Scribez

Microsoft - $51.12 billion annual revenue as of 2007. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft) It’s the company that every web geek is supposed to hate. But, why? As Clazh points out in this entry,

Sure IE 7 doesn’t have the best support for Web Standards but at least Microsoft is trying. Hey I am web designer and I hate IE. But lets not forget that IE was at one time the most advanced and sophisticated Browser heck IE was the first to implement the concept of AJAX.

!Then comes this news, yup from Microsoft turf… (more…)

Why are mobile market giants like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Research in Motion and the likes trying to compete with iPhone in the “touch” department. iPhone is a breakaway success because it changed the way people perceived a cell phone. Multi-touch has definitely been a revolution. Unless the other players come up with something that capitalizes on the drawbacks of the iPhone, while simultaneously rewriting the concept of a cell phone, iPhone is only going to have clone competitors!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: iphone, nokia, sony ericsson, apple, samsung, research in motion, business, future, telecom, mobile

18+ social networks, Flickr, Zoomr, Picasa, GMail, the list goes on. If you are like me and have decent cyber-social life (apart from a real-social life), then there is a very good chance that you lose track of what your friends are up2 among these networks…

In comes Spokeo to the rescue. They will take your email address and search for your contacts across the very many networks which are spread across the cyberspace and give you an update anytime, there’s an update on your friends across these networks!!

The folks at Spokeo have done an impressive job. Their list of supported networks is impressive, covering the basic social networks, Flickr, Youtube, the new Friendster and the list continues!! All you do is register with a valid email address from GMail, Yahoo or the likes and in a very little amount of time, Spokeo finds out where your friends have registered themselves and give you an update on their actions!

One of the coolest things about the site is that you can keep browsing through the website, learning its features, while Spokeo does its thing of searching for your friends’ activities in the background. The site is very responsive and is really well setup as far as the layout is concerned. It’s decently intuitive!!

The positives:
+ Excellent setup method
+ Intuitive interface
+ Easy sorting
+ Will help you shave off some browsing time going through each of the networks and addresses
+ Doubles up as an RSS reader

The negatives:
- Conspicuously misses orkut and del.icio.us

Spokeo

When we started this blog we had started it with a bang. It had become one of the most popular blogs on WordPress.com and had been featured on WordPress Top Blogs a number of times.

I been meaning to move Scribez to its own domain for a really long time finally not the blog has moved to its own domain name. When we started the blog initially we had brainstormed a lot to come up with a name that was easy to remember and available to register. I have been a busy running my own blog at www.clazh.com

For now I am trying to take one step at a time. here is the list of thing we’ll be doing In another one to two months time.

1. We’ll be moving to our own Web hosting on Media Temple.
2. The Blog will be sport a custom kick ass design.
3. I now looking for new authors to join us since most of the old ones are inactive.
4. I am trying to come up with a plan to compensate the authors. (Free T-shirts, allow them to put ads on their blogs)

So watch out.

Continuing to the Part ][ of the series started by Apple Gazette of the 5 Predictions for Apple in 2007, here are the list of the 5 Predictions for Linux in 2007! Before we look ahead, a small flashback over 2006. This was The year that changed Linux, with Oracle becoming a Linux distributor, Microsoft and Novell partnering to make Linux and Windows more compatible, rift between the Linux core developers and FSF and a lot more happening.

What is really interesting is the fact that the Linux community itself is forking considering that even old-schoolers and pioneers joining hands with proprietary licenses, with reference to ESR joining the Freespire board. It was in ESR’s book itself and as part of the Halloween document 1 discussion that ESR noticed and acknowledged the strongest point of the Linux community being a central control over “no-forking” as forking decreases the amount of glory received as part of the contribution to the community. However, like any human, I love drama and this is exactly why watching the Linux community is going to be really interesting over 2007. Here are a list of things that I am going to be on the lookout for. In no particular order

1. Rise of the Linux “Big Business” Corporates
These include all the Big Business boys who promote Open Source Software and are earning bucks out of the Open Source Business Model. All of them are eyeing to make some $$$, now that Linux has proved itself to be a mission critical trustworthy player. That includes Debian, Novell, Red Hat, and joining the latest into the race signing a deal with Sun, is Canonical [the parent of Ubuntu]

2. Rise/Race of the Desktop Linux
Linux has certainly evolved from a command line “toy” for the green-glowing screen CRTs to a slick desktop, with a lot more interesting eye-candy than Vista or OSX. [Well at least to the eyes of the slightly more than average computer user]. thanks to Compiz, Beryl! Furthermore these effects are to a large extent community support based and independent of the hardware - whether it be a PC or a Mac. Ubuntu Linux is _the_ most popular free Linux that’s being used, in both the PCs and the Macs. What are the other communities going to do? And how is this going to affect the rise of the desktop Linux?

