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Stop Wasting Time On Your Computer

Dave Meyer — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Professors, other adults, and your parents probably think that you are really good at using a computer. Based on my none-too-empirical observations of most Claremont McKenna College students, unless you’re an Resident Technology Assistant or Lab Technology Assistant, you probably suck at using a computer. Test number one: Are you reading this article on Internet Explorer? If yes, stop reading this article and download literally any other browser. All of the other options are faster, better designed, have more features, and are more secure. Subtest A: Do you know how to download another browser? If no, I’m not sure I can help you. Ok, now read on.

Should every CMC student be able to configure a VPN or access their computer’s root directory? No. Nobody wants to put the RTAs out of a job. There are, however, a lot of simple things you can do in order to make the time you spend on your computer more efficient, leaving more time for Reddit, or The Vampire Diaries, or, you know, being outside.

1. Use two monitors

The number of students I see staring into tiny laptop screens worries me. Beyond the fact that squinting into a tiny screen is terrible for your eyes, people are simply more productive with more screen real estate. Studies have shown that adding a second monitor boosts your productivity by at least 20% and possibly up to 40%. Mike Malsed has put dual-monitors in Poppa, and since you probably invested in a nicer computer than the ones in the labs, why settle for a worse display? Assuming you have a laptop, you’re already halfway towards having two screens. I’ve been using a 19-inch widescreen monitor with my computer since my sophomore year, and I can’t imagine going back. You can purchase a monitor for $100 and a laptop stand, keyboard, and mouse for prices ranging from free to $20. Or, for a more Do-It-Yourself solution, make a laptop stand out of a stack of books like I do.

2. Use a mouse

I have yet to find a task I do on a daily basis on my computer that could be accomplished more effectively with a trackpad than a mouse. Yes, Apple’s Magic Trackpad and other nifty devices are cool if you are flipping through pictures or zooming in and out a lot, but almost all software and websites are designed for mouse input. I’m all for keyboard shortcuts, but if I’m going to pick my hands up off the keyboards, I would rather be reaching for a mouse than sliding around a trackpad, or worse, the ridiculous “pointing stick” they put in the middle of some PC laptops.

3. mail.cmc.edu

This one is a major pet peeve for me. I cringe every time I see someone checking their CMC email by going to www.cmc.edu, clicking on “Gateways”, then “Current Students”, then logging in to their email. Mail.cmc.edu, or cmc.edu/mail will both get you there much faster. Even faster? Just have your CMC mail forwarded to a personal Gmail account that won’t log you out. Want to access the portal? It’s at portal.cmc.edu. Have a hard time remembering all of these? Save them in your bookmarks. But then you say, “I use computers in the labs, or at a research institute, as well as my personal computer, so I don’t always have my bookmarks accessible”. To which I respond…

4. Try browser syncing

Browser syncing is a must if you use several different computers on campus. In my case, I work on my laptop, at Poppa, and at the Rose Institute – usually all three in a single day. Why would I waste my time making sure all my bookmarks are available on my laptop if I use other computers regularly? Because Chrome and Firefox both have a nifty feature called “browser syncing,” available in the preferences. Once I’m on a computer and have Chrome installed, I simply go into the preferences and log into my Google account, and 30 seconds later the browser looks exactly like it does on my laptop, complete with themes, bookmarks, and settings. This is especially helpful if you’ve bookmarked important but hard to find web sites, like online job or scholarship applications.

5. Dropbox & Google Docs

This might not save you time at your computer on a regular basis, but the amount of time it will save you if something were to happen to your computer is impossible to quantify. Case in point: I’ve been working on my thesis for two months now, have written 10 pages, collected dozens of articles, drafted several versions of an outline, and have a dozen Excel spreadsheets of data. If I threw my laptop off the 4th floor of the Kravis Center right now, I could head over to Poppa and pick up my thesis right where I left off. Why? Every article that I’ve read (or plan to read) and every spreadsheet I’ve made is saved to my Dropbox account, and I’ve written every word on Google Docs. This means that I can jump between computers and have access to all my materials, anywhere there’s an internet connection. Having the Dropbox app on my iPad means I can read an article for my thesis while waiting for a drink at the Motley. This is when I get seriously stoked about technology – something like this would likely not have been possible even two years ago.

6. Know how to kill programs

The old claim that “Macs don’t freeze” isn’t really true. (95% of the time that my Mac freezes, it’s caused by a Microsoft-made program, but let’s ignore that for now). Everyone needs to kill a program from time to time, because all software sucks. If you’re a PC person, you’re well acquainted with how to do this: Control+Alt+Delete. Then choose the program and click “End Task”. (Nothing happened? Oh…jeez…that’s too bad. Can’t help you there.) Unfortunately, Apple likes to pretend that their software never fails, so they make it much harder to kill a program. If a program does freeze on a Mac, the first thing to try is to right click or click and hold the programs icon on the dock and choose “Force Quit”. Sadly, even this doesn’t always work, and there’s no magic Control+Alt+Delete solution. Open the Finder, go to Application, then Utilities, then “Activity Monitor.” Find the app and click the big “Quit Process” button. Problem solved.

