Showing posts with label Operating system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Operating system. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Discovering LinkedIn In 2019

I discovered Twitter in 2009, and JP Rangaswami was a big reason why. His blog Confused Of Calcutta that a friend pointed out to had many posts where he shared his enthusiasm for Twitter. I got infected. Within a year I became a top followed in NYC on Twitter. And I was no Ashton Kutcher. I worked hard at it.

It is not like I had not heard of Twitter. I had. But at first, I thought it was ridiculous. (I was also in attendance at the NY Tech MeetUp where FourSquare first presented, and I was unimpressed with what the two Founders called "check-in") I had been an avid blogger for years. And I thought Twitter was for people who can compose full sentences, but full paragraphs are beyond their reach. I was not going to stoop down.

LinkedIn I signed up for not long after it was launched. I have been a keen reader of tech news since the late 1990s, and so I seldom missed developments. But until this year, I never really used LinkedIn. I updated my profile and kept it current, but that was just because.

This year LinkedIn has become my favorite social network. I have become an avid user. I have been using it for hours a day. It keeps running in the background. It has become more like an Operating System.

When I was living in the city (now I live 90 minutes out, more depending on your mode of transportation) I went to numerous tech events. And often you exchanged business cards. The idea would be to try and connect with those people online.

Now I realize I was doing it in reverse and wasting a lot of precious time. You meet people online. You try to connect with them. They might, they might not reciprocate. Which begs the question, did you have a good enough reason to connect, did you write a relevant enough first email?

After you connect, you can have so much communication online. LinkedIn messaging might not be the best messaging out there, but it works fine. And if you connect with someone enough, you might even want to meet. But that is a rather high threshold. What will you talk in person that you can not over email and voice chat? Especially when a meeting is so hard to arrange. For both parties.

I continue to use Twitter and Facebook, pretty much daily. And although I don't blog as regularly as I used to, my blogs are still active. Now I also blog on LinkedIn itself. But that is deliberately few and far between. If people decide to read my articles, let them be few enough that they might actually read them. That is what I have thought.

The LinkedIn profile is an excellent format. If you have only a few minutes to get to know me, reading my LinkedIn profile might be how you ought to spend your time. The kind of work people have done over the years gives you a pretty good picture of who someone is as a person. Even if your interest in them might not be work-related.

And so I have been networking on LinkedIn like crazy. I don't miss the city. I quite like the clean air around where I live. And I don't much miss the networking tech events either. LinkedIn is far superior an experience.

It feels like for the first time I am building a company (two, actually) in earnest. And LinkedIn is the Operating System I am happily using.

LinkedIn trending topics has also become my favorite place online to go for news. Although I go many places on a daily basis.

And to say I have actually seen Reid Hoffman in person. Mike Bloomberg threw a party. I don't know how I got invited. But that is where I got to meet and know Arianna Huffington also. Hoffman was the featured speaker.





Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Windows 8: Another Case For The Chromebook

Image representing Windows as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase
A most amazing thing about the Chromebook - and there are many - is you don't need anti-virus software on it. The plan seems to be that you stop paying your annual rent to Norton and with that saving you buy a Chromebook instead. The anti-virus software is so expensive, and the Chromebook is so cheap and getting cheaper.

Same Crap, Different OS: Windows 8
Crapware has long been a thorn in the sides of Windows users. Consumers and enterprise users buy PCs under the faulty impression that they’ll be getting a completely clean computer when they break open the box. Instead, they find a PC that’s been loaded up with junk that they typically don’t need. What’s worse, all of that software slows down boot times and performance, since the programs are usually set to load automatically and typically run in the background.
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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Windows 8


Many have predicted the demise of Windows, and you look bold when doing so, but here is Microsoft claiming to have married the tablet touch into the laptop Windows.

Microsoft has a small but legitimate presence in the mobile space by now. And so I am not about to call the end of Windows. As for the sexy, that right now rests with Apple and Google.

The new Windows tries to give you the tablet feel.

