Vinnie Mirchandani: Traditional telcos keep swearing they don’t just want to be a “dumb pipe”. It’s unfair but when you are standing next to Apple and Google, you better be running as hard and smart. Otherwise, you just have to accept dumb just looks dumber by the day. It’s getting harder to see ‘traditional’ (not
Read More...And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
Read More...Some hand-selected, web-sized reading for you today: Because it’s a sad topic that shouldn’t be avoided, The Big Picture has the best and most powerful photoessay on the crisis in Haiti I’ve seen yet. Disclaimer: some images are difficult to view. Here’s a simple portrait of John Lennon. Right? Master juggler Michael Moschen performs ‘The
Read More...My 2-year-old daughter surprised me recently with two words: “Daddy’s book.” She was holding my Kindle electronic reader. Here is a child only beginning to talk, revealing that the seeds of the next generation gap have already been planted. She has identified the Kindle as a substitute for words printed on physical pages. I own
Read More...As usual, Schneier is among the clearest heads in the fray when it comes to threat analysis: Despite this, the proposed fixes focus on the details of the plot rather than the broad threat. We’re going to install full-body scanners, even though there are lots of ways to hide PETN — stuff it in a
Read More...Tim Bray on how so many are doing Enterprise IT wrong, most notably not learning anything from the dynamic language web culture and the small, light, simple, iterative mindset of modern web dev shops: Here’s a thought experiment: Suppose you asked one of the blue-suit solution providers to quote you on building Ravelry or Twitter
Read More...Tim O’Reilly, reporting just after yesterday’s Nexus One press event: News from the front: a possible turning point for Android. I’ve been a huge iPhone fan, but after using the Nexus One for a few weeks, I find so much to like that I’m close to the point where Android might be my first choice.
Read More...Tyler Cowen with some propositions about the economics of advice and how advice relates to understanding fellow humans a bit better: 1. You don’t know what a person really thinks until you hear his or her advice. Along these lines, if you really want to know what a person thinks, ask for advice and he
Read More...As always, Bruce Schneier has some poignant analysis of the attempted terror attack on an aircraft headed from Amsterdam to Detroit over the holidays. Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism. Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat.
Read More...This is a short work week, and likely many of you are busy decluttering your workspaces and doing some basic housecleaning getting ready for 2010 to begin in earnest. Why not take a few moments to enjoy the following: 1. Christmas ’59, a short, nostalgic and funny story by John Hughes. (Fun fact: this story
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