To tie it in with your services. Look at an Android phone for a good example. Sure, you can use it on any device it supports hardware-wise, but most people are going to use Google Maps, Gmail, Google voice, etc on their Android phone. Same with a desktop OS.
Same reason Google made Android. Open, but still deeply tied to Google's services. Not really a bad things, as long as you can always get your data out (a la dataliberation.org).
I haven't seen latency issues with Gmail, since it runs locally in Firefox and only moves data when I'm sending or receiving email (not composing). Same thing with Google Docs. Remember, the app runs locally on the box, and the data moves back and forth. Email, docs, they don't take much bandwidth. Wave is a different story, but your typical business user could get by with email, docs, IM client, etc all done through a browser. Heck, I'm using Gmail right now in one tab, this slashdot page in a tab, Google Voice in another, etc.
If Hulu can deliver 480p to my desktop with 2Mb/s, I think that should be sufficient for remotely hosted web apps. I know 2Mb/s isn't hugely common yet, but my Comcast connection is 15Mb/down, 3Mb/up (Chicago suburbs). It's getting there.
But this will be useful in some cases (3rd world education, your grandparents, etc) where all your need are webapps, like Gmail, Google Docs, etc. Not everyone needs a full blown OS and the hardware costs associated with it.
It's a lot easier to upgrade a datacenter, since you typically do it anyone by getting better hardware each year, instead of having tens of thousands of people upgrade. At least, from Google's perspective.
When Linux requires a root password via sudo to do everything, everyone cheers. When Windows Vista required an admin password to do the same administrative tasks, everyone complained.
Re:So let me get this straight...
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Re:So let me get this straight...
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Less Than Free
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· Score: 1
I have yet to see a G1 user who worries about Google or their carrier pushing out an update that will brick their jailbroken/hacked phone. I cannot say the same about Apple/AT&T.
Re:So let me get this straight...
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Less Than Free
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
I would argue I can do far more with the Android environment than with the iPhone. Not a fan boy, just an objective opinion, as I've developed for the iPhone before and am neck deep in the Android SDK at the moment.
Re:So let me get this straight...
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Less Than Free
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· Score: 1, Interesting
I just got a G1 from my brother to use for development. I thought it was very cool I could wipe the firmware from T-Mobile and put a custom mod on there that allowed me to move apps to the SD card, use WiFi tethering, etc. Show me another phone/OS environment you see that happen on.
Fry and the Lucy Liu robot begin dating, aided by her being programmed to like Fry. The other Planet Express employees, concerned about his relationship, show him the standard middle-school film (similar to Boys Beware) that predicts the destruction of civilization if humans date robots. Unfortunately, Fry ignores the movie and keeps making out with his Lucy Liubot.
Mod parent up. Early in my IT career, I worked at a small web dev shop with 15-20 people. Someone got laid off, and called the BSA on us, even though we were licensed on all our software. Someone from the Chicago BSA office showed up and said they had a right to audit us and would be coming in to do so. My manager at the time told them to GTFO and come back with law enforcement if they wanted to do an audit. We never heard from them again.
Cellphone companies don't own the towers. They rent the right to put their equipment on the towers, and there are typically 2-4 providers on a tower (not including gear used by Aircell to provide Gogo inflight wireless internet access). So that cost is distributed among several wireless providers.
I activated a Verizon broadband card that I owned outright 3 weeks ago. On the receipt I signed at the store, it shows the 5GB/month plan and the monthly fee. No activation fee whatsoever. I asked the CSR at the store, and they told me there was no activation fee. I get the bill a couple of days ago, and there's an activation fee. I call customer service and argue back and forth for 20 minutes. They don't take the activation fee off even though I didn't agree to it. So I cancel the card, pay the total, and then dispute the transaction with American Express. Fuck Verizon.
In once sentence, Akamai is a high availability, high capacity provider of bandwidth. And they accomplish that in a variety of ways other than just putting boxes in ISPs.
I disagree. Level3, Cogent, Global Crossing. They are bandwidth providers. Akamai is a "best effort content delivery optimization organization".
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Google is targeting desktops with this, which isn't exactly where you would need always-on mobile internet with unlimited data.
To tie it in with your services. Look at an Android phone for a good example. Sure, you can use it on any device it supports hardware-wise, but most people are going to use Google Maps, Gmail, Google voice, etc on their Android phone. Same with a desktop OS.
