Menacing Migraines Ahead

Scientist should start classifying migraines in scale based on the pain inflicted upon an individual. Perhaps they should count number of perceived neuron deaths. At least I think they should. I rate mine a 4 out of 5.

But my headaches can not be as severe as the ones in Redmond. Since everyone (and their pet dog) has a prediction of what the potential takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft means, I decided to add my own opinion to the mess. As Matt Assay points out, lots of money will be thrown around for this acquisition. But rather than the high risks, it sounds like Microsoft has a waken up to a painful realization: no one actually cares about operating systems. This acquisition may actually signal Microsoft’s weakness.

Just look at the way Linus Torvalds views Linux. An operating system should be invisible to a user. The user shouldn’t care about what the operating system does, only that it works. Users only start caring when something goes wrong, software or hardware wise. If it works great.

Hardware manufacturers don’t care either. And the open sourceness of Linux lends well with manufacturers too. Here is a stable ready made platform, not controlled by any organizations. No need to pay per device royalties. No need to purchase expensive development kits to write drivers for. If the manufacturer decides to open source their drivers, they get the added benefit of the community donating fixes too.

Now Microsoft have a problem. They can’t compete with Linux on price. They can’t compete on developer freedom. So they get no love from manufacturers. And most user surf the web most of the time anyways. Almost everyone hates Vista anyways. Some users even find installing Linux sounds less painful than using Vista daily.

In fact this past year has been a headache for Microsoft. The lack luster performance of Vista. Nintendo trouncing both Microsoft and Sony with their Wii. Resistance of the ISO to standardize OOXML. And the year ahead does not look much nicer.

So what to do? Buy Yahoo. Try gaining solid dominance of the web in terms of personal web services. And hope that the cash cows called Windows and Office hold out against the steady march of open source and the web. Maybe the evil smiling duo of Google and Tux will go away by themselves.

Suddenly my migraine does not seem as a bad.

The Masses Don’t Exist

Some food for thought: If Linux/open source is so great why hasn’t it reached the mass market?

It’s an interesting question, especially for someone like myself who wants the open source/software libre movement to succeed both socially and economically. This question should interest even people who don’t really care about software or programming. Because if the FOSS community and companies could demonstrate that doing business in an ethical manner, and even show that ethical business can do perform better than “ethically neutral” business; this would have a huge impact on society.

However the term mass market is actually confusing. The mass market does not actually exist. In business, you don’t actually sell for the “masses”, but for a wide aggregated market of various consumers. A word processor (like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice or KOffice) works well for teachers, students, writers, office workers, secretaries, et cetra. But each of these kinds of individuals is actually a narrow (vertical in bizspeak) market. The word processor as a product just spans such a wide market, because its similar functions work a vast number of these vertical markets. Would you call a tool like a screwdriver or hammer as a mass market utility tool? Probably not.

So where does the so-called “mass market” exist? Only in the minds of individuals. The masses are a derogatory term used for a group of people whose lack of judgement makes them a prime target for exploitation by unscrupulous individuals. Even the wisest of people, act without reasonings things through. Some of us do so more than others. But humans are not herd animals and we should not be treated that way.

Unfortunately some people, organizations and companies want the mass market to exist. The mass media wants it for profit and power. Tyrants want it for profit and power. Seeing a pattern here? Nothing good for the majority of the human race can come of this kind of thinking. These organizations and individuals simply want to exploit the most vulnerable. It’s a good to see a tyrant brought down by the so-called “masses”. And it’s a good when we see the mass media, the mass publishers, and other mass market companies to suffer when their “mass market” leaves them and punishes them economically.

The truth is everyone a unique individual with unique talents, a unique background and unique needs. When you view persons as individuals and not as members of some “group”, then the masses simply don’t exist. Modern societies, law, technology and business theory are all based on the concept of individualism. And those who refuse to treat people, be they citizens, clients or end users with individual human dignity should be and will be punished for their folly.

Getting back to the commercial adoption of open source and Linux. Since the masses don’t exist, no single effort of the open source community is going to replace all the world’s computers operating systems with Linux and a free desktop. Rather Linux as a platform needs to suit the needs of the end users or clients. The business opportunities around open source and Linux are myriad. The real issue for open source business is to come up with a sane business model.

There will be no “Year of the Linux Desktop”. For some it already has happened. For some it still has not yet come. And for others Linux and open source will never work. Wide adoption of Linux will only occur if it meets the needs for a wide variety of individuals.

Exam Sideeffects, TV Online and the Pursuit of Rest

Exams. One word says it all. If you ever taken one you know what I mean. If you never had the “pleasure” of taking one, let me just name some of the side effects: anxiety, dizziness, confusion, insomnia, sleepiness, panic attacks and memory loss. In extreme cases, exams may cause serious injury or even death of: marks, chances of passing, hope of finishing university and getting a degree.