3. What are the FSF policies going to be in GPLv3.0
FSF is against DRM. Vista and OS X.5 [Leopard] have built in support for DRM based working environments. Who’s going to win in this war[???]? Is there going to be scuffle between the big vendors supporting DRM and the FSF community?

4. Any chance of Googubuntu?
There was a rumor that Google was working on a desktop OS that is googlicized [I call this term :D]. Will it be coming true as part of 2007 list of surprises by Google? Will they finally decide to have a “consumer-first” based OS? We’ll have to wait and see

5. How many forks are going to happen as a result of people against GPLv3.0?
Firefox vs IceWeasel, Linux core developers against FSF. Who goes where? Or is there going to be peace and harmony and solid work, which has been the success of Linux rising as a desktop OS today!

All this and more to be looked forward to!! Coming soon to a world near you - 2007!!

This marks an end to our list of predictions of the Windows and Linux community. Wishing you all and happy and fun and prosperous 2007.

Got more, disagree, or just wanna tip us off with more information? Pop in a comment here…

Originally posted by gurupanguji @ Bracketed Bull…

Linux - and free software in general - have been traditionally plagued with one constant concern by the non-users [by that I mean the Windows and the Mac bandwagon] that there are far too many choices. Which Linux flavor to choose? You have Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Gentoo, Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Unnamedubuntu, and what not. Windows has XP and Mac has OSX. I personally believed [as highlighted here] that it was perfect with the ideology of FSF. Concept of freedom [as in free speech] brings about a related concept of choice. There are many people believing in many ideologies, methods and concepts there. The same is obviously extended to the software developers as well. [They are human for uninitiated] So, you have very many software that are generated.

Saying you have just way too many choices is like saying you have too many choices when you go to buy a pair of running shoes. Or saying you have far too many options when you go to buy a mobile connection. Why should software be any different? You’d expect the user to be aware of the options, and choose or make a mistake just like _any_ consumer market!!

Anyway, Microsoft, with its release of multiple options for Windows Vista may have either finally accepted this or have joined the bandwagon.

Microsoft offers 4 separate versions of Windows Vista - Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate! Hmm, maybe it’s the year for options after all ;-)!

Does more choice generally mean that it’s better or is it confusing? What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments section!!

Originally posted by gurupanguji @ Bracketed Bull…

This is an article that stemmed in my head when I was thinking about starting my own web 2.0 based business. Considering the various factors that go into any such business, one of the chief concerns that pop into this is the web-design itself. The typical way this would work is I approach a Web-designer and buy a design / pay him to develop a design for me. And then I buy the design from him. The web-designer, if he’s smart enough would charge for

1. Time for designing
2. The design itself
3. Implementing / Customizing the design for a webpage.

Now, thinking as a smart web-designer, if you think that the Web-site is going to be a hit and will involve evolution of the site itself, you’d swarm the entity [person/firm] who’s enrolled you to create the design into a maintenance contract. This would ensure you that you are paid enough money for enhancing the current design. This could also be offered by you as a designer for a certain amount of money.

Thinking as an smarter web-designer, with a little bit of know-how on the Web2.0 upcoming boom, with enough money slowly being pumped in, you can advertise yourself as a Web2.0 Web-designer [basically pastel shades, with Aqua like alpha, AJAX based interfaces yada yada yada] and what you can actually do, is if you feel that the web-site is going to a tremendous hit, you should try and rope in a “percentage cut model”. IOW, depending on the traffic, you can ask for a cut of the profit that the website is making. More like an investment. Now, depending on your experience you’ll know how to rope in your customers and offer which model ;-)! However, this is just a suggestion that I thought many web-designers may not have thought about.

As a web-designer, what do you think about this particular business model? Is it good/bad/so-so? Lemme know in your comments.

Posted by gurupanguji.

Orkut - one of the most popular social communities out there. Of course nothing beats MySpace [just check out the number of hits we get to the post referring to MySpace :-D]. However, I prefer[red] orkut to the rising community sites of that time [Yeah I enrolled in orkut about 4 years ago] - Hi5. Now, the reason why I chose orkut was a point noted by one of my best friends. Orkut did NOT allow just anyone to join. Consequently, this had reduced/limited the potential possibility of unruly, uncouth people and stuck to the concept of being a truly social community site. You’d invite only your real friends to the site.

