Android revelation: Roughly 3 years ago

Yahoo Go!

Roughly about 3 years ago, I wrote this following piece in a daily. It concerned about some announcements by two giant search engine super powers: Yahoo and Google.


I guess it's pretty clear now, who has the upper hand in certain areas. Yahoo obviously didn't expect Android to be as big as it is now - they were treating it just as another Operating System and that they would land support to the OS.


As it turned out, Google wasn't goofing off - they now have a very significant chunk of the mobile OS market on tablets and smartphones. 

First and last time to CES...

My guess is that after showing off how unfazed or rather how they were still retaining 'status quo,' Yahoo was actually distracted by a lot of things. Admittedly Jerry Yang made a very good impression when I was there among hundred of others at CES - he talked about how Yahoo was banking on its Yahoo Go! on mobilephones and such. He showcased cool location based services - well more like how it would work and look like, but not really ready yet at the time for the rest of us.

The two chief Yahoos: Jerry is on the far right, Boerries in the Middle.

The cafeteria even had halal food meats served on certain days!

One of the rooms they had their employees name

A week later, back in Malaysia we heard on the wires how Yahoo was laying off thousands of people! Yikes! And I actually liked the Yahoo headquarters that we visited in Sunnyvale; especially the cafeteria. The surroundings there made you feel that they cared for making their staff happy and that they listened to their people for ideas. They even have rooms named by employees and have hack days where anyone with an idea can and will be heard.


Now looking back in retrospect; thinking of what went wrong, I guess if there was anyone that should have seen it coming, Yahoo should have. If Yahoo didn't then I guess we can't blame ourselves for not seeing it coming.




 But come it did...

Original URL was: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/techNu/Monday/Notebook/20080218152854/Article/index_html


Widget versus Android


 

IT might sound like a cult sci-fi movie title from the 50s, but it’s not. It does, however, concern two superpowers in the Internet realm – Yahoo and Google. The year 2008 certainly has proven to be a fast-moving one. It was just earlier in the year when Yahoo unveiled its plans at CES 2008, Nevada, and gave us glimpses into what the company’s future looks like.

A few weeks later, it was reported that Yahoo was suddenly laying off 14,000 staff. And just two weeks ago, the news came that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo yet again after similar attempts in the past.

Last week came the news that the main Internet search engine, Google, has just released its much-awaited Android operating system at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona.

Well, it seems that the battle has just escalated to mobile devices. This is of course, not surprising, given that Yahoo’s projection said that the mobile market segment will reach four billion phones by 2010.

From the likes of it, Yahoo will have to be on its toes in order to survive all these external pressures. It is doing so with the power of widgets/widgetry if you please.

Ironically, the way that both Yahoo and Google are going about laying their stake on this new territory are one and the same. This involves making it easy for a lot of people such as developers, advertisers and publishers to get on board and be profitable.

In Yahoo’s case, the company wants to make it extremely easy for mini-applications called widgets to be made by anyone who is familiar with .XML coding. Yahoo has been widget crazy and driven for some time.

This is proven by its purchase of Pixoria, the company behind Konfabulator years ago. Pixoria used to make widgets for the Mac OS.

Similarly, in Android’s case, Google wants to make it easy for developers to quickly and cheaply write applications for mobile phones, minus the licensing fees.

Both ideas are the same as they are different: one wants you to invade your mobile/smartphone via a client called Yahoo Go (which is needed to run the widgets), and another wants to have its operating system on your phone.

The Yahoo Go 2.0 is supposed to be already available for over 300 devices. Such a “soft-invasion” might have better acceptance by various manufacturers, and it also means that widgets can be written once and used in many devices, regardless of manufacturers or platforms. Hence, the beauty of widgets.

In the case of Andriod, Google intends to provide what seems to be another platform altogether. However, just like open source OS such as Linux, this might pose some problems. Granted this can only be qualified in due time when we actually get to see, use and feel Android.

