I wonder how our Senators (Feingold & Kohl) respond when the MPAA and RIAA lobbyists stop by? Do they think about our fair use rights, like John McCain? McCain put a stop to H.R. 4077 because of valid concerns about whether the freedoms it granted (to enable parents to filter “smut” from films) would be read to deny fair use in other cases (note that the MPAA and RIAA are masters of wrapping their rent taking strategies in the flag). Via Lessig
Monthly Archives: November 2004
Tom Peters on K-Mart & Sears
“Thud or maybe no one cares” – Tom Peters on news of the K-Mart/Sears deal.
Gartenberg on DRM
Michael Gartenberg takes a look at Digital Restrictions Management (DRM):
The issue of DRM has been raised again in recent weeks when Apple ?broke? a popular utility that allowed users to bypass the DRM built into the iPod and allowed copying from the iPod to a PC. Consumers, the argument goes, are against any DRM for their media and will not buy protected music.
10 Reasons to Shy Away From Venture Capital
Peter Ireland on antiventurecapital:
The decision to chase venture capital is often a tempting distraction from the much more complex and important entrepreneurial tasks of creating something to sell and persuading someone to buy it. The pursuit of venture capital is sometimes a means by which to postpone the day of reckoning when the marketplace finally decides if the idea will fly.
GPS & Speech Recognition help Blind People use Public Transport
The basic user components of Noppa are a mobile phone that’s loaded with speech-recognition software and a Bluetooth GPS unit. The Bluetooth connection is used to get real-time bus and train data (the kind that appears on bus stop signs and train platforms to users know when their vehicle is about to arrive).
Classic Thanksgiving Recipes
Andrew Gauthier remembers his 1993 Thanksgiving, along with some other food options of the day (Crystal Pepsi, Pizza Hut Big Foot Pizza). He begins: Overall, 1993 was an exceptional year to be a fat kid……
Wisconsin Institution for Discovery
Nathaniel Liedl on Governor Doyle’s plans to build a $375M research institution on the UW Campus:
The facility would include specialists in biochemistry, nanotechnology, computer engineering and bioinformatics, which would ease collaboration between scientists of different backgrounds, Doyle said during the press conference.
According to UW Chancellor John Wiley, the facility would occupy the entire block between University Avenue, West Johnson and North Charter streets and North Randall Avenue.
?We are replacing one of the ugliest blocks on campus,? Wiley said during the conference.
The Psychology Department will likely be moved to Sterling Hall. The UW Physical Plant would be relocated to the space Lot 51 currently occupies.
The End for Sears & Lands End?
Doris Hajewski writes that K-Mart’s takeover of Sears likely means a sale of Lands End.
Michael Porter: Solving the Health Care Conundrum
Harvard Strategy Guru Michael Porter on Solving the Health Care Conundrum. He summarized some key learnings here:
- The U.S. health care system is a paradox in that it has competition yet fails to deliver improving value.
- The root cause of these problems is that the competition taking place has been the wrong kind.
- The key to addressing these problems is moving to value-based, positive-sum competition.
- Moving to value-based competition has important strategic implications for providers as well as health plans and employers.
30 Teeth Pulled A Day
I had a wisdom tooth pulled last week – unplanned, after a painful few days. The professionals who did the job quickly told me that they do this 30 times per day…. Much, much better now.