Matt’s Blog of Truth

In the era of social networks, twitter (the micro blogger), Word Press (blogging), blogger.com, Facebook, MySpace, Google Docs, RSS News Feeds, Flash based games, Buying and Selling online (endless e commerce going on), Wikipedia, Google.com and geez so much more.

The Web Browser, is by far, the most used software program of all time. The Killer App.

It is also the new dawning of Web Apps. With the maturing of JavaScript and tool kits like Dojo, JQuery, GWT, YUI and countless others, you can program your Web Browser to act like an application you installed locally on your computer. Yet, all of this is running inside, the once humble (Hyper Links, Images and Text), that the Web Browser once delivered. Web Apps still use traditional technology, but a simple addition to JavaScript, called AJAX, has transformed the Web Page from a static and non-interactive experience, into a lively and Dynamic experience.

This simple idea, of allowing a portion of the Web Page to update, without having to refresh the ENTIRE Web page, has spawned the Web App. It is always, the simplest concepts that make the HUGEST impacts. Ajax is a perfect example of this.

The Internet has exploded, people trust it for online shopping, via credit cards and merchants, like PayPal, Alertpay, 2checkout and more. Regardless, of a huge rise in credit fraud, mostly due to Spam and phishing for personal data, causing online fraud. But, the problems get fixed, the public gets informed to be more careful, and consumers keep on shopping.

TV media is now constantly mentioning Internet sites, and TV media is HUGE folks. I’ve heard the term, ‘just Google it’, on so many TV shows and in Block Buster films, along with, ‘I just updated my MySpace page.’.

In other words, the Internet has become tightly integrated in most aspects of life.

Gamers, that install their games locally on their machines, still refer to Internet gaming forums, to talk about their experiences. MMORPG’s, like Second Life, Ever Quest and EVE Online, all use the Internet to connect players, to interact as a single Gaming Universe.

OK, so what?

This is old news, right?

Well, the new big thing, taking advantage of this now, mobile reality, connected to the Internet, is a device called a Netbook.

A Netbook is a Laptop that is minified. It’s screen is usually, no bigger than 7-9 inches and about 2/3rds the size of a regular Laptop. Netbooks, run the Intel Atom CPU, which only used 2.5 watts of power. 2.5 compare that to a common laptops 25 watts.

• Desktop CPU - 65 watts
• Laptop CPU - 25 watts
• Netbook CPU - 2.5 watts!!!

What this means, is longer battery life, than a Laptop. I have heard reports, of the battery lasting an entire day of on and off use, without a recharge!

Netbooks also require less RAM, 500 megs average, with 1 gig tops. Compare that with typical Laptops, which universally come with 2 Gigs. The more RAM the more energy drain, on the battery.

A 16 gig hard drive, usually and SSD, or Solid State Disk, with NO MOVING PARTS. This means you can drop it on the floor, and the hard drive at least, will keep on ticking. We all known of the bumps and bruises, that our Laptops, on the go, receive on a daily bases. So, this is another huge selling point, for the Netbook. I have heard reports of people, typing away on their Netbook, while walking, because they do not fear the hard drive will crash, due to the installed Solid State Drive.

By the way, SSD drives are still very expensive, compared to traditional spinning platter drives (ATA, SATA, IDE, SCSI), but hopefully the Netbook will help bring down this cost.

Everything is just smaller, a bit more bump resistant, and less power (watts) hungry, on a Netbook.

Now, what does this all mean for Software makers, like Microsoft and Apple?

First Microsoft. Vista is so bloated, in every sense of the word. It simply can not run (very well), on a Netbooks minified hardware. Although, Microsoft will not be losing their tight lock on the whole Desktop Industry, anytime soon, it does allow Linux and Apple a chance to hop over Microsoft’s barbed wire, electrified fence, called a monopoly, and are installing alternative Operating Systems, on the Netbooks!

The release of Vista, could not have come at a WORSE time, than now.

