Come back up already!

Yeah right. You've been down for five hours now.

The Bottle Neck

There was a famous old saying in the tech industry: "Design the software, the hardware will catch up." Hardware used to be the bottle-neck for computing. Processor speeds weren't fast enough, RAM wasn't enough, powerful computing was the size of a classroom.


Today, IMHO, there's a new bottle-neck: internet speeds. Think of the wonders we could achieve. We dream of so many applications - live-streaming video, hi-definition movies, instant download services etc. etc.

Dreams. But the reality is we're stuck waiting 45 minutes to download a 60 MB patch. I'm just waiting for another solution to come along so I can ditch Streamyx already. (And I heard, an alternative might soon be on the way.) :/

Micro-hoo rises from the dead

It seems that the "We're done" remark from Steve Ballmer WAS a ploy to get Yahoo! back at the table at a lower price after all. I reserve the right to use the phrase "I told you so" with all unbelievers. It walks!

This Wall Street Journal story was one of the most entertaining and informative I've read all week, and you'd do well to just invest 5 minutes into reading this article.

My favourite line was:

During the meeting, Mr. Ballmer, who prides himself on his math skills, wielded a long spreadsheet and questioned Mr. Yang and other Yahoo executives about their analysis of Yahoo's value and future prospects.

Mr. Karnitschnig does have a sense of humor.

I never thought I'd miss Windows this much

There, I said it. I never thought I'd miss Windows this much. The XP variety, that is.

About a month ago, I was really all fired up about Ubuntu - and rightly so. From the horror stories of how complicated Linux is, Ubuntu's real-world experience (and looks) were amazingly great. Of course, then I realised that despite how great the open-source community was, it still had its limits. And the cruncher for me was that the email application, Evolution, didn't quite agree with the wierd resolution on my Eee PC.

So I ventured into loading an old copy of Windows I had lying around onto the Eee. It wasn't as simple a process as I had thought. Simply borrowing Kelvin's USB external CDROM drive wasn't enough as somehow, my Eee PC refused to boot from the CD. Resignedly, I had to search up instructions to install XP via a USB stick. Follow the instructions step by step and you shouldn't get into trouble.

After the install, I realised just how capable a machine the Eee 900 is for Windows XP. Boot up time is a respectable 18 seconds, even if it's not the 13 seconds promised by nLite (I ended up not using nLite). I've done manual cleaning and disabled stuff I don't believe I'll ever use.

I gave it a test run with Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office 2007 and it works great. Documents open pretty fast (about 2 seconds) and the browser didn't stutter none. It might be because I have 2GB of RAM.

Shifting back from Ubuntu to XP, I realised just how under appreciated Windows is in general. Sure, a lot of times, we think it's the most boring operating system out there - wowed by the Mac OS and fancy Linux builds. But in its own way, XP is elegant and simple too. For one, I found the launch bar at the bottom (a la Mac, which I insisted on having in Ubuntu) was more pretty than useful. The Windows Start Bar method still appeals to me.

Also, maybe I'm just a noob, but I understand how applications ,files and folders work on XP a lot better than I did on Ubuntu. There's a certain logic to how Windows works and, maybe its because we were mostly brought up on Windows but, it DOES make computing simpler.

The one thing I loved best about the whole process? The untouched, unsullied desktop. I'd like to see how long it lasts :)

Unique cyberspace identities - an impending conundrum?

For some reason today I went and activated my myspace account again, and tried to claim my own unique myspace URL.

Barely, crossing my mind, I typed in: "http://www.myspace.com/davidlian" I tense up for a moment in anticipation... and am greeted with the reply - "URL taken."



What? Now, I'm not necessarily a narcissist but I guess I've come to take for granted that the cyber-moniker davidlian would be uncommon enough to be automatically mine. It's not like it's as common as John Doe, right? (anyone actually called John Doe out there?) But fact as it is, there are many other Davids out there, and Lians, and apparently David Lians too!

Here's the conundrum. As more and more social networks, internet services and things-to-sign-up-for pop up, do you find yourself more and more often using the same username / login? Do you start hearing people call you by your "callsign" / online-username / identity / cyber-moniker? (ST or FA anyone?) Have you come to identify with that one name?

If it's yes, yes, and yes, then you're just one more person that's part of the unifying-internet-identity trend. With open-source projects like OpenID, corporate driven unification programmes like Microsoft Passport or the YahooID, and alliances like Google's OpenSocial being drawn up, it seems everyone is driven to having just one ID and one password.

