Do you have beautiful potted plants? Make them even happier with a little flowerhead.

These little wool miniatures can be placed anywhere you have a little spot that needs brightening. A flower pot, on your desk, anywhere. There are lots of adorable flowerheads, each cuter than the next.

Flowerheads are lovingly created by my cousin Jessyca, a mixed-media artist who lives in Oregon with her husband Erik and son Finn. You can buy them in her Etsy shop.

My email inbox was filled this morning with questions and opinions after news came out about Google’s new Chrome OS. Was this another frontal assault on Microsoft by the Googleplex? Is Google becoming too big and powerful? What’s going on?

There’s less to this announcement than breathless pundits are panting. Nobody should be surprised that Google wants to enable the development of standalone Internet devices. Chrome OS is an obvious extension of what the company is already doing with the Chrome browser and Android mobile platform.

Think about the classic functions of an operating system. It’s a program loader. It provides an abstraction layer for hardware. It allocates shared hardware resources, like processor time, memory and storage. It manages IO devices, including the focus of input devices. It provides a consistent user interface. It provides security between different processes. Stuff like that.

If your focus is to provide Internet access for the masses, using devices like netbooks, nettops and handhelds, you don’t need the heft or bloat of full-featured, industrial-strength operating systems like Windows XP, Windows 7 or Mac OS X. You want something thinner.

The best thin operating system for smaller Internet-centric devices is Moblin. However, Moblin has one serious flaw: The project is driven by Intel, and the company’s primary motivation is to get the market to adopt its Atom processors. Thus, Moblin is designed to freeze out competing chips, such as anything based on ARM. Until Moblin (recently put under the auspices of the Linux Foundation) becomes truly hardware-agnostic, its potential is limited.

That brings us to Chrome OS. Is it a competitor to Windows or Mac OS X? I don’t see it. What I do see is that Chrome, when it appears, will be essentially a delivery platform for browser-based computing using the Chrome browser.

Currently, Chrome is in the second tier of browsers, along with Safari and Opera. Chrome OS will move it into the first tier. Software developers must begin making sure that their applications run cleanly in the Chrome browser – just like they must do today with Internet Explorer.

And that, my friends, is all that this announcement means.

You’ll want to be in San Mateo, Calif., on March 1–3, 2010. Why? Because of ESDC 2010, the Enterprise Software Development Conference, a conference that we’re launching for development managers, software architects and developers, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

ESDC 2010 addresses a tremendous need in software development. Over the past few years, we’ve watched the proliferation of technology-specific and vendor-specific events. While such conferences play an important role in developer training and building community (we produce one as well, SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conference), they don’t cover everything.

A too-narrow educational focus can lead to platform siloing and foster a monoculture mindset. That scares dev managers, especially those who live in heterogeneous real-world environments and who want to keep their options open when it comes to platforms, tool chains, methodologies and languages.

When TechWeb shut down SD West after the March 2009 event in Santa Clara, we heard — loud and clear — that the conference’s demise would leave a big hole. We’ve decided to step up to the plate and fill that need.

As conference chairman for ESDC 2010, I’m reaching out to the best and brightest software development experts and instructors in the industry. The goal is to assemble the best platform-neutral, technology-neutral educational and community-building experience for enterprise developers — ever.

Please take part in ESDC 2010. Here’s how:

• The conference is March 1-3, 2010, at the San Mateo Marriott. Registration will open mid-July; we’ll kick it off with huge “Wacky Early Bird” discounts available through Sept. 25, 2009.

• If you’re a software development expert and instructor, check out the Call for Speakers. The deadline is July 31, 2009.

• Stay up to date by following us on Twitter, or watch for the #esdc hashtag.

I hope you’ll join us at ESDC 2010 — and thank you for your support as we launch this new conference.

I love to save money, but this deal still seems too good to be true.

My GPS is a Garmin StreetPilot c550, which is an excellent (though now discontinued) unit purchased in mid-2006. (See some comments I blogged about it.) Though bulkier than newer GPS units, the c550 has everything I want, including turn-by-turn directions and an integrated Bluetooth speakerphone. (It also has things I don’t want or care about, like an MP3 player.)

