Windows and Cloud Computing - Audia Resident Evil After-Market Taste-and-Buy

I bring fresh shower for the thirsting flowers

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams

Shelley, The Cloud

This as today marks one year since Audia Granston (March 9^th 1981 to April 26 2010) died from Cervical Cancer. I hope cat-like demigod Bastet is keeping her company and the God Anubis is making playful barking chatter with her as she regales them with her life story while being carried down the River Styx to Hades.

Audia Granston’s Bible says no sexual intercourse before Marriage. So says Audia. However, Audia pointed out that Taste-and-Buy is ok - however you want to interpret that. Grocery shopping was always a fun experience with my SDA Princess while alive!!

Such is my advice to Jamaica on Nuclear power: Taste-and-buy, as Professor Dr. Gerald Lalor seems to be hinting at with a suggestion to set up a 10MW Demonstration Nuclear Plant in Jamaica in a demonstration of its safety and long term viability.

Most likely it will be hosted on the University Of The West Indies, so they can have the enviable priveledge of being glow-in-the-dark guinea pigs first!

Here in Jamaica, we are moving away from just talking about Nuclear Power to actually dabbling in it, with Senator Phillip Paulwell and Professor Dr. Gerald Lalor, Director-General for the International Centre for Environment and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) now being joined by OUR (Office of Utilities Regular) Zian Mian in a call for Nuclear Power as stated in the article “Increased calls for Nuclear Energy use in Jamaica”, published Sunday April 24 2011 11:46:26 by Go-Jamaica.

I support this move, especially as it may bring about Energy Sector Liberalization as stated in my blog article entitled “Nuclear Power and Net Metering - Paulwell's Energy Sector Liberalization Chess Game”.

But they face a very tough crowd in Jamaica still Media-shocked as they watched the Cloud of radioactive nucleotides rise up above Fukushima Dai-chi No. 1 Reactor on Friday March 11^th 2011.

Good luck to The Three Musketeers (2011) as they champion Nuclear Power, which is safer than Coal as argued in my blog article entitled “Philip Paulwell's Nuclear power in a Bathtub - SilkWood meets the China syndrome”!

Meanwhile Silicon Valley has its head up in the Clouds

Microsoft recently announced that it is allowing regular folk like me and you to try out Microsoft 365, their Cloud-based version of Microsoft Office as stated in the article “Microsoft opens up Office 365 as Public Beta”, published April 18, 2011 6:37 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News – Microsoft.

Yes, Taste-and-buy again…albeit Americans are more likely to say Bait-and-switch!

This is possibly Redmond-based Microsoft’s answer to Google Apps such as Google Reader, Gmail and Google Docs, which, despite no longer being beta, still have a freebie feel to them that I dislike a point of distinction that I and CNET News Writer Josh Lowensohn seem are par for course as stated in the article “Previewing Microsoft's Office 365”, published November 24, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News – Microsoft.

Not to mention being dependent on the Cloud, computer-speak! Achilles heel of Cloud Computing – the Internet and the stability of servers, which the Amazon Cloud Failure as its being called occurred, shaking up nerves and causing widespread online outages as stated in the article “Amazon failure takes down sites across the Internet”, published Friday April 22, 2011 9:26 am ET By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News

Up to about Sunday April 24^th 2011, Amazon had restored most services dependent on its Servers – the gory details best explained in the article “Amazon restoring AWS, but slowly for some”, published April 22, 2011 12:12 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, DeepTech - CNET News.

So coupled with the news of the consolidation of businesses Western Digital Corp purchase of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies on Monday March 7^th, 2011AD and Seagate Technology PLC - Samsung Electronics Co. Deal on Tuesday April 19^th 2011AD respectively, this suggests that the Master Plan to push towards the Clouds is still on track.

Make that a place for two please!

Google Chrome OS powered Cr-48 smartbooks as stated in my blog article entitled “Google Chrome OS and Open Source - Star Wars A New Hope” are soon to come out of beta in the Summer of 2011.

Possibly the New Apple iPhone 5 may have some Cloud-based elements in its designed as opined in my blog article entitled “Apple and the Cloud Phone - Cheaper by the dozen and Up in the Air” and my Geezam Blog article entitled “Towards a Cheaper Apple iPhone - Batteries Not Included”. Other Cloud push are under way, too numerous to mention, but with the same end result; grater software security.

Smartbooks and smartphone may be going the way of the Cloud, promising increased security for software.

How so?

Currently Windows XP Professional SP3 is the most stable version of Microsoft Windows – not to mention the most popular.

The Consumer Reports article “Windows XP still more popular than Windows 7 or Vista”, published April 25^th, 2011 2:07 PM by Consumer Reports, COMPUTERS AND INTERNET backs me up with stats:

1.      54% of PCs have Windows XP installed - ten (10) years since release in 2001

2.      24% of PCs have Windows 7 - just eighteen (18) months old

3.      10% of PCs have Vista - lasted only six (6) months in the wild

Windows 7 has not yet, from my experience in the wild installing computers in my latest business venture, become stable enough. This as Windows 7 is yet to release the full stack of Service packs with Techies now currently anticipating Service Pack 2 as stated in the article “Windows 7 Service Pack 2: What to Expect”, published April 11th 2011 By Mary Branscombe, TechRadar.

Window 8, now on the horizon, is rumored to have elements of Apps like Mac OS X 10.1 aka Lion and Windows Phone 7 tiles in a Cross-Platform Ecosystems smartphone (and possibly Tablet?) Integration with Cloud Computing thrown in as suggested by CNET News Writer Lance Whitney in the latest article entitled “More windows 8 leaks reveal Cloud synching”, published April 19, 2011 10:25 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News – Microsoft.

Apparently Google’s Chrome OS powered Cr-48 smartbooks have them worried and intrigued at NC (Network Computing). Plus, it’s more secure than shutting down rogue copies of Microsoft via the Service Pack Updates. Something which I have noticed with the majority of computers I have been repairing, the bulk of my business mainly involving resurrecting PC’s whose Windows OS have crashed.

