Tomorrow, the world is expecting Apple, Inc. to revolutionize the world, once again.  It’s revolutionized the world several times: personal computing, the iPod, the iPhone, and hopefully, tomorrow — the iTablet (or something along those lines).  However, we must realize that all these hardware devices have fairly dependent ties to iTunes for content and that is a revolutionary product, itself — though it needs some tuning.  That’s why the game-changer is not just some kind of Tablet.  I’m expecting an update to iTunes.  Maybe, iTunes.com or something in the cloud.  We have heard many times that Apple is building a massive data center.  We already have MobileMe in the cloud, what’s the next logical step? (more…)

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Apple/Intel’s Light Peak.  I wrote about this back in Feb 2006.  So glad it’s finally happening, and I quote:

Two Wires

I like to simplify things. The minimum to achieve the optimum — Occam’s Razor. Therefore, I am going to suggest that there only needs to be two kinds of wires in the world. Yes, just two — power & data. Now, the power cord you are familiar with for delivering electricity. However, for data transmission I would suggest something along the lines of fiber-optic or Ethernet cable. Your land-line, cable television, high-speed Internet would all be delivered via this data cable and, if need be, be powered by the power cable. A computer would also use the data cable to communicate with all manner of devices such as monitors, printers, webcams; stereos would use the data cable to connect to speakers; televisions would use the data cable to connect to the content provider. Which would mean the data cable would replace the following cables and connectors: keyboard and mouse connectors, audio & video cables, SATA, SCSI, IDE, Parallel, Serial, USB, Firewire, VGA, SuperVGA, DVI, etc. Of course each device would have an assigned IP addresses. It would make connecting and setting up equipment and devices so easy. Why do we have more than two kinds of wires?

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Are you seeing the trend for increasing performance?

Computing

• Intel CPU multicore (currently, 8 cores)
• NVIDIA/AMD GPU multicore (currently, hundreds of cores)

Storage

• Fusion-IO Drive multiple flash RAM modules (currently, hundreds of modules)

Power

• Tesla Motors vehicle power pack made up of multiple batteries (currently, hundreds of batteries)

Many little pieces working efficiently together with a controller is the formula.  Whether for computing, storage, networking, or high-performance batteries.  This is the future.  Monolithic designs cannot work indefinitely.  I suspect that this is similar to having a team of smart individuals overtaking one brilliant person.  Divide-and-conquer.  With teamwork many simple workers can create more efficiency than one complex worker. (more…)

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The rumor mill has been buzzing, once again, about the possibility of a new iPhone.  Apple’s Senior VP, Phil Schiller, mentioned that June is the normal release time for new iPhones, and the last 2 years have been right around that timeframe.  So what is next?  What could Apple possibly change to make us want the iPhone 3?  Here are some ideas:

• Faster Computing - Utilize technologies to be introduced in Mac OS X Snow Leopard in iPhone OS X: GrandCentral, OpenCL, OpenGL ES on the iPhone for task management and much greater performance using multiple cores from the CPU and GPU.  The new GPU could be the NVIDIA Tegra, which includes the latest ARM processor, or Apple could be designing its own custom ARM processor with its acquisition of P.A. Semi.  Whatever the new technology that is implemented could possibly shake up the entire mobile industry, not only for smartphones and PDAs, but also for handheld game consoles.
• Faster Networking - Upgrade to 3G HSUPA in addition to the HSDPA.
• More Storage - Bump to 32GB.
• Multitasking - Utilize GrandCentral to help multitask efficiently in conjuntion with saving battery life.  This would allow multiple background tasks to be running while using minimal resources.  Push Notification can be used for tasks that do not need to be actively running.  This “polling” system will work to preserve even more battery life.
• Front-Facing Camera to allow iChat AV - Compatible with iChat AV for Mac.
• Haptic Tactile Feedback
• GPS turn-by-turn voice directions.
• Additionally, the much requested copy-and-paste feature, which I think might be more difficult gesture-wise than at first glance.

What do you think Apple will unveil for the iPhone 3, in June, if anything at all?

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Talk in the rumor mill keeps flying to the topic of Apple needing to release a Netbook to survive this economic downturn.  There have also been ongoing rumors that Apple will release a Mac Tablet - essentially a large version of the iPod Touch or iPhone.  These rumors could become reality if Apple decides to combine the two.

Apple has realized that almost 40% of its income now comes from the iPhone!  If it can create a Mac Tablet that is always Internet-connected, like the iPhone 3G, it would be a “netbook.”  In addition, Apple would be able to charge an extremely, low, upfront-price by having telecommunication carriers subsidize its Mac Tablet.  In these times, people are looking to cut costs, so a low-cost Mac with a built-in Internet connection would be an attractive item.  I suspect, Steve Jobs has this ace up his sleeve.  Success from the iPhone should make its way into the Mac line.  What do you think?

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Check them out, side-by-side. 3oc, Inc. on the left, bgC3 LLC on the right.

Coincidence?  I personally think mine looks a little bit better :)  What do you think?

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Spore is, without a doubt, the future of the gaming industry. That isn’t to say that it has its draw backs, but it is the first non-MMO that I have played to date that is so intertwined with the next evolution in gaming, user generated content. It has been talked about for years and some games have touched it, but no game, that I am aware of, has grasped it as fully as Spore.

