I’ve been on Facebook for less than a month (give or take) and in that time, the service has managed to be so frustrating that I announced "on my wall" that I was taking a hiatus for two weeks. What drove me away ? Well …

First, I blog and I found that FB was too limiting for my writing style. One of my very first "status" was more than some strange tiny limit and so I had to rewrite it.

First note to the yet to be hired UI designer - if you are going to have a character limit, have a counter like nearly every cellphone SMS and Twitter.

Next came the "Facebook-lift" where they dramatically changed how the home page updated and what it showed. Worse still, FB decided to have two choices with similar and confusing labels *AND* the content on each was close but not the same. If you did not know what each page meant, you were often left thinking FB had lost your comments and updates.

Second note to the yet to be hired UI designer - if you are going to change a primary feature *AND* still keep it around, make it clear *AND* make it easy for users to set it they way it was. Also, make it sticky so users are not required to change things every time they log in.

In an attempt to really immerse myself with FB, I had it on my PC, my iPod Touch, and my Blackberry. I regularly (read that always) got inconsistent results for the "feeds" between the three devices. I finally realized that the way each updated was partly to blame. But here’s the kicker, often, I could make a quick update from the iPod and not from the PC.

Third note to the yet to be hired UI designer - don’t assume everyone has a fiber optic line to their PC. A dial-up user should have a good experience. A 128KB connection should have an excellent experience.

I am forever making typographic errors. On a PC, the newest browsers highlight miss spelled words. The latest Blackberries and the iPhone try to be smart and fix typing errors automatically. They don’t always get it right. When the get it wrong, it can be very wrong. On the PC I can delete or remove a post … well, it says I can but sometimes, I can click the button and nothing happens. I finally concluded it was the network bandwidth issue and either some JavaScript had not downloaded or there was some AJAX backroom traffic getting stuck.

Fouth note to the yet to be hired UI designer - people are human and we make mistakes. It’s not rocket science to allow someone to edit a mistake. Web forums do it all the time.

I could go on for a while but I don’t get paid by FB to do their testing and I didn’t submit my resume for the "yet to be hired UI designer" job.

Today is day one. There are 13 days to go. FB, I’ll see you then.

BTW: my blog still posts to my Facebook wall so you are welcome to read my posts … at least 240 characters of them!

Blogging, tweets, Facebook walls …. it can all be too much. For me it can all be too redundant. Like Ramírez said, "in the end, there can be only one".

I’ve been running a bit of a social experiment on myself over the past few weeks. anyone who reads this blog has noticed I have not been as prolific as I usually strive to be. It is partly because I’ve been in an experiment on Facebook. All that is wrapping up now. I have decided I can’t be master/mistress to two slaves …. wait, strike that and reverse it.

My preferred outlet is blogging. I like the longer for it promotes and I like the combining of words and pictures. However, blogging as more of a "broadcast" and Facebook allows me to listen to others. So, I have gathered so twine, bailing wire, and glue. I will blog for most of my content and "listen" and comment over on Facebook. I hope this keeps most of my efforts singular. time will tell.

… and for the record, I once again spent way too much time creating the artwork for this post.

Today, Sun announced its intent to acquire MySQL AB. This is a very interested announcement for a number of reasons.

I’ve been curious when MySQL would be acquired. I have read a number of accounts that it would not happen and MySQL AB would rather go public. I bought most of the arguments in favor of those rumors and had a few arguments of my own. First, I could not see MySQL being bought by one of the large database providers. There would be too much risk that the openness of MySQL would be lost or at the very least not as trusted. Next, none of the large database companies truly get open source and the necessary business model behind it. So, the Sun announcement was very interesting to me because it addresses both of those concerns. Sun is not a big database company so MySQL is not likely to be subsumed and lost. Further, Sun has proven it can make a business with open source technology. It’s Linux platform is a good example (and hopefully Java will be too one day).

More interesting is what a Solaris + MySQL package could mean. In the WebOS ecosystem, this union bumps Sun further up the evolutionary tree. Late last year, Red Hat announced the inclusion of virtualization technology into the core. At the same time, Red Hat and Amazon announced its intent to use Red Hat for “Amazon Web Services” and its elastic computer (or cloud computing or CPUs for hire, however you like to look at it). the Amazon+RedHat alliance moved that partnership up the evolutionary tree.

So that begs the question, where does this leave the other big players like Google, Facebook, and [Sales]Force.com not to forget the current generation giants. That could well be the billion dollar question (or as Carl Sagan might say, “billions and billions”).

Back in the 1990’s there was this idea of “network computers” – computers that did nothing without their connection to the network. The idea fizzled. Now we are on the verge of the “web computer”. Same idea but with better timing.

