Barabasi on Interconnections
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi comments on a dominant cause of the powergrid failure in the Northeast: the interconnectivity of the modern world.
Archive for August, 2003
“The only value you can add to a banana is a bruise”: The RH Interview with Sun’s McNealy
In a recent discussion with Cullen and Omar, about Dell, I recalled a
Red Herring interview with Sun CEO Scott McNealy I’d read — incredulously — but couldn’t find it.
Fortunately today, I found it again. For the sake of anyone out there wondering how Sun could sink as low as it has, this article provides an amazing insight into McNealy tilted world view. Dell as a reseller, not a competitor? Feeling sorry for HP?
It’s high comedy reading McNealy get testy at questions about the SUN-set.
On the topic: an interesting view from Kuro5hin on Sun’s rise and Fall. I’m not sure how to validate the author’s claims about EPIC and Windows NT being “failures,” but it’s an interesting view.
Cory Doctorow on Metacrap
Interesting article on why Cory Doctorow thinks metadata won’t work - at least the kind that is human-generated.
In most of the mobility software work I’ve been a part of, what we call “metadata” is machine-generated - data that references an original, master copy of an email, an appointment, a database record.
This article deserves to be read simply by virtue of amazing lines like this:
Meta-utopia is a world of reliable metadata. When poisoning the well confers benefits to the poisoners, the meta-waters get awfully toxic in short order.
via VentureBlog.
Open Source Search
Backed by greats like Mitch Kapor, Tim O’Reilly, and Brewster Kahle, Nutch looks to be an open source attempt to replicate Google and Overture. Not much there now, but could be interesting.
Business of Blogging
The Economist on the commercial prospects of blogging. The arguments about whether or not Tony Perkins’ AlwaysOn is or is not blogging is a purely semantic one; if Perkins’ attempt to create sponsorships of “high quality” weblogging is profitable, then it’s clearly developing content of value to someone.
Ultimately, at least two different models will emerge: a sponsored/advertising model, and a fee for tools/hosting model, like Radio.