7. Simplify your dock/desktop

Live an uncluttered life. Most people don’t come close to using (or even understanding) all the applications they keep on their desktop or in the dock on their Mac. So why keep them there? Stop wasting space on your screen and get rid of them. (“Delete shortcut” on PC, right-click, then options, then uncheck “Keep in Dock” on Mac). I don’t even like to see my dock if I’m not using it, so it hides automatically until my cursor moves to the bottom of the screen. I keep four applications on it – Chrome,Twitter for Mac, Adium (for IM), and iTunes. (The picture below also has an icon for “Skitch” on the right, which I highly, highly recommend for taking fantastic screenshots on a Mac.

8. Write simply

Seriously. Live an uncluttered life. Microsoft Word can do a lot of things, which is great, but do you really need to do all those things when you’re writing? No. You just need to write something. I do this by opening a Google Doc, going into full screen mode, and resisting the urge to open another tab. I won’t be prescriptive about how you go about isolating your writing from the billion other distractions your computer offers, but I highly recommend you find yours and stick to it when there’s writing to be done.

9. Get a your digital life organized

Have a to-do list (I use the Tasks built into Gmail because it allows me to automatically convert an email to a task, and a program called Asana for the Rose Institute because it allows me to collaborate with our 24 other employees). I’ve heard great things about Evernote and Things, but don’t personally use them. I use 1Password to keep track of my log-ins. Just don’t keep important information on a sticky note on your computer desktop, or worse, a physical Post-it note on your actual desktop. This might happen.

10. Exercise

The more time you spend off your computer, the more productive the time you spend on it will be. Hit up Ducey. Or try this out.

Want more from Dave Meyer and #CMCTech? Check out Dave’s articles on 3 Tech Tools to Simplify College Life, Twitter, The Rise of the App Store and Steve Jobs.

This Column Isn’t About Steve Jobs

Dave Meyer — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:01:44 +0000

Ok, this column is kind of about Steve Jobs. I wish it wasn’t. I wish I was writing about the iPhone 4S or iOS 5 or iTunes Match or any number of possible topics. However, it’s hard to get around the fact that, as The Onion reports, the last American who actually knew what he was doing has passed away. But this article isn’t just about Steve Jobs. It’s also about us.

This isn’t a Steve Jobs tribute column. There are thousands of good ones. I’m far from the best writer for the Job (pun intended) and far from the most knowledgeable person about his life or Apple’s future. Instead, I’m trying to find a lesson in his life for all of us at Claremont McKenna College. There’s an irony in the fact that this lower middle class, adopted kid who dropped out of Reed, a college that is arguably the antithesis of CMC, managed to build the most valuable company on the world. Jobs was a Buddhist, yet many people credit his personal aggression for enabling him to become the greatest CEO of all time. He never got an MBA and he never worked a day for someone else in his adult life. He never won a Kravis Prize for Entrepreneurship, yet his personal wealth is many, many billions of dollars.

As we feverishly beat down the path towards “success” in whatever our chosen field might be, Steve Jobs is looking down from above, probably wondering what gives us the impression that the path we are taking will lead us there. Here’s the dilemma: would a Stanford MBA be nice to have? Sure, but Steve Jobs proved that you don’t need one to make it in business. Obviously, none of us are Steve Jobs, so we might need that Stanford MBA or law degree or Fulbright or even that awesome summer internship. But at the same time, Jobs’s legacy leaves you wondering, “Do I really need it?” and “Is it really worth it?”

But that’s what Steve Jobs always did. He made us rethink and reevaluate our sense of what is normal. He made us question why we worried about buying a Discman and collecting CDs when we could store thousands of songs on an iPod. He made us consider aesthetics when buying a computer. He asked, “Why shouldn’t a device we use every day be beautiful?” Even if you’re a PC user and you think that that’s overly romantic, you still have to make the argument that you bought a PC instead of a Mac because it offered the same power for less money– because Steve Jobs realized that people would pay more for a computer that looked better. He didn’t invent the cell phone, but he made us realize it’s full potential. Right now I’m writing this column on an iPad, a device which, all other things equal, is really, truly a joy to use.

