Our digital planet is being transformed every day by new ideas and inventions. In this fascinating Fast Company article, Farhad Manjoo describes how Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are battling for the future of the innovation economy. If you want to better understand how the “Fab Four” will change your life over the next few years, this feature-length essay is well worth reading.
fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook
In this NPR Fresh Air interview, Terry Gross talks to the article’s author, Farhad Manjoo.
npr.org/2011/11/03/141976518/the-war-between-google-amazon-facebook-apple
Here’s a quote from the first edition of Digital Planet (then called Computer Currents), written almost two decades ago:
“It seems likely that, at some time in the future, machines will be able to do most of the jobs people do today. We may face a future of jobless growth–a time when productivity increases, not because of the work people do but because of the work of machines. If productivity isn’t tied to employment, we’ll have to ask some hard questions about our political, economic, and social system…”
Back then, this prediction seemed farfetched to most people. This NPR story about the Race Against the Machine conference suggests it’s not farfetched anymore.
www.npr.org/2011/11/03/141949820/how-technology-is-eliminating-higher-skill-jobs
In this five-minute TED talk, Ian Ritchie gives one of the best short answers to this question we’ve seen. At the same time, he confesses to making a multi-million dollar misjudgment. Fascinating and fun.
[ted id=1244]
Steve Jobs has been called one of the greatest visionaries of our time. In this brilliant, inspiring 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Jobs reflects on life, death, and values. This man lived every day as if it was his last, and changed the world in the process.
news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
For three years a worm called Conficker has been wiggling its way into computers around the world, creating a massive botnet that has the potential to wreak havoc on the Internet. In this chilling NPR interview, author Mark Bowden explains to Fresh Air’s Terry gross how this little-known worm threatens our networks, our livelihoods, and our lives.
npr.org/2011/09/27/140704494/the-worm-that-could-bring-down-the-internet
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QR Codes–those odd, pixellated squares that are popping up on everything from business cards to billboards–are designed to make it easy for people to use their phones to get more information quickly. But as this NPR story suggests, a newer technology called near-field communication has the potential to make QR codes seem as old-fashioned as Pac-Man.
If you’d like to try making your own QR codes for free, like the one pictured here (the code for this site) try this Online QR Generator.
Is software taking over the world? In this Wall Street Journal article, Mark Andreessen argues that it is taking over the economic world. Most of today’s business stars, are, at some level, software companies. His predictions about the future of global business and the American economy are worth thinking about.
The world of programming is dominated by males and money. But there’s a movement afoot to change the gender balance and, at the same time, the factors that motivate programmers.
This Fast Company article describes Hampton Hackathon for Humanity, a gathering of young female programmers intent on making the world a better place.
Wrist communicators were popular in science fiction and comic strips decades ago. Are they going to take off in the real world soon? This Fast Company article speculates about what might happen when a wrist watch connects to a smart phone. Is this the next small thing?