All You Need Is Love - Love Is All You Need

I saw this comic this morning - and it really is sort of a snapshot of life:

Although, I must say, that I didn't really care about panel 4 (a place to live) until I got married. Before that, it was "whatever". You can stay with friends, crash on a couch, stay out all night... you know - "whatever."

Panel 5 didn't really kick in until the kids were born - and then you have to sort of combine panels 4, 5 & 6 - and add life insurance and a will.

I'm really blessed because panels 7 & 8 are one-and-the-same for me. My hobby is computers and technology - and so are my hobbies (oh, add motorcycles to my hobbies).

After I was married for a while - the obvious question of having children came to the forefront. I was the one that really "wasn't ready" for kids (honestly - NO ONE EVER IS) - so I'm the one that proposed we get a dog ("...but NOT a puppy...") so we could try out our responsibility skills on a non-human first.

Of course, when I went to the shelter to get a dog ("... but NOT a puppy...") - I picked out... wait for it... a puppy. Let's just say it's a good thing we decided on a pet first... as my doggie-daddy "skills" needed a little honing. The following year, I went to the shelter to renew our dog ("Mac" - short for "Macintosh"... yeah, really) - I saw another dog that was a black and white border collie mix and was the virtual "twin" of our little Mac.

Of course, I had to have her.

So... we actually had boy/girl (dog) twins - before we had boy/girl (human) twins. I just love God's sense of humor!

Once the kids came (and the intense lack of sleep for prolonged periods) - we began to realize that the house we bought wasn't going to work out for active kids as they grow. So, we bought another house..on a quiet street... with a good insurance policy.

That leads to panel 13 - because, really, you DO need more money. And that begets more stuff. And then you need more money. And then you get more stuff. Trying to become more happy. [REPEAT from your late 20's to your late 40's].

The more money-stuff-happiness cycles you go through the more you need panel 16 (relax).

Since it's 2011 - it's almost impossible to even DO panel 17 (should have been "fire up an old tune in your 'oldies' playlist") - but I get the idea.

As my kids are getting older and my parenting role of "over-protective-teacher-and-instiller-of-morals-virtue-and-goodness" morphs into "supreme and ultimate dictator" - panel 21 really hit me between the eyes last night as I was snuggling with my kids watching some mindless show on TV: Love is all you need.

Here's my hacked version of the same cartoon (all apologies to Mr. Snider):

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How To Avoid Abandoned Shopping Carts [INFOGRAPHIC]

If you have any kind of online commerce site - you know the problem - abandoned shopping carts. This is really a bummer since you've managed to get people to your site, presented something they are interested in, written your copy and done your photography in such a way as to convince them to hit the "Add To Cart" button - and then, just when they're ready to checkout - they get distracted, or grok at the shipping charges or SOMETHING - but they never complete the transaction.

Here's some tips to help minimize shopping cart abandonment:



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Technology Way Back Machine: 1996

For those of you older than 15 - here's a reminder from whence we came: a couple of pictures of a Best Buy circular from 1996.

That's right! You can buy a pager (Google it!) for only $70!



Need an upgrade in your computer memory? No problem - we have 16 MEGAbytes (not GIGAbytes) for only $130! Need more storage - score this massive 3.1 GB hard drive - only $399!



In the market for a new craptop laptop? Check out this baby: 8 MEGAbytes of RAM, 810 MEGAbye hard drive, a whopping 11.3" COLOR display! Now only $2,500!



Oh, and for those of you who are still using any of the items pictured here - ummmm... "perhaps" it's time for an upgrade.

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PC Turns 30: Seen Trying the "Trump Comb-Over"

So the personal computer turns 30 years old today. Wow.

I was reading a PC Magazine Article today that interviewed some of the folks that rode that wave and helped shaped the industry (Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Raymond Kurzweil, etc). They asked this group of technology luminaries the 3 most hard-hitting, insightful questions that you would expect from any mass-media outlet:

What was the biggest innovation for personal computing in the last 30 years?
How has personal computing changed people's lives for the better?
What do you see happening in personal computing over the next 30 years?

Really?

Not to get down on the PC Magazine staff, but if I had access to those folks - I think a more fitting (and interesting) set of questions would have been:

What has the rise of the personal computer NOT affected in our society?
Has personal computing changed people's lives for the better?
What will "computing" look like in 10 years?

I'm not just playing armchair quarterback here. 30 years ago I was a junior in high school. So I'm old enough to remember the actual launch of the IBM PC (Charlie Chaplin ads and all) and the Apple I, etc... It was, in retrospect, an awesome set of events that has (obviously) changed all of our lives in the most profound ways possible. Beyond the Twitters and Facebooks and smartphones and that whole "Internet-thing" - the rise of the personal computers (and the supporting infrastructure and software) has literally changed the face of the world.