OSes also tend to require more time to mature into a stable platform. Take Windows Mobile, for example, it only started to reach a degree of reliability and stability after Windows CE 3.0 (Microsoft Windows Pocket PC).

Needless to say, the lesser Windows CE (or WinCE for short) 1.0 to 2.0 made a lot of people WinCE. In those days, Palm OS reigned supreme. But it serves to show that diligence and financial stability does make the OS better.

It all boils down to how long can an OS developer sustain itself to get better. Is Google game enough to do this? Only time will tell.

Teething problems and a rocky road will definitely be abound for Android. Google will have to toughen its resolve, especially since the company is not just aiming for the mobile phones market.

Google’s chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt believes that Android would start an entire new wave of innovation unseen before in the industry. He is confident that this platform will amaze users by the amazing things it will be able to do on their mobile devices.

What does Yahoo think about the invasion of the Android? Will it disrupt the Yahoo widget invasion plan for the mobile phone space in 2010?

Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo Connected Life, cited at the recent CES that “Android is just another operating system. We’ll support it by giving its users a great user experience with Yahoo Go.”

Well, Yahoo Go on the Android? Now who’s invading who? Let’s see how it goes.

Run OS X, Linux or Windows on Chrome Notebook

Link to Google Chrome OS Cr-48 running OS X & Win 7 videos

In doing some follow-up research with my attempts of running Android Live (for the PC), I'm also looking at other OSes such as Jolicloud, MeeGo and Chrome OS plus Chromium OS. Granted at least two will not run on my old test machines, since they're specifically made for the Netbook platform (which I don't really like, but they're cute and easy to take along).

I came across one article at Tom's Hardware (ok, so not everyone likes Tom, but this is still relevant) - it had some lucky guy who has two (count 'em) two Google Chrome OS test machines! And he even installed OS X & Windows 7 - whatever for? No idea. Maybe just to see if it can be done - to check out the hardware compatibility I suppose...

What do I have in my arsenal? An old Fujitsu P2120 Lifebook running on a now extinct 800Mhz Crusoe chip, a Compaq 1.5Ghz Centrino machine (forgot the exact model) which the power supply just got busted, an NEC Pentium 4 2Ghz machine and my favourite Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 1.3Ghz Centrino machine. All of these, were hand-me-downs, in exception of the CF-29, which I bought 2nd hand and fixed it up a little...The CF-29 has an advantage over the other machines though- it has a touchscreen, which makes sense installing an OS like Android which is built around the technology. It might not support multipoint - but it somewhat works.

The problem is that I have not been 100% successful in running Android Live on the CF-29. Oh, yes it runs, just that I haven't been able to get the OS to find stuff out of the box, i.e. the networking/WiFi, sound and some stuff are missing. Alternatively, the other route besides booting from the live CD, is to use the .iso image with Oracle's VM Virtualbox with the free Daemon Tools Lite (you can get these off the Net for free for non-commercial use).

You can imagine how my hopes were dashed when the touchscreen seemed to work in Android Live but you're all dressed up but you can't go anywhere :-(

I'll post up the progress when I make some headway on these teeny OSes on the PC. Does anyone have a Netbook to spare for testing?

Are these OSes going to have a niche on the PC? I reserve my opinions until I can say with confidence whether this is auta or not!

Motorola Defy Yowza! I wannit!

Here's the sorta phone that I would really like to have - I'm a tough/rugged gadget enthusiast (due to all those SAS, Andy McNab books and such), a outdoorsman wannabe and a unrepentant tech geek. And the Defy would definitely go well next to my Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook.

It runs on Android! OK, so it's not like your garden variety Linux distro*... But it's a really geek-centric mobile OS. Plus its got tonnes of apps up for free at the Marketplace.

The Defy is a tough Android 2.1 phone and features elemental resistance to dust, water, impact and scratches of the harsh outdoors.

Great bod!

