Thus Wrote a Desi Amreekan

Wikipedia, Live Search, Microsoft...

2008-04-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

A conversation I had at the gym this evening made me head over to Wikipedia for some quick research. Whatever people say about Wikipedia entries, there haven't been many occasions when I have wanted to get some general information, and not found it on the site. Fine, the authenticity of the information can't be validated and the site can be used to push the personal agenda(s) of the author(s), but what information source today is 100% objective? Even the news isn't free of some form of bias and censorship - I don't see people abandoning the televised news broadcast...

The item of my interest this evening was ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), and as I started typing my search query, I was presented with a drop down box with potential results. The suggestions were surprisingly useful (my experience with most other websites' suggestions hasn't been that good); being the engineer that I am, I tried a few other queries to get a sense of how good the suggestions were, and when I found a suggestion for Wannabet, my nonplussed expression turned into a smile!

I really like Wikipedia for its continuously growing set of articles and the useful features they continue to add to the site. The tipping point for any product (or idea) is when a user wonders how they managed without the product at an earlier point in time. Microsoft Office, Google, the Blackberry and in my opinion, Wikipedia, are but a few examples of products (and brands) that have gone past that tipping point and are now invaluable to their customers. In the case of Wikipedia, by breaking down the barriers to information exchange, it has single handedly rendered sites like Encarta and Encyclopedia Brittanica irrelevant. The strength of Wikipedia is its simplicity; it is not encumbered by the "ill of integration" - the single feature that can ring the death knell for a great idea. I wondered out loud then - could Microsoft pull off a Wikipedia? The findings of such a study might help fix some of the ailments of Windows Live.

I, like thousands of Microsoft employees, don't use Live Search. In my particular case, my earlier experiences with the product gave me no reason to switch away from Yahoo! search, my engine of choice. In the spirit of second chances, I decided to give Live search another go this past week. There has been forward progress, which is heartening; the search results were pretty relevant, the image results were good too, but the site did suffer from performance issues. The question is, would I start using Live as my search engine if they fixed the site's performance and some other low hanging issues?

Sadly, my current answer is no. People are creatures of habit, and unless something really compels them to change their ways, they aren't going to. The search results from Live were as good as Google and Yahoo!, but being "good enough" doesn't cut it any more. Live search doesn't have some basic features that its competitors have had for months. As an example, even Wikipedia has a search suggestion box, why can't Live? In order to effectively challenge an incumbent, the upstart has to go the extra mile - a great example of this idea in action is Firefox. This begs the question - are the Live guys aware of this facet of human behavior? If they are, why doesn't the team's stable of products reflect this understanding?

It couldn't be as simple as a disconnect between what the team knows and what it delivers, so I continued thinking about what was holding Windows Live back. Could the problem with Windows Live be in its DNA? Is it doomed to fail because it is suffering from Microsoftitis, and will it fare better if the entire division was spun off into an independent entity? Everything said and done though, buying Yahoo! doesn't seem like the right course of action to fix Windows Live. Or is it?

The Real Threat of a Mac & Virtualization

2008-04-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

The Back Story

Okay, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that I enjoy commenting on Apple's business strategy, marketing practices and products. You would think that I am guilty of heresy considering I work for Microsoft. Well, I lived with that burden for a few years until I found an entire "underground" community of fellow Mac enthusiasts at Microsoft - they're aptly called "the Mac Users Group". That an enthusiast group for a rival's products can exist at Microsoft should tell you something about the openness of this company. But I digress...

There is no denying that people, not just geeks, are simply enamored with the new Mac Laptops. There are unofficial numbers indicating the Mac's market share at a strong 21% of the Consumer market, and that number is trending on the up. Within Microsoft too, I've witnessed a steady increase in the number of my Microsoft cohorts requesting help with setting up their new MacBook Pro, more people extolling the virtues of Mac OS X. Till last year, these folks (and employees of other corporations) had to contend with owning two machines - while their Mac catered to activities in their down-time, they had to revert to their Windows machine for work-related commitments. They say, "Perception is everything", and this clear distinction between a Mac and a PC led to the Mac being dubbed a Hobbyist platform. Not very flattering if you ask me.

Virtualization - What?

The perception of what a Mac could do changed with the release of Mac OS 10.4, codenamed Tiger. A small company in Renton, WA released a virtualization solution for the Mac called Parallels that allowed users to run Windows in "parallel" to Mac OS X. Via virtualization, you can run Windows-only applications and games on a Mac. That's right - you can run Windows-only applications and games on a Mac via virtualization!

Parallels wasn't the first virtualization solution for the Mac - the other virtualization solution for the Mac was Virtual PC, an abysmally slow product and was taken off the shelves a few years after Microsoft acquired Virtual PC. Windows on a Mac via Parallels didn't run at breakneck speed, but for the first time, owning a Mac didn't come with the associated burden of owning a Windows PC in order to get work done.

