Life As It Goes By

In Dec 2007, I posted an article “Personal Journalling” on this website. At that time, I had thought of how an individual can setup a website that does the same as what any big newspaper or media companies do for delivering the news and opinions in print.

I have since kept this thought aside (I am also having a hard time updating the content of this website). However, the recent news of failure in some media companies have brought me back to this frame of thinking. I knew I was right to say that personal journalism posed a threat to the media companies. What I would like to know is how big impact the would be and what is going to happen in the future.

Firstly, I would like to share my own experience for the past year. It was not easy for 1 person to man this website. Coming up with ideas is one thing. Finding time and energy to sit down and write an article is another. What turns out may not always be what is planned in the beginning. On top of that, I become aware that I am in need of an editor. Not only as someone who checks on my work but also filter the funny ideas I have in mind.

To sum it up, it’s not really easy. Setting up a website requires knowledge on Internet programming which I have picked up along the way. It’s fun but time-consuming too. Even today, I can’t say confidently that I am very comfortable with my skill levels. My true interest is really to create more interesting contents, not making website work functionally or as beautiful as one can imagine. There are also issues with the contents generated. Do they really suit the taste of everyone? Do they state the right facts or analysis? I have once read about some professor complaining about websites that provide contents of low standards, degrading the food of thought. Wrong sources of information are given and readers are being mis-led.

Perhaps personal journalism, which is something like a blog, doesn’t have a very high, direct impact on these companies. Web technologies are the ones with the most direct impact on them. Moving from print to web becomes a must in the media industry. While most media companies have already access to the worldwide network of newsstands, they can’t have them opened 24 hours. There are even no vending machines for magazines. Even if there was, there would still be a time when the news in the magazines and newspapers are out-dated. On top of that, these machines are dull-looking and a complete eye sore. Who cares about them when there is so much excitement and fun in the Web?

The news of troubled Tribune Co raised the alarm in my mind. Does this mean the change of an era? I definitely see more advertisement online. Though I have seen them more than once on the same website, I don’t find them bothering me too much. The graphics and presentation of these ads are comparable to those in TV and cinemas (and definitely better than those static ones in papers). Additionally, I can google immediately to find out more or simply click on the ad. This change did not happen two or three years ago. It was way long before that. Maybe it’s around when Bill Gates talked about business at the speed of thought…

Like the so-called airtime in the broadcasting world, media companies such as newspapers and magazine need to demand same type of attention from its readers. If readers are moving to the Web, then these companies would have to do the same way. Companies such as New York Times and BusinessWeek have been adapting well (relatively). It’s tough. Yes, we all know. The right business model hasn’t appeared yet. But survival is important too. Web presents a channel for innovation, something that some of these media companies have forgotten. I don’t mean coming up with eye-catching advertisments or headlines. I mean the way of communicating directly with the readers. When you read an interesting article in the paper, you just stop there. You can’t go further. You can’t point to the writer which part is so right or wrong. You can’t express your own way because it’s always in one direction. Not only this, to get some news out to a reader in the past, the media company needs to check the layout and colors of the pages before printing and once printed, it has to load up the trucks for distribution. It’s a long and expensive (in terms of resources involved) process. Everything is so much easier using the Web. If you don’t like at any time, you can retrieve it and upload an updated version. Everybody is cool about it. You can’t do so for the print version.

Finally, personal journalism, I think, would come one day. It’s about the ability to do so. There is little barrier to creating personal website. Anyone who loves to write should be encouraged to do so. He or she just need to enlist help from those Web savvy users and make sure there is a feedback channel installed on his or her website. Things will improve along the way. I believe we are all curious about all kinds of stuff whether they are true or not. It doesn’t matter who says or sees it first. News are meant to be spread and the Web provides the perfect medium. It’s impossible for a website to deliver news of great accuracy, just like a newscaster or reporter can’t guarantee that the piece of news on her or his hand is the absolute truth. We are in the Information Age where information exchange takes place not only in 2 ways but also multiple ways. The result of this is a better informed reader, as well as a writer. We all grew smarter by asking questions and finding answers to them. We may be fooled many times but we learn to judge each fact and myth. Ultimately, we are still given the choices.

List of Tribune Co. assets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Tribune_Company

Not long ago, BusinessWeek published an article on “How Low Can PC Prices Go?” This marked a turning point of the market. As former Intel’s boss, Andrew Grove, formulated that, in every ten years, there will be an “X” factor that can drive the business out of the industry. The so-called “strategic inflection point” began perhaps at the time when everyone is competing to build cheap computers for the less fortunate in African countries or others. It happened: $199 for 2 very basic laptops (See article “Laptop Giving”). Another contributing factor could be that of embedded systems especially that of mobile phone. As the demand for higher processing power grows, the cost of making a super computer in palm size dives.The third would be coming from the main drivers of this PC technology themselves. The 2 giants, Intel and AMD, had succeeded in putting 2 or even 4 cores into what used to be a single core chipset (getting much help from other rivals in the embedded systems: ARM, MIPS, Freescale and IBM). The result of this success is that the big gap that exists between the actual needs of people and the offers of the existing technology. Why a user (usually 1 of the 4 types: Internet user, gamer, office worker and scientist) requires such processing power? Probably, only the scientists would applaud, provided they are able to fully utilize all the core processors at all time.