I wasn’t sure how this would play out in the game. I’ve never really played any game that allowed me to design my character as extensively as Spore. Most game players are used to some level of customization in MMO’s and RPG games. While Spore doesn’t come close to a game like Second Life in the realm of user generated content it exceeds it by providing a wide range of flexibility and still offering a linear game path with increasingly difficult goals. Plus, it’s easy to play, my wife can play Spore, and she is not a gamer.

Spore is one of the first games to come out that has the ability to provide game companies with a way to combat privacy, but support the purchasers as well. User generated content could be an extremely powerful tool for games in the future because to get this data you need to contact centralized servers controlled by the company that built the game. This offers up several authentication options that games of the past just couldn’t offer. (I will be expanding on these in my third article about Spore).

Now I know that this game has raised a huge up-roar with the anti Digital Rights Management (DRM) crowd. But the arguments that are made against it only impact an extremely small margin of the potential user base. On top of that it would be easy for EA to release a patch that removes the DRM from the game entirely (something that has been done on many games already). I don’t find the issues people are having with the DRM to be a valid argument for not purchasing the game.

In the end sales numbers will probably determine if Spore has the potential to change the industry. While this has its own good and bad points I think companies that have games in the works should take note of what Spore allows the user to do, regardless of its success. There are many IP’s that could receive a huge boost by following Spores example (I will be talking about one of my personal favorites in my next post).

I give Spore a thumbs up to people that are thinking about purchasing the game. It is extremely fun, it is easy on machine requirements for those of you that haven’t upgraded in a while, and if you have a stable machine and are not reinstalling your OS every few weeks the DRM isn’t going to be a problem for you. If you do happen to have issues with the DRM, well, I guess you’re out of luck until EA decides to patch it out of the game.

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I just read The New York Times article, As Web Traffic Grows, Crashes Take Bigger Toll.  While it is true that there is more significant and monetary damage that occurs when a web page or cloud computing servers go down than there used to be, it is not unlike its desktop computing counterparts.  When is the last time your desktop got hit by a hardware failure or software malfunction - virus, spyware, etc. - that detoured you and kept you from doing what you normally do?  What about a software or hardware upgrade?

Now, some of you out there are tech savvy.  By that, I mean, you keep your anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewalls, encryption, sniffers, defragmentation, web browsers, operating systems all up-to-date and maintained.  But, maintenance takes time, right?  So I would say, by moving that maintenance cost to the cloud can, and often does, save you significant resources.

However, I think the author of the article was right in saying that as Web traffic grows, we must consider trying to reach better uptime.  Businesses, organizations, and individuals are dependent on the Web more than ever.  So reliability will be just as important as performance increases as the Web continues to mature.  In fact, reliability may be more important than performance, as long as performance is decent.

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Apple has multiple revenue streams.  The items that are most often noted are: Macs, iPods, and iPhones.  However, there are other things that contribute to Apple’s bottom line.  The diagram below gives an overview:

[Blue = hardware; Orange = software/services]

(more…)

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Microsoft has several products that are monopolies and hold dominant market share positions:

1. Windows
2. Office
3. Internet Explorer

As the Microsoft Empire continues to march on we are beginning to see the chinks in the armor. In the past we have written about The Downfall Of The Microsoft Empire. As we begin seeing increased competition, let us examine which of these products are beginning to show the most wear and which one is mostly likely to fall first. (more…)

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The main bottleneck in computers today is not the CPU, but the mechanical hard disk drive (HDD). When an application mostly waits on the CPU to get things done, it’s called compute bound. On the other hand when it’s mostly waiting to get data in or out of storage, it’s called I/O bound. Because CPU performance keeps doubling and HDD performance doesn’t, today most systems are I/O bound. HDDs simply cannot keep CPUs fed with data fast enough. While storage capacities in HDDs have steadily increased, performance has languished — making it the system choke-point. It is one of the last remaining devices that has moving parts in a computer today. (Long ago, CPUs moved from vacuum tubes to solid-state transistors). The future of storage is solid-state disks (SSDs).

Here is an exclusive interview with David Flynn, CTO at Fusion-io, to talk about their ioDrive. It aims to alleviate the performance disconnect between computing and storage while staying within competitive price-points. (more…)

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Today, I made a bunch of changes to FishTrain. Hopefully, they’ll make reading the site much more enjoyable.

• Added caching.
• Front-page re-coded - slightly changed look.
• Pared down the number of categories.
• Updated sidebar.
• Updated number of postings per category.

The big one was getting caching to work. In the past it has been difficult to get caching to work with my hosting provider. This time, caching seems to work flawlessly. There doesn’t seem to be any disruptions with any of the services. I’m already seeing some major performance improvements. Hopefully this will help FishTrain survive spikes in readership — such as when we make it on the front page of major social news sites.

Also, I hope you like the slight changes to the front-page of the site. I think it is a little more reader-friendly. And there is more relevant information than before.

Anyway, happy reading.

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FishTrain Job Listings are up. We have partnered up with Job-a-matic and SimplyHired. If you’re looking to hire, you can post a job and it will reach our loyal readers as well as the SimplyHired network — which has millions of job listings all over the web! Additionally, if you’re hunting for a job, we have a gold mine of job listings. Happy job hunting.

