Fragmentation as a way of life, Integration as a business model 21 February 2010
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary.Tags: Amazon, Apple, business model, Facebook, Google, Google Buzz, iTunes, Kindle, online identity, privacy
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Fragmentation allows you to control your life, by the time-tested technique of dividing a problem into manageable pieces. It lets you pretend something didn’t happen, by closing an account. There is even a business model around that -disposable email addresses that quietly disappear after you get that download link for a demo or brochure (the demo I understand, but what’s the point of brochures but to give them to as many persons as possible? Electronic trees can survive that, folks. And no, I never gave my email for a brochure when I had the choice. Next time they’ll want a dollar.)
From the service provider’s point of view, Integration has the advantage of lock-in: Facebook, iTunes, Kindle and Google all aim, in their own sneaky ways, to become a part of your world.
| is | wants to be | however | |
|---|---|---|---|
| social | the foundation of your world | you can’t share or buy files. | |
| iTunes | personal | the last shop you’ll ever visit for digital goods | isn’t meant for interaction. |
| Kindle | mostly personal | your home library | by design, is only an ebook reader. |
| evil | everything except creator or licensee | is still a one-trick pony. |
The last row deserves explaining: Google isn’t really social -until Buzz’ clumsy land grab, it targeted mostly you (I’m not counting Picasa, Orkut and all other “also by Google” services. There’s a reason Google grabbed your Gmail address book without asking first for Buzz). And now that Buzz made every Facebook error on day one, it’s hard to predict the future of the service. But it still has a good grip on you as an individual, yet it doesn’t really try to sell anything to you, but to sell you to its business clients. Facebook still does some of this, but seems to have shifted to selling itself as a platform for customer relations and online services. As the two customer-oriented services, is no wonder both iTunes and Kindle are more careful with your privacy.
Identity services like those above hold small fiefdoms where people can live for free, and they kinda can leave, but most people have a bit of everything. That itself tells you how weak they really are, and how you’d rather have a fragmented online identity.
Notes
- While the Kindle seems out-of-place for being very specialized, it definitely belongs to this list, as reading habits are incredibly personal. And I say “Kindle” instead of “Amazon” because the Kindle is intended as an always-on online service, while Amazon is an online book store. As such, it does know your identity and can make a good guess at your reading habits, but that doesn’t quite warrant its inclusion in my list by itself.
- I prefer to call these services “Identity services” instead of the more accurate “Identity-based services” because I don’t think there is a slightly succesful example of the former (no, your email is not an identity service) and because I think at this point there won’t be any, as many of these services aim to be your identity.
- Why didn’t I include Microsoft and Yahoo! ? Because their position is more defensive of their own business models. Microsoft seems more concerned with creating brand loyalty and a “Microsoft customer” identity, while Yahoo!, who has probably the strongest email service (which in turn creates an identity) seems to be reinventing itself (again) as a portal into the greater Internet, perhaps selling eyeballs to content partners. Thus their identities don’t come off as hegemonic as the others, and are more opt-in in nature -you don’t necessarily have to use your real name or give your credit card info.
- There’s another reason to avoid comprehensive online identities: some companies see an all-you-can-eat buffet in them.
© 2010 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.
Review of the Belkin Flip KVM Switch with audio support (USB) 15 January 2010
Posted by hectorcuevas in Review.Tags: Belkin F1DG102U, Belkin Flip, KVM, KVM Switch, Review
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KVM Switches are a hardware solution allowing you to share a keyboard, monitor and mouse between two different computers, resulting in a less cluttered desktop. I have the Belkin Flip, a KVM with a nice wired remote that allows you to switch effortlessly; it also shares sound speakers. This review is from an owner’s point of view after some months of use. I won’t repeat the manual here, so you should read that too (available from the previous link).
Full Disclosure: Other than being an individual customer, I have no relationship nor interest in either the company or the product. More info here.
I have the F1DG102U model: 2-Port KVM Switch with Audio Support, USB Connection, wired remote. Detailed specs, including cable length, are here. You should note one of the cables connecting to the back of the computer is shorter than the other. However, the most important measure is your own devices’ cable length -you don’t want the body of the Flip cluttering your desktop. Connectors on the body are labeled, including where to connect the mouse and the keyboard. I haven’t tried mixing those.
To switch, just press the top of the buck-shaped remote. Audio will change instantly, quickly followed by video; mouse and keyboard will take a moment (more on this below). You don’t need to install any software or configure your machines to use the Belkin Flip. Just turn off the machines, connect, then turn on the first machine, switch, then turn on the other. You have to install software only if you want to listen to one computer’s audio while using the other, or to switch by hot-keys or a desktop icon (untested by me; software and more information at Belkin’s site). I am switching between Windows XP and Vista, without any Belkin software installed.
