10 reasons IPhone is going to be a Flop

Oh the dust storm of the wow factor at Macworld, yes the iPhone and Apple TV are indeed some new innovation from Apple (No longer Apple Computer, Inc). Hopefully with all intoxicating two hours key note on how Apple will be the new Sony. Plus Steve Job bending on declaration an all out war with everyone, not even mobile phone manufacturers were saved. So I waited patiently until all the cloud of Mac addicts would settled and I believe that everyone is really going to need a reality check on this little gadget here.





Sorry Steve Jobs, the honeymoon of hot air is over for the iPhone. I’m willing to bet that iPhone is heading toward the same direction just like the Zune. It's not that I’m sick of it already (well, maybe a bit), it's just time for Apple to answer some tough questions. Otherwise, it will be joining the ugly step children group just like the Zune, Sony PS3, and Segways. In the realm of "tech that looks absolutely amazing but is far too expensive for most people to even consider buying, Apple better be careful trying not to over hype this little sucker. So here is a few pointers iPhone will have to resolve before the product launch this coming June.

1. Form Factors: Have I seen you before ? Though iPhone is pretty and thin, but is it can be easily drop due to the lack of curves and slick finishing like the iPod. It’s definitely scratch prone device, additionally lacking a stylus or a traditional thumb board will sure put more unwanted smudge on the touch screen. So when was the last time you look at a screen filled with your thumb prints? Pretty disgusting right ? Perhaps Apple is specifically targeting non-professionals, as this is a largely untapped profitable market.

2. It’s the Service, Stupid: People might want the phone that Cingular has to offer, but in the long run it is the quality of the wireless product and services that keep customers (coverage, plan features, rates, etc.). Plus how much of quality content Apple will have to come up with to support the IPhone ecosystem? Better start making good friends with Youtube and Yahoo now. Perhaps the consumers in the US should get a second opinion from their futurist friends in Japan. After all they were enjoying this innovation with cutting edge technology for years prior the iPhone conception. Ultimately in the convergence arena of gadgets, it's the content that wins.


3. Kung Fu Texting: The number one usage for mobile around the world is still making phone calls and sending text messages. Have you ever tried power texting on a touch screen? I can assure you when doing a one handed kung fu texting on a touch screen, it pretty annoying. And how does one can do this on the iPhone? On its touchscreen? Let me know. So one-handed texting is out of question. I guess Steve Job is planning to have his peripheral partners begin selling yet another expensive bluetooth keyboard. Mind as well call it a PDA that play iTunes. Without a keyboard, this will be a titanic flop.


4.You don’t want Your Phone to be an Open Platform: This is a deal breaker for Steve Jobs, one Apple is late in the game with its "Smart-Phone" platforms. Two the market has already been flooded with other proven long term invested platform. (eg .Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Symbian). Additionally these platforms are open to the end-user to developed and use third party applications without a hitch to their respective cellular network. Yes all the current smart-phones are capable of dispensing malicious application to the cell network. However at the end of the day it's the omnipresent layers of communication hardwares that win. Sorry Apple, if your mobile OS can wreck havoc the entire West Coast cell network into a coma, then you have no business getting into the mobile handset industry.

5. Jack of All Trades: Is the master of none, Convergence devices are only pretty in concept and only suited for some people. Also the compromises that you have to make in order to just carry one device most result in a undesirable response. Are people willing to give up their ultrahip Moto phones, which fit anywhere stealthy in their pocket? So that they can carry an 8GB digital storage camera phone. Oh wait may be I'm thinking about the Nokia N Series. It is yet to be seen that the consumers are willing to trade in their old 30-60 GB IPod for a Jack of all trades Apple Branded mobile device.

6. Proprietary is for Losers: One Lesson Apple should learn is from Sony, the list of gigantic flop from that company is longer than an Empire state building, from Betamax all the way to UMD. Why only limits the consumer to the iTune download only? If I cannot add my personal movies and Music collection from DVD and CD, who cares how great it will look on this touch screen if my hands are tied to rebuy everything.

7.Unforgetable Experience for One Time:
Yes the launch of iPod undoubtedly were the biggest technological marvel back in 2001. Because it was the first MP3 device to solve all the majors problems with the portable players, such as the lack of storage capacity in both Flash memory and Hard disk in those days. However those are not even an issue today. Also IPod won the hearts of the consumer with their dial navigation versus other cumbersome navigation systems from the manufacturer in the past. However in the handset business there are already an answer to those prayers a while back ago, they call it the Crackberry. So do you have the sand to take your touch screen on with those addictive little buttons, Steve?

