Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• 3 Worries for Citrix Systems in 2014 (CTXS)

  • Microsoft is believed to be working on a desktop-as-a-service product, titled Mohoro, that could be released around the middle of 2014. It isn't clear how this will influence Microsoft and Citrix's traditionally close working relationship

• Wearables: one-third of consumers abandoning devices | Technology | theguardian.com

  • strengthened by research from Endeavour Partners in the US, which found that one-third of American consumers who have owned a wearable product stopped using it within six months. What's more, while one in 10 American adults own some form of activity tracker, half of them no longer use it.
  • What does that presage for wearables? It may be that they are presently so primitive that it's no surprise that people give them up: they're too big, haven't discovered the killer app that we want out of them, and have battery life that is too limited.

• RIP, the server. It's time to breathe the air of cloud connection - Tech News and Analysis

  • The era of the on-premise server is clearly behind us, with the cusp of change literally on our calendars.

     

    In just the past week, we’ve seen significant server-shedding events and announcements from Google, Box and Amazon Web Services. Even Microsoft finally seems to get it: enabling people to work from anywhere is more important than keeping them leashed to a platform going nowhere.

• 10 Reasons The Future Doesn't Include Your Job - StartupBros

  • This shift will ultimately steady itself, but in the meantime – you better start out-human-ing the machines. You need to create a platform. You need to serve others in the way computers can’t. You need to use the leverage being created by these computers.

• microCapClub

  • “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” —Max Lucado

• The Tech Bubble's Silver Lining: Cheap Services for Everyone - NYTimes.com

  • Thanks to the high hopes and deep pockets of tech investors, a host of high-profile tech firms are now offering incredible business and consumer services at impossibly low prices. The trend is playing out across a range of industries, including business I.T. services, communications, media, payments, local delivery and e-commerce. And because these start-ups are exerting pricing pressure on established market players, even customers who don’t use their services might benefit from their rise.
  • So as long as you don’t make the mistake of investing in dubious tech dreams, you may be able to ride out the bubble to some pretty great swag

• Bitcoin Tax Ruling - Credit Slips

  • the IRS Bitcoin ruling is that for a currency--or any payment system--to work, its units must be completely fungible.  One reason dollars work really well as a currency is that one $20 bill is entirely fungible with another $20 bill.  This means that when I pay, I don't have to make a decision about which $20 bill to use
  • The IRS ruled that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are property, not currency.  This means that they are subject to capital gains taxation.  And that means that Bitcoins are not fungible.  The price at which a particular Bitcoin was acquired (and this is traceable) determines the capital gains on that particular Bitcoin when spent.
  • If I spend Bitcoin A, which I bought at $10, but is now worth $400, I’ve got a very different tax treatment than if I spend Bitcoin B, which I bought at $390.

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