Open Letter to Google

Letter to Google

Perhaps the success of your company has gone to your head, but if you seriously want to challenge MS Office in the Cloud (365), you need to grow up and get your act together and bring Google Apps (Sheets, Docs etc) to an acceptable, usable standard.

Of course the problem that you have is that these cloud apps are free, so you think that you don't have to take normal business considerations into account. I think of you (and Facebook to an extent) still as 'schoolboy start-ups', intoxicated with your good fortunes ... and, yes, they are indeed fortunes.

Microsoft, through your original cloud apps, saw the potential and have now overtaken you. However, they are a 'grown-up' company and use a business model that is quite simple: set the whole thing up commercially, employ people to do what needs to be done to make the product 'fit for purpose' and then charge for it. That is the mature way to proceed. 'Everything free' can only work if you have defined revenue streams that latch onto site hits.

So, either make these Google Apps work through advertising or set them up on a commercial basis and charge. Either way, get to grips with your market and compete by presenting a product that 'stands up' and people want to use.

..... Andre Francis

PS. Oh, yes. I use Google Apps, but am now reaching a stage, particularly with Sheets, where the functions simply are not good enough in a business environment ... I seem to be always 'making do'. I am currently taking sideways glances at Satan's Office 365. I really wouldn't mind paying for something that gets the job done.

I unkissed Facebook ..... and I liked it!

Every day ... in every way ... I'm glad I left Facebook.

I rather fancied replying to a comment someone had posted on an article from ZDNet. So, I clicked the "Reply" button ... and a dialog window appeared asking me to log on to Facebook ..... WHAT? ..... Yes, I could go no further without being forced into the Facebook experience.

It's 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' updated to 'Invasion of the Life Takers'. "Join us ... join us ... you'll like it ... everyone else is here waiting to welcome you ... come on, it doesn't hurt. All that will happen is that your life will be taken over. Think how much easier that will be ... swimming with the tide"

I do not want to belong to an organisation that wants to force me to join, as Groucho might have said.

Yes ... it's getting better every day!

The Google Cr-48 with Chrome OS

Well ... Larry Ellison, eat your heart out. The real netbook has stepped forward.

Obviously, some of the many rough edges need to (and will) be addressed but this is the vanguard in the death of the traditional PC (and Mac) ..... and I can't wait to throw off the storage and application shackles!

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/a-very-chrome-y-christmas/15258?tag=nl.e539

I would think that around 50mb/sec (unlimited) broadband will be the absolute minimum standard required.

My prediction for 2012 is that we will start to see computer 'contracts', much the same as current mobile contracts, where the netbook hardware is bundled with the monthly broadband cost. This will enable broadband providers with OEM partners to quickly upgrade the whole broadband infrastructure to 100/200+ mb/sec.

Memory, storage and applications are 'asset liabilities' that need to be maintained, backed up, protected and updated; they are only relatively cheap. A good metaphor here I think is Encyclopaedia Brittanica ... proprietary, expensive and always out-of-date; Wiki has open-sourced this concept in the perfect shared information resource (as long as Jimmy Wales can keep the business model robust).

Of course current lengthy mobile phone contract tie-ins are a direct response to the UK 3G contracts 'heist' and they are unreasonable from the consumer point of view. These cannot survive in the long run - falling costs and competition will take care of this.

No brothers, I'm definitely with the release of the systems equipment shackles and for the march toward freedom on the info/energy highway. I'm even tempted to suggest ditching the fission B-roads for the fusion motorways ... but I realize this is a metaphor too far

I've just pimped my desktop ... and contemplated ten past eight.

I have just adorned my faithful iMac desktop with Bumptop for Mac (also available is Bumptop Windows). It's a sort-of 3D desktop with quite sweet little ways of organizing and arranging ones everyday things onto a main desktop (the floor) or one of 4 surrounding walls (front, back, left and right). I am going to persevere with this for a bit and see if I can live with it full-time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5IswixD5pw&NR=1

However, I suddenly had a thought! What about the ceiling ... has this been forgotten? So, I lay down on the desktop ... and looked up ...

and got to thinking about His Theory of ... well ... Everything.

I was contemplating the vastness of of infinitesimal things, when a neutron wave gently lapped against my unshaven countenance. I felt it was there, but when I looked at it ... it destroyed itself. It was a bit like 'ten past eight'. You believe it, but when you try to 'fence it in', you catch a bit of 'just before ten past eight' and 'a little bit after ten past eight'. No matter how small you make the interval, you can never pin 'ten past eight' down specifically and uniquely. So, perhaps it doesn't really exist after all.

Now, if you truly understand this latter concept, try it on your loved one as she jumps into the car screaming "... What the hell time is this, you sack of s**t? You were supposed to pick me up at ten past eight!" Go on ... try it.

Perhaps we should all re-read a Brief History ...

iPad, eBooks and my iPhone

I agree with Adrian' article below, totally.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7738&tag=nl.e539

eBooks are definitely transient and the iPad (and its like) will gobble them up.

Personally, I am waiting for the iPad to appear and be used, before I commit.

My latest feelings on the iPhone now I have been using it for a few weeks? Mmmm ... the phone features are fine, most of the apps (the free ones anyway) are rubbish and connection to the internet is generally frustrating ... but I have got (just under) another two years of it!

Cloud development and broadband speed together will mould ...

... the form of future hardware interfaces to the Web. There will be a variety of models to suit the transient environment, lifestyle and wallet size of consumers. Personally, I find my iPhone excellent for SMS and compact e-mails, but useless (the screen is far too small) for general Web access. Domestic Web access will continue to be handled through multi-purpose TVs/projectors/desktops linked through a broadband router. However, I think there will always be a place for portable devices of some kind - netbook, iPad, laptop etc - for those on the move, whether they be students or pensioners.

This blog is in response to "Are netbooks dead? Yes, in the student market at least"

http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/?p=4274&tag=nl.e550

I can see only clouds ...

The cloud is the future and both applications and large storage capacity on the PC (not forgetting the Mac) will soon be a thing of the past. I think the best analogy to how it will work is public utilities ... we buy what we need to consume on a contractual basis, obviating the need for relatively large capital expenditure. Do any of us (except you hippies) really want to install electricity generating equipment at the bottom of the garden? Well, I don't ... and neither does my fridge.