Digital Living

Take a look who sell MySQL now ... (Hint: it's Oracle!) *really cool!*

If you have been in the period when Oracle sales people at that time says that database shall be "Oracle only","why you shall do MySQL?, "why not migrate to Oracle?", and sharing your thoughts that "one day may be this database would become 'the Oracle' of Oracle, and now seeing Oracle indeed selling the MySQL database product, then you know that MySQL is indeed important for Oracle, and may be one day indeed become one of the most popular (and one of the key important) 'database product' of Oracle.

Mr. Ellison is indeed very smart. In 2006 he (aka Oracle) acquire Sleepycat, the creator and innovator of Berkeley DB, as well as acquiring Innobase -- the creator of InnoDB. For those that understand what Sleepycat and Berkeley DB is back in 2006 or before, and understand what Innobase in overall is all about (Innobase is the developer of InnoDB, the leading transactional storage engine for the MySQL open source database -- the most popular database engine of MySQL), then at that time you might perhaps start having sense of where Mr. Ellison might be going next. Or at least: what he might probably intend to do, as his next step.

It is always very interesting to see how the super smart, strategic, technical, hands-on founder of great companies such as: Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and -- in many ways -- Steve Jobs of Apple, always know how to look beyond today, and being able to map a brilliant strategy to incorporate "other's technology" or even acquire what ordinary people consider "competing technology" to strengthen their existing product portfolio, and by doing so: opens up and exciting new market and future.

• Bill Gates did it by acquiring Ray Ozzie's company (after Ozzie left Lotus/IBM) -- and since then start "igniting" Domino-like collaborative and workflow capability inside Microsoft Office's front-end, storing system and infostructure. By doing so, he (Gates) opens up a new exciting future for Microsoft and its flagship MS-Office (and in some ways Windows OS) product.
  
• Larry Ellison did it by acquiring Sleepycat/BDB, Innobase and (Sun)MySQL. By doing so, he got many possible future both in the corporate computing world (aka the existing market), as well as in the appliance, and in the cloud (aka the other huge market, and most likely the most potential future market!)
  
• Steve Jobs did it by being acquired by Apple (who indeed fire Steve Jobs out of Apple ten years before)!

The vision, practicality and ability of these hands-on leaders to make 'surprising'-things-happen-beyond-anybody's-imagination are truly awesome.

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Apple sell 1.7 Million iPhones in 3 days!

It's amazing! It's awesome. It's great! 

It shows people responds really well to great innovation.

Compare it to this view, which was recorded a few years back (mid/end 2007 timeframe if I am not mistakenly remember) :

People indeed respond responsively to great innovation. They are willing to embrace something that meticulously great. And they seem indeed decisive enough to leave behind something that is increasingly becoming a total crap.

I sincerely believe Bill Gates really need to be back at the helm of Microsoft. Bill Gates' leadership is really the one that make the once tiny Microsoft becoming awesomely great. Even the recent great Office 2010 innovation I think will never happen if Bill Gates did not strategically getting Ray Ozzie running collaborative things inside Microsoft, before he (Gates) step down from Microsoft. 

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July 1, 2010: HP might formally acquire Palm

Seems HP will acquire Palm in early July 2010. Through such acquisition, we might start seeing the birth of new powerful "Apple-like company" which has the financial muscle and innovation/marketing capability that is as strong as Apple.

Historically HP has the ability to produce successful mobile devices (remember the era of those very successful iPaq 8-10 years ago?), and Palm WebOS is indeed one of the most innovative, exciting and powerful OS ever. It is second only to Apple's iOS.

Through this acquisition, these "two silicon valley idol" might be able to produce a series of "next iPaq device" that is extremely intuitive, sleek and powerful.

With all these powerful potential, I think as HP+Palm start rolling out their new innovative devices into the market, head to head with Apple I don't think is something that they would like to pursue, at least in the early beginning. Instead: attacking the Blackberry & Droid market is something that they are more likely to do.

A few months ago the market shows 2 interesting phenomena whereby: (1) Total sales of Android device -- for the first time -- surpass iPhone sales, and (2) Response and adoption to Motorola "Droid does" campaign -- who "dares" to challenge Apple iPhone supremacy blunt in the eye -- was extremely successful.

HP + Palm might be aware of this potential. They might know that there's another pie of the market that they can grab, without needing them to fight Apple head to head.

Hence, as the logic goes: I feel it is more likely that HP+PalmWebOS will chase and pursue the Blackberry+Droid market, rather than competing directly with Apple; at least in the early beginning.