Eventually Windows XP Professional SP3 users will have to migrate to a higher plane, when they discover that newer release of programs need the .NET Framework 4.0, which is installed over the Cloud, to work.

Worse, Microsoft may even incorporate elements of Cloud Computing, making the idea of installed programs a thing of the past as we range up to 1TBps speeds by 2014AD as stated in my blog article entitled “Verizon, NEC and the Dawn of the Terabit Age - Audia's FlashDance and Surf's Up”.

Currently Microsoft supports .NET Framework 4.0 on Windows XP Professional SP3. Thus releases higher than .NET Framework 4.0 may, like the Service Packs, check for Genuine Windows installation as a means of preventing programs from running on illegitimate copies of Windows XP Professional SP3.

Believe it or not, the Service Pack and .NET approach were suggestions of mine in 2003 and to a bunch of brain-dead Shurpower Generator Engineers in April 2009 respectively.

Thus stamping out piracy by making owners of running pirated copies of Windows XP Professional SP3 unable to run new programs! So if Windows 8 is Cloud-Based, then Software Pirates will be using Windows XP Professional SP3 a while longer to the point of being obsolete.

Clever indeed, If I do say so myself, tooting my own horn!!

As we Jamaicans say “caan ketch Quacao, ketch him shirt”!

That may not be the only impetus. Defections by No. 1 PC maker Dell to Ubuntu in 2007 and No. PC maker HP to WebOS in 2011, both Open Source as stated in my Geezam Blog article entitled “HP and WebOS - 2011 is the Year of Linux on PC”, have left Microsoft feeling neglected and thus prompting the rumors of them getting a tad more nebulous – with software more secure in the Cloud.

Both in the OS realm as well as in the Productivity Software market, Tablets and Cloud Computing with clients mainly in the Enterprise and Corporate settings, their traditional Bread-and-Butter, is coming as opined in my blog article entitled “Microsoft Windows 7 vs Google Chrome OS et al 300 and Quo Vadis Dominae” , that is!!

Especially with their Nokia + Microsoft Partnership as my blog article entitled “Nokia + Microsoft vs HP WebOS - Gartner's Ocean's Eleven Plan to Rob the Casinos”!

Cloud computing may be awhile in coming to Jamaica as pricing and reliability issues need to be resolved quickly by the Telecoms Providers , the reasons stated for the continued longevity of DVD and Blue-Ray discs even if the whole of the US of a went to the Cloud as opined in my blog article entitled Netflix & the Death of Blu-Ray - Rise of the Machines meets Chicken Run

Jamaica may find that we are not only behind, but on the ground – while the Developed World is up in the Clouds.

This is Open Source and Cloud Computing at its best and Microsoft is finally getting with the super hero thing, Audia Granston as Milla Jovovitch in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) Style!

Seagate Buys Samsung HDD Business - SSD's in Rihanna's Shut up and Hard-Drive

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, III, 5

It would seem said candles were put out when on Tuesday April 19^th 2011AD, when Seagate Technology PLC, one of the largest Component manufacturer in Asia, purchased Samsung Electronics Co.’s Hard-Drive business for US$1.375 billion pieces of silver as stated in the article “Seagate agrees to buy Samsung's Drive Business”, published April 19, 2011 2:29 AM PDT by Stephen Shankland, DeepTech - CNET News and the article “Seagate to buy Samsung's hard disk Drive business”, published Tuesday Apr 19, 2011 2:39 pm ET by BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News.

This Debt and Equity swap, in the Computer Component supply world, is very much akin to the Debt and Equity swap between Digicel Group and America Movil, swapping Digicel Ecuador and Digicel El-Salvador operations in exchange for Telecom Provider CLARO as stated in my blog article entitled “Digicel buys CLARO Jamaica - Jumanji Exchange is no Robbery”.

Or even the Telecom Provider AT&T purchase of Telecom Provider T-Mobile as chronicles in my blog article entitled “AT&T buys T-Mobile Prince of Persia in A Series of Unfortunate Events”

Well same thing here, except it’s a complex mix of half cash, half stock, equity and a supply deal mixed up in there somewhere, with Samsung Electronics Co. supplying Seagate Technology PLC with SSD’s for a future PC, Laptop, Tablet and Netbook push in exchange for its purchase of its Hard-Drive Business.

This is tantamount to a declaration of War in the Electronics Components world.

This deal between South Korean Samsung Electronics Co.  and Seagate Technology PLC gives Samsung a 10% stake in Seagate Technology.

This acquisition puts Seagate in No. 2 position behind Western Digital Corp, Seagate Technology PLC’s rival in the Mechanical Hard-Drive business.

Western Digital Corpare now in pole position after the company, Western Digital Corp., agreed to buy Hitachi Global Storage Technologies for US$4.3 billion pieces of silver as announced on Monday March 7^th 2011AD as stated in the article “Western Digital to pay US$4.3 for Hitachi Drive Unit”, published March 7, 2011 6:46 AM PST by Lance Whitney, Business Tech - CNET News.

Trust not the News? Here are the original Press Releases on Monday March 7^th, 2011AD on both Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Western Digital Corp websites respectively:

1.      “Western Digital to Acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies”, published Monday April 7th 2011, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

2.      “Western Digital to Acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies”, published Monday April 7th 2011, Western Digital Corp

Ok.

Very similar deals to those that occurred in the Telecoms Sector on either side of the sea here in the West, but not necessarily mimicking Telecoms, as the Western Digital Corp purchase of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies occurred before Digicel Group and America Movil dropped their Nuclear Bomb on us on Friday March 11^th 2011, nearly five (5) days later.

Thus there will be two (2) - and hence the reason why I drew for the above referenced examples. This as when the dust settles at the end of 2011AD, these consolidations will rank the Mechanical Hard-Drive makers as follows:

1.      Western Digital Corp is No.1 in pole position with 50% of world Market share

2.      Seagate Technology PLC is No. 2 with 40% of world Market share

3.      Toshiba is No. 3 with the remaining 10% of world Market share

If anything, the Seagate Technology PLC - Samsung Electronics Co. Deal mimics the Western Digital Corp purchase of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in an apparent jostling for the expected explosion in the growth of Mechanical Hard-Drive storage needed for ………PC’s?

