OLPC - a lesson in product development

a couple of months ago i wrote why microsoft needed to kill the OLPC. this time, i felt like writing why the OLPC project nearly failed from a product development view point.

they had a near feature-complete product that was ready to be manufactured and then shipped. the product should have been in design lock down after the first prototype was spec'd out. the sales agreements should have been put down in writing. and then followed through (i.e. make, boxed and then shipped).

so what happened. a big pile of $$ was dangled in front of their noses - allowed intel to smeared Negroponte with the "you can't sell the classmate" PR disaster. and then they let microsoft in to the party. again, loosing sight of the road map. this should have been version 2.0 for a brand spankin new OS implementation, feature locked and signed off on the hardware platform.


there is something to be said about being ahead of your time.
OLPC Founder Negroponte Wanted to Make Multitouch XO-2 Laptop 20 Years Ago [Olpc]
june 2 2008

but you should not compromise your release cycle by being distracted with the bells and whistles of what could be. i mean, there was all of these dual touchscreen articles popping up all over the place like this one:
V12 Design Delivering Dual Touchscreen Laptop Within Two Years [Laptops]
july 9 2008

again, they lost focus on releasing their first product out the door. with all of these add ons, did they honestly thought they were going to keep the costs down by adding two full touch screens?


when all of this was happening, a whole heap of cheap "netbooks" started to pop up from all kinds of manufacturers. the ASUS eeePC is an excellent example of them. they've manage to release different versions upon different versions all aiming at the same market the OLPC was in. the eeePC 700 was the linux book, 701 had XP, 900A a faster processor, 1000 a larger screen. there is a giant table of all the different models they did that it's mind boggling trying to keep track of it. and since there are so many of these eeePC out there, people have started to mod them with things like touchscreen capabilities.



finally, an interesting read on how the OLPC journey was taken:

How the OLPC Changed Laptops Forever: The Untold Story [Origins]
aug 14, 2008

and what's also curious is that this article link used to be found through gizmodo's pages:

• gizmodo.com/5037044/
• gizmodo.com.au

even their twitter feed has it:

• twitter.com/Gizmodo

don't they normally mark the article as inaccurate or strike the lines in the article to "update" their findings? i have never seen them pull down a post like this. and now it's:

• stay tuned

maybe it wasn't popular enough for people to take interest in this, it seems to only have 18 diggs so -- no one will miss it...

update: it seems that a new article has been posted on gizmodo:
Secret Origin of the OLPC: Genius, Hubris and the Birth of the Netbook
aug 26, 2008

update: here's another fancy article that bears a similar headline to my original article:
Why Microsoft and Intel tried to kill the XO $100 laptop
aug 10, 2008

real time ray tracing, huh...

there's been a lot of graphics technology goodies piling up. too good for me to pass up on some more of my thoughts.

Intel takes another jab at Nvidia during its research day
june 12, 2008

"[ray tracing] doesn't waste time drawing things that are hidden and, according to Intel, it is best done on the CPU."

i think the über managers doesn't realize the complexity of raytracing. there is no such thing as "things that are hidden" object in ray tracing. in fact, it's quite the opposite. you need all of the objects in the scene to calculate for reflection and refraction, scattering, and chromatic aberration (wiki). to make a high quality rendered scene depends on the number of times the ray is bounced (reflection) or passed through (refraction) an object. hidden (off screen) or not, the object needs to be in the scene no matter what.

16-core, four-chip monster CPU, running last fall’s game, “Quake Wars: Enemy Territory.” It ran at 16 frames per second, not the usual 60 frames per second that is possible on a good graphics chip.

wow, that's a lot of hardware for 16 frames. granted this is ray tracing but still. i would throw my computer out the window if i can't get my frag on smooth silky frame rates.
Nvidia video: No quad-core chip needed for extreme PC
june 20, 2008

from intel, again:

"...programmers will like ray tracing better because they can do many complex tasks with simple one-line programs."

huh? did i just read that right? what hell are function and macros again?

this guy has a much better thought on these issues.
Ray tracing for PCs-- a bad idea whose time has come
june 12, 2008
and now, back to more graphic goodies. to achieve some pretty good results, there's been a lot of work going into the multi-core chip solutions.

