It is almost completely impossible to believe that 10 years ago today, one of the great revolutions in IT was launched. On October 23, 2001, Apple announced the iPod. To say it was rudimentary is an understatement. It had only 5GB of hard disk storage, as the size of a deck of cards and weighed …
Science, with & without the Internet: Part II
Last week I looked at Michael Nielsen's new book, Reinventing Discovery, and, in particular, how science can deal with the broader citizenry using online tools. As it turns out, that is not where the book begins. Instead, Nielsen starts by looking at how scientists deal with each other. If you go back far enough, there …
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Accessing book sales data
People often ask me about the books I have written, "how many copies have been sold?" And it surprises them to find out that I have no idea. For instance, my book Parentonomics was published initially by UNSW Press and then MIT Press before being translated into, I think, 6 other languages each with their …
Siriously
Whenever I call some provider and I get some voice operated system, I cringe. It never quite works and you end up shouting at it as if it were hard of hearing. So why would I want that on my phone? Indeed, my iPhone has had voice control for some time and I've never used …
Password Security and Game Theory
Over the last few days or so, I have done much fretting about this article in The Atlantic by James Fallows. The story of how Fallows' wife had her Gmail account hacked by someone who used it to try and extort money out of her friends and contacts and, to add insult to injury, deleted …
Google and platforms
When I teach about platforms, Google is right up there in the examples. The search/advertising two-sided market is possibly the most successful in history (rivalling Windows). While it has had its challenges, Google's approach to advertising -- opening it up with tools for the long-tail of merchants as well as the long-tail of content providers …
The Rise of Content Platforms
The volume of information available freely to consumers is mind-boggling. But even factoring in ease of access — no more sifting through card catalogs or microfiche in dark libraries — attention remains scarce. The task of sorting the useless to find the useful is a critical challenge. Search was supposed to solve this problem and …
Cloudy upgrades
It is a wonder the Internet didn't just break yesterday. Apple updated both Mac OSX and iOS. Combined there was almost 1.5GB in downloads. If you have more than one machine or device, just multiply. The result was some seriously strained servers and a jittery iCloud debut. But having gone to the trouble of upgrading, …
Science with & without the Internet: Part I
Michael Nielsen has a mission: to open up science. A pioneer in the field of quantum computing (a quick Google scholar search shows his top publication to have over 13,000 citations), Nielsen pretty much dropped out of academia to pursue his quest to change science. Like myself he is an Australian living in Toronto. But …
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Passwords from the dead
We have lots of passwords. In my case, some of them are of little consequence. But others are critically important. For instance, I'd hate for my family to be struggling with bank account information if I were to pass away. And with password updates, it is hard to incorporate them in wills. This is not …
Digitopoly 