Moving into the cloud with G drive - Google Drive

Rumor has it that G Drive was coming out back in '06, but it did not. Now that it is out, let's check it out what it is really:

It is like Google's version of Dropbox!

Have you experienced the time when you are working on something, and you suddenly want a specific file, whether it is a music, a song, a picture, or even a document, and then you realized, "Shxx, I left it in XXX" where XXX can be your home computer, work computer, tablets, usb, hard drive, CD, any sort of media storage device.

Then you started thinking.

Is it really worth the trouble of digging through the CDs, plugging in the external hard drive, booting up another computer, or even going back home/work to get the file? Or you can just substitute it with something less instead?

If not, well great, the time is spent on retreiving the files instead of actual work, and you are procrasinating again.

This is when Google Drive comes to the rescue. You can put everything into the web cloud the will sync over the Internet, and you can simply access the same file, with as large as 5 Gigabytes, via the web.

Convent, right?

Do you want to switch to it? Maybe not.

Similar solution was already provided by Dropbox, a new and up-going startup company that has been providing the cloud storage function for more than a year now. It provides large storage, with the only problem being that that is a cap on the largest file size no greater than 300 MBs.

So you might wonder, then why not use Google Drive?

Why, the only problem with Google Drive is that, if you actually read the fine prints on the Term of Service, instead of just clicking yes all the time, you will notice something really interesting!

When Google Drive first came out, the users all rushed towards it like bees rushing toward honey. Then some lawyer started to point at the Term of Services and shouted, "Google is stealing my stuff, legally!"

What they saw is the following in the ToS

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps).

Wow, I will freak out too when I see this. Google can use my stuff at will?

But then, when you come to think of it, how is that even possible, if they believe that the users will use this service with the knowledge that they are giving up everything to Google for free?

In short, the lawyer was leaving something out intentionally, as you can see from this post.

Google, in order for you to access your data virtually anywhere on Earth, need to replicate your data all across the servers, and also do run-time correction to them if the data are being edited by you and your peers at the same time. Well, but you might point out that the ToS is still too vague and leaving too much room for Google to use your thing for free?

Read this, boy:

"We do not share personal information with companies, organizations and individuals outside of Google unless one of the following circumstances apply: with your consent; with domain administrators; for external processing; for legal purposes.

So, next time before you freak out and started to attack someone, really read the fine prints first!

And for that lawyer who cried out in the first place, please return your law degree and go do something else. It is better for everyone.

Instagram is worth about 1 Billion?

For those who didn't have an iPhone (like me), Instagram might be something that you have never heard of... But you definitely must have known that, it is worth 1 Billion dollar now, at least from my title.

This is what Instagram really is, a cool photo-sharing app:

And,

Facebook just bought Instagram for 1 Billion dollar....

Do they really worth that much? I mean, they went from $0 to $1 Billion in just two years, I would say that is a bit too fast.

All that started Instagram was an actual goal. Combine social with photo sharing.

The CEO and the founder had made several other apps before Instagram, but those apps did not receive much popularity. Then they sit down and asks, what is missing? What is the market like?

They came to the conclusion that most of the popular apps on the market are missing the social aspect of photo-sharing, and they believe that connecting that with Facebook will be the sweet spot of the market.

Well, you know what, when they first launched the app, there were 25,000 users on the first day. Their goal of simplifying the process of photo-taking and social sharing made them have the following changes:

1. Simply User Interface that allows the users to share photos with just 3 clicks
2. Public and free app which requires no registration
3. Smooth transfer of the photo with speed

Instagram's idea was to make sharing as simply as possible, and looks like they are doing a good job so far.
This is also another trend that is showing that the Internet ecosystem is moving towards an open era where the sharing of information is largely promoted.

I have addressed that in my previous post about the power of user generated content, and photo here is definitely one of the largest one.

I will address more about that in the later post about Google Drive, the ultimate sharing cloud!

Free spirit of internet

First, let's take a minute and watch this inspiring video first!

A few key translations that I will provide first to help you understand this video better.