You don’t have to bow down at the idol of Steve Jobs to recognize what a tremendous talent the world has lost. But as we try to convert our CMC educations into lives of leadership in commerce and government, it is worth reflecting on the qualities that made him the leader he was. Steve Jobs was ruthlessly creative, brilliantly simple, and deceivingly smart. He didn’t follow anyone else’s path to success for a day in his life. Rather, he forged an entirely new path and brought many millions of people along for the ride. It’s my sincere hope that the class of 2012 and the other 850 students I’m privileged to share my last year at CMC with do the same. CMC is an atypical liberal arts college and that’s why we came here. So be an atypical graduate. Be a true leader. You probably won’t be Steve Jobs, but don’t let that stop you from trying.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

Innovation and the Silicon Valley

Dave Meyer — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:00:08 +0000

Crescit cum commercio civitas. Civilization prospers with commerce: indeed, it does. And our college strikes out to prepare our students to be leaders in commerce and in the great institution that facilitates it: government. There is no doubt in my mind that graduating Stags and Athenas–perhaps more than any other graduates in the country–leave our school with a stronger background in civics, economics, and the theories and frameworks that drive and guide these fields. CMC aims to go beyond merely producing great businessmen and women–we seek to produce leaders in society.

With that excessively grandiose first paragraph out of the way, I’d like to discuss my concern that the great education CMC gives us tends to point a large number of our best students towards these career paths: law, consulting, and finance. To the individual graduate, these are very attractive options–they offer high pay, prestige, interesting and challenging work, and opportunities for upward movement. With that in mind, let me explain what draws me to technology while I surround myself at CMC with future lawyers, consultants, and bankers. I believe that technology offers a real opportunity for innovation where other sectors do not. This is not to say that service industries do not offer value–far from it. But where would all these CMC grads be if not for the people out there building business that need legal advice, management consulting, and capital investments? Building a world-changing business–that is to say, being a business leader–is all about innovation. CMCers are more than capable of innovating–Henry Kravis and George Roberts brought about one of the greatest innovations in the world of finance over the last few decades. That said, innovations in finance lack the kind of society-changing impact that technology companies have brought about over the same time period. So with that in mind, I think what I find attractive about technology companies–and about product-based, as opposed to service-based, companies in general–is the opportunity to truly innovate and be responsible for building a product that has the potential to change the world. Or at least make it a better place.

I’m not claiming to have some brilliant insight or wisdom to recommend that all my peers change career paths. I haven’t achieved some fantastic success in the technology industry that justifies my claim. I’ve had a pair of internships and those were pretty cool, but mostly I’m just trying to lay out my reasoning for why I’m attracted to tech and rather put off by service businesses. The idea of building something resonates with me. To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic:

“But above all, it’s the feeling of having done something original, of developing a thought derived from World Book and Childcraft, of making that thought manifest, rings down through the years. This was the exhilaration of having made something. And in search of that original high, I am still making things.”

The success of CMC’s ITAB Silicon Valley Networking Trip speaks to the idea that this desire to build is becoming increasingly popular. The trip exposes current CMC students to some of the most innovative graduates of our school–people like Jonathan Rosenberg, who managed Google’s products from 2002 until April of this year. Spending a week visiting several companies each day in the Bay Area leaves you with a sense of excitement that’s difficult to explain. Going to company after company that is doing something cool and new and fascinating with technology instills a desire to join in and build something yourself. The networking trip is a fantastic crash course in the technology sector and its potential, and many of the students that attend end up taking internships or jobs at technology companies.

For this reason, I’m excited that CMC has chosen to offer an entirely new program to further promote these careers: the Silicon Valley Program. Modeled after the Washington D.C. Semester Program, the Claremont Colleges Silicon Valley program will be a semester-long off-campus study experience that combines an internship at a Silicon Valley tech companies with relevant coursework. Jointly sponsored by the Robert Day School and the Off-Campus Study Office, the program will place students at companies like Apple, Atlassian, Cisco, Electronic Arts, Google, HP, Infosys, Intuit, and Oracle for a full-time internship. The seminars will be economics classes (just like the seminars in D.C. are government classes) covering topics like industrial organization and entrepreneurship.

The introduction of this program is an extraordinary leap forward in promoting technology to the same tier CMC currently reserves for law, consulting, and finance. By offering students interested in software engineering, entrepreneurship, and the business of technology the same type of immersion we currently provide to those interested in government and law, CMC is positioning itself to achieve the critical mass of alumni in the industry necessary to encourage a wider range of tech companies to recruit our graduates. Furthermore, it will increase the visibility of technology careers on campus. (How many CMCers know what product management is?)

