Something struck me when I read about the upcoming "The Battle Over Books" debate between Google and the Association of Americal Publishers on Lawrence Lessig's excellent blog. The debate is being promoted, sort of like an entertainment event. I wonder if we are going to start to see huge legal debates over privacy, freedom and democracy being promoted as entertainment. It seems strange at first but... why not? I think more people would pay attention if legal debates were promoted something like title fights are.
"In this corner we have the super agile weight contender Google at 10 years old and 1.2 billion in annual revenue and in this corner we have the Association of American Publishers weighing in at 80 years old and 74 billion in estimated annual revenue. Who will win? Stay tuned and find out! ... fade to black ... The Book Debate is brought to you by Amazon.com!"
We all have so much at stake. It's a shame more people aren't more informed about how laws are being passed that erode our right to privacy and our freedom to choose. I think that most people find keeping up with this stuff boring, and to tell the truth I wouldn't consider myself super informed although I am very interested. I know that I would love to go to this debate, or watch it on a webcast. Maybe it will show up on youtube.com at some point. :-)
Incidentally, Mr. Lessig's blog is one of a few great places to watch the issues unfold. He has also written a number of books on ths subjects of freedom, privacy and the law as it relates to technology. I am currently reading his book Free Culture which you can purchase at the store or download for free. I'll post a review when I finish it.
09 June 2006
01 June 2006
Pure Viral
One of my favorite writers (and heros), Seth Godin, offers us this link to a guy who is going to make a killing selling the numbers 1 to 1000. This is pure genius and a great example of Seth's influence.
31 May 2006
M$ to buy eBay?
An article I read today says that Microsoft is thinking about buying eBay. This would be a very interesting move for Microsoft because I can't think of a single online applicaiton that they run that is of any real significance except maybe LavaLife (was that too harsh? maybe).
eBay would be a considerable chunk of the net and is a space that Google does not yet dominate. And, let's face it, eBay could probably use some changes. Have they done anything innovative lately other than sell new classes of things, like houses and cars? Not that I can tell. They perform a basic service well and dominate that market so much that they just haven't had to innovate much. I use eBay, and like it, it's just not exactly a hotbed of innovation.
The thing that I really don't like about this potential deal is that if this went through, Microsoft would own Skype. As anyone who has been reading here knows, I love Skype and I reacted similarly when eBay first purchased it. It seems as though eBay has left Skype alone for the most part, which is great, but would Microsoft do the same? I doubt it. For that reason, I hope it doesn't happen, at least not right now. Skype is just too cool and they have done such a good job with marketing themselves that I would hate to see someone come in and mess with it right now.
eBay would be a considerable chunk of the net and is a space that Google does not yet dominate. And, let's face it, eBay could probably use some changes. Have they done anything innovative lately other than sell new classes of things, like houses and cars? Not that I can tell. They perform a basic service well and dominate that market so much that they just haven't had to innovate much. I use eBay, and like it, it's just not exactly a hotbed of innovation.
The thing that I really don't like about this potential deal is that if this went through, Microsoft would own Skype. As anyone who has been reading here knows, I love Skype and I reacted similarly when eBay first purchased it. It seems as though eBay has left Skype alone for the most part, which is great, but would Microsoft do the same? I doubt it. For that reason, I hope it doesn't happen, at least not right now. Skype is just too cool and they have done such a good job with marketing themselves that I would hate to see someone come in and mess with it right now.
09 May 2006
An open source business model
I have been reading a lot about Open Source business models lately. This article by Denis de Bernardy outlines a revolutionary new business model for open source software.
Are you ready?
Charge money for it.
Yes, that's it. He proposes that we just charge money for the software, the original development and for any enhancements that someone might want/need. He makes a good case and I think he's onto something here.
Are you ready?
Charge money for it.
Yes, that's it. He proposes that we just charge money for the software, the original development and for any enhancements that someone might want/need. He makes a good case and I think he's onto something here.
25 April 2006
Word Processing on the Web
OK, this isn't exactly news but I just realized I had never mentioned it and I thought it was pretty cool when I first heard about it. It's finally here! A way to collaborate on documents with a web based word processor! We're going back to a mainframe world folks, but a mainframe that is completely open - for a price of course. Check it out: Writely - The Web Word Processor. It's recenlty been purchased by Google so expect some amazing things.
