Nearing Zenith

Decision Maker Having Decision Making Trouble

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:02:00 -0800

Decision Maker Having Decision Making Trouble:

“It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,” [Whitman] told those gathered with her on the HP campus, adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks.

Sounds like HP/Whitman are waiting on the outcome of some pending hardware or software vendor deals before determining WebOS’s fate. If HP decides to proceed with WebOS, they’ll be competing with Amazon’s Kindle Fire for a share of the non-iPad tablet market.

All Contact with Customers is Customer Service

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:46:43 -0700

A simple question leads to two different experiences. One confusing and frustrating, the other clear and helpful. Guess which one came from Apple and which came from AT&T…

My question:

I’d like to get an iPhone 4S, but I bought an iPhone 4 a year ago. Do I need to pay full price for the 4S or can I get a discount?

Let’s ask AT&T

What’s “…upgrade at full retail price” mean? I’m allowed to purchase an iPhone 4S for full retail price, in other words? Is that a special AT&T price or full-full unlocked retail price. And what are those prices, exactly? How helpful.

I guess I “may qualify for an equipment discount on 12/04/2011”, but how much will this help me, exactly? What does the “may” mean? How much is the “equipment” going to cost?

“…to purchase a different device online.” Uh, I think we were talking about iPhones here. What’s “a different device” got to do with this? Are you trying to pawn an Android device off on me? That’s not cool.

“Upgrade this Line” is going to do what, exactly? What’s a “Line”? Is it like an “iPhone” or are you wanting me to add minutes or something. Why is this option checked by default?

So, I don’t actually know anything new from this page except that December 4th is important and may qualify me for a discount of some sort.

What a mess AT&T. This is why people don’t like you very much.

Let’s ask Apple

Check my availability. *click* Fill out some info. *tap* *tap* *tap*

Ah, so December 4th is when I qualify for a $250 discount on the iPhone 4S, 4, and 3GS. Not bad. I think I’ll wait for the iPhone 5, but those discount prices are tempting. Perhaps after the New Year…

So, here I can clearly see the available phone, the discount eligibility date, and even compare the iPhone model prices.

Thanks Apple. This is why people love you.

My Favorite Steve Moment

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:06:00 -0700

RIP Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

Just a quick memory to help me feel better, despite Steve’s death today:

I’ve enjoyed watching Steve perform at various Apple events over the last few years, but my absolute favorite moment was when, on January 27th 2010, Steve showed us the iPad for the first time.

Watch carefully and you can see Jobs — usually intense, focused, and well-paced in his keynote deliveries — just lose himself to the thing he’s holding. For a few brief moments, the audience and the cameras and the whole event just disappear and we’re left watching a man having a ball with his new toy.

He looked like he was in heaven.

Review: Leviathan Wakes (book)

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:51:21 -0700

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was supposed to savor this book, really, but this excellent space opera practically forced me to finish it in two days.

If you’ve played or are familiar with the Dead Space video game franchise, the plot of Leviathan Wakes will be familiar. Humans plunging headfirst into the depths of space, corporate greed, military control of a government coverup, a nasty bug that zombifies its victims, morality and mortality, the cramped confines of space vehicles, and a dead love interest as a central character. Foreshadowing is abundant, but not enough (for me, at least) to accurately guess the outcomes of each inflection point. I could see them coming from a chapter or two away, but the results were always surprising.

The novel contains enough “creepy” to make it worth reading at night, but darker sections are broken up with a fair amount of snark and humor. You won’t mistake this for just another horror story set in space, that’s for sure. There was enough in the way of techno specs and science to keep the geek in me piqued.

So, a perfect 5 stars for Leviathan Wakes. Corey mentioned in the (in book) interview that they’ve signed a three-book contract for this series. Excellent!

View all my reviews

Can’t help but enjoy the espresso just a bit more when the...

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 08:11:07 -0700

Can’t help but enjoy the espresso just a bit more when the ingredients are packaged like this.

