Tuesday, January 31, 2006

 

Computer/Cell or Basic Needs to Poor

What does the poor needs?? A Computer/ Cell phone or the basic needs??? Well this seems to be a debatable topic for sure. I read Venkatesh , Arun Rajappa and NYTimes on
this topic and it made me to ponder with thoughts.

Venkatesh in his blog asks

“Did anybody bother to find out from the "poor" in "underdeveloped countries" what they really want? “

I think technology companies are doing their best in getting technology/computing to reach to even the poorer so that they can also get to see what it is all about. I understand that the poor still suffer from not getting even the basic needs fulfilled, but what we should see here is the hidden benefits that it might bring out and not the visible problems that already exist. Well visible problems are not getting the basic needs in the first place, but the important hidden benefit could be the fact that the poor would also “think” about technology and computers. Is it not true that everything surfaces from how you think and if a poor could think better will it not directly help him in his betterment and will he be not well aversed to face the real world when he grows up??

Friday, January 27, 2006

 

Microsoft Update

Microsoft has announced that it would make the source code available to rivals and others, so far their stand was not to reveal any source code, seems they have given up on that. Redherring suggests that they are frustrated.

In another news, Microsoft had announced of revenue of 11.84 billion dollars for quarter ended December 31, 2005. Wow thats lot of money, with the windows vista around the corner in a year or two the company is sure to scale more revenue. I am also surprised on whats holding Microsoft not to release the Windows Live Messenger yet, its important to note that Yahoo, GoogleTalk and Skype are giving almost everything and anything with their Messengers.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

 

Give it Google

The US Justice Department is putting pressure on Google to hand over the data of millions of searches that’s performed with Google. Already Microsoft and Yahoo had abided by the request and had seemed to have given the required details.

Google in my opinion should have also given the required details, I really don’t understand on why they don’t want to do that. After all it’s the government who is asking for the details and its very much for sure that they will keep the data received very confidential. Google think about it, the government has the power and potential to gather/collect all the required details by various means, and why should Google think that its user’s privacy would be breached if they submit the details.

And the US government is also acting weird in my opinion, seems the action is part of a government effort to revive an online child pornography law. So the government thinks that your searches in the internet would reveal the actual, "who you are". It would have been wiser that if the US government first process the details received from Yahoo and Microsoft searches and see whether it actually leads to anything and if yes, put pressure on Google to reveal the details based on the fact.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

 

Windows Live Messenger

I have been using Windows Live Messenger beta for sometime now and found it to be good than compared to any previous versions. But I am not sure on why they are still in beta and haven’t opened it for all users, as we see that Yahoo, Skype gives exactly the same or even more features that WLM has planned/promised.

“What you will be able to do with it
• Send all your familiar winks and emoticons, plus some cool new ones
• Have real-time text, video and voice conversations*
• Call your friends’ mobile or land-line telephones by signing up for MCI Web Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily share documents of all kinds with Sharing Folders
• Make free PC-to-PC calls with other Messenger users”

BTW, I have some 8 invitations left, if you want to try WLM beta let me know.

The tool look and feel have changed but does not impress me much, the GUI looks heavy when compared to sleek look of Yahoo and has many unwanted Tabs. 98% of the mails I receive is spam and the other 2% is from Microsoft itself. Huh! most of the people I know have discontinued using hotmail due to so much spam. Check this interview to really understand on how Hotmail works, its aptly titled "Mount everest of email services".

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

 

Blink & Hindsight

How much do you think it would take to judge a website??? Research has found out that it’s just a brief one-twentieth of a second.

“In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site”

I read this post from Guy Kawasaki on hindsight, really interesting and worth reading. Go ahead and read it, sometimes you bookmark a site without thinking much and would like to comeback regularly, Guy`s site was one such.

Monday, January 16, 2006

 

WoIP - Wedding over Internet Protocol

A very interesting wedding reported by BBC.

“Rita Sri Mutiara Dewi, from Bandung in Indonesia, and Wiriadi Sutrisno, who is currently living in California, got to know each other through the internet.

Their 25-minute wedding ceremony was also conducted via remote technology, using video, phones and a web cam.

The bride is due to meet her new husband for the first time later this month, when she flies to the US.

"We've exchanged photos, do (internet) chatting almost daily and often call each other, but never met," said Rita, 50, of her 52-year-old spouse.

"I think they did it to cut costs. Such technology has made long-distance marriages possible," Mahmur Suriadiredja, Telkom's West Java regional director in Bandung, told Reuters news agency. The ceremony cost just 200,000 rupiah ($21.30), he said. “

Read the complete Story from BBC.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

 

iPod friendly Jeans

Apple iPod have sold 42 million units so far, that’s really a very huge number. So how does it impact the fashion world ?? Make iPod friendly clothings, that’s the latest and seems Levi`s is already planning for that. Check this story

“Denim giant Levi Strauss said on Tuesday it had designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player, featuring a joystick in the watch pocket to operate the device.
The Levi's RedWire DLX Jeans for men and women, which will be available this fall, also have a built-in docking cradle for the iPod and retractable headphones. Pricing was not immediately available.”


Hmm, well there are already people stiching iPod compatable dresswares.

Monday, January 09, 2006

 

CES Follow-up & Google Pack

The much awaited Consumer Electronic Show is over, and I guess what really turned out from that. Following the details through media/internet actually does not get the real picture on everything that’s been displayed, as only the major players or big events ( Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) were mainly covered and rest went unnoticed (at least in media).

Google Introduced Google Pack, the idea is really good. I also went through the same issues on installing stuffs when I got a new PC and Laptop; you need to install different stuffs to get your machine to work to your satisfaction.

But I also required the following,

Hotmail, Yahoo & Google Instant Messengers
QuickTime Player
Codec
Windows Power Toy Calculator
Macromedia Flash Player
Shock Player
Java- Latest
Real VNC
Cygwin
Roxio Easy CD DVD Creator

Still Google Pack is good considering nobody else thought about it, Google has the habit of thinking out-of-box, I wish they will make more additions to the pack.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

 

Cash Reserves

I was suddenly interested to know how much cash reserves some of the big companies hold and found the following details. Before that,

What is Cash Reserve?

A cash reserve is a pool of funds (and sometimes credit) that you hold in a readily available form to meet emergency and other highly urgent, short-term needs. Sometimes, it is referred to as an emergency or contingency fund.

Cash Reserves of some big companies are like

Microsoft 40 billion
Toyota 20 billion
Intel 12 billion
GE 8.8 billion
Google 7 billion
IBM 4 billion
EBay 1 billion

Hey, I don’t vouch for the approximates for the details given and don’t blame me if suddenly someone goes from Cash Rich to Cash Poor.

Enron literally had no cash reserves and seems nobody noticed it and finally it became bankrupt. One interesting article on the “Fall of Enron”.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

 

Consumer Electronic Show

2006 International Consumer Electronic Show is scheduled in Las Vegas from January 5-8. Well I wish I could attend , it has very special leading technologist addressing in the show.



Lot of expectation from it, the buzz is Larry Page, Google`s co-founder will announce or show off a new google product, which is rumuoured as Google PC that would run Google`s own OS.

I am wondering whether Bill Gates another speaker for the event will have something surprising from his side aswell. I am eagerly waiting for the conference outcome.

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