Microsoft was betting on hardware just getting bigger and cheaper. Well, now that there are so many concerns about power consumption, a crashing global economy and a drain on earthly resources, industry is inventing new devices like Netbooks, to cope with the changing global outlook.

Netbooks, use less energy, less raw materials and are way cheaper than a modern laptop.

Netbooks, are now priced at $299 (down from $499) over at Dell and offered at Amazon.com. $299 for a laptop! That is less money than a Desktop! I would never have guessed, that laptops would become cheaper than a Desktop, literally out of the blue, with the arrival of the Netbook.

Netbooks were made popular by the arrival of the ASUS eeePC. Their default choice of Operating System, was Xandros. Xandros is a Linux Distribution. It is based on Corel Linux, a Debian-based distribution.

Seeing how well the eeePC was selling, in the millions, over night, sparked every other business to join in.

Now, Ubuntu’s Canonical has a Netbook, sold through Dell. Apple is announcing their own version. Microsoft has brought back XP, after announcing it’s retirement in July 2008, because Vista is simply too bloated to fit on the Netbook.

People, Business and individuals addicted to the Internet, are on the rise. You can add myself to the list of addicts. My whole life revolves around the Internet. I run a home based business, using Linux and the Internet. I read a lot of blogs and follow a lot of National and Global news. Ironically, I get my local news from my Wife’s dad (grandpa), that still reads the Newspaper! (OMG, he still reads the newspaper, I know!)

Anyways, I still prefer a regular sized Laptop. It is always plugged into the wall and generates ENORMOUS amounts of heat. A Netbook may be OK for using it to JUST browse the Web, which is a huge percentage of time spent, but for Development work, as a programmer, the Netbook might be a little TOO compact. It’s keyboard is very small, and takes time to get used it. It took me a while to get used to my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop’s keyboard.

But, the reality is, the hardware, is finally giving Microsoft some competition, since it is introducing other Operating Systems, like Linux Xandros and Linux Ubuntu, into the Market, once dominated (and still is, and will be for a long time) by Windows only and the Microsoft World.

As, most of us know, competition is good, as it drives prices down, forces better quality products, fixes software bugs and benefits the End Users. Competition MUST exist, or the Market becomes corrupted.

Bottom Line — Netbooks are allowing alternative Operating System the ability to enter the Desktop Market.

UPDATE [Nov/6/2008]: An interesting article out of Australia. goes indepth on the netbook threat it plays to Microsoft. It is a two page article. On the second page, the last remark made was this…

Equipping Linux on a computer costs about $US5, compared with $US40 to $US50 for XP and about $US100 for Vista, according to estimates by Jenny Lai, a Taipei-based analyst at CLSA.

To cut costs, computer makers such as Acer and Asustek opted for slower processors and less memory. On these systems, Linux can boot up twice as fast as XP, according to Acer’s website.

‘’The engineers designing computers understand that if they want to cut costs, the only way to do so is to get rid of Microsoft,'’ IDC’s Chang said.

Many argue that the reason Linux and F/OSS fails — fails in terms of what? — is that the community is too fragmented.

This could not be further from the truth, at the same time, is absolutely true.

On one front, they argue fragmentation leads to confusion and non cohesiveness. In other words, the big corporate computer companies like Microsoft, Sun, Apple and IBM, to name a few, are successful, because they operate under a single banner. Their own corporate banner. The ‘boss’, or Board of Directors, tells their employees what to do, and they do it. This leads to cohesive products that sell and get consumed — hopefully — by millions of people.

On the other front, this fragmentation is exactly the reason F/OSS is being adopted by millions of Internet Businesses and not just the Open Source enthusiasts. This fragmentation is F/OSS’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. Wrong. Anyone that claims this to be true, is mostly talking about MONEY and not much else. They are talking about Market Share, which translates into more money. Yes, when there are 500+ Linux Distributions to choose from, can become a bit bewildering.

But, that is all changing.

