A braver new world!

I've been busy last month planning an important third birthday! In the month that I did not write a blog post, the world changed!

Don't believe that change is irrelevant, since we'll all be gone by 2012 ... I'm talking about significant advances, some of which will change the way we do things before 2012!

First, as a firm believer in gadget convergence, it's good to see it happening! The iPhone already made it unnecessary to carry a camera - my Rio trip last year was without camera, and I iSnapped a healthy Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado! Now, with the release of the Droid, Google has effectively tech-crunched 2 devices into 1 - the GPS and the cell phone! This places standalone dash navigators (Garmin, Tomtom) on notice. In announcing the acquisition of AdMob, Google implies stronger mobile advertising for this converged mobile marketplace, (better ads to look at as you drive) and the Gizmo acquisition promises new forms of phone communications down the road - maybe no land lines any more (better phone calls from your car)!

More convergence came from Netflix and Sony. With Netflix streaming available on PS3 (and net-connected Bravia TVs), I no longer have to get DVDs mailed - no streaming player required - another box bites the dust! Oh! Google jostled its way in here as well - with the launch of HD video on YouTube! Now, browsing on the PS3 goes beyond the PlayStation store to your movie list and high quality user-generated content! Today, I still need the TV set top box for live TV and other channels, but that's not a technology issue - just a matter of who creates, owns and distributes quality content.

Speaking of media creation, citizen journalism is now the in-thing! While the Huffington post is offering to take a citizen journalist to Copenhagen, Rupert Murdoch, with his claim to create a paid walled garden for content - blocking out specific search engines - sounds like the last bastion of defense for paid-journalism as we know it. Who knows? If N key publishers decide to take sides in barricading content to specific robots, could it make a difference?

Speaking of newspapers and media - newspapers have the lowest circulation (12.9%) since pre-World War II. it looks like the most lucrative form of entertainment is not reading (Harry Potter with the Kindle, Nook "endless shelf space", or an iPhone book application), or even movies (Batman the Dark Knight), but ... good ol' war games! War still rules the world, with the largest ever media release in history - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! More than $300 million in sales in 1 day in just North America and the UK (vs. Batman $160M, 2012 $70M in a 3 days)!! I think Murdoch should buy Activision! Now, even the pacifist in me is curious enough to play this game! It's a Call of Duty!

Might as well experience the buzz before 2012!

What goes around comes around bigger!

Check out Photosketch, a new way of finding images - you draw and annotate objects, and algorithms, combined with image search, can compose the perfect photograph for you! Cool! Google image search can show you just line art, or images by color tone. Reminds me of a pioneering project called QBIC (from IBM Almaden) that saw little widespread use. Full circle, I say!

At IBM, where I started my career, I'd heard people say "We did this ten years back ('twas called something else)". This was actually true! Technology cycles! There is, however, a reason why cynicism around having tried something before (and failed) in technology is misplaced - the environment has changed. The second time is not just luckier - it is often bigger and better (and sunnier :-))

So, when the Network Computer was introduced in the 90's and it did not fly, it was not because it was a bad idea - in fact, it was brilliant - it was because of other conditions, e.g., the networks were not fast enough. Sun employees run the Network computer as an X display over DSL, and that's exactly the issue. ("Credit" to Sun for sticking with it, killing productivity in the process). Today, the network computer (Net-scape?) is now viable as Cloud computing, and Google's the dot in dot.cloud, the big honking mainframe!

When we built a scalable video server at IBM in 1995, with real-time support, striped file systems, high-bandwidth networks, and a million dollar SP2 m/c, the initial pilots worked great, but the business model floundered - karaoke-on-demand wasn't an established market, and the cost per video stream was too high :-). Today, multiple streams can be served by a Linux desktop, and the idea is viable - it's called YouTube! (Note the fact that today's user does not pay for the stream - the environment has changed! Free works quite well!)

Heard the same thing when trying to push forward on a project at Yahoo! - "We tried this back at Altavista and it did not work!" Famous last words...(actually he's still going strong... :-))

Memory-based computers were prototyped many years earlier, and are only now becoming viable with Flash memory getting to the right price point. Paper-like displays, seen in the 90's, are still not in vogue, but HD televisions are everywhere, and paper-like displays will come (Kindle 4?). Tablets failed, but tablets will come (Courier? iPad?) ! Windows Vista ebbed, Windows 7 may flow...

Don't ever listen to someone who says, "We tried it 10 years back, but it failed!" Remember that technology comes full circle, but the second circle can be brighter, and someone else is usually holding the flashlight!

Privacy? What privacy?

Loc8u has created a watch that tracks kids with GPS - and, of course, the privacy geeks have something to say! This is a violation of privacy, etc. etc.

Tell me that when I am running around the Great Mall in Milpitas for 45 minutes going all crazy that I'll never see my 4-year-old again ... this happened on Memorial Day a few years back, and, believe it or not, happened again (for only 5 minutes tho') with our younger son a few years later at Sears ... he was walking towards the escalator, assuming we'd gone down! As a parent, I have a right and a responsibility for a child, whether he/she likes it or not! If I suspect he's doing drugs at friend A's house, I'd rather he not hang out at A's house. He may find another way, but it is my prerogative to do my best to keep him honest while he's under my roof!

Privacy geeks make noise about every damn thing on the Internet! Leave the choice to the user! If there's value in search history, I'll turn it on - leave the search engine alone! I'd rather have a soccer result show up if I type "football" after reading an article about Maradona, than be told again about Brett Favre! And if I just Tweeted about Romo, I'd rather see a post about his performance for the same query "football" 5 minutes later!

Yeah! I've heard the argument - false positives! Sure - you'll get it wrong twice in 20 tries - egad ... that's 10 percent! Double-whammy digits! So what? You got it right 18 times! And I gave you my permission to do so! And with session-based personalization, you can do it all anonymously!

Opt in! That's the key!

If you want privacy - hey - go for it! Go into incognito mode and make merry. If you want privacy, tell the government to stop putting all your public records online, so that stalker doesn't find your phone number and address in 2 seconds on a search engine! Don't blame the search engine! And, a piece of advice ... stop putting those drunken photos on Facebook! Better yet, create 2 different accounts - for friends and your mom! Or suffer the consequences ... (LOL!)

Like ad networks aren't tracking you! Of course they are - and they should, so I see an ad for Hawaii snorkelling after I just purchased tickets to Maui! I'd rather see that ad than one for a GM car saying "May the best car win!".

Beacon! Why didn't you just do opt in, instead of trying to muscle your way in?

Online privacy is over-rated, and under-understood! Many complain that Internet companies are "watching you" when users are willingly using useful services. Sure, logs data, when used, is useful to the algorithm ... but they also add value to the user! If I had lots of friends, I'd sign up for Latitude. I'm ok with turning on tracking for traffic updates ...

As long as you can turn it off - do so and shut up (or go here) - and that's my "private" opinion! Oops! Did I just say that on the Internet?