Windows 8: Does Microsoft’s Split-Personality OS Make Sense?
Microsoft is trying to leverage its Windows customer base to drive demand for the phones and tablets that are the company’s future. .... consumers today would prefer to buy a tablet rather than a desktop or laptop ...... Windows 8 has two separate ways of working. There’s a familiar Desktop mode, which resembles the multi-window, taskbar-at-the-bottom world most users have becomes used to. But it also has a completely new interface somewhat awkwardly called “Modern-style UI” (previously “Metro”). ..... a full-screen grid of large, colorful tiles whose contents change dynamically to show, for example, new Facebook photo posts. On a touch-screen tablet, it seems natural. ..... the company’s particular vision of mobile computing. ....... Don Norman .. a former Apple vice president .. “The requirements of small-screen mobile devices are incompatible with those of large-screen fixed devices,” Norman says. “Windows 8 has a problem. The real business workhorses of Microsoft Office are not well supported by the mobile apps. So Microsoft had to provide a backwards-compatibility mode, which provides the necessary power, but makes things even more confusing.” ..... wants Windows-powered tablets to seem more familiar than an iPad to potential buyers. ..... they’re using the “tablet” interface instead of Desktop even on desktop computers.
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Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Lot Riding On Windows 8 For Microsoft

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase
A lot is riding for Microsoft with Windows 8. Overall I think it is going to be a milestone for them. Whether or not it will bring the so called "lost decade" to an end is for the market to tell.

PC World: 5 Things Windows 8 Can Learn from OS X Mountain Lion
Note that Windows 8 is a complete overhaul, while Mountain Lion is more of a refinement. Yet the Apple update adds lots of new features that would fit in nicely on Microsoft's OS. ...... In Windows 8, voice dictation is available as an accessibility feature, and as such, it's buried behind several menus and not intended for general use....... Mountain Lion makes voice dictation easy to use from any application--you just press the Function key twice, and start talking.
Valve's Gabe Newell: Windows 8 is a "catastrophe"
Microsoft has a lot of ambition with Windows 8, and with a complete interface overhaul and functionality up the wazoo, it does have a chance to make a splash...... The most distinct aspect of Windows 8 is what's known as the "Metro UI," which allows users to have complete customization on their home page, including widgets, RSS readers, weather information, date/time, etc...... since this is such a revolutionary new platform, Microsoft wants to scrap out all remnants of the "old-school" look and feel. Instead of a Start bar, hovering your mouse over that corner of the screen will allow you to swap between the Metro UI and the traditional desktop. For the mobile version of Windows 8, the Metro UI will be the default interface.

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Even Little Children Could Speak English

Image representing Om Malik as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBase
Om Malik: Chrome OS: What Is It Good For?: The boot-up is extremely fast, and the log-on process is smooth and speedy ..... what you see is essentially the Chrome web browser. ...... The user experience expects us to come to the idea of using browser tabs instead of apps ..... The biggest challenge for Google’s Chrome OS is going to be fighting against many life-long habits of using a desktop OS. ..... there’s one thing the device does very well: let you use Google apps, especially Google Docs, Gmail and other cloud services (from Google) without a problem...... My more portable, 2.13 GHz MacBook Air is the machine I like, and even as I spend a lot of time inside the browser, I prefer a desktop with the Chrome browser and raw power..... As a consumer, one is going to find Chrome OS very limiting, especially since have some pre-conceived notions about what a personal computer is supposed to do. .... Google will be best suited to focus Chrome OS and all its energies on business buyers — call centers, retail outlets and airlines to start with — and forget about the consumers.
I am reading this review of the Chrome OS by Om Malik and I am reminded of a joke about Jung Bahadur Rana. So this guy was Prime Minister of Nepal several hundred years back, probably the most colorful character in Nepal's political history.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

A Facebook Browser? A Facebook Operating System?

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBase
TechCrunch: Another Chrome OS Engineer Defects To Facebook In The Build-Up To Launch: 99.99 percent of my working day is currently spent in Chrome ...... a mildly worrisome trend occurring leading up to the launch of Google’s first desktop operating system: defections. Also interesting: what does Facebook want with these guys? ..... the talent continues to pour into Facebook — and much of it from Google

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Chrome OS: Round The Corner?

Google Chrome IconImage via Wikipedia
I am excited about the Chrome OS netbooks the way I never was able to get about the iPad. I hope they show up sooner rather than later. I have been saying for years now, the browser is all you should need.