Marco.org: Subscriptions and the new In-App Purchase requirement

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:18:00 -0800

Marco.org: Subscriptions and the new In-App Purchase requirement:

marco:

What if major publishers, such as the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal (whose current app violates this new policy, along with Hulu, Netflix, Kindle, The Economist, and countless others), decide that they don’t want to offer their services through IAP (at 30% less revenue per customer) and just cancel their current or future iOS apps?

Don’t we all lose?

The discussion shouldn’t be whether Apple can enforce this policy, but whether they should. And if you look at what this does to developer relations, big and small, it’s easier to argue that this is likely to result in more harm than good to the iOS platform.

Apple’s just enforcing what has been an inevitability: iOS as a pay-to-play platform. Publishers will bitch, customers will groan, but over time the iOS platform will be (far and away) the most satisfying and lucrative marketplace for digital content.

By enforcing the 30% cut for all new and existing iOS apps and IAP content, Apple is leveling the playing field for their platform. Take it or leave it, the platform will be fair. At 30%, the content publishers can’t afford running paper-thin margins and still be on iOS natively. I think Apple’s ok with that.

What publishers and customers are really complaining about is that none of Apple’s competitors — Google, Microsoft, HP/Palm, Sony, RIM — have anything comparable to offer against iOS and the App Store. Only Amazon offers any real competition, and even then with a platform of serious limitations.

mattlehrer: The Death Of The Music Industry It’s hard to...

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:16:05 -0800

mattlehrer:

The Death Of The Music Industry

It’s hard to conjure up a respectable amount of sympathy for an industry group that feels entitled to profit at everyone else’s expense. Also, this chart doesn’t appear to be adjusted for inflation.

wild chocolate: 13 Reasons Why Software Is Not Free

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:30:54 -0800

wild chocolate: 13 Reasons Why Software Is Not Free:

wildchocolate:

Lately it seems more and more evident that the general population expects software to be free or at the very least cheap. This is reinforced when companies like Apple, who make a tremendous income off of their hardware, the iTunes store, and many other revenue streams, heavily discount their software.

The expectation of “software should be free” is perfectly reasonable, given that most consumers really haven’t been buying a lot of software. At least not without getting a box with a CD/DVD inside. Consumers are having trouble seeing the value of software and aren’t really being encouraged to find it.

Part of the challenge of the App Store model is getting consumers used to the idea of paying something, even $0.99, for a collection of bytes. If you’re in the business of producing bytes, it’s a natural and healthy practice to buy/license bytes from others in the form of code, images, music, sound clips, font, design templates, physics engines, etc. Consumers haven’t been a part of this digital economy for more than a few years and are, so far, somewhat reluctant to embrace it.

This will change, though, and Apple is leading the way with iTunes and the App Store. You can still choose not to buy content from them, but they make it about as easy as possible and quite rewarding. Over time, software prices will rise as consumers start to see the benefits of the pricier apps and are willing to put a bit more money into the App Store. Lower App Store software pricing doesn’t reflect an inevitability so much as a transition period. The App Store habit has to be encouraged in order for it to take hold.

The elephant in the room, at least to my eyes, is that consumers have been driven to a “cost-based” spending mindset. “What’s the cost?” or “Can I spend less somewhere else?” they’ll ask, not “What do I get for my money?”

Consumers with a cost-based spending mindset will see the purchase of a $3.99 app for their iPhone as “being nickel and dimed.” Shift their perspective a bit, to a value-based spending mindset, and they’ll see a $3.99 app as a (small) one time cost to add value to their phone. From a value-based perspective, $3.99 is peanuts for a phone that will cost $2500 over two years. From a cost-based perspective, it’s frivolous spending. It’s a small shift in thinking, but the overall impact on consumer behavior is enormous.

