Corporations

Lessons from Nokia's CEO: ignore your product & your customers

Samat Jain — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:39:56 +0000

So, Nokia’s paper-launched their newest flagship phone, the N9.

The N9 is based (well, sort-of, anyway—something many media outlets have gotten wrong) on Nokia’s Linux-based operating system MeeGo, which they’ve been developing in-house for several years. However, in 2010, Nokia decided to switch their flagship mobile phone OS from MeeGo to Windows Phone 7—effectively aborting all long-term plans and products in the pipeline.

This has universally been regarded as a bad move.

The N9 was apparently far enough down the pipeline, and new products based on Windows Phone 7 so far, that Nokia released the device anyway. So far, the N9 is a hit.

The move to the new OS is considered the handiwork of recently-appointed Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. However, an article in the Helsingin Sanomat paraphrases Elop:

In Elop’s words, there is no returning to MeeGo, even if the N9 turns out to be a hit.

So, it doesn’t matter if Nokia’s own products are successful? The business deal made with Microsoft is more important?

I read:

I have taken part in the conversations with the teleoperators and I have been part of the consumer test groups. The feedback has been extremely positive and I am sure that the Windows Phone system will be a great success

And think: teleoperators and consumer test groups are one thing, but what about your own customers and developers?

Lessons learned here: ignore your product, and ignore your customers, and you too can be part of a company as successful as Nokia. Maybe, as CEO, you’ll get your own social media hashtag too.

Topic:

Google Chrome deprecates H.264: the right move, but little change for HTML5 video

Samat Jain — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:07:53 +0000

Google has decided to deprecate H.264 in Chrome. This is nothing but good for the future of web video. With support in three major browsers (Firefox 4, Chrome, and Opera) it means that WebM/VP8, instead of H.264, will become the defacto codec for HTML5 video.

I’ve talked to several people who think that this move has killed HTML5 video. I’m not sure I follow the logic — little has changed, except what will become the dominant codec.

You can say it’s made Flash the least common denominator, which ignores the fact that Flash already IS the least common denominator for web video.

Regarding codec fragmentation, little is changed there too: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 and Apple’s various Webkit products still do not have WebM/VP8 support. Content providers wanting to support HTML5 still need to encode to both H.264 and WebM.

With the codec fragmentation problem as yet unsolved, do content providers have any reason to use HTML5 video when Flash still is the least common denominator? Well, Flash is no longer included with Windows 7 or Mac OS X (and was never included with any reputable Linux distribution). Are content providers still willing to force users to download plugins, when they can just use the dominant HTML5 video codec?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, nor does anyone else. Nobody said that the problem of open video would be solved easily or overnight. But focusing on WebM is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction.

In the meanwhile, WebM is winning, so why don’t you start encoding your videos to WebM now? On SamatsWiki I’ve a sparse page on encoding to WebM (which will work with stock Debian/Ubuntu tools), as well as one on encoding to Ogg Theora. If you’re on Linux, the easiest way to convert videos is OggConvert, an easy-to-use GNOME-based GUI. Publishing them on the Web is just as easy. Check out the HTML5 video chapter in Mark Pilgrim’s Dive Into HTML5, or Jakub Steiner’s How to get your clips on the web.

Topic:

Microsoft's Hyper-V contribution is not outside their agenda

Samat Jain — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:26:05 +0000

If you pay attention to Linux-related news, you may have heard that Microsoft has contributed code adding Hyper-V acceleration to the Linux kernel. This event is not something that falls outside of their corporate agenda (whether it falls out of their strategy, I’ll let Steve Balmer voice).

Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hypervisor, included with the server editions of Windows (somewhat similar to VMware Workstation or Sun’s VirtualBox). It lets you run other guest operating systems within the currently running one (called the host OS). Typically, virtualizing guest OSes is slow. To improve performance, rather than virtualizing everything, special drivers and software can be installed into the guest OS to make certain things faster (such as graphics, disk I/O, etc).

