- In case you are not familiar with the SBIC, it is a federally funded investment program that invests alongside venture funds that are SBIC approved. To be honest, my knowledge of the program is pretty high level, but I do know that they pump a lot of $$ into the private equity market, and their future is in jeopardy.
- an interview with Samsung's design group chief. My favorite quote: "Just as a lizard cuts off its own tail to move on, we will have to break with the past to move forward." Thanks Paul for the link.
- Intel's developer journal is focused on something they are calling the "proactive enterprise". There is really far too much in here for me to comment on effectively, but it's definitely worth the read, especially the parts about self-configuring services.
- video games I want for Christmas include Ghost Recon 2, GTA San Andreas, Full Spectrum Warrior, Brothers in Arms, and Tony Hawks' Underground 2. I think I watched too much Spike TV on Thanksgiving (Bond, James Bond), the trailers for video games were intoxicating. As a sidenote, Ghost Recon 2 has been outlawed in South Korea for being too real, interesting.
- and for the gear geeks in your life, here's a handy holiday buying guide. The Swiss Army knife with USB storage is hot.
- and while I'm on the topic of games, the latest processor technology hitting the market is in the area of multi-core processors (think muliple processors on a single die). This is serious high performance stuff, and where is IBM's leading edge multicore 64 bit Power architecture processor targeted? Playstation 3.
- how ideas and innovation flow across company boundaries. This is a really interesting article on small network dynamics, and I think this has implications for something I'm really interested in, how social network software facilitates ad-hoc workgroup collaboration within the enterprise.
- Nick Gray sent me this article that explores some paradoxes in economic policies of India.
- The major credit rating agencies are moving to offer credit histories online... a move that inspires much fear and little confidence.
- as I have written about previously, the debate about offshoring/outsourcing should really be a debate about the state of our nations education system.
- Cuban lays into The Donald one more time in the ongoing 'my tv show is better than yours' battle.
- RFID comes to the MagiCook Kitchen for children.
- yeah, I prefer Windows to the Mac as well, and I guess you could apply this list to explain why I prefer Windows to Linux (on the desktop).
- VC's don't create jobs. I suppose this is kind of like the old adage that guns don't kill people, people kill people.
- how many mobile phones do you need? This got me thinking about how many I have in our household. Let me count, I have a Blackberry and a sepate mobile phone (I don't like using the berry as a phone), and I also have 2 other handsets that I can swap my SIM card into, so that is technically 4 phones with 2 numbers. My wife has her phone, and another phone that is built into her car, so that is 2 phones with 2 numbers. Total: 4 numbers, 6 phone handsets.
- this is good news. The one thing that I really hate about traveling in Germany is that it's too damn hard to find a Starbucks so I can get a grande nonfat latte.
- the creators of Wikipedia are getting into journalism with Wikinews. Cool.
- SBC is taking on T-Mobile for the King of Wifi crown, Barnes and Noble bookstores, and Avis are among the expanding number of hotspots.
OK, the Starbucks news is GREAT news. We have one in Heidelberg but I want MORE, like one in the drive-up to SAP. BUT, one major issue that is a problem. No non-fat milk yet, just low-fat at this point. Yeah, it's a minor quib, but still a pain-in-the-a$$.
On a positive note: the folks working at the Starbucks in Heidelberg are by far the nicest I have ever run into at a Starbucks and I've been to their coffee shops all over the place in and outside of the U.S. Bonus points for that folks!
Posted by: Paul | Nov 30, 2004 at 12:32 AM
you will be assimilated. First it was Coca-Cola, then McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks are next.
Bummer about the non-fat milk, I guess they figure the cigarette smoking washes out the fat content in other kinds of milk so it all works out ;)
Posted by: jeff | Nov 30, 2004 at 07:00 AM