This shift will happen, but we can certainly encourage our family and friends along the way. Consumers already understand the value of good clothing, a good car, living in a good school district, etc. But software? Software is still somewhat mysterious to them. Let’s help them see the value of software! The 13 reasons are an excellent place to start.

It also isn’t helped by the re-occurring “dot com boom” theme of putting out products or web services for free, getting investors involved, signing up millions of people, and then only kind of worrying about how to make money. I mean who cares, all it takes is a little annoying advertising to make some money and keep the investors happy, right?

Very true. Right now, software vendors are encouraged to accommodate the cost-based spenders because, let’s face it, there are so many of them. There’s a lot of (what I call) “bored money” out there seeking a high rate of return. This money is, in effect, subsidizing free software. And why not? What better way to capture a boatload of users than to offer your product or service for free?

The reason this will fall apart (again…) is that there’s almost no profit to be had from cost-based spenders. The only (viable) reasons I can see to go after the parsimonious are: a) they are the product, not the customer, b) to cash out through IPO or acquisition. Reason a) is possibly a viable and sustainable business model, but b) gets us back to the “dot com boom” theme which is a whole topic to itself.

Neither of these reasons will work out for the majority of investors, so you’ll see this practice of subsidized software change in the next few years. Investors will retreat from this field of battle once the negative returns start rolling in. Another dot com bust is inevitable, unfortunately, and we’re just going to have to ride it out.

Simple pleasures: enjoying apples after a workout.

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:47:32 -0800

Simple pleasures: enjoying apples after a workout.

Verizon iPhone Answers

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:35:00 -0800

As a follow-up to my last post, here’s a quick summary of the questions and available answers regarding the Verizon iPhone:

Any word about a Verizon 3G iPad?: Not from the official announcement event, but an interview with Verizon’s CFO confirmed the rumor that a CDMA iPad will be available to Verizon customers later this year. No official word on data plan pricing, though.
Will the iPhone 3GS be offered?: Nope, and it would have been a bad move for Verizon to offer this. Come to think of it, Apple would have had to redesign the iPhone 3GS (GSM to CDMA hardware conversion) to get the device onto Verizon’s network. That phone is already nearly two years old and due to be retired in a few months. In other words, it was never going to happen.
How will the next iPhone be addressed, if at all?: Verizon skirted the (awkward) issue, which will almost certainly help short term Verizon iPhone sales. When June rolls around and the new iPhone is out — and ready for those who waited — this decision may not look very smart. Expect a few upset Verizon customers in June, complaining that they’ve been deceived into getting “last year’s iPhone” and locked into a two year contract.
What’s the policy on iPhone upgrades?: The new smartphone upgrade policy seems to be “wait at least 20 months.” Since Apple cycles their iPhone line yearly, Verizon customers will probably not appreciate the long upgrade cycles. Cost cutting on Verizon’s part will certainly help their bottom line, but AT&T could win over more customer loyalty by keeping their more generous iPhone upgrade policy.
What are the pricing plans going to look like?: Basically the same as AT&T’s pricing plans. As predicted, no wireless plan price war will ensue. The more I think about it, though, the more I’m convinced that Verizon and AT&T should strive for better service features and not a cheaper pricing model. Let them make a healthy profit, but give us the best networks for our iPhones. Hey, I can hope!
Will Verizon charge for, or even allow, 3G tethering?: Oh, this is interesting: Verizon will allow the iPhone 4 to function as a mobile hotspot for up to 5 devices Not too shabby, but customers will probably have to pay extra for this function. AT&T will likely respond in kind.
How many Verizon customers really want an iPhone?: Need a bit more time to figure this one out…
How will having another iPhone wireless provider affect Android sales?: More time for this one, too…
Will the Verizon iPhone be branded by Verizon?: The meat of the Apple/Verizon deal was this very issue. Verizon gave in and so new Verizon iPhone customers will be treated to the same iPhone experience as all other Apple customers, worldwide. Either Verizon was really desperate for the iPhone, Verizon sees having the iPhone as a powerful weapon against the other US carriers, or Apple has agreed (for a few years, anyway) to keep the iPhone restricted to AT&T and Verizon.

