February 23, 2012
Romney’s plan relies on “dynamic effects”, which means hoping for economic growth stemming from tax cuts for the rich.
Also known as sitting around waiting for unicorns to come by and sprinkle magic pixie dust to spur economic growth.
Financial Times, 4:48pm Wednesday February 22nd, 2012
Obama and Romney unveil rival tax plans
February 23, 2012
The Mozilla Labs Apps project aims to establish a people-centric Apps ecosystem that provides freedom, choice and opportunity for users and developers.
That is what it is all about….
Mozilla Marketplace Opening for App Submissions Soon | The Mozilla Blog.
February 23, 2012
… convince a judge, get a warrant.”
Classic!
https://www.youtube.com/v/2xfwJ2magpw&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3
February 23, 2012
Being a hub for app developers is a key part of our strategy. We love developers and are doing everything we can to make it dead simple to develop for the Mozilla Marketplace.
To my mind, there aren’t web developers and native developers… there are just developers who want an audience, discoverability and a solid platform to show their wares.
We agree and Mozilla is right there with them
This is Mozilla’s chance to become a major player in the mobile ecosystem. It can chip away at the base of the native platforms while setting itself up to be the location that developers flock to with mobile Web apps. The ability to become a central hub of developer activity is what has made Apple and Google’s mobile platforms so lucrative.
via Mozilla is Placing Itself in Position to be the King of the Mobile Web.
February 22, 2012
The Death Star clearly has a garbage-disposal problem. Given its size and massive personnel, the amount of waste it generates — discarded food, broken equipment, excrement, and the like — boggles the imagination. That said, I just cannot fathom how an organization as ruthless and efficiently-run as the Empire would have signed off on such a dangerous, unsanitary, and shoddy garbage-disposal system as the one depicted in the movie.
Hard to argue logic….
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: On the Implausibility of the Death Star’s Trash Compactor..
February 22, 2012
So the benefits of web apps to a developer are obvious and are summed up neatly here:
Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner who has been briefed on Mozilla’s plans, called them a win for software developers and “an interesting business challenge to the traditional lock-in ecosystem,” but said it’s hard to know how much demand there will be.
“We have a path over the hill. We don’t know if there’s a big city, or a little town, on the other side,” Dulaney said.
But yes, the point is well raised, will consumers be taken by web apps?
My answer is clearly, yes.
Why?
1) We are all becoming multi-device, multi-platform people (even Apple fankids). We want to share apps between devices
2) Those who are single device/platform people live in multi-device/platform families. Even if love your platform, you love your family more and you want to share info, files, updates with them
3) Finding content is fun. Remember when it was actually fun to discover new content? Web apps will find an audience because the experience of finding content is easier/faster/better/ and yes… more fun than banging your head against the app store garden wall
4) There will be better content: Web is easier to develop for and deploy to. That attracts innovation. That attracts better, more timely content. That attracts an audience. That attracts more innovative content. A web app virtuous circle.
5) People care about content, not technology. Debating web apps is fun for techno-geeks, but 99% of normal people couldn’t care less. They want to turn on a device, not worry about compatibility issues, OS’s, plug-ins, etc and just find their content. No other technology in the world can promise that kind of ease. You turn on the device, any device, anywhere in the world, and the web apps are just there.
The promise of better content, better discoverability, easier sharing, and always on access…. so remind me, why won’t consumers flock to web apps?
Mozilla to challenge big players in mobile web – San Jose Mercury News.
February 22, 2012
Nice Netflix! Yes, 2011 may have been a bit of a nightmare but you are bouncing back.
Sure, The Artist may be a little esoteric (I haven’t seen it… but given it is a French silent film, I feel that’s a good guess) but it is a harbinger for other clever content deals to come.
And here is a sneak peak at those deals:
As Netflix faces increased competition from cable companies and streaming competitors such as Amazon and Hulu Plus, the company is angling to sign as many of these exclusive deals as it can. The company is also pushing head-first into developing original scripted content.
Sorry, HBO and Showtime: Netflix Will Get ‘The Artist’ First.
February 18, 2012
In Canada, when you hear government, civic or industry leaders talk about what makes the country attractive for business, they inevitably fall back on tax benefits.
I’m not saying taxes aren’t important, but to be honest, the answer largely misses the point, especially from a talent perspective.
It is not all about pay (or taxes- ed) either. As one HR director told the authors, intelligent people will only stay “if you can offer them a great place in which to express their cleverness and other clever people to work with.” In this sense, the challenge of keeping hold of your best people forces the employer to ask how to make the organization more attractive and offer them a more valuable experience.
What is true for a company is true for a country (at least, in this instance.) That is why we talk so much about building an “ecosystem” in Canada. If the ecosystem keeps losing because people leave, or are acquired to the US, or don’t even set up shop to begin with, for the people that stay there is a lack of interaction or opportunity to work with other ambitious people or organizations. And that is a greater negative than any high or low tax rate.
Also, other clever people won’t enter or return to the region because they don’t want to be part of a muted ecosystem where from the outset there is limited opportunity to learn and grow.
To think more critically on how to encourage talented people to stay or move to Canada, the focus has to be less on things like taxes and more on how to build opportunities for people to move from one career to another and yet still stay be a contributing part of the local ecosystem.
Corporate war for talent is being waged worldwide – The Globe and Mail.
February 16, 2012
The easy ability to manage content on a phone or tablet and then send that content to a larger screen is a fundamentally disruptive technology that will trouble old business models and, more excitingly, enable new ones.
Up until now, moving content around was a big pain. It required cables, laptops, fining the right blank channel on a TV…. and even after you figured all that out it still seldom worked.
A company that I love and work with, ShinyArt, is trying to find new ways to display video art and believe me, letting people sift through video art, find what they like, and then displaying it is no small task.
AirPlay on the iPad was cool… AirPlay everywhere? Amazing
Apple Is Going To Anger A Lot Of Big Media Companies With AirPlay On The Mac.