This is like experiencing "the second Apple" reborn. And to continue watch how this might evolve into its greatest potential is truly exciting.

Similar to the "unsuccessful" NextStep OS in the past (which later being acquired and become the core of the extremely successful Apple MacOSX and Apple iOS), Palm WebOS deserve a strong presence in the marketplace. HP Acquisition of Palm WebOS (similar to Apple acquisition of NextStep OS) might be the catalyst that Palm need, to make its great innovation win and flourish again in the marketplace.

By doing so, eventually we might start seeing (and experiencing) the birth of the next mobile+internet device company (the "second Apple" ??) that is one day might have the biggest potential to become something that is as innovative and as powerful -- in technology, innovation, hardware, software and marketing -- as Apple!

We'll see how the future goes.

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How do "modern people" define 'panic' these days? Hmm ... probably something like this: "the internet is down, blackberry battery remain 5% only, & the handphone connection awfully disconnected once again ..." :-D

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Amazon Kindle is now just $189

The new price is great. But if Kindle's e-books still can not be purchased from anywhere around the globe -- for example: until now people who lives in some countries within South East Asia region still can not purchase Kindle e-books online -- and if Kindle still can't handle PDF natively, then it might still become less useful.

In that respect, iPad seems to do slightly better job with its most recent iBooks software. Beside having new ability to handle PDF, iBooks also allow people to purchase its book online, from anywhere around the world (either directly, or via voucher).

Hopefully Amazon.com could/would soon enhance Kindle's capability. Such would probably make people around the globe find it even more indispensable.

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Big Day! iOS4 update is now available!

Go and get it folks.

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Office 2010 - Awesome!

It is really great to see that finally there is one great innovation re-born at Microsoft, which perhaps indicates that at least ONE of "Bill Gates' great and awesome innovation spirit " is still alive there (at Microsoft).

Looking few years back, observing how it all begin: I think Bill Gates is truly smart in bringing Ray Ozzie into Microsoft, before he (Gates) departed from Microsoft a few years ago. Office is now really goes beyond the boring act of "making the bold bolder", and moves into a truly innovative innovation space where the next exciting productivity would be.

Two thumbs up to MS Office 2010. Ten thumbs up to Bill Gates for having the vision, the 'dare'-ness and the superb capability to bring Ray Ozzie (the founder of Iris Associate, the father of Lotus Notes/Domino) into the Microsoft structure, at the right juncture.

Beside Steve Jobs, I still truly believe that Bill Gates is still the best technology visionary+strategist+implementor ever.

Awesome!

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The new MacMini unibody: so irresistable!

It is as it is. No other comment required. :-P

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Some thoughts on Nokia new handset designs ...

Some pictures that spread on the internet shows indication of how Nokia's future handphone might look like.

Looking at the design: Seems Nokia's new design philosophy centers around: (1) availability of big screen space (most likely touch capable), (2) at the same time: availability of physical keyboard.
The thin-ness of the device makes it reasonable to have such combo. I imagine user might be able to use it this way: for daily use -- interact via the touchscreen, yet for heavy typing and chatting: use the keyboard.

While such human-phone-interface concept is pretty appealing, to be sucessful, such design would rely on the Meego OS (aka the software's) capability to make this form factor work too.

• If the tactile response of the physical keyboard feels right, and the software experience is great, people might eventually consider keyboard + touchscreen a better solution than a pure touch based device only. (And this is exactly the domain and space that Nokia seems to bet on, and try to re-dominate).

• But if the tactile reponse of the physical keyboard is awkward, and the software experience is so-so, then probably the market will continue using with whatever they got today: either (1) move to a 100% touch screen approach, with great os, apps and software in abundance, or (2) stick to the screen+keyboard approach, with not so advanced os, apps and software intact.

We will see how the form factor of advanced smart mobile computing device would evolve into the future -- as physical form factor of the device gets thinner and thinner -- would it become: touch+keyboard, or would we all goes 100% touch-based?, and what Blackberry RIM will do about it too, along the way.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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What if the next generation iPod touch could do Facetime too? Could this become the 'walkie talkie' of the future ??

I wonder if Apple would ever (one day) release such device (an iPod with a front+back camera).
If yes, such would be tremendously great and useful!

• It could become a model for 'future ultra-portable digital camera'.
• It could become 'video conferencing device on the go'.
• It could become portable 'photo album' that people can carry anywhere anytime (just like what current 'traditional ipod' does).
  

At USD 100 price point, this might even be more successful than the iPhone itself. :-)
My silly toughts. :-P

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