One of the key features of the c550 is its Garmin GTM-20 traffic receiver. It’s a cable that combines the 12V auto power adapter with a Navteq traffic receiver. The receiver, bundled in the box with the c550, came with a one-year subscription to traffic updates.

In the summer of 2007, and again in the summer of 2008, I purchased 12-month renewals of the traffic subscription for $60 each time. Earlier this week, the GPS told me that it was time to renew the subscription again. I like the traffic delay alerts, and so continuing the subscription was an easy decision.

Poking around the Garmin site, I found two options. I could renew the subscription again for 12 months for $60. Or I could purchase a new GTM-20 receiver with “lifetime traffic” from Garmin for $119.99.

That sounded a bit odd, but indeed, Garmin tech support confirmed that I could purchase that lifetime subscription — and get a whole new traffic radio — for twice the price of a 12-month subscription-only update, and that it’ll work with my c550. (Not only that, but the old traffic-less GTM-20 can serve as a spare 12V power cord.)

But wait, it gets better.

Just before I went to order the new GTM-20 from Garmin, I decided to check online retailers “just in case.” And yes, you can buy the “Garmin GTM 20 Lifetime Traffic Receiver for Select Garmin GPS” from Amazon for $85.

Amazing, eh?

Update June 25: The new GTM-20 arrived while I was away at SPTechCon. It looks different — instead of having an oversized 12v plug with an integrated receiver, as pictured above, the new GTM-20 has a standard plug and the receiver is in a bulge half-way down the cord.

The downside is that there aren’t any more indicator lights to show that the receiver is working. It does work just fine, though! The upside is that the bulge has a jack to for an external traffic-receiver antenna, which would be good for a vehicle with a shielded cab.

Galileo is coming. That’s the name of this year’s Eclipse release train, scheduled for Wednesday, June 24. Given the Eclipse Foundation’s reputation, I expect the train to arrive at the station on schedule.

There’s a lot of goodness in the Galileo toolchain, as you can read in Alex Handy’s story. The simultaneous release is centered around the Eclipse 3.5 integrated development environment, but has many new and updated companion tools, plug-ins and add-ons.

Some of the noteworthy additions include support for PHP 5.3, a new memory analyzer, and upgrades to the plug-in development environment. As a Mac user, I’m happy about Galileo’s use of Cocoa as an optional windowing library.

As the years roll on, Eclipse has become the dominent alternative to Microsoft’s Visual Studio. Yes, Sun’s NetBeans and Apple’s Xcode IDEs are technically excellent – and NetBeans has a strong following in the open-source world. However, neither has the breadth and reach of Eclipse.

While Mac developers favor Xcode, and Sun-centric Java developers use NetBeans, the rest of the industry has converged on Eclipse and Visual Studio. That’s it, end of story. (Even so, Apple’s support for Xcode is strong. We have no idea about Oracle’s commitment to continue investing in the NetBeans community, which is currently dominated by developers employed by Sun.)

Of course, there are many, many developers who don’t use any IDE at all, and cobble together their own toolchains. In many cases, though, their standalone tools are actually based on Eclipse, whether they know it or not. Similarly, there are branded toolchains from companies like IBM that are also based on Eclipse.

What does that mean? Potentially, as Eclipse cements its leadership role in both mindshare and market share as the platform for anyone not using Visual Studio, there is a risk of that the Eclipse team might become less competitive, or have a reduced drive for innovation. I hope that’s not the case.

A bigger concern is that the major corporate sponsors of Eclipse (whose employees make up many of its top Committers) might scale back their investment. It might be due to the economic downturn; senior architects and programmers are expensive, after all, and some might see donating so much developer time to Eclipse projects as a luxury they can’t currently afford. Also, as the Eclipse projects evolve and mature, the sponsors might require fewer new features worthy of corporate developers’ attention.

This year, the Eclipse Foundation is strong, and the Galileo release train continues a string of annual success stories. About next year: Let’s hope that the train continues to run on time.