8. It's Data Not Voice:With the rise of VOIP, the traditional voice business is heading to a dooming sunset. Also the lack of 3G support might merely be for a political reason, as the fact that Cingular's 3G coverage still has gaping holes outside of major U.S. cities. However Sprint has no problem with their mass deployment of EVDO network which is significantly faster than the Cingular network.The 3G question is very important to those who want to stream video and audio to their phone at any time without wardriving for a hotspot. Only if you're restricted to Wi-Fi hot spot to get your data and not using it in the backseat of a car, on the train, or sitting on a park bench. This will lose appeal quickly to the mobile professionals.

9. Total cost of ownership: The price of the ownership will be higher than the price tag for the mobile operator. 600 dollars are still pretty steep for a phone. Also what kind of user maintenance is required? Obviously the battery of this phone will only last for two years just like the service agreement. So the consumer will want the next generation of iPhone right away ? Even if the iPhone wears three hats, at the end Cingular will realized that it is too costly keeping it around in the long run for its consumers. You all know what happen to the Nokia Communicator right.

10. Experience: Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia have scoured the world's design schools and hired artists on three continents to keep their phones looking good. Motorola has recently revived its fortunes with design of the Razr. KDDI, a Japanese carrier, has a design showcase in the teen shopping area of Tokyo just to be close to trends. Apple, in other words, won't be competing against rather dullish, unstylish companies like the old Compaq. The handset companies move pretty quick and put out new models every few weeks. Perhaps Apple, Inc. should research the consumer behavior more thoroughly on the mobile market before diving in for an embarrassment.

Run Robotic Forest Run

Asimo Running at 2007 CES

I'm a little scared. Next thing you know, robots will be chasing humans with knives...

U.S. Army Buys 30 New Simulators

In an effort to save money on gas, the U.S. Army has spent $50 million on 30 new M-1 tanks and M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle SIMULATORS, which use advanced VR to copy everything but "the smell of being inside of a tank." Also crazy suicide bomber is not included in this version, however the future upgrade probably will knock out those issues

     

Kirk Sato's IT Proverb 2006

Well as the year 2006 is approaching to a definite end, I feel that many people out there would share the feeling of nostalgia among the mist. For the most part, many of you folks out there probably trying to recall the past mistakes that you have done foolishly in the past year. Which in hope 2007 will bring you a certain resolution achievement, even though you may never be able to get rid of that bad habit. As for me, the biggest blunder of 2006 probably would be in the field of my job, which happen to in Information Technology. Though the consequence might not have threaten my livelihood entirely, but it sure did leave me a nasty memory which I love to abandon with all the days in this year. So in the hope of finding my own resolution for the next year in my career, I have compile little words of wisdom in the world of computing to share with you all. This might not be a definitive guide, however you might find them to be more than useful when you get stuck in one of those computer errors anger movement.


IT Proverb 2006

It is better to have a gold digging girlfriend than a computer. Because owning a computer is like a marriage, it never works unless you spend money on it.


I had a life once... now I have a computer and a modem.

To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a moron. (into believing)

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tubes hurtling down the highway.

Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.

Open source is buggy , crashing Windows and Gates in a world without borders

Press any key to continue or any other key to quit...



The Best Movement of Internet 2006 -A Series of Tubes....

All the fun stuff you can do with water in Zero G

Man what a billions of tax payers dollars well spent, poking fun at water.....

DARPA's zombie-sharks entered non-military applications

Well this particular headline would make Dr Evil really proud, recently folks at University of Boston devised a way to take your common household shark and turn it into a remote-controllable spy capable of gathering critical military intelligence such as targeted military objects beneath the ocean. And sure enough, Boston University's Jelle Atema and his team learned how to crudely guide these kings of the sea using either electrical stimulation to mimic their neural signals or implanting little gadgets attached to their noses that release delicious-smelling squid juice on cue. With this delicious break through (for the shark most part) , the marine biologists still have a long way to go before they fully understand how sharks use odor stimuli to navigate, and their funding ran out before any more progress could be made at the University. Despite the lack of support from Uncle Sam, however, Atema is eager to raise fresh funding in order to leverage his achievements into useful civilian applications; remote-control sharks could potentially be used to track fish populations, changes in ocean temperature, or chemical spills.

