Tag: Skype

Alternate Dream

American Dream has undergone a makeover of late (maybe because the Chinese economy itself was heading for a cliff, so it needed to apply a break on lending).

Whatever the underlying reason, America middle class is contracting not because of shrinking population , but mostly because of declining income and consumption. In short, the good old time isn’t rolling back anytime soon.  At least, not for the same people. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

For the past few years, we became schooled in all kinds of financial instrumentation: derivative, quantitative easing etc….

New economy, old economists.

Half of them was right half of the time. The other half call themselves “contrarians”.

I bet on the future.  I know kids are smart. They have been told to play it safe, to hold their cards closer to the chest.

And it (the Dream) did not materialize for them (at least, not  for their European counterparts).

So, they figure. I am going out on the limp to strike for gold myself.

Estonian kids saw the success of Skype. As a result, they are learning how to code at an early age.

Long way from the fall of the Berlin wall  to the building of the firewall.

Meanwhile, back  at the range, American are forced to be “content” with loss leaders, everyday.

Dollar Stores are rising while the dollar itself isn’t worth much.

Made-in-China use to be jeered at. Now it’s the only game in town.

I know new games are in the works. Part of the chain of evolution is to invent disruption e.g. flat panel TVs vs tube TV‘s,  Wi-fi vs cable wiring. Perhaps someday we will see the electrification in transportation. For now, adjust your expectations. Wake up hot-dog nation. Rise from your slumber. Step out into the darkest of nights where the stars are few, but much brighter. The glass has always been half full.  It’s in the American character, belongs to those who left behind the familiar for the unfamiliar. Those who dare to dream and dream big. Anchor it  really high. And turn a portion of it into reality. One by one, and together, Yes We Can, again. An adjusted American Dream., smelled more like our new reality, is still better than none.

the acceleration of nearly everything

Time heals, slowly. It makes for better wine.

But it also shuts the window of opportunity.

The moment we leap (even before we look), we defy fate.

No regrets.

In “Blink”, the author presents a clear case for intuition and conclusion.

It’s the opposite of SWOT with no action =  slow-burn effect that kills the frog (paralysis of analysis).

Most life-altering decisions are made not by (analytical) choices, but in a “blink”: a parent who picked up an added burden (hence, less time to spend with the kids), the first televised Nixon-Kennedy debate whose viewers favored the telegenic over the “tricky”, a leader who was reluctant but refused to disengage from someone else’s war ( Hey, hey, LBJ) at the expenses of his beloved Great Society .

If history is of any guide, we will eventually relegate what is now known as the internet to its proper place as we have treated its counterparts (radio, TV, phone book, encyclopedia …)

We will know that it’s there, accessible at any time, any place. But the novelty will soon wear off, or co-opted by corporations or back to the government (ARPANET started there anyway). In fact, contrarian already felt that our privacy and freedom are in jeopardy.

Internet, like everything else, will face its own “valley of death” before being adopted by the Rest. I still remember how excited everyone was with Skype and Netflix 5 years ago.

Meanwhile, it has done its job: the classification and acceleration of nearly everything.

Someday, when Search is complete with behavioral targeting, we can do away with “I am feeling lucky”. For now, if you…

Want to know about s/t? Goolge it.

Want to view and hear s/t? Youtube it.

Want to call somebody (or group w/ them), Skype him.

Although It doesn’t bring neighbors closer together, it offers us a tool to “google” them, or “verify” his/her online brand.

Something just can’t be rushed: your pot roast, your wine, and the cheese.

Or reputation, trust and friendship.

My classmate was excited upon hearing about a long-lost friend. Who wouldn’t want to see ourselves as we were once seen!

Maybe social networking is here to stay.

It connects people like the tie that binds.

Friends know what we like (that’s why they are on our friending list in the first place).

In the foxhole, we stay and fight, not out of ideology or conviction, but out of camaraderie.

Viva friendship and its enduring legacy, which can’t be rushed up.

It’s an age of acceleration, but only of nearly everything. Not of everything. A time to dance, a time to reflect. A time to die, a time to live. Still, I don’t forget those first few seconds, of  people I met. And I know they mine. The blink moment that lasts a lifetime!

Technology doesn’t sleep, but we do.

I had my share of empty TV studio, that is, between broadcasts (6PM and 10PM). Now, there is no recoup time. We have evolved to Office 365, with servers resided in the “cloud” instead of the (telco) closets. Mobile working has evolved from CB radio, to Motorola brick phones, from Skypage to Skype chat.

Cryptography moved from a code book to complex self-improved algorithm (Amazon shopping experience : buy this + this = this.)

Pop-up ads even have a “K” for keep (time-shifting ads), while some companies are now offering a service to measure your Twitter‘s scores (influencer’s graph).