The awards are over, and now it’s time to deal with the post-award clean-up.

We began disclosing the 2009 SD Times 100 last Thursday, June 11, via Twitter; that was good fun. The official announcement was on Monday, June 15. You can read the story, Such the Drama, and complete list of winners, on SDTimes.com.

What comes next? Vendor conversations. These fall into four categories:

1. Chats with winners, who are seeking resources to help them publicize their recognition in the SD Times 100. Those queries, like all others, are generally funneled to me. We have stock messages to share with them, including a press release quote, boilerplate about BZ Media and SD Times, a permanent link to the story, and a link to the award logos. Easy.

2. Chats with winners, who are seeking more information about why they won. Those conversations are generally brief, since as a rule, we don’t provide a list of reasons why the judges chose a particular company for recognition, beyond our belief that the company demonstrated clear leadership (as defined by “buzz” about them in the broader industry), or demonstrated stand-out innovation (as defined by what they did in the previous calendar year), or both. Easy.

3. Chats with non-winners, who seek specifics about why they didn’t win. Those conversations take the longest time, because generally the company representative wants details, details, details (which we don’t have and won’t provide). In most cases, they want to know what to do to “ensure” that they win next year. We don’t have a recipe for them. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard.

4. Chats with non-winners, who try to muscle us into changing the results by threatening to cancel their advertising contracts to “punish” SD Times, or who cite their past advertising history as a reason why they should be given the award, or who talk about the lavish advertising plans that were about to go to SD Times, but are now regretfully being placed on hold while they “reevaluate” the suitability of our publication, our audience, etc. Always hard.

The Category 4 conversations, often steered to me by our ad-sales team (who received the initial attempt at strong-arming by the vendor) are nearly always unpleasant, and are ultimately frustrating for all parties, because the tactic doesn’t work.

Another spam scam! If I ask for the debit card, there will be either a large fee, or they’ll say that there’s a problem (due to the large sum) and thus they’ll need to do the wire transfer. Hmm. Should I send them my bank info? I don’t think so!

This scam was sent from an Gmail account; I can’t trace the actual ISP or country of origin.

Don’t reply, don’t be fooled.

From: Beatrice Jimoh
Subject: Re: Your Payment Approval From the Federal Ministry of Finance, FMF

Accounts Section,
Foreign Operations Unit,
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc,
UBA HOUSE:
57, Marina, Lagos-Nigeria

Dear Client,

Re: Your Payment Approval From the Federal Ministry of Finance, FMF

From the recently released First Quarter (January-April) 2009 Periodic Gazette from the Federal Ministry of Finance FMF, Abuja-Nigeria, your outstanding US$7,500,000 payment is on serial number 25 on this payment Voucher; and has been designated to be paid to through our bank, the United Bank Africa Plc according to the ministerial directive.

Go ahead and therefore indicate your choice of mode of payment either by:

1.) Preloaded ATM (debit) Card or
2.) Telegraphic (Bank-to-Bank) Wire Transfer

If you choose payment by ATM Debit Card, send us your valid delivery address. Or the later, furnish us with: Your Bank Name and Address, Routing Number, Account Number & Swift Code for immediate commencement of transfer of your fund.

Sincerely yours,
Beatrice Jimoh (Mrs.)
Accounts Section, Foreign Operations Unit,
UBA

Oh, yes, I’m really going to believe that the G20’s “Office of the Management and Payment Bureau” in London wants to happily send me £500,000.

And what are the odds that if you opt for the cheque, you’ll be told that there’s a problem and they’ll need your bank information for a wire transfer?

Don’t respond, don’t be fooled.

From: “MANAGEMENT BUREAU FOREIGN”
Subject: MANAGEMENT BUREAU FOREIGN NOTIFICATION

As part of ways to assist victims of the global economic recession and also in accordance with the just concluded G20 meeting held over here in London, England, I wish to happily inform you that you have been issued a payout sum of 500,000.00 pounds Only (£500,000.00) Five hundred thousand British Pounds only as you are one of the first beneficiaries of this recession relief program jointly organized and funded by all nations of the G20 and the Commonwealth.

