即将兴起的移动技术？

前段时间读到美国著名科技博客网ReadWriteWeb的创办者Richard MacManus对移动领域的发展趋势进行了阐释。

• 网络应用和本地应用

目前已经有32.6万个针对触屏优化的移动网站；Apple Store里面的数十万个应用；Google Android也有相应的数万个应用。绝大部分应用都需要网络支持。针对手机的浏览器也不断地进步，开发者同样可以在浏览器中开发出色的应用。尽管本地应用的发展很好，但是网络应用必成一个趋势。

• 地理定位

Foursquare的'Location as Platform'的模式正在成为社交网站学习的模型。手机定位'Check-in'迅速成为最热门的在线状态消息。就如同'who you know'在Facebook上大行其道一样，'where you are'迟早也会成为一个提供附加值的平台。定位数据可用于显示周边餐馆、点评、查询电话号码、移动广告、本地新闻、收集本地建筑物的wiki数据等领域。试想如果把这些数据和传感器结合起来一起用，那将兴起一种什么样的应用呢？

• 物联网

除了传感器以外，移动领域的例子还有很多。比如把手机当作RFID阅读器用来扫描条形码，比如把手机当作近距离感应器。iPhone内置加速计实际上就是一个运动感应器，而话筒又可以作为噪音感应器……这些应用在欧美国家应用很广泛，但在国内还未见市场的端倪。

• 新型无线标准

只有装上RFID后，你的手机才能算上真正的智能手机。引用MacManus，RFID芯片将为两种兴起的RFID移动技术带来希望：近场通信(NFC)和DASH7。近场通信在移动支付方面大有可为。而DASH7是一种无线传感器网络版标准，是对近场通信的一个补充。它将推动高级定位服务，远距离移动广告和移动优惠券的发展。很快这两个标准都将成为手机的一部分。NOKIA已经开始使用近场通信技术，Apple和Google据说也在考虑使用近场通信技术。新兴无线标准还有Zigbee,WiMax和4G等等。

• 现实增强(Augmented Reallity)

大概不到一年前AR就已经成为一种热门应用了。例如Junaio是一个iPhone应用，Junaio最近和旧金山湾区快运达成了合作，在应用中提供及时列车信息。这个应用不仅为用户提供及时的列车信息，而且还能估算出每个站台列车到达的时间，然后通过AR技术即使显示。现实应用恰恰就是AR技术应用的核心阵地。

项目经理（PM）的Do and NOT Do

项目经理的几个好习惯（Do）

1. 每天上班第一件事看平台数据，有异常要跟进，建议把平台设为浏览器主页；
2. 欢迎头脑风暴，但事先要把观点准备充分，同时记录别人的观点，最后要整理出确定做的，和下一步要做的list；
3. 需要后续跟进的，用邮件沟通，并加提醒功能；
4. 梳理合并工作的碎片时间，提高效能。

项目经理几个不好的习惯（NOT Do）

1. 执行时过多讨论，偏左偏右，反而需求拟定时缺少调研和互动，执行完缺少回访；
2. 不喜欢随时记录；
3. 不关注数据，想起来就看；
4. 不细心，不严谨；
5. 沟通随意，RTX滥用，导致信息丢失，事后无跟进；
6. 对工作区间划分界限过度在意，不是明确自己做的，尽量不碰。

[Updated: 09-06-2010]

Ten Hints for Proejct Leadership

1. Be Consistent
2. Provide Support
3. Don't make promises you cannot keep
4. Praise in public, criticise in private
5. Be aware of morale danger points
6. Set realistic deadlines
7. Set perceivable targets
8. Explain and show, rather than do
9. Don't rely just on [status report]
10. Encourage a good team spirit

Buzz vs. Twitter

Buzz 

1. Buzz is not a micro blog or status indication service. 
2. Buzz is a self hosted topic independent mailing list archive. 
3. Buzz will not get banned as they are private in nature. 
4. Buzz could be used as a private blog, mailing list or forum. 
5. You can do it from the convenience of your mailbox. 
6. You cannot connect to a lot of people ... through buzz (Not very attractive networking facilities). 
7. There is no word limit like twitter. 