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If you search the web for companies leading the current Radio Frequency identification revolution you will quickly run into a company called Digital Angel. Their broad array of RFID products delivers functional value to markets as diverse as livestock to the U.S. coastguard. In recent years the company has expanded through acquiring other companies such as Signature Industries which Search And Rescue Beacon Equipment (SARBE) and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs). Its SARBE trademark devices are found on ships, aircraft and submarines of armed forces in over 40 countries. They have a civilian equivalent through subsidiary McMurdo which they acquired in April 2007.

Their subsidiary Destron Fearing is a leading manufacturer of implantable RFID microchips for use in identifying lost pets around the world. The microchip, a passive device (requiring no power source) about the size of a grain of rice, is implanted just underneath the skin between the pet’s shoulders. The pet’s identification number and owner information is then enrolled in a regulated database. If a lost pet appears in a shelter or veterinary office, it can be immediately scanned, identified and then reunited with its owner. Today there are 70,000 scanners in animal shelters and veterinary offices around the U.S., making it possible for more than 7,000 pets to be reunited with their owners each month. Helping this market expand even more quickly is the United States Department of Agriculture, which endorses microchips to identify pets and even advocates educating the public about microchip technology. Currently in the U.S. market, only 3% to 5% of pets have received microchips. With more than 100 million dogs and cats in the U.S. alone, the potential for market expansion is extensive.

In the ever-evolving quest to take implantable chip technology a step further, in October 2006, Digital Angel was granted a patent for an implantable RFID microchip that can determine glucose levels in the bodies of animals and humans. A functioning prototype of this device is expected in 2008. Other potential bio-sensing applications are being intensely explored, including monitoring pulse oxygen levels and blood pressure.

With these and other market-ready products available it is not hard to see how Digital Angel is nicely positioned to capitalize on the quickly expanding RFID market place.

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With thousands upon thousands of social networks already launched, and more coming in the ongoing social network wars what are reasonable valuations? Is this irrational exuberance? Will the companies that buy them ever make their money back?

1. MySpace was acquired by News Corp for $580m in July 2005.
2. Facebook sold 1.6% of its shares to Microsoft for $246m in October 2007.
3. Bebo is being acquired by AOL for $850m, the announcement went out today.

(more…)

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I wrote a while back about the Downfall of the Microsoft Empire. In that article I wrote about all Microsoft’s competitors and how they were attacking Microsoft on all fronts. I digress, with today’s news that Microsoft made a $44.6B offer to buyout Yahoo, Microsoft may be the downfall of their own empire. That is not only a massive premium over the existing market value of Yahoo, but a futile attempt against Google. According to Compete.com, Microsoft is basically saying that each Yahoo customer is worth $1200. How long do you think it would take to recoup $1200 per customer on search advertisements? Exactly. And do you think that with a merger the customers are going to stay loyal to Microsoft or Yahoo Search? (more…)

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Apple has some of the best products in the world. They have world-class hardware: Macintosh computers, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV; and world-class software: Mac OS X, OS X, iTunes, iLife, Final Cut Studio, Safari, etc. However, there are improvements I would like to see to their product line. (more…)

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Bandwidth costs greatly impact profit margins of organizations that deliver enormous amounts of data. Several products and services that are immediately impacted by bandwidth costs are: (more…)

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Companies that can make a comeback: (more…)

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Ever worry about losing something valuable to you? Of course we all do. Now what if there was a way you could instantaneously track down whatever was lost or stolen? Welcome to the world of RFID –Radio Frequency Identification- the future of theft prevention. RFID is the latest by product in the ever evolving quest to shrink computer chips with tiny transponders that don’t require batteries and can be shrunk down to a very small size. The caveat is that unless you are very wealthy and well connected you probably won’t be able to access the technology. On the other hand, it is cost effective for large corporations that spend billions on security and still lose billions to theft and interestingly a large portion of theft from businesses is by employees.

Most of us have become familiar with RFID in toll passes and anti-theft devices for library books, cd/dvd tags but there is a new kid on the block. Now introducing a cutting edge company: http://www.noxdefense.com/ According to http://rfidwizards.com one of the more covert technologies they employ is ID-Dust, serialized dust particles that can be interrogated like a RFID tag. The NOX team can coat a person or object with it to track movement. ID-Dust can show if an item was handled or it can even be sprinkled on the floor. People unknowingly pick up the ID-Dust on their shoes as they travel through a dusted area. The software combines the video surveillance and RFID information to create an association between the ID-Dust and a person. The ID-Dust allows the person’s movement to be tracked around a facility without the person ever knowing he or she is being tracked. While a criminal can easily defeat the motion sensors, the ID-Dust provides covert security with instant alerts when someone enters an area, plus a complete history of exactly where each person traveled and when. A tag read in a particular location automatically triggers video recording and sends an instant alert to the security personnel’s mobile devices. Think video or images popping up on your cell phone.

While this is amazing can you imagine what the future holds when this technology is welded with say nanotechnology. Think molecular robot defense systems. Maybe I-Robot isn’t so far fetched after all.

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Who would have thought that the third largest retailer in the world would go small instead of big? With Wal-Mart and Costco eating up the “Mom and Pop” stores, it is not a bet that many retailers would be willing to make. You may not have heard of Tesco, but the British retailer is no small potatoes. Third largest retailer in the world, they have a plan to popularize the mini-sized supermarket.
(more…)

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The computing platform is what matters. It’s one thing if you’re the big fish with THE platform. But what do you do when you’re the small fish, your competitor already owns the dominant platform, and has millions of customers? How do you switch customers to your platform? Answer: Reduce the platform switching barriers.

