Author (#1)November 2007 Archives
Rafe Needleman writes in Webware of 6 upgrades that are downgradeshttp://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9824066-2.html
No. 1 was Vista, which has such a bad reputation that some at our office are worried that they'll be switched over to Vista when they get new computers in January. Others on Neeldeman's list include: Zune, iPod and the megapixel race on digital cameras.
Also CNet put Vista on its most recent Top 10 terrible tech products.
Triangle Business Journal: Drought could force shutdown of nuclear, coal plants: North Carolina's electric utilities, among the largest water customers in the state, are dusting off contingency plans to manage their power plants if lake levels continue to drop due to the ongoing drought - plans that could lead to higher costs for consumers.
Similar story in Georgia. Atlanta Business Chronicle: Drought hits hydropower: Because of the drought, hydroelectric power generation is down 51 percent for Georgia Power Co. this year, the company says. While water accounts for a small percentage of the power generated for Georgia Power's 2 million customers, the drought has forced the company to buy $33.3 million in coal and oil to replace the lost hydropower.
NY Times: Civil Discourse, Meet the Internet. A columns by Clark Hoyt, NY Times' public editor on the move to allowing commenting on its articles. The NY Times is being more cautious than other such as USA Today or Washington Post. NY Times hired four part-time staffers to screen all comments before they are shown. The other two papers let reader flag an already posted comment, which will then be reviewed by an editor.
The Times' caution drew this comment from JD Lassica on Social Media: The Times' decision to allow reader comments on stories and editorials comes about a decade late.
PaidContent via NY Times: Economic Downturn Won't Dent Online Ad Spending This is good news for online media and advertisers -- growth rates are expected to remain in double digits because traditional media continues to move online. Companies such as AOL and Yahoo face challenges, though.
Chicago Tribune article explores the idea that drying the razor after each shave can extend the life of the blade for several weeks instead of two weeks. Tribune article has many comments as did Lifehacker, on their piece about the article.
In less than two weeks, Wal-Mart has sold out of a $199 computer that features Google apps. The computer ran a variant of Ubuntu Linux and Google Apps and was underpowered for Windows. Maybe it was the novelty; maybe it was the cost. I think it shows supply and demand still lives. See also TechCrunch: gOS PC Sells Out: People Like A Google Focused PC.
Rubert Murdoch's purchase of Dow Jones & Co. raised talk that the Wall Street Journal's pay wall would end. On Tuesday, he confirmed it will come down and the loss of subscription revenue will quickly be filled by advertising revenue from the swell in page views. TechCruch: Murdoch Serious About Tearing Down WSJ.com’s Subscription Wall
USA Today: Income gap among black and white families grows. There wasn't good news for black men who have seen income decline over the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation.
Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold.
NY Times: Too Much Information? Ignore It Timothy Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek," has a receptive audience from those hoping to get done four hours what it takes most people 5 days. Many scoff at his idea:
Nevertheless, without appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s show or doing a book tour, Mr. Ferriss has seen his book quickly become a best seller, largely on the strength of blog chatter in the tech community. Subsequently, he has become a pet guru of Silicon Valley, precisely by preaching apostasy in the land of shiny gadgets: just pull the plug. Crawl out from beneath the reams of data. Stand firm against the torrent of information.
No surprise that newspaper circulation is down 2.5 percent at the country's largest daily newspapers, according to Editor & Publisher. The daily newspaper industry is in a circulation decline that I don't think it will reverse. Advertising revenue might hold on longer, but it will soon follow. Papers are trying to get the dollars moved online, but that will be difficult.
In Fortune's Can the Washington Post survive? it was telling:
The best evidence of the difference is the fact that advertisers paid about $573 million last year to reach readers of the company's newspapers, predominantly the 673,900 daily and 937,700 Sunday subscribers to the Post. Advertisers paid only about $103 million to reach the eight million unique visitors to the Post's Web sites each month.
Wall Street Journal columnist Terry Teachout writes in The Deaf Audiophile that while iPods and MP3 players don't deliver a highest-quality music sound, it doesn't matter to him. As we get older we lose the ability to hear the difference. So now he enjoys the convenience of the new devices without worrying about what he can't hear, such as the higher frequencies.
That's why I'm more than content to listen to "The Rite of Spring" on my trusty iPod. Would that my presbycusic ears were capable of distinguishing between great and good sound -- but at least they still know the infinitely more important difference between sound and silence.
Can technology catch unauthorized wholesale republication of others' content. TechCrunch: Attack of the Splogs—One Of Our Posts Copied 152 Times Without Attribution.
Any blog that produces fresh content on a daily basis is an easy target. Google makes it economical to create such splogs through AdSense and then rewards them with traffic through its search engine. Google (and the other search engines) need to stop rewarding such behavior.
I see many bloggers and social news posters that do this -- it's not the right thing to do.
The lack of rain is one everyone's mind around here. A new web site from the federal goverenment focuses on the drought -- www.drought.gov. The map for rain outlook through January shows little reason for hope in the Southeast. In Charlotte, we're shy about one third the amount of rain we have on average. Click on the map to see a more readable version.
Two interesting comparisons of where you compare with other Americans. The article was in Yahoo Finance, but comes from Bankrate.com. The parking ramp is an annoying gimmick, but the data is still good.
The first measure looks at annual incomes:
Annual income parking ramp
| Income level (percentile) | Median income (rounded) |
| Level VI (90 to 100) | $170,000 |
| Level V (80 to 89.9) | $99,000 |
| Level IV (60 to 79.9) | $65,000 |
| Level III (40 to 59.9) | $40,000 |
| Level II (20 to 39.9) | $24,000 |
| Level I (less than 20) | $10,000 |
The next method is looking at the net worth of families:
Net worth parking ramp
| Net worth (percentile) | Median net worth (rounded) |
| Level VI (90 to 100) | $833,600 |
| Level V (80 to 89.9) | $263,100 |
| Level IV (60 to 79.9) | $141,500 |
| Level III (40 to 59.9) | $62,500 |
| Level II (20 to 39.9) | $37,200 |
| Level I (less than 20) | $7,900 |
In one way these levels seem so high and compared to half of Americans they are.
If you and yours are bringing in $40,000 a year, you're doing better than half the households in America.
Maybe the end of the Web 2.0 boom is nearing. SiliconValleyWatcher: Web 2.0 Is On The Ropes. . . Kleiner Perkins Has Halted Investments Kleinver Perkins had been a big player in that field.
Who would have guessed this for a city like Atlanta would be the first. Atlanta Business Chronicle:
Atlanta may first big city to require businesses to recycle.
USA Today: Online data backup can save music, photos from disaster
Two companies, Mozy and Carbonite, now offer unlimited storage for about $50 yearly, or about half the cost of a 500-gigabyte hard drive./
Also USA Today: How to digitize your life