In Fall 2007, Apple released the next version of their operating system - Mac OS 10.5, codenamed Leopard. A heralded feature of Leopard was Spaces, a feature that Unix desktops have had for as long as I can remember. Spaces is a way to organize currently opened applications into multiple desktops, and is touted to boost productivity. In my case, I tend to switch between 2 sets of applications that I would organize into 2 Spaces (if I had a Mac at work):
- a Work space with all the work related applications - Outlook, gVIM, Visio and Powerpoint
- a Personal space containing Firefox, Photoshop, Live Writer, etc

As Mac OS X started gaining momentum, the Parallels product for the Mac gained in popularity. VMWare, a big player in the Virtualization space, recognized that Parallels was on to something, and created a rival product called Fusion. VMWare's entry into this market was good news for everyone - it legitimized both the Mac platform and Parallels, it created competition for the incumbent product which made both products better, and it gave Mac owners a choice of virtualization software. The reviews are in for both products, and it's only good news. Barring the minor performance issues people have noticed, they are extremely happy with their Mac purchase, with Mac OSX, and with running Windows via Parallels or Fusion.

What's good for Apple is bad for Microsoft

I've talked about Mac OS X, Spaces, and the freedom customers now have to both work and play on their Macs via Virtualization and Leopard. The marriage of these ideas is what occurred to me last afternoon as I walked out of the office. Here's the scenario that prompted this post:

Roy works at a company that has made extensive IT investments in Microsoft technologies like Exchange and SQL. At work, Roy needs to use products that only work on Windows like Visual Studio and Visio. As his work demands more travel, Roy is given the option of buying either a Mac or a Dell/Lenovo laptop.

Till last year, Roy would almost certainly pick either Dell or Lenovo. Today, Apple is the other horse in this race, and unlike the other two, evokes a visceral response in its owners like no other technology product. If Roy chooses a Mac, he can set his computer up using Spaces so that his Work space has all his Windows-only applications running in, you got it right, a Fusion/Parallels powered Virtual Machine, and his Personal space can be powered by applications that are running natively on the Mac. Switching between the 2 completely disparate environments, hitherto impossible, is now akin to switching between applications via Alt+Tab (it's a different key combination but you get my point). Totally seamless!

The increasing market share of the Mac has 2 distinct repercussions on the Windows business:

1. OS Upgrades
The customer satisfaction numbers for Vista aren't pretty; under pressure from customers, Dell has restarted selling machines preloaded with Windows XP. All the line of business applications that run on Vista also run on Windows XP, so a lot of businesses don't see the need to upgrade to Vista. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Windows XP is cheaper to purchase than Vista is. As a corporate employee that owns a Mac, this tells me that I can continue using Windows XP installed in a Virtual Machine to get my work done.

2. OEM Sales and Windows Volume Licensing
Microsoft makes most of its money selling Windows to OEMs. The new PC you bought with Windows preinstalled sent some more money into Microsoft's coffers. Microsoft gets no money when a Mac is bought, so its bottom-line is affected every time a customer (consumer or corporate) decides to buy a Mac instead of a PC.

It could just be that Microsoft's losses on account of Mac's gains are but a drop in the ocean. Please feel free to drop me a line or post a comment if you have more insight into this.

WannaBet - The silent weeks are coming to an end

2008-04-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much news worth writing about over the last few weeks. In the Technology World, Apple's brand is scaling new heights while Microsoft's image is in steady decline. The youth of America want to have nothing to do with the real problems that beset the rest of the country but can't get enough of the exploits of the idiots on MTV. The War in Iraq rages on, the credit crisis continues to threaten the financial well being of every American, I wish I was being paid in Euros (even Rupees) instead of the $$ - isn't the status quo comforting?

Speaking of the status quo, one thing that has definitely changed is my involvement in projects outside of work. No I am not talking about my antics on the squash court or at the local pub - come on now! Rajit, Nishant and I put a lot of our creative efforts into building a new Facebook application - it's called WannaBet? and as the name suggests, it gives wings to the casual better lurking within all of us. So how's this work?

First up, you need to get yourself a facebook account if you don't have one already. On a side note, if you don't have facebook account, have you been living under a rock? :)

Second, point your browser to WannaBet?

Third, think of the last time you had an argument with your pesky room-mate when you know you were right but he wouldn't back down. Create a bet with him, set the stakes, set an end date, invite your friends to vote on the bet and make him pay for his stubbornness. I wouldn't mind losing a bet to a girl, so creating a bet is out of the question when I disagree with a girl ;)

Fourth, let me know what you think including any feature requests.

Finally, have yourself a blast in whatever it is you do.

Hollywood's gonna need us Indians

2008-03-27T22:55:00.001-07:00

so it's time to enroll into an acting school, and then get an acting job!