However, things have changed now. Orkut is now open - Check out the “Join Now” option at Orkut.com login page! Now, Google has been very good at blocking people with malicious intent in orkut, however, inspite of all that Google tries, orkut still has a lot of flab in terms of porn and other unsocial stuff. Ok, I am never averse to porn, it’s just that I really don’t wanna use a service where in most of my friends/family are present to search and utilize for something like porn :-D! But then again, that’s a personal choice.

Ok, I am digressing! Coming back to the topic - orkut being open and now containing the ability to message communities as a whole, might be the next viral marketing platform. And this extends to any social community based websites. For e.g. since orkut has opened, “agents” have already have started it to communicate about land availability, buildings for sale, LIC insurance options, tax saving investments, and what not? I have already posted about resumes being posted left, right and center in the communities of firms/organizations!

There are some questions you can ask here in terms of - why is Google not stopping that, considering that this is spam? Well, the truth is - these firms with huge investments / returns from the ad-market, would definitely want to capitalize on their investments into the social community pie!! I am saying that orkut is going to be one of the most useful investments that Google made ever. [I am sure that they would know exactly why they invested in orkut. This is nothing but a hypothesis]

Why is orkut going to be useful for Google in the future?

And in a broader sense, why are the major Ad Players raking up on the social communities pie? You have Microsoft with MSN Spaces - Oops, Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo! - with Y! 360 and Google with orkut! What sense does it make for companies like Microsoft to even invest in an ONLINE SOCIAL COMMUNITY?

Well, apart from the fact that they are now becoming an essential part of the Internet package - email/IM/community, they are sitting gold-mines! Rightly predicted in the 2007 Predictions over at Read/Write Web

Expect some shakeups in the online advertising market next year. AdSense will have some competition, in the form of MSN AdCenter and Yahoo’s advertising platform

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2007_web_predictions.php
- under Search and Online Advertising

Social Community Advantage #1: A sitting gold-mine for advertisement. Companies can post advertisements pertaining to the community. You can bet your life’s savings that people are going to click. And you can put all your eggs saying that that’s going to be the case soon enough.

Social Community Advantage #2: They are consumer-base. People who are using your packages are bound to at least “test” your social community. Make it a success, with enough people and enough contact with people within that community hitch up [ok going too much] but at least meet, you are setting up your consumer base.

Social Community Advantage #3: What better than YOUR community to evangelize your products? Let’s take the latest example - How many orkut users would have decided to give Google Talk a Go - since the tight [almost] integration of orkut and Google Talk. [Btw this was long due for Google, considering that MSN Spaces or is it Live Spaces now? is tightly integrated with Live Messenger and Y! 360 is tightly integrated with Y! Messenger].

The war on Advertising is definitely going to be interesting in 2007. We see that people are already starting to realize the potential of orkut/social communities as a perfect way to reach a niche crowd. For e.g. an insurance salesman could easily target an IT firm and post a message regarding insurance options / tax saving investments. While this is largely beneficial to the salesman and the community, it might be misused!! Are Google and other players taking the necessary precautions to prevent the next generation of spamming through this?

Let us know by your comments and trackbacks, what do _you_ think are the reason for social communities for these big players in the Internet?

Originally Posted by gurupanguji @ Bracketed Bull…

Open Source: The buzz word for the year 2007. From being a bunch of geeks who revolutionized the computing industry, it has grown quite a lot. The world, well at least the computing world, agrees that it’s the next best thing to sliced cheese [and trust me sliced cheese is God sent to the people in the computing world]. I was reading up on the Open Source Business Model, wondering how and what was the money maker of Open Source based companies - web based and stand-alone applications wise. This got me thinking, as a professional software developer, the amount of opportunity and the threats it presents and poses to people like me.

Now, let me define Professional Software Developer: It’s a term that I coined right now to define, and include those developers who write code to make a living, well at least anyone who develops software to make some money out of the process of “coding”.

Now, what is the Open Source Business Model for Software? Traditionally, companies put a lot of value to the actual source code, for a variety of reasons [1]. Now, the code itself is not idolized anymore. How? Well, by providing the source code, free of charge to anyone who wants to use it / understand it / contribute to it, under a variety of “public licenses” - viz. GPL, CC, to name a few. This is a major shift from the “closed source” paradigm.

Under the closed source paradigm, software developers were paid - a lot of money at times - to develop the code base. This had a lot of value, understandably as the company paid quite a hefty amount of money to get it developed, in spite of getting it done real cheap in outsourcing sweatshops in India ;-).