However, it may be more difficult than you think. I find it difficult enough to switch phone carriers. Maybe not, necessarily, for myself, but I find it difficult to get all my friends to switch with me. The benefit of a platform is exclusive lock-in. The benefit of getting your friends on the same phone carrier is free mobile-to-mobile chatting. Can you convince all them to switch again and again? (more…)

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People seem to think Apple is a big, risk-taking company. That is true, but the risks they take are calculated ones. The switch from IBM PowerPC to Intel x86 chips was a big risk at the time — given the possibility of alienating Apple’s customer base. The risks to branch out their product line from the Macintosh to the iPod, iPhone, and AppleTV were big changes. But even though these were game-changers, they still fit within Apple’s core competencies. So, while Apple takes some big risks in some areas it is also conservative in others. (more…)

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Pervasive Software is a company focused on dealing with the complexity of multicore CPU architectures. Much of the current software out there does not take advantage of multicore CPUs; thus, many systems are utilizing their hardware inefficiently. To address these issues, Pervasive offers an entire framework called DataRush. Here is an exclusive interview with Michael Hoskins, CTO and General Manager, of Pervasive Software.

(more…)

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Google Book Search initiative has met some resistance with publishers. Nevertheless, Google has been steadily scanning a significant portion of the world’s books and putting portions of them online to browse and purchase. The significance of this is astonishing. While, the Internet has grown at a rapid pace, much of the world’s collective knowledge lies in print. Anything we accomplish now is by “standing on the shoulders of giants.” And much of what the “giants” have cataloged exist in books and periodicals. (more…)

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Bonjour is Apple’s implementation of Zeroconf that is included with Mac OS X. Bonjour is a service discovery protocol which has the primary function of discovery services on a local area network (LAN). It uses multicast Domain Name System (DNS) service to locate devices such as computers, printers, and services that those devices offer. The beauty of this is that it allows non-experts to connect to these devices and services in an easy and automatic fashion. No complex DHCP or DNS messiness. (more…)

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Blogging Expertise is a small business devoted to helping you get the most out of blogging, whether you’re an individual or represent a small business. Its owner, Sarah Lewis, is passionate about blogging. If she has it her way, you will be too. Here is our interview with Sarah. (more…)

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It’s winter. Hardware stores, and fire departments tell us to inspect our homes to keep them safe. What are the potential dangers to your financial house? This article offers ideas to protect and weatherproof a sound financial plan.

We’ll start with a walk around your property looking for signs of danger to your financial plan. Then we’ll look at your foundation (asset protection) and then move towards the roof of your home (your investments). Afterwards, you may have a to do list or you will be assured you have prepared for financial emergencies.
Let’s start with cash flow drains. (more…)

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by Bert Armijo and Peter Nickolov

Utility computing has gained considerable popularity over the past eighteen months as businesses big and small seek to take advantage of the flexibility the new computing model offers. This hasn’t always been the case, though. For a time, utility computing seemed a lackluster space that hadn’t been able to deliver on its early promise. The renewed interest comes on the heels of rapid market acceptance of server virtualization solutions like VMware and Xen. (more…)

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Microsoft is seeing a monumental, momentum shift. Never before has Microsoft seemed so vulnerable. It is being attacked on all fronts by huge, game-changers. Is this a repeat of computing history? Microsoft changed the scene when they licensed MS-DOS and later Windows to IBM — which was the dominant force, at the time. In those days, everything had to be IBM-compatible. Microsoft’s operating system powered IBM computers — and, as we know, software can be highly profitable. Thus, Microsoft quickly eclipsed IBM and went on to rule the world with an iron fist. Is this deja vu’? (more…)

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It’s absolutely mind-boggling to me. Currently, E*Trade Financial Corp stock is trading at $3.60 a share. The share price has been knocked down by $5 today! Before today, it was over $8 a share; a month ago over $13; 6 months in the mid $20 a share. In other words, E*Trade’s market capitalization has dropped from over $10b to about $1.5b in just a matter of 6 months! (more…)

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The online advertising market is now finally mature. When the Internet and Web first rose to prominence in the Great Dot-com Bubble of 1995-2001, advertising was everywhere! Even annoyingly so, with pop-ups, advertising bars, etc. Have we returned to the same advertising “irrational exuberance” just 7 years later? Will the advertising market stay or will it implode? (more…)

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Facebook is a well-designed social network. However, it is a closed system. This makes it difficult to determine its true worth. Microsoft invested $240 Million for a 1.6% equity stake in Facebook, thus, according to some, it values Facebook at approximately $15 Billion. Is this number a good indication of Facebook’s market capitalization? Let’s look at some numbers and find out. (more…)

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Google laid the hammer down by announcing OpenSocial. For those out there that thought that Facebook was the next big thing and would lead to Google’s eventual downfall, think again. Google has done it again by strategically abstracting themselves from the social network wars. (more…)

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We’ve all seen it before, a small company comes out of nowhere and takes the world by storm. Within days everyone seems to know about them. How is this possible? Many times this happens by accident, but other times, it has been carefully planned out to go viral — spreading the news like wildfire. (more…)

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Google’s market capitalization makes it worth more than the rest of the Big Web combined! Here are some rough calculations and ball-park figures: (more…)

