Category: Computer technology

RANT! No more faith in Microsoft

RANT! No more faith in Microsoft

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After being on an iPhone for a year, I don’t think I could ever go back to a Windows Mobile phone.  I used the Windows Mobile platform for probably 11 years (including the original Windows CE non-phone devices) and it always seemed like the NEXT generation would solve all my problems. The next generation never did come and by the time I gave up, I was in the habit of restarting the phone every morning.

I recently tried to install the desktop search tool from Microsoft.  After several tries and lots of reading online, I couldn’t get the add-on installed that would allow this tool to search my Outlook 2003 files (let alone my Thunderbird personal email).  I gave up and installed Google desktop and was completely indexed on everything in one overnight session.

I have no faith in Microsoft anymore.  I have had to go back to Windows on my laptop rather than Ubuntu but that is just because my 2G RAM laptop was struggling with Ubuntu and a virtual machine with Windows so that I could use Outlook and Office.  If I didn’t have to be completely compatible with the rest of my company then I would likely not have a single Microsoft product on my computer or in my life.

I could survive without MS Office.  OpenOffice does everything that I ever need it to do.  I don’t need the extra functionality that overloads the MS Office product line.

The only product that Microsoft makes that I really like is Windows Live Writer (which I use for blog posts).  But when I was on Ubuntu, I found that Scribe on Firefox was perfectly adequate for my needs.

If I could get Evolution to really work well with our company Exchange server, I would be off of Windows.  I always struggle with the Calendar syncing, calendar invites, and the Global Address Book.  If someone could create a smooth interface to Exchange then it would be goodbye to Microsoft for me!

RANT! WHY CAN’T A DEVELOPER MAKE EVOLUTION WORK OFF OF EXCHANGE SO THAT I CAN DROP MICROSOFT!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Who Owns Your Name on Twitter?

Who Owns Your Name on Twitter?

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I don’t love the social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace.  I do understand the importance of their presence though.  It is moderately important to VERY important (depending on your web presence and its importance to your income) for you to do the land grab and get your name, nickname, or company name out there.  Don’t let a cybersquatter get in your way!

If you want to follow me on Twitter, please do so: @soshaughnessey

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on the subject.  I don’t like to reproduce whole articles here (due to copyright issues) so here are the highlights.

Nowhere is this fact more evident than in the doling out of domain names. On the Web, domain names are available for sale on a first-come, first-serve basis. If someone else buys your name first, you can try to buy it from them. If you’ve trademarked a name, you can fight for the name in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ domain-name court system. This makes sense: money and the law are acceptable remedies in our capitalist democracy.

But social media domain names – such as Twitter.com/yourname – are a whole different ballgame. They can be doled out arbitrarily. Even if you get a name first on a social network, you are not allowed to sell it and it can be reclaimed by the social network at any time. Legal remedies for dealing with imposters or trademark issues range from murky to nonexistent.

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Still, there is some hope if you want to get your name – or reclaim it from someone else who has it. Here are some approaches:

Get There First. Since domain names are free on social media sites, it makes sense to grab yours quickly, even if you don’t plan to use it immediately.

Many sites dole out domain names on a first-come, first-serve basis. The most democratic is LinkedIn, which hands out “vanity URLs,” such as LinkedIn.com/in/JuliaAngwin, to the first person who asks for it. As long as the URL is really your name, you can keep it.

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Plead Your Case. If someone grabbed your name already, you can appeal to the site to get it back.

MySpace has an automated – and somewhat strange – process for booting imposters. You are required to send in a picture of yourself holding a piece of paper with the URL of the imposter profile written on it. This is called the “MySpace Salute.” If MySpace deems the offending profile to be an imposter, it will delete it.

To protest a Twitter name-squatter, you must send in a ‘tweet’ to Twitter containing the word ‘squatter’. If Twitter decides to reclaim the name, it often keeps the name dormant for several months before handing it over.

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Negotiate a Side Deal. Most sites do not allow users to sell names to each other, but that doesn’t mean that deals can’t be cut. After all, it’s easy to transfer control of a social media profile by handing over the username and password.

Consider the gymnastics CNN went through to gain control of the Twitter.com/CNNBrk account. A CNN fan set up the account three years ago to automatically tweet CNN’s Breaking News e-mail alerts. Eventually, CNN wanted control of the domain and its huge audience (it now has 1.5 million followers).

Twitter offered to reclaim it for CNN, says CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin, but CNN didn’t want to take an aggressive stance against a fan. Instead CNN chose to hire the owner as a ‘consultant’ to train CNN staffers how to use Twitter.

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Give Up. Even if you get the domain you want, somebody can still pretend to be you on a social media site.

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And after a stint in the rogue states of social media, maybe we should all be more appreciative of the democratic embrace of a simple Web domain name.

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AT&T is whining about the iPhone

AT&T is whining about the iPhone

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There is an article in the Wall Street Journal that has AT&T whining about the cost of supporting the data plans for the iPhone.  Seems that with all of the really cool apps that the iPhone has, they tend to load up on the data! I suppose AT&T’s complaints are so that they can keep offering affordable phone data packages on sites like Raise as Cricket Wireless, one of their phone package brands, is selling like hot cakes for data hungry customers.

But AT&T will just have to deal with it as the iPhone is by far the coolest product in the mobile world. It has also set the standard for all other phone developers and networks to aspire to.  No surprise, the quality of the apps is excellent (check out this site that reviews iPhone apps). Because of this, there is no way that we are going to roll back time and start to use a less flexible and featured product.

AT&T may not like it but Apple and it’s iPhone have given them first mover advantage in mobile computers.  Everyone else is trying to play catch up.  If AT&T screws it up, the competition will be all over them.

