Category: General

The Seattle Times writesd about “life interurpted.”

E-mail, as it turns out, was just one drop in a dam-breaking flood of technology that has inundated our lives. Today, the constant pinging of your e-mail can be like the drip-drip-drip of water torture. We’re swimming in doodads and options text messaging and search engines, Blackberries and blogs, Wi-fi, cell phones that try to do all of the above, and the promise that we haven’t seen anything yet.

We’re shooting through technological rapids that have opened doors and changed the dynamic of work, how we communicate and live, and sometimes even think. All these tools have made our lives easier in many ways. But they’re also stirring deep unease. Some are concerned that the need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished.

Scientists call this phenomenon “cognitive overload,” and say it encompasses the modern-day angst of stress, multitasking, distraction and data flurries.

In fact, multitasking a computing term that involves doing, or trying to do, more than one thing at once has cemented itself into our daily lives and is intensely studied. Research has shown it to be consistently counterproductive, often foolish, unhealthy in the long run, and in the case of gabbing on the cell phone while driving, relatively dangerous. Yet it is also expected, encouraged and basically essential.

The Register writes about a book by Professor William “Terry” Fisher – “Promises to Keep.”

The backbone of Promises To Keep is a detailed discussion of the many ways a digital pool, or flat fee system, may take shape; it is also a lucid introduction to copyright in general and the specific, Byzantine peculiarities of the US compensation system.

His third scenario offers the most tantalizing future: one where music and movies can be freely exchanged in the knowledge that the rights holders get paid. Such scenarios are discussed under several names: “digital pool”, “flat fee” or Fisher’s blanket acronym, ACS (alternative compensation system). All involve extending the compulsory license model that currently applies to public performance and radio to digital media. We benefit by being allowed to exchange cultural goods – there would be no more ‘piracy’. Such a model offers a cheaper, more profitable route for rights holders too. As he explains,

“Let skeptical musicians and filmmakers continue to restrict access to their creations – and let them continue to call upon the aid of the legal system to protect those measures from hackers. If the new regime is as efficient as we have argued, the skeptics will soon discover that it is simpler, cheaper, and more profitable to register their recordings with the Copyright Office and rely upon distribution of royalties from the government for their source of income.”

Seeking Alpha discusses four trends:

Trend 1: Web advertising becomes really useful
Trend 2: Web sites become progressively easier and cheaper to build
Trend 3: Syndication and filtering dramatically improve web publishing and information dissemination
Trend 4: Search continues to improve and grow in significance

A follow-up piece suggests that the web will bcome more fragmented and transparent.

1. Easier and cheaper web publishing makes it possible for individuals and small companies to establish niche web sites.
2. Contextually relevant advertising makes it possible for small Web publishers to support their sites with advertising relevant to their specific niche.
3. Improved search then makes it easier for web users to discover those narrowly-targeted sites.
4. RSS and mark-up languages then make it easier for people to become repeat users of those sites.

In other words: the four trends together fuel the rise of the small, narrowly-focused Web site.

It also means that:

Implication 1: Fragmentation will reduce the dominance of the information portals.

Implication 2: Search engines will erode customer loyalty and the value of brands.

Implication 3: Information transparency will benefit the companies with the lowest expense structures or which add the highest value.

Implication 4: Unique content and exclusive transactional relationships will become more valuable.

Guardian offers its take on the best websites in 20 categories.

Innovation Weblog points to the [US] Council on Competitiveness report on innovation. From the report: “Innovation will be the single most important factor in determining America’s success through the 21st century… America’s challenge is to unleash its innovation capacity to drive productivity, standard of living and leadership in global markets. At a time when macro-economic forces and financial constraints make innovation-driven growth a more urgent imperative than ever before, American businesses, government, workers and universities face an unprecedented acceleration of global change, relentless pressure for short-term results, and fierce competition from countries that seek an innovation-driven future for themselves. For the past 25 years, we have optimized our organizations for efficiency and quality. Over the next quarter century, we must optimize our society for innovation.”

Are we even thinking along these lines in India?

[via Roland Tanglao] Andy Kessler writes:

Over the last year, two things have happened. First, Apple has increased their sales by over a third, almost all of it from increased sales of iPods those 2 million of them at $265 each last quarter and another 100 million songs sold via their iTunes service. An iPod is just the combination some Apple software, cheap disk drives and a $12 chip a Silicon Valley company named PortalPlayer. I calculated that Apple pays $200 each per iPod to Chinese assembler Inventec to slap it all together. Even with cheap labor, Inventec has almost no profits, Id bet under $10, probably more like $4. PortalPlayer, by the way, emails their design to Taiwan to be fabricated, with profits of some $5 per chip.