I finished my last exam today, so please forgive my lapse in blogging punctuality. This temporary insanity only lasts for a few days fortunately. I think I passed two of my four classes. 😉

Instead of studying – the ultimate goal is to pass not excel – I contracted a recent meme-virus going around the Internet, videoblogging. After watching a number of videos on Google Video (including the feature film Dr. Strangelove), I kind of like the idea of watching videos online. It passes the time between exams and the split of Stargate Atlantis Season 3. Videoblogging reminds of watching the news, only way geekier, fun and with better looking hostesses (it’s a guy thing). The best ones I watched so far: Rocketboom and MobuzzTV.

Rocketboom, hosted by Joanne Colan feels like watching Slashdot on TV (minus the comments left by good willed gentleman – I love you guys – all trolls, except for one pleasant guy but he’s a troll too). The vlog delves into the wacky and zany antics, those creatures called humans come up with: shoverboards and the Boston Type Writer Orchestra episodes being great examples. The lovely Joanne Colan hosts the week-daily show, bringing a light-hearted humorous feel. The excellent overall quality of Rocketboom, makes me want to call it less of a videoblog, and more of a short on-line show.

MobuzzTV, raises the bar even higher than Rocketboom for videoblogs. I liken MobuzzTV to an on-line tech tv show. MobuzzTV deals with current tech-related events in a humorous, fun light. The presentation: sleek, sexy and professional. If more videoblogs of the same calibre of MobuzzTV start sprouting up, old fashioned TV will die almost overnight.

Videoblogs seems like the future of TV, and even governments seem to think so. Just check out France’s new France24. Impressive, but not surprising. I am wondering with such wonderful show and sites out there, how can a lowly “text” blogger such as myself compete for attention. Maybe some old-fashioned folks, prefer text sometimes.

I fear I must hasten to my assignments, and then I shall experience freedom from university!

Web 2.0: Hype or Future?

I recently applied for a web designer job, and among the requirements was a knowledge of Javascript and this new thing, AJAX. Truth be told, I never loved (or love) Javascript and never really enjoyed most client-side based web gimmicks (applets, Flash, etc.). In a few cases, these technologies were beneficial to the site deployed. For the most part I just found them to be irritating and in the way. Not to mention browser incompatibilities (Heck, they can’t handle a simple idea like CSS correctly why should they a full blown scripting language).

Needless to say, I avoided Javascript through most of my career, and mostly used it to “authenticate” on the client side (if there is such a thing as security on the client). When I heard of AJAX, I thought oh know… another gimmick and now it wants to “grope” my precious server with its “XMLHttpRequests”. Then my good friend Dima mentioned Bindows. Interesting a full desktop-like application in a browser. Today at a web seminar by MySQL, they showcased Zimbra. An open source full communications suite in AJAX. Impressive.

So what is this Web 2.0? The idea is to get more interactive applications on the web. The goal is to integrate all the information floating on the web, condense it and present in a dynamic manner. Hence the use of AJAX (or Javascript) as the underlying front end for web browsers. Yet the idea is broader than that. Not only are computers with web browsers involved, but also the myriad of different network-capable handheld devices. An interesting and lofty goal but can it be achieved?

Technology wise, the extensive use of Javascript and XML is produces impressive results. The idea of finally separating the presentation layer from the business logic and data is commendable. Before anyone starts waving the flag of revolution and buys stocks for the Web 2.0 boom, here are a few thoughts. The use of Javascript is SO intensive there is a need for whole UI and layout toolkits. In the open source community there are around 30 right now. In the desktop realm there is maybe 10 UI development kits: Swing/AWT, Gtk, Qt, along with the native Mac and Windows widgets being the most popular. Some standards exist for linking the many parts together but they vary widely. As with any standard, every vendor has their own perspective of how it should be implemented. Microsoft who is the founder of this entire paradigm, is shifting their attention to .net, which will mean locking in the client to the platform. And a swift kick to the head for the community effort. Finally even what to expect from a Web 2.0 application is not set in stone.

My analysis is this: the current situation is a messy free-for-all. The standards will almost certainly be abused, and you can look to the usual suspects for that one. The toolkits are all over the place. Finally a known fact is that a project without a rigorous specification is going to go off on a tangent. Tangents like these cause what is called in my part of the woods “development hell”.

A case in point is CSS. The W3C has done in my opinion an amazing job of nailing down the idea of what a stylesheet should do, and how. The details are there, and the theory is beautiful. Now lets look at the vendors or what-my-web-browser-really-does side. The specification is rarely ever held to, and thanks to Microsoft’s Vader-like grasp on the browser market is abused terribly. The folks at Netscape and the Mozilla Foundation do a much better job but its not perfect. Just ask any web designer who wrote an aesthetic layout in CSS how many hoops they had to jump through to get it work on the majority of browsers. If we can not get something as simple as CSS right, then I fear other more complex technologies will simply break.

In the end, I think AJAX will benefit a few large companies. Web developers and designers will still groan and will dream of a better, simpler web. Web 2.0 will not finally get everyone on the same page. Then again, I might be completely wrong.