Can’t be just PC’s alone folks, as SSD’s (Solid State Drives) are killing off the PC Market, with analyst Gartner in November 2010 projecting a 10% displacement of the PC Market by 2014AD as borne out in the articles “Gartner: Tablets, Economy Taking Bite out of PC Sales”, published November 29, 2010 by PC Magazine and the article “Tablets taking a bite out of PC sales: Gartner”, published November 29, 2010 by AFP.

ZDNet Reporter Larry Dignan has already chosen winners and losers, siding with Tablets, due to their ability to dock and become a PC with wireless Bluetooth Mouse, Keyboard and other external peripherals as opine in his article “Tablets will displace PC units; Time to pick winners and losers”, published November 29, 2010, 8:24am PST By Larry Dignan, Between the Lines - ZDNet.

Even I too have predicted the demise of the PC in my blog article entitled “Tablets and the Future of the PC - Jurassic Park and License to Kill”. A more in-depth analysis is coming on the Geezam Blog under author named Lindsworth.

So since Tablets are slated to kill off PC’s (love how I did that, right?), Laptops and Netbooks, which are effectively dead, why would these seeming large behemoths in the Component Supply Industry decide to get into a dying business when everyone from Telecoms Equipment Suppliers,  to smartphone Handset Makers are going SSD’s as stated in the article “Smartphones moving to fancier flash Drives”, published August 19, 2009 3:15 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News?

The push is now about performance, not specs. Thus, Biology and Biochemistry buzzwords like “ecosystems”, “biodiversity”, “Survival of the fittest”, “evolution”  and “roadmap” mix freely with Electronics terms.

Silicon Valley has gotten the message from customers: more efficient low power GPU-CPU Sandy Bridge Processors, Dual-Core Processors and clever aesthetics which were all started by Apple Inc and their Apple iPad is what customers want.

Out with the Specs and Power Inefficiency and in with the Performance and Longer Battery-Life.

CNET News Brooke Crothers muses that the Apple iPad and the Apple MacBook Air is changing Computer Design with an emphasis on Performance and less on specs as stated in the article “How the iPad changes PC Design”, published April 23, 2011 5:39 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - CNET News.

In fact, he had made this assertion about the Apple MacBook Air in a previous article entitled “How should Apple redesign the MacBook Air?”, published September 26, 2010 3:24 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - CNET News.

His articles provided inspiration for my Geezam Blog article entitled “MacBook Air and FLASH-based HardDrives - The Quest for Instant On” in which I predicted the death of Mechanical Hard-Drives.

I took it even further and predicted a push towards SSD’s resurrecting Laptops and Netbooks as stated in my blog article entitled “Google Chrome OS and smartBooks - Connection between SSD's, the Fountain of Youth and Lazarus”, the so-called Lazarus Effect.

SSD’s have proven to be the ultimate Lazarus Pit for Laptops, now going the Cloud Computing. Open Source OS as well as customers flock to the Apple iPad and its emphasis on performance and not specs as my Geezam Blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 - Dual-Core Easy Skankin'”.

So why the interest in Mechanical Hard-Drives?

Cloud Computing.

The growing demand for Cloud Computing coupled with the decrease in the price of faster Broadband offerings means that Cloud Computing is now a possibility, albeit a risky one as the Amazon Data Outage demonstrates as stated in the article “Amazon failure takes down sites across the Internet”, published Friday April 22, 2011 9:26 am ET By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News and the article “Amazon restoring AWS, but slowly for some”, published April 22, 2011 12:12 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, DeepTech - CNET News.

Thus Mechanical-Hard Drives, especially the ones augmented with SSD’s, the so-called Hybrid Mechanical Hard-Drives as stated in the article “Hybrid hard-disk market set to take off”, published October 25, 2010 7:41 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - CNET News are good for making the RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Redundant Array of Independent Disks) used in Servers that run on various Linux Distributions for Servers such a Red Hat, Mandrake and Suse Linux.

This would allow for the continued expansion of the Cloud Server build-out, as the name RAID implies that makers of these Server Farms that power the Cloud Services chose the cheapest hardware that they can find. 

Hence the consolidation of businesses Western Digital Corp purchase of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies on Monday March 7^th, 2011AD and Seagate Technology PLC - Samsung Electronics Co. Deal on Tuesday April 19^th 2011AD respectively.

In effect, they are ALL going for economy-of-scale and volume in order to deliver the lower prices for Hybrid Mechanical Hard-Drives needed to make these Server Farms that power the Cloud Services such as Google Docs and Gmail, Facebook, Twitter et all. Most likely too, these deals will go though by the end of the Fourth Quarter of 2011

If I was not thinking straight, I would say the Component makers may be tired of Microsoft and aware of the stagnant PC Market and are thus consolidating to give support to Cloud Computing as it guarantees a future of higher price point SSD’s.

Again, that’s just a theory….I just decided to throw it out there!!!

Additionally, by riding out the demand curve for Hybrid Mechanical Hard-Drives, No. 1 Western Digital Corp and No 2 Seagate Technology PLC  may be pushing and positioning for the day when Hybrid Mechanical Hard-Drives, a precursor to SSD Hard-Drives become the de facto standard for PC’s.

PC’s, the Final Frontier, still largely unaffected by SSD revolution sweeping the Netbook, Laptop and nascent and rapidly expanding smartbook and Tablet Markets!

Volume demand drives price drops, as the reasoning goes!

This as the Spinning Disc Technology has hit a speed bump as they are unable to keep up with the performance demands of customers who desire features such as:

1.      Instant-On which only SSD’s can deliver

2.      Low-power CPU-GPU Processors

3.      Faster Memory Technology, such as RaceTrack Memory as stated in the article “Racetrack memory nears the finish line”, published January 10, 2011, PhysicsWorld PhysicsWorld

4.      Higher Bandwidth Data Transfer Technologies such as Thunderbolt as suggested in my blog article entitled “MacBook Pro and Intel LightPeak - Thunderbolt and The Fantastic Mr. Fox”

5.      Higher Speed Telecoms Provider Wired and Wireless Networks such as 1GB services as suggested in my blog article entitled “Verizon, NEC and the Dawn of the Terabit Age - Audia's FlashDance and Surf's Up”

These business consolidations are a herald for the coming of these a la carte features, much vaulted and coveted on the Apple MacBook Air, to the lowly PC.

