It’s not yet time for new MacBook Pro’s…
But there was a small speed bump for the MacBook line, and a build to order option for adding 200GB disks.
Nice – but not what I was looking for:
I’ll just have to be more patient…
Move Over Apple – Here Comes Dell…
May 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Pop over to Gadegetell and check out the pictures they have there of the new Dell store that opened in Dallas Texas.
It seems like Dell may be trying to capture some of that Apple retail magic:
They clearly chose a different designer than Steve…
Apple's Updating Their Online Store…
May 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The apple store is closed right now…
I’m guessing the rumors about new MacBook Pro’s might be true:
Beyond the new Santa Rosa chip set, I’m hoping for the new LED backlight displays and the new high speed samsung 200Gig drives.
We’ll find out soon…
Microsoft Goes After Open Source…
May 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Microsoft believes it intellectual property has been violated…
According to a recent article in eWeek, Microsoft is threatening to pursue litigation for alleged patent violations by open source providers, in a bid to force users to acquire their open source components from Novell – the only Linux vendor to have reached commercial terms with Microsoft over royalities. As Microsoft sees it:
…the Linux kernel violates 42 of its patents, the Linux graphical user interfaces run afoul of another 65, the Open Office suite of programs infringes 45 more, e-mail programs violate 15, while other assorted free and open-source programs allegedly transgress 68.
The problem Microsoft will have here is that they have never pursued IP infringement against a “corporation” like the Open Source community before. No doubt they are used to simply intimidating small firms into submission, and doing some type of IP swap with larger firms to settle any claims.
That won’t work with the Open Source community…
As a community, Open Source won’t be cowered into submission, and there is no IP owned outside of the General Public License (GPL) that could be swapped. This is a group that will defy and fight. And they will fight the same way they develop code – as a distributed yet coordinated community of volunteers.
And that should scare the hell out of Microsoft…
These folks will go on the attack and challenge the validity of every single critical patent that they are charged with infringing. And they will have thousands of people engaged in the process. They will dig up prior art from obscure yet valid sources. They will challenge specific claims as being overly broad or vague. They will challenge specific grants on the basis of how ‘novel’ or ‘unobvious’ they are – legal concepts necessary for obtaining patent protection.
As a global community, they will bring a depth of understanding and a throughness of technical scrutiny never before leveled at a patent portfolio. And they’ll have a passionate, pro-bono legal team to represent their efforts in court.
And at the end of the day, they’ll code around whatever they can’t invalidate…
By taking this course of action, Microsoft may end up sowing some market confusion for a few years – but they risk a lot for this small gain. It is well within the realm of probability that the courts could find a significant part of their patent portfolio invalid, or that they could end up narrowing the scope of many of their claims.
And there could even be a more immediate impact to Microsoft’s business from all of this. In the same way they are looking to scare off potential clients of non-Novell versions of Linux, the Open Source community could effectively call in to question the validity – and hence the value – of any IP assets Microsoft wished to license.
This could backfire for Microsoft in a major way. If they think the worst case for them will simply be having to live with the status quo, they better think again. And they should have no illusions about the limited upside they could possibly realize – free Linux and the Open Source movement will still be there at the end of it all.
They need to understand, there’s simply nothing “status quo” about Open Source…
Looking For Something More……
May 14, 2007 By 1 Comment
Ideologies don’t cut it any more…
I believe that governance through ideology – be it from the right or the left – is a failed experiment. It is inherently divisive, and creates an intrusive style government that fabricates solutions for perceived ills, and then searches for places to apply them.
I started to think about this after reading a recent post by Fred Wilson where he commended Rudy Giuliani for taking a stand on some issues despite disagreeing with his political style. He also drew an interesting contrast between Giuliani and current New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as candidates for president:
Unfortunately for all of us, the best New Yorker for the job is Mike Bloomberg who apparently can’t win because he’s not really a member of any party other than his own.
Michael Bloomberg has not given any indication that he would like to run for president in this coming election, though his name often comes up as a potential ‘wildcard’ candidate.