AMD, Nvidia graphics chip designs diverge
june 16, 2008

Intel aims x86 at GPU market
aug 04, 2008

and, it seems to be kicking ass so far:
AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Preview
july 14, 2008


finally, john dvorak said this on his podcast:
Save Your Phone Books
06/18/2008 06:35 PM @3:55 mins:secs

"... it would be difficult for a CPU company to make a GPU as it is for a GPU company to make a CPU... mindset and marketing style are different..."

i think that's only true for CPU to GPU. going the other way should be much easier for the GPU maker. a CPU works much more simplier in a linear fashion with a lot of instruction sets that are more in tuned with logic processing. the GPU on the other hand has a lot of pipelining effiency designs that needs to be taken into consideration with data that are normally processed/passed over multiple times.

plus, it's funny how all the major CPU makers are into the low power processor:
AMD may be planning its own CPU to compete with [VIA] Nano [and Intel] Atom
june 19, 2008

and the lone GPU maker:
NVIDIA pays Transmeta $25 million for LongRun technology
aug 8 2008


but i hope there's more work like this being done from all graphics makers:
AMD Cinema 2.0 tech demo: real-time photo-realistic human models
aug 12 2008

there's nothing more outstanding than showing what you are working on and what your graphics chip can do. nvidia used to always showcase their cards by constantly displaying all of these cool demos, samples and apps. it seems that they are kind of slipping as of late.

iphone vs gphone

so a buddy if mine forwards me this artcle and proceeds to mention that he "had hopes for Android but [is reading] many disappointing things about it so far":

Google Android flaws pushing software firms towards iPhone

and i reply with this:

this "flaw" is just a publicity slam (scam) to keep the market's perception of iphone is better than google android -- just like how apple did the whole mac vs. vista ad/smear campaign.

the article is total BS.

the article jumps directly into the open source "problem".

[cherry-picking the teams ] with "advanced releases of Android's Software Developer Kit"

almost every mega-software house on the planet does this. external developers who shows skills ahead of the curve will almost always be tapped as "guinea pigs" for testing prototype code and asking for their remarks before releasing the features out into the wild.

"open source software ... allow early adopters access ... buggier pieces of code... can help fix them or let people ... wait for a solid release ..."

again, i'm sure that there are piles of "test" code within the OSS community that will never see the light of the day when ideas are getting bounced around between the project leaders -- just as well as coders external to the project who tries submitting patches that also never become part of the official tree. every one has a process. non-disclosure agreements may not be one of them, but when it comes to dealing with evil telco's... more about on that later.

"carriers and hardware manufacturers are believed to be encountering technical problems regardless of their access to code."

this isn't a google flaw. this is an evil telco problem...

the poorly supported article continues with a link to a "language translation problems" -- a stupid remark about a mobile phone company having problems to re-write the code base into another language. if you don't know how to convert (written/read) text from one language to another, you should be out of business. localization is one of the most basic programming task a junor coder should be able to do in his/her spare time.

if google android is to fail - it's because of the evil telcos.

google has a bigger problem. most of the major cellular proviers will not want to sell (or allow on their networks) android phones because subscribers will be able to put their own applications and files on their own phones. they can't charge you $ if you can put stuff on the phone for free. they want to nickel and dime (and by nickel and dime, i mean $5 and $15) for every little feature they want to up-sell you (every month). not to mention "time-limited" ring tones, games, apps, or what-ever.

the telcos (wireless, land and even internet providers) are a bunch of greedy bastards. i am actually very surprised that android phones will make it out into the market by the end of this year. with such open access to the device - i thought it would have taken at least 4 or 5 years to make it a reality. but, i wouldn't be surprised if either of the following are/will be happening:

• the telcos will sabotage android phones ability to work on their networks
• the telcos are kicking begging and screaming to "lock down" the phones so apps/files/add-ons can only be installed via the provider's "store"

i can go on and on about this -- but i think i'll save that for another post.

