Julio’s Musings Around Columbia County, New York

He’s alive!

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

I caught up with Jarrett Wold tonight in the city (there’s only one city and thats New York City) . Since I was not able to attend his going away from AOL party back in July, I had promised him a Steak dinner to celebrate his new opportunity and He cashed in that promise with gusto. Suffice to say, it was well worth the wait.

We went to a new steakhouse recently opened on 2nd Avenue and 48th Street called Blair Perrone. The principals are of Peter Luger fame which is normally rated the #1 New York Steakhouse year after year.
Words can not describe fully the experience. We shared a “porterhouse for three”. Of course we also had a healthy dose of creamed spinach to placate our conscience.

[tags]Jarrett Wold, Julio Hernandez Miyares, AOL , New York, Blair Perrone[/tags]

New Space – There is hope!

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

A dapper Dossy (super developer and world known blogger) stands next to his future pod on the 10th floor of 1270 6th Avenue located in the heart of the World Financial Capital of New York City right next to Radio City Music Hall..
Current worry is if the space alloted in his new digs is sufficient for all his trolls and other office artifacts.

There had been a flurry of worry egged on by Dossy’s extensive and widely read blogs about the cleanup ,goodbye and departure from his former office in White Plains. The blosophere was ripe with rumour about what this could mean as no mention was made of the possible move to the new office.

[tags]Dossy Shiobara, AOL[/tags]

Downtown MiamiOriginally uploaded by julio.miyares.

Miami,Florida is booming. It may be the last thralls of a residential condo building boom nevertheless the changes in its skyline over the course of the past two years have been prodigious.
What is fueling this? Good weather, easy access to all things water related, no state tax, rich South Americans parking their money in safe investments within the USA.
I believe another fuel for growth if not presently but surely in the future will be as a gateway to cheap labor in the Caribbean especially around High Tech (Software Engineering) professionals.
I believe a wave of technology outsourcing to Latin American countries willgain momentum similar to the current wave of high tech outsourcing to China and India. Latin American countries will be helped by the fact they are “closer” at least in terms of timezones to the USA timezones.
Miami , given its cultural affinity to the rest of Latin America will be uniquely positioned to be the hub of many efforts large and small in accelerating high technology outsourcing to latin america.

[tags]Julio Hernandez Miyares, outsourcing[/tags]

Today August 22,2006 marks a watershed moment in the comeback trail for AOL. It is the day of the General public release of the AOL Video Product. AOL Video has been in beta since August 4th.

The premise is with the accelerating adoption of Broadband , that video will become the content that is increasingly consumed. That appears to be a valid premise especially as people have been waiting for quite some time for the promise of Video on Demand.

[tags]Julio Hernandez Miyares, AOL, AOL Video[/tags]

The Bush administration has apparently done a creditable job in anesthetizing the American conscience in preparation for surgical procedures that permit unchallenged expansion of the empire, internationally; and major socio-economic restructuring, nationally…

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I have been involved in various outsourcing initiatives over the course of the past two years. The concentration have been in Bangalore , India where I have visited 6 times helping to setup teams concentrating in Search and Web Portal development.
I have been impressed (though not surprised) with the level of sophistication, technical competence and drive of the individuals I hae interacted with during my various stints in India.
There are a number of challenges that are fixed with respect to outsourcing in India. The almost 8,500 mile distance between the Eastern USA and India and the 10.5 hour time differential. Though those obstacles can be overcome to an extent through various techniques, they are still immutable and present a fixed cost that chip away at the cost differential between USA and India based software engineers. For those primary reasons I am investigating outsourcing options closer to home.
BusinessWeek Outsourcing Article

[tags]Julio Hernandez Miyares,Jittr, outsourcing[/tags]

“Can’t win for losing”, where does that saying come from? Anyway, on the same week we (yes I work for AOL ) release the beta of AOL Video the drama of that is sucked out by all of the angst and hand-wringing from the inadvertent release of AOL Search Logs. As an employee of AOL I won’t get into the issue with the release of the logs. Of course I would be biased and anyway things are sometimes left for others to communicate without so much chattering from the peanut gallery. AOL Video is a different matter. I did have a large role as Technology Lead for the effort but even that is small potatoes when you compare to the number of people that need to collaborate on such a large , technically challenging endeavor.

The outcome of this monumental effort is in my opinion a shot across the bow to how I am convinced will finally bring to fruition the Video on Demand  that so many (including myself) have been waiting for all these years. Well many thats hyperbole at least coming from me as I don’t watch much TV or Video but I would watch more  if I could control  when and what I wanted to watch. Yes, I have Tivo  and that controls when but not necessarily what as it still has to be programmed on some broadcat channel for it to be recorded.

I want to watch F-Troop, episode 45 NOW, I want to watch Wonder Woman episode 34 NOW!. I can do that with AOL Video. In fact I was able to do that since this past March when In2TV launched but with AOL Video the selection via a large set of On Demand Channels is vastly expanded.

[tags]Julio Hernandez Miyares, AOL, AOL Video, AOL Search[/tags]