Take your open source and put it, well you know where

I love open source software and people who contribute to the open source community. I also love closed software. I love that people can find ways to make money from unique software solutions. Plain and simply I love software development in any form. What I hate when the two paradigms collide. I hate it when someone makes a case for open source over or versus closed / proprietary. (I really rarely hear the opposite argument.)

There are so many things to love about technology and collaboration (and making money from unique and differentiated product solutions and well thought out software development models) that it kills me when it boils down to an “us versus them” discussion.

One of the most pervasive arguements against the iPad this weekend was an extension of exactly this argument. Apple is closed and proprietary. Yes, it is. You don’t like it then don’t buy it. However it often comes back to closed source / proprietary is bad... and bad for everyone. I just don’t get it.

I wasn’t going to write this blog but I ran into the best response to the Open Source bigots on this topic:

http://daringfawnyball.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/expertise/

“...open source has nothing to teach literature or indeed any artistic creation, since talent doesn’t scale as you give more and more developers check-in access to the version-control system set up for your novel!”
“This was the weekend those of us with high standards lost their remaining residue of patience for ideologues who hyperbolize about open systems without actually creating something people want to use.”

In just four clear and concise paragraphs this is the best rebuttal to the arrogance that comes from the Open Source holier than thou attitude against closed and proprietary.

Giving Marc Benioff his due

As much as I don’t like salesforce.com as a CRM solution -- and I seem to be almost alone in that -- Marc Benioff is a visionary. Instead of going on and on I’ll let him take the floor. The future of the Cloud and why the iPad is a major enabler:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/29/ipad-cloud-2/

This patent thing

I was preparing to write an entire blog entry on the ongoing software patent problem and how traditional methods of protecting IP via the United States Patent and Trademark process is broken and doesn’t work. This issue has come to the forefront in the tech industry with the recent patent violation claims made by Apple against HTC / Android. Then, as I was browsing my favorite blogs I ran into an excellent piece by ever present Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball. He, of the symbiotic mindset regarding the terrible Adobe flash, is so concise and to-the-point that it makes no sense for me to even try. I ask that you check out Jon’s argument here:

http://daringfireball.net/2010/03/this_apple_htc_patent_thing

The only thing I would add, or rather emphasize, is his last point regarding the Nokia lawsuits against Apple. I absolutely do believe that the HTC filing is a legal initiative to enforce Apple’s patents more broadly to help in its battle against Nokia. The most interesting takeaway is that if you look at Jon’s graphic link of Apple’s cell phone comparisons:



The one phone / phone company listed that has done the least since is Nokia. Nokia is an aging dinosaur of a company that hasn’t had a hit smartphone in almost a decade. With all due respect to those that will be ever so quick to point out that Nokia is the largest cell phone company in the world, I’d also point out that no one is competing with them in the candybar, flip phone business anymore. We’re talking about the part of the market that requires innovation and engineering resources... not the one that simply needs miniaturization. Yes, they are the largest handset manufacturer. Are their phones any different than what they were shipping five years ago? No, not really. Their response to the changing market dynamics? Sue. Apple’s hand was forced and HTC got hit on the head. Sometimes it really does suck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Now, about fixing the patent system...?

How do you spell greatness? I-N-N-O-V-A-T-I-O-N

At the risk of increasingly turning this blog into a forum to air my Apple opinions I have been forced to yet again blog on Apple. Yes, I am being forced to do this!

I’ve been pouring over the new Microsoft Windows Phone 7 reviews with quite a bit of interest. It is so fantastic to finally see some out-of-the-box thinking again coming from Redmond. It appears that they’ve completely rethought the way in which users use their phones and how to create a user interface that best aligns with what users want to do. Their past windows mobile iterations were, frankly, awful. They were awful simply because Microsoft has gotten away with continuing to take a desktop user interface and stuffing it into yet another form factor. No thought to how and what the user will be doing only that there should be a start button and right button menus, etc.

Along comes the iPhone, designed from the ground up to be a killer phone user interface and all of a sudden there’s new life around cell phone innovation. We now have a Palm Pre, Touch versions of RIM, Android and Phone 7. The only company that seems to be fighting innovation tooth and nail is Nokia. They have the most to lose but seem to spend the least amount of time thinking about how to design a better phone.

