The Internet - A Primer

Check this out.









This happened in 2010 sometime. I walk into a boardroom and this was all that was written on the whiteboard. It was a large whiteboard in a large boardroom - one of those fancy ones with leather seats.

Sheesh, who did this? And why? Here's a few things I can think of:

It could have been the Marketing Dept
"Ok, as(Company X)marketing team, we need to figure this stuff out. Let's do a thorough brainstorm about this new Internet product the IT guys are going on about. Heck by the end of this discussion we'd cost the company at least R10 000 but the slide-deck will be awesome! These seats are comfy."

It could have been the IT Dept
"What should the proxy block today?"


It could have been a Father/Son lesson
"And that's how I met your mother...she had an awesome profile at first, but yeah she let it go over the years...anyways, let's get a beer."

It could have been a Father/Daughter lesson
"And this is what the Internet is and these sites are evil...yeah I mean you definitely do not want to be a teen mom...yeah...anyways, let's get a milkshake."

I guess we'll never know what the discussion was about. Whatever.

Whos really killed who?

Often when new technologies emerge, people are quick to call out the 'death' of the existing older technology.
Recent ones I can remember is Google+ killing Facebook and Twitter, or Google Wave rightfully ending email's woeful existence. Heck, even SMTP and DNS are still alive and kicking!

However, thinking about those perhaps leads us to a more relevant question: Has Mxit suffered from other technologies like BBM, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc?
I wonder what Mxit's active userbase is now?


And from Silicon Valley this morning:
Reports of the PC's demise are greatly exaggerated, according to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who said Wednesday that the Santa Clara chipmaker had record sales of $13 billion in its most recent quarter.

Sauerbraten

Sour Brats was borne from the mind of Oranjia, and named after the open source multiplayer game (no, not the german pot roast)

See the first post by Oranjia himself, way back in 2006. The internet was still new to us; we thought it was a passing fad, that would never last.

Seems we were wrong!

What phones have you had?

Just how we reminisce about the PCs we've had, we eventually will look back at the cell phones we've used over the years. Here is my list:




Nokia 6210 - 2003 - hand-me-down from my Dad. Near indestructible. Eventually got stolen

Nokia 6600 - 2005 - bought it cash for about R1500. Really usefull phone, and I still have it.

HTC TYTN II - 2008 - got it when I joined MTN. Really nice phone. The screen cracked when I sat on it :)

Nokia E71 - 2008 - used it only for a few months. One of the best business phone around



Nokia N85 - 2009 - bought it for my wife, but had to use it for a few months. It was OK.

HTC Dream (G1) - 2009 - The first Android phone, not bad even to this day. I still have it

HTC Desire - 2010 - 1 year old, and love it

Samsung Galaxy Pocket Plus (S5301) - 2013 - the best budget Android 4.x phone I could find. Impressive for its size.

iPhone 4 - 2014. This was a hand me down from my Dad. After using an android for so long, it took a while to get used to Apple. I didn't really enjoy it, but I like to sync with iTunes on my Mac

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua - 2015. At this point I decided to but mid range phones only. It's simple not worthwhile to pay top dollar for a thing as perishable as a phone. I enjoyed the user experience on the Sony. A really good phone, with Android 5. The only major downside was the limited 8GB storage, which meant I could only install a few apps before it ran out. There was no support for it with CyanogenMod. 

Huawei P10 lite - 2017. I just got this now, and I'm enjoying it. Running Android 7, it has a fingerprint scanner, which make unlocking so much easier.

He did'nt even see it coming!

It must really grind Microsoft that the company that would eventually become bigger than Microsoft was not from the usual supects: IBM, SUN, or one of the other big ones of the time (no mention made of Apple). Rather, it was a small Internet start-up, that makes most if its money from advertising, that would threaten Microsoft the most.  


In Bill's famous internal memo, he says "One scary possibility being discussed by Internet fans is whether they should get together and create something far less expensive than a PC which is powerful enough for Web browsing....". Wow, thats smartphones (including Android) and Chrome OS.


He also mentions Search Engines. Google was not even dreamt of 1995!




But having said that, I do think he was a vissionary