Having gone through our records, we discovered that you have in one way or the other in the past contributed to the welfare of your local environment and community at large.

You are therefore advised to contact the officer immediately as stated below;

Contact Person: SHAMIR RANDY Funds Disbursement Officer RECESSION RELIEF PROGRAM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS VICTIMS.

Please provide them with the under listed information’s below as soon as possible as the method of disbursement are thus: CHEQUE ISSUED IN YOUR NAME OR BANK TO BANK TRANSFER

1: Full Names
2: Delivery Address
3: Nationality
4: Phone Number(s)

Please do indicate the method of disbursement of your fund

Thank you
Kind Regards,
Mr. Philip England
G20 Secretary

Earlier this morning, I was cleaning up someone’s blog post. Not because they wrote something bad, but because they committed the ultimate faux pas: They pasted directly from Microsoft Word into the blog engine. The bizarre HTML tags output from Word resulted in goofy output as well as a polluted RSS stream.

Many people have written about the strange HTML output from Microsoft Word. But that’s what happens when a company decides that it knows better than everyone else and insists on doing things its own way.

Google, like Microsoft, likes to do things its own way. As you can read on SDTimes.com, Google has recently bet heavily on HTML 5. In a keynote at the Google I/O conference, reports Alex Handy, HTML 5 will be at the forefront of the forthcoming Google Web Toolkit 2.0 and the new Google Web Elements.

That’s not all coming from the Googlers, who seem to be fighting every battle at once. The company continues to move forward with Android, its operating system for netbooks and smartphones, for example. This puts it into conflict with many, many companies, including Apple, Microsoft and RIM (makers of the BlackBerry).

The big new thing, however, is the new Wave platform and its set of APIs. What is Wave? It’s hard to describe. Google says:

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

Good luck with that.

Google’s creativity is commendable. My big worry is that the company never seems to finish anything. Gmail is still considered to be in beta, for heaven’s sake! Let’s hope that Google doesn’t morph into Microsoft: having lots of interesting ideas, which are implemented in a way that drive people crazy.

This press release speaks for itself. Are you thirsty yet? The machines cost from $2,495 and up.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Damon
Company: American Soda Machines
Phone: 303-478-6193
Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Web: www.americansodamachines.com

Customized Vintage Soda Machines

For anyone who loves enjoys technology or makes their living in the digital industry, a tech themed soda machine makes great addition to your home or office. It provides a fun, offbeat way to keep beverages cold – no matter the alcohol content. These machines can alternately be adorned with any business logo, a favorite video game, or whatever the buyer wants.

In addition to restoring vintage soda machines with the familiar Coke and Pepsi motifs, Denver-based American Soda Machines (ASM) customizes these beverage icons into all kinds of themes for individual buyers. ASM fittingly refers to a customized machine as “re-made to order”.

Where the bespoke machines get installed is often a very fitting home…like an airplane themed machine being located in a hanger, or an equine decorated dispenser being placed in barn. Likewise, car themed pop machines often end up in garages, and movie tribute machines get placed in home theater rooms.

By customizing these machines, ASM is just further tapping into an existing love affair with these relics.

For over half a century, soda machines have been a fixture of American life. There have been multiple makes, models, and manufacturers over the years. The three primary classifications or styles of soda machines are sliders, round tops, and square top machines.

While the American Soda Machines restores and sells all three of these type machines, the square tops provide the best “canvas” for customization. There are also several makes and models of these square top machines. The one ASM most often uses is the Vendo 63 made by the Vendo company during the 1960s.

This Vendo 63 provides nice clean lines for the re-made to order creations. Its nice compact size (53”H x 27.5”W x 21.5” D) makes it easy to fit into a home, office, or wherever a buyer wants to put it. The machine can also be made to vend either bottles or cans.

The ASM art department can create just about anything a customer wants.

High resolution photos of this or any of our customized machines are available upon request. (We grant your art staff permission to further customize a machine in Photoshop with an image(s) that may have even greater appeal to your audience!)

