Storms vs Droids

Hurricane Sandy will affect tens of millions of people in the east coast of US.

Storms and hurricanes are the forces of nature that people can't match.
Will there be a time where the storm can be controlled? Can someone send a drone to the eye of the storm and reverse the spinning so it will cancel it out?
Will the people be able to harness the power of the storm and make it into a useable energy instead of a destructive force? What if we can convert this energy to a useable form - maybe one storm will be enough to power a nation for the whole year? Or maybe more?

A research on how to control, harness, and develop this kind of energy is great! And it is also risky - to the point that a person can control a vast energy - its a national security.

Are we getting dumber OR the computer just too powerful for us?

When I saw Windows 8 and the surface, I ask my self " Are we getting to a point where the computer is just too powerful for us?"

Back then in late 90's the processor speed are measured in term of mega hertz. Now it is measured in giga hertz and even the number of cores for us to choose from. From that moment in the 90's to some point in 2010, I can say that we achieve what we have achieved in terms of the power of computing in everyday life. 

Ordinary people don't play games and yet they want to most powerful computer they can buy - but seldom use the intended power of that computing machine to its fullest. 

When some company release a retina display -  the geeks are scrambling on reviews on how vibrant and how the pixels are… but some people forget that some are just as good as it was for the intended purpose.

What do ordinary people do in their computer? surf the web, make some transactions online, maybe social networking like facebook and google +.

ask your self. Do you really need a quad core or the six core products just to surf the web?

"Are we getting dumber or the computer is just too powerful for us?"

Why did Sony and Nokia left their announces literally priceless?

Did these two companies left their xperia T and Lumia 920 without price just to wait for the announcement of Apple for the price for the iPhone 5 tomorrow?
Are they playing the 'name your price first then I beat yours' game?
Let us see if that is the case.
If it is so, it is a good strategy too, in the price point perspective and is beneficial to the consumers.

What you think?

Opensourced project during tough economic times?

Everyone agrees that the open source project is such a good one and noble intention of providing the free software that everybody can use. Linux, Mozilla, and even the Wikipedia are open source and runs thru the donations. What happens when the time is tough? This is also a common problem on charitable organizations (like World Villages for Children). How will they survive during those time?

When times are good, the donation pours, because almost every person has something to spare. But inversely when the time is tough and when it is mostly needed too. So how can we solve this dilemma?

One thing for sure is to save for the rainy days. Put some aside for the rainy days. If the donations are at surplus during the good times, save some for the tough times. These are the old wisdom that is barely practiced now because of the accounting and the expansion of the projects that is necessary. How can you balance the expansion and the ‘saving for the rainy day’?

Android Fork

Amazon forked Android to better fit their needs for the OS. The new Kindle Fire HD proves to be a better fork of it. Customizing the OpenSource to fit their specific needs is the new trend right now.
Will Samsung take it and run also with their version of the forked OS?
If it will be the case, it will be like the OSes that forked in the desktop environment. Remember OpenSuse Linux? Those BSDs, and other Unix like systems? Where are they now?
They are not on the mainstreams of the computing world. Most of us still uses Windows OSes.
Will the fate of the desktop environment in this aspect will happen again in the mobile world?
I think three or four OSes is enough for people to chose from - Namely iOS, Windows, and one of the forked Android OS that will prevail all the Android ecosystem. I'll bet for the Samsung (if they fork it) and the Amazon Android forked OS (2aOS)

What is innovation and what is not?

What does is really mean?
Innovation = the act or process of inventing or introducing something new (encarta dictionary NA).
I will take an example of the famous Apple vs Samsung case. Does apple innovate? Does samsung innovate? Does samsung just copied Apple?
In my view, Apple does innovation here. Back when I was still waiting for a true smartphone back in 2003, i was frustrated in finding one because not even the mighty Nokia suits what I want in my smartphone. I was really considering to buy one of the N series of the Nokia. Back then I know what I want on a smartphone. A combination of features that is able to connect to internet. And no smartphone hardly satisfy that since 2003. Here comes 2007. Iphone was introduced and I said - that's what a smartphone should be the rest is history.
From that point we knew that that the first iPhone was the turning point of what we called smartphone as we know it today. That means they introduce something new that we never seen before in a grand scale.
Then here comes Samsung with Android in its pocket. They pick up where the first iphone is and immitate their success. So what is the line between innovations? If it is so close to what it is now, should you call it innovation? Or just copying.
In my opinion, Samsung and Android should have not done that blatant copying of the look and feel of the iPhone. Not that I am an Apple fan, but as an ordinary people who view intelectual property to protect what you have to protect.
It will not stop innovation on smartphone. There is still Bokia and Windows 8 out there that want to define their smartphone apart and have different personality as the iPhone.

One thing is true for Samsung. Whatever products that sells, they will enter into it - even it means copying and reverse engineering the existing product. Ride on. Is the motto?

As Apple cannot "become the developer of the world"

Though Apple was not the first to think of touch screen, but boy Apple was the first who sucessfully brought it to the mass and the multi touch gestures in smartphone, the first one.
Some of you will brand me as ifan or fanboy or whatever. But the thing here is- try to invent your own. Think what the cunsumer really wants and build from it. Let the consumer be your inspiration on R&D and not the reverse engineering technique nor the copying of whatever sells.

Where, Oh Where, is Such a House?

There was a woman named Kisa who was much devoted to the Tathagata (Buddha) and liked to sit at his feet to listen to his preaching. Kisa had given birth to a baby daughter not many months before. But, as fate would have it, the child had fallen ill, and now lay dead in her arms. Nearly mad with grief she came to Buddha carrying the baby, and weeping loudly she fell at his feet.

"Lord," she wailed, "you have divine power and can bring my daughter back to life. You are full of mercy and I know that you will honor my request. I am sure you have some remedy." Buddha looked down at her and his heart burned with her sadness and misery. "Bring me," he said slowly, "a handful of mustard seed; but it must come from a house where no one has lost a loved one."

Now Kisa, thinking this to be part of a charm that might restore her baby, wiped her tears and, full of hope, set off on her quest. From house to house she walked. At the door of every one she heard: "Alas, not here. We lost our grandfather here." "Last year my mother died." "A beloved cousin was staying with us and she fell to a fatal disease."

At last the light dawned upon Kisa that what had happened to her is what all beings are caught in, the ancient pair, life and death -- the chain of becoming, in which all are bound. She gave last rites to her child, and came back to her Master. She was ready now for "entering the stream", which means starting, with Buddha's guidance, on the Eight Step Path to Enlightenment.

YouTube profits

I just read an article about the Google acquisition of YouTube way back then for $1.65B. Now it generates an income of $1B annually.

To simplify it further: $1B per year is equivalent to generating an income of $31.71 per second. That is "per second". That is way more than the minimum federal salary of about $7 per hour.

No wonder why a lot of people want to do an internet startups like YouTube.
They call it 'cash cow'.

Will it be the case also for the Motorolla Mobility? That Google just recently succesfully acquired?