Under the open source paradigm, most of the companies rely on volunteers [a queer word comes into my mind - developer volunteers ???] to develop the code - read Software Developers with a lot of free time??! Now, this cuts down the value of the “source code” to NIL! Save for the laptop sticker (optional), a few T-shirts and due credits given in the “About Us” page ;-), which costs the company practically NOTHING! Now, this also shifts the company’s focus from a traditional software sweatshop to focusing on products, features, service, support, and other value-add services. And it’s these things, which is going to fetch the money to the company anyway, at least in the long run. The software code base itself has no value. Furthermore, it only makes sense for people to contribute to it and have a community based brainstorming for adding features, removing bugs etc.

E.g. Consider the major technologies used in the Web-Applications today - Java, Apache, Linux, MySQL, PHP, etc!! All Open Source, Worthy mentions are of course .Net Web Services, however, let’s not include that here. =D!

P.S. This makes an excellent case for any start-up with limited technology resources to vote and opt - Open Source btw

So, what does this mean to you as a Professional Software Developer? There are two situations you can read from here - Opportunity and Despair.

Let’s tackle the positive one first - Opportunity. One word - NDAs / Contracts. The Closed Source Paradigm typically enforces the software developer cannot use code from his just done / developing project for any of his practical use. Furthermore, majority of the companies for which you will work for, will also have a “Service Agreement” clause, which will not let you work for ANY OTHER COMPANY/product other than for the one you are working, until your contract expires/is revoked by your company. Also, any development you do is NOT your property but is officially the company’s Intellectual Property, for which it gets to file the patents and get the royalty.

The Open Source Paradigm caters to the I-want-variety-in-this-boring-existence-of-mine side of the software development. You can go independent and work for any project you want, which is ready to “hire” you for major concerns of development as well as design decisions. Not only that, it also allows you to go independent and put your hand in a variety of projects, some which pay, some which cater to your interest in the world [Ok!! Development world :-P]. So, you can consider this as an opportunity to grow and expand your profile.

Now, if you can write as well, start a blog, which accounts for your daily experience in the programming world. As there are no NDAs with the projects you work on, you can use real life example code for your work, put Adsense and tada - you’re making money out of what you do best and what you really like - developing code. So, that’s so much for opportunity!!

Despair: Now, let’s give some attention to despair - the negative aspect of this. As a software developer, as soon as the company you are working for realizes that the ROI in maintaining closed source is not worth paying the current set of developers in the payroll, you are out of a job. Just as outsourcing was a major job-cutter, Open Source and Ready to work for real cheap money College Students with development experience are going to handle the code! As tough as this may seem, this could be a prediction of the future.

However, things are not so glum. As part of your “career objectives” set in your company, I am sure that one of the clauses would be “Improve Technology Knowledge” or “Update yourself with the latest trends in technology” or something to that effect. Everybody’s been through that. Now, it’s time to actually make use of some company time to actually enforce that particular Responsibility Area. Get involved in the latest Open Source Technologies / trends like PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, Apache, AJAX, yada yada yada. You get what I mean, learn it and make sure that you highlight that you have done justice to that objective in your next appraisal. And when the time comes that the company decides to try out Open Source technologies, you are way up there in the forefront, already having knowledge of the same. A time for promotion?? I think so ;-)!

Note: This situation is applicable ONLY to the general software development companies and it DOES NOT incorporate the niche software development companies like Medical Solutions or Financial Solutions. Although certain aspects of even these applications will be at the very least BASED on Open Source Technologies soon. Companies involved in these have already spent WAY too much money and resources in developing something that’s so highly proprietary that they will not, at least for a very good amount of time, say 10-20 years even consider making the source code of the binaries that earns them MILLIONS of $$$ a year, OPEN!!

Also, there are companies like IBM and Novell, who are neither here, nor fully there, the in-betweens, who are software houses developing Open Source software - Ideal place to work right now for the Open Source oriented Professional Software Developer, eh ;-)!

Footnotes:
[1] Reasons include theft, software / IP patents on the source code, competitors using to reverse engineer the system design, malicious use of the source code for hacking/cracking/gain private information etc.

Sources / Further Reading about Open Source Business Models
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_vs._closed_source
[2] http://www.extropia.com/tutorials/misc/opensourcebiz.html
[3] http://web.corante.com/editorial/archives/2006/07/the_open_source_revenue_model.php

Posted by gurupanguji

[source: http://www.mihaidragan.ro/kindablog/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/leopard2.jpg]

Disclaimer: I haver never owned a Mac or used / worked in OSX, however respect both the machine and the OS.

