Technology – Page 13 – Outrun Change

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 5/28

A few articles on technology, education, energy, and publishing that are worth a read. The frontier is wide open in those areas. Just a brief comment from me.

Innovation, inside the box

7/1/13 – Wharton – How LEGO Stopped Thinking Outside the Box and Innovated Inside the Brick – LEGO started losing money when their innovations needed a completely new set of parts for every innovation. They regained their 20%+ growth curve and 40% profit increase when they innovated new toys using existing pieces. Their outside-the-box innovation almost sank them. Staying inside the box returned them to growth and profits. Hat tip: Emproprise-BI: Structured innovation, via LEGO.

Lesson from my grad school classes: stay inside your competencies. LEGO makes bricks, not video games, TV shows, or bendable action figures. They thrive when they do what they do best.

Education

4/30 – Wall Street Journal – With Free Web Courses, Wharton Seeks Edge in Traditional Programs – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 5/28”

More good stuff on surveillance – 5/13

We are past the day-by-day dribble of compromised companies and products. The daily revelations of vaporized integrity have slowed to weekly or monthly. What is appearing now is a gradual realization that the companies running the tech we use every day just can’t be trusted, no matter what they say.

Here is my twelfth list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

3/31 – Schneier on Security – The Continuing Public/Private Surveillance Partnership– Public posturing by tech giants is merely that – posturing. The surveillance continues. There are 4 major sources of authority for the government surveillance.

When a federal player says a particular action isn’t taking place under a particular law, it is probably a true statement. How can that be?

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 5/13”

Revolution in higher ed is slow to arrive; still desperately needed

The Economist has a suggestion on how to reverse the current situation where some college degrees aren’t worth the time and effort: Making college cost less.

A few points from the lead article:

Thirty years ago there one college bureaucrat for two academic staff. Now the ratio is one support staff to one academic.

The tech revolution is working its way into academia, but the progress is very slow.

Continue reading “Revolution in higher ed is slow to arrive; still desperately needed”

About 40% of American households don’t have a landline

Cool graph in the Wall Street Journal article Consumers Weigh in on AT&T’s Move to Cut Landlines shows the steadily increasing number of households that have dropped a landline and only use cell phones.

My estimates from reading the graph show this portion of US households don’t use a landline:

’05 – just under 10%, I estimate 8%
’07 – over 10%, estimated 14%
’09 – just over 20%, estimated 22%
’11 – just over 30%, estimated 31%
’13 – 39.5%

Last September, I mentioned About one-fourth of households rely on cellphones instead of landlines. So, 28% last fall, 39% now.

Article describes a town in Alabama where AT&T wants to drop landline service completely.

More good stuff on surveillance – 3-28-14

Here is my eleventh list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a paragraph. One new perspective is maybe we should fully embrace the surveillance society and push the boundaries out further. Hmm.

2/25 – Schneier on Security – Breaking Up the NSA – Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 3-28-14”

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-20-14

A few articles on technology, energy, and publishing that are worth a read and a brief comment. Reusable first stages of rockets, several updates on Yutu (Chinese lunar rover), commercial drones, lightly armed drones, and another shale field with big potential.

Education

3/4 – The Feed – Home-Schooling for Higher Ed – Mentioned this idea before. How ‘bout hiring a college professor to privately tutor you for your first year of college. Read the article and think about it a few minutes. Intriguing idea, huh?

Space

3/13 – Technology Review – SpaceX Set to Launch the World’s First Reusable Booster – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-20-14”

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-3-14

More good stuff on the open frontiers: energy, space, education, publishing. Good info but only time to summarize in a paragraph:

Education

2-9 – Grumpy Economist – Mooconomics – Superb article assessing current state of MOOCs from a professor who actually taught one. Most of the technology looks like it is still very much version 1.0. Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 3-3-14”

More good stuff on surveillance – 2-20-14

Here is my tenth list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

Big brother

1-16 – Schneier on Security – Today I Briefed Congress on the NSA – Mr. Schneier visited for an hour with six Members of Congress. Apparently they haven’t been getting much information from the NSA (seems to me a fairly serious oversight/constitutional issue) and wanted some description from someone who has access to the Snowdon documents to explain what’s going on at the NSA (see previous parenthetical comment re: oversight failures).

