Welcome to the new era

Today, we entered a new decade, year and the cloud computing era. During this decade, we will make the switch from traditnal desktop computers to advanced mobile devices and online services. We will still be using desktop software but alongside online services. We will also be using more web applications for better mobile computing. But the advance computing will still be handled by desktop software. We will not switch over to a operating system such as Google Chrome OS. We will instead continue using advanced desktop operating systems such as Micosoft Windows and Apple Mac OS. The problem with Google Chrome OS is that it does not offer the user friendly and functionaly that people except from an operating system. Even Linux distrubitons like Ubuntu offer more functionally and are more user friendly than Chrome OS. Microsoft is currently in the process of transitioning it's core business to online services.
   2009 was a big year for Microsoft in terms of online services. Microsoft launched it's enterprise cloud operating system Windows Azure, that is basically an online version of Windows Server. That you can use to store content and run applications from within the Azure eviorment. On the consumer side, Microsoft launched Windows Live Wave 3 and Bing search. Windows Live Wave 3 was a major update to Microsoft's online social network. It foucused on introbitily with thrid-party online services such as Facebook and YouTube. Another part of Windows Live Wave 3, was the launch of Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Essentials is a set of free programs for your Windows PC to interact with online services. It also includes applications that were previously included in Windows but have been removed for anti-trust reasons. Bing is Microsoft's first real attempt to compete in the online search market. Bing has three main benefits over Google search. You can search by navigating photos, get cashback on purchases from select retailers and search Twitter. Bing is currently the only search engine that is licensed to search Twitter.
   Microsoft is not going away anytime soon and is transiting it's markets for the future. The current enomnic recesion is accelroting the switch to cloud computing. By increasing the demand for inexpensive computing for mobile devices such as smart phones and PDAs. This being said, we are not going to abanned desktop software within the next deacde atleast.

Software development

Early last year, I was very interested in software development. The first piece of software, I ever wrote was a basic web browser called iSurf. iSurf did not last long until I scraped it and started from scratch with uSurf. I continued to built off of uSurf for awhile, each new version offer new functionally. Then, I lost interest in software development for about 8 months due to family and friend issues I now have overcome those issues and have time to get back into it.
   Yesterday, I started building off of the source code of my last stable build of uSurf. I made many changes to it. I fixed bugs, changed some of the functionally, cleaned up the user interface and removed unnecessary items such as the Google Maps anf Calculator applets. I also have removed the uSurf branding entirely. For now, I am just calling it web browser since it is in Aplha stage and I have not decided on a good product name. I am not sharing more source code due to the fact that someone can easily download it, put there name on it and call it their own.
   I have also realized that if I want to work in the software industry, I better start learning how to program now. I will have a head start on everyone else. I will also be attending the Sno-Isle tech center next school year and will be earning credits in computer science crosses. In this blog post I have attached a screenshot of the latest build of my web browser. Every jorey begins with a single step.

Project Natal

Project Natal is an accessorie launching for the Xbox 360 late this year. It will bring a controller-less experience to the Xbox 360. You will be able to control games by voice, facial and skectial reaction. It will be able to reconiton your skection by using a camera. This technology is preety amazing. We are going to see more devices use this type of technology during this decade. Their will be three main types of technology input in this decade. Stylus, touch and skectial reaction. It will be very interesting the transition to these types of input. Project Natal will not require a new Xbox but will be a very expensive accessorie. A new major Xbox hardware revision is due in 2013.

Project Natal Accountment-

Project Natal engineering-


Project Natal live demo at E3 2009-

Dreams

I have been having allot of ockward dreams lately. I have been having dreams about my Grandfather, the girl I love and meeting Bill Gates. I have dreams about what is on my mind and what I want. I would really like to see my Grandfather again and talk to him. In one of the dreams me, him and my Uncle Bill were having a converstation outside in my Grandma's back yard.
   In a dream I had more recently, I was in a growly white room all alone. Then, all the sudence, my friend came up to me and said the girl I am in love with has decided that I am the one. Then, I had a dream last night where Bill Gates came to Langley, a town I live nearby. I meet him and his wife. Then, I had lunch with him and he offered me a job at Microsoft. I accepted the job offer and then I wroke up.
   I was very dissapointed when I wroke up with all of these dreams. All of these dreams are very realistic and reatily based.