Now, according to the technology press, we're entering what Steve Jobs has declared "The post-PC era." When Jobs said that that on May 31, 2011 Apple was just launching the iPad 2 - so apparently for Apple the post-PC era is one where everyone buys an iPad and ditches their laptop. But, I digress.

Obviously, when we go from room-sized computers to smartphones with 1,000,000 times the power at 1/1,000,000th the price - technology and "personal computing" will naturally evolve into something is ubiquitous. As the physical size of computers get smaller, their speed and memory increase and their price gets lower, technology is going to get more and more unobtrusive, and more and more integrated into our daily life.

The mainframe was seen as the end-all-be-all. It was so big, complicated and expensive that people would "rent" time on there to run their programs. Even when the computer actually hit the desktop in 1981 - you had to enter DOS commands to get anything to run (oh yay - that was loads of fun! - NOT!). Then came the graphical user interface (GUI) with the Mac in 1984 - the mainstream of the Internet in 1994 (ish) - and now we have iPhone and tablet PCs are beginning to take over the portable market of computing.

With more and more us storing more and more of our stuff in the cloud (off site) - the idea "personal computing" is changing. Personal computing back then referred to the fact that you were untethered to a mainframe - and you could save your own files and run your own programs without being a slave to the IT department.

Now that most of our data is stored on servers we never see, and we only interact with the interface of the software we use in a web browser - we're going back to a mainframe model and our computers function more like the "dumb terminals" of the late 1970s.

"Personal computing" today means how you personally interact with data and other humans who are also interacting with data. No one wants to buys software in stores, install it using physical media (anyone still have the 10 disk Windows installer lying around?), and then have to store the data locally, back it up, archive it, etc. Heck, we can't even be bothered to go down to the local store and rent a movie on physical media. Nowdays it's all about streaming content. Pandora streams music; Netflix and Hulu streams movies and TV shows; etc., etc.

That's why Apple is doing their iCloud thing. That's why Google gives away productivity applications - and stores your data for free. That's also why your Internet connection at home costs $50 per month. It's all about convenience and transparency. iCloud will backup everything to you have and wirelessly synchronize it to all your other devices. It's only a matter of time before we have something that I talked about in a previous blog - which is the continuity of your entire session across devices (e.g.all open documents you were working on at work appear on whatever computer you log into when you get home).

So, whether you buy into Steve Jobs' "post-PC era" mindset or not - the fact of the matter is that the birth of the PC has ushered in a whole new era of "personal" computing that has fundamentally changed the way we interact with each other (social media, skype, FaceTime) and how we buy and consume our entertainment (iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora).

In the future - there will be more "personal" computing - not less.

And, I'm not really sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing.

What do you think?

The Interconnection of Technology Companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

Where do all the technology companies and those "services we can't live without" come from? And who are the guys that came up with them? And where did they work before they came up with "the next big thing?"

Three words: Microsoft and Apple.

Yep, it seems that while on the quest to copy dominate the world, Apple's and Microsoft's HR department found some real forward-thinkers who, given the chance (and a few million in venture capital!), started some of the most well-known (now) companies and services around.

Check out the interconnected and sometime tangled web that is the technology landscape:



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It's A Cloud, Cloud, Cloud World

I had my iPhone cranked up listening to my "favorites" channel and just let my mind wonder.... and in one of my rare moments of clarity - I was thinking about the future of computing. I come to the decision that the future of computing will not be about hardware, or operating systems, or which applications are "better" than others - it will all come down to a single thing: the screen.

Yep, that's it. The screen.

I think that the computing experience for most people (within the next 10 years) will be based around cloud services that are delivered to whatever device you happen to be using. Those devices could be fixed - like your TV, or to a thin PC, or a laptop-like device (nettop, netbook, laptop), or even your mobile phone.

The days of installing patches and fixes and hot fixes will be a thing of the past - since your operating system will be running in the cloud - there will be some poor IT schmoe someplace that has to deal with all the hassles and compatibility problems - and your system will just always be "up to date."

You'll always have the latest versions of all the software you use - or "subscribe" to - and you'll pay for computing services much the way you do for electricity or phone service. Companies will vie for your business by providing content "channels" that you can subscribe to.

If you like the Apple OS - then subscribe to the Apple Channel. Prefer Vista? Too bad, Microsoft won't have a channel until they see that Apple has dominated the space and then will try to build their entirely own complete service rather than just have a channel that people can subscribe to... but I digress.