Self-diagnosis, Dreams, Hydration - Not in any particular order

2008-03-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

I've had recurring knee trouble for the last few years. The problem is exacerbated by excessive squash play, so I cut down on the number of days I played squash in a week. But more recently, my knees would be sore after every squash match, and I half contemplated getting an MRI to get my left knee checked out. A few days ago, I was stretching in the kitchenette at work the morning after an intense match - my knees were still sore - and a colleague happened to see me wince as I went through the stretches. She asked about the soreness, told me that she started out as a personal trainer, and then gave me a tip - hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

I've known for a long time that I don't drink enough water during my matches. Call it superstition, call it foolhardiness, but I feel if I drink water, my body will cool down and I will lose my edge. I didn't realize the edge came at the price of my joints; you see, hydrating sufficiently before, during, and after a match keeps your joints lubricated so that the constant motion doesn't cause too much friction. I was skeptical at first, but since her advice was so easy to follow, I decided to "water" up before and during all my matches this week.

The results - it's too early to say but the soreness has reduced substantially. I played for a little over an hour yesterday, during the course of which I consumed almost a litre of water. I had a couple glasses of warm water before the match, and a few after, and I didn't feel any of the aches I had grown accustomed to over the last two years. The hydration theory isn't a silver bullet; it's not going to protect me from my own stupidity. If I play longer than I should, I'll definitely be sore, but if I stay within limits, the prognosis is positive.

I've been having some weird dreams of late. Some of them centre around the hullabaloo that's going to be the November wedding, while others briefly touch upon my future. I woke up in the middle of the night earlier this week because I couldn't stop coughing. Now what would a normal person do? Get out of bed, walk over to the medicine cabinet, pop in the cough medicine, and go back to bed. Not me... All the episodes of House, M.D. that I've been watching have made me a faux diagnostician. My first thought was, is the cough due to environmental reasons, like for instance the pillow cover, the bed-sheet, the comforter I was wearing. During this process of diagnosis, I started coughing, and felt a tingling in my lungs - that's about when I passed out again; couldn't muster up the strength to look up what the tingling indicated. Yes I know, I'm nuts.

It's 9:20 on a Friday morning, and I want to be in at work before 10am. Have a great weekend...

I needed a weekend like this

2008-03-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

If I was to recap the week that just whizzed past me, it'd have the following bullet points:

- Worked on Zune, on Facebook stuff
- Wore myself out in the gym more than ever before
- Hardly ate, hardly slept
- Finally slept, emptied my suitcases, and kicked back!

In the spirit of my new resolve to find a silver lining before calling it a night, I sit in bed and recount the events of the day gone by. If I draw a blank, I walk up to the mirror in my bathroom, sneak a glance at myself, and take solace in the mirror's reflection. I have evolved into a confident yet measured speaker with a distinctive style and presence. I didn't have to resort to too many looks in the mirror to keep my resolution this week; the P2P summit, my work for the 2.5 release, the progress with Rajit and Nishant, and the stimulating conversations with my close friends have given me more than enough to be optimistic about. Not every week is like this...

That part about evolving into a more dynamic person has its downside. When I was a bumbling teenager looking for my niche, for my edge, finding myself was my mission. My journey is chronicled in this blog, and at almost every turn, the company of boys and girls kept me going. In moments of solitude, I now reflect on the times gone by, wonder why I didn't tie up some loose ends, wonder how things would have been, could have been had I turned left instead of right at a fork. Looking back in time, in a nutshell, is my new problem, and it muddies my appreciation for today and the future. The wise ones say that we all carry baggage, mostly emotional, and as I write this I wonder, is there a tipping point in our lives after which the baggage starts to get lighter? What if I chose to always look ahead - would that help me jettison some of the load? I wish the questions would stop popping into my head!

Secrets and Lies

2008-03-13T20:49:00.001-07:00

As I am watching this episode of Smallville, it becomes clearer to me that this series is not about Superman as a child but about the problems we create for ourselves when we keep secrets and lie. The formula to happiness isn't as simple as that, but even if it's one piece of the puzzle, it's worth knowing.

The iPhone SDK release - Part Deux

2008-03-12T08:51:00.001-07:00

I was gone for two days at a P2P summit, so I haven't really been reading all the tech news out there. The articles I did read made no mention of 2 subtle platform plays that Apple has made with the release of the iPhone SDK.

1. The SDK and tools are Mac only
2. I don't want to repeat myself but the thoroughness and richness of the SDK, the professional grade tools, and the Exchange support are sure to buy Apple some brownie points in the Enterprise space. Apple to date has focussed mostly on the Consumer space, eschewing the Enterprise because of whatever reasons (Enterprise customers are boring, not at the cutting edge, etc, etc).

