There’s a really thought-provoking article by Michael Shrage in the current issue of Technology review. Shrage argues that the prime driver of IT innovation in the US has not been Microsoft or Oracle or Sun but… Wal-Mart. And this isn’t just his top-of-the-head opinion, but the conclusion of a team of economists led by Nobel laureate Robert Solow. Here’s an excerpt from Shrage’s piece:

A recent McKinsey Global Institute report analyzing the spurt in U.S. productivity growth from 1995 to 2000 proffers provocative statistics that should give champions of ‘supply-side’ innovation pause. ‘By far the most important factor in that is Wal-Mart,’ reports Robert Solow, the MIT Nobel Prize-winning economics professor emeritus who chaired the report’s advisory committee. ‘That was not expected. The technology that went into what Wal-Mart did was not brand new and not especially at the technological frontiers, but when it was combined with the firm’s managerial and organizational innovations, the impact was huge.’

Shrage goes on to ponder what would happen if Wal-Mart decided to plump for Open Source software in its next round of IT upgrades.

Hollywood Exclusive: baddies use Windows, goodies use Macs!

At last the truth is out. ” In Fox’s hit TV show, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, the villains use PCs running Microsoft Windows. The good guys, of course, use Macs.

24 traces 24 hours in the hectic life of counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer (Sutherland), who is trying to rescue his kidnapped wife and daughter while simultaneously foiling a plot to kill a presidential candidate. Each hour-long episode unfolds in real-time. The complex, fast-paced show is a surprise hit for Fox, which debuted the show in November. “

This Weblog is, of course, produced on a Mac.

Can this be true — Mazda has named one of its cars after the MP3 format? This New York Times piece reports that lots of car stereos can now handle MP3 files. It also includes a useful lay explanation of MP3 encoding — suitable for RAB purposes?

“It’s not widely known that I actually own a patent which covers the whole patenting process, and so every patent really belongs to me…”. From a comment in Quentin’s weblog on the increasing absurdity of the patenting process.

Thomas Friedman is a great columnist, but sometimes his logic baffles me. In this column, for example, he argues that one of the great merits of the Bush regime is that many of its members are nuts. You think I jest? Well, read on…

“The Europeans don’t favour any military action against Iraq, Iran or North Korea. Neither do I. But what is their alternative? To wait until Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday, who’s a bigger psychopath than his father, has bio-weapons and missiles that can hit Paris?

No, the axis-of-evil idea isn’t thought through – but that’s what I like about it. It says to these countries and their terrorist pals: “We know what you’re cooking in your bathtubs. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do about it, but if you think we are going to just sit back and take another dose from you, you’re wrong. Meet Don Rumsfeld – he’s even crazier than you are.”

There is a lot about the Bush team’s foreign policy I don’t like, but their willingness to restore our deterrence, and to be as crazy as some of our enemies, is one thing they have right.”

Following a link about Mark Taylor’s new book, I came on his latest venture — Global Education Network. It’s mission is “to work with leading professors, colleges, and universities to offer our students the highest-quality online liberal arts courses in the world.”

The only journalist I would ever trust on anything related to the Middle East is Robert Fisk. In today’s Independent, he is his usual forthright, perceptive self.

“Mr Bush knows, and certainly his secretary of state, Colin Powell, does, that there is an intimate link between the crimes against humanity of 11 September and the Middle East. After all, the killers were all Arabs, they wrote and spoke Arabic, they came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon. This much we are allowed to reflect upon.

But the moment anyone takes the next logical step and looks at the Arab world itself, we step on forbidden territory. For any analysis of the current Middle East will encounter injustice and violence and death, often the result — directly or indirectly — of the policies of the United States and its regional allies (Arab as well as Israeli).”

Radio UserLand 8.0.5 is available for download.  [Scripting News]

Microsoft Must Show Source
From Dan Gillmor’s Weblog

Reuters: Judge says Microsoft must give states Windows code. Microsoft had tried to argue that the states’ request for the code, made Tuesday, came too late before hearings due to begin next month on whether additional sanctions should apply to the company for violating U.S. antitrust laws.

The judge did the right thing. Microsoft insists that removing IE from Windows would irrevocably screw up the OS. Without access to the source, who can tell?

Microsoft could have made IE in a way that plugged into the operating system. It chose to mingle the code to ensure that IE was “an integral part” of the OS. Maybe we’ll find out, one of these days, how good a job the company did in its anticompetitive act.

Dave Winer on how “things are really weird in Silicon Valley. The Good Earth in Palo Alto, one of the icons of our culture, shut down. That’s where I had dinner with Doug Engelbart, and lots of other cool people who call this place home. Up and down University Ave, the main commercial street of Palo Alto and Stanford University, are For Lease signs. Niehaus-Ryan, one of the highest flying PR firms of the Dotcom Boom, shut down last week. I read Nick Denton’s essay on what a stinky place this is, and while I share some of his snobbish attitude (I’m from NY) I look forward to the day when the carpetbaggers who came here seeking unearned fortune, go home. They fucked this place bigtime. Even as they leave they fuck us. Poor manners. I can’t afford to be so cavalier, because I am invested, with a company that’s based here, and I own a house and some land. “[Scripting News]