 Hatsune Miku (初音ミク)

is the green anime character that you see on the video. It came from the software with the same name. The miku software provides the users the ability to create songs and music video voiced by vocaloids,

アップロード = Upload
動画を投稿する　= Submit a video for contest
動画をアップロード = Upload a video
イラストを投稿 = Submit a illustration picture

Here we go:

This is a Google Chrome commercial that came to Japan in 2011. Google's main goal is always making the world's information more public accessible. And this is also a major topic being discussed recently with all the Protect Intellectual Property issues all over the Internet. What I am trying to say to all those legislators, to those people who are hanging their lives dearly onto the decay and rotting laws of copyright protection in the age of the Internet is, SHUT UP and look around. You are no longer the single sided producers and users of the Internet. It is time to let it go.

" Hatsune Miku " is a virtual singer who can sing any song that anybody composes.

It has made a massive impact on all creators through the web.They, inspired by her songs, have published their original worksnot only in the field of music, but in illustration, video,CG, cosplay, live performance and dance.
Then, the works inspired the other creators again and again.That is to say, Hatsune Miku triggered the chain reaction of creativity.
Besides over 30,000 original tracks, many more works arestill being released over the web.
Feel the possibilities of the web through the social phenomenon caused by million craetors.

The Internet is giving the power, to the users.
Miku was merely a simply program in the market, but because people all over the world shares the same passion and interests, it grew into a community, then a larger community, and larger and larger! Miku ended up having several 3D-laser technologies concerts in Japan, Shanghai, and Los Angeles with thousands of people going into to watch it. There are hundreds of thousands of soundtracks and music videos made from the software, and other media such as games, cosplay, illustrations and CG all evolved from this very origin. Without the Internet that connects all the people and their works with Miku, all these would not have been possible. The Internet united people of the same interests with public sharing of their works!


The Internet is showing something that the major producers are not hoping to see: the power of the users and the amount that user generated content can be.

More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years 

 And that there are an hour long of video being uploaded to Youtube every second, even as you are reading this blog! (That being said, since you started to read this blog post till now, there are probably about 40 hours long of new videos being uploaded to Youtube)

Now, the old firms are merely trying to shut down the Internet because they are afraid of the power of the users. The SOPA, PIPA, and the newest ACTA and TIFF are their attempts to maintain their control of the market. But we should not let them succeed, because the Internet is much more than their new playground.

Microsoft's revenue is getting a haircut by iPad

Office, something that I rarely used ever since I moved to GoogleDoc, is still pretty commonly seen in office or big corporations. According to techcrunch's report, Microsoft reported about 9 billion dollars in revenue in their Business Department last quarter, and of that, 90% of it is from Office.

 I can’t find a breakdown of how Office products are used, but it’s a safe bet to assume that many people who bought Office have never even opened PowerPoint. If Microsoft unbundles Office, there’s a good possibility many people aren’t going to be buying Microsoft Office. They’re going to be buying Microsoft Word.

 Or, in other words, Word. (Pun intended)

Of that 90%, it is then further divided into 75% of that being enterprise sales and 25% being normal consumer sales. And this is where Apple strikes in with iPad, ready to trim the foundation tree of Microsoft Office with this sharp scissors.

It is a pretty obvious trend, that when you go into a local coffee shop or restaurant, you would see people using iPad to read, write, or watch videos. Surprisingly, in case you don't have an iPad or never knew about it, iPad is made by Apple and does not come with Office pre-installed. So, questions like "HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE ABLE TO LIVE WITHOUT OFFICE?" or "HOW ARE THEY WRITING A REPORT? NOTEPAD?" might arise, and you know what, there are plenty of other solutions other than Word(yes, they do exist!). One of the most commonly used is the GoogleDocs, but, assuming that if the user does not have internet access, example being that they are in a pretty shitty coffee shop that charges for internet access (not pointing any fingers, yet), there are still plenty of other alternative solutions.

Apple reported that about 25% of the apps on its appStore are productivity apps. Many of them are being rated as high as 4.5 out of 5 on the appStore and they are being sold at amazing prices. The average price for these apps on the appStore are around $9.99, a price that the Redmond office could not accept, being that the Office's Market Price is $125 dollar.

vs

Hmm, $9.99 vs $125, which one will I pick for a single/bundle apps on a device that cost merely $500? Unless you are a Microsoft-fanboy, I think the answer is pretty obvious. Even if Microsoft can somehow drop like 90% of its price to fight against the popular apps on the Apple appStore, how many people will be willing to switch back?

Microsoft, get ready for a big revenue haircut, in your Office department.

Black March 2012 has started!

Black March of 2012 Has Started!