McLuhan was on the mark about “the medium is the message.”

Dot.com domain was just a start.

ICANN is opening up more domains.

And within a few years, we will be inundated with dot.this, dot.that, same way we now have with mobile phone area codes (which used to have a zero and a one in the middle of the three-digits).

As with cable TV channels where pundits feel the need to fill the emptiness with noise, new technologies such as Twitter and Facebook (and Google Plus)  will challenge us to come up with “sound bites”. Our attention span has evolved from attending for hours on end under preacher’s tents to today’s tweets.

Our brain has learned to process messages and images much quicker.

Bum, here is a Bieber’s (Be Bop a lula), Bang, there’s a GaGa (innocent like a Chic out of her egg-shell).

Good thing that we can upload and talk back. But not for long, just 140 characters.

You can tweet again, but it won’t be a part II of an earlier tweet. No guarantee.

So we learn to tame new technologies, and cope with their sheer availability.

User-generated content. BTW, from Page One, a documentary on “a year at the New York Times”, journalists on Charlie Rose, commented that the paper was now in better shape than it had ever been.

So the proliferation of citizen-journalists doesn’t threaten or dethrone existing media. Not when it’s the NYT.

Meanwhile, I keep reading volumes of “likes” from one Facebook friend.

All of a sudden, I miss my solitude in a broadcast studio when show’s over.

Lights off. Let’s go home. We need some sleep. The audience already turned off their sets.

In Vietnam, they would put back the Indian poster for white balance.

I guess it’s called the “sleep mode” because studio cameras need longer warm-up time. In today’s parlance, it means our influencer’s scores got dropped a bit when we are offline. The real self needs rest, so the virtual self must give.

Tech buying spree

Even the President couldn’t help visiting Facebook campus in Palo Alto two weeks ago, and in Austin. California companies now talk of an Austin strategy, just like GE back in the 90’s with  India.

I finally realized the wisdom of Alex who made millions from his dollar-per-dot concept. Except this time, it will be the buttons (Like by Facebook, and +1 by Google). T for Twitter, I for LinkedIn and F for Facebook. No wonder MS needs the S button (for Skype). Companies stake out their turfs, online and on-screen to gain shares in this attention economy.

Speak succintly, and speak frequently. Retweet yourself after me.

“I, would like, to buy, a hamburger” (Pink Panthers).

Again.

I remember when companies would hire people to click on their websites so they can rise in Alexa’s ranking (if broadcasters could do the same to secure ratings).

Skype has been a tech marvel, and a business basket case. It had not made money, yet sold to E-bay, who lost money on the deal. And now, it earns a chunk of change passing on to Silver Lake.

Welcome to the 21st century. Members only. Multi-taskers only. Eat,pray and love.

Type, talk and think.

Tech topics cover M2M, which is the next big thing. Where does that leave us, human operators?

To preside on top of the food chain, we need to fight for our supremacy, not over each other, but over machines. Seek first SEO then all these things shall be added unto you. Establish your Web presence. And be relevant (unlike Bin Laden, who was rendered “irrelevant” by the 2011 Arab Spring).

It’s not a coincident that we are tackling, via crowdsourcing, the $300- house challenge for the bottom 2 billion.

Can I have Skype with that?

I just notice that Steve Balmer, during his announcement of MS’s biggest buy, did not even wear a suit.

MS, personified in Steve, is trying hard to stay relevant in this fast and forever young digital world. Time Warner was doing the same with AOL, who in turn, has just made a chess move with Huffington Post. Maybe Skype isn’t the end game for MS. Just its beginning to embrace Skype-type users (early adopters) in the hope that osmosis between MS and Skype will work miracle. If not, then “eat, pray and love”, as Time Warner and AOL once did.

Perpetual obsolescence

After Moore’s Law came Android’s Law (open-source software allows for faster deploy of smart phone apps – between six to nine months).

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111990/your-new-smartphone-is-already-a-dinosaur

Smart phone turns dumb phone pretty quick.

(conversely, studies showed a steady rise of IQ as digital natives  spent more time playing games).

I call this “smart and smarter” generation.

We are inundated with more information in one year than the entire life of a Medieval person. (During the Reformation, Luther even had the time to nail 95 theses on the Church’s door. If it were now, all he has to do is “wikileak” it).

A MIT scientist even proposed a not-so-smart computer so it can process information faster (just guesstimate and not calculate).

If and when that comes about, we will have a perpetual Beta of both soft and hardware much like when VoIP was first experimented (we had to fill in the auditory “gaps”, since multiplexing wasn’t yet perfected – remember Skype in its early days?).

Back to Android. Ship it (beta) and send updates later.

