Category Archives: news

Proto – desktop BI tool.

Posted on September 9, 2007 | 1 Comment

I see that Proto have repositioned their excellent VBA scripted mash-up product as a “desktop business intelligence system”. This is to be welcomed as the first time I used it I described it as a “mash-up tool for adults” and although it has the ability to play hard ball with the other Web2.0 mash-up kids, its DNA is firmly within the business world, more BI2.0 than Web2.0. It is in effect, a “reporting tool on steroids”.

The “free for non-commercial purposes” product is no more, but you can still download a 30-day free trial and the really good news is the new price of $300 for the Proto Individual product.

Also, another business-oriented mash-up tool, RSSBus, is partially out of beta, RSSBus Server RC1 is now available. Still no information on final pricing for the server product. A new Beta 5 release of the free desktop edition is also available for download. As I’ve said before, RSSBus Server front-ended by Proto would be a very powerful combination.

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Posted in ETL, news, Proto, RSSBus, VBA, xLite

10,000 hits …

Posted on August 25, 2007 | 2 Comments

Sometime during August I recorded my 10,000th hit on this blog. OK, that doesn’t put me in the A-list ( more like the does-anybody-know-what-comes-after-Z-list) but it’s a start. I started the blog in February 2006 as a destination for my del.icio.us feed auto-posts, but my first real post wasn’t until December 2006. Mind you, my 11 year old son, who only started blogging this April, has already passed his 20,000th 30,000th hit!

So, a big thank-you to you, the readers; especially those who’ve commented and even more especially, those of you who have done me the honour of subscribing to the Gobán Saor feed via RSS. (Not that I know how many of you have subscribed, as WordPress.com no longer provides feed reader stats. :-( )

Thanks again,

Tom Gleeson – An Gobán Saor

August 25th, 2007.

UPDATE:  Jan 28th 2008

Today I recorded my 20,000th hit, and am getting a lot of queries through my Contact Me page.  Hits took a dip after I changed over to using my own sub-domain (http://blog.gobansaor.com) but they’ve now well recovered. Mind you, my son is still racing ahead of me, he passed the 100,000th mark over Christmas!!!

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Google Apps not just for SMEs?

Posted on July 9, 2007 | Leave a comment

The relentless positioning of Google Apps as an alternative to MS Office continues.  Google has just announced the acquisition of Postini an on-demand hosted provider of secure communications (EMail and IM) for large corporate clients.  The use of hosted email and document storage solution is a no-brainer for small  businesses but compliance and data security worries hold back large companies from taking advantage of the cost benefits of  Google Apps (although some large institutions like Trinity College Dublin have made the leap).   I guess when Google incorporates Postini technology we’ll see a third Apps edition added to the existing standard and premium options, this time targeting the needs of large enterprises.

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Posted in GAFyD, GoogleApps, news

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CRM – How not to do it …

Posted on June 21, 2007 | Leave a comment

Having been through a lost luggage experience myself in the past I can understand Damein Mullvey’s frustration and anger.

Sky Handling Partners “handling” of the issue would make a good example of how not to deal with an irate customer when that customer is also a prominent blogger. And now this ….

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Zimki – goes off the boil.

Posted on June 14, 2007 | 1 Comment

Looks like any further enhancement of Zimki is to be put on hold until Fotango‘s parent company, Canon Europe, completes a review on the future direction (and viability?) of the hosted application market. This means the platform will not be open sourced in the near future. This and the lack of any sign of a Zimki user community probably means I’ll abandon the platform; with some regret I might add as the infrastructure is rock solid and professionally managed, and the JavaScript based development environment is both productive and fun to work on. But the feeling that one is backing the wrong horse is hard to shake, particularly with the lack of any sign of developer mind share (i.e. no official forum, unofficial forum never took off and very few, if any, comments on the Zimki blog).

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Posted in JavaScript, news, Web2.0

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