Just considered the potential for various abuses in this application, I mean trusting your intelligence gathering to a gadget that could possibly having you for dinner? Obviously folks at Boston University have not yet seen Deep Blue Sea,the freaking sharks ate Samuel L Jackson ! Plus whatever happened to laser on the shark's head ? I guess that would be the main reason DARPA pulled the plug on the project, if you going to turn this top predator of the sea into a drone give them some laser !

Also how are you going to destroy them if your enemy got a hold of your drone sharks? I guess calling animal control to harpoon your spy is out of the question. If you want my opinion they should starting thinking of putting a tomahawk missile as a deterrent method.

     

Super Glue Against AIDS

This one sure is a kicker, University of Utah scientists designed a "molecular condom" women could use daily to prevent AIDS by vaginally inserting a liquid that would turn into a gel-like coating. And when exposed to semen, return to liquid form and release an antiviral drug to kill of the virus.

"We have developed a new vaginal gel that we call a molecular condom because it is composed of molecules that are liquid at room temperature and, when applied in the vagina, will spread and turn into a gel and effectively coat the tissue," says Patrick Kiser, an assistant professor of bioengineering. "It's a smart molecular condom because we designed this gel to release anti-HIV drugs when the gel comes into contact with semen during intercourse."

I'm not quite sure how effective this super glue technique is going to work. Especially when more than half of women out there already miss their contraceptive pill regimen periodically. So if they going to have to apply this baby everyday to protect themsleves against AIDS, this can be a definte problem. So what if they forget their daily scheduled even once or twice? Are they going to contract an incurable disease then? I still believe that the good old rubber is the best method of protection. I just can't wait until they come out with "flavored" edible version, can somebody say this taste like jello shot !

PUGACHEV SU-35 Combat Fighter Sale

If you have the money and a country to oppress, call your local Pugachev dealer. I wondered if Yuri Orlov got this little sucker in his stock pile




     

C note the Man Wiretaps

So you think the "Man" might be breathing down your neck from the other phone line while you're trying to get your takeout order done at your home? Well, there is no need to skulk down to the conner pay phone or starting to speak in tongue in order to conduct your business, despites the legality of your call in nature. All you need is a download of a C note tone. University of Pennsylvania computer science professor Matt Blaze dissected the wiretap equipment commonly used by law enforcement and found a bug. Apparently The G-men don't like to record a "dead air", so they turn off their equipment system by using the special C-pitched tone when the intended target phone is hung up. So all you need is a Mp3 player and just download and play back the c tone to your phone at an ambient noise level during the call continuously . And Wolla ! Their eavesdropping gears are power down at your command. Though this work with many phone bug out there, however it's not a 100% guaranteed. Please don't bitch if your shadow government agents of your respective country come knocking at your door.

So I took a liberty of throwing a phone spoofing technique into the mix, this will totally get the man dizzy at their own game. While you're in the middle of your call, then without hanging up, Play a C tone and dial another number. Analog wiretap systems will interpret this a new call. You may be chatting with your friend, but now the spooks think you're calling for a pizza. Also for the Advance Anti-Wiretaps technique use the C tone with an Internet phone card, all you need is a bit of imagination and have fun !

For a complete instruction go read this cool paper

Psiphon - A good start for an open society

Even though this particular topic has been circling around the web since its release on December 1st, I felt compelled to spread the good news to the world of information that the fight for free access to the Internet has taken a turn for the better. Despite a small step in the on going struggle with many repressive regimes who are bent on controlling the power of information, nevertheless this a step to a significant paradigm shift in counter-censorship movement. With the advent of the Internet, many people have dreamt that this tool would open up the human society like once the printing press helped the desperate Europeans crawling out slowly from the Dark Ages. However nothing ever work like the ideal concept, censorship of the Internet is still an inescapable reality in many countries which at the end its citizens have to pay the price of ignorance for the sake of the "totalitarian social harmony", imposing antiquated laws by the relics of bunch dry old men. Who are cowardly grabbing on to their degrading power base, against the tide of technological change.
However today is different like once the Internet has done to open us up to the wealth of knowledge now we been given this tool

Psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored. Psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere. Psiphon is a circumvention technology that works through social networks of trust and is designed to help Internet users bypass content-filtering systems setup by governments, such as China, North Korea, Iran, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and others.
Psiphon was originally implemented in Python, but has been re-designed and re-written in C++, and designed as a cross-platform, user friendly proxy server tool which uses a https protocol to transfer data. With a user name and password, people in countries that use Internet content filtering can send encrypted requests for information to a trusted computer located in another country and receive encrypted information in return. As https protocol is widely used for secure communication over the Internet (from web mail to internet banking), no government can block the usage of https.