Let me be clear: the dream isn’t to drive away our graduates from traditional careers in law, consulting, and finance. Rather, my hope is that there will be CMCers innovating and starting companies and building products to the point where they can hire their fellow CMC graduates as lawyers when they need legal services, as consultants when they need corporate advice, and as investors when they need to raise capital. CMCers are brilliantly creative, smart, and hardworking–innovative tech businesses are built on these traits. With the emergence of the Silicon Valley Program, the potential for our graduates to create world-changing technology products has never shone brighter in Claremont.

The Rise of the App Store

Dave Meyer — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:00:09 +0000

For this column, I originally set out to write a post about apps. Example: “3 Apps for Every Stag” or “5 Apps to Get Me Through Thesis” or “What’s on John Faranda’s iPhone?” Turns out, a lot of people have covered this. My Google search of “top 5 apps” yielded 1.3 billion results. Moreover, I guarantee that any random selection of apps that I picked will be different than anyone else might pick. Even worse, I might miss some fantastic iPhone-only app because I have an Android phone (gasp). Such is the challenge in a world with hundreds of thousands of apps–there are almost literally too many to choose from. So rather than provoking a debate from which I might never recover, I’d like to redirect your attention to one of the truly revolutionary outcomes of the app-ified world: the Mac App Store.

It’s been around since January 2011, but was implemented so subtly that a lot of people–including many CMCers I’ve met–haven’t even heard about it. Simply put, the Mac App Store marks a turning point in how we use software for three reasons: it makes everything “an app”, it’s dead simple, and it sets a precedent. Windows users, bear with me, a similar “Windows Marketplace” is coming as part of Windows 8, so the ideas apply on both sides of the OS canyon.

The original iPhone, you might remember, didn’t have apps. In fact, the first non-Apple developers weren’t able to create apps for the phone until more than a year after the iPhone was first announced. There was no “App Store” to speak of. People still thought of software as “programs”–you bought your program, like Microsoft Office or TurboTax, on a CD, stuck it in the drive, and installed it. You could download it from the internet as well, but most of the “big things” were still coming on CDs. Moreover, most software programs were big lumbering beasts that needed a CD in order to function. The idea of a lightweight piece of technology that did one thing simply and well didn’t exist yet. You bought Counter-Strike and it dominated your computer while you were using it. The iPhone changed everything by demonstrating that it was feasible to make these simple pieces of technology, distribute them for (almost) free over Apple’s platform, charge a buck per download, and still make a significant amount of money.

What was the model that Apple used when building the App Store? The iTunes Music Store. Why? Because it worked really well. Apple had shown that people would pay for music online if the experience was really good and the music was high quality. There’s a premium to be had for not having to worry about BitTorrent or P2P and all the hassle that go along with obtaining music illegally, and Apple captured it. The iPhone App Store, and now the Mac App Store, are further extensions of the same idea. With the creation of the Mac App Store, Apple wants every single piece of software that runs on Apple computers to become an “app”. And in Apple’s dreamworld, the apps are curated so only the ones that don’t have viruses, don’t violate Apple’s terms of services, and don’t copy Apple’s own software get through. With the Mac App Store, everything’s an app, as long as it passes Apple’s gauntlet.

So what do users receive in return for allowing Apple stricter control over what goes on their computers? A better experience and better prices. The app store experience for your desktop programs. Log in with your Apple ID, click the price button to buy, and then click again to install. Everything is automatic after that, and every time you open the app store, all the available updates can be installed in just one click. It’s an exact recreation of the iPhone experience. Apple is operating under the belief that users will pay a premium price for an Apple computer becuase it offers this simplicity and elegance. You don’t have to go through the Windows install pain of downloading the install file, opening it, running “InstallShield Wizard”

EW!

and clicking “next” ten times before you can run your program, you click “install” once and watch as the program hops into your dock and a small red bar above the icon shows you the installation progress.

It’s readily apparent that Apple sees the Mac App Store as its ideal distribution platform for everything installed on your Mac. Apple’s two major software suites, iLife (iMovie, Garage Band, and iPhoto) and iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) are both no longer available in Apple retail stores. They’re up on the Mac App Store as à la carte downloads: $15 for the iLife apps and $20 for the iWork apps. This means that instead of dropping $120 on Microsoft Office, you can pick up Apple’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint equivalents for half the price. Other flagship Apple software products, like Aperture for advanced photo editing and Final Cut Pro for professional video editing, are also available from the Mac App Store.