Here comes the cruncher, what happens when you aren't the first davidlian to sign up for that brand new OpenID account? Or that new OpenSocial account? Yeah, you'd end up adding numbers to the back of your username (like davidlian82 for my MySpace) - but you've lost the pristine-ness to your online name.

Will this lead to people then signing up for just about every service there is "just in case"? I just might - heck, the davidlian in OpenID is mine already. Will there be cases of ID-squatting just like cybersquatting?

Will this then lead to stricter policing of "dead" IDs? davidlian on MySpace hasn't logged in since October 2007. I haven't logged into my Friendster for ages. Should unused accounts that age for more than 3 years, be de-registered so that other people who may use the same ID can have a shot at having their preferred one?

On another note: does anyone realise myspace always tells you the person whose page you're visiting is in your extended network?

Operating System evolution: next up, Windows 7?

Recently, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer used the D conference to preview Windows 7 (the next OS after Vista). Have a look:



I feel like I'm a little bit more qualified to talk about operating systems now that I have an Eee that runs Ubuntu. After living thru six iterations of Windows (3.1, 95, 98, ME, XP and now Vista), Ubuntu was pretty much a schooling in terms of the philosophy of operating systems.

The thing I love about Ubuntu is that almost everything outside the core kernel (the central bit of code runs the system), everything else is a component. You can choose between GNOME, KDE or XFCE depending on what you like to see on your desktop. You can add a "dock" a la Mac OS, or a sidebar a la Windows Vista. You can choose to have multiple virtual desktops, or not. You can customise your OS to be as lean or as bloated as your want it.

And this is only in terms of the interface.

On the flipside, the problem with Vista was probably that it was designed in a time where the emphasis was on pretty graphics, and cool, clickable "things" on your desktop. 98, ME and XP before it was about integrating functionality (like tying Internet Explorer to your operating system) and making everything one bloated piece of work. The worst thing is, since everything is so integrated, you could turn off some stuff, but you could never really make it run as lean as a Linux machine.

So imagine how interesting it is for me to read that Mr. Gates and Mr. Ballmer are now claiming that Windows 7 will be lighter, faster, and more componentized.

More componentized you say? Like, I could pick and choose the bits and pieces of OS I'd like to have installed? Is Microsoft finally seeing the errors of it's bloatware ways and going the way of the open source community?

From the video, I'm not so sure. Still, at least it looks like we'll get to choose between a Touch version and a non-touch one. Too bad I'm not a fan of finger-printing my screen.

Commute and compute

Is this you?

Do you whip out your mobile as soon as you get on public transport and start fiddling? What do you actually do?

1. Check SMSes (only to realise you just checked 3 minutes ago and there's nothing new).
2. Flip thru pictures you've already viewed like a hundred times.
3. Press random buttons, having nothing really to do.
4. Play a quick game of Snake only to quit halfway because you're getting down the bus.
5. Check email?

Do you also whip out your mobile when you're queueing for movie tickets? Do you whip out your mobile when you're waiting for your dental appointment? Do you whip out your mobile when waiting for a concert to start? Do you whip out your mobile when having dinner with your -in-laws and there's no interesting conversation going on?

Have you realised you whip out your mobile a lot?

Just musings from WCIT 2008... I kept seeing people whip out the most modern, evolved devices ever. I reckon lightning-fast reactions from hands-to-pocket will be the next evolution for mankind. Behaviour change means feeling for your mobile is going to be secondary.

For me, it's just my humble N95 that gets whipped out most of the time:

Working in a mixed reality?

The lunch address at WCIT 2008 Day 2 was by far better than the rest of the morning.

This really smart chap from Fuji Xerox - Dr. Lawrence A. Rowe from the famed FX Palo Alto Laboratory - spoke about working in the "Mixed Reality World." Now, I know the discussion of Virtual Worlds is old and flogged to death, but one point that Dr. Rowe made gave me pause for some thought. Mixed Realities.

I love Twitter. I've made up with Facebook. I confide to my GMail. And carefully lug around my N95 and (now) Eee PC. And I'm not just me. There's a good number of people who are 'me' too. Some are colleagues whose late night drinking escapades I follow on Facebook. Some are friends, getting married and sharing the experience with Flickr. Then the clients, which pop up in my Inbox the whole day. My world is within my arms reach again; but the virtual isn't everything.

Mixed Realities. That's a great point. It's easy to get carried away with the Web 2.0 "bubble"(?) and think the future's gonna be about brains networked wirelessly. But it isn't and the challenge is always going to be "how do you tie back what's real to what's virtual?" At some point, you have to get real.