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3tera provides a virtual data center solution. Just like VMWare virtualizes physical computers, 3tera’s AppLogic virtualizes entire data centers. This is incredible technology that provides huge time-savings and simplicity. They have brought utility computing to the masses. Now, administrators can manage thousands of machines in an instant. Here is an exclusive interview with Bert Armijo, Co-Founder and Senior VP Of Sales and Product Management, at 3tera. (more…)

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On August 9, 2004, NVidia stock opened at $3.23 per share (split-adjusted). Today, even with a large, one-day price drop, NVidia stock opened at $36.85. That’s over 11.4 times in a little over 4 years! To put that in perspective, it has been a better stock than Google in the same time period. (Google is up almost 8 times since their IPO in August 2004). (more…)

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On April 17, 2003, Apple’s split-adjusted stock price opened at $6.60 a share. Today, October 23, 2007, Apple stock opened at $188.56. That’s over 28 times your initial investment in just a 4.5 years! Incredible. In fact, Apple just passed IBM and Intel in market capitalization! Who would have thought? If you had invested $50K in Apple 4.5 years ago, you’d be sitting on $1.43M today. (more…)

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Our philosophy is: Promote yourself by promoting others.

So, we’ve added the wonderful/dreadful Submit button. Now you can submit your articles and get published on FishTrain! Think of this as a way to promote your ventures, gain an audience, and get free publicity.

Please read the guidelines carefully before you submit your article. Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll have some solid examples to link to.

Our mission is to learn, dream, and succeed in the School of Thought. Help us, help you.

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Today, Steve Jobs mentioned that the Apple iPhone will finally opening up for third-party application development in February 2008. Apple will provide a iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers to create applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. (more…)

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The home button can be a logo or the “Home” link on a website. In the case of FishTrain we use both. The home button serves three purposes: Navigation, Refresh, and Placement. (more…)

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The Great Guest Blogging Experiment was anything but great. I wouldn’t consider it a total failure, we had hundreds of people read the article, but only one person sent in an article that matched the criteria. So, it looks like they’ve won the contest by default! (more…)

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Terracotta provides a world-class JVM clustering solution. This provides Java developers with a way to quickly scale their existing applications from a single JVM to a many JVMs with minimal or no code changes. Here is an exclusive interview with Ari Zilka, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, at Terracotta. (more…)

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Google is an amazing company. I have written quite extensively on the merits of their technologies and platforms. However, as with every corporation, there are improvements that can be made to their product line. (more…)

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So when you see Colbie Caillat (YouTube clip) and hear how her Dad told her to be original, “Write your own songs, create your own flavor, that’s the way you are going to make a name for yourself,” and then not only does she follow her father’s advice and write her own music, lyrics and notes, and launch an MTV career on MySpace with a hit song called Bubbly; she is the NEW. When you see person after person step forward and accomplish such feats, you can’t help but ask yourself, what “NEW” could I do? (more…)

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As Google bids, along with Verizon and a host of other companies, in the FCC’s 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction, AT&T has managed to bypass the fray by purchasing $2.5 Billion in 700 MHz wireless spectrum from Aloha Partners. Why is the wireless spectrum so important? And why are industry giants fighting for it? (more…)

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To even watch the intro to FIFA ’08 and hear the words “It’s in the game!” makes me cringe. I love soccer and was a huge fan of the FIFA soccer series that Electronic Arts (EA) has produced but the latest version is by far the worst thing I have ever played (I am referring to the PC version for this article).

Do not get me wrong, when I first installed it and saw some of the new things EA had added I was excited. Even the first few practice games showed promise. Then I played my first game. The sound was great, the commentators seemed to be more responsive than the last version I played, there was a huge selection for leagues, and the player control was excellent. Then I started noticing a few things. (more…)

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One of the hassles of using web applications is that there must be a constant connection to the Internet. When an Internet connection is disrupted, no work can get done. Google Gears is an innovative solution to this problem. It enables offline access to programs that normally can only work online. When the Internet connection is reestablished Google Gears synchronizes the data with Google’s remote servers seamlessly. (more…)

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Google is now in an all-out war with Microsoft for market supremacy. They invaded Microsoft’s turf when they launched Google Apps in 2006. By launching Google Apps they are able to simultaneously attack Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows.

(more…)

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In August of 2004, during the Google IPO, I predicted that Google would surpass Microsoft in market capitalization in 5 years. At that time Google stock was $85/share giving it a market capitalization of $26 Billion, while Microsoft had a market capitalization north of $300 Billion. Since that time, Microsoft’s stock has actually taken a slight hit while Google’s has skyrocketed. (more…)

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Strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of commitment and actions designed to utilize core competencies and achieve a competitive advantage. When a company has a strategy, it will perform different activities from its competitors, or perform similar activities in different ways. The strategy of a company is to develop products or deliver services which are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and difficult to substitute. (more…)

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For decades people have tried to figure out the secret to motivation. With our ever busier lives and longer and longer lists of to-do items, we long for the secret to getting motivated to turn off Grey’s Anatomy and go outside for a jog. Most often you were told to “use your willpower”. Turn off the TV, put down the Oreos, and organize the garage by using your willpower! But willpower seems to be an elusive superhero power that you either have or you don’t. Maybe you’ve wondered where the storefront was that sold the stuff so you could have the willpower of all those gym rats and Kate Moss’. Do they have a secret stash in a health food store in San Francisco? Somewhere in Rainbow Grocery on a top shelf in the back corner perhaps there is a well-worn label on a glass jar of alliaceae willpowerus. (Sorry, sold out.) So until the next crop of willpowerus arrives in local stores, how do we get motivated on our own? (more…)

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Reverse Product Placement is where a fictional product, such as in a movie or video game, becomes a real-world product. There is an amazing amount of wealth, left untapped, in many fictional brands. Smart marketing executives are discovering that they can generate additional revenue by capitalizing on products that were made famous in a fictional world by making them real. (more…)

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Movies are a powerful medium. They have powerful influence, and can sway decision-making. Advertisers know this fact and have been marketing their products in movies for quite some time. This is known as product placement. A great product in a bad movie can end up being a flop, but a product that is well-placed can change the fortunes of a company. (more…)

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“The customer is always right.”