22 April 2006
Google Calendar
OK, before now, I just suspected it, but now I know. Google's been keeping it's eye on the DataZoomer project and has probably been checking out www.coparentcalendar.com in particular. Their new calendar system is just too similar to the one we created just over a year ago.
OK, it's not all that similar. They probably had a bigger budget than I did, but it's the same basic idea. And it's cool! I don't want to lose users of course but I just had to point this new app out. And I can see that Google is definately going to try to compete with DataZoomer now. ;-)
But seriously, it's pretty cool to finally be ahead of one of the big guys, even a little. We've had many great ideas that were just a little too late. By the time we got to actually doing them we realized someone had already done it.
But not this time. We actually released coparentcalendar a full year before Google Calendar! So what? Well, we happen to have a bunch of other ideas in the works that we haven't released yet so we'll see if we can beat Google to the punch on those ones too! ;-)
Anyway, check it out. It's really cool and it's all Ajaxy and stuff, if you like that, and of course, it's free.
OK, it's not all that similar. They probably had a bigger budget than I did, but it's the same basic idea. And it's cool! I don't want to lose users of course but I just had to point this new app out. And I can see that Google is definately going to try to compete with DataZoomer now. ;-)
But seriously, it's pretty cool to finally be ahead of one of the big guys, even a little. We've had many great ideas that were just a little too late. By the time we got to actually doing them we realized someone had already done it.
But not this time. We actually released coparentcalendar a full year before Google Calendar! So what? Well, we happen to have a bunch of other ideas in the works that we haven't released yet so we'll see if we can beat Google to the punch on those ones too! ;-)
Anyway, check it out. It's really cool and it's all Ajaxy and stuff, if you like that, and of course, it's free.
14 April 2006
SpaceMonger
Here's an unbelievably cool and simple tool for figuring out where all your hard disk space has gone. It's called SpaceMonger
and it is free of course. Sorry my Mac using friends. This one's only for the PC right now. You may already have something cooler that does the same thing anyway. ;-)
and it is free of course. Sorry my Mac using friends. This one's only for the PC right now. You may already have something cooler that does the same thing anyway. ;-)
13 April 2006
Love is the Killer App
I read this book back in January, and wanted to write a review but didn't. Some of the thoughts keep coming up for me so I wanted to just write a few words about it.
First, I thought the book was good. Not great but good. I would recommend it but there are a lot of other books that I would recommend first. Why? I felt that it didn't have as much meat as I usually like to have in this sort of book.
Now, what do I mean by "This sort of Book"? Good question. By the title it's a bit difficult to figure out what the book could be about. It could be about Love and relationships, it could be about computing, it could be about business. It turns out, its about all of those things.
It's about Karma. It describes and promotes a way of life, a philosophy, that the author has used to propel his career and his life in general to new heights. What he proposes is essentially to read a lot, read books thoroughly, marking them up (a practice that I have yet to try) with your own notes, and then if you like them, spreading the word on what the book said.
He says, to get into the practice of sharing, being authentic and learning as much as you can about your subject of choice, through reading and conversing with other people and then sharing everything you know, unreservedly with whoever you think might benefit from it. It's a very generous way of living and to me, quite appealing.
He says that if you make this a practice, people will notice and will come to see you as the one who spreads the love and the knowledge around. You become the glue, the one that people want to work with because of your knowledge, generosity and authenticity.
Like I said, it's a good book, I would recommend it. The title's a bit strange IMHO, but hey, it got my attention and that's what great titles do.
First, I thought the book was good. Not great but good. I would recommend it but there are a lot of other books that I would recommend first. Why? I felt that it didn't have as much meat as I usually like to have in this sort of book.
Now, what do I mean by "This sort of Book"? Good question. By the title it's a bit difficult to figure out what the book could be about. It could be about Love and relationships, it could be about computing, it could be about business. It turns out, its about all of those things.
It's about Karma. It describes and promotes a way of life, a philosophy, that the author has used to propel his career and his life in general to new heights. What he proposes is essentially to read a lot, read books thoroughly, marking them up (a practice that I have yet to try) with your own notes, and then if you like them, spreading the word on what the book said.
He says, to get into the practice of sharing, being authentic and learning as much as you can about your subject of choice, through reading and conversing with other people and then sharing everything you know, unreservedly with whoever you think might benefit from it. It's a very generous way of living and to me, quite appealing.