Another interesting example of this mind boggling behavior is around the tablet / netbook. With the introduction of the iPad, so many (Microsoft-centric) vendors crowed about how they had tablet computers and how the market wasn’t that interested or how the Netbook is the next tablet, etc. Firstly the original tablet designs were examples of Microsoft stuffing the same old Windows into a new format. It didn’t take into account user habits or better interface design. As a matter of fact, having used a few different ones, I always hated trying to hit the menu bar with a little pen. This was not only difficult but completely counterintuitive. (Along the same lines, how many of you hit the ATM keypad in your grocery store with your fingers before you pick up the pen in frustration. Why in the world I need to use a stylus to peck out my pin number is completely beyond me?!) The iPad will drive further innovation in the tablet space and I expect that Microsoft will introduce a new interface for tablet computing by 2012...

The Netbook is yet another interesting device. This is a cloud computing personal notebook. A laptop form factor optimized for web services. It has a keyboard and a laptop screen. Using existing GUI-based interfaces similar to (or exactly like) existing laptop user interfaces makes perfect sense. However comparing this device to a tablet makes no sense what so ever! I’ll just continue to scratch my head over those comparisons.

In summary, I’m not necessarily an Apple Fanboy (and I won’t even consider the iPad unless it has a web cam for video conferencing -- which I consider the killer app for me on the device) but I tip my hat to Apple every day for making the rest of the technology / IT world restless. If it wasn’t for the iPod and the unique iPod interface we’d still be using Sony MP3 players. What a disaster those were. If you don’t believe me I have three to give away... let me know where I can ship them...

Another compelling visualization

As long time readers of this blog probably know I’m a huge fan of interesting data visualizations; better ways of telling a story. Sometimes just seeing the story however is compelling enough. The link below is an image that clearly (and frighteningly) demonstrates the depth of the Mariana Trench in the west Pacific Ocean. Clear, concise and communicates exactly what it was intended to...

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=47264

How the Cloud Computing Paradigm will evolve

I just ghost authored an article on the future of workload evolution in cloud computing. Instead of writing it all over again on this page please check it out at:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/69377.html?wlc=1266584871&wlc=1266600707

Comments and thoughts are always welcome!

What Google, Apple and Microsoft have in common

“Don’t kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about!”

~ Troy McClure

Not really sure where this quote comes from -- dynamic quote creation is a feature of my blogging software -- but it seems appropriate. For years the tech world has been split into two distinct factions: those who like Microsoft and those who don’t. As a matter of fact one of the biggest tech successes in the last 15 years springs directly from the latter of those two groups: Google. Google, founded on the mantra “Don’t Do Harm” was thinking of Microsoft when they fashioned that new age mission statement. Microsoft has always been seen as the bully; greedy, monopolistic and focused on global homogeneity. The goal of technology homogeneity seemed like a good one back in the late 1980’s before the web, consumer electronic standards, communication standards. Today everything about it feels completely stifling and counter intuitive. With that said does anyone think that if given the same chance Google wouldn’t want the same power that Microsoft had in the 1990’s? Apple, in the same way, always held the banner of the Microsoft alternative for those who wanted to “Think Different(ly).” While Apple couldn’t beat Microsoft in the OS war they figured out a way to circumvent the frontal assault and beat Microsoft in alternative battlefields: Cell phones, app stores, music stores, electronic commerce, consumer electronics, etc. Got me to wonder if Apple is becoming exactly that with which they fought against?

What started (or reignited) my thinking around this? Google’s announcement that they’re looking at how to provide 1GB/Sec fiber connections to the last mile. They made the announcement early in the week. The combination of that announcement along with their Android cell phone OS got me thinking that, on one hand, they are interested in anything that increase web traffic, they really aren’t spending too much time working with others on these projects but rather jumping in feet first to make these technologies work on their own. There are many ways to view this but the most obvious -- and most capitalistic -- is the Google is looking distinctly at new businesses to help them simply make more money. The more money they make the happier their shareholders. Good right? This is exactly the attitude that Microsoft had. By expanding into new markets they create inherent (big money) barriers of entry. Now I’m not going to cry over new players in the internet access business: the alternatives pretty much suck today (Comcast, ATT, Verizon, etc). But before we consider this a good thing I’m left wondering what will be next for Google? In ten years will they be playing in pretty much the entire technology ecosystem? Will that be so good?

In the same manner as I’m not crying that Apple has a stranglehold over smart phones, music and media content sales online, etc. I have to wonder where the Apple juggernaut will go next. Perhaps the big difference for Apple is that they are creating brand new markets (iPod/iTunes, iPad, AppleTV, etc) and that is more opportunistic rather than monopolistic. With that said I wonder how many instances of “monopoly” will appear in a Google search of “Apple and music?“ Oh, maybe I should suggest a Bing, er Yahoo search instead?