The Halo effect of these 2 moves has got to fuel sales of the Mac. Developers are an influential community, especially the amateur kind that want to tinker with the SDK, but their influence is on the fringes. The real tour de force when it comes to computer purchases is the Enterprise. It isn't hard to foresee the curiosity corporate customers will have for the Mac platform once they get a taste of the iPhone's exchange support. Curiosity, if I remember correctly, killed the cat - it sure as hell won't kill the PC, but it might make the PC's life a tad harder. If corporate orders start pouring in, economies of scale will apply to Apple's hardware too. Hardware costs will reduce with increased production volume, and Apple can embrace the strategy it used with the iPod - reduce its profit per unit sold, and bring to market more cost competitive Macs. The new Mac tagline could might as well read - Coming Soon to a Desk near you.

Or, I'm dropping acid!

Firefox 3.0 - Get it cause it's HOT

2008-03-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

Download Link: Discover Firefox 3.0

For everyone that had something to complain about with Firefox 2.0, the newest release will make you cheer. Improved tabbed browsing, a new soothing (and aesthetic) theme, improved memory management, improved security controls, better javascript support, better web standards support - in short, a Better Browser. I've been a Firefox user since its heyday as Phoenix 0.1, but even I was floored with the attention to detail and usability that has gone into this latest release.

Firefox is now among the first few applications I install on a new computer, and honestly, I am surprised that the OEMs haven't gotten in on the act of pre-installing computers with Firefox. If they did, I don't know how many people would actually use IE...

Apple releases iPhone SDK

2008-03-07T00:58:00.000-08:00

For all of you that watch announcements in the embedded space, today's announcement by Apple about the upcoming 2.0 iPhone software release had to get your attention. The tech news sites are abuzz with the news, with multiple blog sites providing the minutiae of the announcement. engadget's live coverage gave me all the details I needed, but doing a roundup of the sites covering the announcements make me wonder - are people missing out on a crucial detail? Let me recap the announcement for you...

"At an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple unveiled iPhone features meant for businesses and released a set of instructions for developers to create iPhone software programs. The moves are seen helping the consumer electronics giant meet its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by 2009."

I remember the day Facebook wrote Myspace's obituary - it was the day Mark Zuckerberg announced the Facebook API. It was a call to all web users - anyone who had basic coding skills and an idea - to embrace Facebook as A vehicle to give their idea fruition and have their application be used by the entire Facebook community. It took me a while to embrace the concept of something I develop to be usable within a few weeks, but I am now sold on the idea. But there are some hurdles to deploying an iPhone app...

Web hosting is the first (and biggest) hurdle that a new app developer has to cross. Most hosting services charge between $10 and $50 a month for their services, but picking the right one is tricky. Then there is the question of installing a credit card payment gateway, processing payments, and the associated headaches. Then there is the question of monetizing your idea, and paying your developers (and testers if any).

Well, Apple's doing a little more than just releasing an SDK today. It's building a platform for developers to build, and sell their applications online.

"Apple also released a set of instructions to create iPhone software programs and introduced a way to sell the downloadable software through its iTunes online store, with Apple taking a cut of the profits.

Developers will receive 70% of the sale price, which they get to set. Apple will screen the programs for privacy and other objectionable concerns.

Apple sees software sales as "making the iPhone more valuable so people will buy more of them." Mr. Jobs said he doesn't expect to make "much money" from the software sales; rather, he hopes iPhone software sales will support operation of the iPhone developer program.

Analysts estimate that an iPhone software market offering add-ons like games or calendars could become a $1 billion a year business, adding a penny a share of potential profit to Apple."

So Apple helps you overcome the biggest hurdles in your path - it does the application hosting, adds your application to its global application directory, pays you 70% of the software sales, shields you from dealing with credit card transactions, and if you've got a great idea, hooks you up with a Venture Capital firm?

"To help jump-start the market, venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said it would launch a $100 million fund, called iFund, to invest in companies developing applications and services for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins, said it already funded one iPhone software maker and is in negotiations to fund another."

The demos in today's keynote indicate that Apple is really putting its best foot forward by releasing a great set of developer tools to the community. XCode is free, the SDK can be downloaded for free, and for $99 you get all of the debuggers, performance optimizers, support, et al to build the killer iPhone application. If I have a mobile application idea, why would I want to build it on any other platform now, especially Windows Mobile?

Clinton vs Obama, iPod vs Zune - the hidden similarities

2008-03-01T02:19:00.000-08:00

Have you been following the race for the Democratic candidate for the upcoming elections? Back in December, Clinton was the clear front-runner; she seemed like the only choice, the incumbent even. It's March now, and we all know how that has changed - Obama has outmaneuvered, out-thought, out-campaigned, and out-fundraised Clinton (my condolences if you are her supporter, like myself!)