Here are portions of their article “Demands on Network Are an iPhone Hang-Up”

Users of iPhone download games, video and other Web data at two to four times the rate of other smartphone users, according to comScore. Yet AT&T charges iPhone subscribers the same fee of $30 a month for data that it levies on other smartphone customers. And aside from restricting certain activities, like file sharing, AT&T doesn’t limit how much data can be downloaded.

But Web applications popular with iPhone customers are bandwidth hogs. A recent analysis by Alcatel-Lucent of North American wireless network use during the midday hour on one day found Web browsing was consuming 32% of data-related airtime but 69% of bandwidth, while email used 30% of data airtime but only 4% of bandwidth. Email taxes network resources but in a different way.

As the proportion of customers with iPhones grows — 5.9 million 3G iPhones were activated in the last three quarters, 7.5% of AT&T’s total subscribers — the resulting growth in downloading and Web browsing will strain AT&T’s network. AT&T will need to add cell towers and spend more on the back-haul lines that connect the towers to the rest of the network.

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The falling cost of voice minutes and additions of lower-end customer has offset growth of text messaging and other data services. Voice and texting use little bandwidth and are lucrative.

Now, new customers are harder to come by. The question is whether new data revenues the industry is banking on — from Web-browsing and entertainment services — will be as profitable, at least as measured by return on invested capital. That looks doubtful. To ensure networks have the capacity to offer these services, particularly bandwidth-heavy offerings like video streaming, carriers will have to make heavy capital investment. Both AT&T and Verizon are building the next-generation 4G network, each spending more than $9 billion last year on new wireless spectrum, as well as $6 billion annually on overall capacity.

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In the short term, carriers should abandon unlimited data pricing plans. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless already charge extra for heavy users with wirelessly connected laptops. They will have to contemplate similar strategies for smartphone users.

Setting the right price won’t be easy. With competition, the temptation to discount will be hard to avoid. And there’s no guarantee that customers will pay as much for entertainment as for voice-calling and email.

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Obama administration idiot is fired for flyover

Obama administration idiot is fired for flyover

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I am happy to see that the idiot that approved the photo opp flyover over New York City has been fired!  This is from the Wall Street Journal:

The White House said Friday that President Obama has accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera as Director of the White House Military Office, effective May 22. Mr. Caldera wrote in a letter that the controversy created by the flight of one of the presidential planes over lower Manhattan had made it impossible for him to effectively lead the office. The unannounced flight briefly panicked office workers near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House also released a photograph taken during the flyover.

The administration also released an image from the flyover. I still contend that this could have been easily recreated in Photoshop!

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Polaroid – a testimony to bad management

Polaroid – a testimony to bad management

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Is there a brand name that is better than Polaroid?

I am sure that there is but not too many.  Coke and Pepsi come to mind.  Mac is probably more popular.  Perhaps Levi’s and Mercedes.  There may be a dozen or two others but to be honest, if someone says Polaroid you instantly know what it is: a camera that takes a picture and spits it out immediately to be enjoyed by you and others.  What a perfect idea for the US where we are known for our lack of patience and need for instant gratification.

Today, multimedia dominates the Internet and the computer industry.  The ability to interact with and use images and movies drives the sale of most computers.  In fact, a recent Apple v. PC discusses the ability of the Mac to manage volumes of digital images.

Mac VS PC Stacks

So how did a company that was synonymous with instant gratification and images fail so miserably?  Below, I have a Wall Street Journal article where the company was just auctioned off for a miserable $53M.  It was only a decade or so ago that this would have been about a week’s worth of sales!

I am sure the business schools of the world have case studies on Polaroid.  At least they should.  It is a testimony to a management that just plain messed up.  I sometimes wonder if some companies actually try to fail since they do it so well and convincingly.  GM would probably fall into this pool of companies!

I feel sorry for everyone that trusted this screwed up management.  I am sure that Mr. Land has been rolling over in his grave so much that his skeleton is likely is ground to dust.  Rest in peace, Mr. Land.  Hopefully the new owners of this icon will do better and preserve your legacy.

Private-equity firm Patriarch Partners LLC bested other bidders in a court auction to buy Polaroid Corp.’s assets out of bankruptcy for $52.7 million in cash and stock.

A Patriarch-controlled holding company will acquire Polaroid’s assets, including the Minnetonka, Minn., company’s intellectual property, name and brand, according to papers filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Minneapolis.

Patriarch offered $44.9 million in cash and a 12% stake in the newly formed company, which will hold Polaroid’s assets. That proposal topped lead bidder Genii Capital S.A., which offered $42 million for the company that invented instant photography.

“We look forward to reconnecting Polaroid with its history of innovation in photography,” Patriarch Chief Executive Lynn Tilton said in a statement. “We intend to continue rebuilding the brand of this great American company on a worldwide scale.”

Patriarch intends to position Polaroid as the “leading brand in digital instant photography,” and will continue to sell other consumer electronics under the brand name.

A hearing to approve the sale is scheduled for Monday.

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Qumana for Linux doesn’t work on Ubuntu

Qumana for Linux doesn’t work on Ubuntu

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I enjoy using Ubuntu rather than the trash that Microsoft puts out.  I have a dual boot computer so I can always go back to the evil empire if I need to but my default OS is Ubuntu.

Sadly, the tools for managing blogs in Ubuntu are a bit slim so I was excited that Qumana was putting out a version for Linux.  I tried several times to get it working and have come to the conclusion that it is not ready for prime-time.  It simply doesn’t work well in my environment.  So I am still creating posts with Scribefire or the built-in tools that WordPress provides.

Hopefully, Qumana can get this working but for now it looks like it is DOA.

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