Harvard professor warns of the dangers of protectionism
The International Herald Tribune has a great article by Harvard professor Edward L. Glaeser on the dangers of protectionism. The SF Gate writes that, according to research firm IDC, “worldwide personal computer shipments fell 1.9 percent during the fourth quarter.” IDC also projects an 8 percent drop in computer shipments in the first half of the year, showing how high a toll the recession is taking on the technology industry. In better news for the technology industry, ZDNet.com reports that [...]
Reid Hoffman’s recipe for jump-starting the economy
The Washington Post has a great op-ed by the founder and CEO of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, in which Mr. Hoffman points out that “[t]o translate the stimulus into sustainable growth, we need incentives for business innovators.” Among Mr. Hoffman’s suggestions for the new administration are (a) encouraging small businesses with loans by emulating the micro-lending model that has proved successful in developing countries, (b) welcoming foreign innovators by removing the H-1B cap and (c) nurturing American talent by imposing a [...]
Attention: The Interwebs Are Not Private
Yesterday Facebook released the first drafts of their principles that “will guide development of the service”, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. It reminds me that I’ve been meaning to post about the kerfuffle from a few weeks ago over Facebook changing its Terms of Service. Facebook changed the terms without making a big announcement and without asking users to renew their acceptance of the terms and some users flipped a lid about it. (I think that this whole “controversy” [...]
Free iPhones for everybody?!? Only if you live in Japan…
Wired has an interesting article on why the iPhone isn’t as popular in Japan as in the US. The magazine points out that “from a Japanese perspective, […] almost everything [is wrong with the iPhone]: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese.” The Japanese are also apparently bugged by the pricing plans, which, starting at $60 a month, are too high [...]
Taking a Bite Out of Apple’s DMCA Protection? Not Yet
It's 2009, so that means the Copyright Office is in the process of considering new exemptions to the DMCA prohibition on circumvention of digital locks on copyrighted works. Not surprisingly, the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a proposal to exempt computer programs that enable wireless telphone handsets for purposes of enabling interoperable applications to run on them. In other words, EFF wants cell phone users to be able to break into the protected software on cell phones, particularly the iPhone, in order to allow other software [...]
Ideology still a driving force behind hacking in many cases
NetworkWorld writes that “[t]he figures from the latest Web Hacking Incidents Database Annual Report suggest that stealing money and data is not always the overriding motivation for hackers, although it has been a rising trend in recent years. ‘While financial gain is certainly a big driver for Web hacking, ideological hacking cannot be ignored," the report said, which was sponsored by vendor Breach Security with support from the Web Application Security Consortium. […] Web site vandalism may carry a lower [...]