O'Reilly Network: Awkward Moments Dampen Woz's Return [January 07, 2003] "As frustration set in for panelists and audience alike, the pace of the discussion began to disintegrate. The topic was supposed to be "The Move to Mac OS X," but the only LeVitus and Ticktin seemed truly enthusiastic about Apple's new operating system. And at times, Wozniak even appeared clearly dissatisfied with the Unix-based OS. Not that I was expecting all love and roses here, but I wasn't prepared for a platform debate either."

I.B.M. in Deal to Farm Out Some PC Jobs "The move is part of I.B.M.'s continuing drive to cut costs as it focuses on software and services. In recent months, I.B.M. has sold its disk-drive business to Hitachi, while adding to its services and software presence by purchasing PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and Rational Software."
I guess IBM plans to only make specialty computers these days, e.g., AS/400, mainframe, and supercomputers. It has already outsourced/partnered in many other areas, e.g., with Cisco for comms gear; of course Cisco also doesn't manufacture its own boxes...

Microsoft Smart Display opens door to world of sofa surfing "The AirPanel is impressive for first-generation technology. The screen is sharp and responsive to taps by either a stylus or fingers. It sets up easily and elegantly handled errors such as dropped connections. But I would not spend nearly $1,000 when a light, wireless-capable laptop with a larger screen costs only a few hundred dollars more."
I think most reviewers are missing the strategic direction/point here -- it's not about directly competing with a laptop; it's about handling a subset of PC usage contexts and also consolidating all remotes etc. into a single control unit, with a form factor that's more appropriate for carrying around the house. Yes there are some serious release 1.0 issues to fix, such as monotasking the host Windows XP PC when the Smart Display is active, and the prices need to come way down, but I think the concept is right and expect Smart Display will be very successful over time. Especially as roaming wireless, iSCSI, etc. go mainstream, when you'll no longer be housebound with this device type...

Apple Branches Out, Offering 2 Software Programs "Speaking before a frequently cheering crowd of 3,500 Macintosh faithful at the opening of the twice-yearly Macworld exhibition, Mr. Jobs, Apple's 47-year-old chairman and co-founder, spent 94 minutes of his 129-minute presentation speaking about Apple software before introducing the two new portable computers."
I'd love to have one of the new 17" display PowerBooks, but I'm baffled about why Apple would choose to compete with PowerPoint and the leading browser clients.

Xbox Live Subscriptions Double Expectations "Microsoft Corp. today released new data that indicates playing video games online via the Xbox Live (TM) service is quickly becoming the evening activity of choice for throngs of entertainment thrill seekers. Since the introduction of Xbox Live less than 60 days ago, more than 250,000 starter kits have been sold -- double original sales expectations. The starter kit has been selling out in most locations in North America. According to data released by NPD Group Inc., in the first month of availability, Xbox Live Starter Kits outsold by 86 percent the number of PlayStation 2 Network Adapters Sony sold in its first month.* Gamers have flocked to the world's first high-speed video gaming arena fully dedicated to online gaming, spending an average of 2.5 hours per day playing online."
Oh my... I wonder what the age distribution and other demographics pictures look like.

kuro5hin.org || What the Future Holds for Microsoft "Many people consider Microsoft to be this all-powerful entity that always gets its way and succeeds in whatever it attempts (whether through technical ability, luck, marketing, or illegal means). But in fact, if you look back at all the initiatives Microsoft has attempted, most of them have failed. Remember Windows at Work, an attempt to unify all office machines on a network? Or TrueImage, a clone of the PostScript page description language? Or ACE, the Advanced Computing Environment, designed to replace the Intel PC architecture? If you look at all the things that Microsoft has boldly announced with a gaggle of industry partners, the success rate is maybe 10 to 20 percent. So pick any ten things that Microsoft is attempting now: Auto PC, cell phone operating system, set-top box, Xbox, electronic books, Internet Gaming Zone, Tablet PC, Pocket PC, speech recognition, MSN. The odds are that only one or two of those will actually succeed."
Interesting self-interview from someone who wrote a book about his decade with Microsoft.

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Gateway seeks a new way Perhaps it's time to start using "Dell" as a verb, as in "Gateway has been Delled..."