It has that familiar 'touch-tablet' form but with some great ruggerised features such as impact and scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and built to withstand spills and dusty environments. It is also light at 118 grams.

I just love the fact they've tried to build it tough. I wish I'd have a review unit to try out to see whether it's all up to hype. I've seen some reviewer blogs plopping the Defy into a glass of water.

If I ever get one for review (my day job requires me to test out and review some models), let's see if the claims are auta or not shall we?

Display

The Defy comes with a 3.7 inch FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) which is nothing much to shout about these days, but some concessions are necessary to allow the Defy to be made more ruggerised thanks to Gorilla Glass and overall body construction.

Processor

Defy has a 800Mhz OMAP3610 processor which is more than enough to run the Android 2.1 Eclair Operating System.

Memory

Defy has 512MB of RAM and 2GB of ROM and 1.2GB of user available memory. Adding to the memory is possible using the SD Card Slot.

Connectivity

Besides the regular phone stuff, the Defy supports HSUPA 2.0 Mbps, Corporate Sync, Bluetooth, Firmware Over the Air and USB.

Battery

The battery has been rated at 1,540 mAh, which Motorola rates up to 6 hours of talk time and 9.9 days of standby. I'd take this with a pinch of salt...

Camera

Defy has a 5MP camera with LED flash and video supports H.264 (VGA video playback at 30 frames per second) and MPEG4.

Price?
RM1,599! Which is not bad all things considered. Of course, there are others out there which can be had for less. There are Android 2.1 phones like from Alcatel and Samsung which cost between RM680 to RM860. But these are entry level ones. The Alcatel OT-980 has a cheap TFT 2.8 inch screen, which doesn't really duke it out these days...

What you pay, just like in the case of the Toughbook, is (no its not the macho, tough guy image) the premium grade materials and well thought of design to give you a bit more assurance that your gadget will survive harsh environments and rough usage...

Unlike the Toughbook though, the Defy doesn't look like that it can take a bullet. A toughbook actually stopped a 7.62mm round (the type used in the notorious AK-47). But alltogether this would be a phone that I wouldn't worry about much about for the bump and grind of daily life.

*Some folks would know that I'm a Ubuntu pusher - it's a sado-macho relationship. It stresses me out but it makes me really happy when I figure out how to fix or tweak things in Ubuntu. I like the challenge. Oh, I also have OLD hardware to up the difficulty level.

Fixed up my Toughbook

I've fixed up my Toughbook. OK. It's not really brand new. In fact it's considered to be a bit long in the tooth: Centrino 1.3Ghz, 1.2GB RAM, 160GB hard disk drive and a bit banged up in the beginning. If you're one of my pals who've seen in before I did this paint job thing, you'd know there was a huge dent and flaked off paint, right above the centre hinge part of the magnesium alloy cover...

So I've plugged the hole up with some metallic-epoxy resin putty, sanded the CF-29 (that's the Toughbook model) and painted it errrr several times. I've done some customising jobs before on some older laptops and PCs sometime ago but those weren't very good jobs....

First I took the 'repainting the original' path and attempted to spray the beast silver after (sufficient masking to prevent paint going onto the screen, keyboard and other parts). Take my advice, the silver spray paint in the can makes your custom job look cheap - it made the anondized magnesium alloy cover look like plastic painted silver...

So what did I try next? Green & black - the 'x' crevice motif on the cover filled with black. Then I realised that: great now it looks too much like Ben 10! This was confirmed by a 6 year old too.

So Army Green from Samurai paints was the last colour I tried and my wife thinks the colour suits the Toughbook - or it could be that the family can't bear breathing in the fumes for so many days.

If you count all the layers of paint, after re-sanding the rough parts and respraying - I think I've got over 10 layers of paint on this thing.

Well. It's a project. Sometimes fixing up stuff and doing this sorta thing is somewhat therapeutic for yours truly...