So what does all these techno mumbo jumbles means? Well unless your country got a digital fortress like China with their super American made Cisco firewall hardwares and an army of trained hackers to hunt your ass down for their human organ trafficking market, then rejoice because there is absolutely no way that your government can stop these Psiphon social network node to "brute force" exploiting the worldwide packet transport of https.
Personally I believe that this method is bloody brilliant, though this method of proxy hoping might have been around since the conception of the web, but once you put a social network element into a mix and then you got one good roundhouse kick to the man. This should be a good lesson to all the repressive government regimes, the Internet belong to the world. Just because you happen to have a few miles of fiber optics buried behind your backyard and a few optical switches, please stop pretending like you own the Internet it just seem very pathetic. What a sweet revenge from the founder of the Internet protocol themselves who knew that once the world have learn to adopt the protocol there is no turning point from there and hence this a perfect example of be open or go back to the digital dark ages where you came from.



- If you would like to see an interactive tutorial on how it works here is the link

Here is the link for you to download the software, so for the folks who live in the non net regulated countries please support the cause, as for me an army of my buddies in the US has already setup the servers, so let the liberation of access begin !

RFID: Sign of the (End) Times?

RFID: Sign of the (End) Times?

Some of you might say huhh..? What da heck is he talking about this time. Well as of some of you might know that for the past few days I've been actively participate on the business of RFID chip, both attending a very expensive conference and made several high profile business contacts. However the ironic part of life just happen, only one day after the conference was over wired magazine just publish about the Christian Writer saying that RFID is "the mark of the beast". And just because people are willingly adopt this emerging technology both in government and the public sector, there fore the Armageddon is coming upon us.
First an foremost RFID is basically a technology that base on the chip with an internet protocal that would connect any item as the internet would connect information with a hyperlink (the link you click). Instead of having people screw around finding the information and location of the thing by human intervention, which always prone to error. RFID infrastructure would simplify it just like the internet had done with the noises with information. May I remind you that without internet you guys would never gonna be able to make more friends than real life without Myspace. So I guess for those Christian nutcases, for every new technology that emerges to help people to connect each other better for the society, It must be an End time for us all. So I guess when we first got the printing press in the Renaisance, those Chirstians themselves probably were intoxicated with the paranoia of the Second coming of Jesus and thought that printing press was the sign of "the mark of the beast". Guess what thanks to the instrument of Anti-Christ the most published and widely circulated book on the damm planet is the Bible. So I guess the bible is the product of the Anti-Christ right ?
It is not the religion that corrupted man into a self fulfilling destructive prophecy. It is the thought of men with self motivated pettiness in the name of religion, Chirstnity Islam, Buddhist, and etc. That indeed insure the destruction of our society throughout time by religious wars and persecutions because the mere fact that man themselves lack the ability to discern progress with their own moral conundrum. If God truly made us in his own image, therefore we are self is a replication of superior being that has the potential to transcend beyond this bullshit. Then it is not our flesh an blood that limit our progress but it is the disease call morality that has been plague our mind for centuries.

news article:
wired news artcle about RFID
more info about RFID
RFID

     

Laptop and Terrorism

Today I came across a headline about this fella from my home town Dallas, Texas which apparently he got busted for having a load of cash and some rather menacing information in his laptop hard drive and it wasn't porn, here is detail from the Associate Press.

A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.

Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested Tuesday after a dog caught the scent of narcotics on cash he was carrying, according to an affidavit filed in court.When agents asked him if he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $59,000. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the mysterious files. At a court hearing Wednesday, Dinssa was ordered held in custody until at least until Monday at the request of prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller argued Dinssa was a potential risk to the community and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly, The Detroit News reported Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer approved Feller's request to detain him. Dinssa, who is from Dallas, arrived in Detroit from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam and was headed for Phoenix, Feller said. He is charged with concealing more than $10,000 in his luggage, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Detroit Free Press reported.