What the latest trend reveal is “low price”. Saturation point has already been reached in most countries when PC penetration is already high. The sales of mobile PCs, i.e. laptop, notebook, tablet, UMPC or Netbook are catching up with those of desktop PCs. However, both are not totally complementary. The PC industry was the most envied by all for the past decades. Every year, regardless of the economic condition, users were busy upgrading their computers, components and accessories. It took a while for everyone to break off such addictions and remain faithful to their old PCs.

Though software problems continue to be a pain for all and total upgrade (both hardware and software) is always a viable option, take-up rate for replacement PCs would remain low for quite some time, especially for home users. Windows Vista hasn’t impressed many yet. Many companies have decided to jump ahead by adopting Windows 7. The question is how sure are they that Windows 7 would be a better choice? The problem with the relationship between software and hardware is that faster hardware doesn’t always mean faster software. Software exploited the great capabilities (in terms of memory or other data storage, graphics and network bandwidth) provided by the ever-evolving hardware. Coding doesn’t have to be stringent anymore. The hardware resources available are more than enough for all the basic tasks performed by users. So, why is there a need for a lean and fast software?

Back to Andy’s X factor, it doesn’t really have to be something you see on the headlines everyday. It could be a silent killer. Something that everyone knows about but choose to ignore it. Once in a while, critics come and go. And when it happens, everything seems to be too late. Netbooks do have the potential to become such a factor. Its immediate impact is the drastic drop in price of mobile PCs. The prices of desktop PCs have never crossed those of the mobile PC. Hence, the mobile PC can be considered as the premium sector of the market. But now, with Netbooks, the gap between desktop PCs and mobile PCs has, all of a sudden, vanished. Even Macbook Air, a cousin from the royal family, gives a laughing stock. Its price, being 4 times of a decent Netbook, is unthinkable for some technie guys. Using the same chipmaker, with less storage (disregard whether it’s solid state or rotating disk) and slightly more memory, Macbook Air only provides the main difference in the software used (let’s not talk about the graphics processor since the screen is too small to talk about HD…). Is MacOS X worth this much? XP is always well-liked by many users. If not, a friendlier Linux for Net-savvy users isn’t that bad as welll. As you can see, cost becomes the main driver of today’s PC market. And today’s technological trends have enabled this to take place. The ying and the yang has brought the harmony between the market and the technology driving behind it. PC commodization has already occurred. It’s not in everyday’s news. It’s in part of our lives. The next time you walk into the stores and look at the wide variety of PC solutions. You will realize that the decision comes slightly faster than before and you are more confident of the choice you would make.

Too Big to Fail? Overused terms in this financial crisis? Does anyone care to explain what this mean really? What is too big (what is really the yardstick to that? Number of employment? Or market capitalization? Or “interconnectedness” in the financial system)? and what is to fail (how to gauge the possibility? how sure is one that it would happen?)?

The biggest insurer of the world, AIG, has bagged more than US$150 billion of government charity at this point of time. Is that the price for not failing? Or is that the reward for getting so big? GM follows closely behind in the queue.

The question is what if… what if the “too big to fail” fails? Here is the counter, “is that possible?” Apart from the US government withdrawing all the help, what are the chances of this happening? A good example of this happening is probably the latest word in town. Bailout payouts for AIG has been distributed to the other financial institutions that are in trouble but kept mum. In other words, these funds won’t really used for solving AIG’s problems (part of which is the payment to these institutions). Will these companies stop extracting funds from AIG? Who, in the right mind, would reject such help in the name of the other? At the end of the day, it’s about who has the better terms in the contract. My guess is these contracts are drafted for emergency use such as default of payment or foreclosure, rather than normal insurance or financial investment. Making payments for such claims would take away what’s available for other types of claims. Pray to God that there won’t be another 9/11 or any disaster in near term… (See what I mean? Even if the Government is willing to help, there would still be a scenario whereby no help can be rendered.)

Of course, this is an exaggerated, lopsided hypothesis. Fear is the last thing that is desired in the state of the world now. More questions would only raise more doubts which in turn reduce confidence and improve the fear level. The US government is taking great bets on recovering this crisis, turning the tides. Aggressive, confident and courageous as always, policies and measures have been taken in a way that no one in such situations have ever taken. Many others have followed suit. The effect though not immediate is starting to show. The brakes have been applied and things are slowing down. Ripple effects can be felt in widespread areas. It seems that the climb upwards will take some more time. This is the time when the winner shall be determined. If one fails to hold on and keeps falling, everything will go tumbling down to the bottom. Then, this will be the time when the big can fail…