Google designer leaves, blaming

Douglas Bowman, Google's visual design leader, is leaving the company after finding the company's reliance on detailed Web page performance data too confining.

Bowman clearly had mixed feelings about departing, but he wasn't shy with his opinion about what he didn't like. From Bowman's blog post Friday on the matter:

When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data...that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions...

Yes, it's true that a team at Google couldn't decide between two blues, so they're testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4, or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can't operate in an environment like that. I've grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions...

I'll miss working with the incredibly smart and talented people I got to know there. But I won't miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data.

Bowman also gripes that Google's designers came from a background of computer science and human-computer interaction rather than classical design, and that none of them rank high in the pecking order.

Google's vice president of search and user experience, Marissa Mayer, is pretty high-ranking and cares a lot about design. But it's not hard to see how her philosophy might rankle. Here's one thing she said about design in a 2008 speech: "On the Web in general, (creating sites) is much more a design than an art...You can find small differences and mathematically learn which is right."

I can't speak for Bowman's experience, though I can see how a classical designer might feel stifled by code monkeys. There are plenty of considerations that go into design in general, and pragmatism can be at odds sometimes with passion, boldness, and innovation. And Bowman earlier was a designer at Wired, which is definitely at the bold end of the spectrum.

Overall, however, I find Google's approach to design refreshing and radical in its own way. Choosing color shades and pixel widths on the basis of the behavior of millions of Web page users is a fascinating development to the form-follows-function school of design.

StarWind Software Becomes IBM Business Partner

StarWind to Offer Open iSCSI SAN on IBM Servers Making Leading Storage Virtualization Solution Available to IBM Server Customers and VARs

BURLINGTON, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/18/09 -- StarWind Software, the global leader in storage virtualization and iSCSI SAN software, today announced it has joined IBM's PartnerWorld technology alliance program. By becoming an IBM partner, StarWind is further enhancing its relationship with IBM and is taking the step to integrate its signature StarWind iSCSI SAN software with IBM servers such as IBM x3655 and IBM BladeCenter to provide its channel partners with more choices and flexibility for their customers' SAN and virtualization deployments.

As part of the PartnerWorld program, StarWind and IBM commit to working together on joint marketing, collaborative selling, software integration and performance optimization. The relationship will deliver enhanced disaster recovery and business continuity for IBM customers. StarWind will enable IBM customers to cluster their IBM System X servers running Windows Server 2008 for high availability and disaster recovery allowing StarWind iSCSI SAN to function as shared storage for server clusters, offering enterprise-class features such as CDP & Snapshots and Mirroring & Replication.

"We are pleased to join the PartnerWorld network to market our joint solutions to customers. IBM customers can now run StarWind iSCSI SAN on high-performance IBM System X servers for disaster recovery and virtualization projects," said Zorian Rotenberg, President and CEO, StarWind Software. "Our partnership with IBM not only broadens our reach but also provides IBM customers with one of the most advanced, reliable and affordable iSCSI SAN solutions available today."

StarWind iSCSI SAN Server 4.0 is a cost-effective, open iSCSI SAN software solution that can be installed on a high-performance server such as IBM x3655 running Windows Server 2008, converting it into a reliable, powerful, and full-featured SAN. Designed to work with leading virtualization solutions such as VMware ESX, StarWind iSCSI SAN supports IBM System X and IBM BladeCenter servers listed within VMware ESX Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). The combination of IBM x3655s with its 1.8 TB hot-swap, high-performance, serial-attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives or 4.5 TB hot-swap SATA drives with StarWind iSCSI SAN is an ideal choice for high I/O and transactional applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Oracle. StarWind also supports IBM's AIX iSCSI Initiator.

IBM's PartnerWorld is a marketing and enablement ecosystem designed to create new revenue and market opportunities for IBM's Business Partners and provide customers with e-business solutions including products, services, technologies and financing. The partnership provides StarWind with access to IBM's customers and partners and assures IBM customers that StarWind iSCSI SAN has passed rigorous testing with IBM System X servers.

IBM customers can download StarWind iSCSI SAN 4.0 trial at the company website www.StarWindSoftware.com which takes less than 20 minutes to download and install.

About StarWind Software Inc.

StarWind Software is a leading global provider of reliable, powerful and affordable iSCSI SAN and storage virtualization solutions. StarWind Server is an iSCSI SAN software that converts any Windows Server into a powerful SAN and is designed for use with solutions such as VMware ESX and VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server clusters for databases applications such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint Server. StarWind is an affordable IP SAN solution and combines an ease of use with enterprise-class features such as Mirroring and Replication, CDP and Snapshots, Thin Provisioning and Virtual Tape Library (VTL). Since 2003, StarWind has pioneered the iSCSI SAN industry and has been the solution of choice for thousands of global customers in over 50 countries, from small and mid-size businesses, to governments, and to Fortune 1000 clients.