When software completely resided in the cloud, smart phones will turn “dumb” (virtualized). Hardware is now playing catch-up with software.

It’s not the hardware. It’s SaaS . Think it and we will build it. Say it and we will ship it (Amazon).

Amazon will stream video to your screen any time, anywhere. It took a few pages from business books it has shipped over the years; titles such as “Customer For Life”. Amazon and the likes are in a race on NASDAQ chart at NASCAR speed.

I want my Skype call!

By now, we all know about our right to make a phone call when being arrested.

That phone call usually is placed from a pay phone (soon to be a museum piece).

Skype has been down (and slowly back up to full speed), and 26 million users worldwide felt the pinch.

VoIP. Conversation chopped into tiny pieces to be reassembled at the other end (with some help from the listeners to “guess” and fill in the gaps).

The process is called quantization which creates a digital graph of an otherwise analog waves used in landline telephony.

Skype helped sell a bunch of headsets for sure.

And it has been disruptive to incumbent Penny-talk services (Skype could be called Zero-cent talk).

With Facebook founder visiting China, we can expect more E commerce apps. How about Facetalk, with caller’s profile and friending list.

People communicate in whatever way they deem convenient.

Skype and Twitter just happened to be King of the Hill at the moment.

Until the next innovation comes along. No wonder there are titles such as “First, break all the rules”. Who would have thought that which was intended for Data transmission (Internet protocol) can be used for voice and video. Even Google which already “got it” more than Microsoft, seemed to have missed the boat when it comes to Web 2.0. If only they paid attention to the human side of users, who are made up to be social animals (hence, the rise of home networking, which caught the attention of Cisco, now Linksys-Cisco).

Sometimes, the market trickles down (IBM mainframe to Texas Instrument, to Xerox then Atari/Apple computers). Other times, it’s the reverse (Social Media and Mobile apps for the work place, business casual attire etc..).

Whatever the case, I admire the distribution channel: they always make sure we have new stuffs to buy for Christmas e.g. Susan Boyle CD, Wall Street DVD (first, it cheated investors out of their money, then the fictional film version is taking Main Street pocket change), Ipad and Blu-Ray. It’s not a new century at all. It just happens to be the most crowded one. Translation: lots of gift wrapping: toys for tots, text for teens. Skype for all..

 

Self-monitoring Vietnam

Two articles on Bloomberg Business Week.

One on Clicking with co-workers (productivity increase) and the other, Vietnam is finally ready for foreign investment ( with a question mark at the end).

The former article is based on a study that people who work and play together make a great team.

The other, since its neighbors Thailand and China are facing internal pressures (upheaval and worker strike) Vietnam might emerge as a strong off-shored contender. (As of this edit, BW has an article on Vietnam’s emerging role in Regional Security, with Mr Hagel meeting with Vietnamese counterpart in Brunei).

Huge hotel infrastructures have been up, but cautiously, taken a lesson from China’s building burst.

Meanwhile, Utah just put a man down via firing squad, a century old practice which has just been banned in Vietnam.

How is that for Amnesty International observers? Be fair and be balanced.

Have you read Banners from Heaven, a tale of struggle and murder in Utah?

There are Evil everywhere, even in the self-professed  civilized society ( And conversely, there is kindness in the most unlikely place.)

Back to our Bloomberg articles.

The clicking which results in team synergy came from self-monitoring (social intelligence).

And Vietnam, to build critical mass in global integration, will need a dose of self-monitoring as well.

By installing VINASAT 2, it will soon be able to see things from outer space.

And this GPS view will help it to see its geo-economic position against its neighbors: Thailand to the left and China to the North.

BBC did an interview about the subject just last week at the World Economic Forum i.e. China + 1. And Cisco signed a deal to build Smart buildings.

It’s not good enough these days to build world tallest hotels. Our expectations have increased : we need not only sky view, but also broadband access.

The rich want to be connected (it’s lonely at the top). And Vietnam, wanting to “click” with ROW, will need to accommodate those wishes, among them, high-speed rail and mail. The list of unintended consequences just gets longer each day. And that’s the price of growing pain. Instead, it is considering blocking off Skype and Viper, disruptive services which eat up the shares of state-owned shares. All the energies devoted to catching the “bad” guys could be channeled to “creative destruction”. It’s not too far-fetched to see Vietnam young come up with another Yahoo or Skype itself. Just a matter of time.

Work in team and play in team. It’s best that way!

 

My SAAB story

OK, I took a picture standing next to the convertible SAAB I won, but I took the cash option ( for grad student loan).

Now, this brand, along with Pontiac and Saturn, will soon be relics of the past.