The Road Ahead

As of the writting of this blog post, the 2000s decade is coming to an end. As we exist this decade, we are also entering a new era of getting things done. We will be using more online services and web applications in the next decade. Companies will be using stragties similar to Microsoft's own "Software+Services" stragty. Where we will continue using the richness of software alongside online services.
We will also be using more mobile devices similar to what we have today. Instead of these smartphones that we have today. We will be using devices that are larger in form factor and less expensive. They will be in a form factor similar to a Tablet PC. It will be the next generation of the tablet. A larger, more powerfull and less expensive tablet. That uses both multi-touch input along with stylus input. It will also a wireless carrier modem, so you can have anytime, anwhere Internet access. In five years, I can see us using basic tablet that are the size and price of paper notebooks. It will much more effienct and easier to maintain.
Almost a decade ago, Microsoft developed the tablet form factor and revealed it to the public. At the time, people mocked it as a joke. No one knew that it would start catching on again, almost a decade later. During the 1990s, we had similar mobile devices to what we have today like the Apple Newton. But they never cotch on to the cosumer market. Eventuraly, those mobile devices died out. It was not untill the late 2000s, that they started catching on again. The technology was too pritive then but now we are at the perfect level to starting embrassing it again.
If you have read Bill Gate's book, The Road Ahead. You will notice, that he was able to predict many of today's communtion and content standards. We are reilying on the Internet more and more each day for our communtion and content. Some people have unsubsribed to their channel providers. Now, that they can access many of their favorite shows online. Also, if you have not noticed many of those movie rental have gone out of bus during the last year or two. Due to the success of the growing online rental service, Netflix. Where you pay a small amount of money each month and you are able to access a certaina amount of movies for as long as you want. You can chose to a rent the movie and have it shipped to you. Or more recently, you can have the money stremed to your computer via a Internet connection. 
When something new comes along, many people bash it and refuse to adapt it. It takes awhile untill they finally are forced to move to the new way of getting things done.
People these days want to access to their content anytime and anywhere these days wheather their at work or school. Such online web applications like Google Docs have coth on with consumers. Even tho, it is not even close to offering the full functionaly of Microsoft Office. It still is able to provide the basic functioanlly that users need and they are able to access at anytime via a Internet connection. Thats say they are at their Grandma's house and she does not have Microsoft Office installed on her computer. That is not a problem, you can simply launch a web browser and logon to Google Docs. You can then edit your document and print it out.
It is amazing what difference a few years can make. A short while ago, USB flash drives were all the range and now they are already being phased out by online storage solutions such as Windows Live SkyDrive. Where you do not have to worry about the expense of a flash drive and do not need to worry about forgetting it at home or work.
The battle for the cloud is coming to a conclusion just like the war with hardware manufractors during the 1980s. We have had a simlar battle during the 1990s and 2000s, where their were many online service providers that failed and only a few that surived. The remain companies left are Microsoft and Google. Yahoo! is a shinking ship, that have failed to catch on with today's web standards. I am sure that twenty years from now, we will look back at this time as a major transistion period for many companies.  

My throughts on Google Chrome OS

I'm writing this blog post to knock some sense into the people that are buying in on this hype about Google Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS is a open source operating system developed by Google. Currently, no source code or builds of Chrome OS are available to the public. Google Chrome OS will be much like the Google Chrome Internet browser. It is build off the open source Linux kernel. Google does not have the necessary skills or resources to build their own operating system from the grown up. They will be using the same driver models and kernel as every other Linux distribution on the planet. Google Chrome OS will be just a web browser window with additional operating system functionally. No applications will be installed on Chrome OS at all. You can only use web-based applications which offer allot less functionally than desktop applications. You will not be able to download Google Chrome and install it on any computer. You will not even be able to download a disc image of it and burn it to a disc. Chrome OS will only be available on new PCs that are approved by Google. Microsoft does not fear Google Chrome OS at all. Windows and Mac OS X are way more advanced than any Linux distribution. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairmen Bill Gates have both come out dismissed the operating system. Bill Gates has commented on the operating system as "Just another Linux distribution.". Which it actually is in the first place. Steve Ballmer has bashed Google for having more than one operating system (Andriod and Chrome OS). While Microsoft only has one type of operating system, which is Windows. Google is a evil company and has a monopoly on the Internet and is trying to trick people into using it's products. Microsoft and Apple are much nicer and much more complex companies than Google. Watch out Google, Microsoft is back.

Veterens Day 2009

Today is Veterans Day, the holiday delegated for remembering tho that have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. There are a few veterans in my family history. My Grandfather and his brother that were in World War II and my Uncle that was in Vietnam. My Grandfather and his brother are sadly no longer living but their laceily lives on. My Grandfather has been gone for almost five years. He lost his life to cancer little under 60 years after World War II had ended. During this day, I will spend time remembering my Grandfather and what he did along with my his brother and my Uncle.