Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• James Piereson: The Truth About the 'One Percent' - WSJ.com

  • It is a fool's errand to try to raise the living standards of the bottom 60% through higher income taxes on the top 1% or 0.1%.
  • The shift in incomes in favor of the wealthy has been due to several large forces, including a world-wide boom in asset prices, the rise of global markets, and technological innovation that has increased the earning power of the well educated.
  • At a time of slow economic growth, mounting government debt, a stalemated politics and the impending retirement of the "baby boomers," the attacks on the "one percent" look more and more like a diversion from the nation's real problems.

• At Newark Airport, the Lights Are On, and They're Watching You - NYTimes.com

  • Using an array of sensors and eight video cameras around the terminal, the light fixtures are part of a new wireless network that collects and feeds data into software that can spot long lines, recognize license plates and even identify suspicious activity, sending alerts to the appropriate staff.
  • The light fixtures are outfitted with special chips and connect to sensors, cameras and one another over a wireless network. Data that is collected — say, a particular car pulling up to the terminal — can then be mined and analyzed for a broad range of applications

• Apple exploring cars, medical devices to reignite growth - SFGate

  • The newspaper has also learned that Apple is heavily exploring medical devices, specifically sensor technology that can help predict heart attacks. Led by Tomlinson Holman, a renowned audio engineer who invented THX and 10.2 surround sound, Apple is exploring ways to predict heart attacks by studying the sound blood makes at it flows through arteries.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Change the Way Stock Prices Are Quoted to Help the Economy? The S.E.C. Is Skeptical - NYTimes.com

  • The Small Capital Liquidity Act largely adopted the task force’s recommendation but, this being Congress, takes it even further. The act would set up a five-year program in which all public companies with a market capitalization below $750 million would no longer have their stocks quoted in pennies. Instead, shares will be quoted in 5-cent increments or, if the company chooses, 10-cent increments. Companies would also have a one-time chance to opt out of the program altogether.

• http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/Filing/FilingInfoTop.aspx?FilingID=9713820-806-380347&type=sect&TabIndex=2&companyid=3687&ppu=%252fdefault.aspx%253fcik%253d715446

• Manufacturing in Africa: An awakening giant | The Economist

  • The World Bank has been suggesting for several years that Asian manufacturing jobs could migrate to Africa

• Why 'Gen Z' May Be More Entrepreneurial Than 'Gen Y' | Entrepreneur.com

  • Gen Z, those born between 1994 and 2010 -- a group that's comprised of high school students and younger, and is poised to become the most entrepreneurial generation we've ever seen.
  • Also considered "The internet generation", this is by far the most tech savvy, connected and self-educated group. While Gen Y is known for "side gigs" and having multiple careers, Gen Z is more focused on working for themselves.

• Report: NSA bulk metadata program doesn't cover cellphones | Ars Technica

  • According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, which cites anonymous sources, the NSA's telephony metadata program only "collects data for about 20 percent or less of that data, primarily because it doesn't cover records for most cellphones.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• 2 Market Bubbles Finally Burst, Crush Shareholders [3D Systems Corporation, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust] - Seeking Alpha

  • every time AAII bullish sentiment has dipped below 25% during this bull market, the S&P 500 Index went on to rally over the next six months
  • February is the second-worst month for the Dow
  • However, it's essentially a flat month, which is followed by two of the most consistently profitable months of the year.

• Failure to Understand Bitcoin Could Cost Investors Billions | Casey Research

  • Bitcoin is an excellent technology, with many very good use cases. But for the average end user—be it an individual wanting to pay for goods or a merchant wanting to accept payments—the new reality of those risks will be more than they can swallow

  • Bitcoin gives us, for the first time, a way for one Internet user to transfer a unique piece of digital property to another Internet user, such that the transfer is guaranteed to be safe and secure, everyone knows that the transfer has taken place, and nobody can challenge the legitimacy of the transfer. The consequences of this breakthrough are hard to overstate.

     

      What kinds of digital property might be transferred in this way? Think about digital signatures, digital contracts, digital keys (to physical locks, or to online lockers), digital ownership of physical assets such as cars and houses, digital stocks and bonds … and digital money.