Bloomberg is not a typical politician. He takes positions on issues based on a pragmatic assessment of the individual issues themselves, eschewing the simple dogmatic approach offered by conformity to a traditional political ‘platform’. He is also an extremely effective manager that has assembled a team of people that can actually get things done – not the usual bunch of party hacks that end up running things. He is almost the ‘anti-politician’.
And New York has clearly benefited by electing him mayor…
Whether you agree with him or not on specific issues, the integrity of his approach is extremely compelling. When combined with his ability to effectively address the corporate aspects of governing – budgeting, service provisioning, and planning – it isn’t surprising that so many people of varying political persuasions see him as an attractive alternative to the current crop of candidates running for President in 2008.
People are looking for something different from the choices the existing political parties seem to be giving them. They’re looking for someone they can trust to tell the truth and get the job done.
They’re looking for the ‘anti-candidate’…
Was That Lindsay Campbell Pitching Earthlink?…
May 11, 2007 By 2 Comments
I was in the middle of a meeting the other day, when out the corner of my eye I thought I caught Wallstrip host Lindsay Campbell doing an Earthlink commercial on CNBC. If that was the case, I’d take it as a good sign that WallStrip is becoming an established (albeit anti-establishment) part of Wall Street culture.
Howard Lindzon’s WallStrip is a daily show that brings cheekiness and a great sense of humor to serious stock investing. It’s one of my favorite web video productions.
If you haven’t been watching it, you’re missing out…
The Promise Of Ebooks…
May 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment
It’s no secret I like the ebook concept…
I’ve had a ebook reader since the days of the RocketBook, and am currently using the new Sony PRS-500. It’s easy to carry around, and I usually have it with me when I go to work or travel.
Last week, I had to go to Chicago on business. I took an early flight out, and met up with our sales guy there for a “pre-meeting” breakfast at the hotel. After going through everything we wanted to cover that day, we moved on to more general conversation. As we were talking, he told me about a book that he had just finished reading – Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
It seemed like a great story concept, and he had nothing but good things to say about the book. On impulse, I opened my laptop and went online to the “Sony Connect” store to see if it was available as an ebook. (Verizon’s EV-DO is great!) Though I wasn’t expecting to find it, it turned out they actually did have it. I just bought it and downloaded it to my reader right there. This type of impulse buy was something I had done many times before with music, but never with ebooks.
But it’s something the publishing industry could use more of…
Becoming digital is so important for this marketplace. I was able to go from a conversation about a book, to buying it, to being able to read it – all in a span of 5 minutes while eating breakfast at a restaurant in Chicago. This is the promise of ebooks that keeps me believing in the concept.
Unfortunately, they have such a long way to go…
Ebook readers are expensive and don’t do much. I can’t connect to the internet with them directly – I need a compuiter. They can’t cache copies of the web sites or blogs I read, or even provide an RSS feed reader. They have a limited catalog of titles, and the books are all way too expensive considering how restricted my usage of them actually is.
And their approach to Digital Rights Management seems more about killing this industry than protecting it…
EBooks need to go mainstream in the same way digital cameras did. It can happen, but not without some major changes in the ecosystem around them. I firmly believe that there’s a real opportunity for the hidebound publishing industry to break out and reinvent itself. They could create a new media market with completely new economics. Ebooks could become a success.
I’m just not sure they really want them to…
New Version Of Google Analytics…
May 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Google Analytics is one of the tools I use to track usage…
No web usage tool is perfect, and most bloggers I know need to use a combination of methods to paint a complete picture of what happens on their site. I personally use Feedburner (Awesome Service!), Sitemeter, and Google Analytics, (combined with an occasional look at my log files). I like all of the services, and each offers something slightly different. But without making a conscious decision about it, I have just found myself visiting Google last. Though it clearly has deep details about whats happening at The Digital Edge, it seems to make me work harder to get at them.
That’s why I’m excited that Google has released an updated, more dynamic and configurable version of their web analytics service. They have a great walk-through of it here:
Click To Launch Overview
I am particularly excited about the new flexible graphing tools, and the more configurable ‘deep dive’ reporting that seems to be available in this new version. If you have a site or blog you manage and you haven’t been using Google Analytics, this new version may have some compelling reasons for you to check it out.