There is something to learn from this, something to even derive hope from - the tides can turn, a leader can become the follower, a winner today can be a loser tomorrow. But it takes work, a concerted effort on all fronts, and a desire to win for such a change to be affected. Here is how I think Obama did it (and willing to listen to your thoughts on the same):

A. He appealed to the younger generation, to the masses by following the principles of viral, fast, easy, simple, accessible. Here are the cornerstones of his public outreach:

1. A Viral Marketing Campaign
2. Facebook, MySpace, did I mention Facebook?
3. A Visually appealing website, with a minimalist design and an emphasis on negative space
4. An enviable Advertising campaign
5. The Message of "Change"
6. Celebrity endorsements, especially from the ones that have captured the imagination of today's generation

You must wonder where I am going with this list. The key to the campaign according to me lay in correctly identifying the target audience for the marketing blitz. My father once told me, "Manoj, you can't teach an old dog new tricks", and used that as motivation to make me change my behavior (apparently, me being a young pup made me malleable). By a similar token, the older generation of Americans aren't as easy to sway as the flippant and undecided younger generation. Obama's campaign got the attention of the 75 million odd voters in the age group 18 - 35, and in the process, turned the tables in the race. I doff my hat to the foresight and chutzpah of Obama's "shrewd" campaign manager in recognizing this fact.

B. He tapped the potential of a class of voters I like to call "discretionary" and "impulsive"
There is a distinct population of voters that don't mind parting with $25-50 to support a candidate or a cause, because the paltry donation can be easily justified and gives the supporter a sense of purpose. This is the same person that would guy a new pair of jeans, make a pledge to a local NPR station or C89.5FM, buy a round of drinks at a bar for friends, etc. on a whim - your average middle class Joe.

These two classes of voters, together comprising the younger generations (X and Y), didn't really care for politicians. Why - because they reek of corruption and are renowned for their shady, even murky, practices. By reducing the barrier of entry, by speaking to causes that are close to their hearts, by making himself accessible and creating a perception of openness, Obama has won their support. My analysis reveals that it is this voter bank that is spearheading Obama's rise to the top.

I could go on, but I think I have made my point. I know it's a stretch, but if you see this as I do, this story is analogous to Zune's fight against the iPod. Our approach is fresher and more youthful, the team has the talent to build a great end-to-end solution, and the product is finally garnering underground support. It's a matter of selling the story better now, which like the artist Kenna, we are having great difficulty with. Maybe it's time to start at the core of the problem - MIND-SHARE. A potential first step in achieving this would be to revamp our advertising campaign; one idea - hire the agency that came up with Obama's campaign. How about the agency that had the Pepsi account in the 80s, when Coke was the dominant cola in the market.

Pepsi pulled a rabbit out of its hat with its campaign in 1982 (I think it was) that showed how in a blind taste test, customers preferred Pepsi to Coke every time. The results (and the ensuing loss in market share) sent shivers down Coke's spine. Their response - reinvent the "COKE" formula - was doomed for failure since its inception, and we know how that played out. Coca-Cola miraculously pulled off a coup de etat by releasing Coke "Classic" and saved itself from certain defeat, but the point remains. Pepsi's campaign almost upstaged the incumbent Cola leader, Coke.

You've read this post, and if you're still wondering what a Zune is, I've proved my point. Q.E.D.

30 and counting...

2008-02-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

Growing up, I heard the adage, "With age comes wisdom", more often than I could count. Any argument or difference of opinion with my parents would eventually end with this statement, which would preclude any future debate on my part. I would be lying if I'd not admit that I was looking forward to getting older, so I could have the upper hand over someone else. I am older now...

What my parents didn't tell me was with the wisdom, age brought with it some hidden gifts - aching joints, funky food cravings, insomnia, stress (work, personal, 3rd party) - gifts that keep giving even when I am really not in the mood for taking! I should look on the bright side though; according to a colleague of mine, I have it good - his in-laws live with him :))

I lost my squash match last night, and it wasn't one of those matches that I had a good feeling about as I stretched to relieve my sore joints. Dumb mistakes and daft strategy (if you could call it that) were my undoing, but on the flip side, I tried my best to enjoy my time on the court. I don't know what to attribute this to but I have vowed to enjoy everything I do. You know what, I'm going to call extracting pleasure out of my activities the New Year resolution for 2008.

It took a lot of effort, but I have affected a change in my work schedule - I don't get in much after 10:30, and don't stay around after 6:30. When I am at my desk though, I am fixated on my tasks, I am prompt with email, on time for meetings, all in an effort to shutdown my work brain once I am out of Zune HQ. Not having a laptop that connects to Microsoft is a true blessing, and I'm going to try my hardest to not change that situation.

Another sure consequence of growing up - most of your friends enter a second phase of their life. People get married, they move away, they have less time to interact with you because all their time is spent in nourishing a new relationship, one that will hopefully see them through their life. It's interesting isn't it - when you start working, your friends act as a buffer for the stress that work induces; once you settle into work, you use work as a buffer to offshoot the flux in your personal life. More evidence to the fact that the tide is forever turning.

Studios Try to Save the DVD

2008-02-25T02:12:00.000-08:00

Hey Blu-Ray won, but Hollywood isn't really celebrating, is it?

