Thursday, April 09, 2009 9:19 AM/EST
With mergers and company failures regularly in the news, the amount of healthy competition in the technology world is clearly decreasing. This, of course, means that more companies will gain a monopoly in their markets.
This got me thinking about monopolies in general and the companies that are typically seen as monopolists in the technology arena. Just which tech companies are true monopolists, and which ones fall short of being a monopoly?
My dictionary defines a monopoly as "exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of suppy, or concerted action, exclusive possession or control, a commodity controlled by on party, one that has a monopoly".
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:15 PM/EST
Is the devil you know—and expect—better than the one you don't?
Consider this: You run into person No. 1—let's call her Melissa—on the street. Without warning, Melissa hits you in the face and then proceeds to beat you up as you lie on the ground.
Then, person No. 2, Michelangelo, walks up to you and calmly states that in two weeks time, at exactly 2 p.m., he will beat you up. Then he walks away.
Now, while neither is a pleasant scenario, I have a feeling that the majority of people would rather run into Michelangelo than Melissa.
Monday, March 02, 2009 2:50 PM/EST
DEMO 09 launched this morning with Executive Producer Chris Shipley referring to 2009 and its downward spiraling economy as a "reset year." Shipley didn't shy away from the effect this economy is having on tech overall and the on the DEMO show itself, as she acknowledged the smaller size of this year's show.
Shipley though referred to herself as a glass half full type of person and said that there are still plenty of opportunities for smart and innovative companies.
This show is also the penultimate show for Shipley, who is stepping down after DEMOFall 09 and handing the Executive Producer position to Matt Marshall.
Of course, people don't go to DEMO to listen to inside baseball stuff about who is running it, they go to see new companies and new products launched.
The morning session of this year's DEMO definitely got off to a slow start. Not too many of the initial presenters were showing products that made me sit forward in my seat and get excited. Still, some showed a bit of promise.
Thursday, February 12, 2009 3:41 PM/EST
Oh no! Technology has taken over my life! There's no escaping it! What am I to do?
If these kinds of statements sound familiar to you, then you've probably been exposed to the frequent handwringing about the invasion of technology into our modern lives and how it's turning everyone into anti-social introverts who constantly stare at their phones and other gadgets.
A recent article in the Boston Globe took this idea even further with a piece titled "The End of Alone." In the article, the author discusses how new technology is making it basically impossible to enjoy or even have moments of solitude. The author essentially says that if Thoreau were alive today, he'd be busy at Walden Pond texting pals, updating his Twitter feed and checking his friends' Facebook status.
Monday, February 09, 2009 3:40 PM/EST
Given the current "25 things you might not know about me" craze, there are a lot of people out there who have to tell you all kinds of things about themselves. This whole thing seems a bit nuts to me, after all, if there are things about me that people don't know, it's probably because I don't want them to know these things.
While I've tended to ignore these lists as they've ended up in my mail or Facebook updates, the one's I have read tended to be pretty positive and good natured. Again, this seems nuts to me. In my opinion, if you really want to know someone, you should find out the things that they hate, the things that really drive them nuts.
So to put my money where my mouth is, I've done just that. Without further ado, here is my list (in no particular order) of the Twenty Things about Technology that Drive Me Nuts.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 3:13 PM/EST
I've never really thought of myself as much of a seer, prognosticator or predictor of the future, but based on a column I wrote back in 2005, I may just have a future in the prediction field.
In that column, "Security Getting Trampled in the Rush to RFID," I put forth a "hypothetical" situation where I could sit in a city square with nothing but a laptop and a small wireless device and--because of the ubiquity of unsecure RFID enabled gadgets--be able to do everything from read passports, identify employees and students, and even access credit card numbers and information.
When I wrote that column, I was roundly jeered by RFID proponents. They said what I envisioned was impossible, that to read those RFID tags I would need to be within inches of the person carrying them and would have to use a very large and expensive device.
Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:01 AM/EST
Like many of you out there, I unfortunately have more than my fair share of friends who are trying their best to find a job in this bad economy. And while these friends are working hard to find a job, they also don't want to jump to companies that might not be in the best of shape.
This means that these friends often ask my opinion of businesses they are looking to join. They ask about the health of the companies and their potential for growth. The one piece of advice that I pretty much always have is, if the company you're interviewing at relies 100 percent on online advertising for its revenue, it may not have the brightest future.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 12:23 PM/EST
Unless you don't watch any TV--or possibly live in a cave--then you know that in mid-February, traditional over-the-air television broadcasts will end and that consumers who rely on antennas to get their TV will need to buy either a new TV with a digital tuner, or a digital converter box.
To help with this change, the government took a small portion of the money it made from the spectrum auction and launched a coupon program to provide $40 to any citizen who needed to purchase a converter box (which tend to run from $50 to $60). Now, because of poor planning, some fraud and traditional government waste, the coupon program is running out of money, and many people who need converters won't be able to get coupons before the analog signals go dark in February.
Now there are plenty of consumer angles to this story, but the part I find interesting is its lesson in poor planning, a lesson that can also be valuable to developers and IT managers.
Monday, December 15, 2008 4:44 PM/EST
"Sir, technology is in great danger!"
"Yes, I know. We are once again menaced by that evil villain, Bad Economy. He'll stop at nothing to crush technology spending, humble powerful technology companies and kill all innovation."
"But what will we do sir? I don't think technology can take much more of this!"
"There is hope. In the past when Bad Economy has struck, a hero has come forth who has fought back to protect technology, a hero called, Emerging Technology. In the early 1990's, Bad Economy struck hard, using his evil recession ray to rain woe on all. But Emerging Technology fought with the powers of improved PC technology, powerful networking and email applications, and, most effectively, the early World Wide Web. These technologies helped boost businesses and drive Bad Economy back to his hidden lair."
Monday, November 17, 2008 4:54 PM/EST
Right now the incoming Obama administration is working with the Bush administration to make sure that the country has a smooth transition to the new government in January. This is especially important given the many problems facing the nation right now.
Of course, the same problems that the country is facing are leading to lots of transitions at many businesses. And while the majority of people who voted for Barack Obama will be happy to see a change in government, the changes that are happening and will continue to happen in companies everywhere are much less welcome.
Recently, a large number of businesses have seen layoffs--often on a massive scale. We'll likely see more layoffs down the road and, in many cases, employees won't find out about these layoffs until the day they actually happen.
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