Adventures in TechLand

Cell phone timeline updated

2010-06-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

It's about time I update my cell phone timeline, after my purchasing my iPhone 4. Thus 2 new phones have been added to the list since the last cell phone timeline post.

Google Chrome

2010-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, there comes a time when one must switch from a product you know and love to something that is new and better. These moments dont happen too often, for once product loyalty is established, switching to a new product requires a lot of work. The last time I did a major product switch was when the iPhone 3g was released. Back then, I had an old dusty Palm Treo 650, but since Palm hadn't made any progress on their software and hardware in 5 years (the Treo 600 had the same software/form factor), that switch was more about Palm dumping me, instead of me dumping Palm. Well today, I've made another switch that I know will last a long time - I've fully switched over to Google Chrome from Firefox.

Actually, this switch has been in the works over the last few months. It all started when I read about bookmark sync and extensions in the PC version of Google Chrome - those were 2 features I absolutely loved about Firefox. At the time, I had just been given a new work laptop, so the time was ripe to give Google Chrome a full trial by only installing Chrome and not relying on any other browsers. With the extensions and bookmark sync all the necessary functionality that had been missing in prior versions was available to me. However, there was a subtle difference that made Chrome totally superior to Firefox, and that was the performance. The performance difference doesn't seem to be that important after a short browsing session or even after a full day of us. But after a few weeks of usage, the performance difference is large and I wondered how I could have used the slow and pesky Firefox for so many year. The little gains in speed and the time saved each day accumulates and the difference between the two browsers eventually becomes large. There are other subtle differences and niceties that make Chrome a better browser, but the performance is the key. In fact, I consider Chrome to be "luxury browser" akin to a Lexus, while Firefox is the more generic browser with all the features, but none of the polish (like a Civic).

So why is today the point of no return for my switch to Chrome? Well, I have a Mac at home, and today Google released a Mac version of Chrome with bookmark sync and support for extensions. So when I got home from work, I updated my version of Chrome, installed some extensions, and realized that I will probably never feel compelled to use Firefox again on any computer that is mine. Of course, on a PC, I'll use IE for sites that fail to render properly in Chrome, and on the Mac, I'll have an occasional use for Safari for the same said sites, but that leaves no place for Firefox, a product that I've used for several years.

Now, some of the naysayers may think that I'll switch back when Firefox releases their next version, but I doubt it. Switching products is often expensive in terms of time and/or cost so in order for me to switch back Firefox will have to become much better than Google Chrome, which is unlikely, given Google's vast resources. In fact, I can only think of one product where I switched back to a product I had dumped, and that was my return to an Apple Mac back in 2007, after a ten year hiatus with a PC.

The end of an era

2010-01-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

So its 2010, and based on my computer buying trends, I'm due to buy a computer this year (or maybe next year at the latest). However, a lot has changed since 2007, which was when I bought my last computer, a 15 inch macbook pro. The current state of that macbook pro is actually respectable, especially for a laptop. The biggest problem with the laptop is that the battery is kaput, even though it has been replaced once during warranty. I thought Apple would produce better batteries than the PC makers, but I guess that was unrealistic. However, the rest of the laptop is holding up fine. The hard drive has plenty of space (I use a network drive to store most files), the ram seems adequate, and the computer is fast enough for most tasks.

However, despite the MacBook pro faring well against obsolescence relative to newer computers, it has been the least used computer I have ever bought. You see, when I got the iPhone 3G in the middle of 2008, the laptop became obsolete. The iPhone basically allowed me to do all my key computer tasks, such as email, web browsing, news reading, social networking. In fact, my iPhone allowed me to do those tasks with a higher level of performance, because the time to walk to my desk and sit down was cut out for all those operations. Not only that, the smaller screen forced most app developers to do only a few tasks and do them well, which has led to superior performance on the iPhone even when excluding the time to walk to my desk. For example, using facebook on an iPhone is a lot easier than on the web. Checking the weather with "The Weather Channel" app is easier as well, since the iPhone preserves the current location with GPS. Google maps is a helluva lot easier on the iPhone than the web, again mainly due to the iPhone being location aware due to the GPS chip. In fact, the only activities that are better on a computer vs the iPhone are work related activities, such as software development, running VMs, photo editing, and writing. My wife handles the photo editing, and I try to do all my software development and VM management at work, so that leaves me with little use for a home computer.

So, I'm not sure I need a new computer this year or maybe ever. The newer computers dont really seem to offer much of performance gain to my nearly 3 year old MacBook pro, and my iPhone seems to pretty much outdo any personal computer for about 90% of the "computing and internet related" tasks. All in all, I have to say the personal computer is just about obsolete, and that the PC era is pretty much over.

