The opinions expressed here
Please note the opinions expressed by myself on this blog are solely my opinions and not to be taken as a statement of my employer, IBM Corporation.
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O.k. so I’ve been away from my blog for some time. Sorry about that, but you know life is complicated and sometimes you just need a break.
Thanks to our good computer president, I am now fired up to write about his recent comments. In case you’ve missed his words they are here for you in black in white:
“The PC is not likely to be challenged by the tablet or the smartphone, and many users of the Internet on these devices will turn to the PC for a better experience, Michael Dell said in Bangalore on Monday.”
Wow! This is reminiscent of the remark “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943″
Wake up Mr. Dell, right now it is the tablet that is giving us (the people) our finest experience with computers. I am just overwhelmed by my love for Flipboard and Google Currents, so much so that I literally abandon my laptop to consume the world through my tablet every evening and all weekend.
If the PC is not challenged by the tablet, then someone is thinking upside down. Just this week CloudOn has given me yet another reason to abandon my laptop. The point here is that for the first time in years the tablet is offering users things they cannot get from their laptop. Last night I watched my wife reach up to touch her laptop screen, only to then laugh at catching herself as though she had a tablet or smartphone in her hand. Maybe it’s that gestures are awakening a deep desire to have more than a keyboard or mouse. I actually am using an Apple Trackpad with my DOS computer cause I have graduated to loving gestures. Sure it’s a little bit difficult when you first start and you are so cerebral that you try to remember what does 1 finger do as opposed to 2 fingers, but once you let go of that side of the brain and just ride it, you don’t even think about it.
The obvious is that Mr. Dell is not daily using a tablet with cool apps or he’d be saying to himself, “hmmmm, what does my company need to do with its products to change this picture?” I’m sure the folk at Lenovo aren’t making statements like Mr. Dell. It continues to fuel the desire behind Microsoft to regain it’s mobile market eh? Wonder how many millions they’ve put on this cause?
I only can hope that he’ll wake up and get it right, as this was a very foolish, trite and small statement. One I’m sure he’ll regret having made some time in the future if not already.
Here the link the the whole article: Original that I read
Well time for a little ranting, I mean this is a blog, so why not rant….rant on!
Number one – politics are a raging subject these days, especially whether or not we in America are becoming a socialistic country. This of course has come on all the heels of the infusion of money to save the banking/investment industry, and then we have the great leveling of the masses with universal health care. So every man should have a chicken in their pot, thank you Uncle Sam, and by the way the kids can pay for it.
We in America have watched for years how socialism destroys initiative. We’ve also seen the opposite as capitalism has changed the face of a society when people sensed that their own initiative would be rewarded. (the greatest example is the huge change in China where the common man has seen opportunity unbridled).
Well I’m here to say that I think what happened this week to Apple is a mark of socialism. For those who don’t follow tech news, Apple was told this week to make room for Google and Adobe in their software line. Interesting how the pundits now glory in all the wonderful opportunities this is bringing to Google and Adobe. No one seems to say, “this stinks”! Well I’m here to say it stinks. It stinks because why should any American company have to have the Federal government step in and tell it how to run it’s business? It for me is just too arbitrary. Well I guess I sound naive, as the government does step into many an American business every day of the year. It just seems such a fine example, of how government oversteps its role. Supposedly it is helping prevent some monopoly by Apple. Ha! Has anyone looked at the price of Google stock? This is the pot calling the kettle black. Where will the government be when the IPhone crashes because the Adobe code conflicts with OS? Well more than enough said, thanks for bearing with me.
Outrage number 2 – So this week Microsoft employees held a funeral for Apple and Blackberry as they introduce Windows Mobile 7. It’s gonna be a killer? I’m sorry but have people lost their marbles? I can understand a grand celebration for the long overdue OS for Windows Mobile, but a funeral? This for me is plain arrogance. Do people at Microsoft think that they are so superior that whatever they produce will be seen as the most magnificent boon to man? I guess I’m just too old fashion, I believe the actions speak louder that words. Maybe this could be said different…giving the consumer new technological advances, is more than crowing about your product. Microsoft acts as though they’re the only ones that know or understand software. This really is some kind of denial isn’t it? Like wake sleeping giant, and shake off the lethargy of being the big name, else you will go the way of Pontiac, Saturn and Oldsmobile. Your amusement at holding a funeral is not amusing to your consumers.