So, just to start the day fresh, let's watch an interesting video!

Just a note, I am not part of Anonymous, (or else you won't see my user name or ID now), but I do support Black March.

So, what is Black March? Its detailed description can be found here, or if I put it in the simplest form, a boycott movement against the media industry for all the dirty works they did in the back rooms to push for SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA.

If you do not know what are these, please go over here to my previous post about ACTA.

The media industry has gone too far to try to maintain its profit, influence, and authority. The government officials have no idea what they are trying to push through is something that will come back around and choke their children's throat and dig out theirs roots for inspiring ideas.

The major purpose of this "Operation Black March 2012" is to hit the industries at where they hurt, their profit margin! The end of March is the end of the Q1 of all firms, and by not going to see any movies in March, it should have a drastic impact on their Q1 reports, and thus telling them that we, the user of the free internet, are serious about anti-censorship.

If you have a movie that you want to watch, which comes out in like March 14th, just wait until April to watch it. It is good enough.

We have seen what they can do now. They forcibly shutdown MegaUpload and thus influence the entire industry of free storage on the internet. It is our time, to stand up, to fight, for what we think is right.

We DON'T need to Occupy anywhere, WE Don't need no guns or weapons, but just DON'T go to the movies, DON'T buy any games or DVD, and DON'T download/buy any musics.

This is what we can do, and this is what will hurt them the most.

We are the CUSTOMER, WE have the right to choose what to see and what not.

NOT THEM!

Android and IOS war drags on, even on the APP market

    Well, it is a pretty easy and obvious trend that in the current smart phone market, there are only two majors brands, badPhone, oops, iPhone, and Android. Just throwing out some background information, HTC nor Samsung developed the Andriod OS on their own, not even to say AT&T or T-Mobile, but Google did. Apple first came out with the idea of a smart phone, pushed out iPhone with iOS, and then the CEO of Google, 

Eric Schmidt, who is also on the board of directors for Apple, decided to do a Google free version of the iOS.

This, gives birth to the famous Android Operating System which took about over 50% of the market (with various vendors), got Eric kicked out of the Apple's board of directors, and started the forever going war between the two fan bases. 

   Sometimes, you see it get too out of hand, and a post on a famous and informative website, like TechCrunch,  telling the two sides to shut up.

   Typically the conversation usually evolves out of a thread/post that consist of data comparison between the two camps. 

   For example, on the same website, there is a post discussing that Android's App (as in Applications on the phone) Market surpassed iOS in Europe. 

   I mean, this picture pretty much basically sums up the entire situation and distribution of the markets:

Yea, we do see a strong domination of iPhone in Asia (especially in China and Japan), and more Androids in America, but so what? If you just scroll down a bit and take a look at the comments in the above said post, it has became a fight ground for the two fan bases!

Jesus, just like the first post said, "Fanbois, Apple doesn’t give a damn about you. Also, Fandroids, Google doesn’t give a damn about you either." (Fanbois = Fan of iOS, and Fandroids = Fan of Androids). 

Seriously though, as someone who had worked in Google, they care about USERS, BUT not a USER! That's why you don't see a customer service phone number that you can call when your Google Voice account doesn't work or you can't find the good customer service and warranty from Apple. 

Another fact: "if you don’t give any substantial reasons for why “Android is better” or “iPhone is better,” then no one else is going to make a decision based on your comment either." When you are choosing your next smart phone, you are either choosing it by your preferences (often we refer them as "The Mac Experience" for Apple, sadly, I do not know of an equal term for Google), or you will do some research to get the most out of your bucks. To be frankly honest, you are not going to buy a phone just because someone said, "oh Andriods sucks! iPhone is god like! I love my Siri!".

Let's keep some reason in us, okay?

Or else, you will probably end up like someone in the screen shot in the first post, showing everyone on the internet your "sophisticated" thoughts on why the other side sucks like hell.

Hey Mate, nice to see ya there!

I am pretty excited today, but it is not only because of the long weekend coming up or because I finally got an SSD (Solid State Drive) upgrade on my desktop, but that it is because I found a comrade in arm, well... sort of. Well, I was doing some sort of Googling, Binging, or Yahooing the last couple of days while the couples were celebrating Valentine's day, or people like me, who were celebrating Single Awareness Day.... (a.k.a. Sad), and I found
Fernando Rivera
, and that made my day!