dear buffy fans, i'm sorry for making fun of you

ok, there was only really one person i actually did that to. and that was in 1998 - way back when i was working at motorola. we will just call him thomas - he was in his late-40's watching the buffy vampire slayer series with his wifey. and he was my senior engineer so it was a playful "making fun of". he went on saying that the series was whitty, clever, yes - tongue in cheek about the whole vampire things, but "quite good". but i just never got in to it. every time i must have popped on the teli when buffy was on- it must have been during those cheeks stuffed with cheese moments.


anyways, fast forward all the way to 2005 or 6, there's a guy i work with at midway games who always made it a point to watch buffy when ever it was on - we will just call him brian. it was also when i noticed he started having bleached blonde hair. but this was not unusual - he would every once in a while have a mohawk ever since i started working on the mortal kombat projects. i never knew about the whole spike thingie. and finally figured out why he always dated really thin drusilla-look-a-likes.

so, a good buddy of mine was dating a girl, amanda, who was all about buffy. since then, the box set for buffy was out, she got it as a gift from demon snowman (and he got a xbox360). they are now married. you can't just make that up. it's poetic.


anyways, i have since borrowed her box set - and finally plowed through to season 5. to sum it up to now in one word - awesome! the only thing i didn't like -- it was the extras that was slipped into season 5 disk 3 (of 6) that basically has some major spoilers for the rest of the season.

now, the question is, season 5 left off on a high note. i mean, the story and plot development culminated in the end on top. it had everything, main character against a much more powerful opponent. every protagonist was struggling in their most darkest hour. a whole heap of emotions running wild - from the usual fear, sad and happy to the pain, confusion and love (of a different kind). and good ol fashion um... s5d3extras...

so should i continue on with season 6 + 7? the series has reached a point that is of shakespearean epic proportion. do i ride out the rest of the story and see what lies ahead? risk some cheesy plots and come back stories that has been done over and over before in the many comic books and video game story lines i have seen. (i don't read "books" unless it has purr-ty pictures in them - or it's full of lines of code.)

eh, who am i kidding. i'm gonna watch it.

=)

oh no, x-play - not you too

here are but a few emails snippets i have written in the past:

2004-06-02:
techTV, used to be my favorite channel. until G4 bought them out -- it has now become one of the worst cable channels on the planet.

they have so many shows that does the same d@m# thing: 4 video game review shows, 3 retro vidoe game shows, 2 "behind the video game" report shows, etc. no wonder they got their @$$ kicked by just one video game review show from techTV.

so far, judgement day and g4tv are the dumbest shows i've ever seen. and electric playground is no x-play.

i hope gamer.tv and pulse will be better. cinematech looks to be interesting. but i dunno -- we shall see...


fast forward to 2004-07-28:
icons on G4TechTV is a pretty cool show. it's like "the history of" the topic they cover...


fast forward to 2006-10-12:
hahahahaha, G4 is dead, finally...


or so i thought. but these remarks are pretty much on par with nearly everyone on the planet who felt like they got their sack kicked when cun#cast basically neutered techTV. dumbing it down to level of spikeTV. (although, to spikeTV's credit, i'll have to hand it to them for bringing XMC over here. their one saving grace for launching what i like to call "ninjaTV" viewing on both of these channels.)


but, back to the original reason for posting this entry:

Top 5 Games For Real Men [ G4 - 20080604 ]


WTF! this was basically a commercial for all of EA's games. oh, adam sessler, one of the biggest reason i watch your show (besides morgan webb) was your unwavering and candid reviews while not selling out. most of the time it's obvious when you're placating, but this was pretty much... um... in bad taste.

FU, for allowing this $#!t out.

Black? Army of Two?
im glad you have GoW on there, but where's CoD4 and Halo in this mix? how the HELL are those better than these. "pressure cooking can crushing granado your barrels will unleash" IS CoD4 (and swarm on legendary is...). and how "...on a collision course with death" isn't either of these makes me wanna remove this show from all of my DVR's and podcatchers.