Perhaps the sharpest evidence of Apple’s committment to the Mac App Store platform is its chosen method of distribution for Mac OS X Lion, the newest version of its operating system. When Lion was released in July, the sole way to get the update was to install it from the Mac App Store. This meant a tradeoff–users had much less control over how the update went about, and had no hard disk backup of the OS in case something went wrong. In return, most users received the easiest OS upgrade in the history of personal computers. To make the upgrade experience even more enticing, Apple offered Lion for just $30–far cheaper than past Mac upgrades or comparable Windows upgrades. OS X Lion remains the best selling and top grossing “app” on the Mac App Store. Several weeks later, Apple released OS X Lion on a thumb drive in stores and online for $70. Nonetheless, it’s easy to conclude from the pricing and timing of Lion that the Mac App Store is Apple’s preferred method of distribution. The writing on the wall is clear: settle for Apple’s curation and limitations, and in return you’ll receive higher quality apps and a cleaner, more enjoyable purchasing experience. It’s a model that Apple used successfully used for both music and iPhone/iPad apps, and now they’re ready to make it universal.

So where does this leave Windows users? Windows, like Apple, is looking to make the next version of Windows more closely resemble the mobile phone experience its worked so hard to perfect on the Windows Phone. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile is the Windows phone equivalent to the iPhone App Store, and the early previews of Windows 8 draw heavily from the Windows Phone experience. There’s even stronger evidence though: screenshots of Windows 8 show a big icon for a “store” (right). Assuming that Apple demonstrates the viability of the Mac App Store, expect Microsoft to follow suit and try to provide a comparable experience for PC users. In neither case will these platforms replace a large swath of applications that people download from the internet, but they will capture a large much of the revenue in the desktop app market.

One final note: with these platforms, it’s clear that Apple and Microsoft both believe that there is a future for desktop applications. This differs fundamentally from Google’s philosophy that in the future, everything can and will be done on the web. I didn’t include the Google Chrome Web Store in my discussion because it presents a completely different vision–where users run all their applications inside the web browser and the desktop is just a portal to get on the internet (or is eliminated entirely).

Want to read more from Dave Meyer’s #CMC Tech Blog? Check out his technology saavy by reading Castles & Moats in the Tech Business, let him explain Twitter to you and help ease the stress of school with 3 Tech Tools to Simplify College Life.

Castles & Moats in the Tech Business

Dave Meyer — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:00:08 +0000

I haven’t yet dove into the business side of tech in this column, but seeing as it’s actually a column now, I’d like to discuss a rather famous piece of modern investing advice: Warren Buffett’s well-known (and well-worn) one-liner about his best investment strategy.

“In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable moats.”

Broken down simply, “economic castles” are really successful businesses. This could be Coca-Cola’s business selling soft drinks, IKEA’s business selling furniture, the Los Angeles Lakers’ business selling basketball tickets, or Deloitte’s business selling um…um…”value”. The point is that each of these companies has a product or portfolio of products that they can consistently sell for a profit.

“Unbreachable moats” are enduring competitive advantages–what makes a company profitable year after year. This is the infrastructure, culture, and management that pushes a company ahead and keeps it there. Target and Walmart are good examples of the moat concept. You can’t just build thousands of big box stores, cultivate relationships with hundreds of suppliers, structure a distribution system, and convince the public that you’re the best thing since sliced bread in only a matter of months. It takes decades of building a company to achieve this. That’s the moat. The economic castle means that people will always need to buy stuff, won’t always want to buy it all online, and can buy it cheaply and conveniently at Target and Walmart; in turn, these companies are profit powerhouses. People may fret about year-over-year sales or holiday performance in the retail industry, but Walmart is not going to go out of business overnight.

Here’s one more example, this time from the tech world (I know a lot more about technology than I do about investing, so the transition had to come eventually). Amazon.com has a huge moat. Distribution centers across the world, a huge web infrastructure, brand recognition, a perfectly-tuned distribution system, side businesses (Kindle, Amazon Web Services, their mp3 store)…it’s about as impenetrable a castle as you can find. It took about six years to build–Amazon was founded in 1996 and turned its first profit in 2002. But, (a) six years is a lifetime in technology and (b) nobody else has come close to competing since. How do you succeed against a behemoth like Amazon? You focus on one specific area, like shoes, and do one thing really well, like mind-blowingly good customer service. Which is exactly what Zappos.com did, and it worked. They sold themselves to Amazon for $1.2 billion. What’s the point in building a castle outside of the moat of the castle next door when you could just extend the moat around your castle too (and get crazy rich in the process)?

I bring up Amazon and Zappos because they are the exception, not the rule. For the most part, “unbreachable moats” are rare and exceptionally hard to build in the technology industry, and they’re becoming even rarer and harder to build. Consider, for example, these realities:

moats can become very small very quickly, leaving the castle vulnerable to attacks
when castles become too big, their best soldiers (read: employees) journey on to greener pastures
castles with wide moats are the ones that are perpetually digging

The ebb and flow of moats in technology is demonstrated by the rapid emergence of new companies challenging the business model of those before it. Ten years ago, it was Microsoft. Then Amazon. Myspace. Google. Facebook. Twitter. QuoraPathGrouponLivingSocialZynga SquareUberInstagramDropbox. They all blend together. My list has gaping holes…before Microsoft there was Sun and IBM and hundreds of others. In short, it is incredibly difficult to hold on to the top spot for very long because an “unbreachable moat” is an extremely hard thing to build.

