ask the youth

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/035e83fe-6f18-11de-9109-00144feabdc0.html

This is a trend that I’m surprised hasn’t taken off already.

“Executives and investors have grown fascinated by the opinions of teenagers. Rupert Murdoch, 78, has described himself as a “digital immigrant” and his young daughters as “digital natives”, while UBS pulled in an 18-year-old three years ago to demonstrate MySpace to portfolio managers.”

It’s simply an unavoidable truth that young people were born into the digital world, while to older generations the world is a foreign one. This is not to say that only young people know what they’re talking about when it comes to tech. Certainly there are people who embraced the new world of technology even though it was initially a foreign one, and it seems, to me at least, that an increasing number of adults (read old people) are becoming sufficiently tech savvy.

However, as ignorant as it would be for me to claim that only young people understand the world of technology and the internet, it would be twice as naïve for a member of the older generation to deny that kids don’t understand it better. The internet is after all our native tongue. We were born into the world wide web. Whereas Generation X is adapting to this digital world that came to fruition under their watch, Generation Y is an entire population who’s world is the digital world.

The average young person, I believe, would read the above article and shrug at the obviousness of Robson’s points. Young people don’t want to pay for music? Obviously we don’t want to pay. Why would we pay? The average young person’s digital music collection probably has well over 1000 songs. You’re telling me that you’re surprised that they didn’t pay $.99 a song or $15 a CD to build that collection? It’s just too easy to do it for free. And of course all young people know how to get free music, we’ve been doing it our whole lives. Young people don’t listen to the radio? I don’t understand how anyone could listen to the radio. Overplayed songs spaced with 3 minutes of commercials? My blackberry can barely open the web browser and even it has Pandora.

But the point is, this report, which could have been written by just about any 15 year-old and not just a Morgan Stanley star child, prompted the reaction of “dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, e-mailing and calling all day” and “generated five or six times more feedback than the team’s usual reports.”

I’m not surprised by the reaction in the least. I am surprised that this doesn’t happen more often. There has certainly been a movement towards this trust of the youths in their native digital world, but it’s moving slower than I would have guessed. It seems to me to be an obvious step. I would guess that most parents don’t have trouble admitting that their son or daughter probably understands the internet better than they do. However it’s probably also true that not all of these parents would be likely to admit this TO their sons and daughters, let alone ask them for their help or advice. Is pride the problem then? Sure, I can see the logic from the other side. These corporations saw the birth of the digital age, even helped create it, why would they need the help and advice of a group of people who doesn’t even know what the world was like before the internet? For just that reason. We are as Murdoch says “digital natives” and to deny the usefulness of our native knowledge is simply a missed opportunity.

I’m not implying that companies should have teenage CEOs or an army of consultant tweens. All I’m saying is, every once in a while, you gotta ask the youts.

even farmers are tweeting

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/02/twitter.farmer/index.html

 

 

Little T

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4296575

One of the best articles I've ever read. (Has nothing to do with tech)

frustrations

I got a new quasi assignment from my manager to look into changing another piece of the test software suite to include our new protocols.

Here is where my list of complaints begins. I realize that few people will know what I'm talking about, but that's never stopped me from complaining before and I feel the need to rant. Qualcomm by default has alotted their interns a tiny Wyse desktop about the size of a hardcover book and with about the processing power of one as well. However, nothing is actually run off of this machine as its only function is to connect me to the glorious virtual machine in my name sitting somewhere on a server that may be on this campus or more likely in Asia somewhere. In editing the first program, I copied the source files over to my "hard drive" and before I knew it my 25 gbs were all used up. When I was told about the next software, I hoped the source was small or I was in trouble. No such luck. It was way too big to copy to my system. So, here I am running through a virtual machine, then through a desktop machine sitting in the lab across the hall from me. Its taken me the last two hours or so to insert 6 lines of code, save and compile. What's the best part you ask? Those 6 lines completed my project. Not even kidding.

Although I guess I can't complain too much since one of my friends from Duke just told me that his boss informed him today that nobody cared about his project or even if he finished it. I think in general interns are incredibly undervalued. Apparently there's some drastic amount of knowledge I will receive in the next academic year that will elevate me from know-nothing intern to the big leagues of full time work. I'm not holding my breath, but it seems the corporations are.

On another note, amazing weekend with the family. We have such a great group of people, its funny how many completely different conversations you can have. (I'm even counting the ones that you get to have with Grandma or Christy twice. Heard it...) But really, I can't imagine my life without all of those people. Now if someone could only find a way to beat me and Chris O in beer pong...

We'll take on all challengers this weekend, can't wait for the 4th.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

QVF 09

Yesterday during the day, Qualcomm had an event called the Qualcomm Venture Fest (QVF). The event was the finale for a 2^nd (maybe 3^rd) year program put on by QIN – the Qualcomm Innovation Network. The program started earlier in the year when teams of employees were encouraged to submit business plans for their idea of a new product that Qualcomm should start producing. This year, 196 business plans were submitted, which is pretty incredible in itself. Of those 196, 14 teams were chosen to attend a 3 month “boot camp.” This involved speakers from SDSU’s business school, Qualcomm VPs, and Irwin Jacobs himself. At the end of this boot camp the 14 teams presented their ideas to judges in two rounds, with 6 making it through the first round and a top 3 decided by the second panel of judges, which consisted of Senior VPs and Paul Jacobs.

