Good - Easy to use, decent results, refreshing look. Bad - Poor related links. Ugly - Can't try out everything because I don't have silverlight on my laptop and cell phone.
I'm wondering if bing is more about Silverlight than it is about being better than MSN Search or Live.
1. MS Leaves. 2. US GDP falls by about 1.6%. (that would represent about the same fall in GDP we had in this current crisis, except this one is real). 3. Instant depression. Nice going.
Here's a quick warning: there's a lot of scamming in the domain marktplace. It's easy for scammers to get you to buy, then never transfer the domain.
1. Set your PayPal account to draw against a credit card, not your bank account. You have both your credit card's consumer protections as well as PayPal's this way, the difference being you can actually get someone on the phone at your credit card company. When they yank the money from PayPal, suddenly PayPal will care. 2. Use an escrow service. Buyer puts the money in, you transfer the domain, and then you get paid. Most scams happen when people do direct purchases. Lots of domainers use escrow.com. It works. 3. Make sure you are dealing with a legitimate business or a real person. A little due diligence goes a long way.
Not perfect, but generally nice and you're used to it. Even if NONE of the legacy runs on a netbook windows is a plus.
Windows survival from day one has been based on backwards compatibility and vendor lock in on software titles like Office. Without the legacy software, all you have is an abusive spouse.
There is such a misunderstanding of what is going on with netbooks. There are two markets developing, and they could not be more different. The most important difference is who the customer really is:
Consumers (meaning you and me) are buying cheap, small, wimpy laptops. This is the market that is going crazy right now as people are buying $279 netbooks instead of $500 laptops. (Windows is a plus here as it protects the buyer's investment in legacy software). For most netbook buyers, it's either a compliment to their desktop or it is the primary machine for a non power user. Linux is important in this market because MS was forced to allow XP to be sold as Vista was too heavy, and will continue to be too heavy. In fact, MS had end of lifed XP before allowing netbook manufacturers to distribute with their computers.
- and -
Cell phone carriers are buying connected netbooks. Cell carriers want to sell these inexpensive netbooks locked on to their network. It's a way to sell another connection to you for $50/month using their traditional loss leader strategy (have a $250 phone for free, just pay us $50/month for two years). Windows is a liability here as it takes a lot more end user support than a purpose built environment like Android. Windows also just can't be locked down like Android either (this is considered good. Android is not itself a consumer product, but Android applications are). Most software is going to be either small applications that are installed on the netbook or bigger ones that are provided via browser (Google Apps). Android is built to deliver internet based applications and distribute applications in a way that limits the need for technical support. In other words: it's amazingly easy to use for end users and doesn't break in ways that reqire support calls. It also can be locked down to the carrier's needs (doing so may limit what Google software may be shipped with the device).
There you would be wrong. There are now 18 (six of which are restriction free level 3 devices) different announced devices running three different levels of Andriod, all due out by EOY. Not all the devices coming out are smartphones. Motorola has made a fairly extreme commitment to Android carriers not in on iPhone are seeing technology that is at least a match for it, in nearly every way.
This list is weak as it really misses out on three key changes that have made a huge difference:
Netware - Connected the PC and forced MS to include peer to peer networking. Trumpet WinSock - OK, this doesn't matter as much if you aren't a PC user, but this is the program that made the PC work on the Internet unitl MS Windows 95 made it redundent. Client Server Databases - Btrieve, Gupta SQL Server and Sybase made the client server a way of life, and increased the value of networks.
Here are a few bad misses on the list: Quark - Aldus PageMaker was released nearly two years before Quark and owned the DTP market unitl the mid 90s. Oracle - Oracle has been an important player, but it is the concept of client-server database that is better represented by some of Oracle's earlier and more dominant (early on) competitors.
I think this is just a 100% money grab. Nothing as well thought out as 'internet is cannibalizing our other business'. Remember that the internet segment of their business is a growing segment. Their video is a declining one. The reason it is declining is due to competition from directtv/dish/att/others...
