Magic School Bus

"In fact if you follow Fox News and the Limbaugh/Hannity afternoon radio crew, this summer’s blowout..."

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:52:51 -0400

“In fact if you follow Fox News and the Limbaugh/Hannity afternoon radio crew, this summer’s blowout has almost seemed like an intentional echo of the notorious Radio Rwanda broadcasts “warning” Hutus that they were about to be attacked and killed by conspiring Tutsis, broadcasts that led to massacres of Tutsis by Hutus acting in “self-defense.””

- Matt Tiabbi–Tea Party Rocks Primaries

theeconomist: Tomorrow’s cover today: The internet’s openness...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:38:35 -0400

theeconomist:

Tomorrow’s cover today: The internet’s openness is uner threat. But the crisis can still be averted.

I’ve got to issue a concurring opinion to this cover story’s conclusions:

What about the risk that operators will fragment the internet by erecting new road-blocks or toll booths? In theory, competition between providers of internet access should prevent this from happening. Any broadband provider that tries to block particular sites or services, for example, will quickly lose customers to rival firms—provided there are plenty of them.

Why net neutrality is a distraction

But that is not the case in America. Its vitriolic net-neutrality debate is a reflection of the lack of competition in broadband access. The best solution would be to require telecoms operators to open their high-speed networks to rivals on a wholesale basis, as is the case almost everywhere in the industrialised world. America’s big network operators have long argued that being forced to share their networks would undermine their incentives to invest in new infrastructure, and thus hamper the roll-out of broadband. But that has not happened in other countries that have mandated such “open access”, and enjoy faster and cheaper broadband than America. Net neutrality is difficult to define and enforce, and efforts to do so merely address the symptom (concern about discrimination) rather than the underlying cause (lack of competition). Rivalry between access providers offers the best protection against the erection of new barriers to the flow of information online.

This newspaper has always championed free trade, open markets and vigorous competition in the physical world. The same principles should be applied on the internet as well.

Net neutrality should be a distraction easily overcome by market forces, but we here in the States closed that door years ago with the Brand X decision from the Supreme Court, eliminating common carriage on Information Services (cable internet) & then subsequently removing the requirement from DSL operators. There was once a time when many DSL providers would compete for the same customers and that was the likely outcome for cable, and then to the next generation of Fiber to the Home.

Common carriage has been gone for half a decade. If you think the fight over Net Neutrality is a distraction, just wait until what you see the telcos spend when common carriage is back on the table.

"Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of..."

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:07:06 -0400

“

Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is…,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

”

- How Will You Measure Your Life? - Clayton Christenson at HBS 2010 Commencement (via Instapaper)

The Walkmen – “Woe Is Me” – Gothamist House (by...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:54:00 -0400

The Walkmen – “Woe Is Me” – Gothamist House (by Foglight Films)

ROCK OUT! We invited Gothamist & The Walkmen to come give an impromptu concert in our hallowed marble halls (sort of like A Takeaway Show). It was kinda awesome (and the new songs are great).

Ever wonder why its called a “Timestamp?” From the...

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:53:54 -0400

Ever wonder why its called a “Timestamp?”

From the back of a memo in the 1939-1940 World’s Fair Collection at NYPL

"Every election year, we get ads telling us how great the politicians are, but we never get ads..."

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:57:30 -0400

“Every election year, we get ads telling us how great the politicians are, but we never get ads telling us how great Brooklyn Bridge Park is. That imbalance ends up cementing our existing assumption that markets are better than governments at improving our quality of life. But that isn’t always so. I’ll take one Brooklyn Bridge Park over a thousand new brands of detergent, thank you very much.”

- Stephen B. Johnson - Urban Planning Is Sexy! (via Instapaper)

mikehudack: evangotlib: GE corporate HQ in Fairfield, CT. ...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:26:52 -0400

mikehudack:

evangotlib:

GE corporate HQ in Fairfield, CT. This is the nicest corporate lobby I’ve ever been in.

It’s also a very nice room to hold a high school computer science competition in.

"Under the Google-Verizon definition of network neutrality, wireless companies would only have to be..."

