It is time to look back, and give some awards for the best events in information and communications technology. And what a year it was -- with Snowden, Healthcare IT, the Twitter IPO, and plenty of other events deserving both recognition and sarcastic observation. Just like last year, there are four criteria for winning. The winner …
Technology Awards for 2012
It is time to end this year by giving out technology awards! This post contains a baker’s dozen. They go to firms and managers who took notable actions in technology markets in 2012. There are no fixed categories of awards. Some categories are recycled from last year's awards, but some are new. Just like last …
What the Internet was invented for
There are lots of claims to the 'thing that the Internet was invented for.' My current nomination for winner is this post by Sir John Gurdon winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine this week. He had to wait 53 years to win a Nobel prize and to be fortunate enough that the Internet had …
Whitewater, Wimax, and the Milky Way
Our solar system inhabits an anonymous nub in one of the swirling fingers of the Milky Way. Suburban life renders the neighborhood invisible from the earth’s surface, collateral damage from too much light. Before a dam turned it into a reservoir, the Stanislaus River wandered through the foothills of the Sierras, far from such interference. …
The Secret Life of Wally Madhavani
Author’s note: I began writing columns for IEEE Micro in April of 1995. This is the 100th column. To mark this milestone this column offers a parody of James Thurber’s 1939 story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” In the original story Thurber described Mitty’s shopping trip with his wife in Waterbury, Connecticut. What would …
April fools round for tech and econ
It is that season again. Today is April fools day and the Internet celebrates. Here is a convenient round up of contributions from tech and economics. Google: as they do every year, Google enjoy a good prank. This year Google maps has an 8-bit mode, Gmail gets taps, Chrome gets multitasking, there's Street Roo and Sergey …
Internet hysteria index
<sarcasm alert> Tired of the self-referential and self-important? Then do not attend a conference on communications policy in Washington D.C. (or watch the latest debate among the Republican candidates for president). What is the next best anecdote to that tone? A bit of humor to punctuate the bubble, of course!<End of alert> Need some humor …
Digitopoly 