This is a money grab, no doubt. At the same time, this is also a lame attempt to save the content distribution business and avoid simply becoming a pipe. This is why net neutrality and a "genuine internet" initiative are so important. TW wants to charge less for their content than everything else you get online. This is all about owning the bridge, then being allowed to put up a toll bridge to make more money.
Here's what's going on. Big content providers are primarily in the business of distributing movies, music, tv shows. Distribution used to be expensive because of exclusive licenses for limited radio spectrum or having cable pay for your content. Along comes this damn inconvenient packet switched broadband and basically reduces distribution costs to a ridiculously low number. So, some people who aren't as smart as you, or for that matter a poblano pepper decided that:
* By raising the cost for residential broadband, it would make it cost you more to download Heroes vs. just watching it on their cable/on demand network. * Because you can get your shows for less through the cable company, then they can sell all the commercials and make more money. * Big content benefits because they can wrap everything up in a nice DRM wrapper on the DVR box you rent and then they get to sell you Cloverfield eight times over the next four years.
There's just a couple of small holes in the plan:
* It's probably illegal. If it's not it's so anticonsumer the FCC will have a lot of fun with these jokers. * The internet is not exclusively used for infringing on big media copyrights. Last I looked there were at least a few more things to do online than movies and music. * There are emerging technologies that are going to absolutely screw any business plan counting on a last mile monopoly (google meraki just for fun). Just for the hell of it, I'm going to start a mesh in the apartment complex I live in ($20/month/2.5MBPS). * Getting tiered pricing requires everyone to do it at the same time, and last I looked, the internet only ISP isn't gone yet... and won't be gone for some time.
I don't think anyone is expecting KOffice to take over the world. That's really not the point. What the KOffice team has accomplished is creating a set of tools that some people will use and others will extend, and the extensions will bring more users. Making creating useful extensions easy is critical for an open source application - it's how you allow the community to implement needed features without central planning and control. That the KOffice team gets it doesn't need to be derided, they should be congratulated, and now that I have a word processor & spreadsheet I can extend, I'm going to have some real fun. Oh, and saying there is nothing novel here, well, you need to go read up a little. The KOffice team has done a yeoman's job on this one.
Sony's entry into the content business has destroyed it's ability to understand the consumer electronics marketplace. They are not seeing that the electronics are the enabler for digital entertainment. The evolution of the radio, phonograph, tape recorder, optical disc and so on were pure enabling technologies. The internet is the ultimate in enablement - consumers can buy instantly, any time. Sony needs a new CEO. This one is living dangerously in the past.
Transfering files is one thing (and usually easy). Stereo duplex audio? Good luck. Bluetooth is the only logo standard I've met where you display the logo and support 1/10th of the capability and it counts.
Oh, and proper phones? Treo, Blackberry, HTC Wizard, HTC Dream and a couple of samsungs. Only the Wizard could do stereo audio and even then it was choppy.
Agreed, it can drive you nuts when there's a regression , but for the most part, Ubuntu has been great. It's important to understand that there is a long term support version, and then all the other releases. If you want stability & reliability, stay with long term support. If you don't mind getting cut on the bleeding edge, then stay with the current version.
Bluetooth is on the list because it's been around for years and you still can't get decent support for stereo headsets or other simple connections to work. It's been underwhelming.
There are much greater fails. Fails of such epic magnitude their ripples are easily confused with the tides on the ocean of technology:
10. Floptical storage. Great stuff if you want to lose data. 9. DIVX DVDs. The ones that you could only buy at Circuit City. 8. VRML. Virtual reality is still around. But VRML was an abortion. 7. CueCat. The epic fail that made Slashdot famous. 6.iOpener. What happens when you try to sell a blade free razor using the razor blade model. 5. The Apple Pippen. You've never seen it, it's that bad. 4. Windows ME. Awful, bad, hideous don't describe this one. 3. Chandler. Mitch Kapor's been a part of lots of great things, but Chandler is the PIM we'd all like to forget. 2. MS Bob. Any top 10 tech failure list without it is not credible. 1. Windows Vista. One would think ME would have taught Redmond a lesson.