Same reason Google made Android. Open, but still deeply tied to Google's services. Not really a bad things, as long as you can always get your data out (a la dataliberation.org).
I haven't seen latency issues with Gmail, since it runs locally in Firefox and only moves data when I'm sending or receiving email (not composing). Same thing with Google Docs. Remember, the app runs locally on the box, and the data moves back and forth. Email, docs, they don't take much bandwidth. Wave is a different story, but your typical business user could get by with email, docs, IM client, etc all done through a browser. Heck, I'm using Gmail right now in one tab, this slashdot page in a tab, Google Voice in another, etc.
If Hulu can deliver 480p to my desktop with 2Mb/s, I think that should be sufficient for remotely hosted web apps. I know 2Mb/s isn't hugely common yet, but my Comcast connection is 15Mb/down, 3Mb/up (Chicago suburbs). It's getting there.
Probably a 32MB flash card to boot the os and bootstrap it to pull down everything from the web it needs.
But this will be useful in some cases (3rd world education, your grandparents, etc) where all your need are webapps, like Gmail, Google Docs, etc. Not everyone needs a full blown OS and the hardware costs associated with it.
It's a lot easier to upgrade a datacenter, since you typically do it anyone by getting better hardware each year, instead of having tens of thousands of people upgrade. At least, from Google's perspective.
I'll admit, I'd much rather run as root than sudo all the damn time on a Linux box.
When Linux requires a root password via sudo to do everything, everyone cheers. When Windows Vista required an admin password to do the same administrative tasks, everyone complained.
http://www.google.com/search?q=apple+brick+iphone
I have yet to see a G1 user who worries about Google or their carrier pushing out an update that will brick their jailbroken/hacked phone. I cannot say the same about Apple/AT&T.
I would argue I can do far more with the Android environment than with the iPhone. Not a fan boy, just an objective opinion, as I've developed for the iPhone before and am neck deep in the Android SDK at the moment.
I just got a G1 from my brother to use for development. I thought it was very cool I could wipe the firmware from T-Mobile and put a custom mod on there that allowed me to move apps to the SD card, use WiFi tethering, etc. Show me another phone/OS environment you see that happen on.
Armed Forces = Federal Income Tax
Firefigters/Public Schools/Police = Property Tax
So what exactly does sales tax go to that I should care about?
I assume if you specify a home/billing address not in WA, they don't charge the sales tax?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Dated_a_Robot
Fry and the Lucy Liu robot begin dating, aided by her being programmed to like Fry. The other Planet Express employees, concerned about his relationship, show him the standard middle-school film (similar to Boys Beware) that predicts the destruction of civilization if humans date robots. Unfortunately, Fry ignores the movie and keeps making out with his Lucy Liubot.
Prison restricts your freedom as punishment for your crime. Just because you've served your time doesn't mean that history is wiped clean.
Also, as GPP mentioned, if you have a volume licensing agreement, you've already agreed to let them audit whenever they please.
Mod parent up. Early in my IT career, I worked at a small web dev shop with 15-20 people. Someone got laid off, and called the BSA on us, even though we were licensed on all our software. Someone from the Chicago BSA office showed up and said they had a right to audit us and would be coming in to do so. My manager at the time told them to GTFO and come back with law enforcement if they wanted to do an audit. We never heard from them again.
Cellphone companies don't own the towers. They rent the right to put their equipment on the towers, and there are typically 2-4 providers on a tower (not including gear used by Aircell to provide Gogo inflight wireless internet access). So that cost is distributed among several wireless providers.
I activated a Verizon broadband card that I owned outright 3 weeks ago. On the receipt I signed at the store, it shows the 5GB/month plan and the monthly fee. No activation fee whatsoever. I asked the CSR at the store, and they told me there was no activation fee. I get the bill a couple of days ago, and there's an activation fee. I call customer service and argue back and forth for 20 minutes. They don't take the activation fee off even though I didn't agree to it. So I cancel the card, pay the total, and then dispute the transaction with American Express. Fuck Verizon.
The Droid is coming to T-Mobile. Google for it. Android Guys have the article I believe.
Thanks for the correction. I thought I had seen that spoken about on NANOG's recent What DNS Is Not thread.
In once sentence, Akamai is a high availability, high capacity provider of bandwidth. And they accomplish that in a variety of ways other than just putting boxes in ISPs.
I disagree. Level3, Cogent, Global Crossing. They are bandwidth providers. Akamai is a "best effort content delivery optimization organization".