It is tragic that poor fella might has been mistaken for a terrorist, because for all we know he might just felt like going to blow some change in Vegas or perhaps heading off to an Islamic wedding and I know they do give a generous amount of cash in those kind of occasion. Though to many people who've read this article might be terrifying about the fact that the home grown terrorism is on the rise in the Western countries, especially in Europe where social prejudice against Islamic community is still being tolerated as a collateral damage by their respective government. As for United States where many corporate workers are using laptop on their daily means to support their livelihood this has become a rising concern among the regular IT folks like me. To further elaborate this, here is the article about the United States custom will now have the rights to seize any laptop equipment without your permission at the port of entry for an indefinite detainment.

Laptops Have No Right To Privacy At U.S. Borders
Until recently, their biggest concern was that someone might steal the laptop. But now there’s a new worry — that the laptop will be seized or its contents scrutinized at United States customs and immigration checkpoints upon entering the United States from abroad.

So what does all these related to any person who lives are depending on carrying their electronic devices for a legitimate reason ? Well you're all getting screwed royally big time in the name of "War on Terror". First we all have to give up our freedom of expression and the Constitution protection of the American citizens because very low tech terrorist thugs ram two planes into the Word Trade tower. Despite promise of progress on the War on Terrorism the US government has invested over a trillion dollar on high tech gadgetries and man power with an obscene war drama of Shock and Awe, still at the end of day most of terrorist around the world from September 11th to the bombing of the London subway all the terrorist didn't even bother to carry a damm laptop to carry out their successful attacks. Obviously the folks at the Homeland Security are spending too much time watching 24 contemplating the next high-tech attack from the people that hiding out in places barely has a descent phone connection in some godforsaken desserts.

Alright let's entertain the US government the thought of technologically advance terrorist for a movement. Imagine there was this Middle Eastern second generation immigrant who was educated in the Ivy League college had the American dream of life, however one day he went back to his homeland and mysteriously got brain washed to be a jihadist bending on destroying the infidels in the West. Most of you might think this idea might only be viable in the realm of the Hollywood fantasy but I can assure that a significant amount of destructive intelligent scholar who are aiding the top terrorist organization in the world, majority of them happen to be US Ivy League college graduates. And if god forbids he is thinking about carrying very important information about the plans and implementations, he would never even bother to be stupid enough having them on his damm laptop heading back to the States ! Here is only three items that he needs to carry out his devious plan of knowledge transfers and they only involve in freely available open source technology.(Don't worry I'm not going to show you the DYI process I'm not a supporter of those fucking nut case)

1. Google - he could just easily turn his Gmail account into a digital storage medium which he will have the ability to access them anywhere in the word for free.

2. Stegonagraphy -There are plenty of free available tools online which can turn any documents and schematic and hide them completely out of sight in any pictures and video files.

3. Airfare - once all the digital cotent has been hiding in the internet cloud(which ironically could be at some server farms in the US), that mentally sadistic individual cold just easily fly back to the United States with his student visa pretending that he just came back from his pilgrimage vacation visiting in the Middle East. Or heck he could just have his buddies in America carry out the coordination by just a mere download on another receiving end.

So Now I hope that you all would understand the very nature of terrorism it has nothing to do with who got the best electronic equipments or the most precise GPS guided bombs the very idea of all destructive force against a society is base upon an improvise creative tactics. Instead of the Homeland security twisting their thumbs on methodology of scrutinizing hightech detection pattern of a potential terrorist by either randomly seize some tourist laptop just because he just got a little nervous twitch.

Rolling in Style with out gasoline

With all this bitching about how gasoline is going to ruin our beloved planet with green house gases and cracking your wallet until your balls turn blue. It is good to know that our insatiable appetite for speed will be fulfill without the need for the fossil fuel. Behold the X1 a Silicon Valley-made electric car with a 0-60 acceleration rate that's faster than a Ferrari Spider and a Porsche Carrera. As of right now, it's second only to the French-made Bugatti Veyron, a 1,000-horsepower, 16-cylinder beast that hits 60 mph half a second faster and goes for $1.25 million.' The X1 is built by Ian Wright whose valley startup WrightSpeed intends to make a 'a small-production roadster that car fanatics and weekend warriors will happily take home for about $100,000 --a quarter ton of batteries included. The X1 crushed the Ferrari in an eighth-mile sprint and then in the quarter-mile, winning by two car lengths.'" Well the coolest thing about this concept, is the fact that just knowing in the near future you will rolled out in style without having to stop by the gas station. All you need is an electrical outlet and make sure that you don't electricute yourself while driving and you are good to go ! Shall we all give one finger salute the oil companies ?