If you count DOS applications, sure, the PC had more apps back then. But when you only include windowed GUI applications, the Mac had a distinct edge for quite some time over the PC. Like you said, Windows had almost no market penetration. Mac had 10-13% market share back then.
There is a good point somewhere in what you said:
Backwards DOS compatibility made the transition to Windows a lot easier than moving to Mac. Because of the overall limited nature and general suckiness of existing Java ME and BREW applications, I'm not sure that backwards compatibility is even remotely an issue with smartphones.
Vendor lock in can happen with open source applications, too. I'm just tired of seeing the company that bought into a vendor lock in complain when they can't adopt newer, better technology.
One thing I regret is listening to the advice of so many people. If you feel like you will learn more, and be able to do more of value for others with a Masters Degree, then get one. Even more important, make sure that you will enjoy earning the degree.
We'll see in the next eight weeks as Samsung and Motorola roll out their products. Android is not what a lot of people think, so far as openness - it can be as open or closed as any other phone. The value prop on Android is more to hardware manufacturers who no longer want to manager their own OS or pay tons of royalties to for an OS.
I call BS. That's because At&t doesn't sock it to you for data, they get you on the special voice plans for iPhone. On iPhone you will pay a premium for voice service, where with a G-1 device you pay regular rates for voice service. The iPhone generally costs $600 over two years more than devices priced at standard At&t voice rates. That $200 iPhone is actually $800.
Also, the G-1 sells for $99 at Wal-Mart, so it is $100 less out of the box.
Slashdot Mirror
Good - Easy to use, decent results, refreshing look.
Bad - Poor related links.
Ugly - Can't try out everything because I don't have silverlight on my laptop and cell phone.
I'm wondering if bing is more about Silverlight than it is about being better than MSN Search or Live.
How it really works:
1. MS Leaves.
2. US GDP falls by about 1.6%. (that would represent about the same fall in GDP we had in this current crisis, except this one is real).
3. Instant depression. Nice going.
Here's a quick warning: there's a lot of scamming in the domain marktplace. It's easy for scammers to get you to buy, then never transfer the domain.
1. Set your PayPal account to draw against a credit card, not your bank account. You have both your credit card's consumer protections as well as PayPal's this way, the difference being you can actually get someone on the phone at your credit card company. When they yank the money from PayPal, suddenly PayPal will care.
2. Use an escrow service. Buyer puts the money in, you transfer the domain, and then you get paid. Most scams happen when people do direct purchases. Lots of domainers use escrow.com. It works.
3. Make sure you are dealing with a legitimate business or a real person. A little due diligence goes a long way.
Not perfect, but generally nice and you're used to it.
Even if NONE of the legacy runs on a netbook windows is a plus.
Windows survival from day one has been based on backwards compatibility and vendor lock in on software titles like Office. Without the legacy software, all you have is an abusive spouse.
There is such a misunderstanding of what is going on with netbooks. There are two markets developing, and they could not be more different. The most important difference is who the customer really is:
Consumers (meaning you and me) are buying cheap, small, wimpy laptops. This is the market that is going crazy right now as people are buying $279 netbooks instead of $500 laptops. (Windows is a plus here as it protects the buyer's investment in legacy software). For most netbook buyers, it's either a compliment to their desktop or it is the primary machine for a non power user. Linux is important in this market because MS was forced to allow XP to be sold as Vista was too heavy, and will continue to be too heavy. In fact, MS had end of lifed XP before allowing netbook manufacturers to distribute with their computers.