These software (and services) "channels" would all co-exist in your main "session" - and would be available (and configurable) as either icons or as services that are already running. You could just switch between channels the way you do now - with Alt+Tab or by clicking an icon.

There would be free channels (like basic cable) - and then premium content (I predict that porn folks will be an early adopter) would be available. Whether you're interested in sports and want to see live video, or have an instance of a browser loaded with links to all your favorite teams - it's all pre-configured in the "ESPN Sports Channel."

Likewise, if you're a news junkie, love cooking, or can't get enough celebrity gossip - the content will be available in a unified manner. Video, websites, applications, premium content - ready to go and able to be delivered on whatever device you're watching where ever you are.

The issue of whether to buy a new Xbox or Playstation will be a thing of the past. You can have both - just subscribe to the channel(s). It will come with some basic games, and you can add others on a rental basis - or as a flat fee (like today). Rather than having 200 game jewel cases lying around - the game provider would collect payment and install the instance of the game on in your session. It would be ready nearly instantly.

What about the more "mundane" tasks of email, presentations, collaboration, word processing and (the dreaded) spreadsheet? Those would all be handled at an "at work" channel. It could be branded by your company - and you can have a "home office" channel as well as a "London office" channel. All your data will be stored just as you left it - files in folders like you have today.

There would be some limited local storage for the rare occasion you're not connected to the network - documents will be stored and forwarded when you connect again. Each channel would make certain applications available offline (although not all apps) - but it really won't be an issue. We'll look at good, reliable access to the Internet like we do electricity and sewer services. It will be everywhere - mostly all the time.

You'll be able to easily move data between channels and have all your documents accessible from all the other channels as well. You can seamlessly share and collaborate with others - with text or video like you can today with instant messaging and video chat.

In other words - your computing experience will be amazingly similar to what it is today, and all you have to buy is a HDTV, mobile phone or other device of your choice - and chances are you already have all the hardware you'll need.

Rather than tossing (or donating) that "old" cell phone or laptop or desktop - you can just pick up a new one at any store, kiosk or outlet - log into your provider and whammo - all your stuff is there. No more local backups (but you can if you want to), no more downloading and installing programs over on the new computer, the hours of setup, the restoration of all your preferences - it will all "just work."

Yes, I think the pendulum is swinging back to the "centralized" computer model. That's why mainframes haven't gone away - they've just been waiting for this next round of "what's old is new." Well, the time is coming.

The virtualization software is getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper. The delivery mechanisms for delivering the specific user sessions and price of mass online storage are nearing the zero mark. There are some technical and infrastructure hurdles, to be sure - but it's all within the realm of what's happening in terms of growing consumer (and business) acceptance of SaaS applications and cheap, commodity hosted virtual systems.

And now - with the Obama White House printing money like it's going out of style for infrastructure upgrades - I'm hopeful that within 5 years I will be able to actually have ONE cell conversation without having one side or the other drop.... but that's another story.

Micoblog: Enough With "Beta" Already

So, I don't know about you - but I'm getting a little tired of the word "Beta" when it comes to commercial software and especially with Web 2.0 applications.

Now, most people aren't in the technology field - but I am - and the word beta has a traditional meaning that's getting more and more obscured as time goes on. Traditionally, a piece of software was considered beta - when it was feature complete and undergoing the final bug fixes and performance tweaks.

Software was considered "shipping" software when companies put it out to the public and charged money for it.

That's all changed.

Companies now are putting up services like hotcakes labeled as "Beta" - which either means they're doing some market fishing and seeing if what they came up with will actually stick or not - or they expect customers to be their quality assurance team and find all the bugs.

Microsoft has labeled it's Windows 7 operating system as "Beta." I'm sure it's feature complete and is just getting the final bugs worked out...

Yeah, right!

Gmail has been in "Beta" for over 5 years now (and counting) - and yet they are charging money for it. What the??

It's time companies stepped up and grow a pair and put a "1.0" label on their stuff. Call it "shipping" - and stop being total wussies about it.

When they do have a release that's meant to get public opinion or to show off the future of what they're working on in the labs - that's terrific! Call it a "Public Preview" or "Pre-Release" or something else - but just please stop calling all your stuff "Beta" for 5 years. Same thing for you Web 2.0 folks - having a "closed beta" is fine - even a public "beta" period is good - but a product should not be in "beta" if:

1. People are paying for it
2. It's been more than 3 months since you made it live
3. If you have more than 5,000 people using it
4. If you advertise the new version as if it were shipping
5. You're just doing it to create FUD in the marketplace to stop people from buying a competitor's product (Microsoft - take note!)