Year - 1998: As a junior editor for the yearbook, I was introduced to a PC, well a computer at least that had a mouse which had only one mouse button! This was the year I had actually been given a computer @ home and I was hooked to Windows 95 and Motoracer and a game called G-Nome! I used to scoff @ the links leading me to the desktop from where I am typing this particular post when I used to search for cheat codes for the game - GNome! The Intenet Explorer was a true boon to me - a source of games, cheat codes, chatting and PORN! ;-)! Windows was GOD, as it allowed me to do all that - play games and check out porn!

I had an AMD K6 processor based machine, which clocked 200Mhz and well it was AWESOME ;-)! I never realised at that point of time, the magnitude of change, literally a radical revolution that was going to occur with the electronics industry and 8 years later, I’d be typing away on a laptop that’s easily 20 times more powerful than my desktop in 1998, will run a version of the Operating Sytem, which was named after a game I knew and I’d be using that same OS to type something known as a blog, about what I thought about [or didn’t] 8 years ago over a hi-speed internet connection.

Anyhoo, the point is that the world has changed. Now, getting back to the main topic. At that point of time, I NEVER imagined that I’d be drooling over a laptop created by those same SINGLE-MOUSE-COMPUTER guys and Id be lusting behind a version of the Operating System, which I thought was complete crap. I am smitten people, yes, truly crazy about the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. These notebooks are an exquisite mesh of sound engineering design, power and eye-candy! Something Apple has been excelling at - a good-looking gadget that according to them “JUST WORKS”

Consequently, my free time, this is the time other than the time I don’t work and I am not writing to my better half, I have been checking out videos and pictures of the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Well, all-in-all, I have just one statement tomake - I WANNA GET MYSELF ONE OF THOSE!! Well, at least that was the case until today afternoon, where I came across a very interesting video.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=N-2C2gb6ws8]

What I found appalling about this video was the constant mockery of Windows Vista by the Apple people. I agree that OSX is an amazing Operating System - a software wonder. Be kind enough to share it with the PC world! If you think people all over the world would appreciate it so much, why is Mac not release OSX - PC Version? Well, the answer is simple - it can’t!!

OSX will run offcially ONLY on a Mac. Talk about proprietary to the core. This is something along the lines of how Sony works as well. Sony has its own brand of adapters, chargers, even alkaline cell policies, which allow ONLY Sony Battery chargers to run on it!

Now, whilst I agree that this is important to maintain Mac sales, and also is the reason why the Mac running OSX is a lot more stable than the PC running Windows, Apple guys were twisting the fact, trying to make us consumers believe that OSX is a lot better than Windows, Windows Vista in this case. That too based on the “similarity” of “looks” of certain applications.

However, Apple _conveniently_ forgot to mention the following - Windows is targeted at a mainstream customer base, where in the hardware is NOT an issue. A Windows copy [mite not be all the features all the time] will definitely run on any PC, as long as it maintains the requirements of the Operating System!! Now, I agree that Microsoft might have spent an awful lot of money and resources on developing Windows Vista. However, what I am considering what Microsoft has done, if at all they have copied features of Mac, is bring the features of OSX into the PC world, which is going to be received with open arms. I am still shocked @ the negative publicity given to an operating system, which wasn’t even released at the point of time the video was shot.

I had great respect for Steve Jobs, however his stupid bullish attitude is now making me take a fresh look at his products. There’s NO reason for him to take such a bullish attitude with Microsoft and Windows. This is also shown in the Mac vs PC ads. So, Steve, seriously, your products look great and I have heard that they work amazingly well as well, however what you did in that show, was rude, and totally uncalled for. I have not seen, so far at least any ads by Microsoft against any of your products, and trust me, your products are NOT flawless.

The Mac is picking up sales thanks to the shift to the Intel Chips. However, you must also take note Steve, the multitude of videos in youtube, the tremendous number of pics in Flickr, etc, which show a Mac running WIndows. Apple itself is working on BootCamp so that it “does” windows now.

But, Steve ever considered this - A Mac now runs Windows, but can any PC run OSX?

So, chill guys, I mean there’s market for everyone!! Peace in the cyber world!! I am all up for innuendos, but downright flagrant attack on your competitor’s products is NOT good marketing =D! It’s a good way to get attention to yourself, however, make sure that you have a product that can handle all that attention!!

Update: 2006-12-09 Check out this video during MacWorld 1997. Hmm, interesting how Steve Jobs has changed his perception after Apple has pulled itself back together.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOp5mBY9IY]

I was apprehensive about what I wrote wondering I were indeed a bit strong about Apple, not being a sportive player in the market. However, after seeing the video above, where in Apple was down and under and Microsoft and Apple “tying the knot” literally, really speaks something about Steve Jobs doesn’t it?

Crossposted @ Ramblings of an Eccentric Soul… - by gurupanguji