A bit of a rant . . . This morning I was sent through the run-around with Washington Mutual (WaMu) Bank. I had converted one of my accounts to another type of account about a year ago, in-person, when I went to one of their local banking sites. However, I discovered, last week, that the account had not been changed! Then, I noticed a service fee had been charged to my account every month since May 2007 — $10/month. Apparently, the mistake that they made did not penalize my account until one of their bank policies changed in May to start charging service fees. (more…)

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Jamba Juice has gone on a strange route to trade their stock on Wall Street. Instead of a direct IPO, they announced a merger with Services Acquisition Corp. Normally, I don’t like mergers, and this was no exception. It has taken some time for Jamba Juice to readjust and regain efficiency. In response to this, the stock has been beaten down since they began trading about a year ago. Several additional things have contributed to the stock being punished: (more…)

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I just finished reading an article about the first Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) trial going on in Duluth (Catch it on Wired here.) I could not believe the RIAA is still going after people, and even going to trial! I cannot believe that this group is not done getting blasted by the public… again. Now, do not get me wrong I understand that the RIAA is trying to protect their rights, and people are downloading songs illegally, but going after people one by one seems to be a huge waste of time and money.

The problem that the RIAA has is that they are trying to deal with an entrenched idea. When file sharing was available, this would be pre-Peer-to-Peer (P2P) (ie: Kazaa, BitTorrent, Morpheus, and LimeWire), the big concern was not music it was software piracy. The software industry responded by developing more advanced anti-piracy techniques. For whatever reason the music industry did not see what was going to happen. Now they are trying to play catch-up.

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Many of you have written in, asking if you could write for us or if we could promote your venture. So, for a limited-time, we are opening up FishTrain.com to everyone to promote their business, organization, or idea via the concept of Guest Blogging. In other words, you write an article for us and you get our audience. Here are a few suggestions from ProBlogger’s site on how to be a good guest blogger. Guest Blogging is a great way to expand the scope of our site. It gives our readers a greater variety of articles. It allows the writers to promote their businesses and websites by educating readers and sending traffic to their sites.

We are holding a 10-day event called “The Great Guest Blogging Experiment” which will run from October 1 to 11. At the end of the event, we will write a follow-up article that to give you the results of the experiment. If it is successful, we may hold a similar experiment in the future. We will also feature the articles we liked the best and conduct interviews to promote those ventures. (more…)

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Ever had your MySpace or e-mail account hijacked? Recently, Gmail experienced a cross-scripting vulnerability. Luckily, Google was able to patch it quickly, and so far there are no reported cases of people losing information. Getting your e-mail hacked is becoming a major issue. Hackers do not usually care to just read your latest gossip. Instead, as with most things, they “follow the money.” Often, your e-mails contain passwords to other accounts, such as your checking or savings account. So choose your e-mail provider carefully. (Think of e-mail as an entry point which provides access to all your other accounts). (more…)

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An economic indicator is an economic statistic. Economic indicators measure how well the economy is doing and how well it will be doing in the future. Government agencies, including Federal Reserve Board and several economic institutes, release data of economic indicators monthly or quarterly. These various indicators depicts an overall picture of the economy. Investors use the data of these indicators to make their investment decisions. (more…)

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GigaSpaces owns an amazing set of technologies. They have created a general-purpose, infinitely-scalable, application platform. This is an incredibly difficult problem to solve, but they have managed to solve it. In other words, they provide Google-like technology for the rest of us. Here is an exclusive interview with Geva Perry, Chief Marketing Officer, at GigaSpaces.

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Anyone who has ever tasted home-grown tomatoes can appreciate the vastly superior flavor to those purchased at your local supermarket. As prices of the pale hued, nutritionally inferior, bland tasting store bought fruits continue to move skyward, I find myself longing for delicious, tasty sweet fruits from the garden. I thought I was being rather clever when I tried to grow some on my patio this summer, even starting the seeds indoors to offset the short growing season here in the Northwest. But alas, my cats’s insatiable appetite for tasty growing green things averted my attempts to produce delectible summer treats. So I’ve turned to Robin Wyll of www.Grow-Tomato-Sauce.com for advice on how to be victorious in the growing war next summer. (more…)

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Each name brand has its own secrets of success. They may be innovation, prestige, price, leadership, trust, simplicity, evolution, licensing, luck, advertising, authenticity, revolution, aesthetic, emotion, cost, difference, targeting, consistency, speed, ubiquity, experience, advertising, promotion and so on. No matter what the secrets of success are, names brands have common denominators. A successful brand must have superior products or services, a clear brand message, and a point of difference. To reach the consumers who live in a world saturated with brands, a successful brand uses the following messages: (more…)

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Word on the street is that Apple is about to unleash iTunes Movie Rentals. If this turns out to be true, what will be the socio-economic impact of Apple’s latest move? Will iTunes dominate the movie industry as much as it has the music industry?

