Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

It's been a long time since I've been plugged into any sort of developer community. Epochs essentially in Internet time. I made some tentative steps yesterday morning and evening to get back into the swing of things as part of the side project I talked about in my previous post. The first hour or two was fairly frustrating. $15 wasted on a book that though only a couple of years old is largely out of date and a dozen web sites perused and discarded because they didn't contain timely information either. This is a pretty good example of why search is rapidly becoming obsolete and curation and discovery are gaining popularity. Locating all the worlds information is great, but if it's mostly obsolete and difficult to sort through the utility in that is limited.

Another thing I discovered is that a lot of sample code is short on error detection. I'm not complaining since I paid zero for the code in question but it was a good reminder to me that it's not enough to just call a function and assume everything is going to go well. Better I be reminded of that early in the process rather than later.

It may not seem that way at the time but I tend to think that the worst case scenario is really when everything goes right early. When the wheels finally start to come off you're just not prepared. I think I prefer that mildly paranoid feeling I get when everything is finally going well.

I did manage to generate about a hundred lines of code yesterday. It connects and downloads some data. I've started work on a database schema and should have a first version of the initial portion of my project by the end of the day. I also have my Cisco CCNP switch exam tomorrow which I've been putting off for awhile. I'm not going to do that again, so I may get squeezed for time due to the need to do a bit more studying.

When I wrote the bulk of the above I was sitting in the passenger seat of our trusty Honda Fit. The iPad is great for some things but coding isn't one of them. This is particularly true when said code lives on a VM that isn't remotely accessible. I'm going to need to do something about that. Since I couldn't code I figured it was a good time to work on the BLOG. I hate to waste time.

The good thing about the book I bought is it is the Kindle edition so at least I found out it wasn't going to be very useful sooner rather than later. E-Books are one of many reasons that product development times have become much shorter in the Internet age.

One bummer for yesterday was that I missed out on the $99 clearance HP tablets. I figure there is a good chance that somebody will port Android to them and for $99 it seemed worth it to grab a potentially useful historic foot note.

Time to get back to work.

Image via Wikipedia

Setting Goals

I've been a hobby acoustic guitar builder for a few years now. Recently I've taken to giving myself public dares on my other BLOG as a means of setting some goals and motivating myself to spend more time on projects related to my aspiration to someday build great sounding and looking guitars. Those challenges have helped me focus and make more progress over the past three weeks than I have over the previous several months.

Another one of my goals has been to be a founder in a new business. It's important to note the use of the letter "a" in that previous sentence rather than the word "the". I'm really more of a team guy and have never viewed myself as CEO material, at least in my initial venture. I've had this plan in my head for awhile now where I'd be a principal in a new company, work hard at it for a few years, reach a graceful exit point that included a modestly large sum of money and then take that experience and create a situation where I was the prime mover and shaker. It's a nice dream, but it isn't going anywhere and I'm tired of waiting.

This doesn't mean I'm quitting my day job and starting a new company right now. What it does mean is I'm daring myself to do some serious work on my latest business idea to get a better idea of where it might lead. I generally have about three semi serious ideas a year. I get excited about them for awhile and then move on to something else for a variety of reasons.

An idea might require programming skills that I don't possess. I'm not a bad programmer but I'm not a great one either and I've done most of my work in Perl and SQL over the years. I have a love/hate relationship with Perl but it's the tool I know and learning a new one would take a lot of time that I'd honestly rather be spending on things like writing and learning to build guitars. My wife and I also like to hang out occasionally so that's an important consideration as well.

I've joined and followed a number of professional organizations focused on entrepreneurship since finishing my MBA but really haven't gotten that engaged in any of them. That's been bugging me recently given my stated desire to be part of a new business. I've finally come to the conclusion that at least part of the problem is I don't feel like I'm bringing anything to the table when it comes to potential interactions in those kinds forums. Sure, I have an MBA from a school with an excellent reputation in the area of entrepreneurship but what have I don't with those skills since I finished that MBA? Brainstorming ideas, primarily with myself and interviewing a handful of people as part of my research was a good start but I need to do better than that.

