Google has announced a plan to sell Motorola to Lenovo for just under three billion dollars. Google paid more than twelve billion only two years ago, and many commentators have declared that this is Larry Page’s first big bet, and potentially his first big experiment to go sour. Even the best reporters characterize the strategy …
Continue reading "Google and Motorola in the Wake of Nortel"
Up until recently, there were two "new economy" blogging models. The first was the independent blog (such as this one and the thousands of others that have populated our lives over the last decade). The second was the blog mixed in with traditional media. The latter started to grow with the Huffington Post to Forbes …
Continue reading "It begins: evolving the blogging/journalism space"
The Mac is 30 years old. Apple has a great retrospective. 5 years ago, I documented all the Macs I had owned up until that point. I have added to it today for the next five years as an indulgence. Turns out there are quite a few a owned. And we won't mention the period 1999 …
My co-blogger Erik Brynjolfsson has a new book out with Andrew McAfee entitled The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in the Time of Brilliant Technologies. I read it this week alongside Tyler Cowen's Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Great Stagnation. Given each had earlier eBooks that were counter-points that is what …
Continue reading "Stagnation, the Machines and the Policy Recommendations"
That's the question I asked myself this morning as I walked past one of my beloved Nest thermostats. When I see my Nest of a morning, I don't have to adjust anything. It is already working just as I want it to do. I can just look at it admiringly knowing that something I used …
Almost with inexorable momentum, the Internet hurls itself into new territory. Some time ago, more than two billion humans had adopted at least one Internet-enabled device in some form, and nobody doubts that another two billion will accrue soon. New webpages increasingly find ways to inform readers, as more information in a variety of formats …
As is often traditional with blogs, I thought I'd list the Top Posts of 2013 according to WordPress stats on the number of hits. They are: Harvard Business School Publishing crosses the 'evil' academic line With Google Reader gone, is Google Scholar next? That Star Trek economy thing Now for some jaw droppingly bad analysis …
It happens about every twelve months, maybe with more frequency recently. Another reporter writes about how the US is falling behind international rivals in the supply of broadband. I am growing very tired of this meme, and answering emails from friends wondering if it is so. There are serious issues to debate, but this standard …
Most of the year I work on digital topics. But I spend some time each year around the holidays – including this post - thinking about the economics of gift giving. For folks who traffic in ideas, it’s good to be known for something. So I guess I shouldn’t complain about the attention I get …
The Nobel prize for physics this year was controversial. It wasn't controversial because of the idea 'wot won it' but the number of people who contributed to that idea. However, the Nobel prize has a rule that there can be at most three recipients in a given year. (That doesn't apply to Peace but it …
Digitopoly 