The bridge is here on the Ohio River as seen from my apartment on the 23rd floor. Thank goodness for wonderful sights to push away the coldness of disappointments seen in the marketplace.
Well, for my money Apple has gone and done it…yes…it was more than a rumor and Apple did announce on the 27th of January the new tablet, IPad. Now how do we know it will be a success? This is interesting because I believe in this case we know it will be a success because, “folks are already throwing apples”! Ha! Yes, the pundits have all lined up to nay-say why the new IPad will not be revolutionary. You’d almost think Apple had somehow whacked them personally on their skull. It’s a land of “cheap shots” now days on the Internet. The very thing that people were so worried about having the Internet, that as much as it’s a HUGE blessing, it’s laced with a ENORMOUS curse, and that is that people can stand back and be malicious without having to take the real heat of speaking their mind publicly. I mean why diss AT&T as though it’s the curse of the network world? Doesn’t anyone have any patience to see that we are on an evolutionary path and as the world dramatically changes there is going to be some pain?
Oh well, I jumped off the “throw apples factor”, but you get my point eh?
My hat is off to any company that wants to invent the future. In computing and the narrow market of OS and applications I really only see two powerful players doing this work and that is Apple and Google. I’m not sure why Microsoft isn’t a bigger player in the game, could it be that they are just too caught up in making a profit?
You have to be impressed that Apple one year ago said to themselves, “How can we revolutionize word processing, presentations and working with numbers?” As the new iWorks was demoed you have to say to yourselves, now there is a huge improvement in this core area of computing. Ha! This is where the pundits are failing to deliver good analysis. All they are comparing the IPad to is other hardware. Well, maybe Mr. Jobs started the war with the words, “this is no netbook”. Is a bit of truth to much to bear? All the investment in giving us flexible hardware (ease of having a netbook), but yes it’s so that netbooks are generally……s–l–o–w….and not a real replacement for a desktop computer.
Oh well enough rant for today, yes, I’ll be in line here in the future for my IPad, you can count on it! Go APPLE!
Wow, so much in the news about Apple having a tablet computer. It’s like Nirvana or looking for the Fountain of Youth, eh?
Actually does the world need another tablet computer? We see that now Lenovo has also jumped on the bandwagon and will have the Skylight.
I’m not certain we need a new tablet, but hey what about a new idea? You have to love that Skype will now put their client on your TV! Huh, you’d think the phone company would have done this long ago wouldn’t you? After all the video phone was supposed to be a big cool thing, only no one could think about what Skype is about to do?
Hopefully, Apple does more than introduce a tablet, let’s hope they are about to wow us with some new break through that will turn up the heat! yeah!!
No, this is not a commentary on folk who like to discard clothing, it’s a gripe about the way 4-way flashers are used in public.
First, so you understand my point of view, understand that I’m on the opinion that flashers were put on cars to say, “hey I’m on the highway, but for some reason I’ve come to stop, so you best be real careful around me!” I also agree that a school bus or large truck carrying hazardous materials should be able to use flashers near rail crossings to say, “hey, I need to come to a complete stop, to protect my load”.
This first major issue we have with flashers is that every state, province, country has the right to write different laws about 4-way flashers. Example: in Pennsylvania it’s the law that if you drop 15 miles below the posted limit you can put your flashers on as to say, “watch me, I’m not doingi the normal thing here!” I’ve also heard that other states have laws which state, the only usage of flashers is for stopped or emergency reasons. Ha! Then you get a whole boat load of folk that want to argue, “what’s an emergency!” (As this seems then to be abused as well).
My gripe is simply founded on 2 issues:
1) If flashers are suppose to be for stopped vehicles, then what is the meaning of people using flashers when they have just slowed down due to a rough conditions? To me this is a contraction. Are you stopped or are you slowing down? It would seem in other parts of legal code, we don’t allow for such double meanings. A stop sign is a stop sign, and you don’t perform a rolling stop or you can count on getting pulled over by the police.
