Google may launch more than one “fiber city” in America. This cyberinfrastructure project could will be a tipping point for a few lucky cities.
Tags: experimental network, Google, Network, internet access, Research, Internet2, Broadbandt, gigabit, high speed, trends,
I humbly believe Andrew Ross Sorkin‘s Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves is not only a great read and one of the best books written about the Wall Street catastrophe — it is a rather unique history book for this crisis.
BTW: This is the best book I have read this year.
Sadly this book reads like an intense thriller. Yet the truth reveals how Wall Street’s greed and “good ol-boy network” was too dumb to act in time to save the country from falling into a recession.
Sorkin’s revelations about those so called “financial titans” were more accurately described as totally clueless to the catastrophe surrounding them. Ego — really was the chief reason for making so many horrible financial decisions. Its rather shocking especially as the impact of the crisis rippled further away from Wall Street and into the homes and businesses of everyday Americans.
I cannot think of a more striking example Sorkin described as the Board members of Bear Stearns. They voted to send the firm into Chapter 11 bankruptcy — with one board member “choosing” not to participate in the vote because he was playing in a professional card tournament in Detroit and instructed his secretary not to be interrupted.
Titans….ha! Sorkin paints a more accurate picture of these guys closer to the attitudes of the out-of-touch imperialist British monarchy. Defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography, Imperialism is “the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.” Sorkin’s reinforces this definition about that failed Wall Street Empire.
I was amused to actually see a photograph of Mitsubishi’s $9 Billion check for Morgan Stanley….yep NINE zeros. Making it probably the biggest check ever written and the IQ of everyone who supported that decision. Simply shocking.
I was looking forward to George Friedman‘s The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century. I found this to be a very compelling read due to the simple nature that predictions in general are always horribly incorrect.
Friedman’s background provides a true global, military view of the world’s future and his role at Stratfor, a global intelligence service provides direction to his book.
Yet I could not help but think twice about some of the aspects of his work. I agree with his points that in the future countries including Poland can become a superpower, but at the same time to predict in 40 years America will be at war with Mexico after fighting Japan and Turkey are a bit…on the surface, a stretch.
For the strangest reason Friedman seems to be able to tie some of his predication today. Following the fall of the USSR and the Orange Revolution not many would predict that Ukraine and Russia would sign a joint agreement in April 2010 to keep Russian Naval forces in their former communist republic in Sevastopol.
At the same time his prediction of Poland’s coming success as a global power could not have taken into account the April 2010 tragedy in Katyn. I do not believe this will stop Poland from gaining power in the future, but it appears to be slowing down (potentially) the process by a decade.
I do feel the first half of the book hold chapters that are solid and well written:
Chapter 1: The Dawn of the American Age
Chapter 2: Earthquake: The US – Jihadist War
Chapter 3: Population, Computers and Culture Wars
Chapter 4: The New Fault Lines
Chapter 5: China 2020: The Paper Tiger
However Chapters 6 – 13 layout the world order from 2020 to 2080. Again the further out the more difficult to predict IMHO. Interesting reading for sure since most today would never foresee Mexico winning a war against America.
Tags: The Next 100 years, George Friedman, 21st Century, America, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, future, reading, trends
The title of Philip Delves Broughton‘s Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School was interesting enough to jump on my reading list but when I began to see his book mentioned in blogs and on twitter I pulled it from my wish list and dropped it into my cart. It was not a mistake. The opportunity to learn about the life of a Harvard MBA candidate is a pretty interesting read.
Broughton is the former Paris bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph of London. His writing was easy, flowing and pleasant. Broughton was also very human in his approach to writing about the elite training ground for the high stress world of finance, venture capital and banking.
Broughton was also able to describe those MBA alums who spoke of those demands and losing wives and children to the long hours of business. It was a bit odd to read that more than a few alums went through the divorce process four times.
Worse yet was those few who admitted their own children did not know who they were due to those demanding hours. Most wanted their MBA to provide for their family while in fact they were losing touch with them in the process…all for the glory of wealth and fame.
And yes it was interesting to hear how his class of 2006 could land $400,000 jobs, his thirteen interviews with Google were pretty demanding.
In the end he skipped his graduation on a rainy Saturday in to take his infant son to his favorite Boston spot for cannoli. At one point in my life I would have ridiculed this man for skipping his Harvard commencement. For $175,000 (minus his new BMW — see below) you better be sure I would show up come rain or snow for that moment. Today with two small children and a backdrop of a soggy event on Harvard Square I kinda understood his decision.
I was impressed with his review of their first year known as RC: required cirriculum. The demands of Harvard’s case studies was rather impressive as their main tool for teaching. And from the looks of it those case studies required round the clock research and planning. The feel of his fellow students all aiming for post Harvard success was an interesting read, especially from the foreign students. Most of his fellow students agreed they did not want to be called upon to review a case study. The demands were extremely high and Broughton described a couple of painful episodes of his participation and those by his fellow students.
With much lower fan fare OLPC has released it’s latest attempt to bring a educational computer to the world’s children. The OLPC project has had a series of hits and misses. The initial release known as the XO-1 was received as a minor success. The expectations could not be higher — bring advanced computing to the world’s poorest students.
There is much advanced technologies in these devices. The target goal is under $100 for the 3rd generation device which is projected to ship in 2012.
OLPC received much attention since its launch with the UN, but the release of the XO-2 was scene as a break through that never materialized. With tough economic conditions and globalized part manufacturing I’m not sure OLPC will be able to ship a tablet device by 2012 but boy I would sure want them to succeed.
I believe OLPC and its supporting research groups have made a huge impact in the computing world. Before OLPC there were no netbooks….Negroponte‘s vision has already created a new marketplace.
The one real miss was the Sugar OS. Sugar was designed for children yet due to the marketplace and influence of Microsoft, OLPC has adopted Windows as a supported OS. I will never be convinced that children need to learn Microsoft Windows in order to use a child-friendly learning device.
Tags: OLPC, $100 computer, XO-3, tablet, open source, globalization, trends