Zend - Updated Website + Released Zend Server

ZEND just updated their website and released the Zend Server.

Congratulations!


E.T.

DemoGod for iPhone - Demo Your iPhone Application On Your Screen (Wireless !)

Plutinosoft, the creator of iPhone Screen Splitter - released an amazing demo tool for the iPhone - DemoGod.

DemoGod allows you to share your real iPhone screen on your computer screen / projector. And it is wireless.

See a demo (switch to full screen to see Veodia's high quality playback)



Very impressive!

No more face UI demos - DemoGod this is the real thing.

E.T.

Getting Old...

There are signs that I am getting old...
(No details in public, but let just say that 5 hours sleep a day is not enough any more...)

I saw this link on Twitter for an image-aging algorithm.

So this is me now

And this is me getting older...



Seems as I will keep my hair...

;-)

E.T.

Veodia - Webware 100 award (2009) - PLEASE VOTE

Veodia won the Webware 100 award last year (2008)
and now, we are in the finals again!



Please vote for us!


Thank you,

E.T.

iPod Shuffle - When Design Is Not Enough (and make it worse)

I love my old iPod Shuffle.

Just a small USB stick that plays music.
I could use any headset I want and have full control over the music.


I did not buy the second generations as it was harder to use the controllers while running/riding and it requires a cable to charge/sync. However, I did like the clip.


I think the new generation took a step forward from design perspective, but MANY steps back as for usability.

It is great you could use playlists and there is no need for a screen to do it, but the 'new' VoiceOver is disappointing.
For a cool looking device as this, to have this 1985 audio quality (text to speech) is just bad.
I got flashbacks from years ago when I was developing eLearning tools and content and had to use the TTS (Text To Speech) from Microsoft...

You can create your own VoiceOver here - let me know if this makes sense to you...

One more thing - the new iPod requires you to use the 'new/special' headset.
I do not like this type of headset, it keeps falling when I run.

Check the introduction movie from Apple.


So, I guess I have my options. And so do you.

E.T.

UnHub - Easy Way To Aggregate Your Online Presence

UnHub is a new service that helps you aggregate your online presence.

TechCrunch: "...What UnHub does is create a persistent iframe bar with tabs for all your online presences (e.g. your blog, Twitter stream, LinkedIn account, Flickr profile, blog comments etc.) linked to a dedicated URL you can easily share with anyone..."

So, now http://www.etaygafni.com is pointing to this page:



Let me know what do you think.

E.T.

You've got to learn to get happy, along the way

Diamonds And Gold, by Langhorne Slim

You can have all the diamonds,
You can have all the gold
But someday you're still gonna get old
You've got to learn to get happy, along the way.
Take some chances, allow yourself to get lost
You're beautiful baby, you're the boss.
You've got to learn to get happy, along the way

There's no road to follow,
only stones left unturned
You must play with fire,
in order to get burned

Toss your misery, out the door
What are you waiting for?
You've got to learn to get a little happy, along the way
It's alright to change your style, it's alright to smile
It's alright to get a little happy along the way

Tough day at the office,
and worse, not at home
Don't wanna talk about it,
Just wanna be left alone
There's no joy in living,
You're giving all and getting none
It's a new beginning,
you thought you lost, but honey you won.

You can have all the diamonds, all the gold
Someday we're still gonna get old,
We've got to learn to get happy along the way

Get your hat
Get your coat babe
Leave your worries on the doorstep
We've got to get a little happy along the way.

(thanks to http://www.lyricsmania.com)

E.T.

Marissa Mayer: The Future Of Google, Future Of Search

Full transcript and comments on TechCrunch

E.T.

FreshHotRadio.com - Fresh Web Radio

http://freshhotradio.com provides a stream of fresh music you could listen to, or link or embed in your site/blog...



Fun and fresh indeed.

Enjoy

E.T.

DEMO09

The DEMO event is a great opportunity to learn about new companies and to experience new technologies and solutions.

As I did not go to DEMO, the playback of some of the demos is all I can share...

Enjoy.

(Direct link)


E.T.

Veodia Presentation at the TechCrunch Cloud Event

I was presenting Veodia new HD and other features at the TechCrunch Cloud Computing Roundtable event today.

(switch for full screen)

Veodia - Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?

View more presentations from Etay Gafni. (tags: techcrunch cloud)

Great work by the Veodia team.

E.T.

Veodia / "Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?"

I am presenting in the upcoming “Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?" event.
I will demo Veodia’s services and solutions and will talk about what is unique about the way Veodia is using the ‘Cloud’.

I hope you see you!

Etay

Value Your Work and Bring Value

In recent days, I started see a pattern in some links friends shared on Facebook and Twitter, as well as in business messages.

