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Sal Taylor Kydd, the head of product for Yahoo TV thanks you for your feedback on the new site. In the meantime I switched to TV Guide, which compares favorably to the old Yahoo TV site. There's a lesson here, one that I learned in 1984, when I shipped a new product with less functionality… Continue reading Sal Taylor Kydd

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a Happy Thanksgiving last week. I had a great time visiting family in Ohio.

Fresh ideas for micro-iSVs. By Bob Walsh One of the things you hear over and over in this business is how hard it is to find an idea to build a micro-ISV on. True! The great thing about ideas is that lots of people have them, and some do a really good job of explaining… Continue reading Fresh ideas for micro-iSVs

Attacking Bank-Card PINs. Research paper by Omer Berkman and Odelia Moshe Ostrovsky: “The Unbearable Lightness of PIN Cracking“: Abstract. We describe new attacks on the financial PIN processing API. The attacks apply to switches as well as to verification facilities. The attacks are extremely severe allowing an attacker to expose customer PINs by executing only… Continue reading Attacking Bank-Card PINs

How to make money on cars with less. With Ford and GM losing billions and millions respectively, one might think competition is turning the car game into one of slim pickings for profits. Not so, says Porsche, and posts profits of 2.7 billion dollars. What’s their secret? One overarching design that’s been stable for 40… Continue reading How to make money on cars with less

System76, Linux Hardware for Everyone. By Allison Randal Last week at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, I spoke with Carl Richell, co-founder of System76. For years I've been seeking the Nirvana of a company that would ship me professional, high-quality, Linux-only hardware. Various large companies offer half-hearted Linux options. Several sketchy-looking resellers offer brand-name hardware with… Continue reading System76, Linux Hardware for Everyone

Danger is clear – and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer. LAST month, we had the most comprehensive study to date of the economic costs and risks of global warming, and of measures that might reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in the hope of averting some of the direst consequences. [The Scotsman]

Use the right words to describe Next Actions. Merlin Mann over at 43folders.com has done it again: he's found an currently out-of-print guide which includes David Allen's lists of Project Verbs versus Next Action Verbs. Why care? Because if you describe Next Actions wrongly it's like tying your shoelaces together and then expecting to be… Continue reading Use the right words to describe Next Actions

The Need for Professional Election Officials. In the U.S., elections are run by an army of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. These are both Republicans and Democrats, and the idea is that the one group watches the other: security by competing interests. But at the top are state-elected or -appointed officials, and many election shenanigans… Continue reading The Need for Professional Election Officials

When learning and knowledge collide.  Recently I've been reading (and listening) to Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Jay Cross and Richard MacManus exploring learning networks and connective knowledge. I'm seeing a convergence and emergence of themes: Learning is an ecology – remember knowledge ecology? Connections are key – we talk relationships and patterns in knowledge work… Continue reading When learning and knowledge collide