Articles by mgedwards

Seoul ain’t so bad

I just read that Seattle, my hometown, is now enduring its 22nd consecutive day of measurable rain.  I can only speculate what "measurable rain" means on an average, daily basis, but I know it must be miserable for Seattleites.  I know, because I lived there for many years.  I’m sure that Vancouver and Portland residents are experiencing similar misery.  Cold, wet rain isn’t much fun, especially when the day is windy and blows it in your face.  Umbrellas are rendered useless, and rain ponchos are a last resort.  The weather in Seoul has been cold but mostly dry.  It snowed a couple of inches last night, and driving was a bit slick this morning.  It warmed up though and melted away by the evening.  Lately the temperatures here have varied from frigid to bearable when the sun shines.  I often tell people I miss the Seattle weather, a seemingly oxymoronic quip I must quickly clarify to mean that I miss Seattle summers.  I don’t really miss Seattle winters at all.  During the summer, there’s no place like Seattle.  The weather is balmy, and when the sun is out, it is an absolutely gorgeous place in which to live.  The quality of life can’t be beat if you’re a fan of nature.  Of course, you only have to bear nine months of moisture-laden Winter and Spring to enjoy it.  Fall weather is mixed.  I am still waiting for the worst days of winter in Seoul, when the temperatures here are absolutely frigid, making you thankful you’re not a soldier exposed to the elements.  So far though, this winter has been relatively mild.
 
Today our community association’s new business center opened.  Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the opening ceremony.  Our general manager was there representing the association.  The business center is the second of three openings this month.  The first was the cafeteria, which opened last week.  The second is the business center.  The third will be our coffee shop, which will open later this month (keeping fingers crossed).  It’s been a busy month for us, to say the least!  It will take the business center awhile to attract a strong customer base, but I think it will ultimately be successful.
 
Note to Skobb77:  Thanks for your comment and for reading World Adventurers.  I appreciate it.  It’s true I don’t write too much about what I do for a living.  I have to be careful what I post online, so I’ve steered clear of too many specifics and details about what I do.  The trade-off is that I can write about whatever crosses my mind on a given day.  I do try to avoid discussions about politics and religion because they tend to be very sensitive topics.  I also try not to be too critical of my host country (currently Korea).  
 
You asked whether Sun Microsystems is a good investment as a result of its alliance with Google.  No, I don’t think so, and here’s why.  As of yesterday’s close ($4.58 per share), Sun was close to its 52-week high of $4.85.  Its share price since mid-2002 has hovered between $3.00 and $6.00 per share.  The recent run-up in Sun is largely the result of a hot stock market.  The Google-Sun alliance announced late last year barely budged Sun’s share price, because the announcement did not offer any significant technology advances.  In my opinion, Sun must capitalize on a breakthrough innovation in order to reignite its business and boost its share price.  Apple did it, and Hewlett Packard is doing it now, so maybe Sun could too.  Unfortunately, Sun CEO Scott McNealy is no Steven Jobs or Mark Hurd.  He has too strong a grip on his company and is much too set in his ways to instantly become an innovator in the mold of Steven Jobs.  Sun’s share price could spike if Sun is acquired, although it is not often mentioned as takeover bait.  It frankly is not very attractive to many technology firms beyond some of its software patents, notably Java.  I expect Sun to continue floundering for a long time.  That said, you could make money by shorting Sun stock or wait until it drops below $4.00 and accumulate some shares.

In Memory of Nai Nai

My wife called me today with very sad news.  Her grandma, her dad’s mom, passed away today in Shanghai.  We are very saddened by the news.  Grandma, or “Nai Nai,” was 89 years old.  She lived a very long life, outliving many elderly Chinese.  She was born and lived most of her life in Hexian, a county in Anhui Province, China, about one hour west of Nanjing along the Yangzi River.  I can only imagine the changes she must have seen during her lifetime, from growing up as a peasant in rural China after World War I, through the Chinese Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution, and into the Deng Xiaoping era and China’s revival as a world power.  Her life makes me recall one of my favorite novels, “Wild Swans:  Three Daughters of China,” which chronicles three generations of women in one Chinese family during the 20th Century.

I met Nai Nai twice and have fond memories of her.  I wish I could remember her name.  Learning her name was a big challenge, because each time I asked, I met with strong opposition.  Unlike America, referring to your elders by name in China, even modified with a title, is considered inappropriate.  Hence, she was always known as “Nai Nai,” the Mandarin Chinese word for paternal grandmother (the maternal grandmother is called “wai po”).  I first met her was in 1994, when I visited Hexian with my wife’s family.  We went to my father-in-law’s hometown and visited the place where he spent his childhood.  Nai Nai was a smallish woman.  I remember her smile and the twinkle in her eye.  I did not know her well, but she always seemed like a sweet lady.  I’m sure it was a bit strange for her to meet a foreigner for the first time and at the same time welcome him as the newest member of the family.  The second time I saw her was in 2000, when we attended my sister-in-law’s wedding in Shanghai.  I remember that she seemed so happy to have family around her and have her children reunited.  She had taken care of my sister-in-law as a child, so Nai Nai was especially excited to attend her wedding.  My sister-in-law and she were very close.