Thus too ensuring its survival in the “post-PC era” as CEO Steve Jobs predicted in the article “Apple iPad, PC Makers and Battery Life - Lost in Space and The AppleByte”. CEO Steve Jobs cannot be right all the time, folks!

Thus the future is clear. By the Second Quarter of 2012AD, just in time for London Olympics 2012, SSD’s et al will ALL be the de facto standard, available a la carte on PC, Rihanna Shut Up and Drive Style.

Will these PC in the future be running Windows? Maybe, if Windows moves to the Cloud…….

London Olympics 2012, I just can’t wait!!

“God willing”, as my now deceased Seventh Day Adventist Princess Audia Granston often would state reflectively as the Sun set on our glistening bodies on our patio in Toll Gate, Clarendon.

Netflix & the Death of Blu-Ray - Rise of the Machines meets Chicken Run

Afraid? Of whom am I afraid?

Not Death, for who is He?

The porter at my father lodge

As much abasheth me.

Emily Dickinson, Time and Eternity

It seems that may be the secret sing–song among the members of RIAA (Recording Industry Artiste Association) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Artiste Association), who still express strong faith in DVD Discs and the upcoming Blu-Ray Discs Technology.

78% of people still watch movies on DVD Discs based on the statistics by NPD. Blu –Ray Discs are just beginning to catch on to Blu-Ray Discs based on the statistics of Strategy Analytics Researcher Peter King, now three (3) plus years since Toshiba’s HD DVD Discs lost the Format Wars as stated in the article “Blu-Ray Discs's New Format: The Old School DVD Discs”, published Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 6:40 pm By Ed Oswald, The Technologizer.

These sentiments are expressed at a time when evidence is emerging that suggests that interest in watching DVD Discs and the upcoming Blu-Ray Discs is waning, based on search engine requests as stated in the article “More Proof DVD Discs' are a Dying medium”, published April 22^nd, 2011 3:05 PM By Ed Oswald, PCWorld.

According to the BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield in a recently published research note, more people are opting to stream movies via the various IPTV devices from Streaming services such as Vudu and Netflix.

In effect, he is suggesting that people are more comfortable with renting a movie than owning, a finding, if the researcher’s statistics bears truth, would mean that Netflix change of tactic from renting DVD Discs to IPTV Streaming was merely a change of delivery format.

Hence their expressed confidence in November 2010 when Netflix predicted the demise of DVD Discs as stated in the article “Netflix expects video Streaming to drown out DVD Discs'”, published Wednesday, November 24, 2010, The Jamaica Observer.

Alas, this is but a research note and a company expressing confidence in a phenomenon that is much chronicled but for which evidence is difficult to gather.

This as the phenomenon of people Streaming content as opposed to watching it as-broadcast (on Cable TV or Free-to-Air Television) or on stored media format such as DVD Discs and Blu-Ray Discs called Cord-Cutting is anything but a myth.

People choose to watch streamed content does not mean that they have cut the cord. If anything, they are choosing increasing to get their content more conveniently, opting to stream programming on their smartphones or their browser.

They, may however, opt not to watch as-broadcast TV but instead record programs on the DVR (Digital Video Recorders) as I used to do while I worked at Telecom Provider CLARO (2008 to 2009) and evidenced in the article entitled “Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting”, published Tuesday August 17 2010, 6:53 am ET By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer, Yahoo News.

Most people on reaching home, unless they are dedicated TV people, will fall asleep on breaching the doorway, hence the prevalence of DVR’s. Even Local Broadcaster Television Jamaica realizes this, thus offering archived content on their website for later viewing.

Hulu too, had been created on this premise!

Please note that the above phenomenon of “Cord Cutting” is peculiar to the United States of America! We do not have cheap affordable Broadband as yet or computers and smartphone, Netbooks and Laptops at lower prices to match the Working Class Pocket as evidence in the statistics laid out in my Geezam blog entitled “Jamaica's Low Net Penetration - Broadband Internet A Universal Right”.

The rest of us normal folk living in the Developed World still watch TV via DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), Analog-Free-To-Air, Cable TV, mostly Triple Play Providers, such as FLOW and DVD Discs, which are cheap to copy, as there is a thriving illegal DVD Discs copying market in Jamaica that authorities are as yet to clamp down on.

Plus, Jamaicans are pragmatic: a CD/DVD Disc costs JA$50 retail and the illegally copied movies, which I used to purchase in Bargain Village May Pen, Clarendon cost only JA$100 to JA$200, depending on who you purchase them from on the road.

Blu-Ray Discs would also suffer the same fate, once Blu-Ray Discs Burners and Blu-Ray Discs Disc become available, which is allowed under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), allowing owners of their content, whether legal or illegal, to make backup copies or accept legitimate copies in the event their original media is damaged and rendered unreliable.

Why pay for Wireless Broadband Internet at prices as high as JA$3500 per month on Digicel Broadband via their WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) Platform, a device which you cannot modify, and then pay for Streaming?

Ditto this sentiment for LIME ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line), as current Wired and Wireless Broadband prices in a Recession Battered Economy are just too high for any Jamaica to consider hooking up their TV to stream all their content online via these IPTV Streaming Services.

This is what is effectively killing Barbadian entrant to the IPTV market Net2Vu, as to pay for Internet and then for Streaming media is a double whammie very few but the Young and the Restless can afford.

Even previous articles I have written on the subject, such as my blog article entitled “FLOW, IPTV and the coming of Net2Vu - Johnny Mnemonic” suggest that people are ditching cable services here in Jamaica on Triple Play Provider FLOW are but mere speculation, as no solid evidence is emerging. Just “Anal”- yst’s Statistics.