My guess by now would be you asking & saying: Why in hell would you want to get a Toughbook? The one you've got is old and a Netbook would have sufficed! - That will be answered in the next post.

Not passing the Buck: A Golden Virtue?

"That's what I like about you. You don't try to run away after you've done something," said Mr. Larsen, our Technology Class teacher at Dewitt Middle School, Ithaca, N. York. He said this to me in the presence of the other Grade 6 kids.

I was totally unprepared for the reaction - I really thought that I would 'get it' this time. The crime? Well those hack-saws with the flimsy blade break off very easily. Tech 101 is one of those classes where they teach you woodwork, metal sheet bending, how to do copper tooling, make cookie cutters, solder, drill stuff, make rockets (yep model rockets that actually fly) and even how to handle a blow-torch! It was a really cool class - I savoured the third or fourth periods when I had the classes twice a week.

Back to the saw- well the blade snapped off after trying to negotiate a curve while cutting a block of wood for a fish-shaped cutting board, if memory serves me. I left the saw in the tool box. When Mr. Larsen came in he asked: "who broke this?"

Every kid was looking at me, all quiet. Maybe they were afraid that one of them would take the fall. No one needed to. I raised my hand. Mr. Larsen smiled and said those words that I still remember today. Instantly, I knew I had done the right thing.

"These snap off quite easily - if you're not careful," Mr. Larsen said while he took out a brand new blade and replaced the blade. No fuss about it. This is where I learnt a lesson; a noble one which no school or university for that matter could teach you: fess up to your doing- don't pass the buck.

It was quite sometime ago; back in 1985-86 to be exact when my parents were in the States. My dad was finishing up his PhD. in Communications and Liberal Arts (whatever that is) in record time at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Similarly when I was in Standard 3 or 4, back in Serdang, Selangor I had another prior episode- but it didn't sink into me why I actually did it. We were told to keep quiet in class one day. I had to speak to my best buddy in class. We got into trouble and were told to stand on the desk. What did I do? I said that my buddy didn't talk to me - it was me that disturbed him. It was me that talked to him. Probably surprised, the female teacher (can't remember her name) took a few seconds to digest and told my buddy to sit down. They must have all thought I was weird. But I guess it's an ingrained feature seared into my fibres. I knew to let someone else suffer from my wrongdoing was morally wrong - karma and spiritually aside.

The point? Well if I can figure something like this out when I was still a kid, why do people that I see today, can't seem to figure this out? I see people and bosses that wash their hands completely and passing the blame, monkey, buck or whatever name you want to call it, to an underling. This is how they survive and progress in their career.

IT IS SICKENING. Especially when certain people profess to be of strong religious or moral character/fibre. A senior management person I know does this 'tai-chi' stunt often enough to bolster his position by not taking the blame and passing the buck. This management style, is no style at all- it is a cancerous growth that starts with a malingering git and destroys an organisation from within. Auta-betul!

Casino 01

Casino 01, originally uploaded by zeeman01.

I have some shots of my trip last year to the Mobile GSMA Congress 2007 in Macau - was staying at The Venetian.

On the Road - Perlis MOSTI Roadshow

I was up north in Perlis last week for another exhilarating round of the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation's nationwide roadshow - It was a good affair it seems with busloads of schoolkids ready to fertilize their minds with the endless possibilities that science can offer to them...

Second angkasawan Mejar. Dr. Faaez was there. Nice chap. I must say the popular public opinio that I gathered on the fair grounds was that he's the better liked amicable person. But that's a matter of opinion of course.

Now the reason why I'm writing this: remember the last blog entry about the National Science Centre? Well they did a good show in Perlis. A lot of people, schoolkids and teachers included made a beeline to their area...They took along some of their permanent exhibits and made up some new ones as well.

And guess what? Some of the exhibits which I wrote earlier, i.e. not working etc. , were in fact working fine at Dewan 2020 in Perlis! They apparently fixed them for this show! Well I hope they'll fix the others back in KL as well...