If it wasn’t for the chills and the sore throat I have, I’d be having a great time this evening. Well, it’s alright, I’ll be watching the ball drop on TV. I still remember the great times I had in Times Square last year. 
~Joe
When you have 1.2% market share of the all the Web Browsers, there becomes a time when you just concede the fight and recommend your users use the best Web browser available. Netscape (owned by AOL) has reached its end-of-life and has announced the end of Netscape Browser to their users to use Mozilla Firefox. The most recent release (9.0) was essentially a Netscape-themed Firefox release.
“Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.”
– Tom Drapeau, Director, Propeller/Netscape
Netscape cites the reasons for the changes were due to the changing business of the AOL organization, the Mozilla Firefox codebase and the transition of Netscape to the AOL portal.
It is also worthy of pointing out that the Netscape Web browser was based off the original Mozilla codebase; similarly so is Firefox, but Firefox trimmed out the additional features that Netscape had while breaking the e-mail client into a separate codebase known Thunderbird. Traditionally, AOL provided $2 million in annual funding to the Mozilla Foundation (now Mozilla Corporation). Mozilla has partnered with Google by embedding it’s search in the browser and has reported $66.8 million in revenue in 2006.
Netscape provided an archive of the distributions of the Netscape, but advises that no further product support will continue at http://browser.netscape.com/downloads/archive/.
Netscape Portal: Banged & Bruised
Netscape hasn’t had a lot of good news this year, either. I know I’ve been critical about Netscape and I see the now-current Propeller being more than just “another Digg clone.” When Jason Calacanis decided to empower Netscape users and revamp the Netscape.com homepage to be social, he rivaled his critics and disrupted the Social Media industry. Essentially, he accomplished what I can only imagine the main goal of his changes: increase engagement. However, after sustained negative feedback, people began losing faith in the portal.
Then Calacanis paid users for using the site, knowing full well about Participation Inequality, exploited it to his advantage with the Netscape “Navigators” system. One thing that set off the Social Media Blogosphere — his bounty for top users on other sites. Even I disagreed with the aggressive call to action; nonetheless, there was some drama. Digg’s owner, Kevin Rose promptly removed the Top Users section to prevent their most productive users in an effort to prevent being “bought” by other social news Web sites.
Then came the metrics. Page views were not sustaining since the launch, despite numerous advancements to the site and additional buzz about it. Calacanis defended that it performed the same (or better than) Digg did since their initial launch.
Later, AOL migrated Netscape.com e-mail addresses and ported them to AOL Web Mail. This was the final blow before Netscape’s numbers really saw some impact. One could argue that Netscape users were probably the most highly engaged e-mail users due to the significant drop in page views.
And recently, AOL re-branded the Netscape social news section and spun it off into Propeller and redirected users of Netscape.com to Netscape.AOL.com; a co-branded Netscape/AOL portal. (Another example of a co-branded AOL portal is HP/AOL…)
One thing is true — Netscape was a very static portal, with content that rarely changed. For users that stuck with it throughout the many (re)volutions that it had, they’ve proven they can adapt to change within the portal and brands pretty darn well.
What do you think?
Happy Holidays. I’m visiting my relatives in New Jersey. So far, it has been quite pleasant. The drive wasn’t that bad and spent a less than an hour on the Turnpike.
My grandfather came by. He’s doing well. He’s probably the most active one in the family. Always something to do, a hike to go on or a place to visit. While I don’t always see eye to eye with him politically, he is a great guy all around.
My uncle has been doing well at his firm, and has been enjoying his time off, like me. He also has quite a bit of work to do. My aunt has been doing well herself, too. Their house has a few rooms repainted and looks awesome.
My cousins … well are my cousins. They are like brothers and sisters to me. My cousin is in school and should have his AS in computer science next semester, and my other cousin should be graduating in a couple years from high school. She’s a part of the true MySpace generation, and it’s interesting to watch her text her friends all the time during family gatherings.
I’m kinda tired, so I will write later. For now, take care and have a beer on me.Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
~ Joe
Congrats, Melissa!
