Haddaway: What Is Love

Just heard on the sound system at the Ave Coffee in Sunnyside.
Ace Sundays
No More Beer, No More Soda

Android Has To Be Kept Free

Microsoft making money from Android is criminal behavior. Oracle attempting to make money from Android is criminal behavior. This has to stop. Android has to be kept free. These attempts by PC era companies is the non innovative way to go after Android. Oracle does not even exist in the smartphone space, but I guess the Oracle CEO's best friend does. That is taking friendship too far. Microsoft is a distant also ran in the smartphone space, and so it has decided to play foul.

Microsoft And Oracle Misbehaving On Android



Android being free is fundamental to what Android is all about. Charging for Android from the back door would be a major setback to the Android phenomenon.

Considering the smartphone is how the vast majority of humanity will come online, it can be argued this is to be the Android century. Android is robust and it is free. It is as good as any in performance and it is free. If it is no longer free, that takes away from the shine of Android.

Microsoft And Oracle Misbehaving On Android

Image via CrunchBaseI have not dug into the details, but what I know is Android was supposed to be free. And I get the impression both Microsoft and Oracle are after Android. This is sad.

But Sun's Java went open source a long time ago, no? What seems to be the problem?

Larry Ellison going after SAP is fun, but this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Android has to be kept free. It is to do with humanity. The leftover swathes of humanity, if they ever will come online, Android will be it. And it makes no sense to jack up the prices. You do that and less people get to come online.

For the first time I am wishing retirement upon Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison.

Leave Android alone.

The gist of the story is this: the PC guys - Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison - are going after the Internet guy - Larry Page.

The story should end thus: software patents should be disallowed. The patent trolls have been creating mayhem. Takes energy away from innovation.

Plus, Face

Image via CrunchBaseGoogle's first successful social experiment is - you might have heard - called Google Plus. Plus is arithmetic. It is to do with numbers. Google has always been about numbers. The name Google itself is googol misspelt. Googol is "the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros."

With the Facebook name, the emphasis is on Face. The emphasis is on human relationships not on algorithms.

It was this very mismatch in DNA that prevented Google from cracking the social nut for the longest time. But finally they did it.

Australian Woes

A high school classmate from Kathmandu days, now in Australia.

Kathmandu Woes

Kathmandu Woes

A high school classmate in Kathmandu.

"Do You Have An Email Address?"

This had to have been in 2005, 2006. I was doing democracy work for Nepal. My blog was my primary tool. And I had the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. I had managed to penetrate all the key organizations inside the country and out. And I stayed on a constant lookout for new email addresses.

So I am at this event in Queens. It has not started yet. I am working the room, meeting people, blatantly asking for email addresses.

I came across this guy who apparently did not know what an email address was. Every Nepali in the city has a phone, but only a minority even today have email addresses.

"Would you have an email address?" I asked.

"I do, but I forgot it at home," he said and saved face.

The guy apparently thought I was talking about some kind of a physical object. Like, do you have a Vespa?