I have always held the opinion that you should have no expectation of ‘privacy’ or ‘ownership’ for anything posted to Facebook, and now this has spread to encompass Instagram, who were recently ‘acquired’ by Facebook, for what – in many peoples opinion – was a ludicrously large sum of money.. Now there has been a – justified … Continue reading →
So – predictably – the UK and US refused to endorse the less-then-subtle attempt by a UN body to ‘regulate’ the flow of information across the ‘net.. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9743911/UN-internet-talks-collapse-as-Britain-and-US-refuse-to-sign-treaty.html Once these two nations made their position clear, the usual group of ‘Western’ nations followed suite, including Canada, New Zealand, and – of course – Sweden… Despite the best … Continue reading →
These days, both Microsoft and Apple derive a significant portion of their revenue from what are – effectively – ‘cash cows’, with relatively small investment costs giving large – and continuing – returns.. Now, the companies are fighting over two of these.. MS Office from Microsoft, and the App Store from Apple.. http://allthingsd.com/20121211/microsoft-pressing-apple-to-take-a-smaller-cut-on-sales-inside-office-for-ios/ Basically, both think that … Continue reading →
The UN has – in many peoples estimation – singularly failed to live up to its remit, in so many areas.. Now there is a proposal to had over ‘control’ of the Web to a UN Agency that is unaccountable in so many ways, at the upcoming ‘World Conference on International Telecommunications’ (WCIT, or ‘wicket‘): http://www.siliconvalley.com/mike-cassidy/ci_22100695/cassidy-dubai-internet-conference-threatens-our-wide-web The … Continue reading →
It is worth mentioning, with the current fuss over the Autonomy buy-out, that HP has a relatively unhappy history with regard to its acquisitions… Going back to the 80s, HP bought out a Unix workstation rival – Apollo – that soon vanished without trace, and led to one of the HP co-founders – Dave Packard – briefly … Continue reading →
Leo Apotheker is starting to look like one of the most disaster-prone CEOs in recent Silicon Valley history, after his brief but shambolic tenure at HP.. Now, another of his overpriced and ill-judged ventures – the acquisition of UK-based Autonomy – has taken an ugly turn, with the revelation that the deal may have been tainted by … Continue reading →
After all the emotion and upheaval at Microsoft recently, (see my previous post..) the news that Intel’s CEO is retiring seems to have spurred another frenzy of speculation.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/19/intel_otellini_retires/ I don’t think this is justified, as it is – after all – the end of another year, and Otellini probably decided that this was as good a … Continue reading →
After the less-than-stellar launch of Windows 8, now comes the shock departure of the Microsoft executive responsible – Steven Sinofsky: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/11/12/microsoft-shocker-windows-president-steven-sinofsky-out/ The sudden departure is a surprise, and the usual gushing platitudes – probably dictated through gritted teeth – do little to downplay the drama.. It was well-known that Sinofsky did not ‘play well with others’, and … Continue reading →
It could be argued that the classic Venture Capitalist (VC) is the ultimate example of hubris in the modern world.. An irrationally positive belief, that – despite the odds – the money poured into an otherwise irrational venture will lead to that pot of gold.. Now it is being reported that VC capital is in danger of … Continue reading →
I use Ghostery, (http://www.ghostery.com) but have found than some sites just don’t work properly, unless you ‘unblock’ certain trackers.. Examples are Disqus (http://disqus.com) for some of the ‘outsourced’ discussion forums on news sites, and one closer to home is Adobe Typekit, which is used to provide a source of fonts for many of the WordPress Themes.. So, … Continue reading →