- and -
Cell phone carriers are buying connected netbooks. Cell carriers want to sell these inexpensive netbooks locked on to their network. It's a way to sell another connection to you for $50/month using their traditional loss leader strategy (have a $250 phone for free, just pay us $50/month for two years). Windows is a liability here as it takes a lot more end user support than a purpose built environment like Android. Windows also just can't be locked down like Android either (this is considered good. Android is not itself a consumer product, but Android applications are). Most software is going to be either small applications that are installed on the netbook or bigger ones that are provided via browser (Google Apps). Android is built to deliver internet based applications and distribute applications in a way that limits the need for technical support. In other words: it's amazingly easy to use for end users and doesn't break in ways that reqire support calls. It also can be locked down to the carrier's needs (doing so may limit what Google software may be shipped with the device).
There you would be wrong. There are now 18 (six of which are restriction free level 3 devices) different announced devices running three different levels of Andriod, all due out by EOY. Not all the devices coming out are smartphones. Motorola has made a fairly extreme commitment to Android carriers not in on iPhone are seeing technology that is at least a match for it, in nearly every way.
This list is weak as it really misses out on three key changes that have made a huge difference:
Netware - Connected the PC and forced MS to include peer to peer networking.
Trumpet WinSock - OK, this doesn't matter as much if you aren't a PC user, but this is the program that made the PC work on the Internet unitl MS Windows 95 made it redundent.
Client Server Databases - Btrieve, Gupta SQL Server and Sybase made the client server a way of life, and increased the value of networks.
Here are a few bad misses on the list:
Quark - Aldus PageMaker was released nearly two years before Quark and owned the DTP market unitl the mid 90s.
Oracle - Oracle has been an important player, but it is the concept of client-server database that is better represented by some of Oracle's earlier and more dominant (early on) competitors.
I think this is just a 100% money grab. Nothing as well thought out as 'internet is cannibalizing our other business'. Remember that the internet segment of their business is a growing segment. Their video is a declining one. The reason it is declining is due to competition from directtv/dish/att/others...
This is a money grab, no doubt. At the same time, this is also a lame attempt to save the content distribution business and avoid simply becoming a pipe. This is why net neutrality and a "genuine internet" initiative are so important. TW wants to charge less for their content than everything else you get online. This is all about owning the bridge, then being allowed to put up a toll bridge to make more money.
Tell that to some of the people who write extensions for emacs. To each, his or her own.
Here's what's going on. Big content providers are primarily in the business of distributing movies, music, tv shows. Distribution used to be expensive because of exclusive licenses for limited radio spectrum or having cable pay for your content. Along comes this damn inconvenient packet switched broadband and basically reduces distribution costs to a ridiculously low number. So, some people who aren't as smart as you, or for that matter a poblano pepper decided that:
* By raising the cost for residential broadband, it would make it cost you more to download Heroes vs. just watching it on their cable/on demand network.
* Because you can get your shows for less through the cable company, then they can sell all the commercials and make more money.
* Big content benefits because they can wrap everything up in a nice DRM wrapper on the DVR box you rent and then they get to sell you Cloverfield eight times over the next four years.
There's just a couple of small holes in the plan:
* It's probably illegal. If it's not it's so anticonsumer the FCC will have a lot of fun with these jokers.
* The internet is not exclusively used for infringing on big media copyrights. Last I looked there were at least a few more things to do online than movies and music.
* There are emerging technologies that are going to absolutely screw any business plan counting on a last mile monopoly (google meraki just for fun). Just for the hell of it, I'm going to start a mesh in the apartment complex I live in ($20/month/2.5MBPS).
* Getting tiered pricing requires everyone to do it at the same time, and last I looked, the internet only ISP isn't gone yet... and won't be gone for some time.
I don't think anyone is expecting KOffice to take over the world. That's really not the point. What the KOffice team has accomplished is creating a set of tools that some people will use and others will extend, and the extensions will bring more users. Making creating useful extensions easy is critical for an open source application - it's how you allow the community to implement needed features without central planning and control. That the KOffice team gets it doesn't need to be derided, they should be congratulated, and now that I have a word processor & spreadsheet I can extend, I'm going to have some real fun. Oh, and saying there is nothing novel here, well, you need to go read up a little. The KOffice team has done a yeoman's job on this one.