We have a lot of In’s/Out’s at the end of this decade: ABC new anchor, BoA new CEO…

It’s been a strange decade. “Overloading” is the word.

On top of Y2K, 9/11 and 06.08 Recession, I have some personal reshuffling, not to mention the deaths of my parents

and father-in-law.

All along, I knew Google would hit the jack pot and  Voice will be at near-zero pricing ( even when bundled with wireless).

I have been privileged with friends and colleagues online (thank you Social Networking sites).

We went through a lot together, some have gone with me through 5 companies.

And I don’t remember when I do away with watching Network news at 6:30PM.

Perhaps by 6:30, I have already got “informed” with pop-up news online, radio and cable news.

PBS format of the News Hour stays very consistent and this has been a blessing in disguise (amidst uncertainty and change).

I have worked out of home a lot during this decade, except for a few years of commuting to Santa Monica from Orange County, and a few months abroad.

I don’t understand people who not only make money with “the 4-hour work week”.

Naturally, this decade has seen:

– cutting the wire line phone

– doing away with the fax machine

– Skype becomes the new wire line (w/headset)

– driving smaller vehicles, if at all

– watching HDTV

– lost taste in ties (what color and pattern is in now? )

– hardly see “chain” e-mail regarding Microsoft handouts, or Nigerian fake uncle’s will

– Vista Operating System gone

I enjoy all the feedback loops, collaborative tools and open-source in this Brave New New World.

Next decade?

CD‘s will join the fate of cassette tapes, books belong to those archives, and students don’t carry hard back text (just E-reader and other gadgets).

More on-screen heroes will emerge from the East, to retire Jackie Chan ( a new Bruce Lee).

Boomers will volunteer to build a more conscious-raising society.

They have been witnesses to changes, from social to technological, from local to global.

That generation is worth listening to (who wouldn’t want to be critiqued by Robert Redford at Sundance when trying to make a film).

And perhaps, the most anticipated happening of the next decade is the Next Big Thing.  Maybe it will be out of Shanghai or Mumbai. Keep your mileage plus handy. You might need it for those long flights. But this time, no more lugging those hard-back books (Tom Clancy) or heavy lap tops. And, leave your tie home.

 

A billion bucks!

Twittering to the tune of a billion bucks?

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2009/tc20090924_956402.htm?campaign_id=related_AK

And the deficit changed slightly to the tune of 1.29 trillion bucks.

Since when we are anesthetized to these huge dollar figures?

But I must give it to the Lab geeks who came up with new inventions: copying over the distance (fax), texting over the phone (SMS), Voice over IP (Skype) and Facebook/Twitter (user-generated content).

During the Tiananmen Square incident, protesters tried to send and receive fax documents.

And last summer, in Iran, people twittered. Signs of the time.

Tech and social change.

And the Beatles albums got remastered.

“All we are saying, is ‘give Peace a chance'” (Lennon Legend).

It’s not that we are lacking the means for social discourse but we certainly lack the will.

Tribal societies just hunt for enough food (no Frigidaire) and the rest of the night, gather around

the fire, to hear the Chief telling his folklores.

Definitely those fairy tales lasted longer than 140 characters. And I bet you any of the people in that community could recite those tales from memory, their version of soundbites . But they wanted to hear it again and again from the Chief. It’s assuring, like a child who needs to be tugged in . Somehow, in the darkness of night, they believe tomorrow will be the same, safe and secure.

Well, today, you can’t even walk out of a check out line without double-checking your receipts (because the line items

might have been charged with the older and higher prices by the computer, while the sign advertised a lower amount).

Supply chain, bar code, algorithm fluctuation (just like airline price change).

We have mutated way past the smokestack era. And it depends on what your view of the future is,

a Billion bucks for Twitter might be too low an evaluation. You see, it’s the Southwest Airlines model for Narrow-Casting. Citizen news, where it happens, while it is happening. No microwave (truck) nor microphone to make news.

Just twitter. I am sure YouTube will soon limit their video length to accommodate the Network effect (more video, the higher value of the network).

We, worker bees, buzzing and pollinating  user-generated content, 140 characters at a time, to a tune of a Billion bucks. By the time the bottom billion joined in, a billion bucks will have been too low an evaluation.

Whoops! I have just passed 400 words. Old school! Forgive me. My first tech sales was a fax machine, then “brick” phones with separate batteries. And way back then, the Chief used to ramble on way past bed-time. What’s the hurry? Isn’t information (hence knowledge) supposed to be infinite. I got it. We are still operating on old assumptions of network and spectrum scarcity. A agricultural-based Malthusian view  as applied to the information age.  When Twitter gets properly IPO’ed, it might have enough cash in their war-chest to increase data rate to 150 characters. I will then be much happier.