Ubuntu is making Linux Desktop ‘come together’ and Red hat has long offered a certified, Enterprise Level, Linux Server. The industry is only growing, month after month. If you read this recent article about Ubuntu’s continued success on the Desktop and Server fronts, you will see there is cohesion, thanks to Canonical. Canonical being the for profit company behind Ubuntu.

Now, F/OSS is strong on both fronts. Not only is it so fragmented, that it has so many contributors, that no ‘for profit’ corporation could match. The closest example of any corporation even coming close is Microsoft. But, now Linux and Open Source is developing, completely naturally with no pressure to do so, based on businesses backing the software. Examples include; Red hat, Novell/SUSE, Xandros and Canonical/Ubuntu.

This is not to mention smaller Linux backers like the company Everex, that produced the gOS. Linspire, which was acquired by Xandros. Let’s not forget Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrake Linux, a French Linux backer.

There are so many companies and individuals contributing to Free and Open Source, that it is nothing short of something special. Something unique and not seen before in humanity. All of humanity, connected through the Internet, breaks down the geographical and language barriers. American, Chinese, Japanese, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Spain and well, the entire world, contribute to GNU/Linux.

What this means, is that all this fragmentation benefits every Linux backer.

For instance, if someone contributes to the code base of the Linux Kernel, benefits every — all 500+ Linux distributions — that utilize the Kernel. If, someone contributes to any of the thousands of Open Source Projects, results in every Linux Distribution being able to update their software.

Now, you tell me, if fragmentation is a curse? It clearly is a blessing.

This comes as a big win for F/OSS. Russian Government has mandated laws, that all of their schools must use non-proprietary, that is to say Open Source software, by the year 2010, or those schools must pay, on their own, the fees of the proprietary software.

So, in other words, Russia is the first Nation to, make into law, the use of Open Source in schools, or the schools themselves must pay, not the Russian Government.

Not, a bad deal, considering Open Source is Free of charge and, in most cases, better quality software.

Read the original article here.

P.S. This coincides nicely, with the resent article, that basically said that China Demands Source Code. Also, in a recent Microsoft move (a bad move at that), decided to activate Microsoft’s Genuine Copy Protection for, MS dubbed, Anti-Piracy Day. For that entire day, probably a Billion Chinese computers were put into limited functionality mode, with a long threaten pop up license, stating that they are thieves and are doing illegal things with MS software. Namely XP or Vista.

So, MS is just shotting themselves in the foot. This only pissed off the Chinese, and probably raised Apple’s market share a point or two, perhaps even a few Linux shares were raised as well. Let’s hope MS continues to have more, Anti-Piracy days to come!

Now I know ‘what’ Google is. Google is an amazing technology company that turned Search into Billions a year in revenue. Google also is gushing with innovations. So many so I will link you to ALL OF THEM, (wikipedia), just browse it for a second, than come back and let’s talk about why Google is releasing all of this, making little revenue or fan fare with most of them. Example: Chrome was hugely hyped, now with it’s list of bugs, only less than 1% now use it. Many more examples are to follow.

Whether you quickly browsed through the Google ‘List of Products’ or not, I will just say there is well over 50+ products in there.

Everything from the latest Android Cell Phone to the Google Maps, Analytics, Gmail, RSS Reader and on and on. But, this then leaves us, what is Google really doing? Is it just trying to give back without much notice on trying to make revenues?

Often times, the projects from Google are developed in isolation, within the company. A great example of this is Android the Smart Phone and Chrome the Browser. Both would go great together, yet there are no rushed plans to get them better integrated. Their project leadership and dev teams might as well be on different planets.

An interesting article, about a guy who says, Android will be all dried up, soon. Now, us Open Source advocates do not want to hear that. I in most cases will dismiss such a remark as hog wash anyways. But, if you read the article, he makes his point very very clear.

Google is about Search. With 80+% and sucking more percentages in a day, Google is clearly Search Masters. It’s easy money folks, and will never go away. No matter if a Recession hits the economy, it is widely known that Advertising is one of the least effected markets. No matter what, sellers have to sell their products.