The popular Linux hypervisors (Xen, KVM, etc) don’t have special drivers like these for Windows, so they won’t be able to run Windows particularly quickly. With Microsoft’s contribution, Linux now will ship with built-in acceleration for Microsoft’s hypervisor, making Linux run that much faster. If you were an IT shop that simultaneously needed to maximize performance and run both Linux and Windows, would you:

Run an open-source Linux hypervisor, and virtualize Windows (slow)
Run Microsoft’s hypervisor, included with expensive Windows Server licenses, and virtualize Linux (fast)

The answer’s clear. Microsoft’s kernel contribution brings them good PR and satisfies real-world customer demands, while continuing to promote their agenda to make running Windows seem like the best choice. Smart move!

Topic:

Linux

Corporations

Microsoft

Deciphering Intel's new X25-M G2 SSD

Samat Jain — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:52:31 +0000

My laptop hard disk is beginning to die. In what seems like perfect timing, Intel has released a refresh of their X25-M solid state disk (SSD) lineup (via Engadget and Ars Technica). The new models offer much over the old ones:

Manufactured on a 35 nm vs 50 nm process
Faster seek times, both read and write, leading to more I/O operations per second (IOPS)
Significantly less expensive (Cited as a 60% price drop, though that’s comparing at-introduction MSRPs. It’s still at least 25% less.)
Greater shock tolerance (1500 G vs 1000 G)
Future TRIM command support, via firmware upgrade. The ATA TRIM command mitigates SSD fragmentation problems that have been the cause of many performance issues.

While die shrinks usually lead to parts that consume less power, the new X25-M uses the same amount of power when active (150 mW), and actually more power when idle (75 mW vs 60 mW). Still, it’s significantly less power than most laptop hard disk drives (my Hitachi 7K200 idles at 800 mW). [Source: Intel’s technical specifications]

Of course, with all these changes, Intel decided to name the drives the same as the old ones, making it difficult for people who want to buy one right now to know what device they’re actually getting.

This kind of inane marketing isn’t new, with the most infamous example on my mind being the Linksys WRT54G. Linksys (so far) as made 6 different revisions of the exact same model, drastically changing the internal hardware throughout the revisions. While most people don’t care, a few did, such as those in the modder community (like myself) who wanted to run modified firmwares. Purchasing anything took a lot of research on the part of the buyer. Manufacturers really should be in the business of making their products easier to buy, not more difficult.

Fortunately, I’ve done the research for you: the new Intel SSDs do have slightly different part numbers, so you can tell the old parts from the new. For example, the old X25-M 80 GB disk has a part number of SSDSA2MH080G1C1, while the newer model has a part number of SSDSA2MH080G201. That is, the part numbers contain either a “G1” or a “G2” corresponding to the revision.

With the glowing positive reviews for the X25-M since it’s introduction a few months ago, its new lower price, and most importantly, the failure of my current laptop disk, I’m going to pick up one of these drives within a week.

Topic:

Corporations

Computer Hardware

Marketing

Adobe releases pre-release Flash 10 for 64-bit Linux

Samat Jain — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:23:44 +0000

Today, Adobe released 64-bit Flash for Linux. Finally, I can waste time watching ugly, pixelated Internet video on my 64-bit Linux desktop and laptop, just like all of my 32-bit-confined brothers and sisters on the Internet! (Yes, I know about npviewer—let’s not go there.)

What’s really interesting is that this is Adobe’s first 64-bit release of Flash. That is, Linux users got it first, before users of Windows Vista x64 and and MacOS X. It probably does not mean anything, especially since Adobe has mentioned 64-bit flash will be released at the same time across platforms, but you can’t help but feel good inside.

Go download it now and remember to report good bugs.

Update: Some quick notes…

The tarball provided on the labs website is not the conventional Adobe Flash installer–it just contains the plugin. To use the plugin, drop the .so file into your ~/.mozilla/plugins/ directory.
Make sure to uninstall your npviewer-powered 32-bit Flash completely (disabling the plugin within Firefox is not enough). I personally uninstalled it from my system to prevent any conflict.