I liked an example Dr. Rowe used. In Second Life, there's a virtual Capitol Hill where you can attend lectures being actually made in the real Capitol. Real-time, real-life streaming. And I thought, that sounds really interesting - could we maybe have a Virtual Parliament that streams the real-life parliament?

The thinking is that we then need to examine where the virtual ends in each application. My job makes me really reliant on email, but there's a point when its handed-off to meeting real people and connecting in the real world. It's interesting because simple virtual realities like email means that you "virtually" meet a prospective customer via email before travelling half-way across the globe to seal the deal.

It's formulaic but different for each person. Your quotient for the mixed reality differs based on your work, your culture and who you are.

But further thinking, and advancements in technology could tip this formula. Would it, for example, be possible to hold an entire parliament sitting virtually in Second Life? Or maybe on a smaller scale, a press conference?

Whatever the case, the invasion of technology in our lives must make us think: "what's my reality again?" I can assure you, it's mixed.

What? You mean what I'm consuming isn't mainstream (media)?

There was a bit of interesting banter on Episode 139 of This Week in Tech revolving journalists who do shows on the internet (like on TWIT or Cnet or Tech TV in the old days) jumping over to "mainstream" media to make it big.

But would folks like Veronica Belmont necessarily need to get a job as a CNN anchor to make it big? I thought CNet and Revision 3 was as big as they come!

Though this has been discussed much, it still struck me that these were the shows I am listening to or watching more and more of, to the detriment of the more "mainstream" TV3 or newspapers. An oxymoron perhaps? Or is "mainstream" changing?

Not too long ago, it was widely considered by marketers that your average working class adult would consume media on a daily basis at routine intervals. The morning paper. 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. prime time TV. The breakfast show on the way to work. Sticking an ad into any of these slots would cost more simply because the stats show more viewers were consuming media at these time-slots.

Personally, for me, this has changed. Yes, I still read the papers every morning (to keep up with current trends, for job's-sake) but that's about it. I hardly watch TV anymore. Instead, my morning drives to work are dominated by catching up with the latest tech news, miniature gaming news or world news via podcasts. When i'm bored, I surf the internet with RSSed links to sites like Soccernet. More and more, I'm building an echo chamber of the news that I'm interested in and filtering out everything else.

I wonder how many people out there are like me? I'm guessing few, but growing.

Here's why:

1. Content Syndication technology (RSS)
Thanks to RSS, content delivery can now be automated, giving rise tonew forms of media like podcasting (sticking an Audio file to an RSS feed) that give people access to timely information that can be consumed at their own time. It's like choosing the channels you want to watch, and then watching them at your own time. The bad thing is, you'll be limiting yourself only to the type of news you want to hear.

2. More personal media players and multifunction devices.
All the best content in the world isn't going to do you much good if you're going to be stuck at home on the computer to consume it. The good thing is, more and more people are now carrying portable devices that are capable of playing media. It could be your phone, your MP3 player, your PDA. The option is now there for you to sync your favourite RSS-delivered content and consume it wherever you are.

3. Mobile internet getting better and better.
People a long time ago predicted the death of the newspaper thanks to the internet. As it turned out, those predictions were unfounded mainly because people didn't want to be stuck at home reading the newspaper on their computers. They rather prefer to read it in their toilets.

However, if you take my two points above and mesh it with the fact that now you can get a decent 3G / WiFi connection in the toilet and your mobile phone / device is most likely with you. Heh. You can easily see how a small device can replace that paper you used to hold in the toilet.

So, how much do you consume "mainstream" media?

N-Gage Screens and my catch of the day

So I spent a good chunk of my morning snapping screenshots of N-Gage games from my N95
so media could use it (disclosure: I work for Nokia. But no, no one paid me to write this). They turned out quite nice and I thought I'd stick'em up here.


This here's the 'dashboard' where at a glance, you can see yourself and a summary of all the information.


The games tab lists the games that you've downloaded and can play.


The rankings tab gives you more information about your reputation (I'm nil!), your friends and how many N-Gage points you've scored through playing offline or online. There's also a friends tab which lets you message online friends or leave them offline messages. You can also hook up with them to start multiplayer games.


Finally, the Showroom tab lets you download games (you can play the trial versions for free) and purchase them subsequently. I bought my first game (yes, bought you people), Creatures of the Deep, for US$ 7.99 which I didn't think was too bad a price. Creatures of the Deep people - fishing is fun.

Creatures of the Deep - why I like fishing.

Kel told me he thought this game was meh and no one would be patient enough to patiently sit by waiting for fish to bite. Especially not in a virtual simulator. I still wanted to try it out and after a couple of passes with the Trial version (they let you score points even with the trial version) I was hooked (no pun intended). This ain't a review, it won't be fair, but I just wanted to share a few screens.