In fact, the premise of the phenomenon of Cord-Cutting on Triple Play Provider FLOW was based on statements by President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Michelle “Dallas” English in an interview with Mark Titus, Business Gleaner Writer in which she made a passing reference to “Video products” as stated in the article “Flow Ja needs five more years to complete triple-play network”, published Sunday March 20, 2011, Mark Titus, Business Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Could be a rise in Broadband Internet usage as people ditch Cable TV and Triple Play Providers opting to Stream as would easily evidence by the traffic on their Network?

Or it could have been a reference to their new HDTV channels, which are no longer offered as separate bundles and can be ordered individually as stated in the article “More HD channels form FLOW”, published Sunday, April 10, 2011, The Jamaica Observer.

The above stated pragmatic question by Jamaica ringing in our heads, as many turn their noses as a desperate Telecom Provider Digicel has Customer Care Agents a walking around May Pen, Clarendon about trying to entice people to purchase their locked and un-modifiable WiMaX 4G Modem (IEEE 802.16d, e) modems, is one of the reasons behind the low Internet Penetration and computer usage in Jamaica.

This as opined in my Geezam blog entitled “Jamaica's Low Net Penetration - Broadband Internet A Universal Right”.

The image of Technology and Gadget being playtoys of the privileged and wealthy in Society based on the people discussing Technology and Gadgetry is another nail in its coffin, making Technology appear to be expensive and out of the reach of regular citizens as stated in my blog article entitled “Senator Daryl Vaz and the WEO NRI - Bragging Rights and Broadband Rights Required”.

It may create desire, but thus Technology usage to create Wealth loses its appeal, becoming as mere “bling”!

Cable TV and Triple Play Providers may be bleeding customers as stated in the article “US Cable TV bleeds subscribers as online grows”, published Sunday November 28 2010 by AFP, Yahoo News.

More recent evidence points to declining growth since the Fourth Quarter of 2009 of Cable TV and Triple Play Providers and the rise of IPTV Streaming services such as Netflix as posited in the statistics of Stiefel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King in the article “Cord cutting Threat ain't Over Yet”, published March 14, 2011, 12:19pm PT By Ryan Lawler, GigaOM.

This as with 84% of the US market in Cable TV and Triple Play Provider’s hands, growth is constrained, so any new IPTV offering that coincides with decreasing prices of Wired or Wireless Broadband in the USA, which was around the Fourth Quarter of 2009, would logically spell doom for the Cable TV and Triple Play Providers.

For those with short memories, this coincides with Telecom Provider AT&T capping their Unlimited Data Plans in the Second Quarter of 2010 due to excessive usage on their 3G Networks by Apple iPhones, who consisted of only 4% of the Subscriber base as stated in my blog article entitled ‘AT&T and Capped Data Plans - Skype is no Longer Free”.

The First Quarter of 2010 showed signs of plans beginning to emerging for the push towards LTE as stated in my blog article entitled “The 4G Revolution and the Summer of 2010”. It was around this time after the Fourth Quarter of 2009 that Cable TV and Triple Play Provider began to under-perform.

The statements on the faltering of Cable TV and Triple Play Providers by Stiefel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King puts it best, quote: “Cable operators have been quick to point to housing and the anniversary of the nationwide digital transition in 2009 as reasons for recent subscriber declines; however, our analysis suggests that growth in the pay T.V. market has underperformed household formation in recent quarters and the impact of the 2009 digital transition should no longer be an issue.”

Hence the corresponding rise in Netflix thirty (30) Day subscriptions in Fourth Quarter of 2009 by two million four hundred thousand million (2,400,000) paying subscribers in the Fourth Quarter of 2009.

Netflix thus went on, driven by dropping Broadband prices, to add another six million, four hundred thousand (6,400,000) subscribers by the close of 2010. Netflix capping off a total subscriber base of eighteen million three hundred thousand (18,300,000) subscribers making them the 3^rd largest Pay TV service trailing Triple Play Provider Comcast and Satellite TV Provider DirecTV.

A similar threat, however, does not yet exist for Blu-Ray Discs or DVD Discs, as their lower cost, the idea of owning the content with a Disc and being able to watch whatever, whenever independent of a Cloud that can fail as demonstrated by the recent Amazon Data Server failure as stated in the article “Amazon failure takes down sites across the Internet”, published Friday April 22, 2011 9:26 am ET By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News are strong factors for Blu-Ray.

Plus, streaming Media is yet to be able to achieve the 1080p HD quality of Blu-Ray or even render 3D movies without significant increases in Broadband speed. Say 1GB speeds or even 1TB speeds as stated in my blog article entitled “Verizon, NEC and the Dawn of the Terabit Age - Audia's FlashDance and Surf's Up”.

Combine these with the above pragmatic question by Jamaicans mentioned earlier and they become strong factors that auger for the persistence or physical stored Media such as DVD Discs, Blu-Ray Discs and Hard-Drives, especially SSD (Solid State Drives) in the USA.

This is even if the entire country were to be covered by low-cost affordable Wired and Wireless Broadband, possibly seeing a revival if the unreliability of Wired and Wireless Broadband and Cloud Storage persists.

People may even see the Cloud as a precursor to the eyes of Big Brother or even Skynet Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Style, as they play their illegal Blu-Ray Discs and thus may seek to escape the watchful gaze of Big Brother, Chicken Run (2000) Style.

Ditto too for Jamaica!

GOJ and Government Ministry's Energy Usage - Senator Audley Shaw and the Langoliers

A poor life this is, full of care

We have no time to stand around and stare.

W.H. Davies, Leisure

In Jamaica, you know that a topic is a serious moot point for discussion when it appears not once, not twice, but thrice in the same year in the newspaper in the same year.

So Audley Shaw, Minister of Finance, has come out singing the Energy Conservation song to the Government Ministries as stated in the article “Cut Energy Use, Finance Minister Tell State Bodies”, published Wednesday April 20, 2011, The Jamaica Gleaner.

This as he has now had to allocate an additional JA$1.5 billion dollars to deal with additional Energy costs associated with running Government of Jamaica Ministries.

