I’m happy to say that despite the missing features, this browser is absolutely amazing on Ubuntu. It’s lightning fast and very stable. I can’t browse to pages that require HTTP AUTH — but that’s the only thing I’ve found that I didn’t notice in the limitations documentation.

Unfortunately Firefox on Ubuntu is not great, so I’m hoping that soon Chrome will be my browser of choice. Or I could just get a Mac.

My solution is not enterprise and it’s not real time, but it will let me know in a reasonable amount of time (Montastic says it checks every 10 minutes or so, based on load). For me, that’s good enough right now because I mostly want to avoid overnight and weekend-long outages that may occur when I’m not checking my computer regularly.

The first step is to sign up at Montastic and set up a monitor for your web site. There’s no learning curve there … just register, type in a URL and Montastic will start monitoring right away. There’s a video screen cast available showing how easy it is to use. After setting up the monitors, Montastic provides a basic RSS feed — that’s where Yahoo! Pipes comes in.

Yahoo! Pipes Configuration for Montastic

The final step I took was to simply run the pipe, then tell Yahoo! to send me the output of the pipe to my cell phone whenever it changes. Since the pipe updates when there is a new failure item, I won’t get an SMS message every time Montastic checks the servers, but only when there is a new failure item.

I haven’t been running this solution for very long, but so far it looks to be a promising concept for keeping an eye on my servers — particularly when I’m going to be away for a while. I’d love to hear ideas about other ways to use Montastic or suggestions for other free website monitoring tools. What do you use?

It’s a mind boggling concept that a startup company with a product that was developed essentially in the free time of a University professor could upset the status quo of an industry dominated by giants such as IBM and Wang. Then, years later, after becoming the market leader in word processing software, Word Perfect all but disappeared because it failed to adapt early enough to the emergence of Microsoft Windows.

The book itself is an interesting read, written in an engaging voice. It didn’t take much effort or time to complete. I recommend it if you’re in the industry because there are many lessons to be learned from a company that grew from zero to more than a half-billion dollars revenue in about a decade. And there are lessons to consider how that same company essentially disappeared in an even shorter time. It’s a free book, available online (HTML) and as a PDF. If you have a Kindle, do what I did: download the file, pay the 10 cent conversion and Whispernet fee and read it in comfort. Then let me know what you think.

You may be thinking that I’m insane to imply that there isn’t enough publishing happening on the web with the proliferation of blogs, Squidoo, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and all the other services that exist. The problem, as I see it, is that web publishing doesn’t exist on a spectrum, it is almost completely bipolar. On one end are the user-facing publishing systems like Squidoo, YouTube, Flickr, all the blogging platforms and online web page creation systems. On the other end are the expensive, custom-developed sites that are maintained for corporations by teams of skilled software developers.

While it is frustrating that new technologies are difficult for non-insiders to use, this is not a new phenomenon. The first automobiles were very similar to the current web in many ways. The first automobiles were not user friendly. Consider this snip from Wikipedia regarding hand-crank starters:

Originally, a hand crank was used to start engines, but it was inconvenient, difficult, and dangerous to crank-start an engine. Even though cranks had an overrun mechanism, when the engine started, the crank could begin to spin along with the crankshaft and potentially strike the person cranking the engine. Additionally, care had to be taken to retard the spark in order to prevent backfiring; with an advanced spark setting, the engine could kick back (run in reverse), pulling the crank with it, because the overrun safety mechanism works in one direction only.

Although users were advised to cup their fingers under the crank and pull up, it felt natural for operators to grasp the handle with the fingers on one side, the thumb on the other. Even a simple backfire could result in a broken thumb; it was possible to end up with a broken wrist, or worse. Moreover, increasingly larger engines with higher compression ratios made hand cranking a more physically demanding endeavor.

The first cars required much more maintenance and tinkering than we are accustomed to in 2009 and car experts (insiders) were the first to benefit from new innovations. In contrast, during my driving years, I have had to change only two flat tires. I’ve never (yet) run out of gas or had to carry extra fuel to ensure that I wouldn’t. I’ve always had air conditioning and I’ve had power windows and locks in all my cars except one.

Today’s web is much like early automobiles. Avid fans and tinkerers build amazing technologies on the existing web framework. New innovations spring up daily that influence the very early developers of this new set of technologies. But for the end user, the web is still not very accessible or friendly. My conversations with small business owners and individuals remind me how foreign and unintuitive much of my world still is.

I started this blog because I want to more provide information about what technologies are available, why they are useful and how to use them. Unfortunately when I look at my own posts, I realize that very few people can really use the “how-to” articles such as How to track outbound links with Analytics or How to publish to Facebook, because these articles assume a great deal of pre-existing knowledge of web software development.

In an ideal world, business owners and individuals seeking to create rich, interactive web publications will be able to buy or lease a solution similar to today’s best luxury vehicles. First and foremost, the vehicle will be guaranteed to start and operate for years with minimal maintenance. Second, the features available will be well designed and integrated so that the consumer knows they exist but isn’t distracted by them. Third, a minimal skimming of the user manual will be all that is required to understand even the esoteric features.

We’re not there yet, but there are changes afoot. I’m excited about the potential of cloud computing as a framework for next-generation hosting. The site builders and content management systems are better today than they were yesterday — and they’ll be better tomorrow. And there is a lot of work happening to ensure that sites integrate easily with other sites, data and services.

On the other side, it is imperative for individuals to dive in and get familiar with what exists. Automobiles didn’t advance themselves, they were advanced by individuals who saw a shortfall and fixed it. Understanding what’s possible on the web today, what’s hard to do and what hasn’t been done yet are the keys to innovating the next generations. We need more suggestions and good ideas. Sooner or later, we’ll meet in the middle and then the web will be truly valuable.

Today I received (yet another) phishing message. This time, however, it didn’t come through email. This one came to me as a meeting reminder on Google Calendar. It took me a minute to figure out if it was real or not. Take a look:

Reading that my Gmail account might be suspended was really scary — in fact I felt my heart stop for just a moment. And to get the message directly through a Google service made it even scarier.

But then I did what everyone needs to do — stop, read, think. First I took a deep breath and considered whether I thought that Google would contact me through my calendar to tell me that my email was going to be canceled. Probably not. Then I slowly re-read the message and saw the tell-tale phishing characteristics:

1. A request for my username
2. A request for my password
3. A request for my date of birth

Google doesn’t need any of that information from me because:

1. They already have it
2. The don’t need it to continue providing me with an account

And the worst phishing indicator of all: the message asks me to email the confidential account information to a gmail.com email address. No reputable service will ever ask you to email them confidential information they already have to confirm their records.

In offline life we lock our cars, lock our house and take care to not leave our wallets and purses out in the open. We shred confidential papers and watch our incoming and outgoing mail. It’s the same online. If you get an email or visit a website (or now get a calendar meeting request) that just doesn’t make sense, stop, read, and think. If you’re still not sure, do what you’d do offline — pick up the phone and call to confirm/report. If you don’t know who to call, ask a friend.

More Info

• Don’t Get Phished
• Avoid Getting Hooked by Phishers
• Phishing Wikipedia Entry