Why Gmail Reigns Supreme

Gmail has amassed over 1.5 billion users in its 15th years, way above the less than 400 million currently on count for Outlook Mail and Yahoo Mail.  A short note on what they have been doing right…   Ng: Why Gmail reigns supreme IN THE 1990s, the heyday of the dotcom days, one of the…

Adventures in Programming

My adventures in computers the last 36 years…. From the 8k memory Radio Shack TRS-80 to my first IBM PC in 1983 with 256k memory and a 360k floppy drive to creating several tech companies, and making my own website…. Ng: Programming BACK in 1982 when I graduated from high school, I really did not…

Bandwidth consumption

WE use the internet every day. Google reports they are now doing a few hundred million or even over a billion searches a day. It recently celebrated 20 years as a company. We also have Facebook to keep us busy, as well as many other sites we check every day. Not only are there hundreds…

Sowlo: Solo Owl

I have constantly observed that people, especially those riding in trains all over the world, are very busy with their cellphones. Over half of them are either playing games, watching videos or listening to music. A majority of them have headphones. Although there are many wearing wireless bluetooth headphones, I see many still donning the…

Internet’s Smaller Players

In the Philippines, we are constantly grumbling about the state of our internet connection. We have one of the slowest speeds in the world that we often take joy in comparing ourselves to developing nations, in the hope that our government hears our pleas. Unfortunately, we also don’t realize that slow internet speeds is not…

Singles Day shopping frenzy

ALIBABA’S annual Singles Day sale is almost an institution in China. You would not believe that this is only nine years old. It was originally conceived as a good excuse to increase sales. It is celebrated every Nov. 11, which if you may note, is written as 11.11. Somebody had the bright idea that it…

Smartphone usage

GLOBAL smartphone shipments have declined since the third quarter of 2018, resulting in a loss of 360 million unshipped units. Market researcher Strategy Analytics calls this drawback a recession, citing decreased carrier subsidies, poor replacement time and lack of design innovation. Samsung still holds the top spot, with a market share of 20 percent, but…

Made in China

FOR many years, Made in China products have literally been everywhere. China has been the world’s factory for practically the last 25 years. In fact, there was always that moniker, “God made the world, and China made the rest.” But along with the ubiquity of the products was something else—most China-made products were cheap and…