Compatibility with USB devices
Instead of a mouse, I use a small USB touchpad. It comes with its own drivers, but I don’t use them, relying instead on Windows recognizing the touchpad as a generic USB mouse. I do this because it works okay for me and I always ended having problems with the touchpad drivers (before using the Flip). I have an ergonomic but otherwise vanilla keyboard. Supposedly some KVMs allow you to use “enhanced” mice and keyboards; user reports vary, and you can’t really count on them for anything other than the specific device (maybe even driver version) reported. Success probably depends on how the KVM handles the USB connection internally and how creatively the driver uses it.
Belkin’s documentation says the Flip works with ”any keyboard and mouse with a USB connection”, and even mentions a few mouse brands, but that doesn’t really says much. It subtly hints custom drivers might work (enabling non-standard functionality like programmable buttons), but no assurances. My suggestion? Don’t count on them, but try anyway. KVM switching is a great thing, even if only using the vanilla features of your devices.
Tips and tricks
You can reboot the current machine whenever you want, without problems, but you can’t switch before it restarts, or it won’t detect the mouse and keyboard. If both machines fail (say because of a power outage) you have to disconnect the Flip’s USB power from both, then reconnect, before restarting. If you don’t, they won’t recognize the mouse and keyboard, even if the machines reboot. If you did and you still have problems, disconnecting and reconnecting mouse and keyboard should fix it, at least for the current machine; you might have to reboot the other.
I never had a problem when switching to a machine that had fallen sleep except once -it woke up, but failed to recognize the keyboard and mouse. Disconnecting and reconnecting the Flip’s USB power for that machine did the trick, without needing to reboot. This was really an exceptional problem.
Don’t immediately try to use the mouse or keyboard after switching. If you do before they are ready, they will take even longer to be recognized. Having said that, my waiting times usually are around 3-4 seconds. Usually the mouse comes first. The delay time isn’t consistent. How to know when your devices are ready? Usually, the mouse pointer will change shape briefly, then your keyboard’s lights will turn off then quickly turn on again. I seldom check for this – I wait for a moment, then use the machine, mouse first.
If you have waited too long and still your keyboard won’t come on (it’s always the keyboard), especially if you tried to type before, you can switch to the other machine a couple seconds and back. I only have to do this occasionally. Just make sure you have focus on the window or text field you are trying to type on -this happens to me a lot at Windows login screens. Sometimes the mouse moves and clicks erratically at first -this seems to happen semi-randomly, mostly in one of my machines. After a few seconds it corrects itself. It’s a small annoyance, and it seems more frequent when I begin to use the mouse too quickly.
A quick check to make sure everything is working is to see if both LEDs are lit -on the body and on the remote. If they aren’t, double-check your connections. The machines don’t have to be turned on, but they have to be powered. Also, just connecting the KVM to one is enough to light the LEDs -make sure both machines are connected via a powered USB port. Powered USB ports are usually only on the back of your desktop or laptop. Front or side ports might not work reliably or at all; avoid hubs.
Conclusion
If you need to connect more than two computers, other KVMs allow you to do that, either a fixed number (say 4) or by daisy chaining. As far as I know the Belkin Flip’s remote is unique to it; other KVMs switch when you press a certain keyboard combination, which hopefully you don’t need for anything else. KVMs are pretty straightforward -if you want something different, there are software alternatives that allow different ways of sharing and multitasking between networked machines. Unfortunately I don’t use such software, so I cannot give you any pointers.
I am very happy with the Belkin Flip, and I recommend it. Belkin’s suggested retail price as of this writing is USD$59.99, but it can be found for a lot less in online stores. If you are shopping for a KVM, remember to look for audio sharing -not all models do it. You might think you don’t really need it, but you probably will.
© 2010 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.
The Great Firewall of China is a corral, not a border 14 January 2010
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary, News.Tags: censorship, China, Google, Google.cn, Great Firewall of China, Internet, Rest of the World Intranet
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Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci founded the Catholic missions in China in the 16th century. His evangelization method, based on teaching Sciences and Arts as much as Religion, became the basis of many evangelization efforts around the world.
Outside of Catholic circles, Ricci is probably most remembered for his world map in Mandarin. He described it as “the most useful work that could be done at that time to dispose China to give credence to the things of our holy Faith… Their conception of the greatness of their country and of the insignificance of all other lands made them so proud that the whole world seemed to them savage and barbarous compared with themselves; it was scarcely to be expected that they, while entertaining this idea, would heed foreign masters.”
