01.28.09
Posted in General Rant at 12:30 pm by Administrator
I can just hear the people at HTC and Palm saying (in their best Church Lady voice) “Weeellll, isn’t THAT special!” – upon hearing the news that Apple was just granted patent number 7,479,949 on their multi-touch interface.
In part, the patent abstract states:
“A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command. The one or more heuristics comprise: a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command, a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a two-dimensional screen translation command, and a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items.”
Ummmm… that’s a pretty good patent to have! It appears to me as if acting Apple CEO Tim Cook’s shot across the bow of Palm in regards to their up-coming “Pre” touch phone (”We will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we’ll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal [to make sure that doesn't happen]“) is about to turn nasty.
Maybe Apple just wants to license the technology in good faith… NAH! Steve Jobs is listed on the patent as one of the creators… and I think the chances of them letting just any old handset maker encroach on their market-leading technology is about… oh… I don’t know… ZERO percent!
I’d actually be surprised that Palm’s executive chairman, Jon Rubinstein (the former Apple executive behind the iPod), didn’t see this coming. I mean, this guy worked for Steve Jobs personally – so he must know that Apple will protect this thing will all their might.
All I know is – handset makers with a multi-touch interface (Blackberry, Android phone, Palm, HTC) – that “snapping sound” you’re hearing is Apple’s legal team putting on their rubber gloves…
Permalink
01.27.09
Posted in General Rant at 10:23 am by Administrator
I can’t believe that it was 25 years ago to the day that the Macintosh first hit the streets – it seems like it was just yesterday. Gosh, I’m getting old! I haven’t always been a PC guy. If you take a look through some of the old blog posts – you’ll see that I was quite the Macfanboy (and vehement “Windoze” hater) back then.
I remember my first encounter with a Mac… (insert Wayne’s World flashback here)
Back in the heady days of 1985 I was working at a company that designed swimming pool heaters. At the time I was a mechanical engineer…ummm… ok, ok , so I was just a drafting puke… ANYWAY – my job was to sit a huge E-sized drafting table and create and update sheet metal drawings as needed.
My boss at the time was sort of anal-retental and was very, very proud of the fact that he had a “two year backlog” of change orders waiting to be processed. Let’s just say he was WAY into “job security.”
My friend (who got me the job) was a graphic designer (and an aspiring cartoonist) who somehow talked his boss into letting him have this new Macintosh “personal computer.” He immediately started doing all of the wiring drawings usingMacPaint (yes, on the original 512 Mac with a SINGLE floppy that you had to swap out with the “system” disk to save the data!).
He was able to save loads of time – because 95% of wiring drawings are identical. He could just “save as” and create about 5-10 TIMES more drawings in a single day. The productivity was amazing. He would then print it out on the dot matrixImageWriter (braaaawat…braaaawt….braaaawt – sounds coming out of his office all day).
I was intrigued – and he taught me how to use the thing (although I’m more autistic than artistic) – and pretty soon we would take our lunch huddled around the glow of that tiny black and white screen with that really, reallyklunky keyboard (with the HUGE keys!) and we had a blast.
At the time, in my own department we used a “dumb terminal” to do all the change orders. This was the classic “green screen” AS400 setup. I was an expert at tab-tab-tab-F12-F8-tab-enter way of computing.
This went on for about 18 months.
When Apple came out with the first expandable model – the IIcx – of course my friend was able to get one along with the LaserWriter Pro – the original laser printer.
I had seen the future.
I did a proposal – written on my lunch breaks – using MacWrite and illustrated using the “new” hot vector drawing program MacDraw – and made a business case for why we should ditch the manual-drawing-erasing-blueprint-copying-filing method and just “go digital.” Our parts were not rocket science – they were squares,rectantgles and minor variations with holes and vents in them – a PERFECT match for this new digital technology.
Changes were a snap, and (so I thought) – we could plow through all that backlog in less than 4 months – and the system would pay for itself in less than 12 months. I knew this would drive my boss crazy – so I “pulled a Bob” and just went over his head to his boss (the VP of Operations).
I scheduled a meeting, made my pitch… and… they didn’t do it. In fact, my boss called me in an accused me of going after his job. I literally quit on the spot and walked out (the only time in my life that I’ve done that).