But, the potential for Google to make such products as Android and Chrome Browser so emensly successful is there. Just that, there is complete discontinuity in most of Googles products. Most of them first generate massive hype, then fizzle away into the background to join the long list of ‘back drop’ products.

I think Google’s main concern is Search. Also, to become too huge too fast, which it is already, is exactly what happened to Microsoft. Sure, MS is huge and makes billions, but it is also driven by greed, and it suited in court on a weekly basis, for anti-trust issues. I think Google, even could easily through Billions into any long list of amazing innovations and products they have produced, have largely decided to not become an 800 pound gorilla in too many areas, except Search Engines and Ads, they are willing to back off, and just let the open source world do what they want with it.

In a way, this makes sense. And, I praise Google’s top leadership of product overall mangement of recognizing the need to ‘Do no Evil’. But, is this really what Google, overall, is thinking? Maybe there is no Google Board of Directors even given the insight and power to push their products further into main stream markets. Maybe, Google set it up that way for the reason of not becoming evil.

Who knows? I would love to find out.

An interesting blogger and programmer, Jeff Atwood, which publishes one of the most popular Tech related Blogs on the internet, Coding Horror, brought up an interesting point.

By the way, I think Jeff Atwood, and the success of his blog, is a direct result of a guy that knows how to reach his readers, using interesting choice of words, but with an added touch of his personality, that makes you feel like you can trust the guy, even before actually meeting him.

Another famous programmer, blogger, business owner and book author, Joel Spolsky, actually holds the title of, Most Read Programmer Blog. Second, would be, that of Coding Horror.

Finally, the two collaborated and created, Stack Over Flow, which is an interesting, “Questions and Answers” site, making use of Ajax, giving the site a real time feel to it. The site really is unique, and I recommend any programmer, coming from any platform, to check their Web Sites out.

Anyways, the point Jeff brought up, which I often ponder myself, was what are programmers expected to do, when they get old? Just continue to pound away at code, until dieing flat out, face first on to his/her keyboard? There doesn’t seem to be a retirement plan for programmers.

Programmers tend to work on a contractual basis, mostly at start ups as they are born and die out, or the Programmer just losing interest in their job, to then move on to another. You can’t expect to build a ‘nest egg’, if one is moving from job to job.

Take for instance, Ken Thompson, one of the fathers of Unix. (The other father, is of a man, by the name of Dennis Ritchie.) Ken, currently works at Google, as a distinguished employee. And when the name, Ken Thompson, was mentioned in a Stack Over Flow podcast, by someone from Google, that also happens to be a well known tech blogger, no one paused to mention Ken Thompson, at all. I think mostly, because Jeff nor Joel are Linux programmers, they are both, Microsoft .NET programmers.

But, still. It goes to show, that even if you invent the mother of all Operating Systems, you are destined to, just be another employee at a job. Sure, Google offers retirement packages, for those that stick around long enough. But, in the field of Technology, the turn around rate is high. It is hard for companies to keep their talent, and make them stay in one spot, for more than a couple of years.

Maybe I am just over thinking this. Go figure, as all programmers do, but there is something to be said about the human life span and what we can or can not expect our (the programmers) retirement will be like.

Are we destined to “pound away at the key board” until the day we have a heart attack, and do a face plant into our key boards?

YouTube, acquired by Google, is the well known and popular web site for viewing videos, as well as being able to upload them.

It is the single largest collection of online, freely accessible Internet Video, bar none. YouTube, has also become a place to aquire knowledge, just as Web Sites around the world provide, using Google and other search engines, to get you there. YouTube is unique, in that, not only does it host all the material, but has grown so huge, that it’s Search capabilities have now surpassed that of the former #2 Search Engine, called Yahoo!.

Now, Google can lay claim that it owns the two most popular Search Engines, on the Internet.

Does anyone here smell a Monopoly?

Now, some would argue that YouTube is not a true search engine. All the material that is searchable is contained within the same site you are searching, YouTube. Most people that are searching on Yahoo! and Google do plan to move off of the search site and goto the site that has the most accurate search result. Therefore, YouTube is not, technically, a search engine.