So, no Earth-shattering announcements or bargain pricing models from Verizon, but it’s clear that the iPhone will lead this generation’s smartphone market for at least the next few years. If Verizon’s customers really want the iPhone, the iPhone’s marketshare could easily double in the next year or two.

Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy the Ride

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:50:00 -0800

Apple’s level of success and customer adoration has created a fair amount of discomfort. As a technology steamliner, Apple is setting a record pace on the journey from one island of technologies (fixed, wired, physical media, isolated, expandable, hackable, moving parts, keyboard & mouse, open market) to another (mobile, wireless, media-less, connected, sealed appliance, “just works,” touchscreen, curated market). Investors of the old island are in a state of denial, shock, or panic. Some consumers are afraid of being taken advantage of, or worse, being left behind. Change can be frightening.

Many customers can’t get enough, though, and every new Apple product announcement precedes a torrent of press coverage and eager anticipation. It’s been at least a year since the idea of a “Steve Jobs reality distortion field” has been a viable rationalization for Apple’s success. Nearly everyone knows someone who has or wants an OSX or iOS device.

Critics of Apple often sidestep or underplay the most telling set of statistics for Apple’s success: satisfaction survey results. Apple consistently beats (often by a wide margin) its competitors on customer satisfaction surveys. This isn’t an accident or a manipulation of customer perception. Apple products and services are consistently high in quality, functionality, and aesthetics.

iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook (Pro, Air), iMac, AppStore. Any could have been a success under the control of another tech giant, but all have been successes with Apple. Even the “dud,” the original AppleTV, has been reborn into a $99 home theater sleeper agent. What the iPhone has been to smartphones, what the iPad has been to tablets, what OSX has been for the PC users, the new AppleTV may well be to the home theater. Find another engineering company that has so purposefully and skillfully aligned their technology, services, product lineup, and marketing, especially on a multi-billion dollar scale. There are none.

Even more important than the financial and customer satisfaction success of Apple, though, is the continuous push for improvement. Smaller, faster, tougher, more powerful, more reliable, more satisfying. On and on. Four years ago, the world hadn’t seen an iPhone. If Apple keeps this up, what can an Apple customer of 2014 expect to buy for $199? My guess is that not even Apple could answer that question today. Amazing.

When this sustained confluence of vision, engineering, design, innovation, success, and satisfaction comes together, as it has for Apple, I think it’s important to step back and see it for what it is: This is Apple’s Golden Age. It’s that rare time for an even rarer company when amazing things happen, that could only happen from the leader, at an astonishing rate.

Will it last forever? Goodness no. How long will it last? Who can say. Regardless, I highly recommend that you sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. You’ll enjoy yourself more right now, appreciate it for what it is, and remember it more fondly when it’s over.

WP7 Strategy Confusion

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:23:08 -0800

I’m struggling to understand Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 strategy.

The WP7 ads make it clear that the current batch of smartphones are either ridiculously inefficient or annoyingly narcissistic and addictive. So, these new WP7 phones are for people who don’t want to spend much time on their phones.

But why would a potential customer pay for a two hundred dollar phone — plus a pricy service contract — if they’re not going to use it very often? With a similar price structure to more capable and established iOS and Android devices, is UI convenience and distinctiveness going to make up the difference? Doubtful.

Third-party developers are being encouraged to port their iOS and Android apps to the WP7 platform. This makes perfect sense, since smartphones are app platforms and an app platform’s success is based on the value of its third party app catalog.

But why would a developer port or create an app for WP7 if the phone’s target market is the set of customers who don’t want to spend much time on their phones and are likely to be smarting from the phone’s initial price. How are developers expecting to make money from the low-app-usage crowd?