Twitter

1. Twitter is a micro blogging / status quo service. 
2. Twitter is a topic independent messaging service. 
3. Twitter may get banned because of a publicly accessible page. 
4. Twitter is just a plain micro blog / messaging / status quo. 
5. You can twit from anywhere by SMS , mail , or blog. 
6. Amazing networking options. 
7. There is a word limit of 140.

Proof of Concept

The definition from WiseGeek:

A proof of concept is a common idea in the business world, where entrepreneurs and startups demonstrate that a company or product is financially viable. Usually, a proof of concept involves extensive research and review, and is submitted as a single package to concerned parties. The proof of concept is also used in the arts, in research and development, and a variety of other fields, although the procedures remain much the same.

The definition from Wikipedia:

Proof of concept is a short and/or incomplete realization (or synopsis) of a certain method or idea(s) to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory is probably capable of being useful. A related (somewhat synonymous) term is "proof of principle". The proof of concept is usually considered a milestone on the way to a fully functioning prototype.

Proof of concept begins with the company background, where the history of the company is examined. When working internally, staff members might ask if the proposed concept fits in with the missions and goals of the company. Externally, potential investors look at how the company has performed in the past, what the proposed product or service is, and if the company has the resources to develop the concept. Then, the market for the product is examined. Investors look at what kind of regulation might be expected, how saturated the market is, and what kind of demand there has been for similar products, as well as what sort of competition exists.

Usually a proof of concept includes an examination of the revenue model as well, with companies showing projected revenue from the product and service, and indicating development costs, long term financial projections, and how much the product or service will cost to maintain and market. Hand in hand with this goes a review of the intellectual property rights involved, and whether the company may need to pay for licensing.

A proof of concept is an excellent way for a business to evaluate itself internally, as well as look at proposed acquisitions and projects. Some businesses specialize in offering proof of concept advising and evaluations, assisting companies in the path to making the right decision. Ultimately, a proof of concept is designed to reduce the amount of uncertainty involved with a new project or acquisition.

[Thanks for the contribution from WiseGeek]

Amazon's S3

S3 stands for Simple Storage Service. It is a kind of cloud storage service. It acts as a big online network storage 'disk'. The concept behind S3 is similar to that of distributed file systems. The counterpart of Google is GFS with some differences.

The definition of S3

Amazon S3 is a web service that enables you to
store data in the cloud. You can then download the data or use the data with
other AWS services, such as Amazon Elastic Cloud Computer (EC2).

We can see from this definition that S3 provides not only the services as that big online network storage 'disk', but also the source feeds/data feeds for the other Amazon web services.

The components of S3 concept
1. Bucket (we can understand it as the directory of the file systems)
A bucket is a container for the objects stored in Amazon S3. Every object is contained in a bucket. For example, if the object's name is photo/bmw.jpg, which is stored in davidliang bucket. Then it is addressable via the URL: http://davidliang.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/bmw.jpg

The bucket cannot be nested, that is, there is no sub-folder. Officially, it is for namespace and it is the unit for access control. But, actually it is still a folder.

2. Object (we can understand it as the file of the file systems)
An object has the object name and object properties. The maximum size of the object is 5G.

'Versioning' property of object is the result of evolution. In the early days, there is no such a property for object. I think this is oriented to the end-users who have the requirements of version control.

3. Keys (We can understand it as the file name of the file system)
The format of keys is URL. Just remember: Amazon's services are all accessed by Web Service or REST. Let's see an example: http://doc.s3.amazonaws.com/2006-03-01/AmazonS3.wsdl Within this URL, 'doc' is the bucket, '2006-03-01/AmazonS3.wsdl' is the key. With the introduction of versioning, 'bucket+key+versioning' will be used to identify a file uniquely.

4. Vesioning (We can understand it as one of the versions within CVS)
When we create a new file which shares the same name with the existing one, it does not overwrite the existing file but create a new file with a new version number.

Same as the operation of deletion, it is not real but add a 'Delete Marker'. When the object marked with 'Delete Marker' is requested via 'GET' operation, the error 404 will return as a result. Of course, you can delete an object permantly with assigning the ID.