You have to agree that after a long search and looking through several uninteresting tags/blogs, finding a nice match is actually really rewarding! So Sad that I did not find this "nice match" on Valentine's day... Oh, well...

Now, back to the topic.

When I searched for like acta, google, microsoft, I do see related topics come up in the search results, but when I click onto the user who tagged them, I also see some tags like "receipt" or "traffic" on the same list. However, not Mr..Rivera's profile.

His list of tags, just to name a few, are like G+, cocos2d (Apple's framework), iPhone, Android, Google...and the list goes on! Simply by just looking at his tags, I know that he is somewhat technical, or at least have a strong interest in the mobile industry. Well, like most people in this field, I guess we are not the best organizers in the world nor are we good at keeping things in order. The tags are ordered quite loosely all over the place and most of them are left without comments. It is kind of interesting to see this because Fernando sets his tags to be public, a sign that he wants to share and communicate with the community, yet at the same time doesn't put any comments at all.

To be honest though, it is pretty easy to tell a person's favorite/trend through the tags that he made, but not the voice. Fernando's tags were all pretty useful information regarding the Apps on iPhone, framework, and other mobile devices or games. Like in this tag of cocos2d, I found a complete guide of iOS5 and also a pretty interesting developer's forum that I would never have StumbleUpon myself (pun intended). Or this, a history of the development search algorithm of Google in the past few years, in simple form (as in English instead of code!). These posts and tags are all well-intended for either a developer or a general public, but not for both. I found all his links very informative, yet at the same time, not in depth or in broad at all. It seems that he just tags whatever links or interesting sites that he StumbleUpon on the way, hoping to return one day to organize it?

I am trying to blog for a general audience here, and his's tags, while most of them are very informative, is too scattered and lack a focus. I would recommend checking his sites/tags out if you are interested in computer, coding, or simply want a taste of this "world". His topics are so general and broad that you would be able to see different issues, some in depth and some introductory level, and find your favorite.

Trifecta

I was reading over what I wrote over the weekend, and found that it is quite......lacking.....(hmm)....

So I decided to put it here in one post, sort of combine things~~

Well, we will see how well it will turn out~~

Hello World
Hello there. Hello world.

I am a software engineer and I thought, (yes, thought), that everything had some sort of a reason or a cause. But seeing this unbelievable trend of Windows supporters in the past, and also seeing the same thing now with Apple’s supporters, I am doubting myself.

I can safely say that about 90% of the people who are currently reading this post are running a Window's operating system, whether it is Win7, Vista, XP, 2000, or even NE--it doesn't matter. Another 6-8 % of people are on a Mac, and the rest on different distribution of Linux or Unix operating system.
However, that is based on the assumption that you reading this post from a desktop, laptop, netbook, ultrabook, or any sort of tradition “personal computer.” If you are talking about mobile, then it’s a safe bet to say you’re likely on an Android tablet, IOS5 tablet, smart phone or a chromebook.

Why am I so sure about it? It’s because Microsoft has been holding onto more than 90% of the market shares of home and business PCs for years, until the recent rise in mobile devices.

Ironically, Linux/Unix system and Macs out-performed PCs by a great deal in certain fields, yet they only have a small population of users.

Why?

Was it because that the fields that Linux and Mac were extremely powerful in are less relevant to the normal daily users who just use a browser?

Why was Microsoft able to dominate this market for years with almost monopoly advantages and people are not gradually switching to other operating systems?

Was it because Bill Gates marketed it so well back in the 70s and that it was easy to use?
Maybe not, because Apple had Macintosh back then.

Or was it because Microsoft OS was the default operating system that was installed on almost all home-use PCs, and thus the people growing up with PCs got used to it. As people get used to Windows, are they less willing to go through the trouble of changing the OS and learning everything from scratch?

However, that doesn't explain the reason why people are willing to try new technologies nowadays, such as iPads, iPhones and Android tablets which are eating away lots of market shares in the industry.

As a software engineer, I am extremely interested in what drives trends, why is it that people are stuck on Windows but more than willing to try out the newest mobile devices?

Another angle that I will attack this topic would be the environment. The majority of the market for the PC industry, to be frank, is not in the home PCs but in the business PCs, systems, and servers. A standard business server can cost several times more services than a very high performance home desktop can (yes, that includes the famous expense Alienware that you gamers might be using now). Why are big companies insisting on using Windows, and some even go as far as using pirated Windows copies? Linux and Unix are great for servers, and most of them have free distribution on the Internet. But no, these companies insisted on paying up in the millions to Microsoft, or risked several years of jail sentence and heavy fines to pirate the Windows.

