Techcrunch wrote the article on Google and net neutrality that I wanted to write, but wasn't articulate enough to.
The gist of it: Google is greedy and wants more money, and capitulating to Verizon on net neutrality will help them with that, but they should just admit that straight up. They should jsut admit that they're being greedy. This whole "it's really best for the consumer!" mantra on this is total bullshit.
Just like Facebook and privacy (their business model depends on your information being public) Google's best monetary interests are in something other than true net neutrality right now.
They're greedy. I'm fine with them being greedy, but I'm not fine with them being disingenuous.
Fun trick though: I'm greedy too. I want the internet to be open and free and all of that good stuff because I'm greedy. I want to stream things at a gigabit per second, I want to have everything accessible from my smartphone at broadband speeds with the flick of a finger, I want it to be easier to do what I do.
I bet a lot of other consumers do too. This net neutrality proposal isn't what is best for the consumers, and I want that to change, because I'm a greedy little bugger who wants more from his internet.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Monday, August 09, 2010
Delicious delicious product placement...
This really should have been a product tie-in: http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20100809.html
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Waving goodbye
/gratiutous pun
Google revealed that they are discontinuing Google Wave.
Wave was strange, hard to understand, and a totally amazing idea.
I was sold on it the instant I tried to brainstorm with some friends about a writing group that I run. Wave made it effortless for one person to jot down some ideas and for others to elaborate on them. I edited some pieces in there with a friend, and it was glorious, little ants combing a document for errors, constantly improving it.
More recently I've been working with my future roommates to figure out who is bringing what for our apartment.
Wave is wonderful. I am thankful that Google made it, and I am very sad that after the end of this year it may go away.
My hope for this is that Google rolls this functionality into Gmail. Wave and Gmail would be a wonderful pair. Give an option in the gmail interface to have something as a collaboration (whether it is called a collaboration, a wave, or something completely different is up to them). Basic idea being, I want to be able to communicate like I do in Wave. There are too many unexplored options with it.
Perhaps it is that the idea behind Wave is so wholly digital, so wholly strange and new, that it is just ahead of its time. If so, I look forward to the day when people can get it, work with it, and bring it back. Someone will get this right, maybe Google just didn't have the right timing.
Wave, you will be missed.
Google revealed that they are discontinuing Google Wave.
Wave was strange, hard to understand, and a totally amazing idea.
I was sold on it the instant I tried to brainstorm with some friends about a writing group that I run. Wave made it effortless for one person to jot down some ideas and for others to elaborate on them. I edited some pieces in there with a friend, and it was glorious, little ants combing a document for errors, constantly improving it.
More recently I've been working with my future roommates to figure out who is bringing what for our apartment.
Wave is wonderful. I am thankful that Google made it, and I am very sad that after the end of this year it may go away.
My hope for this is that Google rolls this functionality into Gmail. Wave and Gmail would be a wonderful pair. Give an option in the gmail interface to have something as a collaboration (whether it is called a collaboration, a wave, or something completely different is up to them). Basic idea being, I want to be able to communicate like I do in Wave. There are too many unexplored options with it.
Perhaps it is that the idea behind Wave is so wholly digital, so wholly strange and new, that it is just ahead of its time. If so, I look forward to the day when people can get it, work with it, and bring it back. Someone will get this right, maybe Google just didn't have the right timing.
Wave, you will be missed.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Blurring product categories
Just saw this article. What defines something as a portable computer versus a phone, or a tablet? Heck, what qualifies a tablet as a tablet rather than a computer? There are certainly a number that qualify as both.
Endgame of this is, what defines a computer today? A random person on the street would say that the ipad is not a computer, and from a perspective of what I think is generally considered a computer (currently), the ipad is not.
However, the article makes me think; is what we're really reacting to about a computer whether or not it has a mouse and keyboard interface? As one of the commenters in the article noted, mainframe users in the 70's would have scoffed at the notion that a PC was a computer, and likened that comparison to Steve Jobs saying that in a few years desktops/laptops will be like "trucks". They're useful, but most people don't need one.
I think I agree with this argument. The ipad clearly is filling void in the market, if sales are any judge. I can't yet say it's a device that I really need (want is another question...). Talk to me a year (or less!) from now and I may be singing a different tune.
To extend this further, if we're calling (or even considering calling) the ipad a computer, then why not the iphone and other smartphones? You can install software, cruise the internet, do some mild productivity, check the news, and any number of other tasks previously relegated to the computer.
What a computer is has changed, and is still changing. Five years from now I have no idea what kind of form factor I'll be typing a blog post on.
Ten years from now? I probably can't completely conceive what it will look like.
Twenty years from now? I suspect it will be in my head, a coprocessor for the gray matter already there.
Endgame of this is, what defines a computer today? A random person on the street would say that the ipad is not a computer, and from a perspective of what I think is generally considered a computer (currently), the ipad is not.
However, the article makes me think; is what we're really reacting to about a computer whether or not it has a mouse and keyboard interface? As one of the commenters in the article noted, mainframe users in the 70's would have scoffed at the notion that a PC was a computer, and likened that comparison to Steve Jobs saying that in a few years desktops/laptops will be like "trucks". They're useful, but most people don't need one.
I think I agree with this argument. The ipad clearly is filling void in the market, if sales are any judge. I can't yet say it's a device that I really need (want is another question...). Talk to me a year (or less!) from now and I may be singing a different tune.
To extend this further, if we're calling (or even considering calling) the ipad a computer, then why not the iphone and other smartphones? You can install software, cruise the internet, do some mild productivity, check the news, and any number of other tasks previously relegated to the computer.
What a computer is has changed, and is still changing. Five years from now I have no idea what kind of form factor I'll be typing a blog post on.
Ten years from now? I probably can't completely conceive what it will look like.
Twenty years from now? I suspect it will be in my head, a coprocessor for the gray matter already there.
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