5. Regions (We can understand it as the geographical location where the file was stored)
The concept is not found any countpart in the traditional file systems. In the meantime, many people argue about it. Some says it is a good idea. But, some says it should be behind the scene of the application deployment. Currently the servers are located in US, Ireland, Singapore, etc.

[Thanks for appleleaf's contributions to this post]

References:
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#functionality
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/2006-03-01/
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/forum.jspa?forumID=24

Notes of Introduction of Social Media

Social media is the media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and Web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. 

In nutshell, Social media describes websites that allow users to share content, media, etc. 

Social media networking is really important for people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. 

Social interaction has been always considered as human to human interaction. On Internet, social interaction indicates a phenomenon through which you can collaborate, learn and share your ideas and opinions with others on Web. People are increasingly demanding the convenience of interacting with others in a self-paced environment where they can contribute effectively. 

Components of Social Media

Social media can be said to have three components: 

• Concept (art, information, or meme)
• Media (physical, electronic, or verbal)
• Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print

Common Forms of Social Media

There are many forms in which we can describe social media but the main and common forms of social media are: 

• Concepts, slogans, and statements with a high memory retention quotient, that excite others to repeat.
• Grass-Roots direct action information dissemination such as public speaking, installations, performance, and demonstrations.
• Electronic media with 'sharing', syndication, or search algorithm technologies (includes Internet and mobile devices). 
• Print media, designed to be re-distributed. 

Examples of Social Media Tools

Some examples of social media software applications include: 

• Publication Tools:
• Blogs: WordPress, Typepad, Blogger etc.
• Wikis: Wikipedia, Wikia, Wetpaint etc.
• Citizen Journalism Portals: Digg, Newsvine, Livejournal etc.
• Sharing Tools: 
• Videos Sharing: YouTube, Metacafe, Blip.tv etc.
• Picture Sharing: Flickr, Zooomr, Smugmug etc.
• Links Sharing: Digg, delicious, StumbleUpon etc.
• Music Sharing: Last.fm, Pandora, Odeo etc. 
• Social Networking:
• Social Network: Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 etc.
• Niche Social Network: LinkedIn, Boompa, Ning etc.
• Micro Publication: Twitter, Seesmic, Plurk etc.

[The notes above were taken from Anders Ross' blog entry@iShift] 

Linux is the Operating System for the Cloud

In the environment where service is king, operational efficiency is crucial. It is the company with the best execution and operational excellence that prospers. Yes, it is leveled the playing field, yet ironically the cloud providers themselves are the best examples of operational excellence being the competitive advantage of the 21st century.

There are a few companies who can affect these economies of scale and create these cloud offerings: Google, Amazon, and now IBM. All of these cloud offering run on Linux. "These large giants who have built their own businesses via their operational excellence, now have the ability to drive down the cost of computing per CPU to rates that no one can compete with on their own." As quoted, "IBM said it believes customers can cut IT labor costs by 50% and reduce software defects by 30% by moving development to the cloud."

Why Linux?

Linux is the operating system of the cloud. Why is every cloud provider using Linux?

• Linux can be optimized for powerful parallelized computing to run these types of environments efficiently. IBM is using KVM, built into every Linux kernel, to power their offerings and partnering with Red Hat, a company based entirely on open source and known for its technical skills and high levels of service.

• Linux has tremendous power management capabilities. This is due in part to the focus on enterprise Linux by companies such as IBM, Red Hat and Novell to bring the cost of running a data center down. But Linux also benefits from technical innovation by mobile/embedded developers who are using Linux in those devices and need advanced power management features.

• Linux because it is open and not optimized for a specific architecture can run on a multitude of hardware options, bringing down the price for the vendors building these massive data farms. Because Linux is open, IBM has optimized Linux for its mainframe computers, giving them an advantage operationally.

• It's pricing model. You can't build a data farm and charge $.15/per CPU hour if you have to write a check to Redmond or anyone else for every server. Microsoft may be able to run a cloud business with MSFT products, but anyone else who actually has to pay for them would not.

• Linux is the development platform of choice in today's world. IBM couldn't offer a Linux-based development and test Cloud service if companies weren't developing on Linux. Linux has steadily gained momentum as the development platform of choice, largely due to the points mentioned above that make it a great candidate for cloud computing platforms.