Obviously, Hollywood is wary of this recent development. The movie industry was wary when Apple made a deal with executives, in late 2005, for television shows to be downloaded for $1.99/each in the iTunes Store. Again, they worried when movies could be purchased for $9.99/each via the iTunes Store. Their fear is that purchasing movies will somehow cannibalize movie theater and DVD sales. (more…)

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The interesting thing about social networks, like other forms of social media, is that users create the content. A social network becomes more valuable as more users join and get connected with other users. This is known as network effects.

It is not necessarily the best social network that wins — in terms of architecture, design, and features — but the one that owns the majority of users. In other words, if all my friends are using a particular social network, that’s the one I’m going to use, because if I switch to another one, even if it has better service, who am I going to talk to? This is a trend that is also found among e-mail and instant messenger usage. (more…)

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According to the makers of Penta Water it is the “cleanest-known” bottled water. Penta undergoes a long and arduous purification process.

Pentawater.com provides several resources about their product. Here are a few I found very interesting. (more…)

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The Motley Fool provides “expert advice on picking stocks, investing for retirement, and dealing with life’s major personal finance decisions.” If you select “More headlines” you will find a running commentary on investments and stocks for the day. One of my favorite concepts is “Baby Breaker Birth Announcements” which announces new companies to invest in. Another area that people of indecision will appreciate is “Dueling Fools.” Analysts will argue over why you should and shouldn’t invest in a particular stock. They will come at it from all angles to show you the pros and cons of a potential investment. Motley Fool makes investing fun.

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EcoGeek is a site that examines innovations that are saving the planet. Similar to Earth2Tech, it explores the symbiosis between nature and technology. Technology makes a significant difference in the way we live, now we can start using technology to make a significant difference in improving our ecosystem. Think green.

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DZone simply amazes me. How are they able to get so much content each day? The site uses AJAX, as you scroll down the page never ends. Nice touch. There is so much content it is often a little overwhelming. If you’re in software as a programmer, developer, or engineer you will find this site incredibly useful.

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Simply Hired is “job search made simple.” A worthy opponent to Monster and HotJobs. It is a vertical search engine and, as stated, it is so simple to use. Just enter the keywords and the location and it returns the search results. There are also some additional filtering and advanced search features if you want to narrow down your search. It’s pretty much Google for jobs.

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Earth2Tech is part of the GigaOM blog network. What caught my attention is the focus on the environment and technology together. Categories that are covered are:

• Energy
• Water
• Big Green
• StartUps
• In the Lab
• Policy

Technology makes a huge impact on our environment. Anything that can make tech more green can contribute to our planet’s future well-being.

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Here is an exclusive interview from across the pond. (more…)

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For a product to be a market differentiator it needs to set itself apart from the rest of the competition. There needs to be a maverick quality about it. One of the Apple iPod’s key differentiators, which is often overlooked, are the included white earbuds. While competitors often use dark-colored headphones, the iPod’s design stands out from the crowd.

When iPods first crossed over the tipping point and became a sensation, you could look out into a crowd and without actually seeing the iPod know who had one. Earbuds are an extremely, low-cost differentiator, but they make a significant difference. They are instantly recognizable.
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The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It was created via the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. It includes a federal government agency, the Board of Governors, in Washington D.C., and 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. The purpose of the establishment of the 12 regional Reserve Banks is to balance the centralization with regional presence.

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Mashable is the largest blog focused on social networking. Like TechCrunch, it has an amazing amount of coverage and, surprisingly, launched at nearly the same time. Mashable was launched by Pete Cashmore in July 2005. Currently, it has over 5 million page views per month, making it one of the most popular blogs on the Internet.

The name “Mashable” comes from the word “mashup” — which is a web application that combines data from more than one source. It regularly covers popular social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Orkut, YouTube, as well as less high-profile sites.

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TechCrunch is the leading Web 2.0 blog with over 4 million page views per month. In their own words: “is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space.”

Launched June 2005, this blog drives so much traffic that Michael Arrington, the founder, doesn’t need to find startups to write about any more, they come knocking at his door. His powerful influence is definitely felt by many startups in Silicon Valley, as he gives his thumbs up or thumbs down. Make sure you have a solid product and sound business plan before getting written up on TechCrunch. The site is amazing for the sheer amount of information and speed with which the reporting is done. Many times, it has news before any other site. Of course, having insider access helps.

TechCrunch has gained such a following that it even hosts its own summits. In 2006, they had TechCrunch20, where 20 startups are chosen to present their products to a hoard of venture capitalists. This year, with over 700 applicants, they have doubled the venue to 40 startups at TechCrunch40. In fact, Google and several other industry leaders are presenting along with the startup companies. If you want the latest information about Internet companies, this is the site to visit.

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It seems everyday we hear that Google has acquired another company. Occasionally, we hear about a massive buyout, such as YouTube and DoubleClick, or partnership, such as with AOL and MySpace. Google executives mingle with other industry leaders and insiders. This helps to keep them well-informed of their competition as well as potential purchases. Yet, Google’s acquisition strategy is different from most other companies. Many of their acquisitions seem to come out of nowhere and seem completely random. However, these seemingly, random acquisitions are not random at all.