StarWind Software and the StarWind logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of StarWind Software Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Fujitsu Announces First Color E-Paper Terminal FLEPia

Color e-books are indeed coming. Fujitsu Frontech and Fujitsu Laboratories Limtiedhas announced the first color e-paper mobile terminal called the FLEPia. It is available for purchase now in Japan. It has an 8 inch high definition display capable of showing up to 260,000 colors. It comes with Bluetooth and WiFi radios and supposedly will run up to 40 hours of continuous use.

According to the press release it does not require power to display a screen image only drawing down the battery for screen refreshes. Yes there is a touch screen and it also includes a stylus. Storage for e-books looks to be on an SD card.

The device currently reads two e-book formats: XMDF and .book. The FLEPia also runs Windows CE for web browsing, email, and according to the users can use Microsoft Office to generate and view documents.

Check out the press release after the jump.

Tokyo and Kawasaki, Japan, March 18, 2009 – Fujitsu Frontech Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the start of consumer sales in Japan of the world’s first color e-paper mobile terminal, FLEPia, available for purchase from today through Fujitsu Frontech’s online store “FrontechDirect”. Developed by Fujitsu Frontech and Fujitsu Laboratories, FLEPia is the first ever mobile information terminal to feature color electronic paper (color e-paper). In addition to being lightweight and thin, the color e-paper mobile terminal features an easy-to-view 8-inch display screen capable of showing up to 260,000 colors in high-definition, in addition to being equipped with Bluetooth and high-speed wireless LAN. FLEPia is also power-efficient, enabling up to 40 hours of continuous battery operation when fully charged, and does not require power for continuous display of a screen image, consuming power only during re-draw. Featuring significant storage capabilities, when used with a 4GB SD card, the color e-paper terminal can store the equivalent of 5,000 conventional paper-based books when each book is 300 pages long at 600KB per book, thus being environmentally friendly. In Japan, FLEPia can now be easily ordered from Fujitsu Frontech’s online store. As an additional option, through Fujitsu Frontech’s dedicated website, FLEPia users can purchase e-books from the largest e-book online retailer in Japan and download the e-books directly into FLEPia. As the only color e-paper mobile terminal commercially available, FLEPia offers a convenient, paper-free and eco-conscious enriched innovative mobile reading experience to users.

Social networks 'are new e-mail'

Facebook is the dominant platform for status updates

Status updates on sites such as Facebook, Yammer, Twitter and Friendfeed are a new form of communication, the South by SouthWest Festival has heard.

"We are all in the process of creating e-mail 2.0," David Sacks, founder of business social network Yammer said.

Tens of millions of people are using social networks to stay in touch.

The growth in such services is being heralded as the start of the real-time, pervasive web.

'New communication'

Mr Sacks said: "What people want to do on social network these days is post status updates. We think it's all people want to do."

Yammer is an enterprise social network, designed to facilitate communication within companies and organisations.

It is one of a growing number of services that lets users share micro-updates. Other services have a richer mix of content, including sharing photos and video, and allowing comments from people within your social network, building a so-called activity stream.

"I think it's a new form of communication; not quite e-mail, more lightweight and more real time, often with little bit of a publishing flavour to it," said Paul Buchheit, founder of FriendFeed, and the creator and lead developer of GMail, while at Google.

FriendFeed lets users share content from other services, such as Twitter and Flickr, and comment directly on the postings in real-time.

Simplicity and ubiquity

With more than 175 million users Facebook is the dominant platform for status updates.

Ari Steinberg, an engineering manager at the firm, told BBC News: "It's been interesting to see the way people change the way they communicate.

"You used to e-mail content to people and you had to choose who you wanted to e-mail it to and you didn't know if your friends even wanted to see it.

"Now you can passively put something out there and let people engage with it."

The simplicity and ubiquity of some of these services is beginning to see activity feeds and status updates replace many of the uses to which e-mail was once put.

Mr Sacks said: "It's no coincidence that these products are all looking like e-mail.

"These products are all standardising around a message form at the top, and the inbox which is a feed then folders around the side."

'Open system'

The problem with the current crop of status update services is that they are to varying degrees interoperable.

For example, while Twitter can be used to power a status update on Facebook the same is not true in reverse.

"We want to see a more open system where everything links together, the same as it does with e-mail," he said.

While e-mail has common protocols which allow people to send and receive messages even if they are with different services, such as Hotmail or GMail, the same is not completely true with status updates and activity feeds.

There are some standard protocols but the rapid development in the complexity and breadth of activity feeds, to include comments and ratings, has led to a series of walled gardens.

Dare Obasanjo, a program manager at Microsoft, said the firm was working on a set of standards.

"You need to give sites permission to get your data," he said.

'Hard to compete'

The complex nuances of relationships on social networks, with users having different degrees of openness with different friends or followers, further complicates the introduction of standards.

Facebook has also been accused of being unwilling to open up its system and work with other status update firms, and there is a belief among some that the social network is enacting a "land grab" in an effort to become the de-facto platform.

