todd.tokubo.com

testing with seesmic

It’s not just going after a few select people in Sweden, the Slate has the best succinct article, that I’ve read,  about why Netflix and iTunes fit in the current “byzantine” (their word not mine) motion picture distribution system.

We all understand the first couple of steps in this life cycle—first a movie hits theaters and then, a few months later, it comes out on DVD. Around the same time, it also comes out on pay-per-view, available on demand on cable systems, hotel rooms, airplanes, and other devices. Apple’s rental store operates under these pay-per-view rules, most of which put a 24-hour limit on movies. 

It’s a short read and well worth it to understand the current monetization issues the MPAA faces.  It doesn’t make me any more sympathetic tho.  Note to MPAA: Please see RIAA and print newspapers as examples of what happens when you hold on to your existing business model too long.

I read a lot of career things.  From this Slashdot post, is an article saying… “Coders your days are numbered“.  One thing that always bothered me about software engineers were that many of them refered to others as coders.  It took me reading the line “Too many software development teams are still staffed like secretarial pools…” to really resonate.  

Software development doesn’t need more typists, secretaries, intermediaries, or middle managers. What it needs are more skilled, engaged, communicative, responsive, assertive developer-analysts — the kind who can understand, influence, and guide development efforts, rather than simply taking dictation. 

Yes… I read so many career posts where people complain about their jobs being outsourced.  Now some of those may have been done unfairly by mismanagement.  However, I tend to believe that many of those people are feeling entitled even though, their job has been marginalized.  Or you rank somewhere below 4 on this guy’s chart.

I suspect more articles like this will start popping up.  This one compares ARM and Intel at a transistor level and notes that ARM does not directly follow the revered Moore’s Law as Intel seemingly does.

Looking more and Moore like Intel needs to have ARM stick around for a while.

There is now Skype for the iPhone.  I was not a big fan of Skype previously.  I’ve worked on a few Skype products at my previous place of employment.  For some reason, things never stuck.  It’s amazing that the iPhone is making itself to be so many things to so many people.  It shares applications with seemingly competing technologies like the Kindle, gaming and now Skype.  The latter being something one would have though a while ago AT&T would go to their grave kicking and screaming to prevent on any phone they subsidize.

Another really cool story was on Wired about netbooks.  Usually, I run pretty hot and cold about what I like to read on Wired, but this one brought up some interesting points.

Netbooks have ended the performance wars.  It used to be that when you went to an electronics store to buy a computer, you picked the most powerful one you could afford. Because, who knew? Maybe someday you’d need to play a cutting-edge videogame or edit your masterpiece indie flick…

But here’s the catch: Most of the time, we do almost nothing. Our most common tasks—email, Web surfing, watching streamed videos—require very little processing power. Only a few people, like graphic designers and hardcore gamers, actually need heavy-duty hardware. For years now, without anyone really noticing, the PC industry has functioned like a car company selling SUVs…

Appropo to say the least at the moment, but definitely true.  The one thing that kills me about netbooks is Intel and Microsoft putting limits on screen size other other things to preserve the existing laptop market, but there are signs that this is slowly changing. 

But to continue the train of thought regarding the PC industry being like SUVs, the article goes on to talk about how the Taiwan laptop manufacturers have apparently shifted the power of the PC industry:

“When I talk to (Dell, HP and Apple) now,” Shih laughs, “they say, ‘We outsource our branding and sales tothem.‘”

I don’t think this is far from the truth.  The US auto industry lost to Japan because of low-cost gas sipping cars when economic recession hit.  There are a lot of parallels with the netbook industry, especially as we start to move to more and more cloud computing options.  All you need is connectivity, and the carriers apparently are slowly learning how to deal with data communications (see statement above).

A big question becomes what does the US make next?  Even now, we can see New York rising as a new technology and media center (ie. Hulu, Joost, etc).  I will say that times are indeed interesting and likely historic.  And while I have endless confidence that Silicon Valley will survive in some way shape or form, I wonder what technology will lead us into the next decade?

John Stewart and Jon Stewart

Related to my earlier post, Intel no longer needs AMD, and now they just need the lawyers to close the deal.  That didn’t take long.  I really did think Intel would just let AMD die on its own.  Looks like they want a faster death.

He’s a comedian, who took over a 30 min show that was previously hosted by a SportsCenter anchor who I thought was… well… weird.

I’m really trying to figure out how a pseudo news show on Comedy Central ends up being the best place for me to get analysis about what’s going on in national news.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch this live because I cancelled my extended cable.  But there’s a teaser on this page, and hit this Hulu page after March 13 for the whole episode.

On top of that, the dude actually won a Peabody award and an Emmy… for making fun of other people in the news.

I love this man.   I would say it’s comic genius, but can you say that about the truth?

Finding out that someone is actually following my tweets…

There’s been buzz lately as Intel is moving at least some of its Atom processors to TSMC.  

Intel has gone and given TSMC permission to build other ICs for fabless customers with the x86 as the core processor.  Very nice move Intel.  

In one single move, Intel has:

• Prevented any anti-trust action in the case that AMD goes under
• Directly challenge ARM for consumer electronics processing
• Potentially wiped out Via

Side note: nVidia is a big TSMC customer.  It would interesting to see an x86 cored nVidia ASIC, but with their current spat who knows.

I think it’s safe to say that PC / consumer electronics / appliance convergence is no longer just marketing handwaving.  It’s here and Intel is on-board…

Update: nVidia considering embedded x86