Fight Night?
are you outta your f'n mind? sure, the game "looks good" -- but the (blending) animations are one of the most piss poor results i have ever seen on a AAA title. which leads to not-so-fun game play. the game feels sluggish - and not in the boxing sort of way. hopefully, they'll fix these issues in round 4. but, if you needed to pick a fighter for dudes, how did DoA4 miss the list. i mean, what man doesn't like bouncy boobs. and if he needs to pick a guy... then he should be playing wresting games no matter how bad it is.

Madden?
christ, i cannot believe this is #1 on the list. you might as well put tiger woods pga tour instead of GoW to complete the "men who has no eyes when playing video games with broken fingers" list. madden is no "series". everyone i know, who even owns one, just has that -- one of it. some back to the the gamecube days. that includes the ncaa football "series". "nothing alienates men and women more..." wait... there might be some truth to that for this... damn, caught in my own logical vortex. oh wait! got it, "nothing alienates men who think they're real men and everyone else more than..." eh, what ever, this post is stupid.

please don't do this again, or else leave G4 and go somewhere else (like to revision3) and make the show good again (don't leave webb behind either).

i

mmmmmm, BBQ, aaarrrggguuuhhh

so, i happen to see a cooking video on youtube via one of my RSS feeds. one thing lead to another and all of the sudden, i was watching "how to cook this and that" for hours. and since BBQ is the quintessential combination of all things awesomeness - food, fire, friends and family (just be sure to know which recipe goes where) - i thought i share some of my favorite yums.

it all started with [ Maangchi ] - in korean it means [ hammer ] - making one of my favorite eats [ Job Chae ] (Korean stir fried noodles and vegetables).

oh, but what's this? how to make: Sweet and crispy chicken wings ("dak kang jung")

OMG! it's almost like my most favorite dish in the world ("Hot & Saucy Chicken Wings) from the [ Great Sea Chinese Restaurant ] here in Chicago... i can just taste it and smell it while writing this... DAMN IT!!! it's sooo good... if you happen to go there, i would also recommend:

• "Three Sea Spicy Noodle Soup" (a.k.a Jampong)
• "MaPo Tofu" (Hot & Spicy Tofu)
• "Seven Seas Jja Jang Myun" (noodles with blackbean sauce) and make sure it's "seven seas" -- 'cause they have a smaller regular "Jja Jang Myun"

anyways, back to BBQ's. so then i run into this guy's youtube channel: the [ BBQ Pit Boys Show ]. a few of his early vids just does "fill in your favorite bbq sauce here". but it does get better with actual recipes, times and step by step info. here's a fun one: BBQ Chicken Recipe Beer Can Barbecue

some of my other favs are:
indirect grilling:

• Barbecue Pork Loin Roast Recipe
• BBQ Chicken Split Roasted Style Barbecue Recipe

smoking:

• Real Pulled Pork Barbecue Recipe
• Real Barbecue Chicken Recipe

something a little random:

• Bacon Cheese Hotdogs & Stuffed Sausages Recipe
• Brick Oven Pizza Recipe

i FOOD!
i mean, really, who doesn't?

Microsoft needed to kill OLPC

the story that made everyone scratch their head:
Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops
pcworld.com May 9 2008

some good speculations:
Why is Microsoft underpowering One Laptop Per Child?
cnet.com May 13 2008

and then the final solution - use the sledge hammer to stamp out the competition:
Windows XP on the XO Laptop - Microsoft Buys Out OLPC
olpcnews.com May 15 2008
so i thought to myself and wondered about the whole low-end requirements. you should already know about where i stand in microsoft dictating the direction of any hardware design -- and they need to stay out of the way from what the PC manufacturers want to do.

at first, i thought the low-end PC requirements was to create such an unwanted experience that it would kill itself. but linux can run on very slim resources. i still run two ancient 300MHz sony vaio laptops who are notorious for not following using alternative port values on some common IO devices.

but i really think, IMHO, it's basically down to these two points:

1) when the ASUS eeepc (3E PC) laptops were coming out with larger hard drives on linux (20GB) versus the window (12GB) version (eee 900 series), the add-on perks gave the perception of what's a better value with a hard tangible product on a system that provided basically the same functionalities. this made the choice of what OS running on it a secondary thought.