2) My most grievous item on flashers, is that in rain storms, placing one’s flashers into a flashing mode for mile after mile, is fairly dangerous. I don’t know about you, but in a tough rain storm, flashing lights reduce my vision ability, as it is a constant distraction from the norm. Now here I would be willing to give an inch and say if you drop your vehicle suddenly down below the posted limit, it would a good thing to announce that by either pressing repeatedly on your brakes to flash vehicles behind you, or for a small amount of time until the car behind you catches up it would be o.k. to temporarily use flashers for a small period.
I do think FLASHERS are a good candidate for the country or the world to come out with a common usage policy and end the local laws, that may be unknown to others.
In practice I will not be using my flashers unless I’m stopped on the side of the roadway, in the possible path of on coming traffic, as I want others to know I have a situation that has me stopped or coming to a near stop. I will continue to use my brake lights to warn vehicles behind me that I’m slowing down.
I know this is a small item in life considered to bigger problems, I’m just exhausted by those who are driving mile after mile with flashers on when the vehicle behind them has already understood and has slowed themselves.
I believe in the age old inspiration which says: THINK
Huh! I have a real blend of thoughts running through my mind. . .
First, I appreciate all the dear friends who have wished me well, as I leave IBM. There seems to be so many different exciting things out there to choose from, I’m wondering just where I’ll start. The most tempting words come from friends who are independent consultants and are so happy living outside the corporate culture of the big corporate houses.
In a way the adventure on this stream of thought began back in May when I met a most likeable gentleman named Mike Israel. He is a Business Application Manager and over lunch he told me of how he had migrated from consulting life to the life of living as a corporate employee. He mentioned how things so dramatically change when you embark into the corporate world.
It does make you wonder doesn’t it, how culture can be a burden to some folk, and they though strong in ability find something stifling in the midst of the corporate scene. It makes one think we have much inventing yet to embark into the 21st century eh? Here we see ourselves so sophisticated, and yet our corporate cultures are old and salty.
It’s similar to the telephone industry. Aren’t you just loving the big debate around Google Voice, AT&T, and Apple, and now everyone is saying, “I didn’t do it!”. What a laugh this is, but the stark truth is that our ideas about communications are old and stale. Who can rescue us from this lethargy? Do we really have to wait for people to get all upset and angry before we go about reinventing ourselves? Hats off to Google for giving us fresh insight into possibilities.
My email box this week has just been full of too many Internet farces. I’m tired of the off cuff remarks that America should only be speaking English. Huh? How can we be so dull of character to think everyone should be like us? My life is so rich through my studies of Latin, French, Greek, Hewbrew, Italian, and Portuguese. We need to be ashamed of our stick-in-the-mud attitudes. I realize we are feeling the discomfort of a fast changing world, but we can’t put our head in the sand like an ostrich, eh? Also along this same line, is the silly email about how things were so wonderful when we were kids. Oh yeah? A key learning for me in the past year, is all about living in the now. Yes, I’m fond of memories, but balance is also about finding the silver lining in my present place. It’s been written that one should find happiness in want and in great blessing, so let’s live in the present and in the now.
It’s encouraging to see some signs of recovery eh? Glad to know the housing market jumped this summer and some things are on the move. Hey, we’ll take it! Sorry to hears the CARS program has so soon ended, this seemed to be a cool stimulus in spite of the way the program was to be run. Just hope those dealers get their monies are not left holding the bag.
Oh and let’s dream too! Some friends want to go crusing in the Baltic next summer (2010). That sounds so cool, more things to see that I’ve never seen! The world is a great place. My work at IBM has taken me to some awesome places too. Some of my work locations have been: Switzerland, Shanghai, Singapore, Barcelona with many side trips. Hehe, but as stated about that is the past, the future is here today, so I’ll dream about the Baltic Sea. Ahhh, you can dream too!
Howdy friends! I’ve been such a busy person lately, I’ve failed to keep up here with blogging on my observations and thoughts. I can truthfully say that I’m not lazy, just a bit too consumed with ensuring many little details of life are being addressed.
I finished up the end of July on a wonderful project in Philadelphia for Shire (pharmaceuticals). They are a great team of professionals and they needed my services to help them effectively take their in progress project and bring it home through some additional, careful planning and focus. It was a project where one can lose sight of the goal as the components were just so numerous and diverse. During the project life they had also made a very large change to their scope, so this brought in an additional layer of complexity. For a small, medium business they also had set their goals on a very large scope of work to accomplish, so there was little rest along the way for the team to keep up the enormous drive needed in such a project.