"But the victory of Sony’s new Blu-ray high-definition disc over a rival format, Toshiba’s HD DVD, masks a problem facing the studios: the overall decline of the DVD market. Domestic DVD sales fell 3.2 percent last year to $15.9 billion, according to Adams Media Research, the first annual drop in the medium’s history. Adams projects another decline in 2008, to $15.4 billion, and a similar dip for 2009.

So instead of celebrating the Blu-ray format — which remains a nascent business — the studios are scrambling to introduce an array of initiatives aimed at propping up the broader market. Some efforts, like the addition of new interactive features and changes in how DVDs are packaged and promoted, are intended to prevent further market erosion while nurturing Blu-ray."

I'll tell you what will save the DVD - lower prices. I bought Transformers as a Secret Santa gift for $19.99 - that's day light robbery!! If a DVD costed $5.99 and a Blu-Ray disc costed $7.99, I promise you this, the movie studios wouldn't be able to keep up with demand. If the plan backfires, I'll... It won't backfire, I'm cocksure!!

The format will be re-energized, if only the studios execs would relinquish their greed, just a tad bit...

What Consumer Technology Companies Can Learn From Apple Product Launches

2008-02-25T01:41:00.000-08:00

This excerpt from the article reminded me of something I read in the forward of Emotional Design. The author remarked on the close connection between aesthetic appeal and perceived performance by using the example of a freshly detailed car; when we are just done washing and waxing our car, it seems to drive smoother, quieter even...

"Even the font choices in Apple’s user documentation and manuals are carefully selected. By crafting a uniform design identity not just for the core product, but also for all ancillary materials, Apple builds a tangible expectation of superior performance and value."

The truth is, there is no change in the car's performance, and the cleaner design of Apple's products don't make them any better than the competition. What makes people continue to buy Apple's products is that a discretionary purchase (anything costing more than $199) is not based on logic and reason - it's based on perception and visceral appeal, which Apple evokes in droves.

This need to draw the user to products is slowly permeating into the product lines of other hardware manufacturers too - Lenovo, Dell, HP, dare I say Microsoft, are all learning from Apple and catching up. It's a great time to be a consumer right now because when manufacturers compete for my attention, I WIN!

Facebook loses a few bitches | The Register

2008-02-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

Is Facebook going the way of most Web 2.0 sites, especially the ones that attempt to get us whimsical individuals network socially? Do you even remember myspace?

"Facebook has suffered its first drop in monthly users, according to numbers from web analytics outfit Nielsen Online.

Five per cent fewer people in the UK visited the site in January compared to the previous month. A total of 400,000 seem to have become bored with the social network and didn't bother to return.

A year earlier Facebook was still growing rapidly, despite the usual seasonal dip experienced online."

Considering that Zune is investing money into and marketing the "Social" experience via http://social.zune.net, I can't help but ask the question - is this investment sound? What do we turn to when the users change their minds and divert their attention to the new fad?

Microsoft's Acquisition of Danger Inc.

2008-02-12T12:22:00.000-08:00

I read in the news yesterday that Microsoft has begun talks to acquire the maker of the Software platform that powers, among a bunch of devices, the T-Mobile Sidekick. I should have expected an acquisition along these lines; Microsoft's strategy over the last couple years has been to increase revenues via acquisition, not in-house innovation. Rather than dismiss this as an inevitable acquisition, I began thinking along a different tack - what's to become of the Sidekick 3 now that Danger is going to be a Microsoft company?

There is no doubt that Danger will continue to innovate under its new management, but it remains to be seen whether the eco-system that depends on Danger's s/w platform will continue to the latest and greatest s/w bundles from Danger. There is a possibility that Danger does some work exclusively for Microsoft; some of its work might be leveraged by the Windows Mobile team to improve the platform. Or the acquisition can go sour, and Danger will flounder under Microsoft. What gives me hope is the counter-example of an acquired company that thrived after merging with Microsoft. That counter-example is Bungie, a case in point of a team of individuals that worked wonders while under the Microsoft umbrella.

We might be headed into a new M&A path at Microsoft - the Juggernaut acquires a company yet lets it operate independently but under the auspices of the larger corporation. The guaranteed flow of capital investment spurs the newly acquired entity to innovate with renewed vigor, and Microsoft peppers the fruits of the new entity's labors in product lines that can directly benefit from the work. The rumor mills are rife with talk of Microsoft finally realizing that in order to succeed in niche consumer markets, it's not sufficient to have just a s/w platform strategy. The $$ lie in marrying cool software ideas with an appealing hardware device; a device with both h/w and s/w merits brings in not only revenues but invaluable mind-share. The Microsoft brand is already gaining traction in the consumer market via the successful launches of the X-Box and Zune. It remains to be seen if the company seizes this opportunity to make further inroads into the consumer electronics market, which at this point is ruled by Sony and Apple.