My latest idea requires programming skills that I actually have, at least for the initial stages. My dare to myself is to write some code and develop the potential business model to the point where I can make an informed decision on whether this idea is worth further exploration. I have some other dares in mind if things look good at that point but I don't want to layer to make this overly complicated right now.

I'm giving myself one month to do this. I've scheduled a weekly event on my Google calendar to remind me to update this BLOG on my progress.

If it's a lousy idea, I'll determine that along the way and report more fully on what it is I was planning and why I don't think it will work. Otherwise I'm going to be somewhat vague. We were taught in business school that teams and execution are much more important than ideas but right now all I have is my idea and I'm not willing to share it with the entire world yet.

So in summary, I'm not quitting my day job any time soon but I am going to put a lot more emphasis and focus on figuring out if my latest idea has any merit over the coming month. That will include writing some code to test my idea and putting together a preliminary plan for how the business might work from a monetary perspective. Once that work is done I'll have to figure out the next portion, if any. Wish me luck.

Image by orkboi via Flickr  

Why The iPad Needs A Keyboard (M.I.C. Keyboard Buddy Case)

I've had a combo Bluetooth keyboard/case for my iPad for about a month now and it's amazing how many times I've been approached by total strangers who want to know more about it. There are others but I use the M.I.C Aluminum Keyboard Buddy Case for the iPad 2.

From an aesthetic perspective it's a perfect match for the iPad. I've included some pictures here of my iPad in the case to give you a better idea of what it looks like.

From a functional perspective the keyboard works reasonably well. It occasionally needs to be power cycled because it either starts repeating the last key pressed or stops sending to the iPad but that happens maybe once or twice an hour tops. I'm not sure if that is a problem with the keyboard or bugs in iOS. I did briefly use a Microsoft keyboard with the iPad but that was awhile ago. I don't think I had these same problems but I could just be forgetting or the victim of small sample size in that case. It automatically puts the iPad 2 into low power mode just like Apple's smart covers.

The keyboard/case isn't a tight fit which is why I use an additional case from Timbuk2. That works great and is reasonably sized though a fair amount bigger than the iPad 2 by itself. It's an excellent combo to keep in my car so long as I avoid direct sunlight.

Most of the interactions I've had have been with wait staff at restaurants who are curious about the combo. Sometimes this has included staff who weren't even responsible for the table I was at. I'm generally very focused on whatever I'm doing so these encounters aren't being initiated by me. Yesterday I even had somebody follow me to the door of the restaurant I had eaten lunch at to ask me about my iPad/M.I.C keyboard combo.

When complete strangers are approaching me this frequently I start to suspect that the subject of their curiosity just might be a winning combination.

The iPad 2 by itself is still a conversation starter even several months after it's release but the level of interest has gone up ten fold easily since I've started using the M.I.C. Keyboard Buddy Case.

I would love to see Apple offer a keyboard like this for the iPad. It's pleasing to the eye and very useful if you want to turn the iPad into something a little closer to a real laptop. It's still not as flexible as a full on computer but I can do casual to intermediate content creation tasks now which has greatly increased the utility of my iPad 2 for me.

If I were Apple I'd move the charging/data port to the side of the iPad and create a docking station to interface with the iPad in some future version. This is essentially what ASUS has already done with the Transformer tablet though and Apple seldom imitates others.

The keyboard buddy is a visually outstanding product but somewhat flawed from a functional perspective. On balance I'm happy with the purchase and would recommend it for anyone looking to improve the functionality of their iPad. There are other options out there that might be better but I have no first hand knowledge of them.

The M.I.C. keyboard buddy is worth the $50 I paid for it. You're mileage may vary though.

Related Articles:

• Keyboard Cases for the iPad 2 (online.wsj.com)

Google/Motorola Mobility/Synergy?