"You must show value".

As the following examples suggests, you should/must bring value, but also, you must value what you are doing.

For example: onsimplicity.net

"...

Do You Provide Value?

In the end, if you want to feel confident in life—-every aspect of life—-you need to find a way to answer the question of value with a passionate “yes.” You don’t have to change the world. You don’t have to be a saint. But you do need to feel that every room you walk into is brighter and better equipped because you’re in it.

Simple, right?
...?

And Mike Rowe's presentations about Dirty Jobs.



So, value your work and bring value.

E.T.

Hair Cut

Well, it was time for a hair cut.

I have long hair for over 20 years now.
(I did take about 5 years break for the army...)

Anyway - this is the new look:

And if you do not like it, do not worry - it will grow...

E.T.

Siftables - Physical, Natural Way to Interact with Information and Media

Interesting user experience concept from MIT - Siftables.
Presented by David Merrill.

I like it as it makes the 'out of the box' phrase real.
In this case - instead of a 'box'/screen it provides multiple display and interactive objects. This truly it breaks down the current interaction concepts by making the screen part of the interaction and not just the canvas.

"...

Siftables:
Imagine overturning a container of nuts and bolts, then looking through the resulting pile for a particular item. Or spreading photographs out on a tabletop and then beginning to sort them into piles. During these activities we interact with large numbers of small objects at the same time, and they utilize all of our fingers and both hands together. We humans are skilled at using our hands in these ways, and can effortlessly sift and sort - focusing on our higher level goals rather than the items themselves.

Siftables aims to enable people to interact with information and media in physical, natural ways that approach interactions with physical objects in our everyday lives. As an interaction platform, Siftables applies technology and methodology from wireless sensor networks to tangible user interfaces. Siftables are independent, compact devices with sensing, graphical display, and wireless communication capabilities. They can be physically manipulated as a group to interact with digital information and media. Siftables can be used to implement any number of gestural interaction languages and HCI applications.

The Siftables interaction platform is a collaboration with Jeevan Kalanithi.

..."

E.T.

Design, Usability and Web Programing

Today I've learned about Yslow. YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow based on Yahoo's rules for high performance web sites.
You may take the advices the tool provide you or just check your favorite sites...
It is useful and addictive...

Also, I've read the Google Eye Tracking and Heat Maps Blog post and learned how Google uses Eye Tracking and Heat Maps to analyze and understand users activities and needs.



So, overall a very interesting day. I am glad I managed to combine design, usability and Web programing...


E.T.

Updated Messages in the Veodia Studio

I've Blogged today on the Veodia Blog about the updated messages in the Veodia Studio.

Check it out.

My favorite:


And the relevant video:




E.T.

24 Hour Marathon on the Friday Morning Report

Please join the 24 Hour Marathon on the Friday Morning Report organized by my friend Craig.

"...

The Friday Morning Report, for it's first ever 24 hour Marathon starting on February 12, 2009 at 15:00pm CET (Central Europe) has signed up to accept donations on behalf of Doctors Without Borders. We look around the world we live in and realize that it's not a perfect place, we know that it has problems and that we as a community need to be more aware of the problems and do what we can to help provide critical care to those living amid armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition and natural disasters around the world.

Thanks to our support, Doctors Without Borders is at work right now saving the lives of women, men and children in more than 60 countries where people would otherwise not have access to medical care.

Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support Doctors Without Borders.

So join us during our 24 hour marathon and help make the world a little bit better and please take a moment to share your comments and thoughts of the show here for everyone to share in!

• Donate Here
• Show Program
• PARTICIPATE LIVE!
• RSVP here

..."

Thank you,

Etay

Zend Technologies Co-Founder Andi Gutmans Named CEO

Congratulations to my friend Andi for becoming Zend Technologies CEO.

You can find the press release below, but I wanted to add a personal note:

Andi is a great guy/husband/father and I am proud to be his friend.
For time to time, he is useful around the house as well:


So - Good luck Andi - Well done.

PS - Maybe now he will get an iPhone and a new car...

---

Zend Technologies Co-Founder Andi Gutmans Named Chief Executive Officer

Zend Technologies Co-Founder Andi Gutmans Named Chief Executive Officer
MySQL Veteran Mark Burton Named Zend Executive Chairman

CUPERTINO, Calif. — February 3, 2009 — Zend Technologies, the PHP Company, today announced that it has appointed Andi Gutmans, Zend co-founder, as its chief executive officer. Gutmans was most recently senior vice president for R&D and alliances at Zend, as well as chief technical officer. It also named Mark Burton, formerly executive vice president of worldwide sales at MySQL, as executive chairman. Harold Goldberg, who held the position of CEO at Zend Technologies during the past two years, will leave to pursue other opportunities.

