Why do I need a URL?  Do I really need to a location?  Why can't I just enter a set of keywords, like I do using Google, and just drop things into the page to share them with others?  That would allow me to store instructions on how to sew socks at "101st, Easy Company, Christmas, Socks" and allow anyone in 101st to get at it including Easy Company.  What happens in the background is that a set of P2P data services respond to the set of keywords and volunteer to store whatever data I throw into the browser window.  More on this later.

Most web businesses of today believe web applications that require client plugin will fail.  This is only partially true.  First, people have no problem with installing useful applications, so an application can install the client.  Second, there are ways to grind away most biases against client plugins.

One way is best described with a story about an old women who believes her son is the most peaceful man in the world.  One day a friend of her tells her that her son just killed a man.  She laughs her friend off, disbelieving the news.  Then a close friend of her son runs over and gives her the same news.  She tells him that can't be true because her son is kind and gentle, unable to kill a man.  But a seed of doubt has been planted and she feels nervous.  When she overhears her son's name mentioned by two complete strangers talking about a murder, she starts wailing and rushes out looking for her son.

A plugin useful to many web applications will be installed by the users.  Flash, Acrobat Reader, and Adobe SVG plugins do get installed because they are generic and useful to many.

Groupware as a concept is cool.  Groupware as a tool sucks.  Why?  Because every single groupware I have come across is a maze of UI.  Take a look at this screenshot of Groove.  Microsoft Word looks simpler than Groove.  Its looks like something you would get if you glued together all the widgets in your house.  If an average man can't figure out how to set the clock on a VCR, he is going to glaze over when faced with something like Groove.

Its better to lose functionalities over ease of use.  This is first of a series of notes to come on how to design a usable groupware.  My first approach will take a web page and turn it into a shared workspace for a group.  Open your browser, click on a Favorites link, and then drag in files or type in stuff for others.  Thats what I am willing to use.  No more information appliance nor fingertip crap.

Ask yourself this question: "which is easier to find, webpages on the web or files in your computer and local network?"  For me, its the webpages thanks to Google.  I suspect same answer applies to majority of computer users.  My 30 gig drive is 90% full, but I don't know why.  I lose track of files almost as soon as I store them.  Sure, I try to organize them, but I forget about why, how, and where things are organized.  If my disk is a giant tree, I am a forgetful squirrel that was a bag lady in a previous life.

I do use Windows' search feature, but its too slow and just doesn't seem to get me what I want.  What I want is something that works as fast and as simple as Google for things on my machine.  Obviously, many people had similar thoughts, but I have yet to see a solution that satisfy my needs.

I just subscribed to Doc Searls' weblog after getting a taste of it over his stolen laptop incident.  I met him in person at a Dave's bloggers dinner, but didn't form an opinion of him because he talked very little.  But I found his posts much enjoyable and want more.  Thanks, Doc.

War is in everyone's mind lately.  Unfortunately, its difficult for me to think about a war from moral perspective.  This is because I am a war and history buff of sort.  When you read enough history, wars feels like pimples: you will have them once in a while.  If you are into reading about and reenacting past wars at all levels (strategic, operational, and tactical), wars become games.  This doesn't mean I am not aware of the tragedies of war.  Its just that war to me is like what sex must be like to a 40 year old prostitute.

I just started watching Band of Brothers, story of 101st Easy Company's journey from Normandy to German Alps.  I have read the book when it came out years ago and played almost every combat 101st had in WW II in one game or another.  Latest run was with Combat Mission which lets you fight in 3D environments at squal level.  With latest game technologies, you can almost glimpse how the war feels.  You start with a jolt when one of your company, tasked with a flanking manuever, runs smack into an ambush.  Then you get a shock when the tanks you sent to assist go up like candles.  Despair follows shock when you hear that distinct sound of Tigers prowling somewhere out there.  Its time to retreat to fight another day.  War never ends, you know.

From both engineering and business points of view, cellphones are excellent platform for deliverning not only porn but sex.  Yes, the screen is too small, but sex-talk phone business thrived on audio alone.  The kicker is that most cellphones has a vibrator built-in.  If the vibrator is programmable, you can deliver good vibrations remotely.  Earphones are recommended.  Heh.  This just might reverse the trend on cellphone size…

What We All Really Need is MoSex: Vice Week at The Feature.   Who knows how many untold millions (billions?) are going to be spent on MoPorn just this year alone. Don't be surprised (like I was).  [Russell Beattie Notebook]