She graduated with a BA in Computer Science and Psychology (I think). Her endless excuses for not hanging out with our social circle due to hours of studying and “homework” reaches its end.
Now its time to reflect, look back, forward and enjoy some seafood. Pictures to come later.
The word of the year as awarded by MW Dictionary is w00t.
I never thought MW would cave in to the pop-culture usage. It derives from leet-speak, mostly.
Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.
It’s like saying “yay,” the dictionary said.
(SOURCE)
It seems that I’m not the only one who has been ‘Twittered out’ from Twitter. At the time of this entry, the lack of engagement of Twitter a popular topic now on TechMeme and has been a point of contention for the social media elitist bloggers.
You might recall earlier this year after I used Twitter, I quickly became less interested to the point of not using it unless I found it to be offering exceptionally high value when I did — like waiting in traffic, waiting in line at Best Buy on Black Friday and very seldom now.
I think I figured out the reason why Twitter is either very addictive or very boring: voyeuristic messaging. In more simple terms — we all secretly like to know what other people are thinking and doing. So Twitter is one service that makes that easy. If you don’t have many friends on Twitter (or active ones), Twitter fails to engage the masses. I’ve noticed that for the folks who are more interconnected to people on Twitter generally like it more since they feel “included” in all the micro conversations. The ones who don’t are often “loners” on Twitter who haven’t seen the value.
Don’t take my word for it, there’s several different opinions on Twitter lately:
Ironically, as I wrote this, I posted two thoughts on Twitter. What are your thoughts on Twitter or other micro-blogging formats?
Long-time social news Web site, Fark.com, submitted their request to the US Patent & Trademark Office to register the (widely used) acronym NSFW, which means “Not Safe For Work.” Typically, this acronym is used on the Web to warn users about potential adult content, disturbing images or sound found in a hyperlink.
“I can haz a trademark” might be the meme which describes Fark’s actions. After the Internet audience (and the content) have matured, it may be near impossible to trademark the term. A Google search for NSFW results in over 804,000 Web sites that contain the phrase.
LegalZoom offers some insight on legally registering phrases. It’s very similar to the copyright process, except the responsibility for enforcement of trademarks is solely on the registrant:
The basic test in infringement lawsuits is whether the allegedly infringing phrase is similar enough to create a “likelihood of confusion.”
I’m not a legal or copyright law expert, but I strongly believe that “NSFW” is too vague to be issued legal protection. They might as well register “LOL” “OMG” and “WTF” to have the same success rate.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of enterprise software? Probably user-friendly isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Robert Scoble ignited the discussion on why bloggers generally don’t write about enterprise software.
I should preface this entry with the fact that I haven’t had a lot of hands-on experience with enterprise software from popular vendors Oracle, Sybase or other applications that falls under this umbrella. Despite this, I have used SAP and other enterprise applications so I have some insight into them.
Typically, enterprise software attempts to solve problems across an organization (hence, enterprise), but also allows flexibility to adapt to the specific needs in the organization like “Accounts Payable.”
From my experience, enterprise software sucks (for end-users). The goal of enterprise software is to address the needs of the enterprise — not the end-user. This is understandable, otherwise why would the organization purchase it?
Scoble’s reasoning on why enterprise software isn’t sexy, is that it was only deployed at the request of the a minority in the organization, not the people who are mandated to use it:
[Regarding SAP] … But I didn’t have any say in that matter. Some CIO somewhere else made that decision and forced us all to use SAP. That doesn’t exactly make us warm and fuzzy about the computer sitting in front of us on the desk.
I understand where he’s coming from, but I find this point flawed. Just because the employee wasn’t a decision maker in the usage of enterprise software, doesn’t automatically make it unattractive. I’d think that the employees don’t mind doing the tasks asked of them; rather, I think the frustration is in the software itself. However, since bloggers thrive on their audience who constantly make choices, I totally agree with Scoble’s statement that “consumer software” unquestionably pays the bills for bloggers.