Oh, my aching back! That’s what I was thinking while walking around Microsoft’s TechEd conference a couple of week ago. Perhaps I’m getting old, but a briefcase full of papers, plus a 5.5-lb Apple MacBook Pro, got old really fast.

I’d already lightened my load by picking up an Amazon Kindle 2 digital book reader in April. That meant no more heavy books when I travel; nowadays, I just take a few magazines and the 10.2-oz Kindle. That’s taken a lot of weight of my aching back, while also giving me a much wider choice of reading material. (Right now, my Kindle has about 150 books, nearly all of which were downloaded from Project Gutenberg.)

Often, even when my notebook is handy, I’m accessing data using my iPhone 3G. When it comes to checking e-mail, scheduling appointments, sending instant messages or checking the latest news from the New York Times, the 4.7-oz device is just as convenient as my MacBook Pro. Thanks to solid syncing technology, I can access the same e-mail, calendar, messages and news on either the notebook or the phone—and the phone is with me nearly wherever I go.

The message here is that for business users, the days of the standard notebook PC are limited. Multi-purpose devices, like Kindles or iPhones, aren’t just consumer electronics toys. They’re business machines, and software developers and IT professionals should be thinking about those devices in addition to standard browser-based clients. If you’re creating reports, for example, think about making those reports accessible on smartphones and eBook readers. Is that more work? Yes. Is that good for your business? Yes.

Finally, for those days when I truly need a large screen and full keyboard, I’ve purchased a new back remedy: an HP Mini 1120NR, a Linux-based netbook that weighs only 2.45 lbs. So far, my only complaint is its short three-hour battery life. But for daytrips or doing some work on the sofa, it sure beats a standard notebook PC.

Thinking small can be good for your business—and your health.

A friend forwarded this puzzling scam spam to me. The “from” domain is chevy.com, and it claims to be from the fictitious “Chevy Financial Company” in London. Don’t respond and don’t be fooled!

From: John Lazone
Subject: Job Opportunity

Chevy Financial Company-
London, United Kingdom. E8 2NP.

My name is John Lanzone, I would like to know if you would like to work online from home and get paid without affecting your present job. Actually we need a representative who can work for our finance company as an online payment processor, we currently process alot of personal loans/escrows between a company and an individual who transact business via Online Classifieds Ad. We presently process only United Kingdom & Ireland transactions,we have decided to expand our business outreach process majorly USA/CANADIAN transactions.

Therefore, we require you to work a part-time position by playing the role of our processor for regions: USA/CANADA. We are willing to pay you a steady income of $500 weekly depending on transactions completed. Look below for job description and requirements:

Your primary job will be to print check’s on behalf of our customers to their sole agents ( Payroll service ), we presently have a company whom requires our services to print their payroll checks for their employee’s. Your job will be to purchase a software called “Versacheck or Quickbooks” and also a certain type of check paper in which I will describe to you, then print transaction data on each paper.

You will earn a guaranteed income, we shall process each payrolls every monday of each week and you get paid by friday via Western Union Money Transfer. You will be required to have a debit or credit card to purchase neccesary software,printer and ink and also you will need to have good skills of operating the software, also you will be required to spend approximately $200 to purchase everything required from their website. If you are interested in this offer, kindly get back to me with the following information:

Full Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Home Phone #:
Cell Phone #:
TYPE OF PRINTER:
MANUFACTURER OF PRINTER:
MODEL OF PRINTER:
Do you have any instant messaging service? e.g: Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ?
IF yes, what is your screen name? :

Kindly get back to me for further instructions and I will give you the website where you will purchase the materials and incase you already have it,there is no need in purchasing anything and spending any money.

Regards,

John Lanzone
@chevy.com>

At this week’s TechEd conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft did not present a vision. But that’s okay. That’s not what the conference attendees were looking for.

This may have been the least interesting TechEd that I’ve attended. Granted, I haven’t been to all of Microsoft’s TechEd conferences, but I have attended most of the U.S. events, so there’s plenty of context.

Monday’s low-energy keynote set a low-energy tone for the entire week. While the 7,000-odd attendees uniformly loved the quality of the technical classes, there was no buzz, no theme, no excitement.

