but due to the pointless obstinacy we didn't have that edition of 60minuteswiththegeeks

What About The 22nd of September?

Sure we had no disruption this time around which is evident from my previous post.

Tolu who gave a talk on that day has a post on his blog about the event. You can read it here

It has been fun and really its going to get much more exciting. Really looking forward to the next show on the 20nd

Phew!!! Straight from 60minuteswiththegeeks

Straight from the venue, i quickly found an hotspot, hooked up my laptop to the internet and here am i; blogging about 60minuteswiththegeeks, a seminar i blogged about in a previous post...

It was really fun, and sure, you will be getting the full gist over here and also on 60minuteswiththegeeks.com But permit me, i have to run now but when i get back, I'll make the pictures plus the slides available.

I'll also give you the full lowdown of what happened on the 15th September...

Hey tolu man! Your presentation was da bomb!

i'll be back.

60minuteswiththegeeks

They are all students of O.A.U…
They can all be described as whiz-kids…
And they have one thing in common…
Their love and adeptness with computers…
Put them in front of a PC and they can make the earthquake…
Now imagine what will happen when you have all of them together under the same roof…
... ... ...

And there go excerpts from the multimedia presentation I had for 60minuteswiththegeeks just yesterday in school…

Now you may ask: “what is this all about, what is 60minuteswiththegeeks?”

Well, it is the forum I hinted that I was working on in one of my previous post and it is about to commence…which explains the outdoor multimedia presentation in school yesterday and the other publicity materials being circulated…

So let me explain what this is all about.

I have always nurtured the idea of having a tech talk; a gathering of computer enthusiasts: web-developers, programmers, graphic artists and everything else in between coming together on a regular basis to interact, form relationships and learn from each other. I have played with this thought for a while, but now, after some series of events I just have to make things happen…

60minuteswiththegeeks is exactly such a gathering; a forum of developers; a gathering of computer enthusiasts which is going to be a fortnight event in o.a.u. Where guys meet in SpringHills (new buka) to have like say 3 hours together.

Folks like timba, ipod, tanimomo, tolu olugboji, Eddy popoola, bellers, soloz and some other great guys will be regular attendees.

But one thing though, due to the nature of the whole gig, it won’t be for the general public. You must first of all be a fellow before you can be in attendance. And one of the reasons is that I want to, as much as possible, create a close-knit of techies and one way to achieve that is to limit the people that enlist.

Another factor is the capacity of the auditorium. To have a great time together, we can’t afford to have a crowd.

So attendance will be open only to the members.

To kick-start the whole gig, and to get folks enlisted, there will be a kind of public sensitization, where we intimate the students of O.A.U. on what 60minuteswiththegeeks is all about and at the same time sign-up folks whose interest has been piqued.

This public sensitization will be coming up this month. Saturday 15th and Saturday 22nd. The venue is BOOB lecture theater and it’s going to be free of charge.

On the 15th, ipod and I are slated to talk. While 22nd will have tolu olugboji giving a talk titled:Technology in Incubation: You’ve got to Love Creating!

After these events, details and other modalities will then be made available to the members.

There you have it. Now I have to go. Have so many things I need to put in place but I'll make sure I give a blow by blow report as events unfold...

So if you are in O.A.U. I am looking forward to having you on the 15th and 22nd.