Cameron Lester, a Zend director and general partner at Azure Capital Partners remarked: “Zend’s probably the most mature, fast track open source company today. Andi Gutmans’ vision and execution skills have played a key role in guiding the company’s strategy and expansion, and have supported PHP’s phenomenal growth to become the platform of choice for over 20 million Web sites. Business customers—especially in our current environment—are increasingly looking to open-source solutions to deliver both cost benefit and business agility, which is driving increasing opportunity for Zend. With Andi’s appointment as CEO, we are now confident that Zend has the leadership team in place to accelerate the execution of its growth strategy.”

“We are very fortunate to have Mark Burton join Zend as executive chairman,” says Danny Rimer, a Zend director and general partner at Index Ventures. “Mark was part of one of the most successful leadership teams in the history of open-source and there are many parallels between his former company—MySQL— and the strategy Andi has been driving at Zend. Mark will take a very active role and will add considerable operational and commercial depth to the team.”

Andi Gutmans stated, “I am honored to take the leadership role at the company I co-founded years ago, when open-source was in its infancy. Zend’s enterprise-grade PHP solutions and our growing customer roster have increased awareness of the high maturity level of PHP and the efficiencies it brings as most applications move to the Web. Going forward, we will continue to expand our industry-leading solutions for developing and running business-critical PHP applications, work more closely with our partners, and maintain our strong commitment to the open-source community.”

Mark Burton said, “I am thrilled to be joining Zend’s board of directors and am looking forward to working with Andi on realizing Zend’s strategic opportunity. Zend is uniquely positioned to take full advantage of PHP’s growth in driving business critical Web applications.”

About Andi Gutmans
Andi Gutmans has been instrumental in building Zend into the company it is today. In addition to building key partnerships with IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe, and contributing to major sales engagements, in 2006 he led the company’s largest round of funding to date. Gutmans’ leadership of the company’s open source project Zend Framework has included galvanizing the PHP and enterprise communities around the benefits of standardization and has broadened the professionalism and market reach of PHP and of Zend solutions worldwide.
Gutmans was named one of Computerworld’s “40 innovative IT people to watch, under the age of 40.” He is also recognized from the widely circulated technical publications he has authored and is a frequent speaker on business and technology issues at global conferences. Gutmans is a member of the PHP Group, the Apache Software Foundation, and serves on the board of the Eclipse Foundation. Gutmans holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

About Mark Burton
Mark Burton has 29 years of sales and marketing experience. His past accomplishments include executive sales roles at MySQL AB and Informatica. At MySQL, as EVP of Worldwide Sales and Alliances, he contributed as the sales executive building a worldwide sales engine monetizing the MySQL open source brand and culminating in a $1 billion acquisition by Sun Microsystems in February 2008. At Informatica, Mr. Burton held roles as senior vice president of Americas Sales and eventually group vice president of Worldwide Sales and Alliances. His contribution helped grow Informatica from $12m to over $150m in sales resulting in a successful IPO in April 1999 and a secondary offering in September 2000. Other positions include several vice president of sales and marketing roles in early stage companies, executive-in-residence at Partech International Venture Partners, and regional sales management at Oracle, among others.

Burton was also recently appointed to serve on the board of directors of open-source leaders MuleSource and Infobright as well as on the advisory board for Jaspersoft.

About Zend Technologies, Inc.
Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP Company, is the leading provider of products and services for developing, deploying, and managing business-critical PHP applications. PHP is used by more than twenty million web sites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic web applications. Zend Framework, the leading open source PHP framework, has been downloaded over 10 million times and corporate adopters and contributors include Fox Interactive Media, Google, IBM, and Microsoft. Deployed at more than 27,000 companies worldwide, the Zend family of products is a comprehensive platform for supporting the entire lifecycle of PHP applications. Zend is headquartered in Cupertino, California.
For more information, please visit http://www.zend.com or call +1 408 253 8800.

Top Gear's The Stig Revealed

I've been following Top Gear for a long time.
And as many, one of my favorite characters is "The Stig".

As it seems, "The Stig" identity was revealed.

Now, as I thought about it and after I researched a little (there are so many reports by now), I've realized that I just do not care.

As "The Stig" is more than a person - he is "The Stig".

The idea that their is someone on that TV show that actually knows what he is doing.
It's like Steve Austin ("The Six Million Dollar Man") - you do not care who is the actor ( it is Lee Majors in case you do care) - just that he is Steve Austin.

Anyway, I will keep following this show as it has a good balance of geeky data and dry British sense of humor.

E.T.