Unlike his predecessors, Father Ricci humbly asked to stay in China just to enjoy its greatness and serve the “Lord of Heaven”, the Chinese expression for God. He never spoke of his own religion unless asked. To attract visitors and justify his presence, he lectured the Chinese on topics where the Europeans were as skilled or better. His popular world map in Mandarin came out of these lectures; then he turned to short moral treatises which became a hit even among Confucian scholars, and kept working like this until he was finally allowed to build a Christian Church.
Back to this century, and totally ignoring Father Ricci’s lesson of gentleness, China attempted to violate Google’s most sacred value: the security of their systems. Google has decided it won’t keep censoring its search results. They might have to close operations in China -so be it. They won’t deal with a government that attempts to hack their systems. To be sure, they haven’t explicitly pointed at the Chinese government as the culprit, but is a logical conclusion from their announcement. Even Hillary Clinton has demanded an explanation, although the Chinese government hasn’t really been accused yet. Everyone is waiting to see if Google will leave China for good. (Continued below)
Links update
- China’s non-answer to the non-accusations
- Timeline of net censorship in China
- Silicon Valley finds the Chinese are unimpressed, or how China doesn’t buy the American Way
- A surprisingly current 2006 article on USA search companies trying to fit into Chinese net culture and mostly failing. An excellent read for background on the Chinese approach to net censorship
- A nice list of links to recent news about China and their consolidation as a world power
Google won’t leave. The Internet has no borders, and closing an office in China and shutting down the Google.cn domain is not leaving, specially if they ask Chinese surfers to simply go to other countries’ Google pages (like they did in Korea). Unless it blocks all Chinese surfers (or at least surfers with a Chinese IP), Google is not leaving, even if it has not many reasons for staying.
But what if China leaves?
What if China decides it has had enough playing around and attacks the root of the problem? Imagine a pure, clean Internet, where there are no corrals because there is nothing to contain. Where every citizen can connect, and he won’t find anything inappropriate because there’s nothing inappropriate to be found. I wonder if you can. Government companies that have to (China is not the only country in the world, after all) will be allowed to jump into the corral by a dedicated connection with the Rest of the World Intranet, physically and logically isolated from the Internet so it can’t contaminate it.
Yes, world-changing. But China can do it, and is willing to do it. Unlike many other countries, they can choose the Internet they live in, rather than being fed whatever a foreign power thinks is right. They can make the Internet their own. Can your country do the same?
© 2010 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.
A tale of two Linux migration reviews 31 December 2009
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary.Tags: LiMux, Linux, Microsoft, migration, Munich, Office, OpenOffice, Windows
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LiMux Watch has an interesting review of Munich’s ongoing transition to Linux in 2009. The one that was approved in 2003, actually started on 2006 and, from the looks of it, will end in 2020.
More interesting is how former LiMux project manager and now PR representative of Munich IT, Florian Schiessl, still doesn’t get it: the project hasn’t delivered and it would be nice to know why. So far he acknowledged in his blog people ask that a lot, then forgot totally about it, all in the same day. Vendor lock-in doesn’t count because everyone knew that and it should have been (was it?) accounted for in the initial project proposal. Also because that when it comes to Free Software, “vendor lock-in” sometimes really means “We don’t have the functionality your proprietary software already has.”
While this is Florian’s personal view (not Munich’s), I find worrisome his joyous emphasis on the selection of Linux and free software as a political decision. He describes it at some length, and it gave me the chills: if Florian is right, then Munich’s migration to Linux is a pet project of a 2003 City Council who said they wanted one thing (openness) but chose another (Linux and OpenOffice) because their ideology told them it was the right choice.
Reading Florian’s 2009 review, the use of Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice as standard in Munich comes out as the biggest achievement of the year and of the project so far. This might be good news for Free Software and even for the city of Munich, but it doesn’t mean anything for Linux: all three are available for Windows. And from what we know, Munich still runs them *on* Windows.
Why so late, why so incomplete? It looks like a bunch of Free Software, server-side people (Linux) thought of the desktop as a brain-dead server, and of Word, Excel and PowerPoint as childish toys for brain-dead people. “Sure, why, Linux can power your desktop! It powers Google, doesn’t it?”
The problem with the desktop is that it’s personal. If the network is the computer, as Sun used to say, then the desktop is the human. And humans have a low tolerance for inconvenience, especially when the thing they had before worked.