I love the loading screens. Fun quotes appear with each screen.


The world map and the fact you can travel to different locations to fish I thought was fantastic. Being an RPG nut, I liked that you could level up and upgrade your equipment. Level 10 fisherman anyone?


Every little resort has a shop where you can upgrade your gear to catch bigger fish. That piddly beginner's rod you start with won't catch a shark.


Fishing starts with you clicking on a power button to cast your line. The further you cast, the more you'll have to reel in, but also, the better chance of a good catch whilst you're reeling in.


Once it's cast, you have to wait a bit. Urm...to be fair to Kel, this is the part that I find a bit tedious. But I'm not the patient sort anyway.


A bit of smart tapping, and soon, you get a hook! Start struggling to reel it in. Too fast and the line breaks. Too slow and the fish gets away.


Of course, once you've reeled your catch in, you're told what it is and given some experience points (to level up). In this case, my expert skill means I caught a 66.3 KG Yellowfin Tuna.


And made it to the media. :)


And I'll even sneak a screen of FIFA 08.

Twitter today, gone tomorrow

Hello! I've just spent the last eight or so hours sitting in on some really interesting discussions with senior Text 100 leaders and one thing our CEO said really hit me.

When asked about what challenges PR professionals face in today's world, given the advances in technology, she simply responded that technology today is moving really fast and platforms change very quickly. We just have to be on our feet at all times.



Pause and think a little on that, the depth of this simple statement is amazing. Just yesterday, I was debating with Kelvin Lim on the use of Twitter as communications and we both realised that there's obviously a use for it and we're still figuring it out. Even more PR people are figuring out how to use blogging, podcasting, viral videos and social networking as effective components of their PR programmes.

But that's still what we're doing - figuring it out. Some people get it more than others, granted, but in this world of technology, I'm figuring that we'll never truly have the time figure everything out about a new communications platform.

By the time we do, people would have probably moved on to the next.

So what's a poor, beleaguered PR person to do? Get on wit' it, that's what. It's really a challenge to keep in touch with all the latest communication platforms, but understand the fact that you'll always be playing catch up and communications is about making the best of catching up.

You've got to experiment. If the idea is sound, chances are it might work. And who's to say it won't?

davidlian wants: an Eee PC

A while ago, I was tagged by SlowCatchupKuan to post my "dream" gadget on my blog. So, I went home and took a nap, but quite unsuccessfully, I found that when I woke up, I couldn't remember what gadgets I had dreamt about.

After reading Kuan's post more carefully, I think she may have actually meant what gadget I would want. So here goes:

Pic from Slashgear.com

I had just gotten rid of my Acer notebook last year in favour of a home-brewed desktop setup (for the games) and have my Nokia N95 for my mobile computing needs. Then, I met this guy at an event with a cool looking, darn compact sub-notebook with a cool Linux interface. It looked like those RM 8,000 Viaos Sony had and i thought "Surely must be super-ex one lah."

We started to chat about general computing stuff when I popped the question: "How much?"

"RM 1,400."

"What?"

"Yeap. There are cheaper models."

That pretty much sold it for me. I love the concept of the EeePC - 4 - 8 GB of storage space (put everything else on your thumbdrive), 1 GB of RAM, Built-in Graphics Card, 7" Screen (with a 9" version on the way), nicely sized (though not full) keyboard, WiFi, BlueTooth. It's the perfect carry around sub-notebook for when you want to use a PC to do something.

It's light. It's tough enough (especially since everything is solid state) . And it looks cool.

I could see myself using this at Starbucks to browse the internet, or sitting in front of a TV typing up a blog post. Or paired with the N95 (you can install Windows on the Eee PC) to do some heavyweight browsing.

So why haven't I gotten one? Coz I'm waiting for this 9", 12GB version to come out sometime mid-2008.

Bill Gates quits Facebook, should you too?

Just a couple of months after splashing US$ 240 million on Facebook shares, Bill Gates has decided to abandon his personal Facebook account.

The reason? 8,000 friend requests a day and no way to bulk accept, set "limited profile" and "Skip this step" all of them at one go. If you take (internet connection speed-permitting) 10 seconds to add one friend, Bill'll spend nearly a day (22.22 hours) just to accept those 8,000 friends. And there's plenty more where that came from, you can be sure.

We've probably come to a cross-roads, then, as far as social networking is concerned. With MSNBC reporting Myspace users are spending 14% less time on the social network this month, it seems social networks as we know it now need a drastic re-design to keep people on them.