Let’s look at two examples: both companies had the seemingly largest moats in the tech world but look considerably more narrow than they did even a few years ago:

Microsoft thought they had one with Windows and the Office suite. Back in 2000, everyone used Word, PowerPoint and Excel, so much so that you could send someone a .doc file and you knew they could open it because they also had Microsoft Office. But Google crossed that moat pretty easily with Google Docs. The reason it looked like Microsoft had a moat was because usage of Office was so prevalent that it became the default choice for anyone who wanted to write something on the computer. Put another way, Microsoft’s castle was that it sold a ton of copies of Microsoft Office, but it’s moat was that everyone was using Office, making it unthinkable for people to switch to something else. Nevertheless, Google overcame it by offering a product that was even more prevalent (anyone with an internet connection could become a Google Docs user without spending a cent). And they were able to do it because most infrastructure doesn’t cost a lot of money. The cost of the servers necessary to host Google Docs and the cost of the engineers who built the product are miniscule compared to the years of marketing and development Microsoft had put into Office. Microsoft’s other moat, Windows, is a good deal wider. But Google is eyeing that as well with its new Chromebook computers. More importantly, more computing tasks than ever are being performed on mobile devices like iPhones, Android phones, and iPads–arenas which are dominated by Google and Apple.

Google themselves looked like they had one in the mid-2000s. The brilliance of Google wasn’t that they created a better search algorithm. It’s that they took that search algorithm and used it to revolutionize how people advertised on the web. And made money hand over fist in the process. So what is their “moat”? The excellent infrastructure they have for selling web advertising, called AdWords, and the massive ubiquity of Google search. Google makes money as long as people are searching for stuff on Google, and Google search bars are everywhere. All of Google’s other products are basically just ways to get people to search on Google more. Facebook, however, was the first boat to cross Google’s moat. While Google knows what people are searching for, Facebook knows everything about you. That means they can target ads towards you before you even go to Google to search for it. And Facebook is certainly building up an attack on Google’s castle.

So what makes an unbreachable moat for companies that don’t have tons of physical infrastructure like Amazon? I argue that companies that are constantly digging to keep their moat as wide as possible will be the most consistently profitable. The low hanging fruit here is Apple (pun intended). Apple has all the things that I mentioned that aren’t as hard to obtain now–talent, technology, infrastructure, brand. But as I said earlier, money can’t buy innovation. And Apple has a culture of relentless innovation. That’s the main reason why they’re able to turn out great products year after year. Innovation is a tricky thing to cultivate, but once it’s there, you’ve got about as wide a moat as you can hope to dig in today’s technology world.

The lesson here is that a really great idea, really good technology, strong infrastructure, the best talent, a great brand, while all contributing to a business’ moat, aren’t capable of making that moat as wide as you might think. Google has some of the best engineers in the world working for it, but many are leaving for Facebook, Twitter, Quora, you name it. Retaining talent is hard in a world where its very easy to implement your ideas, which is the case thanks to the fall in prices for server space. Setting up a website and scaling in to tens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of users is far less expensive and complicated than it was even a few years ago. The culture of the technology industry is more mobile than ever–it’s more attractive to bounce around to whatever is most exciting rather than hunker down at one company for a decade. In today’s tech world, there are a lot of great ideas and little that stands in the way of their becoming realities. Who wouldn’t challenge the big castles and their moats?

Want to read more from Dave Meyer’s #CMC Tech Blog? You may also enjoy 3 Tech Tools to Simplify College Life, Twitter Explained or Apple’s Latest Innovations.

iOMG! Apple Announces its Latest Innovations

Dave Meyer — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:03:44 +0000

Two or three times a year, the technology world’s mounting anticipation boils over when Apple says, well, anything, about what it is they are doing.

This week, the tech giant revealed its latest news at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Nobody was more aware of this than me; the company for which I work, Atlassian, was having its conference down the street and looked positively puny in comparison. We actually had to dress up as bugs to get any attention.

Apple’s WWDC conference is targeted primarily at developers (better known as the people that make your iPhone apps). Apple generally stays away from making big product announcements at this conference, saving things like the iPhone and iPad for special events. I won’t try to offer serious analysis of what was said– there are more than enough people already weighing in on that. Instead, I’ll break down the three biggest announcements, simply and concisely for your reading pleasure:

iCloud
If you haven’t heard about “the cloud,” get ready. It’s here, and it’s everywhere. If you’ve ever used Google Docs or Dropbox, you’re already storing documents “in the cloud.” Amazon and Google have both announced music services where you can upload your music and then access it from a phone or tablet, as well as your computer. Here’s the important takeaway from WWDC: Apple’s vision for the cloud is completely different. Apple wants to make the cloud so omnipresent that you forget it’s even there.