Mr Sacks said: "On the consumer side Facebook could become the one site for all social messaging. That becomes very hard to compete with."

But Mr Buccheit said he believed the different firms were moving towards a more federated system.

"There will be no separation between Facebook and Friendfeed and Twitter."

Mr Steinberg said: "We are totally happy to interoperate with other sites."

He told BBC News that interoperability wasn't necessary for activity streams to become a global messaging service.

"It's definitely something and a pretty cool thing we would like to enable. Conceptually it makes a lot of sense.

"It's in our interests to let people share. Twitter has had a lot of success in letting people taking their data and sharing it externally.

"We'd love to be able to let people tap into that."

Microsoft Opens Blinds on Windows Mobile App Store

Microsoft has offered more detailed information about how it will manage its upcoming mobile application store. Developers' fee structures were detailed, as were revenue-sharing models -- a 70/30 split, just like Apple's mobile app structure. It also promised a great deal of transparency about what types of applications would be allowed to distribute through the store.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) on Wednesday revealed more details about how its upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store will work and its strategy for luring more developers to the Windows Mobile platform.

The software giant will give developers a 70 percent cut of all sales generated by their applications on the new app store -- the same percentage that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) gives to app developers for the popular iPhone.

Microsoft will also "provide transparency throughout the certification process of each app submitted" as well as "guidance and support from the stage of development to the final sale to the consumer," the company said.

Developers will set the prices for their applications and can also choose to distribute their applications at no cost. In other words, the new Windows Mobile app store isn't the only place where developers can sell their wares.

Microsoft will charge a US$99 annual registration fee to developers who want to submit their applications for sale on the new app store. The first five application submissions to Windows Marketplace for Mobile are included in the introductory fee. Each additional submission within the annual period will cost $99.

Microsoft's stock was up 1.82 percent to $16.78 per share in mid-day trading on Wednesday.

YouTube vs. Royalties, Spy vs. Spy, Dell vs. a Firehose

YouTube, UK royalties agency get into it ... U.S. Cybersecurity czar takes a hike ... Dell rolls out rugged laptop ... Google tries out expanding advertisements ... sheriff sues Craigslist over prostitution ... Google's Schmidt denies interest in Twitter purchase, and more.

MTV pretty much gave up on music years ago in order to concentrate on how many different variations of "The Real World" and "Road Rules" it could squeeze out. But YouTube has largely picked up MTV's slack -- type in just about any video you want to see, and Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) sharing site will play it for you.

Or perhaps not, if you're living in the UK. YouTube is in a legal standoff with PRS for Music, a UK outfit that collects royalties for musical artists.

YouTube says PRS wants it to pay too much money each time users click on a music video of one of their artists. It also alleges that the arrangement PRS has proposed wouldn't even specify which songs would be included in each license it wants to sell. The deadlock's been going on for months, and YouTube has finally crimped the hose -- no more music videos for UK viewers.

They'll have to resort to music videos the old-fashioned way, which involves holding your breath and spinning in circles while listening to a tune. Works every time, and it's usually just as good.

Google ad exec tapped to head AOL

Time Warner's CEO Jeff Bewkes announced this evening that AOL's current chairman and CEO Randy Falco will be replaced by Tim Armstrong, President of Google's American Operations and board member of the Advertising Council, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and The Advertising Research Foundation.

Bewkes called Armstrong an advertising pioneer, who has "a stellar reputation and proven track record." Armstrong will also be of crucial importance in Time Warner's decisions about the future of the AOL brand.

The timing of this appointment could prove critical in several aspects of AOL's business. The advancement of AOL Classifieds, which is a classified advertisement service, for one, stands to benefit from Armstrong's expertise in the advertising field. AOL Classifieds is stepping up to Craigslist and the weakening eBay by selling classified ad listings based upon their visibility. The pool of listings comes from some 80,000 sources from Oodle, including MySpace Classifieds, Washington Post Express, and Petfinder.com.

Even further into Armstrong's realm of expertise is AOL's Platform-A advertising network, which is actually more successful than both Yahoo and Google in terms of US online audience reach.

Bewkes announced that CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant will be leaving the company after Armstrong transitions into the leadership position. "Under Randy and Ron, AOL's programming sites exhibited year-over-year growth in unique visitors for 23 consecutive months with many of its sites now in the top five of their categories," Bewkes said. "They also assembled Platform-A, the number one display ad network in the US with a reach of more than 90%. They also aggressively cut costs as they restructured the Audience business portion of the company into three distinct operating units: People Networks, MediaGlow, and Platform-A. As Randy and Ron move on, they leave AOL with our gratitude and appreciation for remaking the company and bringing it to a new and promising level."

This is all part of a continuing evolution at AOL, which has successfully transitioned the company from the number one ISP of the dialup era into the #4 Web property owner in the US, whose sites attract some 57% of all US Internet users.