I guess I am a Google fanboy the way some people are Apple fanboys.

TechCrunch: Forget All These Android Tablets, Let Me At That Chrome OS
e a tolerable replacement for a netbook or laptop ..... Chrome OS is a browser OS, and that will always be the focus. ..... Google will want this to be the simplest and cleanest browser experience out there. ..... Less need for storage and storage control, plus less demand on the CPU and other components means that the entire thing can be thinner and run cooler. .......a lightweight OS will always do more with fewer resources ...... Really instant on. All that really needs to be loaded into active memory is display, a blank browser page, and the wireless/IP stack. ..... a single-service device, crossed with the versatility of that single service ...... Chrome OS will offer a browser that you hold in your hand. ..... It’s a window into the web, and that’s all. ..... Viewing this rich, wonderful Internet of ours on a screen less than 7″ seems like self-flagellation to me. ...... the elegance and simplicity of the window into the web I hope Chrome OS will be.
Google's Nexus One Exit Has Chrome OS Implications OStatic (blog) Google has announced that it has received its final shipment of Nexus One phones and will be exiting its Nexus One phone business altogether ... the Nexus One sold in the neighborhood of 150,000 units .... In a matter of weeks, Google will be introducing Chrome OS to the world. Like Android, it's an open source OS, but is aimed at netbooks.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

C++ plus Python = Google GO

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBase
Why was this not talked about before Google actually did it? I am surprised Mashable and TechCrunch have the story, but it is not yet out there on the official Google blog.

Let the guessing game begin. What will be the next big thing Google will do? As big as a new programming language, as big as a new operating system.

To launch a new programming language is a big deal. This is like when Sun came up with Java.

Google Open Source Blog: Ho! Ho! Let's Go!




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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Bill Gates, Chrome OS, Natal, Wave

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBase

Blog Carnival: Google Wave
Bill Gates: Behind The Curve On Chrome OS
Blog Carnival: Bill Gates, Chrome OS
Bill Gates On The Chrome OS
Blog Carnival: Google (2)
Blog Carnival: Google
Bing ---> Chrome OS ---> Office 2010
Google Chrome Operating System: Pinging Bing
Blog Carnival: Cheap Laptops
Blog Carnival: Wimax
Blog Carnival: Internet For The Billions

Bill Gates talks about Natal the way the Google people talk about Wave. Natal is Microsoft's next big thing, Wave is Google's. I get the impression the two pushes go on to further reinforce the image that Microsoft is a PC company, and Google is a web company. In Microsoft's world vision, the web is one of the many features your PC has, in Google's vision, the PC gets in the way o

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...Image via CrunchBase

f the web sometimes, and all the action that matters is on the web.

In Chrome OS the two visions collide. The naysayers have come out saying it is not easy to build an operating system. But I think a company that can give us Android can give us an operating system, on schedule. It is not to be completely Google's undertaking anyway. Google might be leading the effort, but it is to be open source.

So far the PC's selling point has been that there are some things you just can't do in a browser. HTML 5 and beyond will hollow out that argument, I think. Just a few more innovation cycles and the desktop is going to start to look poor in terms of all the features and functionalities it can't offer.

If the PC can do 3D, so can the browser, if the PC can do voice recognition, so can the browser, down the line.

The PC will not disappear. The ecosystem will evolve in a way that the PC will still be around, it is just it will no longer be the center of the universe.
Google Wave Sandbox Update
Google Wave API Presentations: Now Online
Google Wave Hackathon and Federation Day: July 20, 21 in Mountain View
Share Your Work in the Wave Samples Gallery

Google ChromeImage via Wikipedia


TwilioBot: Bringing Phone Conversations into Waves
1 Wave Sandbox, 5 Hours, 17 Awesome Demos
The Making of the Sudoku Gadget
Google Wave API Office Hours
Google Wave team heads to Google Developer Days in Asia
Introducing the Google Wave APIs: what can you build?
(Please subscribe to this blog.)

Bill Gates, Chrome OS, Natal, Wave
Bill Gates: Behind The Curve On Chrome OS
Blog Carnival: Bill Gates, Chrome OS
Bill Gates On The Chrome OS
Bing ---> Chrome OS ---> Office 2010
Google Chrome Operating System: Pinging Bing



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