And did I mention it’s free?
I hope to be switched over to this updated version soon…
Hi-Tech Is Relative…
May 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Every new technology has an adoption curve…
This is a great video that shows just that:
It would be easy to picture this as someone using a computer for the first time instead of a book. It provides a real context to the experience many people have with new gadgets, and underscores what a poor job we do on the technology front to help them.
The fact is, most people are simply intimidated by change and find it difficult to integrate new technologies into their lives. By assuming people will just ‘figure it out’, many technology companies make a big mistake and potentially miss out on a much bigger opportunity for themselves.
The people that made this video are spot on. I love the overburdened ‘help desk’ trying to keep up with support calls after a big roll out. The angry and befuddled user talking about how much time they’ve wasted trying to figure it out. The user manual that explains how to use the new ‘system’, but is based on the same ‘technology’ and is thus equally confusing. It’s an excellent allegory all around to what people experience today.
And it all points back to providing simplicity and accessibility.
People crave it, and there’s just too little of it…
I think companies like Apple that focus on simplicity and the total user experience will continue to gain in the marketplace, while those focused more on features and raw capability will lose out.
This video should make us think as well as laugh…
link to video via The Media Infulencer
Followup: One 'No Deal', One 'Real Deal'…
May 8, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Here’s a followup to my previous post…
It appears that the Microsoft/Yahoo discussions were just that… discussions.
It doesn’t appear that there will be any merger coming from this front.
It would have certainly been an interesting merger to see happen, but the reality of combining two massive companies in the technology space probably hung pretty heavy on this one. It could have put some of their excellent technology and content based assets into play that have not been leveraged very well up to this point. Unfortunately, it will now probably take one of these companies getting into a whole lot of trouble before something meaningful will happen – assuming it ever will. Neither needs it badly enough right now to push it hard, and both have a lot more immediate things to deal with.
Probably the best we can expect will be some level of cooperation – for a while anyway…
The other merger I talked about – Thomson and Reuters – appears to be the real deal. In fact, it seems real close to being done.
Thomson and Reuters have issued a joint statement containing some of the key details of the discussed merger, including the new CEO (Tom Glocer), the merged equity structure, and details of the new board structure. From the level of detail being given, this deal is clearly in the final stages.
What I thought was most interesting was that the joint statement starts off with perhaps the most important aspect of making this deal successful:
Both boards believe there is a powerful and compelling logic for the combination which would create a global leader in the business-to-business information markets. This transaction would also create enhanced value for shareholders through the delivery of in excess of US$500 million of annual synergies expected to be achieved within three years.
Tom Glocer has spent the last three years pruning the Reuters organization through a series of efficiency initiatives. Part of this annual $500 million savings will no doubt come from a similar exercise on the Thomson side. The rest will need to come from pruning out overlaps in the product and technology areas. This is the part where things become tricky, because its an area that directly impacts clients.
Clients in the financial market don’t simply buy a product from these vendors, they buy a solution set that they then build whole aspects of their business around. They have significant investments in configuring, training, and supporting specific solutions within their organizations. They have procedures and workflows that depend on specific content and features. Some of these solutions have even been customized specifically for them. They won’t want to lose any of the solutions they have invested in.
Making this even more complicated, many of the larger clients have built internal systems around specific data/information feeds from both these vendors. These are critical systems they use for trading, risk, or modeling. They absolutely won’t want to be forced into rewriting and retesting any of them. And since these firms do a lot of business with both Reuters and Thomson, they will apply whatever pressure they can to keep what they have.
And not lost on anyone involved, Bloomberg will be casting a long shadow here looking to present an alternative to any disaffected client.
Assuming this deal can get past whatever antitrust scrutiny it will come under, it will absolutely change the face of this marketplace. Making it successful will all come down to execution and focus. There will be an enormous amount that needs to be done in a very short time frame, and some very difficult decisions that will need to be made throughout the combined organization to get to a successful conclusion.
It won’t be easy…