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VideoJug and 5min are the the video versions of How Stuff Works. They both help to answer day-to-day questions. In my opinion, VideoJug has a nicer user-interface as well as a larger library of content. However, I would keep both in mind; if one doesn’t have the answer to your question the other might. Both sites are still in beta. The competition should be good for the reader/viewer.

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CHOW is a site to check out when you want to try something new. It provides recipes, boards, stories, blogs, and videos about food and drink. This food media site delivers rich content in text, audio, and video. The forums are quite active, especially in regard to dining suggestions in each location. Make food a social event.

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Technique one to create a leading edge for yourself:

At work, you are an athlete. Your race is the project before you. Being in top form will give you that edge to get things done faster and more efficiently.

The physiology of your success is how your body functions; all the parts and processes that go into breathing, moving, and thinking to achieve the goals you set.

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Computers are brittle machines. If a single CPU or hard drive dies the entire system dies and productivity grinds to a halt. This can be caused by anything from an electrical surge, a mechanical failure, a virus attack, or any number of issues. This is especially true for many home computers.

While a lot of people think that this can be a minor setback or inconvenience, they often don’t realize the full impact until an event like this occurs to them. Then, they realize they can’t get to their files! They can’t access their programs, documents, music, movies, and pictures. If the data cannot be salvaged, they lose everything! That is an expensive price to pay for a broken machine.
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Marketing Pilgrim is a site dedicated to “all things related to internet marketing and online advertising. The site is constantly rated a top 10 media and marketing blog by Advertising Age.” A valuable resource in developing marketing and advertising strategies.

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IconFinder is a vertical search engine that specializes in icon image searches. This is a useful tool especially when you need a royalty-free graphic for your website or presentation. It is simple to use, has auto-completion, and the results are high-quality.

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FreelanceSwitch is a site designed, built and written by freelancers, for freelancers. It is an impressive site with resources on how to secure a deal, naming your price, working with clients, getting a lead, and so forth. I was also impressed with the amazing graphics and friendly user-interface. If you’re starting your own business, working as a consultant, or just freelancing this site might just be pure gold.

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BuiltWith is a web page technology profiler. “Find out what a site is built with.”

Have you ever wondered what technologies certain websites used? It’s good to know what the competition is using when you’re setting up your own site.

See what FishTrain.com is built with: http://builtwith.com/default.aspx?fishtrain.com

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Product Lineup

1. iPod Shuffle - $79 for 1 GB solid-state.
2. iPod Nano - $149 for 4 GB / $199 for 8 GB solid-state.
3. iPod Classic - $249 for 80 GB / $349 for 160 GB hard drive.
4. iPod Touch - $299 for 8 GB / $399 for 16 GB solid-state.
5. iPhone - $399 for 8 GB solid-state. (Phased out 4 GB model).

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Just a year ago, NVIDIA and ATI were in the midst of a war for graphics processing unit (GPU) supremacy in the $18 Billion a year video game industry. Then, ATI was bought out by AMD. At the time, there was talk that the combined technologies from ATI’s GPUs and AMD’s CPUs would deal a crushing blow to NVIDIA. However, as history has shown, mergers are rarely a good idea. (more…)

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Google dominates the online space. Google is often our homepage and the first place we go to when we open a web browser. We use Google Web Search when we’re looking for something on the Web. We use GMail to read and write email. We use Google Maps to get directions or find the nearest stores. We use YouTube to find the hottest videos.

Within a relatively, short period of time Google has developed or acquired an unbelievable number of products. Here are some of Google’s more famous products: (more…)

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Each year, thousands of people use the Internet to find and purchase used cars. Many of those people find good deals. But some invariably end up with lemons. Thankfully, there are ways to avoid buying a lemon. (more…)

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Credit: GourmetGiftBaskets

Mutual Funds offer a dynamic variety of choices, providing investors with a range of opportunities. There are thousands of mutual funds to choose from. Many investors choose mutual funds in their portfolios because these funds have some advantages. (more…)

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[update 10/15/2007: Acquired by Discovery Channel for $250m].

HowStuffWorks is a site which explains the workings of common and uncommon things. Founded in 1998, by Professor Marshall Brain [fitting name]. If you’ve ever wondered how stuff works, check out this site.

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It may be surprising to some that the 401k, 403b, and Keogh plan are powerful investing weapons. These plans have two main advantages:

1. Tax advantages — contributions occur before the money is treated as income by the IRS. In other words, taxable income is reduced.
2. Tax-deferred growth — contributions in these plans grow tax-deferred and are only taxed when funds are withdrawn.

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The term “free agent” was originally coined to describe the shift in major league baseball that allowed players to switch teams on their own. Free agents view themselves as equal partners of their employers, and take responsibility for their personal career management. The relationship between their company and them is changing from paternalism (loyalty) to partnership. Their assets are their deep structure interests, values, skills, knowledge, expertise, personal characteristics, and the like. (more…)

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Facebook is about to launch personal ads. Google already targets advertising to personal, search queries and a website’s content. Both approaches are in the early stages of utilizing a social graph.

A social graph takes into account how people are interconnected. Similar in concept of how Google’s PageRank algorithm takes into account how websites are interconnected. This can also be used to predict a person’s tendencies, trends in culture, consumer wants, even the state of the economy. As always, this sort of knowledge is power. (more…)

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