You buy the content but who owns the data?
Amazon Pulls Already-Purchased Books from Kindle caught my eye. Interesting concept going on here. I pay for something that is delivered to me. When the manufacturer decides they do not want to supply the item any more, they retrieve the item without my permission and give me my money back.
I understand the issue was a copyright infringement but does that allow retrospective application of the solution on a customer who has already legitimately purchased the item? That's like buying a hard copy book at a book store and when you get home the pages are blank. In the meantime, the store has left you a message informing you that your money has been refunded.
Is that doing business and making customers happy? Related Post - Are PCs becoming dumb terminals
Foldable design for UK 3-pin plug
I think this is a brilliant idea. See full story and movie on the Register.
These UK 3-pin plugs are the bane of my existence when trying to pack my laptop, power brick and plug into a laptop case. Hope this prototype gets fully developed by the designer Min Kyo Choi, who has essentially rewired a traditional UK 3-pin plug measuring roughly 48 x 44 x 46mm into a flat-pack design that’s just 48 x 44 x 10mm.
What is a browser?
What is a browser? I thought that was a straight forward question, with a simple answer. Wrong!
According to this cms watch article, most ordinary computer users define a browser as a search engine i.e. the result of the searches from a browser, not the tool itself.
There was no distinction between access to the internet and getting the search results. So a browser is Google, Yahoo or Ask not Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome. The term browser has become a generic word to most users, meaning search results.
EU browser war hots up
Having caught up on my recent tech news, it's amazing what final judgements were handed out from the EU anti-trust issue body to software companies taken to task for monopoly issues.
Microsoft: Agreed not to ship Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8 installed.
See EU Press release - 17 Jan 2009 - Antitrust: Commission confirms sending a Statement of Objections to Microsoft on the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows, ZDNET article - 12 Jun 2009 - Microsoft to EU: Antitrust this! Will remove IE from Win 7 in Europe and Computer World article- 12 Jun 2009 - MS mocks Europe: Windows 7E, sans IE, in EU, per EC
However the first essential update/security patch will be what? Yes you got it, Internet Explorer 8.
Whilst I agree with what the EU is trying to do in principle i.e. that Microsoft should stop crippling rival software e.g. browsers. This judgement does not cut it.
Are PC’s becoming dumb terminals?
With all the furore about SaaS and Multi-tenancy Software Architecture, I'm surprised at the lack of discussion about the change in direction from putting a fully functional independent PC on everyone's desk to putting a "browser terminal" PC on everyone's desk.
I absolutely think there is a place for network provided services such as
- On-demand applications
- Sofware as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Hosted Application Services
and any other "Pseudo-mainframe" software delivery patterns we seem to be moving to.
However, I have a fundamental problem with all this hype about network provided services being the only solution for delivering applications in the future and the compulsion for you to only use a browser.
If network provided services really is the only solution, then all we have achieved is replacing the mainframe dumb terminal with a browser. What is the point of having a PC at your finger tips, if we no longer can run applications locally? PC does stand for "Personal Computer" after all and is not just a screen with a network port and key board.
For example,
Imagine you get a Eureka moment and you want to write it down in a text editor on your PC.
Local PC application Scenario:
1. Switch on computer
2. Open text editor application on PC
3. Write your brilliant idea
Network Application Scenario:
1. Switch on computer
2. Switch on ADSL connection
3. Open browser
4. Enter application URL
5. login with a user name and password
6. select option to create new document
7. Write your brilliant idea. Oh, I forgot what it was!
I can hear the rumblings about PC failures and losing all your data. Then we go back to my earlier statement about there being a place for network services like online backup. But again that does not stop me from backing up my data locally.
Yes, it's great to be able to access your data anywhere by having your data online but I'd like to have the choice and control over my data and content.
I'm not trying to pit one against the other, that's missing the point. There is room for both types of software applications and more in the future.