The second change since a year ago is that Apples stock has gone from $21 to $64. Pretty cool, capitalism at its best. Why? Because Apple keeps $65 per iPod – money chases profits! If you assume the stock increase is all due to the iPod (it is), then that business is worth some $15 billion. Add in PortalPlayers market value of almost $1 billion and you start to get a feel for how the world works. A $1.5 billion trade deficit increases wealth in the U.S. by some $16 billion.

Boing Boing points to this cool paper:

Starbucks, like most other businesses is primarily interested in maximizing throughput of orders. More orders equals more revenue. As a result they use asynchronous processing. When you place your order the cashier marks a coffee cup with your order and places it into the queue. The queue is quite literally a queue of coffee cups lined up on top of the espresso machine. This queue decouples cashier and barista and allows the cashier to keep taking orders even if the barista is backed up for a moment. It allows them to deploy multiple baristas in a Competing Consumer scenario if the store gets busy.

By taking advantage of an asynchronous approach Starbucks also has to deal with the same challenges that asynchrony inherently brings. Take for example, correlation. Drink orders are not necessarily completed in the order they were placed. This can happen for two reasons. First, multiple baristas may be processing orders using different equipment. Blended drinks may take longer than a drip coffee. Second, baristas may make multiple drinks in one batch to optimize processing time. As a result, Starbucks has a correlation problem. Drinks are delivered out of sequence and need to be matched up to the correct customer. Starbucks solves the problem with the same “pattern” we use in messaging architectures — they use a Correlation Identifier. In the US, most Starbucks use an explicit correlation identifier by writing your name on the cup and calling it out when the drink is complete. In other countries, you have to correlate by the type of drink.

Exception handling in asynchronous messaging scenarios can be difficult. If the real world writes the best stories maybe we can learn something by watching how Starbucks deals with exceptions. What do they do if you can’t pay? They will toss the drink if it has already been made or otherwise pull your cup from the “queue”. If they deliver you a drink that is incorrect or nonsatisfactory they will remake it. If the machine breaks down and they cannot make your drink they will refund your money.

From the results on an AvantGo Mobile Lifestyle Survey:

1. Calendar/contact list
2. Easily syncs with PC
3. Great battery life
4. E-mail/messaging
5. Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
6. Compact size
7. MP3 player
8. Phone
9. Large screen
10. GPS locator
11. 20+ gigabyte memory
12. Camera

A comment from Blackberry Blog: “If you just take the top 4 and assume that those are the most important, it seems the users are saying something different than the market. More and more devices are coming with color screens, big harddrives / memory cards, MP3 capabilities, video playback and cameras, but users still just want to be able to maintain a list of contacts, synchronize those contacts with a PC, not have to charge their device and be able to send and receive email and SMS. No wonder Blackberry sales are going through the roof!”

SiliconBeat writes about a talk given by John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins: “Lately, the firm has started prowling for energy deals, a departure from its traditional focus on information services and healthcare. ‘Thats a left turn, a new initiative for Kleiner,’ he told the audience, made up mostly of other venture capitalists and investors. Most of Kleiner’s investments in energy so far are still in stealth. Urbanization will be one of the biggest global trends between now and 2030, Doerr explained, citing several studies including one by the National Academy of Sciences. Asia, in particular, will be creating scores of huge cities, he said. Theyll need clean water, power and transportation.”

Seth Godin blogs about the “the one thousand teachable things that every third grader ought to start learning so she’ll know them all before before she graduates from high school.” In the list:

1. How to type.
2. How to speak in front of a group.
3. How to write clear prose that other people actually want to read.
4. How to manage a project.
5. The most important lessons from American history.
6. What the world’s religions have in common.
7. Evolution.
8. Formal logic.
9. The 15,000 most common English words.
10. Conversational Spanish.
11. How to handle big changes, with grace.
12. How to run a small business.
13. Basic chemistry.
14. Not arithmetic, but algebra.
15. A little geometry, a little calculus.
16. The most important lessons from ten other world cultures and their history.
17. Speed reading with comprehension.
18. How to sell.
19. Pick one: how to paint, write a poem, compose a song or juggle really well.
20. Understanding the biographies of 500 important historical figures and 200 fictional ones.

A follow-up post adds another 10 to the list.