Great for the Olympics but not Good Enough for the NFL?
As reported by Valleywag NBC sports favors Flash over Microsoft’s Silverlight to showcase the NFL.
I’m torn about this mainly because I personally watched so much of the Olympics on Silverlight this year and was so impressed by the tech that I sang their praises to everyone within earshot during the entire summer games.
Anyways, this is kinda old news by now but I needed to take a few days after the Monday US Open Final where Federer rocked his 13th Grand Slam Title.
Plus, I’m looking forward to playing some hold ‘em this weekend.
So I got nothing else on this other than…
Silverlight: good enough for the Olympics but not enough for the NFL.
- Roger Federer is Daniel-san, former champion who must overcome the new “Bad Boy of Karate” (Rafael Nadal anyone?) Only Nadal isn’t really a “bad boy”. More like another dude who prefers no sleeve shirts. The dude still lives with his parents in Majorca for Pete Sampras’ sake!
- Mr. Miyagi’s speech right here is exactly what Federer needs to hear. Except it would be less about karate and more about tennis. (clear throat)
- Federer needs to forget his fear and let out his best tennis. “Now time, let out!”
- Federer must get his ass up and rock a sick tennis kata like the one Daniel-san rocks in the end here. Except less fey and more masculine.
done
Come on, who’s with me on this Karate Kid 3 metaphor?
This was a story that was out on Techcrunch before the long holiday season but nonetheless it’s something that ties in all the recent tech news that’s taking up much virtual ink lately.
So is this all just too much for all us consumers to ponder? One of the biggest factors for me would be just how interchanagable all this geeky stuff is? What if the google app store has a kick ass app that just isn’t offered in the itunes app store? Most likely the app developer will create several versions that will be compatible to every major wireless device. The problem comes in when you are ready to upgrade, change services, service plans, etc. Will we have to repurchase all our favorite apps? Will it be a big factor in our committments to our phone, carrier, plans, etc?
Come to think of it, still at it’s infancy, it’s already getting to be a huge pain in the ass, no?
I gotta make sense of all this later in the month. There’s a grand slam tournament still going on that’s far more interesting to this tennis geek.
As reported by several sources including Yahoo here, Google enters the browser market with the Tuesday beta release of their very own browser Chrome.
Alongside it’s development of word processing and spreadsheet software, it’s dominance in search and general abilities to do whatever it really wants to, this may be yet another blow that Microsoft must not only endure but overcome.
Kinda looks like Opera
Ironically, between the PR drummings their OS Vista software has been receiving against the Mac OS, it’s continued third banana status in search behind Google and Yahoo, Microsoft finds itself from the penthouse to the outhouse as the perennial underdogs.
The obvious issue now is whether Google can make such a huge dent in an already highly competitive browser market what with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari out there with such an established base.
But I guess if anyone could rock it, it would be the global goliath of the silicon valley.
No doubt the geek patrol will be all over this all week.
First finding the story in Engadget it certainly looks like all the involved companies are working fast to get this one out and running into the marketplace.
I’m sure all you tech geeks (myself included) have read or heard more than a few recent stories of Apple’s continuous stumbles in the media from their iphone ills to their mobile me troubles to even accidentally publishing Steve Jobs’ obituary! So it makes not only great sense to launch something new so close to the holiday season but also an added timing bonus for competing with the wildly popular Mac when they seem to not be the “Apple” in everyone’s eye anymore.
If you’re like me, you might be in one form of iphone limbo or other. I am just starting year two of my two year mobile contract with T-Mobile, I’m very happy with my Dragon-Engraved Motorola Razr (minus the dying battery issue after the 12 month period) and it’s services. Because most of my day I’m in front of a fully wired computer and my current mobile contract sitch I don’t find myself yet at the point where I need to have a fully mobile 3G phone ala the mac iphone (besides, there are plenty of people out there who can’t stop showing off their lame ass lightsaber app on their iphone to me… fey).
Then recently all this news regarding google’s 3G enabled android began to build up steam once again and it made me 1) glad I didn’t commit to the iphone yet and 2) gave me more excuses to embrace the “wait and see” approach.
Now comes this week’s addition to my mental hell about all this which are these rumors from Digg’s Kevin Rose sharing his knowledge and information on the new line of ipods that are on the verge of making a huge splash in the next month.
I have an old ass ipod. During the early 2000’s it seemed like Apple was literally unveiling a bigger, cooler, smaller version of the ipod every other day. After playing the “wait and see” game for several months, the big 40 gig photo ipod with the click wheel came out to the market and I quickly purchased one. At the time I didn’t think that it could get any better than this. I have a HUGE CD collection and this ipod would still have all the room to carry all my music plus have like 10 gigs left for photos. The only next stage would probably be video but that won’t be for at least a year or two right? Screw it. I’m getting the ipod photo.
I think it was like the next month (at least that’s what it felt like to me at the time) Apple unveiled the ipod video. I went in too early again.
Now with the potential of a newly revamped ipod touch on the horizon, I may have the opportunity to get the best of all worlds. All the benefits of the iphone without the monthly fees, hassles, BS (the fact that AT&T is the only licensed US carrier still bugs me). Plus Apple is expected to lower the price on top of it? Sounds like a no brainer to me.