Instead of uploading documents and then downloading them somewhere else, everything will just “be”. Documents on your computer will also be on your iPad and your iPhone. No uploading, not even saving, just there. Same with music, email, photos, and apps. It’ll all just “be there”. You don’t have to think about it. The thing to understand about iCloud is that it’s not really a product so much as a name for the way Apple will back up all your documents, music, and photos automatically. You won’t need to access any particular “cloud-based” applications because it’s built in to all the applications (iTunes, Camera Roll on iPhone, Mail, Docs, Apps, Contacts) that Apple already makes. You don’t need to buy iCloud, it’s just going to become a part of your digital life. It’s essentially the cloud for people that don’t care what the cloud is. Oh, and it’s free (mostly).

Mac OS X Lion
If you’ve bought a Mac since you started college, you’re using one of the last two Mac operating systems–”Leopard” or “Snow Leopard”. Keeping with the big cats theme, their latest effort is Lion. It includes a lot of new features, like “Mission Control”, which helps you organize your windows better. There are also full screen apps, just like your computer games back in 1999 (sorry Apple, not really impressed by that one).

Here’s the takeaway though: three features actually matter–”Resume”, autosave, and the Mac App Store. Resume means that when you exit a program, it will come back exactly the way you left it the next time you open it. That means you can keep a billion tabs open in Chrome when you’re writing your research paper, turn off your computer, and when you turn it back on, they’ll all still be there. Autosave is more of the same. Do you like how Google Docs automatically saves your work every few seconds? Now all of Apple’s desktop products will do the same. Finally, if you haven’t already started using the Mac App Store, start. Because you’re not going to get a choice soon. Apple wants to make it the sole way to get programs on your computer–just like the App Store on an iPhone or iPad. And they’re starting with Mac OS X Lion itself, which will be available in July for $30, on the App Store.

iOS 5
If you haven’t realized that smartphones run on an operating system, or that the iPhone’s operating system is known as “iOS”, then Apple is succeeding in its goal to make it so simple, you don’t even notice. iOS 5 is the next major upgrade in the software running on the iPhone. It’s not a new iPhone, it’s just an overhaul of the software that runs on the phone. While a new iPhone design will probably come out in the fall, anyone with an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 will get access to the new features in iOS 5. Takeaway? Apple took a lot of crap from technology commentators this week because a lot of the new features were eerily similar to things that Android and Blackberry users already have.

First, the “Notifications Center” mirrors Android’s in that all your notifications (messages, missed calls, Facebook pokes) can be accessed by pulling down the bar at the top of the screen. Next, iMessage is a messaging service connected to iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touchs (which your Mom probably calls an “iTouch”…not a thing, and kind of creepy sounding). Sound a lot like BlackBerry BBM? It IS a lot like BlackBerry BBM. Will it get all those faithful BlackBerry users to ditch their PINs and join the Apple crew? We’ll see. Finally, the third biggest thing Apple did to resemble Android–you no longer need to plug your phone into your computer. Ever. You can sync everything wirelessly, buy apps wirelessly, and charge wirelessly. Just kidding: you still have to plug your phone into something to charge. But wireless syncing has indeed arrived on the Apple iPhone scene. There are a bunch of new features that you can read about here, and they’re all going to be free.

In between all this, Apple also found time to announce plans for a giant new spaceship-like headquarters building up in Silicon Valley. But the main focus of this week in tech news, unavoidably, was WWDC. While these announcements were by far from the most exciting Apple has ever made, the innovation is certain to continue: get ready for your MacBook and iPhone to do a lot more in the near future.

Want more of Dave Meyer’s tech insight? Read his article on tech tools that simplify college life and twitter.

CMC’s ITAB Silicon Valley Trip Gives Students View of Real World

Josh S. — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:58:38 +0000

Many programs at Claremont McKenna—from student computer labs to scholarships—are funded by alumni who give back to CMC so we can experience what they could not. One such program is the Annual ITAB trip to Silicon Valley in January.

Every year since 2005, a group of about a dozen Claremont McKenna students spend a week in San Jose where they have the opportunity to visit and network with various Silicon Valley executives at leading companies in the area. This year, students brushed shoulders with CEOs, partners, and other top management at nine companies in the Silicon Valley area. The trip, which costs ITAB over $1,800 per student, is provided free to participants.