• Ownership. In the late 90's as one of the founders of a "cloud services" company called Corio, which offered hosted enterprise applications (we called cloud "application service providers" then). We were required to disclose a risk in our public offering S-1 filing that stated "We depend on software vendors to supply us with the software necessary to provide our services, and the loss of access to this software or any decline or obsolescence in its functionality could cause our customers' businesses to suffer, which, in turn, could harm our revenues and increase our costs." If we had run our business on open source software we would have owned our own software and this risk would not have existed. This may be the single biggest advantage to Linux in the cloud. Ask yourself if Google could be the company they are today if their search engine was built on .NET servers.



P.S. Microsoft already offers Windows Azure as a cloud service in the market, as a beta since last year, and in full release since February 10.

Google's 10 Design Principles

In one of Jon Wiley's speeches, who is the User Experience designer in Google, he introduced 10 principles used in user experience designs for Google. It is really useful for the UI/UE designers or enthusiasts to learn from.

1. Useful: focus on users, pay attention to their life, working and dreams;
2. Fast: save every possible second for users;
3. Simple: it is the power behind this scene;
4. Engaging: enable to invoke the newbie's curiosity and attract senior level users;
5. Innovative: brave to be creative;
6. Universal: the design can be used universally;
7. Profitable: preparing everything for the current and future business model;
8. Beautiful: the appearance can bring the pleasure to the sense of sight of users, but will not distract users' attentions;
9. Trustworthy: users trust the product;
10. Personable: introduce personalized factor into the design.

Every point is worth learning and understanding. For a long time, I have been trying to learn some corner knowledge of UI/UE because I think it is not only just a simple representation of the product, but a reflection of the product's style and its company's culture. In the meantime, I believe, the development of the product can borrow a lot of ideas from the UI/UE design. It is a two-way process.

另 | 软件分类

无论是按用途还是功能对软件进行分类的话，都可以将软件分门别类地进行很详尽的划分，比如说：系统类，应用类，多媒体类，杀毒软件类，互联网类，网络安全类，等等。许多软件行业中的奖项也是按如此分类进行评定的。这种评定对于秩序井然的软件市场是个很严格的分类标准，可是对于秩序混乱或者说没有一个严格标准的市场来说，这样分类就有种“小头带上大帽子“的感觉了。近日，下班时，在地铁里的Metro上看见一份报道，对当下的中国软件市场进行了一个简单但又明确的分类，有几分道理，值得一提！

• 上流软件：这类软件主要是卖概念，讲哲学，代表软件公司是IBM；
• 中流软件：这类软件主要是卖版权，讲升级，代表软件公司是Microsoft；
• 下流软件：这类软件主要是卖技术，讲服务，代表软件公司是用友；

      以上三类是针对企业软件而言，下面这类则涵盖了大多数软件的发展趋势，有种统一规划的意味。

• 非主流软件：这类软件主要是卖流量，讲公益，讲开源。代表的软件公司有360、QQ

      这类软件针对的是国内软件市场。

Re-Activate my Weblog

It has been a long time ago that I did not come here writing down my thoughts and following my feelings. During this period of time, I have not been used to organised my words by this mean, but been used to write them down on my paper notebooks/scratch-books because they were always staying with me. I need not save my thoughts for later inputting while the Internet was available. All I need to do was just taking out my notebook and scratching any thoughts on it. Everything was fresh and active!

I must admit that we are all connected nowadays. Apart from the concept of social network, the emerging interactive and collaborative technologies enable you to stay contacting with your friends all the time. It makes so easy. Even on the move, we are still on the line via your mobile device. "Keeping in touch" is so easy! There is no choice for you to think about whether taking it or not. You have to take it, otherwise you will be omitted by the most part of the social circle you are in. Don't doubt it! In the meantime, if you are in, you will be popular very easily and your thoughts can be spread across the network swiftly. Not to mention if you are proactive and creative, in that case, you could be famous with just a night time. Just do it!

Obviously I am not the person who wishes my own thoughts buried. I like collaborative ideas! I like feedbacks, ideas, advices, suggestions and critics. I cannot move all of my previous words from those notebooks to this space. But I can log them from now on.