Topic:

Linux

Corporations

Starbucks Gold Card

Samat Jain — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:15:04 +0000

Starbucks “Black” Gold Card

This summer I fell in love with Starbuck’s Vivanno, their high-protein, high-fiber smoothie beverage. My signature drink: a banana-chocolate Vivanno, one espresso shot, with non-fat milk. Because I was going there so often, and because the new Starbucks and AT&T partnership gave 2 hours free WiFi a day, I started buying things through a free Starbucks Card (essentially a prepaid, reloadable gift card).

Apparently, I went to Starbucks more than I thought. A few weeks ago, Starbucks invited me to be part of their Starbucks Gold program. The program provides a special card, which is quite pretty: the back is standard glossy card fare, but the front is a black matte with gold embossed logo.

Starbucks started this program earlier this summer, and they’ve been tweaking the benefits. The benefits my card comes with (as says the flyer that came with it):

10% off most purchases
Coffeehouse rewards, including special discounts on family and friend days
Surprise indulgences, like treats on my birthday
Members-only website and insider promotions

Unfortunately, this comes at a price. ~~It has a membership fee of $25/yr~~–only the hardcore Starbucks coffee drinkers (which isn’t me) need apply. Also, supposedly, the card does not provide any of the Starbucks Card Rewards, ~~such as the free WiFi~~, or free milk and syrup options. So far, I’m going to pass on the program, and continue using my old Starbucks Card. But I will keep the pretty-looking card.

Correction: My beta invite entitles me to the Starbucks Gold membership for free. Funny this not indicated anywhere. Also, even though the fine print says Starbucks Card Rewards do not apply, the Starbucks Gold program portal implies that WiFi is an included reward, and it does appear to work…

Update: Now that the Starbucks Gold membership has officially launched for the general public, you can get a description of the benefits in-store. With the Starbucks Gold card, you do not get all the Starbucks Card Rewards–that is, no free syrups, milk or whipped cream, refills on drip coffee, or free tall drink with purchase of whole bean coffee. However, as I mentioned, you do get WiFi.

Topic:

Corporations

Food

"Don't Buy a Mac Laptop" for a long while

Samat Jain — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:38:56 +0000

Rob Pegoraro of the Washington post writes Don’t Buy a Mac Laptop. When you click through the article, you see the the subtext, “Before the 14th.” Rob is referring to an Apple’s announcement stating they’d be refreshing their laptop lineup next Tuesday, October 14th, 2008.

I’m going to avoid commenting too much on why I think this is bad journalism, and how I expect more from someone associated with the Washington Post (even if it is a blog). If the point was to be sensationalist and grab my attention, it did do that, though.

Instead, I’ll go into how it’s misleading… Supposedly, with the laptop refresh, Apple will be introducing a new manufacturing process where components are carved from aluminum. The new MacBook model is supposed to be called the “Brick.” That’s great and all, but I feel as if I need to remind people that first-generation Apple products are always littered with problems. I remember when the PowerBook G4 was released, I’d be able to press down on the palm wrest and scrape along a CD in the fancy new slot-loading drive, while it was spinning. I passed on the PowerBook and bought a Sony VAIO PCG-Z505 instead.

So… before jumping the gun as soon as the new MacBook is released, you may want to wait till it’s known that Apple has all the kinks of their manufacturing process worked out. It may be a while.

Topic:

Corporations

Apple

The number one thing Dell customers want... Linux

Samat Jain — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:59:54 +0000

Dell Ideastorm is a Dell-run website where users can post and vote (anonymously) for ideas for Dell products. What’s the number one thing people want…?

People want Linux on their Dell machines. Remember to click the “promote” icon and make your vote count.

Topic:

Linux

Corporations

High-speed Internet access through cellular phone networks

Samat Jain — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:52:00 +0000

I’m a T-Mobile Hotspot subscriber, but I cannot say I’m particularly happy with it. Reliability is in general pretty good, but there have been a few times a certain hotspot has been flaky, and these tend to be the times I needed access the most. It’s also a pain to have to go somewhere to get Internet access, especially when, for example, I don’t like Starbuck’s coffee. I rather have the Internet come to me.

