- Cash Cow Disease — quite harsh on Google and Microsoft for “ingesting not investing” in promising startups, then disconnecting them from market signals. Like pixie dust, potential future advertising revenues can be sprinkled on any revenue-negative scheme to make it look brilliant. (via Dan Martell)
- Your Apps Are Watching You (Wall Street Journal) — the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google Inc.’s Android operating system […] Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a popular music app, sent age, gender, location and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of a game called Paper Toss—players try to throw paper wads into a trash can—each sent the phone’s ID number to at least five ad companies. Grindr, an iPhone app for meeting gay men, sent gender, location and phone ID to three ad companies. […] Among all apps tested, the most widely shared detail was the unique ID number assigned to every phone. It is effectively a “supercookie,” […] on iPhones, this number is the “UDID,” or Unique Device Identifier. Android IDs go by other names. These IDs are set by phone makers, carriers or makers of the operating system, and typically can’t be blocked or deleted. “The great thing about mobile is you can’t clear a UDID like you can a cookie,” says Meghan O’Holleran of Traffic Marketplace, an Internet ad network that is expanding into mobile apps. “That’s how we track everything.”
- On Undo’s Undue Importance (Paul Kedrosky) — The mainstream has money and risks, and so it cares immensely. It wants products and services where big failures aren’t catastrophic, and where small failures, the sorts of thing that “undo” fixes, can be rolled back. Undo matters, in other words, because its appearance almost always signals that a market has gone from fringe to mainstream, with profits set to follow. (via Tim O’Reilly on Twitter)
- libimobiledevice — open source library that talks the protocols to support iPhone®, iPod Touch®, iPad® and Apple TV® devices without jailbreaking or proprietary libraries.
"cloud computing" entries
Four short links: 21 December 2010
Big Companyitis, Spyware Apps, Maturing Cloud, and Mobile Sync
Why web services should be released as free software
Part 4 of the series, "What are the chances for a free software cloud?"
Let’s put together a pitch for cloud and web service providers. We have two hurdles to leap: one persuading them how they’ll benefit by releasing the source code to their software, and one addressing their fear of releasing the source code.
Why clouds and web services will continue to take over computing
Part 3 of the series, "What are the chances for a free software cloud?"
My long-term view convinces me we all will be in the cloud. The advantages are just too compelling. But what can we do to preserve freedom in the cloud? (Part 3 of a 5-part series.)
Defining clouds, web services, and other remote computing
Part 2 of the series, "What are the chances for a free software cloud?"
Technology commentators are a bit trapped by the term "cloud," which
has been kicked and slapped around enough to become truly shapeless.
So in this section I'll offer a history of services that have led up
to our cloud-obsessed era, hoping to help readers distinguish the
impacts and trade-offs created by all the trends that lie in the
"cloud."
Resolving the contradictions between web services, clouds, and open source
Part 1 of the series, "What are the chances for a free software cloud?"
A "free software cloud" may seem to be an oxymoron. But I believe that free software and remote computing were made for each other; their future lies together and the sooner they converge, the faster they will evolve and gain adoption. (Part 1 of a 5-part series.)
Four short links: 10 December 2010
Javascript Snowmarklet, Tech Startups, Enterprise Dropbox, and Cloud Contracts
- Let it Snow — bookmarklet from David Flanagan that makes Javascript snowflakes fall. Awww. (via Mike Loukides)
- You Can Work on Great Technology at Startups — There are more innovative database startups at various stages in their life than I can remember right now. So true–waiting for the inevitable amalgamation, thinning out, etc. (via Nat Friedman on Twitter)
- Dropbox for Teams — an interesting package of features from a very innovative company. (via Hacker News)
- Cloud Computing Checklist — Comparison and Analysis of the Terms and Conditions of Cloud Computing Services. What to look out for when signing a cloud contract. (via Rick Shera in email)
Cloud computing's fear factor: Acknowledge, reduce, move on
If cloud computing has so much potential, why are many organizations afraid of it?
A combination of negative messages and concerns about readiness have made cloud computing the most feared of the big technology innovations. There are legitimate reasons to approach the cloud with care, but we should not be consumed by irrational fear.
Four short links: 29 November 2010
Rethinking Education, Printing Roads, Outsource Security, and Designing Phones
- Building a New Culture of Thinking and Learning (Vimeo) — interesting farewell lecture from a university physicist disillusioned with the state of teaching. He went on to work on skateboarding video games. (via Kevin Marks)
- The Road Printer (BLDGBLOG) — a machine that lays cobblestone roads, looking remarkably like a printer as it does so. Not the future, but a whiff of it. (via Brenda Wallace)
- Watersheds in Communications Security (Bruce Schneier) — Whit talked about three watersheds in modern communications security. The first was the invention of the radio. […] The second watershed was shared computing. […] The third watershed is cloud computing, or whatever you want to call the general trend of outsourcing computation. The punchline: Diffie’s final point is that we’re entering an era of unprecedented surveillance possibilities. It doesn’t matter if people encrypt their communications, or if they encrypt their data in storage. As long as they have to give their data to other people for processing, it will be possible to eavesdrop on. Of course the methods will change, but the result will be an enormous trove of information about everybody.
- John’s Phone — a critical look at an elegant approach to mobile phones. it’s not a smart phone, it’s not a dumb phone, it’s the phone equivalent of a snappy dresser who’s great to talk to but who doesn’t do much. Proof, however, that there are many design surprises left in the phone world. The iPhone 4 is not the final coming of the JesusPhone.
Four short links: 18 November 2010
Web of Data, Wrong Open Source, Cloud Spot Market, REST
- Predictable Web of Data — a chapter of a book that never happened, this chapter covering the wonderful YQL.
- Symbian: A Lesson on the Wrong Way to Use Open Source (GigaOm) — Open source can be used to inspire and complement successful products. It can accelerate momentum. What it can’t do is resurrect dying technology products.
- SpotCloud — a spot market for cloud capacity. (via John Clegg on Twitter)
- Richardson Maturity Model for REST — A model (developed by Leonard Richardson) that breaks down the principal elements of a REST approach into three steps. These introduce resources, http verbs, and hypermedia controls. A very good introduction to REST for those who haven’t thought hard about it yet.
5 cloud computing conundrums
CIOs will need to unravel some challenging near-term puzzles to succeed in the cloud.
While every business needs to consider public cloud computing in the context of its own needs and risk profile, I've identified a sample of puzzles that most CIOs will likely need to address.