Even though Nai Nai lived a full life, we are sad to hear of her passing.  She reminds me how precious life is and how important it is to be ready when the inevitable happens, both in life and in death.  One cannot know which day will be the last day of life, so live life to the fullest, as if each day were your last.  Never take for granted the lives of those you love, because you never know when they will be taken from you.  When my grandpa fell ill with cancer, we waited until it was convenient for us to visit him.  He passed away while we were en route to see him one last time.  I was devastated.  I regret that I let convenience get in the way of saying goodbye to my grandpa.  Two years later, when my aunt was diagnosed with incurable cancer, I dropped everything to see her a few months before she passed away.  A few years ago, I helped bring my mom and my grandma together again one last time.  I’ll never forget the touching moment when they reunited.  Three weeks later, my grandma passed away.  I did not see her again, but my final moments with her, watching her embrace my mother, is a memory etched in my mind.  I’m teary eyed even now thinking about it.

Making a bundle on a button

Google made three key announcements this past week.  First, it unveiled Google Pack, a free software package.  This plays into its software bundling strategy, which puts it in direct competition with Microsoft.  Google Pack offers the following software programs free of charge: 
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 
  • Ad-Aware SE Personal
  • GalleryPlayer HD Images
  • Google Desktop
  • Google Earth
  • Google Pack Screensaver
  • Google Talk
  • Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
  • Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
  • Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
  • Picasa
  • RealPlayer
  • Trillian

Many of these programs are Google products.  Notable exceptions include Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware, Mozilla’s Firefox browser, Norton’s AntiVirus, and RealNetworks’ RealPlayer.  Google had already shown its penchant for bundling free software when it released Google Desktop, so its newsworthiness is debatable.  What strikes me as most significant is that Google Pack’s release underscores that other software companies allied with Google are now joining Google in its bundling strategy.  It shows that other companies are willing to link part of their futures to Google’s free software bundles.  It’s likely that recently formed alliances with companies such as Sun Microsystems and AOL will lead to enhanced Google software bundling.  Just as Amazon.com runs online storefronts for retailers such as Target, so too will Google become a conduit for other software companies’ products.  External software programs bundled in Google Pack such as RealPlayer are already free, but the future will be different.  It’s very likely that software that consumers now pay for will eventually be offered free of charge.  Rather than licensing software for a fee, software companies that align with Google will earn revenue through alternative means such as subscriptions or revenue sharing arrangements.

 

Google also announced that it will launch Google Video Store, a marketplace to download pay-per-view video content.  According to MarketWatch, it will initially offer content from Sony BMG, ITN news network, and the National Basketball Association.  It’s unclear when the service will launch.  While the online video-on-demand market is nascent and many media companies are focused on developing business models for this nebulous development, Google hopes to get an early lead.  Reaction to this news has been lukewarm, although it makes sense for Google to jump into this market as it continues to stretch the boundaries of search.  The jury is still out as to whether this service will be successful.

 

The third announcement is that Motorola plans to release cell phones with a "Google" button.  When pushed, the button will take mobile users directly to Google’s search engine on the cell phone screen.  Cellular phone real estate is extremely valuable, so it is very significant that Motorola will devote an entire button to Google’s search engine.  If successful, it will position Google to dominate the mobile search market as wireless service providers ask other handset makers to adopt the "Google" button.  In the past two years, Motorola has transformed itself from an also-ran in the handset market into one of the hottest cell phone manufacturers.  Its innovations will be closely scrutinized by competitors such as Nokia and Samsung.  During the tenure of CEO Ed Zander, a Sun Microsystem veteran, Motorola revived its cell phone division by turning out sizzling products such as the Razr.  The fact that Zander is a Sun veteran was likely a major factor in Motorola’s decision to team up with Google.  At the same time Motorola announced its alliance with Google, it also announced that it would include digital icons to give Motorola handset users easier access key Yahoo! features such as mail.  It’s noteworthy that Motorola will not include a Yahoo! button on Motorola handsets, nor did it choose Yahoo! Search as its primary search engine.  That is an incredible vote of confidence for Google Search.

 

So which of these announcements, if any, is most significant?  The button.  The cell phone button creates another avenue of standardization for Google to exploit.  Much like Microsoft Windows dominates the computer desktop, the Google button could quickly become ubiquitous on cell phones.  As cell phone technology advances and become increasingly multi-functional, the cell phone will supplant the computer as the tool of choice for many common functions, including search and mail.  Google is extremely wise to assert itself as the early mobile search engine standard.  It may never win the desktop war with Microsoft, but mobile search is a more promising growth market for Google.  One little button will make Google a bundle.