After that, I bought my own Mac (SE30 with DUAL floppies and a whopping 20 MEGAbyte hard drive! “I’ll never run out of storage EVER!”). Then I eventually moved on to the IIcx, then the infamous “pizza box” Performa line, and so on and so on. I did everything on the Mac.
I had my first graphic design company and used Illustrator 1.0 to draw realistic, shaded technical illustrations, I used PageMaker to make catalogs and ads and manuals. I was one of the AppleScript addicts – and had macros that I used with QuicKeys to automate every single action (and interaction) that I ever needed. I became somewhat of an expert in all things Mac – and I became one of Apple’s biggest evangelists – all the way up to System 9.
Then all my customers stopped using Macs and were all using PCs running Windows 3.1 – and their software just didn’t work with mine. So, I grudgingly bought my first Dell… and as I used the Mac less and less I sort of “fell out of love” with it. I became less of a Mac bigot and although I didn’t “love” my PC – at least I could get the same versions of software that my customers were using and continue doing business.
Of course we all know the “rest” of the story – the way Apple has come out with great hardware, updated their software to OS X, etc. etc. They are starting to make inroads back into corporateamerica with people hooked not on OSX, but on iTunes and the iPod and the iPhone.
Does this mean that I’ll give up my Dell notebook and Windows XP? Actually…. maybe. I’ll wait-and-see how Windoze 7 pans out, but I have a sneaky suspicion that my next notebook will not be running Windows – and may just include an all-white piece of fruit on the lid.
Permalink
Posted in General Rant at 8:25 am by Administrator
OK, well, maybe not naked, per se – but there’s sure a lot of stuff out there on almost all of us. This topic seems to be coming up more and more lately – and there was a great blog article by my friend Dan Tynan yesterday that pointed out a new social media site that will do all the hard work for you: Spokeo.
It seems that this little wonder site will take all the “hassles” and legwork out of cyber stalking – or just digging up dirt on you co-workers, employees or ex-girlfriends. From their homepage:
Want to see something juicy? Spokeo searches deep within 41 major social networks to find truly mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers.
Ummmm…. yeah. Welcome to the new way of interacting – and having people know more about you than you probably would have guessed. Part of that is the fault of social media – and part of that is our own damn fault. Hot tip: if you don’t want people to know personal stuff about you – it’s probably too late. Even if you dump all your profiles on all the social media – there are saved caches of that stuff – and it will probably NEVER go away.
But at least I don’t live in New Hampshire! Robert L. Mitchell when doing research for an article in ComputerWorld – found out that his personal information (including full social security number, address, kid’s names, etc) were easily found on the Internet – for FREE. It seems that the folks in the good state of New Hampshire, in an effort to make government more transparent – scanned all kinds of tax liens, divorces, and all other matter of “public” data and just made it live.
Nice. If you don’t want people to know personal stuff about you… ummm… then just disconnect your phones, your email, your social media – in fact – just turn off the wireless card and unplug that Ethernet cable. Yeah, probably that won’t even help at this point.
Permalink
01.26.09
Posted in General Rant at 6:45 am by Administrator
President Obama’s Inaugural speech last week focused on change – and how we as Americans need to embrace change and be ready to work hard to get there.
Well, speaking of change, I have a pretty big announcement of my own to make – this week will be my last as President of Servoy USA. Although I won’t be actively running the US operations anymore – I still have Servoy blood coursing through my veins – and I remain committed to both the technology and the company.
As of February 1st, I’ll be reactivating my consulting company Clickware, and will be specializing in all things Servoy including specification, consulting, development, conversions, implementations and training. I’ll have a new email address as well you can reach me at bobcusick [AT] clickware.com.
“OK, so what’s the story” you’re probably asking yourself right now… The reason that I’m leaving my current position is because I’m ready for new challenges and I have some ideas for some new products and services (based in Servoy technology, of course) that I really want to bring to market.
The last time I re-invented myself is all the way back when Jan Aleman and I formally started a company around the incredible technology that Jan Blok and his team had created in 1998 – and completely re-wrote in 2001. We started down the Servoy road with nothing more than a terrific piece of technology and a dream, a vision and a plan.
