Posts by John Owens

Is Facebook worth more than Google?

It's not just a website

It's a resource that holds data about practically everyone which can be used by marketers to market to them effectively. They don't even need to do it via traditional banner ads but it can include incentives i.e. anything from getting free credits in a game if you "suggest" it to 10 friends etc. or many other forms of marketing which is much more cost effective too.

Infact using this model the user doesn't even have to be on the Facebook website but simply using an application/game that has uses the Facebook APIs.

This is where mobile games is heading (which I work in) and some of the valuations (Plus+/Ngmoco : 400m) for small social networks where also ridiculous but if that's what they where bought for then Facebook with it's potential it many magnitudes bigger and covers everything.

There's a real land grab going on at the moment but the problem is Facebook has already grabbed it all, and as Sean Parker said. To get someone to change their social network doesn't just require them but most of their friends and their friends etc. Once the masses started using it the game was over.

Personally I think a lot of these valuations going around are a joke but don't be surprised if Facebook isn't one of them.

Apple backs down (a bit) on iOS subscription rules

Well done Apple. I think this is a fair.

The main reason publishers use native app and the app store is unlike the internet there's no built in payment system plus the experience is better and getting people to pay for content on the internet or Android for that matter is very hard. Apple customers are far more supportive (in terms of paying) and therefore it's entirely understandable Apple want their cut.

Dell cuts North-Carolina plant despite $280m sweetener

I think the point is

That the companies take the money but it doesn't really effect their decisions so why pay it.

The reason why they don't setup in India or somewhere else in the developing world is that the people who buy their equipment live in the west. If we continue to demand local support and sales centers and actually use those companies committed to staying locally then that will be a far greater incentive and far better for our economy in the longer term.

Offcourse people are greedy and selfish (just like big business) and too many don't support local business or even multi-nationals that use local people when they can get a cheaper service.

Windows 7, Bing and mobile will determine Ballmer's future

My Mac running Leopard gets slower

Over time too. Applications (Mail,Safari) also crash just as mush as Windows.

I've used Windows 7 and personally I prefer it over Leopard, but it's close. I simply prefer it's explorer over finder and I hate having no cut and paste.

As for Microsoft's future.

XBox is doing well and with Natal looking to be the next big thing of 2010 it could be a VERY good year for them, perhaps even selling a combined system using this as a media server is what I would do.

We'll see what they do in the mobile space, as an iPhone developer I wouldn't have any issue developing for a Windows Mobile device if they have market share that warrants it, same for any mobile really. 2010 could be the year that the iPhone gets some serious competition, they're a lot closer than they where 12 months ago.

We'll see, however the problem with MS is that they can't grow any more. I don't think MS will ever get back to the 60 pps value of before.

O2 could impose out-of-contract iPhone lock-in

O2 is rubbish

Here in Belfast I get 150 KBs to 200 KBs with my 3 mobile broadband adapter and it's super fast for browsing.

With 02 and iPhone 3GS it crawls. That and even though I live and work in the city center, it's often it can't receive a 3G signal and sometimes not even edge.

With 3 I get coverage more or less everywhere.

Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard — The poison taste test

I use both

Visual Studio is a much better IDE than XCode for C++ development. I use both for a cross platform game I'm working on and compiling and linking is much faster. The debugger is also light years ahead. That said XCode certainly isn't bad.

Outlook is far better than Apple Mail.

MS Office (PC) is far better than the Mac version.

Windows explorer is far better than Finder.

My Mac crashes probably more than than my Windows.

That said as I've been working on an iPhone game for a year now and I mostly run in Mac OS I also still "prefer" to work on the Mac. It seems less cluttered or something, go figure. Or maybe I just drunk the cool-aid by mistake.

Microsoft denies "screw-Google" political lobbying

Part of the game

MS Office for Mac is fine, it was very buggy when it first came out hower now it's actually very good. Maybe not as good as the PC version but still miles better than anything else.

Anyway yea Gates used to have the oppinion that it was "wrong" to lobby and it looks like that has changed.

I can't really blame them, Google and the rest have been outflanking them on this for ages. I agree with Gates however it's part of the game I suppose.

I just wish some of the politicians would have a little bit of integrity and not simply care about the money to get re-elected and/or the golden parachute after dinner circuit.