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:04:53 -0400

“Under the Google-Verizon definition of network neutrality, wireless companies would only have to be transparent about their network practices – meaning that they could block any application, content or service so long as they told consumers they were doing so. And while there would be no pay for priority on the best efforts Internet, there are almost no limits on so-called “managed services,” other than that they would need to be “distinguishable in purpose and scope,” from the Internet. Thus, it is conceivable under the agreement that a network provider could devote 90% of its broadband capacity to these priority services and 10% to the best efforts Internet.”

- Public Knowledge statement on the proposed Google/Verizon deal. (via soupsoup)

Helvetica on Mad Men. Hell yes

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:30:34 -0400

Helvetica on Mad Men. Hell yes

ericmortensen: “We on Studio B did not run the video and did...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:16:00 -0400

ericmortensen:

“We on Studio B did not run the video and did not reference the story in any way for many reasons. Among them, we didn’t know who shot it. We didn’t know when it was shot. We didn’t know the context of the statement. And because of the history of the videos on the site where it was posted. In short, we did not and do not trust the source.”

- Shepard Smith, on Andrew Breitbart and biggovernment.com

As an outsider, Shepard Smith has become the new anchor for old journalistic values while Bill O’Riley has become an anchor for independent conservatism.

In Which Four Dilbert Strips From 1992 Illustrate the Problem of...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:10:37 -0400

In Which Four Dilbert Strips From 1992 Illustrate the Problem of Buying the First iPhone 4

Jean-Louis Gassée on The Dark Side of Our Modern Heroes

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:48:27 -0400

Jean-Louis Gassée on The Dark Side of Our Modern Heroes:

We have to take the whole Steve instead of futilely hoping that he’ll shows us the “good parts” while suppressing his darker side. He’s a genius like our industry has never seen. That’s why, in January 2009, I wrote that we owe him seven statues. With the possible exception of the Dalaï Lama, our highest achievers aren’t the most pleasant of people. It’s the darker side that fuels their creativity and their relentless pursuit of a vision. If you want the life energy and the economy of his sublime drawings, you have to accept the real Picasso; you want Kind of Blue, make peace with who Miles Davis was; you want Saint-Laurent’s calligraphs on the Great Wall of Fashion, allow his behavior.

"The 21st century is a really terrible time to be a control freak."

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:51:54 -0400

““The 21st century is a really terrible time to be a control freak.””

- Jared Cohen from the State Department (via erickuhn)

Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar You might know it as the theme to...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:21:37 -0400

Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar

You might know it as the theme to How To Make it in America, I know it as the jam of the summer.

How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late: Commentary by Andy Grove - Bloomberg

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:24:16 -0400

How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late: Commentary by Andy Grove - Bloomberg:

My point isn’t that Intel was brilliant. The company was founded at a time when it was easier to scale domestically. For one thing, China wasn’t yet open for business. More importantly, the U.S. hadn’t yet forgotten that scaling was crucial to its economic future.

How could the U.S. have forgotten? I believe the answer has to do with a general undervaluing of manufacturing — the idea that as long as “knowledge work” stays in the U.S., it doesn’t matter what happens to factory jobs. It’s not just newspaper commentators who spread this idea.

(via Instapaper)

Journalists running start-ups face tall odds

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:54:19 -0400

Journalists running start-ups face tall odds:

The journalists are so busy being journalists – and, frankly, too confident that the quality of their coverage will be sufficiently compelling to attract an ever-growing audience – that they put scant effort into marketing, promoting and monetizing their sites.

Unless they invest as much deliberate effort in building audience and revenues as they do into chasing stories, the journalists run the very real risk of going broke and/or wearing themselves out before they achieve the critical mass necessary to ensure the long-term viability of their ventures.

Working without a proper business plan and hoping for best is a well known recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, that’s what most start-ups are doing.

(via Instapaper)

hogie: don’t mind me, im just commuting This is not far from...

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:46:34 -0400

hogie:

don’t mind me, im just commuting

This is not far from the truth.

Fairly certain this isn’t what the Dukes of Hazzard had in...

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:02:43 -0400

Fairly certain this isn’t what the Dukes of Hazzard had in mind.

Obama Takes Down (Wrong) Prime Minister

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:09:12 -0400

Obama Takes Down (Wrong) Prime Minister

"The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, have rights and will behave as if..."

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:26:22 -0400

“The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, have rights and will behave as if they have rights. And if you abrogate those rights, you’ll hear about it very quickly.”

- Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (via Instapaper)