Windows had a hard time becoming a server platform from its desktop origins, and the first milestone was having a credible server version -i.e. Windows NT. Some people still remember it fondly, and the only reason Munich even thought about switching was because NT had reached its end-of-life from Microsoft. Coming in the opposite direction, Linux insists on bringing the best the 70’s has to offer in server operating systems to the desktop, even doing the same thing Microsoft did to DOS to make it like the Mac: putting a nice GUI on top of it.
Adopting Linux for the desktop is like marrying a gold-digger in California: everything will be just fine as long as you remember you work for her now and her needs are yours.
But the point I want to press is this: are we asking the right things from our computing infrastructure? In Munich’s case, was it really impossible to have open file formats with Office? Was it really impossible to run Free Software on Windows? Did the City Council aim to improve the city’s computing infrastructure or just wanted to create a success story for Free Software?
My previous post was about my wishes for 2010. Now I want to add: I wish people don’t confuse information policy and procedures with choosing software applications and platforms.
My wishes for 2010 25 December 2009
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary.Tags: 2010, Wish list, Wishlist
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In no particular order:
- A social site called “PWN your OWN”, where you and your friends and family compete in guessing each other’s Facebook and financial services passwords, based on personal information. Yes, moronic, but if people are going to dump their privacy, they should be allowed to do so in the most amusing way possible. Of course, the site will verify both passwords by signing in and making a transfer, to prevent cheating. Cool!
- A national identity card with biometric information for Mexico (where I live). This proposal has been deviled as costly and inopportune, but in a country where drug lords and politicians use fake identities and certificates of birth without consequence, it is due.
- A worldwide, frank admission that overpopulation is the real cause behind most of our problems.
- Digital music available in loss-less formats alongside MP3, and a stop to using “CD Quality” as a substitute for “High Fidelity”, which it isn’t.
- The Nobel Peace Prize for George W. Bush. Sure, Obama did a nice talk at Oslo, but George already walked the walk -all over the world.
- I think 2010 will be/already is the year of content and services monetization. There’s a bit less of free, a bit more of push. I’m all for it, but there doesn’t seem to be a good system for micropayments yet. But more important than that, a way to make anonymous electronic payments, say with smart cards that can be acquired and recharged with just cash. It’s not that easy, but worthwhile, plus it helps people without a credit card. If you think that helps money laundering, don’t worry -money laundering doesn’t need any help.
- A stop to people using information visualization and visual communication as an excuse to try and make “Art”. Too often, it’s neither.
- An option to exclude posts with certain tags in WordPress’ Tag Surfer. I like visualization, but not Law of Attraction free-lunchers.
- An admission that there is no free trade between the USA and Mexico -too many things can’t be bought from here, even software downloads and music streaming, for God’s sake!
- Consistency: ask all you want from Microsoft, as long as you ask the same from Google and Apple, too.
- The complete Daria TV series on DVD, with the original music. This might happen. Also Ruby Gloom.
- The European Union to approve Oracle’s adquisition of Sun. Monty Widenius will cry all the way to the bank, but I’m confident he’ll recover.
- The capture of the murderer’s of Melquisedet Angulo’s family -he was the Mexican marine that died in a raid against the Beltran Leyva cartel. A week later, most of his family was executed.
- The Internet to realize it’s not the most important thing in the world.
OK, that last one was too much of a wish, but if you’re going to wish, wish big.
Happy New Year!
What part of “selling” didn’t understand Michael Widenius? 13 December 2009
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary, News.Tags: Atlas Shrugged, helpmysql, helpmysql.org, Monty Widenius, mysql, Oracle, savemysql, Sun
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Michael, when you took all that money from Sun when your company sold them MySQL, you gave away your BEST chance to influence MySQL. I assume you didn’t mind, as you became a Sun employee (for a while).
Are you giving the money back? [Note: He isn't.] It didn’t work with Judas.
Free software developers that complain when the company that pays the bills has this outdated notion that they can have some influence on the project remind me of that Dilbert’s comic strip where Wally says he wants to become an entrepreneur and launch his own startup to riches. Dilbert says “Wally, the company doesn’t pay you if you quit”. “Oh. Forget it.”.
Good luck to whoever buys something from you in the future.
UPDATE 1: Groklaw has an excellent article on this matter. Basically, Monty wants to force Oracle to release MySQL under a more propietary-fork-friendly license, so he can run a business on it without giving back.