Apparently, I should later expect the JPS Co (Jamaica Public Service Company), our Monopoly PUC (Power Utility Company) which is a publicly listed entity, to declare that this has been another record year of profits.

All thanks to price gouging and the increasing price of Oil on the World Market.

So you declare “like duh”, did I not read this same story in The Sunday Gleaner entitled “Lights Out! Call for Drastic Cuts in Public Sector Energy Bill”, published Sunday April 17, 2011 by Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

At The Jamaica Gleaner Editor’s Forum, even Attorney-at-Law and self-styled Political Commentator Dr Paul Ashley spoke the words I love to hear and I used to echo while at C&W as a Network Maintenance Technician (2001 to 2004), quote: “All Ministries must now go solar”.

Comments by Financial Secretary Wesley Hughes at the PAAC (Public Administration and Appropriations Committee) of Parliament in March 2011 are echoed in both articles above, quote: “Most of the Ministries and departments failed to realise the 15 per cent savings in Usage that we have targeted”.

True too are the comments of another political commentator and University Lecturer on Politics, Richard “Dickie” Crawford, with an eye on the Rising Fuel Prices, who noted, quote: “The first thing really is to reduce the cost of Energy”.

My blog article entitled “Alternative Energy and the Revalued Dollar - Cheaper Electricity is Needed” concurs! LNG should be a part of the mix, both for Electricity Generation as stated in my blog article entitled “Alternative Energy and BioFuels - LNG is the beginning”.

As well as a Fuel for Vehicles modified to run on LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas), its bottled cousin along with a thriving Bio-Fuel Sector in my more recent blog article that ties it all together entitled “Jamaican Gasoline Prices and Transportation Future - Solaris”

Ditto too for Nuclear Power in a Net metering scenario as stated in my blog article entitled “Nuclear Power and Net Metering – Paulwell’s Energy Sector Liberalization Chess Game”

Oddly, these set of Jamaica Gleaner articles do not present a detailed breakdown of which Ministries spend what amount of money on Electricity and other utilities (yes, humans use water too!! And Vehicles use Gasoline!! Did they forget?).

No mention of Water in either story.  Or Fuel consumption by Government of Jamaica Vehicles. These are all products of Electricity Usage and directly link back to our US$2 billion Oil Importation Bill, which is also out of control.

In these expenditure too, there is room for a 15%, even 50% reduction of waste, which is more desirable; run on Solar and Wind power in the Daytime and JPS Co Power at night. Should I even begin to mention the lack of computerization of the Ministries, most of which are drowning in Paper?

Or mention the over JA$600 million paid over to Software companies as stated in the article  “Gov't to pay JA$600 million to renew software licenses”, published Wednesday, February 16, 2011, The Jamaica Observer?

Microsoft got US$3.3 million (JA$283 million) being earmarked to pay for three (3) years of unauthorized software in its various Government Agencies. Money which they could have saved by going Open Source as I had suggested in my blog article entitled “GOJ and Project JosephOS Requiem - Open Source Linux Penguin in Happy Feet”.

Areas of Waste to be capitalized on to make the GOJ efficient.

Especially in the light of the fact that our most northerly Neighbors, the US of A, is going Alternative in all of its Government Federal and State Agencies as reported in my blog article entitled “Alternative Energy and the President - Three Days of the Condor”.

Open Source is not too far behind, as the Barack Obama-led Administration is going to Google’s Open Source Chrome OS  and the Cloud to the tune of US$6.7 billion to save on Government Software licenses to Microsoft and achieve streamlined efficiency and security on a budget as stated in my blog article entitled “GOJ and Project JosephOS Requiem - Open Source Linux Penguin in Happy Feet”.

This means I shall have to wait for The Jamaica Observer, late as usual, to charge in like the Calvary. Most likely with their article on Water Usage to add a new angle to The Jamaica Gleaner trifecta of articles!

“Trifecta of articles”, you say? Wait, me nuh dun yet, star!!

Their is an article prior to all this noise been raised by the recent threats of strike action by the PNP (People’s National Party) over high Petroleum and Electricity costs, to which the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) acceded as chronicled faithfully in my blog article entitled “Ad Valorem Gas, 10 percent GCT on Electricity and Alternative Energy - Night and Day”

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Leader of the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party), committed US$90 million of Government of Jamaica Tax revenues to reduce the Government of Jamaica’s  frighteningly huge JA$10 billion Electricity Bill as stated in the Editorial in The Jamaica Gleaner entitled “Government to start saving Energy”, published Sunday February 13, 2011, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Also, The Jamaica Gleaner article prior to this entire ruckus was way more detailed and informative as it laid out the statistics (my favourite thing to read in a newspaper!!) provide by the Ministry of Energy and Mining that spread the following facts bare:

The Total Annual Cost of Electricity Consumption by all Government Agencies for 2010 was estimated at $10.4 billion.

1. The Total Annual Government Agency Electricity Consumption for 2010 is to 392.2 GWh (gigawatt hours)

2. Eight of the Government of Jamaica Ministries and Agencies are responsible for 89% of this amount

3. The NWC (National Water Commission) consumed the lion’ share coming in at 191 GWh

In terms of Percentage of Total Cost, of interest to the Accounts inclined (to me as Telecoms Technicians, these are just percentage figures):

1. NWC is 42%
2. Street lighting is 21%
3. Health Sector (Ministry, Public Hospitals, clinics, etc) is 7%
4. Education (Ministry, Schools of all categories) is 7%
5. Civil Aviation is 4%
6. Security and Justice Ministries (Jamaica Constabulary Force, courthouses) is 4%
7. JDF (Jamaica Defense Force) is 2%
8. Ministry of Agriculture inclusive of Irrigation is 2%
9. The remaining Government Ministries and Agencies account for the 11%

Still no detailed accounting of which Ministry consumed what amount of Electricity, key to identifying waste in any Power Audit of a company. Most likely, however, from Experience, Air Conditioning, Computer Servers (if any!!), Water Pumps, in the case of the NWC or any equipment that had to be constantly on to provide reliable service would be target for Solar and Wind Turbine Installations.