ITAB, the Information Technology Advisory Board, is an organization of CMC-affiliated executives in the technology industry working to advance the role of technology at CMC. Since 2005, the organization has sponsored a week-long trip to Silicon Valley. The trip was started in 2005 by ITAB Chair Bart Evans ‘70.

Mr. Evans started the ITAB trip to help establish Silicon Valley as one of CMC’s “centers of gravity.” “The current centers of gravity for CMC alumni are LA, New York, DC, San Francisco,” Mr. Evans explained to the group of 15 students who attended this year’s trip. That is, CMC alumni are concentrated in a few industries and geographic areas. “The world is getting smaller—much of our country’s business is being exported, but Silicon Valley is one of the few places [in the US] where people are still creating and innovating.” Mr. Evans wants to add the technology industry, specifically Silicon Valley, to CMC’s radar.

During the trip, ITAB pays for all student expenses—a week-long stay at the Fairmont Hotel San Jose, transportation, food, and miscellaneous costs. ITAB also provides each student with calling cards (business cards), a leather-bound portfolio, and tote bags to carry the “shwag” we pick up throughout the week—an “I’m Feeling Lucky” t-shirt from Google, a chunk of Silicon rock from Applied Materials, a bottle-opener that plays the “Yahoo!” jingle, etc.

Throughout the week, students are shuttled to various companies in Silicon Valley from Apple Headquarters in Cupertino to Google Headquarters in Mountain View (plug for Google: free Naked Juices and food everywhere!). CMC Chief Technology Officer, Professor Cynthia Humes accompanies the students on the trip, as her office is responsible for planning the trip.

“It’s a lot of work to plan the trip, but we get better at it each year the program is in operation,” said Dr. Humes. “For example, we hope to visit a gaming company like Electronic Arts next year in addition to this year’s lineup of companies.”

ITAB is also actively recruiting new members to help defray the costs of the trip. “The current cost is about $1,800-$2,000 per student, with students paying for their own transportation to San Jose. We want to expand our resources to be able to pay for each student’s transportation as well,” said Humes.

The ITAB trip (and the similar Financial Economics Institute-sponsored Networking Trip) is an underutilized gem at CMC. Within days after the trip was over, students had landed interviews and even jobs at the companies visited. What one learns in an economics or computer science class makes for useful technical skills, but only opportunities like these prepare students for the real world.

My highlights from the 2008 ITAB trip:

-Presentation by Scott Mauvais ’90 at Microsoft. Mr. Mauvais gave us the down low on why Microsoft isn’t threatened by Apple and a few other “do not repeat this outside of this room” remarks. I will not repeat them. We also got to raid the company store.

-Julie Cox ’07 gave an informative presentation about what consultants, especially IT consultants, do on a day to day basis.

-Listening to John Volk ’70, Partner in the Venture Capital Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers recount his decision to go to law school (“This was nearly 40 years ago… we didn’t know what was what… Duke was the best [law school] I got into, so I jumped in a car and drove across the country.”)

-Ashwin Navin ’99, President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent delivering the keynote address at the Alumni Association-hosted ITAB Reception at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. In a chat with students after his speech, Ashwin recalled how cool he felt living in Auen Hall when it was the only dorm with high speed internet hookups in every room.

-Weston Presidio, a venture capital firm located on a pier in San Francisco. Jim McElwee ’74, a partner at Weston Presidio, talked about the hardships and benefits of venture capital firms.

-Todd Teresi ’94, Senior VP at Yahoo!, brought in legal and marketing experts from the company to talk to us about censorship in China, redefining Yahoo!’s brand, and other topics. I was pretty unconvinced that Yahoo! would grow or survive much longer after our visit until recently.

-Discussion with Bill MacGowan ’79, Executive Vice President, and Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystem. Mr. Schwartz is a legend in Silicon Valley and his blog is one of the most widely read in the industry.

-Apple presentation by Scott Gilfoil, head of campus recruiting. Mr. Gilfoil gave us an entertaining pitch to work for Apple (and buy Apple products).

-Joe Pon ’89 and George Davis ’80 at Applied Materials. Joe Pon gave us a tour of Applied’s labs, including chip manufacturing and research clean rooms where we had to take off our shoes and wear booties. Mr. Pon also discussed our country’s energy crisis and gave me a clearer view of solar panel technology and alternative energy sources.

-A visit to Infosys in Fremont, CA convinced me to apply for an internship in Bangalore, India this summer. I guess I’ll see how that one turns out…

-Jonathan Rosenberg ’83, Senior Vice President at Google, first fanned out 15 business cards, smiled, and said “E-mail me. I WILL help you.” Mr. Rosenberg also recounted some of his favorite CMC stories and advice for success in business.