I think in many cases enterprise software is underrated. The purpose of the software is to be functional for the company, not to be friendly for end-users. On the contrary, I feel the end-user experience (the employee) is generally undervalued in the software industry.
What’s the solution?
We all use computers differently. I think that enterprise software manufacturers should offer open flexible APIs so that a user-friendly front-end could be developed for it. Essentially, as long as you have authentication, replication and programmed access rights/rules for the data, then everyone wins. Using enterprise software shouldn’t be a hassle. Front-ends can still be sold to clients, while allowing them to develop them in-house if they wanted. The only challenge is getting enterprise software vendors to agree on an open format.
There you have it with my sentiments about enterprise software. Perhaps you disagree, share your thoughts in the comments below.
Another incident (link via Digg) involving more Taser abuse from law enforcement, even if you are physically handicapped and posing no physical threat.
Donnell Williams was at home getting out of his bath only an with only a towel on, turned the corner in his house and was at gun point with police. Williams, who is medically deaf and forgot put his heading aide on, he was terrorized and motioned that he was deaf by pointing to his ear. Police responded by electrocuting him. Police were called to William’s home when searching for a shooter — which was later determined that it was a false call. You can read the full story on the local news affiliate, KWCH-12.
Deputy Chief Robert Lee passively responded to this incident with the following statement:
“This one occurred on the worst of calls, that being a shooting. The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important.”
His statement failed offer any assurance that corrective action would take place, nor did he state that further training on the use of a Taser would take place. This is unacceptable! How do we accept this? More importantly, why do we accept this abuse?
Tasers aren’t meant to be the first tool of choice when handling conflicts with subjects. First, you need to accurately assess a situation. Then you must make a reasonable decision on how to react to it. As I’ve blogged before, Discretion is Important, you need to listen to them. If the situation legitimately warrants the use of compliance devices, then you do that … but never should you skip the elementary fundamentals of a field interview (listening to their verbal and non-verbal body language.)
Despite having the officer apologize for the incident, it does not address the greater problem of trigger-happy law enforcement who lack the ability of protecting and serving.
How many legal risks or minutes/pages of media coverage will it take to address this problem? Unfortunately, I can’t tell you, but one thing is for sure — it will be some time until Taser abuse reaches the level of egregiousness that is felt such as Rodney King.
CompUSA, one of the computer retailers who often gave Best Buy and Circuit City a run for their money, will be closing their retail operations. Previously this year, CompUSA closed more than 50% of their stores to attempt to cut operating costs.
This is a disappointment for me because every time I shopped at CompUSA I walked out with several computer parts, peripherals and accessories usually totaling over a hundred dollars each time. They were they only brick-and-mortar retailer who stocked the brands and parts that computer enthusiasts like me enjoyed. Their stores were clean, well-stocked and had a lot of variety between competing brands in their products.
Ars Technica covers the news on the recent changes with CompUSA and did offer one anecdote of hope for shoppers (and the company):
[...] The upside, if there is one, is that we will see some great deals at the remaining stores, just as we did in February during the closure of 126 stores. Gordon Brothers Group promises that consumers will be able to find “attractive holiday bargains” as part of the sale process—I know a good number of geeks who will be making a mass exodus to the soon-to-be-extinct stores over the weekend to get some holiday shopping for themselves done, for sure. [...]
No shopper can turn down a good sale; no geek can turn down gadgets at a good price.
I’d like to share that I’ve never had a poor experience in their stores and their staff were always friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. Their products were always reasonable and fairly priced. While they were the underdog, they have put Best Buy and Circuit City in their paces as they carried some awesome sales throughout the year.
I have a suggestion for them before they go:
Instead of closing the whole business, simply change it. Clearly the brick-and-mortar computer retail businesses have been dominated by Best Buy, but why not take it to the Web? I envision that CompUSA could have a viable chance to compete against the highly evangelized NewEgg. If they could adopt a model like Woot (short-term fire sales) but offer the same superb customer service similar to NewEgg, they would do pretty well.
Whatever path they take, I thank them for being such an awesome computer hardware retailer for all these years. What was your experience like with CompUSA?
