My two cents on Google Buzz
by Jakobyte on Feb.11, 2010, under Web Tech
Well, its been a while, but with all the hype over Google’s new “Buzz” release, I thought I may as well stick my oar in.
It seems that Buzz is Google’s attempt to try to make up some ground on the Facebook juggernaut and the huge uptake on Twitter in the last year or so. It basically allows you to share status updates or content with people you are following or are following you, and displays them on you Google profile page (sounds familiar right 
). No real innovation here yet, but it does tie in the mobile and location based stuff that the likes of Foursquare has made popular. Let’s just say it has potential.
The main thing here is that Google have tied it into Gmail, the almost defacto webmail service ( and some may say the last really ground breaking release by Google). Lets face it, everyone has a Gmail account, and if a new little counter starts to clock up inside your mail client you’re going to have a look. Followers can be added manually, or automatically based on your most frequently mailed contacts. I’m not too sure how this will work in practice. Personally, I’d like to be able to import selected contacts from other sources (Facebook, Twitter etc.), but seeing that the guys doing the Buzz Press conference wouldn’t even say the F-Word (As in Facebook) when asked about it directly, I won’t be holding my breath.
A couple of the main downfalls I can see first up are:
- Everything is public by default. This can be changed quite easily, but shouldn’t be the default.
- If you do want to direct things to a specific group of people, you have to have your contacts all grouped properly. Organised people will be fine, but when you import YEARS of phone contacts into Google Contacts, and rely or inline suggestions for everything, sorting can be a pain.
- The actual public profile page where everything is flushed out, is actually pretty hard to find from the Gmail interface.
That’s all on Buzz for now. Integration with other services will be key here, and seeing that the social web’s big three are Facebook, Google and Twitter, if Buzz is to succeed, it’ll need to play nice with the other two at some point.
Open Source Service Management: RiverMuse’s Community Building Process
by Jakobyte on Sep.06, 2009, under Network Managment
A nice piece here detailing the first steps being taken by the RiverMuse guys to build up the community aspect of the project, which is seen as key to the success of the product.
Open Source Service Management: RiverMuse’s Community Building Process.
Looks like things are gathering momentum. Watch this space.
Still here, and back in action.
by Jakobyte on Sep.05, 2009, under General, Phones
Ok, I’m back and this time it’s serious!
So my previous attempt to kick off this blog kind of fizzled out after the first post, but I think I’ve learned the error of my ways. Gone are the aspirations of grand and sweeping posts of social and political commentary. No, no, short and sweet is the new policy, which will stop me from overthinking ideas and just posting some brain farts.
To start (again), I’m quite excited about this, (and I like the music in the vid) :
That is all. For now ………..
There’s a lot of Internet out there, and it’s not going to fill itself with mindless ramblings!
by Jakobyte on Apr.14, 2009, under General
Well, I suppose the recession hits us all at some stage.
As it turns out, a single line of header text, and an ad banner for web space aren’t enough to fill up the 55Gb plan I’ve been paying for for the last two years. Who knew?! So in the name of all things thrifty, and in the words of someone, somewhere, who said “Use it or lose it” (as it happens, losing it wasn’t an option ’cause I paid up in advance), I am immersing at least one big toe into the the world of blogging.
May the Lord have mercy on my sol-o singing career.
So, things are fairly sparse on the page for the moment. Hopefully that’ll change over the next decade or so, as soon as I get around to it. For existing fans, as soon as I figure out how to get that ad banner back up, I’ll sort it for you guys.
As for content, I’m a bit of a Phone-Geek/OSS Consultant/Network Engineer/IT Guy/News Junkie, type of person. So it should be a bit of a mixed bag. Boring and interesting in the same measure hopefully, or not, as the case may be 
So until I think of something to say, I’ll change the default colour of the banner at the top of the page. How many colours can this thing support ……….?
Old site (For Reference):
(yep, that’s it. In it’s mammoth entirity. She will be missed)