 

The ultimate purpose for the QVF event was to announce the three winners, but also included Paul Jacobs as the keynote speaker. I was impressed by Jacob’s speech, by even more impressed by the content. He focused on the innovation going on all over Qualcomm. Earlier this week, QCOM opened a fabrication plant in Taiwan that will start producing Marisol displays, the low power displays inspired by butterfly wings. He also talked about Zeebo, an affordable video game console designed for developing countries, where video games are downloaded over a 3G network using a Qualcomm chip. This was the product of a previous QVF participant and is expected to be widely successful. He mentioned a new 14 mm thick Smartbook, powered by QCOM’s new Snapdragon chip. Qualcomm, it seems, is expanding in every direction. They are not allowing themselves to be typecast as a wireless chip-maker, but rather spreading out in any area where a good idea rises. Every time they see something that is smart and makes sense, they invest and get involved. Jacobs seemed really passionate about this type of business plan, and I think that in doing so he has effectively created an atmosphere at Qualcomm where innovation is not just encouraged, but is the focal point of almost every division.

 

The top three winners consisted of a wide range of ideas. Third place went to a team who imagined an embedded wireless device for use in medicine. Second went to TVLINK, a group who I thought had the best idea. Their idea was to create a wireless display interface, basically a wireless monitor cable. This is needed in such a bad way. I actually went looking for one online less than 2 weeks ago, and couldn’t find anything that would do the job for a reasonable price. Think about how many people watch TV on their computers rather than their actual TV, and how many YouTube videos are watched daily. There needs to be a better way to transmit your computer’s display to you HDTV. TVLINK came up with an idea that is so beyond brilliantly simple. Jacobs acknowledged this as well saying the Qualcomm has been searching for a way to master this technology for a long time. Their idea: rather than broadcast over WiFi or other network, broadcast the display over an unused TV channel. The second I heard that I was so amazed. It makes perfect sense. TV’s are already capable of receiving over-the-air HD channels, so why not just make your computer’s display an HD channel? This is something that I know Qualcomm will strive to produce as soon as possible, and I hope so, because I want one. The first place winner was called SWARM, and though I didn’t understand their exact technology, the premise was to create a more environmentally friendly (high throughput, low power) processor using existing technology. This is definitely an important concept as computing grows, because current processors produce a ridiculous amount of heat and require constant cooling.

 

Anyway, I was really impressed by the event, and impressed by the brilliant people, who in the 3 months came up with incredible ideas, without any time off of work.

the "internet"

Hands-free

I love the california drivers who think putting their phone on speakerphone and holding it 6 inches in front of their face qualifies as hands-free and is therefore legal. Doesn't work that way sorry.

I'm driving while sending this.

I'm a rebel not a hypocrite. Plus I'm young and invincible so it doesn't matter.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Flo TV

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/06/10/another-move-towards-mobile-tv-flo-tv-goes-national/

 

I got to see the central control center of Flo TV in a tour during my orientation. They are able to stream 20 TV channels right now that are virtually live (only about a 9 second delay in order to process). They are capable of inserting ads, or keeping the stream as is. They can also extend their lineup during live sporting events as they did for the NCAA tournament, and they are buying another range of frequencies so that they can increase the number of channels. The quality is surprisingly good too.

i want this job

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-13-Inch-Unibody/814/1

 

Taking electronics apart is the best. I have a giant box of useless wires, circuit boards, LEDs, and everything else in my room to prove it.

this is stupid

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/10/get-ready-to-barf-aol-and-sears-want-to-push-good-news-down-your-throat/

 

I didn’t think the news could get any worse.

the generation gap

From John Mayer's Twitter:

"johncmayer: Best line ever, from dad: "if you were not my son, I would not have heard of you." Unreal!"

I think that's pretty funny.

Ahhhh

GRE test prep is a hell lorded over by devils in the form of instructors of equal parts good intention and horrible personality with an overdose of enthusiam. (I loathe over-enthusiasm, in case you didn't know.) It's the kind of torture that causes a laugh and a tinge of pain at the same time. I can imagine it being funny if I were watching it happen, but I'm here. So it's not. My GRE vocab word for the night: masochist. Definition: someone who willingly pays for and attends standardized test prep classes.
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WWDC 2009

All the update’s from Apple’s WWDC today: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10259829-37.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

 

 

The computer industry in a nutshell...

Yesterday we bought a new 13 inch MacBook for my mom. Today Apple anounced the new 13 inch MacBook, more powerful and $300 cheaper. Her brand new computer became outdated less than 24 hours after purchase.

Can you tell I have a lot to do at work?...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The corporate world and efficiency are antonyms

True story.