That would naturally be where the waste is occurring and hence the large Electricity Bill. Thus the call by Dr Paul Ashley is spot on: Solar Power to reduce the expenditure on Electricity in the areas of Jamaican Government Ministries and Agencies that are constant heavy consumers of Electrical Energy.

The date of The Jamaica Gleaner article was Sunday February 13^th, 2011AD! That makes it three (3) articles. Thus you know that this topic is a serious moot point for discussion in the public Forum.

So far only The Jamaica Gleaner is taking interest, so I shall forgive them for the boring layout of their website, as obviously The Jamaica Observer is all flash and no bang!

The Jamaica Gleaner even beat the  Jamaica Observer, which has paid scant regard to GOJ Ministry and Agency Electricity woes since the start of the year 2011.

This initiative mentioned in the article above is called the ECE Programme (Energy Conservation Efficiency) is geared towards  15% reduction in Energy consumption in both Government Ministries and state Agencies for now and the foreseeable future.

So far, the Government of Jamaica has failed to heed my words in 2009 when in argument with a bunch of so-called Shurpower Generator Engineers, I pointed out that the main expenditure of Government of Jamaica and the US Government was Electricity.

As I prophesied, the GOJ pursued LNG and the US Government has finally decided to go Solar with the help of Energy Secretary Steven Chu as stated in the as stated in the article “White House to install rooftop Solar Panels”, published October 5, 2010 5:19 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech,

Good to note that this ECE Programme, which came to light on Sunday February 13, 2011 seemed to coincide with the Libyan Oil Crisis.

This Libyan Crisis, a fight for freedom by the people of Libya from their dictator and President-for-Life Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's (“Gadaffi” is spelt with a “Q” in Egypt) is a foreign play on the World stage that has a conspiratorial tone.

This due to the low level importance of Libyan Oil to the American Economy now flushed with Natural Gas as my blog article entitled “Libyan Freedom, Oil Prices and alternative Energy - The Pelican Brief” opines.

So now the PNP Strike Crisis has prodded these above two (2) articles back-to-back out of The Jamaica Gleaner on an issue that is apparently a hot potato and Lighting Rod for Radio Talk show Discussion and Gleaner Editor Forums.

This as no-one in the Government of Jamaica seems to wish to tackle the onerous task of Solarizing and Wind Turbine procurement and the associated Energy systems needed to take the Government of Jamaica off the Grid.

Except Senator Audley Shaw, Minister of Finance, as apparently he is being chased by the Horror Author Stephen King’s The Langoliers (TV 1995) for being a bit late on this now glaring of issues during the much vaulted and televised Budget Debate 2011-2012.

Senator Daryl Vaz and the WEO NRI - Bragging Rights and Broadband Rights Required

My belief is that to have no wants is divine

Socrates (Xenophone, Memorabilia)

It is bad enough that Jamaica has a technology crisis as re-echoed in the article “Technology Crisis”, published Monday April 18, 2011 by Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Simon Crosskill - this is DEFINITELY NO storm in a teacup; it is a very real problem, a Jamaica lacks any IT or even Telecoms or Engineering entrepreneurial base whatsoever, as start-ups, Silicon Valley Style, cannot find Venture Capital (VC) funding to even get off the ground.

It’s just downloading, gadgetry and “bling”, this being my observation from a long time ago while observing the students while at The University of the West Indies. 

I am a former Telecoms Technician, Level 2 from C&W (2001 to 2004) with a background in Mobile and Generator Maintenance (Basic). Why on God’s Green Earth would I want to be a manager when my Engineering and Telecoms Field pay way more at the SAME level – BOTH Locally and Abroad?

Worse, my Audia Granston, the SDA Kick-ass princess, and NCTVET Certified Cosmetologist, when she was alive, got my back on this as per my blog tribute eulogy to my beloved deceased entitled “Audia Granston, Jack Abramoff and the Culture of Innovation and Spirit of Creativity in Jamaica”.

We are number seventy three (73) on the World Economic Forum's Networked Readiness Index (NRI), twenty eight (28) flight of stairs tumble down the staircase from our previous low of forty five (45) back in 2006-2007.

I was so distraught at the ranking, despite the launch by the Big Three (3) Telecoms Providers of various Wireless Broadband Internet offerings that I penned an article on the Geezam blog entitled “Jamaica's Low Net Penetration - Broadband Internet A Universal Right” in short order.

In this article I posited the idea of Broadband as Right on the same level as that of Life, Liberty and Freedom of Speech or even the right to potable Water and Sanitation, guaranteed under the UNCHR (United Nation Charter for Human Rights).  

As in Finland!

This NRI is seated snug within a thick 100 + page Report called the Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 which was published by the World Economic Forum (WEO) and co-authored by Thierry Geiger.

In summary, we are screwed.

Coupled with the results from the Dr. Hopeton Dunn-led Caribbean ICT Indicators and Broadband Survey of two thousand two hundred (2200) households by the Mona School of Business (MSB) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and you realize, whether the information from the WEO is dated or not, the UWI study comes to the same conclusions, expressed in more detail:

1. 15.6% of households have Internet access
2. 38 % of individuals use the Internet once per day
3. 24% have  home PC
4. Average users range in age from fifteen to thirty four (15 to 34)

Reasons for the Lack of Internet Access?:

1. 32.4% said Laptops and PC’s are too expensive
2. 23.9% are just not interested (shocking!!)
3. 15.2% said Internet Service cost was too high
4. 10.4% cited lack of Internet access in their Area
5. 8.4% mentioned they did not know how to use  computer

Online Activity:

1. 71.7% used it for Social Networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter
2. 65.4% used the Internet for Education purposes
   
   

Already my article on the Geezam blog is getting me fan-mail, as my blunt analysis came to a  really swift anecdotal conclusion: computers and Internet access are still being perceived as the play toys of rich people, such as Carlette Deleon aka the Pet Tales Chick aka “Dilly” of Television Jamaica or Ingrid Riley of Silicon Caribe  fame.

I say “rich” as Carlette Deleon, who is a follower of my blog, was seen sporting an Apple iPad on Television Jamaica several episodes back. Ingrid Riley apparently has her OWN TV streaming TV podcast, called Silicon Caribe TV and are BOTH PR (Public Relations) People.