It was a wild time back then – the bubble was bursting and money was tight. We were (and ARE) a group of people that simply refused to give up – failure was (IS!) simply not an option. In the ensuing years, we went from a scrappy little startup (an early competitor called us “5 guys in a windmill”) to a multi-multi-million dollar international company with offices in 6 countries (with more on tap for 2009) and some of the greatest staff and customers anyone could ever ask for.
Change is a hard thing. There are uncertainties, uneasiness, and general internal conflict when the familiar and stable changes. In my case, there’s no exception this time around. Servoy is in my DNA – it’s literally a part of my very being. It’s been a huge undertaking and now that the company is growing like a weed and is a thriving young adult – it simply doesn’t need the constant parental care that an infant does.
So I made the decision late last month that it was time for me to start a new chapter in my life. Not a new BOOK, just a new chapter. As I said before, I remain committed to Servoy, to the technology, to the company and to its continued growth and leadership in the SaaS/PaaS marketplace. My colleague Yvo Boom (yboom [AT] servoy.com) will be taking over the day-to-day operations in my absence.
So, as I wrap up my duties at Servoy (the company) over this next week – I’m energized and excited (and, to be honest – a little anxious) as to what the future will bring. But I do know one thing – it will be AWESOME!
If you haven’t been to the Clickware site in a while (or ever!) – then stop on by… and drop me a line if you want me to speak at your event, need some help with your Servoy project, or just want to say hi…
Permalink
01.24.09
Posted in General Rant at 3:15 am by Administrator
As I sit here in the middle of the night listening to the rain outside (a big deal here in California!) – I can’t help but think about the state of the economy, ofnetbooks, Apple and Microsoft (yeah, I know – I’m a geek!).
With Microsoft announcing a layoff of 5,000 (1 in 20 employees) over the next 18 months, and Apple poo-pooing netbooks in their latest analyst call – something snapped in my mind (not an unusual thing, believe me). I decided to dig a little deeper to try to get a handle on what was going on.
The Microsoft layoff was a long time in coming. I mean, they have been sucking off the tit of the Windows OS and Office since the beginning of time. With the entire Vista debacle and the “Ribbon bar” massacre in Office 2007 – not to mention the horrible me-tooZune MP3 player – plus the fact that their stock as been flat for years – they’ve “stumbled” as of late. Even though their profit is “only” down 11% (in a recession) – when you have the numbers that Microsoft does – that’s a fairly healthy decline.
What’s the cause? Or at least – what is Microsoft blaming? Well, according to Microsoft’s 10-Q filing on January 22:
“The decline in OEM revenue reflects an 11 percentage point decrease in the OEM premium mix to 64%, primarily driven by growth of licenses related to sales of netbook PCs, as well as changes in the geographic and product mixes. Revenue from commercial and retail licensing of Windows operating systems increased $113 million or 19%. Based on our estimates, total worldwide PC shipments from all sources was approximately flat, driven by increased demand in emerging markets, offset by decreased demand in mature markets.”
Huh? Netbooks? Netbooks are kicking Microsoft’s ass? Impossible! Then I started to think about it… Netbooks run XP, not Vista. XP = less cash (unless you’re Dell – but that’s another story). But if I were Microsoft – I’d also offer very reduced prices on XP as a netbook OS – hell even give it away if it will keep people of the dreaded alternative – Linux.
So, OK, netbooks might figure into some of the numbers – I mean, after all, we ARE in a recession. With the rise of SaaS (Software as a Service) applications – people really don’t need a 6 litre V-12 computer to fire up a browser and and webmail client in order to be productive.
People are not buying tons of new “real” laptops these days (except for perhaps new Apple MacBook Pros)… And, speaking of Apple – wassup with them? They are really, really pissy about netbooks – as evidenced by some quotes by Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer their latest analyst call:
“We’re watching that space, but right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that’s much less powerful than we think customers want, software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards, small displays.”
Ummmm… riiiiiiight.
Small displays? So… make a bigger one. Cramped keyboard – either make a touch screen one with iPhone keyboard, or… oh… I don’t know – make a BIGGER one.
Folks, it ain’t the hardware form factor that Apple is revolting against. It’s the price point. The mere thought that they would have to sell basically a 13″MacBook not at $1,300 – $1,600, not even at the $999 price the “old” white on is selling at right now – but they would basically have to sell it for… wait for it… $399. That’s the price of a fully-loaded iPhone!