UPDATE 2: Monty has given an explanation (of sorts) of his call to arms against Oracle. By all means read it, but in short it says he counted on Sun to keep pouring money on MySQL when he launched MariaDB -if Oracle fails Monty, it’s game over. Yup, it’s pretty much the same thing anticipated by the previous update, but written in a more heart-wrenching way. Oh, and it’s no longer about saving MySQL but the Internet itself -Oracle must understand they are obliged to pay for the business mistakes of their lesser competitors, however profitably, knowingly, willingly and repeatedly made. Are you sure this isn’t viral marketing for ”Atlas Shrugged: The Movie” or something? I specially loved the part where Monty says he doesn’t have the money to buy MySQL back, and even if he did, he’s not interested (too much of a hassle, I suppose).
UPDATE 3: The official site for the petition – http://helpmysql.org/en/petition There are stats for how many people have signed and from where.
UPDATE 4: Today, January 21 2010, the EC ruled Oracle and Sun can merge. It has found that PostgreSQL and forks are a viable alternative to MySQL, and Oracle’s pledges of continued development and release under the GPL licence influenced their decision. The Commission didn’t find a problem with Oracle acquiring Java IP rights, either. There are a few loose ends, but having cleared the biggest hurdle, it seems this is finally over.
© 2009-2010 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.
Nothing on the Internet is free 1 December 2009
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary, News.Tags: Bing, Google, Microsoft, monetization, News Corp.
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or “Someone has to pay for the cool stuff you get for free”.
The Internet feeds from intellectual products. Yet it has become fashionable to brand intellectual workers and companies as so inherently evil that their only hope of redemption is in giving away their work and property for nothing. Better yet, you should make a living in an honorable way (pretty much any other line of work) and create carefully crafted intellectual products as a pastime, for which you obviously don’t expect want to be paid.
In other words, you have to be a professional -and somehow don’t get paid for it. You will get paid for advertising. Wait -you will get a cut from the company who runs your advertising. It has long been known that advertising doesn’t work for many businesses, specially news. (Keep in mind there’s a big difference between news and opinion/analysis. You need knowledgeable, qualified people for both, but the logistic cost of news trumps that of analysis every day).
News Corp has recently revealed plans to get paid for being indexed by search engines, in this case an exclusive deal with Microsoft’s Bing. One blogger didn’t think twice to call this “bribing”, which is a blatantly wrong and misleading use of the word, as it implies that getting paid for access to your property is wrong.
This is not the first attempt by a news company at getting paid, although it could be the most successful. Reactions are as usual, from a valid “don’t care about what’s-its-name” to “information wants to be free” to “you are not worth anything without (insert Google, unpaying costumers, a big Us)”.
This last point strikes me as uncomfortably similar to that of a drunken, good-for-nothing husband yelling at her battered wife that it is HER fault that she is beaten when she fails to give him money, look pretty and act pleasingly, and that one day HE will have enough of it and leave her for someone better. Then, one day -hopefully- she realizes the only loss will be his, and leaves.
Yes, some people and companies do give things away by footing the bill themselves, but you can only give so much without making a living from it. If people won’t pay enough to cover your costs and then some, you are no business -at best, a non-profit; at worst, a delusional failure.
UPDATE: The New York Times might begin charging online readers in 2010 under a metered system. NYT’s Tom Friedman says it best: “At some point we gotta charge for our product.”
© 2009 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.
Stuff That Matters 22 February 2010
Posted by hectorcuevas in Commentary, News.Tags: 1938media, Craig Barth, CrunchGate, Daniel Brusilovsky, Devil Mountain Software, exo.performance.network, Loren Feldman, Michael Arrington, Randall C. Kennedy, TechCrunch, xpnet
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This guy is my new hero. (In fact, I took this post’s title from him).
Although I pride myself in not “blogging” by quoting someone else’s post then adding a one-paragraph comment to it, I had to make an exception now for these reasons:
To stay on people who invent their own reality, and to get a face-saving second paragraph: If you believe paying or buying a company gives you the right to call the shots, you should probably stay away from Monty Widenius’ new investment, MoSync. It’s unclear how much (if any) influence Monty has on the company, and maybe it’s actually run by reasonable people (I wish I knew so I could tell you), but buyer beware -he’s bound to protect his investment.
Addition. I think I should add the outing of Randall C. Kennedy as Devil Mountain Software’s Craig Barth. I won’t try to explain this mess -the link points to ZDNet’s comprehensive investigation on the man and the company, how ComputerWorld and Infoworld got involved, and finger-pointing comments by someone who claims to be Kennedy (at this point, it might just be true -Kennedy wrote even more damaging allegations in his own blog). Apparently most parties involved have decided to just end their relationship with him and hope it blows over, which makes sense since Kennedy has already gone the Arrington way.
© 2010 Héctor Cuevas. All rights reserved.