Q: Gaze into your crystal ball and tell us what you see in the technology world five years from now.
-Sooth Seeker in Sham Shui Po
A: A few months ago the Grouch declared that five years from now, Steve Ballmer would be bounced out as CEO of Microsoft. That may happen anyway, so the Grouch is not rescinding that prediction. But something just might occur with Microsoft that would change the computing landscape dramatically.
In some ways, it"s an obvious choice: if open source is open and free to everyone, then why wouldn"t the world"s largest technology company make use of it also? The concept of Microsoft gradually incorporating and/or writing applications for a Linux environment makes perfect sense. Many Microsoft people have said they feel the Apple OS X version of Microsoft Office is better than the Windows edition, so why not just write one for Linux?
Only Microsoft really has the ability to take Linux mainstream. The best way to put down the open-source rebellion is to co-opt it, and after five years of trying to wipe the movement out, over the next five, MS will try, and likely succeed, in bringing it to the masses.
Q: Grouch, you"re an American living in China, so you should be able to answer this one. There are studies out there that show it"s easier to get broadband in China than it is in the US, and vice-versa. Who"s right?
-Dialing Up in Hong Kong
A: The answer is they"re both right and both wrong. To discover the truth, one must ask, which China, and which America? In other words, there"s the China where people invest money and build grade-A office towers and hold Olympic Games, and then there"s the China where hi-tech is a tractor that doesn"t break down every day.
The same is true in the US. If you"re living in a "blue state" that"s Internet-aware, it may be easier to get the wide pipe than if you"re living somewhere in the middle of the country, in a town where all the residents are related.
Right now the US has more broadband subscribers, although China is gaining rapidly. But how to define broadband? Speeds of 256 Kbps and greater are commonly marketed as "broadband" and this convention is held to by policy makers and ISPs alike, according to wikipedia.com. But as a qualitative experience, results vary depending on the provider?both in the US and China.
The Grouch has been a broadband subscriber in both countries, and if he had to choose, he"d go with China. He can"t remember the last time he had an outage; it"s reasonably priced (RMB 120 per month for unlimited use); the guy showed up to install it when he said he would; it integrated quickly and easily with the Grouch"s Airport Express WLAN system. In the US, the Grouch found Verizon"s service to be reliable, but set-up was tricky and for a year after he cancelled the service, the phone lines in the Grouchmother"s house had a humming noise in the background. Advantage: China.
Q: I just started working at a tech company, in the sales and marketing department. I"ve been asked to write a brochure for one of our new services, but the engineering department"s notes make no sense, and I don"t understand our previous marketing materials. They"re saturated with incomprehensible acronyms. Please help.
-Confused in Causeway Bay
A: Y R U so upset? Obviously you need more RAM in your cranial CPU because clearly your storage solutions aren"t sufficiently scalable and available. I suggest you drill down into a vortal or BBS that can give you some more 411.
Let"s face it: people go into technology because they weren"t good enough to do English literature. Here"s what the Grouch suggests: go down to Nathan Road. Bring along the ad of a local camera shop there, featuring a "special price" on brand new, state of the art camera. Try to dress like a tourist or bring a gweilo with you for maximum effect. Most likely, they"ll give you the classic bait-and-switch: "Oh, sorry, no stock, cannot offer at that price, you try this model, very good, for you special price."
This is what technology companies are doing. They allow the babble of engineers and tech people to infiltrate the daylight world of human beings then use it to make their customers feel confused and stupid. The problem is, most people don"t want to admit that they feel confused or stupid, so they nod their heads and say, "yes, I understand," even when they"re buying seat licenses for a multi-million dollar system. You know this, CICB, because you"re in sales and marketing, so don"t play dumb.
Here"s the sales and marketing angle the Grouch would like to see in the enterprise computing space: clear, concise, acronym-free material descriptions of products and services. That would be an attractive differentiator that I expect may also generate some sales. By empowering people and making them feel smart instead of stupid, they just might like using whatever it is you"re selling.
And for those times when you"re tired of banging your head against the wall, try www.webopedia.com.