Apollo 11 vets urge Mars mission

The chinese will get there first

They have the desire, money and want the prestige.

Network giants reject 'buy American' Obama mandate

False economy?

It's not a false economy! The money that you are subsidising goes to keeping jobs in the west as apposed to sending more money to the East (paying for their labour). By keeping the jobs in the west you keep the money floating around the West's economy so overall you're not actually losing much. By buying cheap labour you might save a little in the short term however long term the economy will shrink.

This whole BS story that we just have to be smarter and better is rubbish, Labour sent soooo many to "University" here in the UK and all we got is a load of student debt that might never be repayed and few jobs that they're actually qualified to do as those jobs still require old university degrees. All you have to do is go into a call center and see how many graduates they employ for a job that requires no qualifications. Where are these new jobs?

Economies need to be based in manufacturing to be successful, the people who work those jobs are really the ones that create the wealth. They just don't share in it.

Ballmer clashes with Obama over US tax rules

I have nothing against MS

Infact I think they're OK, they're just doing what's best for their shareholders but in respect to all this offshoring I totally agree with Michael Gumby.

Moving all the engineering and manufacturing jobs offshore is killing our economies and giving huge power to the far east that WILL come back to bite us in the ass. The same way as exploiting the Middle East in the past for it's oil is now coming back to hurt us.

The truth is that America/Western governments are only interested in the corporations (you can't blame them, they're liable to no-one but their shareholders) run by the very rich in the west and having been acting in their people's interests at all, trying to sell us the BS story that globalisation is good and if you speak out against it then you're a xenophobe racist.

Finally it took the people of America using their own money to actually get a President elected that will act in their interests. Unfortunately there's no chance of that happening due to the parliamentary system that is totally run by special interest groups and MPs on the make.

Recession takes chunk out of game sales

statistics, ...

Games' budgets have gone up exponentially resulting in only AAA games being made as only they can realistically make money resulting in less games being made overall and probably therefore less sales.

That and piracy threatens to kill the industry.

iPhone apps punt iPhone apps

Does noone read reviews any more

I mean the ones from websites and magazines that they can trust.

Apple etc could do what Nintendo and the other console manufacturers do and try to limit the crap however that's an expensive and time consuming process or they could allow anything on (Windows). I think they've been sensible with something inbetween and it's really up to the App developers (to price and market accordingly) and buyers to do a little research before.

Then again if it's only a couple of dollars then surely it's probably easier just to give it a go.

Dell retreat from Limerick will leave 9,500 casualties

I wonder if you will see a whole load of Irish moving to Poland now.

That would be funny.

On a more serious note, its typical of a government to start cracking down on Obscenity to get the people/papers to focus on something else.

During the war in Iraq, bush used stem-cell research, religion, obscenity and everything else he could.

Battlestar Galactica eyes 'technology run amok'

All along the Watchtower

This is the hint that they jumped back in time.

This song is written in a way that the last verse is really the first and it therefore it can constantly repeat (like the show). As Bob sometimes does in concerts (play the first verse last, either with or without playing it at the start).

You could even argue that Six and Baltar are the "Joker and the Thief". She stole the codes and he well is a bit of Joke and seemed like comic relief in the kings court (the C&C/airforce one).

Jumping back in time also explains the phrase "All this has happened and will happen again", plus our religions and those of the show, it also explains why all the dead on Earth that they found where Cylons (descended from Hera). It even hinted that Anders is the God(except he doesn't like the name) who became after flying into the sun and who constantly forces humanity to repeat and repeat etc to find perfection. For him perfection was the most important thing, not winning or losing. It also explains why the Cylon Hybrids can "network" into these thoughts/desires.

It actually makes me think that the Centurions set "free" may end up being the God's of Kobol that in turn go on a create the "new" humans that eventually leave to go to the colonies.

Personally I loved the finale, after watching interviews etc it did seem that they decided on a lot while making the show and not before. I think anyone of the cast "could" have taken Anders' role of God/hybrid and they probably would have flashbacked to something that explains their motivation or even any of the final five but I think the basic idea must have been decided at the start.

Brother Cavil

I also don't think it's a coincidence that Brother Cavil first appeared wearing Priest's clothes as he definitely represents all that is anti-god, i.e. a need for pure science.

They might be making a point that the church is really evil.