Month: July 2003

Markoff: “Mr. Wozniak described WozNet as a simple and inexpensive wireless network that uses radio signals and global positioning satellite data to keep track of a cluster of inexpensive tags within a one- or two-mile radius of each base station.” [Scripting News]

Inc.com redesigns with standards. Another business website has redesigned with web standards. Inc.com's table-free CSS layout and XHTML structure cut page weight by over 50% in the markup alone. Over 11,000 pages were cleaned up and validated. Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits and the Fast Company/Inc. internal web team supervised the redesign and provides a brief… Continue reading Inc.com redesigns with standards

Amazon Plan Would Allow Searching Texts of Many Books. Amazon.com is negotiating with book publishers to assemble a searchable online archive with the texts of thousands of nonfiction books. By David D. Kirkpatrick. [New York Times: Books]

Safety first?. US auto fatalities are at a 12-year high. Eighty percent of the increase since 2001 is due to rollover accidents. The rollover rate for SUVs is three times higher than for cars. You do the math. Millions of Americans buy these things because the think they are safer. Our government policies create huge… Continue reading 12-year high

Wired.  The business of weblogging for bucks.  More on the way for the Weblog Network now that I have my weblog back up.  “Niche, niche and niche, that's the name of the game. You can't just start a site/blog just because you love it, and there are 1,000 other sites like that out there. Unless… Continue reading Wired

Canning spam. Spontaneous end-to-end communication used to be the Internet's magic ingredient. But scarcity of IPv4 address space and legions of vandals resulted in NATs and firewalls. Now, unfiltered end-to-end communication happens, for the most part, by invitation only. Until recently, the lone exception was e-mail. You didn't need permission to contact someone by e-mail,… Continue reading Canning spam

John Robb is back. John Robb is back, located now at MindPlex.org. [via Bryan Strawser][tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

Tim Bray on Technology Adoption. As usual, Tim's got some great stuff to read: People, on average and in the long term, aren't stupid and aren't patient and aren't cowards. When there's an obviously better way to get the job done, they go out and get it, and management can't stop them, and Forrester and… Continue reading Tim Bray on Technology Adoption

Oligopoly brief: Clear Channel Clear Channel is the dominant player in the radio business. The company owns 1,240 AM and FM stations across the United States. It owns stations in 248 of the top 250 radio markets. As one writer puts it, ” Clear Channel in particular dominates the Top 40 format (KIIS-FM in Los… Continue reading

Oligopoly brief: Clear Channel

Clear Channel is the dominant player in the radio business. The company owns 1,240 AM and FM stations across the United States. It owns stations in 248 of the top 250 radio markets. As one writer

Boise Casade buys OfficeMax Boise Cascade announced that it will acquire the OfficeMax office supplies superstore chain for $1.115 billion. While Boise Cascade is by origin a wood and paper company, in recent years, all of its profits and a substantial portion of its income have come from the sale of office products. In fact… Continue reading

Boise Casade buys OfficeMax

Boise Cascade announced that it will acquire the OfficeMax office supplies superstore chain for $1.115 billion. While Boise Cascade is by origin a wood and paper company, in recent years, all of its profits and a substantial portion of its income have come from the sale of office products. In fact with $3.6 billion in office supply sales in 2002, Boise Cascade is almost as big in that area as OfficeMax ($4.8 billion). The difference is that OfficeMax serves individuals and small business with its (around 1,000) retail outlets, while Boise Cascade sells directly to large businesses nationwide and in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (over 40 offices).

For OfficeMax, it is a survival move. The company is far smaller than its rivals