To quote the article:

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The founders of Danger previously worked at Apple as engineers before leaving to found the company. Some see this is a response to the Apple's recent success:

Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies of Campbell, said the acquisition provides further evidence that Microsoft is mirroring the thinking of Apple, which has married software and hardware to make simple, fashionable consumer products like the iPod and iPhone.

"Sometime in the last two years Microsoft fundamentally woke up and realized that even though they're a software company, they had to use hardware to control their destiny"

Stay tuned...

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time - Laugh Lines - Humor - New York Times Blog

2008-02-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

For every positive quality in a person, there is a negative side lurking in the shadows, or so this little table indicates. Great for Monday morning positivity :))

What Microsoft needs is Focus

2008-02-09T03:44:00.000-08:00

I couldn't agree more with this paragraph from an opinion piece in the latest Businessweek.

"Had Microsoft kept its focus on its core business, this might not have happened. Instead, your efforts on the Web have tended to focus more on bending the Web to your will than making your software enhance it.

Take Microsoft Office. If someone took it away from me, I could get by using a Web-based office suite like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, or Zoho and others like it. You should have had Office on the Web five years ago. Meanwhile, as Web-based upstarts were quietly invading this turf, you've been wasting time, effort, and attention trying to be a consumer electronics company, a digital media company, and now an online advertising company. Before long you'll probably want to sell me telephone and TV service, too. Enough with the identity crisis! Microsoft is a software company. Everything else is superfluous."

I wonder if the Steve that needs to listen is listening, or watching the other Steve that has taken his company to new heights. The only common trait of both Steves - they are both going to leave an indelible mark on the individual companies they spearhead. To continue quoting the article (it's very well written by the way)

Buy It and Spin It Off
It all sounds very misguided, how you say that by spending all that money on Yahoo you can grow so much bigger, when what you really need is to be smaller.

But since it's clear that I'm not going to change your mind about buying Yahoo, here's what you should do: Once you close the deal, package Yahoo with your online services division, the entertainment and devices division (yes, the Xbox, too), and spin the whole thing off.

Remember that bit about focus? This would help you get it back. Put all those things that Microsoft isn't very good at, put them in a box with Yahoo and cut the apron strings. Sure, keep an equity stake, even a majority. But this formidable new entity would function best outside the Windows-centric reservation. If this new company's plans don't coincide perfectly with some future set of features coming to Windows, so be it.

The alternative, if you force these businesses to fester within Microsoft, is that these businesses will always play second fiddle to Windows—and fail to meet their potential.

This new entity is going to have to be nimble to compete with Google, Facebook, and probably one, two, or five other companies we haven't heard of yet. With luck you'll have enough time to whip the whole thing into fighting shape before it's too late. That's assuming it's not too late already.

Was turning 30 a life altering event?

2008-02-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

To those who haven't figured this out yet, I turned 30 on September 13, 2007. People make a big deal about turning 30, but honestly, I didn't initially get what everyone was talking about. Age is just a number, isn't it? A birthday is just another day - the sun rises, the wind blows (a sea breeze), the sun sets, the wind blows some more (a land breeze). Right? For the most part...

Subconsciously though, the fact that another decade of my life had passed me by slowly began to dawn on me. The decade most instrumental in determining the future course of my life was behind me, and begged some reflection. What had I accomplished? How would I like to remember these years? Was I any happier today than I was when I turned 20? Was I happy with the status quo or was it time to make a change? These questions have haunted me the last couple months.

One thing is certain - if the last decade was one of growth, this decade is going to be one of change. My friends started noticing changes in me when I returned from India in October, I decided to enter a committed relationship which till a few months ago wasn't even a consideration, but the biggest change in this new decade has been the dialing back at work. I have always put work ahead of everything else over the last six years at Microsoft, but this is all about to change. I'd like to preface this with the fact that I have no regrets; my time at Microsoft has been a rewarding experience. Reviews - good or bad - aren't reason to love or hate someone else; this dialing back has nothing to do with my performance at work. I simply want more from life now, don't want to be a worker bee any more than I need to be, and enjoy the real pleasures of life. Taking an afternoon off to idle away in the sunshine, go skiing on a weekday evening, sit beside a sick friend, speak to Gouri through an afternoon, and read my favorite blogs so I am abreast with the happenings of my interest. To Life then...

Apple updates iPhone and iPod Touch

2008-02-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

I found this paragraph from the NYTimes Tech blog rather interesting:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/apples-price-increases-on-the-way-to-price-cuts/

“Second, Apple appears confident of demand that it is not using this moment to lower prices on the existing models. But then again, Apple is very good at capturing the money from the price-insensitive fans who need to have the very latest. After the uproar over the $200 cut in iPhone prices last year, I would think it will want to be delicate in its pricing moves.”