Phone Calling Over Internet Is Attracting More Interest "Internet calling currently accounts for more than 10 percent of international calling traffic, with about 18 billion minutes worldwide, up from 9.9 billion minutes at the end of 2001, according to the research firm Telegeography."
I think the author missed a key dimension -- the use of PC-based tools such as Windows Messenger and Macromedia Flash Communication Server-based apps; such tools facilitate long-distance audio and video (although in the case of Windows Messenger there are still lots of firewall and NAT etc. challenges).

Boston Globe Online / Business / Software designers with vision map hard drives - and beyond More press for Gelernter and Grokker

Today's Visions of the Science of Tomorrow "At the end of every year, John Brockman, a literary agent and the publisher of Edge.org, a Web site devoted to science, poses a question to leading scientists, writers and futurists. In 2002, he asked respondents to imagine that they had been nominated as White House science adviser and that President Bush had sought their answer to "What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice on how I can begin to deal with them?" Here are excerpts of some of the responses."

The Register: Microsoft's masterplan to screw phone partner - full details "Back in 1998, the phone companies decided to pool their resources on a wannabe smartphone OS from PDA-pioneer Psion Computer. The formation of Symbian caused Bill Gates much agitation [as these now-legendary memos show] ,but it's to his credit that he identified the company as Microsoft's No.1 enemy. In this case, at least, Microsoft's paranoia was fully justified."

Boston Globe Online / Editorials / Cracking a software code "Mitch Kapor is using his wealth to finance a new e-mailing software. But his real accomplishment may be changing the way people think."
Only in Boston could this show up on the editorial page...

[99 Bottles of Beer] - History and Background Cool site showing simple app in 487 programming languages/styles, via JD on MX

Microsoft's Gates Talks Trends, Points to Rivals IBM, Sony "... Our biggest competitor is IBM. IBM has always been the biggest company in the computer business by number of employees or revenue. We also work with IBM a lot. This XML Web services have a lot of the key foundation technical work that's going to make that a broad standard and make that succeed. It is based on the partnership between IBM and Microsoft around this Web services activity.
Sun Microsystems is actually quite small now. They've shrunk quite a bit, and they mostly make expensive hardware. AOL is just a competitor primarily in the United States in dial-up. Sony is certainly a great company, and we work with them on a lot of things in the PC and interoperability area. And we compete very aggressively with each other on video games."

Wired News: Vaporware 2002: Tech up in Smoke? Sign of the times: 50% are games

PDAStreet: Special Reports: Smartphones Come of Age Handy reference

I, Cringely | The Pulpit: Bob's Predictions for 2003 Best 2003 tech market predictions I've seen so far (example: time to sell HPQ...)

And Now, the Portable Desktop PC, Up to a Point "The beauty of the Smart Display concept is that it keeps you out of Duplicate Hard-Drive Hell. That's the disorientation experienced by laptop owners who can't remember which machine contains the latest version of a certain file or which e-mail In box stores a critical message. With a Smart Display, you still own only one computer (that PC in the den), so all of your stuff remains in one place." ...
"ViewSonic charges $1,000 and $1,300 for its 10- and 15-inch screens; Philips will charge $1,400 for its model. But for that kind of money, you could buy an actual laptop. You could use it precisely the way you would use a Smart Display, tapping into your main PC using the same wireless technology and the same remote-control feature of Windows XP Pro.
In the process, you would avoid the frustrations of a missing keyboard, you would be able to play DVD movies in bed and you wouldn't be limited to tapping into a single computer.
Finally, not incidentally, you would own a true laptop - a computer that doesn't turn into an expensive hors d'oeuvres tray the minute you take it beyond the property line."

What Should I Do With My Life? "Environment matters, but in the end, when it comes to tackling the question, What should I do with my life? it really is all in your head. The first psychological stumbling block that keeps people from finding themselves is that they feel guilty for simply taking the quest seriously. They think that it's a self-indulgent privilege of the educated upper class. Working-class people manage to be happy without trying to "find themselves," or so the myth goes."...
"I have spent the better part of the past two years in the company of people who have dared to confront where they belong. They didn't always find an ultimate answer, but taking the question seriously helped get them closer. We are all writing the story of our own life. It's not a story of conquest. It's a story of discovery. Through trial and error, we learn what gifts we have to offer the world and are pushed to greater recognition about what we really need. The Big Bold Leap turns out to be only the first step."
Excerpt from new Po Bronson book

Peering Into My MSFT Crystal Ball ... Some interesting speculation