Is google gearing up to be the next apple or microsoft?...

The amazing world of technology moves so fast around us. Everyday we are drawn to new widgets and gadgets that capture our needs and necessities. We are in overload of things to simplify our lives and organizes our tasks. Which leaves little time for a true thought process to truly develop, asking fundamental questions. How does it work? Does this make things easier? Does it do everything I need? Is it a good investment? What is the longevity?

Swirling around all of this noise, our lives get more complex at each turn. we become dependent upon things we hold, and we lose simple thought processes as we defer them to new devices. We became dependent upon the dream of Bill Gates, a PC in each home. and now we have computers doing different tasks about our lives. So much, that we have multiple PCs in our lives to support different tasks. As we all grew up, we became dependent upon windows,to bring the world to our finger tips. And as our needs increased, we learned the flaws and short comings of that simplistic dream. We did not like the dead locked view offered to us, and we all looked for alternatives. Apple, Linux, or any other item that would do the tasks that we needed.

Enter apple into the discussion. Simplicity to do what we want with out all of the demands that our windows offered. Our music, brought to us in an easier to carry format. Our lives more secure and stable. But all the while the similarities were there. Everything bundled to get you going towards the providers dream. If you want more, then you have to buy the new version. Digital drugs that we slowly hooked ourselves on, with little alternative. Then freedom and open source came into the fold, enter Linux.

This free and open view of how we could do it all came with a bit more work, but it offered us the freedom to do it for free. But the limitations amass, as we need to have all of the things we have grown accustomed to, productivity software, browsers, games. And we are driven back to our two main alternatives.

Now as we enter an age where everything is a www away, and we need connectivity everywhere, a little competitor enters into the mix with a familiar view, and an alternative of its own. Enter Google, and we have found all of its lovely engineering ideas familiar and exciting. It offers alternatives from browsers to a full blown operating system. But is this all something too good to be true? The simple comparisons of what Microsoft and Apple have gotten themselves in trouble with are starting to come into view.

with Microsoft, we were given windows. It had ease of use with everything in our lives. It had connectivity, productivity, and propriety all its own. We all know the big fall of Microsoft with its bundling a browser with the operating system, thus locking out competition with out going out and installing our own alternatives. This was the first of the big software anti trust breakups. The browser had to be given alternatives. and so woe is Microsoft as they are seen as the first evil empire.

Enter Apple, they have gone down the same road and now are being investigated for some of the same items, and looking at their offerings with osx and iOS we see that they are following the same path. a browser bundled, productivity software bundled, and a stamp of propriety placed on it with a bow.

Linux, depending upon the distribution, ubuntu namely, doing the same thing, but offering a slightly different take. It is not completely proprietary, but it is masked to look like the others. So, if imitation is the biggest form of flattery, we are applauding the others for what they have done. So, is it a good thing? That is to be judged by each individual, but it does seem that we are following a mold of necessity.

Which brings me to google. just seeing what has been brought into the fold with android, and the chrome OS, we seem to have the same things in play. A bundled browser, a productivity sweet, and each stamped with the logo. So is this something to fear? That is yet to be seen. But it is just something to open our eyes to when we lay judgement about our labels of how their business is handled.

I don't condemn them for their work. they each have great offerings that work for different people, but it is the question of what they are bringing to our lives is it something that outshines the alternatives...that is a determination we must weigh individually. But to spoil the surprise, they have similar offerings in the same mold. Which is not really something that makes you want to go out and slap our money down for the newest version. All i think we should take from this is just taking a step back and let the marketing noise drift away and let things really show us what they do to help ourselves in our day to day tasks. And make decisions on what computer to buy, or phone to buy based upon that logic. Which seems to be something that has been missed for awhile.

Apple, google, and Microsoft are all great companies, and that is something that we can't forget. They are companies, and their core function is to make money. How they do that is not a mystery. They have shown they can offer us things to make our lives easier, but they sling around a lot of mud to make themselves look better than the other guy. Which might be something that might be a good idea to leave out of the discussion. Don't show me that the other guy is dirty and is out to get me...just focus on what you do and how that helps me, because at the end of the day, that is what we are most concerned about.

a picture is worth a thousand words, but what is a life full of pictures worth?

Good advice always begins with something you should do. Always wear clean underwear, never buy upon impulse. You know words to live by. I was thinking about phrases like that when I was looking back through all the random pictures I have taken over the years. When I was looking for pictures of my last real vacation, I could not find them. I was thinking about where I could have put them. or if they were lost forever when I changed machines. Looking through the rest of my pictures gave me a new found respect for those snapshots of life. Those are memories and experiences that bring such great emotions. It starts to make you think about the worth of your life in pictures. you think of it in terms of losing a picture, it is like losing a memory. The finality of that situation is heart stopping, because of the constant threats of aging and disease. Losing moments are not an acceptable solution. I do invite you to look back at pictures over the years, look at change, but ask yourself what was the weather like that day? That is a great way to really reflect upon a memory and embrace the invoked emotion. It reminds you of all aspects of the memory and wraps it together like a great poem.

So in saying that fill your life with reminders of all memories, carry a camera, take pictures of everything, because who knows when you will get the chance to share those memories with future generations. Those just add to the priceless moments.

Just don't forget to back up your data.

who, what. why, when, and how

How many people watch the local news. You sit back for a half hour, to find out what is going on in your neck of the woods, but it then happens that you catch yourself listening. You listen to the content of the stories, in between the three or more weather updates. You hear them talk about this happened and that happened, but you start to pay attention to the content. You then start to reflect upon your education, and all the shortcuts you took to get through it, and then you start to see that everyone has taken the same shortcuts. The level of the finished product is diminished, because the people writing the stories and delivering the stories lack a strong base in journalism. They miss the five W's of a story, and you have no clue about the information that is being delivered to you. But, you can say they have nice hair. This reflects upon a sad truth in our society, we lack the courage to learn. I am not saying that we are a lazy society, what I am saying is that we are wrapped up in the speed of everyday life. this leads to a lack of attention to detail, why because it takes too long. I can say that I am guilty of this as well, case in point...I was watching the Henry Rollins show and Jeanine Garaflo, I know I am probably misspelling it. She was talking about corporate tax and the tax code. the way she lays it all out makes me want to learn more, so I understand what is going on in the world today. I read about declarations and find a lot out about s corps and such, but after an hour I find myself reading digg. Just because I just want knowledge abbreviated and delivered in a format that I can understand. This just proves I am no better than the newscaster who cannot relay stories, because I got bored and could find no way to make it interesting for me so I moved on. It is a challenge in our daily lives to make things interesting enough to learn, but if we are afraid to make that commitment. If we are afraid to challenge ourselves daily to learn something. What are we doing to make things better for our kids? I think about it constantly and I look for friends to help challenge me and everyone else to learn about the world. High definition is not just something for your TV, it is something that needs to be applied to our lives. I challenge everyone who reads this post to look at their avenues, and to draw from them to bring something new to the table daily. The only alternative is that our lives become like the daily news, and which W's we leave out.