With my luck though I’m sure the day after I buy the new ipod touch, Apple will be like: “yo, check this shit out. new apple ipod teleportation! with the help of google earth and maps, you can now use apple’s gps technology and teleport yourself anywhere in the world! $299″.
The World is Flat and You Better Get With The Times
I read (and was floored by) The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman a while back but couldn’t fathom how to write a post about something that is so big and fundamentally pivotal and necessary knowledge to find success in the modern global landscape. Then I realized that that is exactly what the book is for and about.
If you want to understand why oil (and life overall) has gotten so expensive so quickly… if you’re curious as to exactly how and when we went from hiring travel agents to priceline and expedia… if you want to know how some smart kid in India is answering all your technical questions about your Los Angeles based PC… if you wonder how we came from the encyclopedia Brittanica to Wikipedia, cable to youtube and Hulu, libraries to Google, Blockbuster to Netflix, iTunes and Pandora… if you want to know what is really the purpose and business model of UPS (those dudes in the brown shorts aren’t just about delivering packages. They are doing so much more)… if you want to know how you are actually working for Southwest airlines right now… if you want to get a grasp of where the next level of this hyper speed innovations are potentially headed… and so so so so much more.
You need to read this book.
And to all the readers born after the Reagan administration: This shit is mad important, yo!
First, let me share this audio clip from one of Friedman’s speaking engagements to whet your palette.
Though I had heard much about Friedman and this book in particular before, this was the catalyst that made me order the book on Amazon and devour the information in a few days. Then let it sink in and go over all my highlights at various time to make it stick.
Friedman lists out all the factors that contributed to the connected world we live in now:
Beginning at the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the day Netscape went public, to outsourcing, to insourcing, to the sudden awakening to the global network of potential employees (your job could be taken by someone who lives halfway around the world who has more qualifications and is cheaper. Plus they no longer even have to move to do your work!), to all the “technical steroids” that continue to speed up the innovations and workflows even further, The World is Flat is an extremely well researched and well communicated book that I just can’t stop lauding (in case you couldn’t tell).
I know it’s maddening right now. So many changes so fast. And just when you think you’ve got a grasp on one thing, another thousand pop up to change everything you’ve killed yourself to learn.
Yes, you can pay people to know this for you. But I’m perpetually curious with a voracious appetite to learn as much on my own as I can. It’s a blessing. But mostly it’s a curse.
I would consider this book almost a prerequisite to entering your adulthood. The best minds in our country are already hip to this. We all should be. Don’t be left out.
I said earlier that I didn’t know exactly how I was going to write a post about this book. I think I just ended up writing an expanded headline. And in doing so I’m hoping that some of you will stop wondering about why our wallets are getting lighter, our homes are losing value, food is costing more, etc. and start informing yourself of the factors behind it.
The World is Flat doesn’t try to answer all these questions directly but it does give you all the fundamental changes that occurred and continues to happen in the world so we get a better grasp as to how we got here and where we’re headed.
I had this idea about ten months ago. The idea was to have an open, anonymous forum where people of all industries, career stages, etc. have a forum to get all the knowledge they need in order to be fully prepared for salary negotiations with current and / or future employers.
In addition to the salary information, I wanted the network of users to help each other out by sharing their histories with their companies, bosses and peers to paint a good idea of what it was like to work for a particular industry, company or employer. Think about it, everyone knows that it must not be a cakewalk to work those long, thankless hours over at the McDonalds fryer station or the Ford assembly line. But what is it really like? Maybe the employee experience over at Burger King and Microsoft was better? I was curious and thirsty for the knowledge.
It was going to be something I work on during my off hours. My own private Google 20% passion project. Something of a hobby without the pressures of the typical deadlines, clients’ demands and life issues that generally keep these projects on the slow track.
Well, these guys over at glassdoor.com beat me to it. But looking at the actualization of this idea, I can’t help but wonder if it’s something that will catch on beyond the the niche silicon valley folk. I hope it does.
The mainstream, traditional media world and the financial world might be a bit colder and protective of it’s delicate information. I mean, what if you work for a company of 100 or less? If you post up an anonymous sheet on your company with a lot of dirt, don’t you think someone in the company or industry will be able to whittle that shit down to maybe a dozen or so folks and figure out who the rat is?
The traditional media sector is still filled with backwards thinking old school mental cases whose mantra is held firmly at the: “fake it til you make it” vibe. I remember when after I paid years of dues at my old company and finally took the position of my old boss, next to them, now a peer. I remember getting to that position and realizing… “that’s it”? There was no secret meetings, no handshakes, not even a big pay raise… or any raise really come to think of it. It was about as exciting for me as that one time they found 50 Cent at the front row of the Country Music Awards.
Alone.
Without his posse.
Or his Vitamin Water.
And echinacea.
The point is, I wonder if the more specialized industries and company folk would be as willing spill the beans as a company of faceless thousands.
I hope they do. And I hope the good folks over at glassdoor make it easy for these folks to do it without any potential recourse from their industries or peers.