The Price of Oil

2008-06-09T15:22:00.001-07:00

The price of gasoline has now passed $4 a gallon or $135/barrel. Increased demand is a major reason for the price increases, but speculative investing in commodities has also played an even bigger role. Recent articles have suggested that nearly a billion dollars a day of "big money" has been invested in oil futures. A billion dollars a day of futures money is probably equivalent to 5-10 million barrels a day, since each barrel costs $100-$200. Or more precisely, 1 billion divided by $135 per barrel equals 7.41 million barrels/day. Current US consumption of oil for the month of march/2008 was 19.7 million barrels/day. So, basically, all the hedge funds, pension funds, and rich people have entered the oil futures market with speculative money equivalent to 1/3 of total US demand. To put this in perspective, this amount is greater than the total consumption of China, which is 6.5 millions barrels/day.

On the other hand, real demand for oil within the US is not increasing. From the data that spans oil consumption data from 1973, the greatest amount of oil consumption occurred in August of 2005, with 21.7 million barrels per day consumed. However, in February of 1979, 21.3 million barrels a day were consumed, which corresponds to a measly 1.7% increase, even though the US population has increased by 33% during that time frame (from 225 million to over 300 million). More strikingly, the demand for oil consumption has pretty much been flat over the last 3-4 years, even though price of oil has shot up 4 fold over this time. Finally, the current demand for oil over the 1st 3 months of 2008 has dropped precipitously to 2002 levels. Clearly, the data show that real demand for oil in the US has been contained for the last few years.

Of course, the slack in US demand could very well be made up global demand, but I'll leave that analysis for another post. However, keep in mind, that the US is responsible for nearly 25% of the world's oil consumption, so its hard to imagine that global demand is going counteract flat or decreasing US demand.

So what is the end result for the US consumer? Predicting the top of a speculative bubble is impossible to do. The bubble could go on for some time and if it does, prices could easily hit $200/barrel and $6/gallon. Or the bubble could end tomorrow. The real problem with a bubble is that an increase in price leads to an increase in demand (since every investor will flock to oil commodities), which can counteract or even overwhelm the decrease in demand from real oil consumption due to conservation. However, when the bubble does finally pop, expect a very harsh correction. A correction will be harsher and quicker than Nasdaq bubble or real estate bubble, since stock trades require a larger margin, and real estate is not as liquid. Once the commodities bubble pops, long term prices will remain constant for a long time as the speculative money will migrate to "infect" some other asset class.

My PC timeline

2008-06-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

Keeping with the historical theme of the last post, I decided to list the computers that I have bought over the years in chronological order.

1990 - My parents buy me a MacIIci with a whopping 4 megs of ram.

1993 - I was off to college, which means a new Mac. I hastily purchase a Centris 650 before the first day of classes.

1997 - Upon completing college, I ended up at a software company that was PC centric. Thus, my first PC was a Dell Dimension XPS with a P2, 266 Mhz processor. In actuality, my first PC was an Orange PC card (486 66Mhz) that allowed my Centris 650 to "dual boot" as a PC.

2000 - It was the year 2000, and the possibilities were endless. Thus, I splurged on another Dell, a P3-966 Mhz machine.

2004 - Out of graduate school, but still feeling poor, I decided to build my own PC by taking advantage of several one time deals at Fry's Electronics. In the end, a P4, 2.4 Ghz machine was what I was able to put together for $400.

2007 - The disappointment of upgrading my 2004 box with Vista, results in me switching sides, and I splurge on a MacBook Pro, with a Core Duo Processor running at 2.16 Ghz. I was always a Mac guy, and I am glad to be back.

My Cell Phone Timeline

2008-06-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

The 3g iPhone is going to be released real soon now, and I'll be upgrading my phone. My current phone is a Treo 650, which I have owned for nearly 3.5 years. Additionally, I've been a loyal Sprint customer since late 1997, and I'll be switching to evil empire, known as Pacific Bell (er I mean AT&T). So to give proper tribute to Sprint PCS, I am listing the chronology of phones that I have owned over the years.

So why leave Sprint? Well, in a nutshell, they have failed to innovate. Their new phones do not offer much over the treo 650. Additionally, the plans offered by Sprint have been fairly confusing as a myriad of options were offered. Their plans were simplified recently, but plan changes typically require a contract. The iPhone, with ample memory, a large screen, a real browser, and a new type of user interface (touch), really is the next generation of the smartphone, and therefore, my treo 650 will be retired shortly.

The Purpose of this Blog (none yet)

2008-05-27T12:29:00.001-07:00

This blog will chronicle my adventures in TechLand (i.e. silicon valley). I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost 15 years, and have decided that its time to share my perspective on life here. Hopefully, this blog will help achieve several goals:

1) Document my life in some manner.
2) Resuscitate my deteriorating writing skills
3) Provide some perspective as to what its like to live in Silicon Valley

Wow, what lofty goals. The reality of the situation is that I just want to improve my online presence/reputation so that I can fit in with the rest of Silicon Valley. In fact, my online presence is so poor that I probably could never get another job in the tech industry, despite the fact that I have PhD from Stanford and have a good 10 years experience doing tech related stuff. In fact, a Google search of "Andy Singh" results in a bunch of results that have nothing to do with me. God forbid, most recruiters probably think I am amateur fighter, or a general manager in the Toronto, Canada area.

Well, I better get cracking, and get my web 2.0 rep in order, hopefully, before web 3.0 ...