Clearly, these factors combined are not going to propel WP7 to iOS or Android levels of success. Likely, Microsoft understands this and is willing to stay in the smartphone software market for the long haul. If Microsoft pursues smartphones the way they pushed into gaming consoles, WP7 developers shouldn’t be disappointed by early sales figures and should stick it out for a year or two.

My point here isn’t that Microsoft is behind Apple and Google with mobile software, or even that Microsoft doesn’t know how to market their products. That’s all been said quite a bit more eloquently for the past few months all over the web.

My point is that it’s the synthesis of these fundamentally incompatible tactics:

market to current feature phone customers
price like iOS and Android smartphones
alienate third party developers

which assures that WP7 won’t reach short term success.

MobileMe Calendar Upgrade

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 17:11:30 -0700

I didn’t realize that you actually have to log in to me.com to upgrade the MobileMe calendar, so I’ve been loping along with the old calendar for too long. The upgrade process had a few hair-raising moments, like the “add these 782 calendar items?” sync alert and the “you’ve got a lot of calendar events, so you’ll get the old ones back when we’ve finished your upgrade, later” message. All seems well after the upgrade, but Apple’s cloud services still make me nervous.

I can’t speak for any noticeable sync speed improvements, but the new MobileMe calendar infrastructure can sync other CalDAV and HTTP iCal subscriptions, which greatly simplifies my calendar setup across the Macs and iOS devices.

There are a few gotchas to be aware of before doing to MobileMe calendar upgrade and, while these issues won’t become roadblocks for everybody, this upgrade is not click-and-forget. The major MobileMe calendar upgrade issue are:

[OSX] Lack of full support for OSX 10.5 and earlier
[OSX] Lack of support from 3rd-party applications
[OSX] Previously published (not machine-specific) calendars must be merged into MobileMe calendars
[iOS] iOS 4+ required (or local MobileMe calendar must be changed to a CalDAV calendar), which rules out non-development iPads

Since I hardly ever log in to me.com, I hadn’t noticed the iOS-like interface change before today. iOS is definitely Apple’s new “thing,” in case there was any doubt.

Wither Apple's Family Room Computer?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:25:46 -0700

Steve Jobs stated in yesterday’s keynote address that people “don’t want a computer on their TV.” Pairing this statement with the Apple TV’s admittedly disappointing sales could lead one to believe that the iTV concept is behind Apple at this point. Or, it could be another of Steve’s famous product misdirections, fed directly to the press.

Given Apple’s strong mobile device sales, continued drive to integrate their customers’ data and devices under iTunes, and foray into social networking via Ping and Game Center, it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t an Apple concept team or two trying to probe the limits of the new Apple TV (or its successor). What could Apple do next year with 10 million $99 Apple TVs sitting, unassumingly, in the family rooms of 10 million households?

Really, though, this is all wishful thinking on my part.

Apple, please make your new Apple TV (or its successor) the Wii-killer it could be. If that concept just doesn’t seem to be Apple-worthy, at least make the Apple TV capable of piping the screen and audio output from an iPad directly into the home theater.

Sparser Documents in CouchDB with Ruby and CouchRest

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:03:00 -0700

I’ve become a huge fan of CouchDB and as a Rails developer that means turning to an ORM like CouchRest to make the database access more convenient. CouchRest has a ton of helpful features and really makes it easy to slide into developing for CouchDB.

Enough with that, though. CouchRest has a particular data serialization behavior that, for me, isn’t quite Couchy enough. Empty strings and null attributes still get stored in the database even though they contain “nothing.” To me, that’s not very useful and just leaves empty attributes in the database. These empty attributes can also interfere with the CouchDB views (indexes) if not handled correctly. In my view, one of the main benefits of a document-based schema-less database is not having to store null attributes and empty strings.

