Matt Yglesias weighed in to the whole "how does the Star Trek economy work" thing. This followed on a long piece by Rick Webb. I think when it comes to juxtaposing knowledge of economics and knowledge of Star Trek, I am in some position of authority here so I had better put in my two …
Now for some jaw droppingly bad analysis …
... Matt Yglesias in Slate. Now I should preface that I generally like Yglesias's writings which is why I read them but today something happened. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Snapchat turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. ... I say three cheers to Snapchat! The company's founders and investors may or …
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Bricks and mortar outsourcing
Amazon is the supposed enemy of the Mom and Pop independent bookstore. Well, no longer. Amazon Source will give independent bookstore owners 10 percent of the revenue from future book sales on any Kindle device they sell their customers. This is a brilliant move. It is also available to chains. The long standing complaint from …
Windows 8.1 is really quite Appley
I discovered that our University had a site license to Windows 8.1 and Office 2013 so I decided to load them up on a virtual machine on my Mac. What I discovered was a very Apple product. The narrative on Windows 8 is that it was a divided operating system trying to combine touch and …
William C. Lowe
All students of the computer industry have heard of Bill Lowe, the leader of an IBM Boca Raton facility that launched the IBM PC. That launch was a signal event in computing. It catalyzed growth in the small systems market. William C. LoweI had the great pleasure to interview Bill a few years ago for …
The two Apples: consumer responsiveness and unresponsiveness
Here is why I love Apple. You go into a retail store or talk to a consumer representative on the phone and you get very responsive service. They are helpful and more often than not leave you far better off than you expected going in. I have been able to walk into an Apple store …
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The motivations of Amazon reviewers
There is a very interesting Planet Money podcast about Amazon reviewers. The podcast focusses on top reviewers. These are people who are at the top of Amazon's own reviewer rankings. They get there by writing lots of reviews and also on the quality of their reviews measured in part by whether consumers found the reviews helpful. The podcast …
Free content supply and the slavery charge
In a New York Times piece entitled "Slaves of the Internet, Unite!" writer, Tim Kreider, revisits a theme common amongst writers -- particular writers now of my age-vintage -- that they do not like being asked to contribute pieces for free. His argument is two-fold. First, why isn't it a breach of appropriate social norms to …
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Will ad-avoidance kill content?
Writing in the New Yorker, Tim Wu argues that ad-avoidance will always be present but won't necessarily be a disaster for media industries. The individual benefits are obvious. But is avoiding ads responsible or sustainable? It makes the advertising industry nervous, and many in the content industry, joined by some academics, see ad-avoiders as content-killers. The …
Is the iPad 2 the greatest tech product ever?
Two days ago, Apple announced this year's line up of iPads. The new iPads are 64 bit, have Retina display screens and are light (well the iPad Mini is a little heavier but it is not bigger and does have a better screen). This was all expected. What was unexpected was that Apple did not …
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Digitopoly 