If history is anything to go by, the number of price-insensitive customers (not necessarily fans) of Apple products has been growing quarter-on-quarter. I wonder what will happen when this “crowd’s” numbers start to decline, which will be an inflection point in Apple’s product pricing strategy. As things stand currently, Apple continues to make hefty profits on its hardware, there seems to be no dearth of buyers wanting Apple hardware, which pushes their quarterly earnings higher, which means they invest more in building new hardware. Lather, Rinse, Repeat…

Hail the Anti-Social Manoj

2008-02-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

What started out as just a fad has now become a problem - I just don't have the inclination to participate in social activities any more. If my time in India, both in October and January, is a harbinger of times to come, I need to do something to reverse this anti-social streak. I've been sleeping earlier, not been on facebook much, have little desire to talk on the phone, am getting more involved in solo activities like running and biking, haven't really gone out partying since I have been back - the list goes on and on and ...

This phase could be attributed to the shitty weather in Seattle since I've been back. Wait, I was in Bombay where the weather was smashing; why then did I not want to do anything much except sit around and watch cricket? Hmm, identifying the problem is half the battle won. Good thing there is an easy way to *start* fixing this problem - stop typing, get up, shower and bounce out of the house. Time to fill out the prescription.

Back in Seattle...

2008-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Heavily Jet-lagged
Unwell with a stuffed nose, and maybe a sinus infection
Home Sick

The trip was an emotional roller-coaster. I got engaged, my aunt passed away, I travelled a lot, and in the end, I didn't want to return to Seattle. My heart is in India more and more now, and not just because Gouri happens to live on Indian shores.

Thoughts on Game Consoles...

2007-12-28T11:36:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a thought to Anand about the gaming consoles and their controllers. The recently purchased Wii has been getting a lot of attention from the three of us at home, and I, like many others in the gaming business, am both intrigued and amazed at how intuitive the Wii's controllers are. Nintendo sure as hell got it right; look at the competition - Six-Axis was shoehorned into the PS3 release, and if recent rumors are to be believed, a motion detecting 360 controller is in the making too. Nintendo though, has run away with the grand prize in 2007 - it can't manufacture consoles fast enough, and they've sold around 15 million of them...

To get back to my thoughts at that moment - what struck me as a potentially overlooked opportunity, in a sea of missed opportunities, was Sony responding with a motion detecting controller for the PS2. I know the hardware specs for the console can't change, but they sure as hell can sell an add-on (and make a killing in the process since the accessories are where the margins are) that adds the ability to detect motion in the PS2. Can you imagine playing a game like Grand Theft Auto (or Burnout which I think exists for the PS2) with motion detection turned on? There are wireless controllers out there already, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for either a 1st party or a 3rd party controller that sends motion signals to the PS2's receiver. The argument that this move would cannibalize PS3 sales is specious at best. PS2 is the highest selling console of all time, and this would definitely spur sales of the console in the casual gamer category - people like me who aren't into games like the God of War and its ilk. Nintendo has demonstrated that the casual gamer market is untapped, alive, and hungry for a great gaming experience. The PS2 library has some of the greatest games of all time - why not consider upgrading the gaming experience of the console to include motion detection?

Sony, wake up, smell the coffee!

Mayoneez == Soos In Face

2007-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Short Form: SIF, Mayon

Definition:
1. Like a Kux in Mouth, only in liquid form
2. You got Thrown
3. Something bad happened

Usage:
Soos in Your Face.
Soos in Face?
You're a mayoneez!

Just so you get the order of severity of these terms:
Soos In Face < Soos in Mouth < Kux in Face < Kux in Mouth

Thanks.

Between You and Me or You and I?

2007-12-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

While hanging at Jyot's this past weekend, I stumbled upon an SAT practice test and started doing the Verbal section. One sentence correction question had "between you and I" as one of the underlined grammatical elements possibly in error. I didn't think it was, but it turns out ...

Between You and I.

Between you and I? — Between you and I? — You should be ashamed of yourself.

First, the technical explanation: between is a preposition; it should govern the "objective case." (In English, that's a concern only with the pronouns.) A preposition can't govern a pronoun in the subjective (or nominative) case, even when there are multiple pronouns after the preposition.

That explanation should be enough for the serious grammar nerds. For the rest of you, think of it this way: when you have two pronouns after a preposition, try mentally placing each one directly after the preposition. "Between you" should sound right to your ear, but "between I" jars: "between me" sounds much more natural. Since it's "between you" and it's "between me," it should be "between you and me."

Ditto other prepositions, like for, to, from, with, by, and so on. If something is for her and for me, it's "for her and me," not "for she and I"; if Akhbar gave something to him and to them, he gave it "to him and them," not "to he and they." Try putting the preposition directly before all the following pronouns, and then use the form that sounds right in each case.

The problem probably arises from hypercorrection: it sometimes seems that you and I is "more correct" than you and me. It's not — at least, it's not always. Be careful. [Entry added 8 March 2005.]