Apple : All things digital, if developers can run their gauntlet

This past week saw the latest gadget release from Apple, including version 4 of the iPhone. I read these related articles about Apple's strategy and how they continue to "support" developers who work on their iPhone platform. If you play by their rules, then there's a pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow. But there is not so much gold as heartache if you run afoul of the lords at Apple- read more below.

Molly Wood Neil McAllister

Apple = Microsoft 2.0
Jobs came back to Apple like a prophet from the wilderness. He brought them back from the abyss. I and a lot of other people had written them off, but they rose from the ashes by embracing a unified hardware/software platform, with hardware manufactured only by Apple. Their new software platform, OSX, is a Unix-based technology; Darwin uses FreeBSD at the core. You've really got to give it to Jobs! He saw that the BSD license would allow him to take the best of the technology and never have to give anything back, or only when he felt like it. And if you didn't notice, the days of anything coming back from them are gone. Now, Apple is widely considered to be the leading tech company, leaving Microsoft in their dust. Microsoft is the new IBM, the slow, stodgy company that Gates/Ballmer wanted to avoid at all costs. Too bad the DOJ didn't follow through with the planned breakup of Microsoft. As smaller, more focused entities, they'd be better positioned to compete now. There are very few scenarios where a unified Microsoft makes the most sense, and we're not living in one of them. (Coincidentally, the breakup would have likely meant more money in the long run for Microsoft's "baby bells".) For sure, the path that led us through Vista is not among those that make sense/money. It cemented the fact that Microsoft's software release strategy is much too slow to compete. It also left the software market as something that was "Microsoft's to lose." They've lost it, and handed off to a new incumbent monopolist: Apple is the new Microsoft.

But no matter the different origins, they're now more alike than different. Regardless of the messenger, Gates/Ballmer or Jobs, the message remains the same: Don't get in the way of the 900 lb gorilla! They're now both following a monopolistic business plan. Apple defeated Microsoft because Jobs has two big advantages over Ballmer. First, he blends in better, chameleon-style. Is Jobs part of the establishment, or anti-establishment? It's hard to tell, but either way, it gives him his second advantage, just "looking cool." No one thinks monkey dance boy Ballmer is cool under pressure. But Jobs, in his disguise, the wolf in sheep's clothing, gets to tread in territory that Ballmer can only dream about. Gates/Ballmer ended up in antitrust court over cutting off the air supply of a little upstart company, Netscape. But since Apple is not a monopoly (in terms of absolute market share), it is free to lock out the giant Google, keep Opera at bay, and not worry too much about any of the little guy's toes. Apple developers better be prepared to run their gauntlet- and on Apple's titled table.

One thing is for sure, Ballmer is monstrously jealous of Jobs. First, Apple passes Microsoft in total market cap- and size matters! Second, Apple has the total device lock down which requires the "mother, may I?" approval from Jobs that Ballmer could only dream of. And finally, Jobs gets to stand up there on stage wearing levis with a twelve-foot high backdrop appealing to "Developers" and he never even breaks a sweat.

Luckily one choice remains and is the last hope to avoid the one-vendor lock in and monopolist lockout. Monopolies have a limited playbook. Choose the infinite, open platform instead. Choose GNU/Linux.

NY Times Travel spends weekend in Salt Lake City...

...insert your own joke here. Hey, they spent the weekend and didn't go to Temple Square to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Instead, they mentioned Kilby Court and The Urban Lounge as top local music venues. I remember that Joe went to see Form of Rocket at Kilby Court, and some other now famous musicians like playing the Urban Lounge.

They went to Red Butte for their flower show, but didn't get to Albion Basin for their wild flowers? There really is more to do in SLC than this article implies, though.

In the news: Google outlaws Windows internally

This story came out earlier this week, and I didn't get around to posting it. Google is switching away from the Windows OS on all internal workstations. This isn't that big of shock because their 500,000+ server operations are already running GNU/Linux; the Android platform is based on a Linux kernel; and Google is poised to release the Chrome OS, a new GNU/Linux based OS. The Chrome OS will be optimized to access cloud-based resources and hopes to make the choice of the OS running locally irrelevant. In any case, the Google decision is good news because it shows that GNU/Linux is ready for prime time on the desktop. That may help reduce the Windows hegemony/monopoly. The reason for Google's descision to switch, according to unnamed internal sources, is the Chinese hack of high-level executives computers earlier this year. That attack, as I understand it, targeted specific individuals, and only succeeded due to use of IE6. Here is Slashdot's headline.

Here are some other very good summaries:

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Jason Perlow

Offshore Oil : Relief Well Requirement

Canada requires that a relief well be drilled along side new offshore oil wells. BP recently argued that they are not necessary because of all of the other safety measures in place which make a blowout nearly impossible. We now see that "unlikely" scenario unfolding in the gulf. It may be months until the oil well flow is stopped, not weeks under the more safe procedure where a relief well was in place and could be used to kill the well. Here is an excellent report with some background information as reported by Peter Overby on NPR.

Update: NPR's On Point discussed the spill with a variety of guests, including Robert Reich. Reich argues that this is an emergency which requires nationalizing all of BP's resources, not just the ones which are "economically feasible." For example, their entire fleet of tankers could have been deployed near the spill site "vacuuming" the ocean for oil.

Negative Publicity for Facebook Mushrooming

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Facebook has been delivering non-aggregated user profile data to its advertisers when users click on an ad. The mechanism is the so-called referrer page. Advertisers have been free to collect this information to build a sophisticated consumer profile to target in the future. However, the WSJ's report does not include instances of this behavior, but it is not the kind of thing advertisers would like generally known. This is usually covered as "proprietary methods," that one advertiser uses to gain an advantage over another. The WSJ's report is here. (Read it before Rupert Murdoch takes it down.)


To see the power of Facebook's internal API's that allow direct querying of user information, check this
graphic.
If I remember correctly, this graphic was generated by a single individual who used the documented APIs to query Facebook's database. It generated some discussion at the time because a lot of people thought it was an abuse of privacy, including the lords at Facebook who asked him to destroy his project and data.

Also yesterday, NPR's Science Friday joined the fray in nipping at Facebook's jugular. Science Friday has been an early adopter of every online community- at least, second life, facebook, and twitter. I really like the program and the podcast, but all of that "joining" has never been for me.

...Get a free T-shirt for your avatar in Second Life on Science Friday Island. I'm Ira Flatow in New York.

Note: The above includes some textual revisions from the original.

Big Love...

This week's Doonesbury includes a shout out to Mormon polygamy.

comic

Usenet...dying the death of a thousand cuts

First, the minor ISP dropped the Usenet service due to space limitations, then major the ISPs dropped it due to pressure from the US Justice Department under the banner of eliminating pornography. Don't be confused by that ruse; it's a sure bet that the RIAA and the MPAA are mostly behind that decision. Now, as shown in this Slashdot headline, the universities are beginning to drop servers,
here

It will be too bad if Usenet goes away because no matter the uses for bad, tremendous potential for good remains. It is a bastion of free speech and a vast knowledge store of the world's working knowledge on many subjects. For example, it has helped me many times when learning about GNU/Linux.