At this point I want to throw out question that "was this even a sensible action, or it is simply a result of a blind trust in the same system and brand (Microsoft) from the past?"

Or is it because that majority of home PCs are windows, and thus there is less cost for companies to train the new employee by having the same system in the company?

Finally, why and how does Apple and Android break this "monopoly" advantage in the mobile device and start hurting Microsoft so badly nowadays?



Profile Blog

Openbytes stood out in many technical websites and blogs in the sense that, Tim (Goblin), the author hates Windows/Microsoft with a passion which paints his article with a sarcastic yet funny tone. I guess that fits the role of a Goblin with a bad mouth?

Tim, “the Goblin,” has been using Microsoft software since his childhood and yet in his recent posts he has been constantly taking on a critical stand against Microsoft and its strategies. He is a software developer and a computer/tech hobbyist who “has been using Windows since the very first version” and “[had] spent many a happy hour trying to load data from tape (a concept that now is probably lost on the new generation of computer users)”. Gee, the first version of Windows? That is like back in 1970s, this guy, if not an expert, is at least a veteran! And a pretty active veteran indeed, from what I can tell by roughly four posts per month, although almost half of the posts are about what Microsoft is doing wrong. He started this site as a “forum for me to challenge others opinion and to highlight the experiences Ive had since I moved from a Microsoft dependency.  It has been two years and the site is still going strong!

Most of his posts are comments and analysis to the major news and statistics regarding the tech industry, but with a major inclination on the bad news Microsoft threw out. He seems to be very determined to create this blog to challenge the opinions of the “people who would do anything to dismiss the idea that there were alternatives to Microsoft products”.

I find it interesting to read about his passionate and sarcastic posts and also to see the comments that take a ride along the post or retaliate his points heavily. From his post, ““Me too!” Microsoft gives social networking a go?” he points out that after being accused of copying Google’s search result in Bing, Microsoft went on to try to create another social network, Socl, which, according to the news source he quotes and himself, “ seems to more than slightly resemble Google+.” Not even to mention by doing so, Microsoft is hurting its strategic partner, Facebook. Wow, point at the giant in the industry and calling it a copycat right in the nose. Good work there!

The other interesting (and definitely fun) post to read is titled “Windows declining market share – 6% drop for the product that gave you the BSOD.” From the title you can tell that it is another post that hammers hard on Windows, with hard statistics. Microsoft has been losing its market shares and revenues to the new mobile devices, the IOS and Android. Even though the next generation Operating System, Windows 8, is promising and might give the “Windows Phone 7  [who suffers from the] lack of interest in the face of Android and Apple products” a way to come back, but he argues that by the time when Win8 is out, the market might have already adjusted to the new environment.

The blog that I have in mind would not be just hammering on Microsoft and Steve Ballmer totally, because they must have been doing something right in the early 2000s to keep that massive amount of market share until this day...or that the general market is just stupid and resist changes? I would give credit to his posts and references Tim, the Goblin, often for the rise of the new mobile market. The rise of a market is not the simple result of a new invention, but also the failure of the original market, and that is where Tim and his sarcastic yet informational posts come in.

http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/me-too-microsoft-gives-social-networking-a-go/

http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/windows-declining-market-share-6-drop-for-the-product-that-gave-you-the-bsod/

Voice

Openbytes is definitely a strong example of how Microsoft can create passionate emotions within people--except it is passionate in the negative direction. Tim, or the Goblin, or Tim (Goblin), is definitely on the extreme side if all the people in the world is put onto a scale based on their love/hate towards Microsoft. He cuts Microsoft no slack, bashing on every aspect of them without remorse--yes, I mean every aspect. This can be easily seen from two of his posts: “Windows declining market share – 6% drop for the product that gave you the BSOD” and “‘Me too!’ Microsoft gives social networking a go?”

For the people not familiar with the term of BSOD, Google it! I am not kidding, I just Googled it myself and found that it means “Blue Screen of Death”. From the title I can see that “Tim, the Goblin,” is aiming his post towards a more technical oriented audience, or else he could have just said, Windows and not something so specific. The other title of “Me Too” is trying to say this issue in a mocking tone. He is pretending to be Microsoft who is like a loner want a piece of everything, even if the company is entering very late in the game.