Sony's entry into the content business has destroyed it's ability to understand the consumer electronics marketplace. They are not seeing that the electronics are the enabler for digital entertainment. The evolution of the radio, phonograph, tape recorder, optical disc and so on were pure enabling technologies. The internet is the ultimate in enablement - consumers can buy instantly, any time. Sony needs a new CEO. This one is living dangerously in the past.
Transfering files is one thing (and usually easy). Stereo duplex audio? Good luck. Bluetooth is the only logo standard I've met where you display the logo and support 1/10th of the capability and it counts.
Oh, and proper phones? Treo, Blackberry, HTC Wizard, HTC Dream and a couple of samsungs. Only the Wizard could do stereo audio and even then it was choppy.
OOo has a preload application, too. It's amazing how much faster it is when it's already running.
Agreed, it can drive you nuts when there's a regression , but for the most part, Ubuntu has been great. It's important to understand that there is a long term support version, and then all the other releases. If you want stability & reliability, stay with long term support. If you don't mind getting cut on the bleeding edge, then stay with the current version.
Bluetooth is on the list because it's been around for years and you still can't get decent support for stereo headsets or other simple connections to work. It's been underwhelming.
There are much greater fails. Fails of such epic magnitude their ripples are easily confused with the tides on the ocean of technology:
10. Floptical storage. Great stuff if you want to lose data.
9. DIVX DVDs. The ones that you could only buy at Circuit City.
8. VRML. Virtual reality is still around. But VRML was an abortion.
7. CueCat. The epic fail that made Slashdot famous.
6.iOpener. What happens when you try to sell a blade free razor using the razor blade model.
5. The Apple Pippen. You've never seen it, it's that bad.
4. Windows ME. Awful, bad, hideous don't describe this one.
3. Chandler. Mitch Kapor's been a part of lots of great things, but Chandler is the PIM we'd all like to forget.
2. MS Bob. Any top 10 tech failure list without it is not credible.
1. Windows Vista. One would think ME would have taught Redmond a lesson.
Android is becoming the new beowulf cluster. Take any small device. Claim we should run Android on it. Instant +5 funny!
If you count DOS applications, sure, the PC had more apps back then. But when you only include windowed GUI applications, the Mac had a distinct edge for quite some time over the PC. Like you said, Windows had almost no market penetration. Mac had 10-13% market share back then.
There is a good point somewhere in what you said:
Backwards DOS compatibility made the transition to Windows a lot easier than moving to Mac. Because of the overall limited nature and general suckiness of existing Java ME and BREW applications, I'm not sure that backwards compatibility is even remotely an issue with smartphones.
Vendor lock in can happen with open source applications, too. I'm just tired of seeing the company that bought into a vendor lock in complain when they can't adopt newer, better technology.
One thing I regret is listening to the advice of so many people. If you feel like you will learn more, and be able to do more of value for others with a Masters Degree, then get one. Even more important, make sure that you will enjoy earning the degree.
Money is not the most important thing in life.
No, it doesn't when you factor in a license of MS office or outlook for every user. Also, vendor lock in is missing from zimbra's feature set.
We'll see in the next eight weeks as Samsung and Motorola roll out their products. Android is not what a lot of people think, so far as openness - it can be as open or closed as any other phone. The value prop on Android is more to hardware manufacturers who no longer want to manager their own OS or pay tons of royalties to for an OS.
Hmm. All beliefs are viral if you subscribe to mematics. So what?
I call BS. That's because At&t doesn't sock it to you for data, they get you on the special voice plans for iPhone. On iPhone you will pay a premium for voice service, where with a G-1 device you pay regular rates for voice service. The iPhone generally costs $600 over two years more than devices priced at standard At&t voice rates. That $200 iPhone is actually $800.
Also, the G-1 sells for $99 at Wal-Mart, so it is $100 less out of the box.