He says that if you make this a practice, people will notice and will come to see you as the one who spreads the love and the knowledge around. You become the glue, the one that people want to work with because of your knowledge, generosity and authenticity.
Like I said, it's a good book, I would recommend it. The title's a bit strange IMHO, but hey, it got my attention and that's what great titles do.
06 April 2006
Google Finance
Google has added some cool new investment tools to their ever growing list of applications. I think it's a great start, and I am using it, but the porfolio could use some more features. I do love the simple interface though and the stock chart visualization gadget is incredibly cool. Check it out.
30 March 2006
LINQ
Here's a video about a (new?) project at Microsoft that will make SQL statements first class constructs in any .NET language. This is amazing news. This is one of those ideas that was completely off the radar screen but then once you hear it, it's like a no brainer. Here's the link: Anders Hejlsberg - LINQ.
Anders is one of my favorite developers of all time so it was cool to see him talking about it. Anders, BTW, is the guy that developed Delphi for Borland and C# for Microsoft. This guy is no joke, as they say, and this idea he is talking about will be amazing.
Incidentally, this same functionaliy has been in FoxPro for about 10 years. It's amazing to me that no one else has done it. If it works, and if IronPython shows up as an official product at MS, I'm going to be a happy hacker.
Anders is one of my favorite developers of all time so it was cool to see him talking about it. Anders, BTW, is the guy that developed Delphi for Borland and C# for Microsoft. This guy is no joke, as they say, and this idea he is talking about will be amazing.
Incidentally, this same functionaliy has been in FoxPro for about 10 years. It's amazing to me that no one else has done it. If it works, and if IronPython shows up as an official product at MS, I'm going to be a happy hacker.
16 March 2006
New Scientist Quantum computer works best switched off - News
Without getting too detailed, scientists have invented a way to run a quantum computer that produces answers without actually running a program. New Scientist Quantum computer works best switched off I consider myself a pretty knowledgable guy about how things work (computers especially) so it's pretty humbling when I read an article like this and realize that there are people working on quantum computers that understand that technology to such an extent that someone like me is a complete noob in their domain. Not only do I not understand it, it makes no sense to me at all. Yikes! None the less, it is a pretty interesting read.
09 March 2006
Waterfall is Back!
The waterfall development process is enjoying a revival now that all that agile programming nonsense has proven to be a lousy way to get rich on unsuspecting clients. Here's a link to an International Conference on the waterfall process that is coming up on April 1, 2006.
27 February 2006
Internet TV Reborn
There's just way too much cool stuff going on right now. Here's some more. Democracy Player is a piece of software that combines bit torrent technology with RSS and video to create a high resolution internet television experience that has to be seen to be believed.
I think it's excellent not only because it's cool to have free, meaningful programs to watch but because it hints at the future. A future where people contribute because they want to, because they love it and it's fun. Not because they think they are going to get rich. While the networks and RIAA squabble over IP rights people are putting the technology to work to create free content. After all, content really boils down to conversation, and it is starting to seem silly to pay for content when there's so much free content, so many free conversations to become part of.
Oh yeah, it's free and it's open source. :-)
I think it's excellent not only because it's cool to have free, meaningful programs to watch but because it hints at the future. A future where people contribute because they want to, because they love it and it's fun. Not because they think they are going to get rich. While the networks and RIAA squabble over IP rights people are putting the technology to work to create free content. After all, content really boils down to conversation, and it is starting to seem silly to pay for content when there's so much free content, so many free conversations to become part of.
Oh yeah, it's free and it's open source. :-)
23 February 2006
Has Blogging Run out of Steam?
Trevor Butterworth posts this article about how blogging is dying and how it's never going to overthrow mainstream media.
In my opinion he completely misses the point. He is a mainstream media writer. He seems to think that people are attempting to blog for a living and that if there's no business model, there's no point. The point is this: it's a conversation. That's it. If you don't think conversation is important in it's own right then I recommend "The Cluetrain Manifesto". In fact I recommend it anyway.
The conversation may head to commercial gains but it often does not and is not expected to. Blogging, if it intended to have any commercial value at all, typically generates money from the halo effect, similar to open source software. Yes, some blogs are not that interesting, but many are. And now with podcasts and video blogs, it seems clear to me that although CNN is probably at no risk, neither are the 4 million or so or so blogs out there.
