Things I Learned Today

Google Apps will Delete Your Phone

2010-02-05T05:10:51Z

Today, Google enabled a feature in Google Apps that will wipe a user's phone on demand. I tried it out today, and here's what I learned:

This is Significant News

I've talked up Android as a good business phone since it came out. It's easy to use, simple to maintain, user customizable, and allows business to write custom business apps. While this update to Google Apps does not include Android, in it's announcement, Google promised that it would include Android phone management in a future update. If they follow through, IT managers will have one less reason to deny Android from their infrastructure.

This is also big news for Google Apps itself. With this little update, Google Apps became a lot more compelling. Mobile devices are huge in business, and protecting business data is paramount. Now administrators can protect user's mobile data with the same service that provides online documents, file storage, and email... all for $50 a year per user.

It's Very Easy to Use

I tried it out on our Windows Mobile phones. It did a thorough job of erasing a test phone's data. It reset the phone and deleted data from its microSD card. First, password protection should be enabled in the Mobile section of the Google Apps Control Panel. Settings for the length and the complexity of the phone's user password must be specified. You can also set the length of time before the phone times out. After you enable security, the user will receive a notice that security changes are being made. If a user loses his/her phone, it can be wiped by going to the user's settings page. That's it. The service also works on the iPhone, Blackberry and other devices.

Another Android Review

2010-01-26T08:02:12Z

Here it is: yet another Android review. I can't help myself. Hopefully I have something useful to share. Here's what I learned:

Google Docs Will Now Allow Your Users...

2010-01-20T05:24:31Z

I've been working a lot lately on Google Apps, both in work and in my volunteer time. I have many thoughts about setup, administration, and user acceptance. I hope to share more of what I learned in the coming weeks.

Google has enabled users to upload any docs to your Google Apps Premium or Education edition accounts. This seems like it'd be a promising feature. Today at work, I modified my Google Docs backup script to backup the files that aren't docs, spreadsheets, presentations, or pdfs. I can confirm that the DocList 3.0 API will allow for this no problem. I will update my oauth docs backup tool as soon as I get some free time. I do have one unresolved question. Does Google scan these new files for viruses? If an attacker gained access to one of my user's accounts, he/she could potentially share a virus with the top brass. I've posted a question on the Help Forum, but if anyone can fill me in, I'd much appreciate it. This new risk reminded me of a project that I started a couple of months ago: I started to assess the risks that online "cloud" services introduce into the environment. I'll share my thoughts once they become more cohesive. I'm focusing in particular on risk and risk mitigation in the Google Apps and AWS cloud services. It's important that we don't forget about security simply because the applications we use are not hosted in-house.

Google Docs Backup with OAuth App

2009-09-08T04:38:06Z

I created a utility to backup your users' Google Docs to local storage. It downloads all the documents for all of your users into one directory. Documents that are shared among many users add up quickly. I thought it'd be silly to download and store a file multiple times (once for each user with access to it), given that most people only want to backup Google Docs in the scenario that they get locked out of their accounts... or if Google breaks its motto. I'm developing an application at work that will store the documents along with their ACLs in database tables. If I can get the time and authorization, I'll post it too.

It needs the .Net 3.5 Framework
You have to enable Two-Legged OAuth in Google Apps CPanel --> Advanced Tools --> Manage OAuth Access
It doesn't download PDFs (this functionality is not available in Google's 2.0 API)
Documents that share a name with one another are appended with a username and/or a sequential number.
It's basic, but it works.

I hope this can be of use to you! Download it here.

Google Docs Backup with OAuth

2009-09-04T00:17:59Z

It's very evident that Google patched together a number of services to make Google Docs. The URI for spreadsheets is different from documents is slightly different from presentations This is particularly confusing to the guy getting started with the APIs, because Google markets Documents (text documents and presentations) and Spreadsheets all under the Google Docs brand. Lesson learned: Just go to the Reference Document and read the thing!

You Can Make Free Calls with Gizmo5 and Google Voice, and the iPhone Sucks.

2009-08-11T03:32:31Z

I've had my Google Voice account for a while now, and I have to say that I'm liking it. I've had some time to play around with some extra features...specifically its support for Gizmo5. I have to say that it has changed the way that I look at my mobile phone. I can fully understand Apple's fear over Google Voice. He're what I've learn while playing around.

Synchronizing MS Exchange Mail with Google Apps Mail

2009-08-06T02:52:50Z

I just finished a project to syncronize Exchange Mail with Google mail. What I came up with was not so much a sync but a way to deliver mail in parallel to Google Mail and Exchange. This is what I learned.

Google Voice

2009-07-17T03:15:13Z

Last week, I was invited to Google Voice. I've been using it now for over a week, and I'm impressed. Here's what I learned.

Small Computer with Atom

2009-07-15T01:48:38Z

Atom Processor is Not as Slow as People Say

Almost evey person I hear talk about the atom processor talks about how it can't run Windows Vista. Not True. I installed Windows Vista on a mini ITX machine with an integrated Atom Processor and was able to run Vista very well. I have 2 GB of RAM and a 2.5 inch Segate HHD. The Vista hardware rater gave the setup a 4.2 for the processor, but only 2.4 overall. The 2.4 rating was due not to the processor, but to the graphics cad. I think that people talk bad about the Atom because they are mostly found in netbooks, which have other restricted resources. What is really great about the setup is that it runs on very little power. The setup I have will run off of 12V DC power, which means that it can run off of battery. Think car and boat.

It's Cheap and Small

What can I say, it's small. The think takes up a footprint of less than a sheet of paper, and is 2.5 inches thick. Also, they're cheap. You can put together a system for less than $300, including monitor!. That's all there is to it. I recommend.

Mini ITX machine with integrated Atom processor (be sure to select your own hard drive and memory):

MSI Wind Nettop 100 Desktop PC (1.6 GHz Intel Atom Dual Core N330 Processor, Barebone) Black

Active Directory, Google Apps, and SSO. About Time!

2009-07-14T01:05:32Z

OpenSSO and Active Directory

OpenSSO is a product of Sun which provides identity management and Federation for user authentication. OpenSSO, like ZFS, is distributed under CDDL license, which means it's “free for me”! I recently implemented it to be a Single Sign-On for my Active Directory users to Google Apps. Here's about what I learned.