The first thing that jumped to mind when I heard about Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was the thought that I talked a lot about Apple and Intel in my last column but if you read between the lines I was also talking about Google and more specifically Android.

Apple has been waging what looks like an increasingly aggressive litigation/patent campaign against Android  as has Microsoft. I talked a lot in that column about how legal scuffles can become an unproductive distraction for technology companies but I neglected to mention the fact that your competition is eventually going to have to react if they want to stay in the game. Google has already claimed in the press that this purchase was motivated by what they view as anti-competitive practices by Microsoft and Apple.

There has been some cynicism expressed in the press over positive press releases by  Google's partners and soon to be competitors in regards to the Motorola purchase. What those cynics fail to take into account is that given recent trends Android was in danger of being taxed out of existence via licensing fee demands that partners and Google were ill prepared to defend against. Having Google as a competitor probably isn't something their happy about but Google now has even more skin in the game and an arsenal of their own patents to use in defense and negotiations. It's legitimate for Google's current channel partners to fear that preferential treatment will be given to Motorola which will create an advantage that allows them to grab the bulk of the highest margin Android sales but that is a remote and manageable scenario. Android's steadily increasing litigation and licensing "tax" burden was already eating their margins. Google may become a frenemy but that is still an improvement on the current situation.

I've also read claims that this is a precursor to Google making Android a closed platform and going it alone. That is a really absurd claim for the following reasons. First, Motorola and Android wouldn't stand a chance if they took on Apple mono a mono. Android's excellent market penetration is a result of being available on a wide range of platforms that no single company could possibly create or support by themselves. Second, that model is already in place at companies like Nokia and RIM and how well are they doing right now? Why would Google want to replicate a clearly failing business model when they already have a winner?

It is possible however that this purchase will cause companies to take another look at Microsoft's current and future mobile offerings so they can hedge their bets. Microsoft's close relationship with Nokia is however very similar to how Google is proposing to operate with Motorola so it's difficult for me to understand why this would be an improvement, particularly given the minimal market penetration of Microsoft's Windows phone 7.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Microsoft will buy Nokia within a year. Consolidation and increased vertical integration are clear trends in the mobile space and Microsoft/Nokia are already on their way down this path.

RIM is going to need a major turn around in the next six months if they want to continue to go it alone and be anything but a niche player.

I'm trying to think of a polite word to use as an adjective to describe Standard & Poor's downgrade of Google but failing. Seriously, their logic is absurd. Will this deal guarantee that litigation against Android stops? Of course not but patent litigation is much easier to defend against when you are armed as well.  Prior to this acquisition Google was poorly situated to deal with legal challenges and had been losing ground steadily. Now they will be operating from a much stronger position.

There are no guarantees in business or life, but standing around and doing nothing in the face of challenges to a rapidly growing portion of your business is almost never a good idea. Another complaint S&P have is that this will impact Google's short term growth. Well yeah, when you spend $12 billion on something that does have a short term hit on your ability to take advantage of other opportunities. Particularly when you're going to have to wait around for the better part of a year for the deal to be completely consummated. It's not like Google is cash poor though and CEO Larry Page has made it clear that they play for the long term. That pisses off analysts who only care about a very finite horizon.

S&P's analysis in this matter is flawed at best. Every purchase is a risk and this one is no exception but Google is taking credible action to defend against a risk to both an emerging and established portion of their business as well as reacting to trends within the mobile computing/phone space.

Getting shut out of the mobile space would have meant getting shut out of the search engine space. The social networking paradigm shift is reducing but not eliminating the importance of search and Google couldn't afford to risk having that revenue stream cut off. S&P's Google downgrade feels more like an attempt to garner press than an honest and well informed assessment.