The really interesting thing is that he put a link at the bottom of his post that links to a blog that he setup specifically to capture comments for this article. ;-)
In my opinion he completely misses the point. He is a mainstream media writer. He seems to think that people are attempting to blog for a living and that if there's no business model, there's no point. The point is this: it's a conversation. That's it. If you don't think conversation is important in it's own right then I recommend "The Cluetrain Manifesto". In fact I recommend it anyway.
The conversation may head to commercial gains but it often does not and is not expected to. Blogging, if it intended to have any commercial value at all, typically generates money from the halo effect, similar to open source software. Yes, some blogs are not that interesting, but many are. And now with podcasts and video blogs, it seems clear to me that although CNN is probably at no risk, neither are the 4 million or so or so blogs out there.
The really interesting thing is that he put a link at the bottom of his post that links to a blog that he setup specifically to capture comments for this article. ;-)
20 February 2006
The Google Future
A new article on CNNMoney.com predicts four possible Google futures. Well worth the read for those of us that subscribe to the ways of the "do no evil" guys.
13 February 2006
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
I am big fan of great user interfaces. I have written before about how interface design progress has been severely stunted by the web. I happen to think that PDAs, the only widespread users of consumer touch screen technology have been severly stunted by the BlackBerry. I know people who use them, love them, but seriously... it can't be because of their user interface.
Here is some really intersting progress on the touch screen front sent to me by ceilingtiles. Check out the movie demo.
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
Here is some really intersting progress on the touch screen front sent to me by ceilingtiles. Check out the movie demo.
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
10 February 2006
Caterina.net: GoogleTalk transcripts not only freaky, but potentially illegal
Catarina points out some privacy issues with regard to chat recording in this article Caterina.net: GoogleTalk transcripts not only freaky, but potentially illegal.
I wonder if it's legal for me to turn chat recording on at all since I don't usually say to the person I am chatting with, "Is it OK with you if I record this chat?" No, I just have it turned on, because it's the default and it might be handy some time.
Skype (no, I don't work for them) encrypts the data from point to point so there's nothing to record except on the client machines, so there's no issue about third parties snooping but still, maybe we should be asking for peoples permission to record our chat conversations with them.
I wonder if it's legal for me to turn chat recording on at all since I don't usually say to the person I am chatting with, "Is it OK with you if I record this chat?" No, I just have it turned on, because it's the default and it might be handy some time.
Skype (no, I don't work for them) encrypts the data from point to point so there's nothing to record except on the client machines, so there's no issue about third parties snooping but still, maybe we should be asking for peoples permission to record our chat conversations with them.
Mini Review: The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable: Books: The Group of 33,Seth Godin
Seth Godin has put together a tasty little book telling us that to have a remarkable business (and I would argue a remarkable life) you need to give up being perfect. Give up being all things to all people. Give up going after that big market because there is no big market. Give up being boring.
There are many, many individuals and niches just waiting to be explored. How, be remarkable. Decide what you are up to and find a way to be remarkable at it. This book will not disappoint.
It's also about an attitude. A new attitude that seems to be emerging in technology, psychology, science and in some (very succesful) businesses. An attitude that there's more to life than profits. There's more than me first. Sharing, helping and grace are becoming the new competitive edge. You can't treat customers like cogs anymore.
What’s remarkable about this book? It was written by 33 volunteers, all business and marketing and life gurus, assembled and fostered by Seth and 100% of the revenues are being donated to charity. I think that’s remarkable.
Check it out here: Amazon.com: The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable: Books: The Group of 33,Seth Godin
I am going to buy 10 copies to give away.
There are many, many individuals and niches just waiting to be explored. How, be remarkable. Decide what you are up to and find a way to be remarkable at it. This book will not disappoint.
It's also about an attitude. A new attitude that seems to be emerging in technology, psychology, science and in some (very succesful) businesses. An attitude that there's more to life than profits. There's more than me first. Sharing, helping and grace are becoming the new competitive edge. You can't treat customers like cogs anymore.
What’s remarkable about this book? It was written by 33 volunteers, all business and marketing and life gurus, assembled and fostered by Seth and 100% of the revenues are being donated to charity. I think that’s remarkable.
Check it out here: Amazon.com: The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable: Books: The Group of 33,Seth Godin
I am going to buy 10 copies to give away.
