Barack Obama in St Louis. From the Huffington Post.
Netbooks on the rise
From Register Hardware
First Gartner and now IDC has highlighted the rise of the Small, Cheap Computer as one of key product categories keeping the European PC market afloat.
Laptops too are helping keep vendors’ heads above water, and together with the SCCs helped shipments of all types of personal computer grow 27 per cent year on year during Q3, IDC said.
Notebook shipments were up 52 per cent when comparing Q3 2008 with Q3 2007. SCC shipment growth can’t really be considered since the first one, the Eee PC 701, didn’t go on sale until Q4 2007, and up to that point the only alternative, the UMPC, didn’t really trouble the score-keeper.
We can say that European netbook shipments went from zero in Q3 2007 to over 2m in Q3 2008, a figure that’s just under ten per cent of the 27.9m PCs shipped into Europe in Q3 this year.
This is a good illustration of the Law of Unintended Consequences. All of this NetBook activity dates from the appearance of the OLPC.
BBC view of open source
Interesting insight into a corporate mindset provided by its rules for developers. They include:
# The software must have no or negligible commercial application or value, and is unlikely, if licensed, to bring revenue back to the BBC.
# The software is ‘non-mission critical’, and there are not likely to be any competitive uses of the software which might enable a third party to profit from the BBC’s investment.
# The BBC intends to re-use the software and it is therefore of direct benefit to the BBC to have it examined and tested by the wider population.
# Internal feedback from use of the software solely within the BBC is not as beneficial to the BBC as external feedback.
# There has been full internal testing of the software and the BBC is satisfied that the risk of damage arising from the use of the software by third parties is negligible.
The Twittering utilitarian
O yikes! I’m laid low by a horrible streaming cold after two very intense work-weeks and so I logged onto Twitter (first time I’ve been online in nearly 24 hours) to alert my friends to this fact. I tweeted “Sneezing, coughing and spluttering with a horrible cold”. And then found a tweet from Charles Arthur pointing to a Blog post which suggests that he may ‘unfollow’ me. He takes a strict, non-nonsense line on these matters, viz:
First: what I like is people pointing me to interesting stuff. Which generally means people who include links to interesting stuff in their tweets. When people don’t have those sorts of things in their tweets, and when it really is the unexamined life (”Having cup of coffee” “Eating biscuit”) then I’m afraid I’m not interested. I love ya and all that, but I’d like to get something done. And for me that means finding a fresh perspective, not knowing that you still have a pulse and a functioning brainstem.
What does this mean?
If people start using Qwitter and ask me why I’ve unfollowed them, I’ll point them to this post. It’s simple really. In an attention economy, there’s only so much time I can listen to what colour your curtains are. Then, I’ve got to get on and earn some money. Please, no hurt feelings though.
So there you have it: useful stuff only. To be fair, Charles also provides some cute Applescript for quick-posting of links to Twitter.
I can see what he’s getting at. Some Twitterers (e.g. Dave Winer) are terrific at providing a constant stream of interesting links. But actually one of the things I like about Twitter is that it also enables me to know about the trivial detail of friends’ lives.
On this day…
… in 1931, Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939. Wonder if any of the authors of WallStreetCrash 2.0 will go to gaol?
The G-phone: first review
David Pogue has had a good look at the first G-phone to roll off the line. It’s a useful review. His conclusion:
So there’s your G1 report card: software, A-. Phone, B-. Network, C.
So here’s what will happen. 1. The software (done by Google) will improve rapidly. 2. Phone manufacturers will eventually produce a suitable handset. 3. The phone will be available on all networks in due course. All this will take a while, so my hunch is that the iPhone has a clear run for the time being.
I’m still tempted to try a G-phone when it arrives in the UK next month, though.
US polling summary
FiveThirtyEight.com is a terrific site. Thanks to Hap for telling me about it.
Cambridge joins Icelandic support society
Well, well. The Icesaver saga gets more interesting by the hour. Here’s today’s Telegraph…
A series of official Government statements yesterday showed that several universities, as well as hospitals, police forces, charities and more than 100 local councils are now potentially facing financial crises after being blocked from accessing funds in Icelandic banks adding up to at least £1.164 billion.
Cambridge disclosed it had £8.5 million in Heritable, a subsidiary of the failed Landsbanki, and £2.5m in Glitnir, but said that the funds represented just three per cent of its total bank deposits.
Another 11 universities meanwhile, including Manchester University, the Open University, Glyndwr University, based in Wrexham, and Manchester Metropolitan University have deposits in Icelandic banks adding up to £66 million.
A Cambridge spokesman said: “We have alerted HEFC (the Higher Education Funding Council) and we are seeking to have a concerted recovery effort with the other British universities affected.”
One of the funniest things about these depositors is that they all solemnly explain that they poured money down the Icelandic drain after taking the best possible “professional advice”. Who are these mysterious advisers? And shouldn’t someone now be sueing them for negligence?
My schedule, not yours
This is an interesting development for those of us who follow the decline of push media.
Online and DVR audiences for the three Tina Fey skits on “Saturday Night Live” spoofing Sarah Palin were twice the size of the original television audience, according to data released Friday by Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI), a provider of consumer behavior and audience exposure data to media companies and advertisers.
Among all the people who saw at least one of the three SNL sketches, 33% watched it on television during the original broadcast and a staggering 67% watched after the original broadcast either online or on a DVR.
“This is the first time we’ve seen delayed viewing numbers this big,” said Amanda Welsh, head of research for San Mateo, Calif.-based IMMI. “Usually it’s the other way around, with the overwhelming majority of viewing occurring during the actual broadcast.”
Krugman’s prize
Hooray! Paul Krugman has been awarded the Nobel Prize for economics. Here’s why. Better explanation here. Bet Bush & Co are pissed off. And already the fruitcake right is spluttering about it.