There is a risk that Microsoft or some other company will make a larger offer for Motorola Mobility. Apple is unlikely to do so since they probably couldn't get governmental approval for such a deal. Microsoft would be pissing off their channel partners but might view it as a worthwhile risk. I don't think they'll go this route but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Image via Wikipedia

Related Articles:

• Why Google had to have Motorola Mobility | Dan Gillmor (guardian.co.uk)
• Is Microsoft's next move buying Nokia or RIM? Nah... (zdnet.com)
• Apple pressured; may eye Nokia, RIM patents (canada.com)
• Will Microsoft Top Google's Bid For Motorola Mobility? (forbes.com)
• Musing on the Prospects of a Microsoft Counterbid for Motorola (dealbook.nytimes.com)

Patentageddon/Apple/Intel/Etc.

I'll admit it, I'm a bit idealistic. I have a strong pragmatic/practical side as well though so I'm not the type to talk about "peace and love" without putting up some kind of framework to explain/justify why I think a particular approach makes sense.

I'm also not totally anti patent. Patents were a noble experiment that made a lot of sense when they were first instituted and spurred innovation and progress. The reality today is all together different, particularly in the case of software patents which almost never make sense and do not encourage innovation or progress.

Some might argue that patents encourage a meritocracy. At this stage I think it's more accurate to say that they encourage a moneytocracy and Lawyertocracy which isn't good for anyone but the Lawyers in the long term.

It's one thing to acquire patents to protect yourself, that's just the cost of doing business these days. It's another to use those patents in an attempt to bludgeon your competition outside of the market place.
Apple seems to be the latest company to fall victim to the lure of litigation as a means to secure market positioning. They are hardly the first and they won't be the last. Still it's disappointing to see a company that is so strong in their core competencies of marketing and innovation go down this path.

Litigation can be a core competency if you want it to be but particularly for a technology company this seems like a mistake to me. Intel was known for their prowess in litigation for many years. Eventually they were also known for their mediocre technology and marketing which is why AMD was able to sneak up on them and usurp the architecture of the X86 processor family for several years. Which is in turn why we use AMD's 64 bit extensions in "Intel Compatible" processors including those made by Intel itself. As an aside, the Intel Itanium processor may have been a nice piece of technology but it was a lousy choice for Intel's customers which is why it never gained wide scale acceptance. From Intel's perspective it was great since it was going to finally kill off the clone processors that had bedeviled them for a decade plus at the time but outside of Intel that was viewed with ambivalence at best and outright hostility in many cases. Consumers like competition and choice. Short sighted companies don't and that works to their detriment.
Intel has pretty much always had around eight to ten times the financial resources of AMD yet time and again they've been trumped by the smaller company. Intel has done better in recent years but I contend they never would have gotten themselves into the messes they did if they hadn't spent so much time, energy and focus trying to eliminate their competition through the courts while failing to create as many innovate products as they should have. For example, Intel's inability to create a credible high end GPU is hurting them to this day.
This isn't the first time Apple has gone the lawsuit route in a big way. If you've been around for awhile you may recall their battle with Microsoft back in the late 80's and early 90's. When Jobs eventually returned to the fold Apple was weeks away from liquidating their remaining assets and going out of business. It would be unfair to assert that suing Microsoft was the sole reason for their near demise but I do think it was a pretty clear indicator that Apple was getting distracted and focusing energy in the wrong direction.

You have to keep an eye on your competition, that's common sense; but if you're not keeping the majority of your attention on your customers  you're making it easier for someone else to capture their hearts and minds. Apple's increased litigation against their competitors could be a sign that they are starting to lose their way again. Given their current very robust financial situation that isn't a big deal in the short term but I don't see how it can end well.

Image by mary hodder via Flickr

Related Articles:

• AMD Takes Microprocessor Market Share From Intel in Q2 (pcworld.com)

Technology & The UK Riots (Short Take)

I haven't been to the UK since I came to the US when I was eight months old. When I was younger it was in a sense close by though since my Mom is British. Thankfully she's still only a phone call away today.

Given that it's been depressing hearing about the recent goings on in London and other locations. Being a technology junkie I've tended to focus on that aspect a bit more than the stories of burning buildings and other such chaos. Two things have primarily caught my eye. First, the fact that the riots were in many cases organized and coordinated using Blackberry messenger service and similar technologies. This isn't a surprise. Any tool can be used for bad or good. Texting, Google, messenger services, etc are all just tools and thus no exception.