28 January 2006
When all you have is a cube...
Multi-dimensional analysis tools, or cubes can be very useful tools for data analysis and the marketing behind them would suggest that they are the silver bullet of business intelligence tools. While I agree that cubes are great for a small segment of information consumers a lot of the time and are possibly good for a larger group of consumers some of the time but they are way too complicated for most users, most of the time.
One of the oldest tricks in the book is to make products that in order for a person to make use of the product, they have to invest in it. WordPerfect used that years ago as did Lotus and others. Who remembers how to do the contortion required to do a table of contents entry in WordPerfect? How about changing fonts. Do you remember how many levels deep into the Lotus 123 menu you had to go to change a chart series?
I don\'t, but I do remember it was painful and the only way to get good at it was to train your nervous system to memorize the motions (which was a considerable effort and investment in time) before you could even begin to be productive.
Once you had made that investment, how eager were you to switch to Word? Many people who held out for a long time because they had made such an investment into WP that they couldn't consider switching. Add the investment in macros and printer configurations and it was very compelling to just stick with the tried and true.
Cubes are set up in a similar way. They are sufficiently difficult to learn and become proficient at (similar to user learning the keystrokes) and they require enormous investment in ETL and building to automate the production (similar to macros and configs) that once you have made the investment it is difficult, and very expensive, to get out.
Cube software makers, and the consultants that promote the software, would have you believe that all of your business intelligence and information products are best served up in cube format, with their proprietary web front end of course. They are promoted as a single solution to a host of problems. All you need is cubes. If you were to follow that advice you would look at everything as a cube problem when in fact a simple report or chart would not only suffice but is simpler, faster and requires far less sophisticated technology to make it happen. Cubes are a useful tool in the BI arsenal at best and an expensive source of automated confusion at worst.
Cubes and Multi-dimensional analysis tools are a great addition to a larger strategy of information tools including data warehouses, data marts, reports, charts, portals, forums, etc.. Promoting them as the silver bullet for business intelligence does a disservice both to organizations and the cube products. Positioning them as power tools for power users which make a wide variety of analysis data available and useable is much smarter.
One of the oldest tricks in the book is to make products that in order for a person to make use of the product, they have to invest in it. WordPerfect used that years ago as did Lotus and others. Who remembers how to do the contortion required to do a table of contents entry in WordPerfect? How about changing fonts. Do you remember how many levels deep into the Lotus 123 menu you had to go to change a chart series?
I don\'t, but I do remember it was painful and the only way to get good at it was to train your nervous system to memorize the motions (which was a considerable effort and investment in time) before you could even begin to be productive.
Once you had made that investment, how eager were you to switch to Word? Many people who held out for a long time because they had made such an investment into WP that they couldn't consider switching. Add the investment in macros and printer configurations and it was very compelling to just stick with the tried and true.
Cubes are set up in a similar way. They are sufficiently difficult to learn and become proficient at (similar to user learning the keystrokes) and they require enormous investment in ETL and building to automate the production (similar to macros and configs) that once you have made the investment it is difficult, and very expensive, to get out.
Cube software makers, and the consultants that promote the software, would have you believe that all of your business intelligence and information products are best served up in cube format, with their proprietary web front end of course. They are promoted as a single solution to a host of problems. All you need is cubes. If you were to follow that advice you would look at everything as a cube problem when in fact a simple report or chart would not only suffice but is simpler, faster and requires far less sophisticated technology to make it happen. Cubes are a useful tool in the BI arsenal at best and an expensive source of automated confusion at worst.
Cubes and Multi-dimensional analysis tools are a great addition to a larger strategy of information tools including data warehouses, data marts, reports, charts, portals, forums, etc.. Promoting them as the silver bullet for business intelligence does a disservice both to organizations and the cube products. Positioning them as power tools for power users which make a wide variety of analysis data available and useable is much smarter.
17 January 2006
Fair Use
Lawrence Lessig makes a brilliant argument about Google's Book Search service and whether or not it should be considered "fair use" of the works. Naturally some book publishers are threatened and are suing Google over this service. He talks about the mp3.com case in this talk also. It appears that if the book service is deemed to be not "fair use" then Google's entire search engine could be threatened (along with Yahoo, MSN and every other search engine). If it is found to be "fair use" however, I think this will be a huge win for innovation and freedom not to mention cultural history.
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