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Electrical Engineering is Complicated

Trying to decipher a 108 page word document about GMSA specifications. Most of the stuff is about modulation which I learned in a Signals class I took Sophomore year. I got an A+ but now I can't remember a damned thing and this makes very little sense to me. College is so much more about passing than learning. There's just too much information fed in to short of a time for there to be any hope of any large part of it sticking. I just wish at least a little part of it did. I'm averaging 2 google searches a minute. Shit.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Viral Marketing

Wikipedia describes viral marketing: "The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses."

I hadn't heard this term at all until I saw Bill Davidson, the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Investor Relations for Qualcomm speak last week at an intern event. The idea is crazy and cool: release videos or other ads that appear to be fake and are funny. With any luck, they will spread throughout the web on youtube and facebook and myspace as interesting things are prone to do. The result is free advertising. The cost of obtaining the medium is removed and the only cost is production. The two Qualcomm videos are great examples. The second one especially is really funny.

HandSolo Mobile
Qualcomm Convergence

It's so brilliant to use this immense network that already exists to spread the word about your company. You can see that the only end goal is for the watcher to remember the name Qualcomm, associate it with wireless technology, and maybe get some views on their website. This is almost gaurenteed to work as the younger generation stops watching TV altogether. Why would you when all of your shows are available on-demand and mostly commericial-free online?

My Summer Internship

I started two weeks ago as an Engineering Intern at Qualcomm. I was assigned to the Office of the Chief Scientist's (OOTCS) Advanced Research and Development team which is a small group of about 100 people working on various projects. The difference between this group and the much larger Corporate R&D group is that my group works on new technologies that have been specifically requested by a customer.

My team is known as the GMSA (GeoSynchronous Mobile Satellite Application) team and consists of only around 10 or 20 guys as far as I can tell. Their task is to alter the CDMA 1xEV-DO chipset to incoorporate signals from satellite networks as well as terrestrial networks. In addition, they are using the new CDMA VoIP (Voice over IP) technology which takes advantage of the fact that data rates are faster than voice rates, and will send all voice data using IP (Internet Protocoll - as Skype does). This technology was requested by companies SkyTerra and TerreStar as described in the articles below.

TerreStar, Qualcomm collaborate on comms tech

SkyTerra’s Mobile Satellite Ventures, ICO Global Communications, and Qualcomm Sign Groundbreaking Technology Agreement Enabling First-Ever Integration of Satellite Communications into Mass Market Cellular Handsets and Devices

So far I have only been assigned small tasks. Mostly, I have added improvements to their internal website that organizes all of the Base Station server components, and all configuration profiles that allow them to test the new technology. My long term assignment is to edit Qualcomm's testing software called QXDM to incoorporate for this new CDMA 1xEV GMSA technology. This software will be used by my team to test the phones and networks, and will be provided to the customer as their way of troubleshooting the networks as well. I'm still waiting for the source code for this program, which I will hopefully get next week and we be able to start making changes.

The Age of Awe

I wanted to start this blog for a couple reasons. Beyond the obvious boost of self-importance that comes with the idea that people might read and care what I say, the main reason is that I believe my generation is growing up in a time of unrivaled technological advancement. The year that I was born marked the beginning of the commercialization of the internet and the creation of the first three ISPs. I remember downloading my first song on Naptster on a 56k modem connection, connecting to AOL and hearing "You've got mail," using Yahoo to search the web because Google didn't exist, and playing the MSDOS game "nibbles" that unknowingly came preloaded on everybody's Windows machine for a time. I remember my first cell phone which was the classic brick-like Nokia, playing the original Nintendo NES, and using Windows 3.1.

My life has already seen the unbelievable proliferation of the internet to the point where no-one in my generation could ever imagine life without it. This is no exaggeration, and this is not to say that we are somehow weak enough to have become dependent on technology. The truth is that the internet was such a giant leap in the technological world that it would truly be impossible to go back. Older generations could laugh and scoff at the fact that in 3 years of college I have yet to check out, or even look at, a book from the library. Now this is not exactly typical, but neither is it uncommon. The most frequented resource has become Wikipedia, which by definition is the most unreliable source imaginable. A place where every article can be edited by anyone and everyone. The success of Wikipedia however, is a good model for the success of the internet as a whole--no matter the amount of people who log onto the internet with mal-intent, there is an overwhelming counter-force of smart people interested in the spread of knowledge over this new web that connects more people simultaneously that ever imaginable.

Connectivity has spread as well to mobile devices in a way that could not have been predicted. In a 2 minute span I can check the MLB scores around the country, get directions, check movie times, and have 5 conversations with people up to 3000 miles away (and know when they are "typing a message") on my Blackberry. iPhone users can do even more with the outrageous number of apps now available for (extremely cheap) purchase and use. Some iPhone apps have replaced entire devices and yet are still sold for $0.99.

The direction technology is taking us is so exciting to me. I can only imagine where we will be in 10 and 20 years, what kind of devices we will have and how much more connected the world will be. I do know that we have some of the smartest people in the world being given the freedom to answer these questions, and I know that someday I hope to be in a position to help change the world at least a little with technology as well. These ideas, and the fact that my love for writing has not been satisfied by my three technical majors, are the reasons I decided to start another blog where I can deposit my ramblings. I hope at least someone enjoys.