Posts in the Technology Category at odrakir.com, Page 3

September 15, 2005

Meebo – Working to bring IM to Web 2.0

Meebo is a IM client written in AJAX that supports MSN, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo.

Still in beta stage, the client is quite functional and a great example of an AJAX application. The goal is to combine all the major IM services available, like Trillian does.

[tags]Meebo, Web2.0, Ajax, IM[/tags]

September 14, 2005September 14, 2005

Server Porn

Sun has a page with ads that don’t get to be published by the major business publications such as the Wall Street Journal.
Feauturing an agressive marketing, the ads contain agressive language and references to other companies benchmarks (like Dell).
But there’s this ad (approved) that resembles the porn magazines back in the 80’s, feauturing the new Sun Fire X4100 server in some odd photos. A must! You can check the other approved ads here.

[tags]Sun, Ads, Marketing, Sun Fire, X4100, porn[/tags]

September 14, 2005September 14, 2005

Google Blogs

Google launched Google Blogs, a blog searching engine (DUH!)

Bye Bye Technorati????

[tags]Google, Blogs, Technorati, Search Engine[/tags]

September 14, 2005September 14, 2005

Microsoft Max – Picassa Reloaded

Microsoft Max

Microsoft released yesterday Microsoft Max, a photo sharing and organizer tool, much like Google’s Picasa and Hello combined. Anyway, Max is built on WinFX technology, the setup program installs it but the download is not so small and MS servers are a little bit slow right now.

I can’t install it in this pc, because I have a portuguese version of Windows XP, and the setup program doesn’t allow me to install Max, but as soon as I get home I’ll try and post some screens.

[tags]Microsoft Max, Microsoft, WinFX, Photos, Google, Picasa, Hello[/tags]

September 13, 2005September 13, 2005

Then and Now

Then:

Now:

You have to check the photos of their equipment back then… it’s a must!

[tags]Google[/tags]

September 12, 2005September 12, 2005

eBay and Skype: all the hype, no fuss

Techblogs exploded today with what might be called the deal of the day (yes day, with the current pace of buys, sells and computer geek star recruitment, the IT world is changing literally in a daily basis), but still the question remains: WHY?

Why did eBay bought Skype? What will they do? How can they profit?

Well, in my stupid opinion, if anyone wants to â€œbuy itâ€, weâ€™ll have to look at this deal as â€œLetâ€™s buy it before Microsoft doesâ€ or â€œSkype is better than Google Talk, so letâ€™s buy itâ€. These are stupid, yes, but it has some logic. At this time, we have four variables in the IT Universe that might change the â€œbalanceâ€: Apple, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. And now eBay wants to play big.

One – eBay has PayPal, a formidable service thatâ€™s used for more that auction payments. PayPal might be considered a pseudo bank, and who owns a bank controls the â€œmoney flowâ€.
Two – eBay has Skype, a well established VoIP network infrastructure thatâ€™s growing every day. VoIP is the future of voice communications, no doubt, itâ€™s prices are much more affordable than regular and mobile phone calls, so thereâ€™s competition and profit here, even more when Skype Video is released.
Three â€“ eBay isâ€¦ a auction / trading company, living of transaction feesâ€¦ this is the piece of the puzzle that doesnâ€™t fit. For now, eBay is not using Skype for site support calls with operators. It might prove to be useful in the future, to outsource or even license the technology, or just like they did with Paypal. Imagine a mega site that can operate as a Support Call Center for commercial websites. In the future, yes, but not for now.

PayPal will be used to buy more Skype Credits, thatâ€™s for sure, but this would mean nothing to eBay, other that a fem millions more using PayPal.

In my true opinion, Skype wonâ€™t be used / merged with eBay. I think weâ€™ll be seeing eBay investing in more Skype In/Out infrastructures and creating new services, as Skype Video, to create some income. Videocalls is something that telecommunication companies still canâ€™t provide at a low cost. Either way, itâ€™s that or selling it to one of the four variables.

Now… eBay buying Amazon, that would be something…

[tags]eBay, Skype, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Talk, VoIP[/tags]