2) and i believe this is ultimately the main reason why microsoft want XP or what ever else they can put on a computer, on any computer; to get a person familiar with an OS where they will learn usability habits. this is one major sticking point i run into all the time when trying to teach/help people on how to use/fix computers. after someone learns a pretty complex behavior, they tend to stick to it and refuse to change in fear of learning more complex routines. that is, until they find something else that's easier to use.

i can't tell you how many people i know who switched to MACs and completely forget how to use a windows box in less than 4 months (shortcut, hot keys, where things are located, etc. -- usability).

but if you ask me, microsoft has also done a fine job doing this themselves by moving all of the configuration panels to who-knows-where-it-didn't-make-sense on their latest vista product. this basically required any one who knew anything from NT up to XP in a production house to re-learn all the little nuance again. not to mention the fact that it was also a huge problem integrating shared networks with vista and XP without upgrading all kinds of servers to make it vista aware.

you might as well get a MAC if you're going to re-learn some new system. that platform is by far the most user friendly, graphical eye pleasing and the most intuitive computer to use. i've been recommending that to everyone i know. disclaimer: i don't own any MACs, i've just used a lot of them. and i only build linux and bsd boxes.

i command line tools.

never gonna buy Microsoft hardware again

before you accuse me of jumping on the microsoft bashing bandwagon, the following are actually $#!t that's broken on microsoft released products.

first, there was the xbox power cord fire hazard:
Xbox.com | Press: Microsoft Announces Power Cord Replacement for Xbox

next, xbox 360 Red Ring of Death:
Xbox 360: Three red lights flash on the Ring of Light

and my microsoft branded optical mouse died.

it wasn't until when the mouse died on me (a fricken optical mouse, mind you) that really made me question why did microsoft go into all of this hardware business, get kicked in the left nutt with major manufacturing defects, survived it, get kicked in the other nutt with another defect and is still able to go on. to which i guess, if you have more money than god, then you can pay off any debt you have with the devil.

fast foward to these recent weeks, and you'll see these headlines:

• DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys
• Interview: Microsoft's Rob Bennett defends DRM decision
• Microsoft turns the DRM screw on MSN Music owners

The reason for shutting down the DRM-licensing servers was "every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly,"

ok, these are technically software and not hardware failures -- but if you follow the music content to your PC and then to your zune or any of your other PlayForSure device, garbage. who else even had a "playforsure" device for that matter... so what if you paid for all of that content. when you get a new computer you need to pay for it again?

the "DRM equation gets complex very quickly" ?!? what a total cop out admission.

which finally, brings us to the icing on the cake:

• NBC-Vista copy-protection snafu reminds us why DRM stinks
• Update: Why is NBC Flagging Digital TV Programs - and Why is Microsoft Obeying It?
• Microsoft's Masters: Whose Rules Does Your Media Center Play By?

now, they will actually go out of their way to break your viewing experience. usually, you would want to cater to your audience. present your product that provides and delivers value and entertainment, not frustration and anger.

yes, this is another software "problem". but this isn't like a bug or a security hole. this is planned "let's ruin the viewer experience". and to tie this to the whole "i'm not gonna buy microsoft hardware ever again" mantra, if i have a remote control in my hand, and i press "record this show" - like how i can do this on my TiVO, cable DVR, VHS VCR, MythTV, etc. - i expect it to record it. now, i will never pick up (nor recommend to anybody) a media center PC. too bad for the PC manufacturers, who is not to be blamed, but who suckered into using the crippled OS.

to the fans of DRM, go ahead, lock your content out. you will loose your audience in droves when they basically "can't" watch your shows. people will find something else to watch. or on something else that will allow them to continue to watch their must see tv.