The project does remind me that in HR systems, it is very key to partnership with the right people. For many years, I’ve just been a team leader and let project managers worry about the big stuff like building partnerships, but since now I’ve also worked for some 4 years full time as a project manager, now I can observe the importance and delicacy of partnering. What we may fail to admit is that no one person or discipline has all the answers to the complex items that come our way. It is also to say that our particular discipline may lack particular skill sets needed for multi-dimension projects.
I’m uncertain why we feel so proud to admit our need of others, but it is a key to finding success in today’s adventures. If I’ve seen a major failure in companies today, it’s that they fail to observe other successful companies or projects. We got so thrilled to finally be working on a special project, and pulling together the plans, that we fail to say to ourselves, “why not go to another firm and ask questions about lessons learned?”.
Another issue we have is our own “pain points”. We become so familar with those things deterring us, we get locked into just trying to address these items. This is why hiring an outside firm to help us accomplish goals, has a way of paying huge dividends. An outsider can see many times the bigger picture and can help bring to the table the idea that people need to broaden their horizons. It’s funny how we get locked into our own thinking and can’t see the forest from the trees.
Well, keep up the great work and let me know if you have any comments, ideas on this front, as at the end of the day, I love to see breakthroughs.
Just watched the hour and 20 minutes of the introduction of Google Wave.
Like it must be unreal to work at Google. If we need a Stimulus, then someone should be looking at the thought model going on in Google. They have to be doing something very, very right!
I’m overwhelmed with Google Wave. Actually, maybe it’s late into the evening, but the ideas in the hour plus introduction is just like eating one Sundae after another, you almost stand back and say to yourself, when will the innovation stop….it just keeps rolling out. Not that I am just thrilled with the idea of Wave, but it’s the whole concept or principle things that rock me. Working backwards, the idea of Federation. WOW, this is a huge breakthrough as no corporate group wants to give up their firewall, as converations inside the walls, should stay in the walls when they are central to the strategy of a corporation….BUT…the idea that there should be public discussions that cross borders is just something long overdue as we MUST become a network beyond the four walls of corporate America. You think that is great….oh my goodness, these guys already have an extension or bot, not totally sure….that allows collaboration in 40 languages. This has to be a wonderful, wonderful thing to the world, as how much we as a planet must reach beyond our geography. Lastly, the idea of REAL TIME in Wave just rocks. Instant Messaging wake up!!! Wave is setting the absolute model for next generation.
Job well, done Google Rock Stars!!!! Can’t wait to see this one hit the streets, it’s just too cool. I found this on YouTube (thanks Matt!!) but you can also grab this through: http://wave.google.com as it seems to be a central info site for what’s happening. Check my Twitter lines to find the URL to YouTube.
Yes, another fabulous chapter in Star Trek history has hit the theaters. Hollywood has done a superb job of story telling and inspiration for the young and old alike. It’s a must see.
The first thing that struck me was why Jim T. Kirk leaves his home of Iowa to join the Federation. Here’s something for corporate America to think about. Why does any young person want to work for a company? Why should young people lock themselves to $20K to $40K a year worth of schooling for 4 to 8 years? So much of culture today has been focused on “me” and “my career” and so much of corporations have given up on the “parental” model and are expecting young people to seek them out for a just get ahead for “my” career. After all, “it’s all about me!”
Well stand back because Mr. Kirk leaves his “me” life because he catches some small glimpse of something bigger than himself. He’s swept away by a dream. Well yeah, he really doesn’t know much about where he’s going or what he’ll become but the emotion of finding something worthy to step up to is strongly projected and the emotion is elevating. All you leaders out there i hope will think long and hard about creating something that draws people out of the “me” world into a world of making a better world for future generations. I’ve never been privileged to going the armed forces of the U.S. but that is something armies do, they call upon people to think about others and big ideas like freedom, helping others and making the world a safer place to live. I don’t see enough if this inspirational leadership happening in the work a day world. We’re afraid to even speak to people about having beliefs such as this, it sounds too soft, too touchy-feelie. Huh! Wrong!