If you think putting using “BSOD” to reference Windows is bad enough, Tim comes up with more lines to humiliate Microsoft. He started listing all the failures of Microsoft in the past few years, including the not-so-popular Windows Phone 7, its browser Internet Explorer, unpopular search engine Bing, and then stated that “Windows, one of its flag-ship products suffered a 6% drop in the fourth quarter of 2011.” As I was reading this line, I got the image of a big battleship with the Windows sign on it gradually sinking into the water.  He seems to favor this technique and used it repeatedly over and over again in the other posts too.

But that isn’t enough--he doesn’t stop there. He was prepared to fend off the retaliations of the so-called “Microsoft Advocates who infest the newsgroups, who engage in personal attacks“ by stating “But wait”. This transition indicates that he understood the readers would start to have counter arguments by that point in the post, buy he is essentially telling these people to shut up and listen. And he is not prepare to play as a Mr. Nice guy, as he called those people like parasites that infest on forums and harm other people with personal attacks.

To sum up all the bashing that he has done, he even states that “there is a hint of deja-vu here”, pointing out that all the failures of Microsoft are the results of chasing after the leaders in each market; “Bing is trying to catchup with Google, WP7 is trying to catch up to Android and Apple phones...” and he describes these attempts merely as “flinging mud at the wall in the hope something will stick.” Microsoft, the giant in the industry, is being described as some little kid from the hood playing with mud in the ghetto. He further describes the “patent suing” move made by Microsoft as a little bully in the industry who just want to lay back and collect money without “trying to compete with its own products.”

Wow, let me take a look at these lines again. A bully is someone that harasses others via various means just because he can.  Often people who are bullies actually feel relatively inferior in the sense that they are weaker, and so they bully others only do it to make up for his weaknesses (just like the boy that we see in kindergarten who tries to harass the girls that he likes). Microsoft, after becoming less able to profit from anything that it produces, simply starts trying to be a copycat and bet on luck that one of the projects would succeed and surpass the original. Then, after seeing that strategy doesn’t really work, Microsoft feels weak and ashamed just like a little bully who harasses other companies vialawsuits in order to make up for its own weaknesses.

Tim is waiting on that “when the once ‘mighty’ Microsoft will roll over and admit defeat” instead of trying to catch up on different areas or bullying other companies. He also questions Microsoft’s motive in investing a social network since it has been a major investor and strategic partner with Facebook. However, he believes that this once mighty giant would not go down without a fight, especially with its “war-chest of cash”, indicating that Microsoft has a larger reserve for fighting.

ACTA - Stay No or it is too Late.

ACTA, if it were to come into effect, this blog can be taken down any minute as you are reading it.
Your favorite youtube videos, your family's self-made video with your favorite artist's BGM in the background might send you to jail.

So first, let's take a look at this interesting video if you have no idea what is ACTA.
Just treat it like a puppet show, but better, with VOICE!

It is not something in the distant future, not something that only Europeans should care about.
"Wow, this is bad. But hey, this is not happening in the States yet. It is in Europe which is all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Who cares about that. I just done my part against SOPA, and I think I will not care about this until it reaches the State."

If you have this mind set, congratulation, you are exactly the mind that the governments have being trying to "farm" and "grow".

First of all, SOPA, if it weren't for people who noticed it about half a year ago and started to promote the awareness of it ever since then, it could have just passed and then you will probably never get a chance to "notice" it. It was really unbelievable of how many people, senators, or representatives do not know about the seriousness of SOPA and PIPA, until the big Censor day a couple weeks ago.

The Senators are just acting upon the slogan of protecting copyright properties of the Hollywood Lobbyists and failed to see the potential of censoring freedom on the internet. It was not until they realize that if they continue on this path, they will be likely to loose the votes for re-election then they turn the tides.

Secondly, it is not something that is far far away. Taken the example of Megaupload in the last few weeks. It was an action taken on by the FBI against a company whose owner is in Australia and without the support of SOPA or anything. Right now Megaupload is being accused serving as a site purposely for copyright contents but they have lots of evidence to refute that accusation. If SOPA came into effect and Megaupload were to win the lawsuit, the government would be freed of the responsibility of any compensation whatsoever.