But, I argue that YouTube, with it’s vastness, is like a universe, comes very close to being a search engine. That is not to say that all sites that have a search bar, that locates data just on that one site, is included with the same category that YouTube is. YouTube is clearly in a category of it’s own.

Read the slashdot submitted article, for further details.

This is huge, huge, HUGE Linux lovers!

Dell has placed a multi-page Advert in many Sunday newspapers! The Ads are show casing Ubuntu running on their Dell Netbooks! No mention of Windows Vista as an alternative was present in the Ads.

This is a big deal, because Netbooks are currently the fastest growing sector in the Computer Sales Industry. Ubuntu, which is a derivative of Debian GNU/Linux, requires far, far less RAM, CPU and everything else than Microsoft Vista. In fact, you can’t get Vista to perform at all on these mini notebooks, called Netbooks.

If, you want to know the full story, read this article.

I love Linux and the Open Source Community. Smart, funny and best of breed.

Getting lost in the technical aspects, is how everything gets invented. All answers, lay in the details, of which, there are mountains of details, that can sum up a product, point or condition.

Terms like Web 2.0. First, there was confusion over this term and what it really meant. Fact of the matter, Web 2.0 is still a tough concept or notion to crack.

But, the latest term, to hit the streets, Cloud Computing.

The technical brain would say, “Cloud Computing is a term based mostly on hype, because if you have an email address, use the Internet or upload any personal data, you are using the Computing Cloud.”.

This is completely true, from a technical stand point. But, the term was coined by a Business Thinker, rather than a CTO or programmer. Cloud Computing, is directly related to Google. Google Docs to be exact, and with Microsoft’s Office software.

There is huge debate, over whether it is better to run your Office locally, by running Open Office or MS Office, on each computer. Or, use an Internet Application, such as, Google Docs to do the same work.

Hence, Cloud Computing is born.

I guarantee you, that a technical person did not, and never would, come up with a term like, “Cloud Computing”. Just the thought of it alone is vague and, yes, Cloudy. But, it is a perfect term to sum up what Google Docs, could mean, from a non-technical point of view. The term will, of course, expand to other Web Businesses, that sell similar products and services.

In fact, Dell, tried to win the patent on Cloud Computing, which they did not receive. Too obvious a patent, for one party to have the rights to. Also, Microsoft’s next Operating System is rumored to being known as, get this, Cloud OS.

In fact, wasn’t Cloud Computing once called SaaS? Or, Software as a Service?

Maybe I am wrong and “Cloud Computing” is hype. But, it does sound more hip than SaaS or Software as a Service.

You decide.

Going from bad to worse, seems to be the subject as each day passes. Sure, the very foundation of America’s economy, that being the credit system and lending confidence. Threatened by greedy people, in power are taking advantage of people that didn’t know any better, the whole world will and is feeling the affects of this lousy Wall Street trading.

Our economic infrastructure is failing before our eyes. It is happening faster than we have time to stop and think about what to do about it. Congress and the House of Repsentives along with Bush are all passing bills based on snap judgement, making them dangerous. The 700 Billion, now actually 850+ Billion, bail out did nothing to help Wall Street, which is in it’s 7th consecutive slump.

We are feeding the flames with fear.

Fear is contagious. Fear is all over the Internet and News.

Fear that by 2050, the carbon foot print we press on Earth’s atmosphere, marks the point of no return.

Fear that investing in anything, not just in mortgages, is freezing the credit and lending system, of which the US economy depends.

Fear that our president and future leaders are too stupid to do any good for the system as a whole, is on the minds of anyone following the 2008 elections. Which started in 2001 when the terrorists not just properly places the right airplanes to take down 2 iconic buildings meant to withstand such an attack, but more dangerously, committing the attack at a time when America could not have elected a president so indifferent to everything and having no fear of failing.

How much worse can we as Human Beings be, when it comes to just about everything we are doing, as a whole?