Enter EVDO. It’s a 3rd generation cellular technology that allows for broadband-like speeds, typically almost everywhere you have a cellular phone signal. There are different speeds depending on what network is available in a particular location:

1xRTT, allowing for 144 Kbps/144 Kbps download/upload speeds
EVDO 1x Rev 0, allowing for 2.45 Mbps/150 Kbps
EVDO 1x Rev A, allowing for 3.1 Mbps/1.8 Mbps speeds.

All three types of networks are available can be found in the United States, and a typical provider’s access plan lets you roam between them anywhere in the country for free.

Access comes through a provider-specific modem (i.e. you cannot use one provider’s modem with another provider). These usually are PCMCIA cards, reminiscent of the 802.11b network cards people used before WiFi was built-into notebook computers. Connection to a provider usually is provided through PPP software. Most the modems available on the market today are a little oddball: they expose a USB controller, which then exposes a USB serial interface which controls a virtual modem. Yes, it’s strange, especially when these devices aren’t actually modems (there is no MOdulation or DEModulation taking place, the devices are more “network bridges”), but thankfully it allows these devices to easily work with alternative operating systems like Linux and MacOS X.

In the USA, there are essentially three major EVDO providers: Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and Alltell, with Sprint and Verizon having the largest networks by far. What differentiates the Sprint and Verizon, I think, is pricing and policies. If you do not want to sign a contract, both providers cost the same. If you want to sign a contract for 2 yrs, you only get a discount rate with Verizon if you’ve a qualifying voice plan—Sprint has no such limitation to get a discounted rate.

Verizon does a bit of questionable marketing: they advertise their service as “unlimited,” but they pull a trick often used in contract writing and specifically define “unlimited” as 5 GB/month. If you go over this limit, you’re breaking Verizon’s terms of service. Verizon often cancels subscribers accounts, and assumes you are a criminal, downloading illegal music or software. An article in the Washington Post, Bandwidth Bandit, discusses about one subscriber’s woes. Their terms of service disallows many popular Internet applications as well, such as VoIP, video conferencing, or any online gaming. Sprint’s terms of service are more vague and do not explicitly disallow these things, but reports from their subscribers say that they don’t have unreasonably low bandwidth limits nor have draconian policy enforcement assuming you guilty until proven innocent.

This wouldn’t be a good summary without me discussing what new bleeding-edge technology was right around the corner. EVDO Rev B, allowing for at least 4.9 Mbps/1.8 Mbps speeds, has been deployed in a few places in Asia, but given how backward North America tends to be in technology adoption, won’t be in the United States anytime soon. WiMAX, a 4th generation cellular technology allowing for speeds of at least 10 Mbps, will probably take the place of EVDO. Sprint is the only major provider dedicated to building a WiMAX network, with plans to begin deployment at the end of 2007.

Some external links with good information:

EVDOforums.com: Forum dedicated to EVDO. Sponsored by an online store Booster-Antenna.com, which specializes in EVDO technologies, offers much better prices than provider’s retail stores. I maintain a thread about EVDO on Linux, with community-provided configurations and vignettes.
EVDO on Wikipedia
Comparison of wireless data standards on Wikipedia

Topic:

Linux

Corporations

Wireless

Lenovo to discontinue Linux support for Thinkpads

Samat Jain — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:20:02 +0000

Lenovo, the company that bought IBM’s personal computer division, including the Thinkpad brand, has decided to no longer support Linux on their computer products.

I do not see how the customer benefits from this, because Lenovo is effectively offering its customers less choice. Supporting Linux tends to not cost anything up front and instead affects design decisions, decisions that lead to a better, more high-quality product. It is not as if much was spent on marketing Linux offerings, either.

This move is probably to appease Microsoft, who almost surely offers Lenovo discount Windows licenses for shunning Linux. This will improve Lenovo’s bottom line, but will not give the consumer any more quality, any more service or support, and probably no change in price.

Of course, not supporting Linux has never stopped people from trying to run it anyway. But, think of it as a sign of things to come. No longer having any inclination to support Linux means that in the future they can go with completely proprietary components. Proprietary components that won’t work in Linux, and are almost universally more unstable and buggy, on Windows and Linux, than their non-proprietary counterparts.