Also, just days after Megauplod was forcibly shut down by the FBI, all the major free file hosting websites on the internet, just as Filesonic, RapidShare, Upload King, 4Shared, Hot File, and Deposit File are terminating and freezing their service. Even though there is a high chance that Megaupload is innocent and would come back to live, these sites were all afraid to be the next target of the governments.

Whatever happens on the internet will have similar affects across the board, doesn't matter the regulator is in the States or elsewhere. We often criticize the Great Firewall of China, but why are we building one ourselves?

Please, help raise the awareness of this. It is the least that we can do. We have stopped SOPA, but if we let our guards down now, it will all be in vain.

OpenBytes

Openbytes is definitely one strong evidence to my question of how Microsoft can create passionate emotions within people, except it is the exact opposite. Tim, or, the Goblin, or Tim (Goblin), is definitely on the extreme side if all the people in the world is put onto a scale based on their love/hate towards Microsoft. He gives Microsoft no remorse whatsoever, bashing on every aspect of it; yes, I mean every aspect. This can be easily seems from two of his posts, “Windows declining market share – 6% drop for the product that gave you the BSOD” and “‘Me too!’ Microsoft gives social networking a go?”

For the people none familiar with the term of BSOD, Google it! I am not kidding, I just Googled it myself and found that it means “Blue Screen of Death”. From the title I can see that Tim, the Goblin, is aiming his post towards a more technical oriented audience, or else he could have just said, Windows. The other title of “Me Too” is trying to say this issue in a mocking tone; he is pretending to be Microsoft who is like a loner want a piece of everything.

If you think putting BSOD to reference Windows in a mocking way is bad enough, Tim comes up with more lines to humiliate Microsoft to no end. He started listing all the failures of Microsoft in the past few years, including the not so popular Windows Phone 7, its browser Internet Explorer, unpopular search engine Bing, and then stated that “Windows, one of its flag-ship products suffered a 6% drop in the fourth quarter of 2011”. Wow, what an way to beat on a dead horse. He seems to favorite this technique and used it repeatedly over and over again in the other post too.

He doesn’t stop there. He was prepared to fend off the retaliations of the so-called “Microsoft Advocates who infest the newsgroups, who engage in personal attacks“ by stating “Buit wait”. This transition indicates that he understood the readers would start to have counter arguments by that point in the post, buy he is essentially telling these people to shut up and listen.

To sum up all the bashing that he has done, he even states that “there is a hint of deja-vu here”, pointing out that all the failures of Microsoft are the results of chasing after the leaders in each market; “Bing is trying to catchup with Google, WP7 is trying to catch up to Android and Apple phones,...” and he describes these attempts as merely as “flinging mud at the wall in the hope something will stick”. Microsoft, the giant in the industry, is being described as some little kid from the hood playing with mud in the ghetto. And he further describes the “patent suing” move made by Microsoft as a little bully in the industry who just want to lay back and collect money without “trying to compete with its own products”.

Tim is waiting on that “when the once ‘mighty’ Microsoft will roll over and admit defeat” instead of trying to catch up on different areas or bullying other companies. He also questions Microsoft’s motive in investing a social network since it has been a major investor and strategic partner with Facebook. However, he believes that this once mighty giant would not go down without a fight, especially with its “war-chest of cash”, indicating that Microsoft has a larger reserve for fighting.

Profile OpenBytes!

Openbytes stood out in many technical websites and blogs in the sense that, Tim (Goblin), the author hates Windows/Microsoft with a passion which paints his article with a sarcastic yet funny tone. I guess that fits the role of a Goblin with a bad mouth?

Tim, the Goblin, has been using Microsoft software since his childhood and yet in his recent posts he has been constantly taking on a critical stand against Microsoft and its strategy. He is a software developer and a computer/tech hobbyist who “have been using Windows since the very first version” and “[had] spent many a happy hour trying to load data from tape (a concept that now is probably lost on the new generation of computer users)”. Gee, the first version of Windows? That is like back in 1970s, this guy, if not an expert, is at least a veteran! And a pretty active veteran indeed, from what I can tell by roughly four posts per month, although almost half of the posts are about what Microsoft is doing wrong. He started this site as a “forum for me to challenge others opinion and to highlight the experiences Ive had since I moved from a Microsoft dependency”, and it has been two years and the site is still going strong!