The environment is polluted, corruption and greed may lead to another economic depression and all of this ruled by leaders that only care about self image than being real.

Of any time I have lived, or read about, the present and near future, could not seem to be more fucked up than ever before.

So, to rid my thoughts of such pessimistic views that only lend to pollute my soul with real fear, I’m focusing on Open Source and doing what seems to work for me. Computer Programming.

If indeed every industry, on a global scale, will be effected by the economic situation, GOOD can come of it. Good in each area that is currently completely fucked up, almost to the point of suicidal thoughts.

Good can come toward fixing the Environment

If it is all about money, the reason why no one cares to research and mandate alternative energy production. Maybe the draining of Trillions of greedy dollars will force us all, particular the governments of the world, to find cheaper ways to produce electricity. Gas is too expensive to drill and refine, so maybe, finally, we can do what we have all been talking about. Getting off our dependency on Oil, foreign and domestic.

If we can not afford to drive to work, because we have no more jobs, maybe that is a good thing. No more emissions!

If we are on the verge of bankruptcy, maybe finding alternative ways of doing just about everything we do, will be the GOOD that comes from the current economic mess.

Fear of going broke will give us a better Leader

The war in Iraq is draining billions a day. Having a president that cares little about anything, MAYBE will scare us into electing someone that does care. Someone with a soul. Someone that care about the under privileged. A leader that, even though a Black man, will destroy all past visions of slavery and racism. A person that comes from a race that was once enslaved, is not sent to us by a greater power now offers his wisdom to fix what whitey seemed hell bent on trying to destroy.

Open Source is more than just Software

Now that we won’t be able to afford Microsoft soon, and forget affording Apple. Linux and Free and Open Source Software can be a new way of computing. MAYBE, building a super computer, able to calculate inventions to fix the economy. Or ways to figure out ways to produce clean energy.

Whether marketed or not. Linux already runs Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange, for one. Openness can extend further than just the idea of sharing knowledge about how to make a better Operating System.

Openness in the media and in the blogosphere, to analyze everything our future president has to say, allows us to Openly talk about it. Maybe the Internet can finally do what is was meant to do, besides try to sell you something. Maybe, the Internet will finally educate us.

Google or God? Either way, may it save us all.

Here it is, Linus Torvald’s Blog.

In case you don’t know, Linus is the father, creator, originator and maintainer (after 17 years) of the Linux Kernel.

In case you don’t know what the Linux KERNEL is… It is the hart of over 500 Linux Distributions or Linux Operating Systems. Such as, Red hat, Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, Puppy, PCLINUXOS and 500+ more. Linux Operating systems easily rank in there with Microsoft and Apple.

Linus is one of two key programmers, to have openly shared all knowledge about their software in the form of source code and ideas, to the world, without asking for anything, other than advise and code contributions to make their software better. That is a far cry from others in this industry, which see money as the motivation factor.

Another guy, Richard M. Stallman, about 6 years earlier, started the Free Software Foundation, which Linus Torvalds joined, by releasing his Kernel Source Code under one of the FSF’s License. Coincidently, the FSF or GNU foundation, was sorely lacking such a Kernel, for they had a compiler and the base tools for an operating system, just no Kernel.

After Linus provided a Kernel, using GNU software to complete the package, a Unix like Operating system was born. This kicked off a revolution in software creation that, since than, has gather millions of programmers, users and artists a like, to align and work together on Open Source Software.

That is to say, Software made without corporations or direct funding being the primary reason for writing the programs. Software made, for Software’s sake. This allowed innovation to freely proliferate into all areas of computing, from Desktops to Data centers.

Linus Torvalds and his Linux kernel (as well as the git revision system) truly has changed the world. I am writing this blog now, using a laptop running his Kernel. Including all the millions that volunteered their time, known as the Free and Open Source Community, to help him make it all possible on a grandiose scale.

So, go check it out! I’m sure we are all very happy to see him entering into the blogosphere.

About time, Linus!