Other developers may disagree with this, though, and so rather than file this as bug or fork the CouchRest project on GitHub, I just made a little patch for the CouchRest::ExtendedDocument (or the derived CouchRestRails::Document) database model class that prevents empty attributes from getting stored with the documents:

class Thing < CouchRestRails::Document
  use_database 'webapp'

  before_save :sparse_attributes!

  property :owner
  property :name
  property :date, :cast_as => 'Date', :init_method => :parse
  property :content
  property :notes

  timestamps!

  validates_presence_of :owner
  validates_presence_of :name

  view_by :owner, :name

private

  def sparse_attributes!
    properties.each do |property|
      name = property.name.to_s
      value = send(name)
      delete(name) if value.nil? or value == ''
    end
  end

end

The sparse_attributes! method simply goes through each one of the model’s attributes (properties) and deletes the empty ones. The before_save line just ensures that sparse_attributes! is called just before the document data is sent to CouchDB for document creation or updates. One caveat I’ve found is that empty attributes will not be removed if the model class doesn’t know about the attribute name, but that’s a small consideration in my particular case.

Wave Couldn't Compete with Email and Should Never Have Tried

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 12:11:00 -0700

After reading other post-mortem analyses of Google Wave’s demise, I think Google’s biggest failure still isn’t being addressed: Wave was competing with email, head on, and had no chance of winning.

Wave competed with email?

Sure it did. Wave was supposed to be the future of Internet communication and collaboration. We use all sorts of tools to accomplish this sort of stuff today, but the lowest common denominator for Internet communication is email. You may tweet or message or post to your wall or write up a tumblog post or whatever, but nearly everyone online checks their email. Email is also private, by default. Online collaboration can found with any number of online vendors, as well, but nothing could be simpler that emailing an attachment and waiting for the reply. Wave, in trying to help people communicate privately and collaboratively, was squarely in email’s territory.

Google also made the boneheaded decision to estrange Wave from it’s most likely partner for success: Gmail. The venerable Gmail suite (with Gchat and Buzz), has been a beloved service for millions of users. By keeping Gmail and Wave separated, Google gave Gmail users little reason to use Wave. Why stay on Wave if you’ll need to revert back to Gmail to connect with the rest of your (non-Wave) friends? So, thanks to Google’s forced Gmail/Wave separation, Wave and email were full competitors.

Wave couldn’t compete with email?

Right, because nothing really can, at least not directly. Google Wave competing with email is even harder than Skype competing with standard telecom voice service (phone numbers, voicemail, caller-ID and such) because email’s protocol, SMTP, is a true public standard: open, unowned, and free. No one entity can change email’s “strategy.” The informal, but heavily enforced SMTP agreement is to keep the billions of inboxes available to the trillions of email messages. That’s the strategy: keep it working. Introducing a change in your version of SMTP? Have fun facing the wrath of unhappy users who can no longer talk to their friends.

It’s worth recognizing that SMTP is one of the last remaining parts of the “open” Internet. But, like HTTP and DNS, it’s a part of the bedrock of the Internet now and not likely to go anywhere in the next few generations. Google has no more of a chance supplanting SMTP than overthrowing HTTP or DNS. Email’s so incredibly popular that it’s usually the second thing to get set up for a new business after the domain name registration. Going to school? You’ll get an email address. Starting work at a new employer? You’ll get an email address. Getting your internet connection set up? The ISP will give you an email address. They do this because it’s cheap, no one else can control it, and it just works.

(By the way: you’ll know email is history when the “email address” fields start disappearing from business and government forms, and as required information for online signup forms. Is that going to happen any time soon? Not bloody likely.)

Google shouldn’t have tried to compete with email?

Nope, because there’s a much better way to deal with email than through competition: extension! Gchat is probably the best example of this approach. Through Gmail, it’s easy to switch back and forth between email and chat. Wave could have been another type of extension, possibly replacing Gchat altogether.

