Ged Carroll | renaissance chambara

Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry | Ars Technica – really interesting analysis of Japan’s aerospace industry

‘No Morals’: Advertisers React to Facebook Report – The New York Times – “Now we know Facebook will do whatever it takes to make money. They have absolutely no morals.”  Surprised that advertising execs are going hard on Facebook

Asda beats Waitrose and Harrods in Which? mince pie taste test | Business | The Guardian – Having done a student job at Cereal Partners I realise how arbitrary taste tests can be, but the most interesting part of the article was the sub headline: Supermarket tops consumer group’s chart but general standards drop due to rising cost of ingredients

Inside the hype and reality of Alexa, Siri and the voice assistant ‘revolution’ – Recode – “Smart speaker listeners are much more passive,” she added. “People with voice interfaces tend to accept what’s given to them.”

The seven deadly paradoxes of cryptocurrency | Bank Underground – great write-up that everyone should read

A contest wants to build an environmentally friendly air conditioner — Quartz – people generally choose their air conditioners based on price, there is little innovation in the market for a more- efficient AC. There is a need to re-engineer the incentives as well as the technology

Things that made my day this week:

Luxxury has released a new track I wanna be everything

A YouTube video on the history of Unix. Now before you roll your eyes and move on to another site. Think about the ubiquity of unix. Key parts of the internet run on Unix. It’s also the reason why URLs and email addresses aren’t case sensitive. Most telecoms equipment runs on Unix or an analogue of the operating system.  I am writing this on a Mac, the core of the operating system is based on BSD – a variant of Unix. If you’re using Windows 10; it owes a lot to VMS – an operating system developed as a Unix analogue in the early and mid 1970s by Digital Equipment Corporation.

As for Linux; it was originally developed because Linus Torvalds didn’t realise he could download a free version of BSD…. Linux now powers Android smartphones, smart televisions and all of the internet of things stuff that poses a huge security risk in your home. In terms of a written thing; Unix must be right up there with the works of Shakespeare or JRR Tolkien in terms of its importance in the modern world.

The presentation also puts a bit of personality into what could have been quite a dry subject.

I found this on Core 77; Nestle posted some epic videos from its Japanese Kit Kat factory. I love the enthusiasm of the presenters in their workwear as they take you through the manufacturing line: K. Kohno and H. Matsumoto are stars. Japanese Kit Kat is not the same as the sad loser biscuits that you pick up in your weekly shop. Instead they are beautifully packaged and come in a constantly changing variety of flavours like cherry blossom or green matcha tea. The process itself is beautiful to watch. In particular look at the packaging automation.

The New York Times made a lot of allegations about Facebook and its reaction to Russian election tampering. Scott Galloway was on had to do TV interviews that poured petrol on the fire.

Great video on Johnny Cash’s live concert At Folsom Prison. It is up there with Live at San Quentin also by Johnny Cash.

Techmeter – machine as market analyst house

‘Keep talkin’ Larry’: Amazon appears ever closer to dumping Oracle – MarketWatch – I read this as a great ad for Oracle: even Amazon finds it hard to migrate from them

Barber Osgerby launch office furniture with Vitra, betting sofas will | Fast Company – but this creates a set of ergonomic issues

Marshall Auerback: Apple Has an Early Case of GE’s Disease | naked capitalism – more of a valid question than an analysis – but still a valid consideration

M&S to air low-key Christmas ad in attempt to drive sales | Business | The Guardian – spend on reach and repetition; YouTube and Facebook didn’t work for them

HTC is bringing standalone Vive Focus VR headset to North America and Europe | siliconangle – 12 months after launching in China, western markets were clearly an afterthought

I, Cringely Red Hat takes over IBM – I, Cringely – interesting analysis

iOS vs. Windows – Input and Office – Radio Free Mobile – no real surprise here. One only has to go back to the late 1970s / early 1980s experience of the HP 150 mini computer with a touch screen to see the productivity issue. Keyboards work, and they work better now that more people are reasonable touch typists. Tablets are still interesting as consumption devices, the question is what the market is?

Oath will soon be rebranded as Verizon Media Group – The Verge – what is more interesting is how Verizon changes management approach (presumably after losing Tim Armstrong)

Snapchat Lenses are coming to the desktop and Twitch streams | TechRadar – integration with Twitch will fuel further speculation on an Amazon buy-out