Carlette Deleon is the Director of Break Through All Communications and Ingrid Riley is the CEO of ConnectiMass.

My experiences from my Summers in 1999 and 2000 working at Red Stripe with the famous Grace Silvera, who back then was just a Brand Manager, is that PR and Marketing people, aside from being false and not wearing underwear, tend to be image conscious.

Thus, they are usually not as they appear before you, even on television and may in fact be merely scripted presenters of information presented to them by researchers not people who actually work in IT, Telecoms and Engineering Fields.

Carlette Deleon presentation on Radio reduces IT to fashionable “bling”, furniture to have to impress friends and give to children as Christmas gifts.

Whether or not they have money (I bet JA$10 they are BOTH loaded!) the image is already being sold on Television: to own a PC, you must sound educated and have an Apple iPad.

Good for sales of the high end computing devices - and thus leaving many out of the loop thinking that computing is not affordable.

Even Dean McClarty of Watt's New Ltd, host of the TechTutorial, makes you realize that these gadgets are out of your reach unless you have job making at least JA$1.2 million per year before tax.

Thanks a lot, Television Jamaica!!

I am sooo inclined to buy these expensive play toys!!

What of discussions about Open Source Projects? Robotics Design?

Small Scale Foundry for IC chip manufacture?

Nuclear Power in Jamaica (my favourite discussion topic by the way)?

Worse than this perception, is that Jamaicans may actually view computers as only being good for just burning DVD and CD’s of music and videos.

Developing love of Gadgetry helps, I agree, which I guess is the point of these shows and online shows such as CNET News.

But when this love becomes  talking point for fashion and the persons speaking about said gadgetry do not engage the listeners in meaningful ways that the Technology can empower and created opportunities for entrepreneurship, then IT, Telecoms and Engineering has lost is savour.

Even CNET News covers non-Computing topics!!

That and Audia Granston, my deceased SDA Princess, never liked Carlette Deleon aka the Pet Tales Chick aka “Dilly” of Television Jamaica, calling her  “uptown poodle”. Then again, Audia was jealous of even my female co-workers, as when I was working at Telecom Provider CLARO, she oft called me to know my whereabouts.

Nice to have cooked food, so I love the attention and Praises to God Sermon and Lollipop Songs at late night hours. So I had no complaints, being as physically and sexually aggressive females tend to gravitate towards me anyway.

Its worse when the Senator Daryl Vaz, Minister of Information and Telecoms, who was apparently very visible to even have his picture snapped with the CEO and President of FLOW Michele “Dallas” English and Managing Director of LIME, Garry Sinclair was unavailable for comment about the situation when contacted by the Media, inclusive of The Jamaica Gleaner.

Evidence of this can be seen in the articles in BOTH The Jamaica Gleaner and The Jamaica Observer  in articles titled “US$543-million Internet Plan”, published Thursday, April 07, 2011 by Ingrid Brown, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Observer  and “Jamaican Schools to go high-tech”, published Thursday April 7, 2011 by Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner respectively.

Shocking news and now shocking reaction from the Minister!

I hope he plans to appear on Smile Jamaica on Television Jamaica on Tuesday April 19^th 2011, The Day After (TV 1983) and have Dean McClarty of Watt's New Ltd flash his pearly whites and grill him on his reaction.

This as some answers should be forthcoming from the Minister as to what he plans to do. Aside from photo-ops to win the upcoming General Election with a Project that will only come to fruition five (5) years into the future.

This is the case with the Islandwide Fiber Optic Network Project whose funding and benefits are explained in my blog article entitled “LIME, FLOW and the JA$543-million Internet Plan - Ebony and Ivory”.

This “Election Mode” thinking appears to be the apparent reason for the JLP (Jamaica Labor Party) - led Government of Jamaica kow-towing to the PNP (People’s National Party) threats of protest as stated in my blog article entitled “Ad Valorem Gas, 10 percent GCT on electricity and Alternative Energy - Night and Day”.

Apparently Senator Daryl Vaz, Minister of Information and Telecoms has been caught napping since Thursday April 7^th 2011AD, the day after the Media published the little-known UAFCL (Universal Access Fund Company Limited) funding of the project.

This as the bad news came in the following week when the news broke in The Jamaica Observer on Wednesday April 13^th 2011 as stated in the slew of articles below:

1. “VIDEO: Action needed to raise Jamaica's Internet access”, published Friday, April 15, 2011 by Ross Sheil, Online Project Manager, The Jamaica Observer
2. “Jamaica's Technology Decline”, published Wednesday, April 13, 2011, The Jamaica Observer
3. “38% of Jamaicans now Daily Internet Users”, published Thursday, April 14, 2011, The Jamaica Observer

I already laid out my solution in the above article on the Geezam blog entitled “Jamaica's Low Net Penetration - Broadband Internet A Universal Right” as mentioned at the start of my article.

What will Senator Daryl Vaz, Minister of Information and Telecoms do, seeing as ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is really deciding factor when FDI (Foreign Direct Investors) chose to invest in country?

His silence on the issue is deafening as this article is sent off to the published, who hopefully will forgive my misspelled prose and publish this article which is of utmost importance to Jamaica’s Long term push towards Vision 2030.

An Interactive Investment Map from the MonaGIS and JAMPRO as described in my Geezam blog entitled article “JAMPRO, MonaGIS and the Interactive Investment Map - Consider.Evaluate.Act” is not enough, Senator Daryl Vaz, Minister of Information and Telecoms.

A culture of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Capitalism needs to be created in Jamaica to foster the development of our own IT, Telecom and Engineering fields in Jamaica

Fields which are still being relegated to being merely “technicians”, with their ideas discouraged and forced to take on Management when we are not so inclined, discouraging innovation as the blog article of fellow  Geezam blog writer Roger in his article “Jamaica's Lost Innovators - An untapped Source of Economic Prosperity” asserts.

Especially in a country that does not encourage innovation and engineering culture, which is one of “Bragging rights”!!