Focus On SaaS

I just got off the phone with world renowned analyst Amy Wohl - and she had some very interesting insights into where SaaS (Software as a Service) is headed in the enterprise world.

As part of the research for her new eBook about the SaaS trends and technology - she and her staff have talked to dozens of SaaS vendors and SaaS technology companies to get their take on where things are going.

PLUG: Check out her website: http://www.wohl.com for availability of the eBook - it should be coming out in the next couple of days (IBM has already bought several thousand copies to give to their customers).

Amy believes that the SaaS adoption rate will continue to climb - even beyond the numbers projected by other analysts like Gartner. She pointed out that in the enterprise - the choice for the adoption of a SaaS solution is driven by whomever has the budget - and not necessarily just about what "IT wants."

As a software entrepreneur that brings up the classic question: What are YOU doing about a SaaS strategy? Do you have one?

If you don't have a strategy - that that becomes your strategy. Not having a plan about what you're going to do about on-demand software is just plain bad business. Even if you decide that SaaS isn't somewhere that you want (or need) to go into - at least you have a plan and a strategy.

If you do decide you want (or need) to go into the on-demand marketplace - there are a lot of other considerations:

• How much work will I need to do to my current application?
• Do I even use my current application - or create a new one - just for SaaS delivery?
• How will I host it - in the cloud (e.g. Amazon), at a service provider?
• What about SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and guaranteed up time?
• How am I going to charge for on-demand and still make money?
• Can I just continue to charge my customers like I do now, and charge them an additional fee to host the app?
• How am I going to market the new service?
• Will I cannibalize my on-premises customer sales?
• What do we think the adoption rate will be among current customers?
• Should be consider making our application a "white label" product to sell to other providers (or competitors) as well?
• ... etc., etc., etc.

There are no easy answers - but now's the time to take a good long look at where you're going with your business - and how you can maximize your strengths. It might even be a good time to branch out into other related services or industries with similar needs to the one you're currently serving.

The time to plan is now. The time to take action is now. The health and well-being of your business depends on it.

The Way Back Machine

As part of its 10th anniversary - Google has brought back the web... to 2001. They have put live the oldest copy of the index they have - a snapshot of the web in 2001.

A lot has changed since then - but one thing hasn't - this blog.

That's right - if you go to the Google 2001 site - and search for Bob Cusick - you'll see that the second entry is from a Bob's World back in 1997. Unfortunately, the link doesn't exist - so I went back through this morning and tried to find an old archive.

(Bob doing his best Dr. Evil Impression): Then I realized that back then my "column" (the term "blog" didn't exist) was actually in a database being served up live with "dynamic" pages. A big concept back then.

It was actually in a FileMaker database using a new "CGI" (Common Gateway Interface) called "Lasso." The site was called ClickWorld and it catered to the FileMaker Pro community. The site was a collaboration between myself (database and CGI programming), Jason Fried (graphic designer extraordinaire and founder of 37 Signals [you know - BaseCamp, CampFire, Ruby on Rails])... and... and... and I'm sorry, but I don't remember the 3rd guy's name - but he was a co-founder of one of the first "ISPs" (Internet Service Providers).

We had a fully dynamic site that users could register for (23,000+) and they could customize their view of the data; we had "loyalty points" that could be redeemed for consulting services, software and other goodies; we had guest blogs and articles; a basic search engine for our knowledge base - basically it was a more crude version of Facebook meets Engadget meets iGoogle.

Good times... good times.

So I went back to my oldest archives to see if I had actually kept anything from back then (first I had to find my oldest archives!). That was many, many machines ago - so I knew the chances of actually finding stuff would be bleak, at best.

Well, I managed to find a really old text file - an export of SOME of the old Bob's World Articles - circa 1997-2001 (it seems that 2001-2006 are missing). I fired up Servoy and did a quick import to see what was there. In looking back through that stuff... AAAAHHH! It's like reading an old high school yearbook.

Here's the actual picture I used back then on the site:

It was interesting - because some things never change - and other things have. I was totally cringing at some of those posts - let's just say I was wwaaaaayyyyy into Apple and FileMaker Pro at the time. I did have to clean up some of the HTML (I was writing raw HTML in BBEdit on my Mac at the time) - but other than that I've left them 100% unedited.

So, to celebrate my 10 years of blog... er... "columns" - I've published them in their original form - dated on their original dates. Look on the side bar for the year.

WARNING: Best viewed with bell bottoms and a lava lamp...