I can just see Steve Jobs rolling over in his grave objecting to that kind of a price point. After all, they’re the luxury brand. The cool kid on the block. They’re not sold to the “commoners” in places like… like…Walmart… oh, wait, they are.
I think that despite what Apple has said publicly, they have been looking at netbooks. They do have some sort of device in the works. I think that they’re just so scared of another Newton that they want to make sure it’s a “real” market before they finally get with the game and stake their claim.
And, no one, I mean NO ONE wants to come out with a new product while Steve Jobs is on medical leave!
Permalink
01.23.09
Posted in General Rant at 8:50 am by Administrator
Like we all need a way to get more advertising… but there’s a company out there that has a very cool technology that allows people to put “stuff” into existing videos.
The company is called Innovid and they’ve managed to figure out a way that allows advertisers (or content owners) the ability to add product placements, in-video billboards, interactivehotspots, a synchronized overlay (synched to the contents), and a synchronized “bug” (those little pop-ups that you see on TV that promote an upcoming show for example).
They have a cool demo that shows how they replaced the white walls of a room with a graphic that wraps around it – and even a demo that shows an interactive “pong” game – while the content is still playing in the foreground!
How it works: It seems that they store some meta data about the video – and then layer content into the video when it’s played – while keeping the original video untouched. This allows advertisers and content owners the ability to target different products/games/billboards to different demographics.
Very interesting stuff! I foresee the day when this type of technology will infiltrate more than just broadcast sporting events – but will work its way down to the YouTube generation looking to make some extra scratch.
Permalink
01.22.09
Posted in General Rant at 8:48 am by Administrator
I was reading a story in the Washington Post about President Obama’s campaign team was met with Flintstone-esque computers and software on their first day in the White House.
It seems that the Mac-loving staffers were greeted by outdated computers running a 6 YEAR old version of Microsoft Word, no cell phones, were forbidden to use outside email addresses, forbidden to useIM, were told they couldn’t use Facebook… and were basically cut off from their digital “life lines.”
Yeah, that’s the kind of welcome you’re hoping for after running one of the most tech-savvy campaigns in history.
NOT!
I can only imagine the let down and the general de-motivation they felt (and probably still are). First of all, for a Mac user to be forced to use a PC is bad enough – but a vintage one running vintage software to boot? Oh yeah, on a DESKTOP machine (whatever that is!) – say it ain’t so!
Now, I get the need for the White House systems to be secure, and for there to be processes and regulations regarding what can andcasn’t be done. I’m also aware that all the “official” work has to be saved under the Presidential Records Act. I have no problem there.
But, one would think that one of the technological superpowers of the world – a country in which the computer revolution was invented – a country that touts one of the most innovative hardware and software epicenters (Silicon Valley) – maybe, perhaps, could get a freaking clue.
After the moronic here’s-some-money-with-no-strings-attached bank bailout (version 1.0), and the ill-conceived billions more thrown at antiquated, stupid and wasteful car companies – maybe there’s no money left to update the hardware to run Vista – that part I can understand.
However, I’m sure that Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, William Amelio, or Mark Hurd could would be more than willing to cough-up some hardware – and probably Mr. Jobs and Mr. Ballmer would trip all over themselves to offer up a few gratis licenses of their current software.
Make a phone call, people! Oh, that’s right – you can’t. Well, borrow a quarter, drive to a 7-11 and use something called a “pay phone” ( TIP: Call collect and save the taxpayers some dough, while you’re at it) – but make the call.
As for security – we have a couple of little-known agencies called the “FBI” and “NSA” and “CIA” (all with secret budgets, by the way) that just MIGHT be able to help you get some secure phones, secure laptops and can PROBABLY work out how to keep the Viagraspammers from getting the launch codes even though you use Gmail and Facebook. Call them, people!
Barak Obama is the President of the United States of America. One of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. He has promised a new era of transparency into the workings of government, into updating our national infrastructure. We’re going to spend over 1 TRILLION dollars helping rescue the economy from the effects of corrupt, stupid and greedy business people – and the Chief Executive’s staff can’t get a laptop and a cell phone?
Yeah, America – at least we have our priorities straight…
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
