Google's Satellite. Are we subsidizing our own insecurity?

Yes. No kidding. The General Dynamics rocket that blasted off last week placed the super HiTech satellite named GeoEye1 in orbit. This satellite can take pictures of the earth at very high resolution. i.e at 41 centimeter per pixel.

The pictures are taken for U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, as part of the NextView project of the agency. But the interesting thing is Google has exclusive commercial license to buy the satellite pictures for the civilian use. As per the agencies licensing scheme, pictures at resolution of 50 cm will be given to Google. According to the CNET article the original NextView contract between the US agency and GeoEye was worth 500$ million.

It is not clear how much Google will pay for its exclusive use of those satellite photos. Considering there will be huge interest from MS/Yahoo and other Map2.0 vendors, I am sure it will be a huge portion, so much so that Google got it's logo pasted in the rocket itself.



Now the thing is, the satellite is going to picture not only USA, but also the entire world, that means countries like India too. So the high resolution intelligence pictures of foreign countries are in turn paid by Google. If we extrapolate it we can say that Google is paying it's government to spy on other countries.

Well...the thing is we can not complain much about that if Google is just a US company. But, Google is a multinational, and part of the profit they are going to make from those Map 2.0 is going to come from people who are searching Google maps from countries like India.

In addition, it looks like, before the pictures are given to Google, any security risk pictures will be manipulated by the US agencies. But what about the security-risks of other countries. For example, do Indian agencies have a say in what get's shown and what not? of course not(I think and I am pretty sure).

It's a double blow and it just does not sound right.

Chrome O Some

The day would have probably dawned with alarm bell (ominous one that is) for people at Microsoft. Even the "happy campers and good people" at Mozilla would have been startled by the unexpected friendly fire that might send them to tough times ahead.

Google has announced that today they are going to unveil the beta of their next generation browser "Chrome". My hands have started itching already to download it & try it. For some well known reason, I think it is going to be really cool. Let us see. I am also little bit worried that Google is becoming the next monster.

I went through their Chrome comic (which is another innovation BTW. I went through it till the last page where that french-bearded manager was throwing out philosophies of why chrome. I could do it only because of the format of the introduction)

- For Chrome tabs have top priority. "Tabs on Top"
- Each tab is separate process.
- Google has built a brand new Javascript virtual machine to be faster, better and elegant (under the hood)
- Each tab can support multiple threads. They say current breed of browsers are single threaded for each tab.
- There is a "Privacy" mode in which none of what you did will be logged or stored anywhere in the client PC.

As Tech Crunch pointed out...with Gears+Chrome google will take over most of your online time and hence probably the world.

Turning software pirate into a paying customer

PLM, EDA, MCAD are pretty costly piece of software with relatively small install base. Each of them follow some licensing scheme, however normally they get hacked and pirated quickly. The complaint from vendors is that even some big companies in emerging market cheat on licenses. While they buy few legitimate licenses so that they would be legal and can get official support, they go for pirated versions to be "cost effective" to support their large user base.

A new start-up V.I is coming up with a tool called CodeArmour. This one does not block pirates from using the software. But, it stealthily collects usage data and sends it to the vendor. The idea is that the vendor can use it as a sales lead. Kind of carrot and stick approach, "Hey...buy license and lets be friends or I will expose that you are a thief"

First thing that comes to my mind is what about privacy violations...Also, will pirates sit and watch this CodeArmour to mow them down without giving a fight...Hmmm

Aras PLM wins another customer

Aras PLM has won Ubidyne GmbH, the global leader in digital antenna embedded radio technology for wireless communications. As per the communication from Thomas Hartmann, Director of System Testing at Ubidyne, the main reason behind selecting Aras was it's main USP, that is Free Open Source Software(FOSS) model.

Aras has a neat user interface that gels nicely with Windows OS/IE. It also comes with the basic set of PLM modules. In addition to all, it's "No Upfront License Cost" model is a killer combination. It is definitely disruptive and we have to see how it fares in the competitive PLM market

Do you blog?

Social media is fast growing. It is not simply enough if your company is just on the internet with a web page. It looks like 85% of online users are reading blogs and 36% of them think positively of Companies that have blogs.

So is your company adapting the Enterprise 2.0 trend?

Siemens PLM eyes consumer segments of Indian Market

Penetration of Product Lifecycle Management solutions into Indian market is very low. The price conscious Indian market has seen not too many PLM implementations. However big companies are adapting to the trend and are going for different products.

Most of the major vendors are giving a push and have got some gains. Now Siemens have announced that they are looking beyond the Manufacturing world for their Siemens PLM suite.

Techli

Technology served simply and mildly hotly like idly. Look for more updates!