The emergence of Amazon S2 & AWS , Force.com, Facebook, and Google Apps & Gmail demonstrate the viability of software applications – corporate and personal – being served via the world wide web. Before I continue, I acknowledge the evolution of software from local installations to web based services assumed high speed internet and that is not a ubiquitous fact today.

These technologies have replaced personal computer software with web versions and provide the large data center infrastructure for building the complex custom applications traditionally relegated to corporate mainframes.

So, what does this mean for the personal computer and for the corporate software vendors ? I think there are currently two answers and they divide along the lines eluded to above – “corporate applications” and “consumer software”. Let’s look at these in reverse order.

Consumer software will evolve to take advantage of web applications. While Gmail, Microsoft Live, and Google Apps can function completely from a web browser, consumers have pushed for integration rather than replacement of their existing applications. The most anticipated features of 2007 were IMAP support for GMail and mobile sync for Calendars. The web solutions for spreadsheets and word processors were integrated with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org. The evolution of desktop applications as “front ends” to web applications is likely to be with us for a number of years with the separation of the two becoming harder and harder to distinguish.

I expect the PC software evolution to take on a “mergers and acquisitions” model for the next few years where the lines are drawn along four primary lines – communicating with (1) words, (2) numbers, (3) images, and music/video. “Mashups” will provide for the the areas between these. An example of what I mean can bee seen in the “words” category. There is little difference between the high priority features of a word processor, email client, and web page design tool. There is little reason for them to be separate solutions, rather, they just have separate “inputs” and “outputs”.

Corporate applications are another story. The human resource applications, payroll, compliance, and sales applications have long been heavily biased toward the server with very light – end users would say too lite – client experiences. This is a good characteristic for evolving to web solutions. The challenge to these systems has been dealing with growth, administration, and the fact they are “necessary evils” of business rather than the purpose of it. Every company – whether it be building and selling cars or books or ideas – needs the basic tools for managing the business. The only exception is the business that is “in business” to provide HR tools, or Sale trackign tools, or inventory and supply line tools. These companies are becoming the suppliers of the web solutions or they are partnering with those who are already web solution suppliers. Rather than let the business management necessities be a drag on the corporation, pushing them out to the web makes good sense.

In the “dot com” era, it is easy for startups to use web solutions because they had no legacy data or processes to contend with. They wanted to hit the ground running in their respective “hot markets” and not be bogged down by infrastructure. The old iron horses were not as nimble. But eventually all tools wear out and need to be replaced or upgraded and when they do, they are prime candidates for moving to the web. The “iron horses” are learning where and when to change.

This post is in some ways my “prediction” for 2008. I look forward to seeing how much of it comes true and how quickly. In thinking through some of the players in the “web applications” space I hit upon an interesting question of a statistical nature.

Which company uses more computer processing power every single second of each day on behalf of it’s customers – Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, Apply, Sun, Facebook, or someone else ? For extra credit, what is the ordering – from most MIPS to least MIPS -for this group ?

Back in the early 1990’s companies like Sun, IBM, and Lotus were talking about and developing solutions for “the network PC revolution”. The idea behind the network PC – for those who managed to escape the hype and disappointment – is that all of your applications and data reside on a server somewhere an all you need is a lightweight PC connected to the network. Today that sounds obvious but 15 years ago it was a pipe dream born of the promise of one Java running everywhere like magic.

Today, the premise still holds only now, Java on the PC has finally be dumped as just not a good idea. Instead, the applications rely on a powerful local web browser to provide most of the compute power and some industry standard programmed methods – HTTP, AJAX, HTML, XML, JavaScript – to create the user experience and interface to the server. It all works pretty well.

So now that we have the “good apps” and the “fast network” where is the Network PC ? I mean, an $800 Windows Laptop or $1200 MacBook are loads of fun but with presumable everything running out on the Internet somewhere, what do we need these high end machines ? It’s a bit like driving to the Starbucks for a coffee in a Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban or the not soon enough forsaken Hummer. All you need is a city car. The same is true for the network PC.

If they build it, will they come ? That is the real question. Can we get over the consumerist mentality of “more is better” ? McDonalds would cringe at the thought of people getting only what they actually need.

Fortunately, there are a few but growing number of computer manufacturers see the opportunity. Asus now has Eee PC, Everex has the “green PC” (at Walmart) ntel has the Classmate, Nokia has the 810 ultra portable tablet you will even be able to buy one of the OLPC computers (one of the One Laptop per Child) for your very own. These are all *new* computers below $400. If you don’t need a laptop, the price can go even lower.

So, if you use Gmail or Google Apps or spend most of your time on Facebook then one of these new breed of computers may be an option. They are not true network PC’s but they are getting close. If they make the screens more “normal sized” and made Linux flashed or use a hot-start mode for that “instant on” feeling, then we have the elusive network PC.

I plan to take a 10 year old computer and give it a try <recycling is green too you know>.