  • In addition, merchants are highly attracted to Bitcoin because it eliminates the risk of credit card fraud. This is the form of fraud that motivates so many criminals to put so much work into stealing personal customer information and credit card numbers
  • Bitcoin is a monumental technical achievement in its simplicity and effectiveness. But just as the dot-com era overestimated the impact of the Web in the short term by several orders of magnitude (a hype-filled time during which Mr. Andreessen made his initial fortune selling a piece of free software to AOL, only to see it fall from grace and never monetize) so too do investors risk once again pouring billions into the currency equivalents of Web Van and Pets.com, failing to analyze all the dynamics of the market in which it competes
  • And dealing in currency requires protection of government and consumer interests—neither of which Bitcoin is well suited to

• New CEO Nadella Tells Customers Microsoft 'Very Confident' In Software For Mobile, Cloud - Forbes

  • The co-evolution of hardware and software is going to define a lot of what’s going to happen..Everything is going to be connected to cloud and data…All of this will be mediated by software.”

• Obamacare will push 2 million workers out of labor market: CBO - Washington Times

  • Obamacare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out altogether, according to the latest estimates Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office.
  • the health care law’s incentives are driving businesses and people to choose government-sponsored benefits rather than work

• The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World. - NYTimes.com

  • the current recovery has been driven almost entirely by the upper crust,

• This Cloud Thing Is Real - Microsoft Reportedly Appointing Cloud Tzar Nadella As CEO - Forbes

  • the head of Microsoft’s cloud division, Satya Nadella, looks set to be its next CEO
  • Microsoft has struggled with a good response to the dual iOS/Android device and marketplace strength

• When Your App Is in the Cloud - NYTimes.com

  • The telecom gear business has not been touched by the crushing economics of software delivered via cloud computing, the kind of low-price, high-versatility product that has caused so many problems for companies making business software, and for many traditional high-cost computer hardware makers.

• Market Daily News

  • The report found that the most vulnerable workers were those that followed well-defined procedures that were executed on a repeated basis. Jobs such as factory and warehouse workers, paralegals, payroll administrators, office assistants, and retail salespeople are but a few of the repetitive jobs that developers can write code for.
  • While eliminating repetitive middle-class jobs through software automation seems to be inevitable, a dire future also lies in wait for many upper middle-class jobs requiring higher cognitive skills. An increasing commoditization of their skillset will occur through cloud-based technologies.
  • Right now there is approximately a billion square feet of vacant retail space in the United States.
  • While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen from 19.8 weeks to 37.1 weeks.
  • According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program each month.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Infrastructure Takes On Engagement - In Photos: Forrester: Top Technology Trends For 2014 And Beyond - Forbes

  • leading companies are changing silo unified communications and collaboration, mobile device management and desktop computing to more efficiently deliver and foster employee engagement and innovation

• With AirWatch, VMware gets phones and tablets and a toehold in Internet of Things - Tech News and Analysis

  • the desktop category — now under fire as more users make their tablets or smart phones their primary device — isn’t going away any time soon. “They are the devices of yesterday and today, phones are the devices of today and tomorrow and machines and sensors are the devices of tomorrow,

• AirWatch Competitors Happy About Big MDM Exit - Forbes

  • “It’s a good time to be in enterprise mobility,”
  • MDM gives companies a way to set protocols and secure their employees’ smartphones.  The space has undergone consolidation for several years.
  • VMWare’s purchase will put pressure on remaining independent competitors to sell within the next 12 months.

  • Buyers, like IBM, are placing the “economy” of the Bring Your Own Device(BYOD)  to work phenomenon through M&A, said Christopher Clark, president of Fiberlink. “They’re building a mobile IT stack” through serial acquisition-making that allows for “collaboration, sequencing, securing and implementing apps” on employees’ mobile devices.

     

    The AirWatch-VMWare deal “validates how big and strategic” MDM is

• Cloud Computing's Paradox: More IT, But Less IT Management - Forbes

  • Gartner, the analyst firm created by and for technology professionals, has been predicting that IT departments will be dissolved and dispersed into the business units they serve

• The Astonishing Secrets That Zendolphin Never Told You…Exposed! | The Fastlane Forum: Entrepreneur and Startup Discussion

  • Love others. Drop the greed because it will blind you to opportunities for more ice cream around you. When you harness this mindset for a long enough amount of time, you will see the abundance of possibilities and
  • "The moment you stop caring about money is the moment you start making money

• The New Hotel Key: Your Smartphone - WSJ.com

  • Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology. The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible

• Ken Braun: Big Labor didn't build the middle class | MLive.com

  • Unable to claim credit for creating actual products, union apologists will fall back on the assertion they “built the middle class.” The UAW example shows this too is a dubiously sourced accomplishment
  • From here forward, middle class jobs will come from smart decisions made by the leaders of American free enterprise - entrepreneurs and executives at companies large and small. Exploitation of workers is most likely to happen when Big Labor bosses cash in the dues money and go to Disney World

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.