So, I’m calling this the beginning of the end of the ThinkPad’s legendary quality. Smart move Lenovo.

Topic:

Linux

Corporations

ThinkPad

Alternative search engines to Google

Samat Jain — Fri, 12 May 2006 23:53:36 +0000

I am making a personal effort to avoid using Google lately. If you’ve talked to me lately, you know why–and to be polite I’m going to keep my psychotic ranting and hating off my weblog. So, other than Google, what is there?

If you can remember the 90s, Alta Vista was the search engine that was all the rage. In my opinion, Alta Vista’s peak was when they were owned by Digital Computer Corporation, but it all went downhill when they split off into their own company during the dot-com boom of the late 90s. Today, Alta Vista clearly shows signs of neglect, and is not a very good search engine…

If you pay attention to the news, you’d know that Google does not like MSN Search very much: so much so that Google is suing Microsoft over search engine placement in Internet Explorer 7. I’m not so sure what Google is worried about, because if you use MSN Search for a while, you realize it’s not very good and doesn’t hold a candle to Google’s search results.

However, Microsoft’s “beta” search engine, Windows Live, is a different story. If Microsoft replaces MSN Search with the technology powering Windows Live, Google better start getting worried. Search results are a little bit more broad than Google, but still remain concise and accurate. Windows Live, however, has a totally horrible UI. It’s awful! It’s the definition of when you go overkill with AJAX and DHTML. Besides being slow, it does not work too well with Mozilla Firefox, and my personal pet peeve: it uses low-contrast greys and blues in its design, so it can be a strain to read anything.

Fortunately, you’re not forced to use Windows Live’s interface, because there a few partners using their search results. Amazon’s A9 search engine now fetches results from Windows Live, and its UI is great. For some hard-to-quantify reason I like its UI more than Google’s.

Last but not least is Alltheweb. Bought by Yahoo a few years ago, Alltheweb has always delivered great search results, but was too little to be really compete with the big boys. Being small, they’ve had some interesting innovative features, such as custom CSS for those who want to customize how their search results look.

Yahoo is continuing the the tradition, especially with Alltheweb’s Livesearch. Unlike Windows Live, Alltheweb’s Livesearch uses AJAX in quite a slick way, providing a unique search UI that is focused on providing suggestions, similar to Google Suggest, but better.

So, what do I use for my Google-free web searching? Mostly, Amazon’s A9, as well as Alltheweb when I feel like it.

Topic:

Corporations

Google sues Microsoft over default search engine in Internet Explorer 7

Samat Jain — Thu, 04 May 2006 05:17:31 +0000

Google sues Microsoft. Google claims that Microsoft is a monopoly, and by setting the default search engine in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 to Microsoft-owned MSN Search, they are abusing their power as a monopoly.

I do not see Google making a good case here… MSN Search is a Microsoft product, as is Internet Explorer 7 and Windows. Microsoft has the right to promote its own products, and so far there is no evidence that Microsoft prevents or impairs use of Google or any other search engine.

Microsoft does not appear to care that Google is the default search engine for America Online’s client software, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Konqueror, and Safari. It can be difficult to add MSN Search to these browsers as well: in Firefox, it took as many as 6-clicks and skimming through several pages to add MSN Search (it is now down to 2 clicks, with more simple pages).

Before you compare this to the Netscape versus Microsoft antitrust lawsuit back in the 1990s, understand it is a bit different. The case did not get traction till the issue of Internet Explorer using secret Windows APIs came up. Microsoft could use these secret APIs to make its browser faster; since they were secret no other 3rd party would be able to use them. It gives the Microsoft product a distinct, unfair advantage: it’s an abuse of power as a monopoly.

So far, there is no evidence of Microsoft doing anything like this in Google’s lawsuit.

I think it’s pretty clear Microsoft and Google are at war. And because everyone and their grandmother uses Windows, Microsoft will win. Of course, this will change if Google decides to introduce their own operating system, and can market it well enough so that a significant amount of people switch to it. Things are going to get interesting…

Topic:

Corporations

Microsoft