John Battelle’s The Search is both a highly informative and fascinating book on the origins of the search engine, it’s present status, a well educated guesstimate of where it’s headed and it tells these complex tales of history and subject matters in a relatively, fun and non-tech geeky way for anyone to understand. It merely and clearly defines the values and benefits of the search engine and discusses why there’s so much resource being put into this next generation of technology.
The Search also uses the search engine / corporation / new most powerful entity / every other superlative juggernaut in the known world in Google to tell this story. If you’re going to tell any tales of this stature, you might as well start from the top.
A few key points learned from reading The Search by John Battelle:
- Google and most search engines are really in the business less about what actual words we’re typing into our search boxes and more into learning about our intentions. The “why” we’re typing in certain terms or phrases into the search boxes. They’re literally in the business of trying to read our minds and thoughts.
- Yahoo and Google have very fundamentally opposing philosophies on how best to satisfy searcher’s needs using the technology of search. Complex algorithms and text ads aside, the end goal is to properly read our true intentions and purposes in our search. What are we searching for and why?
- No matter how advanced all the search technology seems to be to us plebians, the general concensus is that it’s all still very much at it’s infancy. Just about every expert in the industry believes that we’re only about 10% into getting to the “perfect search”.
- As powerful as Yahoo and Google are now, neither seem to flex much muscle when opposed by the Chinese government. In order to enter the highly lucrative Chinese market, both companies (as well as many others) have had to bend on their principles and previously “unbendable rules”.
- The guys over at Google, Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, etc are all extremely powerful companies filled with highly intelligent people. But at the end of the day, they’re learning this as they go along just like the rest of us.
- Brin and Page both like to eat Burger King after a major breakthrough.
There are countless other points of interest that make this book a worthwhile read.
The Search is an easy, fascinating read told very well. It’s not nearly as juicy in terms of dirt as James Stewart’s Disney War and that’s a good thing. Besides, Google is far too new and riding high to warrant much negative “inside” gossip… Yet.
As this relatively new and perpetually innovative industry continues to change, update and repeat itself, The Search is a great book to start to learn about the humble beginnings and see where all this crazy ass interweb stuff came from.
What the heck are they supposedly introducing as a value based service again?
In my eternal search for new and innovative ways to avoid being productive (don’t bother me when it’s Grand Slam tournament season), a new reality show on Hulu found it’s way to invade my time.
Though I generally try to avoid reality shows (unless it’s got that Gordon Ramsay dude… but only because he calls his contestants “lazy cows”) this one piqued my interest because it’s about a tech based start up company. And I find said subject extremely fascinating.
In a nutshell, Start-Up Junkies is about a group of rag tag entrepreneurs who start up a brand new tech based company to interrupt the multi billion (perhaps trillion?) dollar “snail mail” industry.
How, you may ask?
By intercepting your paper mail, scanning it and re-sending this mail to you via email as a pdf type file. But not to worry, you can still get your regular important mail the old school traditional ways, this service is really for those pesky junk mail type stuff that you wouldn’t really pay any mind to anyway. I mean bills, personal letters, health clinic reports, those are things too personal to allow some stranger to open, yes? Right.
The show itself sheds a spotlight on many of Earth Class Mail’s trials, tribulations and passionate sales presentations all mostly done by company jolly guy, Ron. It’s all very fascinating and kinda inspiring. A bunch of renegades bypass working for “the man” in order to create and grow a company to become “the man” themselves. Very touching.
Here’s what I don’t get. These folks over at Earth Class Mail and Mojo don’t do a very good job of explaining quite exactly what they are offering. Is it virtual mail? A virtual PO Box? A junk mail filter that actually just ends up as more junk email for the user? And they would actually pay for this service?
Just to be clear… I’m paying you to send me more junk email? Because I most certainly wouldn’t give the green light for total strangers to open my private mails, bills, checks, packages, etc.
WTF?
The other thing that kinda miffed me was that they call their company and service Earth Class Mail, no doubt an obvious effort of trying to ride the new “green” cultural revolution that’s taken over our country. But from what I gather, this company’s service doesn’t actually eliminate any of the paper based mail that the receiver would normally get. All it does is just send the same paper mail to another address where this huge, overpriced, oversized mail sorter machine just scans the original paper mail and sends a pdf type file to the recipient’s email. Then if there is anything of interest, I may print out the email to save for later. So, basically I just used up more paper for what I think may be a pretty lame service. Al Gore would be very displeased with me.
This all leads to my “duh” questions of the week: Why would I pay someone to go through my junk mail? If this company just scans stuff that I normally wouldn’t pay any mind to anyway, why would I care that someone else take the time and efforts to scan this for me and send it to me? Isn’t that just helping the junk mail senders instead of making my life easier? Oh, and I get to pay for this privilege too? Am I missing something here? Ooh, piece of candy!
If anyone out there knows about this company or watches the show and can explain exactly what service they are selling and why it may be something, anything of value, I’d appreciate a note or message here.
Cheers.
This kid is looking more like he’s going to win four in a row in Paris.
By the way, Rafael Nadal just absolutely destroyed Verdasco 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 in the fourth round of the 2008 French Open.
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