Most of his posts are comments and analysis to the major news and statistics regarding the tech industry, ...but with a major inclined on the bad news of Microsoft. He seems to determine to create this blog to challenge the opinions of the “people who would do anything to dismiss the idea that there were alternatives to Microsoft products”.

I found that it is interesting to read about his passionate and sarcastic posts, and either see comments that take a ride along the post or retaliate heavily. From his post, ““Me too!” Microsoft gives social networking a go?”, he pointed out that after being accused of copying Google’s search result in Bing, Microsoft went on to try to create another social network, Socl, which, according to the news source he quotes and himself, “ seems to more than slightly resemble Google+”. Not even to mention by doing so, it is hurting its strategic partner, Facebook.

The other interesting and definitely fun to read post is “Windows declining market share – 6% drop for the product that gave you the BSOD”. From the title you can tell that it is another post that hammers hard on Windows, with a hard statistic. Microsoft has been losing its market shares and revenues to the new mobile devices, the IOS and Android. Even though the next generation Operating System, Windows 8, is promising and might give the “Windows Phone 7  [who suffers from the] lack of interest in the face of Android and Apple products “ a way to come back, but he argue that by the time when Win8 is out, the market might have already adjusted to the new environment.

The blog that I have in mind would not be just hammering on Microsoft and Steve Ballmer totally, because they must have been doing something right in the early 2000s to keep that massive amount of market share until this day, ...or that the general market is just stupid and resist changes? I would give credits to his posts and references Tim, the Goblin, often for the rise of the new mobile market. The rise of a market is not the simple result of a new invention, but also the failure of the original market, and that is where Tim and his sarcastic yet informational posts come in.

http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/me-too-microsoft-gives-social-networking-a-go/
http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/windows-declining-market-share-6-drop-for-the-product-that-gave-you-the-bsod/

Hello World - Why Microsoft and Why Apple/Android?

Hello there. Hello world.

I can safely bet that about 90% of the people who is currently reading this post is running a window's operating system, whether it is Win7, Vista, XP, 2000, or even NE, it doesn't matter. And about another 6-8 % of you is on a Mac, and the rest on different distribution of Linux or Unix operating system. 

Well, that is to say that you are reading this post from a desktop, laptop, netbook, or ultrabook. If you are talking about mobile, then I bet it is either an Android or IOS5 tablet or smart phone or chromebook.

Why I was so sure about it? It was because Microsoft has been holding onto more than 90% of the market shares of home and business PCs for years, until the recent rise in mobile devices. 

Ironically, in many fields, Linux/Unix system and Macs out-performed PCs by a great amount, yet they only have a small population of users. 

Why? 

Was it because that the fields that Linux and Mac were extremely more powerful irrelevant to normal daily users? 

Why was Microsoft able to dominate this market for years with almost monopoly advantages?

Was it because Bill Gates marketed it so well back in the 70s and that it was easy to use?

Maybe not, because Apple had Macintosh back then.

Or was it because Microsoft OS was the default operating system that was installed on almost all home use PCs, and thus the people growing up with PCs get used to it and are unwilling to go through the trouble of changing the OS?

But that doesn't explain the reason that why people are willing to try new things nowadays, such as iPads and Android tablets which are eating away lots of market shares in the industry.

I am a software engineer and I thought, (yes, thought), that everything had some sort of a reason or a cause. But seeing this unbelievable trend of Windows supporters in the past and now the Apple supporters, I am doubting my belief. 

Another angle that I attack this topic would be the environment. The majority of the market of PC industry, to be frankly honest, is not in the home PCs but in the business PCs, systems, and servers. A standard business server can cost several times more than a very high performance home desktop, and yes, including the famous expense Alienware. Why are big companies constantly insisted on using Windows, and some even go to the extend of using pirated Windows copies? Linux and Unix are great for servers, and most of them have free distribution on the internet. But no, they companies insisted on paying up in the millions to Microsoft, or risked several years of jail sentence and heavy fines to pirate the Windows.

At this point I want to throw out question that "was this even a sensible action, or it is simply a result of a blind trust in the same system and brand (Microsoft) from the past?"

Or is it because that majority of home PCs are windows, and thus there is less cost for companies to train the new employee by having the same system in the company?

Finally, why and how does Apple and Android break this "monopoly" advantage in the mobile device and start hurting Microsoft so badly?