Google Does the Math

Google spotlights data center inner workings

It is fascinating to see how how Google can use logic instead of "industry standards" to design and maintain such a robust system. Where most companies will use conventional wisdom, Google does the math.

Their systems do not use off-the-shelf software, and they use mostly custom hardware. And they understand how it all works together, because they designed it that way.

Most outfits use the "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" mentality. They go with a conventional and safe choice rather than risk an analysis they will be responsible for.

Related material:

• Reality Check: What does Gartner really DO?
• IT Wars: When we fight over IT, nobody wins.

Great File Systems Article at Ars

Here's a great article on the history and features of various file systems at Ars Technica.

When will companies learn? Standards should be standard.

Sony may start movie download service - Yahoo! News

I think it is quite comical to watch the big content companies flail about trying to wrest power from Apple in music and video.

What seems intuitively obvious to the casual observer is this: all file formats should be based on open standards. If there was a firm standard in place, all these companies could do their own download stores and compete on quality of product and quality of interface.

Without an open standard that can be relied on, only a few distributors will rule the market as they do in the brick and morter market. In this situation, the individual provider stores are doomed to fail, because they do not have all the content and they (usually) have horrible interfaces.

If we had firm standards in place for data files, we could count on software companies to compete on the value their software added. As it stands, the large companies rely heavily on lock-in to hold their customers hostage. The file format is one form of lock-in and the interface is another.

The same goes for media files. Companies like Microsoft and Sony have repeatedly tried to take control of the media file standards with WMV and ATRAC. They do not do this to make a more convenient world for their customers; they do it to lock their customers into their "store", where they effectively would no longer compete on quality or features.

Some good counter examples are JPEG, MP3, and TEXT. These are fairly firm standards that are available and allow numerous products to compete on the quality of their features, functionality, and interfaces. These are healthy markets.

Look at DOC, XLS, WMV, and ATRAC (before it was EOL'ed). These are not healthy markets, even after all the effort that has been invested.

Which makes more sense in the long run?

Target discusses a major electronics launch on September 5. Could it be the new iPods?

AppleInsider | Major electronics launch; new iPods & iPhones; Apple lobbying

Although it may be coincidence, Target is apparently warning their stores to be ready for a major product announcements and incoming inventory that may be enticing to thieves. That combined with the rumors and case manufacturers seems to make it a lock that a new iPod with the short, fat form factor is coming on September 5th.

The only questions are:

1) Is the fat iPod a nano or a regular iPod replacement?
Because it is hard to take features away from customers and storage capacity is a feature, it will be the new nano with video capabilities and maybe higher storage (maybe 16GB).

2) Will there be a wide-screen iPhone with out the phone?
While I would really love an wide screen iPod with WiFi and all the iPhone features minus the cell phone, I think it is unfortunately unlikely to be released this way. With Apple deriving so much revenue from the iPhone and AT&T plans, it seems more likely they will release something without WiFi, although they may find a way to include a wide screen. I am afraid it will continue to be a traditional media player.

What do you think?

Governement Finally Using Technology to Do a Better Job

CBC News In Depth: Technology: Data mining

It actually frustrates me to understand this type of thing is still not commonly being done. I do not know why our various systems and technologies are developed in vacuums. These data silos do not seem to take into account the other related systems and data.

We have massive amounts of data, and we have the technology to deal with it, but we do not put it all together.

Apple vs. Intel Inside

Derek Powazek – The Columbo Technique

I think this guy is on the right track. The really interesting question is not whether Bob Keefe asked a stupid question, when he had a shot at Steve Jobs. The interesting question is: why have all the other PC makers always been happy to take a little marketing money and put dumb-ass stickers all over their products?

Why would a product maker put a list of ingredients on the product? I could (almost) understand putting that information on the shipping box. But putting it on the product is what a simple assembler would do. A company that simply takes the parts from various vendors and snaps them together.

When you snap parts together, you can only compete in a few areas: price (including supply chain), temporary exclusive access to parts, status, and maybe service. You can't innovate or do anything different, because you are constrained by the same parts list as your competitors. Any and all innovations come from the makers of the parts.

When Apple adds it's "pixie dust", it results in a product that is greater than the sum of it's parts. They need to stand out, and they try to design complete products that improve what users can do.

This is the big philosophical difference between Apple and the beige-box makers. Apple creates a product. The PC makers assemble a product.


Additional links:
Bob Keefe: 'Intel Inside' Logo Stickers Absent from New Apple iMacs

Apple Rumors and Educated Guesses for August 7

Games@Ars
EA will be announcing a "revolutionized" version of C&C 3 on August 7.

dotMac@AI
Apple's .Mac service will be down for the period of the announcement.

Mac and iLife@MacNN
Numerous sites are claiming that Apple has said the event will focus on Macs and not cover the iPhone or iPod.

Along with these explicit data points, I note a few other items:

• The press has been (overly?) focussed on the iPhone.
• Apple must start gearing up for the education season.
• The flagship iMac is far overdue for a refresh.
• Apple has mastered the art of staying in the (positive) press by trickling out announcements. I have been sure they have withheld products simply to maximize the press splash and to avoid attention competition with other announcements.

Combining all these, I conclude that Apple will begin to revitalize their consumer product line leading into the release of Leopard. The recent update of the Adobe CS Suite is keeping the Pro line moving, along with the awesomeness that is the MacBook Pro.

So, I predict:

• They will introduce the brushed aluminum iMac with the new thin keyboard everyone is talking about.
• They will introduce iLife '07 or '08 including some fancy new features and maybe a new interface (black and grey HUD). I am not sure it will ship before 10.5 .
• EA will join them in announcing some new game stuff including quick Mac ports, probably using some translation layer or maybe even virtualization (far out, mut I'd like it).
• Apple will announce major upgrades/updates to .Mac. I hope they combine efforts with Google. .Mac has long been one of the weaker products, and even the Steve has said help was on the way. I would assume more Web2.0 features and more capacity, along with DynDNS remote access and control. Much of the new functionality may require 10.5, but they'll open it up to at least 10.4, if they're smart.

I'm not sure about the fate of the Mac mini. I like it as an easy way into the Mac world, but I wouldn't be surprised if they killed it, now that AppleTV is out.

If even some of these predictions are close, it would be the biggest non-conference announcements I've seen.

What do you think?

Information Arbitrage: The Dumbing Down of American Culture

Information Arbitrage: The Dumbing Down of American Culture

A friend of mine sent this to me a few days ago, and I found it very interesting. Maybe you will too.

Towards the Attention Economy: Will Attention Silos Ever Open Up?

Towards the Attention Economy: Will Attention Silos Ever Open Up?

Good read. This localization and "ownership" of information has always been frustrating for me. The data should be standardized, freely accessible, maximally flexible, and secure. Having different service providers to to hold you data data hostage in order to keep get impressions is counterproductive in the long run.