Imagine this: When sending a new message to a group of contacts, waves go out to the Wave-enabled contacts (wavers?) and regular emails go to non-Wave contacts (emailers). Replies from emailers get added to the original wave (as new waves…) and get picked up automatically by the wavers. Wave functionality that isn’t possible in standard email would get sent to the emailers as a link. “We’ve made a Wave for this, so click here {link} to join us!” Pretty soon, people would get the point: Email is fine, but Wave is more.

Google should have given the emailers a reason to join and the wavers a reason to stay. By competing with email (even Gmail!) directly, we got the opposite message: Email is fine, but Wave is not.

So, now what?

I’m talking about Wave like it’s already dead and gone, which obviously isn’t true, but Google’s support and enthusiasm have been drained from Wave and that spells the end for Google’s part in bringing Wave into widespread adoption. While some parts of the code and protocols will live on through various open projects and support groups, the damage is done for both Wave and Google’s reputation for launching ambitious new services. It’s a shame for Google to screw up the launch of Wave and then give it the axe before properly integrating it with Gmail. Maybe someone else will have more luck creating a new communications platform with the Wave protocols.

Git support in Xcode 4

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:00:43 -0700

The Version editor can also show you a detailed log of past events, and track blame for past check-ins. Complex SCM commands are managed for you behind the scenes. It is even possible to manage multiple projects within a single Xcode 4 workspace, one project managed in Subversion, the other in Git, all updated automatically.

— via Apple

iPhone 3GS Owners Now Qualify for an Early Upgrade

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:06:00 -0700

Update: Neither system glitch nor random promotion, my iPhone 4 arrived without issue. I’m still eagerly awaiting the announcement of the end of AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity, though, despite my “month or so” prediction.

AT&T was very generous to offer iPhone 3G owners the iPhone 4 up to six months early. So why would they now offer iPhone 3GS owners, such as myself, the same opportunity? Some of us have 11 months left on our contract.

AT&T could have been mistaken as generous with their 3G offer, but this just feels like business desperation. My wager is on a big announcement in the next month or so that other large US iPhone carriers will be offering the iPhone 4 in every corner mobile store and mall kiosk.

If this comes to pass, it’s safe to say that Microsoft will be shut out of the mobile market for another year and Google’s impressive Android numbers will wither.

Why I am dropping (for wrong or fake reasons) MongoDB for Mysql...

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:45:53 -0700

Why I am dropping (for wrong or fake reasons) MongoDB for Mysql...:

nosql:

Reasons presented in the post:

Lack of transactions

Missing records

No means to do any joins

Schema-less

Unstable replication

Not stable

Real question is: if these were needed then why MongoDB in the first place?

It’s amazing how quickly points #1 and #2 become crucial after the honeymoon period is over and the database needs to be dependable. “Nah, I’m not going to need it,” becomes, “holy nuts, why did I do this‽”

Nearing Zenith

Decision Maker Having Decision Making Trouble

All Contact with Customers is Customer Service

Let’s ask AT&T

Let’s ask Apple

My Favorite Steve Moment

Review: Leviathan Wakes (book)

Can’t help but enjoy the espresso just a bit more when the...

Marco.org: Subscriptions and the new In-App Purchase requirement

mattlehrer: The Death Of The Music Industry It’s hard to...

wild chocolate: 13 Reasons Why Software Is Not Free

Simple pleasures: enjoying apples after a workout.

Verizon iPhone Answers

More Verizon iPhone Questions

Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy the Ride

WP7 Strategy Confusion

MobileMe Calendar Upgrade

Wither Apple's Family Room Computer?

Sparser Documents in CouchDB with Ruby and CouchRest

Wave Couldn't Compete with Email and Should Never Have Tried

Wave competed with email?

Wave couldn’t compete with email?

Google shouldn’t have tried to compete with email?

So, now what?

Git support in Xcode 4

iPhone 3GS Owners Now Qualify for an Early Upgrade

Why I am dropping (for wrong or fake reasons) MongoDB for Mysql...