The keynote session was chaired by Bill Veghte, senior VP of the company’s Windows business. He gave a general rah-rah about Microsoft’s commitment to growing R&D spending, and emphasized how the company wants to help developers and IT pros succeed in turbulent times.

From there, the keynote moved into a too-long preview of Windows 7, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2, along with a bit about Office 2010. Veghte and the other presenters cherry-picked a few features of these products to highlight, but there was little reaction from the audience — most of whom were already up-to-speed on these products.

(One of the few applause moments came when Iain McDonald, general manager of Windows Server, told the audience that Windows Server 2008 R2 is “going to be 64-bit only – get over it!”)

From there, TechEd moved into what it does best: technical education. Interestingly, Microsoft’s “hot button” emerging technology topics — virtualization and Windows Azure-based cloud computing — weren’t top-of-mind for the attendees I chatted with. Their focus was very practical: administering Windows Server and SharePoint Server, managing SQL Server, customizing Office, writing and deploying Web applications. (Come to think of it, not a single person mentioned Exchange. I wonder why?)

TechEd. Lots of training, not much vision, not much energy. Let’s see what it’s like next year, next June in New Orleans. In the meantime, mark your calendar for Microsoft PDC back in L.A. on November 17-20.

I’ve ordered a new HP netbook. Why? Because my Apple MacBook Pro is too big and heavy for working a trade show, and a MacBook Air is far too pricey.

When I’m at a conference, meeting or trade show, I need a notebook with a good keyboard that I can use to take notes, make blog posts, check Twitter, surf the Web, check email, stuff like that. I don’t need the full functionality of my two-year-old, 5.4-pound 15″ MacBook Pro, named Tachyon, which generally lives on my desk (connected to a 30″ Dell monitor).

Here in Los Angeles at Microsoft TechEd this week, I’ve been carrying around a briefcase with Tachyon. My back’s killing me — and when I load up the bag with all the other stuff needed for the show, it gets even worse.

My requirements fit the qualifications for a netbook: Usable keyboard, reasonable screen, WiFi, strong Web browser, plus the ability to work offline (such as taking notes in a class, keynote or meeting).

While I’m not ashamed to admit lusting after a super-cool 3.0-pound MacBook Air, it’s hard to justify the high cost. While a refurbished model can be had for only $999, the base price for a new model is a lot higher. Besides, I don’t need another full-fledged Mac notebook — I already have the MacBook Pro. When I go on a long trips, like to my New York office, I’ll take the big guy. What I need is something for day trips or going to meetings.

I’ve tried using other machines for this purpose, such as my “ancient” 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 (named JimmyMac), with a 12-inch screen. But while my old PowerBook has a smaller footprint than Tachyon, it’s nearly as heavy at 4.6 pounds.

So, yesterday I ordered an HP Mini 1120NR, a slimmed-down netbook. It has an single-core Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, reasonable keyboard (they claim 92% of full size), 10-inch display, and 16GB of flash storage. It runs Linux, which is fine for my purposes. The price: $329. If I don’t like it, I can send it back within 30 days (subject to a 15% restocking charge). The machine’s name will be Higgs.

The only worrying spec is the HP netbook’s short three hours of battery life – we’ll have to see how that goes. (I can coax more than five hours out of Tachyon if I dim backlighting and turn off WiFi.)

At $329, if the HP netbook can get the job done for a year or two, it’s a better value than buying a MacBook Air for 4x-6x the price.

Here’s a spec comparison:

HP Mini 1120NR

10.3 x 6.5 (66.95 sq in footprint) x 1.0 x 2.45 pounds

12″ PowerBook G4

10.9 x 8.6 (93.74 sq in footprint) x 1.2 x 4.6 pounds

MacBook Air

12.8 x 8.9 (113.92 sq in footprint) x 0.7 x 3.0 pounds

15″ MacBook Pro

14.1 x 9.6 (135.36 sq in footprint) x 1.0 x 5.4 pounds

Any experience with netbooks? Tell me what you think…