I'm sure some interface re-designing will help, but I also think we're ready for the next big social network after Friendster, MySpace and Facebook have all had their day.

I'm wishing Social Network 3.0 will be an open platform that's seamless across all my devices (meaning PDA, mobile device, desktop and laptop). Something that's a bit of Microsoft Outlook mashed up with Facebook where with a single update to my contacts in Outlook whilst at work, I can easily sync up with that same address book at home and on my N95.

I know this sounds a bit like Open Social, but I think it should go beyond the web and onto the applications you use everyday (Thunderbird, this could be a great opp to one-up Microsoft!). It's kind of how Flock integrates the web-browser with Facebook, Flickr and all your favourite Social Networking sites, only with a much, much higher level of integration.

Next, it'd be great if I could easily arrange people into groups, so only contacts I actually know will show up on my phonebook or email list whilst the "rest of the world" "friends" are kept on a "social only" page - on my desktop, laptop, PDA and mobile device. Perhaps make a work version and "life" version of virtual desktops to suit the time so different views appear at different times and switching is seamless at the click of a button.

Finally, can we just have ONE social network for everyone to be on? Or at least, have OpenID and Open Social succeed to the extent where we can be on different networks, but I'll have all the same connections to my friends regardless of social network, offline client, or platform (desktop, laptop, mobile device).

So, maybe this is why Microsoft splashed US$240 million for...So Facebook could integrate with MS Outlook? It's possible.

To Microsoft: forget Yahoo! and buy Motorola's handset division

This post is inspired by this post. See this cartoon.

So Yahoo decides to play wait-and-see with Microsoft, rejecting the initial offer and waiting for US$40 per share. Meantime, the Redmond money men must be calculating if that amount of money is worth spending for a company with so many similar technology assets.

Here, I present, another acquisition option: Motorola! Well, it's handset division.

Moto's all but hinted that they've thrown in the towel in the mobile phone industry and are "exploring ways" to accelerate the recovery of its handset business. Most analysts are reading this as "please buy us out."

And so the names have been spun around - LG could chomp and instantly make itself number 3 in this market. So could Samsung or even Huawei. My take is... what about Microsoft?

Sure, Microsoft can make great devices. Witness the XBOX 360 and all the Microsoft Mice and Keyboards. But it can just as easily flop (Zune?). Purchasing Motorola would give MS a leg into the mobile space and put it smack dab into the centre of the convergence space - internet + computers + mobile.

Serious.

The one thing that Motorola has consistently been unable to get right has been its operating system. In fact, personally, I think the best Moto phones are those that ship with Windows Mobile 6, which (surprise surprise), is a Microsoft product.

Services is the other thing that Motorola haven't really communicated a gameplan on. Microsoft does services. Doesn't take a genius to put two-and-two together.

The only problem would be integrating a hardware division into Microsoft. But, it's not like this something that Microsoft hasn't gone and done before. Moto's handphone division could still continue operating independently whilst integration could take a step by step process.

The bottomline is, MS has money to spend. Yahoo's probably a fair acquisition. But, in my books, Motorola's handset business looks prime.

What are the chances...

...of finding yourself talked about in a funky site you've never known about? Check the below out.
As I was just going through my traffic analysis, I found that a couple of people were directed to my Happy Event post through this story. Firstly, it looks like a great site dedicated to Hula Hooping, but for them to pick up that Happy Blogger event we had last week and post a story about it? Short of an inside job (so who did it?), I'm simply amazed at how stories get around the internet.

I'm surprised they even used Jason's face as the lead picture...hmmm....did you have anything to do with this?

Microsoft / Yahoo - it's about the users

The Micro-hoo deal has been talked to death, but it does raise an interesting point on the direction that these big tech companies are heading at the moment, which is perhaps indicative of the overall trend.

Every big tech company seems to be converging into a space that's going to be about software + hardware + internet + search + advertising. And advertising seems to be the most important area for all these companies - Microsoft, Yahoo, Google (yes, throw in Apple and Nokia too) to get their act together.

Gone are the days when Microsoft was all about DOS or Windows. Today, think XBOX and the Windows Live services. Similarly Google isn't just search anymore, but nifty tricksy apps like Google Maps and Google Apps. We've not yet seen hardware from Google, but it's ANDROID project seems like a nod in that direction. Don't forget that Nokia has bought NavTEQ, launched OVI and is readying N-Gage whilst Apple's iTunes is still going places and .mac still survives.

Detractors have said that Microsoft already have its share of web products and buying Yahoo