Steve Rubel does an excellent job of condensing a somewhat obtuse piece about the future of computing that's running in Forbes. David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale University, paints a scenario that once seemed out of reach but now feels more plausible given the rising use of rich Internet applications. Gelernter envisions a giant beam of information - a Worldbeam - that's organized …
The Dog Ate My Magazine
The New York Times shares a story about Business 2.0's recent data fumble. On Monday night, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. The backup server failed to back up. The recovery was made much easier, paradoxically, by a bane of modern business, litigation — or at least the fear of it. “The text had all been copy-edited and sent off to the …
Convergence Is Converging This Week
Between Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show, both going on this week, we're going to see a lot of new gadgets, doodads, and gizmos that will combine the power of video with the Internet, along with the services that will sell them to consumers. Like this bit from Sony: Sony revealed Sunday a system that will allow viewers of its Bravia flat-panel TV sets to access broadband video content, some of it in …
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Making Machines That Think
Today's New York Times explores "the semantic web" or Web 3.0. The classic example of the Web 2.0 era is the “mash-up” — for example, connecting a rental-housing Web site with Google Maps to create a new, more useful service that automatically shows the location of each rental listing. In contrast, the Holy Grail for developers of the semantic Web is to build a system that can give a reasonable and complete response …
Got Room On Your Credit Card? Start A Company
The New York Times looks at the new, more fiscally conservative, approach to launching a tech venture today. Unlike most companies formed during the first Internet boom, which were built on costly technology and marketing budgets, many of the current crop of Internet start-ups have gone from zero to 60 on a shoestring. “V.C.’s hate it; they want you to take big money,” said Jay Adelson, who is the chief executive of …
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Man Smashes Machine In Moment Of Electoral Rage
As we now know, America collectively showed their present frustrations at the ballot box yesterday. One man, took his moment to vent a bit further than the rest. According to The Morning Call: A man who reportedly believed Republicans were conspiring to steal today's election entered an Allentown polling site, signed in and proceeded to smash the screen of one of the electronic voting machines with a metal cat …
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Ad Guys In “Ill-Fitting Pixel Clothing” Busted By Second Lifer
UrizenusSklar at Second Life Herald is pissed that Madison Avenue interlopers are claiming firsts in Second Life, when in fact they are nowhere near first. It is a case of a bunch of desperate clueless fucktards trying to show how bleeding-edgy they are, and, given that SL is the bleeding-edgy flavor of the month, they are wraping themselves in the Linden cape of bleeding-edginess. But they are being exposed as …
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Who’s Really Watching?
There's been some talk recently about what engagement means, if it can stand on its own as a metric, etc. The Advertising Research Foundation defines engagement as "turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context." Ruebel says that's hogwash. However, the real story here might be that most metrics rely on sleight of hand and fuzzy logic. For example, the Interweb is supposed to be the most …