Friendship is another theme highlighted in the 2009 Star Trek movie. It’s refreshing to hear Spock declare his unending ideal of being a forever friend of James T. Kirk. Sorry, but for me you can have money, a friend that is true is a priceless thing in today’s world is it not? It reminds me of how I’ve committed myself to be faiithful to others and that others can count on me at all times. We live in a very frighenting world, where people have come to a place we almost don’t know whom to trust. It makes us cold. I happened to travel through the airport this past weekend end and met a man flying here from Sweden. He was coming as his Mother-in-Law’s house had burned to the ground this past week. Of course, I was quite empathetic to this person and even socially helpful, but what struck me later thta evening was why had I not said to him, “here’s my telephone number, if you need someone to ask a question, please call me”. I failed on that point. O.k. I must remember to be a friend in today’s world, even if it means I may get hurt, as there is nothing as worthy as being a friend who cares about others. I hope others will want to be faithful friends to me as well.
I could go on and on, but will keep this short in the interest of not overloading my reader. A third idea about his movie is just that it has a strong ability to provoke emotions that we’re all familiar with and respect. We all face tremendous fear, we all face situations that could cause us to hate another and some of us will know the challenge to let go of dear things because we want others to get a chance at life and liberty. This movie has all of these tremendous values flowing through it. This to me is keenly important, as a bit of Sci-Fi is surreal these days. How can I identify with a person who can fly and can pound aliens into the ground? That’s not exactly me, but when a story can help me see how I could also live my life in a manner that helps others, then I have found a high value. I know for some again this sounds mushey, but stop and just measure this on the value that stories are like great art. They make us emote or identify with some special beauty that is beyond ourselves. They reflect on something or somewhere we’d like to be or not be. This is great art and Star Trek 2009 is a great movie.
So Microsoft is feeling the need to put Apple down these days? My, my Apple is so blessed to get so much press for so few dollars! You need to ask yourself why Microsoft is feeling the urge these days to attack Apple. It certainly isn’t because they are a small software company is it? No it seems market share of Micrsoft is starting down the path of shrinking ever so slightly. Even with the millions of PCs out there in the market and the need to expand cheap PCs around the world (who would have ever thought a laptop computer would be selling for $300 to 400?), the Windows market seems to have reached a maximum capacity of sorts.
I’d submit to you a few thoughts that has to be weighing on Microsoft’s mind. One, the operating system for a PC is just become a huge battleship sitting on the landscape of a PC. This isn’t really a new thought as how many industry analyst’s or PC gurus regularly complain about the MS OS? This past year I’ve played a lot with Ubuntu Linux, and though I’m not a super geek, it’s just amazing to me, to see my laptop zip along like a Ferrari while running Linux. Have you noticed the Walmart, Target mini laptops all run under Linux? Well how would one sell a computer for $300 and think they could put a $200 OS on the computer? I have a need for speed, and frankly Microsoft Operating System doesn’t have it. If my computer would not hiberanate, I think I’d be ready to throw out Microsoft all together. Why should I have to wait 3 to 5 minutes while my laptop loads all the junk it wants to have when the computer is fully up? Here in the U.S. how did the Toyotas, Hondas and Hyundais catch so much of the market? Yeah the basically said to the American market, big, gas-guzzling, and poor running (maintenance) is not the game. Will the software industry learn this lesson and apply it?
Lastly, I’m of the opinion that Apple has Microsoft just plain scared. The most pervasive device in the world is the cell phone and Apple is not only storming the market and already sitting at position number 2, but their product is a full blown computer and continues to morph every 6 months, into something bigger and better. Consider just three points, 1) they are in 80 countries of the world, o.k. MS is in a lot more; 2) they are approached 1 billion doownloads of software at their app store, o.k. this is not apples and oranges (no pun intended), but it means something is very successful and powerful and 3) their operating system is exploding, I’m mean when a 9 year old can develop a piece of software for the App Store, when has Microsoft done any such accomplishment. (I don’t doubt there are some 9 year olds who have programmed some small MS application, but does it have world presence in 80 countries of the world). Yeah, you get my point eh?
Oh well, sorry to rant on today, I just think He Who Slings Mud, Loses Ground. Let’s get on with MS and reinvent yourself, now! Blabbering and beating others won’t get you anywhere.
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