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 2-20-14”

Wall Street Journal article about “Bird-Scorching” – solar #9

(photo by James Ulvog)

As The $2.2 Billion Bird-Scorching Solar Project hosted an open house yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article with that title. The article is summarized in the article’s subtitle, At California’s Ivanpah Plant, Mirrors Produce Heat and Electricity—And Kill Wildlife.

The article is above the fold on the front page of the second section. There are two great photos of the facility. My photo of the plant is above.

Good introduction

If you are just tuning in to the environmental damage caused by solar farms, the above article would be a great place to start.

Continue reading “Wall Street Journal article about “Bird-Scorching” – solar #9”

That brand new news organization is up and running – check out First Look Media

Mentioned a while back that Pierre Omidyar, the founder of E-Bay, was starting a news organization from scratch. It will be designed for the digital era.

Well, it is up and running.

Check out The Intercept. It is the first ‘magazine’ of the First Look Media organization.

Continue reading “That brand new news organization is up and running – check out First Look Media”

Visual of progress in last 40 years

Check out a post from Cafe Hayek using picture to show the progress for middle-America with Scenes from 1970s Middle-Class America.

I remember each of those five items from my childhood. I far prefer the far better, more capable, easier technology of today.

There is no better time to be alive than today!

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 2-7-14

More good stuff on the open frontiers of energy, space, education, and publishing. Good info but only time to summarize in a paragraph. A few tidbits:

Study claiming fracking causes cancer is totally bogus
Ambulance drones?
Primer on MOOCs
The 1st amendment applies to everyone, even bloggers

Publishing

1-17 – AP – Court: Bloggers have first amendment protections – I don’t understand the case, but the point appears to be that bloggers are recognized as having constitutional protection when addressing public issues or public persons. Very cool.

But then since I’m writing on a blog to discuss this article I obviously have a dog in this fight.

1-17 – The Volokh Conspiracy – Bloggers = Media for First Amendment Libel Law Purposes – That’s the headline from the attorney who represented the defendant. Here’s a quote from the court’s ruling: Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 2-7-14”

13 items in a 1991 Radio Shack ad fit in your phone today with a 90% drop in cost to buy the capabilities

Steve Cichon read through a stack of local papers from the first quarter of 1991 and discovered Everything From 1991 Radio Shack Ad I Now Do With My Phone.

Compression of size

In 23 years, all of the following products fit inside a phone: Continue reading “13 items in a 1991 Radio Shack ad fit in your phone today with a 90% drop in cost to buy the capabilities”

Great prediction from 1974 – one day a computer with the capacity of this mainframe will fit on your desk and you won’t be tied to the office where the mainframe is located

Check out these amazingly correct predictions in 1974 from a balding, gray-haired prophet. Check out the sideburns of the reporter:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sTdWQAKzESA]

First computer I worked with in high school was about 4 feet tall, 8 feet long, and about 4 or 5 feet deep. The printer was about 5 feet tall, 5 feet wide, and 3 feet deep.

Continue reading “Great prediction from 1974 – one day a computer with the capacity of this mainframe will fit on your desk and you won’t be tied to the office where the mainframe is located”

More good stuff on surveillance – 1-7-14

Here is my ninth list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

1-3 – The Atlantic – How the NSA Threatens National Security – Bruce Schneier points out the extreme level of compromised systems caused by the NSA spying fiasco is a serious threat to national security.

It is also breaking systems that we have spent decades building in America. It is breaking us financially and diplomatically. It is tearing down our political, legal, commercial, and technical systems. It is destroying trust in government, tech companies, and the internet itself.

As for the potential for abuse, here’s an experiment for you.

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 1-7-14”