The second thing is that the thing the people organizing these "events" apparently failed to realize that those messages leave trails. Really big trails that can easily be followed back to them if the government desires and with this scale of mayhem it was clear the government of the UK was going to. You don't poke anyone in the eye that hard and not expect a response.

Another thing many apparently failed to realize is that London has cameras all over the place and that facial recognition software is amazingly accurate these days.

So a lot of people are getting arrested and will be prosecuted.

Speaking philosophically, violence is never a good place to start when you have a beef. It escalates things to a place where there is essentially no chance of a positive outcome.

The anonymity of the mob has been a pretty good shield in the past but as technology advances it's becoming increasingly difficult to hide. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not nearly as simple as some might think. So, while technology may have played a part in aiding the riots it's also playing a part in catching those who lead and participated in them. Increased communication efficiency is a knife that cuts both ways.

Interestingly there was a case here in the San Francisco Bay area recently where BART, one of our local public transit companies shut off cell service in some of the tunnels and stations their trains use to discourage a planned protest over the killing of a rider by the BART police last month. That decision is prompting a lot of debate right now over what is an isn't appropriate. Personally I feel the bar needs to be set VERY high when it comes to justifying something like that.

Image via Wikipedia

Related Articles:

• BlackBerry Messenger Linked to London Riots (patspapers.com)
• UK using facial recognition to hunt rioters (cbsnews.com)
• Teenage girl charged over inciting riots using BlackBerry Messenger (thenextweb.com)
• 13/08/11 - Riots "organised" on Blackberry messenger? (jesbarr.wordpress.com)
• London riots: Tech's role in the thick of it (cbsnews.com)
• S.F. BART snuffs cell phone service in anticipation of police protests (digitaltrends.com)

Change/Twitter/PeerIndex/Klout/FourSquare/Empire Avenue

Twitter is apparently in the midst of a big new platform revision. I still see the previous version no matter how many times I push the refresh button on my browser. Reviews seem to be mixed to negative so far. We humans do not like change though so I always try to wait a few days for things to settle down before assessing how popular a particular change is going to be. From my perspective the current Twitter web client is so mediocre that anything is unlikely to be worse.

My PeerIndex profile continues to be broken. I've had a ticket in for awhile now and I have seen some changes over the past several weeks but the parts that weren't updating still aren't updating and the parts that are updating still seem broken. Meanwhile Klout has been reliable and consistent and continue to role out new features on a regular basis. The most recent that I'm aware of being the addition of FourSquare to the list of sites they monitor in creating their social networking influence score.

FourSquare is one of a number of different sites that incentivize/gamify the act of self tracking our movements. You get points and virtual badges for using the FourSquare app to check into businesses, parks, etc. Some people even add their own homes or the homes of friends. That last bit seems kind of weird/creepy to me but I'm probably a bit old to fully appreciate/understand why this would be appealing. My wife and I have been using the FourSquare App for a couple of weeks now. She's consistently out scored me in part because she was on an extended trip and got to check into a bunch of new places which is how you score best. It's been fun so far but I'm not convinced it will be sustainable. Yelp and Google have similar apps and there are probably others I haven't heard of as well.

Twitter wasn't the only social networking site to roll out a UI update yesterday. EmpireAvenue also made some refinements. The general consensus seems to be positive with most of the changes being evolutionary improvements and refinements. I don't tend to notice a UI unless it gets in my way. There are still areas where EmpireAvenue needs work such as their notification system but they seem to be evolving in a reasonable direction.

Image via Wikipedia

Related Articles:

• After Foursquare, Klout Adds Blogger, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr And Last.fm To Measure Social Influence (techcrunch.com)
• Setting Your Business Up On FourSquare (businessinsider.com)
• Why are Klout Scores Becoming so Important? (elizabethharmonblog.wordpress.com)